The world is a pretty solemn place, huh? Full of irony and so many different things contradicting each other, but existing concomitantly. Funny, isn’t it? That the most joyous moment in one’s life can easily transform into a memory filled with despair. Mamai looked at Tvoznan, seeing the hope leaving the warm brown eyes, slowly as they fell into despair, and suddenly the brown were no more, being replaced by bright yellow eyes of an apex predator. The pupils were no longer human, nor godlike for that matter, many times longer than they were wide, reminding somewhat the eyes of a shark, which had caught a whiff of blood. Bloodlust emanated from his body as he looked at Mamai, but his hands were still holding the limp body on the ground, as if his eyes and hands belonged to 2 different creatures. Mamai looking at his eyes and felt weakness in his legs, as he fell on his knees he tried releasing his own Litra, but it was completely pushed back, crumpled and stuffed back into his body.

“Stop!... I’m on your…side,” barely managed to whisper Mamai as he fell and laid on the ground on his stomach, with his head pushed into the ground, his mouth tasting the moist dirt and his body shattering under the pressure of million times our gravity. Finnaly realizing what he was doing, Tvoznan stopped as his eyes slowly returned to a warm brown color.

“Mamai, I can’t move from this position for 2 and a half days. Go around my domain and tell anyone you meet what happened,” said Tvoznan, giving him a doleful glance.

“But the question stands: Will they really come?”

“They will! I trust them with my life!” roared Tvoznan “I will try increasing the amount of energy and the speed of the transfer of my energy into Rose and that way I think I can shorten the time by roughly a day, so if they can hold them back for 1,5 days, I have a chance of saving Rose. Tell them exactly what I said, word for word.”

“I will, Earth Lord” Mamai yelled as he unfolded his wings and flew away above the trees. Tvoznan looked at the broken branches and shook his head. ‘He needs to make it. No, he will make it! He has to!’ He stood there watching and when his winged envoy disappeared behind the horizon he looked at his eldest child and the only one that had his beast form.

“Daconius, come he please. Daddy has to meet with some people, so take your little siblings and hide in the woods.”

Daconius was also the only one born with god like intellect and had actually understood the whole conversation between him and Mamai. He looked at his father and knew he couldn’t do anything even if he remained. He nodded and took his siblings, marched into the woods, holding back his tears, but one did slip through and fell slowly on the soft rock, splashing into thousand different directions.

‘I am proud of you son’ thought the Great Wolf as he felt the tear fall.

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Mamai flew higher and higher, overlooking the world from a fearsome height. ‘The gift of flight is really the best gift ever given’ he thought as he enjoyed the view. The land was lush green, covered by rivers which reminded of the many veins, arteries and capillaries. The high peaks with their snow covered rocks and clouds resting on them as if to take a break. It was indescribably and even in this time when the world was about to shatter Mamai laughed full heartedly. He zapped through the air at a huge speed, but something was wrong. Mamai felt it with his whole being, and finally his adumbrated prediction came true as a spear made of water pierced his wing, taking Mamai by surprise. He tried to hold his altitude, but with a hole in his wing that was impossible. He fell, crashing into a tree that stood 9 meters from the ground.

He jumped and landed on his feet on top of a medium sized rock and saw his attacker. Lerdient stood there with his usual solemn expression, but for some reason he had a hint of guilt on his face.

“I knew you were up to something when I saw you flying towards the earth. I’m glad that I followed you, traitor!” said the deputy lord of the ocean.

“Can’t you see Lerdient, what our lords are doing is wrong, they aren’t even sane anymore? We have to stop them, Lord Tvoznan can cure them, but we can’t let the war happen!” begged Mamai, hoping his friend would understand him.

“We are friends Mamai, but I will have to fight you and even kill you if you don’t stop this treason!” roared Lerdient making another water spear, by gathering the humidity in the air.

Mamai looked at him and tried in one last hopeless attempt: “This is for their own sakes, Lerdient! We must betray them to save them!”

“Mamai, I am soldier. To a real soldier gold, fame and land don’t mater. Those things can be lost and taken anew, because there always will be plenty of them in the world. BUT! A loyalty can only be given to ONE person. Do you understand now, Mamai! I see that you will not step back by will, so I will have to do it by force. On guard!”

Both beings ran at each other, changing into their true forms on the way and soon there were a massive crow and even bigger walrus running at each other. The walrus was far slower, but its long fangs made up for the lack in speed, by increasing the range exponentially. Gusts of wind collided with droplets of water flying like bullets around the area. It was truly a battle to behold.

Lerdient thrashed again and again missing every time, but Mamai could do nothing but dodge as well. They both realized it was a battle of stamina as each pushed themselves to their utmost limits. Mamai flew in circles, trying to find an opening, doing flying maneuvers as he went, trying to confuse his opponent. Sadly, it wasn’t working, since Lerdient stood there unshaken by the speed attacks.

“This will end now!” screamed Mamai as sparks started appearing at the edges of his wings, slowly coving his wings and moving on to cover his body. The speed at which he was traveling was just a little bit less than the speed of light, as the sparks transformed into full blown lighting. The creature would late be known as “Thunderbird”. Seeing this change in Mamai’s appearance, Lerdient tensed up, due to the fact that he was surrounded by air, not water and because of that couldn’t take his higher true form. He prepared himself for the attack that was coming. Mamai attacked, Lerdient took it head on and was blown away. He stood up and charged at Mamai again and was just like the first time blown back. Each time he was hit, Lerdient took a huge amount of damage, but stood up and charged again. Once, twice, thrice…

Lerdient looked like a courpse, but stood up on sheer will and feeling a familiar energy getting closer he let out a pure soldier's laugh “Hahahahaha! What joy it is to die in battle, my old friend. They have arrived, now I may die in piece!” Lerdient finally welcomed death with a smile on his face. He decapitated into thin air leaving a bluish smoke behind.

Mamai sat on his knees and gave him the repects the warrior deserved. He had failed and as he felt Varnak and Kernuff walking the last 200 meters to where Tvoznan was, he looked at the sky with pain in his eyes:

‘War is coming!