Chapter 24
781words
I walked toward the altar, each step crunching on the sharp rocks.
The gunfire behind me had faded, and a strange silence fell over the canyon.
Everyone was watching me.
Watching me walk to my death.
"Hahaha!" The rebel leader saw me approaching alone and let out a triumphant laugh. "The little princess of Silver Moon didn't disappoint!"
He dragged Byron down from the top of the altar, step by step.
"You know," his voice echoed through the canyon, "I thought it would take more effort to lure you out. I didn't expect you to take the bait so easily."
I kept walking, not responding to his taunts.
But my mind was fully extended, carefully sensing every detail of the altar.
The power of my bloodline allowed me to "see" the flow of energy inside it.
I saw seven critical energy nodes, pulsing like hearts deep within the stone.
If I could destroy just three of them, the entire altar would fail.
"Come on, a little closer," the leader continued to tempt me. "Let me see just how powerful the legendary Ancestor's Bloodline really is."
I stopped five meters from the altar.
This was the edge of the danger zone.
One more step, and the altar would sense my bloodline and begin the forced extraction.
"What's wrong? Scared?" the leader mocked. "The great new Queen is just a coward after all."
"I'm not afraid of death," I said calmly. "I'm merely wondering when a sewer rat like you earned the right to speak of legends."
The leader's face instantly darkened.
"What did you say?"
"I said that you scum of the North only deserve to plot in secret from your basements," my voice was filled with contempt. "A true king never needs to rely on stolen power."
"Shut your mouth!" the leader roared in fury. "We are the true Northern royal line! We have the right to rule the entire werewolf world!"
"True line?" I sneered. "A bunch of exiled traitors dare to call themselves royalty?"
As I engaged in this war of words, I noticed Byron's movements.
Though he was bound by silver chains and extremely weak, he was trying to create an opening for me.
He made himself dead weight against the leader's arm, forcing the man to adjust his grip. He scraped his boots against the stone, a tiny, grating sound meant to pull focus.
Every tiny action was buying me precious time.
Allowing me to analyze the altar's weaknesses more carefully.
"Enough!" The leader finally lost his patience. "I'm done talking to you!"
He threw Byron hard against the altar and reached for the activation rune in the center.
"If you will not come to the altar, then the altar will come to you!"
The ancient runes began to glow, and the entire altar emitted a blinding silver light.
A powerful suction force instantly enveloped me.
I felt the bloodline within me stir, as if it were about to be ripped from my body.
"It's too late for regrets now!" the leader grinned maliciously. "Your Ancestor's Bloodline will be the source of my power to defeat the Alpha King!"
But just then, a whistling sound cut through the air.
"Now!" I yelled into the comm channel. "Attack the altar!"
It was the signal. From the cliffs above, a rain of fire and steel descended.
The strike teams led by Elias and my father descended like gods, precisely targeting the altar's key energy cores.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The massive explosions shook the entire canyon.
One by one, the altar's internal energy nodes were destroyed.
"No!" the leader cried out in despair. "My altar!"
But it was too late.
Starved of its power source, the altar went wild. The energies within turned cancerous, devouring the very stone that contained them.
The silver light turned into a devastating storm of energy.
The altar began to crumble, huge chunks of stone falling from above.
The leader watched his meticulously planned scheme turn to dust in an instant, his eyes filled with a crazed despair.
Just then, a familiar figure stepped out from the altar's shadow.
Ariana.
Her face was covered in scars, her clothes torn, but her eyes burned with the same insane hatred as the leader's.
"If I can't have it, then I'll destroy everything!" she shrieked, pulling out a crystal that pulsed with black light.
It was some kind of forbidden weapon of destruction.
The leader saw her and a final, hideous grin spread across his face.
He pulled Ariana into a final, mad embrace.
"If we are to burn," he screamed at us, his voice cracking with insane glee, "then you will all burn with us!"
