Moyo got off the mountain a few minutes later, bounding down towards the bottom where Josh and his three Shieldborne commanders stood vigil. Josh met him the moment he descended, the palace in the distance, the throngs of refugees that had once littered the landscape completely gone due to the efforts of the clan and other powerful parties. Allocation had gone on smoothly, the billions on his planet safely dispersed to other planets that now occupied the system.
He nodded to Josh.
“Mithril warden,” he said quietly.
“My lord” Josh replied, the commanders kneeling to him.
“What have I missed?” Moyo asked as he began walking in the direction of the palace.
“The house has gathered all its masters; all are within the palace and all are awaiting your presence” Josh replied.
Moyo nodded, turning his gaze skywards.
“I see the primordials still hover,” he said, extending his presence out of Ibere to feel the behemoth ships that hovered around his domain realm.
“The Defiance has assumed defense position of the palace, the legion flagships as well, all forces of house titan blade are ready,” Josh said.
“Ready?” Moyo asked.
Josh nodded, his robe flapping in the soft morning wind, his weapons nowhere to be found, something Moyo realized was the same case with the other Shieldborne as well.
“Our forces are on standby, across the other planets of the house as well, whatever your orders may be” his Valoris completed.
Moyo nodded, walking in silence as he passed by entire vessels filled with weapons and equipment, all moving to and fro from the Defiance itself. As he got closer to the palace he saw the damages had been fixed, its walls were glistening again and the sentinels walked the walls as well as the forces of the other major clans. Stormcallers, Promethean battlesuits piloted by ascenders from the hammers, the dawn archers on standby, taking over strategic points as they all watched him in silence.
He felt the weight of their stares, watching as a vessel shot towards them, landing right in front of him as a woman with a scar running from one side of her face to the other got out. It was a silver vessel, the crest of the sentinels emblazoned in gold at its side, its engines thrumming silently but with raw power that blew breeze around. She wore the robes of the sentinels but with no hammer, instead, a pair of silver legendary ranked gauntlets adorned her hands, glistening under the sunlight.
Pausing in front of Moyo with her auburn hair, she bowed at the waist.
“The diamond greets the titan,” she said softly.
“My lord, may I introduce to you, lady Irina of the sentinels, my regent who held watch over Ife when we left Gaia,” Josh said.
“Well met” Moyo replied briskly.
“The emissary, lord titan fist arranged your transport to get you to the inner palace,” Irina said, her grey eyes staring at him.
Moyo glanced around, watching the sight of the slowly trickling ascenders of the clan as they appeared from different corners, watching him. Some hadn’t seen him in their entire existence except from afar, and to see the fabled titan blade, he knew what it meant to them. They were looking for hope, assurance, and he right there no doubt settled a lot of fears, he could see it in their eyes with the way they stared at him.
He shook his head.
“No,” he said.
“My lord?” Irina asked, her blank mask cracking.
Josh glanced at him for a second before nodding.
“Shieldborne, fall in” he commanded.
They surrounded him in silence, his Shieldborne, those three commanders, and their general who had gone through so much bloodshed that Moyo felt the experience just by glancing at them, nothing short of Azael himself would be getting through to him.
“The lord wishes to walk all the way to the main palace himself,” Josh said to Irina.
The regent nodded, bowing again.
“As you wish, lord primordial,” she said.
Moyo caught a bright look in her eyes before she turned away, she was grateful, whatever for, he had no idea, but she was. She turned to the vessel, speaking to the dawn archer pilot who nodded briskly as the vessel rose upwards before blasting away in the direction of the main palace itself. Moyo turned to Irina.
“You aren’t returning?” he asked.
“My place is with you lord titan blade, the sentinels march with you” she replied.
Moyo turned his gaze upwards, closing his eyes as he felt the aether dance around him, feeling the flow through his aether blessed title. He was one with aether, it resonated within his body, mind, and soul, he was aether and much more, and so he spoke.
“STRENGTH,” he said.
