Published at 1st of February 2026 8:26 am

Chapter 1708 The Morning After

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When Gary stepped into the second cavern, his mind was racing with two very different possibilities. He had expected either to find Kai in a desperate situation, needing every bit of help Gary could offer because things had spiraled out of control, or to find Kai standing perfectly fine on his own. After all, Kai was the man with the plan, the one who tried to account for every single variable. His confidence was the very reason he had insisted on handling his section of the tunnels solo.

What Gary didn't expect was the scene currently unfolding before his eyes. The cavern was buzzing with activity, but it wasn't just werewolves. Knights from the Red Wing Kingdom were walking down the stone staircases in organized lines, and they were carrying the bodies of werewolves into the central area. Gary’s eyes widened as he spotted a familiar figure among the armored men. Bluebird was walking in with the others, his expression grim as he directed the flow of the knights.

“What’s going on here?” Gary asked, his voice echoing as he hurried over to Kai.

Kai turned, looking relatively unscathed despite the chaos that must have occurred. “The fact that you’re finally here now... I guess things have settled down where you were?” Kai asked, his tone as calm as ever.

Gary nodded, confirming the situation with Jack and Lupus, but as he looked around at the werewolves being brought in, a cold feeling settled in his stomach. He noticed several of the werewolves being carried by the knights were completely motionless. They were dead.

As he looked closer at the fallen, Gary realized these weren't wounds made by claws or teeth. These were clean, deep gashes, wounds made by swords.

“Some of the werewolves had managed to escape their restraints,” Kai answered, sensing Gary’s question before he could even ask it. “The knights had no choice but to take them out to prevent them from reaching the city above. It was the same for me as well. I had to do what was necessary.”

Kai gestured toward the growing pile of bodies. “Not all of them are from this cavern, either. Some of these werewolves had launched a direct attack on the wall from the outside. My guess is they were part of Steve’s pack that was left out there. We brought them in because we were sure that when Steve and the others finally come to, they would want to say their goodbyes. They deserve a proper burial, at the very least.”

Kai went on to explain the specific troubles he had faced and the exact reasons why some of the werewolves had been able to break free. Gary listened to every word, absorbing the weight of the night's losses. While they talked, Gary watched the knights who were now stationed down in the cavern. They were staying close to the surviving werewolves, performing a more organized version of what Lupus had been doing.

Now that the werewolves were weaker than before, partially knocked out, exhausted, and injured from the night's frenzy, a simple Qi-infused fist was enough to keep them down. Any time a werewolf showed signs of stirring or transforming further, a knight would deliver a precise blow to keep them in their place. It was a strange sight, though; some of the werewolves, no matter how many times they were knocked out, remained locked in their transformed states, their bodies refusing to revert while the curse was still active.

Gary then took his turn to explain everything that had happened on his end, the battle with Jack, the emergence of the Volcanic Fist, and the state of the other cavern. The look on Kai’s face didn't change much. He didn't look surprised at all, mostly because he wasn't. He had already expected that Gary had run into a significant obstacle given how late he was.

“We did what we could,” Kai said, looking at the ceiling as if he could see through the rock to the sky above. “I think it was a mammoth task for us to handle in the first place. That’s probably why the system gave us most of our powers back, the creators of this trial knew exactly how hard this was going to be.”

He checked the time. “There are only a few more hours now until the sun will rise. Once it does, the curse should pass, and it will finally be over.”

Everyone spent those final hours in a state of high alert. There was a constant, underlying worry that something else might happen, that more werewolves might scale the walls of the kingdom or that another wave of madness would hit. However, in the end, nothing else came. The night stayed quiet until the first rays of the sun began to peek over the horizon.

As if the sunlight was a universal signal, the werewolves who were still transformed but chained up finally started to change. Their fur receded, their bones snapped back into human shapes, and the predatory glow left their eyes. They were turning back to their regular forms. The Day of the Curse was officially over, but its effects were going to last a very long time on all of them.

When Steve finally woke up and came out of his blood-crazed state, he looked around at the others lying in the center of the room. When he realized what had happened and saw the bodies of his pack members, everyone could see him fighting back tears. He hated it. He hated that all of this had happened under his watch, and he hated that Unozku had managed to get one last victory over them in the end.

It was the same for Jack. When the legendary Alpha finally came back to his senses, the memories of the night flooded back. He remembered what he had done. He remembered the feeling of losing control over his own body. Most painfully, he remembered that his own pack had turned on each other, consuming one another in the face of the insatiable hunger.

Immediately, Jack went to console the survivors. He moved from person to person, telling them it wasn’t their fault, that the things they had done while the curse held them weren't their responsibility. It was a trauma they would have to move past together, but the worst part was the realization shared by the three travelers. This wasn't a one-time event. This was a cycle that would occur every single month.

There was no time to rest. Even in his weakened state, Jack wanted to start working on a solution as quickly as possible to ensure that this would never happen again. Both packs began to file out of the caverns, heading back to the surface. Before he left, Steve made sure to give his thanks to Bluebird and his group of knights. There was no hatred between them, only a mutual respect for having survived the night.

Steve then turned to the three of them, Gary, Kai, and the others. He gave them his thanks as well, but there was a strange look in his eyes. For some reason, he felt like this was the last time he would see them.

As the werewolves finally cleared out and left the territory of the kingdom, a familiar chime rang in the minds of the travelers. A series of system messages popped up in front of their eyes.

[Quest Complete]

[Save the Red Wing Kingdom]

[Final Quest]

[Speak To Jack Dem]

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