Reyon sat silently on the edge of the balcony, his eyes lost in the storm clouds looming over the Phoenix Empire.
His voice cracked as he slammed the railing with his palm. "Why… Alice. Why did you have to go back to your damn family?" His teeth clenched as anger and sorrow mixed like oil and flame in his chest. "If you stand with Brook… then I won't be able to save you…"
He hung his head low. The thoughts had been swirling since the day he woke up. The pain of two years lost. The ache of unfinished goodbyes. The tangle of love that refused to untie.
"…Haa. Thinking about these things won't solve it."
He turned away from the window, cloak billowing behind him. His steps echoed through the empty hall as he made his way down.
"I should first focus on mastering my current progress."
Since waking, Reyon had noticed the subtle differences. His control over vectors had refined dramatically—not through study, but through the countless loops of trauma he'd been forced to relive. Thousands of times, he had seen Alice die. Ray fall. julie cry. And through it all, he'd endured. No—he had adapted.
In the massive circular training hall, lined with crystal pillars and enchanted reinforcement runes, Reyon raised his hand.
His mana pulsed with stability. Precision. Power.
He clenched his fist, eyes narrowing. "Let's see how much I've grown."
With a flick, a razor-thin beam of pure vector mana tore through the reinforced stone dummy across the room. It didn't just pierce—it atomized it.
"Eighty percent of the Infinity Orb," he murmured. "And sigma stacking… twenty-five layers. That's beyond what I could dream of before."
He trained for three days straight, pushing his new limits.
On the third day, he approached Ray and summoned Sylph. "We need to train," he said firmly.
Ray blinked. "Now?"
"I can feel it… the dragon is coming."
He wasn't wrong.
With the empire's strongest—Reyon and Edward—focused on defending against dragons, Reyon knew the Brook Kingdom would seize the chaos to strike from the shadows. They needed to be ready. Not just to fight monsters, but to protect the Phoenix Empire from betrayal.
Three months passed in relentless training.
Ray stood tall, sweat dripping from his chin. His aura flared as he cast a compressed solar blade with one hand and blocked with a mana shield in the other. "I can feel it," he gasped. "I'm finally as strong as a veteran 8th-circle mage."
Reyon gave him a rare smile. "Good. You'll need it."
Even more shocking—Sylph, once deemed lazy and disinterested in magic, now floated midair, her palms glowing with blazing mana sigils. The power around her vibrated violently.
"She's on the verge of reaching 9th circle," Reyon muttered, shaking his head in disbelief. "In my previous life, she wasted her talent just because she was too lazy to train… but now…"
He glanced between Ray's fierce expression and Sylph's calm stance.
"She's as talented as Alice."
But his thoughts were cut short.
WEEEEOOOOOOOOOO!
The siren blared across the capital, a high-pitched scream that pierced the sky. Soldiers and citizens alike paused in dread.
Reyon's eyes narrowed. "City-wide announcement."
Everyone gathered at the city square.
The broadcast rang loud:
"All soldiers are to report to their respective units. The Brook Kingdom has mobilized its entire army and is marching toward the Phoenix Empire."
Within minutes, the capital's palace war room was filled. Ray, Sylph, and every marquis and general stormed inside. Edward stood tall at the head of the table, Serena and Duchess Evelyn by his side.
Edward didn't waste time.
"Brook Kingdom has killed every spy we sent," he said coldly. "Even the noble households within their land that supported us have been wiped out. They aren't here to negotiate. They intend to annihilate."
Everyone grew silent.
"But the most troubling thing…" he paused. "We know nothing about the army's composition. Our intelligence network is blind."
A heavy silence.
Then all eyes slowly turned toward Reyon.
He didn't hesitate.
"Call the Intelligence Branch."
Within seconds, a Classer cloaked in shadow stepped into the room. He walked straight to Reyon, bowed only to him, and handed over a sealed scroll. Without a word, he vanished again.
Gasps and murmurs echoed through the chamber.
"How rude…"
"They didn't even acknowledge the Emperor."
"Not even a bow…"
But no one dared speak aloud. They all knew. Reyon—Archduke, Classer Commander, and controller of half the empire—stood just beneath the Emperor himself. And if strength was the scale, Reyon might already be above them all.
Edward broke the seal and began reading the report aloud.
The words sent chills through every heart present.
"Arthur Brook has killed his own father… and taken control of the Brook Kingdom. He's mobilized the entire army… and with them, they're transporting a creature… a dragon-like beast made of crystal…"
Reyon's hand trembled slightly.
"The White Dragon…" he whispered. "The one that killed father in the previous life… even when he reached 9th circle…"
But this time.
He clenched his fist.
"This time… I'm with him."
Edward paused, noticing the way Reyon's voice carried an edge of fury… and fear.
He continued reading.
"…And leading the vanguard of the invading force is… Alice Brook."
The hall fell deathly silent.
Ray's jaw clenched. Sylph's eyes flickered. Evelyn lowered her gaze.
Reyon sighed, long and painful.
"Why, Alice…" he whispered. "Why are you walking toward death…? If you attack us first… then I'll have no choice…"
He turned away.
"I'll have to kill you."