Ashira chimera, crown princess of the house Kairos and all its holdings, favored and only daughter of Kairos and goddaughter of the sage sat in her warship, the gigantic craft floating silently on the dark side of the moon. Legs crossed and a perfectly manicured fingernail tapping on the armrest of her throne, she silently watched the video feeds been played with the A.I that ran her ship she had named Cerberus, a tall muscular man silently observing also at her side.
She tapped a finger as the video paused before magnifying and Ashira frowning. As the heir of Kairos, she was privy to certain internal informations that went around the upper echelons of the house. This was one of the most classified of course, only the clan leaders, Kairos and other masters were allowed to even know of this and she was sworn to secrecy
Even from the titan blade,
Ashira had been stumped at that, usually knowing her father, he would be the first to advocate doing everything to draw in Moyo, and now that their relationship, well, whatever was between them seeing as Ashira had made it all the more complicated, was now defined, he would be privy to some house Kairos secrets. The video was a recording of Dire, the nexus point 001, as much as the recording construct could pierce the barrier between the galaxy and the rest of the archailect. They had tried sending ascenders into the barrier against all common sense.
Not that any of the houses put up a fight when the brigade did such, the ascenders were those slated for execution at one point or the other, their deaths all but assured anyways. The moment the first of the ascenders had passed through the barrier forcefully, his body had disintegrated almost immediately, his mouth open in the silent throes of the most agonizing of deaths. The other ascenders right behind him had tried their bests to break lose of the bindings that held them, mostly golds and silvers, they were helpless against the diamond ranked bindings that held them.
That option gone, they had resulted to using constructs, coated with enough aspect and authority of powerful rulers who Ashira probably guessed were primordials or ancients and sent them through the barrier. The constructs had lasted for a full hour before the corrosive nature of the abyss had disintegrated them into Ash and sludge, but the hundreds of constructs had been enough to get a picture of what the invading force from the archailect would face and it was terrifying, even for her. Entire planets were barren wastelands with tall dark spires rising to the very skies where monstrosities flew around the aether barren planet.
The planets seemed to be drawing closer to themselves, each black ball of abyssal energy slowly edging closer to each other. Ashira realized quickly that some planets were more blighted than the rest, the main prison world itself now simply a dark black rock that emitted corrosive energies that were sent to the other planets. Even from the darkness of space, the tall dark building that looked more or less like a castle that dotted each of the planets were visible. She had been informed, much to her horror that they belonged to lords of the abyss, creatures of such malevolence, reality usually screamed whenever they broke through into the archailect.
That was all the constructs could show before they were lost, she blinked as the video went off, light being restored to the room which had been previously dark. She sat in rumination,
“sire” Cerberus rumbled, his voice like a barely restrained volcano,
“Your reply to the high lord of house Kairos?” he asked,
She furrowed her eyes, her gaze drawn to the hail on her HUD,
“Hold that thought” she said and answered, projecting it to the main screen,
The moment the servants and controllers who were on deck saw the crest that came on the screen, they all fell to their knees, bowing with their head pressed into the metal floor of the command deck. Ashira stared at the man in a yellow robe whose eyes were pure yellow with two irises as bizarre as that seemed stared back at her. He stood at the steps of throne where an almost bigger than life figure sat, clad in armor that had living runes moving all over them. The figure had two beings chained to each side of the throne.
Ashira had grown up on stories of the two monsters, the two beasts of perdition who had once run rampant on a world within house Kairos galaxy, terrorizing the inhabitants who had cried out to their rulers for help. House Kairos, no, her mother had responded, sending master Vardant to execute the creatures. The master had gone with all the fury of a master of house Kairos, easily crushing the diamond ranked monsters who had little to no sense of identity or awareness.
