The wind, previously held at bay outside the palace walls, rushed into the Grand Hall with a violent fury. It carried an unnatural chill that pierced through the crowded room.
The cheerful ballroom music vanished in an instant, replaced by the menacing sound of thousands of shattering glass panes.
The deafening noise sent literal tremors down to the palace's ancient stone foundations. A heavy, oppressive pressure slammed into the room like a solid wall, making it look terrifyingly like a scene from a nightmare.
Down in the crowded lower tier, Grand Wizard Hendrix slowly stood up from his seat at the VIP table.
He carelessly tossed his silver goblet straight to the polished floor, the crystal glass shattering with a sharp crack.
"The wine is lovely, Princess."
Hendrix's voice rang out clearly, no longer carrying a shred of court etiquette. It dripped instead with absolute malice, cold calculation, and boundless arrogance.
"But I'm afraid the era of the Regalia bloodline ends tonight."
"Hendrix! What's the meaning of this?!" Princess Yoana's voice roared through the Grand Hall.
Her hand instantly drew her silver ceremonial sword from her waist, the blade gleaming under the shifting light. "Are you out of your mind!?"
Panicked murmurs immediately erupted among the gathered aristocracy.
Shocked nobles looked at each other in utter confusion, waiting for the Grand Wizard to apologize for his blasphemous joke toward the royal family.
But Hendrix didn't look like a man making a jest. He stood tall, and the purple light bleeding from the corrupted chandeliers cast long, monstrous shadows across his pale face.
"Seize him immediately!" Yoana commanded, her powerful voice cutting through the rising panic. "Maiden's Shield, form up and protect the Imperial Family!"
Instantly, dozens of elite female knights clad in white armor moved in flawless unison, drawing their weapons to form a protective wall around where Hendix was standing.
Outside the heavy oak doors, the thundering sound of metal boots echoed from the corridors.
The Palace Guard, the Emperor's personal three-hundred-man army, was already rushing to breach the room.
Emperor Urzha didn't speak a word; his stern face was a frozen mask of pure fury as he began to chant a powerful spell with his immense reserve mana.
The air directly surrounding the golden throne warped violently, crackling with arcs of intense golden lightning.
"Hendrix!" the Emperor finally spoke, his deep voice vibrating with enough raw pressure to force the lower-ranking nobles in the front rows down to their knees. "You dare commit open treason within my very walls? in front of all these people here!?"
"Your walls? Are you joking right now!?" Hendrix chuckled softly, a low, rasping sound that sent intense shivers running straight down Lilia's spine.
"Everything in this great empire belongs solely to those with the strength to take it, Your Majesty. And tonight, your legendary strength is nothing but a hollow, rotting shell."
He took a glass of wine and crushed it, injuring his hand; the blood flowing from it mingled with the wine, turning the floor beneath him a brilliant red. "You let those Forden barbarians do as they please for all these years! Just because you were afraid that a war would break out with Fenix, too, if you tried to dispose of that bastard Barbarian?!"
"Did you forget what they did to my mother fifteen years ago?!" Hendrix spat on the floor, showing how disgusted he was with the Emperor. "They raped her and left her almost dying in the forest! and thanks to that, she committed suicide!"
"If only... I was stronger... But what can a ten-year-old boy do at such a time?! Dammit!" Hendrix then slowly raised his right hand, casually snapping his fingers into the quiet room.
CRASH!
The massive oak doors didn't merely swing open—they violently exploded inward, reduced to thousands of flying splinters by a concentrated blast of dark mana.
But it wasn't the loyal Palace Guard that entered the breached threshold.
Silently, like dark ghosts materializing from the shadows, a terrifying horde of figures flooded into the room.
They wore tight-fitting, ink-black armor that actively absorbed the light, and their faces were completely concealed behind featureless black masks with glowing purple eye-slits.
"The Black Shadows corps..." Princess Maria gasped, her hands trembling violently as she dropped her glass. "The forbidden black-ops unit... How are they under your command?! They were destroyed by General Aurelius a long time ago!!"
"There's no use in telling you, is there?" Hendrix said coldly. He pointed his staff toward the throne. "Kill them all! But take that boy over there alive."
He gestured vaguely toward the young heir, Reynard.
"To arms!" Commander Vior screamed, her voice booming as she leaped off the high dais to engage the approaching assassins head-on.
But just as the brave knights and seasoned noble generals drew their weapons to counterattack, a collective groan of pure agony echoed simultaneously through the entire hall.
One by one, powerful frontline generals and elite knights stumbled blindly, their weapons slipping from their hands. Their faces rapidly turned a ghastly shade of ash grey, and thick, dark blood began to slowly ooze from their mouths.
Even Princess Yoana suddenly collapsed onto one knee, her silver sword clattering loudly against the marble floor as she clutched her throat, desperately gasping for air.
"What... what is this...?" Yoana choked out, her vision rapidly blurring as she fell forward.
Lilia watched in absolute horror as her mother, Empress Neyla, suddenly gripped her own chest, her perfect posture shattering as she slumped heavily against the armrest of the golden throne.
Dark veins quickly crawled up her elegant neck, and she gasped for air, her lips staining with deep crimson.
Emperor Urzha tried to take a step forward to aid his wife, but the golden lightning crackling around him violently dissolved into nothingness.
Thick, black veins bulged aggressively across his face, and he coughed violently, a massive spray of dark blood staining his royal robes.
"The wine..." Emperor Urzha hissed, his eyes glaring at Hendrix with a lethal, unyielding hatred. "The Legendary Poison, Death Elixir..."