The cold wind howled, and the blizzard in the north swept across a vast land.
This was the Godforsaken Land, the place where the gods banished their prisoners in the legends of ancient times. The cold and endless blizzard was the main theme of this world. In this place, the water vapor that was exhaled from the mouth would freeze in an instant and turn into frozen ice crystals.
Akames, a werewolf, walked into a dark hole. After passing through a narrow gap, the scene in front of him suddenly became spacious. The light from torches from all directions illuminated the scene in front of him, coating his silver-white fur with a reddish-gold light.
Akames's gaze shifted forward. In front of him was a seat made of white bone and rattan. The seat was wrapped in a thick layer of deerskin, and a huge deer head hung from the stone wall behind the seat.
There was an old man sitting in the seat. He was thin and had a walking stick in his right hand, but his eyes were incomparably hale and hearty, filled with killing intent. There was a black eye patch on his right eye, and where the eye patch was not covered, one could vaguely see a deep scar.
The old man's gaze scrutinized the young werewolf in front of him. His voice seemed to contain muffled thunder, low but loud.
"Akames, you're hurt. What happened?"
Akames clenched his right fist and knocked on his chest. He did not realize that he was injured. Instead, his face turned red, and his eyes were filled with the light of disbelief. His lips trembled as he said to the old man in front of him, "Lord Telades, it's a vampire. I met a vampire!"
Hearing the word "vampire", Telades could no longer calm down. Instead, he stood up from his seat.
He looked Akames in the eye and demanded, "Are you telling the truth? Did you really meet a vampire?"
Excitement filled Akames's eyes. He nodded and spoke with absolute certainty. "Yes, Lord Telades. There is no mistaking a vampire. Not just me. Bran and Morian can vouch for me."
Telades's eyes began to fade. Memories of the past seemed to begin to emerge.
Once they had been masters of the Makar Forest. More than two hundred years ago, those damned vampires had come to this land, snatched their home, and sealed them in the Godforsaken Land.
In the past two hundred years, they had endured the wind, snow, cold, hunger, and fear. They had always wanted to return to their homeland to take revenge on the vampires who had once taken their homeland.
But Telades hadn't let the information from Akames get the better of him. He was well aware that the vampires had been able to drive them to the Godforsaken Land more than two hundred years ago. They were certainly not lambs to the slaughter.
He continued to say to Akames, "How did you meet the vampire? Tell me everything."
Akames quickly explained what had happened.
He accidentally barged into Lind's territory and encountered Darkridge, who was patrolling. A conflict broke out between the two sides, and he temporarily chose to retreat.
"That vampire seems to have recognized me as one of the cowards from the forest. He even promised me that he would come back in three days to fight to the death. My lord, I think this is an opportunity. We can take back our former territory while they are unprepared!"
At this point, Akames looked hopefully at Telades.
The other werewolves were even more excited.
They didn't want to stay in this godforsaken place anymore.
When they heard that they had a chance to take back their territory, they raised their weapons and shouted.
"Take back our home!"
"We and the vampires are irreconcilable!"
"Blood for blood, tooth for tooth!"
"Show those bats what we're made of!"
"Quiet!"
Hearing the shouts, Telades raised his walking stick and knocked it hard on the ground.
The dull reverberation immediately stopped the voices of the werewolves below the stage. They all looked up at Telades.
Telades looked around and slowly said, "I know what you're thinking. I'm the same as you. I want to leave this place all the time. But don't forget why we came here. More than 200 years ago, who chased us out of our home? They're not lambs waiting to be slaughtered, but a group of equally terrifying wolves. We can't act rashly!"
Hearing Telades's words, the werewolves' voices gradually softened. A young werewolf asked Telades, "As you said, what should we do?"
Telades narrowed his eyes. His gaze seemed to pierce through the cave and into the vampire territory more than ten kilometers away.
"Of course we have to go back and take back what used to belong to us. But we can't be hasty. This is a war. We have to be sufficiently prepared."
Telades looked at Akames again and said, "Akames, didn't you say that they would fight you to the death in three days?"
"Yes, Lord Telades!"
"Very well. You will lead the way in three days. I will personally check out the situation there!" Telades' eyes gradually narrowed into slits. "If necessary, we might be able to cooperate with those things!"
Hearing Telades' words, all the werewolves below looked up at him with disbelief in their eyes.
Of course, the werewolves knew what "those things" Telades was talking about. Fear involuntarily appeared in their eyes.
Those things had existed in the Godforsaken Land before them.
They had been sealed under the frozen ground of the Godforsaken Land for countless years.
Once those things were released, the entire Bayes Continent would probably fall into endless calamities.
Working with those things was no different from asking a tiger for its skin.
Looking into the eyes of the werewolves, Telades said, "Don't worry. I'll only consider working with those things as a last resort. I won't do such a thing unless there's no way out."
The fear in the other werewolves' eyes faded at Telades's words.
After everyone left, Telades also left his throne.
He went deep into the darkness of the cave alone.
No one expected that there would be an even larger cave under the spacious cave.
On the ground of this cave, there were seven huge dark blue icicles.
From above, these icicles looked like a huge array that trapped something below.
"Have you made up your mind, Telades? As long as you release us, we can give you everything you want."
A bewitching voice reached Telades' ears.
Telades stood on the rocky steps of the cavern, looking down at the icicles, his eyes wary.