Seventy-four days in Elysium had passed since Jack first discovered the Umbral Lotus.
The crimson moon dominated the night sky, casting an intense red glow across the twenty-fifth floor of Tartarus Spire with intensity that made shadows seem to writhe.
The phenonon occurred once every five years, a celestial alignnt that transford the normally pale sky into what appeared to be the blood of the gods dripping from the heavens.
Thirty-nine thousand demons assembled around the castle's periter, their collective presence creating pressure in the air that made reality feel thin.
They stood in perfect formation, organized by rank and capability, their discipline a testant to the authority that bound them to service.
The Mistborn occupied the outer rings, ninety-three wraiths whose translucent forms flickered in the crimson moonlight.
Sixteen Shadow Panthers prowled the middle ranks, their obsidian fur drinking in the red illumination until they beca patches of absolute darkness.
The Ice Drake stood to the north, its crystalline scales refracting the blood moon's light into patterns that painted the ground in shattered ruby.
Stormfang coiled in the eastern quadrant, the wyvern's wings folded against its scaled body as it watched the proceedings.
The Granite Sovereign held position in the west, its massive stone form motionless as a mountain.
Pho, Kyren, and Corvin waited near the castle's main entrance, waiting for their master.
The Hydra's seven heads swayed in rhythm, eyes tracking movents across the assembled forces.
The Voidweaver floated above the southern wall, its form distorting space as it blended into its surroundings.
Father Caelen stood with Ren near the garden's entrance, his expression carrying satisfaction.
Living long enough, he understood the significance of this ritual, despite never having witnessed it before.
Ren waited patiently to see the outco of things that would ultimately lead to his release from the tower.
Rynath and Malia waited beside them.
Their tongues flicked out occasionally as they waited.
Oscar materialized. The sentient spear's tallic surface glead, reflecting the crimson light as it stood firmly embedded in the ground.
Aishra perched on one of the castle's lower battlents, the little demon's attention fixed on the garden where the actual ceremony would take place.
The Disaster-class serpent Jack had claid, coiled near the garden's southern edge, its massive form creating an additional boundary between the assembled forces and the ritual space.
But in the garden itself, only ten entities remained.
Jack stood at the center, hands in his pockets, his posture carrying confidence that bordered on arrogance.
The white hair and yellow-orange eyes that marked him as unusual even among the supernatural assembly. The blood moon's illumination rendered his appearance simultaneously human and distinctly otherworldly.
Loryn waited three paces behind him; the demon's skeletal body waited patiently for orders.
The seven Moonveil Serpents occupied the garden's periter, their massive forms coiled around stone markers set specifically for this ceremony.
Each creature was forty feet of silver-and-purple scales that shifted colors depending on how the crimson moonlight struck them.
Their eyes radiated an intelligence that surpassed typical animal cognition, reflecting centuries of accumulated knowledge within their ancient gazes.
At the garden's exact center, planted in soil that had been prepared through careful cultivation over the past five years, grew the Umbral Lotus.
The flower was small and delicate, rising perhaps six inches above the surface of the black water pool it grew from.
Its petals were closed tight, the color of absolute void, waiting for the blood moon's alignnt before opening.
The black water didn't reflect light or ripple despite the flower growing from its center.
It sat there like a liquid shadow.
Jack's eyes tracked upward, noting the blood moon's position relative to the garden's center. The alignnt was nearly perfect, the celestial body positioned directly overhead in a configuration that occurred only during specific lunar cycles.
"It's ti," Jack stated, his voice carrying across the garden without requiring raised volu.
The command wasn't directed at anyone specifically but served as an announcent that the ritual would now comnce.
Loryn moved imdiately, as Jack produced an obsidian bowl from the dinsional storage and placed it in Loryn's hands.
The vessel was roughly two feet in diater, its interior stained with residue from the serpent blood it had contained since the tenth floor's harvest.
The silver-and-purple liquid still filled the bowl, ready to spill if mishandled.
The magical essence condensed within the fluid was palpable even from a distance.
Pressure that made the air around the bowl feel thick.
Jack gestured toward the Umbral Lotus with casual motion that carried absolute certainty about what would happen next. "Pour so over the flower."
Loryn approached the plant carefully as he angled the obsidian bowl to allow controlled flow.
The silver-purple blood stread from the vessel's edge, falling in thick ribbons that struck the folded petals.
The Umbral Lotus responded imdiately.
The petals began unfurling, dark material spreading outward in a motion that defied natural plant growth, driven by sheer speed.
Within seconds, the bud had transford into a fully opened flower, its structure revealing a complexity beyond simple botanical design.
The petals were black, absorbing the blood moon's crimson light until they beca voids in reality.
Silver veins ran through each petal in patterns that matched the script carved into Tartarus Spire's walls, ancient language of the Soul Wardens made manifest in organic form.
At the flower's center, a core of condensed darkness pulsed in rhythm with the blood moon overhead.
The transformation was completed within fifteen seconds, and the Umbral Lotus now displayed its full mature structure under the celestial alignnt that had triggered its bloom.
A system notification materialized in Jack's vision, text appearing with clinical precision.
[Umbral Lotus - Mature]
[Harvest Available: 5 Dark Prism Crystals]
[Next Harvest: 365 Days]
[Current Conditions: Optimal]
[Blood Moon Alignnt: Active]
[Soul Realm Gateway: Accessible Upon Consumption]
Jack's eyes scanned the information, his mind imdiately recognizing the limitation.
Three hundred sixty-five days between harvests ant a significant waiting period before additional flowers could be collected. The Soul Realm required entry for accessing past Soul Wardens, and restricting that access to annual windows created strategic complications.
But the notification ntioned current conditions as optimal, suggesting variables that could be modified.
"Loryn," Jack stated, his tone carrying command that expected imdiate compliance. "Dump the rest of the blood into the soil."
Loryn tilted his head slightly.
His hands adjusted the obsidian bowl's angle, tipping it further to allow the remaining viscous liquid to pour out in a thick, dense stream.
The silver-purple liquid struck the soil beneath it, spreading around the Umbral Lotus's base.
The ground drank the blood eagerly, dark soil darkening further as the magical essence spread through the root.
The system notification updated imdiately.
[Umbral Lotus - Enhanced Growth Detected]
[Additional Magical Essence: Moonveil Serpent Blood (Significant Quantity)]
[Recalculating Harvest Tiline...]
[Next Harvest: 182 Days]
[Growth Rate: Doubled]
[Yield Potential: 1.2×]
Jack's expression shifted into sothing approaching satisfaction as he watched the tiline compress from three hundred sixty-five days to one hundred eighty-two.
The blood had cut the waiting period in half, confirming his hypothesis that the plant's growth could be accelerated through additional supernatural resources.
But six months still created limitations. If the Soul Realm required multiple entries for locating all seven Soul Keys, waiting half a year between visits would extend the search across years rather than months.
But...
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