We marched out of the grand Association building, a tense, silent caravan moving down the white marble steps. Elias didn't bother summoning his shadow horse this time; the 9th District… the Royal Sector… was directly adjacent to the Bureau's high command, separated only by a massive, towering wall of polished white quartz and an impenetrable, shimmering anti-demon barrier that hummed with ancient, divine mana.
Chief Roman walked with rigid, mechanical steps at the front of our group, his face a pale mask of forced composure. His uniform collar was still slightly stiff with dried crimson, but his completely regenerated right ear was a testament to Elicia's terrifyingly flawless god-tier magic. Nautilus walked a pace behind him, his hands clasped loosely behind his back, his sharp eyes darting between Elias's tense shoulders and my heavily cloaked figure. He was playing the part of the cooperative observer, but my processing core remained locked onto him, ready to sever his mana channels the millisecond he made an unauthorized movement.
As we reached the grand golden arches of the 9th District checkpoint, the Elite Royal Paladins… clad in immaculate, white-and-gold full plate armor… immediately brought their halberds down in a sharp, metallic cross, blocking the path. The ancient barrier before us rippled with a faint, dangerous violet light, responding to the latent Phase 5 vampiric core humming beneath my dress. My wings twitched under my cloak, sensing the dense, purifying arrays designed to turn heretics into ash.
"HALT, The Royal Sector is under absolute lockdown for ministerial sessions. No civilian or low-tier registries permitted."
Chief Roman stepped forward, pulling his golden high-official medallion from his breast pocket and holding it directly into the center of the barrier's scanning array. The gold coin flashed, and the shimmering violet light directly in front of us parted just enough to allow a single group through.
"Override clearance: Alpha-One, I am escorting Captain Elias Rynd and his personal vanguard for an unscheduled, critical security briefing with the Majesty. Open the gates." Roman commanded, his voice hollow but carrying the unassailable authority of the Bureau's head.
The Paladins looked at the medallion, then at Elias's commanding Luminous Knight duster, and finally at my deeply hooded, silent form. With Chief Roman acting as our key, the guards didn't dare question the breach of protocol. They slammed their halberds back against their chest plates in a crisp salute, and the massive quartz doors slowly ground backward, revealing the breathtaking, ethereal expanse of the 9th District.
The Royal Sector was a sprawling paradise of floating waterfalls, manicured silver-leaf gardens, and towering spires made of pure, translucent crystal. The air here didn't smell like the soot of the tenements or the parchment of the Bureau; it smelled of refined high-tier elixir, pristine ozone, and absolute power.
We walked along a sweeping, elevated crystal bridge that led straight to the heart of the realm: the Grand Sun Palace.
"If the King and Queen reject your plea, Elias, you realize you've committed high treason in a daylight sector. There are twelve diamond rank guardians stationed inside that throne room. Not even your shadow magic can outrun them." Nautilus murmured quietly from my left, his voice barely carrying over the rushing sound of the floating fountains,
"Then I'll take six of them down with me before they even reach my sisters, Keep walking, Nautilus."
We pushed through the final pair of towering emerald doors, entering the breathtaking expanse of the Royal Throne Room. The ceiling vaulted hundreds of feet into the sky, painted with the historical victories of Caria. At the far end of the long, velvet-carpeted hall, sitting upon twin thrones of carved dragon-bone and solid gold, were the absolute rulers of the kingdom: King Aulus and Queen Aqua of Caria.
As our group came to a halt at the base of the royal steps, Chief Roman dropped to one knee, bowing his head deeply. Elias stood tall, his boots clicking once as he offered a rigid, military salute. Elicia curtsied gracefully, while I remained a half-step behind them, my fingers locking tightly around the edges of my tattered cloak.
The King looked down at us, his piercing blue eyes instantly locking onto the dense, unnatural shadow hanging around my hood. The ambient pressure in the room plummeted instantly, the high-tier divine aura of the throne room pressing down upon my core like a physical weight.
"Chief Roman, Captain Rynd, You breach the sanctuary of the throne without an appointment. Explain yourselves. And who is the entity hiding in the dark of that cloak?" King Aulus spoke, his deep, resonant voice echoing through the massive hall like thunder.
Elicia turned her head slightly toward me, her hand gently reaching back to touch my shoulder.
"Little Ren, remove your hood," she whispered, her voice a calm, steady anchor in the middle of the massive, high-pressure throne room.
Slowly, I raised my newly regenerated left hand. I didn't unbutton the entire tattered cloak to reveal my massive crimson wings just yet; instead, I simply reached up and peeled back the deep fabric of my hood, letting it fall onto my shoulders. My silver hair tumbled down, and the dim, ambient light of the palace illuminated my pale face, my distinct fangs, and my mismatched jade-green and crimson eyes.
Sitting upon the twin thrones, King Aulus and Queen Aqua leaned forward simultaneously. The cold, suffocating pressure they had been projecting instantly dissolved, replaced by looks of profound, familiar recognition.
"You're an S-rank bounty hunter, Eirene Rynd, It's nice to see you. It seems your eye and your arm have finally regenerated. And it appears your tongue has been completely restored as well. Splendid. Now you can speak to us properly, and I won't have to hand you stacks of paper just to communicate your reports." King Aulus spoke, a rare, genuine smile breaking across his regal features as he looked down at me from the dragon-bone throne
Elias froze beside me, his eyes widening in complete, utter bewilderment as he looked between the monarchs and his little sister.
"You... you know them?" he stuttered, his edgy, commanding captain's persona fracturing under sheer confusion.
"Two months ago, I was here, It was right after I single-handedly slaughtered the Immoral Knights Commander. The Crown summoned me privately to verify the liquidation of the corrupt high-tier assets." I explained to him in my flat, deadpan register, not breaking eye contact with the throne.
Elicia's eyes lit up with absolute awe. She clasped her hands together, a bright, proud smile returning to her face as she looked at me.
"Wow, Eirene! You're so lucky you've been invited by the King and Queen before! You kept that completely secret from us!"
Queen Aqua offered a soft, elegant chuckle, her graceful hand resting on the armrest.
"She was a woman of very few words back then, mostly because of the severe physical trauma she was harboring. But she did this kingdom an unforgettable service in the dark. Now, tell us, Captain Rynd, Eirene... why have you returned to our sanctuary in such a tense formation, alongside Chief Roman and Nautilus?"
Elias took a deep, grounding breath, his boots clicking sharply against the polished marble floor as he stepped forward to stand completely in front of me. The staggering revelation that his seemingly fragile little sister had already stood before the highest authority in the land… not as a criminal, but as an invited shadow of the crown… had momentarily derailed his tactical train of thought. But the cold reality of Chief Roman's earlier threats and the fragile life growing within my core snapped him right back into his role as my protector.
"Your Majesties, I stand before you today not just as a Captain of the Luminous Knights, but as a brother pleading for the survival of his family. The reason Eirene could not speak to you two months ago, the reason she had to communicate through sheets of parchment, is because she was systematically hunted, tortured, and broken by the very filth this kingdom allowed to fester in the lower districts. She survived a hell in the cellars of Town Tata that would have turned any man into dust. And to survive, her biology adapted. Her original, low-tier Blood Curse evolved into something unprecedented."
Elias began, his voice echoing with a resonant, unyielding depth through the vaulted architecture of the throne room.
Chief Roman shifted uncomfortably where he knelt, the golden floorboards reflecting the cold sweat dripping from his brow. He opened his mouth to speak, to perhaps lean on the rigid, ancient edicts of the anti-demon laws, but a sharp, warning glance from Nautilus Cotton instantly silenced him.
