The true dragon slept, it was all she did as she watched over the flow of aether, in reality, her mandate, her will, her wish, was the continued existence of life and in other words, aether. The archailect was the tool she used and while she had faded into legend, the messengers being the only sign and symbol of her existence to the archailect at large, she nonetheless maintained an eye on it.

Lotes, aether personified, learnt to remove things she called ‘bumps’ from the flow of aether, anomalies that could turn the eternal game between aether and abyss in favor of the latter. Over time, most of these ‘bumps’ had served the will of the archailect, and while her siblings would think these ‘bumps’ were machinations of their own doing, Lotes, the one before all was created had seen the outcome, plotted the path and simply allowed fate nudge events in the direction she wanted.

Also, while making sure the move was not too glaring and provoking to the abyss, or rather her counterpart, for the deadly mistake the beings that knew of the intricacies of the abyss made, was that it was a mindless force in the reality.

They couldn’t be farther from the truth,

For if there was a personification of life, there must be a personification of death, and both sides were keenly aware of each other. So, when Lotes felt another ‘bump’ in the flow of reality and aether, she sent a sliver of her consciousness, just a little, enough not to trigger the alarms set into the archailect by her siblings and peers to monitor her movement. She had to give kudos to them though, they were nothing if not inventive, but while they might all be supreme beings,

She was the first,

Her consciousness dove through the flowing river of aether, the thick glowing life-giving energy that became diluted through the archailect, allowing lesser beings like rulers and those beneath them to wield it, she felt for the first time in eternity the one feeling she hadn’t felt since the dawn of her existence,

Fear,

And that little moment, that minute time not even measured by time itself in which she had felt it was enough to draw the attention of her opposite in the abyss,

With a flex of her power, she muddled the flow of aether, simultaneously replicating the particular flow in millions of places to divert the attention of the cursed one. She felt its eyes on her, and with a brief shrug, her metaphorical wings spread, Lotes stared down oblivion personified,

“You are not welcome,” she said, blasting away every touch of the abyss in the flow of aether,

The touch of the abyss would manifest as blights in most of the frontlines where valiant rulers were defending the archailect from the encroaching darkness. Lotes felt pity for them at that moment, they would probably face what they called category 4 to 5 blights, but they could handle it, they had to, and if they weren’t enough, she’d send Xerxes.

Lotes was used to dealing with bumps, even Xerxes was a bump, although he turned out to be a boon to the archailect, a sharp blade she pointed in the direction of the abyss whenever it felt like biting more than it can chew, but this particular bump carried with it, a familiar feeling.

Bumps were anomalies in the archailect, beings who when given the blessings of wielding aether in whatever form they decide on, could either usher in a period of strength and power or destruction and carnage to the archailect, further moving the will of the abyss. Many of the vaunted rulers and beings who had reached the highest peak of the archailect were bumps such as these, but not all bumps turned out favorably, and to those, she gave a chance to do right or face her wrath empowered in the form of Xerxes.

Examples were Evon, Urguth, At'll, and a plethora of monsters who had decided to bend to the will of the abyss. They were all dead, and the few who were existing were alive due to her one chance at redemption, beings like Garda, the wielder of death, and Rohan, the undying darkness, but she had her eyes on them. Therefore, when this new bump manifested, she had expected it to go the usual way, a seed or an idea so volatile, that it could serve either the aether or the abyss, and it was, the only issue being it was one so old, it shouldn’t exist any longer.

Even now, you persist she thought with a grim smile,

And she was ready to support the idea, except the last time it manifested, it nearly tore reality into pieces and its result was the archailect. With the issue of the abyss sorted, she delved deep into the flow leading to the bump and with eyes wide, realized the absurd strings of luck or fate as she would decide later on that led to such an idea.

A short time ago, hundreds of years to those within the archailect though, she had favored a young bump, one belonging to Alastor, her peer, the supreme being of edges. And while Alastor thought he had manipulated the flow to get a boon from her, she had monitored it from the beginning, a feeling, nudging her into planting the seeds.

She had told the young disciple of a ruler long asleep that the archailect needed a protector, a wall, an ascender as they were called to embody the idea of an unshakable force to stand against the tides of the abyss, a force in which a being had once stood for, and while he wasn’t that force, he could raise that force.

