The warship bequeathed to master Yona Rippingblade made its descent close to the orbital defence platform of the prime Forgeworld of house Dracon known as Wyrmforge. She had been systematically been in charge of taking over every Forgeworld house Dracon had, up and until the point where they had resorted to emptying the worlds of every single piece of ammunition the Forgeworld had before blowing it up behind them in their retreat. Every system had a single Forgeworld to provide for its needs, supplying the forces of house Dracon in that sector, but as they took system after system, the forces of the reaping katana realized that they saw lesser and lesser ammunitions for their growing armies that were soon enough numbering in their millions.
She had urged the Omegablade to press on in their attacks and hasten their attacks against the house to arrive at more Forgeworlds before they were blown up by the retreating forces. Ajax had denied her request, intent on dragging entire worlds with his aspect that had grown to terrifying strength, soon enough she had seen the sense in that. And as the planets were hurled at the prime planets of house Dracon, for an instant, she had trusted in his plans, that was until Hagan had revealed herself subtly, empowering the masters that swore allegiance to her and blowing up the entire planets, showing the system in rock debris that mad it had for both the invading and defending forces to navigate their ships through.
It had eventually ensured that whatever forces that were defending or attacking a particular planet were stuck there till one side either won and began to clear the stone debris in space. That was how luck had allowed her and her thousands of ascenders to find themselves positioned to take the prime Forgeworld. Yona really considered it a stroke of fate, seeing as her aim to be the one to strike down the forge lord general of the entirety of house Dracon itself would soon be accomplished. She gripped the pendant on her chest,
“For you mother” she thought,
Her last transmission to Ajax had been to inform him of her aim to take the planet as a whole, turning it for their use, the Omegablade paying no mind and simply telling her to go wild as he had retreated back into his innermost chamber of his star fortress, the scythe. She shuddered from the power she had felt from that room whenever she went aboard the vessel, it felt wrong and otherworldly, for if the abyss felt disgusting, then that power was totally malicious.
The truth was that she saw very little in the Ajax she once knew, this all powerful being was nothing like the headstrong, stubborn and powerful Ajax who was friendly and loyal to his friends but devastating to his enemies. This new Ajax was something akin to a cold persona of death itself, but he was powerful and that was all she cared about, that and the fact that he had delivered his promise of bringing her right to the doorstep of the prime Forgeworld itself. She stood from her throne as her ascenders clad in the robes of the reaping katana sect directed their lesser vessels through the rocks and the orbital shots from the prime Forgeworld in front of them.
They lost ships by the minute, but Yona considered them acceptable losses, this was war afterall and losses were to be expected, they would avenge them anyways. As the Forgeworld drew closer, she spoke,
“Unleash the cannon” she commanded,
She watched her ascenders comply, satisfactorily sitting back on her throne and eagerly observing the devastating power of Ajax’s path brought to life. The cannon, a work of art made by Ajax himself and inlaid with runes she couldn’t decipher as the very sight of them had induced a mind-bending migraine and she was a master, golds and silvers literally dropped dead at the sight of the runes and Ajax had worked in seclusion to protect his forces.
The weapon powered up and shot a lance of midnight black energy at the platform, totally destroying the entire arm of orbital placements, turning even mithril to slag, tearing through the barrier dome of power that protected the platform but somehow avoiding what she realized were barrier bunkers. Wondering at how those bunkers survived, she ordered the ships to land immediately, intent on creating a fort before reinforcements arrived.
She doubted house Dracon would send a master to protect the Forgeworld though, no doubt deploying them all to protect the nest itself and the prisoner they had on it. It was to her surprise as her flagship landed next to the destroyed platform and she descended with thousands of her forces, that she felt the power of a master and a bunch of diamonds along with it. Smiling, she unleashed her power as well, feeling the master ranked power lock on to hers, drawing her midnight blade, she pointed it forwards and roared,
“For the Omegablade!”
More than a thousand voices replied her roar with theirs as they pressed forwards.
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Anala felt her blade tear through ascender after ascender in a flood of all colours of blood, her diamonds staying close to her in a tight knit as they pressed forwards, weapons continually swinging and projectile weapons blasting out to rip into enemy ascenders all around them. Then the defenders came out of their bunkers and followed suit, ripping into their enemies the way they also did to them. It became pure carnage, both sides fighting like savages as realms were called and paths burned powers, the very aether roiling around them due to the insane amount of bloodshed been spilled.
