Teresa and Vritra stood in the underground hall of the Star family, and somehow the surroundings were rather chilly.

Snow had covered the floor even though this place was completely sealed off.

First, Vritra opened the gate of the divine realm as all his wives came out and were equally shocked.

"During the whole time I have stayed on this continent, I have never once seen such cold weather." Vanessa mumbled.

"Yes, this doesn't seem normal. What could have happened after we left?" Maeve, as the owner of the world information centre, possessed more information.

"Let's go out and check, I wonder how long we have been away for…" Vritra spoke, this level of cold was not a problem for them.

The group walked towards the exit, Vritra just passed through the door along with his wives because of the dimensional book.

After walking up, they finally saw the state of the continent.

A thick layer of snow covered everything, the air was literally freezing.

Snow was falling, Vritra gazed towards the sky in surprise, along with the snow something else seemed to be falling as well.

Stretching his hand, he caught something and looked closely.

"Spores?"

"Yeah, and these spores are everywhere." Yasmine too observed them, tiny spores filled the air, looking quite similar to snow.

"Why is there no one around though? This is one of the top families, how could this place feel so vacant?" Fiona spoke, everyone seemed to be locked up in their rooms.

"Let's first check how much time has passed since we left." Diana took out a communication glyph and contacted someone, then with a slightly surprised expression she spoke:

"It's almost been six months…"

Thankfully, the time gap wasn't as drastic as Vritra imagined, then how could this place have changed so far?

Beside him, Teresa wasn't wearing her veil right now, but her appearance was still hidden because of misty essence.

But all of Vritra's women except Yennefer, of course, had already seen her true appearance, and weren't surprised that she was said to be the most beautiful woman to exist.

COUGH COUGH

Just then, Maeve coughed, her eyes narrowing in confusion.

"Foxie, are you okay?" Vritra looked at her and noticed that the tiny spores might be harmful.

With a snap, he created barriers around all of them, keeping the spores away.

"Yeah, I suddenly felt a faint burning sensation in my throat." Maeve mumbled, but the spores weren't dangerous enough to kill anyone in a short time.

"Let's go to Charm City and see what has happened in the time we were away." Vanessa suggested, and so the group flew towards the City of Charms.

The whole continent was covered by a thick layer of snow, barely anyone could be seen outside right now.

Even the crops wouldn't grow in such weather and animals' survival would be difficult, it was like an apocalypse had descended.

People with higher levels were still fine, but normal people were having it the hardest.

While looking over the place, they soon arrived at the City of Charms and didn't see any guards standing outside.

It was just impossible to stay out in such weather for too long, even generals might get affected.

The defence formation and other things were still working perfectly fine, but they passed through easily.

Vanessa first arrived in the palace hall but found it completely empty, then decided to meet Layla in her house.

They quickly arrived outside her house.

KNOCK KNOCK

Vanessa knocked and waited, soon a voice sounded from inside: "Who is it?"

"It is me." Vanessa replied, her aura was hidden so Layla was unable to sense her.

"Oh Empress, you are back!!" In the next moment, the door was pulled open, as Layla appeared before them.

She was wearing several layers of winter clothes, but had an excited smile on her face.

"Ah, you all are here, please come inside." Layla stepped aside and gestured to the group.

Vritra nodded towards her, they knew each other from before.

Soon, Vritra and six of his women were seated inside with Layla, drinking warm water.

"Empress, where have you been all this time? W- We thought the Golden Moon had done something to you, it's almost been six months!"

Layla asked, handling the kingdom was quite difficult without her.

"I was trapped somewhere and was only able to come out now. Anyway, tell me, what has changed in these six months?" Vanessa asked, setting the glass down.

"There is a lot, I don't know where to start…" she mumbled and sighed, before beginning with her explanation:

"Well, the Grant and Trant families are gone, so now there are only three powerful families. Golden Moon has taken charge of the entire continent in the absence of the human empress, Diana Arclis.

The Twilight have been wreaking havoc, turning the bad condition into worse. As for this winter, no one really knows about it, it suddenly started to snow one day and hasn't stopped for months now."

After speaking everything in a single line, she paused and added: "I am sure you have noticed these spores too, these are harmful but we still don't know how they will affect everything.

But things have only gone worse in this time, there have been various attacks from the demon race recently, and another mysterious group has been attacking our kingdom, the Phoenix Kingdom, and the humans."

Diana, Fiona, and the others listened to everything silently, their expressions turning grim.

The situation was worse than they expected, and there were things that Layla wasn't even aware of since the connection to the outside world had been cut off for some time now.

Everyone was busy protecting themselves.

Diana tapped over the table with a frown on her face, then spoke: "I will first go and take charge of the kingdom back."

"Yeah, well, it is time we deal with the Golden Moon, they have enjoyed peace for quite long already. Now it's time for payback." Vritra added, they had attacked him for absolutely no reason, he had done no wrong.

Now that they had gotten so much power and control, it would be even more fun to break them.

"Okay, let's first deal with the Golden Moon, then we will solve one problem at a time." Vanessa said, as she thought nothing could ever be peaceful when Vritra was there.

'I wonder if it is because of the approaching trials or maybe someone is responsible for this change? The demons? Twilight?' Vritra pondered, but there were no answers.

Such cold weather and the spores certainly weren't normal.

But before heading to the Golden Moon, they decided to go and check on their respective kingdoms.

Vritra too wanted to check the Yate family and tell them he was alive.

"Oh right, let's check out our new house first, it can also open direct portals for us." Vritra said as he took out the toy house.

"But where are we going to put it?" Fiona asked.

"Let's make it float, Master, our majestic house will be flying above the continent!!" Maeve said, just imagining it made her feel great.

"Alright, let's check it out then." Vritra and all his women flew out, Layla stayed behind but was curious to see their new house.

The house itself had the ability to fly and it could keep floating without the need for any energy source.

Vritra let go of the house and flew back as it began to grow rapidly.

❖❖❖

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