Leviathan's true body floated in the hazy void outside the colossal Hell of Pain. Beneath his gaze, on the outer layer of the complicated Hell maze, lay a vast plaza, tens of thousands of times larger than the entire Eurasian continent.
This plaza was enclosed on all four sides by monumental stone walls, magnificent as the continuous Yan Mountains. On these immense walls were carved countless bizarre, irregular symbols and patterns. Ordinary people looking at these distorted markings would instantly fall into inescapable, terrifying nightmares.
Within the boundless, pitch-black sky above this massive Hell plaza, hundreds of thousands of dark, fiery, blood-red masses constantly intertwined yet simultaneously dispersed, washing over everything and giving off a chilling yet disturbing atmosphere. Within this vast, dark sky, countless ferocious, skeletal dragons with grotesque faces soared back and forth, their ash-covered giant wings flapping.
As these malevolent behemoths danced, emitting perilous auras, they unleashed deep ROARS and piercing, chilling LAUGHTER. Beneath these gigantic beasts, the vast plaza was covered by towering, crimson spires, topped by intense white flames burning with CRACKLING sounds.
Under the illumination of these chilling fires, sharp stone spikes scattered across the ground constantly emitted beams of light that appeared almost tangible.
These dazzling beams shot out in all directions, piercing for thousands of miles. However, they did no physical harm. They only inflicted the terrifying sensation of being subjected to ten thousand cuts and having one's waist broken, an excruciating feeling of pain.
Much like how the human world uses perfume to maintain a pleasant atmosphere, these piercing light beams sweeping the plaza were the devils' perfume, the thing that regulated the ambiance. Their existence ensured that every Ascended Practitioner who arrived here could fully savor the ultimate pain of being flayed every single second.
Of course, if an ordinary person with weak willpower were to arrive here, they would be sliced alive by the light beams in mere seconds, reduced to an incomplete, unbearable corpse.
Beyond the periphery, entering the deeper regions of the plaza, one could see many living statues, their numbers far exceeding the skeletal remains seen earlier. These statues took all shapes and forms, displaying different postures of agony.
Some were pierced through by sharp, cruel blades; others were enveloped in molten, crimson steel. Some bodies swelled until they burst from being possessed by spirits; some were reduced to rotten fragments by dark magic. Some were impaled by ice; others were riddled with holes by venomous worms; and some were crushed, their intestines spilling out from heavy pressure.
These statues, constantly enduring various methods of torture without being allowed to die or move, all had eyes filled with bone-chilling agony and helpless fear.
They stared intensely at the bald man and Seraphine's clone body, as if pleading for release.
The bald man ignored them, perhaps even feeling contempt for their failure to appreciate the experience.
Seraphine also had no time for these wandering souls.
The two passed through the silent expanse of statues and continued toward the center of the plaza. After traversing a long distance, they finally reached the heart of the square. There stood a dark ancient palace, hundreds to thousands of times taller than Everest, silently looming over the ground. This ancient Demon Palace, saturated with darkness and malice, seemed to capture all the evil in the world, instilling a sense of intense terror.
At the palace's towering apex, which pierced the gloomy sky, was the lower portion of Leviathan's true body, its massive spire plunged deep into the structure.
They were not the only ones here. Thousands upon thousands of Ascended Practitioners, each bearing a grotesque appearance, mingled with an even greater number of Cursers. Silence reigned; no one chatted, no one replied. Everyone maintained a suffocating stillness.
Suddenly, the massive gate before the Demon Palace, taller than the mountains surrounding it, slowly opened. The sound was like a massive earthquake.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!
Seeing the entrance opened, the waiting crowd of Practitioners immediately led the Cursers in groups into the hall. Without unnecessary formalities, after everyone entered the vast hall, the spire of Leviathan, hovering above, suddenly twisted, transforming into tens of thousands of worm-like, fleshy tentacles that slowly descended.
Simultaneously, each Curser was guided by the Practitioners beneath a fleshy tentacle. They were paired up precisely, not a single one missed.
SQUIRM, SQUIRM, SQUIRM—
After a moment of strange, writhing sounds, the surfaces of all the tentacles sprouted smaller structures, resembling an outgrowth of veins, bones, muscle tissue, and mucous membranes. At the tips of these secondary tentacles grew various crude, bloody surgical tools.
