Lances of light flew above them as abyssal and archailect forces clashed, diamond rankers weaving through the vine covered space vessel that also acted as a base for the forces of house Kairos. Wherever Moyo blew past, abyssal forces simply disintegrated, leaving the shocked diamonds and sometimes masters in awe as he shot towards the large structure, he could feel the aspect of Kairos coming from. Observing where he saw a woman with tiny chains for hair and wearing a grey cloak, similar to what those ascenders of house Kairos who had accompanied Ashira to capture Malgrakor had worn. She, however, was leagues above them, grey glowing chains with mists wafting off them rose, weaving through the air as they grabbed abyssal creatures in their hundreds, killing them with a touch or outright sealing them.
She danced through the air, making sure not to stray from the gate carved out of stone with the face of a snarling monster Moyo wasn’t familiar with, forces of diamonds also wearing the same grey cloaks behind her. coordinating also with ascenders of diamond rank, blasting cannons with aetheric energies at the creatures. She wielded two circular disk weapons, her spiritual form taking shape in the form of a creature of chains, twisting and slamming into the numerous creatures that exploded in gore and a myriad of colors.
The moment Moyo got close to the door, he shuddered as if passing through a bubble, realizing her realm had been so subtly manifested, that whatever foe thought to sneak past her would suddenly find themselves bound by the chains he could feel hovering just below the swampy ground. He glanced up, watching as she turned in his direction, nodding once before dropping straight like a boulder towards his position. She landed with a thud, glancing at Josh who stood behind him, her eyes flickering to the armor he wore as well as the hammer in his hands,
“guardian” she said in greeting to Josh,
The Valoris looked taken aback for a brief second before nodding to her,
“warden” he replied,
Moyo briefly wondered how Josh knew of their organization, but he supposed it was something he had picked up along the way. The woman bowed to him as well, totally ignoring the earth-shaking tremors that signaled the coming of something large,
“Lord titan blade” she said,
“Lord Kairos awaits you within the fortress” she continued,
“what’s the situation?” he asked,
The pale faced woman pursed her lips,
“We expected to run through them, and now we are being held back by these inferior creatures” she replied,
Moyo nodded, and then turned towards where the tremor was coming from, drawing dominion as he homed in on the creature. It was a towering black mass of flesh and mouth, eyes dotting all over its body as it roared, leading a force of what he realized where Bloodfiends along with it. He swung dominion once, releasing a lance of intent attack, watching as it cleanly sliced the creature in two, along with all the creatures with it. They exploded in gore and abyssal essence, the woman speaking,
“On behalf of my lord and the order of wardens, I, Malia, thank you” she said, bowing,
“But that was futile, watch, lord titan blade” she continued,
Moyo glanced at the spot where he had wiped out the creature, seeing the essences of the creatures float back towards the planet where a rune flared to life and a sort of pus looking creations that weathered hit after hit from the very vessel of Kairos itself. Sage’s sight stared at the pus, watching as energies from three different sources fed the pus and over a hundred of its likes as well. A cold feeling went through him, if he wasn’t mistaken, those aspect energies from three different sources, fusing into the protection of those pus cocoons.
He turned gravely back to Malia who nodded,
“Indeed, lord titan blade, I have held you long enough, he awaits” she said,
Idris landed close to him, Obalọkẹ and Agbala Agbaye in his hands, his armor of mithril laced Aserite steaming with leftover gore from the creatures he had ploughed through to arrive next to Moyo. He glanced at Malia who nodded at him before Moyo spoke,
“Stay with her, assist the forces of the house where you can, I’ll be back” he ordered,
Josh glanced at him meaningfully,
“Whatever can get through a team of three masters and break into the fortress where Kairos himself resides is not something you can protect me from” he said, placing one hand on the shoulder of his Valoris,
“Besides, I believe this is a great chance to test out those…ah…. new toys, the Shieldborne could join too” he finished,
Josh’s eyes lit up, nodding as Moyo gave a brief smile, blasting towards the doors that swung open of their own accord, letting him through. The moment he stepped foot inside the fortress, the aspect of Kairos, that power that felt like he was some tiny human trapped within the jaws of a nightmarish horror settled upon him and his aspect retaliated in kind, softly cocooning him in its reassuring power.
