A long, resonant wail pierced the twilight sky.
Almost simultaneously, everyone present froze in place. It wasn’t the volume of the harmonica’s sound or its haunting beauty that stopped them, but an overwhelming pressure that descended like a suffocating shroud.
Even those without any power or heightened senses could feel it—an invisible force crashing down from the heavens.
Many members of the Hunting Organization instinctively reached toward the sky. You might not believe it, but the surging mana made them think it was raining.
Mana was normally as intangible and invisible as air, yet now its immense density gave it physical weight, draping over everyone’s shoulders like a tangible burden.
Bruno, the strongest among them, was the first to snap out of it. He adopted a battle-ready stance, his face grim with tension, killing intent blazing in his eyes.
“She’s finally here?!”
Meanwhile.
Protected by Hyacinth, Liyou stood atop a skyscraper nearly a hundred meters from the Third District square. The moment she heard the harmonica’s call, it was as if a massive weight lifted from her chest. But in the very next instant, that weight slammed back down!
A choking sensation surged through her!
“What level of power is this!?”
As a superpower user, Liyou’s senses were far sharper than an ordinary person’s. Her heart pounded wildly, and a wave of nausea hit her.
She knew—the True Ancestor was truly coming.
Truth be told, when Sang had told her that playing the harmonica would summon the True Ancestor, Liyou had only believed it about thirty percent. Though she hadn’t questioned him outright, the idea of an ancient being who had slumbered for decades emerging for the sake of a mere human seemed utterly implausible. Even if he was her blood servant, she couldn’t imagine the True Ancestor placing such value on him.
That was precisely why Liyou had found it hard to believe the True Ancestor would actually appear.
But the facts were now undeniable.
Before Liyou could even rejoice, her expression turned grave. She had long heard tales of the immortal True Ancestor’s incomparable might, but those rumors seemed to have severely underestimated her power.
This ominous force… it filled her with a terrible foreboding…
…
At the same moment.
In the palace at the heart of the Inner Ring—as mentioned before, this world had only one True Ancestor, no royal bloodline, and no Senate. The Central region’s rulers were the Cape Family, who had usurped the palace and made it their own, conducting their daily affairs there.
Richter Cape had been reviewing reports from across the lands in the opulent chamber at the palace’s pinnacle. The room was a testament to extravagance, gilded in gold and splendor.
Not long ago, he had received intelligence that the True Ancestor’s blood servant had ventured out and been ambushed by the Hunting Organization in the Third District. He had deliberately ordered the Central Knight Order to stand down. The True Ancestor had forbidden him from killing the boy himself, but if others did it, that was none of his concern.
As Richter Cape awaited news of the blood servant’s demise, a sudden awareness jolted him upright.
At that instant, one of his knights burst through the door. “Grand Duke, something huge has happened!!!”
“Ah… I’ve already sensed it…”
He rose from his lavish chair and strode out onto the office balcony, hands clasped behind his back. His gaze fixed solemnly on the black silhouette descending from the distant sky.
That lord… who had ignored worldly affairs for so many years, was personally descending for the sake of a human!
It seemed the True Ancestor’s regard for this human exceeded his expectations.
Something felt off somewhere.
Though Sang had been personally selected by Richter Cape and sent into the Heavenly Key as a blood servant, in hindsight, something didn’t add up. It felt as if invisible hands had orchestrated everything, as though someone had placed the boy right in front of him for him to choose.
As the second-most powerful figure in the world, Richter Cape despised anything beyond his control.
Where exactly had things gone wrong!?
…
The scene returned to the Central Third District.
Everyone present stared at the solitary figure slowly descending from the sky with utter astonishment. Though information on the True Ancestor was scarce in the outside world, the moment this silhouette appeared, even a fool could guess her identity.
Throughout the heavens and earth, only one being exuded such supreme authority.
