Chapter 300
Mahu stood, her voice losing its mocking edge. "The world is falling apart, Björn. We need answers, and you might have them. So let me be very clear: I will break you if I have to, but I will not let you die here. Not yet."
The cold light of her moon intensified, wrapping around Björn like chains, binding him to the ground. Björn, in his madness, roared as his muscles bulged and his height grew. The chains vibrated, struggling to hold him in place.
Mahu watched the struggle but knew she had to act Immediately. Extending her hand, she placed it on Björn’s head, invoking her divinity of motherhood.
Björn’s body stilled under Mahu’s touch, his raging divinity momentarily subdued by the ancient, comforting feeling that radiated from her. The cold light of her moon, once harsh and punishing, shifted into a maternal warmth. For Björn, who had known only chaos and war since his ascension, this feeling was alien, but in this moment, it felt undeniably right.
His muscles, which had been bulging and growing with unrelenting fury, began to relax. His eyes, which had burned with the fire of insanity, softened. The roar that had been echoing in his realm faded into a quiet, almost childlike whimper. Mahu, with her hand still resting on his head, exuded the essence of motherhood, an echo of the abyss that Björn had been severed from.
Mahu’s expression hardened even as her power soothed him. She wasn’t here to grant peace or respite, and Björn’s weakness wouldn’t last long.
"You’ve lost something, haven’t you?" Mahu whispered, her voice laced with both understanding and cruelty. "Something essential. You’ve become a shadow of what you once were."
Björn’s mouth opened slightly, but no words came out. His body remained bound by the cold chains of moonlight, yet his mind wandered into the abyss that Mahu now mirrored. For a moment, he was no longer the warlord consumed by madness but a demon longing for the only comfort he had ever known.
But Mahu had no intention of letting him stay in this state for long.