Ashira three fold Kairos stood with her robe flapping in the air, her body coiled like a viper to attack, Kenuran opposite her with a smile as a golden crown manifested atop his head, his legendary weapon. The crown looked totally mundane, but Ashira wasn’t fooled, the same way her gauntlet claw shimmered beneath her skin, invisible to everyone but her, she knew the crown packed devastating power. She waited for the announcer who floated downwards, breath steady, this was it, the end game and with a mental push, Ashira unleashed all locks on the mental cage holding back the true monster of Kairos.

************************

The brigade had appeared in full power, all ten arcane generals had been called to battle, all ancients who wielded arcane weapons of ruler tier, for they were rulers themselves. Xerxes world burner and Tania thousand whip stood floating in the air, hundreds upon hundreds of battle ships surrounding the red planet beneath them. This was the nest, throne world of house Dracon in galaxy Dracon, seat of power for their two rulers and prison that the Grim, the reason for such a gathering of powers.

It was true the archailect had secrets, and the dragon brigade had a significant portion of those secrets. Ancients on the verge of becoming primordials, two primordials primed for deityhood and a plethora of calamity ranked rulers. The truth of the archailect was hidden from the majority of its inhabitants, a select few not even up to one percent knew of the true power scaling and it was wisely kept that way. To the archailect, after the supreme beings were the rulers and to masters, even rulers, that was the truth they propagated, for if the pure fact were to be revealed that attaining ruler rank was just the halfway point, it would shake the very root of the archailect.

Jade, the new rank created for the newly established fringe walkers organization was the name given to those who had grown bored with ruler rank and have decided to take the fight to the abyss. That was simply a half truth, it was for those who had reached ruler, the state known as ancients and couldn’t evolve to primordials, a higher state of existence that equaled godhood at its peak.

Therefore these ancients decided to take the fight to the abyss, the true ancient foe of their existence, through which they could crush the absorbed aspects of the abyss, but that was a topic for a later time.

Xerxes world burner was a primordial, his assistant Tania a peak ancient, for such stages of evolution had no figures to quantify or explain them, it was simply a state of being attainable to only the most perceptive and dedicated of them all, in other words the monsters of the archailect. The leader of the brigade, primordial and god to his venerators crossed his arms in silence. All around the system of Azar, the name for the sets of planets that revolved around the red sun was his domain, silently feeding the plethora of protective runes that were intended to hold back any abyssal power from manifesting.

The being whose arrival they awaited was also an ancient, the equivalent in the abyss, a being who managed to subdue a lord of the abyss and infuse himself with its essence, making himself a pure avatar of chaos with the powers that came with that position as well. To the rulers of the archailect and ancients who knew of him, he was a simple master, one who made a deal with the chaotic powers of the abyss to hit like a ruler and Xerxes was fine with such propaganda.

The last battle with the Grim had torn the universe asunder, the Grim on the precipice of enacting the same evolution his disciple followed. Only the fact that he done it so openly and brazenly had quickly drawn the brigade, rulers and masters down on him, initiating a battle so terrible, its like haven’t been seen before and after its occurrence in the archailect. It was what had necessitated the creation of harbingers, those who only in the direst of circumstances would unleash the authority of their supreme being to hold back the evolved avatar of chaos.

While they had crushed the Grim, Rohan his disciple had channeled the same ritual, using the runes while they were all focused, bickering on what to do with the Grim to attain the state of the avatar. The brigade and harbingers had kept the affair quiet, the archailect had just been healing from its wounds with the battle just finished and was in no state to fight another one. Soon enough the truth of the avatar had been revealed, it was an incomplete one, the supreme beings revealing on a whim that to attain the complete state of a chaos avatar, it demanded the ascender become a ruler or the demi avatar use a chaos seed.

The seed which was just a devolved form of a core which from another who has tried to attain the same state, and as far as they knew, only the Grim had attempted such. To the archailect, Rohan was coming to rescue his idol the true leader of the cult of the undying hand, but Xerxes, Tania and the harbingers knew better,

He was coming to consume the Grim.

************************************

Moyo kept his blade, expanding his aura around the entire spice hill to get an understanding of what was going on. No time to go through the guards who shouted at him to halt, he tore the veil off his core, raw diamond rank power and more crashing them to their knees as he took one step of Ogun and appeared within the hill itself where he bore witness to a killing so revolting and gory, he felt his insides shift with queasiness. The entire area had become a killing field of blight infested monsters, dungeon creatures running out of shattered dungeons with blight infections, ascenders shouting and rallying to battle as their attacks did minimal damage against the monsters.

