Moyo appeared right next to the two arcane generals with Mardar and Altair as well, appearing through pathways together. The corruptive and tainted energy of the abyss spreading around them, and in normal fashion their HUD’s shut down, leaving them with their aether and respective powers,

“Disciple of the aether blessed, you have the honour of going first” the female arcane general said,

Mardar nodded quietly, Moyo sensing some sort of quiet tension between the two powers, perhaps there was some sort of rivalry between the brigade and the jade factions, a matter for another day.

The arcane general, a woman with ash white skin, eyes of burning fire and a staff in hand, floated backwards calmly despite the looming threat of the fortress in front of them. Amidst the hail of attacks the ships of the armada threw the way of the fortress, it weathered the attacks almost completely, shuddering when the flagships of the armada dropped their salvos on it, its green shields that shone with runes of defilement and decay shuddering from the attacks.

Mardar was dressed different this time, gone was the immaculate suit and pristine look, the jade in front of him stared at the fortress in his black robes, every inch of it swirling with runes that spoke of scouring and purification. Now that Moyo stared deeper, the runes were in fact the threads that made up the robes, tiny little runes that Moyo didn’t want to think about how long it must had taken whoever made the robe to stitch together.

Rings adorned the fingers of both his hands and metallic bands that shone with runes Moyo couldn’t decipher were on his arms as well. The jade ruler stepped forwards, snapping his fingers as runic circles fizzled to life around him, whitish creations that burned brightly like stars in the dark expanse of space,

“First edict of the aether blessed, sanctify” he commanded,

Moyo hadn’t really seen a jade use mana, his only real interaction with them being the short scuffle between himself and Björn Grim rune, and even he was a jade of the second order, no doubt a master. If this was what the first order of the jades were capable of, then Moyo had to review his list of beings not to mess with. The runes warped reality, blistering the edges of the area that it controlled with raw potent power, a loud gong echoed in the wide soundless expanse of space as the fortress ground to a sudden halt, its shields burning like acid had been poured on it, tearing open holes in its defences that refused to close back up.

The armada dropped everything they had on it in that very moment, lances of pure aether, intent, aura and mana blasting their way to impact on the black stone body of the fortress. It shuddered before groaning, like it was possessed by some malevolent spirit,

“a greater creature of the abyss has been slaved to the fortress, it’ll be hard to loosen the leash, pure destructive power is needed” Mardar said formerly,

Even as the runes still ate at the shields of the fortress, Moyo watched the power of the jade sanctify the area, feeling an otherworldliness to the power. Trying hard to put a name to the power but couldn’t, distracted as he was by this puzzle, he still watched the other arcane general step forward. A large bulky man in a red robe with a yellow sash hanging around his neck, runes of flames etched and burning on the sash, he wielded a large Warhammer in one hand and a shield of mithril on the other.

The head of a large flaming dragon forged on it, the metallic effigy came to life, roaring as the arcane general spoke, each one echoing with the supreme authority of a supreme being,

“In the flames of the great dragon mother, we are purified” he started,

“By her strength we are protected, I am her weapon, I am the justice of the great dragon, and my word is law, shatter” he said, his voice sounding like gravel,

He swung the hammer, a flaming silhouette shaped in the form of a large dragon roared, bathing one side of the fortress in flames so hot, it brightened their surroundings. Moyo moved in that moment, swinging dominion in an arc, intent and aspect raging out of his blade in a crescent shaped attack. The ship seemed to groan, spitting out a torrent of abyssal energy as it fought back against the bombardments,

“now” Mardar whispered,

The female arcane general was suddenly in front of them, gripping a glowing golden spear with a red metal head, it gave off the power of a leashed sun struggling to be let loose. He visibly saw the general struggle against the strength of the weapon that resisted her control, lashing against her authority. She cocked her hand back,

“Assist me brother” she said and the other general was behind her in a flash, hammer raised as if to smash it against the spear,

Moyo wanted to cry out in despair, such workmanship, such art and skill that had gone into the spear he could feel was almost if not on the same level as dominion should not be destroyed, then again, if it was on the same level as dominion then it couldn’t be destroyed. Mardar simply smiled,

“The spear of Ra” he whispered,

Moyo stared in fascination as he heard the proclamation, watching as the general roared, smashing the hammer against the butt of the spear the same moment the female arcane general let it fly from her hands. The weapon blitzed through space like an arrow, blazing as bright as a comet and crashing into the fortress as a bright light engulfed everywhere, Moyo shielding his eyes due to the brightness,

And the heat, such heat he thought,

It scalded his skin lightly, Moyo hearing the hissing sound coming from the energy wave of the spear that expanded around. Opening his eyes, he saw the spear had broken through the black rock body of the ship, the spear glowing from within where it has melted what little place it had taken into slag,

“It shouldn’t had taken that much power to blow through an abyssal fortress, Molrik has empowered him further” Mardar said darkly,

Moyo simply took one step of Ogun, appearing inside the fortress, flaring his aspect as he grunted, almost falling to his knees as the aspect of mutation and decay sought to either corrupt him or push him out of its domain, Moyo felt it couldn’t decide. What he could feel though, were the infinite number of abyssal creatures that began to manifest around him, needing no pathways as the fortress itself had been blessed by Molrik, allowing them to cross from the abyssal realm to the fortress in the blink of an eyes.

