Commander Zortes of the red dust kingdom had steadily grown irritated at the antics of the other diamond rankers. They had assaulted the last and final island of the avian matriarch, the might of more than five diamond rankers crashing onto the island felt like an apocalyptic event, but the matriarch had responded in kind. Waves of diamond infused aether followed the sound waves that crashed into the diamonds with every cry it made, the diamonds finding it hard to manipulate the latent aether and aura in the air.

Zortes was very sure any gold would had ceased to exist should the step one foot on the island, the realm of gold was indeed another sphere entirely. However, humans as a specie, no matter the origin or planet they came from had one thing in common that sundered whatever unity they could forge,

Ambition,

The moment the matriarch had been placed on a defensive backfoot, the intricate games of deception had begun and Zortes initially loved every second of it. It had been insanely testing for him to act as a usual ascender for ten years, burying his orders beneath layers and layers of a steel like mind, playing the part of a commander, a father, and the most gut wrenching, bile induced aspect, a husband.

Zortes weapon slinger was not made for such petty and wasteful use of his time, even on those nights when he laid with his wife, trying his best to put up the act of an excited husband making love to his wife, Zortes had felt nothing, just a cold hard lump of steel he called a heart. Even as she writhed under him, lost in the throes of mind-numbing pleasure, eyes rolled up and breath coming in short gasps of excitement, all Zortes could think about was snapping her neck and getting it done with.

However, the mission parameters had been clear, he was not to move till he got to diamond and placed himself strategically in a diamond ranked dungeon. How he did that was up to him, hence Zortes had attached himself slowly to the king and kingdom of red dust, slowly climbing his way up the ladder of power. He had leaned into the one thing he knew how to do best, fight. Surpassing the expectations of his then superiors, he had completed his missions in record time, executing them with the precision that had been ingrained into him from the moment he could firmly grip a weapon in his hands.

He had left his fellow supposed peers in the mud, his razor honed mind focusing on one thing alone, reaching the position of a commander. While they played games of politics and played with their razor sharped tongues in the royal court, Zortes had simply cut down anyone who stood in his way, literally or metaphorically. Soon enough they had learned to stay clear of the gold ranker named Zortes weapon slinger who only knew had to kill. He had come close a few times to being discovered by some ascenders, they had died soon enough.

Soletu lava panther, the prime guardian of king Biyo and de facto father figure to any successive guardian had realized the truth during a battle with the black sword kingdom for control of a city. Zortes had slipped and his blight core had peeked out as he tore ascenders to shreds, Zortes regretted the moment, not because he killed Soletu, but because it had caused a delay in his aim to reach diamond rank, but Zortes was nothing if not resourceful.

Spurring the kingdom of red dust to rage and action, he had led the silvers of the kingdom to a resounding victory, routing the army of the black swords and gaining not just the town but a very important oasis for the red dust kingdom. Zortes had been carried back to the kingdom on the shoulders of the silver rankers, his name chanted till they got to the gold district where king Biyo and the royal family had bestowed upon him the title of commander.

From that point onwards he had worked to earn the trust of the king for another two years, crushing rebellions and dissidents, acting like a loyal dog for the royal family. It had grated on his nerves ceaselessly as he toiled and groveled at the feet of those inferior to him, for Zortes was of the bloods of old, the bloods of those who had sworn allegiance to the cult of the undying hand and their gods, the blight lords.

He had grown up during the last cataclysm, when the cult of the undying hand was nothing but a servant sect to the school of the reaping katana. They had followed the rebellion of Garda the grim, watching in awe as he brought the archailect low as a master, torn the very universe asunder in a war that shook the very foundations of the archailect itself. It had taken the combined might of rulers, Xerxes and the rumored harbingers of the supreme beings to bring down the master of the reaping katana.

