Moyo physically felt his core shudder under the power of the abyssal aspect that permeated the entire command deck. Steeling his nerves as his eyes roamed the entire room, landing on the being seated on a fleshy throne that seemed to bend and twist to some sort of command he couldn’t identify. The entire command deck was one beating fleshy room, the very putrid green body pulsing like a heartbeat with veins of black liquid running through its body, Moyo had faced abyssal monsters before, even killing one of the somewhat greater ones before entering the room, but he could definitely say this ranked high up there along with when he fought the elite.
Coating his body in his aspect only did so much as to reduce the weight of the power he could feel pressing down on his entire being, dominion in hand, he walked farther into the abyssal suffused room, the light from the massive cannons that shook the fortress lighting up the room in flashes. His master ranked sight could see through the darkness though, it saw enough to recognize the presence of a figure with its hands crossed behind it, staring at the unfolding battle. Feminine in shape, Moyo could hardly make out her form as reality seemed to blur around her, but if there was one thing that spooked him out, it was the absence of any form of power from her.
He stopped as he saw her glance to the side, acknowledging his presence,
“a lone master coming to take me on, I’m not sure if I should feel either flattered or insulted” she said, her voice as sultry as it was repulsive,
“Whatever you are, this ends here and now” Moyo replied as his aspect blazed out with all his fury,
She gave a tinkling laugh, her voice seemingly empowering the power of the abyss around the room, breaking reality as it attempted to fix it back in a grotesque manner, the power of mutation. Immediately he suspected who she was and slammed his mantle in place, calling up his titan body and coating himself in more aspect. She turned to face him and Moyo realized she was naked,
No, not naked he thought, wearing the decaying skin of another woman, he realized as bile filled his mouth,
The woman with the smile that stretched from ear to ear in a torn form looked more like a monster than human. Long black talon-like nails on both hands and feet, serpent like eyes with slits, sharp teeth that seemed filed to the point of looking like needles and a green sickly putrid body, she looked more like a character from the resident evil games than even a blight creature. Pointing one talon at him, she grinned, black blood leaking out from the side of her mouth,
“You are one interesting archailect spawn” she said,
“Your…aura as you call it breaks down the power of Molrik on a level I haven’t seen since I faced him”
Moyo wondered just who this him was, but he could care less, watching as her head whipped up into the distance, her eyes becoming glassy before glancing back down at him,
“I must apologize though, a certain old friend is coming and I do not have time to play around with you my sweet sweet curious one, perhaps you’d be a dear and stay locked up” she said, command echoing with the last words,
Moyo felt the sub-aspect of mutation empowered by the aspect of the abyss crash unto his body with the force of a sledgehammer, seeking to root him in a capsule of decaying flesh. He roared in rage as his eyes blazed, his aspect burning through the flesh as it exploded, the titan blasting forwards towards the woman. She moved like a ghost, one minute standing where he saw her and the next blinking away so fast his master ranked cognition could barely keep up,
“elite” he growled,
She snarled,
“Please refrain from addressing me by such insulting term, it hardly conveys the marvel I am” she replied as green energy coalesced in her hand, shaping itself into a large needle and shot towards him,
Moyo pitted the entirety of his will against it, dominion blazing as the simple aspect filled power of the elite threatened to overwhelm him. His feet sank into the fleshy ground slowly as he held on, the elite furrowing her eyebrows,
“Impressive, but you need to desist, now” she commanded again as the abyssal aspect pressed down on him with more force,
Moyo shouted, releasing all his pent-up anger and frustration, he was a primordial in all but name, he was a master and wielded the aspect of the titan, and yet he struggled with a mere elite. Dominion tore through the green needle like a hot knife through butter, the power splashing against the flesh walls as a loud shriek echoed throughout the command deck, the flesh roiling as if in pains as it spat out the limbs of the titan blade, shooting him upwards.
