Chapter 184: Blood Orange
The air in Orange didn’t just smell like the decay of the old world anymore; it was saturated with the scent of Felicity’s heat. To the humans and low-level beastmen hiding in the ruins, it was a sweet, overwhelming pull—a siren song that promised a heaven they didn’t deserve to imagine. To Snow Team, it was a vibrating wire of tension that had finally snapped.
Inside the warehouse, Leaf Team stood as the inner circle of guardians. Their Level 95 auras created a suffocating, leaden pressure that kept the very walls from crumbling under the weight of the chaos outside. Dimitri stood at the centre, his Silence Domain ensuring that not even a stray heartbeat from the street could reach the point where the air shimmered—the gateway to Felicity’s space.
Beyond that veil, the apocalypse was a distant memory. The quiet rustle of the forest, the warmth of the hot springs, and the soft hum of the house provided a sanctuary that only the husbands could enter.
Felicity lay deep in sleep, her small form almost lost between the massive, radiating heat of Victor and the protective watch of the others. Victor remained locked in the violent, silent agony of his Level 100 breakthrough, his presence flickering like a dying star as his body rebuilt itself. The air around the bed shimmered with the clash of ice and fire, frost creeping up the headboard while waves of heat rolled off the Alpha’s skin.
Damien sat by the bed, his dark gaze fixed on Felicity’s sleeping form. His Nerve Dominion power was stretched thin across the room, a microscopic web of lethal intent. He could feel every shift in her breathing, every flutter of her eyelashes. Voss stood like a sentinel near the door, his amber eyes burning with a possessive mania. His Weapon Manifestation flickered—a jagged, black-steel blade appearing in his grip and vanishing, over and over, as he fought the unhinged urge to go back outside and slaughter more.
"Snow Team is finishing the sweep," Voss said, his voice a low, serrated rasp that didn’t disturb Felicity’s rest. "They’re clearing the town. Anyone who isn’t us or Leaf Team is being erased."
Damien didn’t look up. "Tell them to leave no one. I want this town to be silent. If a single unmated male breathes within five miles of her, I’ll hold Sarge responsible for the failure."
Outside the space, back in the grime and blood of the warehouse, Dimitri received the command through the link. He turned his cold, unblinking eyes toward the warehouse doors. Outside, Snow Team was letting loose.
Sarge moved through the residential district like a juggernaut. His skin took on that impenetrable, matte-black sheen, and Electrical Conduction arced between his horns, turning him into a living lightning rod. He walked straight through a volley of non-lethal projectiles fired by a stray scout party, the sparks vaporising their gear before it could touch him.
"My turn," Sarge rumbled. He slammed his fist into the ground, and a wave of high-voltage current travelled through the wet pavement.
Tommy, the small white rhino, coordinated perfectly. Using Hydrokinesis, he drew the moisture from the air and the nearby sewers, coating the scavengers in a thin film of water. It acted as the perfect conductor. When Sarge’s electricity hit, the men didn’t just drop; they were fused to the spot, their nervous systems scorched in an instant.
Further down the block, Kai and Ash were turning the hunt into a slaughter. Kai triggered a Spatial Distortion, folding the street so that a group of fleeing men found themselves running in a recursive loop, never gaining an inch of ground.
"You’re looking for women?" Ash appeared in the centre of their loop, his voice a lethal purr. "You found a goddess, and that’s your death sentence."
Ash didn’t use a blade. He simply laid a hand on the nearest man’s shoulder. Invisible tripwire traps snaked out from his fingertips, weaving a web around the group. The more they thrashed, the more the wires tightened, glowing with a faint, ominous light before detonating in localised, muffled bursts of force.
While the younger members cleared the infantry, Shadow and Dako dealt with the evolved zombies and rogue high-level beastmen. Shadow was a mountain of fur and muscle, pulverising anything that moved. Beside him, Dako, the Level 85 Elephant, was a force of nature. Every step Dako took sent tremors through the town, his sheer mass acting as a psychological hammer.
