As the Star Gazers' concert continued, the performance only grew better and better. The fans surrounding the stage were extremely hyped, including Phoebe, Lucas, Ryze, and Sera, whose gazes were locked onto the idols as they enjoyed every fleeting moment.
However, as they were fully immersed in the concert, trouble soon began to unfold nearby.
From the northwest side of the plaza, loud shouting erupted. When the four of them turned their heads toward the noise, they saw a scene of chaos—a dwarf and a harpy arguing loudly with one another.
"You barbaric dwarf! How dare you touch me with your filthy body?" shouted a drunk male harpy, surrounded by two fully armored harpy knights.
"What is your problem?" the male dwarf snapped back. "The place is crowded because of the concert. Of course people are going to bump into each other!"
"You—how dare you, peasant! Hick! Don't you know who I am?" the harpy sneered. "I am the sixth prince of the Empire of Flight!"
"I don't care which empire you're from," the dwarf replied angrily. "You should use your brain and understand obvious things."
"You dare to hick! speak ill of me?" the prince roared. "Knights! Arrest this peasant at once!"
As the knights moved to restrain him, the dwarf fought back, punching both of them away.
"Heh. You think I'd just let you?" the dwarf scoffed. "You stupid harpies!"
"How dare you!" one knight shouted.
"You savage! You dare raise your hand against us?" the harpy prince yelled.
As the riot escalated, the expressions of the surrounding crowd quickly shifted to confusion and worry. Eventually, the Star Gazers were forced to pause their performance due to the commotion in the plaza.
"Hey, you beastman," Stardust said with a slightly irritated expression as he turned to a nearby knight. "You're a knight of the Empire of the Brave, right? What's the meaning of this disturbance?"
"M-Madam Stardust," the beastman knight replied nervously, "it's just a small conflict between a royal harpy and a commoner dwarf."
"Then why aren't you stopping it?" asked the bird beastman member of the Star Gazers sharply. "They're ruining the show."
"Well… we can't interfere," another knight said hesitantly. "Opposing the prince of the Empire of Flight could cause political tension between our empires."
"Unbelievable," Starlight said, her annoyance clearly visible. "And because of that excuse, our concert is disrupted."
Moments later, Starlight floated gracefully into the air, an iridescent, sphere-shaped crystal ball hovering beside her left hand. As she ascended, her voice rang out clearly across the plaza.
"You four over there," Starlight said with closed eyes and a gentle smile, "what do you think you're doing?"
"S-S-Starlight?! When did you get up there?" the dwarf asked nervously.
"Who's this hick! bitch floating up there?" the harpy prince sneered.
"…Who are you calling a bitch?" Starlight asked, anger flickering beneath her calm demeanor.
"Who else but you?" the prince scoffed.
"Hey, stop being stupid," the dwarf hissed at the prince. "Apologize now, or you'll regret it."
"Who are you to hick! order me around?" the harpy prince snapped. "I'm royalty from the Empire of Flight!"
"Y-Young master, please stop," one of the harpy knights pleaded. "She's an S-ranker! If you don't apologize, our empire will suffer serious consequences!"
As the prince sobered up slightly, realization dawned on his face.
"An S-ranker?" he muttered, cold sweat forming. "That girl… wait… is that… Starlight?!"
Starlight smirked and turned her gaze toward the crystal ball. Inside it, an image formed—an empire built atop towering cliffs, a massive lake beneath it. A luxurious palace coated in pristine white stood at its center.
"The Empire of Flight," Starlight said coldly. "Located in the northeast of the Middle Continent. Quite far from the Empire of the Brave. You must have traveled for days just to come here…"
Her smile sharpened.
"…just to cause trouble."
"With that," she continued, her voice turning icy, "I, Starlight Lumberadge, S-rank #6, hereby declare the Sixth Prince and the Royal Family of the Empire of Flight guilty of attempting to incite conflict and disrupt public order within another empire's borders."
"The Sixth Prince and every remaining member of the royal family shall be imprisoned, then executed. The royal palace of the Empire of Flight shall be erased."
She turned the crystal ball toward the northeast and raised one hand toward the sky.
"Star Glitter."
A blinding radiance erupted from her palm. A massive beam of starlight tore through the heavens, shooting straight into the sky.
Moments later, the image within the crystal ball showed the palace of the Empire of Flight being struck by a colossal ray of light—descending like divine judgment. When the view cleared, the palace was completely obliterated, leaving no trace behind. While the surrounding buildings remained untouched.
The entire plaza fell into stunned silence.
"W-What was that light just now?" Phoebe whispered.
"That was Starlight's ability," Sera said seriously. "She can shoot out destructive rays from afar."
"So… where did it hit?" Phoebe asked.
