The entirety of bastion and soon enough Asa witnessed dark purple clouds rolling in from the north, across the seas. The oppressive aura while heavy bore no ill will to the inhabitants of the land, the dungeon monsters however witnessed an oppressiveness unlike anything they had ever felt before and while it didn’t outrightly kill them; drove the ever-living terror straight through their existences. The black zone saw a retreat of all the monsters assaulting the lesser sects, a mass rampage born of terror as the lesser monsters invaded the slowly forming territories between the gold all the way to the bronze ranked monsters.

All it did was create a proxy war between the monsters, rampaging dungeon creatures that were slowly becoming a part of the ecosystem of the black zone. The sect and schools despite the warnings of the delving guild and green spear sect took it as an opportunity to send their best ascenders into the warring monster zone in a bid to rank up their top ascenders and top bronze rankers.

What took place next was a massacre unlike any other where the silver ranked monsters and golds laid waste to the majority of them, only the timely intervention of the green spear sect saved what measly few were left. The clan under the sect of the dawn archers who usually stood sentry also took their pound of flesh from the sects for the blatantly disregarding the orders of the titan blade himself. However, with the oppressive clouds of aether and aura that was undoubtedly that of the titan blade himself.

The next phenomenon was the slow but gradual transformation of bastion itself into a mountain domain with the walls actually higher than bastion itself. The sudden expansion, strengthening and growth of the walls had caught the entire inhabitants of bastion off guard, somehow harming neither the citizens nor the guards on sentry duty. The new wall; meters thick with dark glowing crystals that not even the divine weapons of the sect leaders as they were called could pierce them; stood undauntingly in the face of everyone. The walls now stretched to cover the entirety of the domain itself, providing a menacing aura to enemies but protective aura to those loyal to the titan blade himself.

There had been no archailect notice to anyone which led everyone to believe that whatever was going on was a work of the patriarch himself, however Mrs Martha had a different train of thought. Even as she took the anti-gravity train to the heart of the Ife itself, resting on her fate weavers as a walking stick despite the fact that she looked and felt more like a woman in her late thirties was enough to show she preferred to project an aura of helplessness. The sect leader of the hands of Anansi was far from helpless, over the period of time before the advent of the calamity, each of the main sects that made up the clan had been slowly building their personal fighting styles.

The hands of Anansi preferring short melee weapons such as daggers and knives had evolved their fighting styles to that of an assassin type; preferring the use of poisons and harmful substances coating their weapons, they were subtly in an alliance with a poison sect that held a town to themselves within the domain of Trellis which was by proxy the domain of the titan blade himself. Martha chuckled to herself at what Moyo would think about a sect of nefarious poison users within his domain, the titan would come down on them like a deity he denied he was, at least in the eyes of the common folk.

Mrs Martha wasn’t delusional about straight lines of right or wrong, black or white. Compromises had to be made for the betterment of the clan and Asa as a whole and she was realistic enough that she had to work albeit to an extent; with these less than stellar sects for the betterment of the clan and Asa as a whole. Though she followed a strict code of conduct that would see the sect of the poison blades totally wiped from existence should they so much as begin to work for those who had ulterior motives against the clan or Asa as a whole, plus the whole law about not harming kids, which was what would personally bring her ire down on the sect; a fact they knew that well enough. She heaved a sigh as she glanced out at the dark train glass that showed bastion, rising skylight houses and offices that were popping up around the capital of Ife itself.

She let herself smile a little,

They had done it,

They had raised an entire nation out of nothing but the strength of one man and even though the titan would vehemently deny such a claim, she and the rest of the sect leaders knew it was the truth. Bastion, Ife, Asa wouldn’t be standing had it not been for the sacrifices of a man who had been willing to drop his wealth when any other ascender would had hoarded it for their personal gain, rather than the betterment of humanity. She deep down wished he had ended up with Annika, the both of them would had made a great poster couple of power for their continent, plus the thought of white haired but dark skinned babies with either purple or blue eyes appealed to her.

Love however, played its own sadistic games and it had seen the titan return with the heir to one of the archailects most ruthless and powerful houses as a partner. The ruthless side of Mrs Martha applauded the move, for while she knew he hadn’t thought of it that way, the titan not having a single iota of politics in his vein; it had impressed her nonetheless.