Elias didn't give him the chance to recover. With a smooth, deliberate motion, he reached out and gently unclasped the iron collar of my traveling cloak. He pulled the tattered fabric away entirely, letting it fall away to reveal the full majesty and horror of my evolution. My massive, translucent crimson blood wings unfurled to their absolute limits, the crystalline membranes pulsing with a faint, rhythmic jade-green and scarlet light that cast long, ethereal shadows across the golden steps of the throne. The sharp, predatory curves of my fangs caught the ambient light, and my dual-colored eyes remained locked on the monarchs, entirely devoid of fear.
"She carries a vampiric core, The Bureau, operating under the blind, archaic letters of the law, views her as a demon. Chief Roman has already declared that she deserves execution, that her existence is a blemish upon Caria, and that the child she is currently carrying… the next generation of our bloodline… is a heretical monster that must be forced to live and die in the deepest shadows." Elias stated, his hand resting firmly on my shoulder, anchoring me to the spot.
A heavy, suffocating silence descended upon the grand hall. The twelve diamond rank guardians stationed along the perimeter shifted their weight, their hands subtly tightening around the pommels of their enchanted weapons, their high-tier sensing arrays tracking the massive, concentrated pool of mana radiating from my folded wings. They could feel the sheer, escalating power of an entity that had devoured literal liters of monstrous and heretical blood to fuel her parameters.
Queen Aqua's gaze softened as she looked at me, her sharp, elegant eyes tracing the contours of my reconstructed left arm and the subtle, protective way my right hand remained rested over my stomach beneath my white dress. There was no revulsion in her expression, only the deep, analytical calculation of a ruler who understood that the lines between monster and savior were often written by those who held the ink.
"Chief Roman," King Aulus spoke, his deep voice slicing through the tension like a heavy broadsword. He didn't look at Elias; his eyes were fixed entirely on the trembling head of the Bureau's chief.
"You speak of execution for a blade that has carved out the rot of our territory? When the Immoral Knights threatened to compromise the very integrity of the capital's outer defenses, it was not your paladins who silenced them. It was this girl. When Oksana's poison ran rampant through the veins of our youth, it was her crimson wings that brought the drug lord's head to our gates."
"My Lord, The public... the church... they will not see a savior. They will see the ancient enemy. If a anomaly walks the streets of Caria in the bright daylight, it will trigger a panic that no administrative ledger can suppress. The law is absolute. Demons are not permitted within the walls of the realm."
"The law belongs to the throne, Roman, not to the ledger in your office," Queen Aqua countered, her tone dropping into a freezing, majestic register that made the ambient temperature of the room plummet. She rose from her golden throne, her silk robes flowing behind her as she descended the steps, her footsteps making no sound against the marble. She stopped mere inches from me, her presence radiating a dense, comforting aura of high-tier divine mana that counteracted the allergic sting of the distant sunlight filtering through the upper stained-glass windows.
She reached out, her slender, jeweled fingers gently tilting my chin up so she could look directly into my mismatched jade-green and crimson eyes.
"You have fed a forbidden hunger, Eirene Rynd, But you fed it with the blood of our enemies. You protected the borders when our own knights were blinded by political greed. Caria does not throw its hounds to the wolves after the hunt is finished." the Queen whispered, her voice carrying a profound, ancient weight.
She turned back to face King Aulus, nodding once with absolute, unwavering resolve. The King stood up from the dragon-bone throne, his massive frame radiating the absolute sovereignty of the realm as he raised his hand, summoning a blank parchment of royal vellum that materialized from a rift of pure golden light.
"By the blood of the first founders and the absolute authority vested in the crown, We hereby issue a Sovereign Decree of Royal Sanction. Eirene Rynd is recognized not as an anomaly of the dark, but as the Vanguard of the Crown. Her bloodline, her evolution, and the child she carries are under the permanent, inviolable protection of the throne. Any guild, any church official, or any Bureau knight who attempts to draw a blade against her or her lineage will be tried for high treason against the realm." King Aulus decreed, his voice booming through the grand hall, causing the quartz walls to vibrate in resonance.
With a flick of his wrist, the King pressed his massive royal signet ring into the hot wax at the bottom of the parchment. The golden seal flared with a blinding, divine light, embedding the magical signature of the kingdom into the very fibers of the decree. The document floated down through the air, settling gracefully into my newly regenerated left hand.
"Take your decree, Crimson Phantom, Walk through the gates of Caria in the daylight. Let the Bureau clear your ledgers, and let your brother hunt the highest-tier beasts to sustain your core. You have earned your place in the sun." King Aulus said, his features relaxing into a look of quiet, profound respect.
The weight of the parchment in my newly regenerated left hand felt heavier than any high-caliber shotgun I had ever wielded. The golden royal seal hummed with a warm, dense divine mana that pulsed against my fingers, a physical manifestation of the absolute sovereignty of Caria. The magical signature embedded in the wax bled a faint, soothing light into my palms, completely overriding the ancient anti-demon arrays of the throne room that had been aggressively tracking my core just moments prior.
Chief Roman stared at the floating decree, his mouth slightly open, the last remnants of his bureaucratic leverage completely turning to ash before his eyes. He slowly lowered his head back toward the golden floorboards, utterly defeated. Beside him, Nautilus Cotton let out a low, highly amused chuckle, adjusting his reading glasses as he looked at the Rynd siblings. He had expected an administrative bloodbath; instead, he was witnessing the official birth of a royal legend.
"Thank you, Your Majesties," I said. My voice was still wrapped in that quiet, mechanical deadpan, but the hollow chill from the Tata cellars had finally begun to thaw. I offered a deep, respectful bow, my massive translucent crimson wings sweeping low behind me, brushing against the velvet carpet before folding completely tight against my spine once more.
Elias let out a long, ragged breath he seemed to have been holding since we first entered the 8th District. The rigid, defensive tension in his broad shoulders visibly dissolved, his leather-gloved hand gently squeezing my shoulder one last time before he snapped his boots together and delivered a flawless, crisp military salute to the thrones.
"Caria will never have a more loyal shadow, Sire," Elias stated, his rough voice thick with a profound, unshakeable gratitude.
Elicia stepped up beside me, her face practically glowing with a vibrant, ecstatic joy that she could barely contain in front of the monarchs. She clasped her hands over her chest, her crimson eyes shining as she looked at the decree in my hand.
"We are deeply honored, Your Majesties. The Rynd family will continue to serve the light and the dark of this kingdom."
Queen Aqua offered a warm, maternal smile, her elegant hand waving softly to dismiss the formal atmosphere.
"Go now, Eirene. Take your family home. Protect that new life growing within you, and let the upper sectors know that the Crimson Phantom walks with the blessing of the Crown."
I reached down and gathered my tattered dark traveling cloak from the floor. Shaking out the remaining palace dust, I draped it back over my shoulders. I pulled the deep hood over my head, but this time, it wasn't a shield born out of crippling paranoia or the fear of being hunted down as a monster. It was simply a practical barrier against the bright midday sun.
We turned in unison, leaving Chief Roman to tend to his bruised political ego on the throne steps. Elias led the way, his heavy leather duster swaying rhythmically with every stride, his posture radiating the smug, edgy confidence of a captain who had just pulled off the ultimate administrative heist. Elicia walked right by my side, her arm instantly hooking through mine, her warmth grounding my core. Nautilus followed a half-step behind us, already shaking his head at the sheer absurdity of the afternoon.
As we pushed through the grand emerald doors of the Sun Palace and stepped back out onto the elevated crystal bridge, the bright daylight hit us. The sun was high in the sky, reflecting off the floating waterfalls of the 9th District. My pale skin gave a slight, familiar prickle, but as I looked down at the royal document tucked safely beneath my cloak, I smiled a sharp, fanged smile in the shadows of my hood.
The cellars of Town Tata had tried to turn me into a faceless corpse. The Bureau had tried to brand me as a demon. But as we marched back toward the lower districts, flanked by my brother's dark shadows and my sister's divine light, I knew the world would finally have to get used to the hunger. We were going home, and for the first time in eighteen years, the ledger was completely clear.