The night had grown cold by the time Lian left the burning village behind.
The fight with the starbeast still burned in his muscles, every movement a dull ache beneath the armor of dried blood and exhaustion. He carried the chipped sword at his side, though it felt like a fragile stick after facing the monster's claws.
But it wasn't just his body that weighed him down.
It was the silence.
The village was gone. The people he had tried—failed—to protect were gone.
And as he crossed the cracked stone bridge at the edge of the ruins, the Tyrant's Heart pulsed faintly in his chest, as if reminding him that his own heart had stopped beating once before.
[Quest Updated: Path of the Tyrant]
Objective 1 Complete: Devour Three Star Cores → Progress: 1/3
Next Objective: Survive the Beast Tide. Time Limit: 72 Hours.]
Seventy-two hours.
He exhaled through his teeth. The System gave no answers about where to run or how to survive, only the cold weight of a ticking clock.
The dirt road stretched ahead, broken by roots and weeds as it wound through the forest. Burned trees leaned like the bones of giants, their ash drifting on the breeze.
And beyond them, Lian began to see it.
The world had changed.
He didn't need the System to tell him centuries had passed since his death. The broken towers in the distance belonged to no kingdom he remembered. The banners, black and silver with an emblem of a falling star, were not his father's.
Where once stood cities of marble and gold, now rose fortresses built from starsteel and scavenged Core fragments.
And there were people here.
Not peasants or soldiers like the world he'd left behind, but hunters—men and women clad in armor that shimmered faintly with starlight. Some bore swords or spears tipped with fragments of glowing crystal. Others carried strange, rune-etched rifles that hummed softly in the night.
Lian watched from the shadow of a dead tree as three of them passed along the road below. They moved like predators—quiet, alert, eyes scanning the treeline for beasts.
Core Hunters.
The System's voice echoed coldly in his mind:
[Core Hunters: Human survivors adapted to post-Cataclysm world. Extract and weaponize Star Cores to resist beasts and rival factions. Estimated Strength: Tier I–III.]
So this was what humanity had become.
The palace, the kings, the empires… all dust.
And in their place, hunters and warlords carving out power with shards of the same stars that had burned his life to ashes.
Lian's jaw tightened.
It felt like the world had moved on without him.
As if his death had been nothing more than a forgotten page in history.
The Tyrant's Heart pulsed again, as though mocking the thought.
The hunters paused suddenly, raising their weapons.
Lian followed their gaze toward the hills beyond the ruins.
Another roar shook the night. Louder this time. Closer.
The Beast Tide.
Even the hunters looked uneasy.
"Another pack," one muttered. "That makes five in two nights. The Tide's starting early."
The leader spat into the dirt. "Doesn't matter. Long as the Cores hold, we push them back."
Their weapons glimmered faintly as they moved toward the sound, ready to face whatever crawled out of the dark.
Lian stayed hidden, watching them go.
They fought beasts for Cores. He needed Cores to survive the System's quests. That meant sooner or later, he would cross paths with them—not as an ally, but as a rival.
Because there was no mistaking it: the Tyrant's Heart didn't share power.
The System's cold voice whispered again:
[Warning: Beast Tide advancing. Current host strength: Insufficient.]
[Recommendation: Seek Forbidden Core for First Evolution.]
Forbidden Core?
The term made his pulse quicken. The first hint of real power—and danger.
He looked once more toward the hills where the hunters had gone. The night sky burned faintly red on the horizon, where distant fires lit the edge of the forest.
The Beast Tide was out there.
And somewhere within it… the power he needed.
Lian gripped his sword tighter.
This world had taken everything from him once before.
He would not let it happen again.
He traveled through the ruins as the moon climbed higher. The broken remains of kingdoms passed beneath his feet—castles with walls split by roots, statues of kings half-buried in ash.
The silence here was heavy, but it wasn't dead.
He found marks scorched into stone where Star Cores had detonated. Craters where beasts had fallen. Skeletons of both monsters and men locked in battle.
It was a graveyard of empires.
And all the while, the Tyrant's Heart pulsed faintly in his chest, whispering with every beat: More. More. More.
Lian clenched his jaw.
He didn't know if it was his own hunger for power or something deeper—something inside the Heart itself—but either way, it didn't matter.
If the Nine Tyrants existed… if his brother's betrayal had truly ended the old world…
Then he would rise through this one.
One Core at a time.
By the time dawn crept over the horizon, Lian had reached the edge of the wilds.
The hills were burned black. Trees stood like jagged spears, stripped of leaves. And far ahead, where the land dropped into a valley, he saw it—
A fortress.
Not like the hunter outposts he'd passed earlier. This one was massive, built into the cliffs themselves, walls bristling with starsteel cannons and banners marked by a single emblem: a three-headed beast devouring a sun.
And circling above it, like vultures, were shapes with wings of burning light.
The System spoke again:
[Fortress Identified: Domain of the First Core King.]
[Warning: Power Signature—Overlord Class. Do not approach until Evolution achieved.]
Lian's eyes narrowed.
The Core Kings.
So this was where the path would lead.
He turned toward the forest below. The Beast Tide was moving there—he could feel it in the trembling earth, hear it in the distant roars.
Somewhere in that chaos was the Forbidden Core he needed.
And the first step toward vengeance.