The flame of the bronze candlestick suddenly turned blue when it licked the seventh drop of wax. Alyssa's linen rag rubbed the third corner of the stone cabinet of the Bloodthorn Code, and the slave brand on the back of her neck suddenly burned - the pain was like a thorny root drilling into the brain along the spine.
"If you miss a spot," Cain pointed the tip of his black iron staff at her tailbone, "there will be one more baby corpse as a blood sacrifice tonight."
Alyssa dug her nails into the cracks of the stone cabinet. The moonlight shone in from the iron window, stretching the one-eyed shadow of the code seal into a thorn shape, and the end just pierced the old tattoo under her collarbone. When the rag touched the groove at the bottom of the stone cabinet, a sticky touch rushed from the fingertips to the top of the head - it was the dried blood of the first generation of Silver Wolf King three hundred years ago, which was being reawakened by her body temperature.
The pain made her kneel on one knee. The stone wall of the forbidden book room suddenly oozed black tears, and the mournful cry of the wailing wall formation exploded in the skull. The illusion came like a burst of rotten blood: the first generation of Silver Wolf King kneeled on the altar under the moon eclipse, holding the crown of thorns in both hands and piercing his heart. The crown spikes grew into a towering tree in his flesh and blood, and the bones of silver wolf cubs hung on each branch.
"Did you see it clearly?" Kane's voice came and went. Alyssa's Eclipse Flame lost control in her palm, and the blue flames illuminated the silver wolf runes floating on the surface of the stone cabinet - those runes were swelling and shrinking with her blood, like some kind of parasite breathing.
Lucian's cold jade light flashed through the secret passage. Alyssa wiped the back of the stone cabinet, where there was a dent carved by her mother's fingernails: **Twin sacrifices can break **. Her blood suddenly boiled, and the slave brand oozed blue blood, blending with the blood of the first king on the surface of the stone cabinet to form a miniature crown.
"The Code loves rebellious sacrifices." Cain ripped open her collar and burned a slave brand on the tip of his scepter. In the severe pain, the illusion became clearer: the heart of the first king was beating under the crown, and every contraction pumped out black thorns, spreading along the veins of the earth to the entire Silver Wolf territory. Alyssa's tattoo suddenly grew, and the vine patterns under her skin spelled out the same altar formation as in the illusion.
When the moonlight shifted to the east wall of the forbidden library, Alyssa caught a glimpse of the secret compartment on the side of the stone cabinet. As she pretended to scream in pain and curled up, the blood-stained rag swept across the crack of the compartment - there was a half-bronze mirror hidden inside, and the content of the code reflected on the mirror was completely different: each line of silver wolf text was squirming, forming a picture of Cain and Lucien being implanted with thorn seeds when they were babies.
"Wipe it clean." Cain kicked over the bucket, and the blood-feeding liquid splashed on the stone cabinet. Alyssa's Eclipse Flame surged when it met the water, illuminating the forbidden library as bright as day. In the firelight, the projection of the code came alive on the wall - the phantom of the first king was stabbing the crown into Cain's chest, and Lucien was holding her heart in the shadows and grinning.
Lucian's claw suddenly pierced the window paper. Alyssa dodged and crashed into the stone cabinet, and the bronze mirror in the secret compartment slipped into her sleeve. Kane's scepter shattered the window frame, but the cold light of the emerald had disappeared into the night.
"Go on." The lord grabbed her bleeding braid and pressed it against the stone cabinet. Alyssa's cheek touched the blood of the first king, and the illusion came again: there was more than one Silver Wolf King in the blood feeding ceremony that year - the corpses of the twins were buried under the altar, and their hearts were wrapped with thorns to form the base of the crown.
The moment the moonlight was swallowed by the dark clouds, Alyssa's blood blended with the blood stains on the stone cabinet. The entire forbidden book room suddenly tilted, and the single eye of the code seal oozed black blood, etching a new silver wolf text on the stone surface: **When the twins' blood soaks into the roots of the crown, the eternal kingship will bloom**.
The tip of Kane's scepter suddenly softened and turned into thorns that wrapped around her neck. Alyssa saw clearly under his torn clothes that the thorns on his heart were blooming, and the pattern of the petals was exactly the same as the spikes on the first king's crown.
"You finally saw it." The lord's pupils expanded into a dark mirror, reflecting the tattoo on the back of Alyssa's neck - it had spread into a complete crown of thorns at some point, with Lucien's emerald ring embedded in the center of the crown.
The floor tiles of the forbidden library suddenly cracked, and what came out was not soil but thorny vines. Alyssa's eclipse flame burned the thorns on her neck and rolled into the shadow of the stone cabinet. Her elbow knocked open the secret compartment, and the fragments of the bronze mirror cut her palm - the reflection of the mirror showed the spirit of the first king emerging behind Kane, pressing the withered palm to the thorn flower in his heart.
Lucien's wild laughter came from underground. Alyssa's blood dripped onto the vines, and the spikes suddenly turned and crawled at her feet like pilgrims. The blood on the surface of the stone cabinet began to flow back, seeping into her meridians along her fingertips, and condensed into a miniature crown phantom at her heart.
When the midnight bell rang, the Weeping Wall formation in the Forbidden Book Room suddenly reversed. Alyssa's Eclipse Flame was no longer under control, and the blue flames licked every inscribed stone brick, burning the truth hidden for three hundred years: the true will of the first generation of Silver Wolf King was to seal the crown forever with the blood of the twins.
Kane's scepter smashed the stone cabinet, and among the flying fragments, Alyssa grasped the stone slab stained with the blood of the first king. When the edge of the stone slab cut her palm, two blood vessels merged at the wound, and suddenly there was a reverberation of a baby crying and thorns growing wildly from underground -
That voice came from deep within her bones, from the nightmares she had every night of her mother dying in childbirth, and from the spare crown hidden in Lucien's emerald ring. When the moonlight pierced through the dark clouds again, Alyssa saw the totem drawn on the stone surface with her blood: thorns entwined with the twins, and the rune of her and Cain's birth engraved in the center of the crown.