Black Phoenix Heir

Chapter 103: Chapter 103 — Castle in the Deep

Chapter 103 — Castle in the Deep

Victor stood in the room, staring at the strange purple-and-black chain connected to his right hand.

For several moments, he simply studied it.

The links looked almost physical, each one interlocking perfectly with the next. Yet Victor could feel that the chain wasn’t truly made of ordinary matter.

It was connected to something far deeper than his body.

His soul.

Victor took a few steps away from Lyra.

He continued moving until he reached the limit.

The moment he crossed six feet, an intensely uncomfortable sensation tore through his soul.

Victor immediately stopped.

The sensation wasn’t exactly pain. It was worse in a strange way. It felt as though something inside his soul was being pulled apart, as if the connection between him and Lyra were being stretched beyond what it could withstand.

Victor quickly stepped back.

The sensation vanished.

He glanced toward Lyra.

She was staring at him with the same annoyed expression she seemed to wear whenever he did anything.

He tested it once more, moving forward until the sensation returned before stepping back again.

There was no mistaking it.

They were stuck.

At least for now.

Victor looked down at the chain.

There was no way the Twin Flame Flower could have created a permanent situation like this. Being forced to spend the rest of their lives within six feet of each other made absolutely no sense.

There had to be another way.

Victor focused on the chain.

At first, nothing happened.

Then he felt something.

A strange connection buried beneath the physical sensation of the chain. It was faint, almost impossible to notice, but the longer he concentrated on it, the clearer it became.

Victor followed that connection with his consciousness.

And suddenly, his vision changed.

He found himself looking somewhere he shouldn’t have been.

Lyra’s inner world.

Victor froze.

He could see her Core, her Spiritual Energy, and the strange black flame burning within the depths of her inner world.

A bloodline flame.

Victor’s eyes widened.

She has one?

He hadn’t known.

Before he could examine it further, Lyra’s head snapped toward him.

Her eyes narrowed.

"What are you doing?"

Victor felt her presence inside the space he had entered.

Her expression changed from confusion to outright anger.

"How dare you intrude on my personal space!"

Victor immediately pulled his consciousness away.

His vision snapped back to the room.

He blinked several times.

Lyra was staring directly at him.

Victor gave her a sheepish smile before turning away almost immediately.

His eyes landed on the desk.

The papers scattered across it suddenly became extremely interesting.

Victor picked one up and pretended to read.

He stared at it for several seconds.

After another moment, he slowly placed the paper back down and turned toward Lyra.

"Hey, Lyra."

Lyra’s expression hardened.

"Don’t use my name, human."

Victor paused.

"Okay."

Silence filled the room.

A few moments passed.

Victor glanced toward her.

"Hey, Shadow Fox."

Lyra slowly turned toward him.

"What?"

"Did you also rank up?"

"That’s none of your business."

"Right."

Victor looked down at the chain connecting them.

Being connected to someone this angry all the time wasn’t going to be fun if this lasted very long.

He sighed.

"Well, this is pleasant."

Lyra’s eye twitched.

Victor continued.

"You realize we’re stuck together, right?"

"Unfortunately."

"And the chain is connected to our souls."

"I can see that."

"So if we’re going to figure out what happened, we should probably work together."

Lyra stared at him.

Her expression somehow managed to contain annoyance, anger, and disbelief all at once.

"I’m not doing anything with you, human. Haven’t you figured that out yet?"

Victor stared at her for a moment.

Then he sighed.

"You know, you’re not very cooperative."

"And you’re not very intelligent."

Victor looked at her for another second before letting out a quiet laugh.

"Okay, Shadow Fox."

He turned away from her.

There was clearly no getting through to this emotionally stunted individual.

For the next hour, Victor stopped paying attention to her.

Instead, he focused on himself. He cultivated for a while, examined the room, and studied the various objects left behind by Samal.

It was then that something caught his eye.

A giant map covered one of the walls.

Victor immediately stood.

He approached it slowly.

His eyes widened.

The lower half contained everything he already knew.

The waterfall.

The lava region.

The Spirit Pond.

The Coliseum.

But the upper half...

Victor stared.

For the first time, he could see the entire map.

The forest stretched across a massive portion of it, with the vast alchemical garden marked throughout its territory. The carefully organized paths and sections he had seen in Samal’s vision were represented here in far greater detail.

Then he saw another symbol.

A fox.

Shadow Fox territory.

A little farther away was another symbol he immediately recognized.

A Lava Rock Monkey.

Their clan.

Victor’s eyes continued moving across the map.

Farther into the deeper forest were several areas marked with symbols he didn’t recognize.

One section appeared to depict some kind of collection area for spiritual beasts.

Another section contained what looked like a series of enclosed spaces.

Then, deeper toward the right side of the map, Victor noticed another marking.

His eyes narrowed.

Tier Two Alchemical Ingredients.

His curiosity immediately grew.

There were several other symbols scattered throughout the forest as well.

At least ten.

Victor had no idea what any of them meant.

He memorized their locations anyway.

Then his gaze reached the very top of the map.

And he stopped.

A massive structure dominated the deepest portion of the forest.

It was unlike anything else marked on the map.

The building was enormous.

Almost castle-like.

And on its front was a symbol Victor recognized immediately.

The upside-down flask.

Victor stared at it.

The more he studied the structure, the more important it seemed.

It wasn’t simply another location.

Everything about the map suggested that this place stood above the others.

Victor’s mind raced.

Could that be Samal’s personal quarters?

The thought made sense.

If Samal had been the leader of the organization depicted in the ancient paintings, then perhaps that enormous structure had been where he lived.

Whatever it was, Victor knew one thing.

He needed to get there.

He had spent so much time following fragments of information that he had almost forgotten how much remained unexplored.

And now...

That enormous castle-like structure.

Victor finally had a direction.

He needed to uncover every secret he could along the way.

But eventually, he had to reach that place.

He stared at the map, excitement slowly building inside him.

There was something hidden here.

Something connected to Samal.

Something connected to the upside-down flask.

And Victor desperately wanted to know what it was.

Several feet away, Lyra watched him.

She couldn’t understand what he was thinking.

But she could feel it.

The excitement.

The curiosity.

The longing to understand.

Through the strange connection between their souls, she could sense the emotions running through him, even though she couldn’t see his thoughts.

Victor was trying to understand something.

Something hidden beneath all these mysteries.

Lyra looked toward the map.

To her, it was little more than a giant square covering the wall, filled with strange symbols and markings she didn’t understand.

She had no idea what any of it meant.

But as she watched Victor stare at it with such intense fascination, something unfamiliar stirred within her.

Curiosity.

Lyra narrowed her eyes.

Then she looked at the map again.

For the first time, she wondered what exactly Victor had discovered.

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