Hate me, Miss Witch!

When Shiayar appeared at the foot of the mountain holding Silvia, a sea of flames greeted his eyes.

Scorching flames surged, licking every inch of the city's stones, every eave of the rooftops.

Whirling winds carried dust and ash, bringing with them the stench of decay.

Shiayar frowned, turning slightly to shield the unconscious Silvia in his arms from the dust with his windbreaker.

This ancient Royal Capital, named Azure Garden, was inexorably moving towards annihilation.

The conflagration was merely secondary. In a world where supernatural powers existed, mere flames could be completely extinguished by dispatching a few water-attribute Sovereigns of 4th Order or higher.

The source of the catastrophe, however, was the calamity beasts rampaging through the city.

Shrouded in a dusky yellow glow, they were immense in size, moving between the buildings of the Azure Garden Royal Capital, crushing house after house into dust.

Through the twilight haze, one could discern the true forms of the calamity beasts: common Pet Beast Races from the Azure Garden Dukedom's wilderness, such as long-furred mammoths and tortoises with ancient trees growing on their shells.

Most were herbivorous Races that rarely harmed humans under normal circumstances.

But driven by that dull yellow light, these typically docile giants were now consumed by a bloodthirsty Beast Nature, rampaging wildly within the Royal Capital, destroying everything in their path.

The Royal City's garrison gathered sporadically atop the walls, the roar of the magictech cannon platforms echoing through the heavens.

Shells from the magictech cannons exploded against the flesh of the calamity beasts, splattering blood everywhere. The gargantuan creatures' bodies became mangled messes of flesh and blood, collapsing with mournful cries, never to rise again.

Yet, new calamity beasts, shrouded in the same dusky glow, swiftly advanced to take the place of their fallen comrades.

They faced the might of the magictech cannon platforms directly, seeming to defy all biological instincts, as if unafraid of death.

"Damn it, are these things not afraid of dying?"

On the city wall, a young garrison soldier slammed his palm against the stone beside him, dislodging a shower of dust.

Nearby, the barrel of his magictech cannon platform glowed crimson, searing hot to the touch.

Sharp alarms blared incessantly from the arcane magictech array, indicating the cannon had reached its operational limit. Without cooling, it could explode at any moment.

But even with the magictech cannon platforms firing at maximum capacity, the tide of frenzied calamity beasts within the Royal City showed no sign of diminishing.

"This dusky yellow glow that drives Pet Beasts into a frenzy, making them lose all reason and control..."

"It reminds me of the calamity from over a decade ago. It's exactly the same," the old captain of the guard sighed, gazing at the crumbling, burning Royal City below.

The Azure Garden Dukedom was in an extremely precarious geographical position.

Its borders directly adjoined the Lost Kingdom, meaning it constantly faced the threat of wild beast tides and the Abyss.

Consequently, most of the Dukedom's elite forces and many high-order Beastmasters were permanently stationed at the border to deal with potential conflicts.

For the same reason, the garrison troops remaining in the Royal Capital were mostly the old, weak, sick, and disabled—a token force, with few high-order Beastmasters of 3-Ring or above.

Faced with the brutal siege by the beast tide, their only means of inflicting damage was through the magictech cannons; they had no other way to respond.

If they were to personally engage these giant beasts, frenzied by the yellow glow, their strength as mere 1st or 2nd Ring Beastmasters meant they would be crushed into pulp by the massive creatures in minutes—a futile sacrifice.

BOOM—

A deafening explosion sounded in the distance. Another magictech cannon had overloaded and burst.

The immense Magic Power released by the explosion severely wounded several soldiers operating the cannon, who were quickly carried away by their comrades for emergency treatment.

"Captain, ninety percent of the magictech cannons are on Overload—"

"If this continues..."

The urgent report was cut short by the old captain's raised hand.

"Say no more."

"Abandon the magictech cannons."

"All garrison units, withdraw from the walls! Avoid engagement and help the citizens evacuate!"

The sudden command stunned the surrounding soldiers.

"Has it really come to this?"

"Is the Royal City... lost?" a young soldier whispered, his eyes filled with bewildered despair.

This was the symbol of all Azure Garden, the home where they had grown up.

Even during the great disaster more than a decade ago, the Royal Capital had not been completely destroyed and had quickly recovered.

But now, they were being forced to abandon it.

However, the soldiers' dazed shock was soon broken by the captain's sharp rebuke.

"Fallen houses can be rebuilt, lost cities can be reconstructed, but when a person dies, everything is truly lost!"

"What are you standing around for? Go and evacuate the people!"

The surrounding soldiers snapped to attention, acknowledged the order, and rushed towards the residential areas below the city walls.

Only the old captain remained on the wall, his murky, aged eyes watching the collapsing city below.

