The Lycan King and his Dark Temptation (Valeria) novel Chapter 262

NARRATOR

“Is this the elemental village where you were born?” Sigrid held onto her wide-brimmed straw hat to keep it from being carried away by the wind.

They had gone out after lunch with Silas to gather fresh grass for the rabbits.

Their steps led them to the edge of a beautiful hillside covered in daisies. Below, the wooden and stone houses of the village came into view.

The creaking of carts, the clucking of chickens, and the laughter of children playing in the fields filled the air.

“Yes, it’s just as I remember. I never forgot it, unlike other things.” Silas gazed at the horizon with nostalgia, looking over the valley where he had been born.

His best memories… in the darkest nights, in the most horrific tortures.

“Have you been here before?” he asked Sigrid.

His hand gently held hers, a bundle of herbs slung over his back, and a sickle in his other free hand.

“Yes, this is where I hid the baby, remember? The baby I saved when I met you, Drusilla’s son.” Sigrid wondered what kind of coincidence this was.

“Well, we can check on him later.” Silas pulled her down to sit on the stump of a freshly cut tree.

He knelt in front of her and unwrapped a raisin loaf from a clean white cloth.

That old woman was a cranky hag, but in the end, she sure could cook.

She had passed out on the armchair, snoring with her mouth open after stuffing herself at lunch.

“Thank you.” Sigrid smiled, taking a piece of the bread and running her fingers through his silver hair, which swayed gently in the afternoon breeze.

He sat at her feet, on the lush green grass.

“Sigrid, Lucrecia found me here years ago because she had come looking for something. Further ahead, past the lake, there’s a forbidden zone. No one dares to enter…” Silas began to explain.

The more Sigrid listened, the deeper her frown became.

It was said that when the Moon Goddess descended to experience life as an elemental, the night was plunged into complete darkness for several days.

In those shadows, devoid of light, a horrid, malevolent energy began to spread and take form.

With the absence of moonlight, that corrosive magic was born into the world, like a parasite infecting living hearts.

“She found a way to store and control some of that energy. She experimented by injecting it into elemental bodies. It’s… it’s what she put inside me too.” Silas confessed, his body trembling at the memory.

It hurt. It hurt as if his veins were about to explode.

Something crawled inside him, tearing him apart from the inside, searching for an exit. Every orifice bled, his head filled with nightmares and monsters.

“Most of the elementals who died were buried in those cursed trees. I think that same magic is what infected the forest and created what you call specters, feeding off their own hatred.”

Sigrid nodded, connecting the dots.

Goddess, one had to be truly sadistic to experiment with things like that, especially on living beings.

How many elementals had died?

Was Silas the only one who had managed to tame that magic? What if there were more like him?

No, there shouldn’t be. There was only one Umbros.

Sigrid looked at him, warmth flooding her gaze.

“My love, I am also a powerful Selenia.”

But of course, he was the almighty Umbros, the embodiment of nightmares, terror on two legs…

Only that right now, the King of the Specters was very focused on carefully cleaning ripe blackberries to feed them to his Selenia.

Sigrid smiled at him, her eyes drifting toward the peaceful village in the distance.

So many loose and dangerous threads. They needed to take action.

They discussed everything Silas could remember that might be useful, then made their way down into the village.

Curious eyes watched them as they passed, but no one interfered.

Sigrid hid any traces of magic well, as did Silas. Here, supernatural creatures weren’t welcome.

They knocked on the door of the house Sigrid remembered.

Silas’s heart pounded wildly. If he wasn’t mistaken, this was where his maternal uncles lived.

“Yes?” The woman holding a baby in her arms froze at the sight of him standing at her doorstep.

It didn’t matter if a thousand years passed—she would recognize her sister’s features in her nephew’s face.

“Umbros!” she gasped, tears spilling as she lunged forward to embrace him, barely managing to hold onto the baby.