Aegon opened the door to the governor’s house where a group of around 20 villagers, mostly women, were fidgeting nervously, they visibly relaxed as they saw Aegon with Kuro in his arms, looking beyond him they saw the village street riddled with wolf corpses.

The room turned quiet, they were in shock for a few moments, no doubt processing what they were seeing.

Finally, someone from the crowd asked: “Are they all dead?”

“Is it over?”

Aegon was a bit lost for words, not knowing what to answer, after a few moments of agonising silence for the villagers Aegon turned to Travis with pleading eyes.

The young man understood immediately and answered with the softest smile he could muster.

“Yes they are, your village is safe.”

Tears of joy streamed down everyone's faces, women, children and the few men that were left hugged, cried and laughed all at the same time, even the more composed governor couldn't help but shed a tear and show a relieved smile.

The disciples from the Martial House all exchanged proud smiles with each other before entering the governor’s house where they were received with multiple group hugs.

…

A few millennia in the past, in a distant place, in the void of outer space…

A lone wolf with pitch black fur and deep red eyes that shone like red dwarfs stars looked at his surroundings suspiciously.

His claws were dripping with blood, he had no fur on his wrist and ankles where his skin was also reddish in colour.

A few large and small cuts littered his body.

Blood was also dripping from those wounds, yet in but a moment it stopped and smoke rose from them, in a matter of seconds they were fully healed, and yet the wolf wasn't pleased with this unexpected blessing.

A frown crept into his face and while closing his eyes his booming voice sounded in the emptiness of space. “So you’ve come after all…”

In front of him space distorted and two humans walked out, miniscule in comparison to the wolf ahead of them.

He didn't seem surprised by the sudden appearance of the man and woman in front of him, only angry.

The man was handsome beyond compare, with lush black hair and brilliant green eyes. On top of his otherworldly appearance he also exuded a strong aura of nobility, combined with his glasses and scholarly attire he was the combination of royalty and knowledge.

The woman was also devastatingly beautiful with orange colored air that flowed down to her slim waist, she also carried that same air of arrogance and pride of those coming from nobility but at the same time, and a bit paradoxically, she also seemed kind, compassionate and humble.

Were it anyone else they would probably be dazed by the duo's appearance and aura but the massive wolf only had eyes for what they carried on their hands.

Without opening his eyes to look at the human figures in the eye, he broke the silence. “It seems in the end I'm just a weapon to you, something you use whenever you wish and when I'm no longer useful I'm placed back in my holster where I can’t cut you by accident.”

The man smiled sarcastically. “Cut it with the pity act, you knew this was bound to happen, order must be restored, destruction can't be allowed to run rampant in a civilised world, it needs to be restrained.” As he spoke he looked at the iron chains in his hands.

Lifting his gaze from the chains, he locked eyes with the beast in front of him. ”Don't make this harder than it has to be, you know very well that order is the groundwork for progress.”

The wolf scoffed. “Order this, order that, I wouldn’t be surprised if you were some Divinity of Order or something…, maybe that's what you are in a sense. But I still wonder, would you be so hellbent on maintaining order if the payoff was being eternally shackled?”

“Damm, you're just acting like a kid now, you aren't even imprisoned, yet you make it sound like it’s some massive ordeal.”

“Having my power taken from me is a massive ordeal, it's like I'm perpetually sluggish, sick, surviving but not living. I wish I could make you try on the chains your kid made for me, just for a few years, perhaps you would regret not pulling out…HAHAHAHA…AH yes that would be funny.”

For the first time since the beginning of the conversation the woman’s expression changed. A slight frown was visible on her face. “Enough, let's get this over with. Fenrir, save us the trouble and submit.”

Fenrir amusedly looked at her. ”Sure, sure, I really don’t have much of a choice anyway, we danced to this tune a few times already. I dare not rob her majesty, the one and only Life-Bearer, of her precious time.”

As he talked the wolf started glowing brightly and shrinking until where once stood a massive wolf only a man was left.

The wolf turned man was not much to look at, at least compared to the couple across from him, his only remarkable features being his unkempt pitch black hair and beard.

In a mere two steps that seemed to bend space the black haired man stood right in front of the couple with his arms stretched out in front of him.

Wasting no time, the woman positioned one of the shackles around his right wrist before exerting some slight pressure on her fingertips.

And in an instant, like a crocodile's jaw, the shackles snapped shut, although the sound wasn’t loud it seemed like no other sound would ever be the same from then onwards.

Three more times was that sound heard by the trio alone, and with each one every living being in the universe felt a fundamental shift.

In what? What changed? No one had an answer.

In one random world, in a not so particular kingdom a famous philosopher described that feeling which would plague everyone for the rest of their lives.

“Ever since that day something in the world fundamentally changed, or maybe we were the ones who changed…. I want to ignore it, to pretend everything is the same as it was before, yet I find that I’m unable to do so.”

“It seems so small, sometimes I almost forget, yet when I find myself at the cusp of blissful ignorance a memory of the past gnaws at me and pulls me right back in.”

“I see the same feeling in the eyes of my contemporaries, they tell me it feels like losing something dear yet not remembering what was lost, and I resonate with those words more than I thought possible.”

“But in contrast, when looking at my juniors, born after that fateful day, I fail to find it in their eyes, they tell me they don't know what we’re talking about and I can’t help but feel envious. I envy their ignorance of our loss for I miss something I never knew existed and I still don't know if it ever actually did….”