The bo staff coated with Ashe danced through the mountain range as Moyo flew through the air, at his back were ten streaks of fluctuating light that tried their best to catch up to him. A fools chase seeing as they were bronze and he was currently shrouded to gold., with a step of Ogun he really didn’t need but used for theatrics, he appeared behind Amiya sound screamer, bo staff whipping too fast for her to deflect. The bo staff connected with her ribs, the already battered ascender crashing into the valley below.
They had been at it for a cumulation of three days, no moment of rest nor respite as the titan assaulted the ten who had passed his little test. No ounce of pity in his movements nor his countenance for them, for they had chosen to walk this path, their willpower and resilience had proven such, now he would break them and reforge them into the perfect weapons. All their techniques and skills had proven less than useful against a gold ranked Moyo, which of course was the only way it would go when bronze fought golds.
Moyo specifically chose that rank to impart in them the dangers they would soon be facing, not that he had told them anyways, some things were just better left unsaid for now. His staff twirled as Vaughn assault piercer twisted in the air, eyes flashing as he brought his aura assault riffles to bear on the titan. Moyo found the mans’ path very peculiar, something of a hybrid between aura and intent, the guns or rifles the bronze ranker produced were made of aura but had all the power of intent within them.
Although they made no difference to Moyo, the bullets peppering his skin and rebounding off without his mantle even activated, still he pushed the ascender to his limits, increasing the range and scope of his attacks. Phasing between the bullet attacks, he delivered a palm strike to the core of the ascender, right in the middle of his stomach. The core jolted; the ascenders aura-generated weapons short circuiting before his eyes rolled up his head, falling to the valley below. Casually dodging the staff of Tomasa that came down from behind him with a roar, ferocity of Oshosi barely needed to warn him of the incoming attack.
Remembering the staff Wukong had gifted him, Moyo gripped the staff of Tomasa and with a flex of his titans’ might, crushed it along with a pulse of aura. Tomasa roared in anguish as Moyo gripped him by the throat,
“You scream too much” he said with a frown, flinging him straight into the mountain, the golden staff didn’t emerge from the crater,
Wutan threw his spear with deadly accuracy, the weapon warping reality subtly and carrying with it all the authority of the piercer, Moyo frowned again,
“a foolish idea, letting go of your weapon” he said, catching the weapon between the tip of two fingers,
Flinging it away as he dispersed the authority covering the spear with his Ashe, he took another step towards Wutan, a chop to the back of the skull and the ascender joined the growing pile below. Moyo smirked as marcel devil touch and Romulus beast walker assaulted him at the same time, two body auras with connections to greater aspects he could feel around them. He was attuned to such things now that he was a master and had wondered why the masters hadn’t told him of such, probably because Moyo would had tried to attain the stage early and seen his path explode.
