To The Border
20 minutes later, in a Carrier's central command. Heian Ciemnosc walked outside the transporting vehicle, giving the sleepy young girl softly smacking her lips a little rub on her head before heading into the central command module. The moment he entered, and the personnel read his aura, their eyes widened before bowing their heads as if they had just met their ancestors. Heian Ciemnosc walked by them without eliciting any extra attention.
Step, step… step. Heian Ciemnosc stopped before the high stand above everyone else, where a few people could stand without becoming too crowded. He stared at the windows in front, which had once held the peace-inducing sight of a Mothership in construction, but was now empty.
“What do you think of the word ‘Elder’ used to call you from now on?” Suddenly, a voice sounded from behind him. Heian Ciemnosc stopped contemplating and turned around. His darkest eyes fell on Alyona in the middle with a little smile, her hands behind her back, grandpa Fonso behind her left, and Grietta behind her right.
“I’ve been called old, ugly, and fucker even… As for elder, no, never have suffered that fate before.” Heian Ciemnosc said, placing his hands before his pelvis and standing in attention with his legs spread. Fonso coughed, feeling attacked, while Grietta shook her head and narrowed her eyes. A little belly finally formed in that smooth abdomen.
“Good. Then, we can start here, now.” Alyona’s expression became neutral, but those black-coffee eyes seemed threatening to Heian Ciemnosc, holding a playfulness in them only he knew. Alyona looked around. This alone was enough to make the personnel around them to put a pause to their work and look at her. The central command’s aura became solemn.
“By my previous words. Heian Ciemnosc, Officer in the Crimsonbreaking Faction, will become a Security Elder if he attains the Bright or Silhouette realm before his eight decades alive. Today, that feat has been accomplished,” Alyona looked around and round before setting her eyes back on the Officer. Then, her eyes became fiercely strict as she declared, “Today! The Faction welcomes a new Security Elder under its roof! Elder Heian Ciemnosc, your path still has to continue!”
“… Security Elder Heian Ciemnosc is honored,” Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes were as calm as the endlessness of the black space in the world. When he bowed, he expected nothing. But there they were, the people in the central command and some intruders that suddenly appeared when his emblem glowed crimson.
CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP…!!
“Hurrah, the outcast has become a higher-up!” - “Black monster, congratulations!” - “Indeed, indeed! Worthy of the Chairwoman’s man. He lives up to his reputation and name, hm hm!”
“Many thanks,” Heian Ciemnosc slightly bowed his head and shoulders after standing with a straight back. Alyona stepped forth and ceremoniously clapped twice, gently quieting the crowd around them. Heian Ciemnosc looked at his wife, and she looked at him in the way a proud boss would, flashing him vestiges of tender warmth in between.
“With this, your proposal will also become into play. The Disciplinary Elders have studied it these 2 years, and must I say, they are not biased to believe in it. But you must put it to work yourself, nobody else.” Alyona said before turning and walking downstairs to the rest of the personnel, who were now back to work as if nothing happened just a few seconds ago.
Heian Ciemnosc felt comfortable and at ease when everyone proceeded to ignore him and continued their work. He, Fonso, Grietta, and a few newcomers who weren’t there in the beginning followed the Chairwoman as she walked towards an open area below, whereas a rectangular hologram was projected on the windows.
“I spoke of the new military system’s acceptance from my Disciplinary Elders. However, your breakthrough happened at the right time.” Alyona’s words echoed as the hologram showed the Quiongu Fanhui Existence before rapidly zooming out. Heian Ciemnosc slightly wrinkled his eyebrows as the hologram covered not just the Existence or a few more others, but the entirety of the Universitalities of Yore Universal Land.
When it stopped on the Universal Land, revealing all its 7 Existences and where their borders ended with the ghost space commencing, the hologram was extended with 2 other rectangles appearing above and below. They formed a much bigger rectangle hologram that displayed… all 7 Universal Lands!
There were 7 squares. The Heraxle Clan’s Universitalities of Yore Universal Land was in the right bottom corner. With the Flora-Sweet White Heavens Dynasty’s Scintillating Crop of Word Universal Land to the left, and the Bluenet Nation’s Overline Universal Land on top. The former was the lower central Universal Land, while the latter the right central Universal Land. These shared a 3-way corner that received countless trading and merchant fleets every year.
Especially between the Bluenet Nation and the Flora-Sweet White Heavens Dynasty, who had a trading agreement since before the Great Sage’s demise.
“This corner holds a situation where the Heraxle Clan’s side has lost despite having more advantage and terrain. Currently, the situation within our territory in this Upper Kingdom is deplorable. It has practically fallen into the inhabitants’ hands, and the Heraxle Clan has requested us their help to deal with whatever matter they’d like to put in our hands.”
Alyona looked at Heian Ciemnosc, and only him in specific before stressing the decision-making importance, “We can only accept if we want to proceed. If not, we might as well lie low and wait for another opportunity. They won’t let us know the specifics until we accept and visit one of their guarding, fortress Space Station near the Universitalities of Yore Existence.”
“The Lsefattern Kingdom, an Upper Kingdom with many 2* Regions and a couple of 3* Regions. One has mountain ranges at the sides towards the center but with a small passage in the middle… at least compared to the mountain ranges. Its living conditions are exemplary, but it lacks a high quality of natural resources. The only good thing about it are its bountiful resources as a 3* Region. If we can get these materials, even if we can’t have enough time to prepare…”
Heian Ciemnosc looked up at everyone before setting his darkest eyes on his wife, “It will be worth it.”
“What’s your choice?” Alyona nudged her head upwards and asked. Heian Ciemnosc blinked and looked at the holographic map again before flatly responding, “I’ll accept it.”
Then, Heian Ciemnosc looked at the others. He was just a Security Elder, he didn’t have the status to decide taking an operation for himself, his forces, and however the Faction deemed it necessary.
“Mn, I concur,” Fonso nodded with his eyes closed, and his fingers intertwined before his lower belly. Grietta casually nodded while holding her little belly, “Aha, the black monster has just been recently in a break, but duty waits no one.”
“Ah, I agree. I must say… I feel like seeing the black monster and his military reforms in action.” - “I believe most of us, if not everyone, agree with the black monster’s decision. That’s right, how long will our trip be?”
“At least 10 years from here to the Lsefattern Kingdom, passing by the Universitalities of Yore Existence.” Alyona brought the hologram with a flick and snap of her fingers. The hologram became one rectangle again as the others were divided and returned to the devices in the central command. Alyona walked to a table, enough for a couple of hundred people to stand around without being crowded, and placed the hologram on top of it as it spread.
“We’ll take 3 years to reach the Universal Land’s center as we do missions and prepare our troops.” Alyona looked at Fonso and Grietta before adding, “And ourselves.”
“We will not and cannot invest in other operations, so we’ll travel light, but not without hiding. The typical procedures, nobody should see our Space Station. This is the trajectory we’ll take,” Alyona showed the Universitalities of Yore as a light cyan colored line went from the Quiongu Fanhui Existence to the Lsefattern Kingdom. It went a little up and down nonstop, but only swayed left and right a few times.
“What about the Heraxle Clan’s people there? Where are they?” Heian Ciemnosc asked, slightly frowning, but without preoccupation. Alyona tilted her head suggestively and said with slight scorn, “It’s only one representative there. If I recall correctly, 30 years ago, a bet between inhabitants and an envoy in a border Kingdom decided the arsenal that the Heraxle Clan would present… ended in the inhabitants’ hands.”
“I see,” Heian Ciemnosc flatly said, not asking again. Alyona turned towards Fonso and loudly spoke, “Organize the mission intake. Put it at 200% full. There won’t be any resting for our people during these 10 years. I’ve already notified Loon to discuss with you. Oscilote will move everyone after it has been decided. Any questions?!”
Alyona suddenly asked in a loud voice. She waited with her hands behind her back, appearing calm and collected. But everyone could tell the excitement in her voice with the way she nearly shouted. If she was like this for an operation, and didn’t grow like that in the first Existences war, then what did it mean?
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Heian Ciemnosc bowed and voiced before walking away from the table, “Excuse me.”
“… Continue and let me know your thoughts after I return.” Alyona looked at the departing back of her husband before setting a few more things and saying. Fonso, Grietta, and the others nodded before debating in hushed voices. Alyona walked after Heian Ciemnosc without needing to hide it.
… An hour later, Heian Ciemnosc and Alyona walked to a Fauna-holding district, where the majority of the Fauna, not for playing and servicing as ceremonial mounts, resided whenever their owners didn’t require them. The owners could come here and take care of them.
There ere other uses for these districts. Most of them were empty, and some were used for merely dates and showing off cultivation progress. However, these not even century-old Fauna-holding districts have been recently cleared from any of those occasions. Today, these Fauna-holding districts were still mostly empty, but that was starting to change.
They walked into an open establishment where a humongous pond was enclosed by a rather delicate perimeter. However, it wasn’t necessary to protect this ‘pond’. Instead, it was to make it feel like the one living in it owned the place, because it did.
“Oh, there it is,” Heian Ciemnosc held Alyona’s waist as he passed the entrance building and walked into bright green grass, with a few trees and a few ordinary flowers. After Heian Ciemnosc spoke those words, the tranquil pond became hectic rapidly.
SPLLUUUUUUUUUSSSSHH…!
An explosion surged from below the water’s surface as it exploded thousands of kilometers in diameter, obscuring the bright green around the pond wet. There, a humongous, draconic head became exposed, thousands of kilometers long and a few thousand kilometers wide.
It had many smallish scales of varying shapes, and their color was a darkish navy blue. Furthermore, it had aquatic ears, too, albeit these were tiny and only had scales on their outer part. They were essentially a weakness. However, its bones were even sturdier than its scales, and that included something as vulnerable as its skull.
If something made its way to its head and struck it directly, it would be painful but nonfatal. This was the Blue Drake king. While it wasn’t its people’s king anymore, it was their leader still. Its head became rounder towards the top, and it now had 2 round, humanoid-like shaped eyes with their draconic contents of a yellow and its navy blue scales’ colors.
WHIIIIFFF…
The Blue Drake’s nostrils, which had become enormous, blew air outwardly as it met Heian Ciemnosc and Alyona. Its gaze was complicated yet acquiescent towards the latter. The 2 slits behind its eyes, which seemed like undeveloped eyes, fluttered but refused to open. The Blue Drake shook its head as the attempts made it uncomfortable.
When it recomposed, it looked at Heian Ciemnosc, who held a dark, thumb-sized pill in his left-handed fingers and presented it before the Blue Drake. The drake looked at Heian Ciemnosc after longingly staring at the dark pill like an idiotic, foolish animal.
“Mn,” Heian Ciemnosc felt content with his new dog. He drifted his Dark Blood Pill into the air and delivered it before the drake’s snout, just a few meters from him and Alyona. The drake moved its head forth and delicately took the pill into its mouth with its lips and fangs. Then, it retracted and bowed its head, nearly causing a tremor on the ground, bypassing its nose on the pond’s bank.
It wouldn’t digest it now, as it only ate one previously and directly evolved its hidden Bloodline. Currently, it has been 2 years since then. The Blue Drake couldn’t be any more contented to have chosen this path, instead of a meaningless, unfruitful death.
“…” Alyona looked at the drake with squinted eyes, as if she was looking at a bright, unreachable achievement. Heian Ciemnosc took another dark pill from his Covert Space bags. The drake became exponentially serious, with its head lowered and its eyes closed.
“Have you decided?” Heian Ciemnosc made a simple question, but he carried something else additional to remind the Blue Drake what he meant. Heian Ciemnosc’s ultimately cold, calm, serene massacring intent.
PSHIFFFVIAAAN~!! “My vow is here, I am honored to serve Master Alyona until my most fruitful death!” The Blue Drake shot a ray of bloody energy from its heart as it spoke. The bloody energy formed a vein-like substance that trembled with each of his spoken words and connected to Alyona’s left chest.
PSHIIIFT… “I accept your vow, Alexander,” Alyona’s eyes were colored by bloody energy— the Blue Drake’s. Then, her energies went outside her body. The transparent gray and crimson energies encompassed the drake’s blood essence vow link. When it reached its body, the Blue Drake closed its eyes before its eyelids showed its eyes’ contents with their original color and those of Alyona’s energies.
“!” Heian Ciemnosc lifted his eyes as the Blue Drake’s second pair of eyes also glowed in the same manner. Then, as its first pair of eyes opened, the second gradually also opened. Then, both Alyona and the Blue Drake gasped for air at the same time. Their link came to be, and the bloody energy disappeared as the Blue Drake’s secondary eyes opened and revealed the same as its primary eyes.
RUGGHH, RRRUUGHH… SNORT!
The Blue Drake went through exhilarating emotions as its secondary eyes met the world at last. It felt fantastic, and Heian Ciemnosc could felt the drake’s sentiments. It suddenly looked at Alyona, and its 4 eyes were fervent. As Alyona recomposed from the sensation of forming a blood essence vow, she looked at a back that nearly faced her altogether.
“… Heh,” Alyona chuckled before grasping some scales and climbing to the drake’s back. Then, she sat before its neck and looked at Heian Ciemnosc, who didn’t oppose the excited fella as it elevated its body, flooding the pond with tons of water falling everywhere around its body.
SPLLLLLLLLAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSHHH…!!
Soaring into the sky let the water fall into the obscured bright green, and now, with its 2 smaller-than-before wing sets, it arched backwards as Heian Ciemnosc felt Alyona’s thrilled emotions. The Blue Drake hadn’t grown, but its scales changed, and it gained 2 extra wings and eyes after cultivating for a month after taking Heian Ciemnosc’s Dark Blood Pill.
Heian Ciemnosc held the second dark pill he intended to give to his wife’s mount and Fauna companion. While Alejandro and Evans were pretty damn good, Alyona didn’t have any. As his first woman, shouldn’t he spoil her already? Thus, Heian Ciemnosc planned kidnapping draconic Fauna left and right until he could find the perfect mount. Nevertheless, his first operation as a commander ended his search.
‘Each phase to return to your past, through a shameful evolution, will be another set of wings, eyes, and maybe even limbs. You are most likely a descendant of a Winged-Dragon. And she named you Alexander, sigh.’ Heian Ciemnosc shook his head slightly while Sara, who had long stopped caressing herself, looked at Alyona and Alexander with her hands on her chin.
WHEEESH WHEEESH, WHEEEEEEEEEESSSSSH~~!!
“…” Heian Ciemnosc watched a few more minutes as Alyona rapidly got the hang of it and maneuvered in the air. She had seen him on Evans’s back, and even Alejandro, and rode on them a few times herself. Besides, her dreams have become true, and she finally became a dragon rider. Who wouldn’t want to fly until the day was over? But the day still had many things expecting them…
. . .
1 year later.
During the past 13 months, the Crimsonbreaking Faction’s Space Station/Base traveled through space, taking several trips and portals installed by Godly Space Stations in the empty black that didn’t require one to move near the Space Station. Some of which were mobile.
The Crimson Space Station paid an adequate, good price to not be discovered or seen. The Fanhui Quiongu Existence almost gave them free access, but the Crimsonbreaking Faction had a backbone and those they spoke with didn’t insist. At this point, the Crimson Base was only a few days from traveling into free space between the Existences to near the Heraxle Clan’s home Existence.
Within the Crimsonbreaking Faction’s military, the changes that 48,000 returning elite soldier units, and 300,000 auxiliary units have already ‘suffered’ was seen again. It was light, at first. It started with rumors and ‘possibly’ and many other ‘I’ve heard that’, etc.
After the 1st month, the mission intake of every single Team, even First Step, was reduced to mostly space related but generally increased a hundredth fold. But those that weren’t required the Crimsons to speed up as their Base continuously moved forwards in its set trajectory. They would resolve their mission in a Kingdom further on in their path and wait for their home in its next stop to rejoin it.
The Crimsonbreaking Faction’s Space Station couldn’t just move nonstop. It wasn’t a Godly Space Station that could move without complicating exit and entry to their Space Station. To their people only, of course. As such, it stopped every few Space Stations, selecting a Godly Space Station every other 3 to take a portal.
This allowed them to take as many as tens of thousands of missions to clear a path, leaving it with disputes, distressed people, and meager infrastructure problems resolved. However, since the beginning, the higher-ups and upper echelons knew that the path their Chairwoman chose was riddled with problematic situations. Any other organization preferred not to waste their time on them. The Heraxle Clan, Sixth Step and Fifth Step organizations were too lazy to bother with.
The Base’s trajectory passed through these places with gusto. It didn’t pose concern to them, though. On the contrary, it was just perfect. The matter was rather simply, really.
After resolving 3 missions in a week, a few days later, one would receive a mission to either kill their previous employer, or would be targeted by their employer’s. The latter situation was followed with the previous employers selling the Crimsonbreaking Faction’s manner of work and procedures to anyone who bought or looked to buy it.
It wasn’t detrimental to the Crimsonbreaking Faction, but this was an insult. The Crimsonbreaking Faction had no territory, so it took care of its face without endangering their position in a Region or Galaxy.
Thus, the Crimsons those people employed would hunt their previous employer and their buyers, whoever and however many there were. More often than not, this closed opportunities for the Crimsonbreaking Faction to gain favor with others, and thoroughly insulted them instead. Leading to the acclaimed Faction still remaining a target after the 10 year war.
One would believe it would have been left behind after the first Existences’ war, but it did not.
And now, as their path to the Universal Land’s upper left corner began, oblivious to the rest of the people in it, the Crimsonbreaking Faction launched their new military system. Fortunately, it didn’t dissolve the benefits and favorable standing points set with the previous reforms.
Heian Ciemnosc’s change in the military compensated with the one that happened when he was just an Auxiliary Soldier. Otherwise, even if Heian Ciemnosc’s reforms were proven genius a thousand times over, the Crimsonbreaking Faction’s hierarchy wouldn’t have accepted it so early on without ample preparation and digesting of both military reforms.
…