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Vulcan Zebra.

He endured an extremely unfortunate childhood.

Vulcan was born as a descendant of the Zebra royal family.

However, he was the product of a tainted bloodline.

The king of Zebra was a notorious womanizer—

So much so that he even had servants dedicated to procuring women for his pleasure.

These servants did not discriminate, even searching the slums for women.

As long as the women weren’t terminally ill, the royal priests could simply treat them.

Once cleaned, fed, and dressed, they became presentable enough.

Thus, the only criterion the servants sought in women was their appearance.

Vulcan’s mother was from the slums.

One day, one of the king’s servants approached her directly with a proposition.

He offered her a large sum of money in exchange for her body.

Struggling to make ends meet, she could barely afford to survive each day.

When her mother heard of the offer, she accepted it without hesitation.

「Of course, we’ll sell her! Why wouldn’t we?!」

And so, she was offered to the king.

She became a plaything for his cruel sexual desires.

To the king’s surprise, he found her far more entertaining than he had expected.

「That was quite an enjoyable pastime. I liked it.」

As a result, she became one of the king’s regular concubines.

However, the king’s interest in her soon faded.

By the time he grew bored of her, she was already pregnant with his child.

For a woman from the slums to bear the king’s child was a grave scandal.

There was a high chance she would be executed without a trace.

Just as she was living in constant fear, struggling to hide her pregnancy—

「You’re with child, I see.」

She was discovered by none other than the servant who had brought her to the palace.

「Come with me.」

Ironically, it was this very servant who helped her escape the palace.

「Why did you help me?」

She asked him why he saved her, but he did not answer.

Perhaps he had grown attached to her, or maybe he was tormented by guilt for his role.

「Don’t let yourself be seen. Stay hidden and live quietly.」

Whatever the reason, it was thanks to his moment of mercy that she survived.

She fled and eventually gave birth to her child.

「Your name is ■■,」

She whispered to the infant.

Though the child was born of an unwanted pregnancy, she cherished him with all her heart.

But the boy’s misfortune had only just begun.

One day, their home caught fire.

The boy was only around three years old at the time—

Too young to walk properly, he was swallowed by the raging flames.

「■■! No! ■■!」

His mother desperately tried to rush into the burning house, but she could not save him.

The fire consumed their home entirely.

However, the boy did not die.

Though his entire body was covered in burns, someone had saved him.

Ironically, the very man who rescued him was also the one who set the fire.

He was a knight acting under the orders of Count Idras.

By the time Vulcan turned three, the king of Zebra died suddenly.

His body had been deteriorating from years of excessive drinking and womanizing.

Eventually, his heart gave out, and he met his end.

It was around this time that Count Idras learned of the boy’s existence.

He decided to use the child for his own gain.

With no legitimate heir to the throne, the kingdom was left vulnerable.

The king’s womanizing was, in fact, a coping mechanism for his infertility—

A way of compensating for his inability to father children.

Thus, his numerous affairs never resulted in a true successor.

The only remaining heir was a young princess—

And even she was the child of a concubine.

With no clear successor, the kingdom was ripe for manipulation.

「Remember this. From now on, your name is Vulcan Zebra. Forget your old name.

The boy was stripped of his original identity.

By the time Vulcan turned five,

Count Idras and the aristocratic faction declared him a new prince.

At the age of seven, however, the aristocratic faction failed in their bid for power.

Their rebellion ended in failure, and most of them were executed for treason.

Just before the execution, Count Idras fled the royal palace with Vulcan,

Seeking refuge in the slums—the lowest and most wretched corner of Zebra.

「It’s your fault. This is all your fault! The prince—if only you weren’t so useless, we would have succeeded!」

From that point on, Count Idras became obsessed with the throne,

His growing madness fueling his abuse of Vulcan.

「You wretched vermin. I saved you from that filthy bloodline and this is how you repay me?!」

But Vulcan was only a seven-year-old child.

Driven to paranoia, Count Idras constantly feared being discovered by the royal family.

To ensure his control, he subjected Vulcan to relentless physical abuse.

Claiming he needed a proper successor, he also subjected the boy to sexual violence.

This continued until Vulcan was ten years old.

By then, Count Idras had withered into an old man.

Consumed by stress and driven mad by cheap drugs,

He suffered from hallucinations and paranoia.

Eventually, he resolved to end it all.

He decided to commit suicide—and take Vulcan with him.

「We are no longer needed in this world.」

He attempted to hang Vulcan and himself.

Clutching the boy’s neck with the noose, he climbed onto a stool—

And kicked it away.

Idras, already at the brink of physical collapse, died instantly.

But Vulcan did not want to die.

Though still a child, he clung desperately to life.

Even with his swollen, battered eyes barely able to open,

He thrashed with all his remaining strength, fighting to live.

In that moment, black flames suddenly ignited around the frayed rope,

Snapping it in two and sending Vulcan crashing to the ground.

The fire quickly spread through the dilapidated house.

Vulcan was too weak to move.

As he lay helpless, watching the flames consume the house,

An old man appeared before him.

「Heh heh, what a rare find.」

The man was a dark mage who practiced forbidden magic.

While hiding in the slums of Zebra,

He sensed the presence of the black flames and hurried over—

Only to discover something far more valuable.

「Well, well. The reincarnation of the hero, Rosli.」

The man was a necromancer who had foretold the reincarnation of a legendary hero.

Now, he had finally found the reincarnated hero he had been searching for.

Without giving Vulcan a chance to resist,

The dark mage abducted him.

