Moyo ran through them like an unrelenting machine, brutalising them, healing them, and then brutalising them all over again in a circle of training so bloody the ascenders were creating dents in the mountain with their bodies. Soon enough,it paid off, the bronze rankers instinctively knowing when to snap their core realms around him or disengage when he began to overwhelm them every time. Soon enough he gathered all ten ascenders in total, Ashira’s team also coming out bloody but with a feral gaze to them that promised retribution for whosoever they faced.
Due to training with people leagues above them, their skills skyrocketed above the 200 mark; their bronze-ranked bodies became more durable than ever. Moyo could bet that they were currently among the strongest bronze rankers in the entirety of Gaia. His aim wasn’t bronze, though, it was silver, peak silver and he intended to drag them there before committing them to the invasion of Lumia. With the team arraigned, he smiled at the looks in their eyes, some staring at him with impotent rage, knowing fully well that he could wipe them from reality before they twitched, some with the bloodlust eagerness for more battle and some with the wariness of their surroundings, seeing as they were in the middle of the mountain and any beast could swoop in from the open mountain top above for them.
None of them had the looks of veneration for the titan,
Moyo was satisfied; try idolising a master that broke your bones in four different ways with a touch over and over while staring stoically at you. Ashira had also impressed upon him the need to train his clan and he had agreed; he intended to launch an entire crusade on the black zone, bearing the might of the clan down on the dungeon-infested zone. No doubt they would lose a few ascenders, but Moyo was somewhat okay with that, they needed to learn and he would do his utmost best to protect them. However, what he had learned from ascenders was the pure fact that some were willing to take unnecessary risks for power, Moyo was guilty of that also and whatever they reaped from it, whether it be power or death was left to them, they couldn’t all be the titan.
He clapped at them, gaining their attention as they glanced at him, gazes snapping to attention,
“You all survived the first phase of the training” he started as their eyes widened; Tomasa shook his head, resting on a wooden pole that had his aura running through it and reinforcing it to an absurd level of strength,
He raised an eyebrow,
“What?, you don’t think that was the end, did you?” he said laughing, Ashira grinning as she stared at her nails that could become claws that could pierce through any defensive mantle protection in a blink,
“All we’ve done is rid you of bad habits to fighting and straighten you out, and now the real training begins,” she said, her eyes glowing acidic green as the ascenders stared rigidly at her,
They didn’t falter or take a step back in fright, good Moyo thought to himself,
“In my experience, nothing comes close to real experience” Moyo continued,
“And it is for this reason I intend for you all to keep fighting bronze-ranked dungeon monsters till you can one-shot them” he said mildly,
Yemi shifted hesitantly,
“When you said keep fighting, do you mean indefinitely?” he asked,
“Oh yes, with your orders not to go inside the dungeons to kill the dungeon boss, you are to simply stem the tides of the monsters till your attacking power overwhelms the dungeons’ ability to produce monsters” Moyo replied,
Vaughn spoke up, his voice rolling through the air,
“We’re in the black zone; the aether quality here has empowered the dungeons to produce over a hundred percent more than usual; it’s a wonder the green spear sect and the delving guild have been able to hold back the tide”
“Well, they didn’t do so by complaining. Besides, it’s time you guys start earning your keep” he replied,
Vaughn kept quiet after that, mutely nodding and glancing at the horizon and the screeches of the monsters,
“Now I will separate the silvers from the bronze creatures, ensuring you don’t get any nasty surprises from silver monsters that would without a doubt end your existences in a most gruesome of manner; however, should I for some reason get distracted and my shield falls, master Ashira here, who if she so inclines to be benevolent, will step in to save you all” he stated,
“However, if she feels your performances have been less than satisfactory, well, it’s been an honour knowing you all”, Moyo stated,
“you’re leaving us?” Amiya asked, deadly calmness in her eyes,
“Yes, for a while; I am, after all, the leader of a clan that holds an entire continent you currently reside in” he replied,
With that said, he took a step of Ogun, appearing outside the mountain and honed in on the silver, gold and even a few diamond monsters that prowled around in the distance; eyes narrowed, he shot his aura towards his intended targets and spoke the command,
“SCRAM”
Pure terror gripped the monsters; a few silvers dropped them, exploding into aether and essence, the golds made a mad dash into the horizon and the diamonds sensed the predator that had revealed such a presence to know they would die a senseless death. So they ran, taking out their frustration on any golds that strayed near their path.
