“Prominence, I wager you have more than a few choice words stuck in that thick head of yours,” Alexander said as he approached, marching with his shoulders high and having more confidence than his pathetic self when he was scratching at adulthood. Larger muscles, sharper eyes, cutting tongue—he’d grown into an admittedly fine man.

But he was still as abrasive as ever.

Prominence glanced around the House of Engineers as the teams made their final preparations to trek into the city. They had to deliver Devoy to the Pillars. Devoy, the Void God—whatever business the Baptists had with that thing, he wasn’t interested. While it was a ripe opportunity to pull one over the Ordoians, this scandal was too hot to handle.

He found Jackhammer speaking with Sage; the thug must be happy that him and his team was staying here.

“Mmm,” muttered Prominence as a response to Alexander, neither confirming or denying what he said, but they both knew the truth. “I’m not pleased with this turn of events but speaking out against Seraph means putting my reputation against hers. It’s a losing battle, and the price is humiliation.”

“Hah.” Alexander cracked a smirk. You would enjoy that, wouldn’t you? “Regardless of our differences—because believe me, I couldn’t find a shithead more different—you’re useful. You’re good for something. You’re the VGM of that shitty guild, worming your way there after the Massacre.”

Prominence glared at him, which would normally intimidate most men but this boy wasn’t most. He'd survived worse, and whatever relationship he had with Seraph, there was something objectively special with him. That much was proven when he was smart enough to pull this counteroffensive together.

Alexander wasn’t afraid of him at all. He hadn't been since they met.

“Your point?” asked the Bastard.

“We’re working together, believe it or not. So we can hate each other as much as we want, but let’s bite heads off after the Sungrazers are killed.”

You underestimate my patience. “Is that all you had to say to me?”

“Yeah, figured I ought to put that out there. Because you know something? It’s customary to address your commander with a ‘Sir!’ at the end of every sentence.”

This child was unbearable. He was lucky that Kosmos and Seraph were backing him; otherwise Prominence would be tempted to snap his neck into two. “Don’t push your luck, Conqueror. Like I said, if it weren’t for your sponsors, I would treat you as the low-ranker you are.”

“If we weren’t being invaded, I would’ve left the Encampment a long time ago.” Alexander chuckled and scratched at his cheek, his pink-crusted teeth shining. Was that his blood or someone else’s? “Try not to die.”

“I won’t,” he replied, unsure if those words were motivated by spite or his daughter.

***

Making promises was easy but keeping them as another task altogether. Sometimes breaking them was too sweet of a deal, sometimes the promise never mattered to begin with or faded away like an old flame in a lantern. Other times, it was well out of your control and you’d have better luck praying to God for a better outcome.

By the Lord, this was out of fucking control and everyone needed a pastor right about now.

Prominence jetted across the air, carried by the propulsion of [Prominence Sunfire]. He was a blonde smear of heat and power. Powerful he was, as an S-Rank and the Vice Guild Master of Oasis, but here he felt like a late child running after his school bus.

Because barreling down the street was the Diminutive Cosmic Beast, much too large for the lanes. Really, it was like a stubborn fat cat trying to squeeze between a narrow gap. Tearing faces off of walls. Crushing cars. People. It didn’t care which roads it took, what Slayers or soldiers or civilians or even monsters, were there.

Prominence clenched his teeth when he flung past a barricade of mangled corpses, flattened and bone-crushed, blood-eyed and staring palely at the supernova night. Other Slayers, including some of his own members from Oasis, had noticed the rampage and chased after the Beast from the safety of rooftops or flying either from skills or vehicles, but it didn’t give a single damn about them.

He questioned why the Cosmic Beast would prefer tearing through Vesper rather than taking the sky-avenue above but at the end of the day, questioning its behavior was little better than questioning a goblin’s—they were both non-human freaks. As it turned out, non-human freaks did not have a human’s rationality.

And that rationality told the Bastard to fire. [Prominence Sunfire] burned at his hands, shot lasering arc-blades from his knuckles that curved outwards and struck the Beast. He heard a satisfying hiss from the impacts. These could normally bisect a man at his waist but proved to be nothing more than papercuts to the cosmic entity with its size and all.

It continued to devastate roads as additional rounds of assault was laid into it. A Slayer shouted for more ammunition for his handheld minigun, spellcasters flinging off elemental and arcane assortments of magick, and Prominence persistently took small chunks of starry matter with [Sunfire].

Voices were heard up ahead. Warnings of “It’s coming!” and “Move outta the way!” were distant promises. Prominence saw what scheme they’d quickly concocted. The Cosmic Beast lurched forward, bounded back slightly, restricted by an electrified magical net at the end of an intersection, strapped to the faces of adjacent buildings.

