The world lost its normal colors.

The pristine white marble of his soul space faded into a deep freezing blue indicating the total lack of physical heat in the architecture. He turned his head, scanning the empty expanse, until his gaze landed directly on Valeria.

The sniper ghost was standing a few feet away. Instead of the bright red, yellow, and orange hues of a living, breathing human, Valeria appeared as a swirling silhouette of pale, ghostly blue and silver energy.

She didn’t have a beating heart or warm blood, but the skill still managed to register the dense concentration of mana making up her spectral form.

Looking down at his own hands, Klaus could see the bright blazing red and orange of his own living body heat pulsing through his veins.

Valeria gasped, pointing an accusing finger at his face.

"Your eyes, My King! Your pupils just turned into tiny vertical slits. You look just like that snake!"

Klaus blinked, cutting the mana supply to his eyes and dispelling the skill. His vision returned to normal in an instant.

The skill was perfect.

It barely drained any stamina, he could turn it on and off in a fraction of a second, and the tactical advantage it provided for tracking enemies in the dark was exactly what he needed.

"This isn’t why I came here," Klaus told Valeria, turning around to face her. "We are going to test out Soul Mana today. I need to know the new capabilities that it has, especially since my reserves doubled after eating the soul of that snake."

Valeria stopped clapping and stood up straight, offering a sharp, respectful salute. "Yes, My King."

She sprung back, putting some distance between them in the Soul space. She raised her hands and waved them in the air as a surge of green wind mana gathered around her palms.

She threw the mana outward, and the wind began to spin and compress, taking the rough shape of five humanoid targets.

The training dummies were made entirely of rapidly swirling wind currents, hovering slightly above the marble floor.

Klaus raised an eyebrow, genuinely surprised by the display. "Why wasn’t this in your list of skills when you were fighting me?"

Valeria rubbed the back of her head, offering a sheepish grin.

"I have been practicing while you sleep! Being tied to your soul gives me a lot of free time to experiment with my elemental affinity. Do you like them?"

"They’ll work," Klaus sighed, cracking his knuckles.

He focused his mind, reaching deep into the core of his being as he summoned his Soul Mana.

Instantly, a brilliant, pure white light erupted from his skin.

It didn’t just pool in his hands like normal mana; it coated his entire body as though it was a thick protective aura.

The raw energy felt dense and Klaus looked down at his glowing hands.

He still couldn’t use dedicated Soul Spells... though he expected that they would be really powerful given the raw strength of the aura currently wrapping around him.

For now, he had to rely on his standard elemental affinities, using the Soul Mana as a massive amplifier.

"Let’s start with wind..." Klaus announced.

He got into a solid stance, raising his right hand and pointing his index and middle fingers directly at the first spinning wind dummy.

He focused his mind on his signature ranged attack.

’Phantom Finger-Gun.’

As he made the pose, the ambient air in the Soul space began to react. The wind gathered around his extended fingertips, spinning rapidly to form a compressed sphere of air but Klaus didn’t stop there.

He poured his glowing white Soul Mana directly into the spell.

The reaction was instantaneous and terrifying.

The small sphere of wind expanded, absorbing the white light. The air pressure in the immediate area dropped drastically, making it feel as though the space had become a vacuum.

The sphere spun rapidly, even more aggressively than before, generating a miniature gale that blew Klaus’s hair back from his face as the sound of the compressed wind had turned into a high-pitched shriek.

Klaus pulled his arm back slightly, mimicking the recoil of a gun and shot it forward.

The Phantom Bullet erupted.

A massive shockwave blasted out from his fingertips, tearing up the smooth marble floor as the projectile launched forward. The glowing white bullet of wind slammed directly into the first dummy.

It didn’t just pierce the target.

The sheer force of the amplified spell caused the dummy to explode entirely. The bullet continued its path, tearing through the second, third, and fourth dummies in a single, devastating line, shredding the compressed wind constructs into nothingness.

The projectile finally hit the far wall of his soul space.

It collided with the invisible barrier, producing a thunderous crack before finally dispersing into a massive gust of chaotic wind.

The backlash of the wind rushed back across the room, hitting Klaus and Valeria.

The gust blew straight up, catching the hem of the dress the ghost was currently wearing and throwing the fabric high into the air.

For a brief second, a pair of pristine white panties showed.

Valeria gasped, her hands flying down to immediately pull the skirt back down against her thighs as she looked away with her cheeks burning red.

Klaus lowered his hand, his left eye twitching as he stared at her. His mind skipped past the destructive power of the spell and focused entirely on the bizarre wardrobe malfunction.

’She was wearing trousers when I killed her in the Mountains...’ Klaus thought, his brow furrowing in deep confusion. ’So why is she wearing a skirt and panties now? Can souls change clothes in the afterlife? Does she have a closet in my soul?’

