Kyriall directed Aiden to a side path, and Kinnai followed silently, remaining a comfortable distance between them. A blackwood door opened to reveal a pathway lit by dim greenfire torches. The shadows cast were strange and flickered in ways Aiden had never seen before. They contorted against the light, trying to shrink and flailing in exaggerated pain the longer they remained in the light.

He followed Kyriall with mild trepidation. Being left with the immortal didn’t raise any warning flags he should be watching out for. If anything, being around Kyriall felt oddly refreshing.

They ascended a swirling set of stairs that felt both short yet way too long. By the time a new door came into view, dizziness assaulted Aiden. It didn’t take him long to figure out what exactly was causing the strange effect.

He didn’t feel the connection to Blizzy as strongly as he normally did. Apex Predator had stopped defending him against Kyriall’s intoxicating aura so aggressively, relegated to a more passive defense.

Aiden hadn’t noticed the difference, but seeing as he’d come this far already, he wasn’t going to start raising hell about the change just yet. It did give him some concern about the dynamic between Blizzy and Kinnai’s existence that he’d definitely be questioning the immortal about.

Kyriall pricked his thumb with the nail on his forefinger and drew a thin line of blood from the top to the bottom of the seemingly ordinary door’s middle. What once was a simple door became so much more, vivid runic depictions lighting the door in vibrant hues of red, orange, and gold.

Instead of a new room, a portal awaited them.

“Don’t be afraid, Aiden Pearce,” Kyriall said, gesturing for Aiden to enter. “I need you alive and free more than I need you injured, incapacitated, or anything less than fully functional.”

“As much as I’d like to take your word on that—”

Kinnai huffed a lock of silver hair out of her face and pushed through the middle of both of them, then stepped through the portal. It enveloped her, then she disappeared. A bright shining glint appeared on the door.

Fondly running his hand across the door, Kyriall sighed. “A great masterpiece, made into something so damnable. I never should’ve agreed to the demands. If I did not hold the position I do, then my soul would be damned for eternity for what I’ve allowed to happen.”

Without further elaboration, Kyriall stepped through the portal after Aiden. Not wanting to be left behind and having no earthly idea how to get back even if he wanted to, he took a deep breath and followed Kinnai and Kyriall through.

What awaited on the other side was something familiar.

“Is this the Orrery?” As far as he could tell, the central node in the middle was exactly the same. The attribute altars, the starry sky, the spherical orb of liquid Essence—all of it was as he knew it to be.

Staring at Aiden with incredulity and wonder, Kyriall licked his lips. “You… know of this place, Aiden Pearce?”

“Should I not?” From what he could tell, everyone had an Orrery. Nothing about it seemed all that special, though he could have made countless assumptions about a thing here or there.

While Kyriall stared at Aiden like he was a unicorn, Kinnai pranced around and giggled. She looked like a kid should and not like some great being of Chaos who would desire chaos to reign across the world or for Leyla to suffer needlessly as someone cursed with a fate of great suffering.

It didn’t make sense, didn’t sit well with him to watch the display in front of him and think of harming what appeared to him simply as an innocent little girl. Then again, the world of deities, immortals, paragons, and all the other in-betweens didn’t quite process.

The world in which they lived was inconceivable, an existence so far out of reach from his own that he couldn’t even begin to understand the greater machinations at work.

Even now, standing in what looked like an exact replica of his Orrery before his Awakening, he failed to understand what his part to play in all of this was.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” he asked Kyriall, genuinely curious. He’d thought the Orrery was just a metaphysical place, but seeing it here and now, he truly wondered if he’d been a bit hasty to try and make sense of the things he’d been faced with since the world went belly up. “I wonder…”

He approached the central node and rested a hand against it. Even before he’d touched it, energy began to flow through him and into it. Once his hand touched, everything changed. The stars erupted in a brilliant nova that blinded him.

The simple sky became that of a whole galaxy. The central node looked like the current, updated version he’d created with the help of Leyla and his Awakening.

