- The King of Grimley
"It is good to see you well, my friend." Galian, the king of Grimley said to 'Drago' who was kneeling in front of him. King Galian had an above-average height and a frame resembling that of a bear. His hair was short and his eye-brows were thick. His blue eyes were fierce and glaring despite how warm he was trying to be. The crown on his head was made of a gold alloy with a centerpiece in the form of a Red Rose interlocked by a Black Sword and a White Spear. At each of the four corners of the crown's design protrudes purple towers with a transparent gemstone on the top of each. Crystal-like purple vines were creeping up on each tower and finally touching the gemstones.
He was wearing a thick tunic embroidered with the symbols of the kingdom. A cape-colored blue on the outside and red on the inside was draped over his shoulders and fastened on protruding barbs located at the front of his shoulder plates.
"Thank you, my lord. However, I apologize greatly as I am too confused about my current situation being unable to recall the slightest of my memories." Zex explained.
"That's… unfortunate." The king paused and wore a meaningful frown. "Perhaps the keepers of the phylacteries could help you. They record the deeds of notable personages and shelf away blood phylacteries that contain a small portion of their essence from the time the blood was extracted. Maybe they have a method to restore your memories." King Galian suggested.
"I shall pay a visit as soon as possible, my lord." Zex answered as he noticed a certain type of mana wave wash over him as if it was doing a scan. He did not resist nor did he show on his face that he noticed and continued with the conversation.
The king was stalling as he kept exchanging pleasantries with Zex.
After a while, one of the 4 kingsguard who was behind him coughed which signaled the King to end the conversation.
"It was nice to see you come back to the kingdom in one piece, Drago. Unfortunately, Arissef and the others have fallen---" King Galian was about to end the conversation and stand up when Drago started shaking and grabbing his head.
"NO! Arissef. Edge… My lord! We failed… I failed… 5 years…" Drago could not finish his words as he collapsed to the ground.
King Galian was frowning. The kingsguard were initially doubting Drago the moment he returned from a battle with a demon lord who wiped out 20,000 men and killed 4 heroes. Hevan and Caylin already reported to them what happened and the two could not explain why Drago was spared.
However, Drago's reaction to his fellow heroes' deaths lifted some of the suspicions they had.
Even one of the kingsguard called 'The Monitor' was finding Drago's movements genuine and added to the fact that the mana scan turned out clean of mind control or soul manipulation, there was no indication not to believe that Drago did return as himself.
King Galian gave a glance to 'The Monitor' who nodded in return. "Elik, take him to the infirmary and have a keeper look at his condition, proceed with the plan if his memories have still not recovered. If what Hevan and Caylin said was true, we will need Drago in the defense." King Galian ordered one of the kingsguard as he stood up and left the throne room with the other 3 while the one named Elik proceeded to follow his orders.
...
In a hallway a distance away from the throne room, King Galian was walking with the remaining 3 kingsguard behind him.
"How is it?" King Galian asked without turning his head.
'The Monitor' Ava, is a female kingsguard who has the legendary [Oracle] class. She would often have vague glimpses of the future and has served by the side of the royal family ever since her awakening. She is part of the Adurino Family, another one of the 4 vineyard families. They had a long line of Oracles in service to the crown. She is wearing a cloak that hides her true appearance while her eyes are blindfolded, a common practice of oracles to protect their minds from absorbing too much information through sight.
"My lord! His mind and soul are clean and he does not emanate ill will towards the crown.
However, his body has grown weak. I am afraid that he may not be able to recover to his peak strength." Ava answered respectfully.
King Galian continued to walk and only grunted in response.
…
In an infirmary within the royal castle, multiple beds were lined up but only one was occupied. A female nurse was tending to the man on the bed.
Zex was conscious the whole time. He initially planned to spread his black flames towards the king and the kingsguard but when that scan washed over him, he realized it was such a risky move. Before he could approach any of them, he needed to neutralize the one who scanned him.
Of course, he was aware of the risks of being discovered when he was in front of the king. Days before, he mastered all types of masking spells and techniques and incorporated them in his [Mana Control] technique, finally evolving into a different technique: [Mana Domain]. Aside from being able to infuse anything and reducing the chances of detection, he could also create illusions of mana as perceived by detection and observation skills. He reached this level by studying the principles of how detection and observation skills operated. The one who scanned him did not notice the forgery of his mana's image or quality. However, he may not be able to produce the same results if he spread his black flames towards their bodies.
