Chapter 242: The Future No Longer Exists

Inside the ring, there was no explosion, no ruins, and no sign of the chaos consuming the Capital.

The inner world remained silent, white, and seemingly infinite, with that almost complete absence of a horizon that made distance lose part of its meaning.

Victor sat cross-legged on the ground, his physical body unconscious somewhere outside, while Rowena stood a few steps in front of him, completely still.

For the first time since he had met her, she seemed to have absolutely nothing to say.

Her mouth was slightly open.

Victor waited.

Rowena blinked a few times, closed her mouth, and swallowed hard before finally managing to organize her thoughts.

"So..."

"Yes."

"You died."

"Yes."

"And came back."

"Yes."

"To before everything happened."

Victor nodded.

Rowena dragged both hands over her face.

"Fuck."

He let out a small laugh.

She started pacing back and forth.

"Now I understand."

Victor followed her movements with his eyes.

"Understand what?"

"That conversation." Rowena pointed at him. "When you said you knew the future and then kept making that irritating face without wanting to explain anything."

"My face wasn’t irritating."

"It was extremely irritating."

Victor shrugged.

Rowena stopped.

"So you weren’t joking."

"No."

She stared at him for several seconds before sitting on the ground as well.

"This is much more absurd than I expected."

"That’s why I didn’t tell you."

"And you just told me."

"I’m in a coma."

Rowena narrowed her eyes.

"That’s your criterion?"

"I can’t escape the conversation."

"Idiot."

Victor smiled, but Rowena quickly returned to what actually mattered.

"So this attack..."

She became serious.

"Was it that attack?"

Victor lost part of his smile.

"I don’t know."

Rowena frowned.

"How do you not know? You just said you spent all this time preparing to prevent the destruction of the Valentine Family."

"Because I completely destroyed the timeline."

He rested his arms on his knees.

"The event I remember was supposed to happen in less than a year. The Valentine Headquarters would be attacked by the werewolves. The main headquarters would end up destroyed, a large part of the family would die, and my mother would manage to escape with me."

Rowena remained quiet.

Victor continued:

"But almost nothing from that time still exists in the same way."

"Edgar."

"Dead."

"Jake."

"Out of the equation."

"Carmilla and Scarlet."

"Free."

"You."

Victor smiled faintly.

"Very different."

Rowena nodded slowly.

"So this may have been an earlier version."

"Exactly."

She waited for some sign of greater concern, but Victor seemed strangely calm.

"You look relieved."

"I am."

"Why?"

Victor looked at the white emptiness around them.

"Because if this really was an earlier version of that attack, they chose a much worse target."

It took Rowena a moment to understand.

Victor explained:

"The Valentine Headquarters is powerful, but it is still a family stronghold. There are plenty of important vampires there, of course, but they are Valentines. A well-prepared attack against that place could concentrate all defenses around one kind of structure."

He raised one finger.

"The Royal Palace is different."

Another.

"Royal Guard."

Another.

"Generals."

Another.

"Marshals."

Another.

"Captains."

Victor kept counting.

"Rakshasa. Anette. Chysis. Serafall. Eleonora. Mirella. Natasha. Even Vlad was there in hiding."

Rowena began to understand.

"They attacked a gathering of monsters."

"Exactly."

Victor sighed.

"Even weakening the vampires with that barrier, they still chose a place where any mistake meant facing half of the Realm’s greatest existences at once."

Rowena became thoughtful.

"I thought it was strange too."

Victor turned toward her.

"Strange how?"

"Wrong."

She rested one hand on her knee.

"I’m not saying werewolves wouldn’t carry out an attack like that. Depending on the clan, they might do worse. But the plan feels too rushed."

Victor nodded.

"I thought the same thing."

"One spy was captured inside the Palace, another group was waiting near the Capital, they had someone infiltrated to remove the object, and they even hired a witch capable of preparing that enormous spell."

Rowena shook her head.

"There are too many pieces working at once for someone to simply decide to attack without preparation. But there are also too many mistakes for it to look like a mature plan."

"As if they moved something forward."

"Yes."

Victor fell silent.

Rowena studied his expression.

"What is the most important thing you changed?"

"A lot."

"Pick the biggest."

Victor did not need long to think.

"Edgar Valentine."

Rowena became attentive.

"He was a traitor in your other life?"

"I already knew there was something wrong with him. Now I found out much more."

Victor ran a hand through his hair.

"He had ties with werewolves, interfered inside his own family, and had plans I never fully understood. When everything started fitting together, Rakshasa exterminated practically his entire branch."

Rowena remained silent for several seconds.

Then her eyes narrowed.

"They wanted a painting."

Victor raised his face.

"Yes."

"A painting no one else considered important anymore."

"Yes."

She thought about it.

Then asked:

"What if Edgar was part of the original plan to recover it?"

Victor stopped.

Rowena continued slowly, organizing the hypothesis as she spoke.

"Maybe they never intended to invade the Palace this way. Maybe Edgar was the safe route."

Victor went completely still.

"He could get access without raising suspicion," Rowena continued. "Or he could move the painting. Swap it. Remove it. Send it somewhere. Anything."

