The second princess watched as her blood slowly fell down into the bottomless hole.

The black mass of tentacles suddenly rose up and pulled her dagger down into the hole.

The weak princess struggled but she couldn't take her hand off the dagger, as if there was something that prevented her from releasing it.

The first prince tried to help her but was stopped by the Blood Emperor, he shook his head silently, indicating that they should not take action.

Every part of the dagger that was touched by the black tentacles slowly turned into dust, and it kept coming closer to the second princess.

The panicked princess tried to scream but no sound came out of her throat, she stabilised herself and looked around, trying to escape.

The moment the tentacles touched her hand, her blood vein glowed faintly, causing the black tentacles to shake madly before it dissolved into nothing.

After the princess regained her control over her body, she collapsed on the floor, too weak to do anything else.

The first prince immediately rushed toward his sister, checking all over her body for any abnormality, after he was sure that everything was fine, he slowly got up and looked toward the mysterious gate that remained closed, he then looked toward the emperor and the mage.

The mage shook his head, signalling the first prince not to do that he wanted to for now.

"Old friend, do you know that was that?"

The emperor too was perplexed at what just happened.

The mage shook his head.

"I don't know, but I think it might be some kind of mechanism for bloodline checking."

Judging from how the tentacles dissolved when they touched the princess' blood, it might be the truth.

"Then, what should we do now?"

This time, the mage was the one who asked.

"We should wait and let my daughter open the gate, as she was the one who completed the ritual."

After coming to an agreement, everyone decided to wait patiently for the princess' awaken.

...

Somewhere within the capital of the Human Empire, at the restless night, a handsome man, surrounded by tall robust bodyguards, sat within a popular inn, nobody in the inn dared to speak, they all left one by one, afraid of offending this young master.

After everyone left except the inn owner and staffs, the man waved his hand lightly, everyone within the inn suddenly felt sleepy, they mindlessly walked to their respective rooms and locked their door tight, soon the silence and a mysterious force covered the entire inn.

The man and his bodyguards were the only ones left within the inn now, the bodyguards' body twitched violently, the smell of the corpses emerged within the inn, but nobody in the inn had any sense of smell.

After the Undying regained their true form, they bowed toward the man who was cloaked inside the worn out robe.

The man himself chanted some untranslatable words, causing his own skin to peeled off, revealing the lifeless skeleton form of his.

A Lich!

"Go enjoy yourselves."

The lich dismissed its slaves, it watched them walked into the rooms of those helpless victims.

Several rounds of agonising scream could be heard echoing in the inn, but due to the force covering the crime scene, no sound was leaked out of the inn.

Sometimes later, the inn owner and his staffs could be seen walking out of their rooms and directly bowed toward the lich without and fear.

"You all will station here and watched over the humans, gathered all the available information and presented them to me, I will reward you handsomely."

The slaves were very excited.

"Do not disturb me unless necessary, I will be using the farthest room within this place."

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

The lich walked alone into its room, after coming in, it pulled out a transparent crystal ball, the lich filled the artefact with its magical force, the crystal ball began to radiate icy cold aura and shone brightly for a brief period of time before dying down, the strange fog appeared in the crystal, covering the inside of the crystal completely.

The lich began to chant something again, it continued to chant for a long time, the fog within the ball began to move, from slowly to rapidly, forming a vortex of magical fog.

The lich waved its hand slowly as the fog within the artefact dissolved and revealed what was within it.

A refined lady could be seen walking toward her carriage, with her bodyguard close to her, she gave off the appearance of the beautiful and pure young mistress that everyone would try to protect at all cost.

The lich looked at her for a very long time.

"We will be together now, just wait for me."

The lich watched the saintess walked into the carriage before it withdrew its magical force in the crystal ball, causing the scene to disappear.

...

Time was impossible to determine when ones were in the Forbidden Palace, as it was impossible to leave without using the ancient key, the Dispair, but the Blood Emperor refused to use the key, he explained that there might be the need of it in the near future.

