Sola to Romansu Book 1: Important Side-stories

by The Storyteller and his Books

Ever wondered where some of the Characters in the Story came from, or how they got where they are now? Now you have a chance to see some of them real close-up, their pasts, their battles, their believes and the choices they made. These chapters will give you insight in what happened inbetween the chapters of the mainstory, I hope for your understanding and that you enjoy it.

24. Valhalla Rising 3 Genma Lord of the Dead

4th Story: Valhalla Rising

Part III: Genma, Lord of the Dead.

Chieftain´s Tent, South-Norvak island 5.

Tereza´s Pov:

"What the hell…, what´s going on out there?" I heard Almari asking.

"Huh, what´s wrong?" I asked as I looked up to her, only to see that her glance was directed to the entrance, towards the gap that had been opened after Queen Panmora and I returned and after we spoke with King Maranell, by one of the Queens retainers on her silent command.

From here you had a good view over the entire training grounds, even more so if you stepped outside of the tent.

I looked and focused my eyes to see a bit further than the area right infront of the tent, only to see that indeed something strange was going on, there seemed to have been a lot of Kumears who gathered together, all looking in the same directions.

"Is there something interesting going on, what´s with all the ruckus?" Bantora asked as he stood up to take a better look, he sat the furthest from the Entrance.

"Looks like something got our Warriors riled up?" Lady Taluvien mused.

"Maybe a fight between two parties, who knows?" Lofi stated worried.

"My Queens, my Chiefs, something strange is going on." One of the Warriors who stood guard infront of the tent came in to inform us.

"We sure can see that, but what exactly is going on, that´s what we like to know?" I asked and he nodded.

"Of course, my apologies, my Queen.

Well it seems that some Lupycans have arrived here…., but no one knows them, so we are logically on guard, it might be Lycanian spies after all, thought I wouldn´t know why they would come here now, regarding the army we have built here.

Even more so in bright daylight, if they are indeed, they must be the worlds´ dumbest spies.

It just doesn´t make any real sense to us, especially as sparse as they have arrived here…, anyways, shortly after they arrived, some of our men seem to have started an argument with them…, and things went kinda out of hand as it seems.

According to my informations, about ten of our men and Valkyries have already been beaten down, the opponent however only uses hand to hand combat, saying that pointing a gun at someone is something everybody can do, even a coward, but that in a fist-fight, only the strongest and more agile one survives.

That were his words and as true as they might are, the later insults didn´t really helped to de-escalate the situation, obviously it only threw oil into the fire.

Due to their insults, some of our men got so mad, that they somehow ended up having an all-out brawl with these strangers." The guard explained.

"What morons, letting themselves being provoked like this, how many of these strangers are there?" I asked in annoyance, as I focused my attention back on the tasks we had to discuss here, but it did make me curious that they could beat our men and women so easily, they must have come with a huge delegation.

Still, this was something for the guardsmen to deal with, unless they were political envoys with their own guards, but then again, our men should know better than to simply attack them.

"Two Strangers, my Queen." The Soldier replied and I looked in shock and sudden curiosity.

"Only two, what the hell…, how can our men be defeated by merely two people?" Almari and Bantora asked in unison and utter confusion, spiced with outright disbelieve.

"I see…, well then let´s take a look at them, lead the way." Queen Panmora stated with a voice full of authority, not even questioning the credibility of the information given to us.

"I doubt that these are Lycanians, especially after what Maranell said, it seems to me, that He and his consort surely has arrived faster than I anticipated, and regarding the current situation, his partner is surely able to keep him in check." She explained as we set ourselves in motion.

"Why do you think they aren´t Lycanians, what makes you so certain about that…, and who do you mean with He?" I asked confused.

"You will see once we arrive…., and of why I don´t think they are Lycanians, well, I think that way, obviously because I can´t see any foreign and fiendish Airships in the surrounding." She replied.

"Well that´s for sure, I mean they have an incredible camouflage system, they could be high above us without anyone of us even suspecting a thing, that´s what caused this tragedy on Valhalla, 13 years ago, in the first place.

So, it´s only natural that we can´t see them, once they have camouflaged themselves, even if we wanted to, am I right?" I asked unsure as to where she was getting to with her words.

The technological might of the Lycanians was known far and wide, they weren´t called Nightwitchers for nothing.

"You do realize what I am, right?" She asked me with a meaningful look and a hushed voice.

"But of course, you are Queen Panmora, the first Queen of Valhalla and…." I stated but stopped to think, this question of hers had been too easy, as to be what she truly meant with that question, especially when the answer would be so easy and obvious…, this question, was far more suggestive than one would think…., unless it is obvious in another way, her tone at least told me that there was more to it than simple superficiality.

I looked at her again, I admit I only ever truly looked at her the moment I met her first, before knowing who stood infront of me, afterwards I kind of tried to avoid of truly looking at her, afraid of meeting her eyes and see the disappointment in them, masked by praise and empty flattery…, afraid to find out that her eyes meant different things, than the words she spoke to me earlier.

But now as I looked at her again, I was once again reminded of how different she looked, compared to the average Kumear.

As I notice before was her snout slightly longer, her ears far larger than that of other Panda-Kumears, her tail was far longer and bushier than that of any of us, and her corporal structure seemed to be on a tinier scale than all of the 4 Tribe-chiefs, as well as my own.

I had to admit, she had something wolfish, which I was not able to comprehend, she looked more like a Kumear in the middle of transforming, but I doubt anyone could survive if their shifting was halted midway…., unless.

"You are a Hybrid?" I whispered in sheer shock and her eyes began to glimmer, indicating that I was right.

"Very good, Queen Tereza, indeed I am…, though to most of the Normal Kumears, since I use my disguise Magic, I look just like a completely normal Panda-Kumear.

Only very few know my true appearance, Bunbart as Lorekeeper as well as the King and the Queen, are the only ones to do so.

In the beginning, after my rise to power and war-achievements, as I still fought in the Resistance, the Eclipse, against the Tyranny and Dictatorship of those several Warlords, it was merely meant to protect myself.

After all there was a lot of animosity going around for us Hybrids, I can´t say that most of us earned any honor or were even warmly welcomed during the war, If anything we were literally treated like maggots, vermin, bugs to be crushed.

People hardly accepted our existence as living, breathing and thinking people.

Then again, back then, most of us weren´t much more but tools to those ancient Warlords.

Until some of us, under them myself, my siblings and first and foremost King Maranell, became self-aware of our existence and the possibility of living outside of the prison, which they had built to contain us and free from the shackles and chains, they had entangled us within.

Anyways, what I am trying to say here, is that since I am to a part Lupycan and a Shaman / Wolven Paladin, am I able to see through their disguise and camouflage, which is based on Rano, the force which the Wolven Paladins use." She explained to me and I nodded, unsure of what to truly feel upon that reveal.

I read about them in old books and the memoires of older Kings.

During the Era of the belligerent States, Hybrids were most commonly to meet on a battlefield, most of them were experiments, created for the war, until such Practice were being forbidden by the International War-Law, after Queen Panmora, King Maranell and all their acquaintances rung the Bell of Peace, signaling the end of all Hostilities.

Then again, I never thought to ever see one standing right in front of me…, though, technically speaking all the Children which had been born by different parents were hybrids as well, but most of the Kumears had themselves transformed during sexual intercourse, as to not hurt their partner under their sheer weight and mass, unless said partner was strong enough.

Although not technically fat, were most of us quite muscular.

So, although these children had, technically seen, the ability to shapeshift, were they still considered members of the species they had been born as, especially because shape-shifting during pregnancy was a terrible mistake to do, it could even result in the death of the child.

True Hybrid-Children were rare, especially when naturally born, and I never thought to see one standing before me.

Especially not after revealing that said Hybrid was our Queen Panmora…, right here stood a genuine Kumear-Lupycan Hybrid infront of me, and the sight of her astounded me even more, after getting that kind of knowledge.

This was pretty heavy stuff to take in.

"So, if it aren´t any Lycanians, who might they be then?" I asked her but she just smiled to me in a mysterious way.

"I have a pretty good idea, who they might be..." She simply explained, lightly tapping at her snout, as to indicate that she recognized the scent, before turning around and walking in the direction of the ruckus.

I was unsure how to feel about her, mostly because I still had a hard time to accept, that such a great person was supposed to stand here with me, at this very moment…., but one thing I was certain off…

Compared to all of my feelings I had these entire 13 years, I was glad to have her here, and I was determined to end my own suffering, the suffering I felt whenever I thought about the Lycanians who destroyed my home and who nearly stole me anything I ever possessed.

Seeing all these comrades and friends having arrived to once more stand at my side, as well as the prospect of finally meeting my dear daughters again, gave me back my strength to hope…

To hope that one day, Lycan and his wretched breed could be exterminated, eradicated and unable to further cause any harm for me, for my Folk…, for the entire world….

In that regard, Hybrid or not, was Queen Panmora´s presence on this day and time very reassuring and very welcomed.

.

.

.