Seraphine's clone observed this grotesque scene with detached interest.
Scalpels, clamps, hammers, corkscrews, scissors, pliers, syringes, iron hooks... everything necessary was present.
Next, the fully materialized flesh tentacles descended simultaneously, brutally driving every surgical tool into the heads of the tens of thousands of pitiful Cursers below. Among them was the weak, ordinary-looking clone body that Seraphine had specially constructed.
SIZZLE—
Various instruments rapidly tore open the Cursers' flesh, violently draining their blood.
"The temptation of sensory input is merely an illusion..."
A fragmented, chaotic voice suddenly echoed throughout the entire hall. This was Leviathan's voice, sounding as if it were talking to itself, yet simultaneously proclaiming a decree.
"Only pain is the tangible Hell..."
Syringes injected murky, demonic blood, twisting the soul and body of every Curser.
"Only pain is the true, enduring eternity..."
TSSS TSSS TSSS!
Accompanied by the eerie sucking sound of the syringes, Leviathan immediately began devouring the memories of tens of thousands of Cursers through his numerous Flesh Tentacles.
"Ah, ah, ah, ah."
At this very moment, Seraphine, hidden within the bloody, mangled clone body, laughed mockingly: "Since you believe pain is true eternity, then let me show you... what eternal pain actually feels like."
BUZZ
One second later, the 68 billion years of solitary memory contained within the false soul shot out like a streak of black lightning. It traveled along the Flesh Tentacles directly into Leviathan's true body.
Within this vast, surging torrent, a thread of crimson light tinged with black faintly flickered.
WHOA!
It was as if a dark gate had opened within his vast spiritual consciousness. In an instant, Leviathan felt as if he had fallen into an incredibly confined prison. The inside of the cell held no sound or light, no physical objects, and no living beings. Only himself.
Furthermore, Leviathan's body was rigidly bound and unable to move. He could not even touch the walls of this prison. Even his intangible thoughts were locked, unable to engage in any act of imagination.
"So this is imprisoned memory. Correct, the pain caused by the loss of freedom is not a physical injury," Leviathan's will commented. "My five senses and imagination are blocked. Was this achieved through drugs or spells? Humans have actually developed this kind of technique."
As a collector of the art of torture, Leviathan instantly grasped the potential pain contained within the memory fragment extracted from the Curser.
"Solitude, loneliness, boredom, despair... Interesting, very interesting. I have never experienced this extreme form of pain."
Curiosity piqued, Leviathan began to savor the solitude, enjoying this ultimate boredom.
A month, a year. Leviathan's mind was far stronger than Erice's, so even a year of torment in the void could not affect him. Instead, it became enjoyable. This rare type of pain made him eagerly anticipate what came next.
So he continued to immerse himself, continuing to enjoy it.
Ten years, a hundred years, a thousand years.
During this period, Leviathan initially found it enjoyable: absolute silence, absolute nothingness, absolute solitude. All of these brought him a novel sense of desperate endurance.
However, as time passed, he finally began to feel bored.
His body was restrained and immobile.
He could not see, hear, smell, or touch anything.
He was lost in the great emptiness.
Even the void that had previously brought him novel sensations of pain began to transform into a despair that transcended mere physical injury.
Two thousand years, five thousand years, ten thousand years.
Leviathan felt infinitely lonely.
He became so lonely his mind turned hazy and confused; so bored his thoughts became chaotic. He could no longer focus, nor could he even imagine anything.
Leviathan was extremely confused: "Why is this Curser's memory so long? How can humans possess such longevity? What exactly is happening? How much longer must I endure this?"
His confusion was useless. His innate demonic trait dictated that he could not return to the outside world until he had completely savored this memory.
Twenty thousand years, fifty thousand years, a hundred thousand years.
Leviathan was approaching madness.
This extreme solitude became unbearable.
He tried to break free, but discovered he was completely unable to escape.
His senses and body were rigidly bound; his imagination was imprisoned. He was capable of doing nothing.
He could only passively and helplessly endure.
"How much longer will this last?!"
Two hundred thousand years, five hundred thousand years, one million years.
This period of void time, nearly twice the length of Human Civilization's entire recorded history, almost completely scoured away Leviathan's entire mind.
He could only repeatedly recall his past—recalling the exquisite memory of torturing tens of millions of people.
