The world didn't just tremble; it groaned under the weight of an ancient, celestial gravity. The Sovereign Vortex that descended upon the Human Kingdom was not a mere magical spell—it was a manifestation of the Breakers of the Heavens.
Across the capital, stone buildings cracked and glass shattered into diamond dust. The air itself became as thick as lead. Thousands of citizens were driven to their knees, their foreheads pressed against the cobblestones by an invisible hand. Even the elite Royal Guards, men who had cultivated their Qi for decades, found themselves pinned to the earth like insects in amber.
Inside the High Palace, the pressure was at its peak. Beatrice, the woman who stood at the pinnacle of the Human Kingdom, felt her joints scream. Her "High Queen" aura, which usually commanded the room, was snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. She dropped to one knee, the marble tiles beneath her cracking from the sheer force of her own resistance.
Yet, amidst this apocalypse of pressure, two figures stood untouched.
Rena stood with her head held high, her tattered robes fluttering in a wind that only she could feel. Beside her, Rayn held the God Slayer, the crimson lightning of the blade forming a protective sphere of static around them. Outside, in the palace gardens, only one other remained standing: Jai. The boy stood trembling, his blue eyes wide, but his spine remained straight, his blood reacting to the pressure with a strange, harmonic resonance.
"Mom!" Rayn gasped, his voice straining against the humming in the air. "Who has arrived? What is this pressure? It feels like the planet is trying to fold itself in half!"
Rena didn't look at him. She was staring at the rift in the sky, her eyes reflecting a cold, predatory joy. A dark, melodic laugh escaped her lips—a sound that made Beatrice's blood run cold.
"Our family is coming, Rayn," Rena whispered, her voice carrying a frequency that bypassed the ears and spoke directly to the soul. "The true lineage. The ones who were betrayed million of years ago. Today, we don't just take you home... we take our revenge from this family for every drop of blood they spilled from us."
Beatrice, struggling to maintain her dignity, bit her lip until it bled. She forced her Qi to circulate, fighting the crushing gravity. She knew she couldn't win this with pressure alone.
"Griffin... AURELIUS! LUNA!" she roared, her voice amplified by her remaining essence.
From the hidden aviaries behind the throne room, two massive shapes erupted. These were not the common griffins used by the scouts; these were Elder Sky-Beasts, their feathers made of hardened silver and their talons etched with runes of the First Era.
Beside the throne, a third griffin stirred—a small, juvenile creature with pure white fur and wings the color of a summer sky. It blinked sleepily, its presence oddly calm amidst the chaos. It was the Sapphire-Winged Fledgling, a beast rumored to only wake when a True King walked the halls.
Beatrice lunged forward, throwing herself onto the back of the male griffin, Aurelius. The female, Luna, took flight beside them, her screech echoing through the palace like a war horn. Beatrice unleashed her own Vortex, a silver storm that pushed back against the descending pressure just enough to allow the palace inhabitants to draw breath.
They looked up. And the sky died.
Floating above the palace were ten dragons. They were not the wild beasts of the Aetheleon mountains; they were Blue Emperor Dragons, each one the size of the High Palace itself. Their scales were like polished sapphires, and their eyes were frozen stars.
Sitting upon the necks of these mountain-sized creatures were ten individuals. They wore armor made of dragon-silk and carried weapons that hummed with the power of the Ninth Whisper.
As the dragons descended, the vortex suddenly shifted, turning from a crushing weight into a supportive cushion. The people who had been pinned to the ground—the ministers, the guards, and the citizens—scrambled to their feet, staring upward in a mixture of awe and absolute terror.
Edward and Mable stumbled out onto the palace balcony, their faces pale. Edward's bandaged arm throbbed. He looked at the dragons and felt a soul-deep fear.
"Guards!" Edward shrieked, his voice cracking. "Call the entire legion! Seal the gates! ARCHERS, AIM!"
But the guards didn't move. They were staring at the dragons, their bows trembling in their hands.
In the gardens, Alaric stood before the "Company of Heroes." His face was a mask of grim realization.
"Uncle Alaric," Jai whispered, his hand on the hilt of his practice sword. "What is happening? Who are these people?"
Alaric didn't answer immediately. He saw the way the blue dragons circled the palace like vultures around a dying lion. "James, Brokk, Winston... wait here. Do not move. Do not draw your weapons unless I give the command."
"Why, Uncle?" Jai asked, stepping forward. "We can fight! We are the team of the new generation!"
"JAI!" Alaric roared, turning to look at his nephew with eyes filled with fear. "Look at the sky! Those aren't just dragons. Those are the Ninth Whisper Sovereigns. One of them could erase this city with a flick of their finger. Stay. There."
Maksood looked at his brother, James. "Big Brother... is this real? Or did I finally lose my mind during the spar?"
James, his face devoid of color, activated his Wind-Palm technique and delivered a sharp slap to the back of Maksood's head. Maksood tumbled forward, hitting the ground with a dull thud. He sat up, rubbing his head.
"The pain is real," Maksood muttered, looking back up at the sapphire scales of the dragons. "Which means we are all probably going to die."
Inside the palace, Rena turned to Rayn. The balcony was hundreds of feet above the stone courtyard where the dragons were preparing to land.
"Jump," Rena said.
Rayn looked at the drop, then back at his mother. "Jump? Mom, are you mad? That's a hundred-foot drop onto solid marble! I'm a human, not a bird!"