“I’m getting the feeling something isn’t quite so simple,” he muttered, turning back to Kyriall who watched him in stunned silence. “Cat got your tongue?”

Again, Aiden watched Kyriall’s appearance visibly change. What had shifted from dignified and lofty to weary and disheartened became rejuvenated, vibrant, whole.

“You’re even greater than I thought.” Kyriall held out both of his shaky hands as if to touch Aiden, his eyes gleaming with a fervor that was a bit creepy. His voice even held a hint of reverence. “You’ve been coming to this place before your coupling was blessed?”

“That’s… what I said, yeah. What is this place?”

Kinnai chimed in for Kyriall. “Home!”

“I’m not sure what that’s supposed to mean…” It would be a lie if Aiden said he wasn’t getting slightly frustrated by the absolute lack of clarity. The more and more he learned, the less he knew and the more mysteries he was presented with that didn’t seem as if he’d ever get the answer to.

The Immortal Father opened his mouth, then clamped it shut hard enough to rattle his teeth. A grimace flashed across his face fast enough that Aiden almost believed he’d mistaken ever seeing it.

“I… am incapable of saying. My apologies, Aiden Pearce, but you must find the answer to that on your own. All I can say is that this place is like no other, a place even the gods wish to access,” Kyriall said, helping shed very little light on the confusion.

“I’ll take your word for it then,” Aiden grumbled. “So if not to tell me what this space is, what was the purpose of bringing me here?”

“Even Halla is being monitored by Valhalla and spies from the assembly of deities that wish to usurp the One of Truth’s mandates. This,” Kyriall spread his arms wide, indicating the strange realm Aiden was realizing wasn’t as simple as he thought, “is Nebulus.”

Now that rang a bell. “Huh.”

To be sure he wasn’t incorrect, he attempted to access his status. Rather than getting the screen in front of him as he usually did, it displayed in huge detail like a hologram over the central node. The relevant information was exactly as he’d expected, though he didn’t expect the slew of notifications that came with his inquiry.

Mystery of Crystallization, Seeking the Nebulus

Path evolution prerequisites met.

Commencing Path evolution…

The entire not-Orrery shook and shifted as the evolution began. The galaxy above expanded to an even greater length, fully filling every space outside of the hemispherical platform-like space they occupied. Though, even that space didn’t remain as such for long.

Expanding outward to dozens of times its current length, the platform then wrapped downward and out of sight. Were Aiden to hazard a guess, they’d actually be standing on a spherical object, something similar to a mini planet.

In addition to a heightened sense of vividness with a greater scope and expanse, everything felt far more real, harder, as if given genuine substance.

“I’m just gonna stop questioning things,” Aiden grumbled, crossing his arms and waiting for the process to complete.

…

The central node grew twice as big, the strange geography atop replicating a very familiar mountain city with a star-like glow shining from where he knew the throne of Midrath to be.

…

Then the central node grew again by half. Just as before, there was a dimmer star on a tiny spherical object. With one look, Aiden could tell the dim glow belonged to the Authority of Earth.

Path: Mystery of Crystallization, Seeking the Nebulus has successfully evolved into Greater Path: Truth of Crystallization, Inheritor of the Nebulus

As with previously when he’d gained the Blizzard Discipline and ate Midrath’s blizzard, a slew of notifications assaulted him. They mentioned the application of his path to his abilities and how they increased by at least a single rarity grade, if not two, and evolved into a semi-similar but different ability.

As that happened once recently, Aiden vowed to himself to practice with the new abilities he’d received in order to properly gauge his abilities before he made his way to Valhalla. He was currently running with an unknown assortment of abilities, and he constantly had a pending notification about a new Mastery selection and oodles and oodles of refunded Essence from cannibalizing his three Disciplines into one.

There were upgrades promised in the near future, though he’d already experienced many already. He likely couldn’t even compare his current self to himself from a week ago, even without the Mastery and big pile of Essence to dump into his various skills—assuming he even had any that had survived through the cannibalization process.

