Chapter 7: The Blood of the Sovereign
While Professor Leo Heart was transforming the Academy's curriculum, the frontiers of the Fused World remained a chaotic battleground. The merger had unearthed "Sleeping Tombs"—Dungeons that had been buried for ten millennia. The most dangerous of these, a Triple-S Rank Rift known as The Gaea-Casket, had opened near the Heart Ranch.
Jason Heart, his strength fully restored by the new world's mana, and his eldest daughter Natasha Heart, the "General of the Crimson Wing," stood at the base of a mountain that was literally splitting in half.
The March: Through the Primordial Fog
The path to the Casket was a nightmare of shifting geography. Natasha led the vanguard, her Flame-maned Fenrir (Grade-SS) carving a path through petrified trees that tried to ensnare them.
"Stay sharp, Father," Natasha commanded, her eyes—a darker shade of Leo's violet—scanning the cliffs. "The mana density here is at 800%. The Eye of Truth warned Leo that the physics of the Old World don't apply inside that rift."
Jason nodded, his own partner—a Titan-Shelled Galápagos—walking beside him, each step vibrating the earth to pulse away the encroaching void-mist. "Leo is the visionary, Natasha. But we are the shield. If this rift collapses, the Ranch is the first thing it swallows."
The Battle with the Primal Pets
As they breached the inner sanctum, they weren't met by monsters, but by Primal Pets—creatures that had existed before the Quarantine. These were Ancient-Guardians, beasts that had forgotten the touch of a human hand.
A pack of Obsidian-Quill Raptors descended from the ceiling. Their feathers weren't made of organic matter, but of solidified gravitational force.
"Formation Delta!" Natasha roared.
Her Fenrir leaped into the air, its paws igniting with blue plasma. It didn't just bite; it used Thermal Expansion to shatter the gravity-feathers of the Raptors mid-flight. Natasha moved in sync, her spear wreathed in the same blue flame, a masterclass in the Sovereign's Link that she had perfected long before Leo was born.
Jason, meanwhile, acted as the anchor. When a Colossal Earth-Wurm erupted from beneath them, his Galápagos retracted into its shell and initiated Absolute Centrifuge. The shell spun with such velocity that it created a localized gravity well, pulling the Wurm inward and crushing its primordial armor.
"They're not corrupted," Jason noted, breathing heavily. "They're just... defensive. They think we're the invaders."
The Heart of the Casket
They pushed deeper, past waterfalls of liquid mercury and forests of singing crystal. Finally, they reached the Core Chamber. The air here was still, smelling of ozone and ancient soil.
In the center of the room sat a massive, stone-carved throne, and atop it was a small, pulsing seed—the Gaea-Heart. But it wasn't unguided.
The shadows at the back of the chamber began to coalesce. A sound like grinding mountains echoed through the hall. From the darkness emerged a beast that made Natasha's Fenrir whimper—a reaction it had never shown before.
The Boss: The World-Eater's Remnant
It was the Primordial Chimera: Atlas. It stood twenty feet tall, its body a mosaic of every element. One head was a lion of flowing magma, another a goat of freezing mist, and the tail was a serpent of pure void-energy. It was an Origin-Grade beast, a survivor of the First Merger that had been driven mad by ten thousand years of isolation.
The Chimera opened its magma-maw, and the temperature in the room soared to 2,000°C instantly.
"Natasha... get behind the shield," Jason whispered, his face pale.
The Chimera didn't growl. It spoke—a telepathic boom that shook their very souls.
"The blood of the Jailer returns. You locked the world in a box... and now you wish to claim its heart again?"
The beast lunged, its void-tail lashing out to erase the very ground they stood on. The battle for the Gaea-Casket had truly begun, and for the first time, the Heart family was facing an enemy that didn't just want to kill them—it wanted to judge them.