Jade entered the trial entrance of the Ikarus pyramid and couldn’t believe her eyes. Everything that had been destroyed by Draphen days prior was restored. Knowing that dungeons had to be rebuilt by its occupants, the rate of regeneration on this dungeon blew any other Jade had experienced.

Upon entering, she had expected to find the ruins of Draphen’s rampage barely fixed. But as she snuck through the expansive dungeon interior, all that was seen was a sprawling technological marvel, showing no decrease in its growth's momentum.

She teleported to the highest point she could reach without drawing attention to herself. From her vantage the picture of what she was witnessing grew more dire. She couldn’t see the edge of the dungeon in any direction she looked. The sun beamed down from the artificially produced environment of mana and elements, and even this was used to increase the production of the community of robots' efficiency, solar panels installed on every rooftop in sight.

The amount of roaming Hive-Titans astonished Jade, and she began to take the dungeon far more seriously.

This place could overrun the dump if we let this continue.” Jade’s decision was made for her as she looked down on the growing metropolis of robots and robotic titans continue to prosper.

She’d spoken with Almarine after the spa’s grand opening had been bombed, and the woman made her feel as if no matter how much power she gained, training she put herself through, or knowledge she managed to pass on to Arson at any given time, that none of it would be enough.

Jade knew that Almarine spoke from experience, both in nurturing the young, and living through the loss of her own offspring. Yet her own determined mind told her that things could be different for her and her only son.

She’d also lived through what it was to have powerful blood thrumming through her, all while her parents pushed her to become greater than they felt themselves to be, but where she felt her parents had lost sight of balance in all things, she would do everything in her power to ensure Arson’s own happiness was also a priority.

You must grow to be able to protect the future you want for him, and that begins here…

Her thoughts ran wild, even as she allowed her armor to materialize. Jade covered by an Ikarian Armor in less than a breath, leaving her right arm exposed, until the legion of mythical bird tattoos that lined her arm ripped free of the limb. All the flying creatures brought to life in a burst of power that filled the area all around her. Revealed beneath the flock of mythical creatures was a tattoo of a giant gateway, the portal alive with motion within its frame. Jade’s tattoos as alive as the days she captured them in the dimension that was her living tattoo.

Her excitement grew and for the first time since Arson was a child, Jade prepared to fight with the full extent of her abilities. She summoned dimensional energies around her wrists, summoned incomplete portals centered there as if any moment the portals' completion could result in the severing of her hands.

Jade teleported on top of the shoulder of a Hive Titan and punched out as hard as she could. The three part attack started with a subtle punch. The half-finished portal that hovered around her wrists grew and moved fluidly around the giant robot's head before it could react; a flock of giant winged beasts all dive bombing the Hive Titan all at once.

The beasts caused the Titan to become unbalanced and the portal’s rim around its neck started to slice through its metallic throat; Jade opening the portal, closing the ring completely to cut off its head before it could move, or even react. The robot now headless before Jade could even retract her fist.

The portal she’d just used vanished, reappearing around her ankle a blink before she teleported again. The next Hive Titan had its right knee caved in with a powerful spin kick, and as the creature toppled over falling like a cut tree toward Jade, she cocked back a punch. Her arm snapped out to reach the head of the titan well before it was in range of her fist, and the portal around her wrist shot out, completing itself a moment before colliding with the robot’s head. The giant's head consumed, swallowed whole in a mere blink. A second robot beheaded in a mere blink.

The mythical bird swarm spread out causing elemental havoc in the streets of the dungeon. Griffins spun tornadoes. A hydra spat acid, frost and lightning. While various types of dragons and phoenixes spun together multiple types of flames, storm energies, and even ripped earthen materials from underneath the paved streets.

Even though Jade pushed out immense amounts of power, she still found herself quickly overwhelmed. Charged on three sides, she did manage to dodge the first blow, counter the second, but the third came so quickly that she couldn’t react.

She ended up being swatted through a building, toppling two more structures she had no clue the uses of before her momentum came to a halt, the woman rolling onto her feet a few streets away.

“Show me I’m not wasting my time here!”

This battled continued for days upon days. As her son and his friends worked on developing the climbing challenge, Jade fought without break. She did not eat or sleep. She did not slow no matter how badly a bruising or beating she endured. Jade only pushed her limits.

Even as she culled the Hive Titans, the magnitude of all her attacks grew from single target to area of effect attacks developed only for mass warfare.

Jade at some point began to teleport into large swaths of opponents, entire circular portals with buildings sized diameters bursting into creation centered around her hips. The created portals ripped and tore through anything within their paths, bisecting groups of Hive Titans, upper halves falling through portals that led into the centers of suns and blackholes.

Even the more destructive attacks still resulted in Jade often being crushed, before or after teleporting, during attacks that resulted in unexpected explosions, and even when entering situations with overwhelming odds.

Jade was forced to run and reengage in more situations than she would have liked to admit. Even as she grew to become more accustomed to the tactics of the robot hordes, they grew more familiar with her strategies in kind. The exchanges forced a continued growth between both parties.

After nearly an entire fortnight of unending battle, Jade finally stopped her continual struggle after she woke up in the bottom of a dilapidated structure. The sounds of giant robots searching through destroyed buildings woke her, and she groaned, unable to move, and feeling battered from head to toe.

She was, in the end, forced to teleport from her trapped position, and when she called back the flock of mythical birds and winged beasts to her side she was happy to see the return of all her elemental companions.

She had destroyed around the same portion of the city that Draphen had. Killed a far larger number of the Hive Titans, but still felt she hadn’t done anything but push off an inevitable future.

“This is going to take some time…”

…

Draphen paced. He felt conflicted standing in his throne room trying to determine what his next move should be. After the Tournament of Scions ended with a result found to be bearable for all parties involved, many if not all those in power determined the state of matters to be pleasing enough, that no retaliation would be necessary. With a few exceptions.

The enraged Ascension, the Oligarchs of CloudLake, and the king of Maelstrom.

The Oligarchs of CloudLake had been shown a video of Draphen burning down their own Stadium. While Ascension was shown footage of all their strongest scions being slain alongside their initiation of the attacks sent toward BlackHole Coliseum on repeat; a title above the looped footage that read "weakness is a disease", had inspired a realm in a higher realm layer to attack Ascension.

This may be for the best… The king continued to contemplate his next move but was distracted by a pool of shadows that drifted underneath the door of his throne room. Fires started wherever the smoke like shadows came in contact with cloth or easily burned materials.

“Hello Seneschal, I haven’t heard from you in quite some time?” The king turned to face the demon as his body formed from the pooling shadows, the demon’s smile wide and filled with a warmth normally foreign to demonkind.

“I would visit more, but my inability to sleep is one of many things that your son is aware of,” said Seneschal with an accompanying shrug.

“You say that as if my boy is taking advantage of you, Sen?”

“I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to feeling a tad stretched beyond my limits, but I’d also be lying if I didn’t admit to having the time of my life,” responded Seneschal with a laugh.

“Anything worth mentioning?”

“Everything at this point in my work is worth mentioning, but only a few can be spoken upon, and one of the issues I’ve actually been sent by the young master to share with you.”

“You have my interest,” said the king, making his way toward his throne and sitting down. The king waved and Seneschal started to share.

“Firstly, I’m training powerful youths that before meeting Arson I’d never been able to see as having any potential, yet the more I work with the group he’s thrust onto me, the more I see my own rigidity in regards to potential and power and where true power may come from.”

“You sound passionate Seneschal. Should I be worried that my son has found a heart within you and is now pulling strings to make you soft in your old age…?”

“That would be preposterous, my lord, and I am indeed stating the opposite,” said Seneschal.

“How so?”

“Your son doesn’t look at power in the same way as the rest of us. He, in fact, doesn’t believe that weakness is real, and is instead mere figments of our own imaginations. For instance, he had me train a young woman who I believe will rival me, and through teaching her various ways to use her abilities, I have even managed to overcome a limitation of my own. Not only this but through training Arson’s right hand man I’ve also tasted a power that I believed would eternally be outside of my limitations.” Draphen felt the shift of mana within the room, and his eyes widened at the massive form that slowly constructed itself within the room. Draphen’s mana senses outlining a towering form made entirely from billowing shadows that moved like fog, and an energy that seemed to drink light from the room.

“You are constructing an Avatar?” Seneschal nodded before he responded.

“It will never have the same potential as the natural born Avatar that Arson’s companion will be able to draw on, but I’ve already been able to do things within the demon realms that have shifted the balance of the hierarchy of my own communities.”

“Well, that is interesting. What do you believe inspired this mindset within him, this style of growth couldn’t have come from thin air?”

“No, sire, I don’t believe it did come from no where, but was built by his environment and situation,” started Seneschal. The king directed the demon to sit, and Seneschal ignored the offered seat, instead sitting in the lowered palm of the Avatar behind himself. The king smiled at the demon’s use of his new ability.

“Your son wants to build things worthy of Cultivators, immortals, ancients and even gods, but without the knowledge or manpower capable of completing what he desires. So while he searches for what he needs, he also pushes those around him to become more powerful in their own regards, often making them able to accomplish the things he needs,” explained Seneschal. The king felt he also worked in this manner, but as Seneschal continued to talk, the king noticed the differences between himself and his son.

“Where some would grow frustrated with someone's lack of talent or drive to accomplish any one task, your son searches out the why to their inability. It is not that practices like this have never been done before, but given the unconditional love that he also breeds through his actions and the presentation of what becomes possible with a true focus, none I’ve ever met personally are able to invoke growth as often as I have seen the young master accomplish in a short period of time.”

“He must be doing well for you to give him such praise?”

“Yes, sire. I honestly want to train him more than any others, but as my power is connected to flame, I don’t know if we will truly ever become master and disciple, especially now that Carter Omni’s mark is on the young master.”

Draphen was blown away by what his once demonic assassin was saying, but felt if anyone could make the DemonLord before him surprised, it was his youngest. Draphen had seen the vast improvements his other children were experiencing by working with their brother, and knew that being a catalyst of potential and inspiration would soon put a large target on his son’s back. He felt that a war of any kind may be good for his children's growth, yet struggled with the abilities Arson had displayed during the Tournament of Scions.

His youngest son didn’t fight like he needed warfare experience, he fought as if he’d been formed within warfare. Seemingly built as a vessel for mass destruction and genocide, Arson may prove to be a key tool for any war coming to their realm, large or small from what the king could determine.

Yet Seneschal is seeing you as a teacher, a being meant to guide those toward internal power, skill, and ability, which leaves me wondering what side of you I should push toward greatness, the side of you that inspires, or the side of you that revels in crushing your foes.

The more Seneschal described, the more unsure Draphen became. He wanted his son to be a conquerer of any who dared to stop his momentum, as Draphen and his own father before him had been. Only to have the demon describe the groundbreaking infrastructure his son seemed to be able to develop naturally, and without guidance or training of any kind in the next moment.

I may need the help of my mother, as she would be able to show him things I could only imagine or dream becoming a reality…

“Among his peers, they’re many who could match him in an individual category, but few or none that could match how talented he seems in many categories. His innate ability to understand is enough to make me believe that the saying, master of all is master of none, has finally met its exception,” finished Seneschal. The king nodded to the DemonLord and sighed heavily. After a moment of thought, Seneschal spoke up again, dragging the king from his thoughts in an instant, due to what was spoken by the demon being so unexpected that Draphen asked the demon to repeat himself.

“I said that your son wanted me to pass along a message. He says that none of the animosity we are receiving from other realms and even realm layers was unprovoked, but has also been given fuel by entities within our realm, that wish to either see you fall from power, or understand that what your family as a whole is doing both above and below the purview of society will result in an HonorBorn family being rewarded by the system itself. It is rare, but when it happens, golden ages of advancements occur with all those involved in any way shape or form, and to stop this, all of our enemies may come together to see it stopped,” said Seneschal. The words stopped Draphen from having a clear thought for a handspan of breaths. How his son knew of family bloodlines being rewarded by the system shook the king to his cores. Many of the lost secrets of the universe were held by the HonorBorn families, each family was normally aware of one or a few of the secrets, but this was one held by all the HonorBorn families patriarch or matriarch alone. So how Arson had learned such a thing worried the king beyond belief.

“Tell the boy not to speak of this to anyone. In fact, bring me the boy immediately to discuss these matters,” Draphen said frantically, his voice raising with every word spoken. Yet Seneschal shook his head and spoke once more, smiling the entire time.

“That is impossible, sire, as he is about to begin his climb up the mountain that leads into Carter Omni’s school…”