Satisfied with the result he had, he took one step back into the mountain and opened a pathway to the outside,
“You know they could have just passed the gates, right?’ Ashira asked with a smirk,
“Putting on a show” he replied,
“More like show off” she countered,
With the ascenders arraigned, staring at the throngs of bronze-ranked monsters that blotted out the skies above, he pointed at the monsters,
“Right there in the distance is your way to ascension or your death; elixirs and potions are allowed; archailect knows I never had a use for them” he said as Ashira coughed,
Narrowing his eyes at her as she stared at him innocently, he continued,
You will defend Endurance to the death; it is to be your home, your fortress where you will train the next generation of a group I currently have no name for” he said as Ashira shook her head at him,
“Think of it like you have family inside; you want something to fight for; Endurance is that cause, master Ashira, if you will?” he said,
She nodded and shrouded her core to iron, shaking her head at the apparent feeling of helplessness,
“Brings back bad memories” she muttered,
Then with a narrowed gaze, she shot her aura out at the monsters and shouted a command,
“ROAR”
The aura of an iron ranker was like a foolish challenge to the bronze-ranked monsters, and the denizens of the dungeons did not forgive of such a challenge. Shrieks of anger and bloodlust filled the air as they honed in on their position, Ashira unshrouding her core and vanishing from their surroundings,
“don’t worry, she’s around here, watching, anyways; good luck!” Moyo replied as they glanced around,
With a thought he opened a pathway into Bastion and dominion itself, appearing in the throne room; this time the protective runes he had reinforced recognised him and maintained their silence. He came up short when he stared at Annika in front of him, unaware of his arrival and looking, unsure of what to do; he remained frozen,
“One would think you’re the first to run into their ex, lord titan blade” Annika said from where she stood, her eyes never leaving the scroll,
Moyo winced at the term ex, relaxing a bit as Annika snapped the scroll shut, Moyo giving a little jump as he decided to look casual. Annika smirked as she bowed at the waist,
“Lord titan blade, what brings you home?” she asked,
“Impending invasion of Lumia, crusade into the black zone, you know, little things” he replied,
She gave a light chuckle before waving the scroll,
“This right here is a list of the strongest ascenders from each of the sects that have volunteered for your crusade into the black zone, and it also includes schools who have distinguished themselves as well under each of the sects” she stated, tossing it to him,
He caught it, unrolling it as he read the long list of names that kept updating himself,
“Limitless technology and my clan decides to go with an electronic scroll” he murmured, eyes running through the list,
“We prefer a little flair for the dramatic” Annika said as she shrugged,
He glanced at the spear at her side, the bland weapon strapped horizontally to her waist from behind,
“Gotten any use out of the weapon?” he asked,
She shook her head,
“tried using it during my ascension to expert, nothing but a hum, a vibration of some sort that faded the moment the ascension was completed” she replied,
He gave a soft grunt and gestured for her to hand it over to him; she nodded and gave him the spear, taking great care not to touch him, a fact he noted with regret but kept quiet. The weapon in his hand, he clenched his hand and used his aura to run through the weapon, titan aspect encompassing it as his eyebrows shot up. That explained what was wrong with the weapon,
“Divinum” he growled,
“What?” she asked,
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
He glanced up at her,
“Nevermind, I’ll be back now; convene the meeting” he said and vanished from reality,
Appearing within his quarters, he sealed the doors with his aura and sat crossed-legged on the floor; with a thought he summoned his vault gate and threw the spear into it, closing the vault door and sending it back into his core realm. Then he dived into his core realm, the spear sticking into the ground below his mountain and near his sea of Ashe. Gripping the spear, he glanced at it with a narrowed gaze,
“Is this one of your gifts too?” he shouted to his skies above,
Tossing the spear deep into the ocean of Ashe, he dived into the sea itself, going towards where the initial piece of Divinum he was given resided. As he guessed, his Ashe had begun to taint the metal a dark purple colour, but that was just one part of the experiment he intended to make on the piece of metal. Gripping the metal hard, he dived deeper into the ocean, towards the bottom of the sea itself where the body of the first titan had lain; coming to a stop, he blazed with power and the runes he had lain on the sea bed a while back came to life as the sea bed cracked and a thick purple gelatinous liquid began to creep out of the bed,
His titan aspect in its form when it wanted to fuse with his sea of Ashe,
Creating a crater-like bowl at the bottom of the current ground he stood, he let the titan aspect coalesce inside it, actively preventing it from mixing with his Ashe. Then he dumped the Divinum into it, soaking it with his Ashe as he sat down, the gravitational pressure of his realm wrapping him in its loving embrace. He felt the power of the Divinum, its unyielding nature, and sturdiness that came from reality itself and the unmovable will of reality to ascertain its dominance in the face of oblivion.
His titan aspect merged entirely with that part and he nodded; he represented the same notion, the same aspect; he was the defender of reality and the archailect. Maybe not the current form the archailect had taken, but the archailect as a structure; therefore, he was granted access to the very framework of the metal, the workings within which he came across the very aspect of Alastor.
The aspect was a minute thing, like a speck or a grain of sand on a beach, but the power it held was staggering. It felt like a compressed explosion from a nuclear weapon, barely held at bay by the metal and Moyo marvelled at it. The intent had the authority to cleave through every layer of reality, every galaxy, and the universe to touch oblivion itself. Moyo was thinking of toying with it. Taking a deep breath, he gathered his Ashe, the sea churning around him and Greed of Esu.
He supposed he hadn’t had a use for that particular skill in a long while, not when he suspected it had been the cause of him eating the command of Akriel back on the continent of Rimor. Still, he was grateful for its existence, and he intended to make full use of it. Bit by bit, he began to tread slowly into its domain, not before he had fully converted the metal’s body though, its physical properties fused with the titan aspect itself. With wariness, he watched as Greed of Esu took a bite out of the aspect of Alastor and felt his reality turn upside down,
The pure power, memories and authority that was Alastor began to rampage with Greed of Esu,
With a snarl he doubled down, pouring his titan aspect over Greed of Esu as it began to savagely rip into the piece of aspect belonging to the supreme being of edges. This was just a speck in a speck of the power of a supreme being, it would be shameful if he couldn’t overcome it and even with the migraine-inducing struggle, Moyo’s determination and willpower never faltered or broke. His dedication to the battle was at a hundred percent and he didn’t intend to lose. Even as his body shook and the ocean frothed around him, he persevered, placing his entire Ashe and titan aspect into absorbing the metal.
Finally, Greed of the titan swallowed it in its entirety, that speck of the total speck that was the aspect of Alastor and Moyo felt a presence encompass his entire realm, like an eye through a magnifying glass, searching for something before withdrawing its presence. Moyo’s heart thumped heavily in his chest, eyes wide as his HUD came up,
Notice: titan aspect has gained additional mass through the absorption of minuscule but the greater part of a superior aspect; titan aspect will begin evolution,
Titan Aspect:5%
Notice: Greed of Esu has absorbed a greater aspect of a supreme being and will begin evolution. Evolving…...aspect sufficient for forced evolution…. evolution complete!
* Greed of the titan has evolved into the Deific Greed of Esu.
* Deific Greed of Esu: Esu's greed has surpassed the mortal coil's limitations and can now easily absorb superior aspects, aether, essences and authorities!
Moyo stared wide-eyed at the notification and back at the metal, an evil grin creeping in on his face as he began to chuckle to himself. Granted he didn’t have a mentor to this primordial rank of a thing, but if this was how interesting the realm of primordial was then Moyo couldn’t wait to start eating aspects, it was called Greed of Esu after all. With that taken care of, he focused on absorbing the rest, the heresy of eating an aspect of a supreme being and Deific greed of Esu all to happily munched on the remaining speck of the aspect of Alastor, empowering the titan aspect to 15%. Moyo grinned as he sat up, grabbing the purple metal as he twirled it in his hand, calling up his HUD and scratching his head at the info it produced,
Tampered Divinum: this piece of the sacred metal of Alastor has been defiled with the essence of a mythical path ascender. While it retains its divine sturdiness and strength, it can no longer be called Divinum, awaiting a new name……...
