In the rugged expanse near the Thallerion border, a shadowy presence writhed between towering peaks, rushing through the valley cloaked in cunning, thick fog. The piercing blare of a Thallerion soldier’s trumpet tore through the mist, its defiant echo reverberating through the heart of the mountains. A rhythmic thud approached—not one, but a legion! Was it a crawling reptilian horde, moving in grim unison?

“We weren’t sure,” the gatekeeper confessed, his voice laced with dread. “We thought it was a reptile, but in the blurry, foggy valley, a murmuring, mammalian growl confirmed otherwise.”

Then, from the swirling mists, colossal, bearded legs emerged, supporting a clumsy, chubby-bellied beast. Its sharp claws raked at the mountain’s foot—a fatted monstrosity, covered in soft fur and feathers, unequivocally quadrupedal! It blinked, and like tear drops vanishing into verdant fog, the grotesque, visceral beast dissolved, its bestial shadow shrunken and consumed by pollen-flakes. Then, BOOM! The clang of metallic, rhythmic planks and blades resounded, shattering the eerie silence.

“BEHOLD! All of you, Citizens of Thallerion!”

The Moonatorians had arrived, valorous, clad in moonlit-feathery armor. They glinted toward the hazy valley like a crescent moon ascending in the dusky, icy mountains, like ominous stormy flakes revealing cantankerous, yet bladed, men. It was human, after all, not beastly! Prepare yourselves, oh Citizens of Thallerion, you, an innocent and forgotten country, perhaps the lowest nation with no Constellar-protector! Without Orion’s help, winning is impossible!

Now, behold a phalanx of masculine, lion-hearted men with corn-silk hair curled like an apron on their chests. Their brute waists, ornamented with swords and pistols, stood upheld at the Thallerion border.

“STOP!” A loud, yet dignified, shout from a Thallerion gate-keeper soldier echoed through the Moonatoria Vanguard’s ears. A low murmur rippled through their ranks.

“Moonatorians, our land Thallerion is not accepting souls infested by an unknown entity!” The Queen, her crescent robes flowing, bestowed an unwelcome greeting upon the visitors. The Moonatoria nation, its familiar furrowed brow turned toward Thallerion’s defiant head.

“Well, well… Exactly what we’ve come here for.” A vanguard of Moonatorians stood, clutching his bearded jaw. “Hmm, what makes you so proud to carry that name, Orion? Your people and yourself are just human! If we are going to destroy the very heart of your kingdom—will the Orion entity come and rescue you?”

“You, bearded vanguard! Step back or I won’t hesitate to fire a gun!” the King of Thallerion declared, poised, holding his holstered pistol.

The vanguard meticulously plucked dirt from his nails with a hint of a grimace, then spat, and stood arrogantly, counting the lives of every Thallerion person.

Then, the King of Moonatoria coughed sarcastically. “Ye forsaken folk, and chieftains of craven blood! If ye desire to preserve thy lives—” A unison clang of Thallerion’s shields resonated from its umbilical formation, clanking loudly! Forming a solid defensive wall with spears protruding! “—Surrender.”

“We don’t need your filthy entity!” the Queen rebuked, her voice sharp.

“Ah-a-a-ah! Don’t ever speak such a blasphemous word to our mighty protector!” the vanguard roared, reacting with furious indignation.

“Huh, I’m sorry to tell you, we don’t know your unknown Entity!” the King of Thallerion clarified, his voice unwavering. “And we are not afraid, even if no one is taking care of us. For we are Thallerion, we won’t be afraid of anything!”

“Haha, really?” The Moonatorians chuckled insanely, their laughter chilling.

“If ’tis so, then shall we not in earnest fray declare the veritable well of our spirit and flesh? Assail!” The King of Moonatoria spoke in his archaic, comfortable accent and declared war. The vanguard and the frontier soldiers ran towards the Thallerion soldiers’ formation.

Riot begins!

