“But…” Nighteye’s reaction was sluggish after experiencing such drastic developments. She didn’t even have the time to cry, and only looked at Eden without knowing what to do.
Eden roared, “Go! They won’t dare kill me as long as you escape!”
Nighteye shot a deep glance at the demonkin. She then clenched her teeth and rushed into one of the maze-like passages behind her, quickly becoming one with the darkness after activating bloodline concealment.
Eden was assigned to her directly by the Evernight Council and was also an important character from the Dark Abyss. Even someone of Edward’s status would have to think twice before moving against him—but that was on the premise that Nighteye could escape. Should the latter fall into Edward’s hands, however, he would no longer have anything to fear because dead men tell no tales.
In the cavern hall, Edward roared in extreme fury as he watched Nighteye disappear.
At this moment, the Perth clan soldiers couldn’t even look up under the suppression of Eden’s domain. The higher ranking experts—two counts and a marquis—were standing behind the group and couldn’t push through immediately.
The three immediately took action upon hearing Edward’s roar. One of the counts knocked the crowd away and made a beeline for Eden. The domain seemed to have little effect on him. The count focused his attention upon Eden’s origin bullets, poised to complete this sprint with as little damage as possible.
However, the hail of bullets made sharp turns in the air, at least half of them converging on the count’s body. The impact blasted his badly mangled body away and even exposed his blood core. The attacks came fairly close to killing him.
Although no vampire was willing to admit it, this was the difference between a vampire count and that of a famed demonkin clan.
The other marquis and count had gone around the disorderly crowd and toward the other end of the hall in an attempt to chase after Nighteye. However, they were frozen in place after seeing the might of Eden’s focus fire. Not many in the room could withstand such an onslaught while being suppressed by the colossus’ will—even that marquis didn’t dare make an attempt.
Edward’s expression turned ashen. He could no longer afford to wait for his subordinates to drain Eden’s ammunition. He leapt up, shrouded in near-tangible blood energy, and charged into the black domain filled with both true and illusory origin bullets.
Edward, as a Holy Son, was indeed powerful. A full eruption of his blood energy materialized countless avians and beasts which promptly engaged the sentient black energy in Eden’s domain. The black mist which had originally enveloped half the hall was quickly weakened.
Although Eden did his utmost to twist the majority of bullets toward Edward, the projectiles barely managed to shoot through his protective blood energy. The remaining momentum was only sufficient to tear his clothes and leave a superficial wound.
A peculiar smile of mockery appeared on Eden’s face as Edward’s hand was just about to grab his shoulder. He held onto his gun with the left hand while his right fist shot toward Edward’s claw.
But just as the two were about to make contact, Eden opened his right hand to reveal a black prism-shaped crystal. It was merely the size of a finger with strands of black energy rolling about within. Upon closer inspection, however, one would find that those were actually black flames!
Edward’s eyes went wide as he cried out in alarm, “You’ve gone mad!!!”
He abruptly retracted his hand and leaned his upper body backward, almost losing his balance in the process. Edward used every ounce of strength to stop his charge and shift sideways, but it was too late.
The black crystal shot out from Eden’s hand, and the black flames within were jolted awake. The drifting wisps of flame condensed first into an ember, then burst out violently. The transparent crystal fell apart amidst an eruption of garish prismatic colors, and the black flames spilled out over a ten-meter radius around them.
These flames—akin to mist and muslin—were inexplicably odd. They draped over Edward, who hadn’t yet escaped the area, and covered the right half of his body. This caused him to discard all semblance of dignity and emit a mournful wail—the pain was clearly excruciating.
The blood energy gushing out from Edward’s body condensed around him like a pillar. However, the defensive measured seemed completely ineffective and even intensified the immolation like adding fuel to fire. Yet he had no choice but to continue quenching his thirst with proverbial poison because he simply couldn’t afford to let the flames touch his body.
The Perth clan soldiers nearby who had touched the black flame fell down silently and curled up into a charred mass. They didn’t even have the chance to cry out.
A first-rank viscount struggled to release his blood energy, but the scarlet defensive barrier flickered out of existence. Soon, raging flames poured out of his nose and mouth, followed by his entire body. Apparently, he could no longer endure the suppression of the void colossus after being gravely injured by the black flames—his origin power had ignited.
“Origin flames! Wrath of the Abyss!” The Perth clan marquis standing close to the cave wall recognized the origin of the black flames. He was so shocked that he pulled back a fair distance from the gauze-like black fire.
This origin flame, known as the Wrath of the Abyss, was specific to the demonkin race. Reportedly, it was born from nothingness and capable of scorching an expert’s soul. Disregarding these legends, the truth was that it was a special type of flame fueled by origin power, the bane of all experts with formidable stores of energy. In theory, it was somewhat similar to the void colossus’ suppression.
