Brock wasn’t having a great time, either. He was using his entire power to resist the draw of the black sun and barely managing to not get swept in.
The duke-grade airship began to warp and distort around this sun, almost as though it would collapse into its center. Qianye was right in the middle of the area of effect, so there was no way he would get lucky.
It was at this time that the black sun started to grow smaller. A hazy darkness appeared and enclosed the sun entirely.
Brock was just hesitating whether or not he should retreat further when he witnessed this scene. He could hardly believe his eyes because he could see the genesis of this world within the darkness.
Both combatants saw the world within the darkness.
The black sun fell into this forming world and exploded with a force that was just as terrifying as the darkness origins. However, the resulting energy didn’t destroy the world within the Book of Darkness, rather, it even hastened the evolution.
All of a sudden, the world completed a process from birth to infinite expansion. Next was a scene familiar to everyone currently living in this world—the continents formed, the protective barriers appeared, and all kinds of creatures came into being.
The demonkin, vampires, werewolves, and arachne appeared on the continents. Although they were a bit different from how they looked today, it wasn’t difficult to recognize them as such. There were also some other main species that were no longer in this world today.
Brock said excitedly, “What is that? The other three holy races? So that’s how they should be!”
Qianye was also observing the evolution within the Book of Darkness. When the Demon King’s energy shot out, the mysterious tome opened up on its own and absorbed all of the demonic energy within the crystal, releasing this evolving world in the process. This time, the Flourish Chapter was displaying so much more detail.
Qianye immediately came to after hearing Brock’s words. He immediately put the Book of Darkness away without waiting for the evolution to continue. Fortunately, there was nothing out of the ordinary with the book, which returned obediently into his body.
Up to this point, Qianye still had no idea what the Book of Darkness’ true use was. In the beginning, it was just a container for origin power. Not long ago, it had helped Qianye understand how to utilize the origin power of the Evernight World. This allowed him to execute grand-duke arts one level earlier.
Brock’s reaction was much more interesting. This also proved that the evolving world within the Book of Darkness wasn’t meaningless. Those creatures Qianye had never seen before were likely the three races that had disappeared from the Sacred Mountain. Qianye felt that Grand Duke Brock was abnormally excited, and since the book was now his blood core and heart, he couldn’t just let other people observe it.
After retracting the Book of Darkness, Qianye tossed yet another origin grenade toward Brock.
Qianye arrived outside with a flicker. He couldn’t help but feel surprised as he gazed in the grand duke’s direction. The man had actually fled?
It wasn’t too hard to explain Brock abandoning his ship. The kinetic chamber was as good as gone; Qianye’s double-edged strategy of charging into the heart of the vessel was simply unstoppable. It was better to leave since he would be left with a piece of scrap metal in the end if this deadlock were to keep going on.
As for the demonkin dukes in the airship, they were completely exhausted and wouldn’t recover so quickly. One could hardly expect them to face the Martyr’s Palace.
If Brock were to retreat with his four dukes and wait for reinforcements, it would still be quite troublesome for Qianye. Yet he had fled completely, abandoning his comrades and tens of thousands of elite soldiers.
After careful thought, Qianye didn’t think he dealt the man a major blow. Did any of the origin bombs deal especially serious damage? He shook his head inwardly, discarding such an impractical possibility.
Qianye turned around after sensing something. There, he saw Nighteye appear on the slow-sinking airship, gazing in the direction of Brock’s escape. “He fled so quickly.”
Qianye realized that the grand duke probably ran away because he had sensed Nighteye’s approach.
At this point, an earth-shattering explosion erupted from the sinking airship, and a powerful gush of demonic energy shot into the sky. Qianye and Nighteye looked over to find the demonic energy completely empty; there wasn’t a single expert within it. Amidst the explosion, four dim silhouettes shot out in four different directions.
Those were the four demonkin dukes. Qianye hesitated for a bit but ultimately decided not to give chase. Even he would have a hard time hunting down dukes, especially when they were intent on fleeing.
With all the dukes gone, the damaged airship could no longer remain in flight. It burned and crashed to the ground. Experts flew out one after another during the fall, hoping to find some way to survive. Some crew members who couldn’t fly also jumped out. They were more willing to fall to their deaths than be burned alive.
Having lost control of the air, the ground forces also stopped attacking and began plotting their retreat. There was no way Qianye would give them this opportunity. He commanded the Martyr’s Palace to descend and began bombarding the demonkin squads the entire way.
The commanding officer of the demonkin fleet was exceptionally brave. They made a dive against the dragonship’s cannon fire and did their best to extract the ground forces. In the end, they managed to save what was left of the elites on the ground, at the expense of half the fleet. As for those who did not make it for the extraction, they were left to their fates.
Qianye steered the Martyr’s Palace to the edge of the continent, blocking any escape path for the council forces. The demonkin commander naturally took this opportunity to launch a furious assault. With nowhere to go, the landing forces had no choice but to surrender.
This was a fairly good victory.
The vampires only sustained a couple hundred in losses, and it seemed like a good number. But then again, those they had brought to the Dawn Continent were all direct descendants. The most valuable thing about them was their bloodline. Howard’s expression was gloomy as the death toll was being counted. Every death made his heart ache.
