At the same time as Atlas went deeper into the ruin again to assimilate his remaining Traits, something else was happening far away from Lumivale.

In the very center of the Human Continent, Rovaryn, stood the massive Kingdom of Bastaria.

The Royal Palace of Bastaria stood at the center of the capital under the fading afternoon sunlight. The structure stretched for almost fifty kilometers from one side to another, and on both ends of the palace, two towering structures rose high enough to almost pierce the clouds. These two towers were directly connected to the palace, and from far away, they made the whole place look less like a residence and more like a fortress built to control a continent.

Inside this same palace, the celebration had taken place on the day Atlas had been thrown into the Eternal-Class Ruin.

And now, inside the deeper part of the palace, the King stood in an unknown dark chamber.

His appearance looked young. There was no beard or mustache on his face, and his long black hair rested behind him neatly. Even though he had ruled for centuries, his face did not show that age. He wore majestic white attire with red and golden jewels embedded near the shoulders and chest area, and his sky-blue eyes remained fixed on something standing very close in front of him.

In front of the King stood a tall circular chamber filled with transparent white liquid.

If a person from Earth saw it, they would think it was some kind of bio reactor or incubation chamber.

But it was not called that here.

The King called it the Bloodline Crucible.

It was a tall circular chamber built with black unknown metal as its outer structure. Between those black metal frames were thick glass tubes holding the white liquid inside. Behind the chamber, several pipes connected into it, and one transparent pipe carried red liquid that slowly entered the white liquid from above.

Dim Spirit runes glowed across the black metal frame.

But what would catch most people’s attention was not the chamber itself.

It was the person floating inside it.

No, calling it a person would not be correct anymore.

The thing inside had a curled body, completely black from head to toe. Its shape was close to humanoid, but the skin looked too smooth, too unnatural, and the limbs were folded inward as if it had never stood properly before. Its head was lowered, and the white liquid moved slowly around it while the red liquid spread through the chamber in thin veins.

The King’s eyes remained fixed on it.

His gaze looked like someone seeing something he had waited for through many years.

He slowly lifted his hand, opened his palm, and touched the glass of the Crucible.

Then he spoke.

His voice was deep, even though his face looked young.

"Finally, my creation has come to a point where it can become reality and not remain only a dream..." He slowly glanced over the creature from Head to toe and called out "Veyron..."

After his voice echoed in the chamber, an adult man slowly emerged from the darkness behind him.

His steps echoed lightly against the floor.

"Yes, Your Majesty?"

The man wore a white outfit made for laboratory work. His hair was tied back, and several small tools hung near his waist. He lowered his head deeply as he spoke.

The King did not turn to him immediately.

"Veyron, how much time until its activation?"

Veyron lifted his head and smiled slightly.

"Your Majesty, there is good news and bad news. But the bad news will not matter much after you hear the good news."

The King turned his head slightly and narrowed his eyes.

Veyron’s smile stiffened for a moment, and he quickly continued.

"The good news is that after Commander Velmira discovered that Scroll relic, we found an unknown energy sealed inside it. We still could not open the Scroll itself, but we were able to extract and use part of the energy leaking from it."

The King’s voice lowered.

"Do not move in circles, Veyron. Tell me directly."

Veyron gulped when he heard the King’s tone.

"Haha... yes, Your Majesty. We used the Scroll’s unknown energy in Project X, and when we did, Project X absorbed all of it without rejection. After that, when we checked the integration with the Dragon blood sample, the value surged to fifty percent."

The King’s eyes changed slightly.

Veyron continued faster.

"Before this, it was only at ten percent, and that ten percent took us almost a full century to reach. But after using the Scroll’s energy, it reached fifty percent at once."

The King stared at him for a moment.

Then his expression slowly turned into a grin.

"Then? What happened after that?"

Veyron lowered his head again.

"Though it surged to fifty percent immediately, the process slowed afterward. But it did not stop. We observed the parameter relic for a full day, and the next day, the integration rose by one percent. The same thing continued day after day for an entire month."

He paused briefly before speaking the most important part.

"Now only twenty percent remains, Your Majesty."

The King slowly turned back toward the Bloodline Crucible.

"So only twenty days before we begin our ’operation’."

"Yes, Your Majesty. Only twenty days."

Veyron hesitated after saying that.

The King noticed it.

"And the bad news?"

Veyron bowed lower.

"It is about Commander Velmira herself. She is refusing to help us in the upcoming Operation."

The King remained silent for a moment.

Then he looked at the black creature inside the Crucible again.

"Hm, I knew she would refuse, Veyron."

Veyron did not answer.

The King continued.

"But tell me, why do you think she is still in the Revenant Army even when she could become a King, an Emperor, or whatever she wanted for herself?"

Veyron frowned in confusion.

He slowly lifted his head, and when he saw the grin on the King’s face, his body flinched slightly.

"Mmm... I could not possibly know that, Your Majesty."

The King, Azarion Rolson, spoke slowly.

"She is bound to the throne, Veyron."

Veyron’s eyes widened slightly.

Azarion continued.

"Why do you think a special EX-Rank would ever help the Human Continent, when its King is only SSS-Rank and barely twenty people in the entire continent are SSS-Rank?"

Veyron’s face changed as the realization slowly reached him.

"Does that mean...?"

"Yes, Veyron. You guessed it right."

Azarion’s smile widened.

"She took a vow to protect this continent she despises so much. And she took that vow with the world itself, Eliomor and She had not taken this vow just some years or centuries ago, it’s been thousands of years since that happened; my father had warned me about her, but when he told me this, I had been observing her since then and what i discovered?"

Veyron went completely still.

The King’s voice became lower as he continued.

"If she ever betrays this continent, or joins another continent against us, do you know what will happen?"

Veyron’s throat moved.

"She... Her soul will be taken directly by the World?"

"Yes. Even though these things are only heard in rumors from ancient times, I believe her actions have already proved it. Otherwise, she could have erased us ages ago."

Azarion spoke with a calm smile, but Veyron felt a chill travel down his spine.

Velmira was not someone normal researchers could even mention casually. She was the commander of the Revenant Army, but everyone who worked deep inside the palace knew that her strength was not something the current Human Continent could control by force.

So, if she was still here, there had to be a reason.

Now Veyron understood.

It was not loyalty, It was a... vow and directly connected to the World.

Azarion lifted his hand again and touched the glass of the Bloodline Crucible.

The black creature inside remained curled in the white liquid.

"And when Project X emerges, even Velmira will not be a problem if she still goes against that vow."

The runes around the Crucible reflected in his eyes as he continued.

"You figured out almost everything, Veyron. You only did not know that I had already prepared my backup."

Veyron bowed again, and sweat ran down his chin.

"Your mind truly sees everything ahead, Your Majesty."

Azarion did not answer that praise directly.

He only looked at Project X inside the Bloodline Crucible.

For a few seconds, the chamber remained quiet except for the faint sound of liquid moving through the pipes.

Then Veyron spoke again.

"Your Majesty, may I address another problem? Though it is small, it is still worth your attention."

- - -

[A/N: This Poor Author asks his readers for some golden tickets (ಥ﹏ಥ), I will upload the next tier(5) of the privilege soon...give this Author some encouragement, will you? And if you have time leave a review as well, it helps the new readers see why you guys LOVE (Idk about that hehe~) this Novel. ]