At the edge of the Vital Star Domain, within the deepest chamber of the "Monarch" flagship.
Cassandra stood alone in this enclosed space she transformed into a blood sacrifice altar, her violet eyes gazing at the eerie sight before her.
The entire chamber was an irregular oval, with originally cold metal walls now fully covered by living flesh.
The writhing flesh tissues were like the inner walls of a giant organ, surfaces densely covered with a blood vessel network resembling spider webs.
Whenever blood flowed through, those vessels contracted greedily, pulsating with an unsettling sucking sound.
At the altar’s center, six "foreseer beings" from the Vital Civilization were neatly arranged in specific positions.
These beings possessed bodies similar to octopuses, but their heads were entirely crystal structures.
Through their translucent crystal heads, one could clearly see the silver-blue liquid of thoughts flowing inside, slowly rotating like a galaxy.
They were initially sages of the Vital Republic—rare life forms who could foresee future paths through their collective consciousness network.
Now, they were tightly bound to the flesh altar by specially crafted living chains.
These chains were not dead objects but some parasitic abyssal creatures.
Like blood vessels, they deeply embedded themselves into the bodies of the foreseer beings, slowly and continuously extracting their life essence.
The thought liquid within the crystal heads visibly depleted, dropping into the central recess of the altar.
With each drop of thought liquid, it stirred bizarre temporal ripples in the air.
"How ironic is the ability to foresee the future..."
Cassandra caressed the altar’s edge, her voice filled with a certain pleasure.
"You can see through the mist of time, glimpse the trajectory of fate, yet couldn’t foresee your own death at this moment. Or perhaps..."
She halted her actions, her eyes glinting with a dangerous light:
"Did you already know the outcome today, yet remain powerless to change it? Is this the lament of the foreseers?"
One foreseer’s crystal head struggled to turn, its multifaceted eyes shimmering like stars, fixated on Cassandra.
Through the thinning thought liquid, fragmented mental waves transmitted:
"Conqueror... your... greed will... devour... yourself... the dark... future... has already... arrived..."
"The dark future?"
Cassandra burst into a piercing laughter.
That laughter echoed in the enclosed fleshy space, carrying a kind of hysterical madness:
"My dear lamb, you are right, but what of it?"
Her hands began manifesting void power, purple energy tendrils extending like snakes, winding around the foreseer’s crystal head.
Upon contact, the foreseer emitted a soul-wrenching spiritual scream, pain conveyed to its kind through the consciousness layer.
"Since darkness is unavoidable, let me drag it closer with my own hands."
Accompanied by her cruel words, the foreseer’s consciousness was forcibly severed.
The silver-blue thought liquid poured down like a waterfall, forming an ever-rotating energy vortex at the altar’s center.
Cassandra stood alone at the edge of this bloody altar, her violet eyes gazing at her masterpiece.
Her black hair was slightly disheveled, her exquisite face stained with a few dried droplets of blood, which she seemingly neglected noticing.
One of the foreseers’ crystal heads still remained intact.
Though the thought liquid had been drained, its eyes remained open, as if silently condemning.
Cassandra reached out a hand, caressing the cold crystal surface.
Her fingers were very white, her nails neatly trimmed.
"Don’t look at me like that."
The witch spoke to the dead foreseer, her tone surprisingly tinged with a form of grievance:
"I didn’t have a choice either, you should understand... In this universe, you either advance or fall back, slay or be slain."
Saying that, her hand began to tremble slightly.
Not out of fear, but due to a certain deep fatigue and... emptiness.
"Mom, what are you doing?"
That was the sound from deep memories, when Eve was very little, she once asked her like that.
Back then, Cassandra was in the laboratory, modulating a certain Magic Potion.
Upon hearing her daughter’s voice, she immediately stopped her work, gently holding her:
"Mom is working, making something that can help others."
"Can it help many people?"
"Yes, it can help a lot of people."
That answer was heartfelt.
At that time, she truly believed her research could make the world better, even if some sacrifices were necessary.
And now...
Cassandra shook her head forcefully, dispelling those memories.
She took out a bizarrely shaped alchemy device.
It was a wand perfectly fused with a human skull and obsidian.
This was her container specially used for storing negative emotion energy.
Cassandra raised the wand high above her head, beginning to collect the massive resentment released by the dying foreseer beings.
Those wise beings forcibly deprived of life, their anger, despair, pain surged towards the wand like a black tide.
"Hatred, despair, pain... the essence crystal of negative emotions, let’s hope it proves useful in the upcoming war."
She caressed the wand’s surface, distorted by the absorbed resentment, and sighed softly again.
Then, Cassandra slowly placed her hands on the central recess of the altar, feeling the thought liquid still warm from the body.