Deep in the endless black of space, a colossal warship drifted like a predator that had already tasted blood.
Its hull was darker than a dead star, veined with pulsing crimson energy. It didn't race. It simply *waited*.
Inside the dimly lit command chamber, a pair of blood-red eyes snapped open.
The owner rose slowly.
A towering tiger-like being stepped into the flickering light — orange fur striped with black, muscles carved like living steel. His long tail swayed with lazy confidence. Black armored pants caught the crimson glow. Power didn't explode from him. It simply *existed*, controlled, ancient, and terrifying.
An alien soldier slammed to his knees so hard the floor dented.
"L-Lord Dano… Emperor of Space…"
Dano didn't even glance at him.
"Speak."
The soldier's voice cracked.
"The Inferno Clan… they took the planet you wanted. They seized the evolution spell. They… enhanced themselves."
A glass slipped from Dano's fingers.
It shattered.
The sound rang unnaturally loud in the sudden silence.
Dano rose to his full height. The temperature in the room plummeted.
"…What did you just say?"
The soldier trembled so violently his teeth chattered.
"I-I swear it's true, my Lord!"
Three heartbeats of deadly quiet.
Then—
Dano roared.
The entire warship *screamed*.
Walls cracked. Lights exploded. Soldiers slammed to the floor like broken dolls.
"YOU INCOMPETENT WORMS!" he bellowed, voice shaking the stars themselves. "You couldn't even protect one scientist?!"
Two fingers rose.
Between them, a tiny crimson sphere formed — dense, compressed annihilation. Space itself warped and screamed around it.
"I will erase you all."
The soldier stopped breathing.
Suddenly—
"UWAAAAAAAHHHH!! LOOORD, SAVEEE MEEEE!!"
The doors exploded open.
A green-skinned woman with flowing golden hair and huge purple eyes came sprinting in, tears flying like comets. Her obsidian armor clanged wildly as she launched herself at Dano and clung to him like a terrified kitten.
"He's sooo scaryyy! Quaaaan bullied meee!"
The soldier on the floor groaned. "N-Not now, Aika-chan…!"
Dano's red eye twitched violently.
The sphere of destruction flickered and died.
"…Why," he growled through gritted fangs, "do you *always* ruin my dramatic entrances?"
Before anyone could answer—
*BANG!*
The metal door ripped clean off its hinges and flew across the chamber like a missile — slamming directly into Dano's face.
He crashed backward into the wall.
Alarms howled. Smoke billowed.
From the haze stepped a red-haired young man with sharp emerald eyes, gripping Aika by the collar like a misbehaving cat.
Quan.
"You idiot," he said flatly, irritation dripping from every word. "How many times did I tell you not to eat my pancakes?"
Aika sobbed louder, kicking her legs. "They were sooo fluffy! I just wanted one biteee!"
"You ate six."
"You count too much!"
"You also ruined my haircut."
Dano slowly peeled himself out of the dented wall.
The entire chamber went deathly silent.
The wall behind him continued cracking.
Quan immediately dropped Aika.
Sweat poured down his face. He turned with the most painfully fake smile in the galaxy.
"L-Lord Dano… you like orange juice, right? Freshly squeezed. Full of vitamins. I'll make some right now—"
Dano's voice was terrifyingly soft.
"How many times must I remind you… not to test my patience?"
Aika nodded so fast her head blurred. "Understood! I will never steal pancakes again!"
(She was still hiding one behind her back.)
The kneeling soldier whispered, voice full of despair, "We are all going to die…"
A senior alien stepped forward, somehow calm despite the chaos.
"My Lord. I bring favorable news."
Dano's murderous gaze shifted.
"Speak."
"The Inferno King is trying to erase his own son. Their planet is collapsing from the inside. Defenses are in shambles."
Silence.
Dano blinked once.
Then twice.
Then he threw his head back and *laughed* — genuine, excited, almost joyful.
"YES! Finally! That's the kind of chaos I live for!"
