Chapter 140: Signal Arrives
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"It is mythic," Luna said softly, her voice a hush that echoed against the stone walls. "My grandmother once told me a tale about a fox from the starwood clans. She stumbled upon a Well of Crowned Ash, shimmering with essence so pure it bent the moonlight. After one sip, she leapt from a mere one star to a six star rank beast overnight. She accidentally get to the place." Luna’s hands trembled slightly. "But when dawn came, the well’s guardians twisted amalgams made of every soul it had devoured rose and tore her to shreds. She couldn’t bear the power."
Kai’s jaw tightened. "We won’t be that fox."
He turned to the open crates beside the war table. The faint aura hum from their contents buzzed through the air. "The stinglets Skyweaver forged laced with aura magnetite should disrupt those guardians’ composite fields. We’ll carry mirror shards to anchor us if the fissure fractures reality. And I’ll mark our path using my Aura Insight to read the ley-lines."
Luna exhaled, her breath misting in the cold chamber. "A plan, then."
But her smile faltered. A flicker of worry passed across her face like shadow across snow. Kai caught it instantly.
"You’re afraid," he said gently.
"I worry because I love." She reached forward, fingertips brushing the Moonbound vine circling his wrist, it still pulsing faintly in harmony with her own. "Power tempts. Even you, Kai. Promise me, if the risk outweighs the gain, you’ll walk away."
Kai clasped her hand, grounding her with warmth and certainty. "On my Monarch aura... I promise."
She studied his face, searching. At last, she nodded.
Just after moonrise, blue fire burst from the shaft above the strategy hall. A soul connection scroll made of aura ignited midair in a flare of sapphire flames. Shadeclaw’s signal.