As the late afternoon sun shone on the walls of Bulwark Hall, leaves danced across the street, turning themselves in pairs, like lovers not wanting to let go.

The moment two green leaves softly landed on the square-shaped paved ground, rushing boots slammed on them and tore them apart.

Rubber plopping sounds echoed as ladies with blue hair stopped beneath a mango tree that had its branches reaching up to the third floor of Bulwark’s newly released rooms. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

The pockets of their joggers vibrated and sent waves through their skin while they leaned against the mango tree, exhaling sharply.

"What is that?" Lysandra asked with a surprised look on her face as she pulled her smart device out.

Her eyes widened when she saw a video broadcast waiting to be played on the lit screen.

"Girl, look." She turned the screen to her five-foot blonde friend whose body was like that of a goddess, leaning against the tree while staring at the falling leaves.

"Lysandra," Talia said as she glanced at the video message with the name L.S. attached to it. "That’s just some random person sending you streaks of himself."

She shifted her gaze and focused on the glass wall of room 616, then placed her left palm on her chest. "There are better people I want to watch, not a circulating video."

"Who is this Unknown D.D.D?" Lysandra said to herself, then pressed the play button.

Her eyelids raised and fell while the blurry video of a young soldier with jet-black hair lifting a weight of about a 400kg iron bar inside the Bulwark training center at 4:38:14 began playing.

"Girl, see, I said it. It’s him, your crush," Lysandra said with a joy-filled face as she turned the still-playing video toward her blonde friend.

Talia’s eyes glowed with joy when she lifted her gaze from the video and focused on the glass wall.

Within moments, whispers of Leon’s training hovered around every Hall in the Agatha Special Forces land.

Hei Yung’s brow furrowed when he exited from the Blackscale Citadel and saw two soldiers holding their phones with their eyes locked on them instead of being on duty.

"Hey, you two."

The soldiers stiffened, then turned to Hei Yung.

"Show me what you were watching," Hei Yung said with wild eyes as he walked to the front of the soldiers.

As soon as he lowered his gaze from the soldiers’ worried faces and stared at the screen, a smile tore across his lips.

"Hahaha," he laughed, then shook his head while handing the phone back to the soldiers. "Go back to your duty."

The soldiers kept turning and throwing shocked glances at Hei Yung, scratching their heads as they moved away to watch over the caged dogs.

...

Thousands of miles away from Thule, a red Triarch appeared in the skies of Seol-Mujin like a bolt of lightning, then stopped.

Feng sat behind the steering wheel and watched the birds of Seol-Mujin flying toward the Triarch. "It’s been long since I left my post."

In an instant, his body transformed into a faceless being with only a red robe covering him from head to toe. At that same time, the inside of the Triarch merged together and turned into reflective surfaces, while its outside transformed into a jagged, skull-like craft, the Devil’s Craft.

It hovered in the sky for two seconds before dropping to the reflective ground like a shooting star.

The moment it reached the ground, air blasted at all angles, hurling those wearing white robes into the air, but they caught themselves and glanced at the Devil’s Craft before vanishing.

Hydraulic sounds echoed while black smoke gushed out of every jagged metal piece of the craft as the ramp slowly opened.

Without a sound, countless hundreds of men in red robes appeared and arranged themselves in a queue of two at the front of the Devil’s Craft, smiling.

As soon as the faceless, robed man exited, they all bowed their heads and screamed in unison. "Welcome, The Faceless Monarch."

Without hesitation, the Faceless Monarch marched through The Shards. Every step he took sent him a mile away from the craft, until he stopped before a large hall that stretched like a city of its own, the Shardspire.

At the entrance of Seol-Mujin, all the Shards vanished, together with the Devil’s Craft, leaving burnt marks on the reflective ground.

When the Shards appeared at the front of their tower, they merged into one and moved toward the building.

With just a single touch, the Shard phased through the thick walls without even needing the ten-foot door to open.

At the border city of Seol-Mujin, countless lower Tier Skywardens gathered at the side of the reflective road, right where the burnt circular shape and thousands of footsteps stretched toward the inner cities of Seol-Mujin.

"Is that the signature of the Faceless Monarch of the Shardspire?" Kessa said to herself while brushing off the smoke from her face. "It’s been years since he reappeared in Seol-Mujin."

She exhaled once when she shifted her gaze to the blue Skywarden’s tower and saw Hayes and Lord Luo Fang descending toward where she was.

"What’s going on here?" Hayes asked as soon as his feet touched the ground. He frowned at Kessa and all the other Skywardens, but lost his wild stare when he saw the burnt circular mark.

Every Skywarden standing there flew back to their respective towers when Lord Luo Fang’s feet touched the ground.

He looked at Kessa’s face once, then smiled when he saw the Faceless Monarch’s signature on the reflective ground. "He’s finally here."

"Kessa, off to the task I gave you."

Kessa stared at Hayes’s face for a while before leaping into the air and dashing out into the inner cities of Seol-Mujin.

"Luo Fang," Hayes called out with a smile on his face. "We can finally tell him what we’ve found on the Storm family."

"Indeed, we can," Luo Fang answered back, moving his head in a slow nod.