Moyo roared, dominion swinging as he unleashed his black hole attack, the power sucking in any abyssal creature that made the unfortunate mistake of appearing in that moment. Clearing the entire area around him, he felt the generals and jade appear,

“What were you thinking?” the female general hissed eyes alight with flames, gripping her staff hard,

“I should end you where you stand” the male general with the hammer and shield said, eyes squinting into the distance where the abyssal creatures hissed at the edges of Moyo’s aspect domain, the titan aspect burning them like acid,

“favoured one, remember?, you’d do well not to get on the bad side of the cosmic dragon” Mardar said as he shook his arms, glancing at Moyo before snapping his fingers,

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Two banners on bronze rods appeared in his hands, instead of crests on them, runes of obliteration and sanctification were etched into them, the banners blazing with pure blistering mana and aether. He planted the staff as Moyo spoke,

“You have skills that use banners?” he asked, totally ignoring the arcane generals who, truthfully, were already marching towards the edges of his aspect shield, no doubt expecting it to fall at any moment from the onslaught of abyssal creatures slamming away at it.

Mardar chuckled,

“When you get to ruler, you’ll realize that the whole skills and attribute thing are simply guidelines for those lower than us in the archailect” he replied,

Glancing at Moyo, he spoke, eyes alight with power,

“Pure power is all that matters at our rank, that and getting all your skills to a thousand and attributes to ten thousand”

The flags began to hum at an almost silent frequency, sending out pulses of aether to reinforce the area Moyo had cleared out. Moyo glanced at the still red-hot spear on the ground that steamed,

“aren’t they going to retrieve that?” he asked,

“Ancient weapons like that spear are only good for one attack without the original wielder whom it was bonded with to replenish the particular type of power it consists of, that weapon is as useless as any simple metal weapon currently” the jade ruler replied,

Moyo simply opened up his deific vault and threw the spear straight through it, directing it into his sea of Ashe and aspect, his vault closing shut and vanishing. Mardar glanced away from the titan, his gaze serious as he spoke,

“He makes his move” he said,

Moyo felt the fortress shudder once, the aspect of mutation pressing down on the area he cleared as he struggled to keep it up, feeling the sentience behind the aspect batter at him. He would have to summon his core realm, fully sanctify this place in the name of the archailect, but before he could do that, he felt Mardar place an arm on his shoulder,

“Let it drop” he said,

Moyo glanced at the jade as if he was insane,

“The generals” he said,

Mardar snorted,

“it’ll take more than what than what Mortas is throwing at them to bring them down” he replied,

Producing an aether resonator, Moyo nodded and dispersed his Ashe, watching as the generals both became columns of fire, each of them burning like a raging inferno, wiping out whatever abyssal creature that so much as dared cross their paths.

Mardar slammed the resonator into the floor of the ship, the black rock parting to allow the resonator stand firm within it. Releasing a blast of pure aether that complemented the runic powers of the banners, driving back and burning the rest of the creatures the two arcane generals were already having an easy time with. Leaving nothing but burning piles of smoke and ashes that slowly fizzled away, Moyo stood up as the generals got closer, their weapons dissipating away in flares of fire,

“summon the forces, we have this place to ourselves, our perceptions feel no intrusions” the man said,

‘whatever surprises this crane lance has prepared for us, it is not on this floor” the woman said,

“speaking of which, am I the only one surprised at the calibre of creatures we just faced?, they’d be an insult to even diamonds” Moyo said,

Mardar nodded, throwing a rectangular homing beacon to the ground that pulsed with power,

“I would consider Mortas sending the strongest creatures he has to beat us back at our initial assault, no, worse awaits us within this planet of a fortress” the jade replied,

“don’t you feel it young master?, we are just as in the abyss as we are in reality itself, or has your primordial senses not reached such heights yet?” the man rumbled,

“you know, I was beginning to like you, just a tiny itty bit” Moyo murmured as Mardar laughed,

The generals scowled at what they perceived as impudence when the first of the transport ships began to pass through the breach they made in the barrier of the fortress. Despite the guns of the fortress still unleashing hell on the ships, Moyo saw the rulers, most notably Altair use their aspect to take the brunt of the attacks from the fortress, their aspects flickering on and off as each attack detonated.