He decided it was better not to ask. He didn’t want to know the mechanics of spectral underwear.

Regardless, Klaus sighed, shaking his head to clear the thought.

"The wind amplification is incredibly strong. It turns a single-target piercing spell into an area-clearing shockwave. Now, I am trying my Metal Magic out."

Valeria nodded quickly, still holding her skirt down just in case.

Klaus raised his hand, opening his palm. He commanded the ambient mana in the air of his soul space to gather. He envisioned the shape, the weight, and the edge.

’Forge.’

A chunk of dull gray iron materialized above his palm. As he maintained the spell, he decided to pour his Soul Mana directly into the forging process.

The moment the white energy touched the iron, the metal underwent a radical transformation.

The entire construct was covered in a blinding white light. The dull gray impurities burned away instantly.

As the light faded, a new metal dagger rested in his hand. It shone as if it was sparkling, the surface flawless and pristine.

Klaus held the dagger up, inspecting it closely. It didn’t look like the swords he normally produced in the heat of battle.

It looked like a very sharp, master-crafted blade that had been forged by the royal blacksmiths in the Capital. The balance was perfect and the metal felt dense.

"It works with my Forge Spell very well..." Klaus noted, gripping the leather-wrapped handle. He stepped forward, performing some test slashes in the empty air.

WHOOSH!

The blade cut through the space, leaving a faint trail of white light in its wake.

WHOOSH!

The edge was so fine it produced a sharp whistling sound, slicing the air perfectly without any drag or resistance.

Klaus spun the dagger in his grip, reversing his hold, and swung it horizontally toward the final surviving wind dummy located a dozen yards away.

WHOOSH!

He channeled a burst of wind magic into the swing as a crescent-shaped blade of compressed air, coated in white Soul Mana, detached from the dagger and flew across the room.

It struck the training dummy, cutting cleanly through the spinning wind currents and severing the construct in half before dissipating.

"The mana conductivity is flawless too," Klaus muttered, genuinely impressed.

He brought the dagger closer to his face, examining the razor-thin edge. "I wonder exactly how sharp it i—"

SLICE!

Klaus winced, his words cutting off abruptly. He had just brought his thumb over to test the edge, barely applying any pressure at all and the blade instantly broke his skin.

He dropped the dagger and it vanished into light before it even hit the floor with the spell breaking.

’Fuck...’

Klaus held up his hand.

A deep cut stretched across his thumb but instead of the usual crimson red, thick white blood began pooling around the wound, dripping slowly down his hand. It was pure, liquid Soul Mana.

Valeria gasped loudly. She didn’t hesitate. She blurred across the space, closing the distance instantly.

She grabbed his wrist with both hands, pulled his hand toward her face, and sucked on his bleeding finger.

Klaus stiffened, his eyes going wide at the sudden contact.

The ghost’s lips were cool, and he could feel her tongue pressing against the cut, eagerly drinking the glowing white blood.

After a few seconds, Valeria pulled her face back.

A small dab of white blood stained the corner of her lips and she wiped it away with her thumb, looking up at him with half-lidded eyes.

"This is your soul space, My King," Valeria said, her voice soft and slightly breathless. "So your physical injuries naturally heal really fast in here but I couldn’t let even one single drop of your divine blood go to waste. It is a treasure."

Klaus looked down at his thumb. The deep cut was already gone, leaving behind flawless, unbroken skin.

He looked back up at Valeria. She really had quite a cute face, but the situation was entirely bizarre.

"Uhhh... thank you," Klaus said awkwardly, pulling his hand back and taking a step away.

He cleared his throat loudly, trying to reset the professional dynamic. "Let me try Iron Skin next."

Valeria blinked, the haze clearing from her eyes.

She stepped back, nodding enthusiastically as she wiped her mouth one last time. "Of course, My King! Proceed!"

Klaus raised his arms, crossing them over his chest in a standard defensive block. He focused on his defensive magic.

’Iron Skin.’

He willed the spell to activate, transmuting his flesh, muscle, and bone into solid metal. His hands and forearms immediately turned a dull dark gray.

But then, he pushed his Soul Mana outward, forcing the white light directly into the transmuting spell.

The reaction was explosive. The white energy bonded with the iron, and the transmutation didn’t stop at his elbows.

It spread rapidly, crawling up his biceps, across his chest, down his torso, and all the way to his feet.

Within a single second, Klaus’s entire body was completely turned into a glowing white-hot metallic alloy.

He lowered his arms, looking down at his metal hands.

Klaus blinked. This was entirely new... Usually, full-body transmutation was a terrible idea. Iron was dense and heavy, severely restricting mobility and making him an easy target for fast spells, not like he could have done it before though.

