The Strange Adventure of a Broke Mercenary - Chapter 306: From Entering the Empire to Marching (1)

The Last Touched is a haunting fantasy of bloodlines, broken fate, and the perilous cost of power.Elsbeth MoonChild is the last of the touched—the final descendant of a cursed lineage bound to the flame. As Alpha of the shattered 12th pack, she bears the ruin left by her father’s crime: the murder of the queen. Branded by his betrayal, hunted by her former chosen mate, and driven into exile with the last of her people, Elsbeth has one desperate path forward—to survive, she must stake her claim in the Rite of Queens, an ancient trial that demands strength, sacrifice, and the will to rule.But the Rite does more than test her body and mind. It pulls her backward in time, submerging her into the forgotten life of her ancestor—the first queen. As memories bleed into dreams and dreams into waking, Elsbeth begins to unravel a long-buried truth: the flame in her blood is not just magic. It is a weapon. A curse. A gift once traded in blood and sacrifice to end an age of chaos.And she is not the only one who carries it.Julia, her estranged sister—exiled, fire-born, and half-mad with hunger—is no hybrid. She is the living echo of the power their bloodline tried to bury. Ruthless, charismatic, and driven by the belief that the throne was stolen from her, Julia is building a gospel of grievance and flame. Her army grows in the shadows, fed by secrets and stolen children. And with each ritual, the ancient seal weakens, waking something that was never meant to rise again.Torn between duty and desire, Elsbeth clings to the one thing that keeps her tethered—Fen, her true mate, a being older than he appears, hiding a divine truth of his own. Their bond runs deeper than fate, but it terrifies her. To surrender to it would mean choosing love over the kingdom. And if she falls too far, the flame inside her might burn her from within… just as it did her father.As old gods stir and the fire in her blood begins to answer the call of something watching from beneath the ice, Elsbeth must decide: will she become the queen her people need? Or the weapon her blood was meant to wield?

Ten years ago, mana descended upon Earth in the form of Gates that opened into other worlds. These Gates contained Magical Beasts of unfathomable strength and power that preyed upon humans and sought the destruction of everything around them.But along with the Gates, humans gained the power of Gifts—super abilities that allowed them to fight back against the monsters and take back their world.Now, the Superhumans with Gifts are tasked with defending the people and ensuring that the Gates, which open all over the world, do not bring about the end of them all....Jason Marc was just your regular seventeen-year-old high school student whose father abandoned him ten years ago. He worked two part-time jobs while also helping his mom with her diner to aid with the finances, but he could have never guessed that his entire world would change on the eve of his eighteenth birthday.Now, with more power than any one man should possess and an army at his beck and call, Jason works toward protecting those close to him while finding out the truth behind the emergence of the Gates—and preventing the end of the world.

Gu Ting Yu is a veterinarian with a fear of animals. Haunted by the same nightmare all these years, he is desperate to find out the reason behind those dreams. He then travels into a fantasy realm by fate, entering the Palace of the Twelve Sacred Beasts.

Because my father was an Earl and my deceased mother had been a commoner, I was burdened with a narrow life as an illegitimate child. As a 16 year adult, I have decided to leave the aristocrat family registry and become a common citizen. I wonder if the knowledge I obtained as a member of nobility will help me in living as a commoner.