ZWOOOO.


    A sound resonated, tearing through the serene night sky above the Titanora, a huge ship seemingly entuated by the moonlight yet appearing to be in a dire state.


    The metallic exterior bore cannon marks, broken in ces. Despite the ship''s humongous size, the impact seemed to have been caused by a beast of the same level, strong enough to breach the outeryer of shielding.


    Inside the main control center of the battleship:


    Bam!


    thud


    "Khugh!" A small silhouette was thrown by the impact of a punch, directly colliding with the metal wall before falling to the floor in a coiled position.


    "Wait! Please, young master, he is the chief engineer!" An old man with several blood clots, a swollen face with bandaged eyes, and wounds visible through tattered clothes pleaded.


    "Shut up, bastard! I want to kill those bitches!" A man with light ck hair and orange pupils clenched his jaws, shouting with one hand missing and his leg tendonpletely severed. He sat on a bed, breathing heavily.


    "Young master, we have barely survived by sacrificing our remaining fleets," the old man reminded him, his voice trembling, his body shivering from pain and fear.


    "Contact them again! I want to know about both of those women, where did theye from?" the man shouted, his absent arm and heavily breathing body burdening him in a situation where he was cornered into running away.


    "Yes, this instant!" The old man bowed before swiftly moving towards the control monitors, handled by the remaining Savants, standing with their miniature bodies handling the ship''s mainframe.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    "Contact them now," the old man ordered, causing the small creatures to swiftly establish contact with the battleships left behind, attempting to gain ess.


    BEEEEEPPPPP.


    ::We are taking heavy fire. These individuals have a dual-person flying artifact. It seems confusing. Each one of them is highly skilled in sword arts. We have lost contact and will soon fall. Young master, this is Heindal.


    I repeat, these people are natives of Heinda—::


    ''!?''


    BANG!


    "Fucking bastards! How dare they!" The man, clenching a table beside him with his remaining hand, threw it against the ss window of the ship. It was hard enough to not break but formed cracks.


    "Calm down, Young Master! It happened only because we had encountered a gbearer beforehand," the old man tried to reassure, knowing the unfavorable condition they were in due to losing all ship''s energy which were brought from branch families.


    "Damn it, I need to calm down my anger. Fire the cannons! Isn''t this some shitty continent?" The young man shouted, ring towards the old man, already prepared to take out his frustration in this broken continent.


    ''What if she came?'' The old man turned towards the vast expanse known as Titanora, pondering whether he should fire the cannons or not, fearing the myth about this ce being under the protection of the Tenebri family.


    But without any chance to hesitate, gritting his teeth, he ordered, relieved that there could never be a gbearer in this backward ce already in ruins, "Fire the smaller cannons on any town."


    "W-we understand," the Savants said in unison, handling the mainframe while switching towards the cannons.


    "Huh, why isn''t it working?" One of the Savants felt confused, seeing his systempletely locked, making him turn towards the old man to inform.


    DING!


    A voice reverberated inside the control room, causing all of them to turn their gazes towards the screen before another sound reached them.


    [Hello, my dear passengers, this flying piece of metal is hijacked. Have a good death ^?_?^]


    ''!?''


    "What are you doing? Activate the firewalls! What is this thing—" The old man shouted, turning towards the Savants who were already looking nkly at the window, not understanding what just happened, instantly breaking their pride.


    Zzzoooo!


    "Huh?" The old man''s foot lifted from the ship floor by an inch, more specifically, the ship just lost all its power and was now in free fall mode.


    .


    .


    .


    "Woah, you can even control a battleship with your mind. Maybe this is why you manipted me into loving you," Esme said, looking at the huge ship now falling towards the ocean, wrapping her arms around the young man''s neck as he stood at the top branch of a tree, gazing at the battleship.


    ''It''s already over.'' When he sensed the arrival of a gbearer, his expectations were high due to the chance of that person giving him a challenge, but frankly, he was against an injured cub.


    But, would he let his guard down?


    Absolutely not.


    SPLASH!


    BOOOM!


    A sharp sound resonated the moment the ship hit the surface of the ocean, causing a huge explosion, indirectly creating a scene where both of their eyes were fixed on the event, burns seemed like stars fallen on thend.