If somehow, they were still able to detect him, he had various trump cards he could use to fight them. If he could not, he was confident enough that he could escape by asking his master for help.
Right now, he had other goals in mind.
As Zex 'woke' up, the nurse bowed and rushed to call the keeper and the kingsguard, Elik after a brief explanation of what happened.
After a while, the head keeper, Firr, came up to him and asked if he regained his memories to which 'Drago' denied. Firr glanced at Elik who was hiding in the shadows before leading the way to the repository.
"... This is the repository holding phylacteries that contain the blood essence of important figures in the kingdom." Firr enthusiastically discussed the layout and the purpose of the room while Elik silently observed in the shadows.
It was something on the level of a treasure room for the Kingdom. The keepers are blood mages who use the blood in the phylacteries to communicate with their owners at far distances. Blood magic was a forbidden practice in the kingdom and is only a selected few by the King and the kingsguard are allowed to use them. They are also bound through soul contracts to never betray the kingdom and the crown with their use of blood magic. Even Arissef was not allowed to dabble with it. This showed how dangerous the practice was in the wrong hands.
As what happened with the phylacteries of Edge, Arissef, Brius, and Falna, they were now removed from the wall as they shattered not too long ago, indicating the deaths of the owners.
"Due to your precarious situation, you have two phylacteries stored here. As the house representative of the Grussiva Family as well as one of the 16 heroes… 12 heroes." Firr corrected himself.
Zex understood the meaning behind these bottles of blood. They have been used the same way in so many novels he read and games he played in the past. Therefore, he was able to notice that Firr did not disclose the fact that these phylacteries were also held here as assurance that the owners do not betray the crown or else the king would order the blood mages to kill the bearers through these phylacteries. He also believed that the phylactery at the center did not hold the blood of the king but that of a double. In any case, this gave him a fright when he realized that he was in Drago's body. If the king decided to kill him, even if he escaped... he would be as good as dead. This reminded him that even if he had thousands of plans, one simple mistake would make them all crumble.
"The king said you can help me restore my memories." Zex stated sternly, after days of practice and mental image training, he was able to pass off uncannily as Drago, whether it be the voice, the mannerisms, and the personality. His impression may not be perfect but it was enough to fool those who are not close to Drago personally.
Another function of the phylacteries was to store the essence of a person. The blood mages could restore memories, clear any ailments, or even regrow lost limbs given enough time. The downside is that depending on the degree of restoration, the owner's lifespan will decrease.
To put it scientifically, the essence they are talking about in the blood is the stored DNA memory like a blueprint of the body while the blood stored in the phylactery serves as a back-up file. As long as the user's blood is untainted and is identical to the blood stored, the blood mages can revert the condition of a person's body to the design stored in the phylactery which should also synchronize the memory banks of the brain.
What the king wanted to happen was for the keepers to conduct a 'system restore' on Drago's body by guiding the RNA in his body to follow the DNA in the stored blood.
The scan Ava did was only to ensure that nobody was controlling Drago from the outside to make sure the other phylacteries were safe. In such a case, Elik would use his expertise to cut off such a connection and force the procedure to wipe out any influence from an external factor and bring back Drago to his former self.
Putting it magically, on the other hand, to facilitate the control of such restoration and fuel its process, multiple keepers must infuse their mana to the target while the head keeper will guide the blood from the phylactery towards the target's brain. The blood in the brain will then resonate with the essence and slowly synchronize with the latter. Throughout the process, the blood will affect all the genes of the body at a rapid pace and override their current designs with the one in the phylactery.
However, Zex was inside Drago's body through and through. It would not be surprising if his brain containing his memories would have a violent rejection.
Moreover, what would happen to his memories? Essentially, what he figured was that the [Soul Swap] switched both parties' memories and souls, hence why he could not recall any of the memories Drago had. Would he entirely turn into a second incarnation of Drago if the procedure succeeded?
Either way, instead of going through the risk of losing himself in the process, he decided to go through it on his terms.
System: Initiating Skill Learning!
System: 8%
System: [Blood Magic Mastery] Learned. + 25,000 Exp.
System: 24%
System: [Vampiric Immortality] Learned. + 75,000 Exp.
…
System 67%
System: [Blood Manipulation] Learned. + 40,000 Exp.
System:82%
System: [Essence Manipulation] Learned. + 75,000 Exp.
…
System:100%
System: [Blood Reincarnation] Learned. + 200,000 Exp.