A woman with floor-length black hair, beauty so alluring it could bewitch nations, and overwhelming power. The dense mana made it seem as if blood rain was falling from the sky.
In an instant, the air filled with a suffocating metallic tang of blood.
Who else could it be but the True Ancestor?
Today, the black-haired beauty wasn’t shrouded in the three layers of white cloth she wore in the Heavenly Key. Instead, she donned a loose white gossamer gown reminiscent of ancient Greek scholar’s robes—immaculate and flowing. The long skirt covered her lower body completely, while the upper was a single-shoulder halter, revealing vast expanses of flawless pale skin. Her bare feet hovered just above the ground, and her raven locks danced with a life of their own.
She appeared utterly bloodless, more specter than living being—like a demon crawling from the abyss of hell, or a fallen angel descending from paradise.
She reigned supreme!
What shocked everyone even more was this: the True Ancestor slowly descended to the side of the masked youth. Then, in the next second, she spoke in a brazen, domineering tone.
“Hey~ Little Bug, tell me—who hurt you?”
Her words carried not the air of a lofty monarch, but that of the unchallenged apex predator, supreme above all creatures under heaven and earth.
From start to finish, she hadn’t regarded the others as living beings at all.
Sang’s condition was dire. Beyond his fatal wounds, his body was a mangled ruin, over half his bones shattered. He knelt on both knees, trembling violently like a puppy after a storm—innocent yet seemingly wracked with guilt toward humanity’s cause. His eyes half-lidded, he fought desperately to stay conscious.
With great effort, he lifted his head and gazed at the pure black silhouette drifting down from the sky. To the others, it was the descent of an evil god; to the youth, it was something far more nuanced.
His thoughts were a whirlwind, his emotions conflicted.
He wanted her to save him, Aisha, and Lusana; he didn’t want her to die; he wanted her to die, to end this wretched world.
Such tangled feelings defied description… yet one truth he couldn’t deny: in this moment, he felt at peace.
When all had turned cold eyes upon him, only the True Ancestor had kept her promise. She had truly come to save him.
“Tru… Ancestor… Lady…” Sang rasped with a trembling voice.
Beneath the apocalyptic glow of the dying sun, the True Ancestor hovered a half-meter off the ground, her feet untouched by earth. She looked down at the kneeling youth and sneered, “Little Bug, what makes you think the outside world is freedom? Or that the inside is a cage?”
A long silence followed. The True Ancestor received no answer.
Upon closer inspection, the youth’s eyes had rolled back—he had lost consciousness.
“Truly weak…”
Then, to the stunned gazes of everyone present, the True Ancestor did something utterly shocking: she scooped the unconscious youth into her arms in a princess carry.
Not just the civilians, but even the Hunting Organization members were dumbfounded.
The True Ancestor—treating a human with such care? Forget humans; even the Four Great Dukes wouldn’t receive such favor.
Just who was that youth!?
Cradling the unconscious boy, the True Ancestor stepped into the rubble and approached Aisha and Lusana, gently setting him down before them.
“I’m sorry, True Ancestor Lady. We failed to protect him…”
“I’ll punish you both when we return… For now, watch over him. I’ll mete out some discipline to these insolent creatures!”
The moment her words ended, the True Ancestor turned. Her peerlessly crimson blood eyes swept over every human present with a murderous chill—not mere killing intent, but divine judgment!
At the same time, countless high-ranking Hunting Organization officers surged forward. Midway, as their eyes met hers, they halted one by one, their will to fight utterly extinguished.
“This… what the hell is this?”
“We can’t win…”
They prided themselves as humanity’s elite, able to contend with high-level Blood Race members—yet in an instant before the True Ancestor, their battle spirit crumbled.
The pressure ahead wasn’t like oceans or mountains anymore; it was an existence from a higher dimension. In that moment, they felt like frogs at the bottom of a well, gazing up at the stars.
The next second, a cold, merciless voice rang out: “Annoying. Perish.”
