The forest was quiet.
Not peaceful—quiet. The kind of silence that only follows violence.
Ash drifted on the wind. Trees had been uprooted, gouged, flattened. Blood soaked the roots, steaming against the sun. Dozens of bodies littered the clearing—criminals who had laughed minutes ago, their limbs now bent at unnatural angles.
And at the center of it all… stood Anessa.
Small. Straight-backed. Perched atop Grandy, her massive bear mount, like a child riding a beast that feared her more than the world.
Not a scratch on her.
She barely looked like she'd moved.
One criminal staggered back, panting—his shirt torn, a deep slash across his chest. His eyes darted from corpse to corpse.
"No... no way..."
Beside him, another one limped, half his face melted from a blast. His voice was hoarse.
"She... she didn't chant… didn't gesture... what is she?"
Grandy stretch lazily beside Anessa, letting out a yawn that shook the trees.
Then—
"I counted twenty," Anessa said calmly, brushing a speck of blood from her sleeve. "Which means... just three left."
Her pink eyes drifted toward the chubby man.
His smile was gone.
Completely.
He stared at her. Something deep in his gut—something old and buried—screamed.
He'd killed hundreds. He'd faced executioners, war heroes, Gifted freaks and Awakened titans.
And yet.
Something about her…
"We weren't wolves thrown into a flock of sheep," he muttered.
"We were cubs... dropped into a herd of buffaloes."
His aura flared instinctively—hot, pulsing, defensive. His breathing hitched.
He was shaking.
"No," he growled, forcing his voice to rise above the terror in his bones. "No."
His energy spiked violently, warping the air, crushing the dirt beneath his feet. He screamed, a roar of rage and denial.
Then, silence.
"I am not your prey."
He said in a calm unyielding tone.
Power surged from him in jagged arcs. His body swelled slightly, then as if his muscles were punctured, he deflated. Following the deflation was a massive amount of smoke pouring out of his body.
The smoke blocked the view around him. Then, it cleared.
Standing in place of the chubby, was an eerily thin man. His aura was calm as the sea and as unyielding as a bull. Behind him, hovered a fiery burning war chariot.
But Anessa didn't even blink.
She just tilted her head.
"Fighting back...?"
And then she smiled—
Not kindly.
But like someone amused that the chicken finally raised a claw.
---
Somewhere else in the forest.
A young man could be seen walking forward as he dragged a corpse along. Every student that came across him all had the same fate: Death.
Soon, the twin came by a Point Pillar. He walked over.
Then, in a move no one expected, he bowed.
"Your Highness."
Kale's brow twitched.
The twin rose. "So… what is the Fourth Prince doing all the way out here?"
"Isn't that obvious?" Kale replied, voice smooth. He wasn't surprised a one of the criminals recognize him, anyone with the least amount of literacy can easily recognize a royal.
"Oh, pardon my stupidity," the twin said, grin widening. "Truth is—I've always been a fan of royalty."
His eyes shimmered with admiration, but also nostalgia.
"As a village boy, I used to dream of meeting the king. So I slaughtered my whole village." His tone was casual, almost wistful. "Figured that'd guarantee a meeting. It did. He sentenced me personally."
He glanced down at the corpse he was dragging.
"My brother hated royals. Wanted to kill them all. So I killed him too. Now I drag him around to show him every time my dreams come true."
He turned back to Kale, smile sharpened to a point.
"Like now."
"Interesting," Kale murmured.
"Isn't it?" The twin beamed, thrilled by the prince's response. "Say, Your Highness—I've just thought of something. A way to help."
A pause.
"What if I track down other criminals… and bring them to you? You could cash them in for points. I'm sure we're worth quite a few coins."
Kale's eyes narrowed.
The elegant girl by Kale's side frowned, unsure.
Then Kale spoke.
"Not a bad idea."
"What?!" her head snapped towards him, stunned.
"Yes," Kale said, nodding slowly. "It's a great idea."
He gestured lazily.
"Go. You have my permission. Bring them here."
The twin's eyes lit up. With a gleeful giggle, he turned and sprinted into the trees, dragging his brother's corpse behind him—its heels carving a long trench in the dirt.
---
Elsewhere in the forest…
Dara sat atop a thick tree branch, legs swaying back and forth in lazy rhythm as she hummed a quiet tune.
She looked down as a familiar presence approached below.
"You know we should be going after those criminals, right?"
The voice belonged to the bulky teen—Daniel.
"There is no 'we,' Daniel." Dara replied without looking at him.
Daniel sighed, but before he could respond, his gaze shifted. A shadow moved between the trees.
Emerging into the clearing was a woman—tall, barefoot, with golden thread stitching her eyelids shut.
Daniel turned to face her, lips curling into a grin.
"Oh? Would you look at that—it's raining points."
He cracked his knuckles with confidence.
"So, one of the criminals, huh?" Dara's eyes narrowed as she watched from above. She hadn't even heard the woman approach.
"Be careful, Daniel. She's dangerous."
"Hmph." He scoffed, waving her words off.
"You're not from our kingdom, so I'll forgive the ignorance," he said, puffing his chest slightly. "Among the younger generation, I'm undisputed. Even Kale doesn't breathe loud when I'm exercising my power."
He raised his index finger.
Just then.
A gigantic stone figure, over four meters tall, emerged from the ground at his back. It was an armored warrior wielding a huge hammer.
Boom!
It launched off.
A huge hammer came crashing down on the woman.
But, she didn't flinch.
Just as the hammer was about to hit, it stopped. Rather, it was stopped. A ripple was the culprit.
The woman, completely unscathed behind the ripple, titled her head, a mocking gesture at Daniel.
But Daniel was equally unimpressed.
A couple more warriors emerged around him, each holding a different type of weapon.
"What would you do if the numbers increased?"
The woman chuckled slightly at the question.
Then made a 'come' gesture with her head, welcoming the challenge.
---
The forest shifted again.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the trees.
A giant walked forward—each step cracking branches and flattening roots. His skin was pale, stitched with iron plates, and his eyes glowed faintly like dying embers.
Beside him skipped the bloodied girl, no older than twelve. Her tattered dress dragged behind her, stained with shades too deep to be red. She hummed a nursery tune off-key, twirling in slow circles as translucent bubbles floated from her fingertips—popping mid-air with soft snaps.
They came to a stop in front of a cave.
There, camped in a lazy semicircle around a small fire, were the four girls—the same ones Sion had once saved.
The moment they spotted the newcomers, they didn't flinch.
They scoffed.
One of them stood up, slow and poised, brushing imaginary dust from her skirt. She stepped forward, arms folded as she scanned the two.
Her voice cut clean through the quiet:
"You know, I've been dying to let loose ever since that savage brute scrambled our magic circuits."
She smiled, but there was no warmth in it.
"How considerate of you… delivering yourselves here."
She tilted her head slightly.
"Now, I don't even have to worry about complaints for killing beings of a lesser world."
A glow flared beneath her feet—crimson and laced with ornate sigils. It engulfed her body in a soft blaze.
When the light faded, she was clad in ceremonial robes—deep red, etched in black lace and golden runes. A witch's hat crowned her head, tilted just slightly to one side.
She raised one hand.
Above them, the sky warped.
A massive magic circle expanded outward—its reach blotting out the canopy, layered in arcane symbols and burning runes. The air pulsed with raw power.
"After all, you're just criminals."