The scent of bone-corroding herb dust mingled with gunpowder smoke, swept into the Hunting Hall by the night wind. Lin Xi curled up in the throne, the fresh brand on her neck still searing with pain. Every inch of her skin trembled with the lingering shock of Lucifer's forced marking. She clenched the icy "Bone-Eater" dagger in her embrace, its chaotic power whimpering in frustration beneath the suppression of Alpha energy.
The air froze as the Captain of the Guard knelt to report military intelligence. The Eastern Gorge had fallen. Bone-Eater—that poison potent enough to disrupt the Wolf Clan's very essence—now shrouded the front lines like a deathly fog.
Lucifer rose, his cloak fluttering behind him. His crimson eyes swept over the collapsed throne, finally settling on Lin Xi's pallid face.
"Can you stand, 'Vessel'?" His voice held no warmth, as if the atrocity had been committed by another.
Lin Xi clenched her teeth, using the dagger for support as she forced herself upright. Her legs trembled, but her spine remained rigid. "I can."
"Good." Lucifer snatched a black robe embroidered with silver patterns and tossed it to her. "Hide your scent. Now, you are my sharpest blade, not an offering on the altar."
The cloak swallowed her scarred body, temporarily shielding her from the blood clan's probing presence in the air. Lucifer turned and strode toward the hall exit, his steps steady as if his earlier loss of control had never occurred.
"Join me on the front lines," he commanded, leaving no room for argument. "Let me see what value the blood clan's carefully prepared 'vessel' holds on a real battlefield."
Lin Xi gripped the dagger tightly, following behind him. The forces within her still raged in conflict, but Lucifer's mark acted like a shackle, forcibly binding the two energies together in a twisted, dangerous, and eerie equilibrium.
They traversed the dim passageway and ascended the highest watchtower of the royal city. Below, the wolf army stood at the ready, though many warriors bore an unnatural ashen pallor and labored breath—the bone-corroding herb had begun its work.
In the distance, the Blood Clan's crimson banners fluttered in the moonlight, like a flowing river of blood. A sickly sweet, putrid stench permeated the air, while the bone-corroding herb's dust glimmered with an ominous sheen under the moonlight.
"Their formation," Lucifer pointed toward the center of the Blood Clan army, where several figures clad in intricate black robes stood clustered around bone vessels that continuously emitted dust. "Destroy those dust-spewers."
Lin Xi narrowed her eyes as Chaos energy gathered at her fingertips. Through Lucifer's mark, she could perceive the dark energy swirling around the robed figures with greater clarity. "They're shielded by a protective barrier. Conventional attacks won't breach it instantly."
"And?" Lucifer turned his head to look at her, his crimson pupils glowing like ghostly flames in the night.
Lin Xi raised her hand, tracing the air with her fingertips. Chaos energy and Alpha energy fused under compulsion, forming several twisted runes. "Give me thirty of the most elite Shadowfangs. I'll flank them, using energy resonance to destroy the barrier's nodes. Then, Your Majesty's main force can launch a frontal assault and tear open a breach."
Lucifer stared at the runes she had drawn. This was not a tactic known to the Wolf Clan. "How do you guarantee success?"
"With my life." Lin Xi met his gaze, fingers beneath her black cloak tightening around a dagger. "If I fail, His Majesty need not act. 'Bone-Eater' will pierce my heart first."
After a brief silence, Lucifer's lips curved into a cruel smile. "Very well. Remember your promise."
He raised his hand, and thirty elite Shadowfang warriors assembled silently like specters. Lucifer personally bestowed upon them a temporary blessing of poison resistance, dark-gold light seeping into their armor.
"Obey the command of 'Shadowblade'." He bestowed the temporary codename upon Lin Xi, his crimson eyes sweeping over each Shadowfang warrior. "Her command is my will."
Lin Xi drew a deep breath, suppressing the surging energy within her. She leapt from the tower first, her black cloak unfurling in the night wind like a hunting owl. Thirty dark figures followed closely, merging into the shadows as they raced toward the flank of the Blood Clan's formation.
As they neared the vampire army, the stench of bone-corroding grass grew overwhelming. Lin Xi felt Lucifer's energy within her rapidly depleting as she fought against the dust's erosion. With her keen sensitivity to energy fluctuations, she pinpointed the weakest node in the barrier's defense.
"Now!" she growled, channeling every ounce of her combined power into the dagger, "Bone-Eater"! The dark blade erupted with blinding light as it plunged viciously toward a point in the void!
"BOOM—!"
The invisible barrier shattered with a sound like breaking glass, and chaotic energy surged outward in an explosive wave! Several black-robed Dust Raisers were struck by the backlash, collapsing with agonized screams as the spreading dust momentarily halted.
Simultaneously, Lucifer's main force surged forward like a black torrent, launching a frenzied frontal assault! Deprived of barrier protection, the Dust Raisers proved no match for the Wolf King's wrath.
Chaos erupted within the Blood Clan's formation.
Lin Xi knelt on one knee, gasping for breath. That single strike had nearly drained her strength, and a tearing pain surged from Lucifer's mark. A Shadowfang reached out to support her, but she waved him away.
She lifted her head, gazing toward the Wolf King battling amidst the distant chaos. As if sensing her gaze, he swung his sword, cleaving a vampire commander in two. His crimson eyes pierced the battlefield, locking with hers across the distance.
In those eyes lay unyielding killing intent, searing possessiveness, and a hint of... icy admiration.
Just then, a familiar, nauseatingly cold consciousness attempted to invade her mind once more. This time it was clearer, more urgent:
"'Vessel'... the hour of your return draws near... break free from your chains..."
Lin Xi's pupils contracted sharply. She clenched the dagger fiercely, and chaotic energy surged in response, severing that thought forcefully!
She rose to her feet, wiping the blood that had spilled from her lips, and looked toward Lucifer's direction.
Shackles?
Which side, exactly, was her true prison?