The Outer Region had always been a place where life was hard and survival harder, with danger waiting in every hollow and shadow.

Sparks appeared without warning, tearing through mortal routines. Fights and wars between kingdoms pressed in until even ordinary days felt like a front line.

Conflict never ended in a small region like this; it only changed shape and moved on.

Yet the locals learned to endure. They shaped habits around threat and mapped the unknown, adapting to harsh conditions that seemed eternal. When they felt powerless, they turned to their race's Practitioners for help, and life went on.

Until today...

Deep in the forest, far from any kingdom or settlement, a small village had finally lost its fight against those conditions. Their defeat looked so brutal and gruesome.

Shattered limbs and torn torsos were strewn across the roads, mangled past recognition, and blood ran along the dirt lanes in swelling ribbons, pooling in the low points, staining the roots and stones.

That was all that remained of a once lively place.

The stench was so heavy that the wind struggled to carry it. Even the hungry wild beasts, drawn by the scent of blood, watched from the tree line and stayed hidden, as if some old instinct warned that this meal belonged to something higher on the chain.

That something hovered above the lanes, black-and-white wings beating in a calm rhythm while its gaze followed the run of the blood.

Adyr studied his handiwork in silence.

He drew the tainted air into his lungs one last time, held it, and let it go. Then he raised his hand. A cube coalesced above his palm, stone-like in texture, blood-red in color, and with surfaces dull rather than polished, as if it had been quarried from a vein inside a living thing.

The moment it appeared, the blood that coated the streets seemed to hear a command that had never been spoken. It shivered, lifted, and broke from the earth. Threads formed and braided in the air, a slow, purposeful river that curled toward the cube and disappeared into its red body.

When the last drop vanished, the village fell quiet again. Adyr's breath left him in a thin, disappointed sigh. "At this rate, it will never be enough."

It was not the act itself that displeased him. It was the meager yield a small village could offer.

Henry and the 12 City Managers were thinking Adyr was behind the disappearances. They were right about the culprit but wrong about the motive, believing his mind was slipping when, in truth, he was killing with a purpose. The cube in his hands had come from the ruins of Sevrak's mansion. Though it was a single-use treasure, that rule did not apply to Adyr, whose Bloodline Talents carried the essence of Genesis energy.

During the battle with the Blood Dragon in Umbraen territory, he had felt a faint, silent call from Sevrak's manor, where the blood of a kingdom had been gathered to feed the Black Dragon.

When the fight ended, he followed that sensation back through the wreckage and uncovered the relic beneath broken stone. It wasn't a cube then; it was ruin like everything else, just a shattered red rock, nothing more.

Later, he tested his Bloodline Talents on it as he had with other treasures, probing for a response and hoping it would answer to Genesis energy like the others.

And as he hoped, the treasure really answered. It did not grow stronger the way the Mother Tree had, nor did it deepen its worth like the Tower of Worth. It simply healed, knitting itself back together until it was whole, ready for one more use.

Had Sevrak known the treasure he believed spent and dead was now in Adyr's hands, intact and ready to use, Adyr would have wanted a front-row seat to his reaction. Better yet, because each treasure is truly singular, it meant that on this planet, only the two of them would come to hold Sparks with the same rare traits.

There was a problem, though. To function, it needed to drink first. It needed a great volume of blood to charge itself, so that was where Adyr's hunt for blood began.

He called up the system interface and watched the translucent script rise. Then he read the updated description of the blood cube and checked its charge. [Name] Heart of the Blood Palace

[Rank] 2

Description:

At the core of the living quarters stands a single stone mass once named for the Corrupted King, a demon born of Hell who rose to godhood.

Satisfy its desire for blood, and in return, let it grant a single power for your path: one Spark of Rank 4 or below.

[Current Charge: 4.2%]

The treasure being Rank 2 placed it on the same level as the Tower of Worth. That was expected, though, because while the Tower could produce an item as priceless as a Synergy Crystal, this one could elevate a Rank 4 Spark almost to Rank 5, granting it new traits and an affinity for blood.

But Adyr's focus was elsewhere. "It's crazy," he murmured, feeling a dull headache as he looked at the numbers.

It had been more than ten villages he had massacred so far in the Beyond. The number of kills had already surpassed a thousand, and even on Earth, using his other body, he had killed enough to double that count.

Yet seeing that the charge had only risen to four percent was hard to accept. "Sevrak sacrificing his entire kingdom and even his three Rank 4 Practitioners to charge it makes sense now," he murmured, letting out a slow breath. Although Adyr had been far more active killing on Earth, ignoring Henry's attempts to trace him and uncover what he was doing, he had to be much more.

careful in the Beyond.

Despite his strength, there were still Practitioners stronger than him, and

drawing unnecessary attention would only end badly.

Recalling the blood cube back into his Sanctuary, he summoned his Rank 4 Spark, Sszhar, and gave it an order.

"Use your Rift Maw skill and erase the entire village."

At once, the massive serpent began to move. With a single motion, nearly half the village vanished along with the ground beneath it. Two more uses followed, and soon the whole area was gone, leaving nothing but an oval, stone-like

crater behind.

It was the tactic Adyr used to erase his traces in the Beyond. Henry and the others might have guessed he was behind the disappearances, but their conclusion came from what he had done on Earth.

As for Throgar and Zephan, if they saw this scene, they would likely assume it was the work of a Rank 3 Spark. Only those with highly specialized tracking skills could trace the faint remains and discover that Adyr was the true culprit. But Adyr was confident they lacked that capability. It had already been a month, and no one from those kingdoms had come to question him. Still, he faced another problem-his energy reserves were running low. Using Sszhar's skill helped him erase evidence, but it also burned through enormous amounts of energy each time. He had almost spent everything he gained from Throgar, even selling most of his findings from the Legacy Domain, including the Rank 3 Sparks he found useless.

Now his reserves held a little over 7000 units of energy, enough to cover perhaps a dozen more tracks before he would have to replenish them.

"Should I visit Henry?" He weighed his options.

The human Shelter City under construction was his long-term investment, so

he could ask for his share of the energy crystals they had begun to farm. Yet with their expenses climbing, he doubted they had much in reserve.

But soon another solution came to mind. I guess it's time to visit the Lunari Kingdom and see what problem they keep asking me to look at.

Back in the Legacy Domain, Thalira had asked for his help with an issue their race was facing. Later, although he never said it directly, Zephan invited him several times to the kingdom, saying he wished to talk.

Now it seemed like the right time to finally answer their invitation.

Even if Adyr did not know what problem they were dealing with or whether he

could solve it, it was still a good chance to visit and ask for a few crystals as a

gesture of goodwill.

Since the Lunari are long established and one of the largest powers in the

Outer Region, they likely have more energy crystals than the humans, so sparing a few thousand to cover his shortfall should mean little to them. With the decision made, Adyr beat his wings and rose into the sky, leaving behind a vast crater and countless lost lives.

Meanwhile, the Lunari waited, unaware that what they took for a blessing and a savior was in fact the catastrophe on its way to their kingdom.