The night outside the ruined club was pure chaos.
Roars. Explosions. Magic sigils flaring across the sky in violent neon streaks.
Sai Ji stumbled through the cracked alleyway, half-dragged, half-shielded by the two bodyguards who looked like they were one wrong step away from collapsing.
Sal Vera floated behind them—she didn't walk, she glided—her bare feet never touching the broken pavement.
Every time distant screams echoed, her eyes glowed faintly, as if she could see the exact moment someone died.
It was… unsettling.
But also familiar.
Too familiar.
Sai Ji clutched his head as a pulse hit him—a heavy, ancient drumbeat slamming through his ribs.
BOOM.
His vision blurred.
Another pulse.
BOOM.
His bones vibrated. His breath shook.
His heart wasn't beating normally—it was syncing to something older. Something massive.
His bodyguards exchanged terrified glances.
"That damn alert is still spreading across the whole world!" Lyra hissed.
"Every guild, every race, every top faction is going to come for him!"
"Because he's the boss level…" Fern murmured. "The Sovereign…"
Sai Ji didn't understand.
He didn't remember.
But his instincts—deep, buried, monstrous instincts—felt like they were waking up one by one.
Sal Vera suddenly grabbed his wrist.
"You're fighting it," she whispered, too close, too calm.
"You shouldn't. Not anymore."
Sai Ji ripped his hand back. "Fighting what?!"
She smiled sadly.
"The part of you that ruled long before this world had dynasties. The part of you that created me... and ended me."
Sai Ji froze.
"What do you mean—created you?"
Sal Vera bowed her head, hair hiding her expression.
"When the Werewolf King of the last dynasty died, I was sealed with him. Bound. Sleeping. Waiting."
Her gold eyes met his. "And I woke the moment you were born into this world."
The bodyguards stiffened.
Sai Ji's breath hitched. "But… why would you know me?"
Sal Vera's lips parted with a soft, painful laugh.
"Because you're not new, Sai Ji. You are the Sovereign Class. The only one."
She stepped closer, her voice a whisper made of smoke.
"Your existence is what broke my seal.
I've been awake for a hundred years… waiting for you to recover even a fragment of who you were."
He stumbled back, nearly tripping over rubble.
His head swam.
His chest burned
A primal snarl echoed in his mind—his own voice, but deeper. Violent. Ancient.
Fern grabbed his shoulder.
"Boss—we need to move! The Races are coming! Disaster-class signatures are already closing in!"
Lyra yelled, "He's still level 1, damn it!"
Sal Vera corrected softly:
"He's level 1… but stronger than anyone in the world except a handful of monsters. Because his class isn't mortal."
She touched his cheek gently.
"The Sovereign is above Legendary. Above Mythic. Above Divine."
Her eyes narrowed.
"You are the origin point. The final boss. The one every Race wrote prophecies about."
A shockwave thundered through the district—something huge landed on a distant rooftop.
Dust rained from the broken club behind them.
More roars.
More spells lighting up the sky.
The world wanted him dead… because it didn't know what he would become.
Sai Ji swallowed, throat dry.
"So you're saying… the moment I was born…"
Sal Vera finished for him:
"Every sealed relic awakened. Every prophecy flared. Every faction panicked.
And I—your former companion—was unbound."
His chest tightened again.
"I don't remember you."
"I know," she whispered. "That's why I waited… for your instincts to wake."
Another boom shook the ground.
The bodyguards shoved them forward.
"Talk while running! RUN!"
They sprinted through the debris-filled alley as several enormous shadows dropped behind them—scales, horns, wings, claws.
Sal Vera didn't even turn.
Her voice floated to him through the chaos:
"You feel drawn to me, don't you?
That's instinct.
Because once… long ago… I danced only for you."
Sai Ji's heartbeat thundered.
BOOM.
His Sovereign power pulsed again—shaking the street, cracking the stones beneath his feet.
The pursuers paused.
Just a moment.
Just long enough for Sai Ji to feel it:
He wasn't prey.
He wasn't weak.
He was something they should run from.
Sal Vera whispered:
"Your instincts know me, even if your mind doesn't.
You will remember everything… soon."
And then—
The sky tore open as a Disaster-Class entity dove at them.
The sky had been literally ripped open.
A six-winged, horned beast dropped from the air like a falling meteor—its landing shook the entire street, sending cracks spider-webbing across the ground.
[Disaster-Class Entity Detected]
[Race: Drakonid Tyrant]
[Combat Rating: A+ Apex Predator]
It opened its jaws and roared—
The shockwave alone blew out every window on the block.
