It was pure chaos amidst the terrible battle going on in space, and even then, Moyo, Idris and his Shieldborne stood sentinel against the hordes of chaos creatures assaulting the last circle, the reinforcement ships slowly withdrawing to the inner territories of the citadel itself.
The first circle now reinforced with titan aspect infused ordnances fired into the pitch-black darkness, obliterating entire swaths of chaos aspect and its beings, burning them up in an inferno of purple and gold flames. Still, it wasn’t enough, not against the entire infinite forces of chaos itself, passing information to the Defiance that thundered ahead, engines humming so powerfully that Moyo felt the vibrations beneath his feet where he stood close to the citadel itself.
It unleashed its arsenal, planets worth of terrible destruction on the forces of chaos, allowing the transport ships that pushed to retrieve the last defenders of the first citadel get to relative safety. He could see his legion and ascenders of the primordials as they retreated from the last circle itself, making all haste for the citadel where runic inscriptions las large as moons were forming.
A shield, one in which Moyo had begun to infuse his aspect within as well, empowering it, the other primordials around doing so irrespective of factions. Both terrestrials and celestials, burning raw aspect and veneration together in order to put up the barrier, glowing like a rainbow-coloured blanket as it began to descend, shimmering in the darkness.
As the last of the forces made their way beneath the barrier, some falling and being obliterated by chaos, tiny pricks of light snuffed out in the infinite darkness, Moyo stared resolutely ahead. Lotes and Lucirion suddenly at his side, they watched Azael and his planet, the conduit for chaos itself push closer, stopping just few meters shy of the barrier itself. He stared at the reaper, the skeletal being of nightmares that stared him down as well, both of them watching in terse silence.
“This, is merely delaying the inevitable” Azael said, his voice rumbling softly.
Placing one hand on the barrier as it sizzled, he continued.
“Your presence might have brought them time, but even your supreme beings can see their end in sight, it is why they hide within their Ethereal realm, hoping their underlings would somehow do something even they would not” he said.
Moyo gripped his blade, pushing forward as he floated closer to Azael behind the barrier, he was a tiny speck beside the planet sized bulk of the Defiance itself, but he burned just as powerfully, purple and gold flames wreathing his form.
“You will not step one foot within the citadel” Moyo replied.
Azael chuckled.
“no one expected me to come this far, and yet, here I am, few places from your precious citadel, your entire Archailect within my grasp, your forces constrained to a single structure” Azael said.
“Tell me, o most powerful titan, what does that tell you?” Azael asked.
Moyo gave no reply for a few seconds.
“Ibere still stands” he said.
“Yes it does!” Azael cried out in mock exultation.
“That all powerful bastion of the titan, your mountain given form, the unbroken wall that I had to leave behind to make it just in time to the citadel” Azael continued.
“But tell me, what use is a fortress with no one left to defend, hmm?” he asked again.
“When everyone you know has perished or is long gone within existence as you’ve known it, what then remains for you, oh titan of the Archailect?” he mocked.
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Runebearer Shava and brigade commander Ferun maintained their positions along with their contingents of ascenders, all waiting with baited breaths, calmly watching as the barrier held back the reaper and his horrors. For how long, they knew not, but they trusted the titan, and they trusted the supreme beings as well, they would persevere, even as they had been pushed back to the source of all life within the cosmos.
This was the impenetrable home of the supreme beings, the throne of their power, they had the primordials, ancients and had even had the prime messengers with them, before even they along with the harbingers too fell to the power of the reaper and the true chaotic one. Even then, as Shava and Ferun, shared glances, they knew what must be done.
Their faith in the supreme beings and their primordials were rock steady, but right before their eyes, Mardar and Xerxes, two of their most powerful ascenders within their groups respectively had fallen to the strength of chaos. Interred in healing chambers deep within the citadel itself and the primes themselves slowly retreating from one man, one being.
It had shaken their faith, made them realize that they were nothing but bodies to throw at the reaper in order to slow and tire him out, and yet, even that was futile. It had shaken something deep within them, even as they watched the leaders of their respective factions stare down the reaper, all those powers of the Archailect huddled in one place.
Shava glanced at the item in her hand, the black ball, an almost mundane item, an escape from the horrors of this battle. As she gripped it tightly within her fist, she swallowed hard, two voices warring within her, one assuring her she could finally be with her father.
The Runebearer who had fallen in the attack of the third circle, her brother who had died protecting their home world when the reaper had unleashed his hordes on their home galaxy, he assured her she would. And yet, the other voice implored her to see reason, to not fall to the seductive lies, that they were gone for good.
