Rejected by the Alpha, Awakened as the Blood Queen

Chapter 17: Breath of Chaos

[Kael's Perspective]

I was trying to fall asleep when the bells rang.

It wasn't an alarm; I had heard Silvermoon City's shrill, piercing warning bells for centuries. This sound was different—heavy, ancient, carrying a wail that surged from the depths of the earth. It wasn't warning the living; it was awakening the dead.

The Bell of Mourning.

As those words slammed into my mind, I bolted upright, my movements so stiff that I knocked over the candlestick on the nightstand. The brass candlestick hit the floor with a clatter, but I didn't hear it. My world was filled with nothing but those soul-shaking tolls.

"No..." Dry syllables squeezed out of my throat, my golden pupils shrinking to pinpoints in horror. "How could it be ringing..."

"Kael?" Isabelle's voice came from behind me, tinged with sleepiness and alertness.

I didn't look back. Instinct had already driven me toward the wardrobe, where I scrambled to grab my leather armor. My fingertips were ice-cold; I couldn't even fasten the most familiar buckles. A surge of fury overwhelmed my fear. I wasn't afraid; I was enraged. Something dared to challenge my territory and trample upon my majesty on the very day I had proclaimed my glory.

"S-rank," I hissed through clenched teeth, my voice distorted by rage. "The border has shattered."

Isabelle fell silent instantly. I could feel the aura of the White Wolf God of War within her sharpen like a blade. When she spoke again, her voice was devoid of emotion. "How long can the barrier hold?"

I didn't answer. I grabbed my longsword and rushed out of the room.

As I charged onto the main city wall, torrential rain and howling winds lashed against me. But I felt no cold—only a burning, indignant rage. Atop the wall, torches flickered wildly in the storm. Guards ran and shouted, their faces pale with the look of an impending apocalypse.

"Status!" I roared at the captain of the guard, my voice nearly torn apart by the wind.

"Alpha!" The veteran captain's face was twisted with fear. He pointed into the darkness beyond the wall, his voice trembling. "You... see for yourself."

I rushed to the battlement and looked down.

In that moment, my breath caught.

Outside the wall, the Blackstone Forest—the natural barrier—had vanished. In its place was a writhing, boundless sea of black. A living ocean composed of countless monsters.

Terror-claw bears as massive as battering rams, packs of shadow wolves like a plague of locusts, and those gelatinous horrors with myriad tentacles and eyeballs seen only in ancient scrolls... They converged into a black torrent, pouring incessantly from the torn wound of the Chaos Border, surging toward Silvermoon City.A thick stench—a mixture of sulfur, rotting flesh, and raw blood—became almost tangible, choking my throat. In the darkness, countless pairs of crimson eyes lit up, flickering with madness and hunger.

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, the vanguard of the beast tide slammed into the city's defensive barrier. The pale blue curtain of light flickered violently; with every impact, the light dimmed a fraction more. I could feel the energy maintaining the barrier being rapidly depleted.

"It won't hold for long." Isabelle had appeared beside me unnoticed, her warblade gripped tightly. "Before the barrier shatters, we must thin their numbers as much as possible."

I drew my longsword. The blade reflected the red glint from the monsters' eyes in the distance, as well as the ashen despair in my own. Thin them out? We were facing a tsunami capable of swallowing the entire continent.

Just then, a commotion broke out at the rear of the tide. Low-level monsters scrambled aside in terror, clearing a path.

A massive, nauseating figure slowly squeezed its way through the opening.

It was a colossal, indescribable worm, its body larger than the main keep, covered in slimy folds that dripped corrosive liquid. Its head had no eyes, only a massive maw that split open like an abyss, filled with rows upon rows of teeth like a meat grinder.

"An Abyss Worm..." Elder Wolf appeared behind us, leaning on his cane, his aged voice filled with nothing but despair. "The leader of an S-rank tide... the heavens seek the end of our Silvermoon Wolf Clan..."

The worm let out a silent roar—not a sound, but a mental shockwave that struck directly at the soul.

