Leonard delivered tea for the two and closed the door behind him.
The translucent red tea was served in a well-maintained antique tea set, along with exquisite desserts. The aesthetic and scent were fairly delightful. If it weren’t for the bloody circ.u.mstances, it would certainly be a good opportunity for old friends to catch up.
After all, every time a member of a long-lived race went into hibernation, they might just wake up in a completely unfamiliar world.
Predica was engrossed in the fragrance of the tea for a while. Seeing that Habsburg had no intention of speaking, he could only sigh. “Dear Habsburg, you’ve changed quite a lot.”
“Did the Demon King send you this time?”
Predica shrugged. “I don’t know anything yet. That unlucky fellow just now was sent by the chairman. His Majesty Kane only asked me to tag along and see.”
Habsburg turned the cup in his hand. “There’s nothing to see. That which the Demon King wants is not here.”
Predica’s expression turned serious. “What exactly is that thing?”
Habsburg responded with a question of his own, “When did you wake up from your slumber?”
“After the Holy War cease-fire,” Predica added the exact time after some thought, “during the Sanguine Burial.”
His face turned pale as he seemed to remember something. “Is it… related to that person?”
Habsburg stood up, went to the window with his teacup, and gazed out at the land that had sustained his clan and bloodline. It was only after a.d.u.l.thood that he returned here.
“Leave.”
Predica slammed his cup on the table in anger. “Habsburg! That’s a human we’re talking about, an Imperial marshal, an enemy of Evernight. He wouldn’t live much longer even if he hadn’t died back then! We’ve known each other for over a hundred years. Are you ending our friendship because of a human’s death?”
“The vampires and demonkin are also enemies.”
Predica’s fingers gripped tightly.
When Habsburg turned around after a while, his faint blue eyes were as calm and distant as the skies. They seemed amiable enough, but there wasn’t a shred of emotion in them. “Preddy, you’re probably the strongest prophet in Evernight right now. Did you not notice the Wheel of Fate deviating?”
Predica didn’t reply.
“Preddy, go now. The Demon King will come personally.”
Predica wanted to say something, but he suddenly noticed a familiar fluctuation close by. His face became as pale as a sheet.
Habsburg, though, didn’t seem at all surprised. He turned around as the Demon King’s figure walked out of the void.
The supreme’s clone was so contained that one could hardly sense its aura, but the darkness origin power in the vicinity bowed down in submission as it arrived through space. The higher one’s rank, the stronger one could sense this change.
The atmosphere froze up.
Predica came to after a moment and bowed deeply. “Your Majesty.”
The Demon King said gently, “Predica, you may leave with your man. I wish to talk with Habsburg.”
Predica’s pallor never recovered. He merely bowed after listening to the instructions and left.
The Demon King said to Habsburg, “Habsburg, have you seen the human race’s fate trajectory?”
Habsburg remained in a silent daze.
The Demon King didn’t mind his attitude, either. “I’ve seen it. The fate trajectory he revealed to me is incomparably rich and beautiful. Compared to it, the summit of this world and its asteroid belt feel like a desolate land. The only thing that can compare is the Wheel of Fate that belongs to the people of darkness and its slow revolution through time.”
Habsburg mentioned the name of a place, “Kumara?”
“Yes, I was there during that time. Not killing him there is my life’s greatest mistake.”
“He’s gone now.”
“He could’ve looked down on all life from the stars, yet he was willing to fall into the soil and turn to ashes. All of this for those ugly, insignificant lives.”
“We only respect the strong, but they recognize their peers.”
The Demon King was lost in thought for a while. He then shook his head and looked at Habsburg in the eye. “Give me his remains. We need to extract some information from him.”
“Those who die in the void don’t leave corpses.”
“Short-lived races don’t have spiritual reincarnations or awakenings. Their death is permanent.”
Habsburg remained quiet.
The Demon King sighed softly. “Then give me his origin crystal, at least. You know that humans have been targeting us for several hundred years with that plan. Even with intelligence from the Longevity Monarch, none of our prophets were able to analyze the effects behind it. The man might be gone, but things haven’t changed for the better. We need to investigate where his fate connects to.”
The supreme looked down at his hands. “Even his thread of fate would have been destroyed if I were the one attacking. Yet who would have the heart to destroy such a beautiful celestial trajectory?”
Habsburg replied slowly, “Your Majesty Kane, there’s only one way to solve this problem. Destroy me and this entire castle, then it will no longer be important whether or not I’m hiding that thing.”
Habsburg felt a chill bearing down on his blood core. Despite the rude answer, the Demon King wasn’t angry at all and his gaze was just as amiable.
However, Habsburg wasn’t naive enough to think that he had managed to threaten the Demon King. This might only be a clone, which probably wasn’t powerful enough to destroy a prince along with his clan castle, but how long would it take for the main body to arrive?
“I heard the human emperor is his disciple, and he refuses to believe that his teacher has fallen. No one could fill that man’s position in the court, so much so that even his salary was still being issued as though he were alive. This can be considered a sentimental act, and no one is willing to offend the Emperor for some money.”
The Demon King’s voice was just as gentle, almost as though he were talking about common things. “But what if word went out that the person everyone believed to be a hero wasn’t dead but had become a captive instead?”
Habsburg said slowly, “I am indeed inferior to Your Majesty.”
Rumors had always been easy to market because everyone had their own considerations. The Evernight Council would never let the Empire build the image of a hero who could turn the tides. The clowns within the Empire didn’t want their political adversary’s glory to be written into the history books. It was all too easy to smear a martyr because they could no longer come forth and explain.
Habsburg knew that it was because of the Demon King’s suppression that no one dared to speak nonsense about that battle. Otherwise, all kinds of rumors could spread about a battle no one had witnessed. He wasn’t debriefed about the fight, nor was there any proof of contribution. This would give his opponents in the vampire race bullets to fire at him.
“Habsburg, I hope you will challenge me on the Sacred Mountain one day, but that day isn’t now.” The Demon King’s voice was calm. “I don’t want to cause a ruckus on Twilight Continent and make the Queen of the Night unhappy. The new world is where our common interests lie. Lilith is getting old.”
Those last words didn’t really fit the Demon King Kane’s refined image, but it revealed this young supreme’s ambitions and arrogance.
The Demon King’s gaze shifted in the direction of the castle’s blood pond. “You can give it some thought, but my patience is limited.”
After the Demon King’s departure, Habsburg drew a line in the air with his index finger.
A projection of energy systems materialized.
Darkness origin power emerged from the darkness origins on one side and stretched all the way to the other. It slowly transformed along the way, turning into various shades of grey until it passed the neutral zone and connected with the first rays of dawn.
The deduction stopped there. This was all that the people of Evernight knew regarding the energy system.
If the darkness origins was the starting point of this world, where was the end of daybreak? Was there a daybreak origins as well, or was it something else? If the daybreak origins could also form a world of its own, what would it look like? Would it be like the celestial trajectory the Demon King had seen?
