The Untamed: Game of Hearts
Chapter 259: The Internal Strife

Chapter 259: The Internal Strife

At the secret facility of Marcus’s undead army project...

"Well, that takes care of that."

Aspen dusted off his palms as he looked on at the devastation he and Danos wrought at the god-forsaken undead facility. Everything had been utterly destroyed, his unlikely partner having let himself loose and shredding any and everything that crossed his path. Glass and fluid littered the floor, with broken vats and pipes hissing all throughout the area as they walked towards the exit.

"That’s it?" Danos scoffed, shaking a bit of fluid off his hand as he walked by Aspen’s side. "I expected something more, to be honest."

"The intel we got didn’t exactly put in any specifics," Aspen replied. "All we knew was that the abominations in this place had the ability to kill us if we weren’t careful."

"Well, we were plenty careful," Danos laughed. "This so-called werewolf poison didn’t even manage to stop us!"

Aspen sighed. As much as his partner would like to admit it, the man almost died after accidentally biting down on an unsuspecting zombie. Thankfully, it didn’t seem to have that much of an effect on the Elder, but seeing him spazzing out on the floor for a few minutes didn’t help his nerves as he suddenly found himself defending alone for the two of them.

"It was only luck that some of the zombies didn’t have much in terms of poison in their system," Aspen recalled. "We didn’t manage to find out if some of them had the complete poison in them, but it’s a moot problem anyway."

After all, they’ve pretty much killed any and all undead that they could find. If there was anything still alive in this facility, he’d probably commend it for its tenacity.

"Exactly," Danos scoffed. "Nothing’s left here to kill. Let’s just get back to the topside and see what our King’s up to."

Shrugging, Aspen found himself lagging behind as he trailed behind his partner. He didn’t know if everything worked out on Nathan’s side, but seeing as they weren’t being swarmed by reinforcements, he’d take it as a good sign.

***

Back at Yue Mansion Garden...

"We should wrap things up here."

Nathan let off a discerning look as he eyed the aftermath of their attack. With everyone swearing their loyalty to him, there was no need for their entire army to stay in what was essentially a secure territory.

"Decan, I want you to gather our forces and retreat back to the Convel Society," Nathan ordered, his eyes still surveying the landscape as he spoke. "Make sure that everyone’s settled with the changing status quo. I’ll be here seeing to the affairs of the Moon Clan for the time being."

Hearing his King’s words, Decan nodded, "Of course, my King."

Seeing their retreat, the former King rounded up their forces and ordered them to retreat back to friendly territory.

"The war is over!" Decan called out. "Let’s return back to Society territory!"

***

The retreat had been a silent affair. There weren’t a lot of complaints thrown around, but Decan could tell that some sentiments of dissatisfaction were starting to gain traction with some of the more fervent members of their group. By the time they arrived in the safety of their territory, the more vocal of the bunch was starting to get anxious with how they seemingly threw away a prime opportunity to completely quash their opposition.

"We should’ve killed them all while we had the chance!"

"They’re defenseless! We can’t let them regroup and attack us again!"

Decan let out a sigh as he found himself standing in front of what was ostensibly the entirety of the Convel Society.

"We should be out there killing them all right now!"

"Are we just gonna let them take their time and allow them to strike back!?"

With each shout of disapproval, the louder it got in Decan’s ear as more and more people joined in for the chants. It was clear that a lot of them were upset at the so-called wasted opportunity, even if it was pretty much obvious that they’d already won.

Still, he couldn’t let this go on any further. "Silence!"

His voice echoed out with the strength of a former king, his once-subjects all looking at him in cautious deference as they waited for his next words.

"King Nathan had officially declared the war to be over," Decan bellowed out. "With him taking the throne of the Moon Clan, they are now de-facto a part of the Convel Society. As such, I won’t have you all clamoring for our new allies’ demise."

A round of murmurs filtered across the entire area. Some of the detractors seemed to have retracted their statements, but there will still be some that wanted more explanation.

"If that’s the case, then shouldn’t we have killed the Moon Clan Princess?"

"Yeah! That red-eyed bitch can still claim the throne for herself!"

Decan fought the urge to sigh as he quickly rebutted, "There will be none of that. Raine is King Nathan’s bonded mate. She is already marked, and there will be nothing that she can do to lay claim to the Moon Clan’s throne."

Technically, she could always just take it for herself while still letting Nathan run things for her, but he wasn’t going to give anyone any ideas.

"What?! The King is bonded to the enemy?!"

"They are no longer our enemies," Decan stressed out. "As I said, the Moon Clan is officially under King Nathan’s control, and they are now our allies."

The former king almost rolled his eyes as he still heard a bit of opposition still trying to take form. But from the looks of things, it seemed that the worst of the troublemakers had quietened down from their constant howling.

"You’re all relieved of your duties. Feel free to disperse."

And with that, the army that once stormed the Moon Clan had disappeared, leaving Decan alone in what was once a formidable sea of men and women. Letting out a sigh, he looked up to the moon in relief.

"That’s one major problem out of the way, at least. Now, onto the next one..."

Cause there was no way that integrating the Moon Clan into their fold was going to be a smooth transition. No, the internal strife was surely just beginning.