Dimly lit corridors lined with stone like sculptures that Moyo knew enough to realize they were alive, like carvings in a haunted house, their frozen gaze seemed to follow him softly,
That and the fact that they were all peak master ranked creatures,
Had his Hud been working, Moyo would have been able to see just what sort of creatures they were, but he walked on, aware that the owner of the fortress awaited his presence deep within the fortress, and they were leashed. Dominion sheathed, he powered through, following the trace of aspect that led him downwards through a hole and into a large circular room where Kairos sat, eyes closed.
Once again Moyo marveled at the strength of aspect he felt from the primordial, nothing short of godhood could be used to explain the being in front of him. Dark sleek hair, toned skin, dull green and inky black eyes and a smile on his face that was reserved for horror drawings, the lord of house Kairos stared at him as he opened his eyes.
Then the oppressive feeling was gone, like it had never existed in the first place, green sunlight coming from somewhere shone through tinted glass, illuminating the room to reveal creatures Moyo hadn’t even felt when he entered. Immediately his mantle and titan body locked in place, eyes burning as his core began to generate aspect that flooded his body.
Kairos chuckled.
“Peace Moyo, they are harmless to allies” he said.
They were humongous work of eldritch creations, one, a grey and black matted fur-like creature that looked like a mix between an ape and a lion, its visage shifted sporadically, its body lined with muscles and its coiled form explaining the python like lower part of its body, liked with hundreds of tiny legs like a centipede. What shook Moyo to the core was the power he felt from it.
It was ruler rank,
And as the creature cracked one serpentine eye open, staring at him and then flicking it to Kairos.
“You were right sire” it said, its voice thick and powerful.
“He really is something.”
Kairos nodded smiling, a chuckle coming from above Moyo where another creature hung, an upright walking thing that had blue stripes all over its feline shape, its eyes too round and too big for its head, looking more like a chameleon’s. its claws were long and curved, and its face was permanently carved into that reminded Moyo of the Cheshire cat from Alice in wonderland. It hung by its feet, gripping the stone that made up the fortress itself before its upper part somehow elastic moved towards Moyo.
“Has our lord brought us something fun?” it rasped.
Moyo let his aspect leak towards the creature, let his power flash before its eyes as it hissed in fright, shooting back up and staring at him cautiously, he wasn’t prey. Kairos spoke.
“It is good to see you have grown, young one.”
Moyo nodded.
“And you too Kairos” Moyo replied.
Kairos nodded,
“you’ve seen what we face, your killing of one of the lords finally brought the remaining four into unity, something they haven’t done since the last rise of the prime lord” Kairos said.
The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Prime lord?” Moyo asked.
He knew what that was, or rather, he had seen flashes of what that being was, thing was, Kairos had no idea, it would be stupid if he didn’t ask. Kairos nodded, stretching his hands out, pieces of armor manifesting as the creatures raised their head, gaze locking on the armor.
“The prime lord was an abyssal lord, one who had managed to obtain all the aspects of all five branches of the abyssal power” Kairos explained.
“All creatures of the abyss swore loyalty to this being, and he had the united might of the entire abyss, and he brought it down on us” Kairos explained.
Snapping his fingers, he spoke.
“Come to me, creatures of the nightmare shroud” he commanded,
From around Moyo came a rumbling, the two creatures sprang up, Moyo shifting backwards as he realized that two other creatures were in the room as well, and again, he had felt nothing. Laying beneath where Kairos had sat, uncoiled a large true serpent, its body shimmering with scales and its eel looking head glowing with its pearly eyes. It shot a brief look at Moyo, as if boring into his soul. It glowed before constricting its frame, melting like smelted metal before reforging itself into a chest plate. Its head jutting out like that of medusa, its mouth opened wide in a snarl.
The aura of pure terror began to waft into the room, seeking to enter his body, seeking for ways to seep into his soul his mantle vibrated with his aspect, repulsing the aura as another monster manifested, this one, burning with green flames. This monstrous entity appeared as a towering figure wreathed in flickering flames and ember-like wisps. Its armor-like exoskeleton resembled volcanic rock, radiating intense heat and molten energy. It possessed a pair elongated limbs tipped with sharp, obsidian claws, no doubt capable of rending through the toughest defenses. Its eyes burning with an infernal glow.
Glowing before melting the same way the serpent had done, it reforged itself into a pair of greaves, attaching itself to the legs of Typhon, a visage of its haunting gaze adorning both knees of the primordials' legs. The ape-like creature moved next, kneeling as its body glowed and fractured into two, melting as well in a burst of grey light, the two halves shaping themselves into gauntlets that locked unto the arms of Typhon.
