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Alfred held the phone in one hand and adjusted his monocle with the other.

Flames burned on his body, but his words were calm: "A flawed scheme, you deliberately exposed your weaknesses to put your mocking faces before me. Fools, your actions are indeed laughable."

The sound of exploding flames on the other end of the phone faded, replaced by a soft laugh: "Your Excellency, what makes you say that? How can you assume that your loyal subordinate is a laughing fool?"

Alfred's words remained calm: "You did not block the communication signals between my subordinates and me. I received their last flames. Their embers were trampled underfoot by the Enlightened Ones and dissipated in the wind, completely destroyed."

The masked Fool on the other end of the phone dropped his act and laughed, "Congratulations! They've embraced the destiny they desire. It seems we were right to offer that enlightener a drink; he's a good man."

"You could have easily intercepted the communications and made the conversations more convincing, but you only carried out your scheme halfway, then created loopholes to disrupt our conversation. Are you satisfied now?"

The voice came from the other end of the phone again; The Masked Fool chuckled:

“No, Your Grace. I would be happy if you could point out our flaws one by one, like playing a game with you. But you won’t do that, because you’ll hang up the phone right away.”

"Thank you for donating our tavern."

"May the god of joy smile upon you at the time of your death. We are all fools on our own paths, and as the clowns fall, may the applause never cease."

……

Before Alfredo could hang up, The Fool cut off contact first.

Affleck remained expressionless as the flames spread to the exquisitely antique-looking communication device in his hand, burning it to ashes.

This was a dedicated communication system used to contact the Yonghuo Mansion, but it is now completely useless.

The Masked Fool awaited his reply, but Alfredo was not interested in chatting with the Masked Fool.

"Father……"

Not far in front of Alfredo, a black robe was open, swaying mysteriously in the air. A finely crafted doll in the shape of a little girl was skillfully manipulated beneath it, seemingly possessing life.

Purple flames danced on the head of the man in the black robe, just as he called out to his father.

Alfred looked at his child: "Dubra, my brightest child. Do you have anything to say?"

"Does the Eternal Flame Mansion no longer exist?"

“You seem to really consider that place home.” Affleck’s voice carried a hint of emotion.

Alfred gazed at Dubra: "You should understand that only cowards need shelter. The Eternal Flame Mansion is merely a temporary refuge set up on our journey to more efficiently carry out the path of destruction; it is utterly insignificant in the face of our grand ambitions."

"Dubra understands. Thank you for your guidance, Father."

“Yes.” Avery nodded. “Don’t worry, my child. We have never had a way out. Whether the Eternal Flame Mansion exists or not is not important. What is important is that there is still life in this universe that has not stopped breathing, and that civilizations are still developing. We need to ignite them.”

Dubravra bowed, bidding a temporary farewell to his father, Alfred.

Alfred was left alone in the spacious main ship hall.

He conjured a bloodstained rapier out of thin air; the bloodstains on the rapier were not red, but a brilliant gold.

The Great Lord of Annihilation, Xingxiao, was recently killed by [Hope] with a single sword strike.

A man claiming to be the newly born Great Lord of Annihilation approached him and told him that his benefactor, due to special circumstances, could no longer cast his glances without restraint, but had in fact already acknowledged him.

This rapier bears the blood of my benefactor's chest and is imbued with the power of destruction.

He verified from multiple sources that what the other party said was true.

Throughout his long and destructive journey, Alfredo had dealt with some masked fools, and it was not difficult for him to expose their lies.

He did not sense that the other party was the Masked Fool; the other party did indeed possess the power of a Commander, and that power far exceeded that of an ordinary Commander.

The other party told him that Beloborg was the place where [life] had left its mark, and also the trial given to him by the Lord.

His declaration did not initially spread online.

But as he had expected, the declaration of war eventually spread widely. It was easy to ignite a weak civilization, but to destroy it in full view of everyone was a true test.

Only then would it be worthy of the sacred artifact in his hands, stained with the blood of his benefactor.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

Immortal Boat Luofu, a certain square.

Ruan Mei looked at Xiaoya not far away and said to Bai Yan in a calm tone, "Xiaoya is very worried about Belloberg."

Bai Yan's gaze met Ruan Mei's and landed on Xiao Ya. His tone was also very calm: "This is when Aha intervened. Everyone thought Afrit would lose, so Aha must have given Afrit his trump card."

Although Nguyen Mai wasn't particularly interested, she continued the conversation, asking, "What do you think that trump card is?"

After all, this would help her understand Bai Yan better, and understand this [Life] Star God.

“I guess Aha will give Afrit the rapier that stabbed Nanuk and left a scar on his chest.”

Bai Yan watched Xiao Ya and the blind girl playing together and added, "The fact that the weapon used to slash [Destruction] is regarded by the followers of [Destruction] as a gift bestowed upon them by [Destruction] is probably a ridiculous thing to him."

At this point, Bai Yan recounted his past: "When I was looking through Aha's collection, there was that rapier. I wanted to analyze the Nanuk blood on it, but He didn't give it to me, saying that He was keeping it for later use."

"So you're still not worried about Belloberg's situation?"

Bai Yan smiled slightly, a meaningful smile playing on his lips, and said, "How dare you assume that the sword Ahha gave to Alfredo is real?"

Through Bai Yan, Ruan Mei has recently gained a deeper understanding of the god of pleasure: "But we can't assume that the sword is fake, can we?"

"That's right. To avoid being discovered by others, it might be half true and half false."