Chapter 299: Kill the Murderer

Aira, on the other hand, had no intention of sitting on the ground and finding out how long her luck would last. The battlefield was chaos incarnate—screams, fire, collapsing bodies, and the deafening sound of claws tearing through flesh.She stumbled as she forced herself upright, her vision swimming as pain pulsed through her body. Her eyes frantically searched for Zyren.

She was acutely aware that in the chaos they were currently trapped in, only he could protect her.

It was a bitter irony. He was her enemy—the man she planned to kill with her own hands if fate allowed it. And yet, at the same time, he was the only one who had cared enough to ensure that she stayed alive. The contradiction gnawed at her even as her legs trembled beneath her weight.

She had barely managed to stand on her feet when she felt a presence behind her.

Relief flooded her chest as she turned, her breath hitching when she saw Zyren.

He was covered in black blood—thick, viscous, and clinging to his clothes and skin—but it wouldn’t have mattered even if it had been red. The moment her eyes landed on him, Aira let out a shaky sigh of relief she hadn’t realized she’d been holding.

She watched, stunned, as Zyren stepped forward toward the monster frozen before him. The Zygon stood unnaturally still, shadows coiling around its massive limbs, pinning it in place. Zyren showed no hesitation. He reached into the creature’s chest where its heart should have been, his hand tearing through hardened flesh and bone with brutal ease.

A sharp crack echoed through the air.

He ripped something free—a red, pulsing stone slick with black blood.

The instant the stone fell into Zyren’s hand, the Zygon lost all signs of life. Its massive body sagged, collapsing lifelessly to the ground. A closer look made it clear that Zyren had used his shadows to restrain the creature before tearing a gaping hole through its chest.

Zyren moved quickly—almost too quickly for anyone but Aira to fully comprehend what he had done, especially with the overwhelming chaos surrounding them. Her eyes followed his every movement, wide with shock.

What baffled her even more was what he did next.

She watched him lift the stone to his mouth and swallow it whole.

Her breath caught, confusion flooding her expression as her mind struggled to process what she had just witnessed. Questions screamed in her head, but none of them found their way past her lips.

King Zyren, on the other hand, didn’t pause for even a second to contemplate his actions. He grabbed Aira firmly, clearly intending to pull her away from the main area of the fight. His grip was steady, unyielding.

But he barely had time to move.

Above them, the air shifted.

What appeared to be winged Zygons—creatures no one had encountered before—suddenly emerged from the smoke-filled sky. Unlike the two-legged Zygons on the ground, these beasts had four limbs, their wings replacing arms, their skeletal structures eerily similar to massive birds of prey.

Things worsened when they opened their mouths.

Fire erupted from them in violent sprays, raining destruction from above.

Zyren remained calm, his expression barely changing, as though this development was nothing more than a mild inconvenience. Aira, however, felt her chest tighten as despair crept into her gaze.

She cursed loudly under her breath, realization hitting her hard.

"They’re trying to wipe us out!" she snapped, her voice strained.

It was the only explanation. These weren’t random reinforcements. The Zygons had decided to attack with half their people—and they had brought new variations specifically designed to overwhelm them.

The fire seemed almost alive, spreading rapidly across the battlefield. Werewolves and vampires alike scrambled to avoid it, dodging flames even as they fought desperately to bring down the godforsaken creatures raining destruction from above.

Thankfully—or perhaps disturbingly—the winged Zygons appeared to focus mostly on Zyren.

He moved far too quickly for their fire to touch him.

On the ground, most of the Zygons—regardless of their ability to recover—had been slaughtered. Soon, only the ones in the sky remained alive, spared not by strength but by distance. They were too far away to be easily killed, and their wings allowed them to evade attacks launched from below.

Zyren paid them no attention.

Instead, he bent down and lifted Aira effortlessly into his arms.

She was in too much pain to care how she was being carried. Her arm had been sliced clean off, and her sides—though already healing—burned with agony intense enough to make her want to scream. Every movement sent waves of pain through her body.

It wasn’t until her body was gently lowered that she realized Zyren had pulled her into a floor above the battlefield.

Her butt hit the ground, and she winced, gritting her teeth as Zyren stood over her.

"Are you not going to step out and finish the winged monsters?" Aira asked, forcing her voice to remain steady. She was doing her best to make conversation—anything to distract herself from the excruciating pain of her healing wounds.

Zyren turned to her, clearly taken aback.

Then he smiled.

"How quickly would you like to die?" he asked lightly.

What made it unsettling was the smile still on his face as he looked at her. There was no concern, no anxiety, no visible worry for her well-being. It was almost as though her life rested entirely in his hands—and only he had a say in whether it continued.

Almost as though he had no doubt she would survive.

"Still," Aira pressed, "are you going to stand there until all your men are dead?"

"Vampires are hard to kill," Zyren replied smoothly. "Moreover, we brought enough humans with us."

Aira stared at him for a moment before shifting her focus to her arm, which was regenerating at an alarming rate. Bone, muscle, and skin knit themselves back together before her eyes.

It was obvious that in a short while, she would have a brand-new arm.

Under different circumstances, she would have been ecstatic.

But the pain was unbearable—like every new cell was being torn apart from the inside before being forced back together.

She waited it out in silence, occasionally glancing at Zyren’s back as he stood by the window. He ignored her completely, allowing the silence between them to stretch.

"King Jared is dead," she suddenly said.

Zyren didn’t turn.

"Are you still going to help the werewolves?" Aira asked quietly. Whatever plan they had once had wasn’t just failing—it had been shredded beyond recognition.

Zyren slowly turned, fixing his red gaze on her before answering. "It would be better if I abandoned them."

"For all I know," he continued, "the Zygons have launched a war against the vampires."

Aira knew he was right.

"But I gave my word," Zyren added.

Aira stared at him as though it might be the last time she ever would.

She knew the hunters would still try to kill him. The artifact the werewolves had prepared would still be used. By the end of the day, Zyren would either die—or survive and wipe them all out.

The thought of dying didn’t scare her.

She stared hard at Zyren—clad entirely in black, his long coat lined with gold, his red eyes piercing and unyielding.

He was devastatingly handsome. She couldn’t deny it.

But if she had to live the rest of her life beside her family’s murderer, she would rather die.

"The battle should be over soon," Zyren suddenly said, turning back to the window. "We’ll head out."

He ignored the flash of hatred she directed at him.

A smile tugged at his lips—as though she had reached out and kissed himinstead.