The Beasts' Forest:

Adam would be lying if he said that he hadn't seen that coming, Susan had all the qualities of someone who would be thirsty for more power, she went through a disaster that took everyone she cared about, and everything she had from her, while all she was able to do was run away without turning back, even revenge seemed like an impossibility, something she had no way of achieving: with her being a human and whatnot.

He had faced many individuals like that on his long travels, individuals who lost all they had because of people who were stronger and had a higher status than them, they basically had no way to achieve their revenge; people like that would do anything if there was even the smallest chance that they would get what they wanted.

And they usually died trying to accomplish their goals, leaving nothing behind and disappearing without accomplishing anything.

Other than that, Susan also had a look in her eyes he was quite familiar with, one he saw in the faces of human children he met while journeying, those who didn't understand how the world was like yet and still had hope that they were unique and that they would be able to use magic, he would always find one person like this at the very least in every human community he went too.

He didn't like it, but he knew that no good would come from giving them false hope, so he would put things as they were for them, telling them that they would never be able to use magic and watch as that fire got extinguished from their eyes slowly.

Looking at Susan's anticipating and fear-filled eyes, Adam hesitated for a bit before finally deciding on what he thought was the best choice as he said:

"Honestly, I dont know... I have never met or heard about anything like this before, not about a human or any individual from any other race, I never would have believed it if someone told me that an Origin was able to absorb mana the way you do, as soon as mana come into contact with you, it gets absorbed by who knows what."

That was the truth of the matter, Adam was facing trouble wrapping his head around what Susan truly was and what was wrong with her.

The craziest part was that she was able to absorb the mana of different races, after all, she was able to absorb both his mana and that of the evil spirit they met in those ruins, all in a short period of time, the only other race that was able to do anything like that was the omega, and even them had to wait for a week to change the Castles they followed, and they only had access to the Castles of their ancestors' races.

Adam watched as frustration and disappointment slowly spread on Susan's face and radiated out from her, it was exactly as he expected it to be and he knew that he should just stop there and let things be, but he felt sorry for her and couldn't bring himself to let things end like that, so he added before he could control this impulse he felt:

"As I said, I don't know what's going on with you... But that doesn't mean that it's a bad thing entirely and that you won't be able to use magic for sure, it just means that I don't know anything about this, there might be a way for you to use magic and there might not be... You just need to find out on your own..."

Seeing as life seemed to be returning to her at his words, like a drowning person clutching at anything he could get his hands on, Adam wondered if what he did was the right thing, he didn't like giving false hopes, but he wondered if this could even be called a false hope, after all, even he didn't know if there was a chance that she was going to succeed, so she might really do it, and sometimes, having a goal to work towards was better than having nothing at all.

Shaking his head lightly to get rid of those thoughts from his mind, Adam continued:

"I don't know how I could possibly be of help to you in this, but I'll try coming up with something, and I might be able to help you."

After his last words, Susan didn't respond for a while, keeping her head low as if she was thinking deeply about something, then she finally looked at him again as she said in a crisp small voice:

"Thank you... For everything..."

Adam smiled at that and said with a joking tone:

"There's no need for that, the lucky and strong among us have to help the hopeless after all."

Unlike before, Susan gave a bit of a smile at this joke of his.

Smiling widely too, Adam stood up as he said:

"Come on, let's get our beds ready and sleep, the next village is still around two weeks away from here, we still have quite a long journey ahead of us."

Susan nodded lightly and went to get her bed ready with a spirit she didn't have just a few moments ago.

***

Lupri, the First's Castle:

Nulara moved behind Amathira, Taloora and Mosi in silence almost instinctively, each step she took was heavier than the last, as if her feet were shackled, and the weights were only increasing.

What happened in the meeting room was way bigger than what someone like her was meant to go through, but Amathira's insistence that she should be there made her witness an event that was going to change the whole course of history.

She intuitively knew without any doubt that as soon as what she heard inside gets announced to the public, great chaos and unprecedented panic would fill all of Tellor.

Abolishing the first commandment, the commandment that shaped the world into what it was at that moment, was something no one would have ever considered as a possibility.

Nulara trembled as she thought about how things were in the meeting room before they all dispersed after the meeting was done.

At first, when Malonal said that he was going to abolish the first commandment, almost all of them showed the same feelings, disbelief, shock and anger, then they tried to get him to withdraw and reconsider this choice of his, trying to get him to understand what that kind of choice was going to do for the world.

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After another use of the Supreme Ruler to get everyone to keep quiet again and make them succumb, Malonal made it clear then that there was no room for arguing, his choices were ultimate and they could do nothing but obey.

Right then, Nulara saw the most fundamental change that happened in the whole event. After a period of silence where no one said or did anything, she clearly felt a change in the atmosphere of the hall, as people in the room started looking at each other with weird emotionless gazes, as if they were already studying each other, searching for any hint of weakness or danger.

Before that moment, and before Malonal used his ability for the second time, Nulara still had a tiny bit of hope in her heart that even if he did abolish the first commandment, nothing was going to change. From how the leaders went against him and argued against that decision, she thought that there would be no reason to worry, after all, abolishing the first commandment didn't mean that the world had to go to hell, the choice was still in the hands of the leaders, the individuals there, there was still hope.

However, soon after that, things changed in the hall as most of the leaders there started looking at each other with hidden and open enmity, demolishing those rosy thoughts she had in a second, making her realise how childish she was thinking.

Through the period from the first Alpha's ruling till then, the first commandment had always been like a barrier that kept all the different races at bay with force, but now that that barrier was removed, there was of course more than a single race that was looking forward to that happening.

