Once E'Athar confirmed that the enemy soldiers were retreating, she ordered her soldiers to stop fighting and rest.
The storm was still raging, and the battle couldn't continue in this situation. Aware of it, E'Athar took me to the city hall, where she was staying.
I went with her after I disguised myself as a daemon. I just made my skin slightly gray and changed my facial features a bit, but it was enough to fool any daemon that saw us.
In the way, E'Athar recounted to me everything she had gone through since the last time we met.
"... Everything was very strange. I know my brother. He doesn't have a reason to start this civil war. The throne was going to be his anyway. He is not this rash.
"It's the same with father and everybody else. It seemed like they were blinded and could only think about killing each other."
I furrowed my brows and sighed softly.
"Do you remember what I told you before we separated last time? About Bringer of End."
"The one that wants to destroy the world? Do you mean that it's his fault?"
I nodded.
E'Athar fell silent for a moment before smiling wryly.
"I also thought that it should be his doing. But even though I investigated the situation carefully, I did not find any trace of him. Nobody suspicious met my father or brother, so I was not sure."
I sighed.
"It's definitively him. It's normal that you can't find him. With his means, it's easy to manipulate an entire kingdom without anyone noticing."
E'Athar bit her lips strongly and lowered her head. "What are we going to do then? At this rate, thousands of my people are going to die in this civil war. Claus, you will help me, right?"
I smiled softly and nodded. "Of course. I'm your man after all. But, I also need your help with something.
"Huh? My help?"
"Yeah. You see, I'm now in a very complicated situation."
I then explained to her about my bet with Emilia and the current situation.
When E'Athar finished listening to me, she had a deep frown.
"… In other words, she has an unknown army that she had not shown yet, and you don't have enough men to face it."
"Yes. That is the situation."
"I understand. So you need my help to stop them, right? But, how am I going to help you when I'm busy with the civil war?"
"So, I'm planning to help you to end the civil war quickly. Don't worry, I have a plan. For tonight, you should have complete control over every daemon in this empire."
E'Athar was stunned by my words.
"W-Wait, do you mean–?"
"I promised it to you, remember? That I was going to make you the empress of the Daemon Empire."
E'Athar was dazed. For an instant, she wondered if I was joking with her, but when she saw my serious expression, she realized that I was being serious.
"You…"
"Trust me. I will take care of everything. But before that, we need to do something first?"
E'Athar tilted her head in confusion. At that moment, we arrived at the city hall.
With a smirk, I grabbed E'Athar's hand. Then, I teleported us inside an empty room.
When E'Athar saw that, she immediately understood my intention.
"W-Wait, Claus. N-Now is not the time for this..."
"Really? I don't think there is a problem, though."
"W-Wait, the war…" E'Athar looked at me flustered as I brought my face closer to hers. When she realized that I did not plan to stop and saw that my lips were about to seal her lips, she closed her eyes in embarrassment.
But to her surprise, the expected kiss did not arrive.
E'Athar opened her eyes in doubt, only to see a playful look in my eyes.
Realizing that I was teasing her, the daemon princess became completely red of embarrassment.
I laughed seeing her embarrassed expression and kissed her cheek softly before smirking.
"Don't worry, we can do that later if you want. First, though, let me gift you something."
A drop of blood appeared on my finger and rose in the air. It then turned into a beautiful and complicated tridimensional array that took E'Athar's breath away.
Before the daemon princess could understand what was happening, I started to talk in a solemn tone.
"I, [The Immortal Soul Wandering Through Eternity], with the Universe's Laws as the witness, declare today.
"From today onward, we will be one, and our souls will not be separated ever again!"
With that as the signal, the world trembled.
Our souls left our bodies. Mine was just a fragment of my soul, but it was enough to complete the ritual.
Following the magic formula, our souls fused into one. From then, E'Athar was one of my dependents. She was Immortal, just like me.
Following the ritual, I drew mana from the environment and pushed it inside E'Athar's body, increasing her cultivation at breakneck speed. The process was slower than normal since I could not use my soul to provide energy for her (this fragment of my soul did not have enough energy for that), but even so, it only took E'Athar half an hour before her mana rose to the fifteenth layer.
One hour later, her mana had reached the peak of the fifteenth layer.
Only then did I stop.
E'Athar opened her eyes and looked at me in a daze. Seeing my face and feeling the intimacy between our souls, her expression was dazed.
I caressed her beautiful white hair and looked straight into her golden eyes.
"How do you feel?"
"… I don't know… I… What happened?"
"From today onwards, nothing will be able to separate us."
"Claus…" E'Athar's eyes became teary. She then threw herself on my arms and kissed my lips intensely.
I returned the kiss and hugged her body. When the kiss finished, I brought her to the bed and started to take off her clothes.
"Claus…" E'Athar sighed seductively and looked at me with a hazy expression.
Golden eyes, hair as white as snow, and slightly gray skin. Every one of E'Athar features was so beautiful that any man would be dazzled.
I wanted nothing but to make her mine right now.
Kissing her lips gently, I pushed her down the bed.
"My beautiful princess, I guess I deserve a reward, don't you think?"
E'Athar's face was filled with embarrassment and anticipation.
Shyly, she nodded her head and hummed softly.
"Mm…"
That was everything I needed to hear.