“Uh,” Moyo said, wincing,
“well, that’s an issue” he said, glancing and seeing a sea serpent swimming in the ocean and wondering when that got there, was his realm now breeding life forms?,
Shaking his head, he glanced back at the metal,
“What to name you, what to name you, hmmm….” He said,
“titanium’s been taken, bladinium sounds, wow, no, nope, nein,” he said, shaking his head,
“what about asanium?, asanium, asanium, asanium, Aserite!, Aserite, hmm, doesn’t that sound like arse?” he mumbled,
He shrugged,
“Meh, too much thinking, Aserite it is” he said as he typed it in,
Notice: defiler of Divinum has named the defiled metal Aserite
“Hey!” Moyo protested, apparently hurt by the wording of the HUD,
Ignoring the HUD, he opened his palm and willed the spear to come to him, the weapon piercing through the air to arrive in his position. He caught it and stabbed it straight into the titan aspect pooled below in the crater where he methodically began to break down the Divinum within it, turning it to Aserite. It wasn’t more like he was destroying the Divinum and more like reinforcing its physical properties with his aspect while steadily chewing through the speck of Alastor’s aspect within it that was even smaller than the Divinum given to him by the messenger.
Soon enough, the spear became dark purple, filled with Aserite and ready to be wielded, he had plans for the spear and when he left his core realm he’d get to work. But he had accomplished something here that he wasn’t sure other primordials had and he intended not to tell a soul, not that he had just stolen from a supreme being. With that done, he made his way out of the ocean of Ashe and straight to his forge, gripping metal and spear in hand as he whistled to himself. However, he felt a presence unlike any other force its way into Bastion and without thinking twice, dropped the metal and spear as he phased back to reality proper.
Right in the middle of his throne room stood a man in a red coat, oddly enough red sunshades and a heavy beard that smoked and sizzled at its tip. Moyo instantly recognised him as a brigade member. Still, this one looked and felt stronger than Atreus, who opened a pathway straight into his palace like it was nothing, the path of the sun-burning dragon eating away at his runes like water through wet tissue. It was with alarm that he noticed his sect leaders attacking the man with all their most potent attacks and who kept on staring at them amusingly,
With greater shock, he noticed that Atreus had gone straight to his knees in respect, not even giving Moyo a glancing look. Moyo released an aura pulse, restraining his sect leaders who turned to him, the man glancing at him. Moyo gently placed them down,
“Brigade ruler” he said slowly, waiting for it to click in their heads as they turned back to the man in terror,
The man with a large-looking cigar that somehow had animated smoke that screamed in silent anguish, trashing around on the red-hot tip, smiled and gave a deep chuckle,
“She was right about you” he rumbled,
“General, it is an honour to have you here” Atreus said,
Moyo glanced between Atreus that behaved like a beaten puppy and then back to the man who grinned,
“Yes, yes, Atreus, right?” He asked,
Atreus nodded even as he knelt,
“Good work, fast response; a minute late and I would have had a reason to end you, pity” he said as Atreus shivered,
Moyo tried to project calmness in the face of the general whom he could literally feel oozed with barely restrained power; he glanced to his waist to see two alien-looking guns strapped there and each of them packed enough power to rival a sun; this was not someone he intended to have a duel with and he knew that. Taking a step forward, he spoke,
“Welcome to Gaia general; how may I help you?” he asked,
The man looked him from up to down and snorted,
“Some primy” he said as he moved to Moyo so fast, he was sure the rest wouldn’t even see what had happened,
With one touch of the general, reality twisted as Moyo found himself in the interior of a large ship, in front of Tania thousand whips who shook her head at him,
“Not barely up to a month and you’re already causing trouble; I’m afraid this time not even your position nor daddy dearest himself can save you” she said with a sigh,
The general coughed as Tania turned to him,
“Yes, yes, let’s get on with it; a pity though” she said,
The general nodded and spoke,
