Zhua froze completely.
All the emotions he had only just begun to feel vanished in an instant.
His eyes became empty, filled with nothing but despair.
Around him, there was nothing left but ruins.
Fires, blood, and corpses surrounded him.
An oppressive silence hung over the destroyed village, broken only by the crackling of the flames.
Zhua ran with all his strength, weaving around the collapsed buildings and shattered debris.
Rain began to fall over the ruined village, soaking the earth, but he only ran faster.
Then he stumbled across the body of the Monarch who had invaded the village.
The creature was dead.
Massive spikes had been driven through its body, pinning the giant corpse to the ground.
“No… no, not now,” Zhua muttered.
He rushed past the monster and ran even faster.
Soon, he arrived in front of the church and the orphanage.
Zhua came to a complete stop.
was in ruins.
He stumbled into the wreckage, desperately running through the broken walls and fallen stones as the rain poured down harder and harder.
Then he froze.
Standing before him was Zeuna.
No…
no…
no…
no…
no…
The words echoed endlessly inside his mind as he stared at Madam Zeuna’s bloodied and mutilated body.
His legs gave out beneath him.
He collapsed to the ground and pulled her into his arms.
His face was pale and empty.
His mouth slowly opened, but no sound came out.
“No… you didn’t have the right… You had no right to do this… You abandoned me…”
“Mom…”
His voice was broken and trembling.
At that very moment, a flood of memories surged into his mind—fragments of his previous life.
But Zhua immediately used his primitive, newborn will to push them away, burying them deep within himself.
They weren’t important.
Not now.
The only thing that mattered to him was the person he was holding in his arms.
Zhua didn’t know how much time had passed.
At some point, he lost consciousness.
The world faded into darkness.
Within that darkness, he dreamed of the fragments of memories he had just received.
They showed him nothing more than a group of students inside a high school…
and someone whose silhouette remained hidden, their appearance completely obscured except for a pair of brilliant golden eyes.
Then Zhua suddenly jolted awake.
He found himself lying inside a room.