Chapter 76
QUEEN AQUAMARINE’S POV
I clung to him, sobbing. “Alex-”
“I know. I’ll kill him.”
But that warmth didn’t last. Behind us, the room darkened.
Something yanked me away. But it wasn’t soft vines this time. This was harder and sharper. Like dead wood and hard earth, gnarled branches with thorns and rot clinging to their spines.
They tore me from Alexander’s arms.
“No!” I screamed, trying to reach for him.
His golden eyes locked onto mine for half a second. But suddenly Earth rose and separated us further. I hit the wall. Hard. The air was punched from my lungs.
The branches coiled around me again, dragging me up. Blood dripped from a fresh cut on my thigh. My hands were pinned together, the thorns piercing deep into my skin.
But Terran stood up from the debris that had buried him. New leaves cling to his skin like a second skin, covering his privates. Blood leaked from his body, but he grinned anyway. “You came,” he said, coughing once. “How sweet. But you’re too late.”
Alexander bared his teeth. “Let her go, Terran. I won’t make your death too extreme.”
“Why?” Terran asked, almost curious. He tilted his head like a beast studying another predator. “She touched the First Seed. She’s linked to me and she let me touch her.”
Alexander’s jaw clenched as he stepped forward, but the branches rose like spears.
“But….. what do you think she would say if she knew the truth about you?” Terran’s voice dipped. Soft. Mocking.
“Don’t you dare.” Alexander’s voice came out low and threatening.
My heart raced. What truth?
“Oh, come now,” Terran said, pacing slowly. “Pretty Luna would like to know why you need an heir so badly? Why you don’t age? Why you don’t bleed?”
Terran laughed, low and bitter, then turned to me. “He hides what he is from even you. Because he knows if you ever found out… you’d run ir maybe even kill yourself before his curse is broken.”
I stared at him.
“Don’t listen to him, Aqua!” Alexander growled, his voice cracking. He glared at Terran like he might explode.
Terran smirked. “See? He didn’t deny it. Because it’s true.”
Alexander ran through the jaw of wooden spears aimed at him as if he was running into clouds. Harmless, unshaken.
The branches crawled tighter around my wrist. I felt a sharp pain in my tummy.
1/5
Tue, 2 Sept
Chapter 76
46%
“Aqua!” Alexander gasped. His eyes widened and he stopped on his tracks. His chest was rising and falling slowly but so heavy that I could slowly feel his heat seeping out.
I looked down to see a long sharp wooden spear piercing my lower abdomen. A spare that had shot out from Terran’s body. It wasn’t that deep, but it was sharp enough to make me bleed.
“This is my territory, Alexander,” Terran barked, circling me again. “Your Luna is mine. And now that I’ve tasted her, I can’t let go.”
“You didn’t taste anything!” I screamed, tears burning down my cheeks.
“Not yet. But I had a taste of your nipple in my tongue.”
“Shut up!” I snapped.
But he continued. “I had the feeling of your soft body pressed against mine. My vines felt your heat and my cock-”
That was it.
Terran didn’t see it coming.
One blast hurled him backwards, smashing him through a wall of thorns.
The Alexander I knew was gone. The one standing in the midst of the chaos had the same aura as the one who pulled me into his secret room. His eyes were now like a flaring golden ball of heat.
He didn’t say a word. He just pulled out something from his back.
I froze. He’d found it?
The weapons I forged but never gave him because it wasn’t….. normal. It’s now in his hand, glowing a deep shade of gold that seemed to match the veins on his body.
I swallowed hard.
Terran snarled, his body stretching, shifting. Roots and darkness spiralled from his arms. Creatures rose from the corners of the chamber.
Twisted things. Hollow eyes. Bark for limbs. Mouths that screeched with every move.
Alexander met him halfway.
Their clash shook the room.
I struggled against the vines, ignoring the burning cuts as I tugged hard on the thorns. I hit the floor with a heavy thud and rolled onto my side.
I could barely breathe but I knew I had to help. To do something. Find a way to stop Terran for good even if it means sealing him up like Gaia did to me.
Then I got a glimpse of something. Or rather, something tugged me.
The blade. Gaia’s blade. The First Seed that Terran had corrupted without touching
It was there. At the far end of the room, hanging on the wall.
2/5
4228 Tue, 2 Sept
Chapter 76
OX46%
My chest seized. I crawled to it, ignoring the stab of every splinter. The moment I touched it, the hilt wrapped itself around my wrist. I gripped it tight and staggered to my feet.
