Sandert - located in the central north of Saint Veronica.

In the Sand City, there is a beautiful legend. Many centuries ago, there was a beautiful and prosperous oasis empire here, and deep within the bustling imperial palace of the empire lived the pure and kind-hearted Crown Princess, Shalte the First.

Legend has it that every night, a moving melody could be heard throughout the city of Shalte, played by Princess Shalte herself using her golden hair, symbolizing a song of peace.

Under the protection of the towering Shalte Empire, the people of Shalte lived a prosperous and peaceful life, with an abundance of food and clothing.

During the day, after the adults finished work and returned home, they either chatted with the elderly or played games happily with their children.

Behind such prosperity and abundance, little did they know that the once admired Crown Princess, Princess Nasi, had already formed a marriage contract with the Fourth Prince from the central Korma Empire.

Nara, the younger brother of Princess Nasi, was a young and energetic young man.

Upon hearing this, he anxiously rode his horse to catch up with his sister!

As he left the city, he realized the seriousness of the situation. The streets were filled with imperial soldiers fighting against the people. Nara knew he had to stop his sister's carriage as soon as possible.

However, no matter what he did, it was all in vain!

The carriage had left the city two days ago, and the next day the imperial army besieged Shalte, even setting fire to large parts of the forest, burning all the fleeing people to death in the jungle!

Nara gritted his teeth and poured all the water he carried on himself and his horse.

Now he could ride his horse and escape from this earthly hell!

His sister, with tears in her eyes, left quietly. It was only on the day of her departure that the people of the city learned of the princess's engagement to the Fourth Prince of the empire.

Men, women, and children from all over the city came to stop the princess, saying that the empire was a country that had lost its humanity!

Everyone begged the princess not to go, but in the end, they couldn't stop her.

When Nara arrived outside the outer city of the empire's Imperial City amidst the commotion, he was immediately overwhelmed by imperial soldiers and pinned to the ground!

"Ugh, you beasts in human clothing, let go of Princess!"

He bit his tongue, making himself shout even louder.

"Give her back to me...!!"

At this moment, Nasi, who was in the midst of her wedding, heard her brother's cry and broke through multiple obstructions to stand in front of Nara outside the city gate.

"Nara, what are you doing here?!"

Looking at his sister, who was adorned in a white wedding dress and looked like a goddess, Nara couldn't help but smile with relief.

But then he thought about the people of Shalte. He used every last bit of time to reveal the empire's conspiracy.

"Sister, you've been deceived by those animals. The day after you left, the imperial army launched a crazy attack on Shalte. I'm sure they have already taken over Shalte. The defenders have been completely wiped out, and even civilians have started fighting against the imperial soldiers!"

"Is this a lie... How could this happen? Nara, are you not lying to me, sister?!"

Nasi couldn't believe the reality her raggedly dressed brother was describing. Because according to the treaty, as long as she married the prince of the empire and Shalte became a subsidiary nation of the empire, they would be spared.

But why...

Can cowardice alone really bring about peace?

The tears in Nasi's eyes were instantly evaporated by the fiery red flames!

She glared at the imperial palace with hatred, angrily and desperately declaring,

"You wicked devils, you will never find peace...never!!"

Naxi gently wrapped her exhausted and dead brother in her arms and disappeared into the outskirts of Imperial City with a flash of white.

When the king heard about this, he ordered a pursuit and went himself, but was stunned by the scene before him after leaving the city!

Naxi transformed Competence into layer upon layer of mountains and lush forests, causing the pursuers to lose their way one by one.

"It's the Earth Goddess! The Earth Goddess is warning us!!"

One soldier loudly exclaimed, and suddenly all the imperial soldiers knelt to the ground.

No one dared to look up, afraid that the Earth Goddess would curse them!

"Well, that's where the story ends. Are you satisfied?"

"Well, I didn't expect such a tragic story in the City of Sand!"

Everyone gathered around the campfire and finished listening to Juxi's story.

Yukari, who was speaking, twirled her hair with her pinky finger and gazed into the distance on the city wall, where the coolness of the desert night was blowing.

Who would believe that this place was once a green wetland?

Speaking of us, it's been a while since we came to the City of Sand. In this month, we have crossed vast forests and wetlands in the northern frontier, defeated three leaders on the plains, and successfully killed two of our targets.

Now we look like a ragtag army, our brand-new black leather uniforms already tattered and worn!

"Ugh, I'll just take off my cloak!"

Lan sighed in annoyance and ripped off the cloak hanging behind her.

"Alright, enough complaints. After all, we've been rewarded with a lot of money."