He subjected Vulcan to unspeakable horrors,

Attempting to extract his soul and steal his latent power.

He gouged into Vulcan’s forehead and probed into his brain.

The boy screamed in agony.

Having barely escaped death once,

Vulcan was now on the verge of being slain by the dark mage.

And in that moment—

All the despair, hatred, and fury he had carried toward the world

Erupted from deep within him.

The dark mage attempted to forcibly extract the soul of the hero Rosli, which resided within Vulcan.

And that act led to an irreversible consequence.

「W-what is this?!」

Hero Rosli.

Though he had saved the world, he was a tragic figure who failed to protect his own family.

Thus, he came to loathe the world and eventually carved corruption into his very soul.

The Corrupted Flame.

A flame born from the depths of hatred toward the world.

The heroes, realizing his corruption, eventually sealed Rosli’s soul.

But he deceived even the goddess’s eyes and managed to reincarnate.

And now, his reincarnation, Vulcan, was rekindled by his own hatred and the dark mage's greed.

The Corrupted Flame engulfed the dark mage.

Screaming in agony, the dark mage was reduced to ashes by the unquenchable fire.

Soon, a third eye appeared on Vulcan’s torn forehead.

He stepped over the charred remains of the dark mage and walked out.

Black tears streamed down from his eyes.

Vulcan wandered aimlessly.

As Rosli’s memories resurfaced, Vulcan regained every fragment of his past life.

The painful memories relentlessly tormented him.

But his feet carried him toward one place.

The only woman who had ever shown him affection.

His mother.

Barefoot, Vulcan walked through the slums, eventually arriving at a sight.

A woman was strolling with a man and a child.

Though older, she was unmistakably the woman from his childhood memories.

She walked with a radiant smile, having seemingly forgotten all about the past.

Vulcan stood there, staring blankly at the scene.

「■■.」

The name she once tenderly called him by was no longer his.

For some reason, although he remembered everything else, he could no longer recall his original name.

Silently, Vulcan turned away.

There was nothing left in this world to hold on to.

He sacrificed his own life force to fuel the Corrupted Flame.

Through it, he drew forth the power of the past hero, Rosli.

Now, only hatred for the world remained in Vulcan’s eyes.

Born nameless, rejected by the world, and nearly sacrificed as a mere pawn.

He no longer wished for this wretched world to remain intact.

「I will burn it. I will burn it all to ashes.」

He would burn this world entirely—and in the end, he would even incinerate the goddess herself.

At that moment, Vulcan was utterly consumed by madness.

This was the leader of the Mystic Order.

The cursed bloodline, Vulcan Zebra.

Vulcan had a single purpose.

To burn the world.

To achieve this, he resolved to devour the souls of the heroes blessed by the goddess.

His eyes could distinguish souls.

Thus, he could identify the heroes.

At first, absorbing the soul of the first hero, Ordo, was a simple task.

But afterward, things became increasingly difficult.

He failed to abduct the saintess and only obtained half of her soul.

Duke of Whitewood began hunting the Mystic Order, making the situation even more dire.

Aquiline’s reincarnation, Musika, returned alive from her battle against Abomination.

And then he failed once again in his attempt to kidnap Zerion’s reincarnation.

Through Musika and the saintess, they eventually reached the Mystic Order’s stronghold.

And all of this was linked to one boy.

Hannon Irey.

A boy with no discernible background other than being a descendant of the Duke of Robliage.

Yet he was connected to every incident.

And now.

Vulcan found himself in an utterly confounding situation.

Standing before him was the boy in question.

A peculiar youth wielding the ancient magic of dragons.

The boy stood with two girls at his side, facing Vulcan.

At first, Vulcan scoffed at them.

No matter if they were the saintess with the goddess's blessing or Zerion’s reincarnation—mere children.

They could not possibly reach him, the one who had devoured both Rosli and Ordo.

He intended to quickly dispose of the three, absorb their souls, and then finish off Duke of Whitewood, who would be exhausted from battling the Earth Dragon.

However, under Hannon’s direction, the trio displayed an extraordinary level of coordination.

As if they had overcome countless trials and tribulations together,

the two moved in perfect sync, understanding each other’s intentions with nothing more than a glance.

It was as though they were a single being.

On top of that, Xenia, who had completed a celestial magic spell to block teleportation, joined the fray.

True to her nature as Zerion’s reincarnation, Xenia demonstrated exceptional magical prowess.

Moreover, she fought in flawless harmony with Hannon.

As a result, Vulcan was forced into a situation he had never imagined.

「What… is this…」

All of his attacks were nullified by the trio.

Meanwhile, their relentless assault continued to land on him without fail.

Despite his overwhelming power,

Vulcan found that no matter how fiercely he attacked, they anticipated and countered his every move.

It was as though they could predict his actions before he made them.

Though he clearly possessed far superior strength,

it was Vulcan who was being pushed back.

「What the…」

Unable to comprehend the situation, Vulcan cried out.

His two eyes, capable of perceiving souls, saw that Hannon’s soul was far smaller than the others.

And yet, it burned with the fiercest brilliance among them all.

「What… are you?」

Bewildered by the impossible sight, Vulcan watched as Hannon emerged from the smoke, slicing through it with a swift hand strike.

「Hannon Irey.」

Speaking the name he already knew, Hannon smirked through the sweat beading down his face.

「If you want to dress it up nicely, you can call me an agent of fate.」

To Vulcan, this was an unforeseen and catastrophic threat.