Nerezza, the Skugg's Capital: the Royal Castle:

If you had to name the most secure places in Tellor, then the Royal Castle in Nerezza must be mentioned.

Because of the skugg's old traditions, the castle being sufficiently protected meant the life or death of the current ruler. All that and more meant that the security in the Royal Castle had to be as good as it could be.

The skugg's current king, Randall Revenmar, was a living legend to every skugg in Tellor, he was able to keep his position as the king for 16 years and survived the assassination attempts for 8 years, even those that did not follow the established rules. Making him one of the most well known and unique rulers through the history of the skugg.

At that moment, Randall was in a meeting with some of his advisers and the upper echelons of the kingdom, they all were there for the last discussion before heading to Lurpi the next day to participate in the meeting that would probably change the current state of the whole world.

Randall was wearing a long black robe and a crown that had a veil extending down from it, covering most of his face, only showing his eyes; they were cold, and just one glance from him would make you freeze in terror.

"How are the encolian's movements?" Asked Randall without moving his eyes away from the big map that was in front of him, the map showed all the kingdoms that encircled the skugg.

"It's as expected your Highness," said a skugg in a light, easy to move in, leather armour; he was one of the leaders of the army.

The skugg wasn't wearing anything that would cover his head, which left his features there for all to see, his skin was dark and had black lines in random patterns covering it.

"Their first reaction to the news was similar to all the others," he continued, "they started working on a gigantic mana consuming ritual, and also mobilized their armies and strengthened their borders, especially those they shared with us, it seems that they fear us making a move against them if we get the chance."

The relationship between the skugg and the encolian was never that good, even with the Alpha's pressure and his Royal Commandments, there was still some skirmish between the two parties.

It got especially bad in the last few years when it was found that the skugg had some involvement in the revolution that happened in the encolian's kingdom and the assassination of their previous king.

"Just strengthen the borders, dont pay much attention to them," Randall ordered.

"Your highness," a skugg said, he had a weak body and seemed to be the oldest among all the skuggs there, "aren't... Aren't you going to call the Shades? The situation is a bit weird right now and who knows what will happen... I think that them being here would be of great help to us whatever happens next..."

The room fell into complete silence, the old skugg wasn't the only one who thought about that, it was something a lot of them thought about but none dared to say.

The Shades was the name of the strongest legion the skugg had, it had the elites who cared about nothing but protecting their race and working towards its betterment.

But for some reason, Randall didn't share a good relationship with the members of this legion, a short while after he took the seat, he quickly had the legion move to the depths of the Beasts' Forest, under the pretext that they had to work on stopping any strong monsters from leaving it and deal with those they were able to deal with, and with that, they remained there for 16 years, a much longer time than anyone expected.

Randall turned his head and focused his eyes on the old skugg who froze under that harrowing gaze, things remained like this for a while with no one daring to even breathe before Randall finally said:

"There's no need for that, the situation is still acceptable, I don't think that everything would come falling in seconds, we have no reason to distract them from their honourable mission for something as insignificant as this, don't you think?"

"Ye... Yes," the old skugg said with difficulty as he bowed.

After giving the old man a satisfied nod for his response, Randall closed his eyes before reopening them, with that done, the sense of pressure and cold had decreased a bit and the old skugg had calmed down further, Randall looked at him as he asked:

"How is the ritual doing? When can we expect it to start?"

"Tomorrow night..." Answered the old skugg while trying to keep the trembling off his voice, "that... That's the best we can do..."

Randall's eyebrows seemed to frown as he fell into deep silence after hearing that, then he asked again:

"What other races would complete their rituals before us?"

"The... The encolian? Probably..." Replied the old skugg with a clear awareness that his answer would irritate the king, but he had to, "the appearance of the Luminous Rivers was an unexpected occurrence for all the races, so it's believed that all our preparations will move forward at the same pace, except for the encolian... Their proficiency with runic glyphs will give them a valuable advantage over the rest of us... They are probably going to complete their ritual ahead of all the rest..."

The room fell into a deafening silence as everyone inside considered what that meant. Their reaction in these important next few hours will determine their future, these few hours could either be the reason for a race's ascension to power, or the fell to their doom.

"Make everyone work as fast as they could, make sure that the preparations are ready and that the ritual will continue till the end without any problems, or what's waiting for you would be worst than death," Randall commanded with a frosty voice before adding:

"Do we know the location of the encolian's ritual?"

"Yes your highness, they tried to hide it using many plots but we were able to locate the real one eventually," a leather armour wearing skugg answered that time.

"Send a few groups to try and delay them as much as possible," commanded Randall.

"It will be done, your highness," the man answered.

Everyone there knew that the fates of those groups were set in stone at that moment, probably, none of them was going to survive, but none of the people there dared to go against Randall's command, and none of them saw a need too, some sacrifices were to be expected.

"Alright then, let's end this here, make sure that the rituals are ready and be ready for tomorrow's journey," said Randall as he waved his hands at the skugg in the room.

"Your highness," they all bowed before leaving one by one.

***

Ancilia, The Phas's Capital:

Nulara walked through the long hallways of the castle following behind the female soldier ahead of her, her thoughts wondering without control to what was going to happen soon.

"Wait here your highness," the female soldier suddenly said as they stopped in front of a big engraved door.

After she stopped, the soldier stepped forward and knocked on the door lightly and solemnly, a few moments after that the door opened and another female soldier stood on the other side, seeing Nulara and the female soldier before her, she turned around and announced respectfully:

"Your highness, she's here.'

"Good, everyone, get out, and Nulara? Enter on your own," a strong commanding voice came from inside, and after it disappeared, the rest of the soldiers and servants left the room.

Taking a deep breath, Nulara turned to give her personal maid Simlith a forced smile before moving to enter the room.

