Araman the destroyer, bane of existence, purger of order, lord of catastrophe, the first arm of the abyss sat cross-legged within a sphere of abyssal energy. He had gone by different names throughout the eons of his existence, always given by those who lived to tell the tales of his destruction, his wrath unhinged and uncontrolled in the realm of the archailect. Always the one raising the banner of the ravaging powers, he had for a millennium now led the charge against the archailect, cutting down the champions of the supreme beings.

He chuckled at the term, champions, a word that hadn’t been embodied by those who had wielded the powers of the supreme beings for the last millennia. To be a champion was to give yourself selflessly to the powers of the supreme beings and in turn the supreme beings giving wholeheartedly to their chosen one. However, in recent millennia, he had watched them go from the irritating and bile inducing benevolent beings they had been initially to the reclusive, spiteful, conceited and scheming beings they currently were, and Araman couldn’t be gladder.

He remembered the old ages, the period when time just became a concept, when few primordials, the original primordials of which there were only three left. The primordials who had given themselves over to the supreme beings and had become champions of their respective powers. Then the abyss had led what had been known as the schism war against the archailect, a series of battles so bloody it had come close to crushing the archailect. Araman had been nothing but what was known as a category 6 to those within the archailect, an elite serving one of the original lords of the ravaging powers,

Serving the great being itself,

He gritted his canine teeth as his body became wracked with pain, for simply thinking about that being drove those from the abyss into a state of agony, losing a bit of themselves to the being. With precision he shoved his hand straight through his skull, grabbing the very thought of the being and crushing it….

Blinking around, he wondered what he had been thinking about, shook himself and steadied his frame, going back deep into his meditation as he oversaw the defenses of the prime system, the last and strongest bastion of the defense of the abyss itself. He could feel the death throes of millions upon millions of his fellow abyssal creatures, dying in agony to the combined effort of the archailects’ warriors. He actually applauded them for once, to see the usual fractious powers of the archailect combine into one cohesive fighting force was unthinkable. He hadn’t seen such for millennia and more, not since the time of the great schism war,

Ah, yes, that was what he had been reminiscing about.

He shook his head as his instincts warned him not to dig too deep into his mind about the issue and he only skimmed his memories instead. The war had seen the entire forces of the abyss, the lords included, come together under the banner of what had become known as a prime lord, the first and only time the chaotic abyssal powers had done so. They had broken through their foes and jailers, the powers that guarded the planets closest to the abyss, fighting back the forces of the abyss at every point. The prime lord, whose name was now lost even to them, done out of spite by the very champions of the supreme beings as their dying act.

They had wiped out the guardians of the front planets, leaving few to go herald the coming of the prime lord to the powers of the archailect. Araman had an idle thought that in hindsight, they should had wiped those ones out as well, for even if the current generation of guardians now known as jades were not as brutal and savage as their founding ancestors, they still showed the same brutal tenacity of old, beating back the efforts of the abyss at every point. It was why Araman had managed to convince the other lords to throw their support and resources behind a single being from the archailect, working through the turncoat to invade the archailect. It had been a very precarious situation, requiring subtlety and precision, for any mistake would bring the hounds of the archailect, the jades down on them.

Of all the lords of the abyss, Araman was the one with the greatest number of planets stolen from the archailect, dragging entire systems whatever chance he got to invade the archailect, something that had nurtured the hatred and jealousy of his fellow lords. He could care less though, in fact, he stoked it, after all, they all had their plans and agendas and Araman was as calm and calculating as he was a force of destruction. Often underestimated as a brute who cared for nothing such as plans and calculating deviousness, it was a façade he had nurtured for centuries, calmly letting everyone and everything around him seem like a brutes’ paradise.

Being just an elite during the short reign of the prime lord, a being almost equal to the supreme beings in power, he had watched it take galaxy after galaxy from the archailect, drowning them all in waves of abyssal forces. The powers of the archailect had come together then, ten primordials had existed then, ten of the most powerful beings in existence and six of them had been beloved by the supreme beings,

The six champions of the archailect,

Bestowed with the true powers of the supreme beings, they had pushed back the prime lord, inch by inch the archailect took back what was originally theirs. Lords after lords were vanquished, the archailect bolstered by monsters that grew in power, it was a glorious age and Araman had bathed under the raining blood of countless of foes. The victories of the archailect had however grounded to a halt when the prime lord himself took to the battlefield, then the champions began to fall. Their patrons unable or unwilling to take to the field of battle, the prime lord had cut them down one by one, leaving a trail of hopeless destruction in his wake.

