Roxy remained on the grand Matriarch’s balcony for hours, entirely content to watch the beautiful, overwhelming chaos unfold below her.

She was the absolute heart of this empire, and from her elevated vantage point, she could clearly see the magnificent tapestry of the life she had built.

She watched the fierce, disciplined Vanguard guards elegantly coordinate the massive influx of visiting nobles. She watched Kaelen stepping in to mediate a particularly tense stare-down between a visiting Wolf Pack Alpha and a proud Tiger Lord, utilizing his freezing, stoic authority to keep the peace. And she watched Tanith completely dominate the organizational pavilion, commanding respect from Warlords five times her age with nothing but a slate board and an icy glare.

Occasionally, a minor pup-scuffle would break out near the edges of the training fields—a young swamp serpent hissing at a rowdy wolf pup, or two feline cubs tumbling into the dirt in a flurry of teeth and claws. When the visiting guards hesitated, unsure of how to discipline foreign nobles without inciting a diplomatic incident, Roxy would simply raise her hand from the balcony. A soft, firm pulse of her transmigrated core—a gentle, Matriarchal wave of calming, terrestrial authority—would wash over the grounds, instantly defusing the territorial aggression and sending the pups scattering back to their respective tents.

She was soaking in the sheer, undeniable magnitude of the Vanguard. They had survived the Heavens, and now, they were thriving.

As twilight began to settle over the territory, the massive braziers were lit, casting a warm, flickering orange glow across the freshly constructed combat arenas. The main events were officially scheduled to begin at dawn, and a heavy, expectant tension hung in the air. The noble children were being corralled into the dining pavilions for their evening meals, entirely exhausted from their day of fierce preparation.

But not everyone was finished training.

Down near the northern edge of the tournament grounds, away from the bustling pavilions and the watchful eyes of the elite guards, a massive, tiered wooden grandstand had been erected for the royal viewing of the final matches. It was an architectural marvel of thick Iron-Wood timber, entirely empty for the night.

In the shadows beneath the towering structure, two toddlers were entirely unsupervised.

Young Zale, the merman-shifter hybrid, and little Fedor, the fiery-red Kitsune infant, had spent the entire day watching their older siblings train. They had watched Axel and Onyx move with lethal precision. They had watched Tyara charge into the mud with terrifying feline strength.

The two youngest Vanguard pups wanted to practice, too. They wanted to show the visiting nobles that even the toddlers of the Iron-Wood Manor were not to be underestimated.

Zale waddled up to the massive wooden support beam of the grandstand. The little merman-shifter planted his small, webbed feet firmly into the soft spring earth. He squinched his luminescent eyes shut, his chubby face scrunching up in intense concentration. He threw his small hands forward, intending to summon a small, impressive puddle of water or perhaps crack a tiny fissure in the dirt to show Fedor his elemental prowess.

At the exact same moment, little Fedor hopped excitedly onto his hind legs. The Kitsune kit’s fiery-red tail swished aggressively. He wanted to help Zale’s practice. He wanted to make the tiny puddle look like a massive, terrifying ocean. Fedor yipped, unleashing a raw, unfiltered burst of trickster magic—the chaotic, reality-bending power of the fallen Fox King—directly into Zale’s spell.

The result was an absolute, catastrophic miscalculation of physics and divine magic.

The two volatile, raw powers violently collided. The trickster illusion didn’t just amplify the water; it forcibly ripped the elemental magic from the earth itself.

BOOOOM.

The sound was absolutely deafening—a concussive, explosive shockwave that shattered the evening quiet and sent a violent tremor rolling across the entire festival grounds.

A massive, localized geyser of super-pressurized water and heavily compacted earth violently erupted from the ground directly beneath the wooden grandstand. The sheer, overwhelming force of the elemental explosion completely obliterated the heavy Iron-Wood support beams.

Timber shrieked and snapped. The massive, tiered structure groaned, tilted violently to the left, and then completely collapsed in a spectacular, roaring cloud of dust, splinters, and raining mud.

