The closer he got, the stronger the wave from the flames became. Upon nearing, the wave peaked, and Angel seemed to witness a ghostly green poisonous fire spider emerging from a fire spring, gradually growing, ultimately perishing in a battle against a snow woman, its elemental core shattered, transforming into residual flames and being brought to this graveyard.
This is the story of the poison fire spider’s life.
In just a few seconds, Angel witnessed its birth and death.
This is its epitaph.
Apart from marveling at the mystical nature of Elemental Creatures, Angel felt more of an instinctual melancholy upon witnessing death.
In this melancholy, Angel also noticed some strange fluctuations in the epitaph. Not only was there sorrow condensed from a lifetime into a few images, but also a longing for rebirth.
In a cemetery filled with a sense of twilight, did Angel perceive new hope?
Angel looked at Dangross and voiced his doubts.
Dangross, however, asked with a puzzled expression: "Why can’t there be rebirth?"
"Flame energy doesn’t completely disappear. It just exists in another form. When this energy reaches a certain limit, a new Elf will be born." Dangross paused and continued, "For example, me. I was born here. However, I was born from the embers of my ancestors."
When Dangross spoke of its own birth, its eyes were quite proud, seemingly very satisfied with its origins.
After hearing Dangross’s explanation, Angel understood that he once again brought human circumstances into the realm of Elemental Creatures.
Although humans can communicate with Elemental Creatures, fundamentally, they are somewhat different.
For example, the concept of death; Dangross’s understanding must differ from Angel’s.
After realizing this, Angel was no longer perplexed. He took large strides past embers and finally reached the end of the cemetery.
Here, Angel finally saw a real grave.
The tombstone was made of stone, embedded in the soft red jelly-like ground. The style of the tombstone was very "human," with an upright commemorative inscription and an epitaph propped in front of it.
Angel estimated that the tombstone was likely made by foreign students from the Wild Stone Wasteland.
From Dangross, this speculation was indeed confirmed, made by foreign students from earlier years.
The main body of the tombstone had only the letters of Kalomchis, written in the common continental script. The epitaph simply described Kalomchis’s achievements, consistent with the information Magu had told him, just more succinct.
The tombstone and the epitaph were not particularly remarkable, so Angel slowly squatted down and gently placed his fingers on a hidden latch at the edge of the epitaph.
With a "click" sound, the slanted stone that held the epitaph was opened by Angel.
This slanted stone was not just the epitaph, but also a stone box.
This is not unique to Kalomchis; such customs also exist in the human world. This box, called the funereal box by humans, often contains ashes and relics.
And inside Kalomchis’s funereal box was only a fist-sized deep red gemstone crystal.
Angel took out the gemstone, lightly sensed it, and immediately understood it was the condensed essence blood of Kalomchis.
Furthermore, the purity of this essence blood was very high, even more concentrated than the Aksuo essence blood he once obtained, likely self-congealed by Kalomchis before his death.
This essence blood gemstone, in Angel’s view, was a unique Secret Treasure because it contained all of Kalomchis’s blood energy, which could be refined into a true bloodline by a bloodline wizard and integrated into oneself.
However, Angel had never heard of gryphon bloodlines. Even if it was to be integrated, it certainly required other methods to ensure success, which may not be available in the Southern Domain.
Angel gazed deeply at the essence blood gemstone, ultimately placing it back in silence.
The essence blood gemstone is indeed useful, even if not refined into a bloodline, it could serve as special Demonic Materials, but its use would be significantly less than as a bloodline. Angel had no desire for bloodlines, so taking it was of limited value.
Moreover, this is the final relic of Kalomchis, the lord of the Tidal World. Angel did not believe he had the privilege to arbitrarily take such a relic.
After replacing the essence blood gemstone, Angel looked at Dangross: "Is there nothing else besides this?"
Angel thought, since Kalomchis was "waiting for a successor," surely he wouldn’t leave nothing behind when knowing he was about to die, right?
Dangross’s gaze flickered slightly, hesitated for a while, and then slowly said: "Actually, there’s one more thing."
Angel: "Where?"
Dangross held up its index finger, pointing to itself: "Me."
Angel: "..."
Seeing Angel’s suspicious expression, Dangross quickly explained, "I’m not talking nonsense. I mentioned before that I was born from the embers of my ancestors."
Angel looked at Dangross, waiting for it to continue speaking.
"What the ancestor left in this box was a red fire feather from a wing. When the World’s Harmony came, this red fire feather ignited by itself, and I... I was born from the burning embers."
Angel gazed deeply into Dangross’s eyes and could tell from its expression that it wasn’t lying.
Kalomchis indeed left a red fire feather, but it has now become Dangross, so its claim of being Kalomchis’s "relic" is understandable.
However, a fire feather is a fire feather, and Dangross is Dangross; they cannot ultimately be equated.
After all, in Angel’s view, the fire feather might have contained residual information from Kalomchis, potentially concerning the "successor."
But now that the fire feather has transformed into Dangross, the information is likely lost.
"...Or maybe not." Angel muttered softly, and asked Dangross, "After you were born, was there any information left in your mind? Or any secret inheritance?"
Dangross looked utterly confused at Angel: "Huh?"
Angel: "..." Well, it seems he guessed wrong. It was indeed not wise to have high expectations of a naive one.
Angel sighed but wasn’t too disappointed. If there’s nothing here, he can always search in other realms.
Angel patted Dangross: "Let’s go, we’ll leave first."