Blood Warlock: Succubus Partner in the Apocalypse

Fusion of skills.

It was a term that, according to Lilith, no one had ever heard before.

However, Lilith was no different from a newborn when it came to the history of the universe. Even if she had spent decades reading books, it was impossible to learn the deepest secrets of the universe; particularly considering that she just joined the Demonic Army a little over 10 years ago, which meant that she had only recently had access to more valuable books with more important information.

Fortunately for Bai Zemin, next to him was an existence that had not only lived long enough but also had enough power and status to get access to ancient books that only a handful of beings in the entire cosmos had.

"The records left behind from this era are incredibly limited. You should know that even I who have lived longer than you can imagine am still not of the first generation of soul evolvers born under the might of the Soul Record."

Flying alongside Little Snow heading towards Europe, Fire Sorrow took out a book over half a meter tall whose flaps seemed to be covered with wood and leather. Bai Zemin also noticed a large number of magic circles embroidered on the four ends, bound together like flower petals.

Fire Sorrow turned a few pages of the book floating in front of her, and after a few seconds, she pointed out in a serious voice: "This book might be the only one that exists from that era. I found it in a ruin while exploring a Dead World in its Seventh Stage over seventy thousand years ago."

Dead World.

Bai Zemin had heard that term from Lilith's mouth before.

A Forsaken World was a place where the Soul Record barred all mana, a place where evolution was not possible through the absorption of Soul Power and where all beings born could never have access to the system or its fruits such as skill scrolls, treasures, etc.

But a Dead World was different.

Just like soul evolvers, each world owns its own records.

When a world loses its records and its Soul Power removed or stolen, not only would no new intelligent life be born there but even crops would stop growing and the oceans would quickly dry up.

Those hopeless and futureless worlds were called Dead Worlds.

Bai Zemin smiled bitterly in his heart: 'Even a world that reached the Seventh Stage perished nevertheless...'

The more he thought, the more he realized how incapable he was.

No matter how abnormal Earth was, it was still a world in its Third Stage and yet it was already this dangerous.

How terrifying must those soul evolvers who inhabited that Dead World have been then? Even so, however, such a world had fallen.

As if she knew his thoughts, Lilith comforted him, "Zemin, those terrifying monsters of the past are already extinct or gone somewhere so you don't need to worry."

"We, soul evolvers, have become weaker compared to what we once were." Fire Sorrow sighed at Lilith's words. She shook her head to dismiss such thoughts when she finally found what she was looking for, "Here it is."

Bai Zemin, Lilith, and Shangguan Bing Xue looked at the page pointed out by Fire Sorrow as she explained.

"As you already know, there are or were treasures in this universe that are as old as its history. The Divine Flames are a clear example of this, like the Endless Blue Lotus Flame with which you formed a Soul Contract."

Although Bai Zemin and Shangguan Bing Xue did not understand the words written in the book nor the symbols drawn there, they were still able to understand a thing or two by looking at the somewhat confusing image captured in it.

"The name of this treasure is unknown but it could be the True Fusion Roulette mentioned in the records of the treasure in your hands. It is said that there once existed a princess who failed to complete the last evolution requirement to reach the Third Order and eventually passed away from old age in level 100... However, even soul evolvers on the verge of becoming Higher Existences didn't dare to offend her, all because of a treasure that allowed her to fuse up to over 10 skills together to give birth to even more terrifying ones."

"It is even said that were it not for the fact that she was limited by the amount of spaces available for active skills she probably could have become the first soul evolver capable of fighting those beyond the Fourth Order while still in the Second."

The image in the book portrayed a sort of giant sphere with twelve different colored runes placed side by side in a circular shape and an arrow pointing to one of the runes.

"This is..." Lilith stared at the image feeling perplexed in her heart.

"Is something wrong?" Fire Sorrow asked when she saw her like this.

"... It's nothing. I just felt like I've seen this somewhere before..."

"You feel that way too?" Bai Zemin looked at her with a frown before turning his attention back to the book, "How strange..."

The more he stared at that image, the more he felt like he had seen that thing somewhere.

The strangest thing was that the feeling not only grew but Bai Zemin even came to feel that he manipulated said treasure for a long, long time in the past.

Fire Sorrow chuckled before closing the book and putting it back in her storage ring since it was a priceless treasure of history: "You two are overthinking it. The image here is the drawing representation of an extremely ancient God-grade treasure that was destroyed in the First Great War that took the lives of over 90% of the top soul evolvers back then."

First Great War? Bai Zemin blinked as he realized that Fire Sorrow was probably talking about the Golden Domain.

"Be that as it may," Lilith also stopped overthinking things too much and said in a serious voice, "Zemin, you should be careful with that Mysterious Roulette or whatever its name is. Although it's a very powerful treasure, it is no different from a double-edged sword."

Bai Zemin nodded hesitantly.

"Thirty percent chance of receiving a junk skill. This is a bit too high..." Shangguan Bing Xue frowned slightly with concern.

All of Bai Zemin's skills were powerful, to begin with.

Even now that he had free slots to learn more active skills from scrolls, he still didn't learn any except for higher rank skills such as Drain Life, Dark Mist, and Shadow Control.

Precisely because of this, he valued each of his skills highly and the thought of losing one of them made his heart ache.

It took him almost a whole day to decide.

"All right, let's do it."

When Lilith and the other two beauties heard his words they looked at him in astonishment.

Even Little Snow turned her head to look at him as if asking him to think carefully before making such a big decision.

"It's alright... We have to use this treasure anyway, don't we?" Bai Zemin smiled but his palms were sweaty.

Hearing his words, Lilith hesitated, "Indeed... wasting a Legend-grade treasure would be a pity..."

"As soul evolvers, we risk our lives to become a little stronger every day. Forget about a high 70% success probability, most would even risk their necks to level up 1 or 2 times with a mortality rate of 50%." Fire Sorrow smiled bitterly remembering the past.

Shangguan Bing Xue simply looked at him with an encouraging smile on her bewitching face, "So, did you decide what skills will you use?"

Bai Zemin looked at the three of them with a serious expression as he said, "Blood and Gravity Manipulation."

"I see- Wait, what?!" Lilith almost fainted.

Even Shangguan Bing Xue stared at him as if she were looking at a monster this time.

On the other hand, Fire Sorrow was frightened at the thought of the possible results of such a fusion.

A fusion of two Manipulation-type skills?

Such a thing was definitely not only unprecedented because there was never any other existence besides Bai Zemin capable of manipulating two spatial laws at will due to the great burden on the soul but even if there were any they definitely wouldn't risk it like this!

30% failure was not a small thing!

"... Or so I would like to say, but it's impossible." Bai Zemin smiled bitterly.

Subconsciously, Lilith and Shangguan Bing Xue sighed in relief as they looked at him as if they wanted to bite him to death.

Only Fire Sorrow felt that it was a pity, but after thinking about it she realized that she had gotten too excited in the moment without thinking things through better.

"Although Blood Manipulation and Gravity Manipulation are skills whose essence is similar, their features are so different that they couldn't be more different." Bai Zemin pointed out calmly.

Lilith blinked and felt ashamed of herself as she realized she had overlooked something so important, "Th- That's true."

"That leaves only two possibilities." Bai Zemin took a long look at her skills for a prolonged period of time with a frown, "But I fear for what will happen to my evolution requirements."

Lilith narrowed her eyes at the realization of the problem, and after a moment's hesitation, she asked softly, "You're considering Shadow Blink and Void Fist, aren't you?"

"That's right." Bai Zemin sighed, "According to the evolution requirements I should raise the level of both skills, but I don't know what will happen if I combine them to get something better."

"... The risk is way bigger now." Fire Sorrow frowned hard and couldn't help but advise him, "Why don't you wait until you evolve to the Third Order then? It won't be too late after that and you'll even have more options to choose from."

Bai Zemin thought about it seriously for a moment before asking her, "Fire Sorrow, if the fusion succeeds and I get a skill stronger than Shadow Blink and Void Fist, do you think the Soul Record will take it well?"

"No, sorry." Fire Sorrow shook her head and didn't dare to bet this time, "This matter is too important that so far it was completely unrecorded... But if you ask for my opinion I don't think it's necessary to take such a big risk. Remember that even without taking such a path you are still destined to become matchless sooner or later."

As far as Fire Sorrow was concerned, Bai Zemin just needed to wait and be patient.

However, Bai Zemin could not help but smile with bitterness hidden in his heart.

'I'd like to take it easy but I'm afraid I don't have that much time.'

Bai Zemin realized that while he was getting stronger fast it still wasn't enough.

He only had a little over 5 years to live before the deadline the Soul Record had for the entire lifespan of the universe expired, and considering that each Order evolution was taking Bai Zemin an average of 12 months or more it wasn't enough.

He was far from being able to deal with a level 401 Higher Existence forget about fighting the terrifying invaders from the Golden Domain!

"It's okay, it will work."

A voice full of confidence immediately attracted the group's eyes.

"Lilith?" Fire Sorrow looked at the beautiful black-haired ruby-eyed beauty in astonishment, "Are you crazy? Why are you pushing him to do tremendous barbarities?"

Strangely, Shangguan Bing Xue simply looked at Lilith with a serious expression but said nothing... because even though she didn't like to admit it, she knew deep in her heart that Lilith wouldn't say or do anything to harm him.

"I can't say anything about the fusion itself since the 30% chance of failure is still there, but if your skills do mutate to become another or stronger then you don't need to worry."

Fire Sorrow's eyes slowly grew wide as she stared at Lilith in shock, "Don't tell me, you..."

Although she didn't finish what she wanted to say, none of the three of them, four counting Little Snow, lacked intelligence.

Lilith used her beautiful red eyes to look at Bai Zemin deeply and said in a serious voice, "If what's holding you back is the fear about the evolution requirements, then just put your trust in me please."

Bai Zemin looked this woman in the eyes for a long time, long enough to see her pupils tremble.

He chuckled before nodding, "Of course, I trust you."

Regardless of her true identity, regardless of her past. regardless of her mysterious goals...

'You are the woman I love after all.' Bai Zemin did not say these words aloud but thought it to himself.

Since his major worries were now eased, Bai Zemin who was not afraid of failure immediately chose Shadow Blink and Void Fist to fuse in the Mysterious Fusion Roulette.

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