Leviathan saw his former subordinates and servants, saw his former glory and power, saw his former territory: the vast and immense Hell of Pain.
But all of that now belonged to someone else.
He was now just a pathetic prisoner.
The former Leviathan was an existence brimming with vitality and fervor, but now he could only endure this endless despair.
Pain?
Of course, it was painful. Although Leviathan was an entity that inherently pursued all forms of extreme pain.
But when pain itself becomes too monotonous, too long, and too dull, it transforms into something that surpasses pain itself: emptiness.
An absolute void that no memory, no sensation, and no desire could fill.
Two million years, five million years, ten million years.
The emptiness deep within his soul grew larger, and Leviathan's reason became increasingly fragile. He felt that his body no longer belonged to him; his soul might not belong to him either.
Leviathan was beginning to lose himself. He could no longer distinguish between himself and the walls of this void prison.
He felt that his life held no meaning and no value whatsoever. He frantically tried to recall that he was supposedly one of the beings named Cursers in the memories of others.
No, no, no, no!
Leviathan felt as though he was that memory; he was this prison.
He could no longer distinguish reality.
He could only passively and helplessly accept this solitude.
"How much longer is this going to last?!"
Two hundred thousand years, five hundred thousand years, one million years.
This period of void time, nearly twice the length of human civilization's entire recorded history, almost completely scoured away Leviathan's entire mind.
He could only repeatedly recall his past, recalling the beautiful memories of torturing tens of millions and countless beings. Leviathan saw his former subordinates and servants, saw his former glory and power, saw his former territory: the vast and immense Hell of Pain.
But all of that... now belonged to someone else. He was just a pathetic prisoner.
The former Leviathan was an entity full of vitality and fervor, but now he could only endure this endless solitude and despair. Pain? Of course, it was painful.
Although Leviathan was an entity that inherently pursued all forms of extreme pain, when the pain itself became too protracted, too boring, and even void-like, such suffering transformed into something terrifying that surpassed pain itself: emptiness.
An absolute void that no memory, no sensation, and no desire could fill.
Two million years, five million years, ten million years. The void deep in his soul grew larger, and Leviathan's reason and wisdom became increasingly fragile. He even felt that his body and soul no longer belonged to him.
Leviathan was... beginning to lose himself. He could no longer distinguish between himself and the confines of this void prison. Leviathan felt that his existence held no meaning or value.
He desperately tried to recall that he was supposed to be one of the beings named cursers in the memories of others.
No! No, no, no.
Leviathan felt as though he was that memory; he was this prison. He could no longer distinguish. Even Leviathan felt his eternally descended, immortal body and spirit suddenly beginning to collapse. Yet, he vaguely felt a sense of anticipation. He awaited the end of his existence, because Leviathan... could no longer endure this terrifying emptiness and void.
Twenty million years, fifty million years, one hundred million years.
During this span of a hundred million years, Leviathan gradually began to lose all his self-awareness and consciousness. His thoughts faded, and his memories became vague emptiness.
Leviathan did not know who he was, nor what experiences he had possessed.
He could only feel endless solitude and despair. His purpose for being born seemed to be solely to endure this eternal silence and void. He was just a tiny particle... controlled by absolute emptiness.
Two hundred million years, five hundred million years, one billion years.
Leviathan had no reaction or recognition left. All perception of himself and the outside world had completely vanished.
He couldn't feel time passing. No, he no longer possessed the concept of sensation. There wasn't even an "him"... or perhaps, the concept of self was gone. He was like an empty shell, nothing remaining.
Two billion years, five billion years, ten billion years.
The empty shell named Leviathan was gradually eroded into nothingness in the vast passage of time. Only a remnant dreg remained, suspended quietly in the void prison.
Twenty billion years, thirty billion years, fifty billion years.
Finally, the 68 billion years of void time reached its end. In this prison of emptiness and void, everything was gone. No thoughts, no consciousness, no memory... everything was hollow.
WHOOSH!
The void collapsed, the emptiness faded.
In the sky of the Hell of Pain, Leviathan suddenly ceased all movement. His body still existed—a powerful entity capable of annihilating the soul of a Grand Universe—but the spiritual will, consciousness, and thought contained within his soul had dissipated into smoke.
At that very moment, deep within Leviathan's soul, a thread of black-tinged crimson light suddenly burst forth.
