"Before I start training you..."

Vivienne spoke as she looked at Lucian standing in front of her with a straight chest and his hands behind his back.

The two of them were standing in the middle of the training hall, ready to begin, but before it, Vivienne had something important to say.

"You need to accept what you are."

"I am a human."

Lucian answered instantly.

Vivienne, however, just laughed at those words.

"No, your Soul is that of a human.

You are no longer a human."

Lucian narrowed his eyes at those words but Vivienne didn’t care.

"And it is time you accept that."

"I..."

Lucian didn’t know what to say, but Vivienne didn’t sugarcoat it.

"You are not a ’stronger human’, Lucian.

You are a Demon, an Incubus.

The faster you accept it, the quicker you will be able to understand yourself and get stronger."

Get stronger.

Those words had a great effect on Lucian because the instant he heard them—

"I am an Incubus."

He agreed with whatever Vivienne said.

As long as he could get his revenge, demon or human, it didn’t matter what he was.

Vivienne laughed, liking the straightforwardness.

"Good.

So from this point onwards, I will stop training you like a human and train you like what you are.

An Incubus."

"There’s a difference?"

Lucian asked curiously.

"What do you think?"

"I think there is.

A big difference."

"Correct."

Vivienne nodded.

"The biggest difference is the Demonic Energy."

"Demonic Energy..."

Lucian repeated those words and Vivienne nodded.

"Your body is no longer just flesh and bones.

Like all demons, it now stores and spends that Demonic Energy.

You think your strength comes from your muscles, you see your ’hunger’ as a problem, your enhanced senses as a side effect and while you are right at some level—

The reason behind it all is the Demonic Energy inside your body.

It strengthens your body, it heals damage, it sharpens your senses and..."

Vivienne looked at him with a meaningful look on her face and—

"It keeps your ’hunger’ in check."

Lucian’s expression changed as things finally started to connect. Vivienne looked at that expression and nodded.

"When your demonic energy reserves are stable, you think clearly, your hunger remains quiet and your body obeys you. In this state, you can sit near a woman without losing your mind, you can contain your hunger and not act on it.

But...

When your reserves fall, your blood begins to take over.

It starts looking for... more."

"Through sex."

Lucian muttered, remembering those vile thoughts that appeared in his mind every time he was in a ’hungry’ state.

Vivienne nodded.

"That is the simplest answer.

Not the complete one."

Lucian looked at her with a frown. Vivienne slowly walked around him, observing him as if she herself was unsure about this.

"Low Incubi gather demonic energy through sex, but a High Incubus is different.

A High Incubus gathers demonic energy through... desire.

Lust, pleasure, surrender, obsession, emotional dependence, admiration, fear, attraction, dominance, worship—

High Incubi gather energy through them all, they do not rely on bodies, that is what makes them so fearsome, they can have an almost endless amount of demonic energy."

Vivienne then looked into Lucian’s eyes and—

"In theory, since you have the Blood of a High Incubus, you too, should be able to gather demonic energy through desire."

"That doesn’t seem to be the case..."

Lucian narrowed his eyes.

If a clear mind meant high demonic energy reserves, then the only times his mind felt ’clear’ were when he had sex with Naomi, that would mean he too, could only gather demonic energy through sex, like Low Incubi do.

Or at least, that’s what he thought but—

"Don’t be too quick to judge."

Vivienne shook her head.

"At the level you are right now, where you cannot even sense the demonic energy that is inside you, even if you had gathered demonic energy through desire alone, you wouldn’t know.

Though if I had to guess, then I believe you do have the ability to gather demonic energy through desire—"

Vivienne then looked into Lucian’s eyes and—

"You enjoyed tormenting those students you attacked, did you not?"

Lucian’s expression changed, this was the only memory he didn’t wish to talk about, he felt disgusted by it.

But Vivienne didn’t stop.

"You enjoyed seeing the fear in their eyes, you enjoyed when they begged you to let them go, you enjoyed dominating them, you enjoyed watching them surrender, did you not...?"

She asked, her eyes seeming like they were piercing into Lucian’s for answers.

"I... I did not gain any demonic energy from it."

Lucian stuttered, Vivienne however, shook her head.

"As I said before, you wouldn’t know if you did because you cannot sense demonic energy yet."

"I did not feel my mind clear up."

He tried to reason but again, Vivienne dismissed him.

"That is not how it works, the demonic energy an Incubus gathers through desire is far lesser than he would get through direct intercourse.

Even if you could gather energy through desire, it would be too little to make a difference in your state of mind, especially when compared to the energy you would gain through intercourse."

"..."

Lucian turned silent at those words.

Did it mean...

The way he acted that way while hitting Ryan and others, that sadistic, cruel side he showed...

It was his blood taking over?

Or was it his true self?

At this point, it didn’t matter.

Even if it was his blood, it was a good thing. It meant that his blood had the power to gather demonic energy through desire, that meant he had more ways to get stronger than just one.

"That is good."

Lucian nodded.

Vivienne grinned at that answer but then she crushed his hopes.

"Don’t be too glad, we still do not know for certain if you can gather demonic energy through desire or whether it was just your rotten personality that your weak self could never display."

"How can I know for certain?"

Lucian asked directly, not caring about anything else.

"You learn to sense demonic energy."

Vivienne answered and Lucian nodded with his eyes burning with willingness to learn.

"Teach me."

He was finally ready to accept his demonic side.