Eden's POV

I took a gasp for air as I finally climbed back into consciousness and flinched from the pain in my chest.

"Please young man, stay still even though the wound is healed, there are still some torn muscles and internal bleeding." a woman spoke as her hands glided over my chest.

I glanced at my surroundings and from the looks of it, we may or may not be in a sort of torture room which was very disturbing. Another thing was the smell, it wasn't from the woman she smelt like a rainforest. It was the room that smelled of stale blood and lots of tears were in the air. I then glanced at the woman over me, and I was struck by her beauty.

"Um. Thanks for healing me." I finally said.

She smiled, "Your welcome child. I am not the best, but your god had asked me to heal you, and I couldn't refuse. Also, I want to help in any way I can to save my family."

"Family?" I asked.

She glanced at me through her messy hair and I could see that she was on the verge of tears. I panicked a bit, I shouldn't have asked that- that was a personal affair and I was a stranger to this woman.

"I have had a shameful past, one that I can not take back but simply accept it and try not to repeat. But I must ask this of you since I have failed as a mother to raise my youngest to the point he doesn't even know me. Over the years you have known Tsubaki, how has he been?" she finally looked me in the eye as she asked her question.

"Tsubaki? What do you want to know about him?"

"Does he have a healthy social life?"

"Well I am not his only friend, he has several. Dakota, Star, Lily, Caroline, and others too. But.." I paused.

"But what?" she beckoned me to continue.

"We barely see him. To be honest, other than when I saw him this week. I hadn't seen him for 6 whole months before when it was my birthday and I invited him to a party. I was the first to arrive to travel to our friend's coronation- and while he was changing I saw that he had bruises and new scars. He must have been beaten while I wasn't there."

I felt something wet come into contact with my exposed chest. I looked to see the woman trying to hold back her tears- from time to time raising her hand to wipe away the tears only for her eyes to water once more. Her gasps were the thing filling the room and I felt saddened by her expression. She didn't even know who Tsubaki was but was crying for him. I took an elbow getting up a bit to properly face her and rested my other hand on her shoulder.

"But that is just fine because I am going to save Tsubaki from this. Once this entire event blows over, Tsubaki will be free from his abusive father and everything will be wonderful and happier for him."

"I am glad that he has friends like you by his side- especially with a cowardly mother such as myself leaving him behind for my pride."

I felt my eyes widened, "Mother?!"

She looked back at me, quickly clearing her tears, "Oh yes, you don't know, my name is Hun Wang-Yan and I am the banished Empress of the Hun Empire. You must take me for a very selfish woman to run away from my problems the way I did but it is justified although not humane."

"You are alive?"

"Of course I am. I just went under a different name after my retreat."

"Who else knows you are alive?"

"Doesn't everyone know I am alive?"

"I heard you died after childbirth. Tsubaki, history books, and others told me. You died after giving birth to Tsubaki. Tsubaki thinks he was the cause of your death, why his father hates him so much. You are alive, omg Tsubaki will be so happy. Now he can't blame himself anymore."

I was practically screaming at that point but I had to stop when I felt a sharp pain in my abdomen area. I quickly laid back on the ground and she got back to work on healing me properly.

"Such great news. So good."

"I didn't know that man hated me to the point he pretended I didn't exist anymore."

"Why did you come back here anyway?"

"I was forced to be here. They thought I was stealing the powers before they found out it was Tsubaki."

"Oh, I am sorry to hear that. You must have left out of fear for your life so it is fine. When this is all over you just have to explain it to Tsubaki and his siblings if they don't know it yet."

"But would they accept me back though? I have been gone for so many years."

"Every child deserves both a mother and a father, some don't even get the chance to meet one of the two. Please don't deprive them of knowing you are alive, that will make them feel even worse than the first time they heard of your death."

She looked down at her hands for a while, and all I did was lean back and closed my eyes. It was a way of giving her space and privacy for her thoughts. I needed time to process my situation anyway. If my senses aren't messed up it seems like it is soon time for mass gathering south-east of where we are. And if I remember correctly that is the Fenix Temple where they will hold the transformation ceremony. So I needed to get there and try to get them to stop what they were doing.

"I am done."

I opened my eyes again and promptly sat up facing her properly. Moving my waist, hips, and arms to make sure everything was functioning and didn't pain me to move- there was a lot of fighting up ahead.

"I will do it- I will make my presence known once more- not just for myself but for my family. Especially Tsubaki, he might have only seen me in pictures before."

"I am glad of your decision. And guess what I will help you. I am Tsubaki's friend after all." I gave her the brightest smile I could.

She chuckled which led me to blink at her, "Do I have something in my teeth?"

"No, you just seem so hyperactive compared to the stories I have heard about Tsubaki."

"Well, our friends do call us the polar opposite."

