ã€ŠThrones &amp; Seals [PROGRESSION FANTASY]ã€‹


 Prologue

    Deep in the void, a place where the barrier between reality and unreality met, where time ceased to exist. A place where all but the most powerful of celestials fear to tread.

    A battle was taking place.

    CHAOS, SEAL of the dimension of chaos fought against its peers.

    It wondered how it came to this so fast. When it took upon itself the seal of chaos, It knew this moment would come, but it hadn''t foreseen it happening this soon.

    But seeing as THE WATCHER, THRONE of the aspect of DIVINATION directed the ambush, it now knew who had blindsided it.

    Hundreds of lesser celestials had been brought on this attack. They shouldn''t have been able to exist this deep in the unreal, but seeing the attendance of most of the Thrones and Seals, it now knew how they were able to exist.

    While weathering attacks strong enough to wipe out whole universes, it enacted its quickly-made contingency plan.

    Hundreds of compressed chaos energy were sent into the midst of its attackers, sundering dozens of the lesser celestials. Good, but that hadn''t been its goal. With the temporary blindness of THE WATCHER and the few other grand Celestials in attendance, they didn''t sense the thing that pierced the veil between void and space.

    With its safety measures taken care of, it was time to make sure the others didn''t take notice of what had just happened.

    It hadn''t had time since its ascension to the seal of chaos to truly master it, a never-before-seen feat, so it extended its authority into the two closest aspects connected to chaos.

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    It split its consciousness into two, which instantly alerted the others into the change the moment the void rippled.

    With a command and intent, OBLIVION reigned, and dozens of lesser celestials were destroyed, their authorities shattered, while their shards scattered out to be wielded by any of the mortals with enough will and understanding.

    It had little time before it would be overwhelmed, so it enacted its last plan for a while. Once again it sent chaos into the fray, temporarily blinding the others, including THE WATCHER. Satisfied, it moved.

    With the authority of CREATION, it created a temporary dimension around THE WATCHER,  sealing them both in. It would be destroyed eventually, but by that time its plan would have succeeded. It had little margin for error.

    It sent energy from the dimension of chaos against THE WATCHER, which was avoided. That was expected as THE WATCHER didn''t see the compressed energy from the realm of oblivion until it was upon it, but by that time there was nothing that could be done.

    OBLIVION ripped through THE WATCHER, and the eyes of the PAST, PRESENT and FUTURE was sundered. That was quicker than it had planned for, but it had little time for contemplation as DESTRUCTION ripped through the temporary dimension.

    "WHAT DID YOU THINK TO ACCOMPLISH BY SUNDERING DIVINATION? IT WAS THE WEAKEST OF US ALL," DESTRUCTION questioned, its voice manifesting into the void like the sound of apocalyptic thunder.

    CHAOS didn''t bother to answer as it created shield constructs imbued with the now vacant authorities of the shield and perseverance aspects. It didn''t matter, DESTRUCTION ripped them apart.

    The battle was not long in ending, but before chaos was laid dormant, it separated another shard of its consciousness, enough that it wouldn''t have been noticed without the aid of  DIVINATION.

    Enough of its consciousness to wait, watch and plan.

 Chapter 1 - Tashin

    Damien stood atop a sand hill overlooking the desert city of Tashin. From his distance, about two miles from the city gate, he was still able to watch as people bustled in and out through the massive gates. At the back of his mind, he felt the pull on his mind, the same one that had been urging him for weeks now, settle down as the city came into sight.

    He sighed. Hopefully, he''d find what had drawn him here.

    Surprisingly, the city was the only thing around for miles, surrounded by the endless sands of the scorching desert for as far as his eyes could see, below which was home to an entire civilization of creepers and crawlies slithering about, hidden underground or camouflaged so tightly that one couldn''t tell with a passing glance.

    Making his way down the hill towards the city''s entrance, Damien wondered why anyone would knowingly build a city in the middle of a vast desert, with no source of water as far as he was aware, but he''d already found knowledge that the city was led by a cult of some being, so that shouldn''t have surprised him. They weren''t the first cult to build their city in absurd places.

    Reaching the city''s entrance, he noted that they had been constructed from essence-infused stone, judging by the soft hum of magical energy he could sense. More eye-catching, or sense-catching, was the feeling of the stability and perseverance concepts imbued into the walls, which no doubt increased its defenses magnitudes higher while also increasing its lifespan.

    At the gate, two guards stood at both sides of the entrance, wearing plain armor of similar earthen materials from the wall, including the infusion of the stability and perseverance concepts, though at a lesser volume. One was a bipedal sand drake, with reptilian features more resembling that of a common lizard than their more fiercer cousins.

    The other was a human male with black hair matted with sweat, probably from all the standing around under the hot sun, and also in an armor that covered more than ninety percent of his body. Both of them weren''t putting on any helmets, but Damien still detected the shielding a hair''s breadth around their bodies, wrapping all around them like an eggshell. A very flexible eggshell.

    "Halt," the drake called out with a thick, raspy voice. "State your name and your reason for visiting Tashin."

    Damien slowed down and, with a nod, acquiesced to the demand. "My name is Damien Elason and I''m here just for sightseeing."

    Normally, Damien wouldn''t have been so eager to give out his name, and despite him wanting to stay anonymous in this city, he also knew that no one here knew of him, so there was practically zero chance of somebody ratting him out.

    Waiting for the reply of the guard who looked to be studying Damien, probably for any sign of untruth, he decided to look around.

    A peek through the gate increased his estimation of the place up a notch, given what he''d just detected: The city was magically grown.

    Damien frowned. That was surprising. Magically grown cities were the kind of extravagance every Monarch wanted but could not all afford. It took real masters in their focuses to magically raise cities from nothing but the materials on hand. From what Damien knew, they were created from the combination of magical exotic materials and the workings of large energy formations, which made them extremely expensive to build. The only people with the wealth to raise one were the clergy of the various cults, a few kingdoms, and empires with roots dating back to millennials. This made this all surprising because this city was largely unknown, with its political influence ending at the borders of its gate. Nevertheless, he admired it, and though it was a different theme from the ones he was used to, he found it impressive, nonetheless.

    Finally, the guard spoke up, this time with a change of attitude. "You don''t look like someone with enough money to pay for his feedings, let alone for lodgings. I don''t want some lowlife coming into my city to steal," He said with a deprecating gaze at Damien, like he was filth who shouldn''t be addressing him at all.

    Damien raised an eyebrow with a tight smile. "Oh, and what would someone with enough money look like?" He replied, holding himself from physically reacting to the Drake''s blatant insult. It wasn''t surprising though, seeing as this wasn''t the first city guard that had reacted this way to visitors they assumed were there for nefarious purposes.

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    Looking at the guard, it wasn''t hard to tell his type: insecure and hungry for power. Their types liked to assert dominance the moment they saw prey.

    They always learned eventually.

    "Do as ordered, boy, or you''ll be seeing the inside of a cell before nightfall. You will show me the funds you intend to spend in the city or you''ll be dragged to the cells for a thorough... Investigation," he smirked predatorily, revealing long, sharp canines. "Do you know what we do to thieves in the city? An experience might not be far from you if you don''t show me some coins now!"

    With a grimace, Damien noted that they were beginning to draw attention, and given the other guard''s unconcerned expression, Damien summed up that he wasn''t going to intervene.

    With a regretful sigh, Damien brought out a small pouch, opening it wide enough for the guard to see the ten gold coins glinting from within.

    A sharp light crossed the drake''s eyes before a neutral expression immediately masked it. "You can go. Make trouble in the city and you might still get to see the inside of a cell."

    Damien nodded before walking past and through the gate. He could still feel the guard''s eyes on him.

    Entering the city, he finally got to know why the city was still standing despite being in the middle of a continent wrecked with massive, destructive, wandering desert storms.

    It was an Essence Territory.

    It seemed the desert city of Tashin had been blessed by a higher realm being with the protection of an Essence territory. Damien had already begun wondering where they''d acquired the energy used in the raising of their city.

    His skin tingled and his energy sense¡ªconstrained as it was¡ª ignited as he stepped into the territory. Damien breathed in, feeling energy suffusing the air. The city''s infrastructures closest to him were imbued with magic and also blessed with stability and perseverance concepts, and even the guards he could already see roaming around benefited as well through their armor. He had no doubt that all the infrastructures in the city were already imbued.

    Damien didn''t know much, but the little he''d been told had granted him the knowledge that territory creation was one of the perks of higher realm entities. It protected the territory and all those who were in its area of influence from outside harm, and even energy recovery was significantly boosted inside of it.

    Damien nodded admiringly at the massive, transparent, energy dome covering the entire city, rising from one end to the other. He could scarcely imagine the massive amount of energy required to constantly maintain it.

    He''d stepped into territories before, and it was mostly considered foolish to fight a wielder in their territory. Their strengths were doubled whenever they fought inside the influence of such territories or nearby, which made it extremely hard to defeat them, though not impossible.

    Damien made his way down the sidewalks of a wide central road leading deeper into the city, watching as different buildings came into view, with the large square-like shapes common in almost every city he''d ever visited dominating the city''s infrastructures.

    The city''s residents were of a different sort. Humans were the most dominant race on the planet, which raised a¡ª in Damien''s opinion¡ªmisplaced sense of superiority towards other races, but this city showcased its acceptance of the different races. From desert drakes to desert snakes, all creatures of desert origin who had been lucky enough to achieve sapience and human forms were welcomed.

    As he walked, his nose captured the smells of some of the goods being peddled. Children ran around playing, while their parents called out to them not to go too far. Different commodities were being sold on the streets as he passed, with vendors fighting for his attention towards their goods.

    "Handsome sir, come buy these beautiful dresses for your lady friend."

    "Try out my latest batch of sizzling Drake''s meat! Fresh out of the frying pan!"

    "Can you smell my spices? I''m sure your woman would like some. It would put some aroma in your life."

    "Sweetbread! Come try some, straight out of the oven. After you taste it, all worries will go away."

    And then there were the strange ones.

    "Hi, handsome. Come try me, your lady friend doesn''t have to know."

    "I''ll do you one better. Instead of just two hours, we could spend all night. Wouldn''t you like that?"

    "Go find another, he''s already taken!"

    "He hasn''t said yes to you, so he''s fair game!"

    "Don''t test me, you slut!"

    "Or what?!"

    That was how things devolved into a brawl on the streets, with scratching and screaming. People immediately began to gather ¡ª especially the men ¡ª cheering for one person and switching to the other when that one seemed to be losing. Bets were soon being passed around. The guards saw this but chose not to interfere, leaving the women to settle their dispute themselves, but that did stop them from giving him the stink eye like it was specifically his fault.

    Promising himself to be more careful, he continued down the street, coming upon an inn with the drawing of a singing lady and the name ''Singing Lass'' written under it.

    The inn was a two-story establishment, probably the top being used for lodging. It was painted in a drab brown color like the rest of the city.

    Damien couldn''t hear any noise inside, meaning the inn''s frequent patrons weren''t finished with their daily jobs.

    Looking around the street once more, Damien walked inside.

 Chapter 2 - What Are You?

    Entering the inn, it wasn''t an overly large establishment, Damien noted. He admired the glossy smooth floor, so smooth one would have thought it was made of glass. He looked around, taking in the low-backed chairs arranged around the equally low round tables in a five-to-one setting. There were enough chairs to seat almost a hundred people without being overcrowded.

    A dozen feet to his left, the floor was raised into a meter-tall stage. Damien noted, with eyebrows raised, the dozens of runes etched into the stage floor and ceiling. And while his knowledge of runes was basically nonexistent, he was still able to identify ones meant to amplify sound and project light.

    A few patrons were in attendance, sipping into their half-finished drinks while their conversations flowed. He reckoned they were probably workers on their breaks. More eye-catching, though, was the group of soldiers sitting close to the corner at his left, already more than halfway through their drinks. Damien could have chosen to listen in on their conversations, but he wasn''t really interested.

    The counter, a long piece of thing made up of common wood and reinforced with stability and a few runes Damien couldn''t identify. A man who looked to be in his mid-twenties stood behind it, his hands working through a few cups with a surprisingly clean napkin.

    Approaching the counter. Damien took a seat and nodded at the barman in greeting.

    "Good day, haven''t seen your face before," The barman returned the greeting while he picked up another cup to clean.

    "My first time in the city," Damien replied while he glanced around the room.

    "You come for the pilgrimage?"

    "No," Damien shook his head. "Just sightseeing. Why do you ask?"

    "Been having them pilgrims coming in for weeks now, wanting to witness the chosen make his announcement,"

    "Announcement?"

    "There''s been skirmishes between the city guards and warlord Tarim''s sand vipers. Tarim challenged chosen Ymal to a duel set two days from now." The man answered.

    "......," Damien raised an eyebrow.

    Seeing the lack of recognition, the barman''s eyes narrowed at Damien, and then like something finally snapped, he grunted and then began nodding.

    "Ahh, I see now. You aren''t the occasional desert wanderer with aspirations to one day see Tashin. Not from this continent, I presume?

    Not seeing any reason to lie, Damien nodded.

    "That explains it," the man nodded. "Tarim''s a warlord from far away. He came around one day and decided he wanted ownership of the area; of course, the chosen wasn''t gonna allow that, so the warlord sent his goons to begin raiding caravans coming in and out of the city, trying to crash the city''s economy. It''s been going on for weeks now. The Chosen, in retaliation, sent a few of the cult''s executioners. They destroyed one of Tarim''s camps, which led, again, to another retaliation from the warlord, this time with his hands doing the deed. He threw the heads of a patrol squad at the city gates, with a challenge for the chosen, in front of heavy traffic at the gate, says to fight him warrior to warrior," the man finished.

    "Seems this place is going to be getting interesting soon," Damien commented with a nod.

    "The Chosen''s supposed to announce his reply in two days."

    Out of curiosity, Damien asked. "Aren''t you worried about your chosen? That he might lose."

    "Ymal''s chosen for a reason. He became a lord realm wielder so young at age thirty-four. Rumour''s been circulating that he''s closing in on monarch tier soon," The barman answered with obvious pride.

    Damien just nodded. Becoming a lord at age thirty-four was impressive, but he''d seen young scions doing that in their twenties, so maybe not that impressive.

    "Oh, I''m sorry," The barman''s eyes suddenly widened with an embarrassed expression. "I forgot to take your order."

    "No offense taken," Damien waved it off. "What do you have?"

    The man brought out three bottles.

    "Stock''s been low these hard times because of the raids, so there''s not much. We have the scal wine, brown sand scorpion venom mixed with white wine. Hits like a cart at full speed," He pointed to one bottle on the leftmost side that was filled with brown liquid.

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    He then pointed to another bottle in the middle, this one with a purple liquid inside a bottle that was no different from the container used by alchemist to store their potions.

    "We also have rustleaf wine. One gulp and you''re knocked out cold. I''d advise you to take it watered down."

    He finally pointed to the last bottle. This one looked medium-sized and was filled with some sort of green liquid.

    "Heaven''s touch. Once taken, you''re sure to feel the touch of the heavens on you," Damien smiled at the terrible naming sense, and then what he said next raised both of Damien''s eyebrows. "People have gotten enlightenment just from drinking this."

    Damien found that highly doubtful.

    Smiling, Damien raised his hands to stall the man. "As much as I like the crafty sales pitch, I''m not looking for the drinks you sell to your everyday customers. Give me the really hot stuff."

    The barman looked at him for a moment before nodding, and then he bent down. When he came back up, he was holding a single bottle, and this one was filled with black liquid. "Dark wine. Strong stuff. Not for people under the adept stage," he said with an air of danger.

    With a weary sigh, Damien smiled. "I''ve seen this done a dozen times. A customer walks in and asks for something extra special, and then you give them something not too heavy, but heavy enough to satisfy them." He locked eyes with the man. "Try again."

    "People be asking for heavy things their body can''t take," the man shrugged. "Heard stories of young merchant scions dying because they wanted to take some of the good stuff." And without the fanfare that came with the unveiling of the previous bottles, he brought forward another bottle from the shelf behind him. Within it was a liquid that looked almost like water, with only a closer look telling the contrary.

    "Won''t sell this to you without evidence that you can handle it. I can''t have the city shutting down the establishment just because you couldn''t handle a small sip," he stared back at Damien. "One sip is all you''ll get, and if you can''t handle that, you take the black wine. Agreed?"

    Damien didn''t want to argue, so he just agreed.

    The man poured the alcohol into a tiny shotglass and then handed it over to Damien.

    Collecting it, Damien took the glass and without flourish, he downed the whole thing in one full gulp. Done, he looked back at the barman.

    "If I didn''t know better, I''d think you were trying to play me."

    The barman looked surprised. "Not gonna lie, I was expecting a reaction, but we''re gonna see if you can handle another shot," He poured another and handed it to Damien.

    After finishing, Damien looked at the barman, who now had a complete sheet-white face. "Desert lord protect us," the man whispered in terror.

    "What?" Damien frowned.

    "You just drank a glass and still look as if you simply took a cup of water," the man mumbled, shock slowly turning to fear.

    "It wasn''t that heavy," Damien shrugged. He didn''t understand why the man was so terrified. He didn''t collapse, now did he?

    "Even the chosen couldn''t drink that much without reacting," the man choked, and then dread finally sank in as Damien realized his error.

    "Hey, it''s not so bad," he said in an attempt to calm the man, an attempt which failed badly.

    "What are you?!"

    With his senses, Damien already knew the few patrons within were now looking over, even the group of soldiers having their drinks on the other side of the establishment.

    At that time, Damien knew his anonymity was now on a ticking clock. He decided it was time to leave.

    "I''ll find my way out," He mumbled, and then stood up, fast-tracking his way out of the bar, leaving the barman standing there, looking like someone had just murdered his mother in front of him.

    ***

    Salur wouldn''t count himself as an overly observant person, but one would have to be blind not to spot strange when strange stared them in the eye.

    Ever since the foreign young man stepped into the inn, Salur could tell something was off about him. It wasn''t hard to figure out that he wasn''t from the city, nor around the nearby environs, either.

    Shoulder-length grey hair on a face that looked still in its early twenties, and when he looked at their table, Salur also noted the eerily matching grey eyes.

    The man was trying to play off as ordinary, but any soldier worth his weapon could spot the way he carried himself. Confidence in the way he walked combined with a height that was rare in a city like this. He was wearing baggy desert clothes, but Salur could practically see through it into the powerful build hidden within.

    He watched the man as he approached the bar and struck up a conversation with the barman.

    With the conversations going on at his table, he couldn''t hear what both of them were talking about from across the room, and attempting to enhance his hearing would have instantly drawn attention from his companions on the table. He didn''t want that yet.

    "Salur," He turned at the call of his name, looking at Kars beside him. " I noticed you''ve been distracted by the new arrival." Kars nodded at the strange man "What''s wrong?"

    Salur didn''t want to raise a false alarm, so he simply shrugged."I like the hair."

    Kars could tell he was lying, but he didn''t pry any further. Salur decided then to leave the strange man alone for now and concentrate on his table.

    Taking a drink, he tuned in to his companions.

    "...was at the gate when it happened; He just walked up and threw the heads at our feet. I nearly wet myself thinking we at the gate were gonna be next. I''ve never come close to death like that before."

    "The chosen''s gonna take care of him soon."

    "I hope so, or it''s our heads that might be rolling next."

    "Your newest wife would not like that, as she might have to start looking for a new money maker again."

    They all laughed at that.

    Suddenly, a shout, practically a wail, jolted them. "What are you?!"

    Looking over at the side, he spotted the barman looking at the strange man with mad terror in his eyes. Salur''s hands tightened as the man subtly turned his head, but he did nothing.

    With a mumbled word at the barman that Salur didn''t hear, the stranger stood up and then left.

    "What was all that about?" One of the soldiers at his table asked.

    "No idea."

    The others went back to their conversations, leaving Salur, whose attention was looking between the inn''s entrance and the barman.

    While Kars looked between Salur and the inn''s entrance.

 Chapter 3 - Questions

    Damien cursed inwardly the moment he stepped out of the bar. His anonymity was something he''d very much wanted to keep quiet on this trip, and now he''d just blown it all on a cup of alcohol. Sighing, he looked around and then traced a new path towards the arena-like building in the distance.

    Being large enough that it was very much visible even miles away from the city, it didn''t take much stress for Damien to make his way towards the city temple.

    The magnificent structure was shaped in the form of a massive arena with its roof shrouded in a large dome of shining gold. Five towering spires rose from the side of the building, their pointy caps jutting into the sky, making the entire thing reminiscent of a crown. Damien wondered how many members the cult fielded for it to need a building of such greatness, or it might simply be that they just wanted to flaunt their wealth in a show of false power.

    Approaching the streets surrounding the giant temple, Damien soon took note of the increase in military presence in the area. Civilian movements were not hindered, except for the random stop and search conducted on some people¡ª outsiders, probably. Their eyes were another thing, scrutinizing everyone in equal measure as they approached the temple.

    The presence of a greater number of pilgrims in the area didn''t escape Damien''s attention. Usually, a city this secluded saw few visits from pilgrims due to their distance from the rest of civilization.

    Hmm. Damien massaged his beardless chin thoughtfully. This chosen stuff was beginning to interest him.

    Damien looked around, his interest suddenly piqued by the presence of somebody in the crowd when he noticed one of the soldiers nearby jerked upright. He wouldn''t have paid any active attention to it, except that the man immediately glanced his way with a wary look before he jerked his face elsewhere. The other guards were more subtle, but Damien still caught the heightened energy that suddenly consumed them alongside the wary and deep but subtle scrutiny directed his way.

    Damien grimaced but, otherwise, didn''t act on it. Instead, he slowly made his way towards his own person of interest.

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    "Never knew that Solaria had enough interest in a small insignificant city to send one of their agents," Damien said as he came to stand beside the man.

    The man must have been really trained, given the little reaction he showed at the accusation. Instead, he simply glanced upwards at the taller Damien. "The interest of the Empire is none of your business."

    Damien met the man''s eyes, inwardly smiling at the shock he detected within.

    Brown hair paired with the sort of black eyes that was very common in a city like this. A face that would be easily overlooked in a large crowd like this because of how much resemblance it had to the natives of this city. The man was putting on light brown desert garments that matched his hair color, with a posture formulated to relate with the other pilgrims in the area.

    Since the appearance was made to look unassuming, Damien took it to mean the Empire was still on a passive stance concerning the city. For now.

    Despite it all, Damien still saw through the subterfuge to the true gaze of the spy. The way his gaze seemed to burn with distaste at the city and the people moving around. Damien wasn''t surprised; people from the empire considered themselves better than everyone else.

    The Solarian made a show of looking around, despite being capable of doing it without moving a muscle. "I see that you''ve gathered quite a bit of attention at the moment," He said with an inquisitive look at Damien. "You don''t look like you''re from around here, given your appearance. And since you''re so familiar with the Empire to identify, at a glance, who I am, you must either hail from the Empire or somewhere around our continent," He summarized.

    "Who do you have to be to draw this kind of wariness from the guards?" He asked.

    Damien smiled. "Not your business."

    Surprisingly, the man didn''t push. Instead, he nodded. "I''ll get my answer one way or another. You''re too much of an unknown to let roam about freely; the only difference in how much pain you feel is how unwilling you try to be. I have questions to ask and they''re going to get answered one way or another."

    The man gave a sharp nod. "Now, before your contagious attention falls on me too, I think I will go find somewhere else to be," he said just as he began walking away.

    The man hadn''t gone a few steps forward when he stopped, turned halfway back, and then said in a very calm tone. "Don''t bother running, I''ll find you anywhere you hide," and then he continued.

    Damien decided then and there to call it in for the day. It seemed like the universe didn''t want him conversing anymore for the day.

    With a sigh, he moved on to go find a place for the night.

 Chapter 4 - Now, Where Should We Begin?

    Ten years ago.

    Solarian northern jungle.

    Damien woke, unaware of where he was nor how he came to be there. He didn''t even know where he came from, his only memories beginning from these last few seconds.

    He stood up, taking stock of himself. He was naked and standing in the middle of a dense gathering of leaves with tall trees stretching into the sky all around him.

    Despite his confusion¡ªwhich still wracked him¡ªDamien decided then that standing still and doing nothing wasn''t going to accomplish anything. He didn''t know what brought about the thought, and since his mind was blanked on what to do, he decided to heed the strange warning.

    Lacking any knowledge whatsoever of his surroundings, Damien simply picked a direction and, on instinct, followed it. For the first few minutes, Damien''s mind was a whirl of fear and terror at the strange sounds echoing around him, and since their source of origin was unknown, his fear only grew. Slowly, as he walked, knowledge began pouring into his mind: knowledge of the type of trees he passed through, the sounds of birds he was listening to, and the deep terror-inducing growls of a few creatures he never wanted to meet.

    Damien looked around, trying to somehow pinpoint the direction of where the strange input of knowledge was coming from, but all he got was the usual screeches and growling.

    Resigned, with a feeling creeping in that all would be well, Damien walked on. It wasn''t until a few minutes later that he came upon the tree edges and, in the distance, the calm flowing body of a stream.

    Absentmindedly, he felt the loud growl of his stomach, but he paid no heed to it. Instead, his eyes were pinned on the stream flowing a few feet from him. Damien knew he hadn''t seen a stream before nor any body of water, but he just knew what it was, like the knowledge had just been inserted into his mind.

    Looking around to see if he was the only occupant nearby and confirming that he was, Damien slowly walked up to the stream. Getting to it, he looked down and was startled when he came face to face with another person.

    Damien jumped back, eyes widening in fear. He looked around, finding no one else there with him. Honestly, he would have preferred to simply leave and stay away from the strange person in the river, but the little twinge in his stomach and his parched throat forced him forward.

    Again, but this time with caution, Damien slowly crept back up towards the stream. When he got to his previous location. Instead of simply looking down like he''d done before, he stretched forth his right hand, his eyes studying the river for any reaction, and indeed, that was what he got.

    With another squeak, Damien drew back his hand, watching as the strange water person did the same. He frowned, then stretched forth his hands again. The strange thing mimicked him.

    Confused, but with an idea brewing, he stepped back again, out of view of the stream. Slowly, Damien walked back forward, and this time instead of using one hand, he speedily threw both hands forward. The strange thing mimicked him.

    Seriously, how fast was this thing, he thought.

    Anger flaring, Damien marched down into the stream in an attempt to force out the strange thing. Again, he watched as the thing mimicked him. That was when he got an idea.

    This time, instead of simply retreating like he usually did, Damien bent down and studied the thing.

    It was devoid of hair from head to toe with a tiny scrawny body devoid of muscles, though not completely, judging by the shadow mass he could detect on the chest and arms.

    Curiously, Damien dipped a finger into the water, and when he was certain that the water thing wasn''t going to act beyond its usual mimicking, he cupped his hands, dipped it into the stream, and bent his face downwards, all on the instructions of an unknown source.

    Damien hadn''t taken in more than a few gulps when he froze and then raised his head, locking eyes with another that had decided to share the stream with him.

    The gazelle stood a few feet away, also with its head raised. Again, he didn''t know what a gazelle was and had never seen one before, but for some reason, the knowledge just instantly appeared in his mind.

    The gaze of the animal was one of such regal majesty, with beautiful Antlers adorning her head like a crown, with a combined color of silver and black that gave it its majestic stature, and her eyes. Her black, alluring eyes that could forever drown one in its black, mesmerizing pools.

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    CRACK!

    He didn''t notice it until it happened, and neither did the Gazelle. One moment, she was there, and the next, a huge black cat was crouched over her, cracking her neck with such jaw-breaking force that he could hear the sounds from where he stood. Without wasting time, it began feasting on the body with such speed that he knew it wouldn''t take time before it was finished.

    Snapping out of his reverie, Damien knew it was right about time he found somewhere else he became the next meal course on the animal''s plate.

    With utmost caution, Damien slowly stepped backward, putting his full effort into not making a sound. It seemed luck wasn''t on his side that day; the moment he moved, the cat''s head snapped up like the antenna of a snail, except this time it was pointed his way. Meeting the eyes of the cat, Damien''s heart skipped at the sheer hunger within.

    He turned around and ran.

    He ran with such speed he became sure the winds were aiding him. Still, he could hear the sounds of the cat''s purchase getting closer.

    He ran as fast as he could, his pounding footsteps kicking up dust and branches, with a matching rhythm to the beating of his heart, but the beast still seemed to be gaining purchase. Damien decided then that he''d rather fight than tire himself out and become an easy meal for the huge cat.

    Searching for something to use, there were plenty of broken-out woods around, but most of them were either too brittle to snap easily or too unwieldy. Running further, his frantic eyes razored in on one a few meters away that was perfect, and with the grit of his teeth, he acted.

    Timing his approach well, he slid down on the ground, grabbed a thick wood and spun around, and in one smooth move, he slammed it into the left side of the frighteningly close cat''s head with such force that he felt the vibration run up his arms. With a loud yowl, the cat slammed hard into a tree, sliding down to crash onto the ground.

    He was shocked by his sudden display of strength, but as with a sudden overwhelming strength, comes weakness.

    Feeling an unnatural loss of energy, the easily held wood now felt much heavier in his hands. He gripped the wood tighter, trying to tap into any well of strength like he''d just done, but then the cat decided to stand up, picking itself up with the grace of a true feline.

    However, this time, when it stood up, there was some amount of wariness to its posture. Though, it seemed that wasn''t enough for it to leave him alone.

    Noticing his apparent loss of strength and quickly taking advantage. The cat pounced.

    Damien just managed to place the wood in front of his neck before the cat struck.

    That quick action alone saved him from a quick death.

    The wood blocked it from biting down on his neck, but it still got in a hit before he quickly moved back to get some space. A burning pain ignited on his side. Holding back tears of pain as he looked down, Damien''s breath caught the huge, deep gash running down his entire side. He could even see his meaty insides.

    That was when it finally sank in that he was going to die here. His recently awakened life was slowly coming to an end, he knew it, and the cat knew it too, seeing as it was content to just keep circling him after that one hit to pin him in place while waiting for him to bleed out and die a slow death. It knew he wouldn''t last long.

    Damien was keeping all his attention on the cat, but it was still a blur when it struck.

    A spear whistled through the air just as the animal rose into the air. It caught the cat with such speed and power, carrying it to pin in place on a tree. The cat gave a loud mewling cry of pain alongside a few other cries of pain, before the whole thing finally ended.

    Through blurry gaze, Damien watched as a man stood up from his hiding place in a nearby dense patch of grass. The man said something, but the sound came out distantly alongside his vision which was beginning to darken. That was when the man took notice of his wounded sides which were already soaked in blood.

    Instantly, he rushed forward, quick enough to catch Damien before he crashed onto the ground, but not quick enough to stop the encroaching darkness just as it consumed Damien.

    *******

    PRESENT

    Damien opened his eyes to the sound of someone trying to get in through the window into his newly rented room.

    After leaving the temple the previous day, he''d gone to find an inn, locating one some ways off from the temple. This distance wasn''t too far from the temple, but also not too close, which was how he liked it.

    Sitting up, he waited for the intruder to fully get in. He already knew who it was.

    The Solarian got into the room a few seconds later, coming to stand at the foot of the bed. The room was dark but he knew the Solarian could see him, the same as how he could also see the other man.

    "You just keep getting me more intrigued about your origins. For you to have noticed my entrance, not many people can do that, and the ones who can wouldn''t be seen in a city like this."

    Damien just smiled, "You would be surprised. I was beginning to think you wouldn''t come, you Solarians like to take your time, after all," Damien said.

    The man raised an eyebrow, "You sound too unconcerned for someone about to get tortured," He said. Energy flashed and sounds from the outside were cut off. "I''ve blocked out the sounds leaving this room, so you can scream all you like. The length and volume in which you scream from now on will depend on how you answer my questions."

    Damien laughed, "You seem to be under the misconception that I''m trapped in here with you, but you''ve gotten it wrong, you, are trapped in here with me, and you''re going to happily answer all my questions without me even laying a single hand on you," He said, looking the other man in the eyes.

    What the spy must have seen in Damien''s eyes must have told him how deep of a shit he was in. His smug face slowly turned to horror before he quickly turned to jump through the window he came in from.

    Damien smiled before snapping his fingers, cutting off the room from reality itself, taking it into the Metaphysical.

    He stood up from the bed and moved to take a seat on a chair placed across from the bed.

    Looking at the now horrified face of the Solarian, he said, "Now, where should we begin."

 Chapter 5 - Pillars

    Master spy Salin had never felt so much terror in his life before. He had been a common soldier before his recruitment, a captain in the glorious liberating army of Solaria, but still a just common soldier.

    He wasn''t one of the pillars of the kingdom, the ones with the capability to wipe out armies within minutes. But despite their power, they stayed out of most battles, only appearing in response to any opposing pillars. Their might were the things of nightmares and legends, appearing and leaving cataclysmic devastation in their wake. And he wasn''t even a quarter up to their levels of power.

    On rare occasions, during major wars or shadow operations of deep importance carried out in foreign kingdoms, he''d been fortunate enough to bear witness to one or two appearances, and he was always left with awe and wonder at the powers displayed. Powers that turned night to day redirected rivers or wiped them out entirely, with a mountain or two leveled as an extra. Their battles seldom left little survivors, and the ones who survived were forever changed.

    Having been recruited into the ranks of one of Solaria''s hidden protectors, Salin had felt an undreamt dream come through. Outsiders referred to them as spies, but he liked the term ''Hidden protectors'' more; it made him look more prestigious any time he was on operations outside the empire. He liked the fear with which Solaria''s hidden protectors were spoken of.

    Recruited into the sanctum for stumbling and revealing a plot that had saved a pillar''s son from the hands of one of the Empire''s enemies, Salin had been sponsored by said pillar, and then given an opportunity to become a wielder, which was the most important requirements for joining the ranks of the hidden protectors.

    His rise through the ranks of the hidden protectors was nothing short of explosive, becoming a master in the arts of assassination and espionage within a decade. He had infiltrated dozens of enemy strongholds and put to permanent sleep people who had been unfortunate enough that their names had fallen into the protector''s book of the dead. They didn''t need to be powerful people, just people with knowledge of things they shouldn''t have.

    That was why he''d been wary at first when the strange man had approached him, boldly identifying Salin''s identity as an empire hidden protector.

    There were only a few people who could successfully see through his subterfuge with correct precision, and he knew that people like that couldn''t be seen in a city like this. There was nothing of interest here to warrant their attention, so his only conclusion was that the young man must have gotten access to information he shouldn''t have, so it stood to reason that Salin uncovered the identity of the man and who his backers were. After all, if one of the Empire''s enemies already had eyes on this city, secluded as it was, it wasn''t too far-fetched that others might also do the same. Salin had to inform his superiors.

    When he had told the stranger not to bother running, he had still expected him to flee. No one in their right mind would wait for a hidden protector to find them. So Salin was more than surprised when he found the man, easily at that.

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    Infiltrating the stranger''s room had been child''s play. Entering the room, Salin had been hit with a strong feeling of unease, which had then heightened when he''d simply met the man sitting on the bed with an unsurprised look, like Salin''s visit had been expected.

    Tamping down on his unease, Salin had moved forward with purpose, intending to carry out this mission with zeal. How painful his methods became depended on how stubborn the stranger was. They always tried to prove stubborn.

    And he loved the thrill of breaking them.

    He had silenced the room so as to project the fear of the unknown into the stranger''s mind. Those were the worst kinds to feel in situations like this.

    Everything had instantly turned around when the stranger simply laughed and replied. "You seem to be getting things the other way around." The man had smiled. "You''re going to happily answer all my questions without me having to lay a finger on you."

    Looking into the man''s eerie grey eyes instantly sent shivers down his spine, and without thinking about it, Salin ran. He hadn''t gotten more than two steps when he felt the sudden lightheadedness that always came with dimensional travel. The feeling hadn''t lasted long, but what he''d seen out through the window in the aftermath had finalized his fate.

    The stranger stood up from his bed and then crossed the room onto a chair across. "Now, where should we begin?"

    Salin had contemplated jumping through the window and taking his chances in the strange dimension the stranger had moved them to, even though he knew intuitively that he wouldn''t survive longer than a few seconds, at least it was better than what the strange man had in store for him.

    The man seemed to read his mind. "I wouldn''t do that if I were you," he''d shaken his head. "The realm of the metaphysical is filled with strange and terrible creatures that would send most beings into madness."

    He then smiled.

    "Your brain could melt, or every orifice in your body could start leaking blood, among other consequences, the best of which is a simple, instant death. And if you''re very unlucky, they might just bore a hole into your consciousness to make themselves comfortable there. Creatures of the unreal are very curious, and the human mind is a very interesting thing."

    Saying all that with such nonchalant and cheerfulness had only served to increase the terror brewing within Salin. What had he gotten himself into?

    The stranger gestured toward the bed. "Have a seat."

    Hearing this, the terror holding Salin quailed, terrified of what would happen should he disobey. He walked up to the bed and sat.

    "We haven''t properly introduced ourselves yet, I''ll start. My name is Damien. What of you?"

    Salin kept staring until the man raised an eyebrow.

    "I am called Salin, lord?" He didn''t know whether it was permitted to call the man by his birth name. He had always been told that when meeting powerful people, he should never call them by their birth names.

    "Just call me Damien; I do not care for those overly flashy titles your pillars seem to fight for. bad memories and all." His eyes flashed, and Salin''s heart froze.

    "Sorry about that. Now that we have all those formalities out of the way, I am going to ask some questions, and you are going to answer them truthfully to the best of your abilities. You do not want me to have to forcefully draw answers out of you," Something in the man''s tone changed, Salin didn''t know what it was, but any brewing plan to lie was forcefully tamped down and smothered.

    The man must have seen this in Salin''s expression because he then smiled and nodded.

    "Now, tell me why the empire has suddenly gotten interested in this desert city?"

 Chapter 6 - Calamity

    Diviner Sharin hurried up the stairs leading to the entrance of the Emperor''s castle. It spoke to the levels of the information she carried that she hadn''t even bothered dressing properly before she''d left her home.

    As the main Diviner to the Emperor, her job was to keep the Emperor on the paths that were more certain to bring glory and prosperity to the empire. She was also to keep him appraised of any upcoming cause for concerns or highly impactful events that were certain to involve both him and the empire. And now, it seemed she was to do her job and plot a safe path against the coming calamity.

    When Sharin had first divined the anomaly, an event that had been shrouded even from her sight, with only tiny crumbs to go by, she had instantly seen it as a distant possibility. After all, the more shrouded an event was, the more uncertain it was to happen. All she had to do was lead the Emperor through a path that was sure to skirt around the upcoming calamity, and all would be fine.

    Informing the Emperor of the coming event had only served to task her with an assignment which she would have carried out nonetheless. And unlike the cause, divining a solution for the empire had been surprisingly easy, and it seemed the heavens were smiling down on them when she, in a great deal of fortune, discovered both the cause and solution in the same location: a small no-name city in the faraway desert continent.

    The Emperor''s knife, head of the Empire''s hidden protectors, had swiftly proposed to dispatch a hidden protector to said city. Due to those at the top being heavily monitored by their enemies, it had been concluded that a hidden protector in the mid realms would be sent out. It was a sound idea. After all, a Spirit lord walking into a city with only a few lord realms wielders and no Monarch was sure to draw serious attention, attention even from outside the continent. Because of that, everyone in the know had been made to swear into a vow of secrecy, which each person''s vow linked to an egg that rested solely in Sharin''s keeping.

    Salin, a former Soldier who had been fortunate enough to have discovered a plot aimed at the heir of the Wesan Dukedom, a powerful house with a Spirit lord at their head. Due to his growing talents, coupled with his successful track record and the virtual obscurity of his reputation in comparison to some of his peers, the Emperor''s Knife had nominated him.

    It was said that the man had taken easily to the art of infiltration and assassination, rising quickly in a few short years from the bottom of the barrel to a master hidden protector.

    Like them, the man had been summoned before the emperor to be made known of his task. And just to be safe, he had also been made to swear an oath, though without the knowledge of what he had just done.

    Ever willing to serve, the man had happily accepted and sworn to see his assignment completed, thereby unknowingly swearing himself into secrecy.

    She didn''t blame him, what with all the promises he''d been showered with should his task be successfully completed. And while Sharin knew how wrong it was to leave him in the dark about what he had done, she also recognized the importance of such a decision.

    It had been two weeks since then with a steady supply of information from the master spy, which was when the problem began.

    The previous day, Sharin had been expecting the usual news about the city and the brewing battle about to happen. What she hadn''t been expecting was news that the spy''s cover had been blown, surprisingly enough by a random stranger. This had alarmed Sharin enough that she had swiftly sent word back that he uncovered the identity of said stranger, by any means necessary if they proved unwilling.

    It had been hours past the time he was supposed to report in, but they hadn''t heard a single word from him aside from the information that he had already tracked down the whereabouts of the stranger.

    On a hunch, Sharin had then tried to divine the future again, and what she saw sent shivers down her whole body.

    The distant but clear possibility was now a single wrong step away from becoming a close future.

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    She had quickly rushed out of her mansion, ignoring all propriety on how a female of higher status should move as she practically ran up the castle''s stairs like a demon on a rampage.

    The guards at the twin massive doors leading into the castle proper must have seen her expression because they didn''t bother with any of the bowing she so detested. She passed through the opened doors with barely an acknowledgment of their existence.

    Getting into the waiting hall, which was meant for visitors of little importance, Sharin didn''t tarry; she moved towards a corridor down her left, which led to an entrance only a few in the castle were allowed near. This was a location exclusive to only the Empire''s pillars, with the exception of Sharin.

    Grabbing a passing servant, Sharin ordered. "Go to Pillar Samon and inform him that he should come find me." She didn''t bother specifying where to meet, Samon would know.

    Turning left down another passage that led towards the Emperor''s quarters, this one had fewer servants moving about. Instead of heading straight for the Emperor''s room, as would have been expected, she turned down another passage, a dark passage with zero lighting whatsoever, but at her level of power, she didn''t need light to see in the dark.

    It took five different turns before she came upon a dead end with a single door at the end. Four guards protected the entrance, discounting those already hidden in secret openings along the walls. All were sworn to secrecy about the room and those who went in.

    Approaching the wooden door, she reached for the handle, channeling a strand of her unique energy. Despite the door''s simple design and make, Sharin knew the impossibility of someone below the Spirit lord realm destroying it. And even when faced with the might of a Spirit lord, she was certain in its sturdiness that it wouldn''t go down easily.

    With a click echoing through the quiet atmosphere, the door turned open. Entering, Sharin barely took notice of the bare walls with zero decorations. She understood why, though. This room was made for one thing and one thing only: emergency meetings that required swift Solutions.

    Mind elsewhere, Sharin moved towards the wall opposite the entrance. She wanted to be made aware should anyone enter... which didn''t take long as Samon entered just a few seconds behind her.

    "Why is the castle aflush with rumors of the head Diviner barging into the castle like a mad woman? You do know that a few of the servants have begun panicking, what with all the world-ending look you seem to be wearing..." his voice died down just as Sharin raised her eyes to meet his, a frown replacing it. "I''ll send a summon to the rest of the council."

    "Don''t bother, I do not have the time to wait for them to hurry over," a voice said just as the Emperor walked into the room, his aura billowing behind him with such power that Sharin had to take a deep, steadying breath. "Sharin, I assume you have terrible news?"

    Despite her disheveled look, both in mind and body, Sharin still bowed deeply, with a mirroring gesture from Samon. The Emperor wasn''t one to ignore formalities, even from close advisors.

    Emperor Solaris was a man of small stature, but despite that, he still carried himself like a giant before everyone else. No one dared contest him, seeing as power-wise, he was the most powerful being in the Empire, reaching the realm of Spirit lord at the stunning age of thirty-eight, which hailed him as a genius of the millennia. And while she knew how unbelievable the claim was, she wasn''t about to gainsay it.

    He was a handsome man, alright; even despite his small stature, the emperor looked like a being sculpted by a master artisan and not like a natural-born human being. There was not a single mark on his body, which wasn''t that surprising given his realm, and his face was chiseled into complete handsomeness.

    Unwilling to delay any longer, Sharin answered. "The egg has broken.

    With a sudden swiftness enough to startle even the utterly blind, the atmosphere turned tense. They all knew what that meant. Despite taking massive steps to protect their secret, it seemed it was all for naught.

    "Who was it?" Emperor Solaris asked.

    "The spy sent towards the desert city."

    "Tell me how it happened," Solaris demanded.

    With a deep breath, Sharin instantly went on to explain how the man had been made and how he had been supposed to report a few hours before, right after the stranger''s questioning which should have been done hours ago. She explained how she had chosen to divine the future and the result of it.

    She told of how she had come to after her divination and found the oath egg linked to the Master spy broken.

    When she was done, the emperor simply nodded.

    "This is still salvageable; both the cause and the solution are still in the city, correct?" At Sharin''s nod, the Emperor continued. "Send in two pillars to that city; I want it destroyed and the cause with it. Find the so-called solution and bring it to me."

    At the Emperor''s command, Sharin nodded, even though she didn''t fully agree with the decision. It never paid to argue with the Solarian ruler.

    "Inform me when it is done." And without any more words, the emperor turned around and left.

    Leaving both Sharin and Samon standing behind, both wondering about the future of the empire and what it entailed.

 Chapter 7 - Dimensional Travel

    The art of dimensional travel. A simple but at the same time, tricky thing to master.

    The realm of Spirit lord was for most, the stage where one becomes powerful enough to harness the concept of space with nothing but the will, regardless of affinity. Space travel was a tricky thing, Damien knew, and if the body and mental faculties of a being weren''t powerful enough, they risked succumbing to the pressures of space. To his knowledge, the only people Damien knew capable of accomplishing such feats at an earlier realm were actual Space affinity wielders, and even then it was only a small, talented fraction that could boast such accomplishment. And even then, the highest they could go was a short-distance teleportation.

    Space travel requires a will strong enough to open a tear in space, shift you through it, and keep it open long enough for you to come out safely on the other side, all in a span of instants. And that wasn''t discounting the aura pressure of the place all spatial travelers witnessed during transportation, which required a strong metaphysical weight to handle.

    A fault in both requirements could see one stuck in the place in-between worlds, or shredded to pieces if their luck was rotten enough.

    As your will grows, so do the capabilities and range one could cover until, at last, instant travel across the world becomes a possibility.

    Where Damien was now, he could say he was strong enough to not only carry himself but also another being with him. However, the strain incurred would mount depending on the metaphysical weight of the person he was shifting alongside, starting from something as little as a mild sense of discomfort to something a little bit serious like hours of splitting headaches, and then to severe consequences like brain death or actual death.

    At the stages where one begins to leave behind their mortality behind grants you the capability to move yourself across the entire world, with some severe strain. You could even move armies halfway across, though hardly anyone ever does it, as there was always a high chance of things fucking up. Only spirit lords had those capabilities. Though Damien was proud enough to say it would take far more than that for him to even feel any sense of discomfort.

    Shifting into the unreal was a skill bordering on that of the Spirit King''s capabilities to shift across worlds, given they''d already gotten permission from the World Spirit beforehand. No, what Damien did wasn''t as powerful as that, though it was powerful enough that he knew of no Spirit lord capable of such a feat. Passing through space was one thing, but staying there long enough to accomplish what you needed in your own time, or at least something close to it, was an entire task all on its own.

    Already, he was beginning to feel the pressure.

    Shifting the room and the other occupant had been the easy part, keeping them safe and whole was what was draining him fast. Thankfully, he hadn''t shifted them too far into the unreal, and couldn''t even if he tried. What he''d done was shift the room into the space it normally occupied, except this time it was in the unreal.

    Inwardly, Damien chuckled at the outrageousness of it all. He wouldn''t blame any Spirit lord if they didn''t believe him. He was still a mid-tier Spirit lord, after all. He should have no business in the unreal.

    The little research he''d done had let him in on the fact that Spirit Kings had it easy because of their domains, which allowed them to stay in the unreal indefinitely. But since Damien wasn''t a Spirit King, nor could he form a domain, he settled for actively reinforcing the room, soaking it with his mental energy, to the extent that it was now probably stronger than any fortress on the planet. It wasn''t going to last, but at the moment, it was strong enough to withstand the strange energies coursing through the metaphysical.

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    He knew how weakened he was going to be when he moved back into the physical, not weakened enough that he could be defeated by any of the soldiers in the city. But if anyone stronger came, he''d be in trouble.

    Already, he could sense the visitors waiting just outside the room''s entrance, unwilling to come in lest they forfeit their lives. But that was a problem for later.

    Looking at the spy sitting on the bed across from him, Damien asked the question that had been on his mind after the man had finished his explanation.

    "Do you know what form this calamity is going to take, or the whereabouts of the calamity stopper you speak of?"

    Still drenched in fear, the man shook his head.

    "I''ve searched the entire city and gone through the city''s records, there is no mention of anything that would point to any weapon powerful enough to threaten the empire, nor anything that could prevent it."

    Damien sighed. He had been hoping to learn something about this calamity, whatever it was. But it seemed his wish would not be granted.

    He didn''t hold any love for the empire  ¡ªthere was too much bad blood between them for that¡ª so anything calamitous that was heading towards them could head there with his full blessings. But what truly interested him was this calamity stopper, as it was called.

    To be regarded as a calamity, something needed to be of at least Spirit lord make, and anything capable of stopping that had to be at least more powerful. Anything lesser would just be courting death, Damien knew. He''d seen enough cities destroyed because of that.

    Calamities came in different forms, from empowered natural disasters to entities so strong that their simple passing could be foretold as a coming calamity. Even a brawl between extremely powerful Essence wielders could be considered a calamity for the lower-level people living in the affected areas.

    Why Damien didn''t see any of that as this co-called calamity was that the empire was among the pinnacle forces on the planet. No single force could defeat them alone, and only a coalition of great nations could hope to accompany such feats. But Damien discounted that too, as he would have known of any coalition strong enough to be called a calamity. The only beings strong enough to completely annihilate the Empire were the Spirit Kings, and those weren''t allowed on the planet lest they anger the World Spirit of the planet.

    World spirits were well known for being overprotective of their respective bodies. When it came to their bodies, which were also their territories, they could be completely wrathful, and no one wants to anger an overprotective ascendant.

    They were so protective that anyone ascending into the realm of Spirit King was in no subtle way warned to leave the planet or swear a binding oath to utter pacifism while on that planet.

    Damien chuckled inwardly at that. No Spirit King would swear such an oath just to stay on a floating rock.

    Mostly, they just lived in castles and fortresses floating in space.

    Deciding that he had no more reason to keep staying where they were, Damien decided to move them back.

    "Since you have answered my questions well enough to my satisfaction, I''ll let you go," Damien smiled. "Though I will warn you to cease what you are doing. You do not want me to have to slap down that warlord of yours, now do you?"

    The man''s expression turned pale.

    "Please don''t kill me!" The man immediately crawled onto the floor. "I promise not to say a word about you."

    Damien barked a sharp laugh at that.

    "Why would I do that? You already answered my questions truthfully. And besides¡ª" his lips curled in distaste, "¡ªI do not kill needlessly. Also, you do not need to worry about my safety. Let the Empire know of my presence here, it doesn''t matter anymore."

    Swiftly, like the brewing of a sudden storm, Damien''s expression turned sharp, and his voice hardened.

    "Though I''ll advise you to caution them on crossing me. My business is mine and they''d do well to stay out of it."

    With that, Damien firmed his mind, opened a dimensional tear, and pushed them through.

 Chapter 8 - Youre Awake?!

    Ten years ago

    Edge of the Solarian northern jungle.

    Damien''s eyes snapped wide open to the loud, clanging sound of something crashing onto the ground. Panicked, he rose sharply but was forced to a halt just as a sudden wooziness overcame him.

    While his brain was taking its time to adjust, Damien''s eyes took in his surroundings.

    The first thing he noticed, seeing as he was already on top of it, was the large, soft, thing that bore his full weight. It was long, at least long enough that it reached his legs and went past it. And it was so large that Damien felt he could comfortably spread both his hands without touching the edge. Also, there was a soft, thin, material that acted as a barrier between his body and the large thing.

    With curious eyes, he looked back down on where his head had been laid a few seconds ago, finding the same soft thing, only this one was vastly smaller than the one he laid on, and softer, too.

    The next thing that crossed his mind was where he was and how he''d gotten there. The last thing he remembered was blood all over his body and darkness covering his... vision.

    Damien shivered as everything came back to him then. The creature, the chase, the slash to his rib. He touched his sides at that, feeling for the bleeding area. What he found was nothing, at least not nothing, nothingness. His injured area and the entire body at large were clean and devoid of blood, but Damien couldn''t feel his body fully as something white and thick was wrapped around it. Damien was about to pull back the material covering his skin when the sudden hitch of a breath slipped into his ears.

    He looked up sharply, meeting the widened blue eyes of a young boy. They stayed like that for a few seconds, just looking at each other in part shock, part confusion. And then the boy soon jerked his head downwards, bending down arm first to pick something up while he sharply spat out words Damien couldn''t make knowledge of.

    At first, Damien understood nothing of what the other boy was saying, but that soon changed a few moments and later when the previously indecipherable words began making meaning to his ears. It took a few more combinations of what the boy was saying, and Damien grimaced at the strings of otherworldly words the boy had managed to lace together.

    Soo much cursive, for such a little boy.

    Damien sat up just as the boy rose back up, holding a steel round container by its handle.

    He was a slim boy with blond hair halfway to his shoulders, but instead of being completely scrawny like Damien, he had light muscles on his frame.

    The moment the boy''s eyes met Damien''s again, they widened, and he froze

    "You''re awake," He said slowly like he was referring to himself.

    "You''re awake?" He said again, this time sounding like he was speaking to Damien. Just as Damien opened his mouth to confirm the obvious answer, the boy said again, this time loudly as the realization hit him.

    "You''re awake!" His eyes widened further, and Damien idly thought that, at this point, the whole thing might soon fall off.

    The boy looked at Damien once more, shook himself out of it, and then ran out of the room with his voice echoing into the air.

    "He''s awake!"

    Awkward, Damien thought.

    Now that he was the only person left in the room, Damien fully took in the place he woke up in.

    The room was a comfortably large space with an entrance place opposite Damien, which gave him full awareness of any approaching person. To his left was a transparent structure that let in natural light into the room as well as give him a full, unobstructed view of the world beyond the room. And on his right was a tall, brown, blocky structure propped up against the wall. Beside the structure was another one with four legs and a flat material laid over them, with another high back four-legged structure placed beside it.

    A window, a wardrobe, a table, and a chair.

    Damien didn''t understand how he knew those things; one minute, he knew nothing about them, and then the next, his head was filled with knowledge about the things he was looking at. It was a strange sensation that he was oddly thankful for.

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    He focused on the entrance just as the approaching sounds of footsteps and whispering reached his ears.

    Three people, Damien counted.

    The first person who entered was a woman; black haired and wearing a loosely tied black scarf around her head. She was on a long brown dress with zero embellishments, and when she saw him sitting up, she rushed in.

    "No! No! No! Do not put too much strain on your body. You''ll reopen your wound." She said with a strange look.

    "Oh, poor boy. Your parents must be worried sick about you. Lie down some more till your strength fully returns."

    At that time his stomach rumbled.

    "Oh, forgive me! I totally forgot how hungry you must be," she said with a palm on Damien''s forehead. "Loosing that much blood would leave anyone ravenous."

    She turned back to the entrance where Damien could finally see that three more people had entered.

    "Keilan!" She said, and Damien saw the boy from earlier jolt upwards."Get the poor boy some food!"

    The boy, Keilan, ran out with a nod, passing by the side of the other woman in the room. She was an old woman, Damien saw, with strands of grey peaking out of the green scarf around her head. Her face was wrinkled and her stance was wobbling on the walking stick she leaned on. But despite all that, Damien instinctively knew that she was nowhere near weak. There was strength in the way she carried herself, even through the hunched posture.

    She approached Damien and her eyes roamed over his body with such intensity that Damien almost squirmed, but with effort, he held himself.

    The woman smiled and gave him an approving nod at that.

    "From what I can see he looks fine. Mara, please pull off the bandages."

    The first woman, who Damien now recognized as Mara, nodded and did as bidden, unwrapping the white things around Damien''s stomach.

    The moment it was fully removed, the air moved in to wrap around him, and with barely contained curiosity, he moved his hands around the area, smiling in relief when he felt it smooth and whole, with only quickly vanishing red lines the only evidence to the injury.

    Looking up, Damien was startled to find himself surrounded by three adults who had different expressions ranging from surprise to a little bit of alarm.

    "I didn''t think children could have such quick healing," the third person said, a man whose face Damien''s mind was beginning to piece together as the person whose spear had killed the large cat. He was also of middle age looking, like Mara; and his arms were packed with such muscles that made Damien wary of getting anywhere close to them.

    From the muscles and the obvious use of a weapon when he''d killed the cat, Damien judged him as from a warrior caste.

    "It shouldn''t be possible this quickly with a child as young as him," the old woman said with a scrutinizing look at Damien. "From the feel of the ambient energy around, it seems he''s started absorbing cosmo, and at an astounding rate, too. He''s barely fifteen, that shouldn''t be possible at this age."

    Looking back at Damien, she asked. "What is your name, boy?"

    "Damien," He answered confidently, which was strange because he felt anything but.

    She nodded. "Where are you from?"

    This time, confusion was beginning to creep up on his features. "I don''t know."

    Everybody mirrored his confusion at the answer.

    "You don''t know where you''re from?" the old woman asked again.

    Damien suppressed his body''s urgent want to squirm and then answered.

    "I¡ª I¡ªI don''t know where I''m from."

    "Then how did you find your way into the jungle?" This time, it was the man who asked.

    "I don''t know, I just woke up there." Damien was beginning to get more uncomfortable. No matter how he tried, his mind couldn''t come up with anything before he woke up in that jungle.

    "Then what of your parents? won''t anyone get worried when they find out you''re missing?" Mara asked, worried.

    "I don''t have one; at least, I don''t think so."

    At this, everyone quieted.

    "Do you know anything that could help us locate where you''re from so that we could take you back there safely? There must be someone looking for you."

    This time, Damien decided to come clean. "I don''t remember anything from before I woke up."

    This time worry turned to shock.

    The man asked, "You don''t remember anything at all?"

    Damien nodded.

    "How old are you?" The old woman asked.

    Damien shook his head, his voice a whisper. "I don''t know."

    "Monarch''s balls!" Everyone turned around to see Keilan standing at the entrance, his eyes as wide as saucers.

    "Language!" Mara scolded while the man beside her shook with barely contained laughter, though his face went instantly neutral when Mara turned a glare towards him.

    The old woman, though without a smile on her face, said nothing.

    Mara turned back to Damien. "Since you don''t have anyone looking for you, and we don''t want you living out on the streets, would you be okay staying with us?" She asked.

    Damien didn''t have to think about it long, he nodded. He had just gotten to know the woman and all he''d been getting was positivity all around.

    Mara smiled and turned to the old woman. "Healer Salem, is he okay to move?" She asked.

    The healer studied him again some more. "From what I can see, he looks okay. I''ll want him to come by my place sometime later for more checkups; just In case there''s a side effect to his... Rapid healing."

    Mara nodded, then turned back to Damien. "Go with Keilan; he''ll take you to the kitchen to get some food to eat and afterward show you around."

    Damien nodded, looking at Keilan, who had a big smile on his face. With obvious excitement, he began waving Damien over.

    Damien shifted down the bed, wobbling a little when his feet touched down. It didn''t last long, though, and then Damien was off, leaving the now discussing adults to their now heated discussion.

 Chapter 9 - Alcohol, Spoiler Of Anonymity

    When they appeared back in the physical realm, the first thing Damien took notice of was the sunlight streaking in through the windows. It seemed night had passed on in the physical realm despite them only spending barely an hour in the metaphysical.

    That was one of the unpredictable things about spending time in the metaphysical: time was unreliable. You could spend minutes in the metaphysical and hours could pass you by in the physical.

    Damien had even read that going deep into the metaphysical had more adverse effects. You could spend seconds very deep in the metaphysical and days could pass in the physical realm. Spending hours or days deep in the metaphysical could have you come out and find that years had passed you by in the physical realm.

    Despite Damien only pushing them so close in the metaphysical as to overlap with the physical realm, hours had still gone by.

    The second thing that caught his attention was the two men in the powerful armor that stood outside the room.

    Damien recognized them as more powerful than the common ones seen in the street.

    Spreading out his senses throughout the room and a little bit outside came up with more of them standing around with a majority disguised as passing civilians. Those weren''t putting on armor, but the invisible energy shield around their bodies served as protection just in case of ambush.

    Within seconds of their appearance, the door to the room was pushed open and the two men entered.

    Cult''s executioners, Damien recognized. Their black armors were forged from magically infused steel, and a lord-rank monster energy well, in the shape of an orb, was placed on the chest plate of the armor, powering the multiple enchantments Damien sensed on the armor.

    As Damien studied the men, so were they studied in turn.

    The one who looked older spoke first. "Good day, gentlemen. I am Commander Ali, and I will need you to kindly identify yourselves." He spoke casually, but Damien saw the wariness he looked at them with.

    Cropped short brown hair combined with black eyes fixed on a face that was somewhere in his late thirties, though Damien knew he was far older than that. He had the presence of a commander, one who was used to issuing commands and expecting them to be carried out.

    "He''s the head of the executioner''s force in the city," Spy Salin whispered to Damien, now sounding almost calm after confirming that he wasn''t going to be killed.

    For a man who should have been experienced to the more dark side of humanity, his naivety was surprising. Not all people of his caliber would have kept their word, though the only difference between them and Damien was that he saw no reason to lie.

    The commander raised an eyebrow on seeing the unconcerned expressions on both their faces. The other one, though, did not take it well. "You will show respect when in the presence of the lord commander!" Blond hair and blue eyes tried to intimidate them. Damien almost laughed.

    Seeing the amusement on Damien''s face, the young man flushed red and almost reached for his weapon when the commander stopped him with a tap on the back of his head. "Learn to control your emotions or you won''t survive long as an executor."

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    His face could have been mistaken for a heated iron, by how red it had gotten.

    The commander then addressed them, "Forgive my subordinate, It isn''t often as a commander that you see people act unconcerned in your presence." He didn''t sound offended at all; in fact, Damien could sense a hint of relief from the way he spoke.

    "You should get used to it, seeing as you''re going to be getting a lot of those soon," Damien said.

    The commander''s face froze. "What do you mean by that?" Piercing eyes met Damien''s and the man flinched as his eyes met Damien''s.

    He stepped back. "Who are you?" He asked, looking shocked. The second one looked confused, gaze snapping between Damien and his commander, while Salin looked nervous.

    "Take me to your chosen," Damien said with a tone he rarely used.

    The commander, already used to being ordered around by his chosen, gave a sharp nod and then stepped aside for Damien to pass.

    Crossing the room entrance into the corridor, he turned left and started for the stairway leading down to the inn''s bar, the executors and Salin following behind.

    Stepping into the bar, the various patrons quieted and looked on as Damien walked out followed by two executors and a man dressed in civilian clothing.

    When he stepped outside, he turned and said to Salin. "I have no more use for you, so you may go. Don''t forget to pass off my warning on to your superiors."

    The man nodded and began walking away. Damien saw the obvious strain on his body as he tried to hold himself from instantly running, though that didn''t hold for long as he broke out into a run the moment he was out of sight.

    Damien almost rolled his eyes at the other disguised executors keeping their distance, but still following.

    Turning to the commander as they walked, he saw the man''s confusion. "Focus. Soon, you will learn what all that was about. Now, I suspect the answer but still want to confirm. Why did you people come for me?"

    The man quickly focused, and Damien smiled appreciatively.

    "We received a report from a soldier who saw you at a bar close to the gate. He thought you strange and suspicious at first but kept it to himself."

    Damien nodded "Wise of him," He said and then motioned for the man to continue.

    "He watched as you kept interacting with the barman, but as nothing more suspicious happened other than different highly toxic drinks being placed on the table for you, his suspicion lessened until the barman shouted in fear, drawing the other patrons'' attention, which led to you quickly leaving the bar. After you left, he went to the barman to inquire why he had shouted. The man was shaking in fear but managed to tell him what you did."

    "I never knew a simple drink would ruin my anonymity," Damien shook his head.

    "That wasn''t a normal drink. Even the chosen would not have taken two shots without an effect. Yet you did so without even an ounce of reaction." Damien could see the questions in the man''s eyes that he struggled to hold back. Leaving the man to his speculations, he motioned for him to continue.

    "After hearing that, the man was beginning to feel fear but waited a little to make sure you weren''t coming back before broadcasting an emergency message throughout to the city''s guards and informing them of what you did. He advised caution, that was why you weren''t immediately apprehended by any of the guards around," The man continued.

    They were now approaching the temple''s gate where Damien could sense hundreds of guards spread out across the entire street.

    "We, the executors and the chosen were informed and quickly moved to apprehend you. We were waiting for night to fully come in when something happened in the room you were staying in, our newest member¡ª"

    He pointed to the younger executor who came with him.

    "¡ªOpened the door and almost fell into a room of darkness so black that it literally drank the light. Informing the chosen, he quickly summarised that the anomaly was there as a response to the unnatural absence of something; we thought you had brought Powerful equipment that caused the anomaly. Some wanted to enter and look for you, but the chosen ordered us to be patient; whatever you did would soon be reversed, and the room would go back to normal. So we waited."

    The man looked at Damien. "May I ask what you used to make the room like that?"

    Damien smiled and said. "From the way things are playing, you might soon get to find out," before stepping through the temple gate, the guards at the gate stepped aside at a signal from the executor.

    "Can I ask why you want to see the chosen?" The younger executor asked.

    Damien''s reply was a smile, before he followed the new person who came to lead him to the chosen.

 Chapter 10 - No Ordinary Person

    In an office situated at the highest part of the temple, Chosen Ymal watched through the window as the powerful stranger was led past the temple''s gate by Commander Ali and then accompanied by his head priest, Hakim.

    The man was powerful alright, that they knew, but they didn''t know how powerful he was. When he had heard about the visitor from outside who had casually drank a wine that he himself wouldn''t have dared, he was a little apprehensive. As the coming of someone more powerful than him from the outside only meant one thing, and he knew that whatever was going to happen wouldn''t be good for the city of Tashin. One way or the other.

    When the warlord had first appeared, he had thought nothing suspicious at first, but after the boasts of his future ambition of conquering the city, suspicion had then begun growing.

    The warlord should have been aware that he was planning on assaulting a territory, an absurd ambition. Even though the creator had abandoned the territory after creating it, leaving it with only a minuscule of power enough to empower them against the roaming warmongers and monsters of the continent and also shield them against the unpredictable roaming magical storms, it was still an essence territory. He had also placed a citywide enchantment against far-scrying. Anyone scrying from a distance on the city would see only a normal city with a magical shield placed over it as a defense.

    All powered by the thing buried under the city.

    Most warlords stayed clear of the city as it was a futile endeavor to even try a raid, talk less of a full invasion. But this one showed too much confidence. He had begun to suspect that the warlord was being backed by a hidden figure, and the news of a potentially more powerful person was not welcoming at all.

    At first, he had attempted to maybe apprehend the stranger, even though he might be stronger than Ymal alone, he was being empowered by the territory, and so were his soldiers. The stranger couldn''t hope to defeat the whole might of a territory-empowered army.

    When the stranger had done what he did at the inn''s room, fear had begun setting in but he had chalked it off as probably the use of a technique-scroll. He had erred on the side of caution, though, and decided against aggressively approaching the man, but had still placed enough force to quickly subdue him just in case things went south.

    He had been listening through one of the enchantments placed on Ali''s armor, an enchantment that allowed him to hear through all his executors. So he wasn''t that surprised, but the fear he had tried to push down was beginning to rear its head when the man sounded unconcerned as he was approached by two executors... Executors who would have made some of the strongest people in the city shit their pants. When the man had said those cryptic words and then commanded to see him. Ymal knew the city''s survival was now on a ticking clock.

    He had then waited to see and get a feel for the man before he made any big decision.

    Seeing the man now, he didn''t know what to think. For a man who looked to be in his twenties, the grey hair and eyes he had was mystifying. A face that would turn any lady''s eyes and at the same time terrify an enemy''s.

    A sharp and fit body features with eyes that were like a door into a desolate grey world. Even Ymal shuddered from where he stood despite the distance between them. Those eyes could only bring desolation. His fear mounted.

    This was no ordinary person.

    It didn''t take long before his assistant came in to inform him of the man''s arrival at the door and the man was instructed to send them in.

    His office would have been intimidating to some people but the man took it in stride. Despite the lavish display on the outside of the temple, the inside was anything but.

