The domain of the King of the North Wind, Wolf.
The biting cold was like a living thing, coiling around the branches of every withered tree.
Gunnhildr, Venti, and Lupus stood at the edge of a forest clearing, waiting quietly. The snow crunched softly under their feet.
Soon, the air around them abruptly tensed!
A north wind, so fierce it could freeze blood and tear the soul asunder, materialized from nothing, sweeping toward the three of them!
Gunnhildr's clothes whipped about, Lupus's muscles tensed, and Venti's wings of light flickered in the gale.
However, the destructive wind deflected just an instant before touching them. It gathered and condensed, like living tentacles, carefully circling around Venti as if inspecting something.
A trace of ancient confusion was carried on the wind. Then, the biting north wind receded like a tide, and the oppressive feeling on the ground eased considerably.
A low, majestic voice, as if from the depths of the ice fields, sounded in the center of the clearing:
"Are you... prepared?"
Gunnhildr took a step forward, her figure unshaken by the wind and snow:
"Within the storm wall, all barriers obstructing freedom have been broken, one by one. Now, the only one who can be called the final enemy is Decarabian on his High Tower. We implore you, when we raise the banner of freedom, to use your full power to hold Him back, to divide His strength, and create an opportunity for us to decide the outcome."
She paused, then continued, her tone carrying an unquestionable promise: "If we ultimately fail in our act of deicide, we will still do everything in our power to create an opportunity for you to break through the storm wall! Please... do not give up on saving the people within the storm wall who long to breathe freely."
From the distance came a long sigh that seemed to have traversed long, lonely years.
"Very well. The disgusting rule of the fierce wind must end. My north wind will aid you."
Gunnhildr's tense shoulders relaxed almost imperceptibly. She had thought this negotiation would be more difficult.
"Venti, we should go." She turned to the wind sprite, then said to the silent youth, "Lupus, the remaining time is yours."
Venti flew a circle around Lupus, its wings of light flashing. "I'll be back to get you later!"
Gunnhildr and Venti's figures gradually disappeared into the wind and snow of the dense forest.
In the clearing, only Lupus remained, along with that omnipresent gaze.
Andrius's voice sounded again, seemingly closer than before. "Is there anything you wish to say to me?"
Lupus raised his head, looking at the formless existence in the center of the clearing. "Lord Andrius, I also wish to participate in the coming uprising. But war... is dangerous. I may never be able to return to this forest, to the wolf pack. So before I leave, I want to formally bid them, and you, farewell."
He rubbed his fingers, which were a bit stiff from the cold. "The wolf pack has no use for swords forged by humans, nor do they need fine clothes. So, I would like to offer the stories of my experiences among humans these past days as a farewell gift."
"Speak," the King of the North Wind's voice betrayed no emotion.
Lupus walked forward, found a large rock that had been swept relatively clean by the wind, sat down, took a deep breath of the cold air, and began his story.
He did not speak of the familiar hunting techniques or the cruel laws of survival within the wolf pack; those held no novelty for the wolf king.
His voice slowly spread through the silent forest:
"They weave some stories into unique rhythms, turning them into songs that are passed down from generation to generation. Some of those songs have soaring melodies, like a mountain eagle charging into the sky; some have low melodies, like a stream seeping into the earth. The lyrics mention oceans never seen, describe the trails of light from falling stars..."
"They are clearly very weak, their individual strength not even a match for the scrawniest deer in the forest, yet they will take up arms for people they have never met, people with no blood relation, and charge at enemies far stronger than themselves. Even when their chests are cut open and their blood stains the ground, their eyes remain frighteningly bright..."
"There, I think... I began to understand something called 'friendship' and 'responsibility.' It's not quite the same as the reliance among the wolf pack. It's more complex, and heavier, yet it makes one willing to bear it..."
He occasionally spoke of trivial matters: "The people of the Lawrence Clan once found a lot of grapes and left them in a clay pot, forgetting to eat them. After a long time, they found the grapes had rotted, turning into a jar of cloudy liquid that gave off a strange smell. But that smell wasn't disgusting like other rotting food; instead, it had a... peculiar fragrance. Someone couldn't resist trying some, and their body became light, their head grew dizzy, and they would laugh uncontrollably, forgetting all their troubles..."
