At that moment, the clear sky convulsed. Clouds churned violently, swirling into a monstrous vortex until, piece by piece, they formed a colossal eye.

  No—an angry eye. Its gaze bore down on the earth, seething with fury.

  The city froze. People craned their necks, pointing and whispering in fear.

  Lauren tilted her head back, then burst into laughter.

  “Hahahaha… as expected…”

  A prophet ruled this world, bending fate with their hand. And in that prophecy, she was destined to die as the heroine’s vicious sister. No matter how she struggled, her end was already written.

  “Damn you, Heaven!” she roared at the eye above. “If I can’t change the ending, then I’ll destroy the root of it all!”

  She turned back. Indiana’s body was slumped in a pool of blood, stabbed again and again, lifeless.

  Lauren crouched beside her and pressed her fingers under her nose. No breath. Dead.

  A savage smile spread across her lips.

  She did it. She defied the heavens. She killed the heroine first.

  The satisfaction surged hot through her chest.

  Lauren looked skyward, madness flickering in her eyes. “Don’t worry. This is just the beginning. None of you—none of you so-called heroes—will escape me.”

  The clouds writhed darker, the eye contorting, unraveling into the gaping jaws of a beast. Blood-red teeth gnashing, it lunged toward the earth with tearing fury.

  BOOM! A thunderclap split the sky, crashing down.

  Lauren’s heart lurched. Something was wrong. She turned and ran.

  She didn’t want to die. Not now. To be struck down by lightning right after killing Indiana—that would be a fucking waste.

  BOOM! Another bolt struck, slamming into the ground just behind her, close enough to scorch her heels.

  The impact wasn’t enough to kill her outright, but it obliterated the flimsy wooden shed where Indiana had been cleaning toilets.

  Lauren bolted toward the front yard.

  Another thunderclap roared, shattering the House of Roses sign in a shower of splinters.

  Her stomach dropped. The lightning wasn’t random. It was chasing her.

  “Damn it!” she spat, then shouted to the gawking crowd, “Scatter! Get out of the way!”

  Panic spread like wildfire. People shrieked and fled. No one wanted to be near the cursed girl who drew lightning with every step.

  “Lauren!”

  “Fourth Sister!”

  Her father, Nelson, and her brother Leonard stood not far off, watching in horror as bolt after bolt tracked her every move.

  Leonard’s face went pale, his legs shaking. “What… what the hell did Fourth Sister do? Why is the lightning following her?”

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  Nelson’s eyes hardened. Whatever he’d come to the House of Roses for was forgotten. He shoved Leonard away. “Go home. Tell the family everything.”

  Then he sprinted straight toward Lauren.

  “Dad, don’t come near me!” she shouted.

  “Shut up!” Nelson barked.

  He summoned his life-bound weapon, thrusting it into the path of the lightning to intercept its strike. Sparks erupted as divine thunder clashed against steel.

  Without hesitation, he scooped Lauren into his arms, leapt onto the back of his talisman beast—a golden lion—and rode hard, fleeing the city as more bolts tore open the sky behind them.

  “What did you do?”

  Lauren clutched Nelson’s sleeve, her face pale. “Dad… Heaven is punishing me. What should I do?”

  Nelson stiffened. Such words—from a child? His heart lurched. “What happened?”

  Overhead, the storm roared. Thunderbolts fell faster and faster, forcing Nelson to push his talisman beast, the Lion, to its limit. Behind them, the sky burned with streaks of lightning.

  “Heaven is punishing me,” Lauren muttered again, her eyes bright with a strange resolve. “Then I’ll defy Heaven.”

  Nelson’s breath caught. This wasn’t a child’s tantrum. Her expression was deadly serious.

  And it was true. The eye in the clouds had fixed itself on her. Every bolt was aimed only at her. If that wasn’t Heaven’s punishment, what else could it be?

  “Lauren…” His voice cracked. “Lauren…”

  “Nelson!” voices shouted from behind.

  The Evercrest family had chased after them, their faces drawn with fear.

  Nelson’s spiritual power was faltering, the lightning kept coming, endless. He couldn’t hold out.

  Seeing this, the other Evercrests pulled out their magical weapons, hurling them skyward to catch the bolts one by one.

  But they all knew the truth.

  The level of lightning Heaven sent matched the level of the punished. With Lauren’s shallow cultivation, the strikes weren’t powerful—any master from the great sects could have waved them aside without blinking.

  But this was Mistvale. A backwater. Even the strongest cultivators here could only endure ten thunderbolts in a row before their energy burned out.

  And Heaven’s wrath was endless.

  Lauren felt it too. She shoved at Nelson’s chest with her small hands. “Dad! Let me go. Let it strike me.”

  “No!” His voice was hoarse. “You can’t take even one bolt.”

  “But if you keep shielding me, you’ll all die too!”

  Nelson’s jaw clenched. “Then I’ll die before I watch you be killed.”

  Lauren’s gaze hardened. If Indiana’s dead, then my life in exchange is worth it.

  At least this way, the Evercrest family wouldn’t be slaughtered. But deep down, she wasn’t ready to die.

  “Dad… this thunder won’t stop. There’s only one way to save someone condemned by Heaven.”

  Nelson’s face shifted, as though struck by the thought. His voice dropped, heavy. “Then I’ll take you there.”

  Without another word, he spurred the Lion, sprinting toward the horizon as thunder rained down on their heels.

  “Nelson, what’s going on?”

  The other Evercrests, still reeling from catching bolt after bolt, now raced to keep up.

  Nelson’s voice thundered over the storm. “Lauren says Heaven is punishing her!”

  A ripple of shock ran through the family.

  Heaven’s punishment? For her?

  Such a tiny creature, sweet-faced and innocent—why would Heaven punish her?

  But the truth was undeniable. The clouds above had formed a monstrous eye, glaring only at Lauren, refusing to let her go.

  The family patriarch, Preston Evercrest—Lauren’s grandfather—narrowed his eyes. His hair was gray, his face lined, but his spirit was sharp, his gaze bright with wisdom.

  He looked once at the sky, at the divine eye burning into his granddaughter, and his decision was instant.

  “Sky-Covering Valley.”

  Without hesitation, he surged forward, his talisman flaring. In a blur, he snatched Lauren from Nelson’s arms, vaulted onto his own lion talisman, and shot into the sky.

  Yes—he flew.

  Preston’s cultivation had reached the middle stage of Foundation Establishment. In Mistvale, that made him untouchable. His mastery of talismans was second to none, his power enough to control objects and ride the air.

  Lightning clawed at them, but none of it could breach the aura he flung around Lauren.

  She stared up at his grim, weathered face.

  Grandfather was strict, yes, but he had never berated her for her weak progress. He had always shielded her, always protected her until the end.

  She remembered. In her last life, before Indiana captured her, she had watched her grandfather die by Indiana’s hands.

  This punishment wasn’t just hers. It was the Evercrest family’s calamity.

  “Grandpa,” she whispered, her voice steady despite the storm. “Take me to the Sky-Covering Valley.”

  “I know.”

  Her heart pounded. “It’s a forsaken place… abandoned by the gods. A place even Heaven’s eye cannot see.”

  In her past life, she had hurled Indiana into that valley, thinking it a death sentence. But Indiana had crawled back alive, carrying with her a miraculous fortune. That was the start of her rise.

  Now, reborn, Lauren clenched her fists. This time, that fortune will be mine.