This flame was extremely precious even for a famed Demonkin clan. How could touching it be so easy? Regardless of whether there were other factors in play, even the Holy Son Edward didn’t dare touch too much of it. He could only put his life on the line and attempt to neutralize the Wrath of the Abyss with his blood energy.
The Wrath of the Abyss would die quickly without any origin power to burn. The hall quieted down moments later, but that first-rank viscount had been reduced to ashes and several other warriors had turned into charcoal.
Edward clambered up with great difficulty. The great half of his expensive robe had been destroyed, with black marks left behind in many places where the Wrath of the Abyss had touched him. He walked over to Eden and lifted the demonkin up with one hand. His eyes were nearly spewing flames as he growled like a wild beast and his vampiric fangs stretched out.
Eden’s situation was even worse than Edward’s. He had collapsed on the ground with the greater half of his body burnt black and couldn’t even struggle when Edward lifted him up. Even so, he gazed at the latter and broke into a hearty laugh.
Edward endured his thirst for blood and finally retracted his fangs. “It’s quite the miracle that you weren’t burned to death.”
Eden laughed hoarsely. “That’s the special privilege afforded to a son of darkness.”
“Are you not afraid of death?” Edward said through gritted teeth, but he knew he had asked a dumb question.
Edward might’ve possibly escaped had the Wrath of the Abyss not expanded to the point where Eden himself was swept in. The latter had used himself as bait, and it was a miracle that he hadn’t died.
Edward found it rather difficult to deal with such an opponent. He stared fixedly at Eden for a moment before tossing him onto the ground. Then he issued an order without looking back, “Nighteye couldn’t have run far with that injury, split up and go after her. She must be captured alive!”
The remaining dozen or so Perth clan vampires responded in unison and charged into the tunnel where Nighteye had vanished. The marquis didn’t leave with the pack and instead walked over to Edward’s side. “Your Majesty, since we’ve already arrived, the first priority should be to deal with Sky Demon’s avatar. Shall I stay behind?”
“No! You give chase and I’ll deal with Sky Demon’s avatar. It’ll be enough of an explanation for those Evernight geezers as long as we kill one.”
The marquis’ expression turned serious. He knew that Edward had already made up his mind but still made an attempt at persuasion. “Your Majesty, you won’t need to use that item if I stay behind. Moreover, there are also profits to be gained from Sky Demon’s avatar…”
Edward shook his head slowly. “Nothing is as important as Nighteye!”
The marquis no longer insisted on his plan. He only bowed slightly and ran into the darkness on the other side of the hall.
Edward fished out a small crystal box with a neat row of ruby-like origin blood crystals within. He took out one of the four crystals and swallowed it promptly. Moments later, his blood energy was rapidly strengthened and his wounds were healed.
Edward glanced back at Eden just as he was about to leave. After a moment of hesitation, he tossed the latter an origin blood crystal and said coldly, “Don’t let me see you again.”
Eden flipped over and caught the incoming origin blood crystal with great difficulty. He swallowed it and began to rest with closed eyes.
At this moment, Qianye was walking along a seemingly endless cavern. Here, even the origin sundial and compass seemed to have lost their function. Just like the surviving experts of both factions, he was depending on instinct and the occasional reaction to the ancient essence fragment to confirm his direction forward.
Qianye heard the rumble of an origin gun as he turned into a certain tunnel accompanied by an intense blood energy fluctuation. He paused momentarily, but even a combination of his perception and Eye of Truth failed to detect any signs of another race. Apparently, two groups of vampires were killing one another.
Qianye felt curious because one of those auras felt somewhat familiar. His heart filled with dread, he retracted his aura and sneaked over.
It was in a fairly small cave that he saw two figures locked in a fierce battle and moving so fast that their silhouettes appeared illusory. The entire cave, a hundred meters in radius and a dozen or so in height, was their battlefield. They even ran along the walls and hung from the roof as they fought.
The vampire race’s terrifying agility, speed, and combat arts were being deployed without restraint. The combatants were both masters of their craft.
Qianye’s eyes froze because one of them was so familiar that her figure would appear in his consciousness even without looking—it was Nighteye! He had just stepped through the edge of the tunnel when the outcome of that battle became evident.
Nighteye emitted a muffled groan as a spurt of red and gold gushed out from her shoulder. Her opponent also flew back uncontrollably and came to a stop only after crashing into the cave wall. For a while, that person couldn’t even stand straight.
Nighteye turned and fled without the slightest pause. It seemed her injuries weren’t light at all. She had rushed past within ten meters of Qianye but actually failed to discover him hiding in the shadows.
