In Yan Huan's funeral hall, everything with a display screen began to take on a terrifying touch of ghostly purple.

Under that ghostly purple tint, everyone in the funeral hall was momentarily dazed.

"..."

The next second, the entire hall returned to normal.

Conversations resumed, and the mourning continued as if nothing had happened.

"Rumble!!"

But outside the door, amidst the blazing, sun-like thunderstorm, a drenched figure with golden hair walked in, stunned.

It was Aria Spencer.

"..."

She looked at the address on her phone and arrived precisely at Yan Huan's funeral hall.

Perhaps, before arriving here, Aria still held a trace of luck and hope.

More than Yan Huan suddenly becoming distant on her phone, Aria hoped nothing had happened to Yan Huan.

But now, as she stood at the entrance of the funeral hall and looked inside…

Her heart instantly turned cold.

From Aria's perspective, the whole funeral hall looked like a congregation of birds gathering for a meeting.

They flapped their wings and chirped noisily under the hall, occasionally scattering a few feathers.

The only clear thing for Aria was Yan Huan's portrait and his photos from life arranged at the altar.

Yes, aside from Yan Huan and his mother, Aria could never see others' true faces clearly...

Unfortunately, those few she could see clearly had now turned into a portrait standing before the coffin.

The clarity transformed into a curse, making her deeply aware of what had happened.

"Chirp…"

"Chatter…"

The intense impact left Aria's expression momentarily dazed, and even the bird figures around her began to distort and swell, turning into monsters.

Her condition worsened like during the club battles.

But at this moment, Aria still stared blankly at the only human image in her vision, slowly approaching the coffin.

Around her, the voices of the "monsters" gradually emerged,

"President Yan… just left like that…"

"It's all Ye Shiyu's fault… She's the one who imprisoned President Yan."

"I heard that when President Yan was locked up and tortured by Ye Shiyu, he tried to send a message to Aria…"

"But it seemed Ye Shiyu was using Ye Zi AI to monitor the messages and never let them go through…"

"President Yan thought his SOS message to Aria went through, but it didn't…"

"Ye Shiyu was always using Ye Zi AI to impersonate Yan Huan, communicating with the outside world…"

"Yeah, that Ye Shiyu, not only did she lock up Yan Huan in the basement and torment him terribly, something like this even happened…"

"Did you hear, before Yan Huan was hit by the car, all his bones were broken, he was bloodstained, and God knows how painful…"

"Even in his blurry consciousness, Yan Huan was always calling Aria's name…"

"Sigh…"

"President Yan probably until death, was waiting for Aria to rescue him…"

Aria stood before Yan Huan's portrait, her sky-blue pupils contracted to an extreme.

Her ability to distinguish reality from illusion based on bird shapes was completely nullified by the surrounding birds turning into grotesque distorted monsters.

At this moment, the chirping voices of the "monsters" gradually faded...

In Aria's eyes was only the black-and-white photo of the smiling young man.

As if...

He was speaking to the girl.

"Aria…"

"I'm in so much pain…"

"Save me…"

"I beg you, save me from Ye Shiyu's hands…"

"Why can't I send it…"

"Aria…"

"Why… didn't you come to save me?"

Standing in front of Yan Huan's portrait, a tear fell from the corner of Aria's eye.

Even if she was often clumsy, she now understood something.

Why Heather suddenly didn't let her out, why they suddenly wanted to take her phone...

And!

Aria shakily raised the phone in her hand and looked down...

Inside, the chat history with Yan Huan was still vividly clear.

It turned out...

Yan Huan didn't stop liking me...

He just died.

And herself...

Never received his SOS messages.

It was all Ye Shiyu...

Who had been impersonating Yan Huan, trying to cover up her crimes all this time.

"Crack! Bang!!"

The next second, the phone in Aria's hand exploded.

In that instant, some terrifying power, never before manifest, began to awaken within her bit by bit.

Her face gradually draped in a terrifying darkness, yet her golden hair shone brilliantly like the sun, defying gravity as it floated upwards.

Gradually, the golden light on her head gathered together, forming a pair of horn-like illusory objects.

But at this moment, those horns no longer had the gentle appearance of a cute calf.

Instead, they turned long, sharp, and ferocious...

Under the overlap of shadows and light, Aria's silhouette gradually morphed into the Demon King.

"Rumble!!"

On the sky, thunder rumbled!

The entire land of Linmen trembled slightly, as if an earthquake had struck.

Within the funeral hall, the screens that had turned ghostly purple instantly powered off.

"Ye… Shi… Yu…"

In the obscurity surrounding her, Aria's raspy voice expanded little by little amidst the thunder.

In the distance, within the Barrier.

"Eek!!"

However, as Little Thumb spoke, it suddenly sensed something, frightening the whole snake into vanishing instantly,

"?"

An Le was slightly startled, but immediately, Sakuragi Hitomi's eyes widened in shock.

Because...

The Barrier around her instantly retracted into her body, disappearing without a trace.

"What… what's going on?"

Sakuragi Hitomi wondered, looking at her palm.

She could feel it...

The Barrier's power wasn't broken, it just…

The modifier suddenly sensed something frightening, retreating into her body...

"Hum…"

At this moment, in the utility room.

The purple glow of Ye Shiyu's phone, clutching Yan Huan's corpse, was astoundingly bright as if accomplishing something...

Then, it flickered off abruptly, dimming down.

"Woo…"

The sudden screen blackout made Ye Shiyu hug Yan Huan even tighter in terror.

"Rumble!!"

And outside the door, all three looked at the suddenly dormant modifier powers on themselves.

Before clearly understanding what was happening…

The rumbling sound of thunder on the sky seemed to penetrate everything, reaching their ears.

It seemed, something terrifying...

Was coming.