Coating his hands in Ashe, he caught the corrosive touch of marcel, the ascender whose path allowed him to burn a foe from the inside slowly like live coals razing from the inside. Romulus on the other hand was for no better term an aura beast channeler, looking more like the powers of a native Indian than a roman, his path saw his aura take on the shape of an animal, carrying with it the strength and power of the animal, just magnified to insane levels. The moment his aura came in contact with the both of them, it canceled out their abilities in one fell swoop, leaving them open once again,
“Still not enough authority” he said to both of them, then with jabs too quick for them to even see, destabilized them before sending them falling down below,
The aether above him fizzled with intent as thousands of blades of different shapes and sizes took form, glowing with barely restrained fury, Lucina of the blade rain was finally making her move,
“Altair would be disappointed” Moyo said with a sad smile,
He saw her phasing through the blades so quickly, slow to him as a gold he currently was, but to the average eye, they’d see nothing. The blades fell, all in uniform motion as they honed in on him, intent glowing around them. Moyo nodded, gripping the bo staff tight as Ashe coated it,
“BREAK” he commanded with gold ranked Ashe tinged with titanic aspect,
All the blades shattered at once, Moyo knowing fully well she had been expecting that smiled and twisted, dodging the shards that suddenly became seeking projectiles aimed at skewering him. A pulse of aura threw the blades away, revealing Lucina who stared at him with wide eyes, apparently not thinking he would see through the ruse,
“cute” he snorted as he grabbed her, twirling before slamming her into Yemi who had made his way towards him silently,
A loud crunch was heard as the both of them collided, the two ascenders flailing to the valley below, Moyo dusted his hands,
“I guess that remains the both of you?” he said absentmindedly, staring at both Hajin and fern steel champion,
Fern whose skin had taken a silver hue at the onset of acquiring his path growled and gathered his aura, strengthening his body more. Moyo approved, a straightforward ascender,
“Strength you have” Moyo said in his best master Yoda voice,
Fern rumbled towards him, reality twisting with the force of his incoming attack, soon enough the two of them exchanged blows for a few seconds before ferns’ limp form fell the valley below,
“Endurance and tactics however, you lack young one” he completed,
The skies above rumbled as a dragon made of lightning coalesced into shape, roaring as thunder flashed with the sound, Moyo frowned,
“NOPE” he commanded, Ashe dispelling the lightning dragon the moment it reared its head,
He’d seen enough of dragons for a while and his aversion to the scaly worms didn’t do anything to change his mood towards Hajin the lightning eater who appeared in the clouds above. Moyo inwardly nodded at the look of determination in the eyes of the ascender, the awe and worshipful look he once carried now wiped clean from his face. It would take a lot to wipe it from their hearts also, but he was fine with them not staring at him like some deity for now.
Golden lightning danced through the air as the realm of the lightning eater took form around the both of them, Moyo curiously let it settle on him, the hairs on his skin rising as the electric current that ran through the realm sizzled around his body, carrying with it the pure power of lightning,
Julius could do better,
Moyo snorted and gripped the bo staff tighter, using the Ashe coated weapon to deflect the bolts of lightning that hammered into him with an almost bored look. Hajin had the right idea not to exchange blows directly with him, knowing fully well he would get decimated in a blink. Ranged attacks were the way to go and Hajin really pumped mana into the lightning that rampaged through the air, forming figures of lightning that accosted Moyo who calmly weaved through the attacks, enjoying every moment of the deadly but flashy display.
Digi Aye activated, blasting out along with his aura as he absorbed all the aether coming from the lightning eater. Hajin stumbled as he felt his power cut off, shock evident on his entire face as he reeled backwards, just not in time to have the titan clamping his hands on his shoulders, a fist drive piling a punch through his midsection and down into the valley below with a resounding thud. Moyo stretched his frame with a sigh, silently floating down below while humming a tune to himself.
The ascenders laid below in one broken form or the other, his awareness stretched to see they were breathing, expert ranked body plus the abundant rich ambient aether in the air healing their injuries as fast as it could. He felt something in the distance, glancing to see Samantha along with a few ascenders from the healers guild that had grown during his absence coming towards his location. With a shake of his head, he landed, stretching his hand as dominion flew into it.
He sat on a rock, awaiting their arrival while watching the ascenders stir, Moyo realized his disposition towards fighting was skewed. He personally as an ascender had no reason for healing, his skills doing them for him almost effortlessly, in between absorbing the endurance and sometimes vitality of any ascender he fought, to his wrath of the titan healing him at an almost impossible rate, he had forgotten how usual ascenders worked. Pills, elixirs, tonics, dungeon cores, etc. these were what the average ascenders used in their process of ascending, it was why it took them an absurd amount of time in his opinion to ascend as fast as he could bear.
With a frown he realized that he had approximately four months starting from the next month to somehow help these bunch level up to at least silver or gold, discounting the plans he had for the leadership of the clan, he wasn’t about to leave them defenseless, not if the war extended from whatever galaxy the cult of the undying hand had taken over. However, with the restrictions he was beginning to see that usual ascenders had, he wondered if it were feasible at all, the dangers of expert ranked dungeons were unlike the play pens that were the dungeons up to the rank of advocate.