    Walls of obsidian black with throbbing glowing crimson lines crisscrossing around the room emitting a feeling that would have instantly cowered anyone else that came in. The young man didn''t even seem to notice it as he entered. The floor was made of black volcanic glass that gave the feeling of staring into an abyss. The young man crossed it without even batting an eye. A magically grown table of obsidian glass that curved inward was placed close to the window where Ymal stood. There wasn''t much in the room other than the tea table placed on one side of the room and the giant mural of Ymal created on the ceiling.

    Two supplicating chairs where placed opposite Ymal''s. They were little compared to his. Another powerful person would have acted on the veiled intimidation, but the man simply took his seat without a second glance, leaving Commander Ali to stand by the door side.

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    Chosen Ymal and the young man studied each other, and what he discovered was not what he had expected at all. When Ymal was a boy and his family had first came into a cult religion and taken up their newfound duty as keepers. He had been with his father when the ascendant had sent down his avatar to speak with them. So he had seen what real power looked like, and now he was seeing it again in someone so young. A person so young should still have been in the lord''s realm at the highest, yet Ymal knew this young man was far above it.

    The man was the first to break the silence.

    "Since I''m the one who came to you, I''ll introduce myself. My name is Damien Elason."

    And there went another surprise. Usually, from stories he''d heard, powerful figures always expected their names to be known far and wide. They were always miffed if they weren''t immediately recognized by anyone, especially ones they considered lesser. This man''s expression was placid as he gave his name.

    Ymal sighed before he spoke. "I knew this day would come. Dreaded it, even, but still accepted the eventuality that it would come."

    The man frowned. "I would like you to expound on what that meant."

    Ymal nodded. "We knew that eventually, people of your caliber would take interest in this city, despite all the defenses placed on the city."

    "You mean what was placed on the city that deceives any far-scrying?" His eyebrows quirked.

    Ymal nodded. "Can I ask what brought here, though? I know that people of your status do not just up and decide to travel to a small city in the middle of a desert-filled continent." He knew he shouldn''t be putting his nose in the business of higher realm individuals, but his curiosity needed to be sated.

    The man studied him for a few seconds. When Ymal began to think maybe he had crossed a line, the man then surprisingly answered. "I felt drawn here. I don''t know why, but something led me here." He didn''t add anything more. Ymal knew there was something more to that, but didn''t pry.

    "Was that why you demanded to see me?" Ymal asked.

    The man shook his head. "At first, I had just planned to see the city and discover what drew me here, but another discovery made me seek you out."

    "Was it the information you got from the man you were seen with?" Ymal said, before explaining. "Soldiers around saw you speaking with him and then going your separate ways. He, again, appeared with you at your rented room after you came back."

    The man smiled. "Smart, I like it. And yes, it was the information I got from the man." He nodded before continuing. "He was a spy sent by the Solarian empire." Ymal''s heart froze and Ali jolted from where he stood. He looked shaken but still showed discipline and controlled himself.

    The man then continued. "From what I got, their empire has been prophesied to be destroyed by a calamity that will stem from your city, and funnily enough, the solution to stopping this same calamity is also from your city." He smiled like it was a joke they should all find funny.

    Ymal and Ali looked at the man as if he was mad, Ymal controlled his annoyance quickly before he brought destruction upon himself. "I knew a time would come when this city would face destruction, but I never envisioned it being destroyed by the empire," he said, defeated.

    "When my family was given charge of this city, we were given two warnings," Ali looked confused. It wasn''t a surprise, as only the Chosens, their inheritors and the head of the priesthood knew about their sacred duty.

    "What?" Now the man sounded more interested.

    "One. To never go under the city," Ymal said.

    The man leaned forward.

    "And two. To beware the comings of higher realm cultivators, as their comings would spell the end of the city, One way or another."

    The man looked thoughtful.

    "I need to know who created this territory."

    "We don''t know his name, as he didn''t tell us. What we know was that he was an ascendant from out of our world," Ymal answered.

    "Why don''t you then beseech him to aid you now that the empire is coming?" Damien inquired.

    "Because after he created the territory, he left. Didn''t even connect the territory to him, as if he didn''t want anything to do with it."

    Damien looked surprised.

    "Then where is it drawing power from, if not from the ascendant?"

    Ymal thought for a second before he answered. "We don''t know what powers it, all we know is that it is being kept under the city,"

    There was skepticism on Damien''s face when he looked at Ymal. "I don''t know of anything powerful enough to keep a territory powered for days, talk less of years."

    Ymal sighed before he explained. "You know this desert-filled continent wasn''t always this way?"

    Damien nodded. "One moment the continent was filled with life. Jungles and forest covered the land in spades, and the next, a cataclysm ripped through the continent, transforming it all into a desert, causing a continent-wide magical storm that magically mutated the monsters as an after effect."

    "Only the humans were spared from the transformations, but they weren''t exempted from the destruction in the aftermath, killing seventy percent of the population on the continent. The ruling speculations around the world are that it was caused by the world spirit, whom the people in this continent had somehow angered."

    Ymal nodded. "The event wasn''t caused by the World Spirit."

    Damien was deep in thought as he said.

    "Nothing other than the power of an ascendant can desolate a continent like this, except," his eyes then widened and he looked down as if he could see through the temple floors into the earth.

    Ymal nodded in confirmation. "Something crashed into the continent from outer space, and the effect was what you see today. Not long after it happened and the magical storms were beginning to settle, the ascendant appeared and led us to the city. We were given information about the city and freedom to settle in, but we were told never to go under the city."

    Damien''s eyes were filled with awe. "Then.....

    Everything was beginning to come together in his mind.

    that me¨C"

    Suddenly

    BOOM!

    The whole city shook.

 Chapter 11 - What help do you want from me?

    Salin was wondering when he was going to be permitted to leave. Following the grey-eyed man down from the room, accompanied by two executors, drew enough attention that he didn''t see any chance of completing his mission as he was sure the grey-eyed man would surely make the empire''s presence in the city known, which would instantly put them on alert.

    When he was finally granted permission to leave, Salin almost ran. He wanted to be as far from the man as possible, but despite all that, he still held himself back and walked calmly down the street.

    When he was sure that he was out of sight, he ran as fast as possible, slowing down as he approached the city''s gate. The guards glanced at him but did not stop him.

    Leaving the gate, he was just about to call in to report when he was unwittingly teleported out from the city''s gate, leaving the people there frightened.

    When he appeared again, he was so far away from the city that it registered as a dot in his vision. He could barely see the gate.

    That was when he became aware of the presence behind him.

    Instantly, he turned around, his body bowing the moment he registered who occupied the same space as he.

    "So the oath breaker returns," Elora Darkfang said. Hair as black as night framed a face so beautiful, one could sell their entire fortune just to lay with her. What most didn''t know was that she wasn''t a human but was a scalekin of the beast race. A Torinian black snake to be precise, one that had gained sentience. Her silver-slitted eyes were what was only known by her peers or people she deemed about to die. She was infamous for her black venom that was like a doorway into a world of unimaginable pain, leaving you wishing for a quick death just to escape it.

    "His new allies must have betrayed him, seeing as he looked to be fleeing the city," a thick, husky voice grunted. Salin didn''t know this man. His brown hair was cropped short military style, paired with black eyes that gazed down at Salin like a human to an ant.

    He didn''t have an idea what was going on, so he simply replied with a bow. "I greet the great pillars of the empire."

    "Tell me, boy," The man said without acknowledging Salin. "What did they offer you that made you betray your homeland?"

    Salin was confused and fear was beginning to creep in. "I don''t understand. I did not betray the empire nor had such thought crossed my mind."

    "Do not think to lie to your betters. We know you told someone about the about the empire''s secret despite taking an oath not to!" Elora snarled, her slitted eyes flashing.

    Panicking, but taking a lesson from his training and staying calm, Salin replied. "No, not willingly. I reported a suspicious individual with deeper knowledge about the Empire. What I didn''t know was that this person was expecting me, and I fell right into his trap. There was no fright nor caution even after I threatened empire punishment should he interfere."

    "Who is this man?" The man said slowly, his voice sending a deep vibration through Salin''s bones.

    "He said his name was Damien," Salin cautiously answered.

    They both quieted at that. And when Salin took a peek at them, What he saw shook him. There was fear in their eyes.

    He had served in the empire so long and had heard and seen of its feats so much that he had begun to have this belief that the empire feared nothing. That nobody could terrify them. And yet, here he was, witnessing fear in the eyes of one of the empire''s greatest pillars. Just from the mention of a name.

    They quickly hid it. "Describe him," The poison mistress demanded.

    And so Salin did.

    When he was done. Elora sighed. "Raise your head," she said.

    He did.

    "You have betrayed the empire to one of our greatest enemies, perhaps our greatest enemy." Salin could detect fury in her voice despite the calm way she spoke. But veiled terror could still be seen on her face, both their faces. "Tell me everything that happened."

    And he did so.

    He told of everything that had been asked of him. How he had been unwillingly transported into some strange place. He described how hours had passed outside while they had only spent minutes in that strange place. And lastly, he then delivered the warning he was asked to.

    "He told me to warn the empire not to interfere in his business, and he would do the same," Salin said.

    "Where were you taken to?" The man asked.

    "He never explicitly said its name, but he did call it the ''Metaphysical''." Once again, there was silence.

    It was Elora who then spoke. "To be able to move into the metaphysical, that is worrying. But the good news is that to accomplish such a feat, he must have drained a staggering amount of energy, probably completely. "She stalked forward, smiling like a predator with prey in sight.

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    Even the man''s lips widened. Salin frowned, had thought the man incapable of showing any form of happiness. "We can''t leave someone so powerful outside the empire''s control, he needs to be clipped."

    Their attention then turned to Salin, who stood there looking confused.

    "You have done the empire a great deed, even though it was unintentional," Elora said, still smiling. Then she continued. "For that, your punishment would be lessened." Seeing the hope in his eyes. "Oh, don''t be happy, yet. For what I''m about to do to you, death will be but a reprieve." That was when Salin noticed something slithering down from Elora''s shadow. His blood turned cold as he identified one of her famous children.

    Full panic set in, and Salin moved to flee, but to his horror, his body refused to listen, leaving him completely frozen.

    Elora tsked. "We never said you could leave." She smiled. "My child here will keep you company till we return." The snake finally reached Salin, his horror reaching a crescendo for the second time in a roll, and no matter how he tried to free his body, he couldn''t. The snake climbed his body, coiling fully around him until he came face to face with its silver-slitted eyes.

    And then it bit.

    And Salin knew pain.

    ***

    Ali''s POV

    BOOM!

    "What the hell was that?" Commander Ali groaned, his hands balanced on the table to keep himself from falling.

    "I don''t think you''re going to be fighting your warlord anymore," The strange man, Damien, said.

    Standing, Ali moved to join the chosen at the window when the second impact landed.

    BOOM!

    He almost fell again but managed to lean on the table for support. Looking around, cracks were beginning to spread all around the room, forming a spider web design on the office walls.

    Reaching the window, the chosen standing there, having been struck numb. Taking a look out the window, what he saw almost made him shit his pants.

    Cracks were spreading over the energy shield covering the city. The shield that had protected them against the raging storms capable of reducing cities to rubble. And it was all coming down from just two explosions.

    "They didn''t waste time at all, did they? Not surprising." Turning around, he saw Damien sitting there, unconcerned, like their city on the breath of destruction didn''t even phase him. "What is surprising is how quickly they arrived, a few hours after I took their resident spy. Seems the man doing the monitoring was being monitored as well."

    Ali almost screamed at him that their city was in danger and he should make himself useful, even though he didn''t see how one man could possibly hope to stop an attack like that. He didn''t put such words to his thoughts, though.

    Turning to his leader "Chosen, What is our response?"

    Just then.

    BOOM!

    Standing up, the chosen sighed, a resigned look on his face. "What response do we have for something like that? With a few more hits, this city is going to be cracked open like an egg," His eyes misted. In all his years of serving under the chosen, Ali had never seen him this vulnerable. The realization almost drove the fight out of him.

    "The city was destined to be destroyed anyway," the other occupants of the room pitched in unhelpfully, still looking bored.

    Just when Ali was about to snap, the whole building shook from another impact.

    "This whole building is about to collapse. I don''t know about you, but I don''t want to get dust and debris all over my body," Damien commented. He stood up, leaving Ali and the Chosen to follow behind.

    The path down the building was filled with panic and confusion. Soldiers and priests panicking.

    Seeing the chosen''s approach, they all looked to him for a solution, but Ali could see the chosen had nothing to give.

    Sighing audibly, Damien turned around and looked at the crestfallen chosen. "What help do you want of me?" He sounded oddly gentle about it.

    The chosen jolted from his thoughts. "If you can save the people, I would be forever in your debt."

    Damien raised an eyebrow. "I don''t know what a debt from you could provide me." He began picking his nails. "And what would you be doing while I save your people?"

    The chosen raised his chin. "I and all the combatants will hold back the attackers." He seemed set on his path; even though Ali knew they were all likely to be wiped out in seconds, he was willing to lay down his life for his people.

    Ali joined in raising his chin. He, too, would give his life for the chosen and the people.

    Damien must have concluded something because he nodded. "You won''t be fighting anyone," Ali wanted to argue but was stopped by the man''s raised hand. "I''ll deal with them. Call back any guards around the gates; your job will be to move everybody to the other end of the city. Break down the walls if you have to, but make sure to evacuate this city and its surrounding areas."

    He plucked something out of thin air, shocking everyone present, and handed it over to the Chosen. "When you get far enough from the city, break this and tell the first person you meet that I sent you; they should have you settled and quickly taken care of." He looked around at the people gathered there. "I don''t usually do this for strangers, but seeing as my presence brought this upon you all, take this as recompense. Don''t go expecting me to be your newest protector, you will be sorely disappointed." The man then nodded before turning around and leaving. "Quit staring and do your jobs."

    ***

    Damien walked down the streets, approaching the gate. At some point, the attacks had stopped coming, and he could see some of the citizens beginning to calm down; he shook his head, it wouldn''t do them well to think the attackers had left. He was proven right a few minutes later.

    BOOM!

    BOOM!

    This time, the attacks came in two quick successions and the city''s shield couldn''t handle it any longer. It shattered and Damien could see buildings begin to collapse. People resumed screaming and panicking. He saw a young boy staring at him with lifeless eyes, the lower part of his body crushed by a huge rock.

    A crying toddler with splattered blood on his face, shaking his mother who lay on the floor, eyes unseeing. She wouldn''t be waking up anymore.

    He walked up to the toddler, picking the boy up. Blue eyes stared at him despite the blood on his face. Damien smiled at the baby, patting him gently on the back. "I''m so sorry about your mama, I''m sure she''ll be watching over you wherever she is." The toddler continued staring at him. "I''m going to fight the bad guys, so I can''t take you with me." He patted him again. "I''ll come find you when I''m done."

    Calling a passing soldier, he gave him charge of the boy, telling him where to go when he crossed over to the other side. it would make it easier to find them.

    Turning fully towards the gate. His eyes burned and his face hardened before he controlled himself, it wouldn''t do to lose control of himself this close to battle. Breathing in and calming himself, he walked towards the gate.

 Chapter 12 - You both need a Teaching Moment on where you stand in the hierarchy of power

    Stepping outside the gate, the first thing that caught his eye were the bodies. The ground was littered with the dismembered bodies of the people who had been unfortunate to be outside when the attacks had begun. Soldiers and civilians alike were all slaughtered, the culprits being the giant snakes which were now busy feasting on what was remaining. He shook his head in pity. Aside from the snakes, the only living things outside were the two people levitating a meter above the ground.

    He identified Elora Darkfang, with her black hair and silver-slitted eyes. She was one of the oldest and most powerful people who served the emperor. Feared by the empire''s enemies for her assassination skills, she was mostly known as the poison mistress, an acute moniker. The other person was probably Igor Shadowblight. Damien hadn''t met the man before, but since he had made efforts to identify every Spirit lord serving under the empire.

    The snakes stopped their feeding and focused on Damien the moment he arrived, barring their fangs. The ones without a smidgen of intelligence rushed at him, while the older ones with traces of intelligence slithered back to their mother. With a look and a little glow from his eyes, they all exploded, including the ones running away, none were spared. Dying and splattering the desert sands with body parts... Parts that began emitting black smoke which rotted the ground.

    Looking up at the two people floating, he said to Elora. "You should train your children never to bite off more than they can chew."

    She was now looking furious, he didn''t know why, probably the killing of children she had spent years of time and resources to make stronger. He didn''t care. "You''re going to pay for that," She replied, her silver slits beginning to glow.

    "I did warn you what would happen if you didn''t stay out of my business," Damien said, a sly grin appearing on his face. He nodded at where he could sense the spy howling in pain as he was continuously tortured by a snake coiled around his body. "Or did your spy forget to deliver my message?"

    Igor shadowblight summoned a massive hammer into his right hand, and a huge tower shield appeared on his left. "The empire does not respond well to threats by their lessers." Shadows rose to shroud him in matte black armor.

    "Did you inform your emperor who you were about to fight? He should know better than to test me again."

    Elora smiled. "We know how weakened you are after your trip to the metaphysical." Her smile widened. "You might be able to fight one of us in your weakened state, but two? We are going to present your head to the emperor." Anticipation was practically dripping from her tongue.

    Damien shook his head, she wasn''t wrong. He was weakened after the massive amount of energy he expended to hold their makeshift domain together. Officially, he was drained, but what they didn''t know was that as weakened as he was, he could still easily take on both of them without really trying. Probably kill them if he put in more effort.

    Their emperor was the only one who could put on a challenge.

    Damien slowly levitated, preparing himself. "Come on then. You both need a teaching moment on where you stand on the hierarchy of power," He said, power flooding him.

    Igor attacked first, his passing cracking the ground and causing a shockwave. His massive hammer came down on Damien with the force of a dozen massive boulders, promising a crushing death.

    Damien caught it in his palm, the energy from the collision cracking the ground around them for dozens of feet. Igor''s eyes widened as his attack was casually caught, so he was able to see but couldn''t react quickly to the punch Damien landed on his face, blasting him back in a whirling of winds.

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    Elora came in next, daggers made out of darkness with their blades glistening with venom on her hands. One swiped for his neck, the other trying to eviscerate him from hips to shoulder. She was rewarded with both of her hands being cut off at the wrists. It would regenerate in seconds, but it still bought him time to respond to Igor who stepped aside from the retreating Elena, coming in with more wariness now. His hammer was now shrouded in shadow, enforcing it. So instead of Damien taking it with his bare hands, he blocked it with a conjured shield. The shield cracked instantly. Damien responded by trying to punch him again, which was blocked by his huge tower shield. The force still pushed him sliding backward, but he was uninjured.

    All their exchange of blows had taken only a few seconds, but the damage from the forces expelled had destroyed the environment, causing shockwaves and quakes that caved in one side of the city wall and pulverized any flesh remaining on the ground.

    Elena conjured dozens of floating daggers, their blades glistening with snake venom. She sent them flying and stabbing at Damien from different angles while she came in behind them. Instead of dodging, he blasted energy from his body in a wave, destroying the conjured constructs.

    Catching her on her now regenerated wrists."You''re all so weak," he said to her, stoking her frustration. His words came back to bite him a moment later when he failed to react quickly to Igor, who suddenly appeared at his side, hammer smashing into him. Damien grunted painfully as he was blasted, crashing into the city walls and through it. He destroyed multiple buildings with his passing before he finally smashed into one that held him, although it immediately collapsed soon after.

    He groaned. That hurt, a little. He thought. Standing up, he didn''t have much time to take stock of himself before a dagger stabbed for his heart. He turned sideways, avoiding it, but he couldn''t avoid the second one that came a moment later, stabbing into his shoulder. He grunted, looking through the human-shaped holes in the dozens of houses he had blasted through. He spotted Elena speeding towards him with daggers poised, Igor close behind with his hammer and shield.

    Deciding to get a little serious, Damien pulled the dagger from his shoulder, infusing energy into the injured part to destroy the venom. Even though Elena was far weaker than him, she was still a poison mistress at the rank of Spirit lord. It wouldn''t pay to underestimate her inventions.

    Facing his attackers, he summoned his warspear. Seven feet of magically grown wood with two feet of black blade met Elora''s attack, punching through her defenses and into her shoulder. Holding her uninjured arm sideways, he stepped closer, drawing her in and using her as a shield for the approaching hammer. Igor stopped his hammer moments before it could smash into Elora. Damien took the opportunity, stepping back from Elora to get some space, he kicked her into a surprised Igor, throwing them both into another building.

    He could sense that the people were still not done evacuating, so he decided to take the fight back outside.

    Attacking, he punched Igor on his shadow-crafted breastplate, denting it and blasting him closer to the walls. Dozens of houses fully collapsed from the shockwaves of his passing.

    Grabbing Elora by the neck, he slammed her back down into the ground, briefly disorienting her creating a large crater. Picking her back up again, he punched her out of the crater and into the city walls, dozens of cracks spreading through.

    Damien levitated out, catching up to Igor who was beginning to stand. With his spear, he pierced through the cracks that were opening in the man''s armor. Igor tried to bash him with his shield, but Damien stopped it flat with his palm.

    Drawing back his spear, he swept Igor''s feet out of him, kicking him before he could fall completely to the ground. The man crashed into Elena who was beginning to get up, blasting them both out of the city.

    Floating through the hole in the wall, he said. "I remember you saying something about how I couldn''t take on the both of you." He smiled, taunting them."You must have overestimated your strengths to think I wouldn''t be able to handle a couple of weaklings."

    Looking at Elora, she was about to explode, her shoulder and mouth leaking blood; while Igor was starting to look frustrated; his armor was pierced and cracked, blood pouring through.

    Despite the visual signs of injuries, he knew they were barely injured.

    He knew what they were about to do next from the way they firmed their expressions.

    Energy blasted out of them as their images were summoned, changing the surrounding areas for miles and covering the city in darkness and shadows.

 Chapter 13 - Astral images

    Images. The foundation for an astral body and finally stepping into the ranks of the higher echelons of the universe.

    The process of stepping into the realm of spirit lords is one of the most important transitions in one''s life. It was also the last time the world spirit facilitates one''s ascension into a higher tier, as the realm of spirit lords is when one begins to live their mortal coil and ascend into something otherworldly.

    The process of stepping into the realm of Spirit lord was delicate as it involved wielding a massive amount of Essence to construct your Astral body.... A delicate process that could leave you crippled if handled carelessly.

    An astral body, illusory at first, was a process that could take years to fully become solid.

    Images are the foundational blocks for creating an astral body. A very incorporeal astral form built from scratch with nothing but your will and the energy provided by the World Spirit.

    An illusory astral image could serve as an energy booster, increasing your power manifold. It was usually a last-minute card that could change the outcome of a battle.

    The problem with astral images, though, was their mental strain. Keeping an astral image manifested was a sink in one''s mental energy, draining it like a whirlpool. Although they could be used to turn the card on a battle, they could also be the cause for their summoner''s death if manifested prematurely.

    Summoning hundreds of feet tall behemoths. Elena and Igor rose higher and higher until they floated in front of their respective astral images. Damien had to admit, they posed an intimidating sight.

    Elena floated in front of a giant black snake with scales that seemed to drink in the light around it for miles around. Its slitted eyes shone a glowing silver, and it bared fangs that promised a very long and painful death.

    The aura the snake exuded was that of a silent hunter lurking in the dark, unseen but felt, waiting until it was time to strike.

    Igor''s was a humanoid figure made out of shadow, With two deep voids where the eyes should have been. It wore a cloak of shadow that slowly smothered the lights around it, plunging the world into shadow. Its aura promised a suffocating death.

    Floating in front of their images, their mere auras warped the world around them, turning day into night and drowning the desert sands in a sea of shadows.

    Damien decided then that it was time to get more serious.

    ***

    While coordinating the evacuation of a city''s worth of people, chosen Ymal was beginning to wonder if they were all going to make it out of the city alive. Judging from the sounds of explosions coming from the city, he didn''t think it likely.

    The soldiers he had placed to monitor the fight had reported Damien battling two combatants and was winning handily, that was a relief.

    He had begun to have hope of them surviving this ordeal, but all was squashed when lady luck took away her smile and the day suddenly turned to night, and the world was drowned in shadow.

    Turning back, what he saw almost made him collapse in terror. From the screaming and raw panic that began amongst the evacuating people, he assumed some people might have collapsed.

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    Two apocalyptic creatures towered over the city from miles away. A giant snake rising over hundreds of meters bared its silver fang, and its silver slits shone with scales so black they drowned out the lights of the day.

    A monstrous human-shaped thing made out of shadow towered next to it, with eyes that seemed to shroud the world in Shadows. At its feet was a sea of shadows that seemed to rise like a tsunami.

    Ymal almost died from the promise of death those creatures exuded, but they were overwhelmed by the new aura that rolled over them like a wave, tinting the world a touch of grey

    An aura that foretold destruction.

    ***

    Floating in front of his now massively empowered opponents, Damien decided to get more serious.

    The first thing he did was summon his old trusty armor. Silver metal enshrouded his body from neck to toe, giving a soft glow.

    He''d had this armor for years now, crafted out of star metal that had crashed onto the planet. He admired the dozens of scratches and dents in the armor, signifying the battles the armor had endured.

    Next, he manifested a part of his astral image, cloaking himself in grey flames that flowed down his body, drifting around his body like liquid fire on a nonexistent wind. His aura flowed out, contending with theirs.

    Powerful as he was, even he could not contend with a fully manifested astral image. A partial manifestation was powerful enough.

    Levitating, enshrouded by his armor and cloak made of grey flames while holding his war spear, Damien looked down on his opponents.

    Having seen his obvious refusal to take them as a threat enough to summon a full manifestation, Elora lost it.

    Summoning dozens of daggers, all of them two meters long. She sent them down at him with speed that left behind trails of darkness.

    With a sweep of his spear and release of grey destructive energy, Damien wiped out half of them, dodging the remaining. Moving closer to Elora, he stabbed through the black construct she tried to shield herself with, stabbing straight into her palm. His spear spear through their entire arm, coming out through the shoulder. Channeling destructive energy through the spear, Elora screamed as her whole arm exploded, spraying her face and body with her smoking flesh.

    The poison mistress gazed at him with pure hate as she quickly fled into the distance.

    Igor came in with his hammer aimed at Damien''s chin. He scoffed, stopping the approaching hammerhead again with his bare palm, the shockwave from the collision crushing any standing structure around him for a mile.

    He sent back his reply an instant later with a punch to the man''s temple, slamming him into the sands dozens of meters below and creating a devastating crater. His cloak swept over the wind as if with a mind of its own, destroying the two daggers that came at his back.

    Elora then decided to up the fight. Her image stretched higher, looking down onto the city from miles in the sky. It opened its huge maw, releasing a sea of poison mists towards Damien. He grunted as his cloak enshrouded him protectively, obliterating any poison that touched it. The city at his back wasn''t so protected, though.

    A huge swath of the city began melting. Stones and metals alike turned into black sludge that emitted a putrid smell.

    He looked towards the giant snake and Elora floating in front of it, smiling like he should have dropped dead in terror.

    Damien smiled back in turn, returning in kind. He pointed his spear tip at her image and released a sea of grey flames, drowning it in destruction. There was a loud hiss as Elora''s image burned, the flames eating up its body.

    Elora''s expression changed from happiness to horror as a portion of her foundation was destroyed. She crashed into the ground a moment later as her mental capability wasn''t able to handle the pain of what Damien knew was surely to be a hefty spiritual damage.

    He swore at himself for his constant distraction. He should have kept a part of his mind on Igor. He paid for that when he couldn''t react quickly enough to the massive hammer, dozens of meters tall, that crashed into him, blasting him down the sands and into the already destroyed city, leaving a large trench from his passage and destroying more of the city.

    Standing up, he dodged another approaching hammer blow from Igor, replying in kind with a punch to his chest plate. Igor was blasted back out of the city. He threw his spear after the man for good measure, piercing him and pinning him into his image.

    Following, he passed the city''s now destroyed gate and was almost upon the injured Igor when a pillar of darkness rose to encircle him, sealing him in.

 Chapter 14 - A Monarch

    Reaching a distance far enough from the city, Ymal brought out the orb given to him by Damien. He didn''t know how they were going to escape the titanic battle going on far behind them, but still so much closer that at any minute they could all be wiped out.

    Studying the orb gave off no idea of what its function was. Other than a black line that circled the orb from one side to the other. It seemed the larger orb served as protection for the smaller glowing orb inside of it.

    Following instructions, he crushed the construct.

    The moment he did it, the orb shattered into exactly four pieces. The dull glow inside the smaller orb dispersed into the four shattered pieces, lightening them up. The shattered pieces then floated off his hand ¨C startling him a bit ¨C flying a little bit from him to form a twelve-foot-tall rectangular shape, with the sides stretched wide enough for twenty people to pass side by side.

    Once the pieces were done forming, the black lines on all of them detached, peeling.

    They elongated till the lines from the four different pieces were now connected, confirming the rectangular shape. Once they had finished connecting, the different shattered pieces began to glow purple, glowing brighter and brighter until their light became too bright in the artificially made darkness.

    It was only for a moment before the lights from the different pieces dispersed from their different places and converged in the middle, forming a square filmy curtain of purple and black. A square shape that then began to stretch and stretch until it covered the whole rectangular shape, forming a doorway.

    The people at the front were agitated, seeing as the battle going on far in the back was moving closer by the minute. But still, they waited for his instructions. He had the strange intuition that crossing the rectangular doorway was a very bad idea, so he waited.

    It didn''t take long for the purple light to fade and reveal a large hall stretching hundreds of feet from where he faced. There were soldiers gathered in front of the portal, and he could see dozens more behind them, holding polearms that he had no doubt were extremely powerful weapons.

    He quickly raised his hands to show that he was unarmed, even though any of the soldiers gathered around could easily take him on. He could feel their strengths and it was in no way inferior to his. Some were even stronger than him.

    Making sure not to make any abrupt movement, he stepped through, Instructing his soldiers to stay where they were and not to make any abrupt movement.

    Stepping through, he fully admired the large hall. Purple light lined the walls, connecting them to pillars that were placed along the walls in pairs. Some were glowing purple like the one he was now standing in between, he noticed, while some weren''t.

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    Stepping forward, a soldier said. "Stay where you are and identify yourselves." Black and silver colored armor adorned the bodies of the soldiers, with avian-shaped helmets. An emblem of a silver bird emblazoned their chests.

    "We are citizens from a desert city in the desolate continent. Please, we are fleeing a calamity and are in need of help." Ymal answered, not moving any further.

    "How did you arrive here?" The soldier asked, sounding worried for some reason Ymal couldn''t figure out.

    "With the orb?" Ymal answered tentatively, unsure of where the question was leading.

    The soldier now looked more worried, Ymal could now see the same expression on the other soldiers'' faces. "I meant, how did you get the specific aura for this portal station?" He pointed at the twin pillars Ymal was standing in front of.

    Finally understanding what they were worried about, Ymal quickly explained. "Oh, I don''t know how we got here. We were given the orb by someone and then told to break it." It wasn''t hard to understand the worries. An unidentified group of people opening a portal into what Ymal saw as an important place. It sure would have gotten people worried. If some random group of people could use their teleport beacon and just appear there without warning, what would then stop their enemies from being able to do the same?

    "Who gave you the orb?" The man asked again, still worried with weapons poised.

    "He said his name was Damien," Ymal answered. None of the soldiers looked like they recognized the name. Seeing their confusion, Ymal was beginning to get worried that their only hope of surviving would soon get squashed when suddenly, there was a shrill whistle of air, and then a woman appeared.

    Ymal immediately became apprehensive, seeing as her instant appearance wasn''t from teleportation but the effect of pure speed. She wasn''t dressed in any armor that Ymal could see, wearing only combat pants and boots with an armless top.

    Judging from the way the soldiers stood taller at her arrival, he summarized that she was probably a commanding officer.

    Black hair tied into a ponytail, and sharp black eyes that scanned him inside out. She looked like she was in her late twenties to early thirties, but he knew otherwise.

    "Who did you say gave you the orb? Describe him," She commanded, her eyes scrutinizing for any falseness.

    Swallowing hard. He answered, "He said his name was Damien. Grey hair and eyes, with an athletic body and a face a very young face, early twenties, probably." He knew from the moment the woman had arrived that she was far more powerful than him. A Monarch realm wielder.

    Her eyes widened, and she looked behind him; seeing the gathered refugees. Having come to an understanding, she nodded and said in a strangely shaky voice, "What help does the lord require we render you?"

    Quickly getting to the point. "We were attacked by agents of the empire. He is holding them back to give us time to escape."

    "How many people are on the other side?" She asked.

    "Thousands."

    Waving her hands, the soldiers took the signal and dispersed except for the man who had first spoken to Ymal and two others.

    Turning to the remaining three, she said. "One person should start coordinating the arrivals of the refugees; another should go inform the queen of the happenings going on, while the third should go to the Monarch''s castle and inform them that backup will be required here to protect the refugees in case of an attack. Decide amongst yourselves who does which."

    Quickly deciding amongst themselves, the soldiers left.

    Turning to him, she said, "Let''s go take a look at what''s happening on the other side."

    Turning, they both crossed into the portal.

    The sight upon arriving was not encouraging at all.

 Chapter 15 - Death of a Spirit lord

    With schadenfreude, Elora watched as the anomaly was encircled and sealed in her trap, like an animal.

    She had been unsure whether her plan would have worked. Even though they had planned for his current temporary state of weakness, they hadn''t expected his overwhelming might. Although she hated to admit it, she couldn''t deny his might. If at a weakened state, he was this powerful, the thought of him at his full strength made her shudder.

    They had thought they could take him on, even bring him down if they brought their fully combined strength to bear. He had still overpowered and beaten them like children, leaving Elora grievously injured in both body and spirit.

    When the fight had begun, Elora had fumed at the way he looked down at them, like children who didn''t warrant even a smidgen of his strength; he didn''t take the fight seriously, only doing the bare minimum in their fight, not even using any technique that she could see.

    At first, she had thought that he had too high of an opinion of himself, as refusing to take seriously a fight against two-Spirit lords was an easy way to get killed.

    Now that she had gotten a taste of his true power, she was relieved he hadn''t taken them seriously. Losing a portion of her spirit was a terrific experience and she didn''t want to ever feel that excruciating pain again.

    When the empire had first gotten information about the impossible genius, being among the first to know of him, was a boon. They had immediately wanted him for themselves, even though he had broken the record held by the emperor by becoming a spirit lord in his early twenties, an impossible feat, he had still been viewed as someone who amounted to nothing more than a weapon to be wielded by the emperor.

    Information about him was always scarce, as he was always on the move, never staying in one place long enough for anyone to find him. Sometimes, he could disappear for weeks or months and then suddenly resurface far stronger than before.

    He was mostly seen with another companion of the same age who they now believed to be Keilan Stormshredder, another anomaly that had stepped into the Spirit lord realm also at an early age. But unlike his companion, his cultivation speed had slowed down since stepping into the realm of spirit lords, as it also should have been for Damien.

    The empire had finally given up on the diplomatic approach and had attempted to capture him at an opportune moment. This had resulted in the death of two Monarch realm wielders amongst the three that had been sent, the third returning gravely injured to report that the young man was already way into the Monarch realm and also too powerful for his rank, overpowering three monarchs of the same tier.

    She had been in attendance when the matter was brought up, and another group was immediately sent out to his last known location. He had already vanished.

    He then resurfaced again, this time as a Spirit lord, causing an uproar amongst the Spirit lord community. Soon after, in a battle that shocked the world, he had clashed with one of the empire''s spirit lords and had slain the man, earning the full wrath and mobilization of Spirit lords to capture and kill him. He then vanished again.

    When he had next resurfaced, he had, surprisingly attacked the emperor in a titanic clash that devastated the region. Their battle had ended in a draw and his subsequent retreat when Empire pillars began arriving at the scene.

    They hadn''t seen him again until he had been discovered in this small city, by a mere lord realm spy.

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    She had thought that she and Igor could take him, especially as he had weakened himself by expending what she knew was a massive amount of energy to move into the dimension of the unreal, something that couldn''t be done at middle-stage Spirit lords. Even mad geniuses at peak stage spirit lords struggled extremely hard to accomplish such a feat.

    She had thought that he would be easier to kill now that he was massively weakened. Oh, how wrong she was, now paying for it with a damaged and crumbling spirit image.

    She had still managed to trap him in her pillar of death. A pillar made out of darkness that released dense quantities of poison mists, killing anybody trapped inside in minutes.

    Standing there, her mind split between preventing her prisoner from escaping and holding herself from succumbing to the excruciating pain in her spirit, she was a bit relieved when Igor alleviated her burden by lending his will to her efforts.

    "How long will it take for your poison to take effect?" Igor asked.

    "Probably longer than average, seeing as all our predictions about his capabilities were painfully proven wrong," She replied, gritting her teeth from the pain assaulting her.

    "Are we even sure he''s going to be affected by the poison?" Igor said, worry plain in his voice.

    "He has to be," Elora said, fear rising at the thought of that demon escaping from her prison unscathed.

    "We need to call in for re-enforcement," Igor said, reluctance in his voice.

    She also agreed, reluctantly. Even though it wounded her pride to admit that they needed help battling an upstart, it was better than dying.

    She was about to send in the request when the pillar of darkness exploded, the shockwaves fully collapsing the walls and buildings, dark mist drenching the remaining half of the city in poison, melting everything into sludge.

    Elora couldn''t hold it anymore, she screamed as she was drowned in agonizing pain. Her last sight before her vision turned black was of Damien floating high in the sky, looking down at her.

    There was nary a scratch on his body.

    ***

    Damien''s POV

    Floating hundreds of feet off the ground and imprisoned in a pillar of darkness that would have made an ordinary person terrified, all Damien felt was boredom.

    He knew what this pillar did, as it was already known that whoever got captured in her pillar only survived by her desire, as you would keep screaming in excruciating pain until she decided to either kill you or take you back to the empire as a prisoner. So he wasn''t surprised nor was he worried to see the thick black gaseous poison emitting from the liquid like-darkness encircling him.

    Deciding that he''d had enough of playing around, Damien decided to end this joke of a fight.

    Freeing himself, he forcefully released huge amounts of energy from his body, overwhelming the cage surrounding him until it burst, blasting energy that finally collapsed the walls and destroyed half the city, turning it into rubble.

    Looking down, he saw Elora collapsed on the ground, no doubt from the backlash of having her technique overwhelmingly crushed.

    Raising his left hand, he caught the wrist of the attacking Igor shadowblight, probably thinking Damien was unaware of his approach.

    Deciding his spear wouldn''t do, he conjured a short sword made of destruction energy, cutting off Igor''s arm at the elbow.

    The man grunted, teleporting closer to his image. Igor glared at Damien with pure hatred and a fear that he tried and failed to hide.

    "You will be my scapegoat and promise on what is surely to happen when you people refuse to listen to warnings," He said, looking at Igor whose fear was beginning to take charge as he understood what was about to happen.

    The man decided to go all out.

    From the sea of shadows on the grounds, dozens of tendrils rose to try and hold him down, the man came in next with speed that shook the air, his hammer raised high, power emitting from his body in massive waves.

    Deciding not to take an attack like that head-on, Damien teleported away, appearing next to the man''s image.

    Before Igor could understand where he had gone, Damien raised his spear, taking aim and infusing it with huge amounts of destructive cosmos energy, he threw.

    The spear crossed the distance within eye blinks. Before Igor could fully dodge, it pierced him through the back, piercing through armor and into his body. Igor wouldn''t have died from an ordinary mortal wound, as he had already crossed the threshold and was on the path to the higher realms. What killed Igor was the energy infused into the weapon, giving it power enough to kill a spirit lord.

    Igor exploded from the inside, his limbs and body finding different directions to land.

 Chapter 16 - Leira

    Ten years ago

    Edge of the Solarian jungle

    Withdrawing his spear, Damien dodged a spear slash to the face. He countered by stabbing at his opponent''s midsection, which was deftly parried, unbalancing and leaving him wide open for his opponent who stepped in closer.

    Panicking, Damien tried a desperate attack with his unarmed left hand, which was easily batted away, leaving him completely wide open.

    His opponent took the opportunity by sweeping Damien''s legs off of him with a swift kick. He landed flat on his back with a grunt and a temporary loss of breath, courtesy of the wind getting knocked out of him. He attempted to get back up when his view was blocked by the spear tip pointing in between his eyes.

    Damien looked up at the grinning face behind the spear. Sighing, he said. "You win, again."

    "Not for much longer," Keilan said. "You keep improving at an alarming rate. Soon enough, I''ll be the one on my back," He looked a little morose.

    "I''m not so sure about that," Damien replied, now trying to comfort the other boy. "You''re also improving at a fast rate, too."

    "Not as fast as you. Eventually, you''re going to surpass me in sheer speed and skills," Keilan said. "We are already equally matched in speed, and soon enough you''ll also match and eventually surpass me in skills, too."

    Damien wanted to argue that maybe Keilan was wrong, that maybe Keilan would continue to take the lead in skills, but was interrupted.

    "He''s right, you know," Said Elias, Keilan''s dad. "You keep improving at an outstanding rate that in a few months or a year, you might surpass me." Instead of sad, as Damien worriedly expected, he looked excited.

    Elias had been the hunter who''d saved Damien from the jaws of a wild cat in the jungle, saving him from a slow, painful death. He was also Keilan''s father, too.

    Having discovered an interest in the spear just from watching Keilan and his father train every day for weeks. Elias had noticed Damien''s interest and had invited him to join. Damien had quickly taken to wielding a spear like a fish to water. In a few short months, through diligent and constant training, he had learned what took Keilan years to learn.

    "I can''t wait to witness the level of skill you''ll achieve in a few short years," The man said, wistfully. "That''s enough for today, though. You two should go wash up and get some food. If you need me, I''ll be at the tavern," He then stopped and looked at both boys. "Keilan, I know you like the view of Damien on his back with you standing domineeringly over him, but sometimes, try to lend him some helping hand." He pointed at Damien who was still on the ground, having forgotten to get up.

    Taking the hand extended to him, Damien rose and dusted off the sand from his body.

    "We should go take our baths, I''m really hungry," Keilan said, his stomach loudly grumbling just in time.

    They waved goodbye to Elias and then walked into the house.

    The house wasn''t too large. It contained three bedrooms and a sitting room, with a comfortable kitchen. Bathrooms and toilets were in each room, thereby avoiding bathroom traffic.

    There was a yard both at the front and back of the house, with the one at the back used for training.

    Walking into the house from the back door, their paths to the bathroom was hijacked by the smell coming from the kitchen. Following the smell like wolves to a kill, they approached the kitchen to find Mara busy with a salivating soon to be done meal.

    Noticing them before they could enter, she scolded. "Out, both of you. Go get cleaned up. I won''t have dirt dragged into my kitchen." She shooed both of them from the kitchen.

    "But maaa! We''re so hungry and the food smells fantastic," Keilan whined.

    "Quit whining and go freshen up. The smell coming out of you both is beginning to overwhelm me," She said, waving them away while covering her nose. "Look at Damien," She pointed at the retreating Damien. "He''s already leaving to go take his bath. First come, first serve."

    Keilan turned around to pursue Damien, but by then he was already running for their shared room.

    "Betrayer!" Keilan shouted while he chased Damien. "Wait up, I need to tell you something," He called as if Damien would fall for such tricks.

    By the time Keilan got into the room, Damien had already gotten into the bathroom, shutting the door.

    "I''ll get you for that! You hear me!? I''ll get you!" Keilan shouted from the other side.

    "Oh, I hear you!" Damien shouted back. "Keep shouting and maybe I''ll hear you better!" He snickered.

    Ever since he had agreed to stay with them, they had taken good care of him and treated him like one of their own. He and Keilan had quickly gotten along with each other, the other boy had taken it as his duty to stay with Damien all the time, making them almost inseparable.

    Apparently, finding a boy his age who he actually liked was rare. Damien never understood what was about the village boys that Keilan didn''t like; the other boy refused to say anything, though, so Damien didn''t push. They did almost everything together, from training with the spear to learning how to hunt. The parents even knew them well enough to send them on chores together, even the villagers had begun to call them twins.

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    Damien never figured out his age, so he had taken the age of fifteen as his official age since he looked like a fifteen-year-old.

    After Damien finished taking his bath and was freshly cleaned up, he opened the door, smiling.

    "You can go take your bath now," He said to the other boy, grinning.

    "I''ll get you back for that," Keilan said, standing up from where he had been sitting, facing the bathroom door.

    "I''ll still get to eat before you, though," Damien snickered; he then mimed, licking his lips and rubbing his stomach to taunt the other boy.

    Keilan murmured something that Damien didn''t hear, and then he took off his dirty shirt and threw it at Damien.

    Damien dodged the thrown projectile, laughing at Keilan. "You have such terrible aim," He said. The other boy grumbled and then got into the bathroom, slamming the door.

    When Damien had accepted to stay, Keilan had requested for them to stay in the same room, which had then led to a little rearranging.

    They had taken away the big-sized bed in the middle of their room and had brought in two comfortable single-person beds, placing them on the side of the room, with double windows between them. The large wardrobe had then been moved to the wall facing the room''s entrance, with the reading table placed opposite their beds.

    Taking a black shirt paired with black pants from the wardrobe, he put them on and then walked to the mirror placed over the reading table. He took a comb that was left on the table, probably by him.

    Combing his grey hair. A few days after he had arrived, he had begun to grow hair, and shocking everyone but him, it was grey. At the start, they had been worried about him. They had even called in healer Salem to take a look at him, thinking he had some wasting sickness that was turning his hair grey.

    The Healer had also been worried about the prospect of a young child having a wasting sickness. After checking him thoroughly through magical means he couldn''t figure out, she had proclaimed him free of every form of sickness and disease, which they also found odd but were still comfortable with. Over the months, he had taken care to prevent his hair from reaching his shoulders to prevent his vision from being blocked.

    Done combing his hair, he went on to the kitchen.

    The food was already served when he arrived. Rice with cut vegetables placed on top, combined with the wafting aroma of a large slice of fried meat placed at the side.

    Not waiting, he took his seat and began digging into his food.

    "Slow down there, or you might choke," Mara warned, stepping into the kitchen.

    Damien took the advice, although he struggled to ignore his stomach as it urged him to dig into the food with abandon, with his nose supporting it.

    "The food is delicious," Damien complimented. "I don''t like vegetables, but this one doesn''t taste like the other."

    "Thank you, and the reason it doesn''t is that it was fried, and I mixed some ingredients into it, too," Mara replied.

    "What are they?" Damien asked, intrigued.

    "Come learn how to cook and I''ll teach you," She replied, looking at him with a knowing smile on her face.

    Damien scrunched his face, which made Mara laugh out loud.

    "What are you two talking about?" Keilan asked, walking into the room.

    "Damien wants to know my secret ingredients for the vegetables but doesn''t want to learn how to cook," Mara answered, eyeing Keilan head to toe.

    "Did you actually take your bath, or did you just pour water on your body and call it bathing?" Damien said, a smile beginning to show on his face.

    Keilan gave him a side eye, silently telling him to shut up. Damien''s smile widened.

    "Of course, I took my bath," Keilan said, trying to put on an innocent face. Mara saw through it. "You can smell the scent of soap on my body."

    "Aside from the aroma of the food, the only smell entering my nose is the smell of an unwashed body," Damien''s smile was turning into a full-blown laugh.

    Keilan glared at him, finally making Damien laugh. The other boy turned to his mother with an innocent face and tried to smile sweetly. She didn''t buy it.

    "Don''t for one minute think I believe you, but you can go eat your food. Afterward, you''ll help me with the dishes, deal?" She said.

    Keilan quickly agreed, taking his seat on the chair beside Damien.

    They were already way into their food when another person stepped in.

    "Mother! Look what father got for me," She showed her mother a little female doll made with threaded cloth and patchy strands of hair on its head that made it hard to identify. To Damien, it looked monstrous.

    Leira was Keilan''s younger sister at seven. She had long, wavy brown hair with black eyes, just like her mother, unlike Keilan,, who took his blonde hair from his father.

    She had this innocent face and a cute smile that made her instantly likable, unlike Keilan who looked like he was up to no good whenever he tried the look.

    "I''m pretty sure Dad made that and then told you he bought it," Keilan said. "No wonder it looks like a horrific monster."

    "Keilan!" Both Damien and Mara scolded at the same time. Mara tried to calm Leira before she got angry while giving Keilan the silent look, warning him not to escalate things further. Damien just sat there, covering his mouth and trying to hold back laughter.

    Leira gave Keilan a look which was supposed to be intimidating but it just made her look cuter.

    "You wouldn''t know monstrous if it looked you right in the face," Leira replied. "I''ve seen how you act around the mayor''s daughter."

    Keilan laugh was cut short, which made Damien burst out laughing again. He laughed till tears began streaming out of his eyes.

    Leira sat on her chair with a triumphant look. Mara tried to stay neutral, but Damien saw the mirth in her eyes.

    "Enough of that. Keilan, stop taunting your sister, and Leira, don''t imply such things about another person," Mara said, looking at them until they both nodded in agreement.

    They got back to their food. When they were done, Leira said. "I saw Borvin boasting about how he was going to choose a fire aspect during the affinity ceremony."

    "His funeral," Keilan said. "When he eventually burns himself, at least it''ll teach everyone a lesson not to let a dumb overgrown bully play with fire."

    "Language," Mara scolded. "Besides, you aren''t meant to see the elements physically, but by going at it with feel alone and a sense of rightness."

    "I want a leaf aspect," Leira said.

    "There''s no such thing as a leaf aspect you du¨C," He stopped at the look Mara gave him. Continuing, he said. "Besides, you can''t be picking any aspect this early, you still have years to go before your affinity ceremony comes,"

    "Can''t I do it now?" Leira asked, her eyes pleading.

    "You can''t do yours now, baby," Mara said, rubbing Leira''s head affectionately. "You''ll have to wait till your body can take in energy safely before you think of participating in an affinity ceremony."

    Leira nodded, a determined look on her face. "I''ll wait till I''m old enough to take in energy, and then I''ll get the leaf aspect," She looked around the table challengingly, daring anybody to refute her claim.

    Nobody dared.

    "Alright, finish your food, Keilan, don''t bother running, you''ll be helping me with the dishes," She looked at Keilan who had a guilty expression on his face.

    "Mum, can I help too?" Leira said, a smile on her face.

    "Yes you can, honey," Mara returned the smile.

    Leira''s smile widened.

    Finishing their food, Damien joined them in washing the dishes. Leira demanded to be allowed to wash too, to which she was obliged. Mara eventually had to rewash everything Leira did.

    When they were done, Mara went on to the market to get the ingredients for dinner, while Damien, Keilan and Leira went outside to play.

 Chapter 17 - An Unexpected Arrival

    Levitating, Damien watched the massively tall shadow behemoth turn into motes of energy.... Energy which then began to disperse, returning to the world.

    That was the thing with killing Spirit lords; once dead, their astral images returned to their origin, to the power that was used in their creation.

    Despite the apparent ease with which seemingly he accomplished the feat, Damien knew that destroying another''s astral image wasn''t a trivial thing to do. He knew the absurd amount of energy and willpower he had put into it. Elora had only made it easier as she succumbed as her willpower failed to hold against the pain that she surely would have felt from her soul damage. In essence, the easiest way to destroy an astral image was a simple universal rule: be vastly stronger.

    He floated down toward the unconscious woman. Looking at her, he could sense that she wouldn''t be advancing any further in her paths, and telling from how closely non-existent her astral image was, he could only sense a tiny part, which was still unconsciously protected. She wouldn''t die.

    Destroying a Spirit lord''s image didn''t necessarily mean their deaths, as it was still just a part of their path, a truly important part. Mostly, they''d just suffer the setback of temporarily losing stages in their path. Looking at Elora now, he could sense she had suffered more. Her passive aura had decreased significantly, going from that of a fully-fledged Spirit lord to a Monarch on the verge of ascension.

    Maybe she could find advancement in conceptual understanding, but aside from that, she was done.

    Pulling out an alchemical health potion from his soul storage, he was just about to administer it when he felt himself being approached.

    "This one greets the Spirit lord." A voice said.

    He turned around to the view of a woman with beautiful black hair and eyes. And from the tattoo on her shoulder, he identified her as one of Cirin''s Monarch realm essence wielders. She was accompanied by chosen Ymal, who kept looking around with obvious fear and trepidation as he witnessed the scale of destruction wrought on the land.

    He nodded to her in acknowledgment, thinking her there simply as a witness when he was interrupted again, this time with an explosion of sound and a heavy displacement of air.

    Appearing and almost blowing Ymal away if not for the Monarch''s quick reaction in plucking him out of the way, Keilan yelled. "A few days! I left you for a few days and what did you do? You go and start a fight, decimating a city and killing an Empire Spirit lord!" He said while simultaneously pointing at the devastated city, which had been reduced to less than rubble, and then moving on to the dead form of ShadowBlight. "And if that''s not all, you then leave another with a terminated path!"

    By the time he was done, Damien was sure he could see smoke steaming out of both his ears.

    "In my defense, I did give them a warning," Damien replied defensively, instantly teleporting to the still-screaming Empire spy. With barely a gesture the snake was reduced to ash. "I told this one to deliver a warning to his superiors not to interfere in my business, and what did they do? They went ahead and attacked the city barely two hours later."

    His excuse didn''t work.

    "Are you surprised!? They are the Empire for crying out loud! They don''t listen to any warnings until it gets beaten deep into their skulls!"

    "That''s what I did! I beat it into their skulls." Damien said.

    They both stopped, having remembered that they were not alone and that they were supposed to act as mysterious otherworldly figures instead of arguing like children.

    Sighing, Keilan said. "You know that the Empire would have immediately sensed the death of their Spirit lord; heck, the whole world should have sensed this fight just from their manifestation alone. We can''t take that kind of heat right now."

    "I''m not going into hiding again," Damien''s face hardened.

    Keilan covered his face in clear exasperation, sighing, "We''ll talk about this later," He gestured at the potion in Damien''s hand and then to Elora. "Why do you want to heal her? Don''t tell me you''re banking on her gratitude and adoration for you saving her life after you ended her path.

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    "No," Damien snorted and then laughed. "That''ll be a sight to see, the great poison mistress transforming into my very own adoring fan. Although what I plan isn''t too far from what you just said. I''m simply going to turn her into my very own messenger.

    "It crossed my mind that they might not take seriously a message delivered by a mere lord stage... a man who they definitely now perceive as a betrayer," He added. "The warnings might stick If it''s been delivered in a casket carried by their very own half-dead poison mistress."

    He then poured the potion into her mouth; it wouldn''t heal any spiritual injuries, only the physical ones, and any temporary backlash from strain would quickly disappear.

    Sure enough, her wounds began closing and she began showing signs of stirring.

    Addressing the Monarch. "What do you want?"

    Clearly nervous at being addressed directly but still showing discipline and speaking clearly. "I wanted to inquire if the lord needs any help or errands delivered."

    "I don''t know about needing help but I need a message delivered," He told her. "Go back and inform your queen what has happened here. And tell her that I said she should hope for peace but be prepared for war."

    The Monarch nodded, taking Ymal with her, and they left.

    "Now, for your own errand," Damien said, turning to the awakened spirit lady. "Knowing your Emperor, he''d have already sent a force the moment he sensed your loss," He couldn''t help but smile at that. "Or he might even be coming himself. Hopefully, I won''t be here when they arrive. What I want you to do is deliver a warning, the same one I gave your spy here," He pointed at the inert spy, having been overwhelmed by the agony and then going unconscious. "Inform anybody that comes to investigate that should they interfere anymore in my interests, they wouldn''t like my reply." He said, staring pointedly at her spiritually broken form.

    Done with all that, he was about to leave when her voice rasped.

    "Please kill me; I can''t go back like this." The great Elora Darkfang, mistress of poison and terror of the night, begged.

    Looking back, he replied. "What aim would killing you achieve for me," He then nodded at the unconscious spy. "If you die, my message would still get delivered, but it wouldn''t carry the same weight as if you delivered it yourself. So be a good girl and wait till your people come for you. You can do whatever you want with yourself after, I don''t care."

    Turning back, he began making his way back to the city.

    "Why are you heading back there? it''s nothing but rubble." Keilan followed.

    "Before we parted, I told you I felt a pull somewhere; well, this is it, and I''m not leaving until I discover what drew me to this city," Damien answered.

    Arriving at the barrier where the city walls had been before it was reduced to rubble, they gently floated off the grounds, taking a slow flight into the city.

    Looking at it, the city was unrecognizable from a few hours ago. Most of it had either turned to rubble from the shockwaves or turned to black poisonous sludge, courtesy of Elora.

    "Damn, you guys really did a number on this one, didn''t you? And you didn''t even manifest your astral image," Keilan whistled.

    "I was mostly trying to buy time for the people to flee; I couldn''t very well add more destruction by summoning my image, could I? Besides, it wasn''t needed."

    "They must have been smart people to have fled the city quickly, and summoning your image definitely wouldn''t have left anything remaining of the city."

    They calmly made their way toward the middle of the city, levitating over the temple. Of all the buildings in the city, the temple showed the least damage. Although a large portion was collapsed, the rest was surprisingly intact, with only a few cracks running through the walls of the intact portion.

    Damien waved his hands, channeling energy; both the intact and the destroyed parts of the temple were turned to dust, the wind blowing it away an instant later to reveal a large hole bored deep into the foundation.

    Damien spread his senses, following the hole until it ended in the mysterious cavern. He said ''mysterious'' because his senses soon came to a halt, unable to go further.

    He and Keilan looked at each other, agreeing, they both jumped into the hole, the wind whistling past them as they both fell deeper. It took several minutes until they reached the cavern, their feet touching down gently on the soft sand.

    Obviously, darkness enveloped the room, but at their level of progressions, the darkness was practically ignored.

    The cavern was empty except for two objects which hovered off the ground. He could see layers of runes drawn on the ground surrounding the objects. He detected runes of concealment and containment, as well as enchantments that linked some other runes to somewhere else.

    He assumed the linked runes were redirected to other identical runes drawn somewhere in the city that were meant to collect and power the city. Now that most of the city was destroyed, the runes certainly included, there was no place to redirect the energy to, which explained the energy buildup and the runes that were already eroding. Though it would take a few months for the runes to completely erode, the side effects? Probably another decimation of the region.

    Getting closer, he sensed clearly what was only faint at the cavern''s entrance.

    "An energy buildup at this stage could completely level the city, give it a few months and this whole continent could go through another calamity, probably sinking the entire continent at the worst, " Keilan sighed. "I assume the World Spirit isn''t thrilled about this."

    "No, I am not." A voice intoned, quiet yet carrying with it the weight of a World.

 Chapter 18 - World Spirit

    "No, I am not."

    They both froze, tense, and their senses spread wide in a bid to capture the location of the voice. Damien was prepared for a fight, even though he knew it was likely to result in his death. When the voice came back, though, it was from behind them, bringing a rush of fear and adrenaline down his spine.

    "I am here."

    "Ahhhhh!" Keilan screamed, jumping toward Damien, who, out of reflex, caught him in a princess style.

    Damien looked at the grown man in his arms, eyebrows raised, and a smile began tugging at his lips.

    "Shut up," Keilan muttered, pushing Damien off and stepping back on his feet. He stood back tall, head raised high, as he tried to grasp his lost dignity.

    Turning back to the apparition in front of them, Damien stared, apprehensive as he saw what hovered before him. It was an orb-like thing of blue, brown, and green glowing colors, brimming with veiled power. It looked like a miniature planet.

    "You''re the world spirit," Damien said, realization dawning.

    "Very astute," The world spirit said. "I am called Ra."

    "Your name is Ra? I didn''t know World Spirits had names. Did you choose it? Or were you born with it?" Keilan blabbered out and Damien hurriedly slapped him on the back in a bid to shut him up, fearful that the world spirit would take offense.

    "I am a sapient being, do I not deserve a name?"

    "No! I mean - you....¨C I," seeing that he was making things worse, he murmured. "I''ll just shut up now."

    Seeing that the world spirit hadn''t taken offense, Damien gestured at its form. "I haven''t heard of you appearing in physical form before."

    "I do not. I do not see a reason to. But special times arise that require more of my attention."

    Immediately figuring out what it meant, Damien pointed, "Like those things?"

    "Yes."

    Outwardly, he projected calm, but deep inside his curiosity was burning like a sun. "So what are they?"

    The world spirit was quiet for a while, and Damien was beginning to fear it wouldn''t answer when it spoke, "I do not know."

    Fear and surprise warred within Damien as he considered the implications of what the world spirit had just admitted. Higher realm beings hated admitting to any faults or failings of their own, they instead would decide to smite anyone who would be stupid enough to point something like that out. For the world spirit, a being without equal, to admit to its lack of knowledge on something as drastic as this.... Damien couldn''t even comprehend.

    "If you don''t mind me asking," Keilan said. "Why are they still here? I''ve read and also heard stories about you, and I know that you''re vehemently against anything harmful residing anywhere on your body, to the point of excessive aggressiveness."

    "True. When these objects crashed into me, I was wrathful and would have blasted the whole of this continent out into space to curb the desolation that was spreading. It was just like those bodily micro-organisms you flesh beings get; harmless at first, but if left to grow further, could result in serious consequences."

    "But you didn''t destroy them, why?" Keilan boldly asked and Damien shot him a glare.

    Once again, the world spirit took some time before it answered, "Because I made a promise."

    They both quieted at that. It was unheard of, unimaginable even, for a world spirit, a being renowned for destroying anything on its body capable of causing it harm, to make a promise to do the opposite.

    "To whom?" Damien wanted to know who would make a world spirit keep such a promise.

    "A fellow Ascendant like myself, one much more powerful." It noted their shock, continuing. "The leader of this settlement did inform you of the origin of the city, did he not?"

    Damien nodded, not surprised that the world spirit was aware of his conversation with chosen Ymal. His attention was hooked on the first sentence it had said though, and its hidden implications. What it hadn''t said but had implied was that it had been forced. Who had the power to force a world spirit into doing something it obviously hated? Damien shivered, again.

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    "I was given enough shielding to counteract any further desolation that would have stemmed from the objects." A line appeared, pointing at the runes inscribed on the magically enforced concrete floor. "This protection was meant to last a few thousand years even though the being meant to claim them should have arrived in a few short years."

    "Claim them?" Damien asked.

    "Yes, these objects did not crash into me by mistake," the world spirit said, this time with an undercurrent of anger in its tone.

    "They were directed," Damien concluded.

    "Yes, a few years before you appeared," the world spirit said, and this time Damien truly felt fearful.

    "Why are you telling us this?" Keilan asked, and the wind quivered as it sensed his emotion.

    Damien was satisfied that all his questions had been answered, thrilled even, but the truth was that no higher being, especially one like the World Spirit, would choose to field question after question from people like him without a reason. He knew it, and the world spirit definitely knew it.

    "Because, I believe these are meant for you."

    Damien and Keilan looked at each other, shock plain on their faces at what the world spirit had just said.

    Over the years, Damien had come up with a lot of different theories about his origin. All of them had been disappointedly disproven. This was the latest in a round of leads that he had tried, and he was afraid to hope.

    "How are you sure they were meant for me?" Damien asked, mind swirling at what this meant.

    "Instead of explaining," It pointed to a rune that was still intact. Studying it, Damien saw that the rune was a lock, meant to be opened by only a unique energy. "Why don''t you try."

    "What if it doesn''t work?" Keilan asked, a small gust of wind swirling as his worry bled through.

    "Then you would be dead and I would have to sacrifice a piece of my being by blasting this blighted continent into space. I will no longer stand for the proximity of this thing," it said, unconcerned about the likely possibility of Damien''s death. Though he was worried, he wasn''t surprised. World spirits were beings of pure logic, emotions were as foreign to them as fire was to ice. He would have been more worried if the world spirit had shown any sign of care toward his health.

    "Wait!" Keilan called out. "What of the massive energy building inside there?" He pointed at the runes which were slowly eroding as they spoke. "That level of energy could be fatal."

    Having decided, Damien said. "I won''t know until I try."

    He moved forward, almost changing his mind as Keilan pleaded with him. "Dame, please, don''t do this."

    Damien turned towards his brother. "I have to, Kei. This could be the answer I''ve been searching for."

    His brother''s voice cracked. "Not at the cost of your life. If the price of discovering your ancestry is marching into that fog of death over there, I''d rather have you not knowing, at all."

    Damien smiled. "I''ll be back, I promise."

    He turned before he could change his mind, walking closer. He could feel the incomprehensible amount of energy building up inside the rune ward. Keilan was wrong; that amount of energy would instantly obliterate both him and Keilan if his gamble played wrong.

    He studied the objects. One was a tiny male figurine, inches tall, and completely grey. Surprisingly, the figurine was extremely detailed, showing an exquisite male physique covered in something that looked like a suit. The other was an orb-like construct of purplish color. Only one of them was emitting the massive energy though: the figurine.

    Fear and anticipation warring within, he summoned energy from deep within himself, channeling it in strands toward the rune. The moment his energy touched the single rune, a suction force appeared. It used the strands as a bridge, and to his horror, it instantly emptied the last drops of energy in his soul well.

    And then the rune lit up.

    The entire cavern ignited in a blinding silvery color, lighting the whole room in a blinding silvery light. Damien was forced to tightly shut his eyes as the light threatened to blind him. It took a few seconds before the light finally died down into a dull glowing throb, like a beating heart. And to his shock, the floor was now unmarred, all previous runes cleared.

    All was tense for a while, like the calm before a storm. Damien was already breathing in a sign of relief when grey energy blasted out in a wave, instantly turning everything in its path to dust. Damien turned to run but to his mounted horror, he felt his body unable to move, gravity pressing down hard on him. Anger burned within him as he desperately tried to teleport, but space was instantly locked down as another will cancelled his working. With his senses, he could see Keilan, also frozen with his face in a mask of terror and fury and his hands outstretched towards the apparition that was the world spirit.

    The energy wave kept approaching, a wall of instant death and desolation that would instantly reduce him to nothing.

    Damien closed his eyes as the wall got close. He blamed himself for his foolishness, and tears threatened to pour down his eyes as he saw Keilan.... His brother would die because of his stupidity.

    When the energy struck him, it instantly froze in its path and a chilling cold then filled his body as he felt something enter him, seemingly searching.

    It seemed to have found what it was looking for because, in the next moment, the cold retreated, and the energy wave began condensing, converging on the figurine in a whirlpool-like manner.

    Instantly, from a few feet away, the figurine disappeared, appearing a moment later an inch from Damien''s body. It floated in front of him for half a second before it slowly sank into his body, melting into him. And for the first time, Damien felt something he wasn''t aware was missing returned to him, and a feeling of completeness returned to him.

    [Oh, hello Damien, nice to finally meet you.]

    Damien couldn''t reply as his vision faded, and he crashed into unconsciousness.

 Chapter 19 - Cosmo

    Ten years ago.

    Edge of the Solarian jungle.

    "Visualize the flow of Cosmo deep within you, as it flows through your body. You are presently incapable of seeing it, but your newly awakened senses will," Healer Salem said in a calm, soothing voice.

    Damien focused deep within himself, trying and failing to find his soul well. His spiritual senses were only just recently awakened, so he didn''t have much range to it. On a hunch, instead of trying to visualize the well of Cosmo already within himself, he focused his senses on the ambient Cosmo energy around him and then began tracing it back to the stream leaving his body. Finding that too, he focused on the silvery stream of energy flowing out of his body, tracing it back toward himself until he found an untainted line of silvery energy flowing out of the lower part of his stomach.

    "For those of you that have successfully located your Soul well, I want you to slowly run your senses through it, familiarize it until you have a better grasp of it, what it feels like to your you. Remember, Cosmo is the building block of the universe; it is in everything and everyone, a neutral force, one which comes in a different taste to everyone.

    Damien breathed in, sinking deep within himself. He ran his senses into the well and around it, getting a feel for it. To him, it came off as a force of pure destruction, one that would annihilate all in its path, leaving nothing.

    "Now that you''ve done that, I want you to run your senses throughout your body, starting from your well. Trace a path through to your chest area where you will find something shaped like an upside-down five-pointed star. That is your heart meridian. Your heart meridian connects to every other meridian in your body through bridges in your body called pathways. I want you to trace the pathways connecting to your hands, feet, and head."

    Finding the line connecting to his chest area, he found what the healer called a ''meridian''; it was a dull silver-colored upside-down star. But there was something off with it. It felt tainted.... And blocked. Leaving that, he followed the pathways running to his hand meridian and, again, found it blocked, barred to the cosmic energy that seemed to want to fill it. Tracing the pathways from his hand meridian to the second hand meridian, he found the upside-down Star. It was placed in his palm section, and like the heart and the other hand meridian, it was also blocked. Doing the same for his feet and finally, his head yielded the same results.

    Opening his eyes, he looked up to the healer from where he was sitting, legs crossed. "I traced the pathways to my heart meridian, but it''s blocked, same as my other meridians. Why is that?"

