The monstrous Hedromus, a terrifying bear-beast, mauled Xerxez’s parents, their lives brutally extinguished. Yet, King Thallerion, a tower of defiance, fought with ferocious courage, parrying every savage lunge from the titan. Behind him, the Queen unleashed a hail of arrows, each one a whisper of vengeance, finding its mark and wounding Hedromus. But then, a hellish fire erupted, not consuming the beast, but cloaking it in an infernal shroud. Hedromus’s claws, now glowing like molten embers, seared everything they touched, leaving only desolation in their wake.

King Thallerion’s legendary sword, once unyielding, liquefied like frost beneath the beast’s infernal touch, while the Queen’s arrows crumbled to dust. The king, exhausted and broken from their relentless, desperate struggle, faltered, his might failing him. The Queen, in a last, desperate act, used her archer’s bow to slash at the beast’s impossibly thick, feathered hide, but it snapped like a brittle twig, a testament to Hedromus’s monstrous power.

They collapsed to the ground, spent and defeated, their valiant efforts undone. Hedromus, a flaring, colossal shadow, loomed over them. With a terrifying roar that echoed through the very earth, he lunged, his massive hands encircling their throats, choking them with brutal, agonizing force. They thrashed like helpless birds caught in a snare, their struggles fading as the bear’s incandescent claws pierced their flesh. Blood gushed from their necks, a horrifying crimson deluge drenching them from head to foot. And then, there was only stillness. They were dead.

“Nooooo!” Xerxez’s cry tore through the air, a raw, guttural anguish born of profound loss.

“Father! Mother!!!” he shrieked, his voice a shattered lament, a mournful echo across the ravaged land. His parents, slain by the Ursa warrior’s monstrous claws. His own dagger ignited as he cried, but then extinguished, for his mind screamed that it was useless against the beast’s impenetrable fur, barely more than a tickle against such an unholy force.

He understood now, with a gut-wrenching clarity, that explosive weapons, even his own blade, were nothing more than worthless twigs in this brutal reality. Beasts and terrifying entities were no longer distant nightmares; they were the chilling, undeniable truth of the world he had so naively ignored.

This world, ruled by a tyrant and an oppressive reign, saw weaklings as prey hunted by predatory nations, nations where Constellar-entities nestled, empowering authorities. Thallerion was like a helpless nation, endlessly awaiting Orion’s promise to somehow ease their fear of venturing beyond their borders. But how long could they wait? May the day never come when the war continues into the next generation, and may the day never come when Xerxez becomes a vindictive mortal, consumed by the thirst for vengeance.

“Hark! The King of Thallerion hath passed!!!” declared King Hedromus after he shifted from a ferocious bear back into his human form. His beastly claws had claimed the life of the king of Thallerion, leaving a deep, scarred wound on his own chest, a grim trophy of his conquest. “And lo, the Queen is dead as well!!!” The dead soldiers lay like caught fish, bathed in their own blood, drenched at the feet of the Moonatorian warriors, led by their triumphant King Hedromus.

That was the last war that brought such profound sorrow to Xerxez; the twelve years of his parents’ embrace, a warmth now forever lost, would never be felt again. How utterly unfair! Perhaps the Orion entity was merely watching Thallerion’s defeat at the hands of Ursa’s warriors, silently, indifferently. Or perhaps, Orion was a lazy entity who didn’t meddle with humans, forsaking them in their hour of direst need.

When Xerxez’s parents perished, all of Thallerion was devoured by the fierce bears, like honeybees yearning to drool, their lands consumed by the ravenous invaders. The king’s blood relatives immediately fled, scattered like dust in the wind! Xerxez was taken, dragged towards the Wendlock forest, a sacred place untouched by the shadow of Moonatoria’s king. Later, Xerxez’s relatives built a fort in the Rigil district so that King Hedromus couldn’t trace their scent; they built a small town there that, even now, serves as the dwelling place for a few Thallerion—a camp for Thallerion’s military and soldiers, a beacon of fading hope. But their fear still lingered, an echo dripping nearby, the inescapable grip of Moonatorian soldiers, exhausted captives tormented in their furrowed clutches, their spirits broken.

As the sun and moon chased each other across the sky, the people still waited, their gazes fixed on the heavens, praying that one day a valiant Orion would come to reclaim them from the Bear’s oppression. But some grew weary of believing in Orion, convinced it was merely an old people’s fiction—for if it were true, why had they been abandoned in the midst of war, left to face such horrors alone?

“All of you, kneel down in our king Hedromus!” The vanguard bellowed, their voices cracking like whips, ordering all slaves to prostrate themselves before their new master. “Kneel!!!!”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep