While Ash and his companions began organizing the Velora Kingdom to their liking, the protagonist Kale found himself in his chambers of the Voss Kingdom, a palace that breathed crimson mist and black water with every passing moment.
The walls were polished obsidian veined with scarlet crystal that pulsed like living arteries, and from hidden channels carved into the ceiling, dark waterfalls cascaded in perfect silence, vanishing into unseen grates before they ever touched the floor.
The air itself carried the heavy scent of blood-lotus and deep ocean, thick enough to taste, while crimson lanterns floated overhead, their flames flickering black at the edges. Over the past two months since entering the rankings, Voss had climbed to 9,400.
This shift did not come from Kale or any of the others doing anything extraordinary; it came from the kingdoms above them, for these lower ranked kingdoms were all separated by the smallest of margins.
Gaining even a million kilometers of land was enough to change the standings. Also, it was impossible for ranked kingdoms to plunder those unranked. Absorbing their land or crowns was literally impossible—the only way it would be acceptable was if an unranked kingdom dared to raise their blades at the rankings.
And when Stormrend and Voss combined, it was enough to place them higher than just 10,000.
Kale's eyes opened for the first time in two months. All this while he had been getting used to all the things he had devoured, which were primarily lightning and wind affinities along with a few talents.
Blue-white sparks danced across his skin, and faint breezes stirred the crimson mist around him even though the chamber was sealed. Every breath carried the sharp bite of ozone and high-altitude wind.
"It's time the anomaly disappears," he said, heading out of the chambers.
More than six months ago the Goddess had told him about Ash Solace, and until now he had pushed it to the side.
Before he truly began his conquest on the rankings, it was time for him to clear a slight pest. Before heading into a small seclusion, he had already asked his lovers—Rhea in specific—to find anything related to the former Prince of Solace.
The moment he stepped into the harem wing, the crimson mist parted like silk curtains. Four women turned as one, their newly forged S-rank auras pressing against the air like warm waves.
Sylvara stood nearest the arch, skin pale as moonlight on deep water, waist-length ink-black hair drifting through the air was still, violet eyes holding the promise of drowning. Rhea stood a pace behind, sun-bronzed muscle and old scars, short scarlet hair tousled from training, amber eyes burning with the same battle-hunger that had always lived in her.
Lyrin moved first.
Before Kale had taken his second step she was already there, plush curves pressed tight against him, teal-green hair spilling across his chest in fragrant waves. She curled her arms around his neck and pouted up at him, lower lip caught between her teeth in playful possessiveness.
Seyra approached last, tall and regal, bronze fingers sliding along the back of his neck with the calm certainty of a woman who had never needed to hurry. Black hair streaked with violet fell to her waist, stirring gently in the phantom winds that followed Kale everywhere now.
They surrounded him without a word, mist curling lovingly around their ankles like loyal hounds. Cool fingers traced the new lightning scars beneath his open robe. Warm lips brushed the hollow of his throat.
Soft laughter vibrated against his skin.
For a long, indulgent minute he let them love him, let the scent of blood-lotus and deep water and warm bodies drown out the ozone still crackling in his veins. Then he caught Rhea's chin, tilting her face up.
"Report."
The mist itself seemed to still.
Rhea produced a crystalline slate that bled crimson characters across its surface.
[Velora Kingdom territory: 19,612,400 km
Ruler: Ash Solace
Current ranking: 9,998]
Silence fell so completely that the crackle of residual lightning sounded like screams. Kale's pupils narrowed....
"He became a King?" he asked, voice deceptively calm. "And entered the rankings at that... I should have bound that bastard as well..."
Rhea's grip tightened on the slate.
"This change only recently happened. Their Kingdom entered the rankings about a week ago."
A slow, dangerous smile curved Kale's mouth.
"Hmm... Interesting, but it won't change anything. Issue a war... three months.," he declared, and the mist itself recoiled from the promise in his voice.
"A total war.... Winner takes crown, land, lives, everything."
'It's time the anomaly learns what happens when he disturbs my Goddess.' He thought to himself as crimson mist exploded outward in a perfect ring, extinguishing every orb of light and leaving only the blue glow of his eyes in the sudden dark.
----
Below the Voss Kingdom, in a kingdom perpetually draped in twilight, Aster Ebonreach... he now called himself, sat alone on a throne of black iron that drank every photon of light. Maps of the lower ranked kingdoms lay spread across a table of polished obsidian, marked with hundreds of tiny crimson pins (unranked kingdoms he had already broken without spilling a single drop of ranked blood).
His own Kingdom, Ebonreach, hovered at 9 889 on the World Stele a number he had achieved not through slaughter, but through hundreds of unranked crowns being handed to him with trembling hands and sealed with smiles that never reached his eyes.
A single sheet of midnight parchment rested beneath his pale fingers.
Kingdom Name: Lutharn Kingdom
Current rank: 9 969
Ruling S-ranks: three (all early-stage)
Territory: 24,490,589Km
----
Aster traced the name Lutharn with one fingertip, as though caressing a throat he intended to cut.
He had spent months feeding the Lutharn royals exactly what they wanted to hear: promises of alliance, shared defense pacts, a marriage between his assistant, Mia and their Crown prince.
Every letter, every gift, every whispered rumor had been a thread in a noose disguised as a lifeline. Three days from now the Lutharn queen would sign the Treaty of Eternal Night. On paper it would bind their kingdoms in mutual protection.
In practice it would dissolve Lutharn's rulership the moment the ink dried, folding their land, their treasury, and their three S-ranks into Ebonreach like a shadow swallowing candlelight. Aster leaned back, crimson eyes half-lidded, and allowed himself the smallest, coldest smile.
"Checkmate in three moves," he murmured to the empty hall.
"And the board will never even know it was played."
Outside his throne-room windows, the perpetual twilight of Ebonreach deepened by a single, satisfied shade.