No One is Willing to Give Up the Power of the Beast

At the head of the Volcano Duchy's new nobles, Henir climbed to the Star Luo Palace in the God-Servant City. The queen received them with the grandest ceremony her court could muster, while cheers swept through the entire city.

Under every watching eye, amid thunderous applause, the new Grand Duke of Volcano sank to one knee and swore allegiance to the Star Luo Queen.

With both hands, he raised the portion of the Final Chapter long kept by the Hosen family. His posture was humble, his expression still.

No one looking at him could easily have imagined the savage and terrifying means he had used to erase an ancient, magnificent city from the earth and end the Hosen family's centuries-long rule over the Volcano Kingdom.

"Grand Duke of Volcano, neither the Star Luo Kingdom nor the Xilong family shall ever forget your deeds."

The Star Luo Queen accepted the great poet Tito's Final Chapter from Henir. Beneath the Sun Cup Flower Sea carved across the dome, she stood at its very center and lifted the saint's relic before the Sky Temple's Priest Corps and the nobles of the Star Luo Kingdom. Here was proof that their kingdom alone truly basked in the glory of God.

Fervent cries of Yinsai's name rose from every throat. They rolled beyond the palace, swelling into a sea of voices that engulfed the entire God-Servant City.

"Yinsai!"

"Yinsai!"

"Yinsai!"

Everyone knew what crying out that name meant at such a moment.

The Star Luo Kingdom and the Xilong family intended to restore the unified Yinsai of centuries past and become the supreme king of all trilobite men.

Still kneeling before the queen, Henir betrayed nothing. Only his eyes shifted, almost imperceptibly.

He now ruled the Volcano Duchy. Grand Duke was merely the name they gave him. In truth, he was king of the former Volcano Kingdom.

Power meant the taste of standing above all others. Once a man had savored it to the marrow, nothing less could ever satisfy him again.

Head bowed, he fixed his gaze on the upright scepter before him.

Long ago, it had been held in just this way by the ancient rulers remembered in the histories, the King of Wisdom, Redlichia, Yesael, King Eli, and Queen Star.

Since the loss of the Crown of Wisdom, this scepter had served as the symbol of the King of Yinsai.

Henir lifted his head, his gaze deferential as it settled upon the Star Luo Queen.

"The crown of Yinsai has lain lost for centuries. Your Majesty shall surely restore the kingdom of Yinsai and the glory of the Xilong family."

Pleased with Henir's conduct, the Star Luo Queen nodded her approval before the assembled court.

She never realized that Henir's humble gaze rested on the Ruhe brand upon her forehead.

Two Ruhe brands overlapped there. One was slowly fading.

The Star Luo Kingdom had waged a brutal war against the Samo Kingdom and the Volcano Kingdom. Far too often, the Star Luo Queen had unleashed the Sky Beast, sending it racing to the areas around Sun City and Stone Forest City time and again like a man rushing to smother a fire.

Then, when the Samo Kingdom's Desert Worm drew near, the Sky Beast had to retreat at once to the Sacred Mountain.

Not long before, the Star Luo Kingdom's great battle against the Samo Kingdom had raged for half a month. Only afterward had the Volcano Kingdom submitted, bringing this resounding victory.

What the Star Luo Queen did not know was that God had already withdrawn the great beasts' power of destruction. Every command she issued through the Ruhe brand consumed more of the grace the divine had granted the trilobite men.

Henir, meanwhile, was already preparing for what lay ahead. Before long, the Ruhe Beasts might become a power fit only for deterrence, not something to be lightly used.

Never again would anyone squander the grace of the divine as recklessly as before.

In her dream, the Star Luo Queen stood atop the Sky Beast. Above the Sacred Mountain, dreamlike starlight chased itself across the sky and streamed together into a ribbon of color.

Among the sea of clouds and the flowing ribbon of color, a vast, magnificent gate opened with a roar. Beyond it lay a sacred, dreamlike world.

Across a boundless Sun Cup Flower Sea, the spirits sang for themselves.

At the end of the sacred stairs stood the messenger of the divine and the Mother of Life, one on either side. From that highest place, they shone with an eternal, starlike radiance that embodied the will and gaze of the divine.

She would walk that sacred road and at last stand before the eternal God Yinsai.

Once more, the Star Luo Queen dreamed of opening the domain of the divine. Never had the vision been so clear.

This was unlike the dream before. Now she believed she would be able to see the divine.

Yet the moment she reached the gates of the domain of the divine, a voice came from behind her.

"You've come again."

A beautiful being stood amid the void.

It bore the very likeness of the divine, soft golden hair shining as it drifted through the dreamlike starlight.

Suns and stars adorned its magnificent golden robe, interspersed with beautiful dream bubbles of every kind.

"It is you!"

The Star Luo Queen recognized the being before her. When it had last appeared in her dream, she could only guess what it was.

Now, she knew.

The dream spirit approached her and spoke.

"My name is Hila. Once before, you called upon my true name."

"And now, we meet again."

Delight lit the Star Luo Queen's face. "Messenger of the divine, then you have come to welcome me into the domain of the divine?"

The dream spirit shook her head. "Not yet."

"Why?" the Star Luo Queen asked.

The dream spirit answered her, "Only those willing to relinquish the great beasts and the power of destruction may enter the domain of the divine and welcome the new age."

"Queen of the Star Luo Kingdom, descendant of Redlichia."

"Are you willing to relinquish the power of the great beasts?"

The Star Luo Queen opened her mouth, ready to say she was willing. Yet just as the words reached her lips, she faltered.

Before then, she might have agreed without a trace of doubt.

Now, however, she hesitated.

"Yinsai is about to return to the Xilong family. If I surrender the Ruhe Beasts... can I still restore the glory of days gone by?"

"Wait a little longer."

"At least until the crown of Yinsai appears once more."

The dream spirit saw the hesitation in the Star Luo Queen's eyes. Regret and disappointment crossed her face.

"It seems I have come at the wrong time!"

Without another word, the spirit turned and departed with the starlight.

The Star Luo Queen raced after her and cried out.

"Divine Messenger, I am not unwilling. It is only that..."

"I only... wish to wait a little longer..."

Desperate, she pursued the starlight, but the figure only receded farther into the distance.

The gates of the domain of the divine receded with it. The spirits' sweet, ethereal song faded until she could hear it no more.

She plunged away from the gates of the domain of the divine and tumbled through the clouds.

Then she jolted awake.

She sat upon her stone bed, stricken by a sense of loss.

She could not tell whether she had done something wrong or lost something.

The Star Luo Kingdom now possessed the great poet Tito's Final Chapter, completing the key said to open the gates of the domain of the divine.

Yet once again, the ritual to open those gates had been postponed.

Seated upon her throne, Her Majesty addressed her subjects.

"I wish to enter the domain of the divine as the King of Yinsai, and stand before the eternal Yinsai."

Such a reason seemed perfectly sufficient.

It was a pity. A person could deceive only others.

They could never deceive their own heart.

Still less could they deceive the divine.