Five years slipped past like water flowing down the celestial waterfalls of the Bharatha royal gardens.
To the royal court and the citizens of the capital, Princess Allia was a treasured jewel—a quiet, unnervingly polite six-year-old whose round cheeks and large, lucid eyes could disarm even the sternest royal ministers. Her eldest brother, Bheem, had personally carved her an ornate rocking horse from ironwood; Arjun regularly brought her rare songbirds from his border patrols; and Princess Anjali flooded her chambers with scented parchment scrolls of celestial verse whenever she visited on break from the Dev Gurukul.
To her family, she was fragile perfection.
To Allia, surviving six straight years of ceaseless coddling, cheeks being pinched, and having to act like an innocent mortal child was ten times more exhausting than butchering twenty divine beasts back in the Rakshaa World.
If Bheem tries to tuck me into bed with a stuffed cloth tiger one more time, I'm going to accidentally snap his collarbone, Allia grumbled under her breath, seated cross-legged on the silk cushions of her balcony.
Midnight had enveloped the palace. High above, the four radiant moons of Aryavrath hung in the velvet sky, their pale blue, silver, jade, and amber lights bathing the grand courtyards in an ethereal shimmer.
The palace guards were stationed across the outer perimeter, and her parents were deep in cultivation inside the Surya pavilion. The time had come.
Taking a measured, rhythmic breath, Allia triggered the internal circulation of the Annanth Atmaha Mantra.
Over the past five years, every drop of spiritual elixir Queen Anita had lovingly brewed—thousand-year ginseng, melted solar dew, molten marrow lotus—had not merely been digested; it had been forcibly condensed by Allia's supreme body control technique into pure, pristine cellular jade. Where an ordinary child's spirit veins would be narrow rivulets, Allia's internal channels were roaring rivers of concentrated spiritual force.
Crack.
A tiny, crisp sound echoed inside her solar plexus. The invisible spiritual barrier that separated the Surveer stage from the higher echelons shattered into dust. A surge of warm, golden solar light swirled with an undercurrent of abyssal scarlet fire, consolidating deep within her lower dantian.
A luminous system window flickered before her eyes, displaying runes only she could perceive:
Plaintext
[BREAKTHROUGH DETECTED] Host: Allia Singh (Former Berserk Queen)[cite: 10, 15] Age: 6 Years Cultivation Realm: Mahaveer - 1st Step (Level 16 -> Level 20 Mastered)[cite: 10] Physical Control: 48% (Tendon & Bone Forged)[cite: 18] Annanth Atmaha Mantra: Step 4 Harmonized[cite: 10, 17] [SYSTEM VAULT NOTIFICATION] Condition Met: Host reached Mahaveer Stage[cite: 10, 15]. Unlocking: Space Storage Tier 1... SUCCESS[cite: 15]. Unlocking: Primordial Companion Seal... SUCCESS[cite: 15].
Allia's breath hitched. She ignored the unlocked spatial rings and the shelves of sealed divine weapons waiting in her soul's inventory[cite: 15]. Her gaze locked squarely onto the pulsing, soot-black token humming at the very center of her spiritual sea.
He's really here.
Without making a sound, she slipped off her balcony. Her small silhouette blurred, stepping from shadow to shadow with the ghost-like stealth of a veteran master assassin. Even the sensory arrays installed by Level 60 court elders failed to register a single ripple as she bypassed the palace wards and vanished into the dense, primal mountain forest bordering the northern edge of Bharatha.
Three miles into the misty canopy, deep inside a secluded clearing surrounded by towering ironwood barks and ancient roots, Allia came to a halt.
The forest was completely still, save for the nocturnal chirping of spirit crickets.
"Time to wake up, you old mutt," she muttered, a feral, nostalgic grin splitting her youthful face.
She bit the tip of her right index finger, drawing a bright drop of scarlet blood. Crouching down, she dragged her finger across the mossy earth, etching a jagged, ancient runic circle in the language of the lost Rakshaa realm.
"By the edict of slaughter and the bond of the void—Awaken!"
The blood runes ignited into deep black-purple flame.
The earth violently shuddered. A hairline spatial fracture tore open directly above the circle, expanding into a ragged void rift. A wave of suffocating, primordial savagery poured out, instantly freezing the moisture in the air and silencing every creature within ten square miles.
A massive, shadowy paw clad in jagged obsidian claws stepped through the tear, followed by another.
Emerging from the rift was a beast whose midnight fur seemed to swallow the moonlight. Resembling a terrifying fusion between an armored leopard and a multi-tailed spectral fox, it had four burning crimson eyes arrayed across its brow and three sweeping tails tipped in dark fire.
Though its body was currently compressed to roughly the size of a large imperial warhound, the tyrannical aura radiating from its core carried the weight of a beast sovereign that had once crushed armies of trillions underfoot.
The Chaos Beast shook its coat, sending dark sparks showering over the damp leaves. Its four glowing eyes slowly rolled down, locking onto the diminutive, silk-clad girl standing in front of it.
A low, rumbling vibration echoed directly into Allia's mind, layered with dry, gravelly sarcasm:
...Is that really you, Berserk Queen? What in the name of the nine hells are you wearing? Pink embroidered butterflies?
Allia's face twitched. "Shut your snout before I pluck your tails and use them as feather dusters."
The Chaos Beast lowered its massive muzzle until it was level with her chest, sniffing her suspiciously with a snort that kicked up a whirlwind of fallen leaves.
You're barely three feet tall, the beast scoffed, though the terrifying glow in its eyes softened with unmistakable warmth. Your hands can't even wrap around the hilt of your broadsword. Did that cosmic old bastard actually make us start over from scratch?
"Not quite from scratch," Allia answered, stepping forward and sinking her small fingers deep into the beast's scruff. The familiar, crackling electric hum of its chaos aura sent a jolt of pure exhilaration through her veins. "My soul foundation is fully intact. I've hit the Mahaveer realm, and my body control is already at forty percent. More importantly... we aren't alone this time."
The Chaos Beast tilted its horned head, its four eyes narrowing as it tasted the spiritual currents of Aryavrath.
This world... its energy is clean. Divine order, sun laws, prosperous rivers. It's sickeningly peaceful compared to Rakshaa's crimson mud. Its gaze shifted toward the distant, glowing silhouette of the Bharatha royal palace. You have a clan here?
"A father who laughs too loud, a mother who stuffs me with sacred medicine, two brothers who treat me like a porcelain doll, and a sister who sings divine scripture at dawn," Allia said, her tone offhand, though a razor-sharp edge entered her voice. "And they're not dying. Not this time."
The beast let out a low, predatory growl that vibrated through the earth.
Good. Slaughtering for survival was getting repetitive anyway. Hunting to defend something might actually keep me entertained. The beast's ears suddenly twitched, turning sharp toward the west. Its nostrils flared. Speaking of hunting... what is that foul stench on the western wind?
Allia turned her gaze in the same direction, looking out past the rolling canopy toward the distant, unseen waters of the Western Sea.
"The island of Lankexd," Allia said coldly, her eyes flashing the unmistakable, terrifying crimson of the destroyer who had ended an entire universe. "An Asura pest born from mortal filth is building an army in the dark. It thinks this continent is prey."
The Chaos Beast bared a mouthful of dagger-sharp obsidian fangs, its three tails lashing violently in amusement.
Then let it come, the beast sneered into her mind. It has no idea who's waiting on this side of the water.