    Someone snorted from the front. "They are meant to be blocked until you awaken them, idiot! Seriously, where did this fool come from?"

    Sitting next to him, Keilan was about to get up, anger and violence in his posture, but was stopped when Damien grabbed hold of his hands, Shaking his head. "Don''t give him attention; that''s what he wants; just ignore him." Damien didn''t bother lowering his voice.

    Hearing that, Borvin turned back to glare menacingly at him, his glare deepening when Damien gave him an unconcerned and amused smile.

    Healer Salem loudly tapped her walking stick on the ground, bringing the class''s attention back to her. "Borvin, interrupt my class again and see what I''ll do to you. And you," She pointed at Keilan. "Learn to control your anger. Damien is not so fragile that he''d need you to constantly come to his defense like a mother hen," She admonished and Keilan blushed, turning an embarrassed face away from Damien.

    "Now for your question," Healer Salem said, getting back on topic. "Your meridians are always blocked until you awaken them."

    He was about to ask another question when he was stopped by a raised palm.

    "Yes, you will be taught how to open your meridians, all of you," She said, looking around the room at the other students. "I will be there to personally monitor your awakenings."

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    "Normally, I''d immediately start you all with learning how to channel Cosmo," she continued. "But since none of you has already opened your meridians, it''ll have to be postponed. Class dismissed."

    Standing up, Damien and Keilan immediately began making their way out of the room, nodding to some of the kids they hadn''t had time to converse with at the beginning of the class.

    "Keilan! Wait for me!" Somebody called from the other side of the room.

    Looking in the direction, they spotted Boria walking fast towards them ¨C almost running ¨C smiling at Keilan with two of her upper teeth missing. Boria was the mayor''s daughter and also Borvin''s twin sister. It didn''t help that she was also ugly, with two incisors at the top of her mouth missing, and her nose was so long that it could be mistaken as a weapon. To add salt to the wound, she was also self-centered.

    As usual, she pointedly ignored Damien as she reached them, raising her chin and sniffing. "Keilan, why didn''t you come sit with me?" She said, sounding like a mewling cat. Damien almost snorted but held himself, instead, turning his face away to hide his obvious amusement.

    "Uhh.... Damien and I were already late for class, so we just decided to sit anywhere," He replied, face wincing and voice uncertain like he was waiting for something.

    And he was right

    "Damien this! Damien that! Why do you keep defending him!? You even chose him over me," She screeched. Her face was so scrunched that she almost looked like a bird. Unfortunately, she soon turned her anger to Damien. "And you! It isn''t enough that you''re not from this village, coming from god''s nowhere! An unwanted stranger from obviously a group of bush people; you have to steal my Keilan away from me, too!" She the screamed.

    They were already a distance from the healer''s home and were making for their house. People who were walking down the streets turned to look at the commotion.

    Damien said nothing, he didn''t even bother to look at her.

    "You see! See how he ignores me, his lack of manners. Don''t let him corrupt you, my boogy babe." She said, turning to Keilan and completely forgetting the fact that she started it.

    "I''m sorry, I''ll ta¡ª." What Keilan was about to say was interrupted by the group of boys who were now blocking their path, led by none other than Borvin.

    "Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Borvin said, trying for a mischievous look and instead, looking like he was holding down a fart.

    Damien and Keilan stopped. Looking at the cronies and then at their leader. "Go home, Borvin; I don''t have time for this," Damien said.

    Borvin''s face quickly turned red with anger. "You don''t talk to me like that, you nobody!" He spat.

    "You''ve got some nerve, publicly trying to start a fight like this. You know your daddy won''t help you if all hands are pointing at you as the instigator of this fight," Keilan said, ignoring Boria as she tried to drag him away from Damien.

    Damien saw the way some of the boys were fidgeting, signifying that some of them didn''t even want to be there.

    "For those of you that don''t want to take part in this nonsense, you can go, I won''t hold it against you," He said.

    Their nervousness intensified, looking at Borvin with fear.

    Their leader looked back at them. "If any of you take one step backward, I''ll make sure you regret it.".

    "Keilan, don''t risk yourself for him, I''m pretty sure he deserves what''s coming for him. He lacks manners and doesn''t know when to keep shut in front of his betters," Boria mewled and Keilan ignored her.

    "If any of you join him, you''ll be leaving here with broken bones and bruises," again, Damien warned.

    This time, three of the boys left, running away and leaving only three to back up Borvin.

    "Seems we''re now even matched," Keilan snickered.

    "Count the odds, dimwit, we outnumber you by two," Borvin replied, but now his cockiness was starting to disappear.

    "If you follow him, don''t bother coming to meet me," Boria said to Keilan, which he ignored, but Damien saw how he winced when she said those words.

    Borvin threw caution to the wind when he saw his twin sister being ignored. He attacked, followed by his three cronies.

    The fight didn''t last long.

    Damien took Borvin and one other, while Keilan handled the rest.

    He stepped in, kicking backward the leg of the second boy, who fell on his face when he lost his balance. He stopped cold the fist Borvin threw at him, returning in kind with his own punch to the nose. Borvin screamed in pain as his nose was broken, leaking blood.

    Turning to the other boy who had just stood up. He kicked him again on the side of his calf, watching as the boy fell on his arm, screaming as his arm snapped. Healer Salem would heal him in seconds.

    He turned just as Keilan was just finishing his fight. One of the boys bled from the mouth alongside the other who sat on his butt with a black eye.

    "Well, nice meeting you all. We should do this again sometime," He said, laughing as he and Keilan made their way home, leaving Boria who screamed as she rushed to her brother''s aid.

 Chapter 20 - Shocking Reveal

    Damien woke up to the calls of seagulls and the sound of water lapping on a shore along with the heavenly feeling of a very comfortable bed.

    He almost wanted to go back to sleep, content on remaining there forever, but was held back when his brain caught up to the fact that he was on a bed when, instead, the last thing he remembered was being in a cavern.

    His brain was still woozy and he somehow had a mild headache. He frowned, he shouldn''t be having headaches at all. Strange.

    Damien massaged his temple, his memories coming back slowly. The last thing he remembered was hearing a voice just before he lost consciousness, probably the world spirit. But the voice was different, so maybe I was hallucinating from getting chucked so bad, he thought but frowned again as he remembered that his mind couldn''t have been easily tampered with at his level, and certainly not from a mild headache.

    That was when his mind caught up to the fact that he wasn''t alone in the room.

    Sitting up, he finally took in the room. He was in a massive luxurious room, with walls painted of bleached white. A black and white motif hung from the ceiling in a beautiful display alongside a chandelier with hundreds of bulbs. A look through the open windows gave him a breathtaking view of an ocean that went on endlessly, complete with the smell of the calming ocean wind.

    "When you''re done admiring the room, you can then tell me how you''re feeling."

    Damien jolted, looking over to see Keilan sitting on a chair on one side of the room, an open book in his hands. He smiled when Damien turned towards him, but Damien could see the concern in the other man''s eyes.

    "Aside from this woozy feeling and the strange headache I have, I think I''m fine," he assured.

    Keilan only looked more concerned. "That''s strange; you''re not supposed to have any sort of naturally occurring mental illness. let me call in one of the healers to come have you checked." He stretched his hands to a set of runes drawn on the wall that would instantly alert a twin placed in another location, probably the doctor''s office.

    "No, no no, I''m sure I must have gotten thoroughly checked when I was unconscious," Damien said. "Judging from how undressed I am." He looked at the other man with a raised eyebrow.

    Keilan was unconcerned. "They had to remove all your clothing to be thorough. You don''t know how strange and alarming it is for a Spirit lord to suddenly lose consciousness."

    Damien sighed, he did know how worrying it was. The moment one began their path, they were eventually on the path to immortality. As they climbed higher in the realms of power, so were all their mortal faults stripped from them. The brain wouldn''t require sleep ever again, and the body''s stamina would be vastly upgraded alongside its fortification to new heights, increasing eyesight, hearing, sense of smell, and touch. Hell, even the mortal need to excrete waste would be removed as any food taken in would just be transformed into energy.

    At the rank of spirit lord, Damien was already halfway through to becoming something beyond the capacity of a world to contain. He should have been incapable of having any sort of natural illness, his body regeneration was too much for any sort of illness to take hold. So it had to be spiritual.

    "I remember unlocking those runes in the cave and the wave of energy that followed, I was about to teleport away, thinking you were going to follow, but I was stopped by......" White hot Anger flared through him as he remembered the world spirit''s success at trapping him at that moment, holding him down with gravity and space.

    "Yes, I remember that too," Keilan said, an undertone of anger in his voice. "But there''s nothing we can do about it."

    Reluctant as he was to admit it, he had to accept that Keilan was right. What the world spirit did was immoral to most sensibilities, but in the world of the truly powerful, it was viewed as their right. It was a universal rule that the strong ruled, everyone knew it. If you didn''t want to be subjected to the whims of others, you just had to get stronger

    "How did you bring me here? I thought for sure that we were dead. The last seconds before I lost consciousness was of the wave hitting me and then stopping short, which was strange. When it touched me, I felt something search through me, looking for something.... I don''t remember the rest, my head still feels woozy."

    "Something intruded in your soul?" Keilan leaned forward, eyes narrowed.

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    "That wasn''t even the strangest thing that happened. Was it only me? Or did you also hear the voice?" He asked.

    "What voice?"

    "The one that spoke to me before I lost consciousness, bypassing all my mental defenses straight into my mind. I don''t remember what was said."

    [I said ''Hello Damien, nice to finally meet you.]

    He froze. "Who''s that?"

    Keilan raised an eyebrow, looking around the room. "Damien, there''s nobody here. Are you sure you''re alright? Maybe I should call in a healer."

    "No, I''m alright. I just heard the voice again and I''m definitely sure that it''s real and not a figment of my imagination," he said, stopping Keilan from voicing his obvious thoughts.

    "Show yourself!" He said aloud. "I''m not afraid to blast this room to kingdom come just to flush you out."

    [Peace! Peace! Don''t blast! I come in peace.] Something flashed out of him, eliciting a scream from him that definitely was not manly.

    [I like this room, it would be a shame to see it destroyed,] The thing said. Damien looked up and saw a small man-shaped thing floating in the air, with its hands raised in a sign of surrender.

    "What are you?" Damien asked.

    The thing was shaped like a human, except it was grey from head to toe and seven inches tall. It was dressed in a tiny grey suit with grey hair that drifted slowly in the air like it was being caressed by the wind. It was practically looking sculpted, except its body was made of a grey glassy something that definitely was not clay.

    [I''m your multi¡ª] It didn''t get to finish its answer before it was slammed, flying to collide with the wall. Damien looked over at Keilan who was standing where the man-shaped thing had been, a raised book in his hands.

    "What did you do that for!?" Damien said.

    "Oh, I''m sorry. Am I not the only one seeing the strange GREY THINGY THAT CAME OUT OF YOU AND IS NOW FLOATING IN THE AIR, EVEN TALKING!" by the time he was finished, his face was red and his eyes had widened.

    [Hey! Who are you calling a grey thingy?]

    They both looked over to find the thing hovering behind Keilan''s head, hands on its waist as it glared at its aggressor.

    "Ahhhh!" They both screamed, looking between where it had been slammed on the wall a moment before.

    "Okay, okay, everybody, calm down," Damien said, waving down Keilan, who held his book up like a weapon, ready to swat the thing away mortal style. He had apparently forgotten that he was a Spirit lord and could bring down this entire building with a simple power flex.

    They both calmed, turning to look at Damien.

    He breathed in, calming himself also and switching his mindset to that of a spirit lord, as he should have at the beginning.

    He looked at the grey man. "You were about to tell me who you are."

    [Yes! I would have explained if not for this egg-headed being who attacked me without any reason! I mean, who does that?!]

    "Who are you calling egg-headed? You pipsqueak," Keilan replied, the air quivering as his emotion began bleeding through.

    The man thing gasped. [Did you just call me pipsqueak? I''ll have you know that it isn''t by height but what is within us." It waved its little fist at Keilan.

    "Oh, wha¡ª"

    "Enough!" Damien shouted. "You guys aren''t children. At least, some of you."

    [I''ll be mature and refuse to answer you for that. That''s me being mature.]

    Damien ignored that. "What are you?" He asked for the second time, his tone conveying his seriousness.

    [Hmm, how do I say this? It''s complicated, and you might not completely understand, but I''m your... Let me call it, your minder.]

    "My what now?"

    [Your minder,] it repeated, drifting slowly through the air to float in front of him. [And also many things.]

    "I don''t think I need a minder, and definitely one in your size. Don''t take it personal. I don''t understand the rest of what you just said."

    [Don''t mind my current size, my entire mass is In a spatial vault.]

    "Wait wait," Keilan interrupted. "Damien isn''t asking the right questions. What he should be asking is what you are and what you meant by being his minder. Since you both just met and I don''t remember him ever giving you a job."

    "That''s a good question," Damien said, turning to the thing.

    [Okay, where should I start? Hmm, I am a being that was specifically created to be of any assistance to you, from giving you advice pertaining to your paths and helping you avoid getting yourself killed.]

    "What about the ''utility'' part?"

    The thing sighed. [Usually, you are meant to have known this by now since we were supposed to have been together since before you awakened, but I can be anything for you.] it changed its shape from a humanoid into a small house and then a mounted animal. [See?]

    But that wasn''t what Damien was focused on. When it was done, a shiver ran down Damien''s spine. "What do you mean by being specifically created for me?" He asked, anxiety running through him.

    [What I said, I was created to be of any use to you,] it replied.

    Keilan then asked the question Damien should have asked. "Who created you?" His voice tense.

    It turned to face Damien. [Oh, your father.]

 Chapter 21 - Gray!

    [Your father] it said. [In a strange sort of way.]

    Damien''s mind froze for a second, anxiety within. It took a lot to unsettle him, as most of the time, he wasn''t even surprised by a lot of things. They were either things he already knew or things that were so within his prediction that they weren''t that surprising. But what the man thing had just said was so out of the blue that it took his mind a moment to process it.

    The mystery about where he came from had been bugging him for as long as he had begun searching for answers. He had come up with lots of theories that were later disproven when he couldn''t find any true facts to base them on. Like when he''d thought himself a lost prince from a faraway kingdom. Ambitious? Yeah, he knew. He and Keilan had searched library records for any royal lines that had any features resembling his. They''d also combed through libraries for lost lines but had still come up with nothing, not even a line with grey hairs as a major feature had come up.

    He''d even thought maybe his parents were the sort of secret powerful types, those powerful shadow families, wielding grey destructive powers like his and manipulating from behind the scenes. That had also come up with nothing, as he hadn''t even met anyone in years who wielded the same affinity as his. He''d checked the records of lots of kingdoms. Secretly, of course, but the results had still come up the same, nothing. He''d asked some of his contacts in some of the most powerful organizations to search for any lost records or something, but still....

    He knew that the answers to his origin could be found somewhere and it was just a matter of time before he found it, but he''d never predicted that the answers would just appear on his lap like that. Afraid to hope but still basking in the ray of sunshine that had just shone on him, he asked the question that had been on his mind for years.

    "Who are my parents?"

    [Sorry, I can''t tell you that.]

    And that was how clouds of darkness blocked out his ray of sunshine.

    Anger rose in him. "What do you mean you can''t tell me?" he said, stretching his hands to catch the creature

    Quickly backtracking, it replied. [I mean I can''t tell you the answers, yet.]

    "They''re my parents, I deserve to know who they are!" Damien couldn''t keep the anger from his voice.

    [Not when your life depends on it,] it said, plunging the room into a tense silence.

    "What do you mean by that," Keilan asked, tense, since Damien was too shocked to speak.

    [It means that the moment you find out who your father is, your life will immediately be on a timer, probably in seconds.]

    Fear and surprise gripped him in equal measure.

    Seeing as they were too dumbfounded to respond, the creature continued. [There are higher works in play here, and you knowing who your father is would bring unwanted attention down on you, attention that is definitely going to be murderously hostile.]

    Getting over his shock which kept coming back to back, he asked. "Attention from whom?"

    [You''re smart, I know, so smart that I know how easy it will be to piece who your father is the moment I tell you who his enemies are. Nice try though.] The creature danced out of his grasp, again.

    Having been caught, he raised his hands in exasperation. "How am I then supposed to know who my father is then!?" He shouted.

    [Easy, you have to grow in power to the extent you''re able to fend off any unwanted attention. You wouldn''t be able to fend off the truly powerful ones, but at least you''ll be able to protect yourself from their lackeys.]

    "You can''t expect me to start with nothing, do you?" He asked, eyes narrowed.

    [You have already been given clues to start with; you just need to leave this planet, and eventually, you''ll stumble on some answers.]

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    "What clues?"

    [Your powers, specifically your affinity. You''re not the only one wielding powers from the realm of destruction, start from there, and if you uncover a truth that''s not going to risk your life, I will explain more.]

    Damien was frustrated, murderously frustrated. How could a question which he had been searching for all his life slide out of his grasp the moment he came close? It was enough for him to blow the entire building apart in anger, but he calmed himself.

    Damien opened his mouth to argue, but Keilan stopped him with a gentle hand on the shoulder. He looked over to see the other man shaking his head. Accepting, he sighed. "What''s your name? I can''t keep thinking of you as a thing or it or grey man."

    [Oh,] it sighed, pleased that they were finally going to change the subject. [You were supposed to give me a name,] It said, turning to Damien.

    "Why? You can choose a name for yourself, right?"

    [Sure, but It would still be better if you did it.]

    "Trust me, you don''t want the ideas running through my head," Damien said. "What are you even supposed to be?" He asked.

    [In essence, I''m supposed to assist you in any endeavor you need me to,] it answered.

    "Why? I''ve been doing well by myself, I don''t see why I need any assistance from you."

    [Trust me, you''ll need it.]

    Damien frowned. "Since when we met, you''ve mostly denied me information... information that I''ve spent my entire life searching for, and now you want me to just trust you on word alone? I''ve allowed you into my head!"

    [The alternative is me letting you off and then you go stumble and get yourself in big trouble, trouble that''ll then get a lot of extremely powerful beings after you. I may not be exactly forthcoming, but my job is to keep you from any path that will lead to your death. Eventually, you''re gonna find all the answers to your questions, and when you do, another of my jobs is to get you strong enough to survive them.]

    Damien sighed. "Sorry, I''m just frustrated. I''ve been searching for answers for years now and it irks me to have all the answers in view but still can''t grasp onto them."

    [Don''t worry; get powerful enough, and answers will come rolling onto you.]

    Keilan had been quiet for their conversation but then chirped in to bring their talks to more productive results. "Nice that everyone''s calm now. Damien, we''ll find your answers, even if it means turning the earth over looking for it." He said with a confidence that actually soothed Damien.

    Turning to the grey thingy, he said. "As for you, we don''t have a name for you yet, so I''m just gonna call you Gray with a letter ''a'', and before you ask, that was the best I could come up with."

    "Seriously? Gray? That''s the best your mind could think of?" Damien couldn''t keep the mirth out of his voice.

    "Didn''t you hear? That was the best I could think of. It was either ''Gret'' or ''little man'', and I know how feisty he can be if I called him ''little man,''" Keilan replied.

    [Dodged an arrow there; you would have been toast if you had called me that, and besides, isn''t calling someone by their body color kind of racist?]

    "It isn''t if you''re completely grey."

    [Still don''t like it, I should be having cool names and such,] Gray replied.

    "Well, if you don''t like it, then you should come up with a better one," Keilan said, expectedly.

    Gray grumbled for a few moments, but he accepted the name.

    "Now that we''re done with the terrible naming ceremony, let''s move on to the more important things," he turned to Gray. "You said you''re some kind of assistant with other features, can you explain more?"

    Gray rubbed his tiny chin with his equally tiny fingers. [Like I showed you earlier, which you weren''t paying attention to by the way. As you get stronger, you will meet impossibly powerful beings, and if left alone, you will die. It could be from lack of quality armor or weapon, or even utility tools. I am here just Incase you need something overly rare.]

    [Damien, you knew how hard it is for a warrior to find a weapon that''s perfect for them,] it continued. [Some find good ones, but most never find the perfect ones. I was made to be that kind of perfect weapon for you.]

    "How are you so sure you''re what I need? Besides, how can you turn into a weapon when you''re so tiny?" Damien asked, emphasizing his point by pinching his thumb and index finger almost together while doing the same for one of his eyes.

    [If you recall the moments before you blacked out, you''ll remember the feeling of completeness when I bonded with you, like a lost part of yourself was just returned to you.]

    Damien nodded, frowning.

    [That''s your sign; I''ll never feel off when you''re wielding me; I''ll always have this complete rightness when being wielded by you,] Gray said with evident pride.

    [And about my size, trust me, it isn''t going to be an issue, see] it said, immediately melting into a kind of grey liquid, when it again took shape, it was in the shape of an eleven-foot-long war spear.

    Damien''s mouth dropped as he admired the spear and even Keilan was completely awed.

    The spear was eleven feet long, with a grey thick shaft. it was clearly made from some kind of unknown exquisite grey metal, but the evidence a few seconds ago proved him inaccurate. At both ends of the shaft was a two-foot-long blade, shaped like a leaf. The blade was so silver-coloured that it almost glowed, freeing Damien from any misconception on its sharpness. He didn''t doubt that the blade wouldn''t be able to cut through metal like butter.

    Gray turned back into his human form. [See, no problem with the mass; I could even become an armor if you want,] he said, turning into a sleek, grey-silver armor.

    "I have a different idea about the armor, but we''ll get back on that later," he said, continuing. "Can you only turn into weapons and armor?"

    [Oh, I can turn into many things, you just need to say it.]

    "Oh yes," Damien smiled excitedly, ideas running through his mind. "This will do just nice."

 Chapter 22 - We go to battle.

    Sitting in a deep dark cell, scared and not knowing where in the world he had been dropped into, Salin thought about how his life had come to this. He had been living the best life he could dream of, being regarded as important wherever he went. He saw the apprehension in people whenever he walked in, the knowledge that an empire''s Hidden protector was in the premises sent shivers down their spines.

    People whose names appeared in the Empire''s hidden organization''s book of death never saw him coming; one moment, they were alive, unaware that their lives had been put on a timer, and the next, they were gone¡ªdead, with a snap of the finger. And the ones who knew of his arrival always lived in terror wherever they ran to, thinking they could somehow escape his blade, their deaths were always lousy when it came.

    It had all come crashing down when he''d met that man¡ªA Spirit lord, as he''d been unfortunate to discover. Now that he knew better, he shouldn''t have followed the man; he should have run to the other side the moment he suspected something was wrong. Now he was paying for it.

    Stuck in a boxed-in cell with no entrance that he could see or feel and in a location he knew nothing about. There wasn''t even any sign of the critters that usually graced all kinds of prison cells. The only sign that he wasn''t alone was the high-pitched screams that kept jolting him every few hours. Voices of plea in different languages. Ironically, that had been the thing that clued him in as to where he was.

    The Warren.

    A place where the Empire kept its high-level prisoners, both in power and influence. He hadn''t been allowed in the place before, even his status as a hidden protector couldn''t get him the clearance. The Warren was a place of myth, where the empire kept its worst prisoners, either to be tortured continually for information or be left alone to wither and die, their only company, the constant screaming and begging of their fellow prisoners. And now he was sitting there, not as a visitor but as an inmate. Cheers, you couldn''t get any lower than this! He thought to himself.

    He had woken up next to an emotionally and spiritually crushed Spirit lady. His torturer hadn''t even paid him any kind of attention when he came too. Despite his evident terror when she was the first thing he saw waking up, the knowledge of what had been inflicted on him was still hot and new in his mind. He shivered at the memory.

    When other pillars had then started appearing, he had learned what had happened. One of the most feared and powerful people on the planet was left crushed and broken, never to rise again. The other? Dead, torn to pieces. All done by a single man.

    He was immediately taken into custody, no questions asked, they simply knocked him unconscious and threw him into this dark hole of terrors, leaving him here for days to stew and simmer in the screams that always pierced the everlasting darkness.

    When he''d had the time to sit and think coherently, he finally understood what he had escaped from. The fact that he had encountered that monster and then left unscathed was a cause for jubilation, but his current situation didn''t leave room for any sort of celebration.

    He was still in his head when he suddenly felt himself being dragged through space, unable to contest the mountain-sized will dragging him. "I thought teleportation was blocked in this place", he said to himself before he was whisked away, leaving his dark room once again empty.

    When he appeared, he immediately collapsed down on his knee, pressure pressing down on him. The sheer presence filling the room was so powerful that he felt the air refuse to enter his lungs as if the air itself didn''t want to be associated with him. He couldn''t think, and his vision was beginning to darken. I''m going to die, he thought, terror filling him. Tears were just beginning to fall from his eyes when, as suddenly as it came, the pressure lessened. It wasn''t entirely gone, just there, a constant reminder to the powers in the room. Given a reprieve from the crushing presence, he immediately drew in huge gasps of air, filling his lungs. It was at that moment he finally took notice of the other occupants in the room.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    Pillars.

    Eleven of them stood on both sides of the throne room in which he now found himself. The auras emanating from them were so crushing that it felt like he was holding up a mountain. The feeling almost made him collapse from sheer mental and bodily exhaustion.

    They were dressed in different outfits, from crisp militaristic to casual, and then to the opulent dresses that glittered with different pearls.

    His status in the empire as a hidden protector allowed him certain information, information which was only known by the top kingdoms¡ªthe Empire''s enemies. It was mostly uncertain information on the numbers of Spirit lords fielded by the Empire, but he knew for a fact that the Empire fielded a dozen Spirit lords, minus the Emperor, himself.

    It was a feat unaccomplished by any of the other kingdoms. So it was confusing at first to count only eleven spirit lords standing on both sides of the throne room, until he remembered that the Empire had recently lost a Spirit lord. Elora Darkfang stood in a corner of the room, head down. If he didn''t know for a fact that she was a Spirit lady, he''d have thought her a servant, judging from how she stood apart from the rest, like a lesser.

    The attention he drew when he appeared didn''t seem to be a good one, judging from the thinly veiled bloodlust radiating from most of the lords present. Even his patron, who was standing to one side, seemed to have a changed opinion about him. And there goes my only path out of this mess, he thought.

    The man with the single most powerful aura in the room was the Emperor. He was a fit man, if a little bit short by most standards. He had a toned body and face that looked sculpted, unnaturally handsome.

    Sitting on a golden throne with a sunburst sigil on the headrest. The throne was placed on a dais, with two guards standing on both sides at the foot of the platform¡ªboth powerful Spirit lords. The Emperor was putting on a red garment with black linings on the wrists and neck. A golden circlet rested on his red hair, matching his similarly golden eyes. Salin was forced to quickly avert his face when his eyes met those glowing golden eyes.

    "Come." His authority-filled voice was the only thing Salin could hear, and he dared not disobey. He crawled on his knees towards the foot of the throne, not daring to walk.

    When he stopped, he looked up to see the Emperor regarding him with barely contained anger. His leaking aura was filled with such heat and crushing force that Salin didn''t know if he was going to be burned first or crushed to death. Thankfully, the Emperor immediately reigned in his aura when he noticed Salin''s sheet-white expression.

    "Do you know why you have been brought here?"

    Salin nodded. "I unknowingly revealed classified information to an enemy of the Empire," he answered truthfully. It didn''t take him long to figure that one out; Elora Darkfang had accused him of it just before she had set one of her dark-wrought children down on him.

    "Not just any Empire enemy, the man you revealed classified information to possibly one of the greatest enemies of the Empire." The Emperor''s tone was measured, controlled.

    He turned deadly pale.

    "Your deeds led to the death of an Empire''s pillar and the partial destruction of another''s path." He gestured towards Elora whose head went down more in shame. "Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

    Quickly taking the opportunity presented to him. "Your Highness, may your name be forever exalted. I tell no lie when I say that I warned about the man when I was captured." Many would have hesitated at the leeway given, but Salin had been trained to take advantage of opportunities like this.

    The Emperor raised an eyebrow; he turned to regard Elora, who had begun shifting with apparent nervousness.

    "Continue," he said to Salin.

    "I was given a warning to pass on to my superiors. He warned us to stay away from any of his interests and he would do the same." Salin didn''t spare any details, exposing the truth that he was now sure Elora had failed to mention. "When I met with the Spirit lady and lord who came, I informed both of the warning I was told to deliver. My warning was discarded and I was subsequently tortured afterwards."

    "Is that so?" The Emperor said, looking at Elora with hardened eyes. She practically shook from all the attention diverted towards her.

    "Nevertheless, a reply must be sent, even if we were the ones that caused it due to sheer idiocy," he said, eyes smoldering with anger as he looked at Elora. "We must reply, otherwise our enemies will see us as weak."

    The Emperor looked up to coolly regard the other Spirit lords in attendance. Eyes glowing and voice hard.

    "Prepare yourselves, we go to battle."

 Chapter 23 - The Hurdles of progression

    Damien was still in his head about the things Gray said he could do¡ªthe implications of what he could do. He was ecstatic. At least now I don''t have to worry about finding powerful weapons and armor, he thought to himself, feeling a strange kind of relief. That was when a strange thought struck him. Voicing it, he asked. "Can your armor form be destroyed?"

    [Yes. Don''t look so surprised,] Gray said, motioning at Damien''s surprised face.

    Truthfully, Damien hadn''t expected the answer. He had begun having his strange belief that the little grey figurine couldn''t be destroyed, judging by the apocalyptic power it seemed to contain. So hearing it prove him wrong was kind of a surprise.

    [Don''t despair, it''ll take a massive amount of damage to truly damage me.]

    Damien frowned, confused.

    "What levels would you say is appropriate to truly damage you?" Keilan asked.

    [What, already began planning my destruction?] Gray said, to which Keilan only rolled his eyes. [To answer your question, it would take an ascendant level of power to even damage me.]

    Keilan whistled, turning to Damien. "Damn, that''s going to make you pretty overpowered."

    Damien could only nod slowly, still thinking about the implications. He knew very little about ascendants and even less about their levels of power. All he knew about them was that their powers were planetary, they couldn''t be contained to a single world. So for Gray to imply that only an ascendant could do any sort of damage to him, he laughed. Overpowered didn''t even come close to defining what Damien was going to become.

    [Pause whatever you''re thinking right now; it isn''t going to do you any good.] Gray swiftly interrupted Damien''s wild imagination of grand cosmic battles. [Let me warn you now, nothing good comes without a price. Wielding me isn''t something that should be taken lightly. Yes, you''ll become pretty overpowered for your tier, but you will still die if you become reckless.]

    Seeing their confusion, Gray expounded.

    [Wielding me only in weapon form puts a strain on your soul, but it''s so minimal it might as well not exist. Wielding me in armor form is another matter entirely, you would be protected to an insane degree, sure, but the price for power would fall heavily on your soul. You will not incur any physical damage, but your soul will take half the damage incurred. In normal circumstances, you would have been trained for years and your soul enforced to be able to handle me long term. But I''ll admit this is far from normal. We should have been together since your awakening, with me helping you through any delicate hurdles you wouldn''t be able to come back from. I will admit, your soul is strong, so strong that it''ll be able to handle me, but for only a brief period of time. Luckily, danger brings progress.] Gray finished ominously.

    Damien pouted, his idea of battling a certain ascendant quashed.

    "That''s still insanely overpowered, fighting with armor that cannot be damaged by anyone under ascendant level," Keilan said, cheering Damien up a little.

    [Yes,] Gray confirmed. [Unless the strain on your soul kills you first. My advice is for you to abstain from using the armor until you''re at a higher stage, hopefully Spirit King.

    [Although I was given a solution to that,] he continued, a look of confusion on his little face. [Did any of you happen to see a small orb, a little larger than me and glowing kind of purple?]

    "You mean this?" Keilan said, a purple glowing orb appearing on his hand.

    Damien and Gray looked at him.

    Keilan looked at them both, shrugging, "What? I took it when you fell unconscious. Been looking for a way to bring it up but haven''t had the chance." He held out the orb to Gray. "What does it do anyway? It doesn''t emit any kind of energy that I can detect."

    The orb floated out of his hands, levitating closer to Gray until it came to a stop, floating beside him. [This is your ticket to easily wielding me and also a road to faster progression,] he said, his knuckles ringing on the orb. [With this, you wouldn''t have as much strain wielding me as you would have. It''ll reduce the weight on your soul manifold and also help you progress faster, without drawbacks.]

    If Damien wasn''t shocked before, he was now. More powerful beings that he would pay a lifetime worth for this orb. And considering that the people who could come close to affording it were the ones who''d lived for a very long time, making them extremely powerful. Damien couldn''t even begin to imagine the amount this thing would bring

    Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    The one thing every essence wielder searched for at one point in life was a way to speed up their progression. Even he wasn''t innocent in this. They always get disappointed eventually. It wasn''t that there weren''t things to speed up their progression, there was, but the drawbacks were always unpredictable and not worth the results.

    Finding something that''ll progress you faster without drawbacks was something every wielder would kill for. Razing civilizations to nothing and committing genocides just to lay hands on any kind of object believed to speed up your progression without drawbacks.

    "That''s not possible," Keilan said, his face, a mask of shock. "There are always drawbacks."

    [Not when they are constructed by Damien''s father. It was made for him, so why would his father create something that''ll lead to heavy drawbacks?]

    "I don''t know who his father is, since you refused to even tell us his name," Keilan said with disbelief. "But I find it hard to believe that one man could create this and not make it public, right? The money one would make if he sold the orb would be beyond imaginable, You''d be a universally rich man!" He exclaimed.

    Gray remained quiet, giving nothing away.

    [So that''s another lead I''ve just given you.] Damien sat up, shocked. [Use it to find out his identity, but make sure you''re strong as hell to handle anything that comes your way when you find out.

    [Now, to get back on topic, this artifact was made as a countermeasure to the strain of wielding me, and also to other problem. So r¡ª]

    "What does it do exactly?" Damien interrupted. "All that you''ve been telling us are the aftereffects, but you haven''t said what this thing was exactly made to do?"

    Gray looked at them both for a moment before answering. [It increases the soul strength.]

    Everything was now coming together. "By increasing the soul strength, it removes the strain that affects the soul when you accumulate too much power too quickly, entirely bypassing the stalling effect."

    Gray nodded. [You don''t actually need that effect; I can perceive your soul, and it hasn''t reached that stage.]

    "But he would," Damien nodded at Keilan. "He''s pushed himself to Spirit lord in such short years that I''m sure he''s going to need to hold off on advancing for a while. We''re already seeing the signs."

    That was the problem with progressing too fast, there was always a drawback. Damien and Keilan had done it as a necessity to be free from the whims of the powerful who either wanted them dead or put in chains.

    Essence wielding was something that began with the soul and eventually leaked out into the body. The body was always fortified anytime the soul and spirit advanced bathed. The body was a physical manifestation of the soul''s power. Since the actual power to wield essence resided in the soul, it also dictated how fast you got to advance before the stalling effect kicked in.

    Everybody would need to slow down at some point, it was a universal law, as he''d learned. The soul could only take a certain amount of energy too quickly before it needed to slow down to digest.

    That was why, after rushing to Spirit in case quickly, they''d known Keilan was reaching his limits; he''d already noticed. Damien, on the other hand, didn''t even feel any sort of thing that he could qualify as a strain on his soul. He could continue advancing, but he''d restrained himself just Incase.

    Gray looked at him. [I know what you''re about to s¡ª]

    "I want to give the orb to Keilan," he said before Gray could finish, which made the little grey man visibly grimace.

    "Damien," Keilan started.

    "Why do you sound so surprised," he interrupted. "Did you think I was going to leave you behind?"

    "It''s not that. Damien, this thing is too important for you to just hand to me," Keilan said with obvious reluctance. "From what Gray has said, I take it that there''s a bigger plan in work here, which would require you to rise quickly. Giving this to me might disrupt that plan, and I don''t want to be the reason you slow down."

    Damien looked at him for a moment, the boyish face with blond hair and ocean-blue eyes. The closest friend he''d had since his awakening. They''d both faced tragedies together and had grown from it. Keilan had always been the only person who could rein his anger in, always able to calm Damien when he was too enraged. He''d never leave him behind. "I''d rather slow down my advancement than leave you behind. To be honest, it''ll pain me, but I''d do it for you. We''ve been through a lot together and I''m not ready to leave you behind. We''re brothers," he said, averting his face so they wouldn''t see the raw emotion peeking through his expression.

    Everybody was quiet for some time. Both Damien and Keilan took the time to compose themselves, while Gray just floated there, looking from one man to another.

    Keilan smiled, his eyes a little bit red. "We''re brothers," he repeated.

    Damien nodded. "And I''m not about to leave my brother behind. We''re going to climb heights of power together, and you more than deserve to stand beside me through it all," he said, to which Keilan immediately hugged him fiercely.

    "I love you, Dame."

    "I love you too," Damien replied.

    When they were done, they both looked at Gray.

    [I''d support this whole brotherly love thingy if Keilan wasn''t about to plan my demise.]

    Damien rolled his eyes and Keilan snorted.

    "I want to give him the orb," he repeated.

    [You do know that you''ll go through huge amounts of pain if you wield me without that orb?]

    "Like you said, danger brings progress."

    [Urgh, using my own words against me. I can''t force you, but are you willing to go through with this decision, For him?]

    Damien was steadfast. "Yes."

    Gray sighed, [You''re soo soo confusing. Alright, get ready,] he said, levitating the orb closer to Keilan''s chest. When it got to Keilan''s pale skin, it slowly sank into his body like water, making Keilan visibly shiver. The moment it fully sank in, Keilan froze, collapsing into unconsciousness.

    Lacking something to balance on, he crashed onto the ground.

    Damien looked at Gray questioningly, to which the tiny man shrugged.

    [Oops, forgot to mention that.]

 Chapter 24 - Emissaries

    Standing in the battle room of the palace of Cirin, the Capital city of the kingdom of Camlen, Spirit Lady Helera watched as a group of powerful influential Wielders gathered to discuss war plans.

    Standing slightly to the back of her queen, she reminisced back to the days when she was still just a simple Monarch wielder, an important one, but still just a Monarch wielder who saw spirit lords as myths, people to be viewed from a distance.

    It wasn''t that they were overly rare or something. Spirit lords were far more than a dozen on the planet. But aside from her former liege, it was hard to ever encounter one. Now she was in the same room with almost a dozen of them, and almost half of them her equal in strength.

    She had been an ordinary Monarch serving under the kingdom of Camlen. Just one dime a dozen, nothing special. Her luck came when she partook in a very intense borderland clash against some of the Solarian Empire soldiers. A battle founded on a chance encounter and a large bit of pride and arrogance. It had enabled her to rise past the ordinaries of the power hierarchy and into the elite ranks of the Spirit lords.

    Post-ascension, she had been brought to her previous liege then, getting the honor to see and speak to her sovereign. He had asked her a lot of things, from her pasts to how she saw her future, but eventually, she was let go. When she''d left the throne room that day, it was with an elevated position as one of her liege''s personal aides¡ªhis bodyguard.

    She had worked together with her liege since then, fending off the empire pillars with their combined strengths. But eventually, like everything, their luck had run out. Having been caught in the empire''s trap, they had fought the combined attack of five spirit lords¡ªa futile endeavor. Eventually, it dawned on them that their deaths could not be avoided.

    Her liege had then done something that had saved her life. Breaking one of his treasures, space was destabilized for a moment, and at that single instant, her liege had pushed her in through the newly created portal. "There''s not enough time for the two of us to flee, so I''m trusting you to do good by me, and with my child''s life. She will be returning to take the throne now that I''m gone. Guide and protect her with your life." Those words were the last she ever heard from her liege.

    Now, many years later, Helera watched as the young woman of those years sat on her throne and listened as the other Kingdom rulers and equally important essence wielders discussed.

    Queen Fenore was an extremely beautiful woman with long raven dark hair that fell smoothly straight down to the waist. She wore a dark green dress matching her already emerald eyes, with black painted lips also matching her hair. Her impressive toned body and slim stature¡ªnever mind the height, made her into the very visage of a warrior queen.

    "I''ve already set Monarch-level scouts to monitor our border. If anything suspicious happens, we''ll know," she said, voice calm, as a warrior queen should be. Her eyes panned the entire room impassively.

    "I''m not worried about what they''ll set their dregs to do, but on what they''ll choose to do themselves. You don''t take from the empire and expect to be let go. The emperor wants blood and he''s going to come for it," Danor said.

    Swordlord Danor was a man of slim stature with black hair resting on a sharp face. It didn''t help with his piercing lightning-blue eyes, which were kind of unnerving. Looking at him now, he looked nothing like his status, wearing a simple cotton shirt and pants with a brown coat worn over it all, and the silver hilt of a sword peeking out of it.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    The title of ''Sword lord'' was only worn by high-level individuals on the paths of the sword. True blade-masters. Ordinary blade-wielders were numerous, as it wasn''t hard to find essence-wielders who used swords as their main weapons. Swordlords were in a different category all on their own, being very few and who were all high in the hierarchy of power.

    "Why do you sound so afraid DanDan? Aren''t you supposed to be some fancy sword wielder? I thought y''all fancy sword people weren''t supposed to be afraid," King Brunos voice boomed, his massive chest rising in laughter.

    King Brunos of Gandor, Protector of the Gandoran people. He was a massive man, rising as tall as seven feet, with a large beard almost as long and his hair reaching past shoulder length, he looked almost barbarian at first sight, contrasting his royal status. It was a good thing he usually wore a silver circlet on his head.

    The Gandoran people were mostly known for their flaming red hairs and eyes. As a Spirit lord, King Brunos accentuated this more with his hair that went deeper into the red color, almost bordering on bloody crimson. A huge maul heavy enough to crack the enforced concrete ground hung on his waist like some weightless ornament, with a massive tower shield equally as tall as he was resting on the side of his chair.

    They all came with their aides, all Spirit lords as well. Two massive men with red hair, though not as large as Brunos, stood behind him, while a short woman also wielded a sword stood behind Danor.

    "Don''t call me that, I don''t like it. And I''m not afraid, just cautious, as you all should be. The empire isn''t some backward kingdom that we can just take for granted. They are vengeful and will come in force. You know what that should mean."

    Nobody laughed after that. For all of the empire''s faults, there was one thing everyone couldn''t deny they lacked: Power. There was a reason that despite their conquering habits, nobody had ever been able to defeat them. A few had tried, but they were all either in the grave, their kingdoms taken, or were in hiding, having run away.

    "Enough," a voice said, quietly carrying across the room and instantly attracting their focused attention.

    Looking at the last group in attendance, Helera felt a chill run down her spine as she looked into those cold grey eyes. Aside from the emperor, nobody had ever brought fear into her eyes ever since she stepped into the realm of spirit lords. Until she''d met him. He was a reclusive¡ªhardly ever seen ¡ª even amongst spirit lords. Any Spirit lord worth his power knew about him. The youngest and single most powerful Spirit lord to ever walk the planet in known history. His young face was just like every other Spirit lord, with advancing power already halting the effects of aging. But all knew this young man wasn''t even past his twenties, going by the lack of ancientness every other Spirit lord had in their eyes. But there was one thing Helera was sure all the other Spirit lords in this room felt: Fear, even though they all had at one point knelt and professed loyalty to him, taking the status as his emissaries.

    Lord Damien was accompanied by his brother, Keilan. With an almost golden blonde hair and ocean blue eyes, it was obvious that there wasn''t any familiar resemblance there, but nobody had ever had the gall to ask for details. As far as anyone knew, they had appeared together and were always seen together.

    None had ever sparred nor seen lord Damien fight before, but what they felt from his aura told them where they all stood compared to him. The only man to have ever clashed with Emperor Solaris and come out alive, and that was years ago, how much more powerful had he grown after all those years?

    Looking and meeting the eyes of everyone present there, he said, "Danor is right that you should be wary of the empire, afraid even. But that is if you wish to fight them alone. But you won''t be fighting alone, are you?¡± he gave a small smile, shocking everyone with what he said next. "Which is why I will be fighting with you. I''ve been gone too long and it is time I flex a little bit of power."

 Chapter 25 - A Serpentine Encounter

    Flying over the dragon sea, Damien marvelled at the smooth wind running down his skin and the calm blue waters below him. These forces of nature which seemed so peaceful now could wipe out cities and sink continents when riled up. He laughed as the calm wind caressed his skin and the sea smell filled his nostrils.

    Beside him, Keilan flew, smoothing the wind to make their passage a little faster. To be honest, Damien didn''t want to move any faster, he wanted to smell the sea and feel this sort of calm wind some more, but business called.

    The world of Ra was not only a place for spirit lords to rule over, but for the many beasts which resided in its body, living in different territories around the planet. An example of such a place was the Dragon Sea, an apt name for the dragons residing in its depths¡ªSea dragons.

    They rarely attacked passing ships, only going for stronger opponents if sensed. Which was why Damien and Keilan had kept their aura wrapped and contained ever since they crossed into the sea.

    They had departed from the castle of Cirin a few hours ago, having finished meeting and preparing his emissaries for the coming retaliation. It wasn''t hard to predict what the empire''s response would be. They''d try to preserve face by reaping a toll on their offenders with the intent to send warnings to the other kingdoms that they were still there and still in power.

    Leaving the preparations to his emissaries, he and Keilan had skipped teleporting straight to their destination and instead decided to fly there. They were flying for two reasons. One was to not startle their hosts when they suddenly arrived, as it was considered rude to teleport directly into another''s territory without direct permission. The second reason was something he hadn''t decided yet.

    Passing the edge of the territory where the Greensend continent met the dragon sea, Damien watched as he flew, the small sea creatures that swarm beneath the sea waters. He saw predators laid pursuit of prey as prey tried to escape. Corpses of predators lie dead as small tiny prey swarm them for meat. The cycle continues. He was enjoying the view and sensations as he flew. So he wasn''t terribly surprised when a large maw burst out of the sea beneath them, trying to swallow them in one gulp.

    He and Keilan sped up a bit, dodging the opened mouth and coming to a stop a short distance away. They turned and looked at the predator that had decided to make them prey.

    Long sinuous body stretched more than a hundred feet, with blue-white scales shaped like teardrops adorning its body, making it glitter under the afternoon sunlight. Two pairs of feet with fingers tipped with long curved wickedly sharp claws jutted out of both its upper and lower body. Two white twisted horns two feet long rose out of its head, with the tip curving a little bit outwards. Its snout stretched out, with two small pointed ridges rising out on opposite ends. Slitted eyes as blue as the deepest ocean stared at them the same way a lion stared at prey¡ªFood to play with.

    The dragon observed them as they did the same to it. Eyes moving from Damien to Keilan.

    "What''s a whelp doing this far out of its nest?," Keilan said with intrigue.

    The dragon raised its head, looking at them. Despite its serpentine features, it still managed to convey a sense of superiority. "You are in the presence of Prince Renothot, third son of Regonoth, King of dragon nest Ren, and I ask what you are doing, running away from my mouth." It''s said, voice like cracking ice, showing long razor sharp teeth gleaming white.

    "Great, a sentient dragon, and royalty at that too," Keilan commented dryly.

    Damien had to admit, it wasn''t a good thing encountering a sentient dragon. The dragon species were divided into two categories, the wild and the sentient.

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    Wild dragons didn''t have any sense of intelligence, always attacking like how wild predators attacked prey, with no sense of planning or strategy. While the other types were ones with sentience comparable to humans. They built their own civilizations, dividing them into different nests, which were ruled by dragon kings.

    Wild dragons were easier to defeat. Just show them that you weren''t an easy prey¡ªthat you''d be very costly to take on, and they''ll leave you alone. The ones with sentience were the harder ones to deal with, as even though you managed to defeat one, other dragons could still be rallied to their aid. They knew strategy almost as comparable to humans, and they would hunt anybody whom they looked to as having wronged them.

    "Go back to your nest, young one, you''re no match for us," he said warily.

    It wasn''t that he was scared of the little dragon¡ªfar from it. It was that he didn''t want a group of vengeful sea dragons searching for him.

    Dragons were innate creatures born at the ranks of lord realm with a very strong affinity from the get-go. They were slower in growing in power than the average cultivator, having taken years to get passed a single rank. An elder of this young one''s tribe would probably be an early spirit lord while the king should be in the middle to peak stage of spirit lord. Damien didn''t have a group like those chasing him.

    Normally, he''d not have cared about fighting a group of early Spirit lords backed by a mid or peak Spirit lord, but a dragon was mostly twice as strong as an average cultivator in the same rank.

    "You dare tell me what to do!" The dragon roared, releasing its aura and trying to intimidate them. Keilan laughed at the late lord realm aura trying to subjugate them.

    Releasing his aura a little, he directed it towards the dragon. It felt like a dormant calamity that when roused, would decimate anything in its path. When the dragon felt it, it quickly retracted its aura, eyes widening in obvious fear. It flew back into the water, rushing fast into the deep until it was out of sight. They couldn''t sense it with their perception because that would be alerting them to the nearest nest to their position.

    "You think it''s gonna stay away?" Keilan asked.

    "Nope," he replied.

    Sentient dragons were known the protect their pride. And Keilan had just sent it packing like a little prey. When it finally calmed down, it wouldn''t like that at all, and its pride would demand recompense.

    They continued their journey. Damien went back to admiring the sea and feeling the winds, while Keilan what his childlike wonder. They flew for more than an hour when they suddenly felt it.

    An aura blasted out for miles, bringing with it the sense that they were meeting a superior creature, a creature they should debase themselves for. Damien crushed it as soon as it crept into his mind. A group of smaller auras also accompanied it¡ªMonarch realms.

    They came to a stop a mile away, facing a dragon more than five hundred feet long, its scales were the same as Renothot¡ªtear-drop shaped. Except these were larger, a foot large. The dragon''s horns were longer and curved inwards. In fact, everything about this dragon was far larger than Renothot. And the aura, it was unmistakeably that of a spirit lord.

    "Oh great, another dragon," Keilan said, but this time there wasn''t a dry tone to his voice, filled now with wariness.

    One of the monarch realm dragons spoke. "You are in the presence of Prince Renogoth, first son of Regonoth, king of the dragon nest Ren," it looked at them with a gleam in its slitted eyes. "And brother to Prince Renothot," it gestured with its snout at the little dragon floating beside its sibling, managing to. Convey a sense of smugness when they looked at it.

    "Why have you barred our passage? We have no quarrel with you," Damien said.

    Finally, the large dragon spoke. "My brother has informed me that you were aggressive towards him when he tried to make peaceful contact with you," it said. If the brother''s voice was like cracking glass, this one was like breaking ice.

    "Did your brother forget to tell you that he tried to eat us first? We were on our peaceful journey when he came out of the water, mouth opened wide and trying to swallow us," Keilan said.

    The dragon was quiet for some time. It glanced at its smaller sibling before speaking to them. "That does not excuse you from being rude. You are food and if Renothot here wants to feed on you, you should let him, it is your place to be food to our kind,"

    "Excuse me," Keilan said, a dangerous tone creeping into his voice.

    "You heard me right, don''t let me repeat myself. You are to submit yourselves as lunch to my brother here," it said, increasing the intensity of its aura.

    By now, Damien was certain that every creature for at least five hundred miles was already aware of them.

 Chapter 26 - Dragons Pride

    Dragons. One of the primordial creatures born with an innate affinity belonging to their different race. From the moment they were hatched, they already knew how to manipulate their different elements, while the adults could create their elements with nothing but the energy running through their bodies. There were different races of dragons residing on the planet Ra. The fire dragons resided in the Red Lands¡ªa continent filled with mountain ranges where fire dragons lived, forming their own nest and hierarchies. The sea dragons lived in the large expanse of water called the Dragon Sea, ruling over the many sea creatures living there. Lightning dragons were mostly nomadic, always moving from one place to another, hardly staying in a single place for long.

    Dragons were mostly known to be savage creatures filled with wrath and pure destruction¡ªFire dragons mostly, but that didn''t mean the other races were any less destructive.

    Like the sea dragons facing them. From the beginning, Damien had already known that this was only going to end when one side completely dominated the other, but he had still tried diplomacy, hoping that the prideful creatures might show restraint.

    They didn''t.

    "Are you going to do as commanded or do I have to put you in your place?" The dragon prince said. The other dragons began to surround them, trying to cut off any path of escape.

    "I''ll be damned if I let a reptile with scales treat me like nothing more than food," Keilan said, his face was red with anger but there was still wariness in the way he looked at the dragons.

    It wasn''t that they were afraid of a bunch of monarch-level dragons, it was the job both of them knew the dragons were meant for¡ªdistraction.

    Normally, monarch-level creatures couldn''t pose a threat to them, but the fact that they were backed by a spirit lord dragon increased their levels of danger.

    "What are you if not food?" The dragon said, its aura trying to press down on them, trying to convey a sense of superiority.

    Damien finally had enough of its arrogance and insults. Releasing his aura, he pressed down on the many dragons, but only the spirit lord managed to fend off the pressure¡ª barely. But the other dragons found themselves being crushed until they joined their auras together, managing to barely protect themselves.

    "You dare threaten a dragon prince!" The dragon prince Renogoth roared, joining its aura with the monarch''s, increasing its intensity. He pushed Damien''s aura back until Keilan released his aura, putting them on even footing.

    "Dragon prince my foot," Keilan said, mocking the dragon. "More like an overgrown lizard."

    The dragon''s slit turned chilly. "By the time I''m through with you, you will beg me for a quick death." It said, before attacking.

    Flying with incredible speed towards them, it opened its mouth, but unlike its sibling, it wasn''t planning on eating them. Blue glowing light shone from its open maw, growing brighter as it came closer until a dragon''s breath was released. Blue liquid corrosive enough to melt steel flashed towards them.

    Damien and Keilan separated, flying around the dragon until they came upon its sides. Damien used his technique ''Starfall'', dozens of grey star shapes made out of condensed Destruction energy appeared around him, dancing around his body. He retaliated, sending them flashing down towards the dragon.

    Having sensed the energy from the technique, the dragon turned its head towards him, its breath colliding with the stars and cancelling each other out. A massive explosion erupted from the collision, the wind erupting and pushing both Damien and the dragon back.

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    Keilan took the opportunity, a hammer of shredding wind slammed into the dragon. Its body bent inwards as it was blasted back, shooting hateful glares at Keilan.

    Having seen that their leader couldn''t win without their help, the monarchs began doing their jobs¡ªharrying them. A dozen dragon''s breath flashed towards them, harrying them and giving the spirit lord space to attack.

    It came again, slamming its tail into Keilan and blasting him away. Damien avoided the same fate by flashing away, moving with such speed that the air exploded from his passage. He pointed his two right forefingers, firing a dense beam of energy along its body as he passed.

    A loud screech of pain and anger erupted from the dragon as its scales were cracked and burnt. It turned towards Damien with fury, releasing a massive roar as it attacked.

    That was how they fought, Damien and Keilan avoiding the dragon''s attack by a hair''s width and then retaliating while they fended off the monarch dragons harrying them.

    Starfalls were summoned and rained down. Energies shaped like stars with the power to bring down cities rained down along with beams of dense grey energy that could bore holes into the sides of mountains.

    Keilan didn''t hold back, Summoning small tornadoes that shredded scales out of the dragons, putting them on the back foot. Hammers of wind slammed into the dragons, breaking backs and killing some.

    Others suffered casualties from the effects of Damien and the dragon prince fight. Dying from beams of destruction which were meant for the dragon prince or burning to crisps from the stars which rained down.

    The dragon prince retaliated with dragon breaths, and rivers of blue corrosive liquid flashed towards them, melting down Damien''s clothes and almost melting his skin too until he burnt everything out.

    Their fight covered miles. Flying and dodging each other''s attacks took them far away from the starting zone. Their auras blasting out for hundreds of miles alerted the lesser creatures that a battle was taking place. Some spirit lord creatures reared their heads to try and take bites out of them as they fought, thinking them unsuspecting and too focused on each other. They were divided in two by the beams Damien fired and bitten and shredded by the dragon''s teeth and claws.

    As he fought the dragon, he kept an eye on Keilan''s fight¡ªwho had decided to handle the monarchs. His tornado technique swept dragons from the sky, slamming them into the water. Damien knew that he could make the tornado bigger, but chose not to. They didn''t want to bring any more attention than they had.

    Turning back to the dragon prince who swung its claws towards him, releasing massive claw-shaped blades that flashed towards him. Interposing four stars between himself and the blades. They exploded as they encountered the blades. He used the opportunity to fly through the explosion, covering himself with energy to prevent injury.

    Not expecting him to make such a stupid move, the dragon wasn''t prepared to defend himself as Damien summoned his spear. Twelve feet of wooden and bladed weapon appeared in his hands as he glided in the air. He held his spear to the side as he closed with the dragon. Spear blade coated with destructive energy met dragon scale and the dragon screeched as Damien drew a long shallow line down its body. Pools of blood erupting out of its sides.

    Having suffered a massive injury, the dragon flashed away, retreating. The others too flying away to regroup with their master. Damien couldn''t find the other prince¡ªprobably dead, he thought.

    "Damn, you did a number on the overgrown lizard," Keilan commented, his expression and body language showing his disregard for the dragons. They bared long sharpened fangs at him in response to his insult. He bared his teeth back, mocking them.

    "Don''t taunt them, we already have enough problems as it is, I don''t want another one cropping up," Damien said.

    Keilan shrugged. "I can''t help it, feels good to finally put these prideful lizards in their places for once."

    "You won''t feel good when re-enforcement from their nests starts coming." Damien replied.

    Keilan swallowed audibly at that, his throat bobbing up and down in nervousness.

    Damien turned towards to the dragons. "Let''s just call it a day, okay? We''re adults and shouldn''t be squabbling like children," he said, hoping for the dragons to take the olive branch extended towards them.

    They didn''t.

    One of the monarch dragons roared. "You dare cause injury to the prince and even insulted us," it said, eyes flashing as it continued. "You have committed grave sins against your betters and for that, the sea shall drink from your blood." The others roared in agreement.

    Damien sighed, at least he tried.

 Chapter 27 - Largest Bell Ever Rung

    The air burned for miles around as powerful auras clashed. The afternoon sun shone down on the waters as small waves rose and crashed, terrifying the many breasts in the area from the weight of the different powers being released.

    Damien watched as the dragon¡ªout of some strange sense of pride and the refusal to concede to a human summoned its astral image. If any other creature hadn''t been aware of what was happening before, they were surely to be aware now. He hadn''t wanted things to get this far, trying his best to minimise any damage dealt, even going so far as to extend an olive branch. And he wasn''t known for extending peaceful gestures to people who had just tried to kill him. But the dragon just wouldn''t let sleeping dogs lie.

    A projection of a colossal dragon appeared behind dragon Prince Renogoth. It towered far above them and into the skies. A colossal dragon with scales of the deepest blue glared down at them with an aura of dominion emanating from it and blasting around for miles. A massive wave rose behind it, as if in subjugation to its ruler, emanating a profound aura so deep that the different creatures¡ªeven spirit lords, ran away in fear of being consumed.

    The remaining dragons roared as the massive wave rose behind them, acting as a symbol of power. Still prideful, they glared at him. "Cower before the might of dragons! You pathetic little creatures!" one of them roared.

    Not one to be outdone, Damien rose higher into the sky until he stopped, levitating a thousand feet off the water bed, he summoned a partial image. A cape of grey flames materialized over his shoulders, flowing down to his feet and then below them. His aura changed as his power was boosted, taking on a new quality as the portion of the world his aura presided over was tinted a touch of grey. The sea waters calmed wherever his aura covered, as if in fear of his wrath should it choose to act out. All the different beasts shivered in terror wherever they hid as they felt his aura.

    Not wanting to be left behind, Keilan joined, summoning a full image. An equally colossal image materialized behind him. A lithe man with a pair of giant green wings behind him. Wings made of pure condensed energy from the dimension of wind. Damien could see hundreds of natural air disasters trapped in those wings, from giant tornadoes to massive hurricanes and cataclysmic typhoons and cyclones. Keilan was the embodiment of natural disasters. His aura shook the winds for miles and different natural disasters showed signs of being born wherever his aura touched.

    If the dragons wanted to announce this fight to the whole sea kingdoms, then he was going to announce it to the whole continent.

    By now, the dragons must have felt that they were massively outmatched, but their vain pride wouldn''t have allowed them to submit without a fight.

    Roaring, Renogoth commanded the wave towards them. The primordial element changing as it flowed closer towards them. Going from the naturally calm but cataclysmic element to a wave of corrosive blue liquid. The other dragons were being protected by a thin shield of energy granted to them by their leader.

    Damien''s cape slowly flapped and a ripple of power emanated from him. When it touched the wave, a portion its massive body turned into puddles that then splashed down onto the sea, returning to where it came from.

    Keilan then acted, a massive tornado was released from the wings of his astral image, growing bigger as it came down and swallowed the remainder of the wave. The calm winds roared from its passage, jubilating at the arrival of its wrathful alter ego.

    Having seen this, the dragon prince did something it hadn''t ever done before but was well known for as a powerful technique used by dragons of all different elements.

    It summoned a rain.

    Rainfalls of corrosive waters rained down on and around them for miles. The downpour was corrosive enough to melt down a small weak city to the ground and turn everything into sludge.

    A massive star materialized over them both, and Keilan flapped his wings once, the winds redirecting the rain down towards the dragons.

    Having seen that it couldn''t get anywhere with exchanging techniques like that, the dragon prince attacked, its claws raised and energy began gathering into it. Damien flashed towards it, fist pulled back. Their collision shook the sea, a clap of thunder sounding as the air cracked, unable to take the strain. Winds and waters were pushed back as a massive wave formed around them, flowing away like the water itself was afraid of their battle.

    When they separated, the dragon''s hands were left mangled. It shrieked as its limb was turned to crushed meat. Damien shook his hands in mild pain. It wasn''t easy exercising strength like that, but damn, did it feel good.

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    Having sensed the tides of battle changing, the other dragons began fleeing. "Oh no you don''t," Keilan said, flashing down towards them, his spear leading the way.

    Blocking their escape, he interposed a giant wall of condensed wind between the sea and the fleeing dragons. The leading dragon at the front slammed down into it, the force turning it into dragon paste. The others changed direction at the last moment. Having seen their paths towards escape blocked, the dragons turned towards their jailer, trying in a futile attempt to kill him.

    Keilan crashed down into their ranks and began decimating them. He took his time, neatly tearing into their ranks with his spear. With deft precision, he cut open one from head to tail like a fish, its innards spraying down on the green condensed air construct. He separated the head of one dragon from its body, both body parts landing in different places. Terror gripped the dragons as they watched Keilan tear into them, butchering them like sheeps to a slaughter.

    Damien focused on his own fight, dodging a bite that would have crushed him, he swung his spear, a star forming at its tip as he swung down. For the first time, the dragon prince elicited a wrenching cry of pain as a massive part of its body was burnt away, caused by Damien''s energy.

    It looked at him and for the first time, Damien saw true fear in its eyes, fear of what it had just gotten itself into. It had thought they were weak humans who couldn''t do anything but cry and beg to be spared from being eaten, but now Damien could see how its opinion was being changed. All done at the tip of a spear.

    Realising that it didn''t have any hope of coming out of this fight alive, the dragon decided that if it was going to die, it might as well take Damien with it.

    Flying down towards him, dragon''s breath rained down on him. It slashed its claws, sending blades of energy towards him. Damien danced around the attacks, dodging the ones he could and using his constructs to tank the ones he couldn''t.

    He replied with beams of destruction and starfalls. Burning the air and seas as the energies flashed across space towards his target. Flashing towards the dragon, he began dismantling it piece by piece. A limb here, another one there. Scales fell in droves as he burned them off the dragon''s body. He swung his spear, cutting a horn off the dragon''s head, eliciting a pitying scream from the creature as its symbol of nobility was cut down. Another cry of pain and horror erupted from the dragon as its second horn was cut off. A creature of pride brought so low by the hands of a man they so looked down upon as pathetic and weak.

    Blood fell in rivers as he slowly took apart the creature, methodically taking off its remaining limbs one by one until the dragon was left without a single limb.

    Normally, a creature that had reached the rank of spirit lord could regrow all the limbs that were cut off, even monarchs could do it. But the pains mostly came from the pure disgrace. For a dragon, pride was everything, their way of life. The foundation in which their civilization was built. And humans¡ªa race that they considered lowly, weak and pathetic had brought down one of them so utterly that its horns¡ªa symbol of status were thoroughly cut off. No dragon wanted to suffer such horrific disgrace, especially nobility.

    Not being one to leave things half done once he''d started, Damien summoned a massive wave of energy, further eroding space around them as black hairline cracks began appearing, spiderwebbing through the air. A large towering spear materialized above him, its tip pointing towards the colossal dragon''s image.

    Keilan''s image spread its wings wide, the very air itself gathering for miles to constrict around the colossal dragon''s, forming a large titanic box around the image. It wasn''t to prevent the dragon from fleeing, it couldn''t. It was to at least try containing the massive destruction that was about to erupt.

    The dragon watched in horror as its image was caught in a cage, about to be destroyed. It flashed towards Damien in a futile gesture to stop him. The weapon flashed, spearing into the body of the colossal dragon.

    They say a dragon''s will is indomitable, unbending. But what happens when it finally gets broken and shattered?

    Prince Renogoth, first son of dragon king Regonoth. The heir to the throne of the Rens nest froze as its astral image was pierced. Whether in shock or surprise, they''d never know. All they knew was that the dragon prince froze as its astral image, the foundation of its bridge to the heavens was completely and utterly destroyed.

    When the spear struck, there was a pop, and then both the spear and the dragon''s image imploded, compressing upon each other until the different energies couldn''t take it any longer.

    Damien quickly grabbed Keilan, warning him. "Unsummon your image unless you want to join the dragon," Keilan getting the cue and quickly unsummoning his image. The large man with wings visibly dispersed into green energy that then melded with the air around them.

    They managed to teleport away for miles before the explosion occurred. The world flashed a combination of grey and blue as an explosion rocked the dragon sea. There was no doubt that the dragon itself died from the explosion, its body turned to crisps, leaving nothing, not even bones. The sea around the radius of the explosion dried up for meters deep into the ocean, forming a massive whirlpool. Waters from around began flowing over to cover what had been turned to steam.

    "Damn, we just rang the largest bell ever rung, and I don''t think even you want to be here when everyone comes to investigate," Keilan said, his voice a little shaken. "If anybody ever doubted your arrival or power, this fight would have dispelled any lingering doubts."

    Damien nodded in agreement. This fight had just put a lot of complications into his plans, him not knowing whether they were positive or negative.

    Deciding to put some distance between them, they both teleport away, putting miles and miles between them and the crime scene.

 Chapter 28 - The Winterlands

    Flying over the dragon sea, as they slowly approached their destination¡ªThe Winterlands, the winds slowly turned freezing and they began seeing icebergs jutting out of the waters.

    Further approaching the continent, the calm warm waters slowly began turning frozen, icebergs jutting out of the waters as they flew deeper. Eventually, they finally crossed into the continent of eternal winter.

    A continent of winter filled with eternal snow and freezing winds. No human would have chosen to live here, but there were still human kingdoms on the continent, as well as a race of ice elves.

    Flying deeper, they began crossing kingdoms'' airspace, most of them ruled by monarch cultivators, so they weren''t aware of their passage. But the few ones ruled by spirit lords immediately noticed them¡ªjudging by the different awareness that had swept over them. He wasn''t sure if they were aware of who he was, but since nobody flew up to confront them, he let it go.

    Approaching the western part of the continent where the weather was the coldest, they slowly began gliding down, reducing their altitudes until eventually, they saw their destination in the distance¡ªA large castle made out of ice with towering spires jutting out of it. It had its own walls, fifty meters tall, clearly made by ice cultivators. It was guarded by sentries standing on the walls. Inside the castle walls was a large estate with dozens of smaller buildings, mostly two-storeys. He could see hundreds of people moving around on the estate grounds despite the terrible weather.

    They floated down until finally coming to a stop¡ªlevitating in front of the walls. The guards weren''t showing any signs of panic at the powerful cultivators that suddenly appeared. He reckoned they''d already been forewarned.

    A petite woman floated off the top of wall to come greet them. She had brown hair and blue eyes and was wearing deep blue priestly robes¡ªa monarch realm cultivator. Bowing to them. "The high priestess awaits you inside." She said, gesturing at the large castle.

    Following, they flew passed the walls and into the castle compound. There were dozens of soldiers and religious figures moving about, going about their different duties. Instead of landing on the ground like normal visitors, they followed the priestess as she led them floating towards one of the open balconies on the castle.

    The moment they landed, Damien immediately felt the cold pervading the large castle. It wasn''t that he was being affected, quite the opposite for someone of his level. The cold was just something he felt, but didn''t really notice unless he paid attention to it¡ªlike the wind.

    The balcony led into a short hallway that finally opened into a large hall. He entered to a group of clergies engaged in whispered arguments.

