Queen Cecilia’s plea was something Wind Rider found almost impossible to turn down.

Before she could offer a word, Thunder Bringer spoke up, his voice sharp with caution. “Wind Rider, remember the Emperor’s command.”

Emperor Orpheus demanded Isaac’s death. How could they possibly save him?

Wu Ying and the academy team remained at the edge of the clearing. Their mission was complete, and whatever happened next belonged strictly to the internal affairs of Pymeshire.

Wind Rider looked at Lolita with torn eyes. “Your Highness, let us tend to your injuries first.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Lolita’s voice erupted with sudden fury. “I already agreed to return with you! Save Isaac! Did you hear me? If Isaac dies, I’ll take my own life on the spot. You can carry my corpse back to him!”

Wind Rider turned to her three companions, attempting to reason with them. Perhaps they could stabilize Isaac and bring him along alongside the Queen. But Thunder Bringer insisted that altering their orders defied the royal will. To resolve the impasse, they initiated a video call to report directly to the royal palace.

A moment later, a video connection flashed onto Thunder Bringer’s communicator. The moment the screen illuminated, all four royal guardians dropped to one knee.

On the other side of the display stood Emperor Orpheus.

Five years had passed, yet Lolita was forced to gaze upon that repulsive face once more.

“My darling,” Emperor Orpheus said, his dark eyes locked onto her face. “Seeing you again still makes my heart skip a beat.”

Lolita swallowed the overwhelming urge to spit at his image, forcing her voice into a cold line. “Execute me, torture me, do whatever you want—just command them to save Isaac.”

“Isaac? Do you mean Caspian?” Emperor Orpheus’s expression turned instantly sinister. “What nonsense are you speaking, darling? Why would I save the traitor who shattered our family? Guardians, slaughter that man immediately. I want to watch him die with my own eyes!”

Dark Cloud and Flame Bearer stepped forward without hesitation, closing in on Isaac’s motionlessness form.

Lolita let out a piercing shriek, her voice laced with madness. “Stop! Stop right there! Don’t you dare lay a finger on him! Ahhh!”

Her screams sounded so agonizing—as though her flesh was being torn apart piece by piece—that every guardian froze in place, shaken by the raw horror of her voice.

Emperor Orpheus’s face darkened further. Before he could speak, another figure pushed into the camera’s view. “Mother! Mother!”

Lolita’s screaming ceased instantly. She turned her head slowly toward the screen.

The young prince’s face felt strange to her eyes. His features had matured, growing more like his father’s with every passing year, down to the cold poise he carried.

“Mother, come home!” the prince pleaded. “Stop listening to that man’s lies. We are your real family. Father and I miss you so much. Father has arranged everything—you will return to the palace without a single stain on your honor, and neither of us will hold the past against you. Let them kill that man, and our family can start anew!”

His words erased any motherly warmth that had naturally sparked in her chest.

“You won’t hold it against me?” Lolita laughed, a dry, bitter sound. “What right do either of you have to forgive me? Ferri! If you have even a shred of conscience left, you should beg your father to save Isaac! That man loved you like his own son when the man sitting beside you couldn’t be bothered to look your way!”

Prince Ferri’s expression turned icy at her words. “Mother, he was a filthy slave. How could he ever be worthy of loving me?”

Lolita stared at her son. That familiar sensation—as if a heavy slab of ice had been forced down her throat into her stomach—returned to crush her heart.

When her parents died years ago, she had lost all leverage and protection. The only reason she had stayed in the palace, enduring Orpheus’s cruelty day after day, was her child.

She had spent years pouring her devotion into his upbringing, acting as a mother who endured a horrific marriage solely for her son’s future.

Her child and Caspian had been the sun and moon in her dark world, guiding her through every storm.

Orpheus had been a cold ruler who cared nothing for his son, visiting him fewer times in a decade than could be counted on two hands. Throughout those years, Caspian was the one who had stepped into the role of a father.

Caspian loved Queen Cecilia, and because of that love, he doted on the young prince as if he were his own flesh and blood. He taught him combat, crafted wooden toys, carried him on his shoulders, and smuggled him out of the palace to taste freedom. When political assassins targeted the young prince, Caspian twice risked his own life to shield him, nearly exposing his forbidden relationship with the Queen.

“Mother, who is he really?” an eight-year-old Prince Ferri had once asked her. By then, he understood that the distant emperor who only appeared to rage at his mother was his official father.

“He is your true father,” Queen Cecilia had answered softly.

“And the Emperor?”

“He is a dead man to us.”

The boy had grown fascinated by Caspian, constantly probing for details about his past and identity. Caspian and Cecilia kept the secret strictly hidden to protect everyone involved, but the boy’s curious eyes had always seemed innocent and full of affection whenever Caspian entered the room.

Until one day, the young prince asked Caspian to take him outside the palace walls.

Caspian agreed. That outing turned into a lethal ambush where every nearby water source had been drained in advance. Caspian nearly died, barely escaping when an unexpected rainstorm flooded the area.

The young prince had returned with a high fever, acting terrified and asking endlessly about Caspian’s safety. It seemed like a flawless display of childhood devotion.

Yet Queen Cecilia felt a seed of suspicion. Using her Nightmare Atavist gift, she stepped into her son’s subconscious dream for the first time.

What she saw shattered her heart into dust.

In his dream, the boy’s inner thoughts echoed with chilling clarity:

Uncle treats me well, but what good is he? He is mother’s lover, a rat hiding in the dark. Father despises me because of him. If father has another child with another woman, will I still inherit the throne?

Mother claims to love me, but she loves that man more. Otherwise, why would she stay with him without thinking about how it ruins my status?

Noriana is a wretched viper. When I grow up, I will destroy her. But why can’t mother just flatter father like she does? It’s so simple!

I want the throne. I want to be Emperor! I must win father’s favor. Mother is useless, so I must look out for myself.

If I hand uncle over to father, father will finally look at me. And without that man around, mother will be forced to love father again.

The cold ambition and heartless nature of his real father lived inside the boy’s core. He knew Caspian loved him, yet he handed him over to assassins without a second thought to gain leverage.

Queen Cecilia realized then that no amount of motherly love could change the boy’s bloodline. He was destined to become a second Emperor Orpheus.

She gave him one final choice by constructing a dream scenario: a quiet, comfortable life hiding abroad with her and Caspian versus returning to the empire to inherit the crown under the condition that he never see his mother again.

The prince chose the crown without hesitation.

Heartbroken, Queen Cecilia left him to his ambition and fled into the night with Caspian.

From that day on, Queen Cecilia and Caspian ceased to exist, replaced by the mercenaries Lolita and Isaac. Though they lived among sandstorms and danger, those five years had filled her soul with life once again. Isaac had become her sun, restoring the joyful, rebellious spirit she had lost.

And now, five years later, they still refused to grant her peace.

Lolita’s eyes burned crimson. Rage broke through her restraint as she unleashed every curse and insult at Emperor Orpheus and her son, screaming until blood welled in her throat and her fingers tore against the dirt.

The onlookers stood in stunned silence, forced to witness the dark secrets of the royal family.

“If you’re so powerful, kill me right now! Kill me!” she howled.

“Look at what that monster has turned you into,” Emperor Orpheus said coldly, his face rigid from public humiliation. “The Queen is hysterical. Restrain her. Kill Caspian—don’t make me say it again.”

Flame Bearer raised a palm, a ball of intense fire crackling in his grip.

Orpheus wanted Isaac to suffer, and burning him alive suited that desire perfectly.

In the distant tree line, Jing Pei watched the confrontation unfold. Beside her, Chu Xusheng stood tense, his scorpion tail coiled and ready to strike the moment she gave the order.

Jing Pei glanced at him with a slight smile. “Relax, King Insect. Your job for tonight is already done.”

“Oh,” Chu Xusheng mumbled, his face flushing red as he pulled back his energy.

Jing Pei tapped her earpiece, listening to Jin Ji’s voice. “Boss, Jiang Chaoyu hasn’t fled far. He’s hiding nearby, waiting for an opportunity. Should we take him out?”

“No need. Just keep an eye on his position,” Jing Pei replied.

Meanwhile, Flame Bearer hurled the fireball toward Isaac. But before the fire touched the ground, a sudden gust of wind wrapped around the flames and extinguished them in midair.

Everyone turned in shock toward Wind Rider.

“Wind Rider?”

The small guardian stepped in front of Lolita, her expression heavy.

Years ago, Wind Rider had a younger sister afflicted with pseudo-atavism. Her body was deformed, and her life was a constant torment. Her father abandoned them, leaving Wind Rider to care for her alone.

One day, Queen Cecilia had arrived at their humble home without an escort, wearing a dark green cloak. She held the sick child in her arms and wove a gentle, beautiful dream for her. That night was the first time the child slept peacefully.

Years later, when her sister was dying, Wind Rider carried her to the capital, only to be chased away by palace guards. Yet Queen Cecilia found them at a small inn, holding the dying girl once more so she could pass away with a smile in a sweet dream.

Wind Rider had never forgotten that grace.

“You probably don’t remember,” Wind Rider said softly. “But years ago, you gave my dying sister the only peace she ever knew.”

Thunder Bringer gasped. “Wind Rider, stop!”

Wind Rider snapped open her delicate feather fan. “I can never repay your kindness. Today, let me give you a favorable wind!”

She swept the fan forward. Wind gathered from every direction into a roaring vortex. The tempest pushed back her allies, yet it gently lifted Lolita and Isaac, carrying them straight into the cloud layer.

A Roc rises with the wind, soaring ninety thousand miles.

The wind surged toward the coastal waters of Yunjin Prefecture. If Isaac reached the ocean, his Lighthouse Jellyfish instincts might trigger a miraculous recovery.

Wind Rider collapsed as her energy drained completely, offering no resistance as her companions seized her. Emperor Orpheus and Prince Ferri roared in fury through the screen, demanding her immediate execution.

“Time for our entry,” Jing Pei said, leaping down from the tree with Chu Xusheng.

She approached the scene with an innocent look. “What happened here? Where did those two go?”

“Ah Jin, quick! They were carried off in that direction!” Wu Ying urged.

Jing Pei leaped into the air, shifting partially into her dragon form. Glistening teal scales shimmered under the moonlight, and two delicate pink dragon horns glowed faintly above her forehead. She shot across the sky like a small dragon, following the wind’s trail.

Far below, Jiang Chaoyu tracked her flight from the shadows. His lips curled into a cold smile.

“Come to my side, my friends,” Jiang Chaoyu whispered, channeling his Spoken Command.

Because Lolita and Isaac had been subjected to his command earlier, his voice locked onto their weak minds even from miles away, dragging them down from the clouds. The residual wind cushioned their fall, saving them from crashing to their deaths.

Jiang Chaoyu stepped toward Isaac with a gleam in his eyes. “I’ll slice this jellyfish into pieces right in front of you.”

Lolita’s eyes filled with hatred as she tried to shield Isaac’s body.

“Aren’t you underestimating me a bit too much?” a clear voice called out.

Jing Pei dropped from the trees, landing between them.

Jiang Chaoyu turned, a sneer on his face. “Stop.”

He raised his blade, expecting her movement to freeze. But in the next instant, sharp dragon claws tore through his arm, painting the grass with blood!

“Who do you think you’re commanding?” Jing Pei said coldly, shaking the blood from her claws. Her dragon purity and sheer willpower completely neutralized his voice command.

Jiang Chaoyu gritted his teeth and lunged forward, engaging her in a ferocious duel of physical martial skill and raw energy.

While they fought, Lolita dragged Isaac’s body inch by inch toward the brush, desperately clinging to a sliver of hope.

Suddenly, a streak of lightning tore through the night air.

Pfft!

A bolt of lightning shaped like a spear pierced directly through Isaac’s chest.

Lolita turned her head slowly to see Thunder Bringer lowering his hand, his eyes filled with grim duty.

The massive voltage shattered the remaining spark of life within Isaac’s heart. His head slumped cold against Lolita’s shoulder, his breath fading into nothingness.

“Isaac… AHHHH!”

Lolita collapsed onto the dirt, clutching his lifeless body as a harrowing, grief-stricken roar tore from her throat, echoing into the dark forest like the cry of a vengeful ghost.