    "Hey, Esme?" Not turning his gaze, with the woman doing the same as both of them kept looking at the ship, Ryuk inquired, "Why do you love me?"


    He may not be deeply in love with her right now, but there was definitely something. But what about her?


    His story began with her face, but for her?


    "It''s because of a blessing." Esme''s golden eyes reflected the burning ship in front of her, moonlight glimmering on her and the figure of the man in whose embrace she was lying without caring about such a height.


    "A blessing?" Ryuk looked at her and inquired, not understanding her words.


    "There is a blessing on my maternal bloodline that we always find our soulmates in this life," Esme''s heart was beating uncontrobly as she held in his arms, somewhat realizing that the curse was nothing but a blessing for them.


    After all, her skin and ears could clearly feel and hear his heart beating at the pace of her own.


    "...I believe you," Ryuk nkly stated, not believing her one bit. Love at first sight could be something, but here,


    He was a gbearer hated by all natives.


    He had just broken the cage at that time, and from others'' perspective, he would have attacked those children.


    So, with these two in mind, he just couldn''t digest the thought of love at first sight.


    "Hehe, it doesn''t matter if you believe or not. Now, you are mine," Esme chuckled, tightening her hands around his neck and burying her face in his chest, while all he could do was tighten his grip too.


    "I hope you will not leave my side." Standing at the top, once again he said the same words he had said many times before.


    At that time, end result was betrayal, but now, he hoped it could be something better.


    SWOOSH!


    With those words, his figure blurred before shooting towards the shore where he could see some peopleing out of the ocean.


    .


    .


    .


    .


    "Y-young master, are you alright?" The old man struggled, emerging from the water and pulling the only remaining survivor from the ship, his master.


    Things had been very rough for them in the past few months.


    Their visit to a middle-level continent had be far more devastating than they had anticipated.


    There, they collided with the second gbearer under Lady Angelica, Anneh.


    Even with a level of EPIC, only one thing could be said about her.


    A monster.


    Supported by the army personally led by Lady Angelica''s right-hand man, along with seven battleships, things took a turn for the worse.


    After an utter defeat, with no casualties due to the drawback of the Devereaux Bloodline, in a broken state, the whole army had retreated to a low-level continent near the newly formed one called Heindal.


    And there, suddenly, two women appeared.


    Seeing their young master losing his temper and attacking them, the battleships fired, but a whole army of more than 500 individuals of Phase I level, flying in two manned vehicles, arrived.


    Even with more than fifty Phase II warriors, they lost.


    Two factors yed a major role: first, those people''s sword skills, and second, these people having already exhausted bodies.


    Altogether, they somehow escaped with their young master and thest remaining broken ship, which was hit by a long-range mana-infused metal projectile, seemingly thrust by someuncher.


    "I will kill them!" The young man shouted, feeling humiliated for falling so low to be defeated by mere EPIC-ranked women, even being an Early LEGENDARY Ranked Powerhouse.


    A true genius, supported by everyone, and now fallen this low.


    "Your eyes really look disgusting."


    Suddenly, a voice caused the young man, who was bncing himself while stumbling, to turn towards a woman standing with golden eyes looking at him.


    "HAHAHAHA, well, well." cing his palm on his face and tracing it down, he burst intoughter.


    Even with one arm missing, in the end, he was a Phase II warrior with an energy corepletely exhausted.


    But in front of him?


    A mere ADEPT ranker, and with the aura around her, he was sure she was Imperfect at that.


    "I will make sure to give you a slow death." With his eyes glinting, even with his broken body, in the end, his strength was near Phase II, making him instantly close the ten-meter distance, arriving in front of Esme.


    SCHLKT


    "Huh?" The young man''s eyes reflected his hand stretched at the woman flying after detaching from his body, his pupils reflecting it in slow motion.


    SWISH


    A grip on his face forced him directly to the ground.


    BANG!


    "Kuuughh!...." His eyes widened due to the force being much higher than any other he had felt till now.


    None of the previous encounters had such heavy force.


    "She''s off-limit, touch her, and your hand won''t be the only thing you lose."