The 48 hour wait time passed quickly for Jason's companions as they prepared to travel toward the sea. After much consideration, Eve filled her pack with a water-resistant coat, the clothes that Jason's servants had bought back in Butterpond, and an ice box filled with several jars of blood.
Karl, on the other hand, went more for utility over aesthetics and chose to pack an axe, a scuba suit, and three new gadgets that he had found in Vlad's study room.
Now equipped with a grey, brown, and green receiver, the Doom Monkey tinkered with his new gadgets late into the nights and early into the mornings, preparing for his magnum opus.
Blessed with amplification magic, the grey receiver could increase the volume of a speaker's voice by over five times, while the brown and green receivers were blessed with pitching magic that could change the speaker's voice into a male or female voice respectively.
As the two day countdown timer beside Jason's coffin hit zero, and the hate reader began to stir, the capricious Doom Monkey happily shouted, beginning his grand spectacle. He picked up the green receiver and whispered, with the gentle voice of a beautiful Elf,
"Ohhhhh Jason," he paused. "I-I can't be with you any longer. I've found another lover. He's much more handsome, and he treats his servants better."
Jason rustled at the sound of his lover and awoke groggily, startled by the sudden commotion. He placed his right arm on his mattress to support himself and tilted his head quizzically while rubbing his eyes. Karl picked up the brown receiver with a snicker and yelled,
"Fine then. Leave me," the voice of a familiar hate reader said aloud, ringing down the corridors of the fortress. "I never cared for you anyways. In fact, after spending so much time with Eve's father, I think I might be ga—"
Jason jumped to his feet and with an explosive start, flicked the little creature on the forehead. The Doom Monkey yelped in pain and covered the swelling bump, dropping his precious receivers in the process.
"What the hell are you doing?" Jason asked furiously, his cheeks red from embarrassment. "Where is Alea? And what happened to my present?"
However, the Doom Monkey refused to answer his master's questions and only stuck out his tongue in response. Immediately, a strong gust of wind blew through the bedroom.
"Big Brother! You're awake?" Eve panted as she unveiled her cloak of blood. She had run at full speed the instant she heard Jason's voice and was worried that Jason had lost his sense of reason.
"You..." the silver-haired vampire said hesitantly, not wanting to pry too deep. "Do you really like my father in that way?"
"It's okay if you do. I mean, my respect for you won't waver. I just…I just don't know what to tell Alea."
"NOOO," Jason screamed, steaming blowing off the top of his head. "That…That stupid Doom Monkey did something to sound like me. I swear it wasn't me!"
He pointed to the creature whistling happy tunes on the carpet as Eve noticed the receivers lying on the floor.
"Ohhhh," she replied before sending a deadly glare toward Karl, who stopped laughing and shivered in fright.
The azure blue eyed vampire felt her heartbeat slow down, and the worry disappear from her mind.
"Our little monkey here received a few devices from Father two days ago to help us gather the ingredients, and well…I guess his mind just works in creative ways," she continued.
"Karl, you deserve the hit from Big Brother, and you know it."
The Doom Monkey clicked his tongue and ran into the corner of the guest room.
"Tch!" the creature said, his joyful expression falling from his face. "No one here has a sense of humor."
Seeing the little monkey's eyes droop pitifully, Jason walked over to the corner and gave him a pat on the head.
"Sorry, Karl. You know we're buddies, right?" the hate reader said slowly, the anger dissipating from his voice. "Just don't scare me like that. I was really worried that Alea would leave me."
Karl gave a quick nod and held his Master's hand firm on his head.
"Fine," he responded cutely. "I'll forgive you this time."
The black-haired vampire sat down next to the Doom Monkey and faced his little sister.
"So, did you guys end up finding the demon's present? I didn't find anything at all."
Eve trembled at the thought of the Death God's letter, and beads of sweat dropped from her forehead as she took a step back.
"Jason," she stammered, her tone cold and serious. "Who are you really?"
The hate reader blinked twice, confused, before furrowing his eyebrows.
"What do you mean, Eve? Did you forget? I'm your Big Brother. We met in Butterpond and went shopping, started our life with the Pimple Cla—"
The silver-haired vampire scratched her chin for a few seconds, deep in thought, before cutting him off.
"Hmmm, I guess that's good enough!" she said with a small grin as she handed the piece of paper to Jason. After all, she felt that keeping secrets was a reasonable thing to do, and his true identity wasn't as important to her as the fun times they had spent together.
The hate reader's eyes darted left to right as he tapped into his years of experience as a novel reader.
"Wait," he muttered under his breath, his eyes growing wide with shock. "I only have three months? But I don't feel any different. Is this ability even real?"
Jason continued, his focus unwavering, and flipped to the back of the page. Scratching his head, he noticed six bullet points and a roughly sketched diagram with arrows pointing left and right and two stick figures standing next to each other.