We arrived at the core of the ruckus after nearly 15 minutes of leisurely strolling over to it.

Though we were restless with our thoughts, according to Queen Panmora, there was no need to rush and that our men could really need a good pounding after such a long time, to be reminded that the real enemy won't hold back like this, that they always go for the kill.

"You damn Wolf, how dare you mock us, our home, our Queen and King, I will show you what it means to mess with us Valhallians!" We heard some soldier shouting and we heard how fists hit skin and bones, how screams of pain and agony filled the air, I could see how the people in the middle of the ruckus were literally flying to all sides.

"Come on, come in, if you haven´t had enough yet, then don´t be shy to ask for it, I´ve got enough servings for everybody!" Someone else shouted.

"You damn bitch, I will make sure that you will only eat out of a straw anymore!" A female voice shouted.

"Oh really, well I surely would like to see that, that is if you are even able to touch me enough to get to that, but the way I see it, all of you will just fall flat on your faces." Another female Voice replied with a mocking tone.

"I will rip you a new one, mark my words." Another Male voice stated.

"Then come at me Bro and get some!" The Male voice from before explained.

"Are you mocking me?!"

"But of course I am, how could I not look at this whole situation as a mere joke, I asked you nicely to lead me to your generals, Chieftains or whatever…, but all you did was mocking me and my Partner, as well as to push us back and harass us, so pardon me if I use self-defense and show you all the very difference in power we have." The Male voice, surely coming from the aggressor, explained.

"You damn little Punk, as if I would let such trash like you in the surrounding of our noble Queen, it would be a real miracle and a damn honor to be blessed with the presence of our Queen, do you honestly think that a punk like you would deserve it, I will kill you here and now." One of our older veteran warriors shouted, as he grabbed his gun.

"Yeah, c´mon, shoot me, give it to me, show me what kind of coward you really are, who uses something so convenient as a gun…., not even the guts to fight me hand to hand, face to face, eye to eye, tooth for tooth, ain´t that right old-timer.

What about all those talks about the good old times?" The Lupycan shouted as the People stepped to the side to let us pass through.

"Die!" The Kumear shouted as he was about to fire, I tried to react but before I even moved a single centimeter, the Female Wolf stood right infront of him.

The bullet that was fired, was deflected with a swift motion of her sword and landed into the ground, a few centimeters away from my feet, the sword the woman wielded was pointed at his throat, ready to stab him.

"You will die faster than your finger can pull the trigger again, mate, so don´t you move a millimeter or else…!" She stated aloud for everybody to see, her agility was incredible, in mere seconds she jumped from one end of the battlefield to the next one to shield her partner.

"That´s quite enough, what is the meaning of this?!" Queen Panmora shouted loudly, so that everyone could hear it.

"My Queen…, I…!" The Man, who stood shortly before being fatally wounded, stammered in terror.

"Oh, so you finally arrived…, took you quite some time, Panmora…, I was about to go real nuts with all these idiots coming at me, and we both know how ugly of a mess it might get, if I go nuts.

Luckily for you, I was more irritated and bored than to have the time to feel any real anger, but all this stupid mockery of idiots, who do not know their place, is really getting on my nerves." The Lupycan Male stated in an aggressive tone, before he turned around.

His face was framed by a large mane of Furr, colored in two shades of gray, one bright, the other more in the darker area, most of his fur was adorned with fine darker lines, which looked like tribal tattoos.

His eyes were unlike anything I had ever seen before, he had black sclera and golden irises, however his pupils were not round, like it would be usual for Caninus and Lupycans, no they were shaped like slits…, like those of the Repturuis.

His entire physics was that of a trained soldier, even if he wore an oversized yellow and black tracksuit, the clothes hid most of these muscles that's probably why our men terribly underestimated him.

His claws and fangs were just as sharp as those of normal Lupycans, however there was something at them which I could not point out instantly, but they seemed far deadlier, than they looked like.

The only other specialty on this man, was perhaps the rich adornments he wore, two golden piercings, a massive golden necklace and golden bracelets on one hand, not to mention the weapon on his back, it looked like a strangely shaped mace, or perhaps a sharp scepter, and obviously it was made out of gold.

Was this guy rich or what?

The way he talked so casually towards Queen Panmora, indicated that both had a deep and intimate relationship with each other…, where they friends or old enemies, or what was it?

One thing I noticed instantly, was that the appearance he had was most likely a similar disguise as Queen Panmora shows to others, I had the feeling as if there was some kind of shimmer surrounding him, an aura that prevented close-up perception of his true appearance…, well who am I to judge him, if he wants to hide his true appearance then it is his good right I guess.

For now I will just listen and draw my own picture from what I see.

"Well, considering the fact, that none of you two send any words about your unannounced arrival, beforehand, I would say that you are just as much at fault as myself, for not teaching our men the proper hospitality of our esteemed guests.

Anyways, jokes aside Genma, tell me, what is the meaning of this…, why did you had to start such a ruckus?" Queen Panmora explained with a deep sigh in disappointment and annoyance.

"Wait Genma…, I heard that name before, didn´t I?" I wondered, as I began to explore my mind, on the hunt after the information I sought.

"How about you ask your men, after all they started it, I was just here asking all friendly, to get to talk to you…, but I was not only harshly denied such, no…, on top of being laughed at, I was also attacked by one of them, and when I defended my partner and myself, the others came as well and not late afterwards, they engaged in a damn brawl with us." The Lupycan called Genma explained, with a sigh in pure annoyance himself.

Both he and Queen Panmora glared at each other.

"Indeed, all we were here for was to form a temporary alliance, between your forces and our own, but as I see things, this was but a stupid idea to begin with, a simple waste of time to come all the way here…, instead of having to adapt to some weaklings, it is better to just do things in our own way." The Female Lupycan explained, as she blew a strain of hair out of her face.

She looked wild, her clothes and armors were quite sparse but she seemed strong, which the number of warriors lying at her feet indicated.

Her muscles were prominent all over her body, but she still stayed quite alluring to the eyes.

She wore a black Sports top with green swirls and similar short pans, one on side of her hips, fixed with brown leather belts, she wore what seem to be a skirt of sorts, vertically cut in half, dyed in blood-red color and with a strange unfamiliar golden crest stitched upon it.

Her fur was gray but it possessed a bluish shimmer, while her hairs were silver, her irises were blood red, as red as her skirt, on both wrists and ankles she wore some strange devices in gold and black with blinking green lights., on her hands she wore fingerless Battle gloves, with Brass-knuckles imbedded into them.

From the mere physics, she seemed to be a very talented martial artist and pugilist.

She was strong, no doubt about that.

"You call us weak, you stupid wolf, I will rip you a new one!" One of the Valkyries shouted, as she took out her Lance and was about to bring it down on this Man, cowardly attacking from behind.

It was disgraceful to the teachings of the Sisterhood, to see a sister succumbing to commit such a cowardly act, as to attack an unaware opponent from behind.

Our teachings forbid hidden assassinations and favored confrontational combat.

"Stop it!" I shouted but was held back by Queen Panmora, and it was good to do so, for what I was just witnessing now, would have been impossible to retell…, if I didn´t see it myself.

The Female Lupycan easily evaded the lance and with a simple grab and pull, she was right infront of the Valkyrie, before punching her with full force right in the middle of her chest, leaving her breathless for a second, enough for the Woman to beat her feet away and take her down in a simple Lariat.

That alone would not have been impressive, any Martial artist can do the same.

What was astounding was the mere speed at which this happened, it was so dang fast that I thought that, through blinking, I missed half of the whole battle, but it really didn´t last longer than 3 seconds before the Valkyrie was down for the count.

"Yes, I called you weak, because you are, if you cannot even beat me, how will you ever be able to defeat a Lycanian, who is higher up in the food chain, than all that cannon-fodder you fought before?

I heard about the heroic deeds of the Valhallians, how strong they used to be, but I didn´t expect a bunch of bloody cowards, who resolve to use guns and assassination techniques, to be the first thing I see of a lost Nation resurfaced." The Woman explained, her voice ice-cold, just like her glance.

"At the stage you are, you wont ever defeat one of the Dark Pantheon, the 6 strongest warriors of the Lycanians, with Lycan himself at the top." The Woman explained.

"Lysaria, please calm down, we are searching for allies…, we don´t need to make us even more enemies than we need, it gains us all nothing to fight among us, while the real enemy is out there preparing for war." The Wolf called Genma explained to his partner, mimicking the straight-man, in contrast to his behavior minutes before.

"Hmph, tell them that, I wasn´t the one to attack in the first place, all I did was defend you and myself…., geez this here is such a drag…., let´s just get it over with, and none of your numbskulls better attack me again or I might forget my proper education!" Lysaria explained, as she strutted past us.

"Aren´t you actually here to keep me in check from going havoc…, why does it now seem the other way around?" Genma wondered while sighing.

"Anyways, as my Partner truthfully explained, have we actually come to form an Alliance with the Kumears of Valhalla, as well as the Kumears of Geaya against the Lycanians…., unless you think that this would be unnecessary and you rather want to fight alone?" Genma explained, not even attempting to hid the aggressive undertone.