It was said then, as this tale had been passed through many generations, centuries before the birth of Ashira that her mother had gazed from her throne on Tartarus, sighting the creatures and staying the killing blow Vardant had about to administer to the monsters. She had instead decided to adopt the creatures, two monsters of insane proportions that had resided in the seas of the planet and had taken the might of a master to root out and subdue. Her mother had named them Scylla and Charybdis, two monsters that through arcane runes she had been able to reduce their proportions to that of a humanoid.
The effects where obvious, the reduced mass she removed from them had gone straight into their strength attributes, ensuring they could hold their own against newly ascended masters. There were rumors that rulers and primordials as she finally realized that were eons old in the archailect, could influence the archailects’ system to a certain degree, and if that story was true, then that was what her mother had done.
Ashira had found it interesting how that story had reflected on Gaia, the world of the titan blade, the story of the twin monsters that rampaged across the tides of this world as well. Of course, they were only myths on this world, tales made up and influenced by the echoes of the same event happening in the archailect. Still, the world of the titan blade had an insane number of echoes rippling through it, beings in the archailect that were powers in the farthest expanse of reality were notable creatures or deities in their myths and stories.
It was a wonder that most powers hadn’t turned their eyes to this world, perhaps the isolation and current happenings in the archailect had drawn their gazes away, but Ashira knew it was only a matter of time before one of them, as in this case the primordial known as the bright scourge took notice of the world and decided to investigate why it rippled so. It was what she had been investigating, subtly moving from continent to continent, uncovering the ancient pre-archailect history of the world, at least those that survived.
Her conclusions were inadequate but they painted a picture most concerning, she was having a hard time wrapping her head around it. The world of the titan, earth, Gaia, whatever name it was called, was acting like a nexus point which it wasn’t. it was like a mirror and had been that way for millions of years, reflecting whatever echo had been sent its way, even before the advent of the archailect into its galaxy and system. She had kept her realization to herself though, it wouldn’t fare well for this world should she release such information and draw unruly eyes to it, Moyo was dealing with one of such already, another one would be totally unnecessary.
She drew her attention back to the woman on the throne, hair that moved of their own violation and packed enough power to wipe continents without so much as an effort, ebony dark skin that glowed softly, impervious to almost all substances or weapons on the archailect, her eyes glowing like hot red coals and from her waist down were undulations of appendages like those of an octopus, tentacular limbs that numbered in their hundreds and were extended for as far as the camera could see. This was her semi-monster form, the state she took whenever she wanted to make a point.
Tiamat Kairos, primordial and queen mother of all monsters was truly a terrifying and beautiful creature. A secluded being who only reared her head whenever any issue directly began to threaten her galaxy and domain, she had the reins to an infinite amount of disaster class monsters behind her, her shock troops so to say. Those who sufficiently ascended and gained sentience enough to differentiate between the mindless brutality they once had and attained enlightenment were initiated into the ranks of her watchers from the infant rank of iron experts.
This method had been sufficient to raise some of the archailects most brutal and loyal masters and experts who call her mother, an honorary term reserved to the best of her fighters who solely venerated her and in tiny minute forms, Ashira herself. Tiamat Kairos smiled, a most creepy of smiles as it stretched her lips from ear to ear,
“Daughter, master” Tiamat said,
Ashira rolled her eyes, unseating herself in one fluid move that looked more like rubber than that of a humanoid. Her mother had officially announced her daughter’s ascension to master to the rest of their galaxy, despite the fact that the battle had been shown to the entirety of the archailect. No one had been stupid enough to point it out to the queen of house Kairos and a primordial for that matter about that fact, instead, Ashira had been at the receiving ends of thousands of gifts and propositions for her to either marry some diamond ranker or master of some house or to train their wards or heirs.