Sai Ji was thrown back into a wall, his lungs convulsing, ears ringing.
His bodyguards skidded to a stop in front of him, weapons drawn, hands shaking.
"Oh hell no—Apex Draconid this close?!" one screamed.
"We can't fight that! We can't even scratch that!"
Sai Ji's vision blurred again. That same ancient pulse slammed through him a third time—
BOOM.
The Draconid's pupils constricted.
Just from that pulse.
Sal Vera stepped in front of Sai Ji, hair lifting as if underwater. Her voice was soft… but carried.
"Careful, little dragon.
If he wakes even 2% more, your wings will turn to dust."
The Draconid froze, muscles trembling—not in rage, but instinctual fear.
Sai Ji's breath hitched.
"What… what is happening to me…?"
Another pulse ripped down his spine.
A cold crown-like pressure tightened around his skull.
BOOM.
The System finally caught up.
The Sovereign Vessel is destabilizing.
[Sovereign Pulse: 3rd Resonance Activated]
— Nearby apex entities entering fear-state
— Minor beings entering suppression-state
— Extreme hostility triggered world-wide
[Global System Alert — Forced Broadcast]
ALL FACTIONS NOTICE:
The Sovereign has awakened.
Location: Classified
Recommended Response: EXTERMINATE IMMEDIATELY
[Hidden Title Unlocked]
"He Who Was the Final Boss"
— Passive Effect: Your existence triggers danger-level recalibration for all living beings.
[Passive Skill Awakened]
Sovereign Aura (Dormant 0.7%)
— Every pulse automatically suppresses weaker beings.
— Damage from apex beings reduced by (???).
— Exact values locked.
[Class Revelation — Fragment 1/10]
Class: Sovereign
— Rank: Beyond-Mythic
— Origin: ???
— True Authority: Locked
— Memory Seal: 99% intact
Sai Ji clutched his chest as something inside him split open—not painfully, but like a forgotten gate creaking wide.
The Draconid snarled and lunged—
Only for Sal Vera to snap her fingers.
Her shadow stretched, elongated, and stabbed upward like a spear of black silk—slamming into the Draconid's jaw.
It howled in agony, staggering back.
"You dare?" she purred.
Her voice was sweet.
Her smile was not.
"I served the Sovereign when your ancestors were still crawling through ash."
The beast recoiled, wings flaring.
Sai Ji stared at her. "You… can fight monsters like that?!"
She tilted her head.
"I don't fight monsters, Sai Ji."
She turned her golden eyes toward the trembling Draconid.
"I terrify them."
Another pulse hit him—harder.
BOOM.
The street shook.
Lampposts bent.
Invisible pressure crushed the air.
Even Sal Vera flinched slightly.
The bodyguards dropped to one knee, gasping for breath.
The Draconid collapsed completely, pressing its head to the street, trembling violently.
"S-S-Sovereign…!" it croaked.
Sai Ji fell to his hands, chest burning, sweat pouring down.
"What—what is this—why can't I—control—"
Sal Vera immediately grabbed him, pulling his face to her chest, shielding him from his own aura.
"Sai Ji. Listen to me.
Your power is waking faster than your mind."
She whispered against his ear:
"If it reaches 4% without preparation… it won't be the world that dies first."
His breath froze.
"What dies first…?"
Her voice softened with something like sorrow.
"You."
He blinked.
"I… die?"
"Your mortal body can't contain the full Sovereign Force yet. That's why I brought you here. Why your bodyguards led you."
She brushed her thumb along his cheek.
"To help you awaken at a pace that won't tear you apart."
More footsteps echoed down the broken street.
Dozens and dozens and I mean dozens of elves with glowing runes.
Orcs with iron-clad skin were part of the party.
High Priests were calling down divine shields.
Assassins melting from the shadows.
Every Race,every Class and every faction present.
They surrounded the street in a tightening circle—eyes all locked on him.
The Draconid was still bowing to the ground.
The bodyguards were suffocating from aura pressure.
Sal Vera smiled coldly.
"Well.
The whole world came to kill you faster than I expected."
Sai Ji staggered upright.
His heart pounded.
BOOM.
The circle of enemies trembled.
His instincts—those terrifying ancient instincts—roared inside him:
Take them.Rule them. KILL them.
You are the Sovereign.
Sai Ji exhaled, shaking.
"…I don't want to die."
Sal Vera's fingers curled around his.
"Then awaken, my Sovereign."
She leaned close, lips brushing his ear.
"And remind them why the world feared you."