*[Two years before the attack on Suki's village]*
The wind howled, heavy and ceremonial, crashing against the gigantic doors of the Castle of Lavinsk, the great Danginkai.
A boom echoed through the depths of the corridors.
Beneath the immense dome of white marble and stained glass, the air of Lavinsk smelled of ozone and pure, unbridled power.
Chiefs, kings, and queens of all allied races occupied their seats in the throne room in an absolute, suffocating silence.
At the center of it all, sitting on her throne with flawless posture, was the Queen of the Gods.
Her dark, lethal gaze swept the room, measuring every ruler present.
Standing in the shadow of the throne, as immovable as a mountain, was Katan.
His black armor seemed to swallow the very light of the hall, while both his hands rested heavily on the pommel of his colossal jade sword, its tip planted firmly into the floor.
This was an emergency summit.
The gears of peace were beginning to grind to a violent halt.
Complaints of crossed borders, broken promises, and the lingering echoes of a bloody past haunted the glass dome.
Kurusai, the King of the Mermen and ruling regent of the tides since the true god Poseidon disappeared without a trace millennia ago, was the first to shatter the silence.
He took a step forward, his long dark-blue tail, covered in thick, iridescent scales, slapping against the stone floor like the toll of a drenched bell.
"I have lost count of how many times that foolish God of Light has hoarded the light for himself!" Kurusai growled, his voice bubbling with an abyssal frustration.
"And now... he's gone! Taking the light of my galaxy with him and leaving us to die in the darkness!"
He locked his gaze on Elfhing, pointing his trident directly at her.
"The elves were supposed to be our pillar," the merman continued, his tone dripping with accusation.
"With your techniques of wind and light, the agreement was clear. But it only lasted ten thousand years. After that... nothing. My people are withering in frozen tides, Elfhing, and you broke our pact."
From the opposite side of the hall, the dense, sharp rustling of feathers altered the atmosphere.
Karana, the Harpy Queen, spread her monumental wings in an elegant yet lethal arc.
Her hair was so dark it looked like physical smoke dissolving into the air.
Behind her, her bodyguard scraped sharp talons against the steel shaft of a halberd.
"Lord of the seas," Karana said, her voice crystalline and ruthlessly pragmatic.
"Our reserves of stored light atop the high peaks remain full since the last blackout. We can supply a portion of our surplus for your tides."
She shot a sideways glance at the Elven Queen with a gaze as sharp as broken glass.
"We already anticipated that someone would abandon us again."
Kurusai's tense shoulders visibly slumped.
"My eternal gratitude, Karana."
The next voice to echo carried the brutal, crushing weight of the primordial forests.
Vikta, the Queen of Earth and the hybrids.
She was an imposing humanoid tigress, the perfect embodiment of jungle fury and the sacred.
Her body combined a devastating muscular heritage with the terrifying agility of apex predators.
But what made her truly fearsome was her divine side: beneath her thick coat of orange and black stripes, veins of pure light pulsed like liquid gold, and her feline eyes burned with an aura of ancestral, untouchable majesty.
Her long tail cut the air with irritation, like a whip.
"My people are hunters, we do not beg for light," Vikta spat dryly.
"But I have received disturbing reports; on several planets in the outer ring, elven protection has simply ceased to exist. Lesser monsters and demons are advancing on our borders. I have already sent my elite troops to stem the bleeding."
She narrowed her feline eyes, exposing a row of razor-sharp teeth.
"If you, Elfhing, are no longer capable of fulfilling your role, then at least have the decency to admit it. I vote for a new elven queen."
Murmurs erupted across the great hall like dry branches catching fire.
The voices joined the growing chorus of dissatisfaction, all crashing against the exact same cold, silent wall:
Elfhing, the Queen of the Elves.
The Queen of the Gods slowly raised her right hand.
Two fingers.
The hall plunged into a deadly silence instantly.
"This hall is getting far too noisy for my taste," murmured the Queen of the Gods.
The sheer immensity of her power made the air vibrate, turning the oxygen into lead.
"Apparently, the comfort of thousands of years has erased your memories."
She looked slowly at Kurusai, at Karana, at Vikta, stealing the breath from each of them.
"The history of this chamber is drowned in the blood of your ancestors. The rule of the old king, the tyrant, who made you his private slaughterhouse... he turned to dust a long time ago."
She leaned slightly forward, her posture flawless and lethal.
"And I was the one who did it. I was the woman who united your fractured races from the garbage and struck down the primordial beasts. I forced the proud deities to bleed on the floor until they kissed my feet. The system you demand today, the pacts you insist upon... all of that only works because it was *my* blade that drew the borders."
The Queen leaned back on her throne, unshakable.
"So if there are flaws in the agreements, I will fix them. But never again raise your voice inside my empire, as if it were just another place."
Beside her, Katan's mere presence established limits that no fool among the rulers dared to test.
"Elfhing," the Queen of the Gods spoke, crossing her legs. Her voice was not loud, but it filled every microscopic corner of the hall.
"You are the only one who hasn't spoken."
Elfhing kept her lips pressed in a rigid line, her pale skin practically glowing under the stained-glass light. Her gaze was a contained storm of glacial ice.
"Nothing to declare, Your Majesty," she replied, her voice perfectly and disturbingly hollow.
The hall nearly boiled over.