She had commanded these requests go to her mother who had been all to happy to handle such intricacies of the archailect, her eons of experience and boredom put to good use with something that took her time. However, Ashira could see it in her mothers’ eyes, that gleam of pure bloodlust that only her father could contain coming to the forefront,
“Your father has finally agreed” she said,
“Not without much persuasion on your end I believe?” Ashira replied,
Her mother nodded, the bloodlust reducing to the adoration Tiamat Kairos had for her husband, one galactic apocalypse monster that fell for another apocalyptic monster. A pair made in the depths of the universe where even great monsters feared to tread, Ashira had always envied her parents relationship, eons long and still going strong, it was the kind she often hoped and wished for. Ashira had petitioned her father to be allowed in the coming invasion of Dire, seeing as almost all masters and the entirety of house Kairos were participating.
Her father had closed down the request with a firm no, his order as iron clad as his will to protect his daughter. She was to view the logistics, the videos sent from the front and coordinate protection of their galaxy and throne world of Kairos, but her feet or any essence will not leave the borders of their galaxy, not while he breathed. She knew then and there that only her mother could talk to him, the woman he adored more than even his own existence, however the help of Tiamat and the queen of monsters had come with a clause,
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Ashira would temporarily let go of the titan blade, she would forsake whatever she had for him for a short while in which Ashira would focus on settling into the powers of a master and digging deep to attain enlightenment and unlocking her own aspect.
In other words, her mother wanted to raise the fourth ruler of house Kairos as quickly as possible,
As absurd and terrifying as that would be to the rest to the great houses and archailect as a whole, Ashira had oddly accepted, seeing reason with her mother. Should she do otherwise, Moyo would leave her behind on this somewhat of a final step, the titan ever advancing on a straight line with his path before him. Already in possession of his aspect, his road to ruler cleared and only the issues he currently faced holding him back and as she could see even if he would deny it, his reluctance to leave those so far behind him.
With the rapid rise she was about to look forward to, it would no doubt spur him forwards, his sense of competition coming to the forefront again.
“We had a little spat, exchanged a few planets he’d been eyeing from my collection and I from his” she replied,
Ashira winced, a spat could mean as little as words to entire planets suffering natural disasters as her parents’ petty side came to the fore front, willing to subtly attack each other’s planets as retribution. Nothing so drastic as a world ending event, just a few things that could go as far as crashing the world’s economy and the likes. Tiamat continued, raising one finely manicured finger,
“However, his terms were pretty straight forward, you would use the infinity dungeon to push yourself as far as you can, you will do your best to reach the precipice of ruler before he would even consider seeing you or the chimera, your flagship at the muster point” she warned,
Ashira folded her arms but she was ecstatic on the inside, nodding to her mother,
“Acceptable, any other parameters?” she asked,
In as much as that one was a high enough command, it felt like her father was letting her off easily, as benevolent as her father was, Typhon wasn’t known to be that benevolent. Her mother smiled,
“Oh, that was all, my persuasion skills to a few days of intense…. ah…meetings with your father, but at the end of the day, it was sufficient to sate his determination” Tiamat said with a wink,
It took a few seconds for what her mother said to settle in her head, eyes wide, Ashira glanced around to see the ascenders trembling on the ground, keenly aware they were listening in to something private and were currently afraid for their lives and those of their loved ones,
“Too much information mother” she said with disgust,
Tiamat shrugged,
“are you sure?, I could give you pointers, just in case that boy toy of yours gathers the nerves to even make a move” Tiamat teased,
“mother” Ashira growled,
Tiamat laughed, her voice tinkling like bells,
“Fine, fine, but I don’t see you denying the boy toy name” Tiamat said purposefully,