    The church of Winter was a cult that worshipped the celestial of winter, or anything that falls into the purview of cold¡ªas their clergy used to say. He didn''t know much about the celestials, only that they were otherworldly beings with vast powers.

    The cult was one of the most powerful organisations on the planet, having more than half a dozen spirit lords. They seldom acted, always preferring reclusion, which was why they''d built their temple in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by large forests standing between them and the rest of the civilizations on the continent. But when they did act, they always left a mark.

    "Menoe! Long time no see!" Keilan greeted with enthusiasm as he rushed to give the high priestess a hug, never mind the group of clergymen watching.

    "Long time no see, indeed. Nice to see you again, Keilan," the woman returned the hug, a lot more reserved than the overly enthusiastic young man. "Last time I heard, Damien here had a clash with the sun emperor. Before I could come find you, you''d already vanished."

    Damien scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed for no reason that he could find. "Well, we had to make ourselves scarce. I was kinda injured and couldn''t fight half a dozen lords at the same time," he said.

    Menoe was a tall woman. Had long white hair¡ªcourtesy of her ice affinity, and a matching white frosty eyes. She always spotted a motherly smile, calm and reassuring, except when she faced enemies, that was when people got to see the other side of her motherliness.

    They had encountered her during one of their travels, on one of the times when they''d gone off-grid. They''d been travelling from one monster populated region to another¡ªfighting, until they had encountered a monster that wasn''t supposed to be where it was, as only lord realm to early monarchs were the usual occurrence. But they''d been unfortunate to encounter a peak-level monarch monster. Menoe had saved them an hour or so into their fight for survival, eventually treating Keilan and Damien for the wounds they had accrued. It turned out that the reason the monster had been there was because of her. As while they had been training, she had also been doing the same a few kilometres away from them, resulting in the nearby lesser monsters having to flee the spirit lord''s battle.

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    They had just been unfortunate to encounter one of those monsters. But she had apologised and even treated them, which was very unusual for Cultivators at that level. She had then decided to accompany them out of the region, as they were far from any settlement.

    It was during their journey that they eventually got to know more about each other. She''d told them about herself, how she came to become a leader in a prominent organisation. It was strange at first having to witness a higher-level cultivator talk to them without the usual haughtiness that came with it, but they''d eventually gotten used to it. Keilan had been the closest to her since he was always the cheerful one.

    She''d also given them good advice on their paths to spirit lords, advising them on avoiding errors that she''d made. It was from her that Damien got to learn that as a higher realm cultivator, you didn''t need to be prideful towards people lower than you. Regardless of your status, you needed to treat everyone with respect until given a reason not to.

    Their journey together had eventually ended when they''d finally gotten back to civilization, saying goodbye and then parting ways.

    Menoe studied them, a bemused smile on her face. "It feels weird that the last time I saw the both of you, you were just wee little early monarchs struggling to fight a peak monarch. And now, you''ve come to me as powerful spirit lords, making enemies of powerful empires and dragons," she laughed when Damien looked at her with raised eyebrows. "I heard about your fight with those two lords on the Desolate continent, and I reckon people on both the Greensend and Winterlands continents could feel your fight with the dragon, or the end, I guess."

    "To be honest, I tried for a peaceful resolution," Damien defended himself, even though she wasn''t judging.

    "I''m not judging you," she said as if reading his mind. "Dragons are not known for their agreements to peaceful resolutions, and their elders are even worse,"

    "Prince," Keilan said, running his blabbermouth. "Damien and I fought a dragon prince."

    For the first time since they''d met, Damien saw the shock on the high priestess''s face. "You killed a dragon prince?" She asked, still shocked. The other priests and priestesses all had pale faces.

    Damien nodded. "Renogoth, heir to the Ren''s nest," he then began explaining what had led to it.

    When he was done, one of the priests shook his head. "Dead, all because of pride. I bet their king wouldn''t care if you explained to him, they''re going to come for your head."

    Menoe nodded. "He''s right, their king wouldn''t care even if they found out their brood started it. Hope you''re prepared to be hunted."

    "We''ll find a solution," he said.

    "If you need protection, we could offer you sanctuary in the temple. The dragons would be fools to attack us this deep into the continent.

    Damien shook his head. "No. Thanks for the offer Menoe, but I''ll be damned if I start running again from anything that threatens my life. We''ll find a way out of this, even if it means fighting," he said, his tone brooking no argument.

    For years, he and Keilan had mostly been on the run. Either from the empire or the many other kingdoms who wanted him chained down. They''d thought that reaching spirit lord would put an end to that, but it only made it worse when he''d killed that empire lord years ago. They''d begun hiding again¡ªthis time not from the lower lords or monarchs but from spirit lords. Now that Damien was strong enough to take on multiple lords by himself, he''d be damned if he started another round of running.

    Menoe nodded in concession while the other priests looked at him as if he was stupid. It wasn''t often they saw someone reject an offer of sanctuary from a powerful organisation such as them.

    "Besides, that wasn''t the reason I came to you," he continued.

    "Oh, and what did you come for?" she said, confusion and intrigue plain in her voice.

    "I need your help against the empire," he said.

    There were varying emotions amongst the gathered clergies, but none chose to interrupt.

    "Why? I thought you could handle them. You must have if you decided to get into an open war with them."

    "It''s not them exactly. I can handle the empire, now more than ever. It''s the allies that''ll fight with them, or one exactly."

    "The inferno cult," she guessed.

    He nodded, "Yes. The empire''s enough for me and my emissaries to handle, but the fight would take a drastic turn if the inferno cult decides to join."

    The Inferno cult was the counterpart to the church of Winter¡ªspecialising in pyromancy. They were the opposite of the winter church in almost every way, choosing the art of constant war over the seclusive nature of the winters. They mostly never started wars or battles themselves, but they were always seen in every large-scale war in the Greensend continent, and even beyond. Their higher hierarchies were so suicidal that they''d choose to go battle Red dragons in the red lands¡ªA continent of Smoke, ash and lava, and home to a species of red dragons and other beasts. They were chaos incarnate and he didn''t want a group like that interrupting his war and throwing every plan into the waters. He preferred to have their counterparts handle them.

    He hoped that the winters were up to the task.

 Chapter 29 - The Beginning Of The End

    Damien watched as children ran around, playing on the specially grown grass in the park. He was one of a multitude of people sitting on wood-grown benches, which were placed around the park borders.

    He watched as some children jumped a dozen feet into the air, not scared at all of falling, and watched as the enchantments placed under the park caught them in a cushion of wind, slowly bringing them down, making it seem as if they were flying. The children giggled and laughed, asking for more as they ran again towards a large circle where the gravity was reversed¡ªdone by enchantments¡ªfloating again and laughing as they were slowly brought down.

    Other children swarm inside a very transparent pool, laughing as they were tickled by the hundreds of water spirits inside the pool, harmless spirits.

    He watched as a little toddler, blue eyes and black hair¡ªnow that it wasn''t so drenched in blood that the whole hair turned red¡ª played with other toddlers his age. Tiny little nature spirits flew around their heads, playing catch with the toddlers as the little children raised their grabby little hands, trying to catch the spirits.

    The park was alive with the sounds of joy and laughter as children ran around and had fun without a single care in the world.

    Damien reminisced fondly when he and Keilan used to run around like this. They didn''t jump around on gravity-defying enchantments or play with nature spirits, as far as he could recall, but they did have their own kind of fun. He smiled as he remembered both of them sneaking off into the nearby jungle when they''d been expressly warned not to. Making fun at Leila''s expense and Keilan running around doing mischievous things when he thought no one was looking. They''d had lots of fun. But eventually, life had caught up to them earlier than expected.

    Damien shook his head, dispelling the sadness that''d begun creeping onto him. He didn''t like remembering the times after that.

    "How''d you find me?" He said to the empty space around him, drawing strange looks from the people passing.

    "You''re in my city, remember, it isn''t that hard to find you, especially when you''re not trying to hide," a woman''s voice answered, coming from a spot behind him, closer to the tree borders.

    Queen Fenore appeared, seemingly out of nothing. Others would think that she''d just teleported in, but. Damien knew that she''d been standing there for the past half hour, fending off any attention with an aura trick. Those kinds of tricks only worked on people that were not him.

    She was putting on a long black dress that trailed behind her in the grass. Multiple jewelries adorned her form, matching her emerald eyes.

    "What do you want?" He asked brusquely, irritation creeping into his voice at the unwanted interruption.

    "Is that the child you rescued? I was surprised when I was informed that you''d taking a ward, or wasn''t that your intention when you directed them towards my palace?" She said, slowly walking towards him in so smooth a way that it seemed like she was gliding. I wonder if all these royalties have some special school for walking, he thought. People who didn''t know him would think it foolish of her to show such disrespect by ignoring his question like that, but his emissaries knew him well, so they also knew when he was really not in a good mood, unlike the grumpiness he was feeling now.

    "The boy has lost something so precious that he would never get It back, and at such a young age too," he replied, turning back to the playing child. "As nothing is more powerful than a mother''s love, I''ve decided to at least give him something closer."

    Fenore gave him a weird look. "I never took you for the caring type, especially not to strangers,"

    He snorted, a little laughter escaping him. "I do care, not just for everyone, and me and the little one there have something in common, same as you. So I might as well make sure he doesn''t lack the love we both got, even if it was for a brief while."

    Fenore smiled ruefully. "And what''s your brother''s opinion on this?"

    "As much as I''m doing it for the boy, I''m also doing it for Keilan. He needs a special kind of love only the little one can give, in order to bottle that seething rage he has bottled up inside of him."

    Fenore looked at him in surprise. "What? Did you think I was the angry one? Ha! If you think me angry, you should see Keilan when he''s truly pissed, It''d be a memory never to be forgotten," He said.

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    "This," he gestured at the laughing children. "They shouldn''t have to feel the same hate that''s coursing through our veins. Their happiness should be something to be treasured."

    "Then why are you so bent on this war? I mean, I''m up for any war with the empire¡ªas far as we''re gonna win¡ªbut you know that thousands of these children are going to lose their parents to this war."

    "I''d be lying if I said I wasn''t fighting for revenge. But I''m also fighting so that these children wouldn''t grow up with the hate festering inside me, or the wrath burning inside my brother," he said. Shaking his head ruefully, he continued. "They might lose their parents, but it''ll be them dying as heroes who defended their families and kingdom while they defeated the empire rather than them dying to the invasion of a power-hungry empire."

    "Aren''t we all power hungry? What''s the difference between them and us?" She asked, her piercing emerald eyes seemingly studying him.

    "You want an honest answer? No, there''s no difference, we''re all power-hungry maniacs. The only difference between us and the empire is that we have a different way of getting it, a slightly less painful way."

    "The only reason we''ve turned the empire into the big bad villain is that they''ve just been the ones to cause us the most pain," he said, his eyes going blank as his mind went back to that day, that heart-wrenching day.

    Chest tightening, he shook his head as he came back to the present, turning his attention towards the little children playing. A little boy ran, laughing shrilly as he was chased by two other children¡ªa boy and a girl¡ªholding dirt in their hands. Their faces were marked with brown dirt, probably the handwork of the boy they were now chasing.

    Scattered around the field, dozens more were playing similar games, chasing each other, sometimes catching their quarry and the other times the quarry managed to escape.

    "Adrian¡ªI''ve decided to name him that¡ªwill live inside your castle. It doesn''t matter who he stays with, as far as he''s being taken good care of and protected, and hidden away from any suspicious eyes," he said, turning his eyes towards the tall woman. "I will come for him when the war''s over."

    Fenore nodded. "I''ll post secret protectors to watch over him."

    Damien watched her for a moment before he nodded, he didn''t need to voice it out loud, they all knew what would happen if anything untoward happened to the boy.

    "So, what actually brought you here?" He asked, changing the topic.

    "I came to inform you about the battle plan being finalised. We want you to see it, just in case you want to add anything."

    Damien sighed. Looked one last time towards little Adrian playing on the ground, and then he stood up. "Let''s go," he said.

    Together they teleported out of the park, startling some of the people who just happened to glance at them when they disappeared.

    ********

    They appeared suddenly in the war room of the castle. None of the others were surprised. Other than giving him nods and muttered greetings, their full attention was on the large map on the large rectangular table.

    On the map was the drawing of a continent¡ªThe Greensend continent. To the east was the Solaria empire, taking more than a quarter of the lands in the continent, with almost a hundred dots representing the cities in their territory. To the north of the empire was the Solarian northern jungle, and a line was drawn to the west of the jungle, indicating a river. Across from that river was a forest which housed a temple to another celestial¡ªa nature one.

    To the west of the continent were the maps of dozens of other kingdoms and close to a thousand cities. The kingdoms of Gandor and Camlen shared the border between the east and west, like a last defence against the ever-moving expansion of the empire. Behind them were the dozens of other kingdoms who were strong enough to help halt the expansion of the Solaria empire but were just too afraid, relying on the two border Kingdoms to save them. A few weren''t like that tho.

    "I think they''ll attack from the sea or sky," swordlord Danor said, outside the castle, thunder rumbled in the distance. "Since they''ll be looking for a quick overwhelming attack, the reasonable path would be either through the northern or southern sea."

    "What''s the use of attacking via sea, it just gives us ample forewarning of their approach," King Brunos argued. "My money''s on the borderlands. Sure, we might see them, but not before they manage to cause destruction with their quick response battle groups," thunder rumbled again, closer this time.

    The borderlands were a large expanse of land¡ªhundreds of miles¡ª that stood between the empire and the border Kingdoms. It encompassed a massive battlefield, a small desert and also a forest.

    "What if they came from the sea, but instead of sea ships, they come with skyships," Danor''s second in command spoke. Another sound of thunder rumbling in reply.

    "Are we all forgetting that the forest that borders Gandor also acts as protection from any northern attacks," Helera said, when everyone turned to look at her, she clarified. "The northern forest houses the temple to the cult of the nature celestial. They won''t help us in this war, but they also won''t allow anything that''s a danger to the forest to cross their territory¡ªWhether through land or air."

    They all nodded at that. "Which means their route of attack is either through the southern ocean or the borderlands, with the ocean the more plausible route to take," thunder rumbled. this time accompanied by lightning so loud and flashing that it startled the other occupants. They looked up.

    "They''re here," Damien said. He looked out the window, seeing the entire city plunged into semi-darkness as dark clouds covered the whole city.

    A thick bolt of lightning, as thick as a small hut flashed in the distance, the light illuminating the Spirit lords flying with incredible speed towards the castle, with the emperor in his magnificent glory leading the attack.

 Chapter 30 - This Is Gonna Be Fun

    Damien stood on a balcony, watching the approach of nine spirit lords from miles away. The others stood beside him, also watching as lightning illuminated their arrival.

    All around the city, high-level cultivators¡ªlord realm upwards¡ªcame out to watch as the spirit lords approached, their different auras blaring out. And at the forefront, the most powerful of them led the way¡ªThe Sun Emperor.

    The emperor was clad in blood-red armour that emitted burning heat waves as he flew. His golden circlet rested on his head, glowing a dull colour. Even with his lack of sufficient height, the emperor looked majestic, like a sun god.

    "How''d they get this close without being spotted?" Helera asked, worry leaking from her.

    "They took the fastest route, the one you all didn''t believe they''d use," Damien replied. It wasn''t hard to understand. The fastest route towards the Kingdom of Camlen was straight across the borderlands, the least expected route.

    They''d probably flown over, using the massive storm to mask their approach, no wonder the monarch scouts couldn''t see them. Monarchs had good range on their perception, but they couldn''t reach the heights where spirit lords could fly. They''d been expecting battle squads accompanied by at least a spirit lord or two. What they hadn''t been expecting was that squad to be comprised of only spirit lords, led by the sun emperor himself.

    Damien smiled, a chuckle coming out of him. "They played us, why take the expected route and have your approach monitored halfway from the kingdom when you can just fly straight from your capital."

    They all turned towards him. "This isn''t funny, they''re already at our doorstep and the city isn''t even prepared. With this much power, they could completely level this city." Danor said, looking distressed.

    Brunos slapped him on the back. Despite the difference in stature between the two men, Danor didn''t budge an inch. "Man up, Danor, you''re a spirit lord, act like it."

    They were all gathered, except for Keilan. The others stood around him as he watched the enemy''s approach getting closer.

    "What''s our response, boss?" Brunos turned to him, the other following him.

    Damien smiled, a strange sense of thrill filling him. "Why don''t we go give our visitors a welcome party," he said as he began floating off the balcony.

    Flying up to intercept, he called on somebody who had been absent for some time now. "Gray! You done?" He said in his mind.

    [Hmm? Oh, uhm, yeah, just give me a little while.] The little grey man replied, sounding kind of sleepy.

    "I don''t have a little while,] Damien said, blasting the still-sleepy spirit with images of what was about to occur. "And why do you sound like you''ve just woken from a nap?"

    [Oh, i see, I''ll have to rush this, then,] he replied, totally ignoring Damien''s question.

    You see, the reason Gray hadn''t been active for the past two days or so, was because he''d begun assimilating Damien''s memories in order to better help him in battles and with his techniques. It had taken lots of convincing for Damien to finally allow the little man to fully delve into all his private memories and the emotions that came with them. For Gray to better assimilate, he and Damien should have been incapacitated for the better part of maybe two days, but Damien didn''t want to go on any nap when he could be attacked at any moment, so they''d agreed that only Gray should go asleep. Damien had done without a spirit for the better part of his life, so he could do without one for just a few more days.

    As he flew to intercept the emperor and his coterie, the others flew up to join him, taking positions on both his sides. The emperor had noticed them from the beginning, so he and his squad slowed down.

    When they were half a mile between each other, Damien spoke. "Nice of you to visit, though you should have sent a message first," His lips stretched as a smile formed.

    The emperor looked at him with piercing golden eyes that seemed as if they could bore a hole into his soul. "Why send a message when you could deliver it yourself," he replied, his aura spiking a little. Oh, my dear, you don''t know what you''ve just walked into, Damien thought.

    He laughed. "It''s been a while since we last met, Solar," he said, the other spirit lords showed varying signs of infuriation at having their emperor''s name be called so casually.

    "You keep the emperor''s name out of your filthy mouth, you heathen," one said.

    The emperor raised his hands and the man quieted. "Stupid much? I don''t know how some of you even got to spirit lord if you''re this stupid." Damien said, riling them up even more.

    "Gray! Anytime now!" He sent.

    [As if it''s that easy, do you know how hard it is to sort through your memories while sifting through every random thought that passes through your mind? No, you don''t, that''s why I said I needed you unconscious for this to work properly. Now you''ve got me working in unfavourable conditions, and still, you rush me,] he tsked. [No love for the fine arts of mind Cultivation.]

    Damien ignored the ranting. "Just hurry up."

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    "Do you think it a wise choice to intentionally anger my subordinates? After all, you''re about to be dead. You wouldn''t want to suffer first before you die, do you?" The emperor said, his confidence in their odds palpable.

    "I don''t care a rats ass what your subordinates think, and besides, aren''t you a little too sure of yourself?"

    The emperor looked at his own gathered group of two royalties, a renowned swordlord, and all their subordinates. "You''ve gathered quite a group, but you know one thing they all have in common? They''ve all lost to me." He said, a smug smile escaping his normally neutral features.

    He looked at Fenore. "Didn''t take you for one who would readily bow down to anyone."

    She shrugged. "When you can''t defeat the big bad villain, you get someone else to do it for you."

    "Oh ho! Wow! I mean, we were always bad in you people''s eyes, but to see us being called the villain, that''s a first," Solar said, surprise on his face.

    He turned to Brunos. "What''s your take, you big brute?"

    Brunos didn''t answer at first, seeming to think about it, before he spoke. "When I took my throne, I swore to protect my kingdom and all who lived in it. You have threatened that and I''m not ashamed to say that I can''t defeat you alone, so I''ve bent the knee to someone who''ll help me protect what''s mine." His honesty surprised most of the people gathered, as they''d expected him to spit curses and threats towards the emperor.

    Getting a hold of his expression, the emperor finally turned to Danor. "What of you, Danor? You do not have a kingdom, so you don''t have the same excuses the others have, so speak, let us know the reason for a renowned swordlord to bend the knee towards an unknown cultivator that wouldn''t even tell us his origin."

    "Me?" Danor chuckled, his earlier nervousness gone. "I''d rather serve somebody who''d take care of his business himself than someone who would frequently require me to do his bidding every time," they all knew who he was speaking about.

    The emperor slowly nodded. "So what you all are saying is that Damien here is better than me?" When they agreed with a variety of answers like, yep, definitely, by far, the emperor made as if looking around. "I can''t help but feel the absence of the most important person in your group. Where is Keilan? Damien," he asked.

    Damien who''d mostly tuned out the conversation with the emperor and was arguing for Gray to work faster, replied. "Keilan? Oh, uhm, that''s none of your business,"

    "Brother''s spat? What''d you do to make your own brother abandon you at this inauspicious moment?" The emperor said, a little twinkle in his eyes.

    Damien was about to answer when he was interrupted. [Done! I''m done! Your brain has been tweaked and tuned! Booyah!] Gray basically yelled in his mind.

    To Gray, he said. "Good! I was worried there for a moment. Let''s do this,"

    Turning to the emperor, he replied. "You know what? I''m no longer inclined to trade words with you. Let''s take this up a notch, shall we?" He summoned his armour, not wanting to use Gray''s armour form. A silvery grey glowing battle spear did appear in his hands though, two long blades jutting out at both ends and blazing with power. Everyone''s attention was drawn towards the spear the moment it appeared.

    "Nice weapon, don''t worry, when you''re dead, it''ll find a better wielder in me," he said it casually, but Damien sensed the caution in the way he looked at the spear. The emperor summoned his own Warhammer. A large monstrous thing that glowed a dull golden red and emitted large amounts of energy¡ªNot even half the amount Gray emitted.

    The varying spirits lords around also summoned their armours and weapons. Fenore switched her long black dress for a form-fitting armour made of wood bark made from the corpse of a ten thousand year old ygg tree, even spirit lords would find an extremely hard time cracking such armour. A large war bow appeared in her hands, made from the same tree. A long thick arrow slowly formed on her hands, the tips glowing a blazing emerald. Her aura emitted the authority of a warrior queen, calming her people miles back in the city.

    Danor equipped a silver armour with blue glowing lines running through it. White lightning crackled from the armour, while a simple sword appeared in his hands. One would have looked down on such a weapon if they couldn''t feel the powerful cutting concept imbued onto it, along with the stability and perseverance concepts to further bolster it.

    Brunos on the other hand always wore his armour and carried his weapon openly, so his red armour only began glowing a soft red, signifying the activation of enchantments within. Both his hammer and shield did the same, both imbued with powerful concepts of crushing and protection along with his armour which was imbued with the perseverance concept.

    Together, they faced down the emperor and his own lords, matching them evenly with Damien facing down the emperor and his two spirit lord guards.

    "You didn''t think you could overwhelm us, could you?" He said, as his aura contested the emperor''s for authority in the area, their auras alone enough to crush anybody lower than monarchs in the city, if not for the city-wide enchantments drawn under it.

    The Emperor smirked. Seriously! What''s with him and his sudden smugness these days, Damien thought. "Look again!" Behind the emperor''s group, five spirit lord auras blared into existence as they appeared, massive heatwaves washing over everyone.

    The inferno cult.

    His smug face slowly died down when, instead of seeing Damien despair, his smile only grew wider. "You sneaky snake! You thought to invite the inferno cult to this party and you didn''t even think to tell me! Thank goodness I invited mine too," behind Damien, over the city, an equal amount of spirit lord aura came into existence, bringing with them the shivering cold of the church of winter.

    "Now, we''re back to even footing," he said to the emperor. Beside him, his Emissaries looked at him with different emotions.

    "With this much power, this fight could potentially level the city by mistake if we''re not careful," Fenore said to Damien, fearing for her city. While Brunos only laughed, his voice booming like a madman.

    "Don''t worry about that, it''s covered," he said to the worried queen.

    "Gray, punch it!" He sent.

    [Aye aye captain!] Gray replied as he did his thing. Damien began cackling like a mad wizard when he felt his senses enhanced, increasing his capabilities manifolds.

    Normally, as a spirit lord, his senses were already far above what a normal human could perceive. He could sense and see people clearly from miles away. His hearing was so great that he could listen to any conversation from a whole city block without overwhelming him. His sense of smell could let him track anyone with just a sniff, all together, his senses were beyond ordinary mortal comprehension.

    But what Gray did was take it to the next level. All his senses were significantly increased. He cackled as his eyes captured a mouse scurrying into a hole in a tree a dozen miles away. "Gray! Forget every awful thing I''ve ever said to you! You''re the best!" He sent.

    [I know I am, you like what you see?]

    "I love it!"

    The emperor had already gone back to his neutral expression, but a raging anger burned in his eyes as he panned his gaze from one opponent to another.

    "Let''s not delay shall we," Damien said. With that, he attacked. Lightening flashing and illuminating his move. The emperor welcomed him with a raised hammer.

    And Gray laughed madly as he highlighted the different routes an attack would come from. [This is gonna be fun.]

 Chapter 31 - Show Me What The Great Emperor Solar Can Do

    Far above in the sky, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed as Damien collided with the emperor, causing an explosion so large that the wind ignited and buffeted the weaker spirit lord guards, blasting them a short distance away, which gave him time to score a first hit on the emperor.

    The attack signalled the start of the fight as more than a dozen spirit lords clashed, techniques flashing and lightning lit up the sky. A storm cultivator controlled his summoned storm, using the heavy wind and lightning to harry Damien''s people. A heavy wind blew, redirecting Fenore''s arrow which was heading straight for an empire''s spirit lord. The arrow shifted, missing its target but hitting and blowing off a mountaintop in the distance. Danor clashed with an empire swordlord, both of them wielding their different techniques in conjunction with their blade skills. They seemed to be on even footing as they flashed from one side to another, leaving behind afterimages. Brunos on the other hand took care of his opponent, both of them wielding fire affinities. Brunos with his hammer and shield and the other with her bow and flaming arrows.

    The winter church¡ªit hadn''t taken them much to agree to the alliance. The only condition they''d asked for was to be left alone to handle the inferno cultist. Ice and fire clashed, with both cultivators summoning elemental constructs to attack each other. In the distance, a winter priestess chased an inferno priest, the man laughing madly as he flew away from her, dodging with practice swiftness the different ice techniques she threw at him.

    Menoe remained over the city and a little bit in front of it, using ice constructs to deflect any stray attacks and intentional ones, the city-wide energy barrier tanking any one she couldn''t deflect in time, all the while she clashed with the high priest of the inferno cult.

    Damien on his own, battled not one, not two, but three spirit lords, Gray directing his attacks and giving warnings to avoid attacks or tank the ones he couldn''t. He summoned star falls, raining down attacks on his opponents. A guard with a shield tried to tank one, thinking he was sturdy enough, he learnt his lesson when both his shield and the arm holding it got mangled, he''ll survive, but it gave Damien time to handle the rest. The second one was actually quite surprising, as the second guard¡ªA space cultivator, warped space and his stars disappeared, appearing suddenly at Damien''s back. He managed to teleport in time, fighting through the will of the cultivator that tried to lock down space. His attacks crashed into a mountain reducing it to small chunks of rocks.

    Their attacks lit up the skies as they fought, anybody watching from the city would have seen only faint figures and massive flashes of light in the clouds.

    "You''ve improved fast, for such a short time," the emperor commented, summoning balls of fire that flew towards Damien.

    "I could say the same about you¡ªor not," Damien replied, smirking as he pointed his fingers, a beam of destruction cutting through the fireballs and igniting the air, causing explosions that shook the air. These were no simple fireballs like the ones created with ordinary fire affinities, these were solar-made balls of fire, one of them powerful enough to raze to the ground a small town.

    "Boo to me for being the serious one here," the emperor said. Damien sent another salvo of star falls while he used his spear to fend off the cultivator with the shield¡ªwho had given up on tanking his attacks and instead resorted to harrying him.

    His stars were deflected again, pissing him off and putting the space cultivator on his first kill list. Hours went by as they fought, Damien summoned star falls which were either teleported away or dodged, he tried to overwhelm the cultivator by having the stars attack his three opponents individually. The space cultivator teleported most of them, reducing the strain on the emperor who managed to tank the few remaining, while the third guard just dodged the attack, assisted by the space cultivator.

    The terrain of the borderlands was changed as the two groups of cultivators fought, new hills were created and old ones destroyed. The vast stretch of land was dented with craters as the spirit lords battled.

    Fenore''s arrows found flesh and her nature affinity deposited seeds within their victims, which led to speedily growing into trees if not quickly taken care of, which was done by a life cultivator who flashed from one side to another, healing allies. That didn''t stop Fenore from opening holes in multiple cultivators. His fight with the emperor took a frustrating turn when the storm cultivator began using flashes of lightning to hamper him. For every attack he tried to deliver, he had to dodge multiple lightning strikes. He''d have been lightning roasted by now if not for Gray''s last minute warnings, and even then, it was mostly close calls. Spirit lords were powerful and very hard to kill, but one mistake could bring down a giant, and Damien didn''t intend to become the metaphorical giant.

    "Gray! I want that cultivator dead," he sent.

    He''d tried multiple attacks, sending stars after the man, but it seemed the space cultivator recognised his effectiveness, warping space to prevent his attack from landing.

    [Throw me!] Gray replied.

    "Why?" He asked. That was a stupid plan, throwing your weapon. Not only would that leave him vulnerable and put him further on the back foot, but he''d have no way to quickly retrieve the weapon without leaving himself open to well-placed attacks.

    [Just trust me, throw me!] Acquiescing, he looked for a good timing. Damien didn''t have the perfect opportunity to throw the spear, seeing as he was battling three cultivators close by and one in the distance, but he soon found the narrowest opening. Dodging an attack from the third cultivator¡ªsharp cutting waters¡ªhe interposed six stars between him and the cultivators. Pushing, he sent them after the lord''s. They''d be quickly taken care of, but it gave him the slightest opportunity. He didn''t bother to take perfect aim, trusting Gray on the trajectory¡ªhe threw.

    He turned back towards his fight, using his senses to monitor the attack. He put distance between himself and the three, giving himself more time to respond to attacks now that he no longer had his weapon on hand. The spear flashed through the air, tearing through the winds and clouds as it sped towards the storm cultivator in the distance. There was a distortion of space around the spear as it sailed towards the man¡ªsignifying the attempts of the space Cultivator¡ªbut the spear sailed unaffected. He frowned in confusion, how did that happen? The space cultivator also frowned, it seems it was the first time his technique failed to work on an attack. The storm cultivator¡ªwho had been mostly relying on the defence granted by his comrade¡ªdidn''t have the time to fully dodge before the spear arrived. He moved, narrowly avoiding the attack and Damien''s heart nearly crashed when his attack fell short, but his eyes were shocked wide open when the spear seemed to turn with man, following him.

    Stolen novel; please report.

    The man''s eyes widened in horror when he saw the spear turn with him. As if guided by a mind of its own, it pierced the cultivator just under his navel¡ªwhere his Cosmo well resided. There wasn''t any large explosion when the cultivator died¡ªwhich was frightening in itself. The man''s life aura¡ªthe same which all living things possessed¡ªjust ceased to exist, winking out like a flame doused with water. He hung on the air at first, as if suspended by the last of his mental energy, and just like that, the first casualty in the battle crashed towards the grounds, hundreds of feet below.

    The emperor''s normally neutral features turned wrathful as the first of his spirit lords fell.

    "Ouch! That had to hurt," Damien said, a smile gracing his lips.

    The emperor turned to him, solar energy radiating from him in waves. He came at Damien with renewed energy. "When I am done with you, I will go after your brother, he will mourn your death as I make him suffer,"

    Damien ignored the emperor for a moment. "Gray! What was that? How''d the space technique slide off the spear like that?"

    [Ohhh, that? Pfff, it wasn''t hard, the space cultivator couldn''t move me because my metaphysical weight was so far beyond him that he didn''t even feel any backlash,] Gray answered. Damien could sense the smugness radiating out of the little man despite him taking residence in his head.

    "Your metaphysical weight?" Damien asked. He hadn''t really thought about it, but Gray was a very powerful weapon, one he didn''t know the full worth of,¨C

    [Yes, my metaphysical weight,] Grey interrupted. [The last time you felt something close to my full powers was when you found me on that continent. Anything that can cause such damage isn''t something a spirit lord can just control with their fledgling will, and I am far above just being able to decimate a continent, so my metaphysical weight isn''t going to be influenced by any of your opponents, for now.]

    Although Damien perceived it as Gray being a little bit boastful, he couldn''t help but feel small as Gray referred to the will of a spirit lord as ''fledgling'', it made him wonder what level the higher realm Cultivators possessed.

    Raising his palm towards the ground where the storm cultivator fell, on the advice of Gray, he willed the spear into his hands. There was a boom! And then, the spear landed in his palm.

    "Is there any way I can replicate something like that, it''d feel good to have a technique that can''t be easily avoided."

    [Mmm....if you funnel enough Cosmo into a technique, it should have the desired effect.]

    Hope bloomed in Damien. "Great! I can try it on my starfalls technique, let''s see them dodge this."

    Using his spear to attack, he slashed through the arm of the third cultivator who thought that since Damien was on the back foot, he might as well overreach. With the time it took him to cut through the arm, the emperor and the space cultivator had already gotten closer. Thinking it might as well be now or never, he tried Gray''s advice.

    Instead of using the usual amount of energy on the creation of the technique, he instead added five times that. A single star appeared, twice larger than the usual size, and emitting a horrifying aura of pure destruction that made the three cultivators shy back. There was a screeching sound as the very wind itself shied away from the technique. Light distorted around the technique, leaving a thin space around it as if afraid to touch the star. Pushing through the weight on the skill, he sent it against the emperor. The space cultivator interposed himself between the emperor and the technique, Damien saw the massive strain it took as the space cultivator worked his technique, almost blacking out, but it still worked. There was a distortion of space, this time far stronger than usual, draining the remaining of the spirit lord''s energy reserves; and the technique disappeared, appearing a few meters behind them and then began falling towards the ground.

    Damien willed, and the technique unravelled, there was no reason to needlessly cause that sort of destruction to an already damaged land. Looking at the cultivator, his face was pale and blood leaked from his nose, eyes and ears as he suffered the backlash from teleporting Damien''s technique.

    There was a lull in their battle as the emperor and his cultivators¡ªeven the ones fighting his emissaries¡ª stopped and looked at Damien with a new look. Fear. He could see it in their eyes now, no spirit lord could create something like that and not be massively drained, but Damien was still filled with a raging river of energy¡ªthough noticeably drained¡ªand they could sense it.

    Fenore and the others gathered behind him, regrouping. The other side did the same, rallying behind their emperor.

    "You did well, but it seems you''ve reached your limit," he said to the space cultivator who was taking the break to quickly gather energy.

    "If you''ve been holding onto this kind of power, why haven''t you taken over the rest of the continent? I know you could do it," Solar asked, fear having replaced the normally neutral and regal features. Even his own emissaries looked the same. It wasn''t surprising, they hadn''t gotten the full grasp of his powers; There was a reason he never revealed his true strengths to his emissaries, it would have given them more hope of winning this war, but some people were not just ready for the truth.

    "Why would I take over half the continent, it just sounds too stressful."

    Besides, Damien didn''t want to be held back by having to manage an empire spanning half the continent. Sure, it could be helpful to his cultivation, as he''d have millions of soldiers to help gather materials and treasures for him. But he could just take anything he wanted himself, and watching over hundreds of cities and thousands of miles of territory just seemed massively stressful, he didn''t want that kind of stress.

    The emperor knew this fight wasn''t going the way he planned, so he instead tried another. "This battle has taken a toll on both our groups, I can see it on you and your group; why don''t we take a temporary truce and give everyone time to rest, you don''t want any of your people to die, any more than I do mine," and that was maybe the worst mistake emperor Solar made since this battle began¡ªshowing weakness towards the opposition. The emperor realised it the moment he said it, judging by the resigned look on his face.

    Damien pounced.

    "No, no, no, you don''t get a free pass just because you asked. You threatened to kill me..... Well come on then, show me what the great emperor Solar can do," He began floating backwards, giving them more space. His spirit lords sensed what was about to happen, seeing as they scattered away from him. The emperor''s lords got the clue a few whiles later.

    "Let''s give Keilan a few more hours, shall we," he said to Grey.

    When Damien judged that there was enough space, he summoned his full astral image.

    Flooding the battlefield with his calamity soaked aura.

 Chapter 32 - Oh, Crap

    Flying over the northern sea of the Greensend continent, Keilan slowly approached the Solarian coastal territories. He''d taken care to mask his approach, restricting both his perception and aura so as to avoid detection both from the inhabitants of the sea and the coastal cities he would be passing.

    His job was to take away the eyes of the empire¡ªtheir Diviner. They''d been very careful to shield the truth about the existence of a Diviner, no wonder they''d been very prosperous, as diviners were a mighty boon to any kingdom... not to talk of one approaching spirit lady.

    In other to limit the very possibility of cross-passing with any empire battle groups, he and Damien had planned for him to take the northern sea, as the closest and easiest path an empire strike group could take was over the northern forest bordering Gandor; and the forest was the territory of the nature cult¡ªwith the whole forest being the demesne of the cult''s druidess. He''d had to travel miles to skirt around their territory, entering the Dragon Sea. It had taken him hours to finally approach the coastal territories without being detected.

    The coastal territories were more cloudy than usual due to the massive storm blanketing the borderlands, so he used the abundance of clouds to shield himself from monarch scouts; and unlike the capital which he was heading towards, the coastal cities he flew over didn''t have the detection capabilities geared towards finding spirit lords, not to talk of ones who were trying to pass undetected.

    He flew over military bases, evading their detection formations and equipments. using a very concentrated aura suppression to deter any flying monsters capable of giving away his position, leaving the monsters to fly away in terror instead of killing them and risking their corpses falling and alerting any scouts towards his position.

    The empire lands were mountainous and dotted with small patches of forests in between dozens of cities and towns. He reduced his speed as he got deeper into the land, now that the defences were getting harder to avoid.

    Eventually, he saw the empire in the distance¡ªor more technically, where the empire was based. A huge mountain range rose to encircle a large valley¡ªwith the capital city of the Solarian empire placed within. An opening in between two mountains served as an entrance into the valley¡ªthe only one. He breathed in relief as the valley came into view, but his job wasn''t done¡ªfar from it.

    A large fort was placed a short distance from the Valley''s entrance, housing both land and air troops with airships lining the fields of the fort¡ª300 feet long constructs of wood and steel, shaped like barges, but with the mouth narrowed for increased speed. Dozens of steel pipes lined the edges, enchanted to deliver devastating elemental attacks.

    And that was just the capital''s first line of defence. Anything that got passed that were welcomed to face the weapons placed at the top of the mountain range. Large weapons like the ones placed on the airships, but with more devastating powers¡ªwith the enchantments and power batteries installed inside meant to deliver powerful spirit lord''s attacks. Two large earth constructs were placed on opposite ends of the Valley''s entrance. Top monarch constructs meant to be commanded and to work in concert with the spirit lord defenders Keilan knew to be residing in the castle.

    Their defences were powerful, but not on par with the attacking constructs. A large dome covered the entire valley, powered by a large formation under the city¡ªthe same as other cities. This dome was meant to be one way, nothing in, but anything could leave. Another dome¡ªsmaller¡ªcovered only the city, serving as a failsafe just in case the first one was destroyed. It was powered by a different formation, to prevent cases of sabotage destroying both shields at once. This was meant to be completely sealed. Multiple defensive equipment were placed on the mountain ranges. Equipments which were enchanted to shoot projectiles meant to destroy incoming attacks.

    Keilan didn''t have any hope of even passing the military fort undetected, as there were dozens of detection constructs for every deceptive technique the empire could come up with. And that was good because Keilan was immediately detected.

    Alarms blared out through the fort, and Immediately troops began rushing towards their assigned stations. Large projectile weapons on the grounds were activated and soon began turning towards him. Giving up on any need for hiding, he dived. Airships quickly began rising to meet him, assisted by the projectile weapons which began shooting at him. Fire spears, lightning spears, large water hammers, stone boulders and cutting wind swords flew towards him.

    He waved his spear, and a large gust of wind flowed to deflect all the attacks. A few airships were shifted out of their trajectory but the majority kept on their paths towards him. Replying in kind, dozens of large spears made of compressed wind manifested beside him as he dived. Marking the intended targets, he sent them against the ships. Defensive measures were activated and small protective domes rose to cover the ships. That was unfortunate¡ªfor them because those domes weren''t meant to defend against spirit lord attacks. His spears tore through them like they weren''t there, penetrating deep into the ships'' hulls and lodging themselves inside the ships'' cores. He unleashed the second technique placed inside the spear. Wind explosions ripped through the ships, unleashing sharp cutting winds that scythed through the ships, shearing through ships and crewmen alike like hot knives through butter. Hundreds of body parts rained down to splatter on the fort, painting the whole fort in deep crimson reds. Large parts of the destroyed ships soon followed, cratering the fields and crushing any soldier too slow to run for cover.

    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

    With the majority of the airships destroyed, a spirit lord aura blazed through the fort¡ª one he recognised.

    Slowing down, he waited as the silver-eyed woman rose to meet him. Elora Darkfang looked different from the last time he''d seen her. The confidence in which spirit lords carried themselves was absent as in her as he looked at the snake. She didn''t display any sense of pride or the superiority which she usually showed others. Her expression was only resigned like she knew what the outcome of this battle was going to be.

    He nodded in greeting. "Elora."

    Elora had been a spirit lady who''d fought against Damien, alongside another empire spirit lord. They''d battled in front of a small city in the desolate continent, destroying half the city in the course of their fight, with the end of the battle leaving Elora crippled spiritually and the other spirit lord dead. Her astral image had been destroyed, reducing her power back to the beginning spirit lord. Her aura was still that of a spirit lady, but she lacked the power that came with the rank. She was still more powerful than a monarch cultivator, but she was now weaker than a full-fledged spirit lord. One could say that she was now half spirit lady. If that was even a thing.

    Her expression didn''t change as she replied. "You''re trespassing on empire territory. Leave now, or you will be destroyed," the voice wasn''t any better, her lilting voice now sounded like a drone.

    "Wow... Damien really did a number on you," he said.

    Her silver eyes flashed when she heard Damien''s name, pure hatred radiated out of her. "What do you want?"

    If she could have taken out her hatred on him, she would have done it.. and even delighted in it. But here they were, she was far weaker than him.

    "Just visiting, I''ve been wanting to see your capital for some time now, but haven''t had the time. Do you think you could clear a safe path for me?" He asked sweetly, smiling and making use of the cute face everybody said he had.

    Elora''s expression turned more murderous, it seemed she didn''t like his cute face, maybe he wasn''t doing it very well. "No? At least I tried," he sighed audibly. "Now, let''s get this over with," he said, readying himself. Former spirit lady or not, she still had the experience of a spirit lady. It wouldn''t do him well to take her for granted.

    She flashed forward towards him, daggers raised. Darkness materialized out of thin air to wrap around her for protection.

    He moved to meet her, spear pointed up. His speed was far greater than hers, so he got to her before she could take three steps. Brute forcing through her attacks, he stabbed in and out, passing her by.

    Turning, he watched as Elora turned to face him, blood leaking from her mouth and from under her armpit. It seems he''d somehow pierced her lungs along with the heart.

    There was relief in her expression as she looked at him. A small smile graced her lips before she fell, crashing back down towards the fort''s grounds as hundreds of soldiers watched their strongest being killed instantly. Panic roared through them a minute later, and then they began running, leaving the fort to escape deeper into the surrounding forests. Some still tried to take shots at him with the remaining weapons, but they were quickly taken care of, some by him and the others by their fellow soldiers who didn''t want the big bad spirit lord deciding to finish them off.

    Turning towards the valley''s entrance in the distance, he was sure they were already alerted, seeing as the outer dome was now activated.

    Approaching the valley, dozens of weapons opened fire on him. Spirit lord-level Lightning spears crackled through the air, lashing out widely with whips of lightning. Boulders of crushing gravity sped towards him, including fire spears that followed, burning through the air. One was enough to leave a bruise on him, and the enchanted constructs shooting out a dozen projectiles per minute. A sound-based attack blared out, releasing disorienting sounds that distorted his vision and nearly made him crash. He oriented himself, shaking off the effects. Looking at the incoming attacks, these were powerful attacks that he couldn''t fully avoid as they kept increasing by the minute. And he couldn''t just wave his hands and deflect them with his usual attacks.

    Steeling himself, he summoned a partial image. A pair of large green wings materialized on his back, buffeting the winds. He stretched them wide open, further riling the calm winds. A massive tornado was summoned, unleashed from his soulspace. It rose towards the skies, stirring the clouds into the beginning a large storm and then it began tearing into the land, leaving large trenches as it moved. Soon, it began consuming hundreds of the incoming projectiles, gobbling them up like a hungry Damien, but more were still being flung; so Keilan directed the tornado towards the valley.

    Hundreds of enchanted techniques were shot out into the tornado, meant to unravel it, but this wasn''t a normal tornado, so their attacks were just fatting up the natural disaster.

    Keilan used the storm as cover to slowly approach the city as attacks were shot out only to be swallowed by the tornado. He avoided any attacks that got close to him, using the strong winds to redirect them, leading them to crash towards the grounds which were soon being decorated with craters.

    He was already a mile or two closer to the valley, weaving between one attack and another, when something flashed and the world was engulfed in a massive orange light, blinding him for a moment. When his vision returned, the sky was clear and the tornado was no more, leaving him the only target for the weapons which were quickly turning towards him. They were now accompanied by a small fleet of airships rising out of the valley, Shit, i forgot the inner fort, he thought, frustration lashing him. And that wasn''t the only problem. Accompanying and leading the dozens of attack ships was the bulwark¡ªSamon, flying right in the front.

    Oh, crap.

 Chapter 33 - Advancement

    The wind howled and the earth groaned as Keilan clashed with Samon¡ªThe bulwark. There was a reason he was called ''The Bulwark''. Samon had once defended against an invading force of over one hundred thousand strong while battling two spirit lords. Aside from the emperor, he was considered the second strongest in the empire, even surpassing the emperor''s knife. Shocking.

    Their battle tore up the already damaged plains and turned giant rocks on a five-mile radius into dust as they flitted from one position to another. While battling the spirit lord, Keilan had to defend against the sun fleet¡ªthe emperor''s personal fleet. Most of the fleets in the empire were either made up of soldiers from the different noble houses or were recruited from the commoners. Except from the sun fleet. A specialized fleet raised for the sole purpose of being able to withstand and deliver hits towards spirit lords. However, the amount of hits they could take was not much, as any battered ship was meant to have already escaped before being completely brought down. Leaving new ships to take up their position. They were like bees unthreatening alone, but their threat levels began scaling higher when their numbers increased. Same with the battle squads on the ships. Alone they posed no threat towards him, but when their powers were continuously delivered together, it put too much weight on him that eventually would later drown him. That''s why he paid close attention to them as he battled Samon.

    The ships in the sun fleet were built differently from the others. Instead of the barge-like shape the normal ships had, these were built narrow, for increased speed. Their hulls were so sturdy that they could withstand few direct hits from spirit lords. Their power batteries were also directly recharged by the most powerful of the empire''s lords, even the emperor himself. That was why he''d left them with a problem of their own to deal with.

    Larger tornadoes wove through their ranks, continuously tearing into hulls as the ships tried evasive actions. While scything wind flew from his winds to continuously hammer them. Still, they managed to continually annoy him.

    He battled Samon, long-spear against bastard sword. He used strong gusts of wind to redirect and hamper his enemy''s movements. But he took back in return. Samon''s hits landed like the weight of three mountains since he was mainly a gravity Cultivator. Everything felt so crushing and stifling as Samon increased the gravity on his position, weighing him down and sometimes delivering hits that smashed Keilan into the earth. The land was already pockmarked with multiple large craters from his repeated crashing. The good news was that he didn''t have to bother with the outer dome anymore, as their fight had already smashed it into glittering tiny shards, same with most of the weapons, judging by the drastically reduced attack.

    While slowly drawing the air out of Samon''s lungs and hardening the wind around him, Keilan sent wind blades towards the attacking ships, using his tornadoes to smash into them repeatedly. Some ships were already making their way back to base, unable to continue without the risk of being utterly destroyed. While some were already on the ground, in pieces. Body parts littered the ground as Keilan''s scything tornadoes and wind blades did short work on the ships, but there were still more, always more.

    The wind was drawn as Samon dropped a golden ball in between them, the bronze orb imploding and sucking in the air. Keilan felt a dragging force, mildly, but still enough to disorient him, which opened him up to a smashing attack from Samon''s huge tower shield that had the unfortunate¡ªor maybe fortunate, depending on who''s opinion¡ªthat blasted him through a ship, leaving the ship in tiny pieces as it crashed to the ground.

    Samon came after him, the wind exploding from his passage as he crashed into Keilan. The man weighed like a mountain. Keilan twisted, trying to shake him off before he crashed into a small hill in the distance. The ships kept chase, raining pinpoint attacks on Keilan.

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    He straightened his body horizontally, surprising Samon who was suddenly bewildered as to why Keilan stopped struggling. His surprise lasted until he slammed into a wind wall placed a few centimetres from Keilan''s body. The man was forcefully yanked from Keilan, leaving him to re-orient his fall. He came to a full stop in the air, the kinetic energy blasting the top of the hill behind him.

    Samon was already back on his trail though, so when Keilan turned to face him, he found the man a short distance from him, blade poised to deliver a chopping cut. Spreading wide his wings and thinning the air resistance around him, he blasted upwards, evading Samon and then began heading towards the approaching fleet.

    Having expected him to keep fighting Samon, they weren''t ready for his sole attention. He tore into their ranks, jumping from one ship''s deck to another and anywhere he landed, death reigned. With his spear and hundreds of tiny wind blades, he dove into multiple groups, laying waste to them and tearing apart the ships at the same time. He''d already finished with the second ship when Samon arrived, the man was furious as he''d expected Keilan to play fair, who in their right mind would ever do that?

    "You snake," the man said, fuming in anger. His face was red and Keilan could sense how ragged his breath was. Good, it meant his work was still on.

    He smiled. "You''re the one who brought them to be slaughtered, and now I''m being criticised for taking advantage," he said, tsking. "That''s bad of you."

    Samon was about to reply when something happened. Far to the west, an aura bloomed. Its power greater than anything in the continent and even beyond. Keilan could almost see the world slowly turning grey.

    Samon eyes widened, fear sinking into him. "My emperor," he breathed, as space began destabilising around him.

    Keilan sensed the teleport. He knew he couldn''t stop it as he was now, he was already greatly weakened. So he summoned his astral image. "Tsk, tsk, where do you think you''re going?" He said as his astral image appeared. The mere power radiating out of it slicing into pieces any ships that were within a few metres from him. With his will, he pressed down on the space around them for miles, locking it down. He wasn''t as good at it as a space cultivator, and his will wasn''t strong enough to indefinitely hold back Samon, but it''d have to buy him enough time to enact his plan.

    Samon looked back towards him, fury radiating from him. "You will regret that," he said with finality.

    Keilan nodded. "Maybe¡ªMaybe not," he said, and then triggered his advancement, raising his power by leaps and bounds.

    It was well known that the simplest way to advance was to fight, as you consume a third of the potential every being had to fuel your advancements. The more monsters you killed, the more potential you consumed to fuel your growth¡ªThe benefits being the expansion of your energy well, giving you more powers at your disposal. At the lower tiers, that was easy enough to accomplish as you could fasten your growth by killing droves of beasts. But that got significantly harder in the higher realms. Most high-level beasts had used up almost all their potential, leaving you with little to consume as their growth would have ended in that tier. The beasts with the most potential to consume were those of sentience, and Keilan had just participated in the killing of multiple sentient dragons. But that wasn''t enough to fuel his advancement.

    What only people in the higher realm knew was that there was another way to advance¡ªthe different flavours of Cosmos suffusing the air.

    Getting to spirit lord boosted your senses so well you could sense the different flavours of Cosmos when you concentrated on it. That was what Keilan did.

    He focused his mind, since he was floating in the air, that made it easier. He located the flow of wind energy flowing through the world and suffusing it. Normally he''d not have been able to do this due to the strain it would have put on his soul but he''d recently taken something into his soul. He didn''t understand what it did but he could feel it in his soul, his potential had grown in orders of magnitude. locating the energy river flowing through the world, he began to consume, energy raged through his soul as his advancement started. Samon must''ve felt what he was doing because he immediately attacked. Summoning his own astral image, a giant bronze figure with dull glowing golden eyes appeared behind the man, their combined energy and proximity to each other pushed back the wind and thin cracks began spreading through the air as space began destabilizing.

    His advancement quickly reaching a climax, his powers rose to new heights as Keilan renewed his clash with the bulwark, their collision tearing through the gathered fleet, leaving none able to even scream as they were crushed and torn to pieces.

 Chapter 34 - Nervousness, Anxiety, And A Little Awakening I

    TEN YEARS AGO.

    SOLARIA NORTHERN JUNGLE.

    "We are here in attendance to witness the first and one of the most significant moments in the life of every cultivator," Elder Rhole announced, his deep voice sweeping through the whole auditorium.

    "This moment...one that every cultivator must cross when they''re to begin their path. This moment...which shall forever live in the minds of these children as an unforgettable event, no matter where their different paths eventually take them." He continued, this time, facing the group of fifteen year olds sitting on the auditorium grounds.

    Damien gulped the moment the man''s eyes passed him, nervousness sinking in.

    Elder Rhole looked like a middle-aged man, with brown hair and black piercing eyes. He looked to be in his forties, but everyone knew him to be far beyond that, surpassing a century.

    As far as the village''s history went by, the man was a living relic of the history of the village, one of the village''s first settlers and founders.

    They were in the village auditorium, if it could even be called that, only capable of sitting up to a thousand audiences.

    Normally, an ordinary event in the Auditorium would have had people sitting anywhere they want, with only the front row reserved for the elders; But today was special, an event which took place only annually.

    The setting was tiered in three sections. The first tier¡ªthe one closest to the grounds¡ªwas reserved for the village elders and the mayor, including other people who took up important leadership positions in the village. The second was occupied by the guests of honor¡ªpeople whose children were partaking in the ceremony, and the other important families, mainly the families of wealthy merchants, the farmers'' council, and the village hunters, those who protected the village from roaming beasts. Damien could see Keilan''s mother, Mara, sitting there with his sister, Leira, next to her. Their father wasn''t anywhere in the auditorium, likely keeping watch on the village borders along with other hunters.

    The third section and the largest by far was filled with the lower class village members, those that did the menial labors and grunt work, like the common farmers and petty traders.

    Sitting cross-legged on the auditorium grounds and in full view of the entire audience were Damien and the other kids his age participating in the ceremony. Beside him sat Keilan, his nervous fidgeting not doing any good to Damien''s.

    Down the line to the left and right were other kids, their nervousness showing in different ways, including Borvin. Damien smiled at that small mercy.

    While the Elder kept talking, Damien looked behind, his nervousness not letting him sit still. His eyes quickly found Mara and Leira, to which he was rewarded with a heartwarming smile and a little thumbs up from the little munchkin, which abated his nervousness, a little bit.

    Over the many months since he''d started living with them, they''d become more than just an adopted family and into something more real, like he was one of their blood. Anyone who didn''t know them would have thought Damien was one of their own, just with strange gray hair. And when he finally got to realize how lucky he was to be found by them, he thanked whatever being out there that made this possible.

    Elder Rhole finally finished his speech, which was a large relief to Damien and clearly, the others. He didn''t think he could stand another minute of the old man repeatedly announcing how important this ceremony was.

    When the Elder was done, he beckoned for Healer Salem to approach, the old woman stood up from her seat amongst the other elders and began walking towards them, the echoes of her walking stick in the quiet auditorium sounding like the inevitable approach of death. On her hand was a leather pouch, in which she dipped her hands, bringing out a leather necklace tied to a fist-sized gemstone which she began passing around to all the participants, going from one person to another.

    "On your hands are your awakening stones, which will be used to kickstart you on your journey," Elder Rhole spoke, looking at each of them. "Everyone can manipulate cosmo, but these stones will determine your true aptitude going forward."

    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

    Getting his own, Damien studied the gemstone, which looked so unassuming he would have thought it an ordinary gem had he not been told otherwise. Looking at it with his spiritual sense, he finally saw what made it different. The inside was somehow hollowed out and within it was a pool of Cosmo energy, dense and unadulterated.

    Damien shivered in fear, a thought crossing his mind. If this was as he''d thought, this ceremony was partially a death sentence.

    When the healer was done, moving on to stand on one side, Rhole continued. "It saddens me to say this, but some of you just won''t have the required mental strength to go further than the basic Cosmo you have been taught to control. These stones will test you all to determine the able ones and the... unfortunate." He finished, looking at them and seeing mostly terrified faces, he immediately moved to assure them. "Do not despair. It would be sad, no doubt, but don''t forget that no matter the results, you''ll always be part of the community."

    Yeah, right, Damien thought, like anybody would ever believe that. His anxiety mounted.

    Every child in the village grew up with the dream of one day being amongst the special ones¡ªthe ones who wielded mighty powers. Even the games the children played were made to imitate the different powers people like the hunters wielded; and they always fantasized of one day having such powers for themselves, of one day being able to crush a tree with a punch.

    But deep down, they all knew that not everyone was cut out for it. Some people just couldn''t take the weight that accompanied those powers. But that didn''t shake down their dreams, as they still thought of themselves as one of the lucky few, able to surpass the basic Cosmo wielding and truly step into something specialized, wielding the more flavored energies, like every true cultivator.

    Listening to the Elder''s speech only elevated Damien''s fear, he didn''t want to be among the unlucky ones today. Beside him, he could also feel Keilan''s fear and nervousness, it was almost blasting out in waves.

    Yearning for shared comfort, he stretched out his hands, taking Keilan''s. The other boy calmed somewhat and gave Damien a grateful look.

    "As we begin, for safety reasons, we will go through all of you one by one," Rhole nodded towards the healer who was standing nearby. "Healer Salem will make sure to heal you before you incur any fatal or permanent damage.

    "I will begin calling your names, and when you hear it, you will come forward and begin." Damien gulped, his anxiety reaching new heights. He almost panicked, squeezing down on Keilan''s hand, the other boy too nervous to complain."

    He looked down the line, seeing different signs of nervousness from the other teenagers. One even looked about to run, his eyes jerking around, like a thief about to be caught and looking for the quickest excape route.

    The tension was so thick Damien could feel it on his skin.

    "....Bente." Elder Rhole called, the others perking up and audibly breathing out in relief as it wasn''t their name being called.

    A small mousy girl moved out of the line, her nervousness showing as she fiddled with her dress. As she stepped towards the Elder, he motioned for her to sit in a cross legged position on a single mat which was placed a few feets in front of the other participants.

    The girl sat, facing the others and the entire audience.

    "Put on the necklace." The healer said. The girl, too nervous, had already forgotten about the necklace, as she first looked at the elder questionly before her mind caught up. She quickly did as commanded, the other participants quickly following behind when the healer looked at them all with a raised eyebrow.

    "Now, slowly, I want you to focus your mental energy on the gem. Make sure you have a full grasp on it. Are you done? Okay then, slowly, while focusing on the gem, draw in the pool of energy from it. To make it easier, breathing in as you try to draw in the energy helps..."

    Slowly, he could see the girl follow the instructions of the healer as she breathed out, her chest widening, and then she slowly breathed in, and Damien watched in awe as energy from the gemstone, tiny tendrils of Cosmo energy snaked out of it, trailing their way into Bente''s body.

    When the energy had almost been completely drained away, Bente began shaking, her body going from small fits to almost a violent shake.

    "Take it slow. Don''t rush." Salem calmly said, seemingly unworried.

    At first, Damien thought she couldn''t hear, since all her concentration was focused elsewhere, but gradually, her body began to calm, returning back to normal; but by now, sweats was beginning to rise from her face.

    They watched in terse silence as Bente finally settled into a still motion. She stayed like that for a long time, and when Damien began thinking maybe something had gone wrong, her eyes snapped open, wide with excitement. A deep Emerald gleamed from her eyes, before settling down.

    Wind swept thought the auditorium, bringing with it the smell of flowers and fresh cut grass. A Nature Affinity.

    Elder Rhole helped the girl back to her feet, her legs jittery. He raised her hands up. "We have our newest Nature Cultivator!" He shouted, and the crowd roared in approval, the auditorium shaking as nearly a thousand feets stomped in the ground, with whistles and screams of approval being heard from most audience, the reserved ones nodding calmly.

    Looking at the girl, her eyes gleamed with joy as the people showed their loud signs of approval.

    Elder Rhole nodded, waiting for the noise to die down a little before he spoke. He pointed at the little girl standing at his side. "She shall go on to make sure we''re never hit with famine. Wherever her path takes her, know that hunger shall flee at her approach!" The crowd roared again, this time higher than the previous. Damien feared he''d get deafened from the noise, raising his hands to cover his ears.

 Chapter - 35 Nervousness, Anxiety, And A Little Awakening II

    It went on for some time before the elder raised his hand, signalling silence."Yes, yes, it is good to see your approval showed in such spectacular manner. Don''t worry, you''ll get more time to scream your hearts out during the bonfire, for now, let''s get on with the next person... Bente, you can go join your family." He waved his hands towards a family sitting on the second tier¡ªa couple, and a little girl.

    Bente nodded, uttering a silent thanks to the elder before she ran to the hugs of her parents and little sibling.

    if the nervousness of the other participants wasn''t heightened enough, it was now. The amount of approval shown by the villagers wasn''t something any of them wanted to disappoint.

    Elder Rhole looked at them all, watching their faces each. He was silent for a while before a name was called out. "Fenren."

    Damien breathed out a sigh of relief at another lucky escape.

    The person being called was a small portly boy who stumbled his way towards the elder. Rhole put a calming hand on the boy''s shoulder, balancing him, and then he helped the boy sit. "Now, just like Bente did, I want you to carefully do the same. Do not rush." The elder said, his calming words apparently soothing the boy.

    They went through the same sequence as before, the boy breathing in the energy from the gemstone. It took a long time, longer than the previous participant, but when he came to, a fresh calming wind swept through the auditorium, bringing in the sweet soothing smell of the ocean. A Water Cultivator.

    And like that, another roar erupted in the auditorium, no less louder than before. "He shall go on to protect us from droughts! Making sure we are never In need of water sustenance. Wherever his path takes him, the barren desert atmosphere shall flee! knowing that an incarnation of sustenance has arrived!" The crowd roared louder at this, their stomping shaking the earth.

    The boy''s face beamed as he saw this, his eyes looking towards his family who were screaming their hearts out. A woman¡ªprobably his mother¡ªwas shedding tears of joy, blowing kisses towards him and shaking the other people sitting close by, pointing to her son, probably boasting about him.

    Eventually, the noise died down, the elder sending the boy towards his family, which he took to with enthusiasm as his figure raced towards them.

    "...Teskin." another name was called up.

    Another boy stood up, clearly nervous, but he still walked confidently towards the elder, apparently emboldened by the success of the previous two. The other participants followed him, as their shaking bodies finally started to calm down.

    Like before, the boy sat, already beginning before the elder spoke. The old man left the boy to his own devices, clearly trusting that the boy would follow the warnings of before.

    They watched as Teskin drew in energy, forgetting the cautions that had been given as he drew in the energy in one huge gulp, and unlike before, something different happened this time.

    Teskin had just drawn in the energy when his body immediately shook violently, and then he coughed out blood, immediately losing consciousness as his body began shaking, almost falling to the ground until two pairs of hands grabbed hold of him, one of them glowing a shining emerald.

    When the healer had finished, the boy calmed and his body limp, she motioned for two people Damien hadn''t noticed standing at an entrance he hadn''t ever seen.

    They moved closer, bringing out a stretcher as they lifted the boy onto it, and then began heading back where they came from.

    Throughout this, the crowd had gone eerily quiet, with the only sound heard being the mournful scream of a woman who quickly stood up, running down and chasing after the two people, a man following behind.

    Elder Rhole raised his hands. "Calm down, all is well. He''s just unconscious, that''s all. He''ll be sure to make a quick recovery soon." His words calmed most of them, but some still looked on with troubled faces.

    He turned towards the other participants. "This is a situation which is guaranteed to happen at every awakening. That''s why we have the head healer here. Not everyone is cut out for what they dream of. Do not fret though, the village will not discard you." He said, his words calming nobody. "Now, let''s carry on, Keilan."

    Beside him, the other boy froze, his hand tightening on Damien''s enough to make him wince. He looked up, seeing Keilan''s eyes in him, the terror in them. Damien smiled, giving the boy a playful punch in the shoulder. "You''ve got this." He said, his voice low and as calm as he could make it. Keilan nodded, releasing Damien''s hand as he stood up, moving towards the elder.

    The elder gave him a pat on the shoulder, also reassuring him. Keilan took his seat, nervousness still on his features. Like before, the event went on a before. Keilan drew energy, and when that was done, not without some shaking, they waited in tense silence as he went through the process of opening his meridians.

    Not surprisingly, at least to Damien, Keilan was done in record time, finishing far quicker than the previous successful participants. His eyes opened in a shining green glow as a soft wind swept through, ruffling hairs and clothes. Keilan''s mood immediately changed as he began laughing joyfully, like a child, as he was gently lifted off the ground by the wind. His face glowing with happiness, like a child who had just been handed his first toy. The crowd roared on once again, stomping and whistling, which made Keilan laugh harder, tears streaking down his cheeks.

    "We welcome our newest wind child! The breath of life itself! Who shall shield us when the wind turns wrathful!" Elder Rhole shouted, the crowd roaring harder. "Wherever his path takes him, protection shall follow, as the wind shall rise up to protect those it calls its own." The crowd continued roaring in approval as After a few seconds, he body was slowly brought down, his feet strong enough to hold him. The elder patted him on the back, sending him towards his mother, but not before the other guy ran towards Damien giving him a crushing hug. "Thanks, Dame." He said, before he rushed towards his mother who was shedding tears of joy while Leira jumped up, her hands raised in excitement. They both crushed him in two hugs as he reached them, hugs from which he quickly tried to extricate himself only to be immediately given a kiss on the brow, which made his cheeks redden. Damien snickered at the sight.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    When all was done, the elder once again spoke. "Yes, yes, your approval is greatly appreciated. The children of the wind, as they''re aptly called, will go on to protect you from the rage of the wind. We all know how destructive a riled-up wind could be, having another wind child amongst us guarantees our protection the more." Whistling and hooting could be heard as the elder finished, dying down a second later. Rhole nodded, once more turning to the other participants. "Now, for the next, Borvin!" He called out.

    For once, there wasn''t the usual swagger as the boy stood up, his anxiety plain. His eyes flickered from one place to another, probably looking for the nearest exit.

    Like that, he walked towards the elder, getting a pat on the shoulder and took his seat, following the same sequence as before. It took a while for his eyes to open, his confidence returning, but in a reduced capacity. Even though it was clear that he had succeeded, the boy still looked defeated, his hands tightening. It didn''t take long for the reason to come out as a green glow of nature erupted from his body. Damien almost lost it there, managing to hold himself back before he erupted in laughter. Keilan was less considerate.

    Over the roar of the crowd, his voice could still be heard, hailing Borvin, and even chanting his name, a stupid grin plastered on his face. Anybody who saw him would have thought Keilan a genuine friend that supported Borvin, only the remaining participants knew the truth, as they looked away, looking anywhere but at Borvin. Damien looked at the boy. Atleast he did get something, unlike Teskin.

    Borvin stood up before the elder could present him to the crowd, running not to his parents who sat in the first section, but instead running away and quickly out of the building.

    The elder looked at this in confusion, turning towards the other participants in question, but everyone refused to meet his eyes.

    Soon enough, another name was called. A fit boy with dark hair and brown eyes who came out with a fire affinity.

    Boria, twin sibling to Borvin, came out with a Sound affinity, or as Damien would call it, the Noise affinity. Unlike her twin, her affinity didn''t surprise him, and he was sure nobody around here was surprised either, Boria did like to make noise after all.

    And so names were being called one by one, going through three more names before his time came.

    "...Damien!"

    Watching others go through their awakening too many times had already filtered out the nervousness and anxiety, so when his name was called, he stood up calmly, walking steadily towards the elder who raised his eyebrow, a smile tinging the corner of his lips, healer Salem too.

    Following the instructions of the elders, he centered his mind onto the gem, slowly breathing in as tendrils of energy their way into him.

    Ever since he saw the gem and the pool of energy within, he knew an amount of energy like that could do serious damage to him if he wasn''t careful. So he was somewhat startled but prepared when the energies fully entered his body, their entry port being his energy well, where in the future, he''d be drawing power from.

    The inhaled energy immediately began raging the moment all was sucked in, the force almost making him lose control.

