Eros vanished into the shadows before the four could blink, leaving them staring at one another in stunned silence.

  He’s just... letting us go?

  Not only did he spare their lives, but he also gave them a way to contact him and offered to help reclaim the Forbidden Object. The group was utterly bewildered. Weren't the "Night Remnants" supposed to be the bloodthirsty, cruel descendants of an evil god? They had all prepared for a gruesome death, leaking information only to spite the Church.

  "And what was that bit about his neighbor's wife giving birth?" the stocky man muttered, his expression turning peculiar. "Why did he have to rush back for that? Unless..."

  The two men exchanged a knowing, slightly tawdry glance, while Natalia and Ayesha both let out a quiet, disdainful huff.

  Natalia picked up the leaf that had tumbled from her chest to the ground. She looked at it with deep suspicion. This thing can actually contact someone? She had seen him pluck it casually from a tree; it looked like an ordinary leaf. Was he playing them for fools?

  Elsewhere, Eros was racing through the darkness, questioning Barbara in his mind. Do you have any way to track the location of that clan member?

  As soon as the question left his lips, the miniature Book of Night in his consciousness vibrated, preparing to bolt like a streak of light. Barbara didn't even blink. She simply raised a slender hand and snatched the book out of the air.

  In the next heartbeat, her petite, elegant figure materialized beside Eros. She was holding the vibrating book, her white skin glowing faintly in the dark. Seeing her appear in the physical world, Eros felt a surge of excitement. "You finally decided to come out!"

  Barbara ignored the book's indignant buzzing. Her delicate lips curved into a slight smirk as she handed it to him. Her voice was clear and cold: "Everyone in the clan has written their True Name in this book, and this 'Stupid Book' has engraved their soul imprints. If you want to find someone, just ask it."

  Eros focused his gaze on the Book of Night. It slipped from Barbara’s hand, hovering before him as its pages flipped rapidly, guided by an invisible wind.

  Suddenly, a map of light points erupted in Eros's mind. Most were distant, but one flickered nearby—that was Undine back at the Academy. A cluster of lights shone toward the front-left; that would be the Duke’s Mansion in the Capital—Estelle and the others.

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  But then, he saw a single, isolated point roughly one or two hundred miles ahead. As he focused on it, a name surfaced from the light: Irina Lenka Night.

  Eros stiffened. Fifth Sister?

  That was the daughter of Lady Florica—the one with the... "impressive volumes" and "fair pages." His heart hammered against his ribs. Without a second thought, he stopped conserving his spirituality and accelerated, a dark blur tearing through the night toward that distant light.

  A hundred miles outside the Imperial Capital.

  A tall, curvaceous figure wove through the dense forest like a ghost. Through the misty veil obscuring her face, one could see features strikingly similar to Lady Florica’s, though currently, her face was deathly pale.

  Irina bit her lip, twisting her body in mid-air to dodge a spell from behind. Her toe kicked off a tree trunk, pivoting her momentum toward a gap in the pursuit. She pushed her spirituality to its limit. Faster. I have to be faster. Only by shaking these Church "hyenas" could she bring the news back to the family.

  She had found a fragment of the Ancestor's Divine Kingdom.

  For tens of thousands of years, the clan had held onto a singular belief: if they could gather the shattered pieces of the Divine Kingdom, the Ancestor would return from the Long River of Time. Their fate would be rewritten. No longer would they have to hide in the shadows, living every day as if it were their last. They could finally choose their own lives, free and unburdened.

  Generations had bled for this goal. Now that she held a clue to a fragment, she could not—would not—allow herself to die here.

  "Night Remnant, give up! You cannot escape!" a voice thundered from behind.

  Irina didn't respond. she ducked under another blast of energy and kept running. The man in black leading the chase sneered. He turned to his subordinate. "Are the teams ahead in position?"

  "Rest assured, Captain," the subordinate replied with a smirk. "There are over ten squads closing in. Tonight, this Remnant won't even have the wings to fly away."

  The Captain frowned. "That many? We need to pick up the pace, then. We can’t let another squad snatch this 'big fish' from our mouths."

  "But Captain," the subordinate hesitated, "you ordered us to capture her alive. The spells we’re using aren't high-output; they aren't enough to actually stop her."

  The Captain fell into thought. Capturing a Night Remnant alive was a far greater merit than killing one. In centuries, the Church had never successfully taken one alive, because the moment a Remnant realized they were cornered, they would sacrifice everything—soul and body—to the shadows, leaving not even a corpse behind.

  After a moment, the Captain’s eyes grew cold. "Try for a live capture if possible. If not... kill her before she has a chance to sacrifice herself."

  The order was given, and the intensity of the spells trailing Irina immediately doubled.

  Irina felt the shift. The air behind her grew heavy with lethal intent. She realized they were no longer playing for a capture. Dodging one blast, she had no time to recover before a second clipped her shoulder. The impact sent her spinning through the air, crashing into the dirt and rolling several times before coming to a halt.