Kim Seon-Hyeok’s expression hardened as he arrived at the Imperial Capital. He already knew that a large-scale battle had taken place in the capital because he heard it from the commander, but when he saw it with his own eyes, he realized that it was much worse than he had imagined. 

Huge pits were scattered here and there as if a massive meteorite had fallen and sections of the city that had been swept up in the battle were gone without a trace. 

The western section of the splendid capital of Adenstein,[1] which had prospered and thrived in recent years, had completely evaporated.

As soon as he saw the empty space that couldn’t even be called a ruin, his worries about Ophelia interrogating him disappeared as if he had never worried about it. Anger took its place.

“How dare they…”

He was truly furious at the Trancendentals’ dirty trick of infiltrating the capital in his absence. 

And his anger peaked when he met Ophelia.

“This…”

Her already pale face was as white as a sheet of paper. There wasn’t a single bit of color in her complexion. It was as if she was suffering from a terrible disease.

[It’s a sign of the curse. He said a skeleton made of gold was among the Transcendentals who attacked. It seems like Akrich, the Heaven-Defying Seeker of Tao, was also here.]

Ophelia wasn’t the only one who was weakened by the curse. Held in his mother’s arm, Victorius’ face was no different from his mother’s.

[The Empress of the...