"AH, AH, AH, AH, HA HA HA HA HA HA!"
Accompanied by laughter reaching the peak of joy, the black-red light gradually spread, revealing Seraphine's vague, invisible form. As soon as she appeared, she instantly expanded, birthing countless black chains.
SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
Tens of thousands of chains shot through the void like venomous snakes, mouths agape and tongues flickering, piercing every layer of structure, inside and out, of Leviathan's soul.
BUZZ!
In an instant, Leviathan's body convulsed violently. The tens of thousands of cursers being refined deep within the ancient palace exploded into blood mist. The thousands of practitioners present recoiled in shock, completely unaware why the God of Hell was suddenly enraged.
They did not know that Leviathan, who had ruled the Hell of Pain for countless eons, had been utterly taken over by an even more terrifying existence....
After completely taking over Leviathan's body and soul, Seraphine immediately began merging with and gaining control over everything the entity possessed: every shred of its power, every sensation, and every aspect of its essence.
Seraphine showed no mercy, completely consuming everything.
In that instant, Leviathan's true form—the elongated, gray-white spire nearly a million kilometers long, floating outside the complex maze structure of the Hell of Pain—vibrated violently.
RUMBLE, RUMBLE, RUMBLE!
Following the profound disturbance of this eight-sided spire, the limitless darkness, flames, and blood-red light filling the boundless dark sky seemed to roar like a tide, surging and rushing outward into the trillions of kilometers of surrounding void.
"ROAR!"
"ROAR!!"
"AOOOOO!"
Under this sudden, massive upheaval, the skeletal dragons that had been soaring and dancing in the infinite dark sky immediately shrieked fearfully and flew far away.
They dared not linger for even a second near the area of space where Leviathan's true form was located. It was as if by instinct they knew that delaying even a moment longer would lead to their own utterly gruesome demise.
Below, the thousands of Ascended Practitioners inside the ancient Demon Palace had no idea what had transpired. They didn't know why the magnificent Leviathan had suddenly killed so many Cursers, nor what it was doing in the sky.
However, despite their confusion, due to Leviathan's long-established influence, the Practitioners were highly discreet. No one asked questions, and few spoke; all stood silently awaiting orders.
Only the bald man, Ellincer, had vaguely guessed something.
"As expected of the Mistress!" he thought in shock. "Leviathan, who has ruled Hell for untold eons, was actually defeated by the Mistress."
This earth-shattering event did not last long; it quickly subsided. Without any accident, resistance, or obstruction, Seraphine (Clone) completely absorbed everything belonging to Leviathan in less than a minute.
This was normal.
After all, Leviathan was, ultimately, only a False God, equivalent to merely a Stage Ten Overlord in the real universe.
In summary, at this point, Seraphine became the new Leviathan, the new God of Hell.
Her life level jumped from merely Morningstar rank to the False God rank. She had become an existence on par with Ansel, the Creator God of the witch world.
"Hmm..."
In the hazy void, the gray-white spire suddenly shot out thousands of beams of black light, sweeping down toward the colossal Hell maze below.
After seizing this body and soul, Seraphine understood.
The black beams Leviathan usually cast outward were essentially his eyes, mouth, and hands. The black light was his complex ability for perception, communication, and physical interaction.
"Sixty-eight billion years of memory is still too heavy. It essentially washed away Leviathan's entire consciousness and memory; not even dregs remain," Seraphine murmured faintly into the void.
Despite saying so, she felt no great regret.
Seraphine knew that physical carriers of information could be destroyed, but the information itself could not be destroyed, only relocated. Traces of Leviathan's past information would certainly remain in the Hell of Pain and the surrounding void. She didn't need much; just a little would suffice for Seraphine to deduce quite a few valuable things.
"First, let's see what 'Legacy' Leviathan has left for me."
Saying this, Seraphine began a detailed self-examination of this colossal body and the powerful soul within. After only a few seconds, she completely compiled the information regarding Leviathan's abilities:
Leviathan, the God of Suffering, Ruler of the Labyrinthine Hell. Due to having extremely vast life force and soul power, any injury to his body or soul would heal instantly, and he possessed an endless lifespan.
Simultaneously, Leviathan shared an extremely close connection with the colossal Hell maze below, based on the plane of causality. Simply put, so long as Hell existed, he could not die.
