Sold as the Alpha King's Breeder-Chapter 1643 - 85 : Pure Military Mode

*Briella*

“You’re weak.”

“No!” I cried out, breathing heavily as I stared into the darkness surrounding me. I couldn’t tell which way was up and which was down as Tian’s sinister voice came at me from all sides. I looked around wildly, trying to find a way out, searching desperately for even just a tiny sliver of light in this dark world.

I could find none, so I chose a random direction and started to run as Tian’s booming laugh raged in my ears. I had to get him out of my head. I had let him get to me. I wasn’t going to let him take over. I had to be stronger than this.

“You are a fool for thinking that you will be able to save your loved ones,” Tian hissed at me, sending a terrifying shiver through me.

And then his face was directly in front of mine, materializing out of the darkness. His eyes were dark as well, his lips twisted into a mocking sneer as he glowered down at me.

“I won’t let you win!” I screamed at him, but I trembled in fear in front of him.

He was huge, easily towering over me. He had to be even taller than Kryzen. His dark eyes narrowed at me. “You’re weak,” he repeated. “You are going to fail, so you might as well give up. I’m going to destroy everything and everyone you love.”

I pulled my arm back to punch him but found that my whole body froze. I felt my blood freeze as the familiar shadow binds started to wrap around me more violently than they had in the past. I gasped and tried to fight it, but they were too strong. I cried out, trying to kick and claw myself out of the holds.

It was no use. It was becoming difficult to breathe.

Tian continued to laugh maniacally, his deep, terrifying voice echoing through the darkness.

I could feel the life slowly being squeezed out of me. I was going to fail. I was going to lose everything and everyone I cared about. I was helpless.

I gasped, my eyes popping open as I shot up in bed.

It took me a long moment to realize that I was in my bed back in Celestial Valley. I kept looking around for Tian’s awful face before calming down significantly. My heart was pounding wildly. By some miracle, I saw that Kryzen was still sound asleep beside me.

I held my breath when he stirred, his gray eyes opening. He blinked at me through the darkness between us.

“Briella, what’s wrong?” he asked, his voice thick with sleep.

“Nothing,” I whispered, hating the way my voice shook. “I’m fine. Go back to sleep.”

He was surprisingly alert, even though he just woke up. He squinted at me and sat up quickly once he focused on my face. “It doesn’t look like nothing,” he noted. He reached for me and stroked my face with the back of his hand. He frowned worriedly. “You’re shaking.”

I leaned into his touch, knowing that I would never be able to get enough of his warmth. “Just a bad dream,” I murmured.

He sighed deeply, taking me in his arms. His fingers slid through my hair soothingly. I couldn’t help but shiver again. “I’m sorry,” he whispered.

I pulled away to stare at him, thankful for the stream of moonlight that illuminated his face. “What are you sorry for?” I demanded gently. “You didn’t do anything wrong.”

He looked frustrated with himself, his jaw clenching. “I should be able to protect you from anything,” he said, “including nightmares that haunt you.”

I felt my eyebrows fly upward in surprise. I couldn’t help but giggle.

The corner of Kryzen’s lips twitched upward, his eyes shining with confusion. “Is that funny?” he asked, tickling my sides gently.

I laughed and pushed his hands away halfheartedly. “Sorry, that just sounded a little ridiculous,” I told him. My gaze softened. “You can’t protect me from everything, especially nightmares. How would you even go about doing that? By not letting me sleep?”

Kryzen shook his head and tightened his arms around me, pulling my head against his chest so I could hear his gentle heartbeat. “No,” he admitted. “But I can do this. I can hold you every night until you fall asleep. I’ll always be here to chase your nightmares away, Briella.”

I didn’t have any more nightmares that night, which was definitely fortunate since we had a busy day ahead of us. Mathias called on us to attend an important meeting with the other higher-ups of the valley. It included the elders, obviously, but also our head priests, priestesses, and lead healers, Kai included.

We were in Mathias’ grand estate, all surrounding his large meeting table. I had only been in his home a handful of times. It seemed like each time, it was for some kind of dire gathering like this one.

Kryzen was standing next to my mentor, drawing out where the underground city was and where the entrance to the labyrinth existed. His face was a serious mask. He was in pure military mode.

“Just because our team didn’t find any entrances into this shadow world in the valley doesn’t mean that they don’t exist,” Mathias said gravely, studying the map. “And even if there aren’t openings in our community, it doesn’t mean we aren’t being watched.”

