A contented hum resonated within Rax's Tier 5 core. Despite the limitations of the Tier 5 confinement, the return to the Empire's embrace filled him with a familiar warmth. More importantly, his confidant and friend, Primus – or Sanay de Roet, as he was now known after relinquishing leadership of the First Cohort – had survived alongside him. Relinquishing was being both polite and smashing five thousand years of temporal difference into one word.
Before the day's chaos commenced, Rax took a moment for introspection.
The initial weeks had been a whirlwind of adjustment. Adapting to the existence of a digital gestalt – a contradictory term that somehow encapsulated his complete essence condensed into a core – had been a disorienting experience. Yet, it was an apt description; this core contained everything that made him Raximus Janar. He yearned for the solidity of his physical form, but a firm belief persisted: eventually, he would wield flesh and encase his form with the comforts of the flesh once more. It was a matter of time, training, and practice, an abundance of resources now afforded by his newfound immortality.
He smiled. Tier 5 bestowed functional immortality, but his previous incarnation remained stagnant at this bottleneck without further insight or introspection. Now, his existence wasn't contingent on the core's physical safety. Even if someone attempted to overwrite his engrams, they would face him within his personal energy realm, a domain under his absolute control. Nothing in this universe could threaten his dominance within this new home.
His grasp of this realm evolved with every passing moment, his strength deepening with growing acclimatisation. External power outages and core disconnections didn't extinguish his consciousness, merely dimming it. He practised and honed his skills within his internal realm, a domain of his perfect and infinite control. The abilities accessible to an energy construct, while distinct from those of a physical being, promised equivalent power at Tier 5. His greatest frustration stemmed from having maxed out his current Tier, being power-levelled without the experience with his new skills and stats. Their nuances remained elusive. However, time, and in this case, compressed time, was all that stood in his way.
His initial anger and disarray upon being ripped from his body and thrust into an energy matrix had translated to some suboptimal interactions with his daughter, Raechina. Yet, he understood her grief and the sudden shift in circumstances she was grappling with. Her outbursts were forgivable.
Securing his engram's extraction from that backwater had been a time-consuming and treacherous operation. It had cost him significant concessions and an immense expenditure of energy. But such compromises were necessary for the greater good. The Drakes, Raechina—his daughter, now falsely claiming the title of Empress—and her Champion were naive, blind to the broader implications of their opposition to the Karass. They were difficult to maneuver around, so it had taken the best.
His new form could reconcile that while enemies in this current conflict were also allies in the larger war against more insidious extra-dimensional threats. If only they understood the true purpose of the Empire – the protection of the Writ secrets and the Throne. Reclaiming access to the Imperial City through Raechina and her newly acquired title was paramount. Despite his efforts and the invaluable assistance of Primus, no – Sanay, five millennia of habit died hard – and even the detestable Rulzoff Urd, they had made no progress.
Dividing his consciousness, Rax invested considerable effort into perfecting his avatar's appearance and mannerisms. His next audience with the Senate was crucial. While the System no longer recognised him as Emperor, his former title and current form still held considerable sway. Only three Senators held full knowledge of the truth, and they had been easily blackmailed into silence. This task was simplified by Primus' successful infiltration of the recovering Spurius Sittius Lepidus, enabling him to be then re-elected as Consul and leader of the Patrician faction. Spurius, despite the growing influence of the commoners, remained a powerful figurehead of the merchant's guild, holder of the highest non-imperial rank, and had a significant impact in cultural, educational, and even fashion circles. His brain damage had made him a convenient target for Primus' control.
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While lesser fragment dealt with those annoyances, within his inner world, where Rax reigned supreme, his primary energy fragment, or shard, sat before another being. Seeing Raechina's anger spurred a desire to connect with her mother. Locating her last known profiles had taken time, a task achieved through Primus' assistance. Now, they resided within Rax's realm.
"You must mend fences with Rach," the being began. "Headstrong and stubborn, yes, but aren't those the very qualities that propelled you from Tier 4 to 5? She did it under that mad trainer's tutelage and in less time than you took."
"Now, now, you know mending fences isn't my style. I have a reputation to uphold… as Emperor."
"Former Emperor, remember."
"Kammy, I am Emperor!"
"Just like I am not Kammy. Use Kamdyn, please, if you want to maintain the charade. You need ...her help, and Primus' too." Kamdyn finished, her voice laced with a hint of exasperation. "You were always prideful and impulsive in the face of beauty."
A smile played across Rax's energy form, a flicker of his former biological urges momentarily surfacing. "Now, Kamdyn, if we're maintaining formalities, it's Sanay de Roet. The current Primus is Xarius, whom I'm quite happy to have near my daughter, despite his dissatisfaction with the Senate and the Patricians. He's not quite a plebian supporter, yet he's definitely not in our camp."
Rax missed the flicker of annoyance that crossed Kamdyn's face as he focused on the subtle adjustments of her form.
"Of course," she conceded. "But you could do well to listen to him. After all, where would I be without his help?"
Rax, still distracted, didn't pursue the train of thought.
"I know, I know, we owe him," he muttered, the weight of the debt settling on him, yet the connections to the betrayal petered out, "Yet his timeline to enter the Imperial City hinges on both the Champion and the Empress being present. Thanks to our 'allies' interference, that's become nearly impossible to orchestrate. We need a catalyst to push them into action and delay the Warlord's stupidity. We can't entirely stop the planet's destruction, but perhaps we can slow it down. By the Ruins of the First Collapse! What was he thinking, eighteen units? That's two centuries of energy wasted on obliterating a single speck of a planet! Five is considered planet-busting; ten would damage the core beyond repair, and eighteen… would cripple the entire energy matrix and weaken the dimensional barrier. Shit."
Kamdyn listened intently. "Indeed. What does he gain from such destruction? Nothing. The Karass have removed one of their strategic advantages without our intervention."
Once again, Rax was waylaid by a strategic adjustment of Kamdyn's short skirt, failing to question her sudden understanding of political complexities that seemed at odds with her original personality.
"We can exert pressure on the Writ to summon her," Rax resumed, formulating a plan. "It'll require further negotiations, and maybe we can lessen the pressure on… "
This time, he couldn't miss the glint of interest in Kamdyn's eyes. "But those are secrets reserved for the Imperial Family," he continued, a hint of formality returning to his voice. "Even now, I feel the remnants of my oath restricting such information. Regardless, I shall ensure the Writ summons Raechina and her bumbling Champion. I believe he's lost somewhere, yet the Writ should be able to compel him to attend."
"Yes," Kamdyn replied simply and with a hint of triumph.
Meanwhile, in a grand chamber within the Imperial Senate – a testament to the de facto leadership held by Spurius – the man himself sat upon a throne-like chair, a mere ten per cent of his shard dedicated to the current meeting. The remaining ninety per cent were focused on maintaining control over Kamdyn, a task made exponentially more difficult by her primary drives, which, even as an energy matrix, were potent enough to derail his control mechanisms with their sensual allure. His foremost objective remained to ensure Raechina, Sarah, and Luke were in the same vicinity at the Imperial Palace. The irony that his present form had a history with Luke and that Rulzoff Urd also sought vengeance against him added a layer of intrigue to this elaborate ploy that surpassed even his wildest imaginings and made up for his millennia of suffering.