Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 713 - 715

Mira was gripping his arm, her face pale, her eyes wide with something dangerously close to fear. "Jude?" Her voice was sharp, desperate. "Can you hear me?"

His mind struggled to focus. His limbs felt sluggish, his pulse erratic. The fire inside him was still burning, but it was… **different.** More controlled. More aware.

Behind Mira, Eldara and Vaelin stood at the ready, their weapons drawn. And beyond them,

The figures. The ones who had **knelt.**

Only now, they were standing.

And **watching.**

Jude exhaled, forcing his body to stay steady. "I'm here."

Mira's grip didn't loosen. "You were **gone.** You stopped breathing. Your pulse"

"I'm fine." He wasn't sure if that was true, but he said it anyway.

Vaelin's gaze was sharp, assessing. "What happened?"

Jude met his eyes, then Eldara's, then Mira's. He could still hear the voice from the void, still feel the weight of what he had remembered.

But saying it out loud…

Would make it **real.**

His fingers twitched. The fire beneath his skin whispered to him, coiling through his veins like something alive. And for the first time, he didn't push it away.

He **embraced** it.

His breath steadied.

His pulse evened.

He looked back at the figures, at the one who had spoken before.

"I remember," he said.

The tallest figure nodded. "Then the path forward is clear."

Mira frowned. "What path?"

Jude's jaw tightened. The fire inside him **agreed** with the answer before he even spoke it.

"To take back what I lost."

The city around them groaned. The air thickened. The world this place **shifted.**

Jude understood now.

He hadn't just been pulled into this world.

He had been **called back.**

Because this was where it had all started.

And where it would all **end.**

Jude's breath was steady, but his heart pounded with a rhythm he couldn't control. The fire within him was no longer just a presence, it was **awake**, pulsing beneath his skin, feeding off the weight of the knowledge pressing against his mind. He wasn't just remembering. He was **becoming.**

The figures before him stood in eerie silence, their gazes locked onto him as if waiting for something. The one who had spoken before stepped forward, his presence carrying an authority that made the very air around them shift.

"You understand now."

It wasn't a question.

Jude's fingers curled slightly. "Not everything."

The figure tilted his head. "But enough."

Mira's grip on Jude's arm was unyielding. He could feel the tension in her posture, the controlled urgency in the way she kept close to him.

"Someone tell me what's going on," she said, her voice a sharp contrast to the silence stretching between them.

Jude exhaled, feeling the fire coil around his ribs like a second heartbeat. He wasn't sure how to say it, how to take the pieces of truth and shape them into something that **made sense.** But there was no escaping it now.

"I wasn't just brought here," he said, his voice even. "I was… **returned.**"

Vaelin shifted slightly, his expression unreadable, but Mira's fingers tensed against his sleeve.

Eldara's eyes narrowed. "Returned?"

Jude nodded once, forcing the words out. "Because I was here before."

The moment the words left his mouth, something in the city **responded.** A distant tremor rippled through the ground, faint but undeniable. It was as if the very bones of this place had been waiting for him to **accept** the truth.

Mira's brows drew together. "You mean, what? You were here in another life?"

"No." The fire within him pulsed. "I was always here. Until I wasn't."

Silence.

Eldara's gaze flicked to the figures, her fingers twitching near the blade at her side. "Is that true?"

The tallest figure inclined his head. "He was cast out. But a banishment does not erase what **is.**"

The words settled in Jude's chest, solid and immovable. It wasn't just a memory now. It was **truth.**

Mira pulled in a slow breath. "Okay," she said, her voice carefully controlled. "Say we believe this. Say you really were here before. Then… what does that mean for you? For us?"

Jude looked down at his hands, at the faint glow beneath his skin. The fire had always been there, always waiting. He understood now why it had never fully **consumed** him, because it was never meant to. It was meant to be **wielded.**

"It means I need to take back what was taken from me."

Mira inhaled sharply. "Jude, "

A **rumble** cut her off. The figures standing before them turned in unison, their gazes lifting toward the distant structures that loomed over the city.

And then Jude **felt** it.

A shift. A presence, cold, heavy, suffocating, pressing against the edges of reality itself.

The tallest figure turned back to him. "He knows."

The air **cracked.**

And then the sky **split open.**

A sound, not quite thunder, not quite a roar, shook the world around them, a force so immense that the very ground seemed to buckle under its weight.

Jude **knew** what it was before he even turned his head.

Something **ancient.** Something that had been watching, waiting, reaching through the void for far too long.

Something that had **never** forgiven him.

Mira took a step back, her fingers wrapping around the hilt of her weapon. "Tell me that's not what I think it is."

The sky was bleeding. The rupture above them was not just a tear, it was a wound in reality itself, dark tendrils **writhing** at its edges, something monstrous pressing against the barrier that had kept it at bay.

Not anymore.

Jude took a slow step forward. The fire inside him **surged.**

"He's coming," the tallest figure said, his voice calm. "And he will not stop."

Eldara's expression darkened. "Then we stop him first."

A deep **hum** vibrated through the city, a sound that seemed to come from the very walls, the very streets. It was waking up.

Jude lifted his hand. The fire coiled around his fingers, waiting.

No.

**Ready.**