I Was The Only Omega In The Beast World-Chapter 160: CP: Scouting The Valley

Jade handed over the pouch without hesitation. Alex took it, his hands steadier than he expected, and tipped the contents onto the flat stone beside the food.

Seven stones. Dull. Cold. Silent.

Alex picked one first—the bronze stone, the one that had guided him to Granite’s tribe all those months ago. It was just a rock now. No warmth, no hum, no sense of presence that had become so familiar he’d stopped noticing it. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

He picked up another. And another. And another. One by one, he held them, and one by one, they gave him nothing.

"The stones are dormant," Leo said quietly.

"The shadow did something to them," Lucas agreed.

"Or the stones did something to themselves," Zale said, and everyone turned to look at him. The mer-prince was watching the stones with an expression Alex had learned to read as I’m thinking about something that doesn’t fit. "System said the stones were the key. That whatever the shadow wants, it’s connected to them. And when the shadow touched them, they burned it. The stones hurt the shadow. Maybe they hurt themselves doing it."

Alex turned the bronze stone over in his palm. It was cold. Completely, utterly cold. Like the life had been drained out of it.

"Can they wake up?" he asked. "Can we fix them?"

No one answered.

Granite’s voice came from the edge of the chamber, where he’d been watching with the patient stillness of a bear who had learned to wait out storms. "The stones are dormant, not dead. They burned something that shouldn’t exist. Maybe they need time to recover. Maybe they need something we don’t have yet."

"System," Sally said quietly. "The stones might be connected to System. System was connected to Alex. The shadow went for both. Maybe that’s the link. Maybe the stones can’t wake up until System is back."

Alex looked at the stones. Seven cold, silent rocks that had been his constant companions for a year. That had guided him through a world that should have killed him. That had saved his life more times than he could count.

And now they were just rocks.

"We need to see the valley," he said. "Today. While the light is good. While the shadow might not be there."

"A reconnaissance," Lucas agreed. "We scout the valley, we map where the shadow was, we look for anything that might tell us what we’re dealing with. No one goes in alone."

"I’m going."

"You’re going with us," Naga corrected. "You’re not going alone. You’re not going first. You’re not going anywhere near that valley until we’ve cleared it."

Alex wanted to argue. He wanted to run to the valley right now, to find the place where System had been taken, to do something instead of sitting here eating porridge while the stones were cold and the connection was silent.

But Naga was right. They’d all been right. He’d learned that much, at least, in a year of surviving impossible things.

"Together," he said. "We go together."

---

The climb to the ridge took half the time it had taken yesterday.

Partly because Alex knew the path now, partly because he had four mates, a bear, a dragon and six snakelings who had insisted on coming and been told very firmly that they would stay at the ridge’s edge with Sally and Skye while the adults scouted the valley.

There had been a negotiation. It had been fierce. In the end, Jade had extracted a promise that Alex would call them immediately if anything happened, and River had made them all promise to be careful, and Ripple had cried a little, and Siddy had tried to cling onto Lucas’s leg and wouldn’t let go like a super glue.

"We’ll be right here," Sally said, settling onto a rock at the ridge’s edge with the snakelings arranged around her like a scale-covered honor guard. "We’ll watch. If anything goes wrong, we come running."

"You stay here," Alex said. "Whatever happens, you stay here."

"Alex—"

"Sally." He caught her hand. "I mean it. If something happens to us, you’re the one who gets the kids out. You’re the one who keeps them safe. You can’t do that if you’re running into danger."

Sally’s jaw tightened. For a moment, she looked like she was going to argue. Then her eyes flicked to the snakelings—six small faces, six pairs of eyes watching her with the particular trust of children who had learned that adults sometimes left and didn’t come back like those four years.

"Fine," she said. "But you come back. All of you. You come back or I swear to God I will find a way to follow you and drag you out myself."

"I know."

He hugged her, quick and hard, and then turned to face the valley.

---

The descent was slower.

The path Granite had found yesterday was still there, but the light was different now—mid-morning sun, bright and clear, painting the valley in shades of gold and green that made it look like any other mountain meadow. There was no darkness. No shadow. No sense of the wrongness that had pressed against Alex’s chest like a physical weight.

But the stones in his pouch were still cold. And the silence where System should have been was still absolute.

Lucas moved ahead, his wolf form low and silent, scenting the air. Leo was beside him, a golden speck against the blue, his sharp eyes tracking everything that moved. Naga was coiled around Alex, close enough to protect, loose enough to strike. Zale’s sphere floated between them, the mer-prince’s face serious, his hands pressed against the inner surface.

The valley floor was empty.

Alex had expected—he didn’t know what he’d expected. Scorch marks. Something left behind. Evidence that yesterday had been real and not some fever dream conjured by his own exhausted mind.

But there was nothing. Just grass and stream and the black volcanic soil that Granite had said would be perfect for planting.

It looked normal, eerily normal for a place haunted by a ghost like creature just yesterday.