"Now don´t be so mopey Brother, I know your welcoming wasn´t as anyone of us expected it, I´m certain of that, but you also have to understand that our forces are currently quite vary of Lupycans with unknown affiliations." Queen Panmora explained…, wait a second, did she just call that Lupycan her Brother?

"There you hear it Gen, I told you I should have come as myself from the beginning on, instead of going along with this stupid Farce." Lysaria explained, as the devices on wrist and ankles suddenly began to glow brightly, right before our eyes the Lupycan began to transform, to our all shock.

The Silver-grey fur began to be pulled into her body before becoming harder, forming scales of the same color, her Snout got even longer and her fangs more prominent, her eyes changed, from white to golden sclera, with the red irises it had a quite demonic appearance, her pupils changed from normal round Pupils to slit-pupils, just like that of her Partner.

Her claws and fangs became even sharper and her muscles even more prominent, her ears began to be pulled from atop of her head and formed themselves more to the side, not to mention that they grew smaller than before, they were located directly under what seemed to be horns growing out of her skull.

her silver Hair remained but seemed to be even more voluminous than before.

Her entire physical structure changed itself, her fluffy tail from before became compact as well as scaled, but more than that was the fact that her body grew in size and height, heck, even her bosom seemed to grow, much to the delight of the male spectators.

As the brightness diminished, we were utterly shocked as we suddenly had a tall Repturui Woman infront of us, though, even for them she looked way fiercer.

She had the aura of an ancient being with high wisdom and power…, something was different on her, not just the mere fact that she just shapeshifted out of a Lupycan.

"What the…., how is that possible?" I heard many voices asking in utter disbelieve.

"I never heard of a Repturui being able to transform like us, moreover into a Lupycan, or is it the other way around…, i´m confused…, what is the meaning of this?" Almari asked Lady Taluvien while the same shook her head.

"I am as smart as you on this…

There is honestly only one single reason I can think of, of why she would be able to do that…, but I never thought it to be possible, at least not in our times." Lady Taluvien mumbled and I knew exactly what she thought about.

"Yes, she´s a Hybrid." Genma stated bluntly, while our eyes were practically glued on his partner, who snarled, rolling her eyes in annoyance upon being stared on, as if she were the crown-jewels of Valhalla in a Glass-box.

"Get a move on people, we ain't got all day until these Bastards might arrive!" She stated as she strutted away from the Training ground up to the Chieftain´s Tent, easily moving through the crowd, as everyone moved out of her way, in fear and confusion.

"What is she talking about Brother?" Queen Panmora explained.

"The reason of why we arrived today…, I think it will be better if we discuss this more Privately, we got too many ears here." Genma explained.

"I see, I guess you are right…, alright People, go back to your tasks, nothing to see here…, keep on training and please get the injured to the Lazaretto, we need every man and woman for the upcoming battle, get them back on their feet, you understand?" Queen Panmora ordered her men.

"As you wish my Queen." They replied in unison, before they instantly went to their task.

"You guys should get yourself in shape some more as well, we surely will need it." I ordered my own men who saluted as well.

"Yes, as you wish, Queen Tereza." They stated in unison, before they too made their way back to what they were assigned for.

"Well then, Brother, Lady Lysaria, please follow us." Queen Panmora explained, as she made her way past the Repturui Woman and led us all back to the tent.

.

.

.

"Well, now that we are settled here, I think an Introduction is long overdue, don´t you think?" Queen Panmora explained, after we arrived back at the tent and settle down in a round.

"Yeah I think we should start there, for better understanding of the current situation." Genma explained.

Though he was the one most casually clothed in here, did he radiated quite the force, his battle-prowess in hand-to-hand combat was amazing, I saw that earlier, otherwise he radiated a similar Aura than that of Queen Panmora.

"May I introduce to you all one of my Brothers, Lord Genma Savarin Altaris, Lord of the Valley of Kings, Founder of the Heroes Tomb, Olympios." Queen Panmora explained.

"The Heroes Tomb, Olympios…, Bunbart talked about this place once, he said that all Heroes as well as all the righteous Kings and Queens were having part of their funeral ashes brought their, that it is a huge Mausoleum built within a mountain, hidden by some temple-like city." Lady Taluvien stated in awe.

"Indeed, all the Kings and Queens of Yore had their ashes usually split in three or at most four parts upon their death.

One part went to their family's grave in their homeland or Home town, usually in the Royal Mausoleum.

A second Part was buried or brought at their most favorite place, as a means to show them that place a last time.

A Third part was given to Lord Genma as a means to honor that King and place him among his ancestors in a hall of fame of sorts.

And as I was saying, although this happens rather rarely, is a fourth part of the ashes being released into the wind, on the see or on grassy meadows with seeds in a 100% natural burlap sack, to become the nutrients for new fields, meadows and forests.

By the way, my Late Husband King Odrim has his Ashes in that place as well, same as the Sun-Kings, and our brother King Marikos S. Wolvenra and his successors and many of the previous Kumear Kings and Queens." Queen Panmora explained further.

"As Heroes we do not mean just warriors, also public heroes, like those people post mortem nominated as saints, have usually a place in the Valley, as long as their deeds were indeed made out of self-sacrifice and genuinely pure reasons." Lord Genma explained as he nodded to Queen Panmora.

"And this is my dear Lysaria, Girlfriend, personal Guardian and the Second-in-command of the Phantom Battalion in unison." He continued as he introduced the woman at his side, who was literally a head taller than him, at least in her true form, which almost enabled her to touch the ceiling of the tent, which was about 6 meters above ground, in her Lupycan form, she was basically as tall as him and he was already tall grown, for a Lupycan that is.

"Well I guess that is sufficient enough for an introduction, I don´t plan on laying my whole life story down before you guys anyways." Lysaria stated lazily, while inspecting her claws, much to the anger of Almari, though the same held back with giving any comment.

Since her Lupycan form was tiny compared to her Repturui form, her clothes could only stretch so wide before she had to change them and this she had done as soon as we entered the tent, thanks to a screen, she did so without hesitation nor shame.

"So, may I ask now why you have come here, Genma…, I doubt this is a mere visit out of polity and in order to catch up with me, I know you aren´t a friend of such boring pleasantries…, if you enter a battlefield, shit is going down for real, am I right?" Queen Panmora asked and I was buff about her manner of speech, though this was her brother after all.

"Indeed, what I came for is this." Lord Genma stated, before he took out a folder out of his field-bag which he had with him.

He unfolded the same only for several lose papers to be spread across the table, on one of them was some kind of photography, two pictures, seemingly the same but a little different.

"What are we looking at here, exactly?" I asked, unsure what this all means, it was a hole…, a bloody ordinary hole in the ground as far as I could see.

A Huge hole, with some huge black shadow and some strange bluish-purple lights within it, some red ones as well, on the first one the shadow was still little, almost not recognizable, compared to the second picture where the shadow nearly filled all of the inner circle.

"These photos have been taken at the same place, however this photo here, was taken 1500 years before the second." Lord Genma explained as he tapped on the first picture.

"And what exactly is this…, where was it taken?" Queen Panmora asked.

"Right there." Lord Genma replied as he pointed out of the Window.

"Where…, outside…, well the outside world is vast, so can you be…, like…, a little more precisely please!" Bantora asked, rolling his eyes.

"I think his hint is fairly sufficient, only numbskulls won´t get it." Lady Lysaria snorted back.

"Careful, Lizard." Bantora warned with a growl.

"Or else..., what?" The Repturui Woman asked in a mocking tone, sticking out her long tongue in a mocking fashion, pissing both Bantora and Almari off to no end.

"Easy you two…, well if I get you right, this was taken not far from here, am I right…, but still, I have no idea what this is supposed to be." Queen Panmora mused, as she looked at both pictures.

"Yeah ,they were taken by two different types of Spy-drones, but since this thing in there had to be seen, the drone had to go as close as possible to take this photo, it is the best picture He could get…., but yeah I get the problem, it is just too close to really understand it, maybe this will help." Lord Genma replied as he pulled out a third Photography, to me it looked like a colorful picture on a canvas, drawn by a mind with a higher artistic transcendence than we had.

"Wait is this…, a Volcano?" Queen Panmora asked, as she investigated at this most colorful picture, it had white spots, blue and green but even more a lot of red and orange spots, it was hardly recognizable as the same, as both pictures before.

"This is a Heat-scan…, of Mt. Korat!" Lady Lysaria finally explained, while Lord Genma nodded.

"I got it from Maranell, a couple of days ago, a short while after he visited you." He explained to Queen Panmora.

He was not sure if it would be relevant, but then he got news of something and deemed the time to reveal the truth to be necessary, especially since he kind of predicted you to come here, to assist Queen Tereza, and once you contacted him before on the Crystal radio, he did the same to me later on and told me where to find you…, and well, here I am." Lord Genma explained while his sister nodded in understanding.