Moyo opened his Digi Aye to see a barely perceptible force field around the entire area, they must had been calling for help but the messages weren’t going through. His mind ran through different scenarios at once as he shattered the field, was this going on throughout the entire continent?, who were the propagators, how had dungeons become infested and where were the cult members?.

Moyo vanished as the guards who he had incapacitated outside the gates somehow made their way into the premises of the spice hill. His Digi Aye revealed what he had been missing since and Moyo berated himself for not activating the skill as soon as he got to the hill, with a quick deft message to master Sigmar to shut down the tele hub back to the continent of altera, he dodged an attack by one of the gold guards, eyebrow raised at the extra speed that defied gold rank, a cult member.

Dominion came down, removing the head of the guard as the body shriveled up and the murky dark green aura he saw coming from the guard evaporated, making its way back into a shattered dungeon. Compiling another message, detailing how this was bigger than what he thought, he calmly assessed the situation, the next guard dead before he knew what had relieved him of his head also.

The cultists were in the dungeon, but Moyo had no idea how so many cultists had infiltrated Altera. He glanced at the bodies of the guards, a scary thought coming to him that these were not cultists. The blighted monsters turned their attentions to him as they ran towards him, jaws slobbering from those who resembled fetid looking canines of sored bodies to hulking abominations that defiled existence. Moyo raised his hand to the sky, grabbing the aether in the air and honing it into intent, his aura permeating the aether and transforming it before letting loose the intent blades that totally decimated the entire area, turning the once fabled spice hill to nothing but dust, leveling the entire area.

Messages began pouring in from all over the continent from his peers, informing him of the same catastrophe. It was a nightmare come to life, a message from master Sigmar came in, their orders were clear,

Wipe all traces of cult activities

Moyo flicked gore and blood of dominion as the air burnt with the steaming pile of blood and gore, his face etched into a look of pure hatred. The shattered dungeons hummed as men and women in merchant clothes came out of the dungeons, Moyo opened a voice chat with all his peers across the continent,

“These aren’t cultists, they are possessed” he said,

“How so?” Sonya asked, the sound of crackling flames coming from her side as she no doubt laid waste to everything through flames,

“My skill, I can see runes and aether, their inner workings and they all have his aura oozing out of them, tainted, blight” he explained,

“a pity, but we have no choice, they cannot be allowed to leave this continent” Curtis simply said,

Moyo gave a short nod,

“agreed” came the voice of Titus,

“Move with caution, possibility of real cultists among them is quite high” Sonya said,

“If possible, keep one alive, we need to understand what is going on” Moyo said,

They all agreed, there was a malevolent working to what was going on here and Moyo hoped they weren’t too late in stopping it. The merchants all turned their gazes to Moyo at once in a creepy movement, mouths opening, they spoke as one,

“Aether filth, there is no stopping the abyss, Rohan comes”

Moyo was in their midst before they even realized it, dominion singing through the air with only intent humming through it. They were all piles of gore before they could blink, cursing at the unnecessary lives wasted, Moyo saw a large fat man make his way out of one of the dungeons. The short pudgy man glanced at Moyo and smiled,

“So, they send children” he said,

The aura of the man was a thick black inky stain on reality, like a blot that refused to wash off and Moyo knew at that moment that this was no puppet, this was a true cult member and the power he gave off was akin to a diamond. The man pointed at Moyo eyes gleaming and uttered the word, infused with an almost sickening form of authority that had his insides revolting,

“ROT”

He felt the blighted powers of the man reach out to him, eating away at the aether in the air like a cancerous cell extending its tendrils at him in an attempt to fulfill its command. He felt his aura in a startling display of speed reach out to the cancerous power and gobble it up, sucking it like a leech as he staggered on his feet, the man screaming in pain while words wrote themselves on his HUD,

Notice: aspect of the titan has forcibly unsealed soul ability, throne of the titan, third pillar of the titan.

Throne of the titan: one of the pillars of the primordial existence that is the titan, it exists to empower the titan through any means necessary, with the ability to feed off the aspects of both reality and chaos.

Notice: aspect of the titan has linked throne of the titan to second pillar, deific vault of the titan.

Notice: first pillar of the titan, aspect hall of the titan remains sealed.

Moyo grunted as his eyes swam, aware the man kept screaming in pure agony even as his body shriveled up as if all its nutrient were being sucked away.

****************

Abbas was born in the cult of the undying hand, he had known nothing else his entire existence and he had grown with the tenets of the existence instilled in him from little by the cult, that all life in the fake reality called the archailect was a cancer on the universe. He had merged with his blight familiar as he grew in power, awaiting the day when he could wreak vengeance on the archailect and bring the true light of master Rohan, the avatar of chaos to the eyes of the heretics.

Chosen for the infiltration of Altera, he had entered through the dungeon path, a way unknown to the heretics of the archailect, for the monsters that filled the dungeons came from the shallowest parts of the abyss and where the archailect could poke to fill its dungeons with monsters, the abyss could also poke back through.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

Most of these points of entry were protected by the most powerful of the so-called rulers of the archailect, the primordials and ancients, some of these spots were hardly known and served the cult well enough. His job had been simple, he was to lay the groundwork for the process to open a pathway to the abyss itself, drown Altera the jewel of Zane true blade, harbinger of the false being Alastor in the beautiful power of the abyss.

Now he wondered where he had gone wrong, the rituals were complete in the forcibly broken dungeons and awaited the completion of his fellow cult members whose identity he had no idea all over the continent. He had laid waste to the heretics in the name of the true avatar and their lord the Grim, so he wondered how he was having his very existence and aspect sucked away.

Even as his life faded before his eyes and his mind unraveling to nothing but wisps of thoughts, he tried sending a message to the first brother, there was a monster who preyed on monsters, something capable of absorbing the power of the abyss, but before he could formulate the thought process, his mind finally shattered and dissolved to thousands of pieces, Abbas was no more.

***************************

Moyo groaned as his body hummed with pure power, so much power that he could barely walk. Staring at the shattered dungeon in front of him, he blasted his way through, collapsing on a torn landscape whose walls made up reality warped and heaved. Eyes wide at the sight that met him, he immediately recognized what he was seeing, except this time he didn’t get a migraine from looking at the runes. The same scenario that played out at Duhiri was repeating itself here, iron, silver, bronze and gold rankers had been slain in a ritualistic circle that powered the dark runes which hummed with power.

Moyo knew better now, he knew what would follow should he let the ritual persist, and he had the perfect way to take care of it. Moyo knelt, raising his hands up as he screamed and let loose, unleashing everything within him and exploded outwards in a deluge of power. Aura, aspect, Ashe, intent, mantle, everything that made the titan and had been touched by the aspect of the titan exploded out.

The force threw Moyo out of the dungeon, his body smoldering as he coughed, the dungeon collapsing on itself as the power tore it to shreds, an almost terrifying prospect seeing as the dungeon had been gold ranked. He opened his HUD and called everyone at once, master Sigmar and his peers,

“they’re building a spire!” he shouted,

“destroy the dungeons!, don’t kill the cult members, call the brigade!” he shouted before shutting the HUD down, he had no time for questions and he hoped his cry would be listened to,

He felt his body heal in a blink; aspect infused titan’s tenacity doing its work. The throne, his throne beating within him in rhythm with his heartbeat. Another complicated and mind-boggling ability, this one related to his soul, Moyo got to his feet as he extended his realm before wiping out the entire spice field with his Ashe, turning it to a broken and desolated area immediately. If he was right, the cult wasn’t summoning Rohan, they were trying to summon a lord, or lords from what he could see.

Blasting his aura as far and wide as he could, he immediately felt the powers of his peers all around the continent. Titus felt the closest to him, with a twitch he opened a pathway and passed through, there was no time to waste, not if they all wanted to prevent a very deadly catastrophe.

*******************

Master Sigmar had informed the entire houses of what was happening on the uncharted continent, the words of the harbinger, his patriarch had echoed in his ears and mind,

Unleash them all,

He heard and obeyed, clan true blade prepared for war, ships came into existence all around space close to the planet of Altera. Invisible and laying dormant, the ships of the cults of the supreme beings flared to life as it disgorged all their members, the houses gathered their masters and prepared to move. All over Altera, they waited with baited breaths for the hammer to fall, but the rulers had another feeling. Rohan would wait for the tournament to be completed, he always loved a dramatic entry and this one would happen notwithstanding.

The titan had been right in the fact that the cult was in fact trying to summon lords into the planet, and diamonds with masters were en route to the uncharted continent to lay waste to it, if possible, destroy it in its entirety. No price was too small to pay to stop the assault of the cult from reaching the shores of the continent of Altera and they all knew that, down to the even the cult groups.

Sigmar stood above the arena where the fight between Ashira threefold style and Kenuran red jaw was about to begin. Just outside of the planet they could all feel the arrival of the powerful rulers of house Kairos, Kairos himself and the sage. Behind them were three large warships, one in the green of the plantsmen with Eogan the green standing on its helm, arms crossed. The other was a dark gold ship with a woman who had chains for hair and one eye sewn shut in dark trench coat,

Malia chainer, master and leader of the wardens.