The indignation was a physical entity in the room. How could she say nothing? How could she even pretend not to care about the collapse of universal agreements?
The Queen of the Gods raised her left hand, palm open.
The session was dismissed.
Her gesture was the very law of the universe.
"Return to your kingdoms, I will send the necessary support to fill the gaps left behind," the Queen decreed.
There was a brief, heavy silence before she added, her tone dropping drastically in temperature:
"Elfhing. Stay."
The doors groaned as they closed, sealing the hall with a dragged whisper.
The enormous room emptied.
Lucas, the elven champion, remained standing several steps behind his sovereign, one hand resting subtly near his spear as he maintained a distance of absolute reverence.
Elfhing's rehearsed boredom evaporated the exact second they were alone; her mask of coldness shattered into pure fury.
"You cannot do this to me!"
Elfhing screamed, advancing aggressively toward the dais.
"I put you at the top, or have you forgotten who stood by your side when we took this damn castle! You're going to support all the kingdoms... except mine?!"
"Your family dispute is entirely your problem, Elfhing," the Queen of the Gods replied, without altering a single note of her monotonous, distant voice.
The Elven Queen's eyes exploded with fury.
A terrifying pressure violently flooded the hall.
"How do you know about that?!"
In the blink of an eye, an invisible arrow of hyper-compressed air cut across the chamber, fired by Elfhing in a moment of pure reflex rage.
The attack didn't even reach the steps of the throne. A blinding green flash tore across Elfhing's vision.
Katan hadn't moved his feet, but his colossal jade sword was already raised.
The massive blade smashed the wind arrow, splitting it perfectly in half and shattering it into chaotic miniature whirlpools that made the heavy pillars of the castle tremble.
The shockwave generated by the impact was so absurdly dense that Lucas was violently thrown backward, slamming against the doors and gasping for air.
"We do not tolerate threats against the sovereign," Katan declared.
He didn't yell. He didn't have to.
The mere metallic scrape of his armor was enough to freeze the marrow in the elf's bones.
"Repeat that gesture, Elfhing, and this hall will become your tomb."
Their auras clashed, heavy, savage, and suffocating, staring each other down like starving wolves in the snow.
"How did you know?" Elfhing snarled through gritted teeth, ignoring Katan's glowing green blade. "The internal affairs of my kingdom are none of your business, unless I decide to speak of them!"
The Queen of the Gods formed the most subtle and microscopic sarcastic smile.
"Trees have ears, Elfhing."
She leaned slightly forward, her black eyes piercing straight through the elven queen's soul.
"And no, it wasn't the Oracle who told me. It was... another tree."
Her words stabbed like rusted knives.
"As far as I know, your boundless arrogance has shattered your own people into three fractured kingdoms: yours, Sillys's, and Sallys's."
The vein on Elfhing's pale neck bulged violently.
"Who exactly am I supposed to recognize as the legitimate queen, now that you've turned a divine province into something broken out of pure wounded pride?" the Queen continued, relentless.
"I will not get involved in your domestic war, old friend. You've already caused me enough headaches lately."
The humiliation was unbearable.
A violent gust of wind exploded through the doors as Elfhing turned her back. She marched out like a white hurricane, dragging Lucas with her in a turbulent wake of energy that made the grand tapestries in the corridor whip wildly against the walls.
Outside the hall, leaning discreetly against a marble pillar submerged in the shadows, a silver-haired man watched the goddess's furious exit with calm, amused eyes.
"Good morning to you too, Elfhing," Silver muttered to himself, watching the trail of destructive energy disappear down the corridor.
Without making a single sound, he stepped away from the pillar and entered the throne room with light, impossibly casual steps.
"Your uninvited presence here worries me," the Queen of the Gods fired off before he even offered a greeting.
Silver stopped in the center of the hall and performed an exaggerated, theatrical bow, a cynical smile playing on his lips.
"Rightfully so, my Queen. I do not bring good news."
Katan emerged from the shadow of the throne once again, the heavy drag of his armor breaking the stillness.
Silver turned his face slightly.
"Good to see you too, big guy," Silver said with a friendly grimace before turning his attention back to the Queen.
His voice abandoned the sarcasm, shifting to a deathly serious whisper.
"I received a report confirming that a dragon has appeared in our galaxy. And as impossible as it seems... it is heading for the only human planet we have nearby."
"HM-267."
*[Present Day – Elven Castle]*
The dense steam of the royal baths had already dissipated, leaving only a cold, biting humidity hanging over the crystal-clear waters.
Elfhing stood at the edge of the pool, wrapped in an immaculate light robe. The humiliation and fury from years ago still burned vividly in her chest, crystallized within her eyes of ice.
"We must act, Lucas," Elfhing ordered, her stern voice echoing through the damp marble.
Lucas remained kneeling on one leg, his right hand resting firmly against the left side of his chest, his head bowed in absolute submission.
"The three outsiders from Lavinsk have given Sillys courage," Lucas reported, his jaw tense. "She plans to come after Your Majesty and take the throne once and for all. It won't take long."
He raised his gaze just a fraction, only enough to see the wet hem of his sovereign's robe.
"I will reinforce the main army. I will prepare the walls," Lucas promised.
"I leave it in your capable hands, Lucas Nokoa," Elfhing replied with a brief, definitive nod.