Max's steps quickened, his instincts screaming. The moment he exited the sanctum, a messenger knelt before Princess Lyra and Emperor Hermes, handing over a scroll sealed with the emblem of the Hunter Association.
Lyra's face drained of color as she read, her hands trembling just slightly. Hermes's expression, always calm, darkened into something thunderous.
"Max," Lyra whispered, her voice unusually tight, "you should see this." She handed him the scroll.
He unfolded it quickly, his eyes moving across the words. The blood in his veins turned to ice.
The demons had stopped hiding. They had fully, openly revealed themselves. Not in whispers. Not in secret chambers. But in the most brutal, decisive way possible.
They had conquered fifty regions in the southern Middle Domain.
Fifty.