It momentarily halted the Beast in its tracks. Impressive, that said more about the Slayers than the Beast. Once the net stretched, cutting squares into the flesh, there was an unspoken cry spreading like wildfire throughout the present forces: fire everything you got before the moment vanishes.

Prominence readied his [Sunfire] but the moment had already vanished by then. The Beast, impeded for less than a second, simply pushed through. The net buckled and stretched, then crunching sounds followed. Whatever nails they used were torn off, so stubbornly strong that the nails didn't break but the walls they were attached to did. Debris covered the left and right roads, and people were crushed.

Screams rang, the Beast continued. Slayers below the broken traffic lights, trampled upon.

The chase continued.

“Conqueror!” Prominence called him through the System. “I’m flying blind here, tell me where this thing is going!”

“Give me a second!” he responded, shouting off-screen to some of Sage’s team members. The artisan herself was nowhere to be heard; suddenly she went dark and Alexander most likely knew the reason. That wasn't the main issue currently.

The Beast took a sharp turn directly into a small establishment, coming through like an excavator.

Prominence swore and followed after, avoiding any debris falling around him. “Conqueror—!”

“It’s heading to Dawns!” Alexander answered, doing his best to sound composed but his words crackling with alarm. “It doesn’t take a genius to put two-and-two together. Kreutz updated its orders: instead of finding me, it’s going to lend Ikeya a hand. That can’t happen, VGM.”

So Master Jin Junjie and the others are winning. That's supposed to be great news but I’m sweating like a dog working for a brat. “If you’re asking me to fly in front of that thing, I’ll throw you there myself.”

“Don’t fucking tempt me. I’ve rerouted every Slayer Team I could get my hands on to your position. Multiple teams are regrouping at Grassblade Avenue to gift the dog a ‘Fuck you!’ for the rest of us. I’ll send you the communication link.” Another screen popped open with the Slayers involved. He recognized some of them from Legends and Aces. “Don’t die, VGM, unless I’m there to see it myself.”

A growl left the Bastard as Alexander muted the call; having no better options, he joined the chat for the teams at Glassblade Avenue. They had something barely viable: just some middling traps and barricades like the net from earlier, but quickly they were coming together to establish something viable.

Lucky them, they weren’t the ones riding on its coattails.

The chase continued for miles; like rolling a ball of snow, its trek only received more attention from the forces within Dawns. Finally it decided that traversing on the street was too risky and decided to take flight instead, soaring like an amoeba in water. The change warranted different tactics from the Slayers at Grassblade.

There, Prominence coordinated Slayers to take up strategic positions amongst the rooftops, focused on outputting as much firepower as they could to force the Beast to change directions, nudging it closer to the avenue. It worked well enough.

“ETA: less than seven minutes!” informed Prominence in the call. “I’m sure you can see it from your position—!

As he took a second to glance over in the direction of Grassblade Avenue, some strange entity had unexpectedly popped into being. He blinked a few times. What the hell was he seeing? What was there? His mind couldn't process it, but his heart had. Something had grabbed it, locked it into a vice-tight grip. Fear, this was fear. When was the last time he felt this amount of fear? When Miss Alvillar had published her first findings or fearing for his freedom if the public knew about his private dealings?

Combat hadn’t made him afraid in years, not when he was just a middling Slayer on the East Coast.

Yet that thing was…

That thing was massive and the most abstract of them all. A scrawny and armless gray-man about ten meters tall hovered above Grassblade Avenue, shrouded in a spinning carousel of ribbons that was double its height. Black stripes sandwiching purple inside—and now it was blue then green then red, changing colors as rapid as blinks. Instead of a head, it had a ball of thin spikes. At least a hundred of them. They moved around in different directions and velocities. Somehow there wasn't a collision between the spines. If it wasn’t for the fact that it clearly had a human physique, you would think an artist had used an antenna pole as an art project.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Prominence, although he was tracking the Beast, had to pause and actively convince himself that it was real. It was, when the mysterious creature had lashed its ribbons down below.

He heard screams from the System, then dings, dings, dings.

Casualties taken.

“Conqueror,” Prominence said rather calmly, reopening the call with him. He was far from calm but so afraid that he couldn’t yell.

“Prominence, what the hell is happening at—?!”

“Kreutz,” he answered, shaking. “I’ve identified Kreutz, the last of the Sungrazers. It’s making sure the Vesper Beast is going to Ikeya, and…” He exhaled. I might die today. “I’m engaging. Let Echo know and bring me reinforcements.”

He muted the call so he wouldn’t hear that boy’s voice.

Prominence took stock of the Slayers he had, who also stopped and observed Kreutz from afar. They exchanged grave expressions, but beneath them were the feelings of duty and responsibility. Rage and fear drowning them drunk.

