Chapter 354: _Kill Her

Kyren’s POV

*****

The silver chains binding him seemed to tighten every time he dared even move an inch. He ground his teeth, his wolf—a once silent beast—clawing at the fringes of his most feral instincts.

Ahead of him Amara just stood.

Watching.

Her lips were stretched in a smirk as she swiped blood off her fingers—the blood of his commander.

Kyren remembered how Farrell just exploded—the look in his eyes before he died. The silent plea for him not to even bother saving him.

Yet he did try saving him. And failed miserably.

“Elian.” For yet another moment, he reached out to his mate through their bond. “Can you… hear me…?”

Something was wrong.

Originally since Amara bound him to this spot, he was at least able to feel Elian. Feel him desperately trying to reach out as well. Hear him calling his name.

Now?

He couldn’t feel anything at all. It wasn’t as if the bond was broken—no. He’s experienced something close to that once and this wasn’t it at all.

This felt like someone took his little flame and buried him in the heart of a neutron star. Under all that energy or whatever was clouding Elian… he couldn’t feel him at all.

Kyren’s head snapped up, his crimson eyes igniting with a deadly light. “What have you done?”

Amara arched her brow. “You’ve got to be more specific, dear.”

‘Kill.’ A dark, consuming force stirred in his chest, erupting from his mana core. ‘The restriction is broken, Nochthane. Kill… her.’

Indeed, he could feel a violent shift in the magic flowing through his veins.

His eyes flickered erratically, darkening then brightening like a dying star struggling to give out its last burst of light.

Amara’s head tilted. “Oh?” Realisation seemed to dawn in her tone. “Something has changed, hasn’t it? All that power I’m sensing inside you…”

The only reason the ruby necklace—his core’s seal—would be activated was if Elian’s life was at dire risk. And the fact he couldn’t sense the bond at all—

—Suddenly, Dark land sky crafts whooshed through the air overhead. They headed for the capital city, their streamlined black bodies gleaming under the bloated red sunlight.

“Look what we have here,” Amara chuckled dryly. “The Cavalry has arrived. Hopefully, they have people to save in that city. I—”

BOOM!

Crescent arcs of crimson energy shot out of Kyren’s chest, hacking off the chains like a knife through butter. He roared as a crimson energy beam exploded out of him, connecting with the skies until the clouds blackened.

The High Matron’s smug expression instantly wiped off her face. She inched back a couple of steps, placing an arm over her eyes.

Sand and unforgiving desert winds swirled around Kyren like a living storm. His long white hair snaked around his form as he hovered off the ground.

For the first time since she stepped foot on the Dark Land’s red sands… Amara’s features distorted with fear.

Primal.

Real.

She stretched out a hand, attempting to cast a teleportation spell.

Too late.

Runes erupted from the ground, searing hot with the wrath of Kyren’s transcendent magic. They blocked spatial manipulation of any kind within the entirety of Noctreth.

Cracks spiderwebbed under the Rogue king as he pointed a palm at his mother.

ZREEEEEK!

Lightning bolts lanced out of each finger, forking toward her. She flew off the ground, attempting an aerial escape.

“FACE ME YOU COWARD!” Kyren laughed maniacally, clenching his fist hard. “FACE THE MISTAKE YOU FAILED TO DELETE!”

One lightning bolt struck the ground, missing Amara’s feet by a few inches. But the others pinned her like homing missiles, sizzling through the air as they followed her without cease.

Kyren propelled himself higher, the force making the earth below him shatter for several meters. Amara’s pupils widened as she narrowly dodged another bolt.

But the others still followed, their creator joining the chase.

Mother and son flew over the capital city, the energies from their battle crumbling high-rise buildings and forcing the survivors on the streets to hide.

Without looking back, Amara flung numerous attacks at Kyren. Fireballs the size of buildings. Energy blasts powerful enough to split mountains.

None of them made Kyren stop for even a second. The ones he couldn’t dodge or block—he tore through, ignoring the burns and full-body aches.

At one point Amara managed to look back.

Just in time to witness Kyren come to a sharp halt mid-air. Not because he was worn out though. Far from it.

He spread out his arms, twisting his wrists before pulling them toward his chest. The motion made a pressuring invisible force slam into Amara’s back.

The Rogue king didn’t end there, telekinetically gripping her in place. He made an inward pull motion, dragging her across the Noctreth skyline like a ragdoll.

At this point they’d gotten to the very edge of the capital city, having flown across hundreds of miles within seconds.

Somehow, Amara could still grin through her seemingly perilous situation. “You think I consider you a mistake?” She shook her head, paying no heed to how she was being pulled closer. “Boy, I never considered you one. You are my—”

Kyren lunged.

The sonic boom was so devastating that the sky split and glass buildings shattered below. He pulled out a black blade, aiming it at her chest.

When the blade ripped through her cloak, then skin, then flesh and bones—he felt all of it. When it tore her heart to shreds he felt it.

The warm blood splattering on his face and suit only made him twist the blade harder. Then he dragged it down, leaving her left arm a shredded, dangling, bloody mess.

What annoyed the lord of the Dark Lands more than anything as her entrails rained on his capital city… was the psychotic curve of her lips even in the face of death.

She leaned in until her mouth brushed against his earlobe. “… I was going to say,” blood gurgled out of her mouth. “You are my second greatest creation. Only after the moon blessed.”

Those words made his core pulse with agitation. But then she added:

“Alas, you’re still so foolish. Did you really think I’d send myself to the Dark Lands if what I wanted didn’t even involve the Divine crystal?”

The words ‘send myself’ snapped Kyren out of his murderous haze. He blinked, taking in his mother’s face.

Her once beautiful features warped, peeling off until all that was left was a cracked black skull. Her cloak and the rest of her body also faded away, leaving behind an all too familiar figure.

An umbra beast.

The creature laughed, carrying a distorted mix of his mother’s voice and something else. “You already lost this round, Rogue King. By now your precious Omega should be no more.”

Kyren’s blade disappeared.

He seized the creature’s neck, whispering. “I know you’re listening somewhere out there, mother,” his grip tightened. “This isn’t over.”

“Oh, but it is.” The creature kept on laughing—until Kyren incinerated it completely in a burst of red flames.

He withdrew his hand, his eyes flitting first to the city below.

The destruction. The burning buildings. The wails of the injured and those who lost loved ones.

It all made his chest tighten with something annoyingly painful.

He should stay back for his people. To put things in place now that his most trusted commander was gone.

But he couldn’t.

Not with Elian’s fate uncertain.

His spatial manipulation block vanished around the city right as a portal began forming beside him. He glanced one last time at Noctreth.

Then he disappeared, burning obsidian light swallowing him whole.