It had been a speech she gave when she thought he would had become the harbinger of Alastor, but seeing as he diverted away from that path, she had let the matter die out, even then when the disciple became a ruler and once again denied the request of the current harbinger of Alastor, the Zane true blade to be his disciple, a harbinger in training, she saw no signs of her words in him.

Then, as she currently watched the flow of aether, she saw Altair extend his power to a new galaxy added and gifted the child with the first step of the idea, the step of absorption, for a wall must be able to absorb whatever damage it took, and unknown to Altair thousand blades, he had just given this child the key to breaking the abyss, and he did it without drawing the attention of the abyss, for it was not a predicted move. The fear in the heart of Lotes wasn’t one born of accepted destruction, no, it was one born of the indecision she currently faced.

The idea, the concept, the path of the titan had been unleashed.

Lotes wasn’t the first, she was never the first and while she had existed when the other supreme beings had gained sentience, therefore thinking she was the first, she had a progenitor.

For when reality was created out of the abyss, aether coming from blight, it had formed a defender, a being to hold the abyss at bay while it bought time to gain a foothold in the fight against the abyss.

Lotes had gained sentience in time to see this being use up its last vestige of power to let her beat back the abyss, also in time for the other supreme beings to form from the aether. She had called him the defender,

The titan,

And as she stared on at this child that carried the seeds of becoming something greater, she frowned. It was not as she remembered, no, this child had warped the idea to his own independent idea, even the primordial shard had left an imprint on him, enhancing one of his skills.

The titan had only defended against the abyss, this child was ready to bite back. And with that realization, Lotes smiled for the first time in eons, the last being when she made Xerxes the ever-burning fire of the archailect her harbinger.

She considered pushing him on the path of becoming a harbinger, probably subtly drawing the attention of Alastor or any of her other siblings to the child, therefore letting them think they were the ones to discover the next bump, but she threw the idea away.

No,

She would let him continue on his journey untouched, he had faced adversity and survived, and even though his climb of ascension was a bit too fast, the current challenges would be enough to stem that rate.

After all, he wasn’t the only bump in his generation, no, even the great-grandchild of a bump she once thought to eradicate was a bump, Kenuran would go through fire, her fire, not the palsy flames the dragons of house Dracon could muster to prove his allegiance to the archailect. She neither cared if he was worthy or had a character of gold, so far he was on the side of aether, she would let him flourish.

And as she watched the clash between the titan and the red jaw, she chuckled to herself, the death blade was right, it was too soon for them to meet, but then that was the funny thing about fate.

They would meet again soon, but she decided to leave it to fate to sort out the issue itself, if any of them were to climb the ladder of ascension, ruthlessness was key and they both needed to learn that, she would step in if they were to eradicate themselves from reality.

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Lotes couldn’t bear to lose two bumps at a time, they were the future blades of the archailect anyways, even the girl with the three ideas forged in one was a bump, but her path was ordained already by fate.

Lotes frowned, the path of the one soon to be known as the chimera had been muddled by the titan, it seemed whomever he came in contact with had their fates become unpredictable, Lotes was beginning to feel giddy,

Yes, this was what she wanted,

Withdrawing her gaze from the flow of aether, she stretched her frame in the tier 6 world she existed in, not much of a world as it was a reality itself. With a smile she went back to slumber, she had placed a few…...interesting pieces in the parts of her bumps, nothing special, just enough obstacles that should they surpass, their strengths would become unrivaled, maybe even as strong as Xerxes, her child, but she had learnt not to count her hatchlings before they evolved into full dragons.

The thought of dragons drew an irritation to her chest, with one clawed finger that held enough power to wipe out a galaxy mistakenly, she drew the attention of a greater house to a piece of the new galaxy the archailect just absorbed,.

It was a set of planets that house Dracon coveted, with suitable landscapes that could serve as a nursery for their hatchlings, it was also a suitable place for the other great house to cultivate and as such, she had just created just enough of a dispute to tie down both great houses, that should teach those pesky dragons who thought they were descended from her and had the right to do as they wish a lesson,

Oh, they were indeed descended from her, well, an experiment at producing demi-supreme beings anyways, they were just too much and quite a number of them needed to be gone, let them serve as fuel to power those worthy and in need of their strength through their deaths.

With that settled, Lotes fell into a deep slumber, the thought of the titan on her mind...

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

Systems recalibrating…. standby…...

Systems recalibrated…...anomaly detected, requesting permission to scan for signs of tampering…. granted, commencing scan……

Subject has evolved storage through greater power than the current stage, permit? permission granted, completing tampering scan….scan completed.

Tempering probability….0%, subject has been stated as naturally occurring anomaly (bump)…. error, subject has been designated classified by the one, proceed as any other subject, authorization code 000001…. accepted, proceeding with normal parameters.

**********

Moyo woke up to his HUD going haywire, blinking to see Ulsa standing close to his body on a metallic floor, he groaned as he felt his head settling. Ulsa turned sharply to him, relief visible on her face,

“you’re alive, praise the supreme beings,” she said with an audible sigh of relief,

“What happened?” he muttered as he sat up straight, his sight becoming clear to realize he was in the cigar, the ship belonging to master Killian,

“You fell over like a dead body the moment we got back to nexus point 1, master Killian said it was aether shock, apparently your body had an aether overload,” she said,

“Aether overload?” he asked,

“It seems it really affected you, with you repeating everything I say, must had drained the remaining cells in your brains” Ulsa teased,

Moyo shot her a pointed look as Ashira walked into sight,

“What she meant was since your body was in a place of aether deprivation, a place where you not only went through a core manifestation but an inspiration, the rush of aether that was meant to follow along with such process happened all at once,” Ashira said,

“Plus, the load of experience points and aether you got from killing five bronze ranked experts added to the process, your notifications must be blinking ceaselessly right now” she continued,

“Tell me about it” he muttered,

Standing up, he brushed his body,

“I’ll check them after, we need to deal with this,” he said pointing at the red ship and the woman who stood in front of it,

Judging by how he couldn’t see her stat table, he was pretty sure she was a master, masters Ajax, Killian and Urush stepped forward to the woman who floated in the air,

“Killian stellar blade, Ajax death blade, and Urush frozen tiger, a sight you don’t see every day,” she said, her voice sounding like the jingle of crystals but with a deadly edge,

“Anala red jaw, what’s the right hand of the scorching claw doing here so far away from home?” Killian said,

“the same thing you’re doing here, training my offsprings to win the tournament, perhaps by chance you met Kenuran and Vasanz?, not like your experts would survive such an encounter,” she said with a smile that sent shivers down Moyo’s spine,

“Right, so about your child Kenuran, you raised one hell of a demon,” Ajax said with a tight smile,

“You mean dragon?”

“No, dragons are all bark and no bite, which is weird considering the insane number of teeth you all have,” Ajax said as Anala frowned and Moyo bit back a laugh, Ulsa and Ashira doing the same,

“Ajax!, that is no way to talk to the red jaw!” Killian said with a gasp,

“However, he’s right though, Kenuran is, well, let’s say the hatchling doesn’t fall far from the brood mother,” Killian said with a nod,

Moyo was pretty sure those particular words weren’t said in that way, but he shrugged along,

“Your insults are for experts, not me; I believe we crossed the stage of childishness when we ascended to master, did we not?” Anala replied in her melodious voice,

“Explains why you’re so uptight, really woman, loosen up a bit, you might want to have a little roll in the sack with some male dragon, not that I’m offering anyways, I doubt our anatomies are the same,” Ajax said shaking his head,

“Enough of these games, why are my kids not out of the portal, where are Abraxas and Kenuran?” she growled,

“Was it me or she didn’t mention Vasanz?” Urush said,

“It explains quite a bit now, poor kid,” Killian said,

Moyo only saw Anala flick a perfectly manicured finger in their direction, the blazing inferno that covered them with the power of fire and intent drove him to his knees in terror, even Ulsa and Ashira weren’t exempted, and just as fast as it came, it was gone. He breathed in to see a solid dome of ice over them, with Ajax outside of it, in his hands a ball of concentrated fire and intent, Moyo was pretty sure could level Bastion in a flash.

With wide eyes, he saw Ajax throw it in his mouth and cough out smoke,

“Wow, lot of firepower there,” he remarked,

Anala snarled as she raised her hand,

“Vasanz is dead!” Moyo shouted,

Anala paused, her hand frozen in the air, her gaze sharply honing in on Moyo, and for the second time in his life, he felt the gaze of a dragon on him. It was like being an ant in front of a meteor, still, he steeled his nerves and stared resolutely,

“What did you say?” she said,

“Vasanz, he’s dead, killed by Kenuran after I won a duel with him” Moyo gritted out,

Anala paused in the air, her hand slowly coming down as she kept on staring at him, he saw masters Ajax and Killian remove their blades from their sheath slowly, a serious look on their faces. Her face went through a bunch of emotions, disbelief at his death, shock at the reality, anguish at the thought, and cruel rage at him,

“Impressive display young titan blade, you kill my child and then blame it on my other child”

Glancing at the masters,

“Does your cruelty know no end humans?” she said, tears leaking from her eyes,

“he’s saying the truth,” master Urush said,

“Truth?”

“I swear on the archailect it is the truth,” Moyo said,

“Your oaths to the archailect means nothing to me!” she shouted as flames filled the air,

Masters Ajax, Killian, and Urush drew their blades, Moyo skidding backward and he, Ulsa, and Ashira watched in pure terror at the power of master Anala. Then the portal to Agabod opened up and Kenuran stepped out, in his arms was the headless body of Vasanz, a wounded master Abraxas behind him. Anala paused in the air again and in a blink stood before Kenuran, collecting the body of Vasanz in her hands. She faced the skies and let out a voice of anguish so deep, that Moyo began to feel a tinge of pity for her, till he remembered who she was and gripped his blade hard, his sole comforter with its hum.

She grabbed Kenuran and blinked away, probably into the ship, master Abraxas followed suit immediately, then she appeared back. In her hand was a red and black sword, glowing with barely constrained power,

“Anala don’t” Killian warned,

“Use that attack and risk the wrath of the two rulers on this planet” Ajax growled,

Two rulers?, Moyo thought only the jungle king was the ruler on the planet,

“For Vasanz,” she said and raised her hand,

In later years, Moyo would look back on this day and remember his first glance at a brigade ruler, even as the air howled a mournful note and reality bent and twisted, the skies becoming red, a spatial pathway opened up and a man in a red coat with a large war hammer in his hand stepped out. He glanced at Anala, somehow freezing her in the air, then he glanced at Ajax and Killian, raising an eyebrow as both sheathed their blades and raised their hands in surrender.

“YOU DARE” a voice reverberated around them as vines began to grow out of the ground, whole vegetations shooting out from cracks around them,

Then a man stood before them, Moyo couldn’t necessarily call him a man with the way he looked. Green hair flowing to his waist, a large club on his back and clothed in the fur of some animal that was too powerful to stare at except for glimpses, but his eyes, glowing a deep green stared hard at Anala who was still frozen in the air like a statue,

The jungle king,

Moyo was sure he met the eyes of the ruler for a brief second, and saw approval but had to look away as he felt his entire existence crumble under the weight of his gaze. Bowing to the ground, he heard the voice of the jungle king,

“Killian stellar blade, explain yourself”

“This master greets the jungle king, we faced the Draconians in Agabod, her firstborn Kenuran killed his brother after he lost to an expert of mine, the titan blade,” Killian said,

Moyo wasn’t sure how, but he could feel the gaze of both the overseer and the jungle king on him,

“Titan blade” the jungle king simply said,

Still bowing, Moyo spoke,

“It is true, I swear on the archailect that I didn’t kill Vasanz, Kenuran red jaw did,” Moyo said as a loud gong echoed around,

The pressure on him loosened as he heard Ulsa and Ashira give a shudder of relief at the freedom, Anala was unfrozen as the attack dissipated into nothing,

‘Normally I could care less if you masters decide to wipe yourselves off the face of reality” the overseer started,

“But if you threaten the aether shard for an entire set of galaxies, house Dracon or not, I would end you and your line, your ruler be damned,” he said softly,

Anala nodded stiffly,

“Good, now get out of my planet, all of you, except the jungle king has something to say?” the overseer asked,

“Just one thing,” the ruler said,

“Do not let shame and ego take a step you would regret Anala red jaw,” he said to Anala who nodded, and marched into the red ship,

The ship powered up and with a boom, left the atmosphere of the planet, the overseer and jungle king turned to Moyo and the rest of them,

“That applies to you all, but I’d be careful young one,” the jungle king said to Moyo,

“The dragons aren’t known for forgiveness, best get stronger”

Moyo bowed,

“I will take your words to heart” he replied,

He noticed the gaze of the jungle king on Ashira who blushed, a short smile on the face of the ruler who then turned away, Moyo wondered what that was all about,

“Good, now get off my planet,” the ruler said,

“gladly” Ajax replied.