Infused with raw aether and his aspect, the command turn edict echoed throughout the palace, ascenders feeling the rush of power that settled within them, from masters to lowly iron rankers, all felt the blessings of the titan that healed whatever damages was left within their bodies, empowering them. His march began with a few, growing steadily as he pushed onwards, his gaze on the main palace in the distance where figures stood at the doors, hundreds lining up in the distance as well with various flags flying the crests of first the vassal clans. Held by his masters, he could see them as clear as day.
Annika, dressed in blue robes and dark blue Aserite armor with a blue crystal fused to its chest piece, her spear in her other hand. She was an avatar of the storms given flesh, her eyes crackling with pure power even as she saw him from there as well, Ayo, the crimson archer, dressed in red robes with her bow strapped to her waist gripped the banner of the dawn archers, its gold embroidery glittering in the early morning sun. Boyle, the Forgelord himself decked in a bulky mechanical armor akin to the Promethean suit itself.
Its frame looked like something out of a sci-fi series with the silver Aserite armor adorned with mithril, its body glowing as he had floating discs hovering around him. The face of the Forgelord looked like it was carved in one of his forges, a stone-cold look of pure lethality that Moyo knew was rage. Martha had been one of his closest friends, Moyo even guessing that there was the possibility of something blooming between them, and now she was dead, he would want revenge.
The titan fist, emissary to the titan blade himself stood apart from them, in his hands was the banner of the house itself, a purple banner with a golden crest fused with it flapped as he stood like a wall, deep seething rage, and pain hidden from all except Moyo. He was his emissary, Moyo could feel the pain within him as well, blaming himself for not dying along with Martha while being relieved to not have left Ayesha, his infant child without a father. It was a complicated thing, and while Moyo was happy that he wouldn’t be the one to tell his wife that he was dead, the fact that Idris would be around to raise his daughter was indeed a good thing.
The banner of the sentinels was held by some unknown who definitely looked out of place among the masters, hiding his awkwardness, a large pale skinned but shaggy red-haired man with solid hefty looking muscles. An early diamond from what Moyo could see, glancing at Irina, he spoke.
“who’s the ascender raising the banner of the sentinels?’ he asked.
Irina gave an embarrassed cough.
“that’s Armen, diamond ranker and one of those known as the ten kings of Gaia” Irina replied.
“One of the kings is from our house?” Moyo asked, surprised.
“Originally no, he’s known as the white bear, and he joined us as a gold, fits perfectly into the sentinels” she replied.
Moyo gave a non-committed shrug, if the guy was any bad, the spiders would have come down on him just as quickly, they were very picky about who joined the various major clans, going through the recruitment process from the lowest of fledglings to even the experts as seen with the case of Armen. Almost a thousand marched with him, all but a fraction that resided within the outer palace itself, the inner palace reserved for the core house members and their subordinates.
The cult or sect of the Hexenblades flew their banners as well, Samantha in her robes that moved with runes staring at him as well, one hand on the banner and the other at her side, eyes red-rimmed. She had been in charge of the planetary defenses and must have carried the guilt within her as well, Moyo sighed quietly, pushing on and turning next to the diamond ranker that flew the banner of the order, the same Jonas who had climbed up to the top of the mountain as well.
It was then he noticed the banner of the spiders, manned by no one, simply impaled into the solid ground and left to flap for itself, no doubt as a sign of respect to Martha, for no one would and could bear the metaphorical weight of the spider like she did. It made his heart ache, but he pushed his mind from it, pushed his mind towards the message she left for him and the hope she relied on. They got closer to the giant Aserite gates of the inner palace, large enough to allow thousands in all at once and even moderate sized troop carrier vessels stacked on top of each other.
It was made of pure solid mithril, fifteen inches thick, enough to stop blasts from even rulers due to its shielding that drew from the aspect of the titan itself on the planet, recharging itself, a work of pure technological marvel from Boyle. The main forces of house titan blade stood in their thousands, every arm of his house in attendance. The stormcallers, the sentinel, the dawn archers, the hands of Anansi, the titan order, and the legion of the titan itself.
