Darian and his group returned to the capital, settling down in Tetoya's mansion. By now, even Zelkov's soldiers had permanently moved in. The princess didn't have many soldiers left — Darian had scared most of them off when he first arrived — so there was plenty of room.

Strangely enough, Tetoya and Zelkov silently accepted this new union, as if they now formed a single faction. And their leader wasn't either of them, but rather a newly appointed Instructor.

The next day, all the Celestial Foxes, along with Lihan and Tizol, were officially registered under the royal family. The prince and princess had the authority to choose commoners and put them through the test to become soldiers.

But, as if the emperor had already expected this, he ordered all of them to head straight to the arena that very same day.

Inside the arena, in a hidden chamber, the main Elders and key figures of the royal family gathered to watch. None of them had witnessed the battle at Purple Tribulation City, and they found it hard to believe just the reports about what had happened.

It's worth noting that none of those Celestial Foxes had any draconic bloodline — unlike 90% of the beasts on the planet. That race was considered inferior, seen as native animals that just roamed around; they'd never even had a single Spiritual Guardian among them.

Could they really fight? And be terrifying on top of that? None of those people believed it. That's why the emperor arranged the test right away, so everyone could see it with their own eyes.

Before entering the arena, Darian and Tetoya shared part of their ring power with each of the little foxes. Then, one by one, they were called to fight against ordinary commoners.

Their opponents were beasts with up to four rings. But the results were brutal, one-sided victories.

As soon as the judge gave the signal to start, overwhelming elemental power burst out, leaving the opposing beasts with no chance to react. The control and sheer strength they showed were so intense that even a seven-ring Spiritual Guardian would've struggled against them.

The matches went on without pause, each Celestial Fox winning in under a minute.

The most powerful beings on the planet watched closely — and soon realized how foolish it had been to underestimate that race. Even though they weren't Spiritual Guardians, they had an incredibly valuable ability for the planet.

Tizol and Lihan also fought — their matches were extremely bloody. Darian had forbidden them from using their true bodies, forcing them to fight only in metamorph form. In that state, they had less than a third of their real strength.

Tetoya was stunned and tried to convince Darian to change his mind. It was utter madness to make them fight like that, especially against someone with one more ring than they had.

But according to Darian, their opponents were, at best, average in power, with limited intelligence and relying only on their draconic bloodline to fight.

If the two of them couldn't beat enemies like that with just a third of their power — even while using the technique he'd given them — then they might as well lose and go back to their families.

So they fought with everything they had.

And to everyone's shock, using the movement and attack technique Darian had taught them, both of them managed to win against opponents who had one more ring than they did.

Covered in blood, they had fought to their absolute limit. Both had blessings that placed them in the Fighter category, focused purely on offense. Because of that, they relied entirely on that technique to survive — and were forced to master it in the middle of battle.

In the end, it all worked out. They truly proved their worth — and the worth of their entire race. After all, they hadn't once been the planet's most powerful race for nothing.

When the battles ended, the emperor summoned Tetoya and Zelkov, demanding a full explanation — especially about the Celestial Foxes.

Darian had already told them to be honest about everything. So they repeated his words: it was a potential granted by Heaven's Will to its blessed ones, and that race was special — capable of using the power from their rings.

After recovering from their shock, everyone finally understood the situation better.

The power of the Celestial Foxes was truly frightening — but it depended on a blessed one to supply them with energy. Tetoya, for example, after sharing power with seven of them during the previous battle, was left with nothing to activate her own blessing. She could still fight physically, but that was a serious limitation.

Besides, the little foxes didn't have their own rings to evolve, and no one knew if they could even grow stronger. Facing seven-ring enemies was their limit — and if they faced someone above average with seven rings, that person could probably hold out until their power ran dry.

Depending on the opponent's blessing, they could even be killed easily, since their bodies weren't particularly tough. So even though they were strong enough to rival major figures in the universe, they still had plenty of limits.

Still, the average power level of the universe's top planets revolved around six rings. Anything above that dropped off sharply. Once they discovered they had an army capable of easily fighting above-average opponents, the planet gained an invaluable advantage.

There were other Heavenly Beast races scattered throughout the universe, but this kind of potential — either it had never been discovered, or it was being kept secret.

Once everything was settled, they were all officially made soldiers. And Emperor Morion publicly announced something that shocked the entire planet:

The Celestial Foxes would now officially be members of the royal family and had to be treated with the utmost respect.

From now on, they'd have access to all the resources they needed to live — becoming the planet's secret weapon. Since they were still beasts and didn't have draconic blood, they could reproduce very easily.

In the future, their numbers would skyrocket, and maybe they'd even find a way to use their potential without depending entirely on a blessed one.

Not that it was really a problem. Blessed ones appeared every year on countless planets — even the weaker ones. The planet Vadise could just recruit blessed individuals from small worlds; offering citizenship on the fifth strongest planet in the universe would make anyone accept without hesitation.

After that public announcement, another major event took place: the emperor summoned Darian and announced his promotion.

According to imperial rules, an Instructor could only be promoted to General after making significant military contributions to the planet. While there wasn't a strict standard, it usually happened after leading many missions or training a considerable number of exceptional warriors.

But Darian was promoted to General for revealing the unbelievable power of the Celestial Foxes. It was fully within the rules, and no one objected.

In less than a month since becoming a commoner, he had risen to Instructor and now to General — something that would've taken an entire lifetime for any normal beast.

Now, he only needed one more promotion to reach the rank of Supreme General — and finally make his marriage to the first princess official.

***

Without the people of planet Vadise knowing it, the destruction of the three beast families and all the chaos caused by Darian completely shook planet Runedell and the Wube family.

As a result, it didn't take long for the Merchant Guild to demand an explanation from the Emperor.

Those three families were publicly declared innocent by the guild itself. They even showed the supposed evidence against the Crimson Storm Talon to the public — and they had the support of other powerful allied families as well.

Very quickly, the common people's perception of the situation began to shift. To them, Darian, Prince Zelkov, and Princess Tetoya really did seem like they had massacred innocent people.

Painita and Morion, of course, examined the "evidence" presented against the Crimson Storm Talon. However, they noticed subtle inconsistencies that revealed a darker scheme.

The so-called evidence consisted of notes, signatures, and images showing members of that race committing forbidden acts. But with the use of high-level artifacts, it was incredibly easy to fake that kind of material.

That made the entire situation messy, since top-grade artifacts left no traces — it was impossible to prove whether the evidence was real or fake. With public opinion being manipulated, the population began to believe everything was true.

Soon, discontent started spreading across the planet. Families that were once trustworthy began to side more and more with the Merchant Guild, thanks to the growing chaos and unrest.

The atmosphere on the whole planet became tense and uneasy.

Painita read the reports in complete shock. Darian had been on that planet for less than two months, and because of his actions, everything was turning upside down. The unity and order that had lasted for centuries in Vadise were starting to crumble at alarming speed.

Still, Painita ordered the emperor to simply ignore it all.

She knew exactly where this was heading — and that's why she decided to wait patiently.

***

A month after all that chaos began, a message was sent to every prince and princess.

During that time, Darian had spent a few days with Cyaos, then came up with an idea and sent him on an important mission to another planet.

After that, he spent almost every day training alone inside the Berserker God Array, but he could already feel his physical progress had hit its limit. There wasn't much else he could do — he just had to accept that he wouldn't be able to use that technique anytime soon.

He couldn't stay on that planet forever. He needed to return to Earth, see his family again, and go back to the training universe. So, he was just waiting for the day Niara would be ready to leave — which would take another week or two.

That was when Tetoya came running toward him with some news.

"A royal banquet of great importance will be happening soon. The Emperor and the Matriarch have requested your presence. All princes, princesses, and the most influential figures of the royal family will be there."

"Oh? So my mother-in-law has already silently accepted me as part of the family?"

Darian was slightly surprised. He knew everything that was going on across the planet, but he also felt that Painita had things under control and would take action soon. Now, it seemed he was part of her plans.

"Good. If she wants my help, she'll have to reward me properly. After all, I'm this close to reaching the last rank."

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.