Concerned murmurs rose up around the large table. There had to be a couple dozen people in this meeting room. They all looked grave as they listened to Mathias.

“I agree,” Kryzen said. “That is why I don’t think we should have our allies meet us here. We need to choose a more remote rendezvous point, somewhere we can train and prepare undetected.”

I looked down at the table, trying to think if such a place existed in Embervale. The closest I could think of was Lumina Mountain, but it was a pretty large community. I had a sinking feeling that Tian knew of their existence and probably could easily discover our forces there.

“Miles from here, there exists an island,” Mathia said, causing all of us to look over at him. He pointed to a spot on the map in the middle of the ocean. “Here. It is roughly the size of the valley, perhaps slightly larger. I would be surprised if this Tian was keeping watch over it.”

Kryzen’s lips thinned. “That would be perfect,” he said cautiously. “But this looks like at least a few days travel by ship. We don’t have that kind of time to be carting people over. We only have weeks until the eclipse.”

“But an island would be perfect,” I cut in. “We would be able to ensure that it was secure and that Tian couldn’t discover us there.” I looked at Mathias. “Would it be possible to use a portal to get there and back? Maybe we could have one go directly there from the other realms.”

Roy was going to ask his father to send some forces. If we could get the portal to go directly to the island, we could hide our growing army from Tian.

Mathis stroked his beard, his eyes lighting up at my idea. I could tell he was excited at the prospect. “Yes, that could very well work,” he said. He looked back down at the map. “However, the large body of water surrounding the island could pose some complications in terms of creating a portal there. I’m not certain.”

“Maybe we could work with other elders in neighboring communities?” I suggested hopefully.

Mathias nodded seriously. “Yes, I will reach out to them and work on getting a portal working out there.”

That covered the main parts of the meeting. They started to talk about other details like who to contact and when we could start expecting people to arrive. We needed to get the portal up and running as soon as possible. It was decided that Kryzen, Roy, Alyna, and I would head to the island soon to get it ready for our allies to start arriving.

I was exhausted by the time the meeting ended. Kryzen and Roy decided to stay behind to discuss some more combat details with Mathias. Alyna and I chose to go back to the house to rest.

“Can I talk to you for a second, Bri?”

I turned to look at Kai, who had an unreadable expression on his face.

“Sure,” I said immediately, concerned at the look he was giving me. I looked apologetically at Alyna. “I’ll catch up with you, Alyna.”

Alyna waved me off, yawning and stretching her arms above her head. “No problem. Don’t be surprised if I’m already passed out by the time you get there.”

I rolled my eyes but waved at her as she headed off. I raised an eyebrow at my little brother. “Is something wrong, Kai?”

He shook his head but gestured for me to follow him down the path in the opposite direction that Alyna was headed back to the guest houses. “Walk with me?” he requested.

I followed him silently, wondering what was on his mind.

He didn’t keep me waiting for long. He turned to face me once we got to one of the many gardens that surrounded Mathias’ estate. “I want to fight with you.”

My eyes widened at his abruptness. His green eyes, which were so much like our mother’s, glinted beneath the moonlight. He was serious.

“Kai,” I said slowly. I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

He frowned at me, almost looking hurt. “Why not?” he demanded. “I might not have trained as much as you, but I am trained in combat. And I can spend the next few weeks before the eclipse training.” He looked down, his cheeks pink as he realized how eager he sounded.

I smiled warmly at him. I stepped forward and set a hand on his shoulder. “Kai, I know you are a capable fighter,” I assured him. “But you are going to be needed here. There will likely be injured fighters who are going to be depending on the best healer in the entire realm to help them.”

Kai stiffened even further. “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said finally, his words a mere whisper. “If something happened to you and I wasn’t there to even attempt to protect you, I could never forgive myself.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me,” I said firmly, sounding much more confident than I felt. I squeezed his shoulder. “Kryzen is going to be right beside me, not that I’m going to need him.” I gave him a wink.

He just shook his head, knowing that I was just trying to comfort him. “I’ll stay behind,” he said finally. “But I’m going to contact Kellan so he can come and fight with you.”

My eyebrows went up. Why hadn’t I thought about that? “I can call him myself,” I offered. “I have the magic scroll Mother gave me as well, you know.”

Kai put a hand up. “Let me call him,” he said firmly. “You have enough on your shoulders right now.”

I grimaced but nodded. I couldn’t argue with him there.