He paused, and finally said in a voice that was almost a mumble to himself: "The fierce north wind can temper a tough hide, can shape the sharpest claws, can sweep away all obstacles... but it seems it cannot break open the soil to let a seed sprout, nor can it ripen the fruit on a branch and turn it into a liquid that makes one laugh..."
The King of the North Wind listened quietly, without interruption.
At some point, the biting storm that could freeze the soul had completely subsided.
Only fine specks of snow rustled down from the still branches.
...
Amos stood by the window of her chamber, as if she could see the area outside the city that had just experienced a bloody battle.
The resistance army had defeated the main force of the Mondstadt Knightly Order. This news spread like wildfire throughout the inner ring.
The nobles, as if their spines had been pulled out, huddled in their mansions, trembling.
A new order seemed to be within reach.
But a question swirled in her heart: Why had they stopped?
Why not press their advantage, wipe out all remnants of the old order in one fell swoop, and thoroughly establish the foundation of the new order?
What were they all waiting for?
Just as she was lost in thought, the sound of the wind outside her window, which had been steady, suddenly turned violent!
Immediately after, a cold and magnificent divine oracle sounded with the wind:
"My people! Andrius has ceased his attack, he must be brewing a greater disaster! To achieve a decisive victory and bring complete peace to Mondstadt, I will contract the storm wall and gather my divine power. In three days, I will fight a battle to the death with Andrius! All citizens of the outer ring are to move into the inner ring for temporary residence within three days. There shall be no delay!"
The divine oracle was like a giant stone dropped into the lake of Amos's heart, stirring up a tempest.
A final battle? At a time like this?!
The new order has not yet been truly established. My King's faith is still fragile and weak, even thinner than before!
My King's power is far from restored, nowhere near its peak!
To start a war now is extremely disadvantageous for my King!
This thought gnawed at her heart like a venomous snake.
She could no longer remain calm. Like a bolt of white lightning, she rushed out of her chamber, sprinting toward the towering High Tower.
The wind howled in her ears, but it could not blow away the anxiety and fear in her heart.
Before long, she was once again standing on the vast top floor of the High Tower, behind that figure who always had its back to her.
Her voice trembled from her hurried run and inner terror:
"My King! Now is absolutely not the time to go to war with Andrius!"
The King's figure did not turn in the slightest, and his hollow voice echoed in the grand hall:
"Andrius has ceased his attack. He must be accumulating his final strength, brewing a plot that can tear everything apart. I must be fully prepared for this."
She took a step forward, her voice hoarse, yet it rang out clearly in the space:
"No, my King, you are wrong!"
A deathly silence fell over the hall. Only the fierce wind whimpered outside the tower.
A moment later, the King's voice sounded again, carrying a trace of... what seemed to be introspection?
"Toward my subjects, I have indeed... made a mistake."
Amos's heart leaped! An incredible light instantly burst forth in her eyes!
"My King... He finally realizes?"
Immense hope, like sunlight, was about to dispel all the haze in her heart!
However, the hollow voice's next words were like a bucket of ice water, drenching her from head to toe:
"The mistake... was not crushing Andrius completely sooner, to eliminate the problem for good."
The King's voice carried a trace of belated "realization":
"By defending within the storm wall for so long, my subjects... they probably thought I was afraid, that I lacked the strength. So they felt fear, their faith wavered, and they no longer trusted wholeheartedly in the protection of my fierce gales. Such a misunderstanding must not be allowed to continue! I must immediately and thoroughly crush Andrius! I must let all my subjects witness with their own eyes that only my fierce gales are their one and eternal support in this frozen wasteland!"
The light in Amos's eyes was instantly extinguished, turning to dead ashes.
...
Again, she did not know how she left that High Tower.
Returning to her cold chamber, despair completely submerged her.
"Even if... even if the resistance army wipes out all the nobles now, what's the use?" she muttered to herself in the empty room, her voice dry.