But what if?.
Glancing again at Ferun who nodded once more, she closed her eyes, gritting her teeth and crushing the ball, releasing the power inside. Runebearer Shava, brigade ascender Ferun and the relative thousands that had been given the chance to obtain peace exploded in raw chaotic energy that tore through the citadel itself. All over the citadel, chaos sprang free, unleashing death and destruction in its wake.
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Moyo reeled in shock, all primordials watching in raw horror as chaos tore through the citadel, eradicating entire swaths of sections in the near infinite spatial corridors, Azael laughing.
“You blind fools” he chuckled.
“Why?, why do you think every single soul has a blind, utmost faith in your supreme beings?, in you, Moyo?” he growled as Moyo snapped his head to him.
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Chaotic beings tore through the obsolete room, tearing through jades, brigadiers and Runebearers together, pushing towards the impossible pathway, the one pathway that had stood from the beginning at the Archailect till date, the access to the pathway that led to the Ethereal realm.
The jades, Runebearers and brigade forces manifested in a blast of power, raw aether and aspect tearing through the chaotic creatures as they sought to hold back the forces of chaos. Step by step they fell, entire swaths of the citadel crashing as the forces of the primordials sprang into battle, masters, rulers, ancients, all reinforcing the impossible pathway, a section large enough to house an entire state, ever increasing with the help of the spatial runes that lined its walls.
Even there, with all the forces of the Archailect straining to keep the great enemy out of their walls and back to the outskirts of the citadel, more explosions ripped the citadel appeared as more and more ascenders gave in to the whispered promises of the enemy itself.
The great statues of primordials tumbled to the ground as they were crushed in the ensuing battle, large promethean fighters hastily deployed from pathways hoping to stem the tides of the creatures that sought to overwhelm the defenders themselves. A shining beacon of raw power appeared, wielding a large blade and shield, burning with the raw power of the titan himself.
The titan fist, champion of the titan stepped forward, like a wreathing mass of uncontrolled forest flames, he stood in opposition to the ever-pouring forces of chaos itself. The collective consciousness of the creatures recoiled, spreading their tentacles wide as Idris moved into action, cutting off entire swaths of chaos aspect forged limbs that sought to drown the entire area in the power of oblivion, the runes on the walls blazing with raw energy.
It grew larger and larger, for every pathway the defenders sealed off, two more took its place, like a never-ending tide. The defenders suddenly found themselves displaced, reality fracturing, the presence of the champion himself the only connecting spot as he battled with the largest mass of concentrated chaos itself.
All around, the dying screams of both ascenders and betrayers rang around.
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Moyo watched with helplessness as Lucirion and Eses bent their entire might in keeping the barrier up, the primordials along with them. Gripping Oro tighter, he turned to the reaper whose black hollow sockets stared at him with a mock grin on his face.
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“Nothing lasts forever, that is the one law of reality we both respect” he said.
One finger touched the barrier as a tiny crack appeared, Moyo reinforcing it as Azael withdrew his finger.
“And yet, watching you all struggle helplessly, attempting to stop the inevitable, well, it gladdens my heart” he continued.
A loud gong echoed, Moyo turning his gaze to the citadel where a beam of golden light shot straight from the highest point of the citadel itself into the void, exploding in a golden circle of colours, a large rune carving itself right in the void before revealing a golden gate, a large structure that stretched as far as the eyes itself could see.
“Ah, and so it begins” Azael said, drawing Moyo’s attention back to himself.
The reaper stretched his hand out, swallowed slowly by the oily liquid of the planet itself, the aspect of chaos swelling all around them, reality that barely hung on finally crumbling at an accelerated pace.
Moyo summoned everything he had right then and there, feeling the presences of the primordials manifest around him, Kairos’ hand on his shoulder. He turned to the king of monsters even as his aspect began to wrap tightly around him, his full might about to be unleashed.
“No, not here” Kairos said, Moyo staring in confusion.
He pointed to the large gate.
“that’s for you and the transcendents, do you understand?” Kairos said.
Moyo stared at all the faces of the primordials, Tiamat, whose gaze was locked on the planet, Viaris with his golden visage staring at him, Tengoku Junzo, the omnifox watching silently.
Rieus, the scourge avoiding his gaze, Metar, the shadow primordial he had hardly spoken with, Ynas the floating eye that kept zooming around, runes dancing around her as she no doubt brought her full power to bear. Azael’s voice chucked from within the planet that begun to shrink in size.
