Chapter 43: Only Family

​Silence fell over the courtyard. Even the surrounding Orc warriors seemed taken aback by the unyielding declaration.

​Morghanna stared down at her, before a cruel, mocking smile curled across her face.

​"A loyal servant." The Chief chuckled softly. "How touching."

​She took a step closer, her voice dropping into an icy whisper. "Tell me... where is this Lord of yours?"

​The Mothkin remained deathly silent.

​Morghanna’s smile widened. "That’s what I thought."

​She began to slowly circle the pinned creature. "Your Lord sent you alone. He remains hidden safely behind his Sanctuary Veil while you lie here—broken, captured, and powerless."

​Each word was delivered like a dripping blade.

​"You speak of dying for him, but he isn’t here. He cannot save you. He cannot protect you. He cannot even witness your death."

​The Chief leaned in close, her crimson eyes gleaming with sadistic amusement. "When your Lord finally musters the courage to cross into my territory... I will place your broken corpse before him. And then I will show him exactly what happens to those who trespass upon my Dominion."

​The Mothkin merely stared back, her expression flat. The absolute lack of fear in those violet eyes visibly irritated the Chief.

​Morghanna clicked her tongue in annoyance. "Enough."

​She turned toward her elite guards. "Restrain her."

​The surrounding Orcs immediately moved. Massive, heavy chains forged from black metal were dragged forward to bind her limbs.

​The Chief looked back one final time, a dark, wicked grin spreading across her face. "This one will make an excellent breeding sow."

​Several nearby Orcs erupted into vulgar, boisterous laughter. The Mothkin’s expression didn’t flinch.

​At that moment, the tiny Bone Worm wrapped around her neck attempted to squirm and burrow away.

​Morghanna noticed. Her gaze flicked toward the movement. "Oh?"

​She casually flicked a finger.

​The gravity in that concentrated pocket exploded outward.

​BOOM!

​The miniature Bone Worm instantly burst apart, thousands of tiny skeletal fragments scattering in every direction as the telepathic link abruptly snapped into dead silence.

​The Mothkin’s violet eyes narrowed to razor-sharp slits. For the first time since her capture, absolute, terrifying killing intent flared within them.

​Morghanna merely smiled, thoroughly enjoying the reaction.

​Without another word, the Chief turned away.

​The black chains tightened, binding the Mothkin’s wings and body as several massive warriors dragged her across the rough stone.

Yet even as she was pulled deeper into the settlement, her cold violet eyes never left the Chief’s retreating figure.

​Silent. Unyielding. Unforgiving.

​As though she were engraving the face of Morghanna Bloodtusk III into her very soul.

....

Cassian’s eyes suddenly snapped open.

​The flow of mana within his Lord Seed came to an abrupt halt as a stark system prompt materialized in his vision:

​[Your Elite Special Summon: Umbral Mothkin is in Critical Condition]

​The air around him instantly turned bone-chillingly cold.

​Cassian stared at the message, his expression remaining deceptively calm even as his eyes hardened into flint.

​’...She was discovered.’

​There was no other logical explanation. The Mothkin possessed [Shadow Wing], a skill specifically engineered for high-level infiltration and stealth.

For her to be pushed into critical condition so rapidly meant she had either stumbled into an overwhelming force or been exposed directly.

​Neither possibility boded well.

​Cassian clenched his fist tightly, then slowly released it.

​A mistake. He had made another miscalculation.

​The realization irritated him far more than the notification itself. The Kragmar Dominion was a High Difficulty Zone, a territory exponentially more dangerous than the Bonefang Wastes.

He should have anticipated that its ruler possessed advanced detection methods capable of pinpointing stealth units.

​Yet he had sent the Mothkin anyway. At the time, the tactical choice had seemed sound, but it was now blatantly clear he had underestimated the Dominion once again.

​And unlike previous missteps, this one threatened to cost him something irreplaceable.

The Mothkin wasn’t a disposable grunt; she was one of the five SS-Grade Special Elites he had only recently synthesized. Losing her now would be a severe blow to his military foundation.

​At that moment, a tiny movement drew his attention as a miniature Bone Worm climbed onto his shoulder, one of the telepathic fragments left behind specifically for communication.

​The small creature trembled uncontrollably before establishing a mental bridge.

​’My Lord...’ the worm’s child-like voice quavered with terror. ’Big Sis... Big Sis has been captured!’

​Cassian remained motionless and silent.

​’I-I couldn’t help her!’ the worm continued, distress surging across the link. ’I wasn’t strong enough! I couldn’t stop them! Big Sis is going to die...’

​Cassian felt the full weight of the creature’s grief. The Giant Bone Worm and the Umbral Mothkin shared a common origin, both having inherited major developmental traits from the Bonecrawler Centipede line during fusion.

Among his Special Elites, they were closest to one another, to the Bone Worm, the mothkin was family.

​And now, that family was in chains.

​Cassian raised a hand and gently tapped the worm’s bone-plated head. The tiny creature froze under his touch.

​Then Cassian spoke, his voice calm, firm, and carrying absolute authority.

​"Compose yourself."

​The Bone Worm immediately went still.

​"Panicking will not help your sister," Cassian stated coldly. "Nor will blaming yourself for forces beyond your control."

​The worm lowered its head in silence.

​"You were given a mission," Cassian continued. "You completed that mission flawlessly. Your sole duty was to gather intelligence, nothing more."

​The tiny worm remained quiet, its emotional pulse flickering.

​Cassian’s eyes softened slightly. "You did well."

​Those three simple words did more to soothe the creature than any empty comfort. The trembling gradually subsided until the link stabilized.

​Only after confirming the worm had regained its composure did Cassian press forward.

​"Now... tell me everything."

​The Bone Worm nodded, and a dense stream of data flooded through the telepathic connection: the vast physical geography of the territory, the mass migration of Orc warbands, the centralized settlement, the bone altar, the gathering of over one hundred thousand seasoned warriors, the strange human-like Orc Chief, and finally... the sudden gravitational suppression and capture of the Mothkin.

​Cassian processed the report without interrupting once. The more he learned, the colder his gaze became.

​One hundred thousand battle-hardened Orcs, led by a Chief capable of crushing an SS-Grade Elite in an instant, the Kragmar Dominion was proving even more formidable than he had anticipated.

​When the telepathic report finally concluded, heavy silence blanketed the courtyard.

​The Bone Worm hesitated, before transmitting the single question it had been terrified to ask.

​’My Lord... will Big Sis die?’

....

A/N: Who wants to do the honor of giving the book its first golden ticket.