Draphen reached toward Jade, as Jade reached toward Draphen. Their hands clasped together and the king pulled his arm in as hard as he could, flapping his wings as powerfully as the aerial appendages could manage as a gravitational avalanche descended all around them.

Jade's eyes closed and Draphen swore the woman spoke an admission of love for him and their son, but in the desperation of trying to flee with all of their lives held in Draphen’s fingertips, he was forced to ignore a declaration he’d wished for every day since he’d last seen Jade.

“Hold on,” yelled Draphen as the world stretched around him. Streaking afterimages left in the air with every flap of the king’s wings made it hard for even the blind king to use his impeccable senses to navigate. A literal stuttering of time caused by the malformed gravity around them confused his inner eye, and caused a doubling of vision Draphen had never experienced in his life.

He drew on the primal energies that frequently thrummed through his blood. He’d normally suppressed the power, but knew he needed to use everything he had within. He could not fully transform, knowing that he would lose control, but knew that if he didn’t do more, he would lose the woman he cared about more than his own life.

Never again!

The storm of gravity caused the air around Jade to ripple with meteors made from pressure that boomed outward from where Arson had just been. Jade was glad that she’d recently increased the runic barriers around the warehouse her son was using as his base of operations, as the windowless building now protected his growing workforce just barely, but enough that no harm would come to the orphans within.

Jade was unable to open a portal no matter how hard she tried, as the last use of her power had left her drained in a way she hadn’t experienced since her own young adult life. It was not normal for her to have to depend on another to make decisions, or depend on the power of another, yet oddly enough she felt comforted by just allowing a moment of powerlessness to force her to drop her guard and let another step in. In the chaos of that moment holding her son, while being held by his father, she felt whole, even as the sky attempted to crumble around her.

“By my dominion,” came Almarine’s voice spreading through the air as a second hand of mana was summoned above the previous creation the woman had made. One seemed to hold up the sky itself, separating the land below as the only barrier between the planet and the rip in the realm, as the other dropped from the edges of the atmosphere like the will of the Maiden, threatening to smite everything it touched.

The two hands clapped together, and a wave of force spread across the edges of the skyline above, completely dispelling the imbalance of energy created by Arson’s power, and in an instant silence returned to the dump and the surrounding area.

No longer being effected by the torrent of energies, Draphen’s struggle to stay upright in the air caused him to fling himself downward, as he was unable to discern what direction was up or down.

The family of three crash landed moments later, and as Draphen sighed with relief, slowly unfolding his wings from around Jade and his son, Jade’s laughter reached his ears and the man frowned.

“What could be so funny at a time like this?”

Jade looked around at the destroyed villa and back at Draphen, shrugging slightly before resting her head back on his chest, uncaring about the breach of boundaries set by their current circumstances. She didn’t care who the man belonged to, just that she wished for the moment to never end.

“Don’t worry about it,” said Jade, lifting their son up slightly for Draphen to see, even though the man had already taken in his every detail multiple times since they’d landed already, and spoke to the king that she wished she could share her life with, simply and without hesitation.

“This is Arson, future Sovereign of all Skies.”

…

Almarine watched the family from a distance and couldn’t help but smile. She wished to approach and wrap Arson in a hug of her own, but knew there was a time and a place for her own required affection to be given, knowing that the deed would be far more rewarding if the boy could return the hug.

Knowing this made her ponder on what could be done for the boy, and the only action she could think of was a ritual that had been done for both her and her siblings as children. The blood ritual would be dangerous, but no more dangerous than what Arson had just survived. So the woman spoke softly into the minds of both parents, trying not to find amusement in both of the young cultivators jumping at her penetration of their minds.

“It is time for us to do what needs to be done,” said Almarine, watching as the parents of her favorite grandchild rose to their feet, nodding in confirmation of her mental commands.

Far above in the air, Almarine shared the details of the blood ritual, showing both parents mentally what needed to be done. Jade took the time to cut open her palm and design a ring of intricate runic circles around Arson’s body on the floor of the destroyed villa. While Draphen cut open his own palm to fill a bowl, Jade pulled from her spacial inventory to make the second ring that enclosed the first, as well as half the third ring, which would use the blood of both parents.

Once completed, both parents would pump the rings of runes full of their mana, while Almarine would also intervene with her own blood and mana to finish the ritual.