“That… was oddly useful.” He turned to Kyriall. “So what is it you brought me here for?”

“W-well, yes, business.” The Immortal Father cleared his throat and tried to still his shaking hands, but the fervor in his eyes and radiant glow of excitement buzzing off him like static made it difficult for Aiden to buy the attempt.

“First, whatever claim you have on Leyla, let it go. Whatever her prophetical duty as the Trinity means, screw it all. You can’t have her.” This was a hill Aiden would gladly die on.

“You are bonded with the approval of the One of Truth. When that happened, there was no longer a claim to her soul.” Kyriall waved away Aiden’s concerns and regarded him as if he was dense. “That goes without saying. The creator’s will supersedes all mortal and ‘divine’ intervention. You both could disappear from this conflict entirely, and nobody would be able to do anything about it.”

Noting that down for another time, maybe one after he’d completed his goals, Aiden nodded. “Thank you for being honest with me. Now, I’ve been informed each Authority requires the completion of a mission from the holder to transfer possession of it. Not only to seal the influence of the Upper Realm but also to complete a mission given to me by my Patron, I will require your Authority—and Xenith’s.”

“This is accurate. Whoever your source may be, they are quite knowledgeable.” Kyriall gestured toward Kinnai. “Let’s say I’ve hedged my bets quite a while ago. You’ve been pursuing the conditions of transference for my Authority ever since you first learned of my existence.”

Raising a brow, Aiden regarded Kinnai and thought of when he’d defeated the school’s boss and received Blizzy as a reward. “I’m not following. Please elaborate.”

The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

“To understand, context is required. But what I’m telling you is a big secret,” Kyriall said, holding a forefinger to his lips and winking. “Stays between us and the other relevant parties.”

“Sure, I guess. Not sure who I’m supposed to be telling your grand secrets to anyway, but yeah. That’s easy enough.” Aiden was, admittedly, quite curious to know what kind of secrets someone with an Authority, the conductor of souls, and the manager of the underworld, would have to keep safe and quiet from others.

The uncanny similarities between everything related to beings that were supposed to be above mortal scrutiny and a drama filled sitcom about snotty brats in highschool hurt Aiden’s brain and gave him a nagging headache.

“While she is part of the Upper Realm and resides there, Tiamat isn’t truly a goddess. She is but isn’t. Similar to your Patron, she comes from a time predating the splitting of the world. She is worshiped by dragons everywhere, but she is simply the first dragon created by the Lifebringer,” Kyriall began to explain. “She is also the commander of all monsters, being the greatest of them all.” He placed his hands behind his back and paced back and forth in front of Aiden as he continued. “Belief is a powerful thing, you see, and the worship given to her by both dragons and monsters created a binding position she can’t escape.”

“That sounds terrible. Coming from the epoch sounds less and less like a good thing the more I hear about it.” Suffering from success wasn’t a feeling Aidne knew until he’d entered the system. To imagine something even greater by many magnitudes and for a time span he could barely comprehend… He didn’t envy Tiamat, that was for sure. “So how does all of this play into Blizz—I mean Kinnai?”

“To be frank, Tiamat and I are lovers, and Kinnai is our child. Your companion, Blizzy as you call her, is to be the successor of the monster empress position. Completing the succession would free Tiamat of her shackles and allow her to slip away from the Upper Realm.” Kyriall turned and pointed at Aiden. “This is where you are of utmost importance. Setting Khione free will remove the Upper Realm’s chances of using her. With her freed, Tiamat and I may elope to another world entirely, breaking free of Ithalon and the great history we have here.”

“See, even if the realms are united under the collective of all the Authorities and the Upper Realm is kept in check and the deities there can’t do anything to create a mess of things, who will remain to govern Halla?” Aiden asked, glancing towards Kinnai. “Surely not her? Wouldn’t she have enough responsibilities to manage on her own with all that comes with being the monster empress—or whatever the actual title is?”

