Seeing a Half-Blood Demon reaching this stage, while she, who considered her lineage to be more noble, could not yet glimpse the path ahead, complicated her emotions.
Putting aside the gloomy environment, the sky full of sparks was, in fact, quite beautiful.
But its beauty, unlike the flickering of fireflies which is dreamy, had a beauty akin to its very nature—burning and fading away.
What was burning was the sky overhead, and what might be fading away, could be Lassudral in its precarious state.
Within the Hunting Museum, the host of the night was almost half disintegrated into fundamental particles.
The surrounding flames danced more vividly and gradually formed a path. This was the path of passing the flame, a path of glory, as well as a lord’s path.
At the end of the road lay a painting on the wall.
After the flame within the painting had broken free from its shackles, the image didn’t turn into “nightfall.” Now, there was a vortex within the painting, and behind the vortex was a world of flames.
This fiery world seemed to possess an endless allure, holding not only the gaze of the night attentively fixed on the vortex but also that of Aoluxiya.
Aoluxiya’s hands trembled as it, too, desired to set foot on this path to see the world behind the vortex.
For it knew well that this fiery world was actually the origin of everything!
—The Primeval Flame, known as the flame of inception. It clings to the cradle of civilization and burns fiercely in an ineffable world. To witness it directly is extremely difficult; only at the moment the Primeval Flame descends is there a chance to see the entrance to this world.
Even though Aoluxiya yearned to glimpse that ineffable world, to know what it was like, it understood that stepping into it with its strength would likely not even afford the chance to become fodder for the flames before being reduced to ash, disappearing without a trace.
Even the host of the night had to disintegrate into fundamental particles to merge into the Primeval Flame. And when the host returned from that fiery realm, the memories remaining, it is estimated, would be pitifully few.
The reason Aoluxiya knew these secrets was that an ancestor of Greerwu had once entered that world. However, upon departure, all memories of that world had vanished from that Inscription patterned Monarch.
When the body of the host of the night was completely reduced to fundamental particles, a wind from nowhere blew through the Exhibition Hall, wrapping all the flames including those floating fundamental particles into the vortex in the painting.
The Exhibition Hall returned to being spacious and pitch-dark.
It was only after confirming the departure of the host of the night that Aoluxiya stepped into the Exhibition Hall.
Aoluxiya approached the painting, and by then, the flames and vortex within it had all disappeared, returning once more to pitch darkness.
It was only at this moment that Aoluxiya saw in one corner of the painting the name that had been assigned to it: “Night.”
“Night,” Aoluxiya uttered, looking at the pitch-black night within the painting and couldn’t help but chuckle lightly, “So this is your true form.”
This ‘you’ referred both to the painting and to that indifferent Half-Blood Demon.
Tandin, holding a sleeping Greerwu in his arms, also entered the Exhibition Hall: “My lord, what are we to do now?”
“Wait for the night’s return,” Aoluxiya spoke softly, “And make sure to protect this painting well.”
What Aoluxiya meant by protection was not in the literal sense, for the painting had become a portal to that world, in a way, the will of the Abyss. Even if Aoluxiya exhausted all its strength, it couldn’t possibly destroy the painting.
Its idea of protection meant keeping the painting in their sight at all times.
When the night returned from that world, it would undoubtedly emerge from this painting. The Primeval Flame that leaked out then would be Aoluxiya’s target.
Similarly, this Primeval Flame was not only coveted by Aoluxiya, but all fire-aligned Demons would go mad for it! Moreover, with humans now coveting it from the sidelines, they must guard this painting well and be the first to grasp the Primeval Flame in their hands.