FEW WEEKS BEFORE THE FORMATION OF HOUSE TITAN BLADE

The vessel tore through the airs of Gaia, blasting its way through the endless sea in silence, its form cloaked completely and its passage unnoticed. It was one of the newer military grade crafts built on Gaia, and it had simply been named as the raptor and true to its name, it was a deadly foe to face in the air. Sporting turrets than ran on mana, custom made for the military forces of the union, it should had been found only within union airspace, and yet, here it was coasting along the tides towards an unknown location.

The painted insignia of the union, two wings with a star in between had been haphazardly scrapped away and painted again to ensure it had nothing left. Five people were within it hold, clad in all black tactical gear, assault rifles in hand and other instruments of lethal warfare on different parts of their bodies. The rifles were not the mundane creations of metal that existed pre Archailect era, humanity had brought their expertise of weapons into the new reality, adapting to its mechanics that favored melee warfare into something that suited them better.

Using the power of aether to make up for the shortcomings of the weapons, they pushed the system to the limit of what it allowed. Lines of aether and technological ingenuity ran through its frame, its magazines filled with customized intent bullets, imbued with the raw power of aether and intent to pierce through any and all things, its barrels spelled by mages with spells of silence and its scope able to see close to a thousand yards, its was for all purposes the height of human rifle production.

Their very armors were made from the strongest of the creatures around, both of dungeon and mutated Gaian origins, but what made these men unique was the fact that they were some of the bests the union had once had to offer, renegades who had deserted the force for one reason or another. Four of them, each bearing a different animal stitched into their armor sat opposite a man whose face was covered, a mask along with tactical googles shielding his face from them, he was the leader of these ragtag team of mercenaries who were about to ply their trade with barely constrained enthusiasm.

Almost whitish skin revealed itself at the arms where he wore black gloves and his very presence was the strongest on the falcon,

“Approaching target, five minutes out boss” one of the men said,

He was a cowboy hat wearing black man, pearly white teeth, but it was his eyes that singled him out, they were slanted as a raptor. The man who was their leader nodded, sitting up as he spoke, a soft barely perceptible Irish accent coming from him,

“Our job is a straightforward one, extract our target and wipe out evidence of the base” he started,

“he’s some sect head representative of clan titan blade, sent on an envoy journey to deliver something precious to the imperial empire, got snatched along the way by the patriots” he said,

The patriots,

A radical organization that had come to light within the continent of Washington, the union’s home base. Supposedly after the recreation of the state of America, it had chosen to engage the union in guerrilla warfare, and due to the size of the continent, the still forming army of the union were having a hard time hunting them down completely. A woman with red glowing fingers snorted,

“Something about this doesn’t feel right” she said,

Their leader turned to her wordlessly as she continued,

“It’s freaking clan titan blade, you’re telling me they simply couldn’t open up a tele hub pathway to Avalon?, expenses too much for a representative from the continent where diamond coins are supposedly overflowing?” she said,

“None of our business jelly” the leader replied,

“we’ve been paid handsomely enough to do this, enough to cover three other missions of its kind over” he said,

“And that’s the issue” another said, an Asian looking man with two blades strapped to his back and a light blue skin,

“The amount was high, too high for some representative” he said,

“I could care less” the last man said, a bulky looking man with gauntlets on both hands and a large mace at his side,

“I’m doing this for the fun” he said with a grin, the image of a bull on his armor glowing a bit,

The cowboy hat wearing man patted his shoulder approvingly as he chuckled,

“Whatever it may be, stay sharp, you know who’s also hunting us” their leader said,

His armor was bare of any animal shape, pure black with nothing pointing out who or what he was,

“aegis” the black man said,

The Asian man gave a shudder,

“We steal one falcon from them, and they said their hounds after us” he said chuckling,

Aegis, the supposedly special forces of the union, their spy agency and secret police wrapped up into one, filled with their deadliest of operatives. They were a myth to those even within the union, a propaganda to live up to the sect of the hands of Anansi clan titan blade boasted off, or Excalibur of Avalon. Their leader knew better though,

He should know better,

He casted the thought away from his mind as he spoke,

“Falcon, reconnaissance” he said,

The cowboy hat man nodded, code name falcon, his eyes glowed a light blue as they got closer to their destination. The tenth continent, home to the barely explored landmass filled with monsters of gold rank and above, the leader had to admit, it was the perfect place to pick a hideout, far from the eyes of the major factions of the world and the imperial empire who were no doubt raging at such an insult to them.

