The Goddess Vessel のすべてのチャプター: チャプター 71 - チャプター 80

VANESSA'S POVThe walk back from the sacred grove was unlike any journey I had ever taken. The very air tasted different-cleaner, sweeter, charged with a vitality that made every breath feel like the first. The forest itself seemed to rejoice; leaves shimmered with a deeper green, flowers bloomed with impossible vibrancy, and the very sunlight felt warmer on my skin. The oppressive sorrow that had clung to the land for centuries was gone, replaced by a profound, thrumming peace.But the most profound change was inside me.The mate bond with Adrien, once a steady, comforting hum in the background of my soul, was now a roaring river. It wasn't just stronger; it was deeper, woven into the very earth beneath our feet and the air we breathed. I could feel his exhaustion as if it were my own, a dull ache in my limbs. I could feel his triumphant relief, a warm glow in my chest that mirrored my own. And beneath it all, I could feel the new, unbreakable connection to the territory itself, a si

VANESSA'S POVThe peaceful hum of the pack bond shattered into a thousand shards of panic and fear. The silent scream of the two missing warriors-Silas and Cora-echoed not through sound, but through the terrifying void they left in the fabric of our connectedness. It was a wound in the pack's soul.Adrien was a blur of motion, his Alpha persona slamming into place like a suit of armor. His voice, cold and sharp as a blade, cut through the rising panic in the mindlink, issuing orders with a brutal clarity that brooked no argument."All patrols, pull back to the inner perimeter! No one crosses the border alone! Gamma, lock down the nursery and the elder's wing. Beta, with me. Now."He turned to me, his eyes holding a storm. "Nessa, with Nolan. See if you can... feel anything else. Anything at all."He didn't wait for a response. He was already striding out the door, Ethan falling into step beside him, both of them shifting into their wolves mid-stride, their forms melting into the darkn

VANESSA'S POVSilence. The void-walker was gone, leaving behind only the chilling echo of its prophecy and the cult leader's maddening laughter. The nets lay in a useless, silver heap on the grass. We hadn't won a victory; we'd intercepted a calling card.Moonhigh.The word hung in the air, a death knell. The eclipse wasn't some distant, abstract threat. It was a countdown, ticking down with the moon's ascent.Adrien moved first. In a blur of motion, he crossed the clearing, grabbed the cult leader by the front of his robes, and hauled him to his feet. "What gateway?" he snarled, his voice vibrating with a fury so intense the air around him seemed to shimmer. "Where?"The leader just laughed, spitting a mouthful of blood onto the ground between them. "You stand on it, Alpha! The grove is not just where the curse was born. It is a place of power. A convergence. The veil between what is and what could be is thin here. The perfect place to tear it open wide!"His eyes, burning with fanat

VANESSA'S POVThe world narrowed to a single point. The roaring battle, the shrieking voids, the shouts of warriors-it all faded into a dull, distant hum. There was only him. Lucas. Standing there as if he owned the very shadows that birthed him, his smirk a vile stain on the face I'd once foolishly loved.Rage, white-hot and absolute, obliterated every other thought. It was a primal thing, a fire that burned away the exhaustion, the fear, the last lingering traces of the girl who had cried over him. This was no longer about the cult, the eclipse, or the pack. This was personal.A guttural snarl ripped from my throat, a sound I didn't know I could make. The silver light around me, which had been fading, erupted anew, not as a protective wave, but as a corona of pure, incandescent fury.I didn't think. I moved.I lunged across the clearing, a streak of vengeful light. Warriors and cultists alike scrambled out of my path. I was a force, a comet of rage aimed directly at the source of my

VANESSA'S POVThe tide had turned. The pack, united and empowered by our shared light, fought like a single, magnificent beast. Warriors who had been on the verge of breaking now fought with a ferocity that pushed the void-walkers back, their shadowy forms dissolving under the concentrated will of the pack. The cultists, their null-magic useless against our collective strength, faltered, their fanatical chants turning to cries of alarm and confusion.But the heart of the infection remained.Through the swirling light and chaos, I saw him. The cult leader. He had broken free from his captors in the initial void-walker surge and now stood near the cleansed altar stone, not fighting, but performing a frantic, desperate ritual. His broken arm hung useless, but his good hand slashed intricate, bloody symbols in the air with a shard of obsidian. He was chanting, his voice a guttural rasp that cut through the din of battle, trying to open his gateway, to unleash whatever final horror he had