Chapter 48: The First Sun and The Return Of The Entity

Aden tilted the vial, and the scent that billowed out wasn’t just a smell—it was a memory of things that shouldn’t exist. It smelled of ozone, of ancient, dust-covered libraries, and the cold, metallic tang of a winter morning just before the first snow. It was purity in its most predatory form.

As the first drop of the golden essence hit the dark, iridescent water in the basin, the reaction was instantaneous.

The water hissed upon contact.

A low, rhythmic thrumming began to vibrate through the stone floor, matching the frantic heartbeat of the twenty Vassals. The golden liquid began to thread through it like veins of light in a dead body.

“Lord…” Zero whispered, his head still pressed to the dust.

Aden felt the Ring on his finger grow ice-cold. As he poured the rest of the vial, his vision flickered. For a split second, he didn’t see a cellar. He saw a vast, empty expanse of silver sand under a black sun—the First Star Lorelei had mentioned.

And in the distance, a figure extremely similar to him flashed his teeth. “It’s been a while foolish mortal”

’The entity!’ Aden screamed. His heartbeat increased dramatically and slowed terrifyingly fast.

“I’ll be watching you… Me.”

A smile that twisted into something far more unnerving directed itself at Aden, nearly causing him to bend over and retch.

“Still as weak as ever, I see,” The entity mocked before waving his hand. “Enjoy my toys, I hope you’ll make proper use of them.”

Aden was thrown out of the silver land and then, the connection snapped into place.

The twenty Vassals let out a collective, choked gasp. Their bruised, translucent skin began to knit together, not with healthy flesh, but with a hard, metallic sheen.

He looked down at his own shaky hands. The black-and-red stains from his cough were being drawn toward the basin, pulled by the gravity of the energized Essence.

“You’re feeding them,” Lorelei breathed, her amber eyes wide with a mixture of awe and terror. “But you’re also… binding them.”

’Again, things happening without my consent.’

Aden didn’t feel like a savior. He felt a tether snap onto his soul twenty times over. Every shallow breath Zero took, Aden felt in the back of his own throat. Every ache in the woman’s clawed hands, Aden felt in his own knuckles.

He noticed the Void Hunger that’d assaulted him all this time had reduced considerably, and he couldn’t help but turn to Lorelei.

“The hunger,” Aden rasped, his eyes snapping open, now swirling with that cool, predatory blue. “It didn’t go away, it just… distributed itself.”

Lorelei nodded excitedly while clasping her hands before her.

“These Void–beings are yours and you are theirs. You can conquer the world with these creatures, Lord.”

Aden didn’t change his position, but his eyes flashed with thoughts of something unrelated.

’How come I don’t feel Master?’

One of the reasons Aden decided to stay in this place and not just use his Resonance to escape was because of the hope that he would somehow be able to ’feel’ his Master in the Void or in this whole sick ritual.

But the crazy lady never made mention of him. She only spouted incomprehensible nonsense regarding someone he knew nothing about and pushed him to sign a contract with twenty deceptively sick people.

Aden walked towards the exit of the cellar and gestured for Lorelei to follow him.

Lorelei dashed to his side and nearly collided with his slightly hunched back.

With a glare, Aden started. “Tell me everything concerning this Silas Redwyn of a man.”

Lorelei’s expression turned solemn, but in the next moment, she stuck her tongue out.

“No.”

Aden halted in his steps. The shock from meeting the entity that resided in his ring once again was too much for him to bear and coupled with everything that happened, it was needless to say that Aden was in no mood for jokes.

“What do you mean by that, Lorelei?” Aden’s voice dropped to a familiar coldness.

Lorelei immediately reeled in her tongue, but playfulness still resided in her eyes. “I didn’t mean that I won’t tell you, but I can’t tell you.”

Aden rested on a wall, with a visibly tired expression. “And why is that?”

“A contract,” she answered.

That word fit in his mind like a piece to an infinitely large puzzle.

’Does that explain the hands I saw? Or was that something else entirely?’

Aden felt another headache coming and decided to rest his head.

“I’ll be resting here for a while. Gather the… Vassals and do whatever. Ensure the Princess does not find me, else—”

“You’ll kill all of us,” she interrupted.

Aden studied her for a while before wordlessly laying on the stone slab he was placed on a few hours ago.

Watching her Master’s sleeping form with unwavering devotion, her lips parted in hot breaths.

“I’ll fulfill every wish of yours, Master, then you’ll realize how much you need me.”

Aden shivered slightly before changing position and laying on his side.

****

The carriage glided over the scorched dunes, the only sound the low, crystalline hum of the enchantments maintaining its flight. Inside, the air was scented with expensive jasmine and the cold, metallic tang of divinity.

Elara’s fingers tapped a restless rhythm on the armrest. The Eye of Calyra —a floating, multi-faceted crystal suspended in the center of the carriage—pulsed with a rhythmic, sickly violet light.

Twenty signatures.

They hadn’t appeared as life-forms. They had appeared as voids, unnatural holes in the world’s Resonance energy that her purification should have filled. They were like twenty leeches clinging to the fabric of the Sinking District, and at their center was a twenty-first shadow that made her blood run cold with a strange, nostalgic dread.

“Your Highness,” a voice whispered from a communication rune embedded in the carriage wall. “The Baron’s Essence has been detected. It… it was just used. Not consumed, but dispersed.”

Elara’s golden eyes snapped toward the Eye. “Dispersed? Into the Sinking District?”

“Yes. It’s being used as a dampen-field. We’re losing visual on the lower sectors.”

Elara leaned back, her lips curling into a thin, beautiful snarl.

“Redirect the secondary arrays,” Elara commanded, her voice vibrating with the same force that had just leveled the crater behind her. “If they want to hide in the dark, I will turn the entire district into a sun. I want that Anomaly brought to me before the moon rises. And tell the Saintesses… if they let a single one of those Voids escape, they might as well forget about returning to the kingdom”

She looked back out the window. The Sinking District was visible on the horizon, a grey, rotting tooth in the mouth of the desert.

’You keep giving me more and more surprises, My Anomaly.’

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep