Chapter 133: Vows
Ciara.
The name did not appear in the system notification.
It did not need to.
Amon felt the connection immediately.
The faint bond that had always existed somewhere beneath his awareness had changed.
Danger.
Not ordinary danger.
Immediate.
Extreme.
His expression emptied.
Alaric noticed.
"What happened?"
Amon ignored him.
[Protected bloodline connection has entered extreme danger.]
[Source location detected.]
[Distance: 1,847 kilometers.]
[Estimated time until critical event: Unknown.]
Amon turned east.
The communication barrier collapsed behind him as he stepped over the metal disc.
"Amon."
Alaric followed.
Amon disappeared.
Boom!
The ground exploded.
A shockwave tore across the pale earth.
Alaric barely had time to raise one hand before Amon became a distant black figure crossing the Dead Expanse.
"Wait!"
Amon did not slow.
Nothing mattered now.
Not the prison.
Not Earth.
Not the creature inside the kingdom.
Only the capital.
Only his family.
His speed climbed.
The pale landscape blurred completely.
Every step shattered the ground behind him.
The Enhanced Primordial Physique pushed harder than it ever had before. Muscles compressed and released with enough force to propel him across hundreds of meters almost instantly.
Still too slow.
Amon felt it.
The distance.
More than eighteen hundred kilometers.
Even with his current speed, he could not accept how long that would take.
"System."
[Master.]
"Can the Fate Seed open a route?"
[Insufficient Fate Authority.]
Amon’s eyes darkened.
"What about the Prison Law Fragment?"
[Spatial confinement authority does not currently include spatial traversal.]
"Azrael?"
No response.
Amon pushed harder.
The world tore past him.
Danger Sense remained locked east.
The warning never weakened.
Instead it grew worse.
Then another notification appeared.
[Protected individual has encountered foreign fate interference.]
Amon’s eyes sharpened.
Foreign fate.
Alaric’s words returned instantly.
The third creature.
Eleven years inside the kingdom.
Searching for someone with a fate system.
Had it finally found him?
Or had it found Ciara instead?
His killing intent erupted.
The ground beneath him cracked for hundreds of meters.
Far behind, Alaric stopped running.
He stared after Amon.
Even from that distance, he could feel the pressure.
"What the hell..."
Amon no longer cared about concealment.
His aura spread across the Dead Expanse.
The silent land reacted.
Black structures buried beneath the ground vibrated.
Something beneath the pale earth shifted.
Amon ignored all of it.
Then the Fate Devouring Seed pulsed.
Once.
Twice.
A coordinate appeared.
Not Earth.
The capital.
Amon stopped so suddenly that the ground ahead of him erupted.
He stared at the notification.
[Known personal fate coordinate detected.]
[Bloodline connection may be used as temporary directional anchor.]
His eyes narrowed.
"What does that mean?"
[Master may attempt unstable fate displacement.]
Amon did not hesitate.
"Do it."
[Warning.]
[Current Fate Authority is below recommended threshold.]
"Do it."
[Failure may result in spatial separation, severe physical damage, fate destabilization, or death.]
Amon’s expression did not change.
"Do it."
The system paused.
Then the world around him darkened.
[Temporary fate displacement initiated.]
[Target anchor: Ciara Moonstone.]
[Consuming Fate Points.]
Amon’s remaining Fate Points vanished.
[Consuming available foreign fate residue.]
The Primordial Fate Devouring Seed expanded inside his awareness.
Pain hit him immediately.
Amon’s body bent slightly.
Black lines appeared across his arms.
Not veins.
Cracks.
The space around him began folding.
The Dead Expanse stretched.
Compressed.
Split.
Amon saw countless fragments of different places for less than a second.
The capital.
The prison.
A forest beneath a red moon.
A ruined city floating upside down.
Earth.
Then everything collapsed into darkness.
Amon felt his body tear apart.
Not metaphorically.
His left arm vanished from his awareness.
Then one leg.
His chest compressed until his ribs cracked.
Blood filled his mouth.
The system flashed.
[Maintain anchor.]
Amon focused on one thing.
Ciara.
Her small hands.
Her sleeping face.
The way she had wrapped tiny fingers around one of his.
Kayla holding her in the nursery.
Home.
The darkness opened.
Amon fell.
He struck something solid.
Boom!
Stone shattered beneath him.
Amon rolled across a floor.
His shoulder hit a wall.
He stopped.
For several seconds, he could not hear anything.
Then sensation returned.
Pain.
Severe.
His left arm hung at the wrong angle.
Blood covered his clothes.
Several ribs were broken.
One section of his skin had turned completely black from fate displacement damage.
Amon stood anyway.
His eyes moved across the room.
Familiar walls.
Portraits.
Golden pillars.
Royal architecture.
The palace.
He had returned to the capital.
A notification appeared.
[Temporary fate displacement successful.]
[Distance traversed: 1,731 kilometers.]
[Warning.]
[Master has sustained severe fate and spatial damage.]
Amon ignored it.
Danger Sense screamed.
South.
Not toward his home.
Amon froze.
Ciara was not at home.
The bloodline connection pulled south.
Deeper into the palace.
His head turned.
Footsteps echoed outside.
Royal guards.
Amon walked toward the door.
It opened before he reached it.
Four guards rushed inside.
Weapons raised.
They stopped instantly.
Amon stood in the ruined chamber covered in blood, holding Azrael.
One guard recognized him.
His face changed.
"Lord Moonstone?"
Amon grabbed him by the throat.
The others raised their weapons.
"Where is my daughter?"
The guard’s eyes widened.
"I..."
Amon tightened his grip.
"Where is Ciara?"
The man’s face paled.
"The royal nursery."
Amon went still.
"Why?"
"The Queen ordered..."
Amon released him.
The guard collapsed.
Amon disappeared.
The palace corridors blurred.
Servants screamed as he passed.
Guards moved aside before they understood what was happening.
Amon followed the bloodline connection.
Down two floors.
Across the western wing.
Then south.
The closer he moved, the worse Danger Sense became.
He turned a corner.
Three bodies lay on the floor.
Royal guards.
Dead.
No visible wounds.
Their eyes were open.
Completely black.
Amon stopped.
His expression became terrifyingly calm.
He crouched beside one body.
No pulse.
No energy disturbance.
But something remained.
A faint foreign fate residue.
The Fate Devouring Seed reacted.
[Foreign fate signature confirmed.]
[Signature similarity to prison-linked entities: 89%.]
Amon stood.
The corridor ahead was silent.
At the far end stood a pair of massive white doors.
The royal nursery.
Amon began walking.
Every step was slow.
Controlled.
His injured arm corrected itself with a sharp crack.
Bones moved back into place.
The Enhanced Primordial Physique forced regeneration despite the spatial damage.
Azrael darkened.
Black mist rolled from the blade.
Amon reached the first corpse.
Then the second.
Then the third.
He did not look down again.
A voice came from beyond the doors.
A woman’s voice.
Soft.
Kayla.
"Please."
Amon stopped.
His eyes changed.
Another voice answered.
Male.
Calm.
Almost gentle.
"Your daughter will not be harmed if he comes willingly."
Amon’s killing intent vanished.
Completely.
The corridor became colder.
The stranger continued.
"He was always going to return."
Amon placed one hand against the door.
The system flashed.
[Extreme threat detected.]
[Foreign fate entity confirmed.]
[Warning.]
[Entity possesses awareness of system-linked structures.]
Amon pushed.
The doors opened.
The nursery came into view.
Kayla stood near the far wall.
Her face was pale.
One arm was bleeding.
Two royal guards lay dead beside her.
Ciara was in the center of the room.
Held by a man in white robes.
He looked ordinary.
Brown hair.
Clean face.
Perhaps thirty years old.
No aura.
No obvious power.
His black eyes settled on Amon.
Then he smiled.
"There you are."
Amon looked at Ciara.
She was alive.
Uninjured.
Sleeping.
The man noticed where he looked.
"I told your wife I wouldn’t hurt her."
Amon stepped inside.
The doors closed behind him.
"Put her down."
The man’s smile widened.
"You crossed more than a thousand kilometers through unstable fate space to reach her."
He looked genuinely impressed.
"I wondered what kind of man could make the prison react after all these years."
Amon lifted Azrael.
"I said put her down."
The man’s eyes shifted toward the sword.
Then toward Amon’s chest.
Not his body.
Something deeper.
His smile slowly disappeared.
"You really do have it."
Amon said nothing.
The man looked almost relieved.
"The system chose again."
Kayla stared between them.
"Amon..."
He did not look away from the stranger.
"Take Ciara."
The man’s arms tightened slightly.
Amon’s killing intent returned.
The entire nursery shook.
The windows cracked.
Furniture trembled.
The stranger looked down at Ciara.
Then smiled faintly.
"You misunderstand."
Amon’s eyes darkened.
"I didn’t come here to threaten your daughter."
The Fate Devouring Seed suddenly pulsed violently.
The stranger looked directly at Amon.
"I came here because she’s the one who gave you the system."