Back at the warehouse, Leaf Team was restless. The scent of the heat was a physical weight on them, a demand they couldn’t answer.
Richard stepped toward the shimmering entrance of the space, his Orca-beast eyes cold and focused. He reached out with his Pressure Control, manipulating the air’s force density around the warehouse perimeter to ensure no sound or scent escaped the building.
"They’re finding information," Richard murmured, his voice sounding like grinding stones. "The City of Light scouts had records. They were sent specifically for ’unclaimed high-tier females’ in this area."
Dimitri’s eyes narrowed. He looked at the electronic tablet Lucan had brought in—a piece of tech salvaged from a dead commander outside.
"They have a list," Dimitri said, his voice dropping to a dangerous register. "They think they can categorise her. They think there is a price for the sun."
He crushed the tablet in his bare hand, the metal shrieking in the silence before falling still. He looked at the members of Leaf Team. They were all Level 95 monsters, and their patience was gone.
"Thane, Dawn," Dimitri commanded. "Go out and assist Snow Team. I want every unmated male in this town dead. If they are not mated, they are a threat to her peace. Find where they came from. Tear the information out of them."
Thane took to the sky, his Golden Eagle eyes seeing every coward hiding in the ruins. He whispered coordinates through the mental link, his Future Sight showing him exactly where the survivors would try to run.
Dawn moved through the streets with a heavy, brutal grace, his Territorial Saturation making the ground feel like shifting water beneath his prey’s feet. He cornered a group of five scavengers in an alleyway. They weren’t City of Light; they were just survivors, but they had the scent of Felicity on their clothes from the air they had breathed.
Dawn didn’t speak. He simply saturated the space with his intent, the sheer weight of his aura crushing the men’s hearts before he even reached them.
Inside the sanctuary, Exile moved quietly. He was an Anaconda beastman, his presence usually overwhelming, but here, he was subdued. He had mated her in a fever of heat and necessity, and the obsession was fighting for dominance in his mind. He looked at Felicity, then at the other beast husbands.
Exile sank to his knees at the foot of the bed, his head bowed. He didn’t speak. He just felt the thrum of the bond, the terrifying realisation that he was now anchored to this hidden forest, to this girl, forever. He was a predator who had finally found something worth sharing.
Damien glanced at him. "The town is quiet, Exile. Your team is doing their job."
"They will clear the road to Bowral next," Exile whispered. "They will kill everything in our path."
"See that they do," Voss added, his hand gripping the hilt of his manifested blade. "When she wakes and steps out of this space, I want her to see nothing but the sun. No blood, no bodies. Just us."
As the sun finally climbed higher, casting long shadows over the decimated town of Orange, the screams died down. Snow Team began to retreat back toward the warehouse, their forms covered in gore. Tommy used his Hydrokinesis to wash the blood from the street leading to the warehouse doors, the water swirling away the filth until the pavement was pristine.
Leaf Team remained inside the warehouse, a circle of Level 95 predators standing guard over the empty air where Felicity’s space existed. They were the silent executioners, the ones who ensured that Felicity’s hidden world remained undisturbed.
Dimitri stood near the shimmering entrance to her space, his white hair whipping in the draft. He couldn’t go in, but he could feel her influence even through the barrier.
"Sleep well, Felicity," he whispered into the void, his eyes wide and unblinking. "The world is gone. There is only you."
Inside the space, Felicity sighed in her sleep, her fingers curling into the fabric of the blanket, blissfully unaware that for miles in every direction, the world had been purged of life just to keep her sanctuary pure. The husbands watched her, six broken, obsessed men anchored by a single girl, while the monsters outside stood guard over the gateway to her paradise.
Suddenly, Victor gasped for air. The aurora of his breakthrough twisted violently, lashing through the space with fire and frost. The bedframe groaned under the pressure as Victor’s body arched, caught between agony and ascendance.