Back while Ash was busying himself with the two guards at the gate, the Velora royal throne room was in full session. The domed ceiling of prismatic glass showed the real-time view of the sky. Night had fallen heavy and cold; constellations drifted in slow, ancient spirals, their light spilling in silver rivers down the marble pillars and across the long obsidian table where this kingdom's strongest sat in a tense, breathless circle.
As everyone here was A-rank, none dared sit beneath their station.
King Alaric sat at the head, a towering, burly man with silver hair bound tight by a lunar clasp, eyes cold as winter steel that had forgotten warmth centuries ago.
Queen Sara came next, beauty carved from living glacier, long sapphire hair cascading like frozen waterfalls over pale shoulders, silver eyes sharp enough to cut souls in half.
Then came their two heirs. Crown Prince Cael was the spitting image of Alaric, broad and unyielding, only his hair and eyes dyed the deep blue of storm-tossed seas. His sister Princess Mirene sat beside him, her mother's mirror in delicate, lethal miniature.
Lastly were the two who were not blood yet mattered more than most of the blood combined. General Seris Kaelthar sat with crimson hair tied into two severe braids that looked forged from cooling lava, ember-red eyes locked on the glowing wager contract floating above the table like it had personally offended her.
Grand Scholar Thalion Eversight, frail frame drowning in white robes, crystalline lenses over his eyes projecting faint strategic diagrams that danced like ghosts only he could see, spoke with the weight of six centuries.
"The wager has been agreed upon. In two weeks, we march against the Kingdom of Thalor. Half our territory—fifty thousand square kilometers—and half our wealth on the line." His voice was dry parchment rubbed over steel.
Seris spoke next, low and smoky, each word tasting of ash. "Darius the Mountain Splitter is Thalor's main threat. Three years ago, he cracked an S-rank barrier like it was glass. We'll need more than brute force to put him in the ground."
Thalion's lenses flickered with shifting numbers. "Statistically, our victory probability sits at sixty-two percent if we field Caelen. Seventy-nine if we—"
His words died in his throat as a sudden spike of pure, absolute killing intent slammed through the palace like a silent explosion of divine wrath.
Every A-rank surged to their feet. Chairs toppled. Mana detonated in five different colors.
Mirene reached the balcony windows first. Her jaw dropped, silver eyes wide with something perilously close to fear. "What in the hell is going on?"
Outside, hundreds of B-rank guards and hidden assassins hit the marble in perfect, eerie unison, cores cracking like dropped crystal, bodies crumpling into lifeless heaps beneath the moonlight.
All of them could see three figures casually making their way to the palace entrance. The man in front was so beautiful it hurt to look at directly, like staring into a second sun. The two women behind him walked like goddesses dragged down from rival heavens.
And then they saw Vaeloria—ten flowing tails of living void and moonlight, black-and-white ears twitching, the full moon on her forehead blazing like a second judgment day.
Cael's voice cracked. "W-what the hell is that thing?"
No one could provide an answer.
Because the twenty-meter-tall doors, forged from star-iron older than the kingdom itself, buckled inward as though an invisible titan had kicked them with contempt.
BANG!
Ash strolled through the swirling dust and moonlight, hands in his pockets, coat flaring like living night. Nia and Vaeloria lingered at the shattered threshold, both of them lost in their own storms of thought as they watched him move. Ash's grin widened into something feral and beautiful as notifications bloomed across his vision.
[Heart Sovereign | Seris vel Kaelthar Affection 1%]
[Heart Sovereign | Queen Sara Velora Affection 1%]
[Heart Sovereign | Princess Mirene Velora Affection 1%]
Seris's ember eyes locked on him first. Something ancient and hungry flickered behind them like a starving flame seeing fresh kindling, but it vanished just as fast as twin daggers of solidified ash ignited in her fists. Thalion's lenses shattered in their frames, projections dying as his mind tried and failed to calculate the walking catastrophe in front of them.
Queen Sara and Mirene both felt their hearts stutter for one traitorous heartbeat before weapons of living ice formed in their hands, frost crawling up their arms.
Cael and Alaric weren't far behind, gravity and lunar mana surging like twin tidal waves.
While this happened, Nia's mind was reeling. She remembered exactly how Ash had introduced Vaeloria.
'A master, huh?'
She leaned toward the ten-tailed fox, voice a hushed, burning whisper. "Fox… after this is over, you're training me. I refuse to be left behind."
Vaeloria snapped out of her own spiraling thoughts—trying to understand how every non-human trace had been erased from the world—and turned with a wry, fanged smile. "Well, I won't be able to make you into anything like that monster… but if you want real growth, I'll train you until you break and rebuild a thousand times."
Nia nodded once, fierce and grateful, and turned her blazing eyes back to Ash.
Every weapon pointed at him was already covered in hairline fractures. The wielders themselves trembled, knees threatening to buckle under the crushing weight of his passive Soul Brand trying to force the world to kneel.
Ash stopped ten meters from the obsidian table, tilted his head, and smiled like someone who had just found a new playground built specifically for him.
"Evening. I see you like wagers."
His gaze swept the room. He appraised all of them in a single heartbeat, golden-pink eyes flickering with casual judgment. Nothing excited him too much.
Until his gaze landed on Seris and Thalion.
[Seris Kaelthar
Race: Human (Ancient Cinderborn Bloodline, S)
Age: 317 Years Old
Rank: Mid A-rank (Existence Level 9,412.7)
Mana Pool: 47,300,000
Affinities: Ash, Fire
Talents: Ash Rebirth (A), Ember Dominion (S), Cinderblood Command (A), Requiem of Ash (S)
Aspect: Eternal Pyre Heart (S) – An undying ember lodged in the core of her soul. When fatal damage from fire or ash would kill her, the heart detonates, consumes the attack, and rebirths her at full power, wounds converted into raw mana. Once per century, or once early at the cost of permanent lifespan.]
[Thalion Eversight
Race: Human (Stellar Mind Lineage, S)
Age: 584
Rank: Mid A-rank (Existence Level 8,905.2)
Mana Pool: 52,800,000
Talents: Omniscient Ledger (S), Perfect Memory Palace (A), Lawforge Edict (S)
Aspect: Infinite Calculation Mind (SS) – A living fractal supercomputer woven into his consciousness. Simulates hundreds of futures per minute, predicts kingdom-level outcomes months ahead with 94 % accuracy]
The five of them didn't answer him. Their eyes narrowed to slits of pure killing intent as King Alaric broke the silence, voice like grinding glaciers.
"Who are you to dare intrude on the grounds of this kingdom?!"
Ash gave no fucks about what Alaric was spouting. He reached out lazily; the glowing wager contract flew into his palm and vanished into his ring like it had always belonged to him. He turned to face the five, cracked weapons trembling in their grips, and clapped his hands once.
CLAP.
The gentle, laid-back demeanor evaporated like mist before a wildfire.
"Wagers, wagers…" His smile warped into something beautiful and utterly demonic. "Well how about this one… win and I die....
...Who knows, maybe she'll hold me close this time."
Then his Golden-pink eyes flared with unholy light.
"If I win, however… I will be taking your kingdom. And your lives."
The throne room went deathly, perfectly still.
Nia's golden eyes flared with raw, obsessive devotion.
Vaeloria stood like a proud lover and master both, tails curling possessively.
And everyone else? Small artifacts on their necks shone faintly for a moment. Their back straightened and they summoned new weapons. Then Smiles crept onto their faces...
Seeing this Ash rose a brow.
'Are they resisting my soul brand?' Those were his last thought before...
....They attacked.