"Based on what she said," Sera replied, "it was aimed at the Empire of Flight. She destroyed something there."
"That's insanely far… and she still hit it," Lucas said, cold sweat running down his face. "She's a monster."
"Well, what did you expect?" Sera replied calmly. "She's an S-ranker."
"But how did she know the exact location from that distance?" Ryze asked, puzzled.
"It probably has something to do with that crystal ball," Lucas said. "I think it's an artifact."
"You're correct," Sera said, as she continue "That's a Divine Artifact called Overseer Eyes. It allows the wielder to observe places across the world."
"So overpowered…" she muttered.
"She's terrifyingly strong," Phoebe said quietly. "With that ability, she could erase kingdoms or empires in the blink of an eye."
"That's why," Sera continued, "by the order of God Xanos El Guertenaz, Starlight is treated as a strategic asset by the Adventurer Association—used for large-scale raids or executions of entire empires."
"I see…" Lucas said softly. "She really is an important person then."
Soon as Starlight looked in her crystal ball, she spoke,
"Well, that was a relief. It's gone cleanly without damaging the surrounding. With that, Reaper won't nag at me for also damaging the target surrounding," Starlight said, happy and relieved.
"Opssy hahaha, I apologize for the momentary disruption of the concert, folks. Due to a momentary issue, the concert was paused shortly, but don't worry everyone, our standby guards will take care of it shortly. Now, with no further adieu, let's continue where we left off," Starlight said cheerfully as they were about to start again.
As the stargazer was about to start their performance, a loud shot could be heard, hitting a nearby standby guard. As everybody looked in the direction where the shooting came from, they saw the prince harpy taking down the guards with a flintlock.
The harpy prince soon spoke,"There is no way that I will be arrested in a place like this! Go away if you all don't want to die," the prince said, clearly mad.
"Woah, woah, woah! Calm down! Put the flintlock down. There are many innocent people here, you see?" said the dwarf.
"Shut up, you lowborn! It's all because of you why all this happened," said the prince, as he shot the dwarf.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The dwarf fell, shot in his stomach and shoulders. Soon the crowd ran away from the mad prince who shot the dwarf. As the prince noticed the chaos, he took the opportunity, along with his two knights, to escape by flying.
As the harpy prince and his two knights were running away, the ground shook violently. Then, three giant green skeleton arms appeared from the ground, reaching swiftly toward the sky and grabbing the harpy prince and the two harpy knights who were trying to escape. Once the three harpies were caught, they were pinned down by the giant skeleton hands, unable to move.
Soon, atop a nearby rooftop, everyone saw a man wearing a pitch-black cloak that flowed like living shadow, thin silver embroidery tracing arcane patterns along its edges. A deep hood framed his face, revealing short, tousled dark green hair that fell in messy, uneven layers, jagged bangs partially shadowing his dark green eyes, while round black earrings glinted faintly on both of his ears. In both of his hands, he held jet-black daggers, pointed downward, as the cloak moved with unnatural smoothness and around his neck, a diamond necklace with two wings, a circle in the center, with an "S" above and a "3" below.. Below, he wore no boots, but his feet were metallic black, the same as his metallic black hands.
In a blink of an eye, he appeared in front of the harpies without making a sound. As the three harpies saw him, they trembled, then the prince spoke,
"We surren—"
As the harpy prince was about to finish his words, their heads fell instantly without them realizing it—they had already been cut and were dead. Soon, the man disappeared again and appeared next to Starlight. Irritated, she spoke,
"The hell!! Reaper!! Why did you kill them here? I was avoiding killing them since I didn't want to ruin the concert, but look what you did!" Starlight said, pissed.
"Well, they were causing trouble a second time, even though you already warned them the first time. So I was forced to act then," said Reaper.
"Well, what you said is reasonable, but I'm still mad!" Starlight said, popping her cheeks.
"Ha, this is troublesome. Let me do this then," Reaper said as he turn and pointed his hand toward the corpses of the dead harpies.
Soon, Reaper spoke, "Awaken."
The three corpses were surrounded by a green aura. They twitched violently as rotting flesh peeled away, sloughing off in chunks and collapsing to the ground. In seconds, nothing remained but bare skeletons glowing an ominous green. They then stood up, picking up their heads.
As everyone witnessed the situation, Phoebe spoke, "They turned into undead… Wow, who is that person?" she asked curiously.
"He... He is Reaper, the S-rank #3, one of the strongest S-rankers out there. He is known as the One-Man Army Necromancer," Sera said with a serious expression.
As everyone was still confused about what had happened and tried to process the situation, one thing was clear—everyone at the concert was focused on Reaper. They stared at him, his gloomy energy and menacing eyes dominating the scene.