    He gathered mental energy, preparing for war, and then forcibly took complete control of the energy. They still raged, threatening to break out of their chains and rampage through his soul, doing devastating damage. But he dominated, his mental energy descending like the hand of a god, and then he began to direct them.

    With his mental energy, he created a dome around the foreign energies, sealing them in. Successfully creating a cage, he then opened a small path, a tunnel leading to one direction and one direction only: his heart meridian.

    The upside down star construct shone a dull silver colour in his spiritual sight, one of its tips pointed down, like the blade of an executioner.

    He directed the energy towards the meridian, using his pathways as a route. Soon enough, he got there, and instead of just brute forcing it open, he tried the subtle kind, directing a small stream of energy, using his mental energy to squesqueeze shape the energy into the shape of a needle. with the desired form, he used its pointy tip, poking the meridian and unsurprisingly, finding it stopped dead. He tried multiple times, poking different parts and trying to find any vulnerable part. When he finally exhausted all his subtle ideas, he decided to go with the BIG BAM.

    Drawing in the energy, again he shaped, and this time he went for the blocky type.

    Shaping the energies into the shape of of hammer, he slammed it down onto meridian, hard, but still careful not to go overboard. One, twice, thrice, and then cracking lines began spearing from one side to another, another small tap and the shell shattered, turning into sprinkling silver lights that got swept up by the remainder of the foreign energies. What was revealed from the inside of the shell was another star shaped construct, except this one was grey and looking kind of ethereal.

    From the middle of the opened meridian, different pathways crisscrossed as the heart meridian was the only meridian connected to all the others, serving as the gateway towards the other meridians. Done observing, Damien began moving again.

    Like this, he continued, following the pathways towards the hand meridians.

    He started with his left hand, since he didn''t want to risk his right. His fear proved unwanted as within a few seconds of reaching the left hand meridian, he''d already finished breaking it open, revealing the same grey ethereal meridian. He continued, going to his right hand, and then to his left foot, to his right. Done with all that, he finally set his sights to the meridian he was most terrified of :The Brain.

    Alot of people would argue that the heart meridian was more dangerous than the brain simply because it was connected to the heart, but Damien viewed the heart meridian as easy to recover from if you had any healing practitioner on quick standby, like the unfortunate Teskin. You''re more likely to survive from the heart meridian than the brain because if you suffered damage to the heart meridian, the tells were easy and quick to see :spitting of blood and body convulsions, easy things that could be quickly countered, but who would be able to counter the quick effects of the brain meridian?

    If you survived damage to the brain, no one except a mind cultivator would be quick enough to know and act, and that was if you were lucky to suffer a tiny damage which could atleast destroy a small portion of your brain.

    In Damien''s opinion, the brain was like the soul, it held the identity of a person, you lose your brain and your being is utterly deleted.

    He''d read different books in Healer Salem''s library which described the devastating effects of suffering a mind injury, and even if it was only a portion, that was still part of your identity being taken away.

    Approaching the brain meridian with utmost caution. Instead of the three consecutive hits he delivered to the other meridians, he instead began with only a single tiny tap, intent on taking it very slowly, he didnt care how long he had to spend on it, he would do this right.

    Readying himself, he raised his energy form hammer, tapping gently on the mind meridian. He looked at it, seeing no effect whatsoever, so he decided to add a little more force to the next hit.

    He had already mentally raised the hammer, bringing it down when the meridian shattered, with panic he quickly stopped his hammer halfway.

    Phewww!

    The breaking of the last meridian signified the opening of the floodgates, with a a dense grey wind sweeping through his soul, consuming all the remaining foreign energies and turning them grey, with the once rampaging energy going dormant and docile.

    Anybody witnessing this would have thought the foreign energies losing their essence, but Damien knew better, their essence had just been changed, and he could sense the pure utter destruction it held within.

    Mentally exhausted, Damien finally pulled out, leaving the spiritual and back into the physical.

    When he came to, it was to the the entire silence of the auditorium. At first, he thought somebody else had suffered another injury, but one thing soon registered in his mind quickly :They were all looking at him with eyes opened wide in shock.

    "...What?" He asked, willing anybody to answer him.

    Thankfully someone answered him, as they told him to look down.

    When he did, he discovered two things.

    One....one was that he was floating, with him being unaware until now.

    The second.....the ground was turned to rubble, crushed and broken.

    "...Uhhh....."

 Chapter 36 - The Greatest Con Ever Played I

    Thunder rumbled, the sound crashing through the air like the roar of an earth dragon. Lightning webbed through the dark skies, illuminating everywhere like a flash of midday, while the earth was cracked and cratered from the multiple impacts of crashing cultivators and deflected projectiles. The air had been stirred out of its calm state, angered and whipping with the intent to destroy; only the aura and will of the spirit lords kept it in check.

    All over the continent, the ambient energy saturating everywhere was kicked into a storm, destabilizing Cosmo regeneration all over Greensend; Cultivators from all over the world powerful enough to divine the cause of this storm waited, tense, and fearing for the worse; it wasn''t surprising, as the last time the ambient energy was pushed soo out of balance, the world''s population of spirit lords was drastically reduced and an Empire arose, taking over a third of the continent and shifting the power status of the entire continent and beyond, putting every sovereignty worth their salt on alert mode.

    Damien watched the faces of the Solarian spirit lords turn white as his full astral image was revealed.

    Unlike other spirit lords whose astral images looked significantly different from theirs, with multiple aesthetics to make them look more regal and intimidating, his wasn''t much different from his base form; The only difference was the eyes, which instead of the normal grey pupils, both his eyes were twin dull glowing grey orbs, which was intimidating on its own, telling from the way the spirit lords refused to look straight at it¡ªeven those allied to him. Aside from that, his image looked exactly like him.

    And like other spirit lords, his entire image looked intimidating and scary, inducing the feeling of prey facing a predator, but unlike some of them, his was backed by true power, which was completely overwhelming and suffocating, he noticed.

    Ever since he stepped into the realm of spirit lord, he''d hardly found the need to summon his entire image, his partial image being enough to settle the truly worrisome opponents. Even now, he could have still stuck to the usual partial image, but for once he wanted flex, to showcase his true power and cow the ones who thought they could chain him. This demonstration wasn''t only for the ones in front of him.

    For his first act and to cut off all easy escape, he took care of the one worrisome cultivator.

    Damien pointed his spear and a thick breath of destruction thundered. Before anyone could even react, the beam grey beam speared through the space cultivator, killing him instantly; his body fell, crashing down to join his comrade.

    Damien nodded, as he''d thought, the man must have been too weakened to even survive that simple attack.

    From his actions, he expected an immediate reaction, with astral images being summoned; but the response he got instead was surprising, and more..... satisfying.

    The entire battlefield was immediately swallowed in quiet stillness, with all fearful eyes on him. Even the clash between the fire and ice cultist had immediately stilled, with Menoe looking at him in surprise.

    The fire cultists were more surprising, since they were all battle maniacs, wanting for more daring and risky battles; but it seems there were some battles they were unwilling to risk.

    You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

    Honestly, Damien didn''t need to have killed the space cultivator to get his message across. Unveiling his astral image was message enough. But he knew talent, and he knew that, unlike the many spirit lords who flocked toward the Empire for power and prestige, this one had true talent. If the man had been left to advance further, he''d have become a true menace with techniques capable of getting into and out of places without anyone noticing. A true hidden pillar.

    He didn''t want to risk a talent like that being molded into a weapon by the emperor and aimed at their hearts.

    True, Damien could have just found a time and place outside the empire to ambush and intimidate the man into leaving the empire, but he honestly didn''t want the stress.

    Besides, any spirit lord who flocked toward the empire was either a battle maniac or power-hungry individual. There was no shortage of things to fight on the planet that you''d need to subjugate yourself to another.

    Call it ruthless or immoral, but the empire had enough weapons as it was; he didn''t want to risk another potential dagger falling into their hands.

    {Soo ruthless.} Gray lamented inside Damien''s mind, his voice modulated to sound sad and distasteful.

    Damien ignored him, putting on an innocent face and turning towards the empire group. "Thank you for your attention, it is really appreciated." He said. "Now that I have it, I''d like to ask a simple question."

    He paused for dramatic effect, looking at their faces and the extreme wariness that was being displayed.

    "How would you like to beg for your lives?"

    And like that, a storm of emotions scrolled through their faces as he finished. Shock, anger, indignation. He could see it all.

    He knew that what he''d just said was a serious affront to their status as spirit lords. These were people who stood at the peak of the world, capable of crushing cities on their lonesome, so the insinuation that they''d have to beg for their lives must have stabbed deep into their pride.

    He stabbed it a bit more.

    "Remember, I hold your fragile lives in my palms, and it could be..... crushed at any time, so please think carefully of your next words." He said sweetly.

    "Is that so?" A whisper swept through the area.

    Everyone immediately turned to the voice, searching for where it came from.

    They found it.

    A Golden flame soon appeared, materializing out of reality. It was blinding in its radiance, with speckles of tiny white lights, like stars on a night sky, except this one was golden. The heat radiating from it would have bothered him if he wasn''t currently being empowered by his image, and judging from the way the two groups of spirit lords edged away from its proximity, he wasn''t the only one feeling it.

    Moments later, the golden flame compressed, reducing in size until the frame of a human took its place, blank at first until individual features began showing, its features becoming clear and....familiar.

    This time, the spirit lords couldn''t hold back from exclaiming. Exclamations of shock and surprise, not only from the empire group but this time, Damien''s group joined. Except him.

    "Your arrival has been greatly waited upon, stranger....or should I say.... Emperor Solar."

    The very familiar features looked at him, face neutral, except for an inquiring eyebrow.

    The others began looking from one emperor to another, seeing their stark resemblance. They looked like twins, identical, but if one truly looked, they''d see the difference, as one face looked natural, but the other seemed too perfect to be natural.

    "How did you know?" The latest arrival asked, or more like demanded, his tone commanding.

    Damien only shrugged, his features nonchalant, but deep down, a deep sense of danger swept through him as he studied the man.

    His plans were already going to shit.

    Normally he''d not have been scared of any spirit lord, no matter the tier. The man in front of him emitted the aura of a spirit lord, no problem about that; but it was the core of that aura¡ªthe part that projected one''s true being¡ª that truly made him wary. What he sensed was a power he''d never come across before, and didn''t think he''d do for some time.

    [Damien, that''s a Spirit King.]

 Chapter 37- The Greatest Con Ever Played II

    If you were wondering how Damien figured it all out, let''s trace this back to the day of his first meeting and clash with the emperor.

    Damien had just ascended to the realm of spirit lord, not even passed his first month. He''d been proud, arrogant, and flush with his recent massive increase in power, and he''d decided that, with his newfound strength, he could just do battle with the emperor one-on-one, and Bam! The emperor, dead, and his massive empire, scattered.

    Who could match the genius that had advanced to that prestigious realm at the age of twenty-five? No one had ever done it in the history of the entire world.

    The truth was very far from his imagination.

    He''d battled the emperor alright; blessed with a very fortunate timing that he luckily encountered the man, and he was even alone, no entourage.

    They''d battled, Damien coming up top with superior power. They went at it for hours, tearing up the terrain and their aura blasting out for miles, so far that it alerted the entire empire pillars, with them immediately bearing down on the place in force.

    Forced to retreat at the arrival of more enemies than he could handle, he was practically jiggling in happiness. Although he''d failed to accomplish his aim, what he discovered was better. The emperor was not so far beyond his capability to take out.

    It wasn''t until later when he''d finally sat down and really thought about it, that he thought...the emperor should have totally wiped the floor with his face. Even killed him eventually, if he was in a particularly bad mood

    A man as old as the emperor with centuries to his age should have never been struggling against someone who hadn''t even gone a month into his powers, And yet that was what had happened. It made him suspicious.

    And so he began investigating.

    He started with libraries around the continent and even outside. The information he found almost proved him too paranoid for the wrong reasons. The emperor''s features were described, clearly and detailed, and it matched perfectly with Damien''s experience. Even the description of his techniques matched perfectly with what he''d faced. There was nothing out of place, everything aligned with what he''d seen and experienced, but still, something irked him like he was missing a crucial detail.

    So he kept checking.

    It wasn''t until a long-time friend¡ªone of the very few he had¡ªhad traced him, surprisingly looking for protection.

    He and Elas had gone waaay back, to when Damien was still at the Lord stage. He and Keilan had encountered Elas during one of their fugitive days. Hungry and completely drained from being continuously hunted by practically every nearby sovereignty that wanted them and was not averse to using force, the empire included. Elas had taken them in, fed them, and gave them a place to lay low.

    They didn''t stay long of course, but when they''d left, it was with refreshed bodies and full stomachs with more food than they could finish in a week carried on their backs.

    The man was just a bar owner.

    So when he''d run to Damien for protection, Damien had wondered who would terrify a bar owner enough to seek out Damien instead of reporting to the closest guards or policing forces.

    The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    When he''d asked, adamantly, the man had reluctantly revealed to him his true identity.

    A spy.

    And not a common one at that. He had a high station in a global organization he worked for. A very high station.

    Seeing no reason to hide it anymore, Elas had explained to him that he had been on vacation and had decided to go completely off-grid, with only a select few knowing his true location.

    Getting to his pursuers, he described them as an equally large global organization, older and more powerful than the one Elas worked for; and the two organizations had been engaged in a shadow war for more than a century, with only an extremely few political and powerful figures on the globe being aware.

    If Damien''s interest hadn''t been piqued before, it was now.

    Enquiring about this organization and the cause of the war had yielded an answer.

    Shadow Hall.

    A massive and powerful organization that spanned the whole globe, with its headquarters so hidden that no one had been able to decipher its location for hundreds of years.

    It was said that Shadow Hall could find anyone in the world, no matter which hole they crawled into, so Elas wasn''t too surprised that he''d been made.

    What truly scared Elas was that unlike their organization which only specialized in information gathering, that was just a subdivision of Shadow Hall, with their main specialization being in the art of putting people to permanent sleep.

    Assassination.

    And Elas was very far from any of his organization strongholds powerful enough to shield him.

    He was practically a baby chicken sitting ducks under the clear sky, with a bird of prey soon to drop by to say hi.

    Damien had been his best option; and since he''d been keeping tabs on his whereabouts, he was fortunate that Damien was only a day away¡ªby Lord stage standards¡ªpractically thirty miles away.

    Getting to the reason for their war. The two organizations had been giving each other the stink eye for some time; one bad look here, another one there. A feud born from competition, but it had never escalated more than that, until a grand war began in one Greensend continent, where one seemingly small kingdom in the middle of nowhere began a continental war of conquest, swallowing one territory after another.

    Elas had described the man leading the charge as a politically devious man with grand ambitions, having politically and through secret means, eliminated his way through to the throne he now sat on. Having taken power from the royals without them even knowing.

    Usually, individuals with high political intellect were always lacking in personal power; having sacrificed a cultivator''s battle in the wilds for another type of battle, this one done in a court.

    Emperor Solar had been different, wielding political power and personal power hand in hand, lacking in none. The man had battled all the spirit lords sent his way, and had either fended them off or slain them, using their deaths for his advancement in cultivation.

    By the time the truly powerful were aware enough to rise from their thrones and handle it themselves, it was already too late.

    Solar had butchered them all, using their skulls as war banners.

    Elan''s organization had been contracted by a squabble of an alliance cobbled together just to resist the advance of the new Empire. They were still failing.

    Shadow Hall, seeing that their rival organization had taken a side in the war, also took theirs, siding with the Empire.

    That was where it escalated between the two organizations.

    The war had been brutal, with multiple battles fought both in the light and dark, with both organizations dueling in espionage and counter-espionage. At first, the shadow dueling was just a game of trying to outwit each other, with Shadow Hall engaging in their extracurricular activity of eliminating key figures from the alliance, leaving their rival agents alone. It had been like that until an agent from Shadow Hall decided to eliminate another agent from their rival organization just for laughs. The shadow dueling then turned into a war.

    Listening to the story, Damien had pointed out the vast difference between the emperor of before and the present one, seeing the drastic reduction in any large undertaking.

    They hadn''t even fought in any large-scale wars for dozens of years now, only reducing to small border clashes or the unfortunate small random wars, with no aim whatsoever.

    He''d asked, and Elas had replied.

    "Oh, him? That''s not the real Emperor Solar, that''s just his son. Emperor Solar hasn''t been seen in years now."

    That was when Damien knew, someone had just played the greatest con.

 Chapter 38 -(Side Story) Solaris

    Growing up as the son of a commoner, young Solaris had dreams of grandeur. When he wasn''t toiling on his parent''s farm, he dreamed of one day ruling a kingdom, and later on, the continent.

    But being the son of farmers made his dream sound absurd, even to his parents, whenever he told them, he was always cautioned to stop deluding himself with dreams of the impossible, sometimes beaten for it. Eventually, he stopped voicing it, leaving his parents with the notion that he''d given up on such delusions, but deep in his heart, Solar never gave up.

    Reaching the age of fifteen¡ªthe age of awakening¡ªSolaris was lucky to be discovered with an affinity for fire. This gave him the key to accomplishing his dreams, but his parents only saw the flame as something to be avoided. They wanted their son to carry on their legacy as farmers, instead of playing with such dangerous element. An argument erupted, with the result being Solar leaving his home.

    Leaving the only home you''ve known since birth, other people would have been reluctant, dreading even, but Solar never looked back.

    He wandered, searching for something to make true his dream. He moved from villages to villages to towns, and eventually, cities.

    Along the way, Solar familiarized himself with his affinity in the only way he knew, learning how to create flame balls and flame breathe.

    He knew that to achieve his dreams, he needed power, true power; so despite being afraid, he hunted. Beginning with the weakest monsters, and then to those with more powers.

    Like this, he slowly grew in power, and by the time he''d reached his first city, he was already in the adept stage. Just a few months after awakening.

    Getting into the city, it finally occurred to him that he''d need money. Throughout his wandering, he''d never found the need for currency, since he only fed on monster meats.

    He took up odd jobs using his fire powers to burn all kinds of wastes and any other job he could find that required a fire affinity user, since those allowed him time to practice more with his powers.

    It was on one such fortunate day that while practicing his powers, he came into the eyes of a passer-by who immediately took a liking to the young boy. The man introduced himself as a master in an academy and offered to take Solar in as a disciple.

    The academies were prestigious institutions that everyone wished to one day attend, even those of noble lineage. As such, it was nearly impossible for commoners to get accepted.

    Attending the academy, Solar was discovered to be an unusual genius. His intuitive control of fire was unheard of in the academy''s history. Easily manipulating the fire element in ways even older students hadn''t yet grasped. As such, he became popular and soon enough, was offered the prestigious honor of becoming the direct disciple of the academy head.

    Like this, Solar grew in power and closer to his ambition, reaching the lord stage in ten years, thereby joining the peaks of the entire kingdom. Practically unheard of.

    During these years, Solar acquainted himself with people of standard. Nobles, merchant barons, and heads of other academies.

    Familiarizing himself with them, he noticed something they all shared: their lack of drive. They were content with the meager powers they held; powers which could easily be taken away. Because of this, he developed a secret disgust towards those individuals, people who''d lost their drive to acquire more status, more powers.

    Soon enough, he came up with his master plan: to take everything away from them.

    This was an easily accomplished plan since these figures never imagined a commoner¡ªeven one of lord status¡ªtaking from them. It was an absurd notion that no commoner would ever dare.

    He began with the biggest: the royal family. In his notion, why start from the smallest when you can just take everything in one fell swoop?

    Getting the princess to fall in love with him was no problem, who didn''t want to deepen their relationship with a renowned genius?

    It took months of careful work, but he eventually got the princess to say yes to his marriage proposal. Done with that, he turned to eliminating all her competition for the throne.

    Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

    Over the few short years after their marriage, the royal family was continuously slammed with a series of unfortunate incidents which led to the deaths of two royal children out of three.

    Done with that, he turned his eyes to the king and queen, their deaths coming a year later when they were unfortunate to be on the path of a monster horde during one of their interstate travels. Soo tragic.

    With the deaths of all competition and none being the wiser, Solar became prince consort to the crowned queen.

    Being a royal consort was completely different from being an academy genius; Questions were going to be asked and one of them would be the origin of this figure. So Solar made a quick trip, paying a visit to his home village.

    Anyone who would be fortunate enough to discover the location of where this prince consort hailed from would be unfortunate to find all those villages deserted, including the ones up to a week''s distance. Their residents disappearing into thin air.

    Done with his visit, Solar made his way back to the capital. To his new world as prince consort.

    Over the following years, he and the queen lived as a loving couple. During these years, Solar had never stopped growing his power, both politically and personally.

    So when the time came that he finally made a seizure for power, people were dumbfounded to find that he''d already surpassed them in cultivation.

    In the world of cultivation, power was respected above all else. Personal power. So when Solar unveiled his cultivation in the Monarch realm, allegiances were quickly changed.

    The nobles were amongst the troublesome sort, most of them easily capitulating while the stubborn ones...well, proved stubborn. They were publicly taken care of.

    The heads of academies were either soul oathed into servitude or killed, depending on how stubborn they also proved.

    In a few short days of taking power, Solar completely had all under his heel.

    Accomplishing his lifelong dream, he soon changed the name of the small Kingdom to what it is today: Solaria.

    Done with all of this, Solar viewed the queen as unfortunately, no longer of use, which quickly led to her quiet demise.

    Over the years, Solar traveled publicly and more often, in private. It was during one of his travels that he discovered an ancient treasure, a sunflame stone which upgraded his affinity to that of the deadly Sunfire.

    Because of how he took his present status, he developed a constant suspicion of all who worked under him. He needed a personal lieutenant who could go on quiet errands, so he founded the Solarian pillars, the first member being a young snakeskin he found during his travels: the infamous Elora Darkfang.

    She was trained and taken care of until she developed an unyielding loyalty towards him.

    Finding a treasure so rare he was almost certain nobody else on the entire planet owned something of this level, he finally set his eyes on his next objective: conquering the whole continent.

    Wielding an affinity more powerful than anyone else on the planet, Solar began the first grand war.

    He conquered kingdoms ruled by those of the Monarch realm, easily defeating them and using their deaths to elevate his cultivation, until eventually, he joined the ranks of the fabled Spirit lords.

    Acquiring Spirit lord''s strength only inflamed his ambition, leading to the fall of multiple kingdoms in a few short years.

    His army grew the more he conquered until the wider community eventually grew aware of him. But they never took him too seriously until, like a fire left to grow, his power grew too great.

    Over a century, the war raged on, leading to one of the highest fatality rates in history in the history of the world, with the death toll in the hundreds of millions.

    Solar butchered his way through kingdoms until he was eventually stalled, but by then, he''d almost conquered half the continent, setting up the largest Empire on the planet.

    No matter how strong he was, he couldn''t take on the whole might of the planet; and that was what would have happened had his hunger proved too threatening to the sovereigns outside the continent, so he stalled, bidding his time.

    With the empire no longer in a state of war, Solar decided he wanted an heir.

    He wanted an heir but feared them being influenced and being used against him, so he planned secretly.

    In secret, he captured a young beautiful lady who was forced into bearing his child.

    Out of fear for her family, she made sure to stay in line, doing as asked, until months later when she bore him a child: a sweet young boy.

    Finding no use for the girl anymore, she was quietly disposed of, leaving the young boy in the hands of his tyrannical father.

    Young Tenral was a kindhearted boy who always found a reason to smile, even in infancy. Growing up, his identity was always kept a secret. Still, the boy strived to make his father proud of him.

    Solar never saw the boy as anything more than a container to carry on his lineage, so he never gave Tenral the love that the boy wanted, still, Tenral still strove for it.

    Finding himself stalled in power and hating it, Solar decided it was time to leave the planet behind.

    He feared that all he built would be taken away after his ascension, so he called his son.

    Ever wanting to make his father proud, Tenral never said no to the Solar''s plans, even when they terrified him, he still wanted that love.

    A fleshcrafter was called¡ªcultivators who practiced the forbidden arts, hunted all around.

    Although the process was long and extremely painful, Tenral persevered until his whole body¡ªboth flesh and bones¡ªwere shaped into a twin of his father''s.

    He was put through grueling training day and night until he was good enough to take down most cultivators of equal rank. And when he was made to become just like his father, he took up his father''s identity, discarding the name ''Tenral''.

    Satisfied with his work, Solar soon left the empire, never to be seen again.

    Leaving the other sovereigns to cower on their throne, fearing an emperor who had disappeared.

 Chapter 39 - Bend the knee

    Spirit Kings. Existences standing above the spirit lords, capable of feats any spirit lord could only dream of. Damien had never expected to encounter one so soon, even in a spirit lord''s vessel, they weren''t even supposed to be on the planet.

    [It''s obvious that he''s appeased the world spirit by restricting his powers,] Grays said into Damien''s mind.

    "He doesn''t look restricted to me."

    [He might have skirted his deal by using a vessel at the very peak of spirit lord... But it''s still a spirit lord''s body.]

    Damien said nothing to that, "Why is he even here? I thought their ilks viewed matters of lower cultivators to be beneath them."

    [Wasn''t the end goal of your master plan to draw him out?] Gray replied, amused.

    "Sure, I mean...yea, but I never predicted him to have ascended."

    When he''d found out about the true ruler of the empire, Damien''s goal had been to draw Solaris out from whatever hole he''d crawled into.

    The plan had been easily thought of....kill enough of the empire''s pillars that the man would either be forced to step in or risk his empire crumbling. The attack on the small desert city had been like the heavens lending him a hand when two empire pillars practically delivered themselves to him, saving him from the stress of having to hunt them down.

    Dealing a huge blow to the empire by practically nullifying two of their numbers, he''d known that they wouldn''t take that sitting down, after all, they couldn''t let the other sovereigns view them as weak. He knew that it was only a matter of time before they would come down on him in force, and he''d happily welcomed them.

    Looking at the latest arrival, Damien wondered where he''d gone wrong in his plans. He''d traded information for the possible whereabouts of the emperor, to no avail. He''d even tried divining it himself, coming up with nothing. Now, the rat had crawled out of his hole, but in the form of a wolf.

    "What''s got your tongue?" Solaris asked, a mocking smile on his lips. "Wasn''t my arrival ''greatly waited upon?''"

    Damien said nothing.

    "I admit, your plan was impressive, trying to draw me out. Your only miscalculation was that you thought I couldn''t see it from a thousand miles away."

    Damien''s expression had been under tight control ever since the man arrived, but he couldn''t stop the flicker of surprise that flashed through.

    Solaris smiled.

    "Are you surprised?" He barked a harsh laugh. "Did you think your scheme so convoluted as to escape my gaze? Any spirit lord worth their powers could have seen it coming from a mile away.

    "it''s a wonder my fool of a son couldn''t." He finished, looking at his son in irritation.

    Young Solaris who''d been quiet all these while, conflicted emotions running through his face, suddenly spoke up, "Fath¡ª"

    "Be quiet," Solaris commanded, turning a scathing eyes towards his son. "I gave you a task to complete... A simple task, with all the tools needed at your disposal, and yet, not only did you fail to accomplish anything notable, you let yourself be continuously hindered by a child who hasn''t even gone past his third decade. You are a disgrace."

    Young Solaris jerked backward like he''d been slapped in the face.

    "Father, all is not as simple as you think,"

    Solaris raised an eyebrow, "Is that so? Tell me how hard you found it to deal with these bunch of excuses who deem themselves spirit lords" he pointed at the Camlen group without even looking at them. "Enough with your excuses, you know I despise them. Never make them."

    If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

    Shock, indignation, and anger swept through the group of spirit lords at what the Emperor had just called them. It wasn''t surprising, no spirit lord liked to be referred to with such unsavory term.

    "That was uncalled for, Emperor," Menoe spoke up, coming closer and giving a nod of greeting to the man.

    Solaris eyed her like a dirty rag tossed at his feet, "Your feelings do not matter to me, priestess."

    Menoe overlooked the blatant insult.

    "That''s too sad, someone of such standard descending to such levels."

    Solaris expression immediately turned cold, "Count yourself lucky to be amongst the clergy, otherwise I would have torn out your tongue for such disrespect." He turned towards Damien and his emissaries. "Unfortunately for you lot, your lives aren''t as protected."

    Damien, who had been quiet for some time, finally spoke up.

    "You sound awfully confident."

    "Why shouldn''t I be? None of you are yet to even reach the peak tier. I find it disgraceful that nothing on this rock of a planet could even be considered threatening," he sneered.

    "You misunderstand..." Damien idly swung his spear, answering the inquiring gaze from the emperor. "...You are not at the top of this world."

    A mocking smile spread through Solar''s lips, "Oh.. pray tell..who is?"

    "Me," Damien replied, his voice dead calm.

    The next moments would forever shock the hearts of the spirit lords present.

    One moment Damien and Solaris had been exchanging words, the next... They slammed into each other in a boom of displaced air, exchanging blows in a fury of concussive shockwaves that pushed back the nearby spirit lords.

    In the blink of an eye¡ªthe same they''d begun¡ªthey separated, Stalking each other predator to predator.

    Damien breathed hard, ignoring the looks of utter shock directed at him. He would have laughed if he could. It wasn''t surprising that although they''d never seen him at full power, everyone here had once thought they''d gotten his full measure. It was good to see reality speaking for him.

    "Now, I am surprised. To find such an egg amongst stones, congratulations, you''ve just gotten a reprieve from certain death. Bend the knee and I''ll spare you.

    This time it was Damien''s turn to laugh.

    "Are you so conceited that you''d actually believe me willingly becoming one of your lackeys?" He chuckled. "Such arrogance."

    Solaris was quiet for a while, just watching Damien. Eventually, he spoke, his voice a whisper that could be heard by all, "Very well. Remember this when you eventually beg for your life."

    Golden fire erupted, consuming the empire group and blinding everyone else. When it finally cleared, they were gone.

    They didn''t even take their fallen comrades.

    ***

    The skies were sunny, clear of the dark and angry clouds that had been cloaking it a few hours ago, like a battle hadn''t just been fought in this area. The only signs of the monumental battle that had taken place were the cracked and pitted earth. Large craters decorated the vast empty lands for miles, setting homes for soon-to-be large ponds and lakes.

    Large piles of rocks were scattered everywhere¡ªthe only evidence of the mountains that had stood there for years. New river paths had been torn through, as the old ones had either been covered in rocks or the entire path melted.

    Damien floated alone in the skies, waiting for Keilan. The others had already returned to their various domains to recuperate and comfort their terrified subjects.

    From the levels of energy disruption their fights had caused, a lot of them would have pissed their pants by now thinking the end of the world had come, especially the people of Camlen who had full view of the battle. It wasn''t every day that spirit lords decided to battle in your backyard. Most of the people hadn''t even seen a spirit lord in the entirety of their lifetime, and multiple of them had just done battle a few miles from them. He would have been terrified had he been in their shoes.

    Soon enough, he felt space fluctuate, and a small tornado¡ªHuman height¡ªsuddenly emerged, dispersing to reveal Keilan wearing a victorious grin. He looked like he''d just conquered the world and was about to do a victory dance.

    But it wasn''t Keilan that caught Damien''s eyes.

    A beautiful woman was held in his hands. Black ruffled hair drifted out of her face by the wind as she finally took a look at her surroundings. Her eyes were a golden purplish colour, with flush narrow cheeks and a pointed nose.

    She was wearing a moon-embellished gown, which looked splendid on her.

    Looking at her, he could tell she looked reluctant to be here¡ªas any victim of kidnapping would¡ªbut she''d also resigned herself to reality. Good.

    When her eyes finally landed on Damien, they weren''t surprised at all, just resigned and, not surprisingly, confused.

    [That is one beautiful maiden.] Gray whistled.

    "Shut up."

    Turning to Keilan, he asked, "Any problem?"

    "Aside from one pissed-off cultivator, I would say it all went very well, though I almost got caught by their returning force. Just managed to snag our visitor here before I ran for it." He replied, the stupid grin still on his face.

    Damien nodded, satisfied. At least something good had come out of all this mess. Removing the empire''s eyes was a good start for what was to come.

    "Come, let me fill you in on our newest arrival.

 Chapter 40 : Ending â€” We go to War

    Ever since the Emperor gave the order for the hidden pillars to investigate the small desert city, Sharin knew the Empire''s future stood on a cliff''s edge.

    She''s tried to caution the Emperor against an aggressive approach toward any discoveries, but she ultimately knew it would all fall on deaf ears, the empire''s typical response towards anything they view as a threat was to strike fast and strike hard. Now look where fast had gotten them.

    It was one thing for the Empire to flex their vast power towards the many kingdoms sharing the same continent with them, and even beyond. None of them could do anything other than go on high alert or try a diplomatic approach; they all feared a confrontation with the empire. But to try the same intimidation tactics towards the grey-eyed demon was to expect a quick response, a violent one. In the entire history of the Empire, no single individual has ever caused as much damage as the grey-eyed demon. his power was such that it usually took half a dozen pillars to stand any chance of fending him off, and that was without him summoning his full image. She shivered at the thought of that man at full power.

    Looking back at that day, she cursed Elora for leading them into position. Sure, the emperor had given the order for the swift destruction of whatever threat they found, but any Spirit lord with a brain should have known to steer clear of that man. Now they were facing the repercussions.

    When the Emperor had mobilized the entirety of the pillars¡ªwith the exception of Samon¡ª as a response to the death of a pillar and the spiritual impairment of another, she''d become resigned to their fate. The grey-eyed demon never forgave an attempt on his life.

    The attack on the first defensive fort cemented the future of the empire. She''d heard the report of an intruder on the first defensive fort, the fort which was created as a first line of defense for the capital. Capable of immediate response to threats and armed with a flotilla of ships and enough armed personnel to repel an army, the military bases in the capital shouldn''t have been needed. But when word came back a few minutes later that the fort and its ships were decimated, and their soldiers were running in terror, she''d known that their attacker was very determined.

    Usually, only a show of force was enough to deter would-be attackers, and the knowledge that there was more to come further in turned them around. But this attacker didn''t retreat, instead, they pushed closer to the capital, triggering the city-wide alarm which instantly awoke all offensive and defensive installations. Those installations alone were the equivalent of two spirit lords, combined with the presence of Samon the bulwark, himself, only a very few beings on the planet could contend with that.

    The Empire boasted the largest and most equipped Sky force on the entire planet, capable of sailing thousands of ships. Since the inception of the Empire, they''d lost dozens of land battles, but the Solarian Empire had never lost a battle in the sky.

    Sharin was a Monarch realm cultivator, so she was able to watch as the Sun fleet¡ªthe emperor''s fleet molded with the capability to repel spirit lords, and deal devastating damages if necessary¡ªwas decimated.

    In all the battles since they were founded, the Sun fleet had never lost a battle before, their legend was known all over the planet. Maybe it was the fact that they were always supported by two Spirit lord commanders instead of the single one they were now reduced to. But Samon was a Spirit lord capable of holding back at most two spirit lords on his own¡ªas shown when he''d single-handedly repelled an army of a hundred thousand adept and lord foot soldiers while simultaneously withstanding the assault of the two spirit lord commanders leading them. With all those facts, it shouldn''t have mattered at all whether he had any spirit lord backup or not, he should have been able to swiftly crush their attacker, but instead, the opposite happened. Sharin had watched as Samon was constantly toyed around with while the attacker picked off the Sun fleet little by little, while dodging the tracking attacks from the Capital.

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Before anyone knew it, over half the Sun fleet was either destroyed or too damaged to continue, the installations created to unravel Spirit lord techniques were turned into collateral damage, leaving the overall defence of the Capital in shambles.

    Somehow, without anyone knowing, the attacker had managed to slip past Samon and get into the capital.

    She had been in her scrying room, a large oval room with half the space taken over by a large pool which she used for far scrying. She''d watched as a young-looking man with short blond hair that shone gold in the sunlight, coupled with bright blue eyes that were like a doorway into the bluest oceans. He wore a leather armor, probably made by the best crafter on the planet since it was capable of withstanding multiple Spirit lord attacks. Coupled with the battle spear held in his hands, he looked like the definition of pure handsomeness, if she had anything to say about that.

    Watching the battle, she''d wondered how a man so young could rise so fast in cultivation. They all knew him as the brother of the grey-eyed demon, and he was also a powerful cultivator in his own right that the empire had wanted for years. Unfortunately, any place for diplomacy had been squashed years ago when the empire had tried to kidnap his brother, resulting in the first casualties in a long line of cultivators sent after the brothers.

    She had been watching the battle when a presence had descended on the room, calm yet with an undertone of catastrophic danger. Turning around had put her face to face with the same man fighting outside, only this one was green and made of wind. A manifestation.

    She could have tried to fight or at least sound an alarm, but the way he looked at her gave her the intuition that any resistance was futile, so she''d gently surrendered. Besides, she''d already divined her future and nothing had come up fatal. She didn''t want to push her luck.

    The moment the manifestation had laid hands on her, space had immediately warped, taking them away.

    Now here she was, standing in front of probably the most powerful individual on the planet. He didn''t act like how she''d pictured him in her mind. Forgoing the brutalistic nature she''d always envisioned for a more carefree smile, like everything around him was amusing.

    "Any problem?"

    "Aside from one pissed-off cultivator, I would say it all went very well, though I almost got caught by their returning force. Just managed to snag our visitor here before I ran for it."

    The grey eyed demon nodded, "Come, let me fill you in on our newest arrival."

    ***

    Emperor Solar walked down the hallway towards his Throne room, the guards at the entrance bowing at his appearance while pushing wide the large double doors. He ignored them.

    The throne room was a two hundred feet large room, embellished with colorful murals of Emperor Solar during his conquering days. The whole room was illuminated with bright sunlight streaking in from the glass dome on the ceiling, with the dome setting arranged to reflect light down on the sunburst mural set at the back of his throne.

    He walked in, ignoring the Spirit Lord pillars who had their head bowed low as he walked up to his throne and took his seat, his son moving to stand at his right, with no complaint about Solaris taking his throne. As expected.

    Outside, his face was impassive, his body posture, regal. But deep down, he was fuming with wrath, at the insults received from a mere Spirit lord. Had the boy not proven his talent, Solar would have slain him there and be done with it. Instead, they''d had the gall to insult him. The audacity.

    Soon, he would teach them a lesson they would never forget, and that insolent boy would come crawling at his feet begging for mercy.

    "Prepare the legion. We go to war."

 Chapter 41 : Interludeâ€“Powers

    The aftermath of the major battle between the strongest individual on the planet and the most powerful Empire left waves of tension reverberating across the global political spectrum. Multiple powers were roused from their passive state, alert, but not to a significant degree; after all, these were just actions of Spirit lords. The appearance of the man whom they''d all thought was still on the planet left them all very confused with questions that needed to be answered. In light of this, multiple movements were shifted from passive to active, waiting for what would come next.

    On the Aesland continent, one such a power was receiving a report from his seneschal.

    ".....the messengers sent to the Greensend continent have returned with the confirmed report that the second individual wearing the same face as the Emperor is not a fake but actually the true Emperor of Solaria." Seneschal Thalor reported.

    Emperor Aelar''s golden eyes narrowed, "Explain."

    Thalor nodded, continuing, "Apparently, After the previous grand war, the Solarian Emperor fathered a child, hidden from all eyes. He left this child behind in his place while he furthered his cultivation."

    "Hmm..such trickery shouldn''t have been possible unless he had the help of somebody else. A flesh crafter?"

    "Yes, my lord," Thalor confirmed, and Emperor Aelar''s lips curled in distaste.

    "The identity of the flesh crafter hasn''t been discovered yet, and with the extreme reclusiveness of their kind, it will take a great feat to flush them out." Thalor continued.

    Aelar nodded, "See to it that they are all flushed out. Now continue."

    "Yes, my lord. Our intelligence concluded that the Solarian Emperor desired to push for the realm of Spirit King but didn''t want to leave his empire to the mercy of the other sovereigns, so he took in the endeavor of remolding his child into his own image."

    An admiring smile crossed the Emperor''s face, "He played on the fears of the others, knowing full well that nobody would dare attack his empire while his presence still shrouded it. I have to applaud such tactics.

    "Now that he has returned, as a Spirit King nonetheless, I assume the other Kingdoms are already panicking?"

    "Yes, my lord. The kingdoms of Camlen and Gandor are preparing for a full-scale war, armies are being marshalled and sky ships are already primed and ready for immediate engagement."

    "They''re not taking any chance huh? Fine then, this new revelation concerns us all; we can''t let things go the same way as before. Marshal the legions, we go to battle."

    Thalor nodded, bowing in acquiescence, "As you wish, Emperor."

    Emperor Aelar turned to his son who had been quiet while listening to the report, "Vaelion, prepare yourself, you shall be my emissary for the coming war conference. Spirit lady Neriel shall accompany you as you represent the Empire of Aetheris."

    Vaelion nodded, "Yes Father."

    Done with all that, Emperor Aelar waved his hands, the others getting the message and leaving the room.

    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

    When the throne room was finally empty, except for the presence of a single man, Emperor Aelar''s eyes tightened, his grim face looking towards the position of the Greensend continent.

    ***

    "I always knew the recent peace wouldn''t last," Queen Yuseria said, standing up from her throne and moving to the cathedral-like windows on the sides of the throne room. "What''s the latest information about the movements of the Solarian Empire?"

    Spirit lady Nesra followed behind, moving to take her position a few steps behind the Queen, "Intelligence has just come in that the Empire is making a massive movement¨Cmore than is required for their battle against Camlen and Gandor."

    Yuseria nodded, "They aren''t just preparing for both kingdoms, the Solarian Empire is preparing for a battle against everyone."

    "That''s preposterous, they can''t possibly take on everyone by themselves, they''re going to be crushed."

    "Not when they have a Spirit King on their side." Yuseria said, "Besides, you''re right though, even with a Spirit King leading them, they can''t take on everyone with the armies they have now."

    "Which means, they''re going to be looking for allies¨Csomeone to bolster their numbers."

    Yuseria nodded, "Yes. We shall wait and see who is foolish enough to side with them, in the meantime, I want our armies prepared. This is going to be a bloody one, far more than the last."

    "As you wish, I''ll pass on your commands to the other general," Nesra said, immediately turning to do as she said but was immediately held up by her Queen.

    "Wait, I almost forgot. Any word from Aelar?"

    "Emperor Aelar has marshaled the full might of the empire. He has already sent a delegation for the coming war conference."

    "That old geezer isn''t taking this lightly huh? That shows how detrimental this war would be to us if we chose to look away. Okay then, go carry out your task."

    "Yes, my Queen."

    ***

    In the Throneroom of the kingdom of Haldor, a loud boisterous laugh could be heard shaking through the entire castle, "He played us all, and we all fell for it! Good! Good! I can''t wait for this war to begin!" King Ragar said, smashing his battle axe down on the throne platform, shaking the whole room and creating fissures that ran down the entire throne room.

    Halar rolled his eyes, "Calm down brother, don''t rush into this like a brute. Let''s be cautious."

    Ragar laughed, "Cautious he says... Cautious... phhffff... Was the Solarian Emperor cautious when he played us all for fools?! Was he? Let me tell you brother, caution is for the weak!" He roared.

    Halar eyes narrowed, a crushing pressure descending on the room, "Are you calling me weak, brother." He asked, his voice a bare whisper.

    Ragar laughed, waving him off, "You know what I mean, nobody in their right mind would call you weak."

    Halar nodded, accepting the indirect apology. He knew that although his brother had backed off, Ragar could still defeat him if it came down to a battle between them.

    "Fine then, let''s meet in the middle, I''ll marshal the armies and you''ll hold off until we see a definite move from the others."

    Ragar grumbled for a moment, but in the end, he still agreed.

    Halar nodded.

    "Good then, I''ll be very busy In case you need me, so don''t."

    Ragar scowled at the retreating back of his brother, soon turning his face away, a broad grin on his face at the coming war.

    ***

    ForgeKing Grimnar slammed his giant jug on the table, sloshing his drink, "So, the uppersiders are gearing for war eh?"

    "Aye, Grimnar, a very big one." Buffbuff replied.

    Grimnar smiled, showing off cracked teeth capable of tearing metals apart, "Big one ya say?... that means they''ll all be needing tons of weapons," he licked his lips.

    "Aye, Grimnar, tons," Buffbuff repeated.

    "Tons of weapons equals Tons of gold."

    "Aye, Grimnar, tons of golds."

    "Tons of gold means I''m going to be very rich!" Grimnar shouted, raising his beer.

    "Aye, Grimnar, we''re going to be rich," Buffbuff repeated.

    Grimnar turned to him, suspicion in his eyes, "Are ye planning on stealing me money?"

    "Aye, Grimnar, planning on stealing ye money," Buffbuff repeated, soon realizing his mistake the moment he said it. He moving just in time to dodge the heavy jug aiming for his head.

    "Ye''re dead! Ya hear me, I''ll kill you...you thief!"

    "No Grimnar, twas all a mistake! I swear on me brother''s life!"

    "Arggghh, Gamgam, take this thief to the cells!" Another dwarf moved to tackle the running Buffbuff, restraining him. "Aye, Grimnar."

    "Someone prepare me horse, I''m going for me gold!"

 Chapter 42 - Life of A Cultivator

    Small settlements of awakened individuals were very populated compared to those of the unawakened. Unawakened settlements were few and sparsely populated due to every mortal''s need to attain immortality. The population in the settlements filled with cultivators¡ªeven if they were low-leveled¡ªwere leagues ahead. Because, unlike the normal villages, at least a majority of the population in the awakened villages were already cultivators, the benefits of which are the increased lifespans. This led to settlements as small as a village having a population of ten thousand and upwards, with cultivators who had already reached the age of two hundred still being alive to witness the birth of their fifth-generation descendants. In addition to the compounding effect of a high fertility rate, populations in small settlements could grow very high very fast.

    Damien waited behind a long procession of people waiting to get into the small town of Murran. The town was located in the southeast part of the continent, situated close to a city in the Kingdom of Los, a middling kingdom of no renown.

    Murran was a port town used mainly for the imports and exports of different marine creatures. With a population of close to fifty thousand, it was a very important town in the region.

    Looking at the slowly moving queue, Damien wondered why he didn''t just teleport into the town, saving time. But he knew that on this day, he wanted to keep his location a secret.

    [Oh, you have a little admirer. So cute,] Gray said.

    "What, who?"

    He immediately turned his head, coming face to face with a little boy who had been stretching to touch his hair.

    "Oh, this one is very sorry, my lord, he''s just a child; please spare us," the mother hurriedly apologized, bowing.

    Damien looked at her, confused, "Lord?"

    [Hah! This is gonna be fun.]

    The woman looked up, fear and hesitation in her eyes, "I''m sorry, sir, this lowly one pleads forgiveness for not knowing the correct title to address the esteemed sir."

    Damien looked more confused, "What the heck are you saying?" Frustration peaking in.

    His outburst caused the woman to visibly shiver, so Damien had to rein in himself. Speaking calmly, he spoke, "Ma''am, I apologize for my outburst, I''m very confused. Since I''m not a lord, I find it perplexing why you chose to address me by that title."

    Ever so slowly, she peeked, "This one doesn''t know how to address the lo¨C the esteemed Cultivator."

    That was when it dawned on Damien. He looked up, seeing the fearful looks some of the people were giving him, with some slowly edging away from the woman, like she was already dead.

    [Do you get it now? Hehehe. Did I ever tell you how hilarious I find your slow thinking?]

    Damien sighed, finally understanding. He should have known that his identity as a cultivator couldn''t be kept hidden, no matter how he tried.

    "What gave me away?"

    [Funnily enough, your hair. You don''t see young people your age with grey hair and eyes; it practically screams cultivator; which, from their reaction, isn''t a good thing. And last of all, Cultivators don''t use these gates, nor do they stand in line.]

    "Urrgh, this is all so confusing. I think I''m going to have a headache."

    [You can''t have a headache, it''s impossible.]

    "Says who? Cause I sure as hell I''m feeling my head beginning to ache."

    He turned to the woman who was watching him with a strange face as his expression went through different phases.

    "Okay....uhhh... I want to clear up this misunderstanding, so I''ll start by saying that I will, in no way, harm you or your child. Is that okay by you?" He made sure to put on a reassuring smile.

    [Real smooth, Mr. Charming.]

    "Shut up."

    [Heh heh, you do know that, as a cultivator, you just admitted weakness by apologizing to what most would term as ''lowly ants''. Meaning that one of these people out here is going to sell you out as soon as they get into the town. It''s not every day a fresh naive meat with a sense of honor wanders in.]

    "You know what? I give up, I''ll deal with the issues as they come."

    He turned towards the gate, ignoring the pinprick stares he could sense directed at his back.

    Soon enough he got to the gate, mainly through everyone who just decided to get out of his way.

    Murran was a major trading town in the region. So, unlike the other towns, they had the gold to hire cultivators to build a wall surrounding the whole town. Looking at the constructed walls, he questioned the skills of the group that created this patchwork of stones.

    From the moss and dried leaves he could see in between the cracks, he was sure the rocks had been brought out from underwater. And instead of shaping and refining it, they were all just packed in and then patched together in an unholy matrimony. The gates weren''t any better; looking so rusted and fragile that even a cultivator in the adept stage could completely shatter it with a single punch.

    Damien walked up to the gate, ignoring the curious looks from the guards.

    "Name?"

    "Alim...Alim Dar," he answered.

    "Okay, Alim Dar, I can see you''re new to the town; what business do you have in the town of Murran?"

    "Just meeting up with a long-lost friend."

    "Does your friend have a name?"

    "Shekh... I don''t remember his last name."

    The guard went silent for a while, staring at Damien.

    "Is there a problem?" Damien asked.

    "No, no problem. You can go in, but you''ve got to first pay the toll fee, that''ll be a gold coin."

    Damien didn''t mind, even though it was practically extortion. He dipped his hand into the pou,ch hanging on ,his waist, tapping into his storage space and bringing out a g; I coin.

    "Welcome to Murran, Alim Dar. We hope to see you again," The guard waved him in, his eyes following Damien as he walked into the town.

    Damien ignored it, even as he sensed two people beginning to trail him from the gate.

    From the gate, a large street led the way down to the other side of the town, where Damien noticed ships were docked in, different sailors moving large trunks and sacks up and down the ships.

    Early in the afternoon, the main street was bustling with activity as multiple traders called out passers-by to come sample their wares.

    Damien moved down the road, dodging the passing carts speeding by, their drivers swinging whips around and hauling insults at anybody not quick enough to get out of the way.

    From what he observed, the town was populated by different races, with the main ones being the Crock men, a race of bipedal sentient crocodiles who walked down the road with their predatory eyes staring at people like meat while their thick tails lashed out widely, ignoring social manners. They were adorned with different gold and pearl jewelry as they haugtied around, clearly announcing their status as cultivators. Dross.

    The second race was the fishmen. And if the crocks were strange, the fishmen put them all to shame. Human bodies with fish heads instead of a human''s. Their whole body was adorned with iridescent scales that shined a bright teal color under the sun, glowing with power. Damien didn''t even want to talk about what he saw at their backside. To him, they all looked like a mad flesh crafter''s experiment gone wrong. And since all flesh crafters were mad, to some extent, it wasn''t surprising.

    Like the Crock men, they carried themselves with the haughtiest of haughtiness. But unlike the crocks, theirs was with grace, walking down the pitted road like they were sliding on it. The fishmen walked like they were swimming on land. One of them saw him watching them, sniffing at him like he was shit. It didn''t even bother saying a word as they passed by.

    The third were the beastmen, a race almost as popular as humans. They came in different species, adorning themselves in jewelry heavy enough to bring down mud houses. They walked down the streets with the grace of the fishmen while, at the same time, broadcasting the aggressive auras of the Crock men, viewing everyone else like they were too dirty to be touched while still using their strength to slam anybody not quick enough out of their way. One tried it on Damien, finding himself stumbling when his hands met empty air. By the time the beastman turned murderous eyes towards Damien, he had already disappeared into the crowd.

    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

    The four races, and the most populous, naturally, were the humans. The humans carried all the characteristics of the others, but to a toned-down degree. The haughtiness was there, but it was toned down. Same with the brutish aggressiveness. What the other races lacked that the humans had was an air of authority. They carried themselves with this air of authority that forced other people out of the way before they even knew what they were doing, even the other races. This led to a lot of angry and envious looks directed at the humans.

    Damien ignored it all, even passing through a group of human cultivators who, shocked by his unaffected and bodacious looks as he didn''t move out of their way, stepped out of his way. Damien smiled at this.

    [Nice....you do know you''ve earned yourself lots of curious looks from everyone who''s just witnessed this]

    Damien''s mood immediately turned sour, moving onwards, coming close to the town''s square and then turning to his left into a smaller street. He didn''t have to go far until he came up to the front of a bar with the name ''Elas Parlor'' written over the doorway.

    A guard stood at the entrance, a brute of a man with one eye that looked more, intimidating than pitiful. When the man opened his mouth to speak, Damien could see his teeth cracked, with one punch away from putting them all on the floor.

    The man was huge, so huge, in fact, Damien wondered if he was even able to walk straight into the bar. His body was packed with muscle enough to act as a deterrent without the man even looking.

    Despite all these, Damien knew the man was no threat, a mere decoy to act as a front while the main guard ¡ªa young guy, probably Damien''s age¡ª sat beside the next building looking like he was waiting for the next customer to come out of the bar so he could beg.

    The moment the man saw Damien, he gave an imperceptible nod, immediately moving towards the back of the bar.

    "What do you want?" The guard said.

    "I''m here to see Elas,"

    He squinted at Damien, "What does dirt like you want with the boss? You don''t look like them haughty ones who comes looking to see the boss,"

    Damien snorted, "Judging from your poor eyesight, I wonder if you could even see at all."

    "Wha'' did you jus'' say? You better scram before I start breaking bones," he took a threatening step towards Damien.

    Damien just stared him directly in the eye, "Think carefully of your next actions, I could turn you into bloowide-eyedith a flick of my pinky finger."

    The brute hesitated for a moment, immediately shaking off the flash, fear that came over him, "You¡ª"

    "Crusher! Stop you idiot! He could do it, literally turn you into blood mists," somebody shouted, a man running into their midst. "Don''t do anything stupid that''ll lead you to an early grave."

    "Crusher?" Damien snorted. "It''s a wonder."

    Elas turned towards Damien, "Please stop making things worse," he pleaded.

    "Fine...," Damien sighed. "It''s nice to see you again Elas."

    "You too," he looked around, seemingly searching for someone. "Where''s your brother?"

    "He didn''t come, busy with something else."

    "Oh, hope all is well?..who am I kidding? I know all''s not ell, heard about the confrontation and all. Are you alright? You look... different."

    "I''m fine, although I don''t think this is a place to be having conversations like this," Damien said, waving his hands around.

    The man looked abashed, "Yeah, you''re right. Come in."

    Damien nodded, following behind as they entered the bar, ignoring the curious look the guard was giving him.

    Elas parlor wasn''t large, compared to the bars he''d seen; but it was moderate. A cluster of chairs and tables were scattered around¡ªalmost filled with patrons despite the afternoon working hours. A large bar was placed at the side of the room, with a two bartenders serving the multitudes of sailors, fishermen''s, and all sorts of traders gathered inside, howling for drinks and more drinks.

    He and Elas weaved through the crowds, them parting to make way the moment they saw Elas. He hailed and returned some greetings as he passed, leaving Damien to suffer the dozens of curious eyes stabbing into him.

    They eventually got to the bar, Elas lifting over the slab separating the bar. They moved into a back door, Elas leading the way down a short hallway, passing multiple doors until they came to a door at the end of the hallway.

    The office was a room filled with dozens of sales documents and such, with a large shelf placed on one side where Damien could see large tomes and different sorts of trophies placed on it.

    In the middle of the room was a large table with a high backed chair which Elas took his sit on, with the window behind him.

    Damien took a sit on the chair opposite him, "it''s nice to see you''re still going at it strong."

    "Ehhh...I do this once in a while. How''d you find me?"

    "What?" Damien smiled. "You think you''re the only one with tricks?"

    "Bahh, none of your tricks could find someone like me. If you want to keep your secrets, keep them. Hope you weren''t followed?"

    His only reply was a deadpan gaze.

    "Sorry about that," Elas coughed. "Anyways, what brings an esteemed person like you into my lowly abode?"

    "Please don''t do that."

    "What? The lowly person thing? Aren''t you an esteemed person? Fighting huge battles that''ll shake the whole planet and stuff. I heard you even did battle with the returned Solarian Emperor," Elas snickered. "I imagine his face when he discovered he couldn''t just defeat you like he did the others, hah! A sight to behold."

    Damien just sighed, "Can we get down to business now?"

    "Oh, look who''s in a rush. Okay then, what can I do for you, lord cultivator," he laughed.

    Damien imagined that happy face being squashed when he heard what Damien finally had to say.

    And he was right. The moment he told Elas what he came for, the man''s face immediately turned sour.

    "That''s hidden information that''ll get a lot of eyes opened."

    "Can you get it?"

    The man snorted, "I didn''t work one hundred and ten years just to be unable to procure something like that."

    Damien nodded, "Good, so when would it be ready?"

    "That...is something that''ll take some time, mainly because of the secrecy and all. I''m gonna have to put out a lot of smoke after all. I can''t promise you a set timeline, but I''ll look into it as fast as I can."

    "Ok, then. Nice seeing you once again Elas, I better take my leave."

    "Wait, can''t you stay a little while? It''s been long this old man laid eyes on you, atleast show some love by staying."

    Damien sighed, "I can''t Elas, I wish I could, but I just can''t. You of all people should know how important it is I keep my whereabouts unknown, I can''t have my plans jeopardized."

    The man sighed, "Alright then, I''ll see you off. But you promise to come visit when this is all over."

    "Sure."

    "And bring Keilan over, I miss those joyful smiles."

    "Fine.."

    Together, they walked back the way they came, coming out into the bar proper.

    Damien sighed wearily as he stepped into bar. He didn''t have time for this.

    [What did I say? Even when you try to avoid trouble, it still finds a way to look for you.]

    Taking a sit on the chairs closest to the door were a group of humans. The only thing separating them from the usual customers were the fancy clothes they wore and the way they looked at everybody else in the room, like they were ants beneath their fancy sandals. This didn''t change when they caught sight of Damien, they only reduced the disdain to make way for looks of curiosity which they directed at him.

    "Wow, looks like you''ve made a lot of friends since you came in," Elas said, chuckling.

    Damien ignored him, looking at a short bald man who had stood up from his chair, moving towards their position.

    "Elas," he said in a thick, refined voice, which was meant to sound posh but only sounded more like someone with a throat problem. "We didn''t know you were familiar with this....person," he looked Damien up and down, his disdain finally showing.

    "Oh yeah, Gimdjar, nice to see you too. And yes, I know him."

    The man¡ªGimdjar, nodded as he turned his full gaze towards Damien, waiting.

    "What? Do I have something on my face?" Damien said. He knew what the man was waiting for. It seemed all the cawing and prostrating they''d been receiving lately had gotten too much into their heads.

    "Hmm.... Elas, has your friend here been made notice of the rules of the town?"

    "What rules?" Damien turned towards Elas.

    "Quiet when your betters are speaking, vermin," someone shrieked from the table, Damien looked over to see a woman with dark, fuzzy hair standing up. She looked like someone who woke up on the wrong side of the bed and forgot to put on makeup. Even for a cultivator, it took a lot of neglect to end up looking that way.

    Damien turned his face away, like she was a curious piece of trash on the street.

    [Ohh, you''ve made her mad. Is that smoke coming out of her ears?]

    Elas gave a tired sigh, "The ''rules'' of the town¡ªmore like an unofficial rule¡ªstate that any cultivator visiting the city must first pay a visit to the sea shark''s quarters to pay homage and all that. Oh, and you''ve got to pay some dues too."

    "But I wasn''t staying long, in fact, it''s obvious I''m already on my way."

    Elas looked at the Gimdjar questioningly.

    "It doesn''t matter how long he stays, the moment a cultivator steps into the city, they pay homage to one of the four, depending on their race. And you have not done that, in fact, you disrespected members of the Sea sharks by not following etiquette and barging into their midst, disrupting the hierarchy of power."

    Damien, tired of it all, just said, "Ohh, I see where this is going. Fine then, I''ll pay the fine. How much?"

    Everybody looked at him like he''d grown two heads.

    "What? Isn''t that what you all came here for? I haven''t got all day to be spending here. How much?" He asked again.

    "A lowly one such as you dare speak in such flippant manner, you should be punished," the lady crowed again.

    "Will someone please shut that harpy up?"

    [You just made matters worse, now their friends are also angry too.]

    He looked over, seeing what Gray meant. The other people sitting on the remaining chairs immediately stood up, their disdainful eyes threatening.

    "Hold it there, I do not want you guys destroying my establishment with your fights, I''ll deal with this," Elas said, turning towards the short man. "Look Grimdjar, my friend just came to say a short hello to me as he was passing by, and he''s continuing on his journey. How about you just tell him how much he''s due to pay and let him be on his way."

    Grimdjar looked reluctant, his beady eyes raking Damien up and down, "We do this for you Elas, an unruly one such as this...thing here should have been given a lesson in etiquette and respecting his betters. But for you, we''ll only charge him for his disrespect."

    Damien snorted.

    [That does it, they''re coming for you, and is that one drawing an infused weapon?]

    Truly, the cultivators seemed to have lost it, with the three coming at him.

    All over the bar, varying looks were directed at him, from looks of pity to ones of approval¡ªlike he deserved what was coming for him. Grimdjar only continued his disdainful look, his eyes carrying no sense of pity.

    Elas sighed, "Please don''t damage my bar."

    Confusion rippled through the room as instead of Elas pleading with the cultivators, he was actually pleading with Damien.

    Damien didn''t reply, watch in slow motion as the cultivator with a weapon moved first, leading the others, coming at Damien with speed that looked undescernible by the common folks around, but to Damien, came in a very slow motion.

    The man arrived instantly, his expression intending to seemingly put Damien in his place, with the harpy behind him shining in glee as she waited to see the unruly nobody brought to his knee.

    Nobody foresaw what happened next as it funnily enough, happened in both a slow motion and at the same time, faster than any of them could possibly predict.

    One moment, there was a man gunning for Damien... The next, a bloody mist could be seen staining the air in a crimson color.

    The whole room instantly went dead quiet to the extent Damien could even hear the heartbeats of everyone in the room. He sighed, taking a rag from the bar table and began cleaning the splotches of blood from the back of his hand.

    "Hey! that''s my rag," Elas protested, ignoring the even that had just happened.

    "Get another one."

    The man grumbled, but said nothing.

    Damien finally turned to Grimdjar, who was staring at him with a wide eyed shock.

    "So, how much is your fee?"

 Chapter 43 - Coughs, A little Spar, And a Conversation

    Damien stepped onto the courtyard of the castle of Cirin with a headache and a frustrated face. It was one of these times that he was grateful for not growing up entitled like some of the cultivators out there. Otherwise, he might have done something drastic back there. Having to deal with cultivators who expected everyone they met to scrape and bow to them had been pinching on his nerves. Had he not been trying to keep his whereabouts on the low-key, he''d have probably thrown them into space. Let them look down on people from up there. He hated arrogant people.

    [You do know that you''re probably one of the most arrogant people on the planet,] Gray said.

    "Yeah, I know. But you''ll notice, I''m only arrogant to my peers."

    [I''ve been wondering, why''s that?]

    Damien only snickered, "Cause it''s good to pull them down from their high horse sometimes."

    [Urgh, that''s a flimsy excuse for the fact that you''re just plain arrogant.]

    Seeing where this was going, Damien immediately took a U-turn, "Nop, Noo... I''m not entering into an argument with you."

    [Heh heh, scared?]

    "What? No, I''m just mentally strong enough for an argument right now."

    [You''re scared.]

    Damien sighed, moving on.

    The Castle''s courtyard was in a bustling activities, with soldiers, servants, and other different people hustling about, preparing for the war. He could see a small fleet of Sky ships parked on one side, waiting for quick deployment or other duties.

    Being among some of the most powerful kingdoms on the continent and the larger world, Castle Cirin had a larger domain than most, with a large space big enough to contain one large castle for the queen, another for the Monarch cultivators, and two large dormitory buildings for both the thousands of soldiers posted in the palace grounds and the menial workers. Large expansive fields were dotted around for the training and marshaling of the queen''s army.

    Damien crossed, nodding to the bowing forms of thousands of people as he passed, heading to the castle.

    Castle Cirin was a large building, one of the largest amongst castles. A dark-colored building divided in three, with bridges leading Into the different sections. Towering spires reaching towards the heavens, topped with black and white flags bearing the sigil of the Arele royal family, a silver bird over a black field. Over the walls of the castle were large statues of birds and large, powerful constructs that could take out air targets and decimate any army that managed to get into the city.

    Damien smiled; all those features were great, but the ones that were true threats were only noticed in the spiritual where the whole castle hummed, its spiritual weight shaking the ambient energy. A truly infused defensive construct capable of taking attacks from even Spirit Kings, though it hadn''t been tested.

    Damien was interrupted when a young Page boy approached him. Bowing, the boy said, "Greetings, Mister, I''ve been commanded to deliver a request of meeting with you."

    Damien could sense the boy''s apprehension even though he spoke in a calm voice.

    "Who is it?"

    "Ah.. um, the High priestess of the Cult of Winter."

    "Did she say how urgent it was?"

    "Um, no, but she did say that it would be preferable to speak with you as soon as possible."

    Damien sighed.

    "Fine, I''ll make my way there."

    The boy nodded, "With your permission, can I be excused?"

    "What''s your name?"

    "Sarl, sir," the boy answered with a confused look.

    "Well, Sarl, how long have you been waiting to deliver this message?"

    "Not long sir, just a little over three hours," the young boy answered, still looking confused.

    Damien''s eyebrows rose, "That long? Well, I better not keep her waiting, but first of all," Damien summoned a small gold bar, handing it to the boy whose eyes had turned wide as saucers. "You did good work. Take this as a token of appreciation from me."

    The boy, who was too shocked to respond coherently, could only stammer, "T¨Cthank y¨Cyou, sir," he bowed, his head almost scraping the ground.

    Damien grimaced, "No need for that," he said, waving for the boy to stand straight. "Just take of yourself, and know that you can come to me whenever you want, okay?"

    "Yes sir!" His voice bubbled up, a radiant smile on his face.

    "Good. Now you''re free to go."

    "Yes sir, thank you sir."

    "Yeah, yeah. Just make sure to take care of yourself."

    The boy could only nod, already running towards one of the buildings, no doubt to inform his parent.

    [You do know that hundreds of people just saw you handing a child a literal fortune? That''s like ten years'' worth of salary for the soldiers. What if they decide to steal it?]

    "Nobody would dare try it, they fear me too much for that."

    [If you say so, Mr. Terror, I''m just trying to say that some people would do terrible and stupid things for quick and easy money.]

    Damien looked at the place the young boy had run to, "You''re right," he said, waving over two peak lord soldiers and giving them instructions to guard and protect the boy.

    Done with that, Damien unfurled his perception, spreading it to encompass the entire castle grounds. He hated doing this in such a crowded area, the mental noise alone was something he always wanted to avoid. He soon sensed Menoe in one of the rooms at the top of the castle.

    Not wanting to go through the time stress of climbing through the hundreds of staircases, he instead began floating up, immediately drawing thousands of eyes, which he ignored.

    Reaching the balcony of the room, he waited. He knew she had already sensed him the moment he stepped into the courtyard, if not when he''d spread his perception.

    Soon enough, the large balcony doors slid open, revealing an old woman in a light blue gown with arms clasped behind her back. Despite her visible old age, Menoe stood straight backed, her form, that of a regal personage.

    "Damien, I''ve been searching for you," She nodded in greeting.

    Damien returned the same, "I had to take care of some business."

    Menoe nodded, accepting his vague explanation.

    "So.. what does the great Menoe need from me?"

    She smiled, "Nothing much, I just wanted a curiosity sated."

    "What curiosity? And why am I the one to sate it?" He asked, instantly suspicious.

    "I''ve always been surprised by your quick rise in power; even though it isn''t an overly unique occurrence¡ªjudging from your brother¡ªit still Surprises me how great your power has grown compared to the rest of us.

    "Witnessing your last battle has left me with a curiosity that needs to be sated. I hope you don''t mind obliging an old lady a little spar?"

    "Urgh...fine... We''ll have to move far away from here."

    "Do you have a location in mind?"

    "Aren''t you the one who''s supposed to set the stage, since you''re the challenger?"

    Menoe just stared at him.

    "Fine... I know a place."

    ***

    When they appeared, it was somewhere to the north, a distance away from the continent and over the dragon sea.

    [Are you sure you should be flying over the dragon sea? Seeing as you''re probably wanted by an entire dragon''s nest,] Gray said.

    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

    "They can come, they just won''t be returning."

    [Ohhh... Spooky.]

    Below them was a small island with a bright green forest covering the entire land, except for a tiny cleared patch in the middle, which was occupied by a wooden two-storey building. He and Keilan had spent a whole day building that vacation home with their bare hands. The entire island was their very own personal resort. A place away from the noise of civilization, and filled with the calm music of the Sea.

    Menoe nodded when she saw it, "Nice place you''ve got here, i used to have something like this a few while back, off the coast of the winterlands."

    "You used to? What happened to it?"

    "Oh, it got swept away."

    "The home?"

    "No, the entire island."

    ".....wow," Damien said, not having anything more to say.

    "Yes, wow. Anyways, let us begin. We should probably take this away from the island, unless you want yours resting on the sea bed by sundown?"

    Damien quickly shook his head, leading her a few miles away. When they reached a safe distance, Menoe stopped, turning to face him, a dozen meters or so between them.

    "Usually, I don''t do this, but witnessing your power has awoken some feelings I thought I had lost ages back. And, of course, I also want to clarify some things."

    "What do you need to know? I can probably just tell you."

    She shook her head, "I need to see this for myself."

    "Oh, ok then. How do we do this?" He asked.

    "What do you mean?"

    "Like... How do we determine the winner?" He clarified. "And the rules?"

    Menoe smiled.

    "I see you''re already getting competitive," she said. "Okay then, we''ll do it this way. The loser is the first to tire, is that okay with you?" He nodded.

    Menoe continued, "Okay, now, to the rules. Let''s see... Hmm... Okay, the rules are no astral images and no widescale techniques. No, cancel that, astral images are not allowed, but widescale techniques can be used, but let''s limit their reach, probably a mile. Does that sound okay?"

    "Fine by me," he replied.

    "Okay then, we begin as soon as you''re ready."

    Damien smiled, "I''m always ready," he summoned Gray onto his hands, idly swinging the spear.

    In a split second, they clashed, Damien quickly taking the edge in strength. With superior strength, he came up top in their collision, pushing Menoe back several meters. She quickly stabilized herself, summoning ice shards that darted toward him. He felt something odd coming from them, so he decided to take precautions and dodge. He fired breaths of destruction as he moved, his left hand coated with the essence of destruction, swatting away the ice he couldn''t dodge.

    Damien might have quickly arisen in power, but he lacked the years of experience that came with it.

    Menoe demonstrated that when those tiny broken ice fragments which were scattered through the air, suddenly moved. He wasn''t expecting it, so he wasn''t quick enough to dodge. He was awarded with dozens of tiny cuts.

    "Ouch!" He yelped. "Nice one, wasn''t expecting that."

    Menoe stopped, apparently about to give a lecture, "Never overlook anything that could still be used as a weapon by your opponent, no matter how small it appears."

    Damien nodded, "Good point, I''ll take that to heart."

    He definitely hadn''t taken that to heart, because when she suddenly appeared within arm''s reach, materializing out of those tiny ice shards, he wasn''t prepared.

    "Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!" He shouted, jumping back, his face now filled with dozens of tiny ice shards sticking out of them like popsicles. Menoe only looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

    "Okay, okay, I get it, it won''t happen again," he promised, setting his weapon, his senses primed. And truly, he didn''t let it happen again.

    Their dance carried them in a zipping pattern. Damien dodged while simultaneously blasting her ice conjurations away from him, making sure not to leave any tiny ice fragments around. Since breathe of destruction was his only technique that didn''t announce to the whole world his location, he only made use of it.

    With breath of destruction, he destroyed any ice conjurations sent his way, while using his palm to destroy remaining ones. Soon again, the air was soon littered with tiny floating ice fragments. He realized his mistake a few moments too late when Menoe smiled like a cat which had just trapped its prey. Smiling at something he didn''t understand, she snapped her fingers, and Damien was suddenly engulfed in a world of ice.

    At first, the freezing winds battered him, shaking his flight, but he soon got himself under control. The only problem he now had was the cold itself, which was beginning to seep into his body. He felt himself weakening, which was surprising, as he''d never thought himself susceptible to the element of ice.

    From his position in the middle of the blizzard, Damien was continuously battered by ice shards while the cold slowly made him vulnerable.

    Having enough, he blasted energy from his body in a wave, scattering the blizzard. Moments later, the ice storm was entirely gone, which brought him face to face with another problem.

    Turning around, he saw that he was completely encased in an square ice prison. Damien frowned, wondering why he didn''t Sense this, the freezing area must have done something to his perception.

    Drawing his arm back, he punched, shaking the icy walls and causing cracks to spread on it. He smiled, victory at hand, but his smile was completely quashed when those cracks immediately healed themselves, disappearing as if they had never been there. Frustrated, he delivered more strikes, increasing his strength. It took three more strikes before he succeeded, the ice cage shattering. Breaking through, he came out wary, expecting another trap, or finally, a true attack. But what he saw left him jaw dropped.

    Floating on the air was an ice platform with two cushions places on it. Menoe sat on one, a small table placed in-between, and a plate of fruits with two bottles of drinks sat on it.

    Menoe looked at him, a half eaten fruit on her hand, "When you''re done opening your mouth, you can come take a sit," she gestured towards the second sit.

    Damien slowly levitated, still dumbstruck, "I''ve got to admit, I completely didn''t expect this," he took his sit.

    "Good, means I''m not losing my touch," she said, finishing the fruit on her hands.

    "What happened?" He asked. "We were fighting and then you just..." He waved his hands at the whole setting, too dumbstruck to continue.

    Menoe nodded, "Forgive an old lady, but my stamina isn''t as it was during my youth," she sipped from her drink.

    That was bullshit, Damien knew, age never deteriorated ones body in cultivation, instead, the older one was, the stronger their body. Menoe clearly had reasons she didn''t want to explain, so he left it at that, joining her in the light meal.

    They ate for a few minutes, Damien savoring the sweet taste of the fruits, and when they were done, Menoe waved her hands, the plates and bottles disappearing into her storage space.

    Finished, she leaned back. He sensed a conversation coming up, so he kept quiet, waiting.

    "A curiosity led me to request this little spar, and now that I''ve confirmed what I wanted to know, I can speak with confidence," she waited to make sure Damien was listening. Affirming, she continued. "How far are your comprehension into your element?"

    Damien frowned, "Excuse me?" He said, not understanding.

    "How far have you comprehended your element?" She repeated.

    Still not understanding, Damien called, "Grey! What does she mean?"

    Grey, who had been silently watching all these while, spoke up, [I''ve been waiting for an opportunity like this. Normally I would have started your first lesson with this, but I thought it best for you to experience it yourself.

    "Element comprehension refers to how familiar you are with your element, how deeper you understand. Your ignorance is not surprising, given your quick rise in power, your understanding is nill."

    "Why didn''t you tell me this sooner?" Damien asked, miffed.

    "Like I said, you wouldn''t understand until you''ve gotten to witness it for yourself."

    "What do you mean by that?" He asked, but Grey refused to reply, surprisingly chosing to go mute. Where was the talkative when you needed him?.

    He was brought to earth when someone coughed, suddenly remembering that he wasn''t alone.

    He coughed, embarrassed, "I''m quite unfamiliar with the term, so my element comprehension would have to be nil," he answered, averting his gaze.

    Menoe nodded, "Not surprising. Giving your quick rise in power, you must have spent little time learning to understand your element more."

    Damien coughed. He''d been coughing alot these few minutes, strange, "I''m kind of embarrassed to say this. I understand what you''re saying, but I sort of still don''t understand what you''re saying."

    Menoe was quiet for a while, her mind probably elsewhere, before she spoke, "Cultivators of true powers do not get their strength from raw power, but from their element comprehension. The more deeper they understand, the more power. And I don''t mean power to make things go more boom boom, I mean power enough to influence your element," she waited for a second, contemplating. Speaking up later, she said, "Let me show you."

    She raised her left hand, palm facing up. A blue ice block appeared on it, "Watch," she said, and Damien witnessed in amazement as the flame suddenly turned flamelike, its form malleable, and the structure and movements similar to a flame. His eyes opened wide as it danced on the air in a sinuous pattern. He didn''t know ice could do that.

    "You see how it changes form? becoming like fire. Now I want you to summon a ball of your energy, you can do that right?" She asked, and in answer, Damien summoned a ball of destruction, its form like a small round shell, with the compressed energy raging, demanding to be let out.

    Menoe nodded, "Now, I want you to drift it slowly towards the middle," she pointed over the small table that had been set up.

    He did as she said, watching as she too slowly drifted hers closer to his raging ball of destruction. When they collided, he''d expected his ball of destruction to destroy the ice flame, but instead, he watched as his element slowly froze up, turning into a round ice sculpture.

    Damien looked up at Menoe, questions already on his lips, "Yes, yes, it is possible," she answered the question on his mind.

    "If you truly paid attention during our spar, you would have noticed that your element did little damage to my ice constructs, only breaking them down into tiny ice fragments.

    "With enough comprehension, you could have completely destroyed my constructs, turning them into white dusts."

    Damien frowned, "I never thought of that. Never had it crossed my mind that energy could be comprehended beyond the usual conjurations and such."

    "No harm, no problem. Atleast now you have been made aware, before you encounter something truly dangerous."

    "So.. if I may ask, how do I go about it? Do I just think about my element and bam! My understanding has gone up?"

    Menoe smiled, "No. What gave you that idea? Everyone has different methods that suits them better when trying to get in tune with their element. Some prefer meditation, where they can sit in one position for long months or years in order to understand, while others become more in tune when they are in the thick of battle, the rush and adrenaline pushing them further. You will have to find your own way," She said, standing up, motioning Damien to do the same. She returned her cushions into her storage space, along with the table, leaving only the ice platform.

    "I want you to know, before you get frustrated, that this is a slow process. You won''t see big results at first, but any progress into your element comprehension is an addition to your power."

    "I thought you said it wouldn''t make my energy go more boom boom?"

    She smiled, "Did you think comprehension could only be used for fighting? Element comprehension has many uses," she tapped on the ice platform. "Without my comprehension, this wouldn''t have been so stable," she raised her palm and an ice figuring of him formed out of ice. A detailed form, "Without my comprehension, I wouldn''t be able to accomplish this," she handed him the figuring, Damien pocketing it, eager to show it to Keilan.

    "Energy comprehension could be used for creation as much as destruction. It''s limits are depended only on your innovative mind and your level of comprehension.

    "There are wonders that could be accomplished through element comprehension that even I haven''t dreamed of, or could even think of accomplishing," she finished, motioning for him to step of the platform. He did, the entire structure dissolving into snow. Damien looked at her in surprise, wondering why she didn''t just allow it to drop into the sea below them. When he asked, she replied.

    "There''s no need to frustrate some innocent fish by getting an entire ice platform dropped on their head. How would you feel if a passing bird decided to use your head as a toilet? Now think about the fishes who would, undoubtedly, have a bad day if I purposely dropped this on their heads. Remember, no matter your station, always show consideration towards those below you, even if they literally are," she finished with a smile, as always.

    "Now that we''re done with all that, I''m quite in need of a heavy meal. This body can''t keep running on energy alone."

 Chapter 44 - A declaration, War, and Dragons

    At the precipice of the upcoming grand war which was speculated to escalate beyond even the borders of the Greensend continent, a lot of powers were finalizing plans for the coming storm. Armies were marshaled. Sky ships were primed and lined in formation, waiting for the orders to lift off. Intelligence agents were sent out into the wild, eyes and ears scanning for information that could benefit their sovereigns. Even Monarch cultivators were sent out in teams to prepare the paths for the armies to cross. The wills of multiple Spirit lords could be seen carried out by their subordinates while the Spirit lords themselves speculated on who amongst their numbers would be foolish enough to side with the  Solarians. While all this was going on, a bodacious declaration and warning was then broadcasted. By the one person everyone had their eyes on.

    "Many of you have heard of me, with some even having crossed paths. You all view me as an enigma, an unpredictable and unknown player in this game of dominion. Some of you have even sent your subordinates against me, whilst still being unsure of the success of such orders. But there is one thing you all know for a fact: You do not know what I am fully capable of. So I want you all to think about this carefully when you plan your alliance with the Solarians: I do not forgive those who act against my life; and that is what you will be doing when you side with the Solarians.

    "I do not care if you decide to sit on the sidelines, becoming a neutral party; it matters not to me. But should any of you join forces with the Solarians, Know this: I will come down on you like the hammer of god, himself. Even the returned Solaris won''t be able to save you."

    In light of this declaration, fear rippled in the hearts of many, and speculations were being formulated and tossed out. But one message was clear for all to know:

    The grey-eyed demon had sent out his warning.

    It was left for them to either heed it or find out personally the results of crossing him.

    ****

    The environment was chaos as thousands of soldiers moved, marshaled, and prepared for battle. Chosen Ymal stood, his division of soldiers gathered around him, waiting for their turn to go in.

    He was putting on the silver armor of the Camlen Soldiery, with black stripes lined across the armor. The emblem of the queen of Camlen ¨C a silver bird over a black field ¨C was emblazoned over his chest piece.

    He had been amongst the multitudes who''d borne witness to the calamitous battle that had been fought over the city of Cirin.

    Seeing that battle had made him thankful that a battle of such scale had not been fought during the city-wide evacuation of Tashin. Otherwise, none of the survivors here today would not have lived to see this day.

    The energy shield protecting the entirety of the city of Cirin had been visibly cracked and leaking essence, even with more than half the attacks aimed at the city being deflected by a Spirit Lady. From what he''d heard, the enchanters were still working on fixing the damage done to the shield. Had the battle not stalled when it did, a large portion of Cirin would have been turned to dust and rubble. Now, with a continental grand war on their heads, he was sure to witness more of the devastating powers these beings could bring to bear.

    When the continental grand war had been declared and the common soldiers had been called to arms. This had been predicted to be a war never before seen on this scale. And because of his experience commanding a city''s worth of soldiers ¨C even though it was minuscule compared to the great cities ¨C he had been given charge of a division, a surprising command for one still at the lord stage.

    He and his division, along with thousands of other soldiers still at the adept and lord stage, waited to be let into the staging hall, a large warehouse-like building used for moving armies anywhere across the world.

    On the outside, it looked like it couldn''t hold up to a capacity of more than a few thousand soldiers, but Ymal knew it had been heavily spatially modified to hold up to a hundred thousand, a full army. And that was just one of Camlen''s armies waiting to be deployed. They were all to be led by Monarch realm commanders. And to be protected by a spirit lord at the sign of trouble.

    Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.

    "This is sure going to be a bloody one," someone commented, the others nodding their acceptance.

    "Heard from my old man who fought in the last one that this one''s going to be far worse because of the grey-eyed demon."

    "Why''s that?"

    "Didn''t you know?" The man lowered his voice. "There''s a rumor that the grey-eyed demon is no mere Spirit lord. That he''s far more powerful than even the queen, even the Solarian Emperor."

    "Pfft, that''s just rumors. You don''t agree? Let me ask you this, if he was more powerful than the Emperor, why hasn''t he solely defeated the Empire by now? Why does he need the help of Camlen and Gandor to do it?"

    The other man shrugged, "Dunno. It isn''t my place to fathom the plans of beings like that, I''m just saying what I heard."

    They all turned towards Ymal who had been quietly watching.

    "What d''you think, Commander? You''ve met the grey-eyed demon before. Is he as powerful as they say he is?"

    Ymal was quiet for a moment, thinking. Eventually, he spoke, "Yeah, I spoke with him," he said, ignoring the other question.

    "Soo.... How was it? Heard he could kill you with just a stare."

    Ymal smiled, chuckling, "Ohh.. it felt like it. But if it''s true, I haven''t seen him do it."

    "I heard he bargained with a demon for his quick powers, and his soul would be eaten when he eventually stalls in his progression," someone said, another immediately countering.

    "No, I heard he was raised by the red dragons growing up, which gave him his weird and destructive affinity. How many cultivators have you seen or heard wielding such destructive affinity?"

    Ymal, who had decided to leave them to their argument, immediately turned when something ticked his ears, "Red dragons?" He asked.

    Growing up on the desolate continent, he''d heard of Sand dragons, seeing their signature sand storms. And their proximity to the dragon sea had awoken him to the existence of Sea dragons. But he''d never heard about Red dragons before.

    "What are those?" He asked.

    Even though they tried not to show it, he could still see the way they looked at him, like they were questioning his mental faculties.

    "Boss, you haven''t heard about the Red dragons?" One asked, choosing to voice the thoughts the others were clearly having.

    Immediately seeing where the misunderstanding was coming from, he clarified.

    "I lived in a desert city growing up. I''ve heard of Sand dragons since they occupy the same continent. With their ability to conjure huge sandstorms, they''re mostly the cause of massacres of any large gatherings of people on the continent, so everybody has heard of them. And I''ve also heard of the Sea Dragons too. Learned about them in the introduction training on creatures we''re likely to encounter on sea deployment and what to do when we see one. But I''ve never heard of Red dragons before," he finished, the others nodding, finally understanding the reason for his lack of knowledge.

    Someone spoke up, "Ok, we get it now, although I still find it strange that you''ve not heard of the Red Dragons," the man shook his head. "The Red dragons are huge, bulky creatures, unlike the Sea dragon''s serpentine features. And they''re more vicious, with four long, bulky limbs that could crush anyone unfortunate to be under them. Unlike their Sea cousins, they have large pairs of wings, which they use mainly for flying, but they can still swat you out of the air like a fly. And finally, the reason they''re called the Red Dragons is because of their immense affinity for the element of fire. A young Spirit lord Red dragon could be considered halfway through to becoming a master of fire, with the capability to burn down entire cities with their breath. With their infamous rage and pride, Red dragons could raze a city to the ground on what they perceive as a slight," the man finished, shivering. "Thank goodness they aren''t on the Greensend continent."

    Ymal nodded, having gotten most of it, so he asked the next question on his mind, "So, where are they located?"

    "The Red lands," someone chirped in.

    "Red lands?"

    "To the northeast. A continent filled with all sorts of dangerous calamity beasts. Although there are different Spirit lord Calamity beasts, everyone knows that the Red dragons are the real rulers," someone else answered.

    "Ohh... So that''s why it''s called the Red Lands? because of the Red dragons," he asked, intrigued.

    "Oh no, it''s because the land''s practically Red, even the skies. No one knows the reason. Some speculate it''s because of the Red dragons, but there''s no proof to back it up."

    Ymal was about to ask a follow-up question when a sound broke through the cacophony of waiting soldiers, loudly announcing, "Fifth army! Fifth army! You are cleared to proceed into the staging hall," the sound soon cut off after one more call.

    "Ok people, that''s us. Move it. Move it. I want you all arranged in an orderly manner. Stick together; I don''t want anyone getting lost in this crowd, so If your sense of direction is terrible and you can''t tell left from right, I suggest you tie yourself to a partner with a good sense of direction. And if your partner''s sense of direction is as bad as yours. Well, I wish you both good luck."

 Chapter 45 â€“ But Hes Property

    Wind russled Damien''s hair, going on to caress his body as he glided softly in the air. Beside him, and a little bit ahead, flew Keilan.

    "Come on... Is that how fast you can go?"

    Damien rolled his eyes, "You know how fast I can go. And unless you''re willing to placate the locals, I''ll keep to my current speed, thank you."

    Ever since they began this journey, Keilan had been pestering him for a race. It wasn''t that Damien was afraid, matching Keilan was something Damien could do, at least for a short while. Damien wasn''t slow by any means, it was just that wind cultivators were extremely fast. And besides, Damien didn''t want to risk the commotion it would bring when they broke the sound barrier.

    [You could just limit your speed at the edge, never breaking through,] Gray said.

    "Yes! Thank you, Gray, for that wonderful idea. Now, Dame, you up?"

    "No. Besides, we could overshoot our destination, or more likely, alert a hidden calamity monster to our presence, which would then lead to a senseless battle I do not want to take part in," While he said this, he slowly wrapped a thin layer of destruction energy around his body, limiting air resistance.

    They were probably hundreds of feet in the air, so it was a fifty-fifty percent chance of any locals hearing them. In the spirit of competition, he decided to cheat.

    Keilan laughed, a mischievous smile gracing his lips, "Dame, you know I''ve been bonded to the wind for years now. I know I can''t claim complete omniscient, but when I tell you that when it comes to the wind," he chuckled. "I know everything that happens in it."

    Before Damien could say a word, a booming sound erupted as Keilan broke the sound barrier, leaving a trail of clouds behind.

    Damien was just about to pursue when he heard screams down below.

    He sighed.

    "I knew this was a bad idea! Now look what you''ve caused," he shouted. "Now I''ll have to go clean up your mess."

    He reduced his speed, setting his descent for a large forest area closest to the crowd he could see gathered.

    He descended to the edge of the forest, grateful that no guards had come running with weapons bared. They''d probably ran the other way. Landing, he moved out of the tree covers, dusting tree leaves from his body.

    "I know, I know. I''m sorry, it''s all my brother''s fault; he sometimes does stupid things without thinking," Damien said as he approached the crowd, raising his hands to try and placate any pissed-off old women.

    Getting closer though, he slowed down, confused.

    Among the many boons high-level cultivators were blessed with, long-range hearing was one of them. They could hear things from half a mile away or farther¨Cthe higher the realm. However, due to the constant noise that always came in when they utilized this ability, a lot of cultivators chose to limit their range of hearing. That was why, aside from the initial screams he''d heard from the sky, he didn''t pick up anything being said in the crowd.

    Approaching the crowd, he was surprised to find himself being ignored, with the attention of the crowd turned elsewhere.

    Thankful for not being the true reason for the commotion, Damien moved deeper, wanting to know what this gathering was all about.

    Pushing through some of the gathered people, eliciting a few curses, he got to the middle of the large circle.

    A small clearing was made in the center, occupied by a young boy ¨C probably nine or ten years old. He held a bleeding arm as tears streaked from his eyes, his fearful eyes looking up at a man in a guard uniform standing over him while holding a short sword traced with lines of blood.

    Also lying on the ground and covering the boy protectively was a woman. Tears and loud pleading could be heard from her as she looked at the guard.

    "Please! Please, I beg you, please spare him; he''s just a child," she begged, looking to the crowds for help. None came forward.

    Damien frowned at this. Aside from the usual murmuring and whisperings he could hear from the gathered audience, none of them took a step forward.

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    The guard''s face turned dark, "Move woman, or you''ll just join him in punishment," he stepped in threateningly, eliciting a small squeak from the young boy and a moan of misery from the woman as she held the boy tighter.

    Seeing this, the guard nodded to another man ¨C also in the same outfit ¨C in some kind of signal. Visibly acknowledging, the second guard moved with shocking speed, and before the woman could react and tighten her grip further, he''d already gotten close.

    The woman screamed as the man dragged her by the hair away from the boy. This caused a loud murmuring from the crowd that was easily quelled by a look from the first guard.

    Having had enough, Damien was about to step in when a familiar voice spoke above the crowd, "What''s going on here?" Keilan spoke, his figure coming down to levitate above the crowd.

    Seeing this, the crowd''s reaction was immediate. Everyone immediately got down on their knees, with some even bowing their heads.

    Damien was the only one left standing, which nobody commented on, probably leaving me to my doomed fate for not showing respect to an esteemed Cultivator.

    Despite the immediate subservient response, Damien could still hear whispers from the crowd, about a savior cultivator coming to the aid of the boy.

    Taking full opportunity of this moment, the woman immediately shook herself from the grip of the guard holding her, the force leaving a large patch of her hair behind. She crawled on the ground, "Please, master, I beg of you, please spare the boy; he''s just a child."

    Keilan looked at her, with no emotion on his face. He turned his gaze toward the guards.

    "Speak," he commanded.

    The guard, alongside his partner who had already gotten over their shock, immediately spoke, "The boy is a permanent property of the Mayor. He was caught stealing, and when it was reported," he pointed at the woman. "This woman helped him run away from punishment. The mayor has commanded that he be brought back for punishment."

    Keilan''s face tightened as the man spoke. Damien shook his head, seeing the underhanded warning. During his explanation, the man had managed to stress the word ''permanent property''.

    The rules about slave ownership in the region were very straightforward. If you were temporarily indentured to a master, it was allowed for an outside party to interfere in matters between you and your temporary master. But permanent slavery was a level above that, where there was no room for outside interference. Meaning if you ever got into trouble with your owner, your fate depended solely on their whims and the mercy in their heart. This was a law held and heavily enforced in many Kingdoms, and any efforts to intercede would lead to swift repercussions from the law enforcement authorities.

    The man stressing this was a silent signal telling Keilan to back off or risk trouble he couldn''t handle. Keilan knew this, which led to his twitch of annoyance.

    "What did he steal?"

    The guard, thinking Keilan should have backed off, was a little shocked by the follow-up question, but he quickly answered. He opened his mouth, a confused look crossing his face as he closed his mouth, looking to his second for assistance.

    "Two loaves of bread," the second guard said, with the first repeating the same thing.

    Damien grimaced, that was a big mistake, and not for the kid.

    "I was just hungry; our next meal wasn''t until night," the little boy used that moment to defend himself; this earned him a hit on the ribs from the first guard, "Shut up, cretin."

    All this while, Keilan''s face had already gone cold when the crime was mentioned, now it got deeper from the actions of the guard. His face turned stone cold, like thick obsidian cold.

    "You chase down a child, almost mutilating him, just for two loaves of bread?" Keilan said, his normally cheerful voice now coming out chilly.

    The guard, now realizing that there must have been a mistake somewhere, tried to explain, putting himself into more trouble, "But he''s property. He''s pro¨C ahhh!!" He never got to finish his words, screaming as he was suddenly flung far up into the sky.

    Damien looked at Keilan who was now suddenly standing where the first guard had been.

    "How far did he throw him?"

    [He should be reaching the clouds any moment.... Oh no, a monster just picked him up.]

    "That''s pretty far, how can you tell?"

    "How can''t you? I''m practically using your senses."

    Damien sighed, moving toward Keilan who was now bent to pick up the little boy.

    Damien pulled out a healing potion, coming closer to the boy, "This is going to sting a little." He poured a tiny drop on the injured arm, watching as it quickly closed up.

    "What''s your name?"

    Still confused, the boy answered, "Yulon, sir."

    Keilan turned towards the woman who had already stood up, looking at both of them with a mixture of fear and hope, "Is he your child?"

    She shook her head, "No, his parents are diseased. His mother was my friend."

    Damien stopped, a complicated emotion rearing up within him. For some reason, her response dredged up old memories.

    "You know that you will have to move away from this town?"

    She nodded, "Yes, master."

    He frowned, "None of that. Do you have anything important in the city that you need?"

    "No, mas¨C uh.. sir." She answered, looking at him in confusion.

    Damien nodded, "Well, then you''ll have to relocate from the place. How does the capital sound to you?"

    Her jaw dropped while another round of murmuring immediately erupted from the still-gathered crowd.

    "Won''t the authorities come after us? And we don''t have any money to start a new life in the capital."

    Keilan laughed, waving it off, "Don''t worry about any of that, you won''t get into any trouble."

    The woman clearly didn''t believe them, but they were esteemed cultivators, who would refute their words? Eventually, she nodded.

    "Good, hold on, this is going to be bumpy," Keilan said as a gust of wind rose to encircle the woman, lifting her.

    Before they left, Damien turned to the second guard who just stood there, shaking with pure fear, "Go tell your master what happened here. I don''t care if you give him my description, nothing will come of it. Tell him I said he''s lucky, and if he chooses to pursue this matter, he might just get unlucky."

    With that, Damien and Keilan rose, Yulon and the woman between them, while the crowd watched as they disappeared into the sky.

 Chapter 46 â€“ Proto-Realms & Beating up Royalties

    Like sentient beings, monsters are graded into different realms, from the Foundation realm to the Spirit lord realms. Lower realm monsters were common to come across near large gatherings of people while higher monsters could be very rare. It wasn''t that they didn''t exist, it was just that it was very uncommon to see those types of monsters roaming. Mostly, they just settle down somewhere they''ll then make into territories, fighting any trespasser.

    Approaching the edge of the Solarian northern jungle, Damien and Keilan reduced their altitude. They drew in their auras tight around themselves, going into stealth mode. Unless someone was actually looking at them, nobody would know they were there.

    Coming to this area was always a sour moment for them, but they just couldn''t abandon their very own proto¨Crealm.

    They flew low over the trees, slowing down and reducing their height as they slowly approached their destination.

    As they flew, Damien could hear the sounds of insects, birds, and large wild beasts. Going far into the jungle, though, they then began coming across low-level monsters.

    Due to the nature essence saturating the entire jungle, there wasn''t any space to land without at least breaking down some trees, but there were still areas where a tree refused to grow. It was in one of these places that they landed.

    "God, I hate this place," Keilan said, landing alongside Damien on a patch of grass.

    "I hear you, but unless you know somewhere else we can find a hidden proto¨Crealm that hasn''t been discovered yet, then we''ll just have to endure," Damien replied, to which Keilan could only grimace.

    [If you don''t like this place, why don''t you just use the known proto realms, or better yet, the Redlands.]

    Keilan snorted, "Unless you want to have multiple spies and informants tailing you to document your strengths and weaknesses, you''ll avoid the known proto¨Crealms. And as for the Redlands, it''s always best to avoid them unless necessary, you never know what you''ll come across there."

    Damien nodded, "What he said. There''s an uncommon rule that the known proto-realms are meant for lower realm cultivators or recently ascended spirit lords. Unless it''s in their territory, you can''t see any veteran spirit lord in a known proto realm. Not to talk of the fact that they don''t allow outsiders to use their proto realms, leaving it for their people."

    [I''m sure nobody would dare tell you no if you chose to make use of a proto realm.]

    Damien snorted, moving around a tree, "You''d be surprised. Despite my fame and strength, there are always people who would still act high and mighty. And besides, I don''t want the hassle of trying to deal with people like that."

    "You remember that King who told us the only way we could use his proto realm was to become one of the spirit lords under him?" Keilan laughed.

    [What? What happened?]

    "Don''t you know? I thought you like.. had access to his mind or something?" Keilan looked towards Grey who was floating over Damien''s shoulder.

    [Gahh! Too much work looking for something like that. Do you know how jumbled up his head is? You don''t want to know about what goes on in there, blegh.]

    Keilan chuckled, "Ok, so this is what happened. It was just after Damien''s first battle with Emperor Solar, I mean the young one, not the old one. So Damien''s battle was just making waves amongst the Spirit lord community and the Solarians were actively hunting for our heads. We needed a place to lay low, and as per usual, we picked a proto realm to at least sharpen ourselves for a few weeks while we stayed hidden. Due to the risk, we couldn''t lead them to this place, so we decided to use one of the few proto-realms on the continent.

    "Prior to that moment, we hadn''t actually used any other proto realm or tried to; we only had this one, which we mostly spent months in, so we didn''t know how other people reacted to an outsider trying to use their proto realms. Approaching the proto realm, we got stopped by a spirit lord¨C apparently, a lot of Kingdoms usually station at least one spirit lord to monitor who goes in and out of the proto realm.

    "We approached this proto realm in which the spirit lord guard immediately appeared, saying all sorts of things about trespassing and stuff. It was one spirit lord against two, so the guy was extremely wary and very alert. We didn''t make any threatening motions, but we argued about why someone would bar us from somewhere that they didn''t even own; it just happens to be on their land; it''s like trying to bar us from entering a river just because it''s on their borders. Anyways, while we had been standing there arguing or when he sensed our approach¨C I don''t know, the guard must have already sent word. So while we stood there arguing, the king and some of his spirit lords were already on their way.

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    "We sensed them before they appeared, but we couldn''t just run away; that would be accepting weakness. So we waited, and soon enough, they came. The king, who had been raised with pills, treasures, and curated monster hunting to help grow his potential. Anyways, he appeared in all his diminutive glory, accompanied by a cluster of low-tier spirit lords. Agreed, we were all low-tier spirit lords, so the matchup would have been skewed in their favor. So despite the king knowing of our identities, he was still of the misguided notion that they were all equal to us. So we went on another argument, this time surrounded six to two. At first, It was all harmless arguments about them hijacking natural given proto realms, until the man threatened to forcefully apprehend us and hand us over to the Solarians."

    [No way...]

    "Yes way. Oh they outnumbered us by a large margin, but they forgot that the difference between us and them was that none of them had ever spent months on end in proto realms battling monsters."

    [What did you guys do?]

    "Well, in the end, we had to leave ''cause we''d already drawn too much attention to that place."

    [Like that? You guys just left like that?] Gray asked, skeptical.

    Keilan smiled, a devilish one.

    "Since they were mostly curated spirit lords, I''m not sure how they handled the pain of having all their limbs being shattered into tiny pieces¨Cprobably the reason i could still hear their screams twenty minutes after we left the area." Keilan shook his head, reminiscing. "Oh, what a wonderful day that was."

    Gray turned to Damien, "You''ve got nothing to say?"

    "Trust me, you do not want to hear my thoughts."

    Soon enough, they came around a corner, walking up to a cluster of trees. Looking at the place, If anyone got to this location, they''d see nothing other than a cluster of trees, just like the rest of the jungle. Nothing special.

    Damien and Keilan walked up in between two trees, with nothing differentiating them from the rest of the ones in the jungle. Approaching, the moment they walked into the middle of both trees, they found themselves in another place.

    They were still in the jungle, with the only thing alerting them to their changed location being the spatial movement, and the noise. The place they were coming from was filled with noise of animals and all such of monsters, but this place was different. In this place, the monster population was heightened to a degree that Damien could now hear fights going on all around.

    Proto realms were always graded into different domains. This is to help warn people who are training from straying too far into the domains of higher monsters.

    Presently, they were in the foundation-level domain, filled with all sorts of foundation level monsters. It was a fairly large space, enough that you could hunt monsters without mistakenly straying into the lord realm domains.

    "This is going to take too long. Let''s just fly there," Keilan said.

    "Sure."

    At this level of domain, there wasn''t a risk of encountering spirit lord monsters if they flew too high, so they enjoyed the altitude as they moved.

    The foundation level domain was a jungle area just like the one on the other side. Filled with greenery and such, it was a very beautiful place, with the only thing stopping him from relaxing here being the large population of monsters who bred like rats and made too much noise. He didn''t want to deal with that.

    The lord-level domain was a large patch of beautiful green grassland. Damien was always left speechless whenever he saw this place, especially from the sky. Even if he stood on the ground, he would still be able to see unobstructed for miles, with the blue sky giving the place a touch of heavenly glow.

    He began to see the monsters, all the way from low lord-level monsters who occupied the spaces bordering the jungle. From there, their tiers gradually increased the closer he flew in, from low to mid to high, and then they eventually flew Into the Monarch realm domain.

    This domain was a drastic change from the beautiful grasslands of the previous domain where it suddenly turned into a desert that was spread for miles.

    It was a dry, desolate place filled with Monarch-level monsters that could attack you from any position. Stepping into this domain was where you''d eventually learn to train your senses, Because If your senses aren''t as sharp as they should be, you could fall into one of the innumerable holes that had been dug up by monsters who would then be waiting not too far away to jump in and finish you. There were monsters that would swoop in from the sky in a flash and carry any unsuspecting victim, while there were some that would shoot poisonous projectiles from miles away or from covers that were had to spot. Those were the ones to fear the most because they always came in groups.

    Finally, telling from the energy difference, just like the ones before, they crossed into the Spirit lord''s domain. The calamity land.

    Heightening their senses, they began monitoring for any monsters. Even though they were still in the low tier domain, it was unwise not to pay attention for monsters that could heavily injure or kill you.

    The calamity land was featured with high mountain ranges and such, where some of the monsters set up their domains on the top of the mountains while some others fixed theirs on the ground. Some monsters, on their own, were neither land hunters nor sky hunters; they were somewhere in between.

    "ROAAAAAR!!!!"

    "Yup, nice to see you again Colosso," Keilan waved cheerfully.

 Chapter 47 â€“ Phew, I Need A Nap

    With an ''Urk'' and a loss of breath, Damien slammed Into the side of a mountain, boring a human-shaped hole deep into the mountain. Reorienting himself, he looked up to see a giant fist coming down on the mountain. Luckily for him, Keilan came to his rescue when a giant gust of wind slammed into the ankle of the colossal giant, shaking it out of balance.

    "ROAAAAAR!!!"

    The entire mountain shook from the sound of the giant''s displeasure.

    ''Colosso'', the Calamity giant, was a monster so tall Damien was sure it had far surpassed a thousand feet. It was one of the rare monsters Damien and Keilan had ever come across that could actually challenge them.

    Advancing through the different domains of this proto-realm, they''d come across plenty of monsters, some big, some small. Some had lasted a few hours, and some hadn''t even lasted minutes, except Colosso. It was one of the rare monsters that they hadn''t completely defeated after months of trying. Not that they couldn''t kill it, it was just that finding a monster like Colosso who was capable of keeping them on their toes was hard to find, they couldn''t afford to kill such rare specimen.

    But today, they weren''t looking to wet themselves against a mid-tier calamity beast; it was time to step up their game.

    Damien dived, narrowly dodging a fist that would have slammed him into the ground. He weaved around the monster''s arm, using his spear to draw a large gash.

    Keilan came up, a giant fist made of wind following behind. With a punch, he sent the monster staggering backward.

    Not one to be outshined, Damien darted downwards, weaving like a fly around the monster. He moved behind the knee, stabbing his spear deep Into its fragile part.

    "ROAAAAAR!!"

    The monster came down on one knee, sandy substance dripping from the injured area.

    Damien floated beside Keilan, watching the monster as it looked up towards them with anger and bloodlust.

    Keilan sighed, "Soo long Colosso."

    He raised his hands, summoning a giant green spear that whipped the air into a frenzy. With a motion, the spear flashed down, aiming for the middle of the chest.

    "ROAAAR!!"

    Apparently, the monster wasn''t keen on going out like this, because bronze-colored essence began snaking out of its essence reserves. Hundreds of tendrils snaking out to intertwine, drawing ground-down-earth alongside. What came out was a giant staff of almost equal size that warped the air around it. The power the staff released was enough to drastically heighten Damien''s estimation of the creature''s strength.

    Colosso hadn''t done this before.

    [Now, do you want my help?]

    "No. Don''t you get it? If I continue needing your help for every challenge that I come across, I''ll never grow. Besides, this monster is too weak for me to need your help."

    Gray had been wanting to help ever since the fight began with Colosso, but Damien had been refusing any assistance. He didn''t want to be over-reliant on the little guy. He knew that having something like Gray was a boon no cultivator would ever reject. But in his opinion, a boon could just as much become a crutch, and that could become crippling in the future. He wanted to be able to do things without outside assistance.

    [Suit yourself, your funeral.]

    With shocking speed, the titanic giant attacked.

    Damien swerved right, narrowly dodging the staff that swung for them. He waved his hands, summoning hundreds of tiny miniature stars that rained down on the monster, exploding in contact.

    Colosso roared, staggering backwards. Keilan came in with multiple fists constructed out of wind energy, delivering multiple combos on the giant, forcing it to use its staff to stabilize itself. This opened it to an attack from Damien that finally made it roar in pain.

    Like that, they went at it.

    Damien danced around the creature, using Starfalls to pester the giant. Starfall was a powerful attack, but for a creature as titanic as this, the attacks only created small cracks on the earthen body. At one point, Keilan took things up a level, enclosing himself inside a titanic construct made of wind, matching the creature size for size. Because of this, Damien was relegated to mosquito duty, where he continued to pester the creature with dozens of Starfalls, thereby distracting it and leaving it open for Keilan who exchanged and dealt equally titanic blows.

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    Pissed off and filled with dozens of craters all over its body, the creature predictably increased the gravity in the vicinity, releasing a pressure so heavy it could crush a fly. Damien weathered it, covering himself in a thin layer of destruction energy that fended off the unnatural gravity.

    Keilan, though, continued fighting as if the increased gravity didn''t affect him at all, slamming a giant wind spear on the creature''s body so hard that the creature staggered several feet backward before coming down on one knee.

    Damien followed up, summoning a curtain of flame to drown th¨C.

    [Heads up, you''ve got incoming.]

    He looked up, sighing as a dozen black dots in the sky aimed down towards them, their forms revealing them to be bird creatures.

    Now, these kinds of creatures were very tricky to deal with. Individually, they were weak, that was why they always hunted in groups. And they were always smart enough to deliver coordinated attacks.

    Damien looked toward Colosso who was still on its knees, seeing that his attacks were practically contributing nothing much to the creature, and he wouldn''t be able to deliver any worthwhile attacks unless he summoned at least a partial image, and he''d be damned if he summoned an image just to deal with a creature like this.

    He turned towards Keilan, informing him about his decision. Keilan''s attention never left the monster, but he gave a nod.

    Done with that, Damien ascended, moving to intercept the bird monsters.

    He rose, his energy snaking out of him to form dozens of spikes that trailed behind.

    The bird creatures, seeing this, immediately swerved, sending tiny wind crescents at him. With a wave of his spear, Damien summoned a grey curtain of destruction that wiped half the incoming attacks away, the others missing. He dived into their group, dodging their attempts to bar him in and trap him. He shaped dozens of spikes and miniature Starfalls, tearing into their ranks. A bird came at him with claws bared; he cut off its feet and a wing in one swift move. Another one did a dive-by past him with sharp wind energy coating its wing. Damien cut it open from top to middle.

    Their battle took a little while as he crippled and outright killed them in one or two moves, leaving some to either die immediately or let gravity take care of it.

    Soon enough, they were all dealt with, the last of them falling down to the earth with a loud squawk and caw. Done with all that, he turned his attention to see Keilan still at it with Colosso, both their forms battered with cracks all over them. Colosso body looked wrecked, but Keilan''s was much worse. Since he wasn''t as solid as the giant, his titanic avatar was cracked and leaking air so thick it came out as green.

    Damien dived back down to assist.

    "Kei, we have to wrap this up soon, or we''ll have more monsters to deal with. So I''m going to have be unwise."

    Vast reserves of energy began flowing out of his body as he dived, trailing behind him like a river. It began to condense, slowly taking the shape of a five-pointed star. A heavy pressure descended and the air warped as the star went into completion, so powerful that the giant immediately took its attention from Keilan, turning up to look at Damien. Its senses must have warned of the impending threat of this attack because it immediately went into defensive mode.

    "ROOOOAAAAAR!!"

    The earth for miles rose up in waves to encircle the monster, forming a vast dome that covered the monster, the unnatural gravity in the area reinforcing it.

    [Hmm, that''s surprising.]

    "What?"

    [Finding a monster with a modicum of sentience in this place.]

    "What do you mean?"

    [A monster of this level isn''t meant to be this self-preserving. Most monsters are typically all hunger and predation, with no advanced planning or such to acquire their prey. They see, they attack, regardless of the strength of their opponent, uncaring of their own defenses beyond the natural ones they were born with. This monster here is part of the few ones who have begun to gain a semblance of sentience. It can''t talk, but It can understand and plan ahead, that''s why it''s using attacks that it hasn''t used in your previous battles. As the both of you were using it to challenge yourselves, so was it doing the same.]

    "Uhhh... Wow. I never knew monsters could do that."

    Gray snorted, [How do you think Spirit King monsters come to be? Unlike the majority of monsters who don''t have the potential to advance further beyond the Spirit lord, this one is one of the few who will.]

    "Why''s that?"

    [Look there. How often do you see a monster capable of constructing weapons out of their essence? Aside from the birth-given weapons a lot of monsters are born with, very few of them have the mental capability to create one outside of itself. Look at the birds you just fought, beyond the wind blades, which are instinctually formed as soon as they learn how to fight; their mind can''t go beyond that. All monsters are granted intelligence at one point, but for them to advance beyond the lord realm, a trace of true intelligence has to be present.]

    Damien looked at the monster, his star construct fully formed. Even though it had enacted its ultimate defense, it still slowly edged backward like it was about to flee. Damien wasn''t the only one to notice this.

    Keilan, who had begun edging out of the blast radius of Damien''s attack, also took notice.

    A colossal amount of wind energy was drawn from the environment and his soul reserve, going on the encircle Colosso, trapping it in.

    Taking the opportunity, Damien attacked.

    He sent down the gigantic star which warped the air, leaving a trail of grey mist and haze. In an instant, it landed.

    BOOM!

    Damien was probably close to two thousand feet in the air, and a mile or two away from the blast radius. Yet the results of his attack had him dedicating a not-so-small amount of willpower to keeping himself stable.

    Keilan¨Cin his titanic construct¨Cwas blasted off his feet, the shockwaves carrying him to crash a mile away.

    When the dust finally settled, they saw the outcome.

    "ROAAAR!!"

    The monster released a sound of both defiance and agony¨Cmore agony. Its entire arms were completely destroyed¨Cmelted down to the shoulder. The torso wasn''t so different, only held together by a small part that had managed to somehow survive the attack.

    The monster¨Con its knees¨Clooked up at Damien, pure rage in its eyes. It slowly began getting up, drawing earth energy from the surrounding to fix its makeup.

    CRACK!

    Cracks suddenly appeared over its body, its entire form leaking sands as it immediately began breaking down, turning into chunks of large rocks that crashed to the ground.

    Damien breathed out, tired, "Phew, I need a nap."

 Chapter 48 - Stand by

    Damien sat on a sandy dune, the hot sun blaring down on him. He stretched his legs, scattering the sand around him.

    "Are you done yet?" He turned towards Keilan.

    Keilan, who was sitting on the bare sand with legs folded, opened his eyes, glancing at Damien.

    "Not yet. Give me a minute or two."

    "Arggghh! Why are you soo slow..."

    The only answer he received was a raised eyebrow.

    [Not everyone is an abnormally like you who''s capable of regenerating their resources within a dozen minutes.] Gray said.

    Damien rolled his eyes, "You''d better be quick about it or you''ll be fighting droves of beasts before you know it."

    "Colosso was the strongest beast in this territory, I don''t see us being too threatened."

    Damien moaned, "Dude, don''t jinx us. Colosso might have been the strongest beasts in this territory, but there are other territories bordering this, and we sure as hell made a huge bang dealing with Colosso. I don''t have the hours to waste dealing with dozens of territorial Monsterlords."

    [Ohhh... You''ll definitely have more than mid-tier Monsterlords. This territory is close to peak-tier monster territories. I don''t imagine their Monsterlords will sit still after the noise you both just made.]

    Keilan frowned, "You! What side are you on? One moment, you''re siding with me; the next, it''s Damien. Pick a side."

    [I''m not on anyone''s side, I''m just stating facts, that''s all.]

    "Well, keep your facts to yourself. There''s no monster capable of challenging us here."

    "Dude, have you seen the chaos and destruction that just took place?" Damien said, waving his hands around their surroundings. "The footprints indentations alone are enough to warrant a couple of monster lords turning their attention here; talk less of the mountains that we''re almost leveled."

    Although it hadn''t taken too long, the destruction caused in the almost an hour or so battle had left huge decorations on the land.

    Huge footprints were scattered around the land for miles, leaving deep craters capable of birthing lakes and such.

    The mountains. Damien didn''t even want to talk about them. From the blows exchanged between the two titans, Damien could see about five spaces where mountains used to be. They were all rubbles now. Some mountains were even lucky enough that they weren''t completely leveled, with only half or a third of their body blasted off. The whole battle was sure to have displaced dozens, if not hundreds, of monsters from their homes on those mountains. And the monsters¨CAt least the ones who survived¨Cwould begin moving and encroaching on other territories, which would sure as hell create a monster horde.

    "I''m done," Damien turned as Keilan spoke, beginning to dust himself as he stood.

    "Finally! I thought we were going to spend the whole day here."

    "You could if you want."

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    Damien growled, "Don''t tempt me."

    He stood, moving to stand alongside Keilan, gazing out into the deeper territories.

    "What now?"

    "We move on, of course."

    Damien nodded, "You do know we can''t fly again, right? Crossing the land would be hectic enough; flying over the sky with hundreds of monster perceptions scanning the skies would be a no-no."

    In response, Keilan smiled, "Aren''t we here to sharpen ourselves? What better way to do it than pitting ourselves against the droves of monsters stupid enough to target us?"

    ***

    Prince Vaelion stood on the bridge of the moving skyship, his attention on the distant continent which was soon becoming visible.

    The continent shouldn''t have been visible due to them still being hours away. But with his spirit lord''s perception, he could see farther than most.

    Below them¨Con the sea¨Che could see dozens of powerful Monarch realm monsters watching their passing and even more powerful perception sweeping over their position. But that was just it, only watching. They couldn''t do anything.

    On his ship alone, the presence of two Spirit lords blazed alongside more than a dozen Monarch realm Cultivators, who were then accompanied by almost a hundred lord realmers, all alert with their hands on weapons. Only on his ship.

    Behind his ship, their escorts followed. A small fleet of almost a dozen ships filled with Monarchs and lords who were also equally trigger happy. It would take the might of a team of Spirit lords to be capable of taking them down.

    To quash any further thoughts of attack, a short distance from them flew another fleet: Queen Yuseria''s.

    The warrior queen of Tyria had caught up with them a few hours past, deciding to keep pace with them. Safety in numbers.

    On the fleet, Vaelion could also sense the auras of three Spirit lords, the lady general Nesra and the Warrior queen, herself, including a spirit lady Vaelion didn''t really know.

    They were accompanied by a fleet almost twice as large as Vaelion''s, with more than a hundred Monarchs, and quadrupled that number in lords.

    "Your Highness. I am to report that the pathfinders have just sighted the Greensend continent. Your instructions are needed." A Monarch realm Cultivator approached, bowing.

    Vaelion nodded, "Take us round the coast of the continent, we''re heading to the Coastal city of Cirin."

    "As you command, your highness." The man left.

    Vaelion turned, watching as the continent drew closer and closer. He was just about to turn and head inside when his eyes caught something.

    Frowning, he swept his perception. There, Close to the continent and rippling through the waters was a group of sea dragons.

    "Neriel," he called.

    The woman immediately appeared, materializing out of thin air and sweeping the air with the smell of roses.

    Neriel was one of the most powerful Spirit lords from the Empire of Aetheris. A sun elf ¨Cjust like him¨C with an almost golden skin, draped in a blue gown. Her narrow sharp face with raised cheekbones and blue glowing eyes were enough to topple kingdoms. Coupled with blond hair so blond, it shone golden under the afternoon sun.

    Looking at her, one would take as her a harmless person. He pitied anyone who would make such a mistake.

    "You called?"

    In answer, Vaelion pointed at the group of sea dragons.

    Neriel frowned, "Hmm. Sea dragons shouldn''t be this close to the continent."

    "That''s what I thought. And it doesn''t look like they were just passing by. This looks like a scouting group."

    From what his senses could perceive, the group consisted of about six Monarch dragons and two Spirit lords.

    "Definitely a scouting group. And one prepared for battle," Neriel confirmed. "The question is, why are the Sea dragons scouting Greensend?"

    "I don''t know, and I do not want to find out. Put us on alert two."

    Neriel turned towards him, "Are you sure about that? This is just a scouting group."

    The Dragon Spirit lords had already sensed them, turning their serpentine heads towards them and soon turning away.

    "Yes, I''m sure. I''m not worried about the scouting party, what worries me is what''s coming behind."

    Neriel nodded, her will immediately sending out orders. The reaction was immediate.

    Soldiers were roused, rapidly donning armours and manning the weapons constructs on the side of the ships.

    The same was repeated across the whole fleet.

    "Good. Though I''m sure they already know, just in case, send a warning to Queen Yuseria."

    "What''s got you worried? It can''t just be the scouting group," Neriel said, her will already sending the message.

    "The whole planet is on stand-by, waiting for the first person to act. We''re stepping into the belly of the beast and I do not want to be amongst the first casualties. Just take it as a sign of caution."

 Chapter 49 â€“ Summons

    Damien shifted to the side, dodging the open maw of a large monster. He formed his hands into a fist, coated it in grey destruction energy, and then punched.

    CRACK!....SCREEEE!!

    The monster screeched in pain as Damien''s fist drilled into its wings, and through to its body.

    Damien pulled back, his mind already off the monster as the it fell to the ground, screeching all the way.

    Turning, he took stock of his surroundings.

    The air was choked with dozens of Spirit Lord calamity monsters. Some were fleeing and migrating to other territories, while the rest decided to make him and Keilan into meals.

    To the side, a giant bird made out of green wind energy was tearing into the ranks of a flock. Its wings sharper than steel, and the claws, oh, the talons. Long, curved, and wickedly sharp. With only a single graze capable of cutting some of the monsters in twain.

    [Unlike you, Keilan seems to have a very intimate relationship with his element.]

    "What? What do you mean?"

    [Haven''t you noticed? His detailed construction of different forms with wind energy. He might not know it, but Keilan has a deep alignment with his element.]

    "How''s that possible? He hasn''t even been told yet about it."

    [Doesn''t matter, that man has a passive understanding of his element. It''ll never end as long as he follows the path of the wind.]

    Damien turned towards Keilan, watching as his bird form dived, its wings spread wide.

    It was in the form of a falcon, with its body composed of constantly shifting wind energy with innumerable feathers on its body. Its eyes were a lighter glowing shade of emerald, menacing as it shifted from one monster to another.

    As it dived, the hundreds of feathers on its body detached, slowly beginning to swirl around its form.

    What happened next would give any monster nightmares for years.

    Shaped like double-sided daggers, the feathers tore into the ranks of the clustered monsters. The next seconds were then filled with gory sounds of jagged flesh tearing and cries of pain as the feathers tore into both flesh and bones.

    [Ouch. That''s a scene I don''t ever want to see again.] Gray said, shivering.

    Damien grunted in agreement.

    HISSSSSS!!!

    Damien turned just in time to avoid a brown beam aimed at him.

    He looked up at the sender. An earth serpent.

    Sandy brown scales with long spikes running down its entire spine down to its thick, muscly tail that could break bones. Its slitted eyes shifted from Damien to Keilan as it arrived.

    A Monsterlord.

    The monster was more than fifty feet long and looked entirely menacing.

    Its entire repertoire was filled with attacks that were geared for complete petrification, both internal and external.

    Telling from its aura, it was completely pissed. It was no wonder, Keilan was tearing into its children.

    The monster opened its giant maw, aiming at Damien. He moved, dodging the brown beam that flashed out. Whipping his spear, he slammed it into the monster''s body, breaking and cracking scales.

    Damien dived under the serpent''s body, moving away just in time to avoid the tail swinging his way.

    Gliding in the air, he drew his spear down the body of the large serpent, tearing off large chunks of scales, which made the earth snake all the more angrier as it hissed in pain.

    [Quit playing with your food and end it.] Gray said, interrupting Damien''s fun.

    "This monster isn''t easy to deal with."

    Despite Gray not being visible at the moment, Damien still had the feeling that he was being looked at with a deadpan gaze.

    "Argggh... Fine. Spoil fun."

    Floating a few inches from the monster, he was too close for an efficient stab with Gray, so he made do with his natural-born weapon. Aiming his fist, he punched, shattering scales and piercing deep into flesh. Releasing Gray, he used his left hand to physically hold back the monster''s snout as it turned around to bite him. With his right fist still in the monster''s insides, he released a breath of destruction.

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    The earth serpent made a sound between a hiss and a wail as its insides were doused with potent grey destruction energy. It immediately began trashing violently on the air, trying to free itself as its insides were cooked.

    Damien weathered through its thrashing, one hand physically holding its snout¨Cpartly to keep it at bay, and to also keep it from freeing itself. The other hand was deep inside the monster, using its bone as an anchor; Damien held it, all the while he weathered hits from the monster''s thick tail, taking blow after blow.

    Eventually, the monster slowed, becoming sluggish; and moments later, it stilled.

    Damien couldn''t waste time confirming if it was dead or just pretending, so he slowly released his grip from it, pulling both his hands. Freeing his hands from the monster, he watched as it immediately crashed down to the ground. That confirmed its death.

    Done with that, Damien turned toward Keilan. During his brief spar with the earth serpent, he''d been keeping tabs on Keilan, so he wasn''t surprised to find the monster''s presence in the surroundings diminished. Other than the ones fleeing, and the still dumb ones who were still trying their luck against him, the airspace was significantly freer now.

    Damien began slowly floating towards Keilan, Gray trailing behind him in his spear form. Approaching, he picked off monsters one by one, using pin-point breath of destruction and directed star falls.

    "Kei! Wrap it up, we don''t have all day."

    Keilan didn''t give any sign of confirmation to his words, but the wind suddenly turned rigid, clasping a tight hold over every monster nearby. And then it squeezed.

    SQUELCH!....CRACK!!

    The sky began raining blood as flesh and bones were crushed into paste, staining the sky a bloody crimson for a moment before they dispersed, falling to the sands below.

    [That, was exquisite control.]

    ***

    Damien''s declaration sent out in response to the potential alliance that was speculated between the Solarian Empire and some Unknown kingdoms left a lot of powers on edge and wary of their neighbors. It was one thing for them to speculate on the potential theory that one of them might ally with the Solarians, but it was another for it to be confirmed by another person, if only indirectly. And yes, that was what Damien did. He didn''t point fingers or make accusations towards anybody, but his statement alone proved true their speculations.

    "The Empire has begun readying troops. We estimate that within three to four days they will have half their fighting forces prepared, and a week will see them at full might," Spirit Lady Helera informed, giving her report in front of the throne of her Queen in the large Throneroom.

    Menoe stood nearby on the throne platform, close to the throne to signify her Importance, but not too close so as not to seem like she was disregarding the sovereign of the kingdom.

    The queen, herself, sat on a large emerald dark throne, embellished with studded Emerald dim glowing gems.

    On the back of her throne¨Cthe headrest¨Cwas the sculpted form of a silver black bird with its wings fully unfurled¨Cabout to take flight. And on where she rested her hands¨Cjutting out at the edge of the chair arms, were also other sculpted forms of birds, but this time with their wings only half stretched.

    Queen Fenore was putting on a simple black dress, sitting on the throne while her emerald piercing eyes were pinned on Helera.

    "And their Sky forces? Lord Elason did do a good number on their fighting capabilities."

    Helera was silent for a while, waiting to make sure the queen was done talking, before she nodded, continuing.

    "Although Lord Elason caused great and extensive damages to their whole aerial fighting capabilities¨Cespecially the Sun fleet. From my sources, it is speculated that they will be back to more than half their aerial might before the week is done."

    The room was quiet for some time, taking the time to swallow that piece of news. It was one thing to know about the vast wealth and power of an Empire, but it was another to see it being demonstrated, even if it wasn''t before their very eyes.

    The damages that the Empire of Solaria had incurred during the precipice battle was something that would take other Kingdoms months or years to come back from, and they were just doing it in weeks. This revelation was a hard pill to swallow, making them realize and know the beast they would be facing during the war to come.

    Finally, Menoe decided to break the silence, "What of their defensive capabilities. From what young Keilan told me, when he left, their capital defenses were in complete shambles, with over 60% of its full capabilities in complete and utter disarray."

    Helera was quiet for a while, a silent permission from her Queen. Although others of her peers would have taken the immediate failure to answer the question as a sign of heavy disrespect to their status and honor, Menoe just kept quiet. She understood protocol and respected the authority of the ruling monarch; even though she was the more powerful one here.

    "Answer the question," Fenore gave her permission.

    Helera nodded, continuing, "Although Information security in and around the capital city of Xeris is heavily monitored, I was able to gather the fact that the Empire has made great strives in fixing the damages done to the capital city. Before the war begins, the defenses around the city of Xeris will be far more powerful than before, making it the most protected city in the world."

    In response to this, Menoe frowned. Something wasn''t adding up. True, the Empire had enough wealth and power to be at full strength before the war began. But engaging in multiple undertakings as large as preparing their entire forces, building back their aerial powers, and fixing up and upgrading the defenses of their capital, all in the timeline of a week, just seemed too much, even for them. The Empire was strong and had vast reaches, but there was a limit to that power, it wasn''t infinite. Menoe was just about to ask a follow up question when the large double doors was forced open¨C turning the faces of the present occupants of the room¨Cand two figures rushed in.

    Menoe frowned as she recognized one of the people. Igaz. A short, fit man, with frozen blue eyes almost bordering on white. Although he was still a Monarch realmer¨Cby choice¨Chis age and wisdom had earned him respect from even Spirit lords.

    The second person was a young woman¨Calso a Monarch¨Cwho walked down the carpet, giving a shallow and hurried bow towards Menoe before she rushed towards her Queen, beginning to whisper into her ear.

    Menoe turned away from them, watching with a confused but patient gaze as Igaz walked up to her.

    "This had better be a good reason," She warned.

    Igaz nodded, "I wouldn''t do this if it weren''t so important, but I couldn''t wait. The Inferno cult has just declared open support for the Empire."

    Menoe''s frown only got deeper, "That should not be possible, the cults are not supposed to physically partake in this war, the ones above have declared it."

    "Yes... That''s the thing, they somehow have gotten full permission from them¨Cthe ones above."

    Her confusion suddenly got deeper, "But that shouldn''t be¡ª

    She suddenly stopped, a deeper confused look on her face.

    "What, what''s the matter?" Igaz asked.

    "I just received a summons."

    "A summons? From who?"

    "Who else, a Queen priestess."

 Chapter 50 â€“ Iridescent

    Menoe appeared in a large, sprawling ice fort, rising far high into the dark¨Cstellar void of space, and spanning miles in diameter. Despite her being here in her soul-projected form, the chilling cold radiating from the colossal fortress could still be heavily felt.

    Although, she was a Spirit Lady who practiced the arts of winter, appearing here in a soul form left her in a very vulnerable position¨Cmore than with her physical body.

    Menoe paused, suddenly feeling suffocated and heavy as a chilling pressure descended. She looked above, seeing a gigantic large snowflake. It glowed frosty white as a figure materialized under it, beginning to descend.

    Spirit Queen Aisene was the complete embodiment of chilling. Snow white hair drifted onto a body almost matching in color. Her cold, frosty, white-blue piercing eyes looked over Menoe as she appeared, as if taking in her figure for the first time.

    "Well met, Menoe," Aisene stretched her hands from the long sky-blue dress she was wearing, which was embellished with hundreds of half crescents all over.

    "Well met, Aisene," Menoe replied, stretching her hands, also admiring the well-manicured snowy blue nails.

    "You seem... Nervous."

    "Well, you never gave me time to prepare."

    "I''m sorry about that. Even I was caught on short notice. And unlike the previous times, this one required you to be present."

    "Forgive me if I overstep, but can I ask why I was being summoned? Especially when the world down below is heading into chaos."

    "Stop that, Menoe. How many times do I have to tell you not to apologize or act all apologetic around me? I have others doing it for me, I don''t want you joining them."

    Menoe nodded, "Noted."

    "And to answer your second question, it was deemed very important that you be present to witness what is about to take place. It is paramount for the incoming war."

    "And what if Solaria decides to attack while I am up here?"

    "Trust me, they won''t."

    A giant snowflake suddenly appeared below their feet, rising to swallow both of them. When the snowflake finally dispersed, their figures were already gone.

    ***

    They appeared at the entrance of a large cathedral-like double door; Soo tall Menoe found it hard to see the top, and that was putting into account her Spirit lady''s perception.

    In front of the doors, she looked tinier than an ant standing next to a full-grown human.

    "From here on out, we carry out any discussion telepathically. Understood?"

    Menoe nodded.

    She waited as Aisene led the way, the woman gliding on the silver floor made of some smooth metal¨Cglass structure that stretched from hundreds of miles behind down to the cathedral doors, and into them.

    Menoe couldn''t tell what kind of building it was, with the only thing visible to her eyes and senses being the doors.

    They walked down towards the door, and as they approached, Menoe slowly began feeling a faint sense of suppression in her soul. Her eyes opened wide as she finally figured out what, or whom, was behind those doors. A few more steps in, and the faint feeling suddenly turned up a notch higher, flowing into a full-on crushing suppression. Unable to maintain resistance and keep her from moving, she staggered, as if a soul could even do that.

    Aisene turned back towards her, frowning at first, before it finally clicked, "Oh, I''m sorry, I totally forgot you couldn''t handle this amount," She apologized. "And those gullyheads in there can''t help but blast out their auras," She murmured. "A bunch of old men forgetting that they''re too old to be partaking in childish stupid dick measuring contest."

    Aisene aura immediately bloomed, but instead of the cold-crushing feeling it usually projected, this time it had the feeling of protection, and preservation.

    "Come on."

    Approaching the door, Menoe stretched out her hands to feel the texture and form of the door, finding it somewhat metallic and rubbery at the same time.

    Her real shock came when they passed through, Aisene immediately forsaking her 6ft stature in favor of growing to the height of thousands of feet, looking so colossal Menoe couldn''t even see past her lower stomach.

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    "Do not panic. This is just a formality."

    They arrived in what looked like a large oval room. Menoe didn''t know how to put it in words how large the room was. Picture a humanoid figure thousands of feet tall, taller than any mountain. Now, picture a room capable of holding multiple of these figures with more space to spare; that was how large the room was.

    Although she couldn''t see the ceiling, she could still make out what were millions of twinkling lights of a variety of colors, just slowly drifting and floating about.

    Equally as tall and running around the entire room were glowing crystal pillars of dozens of colors. In addition to the twinkling lights, together they lit up the room in a heavenly glow.

    A colossally large and inverted half-crescent table ran around the room, both edges stopping as they faced the door.

    Behind those tables were equally large thrones of various colors, glowing and blazing with immense powers¨Csome thrones more than others. There was a deep Emerald throne, blazing with life, healing, and nature. Another throne of bloody crimson red emitted the feeling of an all-consuming hunger. The one which she was sure was meant for Aisene blazed a cold frosty aura to just bring a stop to everything¨Cto freeze the entire world.

    But despite all those thrones, there was one that truly drew Menoe''s attention. It didn''t glow or blaze the most; on the contrary, the feeling it emitted was of something in its nascent form¨Csomething new. But Menoe recognized the aura it emitted nonetheless, a feeling to consume all by just its passing. The all-consuming feeling it emitted was similar to that of the Crimson Throne, but it also lacked the primal feeling of the Crimson Throne.

    Menoe looked around, seeing other colossal forms, all putting on expensive attires that outwardly broadcasted power for even the blind to see.

    Menoe didn''t take it to heart when none of them declined to even look at her nor acknowledged her presence, but she also didn''t kowtow towards them, keeping her movements and attitude regal, as a high priestess should be.

    As they moved towards the Icy throne, Aisene dished out and received greetings which came in the form of nods and "Well met."

    The moment Aisene took her seat, her throne glowed, and a light ringing sound echoed through the whole room.

    "What is this place?" Menoe asked, her eyes sweeping through the wondrous room.

    "This," Aisene answered, her powers wrapping around Menoe and lifting her far up until she came shoulder level with Aisene. Then a tiny chair was created, sculpted out of manifesting ice. Menoe noticed that all through the instant of its construction, anything that might identify it as a throne was removed, made thoroughly to look like a simple chair. She didn''t question why. "Is the iridescent hallroom.... Where the Council of Kings meet to discuss matters of imports."

    Menoe frowned, "What does this have to do with the world below?"

    "You''ve no doubt watched the beings present in this room. Can you tell me what you noticed about all of them?"

    Confused, Menoe looked again.

    The first person that she noticed was a human. A sandy brown hair that whipped through the air even though wind didn''t blow here. He was wearing a simple brown coat and looked bored as he eyed the room. He looked like someone spoiling for a fight.

    The second person was an elf¨Ca sun elf to be specific. Glowing golden skin with matching golden hair and eyes. He looked like he was made of gold. The only thing identifying him as an elf was his pointy ears, and he was strangely familiar.

    Familiar...

    Menoe''s head immediately whipped around, taking in some of the other people that were here. While they all had features that would be described as otherworldly, most of them were in a way¨Csomewhat¨Cfamiliar. Even through all the new features.

    Now, being the high priestess of the Winter Cult on the planet, and having lived more years than most of the Spirit lords on the planet, Menoe had come across most¨Cif not, all the ruling powers on the planet. She had attended hundreds of functions, and as someone of extreme import, she had been approached and introduced to the ruling powers of the planet.

    "These are the Great families."

    Aisene smiled, "Correct."

    The Great Families were some of the oldest ruling families, with roots dating back thousands of years.

    They weren''t the only ones with roots like that, but they were the only ones still standing.

    Years ago, there had been 7 Great families still ruling, but the cataclysm that devastated the Norelane continent¨CNow Desolate¨Chad all but completely erased the whole family that had their territory on the continent. The survivors¨Csmall amounts who had been off the continent when the destruction took place¨Cwere now only considered amongst the elite only in name, with very little power to back it up.

    "You should know better than most how the Great families failed woefully during the last war when they should have acted to curb Solaris'' growing power during his early stages, and instead, they sat back and watched, thinking him a tiny flame that would soon burn out. That was their first and greatest mistake.

    "And when they then saw that the tiny flame was turning into a forest fire, they made their second mistake. Instead of moving together to quash him, they left him to the jurisdiction of the Fyre''s. We all know how that went. It took years for the Fyre''s to recover from the massive causalities they incurred."

    Finally understanding, Menoe said, "That was the reason the war stalled when it did. If Solaris had continued his war of conquest after just humiliating one of the families, the rest¨Ceven those outside the continent¨Cwould have then ganged up on him."

    "Correct. I''ll give that man credit, he might have been power hungry, but he knew how to control his urges."

    Menoe nodded, reluctantly agreeing, "So, what now?"

    "Now, we''re here to discuss what happens next. Solaris has decided to descend, despite already becoming Spirit King. That is something the other families won''t look away from. The Fyre''s, the Handr''s, and the Salron''s have advocated to also be allowed to descend."

    Menoe''s eyes opened wide in shock, "But that''s preposterous. The planet is already in chaos as it is; the descent of multiple Spirit Kings¨Ceven in lesser avatars¨Cis something the civilizations down there can''t handle. The World spirit won''t stand for it."

    Aisene nodded, "Yes. That is why we are gathered here. Watch, and be prepared."

    And just in time, the entire hall glowed a blinding silver as multiple figures arrived, their titanic forms blazing with catastrophic powers.

 Chapter 51 â€“ Stipulations

    The room lit up in a blaze of luminescent light as multiple figures descended, their figures clothed in different lustrous colors that glowed blindingly.

    "Show off," Aisene murmured beside Menoe.

    Watching them, it wasn''t difficult to tell their identities. One group had beautiful glowing emerald hair draping down their backs onto their green clergy robes, with their emerald glowing eyes smoothly sweeping through the room. Like her, it seemed like the Nature cult had also summoned their Spirit lord high priestess: Desane. As powerful individuals go, Desane didn''t look like one, with her mesmerizing green eyes and glossy black hair, she looked like one of those pampered nobles. No one knew how deadly she could be until they experienced it for themselves. As both were highly powerful in their different cults, Menoe had often times come across the woman in some meetings between their different organizations and other functions.

    The second was a group that blazed with a rugged crimson-red color, their flaming hairs falling over red and gold robes that gave an intimidatingly powerful glow. Like the Nature cult, the Spirit lord high priest of the Inferno cult was also in attendance, with his dark-red hair and crimson robe. If the Spirit lord section of the Inferno cult were all considered brutes, Renar was the worst of them, spending most of his time either battling the red Dragons on the Redlands, or disturbing some Sea horrors on the Abyssal ocean. They''d come across each other enough to be civil during important functions. But that only lasted as long as the function.

    The third group was a mismatch of different colors, some shining gold, some a dull emerald, and other different colors. Menoe identified these ones as the representatives of the Great families¨Cmostly, since she could still spy some unknown figures here and there.

    What did get the whole room talking though, was the attendance of two more factions: The Air and the Earth factions.

    Unlike the others, these factions were extremely reclusive, hardly partaking in any events going on in the wider civilizations. Their temples were so hidden that it''d take an invitation before one could be able to find it.

    Their Spirit Kings, dressed in elemental raiment, and accompanied by their various Lord representatives, strolled on to take their seats on their thrones, ignoring the looks thrown their way by the other occupants of the room.

    Two figures, glowing a sky blue luminescent colors drifted up to Aisene, ice thrones appearing on both sides.

    "Well met, Aisene," one greeted. A man with the usual traditional look of the winter cult. He glanced at Menoe, nodding in acknowledgment, to which she nodded in return.

    The second person, another man, walked up to his throne, giving a small wave and a nod as he took his seat.

    Once everyone had taken their seat, a Spirit King from the Inferno cult spoke up.

    "Good, we''re all here. Let''s do away with the formalities, we''re placing our full support on Solaris."

    "You do realize you will be breaking the accord? An agreement that has kept us from devolving into pointless constant wars against each other, and for what? For some stupid backdoor deal?" A woman from the Nature cult replied.

    "We do not care. Our decision stands."

    "And what''s to stop the others from also descending? This child isn''t the only one who''s descendants are threatened. In fact, from everyone''s perspective, he''s the villain in their story."

    "We would oppose that. Solaris is still in his nascent phase, barely into a century since earning his throne, that is one of the reason we are allowing this. The others are far beyond that, either already passed the nascent phase or close to passing it. Simplified, he''s barely stabilized, while the others are already far into their realms."

    "The same can be said for the Spirit lords down there who are about to have their internal affairs interfered with by a Spirit King."

    "The fact stands, we won''t allow it. Besides, like I said, Solaris is still in his nascent phase, that shouldn''t be too much of a power gap between them.

    "He isn''t even older than the Lord high clergy here, so it wouldn''t be to far of an advantage."

    "We¡ª"

    "Why are we sitting here arguing like childrens? A Spirit King decides to debase himself by interfering in matters of the lower realms, that''s one problem, but I will state it blunt and clear, if the inferno cult physically interferes in this oncoming war, that is a clear pass that the rest of us will take." One of the Winter Cultist interrupted.

    "No inferno Cult Spirit King will be allowed to descend. This is a matter of Spirit lords, with Solaris being the exception." The inferno cult representative accepted.

    "Good. Now that we''ve gotten that part covered, let''s get to main part. Solaris has descended, against our wishes. That is one thing. But to partake in a war between Spirit lords, that is something we obviously won''t allow. And since the Inferno cult won''t allow their dog to he hindered, we''ve come to an impasse here. We''re going to have to come to an agreement or it isn''t only the Spirit lords who would be having a war. And we all know how King wars goes."

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    "Thank you, Heryla," An inferno cult Spirit lord said. "It''s good that we all want to avoid a war. So the inferno cult are willing to come to an agreement. State your stipulations."

    All the while that the Cult representatives had been speaking, the representatives from the Great families had been quietly fuming. It wasn''t a wonder, the families might have been powerful in their own rights, but they were nothing in the face of the cults. The Spirit King numbers in a single cult alone was more than the combined might of three families, and that wasn''t even putting the quality of the fighting force. A single cult combatant was worth twice that in the families. Put simply, a single cult was capable of taking on three of the Great families and coming out on top. It was a very grim reality that all great families endured.

    "What about us? Are we just going to sit here and watch while Solaris descends on the planet to wipe out our whole families in his hunger for more power?"

    "That''s a good question, Vernaz" Aisene spoke up, turning to the Inferno representatives. "How do you plan to address it?"

    "Obviously one person is going to come to a compromise. The inferno cult won''t allow another Spirit King to descend on the planet, especially ones as powerful as you."

    "What''s then to stop us. If you would just ignore our pleas as inconsequential, what''s then to stop from doing what we want? Solaris did it and it seemed to work well for him."

    Vernaz smiled, ond that didn''t reach his eyes, "Well... Aside from the fact that you would all be dead before you even think of reaching the planet stratosphere, I don''t think Ra would be all pleased to have you all descending, no doubt to war on his body," He clapped. "So you all are going to have to pick, death by our hands or from the World spirit. And I assure you, Ra doesn''t just kill, it has more uses for Spirit King astral forms than just to destroy them."

    "Are you all just going to sit there and watch him use underhanded threats like that? What''s the use of equality in the accord if you all will just treat us as lessers?"

    "He''s right though," Aisene said. "Forget about the threat of the cults for a second, if you decide to descend on the planet, Ra will kill you the moment you step into its domain."

    "So we''re just going to sit and accept this. My family is about to be killed because of the hunger of an egomaniac, and you expect us to just sit and watch?!"

    Aisene frowned, "Careful, or else you''ll have more than your descendants to worry about," she waited until the man had calmed. Nodding, she continued. "Solaris won''t be allowed free passage like that. I propose that all forces of the families ¨C except the Spirit Kings ¨C be allowed to descend to offer assistance. This arrangement only applies to the great families."

    "That''s absurd. The descent of dozens of Spirit lords and¨C I don''t know how many¨C Monarchs down on the planet would greatly imbalance us." Solaris finally spoke up, his flaming eyes flaring up.

    Aisene glanced at him, "I think this balances things up very well."

    "How do you expect us to make up for the great imbalance in man power if I also can''t be allowed to send down my own forces?"

    "Not my problem, make use of what you find down on the planet."

    Solaris aura flared brighter, about to speak again, but was stopped by a hand on the shoulder from one of the inferno cultists, "That''s okay, balance is restored," Vernaz said.

    "Oh no... I''m not done yet," Aisene continued, a small smile on her face. "The first stipulation was for the uncountable number of innocent civilians that you would be putting in danger because of your ravenous hunger. Things aren''t yet balanced between you and the families, so I''m proposing that during the course of the oncoming war, you won''t be allowed to seige or step foot in any land belonging to the families. Their lands and properties are not to be touched. Any battles between both groups are to be held outside of family territories."

    "That''s preposterous. And what? They''re allowed to assault my lands?"

    "Yes"

    "How does that balances things up?"

    "Not my problem."

    "He''s right, Aisene," Vernaz said. "There isn''t any balance in your stipulations."

    "Then if he finds it unbalanced, he could just choose to abstain and leave the war to the lords. No? I though so."

    With a smile on her face, a priestess from the Nature cult spoke up, "All in favor of the stipulations laid down by the Winter priestess? Raise your hands."

    With Solaris and the Inferno cults outnumbered three to one, it wasn''t surprising how the vote went.

    Menoe looked at the families, seeing smiles of satisfaction on many faces. Their descendants were going to go toe to toe with a Spirit King, but they would be doing so with overwhelming numbers on their sides and the assurance that their lands and properties were safe.

    "What of the cultists down on the planet? Am I forbidden from also touching them?"

    "No Cult members are to be forced to partake in this war. Any member who steps on any battlefield with an intent to battle is fair game."

    "What of the temples? Are they also off limits too? Like everything."

    Aisene smiled, "That is a question that should have been obvious to you, young one. If I so much as catch a whiff of you or your forces on Temple grounds, I''ll turn you into one of my ice collections."

    "Are all in agreement?" Aisene called.

    "Agreed," The nature cult raised their hands.

    "Agreed," the great families answered.

    And with reluctance, "Agreed," Solaris said.

    Spirit King Vernaz looked like he had swallowed a rock, "Agreed."

    Aisene nodded, standing up, "Now that it''s all done, I''m out if here. Oh, and Solaris, if I so much as catch you taking one step against the stipulations set down, my reply will be swift and visible to all."

    And like that, light flashed and both Menoe and Aisene disappeared.

    ***

    When they appeared, they were standing on the shore of a beautiful lake, with little motes of light drifting slowly over it. The river was so mezmerizingly beautiful Menoe was sure one could spend hours just gazing in.

    But that wasn''t what was on Menoe''s eyes.

    "Spit it out," Aisene said, turning to face her.

    Menoe was quiet for a while, before she asked, "Why didn''t the others just brute force their disagreement? It was the might of two cults against one, coupled with the families who were obviously going to support us, we could have just forced the Inferno cult into preventing Solaris from descending, or better yet, stop him ourselves."

    Aisene nodded, smiling, "Like Spirit lord sections, the Spirit Kings also have our own hierarchies. Do you know who stands at the head?"

    "Obviously a Spirit King."

    Aisene nodded, "You are both correct and wrong at the same time. Yes, a King heads the Spirit King branches of every cults, but at the same time they aren''t just Spirit Kings. Do you know who the Divine Kings are?"

    Menoe frowned, shaking her head.

    "Good. I hope you don''t have to find out in a negative way. Brute forcing the Infernos on the threat of violence would have forced their high priestess¨Cyes they''re headed by a high priestess¨Cto step in, which would have then forced both ours and the Nature cults to step in. And that is a situation where diplomacy is the difference between life and utter annihilation."

 Chapter 52 : INTERLUDE â€“ SHADOW HALL

    Rashnu was having a bad day.

    He ran through the forest, his footsteps kicking up sands, leaves, and snapping twigs.

    Despite the evening light, the forest was already darkening like it was full night. Behind him, shadows danced on the trunks and tree branches.

    He''d known they were fast, but he hadn''t expected them to catch up to him this quick, which was bad; if they could find him this quick, there wasn''t time to make a clean getaway.

    Rashnu had been a mercenary before all this mess came in. He''d been a reputable one, known for keeping his end of the bargain, until he''d met her.

    Neyara had been a ray of sunshine when he''d first seen her, her beauty dominating the environment, so when she''d asked for his help on a small matter ¨C if you could call assassinating her very own brother small ¨C he''d obliged. It hadn''t been that hard of a job, her brother was known to be an odd one amongst royalties, always choosing to move alone. He detested being followed day and night by royal guards, which made the deed an easy one.

    He''d cornered the prince during one of his hunting hours, in a clearing two hours from the city, easily putting an arrow through the neck of his horse, thereby eliminating any easy escape.

    When he''d finished with the horse, it took another poisoned arrow to the leg to stop the crown prince from running. And then, the last one through the neck ended the deed, all in a span of two seconds.

    What Rashnu didn''t know was that he wasn''t the only witness.

    Getting back to the city, his eyes clearer now to her wiles, he hadn''t cared anymore for Neyara''s deceitful beauty. When he spoke to her, he only requested for his payment, not wanting to spend a second more than necessary in that city, or even the entire kingdom.

    She''d told him to wait, as gathering a large amount like that would take time.

    Whether through his experience as a mercenary, he''d immediately known something was wrong the moment she left the room. He was almost to the window when he felt something pierce his neck, blacking him out.

    He woke up with a splitting headache, having temporarily forgotten the earlier event. When everything came back, his first concern was one thing: he was in a cell.

    He''d cursed himself for being a fool¨Ca huge one, but that didn''t matter for the moment, his escape did.

    It didn''t take long for him to find his opportunity.

    A trait most prison guards shared was that they liked to gloat. He didn''t know whether it was because of some kind of boredom or seeing someone else in a cage while you stood outside, but most of them loved gloating and throwing insults at prisoners.

    And like how they loved to insult prisoners, they hated the same thing being reciprocated.

    He didn''t want to waste his opportunity on the common guards, so he waited. It didn''t take long for the prison Warden to come in for one of his rare inspections. When Rashnu had seen the man, he''d smiled to himself.

    The man had walked in, all high and mighty with his smooth and well cared for moustache hanging over his upper lip. To simplify: he was easy to rile up.

    All Rashnu had to do was make well-placed provocative comments on his mustache, and he let pride do the rest.

    The prison Warden had taken an instant dislike to Rashnu the moment they''d crossed eyes, probably because he was the only prisoner who didn''t cower at the sight of him. Insulting his beard took things to the next level.

    They''d immediately opened the door to his cell, intending to give him a beating for the season, thinking a six-to-one odd was good against Rashnu.

    He''d trashed them.

    When he was done, and all the guards were lying in a pile, all bruised and either unconscious or moaning in pain, he''d taken the keys from the warden''s belt. To cover his trail and keep the guards busy, he''d freed the other prisoners.

    Now that he thought about it, he shouldn''t have done that.

    As a mercenary, he knew how to avoid any soldiers sent after him, so he''d planned to lay low, weather the storm, and after that, find a way off the kingdom, probably to the other side of the continent.

    It all went to shit the next morning.

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    He''d woken to a sharp, burning pain on his left wrist. Pulling up his sleeves, he''d frozen in terror at what he''d seen: The Mark Of The Shadow Hall.

    It was a dark purple drawing of a raven in flight, something he''d never thought to ever see in his lifetime.

    As a mercenary¨Cand a lord one at that, he''d worked for¨Cand with¨Cenough people to have heard of the Shadow Hall. They were the nightmares of nobles and the powerful, and their marks were the worst thing a person could wake up to. It was said that getting branded by Shadow Hall was a sure death. Running was only prolonging it. They could find anyone anywhere.

    But Rashnu still chose to flee, maybe he might be an exception if he used his headstart well.

    Being a mercenary, he''d gotten access to information that was hard to get. Being a lord at that had gotten him into places where even Monarch cultivators dined, which gave him access to information regarding high-level cultivators, like the Spirit lords.

    He''d once heard of a Spirit lord who''d gotten marked by Shadow Hall. The body was found within two days.

    Despite it all, he planned for his case to be different, so he ran.

    He''d only been on the run for half a day¨Cnever stopping ¨Cwhen they caught up to him.

    At first, it was a tingling feeling, like he was being watched. Looking back hadn''t brought up his observer until his eyes had eventually come in contact with another. He couldn''t tell the gender of the person because they were wearing a long, dark, purple cloak that shrouded their faces in shadow, with only their eyes being visible. He''d already known their identity the moment he saw the cloak, but the raven sigil on the breast finalized it.

    There was no doubt, they wanted him to know he was being hunted, giving him a headstart, like prey.

    Being toyed like that bruised his ego, but it wasn''t the time to pamper his ego, so he ran on.

    Which brought him to this moment, with Shadows dancing behind him. Even with his lord-level hearing, he couldn''t perceive anything, but he knew they were behind him.

    Running, the only thing that warned him of an attack was the soft whistle of the wind. He slowed, blindly pivoting. His unsheathed sword slapping the dagger that had been aiming for his back. The sender came in a moment later, twin daggers flashing. He narrowly dodged a cut to the cheek, managing to deliver a kick to his opponent''s ribs, which were softened by a leather armor worn under the cloak. The assassin launched back into the wall of shadow that was already rising, disappearing from sight.

    He''d begun to think maybe Shadow Hall was a little bit hyped up when he felt his neck prickle. He didn''t wait to check, he ran.

    Looking behind as he ran, the sight that came to him chilled him to the spine. Five more figures stepped out of the dark, their eyes glinting like silver in the darkness. This wasn''t a single assassin, but a cadre.

    They just stood there, joined by their sixth member as they watched, like a cat who knew that the rat had nowhere to hide.

    Scared shitless, he''d immediately pumped energy into his legs, increasing his speed manifold. He checked behind momentarily as he ran, finding only shadows. His fear kicked up another notch.

    An hour or so later, he blessedly found an end to the forest, a large port town visible in the distance.

    Approaching the gate, he walked slowly, eager to get away but knowing that drawing attention would only delay him more.

    "Welcome to the town of Murran; what is your reason for visiting?" A guard asked.

    Jittery, and looking behind every few seconds, he answered.

    "Just travel."

    "Travel huh? Alright then, your entry fee is a silver coin."

    He quickly paid the fee, his mercenary mind telling him that he was practically being extorted, but he didn''t care.

    Since it was already nighttime and the night was the domain of assassins, he immediately headed to the port.

    Crossing a huge hungry ocean by ship was practically a death wish, in his opinion, so he used the air travel system: Griffin Air.

    There were multiple avian creatures being used for transportation; the griffin was just the majority.

    He paid the transportation fee directly to the rider and immediately climbed onto the back of the huge creature. And with a whistle and a snap of the reins, the griffin had immediately gotten into the air, headed for the desolate continent.

    They were about three hours into the journey when Rashnu urged the rider to change direction, making for the Aesland continent, instead.

    "This will cost you, and we''ll have to land on one of those islands, flea here needs his rest," He patted the feathers on the griffin''s neck.

    Grudgingly, Rashnu accepted, "How does a hundred gold marks sound to you?" No worker would ever say no to a quick bag of gold. It was practically two years'' worth of work paid in a single night.

    They landed on one of the empty islands dotting the Abyssal Ocean, and the only reason Rashnu agreed to land there was because there were more than a hundred tiny islands dotting the ocean. They''d be gone before anyone even came close to finding them since he was supposed to be heading to the desolate continent.

    They immediately set up camp and, as per Rashnu''s request, had ceased from making a campfire. He''d shared out of his travel rations of cold, dry meat, and within minutes, were already asleep.

    Rashnu''s eyes snapped open. Having laid facing up, he could tell it was already past midnight. He didn''t know what had alerted him, he just knew he had to get away quickly.

    He immediately stood up, not bothering to wake the snooring rider, he''d only slow Rashnu down with questions.

    Rashnu hurried toward the sleeping griffin, mimicking the same whistle he''d heard from the rider. The griffin didn''t wake. He was about to do it again when he felt something pierce his neck. Pulling the dart from his neck.. how did they find me? Suddenly, his legs gave out, he couldn''t move any of his limbs.

    He didn''t hear them as they came, their steps quiet as the night. Six dark figures soon fell over his eyes, gazing down at him. Fearing his death, he opened his mouth to beg but no words came out. Horror burned in his mind like a raging fire but his features remained unchanged.

    One of the figures soon picked up his body, moved to where he''d been laying, and then gently laid him down on his cot.

    Rashnu laid there, his features neutral, but in his mind he cried out in terror, begging to be freed. Beside him slept the rider, unaware of what was going on beside him.

    Rashnu laid there, his killers standing around him, as if in prayer for his soul.

    He died an hour later.

    His features remained unchanged.

    His mind screaming in terror.

    The night went on, quiet as ever.

    And a griffin rider slept, snooring and dreaming of how to spend his bag of gold.

 Chapter 53 : A War to End All Wars

    Damien stepped out of the portal to the proto-space. It was daytime and dark clouds covered the skies, foretelling a very rainy weather.

    They''d crossed the proto-space, only finding common Spirit lord monsters with none of them giving any worthwhile fight. Only Colosso had given something worthwhile, and that wasn''t much given the familiarity they''d had with the monster.

    "What a complete waste," Keilan commented, grumpy.

    Damien only grunted.

    "We could have stayed longer, you know, maybe we''d have eventually come across an elite monster."

    "Another time. We have a war on the horizon, so we can''t afford to go off for a long time fighting monsters when there are more important matters to deal with."

    "Ugh. Alright then, lead the way." He waved.

    Together, they moved out of the jungle, carefully keeping their presence tight just in case any Empire pillars were in the area. They made their way across the jungle, coming out in a location further away from any empire city. Leaving the curtain of trees and into direct sunlight, Damien turned to Keilan.

    "I think it''s about time we made a quick exit out of this territory."

    "Sur¡ª"

    [Don''t!] Gray voice boomed.

    Startled, they both turned to the floating being hanging over Damien''s shoulder,, "What gives, Gray? You could have burst my eardrums."

    Surprisingly, Gray didn''t retort to his joke.

    [This place has been spatially locked down.]

    That news brought them to a stop.

    "Do you think they know?" Damien asked.

    "I think so, why else would they lock down space?" Keilan replied.

    [No, it''s not that. From your senses, I think this is only a portion of the locked-down space.]

    "Wait, how can you tell? I can''t sense anything."

    [Damien, I''m practically making use of your senses. Dig deeper]

    Grumbling, he closed his eyes, focusing, he channeled the majority of his will into his perception; digging deeper, and true to what Gray had just said, he sensed it. At first what he took notice of was the low hum, a low vibration in the air that would have been hard to notice for most people if they weren''t searching. Searching for the origin of the sound, he surprisingly found it to be everywhere, it saturated the air like a barrier, a barrier suppressing the concept of space. Damien frowned, Firming his will, he gently pressed down on the barrier, finding it solid at first, until gradually, it began to ben¡ª

    [Stop doing that.]

    "Why? With enough effort, I could punch a hole through."

    "Yea," Keilan said, "me too. I could probably also command the wind to break down the barrier. Easy peasy."

    [None of you should try that, that''s a bad idea. There''s a trick to this thing. Only a few beings have the capabilities to break through the spatial lockdown, and that''s where the trap comes in. The moment this barrier becomes compromised, someone will immediately take notice, and then you''ll have a swarm of Spirit lords down on your heads, or worse, the Emperor himself.]

    Damien frowned, turning to Gray.

    "How can you tell? I could sense the barrier and its malleability, but nothing else; how do you know?."

    [Intent. I''ll teach it to you when we have the time, but right now, you both are going to have to cross this territory without any spatial means. There should be an end to this lockdown farther to the west.]

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    "So.. the war''s begun then?" Damien said grimly.

    [Yes, I think so. How does that make you feel?]

    "I don''t know," he looked to the sky, contemplative. "All our lives we''ve waited for this moment, the moment when the Empire''s rule would be broken. But now that it''s here I can''t stop thinking about how many lives are going to be lost. How many children won''t get to know their parents more, with only a distant memory to guide them."

    He looked away, "I could find a way to end it, to avoid the wanton destruction that''s about to take place, but I know that my wishes wouldn''t be mirrored by Solaris. If I choose for a more peaceful resolution and the Empire doesn''t agree, the alliance we''re building will fracture, with every kingdom fighting for itself. No cohesiveness. And that''s practically giving the Empire the free reins to pick them off, one by one, like flies."

    "If they take the Greensend continent," Keilan added, "then the world is doomed, since there''s not going to be a kingdom capable of even trying to match them, let alone have a chance at defeating them."

    [So, war is the solution? A war to end all wars?]

    "Something like that," Damien nodded. "I don''t know about the part of ''ending all wars'', that''s an impossibility that even I know. What I know for sure Is that the world will be a lot less tense when the Empire is gone."

    [You do know that a lot of Kingdoms will be vying for the vacuum left behind by the Empire''s demise? Both in power and territory?]

    "I know. We''ll cross that bridge when we get there."

    ***

    "Space all over Empire territory has been locked down, no spatial movement in or out," Helera informed.

    "Huh, that was fast, but at least we expected it," General Malsash said, the short, broad man putting his right hand on his chin.

    Damien interrupted, "I''m not a strategic genius or anything, but... The attack on Cirin taught me something: When the enemy expects you to come from the sea, you walk through the fire instead. Solaris expects us to begin our attacks on the coastal cities because those are easy and very vulnerable to get to, as noticed by how they''re already evacuating citizens. Instead of playing to his game...." he drew a stick along the map, across the borderlands, and straight into the border cities, "... We come straight at their gate."

    Everyone''s face took on contemplative looks.

    "But that will leave us trapped between the borderlands and their Cities. We could be overwhelmed if the Torinian queen decides to take opportunity." General Leshan said, a woman with more muscles than some men. She, like everyone else in the room, avoided looking him directly in the eye. He didn''t comment on that, as long as they did their jobs.

    "And then we leave her with something else to deal with. Send in an army or two to keep her occupied, let her have a problem of her own to deal with."

    "Hmm. That might work, but just as a precaution, we should leave the transportation portal open, just in case things go south." General Berol advised. He was a tall handsome man with piercing black eyes that seemed to see all things.

    "But that could leave us very vulnerable if they manage to sneak in a Monarch, or worse, a Spirit lord," Leshan said.

    Damien shrugged, "That''s a risk we''re going to have to take. You should probably post sentries near any opened portal, powerful sentries."

    They were in the war council chamber in the castle. An oval room of Emerald and shadow. A huge round table was placed in the middle of the room, with a map of the continent illustrated over it.

    Damien had arrived in the City to hear that, aside from the spatial lockdown all over the Empire, there were other bad news stacked upon it.

    Everyone had once contemplated who was going to ally with the Empire during this oncoming war. Damien had suspected one kingdom, that was why he''d given his speech earlier on. But even he hadn''t predicted that not one, but two kingdoms had already allied themselves with Solaria.

    The beast kingdom of Torin, a vast and powerful Kingdom based deeper into the Borderlands had been Damien''s suspect. They hadn''t been active in international matters for a while now, even staying out of the feud between the Empire and other kingdoms, but Damien had still gotten the intuition that if any kingdom was going to ally themselves with the Solarians, it was going to be them. And now his intuition had come true.

    The second one threw a wrench into all their plans: The Ant hive.

    The hive was a very reclusive Empire, dwelling deeper underground with hardly any reason to come up to the surface. Their dominion covered practically all of the borderlands and far into Empire lands. Now, one would begin to think that their encroaching into Empire territory would have caused altercations, but no, from Damien''s understanding, the Empire and the Ant hive had chosen to both stay on their lane, one up and the other down below. He wondered what had made them take their stance.

    "What of the Hive?" Leshan asked, and the whole room looked to Damien for answers.

    It wasn''t that the hive was some almighty kingdom like Solaria; on the contrary, they lacked in quality compared to other kingdoms. But what they lacked in quality they made it up in quantity. For every common soldier the Empire had, the Hive had ten times that in numbers. Their Spirit lords weren''t considered powerful compared to those on the surface, but they also made up for that in numbers. They could swarm any kingdom with numbers.

    Damien was quiet for a while, thinking, before he spoke.

    "With them holding unchallenged dominion over the borderlands, it''ll be extremely hard for us to move troops across or even fight there, so most of our altercations with Solaria anywhere in the borderlands or close to it will be done with the SkyShips. Concerning the Hive, itself, defenses and contingencies are already being thought of on the chance that they attack."

    The war had just taken another turn.

 Chapter 54 â€“ Impetus I

    The Sun shone down on the City park in a beautiful afternoon radiance as Tenral spied his quarry. It had taken him a lot of patience and extreme carefulness to finally be able to come this close after days of waiting and watching.

    Wrapped in a cloak that shrouded him from all forms of detection, he tailed his quarry as the other man moved down the park with a child holding his hands.

    The playground was filled with a cacophony of children''s laughter as they enjoyed one form of enchanted construct or another.

    Waiting for the perfect opportunity to approach, he had to patiently watch his quarry for several hours, but he didn''t mind; he had been waiting for this opportunity for days now, and a few more hours was nothing to him.

    Finally, he detected them leaving the park. He stood up from a bench he had been sitting on, slowly following but still keeping a good distance; his shroud was powerful enough but it wouldn''t do to push his luck before the time was right.

    He followed behind as they walked out of the park, stopping once as a woman called after them. She hurriedly walked up to them, one leg of a baby''s shoe in her hands. She stretched it forth, handing it over to the man as he slapped his head in embarrassment. What should have just ended there went on to become a chat of more than five minutes as she struck up a conversation. Tenral huffed silently; even he could tell that she was flirting with him, but apparently, his quarry was too clueless to take notice, seeing as he only laughed gently to her jokes while his eyes roamed around, apparently disinterested but too polite to tell her so.

    Eventually, the chat ended with the woman handing over a tiny metal orb that probably had a mental direction of her home address. His quarry took it, pocketing the construct without bothering to check inside as he smiled at her, politely waving goodbye as she walked off.

    Tenral was intrigued; as the personality his quarry showed now was vastly different from other times. His prideful ego was legendary.

    He tailed them as they walked down a crowded street, happy to use the crowds as a blockade just in case. For several minutes, his quarry branched to different stalls, purchasing sweets, dairy, and pastries for himself and the child who was now sitting in his arms.

    They turned down a corner and, worried that he might lose them if he didn''t catch up, Tenral hurried on. He couldn''t use his perception to keep track of them for fear of detection. And he didn''t want to know how protective his quarry could be if he had a child to protect.

    Turning down the same corner, he slowed down as his eyes roamed around the street, searching for his quarry. While wearing his cloak he was incorporeal, so he didn''t have to worry about any passer-by hitting him.

    He looked on, worried that he''d somehow lost his quarry, when something slammed into him, temporarily darkening all forms of his perception.

    Tenral felt a familiar nauseating feeling as his back slammed down hard on a bed of sand.

    Sand.

    He opened his eyes, and froze, his eyes tracking up the spear point that was inches away from his right eye. He traced the exquisite weapon down from its blade up to the strange silvery-grey metal shaft and then to the wielder, meeting those hard charcoal-grey eyes as they stared into his.

    "Give me one good reason why I shouldn''t end you this instant," Damien Elason said.

    ****

    Damien stared down at the Emperor ¨C or should he say, no longer Emperor ¨Cof the Solaria Empire.

    The man''s crimson-gold eyes stared up at Damien as his grey eyes also stared back in turn.

    "Give me one good reason why I shouldn''t end you this instant."

    All was quiet for a while as tension filled the air, Tenral carefully keeping himself from being too threatening lest this delicate tension turn upside down. Fast.

    "I came to talk."

    Damien barked out a laugh, "Talk? Is that what you call trailing me down the street while a child was with me, talk?"

    "I admit, I did come out as a little threatening by doing what I did, but it was paramount that I kept my presence hidden or it would be an unpleasant experience for me when I get back."

    "What, Daddy isn''t aware you''re stalking me?"

    "Yes."

    That got Damien to shut up. He calmed, relaxing a little, but didn''t pull back his weapon.

    "Talk, what do you want?"

    Tenral looked at the weapon still pointed at his face, a silent question in his eyes.

    "Talk or I leave."

    "Can I at least make myself comfortable by sitting upright?"

    "Fine," Damien said, pulling back a little. "But nothing else. And if you try anything suspicious, this peaceful meeting would turn upside down in a non gentle way."

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    "Fine by me," the other man said, pulling up from his lying position to sit comfortably on the carpet of sand.

    Tenral looked around, his eyes roaming around the surrounding, "How did you get us to the desolate continent?"

    Damien stared at him, his decline to answer the question plain in his eyes.

    "Okay then. Let me get down to business, I approached you to ask why you hate the Empire so much. Unlike my father, I am not an overly aggressive person until given a good reason, and I know for a fact that, justified reason or not, this war can not happen ¨C should not happen. So... Tell me what your grievance is with us so that I might remunerate."

    "Your Empire has taken from me."

    Tenral raised an eyebrow, "From my knowledge, so has a lot of Kingdoms on the continent, but I don''t see you going after them."

    "They didn''t kill my family."

    That brought the man to a stop.

    "Repeat that."

    "Your Empire took my family from me."

    ****

    TEN YEARS AGO.

    THE NORTHERN SOLARIAN JUNGLE.

    CRACK!

    The sound of wood breaking echoed through the dense covering of trees as a thick branch fell to the ground.

    Damien stared at it in amazement, his wide eyes mirroring those of Keilan who stood close by.

    "Cool! Let''s do it again," Keilan said with excitement in his voice.

    "Hold on, this wasn''t the reason I brought you both here," Elas¨CKeilan''s dad and Damien''s adopted father, said, his suspicious eyes on them, no doubt already aware of the mischief they were about to commit as soon as they got back to the village.

    Damien and Keilan had woken up that morning to an announcement from Elas that they would be taking a trip into the jungle for a lesson. At first, they had grumbled, their displeasure trailing behind them until this moment as they watched the thick tree branch that had been broken in two by a bare hand¨CKeilan''s bare hands.

    "I know what you both are planning to get up to as soon as you leave here," Elas said, his suspiciousness not buying into the innocence the two boys were trying, and failing, to project. "And that is the reason why you both are here; now that you''re fully awakened to your powers, there are going to be drastic changes to your musculature."

    "Meaning what?"

    "Meaning that you both are going to have to mind how you conduct your rough plays from here henceforth, especially when your sister is involved. Your physical strengths are far stronger than what they once were, and your sister is still as fragile as before, meaning you could easily break her bones with an errant shove from your hands."

    Both boys froze at that, a cold creeping feeling climbing up their spines. Leira might be annoying sometimes and liked to get into businesses in which she wasn''t wanted, but they both loved her very much and would fight tooth and nail to prevent any harm from coming towards her. Hearing that they could potentially become a source of danger to her was a truth that put dread in their minds.

    Seeing the drastic change of expressions, Elas calmed, "I didn''t say you couldn''t play with her, but you need to mind how you display your strengths when it comes to her, and any other unawakened child," He sighed. "That''s why you are here, to learn control."

    He picked up the broken branch, "This is a first step. We''re going to be spending the whole day here until both of you learn how to control your strengths, am I understood?"

    Both boys eagerly nodded, happy to learn if it meant they could continue breaking stuff.

    Damien and Keilan looked at each other, a silent agreement coming to the fore, before one of them spoke up.

    "Dad," Keilan raised his hands up. "Can you do the same?" He pointed at the branch.

    Elas smiled, puffing up his chest, "Of course, what do you take me for? I could even do more than that."

    He must have seen their dubious looks because, In the next moment, he said, "What, I can. Okay, let me show you." He turned toward the seventy-foot-tall tree that they stood beside.

    "Prepare yourself to see the unstoppable," he punched, and the tree exploded into flying shards of broken wood.

    CRACK! BOOM!

    Around the area of impact, cracks instantly spread until they wrapped around the tree, and in the next instant, the tree fell to the ground in a cacophony of noise that sent every animal in the vicinity running away in panic.

    Elas turned back to them, a smug look on his face that immediately fell when he saw the mischievous laughter they failed to hold back. He slapped his head in resignation, "Ahh, I can''t believe I fell for that. Your mother mustn''t know about this or else... Argh, just forget it," he gently rubbed his forehead. "Now that we''re done with demonstrations, you both are going to learn how to control your strengths by manhandling any of these branches without damaging them," he waved at the dozens of branches still hanging strong on the fallen tree. "We''re going to start with the thickest and then gradually move down to the fragile ones."

    They spent the entire morning and then the afternoon until the sun had begun going down before they started making their way back to the village.

    "You did good work today, both of you," Elas said. "I''d congratulate you both with gifts but the fact that I''m helping you avoid future problems is gift enough, don''t you think?"

    "Yes, Dad. Mom would love to hear how we spent our day; maybe I should tell her how you helped us learn by breaking that tree in half. Don''t you think, Daddy?" Keilan said with unparalleled innocence.

    "You little...." Elas grumbled. "I''ll find you something appropriate when we get home. And remember, no mentioning things to your mother."

    "No worries, Dad. We''ll make sure to keep our mouth shut, won''t we, Damien?" Keilan shoved Damien in the ribs with an elbow.

    "Uhh... Yes, sure," Damien murmured, avoiding Elas''s eyes.

    "Dad, at the village''s market, there''s this spear that I saw in Mr. Bannar''s smith shop. It''d be great if Damien and I could get one each, don''t you think?"

    Elias was quiet for some time, his eyes pinned on Keilan; when he saw that Keilan wasn''t going to budge, he finally said, "Yes, I agree."

    "Thank''s dad!"

    The only reply they received was a murmuring grumble.

    After that, they all eventually devolved into silence, content to enjoy the sounds of crickets and other forms of insects as they passed by, with only a little competition as they continued to practice their strengths on any branches that they came by.

    They were already within a mile of the village when they began to perceive smoke.

    "Are we having a festival, daddy?" Keilan asked.

    Elas was frowning as he answered, "None that I know off. Come on."

    Together, they picked up their paces, turning their casual walk into a light jog, and as they came closer to the village, seeing the huge smoke rising up over the trees surrounding the settlement, they picked up into a run.

    A sense of panic gripped Damien as they stepped out of the tree barriers, seeing the village in full...

    ...Or at least what was left of it...

    ....Seeing as half the village was already ablaze, with screams and metal ringing echoing from within.

 Chapter 55 â€“ Impetus II

    Screams and shouting filled the air as a blazing inferno consumed half the village. Fear and panic gripped Damien''s heart as he immediately rushed towards the village entrance, not minding the strange oddity that the villagers weren''t already trying to douse the flame or better yet, flee the settlement.

    Being the stronger one and the quickest in making any form of decision, Elas beat him to the gate, with Keilan trailing a few feet behind, leaving Damien to pick up his slack.

    Approaching the gate, they caught sight of some people¨Cvillagers already fleeing, most with their families, but they were too few for the thousands of residents that dwelled in the village. Damien assumed that others might have found their way out through the other entrances, but it seemed bleak seeing as the villagers they came across were too distraught to even stop when Elas called to them. This led to the suspicion that there was something more to this. Damien prayed for it to only be the inferno.

    His prayer went unanswered when they stepped into the village proper; the first sight that greeted them was the bodies; dozens of them lay scattered all over the ground, all diced up and crushed to the extent that he found it hard to differentiate between the multiple body parts thrown around. The gory, macabre sight made for a stomach-churning experience, which was soon followed by hurling and retching as both he and Keilan regurgitated every meal they had taken throughout the whole day, their eyes watering. Elas looked unfazed, like the bloody sight didn''t move him at all, but Damien could still see the grim look that was on his face, a subtle fear that they had never seen before.

    "Dad," Keilan looked up, using his sleeve to wipe his mouth clean off the vomit. "What''s happening?"

    There was fragility there now, the sort that Damien had never seen before in the months of familiarizing himself with Keilan. He looked Soo little now, like Leira during all the times she''d refused to go to bed after late hours for fear of the darkness.

    "All will be fine, son. Don''t worry, no harm will come to you."

    Elas'' words sounded more like he was trying to comfort himself than them, but despite that, it still brought a sense of solace to them.

    They made their way further in, witnessing more torn bodies scattered around, like an animal with extremely sharp claws had torn into them like sheets of paper, or with the weight to crush them to paste.

    His unworded theory proved unfounded when they finally got close to the fighting, following the sounds of colliding metals. They stepped into a tiny street, coming directly behind a figure dressed in light metal armor. The only reason the figure didn''t turn at their approach was because of the man they were battling¨Ca village hunter.

    During the time since he''d begun staying with his adoptive family, Damien hadn''t encountered all of the village hunters¨C the powerful men and women who protected the village from monster attacks¨Cbut he was familiar enough with them to tell the kinds of armor they wore, and the leather armor worn by the second combatant fit just in line.

    Despite the hunter''s legendary status in the village, he seemed to be slowly losing the fight to the metal-armored figure. Until Elas stepped in.

    Being a hunter, Elas always gave them one piece of advice for when they eventually chose to join their ranks: never be caught unarmed. He always carried his weapon wherever he went, especially when he was taking the two boys into the jungle where a monster could easily wander close by.

    A single step put Elas closer behind the figure, and a direct stab with his spear into a joint in the armor''s neck left the figure choking blood before they quickly collapsed.

    Already attuned to essence, Damien could tell that the simple strike was anything but. To the unawakened eyes, it would have seemed like the spear blade had just simply penetrated through the armor, but Damien had sensed the brief clash of essence as Elas'' spear impacted the armor until finally one gave, and the figure died.

    "One of you should pick up his weapon," Elas instructed.

    Damien frowned, looking down at the dead figure which was indeed a he. Seeing as Keilan was too shaken to do anything, Damien picked up the sword. Having trained with the spear for months, holding a sword felt odd in his hands, like no matter how he tried he couldn''t find a correct balance. Nonetheless, it was going to do.

    "What happened, Shid?" Elas addressed the other hunter.

    The man took a deep breath, no doubt recovering from the tense battle that would have seen him dead had Elas not arrived when he did.

    "I don''t really know exactly what happened, but from what I heard, they," Shid pointed at the downed figure. "Arrived about two hours ago, waited at the gate while demanding to meet the mayor. I don''t know what was discussed and anyone who knew would likely be laying dead at the gate by now, but whatever it was, they immediately began killing everyone, men, women, and children."

    Elas looked around, "Do you know who they are?"

    The other man shook his head, "No, sir. They didn''t introduce themselves."

    Elas grip on his weapon turned tighter, "Numbers?"

    They began moving, jogging lightly to avoid blindly running into any enemy soldier.

    "I... I don''t know. We''ve just been encountering more and more of them ever since."

    "Why didn''t you all immediately get people out to safety? That should have been your first priority the moment you sensed you were going to be overwhelmed."

    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

    "Couldn''t, sir. All the village entrances had been blocked, and the others likely had their hands filled with the soldiers overrunning the village."

    They came around a corner, this time running into more fighting. Elas and Shid dived in, upending the delicate balance that had been set up. Elas, on his own, was a force of nature, tearing into fighters with his flaming spear and delivering hits that ended them in one or two strikes.

    Damien, horrified to the bones but unwilling to just stand there and watch, also waded in. He moved against a man who battled a hunter who struggled to fight with only a single functioning arm.

    Despite his unfamiliarity with the sword, he knew the universal use of all weapons, so he came in with his weapon swinging...

    ....only for his view to be replaced with white lights as he found himself on his back.

    Damien''s head rang like a bell as he tried to figure out what had happened, and he likely would have died then if the one-handed hunter hadn''t come to his rescue then, taking the brief lapse in concentration from the armored man to deliver a blindingly fast and devastating attack that wiped out a portion of the armored man''s body. He paid for it with a slash that took off his head an instant later, and Damien had to run, dragging Keilan with him as another armored person stepped over the dead hunter.

    Thankfully, Elas immediately came to their rescue, cutting through the armored figures'' defenses in two swift slashes.

    It took a few horrifyingly slow minutes before the battle ended, after which the survivors began tending to the wounds that marked their bodies.

    Not willing to wait, Elas continued on, but not before stopping to select two spears from amongst the dead to hand over to Damien and Keilan.

    Feeling a sense of rightness as he finally held a spear, a renewed sense of confidence entered Damien, which was immediately doused as soon as they got to the next section of fighting. This time he managed to do better than when he wielded the sword, managing to somehow injure his opponents. With his minor expertise in wielding a spear, he managed to hold them back in time for Elas to quickly deal with his own opponents before coming to theirs.

    Over the following fights, Damien began noticing something. The combatants that he''d fought had all, unsurprisingly, surpassed him in realms, but they all seemed to lack the level of weapons mastery Damien had cultivated all these months. This chink in their powers gave Damien the edge to hold them back without being completely overwhelmed.

    "These are common soldiers¨Cdregs who are only given weapons, with little training in their belts, and then ordered where to go. That''s why the hunters are still capable of holding on despite the enemy''s numbers and more advanced equipment," Elas said when Damien asked.

    The longer they took getting to their home, the more fearful Damien got, and he soon began seeing the same fear slowly creep into Elas'' features. They had saved a lot of families Damien had begun to fear whether they would arrive in time to save theirs.

    As they moved, stopping briefly when they encountered any fighting on their paths, they gathered a small crowd¨Chunters who weren''t too injured to continue on into the thick of it.

    Their house had been closer to the village center¨Ca sign of high status for the family seeing as Elas was the head of the hunters'' guild in the village, so it took more time than they would have liked to finally get to their house, they had to reduce the numbers barring their paths or risk getting trapped after sneaking in.

    They finally turned into the street where they lived, a trade route that usually saw lots of traffic from merchants and farmers eager to sell their goods to the village''s wealthy families. But now, the sight that greeted him almost tore his heart in two. Houses were torn down and their residents splayed on the ground, dead. Some were already beginning to burn. The council house had already been brought down, both wood and stones.

    Damien ran behind Elas as they raced towards their house, hearing the sounds of fighting as they got closer.

    Turning a corner and stepping through the gate and into the front yard, they were greeted with a sight of more than a dozen soldiers, all clustered and fighting to get into the house. And standing before them like an avenging spirit was Healer Salem.

    Damien stood there, bewildered, as he watched Salem hold back multiple soldiers that tried to force their way into the house, using the tight hallway to force them into coming at her one by one. Wherever her walking stick¨Cwhich she now used as a staff¨Chit, the flesh area immediately greyed out, like the life had been drawn out of it. The old woman was like one of those knightly warriors Damien used to read in her library. Those legendary figures that stood against hordes, dealing devastating damages and instilling terror. But unlike those warriors, Healer Salem wouldn''t last long. Damien has already begun seeing the telltale signs of lag and tiredness visible in her postures.

    "Wait here," Elas said, before diving into the hordes of soldiers. The other hunters followed behind, slashing and cutting their way through the armored figures. Damien and Keilan were pushed back until they soon found themselves outside the compound entirely, with the entire space packed with metal-armored men and hunters who fought savagely like animals.

    For some reason, the house hadn''t already been set ablaze, but Damien could already see a small patch of the ceiling that had begun flaming.

    Damien searched for somewhere to give him a full view of what was happening inside, finding a house two blocks over that had been partially collapsed. They raced up the stairs, finding no bodies but the blood splashes splattered over the walls gave told him the results of what had happened here. He climbed over collapsed rocks until he eventually found a view in one of the rooms that had been partially collapsed. He and Keilan stood on the edge, looking down and seeing the battle clearly. They hadn''t stayed long when Keilan pointed towards a figure hiding behind Healer Salem. They hadn''t been able to see them when they were still on the ground, but now Damien breathed a sigh of relief as Mara and Leira''s healthy figures came into view, albeit with some light injuries. But they were still alive. Keilan wrapped his hands around him, a big smile on his face.

    A smile that was soon quashed as they felt it. Everyone did.

    An aura descended down on the entire street, freezing everyone in terror.

    And Damien was forced to watch as Elas, already halfway through to the house and accompanied by more than a dozen of the village hunters, was engulfed in a blinding light of such intensity that it temporarily turned the world white.

    And when their vision was restored, a feeling of emptiness was all Damien felt as where the house used to be¨Cthe entire compound, was nowhere to be found, only rubble and sand.

    A piercing cry erupted out as Keilan was overwhelmed with grief, his legs no longer capable of holding him up.

    The same grief almost consumed Damien, but for their lives, he managed to lock down his emotions. There was no time to waste; whatever had done that could find them at any moment, so he helped Keilan up¨Cforcefully when the other boy wouldn''t move. Tears streaked down his eyes as he dragged Keilan with him down the stairs and through the back of the house while constantly praying not to attract any form of attention.

    As they fled, he only looked back once and was chilled by what he saw.

    A figure clad in leather armor not unlike the ones worn by the hunters.

    A figure that even didn''t deign to focus on them, only glancing once and then dismissing them.

    Like they were inconsequential.

    Unimportant.

    Through skills gotten from constantly sneaking through the village, partaking in all forms of mischief, they managed to escape the village, running far into the night.

    Into the jungle.

    Where monsters eagerly waited.

 Chapter 56 : Impetus III â€“ The Beginning

    All was quiet for a while after Damien finished his story. Solaris sat there, a stunned expression on his face as he looked at Damien with what one would consider pity, or fear. Damien couldn''t tell.

    "So that''s why you hate the Empire," it wasn''t question.

    "Don''t worry, though," Damien shrugged. "I took my revenge."

    Tenral only looked confused.

    "Oh, you didn''t know?" Damien smiled. "Before your scouts became aware of me, I had been quietly taking my revenge on those who were guilty. I mean, I spent my time training in a Proto-space for months on end before I could comfortably begin."

    "How did you know the Empire was responsible? From your story the soldiers who attacked your settlement didn''t identify themselves."

    "It took time and a lot of investigation, but we were able to trace down the common soldiers who partook in the slaughter, and from there, we worked up through the command chain."

    "Volei Nien," Tenral realized.

    Damien smiled, "Yes."

    Volei Nien had been the first Spirit lord casualty from the Empire. When the Empire had passed down the orders for settlements on the border outskirts to be included into the Empire, forcefully even, Volei Nien had taken it upon himself to do far more than that, wiping out entire settlements who outright refused. For such a ruthless individual, he had sure begged for his life when he was brought to his knees.

    "But why? Your village could have avoided annihilation by just doing as they were told. Weren''t your lives more preferable than pride?"

    "You don''t understand, do you? They didn''t just want to include us into the Empire, the general of the northern pass wanted to conscript all essence wielders into becoming fodder for your skirmish battles with Camlen and Gandor," he waited. "Including the recently awakened."

    Tenral sighed, "You have your revenge then, why the continued feud?"

    "Because..." Damien collapsed onto the sand. "Despite there no longer being any blood feud between us, Solaria is still a power-hungry nation."

    Tenral snorted, "Aren''t we all? You think your Emissaries aren''t the same? Given the opportunity, they would all jump on the chance of taking over the whole continent."

    "Oh, I know that. But they aren''t the ones scaring the other nations with threats of invasion, are they?"

    "No b¡ª"

    Suddenly, they both looked up, turning their attention northwest. Tenral expression looked grim as he turned back to Damien.

    "Speak of the devil," Damien gave a resigned smile.

    ***

    The city of Yarlen was a beautiful city, with architectures of tall skyscrapers and massive angular shaped buildings made of silver metal and glassy stone, all beautifully arranged in between tall trees of beautiful leaves and emerald colored grass. Coupled with the hundreds of beautiful beaches and a warm and sunny climate, with a population of more than fifty million residents, Yarlen was a center hub for vacation, industrialism, trade exports, and many other things in the region. It was a city where the rich and powerful came to relax, and was considered a major city in the region, if not, the entire continent.

    Today, Yarlen was not faring very well. It all started when massive pillars of golden filmy portals opened up a few miles away from the city. Now, the government of Yarlen were already aware of the impending war that loomed over the heads of everyone, like a calamity beast in their backyard. They were sufficiently prepared, with a wide range teleportation-dampening formation that covered the entire city and even beyond. The massive city dome was activated, protecting the city from both physical and magical threats, powerful defensive and attacking constructs were also brought alive, making the city practically an impenetrable fortress for any invading force, if that was even going to happen given their location far deep into the continent and a good distance away from any battlefield. Or so they thought.

    On that beautiful afternoon, depending on who narrated the story in the aftermath, the city of Yarlen were going on as usual. Residents went to work, tourists threw parties on the warm-sandy beaches. It was all just usual. Until the portals opened.

    This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

    In the aftermath, nobody would ever know how it was accomplished, given the powerful arrays of dampeners the city employed, and that would put fear into the hearts of many governments.

    From the tall golden colored portal came massive SkyShips, simple ships of massive blocky designs that were only created for their efficiency. Lining their hulls were long, metallic constructs, all radiating auras of devastating proportions. And they were all pointed down at the distant shining city. Troop carriers.

    Accompanying those troop carriers were smaller, sleek, angular shaped ships, mostly in the shapes of avian creatures, but others also came in the shapes of sea-faring vessels. Strike ships.

    If the troop carriers were meant to deal slow, heavy, devastating damages, the strike ships were meant for fast, long-range damage-dealing meant to carry far and wide, more than the troop carriers.

    And leading those ships in a triangular shaped formation was a massive mobile command station, a construct of massive heights and widths that was meant to hold entire armies and the commanders that led them. The mobile command ship wasn''t built for their damage dealing capabilities but for their damage taking ones. They could withstand the full might of multiple Spirit lords and still come out standing. All over the castle shaped construct lined hundreds of intercepting constructs meant for deflecting or unraveling incoming attacks, shield their inhabitants from mind altering attacks, and unravel any cloaking techniques. Deep in belly of the ship was a massive formation that projected an orb of protective energy surrounding the entire construct.

    Altogether, the command ship was a true impenetrable fortress.

    Its presence brought fear into the defenders who watched their advance. Like every city, Yarlen also had a massive army stationed in the city. Today, that army was roused and, meant only for the protection of the city, was quickly equipped.

    Massive defensive towers were activated, and the projectile constructs lining them were pointed toward the invading force, alongside the projectile constructs also lining the tall walls of the city.

    Despite the overwhelming power, the defenders of Yarlen were steadfast, intending on making full use of their home advantage.

    Until the first shot was fired.

    The attack didn''t come from any Strike ship or Troop carrier. From the pointed roof of the humongous castle structure, a hatch was opened, and from inside it emerged a single long pole. A single metal pole of ordinary features. Non-threatening.

    When it fired, it sailed through the air, unassisted with only the air to guide it.

    Confused but knowing the threat posed by the invading force, the defenders of Yarlen didn''t take any chances. Powerful techniques of wind to redirect the attack far from the city. Earth techniques to trap or entirely arrest the movement of the pole. Water to interfere with any of the enchantments woven into the construct. Fire meant to melt away the enchantments. And even esoteric elements like space were employed to try and spatially move the construct elsewhere, preferably back to the senders. Even time was used to hold the construct, trapping it in time for long years until the enchantments wore off.

    All were completely squashed without any visible evidence of it happening.

    And the pole sailed onward.

    Unbothered.

    Having emptied their entire repertoire of intercepting constructs, the defenders of Yarlen then relied on their purely defensive ones, praying that it would be enough.

    With bated breath, everyone¨Cboth the invading and defending forces¨Cwatched as the pole landed, slamming into the city-wide protective dome.

    For a moment, all was quiet, and the defenders had already began breathing in sighs of relief that their defenses had held.

    Until....

    BOOM! CRACK!

    Over the city, the world was engulfed in a golden inferno of crimson light that shone over the city ike a second sun.

    And when the light finally subsided, the results were horror inducing for all who saw..

    Of the towers lining the city? Nothing remained of them but hot molten slag. Same with some of the skyscrapers inside the city.

    The massive walls that enshrouded the city of Yarlen? Half were nowhere to be seen, melting into slag, just like the towers.

    The worst was what happened to the city entirely. Like every city, the protective dome drew power from a colossally wide formation placed under the city. And when that formation was overloaded with an unbelievably powerful attack, the results could be seen from the long, deep fissures that criss-crossed the entire city.

    Millions screamed and howled in pain as something far deeper than terror enveloped the city. Buildings collapsed, crushing people regardless of age, race, or gender. Tsunamis came in from the sea, swallowing a portion of the city and drowning millions, and massive fires raged, spreading and consuming.

    All that from just one attack.

    A simple opening move.

    And like monsters eager to finish off their prey, the invading forces descended.

    Massive bolts of lightning zig-zagged down unto the city just as balls of fires rained down. A sea of dark green poison doused the city in both liquid and gas form, outright killing some and subjecting others to unimaginable pain which made them shriek until their throats burst. Thousands killed themselves so as to put an end to the pain.

    Some constructs were of a different kind, ejecting deadly substances that subjected their victims to horrifying deformations, twisting their body structures and leading them into complete madness.

    And then the soldiers descended.

    From the troop carriers now hovering over the city, figures of golden black armor rained down in the thousands. A sea of blood flowed as the soldiers began a massacre, slaughtering everyone with unparalleled impartiality.

    Dark clouds covered the city, and rain fell as the massacre carried on for hours.

    And when all was done, the Forces of the Solarian Empire left with a captured population of thousands.

    Leaving the city a broken, dead, husk of its former self.

    Leaving the city to the carrions that had already began descending, feasting on the open entrails of the dead.

 Chapter 57 : WARâ€“ The Alliance

    In the aftermath of the first blow in the grand war, it was like a stretched rubber had just been let loose. Where the world had been quiet, awaiting the first person to make a move; now that the rubber had been let loose, an inferno was ignited.

    Fleets of SkyShips lifted off of their ports, Strike ships at the rims, and Troop carriers in the center. Command ships led the formations, giving commands and housing for reserve armies. Pillars of portals opened above the borderlands, spewing out hundreds of ships as they headed for the Empire''s border cities.

    From said cities, city domes were brought online, rising to enshroud their entire domains in transparent, solidified energy. An array of different defensive and offensive constructs were awakened, turning their nozzles up towards the distant approaching enemy.

    Strike ships rose from the cities'' military ports, heading on an intercourse to intercept enemy ships before they got within range.

    Monarch Merene dodged, not turning to check what had been fired at her. In a situation like this, a single distraction could lead to a swift death. Alongside her, other Monarch realm essence wielders moved, employing one evasive technique or another to protect themselves from the Solarian Monarch defenders.

    The once thick and green patch of forest located in the borderlands was now thrashed and leaking black smoke as hundreds of Monarchs clashed.

    She slowed, wary of the enemy Monarch blocking her path. A dozen daggers flashed out in blinding speed toward her, leaving silvery trails. Matching their speed, her short sword flicked out, knocking them out of the air one after the other. But her enemy wasn''t deterred, dousing the darkened forest in more shadows. She slowed, this was going to take some time.

    With the sea of shadows now shrouding the area in a second layer, she slowly and cautiously approached, drawing out her second sword.

    "What Kingdom do you hail from, Camlen, Gandor, or one of the other inconsequentials?" The man mocked, his black eyes following her movements.

    Merene didn''t reply, her perception primed and wary of any tricks.

    Seeing her non-responsiveness, the man shrugged. "Nothing? No problem, then, not like I care. I just wanted to know my next opponent before I put them in the grave. But since you aren''t going to be forthcoming, I''ll just have to sleep with not knowing your name."

    "You talk too much."

    "Oh, oh, she finally speaks," the man manifested a sword out of shadow. "Let''s see how long you hold on, shall we?"

    Like a whirlwind of metal and shadow, they clash. Immediately their blades met, Merene immediately recognized her opponent''s mastery of the sword. His footwork was accurate and meticulously timed, never taking more steps than was necessary. His blade attacked in a slow calm motion, always there to intercept her blades whenever she attacked. And while he moved calmly, she was a whirlwind of blades and flame. Her flame techniques lit up in his face and exploded in blinding fire, which soon put him on the back foot as he tried to avoid being blinded or burned. Eventually, her opponent gave up on close combat, hopping backward into the heart of his conjured shadows.

    "You want to play with fire? Let''s see how you fare against shadow."

    From the sea of shadows fired dozens of daggers, gleaming silver as they headed towards her. Merene could have dodged, but every escape route had been covered, and unless she wanted to butt into another Monarch''s fight and leave her back open, she opted to stand her ground.

    The roots below her feet turned to ash as a wall of fire rose, blocking the incoming daggers. They dimmed considerably as some of them melted back into shadows on impact. The remaining ones managed to pass through the wall of fire, but they had already lost their power, so they only impacted her body armor with a thud.

    Reshaping, she folded the wall of fire, squeezing it into a whip that she lashed out, stopping her opponent as he tried to attack while her vision had been blocked. He jumped back, a hand made of shadow manifesting behind him to catch the flaming whip. Merene wasn''t deterred; from the whip flew dozens of tiny needles that aimed for the exposed parts of his body, an attack which he dodged.

    "Phew," her opponent said, miming wiping sweat from his brow. "You''re good, I admit. Who trained you, I''ve got to know?"

    Merene''s only response was a dead stare and another flurry of needles.

    "No answer?" He said while a shadow hand swatted her attack. "Fine then, keep your secrets."

    The shadows writhed and folded, drinking in the light as a black serpent manifested behind him, its crimson slits staring predatorily at her. "I''ll peel the secret out of your corpse."

    Despite it being a conjured construct, Merene was wary of such thing being deadly close to her while she battled its master, so she replied in kind.

    "Two can play at that game," behind her, her flame also contorted, twisting into a red snake matching its Shadow counterpart in size.

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    "Oh, oh, Nice!"

    The shadow serpent opened its mouth, wide, drinking in any form of light and magically darkening the area. In response, her fire serpent glowed blindingly, generating more light than the shadow could consume immediately as it soon turned crimson-white.

    She attacked, sliding and aiming at cutting off the knees of her opponent. He jumped, a thin circle of cutting shadows scything for her middle area. She wiped it out with a wave of fire.

    A few feet from them, their constructs clashed with a loud Thud, coiling around each other and crushing down tress into splinters. Her fire serpent bit into the body of the shadow snake just as the Shadow snake did the same, eliciting a deadly hiss and crackle as both essences interacted in an unfriendly manner.

    Merene swiped, cut, and stabbed at her opponent, missing him by inches and eliciting mocking remarks at her accuracy. She didn''t mind, concentrating fully on the battle. She was perceptive enough to recognize the extreme threat of her opponent, so she knew that a single lapse in concentration could lead to a series of mistakes that could swiftly end her. Already, she had dozens of cuts on her body¨Cboth the exposed and covered parts¨Cfrom her opponent''s deadly cuts, but with both a crazed ferocity in her strikes and a series of exploding lights directed at blinding her opponent''s vision, she was able to slowly move him where she wanted.

    And as soon as she was comfortable with his position, she stopped, retreating a few feet.

    "What, already tired?" The man questioned, a smirk on his face. "Please don''t tell me you''re already tired, or the small recognition you''ve earned from me will soon vanish like the wind."

    For the first time since this fight, Merene smiled, shrugging. "What do I care? You''re already dead." And like that, she snapped her fingers, engulfing the area in a conflagration of crimson and black.

    Merene dived to the ground as the earth rocked, throwing up dirt and rocks and shattered trees. A thick cocoon of flame covered her as she layered dozens of protective techniques on her body, trusting her armor enchantments to cover the rest.

    When the explosion finally settled, she stood up, battle-ready, as she scanned the area for any threats. She looked at where her opponent had been standing, seeing nothing but smoke and ash. His remains didn''t even survive the explosion.

    "Whoa! What was that?" Another Monarch approached from the side, his wide eyes taking in the destruction. "That was bordering on Spirit lord''s level of power there. What did you do?"

    Merene turned toward the man. "Fire and shadow should never mix."

    "Uh, I don''t know what that means, but if what you just said had anything to do with this," he waved his hands at the destruction. "Consider me warned."

    Changing the topic, Merene asked. "Done with your opponent?"

    "Would I be here if it wasn''t settled?"

    "Alright then, let''s move on, time isn''t on our side."

    Together, they continued, fighting through any enemy soldiers who tried to block their paths.

    Eventually, they got to the other side of the forest, sunlight striking in through the opened tree curtains as they approached.

    Merene pulled out a glowing orb from a pouch on her waist as she closed in on the edge of the forest. From a runic enchantment drawn on the collar of her armored jacket, she spoke in.

    "Monarch Merene in position. Anyone else?"

    "Copy. Monarch Zect in position...."

    "Monarch Kerg in position....."

    From her communication, multiple replies came in as other Monarchs arrived at their position.

    "Alright then. Begin."

    She channeled power into the orb on her palm, watching as the purple-black energy swirled with speed as her energy mixed in. Gently, she set it down on the tree line, watching as the other Monarch did the same a few meters away from her.

    Together, they stepped back a few feet, watching as purple-black lights flashed. A pillar of purple lights rose to the sky, widening as it grew higher. Along the tree lines, other purple pillars also rose in a mixture of purple and black, and then they began interacting, mixing into each other until Merene couldn''t tell where her''s began and where the others joined.

    Finally, the portal settled after reaching a few hundred feet. By now it already looked like a curtain of purple lights with black tendrils swirling inside it as it stretched for more than five miles, widening as it went.

    The earth shook as from the filmy curtains, thousands of soldiers crossed the portals, marching in formation as they chanted war chants.

    Merene could see the banners of three nations rising over the heads of the army: A Silver bird over a black field signifying the Kingdom of Camlen. The Silver-black armored soldiers chanted war songs as they marched forward, proudly waving the nation''s flag.

    To the left of the Camlen''s army marched another: A banner of a flaming hammer representing the Kingdom of Gondor, whose armor of Red with white seam shone brightly under the sun''s rays. They also chanted their war songs, beating loud drums and marching so hard that their combined footsteps cracked the ground and shifted large rocks.

    The last army was one she already knew about but was still surprised to see marching alongside another Kingdom that wasn''t part of the ilks: The Empire of Nuraea, led by the great family Fyre. Their blue silver armor matched the Lightning element which the entire ruling family specialized in, as shown a moment later when the sky darkened, with loud rumblings of thunder alongside lightning flashing in-between. Together, the alliance of three hundred thousand men posed an intimidating sight. But despite their intimidating posture, Merene knew that they weren''t going to be enough, not for the enemy they were about to face.

    Above the crossing armies, the portal light parted as three humongous ships came through: One, a silver, metallic, rectangular construct moved above the armies, bringing a presence of confusion and fear mixed in-between. A Lightning bolt sigil was pasted on the sides, glowing bright alongside the lightning flashes.

    Another command ship sailed alongside the Fyre''s. A flaming island aided by large, visible propulsion constructs. The island looked ordinary, except for its strange flaming features as the entire island looked to be on fire. From her position, Merene could see a few figures standing at the edge of the island, Monarchs of extreme importance from the Kingdom of Gandor. But it wasn''t them that drew her eyes. Standing in front of them with a commanding posture was a man in matte black armor whose gaze emitted great power as he stared at the far distance. A Spirit Lord.

    Leading the Camlen''s fleet was another ship made from Emerald crystals and constructed in the shape of a large crescent, pulsing with green energy as it drifted calmly alongside the others, a deathly pressure radiating from it as it cruised by.

    And behind those three command ships flew more than a hundred StrikeShips and Troop ships, holding more soldiers as they prepared to light up the enemy till the sky bled smoke and ash.

    Merene continued waiting, watching as more soldiers crossed the portals.

    And in the distance opposite them, another Portal opened, a portal of crimson red...

    And from it came the Empire''s response force.

 Chapter 58 â€“ Intent

    Damien appeared over a vast blue ocean that stretched so far he wasn''t sure there was even an end to it. It was midday, and the ocean glinted from the sunlight streaking down on its surface. Floating above, Damien made out large moving shadows swimming below the vast body of water.

    Usually, he would be expecting islands dotting one part or another, but at this moment his attention was taken by the giant inverted mountains hovering many miles above the water level. Aside from the upside-down position of the mountains, a first for him, he could sense the power brimming from them as they almost filled his vision, power which could wipe him out in an instant if unleashed. And that made him wary.

    He counted only five inverted mountains hovering close by, hovering majestically over the ocean.

    "Where are we?" Damien asked.

    [Planet Se, a neighboring planet in your Star system.]

    "Wait, we teleported to another planet!" Keilan''s eyes were opened wide in shock, mirroring his mouth.

    [We aren''t there, there. This is a mental projection, not actual teleportation.] Gray answered.

    "Isn''t that dangerous? Our psyche could fall prey to all manners of unknown things out here," Keilan asked.

    [Don''t worry about that, I have us hidden.] Gray assured, which did nothing to calm them since none of the humans knew his capabilities.

    "How?" Damien asked.

    Gray looked him straight in the eye. [You aren''t the only one wielding the essence of destruction.]

    Damien could only look on in confusion. "What does that m¡ª"

    But Gray had already moved on, interrupting his question mid-sentence.

    [While this is a memory reading, I couldn''t show you this without first moving you towards the site. So, let me put your minds at rest. We are not on the planet per se; we are in the memory landscape of this planet.]

    "What are we doing in a foreign planet''s memory anyway, and how''d you do it¨Clike, project us?" Damien asked with enthusiasm, anything to further his power...

    [Ahh, I see now. That''s what I''m about to teach you. I did say I would teach you the workings of intent, didn''t I?. Now, before we start, I want you to know a few things: to learn the workings of intent, huge focus and a massive amount of willpower is required. Without those two, you will either accomplish nothing, at best, or find yourself gravely injured.]

    "Injured? What do you mean?"

    [Intent isn''t just something you can wish for and poof, it happens. Without focus and controlled willpower, your will could manifest, but in a very unpleasant way.] Gray answered in a tone that projected more than just simple unpleasantness.

    [Now, watch.]

    Immediately, a figure materialized a distance away, floating very close to the inverted mountains.

    Damien couldn''t tell who it was since the person was putting on a simple red robe with black trims. He also couldn''t tell their level of power since they projected no aura, but he knew simply by just watching that they were more powerful than him, far more powerful.

    Immediately the figure arrived, loud alarm bells and sirens began sounding all over the mountains and then figures began coming out in the thousands.

    They flew out from three of the mountains close to the figure, including at least ten figures bearing an aura Damien had never felt before but knew of regardless.

    Spirit Kings.

    They all brimmed with so much blinding powers that even the thousands of peak tier Spirit lords shied away from them, clearly overwhelmed. The world tinted in different colors as their auras spread out, trying to suppress the single figure standing against them.

    Damien frowned, turning to Gray. "Why isn''t the auras affecting us the same way as them," he said, pointing at him and Keilan and then waving toward the other Peak tier Spirit lords.

    Keilan nodded. "True. I feel enough to know the true power of the Spirit lords, but not enough to overwhelm me."

    The world paused.

    [You wouldn''t be able to concentrate if most of your mental capabilities were devoted to pushing off the influence of their auras, so I took the liberty of reducing both their mental and soul effects on you,] Gray explained.

    Damien nodded, "Oh. Ok then, continue."

    And then everything resumed.

    Space warped and twisted as the red robed figure unleashed their aura, the destructiveness alone contending and even pushing back the other Spirit Kings. The figure''s aura tinted the world Crimson with the mere power of their aura, a wave of crimson against ten other colors.

    The sky darkened and thunder rumbled as the wind began whipping. More destructive than Damien had ever witnessed. The ocean below them darkened as Damien felt something deep below rising, darkening the ocean for miles with the sheer size of its body.

    Even though it was just a memory landscape, Damien stepped back in shock. "What is that?" He said as he looked down, the massive ocean writhing violently, as if in fear of the presence of the approaching creature.

    [That.... Is a World Sentinel.] Gray answered.

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    "What?" Damien didn''t understand. He stared at the incomprehensible aura rising out from the ocean; his mind glitched at the sheer aura of power projected. Damien identified the aura as that of a Spirit King''s, but its power alone rose above the other Spirit Kings in the area.

    [That is the big stick all planet uses when things get out of hand.]

    Damien finally understood. Menoe had once given him a broader view of the number of Spirit Kings residing a distance from their planet. From the amount she''d said and their powers, Damien had begun to wonder why they hadn''t already overwhelmed their World Spirit. Even he wasn''t sure he could hold out if hundreds of elite-level Monarchs attacked him. If this was the kind of creature the planet employed to keep Spirit Kings away, Damien didn''t blame them for staying away.

    [Oh, this isn''t all of them. I''m aware of at least four more sentinels dwelling in the four corners of the planet. The appearance of this one is just a warning,] Gray replied to Damien''s thought.

    The thousands of Spirit lords and eleven Spirit Kings sensed the approaching sentinel at the same time, but it was the crimson robed figure who reacted first.

    Their aura spiked as they raised a sword to the sky, both hands on the hilt. The world took on a deeper crimson hue as everyone sensed the action. Damien didn''t know what they felt, but apparently, it was powerful enough because they all sped toward the figure; even the approaching horror sped up its ascension.

    When the sword reached its apex, pointing directly at the sky, the world rumbled, long tears in space spreading. The defenders sped up even more, techniques manifesting all around when the sword came down...

    ....and the world was consumed in crimson rain.

    Large bolts of crimson lightning rained down on everything, and the thousands of peak-tier Spirit lords, beings capable of leveling mountains with a single punch, were consumed in an instant, turning into dust.

    The sheer display alone stupefied Damien. The thunder that followed almost deafened him until the sound suddenly dimmed to a safe level.

    [Sorry about that.]

    The ten figures manifested one technique after another, intent on withstanding the technique. They held on for a few seconds until the power of the technique spiked up a notch, completely overwhelming.

    They all scattered, fleeing immediately as they discovered they couldn''t handle the power the figure dished out.

    The power then spiked up higher, becoming more incomprehensible. There was a loud, tearing screech as more tears appeared, and then the first Spirit King was consumed.

    A lady, making use of powerful techniques to flee faster, but she didn''t flee fast enough.

    A dozen bolts landed on her one after the other in seconds, and all her defenses were overwhelmed, the world lighting up as multiple energy shields were broken.

    In a few seconds, she was a burnt crisp.

    At that moment, the fleeing Spirit Kings completely abandoned all forms of mortal methods of fleeing, immediately teleporting out one by one.

    The ocean itself wasn''t spared either from the wrath of the Crimson lightning, fogs rising as the ocean, for many miles, was turned into hot steam as the water level was noticeably reduced. And even still, Damien couldn''t still see the body of the approaching horror.

    When all was done and the world reverted back to normal, dust could still be seen raining down into the fog rising over the ocean.

    The crimson robed figure disappeared immediately just as the sentinel broke the surface of the water, inky black orbs scanning everywhere. Finding no one, it immediately descended back down, no doubt returning back to its slumber.

    The only thing that remained were the mental audience and the still-standing inverted mountains. And what was strange ¨C Damien frowned as he looked closer at the mountains, Seeing a subtle change in them.

    "They weren''t destroyed? How''s that possible?" He asked.

    [Yes, I can see that. Look deeper.]

    Damien did as told, his face scrunching up as he concentrated.

    "They''re new! I mean¨Cthey look new," He turned to Gray. "I ask again, how is that possible?"

    [Intent. One of the benefits of intent mastery is that it allows you to warp the core directive of your element into your needs, not too far from its core directive, though.]

    "And that was what the robed figure did?" Keilan asked.

    Gray affirmed. [Yes. When the figure, which, by the way, was a man. When he rained down destruction, the directive of the element was split into two, warping into a purification force that removed all forms of decay that an old artificial mountain like this would have accumulated from the innumerable years it had stood, bringing it back to new. All the while, a part of the element followed its core directive: Destruction.]

    "Wait, that was destruction? I didn''t know it could be used like that," Damien interrupted, surprised.

    [Damien, there are a lot of things about the element of destruction you''re unaware of.]

    "Why was it crimson, and why come in the form of lighting? I thought destruction came in grey," Keilan asked the question Damien should have asked.

    [That is because those are the main characteristics of destruction: a crimson lightning.] Gray answered, a calm, reluctant look on his face.

    "Wait, you''re saying the element of destruction I use isn''t the same as that?" Damien waved his hands toward the site of destruction.

    [Yes.] Gray answered reluctantly.

    "Are you going to explain further?"

    [No. That is as far as I will answer.]

    Damien fumed, about to argue, when Keilan interrupted.

    "We can get to this argument at a later time. Let''s focus on our main mission."

    Gray gave him a grateful look. [The directives of all essence can accomplish more than their base; you just need focus and controlled willpower, and bam, your needs are accomplished. Take destruction for example. What the man did was manipulate the essence of destruction to, instead of destroying the mountains themselves, it instead destroyed the concept of decay, thereby removing every damage that had ever been incurred.]

    "Isn''t that healing?" Keilan said.

    [Yes.]

    "Wait, you''re saying that destruction could be used to heal?" Keilan said, his wide eyes turning to Damien.

    Gray chuckled. [Not in the way you see it. Destruction can be used to remove the concept of an injury taken, but real healing takes more than just simple damage removal.]

    Seeing their confused faces, Gray further explained. [When a person takes damage, a chunk of both the physical and spirit layer is destroyed. Now, the element of destruction can only be used to heal the physical, slowing, or better yet, removing the concept of damage, but that doesn''t mean the injury is already healed. We have the spirit layer which has to be restored lest the victim becomes magically paralyzed.]

    "Ohhh, that was why Elora Darkfang lost her Spirit lord powers when Damien destroyed her astral image...." Keilan said, realization dawning.

    Gray nodded. [Yes. Had there been a healer beyond the Spirit lord, the Snake lady would have been restored to full power in weeks.]

    "Weeks? Why weeks?" Damien asked.

    [When the life element is used to heal the Spirit layer, it is always paramount to rest since the spirit layer would still be too fragile, incapable of withstanding any power channeled through it.]

    "I don''t understand, what does the spirit layer have to do with how much power we wield?" Damien asked.

    Gray slapped his tiny palms on his forehead. [Sometimes I forget how much you lack in knowledge. Okay, In case you didn''t know, the soul houses your powers, acting as a well for your true strength. The spirit layer, on the other hand, serves as a conduit for that power, diluting it to safe levels so as not to overwhelm your physical layer when it is channeled. That is why you cannot unleashed your full strength at once. So when a crucial part like that is destroyed, you would have to abstain from channeling lest your body gets destroyed by the unsafe level of power that would flow into your body. That is why you see people dying gruesomely when they push themselves beyond their limits. The spirit layer has only so much it can take.]

    What Gray had just said left a lot for Damien to think about. Sensing it, Gray decided to move them back.

    The dream landscape began dissolving, turning into purple wisps as their mental forms disappeared...

    ...only to appear in a room full of powerful, strange essence wielders.

 Chapter 59 â€“ Warnings Of The Future

    They appeared in a quiet, tense, and unfamiliar room; a large oval meeting room of bright violet and black that accentuated a regal feeling. The high-backed chairs and the occupants sitting on them made Damien look like a supplicant in the presence of a council of judges.

    "What is this?" He demanded, turning and making sure to take everyone in visually.

    Of the other occupants in the room, Damien recognized a few; some he''d had minor scuffles with, and some were only first-time acquaintances. Most were people he hadn''t met before, though, but he recognized them from their description. The sight of Menoe and his Emissaries sitting to his left didn''t reduce the tension on his shoulders, though.

    "You must be very powerful to require twelve Spirit lords just to summon you."

    Damien turned to the speaker, a dark-haired woman of light complexion, putting on a dark maroon dress. Her violet eyes stared at Damien with a sort of calmness lacking by most in the room, though Damien could see through it into the tension locked within.

    When Damien didn''t respond, she continued. "I brought you here, just like everyone, to this gathering to find a way to sort through this vortex of self-destruction you all are so eager to jump into."

    [Damien, that is a Spirit King, and not one in an avatar either.] Gray warned.

    Keeping both his expression and body posture neutral, Damien calmly¨Cthough he was extremely tense inside¨Casked. "Who are you?"

    The woman smiled, easily seeing through his concealed emotion. "Be at ease, I am not here beyond the need to plead with you all, non-aggressively, to desist from this war."

    "Gray, is she telling the truth?" Damien said in his mind.

    [She speaks the truth. I sense no deceit in her words.]

    "Then what''s she doing here in the first place, and with an ascended form no less."

    [This Queen isn''t a battle-oriented wielder, or the World Spirit wouldn''t have permitted her presence on the planet. And judging from the essence I sense in her tightly restrained aura, she is seer.]

    "A seer?"

    [Yes, a seer. What, you thought only battle-oriented wielders could ascend to Spirit King?]

    "No, not that. I wasn''t aware there was a seer Queen, no less one who is interested in our matters enough to descend fully."

    [Well, why don''t you ask her, then?] Gray taunted.

    "I''ll do that."

    Damien turned back to the woman. Although he and Gray''s discussion had happened in an instant, the woman was perceptive enough to notice his brief lapse in concentration judging from the subtle, confused frown on her face. She didn''t comment on it, though.

    "While it is obvious you know me, I do not recognize you..." He left the sentence open.

    The woman nodded. "Forgive my manners. My name is Selyria Molei, I am a Seer."

    "You are a Spirit Queen."

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    She smiled. "Sharp. I like it. Yes, I am."

    "Why are you so interested in our matters?"

    "Matter, singular. In all honesty, I care not for how you run yourselves."

    "But you''re here, now. For our matter?"

    She nodded. "Yes," she waved toward two empty high-backed chairs close to his Emissaries. "Please take a seat."

    Damien and Keilan moved, walking up the platform their chairs were placed on top to take their sit beside each other.

    When they were finally seated, the woman addressed the whole room. "Until a few days ago, I had no desire to interfere in any manner whatsoever in your fights. I am generally a very hands-off person, only interfering when there is a threat of apocalyptic nature beyond the imaginable."

    "Are you a doombringer?" Someone asked from the area occupied by the nature cult.

    "In a way, high priestess," Selyria acknowledge. "I warned of the imminent destruction on the Norelane continent¨Cdesolate, as you now call it¨C but the Nesene family, who led the continent, heeded my warning too late. You can see the result of it now."

    "We know that unimaginable destruction is going to be wrecked on the whole world because of this war, you don''t need to remind us" a man said from one corner.

    "No, lord Fyre, you don''t, or else you would avoid this oncoming war like a plague," she looked at everyone. "Last time I divined destruction of such scale, an entire continent full of life and beauty was turned into a desolate husk of itself, with cataclysmic wandering storms. I can assure you that this time... It is much worse."

    The quiet room became heavy, a gloomy feeling befalling everyone.

    "What sort of destruction does it have to be to surpass the desolation of a continent?" Someone asked.

    "I don''t know," Selyria replied.

    "You don''t know?"

    "Yes, because I did not see the results. Everything is suddenly consumed in deep blue and Emerald, and then... Nothing."

    "Nothing?" Keilan said skeptically.

    "Yes, nothing, Mr. Elason. I did not see the aftermath."

    Everyone immediately turned to the Nature cult since they were the only ones whose essence came in Emerald.

    High priestess Desane said calmly. "The Nature cult has no plans of such undertakings, at least that I know of."

    They then turned towards the Winter Cultists. "We also do not have any plans of that capacity."

    Despite their clear assurance, Damien could still see unbelief on the faces of all gathered, but they clearly couldn''t do anything about it. Seeing that, Menoe again, spoke. "I can see you do not believe us, but let me assure you; The Winter Cult has no ill will towards you all."

    Damien turned to Gray. "Do you know what she''s talking about?"

    Gray was uncharacteristically silent for a while, and then he quietly murmured. [This is not good. They shouldn''t be moving this early.]

    "What are you rambling about? What do you mean?"

    But Gray didn''t answer his question. Instead, he said. [I''ll have to ramp up your training or all will be doomed.]

    Damien was about to push further when he was interrupted. He turned to Keilan who had tapped him on the arm. "What?"

    "Mr. Elason?"

    "Uh hmm?" Damien turned to Selyria.

    "I was asking if you would be amenable to reconciling this war?"

    The room erupted in an uproar as multiple angry voices were raised. All from the Great families.

    "Why ask him such a question?"

    ".... He does not speak for us..."

    ".... I don''t recall him being made our leader..."

    "... This is an affront to our authority..."

    ".... You disrespect us...."

    But despite it all, the clergy for both Nature and Winter cults ¨C the truly powerful ¨C waited for his answer.

    For his part, Damien considered it for a while before giving his answer. "I started on this path for revenge, to avenge those taken from me by the Empire. But despite being successful on my quest, I have since concluded on the fact that, until Solaris departs from his power-hungry conquering ways, I will continue battling him on every front."

    "So in essence, what you are saying is that you will agree to an end to this war if Solaris does so?"

    "Yes."

    "Alright then, let us speak to Solaris."

    "What answer do you expect from him? He doesn''t have the full context of this meeting." Someone said.

    Selyria smiled. "This is a matter that concerns all, and as such Emperor Solaris has the right to know, and he has been made aware."

    As soon as she finished speaking, a voice thundered down from every direction, without an origin. It was clear and authoritative. "I have listened, and I have made my decision; the only way this will end is on the condition that you all submit to me!"

    Damien turned to Selyria, seeing her downturned face. "Well then, you have my answer."

    Selyria shook her head sorrowfully. "Your pride will be the downfall of you all."

    Damien wholeheartedly agreed with her; he knew that. But this was a situation where to back down meant complete subjugation, and he''d rather die than allow himself to be put in chains.

 Chapter 60 : WAR â€“ Disaster Incarnate

    The Alliance invasion of the city of Dursk had been going smoothly. The sapient beastkin''s armies were bred for war, with powerful physiques to match. They had natural-born weapons that the human invaders lacked, and possessed sharp senses surpassed only by the most powerful amongst the humans. And still, they were slowly losing.

    The Torinian armies had responded quickly to the sudden attack on one of their city, sending multiple armies to bolster the one stationed at the city, and also counter their enemies. They had fought tooth and nail, with broken ships raining down from the sky like rain and devastating explosions going on here and there. But still, they were being slowly ground down.

    The problem wasn''t from any lack of fighting prowess. They had the strength to match, and even surpass the humans. They had the speed to outpace the humans by far, and they also had the stamina to outlast the invading humans. But what they lacked that the humans had in abundance was ingenuity, and deadly savagery to match. While the beastkins mostly showcased their own brand of savagery in martial combat, the invading armies showcased theirs in the constructs they brought to the battle.

    Acid rains that burned holes into their bodies. Alchemical reagents that painfully peeled off the beasts'' furs and all kinds of scales¨C one of their pride piece ¨C which lowered morale. And other constructs that interfered with their high sensitivity. All these were specifically modified to only affect only the beastkins.

    And then the hive showed up.

    Large, deep tunnels opened up surrounding enemy lines, spewing out thousands upon thousands of the seven-foot-tall creatures, with a matte black chitin that reflected the sunlight off of it. The common drones moved like their tiny cousins, crawling on the ground and cutting through soldiers with their mandibles, while the elite ¨C The Monarchs and above ¨C stood on their hind legs; their remaining four legs were turned into weapons of mass destruction, with scythe-like blades of terror jutting out of them. From their abdomens came needle-like stingers that excreted paralyzing agents that would later begin liquefying the insides of any victim the caught. The air parted as Red chitin Spirit lords, almost twice the size of their black-chitin siblings, flew out into the sky, snapping their sharp mandibles to intimidate their enemies. Their scythe-like arms swished through the air eliciting a horror-inducing whooshing sound.

    In minutes the arrival of the ant swarm led to a shocking turn of events where a few minutes ago the winning Alliance had been slowly grounding the Torinian Soldiers, and now that same Alliance was surrounded on all sides by an army of ants twice their numbers. Combined with the Dursk defenders, the Alliance were vastly outmatched.

    This led to the physical interference from the Spirit lord commanders, resulting in an equal response from their counterparts. Again, they were still vastly outmatched.

    But they fought on nonetheless.

    The Spirit lords'' interference turned the battle''s mortality rate from a forty percent chance of survival to nearly zero as powerful techniques began flying around.

    Thousands were wiped out in instants as dodged or deflected Spirit lords'' stray techniques landed on the lower realm fighters. Although the Shields helped ¨C Specialized Monarchs who were trained in minimizing the damages stray Spirit lord techniques caused during large-scale battles ¨C but their grueling works only prolonged the inevitable. Soon, they would get tired and drained of energy, and then everyone would all die.

    Slowly, the Alliance was pushed back, slowly being squeezed into each other, and the Hive¨CTorinian Alliance tightened around them like a noose on the neck.

    And then he arrived.

    All the Spirit lords felt it, and even the Monarchs sensitive enough. They felt the imminent spatial arrival. The losing Alliance shouted in joy and relief as they knew who was coming, while fearful tension broke out amongst the Torinian and hive defenders. But still, they fought on. After all, they had the numbers.

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    Until he finally appeared.

    Dark Grey hair fell onto a long, silvery grey battle coat that accentuated power and regality. His stormy grey eyes took in everything as his battle spear calmly swished around.

    His aura spread throughout the battlefield and beyond, bringing with it the chilling feeling of the long arm of death.

    "Didn''t I promise a response to anyone who sided with the Solarians, or did you think I was joking?"

    His calm-spoken voice reached every ear, carried around by his power. It didn''t crash down like thunder, or grounded like multiple crushed boulders. It swept through the wind like a coming apocalypse.

    A desolation.

    His first attack wiped out a sizeable portion of the hive''s western flank, completely turning them into broken, scattered body parts.

    The second wiped out another portion of the hive swarm, leveling the earth into miles-wide craters. There weren''t even any recognizable body parts.

    The third technique combusted the Torinian backlines, dousing the air with the smell of mouth-watering roasted meat.

    And the fourth technique completely razed down a terrifying portion of the enemy''s fleet, dropping flaming ships out of the skies like flies.

    In just a few moves, he had obliterated close to a hundred thousand enemy soldiers, more than the Spirit lords who had been battling for hours.

    Seeing this and fearing for the worse should he continue unchallenged, a portion of the enemy''s spirit lords detached from the opponents they had been ganging up on, heading to counter Damien.

    He didn''t mind. Raising his spear tip to the sky, light flashed, and then grey-constructed spikes came flying out, gunning for the approaching spirit lords.

    Now, unlike the Torinians, the Hive lords weren''t built sturdy. They won their battles through sheer numbers, not the quality of their fighters, so Damien''s energy-dense attacks were able to do more than significantly damage them. For every three Hive lords that approached him, Damien managed to wipe out one in his attack. This was a severe disaster that would have taken other kingdoms years to recover from, but the hive, amongst its many perks, could regain its full force in a little over two decades. And for Spirit Lords, that was a very short amount of time.

    Damien moved like disaster incarnate, swift and with brutal force. He tore through their heads, thorax, and their pincered abdomen In a deadly attack sequence that destroyed them; all the while he continued to Bombard their SkyShips with hundreds of starfalls and breath of destruction.

    It was well known that an average Hive Lord would lose every time against another Spirit lord of equal tier outside the Hive, which made it easier for Damien to deal with them; What they lacked in quality, though, they made up for in quantity.

    Damien slashed, putting half his overall physical strength into the blow, and tore through a Hive Lord from the elbow¨Cdownward. He continued, moving in between and dealing out devastating blows, putting terror into the hearts of those witnessing. When Damien was done, a significant portion of the Hive''s Spirit lords on the battlefield had dwindled. The remaining were either too damaged to fight any longer and had already sounded the call for retreat, or they were busy fighting the Alliance.

    "You! We know you, and it is an honor to fight against someone of such caliber," A beastkin called out, stepping up opposite him while five more gathered behind her.

    Damien looked at the tigress, with a silver-white coat with dark stripes as black as night. Her chest was bare while a dark red material, the color of dried blood, wound around her waist. Black beaded chains rattled around her waist as her long tail gently swished around. On both her arms were also obsidian-colored bracers that glinted brightly in the sky. Around her neck wound large silver beaded chains. All of these pieces of jewelry were powerful treasures, no doubt, judging from the aura they emitted.

    "If you know about me, then you know that to stand against me in arms means death."

    The tigress brought her two arms forward, squeezed into a fist. She gently brought them together, closely but not touching. "This one is called Hjera Nikku, and this one would be honored to die at the hands of a Great chieftain such as you. Helping our retreat will be a bonus."

    Damien knew who a Great Chieftain was: a being considered powerful enough to lead the other Chieftains of their various clans. There was only one Great chieftain in the Torinian kingdom, and she had undisputed authority over the whole Kingdom.

    Damien nodded, "Then I hope Ever¨CWarring Father welcomes you into his Everlasting war."

    The woman''s eyes misted. "Thank you."

    Behind his six opponents, the air howled and the world turned red as six Astral images manifested.

 Chapter 61 : WAR â€“ Dismemberment Galore

    Damien crossed his arms, weathering a physical blow from a beastkin of the buffalo race. He was pushed back by the force of the attack but managed to turn his uncontrolled spin into a kick, slamming his right foot into the rib cage of the Tigress who had come in behind the Buffalo''s attack. Her fall created a crater a mile wide.

    His six opponents surrounded him in a half-crescent formation, with three fighters arraigned at the front, two pseudo casters¨Cassassins behind them, and a healer standing at the far back. The Spirit lords from the Torinian Kingdom were already powerful, but with the addition of their fully manifested Astral images, they were now formidable, their overall powers doubling. He respected them more for that quick, lifesaving decision.

    His cloak ¨C his half-manifested astral image ¨C swayed gently despite the violent winds threatening to swat them down.

    With the brief stalemate ended, they came in again. A Wolfman from the first line slashed his sword through the air, sending a crescent silver blue energy towards Damien, to which he swayed out of the way, swinging his spear as he came around....

    [Assassin coming up on your right,] Gray warned.

    ..... Catching a familiar looking snake woman in the collarbone as she tried to sneak up on him. She hissed in painful annoyance, jumping back and quickly receiving healing from the healer.

    "Why do you look familiar? I feel like I''ve seen you somewhere before." Damien tapped his chin.

    The woman glared in visible anger. "You do not even remember?"

    Damien studied her features, hair as black as night with silver-slitted eyes. A black coat, almost similar to his, swayed widely as shadows danced around her like a tornado. Her twin daggers glinted silver in the already darkening sky.

    "Nope."

    [Damien, you killed her sister,] Gray piped up.

    "Who?"

    [Spirit Lady Elora.]

    "Ohhhhh," Damien snapped his fingers in remembrance, bringing back his full focus on the woman. "Your sister was Elora Darkfang, right? Whoa! You two look very alike. Why do you look alike?"

    [She and the late Elora were both sired from the same Mother. Torinian Vipers are sent out to fend for themselves as soon as they come of age. Elora must have come into the service of Solaris as soon as she left her clan''s care.]

    "My name is Elair Silja, heir to the seat of High Clan Silja, daughter of the Great Chieftess Tenere, Queen of the Kingdom of Torin. And to avenge my sister I will present your severed head as a Consolation prize to my Mother."

    "Huh... I don''t know what to say. I feel honored?"

    [You did that on purpose.]

    The woman came in again, twin daggers pointed at his throat. Damien jumped out of the way, idly blocking an attack from the wolfman, and then he jumped forward, gunning for the Deer healer standing behind them all. Again, he was blocked.

    Like any wise person, Damien had¡ª

    [Wise person? It was I who cautioned you on eliminating the healer first.]

    Damien ignored Gray. Anyway, as he was saying. Like any wise person, Damien had immediately recognized the threat the healer posed, or more likely, the stress. He had immediately moved towards her but was pushed back as the other six fought to defend her. Damien had tried multiple times to take out the healer, all to no avail. He was blocked every time.

    [You would be on the back foot right now if it weren''t for me,] Gray said.

    "But not dead, though," Damien replied.

    Gray murmured, speaking up a moment later. [If you say so, then let us make a bet?]

    "What do you have in mind?" Damien smiled.

    [If you fail to take out everyone here without my help, you will sing my praises for eternity.]

    "What! No, that''s unfair. How about a month?"

    [Hmm, let me think about it. Okay fine, we have an agreement.]

    Damien rolled his eyes. "What do I get when I win?"

    Gray snorted in amusement. [My unending adoration?]

    "I''ll take it."

    [Wait! That was a joke!]

    Damien gently waved his mental forefinger, "No takebacks."

    He then turned his attention back to his opponents. He channeled energy into his spear, shooting out a dense breath of destruction down towards the healer. The Tigress canceled his technique as she swiped her claws, and three silver lines appeared in thin air, clashing with his technique.

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    Damien swayed as his vision suddenly doubled. He managed to block a dagger to his neck from Elair but took a sword slash to the rib. He hissed in pain as he jumped back.

    "Gray," he called.

    [Nuh uh. Remember, you have to do this alone.]

    Damien grumbled, spreading his perception, he searched, pushing through a mental fog that had slowly been clouding his mind. He found his opponent a mile back, standing behind the Tigress. A Dream essence wielder.

    The moment he set his eyes on the Fox, Damien immediately brought her up as his number one priority. The healer could continue to heal her teammates, but if he allowed the Dream wielder more freedom, it wouldn''t take long before he would be incapacitated. He had already begun feeling something tempering with his senses.

    Already aware of the target on her, the dream wielder became more cautious. She slowly moved towards the healer, sharing the protection the others granted.

    Now becoming more serious, Damien moved in. He summoned tiny Starfalls down on them, exploding the tiny techniques prematurely before his opponents could get far out of range. Explosions dotted their bodies as they scattered. He moved in, clashing with the fox, buffalo, snake, and tigress as he was slowly pushed back. He delivered a kick to the arm of the Snake lady, taking a poisoned dagger to the knee in return. His body resisted the harmful intrusion but not without a violent reaction that left him open to a staggering punch from the buffalo that blasted him into the side of a mountain.

    Damien stood up, staggering an instant later as vertigo, courtesy of the Dream wielder, hit him. His mind cleared a moment later, and his vision returned quick enough for him to dodge three clawed slashes that rained down on him.

    Damien stood, surprised at how much he''d been pushed back. Realization hit him a moment later, "You''re all Clan Chiefs." It wasn''t a question.

    He was already aware that to most of the Spirit lords on the planet, he was considered overpowered. That was the reason he hadn''t reached the peak tier of Spirit lord after months of being stuck in the mid-tier, the longest he had ever stayed in a single tier. There wasn''t enough challenge. Only a few people on the planet could truly push him, and most of them had already passed the time when a fight like this would have excited them. Now they all just sat on their thrones or wherever they were, content to just stay as a passive deterrent towards any threat. For the rest, well, Damien was standing in front of some of them.

    Like the Kingdom''s Great Chieftain, it took a lot to become qualified for the honorable seat. Aside from the fact that your power had to be unchallenged in the clan, there were other qualifications that Damien didn''t know. The powers of the clan''s chieftain were second only to the Great Chief. And now they were standing opposite him.

    In response to his earlier statement, the Chiefs didn''t respond, wary of any trick, but their body language and subtle nod was answer enough. Damien sighed; he''d have to take this very seriously.

    Before he began, he sent multiple mental commands to the Alliance commanders, a command which was immediately heeded as the Alliance soldiers soon began their retreat, heading back into the portals. The retreat wasn''t challenged as even their enemies were also in the process of retreating.

    The Clan chiefs immediately retreated farther away as they sensed something about to happen.

    Damien didn''t give them time to wonder.

    The world howled as his Astral Image was manifested, rising up to cover the sky in grey. Power exploded out of him as his power skyrocketed, doubling In an instant. His aura which had been struggling to hold back theirs before, was now pushing them back, threatening complete suppression.

    He didn''t give them time to recover; spatially stepping in, he delivered a full powered punch to the wolf, audibly snapping his neck. Damien didn''t wait to see the results, moving on to the next opponent. He stepped closer to the Buffalo, stabbing his spear through armor and deep into the beast''s chest. His energy lashed out, snapping like a whip at the Tigress who had been coming behind. Damien staggered as a mental hammer slammed into him, but the effect was lessened enough that it didn''t do more than stagger him. He stretched his hands, catching the spear that flew into his hands and, in one smooth turn, sent a crescent-cutting energy toward a random position a few miles away from him. Shocked that he had easily discovered her position, the fox was a moment too late to avoid the attack. The mental fog that had been clouding her existence from his mind cleared away as she came into full view, blood gushing out of an armless shoulder. Before the healer could save her, Damien whipped his spear, the blade digging with an audible squelch into the fox''s throat. And with a mental trigger, the fox''s head separated from her body as a dense wave of energy released from the spear.

    Damien staggered back as he received a flaming punch to the temple. He stopped midway, catching the follow-up strike, and in one violent twist, tore out the arm of the Buffalo. His fist came in with full strength toward the thick throat of the Buffalo but he was forced to let go as a sonic wave hit him. His bones rattled painfully and blood dripped from both his ears and eyes as he withstood the attack. An average Spirit lord would have had their entire bones shattered from that attack.

    He grunted as two daggers slammed into his chest, doing little physical damage but he still forcefully removed them as poison began spewing into him. He caught the Snake lady as she came in, twisting her arms, he turned her toward an incoming attack from the tigress, using her body as a shield. Elair grunted painfully as three deep gashes opened up from her shoulder down to her pelvic area. Not finished, Damien balanced his right leg on her spinal cord, forcefully pulling, and with the sound of tearing meat and gushing of liquid he tore out both her arms, turning with a single step he threw both arms, the sharp bones lodging with a thud into both the forehead and chest of the oncoming Buffalo. Damien followed up, catching his spear and slashing. Another head flew.

    Drenched in blood and gore, he calmly turned toward the remaining four opponents, and for the first time, he saw true fright there. It was one thing to proclaim your acceptance of death, but to see it being carried out violently before you, with the knowledge that your turn could come in the next instant, it was things like this that made powerful figures cower.

    The four remaining opponents¨Ctwo if he excluded the armless snake woman and the noncombatant healer who was already healing her arms. That would take some time.

    The wolf that he''d punched was back now, and his hands kept unconsciously rubbing his neck. Damien guessed the healer had saved him a moment from death.

    "Who''s¡ª"

    Damien dodged to the side as a flurry of daggers came out of nowhere. He managed to avoid most of them, but some lodged painfully in his arms.

    He pulled them out, his senses scanning. He wouldn''t have gotten them, but for the momentary flicker of energy he sensed. He hadn''t encountered them before, but he knew of them nonetheless.

    Someone had put a contract on his head.

    The Shadow Hall had come to collect.

 Chapter 62 â€“ WAR : Visitors

    The sky was crimson red and the air tasted like blood. The sand was filled with uncountable numbers of leech creatures crawling through, which were capable of boring holes into any being without them being the wiser.

    In place of flesh, Rizhak grafted a thick, powerful, war metal onto the shoulder socket of his victim. The metal had been previously crafted into the shape of a sword in preparation for the procedure. He picked up two long, stretched-out muscles, twining them like threads into a needle, and then he grafted them between the shoulder joint and war metal. Picking up his cross pein and placing a thick, inches wide nail on the joint, he brought the hammer down, chanting all the way.

    "Flesh begets Flesh."

    "Flesh binds Flesh."

    "Flesh is Flesh."

    His victim twitched in response, too tired from earlier processes to voice out any signs of pain, though his eyes watched Rizhak in fear as he worked.

    "Do not be afraid," Rizhak comforted. "I will make you into a perfection."

    He knew his patient did not believe him, but Rizhak knew he would make good on his promise.

    Humans, in his opinion, were a subpar race. He knew others disagreed with him, but he truly believed so. Compared to the other races, the human race was far below standard. They lacked the great agility granted to the elves at birth. The great survivability of the dwarves. And the natural armor-like body and speed of the beasts and scale races. Even flight was naturally denied them. Such a pitiful race.

    His grafted leathery wings ¨C taken from the corpse of a Red dragon ¨C flapped widely as his excitement bled into them.

    "Such exquisite specimen," he cooed, gently rubbing his patient''s forehead, to which the man''s eyes widened in terror.

    "Do not be like that," he murmured. "I just want to make you into a better version of yourself. You will eventually thank me when I am done."

    It had cost him dozens of his previous creations to safely capture such a great specimen as this. Thankfully, he did not lose as much compared to if he had gone searching for specimens as fortified as this.

    A few days back, he had been attacked by finger-level assassins from the Shadow Hall, accompanied by their Claw-level acolytes. Rizhak knew enough about the Shadow Hall to recognize their threat level, which had led to him deploying twice the number of some of his precious creations. He didn''t know how they had found him, but seeing the great gifts that had been delivered up to him, he refused to complain.

    Although he had lost all the captured Claws due to their bodies not yet fortified enough to withstand his procedures, he still used their failed procedures as a lesson for his better subjects.

    Finished with the arms which had been transformed into true, unparalleled weapons, he moved on to the legs.

    Rizhak picked up a limb, taken from the lower parts of an early-tier Monarch goat from the beastkin race. He had kept the leg ¨C imbued for years ¨C since he hadn''t found a perfect subject to use it on. Now looking at it, he couldn''t help but marvel at the agile power and resilience.

    Placing it at the joint where it met the hip, Rizhak chanted again.

    "Blood begets Blood."

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    "Blood binds Blood."

    "Blood is Blood."

    He chanted two more times as a dozen tendrils of blood slowly pooled out from both body parts, twinning and mixing until slowly, they became one, pulling the goat limb onto the lower torso.

    Rizhak stepped back, awed at the perfect, seamless conjoining. No evidence shown whatsoever of the process that had just been done.

    Done, he moved on to the second leg, beginning the same process all over again until his subject was now fitted with two perfectly strong and agile legs. Rizhak smiled as he admired his work.

    "Don''t you look so beautiful?" His eyes misted. "I know this is all new to you, but you will see the right of it soon enough. You will be perfect," he looked at his other waiting subjects ¨C including those still in their cages. "I will make you all perfect."

    Done with the lower part of the body, Rizhak ignored his subject''s moaning pleas as he rolled him over, turning the back facing upward. Rizhak pulled out his scalpel and, in one smooth, deep cut, tore open a line, a foot long, down the man''s back close to his shoulder blades. He controlled the blood flow that tried to pull out, taking a sip and then putting the rest back.

    Rizhak brought out a wing, taken from the corpse of an avian calamity beast. The wing, a treasure of silver metallic alloy. The feathers, Instead of being organic like some other birds, were all metal: hundreds of sharp silver detachable metallic feathers.

    He had found the corpse a short distance away from the body of a holes riddled sonic griffin.

    "Blood begets Blood."

    "Flesh begets Flesh."

    "Blood binds Flesh."

    "All brought together by the great Creator."

    Chanting the same ritual and watching as the same blood tendrils wrapped around the scapular and then pulled it deep into the flesh, Rizhak watched as seamlessly, the flesh closed in around it. Satisfied, he did the same for the second wing.

    "Now for your head and neck, we wouldn''t want you unfortunately getting decapitated after all the perfection done on your body, would we?"

    Tears streaked down the subject''s eyes as he watched Rizhak bring out a metallic neck clasp. Despite his weakened state, he began shaking his head, eyes wide and tears streaking.

    "No," Rizhak commanded. "None of that."

    At his command, his subject stopped, frozen still.

    "Your stubbornness displeases me. I do not like subjects who displease me. Do you want my displeasure?."

    Calmly, Rizhak approached, bringing the opened clasp around the subject''s neck, when he stopped.

    Turning in a single motion, the metallic clasp rang loudly as it deflected a dagger aimed at his head.

    "More presents!" Rizhak smiled.

    At his words, two figures manifested out of shadows. Rizhak couldn''t tell anything about them other than the dark purple cloak they wore and the purple insignia of a hand on one chest and another drawing of a bird on the other.

    They said nothing as they stood there, eerily still and watching him.

    "Are you here to volunteer for one of my operations? Like I said to them, I promise to make you a better version of yourselves."

    Still, they said nothing.

    "Don''t you know it is rude to ignore your host?"

    The shorter figure eerily tilted their head sideways, their voice coming out scratchy and difficult to identify. "You are the fleshcrafter, Rizhak?"

    A big smile blossomed on Rizhak''s face. "Yes, I am. I am glad that my work has made me so famous that figures of such prestige would pay me a visit," he waved towards his captured subjects. "Although I think your previous Envoys were a little bit rude."

    The two never took their shadow-covered hoods away from Rizhak. "We are here for business."

    Rizhak jumped up excitedly, clapping. "Ohhh. Business partners are always welcome. What can I offer you? Although I only have my homemade blood wine, I could send a servant to go procure something else if that is not to your taste."

    ***

    Damien floated, his fully manifested Astral image behind him and facing those from the Torinian clan chiefs. Below, the last stragglers from the Alliance had just crossed back, returning to their various staging halls.

    "So, who put the contract on me?" He said out loud.

    The clan chiefs looked confused, turning questioning looks toward each other and then back to Damien.

    But he wasn''t referring to them.

    Damien looked down on both his wrists, seeing the tattoo-free skin. "Don''t you people usually.... like, mark your targets with one of those eerily appearing tattoos?"

    Still, no reply. But he got his answer a moment later when his wrist burned, and the marking of a raven in flight appeared.

    "Wow! I''ve never had a tattoo before."

    Damien sighed. "If you won''t say anything other than eerily hiding in the shadows like that, I''m going to have to take my leave."

    Space tore open in a purple, human-sized, filmy glow, swallowing him, and Damien allowed it.

    Knowing for a fact that the assassins wouldn''t follow.

 Chapter 63: WAR â€“ Hands

    Damien stepped onto the cobblestoned courtyard in the castle of Cirin. The place was chaotic as thousands of soldiers hurried from one location to the other. He moved forward, nodding back in greeting to the guards standing at the castle''s large double doors.

    Stepping into the castle proper, Damien took two turns, side-stepping the staffs as they carried on with their tasks while he admired the smooth, controlled chaos as both military and civilian personnel carried out one task after another.

    He stepped into a large hall, his senses immediately, before his eyes, picking out the people awaiting his arrival.

    It was Fenore who spoke first.

    "How was the battle? We assumed that for it to warrant your personal intervention, it must have been beyond the ordinary."

    "Yes, the armies were already being swarmed by Hive drones. If I hadn''t intervened when I did, there might not have been any survivors left. Add that to the presence of the Torinian Clan chiefs, themselves, well¡­"

    "I don''t mean to presume, but I find it hard to believe that a few Clan chiefs or Hive swarms would be so powerful as to push you to withdraw,¡± SwordLord Danor said.

    Damien nodded. "Shadow Hall paid me a visit," he said.

    An instance of quiet enveloped the room, a deathly, still quiet, before Brunos spoke. "Shadow Hall?"

    "At first it was just me against the Clan Chiefs. Two of them are dead, though, and I was weakened enough even against the remaining. I could have finished off the rest, but the Hands intervened," he explained.

    "Hands? Shadow Hall must be really serious for them to send a couple of their Hands."

    "A Cadre," Damien corrected.

    "What?!" The whole room erupted.

    "They didn''t just send a couple; they sent a full cadre."

    This time, the silence that came lasted far longer. Damien didn''t blame them, a single average Spirit lord could hardly contend against a single Hand. Sending two against a target was a deadly sentence. Three was a guaranteed death. Damien had come across five and still lived to tell the tale. It showed how much his power had grown that Shadow Hall would send a full cadre of Hand-level assassins against him. And more importantly, it showed how desperate his enemies were to cut him down before he grew more powerful.

    "How are you still alive?" Danor whispered.

    Damien waved his hands nonchalantly. "Don''t worry about it. There''s a reason for everything. I''m sure this isn''t going to be my last encounter."

    "Do you know who put the contract on you?"

    Damien nodded. "They exposed themselves by the extravagance of employing such level of experts. It would take the overall wealth of more than two major cities to be able to afford a full cadre. And we all know that any nation that can afford that would likely destabilize itself economically from the cost alone. Only a single person could afford such an amount without batting an eye..."

    "Solaris."

    Damien nodded. "Like I said, don''t worry about it."

    "Doesn''t it worry you that he would stoop to paying such a steep price just to see you dead?"

    Damien laughed gently. "Oh, I''m worried, alright. But since I can''t do anything to avoid the arrow aimed at my heart, I might as well make use of its speed and trajectory to catapult myself higher, until their arrows can no longer reach me."

    Brunos sighed. "I hope you know what you are doing. I am not proud or blind enough to ignore the major significance you hold in this war for dominion. Without you, we would be crushed like swatted flies."

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    Damien stepped closer, placing a palm on the older man''s shoulder. "Hopefully, I won''t be going anywhere soon."

    "If you say so, then, I will have to take you at your word.¡±

    Damien nodded, satisfied. ¡°How is the war on the other fronts?¡±

    Brunos answered. ¡°We have taken over the border cities of Cartsk, Telvu, and Corlsa, and are in the process of retrofitting them into staging grounds for our invasion into the Empire heartlands.¡±

    Fenore continued. ¡°Three of the great families, Aetheris, Tyria, and Rayun, have descended on the Empire''s northern coasts. They have swept over and captured over four cities on their paths. Queen Yuseria sends her regards.¡±

    Damien nodded, turning toward the sword lord, Danor.

    ¡°My disciples have infiltrated the border city of Yohle. Although they aren''t trained infiltrators, they should be able to carry out their tasks efficiently. Though, they might encounter some problems.¡±

    ¡°Acceptable. The southern coastal cities are the only ones remaining before the noose begins to tighten around the Empire, but I predict fierce opposition seeing as those coastal cities have a direct route to the capital.¡±

    ¡°And we are forgetting the fact that the Emperor, himself, hasn''t taken to the battlefield.¡±

    Damien nodded. ¡°Leave Solaris to me, he''s my responsibility.¡±

    ¡°As you wish.¡±

    ¡°Alright then, if there isn''t anything more, I''ll be taking my leave. Do be cautious, though. I''m not personally familiar with Solaris much, so I''ll give you the advice history taught the previous opposition. Solaris does not leave the kitchen.¡±

    Damien nodded, making his way back out of the room. He took a corner, heading down and then coming up before a staircase. He smiled calmly as he walked up the stairs. He could have used the castle''s internal transporter, but he needed the calmness that a simple stroll brought.

    He took two more stairs before he came upon the open doorway of another waiting hall. The guards, recognizing him, bowed as they uncrossed their spears

    "Hersk, how''s the wife?" He addressed the man standing on the left.

    The Monarch realm man, young in face but far older than Damien in actuality, grinned fiercely as he answered. "Twins, sir."

    Damien stopped, a huge smile blooming on his face. "Twins?"

    "A boy and a girl."

    "Wow, congrats!" He stepped closer, giving the man a fierce shake and a friendly pat on the back. "Why are you still at work? You should be taking care of your wife."

    "Well," the man rubbed the back of his head, an embarrassed look on his face. "She threatened to kick me into a mountain peak if I kept babysitting her."

    "Ouch," Damien placed a palm on his chest. "Knowing Ceila, I don''t doubt she wouldn''t do it."

    "Yeah."

    "Anyway, congrats! I''ll make sure to be there for the official naming ceremony."

    Hersk adopted a hesitant look. "Uh, about that. I was wondering.... I¨CI mean, we were wondering i¨Cif it would be possible for the high priestess to officiate the ceremony?"

    "You want Menoe to officiate your children''s naming ceremony?"

    The man winced. "Don''t worry about it, sir. It isn''t my place to demand such precious time from her."

    Damien brought his hands up, stopping the man. "Wait, wait. Hold on. I never said she wouldn''t do it. Okay, here''s this. I''ll talk to her and see if she will be available on that day. Though, I won''t promise you anything concrete, but let''s see. When''s the day?"

    A hopeful smile ignited on the man''s face. "Next Tuesday, sir."

    "Well, till Tuesday, then," Damien said, already moving into the large waiting room. "Congrats once again, and send my greetings to the wife!"

    Damien hadn''t gone too far when Gray said with surprise. [Who are you?]

    Damien, confused, asked. "What do you mean?"

    [I haven''t seen that side of you before.]

    "What side?"

    [The friendly neighborhood type. I thought you were all steam and anger.]

    "Well, that''s because you haven''t known me for long."

    [True, but the way you spoke with him implied a long acquaintance.]

    "Oh, yeah. Me and Hersk go way back, a few months now. I met him at a bar in the city and he challenged me to a drinking contest," Damien smiled, walking past and nodding to everyone as they stooped and bowed.

    [He challenged you?] Gray sounded flabbergasted.

    "Yeah. Although he didn''t know who I was back then, but that didn''t stop him the second time," he continued smiling. "That man can soak in alcohol like a sponge. We still have an open contest going on."

    [What contest?]

    "Person with the most jugs"

    [Isn''t that dangerous? His body isn''t like yours, he could die?]

    "Nah, don''t worry; I always have a healer on standby." Damien waved his hands, moving up another staircase and into a more prestigious section of the palace. This was a place where only foreign dignitaries and powerful figures stayed whenever they visited. Nobody below the Monarch realm was allowed in the section and even those were only let in when they had important duties to carry on.

    [I can''t imagine Queen Fenore letting you borrow one of the most important people In her kingdom just for a drinking contest.]

    "Oh, she could say no, and the only thing I''d do is grumble and then promptly forget about it. But Fenore, deep down, fears angering me, and that stops any sign of refusal."

    [You are evil.]

    Damien laughed, loudly. "No, I''m not. I''m just taking advantage of an opportunity."

    They finally came to his destination, a huge, seven-foot door, sectioned off from the others in the long hallway. It was painted a dull bronze color and hummed to his senses.

    Damien knocked, pulled the handle open, and stepped inside.

    "Look who''s home!"

 Chapter 64 : Cockroaches, Ewrgh!

    As soon as he stepped into the room, a little boy, two years of age, who had been playing with flying essence constructs made from wind energy, immediately ran towards Damien, his tiny legs carrying him far faster than even the fastest creatures on the planet.

    Damien bent, swooping the boy up in one smooth hug. "Haa, how''re you doing, Adrian?"

    The boy babbled something incomprehensible and then giggled, his tiny hands stretching towards Damien''s shoulder-length hair.

    "That good, huh?"

    Gray then manifested on Damien''s other shoulder, taking on his tiny form. Seeing this, Adrian immediately switched his attention to Gray, his tiny grabbers leaving Damien to go after Gray.

    [No! Shoo! Shoo! Don''t do that. I am not a toy!]

    Gray''s avoidance only made the boy try harder.

    "Welcome back," someone said, coming out from a door to the left.

    Damien turned toward Keilan, a big smile on his face. "Hey, Kei, how''re you doing?"

    Keilan shrugged. "Okay, I guess. I made breakfast. Fried eggs placed into the sliced open middle of a big loaf of bread, just how you like it."

    Damien''s eyes narrowed. "You fried the bread a little?"

    "There''s brown crust on it."

    A big smile immediately bloomed on Damien''s face. "You''re the best, Kei!"

    "Wow, such praise. Gray, are you sure this is my brother?" Keilan murmured.

    "Ohh, don''t be like that. Guess who just gave birth?"

    Keilan raised an eyebrow. "You know better than to make me play a guessing game, Dame."

    "Ahh, alright. Ceila."

    Keilan frowned, stepping forward. "Ceila? Wife to your drinking buddy?"

    "Yup, the one and only. Twin bouncing babies."

    "Wow, talk about double blessings. Hersk must be psyched."

    "Ohh, definitely. You should have seen his face, he couldn''t get that big goofy smile off of it."

    [Am I the only one who''s surprised that Damien hangs out with people other than you, and in a casual manner?]

    Keilan snorted. "You should see the shenanigans they pull off whenever they manage to get drunk."

    [What?!]

    "Hey! It''s not that bad," Damien defended.

    "At least one thing''s for sure: Hersk will not be visiting the bar anytime soon; Ceila would dunk him alive in an active volcano."

    Damien smiled mischievously, tickling Adrian as the boy giggled. "I wouldn''t bet on that."

    Keilan sighed, changing the topic. "So, how was the battle?"

    Gently, Damien put Aiden down, leaving him to the futile endeavor of trying to catch Gray. "Well, as all battles go; unpredictable. I fought the six clan chiefs today."

    "Wow, that serious?"

    "Yeah, and I met this lady. She had a huge resemblance to our late mutual friend, Elora."

    "Seriously?"

    "Yep, said she was Elora''s sister, Elair."

    "Wow, they seem to like the letter E."

    "Tell me about it," Damien sighed.

    "How do you plan on handling it then?"

    "I don''t have the will to go active, I''ll just wait for her to come to me."

    "The same way her sister did?" Keilan asked.

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    "Yup."

    [Don''t forget the bet you lost] Gray annoyingly chirped in.

    "Bet?" Keilan looked between them.

    Damien dragged out a groan. "I bet Gray that I could take out all the clan chiefs without his help."

    "And you lost?" Keilan smiled.

    [Yes! He couldn''t even take out half.]

    "That was not my fault! If the¡ª" His mouth immediately slammed shut.

    "If what?" Keilan asked.

    "Nothing," Damien said.

    [Shadow Hall intervened.]

    Damien groaned, why did Gray have to open his big, fat mouth?

    Sure enough, Keilan immediately leaned forward, narrowing his eyes in that way that always preludes yelling. "Shadow Hall?"

    [Yes. Apparently, someone put a contract on your brother''s head and they sent a full cadre to collect.]

    "Gray, shut up," Damien groaned.

    Keilan slowly turned his head toward Damien. "Care to explain?"

    Damien sighed. "It''s likely that Solaris was the one who put out the contract."

    Keilan sat back, resting his back fully on the sofa. He took a deep breath, slowly expelling it, and then he said to Damien. "We''ll figure this out."

    Damien sat up, confused. "Wait, you aren''t going to yell at me?"

    "Why would I yell at you?"

    "You know, for purposely putting myself in danger, making too many enemies that they had to employ Shadow Hall just to off me, all those things."

    Keilan visibly breathed in. "Damien, you aren''t a child anymore, so I can''t yell at you."

    "That didn''t stop you the last time," Damien murmured.

    Keilan narrowed his eyes. "What was that?"

    "Nothing."

    "Anyway, yelling won''t solve anything. More likely, it would just leave us confused and disorganized. Easy pickings for the enemy."

    Damien nodded. "Hmm, wise words."

    Keilan scowled. "Don''t tempt me."

    Damien chuckled. "Anyway, if you aren''t going to yell at me, I might as well put something delicious in my stomach." He stood up, making his way toward the kitchen.

    The kitchen was a bluish-styled room, with more than a dozen ingenious cooking constructs placed all around the inside. Damien walked up to the kitchen table, his eyes already set on the flat plate with the huge loaf of bread sitting majestically on it. A piece of egg peeked out from the middle where the sliced open bread had been pressed back together. Damien couldn''t sniff enough, the mouth-watering aroma of skillfully fried eggs overwhelming even his vastly upgraded sense of smell.

    A large jug of freshly pressed orange juice sat beside it, looking enticing in its nigh golden radiance.

    Damien smiled. Due to his advanced stage and his body fortification, he didn''t need food or water for sustenance anymore, but that didn''t mean he''d stop eating. In his opinion, a good meal was paradise served on a plate.

    Keilan walked into the kitchen, Gray following and Adrian not far behind.

    "So, what''s your penalty for losing to Gray?"

    Damien quickly stuffed his mouth full of the unending bread so he didn''t have to answer. He turned his face away as Gray spoke instead.

    [Oh, he has to sing my praises for a month!] Damien shivered at the creepy way Gray spoke.

    "Your praises? Wow, I should bet more often if it means getting him to appreciate me more."

    "Hey!" Damien swallowed all the food in his mouth in one full gulp and then raised his hands in protest, a large loaf of bread in one hand and a jug of orange juice in the other. "I appreciate you! It''s just an unspoken appreciation, that''s all."

    "Well, you better start doing the opposite or I''m going to have to resort to drastic measures."

    [Oh. Oh.] Gray raised his tiny hands. [How about you make him work for it every time he doesn''t show appreciation?]

    "Traitor!"

    "That''s a good idea, Gray," Keilan rubbed his chin, contemplatively. "I could make him help out at Alchemist Gol''s shop anytime he acts unappreciative."

    Dread swept through Damien. "No," he whispered. "Please no."

    Gray looked confused. [Wow, you really put the fear in him. What''s in the alchemist''s shop that''s got Damien shivering?]

    "Cockroaches," Keilan smiled.

    [Cockroaches?]

    "Those things aren''t just simple cockroaches! They''re mutants!" Damien said, his face grouchy.

    Seeing Gray''s confusion. Keilan explained, ignoring Damien''s pleading eyes.

    "You see, Alchemist Gol''s shop, due to some of the mixologies he does in there, attracts a large, let''s say, immigration of cockroaches and other insects.

    Damien is terrified of cockroaches, and the cockroaches in the alchemist''s shop have all been exposed to some of the weird alchemical fumes spewing from whatever Gol''s cooking. Due to this, they became, let''s just say, more than they originally were, if you get what I mean."

    Gray nodded in understanding. [But I don''t get one thing.] He pointed at Damien. [How can you, a Spirit lord, be terrified of cockroaches? I''m confused.]

    "Those things are abominations," He shivered. "What evil being would create such things?"

    [The Celestial of Life,] Gray casually replied.

    "What?" Keilan and Damien both turned toward Gray.

    [The Celestial of Life,] he repeated. [The creation of life falls under its purview.]

    "Wait. I thought that was the celestial of Nature?" Damien questioned.

    [The Celestial of Life and Nature are the same. Nature is just the physical manifestation of life, that''s all.]

    "Hold on," Keilan said, realization hitting him. "If there''s a Celestial of Life, that means there''s also that of Death?"

    [Yes.]

    "How many Celestials are there?"

    Gray shook his head. [We''re treading on dangerous topics here. Unless you are ready to deal with the attention that brings, I suggest you take a step back.]

    "What does that mean?"

    [I meant, there is a knowledge threshold you could reach that will definitely draw eyes down on us. Unwanted eyes.]

    "Why does everything have to draw unwanted eyes?" Damien grumbled.

    [The intricacies of Karma also baffles me, too.]

    Damien dearly wanted to ask what that meant, but held his tongue.

    Annoyed, he put down the half-finished meal.

    "Want me to finish that for you?" Keilan pointed at the meal.

    "No," he shifted the plate away, hiding it from Keilan''s view.

    "I''ll just make mine, then."

    That perked Damien up. "Can you make me another one?" He made googly eyes at Keilan. "Pleaseeee."

    Keilan looked at him. "You haven''t finished the one on your plate."

    "Hey, two is better than one." And in three swift bites, he devoured what remained of the meal. "See. Now we''re back to one."

    [Ahhh!!!! Put me down!] Gray suddenly screamed.

    A big smile blossomed on Damien''s face as he turned to see Gray trying to squirm out of the tightly squeezed hand of Adrian.

    "Justice."

 Chapter 65 : Jug Champion!

    "DRINK! DRINK! DRINK! DRINK!....." The entire bar was a cacophony of shouting and pounding as Damien continued gulping down the alcoholic drink from a large keg held in his hands.

    "AHHHHHHH!!!!" The crowd cheered as he brought the Keg forcefully down on the table, sloshing the last drops from the mouth.

    Damien laughed, a triumphant smile on his face as he raised his hands, turning toward his competitor who had just collapsed.

    Two men came forward, dragging the man out of the stage to make way for the next challenger as Damien placed his now empty keg beside the five empty ones.

    "WHO''S NEXT?!" The announcer shouted. "Who Is Capable, Or Has The Balls To Challenge The Reigning Champion, The Everlasting!!"

    The crowd roared their approval, and a group began stamping their foot on the infused wooden floor.

    Damien turned towards the gathered audience, searching for his next challenger. He had already swept past four now, and from the resigned looks of the other prospective challengers, he could tell they were already getting reluctant.

    To spice things up, Damien added a prize. "For anyone capable of lasting through five kegs, I will award them the scales of a dragon! A true sea dragon!" He pulled out a gleaming sapphire scale from his soul vault, raising it for all to see.

    And he got the results he wanted.

    The crowd was immediately engulfed in greed, so much so that Damien could feel it on his skin. He didn''t blame them. The scale, harvested from a Spirit lord sea dragon he and Keilan had killed a few weeks back, was prize to behold.

    Renogoth had been an arrogant dragon prince ¨C the usual for all dragons ¨C who had been dragged to his death by the actions of his younger sibling. The results of its arrogance had resulted in Damien dismantling it piece by piece with Keilan picking up the scales as they fell toward the ocean.

    Due to its status as a dragon prince of a, no doubt, powerful dragon nest, they''d expected some form of retaliation from the dragon king for the death of his son. But for weeks now, aside from the scouts circling the continent, the nest hadn''t made any move.

    "UNBELIEVABLE!" The announcer screamed. "OUR BENEVOLENT REIGNING CHAMPION HAS DECIDED TO GIFT ANY CHALLENGER A DRAGON SCALE! A DRAGON SCALE!!"

    The announcer hadn''t gone five seconds before a hand rose above the crowd and a man pushed forward moments later.

    "Another Prospective Rich Man!" The announcer waved the man forward. "Tell us, Challenger. What is your name?"

    The heavily bearded man, wearing a simple cotton shirt and pants, nervously stammered. "J¨CJon, s¨Csir."

    "Well, Jon. Do you believe your odds of winning the Dragon scale tonight or even defeating the champion?!"

    Jon stammered, nervously glancing at the smiling Damien. He managed a quick, nervous nod.

    "Speak up, Jon! The crowd wants to hear our prospective champion speak!"

    In a moment of instant courage, Jon shouted. "I will become the next reigning champion!"

    The crowd roared their approval at his audacity, and the announcer slapped the now-nervous Jon on the back. "That''s good! We like some balls. Now, take your seat!" He directed Jon toward the chair opposite Damien, the crowd roaring their constant approval as he moved.

    Jon, nervous so much it showed in his movement, staggered toward the table Damien was sitting at, crashing onto the chair.

    Damien gave a comforting smile as the man sat down. "Calm, Jon. This is a friendly space."

    His words seemed to only make the man more nervous, so Damien spoke again, this time projecting a soothing aura. "Hey, want to know what helps me when I''m nervous?" When the man nodded, Damien continued. "I take a deep breath and then count up to five, and then release it. If it doesn''t work the first time, do it again until you feel yourself calming."

    This time, his words, combined with the soothing aura he projected, seemed to calm the man, and he visibly took a deep breath, doing as Damien advised.

    "RELEASE THE KEGS!!" The announcer roared, the crowd joining in.

    A path was cleared as a group of men walked in, pushing a wheelbarrow filled with two dozen Kegs of powerful intoxicants.

    "Now, as I stated before. To win, you have to down all twelve kegs, or if not, at least last longer than your opponent!" The announcer said, the sound-enhancing enchantments sewn into his attire, broadcasting his voice clearly through the loud chaos amongst the audience.

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    "As you well know, our reigning champion has fended off four challengers today, and still holds the Champion''s Jug for his undefeated streak!" He pointed towards a Golden Jug gleaming on an illuminated pedestal.

    Now the announcer turned towards the calmed Jon. "If you can defeat our reigning champion, not only will you be leaving here with a dragon scale, a precious reward that would instantly lift you to the rank of the richest of nobles, you will also be awarded the Champion''s Jug, obviously! And not only that.. there''s more!" The announcer made sure everyone was listening in before he continued.

    "If you can defeat our reigning champion, not only will you be leaving with a dragon scale prize or the champion jug, but your name will be immortalized all over Camlen and beyond as the man who defeated The Grey-eyed Calamity! You will be a god amongst men! Forever worshiped as the almighty Master of the JUG! An impossible title that even our reigning champion hasn''t earned yet!"

    Although already infused with magical reinforcement so powerful it would require the strength of a Monarch to fully bring it down, the entire bar shook as a highly intoxicated audience stamped their feet joyfully.

    Although most of the people in the room were soldiers, the few non-military attendees weren''t surprised by the next words that came out from the announcer.

    "Don''t be nervous. In here, our champion isn''t wearing the prestigious mantle of a Spirit lord or any of those powerful names he goes by on the outside. In here, we call him the Jug lord, our reigning champion! So prepare yourself, we begin in a few seconds."

    Damien stopped just as he was about to begin setting down his first five kegs, his sense prickling. Usually, he didn''t pay much attention to the crowd whenever he was in the bar since they were all harmless ¨C at least to him ¨C and none would be so foolish as to try anything untoward whenever he was present. But this time, he subtly spread his senses, careful not to overwhelm any of the sensitive lords present. Soon enough, to his left, he found his quarry. His eyes snapped towards the location, narrowed in confusion. But since nothing harmful was likely to occur, he chose to ignore it for now.

    "All Contestant Ready?!" The announcer shouted, and Damien immediately placed his first keg on the large round table.

    "THREE!" The announcer shouted, waving for the audience to join in.

    Damien lifted two more jugs, placing them in a line in front of him.

    "TWO!"

    He lifted another two, watching as his opponent did the same.

    "ONE!"

    He opened the cover of his first keg, savoring the alcoholic smell that spewed out.

    "GOO!!!!"

    In one smooth, experienced motion, Damien lifted the jug, one-handed, to his mouth, his throat bobbing an instant later as he began gulping down the alcohol.

    "AND THE CONTEST TAKES OFF WITH BOTH CONTESTANTS ON EQUAL FOOTING, THOUGH OUR CHAMPION SEEMS TO BE LEADING THE RACE, OUR CHALLENGER ISN''T FAR BEHIND!"

    Damien finished the first keg in ten seconds, not minding the little splash of liquid that dripped down on his shirt. They were practically mundane clothing.

    He picked up his second keg.

    "WHOA!!! OUR CHAMPION HAS JUST FINISHED HIS FIRST KEG, BEATING HIS OWN RECORD BY TWO SECONDS. OUR CHALLENGER IS NOW A FEW SECONDS BEHIND! SEEMS HE ISN''T GOING TO GIVE THE CHAMPION AN EASY TIME, HEH!"

    The audience began clapping, their encouragement visibly encouraging his opponent as Damien watched the man''s pace increase.

    "WHOAAA!!! JON IS TRULY ON THE RISE TO GIVE OUR CHAMPION A RUN FOR HIS MONEY! LOOK AT HIM CHASE DOWN OUR CHAMPION WITH GUSTO!"

    Damien''s eyes were still on Jon, so he was a few seconds faster in carrying the third Keg.

    "AND THEY ARE FINALLY INTO THE THIRD LEVEL. LOOK AT OUR CHAMPION DEFEND HIS TITLE LIKE A MADDENED MAN!!" The announcer roared. "I HOPE YOU ALL PLACED YOUR BET WELL, OR YOU''LL BE LEAVING HERE WITH EMPTY POCKETS!!"

    Damien, with the body fortification of a spirit lord, managed to keep ahead of Jon even after they went into the fourth keg. But even without that, he noticed that the alcohol was already getting to Jon; judging by the sluggish manner he picked up the latest Keg. With criss-crossed eyes and a sloping head, Jon collapsed just after the fifth Keg, earning himself an approving stampede from the crowd.

    "ANDDDDD WE HAVE..... A WINNERRRR!!!!!" Damien raised his hands in triumph, roaring alongside the audience. "ALTHOUGH OUR CHALLENGER WILL BE LEAVING HERE WITH A DRAGON SCALE, OUR CHAMPION HAS, ONCE AGAIN, KEPT HIS JUG!"

    "As protocol awards," the announcer continued. "After every five challenges, our champion is allowed a brief reprieve." The man then turned to Damien. "Unless he wishes to continue?"

    Damien, who had been of the mind to accept the break, was interrupted when a voice called out.

    "I wish to contest!"

    The announcer shook his head. "Sorry, man. No challengers for the moment, our champion has earned his break."

    The man who spoke was a seven-foot-tall brute of a man with flaming red hair that drifted down his shoulder like a cloak. His equally long beard dangled down his chin in a smooth, red shine.

    Hastily, Damien sent him a mental message. "What are you doing here?"

    Except for his seven-foot-tall brutish height, all the ethereal mysticism that usually followed spirit lords was toned down, almost non-existent, if what Damien''s senses were telling him was true, reducing him to a mundane normalcy that managed to excuse his strange height.

    Brunos raised an eyebrow. "Well.... I heard about the bar that the great calamity frequents. And despite my full hands, I decided to take the time off to come see for myself."

    Damien narrowed his eyes. "Well, now you''ve seen. You know the way to the door."

    Brunos then smiled, a smile that intuited Damien on the fact that the next sentence coming out of the man would not be one he would like. "Well, now I''ve seen, and I find myself curious. I''ve always been told I''m quite an alcoholic, so I felt I might as well see if I can measure up to you." Despite his very brutish appearance that bespoke violence, Brunos still managed to project innocence. "The crowds are waiting for their Champion''s response."

    Damien''s expression turned neutral as he looked away from Brunos and toward the audience. He fumed inside as he saw their anticipation. If he didn''t give them what they wanted, they would lose their faith in him.

    Resigned, but not showing it, he responded. "I accept."

    "OH, OH! OUR CHAMPION HAS JUST ACCEPTED HIS SIXTH CHALLENGE IN A ROLL! OUTSTANDING!"

    Before the announcer could continue, Brunos raised his hands, drawing the attention of everyone. "Why don''t we up the number of kegs? I feel like a dozen is too small."

    "DID YOU HEAR THAT, PEOPLE! SUCH AUDACITY! SUCH BRAVERY!!"

    Damien''s eyes widened as he turned toward Brunos. "What are you doing?"

    "Why? Is twelve the highest you can go?" The man calmly replied, his nonchalant expression scaring Damien.

    Damien sputtered. "No! I was just... I was just. Arrgh, fine! Have it your way! I''ll crush you regardless."

    Brunos just shrugged in response.

    "RELEASE THE KEGS!!"

 Chapter 66 : Professor Gray!! Potential

    "Potential...."Gray slowly rubbed his chin. "Truthfully, even I don''t understand much about this esoteric concept. But what I know, though, should suffice.

    "Have you ever wondered how Solaris became so strong he was able to take on the entire continent? Have you ever wondered how you and Keilan are so strong you''re practically unmatched against other Spirit lords? