“However, not starving is one thing; growing up with power and riches is another. I love being a noble, little brother. I think I am very suitable for enjoying the luxury and power of the world. Don’t you think so?” Cassandra asked, her voice a silk-smooth challenge that draped over the heavy velvet furnishings of her prison tower.Mordi stood rigid, the smell of cheap linen and the lingering aroma of the kitchen's grease a stark contrast to the chilled, expensive air of the chamber. He had just heard the devastating, chilling truth: Lord Bright was not preparing for a flood; he was orchestrating one. The reservoir, the symbol of the region’s safety, was a weapon of mass destabilization, designed with treacherous buoyancy walls and hidden space-storage crystals to ensure the water would overflow into Bohemia itself, not the Demon Domain.He knew he possessed the ability to trade his rebellion’s finances for the schematics, a necessary evil, but his sister was now pushing him further, h

The plant was a lie.Rina stared at the sapling, the exhaustion in her mind giving way to a new, intense confusion. It was barely a foot high, yet its leaves, the color of newly minted gold and jade, pulsed with an impossible, warm light. In the gloom of the Troll Forest’s edge, under the heavy, chilling rain, it radiated vitality that felt alien and sacred.Rina had cataloged plants for years in the archives—her unkillable, forgotten past life—sifting through records of forgotten species. Nothing matched this. It was too perfect, too potent.She lifted a trembling hand, tracing the faint golden light of its leaves. As her fingers neared the foliage, the atmosphere around the plant suddenly shifted. The gentle, incessant rain that had been falling for hours, the light prelude to the catastrophic deluge she had averted, suddenly intensified.It wasn't just heavier; it was concentrated. A thousand years’ worth of rainfall seemed to converge on this single spot. The rain hammered down, t

The Golden Cage and the Empty CoreThe Golden City of Aethelgard did not merely sit upon the land; it rose out of it like a crystalline growth.For two weeks, Lord Bright’s magical carriage had glided over the King’s Highway, a ribbon of enchanted white marble that stretched from the outermost borderlands straight to the capital’s core. When they finally crossed the outer wall, the change was instantaneous and dizzying.Outside, the common districts were a cacophony of mud-brick tenements, smoke, and the weary movements of common folk in hand-spun clothes. The air was thick with the smells of charcoal and stale humanity. The road itself, a mix of packed dirt and loose gravel, was scarred by deep ruts.The moment the carriage passed beneath the colossal, Aether-illuminated gate—a masterpiece of ancient runic architecture that glowed with a constant, hummin

The Golden Cage and the Empty CoreThe Golden City of Aethelgard did not merely sit upon the land; it rose out of it like a crystalline growth.For two weeks, Lord Bright’s magical carriage had glided over the King’s Highway, a ribbon of enchanted white marble that stretched from the outermost borderlands straight to the capital’s core. When they finally crossed the outer wall, the change was instantaneous and dizzying.Outside, the common districts were a cacophony of mud-brick tenements, smoke, and the weary movements of common folk in hand-spun clothes. The air was thick with the smells of charcoal and stale humanity. The road itself, a mix of packed dirt and loose gravel, was scarred by deep ruts.The moment the carriage passed beneath the colossal, Aether-illuminated gate—a masterpiece of ancient runic architecture that glowed with a constant, humming silver light—they entered a different reality.Inside, the streets were wide and flawlessly paved with stones that seemed to absor

The Demon’s New ResidentThe sun was a merciless, pale disk as Rina struggled across the dry, cracking earth of the Demon Territory. Every step was a battle against the Obsidian's sheer, unnatural mass. She had dragged the three colossal blocks, secured in the tough Elephant Reed netting, across the border, bypassing the main roads entirely. This land, once fertile and cursed by Lord Bright’s engineered flood, was now a desolate, sprawling scar—a perfect sanctuary.The sheer, exposed cliff face of the Aether Channel loomed in the distance, a reminder of the disaster she had averted, and the immense power she was fighting against. She needed absolute anonymity, and the Demon Territory, abandoned by the Capital and avoided by the few remaining demonkin, offered just that.Rina pushed on until she found what she was seeking: a deep, sheltered crevice hidden behind the root network of a petrified, ancient tree—a silent casualty of the drought and flood cycles. The space was tight, access