This trinity of power being fused was all that Almarine could think of to jump start Arson’s mind, and was her last hope. Yet something tickled the Ancient woman in the back of her mind as she saw the design of the runic ritual from far above, feeling as if the runic circles hadn’t looked like the symbol for the Original Sun as they now did surrounding Arson, completely different from the design that once surrounded her in her own adolescence.

She felt as if she should step in and stop the ritual at this sight alone, yet Arson’s eyes filled with the realm that was Endless earlier that day within the limits of his soul, provoked her to move forward in a way that made her feel possessed. Pushed to do the task before her, as if fate itself had forced her to take her next actions.

A small portal opened up beside her, and a summoned hand of mana holding Almarine’s own diamondlike blood was sent through, reappearing with the celestially infused essence of a titan just above Arson’s crown. A drop of demonic phoenix blood, and a drop of elemental dragon blood were dripped next to her own life force, held in the palm of the hand made of mana; the materials refused to mix at first, until the pressure brought on by the ritual and the cyclone of Arson’s crown’s natural absorption joined the blood to be one, pulling the dangerous combination of various primordial energies together perfectly, before the crown drank the mixture in.

In the next moment a series of portals tore open in the sky above the ritual. All the gateways expelling energies foreign to the realm. Mixtures of creation and destruction, yanked forcefully from their homes to synthesize a new eternal power never before seen within the realms.

The sound of thunder boomed throughout the air and Almarine prepared herself for what she believed was to come. Only to be surprised when the storm that was created above Arson’s body, far in the sky above him, brimming with dangerous manas pulled from realms abroad, did not in fact strike him, but his crown instead.

The power of tribulation energies formed the most intricate rune Almarine had ever seen before in the sky above, and came down in an impressive multi colored lightning strike, as Arson’s crown experienced a tribulation, saving the young man’s body from the experience. The absorption of the crown was so powerful that neither one of his nearby parents felt a single tinge of the power, not even a single spark escaping the ritual circle as the symbol of Origin flared to life before their very eyes; brilliant enough that even Almarine’s Ancient eyes couldn’t handle the magnificent illumination that spread across the setting night sky.

The energies finally died down, and though Arson’s chest could still be seen rising and falling, he did not wake, causing the three that looked upon him to experience a sadness that none expected to feel.

There is nothing else to be done…

The thought echoed audibly through the sky involuntarily pushed from Almarine’s mind. Her own sadness mirrored within Arson’s parent’s as all three shed unwanted tears and heartache.

Almarine closed her eyes in disappointment, teleporting herself home no longer wishing to witness the emotions on the faces of the parents left with the silence after the ritual. Almarine cursed the heavens at yet another child lost by the pursuit of power and majesty, that Cultivation filled every entity with. Her revenge would be had, and Arson’s life was just another amongst many that she would one day claim retribution for.

I will find you, and I will end your selfish reaping of souls…

Almarine would return to Endless. She would find the maiden. She would find Origin, and she would end the lives of the entities that fed on the living, and one day bring the end to the cycle of souls.

“By your name I promise you…”

…

Jade felt her power return, and with a wave of her hand the villa that had been destroyed recreated itself in a matter of breaths. Walls and rooms reformed. Broken objects collected their pieces and returned to the tables they were stationed upon. Lush carpets grew like grass from the floor below, and even chandeliers swung momentarily caught by the sway of the realms rotation.

Draphen gasped as he watched a painting seemingly repaint itself, as Jade’s power made the canvas spread with paints in a way that made the vibrant manas moving through the air visible to his senses.

Jade walked to Arson, lifting him into the air with telekinesis into her own arms, walking away from the man she wished would stay, but knew that he would not. She spoke softly wrapped in a sensation of defeat that she’d never felt before, unable to separate her emotions from her thoughts.

“Thank you for trying. I will let you know if anything changes,” Jade said, not daring to look back at the king of the realm layer. The man behind her opened his mouth to speak, but the words went unheard as she closed the door behind her.

She strode to the door in the guest hallway with the title, my beloved, etched across the door, placing Arson on the bed within. No longer wanting her son to sleep within a pod for any reason. Only wanting complete comfort for the boy she felt she’d let down.

“Be at rest my son, for your friends need you, your realm needs you…. I need you.”