Suddenly, the footsteps in front of her stopped, which brought her back from her wild thoughts, to her own pressing problems.

Remembering that fact, her heart seemed to have stopped for a second before it started beating even faster again, the time to meet Malonal, the person who was going to decide her fate and future has come.

Earlier, after the meeting ended, and before the others got the chance to say anything, Amathira beat them to it as she told Malonal that she wanted a private meeting with him. Malonal accepted and said that Mosi would lead them to another room where private meetings were to be had, before leaving through a side door.

And that got them there, she, Amathira, Taloora and Mosi standing before a highly decorated door being guarded by a man cloaked in black, only his eyes had slits to see from, and from them, people were able to see two shining yellow pupils.

"Queen Amathira is here to meet his Highness," said Mosi as he nodded to the guard.

The guard's eyes scanned them, lingering on her longer than her companions, before he turned, opened the door and said after taking a step inside:

"Your Highness, Amathira and those with her are here."

"Let them in," Malonal's familiar and unique voice sounded from within.

The guard bowed before turning towards them and bowing as he moved aside:

"You can go in."

Nulara felt the panic starting to creep into her heart, if not for the courtesy training she had all those years that had her keep a calm facade all the time, she would have frozen in place, and even at that moment, that wasn't out of the question considering how much pressure she was under.

Following behind Amathira with her heart skipping a beat with each step she took, Nulara tried her best to keep all that internally and to herself; she knew she wasn't doing that well.

The room was big and well decorated, from the patterned and gold inlaid walls to the many artefacts and art pieces hanging from the walls, it was a room fit for a king. At the centre of the room, there stood a big desk made of some kind of redwood, and at that moment Malonal was sitting behind it.

But unlike what Nulara expected, Malonal wasn't the only one inside the room though, and from the small pause that she showed, even Amathira didn't expect what they saw.

On a well made and elegant couch to the right side of the room, a beautiful phas was sitting, she had short hair and a beautiful face that had some similarities with Amathira.

She was Lura, Amathira's oldest daughter, the previous Alpha's wife, a person with a great talent in magic and also the person Nulara was basically being exchanged for.

Amathira soon returned to her senses and said as she bowed her head a bit to Malonal:

"King Malonal," after greeting him and him replying in kind, Amathira finally turned to Lura and said in her usual tone as she nodded at her:

"Lura."

"Mother," Lura bowed to Amathira then looked behind her to Nulara who was just standing there, Nulara noticed how her expression changed a bit when her eyes fell on her but at the end she said nothing.

"King Malonal, it seems that you already know why I wanted to have this meeting," said Amathira after the formalities were dealt with.

"I thought I did," answered Malonal as he threw a sideway glance at Nulara, "but it seems as if you have something else on your mind, right?"

Although there was none of the instinctive heart-stopping pressure and fear she felt the first time when his eyes fell on her, she still shrunk on herself unconsciously as if to make herself seem smaller, but she soon realized what she had done and tried her best to stand straight again, wishing that Amathira didn't notice what she had done.

"Your Majesty wasn't mistaken," started Amathira, "I'm truly here to try and get Lura to come back with me, and I wish that your Majesty is going to allow that, after all, she won't be the source of any danger to you and keeping her here won't look too good on you."

Malonal didn't replay or interrupt Amathira, but he still sent his eyes towards Nulara again when she was done speaking, as if implying what was her role in all of this and why was she there.

Understanding the meaning of that fine gesture, Amathira too looked back at her before saying:

"Even though we want to take Lura with us, we still want to maintain a good relationship with your Majesty and Lupri, so if you accept, then we hope that you would let Nulara here stay as a guest in the castle, acting as a proof of our relationship, Nulara on her side, would do all she could to live up to your expectations and do all you want of her."

Hearing the last part of Amathira's words, Nulara felt as if a knife was stabbing at her with each word she said as her heart clenched and she felt her eyes tear up a little, but again, she had to control it and not make a fool out of herself.

Malonal brought his gaze back to Amathira and didn't move it or blink for a while, with each passing second, Nulara felt more pressure mounting in the room, it wasn't the Supreme Ruler's pressure, but one that came from the two giants looking at each other.

Nulara also held a bit of hope that Malonal was going to refuse Amathira's offer, after all, she won't be able to force him to accept if he decided not to, but she also knew that that wasn't possible, she understood how strong her charm's effect was on people around her, and how no man would let the chance to get her go by.

"You..." Malonal finally spoke, and it took her a second to recognise that he was talking to her, making her almost jump in her place, but her self control and her training that was engraved into her heart since young only allowed her to stand straighter. Still, she barely could hear what he said amidst her heart's roaring beats, "...Nulara, right? You agree to this?"

Thinking that she must have misheard, Nulara just look at him straight in the eyes, not able to answer, still in shock that she was called like that, and especially to ask for her opinion on the matter.

Malonal's eyes were deep, black and emotionless as he stared at her, he didn't urge or press her, he just look at her in interest, awaiting her answer.

For a moment, in a small, isolated corner of her mind, Nulara considered saying no, putting her loud disapproval for all the people there to see, but the rational part of her knew that she would never be able to do that, she had always known that her end would be something like this, after all, that was the only thing she could do, her whole worth.

The idea of what Amathira would do to her also weighed heavily on her mind, and she wasn't sure that she would be able to look at her after hearing her throwing her away like that to a man they barely knew anything about.

So with a breaking heart and tears threatening to fall down her face, she gripped tightly at the sides of her dress as she looked at Malonal straight to the eyes and said:

"Yes, I accept, I... I hope that you would accept me as a guest in your castle..."

Malonal stood there looking at her in silence before turning to Amathira and saying:

"So be it."