Ash’s brain felt like it was exploding in his skull.
This is just a taste of the power I can grant you, child. The shadow-man spoke to him. It may take you time to get used to this level of authority, but it will be ample enough to crush your brother.
Every thought that travelled through Ash’s mind was overlaid with a hazy migraine. He couldn’t identify what thoughts were his own, what thoughts were that of the shadow-man, and what were being implanted inside of him.
Regardless, at that moment, he had but one goal in mind.
The first attack on Territory Two had merely been to experiment with his new powers.
Now? It was time for the real bloodbath to begin.
“Final Divine Right,” Ash muttered beneath his breath. “Astral Influence.”
Under his green hood, a symbol blazed on his forehead. He couldn’t see it himself, but through the dark of night, the symbol of a star was projected ahead of him.
Visions of deep space flooded through his mind. Distant galaxies, star systems that no mortal man should have been privy to. He was looking out too generally, exhausting his finite strength. He needed depth, not broadness. Something closer, something he could drag down-
An asteroid belt, with a few stray pieces floating away from the rest of the colony, became the focus of his inner eye.
Bingo, one word of his own floated to the surface of his consciousness, alone above the sea of the shadow-man’s influence like flotsam.
When he opened his eyes again, Ash was seated upon an asteroid, immersed in an inky blur of ebony. He instinctively held his breath, only to find the need for oxygen a gone thing.
You won’t ever suffocate out here, boy. The shadow-man cackled. Unless you get on my nerves, that is.
Ash did his best to ignore the ebbing presence, but that was like trying to ignore gravity acting on you. Try all you want, it wouldn’t change a damn thing. Though up here, that analogy didn’t quite work.
Soon, they were entering the atmosphere, air resistance like a thousand invisible hands, trying to push Ash back and far, far away. The rock around him ignited, blazing with a brilliant luminance as he came rushing for Territory Two.
There it sat sadly below, like a broken toy. Great patches of the territory were completely incinerated, leaving in their wake long stretches of land that resembled burnt flesh more than they did natural orchards.
Ash would render the entire place like that, before he took his leave.
Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a group of people rushing out of a series of webbed buildings. The ground at their feet was riddled with fissures where the first of his meteorites had caused some initial damage, after colliding elsewhere. There, amongst them, Koa and that repulsive wife of his stuck out like a sore thumb. But who were those people besides them? Looking closer, Ash recognised one of the men instantly.
Well, if it isn’t your lucky day. Taking out two birds with one oversized, intergalactic stone.
The shadow man wasn’t typically one for humour, or at least he hadn’t assessed as much, but even Ash took delight at this opportunity.
Remus had wrestled Koa away from Ash, setting him on the course that would eventually lead his brother to getting first dibs on the Pet-Keeper. Ash should have been the one to avenge his fallen cousin, not that pitiful, crippled man who stared up at him now.
Ash descended closer to the group, hoping dearly that his victims would carry those fear-stricken expressions to the grave.
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Violet shrieked.
Her father’s body was worn like a flesh suit, the invading light of Enos streaking out of his bulging mass, as if it was about to erupt in an explosion of blood and guts.
“Another lamb to the slaughter.” A different voice poured out of her father’s lips, one that certainly did not belong to him.
But it did belong to Enos.
Violet wasn’t sure if she should run. Even Enos wouldn’t be able to inhabit her father’s ruined body for long, the loose flesh and bone only minutes away from being a fully-fledged corpse. Left as dead tissue, where the flesh of an Unbounded and mortal man had once been binded.
If Enos used that fading form — sacrificed it as a bomb, letting his power just pour out and annihilate everything for miles and miles — Violet would be hard-pressed to do anything about it.
She had no strength left. Her Mark was dead of power, her body drained of all mortal strength, and the Infinity in her system mere flecks at best. Opening up a rift for a speedy escape was as possible in that moment as dragging the sun out of the sky.
“You draw from my power, Violet.”
His words were like claws scraping across tender skin.
“Teviel’s flesh, bonded with my mine . . . it disgust me to where the body of a god, but it does have its perks. When I granted Milap the ability to morph creatures into one, that was just a facet of my power, but it was my power nonetheless. Do you know what that means, Violet?”
She didn’t answer. She could sense reinforcements surging forth. She just had to hold out a little while longer. Any second now.