The inside of the Forbidden Palace had no window or anything that allowed something outside to perceive what was within, and the decorative crystals shone the colourful light at all time, making the place bright even without the light from the star above the sky.

After an unknowable amount of time had passed, the second princess coughed violently, causing her to jointed awoke from her unconscious state.

The first prince was the first one to rush toward his sister, checking her condition in case of hidden effects from the ritual, the Grand Archmage also followed suit to check her curiously, he was very interesting about the unknown ritual from the myth.

But after rounds and rounds of checking, nothing out of ordinary was found, the prince was relieved, the mage felt a little bit regret, he sighed and put this matter at the back of his mind.

"My daughter, how did you feel during the ritual?"

The emperor's voice contained a faint hint of worry, but his voice was still calm as the vast ocean.

"I didn't feel anything strange, father."

She said composedly, feeling quiet pound from what she did.

"Then, rest a bit, when you are ready, step ahead and open the gate before us."

The emperor said solemnly, everyone else agreed with him too.

"No need to wait, time is essential."

She smiled beautifully, like an angel who would do anything to save mankind.

The second princess walked steadily toward the formidable gate, she exerted all her physical capacity into the gate, the gate vibrated lightly, the black light immediately came into existence and penetrated everyone's vision, causing everything descended into the darkness.

Before anyone had a chance to panic, the blackness slowly dissipated, a new scenery came into their views.

Before they were the golden hallway, filled with glittering crystals, the pillars that supported the hall were engraved with mysterious symbols that even the Blood Emperor didn't know, everything in their sight was sumptuous, forming a harmony feeling as if they were in the high heaven above their world.

After a moment of losing in their own thought, a dignified voice rang in their very soul, the voice carried the aura of the rulers, causing them to have the urge to bow down toward the absolute ruler of nature.

"Before you is the Golden Hallway that led to the Calamity Throne, heed our warning before you stepped in, there will be no return after you crossed into the abyss."

The voice of the ruler manifested itself into many figures, each with different appearances, some were old, some were female, some were young, but the thing that they all had in common was their aura of the rulers, each of them had different types of aura, some were tyrannical, some were tranquillity, some were benevolent.

The figures stood upright, like the impeccable wall that protected the humanity against the vicious monstrosities from the outside.

"We are what you called the Great Emperors, but we were only the fragment of our original souls, only to rerail the warning to our descendants."

The fragments of the Great Emperors spoke in unison.

"Before you, the Golden Hallway is the place where all dream end, despair and hope combined together, only one thought to create all, and only one thought to end all."

The distorted voice travelled forth in all directions, the content of the voice was heard by all.

Before they could stabilise themselves, the mystical sound echoed around the hall, then everything froze, the first prince, the second princess, the Grand Archmage, and the flow of magical force, they all froze, leaving only the Blood Emperor alone, within the prison of time.

"Heed our warning, reconsider your choice, is the calamity worse enough to use the last protection of humanity? Even though it might be the harbinger of the end itself?"

The fragment of souls vibrated lightly, causing a wave of information to transmitted themselves to the emperor.

The emperor fell into deep thought, his physical body stopped all activity, he became like a frozen entity with no awareness of the surrounding, the fragment of souls stood there silently, awaiting the emperor's decision.

After what it felt like an eternity had passed, the Blood Emperor's eyes shone lightly, his physical body had broken through the shackle of the frozen chain, he regained control over his body again, the Blood Emperor stood upright and spoke with endless confident.

"I beseech you, the Great Emperors, to help us from the calamity once more, and help your unfilial descendants to regain their bright future."

The emperor kneeled on the floor and bowed his head violently, hitting the floor, blood seeping through his head, but it didn't matter.

The emperor waited patiently in the same position for a very long time, so long that the emperor himself lost track of the time.

"Our descendant, stand up."

A voice rang in the emperor's ears.

Tear rained down from emperor's pupils, the tear of joy that will wash away all the sadness he had ever experienced, the warm sensation rushed through his body, a feeling of carefree that he had never felt in his life appeared in his tired mind.

The Hope had finally presented itself.