Terran was laughing, vines cracking like whips around them both. I stepped toward them.
“Aquamarine, get back!” Alexander barked, not turning.
But Terran’s vines whipped around me again. They yanked me forward, locking around my waist. “You’re not his Luna. You’re his sacrifice. A vessel for his sacrifice.”
I closed my eyes. I didn’t want to hear this.
I met Alexander’s eyes. Then I glanced at the sword in my hand. He saw it. Understood.
I screamed, shoving the blade upward with all my might.
The blade pierced Terran’s neck, halfway between his shoulder and jaw. His scream tore the air.
Not enough to kill, but enough to trap the heart I strangely knew was hidden in his head.
His eyes widened. Dark green light poured from the wound.
“Alex!” I screamed, backing away, holding the hilt with both hands. “Now! His heart is in his head!”
Alexander didn’t hesitate. With one clean, furious strike, he drove the twin blade through Terran’s skull.
The sound wasn’t a scream. It was a shriek and not the normal kind. The kind of sound that could split trees and turn blood to ice.
And then everything stopped.
Terran collapsed in a heap of torn limbs, black sludge pouring from his mouth, his vines writhing like dying snakes.
Alexander didn’t spare a word. Instead, he dragged his weapon free and slid it back into the sheath on his back.
His chest rose and fell with calm rage. That terrifying, bone–deep quiet he always had when he was about to destroy something.
It was over. Finally, but before I could move a muscle, Alexander had already tackled me to the ground. He sank his teeth deep into the nape of my neck and released his….. healing heat again.
Relief and peace washed over me like cold water on a fireball. Then he pulled away and just stared at me. His eyes had softened a little, but I could still feel rage even as his hands cupped my cheek and then planted a shaky kiss on my forehead.
“You-
His words were cut short the moment we heard a big explosion outside, causing the earth to shake. He instantly pulled away from me and raised me up.
“Climb,” he said flatly.
“What?” I blinked, still shaking and dizzy.
He grabbed my hand, pulling me up. I swung my leg over his back as he crouched low. The moment I was secure, arms around his shoulders, my hands clutching his blade.
3/5
40%
22:28 Tue, 2 Sept
Chapter 76
He reached down, grabbed what was left of Terran’s twisted, groaning body just like he did to Clinton.
Then he ran straight forward. Straight for the window.
“No–Alex, wait!” I shouted, “We’ll die!”
He didn’t answer.
+13
He jumped. My scream tore from my throat, sharp and strangled. Wind tore through my hair as we fell, but Alexander’s body was shifting beneath me.
His skin darkened, thickened like they were growing harder than stone. His back arched as it widened. His long red hair started to shorten. His limbs elongated, stretching into terrifying, skin–crawling angles.
He was growing.
Longer and Monstrous.
And before we could hit the earth, mighty wings stretched out from his back and my screams dissolved into silence.
My blood rushed to my head and I had no idea how to breathe anymore.
Because the man I loved was gone.
And in his place was a beast. With horns erupting from his skull.
He roared, soared upward with a violent flap of his wings. Above the castle, above the horizon.
My vision blurred from the wind and speed. The world below blurred into darkness. Alexander’s long snake–like neck lowered and then, the next thing, I saw Terran’s body flying above us like a rag doll.
And Alexander opened his mouth.
Golden–purple fire blasted upward. Beautiful, hot and horrifying. It swallowed Terran whole. I didn’t even have time to scream before Alexander wheeled back, gliding in slow circles.
1
Then he turned… and opened his mouth again. In the palace. On Everything.
“Stop!” I screamed, pounding his back. “Alexander! They’re not part of this! Please! The people-!”
He didn’t listen.
The fire rained like
vengeance.
The sky turned red. Trees cracked and crumbled like paper. Naturellia screamed beneath us, the land itself trying to cry out as it burned alive.
Still, he flew.
Still, he burned.
Until nothing was left but a purple sea of death and a clearing sky.
And then, finally, he dove. Straight toward a black crack in the horizon. We slipped through it and then we landed hard on the solid
22:28 Tue, 2 Sept
Chapter 76
earth.
46%
(+13
I tumbled from his back and hit the dirt. Cold earth. Cold air. I coughed, my hair in my face, my skin stinging from burns and cuts.
When I looked up-
He was still a…. mighty lizard with wings and horns? A mighty snake with wings, feet, and horns?
Massive. Terrifying. Golden eyes burning like twin suns.
He stared down at me.
And didn’t know whether to crawl toward him…
…or run.
5/5
