Duskfall

In the Empire's heartland, on the official road leading to the imperial capital Duskfall City, the entire road was tinged dark red beneath the blood-colored canopy overhead.

A large slave caravan consisting of over twenty cage wagons had halted in the middle of the road to rest. The iron cages were crammed full of slaves from various races with numb, lifeless eyes.

Forty to fifty burly guards armed with weapons camped among the convoy. Their weapons crusted with dried blood and fierce gazes made other passing demons consciously detour through the forest.

However, when a luxurious carriage guarded by eight black-armored knights approached, it didn't detour like the others but simply stopped before the slave caravan. The four nightmare beasts pulling the carriage impatiently stamped their hooves, and from the crimson eyes beneath their helmets, it wasn't hard to tell these black knights were blood clan or half-blood clan.

A pigfolk guard with a face full of scars was about to step forward and berate them, but his gaze suddenly fixed on the crest on the jet-black carriage!

It was a silver-edged bat emblem, without any additional decoration, even somewhat inconspicuous.

But this very emblem frightened the pigfolk into repeatedly backing away, nearly tripping over his own axe handle.

The slave caravan's leader scrambled out of his tent on all fours, his greasy face plastered with an ingratiating smile: "Had I known the Count would be passing through, this humble one would have..."

Before he finished, the lead black-armored knight flicked out a serpent bone whip. The whip tip tore through the air, drawing a bloody line across the leader's face.

This burly man with a scarred face didn't even dare groan. Instead, he bent his waist even lower, letting blood droplets drip from his chin onto the dust.

He turned and roared at his subordinates: "Are you all blind? Clear the road for his lordship!"

The guards instantly became like disturbed soldier ants, roughly kicking aside obstructing debris, even directly pushing several cargo-laden carts into the roadside ditch.

The slaves in the iron cages were startled into curling up in balls, chains clanking. In just moments, the originally crowded road had been cleared into a spacious passage.

The leader wiped the blood from his face with his sleeve, kneeling by the roadside and repeatedly kowtowing: "Please proceed, my lord, please."

The knights didn't even glance at him, unhurriedly escorting the carriage through this chaotic encampment.

Only after the carriage departed did the slave caravan leader collapse to the ground, covering the whip mark on his face while grimacing in pain, yet not daring to harbor any resentment.

Just as this slave caravan could rely on their numbers to dominate the road and force other demons to detour through the forest, the blood clan count's knight commander could naturally wield his whip at will, leaving a humiliating mark on an offender's face.

Here, strength was truth.

As long as they didn't violate laws explicitly forbidden by the Empire—such as openly killing each other—no one would care about such minor matters.

However, the slave caravan would never imagine that sitting inside that jet-black carriage wasn't a count or members of his family, or even a demon at all.

Inside the carriage inscribed with multiple defensive and detection-blocking wards, Tanaka gently lifted the velvet curtain at the rear window, watching those slave caravan members frantically reorganizing their camp, and couldn't help sighing softly: "How domineering."

Beside him, Kiro lazily sank into the soft fur cushions, resting with closed eyes: "Very convenient along the way, right? That's why I was willing to spend time helping that blood clan decode the secret of the treasure scroll."

"But..." Tanaka lowered the curtain, somewhat worried. "That set of legendary equipment forged specifically for blood clan—if that count really gets his hands on it, won't it be very bad for humanity?"

Though Tanaka had no intention of striving to save this world's humanity, he certainly wouldn't be willing to add fuel to humanity's destruction either.

"The demons are equally a force we must rely on to save this world." Kiro slowly opened his eyes, a trace of helplessness in his tone. "Them becoming stronger isn't necessarily a bad thing. On the contrary, it's precisely because they're not yet strong enough that many things are so troublesome."

"You support the demons?" Tanaka was astonished.

"No, I don't support anyone. I only want to save this world." Kiro paused, then continued: "Besides, you don't actually need to worry about that matter. That equipment is all buried in the Northern Tribes, and in the current Northern Tribes... no one can dig out treasures from there anymore."

Hearing this, Tanaka nodded. The Northern Tribes were indeed frighteningly cold now. Before they left, that border city had gotten so cold it was becoming barely habitable.

He'd heard that several border city lords had jointly dispatched a group to investigate deep into the Northern Tribes to handle this abnormal weather, but Tanaka felt that such large-scale anomalies probably weren't so easily resolved.

With the Northern Tribes' current climate, even knowing the treasure's general location, probably no one could mobilize enough manpower for excavation.

And by the time the weather problem was resolved, the war might have long since been decided.

Tanaka glanced obliquely at the dark red canopy overhead. In his eyes, this canopy had a status panel.

[Divine Artifact: Blood Calamity (Immortality is a curse without an afterlife)]

This was the first divine artifact he'd seen. When he first entered Duskfall City's territory and discovered this blood-colored sky actually had a status panel, he'd nearly jumped in fright, thinking the entire sky was a living creature.

Only after clicking on the detailed description did he understand his misunderstanding.

Even so, a divine artifact capable of covering an entire capital city—its power still shocked him.

He'd asked Kiro about divine artifacts. The other told him this was currently the only completely preserved divine artifact. The others had either shattered and scattered everywhere, or their whereabouts were completely unknown.

Under the black-armored knights' escort, the carriage finally arrived at the demon Empire's capital, Duskfall City.

The gate guards simply verified the family crest on the carriage and waved them through without even checking inside the carriage.

In fact, though Duskfall City as the imperial capital had complex and numerous people entering and exiting daily, entry procedures were surprisingly simple—the strictness level couldn't even match many border towns.

On one hand, this was to speed up personnel flow. On the other hand, it was because no one could make small moves under this blood-colored canopy without being discovered.

However, shortly after Tanaka and Kiro entered the city, the gate guards received new orders: the entire city was entering martial law, and afterward all entering and exiting personnel would undergo strict interrogation.

Of course, this was already unrelated to Tanaka and Kiro.

"Lord Kiro, these locations are all master's properties. Before departing, master instructed that if you have any needs, you can use this ring to have them cooperate." The lead knight respectfully handed Kiro a slip of paper with addresses and a ring set with a black gemstone bearing the emblem.

"Thank the count for me." Kiro nodded and casually accepted them.

After bidding farewell to the black-armored knights, Kiro without even looking tossed the paper and ring into a roadside drainage ditch.

"Just throw them away like that?" Tanaka felt it was somewhat wasteful.

"Won't need them." Kiro didn't care at all.

In his eyes, that blood clan count's only value was giving them this ride.

"Now you should tell me—what exactly did you bring me here to do?"

(End of Chapter)