Following Claire's gaze, the young master noticed Claire was staring at her hand. She blinked with realization. "Pretty girl, if you like these, then I'll give them to you." The young master handed over all of the magic cores.
"Huh?" Claire snapped out of her daze and accepted them, then put them into the storage ring.
"Pretty girl, is that a storage ring?" The young master asked, eyeing the ring on her finger.
"Yes, but the storage space isn't big," Claire answered truthfully.
"Come on, pretty girl. I'll take you somewhere." The young master gave the wyvern a kick. "Go, bring us to the central area of this place. Hurry up, or else I'll fry you!"
Immediately after he said this, it was as if the wyvern was on drugs, dashing forward at a wild speed. The surroundings became blurred as they flew past, making Claire dizzy. Were wyverns supposed to be this fast? Weren't they known for their strength?
It was chaotic the whole way. The wyvern ran the entire way, something crossing into other magic beasts' territories. Each time, they would come out, roaring, wanting to fight the wyvern, but once they saw who was sitting on its back, they were immediately terrified and ran away instantly. Not a single magic beast dared to block their way, all trying to escape for their lives.
All of this made Claire wide eyed, shocked. Was the devil girl really so terrifying?
As the wyvern bolted the whole way, clouds of dust formed. Soon, they stopped. It was a clearing, just grass with no trees. The wyvern stopped, panting.
The young master jumped off and pulled Claire off roughly by the hand, then kicked the wyvern. "Go. Since you behaved today, I won't eat you."
The wyvern ran away with joyous tears in its eyes without looking back.
"Let's go, pretty girl. I'm going to help you pick up some trash." The young master let go of Claire's hand, squatted down, then clasped her hands together. With a quiet, yet forceful, "Open!" as she separated her hands, a crack opened in the ground. A dark stone stair away appeared.
Pick up trash?
Claire was confused as she inspected the stone stairway that had suddenly appeared. Where were they going?
"Let's go!" The young master pulled Claire and they went down the steps.
In the dark and moist stairway, with a flick of the young master's finger, numerous orbs illuminated overhead all the way to the depths, lighting the path.
"What is this place?" Clare asked softly, gazing around at the cracked walls. The young master continuously pulled her forward with a very tight grip.
"Dunno who's underground palace this is, but in any case, there's some trash you could probably use there," the young master replied casually. "I discovered it by accident a while back."
The stench of mold greeted them. Claire watched on at the long, winding stone stairs, very puzzled. The number of questions she had since meeting the red eyed girl had only increased ever since.
After some time, they finally descended to the bottom, arriving at a wide expanse of space.
It was an abandoned ancient palace, walls crumbled and cracked, white jade pillars that had lost their luster long since. However, the grandeur of the palace at its prime could be well imagined.
"We're going inside." The young master walked in front of her. "There's no one here, only bones. Who knows when they died."
Claire glanced around. It was deathly silent, suffocatingly so, eerily quiet. Claire followed the young master into the depths of the palace. As they walked into the grand hall, Claire looked up to see a huge treasure chest sitting on the throne. Unexpectedly, there were no signs it had been opened.
"Come over here, pretty girl. Take this as payment for conversing with me today." For the first time, the young master didn't refer to herself as "I, your father". She walked up and opened the chest, lip curling in disdain. "These are of no use to me. Maybe you could use them."
Claire walked up a little hesitantly, puzzled. When she saw what was inside, she was stunned. Scattered about messily inside, there were eight rings, beast cores, gems, and precious ores.
"These rings are…" Claire already guessed what they were, but she couldn't believe it.
"Storage rings. The amount of space they hold is alright," the young master answered absentmindedly, glancing around.
Shocked, Claire picked up one of the rings and felt for the space inside and almost jumped up with fright. The amount of space was actually as large as the grand hall they were in!
"They're all useless to me." The young master yawned and added lazily, "You should take them, they'll be of use to you."
After some thought, she put away everything. They were so precious, yet the young master called them trash….
"Pretty girl, why do you keep that glove on your right hand?" Although the young master was asking, she had already grabbed Claire's hand and pulled of the glove.
Unable to resist the young master, Claire could only watch on as the young master pulled it off.
