Twenty years later!
Knock, knock, knock.
Lola knocked softly, but no one answered.
She shook her head, gently pushed the door open, and saw the little boy lying on the bed, crying and sulking. With a helpless sigh, she went over to him.
"Promise me you won't resent your father, okay?"
She stroked his hair and said gently, "Tianci, you're a big boy now. You can't slack off on your studies and sneak off to play. Your father only wants what's best for you."
"Waaah..."
The red-haired boy looked at Lola through his tears.
"No, I don't hate Father. I know he only wants what's best for me."
Hearing little Tianci say that, Lola smiled in relief.
She was about to offer him some words of comfort and encouragement, but little Tianci went on crying, "If someone hadn't shouted, 'Beat him up!' just now, Father wouldn't have treated me like that. He loves me the most, waaaah..."
Uh...
Lola opened her mouth, then looked at Tianci and said awkwardly, "Really? Did I say that? Hehe, Mommy doesn't remember!"
"Hmph!"
Tianci turned away again and lay there sulking.
A while later.
As the red-haired boy began to snore softly, Lola covered him with a thin blanket, then stood and gazed out the window.
The sky.
An energy vortex centered around the High Tower filled the air with an oppressive presence, radiating waves of unease.
More than ten kilometers away.
The dense Wind Barrier loomed like a wall. Beyond it, the terrifying Death Storm was faintly visible. That place was a forbidden zone for all life.
Twenty years earlier.
The invasion by ancient creatures from the Underground World had unleashed shadow demons that spread outward from the Grand Duchy, engulfing the lands of the duchies.
They were an extremely dangerous curse, an