The Last Touched: Rite of Queens - Chapter 95: The Festival of New Beginnings

I wrote a book once.It was an unhinged fantasy born from my high-school brain, driven by loneliness and too many hormones.It was a world of beastmen, wild freedom, and the kind of romantic attention I could never get in real life. I poured every impossible desire into it: adventure, danger, and yes… a 'lot' of handsome partners.Before I knew it, I had a thousand chapters of pure escapism and pure thrill.Then on a college camping trip, I fell off a cliff.I expected to wake up in a hospital room but nope. I woke up on a soft field of grass, with air too fresh to belong anywhere on Earth.And then something moved behind me.Sticking out of my tailbone was... A tail.My tail?Yellow and black stripes and very, very real.I touched it. Completely real.My ears? Also gone—well, moved. They were now perched on top of my head like a confused jungle cat. And the outfit? Quite revealing, made of animal hide which matched my tail.What was going on?At first, I thought it was a prank. Or a dream. Or maybe karma is finally cashing in. But the more foreign memories evaded my mind, the clearer my situation became.This wasn't cosplay and it wasn't Earth, either.And—surprise—it wasn't even the world from my own book. Welp.I had been transported into a completely different Beastman world as a beast girl called Arinya.Sounds fun, right?Well… it would be, if I weren't apparently the ugliest duckling in the entire freaking savannah! Rejected by every potential mate I stumbled across and sneered at like a freaking eyesore.This was not how I planned my fantasy to come to reality.Trust me—if this is my fantasy come true, then someone needs to fire the author.But then again, after entering this world, I'm suddenly... Attractive.I mean, there's no change to my face and the freckles are still there, but for some reason, handsome beastmen begin to flock around me, because I smell... Pleasant.What's that all about?

In a supernatural infested world, we have the awakened- an elite group of people gifted with superpowers. And the transcenders- humans who consume divinity potions even at the risk of losing their sanity.And then, we have me who awakened with little to no prior memory of my past. Now trapped in a cursed, and wretched land infested with nightmarish creatures of all kinds.I; with the help of my latent time-rewind ability, the mysterious blue chaotic flame; alongside fragmented memories and unlikely allies made in the world of nightmares must find a way to escape to the real world.All while trying to keep in check a small yet dangerously fatal side effect.But the deeper I delve into this world’s horrors, the more I realized—I wasn't just running from the monsters around me. I was running from the one inside.Additional tags: Dark fantasy + Dark souls element, supernatural + psychological horror and finally:Mystery, tension and suspense + ground breaking lore and world building.

“I am the rot in your foundation. I will crawl back from hell and bury this world.”Those were Red’s final words as his classmates—the people he once sought validation from—watched him dissolve. They stole his life force to fuel their own ascensions, becoming Paladins, Sages, and Kings. They threw his empty husk into the Abyss, satisfied the 'Terrorist's Son' was finally gone.But death was not the end. While his body lay broken in the abyss, his soul drifted to the sanctuary of a Forgotten God.Awakening the forbidden SSS-Rank Talent [Exponential Divinity - 100x Growth], Red realizes that in this world, power isn't given—it's built. He doesn't need heroes; he needs monsters.From the chitin of hyper-evolved insects to dragons, from eldritch horrors to the nightmares sleeping in the dark, he begins to construct a civilization that defies the natural order. Under his hand, the weak do not just survive—they evolve into calamities.The Heroes are leveling up in their golden towers. The Gods are watching from their thrones.But in the shadows, Red’s Strongest Civilization is already preparing for war.[Betrayed and sacrificed, I awakened an SSS-Rank Talent. While others struggle to build a village, my civilization grows 100x faster.]

A broken prince, a shadowy scheme, all that amidst a bloody fight for a throne wrongly succeeded. Join a group of youngsters as they take their first steps into the martial world, towards the grandest adventure of their lives. It all begins in a certain inn, set against verdant mountains and facing a scenic lake.

“Bring us your finest wine and best meat!” Yelled a hulking man who seemed to be the leader of the dozen strong group.

“How much?” The waiter anxiously nodded his head.

“As much as you have!” The hulking man yelled back.

“That’s…”

“HUH?” The hulking man shot the waiter a furious glare.

“Dear guests, our inn operates on the principle of ‘pay first, dishes later’. As such, it will be better if you tell us exactly how much meat and wine you need.” Xiao Se returned their furious stares with a thin smile.

“Who are you supposed to be?” The hulking man eyed him with bulging eyes.

“This humble one is known as Xiao Se, the owner of this inn, the Fallen Snow Villa.” Xiao Se replied with the same smile and with a level of courtesy worth a solid 12/10.

“Well, we have no money.” The hulking man stabbed his blade into one of the nearby tables.

“Oh?”

“But I’m sure you have some!” The man pointed his finger at Xiao Se.

At that, Xiao Se furiously shook his head. “I’m sorry to break it to you but our little inn hasn’t made a single sale in almost a month. I’m about to owe them salaries myself…”

“Like hell if I care!” The hulking man smashed his palm down on the table. “Even if you have no money, that fur coat of yours should at least be worth a hundred odd silvers.”

“NONSENSE!” Yelled Xiao Se, eyes wide open and gaze as sharp as daggers.

The hulking man was stunned, his body even shivering involuntarily for that split second.

“I, Xiao Se, ride only the finest horse and wear only the richest threads! This fur coat of mine was specially sewn by some of the finest seamstresses in the imperial capital in the August Threads. Just sewing it took three whole months, shipping it, another one. Hmph, a hundred silvers? That’s not even enough to buy the sleeves of my coat!”