Finally, the champion of the burning flame anathema, Lotes, the accursed being of aether had grown incensed with rage. Araman shuddered as he remembered the being,

Eses, the cosmic dragon,

A true being of destruction, she foreswore her oath as a champion, closing the short and tragic age of the champions of the supreme beings and becoming a harbinger. It was amusing at first, choosing to distribute the power to her underlings, bolstering them against the ravaging powers of the abyss. He had heard it had been at the behest of Lotes herself, but Araman doubted that, he had been there when Eses had flown into a rage as she watched her beloved die at the hands of the prime lord himself. Cursing Lotes, she had sworn an oath so great, it had shattered the pact between her and Lotes, swearing that if she died here, then the rest of her empire would follow her into death.

Lotes had appeared then, heralded by hundreds of messengers, the infernal beings that had once served as the wall against the abyss. The universe had shaken on that day, with a great cry from Lotes, the pact was broken and the power shared between the forces that stood between the prime lord and the last bastion of the archailect, the very home of Eses herself. it had been the birth of the dragons’ brigade and the demotion of Eses from the rank of champion to the position of the first harbinger. Although they would not become a unified group or come together for a few more centuries, not until during the time of the great wars between the harbingers of the supreme beings, a position Eses would drop soon after the schism war and the current primordials of the archailect, led by the great enemy and his partner, Typhon and Tiamat Kairos.

Imbued with the powers of Lotes herself, Eses had somehow managed to end the existence of the prime lord, tearing into him with all the fury of one who could bend the very universe to her will, stars sending lances of light down on reality itself. It had been one battle Araman had been lucky to escape, one he shouldn’t had survived,

But he did,

He had brimmed with rage then, hunting the lengths and breaths of the archailect whenever he managed to give the jades a slip. It had taken a few thousand years, but he had eventually found the quarry he had been looking for,

A champion,

One of such peculiar origin that it had intrigued Araman as much as it had stoked his madness and anger at finding one really remained. The champion of the titan, a being that had not existed as far as he knew, but then again, he was a child in the eyes of the abyss, born eons late for whatever existed at the beginning. He had felt the way the abyssal powers within him recoiled at the touch of the being and knew killing Gaius golden champion would finally let him cross the barrier into a full-fledged lord of the abyss.

It had worked, with the death of the golden champion and his dedicating the death to the honor of the abyss itself, he had fused the death throes of the golden champion with the core of his former master, the prime lord of the abyss and had finally ascended to the position of a lord of the abyss,

Araman, lord of destruction,

His coronation and dark ascendence had started with the complete annihilation of the entire empire and systems of planets belonging to the golden champion. An event so tragic, the anguish and cries of billions upon billions he had consumed in that moment of ecstasy had echoed throughout the archailect itself, drawing the ire of the brigade, the harbingers and the ire of Xerxes himself. He had dueled with them all, the destroyer cutting down foe after foe with a swing of his blade, entire planets being absorbed into the abyss shattered or whole.

He had immediately retreated when he felt but a touch of the coming of Eses herself after dueling Xerxes to a standstill. Not even he would be stupid enough to take on the cosmic dragon head on in a fight to the death, she would wipe him from existence like a bug on her cloth. After that he had led incursions after incursions into the archailect, rediscovering lost pathways he had consecrated to the abyss, pathways that led deep into the archailect spanning galaxies themselves. Araman had never forgotten Gaius golden champion though, he and his titanic aspect, something that he had never encountered again that drove the abyssal powers within him into a mad like frenzy,

Until recently,

It had caught him completely off guard on the planet called Duhiri where a sliver of his essence had been summoned to hold the world. He had felt both terror and excitement in that moment,

Finally, he had thought,

After thousands of years of mind-numbing boredom, he had finally seen the rebirth of the only foe apart from Eses herself that had drove him to the edge of fear and anticipation at the same time. He remembered the name of the being that wielded it,

Moyosore titan blade,

Although Araman had to admit, the aspect felt completely familiar and foreign at the same time. It had felt different from the overwhelming force that defended every attack he had thrown its way till it shattered to a deadly edge pointed at his very throat, a blade that he was sure was backed by the same overwhelming force of complete protection.

He had grinned maniacally the moment his avatar had been wiped from existence by Tania sun-burner herself, giggling as he felt his very being shiver in pleasure at the thought of facing off against that very aspect again. It was why he had sent his elite, Shayde blight touch, to verify the strength of the titan blade, his enemy. Even as he awaited the return of his elite, he chuckled at the thought of his lord brother, Molrik the mutator realizing or sensing his elite within his system.

The lords while united in their combined need to tear down the archailect usually gave themselves a wide berth to avoid clashes. And as per the order of the avatar of the abyss itself, Rohan had decreed, it was to be maintained, however Araman could care less what the avatar wanted. He was a lord of the abyss, the highest position after a prime lord, Rohan was merely a pawn that danced to their tunes subconsciously,

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A fanged pawn Araman admitted to himself,

He had no illusions about Rohan, not like his fellow lords who underestimated the avatar, thinking he was to be used and discarded, the same way they had used the grim. Araman actually noted that if they weren’t stupid, they should be seeing the signs of a monster slipping his leash already. They had ordered Rohan to end the life of the grim during the invasion of the nest, to take his dark core and finally ascend to the position of a true lord avatar of the abyss. What it would have really done however was detonate the entirety of the draconian galaxy, giving the lords extra power to come as close to the prime lord as they could.

There were a lot of factors wrong with that plan that Araman noted but kept complete silence about. The first was the fact that the particular galaxy in question was rumored to be the home world of the offsprings of Eses herself, and rumor or not, Araman wanted nothing to do with the plan. Hence, he had removed his hands from it and dropped subtle breadcrumbs of warnings to the avatar, realizing later that Rohan had not needed such warnings, the snake himself had somehow deduced the signs and had formulated a crazier plan, one not even the lords would had thought to undertake.

He had begun to place Rohan on a higher pedestal after that, watching his every move around the avatar as he was sure the avatar did around them, or him in particular. Araman chuckled, he always respected good competition, it was apparent the both of them had greater goals than the eradication of the archailect itself and not just the boring and dreadful death of everyone using the powers of the supreme beings, that motive was honestly getting old and Araman had his sights on greater things. Hence it had come to him as no surprise when he felt his sphere ripple with a psychic call from Molrik, sighing to himself at the façade he would have to put up again.

Removing the barrier between himself and Molrik, he watched as the dark liquid that made up the sphere ripple in front of him as a face formed, deformed and whitish even as it snarled and turned to him. Araman slammed his chest as he bellowed out,

“Molrik!, brother lord!” he started, mentally rolling his eyes,

“How goes your war with the vile beings of the archailect?, have you let loose your creations on their ranks?” he asked as he bellowed in laughter,

“Araman, brother, I have a gift for you” Molrik said, his voice wheezing through the fleshy device strapped to his mouth,

“Oh?, what gift?, the head of one of their rulers?, a most gracious boon!” he said as he roared in laughter, already aware of what it was,

His sphere rippled again as the head of Shayde rolled towards his feet, Araman narrowed his eyes, channeling his rage as he turned to Molrik,

“What is this?, have you broken our pact brother?, do you hope to leave me defenseless till the invasion of the prime galaxy?, have you stolen and ended my elite?” he asked growling,

“You tell me, what was that pest of your doing in my system?, sneaking around till he was caught?” Molrik replied,

“Are you accusing me of trying to undermine your strength, trying to help the great enemy?, I, Araman the destroyer?” Araman said with faux rage in his voice,

“I am no sneaky coward Molrik, I will bury my weapon in your skull should I choose to destroy you, I will not send an elite to do a lords work” he finished,

Araman chuckled internally as he saw the flash of doubt in the eyes of the mutator,

“Perhaps your elite grew tired of you, perhaps he decided to grow for glory by himself, are you having issues controlling your lesser ones brother?, need help?’ Molrik taunted,

Araman widened his eyes in rage,

“You dare?” he hissed,

“The great destroyer, hiding behind the walls and power of the avatar of the abyss himself, come, face the archailect and prove your title” Molrik taunted,

Arman growled, shaking as he spoke with rage,

“Where is the rest of him, where is his core?” he asked,

His sphere rippled as a large black orb fell at his feet,

“I doubt anything of him remains within the core” Molrik said,

“But should this Shayne still exist, I’d advise you disciple your guard brother, I will not be so merciful a second time” Molrik finished as the connection cut off,

Araman gave it a few seconds before sighing and groaning, snapping his fingers as a being stepped into his black orb, glancing down at the core on the ground,

“I must admit lord Araman” the voice said as the hazy shadow on its face dissipated, revealing a whitish being also that grinned, patches of different skins on his face with a tattered cloak behind him,

“That was beautiful to watch” Shayne blight touch completed going to his knees and bowing,

“The substitute proved useful I will admit, what did you learn of this titan blade?” Araman asked,

Shayne narrated his existence, watching and trembling as the smile on his lords’ face grew wider and wider, confusion on his face,

“a true primordial you say?” Araman asked as Shayne nodded,

Not a champion, but a being that embodied the aspect of the titan at master rank, Araman could barely contain his excitement as he smiled,

“Good, this is good” he murmured,

Dismissing his elite, he reclined back on a throne that appeared out of nowhere, he would let the titan blade reach his full potential. It might not be in this war, it might be centuries later, but then and only then would he cross blades with the being that was the titan blade. Araman the destroyer, lord of annihilation shivered and groaned in ecstasy, he couldn’t wait.

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

Xerxes stared at the systems on the large holographic display on his ship, the jaws of Lotes, bestowed to him by Ernesh on the androids’ ascension to the rank of harbinger. Watching the slow but steady push of the archailects forces into the abyssal galaxy, he carefully watched the pace as well as the distance of their forces from the frontlines to the prime system and it was billions of light years away,

And still an elite was sent, by Araman no less he thought to himself,

He and the rest of the council had not anticipated this move, for it made no sense to none of the powers. Elites weren’t blight forces to be thrown at the enemy in a battle of attrition. They were the best of the best the abyss had to offer after the elites, forces of pure brute strength and power that even masters and rulers usually struggled with, it was why he doubted the tale of the titan blade, but as the mantle forged shackles placed on the blade by Tixuhl herself didn’t bind his core and spirit for lying, he wondered just what games Araman was playing.

The sound of someone sipping loudly from his container drew his attention to his back, turning to see none other than his godmother and celestial primordial the cosmic dragon herself Eses seated on one of the four chairs arranged in a circle. Waving his hand as the holographic image dissipated his bowed at the waist to her,

“godmother” he said in greeting, kissing her on the cheek as she giggled childishly,

“Your fellow harbingers would be disappointed to see you greet a lesser that way” she remarked,

“Then they would be nothing but fools, not when it came to you” he responded taking a seat,

He shuddered at the raw power she contained and wondered why she still hearkened to his call whenever he gave it. She was nothing less than a supreme being at this point, maybe not quite there, but she was close, and he could see why the beings kept vigilant watch on her. Eses cosmic dragon had slept the few last millennia, rousing drowsily some thousand years ago when Araman had broken through to the position of a lord of the abyss and even that had made the lord of destruction scamper away with his tail between his legs in terror and Xerxes didn’t fault him for that, no one wanted the attention of the cosmic dragon.

Eses sighed as she dusted crumbs pf whatever she had been eating away,

“What was that?” he asked,

“Cookies, from the world of that baby primordial” she replied offhandedly,

Xerxes narrowed his eyes,

“The titan blade?, that world is off limits, sealed and protected with the knowledge of it known to only a few, how did you even find it?” he asked,

Eses blinked at him,

“Oops?” she replied as he sighed,

It was no use, Eses knew the archailect like the insides of her planet shredding claws, nothing he could put up would be a deterrent against the cosmic dragon. Her reach was nigh infinite and archailect wide, she was literally venerated in numerous galaxies and millions upon millions of planets and systems as a whole. He was about to talk as pathways opened up behind the two remaining chairs, folding his arms and steeling his gaze.

Typhon Kairos stepped out of the first one, dressed in an all-black robe with his arms folded behind him, the light brown primordial as old as time and beyond itself stepped out. The second portal spat out a child, a little kid of about twelve years old with a thin frame but with tattoos all over his body. Dressed in a large coat that oozed with the aura of a monster drenched in the powers of the abyss,

No, Xerxes thought to himself,

An elite guard, he’s wearing the skin of an elite guard of the lords of the abyss,

The ridiculous nature of that realization did nothing to reduce to pure power oozing from the child who chewed on a piece of smoked meat and sat on the chair next to Typhon like it was not a big deal. Xerxes nodded,

“Welcome, lord Kairos and lord jade Lucirion of the order of the jades” Xerxes said,

“I must admit, I wondered when you would call this meeting” Kairos said,

“Is it really important?” Lucirion asked in his childish voice,

“I really really have to go back to my fortress you see, urgent issues and all” he said with a sigh,

“It is, an elite was found in the frontlines” Xerxes said,

“So I heard” Kairos replied,

“don’t those pesky things stick close to their lords?” Lucirion asked as he threw his legs on the table, something Xerxes frowned upon but said nothing,

“They usually do, as far as I know” Eses said,

“And I have cause to believe it went after the titan blade” Xerxes said,

Everyone froze at that except Xerxes,

“This titan blade grows more interesting the more I hear about him, can I meet him?” Lucirion asked,

“no” Kairos replied,

Lucirion pouted at the king of monsters,

“Why?” he asked, his lips trembling like he was about to cry, Xerxes rolling his eyes,

“Because you would want to recruit him to your order and when he says no, you’ll throw a fit and quite possibly kill him” Kairos explained,

Lucirion stamped his feet petulantly, turning to Eses who sighed,

“Enough playing around aether blessed, it’s serious” she said,

Xerxes shivered as he watched the playful nature of the lord of the jades disappear like a faded memory, wishing Eses hadn’t said so, for what took its place was a terrible being in the body of a child. Eses smiled,

“Good, it has been a while I have seen the real you, Lucirion” she said,

Lucirion glanced at her with a gaze so terrible Xerxes wondered if they had some sort of enmity between themselves,

“And you too cosmic dragon, now, what do we know?” he asked,

“I and the other harbingers believe Araman has shown an interest in the titan blade, probably as a future thorn or as a future ally” Xerxes said,

“Then end his existence, the archailect cannot afford another grim, I could care less though” Lucirion said shrugging,

“No hair on the titan blades’ head must be touched” Kairos said with a grin as his eyes shone,

“You would let this master ranked primordial, this abomination grow stronger till he falls to the lies of the abyss?” Lucirion asked,

“I don’t see you falling for their tricks, and you’ve spent a significant part of your life close to them” Eses pointed out,

Lucirion narrowed his eyes at the both of them, Xerxes wisely keeping shut,

“you’ve grown an interest in him” he accused the cosmic dragon,

“Indeed, and my intuition tells me that child will play a pivotal role in this war, albeit with a little more tempering” she admitted,

“Besides, don’t think we didn’t see the game you played, sending one of the young and easily offended grim rune clan jades to interfere when we requested for support” Kairos said smiling,

“You wanted to feel out just what he was made of, didn’t you?” Kairos finished in a whisper,

Xerxes was close to tearing a pathway out of the room with the raised tensions, he wasn’t in their league, harbinger or not these existences would wipe him out as collateral damage,

Tania wouldn’t take it lightly with him if he missed their appointment,

Eses dropped her cup on the table noisily, drawing all attention to her herself as her eyes glowed blue,

“enough” she said as frost began to form all around them,

Forming icicles that burned with blur flames and chilled the air, the irony of the power she wielded defying the laws of existence,

“What do you propose then, cosmic dragon?” Lucirion asked,

“We send him to the toughest planets, we let him grow stronger, we see what games Araman, the lords or Rohan is playing” she said,

Kairos paused,

“I can live with that” he replied,

“What games are you playing Kairos?” Xerxes asked, drawing the gaze of the king of monsters,

“Just what do you want with the titan blade?”

“Happiness for my daughter, when you have yours, then you’ll understand” he replied,

Xerxes merely stared at the great maw, he didn’t believe it, but he would keep on watching,

“Oh and don’t worry, I have eyes watching him” Eses said with a chuckle,

“Ernesh won’t be happy when he realizes Ahib is a member of your cult” Xerxes noted,

Eses simply stuck her tongue out at him childishly as he rolled his eyes,

“Well, if that would be all, I’m going back to my fortress, lots of…er…. damsels to help” Lucirion said, hopping up as his childish nature appeared back, tearing a pathway and leaving,

Kairos stood up,

“When I say he is under my protection Eses” he said as he glanced at her,

“I meant mine and Tiamat, we haven’t forgiven you for the schism, and if your actions lead to the demise of the titan, then I promise you, this war would look like a walk in the park” he said with a smile,

The schism, Xerxes thought,

A war that was a myth even during his childhood years,

“I only seek to protect the next generation” Eses said as she held back a choking sob, Xerxes sitting up in alarm as he saw her eyes grow wet,

Kairos winced,

“Ra, hanuman, Sybaris, never again Eses, never again” he said as a pathway opened and he passed through,

Xerxes watched as Eses wiped her eyes and disappeared in a blink, sighing to himself and he scrubbed his face with his hands,

“fuck” he muttered,