"Aha! The mark of the god of Darkness!" the young master exclaimed excitedly, as if she had discovered another world.
Claire wasn't surprised at all that the young master recognized it, but was puzzled by her excited tone.
"You were actually chosen, hmm. What is it that makes you special?" the young master seemed to understand the meaning of the mark. She raised gaze, watching Claire suspiciously as she stroked her chin.
"You know the god of Darkness?" Claire asked, trying to probe for information. How would the devil girl know the god of Darkness? The Devil Realm and Human Realm were two entirely different worlds. Was it possible they intersected somehow?
"Pft! What does the god of Darkness count as?" the young master scoffed disdainfully. "If he appeared before me, I would beat him full of bruises."
Claire was dumbstruck. Just how powerful was this girl? Did she really have the strength or was she just boasting?
"Pretty girl, humans have really strange beliefs. Sit down and let me tell you." The young master sat down on the stairs and patted the spot next to her, indicating for Claire to sit down.
So Claire sat down obediently.
"You think the god of Light you humans worship is actually a god?" the young master laughed coldly.
Claire paused, staring fixedly at the young lord, not understanding what she meant.
"Gods, what are gods? They are really just the strongest among humans, an existence that just surpasses everyone else, standing at the peak! The only true gods of the Human Realm are the Mother Goddess and Father God. They created the Human Realm. The so-called goddess of Light and god of Darkness and such are all replaceable. The Sprite race was also created by the Father God and Mother Goddess. Their god of Sprites is really just the strongest of the sprites." The young master's calm explanation completely stunned Claire. She wasn't able to say a word.
"The only reason why the god of Darkness would choose you is because of your soul. You soul is the perfect union of righteous and evil, light and darkness. If he offered your soul to the Mother Goddess, She would be very satisfied and might even switch the positions of the god of Darkness and goddess of Light." These words had made Claire almost lose her ability to think.
Switch the positions of the god of Darkness and goddess of Light?
Make the god of Darkness worshiped by millions and the goddess of Light spurned by millions?
As this scenario appeared in her mind, Claire wondered why she felt such a scene was oddly satisfying.
"Does the goddess of Light know you have such a mark?" the young master asked as she stared at Claire's right hand.
Claire shook her head slightly.
"That makes sense. Otherwise, you wouldn't be standing here perfectly safe and sound. If the goddess of Light knew, she would use all her might to erase your existence." The young master suddenly frowned at Claire. "Normally, the goddess of Light would be able to foresee this and win you over to her side before the god of Darkness discovered you."
The young master's message was clear. The goddess of Light would have either tried to win her over or she would kill her.
Understanding the young master was confused, Claire explained, "I am a priest of the Temple of Light."
"Oh, of course." The young master had a smug expression because her conjecture was proven correct.
Claire looked down at the mark on the back of her hand, frowning slightly. The next time she returned to Amparkland, she would inevitably cross paths with the Temple of Light. If the mark was discovered, what would happen?
"Pretty girl, want to play a game?" The young lord's eyes slitted dangerously, a predator watching its prey as she stared at Claire.
Claire remained silent. She understood that from the very start, the girl from the Devil Realm was only treating her as entertainment. To her, Claire should be nothing.
However, Claire sensed something different from her words.
"What do you want to play?"
"It's not fun if you're discovered by the goddess of Light quickly." The young master pulled over Claire's hand and then, her finger raised, tapped the black mark on Claire's hand. Instantly, the black mark started to become transparent at a speed visible by the naked eye until it disappeared!
"Don't rejoice too soon. I cannot remove this. The only want to remove the mark is to kill the god of Darkness, but the god of Darkness won't appear before me unless he's looking for trouble. All I did was make the mark invisible so no one can see it." The young master withdrew her hand and continued on with interest, "It will depend on you for how the situation shall enfold. Anyhow, you don't seem like someone who's going to wait patiently as someone else kills you."
Of course I won't!
Claire withdrew her hand. She stared at the back of it, which seemed to have turned to its original appearance, humphing coldly in her heart.
Everything the young master told Claire had shattered her original understandings of this world. Gods were not true gods, but the strongest among humans! What did this signify? If her strength reached the highest among humans, she could topple the goddess of Light!