Mystery: The Stranger

Chapter 39 The First Flame of Divine Fire

The real world.

The Viscount Hawke's Domain, or more accurately, the former Viscount Grey's Domain, but now it belongs to him.

Snow opened his eyes, his whole body aching terribly. Even worse, his head was throbbing, as if it were leaking electricity.

"You're finally awake."

Saratas's voice rang in her ears, tinged with a nonchalant mockery. She leaned against the velvet couch by the bed, toying with a strand of pale purple hair with her fingertips, her bewitching eyes fixed on Snow's pale face.

This place was no longer Earl Cullen's territory. In fact, even if Snow was unconscious, it did not prevent Saratas from manipulating his body to return directly to this newly acquired territory the morning after the banquet.

As for why he didn't return to his previous barony?

As for why he didn't return to his original Baron Hawke's Domain? What a joke! With a more fertile territory and a more magnificent castle, Xalatas naturally wouldn't settle for less. Moreover, the new territory had just changed hands and urgently needed someone to garrison and stabilize it; while in the Baron's Domain, with Lia and her original crew overseeing things, there was no need to worry about it getting out of control.

"What's wrong with me?"

Snow was a little drunk and his mind wasn't quite clear, but before Saratas answered, he sensed something different.

It's like something extra...

Following this strange feeling, he almost directly saw a deep red, dreamlike flame.

Is this divine fire?

This is divine fire!

Doubt and certainty exploded in his heart almost simultaneously. Did he really do it? Did he really ignite the divine fire?

But then a series of thoughts popped up, not with elation, but with more doubts: How did it succeed? What is the use of this thing? Why don't I seem as happy as I imagined?

"As you can see, divinity, humanity, faith, and a trace of astral symbolism have combined to create this wondrous thing." Xalatas stood up, walked to the bedside, and looked down into Snow's eyes—or rather, into the flickering flame deep within his soul. His tone was filled with undisguised admiration. "Tsk tsk, it's truly unbelievable that you've managed to pry open the primordial divine imprint of the Creator within this extraordinary characteristic, which even the power of the Void couldn't erode—albeit by borrowing the power of astral symbolism."

While Snow was unconscious, Xalatas did consider researching it, but she discovered that this divine fire was still incompatible with the void. Forcibly instilling it would easily extinguish the small flame, which would be a waste of such precious material.

After hearing her explanation, Snow had a sudden thought and subconsciously wanted to use the divine fire to touch the otherworldly symbol in the astral plane, wanting to try reciting the prayer he had composed earlier. But the moment the thought arose, an excruciating pain exploded in his mind, as if thousands of fine needles were simultaneously piercing his brain, frantically churning and tearing inside. The pain caused him to convulse all over, his body uncontrollably curling up, clenching his teeth tightly to prevent himself from crying out.

"I advise you to stop overthinking things." Xalatas watched him convulse and collapse on the bed, his face as pale as paper, but a gloating smile curled at the corner of his mouth. "Right now, you don't have much left to fuel this little flame."

Though her tone was playful, she ultimately didn't actually watch Snow faint again. With a flick of her wrist, the Moon Cup appeared in her palm, filled with crimson moon dew—the pure spiritual essence it had slowly absorbed under the moonlight over the past few days. She gently lifted Snow's neck, brought the Moon Cup to his lips, and fed him a sip.

The warm moon dew slid down his throat, instantly transforming into a cool, spiritual sensation that spread throughout his body along his meridians, slowly soothing the intense pain and restlessness within. The stinging pain in his brain also lessened considerably. Snow leaned against the headboard, panting heavily. The confusion in his eyes gradually faded, but an indescribable sense of frustration and gloom unexpectedly welled up in his heart.

He had clearly succeeded in his adventure and gained the incredible opportunity of divine fire; all he needed to do was recuperate for a while. He shouldn't have fallen into such a gloomy mood so easily. This feeling was familiar, like... he had lost something important.

"Burning humanity..."

Snow slowly raised his hand, the zombie ring still firmly on his fingertip. His originally pale skin had a faint hint of color, but beneath this color was a deep-seated weariness.