“The titan blade isn’t a boy toy, or whatever sordid idea runs in your head, he leads a whole clan and is one of the most determined ascenders or being I have ever come across, at least give him the respect to address him as his sobriquet” she replied,
The man at the foot of her throne took one step forward, eyes blazing,
“heresy” he hissed,
Tiamat frowned down at him and Ashira watched his frame, that of a master crumple into gore and blood,
“You dare” she whispered,
“Mother!” Ashira said, aghast,
“I would suffer no insult to my line, an insult to you is an insult to me” she replied, her voice as deadly cold as steel,
Ashira sighed and eyed the man, whose messy form had begun to bubble, his fleshy and bony bits straightening out,
“what’s he?” she asked,
“oh, him?,” Tiamat said, Ashira nodding,
“Just an experiment I’ve been working on, splicing entire essences and the likes, nothing serious” she said dismissively,
“And you raised it to master rank?’ Ashira asked incredulously,
Tiamat nodded,
“Only way to stabilize the aspect I infused it with, much like that titan of yours, speaking of which, I just sent something” Tiamat said,
Ashira’s HUD blazed as she received a package, the system vault delivering the small box right into the hands of Ashira. She opened it, reading the description of the archailect, her eyes slowly widening as she sealed it back and threw it into one of her spatial boxes. Turning to her mother,
“are you sure?, that?, I mean I’ve heard of such, but to think you were sitting on one for so long…what if the other houses hear of it?” she asked,
Tiamat smiled,
“Think of it as a gift, an investment just in case you decide to give me offsprings with that titan of yours, something that is way overdue in my opinion” she replied,
“But still, that?” Ashira asked,
“I am curious as to what he would manifest it as” Tiamat said as she pondered quietly,
Ashira nodded and bowed at the waist,
“On behalf of the titan and I’m sure enough, his clan, thank you mother” she replied,
Tiamat nodded,
“Daughter, you know what this means?” she said, her voice as regal as the queen she was,
Ashira stood straight back, her chest thudding at the realization she had been coming to, she nodded,
“It is time for me to return” she replied,
“Indeed, it is time for you to take your place at our side, albeit for a short while, before the archailect is thrown into turmoil again” Tiamat said,
Ashira nodded,
“Understood, however I beg of your benevolence mother, there remains one issue I must help the titan address currently on his world, a matter of serious proportions” she said meaningfully,
The primordial incursion on his world,
Tiamat understood immediately,
“Ah, that issue” she started,
“I find it odd that he draws such attention, perhaps there must be something pertaining to that world of his” she said,
Ashira kept a straight face, if her mother, who hardly took notice of things like that happening, then other primordials would be taking notice as well, it was only a matter of time, so whatever Moyo did, he needed to get strong as quickly as possible, ruler strong. Her mother shook her head from such ruminations and gazed at her back,
“You think him inadequate to deal with the issue?” she asked,
Ashira shook her head,
“strength wise?, I don’t doubt him, Moyo could wipe out the continent should he wish it” she said immediately,
“But?” her mother asked,
“But I fear in as much as he could end whatever threat that goes toe to toe with him, most times he hardly sees the big picture, or those that move underneath such plots and while I would had left it for his clan, they are only bronzes” she explained, her mother wrinkling her face in disgust at the weakness,
Ashira nodded,
“Indeed, he needs stronger helpers while he deals with whatever firepower they bring against him” Ashira said,
“Fine, you have one month, whatever that means on that world of his to do all you can and make your way back home” Tiamat ordered,
Ashira bowed again, the video going dark as all the ascenders stood straight back up, Ashira sighing as she rubbed her forehead with her hand, she had a lot to do and so little time.
***********************************
“So if I understand you” king William said, standing at the edge of the pantheon and talking to Moyo who sat on his throne, the rest of the leaders factions seated also.
Moyo had explained the rough outline of the entire situation, taking care to leave out delicate information they weren’t privy to. Like the fact that they were dealing with an actual primordial, a concept they would not be familiar with for many ascension levels to come., he had left them with a lot to think about.
