Below the gray curtain of mist, pale white flames burned slowly, like the fireplace one would find in any manor house on an ordinary day.
Yet the face within the Soul Hearth simultaneously displayed the features of both Lucian Evans and Xia Feng, harmoniously fused together — sometimes appearing as overlapping images, sometimes as entangled ones, and as he continued to stare, the two faces would alternately separate and merge, occasionally revealing unfamiliar aspects he had never seen in any mirror.
How could this be?
Why would this happen?
After first learning of the Soul Hearth's existence, Lucian had once harbored the vain hope that, because he had transmigrated from another world, his "soul projection" might not appear within the Soul Hearth — giving him one more hidden card compared to everyone else. But now it seemed the Soul Hearth's secrets ran far deeper and more terrifying than he had imagined. Not only had it projected the soul of Lucian Evans here, but it had also displayed Xia Feng's features — Xia Feng from Earth, Xia Feng who did not belong to this world.
"Could it be that the Soul Hearth also 'watches over' souls from Earth?"
"Is this why I have a corresponding Destiny Star?"
"Once I unravel this secret, perhaps I can understand why I transmigrated, and why I happened to land in Lucian Evans' body…"
Countless thoughts surged through his mind one after another. Lucian vaguely seized upon something — perhaps the soul could be explained from that angle. But he had no time to study the Soul Hearth in detail, nor did he have sufficient phenomena and experimental results to support any theory. Right now, the Lord of Hell was outside, on the verge of catching up. He only had time to reach back and lightly touch the Soul Hearth.
A faint chill pervaded the sensation — the omnipresent coldness of the realm of the dead. Lucian's touch yielded nothing beyond that coldness, as if the space there were completely empty, as if the Hearth truly existed in another world and was merely a void projection standing here, perfectly consistent with its outward appearance of being untouchable, unapproachable, and transcendent.
As his fingers grazed its surface, Lucian's right eye abruptly flared crimson — crystalline, pure, and dreamlike.
"Retributive Gaze!"
A beam of red light, amplified by the Hand of Uncertainty, shot from Lucian's right eye at true light speed, striking toward "the Lord of Hell," Mardimorthos, imprisoned within the Gravitational Collapse.
He couldn't resist taking a shot — testing his luck. He would never forgive himself if he didn't!
The moment the incantation left his lips, Lucian turned without looking back and flew deeper into the great hall where the Soul Hearth stood. His spiritual force field revealed two corridors: one stripped of all black and white, consisting only of a murky gray that radiated a faint sense of the bizarre and a heart-palpitating sense of danger; the other rippled with faint void waves, as though containing something Lucian was intimately familiar with, giving him a strange sensation. Moreover, it emanated an aura far more dangerous and terrifying than the other — as if some world-destroying monster slumbered within.
"Familiar? The place where the mysterious being of the realm of the dead sleeps?" Lucian's first thought was of that wretched existence, which had finally been on the verge of awakening only to be schemed against by both the Lord of Hell and the God of the Silver Moon, falling back into slumber once more. "But this feeling of familiarity doesn't quite match the impression it left me…"
Before he could distinguish the difference between the two sensations of familiarity, Lucian instinctively chose the murky gray corridor. The other one radiated danger that was beyond anything he could endure — a place where even the Lord of Hell and the God of the Silver Moon would not dare venture recklessly.
The pure red light struck the Lord of Hell, Mardimorthos, at standard light speed, and with a sharp crack, pierced straight through the Holy Sanctuary's divine barrier.
He couldn't rely on his terrifying speed to dodge this time!
But the Retributive Gaze, whose full effect had not been unlocked by the Hand of Uncertainty, merely punctured a single layer of defense before fading into nothingness, inflicting no harm on the Lord of Hell whatsoever.
Within the hemispherical void of blackness, the Lord of Hell's right hand suddenly moved. In an instant, the Gravitational Collapse shattered apart.
The corners of his mouth curved upward once more. With that distinctive, mocking smile, he watched Lucian's retreating figure vanish behind the Soul Hearth. He shook his head in an unhurried manner, utterly untroubled by the escape. He merely murmured under his breath:
"Strange. There seems to be something peculiar hidden inside this beam-type spell — something that makes my heart inexplicably flutter. Hmph. The 'Destiny's Enigma,' Lucian Evans, always manages to conjure up the strangest things…"
Then he folded his hands together before his chest, resembling a slanted cross, and his figure blurred instantly, vanishing without a trace.
The moment Lucian stepped into the gray corridor, furious roars erupted from the undead catastrophe outside — it seemed he had done something to incite collective outrage. Yet the vast majority of the undead dared not approach the Soul Hearth. Only a grim reaper servant clad in a black cloak and dragging an enormous scythe, and a dragon lich dripping with putrid pus, charged after him in a blind rage, crossing the Soul Hearth and entering the gray corridor.
"ROAR!"
Angry howls echoed from every direction. A handful of legendary undead creatures seemed to have sensed Lucian's sacrilege and were frantically closing in.
The Lich King, who had been fighting the Storm Dominion alongside the two "Saints," felt the luminous gem atop his head suddenly flash. He let out an irritated hum, and his entire body vanished instantly, breaking free from the battle and teleporting directly toward the Soul Hearth.
Seeing this, "Alexei" and "Uriel" each cast their own spells and decisively fled, giving Fernando no chance to counterattack. Without the Lich King, whose arsenal of bizarre arcane magic was unmatched, the two of them would be completely suppressed by the Storm Dominion. Moreover, judging by the timing, "Ivan's" Divine Grace Art was about to enter its lengthy cooldown — the deeper one went, the faster time flowed. Though Lucian had not spent much time reaching the Soul Hearth, a great deal of time had passed outside, and a transcendental power that forcibly amplified one's strength like the Divine Grace Art naturally could not be sustained.
The Storm Dominion, Fernando, did not chase after them. Instead, he produced a divination crystal ball and, drawing upon the peak of legendary power, cast a divination to locate the others. This expedition was meant for exploration, not for destroying the Church of the North's foundations — the safety of Lucian, Krauss, and Erika mattered more.
The crystal ball turned pitch black, and four brilliant stars appeared within it. One of them flickered once before being shrouded in murky fog.
"Only four Destiny Stars… Krauss has fallen?" Fernando erupted in an uncontrollable roar, his voice seething with fury. Lightning crackled and storms raged around him, reducing the palace to rubble. "It looks like Lucian has entered behind the Soul Hearth!"
Only there would his astrology lose all effectiveness, leaving Lucian's Destiny Star frozen like a stone within the gray haze.
In another towering palace, the effects of the Divine Grace Art were about to expire for Saint "Ivan." His expression shifted slightly — he too had apparently sensed the changes near the Soul Hearth and the retreat of Alexei and Uriel. Seizing the remaining moments while he still suppressed Douglas, he flapped his pairs of radiant divine wings and dissolved into countless motes of light, disappearing from the spot. At the same time, he transmitted a message to "Felix" and the Angel of Light nearby.
And so, Vincent and Erika watched their enemies flee in sudden, unexpected fashion. Since the battle began, both legendary mages had been pushed onto the defensive — Erika in particular was already showing dangerous signs.
"Rendezvous at the Soul Hearth." They each received the message via electromagnetic transmission from Douglas and Fernando.