FALLING SKY
The location was the territory of the Constellation Bow Alliance, more accurately, that of the Tarius family.
The Constellation Bow Alliance was one of the weaker organizations, at least compared to the Spirituals Religion, the Void Palace, or Shield Cross Stars. Originally, the Tarius family was a powerhouse that stood toe to toe with the Morales and the Suiards, but after losing the Bow Domain Ring, their strength plummeted in the coming generations.
In order to stave off this downfall, they brought together their subordinate families, many of which were branches formed by Tarius family members that had married into other families, and formed a single alliance behind a single Bow Constellation.
The result of this was their influence remaining relatively the same, although far more spread out. It was a sacrifice that allowed them to maintain their power, but it was still a sacrifice. The Tarius family of today could no longer do as they pleased, and the loss of Nazag, the youth meant to carry them back to their true prosperity had caused them to hit rock bottom...
Until he suddenly came back.
This should have been a joyous occasion, but the elders of the Tarius family didn't feel that way at all. In fact, they were very wary.
The timeline matched up, they had just sent an envoy to pressure the Morales family, and an envoy that would have had the backing of all the most powerful families and organizations of the Human Domain as well. They received reports not long afterward that Leonel Morales had been enraged, stolen their warships, and then kicked their people out, which had caused a delay in the message.
But then soon afterward, Nazag returned home...
It all lined up. According to the reports Leonel had acted on his own and the elders of the Morales didn't have a chance to stop him. It made sense for them to take this course of action as a peace offering to buy themselves more time. But...
These old men and women were very experienced, and they hadn't forgotten Leonel's abilities. Namely, they were worried about the Cloud Race infiltrating their ranks.
Exposing a Cloud Race member when you were unaware of their existence was impossible, this was a technology of scope the Human Domain didn't have. However, when you had a suspicion, exposing a Cloud Race member was incredibly easy.Material © .
And so, while pretending like they welcomed him back with open arms, the Tarius family had actually trapped Nazag and began to test him ruthlessly. But to their shock... or maybe their relief, it truly was Nazag.
His soul was the same, his body was even stronger than it had been in the past, and he seemed to have even gained a sort of enlightenment, coming back with a more powerful momentum than he had in the past. It seemed that he had taken the loss to heart, but not enough that it would affect his future advancement and it filled the hearts of his father and the elders with pride.
...
Marcello Tarius stood before his son, a beaming smile on his face.
"It's good that you're alright, it's good," his eyes glistened with unshed tears but he held back. Both he and his wife couldn't possibly be bundles of emotion. Even now, Theresa Tarius refused to let go of her son, holding onto her tightly.
It had been hard for the two of them these last few days. They had understood the intentions of the elders, but they also wanted their son back. At the same time, they didn't want to treat a member of the Cloud Race as their own flesh and blood as that would only hurt more. It could only be said that they had been greatly conflicted in recent days, and they couldn't be happier now.
Nazag smiled. "There's no need to worry, mom, dad. I've learned from this, I'll only come back stronger. Leonel Morales released me this time, but next time, I'll make sure he'll regret giving me this opportunity."
Marcello nodded firmly. He wanted to slap his son's shoulders, but his wife was in the way and he could only settle for a hearty laughter instead.
"Nazag," Marcello suddenly said, getting serious. "We'll be going to war soon. Although I don't want to put you in danger so soon after you've returned to us, there's no other choice. The Constellation families and much of the Human Domain have already decided to make a move on the Morales. We must be swift and surgical, you'll get your revenge very soon."
Nazag nodded. "When will we move out?"
Marcello grinned with pride seeing his son's eagerness. If Nazag had shown any hesitation, he would know that his previous bravado about learning from this loss had been nothing but a façade. But now, he was certain his son had come back stronger.
"The war preparations are already finished, however the date of attack hasn't quite been settled yet. We need a sudden and swift attack, one that deals the Morales a devastating blow. Their momentum right now is far too fierce and we need to knock it down several levels before we take any further course of action. Families like the Morales and ours have extremely deep foundations. It's easy to deal a blow, but it's much harder to eliminate them from the roots. If we act, we need to do the latter."
"Understood, father! I'll be ready."
"Good. Now go off, Elder Moody is waiting for you. I and your mother have our own part to play, and as do you. You are in the Seventh Dimension now, you have responsibilities-"
BOOM!
Marcello never stopped speaking, but it might as well have been as though he had. The cacophony of sounds was so vicious and violent that all noise aside from it was washed away in a tsunami-like tide.
The expression of the entire family changed and they rushed out onto their large balcony, looking up into the skies to find that it felt like it was falling.