Kali falls onto the bed after desummoning Trorg, stretching out her back before tossing the figure to Harry, "You will take this everywhere. Even to the bathroom. Understand?"
"Is this... Like, a shrunken Trorg?... He isn't aware of anything around it, is he?" Harry tentatively asks while looking over the life-like model.
Kali lets out a sensual giggle, "That would be funny, but no. It's just a way of summoning him at a moment's notice, without the laborious ritual circles, reagents, and preparations... Be glad, without my blood and his family ties to me such ease of summoning would not be possible... Now, I believe you have some things you want to ask about?"
Harry nods, "I... What happened, to me I mean. Even now I still feel... Weird. Like my head was split open and stitched back together..."
"Hmm, maybe because it was?" she utters, causing Harry to go wide eyes in shock.
"W-wait, that happened!?"
Kali gives a casual shrug, "In a way, just not literally... Tell me, master, are you feeling anything you shouldn't? Anything... Foreign?"
...
"I don't know?" he answers, unsure what she meant... He vaguely remembered voices shouting in his head, but most of that was completely masked by the sheer amount of pain he was feeling in those moments.
Kali smiles, "Good... To be truthful with you, Master, you should have died after what happened." she says, deciding to keep the foreign spiritual shield quiet for now until she could figure out just what it was. No point in making Harry curious and accidentally causing him to look into it himself. "Matters of the soul are particularly dangerous... Your confrontation with the Lich had... Pit your soul against his... Do you remember? You must have felt it, especially since you seemed to have somehow... Absorbed the Lich's soul."
"I remember tearing at something. B-but. I thought only demons could do that? If I did it, wouldn't that make me a demon too?"
Kali shakes her head, "Not quite. From everything I've heard, I suspect you used your Patron's power as a way to... 'Digest' the Lich's soul before finally absorbing it. Normally this wouldn't be possible, and any attempt made would result in both participants imploding under the weight of their own magic and souls. But you somehow bypassed the innate protections someone's magic would grant and went straight for his soul." she lets out a sigh, "Stupidly reckless and unimaginably dangerous, but it looks like you've come out of it relatively unscathed... Aside from the taint now marring your soul."
"T-taint?" Harry almost squeaks, wondering if this was anything like turning to the Dark Side in Star Wars.
"Well, taint is a general term. Not quite accurate, but it suits the situation just fine. Your soul has been affected by your melding with the Lich, that along with what that soul shard had left you has made a good portion of it tainted. This isn't dangerous of course, I think it will only cause your negative emotions to be more pronounced? Though, we can't be sure. Again, souls are tricky things."
Harry lets out a breath as he digests the information, "I-is there anything else I should know?"
"Hmm, well, you should see an increase in your magical capabilities. While your magical core hasn't increased in size, a bigger soul means a higher level of production. You will probably experience some slight physical improvements as well, your perception or what the humans of this world call 'Sixth Sense' should be more pronounced too." she adds offhandedly.
"T-that sounds... Good?" he mumbles, wondering if everything that happened was worth it in the end... Actually, come to think of it. "Kali, there is something else... What happened to all the gold, books, and other artifacts? Did you and Nanthisk recover them?" he asks but finds himself becoming increasingly concerned by the look on Kali's face.
Her eyes had squinted and her lips had thinned, as if mentally cursing someone with all of her power. "No. By the time I returned the place was surrounded by this world's magic users. All the books and fragile items inside seemed to have been destroyed but-"
"Kali..." Harry interrupts her as he lets a scowl form on his face. His back straightens in defiance against his sore and stiff muscles due to disuse as he locks eyes with the succubus, "Where is my gold?" he all but glowers, refusing to easily accept that all the effort, danger, and torment he'd put himself and Nanthisk through was taken advantage of by others.
"I don't know. Multiple groups were taking their own shares of it. I suspect we'd have an easier time counting every speck of sand on this planet than locating all of the gold..." she pauses at her master's look of absolute fury, the effects of his tainted soul always making itself known...
"But fret not master, I did recover two things as I was saving you..." she says while pulling two large tomes from her expanded bag, "These were on the two centre plinths in that giant library, so I thought that they'd be the most valuable ones in that collection. Indeed, had I not been flying at such speed, the traps hidden in the plinths might have actually managed to harm me." she says as she hands the books to him. "I hope they will hold your anger until we decide what to do to the magic users."
Harry feels his fury quickly peter out as he tentatively receives the books, they were in spectacular condition, as expected of an immortal book nerd. "Have you not read them yet?" he asks as he looks down at the two completely foreign languages each book was written in... Fortunately, he somehow understood most of it.
Kali shakes her head, "It wasn't important, besides, I find reading with my little master far more enjoyable." she smiles pleasantly, unlike the usual sultry grin she likes to present.
Harry ignores the heat in his cheeks and reads the titles of each book. One was obviously made from sewn-together human skin, but Harry wasn't all that put off but it. His sensibilities simply weren't bothered... "Necronomicon : Extended Edition, by the Master Necromancer Amarant Zorander..." he recites, wondering if the Lich had rewritten the actual Necronomicon, or if he'd added his own things to it. Judging by the sheer volume of both tomes, he was leaning towards the latter option.
Shaking his head, he looks to the next book which was at the base was a beige colour, but was heavily decorated by what looked like pressed flowers, vines, and other flora. They'd obviously been magically altered to stay ever fresh and vibrant. "Consortium of Druidic Spells, Rituals, and Techniques, authored by Sage Merethyl Kelstina...?"