Rena laughed—a sound of pure, unbridled power. "You are many things, Rayn. But 'merely human' is not one of them."
Before Rayn could protest, she seized his hand and leaped off the balcony. Rayn let out a scream that was promptly swallowed by the wind. He squeezed his eyes shut, waiting for the impact that would turn his bones to dust.
But the impact never came.
Rayn felt a sudden, rhythmic thrum-thrum in the air. The sensation of falling was replaced by a powerful upward lift. He opened one eye, then the other.
He was floating.
He looked up and let out a gasp of pure shock. Growing from his mother's shoulder blades were two massive, obsidian-black wings. They weren't feathered like a griffin's; they were leathery and bat-like, etched with glowing red runes that pulsed in time with her heartbeat. They were Dragon Wings.
Beatrice, watching from the back of Aurelius, felt her heart stop. She was a human, and Rena's father had been a human. It was biologically impossible. Yet, there was her daughter, flying with the grace of a High Draconian.
Rena landed in the center of the palace square, the marble cracking under her feet. Rayn stumbled beside her, his head spinning.
The ten dragons landed around them, their massive heads bowing low. The riders leaped from their mounts, their wings—some blue, some black—unfurling behind them. In unison, the ten warriors knelt on the cracked marble, their foreheads touching the ground.
"GREETINGS, YOUR HIGHNESS RENA!" they roared, their voices shaking the palace foundations. "GREETINGS TO THE PRINCE OF THE NINTH WHISPER!"
Rayn stood paralyzed, the God Slayer still clutched in his hand. "Prince of the Ninth Whisper? This isn't just a family reunion... this is a coronation."
Edward, standing on the balcony above, looked at the kneeling warriors. His eyes landed on a woman at the front of the group—a woman with hair like spun silver and eyes like cold embers.
"Meilin Yue," Edward whispered, his voice trembling.
Meilin Yue. The woman who had appeared a year ago during the awakening ceremony, nearly destroying the palace with a single wave of her hand before vanishing into the rift. Every minister remembered that day. They had thought she was a rogue assassin. Now, they realized she was merely a scout.
Mable, standing beside Edward, shrieked. "She's the one! She's the one who destroyed the western tower! She didn't come for the kingdom... she came for her!"
Rena stepped forward, her black wings folding behind her like a cloak of shadows. She looked at the ministers, at the guards, and finally at Beatrice, who was circling above on her griffin.
"Meilin," Rena said, her voice cold and absolute.
"I am here, Madam," Meilin Yue replied, standing up and bowing.
"Kill them," Rena commanded, pointing a finger toward the palace balconies where the ministers stood. "Kill everyone who looked down on us. Kill the guards who held the doors shut. Just leave my mother... and my nephew's team at the gate. If a single scratch appears on Jai or his friends, you will answer to the Void."
Meilin Yue bowed deeper. "And what of the Prince's enemies? The ones who spilled the blood of the boy?"
Rena's eyes flickered toward Edward and Mable. A cruel smile touched her lips. "Bring Edward and Mable to me alive. I want them to watch as their world burns. I want them to feel the weight of every scar they gave my son's friend."
"Madam," Meilin Yue asked, glancing at the sky. "If your mother, the High Queen, interferes... what are our orders?"
Rena didn't hesitate. "Fight her. Break her spirit. But do not kill her. She must live to see the new era."
The command was given.
The Blue Emperor Dragons let out a collective roar that shattered every window in the capital. They took to the air, their mouths glowing with an intense, sapphire-colored flame.
Alaric, seeing the destruction begin, realized there was no more time for talk. As the Supreme Commander of the Human Guards, his duty was to the kingdom. He drew his sword, the blade glowing with a fierce golden light.
"ALL GUARDS! TO THE PALACE!" Alaric's voice boomed.
From the barracks, the city walls, and the hidden bunkers, the army of the Human Kingdom emerged. Five Lakh (500,000) soldiers—a sea of steel and golden banners—began to flood toward the palace. It was a staggering sight, a testament to the might of the human race.
Rayn watched as the horizon filled with soldiers. "Mom! There are so many of them! Five lakh guards... can ten dragons really take on an entire army?"
Rena didn't even turn around. She was watching Meilin Yue and the other nine warriors draw their Heart-Cores—crystalline swords forged within their own bodies, pulsing with the life-force of their dragon souls.
"Rayn," Rena said, her voice soft but filled with a terrifying pride. "You have lived on Earth too long. You have forgotten the hierarchy of the universe. In the face of a True Dragon, numbers are merely a count of how many bodies will need to be buried."
"But Mom," Rayn asked, his mind reeling. "How did you get wings? How are you doing this? You're a human!"
Rena turned to him then, her eyes glowing with a violet light that matched the God Slayer.
"I am not a human, Rayn. I am a Dragon of the Ninth Whisper. And your grandmother, Beatrice... the woman you think is a human Queen..."
Rena looked up at Beatrice, who was diving toward them on Aurelius, her sword drawn in a desperate attempt to stop the slaughter.
"She is a Dragon as well. But, she just didn't know that she was a dragon".
Rayn's world shattered. Every piece of information he had about this planet, about his family, and about himself was a lie. He looked at the God Slayer in his hand, then at the 500,000 soldiers charging toward their deaths.
The battle for Aetheleon had begun.