CHAPTER 2: New life, new challenges

After receiving all the memories of Damian, Oliver's dizziness was so big that he had lost his balance and fell into a coma by hitting his head on the floor.

Oliver woke up in his bed for the second time after sleeping for two hours, the family's doctor had auscultated Oliver and diagnosed that it was simply a coma due to overtraining himself and not resting enough. He then asked that a maid stay by his bedside to monitor his condition and to call him immediately if Damian's condition worsened or if he woke up.

Oliver opened his eyes and discovered the maid that had a relieved look on her face.

"Wait here young lord I will bring the doctor, he asked that you don't come out of your bed as we don't know if your case could worsen." Said the maid as she left in a hurry.

A few minutes passed and doctor Galen Hippocrates arrived, he was around 50 years old, he could proudly say that he had practiced medicine for most of his life. He was a renowned doctor considered as one of the top twenty doctors in the empire.

As he entered the room the doctor looked at Oliver's face as if he saw that something was out of place, after a few seconds of a scan like glance at Oliver he came closer to his bed and tested his pulse.

"Strangely you don't look like you need to stay in bed any longer, but you should take this tonic of my making that contains all the minerals, nutrients and proteins that you have in deficiency. Be careful in the future, eat and drink after your training so that this doesn't happen again." the old doctor told Oliver in an automotive but caring voice.

Oliver knew that his sudden dizziness that resulted into a coma wasn't principally due to fatigue by exercising too much, but he decided to play along with the doctor's beliefs. He told the doctor he would be more careful in the future when he trained and would rest properly afterwards.

Oliver then remembered it was time for lunch with his new family, he got up and headed for the dining hall and found his three brothers and his sister were already sitting waiting for him and their parents.

"Good day today it's really sunny, perfect for a good training". Oliver said without even knowing why he did.

"We heard you overtrained yourself and fell into a coma due to exhaustion. Are you sure it's the time to train again, you could die…not that I care" Said his older brother Arthur who was thirty years old in a joking tone.

His two older twin brothers Noah and Leo who were both twenty-two years old started laughing from his older brother's joke, but his sister the youngest of the family reprimanded them.

"How shameless can you be, Damian is surely better than you in all aspects. You're just being jealous and taunting him, surely he will be the next head of the family. If you don't work harder instead of making jokes about him, you will have no chance to keep your future head position. Damian has already gone to three subjugation missions that took place in vampire towns while you only went once, and brother Noah and Leo you don't even know what the battlefield is like." said his sister in an angered tone.

Oliver remembered that Damian and his sister Amelia were very close to each other. There was a big competition between the brothers to decide who will become the next head of the Salvatore noble house, Damian was the only one not interested in the position, his only goal was to serve his empire. He trained tirelessly in swordsmanship, so he could join the royal guards of the emperor, a force said to be one of the most powerful of the continent.

His brothers feared his strength even if he had openly announced his withdrawal from the race for head position, as he was better than them in every aspect and was their father's most cherished child.

Damian even had the good looks to accompany his strength, he was what people call a perfect man. But if you asked Damian, he would certainly only point out his flaws and explain what specialized exercises he could do to weaken his flaws.

Damian's only crucial flaw was his way of thinking, he was too rushed and unrefined, he always acted before thinking without taking the time to correctly assess the situation or the enemy. Damian sometimes fell face to face against stronger opponents than him that he couldn't defeat and had to use all his strength to kill the enemy, falling at the mercy of the other demons as he was recuperating.

On Damian's first subjugation he fell against a demonic beast that had been tamed and trained by vampires as a hunting dog, Damian had difficulty killing it as it was the first time he fought a beast. Beasts have really strange attack patterns that are very different from demons with similar intelligence to humans, the beast that fought against Dimian was faster and more agile than Damian's past human sparring partners.

After about two minutes of intense fight, his sword flew from his hands and landed two meters away, the then sword-less Damian was pushed on the floor by the best that then jumped at him trying to reap his head off. Damian had to use his power in order to survive, he rolled on the side and removed his silver glove as the beast dived in his direction. The Beast instantly started to rot alive as it made contact with his hand, it then shook convulsively and as its fur turned pitch black it exploded releasing a decaying meat smell all over Damian.

After this incident he made sure he wouldn't ever again use this power, and it thankfully seemed he wasn't seen by anyone at the time.

Damian's parents arrived as the atmosphere was tense and nobody was talking because of the last exchange between his sister and brothers, as they entered the room the silence broke and all children greeted their parents for the first time of the day.

Oliver imitated his siblings.

"Greetings to the lord and the lady" he said in a solemn way as he remembered how to place his right hand on his heart and the left as a fist behind the back while getting up his seat.

The family then all seated and the lord started talking about the incoming demon subjugation mission and the demon hideout they had newly found, they were still spying before taking any actions. The lord then asked technical questions about demons to his sons to check if they had learned their new lessons properly.

While the lord was questioning the brothers the lady was talking to her daughter, Damian's sister was not a fighter but had been trained by her mother to be a strategist that would command some of their forces in the future.

After the lunch was finished, the children saluted their parents and left for their different task of the afternoon. Oliver was happy because he had performed a perfect acting by his judgment and didn't feel anyone noticing a difference in his identity during their exchanges, as he had talked like Damian using his newly acquired memories.

Oliver headed to the training grounds, greeting all soldiers he encountered by their names, as Damian used to. He was the member of the main family that was the closest with the soldiers as he had fought 3 battles with them. He had bouts with them on daily bases, sometimes he even trained with them to learn cooperation and create a good synergy when he fought with them in the future.

He then headed to the far end of the training ground and entered a small court that was Damian's private training ground, where he practiced his swordsmanship and executed his bodybuilding exercises.

Oliver trained using the program Damian had made one day before to fix all his postures and the flaws in his techniques execution. Oliver successfully finished the full inhuman course that any normal office worker couldn't even dream of doing as the mental strength needed for this kind of training was colossal. He could only complete it as he had accomplished an even greater trial of will as he fought to reincarnate.

Just as Oliver finished his training a maid arrived, it was the same one that had stayed beside him while he was in a coma.

"Young master, the lord told me to let you know that we will have guests arriving any moment from now. The lord asks you to return to greet them as they arrive." The maid said in a respectful tone to Oliver and took her leave.

Oliver took a towel and headed to the mansion, when he arrived at his room where two maids were waiting for him to help him bathe. Oliver complied with apprehension as he needed to perfectly act as Damian, or it could mean his family doubting his identity and thinking of him as a demon.

He took his bath and put on the same design of dark gray caught and turquoise tie and a black pair of trousers he had been wearing before, it seemed like Damian only wore this type of set of clothes, so he had it in multiple exemplaries of them in his wardrobe.

Oliver headed to the dining hall where all the heads of the side's family branches were present, Oliver was shocked by this sight as it had neither happened for the minor heads to all be present at the same place in the last 1500 years.

As Oliver recovered from his shock, he was shocked a second time by the newly arrived guests, the 7 royal guard generals. For such personalities to all be regrouped at the same place it could only be the sight that something big was coming, it could be something like an enemy kingdom's attack, the discovery of a massive vampire city or the sighting of multiple high demons.

He instantly reshaped his composure and went to greet all the guests, he expressed his interest in joining the imperial army to the generals' great pleasure as Damian was known to be one of the most promising young generations of the empire.

He then sat and waited for the people to settle down and for the dinner to start, after ten minutes the hall had regained its calm, and the empire army generals explained that they found a giant underground vampire city and that it seemed to be led by a high demon.

There have been 5 recordings of what is called variants in the past, variants are high demons that don't act like Infernos normally do, they can live in community with other demons and most of the time lead them as they are stronger.

Variants Infernos can be much more difficult to deal with as they have their own armies and act as brilliant strategist that can't be compared to the best human strategist as the intellectual difference is too big, the Variants Infernos can plan thirty moves in advance while the human top strategist can only plan about fifteen.

The dinner continued, and the different forces planned how to lead a coordinated attack on the underground city the next month using all their forces.

Oliver talked to the heirs of the secondary branches of the family that had all already been decided, the reason why the main branch heir wasn't decided yet was that the selected heir would have to lead the family in the future. It wasn't an easy decision to take as it will impact the future of the clan, it couldn't be taken lightly.

The dinner came to an end and everyone went to sleep in their respective guest-rooms prepared for the night. Oliver went to his room, changed into his sleeping attire and went to bed. He couldn't find any way to sleep as he was very excited about what his new life had to offer to him, and all the new experiences he would be able to have which would surely by far exceed his imagination.

Oliver hadn't noticed but as he was thinking about his new life a shadow had climbed on his room's balcony and came to his bedside without making any noise. While still remaining undetected by Oliver that was lying on his right flank, the shadow took out a shiny object...a dagger.

TO BE CONTINUED…