He turned back down to the announcer who made a show of the last duel, much to the pleasure of the spectators and tightened his hands into fists. They knew, they all knew, down to every master and ruler around here, who Iax really was. The real Iax had been slain and an impersonator placed in his place, but Sigmar had been told to hold back, not to avenge the death of a fellow clansmen for this felt like Rohan.

There would be no better person to replace for his being unveiling, and they all waited for him, for they all knew the moment the victor was announced, Kairos would tear his daughter whom Sigmar had just realized from the clutches of Rohan before they all unleashed enough power, even Altera would be threatened with extinction. A message had been sent to the brigade, Xerxes commanding his entire army of masters to come surround the world ships from the brigade blinking into existence around the planet.

The rulers of the brigade would stay behind to watch the prison of the Grim on the nest, lest Rohan somehow found a way to release the chains of his master, for the brigade believed Rohan wouldn’t attack altera, there was nothing for him to gain and it was simply a diversion to draw their attentions away from the nest and the prison of the Grim. Sigmar unleashed his blade,

“Be ready” he whispered, his voice echoing through every HUD of the masters that were prepared to attack, shrouds were dropped in response as they ramped up to full power.

“Begin!” the announcer who really was Rohan shouted,

***************************

The two realms of scorching fire and monstrous poisonous jungle were unleashed together, the entire arena crumbling immediately under the intense power of the two ascenders. Ashira flicked her blade as she blitzed forwards into a Kenuran who had immediately unleashed the full ability of his bloodline, burning scales covering his entire body as the true dragon was unleashed. With no fear or pause she deflected his blurring claws stopping them before they even got close to her body, this was a battle of power as well as perception and Ashira stood her ground before the full might of house Dracon without her bloodline ability.

Kenuran roared as the flames around him roiled into a more reddish color, the scorch authority of Azar infused into it. Still, she pressed, even as the flames burnt all around her and her tri, the form of her authority struggled to hold back the burning power, she pressed on with a single thought in mind, the head of Kenuran rolling off his shoulders.

Slowly and without giving any hint of it, she began to summon her bloodline ability, feeling her monstrous form begin to take shape on her body, poisonous tail, baleful yellow eyes and golden intent coating her blade, she fought on. There was no such thing as a fighting arena any longer, simply two diamond ascenders wrecking reality around them with pure power. She could feel it now, the rage of Kairos, not just any rage, the pinnacle of the rage she had been trying so hard to attain,

Rakshasa,

The feral cold state of Kairos, the boon and curse of her path, the reason she had left to master it had been unleashed and the foolish dragon before her had no idea even as he pressed on, thinking his victory imminent. She was a monster, she was rage, she was an avenger and a taker of lives, she would no longer reject her path and being if it would bring her victory against the heir of Azar. It was like a realization, an inspiration no doubt as she felt her body shudder and her blade tear through an arm of Kenuran who roared in agony, the amputated spot at his shoulder turning green as her poison fought to ravage his body but the might of the dragon repulsing it viciously.

She felt her jungle growing stronger, she felt the trees expanding as they reached for new heights despite the scorching flames that ate at them. She felt the trees consider the scorch nothing more than a pesky insignificant gnat biting at the power of a true monster and laughed, the sound like a thousand creatures of the deep coming to life all at once.

It echoed around the coliseum, shaking reality itself as she felt the borrowed authority of the thousand blades fizzle out like a candle wick. The true authorities of house Kairos began to bubble up within her and she felt the rush of power in her. Kenurans’ eyes widened in fear and then rage as he roared, his voice so loud reality truly began to tear, the runes of the rulers holding it back at bay. His form shook as his muscles seemed to bulge from the move, his black claws elongating and his mouth truly becoming a snout with razor sharp teeth jotting out from it.

It was rumored that there was a savage state of the Dracon bloodline, but no one had seen it until today, the state known as the dragon rage, a most brutal form of power and barely any reasoning. However, where the power of the Dracon bloodline gave monstrous strength, the bloodline of Kairos came with the malevolent power of the minds of beings’ eons old. The scorching power of Azar grew, burning the patches of Ashira’s skin that had not been covered by the still forming bloodline ability of Kairos, but Ashira was past caring, a little pain wouldn’t stop her power.

She could feel her body squeezing out every iota of power she could possibly channel, but still she pressed on. She had no excuse, not in a battle as powerful and terrible as this, and when she could no longer squeeze any more power, trying with all her tri and determination to have her bloodline ability complete itself within rakshasa, it manifested.