"At first, I was not sure myself why he gave me these files, I am not so prone with all this new technology stuff, but he briefly explained to me what was what.

Anyways back to the topic, about these photographs, see this right here, at first I thought that this thing here, belonged to the Volcano, that Picture, as I said before, was taken 1.500 years ago, shortly after the War of Sun and Moon had ended in a massive cease-fire.

But then, during the recent attack at the Republic, Maranell´s forces managed to capture a Lycanian aircraft and its crew, that was on its way towards the Devil´s Throat, or Ragdoll as you now know.

Of course, upon facing captivity, those bastards killed themselves with poison, so we had no real idea about what they planned to do.

Before that however, they tried to erase everything of value on board and almost managed to.

Only a few files remained unburned, but nothing really made sense as most of the information was missing and had been burned to ashes, the files in this folder was all we could safe.

On board they had a strange kind of device, the engineers on Shangri-La only recently found out just what it is supposed to be.

It is some kind of amplifier, to strengthen a certain Frequency, a Signal, most likely.

At first, they thought it was for the communication between the Lycanian bases, after they would have overtaken Prairie and Nippon, to contact Ragdoll and over them back to Ragnarök.

Maranell gave this folder to me, to take care of this, while he prepared to march against the troops send to occupy Prairie and Nippon.

Even if we usually do not meddle in the affairs of each other, preventing a new war of that magnitude was a good way to come together again.

Anyways, upon investigating myself, I found something interesting.

The Men of our brother also found this photography of a heat-scan, in the belongings of the leader of that fiend company, as well as a map as to where said Volcano was to be found.

At first, I was not sure why they would be interested in a Volcano…., it was hardly big enough as to copy Fenrir Wolfenstein´s Operation Fimbulvetr.

But then as I looked at the other Pictures it dawned to me, what I thought to be part of the Volcano…, what if it hasn´t ever been that at all?" Lord Genma explained, but that only confused us even more.

"This thing right here…, what if it isn´t part of the Volcano…, but instead living within it…, living and growing?" He stated and my eyes went huge as I looked back at the photos.

It was hard to make out any details, but even I could not forget the terror on four legs, that terrorized the Republic 2 years ago, a time in which I wished I could close my daughters in my arms, knowing they would be safe and sound, here with me.

Back then Anastasia was just on the last leg of her Republic-Tour, I didn´t even had no idea where she currently was to that time and that made me sick of worry.

I wont ever forget these days of agonizing sadness, endless worry and sleepless nights.

"You don´t mean…, a Titano Machinae?" I asked him, shocking everybody and he nodded in understanding as well as in confirmation.

"Indeed and a big and most likely quite strong one to boot…, it is only speculation by now, as the Volcano seems to have gotten more active lately, so we have no way to investigate with another spy drone, however, if there truly is a Titano Machinae within Mt. Korat, then we also know why they would need an Amplifier, to strengthen some kind of Signal…

It is a Wake-up Call for this thing, they were planning to unleash it upon the Republic, most likely trying to control it for their own benefit, but considering the fact, that we do not know if this is the only one in the Republic, we must assume that this squad was not the only one equipped with such a device and the locations and files either, if they get their hands on such a thing, it would turn around the flow of a battle instantly.

I´ve been hearing several Rumors about Titano Machinae having appeared in the last few centuries of the free Regions, Two times in each, the Kingdom of Prairie and here in the Shepherd republic, some of those attacks were even only recently, even in the Nippon Archipelago I heard about an attack of one of the upper-class weapons, ages ago.

That's why we are here, to prevent that from happening here, and since you are already here as well, we thought to get your assistance in this matter, as it might concern the wellbeing of you, your friends and family, as well as the people living here.

The Lycanians will surely first raze the villages before gathering at the volcano, to make sure they aren´t going to be disturbed in their doing.

I don´t think I need to tell you what happens with people they capture…" Lord Genma explained and I knew all too well what the Lycanians would do, Rosalia´s past life was the best example for that.

And believe me, this was still one of the more lighter fates to suffer from.

"How long do we have until they arrive?" Queen Panmora asked.

"Well since this Aircraft was on the way to Ragdoll with all these files it is to assume that they were a scout-airship and that they were supposed to return with new informations, so we might have luck, if they only know of the old location of the Volcano, then they surely will first look for it there, but if they don´t find it there, they might soon after arrive here, as we are their direct neighboring Archipelago." Lord Genma explained but I only looked at him in confusion.

However, before I could ask my question to him, a new voice, quite familiar to me, answered the same.

"Your friend is quite right, my dear Queen Tereza.

Although, this Archipelago has formed itself in the last 1.500 years to become what it is today, Mt. Korat wasn´t originally part of it.

It formerly wasn´t even an Archipelago to begin with!" the voice stated and I reminded myself of the books I read at the central library, about the History of the Norvak tribe and tales of the Korat Island…, about the Devil´s Wrath coming from the Fiery Mountain that destroyed it, splitting it in many fragments.

"Don´t tell me the Stories were all true?" I thought in terror.

"As far as the history of our ancestors tells us, it drifted from its original position in Chartreux, towards its momentary position, ever since it keeps on moving, until it will also eventually leave this Archipelago." The voice stated and the heads of the others turned towards the entrance, to meet the eyes of an Elderly man, flanked by two younger men, who were to keep an eye on him, should any problem arise on their journey.

I heard this voice often enough to know whom it belonged to, even without looking, but of course the proper manners required to look at him.

Let´s just say I had some unpleasant encounters with him, as he usually showed us a happy-go-lucky, as well as a perverted old lucky-leacher demeanor, an old man who loved to grab the butts of every young woman, who was not on a tree at the count of three.

However, this time, his voice and his eyes looked more serious than any time before, perhaps only when he personally told me to never approach the Volcano, especially warning my Children about it…, guess now I know, why he did that back then.

"Chief Norvak, it is good to see you, what did we do to gain the honor of meeting you today." I asked as polite as I could.

Despite his usual behavior, this Man was still the chief, the leader of all the members of the Norvak Tribe which lived here, after its first settlement was established, and he fathered not many of the current children and adults himself, with his frivolous habits, he was as close to a king on this island, as it could be in Valhalla.

78 and a Harem of 11 wives, Zeus would never end up like that…, I would have surely killed him, if he had just one side-wife somewhere…., I really hope, that despite our fight, he behaved in these last 6 months, and did not accidently impregnate another woman.

If it would be just sex, I could forgive him, over short or long, I am that bighearted…, but I would not forgive him if he would end up with another child, from another woman…, accepting it…, yes, every child has the right to be born…, but forgiving him, I could not do that, even if I would know that the child has no blame in all of it.

In that regard, I have to respect all the wives of this leacher, their resolve to live such a life, knowing that you are not the one and only, but just one of many…

"Different countries, different cultures, so they say." I though to myself, as the old man took a seat in the chair that was offered to him by Bantora.

"I was on my annual visits of all the islands in our Archipelago, to monitor their progress over the year.

Mayuri Oonda said, that you were most likely to be found here, Queen Tereza." Chief Norvak explained and I nodded.

"Upon Entering the tent, we heard you talking about Mt. Korat and the beast that sleeps inside of it, as well as a possibility of your enemy, who attacked the Republic and who apparently seems to have a deep unfortunate history with all of you, trying to wake the same up." The Chief continued his explanation, but something made me chocking on my tea, causing me to fall in a cough-attack.

"Careful, my Queen." Almari stated as she reached a napkin over to me which I took with gratitude, this was embarrassing but I couldn´t care less right now.

Of course, Lysaria just had to chuckle upon seeing my disgraceful accident, which earned her a death-stare from Almari.

"Wait a second…., you knew there was such a thing in the volcano all along?" I asked in disbelieve.

When I remember how often Mayuri and Pablo went there…, the mere thought of what could have happened to them made me sick.

"Instead of telling us the truth, you let them go there regularly, even if they did it on their own volition, had they still no idea what danger really lurked there." I thought in terror.

"Indeed, though to be precise, I only ever heard about it in ancient stories of our tribe, told from Chief to Chief, since Generations.

That thing is the entire reason why our tribe decided to reside here in the first place, of course we are not suicidal, but someone has to keep an eye on that thing after all, to warn the Republic in case it would awake, otherwise this thing would do some major damage.

But whom to trust enough to tell, who would know, that they would not try to tame the beast for their own benefit and use it as a weapon to wage war with it, we could not risk this secret to get out to the general public, so we decided to keep the secret and watch over it.

According to the telling of my Father and his father, the Norvak tribe has settled here for about 2.000 years and in all this time the Volcano had never broken out…, as if something was preventing it from doing so, like a lid covering a Cauldron and preventing the soup inside from boiling over and spilling all around.

One day, several centuries prior to today, an expedition of the tribe was formed, with the summit of Mt. Korat as its Goal, to see if it was indeed an active volcano or not, and if it was safe to build a village there or not, since it only occasionally smoked a little.

The Path was more than rocky and unexpectedly deadly, half of the expedition-team has lost its life just by climbing the path up to the summit and either getting lost, tripping and falling down the cliff, or being eaten alive by the beasts living there.