Hundreds of thousands, all arranged together, all going to one knee as he walked past, the thousand that followed him fusing into the waiting numbers seamlessly. Without another word and accompanied by the Shieldborne and Irina, Moyo moved towards his masters, watching as Annika shouted, her voice clapping like the heavy explosions of thunder.
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“ASCENDERS OF HOUSE TITAN BLADE, GREET THE PATRIARCH!” she said.
Their voices thundered together, hundreds of thousands at the same time. Even as they knelt on one knee, head bowed, their voices echoed.
“House titan blade greets the titan!” they replied.
Among them were hundreds of other banners, the lesser clans only by name of the house, those who had sworn allegiance to the house, stretching as far as the eyes could see. A straight line was left, leading straight to the great steps where the house heads stood, waiting for Moyo who walked just as calmly, climbing up the stairs in hushed silence. They had risen back up, watching the titan as he paused at the very top, staring at the flapping banner of the house itself.
“The enemy came and found us ready,” he said, aether carrying his voice with ease around the entire continent.
“Chaos and abyss, two sides of the same coin, they sought to break our worlds, to scourge it clean of life, to throw us into eternal damnation” he continued.
He shrugged.
“They failed, Araman the abyssal prime is no more, the abyss is no more,” he said as a loud roar broke out.
“We lost a lot of good people” he continued when it subsided.
“Martha, the spider, head of the clan of the hands of Anansi, a mother to me, gone,” he said.
The words were not any less easy to say, but he found himself uttering them.
“Pontiff Matthew, my herald, and leader of the order of titans, whose very faith in me was so strong that he stared down the reaper himself, gone as well” Moyo continued.
“All those and more, my legion cohorts, millions, giving their lives so billions others may live to see another day. They will be remembered, and their sacrifices will echo through the centuries to come, but to have those said centuries, I fear we may have to sacrifice more” he said.
He stared into the eyes of hundreds of thousands, stared into the faces of men, women, and children, stared as they stared at him in return resolutely.
“Azael, the reaper, and Chaosborne had gone for the last citadel,” Moyo said as he felt a pressure begin to restrict him.
Some unknown command, settled on him as the skies darkened and he felt the presence of the primordials attempting to shield him from the wrath of the oath, the last citadel should not have been known he guessed, that explained why Ahib was reluctant to speak of it, but he did either way and there had been no adverse reaction.
Perhaps its knowledge and utterance had been limited to the Runebearers and brigade, but Moyo flexed his willpower and Ashe, grasping the power and shattering it as the skies cleared. He felt the presence of the primordials retreat, but not before he felt the flashes of surprise that ran through them.
Perhaps they had been expecting to simply hold it back till he spoke about it, but to completely shatter an oath of the Archailect, even if it ran at less than half its power was jaw dropping. He faced the assembled thousands who barely knew something had happened apart from the darkening skies.
“The last citadel, is the final power of the Archailect, if it falls, then I tell you with no small certainty that all hope is lost, it is the source of the Archailect’s’ power and all its blessings and curses,” he said.
His vault opened beside him, an archway of purple and gold revealing the bright inside of his vault where his blade revealed itself, pushing through into reality around them. He damped the pressure from his aspect as it dominated the area even more, gripping his blade as he closed the vault behind him, hearing the audible sighs coming from the crowd.
“I once thought I could defend everyone and everything,” he said.
“I, the primordials, ancients, and even rulers, true, we’re powerful, but we can’t be everywhere at once,” Moyo said.
“But the truth is, the Archailect was right, adapt or die, get stronger or die, the ultimate command and edict,” he said.
He stabbed Oro straight into the solid steps, watching as the blade bit through the stones with ease. Leaving it there, he spoke again.
“This blade serves as my promise to you, the house of Titan blade will trail the reaper, we will go in defense of the last citadel, that fabled place where all that is the Archailect originates from,” he said.
“This is a message, to all the forces of the Archailect within my system, this is a call for battle, the final battle that either makes or breaks us all. However, remember, if we fall, if by some way, we cannot stop the reaper, then everything you’ve built, that we’ve built, will cease to exist” he completed.
