As Liuke descended from the Great Tree, he began searching for his squad.
But as he pushed deeper into the twisted depths of the forest, his heart sank.
The sight that met his eyes drained the color from his face, replaced quickly by a burning, suffocating rage.
Spread out before him was his entire squad.
Their throats had been jaggedly slit, as if someone had forcefully ripped the Solar Cores right out of their bodies.
He saw Elvis, Osaka, and countless others lying in the dirt.
The carnage was absolute.
Trembling, Liuke knelt beside the body of Commander Elvis.
The circular cavity in his neck, where his Solar Core should have been, was empty.
Liuke moved from comrade to comrade, checking each one.
The result was the same. Dead. Cores stolen.
He returned to Elvis's side, his voice cracking with grief.
"Commander... you died a soldier's death. You fell with honor."
He wiped his eyes, but the tears wouldn't stop.
"I will find the one who did this. I won't give them a single chance to live."
"I'll... I'll destroy everything!"
As he sobbed, the light in his eyes began to dim, turning into a hollow, abyssal black.
It was the look of a man who had nothing left to lose—a man who only wanted to watch the world burn.
Suddenly, Liuke noticed something strange.
Among the dead, there were only men. The female soldiers—Rayna, Luka, and Rika—were gone.
A realization hit him like a lightning bolt.
His fury hit the ceiling as he connected the dots.
"You Bastard... RAMONIAN!" Liuke roared.
Elsewhere in the Everdread Forest, the 5th Elder, Ramonian, stood with a wicked grin.
Four elite assassins flanked him, their blades drawn.
Around Ramonian's throat was a grotesque, pink, mucus-like mass.
Inside it, the shrunken Solar Cores of Elvis and his squad were clumped together, pulsing with stolen light.
Ramonian stepped toward three figures tied to a massive tree.
They were the missing soldiers: Rayna, Luka, and Rika.
"How does it feel, you three?" Ramonian sneered.
"Enjoying the view? Watching your squad die right before your eyes?"
Rayna spat toward him, her eyes blazing with defiance.
"If you actually had any balls, you wouldn't have attacked from the shadows, you coward!"
Ramonian's face contorted with rage. He delivered a brutal kick to Rayna's face.
"You bitch," he hissed. "You've got a big mouth for someone whose life is hanging by a thread."
He turned away from them, walking toward his assassins.
"These bastards deserved to die. Now, these women are beneath me, and I am at the top!"
"I can strip anyone's power and make it my own! Hahaha!"
Enveloped in his own ego, Ramonian didn't bother to look back.
But standing behind him was a vision of pure, incandescent fury.
Liuke was glowing with such intensity it looked as if he would ignite the entire forest.
In an instant, Ramonian's four assassins vanished into the air to intercept him.
One assassin materialized above Liuke, bringing down a dark, double-edged sword.
Liuke didn't flinch. He parried the strike with his bare hand.
His skin had become as hard and hot as forged metal; the blade left only a minor nick.
A second assassin slid across the ground, aiming for Liuke's legs.
Without looking, Liuke leaped, spun, and delivered a kick that sent the man flying into the distance.
The remaining assassins attacked simultaneously.
Liuke moved like a blur, catching the blades of two assassins with his bare hands and snapping the steel in half.
Channeling his internal fire into the broken shards, he plunged them into the cores of the two men.
The third assassin unleashed a flurry of strikes with a reach-extending weapon.
Liuke side-stepped with ease and thrust his palm forward.
A concentrated fireball erupted, vaporizing the assassin where he stood.
Liuke scanned his surroundings. Ramonian was right there, but the fourth assassin was missing.
He heard a faint whistle of air near his ear and saw a lunging punch.
It was useless. Liuke's body was so dense and overheated that the punch didn't even leave a mark.
Liuke grabbed the man's own fallen sword and stabbed him through the throat.
He leaned in close to the dying man's ear, his voice a lethal whisper.
"All of you... have to be erased."
With the assassins dead, Liuke stood before Ramonian.
Suddenly, Liuke's body began to fluctuate.
It was the same terrifying transformation he had unleashed at the Solaryn Temple.
His skin took on a metallic silver sheen. His muscles expanded.
His stature grew more imposing as his internal temperature skyrocketed.
Steam began to hiss from his hands and feet.
The grass beneath him began to melt into slag.
The leaves on the surrounding trees withered and turned to ash from the sheer radiation.
Ramonian stared, his arrogance vanishing in an instant.
He couldn't believe his eyes.
This wasn't a human anymore—it was a sun descending to the earth.