The voice was ancient. And it carried a hidden weight that everyone present could feel without being able to explain.

Cedric, still recovering, heard it.

An expression of panic, and at the same time, pure shock, appeared on his face.

’That voice. No, that’s impossible. How can it be him? There’s no reason he should be acting personally,’ he thought, pushing himself to his feet and ignoring his pain completely. It didn’t matter right now. The situation had become too strange for it to matter.

’Why has the King decided to act personally?’

The situation had already been complicated enough, practically out of control at this point, which was why Cedric hadn’t hesitated to inform his father so that appropriate measures could be taken. But among all the things he had anticipated, the direct personal involvement of the King had not been on the list.

And how could it have been?

The King of the Kingdom of Solren, one of the most powerful individuals currently alive on the entire continent, someone who hadn’t been seen publicly in decades, choosing to step forward personally for something like this?

Was it possible that the situation was far more serious than he had imagined?

"Just what the hell did that crazy bastard do?" he thought, no longer able to make sense of the situation.

Elena had heard the voice as well. She didn’t recognize it, but she felt the weight carried within it and understood immediately that whoever it belonged to was no ordinary person. Someone from the capital, perhaps?

But unlike her, the being standing before her did not waste a single moment on unnecessary thought. It lifted its gaze upward and broke into laughter.

"Not bad... truly not bad. To think that even in this current era there still exists a being of your caliber, truly impressive. It seems the damage my kind inflicted upon yours last time was not nearly deep enough. But that is fine. I will make sure to correct that as well."

It spoke as it rose into the air, ascending until it hovered above the city, suspended directly beneath the churning vortex overhead.

"Hmm... you really are one of them." The ancient voice echoed from above, not with panic, nor urgency, but with cold, detached interest.

A voice that regarded its target with contempt, yet did not deem it worthy of anything more.

"To think that one of you parasites managed to survive until today. But why reveal yourself now? Surely you do not believe that, with the meager strength you currently possess, you are capable of anything meaningful."

"Meager strength?" the being laughed. "A mere Paragon dares look down on me? It seems your kind has grown quite full of itself over the last millennium."

Its voice changed as it spoke, no longer unhinged, but cold and precise, while the aura surrounding it began to shift, growing stronger, far beyond what it had already been.

"This..."

Even the voice from above seemed caught off guard, watching as the being continued its unbroken climb, surging from the early stage of S-rank to its peak in a single instant.

"Did you really think I came unprepared? That human from long ago was strong enough that even on the verge of death she managed to drag me into the grave with her. But for beings of our level, death is never truly the end. Just as we have our ways of staying alive, we have our ways of recovering our strength. Now... let me show you what true power is."

As the words left its mouth, the sky above seemed to respond.

A bolt descended from the vortex, thick, enormous, and blindingly fast, and for a brief moment the entire city was swallowed by a light so intense it erased every shadow.

The being at the center of the strike didn’t attempt to evade.

Even as its body was being torn apart, it regenerated in real time, continuously rebuilding itself while its strength kept climbing, pressing further and further toward the absolute ceiling of its current rank.

"Hahaha... ah, this feeling... it’s been too long," it said, ecstatic, sensing its power brush against the next threshold, showing no sign of stopping.

Its regeneration accelerated. Instead of disintegrating, it repaired itself faster and faster, until it was nearly whole once more, even as the intensity of the attack bearing down on it continued to increase.

"Try as much as you want," it said, its voice dripping with contempt. "Despair, because no matter how hard you try, you won’t suc—"

The sentence broke apart mid-air.

It sensed an abrupt shift.

Its expression froze.

Pain hit all at once, intense, total, with no point of origin. Its gaze snapped down to its own hands, and what it saw made no sense. The disintegration had resumed, faster than before, and this time nothing was slowing it down. The regeneration that had kept pace with everything thrown at it moments ago was simply gone.

"Wha—"

The word died in its throat.

It reached inward, desperate, disbelieving, and found nothing. The force that had been surging through it moments ago, that overwhelming current it had come to treat as a certainty, was gone. Not fading. Gone. And no matter how hard it grasped, there was nothing left to hold onto.

The horror lasted only a second before the rage swallowed it whole.

Its voice didn’t rise, it detonated, tearing through the sky, cutting straight through the assault still raining down from above and crashing across the city, the battlefield, and everything beneath them like a shockwave with no intention of stopping.

"WHO DARES?!"

In the underground chamber beneath the great stump, all that remained of the laboratory was ruin.

Bodies lay scattered across the destroyed floor, every last member of the personnel, none of them alive.

And at the center of it all lay the cocoon that had once bathed the entire underground area in pulsing green light, now shattered on the ground, silent.