Victor began connecting the pieces.

Edgar dead.

His branch destroyed.

The infiltration discovered.

The werewolves acting earlier.

The sudden need to hire an extremely powerful witch.

"So when Edgar died..."

"They lost the internal route."

Victor closed his eyes.

That made far too much sense.

"And they accelerated."

Rowena nodded.

"Recklessly."

Victor let out a slow breath.

"That’s why Blake had to enter personally."

"Probably."

"And the others were waiting to act as soon as they received confirmation."

"Yes."

Victor looked at her.

"That explains a lot."

"It explains part of it."

Rowena’s tone changed.

Victor noticed.

"What?"

"There’s something else wrong."

"What?"

Rowena became serious.

"The captured werewolves."

Victor waited.

"You treated them as disposable."

"Because they were used as disposable."

"That’s exactly the problem."

Victor frowned.

Rowena continued:

"I know I’ve told you many times that our society is based on the Law of the Alpha. The strongest commands, the weaker obey, debts can cross generations, and some packs are completely brutal."

"I remember."

"But that doesn’t mean we abandon our companions."

Victor remained silent.

Rowena placed both hands on the ground.

"Werewolves have a pack bond much stronger than you vampires understand. It isn’t only culture. There’s something almost biological about it. A member recognized as part of the pack is family."

"Even spies?"

"Especially them."

Victor raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

"Because scouts and spies live far from the group’s protection. For someone to accept that job, they need to trust that if something goes wrong, the pack will do everything possible to recover them."

She stared at Victor.

"Sending six members on a mission knowing they would probably be captured, and then blowing up the building while they were still inside..."

Rowena slowly shook her head.

"No."

Victor thought.

"People change."

"Not us."

The answer came immediately.

Victor stayed quiet.

Rowena pointed at her own chest.

"We have flaws. Many. You’ve already heard all of them from me. But betrayal of the pack is one of the rarest things among werewolves."

"Almost impossible?"

"Almost."

She paused.

"Especially if we’re talking about the King."

Victor tilted his head.

"You think Fenrir didn’t order it."

"I don’t think he did."

"You’re sure?"

"I don’t know this Fenrir."

"Then?"

"I don’t need to know him."

Rowena took a deep breath.

"If he is truly recognized as the Werewolf King, then he stands at the center of a gigantic pack structure. An Alpha can order warriors to die. He can order a suicidal attack. He can sacrifice soldiers in a war."

She raised one finger.

"But there’s a difference between ordering someone to die for a mission and simply letting your own members be used like garbage without even trying to recover them."

Victor thought of the werewolf who had laughed before Anette killed him.

"They seemed to believe in the plan."

"That doesn’t change anything."

"Maybe they knew they would die."

"Maybe."

Rowena continued:

"But the explosion could also have killed them after capture. That looks more like cleaning up evidence than a sacrifice of war."

Victor became much more serious.

"Meaning..."

"Maybe it isn’t the Werewolf Realm."

Silence.

Victor rested his arms on his knees and stared at the white floor.

The hypothesis was not comforting.

In fact, it made everything worse.

If Fenrir had not ordered the attack, then someone possessed enough resources to mobilize werewolves, hire an exceptional-level witch, infiltrate agents into the Capital, and still operate under the appearance of a war between two races.

Victor let out a long sigh.

"My memories aren’t useful anymore."

Rowena looked at him.

"They are."

"Not like before."

"That’s different."

Victor nodded.

"In my head, I spent all this time trying to defeat an enemy I knew."

He laughed without humor.

"Now I don’t even know if the enemy is the same."

Rowena remained quiet.

Victor raised his eyes.

"When I wake up, it’s over."

"What?"

"The secrets."

Rowena looked surprised.

Victor continued:

"I’m going to sit down with Carmilla, Scarlet, Serafall, Chysis, Rakshasa... probably Natasha too. And I’m going to tell them about what happened."

"Everything?"

Victor took a few seconds.

"Everything that matters."

Rowena crossed her arms.

"So you’re still going to hide parts."

"I’m not going to start by telling useless details about my entire life."

"Convenient."

Victor smiled.

"But they need to know there is another timeline and what happened in it."

The smile disappeared again.

"Because I can’t blindly trust what I remember anymore. I changed too much."

He stood.

"Now I need current information."

Rowena stood as well.

"About Fenrir."

"About the werewolves."

"About the painting."

"About Edgar."

"About the witch."

Victor nodded.

"And about whoever the fuck managed to move all of this without anyone noticing."

Rowena watched him for several seconds.

Then smiled faintly.

"Finally."

Victor raised an eyebrow.

"Finally what?"

"You stopped trying to save the future alone."

He fell silent.

Rowena walked past him.

"Took you long enough."

Victor followed her with his eyes.

"You’re getting too full of yourself."

"Your fault."

He let out a small laugh.

Outside that white world, Victor’s body remained motionless, slowly recovering the enormous amount of energy he had lost.

But his mind was no longer resting.

For the first time since returning to the past, Victor would stop acting only against what he remembered.

When he woke up, he would begin discovering what the present had become.