Spirit King Ku'rahk watched from his position on the starboard deck of the spaceship as millions of Spirit lords assaulted a planet. The World Spirit was quite young – at the second domain tier of the Spirit King realm – which made the assault vastly less challenging.

Across the vast expanse of space, Spirit lords battled, their phantasmal astral images in full display. Although he was logical enough, unlike his brethren, to note that their images didn't give them a better advantage than the planet's defenders, the vastly superior numbers, though, projected an assured victory.

On his right side, millions of kilometers away, other battleships approached in a triangular formation towards the planet. Ku'rahk flared his bronze-colored wings in annoyance; this should have been done by now. He already knew of the terribly subpar capabilities of the lessers, which begged the question of why this child's play of a battle was still going on. It was a disgrace to the Dominion that a battle with such a lesser race should be so prolonged.

Turning to one of his lieutenants, an Aveanii of black colored feathers, he gave a command, "Broadcast to all forces under my command; I want all opponents immediately incapacitated, permanently."

The crow-specie Aveanii saluted, bobbing his beaked mouth. "As you will, commander," and then hastily moved on to carry out the command.

Ku'rahk could have given the command directly. As a Spirit King, his mental capabilities were far beyond the scope of any mortal comprehension, only compared to other Spirit Kings, but as per military protocol, all broadcasted commands were to be done through the communication room. Though he sometimes wondered why they had to do it like the lessers.

He nodded in satisfaction as he began noticing an increase in the fighting prowess of his soldiers, their combined might and numbers dealing out devastating casualties on the humans. Suddenly, his mental shield reacted as multiple communication requests came in.

Though his blood-crimson eyes narrowed in annoyance, he allowed the mental requests to pass through.

"Ku'rahk," Na'mehn's voice came through in her usual melodic sing-song tone. "Don't you find this battle amusing, watching the lessers as they scramble in fear? Why then choose to put an end to it?"

Ku'rahk refrained from an immediate reply, his eyes taking in the defenders as they began a mass retreat back toward the planet, fleeing the slaughter being carried out by the Aveanii.

"We have a job to do," he said simply.

Another voice came in then, this one with a tone of disdain. "What did I say, Na'mehn? He isn't a true Aveanii. An Aveanii who fails to take pleasure in the woes of their lessers should be considered a lesser likewise, same as the races they sympathize with."

Ku'rahk's claw-tipped hand tightened in restrained anger, a reply coming out an instant later, "Your opinion does not matter, Ta'nihk. I was appointed commander of this mission, not you."

"Oh, how I love it when you both squabble," Se'rok giggled. "Ku'rahk, dear, would you mind stalling a little? I have multiple bets going on how long the lessers last before they beg to surrender."

"No."

"Spoilsport."

Ku'rahk, already tired from all the pointless back and forth, cut off all incoming replies before they could bombard him with useless complaints. "Enough. I will not allow the glory of our great dominion to be brought so low just for the meager entertainment of a few," he hissed. "If the battle continues as it is, the lessers could advertently spin false tales on how they were able to stand up to us, which would then increase their morale. I want every notion of such positivity crushed immediately."

At last, he finally sensed the reluctant agreement of the others. Even though it would be entertaining to watch the lessers scramble, thinking themselves a match for the Aveanii, it would be better to disillusion them of such hopeful thinking right now before it could be allowed to spread further into the other worlds.

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The sudden increase in the fighting prowess of all Aveanii forces proved an unexpected shock to the lessers, and they immediately showed their response. Desertion. Ku'rahk's eyes narrowed, pathetic.

The Aveanii forces pushed deeper as more enemies were put to the slaughter, while the rest either fled toward the planet or away towards the other planets in this star system.

The planet, a small body with only three continents, shone a bright sapphire as its World Spirit marshaled its powers. A transparent shield rose to wrap around the entire planet, with massive archaic runes of protection enforcing it. Ku'rahk scoffed, this would not help them. From the four corners of the planet, the world quaked as its Sentinels were awoken, their titanic, cloud-reaching forms climbing out of whatever hole they crawled into whenever they slept.

Ku'rahk flared his wings in eagerness, it was time.

Space tore and parted as, from the realm of the unreal, his true body emerged, his mortal avatar moving and replacing it in the personal abode he had built in the unreal.

Power flooded into his form as his consciousness fully settled into the body, energizing it to full power. The mere appearance of his true body warped space for miles, twisting and folding it in unimaginable ways. He had to actively make use of his intent to prevent it from instantly destroying the nearby ships and their inhabitants.

From six other command ships, other powerful auras flared with such intensity they could have been mistaken for suns as his counterparts also prepared their entrance.

He followed, unleashing his aura to its full bloom, and with his intent, he directed its full power down towards the planet, causing its shield to glow brighter.

At this, the enemy defenders visibly sank into deeper despair. He couldn't fault them for that. They could hardly contend with the Aveanii Spirit lords, talk less of the Spirit Kings.

His titanic body moved, a single step taking him across millions of kilometers toward the planet, appearing on the planet's exosphere. His equally titanic and majestic wings flared in a prideful announcement, its sight a blazing bronze sun.

His regal voice came out a moment later, projecting all over the entire planet. "You are surrounded. Hand over the fragment or face complete annihilation."

And then he watched as the lessers scrambled with indecision. He already knew what their reply would be and could have since attacked, but he wanted to give them the illusion of choice. They never failed to disappoint.

Their reply came in a public show of defiance by the two Spirit King commanders who oversaw this world, their true forms appearing in all its diminutive glory.

"Foolish," Ta'nihk huffed.

"On this, we agree," Ku'rahk nodded. "Though I applaud their show of bravery, it is in my opinion that, nonetheless, an example must be set."

And then destruction reigned.

Ku'rahk and Ta'nihk moved on to handle the Sentinels that moved to stop them. Three of their numbers took the assignment in directly overwhelming the World Spirit. While the last, Se'rok, single-handedly dealt with the lesser challengers.

Their battle lit up the exosphere in a myriad of cataclysmic explosions, painting the entire sky in different colors. Ku'rahk was a few seconds faster than Ta'nihk in dealing with his opponents, ending them in minutes and leaving their broken, titanic forms to crash onto the oceans and lands, causing more damage than any Aveanii had ever directly done.

Se'rok was even faster, having already finished dealing with hers and then going on to assist their brethren in the assault on the planetary shield.

Ku'rahk found himself amused at the oversight of the World Spirit in projecting a shield against their assault yet couldn't seem to prevent the dead forms of its Sentinels from causing devastation to the people it was meant to protect.

Their assault went on for hours, continuously draining the massive energy well of the World Spirit as well as its willpower. Eventually, its energy won out as its willpower gave out. A dozen more salvo of attacks saw it crack and finally, shattered.

Ku'rahk sensed the rage and helplessness of the World Spirit. It wanted to act, but its willpower, being one of the major driving forces of its existence, was already stretched thin and completely exhausted, so it could only watch as the Aveanii rained down cataclysmic fire on the planet, cracking and sinking the entirety of its land masses into the oceans and leaving casualties in the billions.

The non-combatants were the first to perish, their fragile metabolism unable to handle the incomprehensible auras generated from the battle.

The awakened, although managing to last longer due to the passive protection of the World Spirit as well as the now hundreds of Spirit lords who actively protected them, didn't survive the direct assault of the Spirit Kings. The entire atmosphere warped and turned a bloody crimson as the sheer savagery of the event that had just taken place proved too much for the planet to handle. Rage consumed it but helplessness restrained it.

Eventually, they acquired what they came for.

A fragment.

And left the planet a floating, smoking, and warped rock.

GLORY TO THE AVEANII!