If the vampires here were all wiped out, the Carolin, Lakins and Vander clans would be wiped out entirely. Their seals in the River of Blood would also disappear. These three clans had been without a primogenitor for a long time, and they had just lost their wealth and blood ponds. And the chances of those ordinary branches that had moved to Fort Continent producing a primo was extremely slim.
The demonkin, on the other hand, had suffered much graver losses.
Brock and the four dukes managed to flee, but they lost two-thirds of the elites they had brought here. Only half of their airship fleet remained intact, and most of their transports had been destroyed. The loss of their duke-grade flagship was something they wouldn’t recover from for several years.
The only problem was that the Martyr’s Palace was unimaginably powerful, so much so that Brock had been forced to use the Wall of Sighs repeatedly. Additionally, they had to spend great amounts of demonic energy to execute extraordinary maneuvers.
It was beyond anyone’s imagination that Nighteye would be able to punch through the airship’s barrier and armor, allowing Qianye to enter the airship. Throughout this entire battle, almost all the critical links in their plan had deviated from expectation. Brock’s eventual defeat was unavoidable.
With the first battle ending in victory, Howard finally looked a bit relieved and happy. He knew that this was just the beginning. Brock’s unit was just the vanguard of the council’s army. These vampire descendants wouldn’t survive if a great dark monarch were to appear.
Of course, no one mentioned this grim fact.
After pushing back the demonkin vanguard, Howard instructed the vampires to clean up the battlefield. The crashed airsh.i.p.s out in the field contained the resources they desperately needed.
Over ten thousand demonkin and arachne soldiers had been captured, which meant that they had manual labor to rely on. With sufficient resources and manpower, the vampires would be able to set up a complete defensive base in just a few day’s time.
…
Twilight Continent. The Sperger clan’s core territories were just as before—there were council flags flying in key areas, but Lava Castle was once again decorated with the flaming crown.
Habsburg’s spacious desk was buried under a pile of papers. There were books, doc.u.ments, and the like piled up on, under, and everywhere around the table. These doc.u.ments were of different shapes and styles, including scrolls placed in crystal boxes. There were also a lot of hand-bound tomes with no specific size-category.
Habsburg was leaning forward on his desk with his eyes closed, almost as though he were napping.
The Demon King sat near the floor-to-ceiling window with a book, gazing out at the distant scenery. The book in his hand was an old vampire-styled book, with a beautiful hardcover and binding threads that changed color in the waning sunlight. The binding was clearly the work of a master artisan, and the contents were also penned by a famous character.
The Demon King put down the book and sighed in satisfaction. “What a great book…” He looked over to the desk and said with a smile, “Dear Habsburg, you seem more relaxed here.”
Habsburg wasn’t actually asleep, but he didn’t open his eyes. “You have so many things to do every day. Even keeping a clone here might be delaying your business quite a bit, no?”
“It’s worth it if I can read these ancient writings.”
“I should be the one thanking you for keeping all the ancestors’ books safe from the fighting.”
The Demon King lowered his head and opened the next page of the book. “Valuable classics and rare resources should be treated with the same respect. This book allowed me to see how difficult the lives of early vampires were as they pioneered new land. Every one of them is a legend back in their time.”
“That book was written by Kate of the Morway clan. The bard never broke through the count rank her entire life, so the book is fairly limited in its knowledge of bloodlines, talents, and warfare. Its value lies in the fact that the records were plenty and truthful, as well as her penmanship.”
“All I want is the truth. I want to know the truth of those ancient times.” The Demon King glanced at Habsburg buried behind the pile of books. “This bard’s writing is fairly interesting, looks like I’ll be staying for a while.”
The Demon King smiled. “I trust you, but I don’t trust myself that much right now.”
Habsburg slowly opened his eyes and gazed at the Demon King. Considering his identity, the supreme couldn’t be referring to reneging his promise.
At this moment, the setting sun cast its light through one of the side windows and lit up the floorboards. It almost seemed like a rippling pond of gold.
Moments later, Habsburg said calmly, “Regardless, I thank you for allowing me to return here. The clan castle is the foundation of every clan. Even if I die in battle and my spirit returns to the river, I hope my remains can return to my hometown.”
The Demon King became silent. “I feel sorry about what happened to Lin, but I’m not going to apologize.”
“It’s harder to make you feel sorry than to make you apologize,” Habsburg said mockingly. Possessing Metatron’s memories, he of course knew that this supreme wasn’t one to look back constantly.
The Demon King said, “Habsburg, did you not notice? I still haven’t walked out of his influence.”
Habsburg blurted out, “How can divination arts affect a supreme?”
The Demon King sighed. “Supreme? Ha…”
“Kane, Your Majesty, what’s your decision then? Will you eradicate the root of your uneasiness?”
The Demon King smiled without giving an answer.
It was at this time that Habsburg glanced out of the window. A demonkin warship appeared over the distant horizon and was flying over at top speed. It began to slow down only when it was close to the castle.
A figure shot out from the airship without waiting for the landing. It flew around the area and, after sensing the Demon King’s aura, flew over in this direction. He didn’t even go through the door, entering straight through the window to stand before the Demon King.
