"Show how badly you want on your side."
A cold wind blew softly against the cave walls.
Not a real wind, but a chilling coldness nevertheless that grazed the surface of the skin.
Hearing such a bold and disrespectful request made Gistella's blood run cold.
She was seething behind Tharulf.
Nothing would please her more right now than ripping Tharulf's head from his body.
But she held herself back.
It wasn't only her.
Evelyn's face also turned grim when she heard this.
"Don't make that kind of face, it doesn't scare ," Tharulf chuckled lightly, looking at Evelyn with a lot of hubris, and then to Gistella, not concerned at all. "The Royal Black Prince dread of a peaceful world. A world where everyone worked together instead of fighting against each other. I should not be afraid from the start, it was wrong of …"
"Other than that Berserk Beta, none of you has the choice to kill !" He laughed humorously.
Kyran dared to kill them, yes, but that was because of his anger.
For the other Silverstar Pack mbers, none of them could since that would steer away from the Royal Black Prince's dream, the dream all of them were trying to achieve. Even in the other cities that fell, the Alpha Pris were mostly blackmailed into surrendering.
Had they held their ground, Evelyn wouldn't be able to do anything to them.
Like right now, all she could do was let go of them.
Slaughtering the rebelling Alpha Pris, though, might be necessary, which would make her look bad to the Alpha Pris on her side. She couldn't do that, none of the Silverstar Pack mbers could do that. And perhaps, that's the reason the Royal Black Prince wasn't present.
So that there's little to no bloodshed in this war.
"Co on then, I don't have all night!" Tharulf pressed further. "It's going to be harder to convince if you hesitate like this, Your Majesty."
Evelyn swallowed hard, maintaining strong eye contact.
Then, she nodded subtly.
She has no other choice—this was the only way.
Preparing herself ntally, Evelyn took the hardest first step forward.
"Evelyn, you can't be ser-"
"Stop."
Gistella tried to stop her, but Evelyn wasn't going to be swayed from this.
Exhaling roughly, she approached Tharulf further and stopped when she was right in front of him.
Tharulf smirked, his eyes gleaming with arrogance.
"Go on, I'm waiting."
Pausing for a second, Evelyn kept her gaze on Tharulf before she eventually tilted her head down.
She seed to be going through with this, regardless of how humiliating it would be.
'Even if she knelt to , I wouldn't surrender. I promised her nothing.' Tharulf chuckled inside.
So eager that he couldn't hide his nasty grin anymore.
As Evelyn's body moved, seemingly going down to kneel, she stopped and looked at Tharulf again, and reached out her slender hand, and placed it against his chest, "As the Empress—I will do anything for the Empire because the empire is the representation of his growth. He went from vengeful to sothing a lot better. But ultimately, all I do is for him."
Upon hearing this, Tharulf raised an eyebrow, "Getting cold feet? A sha."
Before he could move, Evelyn continued.
"You misunderstood sothing," She said, smiling faintly. "He sent here because your prince, Prince Alaric, begged him not to eradicate the Werewolf race. It's not that we can't kill you, but we are filtering which one to kill."
For a second there, Tharulf tilted his head, surprised.
A chilling sense of coldness seeped into his bones.
"I ca here as judge, jury, and executioner," Evelyn added, smiling chillingly.
Stab!
A painful growl escaped Tharulf's mouth as sothing stabbed him through his chest, causing a burn.
His eyes snapped to his chest, and he realized what it was.
In Evelyn's hand was a big silver needle that she held with gloved hands.
Judging from the energy it was emanating, and the burn it caused to his skin, it was clearly a bane.
Pure, enhanced silver forged into a needle.
Realizing what it was, Tharulf imdiately staggered back and fell to one knee, clutching his chest with a hand. His eyes bulged in anger as he imdiately activated his King Mark, but doing so only caused more harm to his body.
It caused the puncture wound to burn hotter, searing the skin and fur around it.
Sothing that caught him completely off guard.
Doing sothing like this to him is no simple feat.
Evelyn must've used sothing.
"What is this…?"
"Pure silver that is engraved by a rune to amplify its potency."
"What?!"
Tharulf sucked in a cold breath.
His eyes were fixated on the big silver needle in disbelief and shock.
A lot of questions swirled inside his mind, fortunately, Evelyn was going to answer all of them.
"Normal silver could affect Werewolves up to the sixth-rank realm and lose its effect gradually to those above that realm. With the Second Breath, silver turned into pure silver, and it can affect even those at the ninth-rank realm. But I suppose it's not enough for you, so I asked the Dwarves to brand a rune to it."
Hearing this, Tharulf blinked in shock.
A frown crept to his face.
He knew about pure silver and how it could be enhanced, so his shock didn't co from that.
What he didn't understand was how he didn't sll it and how Evelyn wasn't affected by it.
Considering that he, a strong Alpha Pri, was now on his knees with one stab, Evelyn would also be in the sa boat or worse. No matter how unique the Silverstar Pack Werewolves are, resisting silver is impossible.
"Of course, I asked the Dwarves to make a glove too," Evelyn said, clasping her hands in front of her stomach gracefully, showing the two white gloves she was wearing. "The properties of the gloves masked the scent, so you can't sll them."