Even at that, the grim couldn’t be killed, his powers sealed behind runes bestowed by the supreme beings through their harbingers. Of course, these were the rumors being spread, but Zortes actually believed it, for nothing short of the divine could hold down the reaper of souls himself. Casted into the deepest darkest recess of some prison no one knew about, the grim had faded from the memories of all but the most vigilant of them all.

The cult of the undying hand had risen to prominence soon after the subsequent incarceration of the grim. A new leader had risen from their ranks, one who followed the teachings and path charted by the grim with utmost dedication and zeal, master Rohan on the path of the undying darkness. Technically not a path of the archailect, it was the easiest translation the archailect could provide, for theirs was a single path, shared by all who followed the abyss, the path of the abyss.

Arguments and theories had arisen about the path of the reaping katana, a path followed by the grim himself being a true archailect path or an abyssal path if such a heretical word could be said in disguise. However, the truth of the matter was the path had served the abyss and that was all that mattered, although Zortes had heard rumors of the higher echelons of the cult having their archailect paths twisted and transformed into an abyssal substitute. Zortes fervently hoped that at the end of his mission, he would be granted such, he would rise to the ranks of the true powers in the cult that battled the rulers at the frontline even as masters and one day gaze into the eyes of a lord of the abyss.

The kingdom of the glowing sun had been the first to show their true colors, Alsius, king of the glowing sun had a flame path that helped protect the other diamonds from any projectile shot by the matriarch, the feathers on her body serving as a razor of death, able to slice through diamond ranker skin like hot knife through butter. The flame wall conjured by the king helped the other diamonds monitor the paths of the feathers the matriarch shot intermittently, when the flame wall dropped, king Biyo grinned as if expecting it.

In truth, they had expected the glowing sun to renegade on their deal first, for Alsius was as ambitious an ascender as one could get. The moment the flame wall dropped Zortes already had his blade arcing towards the king of the glowing sun, his realm of floating weapons with his weapon rack core that blazed with intent floating above him manifested. On reaching the realm of diamond, Zortes had come to the stark realization that they had been playing with sticks up to this point.

True, gold rankers were the cream of the cream, the monsters the archailect threw at its troubles, but Zortes had seen enough gold rankers die in this forsaken dungeon that they no longer had worth in his eyes. Diamonds were on another realm entirely and their fights were as much brutality as it was a battle of willpower and authority, he was beginning to understand why he had been trained to put most of his points in willpower from inception.

While a diamond ranker could shrug of attacks that could level mountains and decimate a planet, or at least survive it with grievous but healable wounds, once their authority was locked away by another diamond with a greater authority or willpower, they were as weak as a gold. Zortes felt uncomfortable with that realization, what happened when he met a diamond with a greater authority?.

His ‘rack’ the name of his authority and willpower fused sat at a comfortable 2,500, one of the highest he knew of so far. So when his blade clashed against another blade, this time from the commander of the black sword kingdom, Zortes knew he could had killed the king of the glowing kingdom. He flashed backwards from the lady Pevina, the black sword trailing a corrosive black mist, dodging a cry of the, matriarch bird, he spoke, Haran the diamond guild member floating cautiously behind him,

“a black sword defending a glowing sun?, color me surprised” Zortes said,

“Traitors!” king Biyo said as his realm of shining arms surrounded him, punching away the shrieks of the matriarch, the air around them ringing with explosions,

“The red dust end with you!” Alsius said harshly,

Haran spread his arms as luminous echoes of his body appeared around him, the path of wrath disperser. The path as Zortes learnt was a frightening one, able to disperse fatal injuries between the extra mindless bodies the ascender created. At gold rank he could only summon three bodies as they ate deeply into his mana reserves, at diamond rank though, he could produce ten and maintain them indefinitely, Zortes feared the amount he could produce at master or even as a ruler.

“Then we would end the black sword and glowing sun dynasties along” Haran said,

Pevina gestured for them to come when a force wave blew from an island behind them, carrying the familiar but welcoming corruption of the blight he knew. Shocked but feeling even a greater feeling of dread as he felt the presence of the being,

A lord,

Zortes had no idea how he knew, probably his abyssal aspect sealed and locked deep inside him by his master had resonated with it, but he knew what he had to do next, the appointed time had arrived and Zortes wouldn’t fail. Blade twisting in his hand, he stabbed it through the skull of Haran who had been caught totally unawares and blitzed forward towards king Biyo who was lucky enough to only have the blade of Zortes stab into his shoulder.

“What is this- “king Alsius said before a blade protruded from his neck, the diamond king shocked before having his head ripped off by Pevina whom Zortes stared at with shock,

“Grim lives” she uttered and Zortes smiled,

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“Grim lives” he replied,

Truly the master was divine, for Zortes had thought he was the only cult member on the planet, to realize there were two?, it solidified his faith. King Zahil appeared behind Pevina, his blade driving through her heart,

“abomination “he growled,

Zortes withdrew his blade and blasted backwards, if she died then no problem, the mission couldn’t fail. He was to be the one to summon the spire, the ritual was almost complete, ascenders had been sacrificed as he had been told to do, three per rank. With king Biyo on his kill list, king Alsius dead, he needed to simply kill two more diamonds to complete the ritual, but with the lord somehow summoned, the spire had to be raised as soon as possible to feed energy to the lord.

The presence of the lord meant someone of higher rank had been with them in the dungeon, Zortes had not missed the absence of Lirun and if he was indeed another mole, then this operation was a bigger one than he imagined, it meant he was simply one piece on a board the master had planned.

King Biyo visibly healed and Haran appeared back, one of his extra bodies wiped out. Zortes made a note to report this to his superiors, Haran was a threat they couldn’t allow to reach ruler in the coming decades. Pevina gripped the blade of the king and smiled at Zortes,

“By his will!” Pevina shouted as Zortes’s eyes widened, understanding the phrase,

The diamond self-destructed her core as she exploded in a violent display of power, Zortes already teleported away from that position to a distance. Appearing back as the wave dissipated to bury his blade in the head of a badly charred king Zahil, ending the diamond immediately. It was with glee he dived for king Biyo, eager to end the life of the last diamond ranker needed.

The events that had played out had happened in a rush, but Zortes knew there was no time, he could contemplate later when the cult had seized control of the planet and had successfully created a staging ground this deep in the archailect. It was with growing irritation he felt a hand grip his blade midair, and it was with a greater irritation and shock that he saw the titan blade gripping his blade,

“How?” he said, feeling the diamond power pouring from the former gold,

And what power it was,

The titan blade simply punched him, Zortes blocking and feeling the bones in his arm shatter as he exploded into the distance, confusion and anger on his mind.

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

Ashira had to shake her head a little as she stared, no, gawked at the transformed Moyo. The titan blade was oblivious to her look as he stared at something in the distance, either that or he was purposely ignoring her, perhaps she needed to remind him she was a princess. He glanced back down at her, purple and silver eyes that seemed to strip the clothes off her body, or so she thought, Ashira knew very well nothing sexual went through that block head of his.

He pointed at an island,

“a flock of avians, 10 by my count, should be sufficient to boost you to diamond” he said,

Ashira shook her head, clearing her thoughts again, she saw the smirk playing at the edge of his lips,

The upstart knew,

“You do know I’m a princess and can get any man I want, right?” she said,

Moyo raised an eyebrow,

“What?” he asked, confused, or so he played,

Ashira shook her head at him,

“Nevermind, how do we take on 10 birds?” she asked,

Moyo shrugged,

“Watch me” he replied and held her tight, even his muscles felt like steel had been molded into it,

He has a woman, he has a woman,

Ashira chanted the words in her mind as Ashira felt space warp and suddenly they were on the island, Ashira noted with alarm the way they landed within the birds who raised their heads up to cry with their sonic voice. It seemed Moyo had forgotten she was still gold, one cry and she would be at the gates of death, more than one and she wouldn’t even know she had died. Her scale of power went bonkers at what happened next, the island suddenly felt like a mirage as another realm was imposed on the island.

