Chapter 142 No Lyra no resurrection

Chapter 142 No Lyra no resurrection
~ Taren's POV ~

"It's about time," I breathed, letting out some of the frustration that had been steadily building inside me when I finally saw Elder Cross coming toward me.

It had been more than twelve hours since I had last seen him, and I was already slowly losing my mind. Being confined to such a cramped space for days was taking a greater toll on me than I cared to admit.

The walls seemed smaller with each passing day, and the endless waiting was beginning to wear away at my patience. What made everything worse was the fact that I was completely useless in there.

While he was out searching, planning, and doing whatever he could to prevent disaster, I remained trapped in one place with nothing but my thoughts for company.

"What kept you so long?" I asked, finally pushing myself to my feet as he approached.

My muscles protested slightly after spending so much time sitting around, but I ignored the discomfort. At that point, information mattered far more than comfort.

"The entire place was swarming with guards, and I didn't want anyone following me in here, so I had to wait until it was safe," Elder Cross explained as he lowered the bag he had brought with him.

He reached inside and pulled out a food pack that was noticeably larger than the portions he had brought during the previous days before handing it over to me.

"Eat up. You will need your strength for later this evening."

I accepted the food without hesitation and immediately opened it. Hunger had become a constant companion over the past few days, and I no longer saw any reason to pretend otherwise.

"Any news about the people who went in search of Alpha's body?" I asked, digging into the food without bothering to sit back down. The question had become almost routine by that point, but I couldn't stop myself from asking.

"No news yet. They are still searching, which gives us hope he may still be alive."

It was the same response he had given me for days, but that did not stop the concern from tightening inside me.

"If he is still alive and out there, he may still be thinking the eclipse is days away, not knowing the readings have changed," I said through a mouthful of food, voicing the concern that had been bothering me the most recently.

The possibility refused to leave my mind. He could be moving according to an entirely different timeline while the rest of us raced against a deadline that had suddenly moved closer.

"That is the very reason we have to do what we can from our end without depending on him for now," Elder Cross replied.

For the first time since all of this started, I truly noticed how exhausted he looked. The fatigue was visible in his eyes, present in his voice, and evident in the way he carried himself. The strain of everything that was happening was clearly affecting him as much as it was affecting me.

At that point I remembered the day he had attacked me for giving my blood to find Lyra. At that time, I had been convinced he genuinely opposed the idea. Looking back on it now, I couldn't tell if that had been before he finally accepted the truth about Lyra or if he had already known more than he was willing to reveal.

The question crossed my mind briefly, and I considered asking him about it. In the end, I decided against it. The look on his face told me he still had something he wanted to say.
Rather than interrupt him with questions about the past, I continued eating and waited for him to continue.

"The altar has been raised in the middle of the courtyard, and all they are waiting for now is the eclipse, which will be in a few hours," he continued speaking as he began pulling several strange items from the bag he had brought with him.

I didn't interrupt him, even though my brows drew together as more objects kept coming out one after another, each one more unfamiliar than the last.

My attention stayed fixed on his hands as he worked, laying everything carefully onto the floor between us while I tried to make sense of what I was looking at, even though nothing about it was immediately clear.

"From all I have gathered, Lyra's blood is the catalyst. In essence, she will be sacrificed on that altar to resurrect the Void Wolf. First her blood will be taken, then her soul, to solidify its permanent existence in the realm of humans."

The words hit me in a way that was difficult to ignore.

Elder Cross did not pause while speaking, continuing to unpack the contents of the bag.

Clothes were placed on the floor without hesitation, bottles of different sizes followed after them, each containing substances that I could not immediately identify, and then smaller tools and objects that carried no obvious meaning at first glance.

The last thing he removed was something that looked like a scroll, except it was not made of parchment. The material was thicker, almost fabric like, and rolled tightly.

Only after placing it down did he finally stop moving, and for the first time since he arrived, his attention focused fully on me rather than the items he had brought.

"As it stands now, there is absolutely no stopping them unless we manage to achieve one of two things. Either we release our warriors from the hold of the spell that has turned them into Dagan's loyal dogs or we get Lyra to escape before the eclipse. Without Lyra, no resurrection can happen. What do you think?"

His gaze stayed locked on mine as he spoke, waiting for my reaction.

I didn't hide the confusion that formed on my face. "Is it possible to release our warriors from the spell?" I asked, unable to stop the question from coming out.

If that was true, then it raised an even larger problem in my mind, because it meant there had been a potential solution all along that had not been acted on sooner. That single thought burned in my mind, making it difficult to stay still, especially when every passing moment felt like it mattered more than the last.

"Yes, there is a way to release them, but the only person who can do it apart from the one who cast it is Lyra. The process is long, and we don't have that much time. The only option left now is to make sure Lyra escapes, and after the eclipse we can arrange for the release of the warriors. We have to do everything we can to ensure the Void Wolf is not resurrected." His response was steady, but there was no comfort in it, only urgency shaped by limitation, and I could feel how narrow the remaining options had become.

"I understand. What do I have to do?" I asked, already stepping away from hesitation and into action because remaining idle any longer felt impossible.

I had spent too long confined, waiting while everything continued moving without me, and the moment there was finally something I could contribute to, I was ready to take it on without delay.

Elder Cross nodded and picked up the scroll like fabric again before handing it to me, and only when I unfolded it did I realize it was a map covered in routes, markings, and paths that I did not recognize at first glance.

He pointed toward it while continuing to speak, his tone carrying a seriousness that made me focus completely on what he was saying.

"You have only one hour to master all the routes in this map. At the moment, that is the only way to escape the pack without being detected by anyone."

He then gestured toward the remaining items spread across the floor and added that each one of them would be needed for the mission, explaining that he would go through their uses immediately so I would not go in blind.

As I looked at everything again, I began to understand that what I had been given was not just instructions, but a structured plan that would determine everything that came next.