Bright lights flashed periodically in his vision as words strung together into incomprehensible phrases passed through Joseph’s head, and he found himself staring at the ground and a pit of vomit on the ground for the longest time before everything finally came into focus. He sensed tension around his arms and a Wave-suppressing Cast around his neck, and decided to stay still and pretend to be out still.

A raging headache immediately dominated his entire consciousness as he tried to suppress his grunts and tried to scan the room quietly. The materials on the floor seemed to be made from pressed tree-barks that were connected together, and the moisture from his vomit had just started to seep through the floor’s surface. He had been here for a little while, and it seemed like the effects of the poison were indeed replaced by the Cast itself.

However, he was alone in this room.

“Gross.” Joseph murmured when he suddenly sensed Alina’s presence in the Wave right next to him. She was right behind the wall that separated his room and hers. Instead of using the Wave, he instead concentrated his own strength before breaking free of his bind and tearing off the Wave-suppressing Cast. However, that was when the door opened, and a man with a thin veil of mist covering his face entered slowly and alone.

He looked like a ghost without any facial features, and he moved silently through the air and without making a sound. Joseph immediately charged forward to attack him, but his fists punched straight through his body as clouds of dispersed mist particles rematerialized around his knuckles.

“Joseph.” The man said, his voice smooth and calm, “I apologize for revealing the truth to you like this, but the fact was, Talonia was responsible for this attack, and they were also the main perpetrators of fostering the supply chain of the Wave weed in your countries. By driving up the demands from Varous, they are able to obtain what they needed at a lower cost.”

“Convenient.” Joseph kicked his feet through the man’s head, but the mist projection continued speaking.

“Think about it. Think about everything that had happened until this point. Use your brain, as it's supposed to be what Varous is good for.” The man said, waving his hand and showing a pile of bodies of the Varous soldiers, “The Valkyries were unaffected by the poisons because they were grown from it, but your soldiers were less than fortunate.”

Joseph’s eyes swung open, and a burst of aura exploded out from his body before the room that he was in started to quake. At the same time, he felt a similar aura coming from next door.

Then, the walls on all sides exploded simultaneously as pieces of the tree barks were sent flying in all directions in the sky. Alina with her eyes seeing nothing but red darted towards Joseph, the outlines of the Great Northern Wolf covering her body as she growled and tackled Joseph to the ground.

Joseph timed his counterattack, waiting until Alina’s weight settled over his body before grabbing her by the wrist and throwing her up and away. The tall slim white-haired woman flipped through the air before gracefully landing on her feet, her boots slipping slightly in the mud and leaving behind a pair of trails.

“Was that the truth?” Joseph asked calmly and quietly, though only a buzzing sound came through his ear. Joseph scratched his ears to try to clear it out, but it remained all the same. At the same time, his vision also started to blur, though the only sense that wasn’t betraying him was his Wave sensing capabilities, and through that, Joseph knew Alina had the intent to kill.

“Kill her.” The voice of the man with a mist veil over his face returned, “Free us from their control, avenge your fallen soldiers, and I can and will safety cut ties with all my customers within Varous.”

“Shut it.” Joseph grunted, “You are lying just to pit us against each other.”

“You think Talonia and their Valkyrie’s program will allow this secrete to come out?” The man countered, “You think they can afford to let this mission fail? You think they care about the puny soldiers from Varous? They will gladly sacrifice squadrons of their own Valkyries if it meant saving Talonia’s image!”

Joseph stretched his fingers out wide, catching Alina’s clawing attacks before getting kneed in the stomach. His massive body was bent over through the impact and elevated off the ground and Alina immediately slammed her elbow straight down, cracking the back of Joseph’s ribs straight through his Wave armor.

“Make sure he doesn’t leave here alive either.” A second ghostly image of the man said from behind Alina before both disappeared as he departed from the area, pleased with the outcomes of the current battle. His underlings instead appeared around Joseph and Alina as they watched the battle go on.

Like a beast finally awakening from its slumber, the sharp pain led Joseph to cry out before he shoved Alina back through rows of trees before her body bounced along the forest plains. However, the majority of the impact was absorbed by the Great Northern Wolf.