In the end only the son of the chief to that time returned from the summit, more dead than alive thought and what he told his folk was nothing they ever wanted to hear, but in hindsight, it might well have been for the best, that we knew it.

He told about a giant beast sleeping soundly within the Crater, right within the Lava, as if it uses it in order to grow in size, as if the Volcano itself was an Egg-shell to it, or maybe even a Womb, birthing chaos and destruction incarnated.

The Beast was quite big and it surely reigned high up in the food chain of the beasts living on this island, then again that was almost 1.500 years ago, so it surely had time to grow even larger as we now see.

Anyways, a few decades later it came to a fateful encounter, some other gargantuan beast really dared to disturb the slumber of the creature, no one knew where it came from, but it was just as colossal, maybe even bigger.

The Fight which both had resulted in the island being splintered in pieces, creating the Archipelago we know today.

Both Beasts survived the fight, but the other Beast then retreated and made his way further westward, in the direction where today Aegan and Andalusia lie, if it reached any island and found a resting place to recuperate or not, I cannot tell.

Then again, I don´t really know how big these things are supposed to be, and I don´t really know how to categorize it, but I would say that both were surely far stronger than the two Titano Machinae, which emerged here in the Republic 2 years ago." The Chief told me and I paled as white as a sheet.

"You got to be fucking kidding me." I muttered in pure shock, not really caring if I was heard.

Gaining all of these informations was just too much for me, I had to sit down.

These two from 2 years ago, Bahamut, Draken, Athena and Gilgamesh, that many Titano Machinae I knew, I heard that the Kingdom of Prairie also encountered one 4 years ago, although I only heard it as rumors, but this many was already enough for me to stomach, and now we might have 2 more of them.

"Just how many of these killing machines are out there?" I heard Almari asking in similar shock and it were my thoughts exactly.

"Too many my Child…, far too many." I heard Queen Panmora explaining with a dark undertone.

"The murderous and catastrophic legacy of a long forgotten past." Sir Genma stated with a hard voice, in deep contrast to Almari´s uncertain voice.

All of them statements were right.

These two had already done so much chaos 2 years ago, sure I knew of how much damage such a Titano Machine can do, after all Bahamut´s attack 13 years ago in Valhalla, as well the one during the last War, has shown us their power in all gory detail, but it is yet always terrifying to remember it, the fact, that such weapons still exist everywhere in the world and still be sought after, once people get aware of them.

"Madmen and money horny Bastards, greedy for profit, are an evil that never goes out of stock." Lysaria exclaimed and in her voice lied a deep sorrow and wrath.

"Genma, tell me in all honesty, have you an idea, when they might arrive here, how much time do we have to prepare ourselves?" Queen Panmora asked her brother.

"Well, as I was saying, in anticipation that these informations here didn´t made it to them yet, they might still are searching for the right Place at the Chartreux Islands, but that area is big and if they understand that there is no Volcano anywhere, nor any den where it could have meanwhile settled in, they surely will make their way on finding the nearest nearby Volcano, by spreading their forces.

A Place, which might have been part of the islands, but drifted away to some other place over the course of the centuries…, as we all know and I am certain the Lycanians do so too, are the Islands not fixed at one point in the sky, they wander, some slower, others faster.

Anyways, if I were to make a wild guess, I would say we may only have 2 days at most, maybe even less, until they arrive.

It is unfortunate and it does sound bad out of my mouth…, but as long as they are occupied with scanning the Area around Chartreux, we should have enough time to complete every necessary measurement we need to take, in order to defeat them.

So you better make sure, that those airships are ready for flight and fight, for if the worst case scenario arrives, we surely will need them.

I will get some of my men over here, as well as The Phantom Tempest." Lord Genma explained.

"Wait a second, you are going to bring your own Warship-fleet, if that is the case, shouldn´t I bring The Spring Thunder along as well?" Queen Panmora asked unsure.

"Well considering your other future mission, I doubt that this will be necessary, though it surely might become an advantage…, just in case, make it ready to depart at any minute but keep it still on Standby, until we really will need it, it could serve as a surprise attack." Lord Genma replied.

"Wait, hold on a sec, rewind a little…, what other mission, which I would have to take, are you talking about, we are going to war in Ragdoll, we are in this together you know?" Queen Panmora asked unsure.

"And that´s where you are wrong, dear Sister of mine, we need someone here, to take care of the evacuation of areas, which are in a deep crisis due to the attacks.

If the Lycanians launch a second wave, and I am certain they will, even if just to conquer the rest of the Republic, we will be at a huge dis-advantage if we were to all leave here…, while we are occupied with the battle on Ragdoll, if we thin out our forces then, to help others, we surely will lose this Battle from the start, if they meanwhile overtake the Republic and so be able to backstab us.

Whatever the cost we need to keep the fight at Ragdoll…, but first we have to survive the Battle here, after all thanks to Maranell´s little Radio-show, everybody now knows that the Kumear Queen of Valhalla, as well as the majority of her folk, currently reside here, readying for battle.

Once their jig is up, Lycanians are known not to care about stealth anymore, if they come here, and believe me they will come, they surely will regroup with their troops stationed in the vicinity, forming an army, to take us all out.

If I count my 100 men to your army of over 30.000 men, we at least have the force of 40.000, as one each of my comrades is as strong as 100 men, they will be a strong addition to your forces, you have my word on that.

But they only listen to mine and Lysaria´s Command, so putting them under a different leader will not work, and even as strong as they are, they alone will not be able to effectively defend the Republic, at least not without help.

Let me and Queen Tereza handle things on Ragdoll, she is responsible for the little Mamoru as much as I know, and the same is a member of the new Generation of the Seven Swords of the Lunar King, so his presence at Ragdoll is unfortunate but also necessary.

But we need capable men here as well, as I said, to plan and launch evacuations throughout the region, before the death-toll in the Republic becomes too unbearable to count.

We need someone the people can trust, and believe me, in times of attacking Wolves, the last the people need is another wolf, although from the good side, to tell them what to do.

They need a leader they can fully trust in and who would be better than a Queen who has the power to shapeshift." Lord Genma explained and with words only, managed to nip every contradiction of his sister in the bud.

"Well, I guess you are right, I bet if you would do, no one would follow you anyways but your on men, don´t get me wrong but…, literally nobody knows you and that makes you seem too shady for the good innocent people." Queen Panmora stated theatrically before fake pouting, turning her back on her brother, who only rolled with his eyes.

"Queen Tereza, would that be alright with you if it would be me, instead of my sister, who joins you in the upcoming Battle of Ragdoll?" Lord Genma asked politely as he addressed me, all eyes were on me and I had to think about my next moves carefully, to not slip up and giving them an opportunity to doubt my competences.

I scanned him, his battle prowess I had already witnessed myself, but from what I see, he is also quite skilled in politics, I am sure he will be a good asset, and since Queen Panmora trusts him, I think I can trust him as well…, I guess.

"Yeah sure, I think it doesn't really matter who of you two will come to Ragdoll and who stays here keeping an eye on the rest of the Republic, all what really matters is that you two take your assigned roles as serious as possible, and that together we can get the job done.

I yet not know entirely what role I am getting to play on Ragdoll, aside from the Leader of my forces and Mamoru´s and the Kid´s Momentary Caretaker, but I am ready to do anything to stop the Lycanians, on Ragdoll, in the Republic, and in the entire Tailsworld.

Those Bastards have brought enough terror over the world, a war like back in the day I won´t allow a second time to emerge, by my honor as Queen and the name of my Clan and the grave of my father, I will give my everything, even my life if I had to, to prevent such a mass killing from ever being unleashed again.

Until Lycan and his henchmen aren´t stopped one way or another, I will not die nor falter to achieve that goal." I replied and he nodded.

"Good answer, little Queen" I heard him mumble, but decided to ignore it, the las thing I need is another argument, I had too many things to think about, all of a sudden.

"Well then, I think its high time to get to our preparations, I will quickly return to get everything ready on my part, so you better do the same here" Lord Genma explained as he stood up to make his depart, before he was stopped by Lady Lysaria.

"Stay Put, Gen, I will go, I´ve got enough of this place for a while and I need a break, you should stay here and get acquainted with the forces, after all there might come times when you have to command some of them on Ragdoll, if they then don´t trust you, they might run right into their demise, if push comes to shove.

Kumears are hardly trustworthy, if they are wary of you." Lady Lysaria explained and of course just had to provoke us all again, while I finally learned to ignore this sharp tongue full of sarcasm and childish resentment, my Chieftains were not so forgiving.

"You sure mock us a lot, but what about your men, do they know to behave…, can they be trusted?

It is surely rich to talk about trust and all, from a bunch of people nobody ever truly has heard about." Bantora asked with narrowed eyes as he questioned the secrecy, which operated in the so-called Phantom Battalion.

They were like Ghost, unable to be caught, operating in the shadows, their specialty were Black Ops and Espionage missions, no faces and no names, no fingerprints or any medical or juristically file was known, at least no real ones.