“Swords!” cried Prominence. “We’re changing targets! Kreutz takes priority!”

~~~

Conqueror’s message had come late for the Slayers subjugating the Forger; or rather, it was merely because they were so involved in the battle that they never noticed. The Vesper Diminutive Cosmic Beast had switched targets and was going to reinforce Ikeya’s position so Kreutz itself would siege Vesper.

But the former had been wrong.

Mind-shatteringly wrong.

The Beast was not here to help Ikeya, it was here to consume the Comet like a dog eating the corpse of its owner. In one single gulp it had swallowed the failure of that Comet and immediately the effects were profound.

Its wounds were healed. It’d gotten larger in size. Before it had been about a size of a city block and now it was twice that. Worst yet, as color was drained from the observing Slayers' faces, portals opened like acne across its body, giving way to another horde.

Master Jin Junjie had his teeth locked painfully. Using the [Spear of Wisdom] had costed him a great deal of mana and he was already feeling a tad weak from the nonstop combat; the Wonder Superweapon had alleviated most of his concerns but now… How would the battle proceed when Ikeya had essentially been revived?

He huffed. It didn’t matter. The objective was the same. Yet it was different. Instead of the swords being powered by hope after the success of the Superweapon, they were motivated by sheer desperation. Motivation, yes, but for the wrong reasons.

Like water seeping into the cracks of a great boulder, once it freezes, the boulder will break.

Everyone fought once again.

They screamed with tears as heads were severed, chanted their spells just one syllable away from biting their tongues off, clashing their weary blades as the Cosmic Beast loomed overhead. Once again thrown deep into a grim subjugation. Their fears were not alleviated when the Beast spewed a river of black blood—the same blood that flowed within the Comets. It crashed as hard as a waterfall and came as fast as a tsunami, killed as many as a disaster. Monsters and men alike.

Jin Junjie was on the other side of the battlefield when it happened, seeing the blood smash into hundreds in order to kill a dozen warriors. The System dinged as a response. Gul was seen attempting to manipulate the flow but not even her manipulation skill could manage it. Instead she raised her hands to raise a solid wall of [Divine Water], effectively partitioning the battlefield into two. On the other side, the ichor raged on and distantly the trapped voices of survivors were heard. Screaming, caught in the tide with other survivors—or surviving monsters. They wouldn't last long.

Another incident alerted him, this time from behind, where a part of the initial convoy had stayed to aid in Ikeya’s subjugation. More gunfire and shouting. They were being overrun. Either some of the monsters were smart enough to flank or they came from other parts of the borough. The answer was meaningless.

As an SS-Rank Slayer, he could defeat the entire horde by himself and tens of thousands more. The same consideration could not be given for the other Slayers. Their stamina would get drained a fifth of the way through. Not even that. It was only a matter of time now, further pressured by the Cosmic Beast. That was what differentiated Guild Masters within and outside the Fabel Guilds: profound battle intelligence. Any one of them, even the Guild Master at last place, would know that this was a coffin for the lower-rankers and non-systemic men and women.

Jin Junjie didn’t care much for them but needless sacrifice was pointless. They could throw themselves at whatever target they had next.

So it has come to this. As he pummeled the onslaught of monsters, he directly communicated to his son and Gul through the mind; speaking of the latter, she had managed to drain the ichor. “Vice Guild Master and Baptist Gul,” began the Guild Master, “take the Slayers here and the remaining convoy members to Kreutz’s location, and provide aid for any of the wounded. Prominence cannot fight alone.”

Between the bodies, Jin Junjie saw his son looking at him directly for a flash of a second. “Are you certain about this?”

Gul probably protested but she didn’t possess the technique to communicate such.

Master Jin Junjie, with a simple wave of his hand, killed every monster five meters in front of him. “I am. I will slay the Cosmic Beast myself.”

“I understand.” Piercing through all extraneous noise, his son used the same technique to communicate a single order to every human present: “The Martial Guild Master has ordered all forces to evacuate the area while he stays to combat the Beast alone! For those who are still able to fight, we will reinforce Prominence to subjugate Kreutz next! On my signal, go!”

[Skill Activation: Records of the Righteous Cultivator - Ancestor Army Arsenal]

Much more powerful than the previous exhibition, the resurrected arms rose across every inch of the desolate ruins of the battlefield, piercing through every beast and monster. It brought the Ordoians enough time to make do on Tiehan’s order.

For a second or two, the Guild Master observed the Diminutive Cosmic Beast continuously producing monsters from its shell—that would be his coffin. I will not be chosen by the System and be granted an arbitrary power like Archknell. If I must die, then let be me slain by my own hubris. I will continue on anyhow, my knowledge stored within the Ancestor Qi that flows through the blood of my family as our [Honor] dictates.

As the field was being emptied, the Guild Master of Martial Guilds reached into his [Inventory] and grabbed Catalyst’s [Guild Master’s Sacrifice], an SSS-Rank potion that would boost nearly all attributes and give many positive effects. It was brewed from countless expensive ingredients and priceless ones as the case with Fragment Carn, done by the hands of one of the world’s greatest alchemists.

The Cosmic Beast shifted as though it sensed the [Sacrifice].

Before it could do anything, Jin Junjie drank it and almost died right there.

