Semua Bab The Lone Wolf: Bab 81 - Bab 90

CHAPTER 81A Century AgoMarcus clenched his fist tightly until his claws pierced his skin and drew blood. The pain cleared the fog just enough for him to reorganize his thoughts. He took a shaky step back from the altar, chest heaving as he took short breaths. The visions still swirled behind his eyes as the false memories began to take root. It was golden and sweet on the surface but he knew it was deadly and poisonous.“No,” he muttered. “You’re not real.” He shook his head. “You’re not mine.”The heart pulsed again in answer, faster and more frantic. Amusement laced in its tone.“But you came to me. You followed the blood trail. You called out to me and I answered. I am the only one who can help you and you know this. That is why you called out to me without even realizing it. I am the answer. I am the end.Marcus growled, low and guttural, his eyes flashing with a hint of his wolf. “I followed a Vrykolakas,” he hissed. “Not you.”And yet the chamber was empty as he turned around

CHAPTER 83A Century AgoMarcus stood in the clearing. A vast expanse of barren ground, burned due to the war, and eventually declared a neutral ground. It was a dead zone between territories where the Versipellis and the Vrykolakas could tread without consequences.There, a cloaked figure stood. He was an emissary, but his figure did not cast any shadow on the ground.Marcus noticed the anomaly and cast the emissary a questioning look which he ignored.He had come to the old boundary stone out of instinct more than strategy. He knew in his gut that he needed to be there. The war front line had gone quiet. Too quiet. His soldiers were uneasy and came up with various theories. The soldiers murmured of a storm coming, but Marcus knew it wasn’t the weather they sensed.It was him. The storm that brewed within.And there was also something else.The wind carried no scent, yet the moment Marcus stepped into the clearing of scorched earth with bones blackened by old fire littered around, he

CHAPTER 85A Century AgoIt was the dead of night when Marcus returned to the ruins beneath the Vale. Sometimes he felt like his body was being controlled by the heart and not by him. This was not a dream or a vision as he was driven purely by instincts, he journeyed in silence, not sure who the pilot of his body was.The Vale looked different from the last time he saw it. The sharp glow of the runes was no more. The absence of the heart had taken a toll on the chamber. The veins lost their vitality and had already withered, and there, among the whispering stones and half-dead runes, he found it.It was a small carved stone. It looked ancient and powerful, broken in half but thumping with great power. It was a weapon forged from the earth, bones, and shadows, cold to the touch yet pulsing with heat beneath the surface, as if something lived inside. It felt too ancient for him to understand or even describe the materials for its creation.It looked like a small, simple dagger without a

CHAPTER 87A Century AgoThe war encampment was still, the atmosphere filled with tension and heaviness. They did not have to speak but the tension in their shoulders was palpable. The war room echoed with movement, maps rolled, armors fitted, scouts reporting every breeze passing over the eastern ridge. Wolves trained from sunrise till dawn, the clanging of steel and barking of orders rising like thunder down the mountain. But beneath it all there was an eerie silence.Heavy.Like the first waiting for the flame.Irene moved through the camp like a ghost. To the soldiers, she was her usual composed, strategic, and regal self. She reviewed formation changes, assessed reports, and consulted directly with the high generals. But under the surface, a storm was brewing within her. She was physically present but she wasn’t fully with them. She was torn. The secret of the relic pulsing beneath her floorboards weighed on her chest. It didn’t help that she could hear it whisper through her

CHAPTER 89A Century AgoMarcus staggered back and shook his head in denial. Whatever this was had to be a cruel joke. What did the heart mean by return, rend, and reset?Reset?The word echoed through him like a bell in a drowned cathedral. The realization struck him like lightning. He thought they would fight and suppress their enemies and they would all bow to him in reverence but now…“You don’t want peace.”“Peace? Peace is a cage. Peace is decaying. This world has stagnated. Stifled under the weight of its survival. I will restore it to what it once was and rid the world of the weak inhabitants that have tainted it.”“But the war took everything from us," Marcus argued.“The war gave you purpose.” The heart whispered seductively.“Don’t twist this,” Marcus snapped.“Tell me, what would you be without the war?” The heart mumbled. “Your kind wouldn’t even exist without it.”“I would be happy with my family.” He deadpanned.The heart laughed sardonically. “And that’s it? Is that wh