But right now, even while he was made of solid metal, he didn’t feel sluggish.

Klaus flexed his metal fingers.

He felt the added weight, grounding him firmly to the marble floor, but the infusion of Soul Mana energized his joints.

Klaus really felt like he could still be swift. More importantly, he felt immensely stronger than before.

He got back into his defensive stance, crossing his metal arms over his face leaving a small gap to see through.

"Valeria," Klaus called out, his voice echoing slightly from his metallic vocal cords. "Kick me. Hard."

Valeria blinked, tilting her head.

She looked at his imposing glowing metal form. "Are you sure, My King? I have been practicing my physical strikes as well."

"Yes," Klaus confirmed, bracing his metal boots against the floor. "I need to know the upper limit of this armor. Don’t hold back."

Valeria took a deep breath. Her playful demeanor vanished, replaced by the cold focused intent of a trained killer. She dropped into a low sprinter’s stance as the air around her began to swirl violently.

She gathered a massive amount of wind mana around her right leg, compressing the air until it glowed with a fierce green light and she blurred forward.

The speed was incredible. In a fraction of a second, she crossed the distance, pivoting on her left foot and swinging her right leg around in a devastating roundhouse kick.

The compressed wind trailed behind her foot like a comet.

She hit her King right in the crossed arms with her foot.

BOOM!

The impact sounded like a cannon firing inside a small cavern as a massive shockwave of displaced air exploded outward from the point of contact, shattering the remaining marble tiles in a ten-foot radius.

The physical force of the strike was immense but Klaus didn’t move.

His boots carved deep grooves into the floor, sliding back exactly two inches before coming to a complete halt.

He lowered his arms.

The white metal was completely unblemished. There wasn’t a single scratch, dent, or fracture on his forearms.

He felt the force rattle his bones, but the armor had absorbed the vast majority of the damage.

Valeria bounced backward, landing gracefully on her feet. She looked at her leg, and then up at Klaus as her eyes went wide with shock.

"That is incredible," Klaus stated, admiring his white metal arms. "The defensive capabilities are unmatched."

Meanwhile, outside the inner confines of Klaus’s soul space, the real world continued its course.

Inside the grand dining room of the Forest-Edge Compound, the atmosphere was thick with tension.

The long mahogany table was empty save for two occupants sitting directly across from each other.

Zephyra sat on one side, her posture perfect and her disguised gray eyes narrowed into dangerous slits.

Taula sat on the opposite side, leaning forward, her arms crossed firmly on the table, matching the royal’s glare with her own fierce,competitive stare.

Resting on the polished wood between them were two delicate porcelain cups filled with steaming, fragrant tea that Mirela had brewed just a few minutes ago.

The silence stretched on for a long agonizing minute.

Zephyra broke the silence first. She reached out with a graceful hand, picking up her cup by the delicate handle. She brought the rim to her lips and took a deep drink.

SLURP!

The loud entirely unladylike noise echoed through the quiet dining hall. Zephyra swallowed the hot liquid, closing her eyes for a brief second to savor the floral taste.

Mirela really did know how to make an excellent brew.

Zephyra let down her cup, the porcelain clinking softly against the saucer then she leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands, her gaze locking onto the blond-haired warrior.

"So," Zephyra started, her voice dropping into a low, threatening register. "You want to marry my Hubby, huh?"

Taula didn’t flinch. She kept her arms crossed as her jaw set in a stubborn line. "Yes. I do. And I told him that today."

Zephyra’s disguised gray eyes suddenly flashed, briefly glowing with the terrifying vibrant purple light of her true royal heritage.

Her mana spiked, rattling the teacups on their saucers. She shook her head left and right immediately, her black hair whipping around her face.

"The answer is No... Nada... Never... Never ever in a million light years," Zephyra declared. "He’s mine... You can’t have him!"

Taula remained perfectly calm. She had anticipated this exact reaction so she reached out, picking up her own cup of tea, and took a small sip.

’Grandma always said I should stay level headed in these kind of situations...’

She placed it back down and looked Zephyra directly in the eyes.

"I’ll get Klaus to have sex with you," Taula replied expertly.

The dining room went completely dead silent.

Zephyra froze. Her glowing purple eyes widened to comical proportions. Her mouth opened slightly, the furious rejection dying instantly in her throat.

The terrifying aura of a royal predator vanished in a single microsecond, replaced entirely by the flustered desperate panic of a hopelessly obsessed woman.

She stared at Taula, her mind struggling to process the sheer magnitude of the offer. A bright red blush aggressively painted her cheeks, spreading all the way down her neck.

Zephyra slowly blinked. She closed her mouth, swallowed hard, and carefully placed her hands back in her lap.

"... Okay."