Silence instantly fell over the Iron-Wood Manor. The cheerful chatter from the pavilions violently ceased. The music stopped. Every single Vanguard guard drew their weapons, completely expecting an assassination attempt or a sudden invasion.

Up on the Matriarch’s balcony, Roxy violently gasped, clutching the stone railing. Her heart leaped into her throat as she saw the massive cloud of dust rising from the northern edge of the arena.

Down in the wreckage, the dust slowly began to clear.

Young Zale was sitting entirely flat on his bottom in the mud, his mouth hanging wide open in absolute, stunned shock, entirely covered in dirt and completely unharmed by the falling timber.

Beside him, little Fedor was trembling violently. The massive explosion and the terrifying collapse of the giant wooden structure had completely overwhelmed the Kitsune infant. He didn’t look proud of his practice. He looked absolutely terrified.

Fedor flattened his oversized ears against his head, tilted his small, fiery snout to the sky, and burst into loud, pathetic, and entirely heartbreaking tears.

The sound of his crying instantly snapped Roxy out of her shock. She didn’t wait for the guards. She didn’t wait for her husbands. She hiked up the heavy silk of her dress and practically flew down the grand staircase, her maternal instincts completely overriding any concern for her own safety.

"Fedor!" Roxy cried out, rushing across the ruined grass.

She reached the wreckage just as the five Alpha Kings, having instantly teleported or sprinted from their respective locations, converged on the collapsed grandstand. The Warlords were heavily armed, their combat auras blazing with lethal, protective fury, entirely ready to slaughter whatever enemy had attacked their territory.

But there was no enemy.

There was only a completely obliterated, heavily engineered architectural structure, a massive, smoking crater of water and earth, and two tiny, terrified toddlers sitting in the center of the destruction.

Roxy dropped to her knees in the mud, completely ignoring the dirt ruining her dress. She scooped the sobbing, fiery-red Kitsune kit directly into her arms, pressing his trembling body against her chest. She buried her face in his soft fur, shushing him gently, rocking him back and forth to soothe his terror. She reached out her other hand, pulling a stunned, entirely bewildered Zale into her side, incredibly thankful that neither of them had a single scratch.

"It’s okay, my sweet boys," Roxy murmured, kissing Fedor’s head. "You are safe. I have you. It was just an accident."

Above her, the Vanguard Warlords were entirely frozen.

Zarek, Kaelen, Torian, Syris, and Caspian stood at the edge of the crater, staring at the sheer, undeniable scale of the destruction. They looked at the massive, splintered Iron-Wood beams that should have been impossible for a hundred grown men to break, let alone two infants who hadn’t even reached their fifth birthdays.

They had spent the entire afternoon placing arrogant wagers on the tactical prowess of the older siblings. They had completely forgotten that the two youngest Vanguard pups possessed the combined, unadulterated power of the deepest oceans, the heaviest earth, and the chaotic magic of the trickster gods. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝙬𝙚𝓫𝒏𝓸𝓿𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝙤𝓶

The Alpha Kings looked at the crater in stunned, absolute silence. The realization hit them simultaneously: if this was what the toddlers could do by accident while "practicing," the actual showcase tomorrow was going to be utterly, terrifyingly explosive. The visiting packs weren’t just going to be impressed; they were going to be absolutely horrified.

Slowly, the heavy, stunned Warlord silence was broken.

Kaelen, Zarek, and Syris slowly turned their heads, their eyes locking directly onto the King of the Southern Seas. Zale was Caspian’s biological son, and Fedor’s trickster magic had entirely weaponized the aquatic elemental power.

Torian crossed his massive, heavily scarred arms over his chest. The White Tiger Alpha looked at the completely destroyed grandstand, then at the stunned Leviathan King, his feline eyes wide with absolute, unapologetic awe.

"Well," Torian rumbled, his voice cutting through the quiet night air with heavy, profound realization. "Now I know the reason why the sea and the earth were estranged for millennia."