"Let him tell it himself!"
Goku took a crystal vial from his box and walked toward City Lord Morgan.
Startled by this move, Morgan shouted at Victor, the commander of the City Defense Force:
"Victor! Seize them at once!"
"Yes, Lord City Lord!"
Gritting his teeth, Victor led the City Defense Force—an elite unit far superior to the Light and Shadow Guild—to surround and attack Goku.
Although he had learned of Goku's strength from the accounts of the "Dust People," honestly, without seeing it with his own eyes, he still harbored a shred of wishful thinking.
The tail-bearing boy before him looked truly harmless; it was hard to imagine he could instantly defeat all the enforcers of the Light and Shadow Guild.
Moreover, as the City Lord's staunchest supporter, he could not simply stand idly by.
And so, the very next moment, he witnessed the true meaning of futility—like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, an ant attempting to shake a tree, or an egg striking a rock—an act of sheer overestimation of one's own strength.
"Wrath of the Giant!"
Goku strode toward City Lord Morgan, completely ignoring the city guards closing in to attack him... ...army.
However, the golden aura erupting from his body—fueled by the "Giant's Fury" magic—instantly blasted the entire city guard force away.
Makarov's "Giant's Fury" was powerful enough to shatter walls.
Yet, the "Giant's Fury" unleashed by Goku—combining the technique with the Ki within his own body—was more than ten times as powerful.
Even heavy mechs forged from steel cracked open and were instantly rendered useless.
Radiating a golden aura, Goku walked step by step toward Morgan; in the eyes of everyone present, he appeared like a god.
Thud!
Terrified to his very core, City Lord Morgan collapsed onto the ground.
Years ago, it was out of sheer cowardice—having been scared witless by the Phage Beasts—that he had established the Three Great Laws.
He had conspired with Victor to kill Red Heron, the commander of the city defense forces, who possessed a strong sense of justice and had opposed him.
At the same time, using the Phage Beast attacks as a pretext, he had massacred half the residents of the Lighthouse.
He did so because those residents refused to abandon their familial bonds and opposed the Three Great Laws he had imposed.
Among them were the elderly, married couples, and children.
And now, he felt that the figure standing before him... The boy before him was more terrifying to him than those Phage Beast.
"Tell me why you established the Three Great Laws, what you did back then, and why you chose Mark to be the Lighthouse Commander."
A furious Goku pinched Morgan's mouth open and let a single drop of the potion from the crystal vial fall inside.
Indeed, the potion in that crystal vial was none other than Veritaserum—the truth-compelling serum—brewed personally by the Potions Master, Snape.
A mere drop was enough to make the drinker truthfully answer every question asked of them.
It was an essential potion for wizards when interrogating Death Eaters.
"I established the Three Great Laws because..."
Under the influence of the Veritaserum, even though his face was etched with terror and he was utterly unwilling, Morgan truthfully revealed the whole story.
Aside from Victor, the young City Guards and elite Dust Hunters—like those from Mo Cheng's team— were clearly unaware of all this.
The Three Great Laws had already been in place when they were born; it was simply the way things were.
They never imagined the truth would be like this.
And they certainly never expected that the man they had always held in such deep respect... ...the City Lord himself—to think he was such a man.
It turned out the "Three Great Laws" were all a sham; even the City Lord himself had never adhered to them.
Their worldview was shattered.
Mark, too, sighed; he finally understood the source of the doubts that had plagued him for so long.
The shadow cast by his sister's execution by fire finally vanished.
His beloved sister had been executed by the old City Lord; logically, he should have hated the man.
But having grown up on the Lighthouse and been indoctrinated by the Three Great Laws, he had gradually come to believe that the old City Lord's actions were for the sake of the Lighthouse itself.
That was why he had been so conflicted, unable to find peace.
Now he understood: it had all been nothing more than the old City Lord Morgan's selfishness.
"In that case, I can kill you without a shred of guilt!"
Mark stepped forward, seized the old City Lord Morgan by the throat, lifted him up, and walked to the hall's window.
"According to the Three Great Laws you established, the time for your exile is fast approaching anyway.
Let me just exile you a little early!"
Summoning all his strength, Mark hurled the City Lord out the window as if he were throwing a shot put.
"No!!"
Morgan let out a terrified scream as he plummeted into the darkness.
Below, a devastated wasteland and countless Phage Beasts awaited him.
"Mark."
Ran Bing stepped forward and took Mark's hand, a look of concern on her face.
Mark took a deep breath, squeezed Ran Bing's hand, and looked over at Victor, whose legs had gone weak.
"I am the City Lord of the Lighthouse now. Do you have any objections?"
Victor looked at the small figure of Goku standing there and lowered his head.
"No... no objections..."
He didn't want to die.
Meanwhile, in the Lighthouse infirmary, Charles had been revived.
Upon learning that most of his bones were shattered and he would spend the rest of his life bedridden, his heart was consumed by seething resentment.
"I want to see my father! I want Mark and that guy...
...dead!"
He roared for his subordinates. Soon, Vanti—the Light Envoy, currently bandaged from her injuries—arrived with a small squad of Light & Shadow Society zealots.
"Leader, a report just came in from the Lighthouse: the Old City Lord has died suddenly of an illness, and Mark has taken over the position of City Lord!"
"What? Father... Damn it! It must have been Mark who killed him!"
Charles's expression shifted drastically.
Being paralyzed wasn't the end of the world; he had believed that, given his father's love for him, a way would eventually be found to cure him.
But now his father was dead, and the Light & Shadow Society's enforcement squad had been completely wiped out.
Aside from Vanti—who had been injured earlier in the resource allocation hall—he had no one left to command. He had suffered a total, crushing defeat.
"Leader, let's leave the Lighthouse—before Mark has a chance to settle the score."
Fanti suggested, looking anxious.
If the old City Lord had truly died at Mark's hands, then...
Charles would inevitably face death if he remained on the Lighthouse.
It would be better to leave immediately, before Mark could fully consolidate his control over the Lighthouse.
Although the surface was teeming with Phage Beasts, the Head of the Church was protected by the Lord of Light and Shadow; perhaps there was still a chance of survival.
Most importantly, even though the Church's Enforcer Squad had been wiped out, there remained a group of fanatics loyal to the Church among both the Upper and Dust Citizens.
With their help, it would be possible to smuggle a supply of resources out of the Lighthouse.
"No, I absolutely will not just hand the Lighthouse over to Mark like this. Take me to Dr. Carrie!"
Charles immediately rejected Fanti's proposal.
Aside from Mark, the other high-ranking officials of the Lighthouse knew that Dr. Carrie was researching an incredibly powerful heavy-duty mech.
That mech was named "Abyss Walker," and it likely originated 250 million years ago.
It was said that whoever could pilot the Abyss Walker might even be capable of contending with a Monarch-class Phage Beast.
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