“Don’t fret. We are not so shortsighted or impatient to leave the afterlife in dire straits with our departure. While Kinnai is tasked with managing monsters, her sisters, Ariveth and Esan’Arul, have been studying for several thousand years to be able to take mine and Xenith’s mantles and handle them with great care and efficiency.” Kyriall almost seemed smug as he readjusted his glasses slightly to sit farther up his nose.

Aiden held up both hands, making a pause gesture. “You’re telling me you're going to leave the Trifecta, who are known as Harbingers of the End, in charge of some of the most important positions in the realm?”

“They gained those titles when they were far younger,” Kyriall said, sheepishly turning away. “And I may have had some hand in them receiving them.” He huffed. “What gaudy titles those are, anyway. Triplets being called the Trifecta? Being given such judgmental titles like Progenitor of Devastation and Champion of the Apocalypse? Sure, they are bright kids who regularly test the realm’s security measures to great length and with wildly varied degrees of success, but those? They’re just too harsh. Ariveth is a good tactician, sure, but she’s still a novice mastermind. And while Esan’Arul is powerful and decisive, she’s not all that powerful in the grand scheme of things. Her cruel streak is quite impressive and effective, but does that really deserve being called Champion of the Apocalypse?”

Watching an immortal go on a long tangent about the injustice of titles given to his daughters was not the day Aiden had expected, but he couldn’t deny that it was greatly amusing and made them all seem a lot more… human. Real.

“And my poor Kinnai, being called the Inheritor of Chaos. She’s the youngest and a little less developed than her sisters, but that makes her unique in such a beautiful way. She might be a little inclined to do things a bit random and questionable from time to time, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t a subconscious genius behind her choices!” He raised a fist at the galaxy above them. “And any of those false gods that want to keep running their mouths can come to my domain and take it up with me personally!”

“Everything I know is a lie,” Aiden muttered, smacking his forehead. “This isn’t real, is it? It can’t be.”

“I’ll have you know, all three of my daughters are precious sweethearts, and I won’t hear anything else saying otherwise.” Kyriall planted both feet, stomping hard, and crossed his arms, glaring at Aiden. “If you wish to slander them, then we’ll have to end our discussion here, Aiden Pearce.”

Aiden stared blankly at Kyriall, wondering where the dignified immortal who’d first been present when Aiden stepped through the portal from Halla went. He contemplated ever having children if they had a chance to change his outlook on life so drastically, not that he’d been considering having any in the first place.

“That’s not what I’m saying. I’ve simply heard a lot in regards to them, though I have to ask. The coupling you mentioned that was blessed by the One of Truth, my other half suffered greatly at the hands of your daughters as the Trinity prophesied to be doomed to a fate of violence and anguish. I would love an explanation for that,” Aiden asked, crossing his arms to mimic Kyriall and glaring back equally as fierce.

“They told me about that. But herein lies the curious truth about trials and tribulation, suffering and overcoming, challenges that act as hurdles on our path of personal growth… If she was not the way she was, would things not be very, very different for both of you? Is she not the way she is because of what she has been faced with and overcome? And is her strength, her character, not what draws you to her?” Kyriall’s eyes gleamed knowingly. “We can either choose to be victims of the lives we lived or choose to embrace them, to find a path forward in which we thrive.”

“Sounds like a lot of excuses to me,” Aiden grumbled.

“Call it what you want, but adversity creates strength. You won’t find a single immortal or paragon that hasn’t suffered at the hands of the Upper Realm in order to pursue their own destinies. What cannot be controlled then becomes a threat to those who seek power, and the Upper Realm as a whole hates all that cannot be controlled.” Kyriall shrugged. “And they too have experienced great hardship to get to where they are. That is simply life for any thing that lives, to overcome our suffering.”

“Whatever your ideology is, as long as you leave Leyla alone, we can continue discussing business.” As much as he wanted to refute Kyriall’s claims of adversity creating strength, Aiden and the first wave of those that were transported to Midrath were perfect examples of exactly that. If he tried to argue further, he’d simply be making himself look ignorant and incompetent. While he wasn’t a genius in school like Olivia, he wasn’t a fool. “Where were we?”

