The Incubus System Chapter 1531. Bite Back

The Incubus System Chapter 1531. Bite Back

Licheri floated beside me, his white jelly-furball body glowing faintly under the barrier light. He wasn’t bouncing anymore.

“So what are you going to do about this?” he asked.

His voice was soft.

“Waiting for them to attack and negotiate like a good boy you are?”

I was silent.

The guards behind me didn’t move.

Leon didn’t speak.

Even the barrier hummed lower, like the whole city leaned closer to hear my answer.

And honestly?

The old Ethan might have done exactly that.

The old Ethan would have sighed, rubbed his temple, complained about politics, then tried to find the most reasonable path possible. Talk to Lysathiel. Talk to Astra. Talk to the king. Talk to the Light Realm. Talk, talk, talk until my throat dried out and everyone else got to call me dangerous while I kept proving I wasn’t.

The old Ethan would have thought about civilians first.

Still did.

Would have thought about consequences.

Still did.

Would have thought maybe there was a way to avoid turning another realm into a battlefield.

Still did.

But under all that, something had snapped.

Not loudly.

Just a thin little thread inside me going ‘enough’.

I was fed up.

No.

Worse.

I was tired in a way sleep couldn’t fix.

Fed up with negotiation.

Fed up with taking responsibility for things I didn’t do.

First Erebus.

Then Xenos.

Then Aurelion’s obsession.

Then cracks between dimensions caused by ancient monsters and goddamn idiots playing with walls they didn’t understand.

And somehow, somehow, every road led back to me standing in the middle with blood on my hands and people asking what I would do about it.

Me.

Ethan.

Damian.

Whatever name they wanted to spit.

I didn’t start this.

But here I was.

Again.

Trapped in the middle.

Again and again and again.

And the funniest part?

The most rotten, hilarious, spiritually insulting part?

Since I was also legitimate for the Light throne through Gabrielle’s bloodline, maybe negotiation really was stupid.

Maybe instead of begging the light not to invade my life, I should just walk in and take the throne from the man using it badly.

Yeah.

That sounded like shit.

It sounded insane.

Villainous.

Unhinged.

Erebus thought of that once.

Maybe that was why they branded him a villain.

Maybe he stood in front of the same bright wall, and thought, ‘Fine. If you won’t make a place for me, I’ll take the place above you’.

And now here I was.

I just wanted peace.

I wanted my sister safe. My friends safe. My cities safe. My women safe. My worlds not used as battlegrounds by broken immortals with family trauma and crowns.

But they kept pushing.

They pushed me toward Erebus’s corner and then had the audacity to look shocked when I started seeing the view from there.

Damn.

My eyes turned cold.

The night around me seemed to pull back.

Not because I released power.

Because the demons near me felt the decision before I said it.

“No.”

One word.

Flat.

Final.

Licheri stopped floating for a second, his small body hovering in place.

Leon looked at me carefully.

I turned slightly, watching the place where Serion and Caerun had died. No bodies. No blood. Only faint particles of holy light still dissolving into my road like ash from a prayer.

“Have the soldiers ready,” I said. “Assassin units. I want them fully trained. Elite ones.”

The guards behind me went rigid.

Leon’s expression sharpened.

Licheri’s glow flickered once.

Leon stepped closer. “Your Highness.”

His voice was careful now.

Very careful.

“Are you going to attack them?”

I nodded.

No hesitation.

The word had already formed inside me. The decision already had claws.

Leon’s eyes darkened, not with fear, but calculation. He was a soldier. A commander. He understood the difference between defending a gate and crossing one.

“Are you going to use the crack?”

I looked at him.

He continued, “If you do that with an unstable path, you may trap yourself and the others inside the Light Dimension.”

“I know.”

Leon’s jaw tightened. “That would be dangerous.”

I almost laughed.

Dangerous.

Everything was dangerous.

Dangerous had become weather.

I was tired of checking the forecast.

“I know. But I have my own way,” I said.

Leon’s brows furrowed slightly.

“I’ve gone to that place twice,” I continued. “The first time, Astra dragged me there. The second time, Lysathiel took me legally.”

Legally.

The word still tasted stupid.

“But both times, I crossed the structure. Felt the pressure. Saw the gate. Saw how the realm checks entry and exit.”

I lifted my hand.

Darkness curled slowly around my fingers, but beneath it, faint holy light shimmered too.

“I should be able to open a portal there. Back and forth.”

Licheri floated lower. “You are not completely sure.”

“No. But it will be better than waiting.”

That was honest.

Brutally honest.

I didn’t know if the Light Dimension would accept my portal.

I didn’t know if the royal chamber would reject me.

I didn’t know if Aurelion had already changed the pathways, sealed the guest routes, reinforced the gates, or laid traps in every corridor that still smelled like me.

But I knew one thing.

Waiting let him choose the battlefield.

Waiting let him send more angels through cracks and call every death my proof.

I scoffed. “I’ve been using too much human thought lately...”

Leon went still.

Licheri’s eyes focused on me.

I smiled without humor. “But they never see me as one. Time for me to fix that.”

Human.

That word still mattered to me.

Maybe too much.

I clung to Ethan like a life raft. Student. Brother. Friend. But Light Dimension didn’t see Ethan.

They saw Erebus.

Xenos.

Corruption.

Failure.

A mistake with wings.

Aurelion looked at me and saw something that should not exist.

Fine.

If they refused Ethan, then they could meet Damian.

The monster.

The unholy inheritance they kept naming until I finally answered.

Licheri’s voice lowered. “So you will…”

“Yeah.”

The word came out calm.

Too calm.

“We will ambush them.”