Chapter 70 The leaf shuddered back to life
Now that he had pressed the stone to his heart and cast Felix away, Orion was left with a hollow peace.
Every move had been for Esperanza, but the cost was his own soul. He had protected her from the immediate threat, but without his partner by his side, he felt a precarious uncertainty about what fate had in store.
The Ezra who once felt grief was gone. In his place stood a ferocious ruler, a storm reluctant in his heart.
He moved with a firm belief in his own carnage, ready to dismantle the very foundations of the Kingdom to reach Esperanza. To hinder him was to invite annihilation.
A man emerged from the shadows, intercepting Raymond the moment he stepped out of the King’s pavilion.
The man leaned in, his whisper cutting through the camp's din like a blade. Raymond’s eyes widened in shock, his breath hitching as the weight of the news settled.
Without a word, he spun around and surged back toward the King’s pavilion, where Ezra sat enveloped in a suffocating aura of distress.
"My King," Raymond choked out, dropping into a low bow. Ezra turned to him, his expression utterly vacant. It was as if he had eviscerated his own soul from within, leaving behind nothing but a cold, hollow vessel of a man.
"Do not tell me anything... unless it is of Esperanza," Ezra murmured, his voice low and husky, vibrating with a dangerous edge. His eyes remained eerily still, even as his heart lay shredded within his chest. "If she is not the subject, I will burn everything else to ash."
"Yes, it is about her," Raymond nodded, his voice firm with affirmation. The change in Ezra was instantaneous. He turned hastily, his mask of stillness shattering as a surge of raw, unchecked emotion swept over his face. For the first time, the hollow king looked alive—and terrifying.
"What? Tell me... now." Ezra surged to his feet and closed the distance between them in a few predatory strides. He draped a heavy arm around Raymond’s shoulder—a gesture that felt less like a hug and more like a noose. He leaned in, his gaze boring intently into Raymond’s eyes, demanding the truth.
"One of our troopers trailed them, my King," Raymond said, his voice finally cutting through the stagnant air. "He was wounded in the pursuit, but he has regained consciousness. He is ready to speak—to tell us exactly what he saw." With those words, the hollow silence that had haunted the pavilion began to dissolve.
"Then let us meet him," Ezra commanded. He didn't wait for an answer; he swept out of the pavilion with Raymond at his side. They moved like the first rush of a storm, a dark and violent force that made the soldiers outside pull back in fear.
"He was so close to you," Yuki murmured. Orion nodded, his gaze fixed on the distance. He stood with a stony rigidity, his expression as cold as the wind that whipped the dust into spiraling clouds at his feet.
"Will this not break you?" Yuki asked, his words thickening the air between them. As his voice lingered, Orion felt the burden upon his heart grow heavier, a crushing weight that threatened to steal the very breath from his lungs.
"I never imagined it would feel like this," Orion thought, his gaze fixed and hollow. His face remained as motionless as the stagnant air, but beneath his shallow breaths, his heart ached for Felix. He found himself spiraling, wondering how his friend would survive in a world where every flicker of hope had been extinguished.
"Anything to protect her," Orion muttered, his jaw clenching with ironclad conviction. He stood in absolute certainty that by casting Felix aside, he had finally secured Esperanza’s salvation.
But the danger was closer than he imagined. Ezra was coming to claim what he had earned, and he was bringing a storm of fire with him.
Esperanza stood immersed in the wild, her delicate fingers brushing against the frail leaves as if sharing a secret with the earth.
Her eyes were rent with grief, brimming with tears as she drifted back to her childhood, back to the warmth of the human parents she had once called her own.
"How would life feel if there were no dragons—if only humans remained?" She wondered silently, her spirit reaching out until she could feel the faint, lingering pulse of life still thrumming inside the lifeless leaf.
The leaf was brittle, its colors fading into the dull gray of death. As Esperanza brushed her fingertips across its surface, a soft, golden radiance bled from her palm. The light danced over the veins of the leaf, defying the decay that had begun to take hold.
Instantly, the leaf shuddered back to life, its veins pulsing with a vibrant, new green. A soft smile graced Esperanza's lips, yet she remained utterly oblivious to Orion.
He stood in the shadows behind her, his breath caught in his throat as he witnessed the immense, celestial energy radiating from her touch.