Elizabeth lifted her gaze to the sky.
Before entering the Forest of the Three Suns.
Before the forest's throat.
Before the trail of corpses.
Before the bloodbath.
Before the cuts.
Before relying on nothing but the raw power of her bloodline against men twice her size.
Twice her age.
Men who had once been sworn to protect, yet chose betrayal instead.
Men who coveted the power of kings.
Men who chose the easy path, never realizing how dearly it would cost them.
The sky was painted blue streaked with gold, slowly surrendering to twilight.
Soft shades of rose and molten amber spread across the heavens.
— My Princess...
Leonia rode beside her without wavering, one hand wrapped around the reins, her eyes fixed on the horizon with the unwavering fire of loyalty and the stubborn hope that everything would somehow be all right.
— They're coming. A great many of them. Perhaps an entire battalion.
She spoke through clenched teeth, a low growl rumbling beneath every word.
— Can Your Highness still not reach Sapphire? The Moon Wolf?
The concern in her voice was genuine.
Elizabeth felt it deep within her bones.
— Nothing... Sapphire won't answer... and I can't feel my wolf, Leonia... nothing at all. Not even the faintest whisper.
She exhaled in frustration, lifting her eyes once more to the sky.
Fury flashed within them, barely restrained.
Her pheromones still lingered in the air.
Faint.
But sharp as acid.
The sun was sinking beneath the horizon.
Then the sound came.
From every direction.
And from nowhere at all.
—...!
She knew.
Of course she knew.
The instant they reached the forest's edge where the road vanished beneath the ancient trees, wolves nearly seven feet tall burst from the woods.
They emerged from behind stone outcroppings.
From filthy pools of stagnant water.
From every shadow the forest possessed.
— Leonia!
Leonia was already in her element.
Without so much as blinking, she drew her sword from its scabbard and spun the blade, invoking the sacred magic of the Daughters of Night.
— Agahatham safos laranies... arranaes iluminos.
Elizabeth leaned low against the griffin's neck.
The magnificent beast understood the gesture as a command for speed.
Its powerful legs surged forward.
Enormous talons ripped through snow, hide, flesh, and filthy fur alike as it charged, keeping its rider secure upon its back.
Leonia carved through her enemies.
Blood streamed.
Blood sprayed in impossible quantities.
— Die, you rejected wretches!
the Sacred Knight snarled.
Her eyes never stopped searching for Elizabeth.
Even as wolves surrounded her.
Even as they tried to overwhelm her.
She never faltered.
Her blade entered and left their bodies like a sentence that had been passed long ago.
— Find shelter, Princess...
She never finished.
A massive black wolf erupted from the forest's blind side, launching itself directly onto Leonia's mount.
Elizabeth, whose senses had been tracking every movement around her, spun while still clutching the reins.
— LEONIA!!
What she saw drove the little air left in her lungs from her chest.
The former assault commander.
Gharses' wolf.
He loomed above Leonia before tearing her violently from the saddle.
Elizabeth yanked the reins.
But the wolves never stopped coming.
They poured forward like stubborn mire.
Like insects whose nest had been shattered.
And in a way...
it had.
Destroyed by their own hands.
By their own arrogance.
By their neglect of the lands they had sworn to defend.
By betrayal.
By alliances as fragile as satin ribbons.
Leonia crashed into the snow, leaving a crater beneath her armored body.
The wolf snarled as it shook her violently, driving the force of its fangs harder against her armor with nothing but hatred.
— Filthy cur!
the Sacred Knight roared, struggling beneath its crushing weight.
The beast raised one massive paw and slammed it across the side of her face.
Blood burst free, splattering across its dark fur.
Leonia bit the inside of her cheek to keep herself from screaming.
She refused to grant the enemy that satisfaction.
Then a sharp crack echoed through the frozen valley of twisted trees.
Her breastplate.
The wolf ripped it from her body.
With a careless flick of its head, it hurled the Moonsteel armor far into the distance.
Blood followed the shattered piece through the air.
Leonia struggled to breathe.
Some of the beast's fangs had pierced the armor itself.
Then, amid the hopeless struggle, she saw it.
Pure silver prosthetic fangs fitted over the wolf's primary canines.
They had willingly armed themselves with the very metal that burned their kind...
simply to kill the princess.
— Filthy... beasts...
Leonia rolled clear from beneath the monster just as another figure descended with a sheathed sword.
Elizabeth fell upon it like an evil omen.
Her wolf-slaying blade pierced fur and hardened hide as though they were nothing more than brittle paper.
— Princess!!
Leonia's cry was swallowed as she was forced back into battle against her own share of rogues, all consumed by suicidal fury.
Elizabeth fought with claws partially transformed, proof that Sapphire, her wolf, was still absent.
And for the first time in the history of the Lycan bloodline...
one of its she-wolves would fight entirely in her human form.
Relying on nothing except the monstrous strength flowing through her blood.
Without her wolf to shield her.
And that was terrifying.
Especially here.
On the threshold of the Forest of the Three Suns.
Where ancient magic, death, and oblivion gathered together...
without the blessing of the moon.