She opened her eyes again.
Her red eyes were now glowing faintly.
She looked at her hand.
Her back straight, her gloves humming with pale violet light, as they closed around the demonic crystal, in front of her was the vampire orb as it glow with a purplish and black hue And her core—rotating like a miniature star within her dantian—growing denser with each breath.
But now… came the most dangerous part.
Creating the Circle.
There was no shortcut. No hidden trick. Not even in her past life had she found a way around it.
Rie took a slow breath and closed her eyes, drowning out the humming of mana, the eerie silence of the demon realm's midnight, and even the sound of her own thoughts. All she focused on now… was her heart.
Ba-dump! Ba-dump.!
"Let's begin," she whispered.
Creating a circle wasn't just about mana. It was about intimacy with death. Because the circle didn't form in your limbs or bones. It formed around your heart.
And if it failed?
Even a slight misalignment would tear through the heart like an explosion from within.
It was why most children took two to three years just to form a basic circle. And even then, only 2 out of 10 ever succeeded. The others cripple themselves or just died on the spot.
The method of creating a circle was fundamentally different from forming a core. You couldn't just will it into existence. It wasn't something that responded to ambition or effort alone.
Why?
Because the process of forming a circle was tied directly to the heart.
When a child is born, the very first thing they do is breathe—and with each breath, they unknowingly inhale the surrounding mana particles that linger in the world. These particles don't simply vanish. Instead, they begin to accumulate inside the heart, slowly, silently, over the years.
As the child grows, every breath taken stores more mana within them. That's why, in the human realm, the standard age for awakening as a mage is around eighteen—by then, the average heart has stored enough mana to begin forming a circle without risking catastrophic failure.
It's also why her younger sister, Lily, was called a once-in-a-generation genius—she managed to form her first circle at the tender age of ten.
But Rie knew the truth behind that miracle.
Lily had been born in a land where mana saturated the very air—every breath she took since infancy had been rich with natural energy. She had lived in an environment where just existing was enough to feed the heart with magic. Not only that—Lily carried the blood of the Demon King himself. And being raised in his presence, under his protective aura, meant that the mana around her was unnaturally dense.
It wasn't just talent.
It was circumstance. Bloodline. Fate.
All of it combine...
But Rie? She was different.
Her heart had always rejected mana. Her body had always been a contradiction: Elf blood that should harmonize with mana. Demon blood that should dominate it. Vampire blood that should devour it.
Three forces inside one body—none in balance.
So in her previous life, she had been called cursed. A failure.
But tonight… none of that mattered.
Because now, she had knowledge that none of them had. She knew how to force it to work. And she had just the right weapon:
A vampire's heart.
Not just metaphorically—but literally. Her vampiric nature allowed her to bypass the breathing method entirely. She didn't inhale mana—she drank it.
What she was attempting defied all logic—pouring too much mana directly into the heart in a single go.
If anyone heard her plan, they'd call her insane. After all, flooding the heart with raw, unfiltered mana wasn't just dangerous—it was a guaranteed death sentence. It didn't cause injury; it caused obliteration.
If an ordinary person even attempted such a method, their heart wouldn't rupture—it would detonate, leaving behind nothing but scorched remains.
But there was nothing about Rie that could ever be called normal.
She was a half-demon, half-vampire, and half-elf—a walking contradiction, a being whose very existence defied the natural laws of the world. Her heart was not bound by human limitations. She possessed the burning resilience of a demon's heart, and the dark, regenerative power of a vampire's core.
And more than that—she was a regressor.
A soul that had once walked the path to the pinnacle of magic. In her previous life, she had reached heights few could even dream of.
Her control over mana—its flow, density, and rhythm—was nothing short of flawless.
She was a perfect monster.