The move had ensured the clan had silver and gold rankers from the house of Kairos that had come along with the two warships sitting idly in the dark side of the moon, another super weapon of immense proportions be available to train the clan members.

Moyo had absolutely no idea the golds and silvers of Kairos were busy training the bronze rankers of the clan and with no shame, even the sect leaders as well. The idea had been brought up by Ashira herself, stating that Moyo had too much on his plate and too little time to see to the overall training of the clan and Mrs Martha agreed.

Every day they bothered him was a day he could get stronger in order to protect the clan, Asa and Gaia as a whole and she wouldn’t have it, she took him more like a son at this stage and she would do what was best for him.

The slowing down of the train announced they were getting close to their destination, she stood up along with the rest of the members of the train who walked ahead of her,

Hands of Anansi all,

She tapped her fate weavers gently on the train and her aura infused aether webs spread out around her, cataloguing everyone and everything around her. She shook her head with a sigh at the oppressive aura of the titan that filled the air and pressed on her senses, wondering how one person had this much excess power just floating around. The last she had heard of the titan was from his butler Augustus who said he wanted to be isolated within his quarters, it made her wonder what sort of things were going on within his quarters.

She stepped out of the anti-gravity train and glanced around, sighting Ayo and Boyle standing at a corner of the isolated area of land close to Ife. It had been reserved for agricultural use; having belonged to a very wealthy merchant who had the hopes of setting up a fast farm produce delivery business which in theory would boom this close to Ife itself where the wealthy lived. Calls from their vice sect leaders had woken them up in the middle of the night about some sort of occurrence happening at that particular area and she had ordered her spiders to weave an invisibility skill around the area, entirely sealing it off from the naked eyes of the inhabitants of the area.

Also, the hammers of Ogun had claimed to be testing out some new device there and known for their penchants for blowing things up, the citizens of the area had wisely kept off the area. Martha left Annika to deal with the supposed nobles of bastion who held considerable wealth in the capital and thought it gave them the rights to interfere with the running of the clan. To put it lightly, they were scared of Annika, for the lightning empress ruled her domain with an iron fist and they knew well enough than to bother her after she so bluntly told them ‘No’ when they inquired about just what was going on in the area during the early hours of the day.

With a bolt of lightning Annika appeared along with Julius her second in command who followed her everywhere she went, her white hair and bright lightning blue eyes stood out from the rest of them and again Mrs Martha wished Moyo had picked the lightning empress. Annika glanced at the rest of them,

“where’s Samantha?” she asked,

“The sect leader of the eight path runes sends her regards and would be joining us soon enough” Idris said from atop what looked like a large mechanical golem that no doubt belonged to the hammers of Ogun. Annika nodded,

“Okay, let’s see what new craziness our patriarch has thrown at us again” she said with a sigh,

Martha simply shook her head with a smile and stepped through the web that parted for her along with the rest of the sect leaders and Julius. The moment they stepped onto the crystal cobbled streets, they paused, their breaths held at the pure power that ran around the area. Julius fell to his knees in awe,

“The titan blade” he said,

Mrs Martha glanced at him with a slight frown before glancing back at the large structure in front of them in the short distance. The rest of the sect leaders all stood in pure awe at the power they couldn’t put a finger on, and to be frank, neither could Martha as well. One thing she knew was that Moyo was definitely not aware of this structure being here, if he knew, it would had been demolished.

To put it in simple terms, it was a temple, or more like a cathedral seeing the tall spires made of dark purple crystals that pulsed with power, releasing aura with every pulse into the air around them. Mrs Martha sighed as she began walking towards the building, every step feeling like she should drop to her knees in pure adoration of the titan,

No, not adoration, veneration,

She nodded to herself, Moyo would throw a fit if he saw this. However; Martha was thinking towards another angle entirely and her mind was calculating the pros and cons of such.

The truth was Moyo wouldn’t be on the planet much, and the clan needed a constant reminder that someone was watching over them from the deep expanse of space. So what was wrong with having a place to send their thoughts and prayers to him?, to let him know he had millions and soon enough billions if she had her way back home praying to him.

She stopped in her tracks, eyes wide at the train of thought that had been running through her head and snapped her head to the other sect leaders who were murmuring with pure veneration in their voices and with a large pulse of her aura, managed to release them from the grip of the aura. They stopped and came back to their senses, Julius rising to his feet in a flash, glancing around,

“Such oppressive aura, we have to tell him” Ayo said with alarm,

“no” Mrs Martha said as they turned to her in confusion,

For once in her reign as a sect leader of the clan, she looked utterly confused, the power had snapped her thoughts, twisting it to its use and it had shaken her to her core. A tiny part of her wondered if this was what truly Moyo was like, was he manipulative?; did he actually wanted to be seen as some sort of deity?,

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

A primordial as they were called?

She shook her head, reaffirming her faith in the titan, primordials were rulers that had centuries upon centuries under their belt and while the titan was a monster growing at a phenomenal rate, he was no primordial, no doubt a very strong master. It then begged the question of what had brought about a structure like this?, was there something she was missing?.

She glanced back at the sect leaders,

“We have no idea if it could be a power source, and until we thoroughly investigate the building, I suggest we not tell him about the building that makes people want to venerate him” she said,

“you keep using the word venerate, not worship, you do know that sounds worse right?, like the Lumia issue worse” Boyle said,

She sighed,

“No doubt we have a lot to talk about, but do you think the titan would turn out the way the Luminian theocracy did?” she asked,

The invisibility web opened up as Samantha stepped through, paused, eyes wide before quick deft movements of her hands saw protective runes spring forth, shielding her from the worst of the aura of the titan. She briskly walked up to them, weaving runes over each and every one of them. They muttered their thanks,

“What in the archailects name is going on here?” she whispered,

Annika gave her the run down and Samantha looked lost in thought, staring at the cathedral in the distance before nodding,

“I agree with Martha, we need to investigate it before bringing it to the notice of titan, it could be along the same transformations the same ones going on around the entirety of bastion” she said,

Mrs Martha nodded at her as the rest held their reservations and together; they marched towards the cathedral. The pillars were made of some sort of dark metal, the HUD calling it Aserite and Boyle shrugging at the name,

“I haven’t heard of it” he said,

She nodded and stepped through the doors of the cathedral into a room bathed with a light, reflecting on the crystals that lined the walls of the large open space that glittered like crystals in sunlight. In the middle of the large cathedral, just underneath the glass dome through which the sunlight entered in broken fragmented pieces stood a statue of the titan blade himself. Stoic and cold looking, made of the same Aserite metal that made up the pillars that stood outside the cathedral.

He stood at ten feet tall, a statue of pure ego and pulsed with the aura of the titan; the indomitable will that represented all the titan blade stood for. They stared for a few seconds, Annika sighing as they glanced at her,

“it’s time we accepted the fact” she said, eyeing the statue with what Mrs Martha could only consider awe and something akin to acceptance,

“And that would be?” Ayo asked, walking closer to the statue,

“That Moyo, that the titan is no longer on our league, or anything we remotely even know” she replied,

“primordials” Mrs Martha said,

“What?” Boyle asked her,

She turned to them, glancing at them all as she considered how to phrase her next words,

“Primordials, I believe Moyo, our patriarch is turning into one right before our eyes” she said,

“What are primordials?” Idris asked folding his hands,

Mrs Martha took a deep breath before speaking,

“Swear to me, swear on the archailect here and now that whatever I tell you, although it comes from the akashic library, will not be spoken to anyone or in the presence of anyone apart from those in this room here and now” she said with all seriousness, no traces of mirth on her face,

The leaders of clan titan blade drew themselves to their full heights as Julius bowed and stepped out of the cathedral respectfully, the sect leaders all turned to her, their presences sizzling as their auras spread out, intermingling between themselves as they spoke as one, swearing on the bond they shared, swearing on their positions and swearing on the oath they bore to the titan blade to never speak of the words she was about to tell them, not even in the face if the titan blade himself.

