Yeri stumbled backward and struck her head against the edge of a nearby table before collapsing to the floor.
Blood immediately trickled down her forehead.
It happened too quickly for anyone to react. Shin was standing a bit further to catch her.
"Empress Mother!"
Xati's piercing shriek tore through the hall.
Chaos erupted once again.
Master Zhi rushed toward his daughter, his face stricken with horror. Others screamed for a doctor as guests scrambled away, chairs scraping against the floor in the ensuing commotion.
Shin frantically shoved aside anyone blocking his way before dropping to his knees and pulling the unconscious Yeri into his arms. Without hesitation, he channelled his ability to heal her wound.
Meanwhile, Hiro stood frozen in shock, unable to comprehend what had just happened.
He had only pushed her a little. Was she really that fragile?
Before he could come up with an excuse, his head snapped to the side as a fist struck his cheek, sending a sharp wave of pain through his face.
Xian had been just about to leave, but seeing Yeri hurt, his anger had finally reached its limit. Without a second thought, he had punched Hiro.
"Ahh! I'm going to kill this human right now!" Xati screamed, kicking and punching Hiro in a furious frenzy.
With the entire hall in chaos, no one paid much attention to the child's outburst. Even when Xati shouted 'Empress Mother,' everyone was too preoccupied with the commotion to stop and question what he meant.
"Klaus, we're not marrying our daughter into this family!" Madam Zhi cried, standing to the side with tears streaming down her face. "Look at how they're treating her now! Who knows how much worse it will get once she actually enters their household?"
Master Zhi, who had been shoved aside by Shin earlier, stood with reddened eyes and bulging veins on his forehead.
He could tell that Shin's feelings for his daughter were sincere, but sincerity alone was no guarantee that Yeri would be happy or safe in the Keir family.
"Is she all right? I've already called an ambulance," Jj said from nearby.
Just then, someone tugged at his sleeve. When he turned around, he found Anri standing behind him.
"Brother Jj, I'm scared," she said, biting her lip.
Jj "..."
Considering that this was a wedding attended by most of the city's elite, he wasn't surprised to see her there. Even so, this was hardly the time for him to entertain her nonsense and decided to ignore her.
"You little bastard from the Song family! How dare you cause trouble here?" Ellis shouted at Xian. "Mind your own business! Why are you getting so worked up over a woman who's marrying someone else? Have some self-respect!"
Xian might have looked slender, but he was stronger than he appeared. Without hesitation, he delivered another punch to Hiro.
Seeing the fight spiralling out of control, Saeki and several others rushed forward to separate the two men.
Amid the chaos, however, something unexpected happened.
The grand chandelier overhead suddenly began to shake.
Lianna was the first to notice. She immediately rushed to scoop Sean into her arms and shouted, "Watch out!"
Others followed her gaze upward, their eyes widening in horror as the massive chandelier began to give way.
Everyone scrambled to escape its path.
Screams ripped through the hall as the commotion erupted into an even greater frenzy. Tables and chairs toppled over, guests cried out in terror, and people stumbled over one another in their desperate attempts to flee, threatening to turn the hall into a stampede.
Fortunately, no one was buried beneath the chandelier itself. However, several people nearby were struck by flying shards, while others sustained injuries as they desperately tried to escape.
"What is going on? How could a newly installed chandelier just fall apart like that?"
"Kyaaah! My ankle! Someone, please help me!"
"I'm bleeding! Oh, God, I'm bleeding! Where are the police? Where's the ambulance?"
"Security! Where is the security team?!"
Amid the uproar, Master Zhi turned anxiously toward his wife.
"Are you all right?" He checked her from head to toe, making sure she hadn't been injured.
Madam Zhi trembled, about to nod, when something behind her husband caught her eye. Her eyes widened as she stared in disbelief.
Seeing her expression, Master Zhi assumed she was worried about their daughter.
"Shin, is Yeri- " His words caught in his throat as he turned around.
Something strange was emanating from Shin's body, resembling wisps of black smoke that curled and twisted around him.
Was it merely dust from the fallen chandelier? Perhaps particles carried by the wind?
Before Master Zhi could make sense of what he was seeing, Shin's appearance began to change.
His eyes turned bloodred, while dark veins spread across his face like creeping vines.
Shin slowly rose to his feet, still holding Yeri tightly in his arms.
His gaze swept across the chaotic hall, filled with an overwhelming rage and malice that seemed to make the very air grow heavier.
Deep within him, something stirred.
The sound of shackles breaking echoed through the depths of his consciousness, followed by the hollow, haunting call of the void.
A deep, anguished, and vengeful voice rose from within him, issuing a relentless command.
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Shin gritted his teeth and tightened his embrace around Yeri, as though he could shield her from the entire world simply by holding her closer.