Entering the room, the door closed behind Nulara making her flinch a bit.

Nulara moved till she stood at the centre of the room before stopping. She felt a pair of familiar eyes fell open her, a judging gaze scanning her for any flaws, a cold, emotionless stare.

"Your Highness," she said as she bowed towards the source of that gaze.

Step! Step! Step!

Amathira strode towards her with strong, sturdy steps before stopping and scanning her with dull eyes.

Nulara kept her head lowered lest she met those eyes that occupied her nightmares as a child, she waited for this part to end and for the queen to shift her attention away from her as would usually happen, but this time, she didn't get that privilege. She suddenly felt a hand fell under her chin, forcing her to lift her head.

Nulara froze as her eyes met those beautiful cold eyes, she held her breaths and didn't even dare move an inch.

"Sigh..." Finally, Amathira sighed as she released her chin, "you have some of his features, you know?"

Nulara didn't try replying, she was still looking at those eyes like a frozen prey.

Seeing her like that, Amathira continue:

"I hated that about you a lot at first, you know? My brother was an idiot, to marry someone from another race? And an omega at that? That was the biggest shame our royal family faced. Fortunately, you weren't born as an omega or we would have been a laughingstock for the people."

Amathira's voice was as cold and emotionless as it always was, but there was a trace of something else in it this time.

"But now, looking at you, I see his features and also see the same strong will that hides behind those soft gentle eyes that hold inside of them an unextinguishable fire..."

Having said that, she fell silent for what seemed like a long period of time to Nulara before continuing with a much softer voice:

"I'm sorry Nulara..." Nulara shook after hearing these words and her eyes opened even wider, she never, even in her wildest dreams, thought that she would hear those words from her.

"I really do, but some things must be done, and we must put our race before all," she continued forcefully, "from what we heard, this new ruler seems close in shape to the Origins, and it seems that he holds no hate towards hybrids."

Amathira reached her hand again and touched Nulara's cheek lightly:

"Darling, despite your dishonourable origins, you have a charm that few, if any, can resist, and you should know how to use it... You should make sure to do all you can for your race, understood?"

Nulara didn't speak directly, she just looked at the blank face in front of her, she had always known that this would be her end, thrown away as a pawn for a plan far greater than anything she could hope to understand, but even with all that, when the moment came, she felt fear, apprehension and confusion.

Unfortunately, even with all those emotions filling her heart, she could do nothing but lower her head under the weight of those eyes as she murmured:

"Yes your highness, I understand, I will do my best."

***

Boreas, livitus' Capital:

Midlus Talavir, the current king of the livitus, was standing inside a secret room hidden using an intricate formation of runic glyphs that would leave even the masters of this craft scratching their heads in confusion.

Midlus was a giant-like man, standing at a height of three meters and sporting a mass of big sculpted muscles on his body with silver lines twisting and winding all over it, he also had a head full of long silvery hair.

In the room with him, there was a lot of different livitus, some of them were wearing battle armours, others were wearing light robes and had gentler features than the others.

"We need to find them, and fast," Midlus finally said as he looked at a map hanging on the wall, his voice was low and hoarse, "the Luminous Rivers are appearing all over the places they didn't appear over before, and they are showing no signs of disappearing again, so... If this is really happening, we are going to be in a real problem..."

The room was dominated by heavy thick air, everyone there knew what the manifestation of the Luminous Rivers above those last few places they didn't appear over before meant, and the disaster that that signified, especially for them.

"But your highness... We weren't able to find them all over these years... And the happenings would only make our chances worst now..." One of the livitus inside the room said hesitatingly.

"WE HAVE TOO," shouted Midlus, while glaring at the speaker, "or, after a few hundred years from now, there might be no livitus on Tellor, hell, it might not even take that long if this new king decided to mess things up more."

The few present livitus blanched and shook at the thought, the most frightening thing about what Midlus said was that it was the truth, if the situation continued as it was, the livitus would completely disappear from the face of Tellor.

"Let's concentrate our efforts and forces on the Berserker Sea," Midlus added after seeing their expressions, "at least she can't move, all we have to do is find her and understand what's wrong with her, why even though all this time has passed there's still... Sigh..."

"Concentrate on that and also on preparing the armies in case we needed them," ordered Midlus, "as for the rest, we will speak about it after seeing how things will turn out in tomorrow's meeting and after seeing what would be discussed in it."

***

Somewhere in Tellor:

In a field full of the sounds of laughter and screams of little children, an old lady sat on a simple wooden seat on the side as she looked at them with a gentle smile on her face.

The children were of different races, there were some Amaryn, skugg, livitus, and many others among them, but at that moment, they all were playing together with no worry or care.

The old woman had silvery grey long hair, was hunched a little and had deep wrinkles that bore witness to how many years she had seen, her facial features were gentle and made one feel at ease around her.

If there was something special about her, something setting her aside from the other races, then that was her short height, as she was only around 1.40 meters, and also the weird ever-shifting tattoo-like patterns on her hands.

Looking at the children from all the different races playing around, the old lady would frown unconsciously from time to time before catching herself and trying to stop thinking about whatever was bothering her.

Suddenly, the old lady turned her head and looked to a specific spot of the field, a young man, who appeared to be in his early twenties, was standing there, he had a bit of a weak built, gentle features and a human appearance.

The one eye-catching thing about him was the headband he was wearing, it was clear how old it was, but even with that, the young man didn't try replacing or throwing it away, showing just how much he cared about it.

Not long after, the young man seemed as if he noticed the old lady's gaze on him, he lifted his head and waved at her energetically with a bright smile.

The old lady nodded with a smile in return before lifting her head and looking to the sky.

"Really... The older one gets the stupider they become..." She finally murmured with a bitter smile.