Re:Ant Lord-Chapter 131: Sleeping Baby (Castle bonus)

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Below, the Iron Tusk brothers rolled boulders across new barricades while Shadeclaw prowled the shadows, polishing bone hewn blades. On every surface the glowstone veins pulsed in rhythm with his Monarch Brand. His rhythm.

"Then let it be called ... Monarch of Mountain," he declared, voice echoing along every tunnel. "A throne carved by those who take what the world denies them." freeωebnovēl.c૦m

The subordinates ants hybrid boar, and moth alike paused, antennae quivering, tusks raised, wings fluttering. A tremor of collective pride rippled back through the Monarch link. Kai tasted it as copper-sweet devotion. Even the mountain’s veins brightened, accepting the title like a final stroke of a future royal seal.

Within the birthing alcove, Miryam the tiny Nymid wyrmling of gold and dawn-runes had curled atop a cushion of star silk and fallen into a profound sleep. Each exhale shimmered with grains of pale sand that vanished before settling. Luna knelt at her side, refreshing the moat of star milk and tucking filaments of downy straw about the hatchling’s translucent belly. Miryam’s eyelids did not flutter, her mind touched only Kai’s through the soul link, a hushed lullaby of safe-safe-warm that eased the iron tension in his bones.

"She’s been asleep half a day already," Luna murmured, rinsing her hands in aura-infused water. "The rabbits of my clan sleep no more than an hour after birth."

"Nymids grow on dreams," Kai answered, recalling the memories fragments from A’zhorath. "Two full days is natural. She consolidates runes, binds her first aura lattice. We disturb her only to feed."

Luna nodded, though a sad flicker crossed her face, an ache that Miryam’s newborn mind shared only with Kai, not her. The wyrmling’s silence toward Luna left a small hollow in the bunny girl’s heart, but she tended the infant diligently, never wavering. Since her birth she never tried to talk with Luna.

When the gold glow of noon pierced the skylight on the siege’s second day, Kai gathered his fighters at the mountain’s base where the wolf corpses lay like iron mane windrows. Fifty seven two-star warriors, one three-star pike captain, and scattered gear glinted among shattered shale.

Blueloom spiral overhead, dusting the air with glimmer motes that kept carrion fliers at bay. Grunt and Gore stacked bodies in a crescent pyre while Shadeclaw decapitated each corpse, extracting lunar sigil tags. Silvershadow lingered near the slope’s mouth, obsidian bulk shielding the hatchling’s cradle far above.

"Take the weapons for the armory," Kai commanded. "Render the bones for marrow brew. But leave the flesh." A chill swept his fangs. "That part is mine."

He crouched over the first carcass, mandibles gleaming obsidian, and Devoured.

Warm blood, bright with dormant moon-aura, cascaded across his tongue. Essence Eater unspooled, turning sinew into vibrating numbers, as he was drinking the essence liquid.

+2 stats, +1 Stats, Essence liquid saturated.

Core extracted: two-star lunar shard.

Again and again he fed on the dead bodies. Fifty wolves, then fifty-one, until the air rang with system chimes. The spicy tang of canine vitality rode the wind. It tasted of loam, frost, and the arrogance that had driven them to assault his keep. By sunset the pyres burned clean, and Kai sat upon a boulder slick with silver ash.

[Ding! System Alert:

Unallocated Stat Pool ... +100 points secured.

Inventory gained: 50× two-star beast cores, 1× three-star core (Lunar Pike Vice Captain)]

Kai breathed in, muscles vibrating with raw surplus. He did not assign the points yet. First he would ​decide which evolutionary avenue served Miryam, Luna, and the realm best.

Within his mind the wyrmling murmured a sleepy note of approval before drifting deeper into chrysalis dreams.

That night, a hush settled over the carved balconies of the Monarch of Mountain. Torches guttered low, shapes of hybrid and boar curled in alcoves, and only the hush of subterranean springs broke the silence. Kai paced along a balcony ridge, tallying repair schedules, when soft footsteps halted behind him.

Luna approached wearing a ceremonial robe the hue of fresh snow under starlight. Silver embroidery traced crescent moons across the fabric, and a single blue feather, an old token of the sky palace her ancestors once served. It was tucked above her left ear.

"Kai," she began, eyes shy but luminous, "I have decided something important. The Silvertails will return with grander armies, and I will face them by your side not as a guest but as a partner." Her hands trembled as she held them out. "In my clan’s traditions, before two souls share naked flesh, they share vows beneath the moon. We call it Moonbound."

She swallowed, pink in her cheeks. "Will you marry me tonight, before we ... go further? Before, you made love to me?"

Kai’s breath caught. The word marry tasted foreign, yet the surge of loyalty and fierce affection he felt for this brave lunar rabbit fit no lesser term. He also wanted to make Luna his woman. This is a perfect opportunity. He placed his palm over hers, letting the Monarch Brand glow between fingers.

"The vow of ants is for life," he answered. "If Moonbound seals us, then I accept."

Luna’s ears shot upright in sheer joy, but she quickly masked her delight with ceremonial solemnity. She was hungry for Kai meat or ant rod.

"The rite is simple," she said. "We must watch the full moon rise, speak aura vows, and exchange bindings woven from living moon vines. The moon sets the terms of honesty, protection, and shared path."

Kai glanced upward, tonight the moon would hang three-quarters full, a gibbous lantern, but Luna shook her head.

"For Moonbound, any moon is enough so long as it witnesses. Come, my lord."

Under Luna’s guidance, Kai and his comrades transformed an upper terrace into a sacred platform. Blueloom scattered iridescent dust along the rim to reflect starlight. Shadeclaw trimmed and arranged pale stone benches in a circle, while Grunt and Gore uprooted lengths of moon vine from damp caves, their leaves glowing with faint cerulean sparks.

Silvershadow stood sentinel at the lair mouth, ensuring no wolf spy, not even Kai’s own pawn among Roddick’s ranks approached during the rite. Deep inside, Miryam slumbered on, unaware of the marriage.