He had withheld certain things from these young soldiers—full of vigor yet inexperienced and easily overwhelmed by setbacks.

Actually, this beast tide could be stopped.

Although the garrison troops remaining in the Royal Capital lacked high-order experts capable of halting the frenzied monsters, the Royal Capital was also the ancestral land of the Brunestadt family. There were still several elders of 4-Ring strength from the Brunestadt family stationed in the Royal Capital. If they were to act together, leveraging the Brunestadt family's various resources and trump cards, they might well have been able to drive these giant beasts out of the Azure Garden Royal Capital and protect the city. After all, though these calamity beasts were ferocious, they completely lacked intelligence and would inevitably be no match for opponents of the same level. Just as Grand Duke Brunestadt had done during the calamity over a decade ago.

However, more than half an hour had passed from the outbreak of the disturbance in the city to the beast tide's unbridled rampage through the towns, and even ordinary soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Rings had realized this. Yet the grand and luxurious ducal mansion at the center of the Royal Capital remained eerily silent, without the slightest stir.

The Brunestadt family... something has happened to them...

This was the most terrifying truth the captain had desperately tried to conceal. Houses lost can be rebuilt, cities destroyed can be remade. To put it bluntly, even if people are lost, new generations can be born. But if the ducal family, the focus of the people's loyalty, and Grand Duke Brunestadt, the nation's protector, were gone... then this kingdom called Azure Garden would likely be relegated to history. And they, having lost their homeland, would become nothing more than refugees fleeing disaster, doomed to wander between different nations, forever without a home.

Shiayar, carrying Silvia in a princess hold, moved silently through the ruins of the Royal Capital.

A faint, Silver moonlight swirled within his eyes.

One massive Twilight Calamity Beast after another strode past him, their passage a deafening, destructive force, yet they all seemed oblivious to Shiayar.

One giant flaming scales lizard's path even intersected with Shiayar's.

But just as they were about to collide, the giant lizard shifted its body slightly, allowing them to pass each other without incident.

Such a bizarre scene naturally attracted the attention of keen observers.

After Shiayar rounded a corner, figures in yellow robes appeared soundlessly atop the surrounding rubble, silently encircling him.

One who appeared to be their leader stepped forward.

He first swept his cold, malicious gaze over Shiayar's calm face, then shook his head as if finding nothing of note.

But then, the robed man's gaze fixed upon the peacefully sleeping girl in Shiayar's arms.

"Grand Duke Brunestadt's only daughter... Silvia Brunestadt."

"And also... the key who undid the Master's Seal, allowing Twilight to descend upon the world once more."

His hoarse voice was filled with incredulous ecstasy.

Almost simultaneously with the leader's words, streams of light from myriad summoned Pet Beasts flared up.

Powerful, majestic, or ominously dark... dozens of auras locked onto Shiayar at once.

Without further words, without even asking Shiayar's identity, the group of evil followers launched an all-out attack the moment they appeared.

They did indeed have connections with Norton and could guess that the young man before them might be Norton's subordinate, sent to control Silvia.

However, as Norton himself had said... their alliance with the evil followers was only meant to last until this great chaos erupted.

Silvia.

She was a key that might offer a glimpse into the Divine Realm.

No one would entrust such a key to another's hands, not even an ally.

Wind Blades, Thunderbolts, Fireballs, Water Columns, Energy Bullets...

Countless offensive Skills were unleashed.

The vibrant, multicolored glow illuminated Shiayar's pitch-black eyes.

"I don't actually kill people very often. Even if they're courting death, I prefer to use an Illusion Technique to knock them out, tie them up, and take them to the Jurisdiction Bureau for a reward."

"But today, I'm in a terrible mood—"

"Watching a girl who loves me so desperately, who looks at me with the eyes of an abandoned pet, pleading... that feeling is truly unbearable."

A calm sigh escaped him.

The next moment.

Within a hundred-meter radius, every evil follower harboring hostile intent towards Shiayar was inexplicably compelled to look up.

What met their eyes was a pair of golden pupils, which had, unbeknownst to them, transformed from pitch-black.

Dazzling and blinding, they shone like daylight, like molten lava.

They resembled the eyes of a pureblood giant dragon, or perhaps the divine gaze of a god looking down upon mortals from above the clouds.

The instant they saw those golden eyes, the hearts of every evil follower, once filled with unshakeable faith, wavered. Instead, they felt an impulsive urge to worship the owner of these golden eyes.

It was as if the owner of these golden eyes was not an enemy vying for the key, but a sovereign monarch seated upon a majestic Throne, and they were all his subjects.

The skill description for the Crimson 'Heart of the Tyrant' contained only a brief line: "The potential to become a king."

And what Shiayar was demonstrating now was the advanced ability derived from the Crimson 'Heart of the Tyrant' once it had reached perfect proficiency.

Its name—Sovereignty.