“STOP!” Joseph yelled, trying to snap Alina out of it when she sent forth an army of smaller white wolves to surround Joseph.

He immediately drew out more of his Wave, strengthening his body even further before he planted his fists onto the ground, staring into the empty glowing eyes of the wolves before charging forward, his body essentially transforming into a bear as the pack of wolves couldn’t even scratch its skin. The impact from his movements straight-up pulverizing the manifestations as the rest smartly moved out of his way.

It didn'ttake long for Joseph to realize that they weren’t moving out of the way for him, but rather for Alina. With her entire body now suspended within the manifest of a gigantic Great Northern Wolf that’s as tall as the trees around him, she watched Joseph uninterestedly from above before conjuring a spiraling column of air that slammed into the ground in front of him, drilling through the earth and tearing everything in its path apart.

“Shit.” Joseph pounced to the side before leaping forward, however, Alina had already anticipated his movements as the Great Northern Wolf showed him its fangs before biting down. With a herculean effort, Joseph held its mouth open as his vision finally started to clear up, and he caught a glance of Alina’s face and eyes.

Dark purple lines run up and down through her body, and her eyes were filled with red as saliva drooled from the corner of her lips.

Something felt off about her Wave…it always had. Joseph slowly let the breath in his stomach out before releasing his resistance behind him, the biting motion sending him straight towards Alina as he latched onto her body through the layers of Wave.

“Alina!” Joseph said, slamming his fist onto the Wave armor around Alina’s body. The vibrations drew her attention, but from the look of anger and confusion on her face, it seemed like she did not recognize Joseph’s face.

In fact, it didn’t look like she recognized anything in this world at all.

“ALINA!” Joseph screamed his lungs out, head-butting straight into the Wave armor before pinching onto a single crack onto it and tearing it open, “Get a hold of yourself! Alina!”

“Jo…Jo…” Alina growled, her head rapidly and violently shaking as the outline of the Great Northern Wolf faded away from around their bodies and they dropped to the ground.

Joseph felt a sharp pain explode around his legs when the pack of smaller wolves bit into his body and started tearing him apart. He cursed before grabbing onto the neck of the nearest wolf and squeezing it into nothing but mush in the Wave. Then, he kicked down as blood jetted out from his legs, decapitating yet another wolf as it exploded into strands of Wave and dissipated into thin air.

“Jo…Joseph…don’t leave me…” Alina reached her hand forward as the crack in the Wave armor became sealed up, and Joseph’s eyes widened before he had any time to process what had just happened.

Was that really her? Or was it some manifestation of his current state? Was it just a fabrication of his wishful thinking? Either way, Joseph had to make sure. If not for Alina, it will be for the future relationships between the two Kingdoms as a whole.

Regardless of what Joseph thought had happened, the fact that an entire squad of soldiers died because of Talonian forces will mean the start of all-out conflict between the two, and if a generals’ body was thrown on top of it…

With heavy breathes, Joseph charged forward, once again leaving everything on the battlefield.

Years in the future, the Dwellers referred to that day as the day the forest shook.

“GASP!”

Alina finally opened her eyes at least, and she gasped for breath as if it was the first one she had taken today. Her heart raced, and her entire body was hurting as if she had been battling non-stop for days. However, she couldn’t remember anything at all.

“What…what is going on?” Alina looked around, and she found countless bodies around her. There were those that wore a uniform that she does not recognize, though those soldiers all had the same markings over their wrists, which seemed to be of Ethereal Realm origin, matching their slightly darker skin tone too.

Then, there were squads of unconscious soldiers and Valkyries all mixed together. Their bodies appeared bruised and battered, but it didn’t look like any of the injuries were severe enough to be lethal as the breathes was steady and slow.

And beyond all of those…was a column of red flesh. It looked like a stone column had been carved into the shape of a man before someone poured red paint all over it. Alina blinked a few times before her Wave sensing abilities finally kicked in, and that presence in the Wave was unmistakable.

“J…Joseph?” Alina murmured, walking towards her before she felt a pain exploding from her swollen ankle. She trotted with great difficulty around the man, and he had his eyes shut as blood continued pooling around him, “What…happened?”

“Nothing at all.” Joseph forced a smile as wounds opened over his face, “Sleepy head.”