Then there was the defiance, powering ahead with the aspect of the titan flared around it, taking a significant amount of attacks while launching the transport ships Ahib had named typhoons, these were pushing at relative speed towards the breach. Even as the first of them landed, the ascenders marked with the silver and grey cloaks of the tenth cohort, the steel champions, Fern’s warriors.

A gold ranker alighted,

“sergeant Gahad of the first squad, first division of the steel champions my lord” the man said as he beat his fist to his chest,

“Squad?” Moyo asked, raising one eyebrow,

“oh my, you really do love arranging your forces into neat ranks don’t you?” Mardar murmured behind Moyo, just enough that Moyo heard him and not the gold ranker,

“each division now comprises of a squad of five ascenders lord” the gold replied,

Moyo eyed them even as more typhoons began to land and disgorge ascenders from the different cohorts. The squads seemed comprised of a single promethean battle suit user and four regular ascenders, nodding to the gold who turned and jogged back to his squad, barking orders.

It took a few minutes but soon enough the bulk of the legion had made it through, Ijas and battle suit users taking to the frontlines, Ashas in the air and the rest of the forces behind them. The guard arrived with Idris, all ten of them in private typhoons bearing the colours of their cohorts, Idris simply commandeering one fro himself. Along with their division captains following them in their crafts, they surrounded the titan blade, the cogs that made the well oiled machine that was the legion to function.

Glancing around, he realized both Mardar and the other generals had vanished, no doubt to meet up with the other rulers and awaiting any confirmation of Mortas being spotted eventually. Moyo left the legion to sort themselves out, focusing on protecting the aether resonator and the barriers the jade had placed before leaving. Even as the other planetary commanders soon began to land and the guns around the breach were silenced as they were destroyed, Moyo maintained his vigil, eyes closed.

He could feel the powers of the abyss so clearly here, feeling them push against the barriers all to no avail,

“Master titan blade” a familiar voice called out,

Twisting his head to the side to see master Killian walking briskly towards him with a pair of diamonds behind him, no doubt they were the captains of his planetary forces or the ranking highest among them. The diamonds bowed in his presence, Moyo nodding to them before Killian faced him,

“most of the planetary forces from the armada have arrived, we are deciding to move ahead with the goal of gaining as much of this place as we can” the stelar blade said,

“The abyss is distorting space and time within this fortress, be safe master Killian” Moyo replied,

“you too, something tells me this place is going to be worse than taking a planet” Killian said gravely,

“it will be, there is no shock and awe, no element of surprise, and I believe Mortas is actually coordinating the defences himself” Moyo said,

“Have you felt something?” Killian asked,

“No, but the method by which the abyssal aspect has been probing the barrier, I believe he’s gauging our reaction, the crane lance for no better word is determined to hunk down and take the brunt of our attacks” Moyo said,

“Then we will hit him with all the force we have” Killian replied,

“Amen to that, communications accessible?” Moyo asked,

“Yes, HUD will be out as usual the moment we live the protection of the barrier, but with the Ijas as and battle suits as vanguards, we will have the communications crew at the rear, just in case” Killian answered,

“and are all planetary forces on board with this?, or is it a fleet thousand blades thing?” Moyo asked drily,

Killian shrugged,

“Whatever the other fleets decide to do with their forces is their business, ours is to protect ours and the ascenders in our care, may the supreme beings have mercy on theirs” Killian replied,

Moyo nodded grimly,

“Good, forces sol blade and silent blade?” he asked,

“Preparing to launch their planetary forces east and west of this exact position, weird that we somehow landed in the exact middle of this floor, if it could be called that” Killian observed,

“told you we’re being led into some sort of elaborate trap” Moyo replied,

“still, it’s a direction, I’ll take south and you’ll take not north, just the mere size of this fortress and the fact that we’ll be fighting for hours on end just boggles my mind” Killian said,

“We will see it done, we have no time to waste” Moyo replied,

They clasped hands together,

“Be safe titan blade” Killian said,

“And you stellar blade” Moyo replied,

Watching the master go, Moyo turned back to the barrier, hearing the roars of troops as they followed their respective masters and commanders towards the directions they chose. No doubt two or more planetary forces would end up in the same direction, seeing as the armada was deploying a joint fleet force. Praying that he didn’t end up with some master who didn’t like his guts, Moyo stared upwards, looking at the infinitely tall aura and aspect of abyssal energy that served as the sky of this place,

Illusions, everything was some sort of mutative illusion, and he would strip it bare with his powers if he had to. Idris appeared by his side, mantle locked on his body and gripping the broad sword made from the titans weapon in his hand,

“We are ready my lord” he said,

“Half of our forces are left in the defiance?” Moyo asked,

“As ordered my lord,” Idris replied,

Moyo stretched and produced dominion, eyes flashing purple with his mantle locking in place, titan’s body as well,

“Good, let’s see what the crane lance has kept in store for us that way” he said, pointing north.