Reincarnated as the Death God's Vessel

A faint smile touched Lidien's face as he watched his hands repeatedly close and open.

Then...

As he remembered his prior goal, to get outside of the Rift of the Leaden Blood and regroup with Alva and Mad Dog as soon as possible,

Lidien walked towards the Rift's Core. He stared at it for a few seconds before sitting just a meter in front of it.

He wasn't sure what to do... even touching it wasn't an option either... he could only study it by watching.

And it also seemed that the Monarch of Blood wasn't willing to teach him anything, or rather... spoon-feed him something he should understand by himself.

'There are two things I know... It absorbs Essences and makes Verve Stone... but, I am not sure why it was the Core of the Rift, and not the Throne in the throne hall... if it was the thing that triggered everything.'

Sighing, Lidien lay on the floor... then put both hands on his chest before closing his eyes.

'If I'm not continuously circulating my blood using my verve, I will think of myself as a dead corpse because of my heart not beating.'

Then Lidien slowed down the circulation, feeling himself grow drowsy.

"See you inside... Old man."

Lidien took a deep breath then stopped controlling his verve, pausing his blood circulation by using the effect of the Rift to stop blood flow,

pulling him inside the Dreamflow.

There...

The Monarch of Blood was watching Lidien with a smirk, before staring back at the Crimson Shard with its orbiting fragmented shards and soul essences.

"You really don't fear anything, child... even I, the Monarch of Blood, meditated to enter my Dreamflow when I still had one..."

Then he glanced back at Lidien with his side eyes.

"But you... enter it like how Demons do..."

Lidien took a step. He also knew it... because he couldn't prolong his training and experimenting meditation to enter the Dreamflow, he used the method of how Demons enter it.

And the easiest and fastest way for it was to make the body dead, as if he were in a coma... but in reality, it was as if he were a beating-heart donor... he needed to be in a beating-heart cadaver state.

Well, now... even his heart wasn't beating outside, and he only relied on that millisecond of instinct to let his verve flow his blood again.

Lidien wasn't afraid, because the second he would feel his body getting suctioned back outside, that was more than enough to will his verve to move his blood.

Then he smiled and walked towards the Monarch, now back to watching the Crimson Shard.

'So he can't read my mind and see my past...'

After stopping just beside him, he watched the Crimson Shard purify the Essences to make his own verve.

That's when he realized...

That the Rift's Core and the Soul Shard act the same...

Lidien tapped his forehead, repeatedly... as he walked back and forth while murmuring something that sounded as if he didn't know his own language.

Until...

He stared intently at the Monarch of Blood smiling at him.

"Is the Rift once a Dreamflow?"

The Monarch's smile turned ear to ear as his eyes slitted, watching Lidien amusedly... yet he stayed silent.

As Lidien confirmed that the Monarch wasn't willing to answer, he knew that his assumption could be considered true... yet, as all researchers do, they need to experiment and prove that their theory is correct.

"If... I compare the Rift to a Dreamflow, then... the Throne could be considered the brain, where it is the one responsible for controlling the Rift, and... the Rift's Core is the Soul Shard... the one fueling it... to keep it running!"

Then Lidien crouched, as he circled his image reflecting the Ocean of Verve.

"But... why was it producing a Verve Stone instead of regular verve?"

A few minutes passed, of thinking and watching his image from the ripple of verve.

"Is it because of the Leaden Blood? An incomplete concept of essence that's ruling this separate world... and the Verve Stone wasn't the purified product... but the byproduct of it?"

A soft clap resounded inside the Dreamflow... the Monarch of Blood smiled genuinely... for seeing someone so young, who could comprehend something he took more than hundreds of years just to understand.

Unknown to him was that Lidien, who came from the modern era, though without magic... it was ruled by science and its researchers... making everyone who had the power to read... understand a simple concept of dynamics.

"So, what will you do now?" asked the Monarch of Blood with pure curiosity.

Lidien shook his head, a helpless smile touched his face.

"Simple... but hard for me to do..."

Then he stared at the starry sky and watched the shimmering, thin film of raw essences get absorbed by the Crimson Shard.

"It is to channel those essences towards the Rift's Core, without them getting purified by my Crimson Shard."

The Monarch of Blood laughed, so loud that it caused ripples in the ocean of verve.

"Brilliant! A once-in-a-thousand-year kind of genius..."

As the Monarch of Blood's thunderous laughter ended, he added.

"Don't worry child, for I will guide you..."

Lidien nodded his head towards the Monarch still smiling at him, before he felt that his consciousness was getting pulled out of the Dreamflow.

Lidien willed his blood to flow continuously until his consciousness came out of the Dreamflow.

A piercing headache engulfed Lidien, from the back of his head to his forehead.

It was because of the sudden burst of his blood flow, that he couldn't control stably, causing high blood pressure.

'Imagine not dying by blood stop, but by flowing it back...'

Pressing his pained head, he sighed.

'I need to control my verve fluently.'

Lidien took another hour for him just to compose himself free from pain and random thoughts, before standing in front of the Rift's Core, staring at it intently.

"I'm ready, Old man... Please guide me."