“I created you. You’re a curious prospect, I must admit. I never thought a servant of mine, one so overlooked as you, would one day ascend to such power. ”
“I’m not your servant.” Violet blurted hotly. “Die.”
“As you wish, Violet, as you wish . . .”
One of Nova’s arms erupted. Multicoloured blood gushed to the side, and Violet wanted to gag at the knowledge a body could hold so much liquid.
Enos looked up at the sky with her father's head. “Ah, more of my attention is needed elsewhere. I’ll let you live for now Violet, I’m sure you’ll come around and join the right side of this war eventually. With this, you’ll possess enough Infinity to push to Warlord equivalent. Do not disappoint me.”
One by one, Violet could do nothing but watch as each of her father’s limbs exploded. His body spasmed, and though Violet had imagined Nova’s demise a thousand times over, this sight was too ghastly for even her to find any satisfaction in it.
Eshika landed at her side, eyes wide in shock. Veida appeared too, flying over at a slower speed, a tail of flame propelling her travel. Likewise, a whirlpool of water up above informed Violet that Maris must have been watching from afar. The sensation of being spied on from dozens of invisible eyes revealed that Maris wasn’t the only God-Graced using Perpetual Sight to examine the scene.
All presence of Enos had ceased to be.
Nova’s body dispersed to its final Infinity, and as more power than Violet could fathom flooded into her own, the whole world watched on.
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Remus had mixed feelings about allowing the Feast Clansmen at his back to join the fight, but once they came rushing out of their beds, he didn’t really have a choice in the matter. If they couldn’t fight traditionally, he wasn’t sure what help they would serve besides acting as an easy target for their new arrival, but whatever the case, there was one thing Remus was certain about.
He wouldn’t let anyone place a finger on them.
“Koa, Octavia!” He shouted out, “I’m going to deal with that gigantic asteroid he’s riding down here. I trust you guys to deal with the rest.”
It wasn’t a question, or even a request. Excluding the meteorite the cloaked figure was seated upon, the rest of the asteroids were noticeably small in size. Nevertheless, they’d deal some real damage if they reached the earth in one whole. Yet Remus had seen Koa fight, and even before his new advancement, he’d possessed the skill to easily shatter these rocky projectiles. As for Octavia, Remus hadn’t witnessed what kind of power she had to her name, but one sense of the aura she emanated was enough to placate his concerns.
Utilising Eruptive Will, Remus implanted bundles of spinning power into the soles of his feet. At the same time, he set his Ichor aflame, circulating as much Ambition as possible to his lower body. Then, he jumped.
The ground cracked at his feet.
As fast as lightning, Remus was up in the air, Supreme Steel chains at the ready. Perhaps one second had elapsed. One second, and Remus had transformed himself into a killing machine.
Twirling mid-air, links of Remus’ chain connected with smaller pieces of rock all around. Too small to be asteroids themselves, they were nothing more than the spacial debris this newcomer had brought down with him. He collected it into one whole, and, with little more than a dangerous spark of power, set the entire thing aflame.
The unnatural beacon simmered marvellously.
Before even taking his second breath since bouncing off the ground, Remus spun again. Facing the opponent, arm veins bulging, he threw the colossal, flaming wreck he had amassed.
By the time Remus finally took that breath, his makeshift boulder and the cloaked figure had collided.
Rock blasted off in various directions. A sedimentary rain hailed down, and only by blasting through with a wall of turquoise flame, was Remus able to avoid it.
Remus rushed through that fire, and barely breaking a sweat, locked eyes with the darkness under that man’s hood. They were mere feet away. Remus knew it was asking for trouble, but he couldn’t help but grin. Even after a year, he wasn’t out of the game yet. I’ve still got it.
Reaching out so fast, he heard his joints snap, Remus was determined to crush the invader’s throat. He made the mistake of blinking.
The next thing Remus knew, the asteroid was vacant. His fist closed over empty air, and before he knew it, the man had vanished. Driving his feet deep into the meteor, Remus cursed. That bastard’s fast!
Power still thrumming through his body, he centralised that might into one fist. Eruptive Will made his next punch devastating.
The asteroid exploded into smithereens, as if Remus had struck with enough force to disintegrate the thing back into dust.
Flying in place, Remus took a second to admire his surroundings.