“To summarize, Kinnai must succeed Tiamat’s position as monster empress,” Kyriall recounted.

“Any clue how to do that?” Specifics didn’t seem to be any deities strong suit, and they were the very thing that Aiden needed the most.

“Could you please bring up your Companion status. Now that you’re aware of the hidden quest, it should be less hidden.” Kyriall gestured toward the central node and Aiden’s status floating there.

Blizzy (Soul of Kinnai, Inheritor of Chaos)

Race: Blizzard Dragon

Growth Stage: Young

Attunement: Blizzards

Body+: 70

Mind+: 55

Soul: 100

Hidden Quest: Succeed Dragon Goddess Tiamat as Monster Empress

Required Maturity: Ancient

Current Maturity: Young

Her attributes had increased in the short time since last he checked. Aiden noted that and thought about what he had to do. “I’ll need more information if I want to even come close to making this work,” Aiden said, internally groaning.

“How many levels of maturity are there for dragons?

“Wyrmling is first, which she’s clearly passed, usually takes five years. Her current maturity,” he gestured toward Kinnai, “young, usually continues until the age of one hundred. On their hundred and first birthday, they’re acknowledged as adults. That goes until they’re eight hundred, then they’re qualified as ancients.”

“And I have to get her to the point she’s an ancient dragon before I can claim your Authority?” Aiden stared at Kyriall blankly.

“Sure do.” He shrugged and continued his explanation about dragon maturity, not that Aiden needed to hear more, “Most dragons don’t see another maturity stage pass this, unless they’re a higher ranked race, then they become greater wyrms at the age of one thousand six hundred and one. These races are effectively immortal and carry some genes from the epochal dragons, those like Tiamat,” Kyriall explained, winking as he finished. “But she has been blessed not only by Tiamat but myself too.”

Feeling the signs of a coming headache, Aiden sighed. “What do you mean they’re acknowledged? And what does changing maturity levels do for a dragon?”

“Good questions,” Kyriall said, nodding approval. “Being so deeply in touch with the magic of the world, their evolution involves a lot of… magic. Magic that isn’t even truly understood by us deities—well, maybe Tiamat knows, but if she does, she isn’t sharing. As for the maturity bit, there’s a qualitative change in a dragon’s magic, a magical evolution of sorts, and a significant boost in intellect for when they reach a new maturity.”

In short, dragons were insane the older they got. Aiden could only imagine what Tiamat must be like.

“Out of curiosity, what would Tiamat qualify as if she’s been around since the epoch?” Aiden idly asked as he tried to process how in the hell he was supposed to advance Blizzy so much in such a short amount of time if he wanted to finish Khione’s request before he died of old age—if that was a thing he could even do anymore.

“Only she knows,” Kyriall said, deflecting the question. “As for how you’ll go about reaching your goal before an eon has passed, you continue to do what you’ve been doing. You’ve had Kinnai as your Companion for but a few months, yet she is already developed to the stage of being halfway to adulthood.”

“Yeah, but that’s months of effort for something close to sixty years. To get her to become ancient, I’d need her to develop more than ten times that much.” He sucked on the inside of his cheek as he considered what he could do. “This is impossible.”

Kyriall wagged a derisive finger. “What you’ve done is quite impressive if you consider that you’ve only used the passive growth boon placed upon Kinnai by Tiamat. However, there are three boons, and you’ve yet to explore two of them as options. I’d even say you haven’t explored the extent of what my lovely Tiamat has offered.”

Before Aiden got into the rabbit hole of eking out any amount of details from the infuriatingly selective immortal, he couldn’t help but envision an inconceivably large dragon hugging Kyriall and accidentally snapping his spine.

The thought made Aiden smile and gave him the strength to begin interrogating the immortal. “Elaborate.”

Kyriall pointed at the central node and floated up until his finger poked each blessing. “First,” he pointed at his pointy teeth, “I am a vampire and have blessed Kinnai with vampirism, though not the impure kind that imbues an insatiable need for blood upon lesser vampires. She can drink blood from enemies and gain power that way.” He held up a finger. “But this is where Tiamat’s boon overlaps. The passive boon of increased growth means all energy is far more effective, however, Kinnai can also grow from eating magical flesh—or anything magical at all.”

“So you’ve given me a dragon that’s essentially a foodie. Feed her until she explodes or evolves sounds like the solution,” Aiden summarized, groaning. No wonder Blizzy had eaten so much and grown so fast in such a short time and was always looking for more to eat. Her stomach was essentially a bottomless hole of power conversion.

Aiden couldn’t lie. He was a little jealous, though the idea of eating raw monster flesh curbed that jealousy to a minor envy quickly.

“Pretty much!” Kyriall nodded enthusiastically. “Our little Kinnai will catch up to her sisters’ development and be suitable for the position in a portion of the time it took. They’ll no longer pick on her as the slowest of the three!”

“I didn’t realize that was an issue.” Aiden couldn’t keep up with the eccentric oscillation of serious to doting father to energized fanatic. Kyriall was certainly a large personality, though Aiden couldn’t imagine remaining sane after thousands of years. “But there’s another issue then.”

Kyriall floated back down to the ground and returned to pacing with his hands behind his back. “And that is?”

“There isn’t enough on Midrath. I’ve tried feeding her the greater hydra, but it dissipates to respawn before she can even try—as do almost all the monsters on Midrath.” It hadn’t been a big problem at the time and had been more of a whim of curiosity when he’d tried, but having Blizzy eat them worked as much as having her chomp down on air and hope for power.

Not at all. Maybe if she was an air dragon instead of a blizzard dragon?

But she wasn’t.

“Simple, you have to go to Valhalla to collect the authority there.” Kyriall raised a finger to point at the third boon from Laovi, God of All That is Wholesome. “Your Companion, Blizzy, is created of two souls. One is Kinnai’s, the other is that of the dragon you’re familiar with. Because of the soul of a saint given to you by Laovi, Kinnai is also able to consume and grow from both the infernal energy of Halla and divine energy of Valhalla.”

It took but a second for Aiden to get the implication. “You want to have Blizzy go on a feeding frenzy, eat a bunch of people, and consume their blood, flesh, and divine energies so that she can evolve and free you and Tiamat from your duties?” A bemused whistle echoed through Nebula. “The two of you have really thought all of this through. Color me impressed.”

“Don’t be so surprised. This isn’t the first time we’ve tried to escape our bondage. There have been countless failures, giving us more time than I care to think of to perfect a plan.” Kyriall stared at Aiden hard. “Well, almost perfect. You are the unknown variable, even if the strings of fate determine you to be the most capable candidate to see our mission completed.”

“No pressure,” Aiden deadpanned.

“If it makes you feel any better, any being that’s in Halla or Valhalla is corrupt and has sinned unforgivably. Any soul that hasn’t been permanently tarnished is placed in the cycle of rebirth,” Kyriall said, shrugging. “Nobody will miss any of the souls from either realm. Except maybe Xenith. She’s always had somewhat of a vindictive streak and is very selective in the type of terrible she allows around her.”

“Something about that unsettles me.” The idea of his precious Blizzy, so innocent and not at all a feral dragon created specifically for the purpose of consuming countless lives, going on a great purge in both sectors of the afterlife left him deeply concerned about the ones who created the plan in the first place. “If your Authority requires me to complete Tiamat’s mission, what then does the Authority of Valhalla?”

“Simple. Valhalla is the afterlife not of creatures who have done good in their life but are addicted to battle. You simply have to beat Xenith at her own game,” Kyriall said, grinning devilishly. “It will come with opportunities for all who survive, but as we spoke of previously, adversity creates strength. Taking command of Xenith’s Authority is a simple task, but in its simplicity lies the danger.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Honorable combat, gauntlet style.”

“Go figure.”