Habsburg woke up on his throne, startled.

In his consciousness, he could hear a message from the perpetually calm River of Blood—it was a summon from the Azure King Reynold.

Ever since the Sacred River had gone quiet, the great dark monarchs and princes rarely used such an ancient method of transmission. That was because the river would often not respond, not even a ripple. Hence, they couldn’t communicate through it.

Habsburg found this matter strange, but he decided to set out immediately after replying to the call. There was one continent between him and the Azure King’s location, so he didn’t really have the time to ponder on the situation.

All of a sudden, his steps came to a halt and his figure vanished from the spot, reappearing in the corridor of the castle’s seventh basement floor.

The corridor still retained its ancient sandstone walls. It was narrow but tall with two bronze doors at its end, covered in runic carvings.

There was a person standing before the threshold. He did not possess the slightest aura of an expert, almost as though he were an ordinary person.

Yet he wasn’t just any ordinary person. A vampire castle’s underground chamber was where the blood pond and altars were located. Especially in a castle belonging to the twelve major clans, just the suppressive power alone could immobilize a youngster of the clan.

The Demon King didn’t look back after hearing the approaching person and merely looked up at the majestic door. He had been standing there for a long time, yet he never reached out to push the doors open.

Habsburg walked over slowly.

Although a vampire held the home-field advantage in his own castle, it was not more than a small inconvenience for the Demon King. There was no safe distance in the entire castle, let alone this corridor.

“A personal visit from the Demon King, what an honor.”

“I’m just here to visit him.”

Habsburg went silent. The Demon King didn’t say anything more, nor did he move. The two stood ten meters apart before the bronze door, much like stone statues.

After a good while, the doors slowly opened to reveal the boundless darkness within.

The Demon King had no intention of going in. He simply cast his gaze in that direction, where the endless darkness appeared in his eyes like a different layer.

There—in the embrace of flames darker than darkness and colder than frost—was a small mass of radiance. This glow was comparable to an eternal glacier, an entity that would not change in myriad years.

The Demon King could tell that the glow was coming from four floating origin crystals. One of them did not have a complete edge and was apparently damaged.

Gradually, the faint glow formed the silhouette of a person. He was seated in a half-lotus position with his left hand on his knees and using the spear in his right hand to support himself. Motes of starlight would leak out from his chest from time to time and revolve behind him.

However, a speck or two would drift away into the darkness occasionally and fade away into nothingness.

The Demon King watched on expressionlessly at first, but at one point, he was visibly moved. “Has his origins completely disappeared?”

Habsburg lowered his head, seemingly deep in thought. He glanced up in surprise when he heard the question, apparently puzzled as to why the Demon King would ask.

The supreme observed Habsburg’s reaction, then vanished without asking anything else.

Habsburg frowned. He glanced briefly at the realm of dark flames before following the supreme.

The Demon King stood in the void above the Sperger Clan’s castle. He raised his hand as Habsburg appeared, producing a drop of pure darkness origin power between them.

The Demon King said, “You possess the darkest flames in the world, which is closer to the darkness origins than any other blood power. It has been said that the previous Flaming Crown’s blood seal ran into problems. It wasn’t because he was lacking in strength, but rather because taking the power to the next level involved devouring one’s kin.”

Habsburg listened quietly as the Demon King mentioned something that could be considered a top-secret of the race.

The supreme said, “I can give you a law of darkness. With your ability, I’m sure it’ll greatly reduce the time needed to purify the power.”

Habsburg replied calmly, “Thank you for the kindness, but I’m happy with my current strength.”

The Demon King wasn’t angry about being refused outright, nor did he try to persuade the man. “Since that’s the case, you should fulfill your responsibility as a council member.”

At this moment, a sense of foreboding welled up in Habsburg’s heart, but he had no spare energy to figure out the source of this abnormality.

His frown relaxed as he replied, “I never refused my duties.”

The Demon King said, “There’s a council laboratory near the human borders on the Fire Beacon Continent. We’re getting ready to clean up the place, Mark will talk to you about the details.”

Habsburg couldn’t control his blood core as it skipped a beat. This location sounded too familiar.

The Demon King acted as though he hadn’t noticed it. “As for his remains, it looks like something happened. It’s slowly deteriorating even in the Everfrost environment of the darkness origin flames. We have no precise data on the body of a fallen heavenly monarch, but human divine champions certainly don’t react this way.”

The Demon King paused for a bit. “Sometimes, I remember the words he told me. Perhaps this world really cannot keep him chained, the world beyond is where he belongs.”

Habsburg didn’t really understand what the Demon King was trying to say. He chose to remain silent since he didn’t know how to continue this topic.

An irregularly-shaped crystal flew out of the Demon King’s hand and stopped beside the previous drop of origin power.

The Demon King said, “You can control that minor realm, so you should know how to use this shadow fragment.” With that, he nodded at Habsburg as a gesture of farewell before vanishing into the void.

The council chairman was waiting at the borders of the Twilight Continent.

“Dear Mark, go and investigate if there were any abnormalities among the humans following Lin Xitang’s death.”

These words came out of nowhere. The council chairman asked, “Your Supreme Majesty, your instructions are rather unusual…”

The Demon King said, “I just have a bad feeling about it.”

The Demon King’s premonition wasn’t something that could be ignored. Mark replied, “I understand. I’ll start investigating their divine champions and work my way down.”

With that, the group faded away into the void.

In the air above the Sperger Castle, Habsburg was observing the two things before him.

That grey crystal looked unassuming, but after careful contact with his origin power, the prince realized that there was a realm within. An attribute that lay between the demonkin and the arachne was rather strange, and probing with his perception, he felt that the realm inside was like a mirror image.

Habsburg had heard of this before. Reportedly, the arachne possessed a Shadow World, and the fragments that fell off from this world could form miniature realms of their own. They were holy items highly sought over in the black market. It was a wonder where the Demon King had gotten his hands on one.

The Everfrost attribute of his origin flames could freeze space, but it could barely freeze time, resulting in the slow deterioration of Lin Xitang’s remains. This breakdown was extremely slow and would take hundreds of years to destroy an origin crystal.

Things would be completely different with the addition of the minor shadow realm. It was like a mirror reflection of this world—the other side of the coin—capable of locking down everything on this side.

Habsburg didn’t think further before putting the minor shadow realm away. The moment he touched the drop of darkness origin power, though, the Demon King’s aura spread out to form a scene.

A young human was looking in this direction, his long, black hair hanging loosely in front of his chest. The background was a forest.

Habsburg found that the young man wasn’t all that young when their gazes met. There was starlight flowing in the latter’s eyes, almost as though they were reflecting the world.

“The starry skies outside of this world are vast and magnificent. To this day, I still cannot see its ends.”

“I, for one, can see the ends of my world… it’s sixty years.”

“Such a lifespan is much longer than ordinary civilians, enough for me to do many things I want to do.”

“Yeah, that’s why we cannot explore…”

The scene stopped at this moment, and the drop of origin power dispersed into thin mist.