An egg with runes etched into its surface appeared in the air above her realm as reality twisted and warped, the egg cracked and a claw poked out, a shrill roar echoing throughout reality

********************

Outside Altera, the being that was the primordial of monsters, the lord of the terrible and creator of terrors, the forgotten calamity known as Typhon Kairos grinned, baleful milky green eyes glowing,

“Finally,” he whispered,

**********************

Ashira felt the power coming from the egg fill the air with the authority of her father and mother, the power arresting the aether in the air and swallowing it up. In a startling orgasmic moment, the authority pushed her past that wall that held back her potential, crushing it to dust and pushing her true abilities into the next realm of ascension,

The realm of master,

A significant part of her exulted as she felt pure power rampaging into her, her core solidifying and her realm finally completing its merger with her core like all masters did. She felt her edicts begin to click in place and the dawning look of horror on kenurans’ face as he realized what was happening. She shot him her most feral grin and the heir of Azar roared so loud as he gathered the entire scorch authority of Azar and forced it through his core. Ashira frowned as she realized what he was attempting to do.

The heir of Azar was trying to force his ascension to master as well, but Ashira had seen enough of the debacle that was Kenuran. Master Ashira threefold style opened her mouth and uttered her first command in the realm of master,

“ROAR”

Tri roared into being as the protective runes screamed at the pure monstrous power, reality shook and cried in protest, Kenuran was torn in half, his lower path disintegrating instantly as he flopped to the ground. With a thought she cut off the command as she watched Kenuran writhing in pure agony, tears falling from his eyes as he cursed her. She walked calmly to him, blade at his throat even as his body fought to heal him,

“yield” she said quietly,

The pure hate in his eyes spoke his reply, but Ashira knew what his choice would be, she had been building up to this particular scenario. She saw his crown blaze to life, calmly watching him pour the shattered scorch authority of Azar into it as it ramped up to full power,

“You should had killed me when you had the chance” he shouted hysterically,

And before he saw the malevolent smile on Ashiras’ face, he shouted the command,

“SCORCH!”

The difference between a diamond and a master was a large gulf, skills, power and reaction wise. In that few moments stuck in time, before the command affected her, she called the legendary clawed gauntlet to life, ripper appearing in her hand as she activated it, smiling as the upgrades Moyo infused in it come to life.

She had asked him to do so, Moyo skeptical but obeying even as he poured his monstrous power she now understood was from the realm of masters into it, forging the claw anew and making it hers. The gauntlet glowed purple as she let it come in contact with the flames attempting to consume her and shouted the words of activation,

“Da pa da!”

The edict of the titan roared to life, infused into the gauntlet and activated. It absorbed the scorch authority of Azar the same way the titan absorbed the vitality and essence of his foes, fused with her power and returned it in a storm of power so great it turned the entire coliseum white, the protective runes howling now. She saw Kenuran explode and burn up in a shower of gore and bones, and then the spectators were given the sight of the smoldering pile of ashes that was Kenuran, the ashes turning to motes of light before a roar shook the entire coliseum as everyone shouted in celebration.

Ashira stood before them all, gauntlet raised,

“For the titan blade!” she shouted,

“TITAN BLADE!” the shouts replied,

“Ladies and gentlemen, ascenders one and all, rise and bow, to the hundred the fiftieth winner of the swordsmanship tournament, Ashira threefold style!” the announcer said

The roars shook the entire coliseum again, then Ashira felt space warp as she appeared outside the planet, right in front of her father,

“father” she stuttered, emotions going through her face,

Then all hell was let loose as every master around her blasted their powers down at the coliseum, Ashira watching in terror.

*******************

The rulers had teleported away all the spectators, for such was the might of rulers, the entire coliseum was now slag and the only figure standing there was the announcer in a suit, formerly white hair now pitch black, silver eyes now pitch black also with a smile was etched on his face. Above him were all the rulers circling him and watching him for his next move,

“Well, that wasn’t the warm welcome I was expecting” the announcer said,

“You were foolish to come here Rohan” Azar growled, eyes blazing,

“it’s not my fault you raised a spoilt brat, don’t take out your family issues on me” the revealed Rohan said,

Wearing the face of Iax, the literal embodiment of chaos and evil smiled, watching as Sigmar appeared next to the masters, face ashen,

“The brigade called, they said the cult is attacking the nest” he said,

“Tell Xerxes we have Rohan” Altair said, thousands of blades floating above him,

Sigmar turned to Altair,

“They say Rohan leads the charge” Sigmar said,

The one who was called Rohan chuckled, drawing all their attentions back to him,

“Well, what do we do?” he asked.