BXBX NOVEL Chapter 256: Secrets Within.
They crossed a spacious living room furnished with plush sofas and gilded mirrors.
As they climbed the wide staircase, the air grew cooler, carrying the faint scent of aged wood and fresh flowers strategically placed on ornate tables.
The staircase itself was a work of art, its banisters intricately carved with floral motifs.
After reaching the upper level, she led him down a hallway lined with portraits in expensive looking frames, their stern gazes seeming to follow their every move.
Crystal chandeliers overhead cast a soft glow, illuminating the corridor and casting gentle shadows along the walls.
Finally, they arrived at a private study room tucked away at the hallway\'s end.
The door, made of solid mahogany, opened silently as she gestured for Reign to enter.
Inside, the room was warmly lit by wall-mounted lights.
A large table of purple heartwood dominated the center, its surface polished to a high sheen, reflecting the soft candlelight that bathed the room in a golden hue.
The walls were paneled with dark mahogany, intricately carved with patterns that spoke of craftsmanship.
Lilith gracefully took her seat at one end of the table, gesturing for him to sit opposite her.
He walked slowly to the table and sat down across from her. His eyes stayed on her face, trying to understand what she wanted.
"You must have many questions," she began, her voice soft, with a hint of sweetness. "I\'m here to answer what I can."
"Why are you going to all this trouble? You\'re putting in a lot of effort to please me," he cut straight to the point.
Lilith\'s expression softened slightly at his direct question.
"I have my reasons," she replied frankly, not hiding her underlying motive.
"Don\'t worry, it\'s not something that I plan to force on you," she added, maintaining her composure.
For him, her straightforwardness was a quality he appreciated.
Both of them were powerful and inherently aligned with the dark side, so there was no need for pretense or beating around the bush.
"Alright, I\'m curious about what you really want, so just say it. I\'ll decide after," he responded calmly.
Whatever it was, it wouldn\'t hurt to find out.
Lilith felt a surge of excitement, seeing that her risks were paying off.
She had managed to get him to at least hear her side of the story.
Now, she just needed to choose her words carefully to avoid driving him away.
"I..." She began, but Reign interjected before she could continue.
"On second thought, tell me first about the serum you used to transform a human into a monster," he pressed on.
He was really impressed by its effect and wanted to figure out its origin.
Why? To build an army?
Of course not! He didn\'t need that because he already had his skull puppets.
What he had in mind was far more sinister than that.
He planned to turn humans into monsters, make them strong, and then harvest them like fatted pigs, which would give him more experience than normal.
Corrupteds gave him less experience because they had mostly lost their vitality that could be absorbed.
But when he observed the kid from before using his undead eye, he discovered that the kid\'s vitality had spiked and skyrocketed.
If he devoured a human during this time window, he could level up much faster.
He called this plan the "Ranch." If it could be done on a large scale, his growth would reach unimaginable levels.
"You mean that strange serum?" Lilith mused.
"That\'s right," he nodded.
"Well, it was being studied by a Research Institute, and our group obtained it. Initially, it was barely functional, but with a drop of my blood, I managed to neutralize its side effects," Lilith explained.
"What were the initial side effects of the serum ?"
"The initial side effects were not good. Severe instability and uncontrollable mutations. Within a minute, the body would explode every time," she responded, showing no hint of disgust or worry on her face. Such scenes were child\'s play to her.
"So, it\'s fully operational now?" he asked
"Not quite. Its success rate is very low—0% on normal humans and around 3>5% on Divergents. Even then, those who use it must continue to feed on my blood to control the powers," she clarified.
"Weird, I\'m pretty sure that I sense the same aura as the corrupted inside the kid\'s body, and also in your subordinates," he mused aloud.
"It\'s not really surprising," Lilith chimed in. "The Miasma you see beyond the barrier? It\'s a lesser version of Hell\'s Breath."
"Hell\'s breath?" his demeanor shifted slightly, intrigued by her revelations.
"The black miasma here is like what we have in Hell. The difference is that Hell\'s Breath stays in specific places, but here, it keeps spreading," she explained.
\'I can see a pattern here,\' he wondered silently.
According to what he had heard from the Angel, demons were originally created to eliminate humans, a mission that failed and led to the creation of the corrupted.
But after seeing Lilith, and considering her words that demons were copies of devils, and the black fog was similar too, it seemed like the world was borrowing ideas from Hell.
Could he have been mistaken? Maybe this chaos wasn\'t related to the World\'s Will after all.
Maybe it was an artificial chaos created by someone else, someone powerful enough to pull the strings?
"Do the corrupted exist in Hell as well?" he inquired, seeking further clarification.
"They do, but we don\'t call them corrupted. We refer to them as Filth," she answered right away.
This information wasn\'t a secret or particularly important, but sharing it would likely increase his favorability towards her.
\'This world is more complex than I expected, \' he sighed, feeling as though he had opened Pandora\'s box.
The more he learned, the more questions arose, leaving him with a sense of unease.
"Alright, tell me now what you really desire from me," he asked, getting straight to the point.
Lilith started bursting into laughter, a light and amused giggle that filled the room.
He did not react and just let her continue. He could tell that she was not laughing at him.
"I\'m sorry," she apologized, composing herself. "I just remembered someone who used the word \'desire\' all the time."
"Am I supposed to know that person?" He asked.
"Don\'t worry, he\'s just someone I used to know," she said, shaking her head and composing herself.
"It\'s about a place called the Garden," she revealed .
\'The Garden... why does that sound familiar?\' he pondered, feeling the name on the tip of his tongue but unable to place it.
A fog seemed to cloud his memory, hindering his ability to recall where he had heard the term before.
"What makes this place so important?" he inquired.
"It\'s not so much the place itself, but what is inside it. It store a treasure known as the Seed of Knowledge, capable of transforming any devil into a Primordial Devil. They are said to be the strongest among devils, even surpassing Archangels," she explained.
"Primordial Devil?" he repeated, the name sounded really powerful.