Inside Yuta's private bedchamber, the room lay in complete ruin. The metallic stench of blood hung heavy in the air, while the corpses of individuals—possessing terrifying, immense power—lay strewn across the floor. In one corner, Yuta sat, disheveled and caked in filth.
His tattered clothes were soaked in blood, and his white hair was a matted, blood-stained mess. He looked up, revealing that he was in the midst of devouring a maid—one who had entered the room, heedless of all warnings.
The scene was horrific; the sounds of chewing and swallowing echoed throughout the chamber. The maid's head bobbed rhythmically as he fed, her expression frozen in a mask of pure shock.
Yuta, however, remained indifferent as he consumed her, casting aside any pretense of the regal, commanding presence befitting a sovereign of his path. Instead, he allowed his primal, animalistic instincts to surface in their most grotesque form.
With a brutal, forceful blow, he shattered the maid's skull, reducing it to a pulpy mash of bone, blood, brain matter, and hair.
Yet, a smile—twisted with murderous intent and ravenous hunger—remained etched upon his face. He swallowed the remains of her skull in a single gulp, as if it were nothing, then immediately continued devouring the rest of her body, acting as though nothing at all had occurred.
Once the final morsel was consumed—leaving behind only scraps of her clothing—a loud, boisterous laugh erupted from him.
"Hahahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Yuta's laughter was utterly manic, as if he had lost the very last shred of his sanity. He rose and headed toward the bed—the same bed that held the egg from the mansion of the ruler of Yusbikers City, which had remained perfectly intact.
Yuta was suffering from a profound loss of mental control, driven by primal instincts of hunger and protection. He approached the egg as if it were the most precious thing in his entire existence—his movements, consequently, appearing bizarre and erratic.
But before he could reach it, someone else snatched the egg—a subordinate of the Black and White Scorpion.
The man spoke with a tone dripping in mockery, staring at Yuta, who had come to a halt. Yuta's expression was unreadable, obscured by hair matted with blood and plastered against his face.
"Oh, look—Subject No. 000002546 from Group D. It seems this egg means quite a lot to you."
"It's a pity, then, that the leader of the Black and White Scorpion wants it. He intends to use it as a resource—a means to become the strongest. Isn't it fascinating to watch a filthy experiment like you behaving like a common beast? Seeing you in your 'natural' state is truly something—repulsive, yet it makes me want to laugh."
Yuta said nothing. Yet, a fierce, indescribable internal struggle raged within him—a instability that had plagued his mind ever since the conclusion of the Versliken Academy festival days earlier. It manifested as an uncontrollable, ravenous craving for flesh—for anything and everything that fell within his line of sight.
With every passing second, he was losing his grip on his sanity. His animalistic instincts—or, more precisely, his primal drives to protect and to hunt for sustenance—had taken complete control of him. Speaking in an extremely strained, agitated tone, he clutched his own hair with such force that the henchman let out a mocking, derisive laugh:
"No, no, no, no! How dare you even think of taking me away from my daughter? I'll kill you! I'll kill you all! Nothing else in this world matters—I will destroy anything that tries to keep me from Hydr-Lena!"
The henchman, paying no mind to Yuta's frantic outburst, turned to leave—taking advantage of the man's mental instability and the way his hair hung over his face like that of a madman.
Yuta's gaze shifted toward the henchman, who was attempting to open the door to the balcony—a door that remained firmly shut, thanks to the reinforcements Madeleine had installed just moments before.
The henchman glanced back at Yuta, who was now enveloped in an overwhelming, dark, crimson-tinged aura—a manifestation of pure, terrifying murderous intent.
A deafening, piercing scream erupted from Yuta—so intense that it ruptured the eardrums of the Scorpion Organization's henchman. The man collapsed, clutching his ears as blood gushed profusely from them.
"Arghhhhhhhhh!"
Meanwhile, driven by pure instinct, Yuta rushed to shield the egg, pulling it into a tight, desperate embrace—a truly pathetic sight for someone like him.
"Are you alright, my dear? Are you okay? Everything's fine now, alright?"
Yuta's voice remained thick with tension and anxiety as he cradled the egg, his eyes locking onto the Scorpion Organization's henchman with a gaze brimming with hatred and a lethal, murderous resolve. Speaking in an enraged tone, brimming with murderous intent, he said:
"You want to die that badly? I shall grant your wish."