She felt her quarry edging ever closer and zipped past the last obstacles in a spray of blood, clashing with her foe. The white-haired girl with a pale complexion grinned at her as both of them separated and moved again, reality cracking and depositing the both of them into the Nethervoid, the girl retreating a bit,
“As I live and breathe, Anala red jaw” she said,
“And you are?’ Anala asked,
“how’s that invalid of yours?, still kicking?” she asked,
Anala felt rage burbling up from deep within her but quashed it, now was not the time to give in to her bestial side, not yet anyways. She waited for the girl to speak, the girl held her blade in a stance as her aether and intent took shape around her, deep black mantle covering her body and a pair of grey blade wings taking shape behind her. Anala could faintly see the outline of a female form in her aura, as if shielding her,
“it’s been too long, I honestly don’t expect you to remember me red jaw” she spat,
“I remember all” Anala answered quietly,
“Then let my blade tell the story!” the girl snarled,
Anala felt her keen senses warn her as intent gathered all around her, blades of devastating power tearing through her position from all around her. Her draconic armour and mantle covered her entire body, her realm of fire and draconic scales taking shape as she deflected attack after attack before appearing next to the girl, both of them clashing in a shower of blades.
Her aura formed a draconic skull atop her head, the fiery image breathing in as the girl uttered a command,
“shred” she said,
The mantle shook the fiery head but didn’t dispel it,
“I was a master before you were an egg in your mother’s womb” Anala said,
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
“burn” she commanded,
The girl flipped to the side, dodging the fiery attack before landing on the white sandy ground, the dark background of the Nethervoid glittering with the power of their attacks. She twisted her blade, trailing a horizontal slash of fiery energy as she made for the girl, aura of a pure dragon screaming into the Nethervoid, Anala burnt with the pure aspect of her path of the red jaw, crushing every intent attack the girl sent her way with efficiency and no overt display of powers like dragons tended to do.
She could see it ruffled the metaphorical scales of the human girl, her skills coming with the beast like strength Ajax was known for. It almost made her pity the girl, for while Ajax had the tenacity and skill to complement such a fighting style, the girl didn’t and it was gradually proving to be her own undoing. That was what Anala thought however, till the girl switched fighting styles and her blade disappeared in a haze of rippling blade energy. Then space around Anala began to ripple as tiny cuts opened up all over her, biting through her flesh and into her bones as she bit back a scream, flames wreathing her frame once again as she let its burning fury into her body.
The attacks of the girl it seemed had another effect, tiny blades went through the cuts she made, intent on tearing her foes from the inside out, such cruel method of fighting, Anala wondered what had made the girl develop such a path. With blood leaking from her frame, she let the fires die down, her body healing rapidly and the last of the cuts closing up, the girl stood at a distance,
“Still alive, good, I wanted to draw this out, the same way my mothers’ death was” she growled,
Anala maintained her state of calm, locking up the rage within her and letting it power her movements, draconic physique and endurance helping her recover faster,
“Again, I have no idea whom you speak off or who you are” she replied,
“of course you wouldn’t, what’s a single pregnant woman to you?” the girl asked,
Anala paused, parsing through her centuries of memories, some as pristine as if she had them that same day, others old and a bit blurry but still there. She took in the appearance of the girl, took in her white hair and pale looks and then froze,
No, it was impossible,
The girl noted her rigid look and smiled,
“You remember now, don’t you??, whose daughter I was?” she asked,
“daughter?, you’re her daughter?” Anala asked,
The girl pointed her blade at Anala, rippling intent flowing across the blade with burning greyish energy,
“I’m the daughter of the woman you sent to that prison world” she bit out,
“Yona?, no, impossible” Anala whispered,
“Your mouth is not befitting of her name serpent” Yona hissed as she swung her blade again,
Anala had no time to cry out in protest space around her rippling again as she clamped her realm down immediately, pushing back the attacks of the girl with the haunting look. She blasted forward, opening her mouth and releasing the signature dragon roar her path was known for, the attack slammed into Yona who couldn’t bring down her realm in time, slamming her to her knees,
“listen!, Yona should had gone to a province, you are mistaken” she hastily said,
She could remember the face of the pregnant woman, one that had been caught stealing on a distant provincial planet of house Dracon. Anala had been on an inspection tour and the then governor of that world, a fat short sweaty dragonoid who had been siphoning funds meant for the people and attempted to cover it up due to her arrival. He hadn’t counted on one pregnant woman hungry to a feral state attempting to steal food and causing a ruckus on the street.
He had ordered his soldiers to take her away into a dungeon, quickly to avoid it drawing her attention, but Anala had learnt to trust her instincts when going on inspection tours. With one of her maids disguised as her, she had slipped hours ago into the planet as a simple trader, observing the state of stench and poverty that had seeped into the now industrialized world. She had killed the governor, reinstating another from the working class and releasing Yona, the name the mother of the child had borne as well.