Wooden spears, deceptively strong, split any rock they came into contact with. All remains that fell to the earth were effectively caught by a net that covered the surrounding area. Koa and Octavia’s work. Remus didn’t see his other companions, however. He hoped that was a good sign, and not something to be concerned about.
No more asteroids filled the sky. A surge of triumph flooded through Remus, but the fight had only just started.
He turned, and wasn’t at all surprised to see a green cloak there, rustling in the maelstrom.
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“Who are you?”
No response.
Instead, as was to be expected, they resorted to violence. Things could never be so simple as a civil conversation.
Remus dodged, weaved, ducked, and did all but dance, as a wild flurry was sent his way. Such speed was impressive, and it took all of his attention to keep up. If his focus were to do so much as slip for one moment, he’d pay dearly.
Eying an opening, Remus blasted forward. His hands landed on the figure’s shoulders.
He was carrying him through the air, their surroundings becoming as blur as Remus accelerated. He became only more and more sure that their attacker was a man. Broad shoulders pressed through the material of his clothing, and if Remus looked closely, he could see under the hood. It was like darkness was intentionally obscuring their identity. The only clear detail was the shining beacon of a star, in the form of purple light, where their forehead would have been if Remus could have seen clearly.
A Divine Right. Remus could have been sick, but even for his enemies, projectile vomit in the face was a fate no soul deserved.
But after seeing that . . . he would have to kill him.
None of Enos' minions could be allowed to live. If that Unbounded had stirred a new generation only a Rebirth after the eradication of his last, and, to his knowledge, while Nova was still in the ring, trouble was brewing. Remus would just have to hunt them down all over again.
Maybe he was growing more jaded with age, but Remus felt no desire to let this play out any longer. He was done dragging out fights, done flinching at the thought of killing.
This was just another Unbounded, not a man, not even a person. Remus had no mercy left no offer.
Radiating the power of a supernova, Remus unleashed Eruptive Gold.
Only on a handful of occasions did Remus pull out this technique. It was awfully destructive — part of the reason why he hadn’t used it even once during his guarding service. Anything within a five metre range had no chance of surviving. All of his bodily Ambition, Infinity, power, will, and spite.
It brewed into one splendid cocktail of pure obliteration.
Remus put all of his darkest thoughts into that attack. The death of Andreas, Violet’s scathing rejection, Edmar humiliating him in front of the Labour District over and over again. Each and every one of those terrible memories all acted as the firewood for his ire.
He was screaming. His vocal cords hurt, the tissue of his throat feeling as if it were going to split and bleed. He held on tight onto the Right-Bearer, his hand shaking with rage. He heard the sound of a yelp, one that wasn’t his own, and felt their shoulder crunch under his hold.
Another dead Right-bearer. He wanted to bark with laughter. Weren’t Enos’ servants supposed to grow in power with each generation? Aside from those showy asteroids, this fiend was nothing worth writing home about. Maybe they had pushed Enos to his limit with the slaughtering of his last squad. Remus fell deeper into his delirium, his grin flat-out manic. With this, Enos would be on his last legs.
The Right-bearer should have been dead, until he wasn’t.
. . . what?
Remus’ ability faded. He cut it off earlier than intended, but the strangest sensation he’d felt in a year befell him.
Space. Deep space.
Gravity faded into nothingness, and Remus was floating adrift in a deep black sea, his homeworld nowhere in sight.
His eyes flickered around in a mad panic, before finally landing on that cloaked figure once more. Only, by now, their cloak was completely incinerated. Seeing what was underneath, Remus put a hand to his mouth.
Was that who he thought it was? No, no. No no no no.
“You’re in my domain now,” Ash smirked, cuts scattering his face, his pupils lost in a sea of white. “Try and take a breath for me.”
Remus immediately recalled why even the most powerful God-Graced had been yet to search for any other inhabitable planets. The problem of oxygen didn’t suggest any obvious solutions. And if the most powerful beings in this world couldn’t survive the harsh reality of space, what chance did he have?
He looked down towards Earth, frost already forming over his skin. Nobody told him space would be so cold. It was all his Foot-Soldier body could do, to defy the hundreds of ways this environment should be killing him.
“Unfortunately, my brother down there seems to be in a bit of a panic. I’ll have to put him out of his misery.”
