CHAPTER 282: 282: MISSING LUNA AND MIRYAM

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Her wings trembled in mid glide as they rose through the final stretch of the pressure zone. The air was thick like syrup made from fear. The world felt warped, light bending unnaturally around the pulsing red mist. A single heartbeat thumped through the sky like a war drum.

Kai turned to Lirien, who sat behind him, arms braced tightly against his waist. "You alright?"

Her jaw clenched. "This... this is not normal. This is something like a nightmare. Something older."

Azhara groaned. "I think I peed a little. I’m either terrified or turned on."

"Both," Sha deadpanned.

Vel reached for her, throwing needles like weapons. "I can’t even throw one without it falling like a pebble."

Kai gritted his teeth and focused. "Hold on. We’re almost out."

With one final surge, Alka beat her wings furiously and pushed through the last veil of suffocating air. The moment they passed the boundary, the world snapped back into clarity. The pressure lifted. The sky brightened. Birds chirped again somewhere far away.

They had escaped the nightmare like aura pressure. Everyone exhaled at once, like emerging from underwater.

Kai stared back toward the horizon.

The red mist remained in place, swirling like a living wound in the sky. The predator beast, still in mid fight, dove in and out of the fog like it was battling a ghost. Whatever it faced... was no ordinary creature.

Lirien whispered, "That was not of this world."

Azhara wiped her brow. "Can we just pretend we didn’t see it? I vote we forget it and find some warm hotsprings with snacks."

Kai shook his head. "That wasn’t random. That red mist came here on purpose."

Vel narrowed her eyes. "You think it sensed you?"

"Maybe. Or maybe it’s just hunting," Kai replied. "Either way, we are not strong enough to fight it. Not yet."

Akayoroi’s eyes glowed with solemn pride. "Then we will grow stronger."

Sha looked ahead. "How far are we from the mountain?"

Kai raised his hand and closed his eyes for a second, letting the predator instincts guide him. Then he opened them again, face calm.

"Seven or eight days. If we push harder, maybe less. Once we reach the base, we begin building. Defenses. The forge. Homes for our people."

Naaro frowned. "And if that thing comes back?"

"Then we make sure we are not the ones running next time."

The air around them settled again.

Kai sat straighter on Alka’s back, gaze locked on the eastern horizon where Monarch Mountain waited. It loomed like a promise, high and untamed. Home. His kingdom-to-be.

He looked over his shoulder at the girls. Each had different expressions.

Sha’s calm calculation. Azhara’s sly grin. Vel’s cautious optimism. Naaro’s quiet readiness. Akayoroi’s regal grace. Lirien’s focused fire. The twins hugged each other and murmured to be stronger. The four injured sisters passed out from running, they fell asleep as soon as they came out of the aura pressure zone. And Alka’s occasional bird noises that might have been obscenities.

He smiled faintly. "Let’s fly home."

With a sharp command, Alka shot forward.

They soared high into the golden light of morning, leaving behind the cursed red mist and the monster battle that cracked the skies. The wind roared past them. Hope returned with each flap of Alka’s wings.

Below them, the Wild Realms unfolded like a tapestry of danger and promise. And ahead, a mountain waited for its king.

.

.

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Night had blanketed the world in quiet darkness. Three days had passed without trouble, and the stars shimmered above the distant forest horizon like tiny fires of their own. Everyone had fallen asleep around the camp, curled in furs, leaning on each other, or drooling on someone else’s shoulder. Even Azhara, who usually snored loud enough to shake the ants antennae, was dead quiet tonight. That was either ominous or a sign of divine peace.

A vast stretch of forest loomed behind them, cloaked in the deep navy of midnight. The canopy swayed in silence, as if even the trees were holding their breath. The sky above was smeared with stars, a blanket of light so thick it looked painted on by a lazy sky. Crickets chirped far in the distance. A lone owl hooted, then stopped, almost as if it, too, had second thoughts.

Around the center fire, his companions were sprawled in varying stages of undignified sleep.

Azhara, the infamous hot seductress, was curled around a boar-pelt like a cat. Her tail twitched slightly with every silent snore. She had her face shoved into a loaf of bread she had claimed as a pillow. Despite her usual chainsaw volume snoring, tonight she was oddly silent. Too silent.

Sha had collapsed face first into a moss patch, only her antennae twitching occasionally like ghost sensors.

The assassin twins Xxx and Xxx were somewhere near the tree, one muttering in her sleep about "poison ratios" while the other whispered "Kai is too handsome" like it was a prayer.

The entire group was asleep, dead to the world. And that made Kai’s instincts twitch with unease.

He sat alone near the campfire, his legs crossed, his back straight, and his hands resting on his knees. His carapace gleamed with a thin sheen of moonlight, the faint gold filigree on his forearms catching every shimmer of the flames. The fire had long since burned to gentle coals, crackling quietly.

But his mind was not on firewood. Not in the strange world he had been tossed into. Not even on the growing number of perverts he had to protect his people from.

He was thinking about home. About them. His eyes were half closed, a flicker of warmth spreading in his chest.

Monarch Mountain. That towering fortress of stone and love, where every corridor echoed with laughter or arguments about proper nesting etiquette.

Luna. His rabbit girl. His warrior. His wife.

She had fought beside him through blood and pain, shoulder to shoulder, tooth to paws. She snarled at diplomats and comforted orphans with the same hand. Her charm scent lingered in his memory like cinnamon and snowfall.