“What you’re telling us, is this entity had somehow hijacked an entire faction and intends to make them mindless servants of his will and eventuality, the entirety of Gaia as well?” William asked,
Moyo nodded,
“That sums it up well enough” he replied,
“This is, quite disconcerting, how were we not aware of this?” Devesh asked,
“What you’re dealing with are entities way above the ascension level, like way above mine as well, ruler rank” Moyo explained,
“When they move, only those of similar rank or a bit below them, like masters can see their machinations”
“But you know what they are, these entities, right?’ Cassandra asked,
Moyo glanced at her, nodding,
“In time, so would you, but until then, I’m afraid I cannot reveal this to you all, there are certain secrets tied to certain ascension ranks as you would no doubt come to realize soon enough” he replied,
“Then how do we fight a foe we do not know or understand?” Ba Ji asked, resting on a naginata blade,
“In as much as I would welcome you all as battle brothers, to flush our world of this taint, I’m afraid I cannot in good conscience let you participate” Moyo said, raising a hand as he saw the looks on their faces,
“Please, hear me out” he started,
“I do not doubt your strengths, not that of your factions, after all in my short return to Gaia, I’ve seen and heard of the accomplishments you have made” he said,
“But this foe doesn’t fight conventionally, this foe fields a master as his messenger, let that sink in for a moment. I expect most of this battle will be one of suicidal tendencies, throwing brainwashed ascenders at whatever force I decide to bring against them. You would lose vital ascenders and manpower, ascenders that can better serve Gaia in future battles, cause make no mistake, battles will come” he finished, sitting upright, purple eyes glowing,
He saw he had gotten their attentions, William glancing at him before nodding,
“So what’s the plan?’ he asked,
“I need your helps, with ensuring none of the taint survives and escapes through the borders of Lumia into another continent, your continents” Moyo said,
“and you?, what force could you possibly have to handle the entirety of Lumia?” Perun asked,
Moyo smiled,
“a small team I’m working on, they’ll be up to the task when I’m done with them, either that or they’ll die trying” he replied,
“I can’t help but point out something” Cassandra said, smiling at Moyo,
“You say this threat is above our levels, ruler rank if I’m not mistaken, seeing as it uses masters like lackeys” she noted,
Moyo smiled at her, she was sharp,
“So that means not even you should be privy to the sort of information you have, I mean, even the overseer was surprised but somehow our titan here somehow knew beforehand” she continued,
“Which means either you also serve a higher power, which I doubt” she said as William snorted at that,
“Or you somehow are considered their equal, so which is it?” she finished,
Moyo smiled, the rest of them taking in breaths and nodding, Moyo noticed a gleam in Perun’s eyes, his guardian, the female shaking her head, no doubt aware her lord was about to do something embarrassing,
“Titan blade, say, you wouldn’t be available for a light spar, would you?” Perun asked, the female behind him shaking her head at the titan blade, begging him not to accept,
Moyo chuckled,
“Perhaps another time, there are a lot of things to do currently, however when we’re done with this whole invasion issue, I would be delighted to” he replied,
Perun nodded just as enthusiastically, satisfied he still got to duel the titan blade, the lady behind him heaving a sigh of relief at the response. Willian sat back down,
“This war you speak about, you’re so certain it’s coming?” he asked,
Moyo nodded,
“There is a group, a cult so to speak in the greater archailect at large that hope to bring about the end of existence as we know it. Currently they’ve taken over an entire galaxy and have sealed themselves in, but in four months’ time, an invasion force of which I will be a part of will be going to try to put an end to them” Moyo replied,
“And you think this will escalate to include our universe?” Cassandra asked,
“I believe so, you want to get involved?, this is how, by growing stronger and preparing for the inevitable battle that will come, bronze or silver might not cut it for what’s coming, gold is what I’m hoping you’re at” Moyo replied,
“you want us to jump that many ascension ranks in just four months?, how?” Devesh asked, stupefied,
“Leave that to me, but what I want is for us all to step up our ascensions, we do not have the liberty to rest” he finished,
“And on that grave note, I believe it’s time we talk about the dungeons” Luke said, trying to lighten the mood,
Moyo nodded, now satisfied the seriousness of the situation had been imparted into them, they moved on to other topics, the gathering of the most powerful ascenders on Gaia.