The final creature was the feline, dropping from above and becoming slag as it did so, it reshaped itself into a snarling visage in the form of a helmet, molding itself to the head of Typhon before solidifying. The armor, an all-black color exploded with the aspect and authority of the king of monsters, his essence in all its majesty came forth, expanding as the very fortress seemed to groan with power. The titan felt the hair on his body rise as a cold feeling shot through his spine, this was Kairos in his full regalia, the image that drove the fear of the primordial into every living being.
The apex of eldritch horrors.
” The nightmare regalia” Typhon said, his voice deeper and dripping with authority that warped reality around him.
“Forged from the four-vassal ruler ranked creatures I subdued” he continued.
“You forged living creatures into armor?” Moyo asked incredulously.
“More or less, a few discarded legendary ranked skills I had infused into them, they were malleable, given enough Divinium” Typhon replied.
“I thought only the celestials got Divinium?” Moyo asked.
As far as he was concerned, that was the selling point of the supreme beings to bring potential primordials to their side. Typhon chuckled.
“I have my ways around that” he said cryptically.
Stretching his hand out again, he spoke.
“Come, oblivion’s requiem” he commanded, authority dripping with every word.
The room darkened as hundreds of eyes manifested around in the darkness, red glowing eyes that all honed in on Kairos before coalescing together into an orb, floating to his hand before locking itself into a space Moyo now noticed on his gauntlet.
“Weapon?” he asked.
“indeed” Kairos replied.
“What type?”
“Anything I desire it to be” Typhon replied.
Moyo paused at that.
“Anything?” he asked,
“When you become a full-fledged primordial, there are some secrets that will be opened up to you, about the expanse of the archailect, assuming it survives till then” the king of monsters said grimly.
Moyo glanced around.
“You can feel it, can’t you?” Kairos asked.
Moyo turned wordlessly to him.
“That feeling of impending doom, no matter what the supreme beings think, we primordials are in fact the true protectors of the archailect, we are the most in tune with the fabric that makes up this reality we call home while they rule from a realm above ours” Kairos said.
“What is it?, what’s coming?” Moyo asked.
“Why your old master of course, it thought you’d know that by now” Kairos replied with a chuckle.
Moyo paused.
“Whatever you think of Ajax, he wasn’t like that, not before” Moyo argued.
“The one who was once known as the death blade had been nursing a rot long before you knew him Moyo, I do not blame you for thinking so” Kairos said as he marched down from where he stood.
“you’re saying there’s no hope for him?” Moyo asked.
“no one is irredeemable, the question is are they worthy of it?” Kairos said before tapping his feet to the ground.
A rumble and flare of his aspect later, the room shimmered.
“Titan blade, if you would” he said, glancing at Moyo from the helmet where only a bright red light could be seen.
Moyo glanced around, seeing different sigils flare up, his at a corner, the mountain and blade above it.
“a meeting?” Moyo asked softly.
Kairos nodded.
“it’s time we addressed the trap our foes have so delicately set up, a trap they intend for you” Kairos said with a nod.
Before Moyo could speak three beings shimmered into being, standing beneath their sigils, the first, a humanoid shape with nine shadowy tails, its features manifesting as a black humanoid fox dressed in shmeering embroidery. Tengoku Junzo, the Omnifox, a primordial fox with a regal look, arms folded and tails swishing. The next to appear was also a man made entirely of crackling lightning, down to the beard that adorned his white glowing skin, eyes burning with barely restrained power.
Viaris of the slumbering sands appeared next, a figure Moyo knew well enough, adorned in a bronze colored Divinium armor, his features tanned to an almost golden hue and gold eyes crinkling with a smile as he took sight of Moyo. A curved khopesh at his waist that Moyo somehow began to think was a mythical ranked arcane weapon, Kairos spoke first.
“Brothers, fellow primordials, thank you for heeding my summons” he started.
The lightning being known as Ardos snorted.
“it’s not like we have anything better doing, with whatever foul powers the abyss has called upon to shield our entrance from the planet below, we can only watch our forces battle those never-ending hordes in silence” he stated.
“I still say we send down our combined forces to handle whatever’s down there” Tengoku said.
“The planet below is shielded from us, they’ll be going in blind, even the ancients can’t seem to even see through the veil or land for that matter” Viaris replied.
“Then rulers and masters, we have those in surplus, don’t we?” Ardos said.
