Dragon Child’s tone was sharp and impatient. The others had been so engrossed in their chatter that they seed to forget she was still crouched beside Leo, pouring her strength into water-based healing magic just to keep him breathing. The man had been mauled beyond recognition—more than thirty wounds carved into his flesh, each one a grotesque reminder of whoever had attacked him. It was a miracle he was still alive.
Earlier that day, the Whitmore family had felt a tremor ripple through the sealed entrance to their Hidden Territory. Soone had forced it open from the outside. Markham had rushed there first, assuming the missing Leo had finally returned on his own. But when they arrived, they found him collapsed inside the Territory itself—unconscious, mangled, and barely clinging to life.
They carried him in panic to the ancestral hall. No one expected that Leo wasn’t the only outsider who had entered. Starfall, who as a child had once lived here under the care of Overlord Caelum, had also found his way back. And he, unlike anyone else, knew how to unseal the gate.
"Don’t worry. He won’t die," Starfall said calmly, glancing at Leo after Dragon Child snapped at the others.
"Won’t die? Do you even know how he was hurt?" Victor demanded, his voice edged with disbelief.
"I don’t know who injured him," Starfall admitted, "but I’m the one who brought him here."
Victor stepped forward, trying to control his agitation. "Then, sir, may I ask—where did you find him?"
"In Ember City."
The hall grew quiet as Starfall recounted the story.
After parting ways with them previously, he had returned to the ancient tomb from which he had first erged. There, he stabilized the rotting aura that had been eating away at him and achieved progress beyond anything he had known before. His sanity gradually returned. His first thought was to piece together what had truly happened all those years ago.
From the Whitmore family, he learned of his capture and what followed. A woman—June, his wife—had slaughtered every mber of the Noble Eight Lineages who had dared act against him. The deaths had been brutal, every one of them inflicted with thods so vicious that even hardened elders had shuddered. Yet in his mory, June had been nothing more than an ordinary woman with no power to wield.
Driven by disbelief, he began visiting the other families one by one, sparing only the Silverwoods and Whitmores. Each confird the tale: their forr patriarchs had indeed been slaughtered by a woman who called herself June. For years they had hunted her down, but she had vanished without a trace. Twenty years had passed, and all their thods had turned up nothing.
Starfall knew his own strength was not enough to find her. But if he could not find his wife, he still had hope in their son. He reasoned that June must have hidden the boy sowhere safe; otherwise, the Eight Lineages would have discovered him long ago. None of them had even hinted at the existence of a child.
So he began with the na—Ethan. Searching Ember City, he focused on adopted children and orphans nad Ethan. In the end, one stood out: Ethan of Northeast University, an orphan raised in an institution, his age and history aligning too closely to be coincidence.
Following the trail, Starfall discovered the villa where Ethan lived with Lyla Silverwood. The deed bore her na. The instant he confird her identity, a mory stirred: years ago, at the Silverwood estate, he had seen a young man at Lyla’s side. At that ti his mind had been clouded, so he dismissed the strange sense of familiarity. But now he wondered, could fate really be that deliberate?
Just as he prepared to sneak inside and uncover the truth, he felt a faint, dying aura in the courtyard. Approaching, he found Leo sprawled on the grass, soaked in blood, his breathing shallow. Turning him over, Starfall discovered two words carved into his chest. The first was legible: "Beware..." The second was incomplete, as if etched in a trembling hand. The half-ford word looked like "than." Starfall could not shake the thought that Leo had dragged himself here deliberately, intent on delivering one final warning to Ethan.
The thought unsettled him. Nevertheless, he carried Leo away, intending to take him to the Silverwood estate. At the last mont, though, he diverted to the Whitmore family, rembering Markham’s bond with the youth he suspected to be Ethan. To his surprise, upon entering the Hidden Territory, he found not chaos but peace, the halls alive with powerful guests. Stranger still, two new villas had risen within the Territory as if they had always been there.
Evelyn broke his narrative with a sharp voice. "No, this doesn’t add up. You said when you found him, he was barely alive. Do you realize how far Ember City is from here? He’s still at death’s door even now! By your own account, he should have died long before you arrived. I examined him—he’s had no treatnt at all!"
Starfall chuckled, his tone mocking. "Hah. The daughter of Eva truly is impressive, but you’re missing the point. Am I wrong, Dr. Aldric?" His eyes shifted to the old man seated nearby.
Evelyn turned quickly. "Grandfather? What does he an?"
Dr. Aldric snorted. "Oh, now I’m ’Grandfather,’ am I? Didn’t you just order your brothers to drag away not long ago?"
Evelyn pouted, her cheeks coloring. "Grand... father... you still bring that up at a ti like this?"
The old man sighed, his expression softening. "Enough. The boy won’t die. When have you ever seen turn away from saving a life? I only stopped you earlier because I feared you’d follow your mother’s reckless path. Now, check his heart carefully."
Evelyn obeyed and moved closer to Leo. Before she could finish her inspection, Dragon Child spoke up, her face pale from the strain of her healing. "I already checked. His heart stopped beating long ago. But there’s another power lodged inside it—sothing I’ve been suppressing."
When Evelyn extended her own energy to probe, her eyes widened. "Ghastly aura..." Her voice trembled, and the hall itself seed to grow colder.
Ryan’s face darkened as he rounded on Starfall. "Are you trying to turn him into an undead?"
Starfall only shrugged. "He’s already dead. What else did you expect to do, drag in a rotting corpse? Besides, if that little girl keeps suppressing the aura I planted, then yes—he really will die."
Dragon Child hesitated, glancing at Lyla, Victor, and Williams. Lyla and Victor both nodded slowly. Williams said nothing, though his gaze was fixed grimly on Leo.
At last, Dragon Child drew her hand away. She let out a long breath, her eyes narrowing at Starfall. "I’m nineteen thousand, eight hundred seventy-two years old, not so ’little girl’ like you keep calling ."
The statent left Lyla flustered, tugging Dragon Child aside. "Why are you dragging ? You’re his daughter-in-law, not . And for the record, I despise being called a little girl." Dragon Child crossed her arms, her voice sharp.
"You... I..." Lyla stamred, her face red as she glanced back at Starfall, then turned away abruptly, glaring daggers at Dragon Child instead.
Starfall’s gaze lingered on Lyla, thoughtful and intrigued. She stiffened under his eyes, forcing herself to turn away as if nothing had happened.
"Uncle Starfall!" Victor suddenly called out, half to break the tension, half in amusent. Everyone turned, watching Lyla and Starfall with knowing smiles.
...
anwhile, Ethan remained completely unaware of the turmoil unfolding in the real world. In the boundless Ethereal world, he gripped the Twilight War Spear tightly, its tallic song ringing through the vast hall of the Generals. The echoes were so loud, one might mistake the chamber for a blacksmith’s forge.
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