They were the masters of masquerades, they could be completely normal people, they could be under you without you ever knowing it, they were the most mysterious secret organization this post-war world knows; however, they were no mercenary troop to hire, still they were to a 90% deadly.

If they act, it usually means that the peace of numerous nations was at stake, and they were quick to engage the enemy and eliminate them.

It was due to their effort, that Lycan´s schemes were revealed, so that the same was forced to set his plan in motion to overtake the Continent.

Unfortunately has until now every Assassination attempt of Lycan and his council failed so far and rarely the agents, that were send, returned alive.

"If there is a clear order, they will absolve the same without fail, even if it means to cooperate with other forces.

They are that disciplined, something I have hardly seen from your men, earlier." Lysaria replied to Bantora and the same still looked sour, Almari was about to argue again.

"Give it a rest you three!" I stated in an imperial voice and both Almari and Bantora nodded in shame, while Lysaria just sighed in annoyance.

"You sure about this, Love?" Genma asked unsure.

"I am, I´m the second-in-command of our army after all, they will listen to me when I give orders, otherwise they get to feel my fist, you know the drill." She replied and I saw Lord Genma smiling painfully.

"Yeah, I know that all too well..., alright I will leave this to you then." He simply stated, as he walked up to her and nodded to her, before he suddenly seemed to slice in midair with his index-finger, it was as if he opened up a zipper, the space infront of his finger began to distort and some kind of dimensional slit, a rift, appeared out of thin air, which he expanded with both hands.

Lady Lysaria meanwhile shifted back to her Lupycan shape, before entering said rift.

I assumed that this was also some kind of dimensional gate, same as the one Queen Panmora used to transport my people to Geaya.

"Be careful out here, I can tell by mere looking that some of these guys surely will give you trouble, don´t you underestimate them, they are strong if they come en masse.

Especially if they hold guns, you saw how trigger happy they are, once they meet a wolf, who just remotely reminds them of a Lycanian." She explained before kissing Lord Genma on his lips bluntly, making out with him right before our eyes.

I blushed at the display of such free-spirited love, though I should be used to it, especially when I remind myself of how often I saw Mayuri and Pablo being affectionate and intimate in such ways.

"I will be careful, dear…, try not to beat up most of our men, we will need them healthy, you should train them some more, get them in top shape and all the machinery ready for war, I am certain we will need it, the Lycanians surely won´t attack us with bare fists, unfortunately.

Get your armor, honor your parents and say goodbye to those who stay and then come back once I give you the signal … I will be waiting for you, Lys." Lord Genma explained as he held the women close to him, gazing into her eyes, seeing something we did not see so far.

The Glance she gave in return was so full of passion, that even I began to blush.

"I will, be sure to make some friends, you hear me…., but don´t you dare cheating on me, understood?" Lady Lysaria stated after another kiss before stepping through the rift to the other side, wherever that was.

"Yes, Mam´, I wouldn´t dare." Lord Genma joked, before he winked her goodbye, as she turned around and walked away with an amused smile on her face, the first time I saw her wearing any other emotion on her face, than anger and irritation, or mockery.

I walked around in curiosity, only to see that the rift was connected to some kind of den, illuminated by luminous plants and crystals.

"Are you curious Queen Tereza…, behind the Faey-light Cave you will find my home, King´s Rest, a Geothermal Valley, located underneath Shangri-La but hidden within another dimension, only Inaugurated ones may enter it on their own volition, others will be repelled by the shield." Lord Genma explained as he closed the rift again.

"Seems to me as if your girl has quite a lot of Balls, so to say." Queen Panmora stated.

"That's what she has to have, after all she survived the horrible conditions of being born a hybrid through experiments by Lycan, it´s been 2 Abyssinian years since Maranell saved her, when I first saw her she was but a Child, just rags and bones, but she has grown strong and fine, far more rapid than you would think.

Along the way she seemed to have fallen in love with me, as I acted as her partner, more than a friend or brother but less than an father, you may say that we had a mentor and student relationship, and still she developed such strong feelings for me, even though I used to treat her like anyone else of the Phantom Battalion or at least I thought so.

But I think the neglect and the lack of love she received, as well as some betrayal here and there…, she surely had to suffer more than once in her life before coming to me…, ever since she was basically kidnapped from her home, it made her mistrust anyone who lacks power, for she knows that power rules over weakness.

Not just physical weakness, but even more so psychical weakness.

It lasted a while until she understood things like charity and compassion and even today this is not entirely given, she often relapses into part of her indoctrination, the merciless side of her often takes control unless there is a superior in her vicinity.

In a way she reminds me of myself how I used to be, before Maranell saved me from losing myself completely," Lord Genma explained and most of us were shocked, all but Queen Panmora.

"Yeah, I kind of expected her to must have experienced something like that along the way, usually Kumear and Repturui barely meet, so it is kind of strange to think that such a Hybrid would be born naturally, well I ain´t judging her for her upbringing, we should know best what it means to be an experiment." Queen Panmora replied, whispering her last words.

"Yeah, indeed we do…, maybe it is because of that, why she trust me so much, and since she has a hard time trusting strangers, Hybrid or not, she seems to be fixated on me, to a point where she did anything in her power to come closer to me than any possible…, and since Maranell did this to me…., she has become quite hungry for my body lately, since I never felt something similar before, I just go with the flow, I guess." Lord Genma explained and Queen Panmora´s glance drifted down his body.

I looked but could not see much out of the ordinary, he still wore pants, if I understood her words from earlier right, this was not really usual for this man, other than a loincloth he didn´t liked to wear any clothes as it seems to restrict him in his motions, as well as letting a lot of bad memories resurfacing in him, so she said in a whisper.

"Wait he…, he actually did that…?" She asked in disbelieve.

"Indeed, he did do that to me…, it was surprising as I woke up a day after I visited him the last time, I was in pain the whole night but never knew why, then when I woke up in the morning, I suddenly had such an urge, an urge I never felt before, that's when I saw it, its fully functional and most likely able to create offspring.." Lord Genma explained with a sigh and I looked back down on him…, the way he said that, meant that there was something which was not supposed to be there…, or am I mistaken greatly here?

"And you actually did let him do that, I mean you always said that you did not need it, that you were born this way and would die this way?" Queen Panmora asked unsure.

"Well to be honest, as I was saying, it grew a day after my visit and I had no idea he did that to me, at first I thought of it being inconvenient, after all my corporal structure was shaped in a way where I wouldn´t need one, everything I drink and eat gets through my stomach, before it literally evaporates into gas and is burned to dust, which then is being let out by …, well you know about that, I guess?

Since my birth it has been like that, and I always only drank as much as I needed to stay hydrated, nothing more nothing less, but now, ever since I have this thing…, I constantly become thirsty and hungry…, though Lysaria meant that this was only natural, since I finally have an entirely well-functioning body-system…, but still, why do I have the feeling that this is a farewell gift from him...?" Lord Genma explained…, wait is this what I think it is…, are they really talking about that…?

Seriously, is that even possible not to have one as a man, or at least some kind of opening to…., I don´t want to know what this man had to go through in his life.

"Well anyways, now you have one and it ain´t going to change anymore, be glad you finally can experience love the way it was meant to be for you, especially when your lover is capable of handling anything around you." Queen Panmora stated with a sigh before she shrugged.

"Yeah…, but I have been independent for so long…, its strange when every second thing to do, suddenly is taking away from you and done by someone else…, I never understood how you or Maranell or even Marikos manage to get by, with so many servants under you.

I am someone who basically does anything on his own and in his own pace, but there are nowadays times when I have no idea what to do with all the free time lately." Lord Genma explained with a sigh.

"Yeah it sure is a huge change…, but it also is a huge opportunity, maybe you now have time for the things you either ignored, or which you never have seen before, because you were too busy with the things you had to do, and now that you have someone who takes care of other important things you have more times for them." Queen Panmora stated as she put a hand on the shoulder of her brother.

"I guess so…, but still, I really wish I would know how the hell he did that to me…., maybe that was when I touched his shoulder, he touched mine and I suddenly felt some kind of warmth, I thought it was just the moment of brotherly intimacy…, guess that was not the case, at least not entirely." He stated in thought.

"Ah nah…, it gets me nowhere to wreck my head about it, as you said, what´s done is done." He stated in acceptance.

"Well then, what are we even waiting for, time to get it on, we got much to do and prepare, we need to train your army, get those airships working, if we all work together we surely will be able to get it done, Lysaria will surely send some of my strongest men over once she has arrived, even though we have but two days here, back home will two months pass, so my men will surely be as best prepared as they can be for the upcoming Battles" Lord Genma explained and Queen Panmora nodded.

"Luckily both our realms operate similar, Terra Ineris..., pardon me, I mean King´s Rest, surely is a magical place compared to the Republic of Geaya, it is a wondrous place." Queen Panmora stated.