And then he turned his gaze into the floating recording constructs that no doubt broadcasted his image to all the planets within the system.
“And we will remember that in our hour of need, you deserted us” he completed.
And then he turned, the great doors to the inner palace opening up before he passed through, trailed by his Shieldborne and then the masters of his clan, the great doors sealing behind him.
*****************************************
Typhon smiled, the images of Viaris and all the other terrestrials staring at him as he spoke.
“The titan has done something we’ve always found almost impossible to do, unite the Archailect,” he said.
“a pity it took the near destruction of that we know to obtain it” Viaris replied.
“And yet, it gives us the chance to seize our future, to grasp it out of the powers that threw us into this position due to their meddling,” Tiamat said from where she sat beside her husband.
“It will not be easy” Tengoku, the Omnifox said.
“And yet, this will be the only chance we have to accomplish it,” Viaris said.
” This won’t be an easy battle, will it?, worse than what we saw here” Ardos, the thunderer asked.
“No, and I can only shudder in thinking about just what would come after,” Typhon said with a frown.
************************
The procession within the inner palace made their way to the main throne room itself, the commanders and masters of his legion as well, he even spied Urne who bowed politely at him as well as Shola in her stellar sentient form. The moment they reached the throne room, its large golden doors opened, revealing his Aserite throne, laid with gold, the same Aserite columns coated with gold and held the banners of the hands of Anansi, in honor of Martha.
Right in front of the throne, in a coffin of pure Aserite coated with gold as well, laid the body of Martha, eyes closed. Moyo was in front of the coffin in a flash, hands on its cool surface that protected her body. It had been one of the first things he did the moment he crashed into the throne room, when he had seen her cold lifeless body. He shut his eyes, fighting away the memories as he watched his house masters surround the coffin in silence, staring at her dead body.
“She looks so peaceful,” Moyo said.
No reply came, not even Boyle who shook with rage, rage that Moyo realized would be needed to be expelled if he wanted Boyle to heal right. He sighed, turning away to the large round table that dominated the room, taking a seat at the head and watching as his masters and champion occupied the other fifteen seats. The accumulated true powers of house titan blade, a force that if the Archailect had been just the way it was, would have sparked cries of outrage from the powers of the Archailect themselves.
Now, the noble houses were simply a story of old, most perishing, the rest skulking quietly among the forces of the Archailect, less than a quarter of their strength remaining. The abyssal war had sucked their house might, and just when they thought they could recuperate, Azael had struck, crushing them in swoops. It had even cost a harbinger and a primordial in their galaxy, the threat of Azrael ever looming.
Moyo produced a crystal, snapping his fingers as his aspect suffused the room, shielding it from prying eyes and all. Normally, no one save the titan could look into his realm, but that rule had been broken over and over with the Archailect not functioning as it should, and despite Samanthas’ assurance that the runes she had carved into the palace a while ago prevented all sorts of spying, Moyo would rather not take the risk. Satisfied with his precautions, he injected a bit of aether into the crystal.
It was one of two left behind for him by Martha, discreetly given to him by a spider, which, he wasn’t sure, with the first hand dead as well, Moyo couldn’t tell them apart from each other, seeing as they all wore the same blank masks. One had been for his eyes only, and while its content disturbed him greatly, he kept it to himself, trusting the words of Martha, the second was for the entire powers of house titan blade to watch.
It started with the image of Martha on a chair, the room bland, no doubt some security protocol to keep its location hidden. She wore a light brown robe, her signature mischievous smile on her face as she stared at them all, the holographic image sighing.
“If you’re seeing this, then it means I’m dead, a bit cliché to utter, but I guess it’s true” she started.
Moyo smiled sadly, Martha continuing.
“Then it means the reaper got what he wanted, because there would be no way in the Archailect that would allow him take the rune of decay, not while I live” she continued.
“Our forces are reeling from what my predictions are saying and Moyo, that blockhead we call our leader would be taking it on his shoulder that he’s the cause, forgetting that if he hadn’t stopped the planet of the reaper, we would have lost billions not millions,” she said.