In an instant, all the lower-ranking guards on the wall froze, their pupils losing focus as if their souls had been snatched away. They collapsed like puppets with their strings cut. Isabelle and I also felt a jolt of agony, as if a red-hot iron rod had been thrust into our brains.

It’s over.

The thought surfaced clearly in my mind. We weren't even qualified to be its opponents.

But the giant worm did not attack immediately. Its massive head turned toward a specific direction—toward Laurel Manor. It let out an uneasy hiss; beneath the brutality, there was a hint of... wariness?

【Ron's Perspective】

My name is Ron, just an ordinary guard on the wall. An hour ago, I was glad the storm might let us get off duty early; now, I just want to stay alive.

The Alpha was not far away. His roars were broken by the wind, but I could see the despair on his face. If even the Alpha is in despair, what hope is there for us?

"Boom—!"

Another impact. A massive c***k appeared on the shield."Hold the line!" Scout Captain Marcus roared from behind us. "Did a few stray Shadow Wolves scare the hell out of you? Wipe them out!"

I snapped back to my senses. Several Shadow Wolves had already squeezed through the c***k and were lunging at my companions. I raised my spear and closed in with a few others.

In the chaos, another Shadow Wolf snarled and lunged at me. I backed away in terror, tripped over something, and fell hard to the ground, my back slamming into a forgotten plant stand in the corner.

"Watch out!" Captain Marcus yanked me aside. His battle-axe whistled over my head, splitting the Shadow Wolf's head in two.

Still shaken, I tried to push myself up, but my palm pressed into something wet and soft. I had knocked over the potted plant; broken pottery shards were mixed with wet mud. And in that pile of muck, I crushed a stiff card.

The moment the card crumbled, an extremely faint yet unmistakably clear scent drifted out from between my fingers.

It wasn't the scent of a werewolf, nor was it the smell of any monster. It was a... cold and sickly sweet fragrance, mixed with withered roses and ancient dust.

It was familiar.

I froze. This smell... that's it, it was Miss Elena! Miss Elena—the pale girl the Alpha abandoned! When she still lived in the main keep, she would occasionally give off this faint, morbidly sweet scent.

Captain Marcus smelled it too. He frowned warily, his gaze falling on the mud-stained fragments in my hand. His eyes filled with suspicion and uncertainty.

"This scent..." he muttered to himself, then suddenly looked up, staring in one direction.

I followed his gaze.

It was toward Laurel Manor.

The manor inherited by Miss Elena, which was now considered forbidden ground by all werewolves.

That cold, sweet fragrance mingled with the smell of blood and scorched flesh, drifting eerily toward the still darkness in the distance, like a silent summons.

【Elena's Perspective】

I sat in my armchair, my fingertips lightly tracing the cold side of the crystal glass. The distant noise and constant vibrations buzzed in my ears like a bothersome fly.

So... noisy.

These lowly creatures, with barely a shred of self-awareness, were howling with their filthy souls, polluting this rare rainy night. And that massive source of energy—that giant worm—gave off a stench that made me nauseous.

It was like a colossal, oozing pile of garbage dumped right at my garden gate.I closed my eyes, trying to ignore it. I had slumbered for far too long, and every inch of my body craved tranquility. I did not wish to be disturbed, nor did I wish to deal with such tedious trifles.

*Rumble—*

Another violent tremor surged through, drawing a faint groan even from the floorboards beneath my feet. The wine glass in my hand swayed gently, the crimson liquid within rippling in the glass.

Enough.

My patience had reached its limit.

I opened my eyes. The last trace of languor vanished from my indifferent gaze, replaced by a cold, hollow void.

I set the wine glass on the stone table beside me with a crisp clink, a sound nearly lost amidst the surrounding chaos.

Then, I rose from my armchair.

It was time to make that noisy "big guy" fall silent once and for all.

I took a step forward, the hem of my black dress tracing a graceful arc through the air. Without stirring a single ripple, I merged into the manor’s deep shadows, as though I had never been there at all.

On the terrace, only a glass of still red wine remained, reflecting the sky on the verge of shattering over the distant city.