Chiyori turned herself into an embodiment of money and held the reward list from the commander, showering it with kisses.

"Hey, with so much money, how many boyfriends can I buy?"

"Hey hey, instead of buying those toys, why don't you try dating someone more realistic?"

Yukari pounced on Chiyori like a disaster looming and covered her mouth, warning her.

"If I hear that word from your mouth again, I'll immediately crush you into pieces. Do you understand?"

"Mmm~ Mmm~!"

Chiyori nodded her head in agony, and only then did Yukari let go of her hand.

But Hordos and I looked at each other, not knowing what they were talking about. Hordos just shrugged and spread his hands with a confused look.

Realistic? Toys? Boyfriends?

Listening to Yukari and the others' happy conversation, we were all a little confused.

Because no matter how you look at it, these words don't seem to fit together, do they?

Time slowly passed amidst the revelry...

At this time, we had not yet realized that the lurking crisis around us was getting closer with the swirling sand, and a sandstorm swept over the fortress of the City of Sand, immediately blurring our camp's field of vision.

The teacher...I mean, the commander made a slip of the tongue. He ordered all the teams to retreat from the city walls and only left me and deputy officer Yuanhui in the fortress area to observe and make the next decision!"

The tone of Juxi's command this time was unusually serious, indicating that the situation was not optimistic.

When they saw that everyone else had found a place under the city walls where the sandstorm couldn't reach, Teacher Juxi and Lieutenant Yuanhui jumped up to the top of the fortress, landing on the yellow earth dome that made up the roof.

Under Juxi's command, Lieutenant Yuanhui spread out an electrical net woven with lightning bolts, covering a radius of tens of kilometers around the Sand City.

"I've never seen this S-level Omnicompetent Sorcerer in the Imperial City," someone said.

Not only me and my classmate Yukari, even Captain Lan had an expression of shock on her face, as if she were witnessing something incredible for the first time in her life!

"What? You've never seen anything like this before?" Yukari asked Lan, who seemed panicked and kept waving her hands.

"What...what? I didn't say anything, hehehe!"

"Are you sure?"

After going through a near-death experience, Yukari showed extra concern for Lan, and any abnormal behavior from her made Yukari worry even more.

Come to think of it, Lan can be quite extreme sometimes!

Although I have known Yukari for a long time, and even though I often try to show her my true self, she either can't see it or pretends not to. Sigh... am I that unlikeable?

Time and time again, I muster up the courage to stand in front of Yukari, only to be left behind every single time.

"Is it because I'm not qualified, or because I hate being protected by others?"

"Brother, she's just like me, that big sister!"

The girl with red hair who spoke was my little sister. She was floating in the air wearing a white long dress, but no one seemed to notice her.

Or perhaps, only I can see my little sister.

"Be careful, brother! There are tens of thousands of magic equipment users coming towards us!"

"But I don't feel anything, and besides, we have our commander..."

"There are two very strong individuals who are on the same level as your commander!"

"Ah, how is that possible?!"

I was almost scared by Nana's words. We had already learned during our attack on the beast tribe's base that there were only three SSS Grandmaster sorcerers among them!

If what Nana said was true, then the beast tribe must have mobilized all their forces for this siege on Sand City!

"Hehe, I'm impressed that you can figure out the enemy's lineup."

"Well, of course! After my rebirth, I inherited the great controller of ancient magic equipment. Unlike you, my brother, who's so useless!"

This little girl started to mock me as she spoke.

But speaking of which, I pinched her little cheeks with some irritation.

"Aren't you just the weakest Magic Sword controller?"

"What? What are you saying? I don't know, but at least I'm an ancient magic equipment!"

"Yeah, ancient magic equipment! The Magic Cloud Sword that neither wins nor loses, right?"

As soon as I mentioned the Magic Cloud Sword, Nana's eyes changed as she looked at me, as if I had guessed something wrong.

"What Magic Cloud Sword?"

"...Don't you know? It's really something for you to call yourself its owner and not even know the name of the magic equipment you control."

"I definitely know, it's just that!"

My younger sister seemed a bit impatient with me, as if I had said something wrong.

"You got it only half right. The name 'MoYun Sword' is not my real name. My actual name is... 'Devourer of Souls Demon Lord'!"

"Devourer of Souls Demon Lord... What kind of edgy name is that? Did you come up with it yourself, Nana?"

Only my sister's extraordinary mind could come up with such a ridiculously funny name!

However, despite that, my sister continued to doubt and relentlessly pounded my chest.

"What do you mean I came up with it myself? I was just being honest. You're overthinking it, brother!"