The Eve of the Storm.
The times of three warlords, harboring different desires in different places, overlapped for a brief moment.
The golden terrace of Ye Castle.
Yuan Shao raised a glass of red wine to his lips with elegant movements.
His languid gaze was staring into the void, yet he seemed to be longing for something beyond it.
The frozen parade ground of the frozen land.
Gongsun Zan held up a silver spear blade, polished without a speck of dust, toward the chilly sky.
His face reflected on the blade was as cold as ice.
The mud pit of the frontier.
Cao Cao ground a chipped, old sword against a rough whetstone. Scrape- scrape-
The sound of grinding iron rang out desperately, like the cry of a starving beast.
It was then.
Rumble-! Kwa-aaaaang!
The atmosphere of the Demon Realm screamed as if tearing apart.
It was not simple thunder.
It was the rupture sound of the world's ceiling collapsing.
The hand tilting the wine glass, the arm aiming the spear, and the force pushing the whetstone all stopped simultaneously.
As if promised, the gazes of the three warlords fixed on the void at the same time.
Rip-!
The thick dark clouds covering the northern sky of the Demon Realm were forcibly torn apart to the left and right, as if by the hands of an invisible giant.
What was revealed between the dark crimson clouds was not a starry night sky.
What poured down through that gap was not rainwater.
"...Is it light?"
Someone muttered blankly, and someone shuddered with instinctive terror.
Hundreds, thousands of golden meteor showers.
Fragments of the
The dull sky of the Demon Realm was covered in a bizarre and holy golden color.
It was not a simple crystal of power.
It was a catalyst that detonated the 'thirst' dormant at the very bottom of those standing on the earth.
Suppressed ambition, hidden inferiority, and the survival instinct to live even if it meant trampling on others.
All of it began to boil over in reaction to that light.
The balance was broken.
The arrogant coveted higher places, the fastidious desired faster things, and the starving dared to face death.
The map of the north screamed.
The thin ink lines drawn on the map, the boundaries named 'borders,' became meaningless.
Borders spread and mashed together like red blood and blue bruises.
New lines named 'Desire' began to be drawn over them.
The era dominated by human intellect and tactics announced its end with that golden rain.
Order collapsed, and desire materialized.
What would rule this land from now on was not politics.
Exploding 'Flesh' and scattering 'Ghosts'.
A war of true monsters was beginning.
*
The first to scream was the heart of the Demon Realm, Ye Castle.
A golden meteor pierced the highest spire of Ye Castle and fell deep underground, into the secret altar of the Yuan clan.
It was not destruction.
It was the beginning of a terrible conception.
Thump, thump.
The entire Ye Castle began to vibrate rhythmically as if an earthquake had occurred.
Paintings on the walls fell, and cracks appeared on the marble floor.
But it was not the shaking of the ground; it was the heartbeat of a massive creature.
The underground altar.
On the walls once finished with holy white marble, red and thick veins were now sprouting and pulsating like ivy.
Sticky mucus flowed between the gold leaf decorations on the ceiling, and a liquid mixing unidentified culture fluid and blood rose to the ankles on the floor.
Yuan Shao stood at the center of that dreamlike and disgusting landscape.
In his hand was the 'Life Mutation' fragment that had just fallen.
It was closer to a lump of flesh wriggling hot like a freshly excised heart rather than a cold gem.
The fragment vibrated minutely on Yuan Shao's palm, trying to burrow into his skin.
"Ah... Do you feel it? This primordial vitality."
Yuan Shao's eyes were unfocused like a fanatic in ecstasy.
He took pride in his lineage, but at the same time, he felt its limits.
A prestigious family? Noble blood?
Such things were no shield against the swords of that ignorant Cao Cao or Gongsun Zan.
Perfection required physical strength to accompany it.
An absolute body that no one could dare approach.
"Protecting noble blood is not enough. The blood itself must evolve. Bigger... stronger... and more beautiful."
Yuan Shao tossed the wriggling fragment into his mouth without hesitation.
Crunch, crack.
There was a sound of chewing hard minerals, but Yuan Shao felt euphoria instead of pain.
Opening his mouth wide enough to dislocate his jaw to swallow, he looked more like a starving beast than a nobleman.
A bizarre taste, a mix of fishy metallic blood and the scent of rotten fruit, filled his mouth.
The fragment that passed his throat triggered an explosive reaction from his esophagus.
"Grrr... Ugh...!"
The sound of bones shifting came from behind Yuan Shao's back.
