A few hours later, Liora stared intently at the pinkish drop of blood in her palm, her eyes bloodshot and her gaze dazed.

A look of exhaustion flashed across her face, as if she had undergone hundreds of hours of intense training.

"But it's all worth it.", Liora whispered as she forced herself to look away from the blood.

Through the experiments she had conducted over the past few hours, she had roughly understood the droplet's uses, or, at the very least, some of them.

Her biggest gain was what she referred to as the blood's Influence.

Although this blood no longer contained any trace or imprint of the two powerful beings, Liora discovered that it seemed to possess a will of its own, subconsciously trying to influence the creatures around it.

Continuous information spread from it as the center, influencing any creature that happened to be within its range.

After a bit of testing, Liora discovered that the information emitted by the blood was not systematic and seemed to lack any meaning.

It was as if countless garbled words were pouring into her mind, without purpose or significance.

Yet, as Liora attempted to integrate those words, she made a surprising discovery.

Information regarding Devils, the Demon World, and even various abilities seemed to be hidden deep inside those words, waiting for someone to decipher them.

"This should be the result of those creatures' power. Every trace of their body—whether it is flesh, bones, or even blood—carries part of their information."

"The two are akin to living transmitters. Studying this drop of blood is equivalent to studying both them and their bloodline."

Of course, such a great thing came with various risks.

Noticing the physical and mental exhaustion she had suffered as a result of her experiments, Liora understood that she could not study it any further.

At the very least, she had to recover to her full state. Otherwise, prolonged research was bound to make her go crazy or even worse.

Realizing this, although Liora was a little unwilling, she still carefully put the droplet back into the wooden chest before engraving several arrays along its surface.

It was only when she had confirmed that the blood posed no danger that she finally closed the chest's lid, sealing the droplet inside.

"I wonder how Lord Embers managed to obtain this blood. Is it his trump card, or perhaps the reason behind his rise?", Liora's mind wandered.

In the Crucible, beings above the Young Devil stage were forbidden from entry, and this was true for True Devils and even Greater Devils.

As such, the fact that this drop of blood somehow got here was quite intriguing. Still, with Lord Embers' death, it was highly unlikely that she would ever find the answer.

After Liora placed the wooden chest away, making sure that no one except her would find it, she didn't leave the room.

Instead, she calmly summoned the System Panel, wanting to take a look at what had changed.

--

[True Name: Liora Veythalis Dranthera Vexira...]

[Rank: Young Devil]

[Race: Unknown(Prototype)]

[Strength: 60(+15)], [Agility: 80(+20)], [Vitality: 100(+10)], [Mana: 70(+20)]

[Abilities: Spear of the Blighted Sun, Myriad Devils Armor, Shadow Assimilation, Soul Tear, Void Instinct, Combat Instinct, Soul Devouring, Low-Level Regeneration]

[Evolution Points: 12065]

[Current Absorption Efficiency: 15x (Normal Devil = 1x)]

--

Compared to just recently, her displayed information had undergone massive changes.

Her base stats had increased by varying degrees—evidence of the improvement brought by the previous battle—while a new ability had appeared.

Yet, none of the gains she had obtained through studying the mysterious blood had been catalogued, as if it were not recognized by the system.

Liora was not surprised by this discovery. It had already happened before.

Neither her Devil Runes mastery nor any of the arrays she had learned to inscribe had ever shown up in the panel. Perhaps this was because her mastery was low, or perhaps because of the system itself.

"I wonder if this will change as I get stronger...", Liora thought and, with a move of her mind, closed the panel.

She wasn't planning to use her Evolution Points yet, feeling that keeping them for the time being would be far more useful.

After all, as long as she didn't face a siege of several ranked Devils, almost nothing could threaten her.

Rising to her feet, Liora patted herself down to clean up the accumulated dust, and after making sure that she had not missed anything, she walked out of the room.

As soon as she stepped out, she was met with two contrasting faces.

One was furry and full of concern and panic, while the other one was indifferent and aloof.

"Lord, did anything happen?", a worried voice reached her ears, as Scurry—looking extremely nervous—sized her up as if afraid that something had happened to her.

On the other hand, Alpha, beside him, remained silent, showing no hint of anxiety.

Facing her two "trusted" subordinates, one of whom was a grade A actor and the other one who didn't seem to care about her at all, Liora couldn't help but let out a dejected sigh.

Still, she took the initiative to calm them down.

"Don't worry. I was just experimenting with something and an accident occurred.", she casually replied, earning a doubtful look in return.

Ignoring Scurry's doubts, she didn't explain any further but instead changed the conversation.

"Did anything happen while I was inside? Did anyone approach?", she asked, despite knowing the answer.

The way she changed the topic was not subtle at all, and whether it was the lively Scurry or the indifferent, simple-minded Alpha, they both noticed.

However, neither of them pointed it out.

"No one has gotten near this place.", Scurry shook his head and, after a brief pause, continued:

"However, I've noticed several sources of demonic aura wandering around the Hellstone mountain. It's as if many Devils have gathered and are searching for something.", he added.

Even though his words were plain, the way he looked at Liora made it obvious that he believed it was her doing.

Liora didn't deny his idea. In fact, she was pretty sure that he was not wrong.

Although she had not come into contact with the outside world since the end of the battle in the City of Embers, she could roughly guess what the reaction of the many Devils would be.

With her rise to the third place in the Crucible Ranking, she would surely attract other people's attention, envy, and most importantly, greed.

Liora strongly suspected that the Devils that Scurry mentioned were indeed coming for her, or at the very least, were trying to collect information regarding Lord Embers' and the Two-Headed Devil's deaths.

Despite knowing this, she didn't panic. She—for the first time in her Devil life—had the confidence to deal with anything that came her way.

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