The Guardian gods Chapter 917

Forced to swallow their pride and burning anger, the wolflings reeled from a reality they had failed to anticipate, while they were prepared for casualties in a protracted war, the suddenness and brutality of the ambush caught them entirely off guard.

The shock of losing two of their own forced a vital tactical evolution. Abandoning their reckless individualism, the wolflings altered their approach on the battlefield. While they still maintained spacing to keep combat challenging and avoid clustering, they discarded their absentminded individualism. They grew acutely aware of their surroundings, keeping watch for one another whenever a skirmish threatened to isolate a comrade or drag them too deep into enemy lines.

With the wolflings fighting with newfound coordination alongside their unmatched power and gear, the tide of the war slowly but surely began to tilt in favor of the Silver Kingdom alliance.

Amidst the shifting momentum, a staggering rumor began to circulate through the military camps and the courts of the two warring nations, sending shockwaves through the highest echelons of power.

The rumor centered on Queen Yuki of the Björn Kingdom, whose background had long been shrouded in mystery. For years, the leadership of the Silver Kingdom had sought to uncover the origins of the formidable queen who brought a change to the people of Björn. The truth, when it finally leaked, stunned them to their core.

Queen Yuki was not merely a northern queen, but the princess of a distant empire. She was revealed to be the direct blood sister of Emperor Chen from the southern continent.

The rumor struck the Silver Kingdom like a physical blow. Spreading like wildfire through the trenches and encampments, it severely demoralized soldiers who had previously taken comfort in the belief that the Björn stood entirely isolated against the coalition.

The prospect of the Björn securing an alliance with the sprawling southern empire was a nightmare scenario. While many clung to the desperate hope that it was merely enemy propaganda, especially since no southern flags or reinforcements had yet appeared on the northern horizon, the persistence of the rumor made it feel increasingly inevitable.

The person most shaken by the disclosure was Lunara herself.

Ironically, the shock did not stem from the revelation of Queen Yuki’s heritage, as Lunara already knew the truth of her origins. Instead, it was because she knew Yuki’s history that the panic set in. Lunara was well aware of the deep-seated estrangement between the Björn queen and her homeland, Yuki had spent her entire life wanting nothing to do with the southern continent, nursing old wounds and fierce independence.

However, war is a brutal calculus. Pushed into a desperate, losing corner as the combined might of the wolflings and the Silver Kingdom slowly turned the tide, Yuki faced an existential threat.

A cold realization gripped Lunara as she understood that desperation can bend even the most unyielding pride. If Yuki was being driven to the brink, who was to say she would not cast aside her past traumas to send a plea across the sea to her brother, Emperor Chen?

Panic threatened to overwhelm Lunara as the reality of her own action dawned on her. If there had previously been a delicate, unwritten boundary keeping the southern empire out of the northern conflict, her decision to deploy the wolflings might have just crossed it. By pushing the Björn to the absolute edge, she may have inadvertently provided the exact catalyst needed to forge a terrifying trans-continental alliance.

Down in the southern continent, Emperor Chen stepped into a subterranean space he had long dreaded returning to. Even after his father’s supposed disappearance, this hidden domain remained a place of unsettling weight, one he was now forced to visit.

Descending into the throne room, he found his father seated upon the stone throne. The old ruler sat with his eyes closed, perfectly still, as if locked in a slumber. But Chen knew better. Beneath those sealed lids, a crushing, suffocating gaze was fixed entirely on him.

"You casted me out from your throne room, why then have you chosen to intrude upon mine?" a voice echoed through the dark chamber.

Chen gritted his teeth, a flash of deep annoyance breaking through his stoic composure.

"Stop with this foolery," Chen snapped back, his voice cutting through the oppressive air. "You knew this day would come the moment you made an appearance. You wanted this meeting, and it is now being handed to you just as you wanted."

Finally, Murmur opened his eyes. A pair of pitch-black orbs stared unblinkingly at Chen, who swallowed hard before those unsettling eyes abruptly shifted back to normal.

"I have no idea what you speak of," Murmur said.

He paused, wearing a carefully manufactured expression of worry, though his eyes told an entirely different story. "I worry about you, son. I’ve noticed that ever since I returned, you have been on edge. I fear the throne might be too much for you, and that I have handed something of immense weight into your care."

The temperature in the chamber plummeted instantly. Frost and jagged shards of ice crept rapidly across the stone floor and up the walls as Chen screamed out in raw frustration, unable to contain his fury any longer.

"Enough of this foolishness!" Chen shouted, his voice echoing off the frozen walls. "Don’t act like you are not aware of the wave overtaking my court! Yuki’s name is suddenly being spoken openly in my presence, and even the great clans are sliding in to speak on her behalf."

Chen pressed forward, his anger boiling over. "You came back and told me Yuki would need my help, and that you planned on making sure she received it. Was this your twisted way of doing that?"

He was met only by the blank, unreadable look of Murmur, who feigned utter confusion at the accusation.

"Did you have these abominations serving you spread the word of Yuki’s origin?" Chen demanded, turning his fierce gaze toward the swallowing darkness of the chamber, "a name that has long been forgotten in my court and hasn’t been spoken of in a century?"

From the shadows, dozens of blood-red eyes stared silently back at him.

"I have no idea what you are accusing me of," Murmur said, playing the part of the oblivious father as he slowly stood from the throne.

"It pleases me hearing the name of my daughter Yuki being mentioned again," Murmur continued, his tone smooth and detached. "It was a great loss to everyone when her whereabouts became unknown, last seen in a long-distance continent. If you listen closely to the voices of the people, you will find them filled with joy that their long-lost princess is still alive and, from what the rumors say, has achieved great accomplishment, standing as the leader of a great kingdom."

He stepped closer, closing the distance between them. "This should be great news, son, and it should be welcomed. She needs our help, and we are in a position to give it. We should do that, if not for her, then for your nephew, who shares the same blood as you."

As he spoke, Murmur placed a heavy hand onto Chen’s shoulder. Instantly, a layer of frost climbed from his finger to his wrist and whole hand, threatening to freeze the joint solid.

With a slow, unsettling smile, Murmur pulled his hand back, casually shaking the ice shards from his palm.

Chen glared at him, his muscles burning as he fought off the tension. "I won’t be a pawn in your game," Chen hissed, his voice trembling with suppressed rage. "I won’t let you drag this empire and its people into whatever scheme you are planning."

Walking back to his throne, Murmur settled down and said, "There is no scheme. This is nothing but the right thing to do, and you know that, as do your people. Those voices in the court aren’t my doing, but the true feelings and thoughts of those under you. As a leader, it would do you well to listen to them."

A sharp glare was sent Murmur’s way, but he simply closed his eyes once more, making it clear he was no longer interested in continuing the conversation. Taking a deep breath to steady his temper, Chen clenched and unclenched his fists before his figure vanished in a flash of movement.

"It saddens me that your relationship has grown so strained in my absence," Murmur suddenly spoke out to the empty air.

A pair of pale hands reached out from the shadows, pulling at the empty air as if parting a heavy curtain.

Yuki stepped through, saying nothing as she looked at the man before her. He was so vastly different from the father she once knew, the man who could be easily swayed by flattery and kept in a favorable mood. The man standing before her now seemed stripped of such vanities, valuing them no longer.

Her tense conversation with their son, Leiko, had not gone unheard. Björn had listened to every word from his realm. Due to their silence to each other and his notorious stubbornness, he had said nothing aloud, but Yuki knew the signs too well, he was seething, furious with their son for daring to voice the unmentionable.