Mia lay on the Palace garden's fresh grass, gazing towards the sky. The white clouds were lazily wandering through the endless blue, freely and without any care. The last few days were full of extensive work and honest discussions with Theon. His concern and chivalry touched her, but the more he tried to talk her out of recklessly marrying someone she hardly knew, the more she loved him. He impressed her with even the smallest things he was doing entirely automatically. She never met any other man who could be so considerate and gentle that she wondered if he knew his efforts had the opposite effects. As the warm wind blew between the leaves of the nearby trees carrying the mixed scents of flowers and cut grass, Mia loudly sighed and turned on her side. These blissful and peaceful moments were going to end too soon. The moment of their departure was quickly closing in. They would return to the country that had started running out of hope. Tia sat nearby, resting her back on the trunk of the tall birch. Her expression was thoughtful, and her gaze was lost in the distance, her eyes tired and clouded.

"What are you thinking about, sister?"

"I don't want to go, Mia. I'm afraid that once I leave this place, I will never come back." Tia's voice was empty.

"Tia..." The Queen of Hilgvar whispered, her tone full of compassion. "Don't say that..."

"I had a nightmare... It returns time and time again..." Tia confessed, still gazing afar without truly looking at anything. "In my dream, we were kidnapped, and while you managed to escape, I was dragged into a horrifying darkness. I screamed and cried but no one replied. The more I stayed in that darkness, the more terrifying it was. Thousands of eyes looked through my soul... Then I heard whispers speaking to me in some tongue I never heard before."

"I would never leave you alone!" Mia stood up and approached her sister. "It was just a bad dream, Tia."

Tia started sobbing and hugged her sister. "It was so real..."

They sat silently for a long while and Mia hugged her sister until she calmed down.

An unknown voice startled them. "They have balls, I have to admit."

"Not only balls, but they also think they can hide from me," another voice belonging to a young woman echoed in the garden.

A tall, handsome man floated in the air on a small cloud nearby while a young woman wearing a casual dress sat right in front of them with crossed arms and legs. The twins felt the irritational need to kneel, which disappeared as quickly as it appeared. The woman's eyes burned with wrath and the promise of immediate violence, while the man was far more relaxed.

"Verka, you are scaring the ladies."

"Humpf!" The woman puffed her cheeks and ignored him, staring straight at the two Nekomis. "Who are you?"

Mia looked at Tia in shock, then returned her gaze to the woman before her. Her eyes narrowed in fear and recognition—not of the person but of the power surrounding her. She awkwardly tried to kneel but was stopped by a light tap on her head. As she looked up in horror, she felt as if Verka wanted to chop through her head with the side of her hand. Her cat ears flattened in fear, but the Goddess in front of her sighed.

"Who are you girls?" she asked once again.

"My name is Mia Francesca, the Queen of Hilgvar, Goddess Verka! This is my sister, Tia Francesca!" the terrified Nekomi replied as quickly as she could.

"Oh! You are Theon's new girls?" Zephyr jumped from his cloud and softly landed on the ground, glaring at the angry Goddess. "Verka..."

"I don't get it!" Verka snarled. "If you are his new women, then why did the Void Gods want to—" Her eyes suddenly went wide, and she growled dangerously. "Of course! Fucking bastards."

She flew into the air and pressed her left hand to Mia's chest, and her left to Tia's chest. The twin sisters felt a strange burning sensation that quickly faded away. However, Tia briefly screamed in pain, causing Verka to swear profusely before the Goddess of Vengeance vanished.

"Sooo... You deserve some explanation." Zephyr rubbed the lids of his eyes and slowly exhaled. "I have a feeling that we will soon have company; I’ll allow myself to wait because I don't like to explain the same thing twice."

Mia was holding Tia, who was breathing heavily and holding her chest. As God Zephyr predicted, a few moments later, Goddess Verka returned, towing Theon by the collar of his royal mantle. He must have been sitting before she grabbed him because he landed heavily on the ground, pulling the still-angry Goddess with him. However, with effort, she remained standing.

Mia couldn’t decide what shocked her more: seeing Theon being dragged like a helpless child or the expression on his face. He seemed torn between yelling in outrage, punishing the Goddess, or perhaps simply ignoring her. Every choice seemed terrifying in its own way.

Verka let go of his collar and stood to his right. "Them!"

He sighed heavily and slowly stood up from the grass that left light stains on his white-blue cloak. "What about them?"

"The Void Gods tried to corrupt them!" Verka shouted as if it should have been obvious. However, Mia and Tia looked at each other with fear.