Moonatorians stepped into Thallerion like kicking an anthill, unleashing a maelstrom of violence. The swoosh of swords began, and the burst of a gun shattered the air. If Moonatorians thought Thallerion would be threatened, they were gravely mistaken. Thallerion was not like us! When threatened by oppression, we simply avoided trouble—or remained silent even if it hurt. Phew!

But whoever spat on their unyielding heart would find arrows diving like a peregrine spotting prey! Flick! As long as death had mercy, their knees would not tremble.

BANG! A continuous shot of guns tore through the air!

Thallerion’s unyielding principle echoed: “If you take blood from our lives, we will also take blood in return.”

Surely, no one in the world wants to remain in a dismal past, but in Thallerion, a bitter truth was already etched in their palms: no protector was coming for them, like an orphaned land for abandoned people. Invaders would simply come and snatch their lives.

This land was full, yet an empty promise of Orion! Perhaps, it was time for Thallerion to accept the reality that human life exists—depends on the ugly lines of their hands, not by the moves of the Orion entity’s plan or other Constellar’s presence.

Believe it or not, every life born in Thallerion was merely a pawn in the game of war. This was the inescapable reality borne through the next generations in Thallerion. Whether Thallerion would avoid conflict or not, their time would explode uncontrollably because everyone thought Thallerion was a formidable foe, due to the Orion entity’s chosen land, but that Constellar entity had forgotten its responsibility! Abandoned them!

Although, Thallerion proved that their hearts beat like the Orion-entity who would never be shaken and raged in the midst of the battlefield like a berserker strikes, hurrying bites like straight darts!

If the Thallerion were condemned by fate to testify before us—they would tell us: “Our ancestors are born to kill beasts and demons, but you Moonatorian whatever you are…Even if the blade of our weapons turned rotten, we will not surrender!”

The tears of the Thallerion would not flow like hardened butter and as hard as komodo-dragon’s skin; they were merely numbed by the many wars they had faced. A carved oath on a stone was proof of their unbroken promise before and then—to escape nothing from the enemy’s challenge.

Willing to sacrifice their lives, even a driving force might hinder until death; even if countless beasts might stride across the Thallerion’s wall, the sword would stand still. Even the Moonatorian soldiers might scuffle Thallerion’s freedom and continue, they would not cower.

Moonatoria and Thallerion were like two stones engraved by war, with a blazing bond never to be broken. Both embraced the fangs of war! This inescapable bite of the battle they faced now was bloody, like a woman giving birth and suffering.

How long would they understand that violence brings nothing good to mortal beings? They gambled their lives in death’s game; whenever the roulette of war spun, everyone shouted with intense anger—was vengeance the true companion?

Roar! With every clang of war, so many soldiers were slain. It ached their hearts when the unbearable truth blew a venomous omen! Moonatorians were not ordinary humans!

But even so, they did not stop! Hatred begot more hatred! Even if they were wiped out as numerous as sand or stars, the blazing war would not become dew. Their eyes gazed at the sun, a mere illusion of the hope that the Thallerion soldiers continued to fight for, towards the abyss prepared by Moonatoria. No inscription could reveal that the war between the two nations’ clashing shields would end, but as long as we saw no one losing between them, their conflict would continue.

May the day never come when a glass is overturned! Folded like a tectonic fault collides! It had been thousands of years since beasts, entities, and miracles had emerged through the mortal world; people became dependable to their protector. But for the Thallerion, the abandoned one seemed to merely circle in the desert’s whirlwind; there seemed to be no longer any glimmer to clarify their future. A place without hope forever!

“How long shall thou realize that thou art no match for me and Moonatoria?!” King Hedromus, the King of Moonatoria, just watched the battle like a referee together with his special warriors, with enormous muscular shapes. The King of Moonatoria just scratched his head at the Thallerion’s resilience.

“Haha, what? Just stop talking with an archaic accent, but watch your front soldiers… almost outnumbered, look…. My soldiers are still alive!” The King of Thallerion scoffed.

