Rise of the Forbidden Luna

Chapter 34: The Ashen Kingdom

The deafening, chaotic roars of the border battle slowly began to fade, replaced by the heavy, suffocating crackle of burning military trucks and the thick stench of wet mud and blood.

I stood entirely frozen in the center of the crimson-stained trench, my chest heaving in ragged, shallow gasps as the adrenaline slowly drained from my veins. My hands were trembling violently, but my grip remained tightly locked around the hilt of the silver blade. The edge of the weapon was dripping with the dark blood of the two warriors I had just ruthlessly killed. I wasn't a helpless victim anymore. I was a weapon of pure vengeance, and watching Alpha Richard’s front-line vanguard crumble beneath our boots fed the unyielding fire inside my soul.

A sudden, towering shadow loomed directly over my frame, completely blocking out the cold morning light.

I looked up as Ethan shifted back into his striking human form. He looked like an absolute, bloodconscious demon. His dark imperial armor was smeared with the fresh blood of the warriors he had just brutally torn apart. His chest heaved in heavy, synchronized gasps, his gold-flecked amber eyes flashing with a lingering, primeval madness as he marched straight toward me over walking over the dead bodies.

Without a single word, his massive, calloused hands anchored firmly around my waist. He buried his face into the crook of my neck, openly inhaling my scent to verify that I was entirely unharmed. The intense, radiating heat from his skin turned me on, his dominant alpha aura wrapping around my mind like an iron blanket.

"You shouldn't have been out here, Aria," Ethan growled, his eyes filled with concern. "I told you to rest in the infirmary. If a single claw had grazed your skin today, I would have slaughtered this entire continent."

"I am not a fragile doll, Ethan," I said calmly. I pressed my palms against his hard chest, refusing to look weak. "Richard stole my first life, he tortured my father and destroyed my family. The moon goddess gave me a second chance at life to get my revenge, so I will watch him burn with my own eyes."

Before he could respond, Beta Thomas strode rapidly down into the muddy trench, surrounded by a vanguard of ten heavily armed warriors. Their swords were drawn, their expressions grim.

"My Lord! We have cleared the primary perimeter trenches!" Thomas barked, bowing his head in tight compliance before pointing toward an overturned, burning armored truck at the edge of the field. "We found a survivor. It's one of Richard's lead border scouts. He was pinned beneath the wreckage while trying to drop a bomb, and he is bleeding heavily."

Ethan released his grip on my waist, his face instantly setting into a dangerous, terrifying mask of stone as he turned on his heel. "Keep him alive until I carve Richard’s coordinates out of his throat."

We marched across the blood-slicked mud ground, the soldiers parting instantly to let the Lycan King pass. Pinned beneath the heavy steel frame of the burning vehicle lay the enemy scout, his chest crushed and his dark uniform soaked in blood. He was coughing up wolfsbane-tinted foam, but the moment his eyes locked onto my face, a sickening, villainous sneer stretched across his battered features. He didn't beg for mercy. He didn't cry. He looked directly at me and laughed a hollow, bloody laugh that made my skin crawl.

"You think... you think you've won a victory, traitor girl?" the scout wheezed hoarsely, his amber eyes wide with a manic, mocking amusement. "You brought the supreme Lycan King and his entire army to our gates... but you are too late. Alpha Richard knew you would come for blood the moment the penthouse infiltration failed."

"Where is he?" I demanded, stepping forward as my knuckles turned white around my blade. "Where is Richard?!"

"He has already evacuated the main palace fortress," the scout hissed, coughing up a fresh wave of crimson as his grip on life began to slip.They fled deep into the Forbidden Mountain territory... to the ancient altar. He is going to activate the Eye of Aethelgard tonight.He will shatter the veil between the living and the dead to summon the undying warriors from the Land of the Dead across your entire territory... and none of you will survive the night"

With one final, choked gasp, the scout’s head snapped back against the mud, his eyes rolling into the back of his skull as his life completely vanished.

Richard was going to trigger a weapon of total, world-ending destruction. The terrifying words of the dying scout violently echoed inside my mind, colliding with the secrets I had just uncovered inside the Limbo domain. My mother, Diana, had been trapped in between life and death for twenty-one long years by a malicious black magic spell. If Richard successfully activated the Eye of Aethelgard and tore open the veil to summon an army of the dead, it wouldn't just bring un-killable phantoms into our world–it would completely shatter the Limbo realm itself.

The realization hit me like a physical blow. If that realm shattered, my mother’s trapped soul would be entirely wiped out, vanished into oblivion forever. I would never be able to find her body. I would never be able to bring her home.

Ethan stood towering over the corpse, a dark muscle jumping violently along his scarred jaw as pure fury flared in his eyes. He didn't know about my mother's limbo state, and he didn't know about his four heirs thriving in my stomach, but his territorial instincts had completely snapped. Richard wasn't just running anymore–he was trying to summon an immortal legion that could tear his entire empire to absolute shreds.

The Lycan King turned his terrifying gaze toward Beta Thomas, his deep voice dropping into a low, lethal promise that literally made the ground beneath our boots vibrate.

"Thomas! Leave the palace fortress behind!" Ethan roared, his voice escalating into a world-ending command that rattled through the valley like thunder, addressing the 10,000 marching Lycan soldiers standing on the ridges. His fury was completely unchained. "Mobilize the entire vanguard into the mountains! Track their scent through the snow, and prepare for the worst. We march straight into the Forbidden mountains, because if Richard successfully opens that veil tonight, we aren't just fighting a rival pack anymore... we’ll be fighting hell itself."