The heavy iron gates of the inner palace groaned shut, a sound like a guillotine blade finding its mark. The "Prince" was gone, tucked away behind gold-leafed stone, but the phantom weight of his gaze remained. It sat on my skin, cold and oily, a predatory mark that refused to be washed away by the evening mist.The cheers didn’t die immediately.They lingered—rolling through the capital like thunder that refused to fade. But beneath it, something else began to surface."Did you see his eyes at the end?" Yan Hu’s voice was barely a breath. He didn't look at me, his focus shifting through the thinning crowd like a soldier checking for an ambush. "He didn't just see us, Chen. He didn't even recognize you, he would have attacked you head-on, or did he? Is this another game?”"He recognized a meal, not me. His eyes are abstract" I said, my voice flat.As we moved through the darkening streets, the atmosphere curdled. In the shadows of the tea houses, the whispers had changed."Third one

We didn’t move immediately.The forest boundary lay behind us, silent now—as if what we had just encountered had never existed. Ahead, the Imperial Capital lay beneath the bruised purple of a pre-dawn sky. It looked peaceful—a sprawling jewel of architecture and power. But to my eyes, the city was no longer a home for the living. It was a feeding trough.No one spoke.Not because there was nothing to say… but because the decision had already been made.Long Wei was the first to break the silence.“It’s getting louder,” he whispered.His voice wasn’t afraid.It was strained.Like a man trying to listen to something too vast for his mind to contain.Yan Hu frowned. “From the forest?”Wei shook his head slowly, eyes unfocused. “No… from the palace. Whatever is inside… it’s waking up faster.”Yan Hu exhaled sharply and turned to me. “Then we wait. Regroup. If this thing is accelerating, rushing in blind—”“A Sovereign does not wait for rot to spread, Yan Hu," I said, my voice like the sn