"No matter what, I must get this crystal back. Kaelen is waiting for me." Lyra told herself, her eyes cold and determined. She pushed her frail body against the howling ion storm, her military boots sinking deep into the toxic mud of the Vanguard Base perimeter. The radiation felt like venomous needles tearing at her exposed skin, the severe pain wandering wildly through her veins. But she bit her pale lips hard. As long as she thought of her mate—the noble S-class Commander Kaelen—suffering through the agonizing torment of his beastly berserk heat right now, this obsession became the sole driving force supporting her broken body. Dodging flying metallic debris, she finally dragged her broken legs toward the heavy airlock doors of the faintly glowing command center. Using her frozen, bloody hands, she fumbled out the silver emergency key, using every last ounce of her strength to twist it in the slot. The heavy doors slowly parted to the sides. However, what greeted her was not a beast struggling in pain, but a wave of nauseatingly explicit flirtation. The warm luxury inside and the hell outside seemed like two entirely different worlds. "Oh... Baby Kaelen, you're so much better at serving me than Lyra, that dead fish. She's just a completely boring woman." Lyra froze stiffly at the door. Covered in mud and blood, she looked past the entryway. On the massive leather sofa, Sylvia, the A-class healer, had her clothes half-open, wrapping herself around Kaelen's strong chest, using every trick in the book to seduce him. "Since that zero-defense E-class trash is so boring, why don't you hurry up and kick her out?" And Kaelen, the man Lyra was willing to sacrifice her life for, was panting heavily. The mouth that had once sworn eternal vows to her was now spewing nothing but vulgarities: "She can't even do a basic spirit soothing, she's literally like a block of wood. Nothing like how exquisite you are." Lyra felt a loud buzz in her brain. Bone-chilling heartbreak instantly swallowed her whole. A soft gasp of shock escaped her throat. Hearing the noise, Kaelen whipped his head around, those ice-blue eyes originally filled with lust instantly replaced by sheer terror: "Ly-Lyra?! How did you get in here!" The extreme fright caused his beastly aura to collapse instantly. In a massive panic, the arrogant S-class Commander violently shoved Sylvia away and scrambled to fix his clothes. Because he was so nervous, his legs got hopelessly tangled together. He stumbled forward and fell flat on his face, knocking over an expensive crystal table. He sprawled on the floor in an incredibly comical, miserable mess, trembling and looking exactly like a frightened stray dog. Realizing he had made a colossal fool of himself, Kaelen flew into a humiliated rage. Dropping the act entirely, he haphazardly pulled himself up, shielded the disheveled Sylvia behind him, and cursed loudly at Lyra: "Since you saw it all, I won't bother acting anymore! Look at your disgusting, muddy ghost of an appearance right now! You, a good-for-nothing E-class piece of trash, can't even compare to one of Sylvia's toes! I've been sick of you for a long time! Sylvia is the only woman fit to stand by my side!" Sylvia hid behind Kaelen's broad back, affectedly pulling her collar together. Her large brown eyes flashed with victorious mockery: "Oh, Sister Lyra, don't blame Kaelen. You can't even protect yourself, you only drag him down. You really should know your own place." Just then, a half-wolf little girl poked her head out from the inner suite. It was Mya, the biological daughter for whom Lyra had secretly drained her own life force to stabilize her genes. Mya covered her nose and yelled at Lyra with a face full of disgust: "Daddy is right! You're just a useless loser! Auntie Sylvia also said that only a noble A-class healer deserves to be my mom. Not only are you useless, but you also tracked mud onto Daddy's carpet! I hate you, get out of here right now!" The child's uninhibited words completely sliced open how this scumbag and his mistress had brainwashed her daughter. Lyra's breathing stopped. She opened her stiff hand, and the soothing crystal she had risked her life to bring back rolled onto the floor. With eyes full of contempt, Kaelen ruthlessly stomped on it, crushing the precious crystal into a floor full of glowing dust: "Take your garbage and roll back to the rear quarters immediately!" Looking at the dust on the floor, Lyra didn't cry. The burning agony of the radiation vanished in an instant, replaced by an absolute, freezing clarity. She slowly stood up straight, her spine instantly straightening like a sword. "Three years of my heart and blood fed to a dog. Fortunately, the dog has finally shown its true colors today." Lyra's lips curled into a sneer of utter contempt. "Kaelen, take your white lotus and your ungrateful wolf cub, and lock yourselves in the trash heap together. You don't deserve me." Without casting another glance at the comical couple, Lyra turned around, facing the howling ion storm, and left them with a cold silhouette. As the heavy doors closed, Lyra swiped open her Star Network terminal and pulled up a highly classified legal document: The Mate Contract Termination Form.