The gong of the archailect accepting the oath rang around them, constricting their spirits to the terms they had laid out. Mrs Martha nodded and spoke, she explained to them the secrets the akashic library had revealed to her. She revealed the reality of beings stronger than rulers, the ancients, the jades and the primordials, she spoke of the fact that no one lower than ruler were to know of such information and the fact that they knew made them a liability to the titan blade himself.

She explained of what the library revealed the primordials to be, beings only a step lower than the supreme beings but the gulf of power between the supreme beings and the primordials being like that of the deepest oceans and seas, unquantifiable but present. She also explained to them just what the state of being a primordial was, the fact that they were the next thing to perfection in the archailect just below the supreme beings, these presences and entities that bent the archailect to their wills and moved in the background.

Entities whose reach and power were second only to the supreme beings, whose wealth were unquantifiable and who had numerous rulers allied to them and hundreds of masters under their control. She then explained the long and arduous process of reaching that stage, of the power and lifetimes it took to reach that stage as well. Of the main fact that you had to have reached the stage of ruler, crossed over to ancient before breaking through to the threshold of primordial

And then she explained the boggling fact that Moyo was beginning to display signs of becoming one

The room maintained a silence that was only broken when Idris sighed, they all turned to the hulk of a man who rubbed his temples,

“Do you all remember our beginnings?” he asked,

They all stared at him as he glanced at them,

“When we all thought our deaths were all but assured and there comes along a man, a boy really, with the power to seemingly defy all odds” he said, a gleam in his eyes,

“we’re all aware Idris, we were there, well, except Samantha but yes” Annika said as Samantha nodded,

“Then you know who Moyo was, you know who Moyo is and the fact that he has done all in his capacity to ensure our lives are as peaceful as it can get in this messed up reality” he said, his voice rising a bit,

“Just what are you saying Idris?” Ayo asked, her voice going deathly silent,

Mrs Martha glanced between the sect leaders in alarm, feeling their auras bubbling and threatening to spill,

“You all know what Martha meant when she told us just what those entities are” Idris started,

“I don’t care if Moyo is becoming an actual deity in some sense, I don’t care what you all fear, my life, my existence is sworn to the titan, I am his sentinel, I will guard him to the death if I have to” he growled,

“Careful there Idris, some would call it a fanatical look of things” Boyle cautioned,

Idris glanced at him,

“Is it any better than what you all are about to start saying?” he asked,

“I find it a tad bit amusing that you already assume what my intentions are” Martha said with a smile, trying to diffuse the situation,

She noticed Annika remained deathly quiet and still, storms brewing in her eyes as she stared at Idris. Martha folded her arms behind her as she spoke, drawing all attentions to her,

“The fact that you assume so little of us sentinel, is a bit disappointing” she started,

Idris merely folded his arms and stood resolutely,

“My main purpose for informing you all, is the absurdity at the growth of the titan, the fact that he doesn’t play by the rules and somehow seems non-existent to the consequences of things happening around him” she explained,

Annika nodded, Martha turned to her,

“Something to add, storm empress?” she asked,

Annika nodded and turned to them,

“has the titan protected us?, yes, has he raised us to positions of power?, yes, but what happens when the bill comes due?” she asked,

“What happens when eventually the consequences of his actions catch up to him and suddenly, he’s too strong for any repercussions to really do anything to him, who do you think the ire of the archailect would turn to?” she finished,

“Then we would meet it with all our might, all of the fight in our veins and the fact that Moyo wouldn’t leave us to the whims of the archailect” Boyle said as Idris nodded,

Annika raised one finger, a smile on her lips,

“Ah, but what happens when the titan isn’t around to protect us?, what happens if by some stroke of luck the titan isn’t around to help us?, what then happens to the great clan that ruled Asa?, the home of the titan?” she asked,

Mrs Martha nodded appreciatively,

“The fact that Moyo courts the daughter of another of these beings would no doubt soon begin to draw unwanted attention to a world barely getting into its own strength, a world that is in no form or shape ready to survive an invasion from the actual real powers of the archailect” she explained,

“So, what do you want us to do?” Samantha asked,

Ayo turned to Martha also, the crimson huntress whose gaze was said to pierce through the very essence of an ascender to pick out their weaknesses. The queen of Trellis turned to the mage and the huntress,