Ash turned his back to Remus. Remus gritted his teeth, refusing death, and flung his chain over towards the Wild Clansman. In no universe would he allow himself to die like this. He might become the first human to die in space, at least that he knew of, and despite the fact there were far less interesting ways to die, the prospect terrified him to his core.
Only seconds had passed, and already it felt like the marrow in his bones had been frozen solid.
Koa’s brother simply moved out of the way, the movement so quick, it took all of Remus’ sharpened senses to keep up. Remus opened his mouth, spoke the words ‘shouldn’t you be an Emblazed? Maybe a Foot-Soldier?’ only to cut himself off at the following silence. There was no noise in space.
There shouldn’t have been. You shouldn’t have been able to breathe.
Yet Ash did both of those things like it was nothing.
“Farewell Remus.” A rift appeared next to Ash, who flew into it. “Pity you won’t be able to see what’s coming next. Big things . . .” Ash suddenly frowned, as if unsure of himself. “Big things are coming?”
He said it like it was a question, and, appearing utterly bemused, Ash looked around at the surrounding scene as if seeing it for the first time. Then, as quickly as it had happened, the man shook his head, before departing.
No matter how loud Remus screamed, he couldn’t hear himself as the rift closed.
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By the time the orb of golden light had vanished, Koa was at a loss for words.
“What just . . .?” Octavia asked at his side, the right words seeming to elude her too.
Whatever was going on, they had to keep alert. He was about to say as much to his wife, when a wave of warning screeched out at his side.
He dived out of the way, ever grateful for the bugs he kept on guard at all times. They acted as his sixth sense, indicating to Koa whenever trouble was afoot.
Such as times like these.
The enemy was moving so quickly, they were a blur even to his Foot-Soldier senses. Koa planted his feet into the ground, readied his battle stance, and sent his mobile eyes chasing after the opponent.
Despite how easy it would be to give in to the budding fear deep in his chest, for Remus’ sake, Koa had to keep calm. Remus had saved him on multiple occasions before. Now that he finally had some real strength to his name, it was time to repay the favour.
If it came to it, he’d beat Remus' location out of this man.
He punched the air before him, great tendrils of moss, rock, and oak forming giant arms. They dug out of the ground, and mimicking Koa’s movement, smashed towards where he had last espied the man to be.
They striked into empty ground, achieving little more than upsetting a colony of ants, and sending a dust storm whirling around them.
All he had done was blind himself.
Back-to-back with his wife, Koa had no choice but to double-down. All his flying eyes could see was murky dust. Holding his hands up, another set of giant limbs sprouted somewhere in the storm.
Koa committed himself to wacking away.
“I hope you know what you’re doing.” He heard his wife say, over the pandemonium.
“Watch a master at work.”
Only the sound of his slamming fists, reminiscent of bombs imploding, could be overhead. Koa poured all of the Infinity he had on hand through his Delicate Touch Mould, a conduit of power all pouring into his summoned fists.
The place was already razed to the ground after those meteorites. As long as his companions were safe, Koa held no qualms with unleashing destruction. A minute had passed, and his ginger friend was still yet to return.
Koa couldn’t imagine Remus dying so suddenly. The situations that man had escaped were ludicrous. It simply wouldn’t compute for him to die at a random skirmish such as this.
Then again, Koa had felt the same way about Elmore and Donovan, before the two of them had been slaughtered right before his eyes.
Koa snapped back to attention, relenting his onslaught.
Dust passed over the scene.
Through that man-made fog, a single silhouette approached. Every step they took reverberated at what sounded like a hundred decibels. A single line of sweat trailed down Koa’s brow.
“This is going to annoy you,” if their footsteps had been loud, their words were thunderous.
The voice was familiar. Familiar enough to make Koa shift uncomfortably. It couldn’t be-
“Is that-”
The dust settled, leaving only one man, one boy, plain in view.
Cuts scattered across Ash’s face, and a purple star shone brightly on his forehead. The sight was as bizarre as anything, and Koa’s guts seemed to be feuding amongst themselves.
His pupils were nowhere to be seen. Just two voids of white where their families’ dark blue would have been.
Ash smashed his fists together, cracks forming at his feet. “How about another bout? Brother dearest.”
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By no means was Remus going to let himself go out like this. He swallowed down the initial panic, forced his screaming organs, his raging adrenaline and cortisol, all into submission.
