The ocean was black.

Even under the pale light of two moons, the sea swelled and rolled like molten ink, heavy with the scent of magic and minerals.

Far to the south, where the waves broke against jagged cliffs of obsidian, an orcish fortress rose — a monstrous citadel of bone, coral, wood, and flesh, pulsing faintly with blood-red light.

The war city of the TauKintha Clan.

It had been two days since Ainen left the castle and entered the territory of the Orcs.

For others, he was just another Orc, because after killing a few Orcs secretly at first, Ainen cooked small candies that would transform him into an Orc physically in appearance.

And with his peak mastery and control of Mana and elements, his sophisticated and advanced skills allowed him to move unobstructed, undiscovered, and unnoticed by the high-ranking guards.

Ainen realized the terrifying nature of the Orcs, which came from the location marked by Wolfgang on the map. It was a secret island behind the city, five kilometers away, completely hidden by formations.

On the island was a golden-black altar with a smooth black liquid flowing throughout its formation with a crimson sheen.

The Orcs were gaining forceful evolution and power-ups at stunted growth from this altar.

And with the speed at which they were progressing, it was only a matter of time before they annihilated the Nightrift Clan unless they came up with a surefire way to destroy the Orcs quickly.

Ainen wanted to find more, but he felt like he was about to get discovered, so he escaped.

But Ainen hadn't wasted the last two days just investigating.

The investigation only took him minutes.

What he did most was dive into the vast, uncharted ocean to hunt for monsters and resources to become stronger.

Ainen had already reached the peak of King-rank in two days.

He reached the stat limit by cooking and eating, while he reached the level limit by killing Emperor-rank monsters since cross-rank kills made him level up faster.

The only thing he lacked now was cooking up a Tier-7 Catalyst.

He had already gathered 60% of the resources needed for this Tier-7 Mythical-rank Catalyst, but the remaining 40% were hard to get.

Ainen scoured the deep seas and went thousands of kilometers around, but it was not easy to find Tier-7 resources. They were the rarest in the world because this world's limit was Tier-7. Nothing past Tier-7 or Emperor-rank could grow or develop here.

And Ainen wanted top-quality Tier-7 resources for his Catalyst, so it was even harder.

Now, he only had one choice to get this done — raiding the coffers of the Orcs.

The Orcs had gathered tons of resources, and they had an abundance of Tier-6 and Tier-7 materials to train their newly emerging Emperor-rank powerhouses.

And today, Ainen planned to steal their resources.

At the moment, Ainen was far above in the sky. Or rather, past the sky.

He was in outer space and was watching the planet.

Ainen had a simple plan. He wanted to launch an attack from here, gathering an immense amount of kinetic force in the projectile as it went down and blasting the treasury open while also killing the five Emperor-rank Orcs that stayed in the city to guard it.

The method of his attack was simple — deceive and blast.

Ainen grabbed a meteoroid and melted it before using Glass, Earth, Metal, and Sand to create a unique material container.

This container had immense resistance and toughness externally, but internally, if it was sparked by a high enough flame, the entire container would unravel while pushing heat inward.

Ainen filled the container with the highest potency explosion and temperature bonds he could create, forming an extremely powerful gunpowder and stuffing the container with it, condensed and compressed.

And then, he polarized this massive missile, weighing over 11,000 tons, straight toward the treasury.

Ainen only expected two things to survive in this city after the blast: one, the five Emperors; two, the treasures that were safe within several formations.

"Here it goes."

From below, the sky tore open.

A single, blazing line descended from the void above — a molten tear, hissing and shrieking as it ripped through the heavens. For a heartbeat, the two moons went dim behind it, swallowed by the blinding light that fell toward the ocean.

Then came the roar.

Every creature within hundreds of kilometers, from the deepest monsters to the smallest insects, froze as an immense amount of pressure slammed onto the ground from the missile.

The meteoric missile wasn't just falling. It was howling.

"What is that?!" an Orc General bellowed, his tusks gleaming in the crimson glare.

"A falling star?" another shouted.

"No… no, it's coming for us! Sound the war drums!"

Across the city of bone and coral, horns wailed.

The War City's towers pulsed, formations activating one after another as waves of Mana surged upward — shields of ice, of earth, of blood.

The five Emperor-rank Orcs emerged from their citadels, massive and armored in living metal.

Their auras rose to the sky like pillars, and they flew hundreds of kilometers high to stop whatever was coming at them.

"Who dares strike the TauKintha Clan?!"

"What the hell is that?!"

The falling light didn't answer. It only grew brighter.

The atmosphere burned red, the sea began to steam, and the fortress of the TauKintha Clan, proud and monstrous, seemed to be swallowed by its light already.

The lead Emperor Orc, a beast with green-black skin and a jaw like an anvil, roared and raised his war hammer, sending a tidal wave of lightning and metal spikes toward the sky.

"Break!"

The lightning struck the missile head-on.

It did nothing.

The entire formation of light shattered as if hitting a mountain of divine will.

The missile's descent accelerated. It screamed like a burning god.

"Brace yourselves!" another Emperor shouted, flinging up layer upon layer of defensive domains. The sea rose into a wall; the air thickened into magma; countless wards shimmered and stacked over the city.

But the missile pierced through all of them — one layer, two, five, ten — as every color of protection shattered and melted instantly before even being struck physically.

The first Emperor, the one who had struck first, realized too late.

The last thing he saw was the reflection of the falling inferno in his own eyes.

The impact as the insanely fast missile struck their city.

The world broke.

For one impossible instant, everything went silent — the kind of silence that comes before gods scream.

Then the impact hit.

A white flash devoured the continent's edge. The sound didn't travel; it erupted, shredding air, water, and space alike. The ocean heaved upward, a wall of black fire and molten salt that swallowed the moonlight whole.

The War City of TauKintha ceased to exist.

The explosion's waves reached over a thousand kilometers in all directions.

Wolfgang's eyes glinted as a pair of eyes appeared far away in the Orcs' territory.

But then, the pair of eyes was covered by a domain belonging to another pair of eyes.

'WHAT DID YOU DO?!'

'HOW DID YOU DO THAT?!'

Wolfgang chuckled. 'I don't know what you're talking about, but from the sound I heard, you were hit pretty hard.'

Wolfgang left, not bothering to gain forceful entry, but he was still curious.

'Could it be… Ainen? What exactly did he do? Those two never sounded this mad before.'

…

Ainen landed in the large crater that was already filled with water from the ocean.

His expression was turning stranger by the second.

'Ain't no way the treasures were destroyed!'

Lord Black was speechless. 'You underestimated your own power again and overestimated the defense here. Even though your Magic Core became weaker, you are now a full-fledged King-rank with high stats, and what the heck was that missile you created? You know you always create crazy stuff after ranking up since your brain gets a boost, but that was legit the most powerful attack I've ever seen in my life. I didn't know it would be this powerful when you were creating it. You erased everything here. Those five Emperors are deader than dead. Nothing is left. Ashes to ashes, dust to dust. You are the most powerful now.'

Lord Black finished venting the feelings he had accumulated by watching this whole process from creation to destruction, and as always, Ainen short-fused his non-existent brain.

Ainen pulled a long face. "My resources…"

Suddenly, he looked up and blinked.

Three Emperor-rank powerhouses had arrived, and one of them was a hooded figure that Ainen had seen at the altar.

Ainen froze, his eyes instantly glinting with a cold sheen. 'I had a feeling it was them, but I couldn't see it clearly last time.'

The hooded figure in the black robe belonged to none other than the Cradle organization.

"What the fuck did you do here?!" The red-haired Orc Emperor shouted with bloodshot eyes and raised his arm, manifesting a giant blood-flaming axe that instantly slammed down toward Ainen.

BOOM!

The water vaporized as a loud blast occurred, with crimson flames whipping around where Ainen stood, ringing with the sound of wraiths screaming.

But as the smoke cleared, they also heard the screaming fading away.

Ainen was still at his spot as everything was being snuffed out and vanishing within ten meters of him.

Not even a strand of his hair was affected by the attack.

Ainen's eyes were still locked onto the figure in the robe for two reasons. One, she was from Cradle. Two, she was giving him a dangerous feeling, so exercising caution against her was important.

"Cradle," Ainen spoke up. "So you were pulling strings here. No wonder the Orcs started getting stronger."

The figure removed the hood as silky cream-blond hair flowed beside her shoulder.

Her odd eyes, one green and one red, looked at him with curiosity and amazement.

"Will you marry me, handsome?"