"So… what is the deal you are offering?" Keira asked softly. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, her gaze remaining fixed on Tivana.
Tivana did not answer immediately. She first raised her right hand, after which a barrier enveloped the area around them.
"I will give you an inheritance from Valtor." she finally said in a flat yet clear voice, "In exchange, I want your blood in large quantities, and you also must not become our enemy."
Keira instantly fell silent. Her eyes narrowed slightly. She brought her face closer to Tivana's face as if scrutinizing her features.
"Are you... a vampire?" Keira asked suspiciously.
Tivana sighed softly and shook her head. "No. Don't compare me to those blood-sucking creatures. I only need your blood as an ingredient for a potion."
"But who is Valtor?" Keira asked. "I've never heard of him; you could be speaking a truth that has been planned." Her eyebrows raised slightly, her tone of voice remaining calm, yet her gaze sharply scrutinizing Tivana.
Tivana smiled thinly, as if she had expected this from the beginning. She stepped forward slowly, then stopped a few paces in front of Keira.
"Valtor was a human with an invincible body." Her voice was low yet clear. "That inheritance is no ordinary inheritance; it is an inheritance from the previous era."
Keira went silent for a moment. Her eyebrows furrowed slightly, as if trying to process the words she had just heard. The night wind gently swept through her loose hair.
She finally raised her eyes toward Tivana.
"The previous era?" she repeated slowly, her tone filled with curiosity. "Could you explain what that previous era was like?"
Tivana did not answer right away. She stared into the distance for a moment, as if recalling something buried by time for a very long while. The faint light from the magic circle still remaining on the ground reflected in her eyes.
"It seems there is no choice left, I will tell you." Tivana finally said, her voice calm yet heavy. "The previous era was an extremely brutal era; blood flowed on every land, bloodshed occurred everywhere, and bones piled up higher than mountains."
She paused for a moment before continuing. "In those times, ancient races and various existences unrecorded by the history of our current era fought one another for a long time."
Tivana lowered her gaze slightly.
"However, time has never taken anyone's side. For unknown reasons, almost all of them died. What remains now... is only a handful."
Keira blinked slowly. Her lips parted slightly, clearly shocked by that explanation. "S-so that's how it is..." she muttered softly, her voice almost like a whisper.
"However, make no mistake..."
"Even though their names are not well-known, many of them possess terrifying combat power. Even a few among them are strong enough to make even a great empire act with caution."
The night wind blew gently again.
And for the first time since the conversation began, Keira truly realized that the world she knew was actually far vast—and far more dangerous—than she had ever imagined.
Tivana raised her right hand until it was level with her chest. Her fingers were slightly spread, her palm facing upward.
The air above her palm suddenly vibrated gently.
Specks of white light began to emerge from her forehead, gathering like snowflakes drawn by an invisible force. The light spun faster and faster before finally condensing.
In an instant, a white crystal as clear as ice formed above her palm, radiating a soft glow that illuminated her face.
The white crystal floated slowly in the air, spinning gently while emitting a soft light like the moon covered by a thin fog.
"How about it? Do you want to accept it?" Tivana asked.
"I will accept it." Keira answered firmly.
Little by little, the crystal moved closer toward her forehead. When the distance was down to just a few centimeters, the light from the crystal grew even brighter, causing the air around it to vibrate softly.
Then—the surface of the crystal began to fade, as if turning into a stream of pure light. That light slowly seeped into the skin of her forehead, like water absorbed by dry soil.
The process took place slowly. Every part of the crystal that touched her skin immediately melted, turning into light particles that sank into her body.
Within a few seconds, the entire crystal had vanished completely.
Suddenly, a white fire began to blaze on her forehead...
Zevaron's eyes narrowed, his gaze locking onto Tivana. "What is the meaning of this?!" he pointed at Tivana. "Are you using a loophole from that agreement?!" his fist tightened further until his knuckles turned white.