“I believe we’re all going around the main reason” Kairos said quietly.
“aye” Ardos said turning to Moyo who folded his arms.
“Now is not the time to doubt ourselves” Tengoku said softly.
“isn’t it?, it’s his name they’re screaming below” Ardos grumbled, his voice clapping like thunder.
“My name?” Moyo asked.
“Indeed, young one, the forces of the abyss within the planet scream the name titan blade to the skies, we may not see what is happening down there, but we can hear their cries, it echoes with power” Viaris said.
“All the more reason to suspect the nature of the trap” Tengoku said.
“And what of our other…primordials?” Kairos asked.
“The omnidroid has retreated, a wordless call to all his forces who have gone back in the direction of their collective galaxy” Ardos spat.
“Something is brewing with them, something with future repercussions” Tengoku said.
“And the other primordials?” Kairos asked, trying to stir the conversation back to the main issue.
“Ynas has maintained complete silence, she and her forces have refused to communicate with us, along with Metar and that excuse of a primordial Rieus” Viaris said.
“Then the celestials are fine with throwing the titan blade into the trap” Kairos said.
“Better than their forces the way they see it” Tengoku shrugged.
Kairos turned to Moyo.
“So, what say you?, titan blade” he asked.
Moyo kept quiet for a second or two.
“Only rulers and masters can descend into the planet, right?” he asked.
“Indeed, young one” Ardos said.
Moyo ignored the jibe at his strength, aware that he was being provoked, something the rest knew as well as they short warning glances at the primordial known as the thunderer.
“Seems like we have no other choice, I will go down there, take a team of masters along with me” he said.
Ardos chuckled.
“No rulers?” he asked.
Moyo’s eyes glowed, his aspect expanding.
“we’ll have one” he said softly.
The thunderer chuckled in his thunder clapping voice.
“This should be fun” he said.
“Then we are in agreement, although, anyone who decides to add a master or two to the force the titan blade would be taking down with him are free to do so” Kairos said.
“You have our oath, your house’s forces would be protected” Kairos said, the rest nodding along.
“I thank you, but a small force would better serve me, I’ll be taking my emissary and Valoris with me, maybe Ashira” he said.
The other primordials all turned to Kairos, as if gauging his reaction with what the titan blade said, the king of monsters nodded.
“As is prudent, we can only hope to the archailect that you strike hard and fast” he said.
“Then it is agreed, and titan blade?” Viaris called to Moyo who looked at him.
“Welcome to the terrestrials” he said with a smile as he vanished.
One by one they did as well, leaving Moyo with Kairos who dispelled the room they were in, the cold stone walls of the fortress reappearing back in place. Moyo turned to Kairos.
“And what will you be doing?” he asked.
“Exactly what those servants of the abyssal lords expect, face the monsters coming for us” he said.
Moyo was about to ask what monsters he was referring to when a loud roar tore through the fortress and a wave of pure bloodlust descended, coating the green light red as his aspect and that of Kairos repelled the effects. Moyo shot for the exit, dimly aware that the master ranked statues were no longer in position. Coming out to meet a veil of blood red light shining down on the entire vessel, projecting the aspect of an abyssal lord.
From behind him came the unfettered aspect of the king of monsters rising skywards in a column of grey light as he floated up, just in time to see a creature of horrific creation descend, its entire body a bloody mess and on its back sat a figure Moyo knew well enough.
Gorefang, elite of Vusal.
From his back came hordes of abyssal fiends, descending into the garden-like vessel of Kairos where different forces tore of the shrouds on their existences, numerous diamond and master ranked powers blooming to life all around the vessel, the great powers of house Kairos had finally awoken. Idris landed next to him along with Josh.
“Things are going bat shit crazy” he said grimly.
“I know” Moyo replied, forcing open a pathway to the same point where he had landed.
“aren’t we helping them?” Josh asked.
Ashira landed next to him, her feet squashing the skull of some creature she had killed in the air.
“let’s go, father already gave me his blessings” she said.
Moyo simply nodded, all around the planet, the forces of the abyssal lords were moving, pushing the battle into a ludicrous frenzy. With one move they entered the pathway, passing through to appear in the air above the planet.
“Your Shieldborne?” Moyo asked Josh.
“On their way to the vessel of house Kairos, your orders?” Josh asked.
“Deploy them back to our side, they’re want to test their strength?, we’re going into the mouth of hell itself” he replied.