A giant mountain that spewed intent appeared at her back, the skies became purple, and the palpable authority of the titan blade sang across this reality. Ashira wasn’t one to blaspheme, but a tiny voice in her mind whispered the realm felt a bit like that of a master, just a bit, but it was enough to explain the kind of power Moyo wielded. A part of her was frightened to the core about that, but a greater part of her felt proud, proud of how far he had come, oh and a little was stupidly aroused, more than a little but who cared?.

Moyo whispered the command, gripping her tight to his chest, but she felt it run through her body and her gold ranked body desperately wanted to give in to it,

“HOLD”

The avians froze, their cries held in their throats, Moyo calmly walked to each one, driving Oro his vault forged or core forged blade as it had been called by all those who attempted to pry it from him through their eyes. The toxin lines of poison began to spread through their bodies, he glanced at Ashira,

“now’s where you start killing them” he said,

“how are you this strong?, I understand diamond rank, probably better than you in theory, but to hold down 10 diamond monsters, for a new diamond ranker” she said, her voice showing confusion,

Moyo shrugged,

“I think it has to do with authority, my attacks don’t feel particularly stronger than they did back when I was gold, except perhaps the barrier between hurting a diamond as a gold then has been removed” Moyo started as he tightened his fingers into a fist,

He gestured at her to get on with killing the birds,

“Not how I planned to ascend to diamond, but keep talking” she said, pulling her blade and driving it straight through the brains of the birds through their other eye, aether and essence running into her body as she began to feel her core shift,

“It has to do with authority like I said, the higher your authority, the stronger a diamond you become, and seeing as you could no longer ascend as a diamond, whatever your final authority stat end up at on your ascension to diamond dictates how strong a diamond you could be” he finished,

At this point Ashira had killed 5 of the birds, at 495 she was a kill left from stepping into diamond. She glanced at Moyo who was mumbling to himself,

“Thank you” she said,

“for the birds?, sure, no problem, you get to pay me back later, probably some exquisite dish” he joked,

Ashira shook her head, he didn’t understand her, or perhaps he chose to ignore the feelings that came with the words. And Ashira was fine with that, here she was, slowly but steadily realizing she was beginning to have feelings for a man,

Someone’s man,

Not that she was proud of it, the idiot kept doing selfless things for her and expected her to simply not bat an eye at him, and the most annoying thing was the fact that he hadn’t been doing it specifically to get her attention, he was just a crazy ascender who liked jumping into the face of danger. Ashira had wanted to point out the insane fact that he had taken the Savar venom to the eye as a silver when she was a gold, no one did that, but he did.

She took in a breath and released a shudder, her shoulders set, no matter what the future held, she would make sure she stood by his side, either as a friend, or in some insane reality, his lover, and if that didn’t work, she would ensure house Kairos was in good terms with this monster of a being,

But that’s not what you want, is it?

Ashira shut down the voice in her head, it was too dangerous to begin to go down that line of thought, perhaps when they escaped the dungeon and they had free time to themselves. With the stone-cold determination of a member of house Kairos, she stabbed the sixth bird, finally attaining level 500. She felt her core inside her beginning to hum, then vibrate harshly.

Her core, the three-fold monster, a frozen sculpture of hazy outlines began to crumble, and Ashira let herself go as she crumbled to aether. She had seen the ascension process too numerous a times in house Kairos to be bothered, and she had been taught about it for double that amount, she knew what she had to do.

She started with her eyes, the three colors of her path fused into one, she could finally combine all her aspects into one potent form without her body rebelling at the possible mutation. Her path had been carefully cultivated for her by her parents; it was to be a protective shield to safeguard their precious daughter. With its attack, defense and poison aspects, it was as perfect a path as one could get. Of course they hadn’t expected her to go waltzing out of their protective arms, but they had let her go knowing their daughter could protect herself out there.

