Free Web NovelChapter 27: Who Dares Touch What Is Mine?
The paw drew closer, but to Lucien, it felt slow. He didn’t know the reason why.
In the moments of death, numerous faces flashed through his mind. His parents, his brother, faces from a life he had left behind.
Seraphina’s face flashed, but the emotions he expected didn’t surface. No anger. No hatred. Just a hollow, distant ache.
His vision became blurrier, the world fading at the edges. But at the nick of time, Lucien was surprised as he saw a golden barrier cover his body, stopping the claw in its tracks.
He felt he had seen wrongly due to his blurry eyes. His mind struggled to comprehend what was happening.
But a familiar figure materialized from sparkles of light; golden eyes, golden hair, a beautiful face, and a domineering, powerful aura that pressed against the air like a force of nature.
Seraphina.
Lucien let out a soft chuckle, a broken, hollow sound. It seemed he was seeing wrongly. His mind was playing tricks on him.
She couldn’t be here.
Could she?
The golden barrier pulsed once, then expanded outward, pushing the massive paw back. The double-headed wolf snarled, its four red eyes narrowing with fury.
Seraphina’s figure stood before Lucien, her back to him, her golden hair swaying in the wind that had suddenly fallen still. Her presence was absolute, a pillar of light in the sea of darkness.
"Who dares touch what is mine?" Her voice was cold, regal, and utterly without mercy.
She waved her hand at the double-headed wolf, and it was sent flying, crashing through trees and earth.
She turned, her gaze falling on Lucien. But seeing his state, her body shook. His bruises, his wounds, the blood staining his skin, it was too much. Lucien flashed her a weak smile.
This wasn’t the real Seraphina, but a clone she had placed in Lucien’s body for assurance and safety. It could only be activated when Lucien was at the brink of death. She had embedded it within him the moment they first met.
Looking at her darling in this state, seeing the bruises and his injuries, her heart ached. Tears dropped from her eyes, tracing paths through the blood on her cheeks.
This wasn’t an ordinary clone, but a clone formed from part of her soul. You could call it another her.
Seraphina scooped Lucien into her arms, immediately trying to heal him.
But her expression turned ugly when she found that something was blocking her Originat and powers from healing Lucien.
"You came!" Lucien let out a bitter laughter. He didn’t know his saviour would turn out to be the person that had put him in this hell.
Or did he expect it?
Her hand gently cupped his cheek.
"Lucien..." Her voice was barely a whisper, filled with a tenderness that seemed out of place in this land of death.
But Lucien had already drifted into darkness, his breath slow and shallow like a hibernating creature. Seraphina’s heart ached, and her anger rose. How did this happen?
A deafening howl erupted from the double-headed wolf’s throats, a sound of pure, unfiltered rage that shook the very ground beneath them. Its four red eyes blazed with fury as it lunged forward.
Seraphina’s expression became cold, so frightening it was like a devil. Her darling had been hurt.
Flames burned all over her body, raging and annihilative, golden fire that seemed to hunger for destruction.
---
In the castle, everyone knew something had happened to the Empress.
For the past few hours, there had been unrest. Everyone, including the maids, now knew that Lucien had gone missing.
Everyone shivered, each person starting to ask the other if they knew anything, because they couldn’t bear the wrath of the Empress if it descended upon them.
Each one of them was checked, making sure that they had no relation to Lucien’s disappearance.
The castle was tense, a suffocating silence hanging over every corridor, every room.
Meanwhile, in the throne room, Seraphina was pacing around the throne with a troubled expression. Her steps were restless, her usually composed demeanor fractured, her golden hair swaying with each agitated turn.
The elders were silent. This was the first time they were seeing their Empress behave like this, and it showed just how serious this matter was.
Seraphina stopped. "How’s the search going?" she questioned, her voice cold and sharp.
"There has been no result, Your Majesty," Darwin replied, his head bowed low. "Numerous places have been searched all through the continents and Aethelgard. Even our spies have been mobilized. But there have been no traces of him."
His words made Seraphina’s expression turn ugly. Where was Lucien? What had taken him?
She was almost running mad. Even through the continent, there had been no result. No sign. No trace. Nothing.
"Now, are you satisfied? You even made our spies in different races make a move. This move will cause our plans for years to be destroyed." Granny Cherry accused, her voice thick with anger and frustration.
Seraphina turned deaf ears to her words. Nothing really concerned her about this. Her main concern was Lucien’s whereabouts and safety.
"Like I said, he’s just an ordinary man. You can find another." Granny Cherry continued, but she made a mistake.
Suddenly, the throne room was turned upside down as Seraphina released a massive killing intent, far worse than the last time. The air grew heavy, suffocating, pressing down on everyone in the room like a collapsing sky. The temperature plummeted, the chill seeping into their bones.
"Granny Cherry, for the sake of our relationship, I won’t make a move on you now. But next time, it might turn out that your head might pay the price of those words."
Her words were cold, emotionless, and absolute. She wasn’t joking, and the elders felt it deep in their souls. Their faces paled, their bodies trembling under the weight of her fury.
Seraphina gritted her teeth, her emotions barely contained. She had been holding them in, and there was no outlet. The pressure was building, threatening to break.
She stood up, planning to search for Lucien herself. Her figure was resolute.
If she couldn’t find him, she would just turn the whole Aethelgard upside down.
"Your Majesty, where are you going?" Granny Cherry questioned, her voice wavering slightly.
Seraphina paused and snorted, her voice dripping with cold defiance. "I am going to do what I was supposed to do from the start."
Granny Cherry understood what Seraphina wanted to do, and it wasn’t going to be possible.
"Your Majesty, you know that can’t be possible," Granny Cherry said.
"And who said so?" Seraphina questioned, her tone sharp as a blade.
Before Granny Cherry could reply, Seraphina continued, "Nobody can change my decision, and whatsoever obstacles would be crushed."
She continued walking, but Granny Cherry waved her hands. The elders all moved, encircling Seraphina like a wall of flesh and bone.
Seraphina’s expression turned frosty. Her cold gaze wandered through the elders, each face pale but determined. "What’s the meaning of this?" She questioned, her voice dropping to a dangerous chill.
"We are stopping you from making the wrong choice that will lead to our downfall." It was Granny Cherry who replied; the others didn’t have the audacity to speak.
If Seraphina left the castle to look for Lucien, there was no way she wouldn’t cause trouble outside, and that would gather a lot of commotion. If their enemies caught a whiff of this, they were done. Their strength wasn’t as strong as the enemies’.
So it would be a dead end for them. This was why they were trying to stop Seraphina.
Seraphina let out a mocking chuckle, a sound that held no warmth. Her golden eyes seemed to darken, flickering with something ancient and dangerous, as she emitted dense killing intent that pressed against the air like a physical weight.
"Do you think you can stop me?"
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