Kael was still lying in bed.
Night had long fallen.
His body was aching, exhaustion crawling through every limb.
Sleep wouldn't come—not with the whispers.
Still there. Still biting.
But… slowly fading.
"Shadow Blood… can we talk a bit?"
Kael asked in his mind.
The voice answered—dark as ever, but… somehow comforting now.
"Ah, little scoundrel… coming to betray your girlfriend with me?"
Kael chuckled.
"Sometimes I can't even stand hearing your voice… but now, it sounds better than those damn whispers. Are you jealous, maybe? Feeling emotions all of a sudden?"
A laugh echoed inside him.
"I should say… you're the emotional one now. What was that—confessing to your little lover?"
"I don't know… maybe I saw a bit of myself in him."
"In him? What a joke. No one is like you. You… have me."
"Ah yes, the grand lord of bloodlines, sitting on his throne of shadows," Kael mocked.
"Tch… you always ruin the mood. Anyway, what do you want to talk about?"
Kael's eyes stayed open, whispers still gnawing at the edges of his thoughts.
"Be serious for once…Those whispers—are they from you?"
"I should slap you for even asking. Do I sound that disgusting to you?
No, they're not from me. But I know what they are. And I can't tell you."
"We agreed you'd answer whatever you can."
"And I am. I can't answer.
Not because I don't want to—because I literally can't.
And don't ask why.
Some truths must wait… until it's time."
Kael was stunned.
If even the shadow blood couldn't speak… then something must be restraining it.
Angels? Ancient forces?
He sighed.
"Then… tell me about the black blood.
You said you don't know what it is—but what did it feel like?
And… do you have memories of your former hosts? Can you remember them?"
Long silence.
"Shadow Blood?" Kael asked.
Then the voice snapped:
"Can't someone take a damn piss in peace?!"
Kael laughed.
"The bathroom… inside my body? Where exactly?"
"Shut up, idiot.
Yes, inside you.
Did you think there's only one of me out there?"
"Continue… about the black blood, please."
"Hmph…It wasn't like anything I've absorbed before.
It was deep… and it kept trying to escape.
Some of it succeeded—it merged into your body, but don't worry, just a little.
The difference between it and normal bloodlines?
It was like absorbing millions of bloodlines at once—but all of them broken, twisted, protected by some cursed law.
Worse still…Instead of being stored like the others, part of it merged with me.
It didn't become a prisoner… it became part of the prison itself."
Kael froze.
He remembered the sea of blood.
No—more than a sea. A river.
"Wait… how do you normally absorb bloodlines?
And just out of curiosity… how much of that black blood got into my body?"
"Think of me as a massive prison," the voice explained.
"Every bloodline enters a cell, gets tortured a bit, then submits.
But this blood?
It didn't enter a cell.
It became… part of the walls."
A pause.
"I think… more than half of it slipped past me.
But don't worry—the part that merged into you became like grains, hidden in your blood.
I'm sure your strong blood will destroy it haha."
Kael stared into the dark ceiling, his lips parting slowly.
"… shit."