Somewhere in Tellor:

"Nana De, are you sure?... You know that you don't have to do this, I or any other member of the council can do it..." A short old man with black lines moving randomly on his hands, asked the old woman in front of him with a hesitant voice and expression.

"It's alright, I can do this, stop annoying me about that already," answered the old woman, Nana De, as she waved her hands in irritation.

After that and even without giving the old man the chance to speak again, Nana De turned around and left the room they were in and continued moving till she left the entire house itself.

Leaving the house, Nana De threw a glance to the right side of the door where a young woman that appeared to be in her early twenties was standing. It was clear that the young woman was an omega from the big red gem on her forehead and the glossy crystalline scales extending down the sides of her neck

The young omega was looking at Nana De too, but her eyes seemed dead and lifeless, Nana De nodded towards her and started talking as she moved to the biggest building in the small village.

"Go and call Helaim, I will be waiting for you in the sleeping quarters," the young woman didn't say anything, she just nodded lightly before heading to the other side of the village

After the young woman had moved a bit further, Nana De turned around and looked towards her with a complicated expression before shaking her head and continuing to move towards the big building, a short while later, she finally made it.

She hadn't even taken a full step through the door when a childish shout sounded out from within:

"Nana De!"

Paa! Paa! Paa!

After that shout, many others like it sounded out, accompanied by the sound of light footsteps heading her way.

Nana De lifted her head just in time to see a group of children from different races and of various ages approaching her with big smiles on their faces.

Even with all what was happening, Nana De couldn't help but smile as she saw the flood of running children. She fell to her knees and opened her arms wide, taking them in a big hug.

The children threw themselves at her in excitement as they laughed. After each one of them got a hug and some head pats from her, Nana De asked the kids in front of her with a happy smile:

"How was lunch today?"

Scattered childish voices sounded out with different answers like "Yummy," "Delicious," And others.

"So..." She added with a darker smile, "It's time for you to take a nap, no?"

As those words left her mouth, the hall fell into a deep silence for a second before exploding in a mess of movement and noise as all the kids run away from Nana De with a single united shout, "NO!"

The children dispersed fast with each of them using a different unique method to get as far as possible away from her.

A small amaryn used the most direct method to do so, running, she was extremely fast and nimble, choosing the best available path to get her to her destination while also avoiding all the children around her expertly.

A small skugg jumped to a shadowy spot next to him just to disappear and reappear again in a not so far away shadow as he continued running before jumping again to another shadow.

A small ammonil waved her hands towards Nana De, making a swarm of flying insects throw itself at her and start circling her, obstructing her vision as the small ammonil made her escape.

Each of the children used their own talents and special racial abilities to try and run from Nana De as fast as they could, but all the grandma did was shake her head as she said in a gentle yet firm voice:

"Come on, stop messing around, you should go to sleep or I will get mad for real."

Nana De's words only made the kids move fast as they laughed and shouted at each other. Seeing that, Nana De release a small chuckle and tapped her walking stick at the ground, making a sound that reverberated throughout the whole room.

Bang!

With the sound, all the children jumped aside, changing their course in a last-second ditch, as if to avoid something. Yet, even with that, they couldn't succeed.

All kids were caught midway through their jumps and rolls and dragged fast to where they started from, exactly in front of Nana De, as they shouted and screamed shrilly amidst half laughs.

Hanging in front of her, Nana De shook her head with a small smile as she said:

"Come on everyone, it's time to sleep, I'll even tell you a story."

"Story!" Shouted the kids in clear happiness, Nana De's stories were always fun and made going to sleep less boring than it usually was.

With that, and with the children still hanging around her as they screamed and laughed, Nana De started moving up the stairs, and a short while later, she was inside a big hall with beds on both sides and a clear path in the middle, and a wooden chair in the other side of the hall.

Nana De moved through the path in the middle of the room, and whenever she passed a pair of beds, two of the children would float away from her and into them, with the sheets getting peeled back before returning to their place to cover the kids after they are laid down to sleep.

After a while, Nana De finally made it to the other side of the room, and after getting the last pair to their beds, she turned around to face the door.

By then, two people were standing at the door, one of them was the expressionless young woman Nana De had go call someone, while the other one was a young man with a weak built and human features, with nothing setting him aside as a person from another race, the young man was wearing an old brownish red headband that appeared to be made of some kind of leather.

"Helaim, Natalia," Nana De nodded at the two with a small gentle smile before going on, "bring on some chairs and sit down, I will be telling the kids here a story, and I thought why wouldn't you listen to it too, a long time has passed since the last time you listened to a story from me, don't you think?"

"I told you that she was going to do this," the young man said in a barely audible voice, the young woman next to him didn't seem to care about what he said, yet he still smiled and tried to hold his laugh as if he got an answer already anyway.

"Hey, Helaim!" As he was trying to hold his laugh, the young man, Helaim, looked at the children on the beds who returned his stare with enthusiastic waves and greetings.

Returning in kind, he seemed as if he was remembering the days when he was one of them.

The omega, Natalia, on the other side just waved her hands lightly to the door, and a second after two chairs floated through it before stopping in front of her and Helaim.

"Okay, since everyone is here, let's start," after Helaim and Natalia sat down, Nana De clapped her hands as she herself took a seat on the other side of the room before continuing, "about what should I talk about today? Let's see... Ah, I think I found something..."

"Yyaaaay!" The children shouted, interrupting her.

"Hush now, let me start," she said, shaking her head as she added, "a long time ago... So long that none of the races that existed then is still here... Or even remembered, the world was on the verge of destruction... As it had already reached its limits and there was no way forward but death..."

Nana De's voice was soft and gentle as she recounted her tale, it had a weird quality, making everyone hearing it want to lay down and fall asleep peacefully.

A small while after she started her story, most people in this small secluded village fell into a deep slumber, and for a few minutes, a deafening silence dominated the village... Before disappearing as fast as it came, replaced by the sound of a raging battle.

***

Lupri, the First's castle, Meetings Room:

"You are calling yourself the rightful heir to the Alpha, but I can easily see that you yourself aren't an Alpha, and as far as I know, no Coronation happened in the last few days, so, just with what right would you call yourself that in front of us."

The first to speak, unsurprising to Nulara, was Midlus, and as usual, midlus showed no hint of respect in his voice.

Unlike what she expected though, Malonal didn't show any anger or irritation from Midlus' open disrespect, all he did was lift an eyebrow as he lazily turned his head to the livitus.

"I said I'm the rightful heir not because I'm an Alpha or because I've inherited his powers," said Malonal in the same calm gentle tone, "I simply said that because It was me who killed him."

With the last word leaving Malonal's lips, everyone and thing in the room seemed to have frozen, as if falling under the effect of some weird spell. Nulara unconsciously found herself throwing her eyes at the shape sitting on the seat of honour.

All people in the room had a similar reaction, they all looked at Malonal with dull blank expressions, what he said was something they already had in mind as a possibility from the information they got, but even with all of that, guessing so and hearing it from him were different things entirely, the shock was too big for them to accept easily.

"Impossible..." Murmured Mathias, the encolian's prince, to himself with disbelief, before someone Nulara recognised as the person who stopped him from looking at her before, extended his hand and patted him on the shoulder, with that Mathias took control of himself again.

Mathias' muttering seemed to have broken the silence that fell on the room, again, Midlus was the one who spoke, he looked at Malonal in defiance:

"You're saying that... You have killed the Alpha, but those are just your words, as much as we know, the Alpha might just be busy or stuck with something and not really dead, all we have are your words to go by, why should we believe you?..."

Midlus' words were biting and challenging, but they also had a hint of logic, most of the people there had similar points to bring up.

Malonal didn't answer straight away, he first scanned all different leaders before bringing his attention to Midlus again as he narrowed his eyes and slowly said:

"Does that even matter?"

Again, the room fell into silence, except that it didn't last long this time, because Cynor, the minmos' king, opened his mouth and asked in a stuttering fluster:

"What... What do you mean by 'does that even matter' of course it does, do you expect us to sit here and accept you as some kind of supreme king just because you said so and because the Alpha has disappeared somehow? Are you serious? Do you even know what you're saying? Who you're talking to?"

It was clear that Cynor was irritated and that he wasn't acting in a manner befitting his status, yet none of the others tried to stop him or take his side because they weren't as agitated as Cynor and they were able to notice what happened to Midlus when Malonal concentrated on him, the livitus was pale and shaking, seeming as if he was barely able to keep himself sitting straight.

"And... And even if what you said is true, even if... Even if you have killed the Alpha, why would we let you take his place? Why would we listen to you without any resistance? Do you think that you're the Alpha just because you're sitting in his place? Do you think that anyone can come and take his position?"

After another flustered outbreak in which the minmos' king let out all his repressed emotions, he seemed to have finally calmed down as he fell back into his seat limply as if all his strength have left him.

"Of course, king Cynor," after seeing that Cynor finally seemed to have calmed down, Malonal started, "as I've said, does it matter if I've killed the Alpha? Or if he's alive or dead? The answer is no..."

With those words, Malonal moved his eyes from the minmos' king who started turning paler and seemed to be having problems breathing as he scanned all the others in the room with the same calm cold emotionless stare, continuing without caring much about their reactions that were similar to the minmos' king.

"... After all, you've followed him because you had no other choice... Because the Alpha was a King, a king to everything on Tellor, because he was born to rule, and... It's the same for me."

As the last of his words fell into the ears of the listeners, every single one of them had their heads lowered involuntarily, acknowledging and recognising what they were feeling deep down, they were in the presence of a ruler...

Right then and there, everyone inside that room understood something, Tellor had a new king.