Tharulf was blindsided.
He wasn't expecting Evelyn to do this after she let him go.
Behind him, Gistella looked at Evelyn in shock.
She didn't know about this.
In fact, all she knew was that they were going to try and convince Tharulf one last ti before the axe.
Evelyn glanced at her aningfully, before she focused back at the situation at hand.
"This is a bluff, exactly like what you pulled—with Krynda," Tharulf growled through clenched teeth, hissing in pain. The silver had already begun to stiffen the flesh around the wound, cutting off his energy flow, crippling both his moonlight energy and kingly enery. "You wouldn't dare kill . If you do, and the other Alpha Pris find out, fear will take root. They'll think they're next for slaughter—they will scatter. So don't pretend to be ruthless. I won't be manipulated or persuaded."
Despite the conviction in his voice, believing that this was a bluff, Evelyn remained smiling.
A neutral smile that didn't show any sign of yes or no.
"A Luna has a stronger scent than any Werewolves, that's what made their Alpha calr around them." Evelyn opened her mouth again, stepping closer, which caused Tharulf to flinch. "But I knew that the scent is not only attractive to Alphas, but also to other creatures. Wild animals, for instance, specifically feline animals."
"In this mont, Order Beasts ruled the world," She continued and raised a finger, twirling it as if she was gesturing to the entire world. "And flanking us right now are two forests filled with Order Beasts. So are even strong enough to kill you…"
Upon hearing this, Tharulf's eyes widened.
He looked around the cave, seeing that there were only he, Evelyn, and Gistella.
Nobody else other than them.
"You… You set up." He rasped as the color was drained from his face.
Evelyn clapped her hands lightly and bent down to look him in the eyes.
"You see, I never truly intended to let you go free," She said, her tone calm, almost pitying, as her eyes narrowed. "As you pointed out, if I had let Kyran kill you then and there—or if I had done it myself, it would have spooked too many Alpha Pris, especially those who've only recently had a change of heart."
Her voice softened, but the weight of her words struck like a blade.
"All of your pack mbers… the ones you sent ahead, they are dead. Every last one. I sent Kyran to wait until you ca to to kill them. And you? You were mine." She said with finality in her tone, as if giving a death verdict to a criminal.
Tharulf was completely stunned.
Instead of breaking down, he gritted his teeth and tried to reach for Evelyn.
If he was going to go down, he'll take Evelyn with him.
But he was far too slow.
Evelyn slitted his throat with the pure silver needle, leaving behind a line of blood across his neck.
Being so close to the brain, the pure silver worked quickly.
Almost instantly, Tharulf began to choke—his throat swelling grotesquely, each breath more strained than the last. His hands clawed at his neck in desperation as his airway closed, eyes bulging with sheer desperation, veins rising across his skin like bursting rivers.
His body convulsed violently, knees buckling, muscles twitching as the blood failed to reach his brain.
Evelyn watched in silence, her gaze sharp and unflinching, looking down on him without pity.
She watched closely until his last, faltering breath slipped away.
Once his body beca still, she nodded firmly.
Despite the surprises of the night, that was quite stressful, she learned one thing today.
Even a ninth-rank realm entity could die so peacefully, silently, without causing any destruction.
A clean death, which was far better than he deserved.
It was then, her eyes landed on Gistella, who was watching her with skeptical eyes.
"I've never seen this side of you before," She said with a timid voice.
Gistella could tell from how Evelyn handled the other cities and the situation in Imla City that she has changed. She was now soone else. But this? How she defeated Tharulf? It went far beyond. She was colder, more distant.
She didn't even know that Kyran was sent to kill Tharulf's pack mbers.
Just like him, Gistella was also genuinely surprised.
Upon hearing this, Evelyn sucked in a deep breath and exhaled through her nose.
"The Empire needed a replacent while Rex is away. I added my flavor to the approach, giving them as many chances as I could to convince them to change sides," She said and paused, contemplating the next words she was going to say. "But if my ways failed, I promised myself—that I would execute Rex's approach without hesitation."
She looked at Gistella, profoundly this ti.
A new flicker behind her eyes, this one stronger and more resolved.
"And I did it without hesitation." Evelyn nodded firmly.
If Rex were here, he wouldn't hesitate to kill soone like Tharulf who dared to oppose him openly.
Showing rcy would make them look weak.
And right now, with Rex being away, Evelyn couldn't afford to have the empire look weak.
In the case of that happening, other forces would be bolder, and soone would find out that Rex was away, which would put the empire at risk of being attacked. As the Luna and the Empress, she promised herself not to let it get to that.
Hearing this, Gistella smiled and shook her head, "I understand."
Evelyn headed for the entrance.
But as she was shoulder to shoulder with Gistella, she continued teasingly, "Your Majesty."
Evelyn smiled lightly and went on ahead.
At this mont, she was reborn.
And for the first ti in the longest ti, she felt like she could own up to Rex's expectations.
She can be strong.
"Don't eat him. Grab his body and toss him into the forest. Let's give a snack for the animals—We are going to attack the fortress in one hour."
"I'm on it."
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