The silence in the hall of marble and jade stretched on for several minutes. Nathael and Celestia remained motionless, like statues carved from the very tension of the moment. Their minds, accustomed to processing information with the speed of a well-cast spell, now moved with the slowness of granite eroded by centuries of rain. Each word from Xi Wangmu had been a stone thrown into the pond of their understanding, and the ripples had not yet settled.
Nathael felt the weight of the unknown crushing his chest. Celestia, at his side, kept her tail rigid and her ears slightly tilted forward, her sapphire-blue eyes fixed on the Queen Mother, analyzing every micro-expression, every gesture, searching for the slightest sign of deception. But there was none. Only an unbreakable serenity, the calm of one who has watched stars be born and die.
Finally, Nathael moved. With fingers that barely trembled, he unfastened the last button on the right sleeve of his linen shirt. The fabric slid down, revealing his forearm.
The silver bracelet rested there, its smooth surface now glowing with an inner light, pulsing gently like a newly awakened heart. The runes crossing it, previously barely visible, now seemed to burn with a silvery glow.
"What exactly is this bracelet?" Nathael asked, his voice steady despite the whirlwind inside him.
Xi Wangmu looked at him, a shadow of sorrow crossing her eternal eyes.
"At the end of the Great War," she began, lowering her voice, "when the shadows from another plane had already begun to devour entire continents and despair was denser than the mist of Kunlun, many of my disciples thought all was lost. That our world would be devoured, erased from existence."
She paused, and the images in the air around her grew darker, showing skies ablaze and dried-up oceans.
"In that moment of absolute darkness, we decided to take the last measure. We captured some of those beings from another world. It was a suicidal task that cost the lives of the best among us. But we succeeded. We studied them. We dissected them. And we deciphered their nature."
Her gaze grew distant, lost in memories that not even time could erase.
"We discovered an energy we had never seen before. It was not magic, nor life, nor death. It was something… beyond. Pure dimensional energy. Their formless bodies overflowed with it, as if they were mere vessels for a power greater than themselves."
"We took that energy," she continued. "We shaped it. We sealed it. We enclosed it in objects that could be used by a living soul. Thus, the bracelets were born."
Her gaze returned to Nathael, laden with ancient grief.
"They were our last resort. Our escape door. If the world fell, those who survived could use them to flee, to go to other worlds, other realities, and start anew."
"But the ancestral trees sprouted. They fed. They matured. And with them, the shield enveloping this world became impenetrable. We won, in a way. Production of the bracelets ceased. The cost was too high, and there was no longer any reason to continue. In total, only a few hundred were ever created."
"Some of my children, those who had lost everything—wives, children, homes, futures—chose to use them. They left. They departed for unknown worlds in search of a peace they could no longer find here. I did not stop them. They had given everything for this world. They deserved it."
"The few bracelets that remained were hidden. Some here, in Mount Kunlun. Others in temples concealed in the most remote corners of the planet."
Nathael and Celestia looked at each other, and in that instant, all the pieces fell into place with a deafening click. Williams and Guillermo. Anneliese and Lysander. The temple in Yunnan. Everything made sense. They were echoes of that forgotten war, resonating in the present.
"You know…" Nathael swallowed hard, his voice barely a whisper. "You know what happened to my father, Williams Grauheim, and his companion, Guillermo."
The Queen Mother nodded slowly. She rose from her tree-throne and walked to the edge of the staircase, standing at their level. The simple gesture was more powerful than any declaration.
"As I have told you," she said softly, "I planted seven ancestral trees around the world. Each guarded by a lineage of my most faithful disciples, my children. The war was devastating, and one by one, those lineages fell."
"Only one lineage survived. The strongest. Yours. Your ancestors, those who would later take the name Grauheim, did not merely protect their tree. They nourished it. They loved it. They learned from it, and in return, it made them stronger than any wizard has ever been or will be. They forged a family that, to this day, is invincible."
Nathael and Celestia were deeply shocked. They considered their family powerful, discreet, respected. But "invincible" was a term not even Sabine, the Matriarch, had used.
"They do not know," Xi Wangmu continued, reading their astonishment. "They do not know the true depth of your power. They only see the outer layer, the reflection on the water. The ocean beneath… is infinite."
The revelation left them speechless. For the first time, Nathael felt that everything he had believed about his lineage was merely a children's tale.
"However," the Queen Mother went on, her voice returning to the narrative, "the other trees were not so fortunate. Time forgives nothing. Without a guardian to nourish them, they began to weaken, little by little, over the millennia."
"The tree in China, located in Yunnan, was the most affected. Thirty-six years ago, its shield runes faltered. Just for an instant. A blink in eternity. But it was enough."
"A crack opened. And through it, a being from another world entered."
Her voice grew grave, filled with sorrow.
"It destroyed an entire village. Left it in ruins, in desolation. No one survived."