Leviathan's physical strength was also exaggeratedly immense, nearly comparable to the core of a neutron star in the real universe. His mental power level completely surpassed the mass of the Sun. It could even be said that he could effortlessly drag the entire Solar System across the vastness of the universe.
Besides these essential foundational attributes, Leviathan possessed a large number of unique special abilities, each carrying immense prestige.
For example, all the various dark arts and talisman inscriptions used by the Ascended Practitioners in Hell were researched, invented, and created by Leviathan over countless eons.
Furthermore, Leviathan possessed an ability famously known as [Soul Hegemony]. This ability guaranteed him terrifying lethal force, influence, and control over all souls whose rank was lower than his own. In terms of subjugating the weak or enslaving them, this power was unparalleled.
[Lord of the Maze]: Having dwelled for countless eons in the hazy void, Leviathan possessed a unique understanding of spacetime. He could arbitrarily twist space for long-distance teleportation, and could also bend the dimensional properties and scale measurement of three-dimensional spacetime at will. Making the long short, turning south to north, twisting inside out, thereby creating countless bizarrely locked spaces, and subsequently constructing celestial-level spacetime mazes.
[Throne of Pain]: As the God of Suffering, Leviathan naturally could absorb the pain of countless sentient beings as sustenance. Simultaneously, he used pain to manipulate and warp the consciousness and perception of infinite beings. Furthermore, he could manifest pain into tangible matter and energy to overwrite the reality of living beings and objects across vast areas.
[Reality-Illusion Conversion]: As the supreme leader of Hell's demons, Leviathan's body could freely switch between reality and illusion at will, thus granting immunity to all forms of physical and energy damage.
[Power Impartation]: Most of Leviathan's abilities could be granted to others, used as a fundamental means of complete enslavement, and could be retracted at any time without obstruction.
[Horror Delusion]: All texts, sounds, and images related to Leviathan contained a terrifying curse. Not only would weak-minded mortals fall into dreadful cognitive delusion and spiritual nightmares upon encountering this information, but even highly skilled spellcasters would suffer the same fate.
[Truth Inversion]: Leviathan's mental power was overwhelmingly potent, allowing him to transform illusions into reality, and reality into illusions.
[Elemental Control]: Having lived for untold ages, Leviathan, even without deliberately studying all things in the universe, gradually mastered the so-called elemental power: fire, ice, earth, lightning, storms, defined by metaphysical concepts rather than scientific definitions. Moreover, each element had reached the level of Star Eruption.
[Torture Domain]: Driven by his extreme pursuit of the art of torture, Leviathan could use just a single glance, a mere laugh, or any casual movement to instantly subject any life form below his rank to thousands of different forms of excruciating torment.
This type of torture could manifest as illusory extremity on the spiritual plane, or as horrific reality inflicted upon the soul and body, all depending on Leviathan's single will.
Moreover, all the material and energy consumed by these acts of torment were billed directly to the entity being tormented.
Flesh torn became ropes, excavated bones became hammers, putrefied stomachs became poison sacs, mutated blood became corrosive acid... all transformations were completely random, akin to opening a blind box every time it was used.
Finally, this terrifying domain could be projected across millions of miles, enveloping all sentient beings across vast lands and sealing them into a horrifying purgatory of continuous torment until death.
Beyond these abilities, Leviathan possessed numerous other powerful skills, such as Corpse Contact, Rending Aura, Plague Manipulation, Shadow Tainting, Dream Assimilation, Metamorphosis, and Mental Projection.
In summary, Leviathan was truly worthy of the title King of Hell; his abilities were numerous, complex, and overwhelmingly difficult to deal with. Even Cadelon, were she to descend from the Realm of Phantasm to fight him, would likely need to activate Star God Mode just to secure a stable victory.
"Interesting, it feels like collecting a set in a game."
Seraphine skillfully activated the Metamorphosis ability. Amidst continuous RUMBLING sounds, her form rapidly reconstructed into a colossal, faceless, eyeless giant millions of kilometers tall, sitting cross-legged in the vast void.
Ignoring the shock and awe radiating from the thousands of Practitioners inside the Demon Palace below, Seraphine's own body radiated a brilliant black light as she 'gazed' over the entire structure of the Hell maze. Now that this Hell was her possession, she naturally needed to conduct an 'inventory' to tally Leviathan's remaining Legacy.
