After staring at him for a while, the wolf bowed before disintegrating into blue pixels, beautifully illuminating the chamber.
Asher’s lips curled into a soft, genuine smile that reflected through his golden eyes. Turning, he ascended the steps and left for his bedroom.
It was another night but as he sat on the bed, his eyes locked on the mural facing him. The first thing he set his eyes on when he first came to Boundless.
Then, he wasn’t even a baron, just the baron’s abandoned son but now he was a duke, one step away from the Archduke Zenas was.
Sirius, his wolf, was of a higher rank than Shura, the first pet beast of the House Ashbourne!
The enormous size of the wolf no longer frightened him. His fears were beyond a wolf in a picture, they were the wars in the continent.
Galvia Empire had conquered one third of the Nightfire kingdom, wiping out everything that once lived there, humans, livestock, plants!
One third of the Nightfire kingdom had been transformed into a dead land by the death Knight legion.
Luckily, Silver moon kingdom decided to aid Nightfire in the war but it pained Asher the more when he realized Silver moon only helped when Nightfire was reduced to a pathetic state.
Even if they pushed Galvia back, Nightfire was already on the path of destruction.
He didn’t want his domain to end up like that. But if a kingdom could be reduced to that, a prosperous land with the highest mage count, his Dukedom was nowhere near invincible.
“I shall make the Dukedom of Ashbourne independent and invincible, Lord Zenas. We have played the card of the loyal for too long and yet it hasn’t paid. They just keep scheming and scheming without end.”
Asher’s face distorted, his expression darkening to the extreme as he recalled Alex’s corpse pinned to the wall.
He was humiliated and the one he swore allegiance to sat back and did nothing. And now that he had picked himself from the mud, they wanted to claim his sister and threaten him with wars.
All these schemes solidified his ambition. Build an invincible domain!
He didn’t want to conquer all the lands in Tenaria and build a world empire that would crumble a few decades later.
No. The endless north was enough for him. It was even bigger than the rest of the Eternal Immortal Empire and it would be his and his alone!
Asher’s golden eyes blazed like two suns. Everything on that soil would become his and he would etch the name Ashbourne so deep that the world would tremble at the sound of that name.
No power could last forever, that was an inevitable fact but if In time, everyone remembered there was a dominion that couldn’t be touched, he would have achieved his goal.
It was hard but he wanted it. For this reason, large amounts of dwarven ore have been taken to Silver moon Bastide for them to forge dwarven armour for all his men.
No lord in this continent had access to dwarven ore. In fact they thought it had been consumed but he would be equipping tens of thousands with it!
He would no longer face any loss!
Burning with desire, he leaned back, surrendering to the soft, enveloping comfort of the mattress. The gentle give of the fabric cradled his body, but his mind was ablaze with ambition. His lips quivered, barely audible, as he whispered words that only he could hear.
“I Am, thank you for this opportunity. Watch me build what no human has ever built.”
The whispered promise danced on the edge of silence, flickering like the delicate flames of the candles that lit the room, casting shadows on the walls as his dreams began to take shape in the darkness.
_____
Clink! Clink!
The heavy sounds of metal crashing against metal echoed through her mind, making her quiver with every fiber of her being.
The pungent smell of blood wafted through the air, assaulting her senses and twisting her gut in fear.
The cries of war raged like a tempest behind the mountain, flames roaring with an intensity that seemed to never subside.
Machines launched bolts that shattered walls, and knights bearing the flag of a roaring wolf charged through their foes with a ferocity that made armor seem like mere ornamentation.
A kingdom burned, its once-green fields now scorched and charred, the ground tainted with the blood of the fallen.
The future looked bleak, a desolate landscape of skeletal remains stretching as far as the eye could see.
And as if the horrors of war weren’t enough to witness from her high vantage point, a shadow loomed over her, growing larger with each step. The clinking of armor accompanied the approach of its owner, a knight clad in heavy black armor that seemed to absorb the light around him.
His face was hidden behind a great helm, its eye holes and breathing holes a stark reminder of the armor’s imposing presence.
His white cloak fluttered behind him like a ghostly banner, and his white hair draped over his shoulder like a river of snow.
But it was his eyes that truly unsettled her – burning golden orbs that pulsed with an inner fire, visible even through the darkness of the eye holes.
“It’s him. The Blood King!” Katarina’s body grew cold as she found herself speaking, her voice barely above a whisper.
And then, as if fate itself had ordained it, the knight removed his great helm, revealing a face she knew all too well.
“M-My Lord!” she stuttered, her voice trembling with a mix of fear and reverence.
But the nightmare didn’t end there.
In the next instant, Katarina rose from her bed, her heavy pants a stark reminder that it was all just a dream.
Her bodyguards burst into the room, responding to her distress, but she waved them off, clutching her heart as if to calm its racing beats.
“Not again,” she whispered, the words a desperate plea to be free from the terror that haunted her dreams.
____
A/N: I had to skip update because my brain needed it. Honestly. But did you guys have to punish me with low power stones?