As a demon, he should have been full of desires, overflowing with malice, and brimming with energy, but at this moment, he felt as if most of his strength had been drained from his soul, leaving him listless and even the thought of turning his head felt exhausting.

"Haha, you finally felt it?" Saratas laughed, his eyes crinkling, his tone full of slyness. "I just told you, didn't I? Your so-called 'divine fire' is burning your divinity, humanity, faith, and of course, your most basic spirituality every moment."

She leaned closer to Snow and gently poked his cheek with her fingertip: "You should be glad that you swallowed so many low- to mid-sequence demonic traits before, accumulating enough divine marks for it to burn; you should be even more glad that I've been watching over you, filling back the malice you left with me when you advanced, bit by bit, as firewood. Otherwise, you would have been burned to ashes by this fire long ago, leaving not even ashes."

As she spoke, she deliberately put on a "you should be grateful" look, her smugness barely concealed in her eyes.

However, Snow simply looked at her expressionlessly, his tone flat and devoid of any emotion, not even bothering to retort: ​​"If I've come into contact with divinity earlier than a normal Sequence Four, what about the advancement I deserve?"

"The divine fire burned my spirit and essence, but where is the divine power that should have been generated?" He raised his hand to touch his cheek, his tone tinged with a helpless self-mockery. "I just... my skin is a little smoother?"

Saratas chuckled and lifted Snow's chin with his fingertip, his eyes gleaming mischievously: "Oh dear, you know I've been quite exhausted these past few days."

"Think about it, you've been unconscious for so long, and that fire has never stopped burning. I've carefully protected you, trying to keep you from being burned to death. After all that, it's reasonable for me to take a little 'warmth' from you, isn't it?"

Huh~

Snow's lips twitched slightly.

He knew that the reason he hadn't felt much change in his body and mind was because there was a gluttonous person next to him.

But now, he didn't even have the energy to be angry. The exhaustion was like the collapse after excessive indulgence; his whole body ached and he couldn't muster any energy. Let alone arguing or cursing, even moving a finger felt strenuous.

"What's your assessment of this so-called 'divine power'?" Snow closed his eyes, too lazy to argue with her anymore, and simply asked directly, "You've come into contact with the auras of demigods and angels. What's the difference between the power transformed from this divine fire and that of a high-level extraordinary being who has ascended by consuming extraordinary characteristics?"

He was currently exhausted and unable to think deeply. Saratas was more knowledgeable in this area than he was, so asking her was undoubtedly the easiest option.

"There's no real difference in essence; they're both powers originating from the same source as spirituality, just at different levels." Xalatas put away his playful expression, his tone unusually serious. As he spoke, he couldn't help but lick his lips, a hint of greed flashing in his eyes. "If I had to say, the power you concocted is more 'seasoned,' without such a strong bias in its path. It's much more neutral than the aura of the Abyss Grand Duke or Count Karen, and it suits my taste much better."

"And you'll gradually find that after establishing a connection with the otherworldly symbols of the astral plane, the distance between us and this world is greatly reduced." She paused, then added, "The sense of incongruity and alienation of our original powers is also significantly lessened."

Saratas's reminder struck a chord with Snow. He had never doubted her expertise in the field of occultism, and these words were a wake-up call for him.

"Hmm... It's like we have a dedicated interface." Snow spoke slowly, his tone gradually regaining some clarity. "That barrier is at the level of rules, but through the 'packaging' of the otherworldly symbol, our power has become more localized, which is also the goal we wanted to achieve in the first place."

"We can't really say we possess any real authority right now." He clenched his fist, his fingertips pressing down slightly, clearly feeling the faint pulse of the divine fire deep within his soul. "But to some extent, rank plus the symbol itself is a kind of authority. Although this otherworldly symbol is too abstract, far less intuitive than symbols like night, sun, earth, storm, or door, it involves exactly what we need most—concealment, or more precisely—a sense of boundaries."

Only now could Snow truly feel at ease, as his almost godlike ability to counter divination and prophecy had finally been localized and put into practice.

In short, the identity of being a visitor from another world can be concealed. Even if their special nature is discovered in the future, they can still use their identity as descendants of the ancients as an excuse.

At worst, they can just attach themselves to the mother nest; since the Western Continent isn't open, they can't verify it anyway.