Ship mistress Urne felt the power when it exploded from the planet below, like a wave of pure nausea and bile inducing dizziness, the systems of the defiance fizzled as shola, the ship’s A.I screamed as if in pain, the defiance shuddering under the raw power. It had felt like pure terror and hell blended into some sort of mental concoction that threatened to wipe out their sanity, and Urne knew that had it not been for the ships very buoyant aspect of the titan protecting them, then they would most like be either a pile of goo, or a bunch of blabbering mess.

Already ship members of silver rank and below were already screaming in madness, without the strength or mental fortitude to handle such an attack, they were rapidly becoming a bunch of invalids. She rapidly got to her feet, wiping a trail of drool from her mouth as she stood up, diamond ranked endurance shoring up her momentary lapse, she activated her rare ranked skill, abode of the captain to gain control over the helm of the ship.

Pulses of power went from her to the ascenders around the ship, calming them from the near terror inducing madness that had settled upon them. The golds immediately springing into action as shola materialized next to her, a look of grimness on her face,

“The abyss has torn its way into our reality” she said,

“What was that power exactly?’ Urne asked,

“If my scanners and information had predownloaded in me are correct, then that must be some higher entity of the mutator, something strong enough to wield a ridiculous amount of aspect from the mutator, either that or the mutator himself has broken through” shola said,

‘Impossible, it hasn’t happened in, well, forever, not since the days of horror and that terrible legend” Urne said,

She couldn’t wrap her head around the thought, she couldn’t dare imagine what that would mean, not this close to the very center of where it was going down. Shola however shook her head as if in remorse,

“We can only hope I’m wrong, I’m attempting to maintain a connection to the other battleships of the legion, my readings are showing catastrophic damage to both their systems and ascenders” shola said,

Something flickered outside the glass screens of the helm, drawing the attention of Urne who turned, the entire bridge crew growing silent as they stared in horror, watching an abyssal creature of mutation appear right before their eyes,

Without a pathway to bring it through….

Urne moved with diamond ranked speed,

“Shola!” she shouted,

The A.I thankfully moved without being told, the defiance’s guns powering to life and blasting it into annihilation, the creature screaming with death throes. This jarred the gold bridge crews who began running back to their stations, Urne turning to shola,

“Get me across to all ten of the cohort flagships, if possible, hack into their systems or get me Ahib, bring them closer, they do not have the same protection of the titan’s blessings as the defiance do, archailect knows what has begun spawning right in the middle of their ships” she said with a shudder,

Shola nodded and began bringing up runic writings, Urne turning back to her screen, trying to coordinate and get in contact with the other ships of the armada while staring into the grimness as space itself began to acquire a green tinge, green gaseous clouds slowly absorbing the blackness of space itself, revealing untold horrors that the very ship of the titan blade held at bay. She found herself whispering a short prayer not to the supreme beings, but to the titan blade himself,

“Titan protect us” she said…….

And so engrossed she was in trying to beat back the growing legions of Molrik, that she missed the tiny bleep that passed across her radar screen, heading straight for the planet itself.

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

Moyo could feel it in his bones, the deep rattling, the very nature of mutation savagely beating at his runic protections and the ever-powerful gaze of the mutator bearing down on them. Gripping dominion and Gegun tighter, he pushed himself to his feet, struggling under the intense presence of Molrik who kept staring at them in distaste,

“I wonder” Molrik started,

“Are these who your supreme beings expect to stop me?, an avatar barely a day into her existence, an ancient on the path of Alastor, a jade sent by the aether blessed and you, abomination that you are, titan blade” he continued,

"I must say, I am quite disappointed by such a line up, never in my entire existence would I imagine, that I would stand face to face with beings below the rank of primordial, and where are your primordials, hmm?” Molrik asked,

His form seemed to fizzle and twist, as if he couldn’t manifest completely, Moyo’s mind snagged unto that train of thought, even as he fought back the mental attacks of terror, thanks to his high mental resistance. He glanced at Altair whose eyes were shut tight, his aspect flickering across his body, Moyo took a deep breath and focused on his aspect, watching as it rippled through him, keeping his body moving as well as keeping his mind sane. He pumped it into his body with pure willpower, feeling his muscles groan, pushing them to the extreme.

His fingers and toes twitched, and without a second thought he shot forwards, pure power blasting him with the force of a canon towards the hordes of mutations. They hadn’t expected his movement, and the moment he got within distance of the creatures, Gegun and dominion went to work. First to go were the giants, creatures of bleached bones and flesh, dominion unleashing black holes that tore and wreaked damage through their ranks, Gegun wiping them from existence. The moment he felt Molrik hone in on him, crashing him into the ground, he felt the presence of the mutator release from the others, and they took instant use of that fraction of a window.

Teisha, avatar of fire blazed to life as she unleashed the flames of Lotes, this time the tainted reality of the mutator screamed in agony, Teisha swinging pyre. Flames blossomed into a true inferno, lighting the creatures on fire as they wreathed and screamed in pure agony, Mardar moved, chanting words in a language Moyo didn’t understand but raised his hackles, white runic circles breaking out around him, and from the runes that opened up a pathway stepped out large creatures, a mix of humanoid and insect, clad in shimmering white armor and blistering sharpened scythe like hands.

They shrieked and poured out in their hundreds, clashing with the creatures of the mutator, pushing them back, Altair though took the center stage, grasping Durandal, his main blade, he pulsed with power, eyes going white as pathways opened up behind him, his body glowing and burning with runes that spoke of the power of a blade. From the pathways poured out hundreds of blades, the skies above him blistering with thunder and lightning as a vortex of power grew, Altair tapping into some powerful source of pure aether, aether Moyo suspected belonged to Alastor himself.

Molrik couldn’t ignore them any longer, even as more of his forces poured from the gates like a never-ending deluge of monsters, Moyo felt every stab and bite of the blades of the creatures surrounding him, held down by the power of Molrik, he screamed. His aspect blasting out of him, incinerating the creatures in a circumference around him. Grasping dominion, he whispered to the blade,

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“destroy”

The blade hummed and tore through the ranks of the monsters who had been driven into a frenzy around him, Moyo roaring in anger, struggling to his feet, blackish green fluid seeping out of his body as he groaned. Stretching his hand out, he summoned his aspect, feeling the power roaring around his finger tips and spreading out around him. Then he summoned his core realm against all odds, despite feeling the buildup of a planet splitting migraine in his skull, he fought against all odds, his blood boiling in his ears,

“KNEEL!” He commanded,

Every creature within his core realm crashed to the ground as Digi aye burnt the very aspect of Molrik away from his realm. His body rippled as he convulsed, puking out more copious quantities of greenish liquid as his head became clear to an extent. Wiping his mouth, he summoned dominion back to his grip, Gegun in his other hand, taking a deep breath, he hopped on his feet, opening his eyes and swinging Gegun in an arc, pure power went out of his core realm smashing into the lines of the hordes and turning them into ash, a great scream going out from the hordes.

Then with two blades in his hands, despite his body recovering from the effects of Molrik’s power, he smiled,

“Come if you dare” he whispered, his voice going out like a gong,

They bore down on his realm like a tsunami, and the titan met them like a solid mountain of pure Aserite, Gegun turned them to ashes and dominion blew their very essences apart. Wading into the midst of the hordes, Moyo let himself go, he could care less if Molrik was here, he could care less that he was trapped on a planet with a lord of the abyss and he most certainly shut down the thought that he could possibly die. Now was not the time to think about the looming specter of death, now was the time to fight as hell and leave the rest to fate that had never stirred him wrong.

Moyo didn’t realize the passage of time as he devoted his time into wiping out the forces of the abyss, he didn’t notice when Mardar came to his side, giving him a wide berth but ticking close enough to cover him, adding his runic core realm in the shape of a sphere that orbited the realm of the titan. Together they formed an indomitable wall in which the never-ending swarm of abyssal creatures.

Moyo hummed with power as he bathed in his burgeoning aspect, every step that drew him closer to the mutator saw his confidence rebolstered and his aspect spreading like tendrils across the very planet. Like his body and mind becoming one machine of pure destruction, Moyo tore his way ever closer, feeling his aspect burn and lash out as he gazed upon the mutator,

Why was he fighting?

The thought came to his mind unbidden, almost causing him to falter in his movements, he powered on though,

I fight to protect,

He lobbed off the head of a lich, his aspect burning a wraith as he stomped his foot, a pulse of aspect blasting out around him, his eyes burning like coals,

Who was he fighting against?,

He roared, his spiritual form coming to life to tear numerous flying creatures out of the air, its blade made of pure aspect leaving a trail of pure destruction in his wake. Altair blazed pas him, a golden blade in hand as he chucked it at Molrik, the mutator who was battling the avatar of flames slapped the blade that turned to sludge out of the air. It caused Moyo to pause, the blade Altair had thrown was a legendary ranked blade, and it had been destroyed in the blink of an eye.

Moyo twisted in the air, blasting out shots after shots of aspect as he shot for the mutator, Gegun and dominion rained down like comet on the hordes, moving with minimal control from Moyo who got ever closer to the mutator. Then like passing through jelly he froze in the air, his body straining at the restraint Molrik imposed on him, while battling Tesha at the same time. With willpower that burned at the touch, dominion and Gegun shot for the mutator like bullets, screaming through the air with unrestrained power.

Molrik turned in the moment as a pulse of power pushed Teisha back, grabbing Gegun in the air and pushing it off course with a hiss, the blade careening to the side as Moyo winced, his connection to the blade momentarily torn away. Dominion though, the mutator dodged completely before even realizing what he had done, first came the realization and then the pure rage in the gaze of the mutator who snapped his fingers and Teisha disappeared from reality all together. Moyo felt the full gaze of the mutator on him and felt his mind unravelling at the seams, he didn’t hear his voice as he screamed in pure agony.

His eyes bled, his skin began to peel backwards and still he fought, his very soul was pierced by the machinations of the mutator, his core shook, his realm shattered, all these happened in the blink of an eye, and yet, the titan endured, locked in what felt like an infinite cycle of pure torture and agony.

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

Teisha felt the power of the mutator wrench her forcefully from the archailect and reality in general, dumping her straight into the realm of the mutator, the arbor of mutation. She felt it in her bones just as she knew what had happened, she had been locked from appearing right back where she had been wrenched from, the planet of Molrik was now and truly in the hands of the mutator, an extension of his arbor and she would have to fight her way through what she saw were billions upon billions of abyssal creatures.

The realm of the mutator fractured and remade itself in a continuous loop, a testament of his power and aspect, and she, as an avatar of fire, was like a radioactive substance thrown into the midst of the realm. As she suspected, it drew the inhabitants of this realm to her like moths to a flame, lumbering shadowed forms running towards her, voices razed in howls as they came for her. Unfazed, she raised pyre, the still slumbering brother warrior of hers within the blade had been yet to awaken, still, he was a weapon forged with the flames of Lotes, he would wreak havoc within the realm of the mutator.

Floating upwards, shutting her minds to the tricks of the realm, she sent a pulse of her flames in every direction, her perception searching for a gate, the gate that the mutator had opened into the planet of Molrik itself. She found it in the distance, a large and looming figure, made of abyssal metal, forged by the burrowing creatures that called the region of molten abyssal metal home. She turned her attention to the creatures about to reach her location, then she noticed something strange happening within the ranks of the creatures that were coming.

It looked like a blip in the hordes bearing down on her, entire swaths of creatures just ceasing to exist in a flash, it was then she realized nothing existed in those particular areas where the blips were happening. No abyssal aspects, nothing, reality seemed to simply break down into nothingness and the creatures ran like hell, then she realized another astonishing reality,

They weren’t running towards her, they were running away from something,

The presence manifested next to her with the same chill a mortal would have when a spirit appears next to them, the same bone chilling intuition that something or someone was next to her. Pyre swung with the touch of an executioner, flowing through the air she realized was now cleaned of the mutator’s aspect, reality breaking down around her. Then the flames on pyre simply vanished, like the aether of Lotes contained within the blade had simply been wiped out and dull red metal stopped few inches from a man.

A man she knew now as a reality unlike anything the archailect or the abyss had ever seen,

“Ajax omega blade” she said with a whisper,

The omega blade smiled,

“At your service, although I must confess, throughout my sojourn in the near infinite space of the archailect, never in my existence have I met something like you, what are you?” Ajax asked,

Teisha snarled, putting distance between herself and the omega blade, an abomination so profound, she had no words for it,

“Accursed, you have forsaken the path of the archailect and d-“was all she said as ajax appeared next to her,

She froze as she felt the power coming from him, power he had shrouded, and instincts shouted at her that she was a tiny prey in the gaze of a predator, her body locking down instinctually. Her gaze went to the space he had occupied a mere fraction of a second ago and her eyes went wide, realizing what had happened, ajax omega blade hadn’t teleported or jumped or used any fancy skills,

He had eaten that space,

Ajax omega blade had simply wiped out a portion of reality to appear next to her, he had eaten the space and along with it anything and any being that were in that particular area as well. Teisha searched within her heart and entire being for the comforting flames of Molrik but found sparks, the very presence of the omega blade had stunted her power, she asked herself though, with chilling thoughts, that if his power did that to her, an avatar of a supreme being,

What would it do to regular ascenders?,

She heard his voice then, devoid of emotions, as cold s winters beath back on her home world,

“I wiped out every notable creature of the mutator, I am the reason he had to hasten his plans, do not think for a moment that you are a threat to me” he said,

She nodded wordlessly, the only feeling she had was the grip of pyre in her fist, then ajax was back to the cheery mask he wore, grinning at her,

“Good, now, Molrik somehow found a way to hide the great pathway he opened up, my guess is that’s how he brought you here, and you are going to lead me to it” he said, hands on his waist,

Instincts screamed at her not to do so, but she had no choice, not in the face of ajax, so she nodded, a plan formulating in her head. The omega blade laughed, clapping his hands together as his eyes shone in anticipation while behind him his powers tore the realm of the mutator to nothingness…...