Samantha arrived with the healers, the ascenders bowing before his very presence, Moyo waving a hand to them as they scurried towards the ascenders,
“You spoil them, you know that right?” he asked,
Samantha shook her head as she tapped her staff on the ground, hazy green lights blinking to life in a circle around the broken ascenders that moaned in pain. The healers began placing green looking rods on the spots of the green light, the rods humming in tandem with each other,
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“Sometimes I wonder if you realize you’re an oddity in the entirety of Gaia” she replied,
“What are those?” Moyo asked,
“Healing runic circle rods, used for large combat healing on the fields during war, cost less than bulk sale buying of elixir, especially since expert ranked elixirs go for an arm and a leg these days” she said,
Moyo glanced at her in alarm,
“Is the clan going broke?” he asked,
She shook her head with a snort,
“Like that’s possible, with the taxes and the funds we made over the process of building Bastion as long as the revenue generated from the tournament period alone, I’d be surprised if we’ve even touched the gold coins at all” she replied,
“Then why aren’t we buying up the elixirs for our use?” he asked,
“After the calamity, the powers of the world created a body for regulating the number of resources bought in the system vault, the warehouse as we call it in the clan” she explained,
“How’s a body able to control such a thing, isn’t that left to the archailect?” he asked confused,
Samantha shrugged,
“Once the notion was passed, a system messaged appeared worldwide on the HUD of the leaders of each faction, making a poll for the creation of a body to manage such, 80% voted yes with notable exceptions from the Bharat empire and the glorious empire who had lost a lot during the calamity” she replied,
Moyo glanced at the experts as he saw them slowly struggling to sit up, the healing runic circle doing wonders to their recovery, he rolled his eyes,
“Back to what you said, you called me an oddity, why?” he asked,
Samantha glanced at the healers then back to him, a rune dancing above her head as he felt its link to the runic circle that healed the ascenders,
“Moyo” she said as the healers stumbled in shock, hearing her address him that way, terror written on their faces,
Moyo rolled his eyes at the display as Samantha smiled, aware she did it on purpose, it’ll be a long time for them to get used to seeing him as a mere human, maybe even decades, but the little steps mattered, she continued,
“When was the last time you willingly bought an elixir?” she asked,
Moyo paused, thinking back with clear clarity,
“I and Ashira bought some when we were about to go through a gold and diamond ranked dungeons” he replied,
Samantha raised an eyebrow,
“I see, and were you really in need of it then or it was just as a precaution?” she pressed,
“Well, I was silver then and she was gold, we were going for dungeons higher than our ranks and they were needed, at least for her” he replied as the healers stared now in pure terror at the monster of a leader they had,
Moyo glanced at them in concern, jutting a finger at them,
“what’s wrong with them?” he asked,
Samantha gave a light laugh,
“Your stories seem outrageous as they are intriguing, bronze rankers are dying to bronze ranked dungeons of a higher level and here you are, hitting two times your rank in dungeons and talking about them casually like they don’t mean a thing” she commented,
Moyo scratched his beards, frowning as he realized that he would need to either shave his beards or trim it, it was not like he had any woman to impress any longer. He shook his head from the thought that threatened to invade his mind and turned back to Samantha shrugging,
“Doesn’t make it any less true” he said,
Glancing at the healers who were busy jotting down something, murmuring to themselves,
“Are they writing down my every word?” he asked, eyes wide at the realization,
“And so a new saga is born, the tales of the titan blade” she said dramatically,
Moyo sighed, glancing again to the horizon to see a large ship flying towards their position,
“Are we expecting guests?” he asked,
Samantha nodded,
“The sentinels have been called by Mrs. Martha to escort you home, you leave for the summit in an hour or two” she said,
“Ah…. that” he said with a frown,
“Yes, that, honestly, you’ve been back home for two weeks or thereabout, it’s time you said high to the fellow world powers and put an end to the rumors circulating around” she said,
“What rumors?” he asked,
“The titan is a ruler, the titan is actually a silver ranked expert trying to deceive the world, the lists go on and on lord patriarch, you’d do well to listen to the words going on around you” she said,
Moyo stood up, dominion disappearing into his vault,
“you’re right though, it’s time to set some things right, and what’s this I’m hearing about the explorer society’s continent now smack dab in the middle of the world?” he asked,
“The continent is now known as Rimor, that’s explorer in Latin by the way, and Luke Finn now bronze rank claimed to have found a one-time use scroll that enabled him to move the continent to a new location, he had opted to moving it to the middle of the world” she explained,
“And how did the factions of the world take that?” he asked,
Surely in the old world, with that kind of power it could had led to wars of such bitter magnitudes, millions of lives could had been potentially lost. She tapped her staff on the ground again as the healers removed the rods, the ascenders now on their feet as they shuffled and stared at the titan,
“The explorer society now holds power and reach that the factions decided to let it slide, besides, it isn’t like anything like international waters have any meaning again” she said,
“This puts them within arm’s reach of every continent” Moyo said,
“Indeed, and it will be the place of the meeting, neutral ground” she replied,
“Are you coming along?” he asked,
She shook her head,
“No, I’m dropping off at Trellis, Idris and a contingent of sentinels will be your protective team” she replied,
Moyo nodded, Samantha eyeing him,
“I thought you’d complain about the need for protection?” she asked,
Moyo shrugged,
“Protocols I’m guessing, might as well go along with it” he replied,
She gave a light chuckle, the ascenders bowed at Moyo as he arrived in their fronts, Samantha going from cheerful mode to the cold indifference of a sect leader. He folded his arms at them,
“Poor display, not worthy of facing ascenders from outside of Gaia” he said,
He felt them stiffen,
“Oh?, you think I judge you too harshly?” he asked, watching as they bit their tongues,
“Should we ask the green spear sect to send a few bronze rankers along?, see if you can put them down?” he said softly,
They shook their heads, Moyo sighed,
“I do not mean to belittle you, nor do I mean it in the way you think, but the truth however bitter it sounds remains the truth” he started,
“You are seriously under par with the archailect at large, the whole of Gaia seems that way by my observation and it would take a lot of reforms to change that. That is why I’m taking my time with you all, you all will be my emissaries of sorts to the entirety of Gaia, you will spread the teachings that dungeon delving alone isn’t what makes a good ascender” he said as they looked up sharply, eyes wide at the news,
“Lord titan?” Yemi said, the question hanging in the air,
Moyo raised one finger up,
“Hear me clearly, for I’m saying this once” he started,
“I’m building an elite squad of ascenders, not too clear on the name yet, but I’ll get to that in time, loyal to me and Gaia as a whole. The mission of that team would be to handle threats that the factions might not be able to react to in time, as well as threats that compromise the integrity of a faction, and believe me I already have a target in mind” he said,
He saw them standing taller, determination in their eyes and the brutality of three days straight fading from their eyes,
Good he thought,
“I will bend you as far as I can, breaking and molding you as much as I see fit to get stronger and surpass my expectations. You wanted to serve under me?, good, you’ll be my weapons I wield against those that threaten my world and in time my galaxy” he finished,
The ascenders were left astounded at the declaration, Vaughn assault piercer went to one knee, the rest following immediately, the large brutish man spoke
“I, Vaughn assault piercer, pledge my life to the titan blade, to follow his orders as long as they serve the best interests of Gaia, to be his blade and loyal warrior, so long as I draw breath” he said as a loud gong echoed, the archailect acknowledging his oath,
The rest followed, saying the oaths with their names in it, the archailect acknowledging their oaths as well, Moyo drew himself to his full height, snapping his fingers as a pathway opened to reveal a large structure in what looked like the middle of the black zone, where numerous dungeons of different ranks had broken open.
