Chapter 114: Is it the END?

The crack was right there—narrow, dark, half-buried under two scavenger bodies. If they could just—

Before he could reach, the air shifted.

A cold killing intent exploded behind them.

Too late.

The Blackthorn shadow had melted into pure darkness again and reappeared at their backs. His wolf spirit fully formed and slammed a clawed paw down toward Nox’s spine.

Nox twisted, but not fast enough.

The claw tore across his back. Blood sprayed hot across the mud.

At the same time, the Vesper shadow’s spirit lunged from the side, jaws aiming for Ugo’s throat.

Ugo barely raised a wall of vines in time. The impact still sent him skidding across the sludge, coughing blood.

Axe roared and swung, but the Ironfang shadow met the machete with his armored wolf.

The clash sent Axe flying backward, boots digging deep trenches in the rock.

Moon’s eyes widened.

They were about to be torn apart right in front of the crack.

His hand flew to the necklace at his throat again. "Pause!"

"..."

The necklace remained silent.

"Pause"

"..."

"Pause"

"..."

"Pause"

"..."

"Pause, freeze," Moon muttered desperately. ’Why isn’t it working?"

Just as Moon was thinking he might as well enter the Lupine Palace, a long black staff dropped from the cliffs above like a bolt of dark lightning.

It smashed into the Blackthorn wolf’s skull with a sharp crack.

The spirit staggered.

A figure landed silently on the slope between Moon and the shadow lords.

His black cloak billowed in the air.

He stood taller, older, carrying the unmistakable pressure of a true Shadow Lord.

Moon looked at his back and narrowed his eyes. He didn’t know this man.

Just as he was still weighing whether it was friend or foe, a lazy, bored voice drifted down from above.

"You four are really, really bad at hiding."

Another figure landed beside the black-robed man.

A face that was both familiar and unfamiliar looked back at Moon over his shoulder and winked once.

His dark olive robe hung loosely, the monocle still swinging on its chain.

"Levi!" Moon uttered.

"That’s enough," Levi said mildly, turning back toward the five shadow lords. "Five grand Eclipse lords attacking a few half-dead children. What a shame! When did our Monalis Celestia fall this low?"

The five Eclipse wolves froze for half a second.

Their eyes moved between Levi and the elder beside him with complicated expressions.

The Vaelis shadow’s face twisted.

"Levi, don’t give me that shit, you little—"

The Lyris shadow lord gritted her teeth. "You dare interfere with us elders?"

Levi tilted his head slightly. "I dare."

"This has nothing to do with your Elysian Crown Pack," the Vaelis shadow lord growled. "They are our fugitives, traitors."

"I don’t see any pack mark on them," Levi replied, shrugging his shoulders. "They don’t belong to you."

He glanced back at Moon and Nox and clicked his tongue. "Tsk, tsk. In the end, I still had to come erase the traces for you."

Moon’s lips curved in a soft, tired smile. From the exchange alone, he already knew they were safe for now.

He didn’t waste the chance Levi had opened.

He tossed a small vial toward Levi, then dragged his battered body straight into the crack. The others followed close behind.

Levi caught the vial, glanced at it once, and slipped it into his pocket.

He grinned ear to ear.

Nine mid-grade Stardust Lily poison-removing pills.

Not a single low-grade among them.

All mid-grade.

Moon quietly slipped deeper into the crack with his mates, but he did not go far.

The Lupine Palace would be sealed once they reached the five cave mouths. He still needed to pull the pups out.

The five entrances were meant for the five brothers—they had to be present.

More importantly...

He looked back.

Blood was still trailing along the path they had entered. All of it belonged to them.

The ground was muddy.

The air was damp and smelled bloody, completely unsuitable for recovering.

Moon took a deep breath and made a quick decision. While the people outside were still busy arguing, they would step into the Lupine Palace for a short while.

"Let’s go in," he said quietly.

In a few breaths, on the narrow cave path, the four bruised and bloodied figures vanished into thin air, leaving behind only dark bloodstains and the distant sound of argument still drifting in from the gorge.

.

.

.

Outside

The Vaelis shadow lord’s face was dark with suppressed fury.

The Lyris woman had already half-drawn her blade.

The Ironfang one looked ready to smash something just to vent.

The black-clothed elder took his staff back and thudded it once against the ground. He was a true Shadow Lord of the Elysian Crown Pack. Standing beside Levi, he was like a silent mountain. He did not even bother to fully release his pressure. Just existing there made the air feel heavier.

The Vaelis shadow broke the silence first.

It irritated him more than anything that he could not even prove those four belonged to his pack—there was no mark to be seen or sensed.

He said gravely, "Elysian Crown Pack sits among the top three of the Monalis Council. Your father still holds the leader’s seat. Why lower yourselves to protect four defective mutts and a black witch?"

Levi lifted his monocle and slowly rubbed the already clean glass with his thumb.

"Because they paid," he said simply.

The Blackthorn shadow snorted. "Paid? What could they possibly pay? A few rogue fugitives and a black witch? Did they pay you with wolfbane, or did they offer their bodies?"

The others let out low, mocking laughs.

The Lyris shadow sneered. "So the great Elysian Crown has fallen to selling protection?"

"Fallen?" Levi chuckled.

"Elder, this is called smart business. Your five packs are about to throw bodies and Moon’s Tears into this poisonous hellhole for a secret realm that might kill half of you. Me? I already got paid just for standing here and looking handsome."

The Ironfang shadow’s wolf spirit growled. "What exactly did they pay that makes swallowing this humiliation worth it?"