When I opened my eyes and discovered that I was back in the tower, I tried to will a sword into existence. It didn't happen, I only felt my soul energy stir a bit. This was the real world, not an illusion, and not a lie. I looked down to see Asha looking at me with a satisfied smirk on her face, the seal on her stomach was rapidly evaporating, turning into wisps of golden soul energy that fell into the tower. I was about to say something when I felt my heart beat faster, and veins ache. I could feel soul energy running rampant all over my body, tearing me apart from within.
I clutched at my chest as a pain so blinding overtook my perception of the world. The person who had weaved the seal on Asha, was many times stronger than me, his soul energy was more potent, stronger and refined. At my current circle, it was nothing more than suicide to absorb this much soul energy.
[TOWER HAS DETECTED EXCESSIVE AMOUNTS OF SOUL ENERGG, ABSORBTION IN PROGRESS...…. ABSORBTION COMPLETE. TOWER HAS GAINED 5218 UNITS OF SOUL ENERGY. THIS MAKES UP FOR FORTY PERCENT OF AVAILABLE SOUL ENERGY. INCREASE TOWER LEVEL AND ENERGY ABSORBTION SKILL TO INCREASE PERCENTAGE.SOUL ENERGY DISPERSING.]
Relief cascade through my body as I felt my pain dissipate and my body calm down. The pain was gone, and even though I was breathing a little to hard, I was completely fine. I noticed that I was halfway towards the third circle of the Sacrum realm. My increase in soul circles were really fast, while I was still stuck in the first circle of the open mind realm for my mental energy.
I turned my gaze towards Asha, and watched as her seal slowly disappeared, until all that was left behind was pale smooth skin with a cross shaped birthmark on her navel. Then she hugged me, and before I could realize it, she kissed me. I could feel a million sparks of electricity run through my body as my toes curled in pleasure and my heart beat a little faster. For this, I will go through that hell again, because I knew it was worth it.
Asha kissed me deeper, hanging on to me, like I was the very air she breathe. I could feel her body so close to mine that other parts of me were standing at attention. I could taste her, feel her, and I loved her. She pulled back from me and whispered.
"I love you my Savior from a blue world. If its not yesterday, then it's today, and even when tomorrow comes it will never fade as my blood and soul, my heart and spirit all belong to you. Your fate shall be my fate, your pain shall be my pain. And your burdens shall I carry until the final day and night roles by."
And then she kissed me again, and moved a few steps back. Her words however, went of like a clap of thunder in my head. They were familiar, I knew those words so deeply because I had engraved them in my heart and on my soul the very first time she had said them to me. This was her wedding Vow to me, and I remembered it.
And I'm not talking about just my time with Xaseah, everything possible memory I could possibly have or had, was running through my mind, compartmentalizing and arranging themselves. My life as Jason was so vivid, every beating from my father, every bible verse that I had spent hours reciting, every different man I had seen with my mother, and every hour I had spent throwing kicks, punches and swinging sticks just so that I could perfect at defending myself and fighting back against my father.
And then there was my life as Kael, parts of it were still missing, but the vague memories I had of my father, my servants, the old half vampire half human nanny who raised me after my fathers death, and my little sister Rhea. Every heist I had made, slave convoys and caravans I had hijacked, and the hundreds of vampire safe houses I had made across four galaxies and thirteen planets.
So much knowledge, so much memories, and so much me, yet it was not all complete. Asha looked at me with a smile, of course she didn't realize what had just happened, but how could she, she was Reveling in her new found freedom. Blue veins began to spread from her eyeballs to the side of her face, as purple spell matrixes came into existence, and black thorns sprung from the ground twisting and turning as their points cleaned like iron. I recognized this spell, though it was lesser version of it, this was the sixth circle witch spell [Thorn fortress].
Asha had everything back now, and above all she now had the strength to protect and properly nurture our child. Freedom indeed, but it was not over. I turned around and saw Xaseah looking at me, to be honest I couldn't fathom what was going through her mind right now, however in a manner of speaking, I felt as if I had neglected her.