"This is a purification process; that fire will strengthen her body." Tivana answered without turning her gaze. "Just relax, it's to strengthen her body."
The white fire began to spread and invade every single inch of her skin.
Tivana immediately moved behind Zevaron and covered both of Zevaron's eyes from behind.
Zevaron reflexively tried to pull Tivana's wrist so he could see again. "What are you—"
"Don't look, she'll be naked in a moment." Tivana interrupted.
Zevaron finally stopped trying to resist.
Keira's clothes burned to ashes in an instant, revealing her smooth skin with the blazing white fire starting to spread.
Millions of her pores felt as if hit by glowing stakes from within. A pitch-black liquid with a foul stench boiled and burst outward, peeling away her epidermal layer like old paper thrown into an iron furnace. The stinging pain was so sharp, as if an invisible hand was skinning her body inch by inch with a searing razor blade.
"AAARRRKKKHHHH!!" Keira roared.
"What's wrong with her? Did her injuries get worse because of that fire? Her life isn't in danger, right?" Zevaron bombarded with rapid questions.
"That's normal for a purification process." Her tone remained casual.
Zevaron now calmed down again.
Suddenly, a foul smell pierced Zevaron's nose.
Zevaron fanned the area in front of his nose, "What is this foul smell?"
"That's the foul smell of filth being burned off her body."
Now, Keira's entire skin was coated in a black shell that smelled rotten. An energy forced her to weave new skin. The combination of the stinging pain of being skinned and the extreme itchiness from new cells rapidly crawling across her surface almost made her sanity crumble.
"AAARRRKKKHHHH!!" Keira roared again.
"Endure the pain." Tivana said casually, as if she was used to the sight, or perhaps used to feeling it.
The black shell covering Keira's skin began to show fine cracks. Those small cracks spread across her entire body. The black shell fell to the ground, creating a sound like a breaking eggshell.
The moon, which was previously hidden by clouds, was now visible again.
The moonlight shone upon Keira's skin after all the black shells peeled away from her body. Her new skin reflected the moonlight, making it transparent like jade.
However, the white fire did not just go out; now the white fire began to merge with every single one of her blood cells. It was not merely a burning sting, but a terrifying sensation as if her blood had turned into liquid magma frying her own flesh from within. Keira felt with utmost precision how her muscle fibers were forced to expand, burst, and collapse into instant mush under the extreme temperature.
Keira gritted her teeth.
Just as her layers of flesh burned away, an energy forced new tissue to spread and weave itself over those searing wounds. It felt extraordinarily painful, combined with an intense itching sensation as if millions of insects were chewing and sewing her flesh all at once. Every second was a hell that gave no room to breathe.
The white fire that had just merged with her blood immediately separated itself. The sudden change caused her entire body to tremble violently.
Her bones burned hot with the blazing white fire. The white fire chewed through her skeletal system. A terrifying cracking sound echoed from almost all of her bones—ranging from the ribcage surrounding her chest to her collarbones—feeling as though they fractured simultaneously under the massive, invisible heat pressure.
The pain was so dense and locking. She felt as though her body's framework had turned into glowing charcoal being melted inside a furnace. The calcium layer was stripped without mercy, triggering a thick wave of heat that rendered her completely paralyzed—even merely exhaling would make her ribcage feel as if crushed by a giant boulder.
However, the most ruthless part was when the regeneration caught up. Right when her old bones were completely eroded, an energy forced her to weave a new skeleton. It felt exceptionally brutal, as if millions of glowing stakes were forcibly driven into her body to reconstruct every collapsed segment of bone.
It did not stop there; as soon as the white fire purified her spine, at this point, the extreme heat reversed into a giant cold sensation that burned her central nervous system. The marrow inside her bones was scooped out, stirred, and evaporated without mercy, triggering convulsions that shook her consciousness. Yet, from the emptiness of those destroyed bone cavities, her blood factory was forced to give birth to new marrow.