“And now, you’re left wondering what to do, the reaper is on his way to the last citadel and with no way to follow, because if I’m right, he’s killed Ahib, cutting off any way for you all to follow his trail. Well, I have good news and bad news for you all, honestly, I wonder where you’d all be without me” she said as Moyo heard genuine chuckles from the assembled masters despite the somber mood.
"The truth is, the reaper didn’t take the rune, and if things are going in the way I detailed, it’s right in the possession of Moyo,” she said, smiling wildly as all eyes turned to him in shock.
Moyo opened his vault an Aserite cylinder pushing out as he grabbed it, waving it to them.
“impossible” Idris said, hands tightened into a fist.
“Right now, you might be confused, but let me first apologize to Idris, the titan fist and champion of the titan blade,” she said, Idris turning to her.
“You were prepared to lay down your life, but believe me when I tell you that it wasn’t your time to die, you chose to trust me, to clone yourselves as you believed I did too.” She continued.
“But I never did, I only did for you,” she said with a smile.
“I get questions would come later, but I want to make it clear that Moyo was not aware till I died and he was given the crystal messages as well as the container holding the runes by my spiders” Martha warned.
“So, no lip service, I expect you all to be mature about it, especially you Annika,” she said as Annika sputtered, the rest chuckling at her.
“What this has accomplished, is that it has ensured the reaper would have to fight against the power of the Archailect trying to prevent him from reaching the citadel. It won’t be enough, he has the other four aspects of the abyss and is almost at full strength, but it should give you time to reach the citadel just as he does” she said.
Moyo wondered how she knew about the citadel, no doubt, someone told her, but who?. He pushed it away as she continued, even though he had heard it before.
“The path to the citadel has been given to us, ironically by Azael himself. Before the return of the titan, the now late Matthew, had been caught in a trance, one in which he carved runic symbols into the depths of the fortress of the order right here on Ibere” she said.
“No doubt, said fortress would have been crushed, seeing as the prison where we locked away Rohan had been under, but I hedged my bet on Azael seeking a way to possess Rohan and it turned out true, villains really are predictable,” she said.
“Only Martha could predict such” Ayo said as they all smiled.
“It imprinted on the runes, and while they are dangerous to even be close to, more like a ticking time bomb really, they will be able to trace the reaper seeing as it was in fact a location spell, just on a galactic level, you can thank the akashic library for that, sorry I didn’t tell you Samantha” Martha said.
“She made me spend hours researching the words, saying something about it being an old tongue of Moyos' tribe!” Samantha exclaimed, the rest laughing gently.
“Pretty sure she just complained, but now that you know, I’m also assuming that the battle has been a few hours, I predict you won’t have more than a day or two to get Moyo to power it up,” she said.
“Once it’s up, it will only stay for as long as Moyo is in proximity to it, powering it manually” she warned.
“Meaning the moment, he passes through, it closes shut forever, it is a one-way door to the citadel, and depending on the outcome of that battle with the reaper, the end of your journeys,” she said.
Martha reclined on the chair.
“I believe in you all, I know what you all are capable of, and this is the moment you’ve all been waiting for,” she said.
“The final war is upon you all, and while I wished I was there to see it to the end with you all, I can only wish you all good luck, stomp on that bastard for what he did to our home will you?” she said.
“Oh, and Boyle?” she called out, the Forgelord perking up, staring at her image with watery eyes.
“I would have loved to tour the Archailect with you, perhaps, in another life, where neither you nor I are held back by such cumbersome responsibilities like watching over a bunch of powerful children,” she said as groans of protests rang out.
Moyo watched the Forgelord give a tentative smile, wiping his eyes.
“And so, I order, by the authority bestowed upon me by the titan blade, I hereby declare that no weapon is too dangerous, no power too volatile in this battle,” she said, her face stone cold.
“House titan blade will crush the enemy, ours is a victory due, burn, scour the enemy from reality, for house titan blade” she completed as the image winked out.
“For house titan blade” they all whispered, lethality singing through each and every power assembled.