His spinal bones protruded roughly, pushing out his armor.
Muscles under his smooth skin swelled abnormally, then compressed tightly as if wearing armor.
The golden armor he was wearing melted and burrowed into his flesh.
The horrific sound of metal and flesh fusing as one echoed through the altar.
[...Master.]
Tens of thousands of eyes opened simultaneously on the castle walls, floor, and ceiling.
Ye Castle itself awakened as a massive lifeform and called its master.
The veins on the walls repeated contraction and relaxation in sync with Yuan Shao's heartbeat.
Yuan Shao smiled madly, shuddering at the infinite life force wrapping around his body.
"With my blood, I will conceive this castle anew."
*
Ye Castle, Bio-Lab.
The banquet hall, where nobles were drinking wine and laughing just a few hours ago, had now become a slaughterhouse one could not bear to watch with open eyes.
Instead of elegant classical music, only the sounds of saws cutting bone, screams of flesh tearing, and the hissing mechanical sounds of steam engines filled the air.
On the ceiling, hooks carrying lumps of flesh circulated with clattering noises.
"Aaaaaack! Please, kill me! Just kill me!"
Soldiers tied to operating tables screamed.
But there was no mercy.
Yuan Shao's alchemists, intoxicated by the power of the fragment, were possessed by madness.
They cut off the healthy limbs of soldiers and sutured the arms of beasts like bears or tigers in their place.
The horrific 'Chimera' manufacturing process—forcibly fusing two soldiers to create a two-headed monster or pushing armor under the skin to fuse it with bones—ran ceaselessly.
The white marble floor had already turned dark red with blood and filth.
And in the center, in front of the largest operating table, stood Yuan Shao, holding a scalpel himself.
On the operating table, his most loyal generals, Yan Liang and Wen Chou, were tied up without anesthesia.
They were terrified, but crushed by Yuan Shao's overwhelming aura, they couldn't even resist.
"Do not fear. You are not mere generals. You will become the pinnacle of my art."
Yuan Shao's hand movements were delicate and cruel.
He caressed Yan Liang's arm as if sculpting.
"Yan Liang, I will give you the sharpest beauty."
Screeeech-!
Yuan Shao shaved down Yan Liang's arm bones with a saw rotating by magic power.
Flesh splattered, and the disgusting smell of grinding bone pervaded the air.
Blood sprayed like a fountain, soaking Yuan Shao's face, but he didn't blink an eye.
Rather, he seemed to enjoy the smell of blood like perfume.
He grafted huge 'Bone Blades' obtained from the beasts of the Demon Realm onto the cut sections of the bone and connected the nerves one by one.
Zzzzt, zzzzt.
As the nerves were forcibly connected, Yan Liang's body flopped like a fresh fish.
"K, Kuaaa...!"
Yan Liang's pupils rolled back, having crossed the threshold of pain.
His reason as a demon snapped, leaving only the murderous intent to cut down the enemy in front of him.
His arms were now no longer hands, but massive scythes mixing bone and steel.
He was no longer a sentient being.
He was a living 'Blade Beast'.
"And Wen Chou. You shall become a wall that no one can overcome."
Yuan Shao stuck a massive syringe into the heart of Wen Chou, who was lying on the next operating table.
There was a dull sound of the needle piercing the sternum and embedding into the heart.
As the green culture fluid inside the syringe spread through his veins, Wen Chou's body began to swell like a balloon.
Pop, rip.
The skin couldn't withstand the rapid expansion and burst open.
Through the gaps, red muscles, forcibly injected with elephant and gorilla muscle cells, protruded.
The body expanded to the brink of bursting, forming muscular armor harder than steel.
Behind his back, bones rose to create a massive hump with spikes.
Tubes spewing acidic solution wriggled from the hump rising from his back.
He became a walking 'Siege Beast'.
"Success... Perfect!"
Yuan Shao, covered in blood, laughed ecstatically looking at his newborn creations.
It was not the laugh of a monarch, but of a mad creator.
Hiss-!
Red steam spewed from the sewers and vents of Ye Castle.
It was not simple steam.
It was breath mixed with the disgusting smell of blood, exhaled as the biological factory operated.
In that red fog, Yuan Shao's new legion opened its eyes.
Thousands of bizarre eyes glared at the world outside the castle simultaneously.
Tactics nor politics were needed.
Now, the land of the north would be thoroughly ravaged by these bizarre and greedy lumps of flesh.