Seconds passed as if they were minutes.
Kair’s eyes swept across everyone in the square.
Nearby, Rovan was breathing heavily, but even so, he spared a few glances at Kair.
There’s still time…
Run.
Even the Empress wouldn’t judge you.
Kair managed to read Rovan’s lips, almost as if a faint note of concern could be heard through his fangs.
That only gave Kair more courage.
Soon, the sensation of being watched by something warm returned to the back of his neck.
It was Princess Elyra.
She watched from a great distance, but her gaze was still curious.
There was not the slightest trace of fear in her posture.
Isn’t she nervous at all?
Not wanting to stare at her, Kair turned his gaze away, but from the corner of his eye, he saw him.
Black and white.
A young man with wolf ears, each one a different color, and eyes that followed the same black-and-white pattern.
Kair knew who he was.
How could someone born in the Duskfang Archipelago not know?
Rael Duskfang, the pride of the wolf lineage.
Someone who had advanced his ceremony simply because he was fighting to protect the islands of his Archipelago.
Kair’s gaze did not remain on him for much longer.
Had it done so, he would have noticed the black-and-white eyes quickly turning toward him, staring for a few seconds before returning to the Fracture.
Now, in the sky, the crack stretched across the entire horizon.
As if a mouth were slowly preparing to swallow them.
The starry sky had now become a deep black, streaked with the same color as the Empress’s statue.
Something close to blue, with hints of purple.
“Are you scared…?” a voice whispered near Kair.
But it wasn’t directed at him.
It was directed at someone Kair had met during yesterday’s ceremony.
With a nervous look, Cassian almost growled at the member of the lion lineage beside him.
“Don’t even dream about it!” But to Kair’s observant eyes, it was obvious.
His hands were sweaty and trembling.
His claws were extended, and his deep green eyes could not hide his terror of the Fracture.
Perhaps feeling watched, Cassian turned toward Kair, and a faint growl made the Fracture become the absolute focus of Kair’s eyes.
“Youths of Asteria!
The Fracture is about to open!” a powerful voice echoed throughout the square.
Many had to turn around to recognize who was speaking, but Kair was not one of them.
He knew him very well.
It was the King of the Duskfang Archipelago.
Garran Duskfang.
He had the bearing of a veteran warrior and wore a distinctive armor adorned with two moons.
One white as ivory and the other dark as night.
They met at the breastplate, forming a gray eclipse.
But what the youths stared at most was his ear.
Or rather, the absence of his black ear.
“They say he lost it fighting a dragon in a deep Fracture,” said a young woman from the wolf lineage, almost with a sense of quiet pride.
“Lies!
It was only a damn serpent!” shouted a young man from the lion lineage who had overheard the wolf girl’s comment.
Ignoring the commotion below, Garran, now floating above the square, continued.
“Forget everything you think you know, my young warriors!
All you need to do is survive until dawn.
Fight with your claws, fangs, horns, or anything you can use!
Forget the differences between our lineages!
Fight and fight!” With every passing second, the Fracture grew larger in the sky, and Garran’s voice rose above it all.
Perhaps seeing the fear in the youths, he had tried to give them confidence and strength.
It seemed to work when the wolves began to howl, and even the other species began making sounds of war.
Of course, the lions refused to follow his lead, and many of the serpents simply ignored him.
Amidst the sounds, something appeared before Kair’s face and in front of every other youth in the square.
“Beep.” [Fracture opening in a few moments] [Preparing entry for 21,360 participants…] [Welcome to the Asteria Dawn] With another “beep,” all the youths began to disappear from the square in flashes of the familiar light.
The old transitional color shifting from blue to purple, with a faint crystalline quality.
Garran slowly floated toward the palace gates, which also resembled a fortified wall.
Above them stood all the Lords of each lineage.
The most prominent among them, perhaps not worthy of being Kings, but still extraordinary in their own ways.
Their eyes never left the rift, and Garran doubted they would until dawn.
“Quite a hypocritical speech, isn’t it, Garran?
Asking a bunch of children to fight.
Pretty pathetic of you, don’t you think?” The voice burned with a mockery that would have made the fox lineage jealous.
A wave of darkness passed through Garran’s eyes, and they locked onto a figure.
He was tall, imposing, and covered in fur.
His mane was golden, streaked with patterns resembling pure white marble.
But a pair of wings covered in golden ornaments drew even more attention, while also increasing his height to nearly three meters.
Garran’s claws began to glow, and without even answering, he lunged for the lion’s throat, breaking through the air itself.
“Enough.” The air stopped.
Garran, the winged lion, and all the Lords of the lineages froze.
Everything came to a halt at the low, cold, and yet strangely calm words that echoed from the palace balcony.
Neither the King of the Duskfang Archipelago nor the King of the Aelionmane Archipelago dared to continue.
Their eyes turned toward the Fracture alongside the other Lords.
Inside the Fracture…
[Survive until dawn] A single sentence floated before Kair’s eyes.
Now, he was completely alone in the middle of a mountainous region.
However, there was something strange about it.
Countless vines intertwined across the mountainous ground like a bed of webs, while numerous crimson flowers had blossomed throughout the area.
The vines were enormous, large enough to be used as hiding places by creatures.
The crimson flowers added even more cover, and the fragmented sky, painted in the same characteristic colors as the screen floating before Kair, only amplified the feeling of danger.
I can use these vines to climb up and get a better view…
No!
These flowers don’t give me the slightest feeling that anything good is coming from them.
Besides…
Kair’s instincts screamed.
A poisonous chill ran down the back of his neck, and the sound of rustling leaves reached his ears.
His fingers, equipped with metal claws, spread apart.
Kair had been ambushed.
He knew it!