From the talks of Patriarch Ezran Partas about the situation of the Northern Tribe, it was rather logical that they were in this kind of situation.
Because the Northern Tribes were unified by brute force by the Numa Tribe several decades ago, many Clans and Tribes were merged into the entity that is called the Northern Tribes nowadays.
This created room for the Partas Tribe to infiltrate the Northern Tribes at will and even managed to insert many of their people into the Northern Tribes, which would then create a lot of trouble.
The Partas Tribe didn't wish just to conquer the Northern Areas of the Feris Continent; they also wanted to completely destroy the Northern Tribe and annihilate most of their people.
Mostly because there was too much bad blood between the Partas Tribe and the Northern Tribes. Not to mention, the factions that were creating the Northern Tribes had vastly different ideologies from that of the Partas Tribe.
This meant that the complete assimilation of the majority of the Northern Tribes was already a lost cause. So, the sole possible option was just to annihilate all those who could not be assimilated into the greater Partas Tribe, and those who could would become one with them.
"You are back later than I thought, Father."
I saw there a tall, beautiful, young, slender woman with long, light blue hair and blue eyes. She wore a military apparel with long sleeves with buttons on the upper arms, a blue scarf on her neck high-heeled boots, and a peaked hat that had the crest of his clan on the front.
She also has a runic tattoo on her chest, which radiated a mild Warp Energy signature, which was a sign of her ability. Not only the Warp Energy, but it also radiated a certain coldness, so I knew that her abilities were closely related to the concept of ice itself.
"And this is my dear daughter, Esdeath Partas, the Heiress of the Partas Tribe, one of the best Generals in our army, and also one of the strongest people within the entire Partas Tribe."
The connection between them was more than obvious, not only due to their unique hair color, which should also be some genetic trait among the direct lineage of the Partas Tribe.
Everyone in the Partas Tribe shared a common bloodline, though the members of the main clan were far less numerous and were also the strongest out of them all. The genetic traits among the direct lineage of the Partas Tribe were very strong.
"It is my pleasure, Lady Partas."
I greeted her politely, getting back a slight nod of acceptance. I knew this time, she was probably even more battle-hungry than Vali when he was younger, but at the same time, her self-control was something remarkable.
She could control her bloodlust and thirst for the good battle very well, practically hiding it so much that I wouldn't be able to detect it if not for living with several people like that. Vali and Hela were the same case, Sigmar to a certain degree as well, especially with the battle lust.
Though her strength was something...
She was around twenty years old, but her strength was already reaching that of her father. In just a few more years, she could reach the same heights as her father.
Meanwhile, I could sense her gaze on me. It was very similar to how Hela used to look at me when we had just met; there was a lot of intrigue, excitement, eagerness, battle-lust, and weirdly enough... desire?
"You are strong... very strong."
In a flash of a moment, she appeared in front of me, scrutinizing me from tips to toes, as she looked straight into my eyes. I could see literal stars forming in her eyes when she was scanning me because I was sure that she could sense my power.
Most interesting...
This was some sort of ability that was very similar to those of the Danger Beasts, which allowed her to sense the danger and strength of potential enemies or foes. I already noticed that this was rather common among the Hunters of the Partas Tribe, though depending on their power, it varied.
Some of them had rather weak danger senses, while some, like Ezran Partas and his daughter, Esdeath Partas, had very powerful and developed ones.
"Not now, Esdeath. Sir Butler is the guest of the Partas Tribe, and right now, we have some serious matters to discuss. You can have your fight at a later date after we finish the more important matters."
The annoyance in Patriarch Partas's voice was evident; it was clear that he was annoyed by the behavior of his daughter. He knew very well; this was also a bit shameful behavior for the Heiress of the Partas Tribe, so I tried to pretend not to see anything.
"Ts... I will return later for our spar."
The Heiress of the Partas Tribe and one of the Generals of their armies, harumphed, turned around, and left the place.
"I must apologize for my daughter's behavior, but she has a rather personality and could be stubborn."
Ezran Partas sighed with a defeated tone as we then entered through the gates of the Citadel into the valley, which was basically one colossal city carved into the mountains and built in this valley.
Just from the life signs alone, there were tens of thousands of people living in the Icecrown Citadel. Aside from the original structures that were built by the colonists of the Solar Terran Federation, there were many that were built by their descendants during and after the Old Night.
The city was expanded several times, deep into the mountains and underground, creating the enormous complex that is the Icecrown Citadel today.
"You have built something truly splendid... when it was exactly conquered from the rogue Artificial Intelligences?"
I asked while we walked through the busy streets of the Icecrown Citadel; the place was full of people, and most of them looked rather similar, especially in the outfits, because everyone was wearing the combat outfits of the Hunters.
And another common thing among the people was that everyone had hair of the blue color, albeit of many shades, signifying their position within the Partas Tribe and where they belonged on the scales of the Bloodline Lineage.