Eruptive Gold had drained so much of his power. He felt exposed. Like his very skin had been cleaved off, as if his soul was on show for anyone to view and scrutinise. It infuriated him.
Flaming Gold. He had to focus on that ability, to set his Ichor streaming with power.
Faster and faster, he sent his blood circulating. He could feel his heart beating, feel the organ working for dear life as he pushed his body to extremes. His veins bulged, liquid fire burning him from the inside out.
All ice immediately evaporated, steam billowing out into nothingness. His entire form was on fire, his lungs trembling with pain.
Oxygen. He had always taken it for granted. It was always water, food or shelter that he would be scrambling for. The irony was a pain of its own: for the thing that would ultimately take his life to be a lack of oxygen, went against everything he had ever feared.
All of the Ambition racing through his body reached a breaking point. It was a crescendo of power, but despite the fact his very bones were shaking with strength, tears formed in the crevices of Remus' eyes. They instantly froze, made into odd decorations that rested against the bridge of his nose.
He had so many regrets. He had never settled his feelings about Violet. He had led those Feast Clansmen to their deaths. He had only visited Koa when he needed something. Their connection was never a friendship in the truest sense of the world; he didn’t have the right to call it that. At its heart, their bond was a glorified business transaction.
Andreas. The ice crystals had already melted by now, the tears evaporating before they could even reach the end of his face.
I’m sorry grandad. He fought the urge to break down. With every passing second, space was dragging him further and further away from his earthly home. I’m sorry for rushing away from the clan. I’m sorry for defying my fate. I’m sorry for calling down Edmar’s wrath on the family. I’m-
Remus’ hands were scrunched into fists. He was trembling.
He had to get home. There was too much hanging on the thread of his life for that cord to be snipped now.
The strength left within him — it might not be enough. Remus would have one chance. His life had never seemed like such a fragile thing.
Screaming a noiseless scream, Remus became a living star. His entire body was set on fire, the turquoise light bright enough to be seen on entirely different planets. Lifeless, destroyed, ruined planets.
This Celestial War had never seemed so pointless.
Remus blasted forward. With every dreg of power left rattling through him, Remus made for the earth with speed rivalling any of Ash’s asteroids.
Just what had gotten into that boy? Koa’s brother or not, Remus was going to knock some sense into them, if it was the death of him.
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When Ash broke Koa’s forearm, Koa was only starting to come to terms with what exactly was going on.
Every attack Koa had thrown at his brother seemed flimsy. Like he was an Enkindled all over again, unable to ascend the Ranks no matter how hard he tried. The black sheep of the family.
And now, like a lamb to the slaughter, Ash was crushing his arm with power far exceeding that of a Foot-soldier.
Koa was kneeling in the middle of a sea of debris. The remains of giant oak weapons, walls of stone, the summonings of Koa’s Mark that had all been done away with one by one. Dismantled, destroyed, and left to rot at his feet.
Koa watched, as droplets of his blood stained them.
His arm, crookedly pointing at an angle wild enough to make him sick, was grasped by Ash in one strong grip. Meanwhile, the boy swatted at his brother with blows powerful enough to disfigure his face.
Lying unconscious at their side, not even Octavia’s webs had been a match for his brother.
But this wasn’t Ash. Not properly, anyway. The brother Koa had known had strayed onto the wrong path, yes, but this? This was something else altogether. Possession, coercion, some dark manipulation. Something was to explain this.
How on earth had his brother acquired a Divine Right?
“Enos is doing this to you.” It finally clicked.
Ash stopped, letting Koa breath rapidly at his feet. He couldn’t catch his breath, couldn’t get his wits about him. Gods above, none of this was making any sense . . .
For a second, the faintest second, Ash’s pupils seemed to return. Colour flickered into being, and in that moment, Koa had never seen a being so confused, so utterly bewildered, as his brother.
Then, before he could decide what to make of what he’d seen, Ash picked him up by the hair. “What did you say?”
Ash gurgled out blood before speaking. His lips were split, his eye was purpled and gummed shut. “Enos is controlling you Ash. This isn’t you. You’re annoying as all hell, true, but you’re not a monster. You’re my brother.”
Again, a second of hesitation.
And a second made all the difference.
Rushing down, like a god lending him a helping hand, a corona of fire encased a descending Remus.
There was a sound akin to a nuke going off, and, before that shining light could fade out of Koa’s eyes, he fell unconscious.