Her eyes became a dull yellow iris with green tinged pupil, her hair became a light brown color with a few strands of gold and green on either side, her skin maintained its brown creamy look. Her breasts grew a bit further and Ashira bit back a grin at her doing it on purpose, some part of her willing to push Moyo the more. She had also grown her behind just a little bit and the custom tail every member of house Kairos was expected to have materialized, a thin, green fleshy and hard protrusion that glowed with poison from her path swung lazily behind her.

Her muscles felt like coiled strings of steel, ready to unleash destruction, her tri, the evolved form of her authority and willpower fused echoed around her. Finally, her core, a snarling monster with the head of a feline, the body of a hoofed animal and the tail fashioned in the shape of a hissing serpent that dripped venom stood regally as it roared its defiance into being. Her realm, a lush jungle of sharp intent grass, tall strong trees and flowing poisonous rivers merged with her three-fold monster core.

It became its own island, where the three-fold monster reigned supreme, to step foot on the island spelt doom for her foes. She took in a dep breath, power arcing through her body like lightning, feeling the ecstasy of raw unfettered power in her. She came down from the high, snapping out of her realm to greet the notifications that assailed her, swiping it away as it distracted her. Moyo stared at her for once with unreserved awe and Ashira bathed in it, she even crossed her arms below her breasts to push the already large parts a bit higher, her robe doing nothing to hide their size,

“See something you like?” she asked,

“Actually, yeah, your hair and eyes are cool!’ Moyo responded,

It took a minute for his response to click in her head,

“Wait, what?” she asked,

“Your eyes and hair, totally anime vibes, gives off this evil seasonal boss thing they do that shows up for a few seconds at the last episode” Moyo responded nodding his head,

Ashira took a deep breathe, fighting the urge to beat him six ways to the rank of master. She stepped close to him, using one finger to poke his hard muscular chest,

“You Moyosore titan blade” she started as he paused in his explanation,

“Are one annoying, totally oblivious, mean, handsome, ascender!” she shouted,

Moyo stepped backwards in shock, cutting off his control over the birds and snapping his realm off. The birds left gave a cry of agony from their pierced eye, the wave merely ruffling the clothes Moyo and Ashira had on, Ashira turned to the birds and spoke,

“ROAR”

Her command that previously took the shape of a snarling gold headed monster became an image of her shouting, eyes glowing like that of a god. The birds exploded into gore that became aether and essence, Moyo’s eyes widened at the display of power. She turned back to him,

“We are totally going to have the conversation about this growing tension between us” she muttered,

“Yes ma” Moyo replied automatically, Ashira narrowed her eyes at him,

“you’re only saying that to appease me, aren’t you?” she said again,

“If I reply truthfully, will it save me from that sort of attack?” he asked, blinking innocently,

Ashira laughed, turning away at the way he defused the situation. Apart from the fact that she doubted she could hurt him, she doubted he’d feel anything. She brought up her points, sitting on a good 1,200 points,

“If your theory is right, these points could be the last we get in a long while, right?” she asked,

Moyo nodded, she dumped them all in her tri, taking it from its fledgling 1,800 to 3,000. Moyo glanced around, smiling as he stared into his HUD,

“Added my last 1,800 points to my Ashe, another evolution” he replied,

He gestured to the rare aether shards the birds had dropped, some floating to him. Loots were the last thing on Ashira’s mind currently, but hearing Moyo was about to evolve another of his attributes solidified her insistence on tying him to house Kairos. Few ascenders could claim of evolving one attribute before reaching diamond, and this man had three already. Eventually completing the evolution, he shrugged,

“Not much difference, Ashe remains Ashe, just with understanding or runes now” he said,

Ashira just shook her head; she honestly couldn’t wait to see the look on the faces of the masters.