Inside an inn in Twilight City,
a figure wearing a gray hood sat quietly in a corner, listening to the chatter about the fall of the Blood Magic Society and the rise of the Court of Darkness.
"What exactly is this Court of Darkness?"
"Murphy ran away? What kind of joke is that?"
"Hmph! Who knows whether he ran, or whether he was erased without a trace!"
The hooded man sneered inwardly.
Just half a month ago he had entrusted the Void Codex to Murphy, intending to exchange it for resources to help him ascend in rank.
Now the Blood Magic Society was gone, and the Void Codex had vanished with it.
That codex was something he had acquired through nine deaths and survival, from a sacred ruin of immeasurable value—a ruin that could attract even an empire's greed.
It held countless opportunities.
The Void Codex was only one of them.
If not for his insufficient strength, he would not have nearly died retrieving it.
