The Cycle of Fate

Chapter 95: Confidence

"Damn!"

Franca instinctively blurted out her most familiar exclamation and raised her right hand, wiping her nose with her index finger.

With just that wipe, a large smear of bright red appeared, enough to evoke both shock and fear at just the sight of it.

Franca snorted immediately.

The blood in her nasal cavity, on her fingers, and on the ground simultaneously ignited with black flames, quickly disappearing.

Noticing Lumian looking at her, Franca, her face twisted in pain as the fire burned away the blood, insisted on teaching him, "You mustn't leave your blood in an unknown place like this, or there could be danger."

"Hey, are you alright?"

From Franca's perspective, she had more experience and a higher Sequence than Lumian. It didn't make sense for her to be affected while he remained fine!

"Maybe I'm okay for now," Lumian casually replied, then thoughtfully speculated, "Maybe it's because the shadow we encountered earlier was an older version of you, not of me."

"So why did you see a past version of me and not one of yourself?" Franca asked suspiciously, glancing at Lumian.

He doesn't have any secrets, does he?

After some thought, Lumian said, "Maybe this space is more closely connected to witches."

"That's possible..." Franca pondered.

After a few seconds, she pointed to the footprints and blood droplets on the ground and said, "Let's catch up and see what those people's situation is now. It might give us a glimpse of our own future and help us prepare in advance."

Lumian responded with action, heading into the darkness where the footprints and blood disappeared.

The blue-yellow glow of the carbide lamp quietly warded off the thick, deep blackness around them.

The further they tracked, the more apparent the abnormalities became.

Lumian's nose also began to drip warm blood, while Franca's eyes, gums, skin, and ears all started to ooze red liquid.

Thanks to the black flames Franca conjured, they didn't leave a single drop of blood behind.

Finally, they returned to the auxiliary well, where the smuggling team's footprints and increasingly dense blood droplets abruptly stopped.

There were no traces in the tunnel leading into the vertical shaft, nor on the path to other areas.

"They vanished again?" Franca's face flickered with black flames as she frowned.

Lumian, whose nose was sealed by black flames, inhaled and said with a smile, "This might be the end for us. When the amount of blood reaches a certain level, the body gradually evaporates."

"You're in a good mood?" Franca glanced at Lumian, who seemed neither anxious nor angry, and praised him.

Lumian grinned and said, "What if I'm not? Being too negative would only cloud my thinking."

"Sometimes, I think you're more mature than me," Franca remarked.

"Did you just realize that?" Lumian, of course, wouldn't say he was so calm because he was contemplating various escape plans. On one hand, he was genuinely thinking things through, and on the other, he had confidence.

Compared to the intricacies of the Cordu village, at least this place hadn't yet shown anything too terrifying!

Besides, he didn't need to overthink things. He already had several ideas for leaving this space: one, to take the risk of using the "Mystery Prying Glasses" to view the space from different angles to find an exit; two, to throw out Mr. K's finger and see if he could establish contact with the external K to open a passage; three, to attempt summoning Lady "Hela" or Lady "Magician's" emissary.