A few minutes earlier.
Angel followed the Dalmatian and the black-and-white maids through the mystical steel door, and instantly traversed a great distance, returning from the Devil’s Sea to the Pamiji Plateau.
Once the door vanished, Angel did not leave immediately but instead looked at the black-and-white maids.
"You go back to Xinnai Land first."
The black maid frowned slightly: "Lady Shava?"
Angel softly stroked the head of the Dalmatian in his arms and gently said, "I still have some things to discuss with it. Once we’re done, I’ll take it back."
Black maid: "But..."
Before the black maid could finish her sentence, she was interrupted by the white maid. She gently held the black maid’s hand and shook her head slightly, then looked at Angel, bowed respectfully, and said, "As you command, my lord."
With that, the white maid and black maid exchanged a glance, seemingly coming to a consensus. They gave Angel a graceful bow and then turned into black-and-white brilliance, descending from the sky like comets.
After the black-and-white maids left, Angel turned to look at the Dalmatian.
The Dalmatian’s eyes were sparkling, and it seemed slightly excited as it barked at Angel, "Woof woof woof."
This time, Angel understood what it meant.
"Don’t act so excited, I didn’t keep you here to ditch them and run away with you." Angel grumbled, tapping the Dalmatian’s nose.
The Dalmatian dejectedly lowered its head, whimpering.
Angel didn’t comfort it but instead took out a stone the size of a baby’s fist from his bracelet.
The stone looked ordinary at first glance, but upon closer inspection, one would notice that it seemed to glow with a silver shimmer internally.
The Dalmatian seemed to sniff the stone’s scent, lifting its head and looking puzzled: "Woof woof?"
Angel paid no heed to the Dalmatian and instead summoned Dangross from his bracelet.
Dangross had been put into the bracelet to accompany Toby when the Spirit of Disorder was about to take shape earlier. Now, having left the narrow bracelet space, it was momentarily bewildered.
Wasn’t it just on the sea surface not long ago? How did it suddenly end up in the vast snowy plains in the sky?
Angel had no time to explain to Dangross and pinched its index finger: "Don’t just stand there, release a bit of your flame, and mind the temperature."
Dangross instinctively followed Angel’s instructions.
When a steady flame appeared before Angel, he promptly tossed the stone into the fire, instructing Dangross to watch the heat while swiftly using Alchemy to shape the stone.
As the stone changed shape within the flame, strange illusions began to appear around them.
"What’s that? A cat-headed sheep?" Dangross curiously observed an illusion nearby, featuring a peculiar cat’s head with a sheep’s body.
"Ignore it and focus on controlling the fire."
"Controlling fire isn’t hard, I can easily handle it. But can you explain that to me?" Dangross climbed onto Angel’s shoulder, asking curiously.
Seeing Dangross indeed had control over the fire as he requested and was quite at ease with it, Angel thought for a moment and said, "I don’t know what that is either. It’s just some random illusion, you can disregard it."
"Then why are there illusions?"
"Because what you’re melting now is called a Mare Stone."
These illusions aren’t any grand alchemical phenomena; they’re simply small tricks activated autonomously by melting the Mare Stone. If you use proper magic power to activate a Mare Stone, it wouldn’t produce these small illusions but might create a small to medium-scale illusionary realm.
When Angel was still a mortal, he traveled on the Bauhinia Vessel to Flourish Continent, and there was a small Mare Stone on the ship prow’s sculpture. Whenever they encountered threats too powerful to resist, the guardians of the Bauhinia Vessel could activate the Mare Stone to create an illusionary realm and escape danger.
However, within the Southern Domain, Mare Stones are very rare materials. Using them to create illusionary realms on the Bauhinia Vessel was an extravagant usage, but given that the Bauhinia Vessel was backed by the Sky Mechanical City, they didn’t mind spending on it.
While explaining the function of the Mare Stone to Dangross, Angel swiftly shaped it within the flame.
Without the need for engraving a Magic Pattern or fusing with other materials, simply shaping it was a quick process.
In less than three minutes, the Mare Stone was shaped according to Angel’s intention. And what it turned into was a rather mundane item —
A bell.
After crafting the small silver bell, Angel began imbuing it with the Art of Nightmare Illusion, constructing the internal illusion node.
Once everything was done, Angel looked at the Dalmatian.
"Consider this a parting gift for you," Angel said as he placed the small silver bell under the Dalmatian’s neck.
Once the bell was in place, tiny transparent loops grew from within, fastening neatly around the Dalmatian’s neck.
The silver bell on the fluffy little Dalmatian made Angel nod in satisfaction.
The reason he sent away the black-and-white maids was to make this bell. After all, if he crafted it in front of them, his portrayal of Shava would crumble.
The reason for crafting the bell wasn’t all that complex, purely because he liked it and decided to make it.
Additionally, since the Dalmatian had given him a Mysterious Spirit before, this could be considered a return gift, though their values differed immensely.
"Inside this bell are some movie illusions related to little dogs... well, you can think of movies as stage plays. If you’re bored, you can activate them to pass the time." Angel paused for a moment, "Also, this bell incorporates the Nightmare Illusion Dream Technique. If you come to the Southern Domain next time, you can try activating it to contact me."
In essence, this bell is a "Shadow Box + Log-in Device" combination.
To avoid the Dalmatian being detected by other creatures in the Nightmare Realm for its otherworldly aura, which could cause trouble, Angel deliberately chose the Mare Stone as the material. Otherwise, he could have crafted it with the most common Demon Bloodstone.
Of course, compared to the Dalmatian’s gift, this wasn’t precious at all, but it was still a token of Angel’s regard.
After putting the bell on the Dalmatian, Angel passed his hands through its forelimbs, lifting it until their eyes met.