[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-reincarnated-as-an-elf-prince":3,"chapter-reincarnated-as-an-elf-prince-reincarnated-as-an-elf-prince-chapter-220":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","Reincarnated as an Elf Prince",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":20,"prevChapterSlug":21,"totalChapters":22,"novelImage":23},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":16,"volume":17,"translator":18,"content_hash":19},267185,538,"Chapter 220 220: Dream","reincarnated-as-an-elf-prince-chapter-220",220,"\u003Cp>Sylric stepped over. \"If you're marked by that thing, we pull back. We regroup. We don't open doors we don't understand.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lindarion looked up. \"We already did.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He pulled the distorted sketch from the ruined camp from inside his coat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spread it on a rock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone looked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The incomplete rune.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The jagged center.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black void scratched so hard it tore the page.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Stitch stared. \"They weren't sketching it. They were recording it changing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luneth stepped in closer. \"It's active.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No mana,\" Sylric said again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Then we're measuring this wrong,\" she replied.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lindarion tapped the sketch once.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"This part,\" he said. \"It matches the resonance in my core. I didn't want it to. It just does.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sylric sat down hard. \"So we're dealing with a structure that was carved by someone who doesn't use mana, responds to void affinity, and behaves like a lock.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes,\" Lindarion said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Kael cracked his knuckles. \"What happens if someone opens it?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mekir's voice came, dry and low. \"Then someone answers.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And no one spoke after that.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because it didn't feel like speculation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It felt like memory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Like this had happened before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lindarion couldn't sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sat beside Ashwing at the top of the ridge, one hand pressed to warm scales. The dragon was quiet tonight. No grumbling. No smoke.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He just watched the valley below.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rune glowed faintly under starlight. Not with magic.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With clarity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shapes that shouldn't exist unless someone drew them on purpose.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lira sat nearby. Not close. Not far.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn't speak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eventually, she said. \"You were right not to burn it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Didn't feel like mine to destroy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She glanced sideways at him. \"Feels like yours to open.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He closed his eyes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Didn't answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because she was right.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And tomorrow, he'd have to decide if he was brave enough to do it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Or foolish enough not to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the dark, everything moved wrong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luneth woke with a start. Damp sweat on her wrist where it pressed against the cold stone of her bench.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The camp was silent, but in her mind, the cliffs had eyes, deep voids opening and closing with a breath that wasn't air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She kept her hood down. The firelight had died. No one stirred. No one stirred ever when she woke like this.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she had.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something called beyond sight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She walked without thinking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Through narrow pathways that dissolved into shadow. The mountain walls loomed too close, pressing in, like they'd learned the shape of her steps and wanted to mimic them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A low hum thrummed in her bones. Not magic. Pain. Deep as roots. Something inside of her had been ignited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She felt the rune before she saw it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not as shape. As shock. Something cold and shape-shifting, like a shadow between her ribs seeking purchase.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>When she finally saw it, the circle carved into stone, her stomach clenched.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It wasn't stable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lines shifted against reason. Angles that should've remained constant wavered, flicking like flame. Branches of the rune thrummed, expanding then snapping back in an instant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something opened at the center. A black shape. A void that didn't belong to the stone. It reached out for her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She stumbled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Felt the cliff beneath her give way.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Took a step, and fell.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her eyes flew open.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blood pounded in her skull.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her hand flew to her side, where on the sleeping bag beneath her coat, something throbbed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not sleep.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shock.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She sat up, heart hammering, breath shallow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tried to keep her face still.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the pain was real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not enough to bleed. Not enough to cripple.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Enough to remind her she was alive.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alive and connected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Alive and in proximity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She pressed her fingers against the spot. Felt the hammer-beat of her pulse.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rune was awake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But no one had carved it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn't move.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Couldn't.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wouldn't.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Because to move was to invite it back.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She breathed deeper. Slowed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thought of Lindarion's shape in the dark, sitting beside Ashwing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thought of tomorrow.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And what would happen when they returned.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Eventually, exhaustion found her again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She lay back down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Turned toward the dark.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Let sleep come.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But tired wasn't release.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was fracture.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lindarion woke to the sound of her breathing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He rolled over.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Saw her hood half up, her face pale in starlight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something had broken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He reached for her hand.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn't pull away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He didn't say anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No magic. No words.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Just breath against breath.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At dawn, she'd be okay.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He'd make sure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>—\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The morning air was thin. Not cold, just hollow. Like something had taken a bite out of it and left the edges behind.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lindarion sat near the edge of camp, elbows on his knees, coat pulled tight around his chest. His breath didn't fog.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The wind didn't bite. But the pressure hadn't left. Not since last night. Not since he touched the rune.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The others were waking. Slow, measured. Kael stretched with a grunt, shoulder popping loud enough to startle a bird from the brush.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Rythe checked her spear, movements clipped. Mekir hadn't moved. Probably hadn't slept.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ashwing circled above, wings low and wide. No sound. Just that steady beat of shadow over stone every few minutes. Watching.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lindarion's eyes drifted sideways—then stopped.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Luneth was awake. Sitting against the wall of the outcrop where they'd all bunked for the night. Her hood was off. Hair tangled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Shoulders drawn. She hadn't looked at anyone since the sun came up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something was off.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stood. Walked over slowly, keeping his steps quiet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You sleep?\" he asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No answer.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not right away.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, finally, her voice, low, like something scraped raw. \"Not really.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her gaze didn't lift from the dirt.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He crouched next to her. Not close. Just enough.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Her hand was clenched. White-knuckled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Luneth,\" he said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That pulled her eyes up, slow, reluctant.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She looked tired. Not just sleep-deprived. Something else. Her pupils were tight, unfocused, like she was seeing two different worlds at once and trying to choose which one she belonged to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What happened?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I don't know,\" she said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He waited.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She didn't add anything.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But she didn't need to.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Lindarion could feel it too. That pressure humming under the rock. The residue of something bigger. Something ancient.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rune hadn't activated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But it had reached out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And Luneth had been closest.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He stood. She didn't stop him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As he turned to walk back toward the others, his thoughts caught on one thing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That look in her eyes wasn't confusion. It wasn't pain. It was recognition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Something in that rune had spoken to her.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And she understood at least part of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even if she didn't want to.\u003C\u002Fp>",1110,"2026-05-29T17:03:12.824Z","2026-06-01T04:29:47.183Z",1,"novelbin.me","39ca3b69ca07e0af6c2a1c850563208a47457d26eb7bcebb9107ab5c1c9c8b07","reincarnated-as-an-elf-prince-chapter-221","reincarnated-as-an-elf-prince-chapter-219",564,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Freincarnated-as-an-elf-prince-cover.jpg"]