If that was the case...
Then the threat was no longer limited to the Royal Palace.
It was the entire Werewolf Kingdom.
Worse still, their enemy might no longer be an external force, but their own kind.
Hearing this, Levi’s expression turned grim, his chest rising and falling heavily. The wolf inside him stirred violently; he couldn’t bear the sight of Addison so heartbroken. She had returned believing she would inherit her father’s legacy, only to discover that her kingdom had long since fallen into darkness, teetering on the brink of collapse. Worse still, they had nearly failed to notice it at all, which meant their enemy’s schemes ran far deeper and darker than they had ever imagined.
Levi also remembered Addison mentioning the components of the biochemical agent and its potential impact on the land, one of the main reasons they had decided to evacuate the people. Yet amid everything that had happened, it had slipped his mind.
Even when Chase offered subtle hints, Levi remained stubbornly focused on the locust swarm and the scheme behind it. So when Addison brought up the biochemical agent again, he was still slow to grasp its significance.
It wasn’t until Addison laid out every possibility before him that the truth finally sank in. Only then did Levi realize how much he still lacked in foresight. Addison had already pieced everything together, digging straight to the heart of the problem and exposing the darkest underbelly of the Royal Capital itself.
That realization hit hard. If even the Royal Capital had already fallen into the enemy’s grasp, then they were no longer chasing shadows; the enemy was toying with them, deliberately revealing just enough to show how insignificant they had become.
More than ever, Addison needed him and her other fated mate by her side. She was walking into the unknown, with no idea where their enemy was hiding, and Levi knew he could no longer afford to lag behind.
"Then what should we do?" Levi cut straight to the heart of the matter. "If both the locust swarm and the biochemical agent are problematic, should we simply abandon the biochemical agent and burn those demonic insects to ash?"
Addison shook her head. They had already considered fire as a solution, but it would come at a devastating cost. To wipe out the locust swarm, they would have to set the entire territory ablaze. While the land might eventually recover more easily than if the biochemical agent were used, the destruction would be absolute.
With the biochemical agent, there was still hope. Royal Alchemist Malveric was developing a treatment, and with Saintess Silas assisting in purifying the land, recovery, though slow, was possible. But fire was different.
Once the flames died out, nothing would remain but ash. They would have to reclaim the land from nothing, replant every tree, and wait years, perhaps decades, for the territory to recover.
The only advantage of setting the territory ablaze was that the ash could enrich the soil, allowing life to eventually take root again once the land was ready. But the risk was enormous.
There was no guarantee that fire alone would be enough to eradicate the locust swarm, especially now that they knew the insects were demonic in nature. If the flames failed, they would have reduced the entire territory to ashes for nothing.
As for the biochemical agent, it was no longer an option. That path was closed, leaving them with fewer and fewer choices.
Addison racked her brain for an alternative, but time was not on their side. There was no room to prepare another elaborate plan. The pressure bore down on her like a massive boulder crushing an ant, suffocating and relentless.
「Before the sun rose...」

They had long agreed on their cover story: Zion was returning simply because he wanted to be with their mate. That was why they had deliberately made a spectacle earlier, arguing, bickering, even acting like lovestruck fools fighting over who would go back. The performance was intentional. If someone was watching them, they wanted that observer to see nothing more than irrational emotions, not a calculated response to a hidden threat.

VERIFYCAPTCHA_LABEL
Comments
The readers' comments on the novel: The Alpha's Regret Return Of The Betrayed Luna (Addison)