~~~

“You’re a heartless woman for hiding up here, aren’t you?” Shinzo asked Catalyst as they casually sat on a rooftop, observing the endless battles across the city.

“That’s rich coming from you, seeking me out instead of doing your job,” responded the Alchemist Journey, crossing her legs as she sipped from a water bottle. “I’ve always wondered why you joined Martials. Ironically, I’ve asked the same question to myself about Alma, but not for the same reasons. He’s a child, basically. You’re not.

”You’re smarter than you look, hiding a vicious personality behind your motherly eyes.”

“I’m flattered Catalyst thinks so highly of me, but I’m a simple woman. I’m not as complex as your machinations. The guild has the best resources, that’s it.”

“Don’t bullshit me. Someone like you would’ve joined the San’eiketsu (三英傑) or get scouted to be a Phenom.”

Shinzo chuckled and shook her head, allowing her pinkish-white hair to sway. She would never join the Society. “I’m more concerned about our precious items, Jaslene. Like Fragment Carn.”

“He’s stored safely in our facilities.”

Facilities that I’m not made aware of and will never be. I won’t see that body again. “Yes, I have full faith in our containment protocols. But speaking of Carn and what happened with him, Alma has been acting strange—“

“He’s stressed.” Catalyst paused. “He’s also generally strange.”

“You’re right. Poor man, though, we’re all stressed.” Some more than others. “He has so many things weighing on his shoulders. The Disaster, his work, his fellow Journeys, his superiors and his seniors. With the revelation about the Apocalyptics, I’m afraid that even some high-rankers can’t endure such mental strain. Poor man, he’s tongue-tied.”

Shinzo maintained eye contact throughout her words without blinking once.

Catalyst leaned back in her chair, arms together, guarded. “Poor man.”

“Poor man,” agreed Shinzo and she relaxed, finally blinking again. A nearby explosion illuminated their faces in a fiery orange. They did not look away from each other.

“Our Guild Master did it, Shinzo—“

“Mayumi.”

“He drank the potion, Shinzo.”

A pleasant smile formed on her lips. Though it was sad. And so another Guild Master falls, the Cultivator Chair. It’s the end of a generation and the start of a new one. A brand new world is coming soon. “You’re the world’s greatest, Jaslene. I admire you so much. Beautiful and intelligent. I lack in the latter department but I’m more than confident in the other.” She made a not-so-subtle gesture to her breasts. “You manufactured an SSS-Rank potion by ‘slamming’ powerful ingredients together. How long did it take you?”

Catalyst stiffened, almost paralyzed in her chair. “Little over a week.”

“Really? I speak out of my own ignorance about alchemy but this has to be a project that it’d take months to complete. To think you were able to create an SSS-Rank product in little more than a week—”

“Yatsar and Thunderstrike created the Superweapon in a few days.”

“You’re right but ‘alchemy is different than that specialty of grease and oil’,” snarked Shinzo, earning a scowl from the other Journey. “It’s like a slow dance, I imagine. Moving in tandem with your partner, carefully, with rehearsed steps—”

“I give up.” Catalyst abruptly stood and tipped over her plastic chair, getting red in the face. “Let’s skip the subtext and state each other’s intentions, Shinzo. Like for example: what exactly are you accusing me of?”

“Nothing. I think you’re a terrific woman,” Shinzo said as she calmly stood, dusting her robes off. “I understand why our Guild Master trusts you so much. Once he passes, he’ll leave with a sweet smile knowing Martials is in good hands and will be immortalized in Ordo’s history. You, Blackviper, and Vice Guild Master Jin will continue his legacy.

”You didn’t have to lift a finger or even think hard.”

The Journey said nothing. She was wary of her. She always had been. Catalyst was a paranoid woman, but incredibly clever yet so clinical. She schemed in the background, preparing for every possible contingency. Not out of personal enjoyment but for necessity. She secured her own future first.

You’ll never find anyone more selfish.

The perfect stereotype of a high-ranker.

Shinzo bowed her head to give her senior respect. “It’s been an honor working with him.”

“Yeah, but the job itself isn’t done,” noted Catalyst, dismissive. “Let’s go back to doing ours: supporting our swords. Unless you want to take on a Cosmic Beast or a Comet yourself.”

Shinzo smiled. “Of course.”