A day passed in the blink of an eye and Lucius and the team finally reached Inanis city. Since they had rushed without stopping, they had reached six hours earlier and it was still night time.

The guards of the mansion noticed a carriage coming towards them and became alert. But when they say who was accompanying it on horseback they relaxed.

"Open the gate! It's young lord Asher and Lieutenant John!" The guard ordered the ones inside.

~Creek~

The large gate swung open and the carrier smoothly entered without needing to stop. Coming to a halt at the entrance of the mansion, Lucius got down along with Kiana. This time, his appearance was much better and he had recovered from the fatigue he had gained from using the soul resonances spell.

The ball of unrefined soul essence was still there in his soul space and he would be processing it further tonight. 

"Is the count and countess awake?" John asked the servant standing outside.

"No sir. Countess is already asleep while the Count has gone out to meet some nobles. He should be returning later at night." The servant hurriedly replied.

"Hmm… we should just rest. We'll talk to them tomorrow." Lucius said, feeling impatient about processing the soul essence.

No one disagreed with his words and just did as he said. Lucius gave some instructions to Kiana and John before quickly getting to his bedroom. He changed into some comfortable clothes and entered his soul space. He saw the ball of unprocessed soul essence that was just floating around his soul.

It had a natural affinity to a soul, thus wouldn't go far from there. As for the souls that were in it… well they didn't exist anymore. Converting them in this form was no less than exterminating their consciousness and the memories they contained, leaving behind the materials that they were built with.

~shua~

The marble sized ball started to reduce in size under the control of Lucius and soon turned into an even smaller form, before becoming like a strand of hair. 

"Finally…" Lucius muttered.

This small strand was pure soul essence and was quite beneficial to the growth of a soul and was used in many potions and rituals that were related to the soul. Still using it was considered to be evil and in the world of Revelia, the Church of Thara would hunt down whoever tried to do that.

Here though… Lucius was free to do as he pleased and didn't have to care about any random god interfering. At least for now…

"Now then… time to test out if it works," Lucius said as he attempted to make a hell imprint.

This time though he infused the strand of soul essence whenever the pattern started to manifest on his soul. Whatever minor damage that was caused due to a wrong hell coordinate was immediately negated, leaving Lucius to attempt it many more times.

While he was still not able to form a hell imprint tonight, he had come out of it unharmed and had gone through four times as many coordinates than before. But it was not without a price of course.

"Should still be enough for ten more uses…" Lucius said as he looked at the strand of soul essence which had gotten slightly shorter.

Not wanting a repeat of the past two days, Lucius decided to sleep and steadily continue his attempts at making a hell imprint. 

In the morning, Lucius went to talk with the Count and Countess who were ready at the dining hall.

"Greetings! Father, mother." Lucius said.

The two of them were a bit surprised but greeted in response.

"You did amazing! Much better than I had expected." Gabriel stated right away.

He truly did not think Asher would succeed in what other trained soldiers would not be able to do. But what he did not know was that he had just done a sneak attack with the help of Kiana and her Epic Ranked gift.

While there were many people with Epic ranked gifts in the army, not all of them would be able to do the same as what she had done. The six bandits who had the rare ranked gifts were strong enough to kill an epic ranked gift user if they acted in coordination.

That was the reason why no one had been sent to take care of them then. They were simply waiting for the right opportunity to arrive. And it wasn't like they could freely spare a soldier with an Epic Ranked gift either and risk them dying.

Each such person was valuable and they would have to wait for every child to grow up before they could be trained to reach their level.

"Indeed son, John couldn't help but praise your strategy a lot. Though, what exactly did you do that pleased him so much? We asked him, but he wouldn't tell. He said that it would be best if we listen it from you." Lita asked and Gabriel also looked at Lucius intently, wanting to hear what he had to say.

Lucius knew this time would be arriving soon and he had prepared for it. He knew he would need to reveal him being able to upgrade gifts at some time and he had made an explanation for it.

"I simply mounted a sneak attack against them. Though the main part behind our success was Kiana." Lucius said.

"Kiana? How did she help? And speaking of her, where is she?" Lita asked, not having seen her since morning.

"I'm here," Kiana said, walking into the hall. 

In her hand, she was carrying a pair of bottles that were filled up with some liquid.

"It was Kiana's gift that helped us score the victory." Lucius stated before looking at Kiana. "Why don't you show it to them now?" He said.

Kiana furrowed her brows before asking, "are you sure?" 

"Yes, now's the time." Lucius nodded his head.

Kiana then extended her hand, flipping her palm upwards. Gabriel and Lita watched it before their eyes went wide.

"This… How is this possible?"