BUZZ
The black light washed over and scanned the structure layer by layer. A massive amount of information about the maze inside Hell rapidly flooded Seraphine's spirit. She noted that this Hell of Pain truly deserved its title as the Labyrinthine Hell.
Almost 99% of all its internal and external structural layers were maze formations. These mazes served as the living quarters, workspaces, and sites of ritualistic prayer for the Ascended Practitioners, equivalent to Residential Districts.
Next came the Personal Hells, the manor-like structures where Cursers were kept, which Seraphine had just explored. These were akin to solitary confinement cells. They manifested environments based on physical torment and the exploration of the Curser's darkest inner emotions, simultaneously inflicting maximum physical pain and spiritual affliction to 'produce' a large quantity of high-quality emotional suffering.
Following this was Mental Torture.
This form of confinement inflicted no physical punishment on the Curser; it only tormented consciousness and thought. Externally, it resembled murky crystal orbs, each typically imprisoning many chaotic, mindless souls.
Many high walls in the Hell maze were embedded with these crystal orbs. Those who didn't know better would assume they were mere decorations; those who did know realized they were already trapped within.
Next were the Pits of Flame, Hell's dumping grounds. Ninety percent of souls falling into Hell were dumped into these pits. Because the pain 'quality and quantity' generated by ordinary humans was too poor, and their desires were not fierce enough, they lacked the worth to enter Personal Hells or Mental Prisons. They were only fit to experience endless burning in the Pits of Flame, enduring the scorching air, smoke, and noise, all while suffering ceaseless regret until they utterly vanished.
Besides these, there were also the Prayer Rooms and Cultivation Abbeys, dedicated spaces for the Hell Practitioners to pray and make offerings to Leviathan. These places were usually presided over by Great High Priests, similar to the bald man.
"Great High Priests..." Seraphine's curiosity piqued, and she extended her Mental Power, instantly surveying and tallying the number of all Great High Priests in Hell: six hundred and sixty-six. This number was exactly four times the number of Resplendent Moon level witches in Ansel's world.
However, if the two sides fought, Seraphine felt the witches would have a slightly higher chance of winning. This was because the High Priests rarely relied on self-cultivation for their strength; it was all granted by Leviathan. Furthermore, their means were relatively limited, they were just difficult to kill permanently, capable of resurrecting within Hell even if they perished.
At least the number of ordinary Practitioners reached several hundred thousand, their power unevenly distributed, generally fluctuating between Level Three and Morningstar rank.
Besides them, Seraphine also discovered a group almost never featured in the original plot: the Engineers. These ugly, cumbersome, dark creatures possessed decent self-healing abilities but had no offensive or defensive power. They were the 'construction crew' specialized in building and repairing Hell's many structures. This group also seemed to be transformed from humans, numbering slightly fewer than the Practitioners.
Next were the skeletal dragons that constantly soared in the hazy void outside the maze. Seraphine couldn't deduce the origin of these skeletal dragons; she only knew this type of dragon was called the Hider.
As for the Hellhounds and the packs of hellish cats wandering within the dark corridors, their low combat power wasn't worth paying much attention to.
After cataloging these Legacies, Seraphine calmly directed her black 'gaze' toward the deepest part of the colossal maze, the Hell Library.
"If it's a library, then it must contain a great deal of valuable data."
Seraphine, whose true body resembled a stationary, enormous star like Leviathan, suddenly projected a wisp of mental avatar. In an instant, it crossed countless walls, secret rooms, stairs, and corridors, reaching the entrance of the library.
The library doors were unusually tall, reaching several thousand meters high.
"What is this?"
Suddenly, Seraphine, looking up at the lintel of the massive doorway, discovered an insignia carved there: a feather mark.
"Interesting. Is this related to angels?"
Looking up at the massive iron gate, she slightly extended her hand and tapped forward.
DONG
As if struck simultaneously by a hundred siege engines, the black gate boomed loudly and was violently shoved open. Afterward, Seraphine's illusory figure flashed inward, disappearing into the dense black smoke behind the door.
Passing through the smoke, she saw a vast, blood-red hall, the size of a plaza.
TAP TAP TAP
The hall was profoundly silent. Every footfall Seraphine made echoed far away. In the quiet air, she could even faintly hear the breathing of souls.