"I'm not going to lose her again..."
The voice from the void surged within him, drowning out reason.
"Whoever dares to wrest her from me, whoever dares to sever our bond once more... let them be annihilated! Summon the demon legions! Unbar the Gates of the Damned! Let this wretched realm be torn asunder for daring to take my Empress from me!"
The command reverberated through his consciousness again and again, crashing like enormous waves against the shore. The voice whispered its desires, growing louder and more insistent with every passing moment.
"M-Monster!"
That single shout drew everyone's attention toward Shin.
Gradually, the chaotic noise died down as the guests turned to stare at him in terror.
"Big Bro?" Saeki muttered, his expression frozen in disbelief.
Everyone else remained rooted to the spot, too horrified to move.
Only Zahn managed to maintain his composure. His eyes narrowed as he studied Shin's alarming transformation, trying to make sense of it from a medical perspective.
"Shin?" he called cautiously. "Is it possible that you've been poisoned?"
Shin stood motionless, but the madness growing within him was becoming increasingly difficult to suppress.
The voice from the void resonated with his own thoughts, feeding the rage he had struggled to contain.
"No one can take her from me again! She's mine! What punishment do those who raise their hands against my Empress deserve?"
His grip tightened around Yeri as he looked upon the chaos surrounding them.
The question echoed through his mind, and slowly, he found himself agreeing with the voice.
For a long time, he had never cared what these humans said about him or how they treated him. Their contempt, their challenges, their endless attempts to undermine him had never truly mattered.
But they had dared to target Yeri.
They had hurt the one person he could never afford to lose.
And now, as he held her unconscious body in his arms, the last fragile restraints holding back the darkness within him began to crumble.
"Poisoned?! My God! What kind of poison could transform someone like that?!" One of the guests covered her mouth in terror.
"Is Shin dying? Could that be why he disappeared for days?"
The elders were equally horrified, yet none dared approach Shin in his terrifying state. Besides, what if whatever had afflicted him was contagious?
Amid the chaos, no one realised that all communication lines had been severed.
Outside, the sky darkened ominously as deafening thunderclaps reverberated overhead, one after another, like war drums heralding the end of the world.
"Eh? Why is there no signal?" someone finally exclaimed, checking his phone.
The person beside him reached for his own device, only to stumble as the ground beneath their feet began to tremble.
"Hahahaha! I'm free!" Xati burst into menacing laughter. "The seal is broken!"
"Earthquake! What the hell is going on?! It's an earthquake!"
The guests no longer cared about what was happening around them. Panic seized the entire hall as everyone scrambled toward the exits, fleeing like headless chickens.
Ellis was among those attempting to escape, but before he could get far, something suddenly coiled around his body as his feet lifted off the ground.
"AHHHHH! MONSTER!"
"Where did that thing come from?! It's moving!"
Ellis heard the terrified cries of those nearby, but he was too paralysed with fear to move.
A gigantic golden serpent had wrapped itself around him.
Whether from the violent tremors or the horrifying spectacle unfolding before their eyes, the guests trembled in terror. Hiro was even more frightened, so much so that he failed to realise he had wet himself.
Meanwhile, Xati had already returned to his original demonic form.
Unlike Shin, whose soul occupied a human vessel, Xati himself had merely been sealed. Now that the seal had broken, his true appearance was finally revealed.
"Ah! My husband! Someone, please save my husband!" Elli's wife screamed upon seeing Ellis trapped by the enormous serpent.
"If you're jealous, just say so!" Xati sneered.
With a flick of his hand, another floating orb transformed into a massive serpent before lunging toward Ellis's wife.
Ignoring the chaos, Master Zhi hurried toward Shin and Yeri.
"Shin, hurry outside! I'll carry my daughter!"
Before he could reach them, an invisible force struck him, hurling him against the wall. Madam Zhi, who had been standing behind him, was caught in the impact as well.
Jj could hardly believe his eyes.
Looking around, he saw that everyone who had attempted to approach Shin had been violently repelled. Even Zahn and the others were no exception.
"Zahn!" Lianna cried as she struggled to move while carrying Sean.
Zoren and Daniel spat out a mouthful of blood upon hitting the wall before losing consciousness.
Saeki's vision blurred, but he couldn't move his body.
"Are you all right?" Lianna asked, crouching beside Zahn while Sean cried in terror. "We need to get out of here! The earthquake isn't stopping!"
Zahn felt as though he had broken a bone. Nevertheless, his gaze remained fixed on Shin in the distance, his expression turning increasingly grave.
"It's not poison..." he muttered. "Something else is wrong."
Shin's gaze drifted toward the towering ceiling as cracks gradually spread across it. Pieces of debris began falling around them, threatening to bury the entire hall.