She landed in a full-blown laugh which made the air around us seem less dark and heavy than it was before which led me to release a laugh of my own.

"But being serious now, your god said that we need to get to the ceremonial grounds and slow down the process of what that old man is trying to do."

"Change in plans?"

"I told him that there is a way for him to surely get him a win in this scenario. We just need to wait until he comes back with the rest of the main family"

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go."

"Wait, we can't go outside. Most likely they will be littered with guards."

"You are right, oh no, what do we do? If we go out there and a fight ensues then they will attack us full force which would make us end up at square one."

"I have a better plan."

She grabbed my hand and led me to the door, quickly looking outside then dashing to the other end of the hall which prompted me to follow her. She started to knock her knuckles against the wall which made me confused for a bit. But then I heard a hollow knock and she smirked pushing the stone leading the walls to open up to what seemed like an underwater tunnel.

"So cool. I didn't know these could exist."

We quickly ran in once we saw the walls beginning to close. When the doors closed up I saw her clasp her hands in front of her then pushing outwards making a blast of shockwaves wash over the tunnels. I looked at her again and saw her eyes dripping blood.

"Oh no, are you ok?"

"I am fine, just haven't used my abilities in a while making me a bit rusty. This way."

She jumped across the small river in front of us and went down a tunnel.

"We are taking the underground tunnels to the inner part of the Temple. The sanctuary room where all this madness will take place."

"We are going to need a structured plan if we want to do this right. You have spatial awareness so that's good."

"It isn't necessarily spatial awareness, I am just reading the heat off of objects to get a feel of where they are. There is a lot of heat down here so I can use my powers to map out the tunnels."

'That's pretty useful."

"What is your power?"

"Illusion"

"So you can make an Illusion of anything."

"No, I have to look at it first, then I will have to hide because it is tiring."

"Good enough. With both our powers I believe we can stall them long enough especially with this plan I have thought of."

"What makes you think that?"

"Because we have the element of surprise and trickery up our sleeves."

"I like where this is heading."

~~~~~~

Lord Lang's POV

I was scanning the lands to locate the main siblings as I tried to imagine their magic powers as the Empress told me.

'Lingjiang has a calm, silent but strong magic that when you touch it, you feel how powerful she is. Peru has strong magic too but you are going to see he blocks his magic from coming out so he might be harder to find but when you do you will be immediately wrapped in his soft flows of power. And Ruoqiu is a hyperactive one, she doesn't control her powers rather expands it around herself to make her look fiercer to people but other than that she is harmless if you don't get her on her wrong side.' the empress smiled as she chuckled.

I opened my eyes once I found them, they were all asleep which was better for me. I closed my eyes once more, bringing my left-hand parallel to my body and my right hand vertical in front of my face. Quickly pushing my right hand out, opening my glowing eyes.

"Connect" I spoke and immediately I brought them into a spiritual realm before me.

"This is so cool, isn't that right Mr Snuffles" a girl with a bunny in her hand exclaimed.

"What is this place?" another girl with a snow coat over her spoke- isn't it spring?

“Are we in the spiritual realm?" I looked at the young man that asked me the question.

"Yes, it is. Fear me not, for I am a god asking for your aid." I spoke.

"You don't look like our god, so who are you?" Ruoqiu I think spoke.

"I am Lord Lang, better known as the god of the Wolf Empire."

"Your name translates to the empire's name. It sounds so lazy." Ruoqiu laughed.

"Sister is nice to the god, you don't know what he is capable of. Especially since we are floating so we don't have good footing." Peru spoke up.

"What do you want from us Lord Lang, I am sure you have other things that are more pressing than just simply summoning us to have tea?" Lingjiang asked first.

I smiled, "So to the point, we are now, well I must say within my right I should make up for lost time so I shall ask this once then quickly explain it to you. It is your choice."

"Depends what it is?" Ruoqiu asked.

"If I were to tell you that there is an internal turmoil going on as we speak and you were summoned to a hearing by your goddess. Who would you save: your father or your brother?"

"Both families stick together."

"That is not an option, for you see your younger brother Tsubaki is being forced to give up the empire's powers because your father doesn't want him to be the next ruler. Your goddess is angry and says choose: which one shall live and their wish be granted and which shall die. What would you do?"

"So my hunch was right then Tsu is in big trouble." Peru winced from where he situated himself.

"And where is Pan-an in all this?" Lingjiang questioned.

"He is under mind-control. Also, your mother is there too."

"Mom?!" Ruoqiu screamed.

"Mother died, she can't be alive."

"Oh but she is."

It can't be true. It can't be"

"Yes my dear, it is true and knowing this, I shall ask you once again if push comes to shove and you have to choose between your brother or your father. Who would you sacrifice to die?"