Kaelan continued smiling beside Vanessa with the same gentle expression carefully painted across his face, pushing every matter toward the General with soft helplessness while keeping his own hands perfectly clean.
As Zion watched him, he could not help but feel that his younger brother possessed a terrifying talent in one particular area.
Some people used swords to wound others.
Kaelan used kindness itself as a blade, hidden beneath layers of gentleness.
Even when refusing to help, he somehow managed to make himself appear pitiful rather than cruel.
Unfortunately, Vanessa neither noticed nor cared.
The Crown Princess impatiently waved one hand while pressing a cloth against her bleeding nose. Her expression was twisted with humiliation and irritation, so severe that even the expensive powder on her face could no longer conceal it properly.
"Kaelan, why waste any more thought on that useless person?"
She glared toward the bed.
"Let us leave. I do not wish to remain inside this broken place for another breath."
Her voice still carried the pride expected of a princess, but the effect was considerably weaker with blood continuing to slip between her fingers and dust staining the lower half of her robes.
She had fallen twice.
And both times, Zion had been there to witness it.
No royal would want to look so miserable, especially in front of someone they had come intending to humiliate.
Kaelan quickly nodded with concern and gently supported Vanessa.
However, Zion clearly noticed the tiny twitch at the corner of Kaelan's mouth.
It seemed even he was struggling not to laugh at the princess's current appearance.
The two hurried toward the door.
Their footsteps were uneven.
When Vanessa stepped over the doorway, she nearly lost her balance again. Kaelan quickly grabbed her sleeve and steadied her before another disaster could occur.
For one brief moment, Zion genuinely wondered whether the haunted courtyard story might actually become reality if the pair remained there any longer.
Finally, the door slammed shut.
Silence returned to the room.
The lantern flame swayed softly.
Outside, the cold wind brushed through the dry branches, producing a faint rustling sound.
Only after several quiet breaths did Zion slowly allow the weak and harmless expression on his face to disappear.
The softness drained from his eyes first.
Then the warmth.
Then the restraint.
What remained was cold and composed.
"You wanted to crush the original Zion beneath your feet..."
His voice was quiet inside the dim room.
"Very well."
His fingers slowly tightened around the blanket covering his legs as the inherited memories surfaced once more.
Loneliness.
Humiliation.
Neglect.
Despair.
The young master who had been abandoned by his own family had eventually died believing that nobody stood beside him.
Zion closed his eyes briefly.
When he opened them again, his gaze had settled into quiet determination.
"What was done to you, I will repay."
That was enough.
There was no reason to dwell on it any longer.
Zion pushed the thoughts of Vanessa and Kaelan aside before carefully crossing his legs on the bed.
The movement still pulled painfully against the weak muscles and damaged meridians inside this body, yet compared to the agony of crossing dimensions, the discomfort hardly deserved his attention.
According to the original memories, the General's Manor had declared him worthless at the age of five.
His meridians were supposedly crippled.
His mana core was ruined beyond repair.
Because of that judgment, the manor had gradually abandoned him completely, treating him like a decorative shadow hidden inside a forgotten courtyard.
But when Zion slowly circulated his senses inward to inspect the body personally, his expression abruptly froze.
Then his breathing caught.
Deep inside his body, where shattered emptiness should have remained, a mana core quietly rested.
Not destroyed.
Not broken.
Restored.
Tiny streams of mana flowed weakly through repaired pathways, like rivers slowly returning after years of drought.
For several moments, Zion simply sat there motionless while shock rolled silently through his mind.
"How is this possible...?"
He inspected it again carefully.
Then once more.
The result remained unchanged.
His mana core had truly repaired itself.
He did not know whether the ring had caused it, whether crossing dimensions had triggered it, or whether some hidden mystery had existed within this body from the beginning.
But none of that mattered right now.
Only one thing mattered.
He could cultivate again.
A slow smile finally appeared on Zion's face.
It was not loud.
It was not arrogant.
But there was something dangerous about it.
The return of hope meant that his future was no longer completely sealed.
Once his strength returned, he would no longer remain trapped in a helpless position, waiting for others to decide his fate.
And after the chaos from earlier, Kaelan and Vanessa would likely avoid visiting this courtyard for some time.
Good.
That gave him space.
Just as Zion prepared to enter meditation—
"This Vanessa is truly disgusting!"
A sudden childish voice exploded inside the room.
Zion's eyes snapped open.
Immediately, another voice argued back loudly.
"No! Kaelan is worse!"
Zion's body stiffened.
The room was empty.
Completely empty.
Cold air drifted faintly through the cracked window while lantern light flickered across the old furniture.
Yet the voices continued bickering noisily.
"I told you Vanessa is the hateful one!"
"I told you Kaelan is more shameless!"
"Vanessa is horrible!"
"Kaelan is horrible!"
Zion's eyebrow twitched sharply.
A vein nearly pulsed against his forehead.
Finally, he raised his voice.
"Both of them are horrible! Stop arguing!"
Silence.
Then two offended snorts echoed through the room together.
"Humph!"
"Humph!"
The sudden quiet almost felt stranger than the arguing itself.
Zion slowly narrowed his eyes.
"Who exactly is there?"
No answer came immediately.
Instead, after several seconds, one childish voice finally spoke again in an aggrieved tone.
"Master, why are you so fierce...?"
"Exactly!" the second voice added quickly. "And you are not even letting us out! How are we supposed to appear?"
"Master?"
Zion blinked once.
Then again.
"Let you out?"
"Yes!"
"Yes!"
His gaze swept carefully across the room.
"Where are you?"
"We are inside your ring, Master!"
"Inside the Ring of Chaos!"
Zion's eyes immediately dropped toward the ancient black ring resting upon his finger.
So the strange object truly possessed intelligence.
No wonder it had been capable of dragging a soul across dimensions.
One of the voices spoke again, excitement filling its tone.
"Master can enter the inner space! Just connect your spirit with the ring!"
Zion hesitated briefly.
Only briefly.
Then he slowly focused his consciousness toward the ring.
The instant his spirit touched it properly, the world around him twisted violently.
His vision blurred.
Light exploded before his eyes.
Then—
Everything changed.
Zion found himself standing within an enormous realm so vast that his first instinct was disbelief.
Before him rose a majestic ancient palace crafted from intertwining black and white stone. The colors wound around one another like darkness and light locked together since the beginning of creation itself.
An invisible pressure rolled through the surrounding air, heavy enough to make his heartbeat slow unconsciously.
The atmosphere felt ancient.
Not merely old.
Ancient in the truest sense.
It was like standing before something that had witnessed kingdoms rise and vanish into dust countless times.
Zion looked upward slowly.
Even with his experience, awe flickered inside his eyes.
"So this is the Ring of Chaos..."
Storage artifacts existed in the Xynnar Continent.
He had seen many before.
But those merely contained small, isolated spaces for carrying objects.
This?
This was practically another world.
A deep rumbling suddenly echoed ahead.
**BOOOOM—**