The conversation they had was only followed by me anymore, as the other Chieftains were busy doing their jobs of managing the doings of their tribes, my Job as Queen was momentarily to keep an eye, upon the greater whole of the situation we were in, gather informations and formulate strategies upon them.

It was not that I was lazy, but I guess that these two knew far better of what exactly was going on all around us, at least I got the feeling when listening to them both, so it was better to be in their Vicinity.

The Chief of the Norvak obviously enjoyed the company of Queen Panmora´s Maids, ogling them in a way which surely made them uncomfortable, they were just professional enough not to show it, but they surely had all of my sentiments…

"Well, your Geaya Republic is also quite interesting, depending on the Situation you can let people enter wholly or partially into your realm, as you did it with Queen Tereza´s People." Lord Genma explained but ignored the hush-noises of his Sister.

"Sssshhhh you moron…" She tried to stop him but the damage was already done, I heard what he said.

"Hold on…, what was that with my Folk…, what did you do to them?" I asked suddenly uneasy, the way she tried to keep her brother from speaking about it seemed to me, that there was much going on under the surface of her telling from earlier.

"Sigh oh well, it is kinda complicated to explain…, well it goes like this, due to the rush of times back during the attack, I had to keep those multiple gates open for several minutes, slowing down the time around us in a designated area, until it came to a halt, means that although it seemed from far away, as if I had opened the portals for merely a few seconds, the same were actually open for about an hour, and due to the size of the masses I had to evacuate, the Gates were logically not little, they were gigantic which then again, as I told you before, required massive amounts of energy from me.

Not only that, the partial time-freezing was exhausting to boot, Space-Time Magic is extremely difficult and it takes millennia for an individual to learn it.

Well…, on the last leg of the evacuation, which was on your Royal Airship, which was already hard enough to pinpoint as a moving object, since the relation between distances was ever changing, not to mention due to the attack throwing the Airship all around, this costed almost thrice the amount of energy I needed on Valhalla.

And well some of the last few Kumears managed to come through the gate seconds before I collapsed and fell into coma, but those few seconds were crucial, as the crossing of the step towards my world began to fade away…, and well.., some of your citizens held the gate open with their own magic as I collapsed, for the last few to pass through, however the frozen time came crashing unto them like a wave and threw those last few, inside in a realm in between the dimension, in which their bodies were caught into a deep sleep, frozen in time through my magic, while their souls made it through the gate into my world.

As the gate vanished, the physical bridge between body was separated, but not the astral connection…, can you follow me that far?" Queen Panmora asked and although I was a little confused, I gestured her to go on.

"Anyways, after that happen, those few people under them your Chieftains and a few Einherjar and simple citizens of all tribes, arrived in Geaya as beings without physical body, bound to the ground of the dimension they landed upon, until their physical form is recovered and they are being back inserted into them.

Basically, what i´m trying to say, those people became ghosts, with their bodies in one dimension and their souls in another, only connected through a thin string of Astral Energy, this had as a result that although they remained in this world for many years, they have not aged a second physically from the day Valhalla was destructed, different from the others who managed to come properly through the gates, they have aged according to the time they have spent in Geaya, that is why you see people you have never seen before among the folk you had lost, not because 13 years had passed for them…, no it have been 130 years in Geaya!" Queen Panmora explained to me and I almost fell of my seat.

"Wait…, what!" I asked in pure shock.

You mean to say that approximately 2/3 of my Folk has lived their lives for 130 years, while the other 1/3 was literally stuck in time and has not physically aged in all that time?" I asked her and she nodded.

"That sums it about up…, I, I know it does not mean much coming from me now after all of that…, but I am really sorry…, I know how it is to lose people to time, I know that very well." She stated and I sat back in my seat and closed my eyes, massaging my temples.

I had to concentrate not to let my emotions take me over and unleashing wrath and sorrow for all those people I knew and thought to have lost due to the war…, apparently a big chunk of them I have lost to time instead.

"Have they lived good lives?" I asked her.

"I provided them with everything they needed, which was not easy, since there were just so many all of a sudden, but I made sure none of them suffered anymore, at least not physically, psychically I was not able to do much though." Queen Panmora explained and I nodded.

As long as they were alive…, I was thankful, through her doing these people were able to live another day.

"And those frozen in time?" I asked her.

"After I opened the gates for the depart earlier that day, we recovered all of their bodies and bonded them back together, healing all those who were injured or sick, as I said, their physical age has not increased by a single second in all these 130 years until the bonding, physically they are just the same as before, but psychically…, well they lived for 130 years after all, so they have seen and learned much more than before." Queen Panmora explained.

"I see…, well , the damage is done anyways and irreversible I guess, if anything, I am still grateful to you, after all, all of them managed to survive this nightmare, one way or another." I stated to her and she nodded shedding some tears.

"You astound me Queen Tereza, I thought you might throw a tantrum, most of your folk has not seen you for over a century after all." She replied.

"Yeah maybe I am just too tolerant lately, but if my folk is happy so am I and if they find nothing to complain about why should I?" I asked.

"Quite a mature answer, I get to like you more and more Queen Tereza.

Yes, Space-Time magic, if falsely used, it can do much damage, but most of the time it is a real help. "She stated.

"I think it is a good thing, after all, this way your folk could prepare itself for 130 years to take revenge, they couldn´t be any more prepared I guess." Lord Genma explained and I nodded.

"I guess you are right." I replied with a smile.

"Anyways, speaking of shifting temporal axes…, maybe we should use the same way to get these Airships build, I doubt that the Ursa Grande can be rebuild and enforced in merely 2 days, even if we would pull everyone into working on it, it´s just too massive, having two months for working on it, may look very different on the other hand." Queen Panmora stated and we all nodded.

"I will open a gate and then we transport both Airships alongside of the engineers and workers over to the Geaya republic, we have a big Factory and Atelier for Building and rebuilding Airships." She explained and Lord Genma and I nodded.

"That would be probably for the best." I replied.

But thinking about it, this might actually become quite the good opportunity, if I do it right.

"Queen Panmora, may I utter a request." I stated aloud to gain her attention.

"But of course, what is it my dear, how may I help you?" The Queen asked as she looked at me with curious eyes.

"Would it be okay if I could bring Mamoru, as well as his friends and Mayuri´s children with the Airships into Geaya, if what you say is true and time flows faster in your world, then I have to take that opportunity to train them and make them stronger, having the experience of 2 months is more than merely training for but 2 days, especially since it is a war we are heading towards, if they were to be harmed, I would never be able to sleep well anymore." I explained and Queen Panmora nodded in understanding.

"You are indeed right, to be honest, I was about to ask you and Mayuri the same, but I think we should train all the kids who are of age, into fighting or at least into defending themselves and those around them.

I could tweak it that they will remain in a Camp, where time passes even slower compared to normal, which would make it so, that the kids will have 2 years instead of just 2 months, while here on the outside only 2 days pass, it will take much energy, but I will surely make it.

Would you be a dear and ask around if the parents are cool with the idea, I meanwhile will make sure that we have enough teachers and a safe place for the camp, though since the war will be anything but easy to win, less to survive, it might be more accurate to call it a boot-camp, where they get the basics of surviving and fighting drilled inside their mind and body.

Even if they were not to directly fight, knowing how to survive and defend can prove crucial, first aid and medical knowledge can also safe life, in our current times there are so many useful skills to learn to make sure, you and your loved ones survive." Queen Panmora explained.

"I think this is a perfect idea, the more capable people we have who can fight or work in the field Lazarettos, the lesser we have to keep an eye on anyone, especially with as much people as we leave here for the task of evacuating and rescuing the people of the Norvak tribe, as soon as our main force leaves.

As lord Genma rightfully exclaimed, the islands will be vulnerable but not only them but also the rest of the Republic, we have to make sure that as much people as possible survive, for when the war starts for real." Lord Genma explained and we nodded.

"The Ursa Grande had place for the entire population of Valhalla, in case of an apocalyptic crisis, if we get to rebuild it and maybe a second ship, we surely will be able to evacuate the inhabitants of the Archipelago and islands around, in case it is required." I explained and he nodded.

"At least half of each island-communities, as it is not said that the Lycanians will first look here in the Korat Archipelago, after being done with Chartreux, they might as well look for the Volcano in our surrounding Communities, means Sphynx in which we currently are, as well as Cornish, at which Chartreux borders, as far as I can tell from this map." Lord Genma explained as he looked at the big map here on the table, before pointing at Chartreux which indeed bordered on two Island-Communities.

In our current Community, Sphynx, only the Korat Archipelago was near enough to have been the current drift point for the Volcano, Ragdoll, which was to that time still surrounded by that huge Storm Cloud, as well as Pharaoh which was too far away from here, could hardly be called the right place.

In the Island-Community Cornish to the West of us, we had two area´s which were quite close to Chartreux, the Darven Island and Spinon and to some extend you could also consider Visla a possible drift point though it was further away than the other two, but still quite close, compared to Airedale for example, which lied about 80 miles away from Spinon´s outskirts, Aegan and Andalusia were hardly the right place, even though they were only about 30 miles to the west from Spinon.

even worse, if this other beast would still be there, they might even get this thing in their hands, that must not happen.