It bore another question why the imperials weren’t the one leading the hunt for the sect representative, it was a direct insult to them, but his team had been hired instead, the black sheep. Perhaps it spoke to their efficiency in the black market, but he had been skeptical about taking an offer from them, the price they offered however, was enough to change his mind. Brian Connor, former decorated member of the union force, at least, that was known to himself and the members of his team, his true identity had been scrubbed off the records of the newly created union force for a reason after all.

To all, meaning the members of his team, he had been a colonel, the equivalent of a three-star ascender within the union. The union worked on a system of stars, the lesser the stars, the stronger the ascender, and Brian had been one of the elites judging by his peak gold rank. His path of the battle commander allowed him complete versatility in all things war and battle related, a rare path that had catapulted him to the peak of gold within the force, till he that event had happened.

He dragged his mind away from his straying thoughts as the falcon spoke,

“Mana barrier shield over the compound, an entire acre carved out a little deep into the forests, mana and intent cannons mounted on the walls as well as a patrolling guard of close to thirty ascenders, silver and low to mid-tier gold from what I can see from here” he reported,

One of the skills of the falcon was his ‘insight’ allowing him to see traps around an area as well as any hidden spells, barriers and also the ranks of enemy ascenders. It was a skill that made him valuable to the team, coupled with his sniping skill and his flight skill he both activated as he jumped out of the raptor, flying away under the cover of darkness, waiting for his cue. Brian stood up, known simply as ‘black’ by his team, he passed an order to the raptor through his Hud, the rest of the team standing with him. Checking his rifle as well as his blades, he felt his mantle lock in place, a modified thing of mithril and repulsive power, locking on to him like some future tech with glowing lines of aura running through it,

“execute” he commanded and jumped out of the raptor,

They fell in silence, the entire area beneath them as he gripped his riffle tightly,

“now” he said to no one in general,

The mana barrier could only mean one thing, a mage was on the compound in charge of shielding as well as protection. Normally, places like this would had been hard to find, but the sect leader had been with a tracker, something the patriots should had searched for. It spoke to their naivety and Brian wondered why aegis hadn’t crushed them if they were this sloppy, especially if that guy was leading them. Something shot past them, past the barrier and into a building in less than a second, and then the barrier fell,

“Target neutralized” the voice of the falcon said in his earpiece,

The four members of black sheep landed within the compound as they moved as one, Brian’s skill activating,

* Tactical Analysis: this grants the user the ability to quickly assess the battlefield, identify enemy weaknesses and formulate effective strategies on the go, allowing them to exploit these vulnerabilities.

He identified thirty enemy ascenders, a mix of mages, aura and intent users, all experts, all about to unleash their realms in a cacophony of confusion as explosions rung out around them, waking the jungle and its indigenes,

“move” he commanded, highlighting their targets and sending to their Hud’s in a blink of an eye,

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One of the prerequisites to join the black sheep was high reflexes, this was to enable his teammates move to every command he gave in a split second, something his tactical analysis skill demanded of them, and they complied. Jelly, the girl with the red burning hands moved, flipping through the air as gun shots rang around, landing on an intent cannon as one touch of her hand brought the cannon to melting degree. It exploded even as shouts rang around. Brian left them to their devices, they knew what to do, his mission was the most important after all.

Exploding into movement, his rifle up and ready, he began the job of reaping, one bullet each, imbued with intent along with another of his skills,

* Rapid Targeting: this enhances the users’ accuracy and target acquisition speed, making them exceptionally deadly with ranged weapons. It allows them hit fast moving or distant targets with precision even in chaotic battle situations.

Allowed him to calmly pick off the assailants, mostly silver rankers who didn’t even know they were dead the moments their heads exploded to mists, body toppling away. He had been stuck at the peak of gold, few gold rankers ever thought to ascend to diamond, the risks a hundred times worse than gold ranks. Diamond ranked creatures were known as calamity ranked creatures for a reason, it was why it boggled the average Gaian how clan titan blade had been able to raise so many diamonds.

Brian tore through the defenders, his rifle holstered at his back for a pair of short knives, legs pumping with only the speed a peak gold ranker could achieve. Three steps and he was through the reinforced glass of the building, crashing into the large building that had been inscribed with runes to repel attacks. Brian scoffed at that, sure, it would do well against the average silver ranked attacks, probably even a new gold, but not him, not black. The moment he entered the building, he felt the change in the enemies here,

“Golds, finally” he thought to himself as he landed,

The moment his body tensed at what he considered true enemies, another of his skills activated, draining his endurance a bit more as it taxed his mind,

* Battle Composure: this grants the user a level-headed mindset in the midst of battle, helping them remain calm under pressure, making strategic decisions and adapting to changes swiftly.

Six gold rankers, two of them mid-tier, both intent users, but weapon users, the rest were body aura users, it made things easy. His hands were almost imperceptible as he threw four blades laced with intent at the fellow intent users, the golds reacting at top speeds as well as the explosions of their movements blew the glasses around the building. Four body aura users came for him, holding uncommon melee weapons, brass knuckles and gauntlets. Battle composure working in sync with tactical analysis, he felt them slam their realms on him,

He almost laughed,

The moment his realm barely made a presence, their realms vanished in a flash, catching them completely unawares. His rifle was in his hand in a split second, emptying his clip into the skull of a body aura user, his assailants head exploding in a shower of gore. He bent his body sideways, a kukri blade suddenly in hand, a rare weapon he had been given during his time in the force, when he had gone by another name. it cleanly sliced the hand off the second body aura users who screamed as his other hand went through what Brian knew was a spatial pocket. He was suddenly at the other side, the blade slicing the other hand clean as well before cleanly removing the skull of the aura user.

The two intent users were suddenly within vicinity, feeling another realm lock on to him as a bullet cracked in the distance, tearing through his shoulder as he let the force flip him through the air. He had felt nothing, even as battle composure and tactical analysis allowed him calculate the distance between himself and what was a sniper user,

“falcon” he muttered through the earpiece,

A bullet tore from outside the building, straight through the skull of the intent user, his assailants head exploding to mist again. His skill had done its job, numbing him to the pain as his body spat out the bullet,

* Resilient Vitality: this allows the user to become numb to pain and injuries while within battle, allowing them to continue fighting for an extended amount of period even as their endurance and health regenerates during battle.

The second intent user and the last two body aura users came after him together, unaware of the attack that took down their long-range assailants, Brian prepared to kill them in the five seconds it had taken him to wipe out half their numbers when his team tore into the building, bull, a body aura user as well as a mid-tier gold ranker was suddenly bodying one the aura users, catching unawares as his mace connected with the head of the gold ranker.

Mantis the Asian with two blades was next to the intent user who realized too late that his rifle was too close to the blade user, he kept that same look of confusion as his head rolled off his shoulders. Jelly was suddenly on the head of the last aura user, not giving him a chance to talk even as his head exploded in a shower of gore, hopping off his shoulder to land gracefully. The entire room was a mess, streaks of blood around as the remains of the bodies dissolved to aether, along with the blood,

“Area is clean, proceed to the lower parts” falcon said through their earpieces,

“Noted, proceed with caution” Brian said,

It bothered him that the patriots had this sort of ascenders, gold rankers were scarce and far in-between to suddenly be rampant within a terrorist group, whoever was funding them had enough resources to spend on pushing a bunch of weak ascenders to the rank of gold. walking towards a door that led to the basement, Brian stopped as he placed his hand on the knob, battle composure fizzling away as an aura shot straight through the door, causing him to stagger. His team knew better than to doubt his actions, rifles were up and pointed at the door as he froze,

“what’s wrong?” jelly asked,

Brian found it hard to explain what he had just felt, unbelieving of the level he had just felt,

“diamond” he whispered,

His kukri blad grasped tightly as he unleashed his realm, named ‘void’, its ability was one of a kind, and it was what along with his lethal brutality had elevated him to the ranks of the supposed ‘ten kings of Gaia’, not that he bought into such labels. It had the ability to nullify any realm used to attack him, a defensive realm with no offensive ability, only absolute defense. The door opened as with one flick, his team shot backwards, their realms out, blazing as they prepared to meet whatever monster the patriot had kept hidden.

This was worse than Brian had thought, bad enough that he thought of breaking his seal of silence, a last resort to deal with calamity level threats such as this. If the patriots had a diamond ranker, then the union had to know, whatever games were being played by the different states of the union had to be placed on hold. A tall lithe man stepped out of the room, stretching as he came out of the door, an eye path covering one eye, his short cropped black hair on his head. His aura was that of a silver, but Brian could had sworn it had been that of a gold ranker a few seconds ago.

The man paused, glancing at them,

“Well, you took your sweet damn time, I could had been dead” he said calmly,

Brian paused,

“Matt James?” he asked,

That had been the name of the sect representative, the golden arrow sect, the man scratched his head,

“Yh, I know, a bit on the nose really” he mumbled,

Brian felt his body relax a bit,

“mantis” he said,

The Asian mid-tier gold ranker moved, as fast as a bee, passing beside the man who folded his arms, eyes tracking the movements of the gold ranker as he entered the room. A few seconds and he was back,

“All enemies are dead, including the commander of this cell, a peak gold ranker judging from the aura in the room” he said softly,

“You can drop your shroud now” Brian said,

“I do that and you all fall to your knees” the man replied, no bragging, no ego in his words, just pure hard facts,

“Told you something was wrong with this mission” jelly muttered,

Brian ignored her,

“Who are you, really?” he asked,

“a member of clan titan blade” the man replied,

“Not a vassal sect?” Brian asked as the man shook his head,

That sort of explained the situation, but what games were the greater factions playing?, the sect of the golden arrow along with the imperial clan had commissioned this mission, was this some sort of betrayal?. The main raised one hand,

“don’t get flustered, Mr black, three stars of the union force, but you and I know who you really are” the man said,

Brian froze, feeling his core churn out more intent as he prepared for battle, the man shook his head,

“Lady Cassandra sends her regards” the man said with a smile,

“Alright, I’ve had enough of this, what is going on?” he snarled,

“It was a test, we wanted to see just how good one of the kings of Gaia really was, and you have satisfactorily met our expectations” the man said,

“who’s we?” Brian snarled,

“Clan titan blade, we would like to hire your services” the man said,

“Hard pass” Brian replied immediately, removing his mask,

Black inky eyes with dots of white stared at the man who raised an eyebrow,

“You really are as scary as they say” he muttered nonchalantly,

To be honest, Brian expected another sort of response, fear, shock, maybe even a bit of surprise, but the man stared like he was used with such sights. Brian snarled, about to turn when presences crashed into the building, his entire team going on guard,

“Fuck!” bull rumbled,

Ascenders in camo uniforms, a mixture of different ascenders, all with rifles and masks, all gold rankers, albeit early levels landed, weapons trained on them. A pathway opened and a man stepped through, yellow cropped military haircut, black glasses and two customized pistols in his hands, the area around him distorting,

Aegis had caught up to them,

Brian prepared to attack, he could buy time for his team members to escape then he’d let loose, not even the time mage of the aegis division, the one-star ascender could take him down if he really let loose. A voice however brought everyone crashing to their knees,

“HOLD” the voice of the man from clan titan blade echoed around,

It locked them down even as he calmly marched forwards, Brian for a brief few seconds enjoyed the look of terror in the eyes of Richard stone, his one-time rival and now head of aegis. The man paused in front of Richard, tapping him and somehow freeing him from his command as the leader of aegis staggered upwards,

“You are interfering in union business” he managed to say,

Brian had to give him props, he had balls of stones speaking to a diamond that way, perhaps he thought the diamond wouldn’t want to get into it with the union. The man simply raised an eyebrow,

“I could care less, besides, I believe I have the blessings of Cassandra for this particular meeting, so scram, before I make you and your toy soldiers nothing but an afterthought” the man responded,

Brian could see Richard fighting it, fighting the terror he felt at the sight of a diamond ranker, the man sighed,

“Perhaps I’ve been too lenient” the man replied and raised one finger,

Brian’s instincts screamed at him to run, to flee from this man, this terror as the man began to gather his power, sunlight blazed through the building, burning as it coalesced into an arrow, its power enough to wipe out a small island. The land steamed and even their sweat evaporated in the sizzling heat that kept on rising, there was no escaping this attack should it hit, the very grass on the compound, the very building beginning to catch fire.

Richard scrambled, along with his golds as they tore away in fright the moment the man released his command over them. Soon enough the sounds of raptors pulling away filling the air, the man folded his arms and turned to them, his power receding into his body,

“My name is Charles, vice leader of the dawn archers, and I come to you in the name of the titan blade and his sect lords” he said as Brian humbly knelt,

He had almost died a few seconds ago, life had ways of humbling you,

“We have an offer to you, no star null, formerly of the union force” Charles said as Brian winced,

It had been long he had gone by that name,

“We require the services of you and your black sheep, we will pay you a sum of a hundred diamond coins per day and we require your services for at least six months” Charles continued,

Brian and his team shuffled uncomfortably, the amount being offeres was mind numbing, even this mission had only been a thousand diamond coins, a hundred a day?, it was enough to get them to retire for life, no matter how long it was going to turn out to be.

“After that, you will be offered the choice to join clan titan blade should you meet my satisfaction, you will work directly under my supervision and if you so desire, a place either at Gaia or on the planets owned by clan titan blade” he completed,

Planets?, plural?, just what had the titan blade been up to since he left Gaia?, Brian stared at Charles, the diamond ranker waiting. He nodded,

“I accept” he said.