He placed the egg within his own spiritual realm—in a chamber designated for it inside the palace—before turning toward the subordinate. As he did, his body underwent a transformation: his hair turned a charcoal black, dark veins emerged across his face, and black horns with crimson tips sprouted from his head, accompanied by razor-sharp claws and pointed teeth.
The subordinate—a member of the Scorpion Organization—saw his expression drain of all color, his body trembling violently from sheer terror and shock. He exerted a vast amount of his power, yet the door did not budge in the slightest.
His fear intensified; having slipped in when the servant—whom Yuta had just devoured—entered, he had assumed that escaping would be easy, failing to notice the seals placed throughout the room.
Yuta seized him firmly by the back and tore out his spine. The subordinate collapsed to the ground, rendered completely immobile. Yet, because he was a seasoned "Ruler-rank" expert, he managed to remain alive—surviving an injury that would have killed an ordinary human in an instant.
As for Yuta, warm, metallic-scented blood gushed over his entire body, staining his face and hair a deep, crimson red.
Even so, his expression remained etched with intense hatred—a burning desire not only to kill the man but to consume him—a hunger that only continued to grow. He devoured his spinal column with complete ease; after all, someone capable of consuming—along with Vermon Solterk—several parallel worlds in a single gulp would certainly find no difficulty whatsoever in devouring something as trivial as a spine.
He reached out to grasp the body once more, only to find a lifeless corpse. The core of his consciousness and the roots of his Dantian had sustained catastrophic damage, and he had lost a massive amount of blood in an incredibly short span of time—with no way to heal his injuries.
Yuta grabbed him by the head, a look of pure madness etched across his face. With a sickening crunch—like a rotten pumpkin being crushed—he obliterated the man's skull; his eyes bulged from their sockets, and his brain matter, mingled with blood, spilled out from his head and ears.
Suddenly, Yuta's head transformed into that of a dragon, his neck elongating and thickening. In one swift motion, he devoured the man whole. A laugh erupted from him—a sound so intense it seemed to overwhelm the entire space—before he reverted to his original form and collapsed to the floor, unconscious from sheer exhaustion.
As time flowed on, the room bore witness to the extent of the carnage; the air grew thick with the overpowering stench of blood and corpses—a reek so foul that even monsters would have recoiled from the chamber.
The following day, July 23, 675, at 12:34 PM, Yuta's bedroom appeared remarkably pristine, showing little trace of the devastation that had unfolded the night before.
Yuta lay asleep in his bed, while Waqara Jalil—a blessing of the heavens of Islabith—rested on a nearby chair, her head leaning against his stomach.
Setting aside her immense prestige and status—as one of the "Unifiers" capable of bringing the entire world to its knees—she embraced, in this moment, nothing but the essence of motherhood.
She opened her eyes, a faint smile gracing her lips. Though she had no biological need for sleep, she cherished the act; it allowed her to feel like a mother—a person who worries for her children—rather than an absolute entity of existence and non-existence, for whom the world is merely a plaything to be shaped at will. She looked toward Yuta, who was fast asleep—deeply exhausted and worn out—and thought to herself with a tone of concern:
"That egg is draining his strength entirely. 'Hydra-Lena'—my future granddaughter—I'm not sure whether I should be happy about this or not."
The Venerable Jalil, Blessing of the Skies of Islabith, sighed as she gently stroked Yuta's hair. She paid no mind to his unpleasant odor; after all, she was his mother, and such things mattered little to her—all that truly mattered was that he was safe and sound.
As she continued to stroke his hair, Yuta slowly opened his crimson eyes and fixed his gaze upon her.
A sharp, intense headache struck him, forcing him to shut his eyes once more. He found himself unable to move even an inch of his body. The Venerable Jalil, however, remained still; she was well-acquainted with this phenomenon, having witnessed it with Duralia and Lunaria back when Yuta and his three triplet siblings were being born.
The process triggered an overwhelming protective instinct and consumed a vast amount of energy—far more than any single individual could sustain. This was, in fact, one of the reasons Yuta had six fathers and six mothers: to distribute the immense energy drain across several people rather than placing the burden on just one.
Several minutes passed, during which he remained completely immobilized. Finally, with great effort, he managed to twitch a finger. Seeing this, the Venerable Jalil let out a sigh of relief as she watched Yuta begin to recover, little by little. Six minutes later, he sat up, leaning his back against the pillow. He took a deep breath, gazed at his hands, and then clenched them with immense force.
"For the past three days, I've been completely helpless—I've never felt so powerless before. It seems I'll face plenty of trouble before Hyder Lina is even born. In the end, nothing in this world is free; I must pay the price for my actions, my successes, and my failures."
The Venerable Jalil, of the 'Heavenly Blessing of Islabith,' did not utter a word. She simply watched him with a calm expression and a faint smile—a look that held the quiet, maternal relief of a mother watching over her son. After all, those who wield the 'Blessing'—especially when it comes to their own children—are often deeply emotional, even if they outwardly project an air of coldness or indifference.
She reached out and gently brushed through Yuta's hair, which was still matted with dried blood—a gesture that left him somewhat taken aback.
"Well, you're right about one thing: nothing in this world is free. Everything has a price, though the cost varies from one thing to another. Still, don't act as if your death wouldn't affect anyone. You are the master of the 'Ruler's Path'; your death would mean the absolute end of that entire path. You must be careful with every move you make."
The Venerable Jalil's voice remained calm as she continued to smooth his hair.
Then, with a smile still gracing her lips—though her touch betrayed a subtle, playful annoyance—she pinched his ear.
"Now, let's get back to the matter at hand. You need a bath—you absolutely reek—before you do anything else." Yuta looked at her with clear annoyance, then let out a sigh heavy with irritation as he left his spot, heading to the bathroom to wash away the foul stench and the blood that covered his entire body.
"What a relief. Who would have thought I'd end up acting like a madman last night? Oh—that maid! It seems Athena brought her back to avoid any suspicion."
Yuta's tone was cheerful and relaxed as he bathed in the scalding hot water.
He stretched his body out, and suddenly, the egg appeared, landing right on his stomach. Taken aback, Yuta picked it up with a smile—his eyes, for a fleeting moment, resembling those of a dragon—the very same eyes he had possessed when he killed that minion of the Scorpion Organization.
"You mischievous, gluttonous little thing! You made me look like a complete fool—aren't you ashamed of yourself?"
Yuta's voice was gentle as he cradled the egg, which nudged against him, much like a cat rubbing its cheek against its owner.
The egg then hopped toward the pool, darting in and out of the water repeatedly, all while Yuta watched with a faint, amused smile.
After a few minutes, Yuta dried the egg and returned it to the palace within his spiritual realm. Once dressed, he stepped out of the bathroom to find the venerable Izlabith—the Blessing of the Heavens—still there, sitting on the sofa and enjoying a fruit salad. As she read a novel titled *Death Game*, she glanced toward Yuta, who was sitting before a mirror, brushing out the tangles in his long hair.
The Venerable Jalil Barakat Sama'a Izlabith rose from her seat and approached Yuta. She took the comb from his hand and continued brushing his hair, a faint smile playing on her lips.
Yuta looked at her, bewildered, and reached to take the comb back—but she met his gesture with a cold, piercing gaze, prompting him to pull his hand away.
Several hours passed. In the city of Berhais, at precisely 8:34 PM, the city center was filled with a gathering of humans, elves, angels, and a few dwarves.
Yuta was there with his family—Jiya, Chloe, Madeline, Kiri, Liri, Athena, and Siri. Elsewhere, the Venerable "Heavenly Blessing" Iselabeth stood alongside the Venerable "Lotus Blossom" Jihao Yuxuan. Nearby, the Venerable "Final Gambit" Ping Tao Xin was accompanied by the Venerable "Star Hunter" Zendaya, while, at a separate spot, the Emperor "Heavenly Blade" Yuchira Escanora watched the festivities in complete silence.
This was the highlight of the Summer Festival—a celebration of the harvest and the season's abundant bounty. A portion of this harvest, amounting to 3%, was designated for the poor and needy across the twelve cities and villages, to be distributed over the next twenty-five days.
As time went on—specifically at 10:34 PM—Jiya and Yuta stepped onto the ceremonial stage. They began to perform the "Blade Dance," a performance that mimicked the swaying of trees and the gentle summer breeze with such exquisite precision that the onlookers were left in awe of their skill.