Lyra walked down the freezing white hallway of the central command tower, her soaked military boots squeaking harshly against the metal grating. Passing a floor-to-ceiling window, she caught sight of her miserable reflection—covered in mud, her skin blistering and ulcerated from radiation burns. A massive holographic news projection flickered on the wall, broadcasting the latest Star Network gossip from a few hours ago: "Vanguard Commander & Imperial Chief Healer: A Match Made in the Stars?" In the footage, Kaelen was gently helping Sylvia out of a luxury hover-car, shielding her as if she were the most precious treasure in the universe. Lyra's fingertips twitched. A faint, barely visible spark of purple flame danced on her fingertip before dying out weakly. Once, her mentor had held her hands in absolute awe, saying, "Lyra, you possess unparalleled talent! With rigorous training, you could absolutely become an S-class powerhouse who commands the stars!" But to be Kaelen's "good wife," she gave up her star-energy cultivation. She exhausted all her energy brewing foul-smelling genetic stabilizers for him, staying up all night smoothing out his berserk beast-energy channels, and managing the tedious, heavy logistics of the entire Vanguard Clan like a lowly servant. She had forcefully drained herself into a useless E-class piece of trash who couldn't even withstand basic radiation! "I gave up the sea of stars for him, and he despises me for being a puddle of mud." Lyra bit her lip so hard it bled, her heart aching as if a piece of her flesh had been brutally carved out. She was an absolute fool. Facing no obstacles, she walked directly into the dimly lit central terminal room. The defense algorithms running here were all created by her anonymous sweat and blood. Lyra walked to the master console, her hands flying across the virtual keyboard. Using a supreme hacker backdoor she had personally implanted years ago, she effortlessly sliced into the security monitoring system of Kaelen's private lounge. The holographic screen instantly popped up with the image of that despicable pair. Sylvia was leaning against Kaelen's chest, saying coquettishly, "Kaelen, you yelled at Lyra so harshly just now, won't she get hurt? After all, you're all she has in this world." Kaelen's cold and disgusted voice replied, "She brought it on herself. She always uses that weak, dying look to morally kidnap everyone. Sylvia, stop wasting your empathy on a worthless parasite." Parasite. That single word was like the most vicious curse, completely shattering the last pitiful trace of hope in Lyra's heart. The temperature completely vanished from her beautiful violet eyes, leaving only a terrifying, deathly stillness. Without hesitation, Lyra pulled up the deep-level registry of the Imperial Marriage Bureau. The golden chain representing their Beast Mark contract pulsed mockingly in mid-air. She directly swiped out the supreme-clearance, locked document: The Mate Contract Termination form. The system flashed frantically with a blood-red warning: "WARNING! A low-class female unilaterally and forcibly severing an S-class Beast Mark will face fatal trauma of soul tearing and genetic collapse! Do you wish to proceed?" Lyra didn't blink. She pressed "YES" heavily with her bloody finger. The moment she gripped the electronic stylus and signed the last stroke of her name, a catastrophic, nuclear-like agony exploded in her left shoulder—the exact spot scarred with Kaelen's exclusive mark! "Argh—!" Lyra screamed, crashing heavily onto the glass floor. For a body currently at the E-class level, forcibly cutting an S-class soul bond was like a gruesome execution by a thousand cuts! She felt an invisible giant hand forcefully crushing her spine inch by inch, tearing her mental landscape into countless shreds. Blood poured madly from her mouth and nose, staining the pristine white floor red. Pain! It hurt so much her internal organs were churning, hurt so much she wished to die immediately! But in this near-death torture, Lyra was laughing manically, tears mixing with blood smashing onto the floor. This agonizing pain of being skinned alive was the price of her rebirth! It's broken, it's finally broken! She would never be that lowly parasite again! Accompanied by a blinding white light, the termination decree officially took effect. Trembling, Lyra used every ounce of her strength to crawl out of the pool of blood. She placed the physical decree, stamped with the seal of the Imperial Supreme Court, squarely in the dead center of the master console. Then, she took off the heavy silver ring symbolizing her status as the Vanguard Clan's matriarch, tossing it onto the decree with a casual "clink", as if throwing away a bag of nauseating garbage. Without a shred of lingering attachment, Lyra turned around, dragging a long trail of blood, and walked toward the private elevator leading to the subterranean hangar. Meanwhile, in the courtyard lounge, Kaelen suddenly clutched his chest in agony. A fatal spasm, as if a piece of his heart had been forcefully gouged out, made him drop hard to his knees. "What's wrong?!" Sylvia cried out in alarm. Kaelen gasped heavily for air, looking blankly at his empty palms. An unprecedented, terrifyingly deep sense of loss instantly engulfed his arrogant soul.

The elevator doors slowly parted, and a blast of cold wind, mixed with the scent of engine grease and ionizing radiation, swept in from the gloomy subterranean hangar. Lyra took a single step forward, and the fatal backlash of forcibly severing an S-class soul contract swallowed her whole like a tsunami. Her vision went black, and she collapsed heavily onto the freezing metal grating like a puddle of mud. The unfiltered cosmic radiation from the open hangar bay doors poured relentlessly onto her defenseless, broken body. Her once-fair skin instantly erupted in massive, horrifying blisters. Two passing Vanguard mechanics cast a look of sheer disgust at her. Instead of offering help, they mocked her and stepped right over her body. "Isn't this the Commander's famously useless wife? Ignore her, she's definitely playing the victim again." The mocking laughter faded away. Lyra lay alone on the freezing ground, feeling her life force draining away rapidly. However, in the very last second when she thought she was about to be reduced to ashes, an unprecedented, terrifyingly colossal energy suddenly erupted from the deepest depths of her soul! This power, which had been deathly sealed away merely to cater to Kaelen, finally let out a roar that shattered its chains now that the parasitic exploitation was gone. Pure, blinding violet-gold light burst from her battered cells. At a miraculous speed visible to the naked eye, it madly devoured the lethal radiation, instantly reconstructing her ulcerated skin to flawless perfection, even radiating a faint, god-like luster! Lyra snapped her eyes open. There was no longer a trace of pain or subservience in those violet eyes; instead, they shot forth a soul-crushing, supreme dominance. "So... the mentor was telling the truth." She slowly clenched her fists, feeling the S-class "Ultimate Adapter" power within her. She realized that she was no longer an E-rank nobody, but a true S-rank power queen. If she had this power, she would never bow to anyone again. She would build her own stellar empire, an impenetrable fortress where no one could ever betray or look down on her again. And to build an empire, she needed a foundation, and allies she could truly trust. A figure suddenly surfaced in her mind. A boy who used to follow her around like a loyal shadow when they were children. He had looked at her with stars in his eyes, promising to conquer the universe for her. "Orion..." Lyra whispered the name. The boy was now known as the terrifying Pirate Lord of the Lawless Sector. But to her, he was the only one who had ever offered her pure, unconditional devotion. She transformed into an afterimage undetectable to the naked eye, instantly flashing beneath the most advanced "Phantom" stealth ship docked in the corner. She bypassed the security protocols she had personally created. The hatch opened silently, welcoming its true master. Meanwhile, the storm outside the central command room had ceased. Kaelen strode through the doors with arrogant steps, Sylvia clinging tightly to his side. Kaelen walked straight to the master console, his eyes instantly stung by the thick parchment and the family silver ring pressing down on it. When he clearly saw the bold header "Mate Contract Termination" on the document, an incredibly grating, arrogant sneer squeezed through his teeth. Sylvia peeked over, faking a gasp of horror. "Oh my god, Kaelen! Sister Lyra actually forged a supreme court legal document to threaten you just to fight for your favor!" "What else can a parasite with zero survival skills do besides play these grandstanding parlor tricks?" Kaelen coldly swept the official termination document onto the floor. Adjutant Vance hurried in at that moment carrying a stack of damage reports, stepping right onto the document. "Clean up this pile of trash," Kaelen ordered with extreme disgust. "Yes, Commander!" Vance immediately pressed the cleaning directive. A cleaning drone swiftly glided over, mercilessly sweeping the termination decree into its incinerator, burning it to absolute ashes. With his own hands, Kaelen incinerated his only chance to learn the truth and salvage everything. Inside the subterranean hangar, Lyra was already seated firmly in the Phantom's pilot seat. She wiped Kaelen's ultimate defense system—which she had built—from the server, reducing it to dust. The Phantom's stealth thrusters erupted violently. Like a black blade tearing through the heavens, it smashed through the hangar's roof doors with a deafening roar, shooting toward the deep cosmos, straight toward the Lawless Sector.