The metallic tang of fresh blood hung heavy in the freezing air, clashing with the scent of pine and falling snow.It took less than twenty seconds. That was all the time Aroan needed to erase the remaining two Lunaris border guards from existence. There was no grand duel, no clash of honor. It was simply an execution. The pockmarked guard didn't even have the chance to fully draw his silver broadsword. Before his blade could leave its scabbard, Aroan had already closed the five-meter gap. The *Shadow Step* technique was not just a movement skill; it was a manipulation of spatial presence. To the guard’s eyes, Aroan didn't run—he simply flickered out of reality and reappeared right in front of him.SHLUCK.Aroan didn't use his hands this time. From beneath his tattered black cloak, a pitch-black, blunt obsidian blade thrust forward. The Eclipse Blade. It had no edge, no sharpened point, yet it pierced through the guard’s silver-plated chest armor as if it were made of wet parchment.

The howling wind of the Valley of Wails carried jagged snowflakes that bit into the skin like shards of broken glass. Yet, for the one-armed boy lying in a pool of his own freezing blood, the biting cold seemed to vanish entirely.His attention was wholly consumed by the black flame dancing at the tip of Aroan’s index finger. There was something fundamentally wrong with that fire; it did not radiate light, but rather devoured the illumination around it. Yet strangely, that abyssal flame offered the one thing the revered gods of light of the Lunaris Pack had never given him: Hope."W-Who are you, really...?" the boy whispered. His voice trembled violently, no longer from the freezing temperature, but from the terrifying density of Aroan’s aura slowly leaking from beneath the Seal of the Void Sovereign."I have already told you my name," Aroan replied, his deep voice carrying the weight of an absolute monarch. "The real question is, what is your name, and are you prepared to throw away

Sector 4 slowly drowned in an eerie silence, broken only by the howling winter wind battering the wet tarp roofs of the slums. Aroan stood atop the ruins of an old crystal factory, his black cloak billowing violently against the blizzard. From this high vantage point, his sharp purple eyes surveyed the hundreds of crippled shifters gathered around a massive bonfire Gael had just built using dry wood procured from the black market. They devoured stale bread and dried meat with ravenous intensity, as if it were the most extravagant feast they had ever tasted. Several of them cast side-glances upward at Aroan’s silhouette against the night sky, their eyes brimming with a potent mixture of fanatic worship and absolute terror. Aroan felt no warmth at the sight. In the abyssal depths of Velmora, such fragile human emotions had been violently scraped away, replaced entirely by the cold, mechanical calculation of an apex predator."System," Aroan called out in his mind. "Calculate the tota

Silver Peak Palace, Central Territory of the Lunaris Pack.In stark contrast to the freezing blizzard and suffocating poverty of Black Reef Post, the Silver Peak Palace bathed in warm, golden light and nauseating opulence. The Solar Banquet Hall was packed with high-ranking nobles draped in silk embroidered with gold thread. Long oak tables groaned under the weight of roasted venison, exotic fruits, and barrels of elven wine. At the far end of the hall, lounging upon a throne of white ivory adorned with diamonds, sat Valerius.The newly appointed Crown Prince leaned back with a posture of absolute arrogance, idly swirling a glass of deep red wine. Beside him sat Elina, wearing a silver silk dress that clung perfectly to her curves. She smiled sweetly, feeding small cuts of seasoned meat directly into Valerius’s mouth.Resting at the foot of their throne was a massive wolf with fur of pure, spun gold, radiating a potent Rank-A aura. The Great Gold Wolf. It was Valerius’s spirit beast,

The heavy silence at the bottom of the catacomb stairs was broken only by the rhythmic, grating sound of a whetstone scraping against a massive broadsword.Commander Varg, a Rank-C Iron Wolf shifter and Elder Jaxon’s most fiercely loyal guard dog, casually blew a layer of stone dust off his blade. His face, heavily scarred and stitched together, bore an expression of profound boredom. Guarding an underground vault beneath the slums of Black Reef was a degrading task for a warrior of his caliber.Suddenly, his lupine ears twitched. An unnatural, freezing draft of air swept through the subterranean corridor. The torches mounted on the stone walls flickered violently, their flames turning a sickly, pale purple before extinguishing entirely.Varg shot to his feet. His primal predator instincts screamed in alarm. He twirled his broadsword, channeling his metallic mana outward. The magic reinforced his musculature, morphing his skin into a thick layer of dense, grayish steel armor. "Who g