"Calm down, everyone..." Theon raised his hand; his voice was calm, but his eyes shined dangerously. "I don't believe I’m saying this, but you seem to be the reasonable one here, Zephyr. So if you don't mind, would you care to tell me… what the fuck?"

"That's an excellent question, my friend." Zephyr sighed, ruffling the hair on the back of his head. "For a long time, I have sensed an annoying presence nearby. I knew it was the Gods of Void or Chaos, but it was so subtle that I couldn't find the source. It turned out that the Enemies tried to do something to the twins..."

"I'm so sorry, Mia and Tia! How could I miss it?" Hestia appeared near Theon and quickly approached them. They felt a comforting warmth as she put her hands on their shoulders.

"You never were sensitive to their interference, Hestia." Zephyr shrugged. "The question remains: what do they want with these two?"

"Don't be stupid, Zephyr." Hestia sighed as she slowly stood up. "They needed them to get to Theon."

"What?" Theon blinked a few times while Verka slammed her forehead with her open palm. "They wanted to use them to attack me?"

"Of course! It's so obvious!" The Goddess of Vengeance exclaimed with a brief laugh.

Mia swallowed dryly, left speechless by the terrifying implications. She had always known Theon was powerful, but what she had just witnessed surpassed even her wildest dreams. He was not only familiar with the Gods, but his casualness with them was more than shocking.

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"They most likely realised that they can't corrupt Theon directly. Now they are looking for a way to approach and eliminate him," Verka said.

"How?" The King of Arcadia asked calmly. "And were Mia and Tia aware of what was going on?"

"Of course not." Verka waved her hand dismissively. "They were targeted because of their affection towards you, which, as far as I can tell, was and is a real feeling. What differentiates these two from the endless line of women infatuated with you is the real chance of getting close to you, Champion of Eriar. But how–that's the most important question... I don't know how those bastards managed to get to them! I don't sense the usual malice of the cultists from them, even when I see through their desires and feelings. I know they would never call the Ruinous Powers!"

"Are they in danger?" Theon asked, looking at the twins.

Verka shrugged. "Not anymore."

"Mia? Tia? Can you tell me what happened?" Theon's voice was patient and calm. Mia felt incredibly safe around him. "Can you tell me if you noticed anything unusual lately?"

"No... I swear to heavens that I have not noticed anything!" Mia cried, still hugging her sister, who was abruptly drawing her breath as if she was drowning."Tia?!"

Theon put his hand on her shoulder gently. "Calm down, Tia."

"I... They..." She started crying but eventually calmed down and told everyone about her nightmare.

While her sister explained, Mia felt a strange sensation, as if she was living the same dream as her sister. Her head started aching so much that she started pressing her temples.

"Grand Purification!" Irene's voice cut through her pain, and Mia almost hit the floor. Her fall was stopped by Theon, who caught her effortlessly and looked at her with a calm gaze full of compassion.

"You told me that they were not in danger." His voice was full of barely contained anger.

"Because they weren't. That was only painful." Irene said. "All the other Queens will be here any moment now. Cahrona sensed this commotion, warned me, and went looking for others. What is Void trying to achieve?"

"Or Chaos," Verka snarled and rubbed her chin. "Nightmares, huh? Crafty bastards..."

"But that's... Strange. If they could turn just anyone into their puppet by plaguing their dreams and changing them into nightmares, they should have easily attacked everyone." Theon helped Tia and Mia sit more comfortably.

"But they can't do that. It's not that simple," another man said, appearing out of nowhere as Mia gazed at him weakly.

"As you just witnessed, they clearly can, Zeus," Theon said, not even bothering to look at him. His focus was on the women in his iron grip, which was more comforting than anything else in the world at the moment. "Can you check if everything is fine with them, Irene?"

"No problem. Just step aside for a moment." Irene approached the two very terrified women. "I agree with you, Zeus."

"See?" Zeus threw his arms into the air. "Thank you, Irene."

"No problem." The Saintess of Avalon smiled sweetly and approached Mia.

Irene put the tips of her fingers together, which were covered by the golden light as if it were some kind of blade. She then abruptly rammed her hand into Mia's chest, piercing her through. Mia couldn't breathe, but she heard someone screaming. She couldn't understand why Irene had just killed her, so gruesomely and violently. She felt pain, but it faded away quickly as the light dimmed in her eyes. Before she lost her sight, she looked at Tia. It was her sister who was screaming. But before her eyes closed completely, a warmth filled her body, and a golden light covered her. She took a deep breath that stung her lungs. As she watched, Irene did the same to her sister. Before she understood what truly happened, Tia was healed, and Irene held a serpent-like creature she had pulled from Tia's chest. It was writhed and coiled in Irene's hand, but a beam of golden light started to dissolve its shade-like body.

