Chapter 561: Eye of the Storm [V6C91 – Sorrow of a Silent Parting]

This marquis was Medanzo’s trusted aide and also his descendant. Hence, Medanzo told him bluntly, “Julio was the only connection to Nighteye. Now that he’s dead, there’s no way to lock onto her whereabouts for the short term. You must go and investigate who he came in contact with before his death. Perhaps we can find a substitute medium in him. I allow you to use every method at your disposal.”

“Nighteye? The Monroe Princess? Is she so important that we need to mobilize such resources?”

Medanzo snorted, “Her importance is beyond your imagination. Don’t ask why because that’s not something you should know. Go now and get the job done!”

“Yes, Your Majesty!” The marquis left the main hall after performing a salutation, his heart filled with unease. He was very clear that this order would produce great waves because everyone ranked below Count Eden was within the investigation range.

The marquis was very worried that Medanzo would expand the range if they failed to find any clues—after all, at that time, it would no longer just be an internal affair of the vampires. But this great dark monarch’s will had always been firm and unshakeable.

Only Medanzo was left in the hall at this moment. The Lightless Monarch’s domain gradually spread out and plunged the entire hall into rolling waves of darkness.

The death of a mighty marquis wasn’t a small matter since it involved the distribution of his territories, but that was usually the extent of it. Julio, however, was simply too special—even more so in this period. It could be said that he was irreplaceable.

Julio possessed the ability to glance into the workings of fate and was also the person who had discovered Nighteye’s awakened primo bloodline. He was the one and only medium who could find Nighteye via secret arts. With his death, Nighteye’s whereabouts would be shrouded in mystery.

Medanzo was preparing to seize Julio after this battle and use every secret art at his disposal to search for Nighteye’s whereabouts. Under the suppression of Medanzo’s power as a second generation primogenitor, even dying wouldn’t be an option for Julio—not until he had fulfilled his duty as a medium.

Names appeared in the dark monarch’s mind one after the other, but they were all rejected. Most of the famous prophets on the Evernight side had fallen for the empire’s trick before the battle at Giant’s Repose and ended up badly wounded. They would require a long period of recuperation.

The remainder weren’t quite capable enough. The few who possessed the ability were of extraordinary status, and most of them from famed demonkin clans—even Medanzo couldn’t force them.

Nighteye’s bloodline was simply too powerful. She was a primo of the Black-Winged Monarch, one with a mysterious connection to Andruil.

The most terrifying thing was that Andruil had vanished for so long, yet his seal on the River of Blood had never died out entirely—it only dimmed.

Nighteye was merely a primo in the past no matter how much of a genius she was. But with Habsburg’s ignition of the Flaming Crown seal and the reactivation of the River of Blood, the significance of a primo who had awakened the pure bloodline of a second generation primogenitor became grossly different. This was even more so to Medanzo.

The Lightless Monarch whispered in the dark hall, “I’ll definitely find you, wherever you are.”

The imperial army rested for several days straight. Qianye used this opportunity to fully refine the origin blood he had obtained from the demonkin count and Julio. Any additional free time went to studying the memory fragments he had obtained from the River of Blood. However, he still couldn’t understand why the vampire marquis had shot out that drop of origin blood even after completely refining all of it—there seemed to be nothing special about it.

A brief period of peace fell upon Giant’s Repose, but the same couldn’t be said for a certain corner of the void.

This so-called void wasn’t complete nothingness. In addition to the floating continents and celestial bodies, there were all kinds of impurities and energies moving about randomly within it.

For instance, there was a void storm thousands of square kilometers wide between the upper and middle continents, spinning rapidly in the shape of a funnel. The frantic movement of energy had even materialized in the form of serpentine lightning bolts that would flash through space from time to time. It was as though the void was being torn apart, reconnected, and torn again.

The silhouette standing outside of the vortex seemed extremely minuscule compared to that terrifying entity. It seemed as though it would be crushed any moment by the thunderstorm.

Habsburg had stood here for an unknown length of time. Both his looks and aura looked mediocre at a glance—only his eyes were filled with a sanguineous mist, like a raging river running through it.

There was an extremely calm location in the eye of the storm wherein an airship, hundreds of meters long, was hovering. There were no insignias on the vessel, but its design and the many cannons sticking out in every direction like sharp thorns indicated that it was a Great Qin battleship. Moreover, it was a high-end model that had never been used before on the battlefield.

Habsburg walked forward slowly. The storm capable of tearing entire continents apart was nothing more than a curtain before him. He passed through with relative ease without even stirring up any reaction.

After entering the eye of the storm, he discovered that the tranquil space here had actually been frozen, and that the void storm was actually rotating in place. This abnormal phenomenon confirmed Habsburg’s conjecture—regardless of whether it was man-made or natural, the empire was definitely making use of it. As for the application, it was to affect the void turbulence and cause subsequent chaos in the nearby space.

Habsburg was no expert in this field, and he wasn’t too clear about the principle behind it. But he knew that the Queen of the Night and the Eternal Flame were fighting Sky Demon several thousand kilometers away. This was likely the reason why the Evernight coalition had lost the battle at Giant’s Repose. The turbulence here had cut off the transmission of information, preventing the Queen of the Night from rushing back in time to help them.

Habsburg continued toward the imperial airship after passing through the storm. There was a powerful consciousness constantly scanning this space, but Habsburg had no intention to hide his presence, either. He simply allowed the origin fluctuations to sweep over his body.

Two of the empire’s heavenly monarch’s had appeared on Evernight Continent, while the other two were guarding the borders. The most powerful aura on the airship belonged to a high-ranking divine champion. A divine champion was merely a divine champion no matter how powerful he was. Meanwhile, the sinister-looking cannons on the airship were no different from toys to Habsburg.

He stood in the void, waiting in silence.

After a fair length of time, a figure suddenly appeared within several hundred meters and walked over as if he were treading on level ground. The silver-haired man was dressed in long robes, wide sleeves, and it looked as though he were riding the wind. Only upon closer inspection could one see that most of his hair had become a lifeless grey color.

Habsburg spoke, “You can’t injure me even if you self-destruct. That flame of darkness in your old wound contains my origin blood. The power within should be enough to mitigate most of the power from your self-destruction.

Even someone as calm as Lin Xitang couldn’t help but halt his steps in a startle. “Prince, you seem to have come too late. The battle at Giant’s Repose has concluded, and this storm eye has no more use.”

Habsburg replied, “My name isn’t on the list in the war. I only came to verify my guess.”

Lin Xitang replied, “The war hasn’t ended yet.”

Habsburg broke into a laugh. “So what? There is indeed an important war for me, but it has nothing to do with the conflict between the empire and the council. It’s… the Holy War.”

Lin Xitang frowned. This so-called Holy War was an internal conflict among the dark races. The empire had also received some news about the waves surfacing among them, but it wasn’t to the point where a civil war would break out.

This situation wasn’t necessarily a good thing for the empire. The dark race civil wars normally afforded the empire some time to recover and strengthen itself, but this time, the empire had mobilized with the determination to win. This might cause the dark world to unite against a common enemy and pour all of their enmity onto the empire.

Lin Xitang said, “It's meaningless to talk about this. There might be people from the empire willing to ally with you, but I’ll never be one of them.”

Habsburg shrugged. “Marshal Lin, never say never. Have you never thought about why the humans look so much like vampires and demonkin? Even the ancient races of the sacred mountain, the werewolves and the arachne, require great power in order to transform. But humans possess this supreme form since birth despite a mere 1200 years of their civilization.”

Lin Xitang’s expression sank. People from both factions had raised this obvious issue before, but no clues had been found even after extensive research. Everyone had a different theory with no substantial proof to back them up. “Is there even an answer to this question?”

Habsburg replied, “There is no answer, but there are coincidences.” He didn’t continue.

Lin Xitang understood that Habsburg wouldn’t divulge the most important parts of the information without an alliance. He pondered for a moment and said, “Did you come here just to say these things?”

Habsburg suddenly glanced back. A hole appeared on the tempest wall and through it came a bolt of lightning. That was a small, single-passenger boat with dazzling runes flickering around it.

Habsburg's silhouette vanished and reappeared above the storm in the form of a sanguineous mass of flames.

He shook his head with a laugh, and despite the distance, his voice echoed in everyone’s ears. “Marshal Lin, you’re truly a genius among geniuses to be able to use my origin flame to resist the backlash from your divination arts. But this method will only whittle away at your spiritual power, and that isn’t something so easily repaired in this darkness-filled world.”

Zhang Boqian put away his spatial boat and arrived beside Lin Xitang. He abruptly turned around after hearing those words and gazed sharply at Habsburg.

The latter bowed slightly and said, “Marshal Lin, nothing in the world is eternal. Perhaps there will come a day where we can fight against a common enemy.” With that, the young prince vanished silently in the same manner as when he had appeared.