He slapped the senior alien's shoulder so hard the man nearly collapsed.
"You! Promotion. You actually have a brain."
Aika and Quan stared in pure betrayal.
Dano turned to them, grinning like a demon.
"You two."
They froze.
"No food for two weeks."
Their eyes widened in horror.
"No jelly beans. No pizza. No burgers. No pancakes."
Their souls visibly left their bodies.
"NOOOOOOO!!" Quan screamed.
Aika collapsed dramatically to the floor. "This is tyranny—!!"
Dano's grin widened.
"Prepare the ship."
Engines roared to life across the warship.
The predator had finally begun to move.
---
On Planet Sin, the kingdom was burning.
Flames devoured golden towers. Dragons screamed as loyalists to Queen Monika were executed in the streets.
"FIND HER!" Dragon King Sin roared, his aura turning the sky blood-red. "I will watch that wretched child die with my own eyes!"
Deep beneath the castle, in secret tunnels carved by desperate hands, Queen Monika ran.
Her silver hair was wild. Her golden robes were torn and stained with blood. In her arms, she clutched baby Ares tightly against her chest.
Her breath came in ragged sobs.
"Breathe, my love… just breathe… it will be alright…"
The infant slept peacefully, unaware of the apocalypse above.
His silver tail — the source of his leaking power — was gone.
She had cut it herself.
Blood still stained her hands.
"I had no choice…" she whispered, voice breaking into pieces. "It was suppressing your true strength… but it was also a beacon. Your father would have sensed you instantly…"
Her steps faltered. Tears blurred everything.
She pressed her forehead gently to his tiny one.
"Forgive your mother… please."
At the hidden launch chamber, she placed him inside a small emergency escape capsule.
Her hands shook so violently she could barely activate the controls.
Ares stirred.
His silver eyes opened — deep, ancient, far too aware for an infant.
Monika's heart shattered completely.
"Live," she whispered, forcing a broken smile through endless tears. "Even if you grow to hate me one day… *live.*"
She leaned down and kissed his forehead one last time.
"I will love you… from wherever I end up."
---
Above Planet Sin, the sky went black.
A massive shadow swallowed the stars.
Dano's warship descended like the fist of an angry god.
He stepped out onto open space, floating above the burning kingdom, arms casually folded.
"Oh?" he muttered, amused. "The circus has already started without me."
Sin's face drained of all color.
"T-The Emperor of Space…!"
Dano raised one lazy hand.
"Attack."
Hell rained down.
Aika lifted her ancient staff. Blinding spears of holy light pierced the heavens, exploding across the battlefield.
Quan's black aura surged like a tidal wave. Shadow portals tore open across the sky — screaming demons pouring through.
The Inferno Clan was overrun in seconds.
Sin gathered every ounce of his power, forming a colossal flame beam.
He fired it straight at Dano.
The beam dissolved into nothing before it even reached him.
"…Tch."
---
At the launch dock, Monika slammed the final lever.
The capsule doors hissed shut.
Engines ignited with a deafening roar.
Ares began to cry — small, helpless, heartbreaking.
Monika forced herself to keep smiling even as her world ended.
"Please… survive."
The capsule shot upward like a silver comet, vanishing into the chaos of battle.
---
Dano lifted a single finger.
"Judgment."
A pulse of pure condensed destruction spread outward.
Planet Sin *shattered*.
Continents split apart. Oceans boiled away. The explosion chained across neighboring worlds, erasing them in blinding white light.
When the silence finally returned, only drifting debris remained.
Aika squinted into the glowing wreckage.
"Wait… someone escaped?"
Dano folded his arms, staring at the tiny silver speck disappearing into deep space.
He smirked.
"Let the infant go," he said lazily. "A drifting child isn't worth my time."
His red eyes glinted with dark interest.
"…Yet."
Far, far away—
Inside the tiny escape capsule—
Ares slowly stopped crying.
He drifted toward an unknown blue planet, carrying the bloodline of dragons… and the wrath of an emperor.
The game between death and life had only just begun.