Yuta spoke via telepathy, his tone calm and composed:
"Jiya, get ready for the next act. It's sure to be even more beautiful."
Jiya smiled, moving a few paces away with a graceful, fluid motion:
"I'm always ready. It's *you* who should be preparing."
Her tone carried a distinct, playful hint of mockery. Yuta smiled, gazing up at the sky for a few moments before deftly evading a surprise attack from Jiya.
"I was born ready—long before the event even began."
Yuta remarked with a mocking tone as he came to a halt.
Turning toward the audience, who were applauding enthusiastically, he approached Jiya and bowed, a faint smile still lingering on his face.
"Thank you all for watching our performance—what we call the 'Sword Dance.'"
His voice was filled with a flourish as he bowed, only to suddenly collapse to the ground, clutching his chest.
He cried out, catching the audience completely off guard:
"My heart! It hurts—it hurts so much! It feels like it's burning!"
Jiya looked on in shock and reached out to grab him, but she was suddenly struck by an unbearable pain of her own, clutching at her own heart.
"The pain—it's intense! My heart... it hurts! What is happening?"
The audience was left in a state of shock. Athena and Sira watched with suspicion, while Kiri and Liri grew anxious, attempting to rush toward them—only for Athena to hold them back, sensing that she might have had a hand in what was unfolding.
As for the Venerable Lotus-Flower Jiehao Yuxuan, the Venerable Heavenly-Pool Islabeth, the Venerable Star-Hunter Zendaya, the Venerable Final-Board Ping Tao Xin, and the Heavenly-Sword Emperor Yuchira Escanora—they remained expressionless, fully confident that Yuta was merely playing some sort of game. A loud, boisterous laugh erupted from the sky. The Black and White Scorpion looked down at Yuta and Jiya, who lay on the ground, clutching their chests in agony:
"Hahahaha! Hahahahahahahahahahaha! Your fun time is over—it's time for you to become a part of my energy!"
Yuta, Jiya, and the others turned their gazes toward the Black and White Scorpion. Their expressions were a complex mix of fear, shock, astonishment, and terror; this was one of the leaders of the Scorpion Organization's council—specifically, "Scorpion No. 3"—one of the organization's most formidable commanders.
Elsewhere, a faint smile appeared on the faces of both Jiya and Yuta as they looked up at the Black and White Scorpion, then rose to their feet as if nothing had happened at all.
The Scorpion was left completely stunned, staring at them in disbelief:
"How? Shouldn't you both be collapsed on the ground?"
The Black and White Scorpion's voice was laced with shock as he watched Yuta and Jiya standing there, entirely unfazed.
Yuta effortlessly dodged a sudden, surprise attack from the Black and White Scorpion. His smile remained, even as he watched the mask of the dark, charcoal-colored figure begin to shatter—Yuta had no intention of dragging things out any longer.
The identity of the Black and White Scorpion was revealed: it was the Magic Empress, Aster Guilford. The revelation left everyone in a state of utter shock.
After all, the Magic Empress was one of the pillars of the Human Empire. Who would have believed that he would become one of the leaders of the Scorpion Organization's council—the largest criminal syndicate in the fictional world they currently inhabit?
But even more shocking was the realization that dawned on Jia. She recalled the words of Yuta Kaseral on Jigwa Island, the remarks of the "Patch" Venerable, Ping Tao Xin, in the city of Yuspeakers, and the statements made just days earlier by the "Lotus Flower" Venerable, Jihao Yuxuan.
Questions that had long haunted her—why the Magic Emperor, Aster Guilford, had adopted her; whether he was merely exploiting her; and the truth about her real family—were all answered at once, leaving her completely speechless.
She clutched her chest, her mind drifting back to that day on Jigwa Island—a day that had been so bizarre, yet now, in light of everything, it finally made sense...
Flashback
Yuta gazed at Jia's striking features, which were twisted in annoyance and rage. He patted her chest as if she were a small child—a gesture that only fueled her fury and caused a surge of killing intent to radiate from her body.
"Why are you so upset? Is being treated like a little girl really that bothersome to you?"
"I wouldn't be nearly as angry if the person doing this actually loved me. But you don't have a shred of love for me—it's something else entirely, something I still haven't quite figured out."
A mischievous, wicked smile spread across Yuta's face as he listened to her words. He cast his gaze toward her chest, drawing a look of utter contempt from her in return.