"Of course, the Ruinous Powers couldn't do something like this without someone's help." Irene smiled at Zeus, who beamed a wide smile.

"I knew it!" Zeus clapped his hands, but then he quickly turned away from them.

"What in the actual fuck is going on?" Theon asked suspiciously but calmly, also looking away from Mia and Tia. "Urbil?"

"I don't think so..." Irene hesitated for a moment. "But I think we should send a lot of Inquisitors with Janet..."

"What was that thing?!" Mia finally snapped. The last few minutes were the most bizarre and horrifying events in her life. Even the presence of so many Gods wasn't intimidating anymore.

"That was a void parasite. It could kill you both, but it seems it was weakening you and opening you up to the influence of the Ruinous Powers. I noticed it only thanks to the Mark of Wrath left by Verka. It was a nasty and sneaky little bastard," Irene explained with a smile. "I'm so sorry that I startled you, Mia. But now you both are really safe."

"Ummm... Why did King Theon, God Zeus, and God Zephyr turn away?" Mia asked, still shocked.

"Oh, that might be because I ripped your dresses while extracting those parasites. Honestly, it's the first time something like that happened, but I have only done it a couple of times so far. Anyway, none of them wants to earn a vengeful slap..."

Mia and Tia looked down very slowly...

•••

A couple of hours later, everyone sat in one of the conference rooms in the Palace. Mia and Tia were still shaken, but the presence of so many powerful people in one place was somewhat comforting.

Seated around the table with them was a tall, proud Elven woman in a crisp uniform, unmistakably Marquess Janet A'nnet Sparrow, the Grand Admiral of the Royal Fleet of Arcadia, Lady of Avalon. Beside her sat a serious-looking Elf, but his eyes were friendly. His name was Raviil Gvirael, the man who would build the Navy structures of Hilgvar from scratch. The last figure in uniform was a young Nekomi, Captain Grace Asta, commander of HMS Hunter, flagship of the Third Fleet. Her eyes sparkled with pure excitement, and her optimistic energy was contagious. As the King and Queen Irene recounted everything that had transpired with Mia and Tia once more, Queen Luna trembled with barely contained fury.

"I am going to find them..." Luna hissed viciously.

"Calm down, Luna." Hestia put her hand on the Kitsune's shoulder. "You know you can't go..."

"Fjorla and Cédric are going, not me. But Cédric and his Inquisitors will find them all." Luna flattened her ears to the sides of her head. "You can trust them, Mia, Tia. They survived something similar, so they will have no mercy for the agents of the Ruinous Powers."

"Very well." Theon nodded. "I advise you, Mia and Tia, to leave the investigation to Luna's people. In the meantime, you have to focus on the peace conference."

"We wouldn't even know where to start looking, so we will be in your care," Mia admitted bitterly.

"My sister is right." Tia nodded in agreement, but her eyes sparkled dangerously. "I want the heads of those traitors..."

"Zeus and Verka are going with you," Theon said, ignoring Tia's last remark. "The Ruinous Powers might want to save their servants, but they can't do anything to you as long as our Eternals are watching. A few hours ago, Miles of the Infinity Tower Dungeon surrendered to Freya's forces, and we are in the middle of rebuilding his Dungeon. That means you have a heavily fortified base of operations where I encourage you to evacuate all your people. Cédric and his special forces are preparing to make a Dungeon Jump. The conference will start in less than two weeks."

The table focused on where the temporary structures were prepared to hold the conference. Then, it zoomed out and showed the lands belonging to the Union. Vast armies were heading towards the Hilgvarian borders, which provoked some concerned gasps from Mia and Tia.

"As you can see, the Union is gathering serious manpower, but I don't think they would use them immediately. I made them an offer they couldn't refuse, after all." Theon smirked. "They know that I expect their presence and some declarations. They mustered nearly two hundred thousand people in an attempt to improve their negotiation power. They want to scare us. Are you scared, Janet?"

Mia's heart started beating like crazy. Two hundred thousand soldiers? The Union had such reserves?

The Admiral let out several peals of crystal-clear laughter, making Mia look at her in surprise. "They armed over one hundred and fifty thousand peasants with spears and gave them cloth armour. We will have forty thousand Legionnaires and sixteen airships. Once they see the flagship of the Royal Navy, they will reevaluate their life choices, my Lord. Am I scared? I am dauntless, and I know no fear."