I told you to plant peas, and you summon Mordekaiser?

Dar was able to climb to his current position entirely thanks to the woman at the top of the royal city—Isabella.

During Dahl's most difficult years, it was Isabella who reached out to him.

At that time, she had just assumed the title of Queen.

Everyone understood that the queen of the Yuan people was merely a figurehead, possessing no real power.

The true rulers of the royal city are the eighteen senators of the Senate, who look down upon all living beings like gods.

As queen, she only needed to accept the people's admiration, maintain her own perfection, and live a peaceful life as a spiritual leader.

But Isabella was not one to live a mediocre life.

She saw the corruption and ugliness within the Yuanmin people, and the suffering and despair of the refugees.

She was determined to change all of this.

She understood that only by accumulating enough power could she shake this ancient royal city.

So she found Dahl and Rios and began to quietly build an army that would be loyal only to her.

Indeed, the biggest driving force behind the Human-Plant Fusion Warrior project is Queen Isabella of the Royal City.

At first, she was very confident.

She was experimenting with fusion warriors, granting them extraordinary powers, but she soon realized that the powerful families in the royal city had accumulated a wealth of resources over thousands of years that was despair-inducing.

Even if she trained a hundred ninth-tier warriors, it would be like an ant trying to shake a tree, unable to shake the dominant position of those established ninth-tier plants.

Moreover, the ninth tier isn't like cabbage on the street, something you can just upgrade to whenever you want.

Five years ago, Isabella's hopes were almost dashed.

Just then, she came into contact with another power—the plague.

That was the terrifying power she obtained after making a deal with the leader of the Corpse Cult.

Initially, she applied the plague to the Fusion Warriors and found that only 10 percent of them survived.

Of these survivors, only one in a thousand can perfectly accept the plague without having their sanity corrupted by it.

However, these few warriors displayed awe-inspiring power.

Even though they were only at the seventh rank, they could unleash energy levels equivalent to the ninth rank. This discovery rekindled Isabella's despair.

As her research progressed, she proposed an even bolder idea: since the zombie plague can affect fusion bodies, what if all fusion bodies that can withstand the zombie plague were fused together again, could an unimaginably powerful life form be born?

This insane idea gave rise to the experimental subjects in Zone 3.

It is the product of the fusion of countless flesh and blood, and its power increases exponentially with the fusion. The price is that its advancement requires an exponential increase in energy.

Sometimes, Isabella would question herself late at night, wondering if it was all worth it.

But her belief never wavered; she firmly believed that change would inevitably come with sacrifice.

The experimental subject in the third district was the one who brought hope for change to the royal city.

Before Aatrox destroyed that experimental subject, although the fusion body only possessed a fourth-order life form, it already contained an eighth-order energy level.

However, all of this was destroyed by that demon.

The experimental subject was destroyed, Rios died, and Dahl couldn't hold onto her last trump card.

Dahl's body trembled uncontrollably.

Isabella always presented herself as amiable, but he knew all too well what kind of fury awaited him when her hopes were shattered.

......

......

Dahl clenched his fists tightly, his knuckles turning white from the force, as if only in this way could he suppress the fear in his heart.

He tried to remain calm, but Isabella's cold eyes kept flashing through his mind.

Those eyes gave him strength and direction when he was most helpless, enabling him to climb from an ordinary person to where he is today.

However, he also knew the resolute determination hidden behind those eyes.

She is not someone who tolerates failure.

What will she do to me?

Once the thought popped into his head, it coiled around Dahl's mind like a venomous snake.

The more he thought about it, the colder his limbs felt, and even his breathing became difficult.

He recalled the scene when he first met Isabella five years ago.

When she walked into his small, dimly lit office, her expression was as calm as a statue, but the sharpness in her eyes sent chills down his spine.

“Dal, I know you’re not willing to stay here forever.” Her voice was as cold as a winter wind as she said this. “I can give you a chance, but the price is that you have to work for me for the rest of your life.”

She was never a kind person; in fact, one could say she was cold-hearted.

But that's precisely why she's the one Dahl is willing to follow.

But now, things are completely out of control.

He took a deep breath, trying to appear a little calmer.

"Now that things have come to this, I have no other choice."

Dar finally stepped toward the communication terminal, picked up the communicator, and connected to the royal city.

He dialed the number he used to secretly contact Isabella, and the call was answered quickly.

"Queen Isabella".

He forced himself to speak in a calm tone, but the slight tremor in his voice was impossible to hide.

"Dahl." The voice on the other end was soft and calm, yet it pierced his heart like a blade. "Tell me, how is the test subject?"

Dahl's Adam's apple bobbed, and he opened his mouth, only to find that he couldn't utter a single word.

His silence made the atmosphere on the other end of the communicator as cold as ice.

“It’s gone, isn’t it?” Isabella’s tone remained calm, as if stating a trivial fact.

Dahl closed his eyes, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

He answered in a low voice, "Yes... the experimental subject was destroyed."

There was silence for a few seconds on the other end of the communicator, but those few seconds felt like an eternity to Dahl.

"What about the plague?" Isabella finally spoke, her voice tinged with suppressed anger.

“The plague has also disappeared…” Dahl’s voice trailed off, he didn’t even dare to think about Isabella’s reaction.

“Very good.” Isabella’s tone suddenly turned icy, and in that instant, Dahl’s back was completely soaked with cold sweat.

"Such a huge thing happened, and you dared to keep it a secret until now." She said coldly, "If the scent of the zombie plague hadn't appeared in the royal city, I'm afraid I would still be kept in the dark."

“The royal city?” Dahl thought of that name, Aatrox.

Although he had never seen the demon's true appearance, he could still picture one in his mind based on the violent voice that came through the communicator.

Now, Isabella says the plague has appeared in the royal city.

This means that Aatrox, that terrifying creature, actually went to the capital city to wreak havoc after destroying the Third District laboratory!

Dahl was stunned for a moment.

"You only have two choices: secretly retrieve the plague while those ninth-tier beings are exterminating that monster... or face your death sentence," Isabella said coldly.

"Remember, do not reveal our connection."

The communicator was disconnected, leaving behind a deathly silence.