Re:Ant Lord-Chapter 135: Before the Breath

He leaned in, kissing her again, slow and full. A kiss that wasn’t about claiming. Just savoring.

When he pulled back, she smiled sleepily. "I could get used to this. Warm nights, starlight... taking your big meat and your ant instincts."

Kai stood first, stretching, then helped her rise. Luna winced slightly and giggled.

"Definitely going to feel that for days..."

Kai retrieved their garments from the stone terrace, helping Luna dress first, then pulling his own chitinous armor back over his chest. Though it felt like the world should’ve changed after their union, the mountain still remained quiet, watching two lovebeasts. freeweɓnovel.cøm

The journey down the slope was slower. Luna leaned on him, letting her bare feet brush soft moss patches and glowleaf roots. Her smile never faded.

As they entered the upper alcove of the lair, a gentle golden pulse came from the center nest.

Miryam stirred.

The wyrmling twitched, tiny legs shifting under her gill-rippled thorax. Runes along her back flared for a brief moment, then dimmed. Her mental voice brushed against Kai’s mind:

<<Safe. Warm. Strange smells.... Father>>

Kai raised a brow. Luna laughed behind him. "She is asking about me?"

"She’s still asleep," Kai said. "But her body is functioning normally. She must be dreaming." Kai ignored her smell comment.

Luna leaned over and brushed a hand over the wyrmling’s silky crown. "I hope you get used to me eventually, little one. I wish you good dreams."

Miryam didn’t respond.

Kai scooped the wyrmling gently and rested her in his arms. She curled around his wrist instinctively, letting off a soft hum that vibrated in harmony with the mountain’s aura.

System text scrolled across Kai’s vision.

[Bond Deepened: Miryam. Nymid Wyrmling

Current Status: Dream State (Nourishment Sufficient) ]

Kai turned to Luna. "We still have peace. But I don’t expect it to last."

"I know." She leaned against the doorway. "We’ll be ready."

He glanced over his shoulder, eyes sweeping the mountain that now bore his name (Monarch of Mountain). His mate. His child. But for now, wrapped in the warmth of moonlight and bonded hearts, Kai allowed himself the rarest luxuries of contentment.

His bare feet pressed against the cold slate of the high ridge, and his breath billowed in the golden mist of morning. Luna slept soundly below, curled in the moon-vine nest they’d made together, her cheek resting on his cloak, her back gently rising and falling with each breath. Miryam still slumbered deep, quiet as starlight. And for the first time in what felt like ages, the mountain was at peace.

But Kai could not rest. The honeymoon was over. But he has a lot of work to do.

Standing alone on the rim of the cliff, he pulled open a leather pouch tied to his waist. Fifty-three beast cores pulsed faintly inside, fifty of them two star rank cores, and one still warm with hatred. The three star rank lunar core of the pike vice captain.

He placed them in a semicircle around a blackstone slab and triggered his system menu.

[Core Fusion: Star Trap Formation Mode. 3x Core Minimum Required.

Choose Configuration:

Piercing Concussion

Aura Magnet Field

Shatterbrust

Night Fog Trap

Lunar Feedback Mine ]

Kai chose: Shatterburst.

The system hummed. The three cores floated in the air and pulsed. A web of crimson lines unfurled in the dirt, forming a perfect triangular formation. Stone and dust rose with the wind as the formation solidified. In seconds, it was complete, a trap invisible to the eye, but deadly to any who stepped into it without his Brand’s blessing.

He spent the morning weaving five more, spacing them along ridge paths, narrow cliff crossings, and just outside the southern cave of the monarch of mouth. Then he activated Aura Magnet Field, a new trap type designed to attract beasts with aggressive tendencies.

Once the traps were embedded and synced to his Monarch Brand, he returned to the lair.

Kai stood before his gathered underlings in the central war chamber beneath the starlight column. Shadeclaw crouched beside the map-plate. Blueloom gilded silently above, and the boars grunted in unison as they set the last shield rack in place.

Luna stood to the side, observing quietly, still wrapped in the thin silk veil she wore since their union. Now embroidered with golden thread. Her movements were limited. She was having difficulties walking properly.

Kai lifted his palm. The red glow of the Monarch Brand lit the chamber.

"The Monarch of Mountain is no longer a shadow’s lair," he began. "It is territory. Claimed and tested. We repelled the Silvertails but they will remember. And more will come."

He tapped the map-crystal, illuminating the region.

"From this day on, we patrol the ridges in rotating pairs. Grunt and Gore will cover the eastern slopes. Shadeclaw and Blueloom will sweep the skylight basin. Silvershadow guards the mountain main entrance, while the tunnelers expand and reinforce our secondary exits."

They all nodded, serious and ready.

"Any trespassers will test the new traps," Kai added, gesturing toward the wall. "Made from wolf cores. Call it poetic justice."

Luna smirked. "Very poetic."

"And one more thing," Kai continued. "We will no longer be nameless. No more whispers of ’the bug that escaped the colony.’ From now on, to those who meet us in battle, we are..."

He paused, letting their attention hang.

"Alpha Dawn."

Blueloom’s wings twitched. "Why that name?"

"Because," Kai said, voice firm, "we are the first light after the silence. The first to strike. The first to rise where others fall. And when the world wakes from its foolish slumber... it will be us they see first, like the sun coming over the cliff."

The others remained quiet for a heartbeat. Then Shadeclaw grinned. "Alpha Dawn... I like it."

The name spread like a ripple.

Later that day, as Kai inspected the final aura mines and finished the central lair insulation, Luna sat with Miryam, brushing out a mat of glowing moss over the hatchling’s bed.

She traced the words "Alpha Dawn" with a stylus into a stone tablet and smiled.

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