The hate reader took a deep breath before silently reading:
"Death God Ability #272: Instructions for Use.
1. Designate Target A.
2. Designate Target B.
3. Activate Soul Bind through speech.
4. Offer lives in equivalent exchange.
Results:
1. Target B will be soul-linked to Target A for a year.
2. Target B will gain Target A's properties but will also retain its own original soul properties."
Jason struggled to focus as the gears began to turn and various uses started to pop into his mind.
"Oh, so it's a bit like the myth of Meleager and the piece of wood," he thought to himself as he read the instructions over and over again.
Pushing the ideas to the back of his mind, he calmly continued onto the restrictions section.
"Sorry Jason, but there are a few restrictions on the ability," it read. "First, you may not bind the soul of a god to a lesser being or the soul of a lesser being to a god. Second, you may only soul bind targets once a month, and you cannot bind a previously bound soul to another. Last, you may only bind a soul to an inanimate object if the object is placed in your right hand when casting."
The black-haired teenager meticulously committed the restrictions to memory and tossed the sheet of paper into his pocket. Eager to try his new ability, he ran quickly through the halls past the vampire maids and out the door.
As the hate reader raised his left hand to his eyes, blocking the sun's dazzling rays, he caught sight of a wild flebee and clasped his hands together apologetically.
The half-flea half-bee type creature buzzed innocently around the castle's garden as it wiggled its butt before landing on a beautiful white flower.
Jason closed his eyes and marked the white flower as Target A and the flebee as Target B before chanting in an ominous voice.
"I wish not for destruction but for union," he began. "Not for pain but for peace. Not for hate but for love. May the world shine ever brighter with commiseration and compassion."
Within an instant, a soft notification rang in his ear. Jason opened his eyes and saw an unusual prompt dangling in the corner.
Ding!
"Soul bind between lower-realm creatures increasing calculated cost."
Ding!
"Calculated cost: 1 life. Do you accept?"
"I accept," the teenager said in a deep voice, his eyes flickering violet.
Ding!
Hate Counter: 509
The silver-haired girl and Doom Monkey held their breaths in suspense as they continued to follow their beloved friend. They had stayed several feet behind, afraid of being caught up in a potential mishap, but upon noticing the sudden change in his aura, snuck closer to see if he was okay.
Jason slowly approached the garden and kneeled in front of the white Tuin flower. At long last, the flebee caught sight of the creeping vampire and flapped its wings rapidly, soaring toward the sun. Not wanting to die on such a beautiful day, the insect pumped and pumped its wings with all its might until it had finally flown out of arm's reach.
After a few seconds had passed, Jason plucked the flower from its roots and crumbled it in his hand, causing the beautiful white petals to wither instantaneously.
The flebee let out a final buzz before plummeting to the ground as Jason's eyes glowed a soft violet.
Digging a mini grave for the creature and flower, Jason looked into the corner of his eye for one final confirmation and received the following notification:
Remaining time before use: 29 Days, 23 Hours, 59 Minutes, and 59 Seconds
Current Soul Binds: None
Ecstatic at his trial's success, Jason's eyes flickered back to their normal shade of black as he turned and faced his companions.
"That ability is so damn OP," Karl muttered under his breath.
Eve agreed, nodding slowly, before whispering, "Surely there must be some sort of cost? But Big Brother looks pretty healthy."
Ignoring the indiscernible whispers, the hate reader drew closer to his friends with a hearty smile, not wanting to waste any more time.
"I should be ready to depart soon. Give me a few minutes to pack, and we'll be on our way."
Jason sprinted back to the Deerpaw-marked guest room with excitement and thanked the God of Death for the wonderful gift. He had suffered day in and day out over the last three months in the Isles with no real hope of getting stronger, but finally, at long last, he had obtained an ability that could let him use his lives offensively.
His first journey had motivated him to grow stronger, helped him find love, and introduced many wonderful friends, and he couldn't wait to see what the next one held in store.
Humming happily, he tossed his S-grade paralysis grenades into his bag, shoved a few sticks from the garden into his pocket, and gathered his jacket from the closet. As he walked down the stairs to the main door where Eve and Karl were waiting, a joyful laugh rang throughout the fortress.
"Jason," a crimson-headed vampire said from the shadows. "You look much different from the feeble boy who walked in here a week and a half ago, don't you?"
"I have to be," Jason replied, cracking a smile. "After all, I have to save the life of a weak monarch in nine months."
"HAHHA, that does seem to be the case," the crimson-haired vampire roared in agreement before glancing at his daughter.
"Come home safe, okay Evelynn? I will always be waiting here until your return."
The azure blue eyed vampire nodded attentively while the others double-checked their belongings. After giving their final goodbyes, the trio set off, a cloud of thunder rumbling in the background, and embarked on their second journey together toward the sea.