Moyo twisted, aspect, Ashe, aura and intent trailing his blade as he clashed with the claws of the elite, releasing the black hole ability of dominion. The woman twisted and turned with speed, dodging the attack, or so she though as she landed, watching her right hand crush and crumble into the black hole that swallowed her palm where it had formed. With the impressive coldness of a warrior, she ripped the arm away at the shoulder, watching as the black hole swallowed the limb completely,
“Interesting, power over the dark stars themselves, perhaps I have underestimated you” she said,
Moyo felt it again, gritting his teeth as the feeling washed over him, the same feeling he had gotten from the elite of Araman, the overwhelming, bile inducing and roiling power of the abyss, but this time he was ready, he wouldn’t fail again. He let loose the floodgates of his aspect, bathing the room in his Ashe as the entire command deck glowed with the power of his aspect. Fighting for the mere chance to level the playing field, he watched as she moved towards him, her movements a blur as ferocity of oshosi worked overtime to compensate for her moves, the one handed warrior managing to dodge his most lethal attacks as dominion swung through the air seeking to taste her flesh again.
His aspect shivered as she called on the abyss, the already dim room becoming a pitch black area of midnight with the pressing power of the abyss seeking to end not just his mortal form but his existence as well. He felt his throne shiver, felt it push back against the power, filling his very body with his Ashe and aspect, the command unspoken and Moyo giving it voice,
“da pa da!” he commanded, the edict blazing like a beacon from a light tower,
The mutator sub-aspect being fuelled by the abyss cracked and shattered, sucking in the power, temporary switching its allegiance to that of the titan and returning fire in a hail of thousands of bolts of titan aspect, turning the command deck into a shattered area that broke into pieces, throwing them straight down into another room. Moyo groaned as he stood up, only to feel a leg push him right down to the ground, eyes blinking as he saw the female elite with one leg on his chest, decayed hands that hummed with peak master ranked strength, empowered by the abyss itself holding his legs and arms to the ground. The momentary lapse in his concentration had given her the chance to break through his aspect protection, somehow restricting him from calling his Ashe again as she pointed a putrid green mini cannon at his head,
“Like I said earlier, I’m not sure if I should feel insulted or flattered” she said,
Moyo struggled, pitting his willpower against hers as she frowned,
“that’s one strong willpower for a master, and wielding what I assume is your personal aspect with such strength, yes, you’d make a perfect test subject, goodbye” she said as Moyo squeezed his eyes shut, tearing his aspect from his body to cover his skull despite the migraine he acquired from such an act,
The entire area around him became deathly cold as a silence permeated the air, chilling even his aspect and body to the very core. He opened his eyes to see a man in a long black glossy but tattered robes holding the cannon in her hands, the mutated construct turning to ash as it fizzled away, the elite blurring backwards with such speed that it left Moyo dizzy. Moyo shifted a little, watching as the figure drew his hood down, revealing his master with his same mischievous smile, except this time there was a certain terrifying edge to it. The elite hissed,
“Ajax death blade, son of the grim” she started,
“your loyalty is misplaced, your father-“ was all she could say before somehow escaping the crushing blow of Ajax that evaporated the very spot she had stood a mere second ago,
“I am Ajax omega blade, son of the leader of clan reaper, ruler on the path of the omega blade” he started with that same infuriating grin,
As Moyo was trying to fight through the migraine that rampaged through his skull, his body trying desperately to steady itself after the attack of the elite, Moyo paused, eyes wide as he stared at Ajax,
“Ruler?’ he asked,
Ajax glanced at him, grinning, eyes somehow glowing a luminous black,
“Ascension my disciple” he said with a grin,
The elite took advantage of that brief exchange, appearing just as fast in front of Ajax her one-handed talons coming down on him before moyo could shout out a warning. A black blur moved just as faster, dismembering the second limb before Ajax grabbed her by the throat as a black helm of darkness covered his face, a part of his mantle that drove the fear of annihilation into his very bones, leaving him shuddering on the ground as the elite froze up,
“Vesh phantom scourge” Ajax said, but this time his voice sounded deeper,
It sounded like death incarnate,
“You remember me, don’t you?’ he asked, somehow the elite couldn’t speak, her body frozen in an almost catatonic state, her eyes wide showing she was alive but somehow frozen,
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“Even as you tore through children and adult alike, you called out to me, telling me to remember my roots, well, this is me remembering them” Ajax said softly,
“ch-aos” the elite known as Vesh phantom scourge croaked,
Ajax nodded,
“Yes, and you would...” he said, pausing as he froze,
“An homunculi, impressive, I will find you Vesh, soon” he bit out in anger as Moyo felt reality start to shudder and break down, not the effective nature of the abyss but actually break down, washing away every taint of the abyss in the area, somehow bleaching the very walls of the fortress itself in the area they stood.
Moyo shivered at the feeling, his aspect not being repulsed though, it was more like the feeling of ants crawling all over your body, he glanced at his master, not sure who or what he was actually seeing currently,
“die” the elite ground out as Moyo felt all the power within her explode out in a tectonic blast,
Shooting Moyo backwards with such force that his body dented a part of the wall opposite him, landing as he groaned, eyes wide in terror at what fate awaited Ajax only to see his master compressing a green ball of abyssal power as it fizzled to nothing, dispersing in his palms. Standing up, he heard Ajax sigh, turning to him,
“Miss me?” he asked in his usual infuriating tone,
“What happened to you?” Moyo asked,
“I ascended” he replied as he brought out an aether resonator from the folds of his cloak, actually dipping his hand into the cloak like it was some spatial equipment before bringing it out, piercing the ground with it as aether blasted out of it,
Moyo motioned to talk when Ajax raised a finger,
“Just one minute” he said,
“Need to wipe this fortress of the abyssal taint”
“The fortress is the abyssal taint” Moyo replied confused,
“not anymore” Ajax replied with a grin as Moyo felt the aura of the death blade blast out, scorching the very walls and entirety of the sky fortress as his HUD blazed to life,,
No, omega blade he said to himself,
Notice: archailect system is back online…
Level up! 515!
* You have entered a zone of abyssal mutations!
* Aspect of the titan has gone through the crucible, +500 to Ashe.
Fleet notice:
* master Ajax death blade has ascended to the rank of ruler,
* Ruler Ajax has evolved his path from the legendary path: death blade to the mythical path: omega blade
* Notice, ruler Ajax omega blade has consecrated the sky fortress to the archailect and has gained complete control of the fortress, all forces of the abyss has been cleared,
* Hail ruler Ajax omega blade!
Moyo’s eyes skimmed through the messages, eyes wide as he closed his HUD, his messaging construct coming to life, a holographic image of Idris appearing in front of him,
“My lord” he started, short of words,
Moyo nodded wearily,
“Tell the forces to stand down, tend to the wounded, the battle is over” he replied,
“How?’ Idris asked, that single question carrying a plethora of others as well,
“We have a new ruler now” Moyo responded as Idris nodded, cutting off the call,
Moyo glanced at Ajax who snapped his fingers as the broke area began to mend itself back, he smiled at Moyo, a sad looking smile that conveyed just how deep whatever burden he carried was,
“I want to ask how, what just happened” Moyo started,
“But I know now is not the time, not when we have our forces to tend to” Moyo finished,
“And you would get your answers in time my disciple, have no fear, nothing would happen to you” Ajax said with such resolve that Moyo felt the area hum with that scalding new aura of his,
“I was never in any danger” Moyo replied calmly,
“we’re always in danger titan blade, you just haven’t seen them turn on you just yet” Ajax finished as his construct fizzled to life, the face of Altair thousand blades appearing,
Moyo stepped backwards, leaving the two of them to whatever they intended to say now as equals, well hypothetically seeing as Altair was now an ancient. He tore open a portal, passing through and appearing right where his aura had pinpointed Idris’s location to him. Stepping out to see his champion with thousands of troops as far as his eyes could see, tanks and flying constructs with mechanized suits of armor as well.
The whole room hushed as he appeared, Moyo raising one hand up as they roared in victory, cries of relief from the exhausted troops ringing through the air. His construct came to life again intermittently as each of his guard reported in, the forces meant to destroy the abyssal aspect retreating as the power of Ajax wiped it clean, leaving nothing behind but an empty core room as the fortress became a husk of itself.
Then another core replaced the abyssal one, except this time it echoed with the power of the archailect and something more, something Marcel and Romulus of his guard couldn’t explain, Moyo could though, for it echoed with the power of chaos. He had no idea how he knew, how he could differentiate it from the power of the abyss, but he could,
And it sent a thrill through his body,
The power of chaos had resonated it with, it had resonated with his aspect and although he had no idea how Ajax had come across it, he was pretty sure he didn’t want to walk down the path his master had to acquire the power the way he did. There was something dark and festering in his master, something that had been brimming for archailect knew how long, like an ocean being pushed back farther and farther till eventually it would break free of its constraint and in the most devastating way possible.
Coordinating the extraction of the forces of the archailect, Moyo watched as the capital ship of Altair pulled itself closer to the fortress, its cannons still focusing on the now consecrated fortress. His sight zeroed in on the defiance that floated like a chunk of rock in space, confusion marring his face, immediately he opened a pathway to his ship, appearing right in his command deck as Urne turned to him and saluted, the rest of the golds and ship crew following suit.
Under the emergency red lights he spoke,
“Urne, what’s going on?” he asked,
“The ship, we drained its aspect crystal of all its power to shield the remaining deploying troops of the fleet from getting decimated by the cannons of the fortress, leaving us with only the emergency lights” she explained, a bit of shame and embarrassment pouring from her
“Aspect crystal?” he asked, eyebrows furrowed,
“it’s better shola explained to you, but I can lead you to it, she showed me the way” she replied hastily, Moyo nodding as she began walking down through series of pathways and corners in the ship he had no idea existed.
His mind began to wander, replaying just what had happened between Ajax and Vesh, the elite of Molrik. It was evident from the way they spoke that they must had encountered before, a grim situation no doubt as the words Ajax had said proved it had been some sort of battlefield or the other. Was Ajax the man she had been referring to, and if yes, just what was Ajax scheming, just what was the end goal of his master?, Arriving in a room where a large crystal sat embedded in the middle of the room, Moyo surveyed what looked like the core room of his ship, chastising himself for not actually taking the time to know the in and out of his ship.
It was a large vessel though, the excuse he used to console himself whenever he thought about it, there was only so much he could know about his ship currently, not with an intergalactic war going on that required his full attention. He touched the lifeless crystal as a felt flicker of his aspect within it, a dim thing that sputtered, nearly going off like the light of a candlestick.
With determination he opened himself up to the crystal feeling it begin to siphon his aspect into its never-ending banks of storage, the crystal going from plain reflective to deep purple as it continued sucking on his aspect, Moyo’s knees buckling as it kept siphoning. He felt a hand on his shoulder, glancing up to see Urne shouting his name as he snapped back into reality,
“Let go!” she screamed,
Moyo drew his hand away with a brief summoning of his willpower, stumbling as he felt suddenly weakened, the ship humming to life with such force as shola, the A.I appeared with a flash of his aspect, eyes wide as she stepped close, pausing before turning to the crystal and clapping her hands. He felt the siphoning effect cut off as he gasped,
“lord titan blade, my deepest apologies, to my eternal regret, I have caused the lord of this ship harm, should you wish to eradicate my existence, I will consider it the right- “she said, pausing as he barely raised one hand up, panting,
When he could feel his body rejuvenated as aether filled him once again with his aspect coursing through his veins, he glanced at shola,
“What is that crystal?” he asked,
The question seemed to have caught the A.I off-guard as she blinked,
“An aspect crystal” she responded,
He nodded,
“I know, what I’m asking is what was used to make that crystal” he repeated,
“My records indicate that the production of aether crystals as it was formerly known before being transformed into aspect crystals are within the jurisdiction of house Nebula and the harbinger Eisnar” she said,
“The production process however is unknown as it is a tightly sanctioned process” she completed,
Moyo sat staring at the crystal as Urne and shola stood next to him, the former shuffling awkwardly and the later in a frozen state,
“As stated before, I am willing to- “
“I don’t want you wiping yourself out shola” Moyo said wearily as he rubbed his face,
“Good job, both of you” he started,
“Your quick thinking saved the lives of thousands of ascender forces and equipments, I would had done the exact same thing” he said as he stood up,
Shola bowed at the waist to him, Urne also,
“Your words are a boon to my heart, I will strive to live up to it lord titan blade” Urne said as her voice quivered, no doubt the trepidation of that thought that Moyo would relieve her of her duties weighing heavily on her heart,
“Gratitude lord titan blade” shola replied as well,
“Status report of my ship” Moyo asked her,
“The defiance weathered attacks from the capital cannons of the sky fortress despite the protections of the abyss and later on the capital ship of the thousand blades” she stated,
“We suffered a 10% damage to our structure, but with the aspect crystal charged to 20%, we can spare 5% to the repairs of the ship” she replied,
Moyo stared in shock,
“All that aspect and it amounted to 20% of the crystal?” he asked stupefied,
“Actually, 15%, the 5% left was what kept the emergency lights and a few integral parts of the ship alive” she corrected,
Moyo stared at the crystal and then back at shola with wide eyes,
“How long would it take to charge the crystal to full capacity?” he asked,
“Approximately a whole day of dedicated siphoning of aspect lord titan blade” she replied,
He nodded mutely before making his way back towards the command deck,
“send the signal out, all troops of force blade should withdraw back to their battle ships immediately, I have a feeling they don’t want to be in that fortress when the main powers show up” he said as Urne nodded, whipping out her communication construct, shouting instructions as she began jogging back to the command deck,
Moyo folded his hands behind him, an ascension of such magnitude as the one Ajax had just pulled would no doubt echo till it reached the higher echelons of the council, again he was about to witness either one of the harbingers or archailect forbid Eses show up. Arriving on the command deck, he watched as thousands of troop carrier ships that survived the landing of the fortress began to pull out with troops in them, no doubt ferrying the wounded and most exhausted back to the main ships for treatment.
He felt something fill the air as everyone gasped, Moyo narrowing his eyes, he recognized the aura. Opening a pathway and passing through as he stepped out within the fortress, rolling his shoulders sorely as his aspect shivered, still not used to the bizarre power of Ajax who now sat on a throne made of the same material as the fortress, a black midnight material. he paused as the other person in front of Ajax turned to him,
“Tania thousand whips, sun-burner” he said in greeting,
“Titan blade” she replied nodding her head,
Immediately two other pathways opened up as Eses stepped through, Moyo immediately on alert as well as Xerxes from the other, in his hand a large orange sword that glowed with barely restrained flames of the brigade, on its hilt a large draconic eye that immediately zeroed in on him. Moyo could had sworn the eye winked at him in recognition, before freezing back,
“Well, isn’t this a party” Ajax drawled out,
Another pathway opened as Altair stepped through, white hair tied up neatly behind his head with a blade in his hand whose sharpness he could feel all the way from where he stood. Moyo was standing with beings miles above his league, should they break out in battle he was sure he would last a few seconds but that was it, he’d be a smear on the ground.
Eses glanced at him,
“see Xerxes, told you following this fleet would bring all sorts of surprises’” she said with a chuckle,
“Tea anyone?” Ajax asked, the same nonchalant grin on his face.