“These are but scum of the soldiery, devoid of Moonatoria’s true nature!”

“What do you mean?” Thallerion King flustered.

“Hahaha!!”

Then, during the raging war, Moonatorian warriors dropped their weapons on the battlefield, but it was not defined as their defeat; instead—it was a parody! A play!

“Growl! And, grow grotesquely!!!”

The warriors’ skin began to darken, coated with earthly beard; every Moonatorian warrior’s bone swelled, and their muscle shifted into an enormous bestial form, a beast with fangs, claws, and quadrupedal stretched. A true colossal form of Ursa entity in Moonatorian warriors’ bodies.

This was no longer a glimpse of disguise in the shadow, but behold, this was the true color of the Moonatorian bloodline, a shape-shifter, a mere-bear. Their hands were like wrecking balls that screeched and punched; the walls shattered like blocks into sand. Thallerion’s shields were just brittle glass scattered on the ground.

“The Ursa beasts!!!” Thallerion was shocked. The grizzly bears growled in front of them. “You are a bear?”

“Ye ken us now!” Even King Hedromus transformed into an enormous bear; his voice became deeper and growling. Thallerion was shocked by the sudden transformation. A black grizzly bear stood up two meters high from the head of a human.

BANG! The King of Thallerion triggered his holstered pistol, and Hedromus’ head was hit. There was blood after the bullet exploded on the forehead. But his closed mouth with large fangs just smirked with the bullet.

“Ow oh! They are impenetrable by any bullets, but what about a sword?” Well, it was useless.

“Release the cannons!” ordered by the King. “Close the palace gate!”

“Father, what’s happening?” Xerxez, the son of a king, came with a pouch full of eggs, trembling in fear. “Why are those beasts attacking our gate? Is that the Four-legged beast mentioned in my dream?”

“What are you doing here? Go to your room and hide! Get the boy here!” The King of Thallerion commanded the queen. The queen grabbed the hand of the boy.

“Xerxez’s dream is true, my king. The four-pedal was indeed the Ursa beast,” the queen whispered, her face streaked with tears.

“No! I want to help you fight monsters, father,” Xerxez cried, forcing himself to stay with his father. But, someone interrupted, sweat dripping on his cheek and staining his armor with blood.

“Your majesty, the gate was opened and our cannons were destroyed! The Beasts are now breaching in,” the chief captain rushed, reporting with a desperate gasp.

Thallerion’s men stood firm, clutching sword and spear. But, what were those for? If the bullet was nothing but feeble against the Moonatorian’s skins.

Though Thallerion was already exhausted, ceaselessly fighting against Moonatorian soldiers and bear warrior beasts, Thallerion would not surrender. Even if raging meteors rained down, their hearts, as dry as blood stuck to a weapon, would not be swayed.

Who would be able to defeat the ambitious Moonatoria’s Bear-warriors? This seemed to be the time when the sun no longer rose in the east, but even if we offered tears; the claws of war would not pity them.

If we desired peace, so did the people of Thallerion, because they also had heart-drumbeats each day unfolded. Their hearts shaken in fear for the future of their children, upholding inevitable Perils!

The strident bite of a warrior mere-bear, whispering like a striking viper, and their venomous attacks would never fail.

“Your majesty, what are we supposed to do now?”

There seemed to be no chance for Thallerion. Moonatorian warriors, like a worm continuously gnawing the mantle of the great Thallerion, were crushing the walls. The impenetrable gate, like a shield of Orion, was dislocated like a bone after the Bears bumped into it.

During that time, Xerxez, the son of Thallerion’s king and queen, a 12-year-old boy, nestled in the lovely embrace of his parents, became aware of the harsh reality of their world. Power, Magic, Force, and authorities were merely unfounded truths in his sweet, loving dreams.

But now he is awakened to the truth. This world was full of intimidating creatures, entities that surrounded human lives.

What will become of Thallerion now that its greatest fears have manifested?

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep