It was impossible, no, not impossible, inconceivable. Even as Azael and Apophis stared at the burning figure who connected the two last systems of the archailect together. Thousands of large vessels poured through at a moment’s notice, bringing the wrath of the one aspect that could and would deter the plans of the chaos lord and his supreme, he screamed with rage.
Supreme and servant raged in pure frustration, pouring their anger into their very scream even as the forces of chaos doubled in number, pouring from the infinite darkness that roiled towards the first circle and citadel itself.
The ships of the titan blade met it in battle, firing devastating waves of aether tinged with the aspect of the titan itself, chaos shrieking and reeling in true pain, not the hissing scorching of the previous aspects that had held it back so far.
Even as Apophis cursed and raged within him, Azael wondered, his mind attempting to maintain a cold disposition to the situation. The titan had recovered far too quickly than he had estimated, it was a scenario he couldn’t admit to himself was possible, but was to be expected of the titan blade?.
With a flick of his hand and his willpower, he forged large hulking creatures brimming with the aspect of chaos. Not personifications but insectoid-looking creatures that shot towards the position of the titan blade in large cocoons boiling with chaotic aspect.
Azael moved, swinging his scythe so fast that it was nothing but a blur, chaos aspect attacks slamming into the ships that acted as a barricade against the first circle, crashing and destroying some, that was the aim after all.
The cocoons shot past the wrecked ships that leaked atmosphere, right through the still pouring ships that made their way through the pathway and towards the titan himself. The reaper wasn’t foolish to think the creatures could hope to even lay a scratch on the titan, no, they were simply there to distract him, to cut off his attention from the pathway he had so forcefully torn open with the stolen aspect he had taken from Apophis.
The supreme of chaos raged so loudly in his head, receding and seceding control to the reaper in shock at the sight of the transcendent. Azael watched as he deflected attacks that stung him, dodging cannon attacks from the ships as he summoned his own behemoth-looking creatures of chaos.
Large shapes that could blot out suns of entire systems as they made their way towards the ships themselves. He would have to contend with the primordials he could feel aboard their planet-sized ships, the thousands of powerful ascenders that had begun populating the first circle reinforcing it as well with pure manpower, holding back the sea of chaos.
Everything burned golden and purple, it infuriated Azael; and drove him mad with rage. Apophis, mad with frustration, watched as everything he had meticulously worked towards crumble with the mere presence of the titan blade showing himself.
Azael was slammed with visions, images of eons passed, of a time before time, of the first titan, unbelief coursing through him. The titan blade embodied what he saw, the being that held back Apophis, pure strength, terror, and power, a power that if he was right, the titan blade now wielded to a devastating degree.
The moment his creations got close to the vicinity of the titan blade, figures wreathed in silver and purple armor appeared. Clad in the bulky form of the Prometheans but wielding various projectiles and melee weapons wreathed in the aspect of the titan blade.
The Shieldborne, Azael remembered them, and all it took them was one attack, carving through his creations before they could even come out of their cocoons, leaving them as nothing but wet fleshy, burning pieces that turned to ash around them.
They were more than fifty, taking up positions around the pathway in abject silence and motionlessness, and right behind them stood two figures. One clad in the same purple and gold armor, except this armor, truly resonated with the touch of the titan blade, handcrafted, priceless beyond measure.
The same went for the second man beside him, except this man held three relics on him, armor, a shield, and a blade that burned with the same purple and gold power of the titan blade.
“Do you see now?” the voice of Apophis slithered into his mind with rage.
“do you see what and whom you face?; do you realize the gravity of our situation?” the being continued.
Azael could feel the bubbling anger within the tone, he could feel and listen to the rage of the supreme being.
“All our plans, centuries in the making for you and many millennia for me, all about to come to either fruition or calamity simply by his presence?” it hissed.
Azael gripped his scythe as he gathered more of the chaos creatures to himself, watching as behemoth shapes tore themselves out of chaos behind him. Nightmarish screams tore through the void as they clashed with the defenders in purple and gold.
Still, the reaper kept a cool mind, now was not the time for panicking, the titan’s arrival was as much a hindrance as it could be a blessing in disguise. Going after the titan himself would tie him down, no, what he had to do was draw the protectors of the titan blade away from him, and to do that, he would have to send more than just mere creatures of the abyss, he would have to send truly fashioned weapons.
The citadel was his goal, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hit the titan where it would hurt him, his allies. New beings came out of chaos behind him, humanoid shapes imbued with the power of the supreme being, pseudo beings lower than him but enough to go toe to toe with ancients and primordials.
And then he fashioned millions upon millions of swarm-like creatures, ensuring they poured infinitely from chaos behind him to blot the first circle, there was strength in numbers anyway.
It would be a tie, pure quantity over the lethal quality of the new defenders but it would suffice, let the new beings, the Chaosborne as he would name them in honor of what he had once been.
He was a chaos lord, the only one left, and even as he fashioned them, he created one specific being to hunt a very special target. Fusing it in an amalgamation of insectoid and humanoid parts as he remembered the childhood fear this person had. Chuckling to himself, he imbued it with as much power as possible, watching it tower over the other Chaosborne, its shriek tearing through the air.
He gave it a single command.
“Hunt Ajax, hunt my son”
It shot off towards the direction of the power Azael felt, the mixture of chaos and cosmic aspect that had mutated into something just as deadly as that of the Titan blade. With that done, Azael turned his gaze to the titan blade even as he wrapped himself in cloaks of chaos aspect.
Summoning the one trump card he hadn’t imagined he would pull till his end gambit against the Lucirion and Eses herself. The two transcendents maintained their composure atop the citadel. That was where he needed to be, the very pathway, the true pathway to the ethereal realm, where Apophis wanted with near blind fervor.
Still, he frowned as he felt the supreme being recede to a corner of his mind, watching quietly. Azael turned his gaze to the Titan again who never removed his eyes from him, blade planted even as more and more ships raced passed him, his vaunted legion in all their strength blasting as they moved to reinforce the already stretched first circle. He tasted the emotion from Apophis, tasting the ashy feeling as his planet manifested behind him, coming out of chaos itself, the true conduit of his power.
He tasted pure terror from Apophis.
******************
Moyo held on, trusting his forces to move, trusting the plan as he felt the consciousness of Eses and Lucirion communicate with him even as he held the pathway open.
“You always did have a flair for the dramatic,” the cosmic dragon said.
Moyo bit back a soft smile.
“Apologies for the late arrival” he replied mentally.
Hud’s were now defunct, he could feel it, he could sense it as he manifested at the citadel, the system was breaking down, and aether flowed around, but the archailect itself, the framework that had given them the game-like system was dying.
If this was due to chaos itself or the work of the supreme beings, he wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter at this point, he wasn’t here to repair the system, no, he was here to save the cosmos, by defending the one place that could bring about the end if it fell, the true apocalypse, the silence of the stars and suns and cosmic bodies.
Lucirion showed him all that happened, his mind processing it even as he felt and watched the reaper send creatures his way.
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“Leave it to us,” Idris said as Moyo watched his Shieldborne manifest around him.
Clad in customized Promethean suits, more lean but maneuverable with legendary forged weapons from blades to hammers to even Aetherblasters. The Forgelord had gone all out, crafting weapons for his personal guard, the clan of Ogun churning out rare and legendary weapons along with the remaining high-ranking smiths of the archailect to equip the entire armada. This was what happened when you truly had a force, an army, dedicated to the survival of all they held there.
More than a thousand ships held the first circle, even though Moyo knew it would fall sooner or later. Chaos had an infinite number of creatures to throw at them and even with his aspect along with the other primordials that were around, it meant nothing, only evening the odds for them.
The Shieldborne moved, weapons cutting down the creatures so quickly that they were dead before they even left the cocoon that transported them to his location. Watching them turn to ashes, Moyo watched Azael call out humanoid oily shapes from chaos.
The creatures burned with the pure aspect of chaos as they dispersed in their hundreds shooting towards where the strongest of his forces were situated all across the first circle.
Those were out of his hands, he could only hold the pathway open, trusting in his forces to do their best to keep the reaper off him. Azael stretched his hands out, Moyo watching as a large shape began to slowly push out of the chaos itself, its presence weighing heavily on them.
“He brings the realm of chaos itself,” Lucirion said grimly in his mind.
“And I bring mine as well” Moyo replied tersely.
From the pathway itself came the defiance, burning with purple and gold flames, wreathed in the aspect of the Titan blade himself as its presence was like a flaming torch, burning in the expanse.
Its weapons opened up, blasting towards the planet that answered in turn, two original aspects clashing as reality broke down and assembled back in turn, entire creatures of chaos and ascenders of the archailect gone in an instant. Catastrophe wreaking all around, with the defiance, the last of his forces were through. Moyo took one look behind him at his planet, at his palace and throne before taking a deep breath and closing the pathway.
******************
The forces of Gaia moved together, Cassandra, a one-woman force of pure destruction, her path of the raging fusion obliterating everything around her. Stemming the tides of the creatures coming, giving the defenders of her sector of the first circle reprieve as William and Luke Finn, king and president of two factions respectively backed her up, wreaking vengeance on the creatures of chaos, the powers of sun and ice coming together to melt and shatter the creatures with a little nudge from the aspect of the titan blade.
It was brutal, no words were spoken, the battle too frantic and chaotic to even warrant distractions, each ascender quietly aware that despite the aspect of the titan within their weapons, allowing them to actually put down the creatures, they were dancing on the teeth of death with every move.
Arjun, Chen Mei, and Perun held their retreat zones, pathways opened as other Prometheans and ascenders laid suppressing fire, transporting as many valuable items and weapons away from the soon-to-be overrun sector.
The call went out, and the team began to retreat calmly, pushing steadily backward as the Prometheans took to the front, laying suppressing fire. Shooting in a coordinated manner even as lances of pure sunlight lit the creatures on fire and Cassandra kept lobbing detonations towards the creatures, fusion tearing apart the incoming darkness.
All across the first circle, ascenders retreated, the large ships that held the worst of the creatures pushing backwards as well, stretched lines coming together as they steadily retreated from the large planet that kept firing raw chaos aspect at them as the defiance took the brunt of the attack.
***********************
Ajax, ruler, one-armed swordsman, father, and ascender on the path of the astral reaver was a force of reality as he cleaved through the creatures. Blade swinging, he was a blur, leaving the defenders behind as his troops struggled to catch up with him.
His body wreathed in grey flames; he ignited the creatures of chaos whenever he passed them by. His was a slow burn, slowing them down and leeching their strength as they desiccated right before him, where the Titans’ aspect wiped them from reality the moment it came in contact with them, his was a slow gradual destruction, like a rapidly replicating virus that firstly stripped them of their ability to attack and then shriveled them up.
He was making a mess of the forces of chaos, his flames propagating as they began to spread like literal wildfire, making their way deeper into the hordes of creatures. Seeing as they were repopulating again, he gave a tsk, slamming his blade into the metal ground of the sector he was in, watching as a large grey bubble began to form, sucking all the chaos creatures into its glowing insides, like a gravitational pull or black-hole.
“DOWN!” he barked to his forces as every ascender hit the deck immediately, ajax chuckling.
They had been informed of his less than orthodox fighting style by now, watching as more and more creatures were sucked into it, shrieking in agony as they were violently ripped to shreds within it.
He flicked his hand towards the creatures, the bubble shooting into the darkness of the creatures, still absorbing them like a vortex when Ajax snapped his fingers. The bubble tore itself in an explosion so powerful the entire sector they stood in was torn to shreds, hanging on simply due to the benefit of the mithril metal used in its forging.
Abyssal Singularity Slash (Legendary):
Description: Channel the astral energies of the cosmos into a devastating area-of-effect attack. With this skill, the Astral Reaver strikes the ground with their blade, creating an unstable singularity that sucks nearby enemies into its vortex. After a brief delay, the singularity detonates, dealing massive damage and leaving destruction in its wake.
When it cleared, nothing was left around them to face any longer, Ajax's smug smile freezing on his face, eyes wide as everyone felt the pressure of whatever chaotic creature was coming for them.
He shouted at them to retreat, watching as pathways tore open forcefully and Ajax used his realm to protect them, shielding them from its presence when it was suddenly in front of him, towering over him.
It was like someone had forcefully melded a human and some insect together. Its head was a large bulbous thing made of black oily carapace, black eyes within it, its mouth filled with serrated black teeth along with two jutting out pincers at its jaws. Its chest downward was human, six hands, three at each side, bent over and staring him in the face.
“Ajaxxx” it drawled out.
Ajax flared his aspect, staring down the creature from his nightmares with a smile on his face.
“Really?” he said.
“He thinks this would work?” he continued.
Its movement was a blur, its hands going for his neck, but so was Ajax, blade moving in a flash as he sliced it cleanly off the creature shrieking, the echo literally stripping the skin from some unfortunate ascenders who hadn't escaped in time. Ajax bent his entire skill set to bring down the creature that fought exactly like him.
“AJAXXXX!” it shrieked again, drooling as they began to tear at themselves with as much savagery as they did with skill.
It caught most of his attacks, seeking to tear his head off his shoulders, ajax dodging at the right moment, inches from death as he danced further. Activating another skill of his.
Nebula's Embrace (Rare):
Description: Embrace the essence of a celestial nebula to gain enhanced durability and regeneration. Nebula's Embrace forms a protective cosmic aura around the Astral Reaver, reducing incoming damage and gradually restoring their health over time. This skill can be activated in dire situations to turn the tide of battle.
His skin became as hard as metal, taking the damages as he kept slicing at the rapidly healing creature, the limbs he had so delicately pruned having regrown back in a flash.
He realized what this was, even as it slammed him into the ground and Ajax ripped its abdomen in two, the creature scurrying backward, and he got up, spilling the vile liquid that made up its insides onto the ground. It was a mind game, his bastard of a father, the reaper, thinking that bringing up his childhood would somehow hamper him.
Truth was, he had fought creatures like this in the oasis of his world, no one believed him back then, no one except his father during one of the times he had returned home.
Thinking back on it, the creatures smelt wrong on a fundamental level, the same stench chaos held. He smiled, he had overcome them, and even though he had woken up most nights, drenched in sweat, eyes filled with terror, that was a long time ago, he was changed now.
He had a reason to fight, he had a child, and he would be damned if things like these existed any longer. The creature hesitated before attacking again, seeing and feeling the lethality of the astral reaver as he pointed his blade at it.
“You were the unfortunate creation of a madman,” Ajax said as he took a deep breath.
“And I apologize, despite being the mindless creature of singularity that you are” he continued.
The creature unleashed its power, terrible, so terrible that the mithril and divinium walls of the sector began to twist and warp, chaos itself seeping through the walls that were no longer walls. They attacked him, multiple limbs and faces of the creatures of chaos, all wanting a piece of him, the reaver became a pillar of grey flames and aspect, burning brightly in the inky darkness.
“I will relieve you of your burden,” Ajax said, activating another skill.
Chaosweave Mirage (Rare):
Description: The Chaosweave Mirage is a defensive skill that confounds opponents with unpredictable illusions. When activated, the Astral Reaver's form shimmers and splits into multiple illusory copies, making it difficult for enemies to discern the real target. This skill also grants a brief period of invincibility, allowing the swordsman to evade attacks and reposition strategically.
Hundreds of Ajax fought against the darkness, clearing the way towards the creature itself, the blade of the reaver burning brightly, all blades burning brightly. Close to the creature, he calmly watched it flee backward from his aspect, watched it run despite wielding the power approximately those of an ancient. He raised his blade up, another skill activating again.
Stellar Rift Blink (Legendary):
Description: Tap into the cosmic fabric to instantly traverse short distances. The Astral Reaver can tear open a temporary rift in spacetime and blink to a new location. This skill offers unparalleled mobility and can be used for rapid evasive maneuvers or closing the gap between enemies in the blink of an eye.
He was right there, in front of the creature, blade firmly lodged in its midsection as it shrieked in agony.
“Tell the reaper” Ajax started, slicing upwards before reversing the blade and slamming it straight into the skull of the creature.
“that I’m not the one coming for him, although, he can listen and see me, can’t you?; Azael?” Ajax said as the creature began to crack with light from within begging to burst out, spasming uncontrollably.
“Can you see me, father?; I’m not the one coming for you, no, that is not my destiny nor path I wish to sully my hands with” he continued.
“He comes for you, the titan comes for you and your false supreme being, be afraid father” he completed, activating the last skill.
Cosmic Nova Strike (Legendary):
Description: Unleash the power of the cosmos in a devastating melee attack. The Astral Reaver charges their blade with cosmic energy, releasing it in a blinding flash upon impact. This attack deals massive damage to the target and creates a temporary cosmic shockwave, damaging and disorienting nearby foes.
The creature exploded, the implosion tearing apart the entire circle, leaving nothing of the taint the creature had brought with it, only a single Ajax staring at the world of the reaper as it pulled ever closer to the citadel.
“Be very afraid” he completed with a smile.