Which means she was the next person on my list that I had to unseal, but with Asha now free of her seal, there would be a sort of deterrence or protection, for the tower and its inhabitants. But to be on the safe side, I had to unseal as many vampires as I can. But that's not what I was going to do now, I really, really needed to rest, even though there was a time of interval between when I unsealed Nisi and Asha, I had still exhausted myself mentally.
Not to mention, that even right now, I could still feel the effects of my battle within the seal, the horrors that I faced were still right there, hovering behind my mind as they picked and prodded at my psych, becoming demons that were bound to hunt me for a very long time.So I closed my eyes and fell on my back, I felt a whoosh of air, as Asha caught me, moving past a distance of seven meters in a mere second. She was really stronger now, but that's good enough for me. Right now, I just wanted to sleep.
__________________________
___________________________
I woke up to the sound of chittering and squeaks, mixed amongst those sounds, were a few screams and yells. I woke up on a bed, and in a room. I don' know how much or how long I had slept, but I felt free, at least for the first ten seconds of my being awake. I felt a burden on my shoulders, a responsibility but with it also came an understanding.
In my first life, I killed my father. It was an accident none the less, but his blood was still on my hands. We were sparring, by virtue of the fact that I was studying martial arts, my dad had picked up a few things. But on that day he was a whole lot more ferocious than normal, aggressive and angry, it took everything I had just keep up with him. But I miscalculated, I hit him to hard, and on the wrong part of his body, he went into shock, and he was dead in minutes.
Such an end was not what we both expected, we both had our sins, but at least we felt that we were going to have each other for the rest of lives. It was only until later I found out, that my body had left that same day. She left a letter explaining how she found love and that she could no longer stay in a loveless marriage. There was a confession of sorts, as she told my dad about every man she has ever cheated on him with. It was not a confession, she just wanted to hurt him. And she did, which led to him dying.
She came back a week later for his funeral, said she was sorry about leaving and about how she didn't know what she truly felt for him until he died. Then she asked me to come with her, promised a better life and that she would love me with everything fiber of her being. Funny, maybe she didn't realize that by leaving, she abandoned me.
I didn't leave with her, I couldn't. Things changed between us and with the death of my father, I didn't think there was any hope left. At the time, I was seventeen years old. Fast forward a few years and I was a prosecutor, I had an integrity and reputation of sorts, I was proud of being known as someone who would do anything and go any lengths to put the bad guys and wrong doers away. I couldn't stand seeing people hurt, I still can't.But like all fairy tails about fearless hero lawyers, I put the wrong person behind bars, literally. He was just someone taking the fall for the crime somebody else committed, an innocent bystander caught in the war between two rival criminal families.
His son didn't like that, an as all teenagers behaved at the time, the kid put a bullet in my head. Yeah...…that happened and to be honest, I'm not sure my time spent on earth changed anything. With everything that I fought for, I couldn't create and uphold the justice I so badly stood for and wanted. I failed, and I did so by not letting true justice live, I out an innocent man down, my one and only mistake in my perfect track record of putting criminals in jail, hah! And I paid for it, with my life.
There was this thing about dying on earth, the moment you died.
You would see the numerous and alternate futures capable of being actualized by the fallout of your death. And in all of the 7466 possible futures I saw, I was completely forgotten for about 95% of them. I didn't do anything, achieved nothing. So when Earth gave me a chance to fight for something bigger than myself, it showed and gave me a path that I so desperately needed...redemption.
And so here I am, with a second chance, with love, a family and a way to make right the mistakes of my old life. I didn't need to accept Jason, that part of me is dead and buried. But who he was, has now been transcended into another form, into another life. The same person, but different, new. Like my Dad had preached so many times, I was born again. The old mistakes, hurts, pain, and frustration were history. There was just me, no one else. No fragments, no split personalities or voices in my head. I am Kael Cor, and this is my REDEMPTION.