Handing her over to the governor, she had instructed the pregnant woman be relocated to another planet, a more peaceful one and thought nothing of it again. Now to be here, fighting with the then unborn child of the woman shook her to the core. She released her roar as the girl pushed harder and harder, Anala feeling the girl’s aspect swarming around her as she retreated, dipping her hand into her vault she opened and withdrawing a mithril forged armour of draconic runes adorning it. She could see it in the girl’s eyes, she could see the determination to end her and she knew then and there that she wouldn’t listen,
Not yet anyways,
So she drudged up every piece of memory she had about that encounter, and then she filled a memory crystal with it even as she dodged the attacks of the girl, and then she implemented her plan. Gathering her aspect, the uttered an edict,
“crush” draconic flames surrounded the girl, pushing down on her as her eyes suddenly turned black and Anala realized just what she wanted to do.
With precision, she slammed into the girl before she could gather the borrowed aspect of Ajax that had made her a master, disrupting her thought, not before she cried out as she felt one of the tendrils of chaos lash at her. Her willpower was strong though, as befitting one of her rank and so she fused the memory crystal to the girls cloth, tearing open her vault and taking another construct, the tiny ring floating towards the girl before becoming a tube that encompassed her as runes glowed from within its opaque crystal.
It locked her in place, feeding from her inherent aspect as the girl resembled a figure frozen in ice, and then Anala red jaw fled. Shattering her way back into real space, she gave the restrictive construct a few minutes to hold the girl before she would be released, and she had work to do. Appearing back on the orbital platform, she decimated the forces of Yona, turning her sight to the flagship the girl had brought along and gathering her remaining forces, two of her diamonds dead on the ground. Opening a pathway into the vessel itself, she killed the command ascenders, tearing through the vessel as the fanatics of Ajax’s cause kept calling his name, driving terror into her at the possibility of the Omegablade appearing at their location due to his presence being called upon.
Fortunately, he didn’t, whatever endeavor the Omegablade was currently engaged in, he couldn’t abandon it to save his forces, and then she blew the entire vessel up, ferrying her remaining forces alive back to safety of the orbital platform. She watched as Yona breached real space back, eyes wide in rage as she realized she’d been tricked, Anala felt her chest ache at the look of pure anger and rage in the eyes of the girl, watched as she gripped her blade tight and prepared to attack despite the debris of the filling vessel crashing down on them.
Then two diamonds appeared out of nowhere, grabbing her and opening a pathway as house Dracon forces opened up with everything they had. With tears streaming down her face, Yona deflected it all, Anala screaming at her forces to stop attacking, then Yona and her diamonds were gone, no doubt back to another vessel that was cloaked from their view. With no time to waste, Anala opened another pathway, her forces retreating through it as quickly as she could manage, the rest opening pathways with items they had no doubt spent a fortune on buying from the system vault for situations such as this in the first place.
And then they were back on the orbital defence main platform, watching as an entire arm of the platform that ringed the planet going totally dark. The forces roared in victory, but Anala slumped to the ground, anguish in her heart as she wondered at just what she had unleashed on the archailect again,
First was Ajax, and now Yona.
She watched as the forces celebrated, unaware of another evil she had unleashed, and so she prayed, to Eses, to Lotes, to any of the supreme beings listening,
To please let the girl watch the crystal.
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Yona sat on the throne of another small vessel commandeered by one of her diamonds, a stealth craft she had built for initially slipping past the planet defences of Wyrmforge and getting to the heart of the main continent. Now it was the last vessel in her attack against house Dracon’s main Forgeworld, she supposed any other person would count her lucky to survive a duel with the red jaw, but Ajax had done it to,
And she was no Ajax,
She casted the errant thought from her mind as she snarled,
“Get me in contact with the main fleet!” she snarled,
The diamond who had rescued her shook his head, his red eyes and blue skin shimmering in the night stars of the galaxy,
“Impossible, communications are down, something is interfering with our transmissions” he replied,
She scrunched her face together,
“What do you mean?” she asked,
The diamond shrugged,
“All forces have been cut off from each other lady Yona, we’re what’s left of the Wyrmforge invasion force” he said grimly,
Barely five hundred ascenders on the craft with only two diamonds and her, very well. She stood up as the diamond turned to her,
“As of this moment, we’re an assassination squad, I need the ascenders in teams of twenty, prepare to slip past their defences” she ordered,
“Their rune matric is good, the only reason we’ve survived this long is due to the rubble and flashes of power from your attacks” he said,
“Leave that to me, I have a plan” Yona said,
“And our destination?” the diamond asked,
“The main orbital platform, we’re going to steal their guns and turn it on the planet itself” she replied.