The guard felt his blood freeze, his body trembling as his temperature began to drop. His voice faltered.
"T-They didn't offer any response, Eternal Blood Que—"
Jezeneth's aura exploded.
A shockwave of such intensity hurled the guard backward at supersonic speed, sending him crashing through the massive doors.
The force of the blast pushed back the elders, their gazes trembling as they fixed their eyes on the oppressive red energy radiating from their queen.
Jezeneth was angry.
She was seething.
"They fucking dared!"
Her aura erupted once more, forcing the elders even farther away, making cracks appear all over the hall's walls.
She had been restricted from directly attacking the human domain. However, the Eternal Sovereignty of the Vampyros had sent demands to the humans, and they hadn't even attempted to offer a response!?
A lower fucking race!
The humiliation.
"Malrikh!"
"My queen."
One of the grand elders, a slender man whose youthful appearance betrayed his ancient age, bowed toward Jezeneth.
"Do it."
"As you wish."
His figure blurred, disappearing from the hall.
…
Time passed in a blur.
Exactly a day after the Vampyros had sent their demands, the humans had refused to offer any response.
As the smartest mind in the human domain, Oberon had naturally been entrusted with handling the entire situation. However, the other paragons had been on standby, prepared for whatever might arise.
Regardless, the choice of accepting or rejecting the Vampyros' demands had been entirely up to Atticus.
It was obvious that the Vampyros were after him.
And after receiving the expected response from Atticus, Oberon had chosen not to offer any response instead of outright refusing.
He had done this for two reasons.
First, it would buy them more time to prepare for the Vampyros rather than shorten it by provoking them with a direct response.
Second, the demands the Vampyros had made had pissed even him off. However, he was too logical to be controlled by feelings.
He too had already reached the conclusion that the Vampyros couldn't attack the human domain directly, and so he had chosen to kill two birds with one stone, pissing them off while making humanity's stance clear.
Although Vexarius had been angry about their situation, he had still followed orders and joined Luminous in guarding the border.
They were two hot-blooded individuals. However, even they weren't stupid enough to butt heads in the middle of a crisis.
At least, Oberon hoped.
Vexarius and Luminous guarded the border.
The rest of the human paragons prepared and waited in their respective territories.
The Apex of Humanity trained like never before in his new advanced training room.
They all waited.
Waited to see how the Vampyros would respond.
And then—
The Vampyros acted.
It wasn't just one move.
They made multiple moves.
Atticus, Lyanna, and Oberon had been right in their assumptions. The Vampyros couldn't attack the human domain directly, so they took an indirect route.
It all happened within a single day, and Lyanna informed Atticus as it unfolded.
The Vampyros spread the news of Atticus' strength to the other races.
The Vampyros openly declared the human race as their enemy, making public the demands they had sent, and humanity's refusal.
The Vampyros pressured the lower and mid-tier races with threats of war to sever all dealings with the humans.
And lastly—
They played their hidden hand well.
They activated their spies buried deep within the human domain, sabotaging key locations.
Explosions were set off in critical areas, collapsing vital roads, bridges, and teleportation gates.
Fires broke out in major trading hubs, destroying warehouses and crippling economies.
Key political figures in the tiered families were blackmailed or assassinated, creating instability.
Rumors and false information were spread to turn factions against each other.
They fanned the flames of internal conflicts, causing civil unrest.
They targeted young heirs of tiered families, kidnapping or outright killing them…
'Damn.'
Atticus processed all of this instantly.
Lyanna had sent word only a day after he had visited her.
'They can't attack us, yet they're causing so much damage.'
He had known the Vampyros couldn't directly attack them, but they were still causing this much devastation.
It was sickening to see that humans were being taken for a ride.
'It's as if they've been preparing for decades.'
It was no secret that the Aegis Shield could prevent even paragons from infiltrating.
However, maintaining one that encompassed the entire human domain indefinitely was monumentally expensive, impossible, and would only ruin the human domain.
Regardless, the Vampyros had still planned ahead in case they ever needed to cripple humanity.
Destroying the nodes was the easiest option.
'And many of their spies are probably still hiding.'
From everything he had seen, Atticus knew the Vampyros' true goal—
To incite unrest.
They had made their demands public, ensuring that the citizens saw the high ups as the cause of all the destruction.
Humans and lower races had long since lived in the shadows of the superior races.
It had already been ingrained into their minds—
The Vampyros were superior.
Because of this, the fear that surged through the citizens of the human domain when the Vampyros declared them enemies was beyond staggering.
Many felt their lives flash before their eyes.
A superior race had branded them enemies.
Their lives were forfeit.
Markets were abandoned as merchants fled, hoarding their goods or selling them at impossible prices.
Citizens rushed to stockpile food and resources, leading to looting and fights breaking out in broad daylight.
Those who could afford it paid absurd amounts for passage to hidden or fortified cities, hoping to escape before the Vampyros descended.
Some humans, desperate to survive, sought to appease the Vampyros by offering information on military movements, secret passages, and high-ranking officials.
The lower races, fearing for their lives, abandoned their alliances with the humans, cut trade, withdrew troops, and swore neutrality.
Some soldiers abandoned their posts, unwilling to fight a war they believed was already lost.
The human domain was thrown into chaos.
And it all happened within a single day.