"But something happened. Two brothers were passing through those lands. Bjorn Andersen, the younger. And Niel Andersen, the elder. Both bore the lineage of the druids, a lineage believed lost."
Nathael and Celestia exchanged a look of utter astonishment. The Quileute had spoken to them of Bjorn, yes, but they had never mentioned his brother's name.
"The being attacked them," Xi Wangmu continued. "It did not expect Niel to be so powerful. Though slightly inferior to the creature, he stood his ground. Their battle shook the heavens and split mountains. Niel, in his wisdom, ordered his brother to flee. He knew he was at a disadvantage. And he did not want to risk his brother's life."
"In fact, Niel had the ability to escape with Bjorn if he had wished. He possessed the power to do so. But he did not."
Nathael felt a knot in his throat. Celestia lowered her head, her pride moved by such pure bravery.
"Niel chose to keep fighting," the Queen Mother said, her voice barely a whisper. "He recognized that if the being remained alive, it would end the lives of thousands, perhaps millions, of innocents. So he made the noblest decision: he sacrificed himself to destroy it."
"I, watching from the temple in Mount Kunlun, was moved. There was a soul that, in complete selflessness, gave his life for a cause he did not even know. Niel knew nothing of the Sect, of the trees, of the war. He only knew he had to protect others."
"And though I am merely a remnant of my true self, and my mission was to remain here, immobile, I decided to risk everything and save him."
"His physical body was destroyed along with the dimensional being. But before his soul—his spiritual body—could also disintegrate, I protected it. I brought him here, to this sanctuary, to heal and grow stronger. And I told him the full story behind it all."
"A few years later, his brother Bjorn searched for him desperately. I told Niel about it. But Niel, upon recovering, faced a choice. I offered him scrolls, knowledge, everything needed so that, in time, he could weave himself a new physical body. But he refused."
Celestia, her voice hoarse with emotion, whispered, "He refused?"
"Yes," Xi Wangmu nodded. "He knew the ancestral tree in Yunnan, weakened by the crack, risked collapsing entirely. If that happened, more cracks would open. More beings would enter. All civilization could fall."
"So he placed the world's well-being above everything. Above his own rebirth. Above reuniting with his brother. He used his soul, his very essence, to nourish the tree. He gave it his last strength to keep the shield stable for a few more years."
Nathael lowered his gaze, overwhelmed by the level of sacrifice described. He, as a hunter, had a clear hierarchy: Celestia first, then himself, then his family and his students. The idea of sacrificing everything for strangers… was something he doubted he could do.
"By the time his brother reached China, searching for Mount Kunlun, his brother was no longer there. And since he was Niel's brother, I decided to show him the way here, for not just anyone can enter Mount Kunlun."
"Is he here?" Nathael asked.
"No. Shortly after I allowed him entry to Mount Kunlun, I told him about his brother and his sacrifice. He wept and mourned for days. However, weeks later, something changed in him. Anger and a thirst for vengeance were born within him. So he took one of the bracelets here and used it to travel to other worlds in search of his revenge."
"As for the ancestral tree, years later," the Queen Mother continued, "the tree weakened again. This time, two powerful souls in Europe sensed it. Your father, Williams Grauheim, and his companion, Guillermo."
Nathael and Celestia looked at each other, the final pieces of the puzzle clicking into place in their minds.
"Williams found the sealed temple in Yunnan. Before entering, he informed his family of what he had discovered."
"The letter…" Nathael said, almost to himself.
"Inside the temple, Williams and Guillermo found four bracelets. Without knowing their true function, he activated one and was pulled into another world."
"Later, Anneliese and Lysander arrived at the temple. They found the three remaining bracelets. She, more cautious, took them to your ancestral home. There, she used the ancestral tree to partially seal two of them."
Nathael looked at his own bracelet, now pulsing with a life of its own.
"The third bracelet, the one she did not seal, she activated," Xi Wangmu concluded. "And she departed with Lysander in search of her father."
The silence that followed was deeper than the previous one. Now they knew everything. The story was vaster, more tragic, more terrible than they had ever imagined.
"It was a poor decision," the Queen Mother said, her voice cutting the air like an ice blade.
Nathael and Celestia tensed instantly.
"What do you mean by that?" Nathael asked, his voice filled with an urgency he could not hide.
"The bracelets they found were programmed to send their wearer to different worlds across the vast Omniverse," Xi Wangmu explained. "Anneliese, not knowing how to use it, could be anywhere. In any reality. Searching for her, and for your father, would be like searching for a needle in an infinite haystack."
Cold, lethal fear gripped Nathael's heart.
The Queen Mother, seeing his desperation, smiled with a warmth that dispelled the darkness of his thoughts.
"Do not worry, Nathael Grauheim," she said softly. "If it is your wish, I will teach you how to use the bracelet. That way, you can search for your sister and your father."