He gestured to them,
“This will be your abode for the duration of the main training, here you will be at constant battle for your very lives. I cannot guarantee your lives, that in itself is the essence of this training, to throw you into harms way so great, only the thought of surviving and getting stronger would prevail, now go, await me at the citadel of Endurance” he said with a straight face,
They marched in with determination, the large doors of the citadel opening up to admit them in, repelling the monsters that smashed themselves to a paste on a forcefield of purple aura that blazed around the citadel, silver runes dancing all over its from. Moyo had begun incorporating runes into whatever he did, slowly realizing they were the original language of the archailect, the entire area where the citadel was situated also had a large forcefield, keeping the monsters and broken dungeons stuck on the sport to provide a never-ending supply of monsters from iron all the way to gold.
The pathway closed as Samantha p=bit back a laugh,
“citadel of Endurance?, really?” she asked,
The healers glanced at her in terror as she mocked the name he came up with, visibly shaking. Moyo turned to her with fake wrath in his eyes,
“you’d dare mock the name I came up with?, the great titan blade?” he said in his best pompous voice,
Samantha rolled her eyes,
“If that’s the best you can come up with then I’m sorely sad for you” she retorted,
That had been more than what a healer could take as one of them outright fainted in terror, Moyo glancing at the advocate ranked ascender as the rest gathered around him, healing him back to life with jolts of controlled green aura. Samantha sighed,
“Look what you did, you scared them silly” she said,
Moyo scratched his head,
“it’s still a good name though” he replied,
“Ha!, wait till Idris hears of this” she said with a laugh,
Moyo rolled his eyes, the silver looking ship that covered the sun, casting a shade over them coming to a stop above them. Moyo took one step of Ogun and appeared on deck, sentinels kneeling in greeting at his arrival,
“We greet the lord” they chorused,
“At ease” he replied softly as they stood up and went about their businesses, Idris appeared from the within the ship, coming up on a circular slab platform that floated up, slamming a hand to his chest,
“Lord patriarch” he said with a smile on his face, his diamond ranked gauntlets gleaming in the sun,
“Hello Idris, I heard you’re to be my babysitter for the summit” he replied,
Idris nodded,
“It would seem that way lord, Mrs. Martha was to accompany you, but certain issues in the black zone needed her immediate attention and that of the storm bringers. The dawn archers would be left to oversee the protection of Bastion itself” he reported,
Moyo nodded, watching as the healers began conversing with the sentinels who listened to them with rapt attention, eyes wide. He shook his head at the tales that will no doubt be exaggerated after a lot of retelling, walking with Idris to the edge of the ship, glancing at the clear skies in the horizon with different shapes moving through the clouds, creatures from dungeons and the likes that have for no better terms come to be a part of the ecosystem of Gaia.
He glanced back at Idris, arms folded behind him as the sect leader discussed with a sentinel,
“How long till we get to Rimor?” he asked,
Idris turned to him, dismissing the sentinel who bowed to them both before retreating,
“A day at the current speed we’re going at, we’ll arrive at the headquarters of the society by dusk, in time for the meeting at night” he replied,
Moyo furrowed his eyebrows,
“The meeting is at night?” he asked,
Idris nodded,
“I thought you were aware, didn’t you read the brief Mrs. Martha compiled for you?” Idris asked skeptically,
Moyo blinked at him, Idris rolled his eyes as he sighed,
“I’ll get it for you, one minute” he said as he excused himself,
Appearing a few minutes later to hand Moyo a compiled note,
“why didn’t she just send it to my HUD?, who uses pen and paper these days?” he asked exasperated,
“Delicate and sensitive information, that booklet will burn up with each page you read” Idris said,
Moyo’s gaze turned serious at that, nodding as he used his aura to cocoon himself, stopping the breeze blowing at him from ruffling the papers and began to dig into the file, Idris leaving him up on deck to study quietly.