“We observe, we get stronger and keep observing while doing our best to prepare for the inevitable consequences” she said,

“You mean to separate the clan from the titan blade” Idris said quietly,

Annika whirled to the sentinel who remained calm despite the lightning dancing in the eyes of the empress,

“Oh calm your nerves Idris!” she growled,

“The last thing I’d have you accuse us of is being traitors, look around you!” she said,

“he’s becoming what he despises, the same authority he doesn’t want to be, and then what happens when he becomes power drunk?, you think everyone who became the villains of their own stories started out that way?, they started out with good intentions” she said,

Idris kept silent and shook his head,

“I see it in all your eyes” he said,

Martha narrowed her eyes,

“Idris” she called out as the sentinel turned to her,

“I swear on the archailect, I swear on my name Martha hand of Anansi, I swear on the sect of the hands of Anansi and I swear on my fealty to the titan blade that the day I decide to betray the titan blade is the day I drop dead” she said,

Martha winced as she literally felt the archailect bind her spirit with the oath, shrugging off the uncomfortable feeling even as Annika slapped Idris,

“that’s for what you just made the spider do” she said,

Idris stared at Martha with wide eyes, Martha smiling at him in a motherly way,

“Idris, now that the oath has been said, let me explain to you” she started,

“There are over currently nine to ten million souls that call Asa home, people who for the majority of them will neither see the titan blade nor talk to him personally in the flesh. The greatest authority they know are us, the sect leaders, we are responsible for their continued existence” she said,

Opening one hand, she continued,

“On one hand, we have the titan blade, his priorities while mostly clan oriented have begun to shift due to his position and power from solely the clan to the entire planet and soon enough probably our galaxy. Usually, if he followed the straight ascension path, we would be close behind him, carrying the brunt of the work and training those below us to bear the brunt of the day to day running of the clan and the protection of its citizens” she said,

Opening her other hand, she spoke,

“But what we currently have is a situation where not only is the titan a master, we are mere bronze, trying to catch up to situations that are slowly spiralling out of hand and without the powers to deal with it. Therefore, my friend, the best thing we can do is to make the titan a propaganda tool more than the actual focal point of the clan. We need to find a way to make Moyo a representation of the clan and get him to run the bigger game he is playing safely away from the clan while we try our best to catch up over the next decade or two while ensuring no backlash affects us from whatever foe he would no doubt gather” she explained,

“So, you see my friend, the titan blade would forever remain our patriarch, the founder of our clan and our lord, but we need to play our parts in ensuring the survival of the clan as well” she said,

Idris nodded along,

“I’m sorry everyone” he said, sighing,

“It just felt like everyone was giving up on Moyo for doing nothing but trying to get stronger to protect us” he said,

“The issue isn’t the titan getting strong enough to protect us my dear Idris” Samantha said,

“The issue is him getting stronger and attracting foes of the same calibre as him and involuntarily bringing them down on our heads through his actions” she completed,

Idris nodded,

“So what do we do?” he asked,

“First, we gear the clan to prepare for the invasion of the black zone, we will take advantage of the fact that Moyo would be there to protect us, we try our bests to break through to silver, reach the peak and if by some insane probability, break through to gold” Mrs Martha said,

‘Then when Moyo eventually leaves for his intergalactic war, we begin a process of revamping the clan, we break down power and create provinces, we put promising powers in control and decentralize the power in a way that while we are still the overall powers of the clan, each arm of the clan can work autonomously on their own ensuring the clan grows at a significant rate” she said,

Glancing at them all,

“We need to show the titan whenever he comes back what the clan has become, a force to rival forces of whatever rank we would be by then, a force he wouldn’t have to bother to protect and he can focus on his abnormal but effective and insane ranking up strength” she said as her eyes glowed silver,

“We do it for Moyo, we do it for the titan” Annika said nodding,

And what about this cathedral, this place of power?” Boyle asked,

Mrs Martha smiled,

“I believe we can work something out” she said, a glint in her eyes,

Boyle nodded,

“So, we don’t tell Moyo?” Samantha asked,

“No, we don’t, not yet, something tells me it’ll come in handy one of these days” Martha replied.