"I guess you are right, we must consider them being attacked and invaded as well.

By the way, do we have any real information about the size and type of this Titano Machinae?" Queen Panmora asked.

"Well considering the size of Mt Korat, it is safe to say that this thing ranges in the upper class, maybe around Queen or King Type, it must have consumed a lot of thermal energy to grow to this size." Lord Genma stated and Queen Panmora paled.

"If this is true, we have to stop these Lycanians with everything we have, or yet better we got to destroy this thing by any means necessary, even if we have to bring the whole Volcano to erupt." She stated, her mine that of utter shock and steeled determination.

"I don´t understand, Queen Type, King Type…, is that anything to go by?" Almari asked unsure, as she looked from her desk over to us.

"King type is the notch right under Kaiser, which means it is at least ¾ as destructive as Bahamut has been." Lady Taluvien explained and Queen Panmora nodded.

"Kaiser types exists only four times in this world, they are so to say unique…, thank god for that, but King types may come more commonly than that, though I guess that they too might be limited to a certain number." Queen Panmora explained.

"My Brother Maranell once told me about this.

The Titano Machinae are roughly divided in 4 Categories, Numbers/Lesser Titans.

Arts/Upper Titans

Kaiser/Joker Titans

Ace/Alpha Titans

The lesser Titans range from Level 1 to 9 and although quite strong and brutal, aren´t they that hard to destroy, the higher the Level, the more of a better defense and offense they have.

The Upper Titans, range from Level 10 to King, with Jack and Queen in between, they are the hardest to destroy and the ones with the most firepower among the still normal Titano Machinae.

Lares and Lemures were of the Jack Type apparently, which means their firepower was already extreme.

The Aces or Alpha-Titans are the Original four Titans, born by the four remaining True-Junos (Juno-Verum) as the first Titano Machinae ever, they were the beings with the highest Firepower, defensive abilities and the strongest and most destructive Rage-Mode on the Planet, prior to Operation Skyward.

If I am not mistaken, he said that about 2.000 years ago one of them emerged from its slumber and wreaked havoc here in the Shepherd Republic…., I think that was even before the Shepherd Kingdom came to existence as it is today.

I think he said its name was Vanargand…, or something like that, it´s a couple of years ago, when he told me about it.

The Kaiser Titans from which momentarily only 4 exists, or at least are known, are the strongest Titano Machinae, able to destroy whole Super-continents, Gilgamesh of Shangri-La, Athena of Shepherd, Jubileus of Abyssinia and Bahamut of Ragnarök." Lord Genma explained and I was confused, I looked around but as her question was answered neither Almari nor the others seemed to truly follow the conversation any further, but I was sure they still listened absentmindly.

Nevertheless, I whispered to Lord Genma.

"Jubileus…, does that mean the Abyssinia has two with Draken?" I asked him, such a reveal could well tip the power-scale of the Savannah Archipelago.

"No Jubileus is actually the real name of Draken, why he was called like this I do not know, but if you don´t know it seems that the true name has been lost in Oblivion…, or maybe only the royals of Shamballa knew about it." He whispered back.

"Anyways, Lady Yulungur created them as a counter measure to destroy the Aces and all other hostile Titano Machinae, after all they were supposed to act as the final Wall between Global Destruction at the Hands of Marohumt, before being misused as toys of war for the rich and mighty." He whispered to me, before being slapped hard at the back of his head by Queen Panmora, taking me aback.

"OOOW, what the hell was that for?!" He asked in shock and confusion.

"Enough, this is not meant for her ears, have you forgotten our oath!" She stated harshly in pure anger and he suddenly looked in shock.

"Oh shit, I´m sorry." He stated and this scene reminded me of the way Queen Panmora reacted as she told me about Lady Yulungur before, the way she rebuked herself and told me to not concern myself with it.

"Anyways fact is that there are hundreds, maybe thousands, of Titano Machinae hidden all over the world and logically they all are a danger for their environment, for all the Nations around them, unfortunately it not always clear where they are, many are hidden underground, or hidden away in secret vaults and other containments, natural or not, as far as we know.

"Sigh…, that is not good…, I mean if we knew where they would be, we might at least avoid these places." I stated and Queen Panmora nodded, her wrath diminished.

"Yeah, but as we still have no real Large-Scale Scanner to find them, we might not have a chance to always know, where Titano Machinae are popping up and where not.

But looking at these files, the Lycanians must have some way to find out where the strongest ones are at least, if we would get our hand on it, we might be able to determine where in the Republic and the Savannah Archipelago they lie in Hibernation, maybe we could so even determine when they might awaken.

We could for example observe their heat-scan, signal-activity or something along these lines, and create an alarm-system, that informs us instantly when one of them is about to awaken, it would make the Evacuation of the people living nearby, so much easier." She stated.

"A Pre-Danger Warning System would surely be a good idea, especially since the destruction by their awakening and raging is inevitable." A voice stated and we all turned around to look to whom it belonged.

"Little Mamoru-kun, what are you doing here?" I asked unsure as the little boy entered, I haven´t even heard him before.

I wondered how much he heard about our plans.

"Mama Oonda asked for everybody to come join the great feast, which she has put together, she´s been cooking the entire morning with some of the other Mothers, to have a moment of togetherness for all the ones who currently have arrived, as well as to later on hold a few speeches and a round of silence for all the deceased members of the Kumears of Valhalla, as they never truly had a real opportunity to grieve and remind themselves of all the losses, at least not as a whole folk." The Little boy, or rather said, the young man explained and I felt how my eyes watered a little…, there you can see it once again.

"Mama Oonda is the best!" I stated as I wiped some tears away and I saw how Almari as well as Lady Taluvien did the same, everyone was truly moved by this idea.

"I think we can allow us an evening of taking things easy, the next two days will be stressful anyway, don´t you think so too." Lord Genma explained and Queen Panmora nodded eagerly.

"Indeed, it has been ages since I had a real feast, and it really might serve to rebuilt all the trust that had wavered a little after the long absence, it also will surely help to keep up with all what has happened in these 130 years, especially when all of us are together." She stated to me and I nodded.

There were so many people I needed to get to know, they did not know me and I did not knew them, since they all accepted me I hat to put in the work to be back on track with my duties as their Queen.

Especially since Queen Panmora was so close and surely observing me, even if she said she would not butt into the politics and doings of the Valhallian Folk…, I knew I could not allow me any slip-ups anymore.

"Then what are we waiting for, lets feast and celebrate, as we have done so often before a true war, who knows, maybe I will do some rounds of singing as well, it has been ages since I had sung the last time." I explained, as I indulged myself in the memories of the many feasts I participated in, the royal feasts, the Valkyrie´s feasts, the feasts back home in Snowfall and in Lakefort.

My Chieftains nodded eagerly, having craved it too…, maybe not as much as I did, since they surely had the one or the other feast in those 130 years.

…, I wondered if the new folk still knew the old Ballads, usually sung at such occasions…, like the song of Valhalla, or the song about what my Ancestors once told their descendants…, do they even still sing ballads at all or what kind of music do they listen to nowadays…, who knows maybe our worldviews are completely different.

this was a good opportunity to find out.

There was so much to investigate, it was just like back then when I first became Queen, I had so much new things to learn.

"One does never learn out while aging." I mumbled as I imagined myself what tasty meals and drinks, we will have, I craved mead, I haven´t tasted real Valhallian Mead in all this time.

My Anticipations of what will await me was stretched like a bow, as we made our way out of the tent, gesturing the Guards to follow us.

Even if I was in no way a professional, must Anastasia have inherited my singing voice, and she truly managed to refine that.

Some may say that my singing sounded rough and deep, but I mostly got positive remarks about it most of the time even before I became queen, so it wasn´t all just empty pleasantries, at least my family liked it and so did Zeus´s, especially when I sung the songs of my Tribe.

Although many fearsome and difficult times were surely ahead of us, for tonight we can at least forget some of it for a while.

Tonight, was a night of celebration, drinking and music…, it had been a long time since I heard the drums, the Lute and trumpets and bagpipes of Valhalla, the new Skalds, if there are still some, surely must have many new tales to tell.

"I got a feeling, that tonight is gonna be a good night…" I muttered to myself with a smile.

To be continued…

A/N: Hello and welcome a gain to the newest Chapter of Valhalla rising, today we saw a little about what will await us in future Chapters, both of this Side story and also of the Main story and of the second Book.

Also we looked a little closer at some Characters and introduced a new character, at least a little more than before.

I hope you all liked the new Chapter, if you do feel free to leave a like and a Review.

In the next Chapter we will sing many Songs, Viking-ballads and Shanty, maybe also some Celtic and Folk songs, it will be a little more laid back than the previous chapters not so many explanations and heavy subjects, and from then we go back into Training Day and Battlefield Chapters so I hope you stick with me.

See you next time, stay safe and healthy.

Sincerely, yours truly, The Storyteller and his Books.