“Master titan blade, you stand accused of corrupting a piece of divine metal known as Divinum given to you by a messenger of the supreme beings, yes, or no?” he asked,
Moyo folded his arms,
“I was told I could do as I liked with the metal” he replied,
Tania shook her head as the general chuckled,
“Yes it is then; let the archailect note that the ascender titan blade has admitted to messing with the piece of Divinum given to him by the messenger and in the most blasphemous of circumstances, absorbed a piece of the aspect of Alastor, something that in itself shouldn’t be possible and wouldn’t be spoken of again after this trial. We now await the harbinger of Alastor to bring the final verdict” the general said, coughing a bit as he drew from the cigar,
“Those things will kill you” Tania said with a narrowed gaze,
“smoking the essences of my fallen foes?, it can’t get any better” the general replied,
Moyo stared in silence at the situation playing out, dominion ready to be called, but the case looked bleaker than ever. For some reason, his HUD wasn’t responding to his thought and he couldn’t send a message to Ashira who would have no doubt heard of the current situation on ground. He was under the illusion of the fact that he could beat both of them; hell, he wasn’t even sure he could touch the general with his arcane magic and weapons.
His thoughts were dragged away by a pathway opening up into the ship and Zane true blade stepping through the swirling path and into the hard cold floor of the ship they were in,
“ah, harbinger Zane, what is the -“
“free” Zane said, cutting Tania off,
“What?” the general asked,
“Alastor declares he is to be freed of all charges and left to his devices on the condition that he abstains from making more Aserite as he calls it outside of his realm, or he bestows it on any other ascender” Zane said while maintaining eye contact with Moyo,
Moyo nodded, carefully looking through the wordings,
“Pay heed young primordial, Alastor knows what you intend to do, and while he will permit that train of thought, he warns you to be careful on how you proceed. Divinum is to be the strongest metal in the archailect. What you intend to do or have done, is to create an alternative that primordials or ancients alike can swarm towards” Zane said as Moyo froze,
“While you may not be looking at the monetary gains, should they realize they cannot get that from you through offers, be prepared to defend it to the death, also, for not condemning you to sanctioning, Alastor will require you perform a task for him, at his own time, the nature of the task is not currently known, but you cannot and will not refuse said task, do you swear this on the archailect, primordial titan blade?” Alastor said,
Moyo narrowed his gaze, rage dancing in his eyes,
“that’s a little vague, don’t you think, Zane?” he asked,
The general snorted,
“Baby primy thinks he can talk to harbingers anyhow he likes; you’re not in the big leagues just yet” he said,
Moyo simply glanced at the general, Ashe blazing up through his essence as reality began to solidify next to him, the genera; grinned,
“This one’s got balls, I’ll give it to you” he said chuckling,
“don’t antagonize the primy, next thing we’ll see is Kairos pressing for reparations” Tania said sighing, as if she wasn’t talking about her adoptive father,
“So, he’s a part of the terrestrials?” the general asked,
Moyo perked up at that, Kairos was a terrestrial and that boded good things for him, but he kept quiet,
“Do you swear on the archailect to obey these terms?” Zane repeated,
Moyo sighed and replied,
“Yes, I swear on the archailect to follow the terms of the agreement placed by Zane true blade, harbinger of Alastor” he said as a loud gong reverberated around them,
Tania clapped, standing up as she beamed,
“Great!, now can everyone please respectfully fuck off my ship so I can get back to official brigade business?” she said with a sweet deadliness to her voice,
“gladly” Moyo replied,
The general glanced at him,
“Be seeing you around, primy” he said as he snapped his hands and Moyo appeared back in his throne room with an assembled sect leaders and a nervous Atreus tapping his feet,
The overseer glanced up at him,
“Well?” he asked,
“Well what?” Moyo asked,
“is this world getting cleansed?, am I being relieved of my duties?” he asked,
Moyo rolled his eyes,
“Nothing of such, a bit of story though” he replied,
“Then I’m all ears” Atreus replied as Moyo sat on his throne.