Bang.The wooden door flew open and slammed hard against the wall. The sound ripped through the quiet room and shattered the calm of the night.Litixia froze.She had been standing near the window, her thoughts drifting, when the noise snapped her back to reality. Pale corridor light spilled through the glass, outlining her figure in soft shadows. Her long blood red hair fell loosely down her back, vivid and untamed, like wine spilled carelessly over dark fabric. The black gauze dress clung to her body, hiding very little. Her pale neck flowed into gentle curves the cloth barely concealed. One leg rested slightly forward, relaxed, her bare foot just touching the floor.She turned.The moment she saw him, her heart sank.The man standing in the doorway was not the one she had been waiting for.It was Ares Valen.His eyes were red. Not from exhaustion, but bloodshot and unfocused, burning with something raw and unfamiliar. For a brief moment, Litixia could not connect the man before her

Firelight flickered against the stone walls, rising and falling like a living thing. In that restless glow, Ares Valen’s body burned red, flushed so deeply it looked almost fevered. Sweat coated his skin, catching the light as it slid along the hard lines of his muscles. His frame still gleamed with strength, tight and honed, as if the heat itself had shaped him.The air around him felt heavy. Hot. Each breath seemed to carry the weight of his presence, thick with heat and something far more dangerous. It was not subtle. Nothing about him was. Standing near him felt like standing too close to an open flame, drawn in even as instinct warned of the danger.His movements were relentless.Each powerful motion came down like rain pounding against a storm-swollen sea. Again and again, rising and crashing, never gentle, never slow. Litihia had stopped reacting long ago. Her body lay limp beneath him, breath faint and uneven, consciousness already gone. She was no longer a participant, only s

Ares Valen had not slept.Not in any way that truly mattered.The night had passed in broken pieces. Short moments of stillness followed by restless thoughts. Shallow breaths that never settled into rhythm. The lingering taste of decisions left unfinished, hanging at the edge of his mind like unanswered questions.By the time dawn finally arrived, he was already standing beneath the open sky.The first light broke through the clouds slowly, staining them with soft shades of rose and gold. The sun rose with hesitation, as though uncertain whether it should reveal itself so fully. It reminded Ares of a timid young girl peeking out from behind a door, curious about the world but not yet brave enough to step into it.Warmth spread across the land.The mist from the night before retreated, dissolving under the sun’s quiet insistence. A gentle breeze followed, steady and calm, gliding over the surface of the Lannon River. The water caught the light and scattered it into long, wavering bands

A mammoth was not simply large.Size alone did not explain it.A mammoth was violence shaped into flesh, patience hardened into muscle, and ancient rage pressed into bone. The kind of creature that did not need to announce its danger because its presence did that for it.At first glance, someone careless might mistake it for an ordinary elephant. That mistake would last only a heartbeat. Look again and the truth revealed itself fast. The tusks were too long, stretching far beyond anything nature should have allowed. They curved upward in cruel arcs, like crescent blades carved from bone and iron. The skull rose unnaturally high, heavy and dominant, giving the head a brutal authority. Its spine bent into a deep hunch, as though centuries of battle had pressed down upon it.From the side, its back formed the highest point of its body before dropping sharply toward the rear. A deep hollow sat at the base of its neck, as if something immense had once rested there and never fully left.Thi

Black and white wisps drifted through the air, thin and wavering, like the final remnants of a dream that refused to disappear. They moved without sound, curling gently as they floated closer, until they slipped into Lord Arven’s body through his nose and ears. A moment later, they were gone, as if something far deeper than flesh had swallowed them whole.The instant the faint glow vanished, Emperor Ares Valen felt his world collapse.Pain exploded inside his skull.It felt as though his head had been torn open from the inside, split apart by an unseen force. A deafening roar filled his mind, so loud it drowned out every other sound. His body convulsed violently. Muscles locked. His vision blurred. It was as if lightning had struck him again and again, each strike tearing through bone and nerve.Blood surged through the veins at his temples, pounding so hard it felt like his head might burst. The pain was not shallow. It did not remain in his body alone. It climbed upward from somewhe