"The inner ring... it's such a small place, how can it accommodate all the people from the outer ring? With reduced land and scarce resources, life will only be a hundred times harder than it is now! Hunger, crowding, conflict... the new order can't be established at all, it will only breed more, and deeper, hatred!"
"Let them escape?" The thought made her body tremble slightly. "But my King... will he allow them to leave?"
An even more terrifying thought, like a sharp claw reaching out from an abyss, seized her by the throat: "What if... what if they are pushed to the brink, unable to bear it any longer... and get the idea... of deicide...?"
This thought made her body turn ice-cold.
She wasn't sure if the people now possessed the power to kill a god, but she absolutely, absolutely did not want them to truly have such a thought!
If... if they really could do it... A soul-shuddering chill, like an ice pick, pierced through her spine, making it almost impossible for her to breathe.
"If not for my King... I..." She dared not think any further.
Without the back on which she had placed all her faith and existence, what would be left of her world?
Only a void.
Before her, there was not a single glimmer of hope, only the darkness of despair, so thick it could not be dispelled.
...
Meanwhile, in the production district, at the resistance army's granary base.
In stark contrast to the deathly silence of Amos's chamber, this place was bustling with noise.
Inside the vast hall, a sturdy wooden stage had been temporarily erected.
Below the stage, a dense mass of figures surged like a tide. The buzz of excited discussion converged into a drone that echoed under the high dome.
Every face was filled with the elation of victory and fervent hope for the future.
In the crowd, Coppelia found the bard, Kuris.
She handed him a small bag, carefully sewn from soft leather. The bag was heavy, filled with smooth, round stones of various colors. Their translucent quality made them emit a gentle luster in the torchlight, like real gems.
"Now, you can give them out, right?" Coppelia asked.
Beside her, Columbina said softly, "No one will snatch the children's gifts away anymore."
Kuris accepted the leather bag solemnly and nodded forcefully, a warm smile on his face. "I will personally deliver these 'gems' into the children's hands."
Just then, the bustling noise around them gradually subsided like a receding tide.
The three turned in unison to face the stage.
Gunnhildr was already standing on it.
At the left and right edges of the stage, two burly knights, with irrepressible, excited smiles on their faces, took a deep breath and forcefully pulled the heavy ropes hanging down!
As the ropes were pulled, a huge gray cloth behind the stage slowly unfurled upwards, like a stage curtain being raised, finally covering the entire wall.
On the cloth, a detailed map was drawn in thick black ink. It was a map of Mondstadt and the surrounding areas.
And on the left and center of the map, two conspicuous red circles marked out two regions.
Gunnhildr raised her arm, pointing to the red circle on the left. Her voice was clear and powerful, reaching every corner of the hall:
"Everyone, look at this red circle on the left! This is our so-called 'Mondstadt' within the storm wall today! For the past four hundred years, this storm wall may have once shielded us from the ice and snow outside, but now, it has long since changed! It no longer provides any protection, but is an iron cage that imprisons us all!"
Her gaze swept over every pair of eyes below the stage:
"In this cage, we are whipped and driven like livestock by the nobles! The grain we work so hard to produce is ruthlessly taken from us to fill their never-satisfied storehouses! Our children must endure hunger at an innocent age! Our loved ones can be thrown into a sunless prison for a single complaint! We are even... deprived of the right to look up at the sky and imagine the world outside the walls!"
Her voice suddenly rose, carrying a thunderous anger:
"And that tyrant on the High Tower, Decarabian! He is solely focused on maintaining his ridiculous and stubborn 'protection,' but has never lowered his 'noble' head to ask us what kind of protection we actually need! Has He ever heard our cries of hunger? Has He ever seen the scars from our whippings?"
She waved her hand forcefully, pointing at the sturdy rock walls of the hall:
"Look at the rock walls around us! Look at this land that has been eroded by the fierce gales for hundreds of years! His fierce gales can even cut through hard mountain rock! He possesses such world-changing power!"
Her tone changed again, filled with endless disdain and indignation:
"But what has He done? He only used this power, which is enough to shape mountains and rivers, to build us a sealed cage! A prison that has held us captive for generations!"
"Such power," her voice was filled with guidance and temptation, "could have done more! Created a real miracle!"
Her finger suddenly moved to the area on the map outside Mondstadt, marked as a frozen snowy plain:
"For example, using His divine wind to blow away all the ice and snow that has accumulated on this land for hundreds of years!"
Her finger drew an arc, pointing to the continuous mountain range surrounding Mondstadt:
"Then, level all the great mountains around Mondstadt that block the cold wind!"
Her voice was like a war drum, beating on everyone's heart:
"Think about it! By then, the deadly cold wind from the north will no longer be blocked and will sweep directly over this land! The vast snow will forever disappear from our homeland! Our children will no longer have to shiver in the cold winter, no longer have to worry about frostbitten fingers and toes!"
A huge, incredulous gasp erupted from the crowd below the stage, followed by even more fervent whispers.
A light that had previously only existed in dreams began to flicker in people's eyes. It was the desire for warmth, for safety!
Gunnhildr did not stop. Her finger moved to the east of the map, to the area representing the ocean:
"Not only that! When the mountains are leveled, the monsoon winds from the warm eastern ocean, full of moisture, will surge into this land without obstruction! They will moisten every inch of soil! Our fields will become incredibly fertile, grain will pile up like mountains, and fruit will hang heavy on the branches! That will be an unimaginable harvest and abundance! We will bid farewell to hunger, bid farewell to scarcity!"
"Oh—!" An even greater uproar erupted from the crowd. People's faces were flushed with excitement, their eyes blazing, as if they could already see that promised land flowing with milk and honey.
Hope, like a wildfire, burned crazily in everyone's heart.
Finally, Gunnhildr's fingertip landed on the iconic lake in the center of the map. In the lake, another red circle marked the island at its center.
"And here," her voice carried a sacred solemnity, "on the Wind God's Temple, we will personally establish a new Mondstadt! A free city-state!"
Her words were like an oath:
"There, there will be no tyrant perched atop a tower, indifferent to all! There will be no domineering nobles who exploit us to the bone! There will be no storm wall that deprives us of everything and imprisons our souls!"
"We can breathe freely, sing freely, go anywhere we want to go! We can choose our own labor, enjoy our own harvests, live peacefully with our loved ones, and let our children run and laugh freely in the sun, in the open fields!"
The crowd completely erupted! Cheers, shouts, and excited sobs converged into a tsunami that nearly tore the roof off the granary!
The vision of freedom had never been so clear, so within reach!
At this emotional peak, Gunnhildr pressed her hands down, signaling for everyone to be quiet.
On her face, the last trace of gentleness faded, leaving only the determination and resolve of a warrior.
"And just now, that tyrant issued his final divine oracle!" Her voice was like a drawn sword. "He wants to contract the storm wall, to forcibly drive all our compatriots from the outer ring into this narrow inner ring, to deprive us of even our last bit of living space! He wants, at this most unfavorable time, to fight a decisive battle that could bury everything!"
Her gaze, like a burning flame, swept across the entire hall:
"This is our last chance! We cannot sit by and wait for death! We cannot watch as our hope is strangled!"
She raised her right arm high, and with all her strength, issued the final call to arms:
"With the 'Windflower' as our signal! In three days, when the wind rises, it shall be the moment of our uprising! Crush the tyrant, tear open the storm wall, and take back all the freedom that is rightfully ours!"
"Freedom!!!"
"Freedom!!!"
"Freedom!!!"
"Crush the tyrant!!!"
"Tear open the storm wall!!!"
The deafening roars were like thunder, heralding the imminent end of an old era.
___
🔥 New stories are available now! 🔥
✅ Access up to 40 advanced chapters of ALL stories!
✅ Receive exclusive content and updates!
Help us hit our community goals:
🎯 100 Powerstones = +1 Bonus Chapter for everyone
🚀 180 MEMBERS = +5 extra chapters of ALL STORIES!
👻 P - Walnutchan