“Countless eons, we have waited, wasting away beyond reality” he said.
Moyo felt the shiver run up his spine as right within the darkness of nothingness, the great oily serpentine form of Apophis began to stir, moving slowly as first before increasing as it swirled around the planet itself, constricting it, yet pulsing with raw chaos aspect.
The primordials bore the full brunt of it, unleashing their spiritual form that towered almost as high as the citadel itself, raw primordial aspect dredged from countless centuries before, settling even as Altair joined them, blazing as he unleashed his entire vault of blades, weapons of terrible power.
Any ascender below the rank of master would burn up at the sight of such power, and yet, the primordials wove their energies together, shielding the citadel as they prepared to face their ultimate foe.
Moyo gripped Oro tighter, turning to the citadel itself and then back to the assembled primordials, emotions warring within him, he couldn’t just simply leave them alone, not against Azael, against chaos itself that consumed anything it came across.
A large pit opened up right behind Kairos and Tiamat as roars of powerful creatures tore through, all shapes and sized, as large as the capital ships used by the legion of the titan themselves.
They poured out in their numbers, bolstering the line of primordials despite their peak ancient status. They would die, of that Moyo was sure, but they would buy more time for whatever plan he had to bring together. He felt something stir within him, realizing it was the draconic egg, was it close to hatching?, it wasn’t like it could do anything here and now.
“They won’t be alone” a calm voice said at his side as he turned to see Lucirion and Eses.
Both transcendents held reality together with the full strength of their aspects, burning with raw blistering aether. Eses with golden eyes and her draconic form swirling around her humanoid one, in both hands were golden blades with inscriptions written all over them.
Lucirion was a well of power, his true might able to cause lightning to crackle in the void of space, his spiritual form nothing but a tornado of runic circles that carried terrible power itself.
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This was the end battle, the true one, the very beginning of the end of things as they knew it, within the citadel itself, the power of chaos sundered reality into a hundred different pieces, clusters of ascenders fighting the hordes that assaulted them with no hope of reinforcements. Entire teams of brigades, Runebearers and jades with the reinforcement of the titan blade fought and died, some fought and won only to die after.
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A team of brigade arcane generals and jades within a hallway fought a large mammoth tentacled creature, one touch was all it took both sides to lose entire limbs, and yet, with the valiant effort of the arcane general that sacrificed himself, the creature was killed.
And yet, as both sides attempted to force their way through the sundering, the ground beneath them morphed into the jaws of a creature of chaos, swallowing the entire team, limbs all that remained in the terrible silence.
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Over at an arch pathway, a team of Prometheans and ascenders of the titan blade force stood in Defiance with mixed forces of the legion, Ija tanks firing away at the flying creatures with nightmarish faces that swallowed entire people whole, gore and blood splattering on their members as they fought back.
The booming of promethean Aetherblasters tearing the creatures apart mixed with the dying shrieks of ascenders who despite the aspect of the titan they wielded were being slowly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers the forces of chaos were bringing to bear down on them.
It was only a matter of time before they were overwhelmed, they knew that, and yet, they fought on, knowing it was the only thing left they could do.
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Ashira Kairos fought back to back with masters Alvar sol blade, Raina stellar blade and Sonya burning phoenix. Around them were the assembled ragtag team of all forces mixes together with even a few Shieldborne as well that had strayed from the presence of the titan blade.
Ashira was a beacon of titan aspect, intermixed with hers as she led from the front, the Shieldborne at her side, ensuring no harm came to the beloved of their lord. Friends and foes mixed together in such terrible battle that nothing except the swinging of blades, summoning of runes and blasting of heavy weapons filled the air.
And yet, they pushed on, their sundered reality home to nothing but large terrible feline creatures that tore ascenders in half.
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Ajax, Duval, Skatha and Killian battled a terrible hydra of chaos, its breath of black flames ripping apart where they stood as their very willpowers and authority kept them from being drowned in the power of chaos.
It had seeped into the citadel in ways that had horrified them, that was enough in itself to bolster its wrath, and yet, the three rulers and one primordial held it at bay, for no matter how many times they killed it, it simply came back to life.
It was a stalling method, they knew, the reaper intended to hold them here, they along with all other main powers, torn apart from the other forces, the sundered reality they faced, a barrier preventing them from linking up with the other forces of the Archailect.
The creature’s seven heads exploded as Duval rolled to a stop from where he had burned through them, panting softly, body strained. They were exhausted, and yet, they watched as the creature was reborn in chaos, aware that they had no access to aether except from that they had within them, but as true ascenders, they shouldered their weapons and prepared to kill the creature for the fiftieth time.
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The clan leaders of house titan blade stood together, above the bloodied and torn grounds as their clan members fought all around them, the various sects and arms of the clan fighting a receding battle as they were pushed deeper and deeper into the failing spatial corridors of their sundered reality.
Prometheans clashed with large terror inducing creatures, fast and lethal shapes ran over Ijas, tearing them and ripping the ascenders within apart, yet, the power of the titan blade, the aspect that burnt them to ashes kept pouring from them, all around them as the tendrils of chaos sought to consume them, they fought on.
Lighting, fire, mechanical constructs of terrible strength, runes empowered with the aspect of the titan and those members of the order of the titan that remained, all together, tearing down the creatures of chaos, for where they brought down one, three took its place.
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The coalition of Gaia stood as one, masters and diamonds, fighting a guerrilla battle against the horrors of night. Together with few masters of the legion of the titan themselves, they tore the creatures that manifested around them, needing no pathways before retreating, leaving aether bombs to clear entire rooms as they fled.
While it purified those rooms, they merely returned, occupying as they knew the reaches of chaos would return, there was no time to count nr mourn their dead. Not yet, not until this nightmare should end, one way or another it would, they new that. Either the titan blade won, or they died, one way or another, it would end.
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Idris and Josh stood with the Shieldborne right in front of the impossible pathway itself, each of them burning with pure titan aspect, each a column of pure destruction. It had been instinctive, the knowledge that the titan blade would be in need of that particular pathway to ascend to wherever it led.
And they had been lucky, tearing open a pathway to the hall itself before the sundering had occurred, wiping out every taint of chaos in the room and securing their positions, staring grimly ahead with the hundreds of Prometheans and Ijas as well as thousands of ascenders.
Not all had made it with them, the sundering ripping them apart to different broken realities, but through the aspect of the titan blade. They were all aware of each other, aware of the fact that they might not meet each other again, and yet, they were willing to do their duties as they should. Weapons lit, they had faced down the literal tide of chaos creatures, all shapes and sizes coming for them with all the fury of chaos itself.
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The Defiance itself was caught in a maelstrom of attacks, its guns firing nonstop, capital weapons as well tearing the large behemoth shapes that sought to crash into the citadel. Like fractured glass, Urne and the commanders of the legion’s flagships could only watch as the tendrils of chaos sought to tear apart the citadel itself, held together only by the combined might of aether and the transcendents.
The primordials faced down the personification of chaos itself, something even they couldn’t afford to stare at or run the risk of going mad, their flesh burning or slipping off their form like melted goo, literally.
And yet, as she sat on her command throne, shouting and passing orders out, Shola burning with power in her physical form as she held the communications together. She could only whisper prayer to the titan blade, not that he needed anymore venerations, but she could only hope he was close to ending the battle.
Red icons blinking left and right as entire ships were destroyed or torn apart by the large space behemoths that attacked them, the Defiance shuddered again as its capital rail guns fired, the never ending battle continuing.
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Moyo didn’t look back, as he forced himself through the sundering of the citadel, chaos itself reeling in pain at his forced arrival, he didn’t look back.
He would trust in the transcendents, he would trust in the primordials, both friends and foes, he had no choice. He felt the sundering attempting to tear his mind into the hundred pieces it had fragmented itself into and with Oro in hand, he spoke, his eyes blazing with power.
“WHOLE!” he commanded.
It wouldn’t last for long, even now he could feel the fragments rebelling as his aspect burnt the tendrils of chaos that were holding them apart. He was in a hundred places at once, body straining as he burnt away the creatures of chaos, allowing the forces to gather once again in larger clumps.
Entire forces or what were left of them escaped from their fragments to others, joining up together in greater forces. From the masters of house Kairos, the dead body of Eogan the green carried by a master of house Kairos to another fragment where Ashira was.
So many deaths, so many gone, and yet, he knew that more would be gone before the battle was done, more souls swallowed by the capriciousness of Apophis and Azael. He located the impossible pathway, the knowledge coming to him unbidden as he stepped foot in the citadel, his champion and Valoris holding the line, ashes floating all around them.
He landed in front of them, empowering them with more of his aether, no words spoken between them, none that needed to be said anyways. He was asking much of them, and them in return, glancing back at them as he watched them steel their gazes, entire lines of ascenders bowing to him with hardened eyes, he nodded and stepped through the pathway knowing all resided on him and the absent supreme beings.