…

Jasmine sat within the office of a low level RaidCorp executive. As one of the most prominent companies in the realm, she couldn’t imagine why they would need the services of a up and coming no name organization like Arson’s own, but relished the opportunity to work with any and all successful entities.

At first she’d waited for someone to read her offer, waiting in the lavish lobby of a building in the silver sector of Maelstrom. She’d entered with the assumption she’d go no further than the entryway. Then she was surprised as an attendant pulled her along, taking her to a manager of the building, which was promising enough for Jasmine to believe she was doing something correct on the long list of ideas she’d had recently.

The manager read through the contract, and after mumbling to himself about the details listed for the services, Jasmine found herself once again pulled higher up, in regards to both the levels of floors in the building, and the chain of command.

This continued for the majority of that day, and finally she found herself sitting across from the woman in the highest executive position in the building itself, looking out the beautiful view that the top floor of the office offered, waiting for the woman to finish reading. Jasmine had been nervous at first, but after all the various managers she’d met that day, and all the hands she’d shaken, she felt herself becoming accustomed to the auras of the powerful people she was conversing with, trying more and more to adopt the same prominent demeanor that they all had.

The woman looked up and smirked at Jasmine before nodding. A feeling of annoyance flickered through Jasmine’s mind as every other manager had done the same that day before they took her to the next person in charge, but at long last a decision was made.

“We have a massive laundry requirement that we would like for you all to take on, have you heard of our amusement park for Cultivators called the Coliseum?”

Jasmine nodded and the woman continued.

“Well, our staff there is massive and we do have laundry on site, but even with a devoted team to clean everything there, the city sized amusement park is still vastly larger than the few hundred thousand clerks and service operators can handle, but if you and your teams can really manage to do all of the laundry we can’t handle and return it all in a day as your service claims, and at this remarkable price, we can completely devote that same laundry staff to complete other duties and make it so that they merely have to disperse the clean clothing you all complete, reducing not only the tasks we pay them for, but their work loads entirely,” explained the woman. Jasmine nodded, feeling slightly worried over the magnitude of the job, but also felt that if she didn’t try to handle the contract, someone else would, namely Mr. Kim, who’d blacklisted Jasmine and all associated partnerships she had from working with Alister Industries ever again.

“I take that as your acceptance of our contract and requirements?”

The woman nodded and a ping of the accepted contract rang on her flatscreen, only for her flatscreen to immediately begin to ring in her pocket. Jasmine stood shaking the woman’s hand before she quickly turned and exited the office, pulling her flatscreen from her pocket in a hurry, seeing that Troy was calling her, she answered immediately.

“Hello, what's going on Troy?”

“Emergency at the dump. Everyone is heading there now. Get back as soon as you can!”

Jasmine wasn’t even able to respond or ask a single question before the call ended, and Jasmine felt her heart begin to pump faster in fear that something happened to one of her friends.

Oh no… not again, the twins better be okay…

She continued to rush through the hallways of the massive office building, her thoughts so frantic that she didn’t realize that she’d run past the attendant that had originally led her through the expansive maze like building.

“I bet something happened to Khalif or one of his crazy trainees,” mumbled Jasmine as she turned randomly down another hall in search of an elevator or the massive staircase that connected the entire building from floor to floor that she’d seen from the lobby.

Oh no… what if something happened to Arson…

She froze in that moment, realizing many things all at once. She didn’t want anything to happen to anyone she now worked with. Arson included, especially Arson. Even noting to herself that maybe all of her aggression toward the boy over the last half a fortnight may not have been due to her doubt in the young boy’s capabilities, or even her own, but may have been due to a fear of losing the one person who’d taken a true chance on her. The one person who’d trusted her to help, and grow alongside them as they took risks not only for themselves, but a risk on her being the best one for the job at hand.

You better be okay, you sparking brat… or I’ll kill you myself!

After a few more hallways Jasmine found herself at a crossroads, completely lost. She spun around looking for anything familiar before she screamed her frustration to the world, tears rolling free of her eyes before she took a deep breath and wiped her face, remembering the last words Arson had spoken to her before his accident.

Why be worried? With a real team, anything is possible.

The words settled Jasmine’s racing heart, allowing her to know within herself that everything would be okay. Then after a few more aimless turns and what she felt to be suicide sprints down identical hallways, Jasmine found herself back at the office she’d just left.

“Are you sparking kidding me, how in the bloody embers do I get out of here!”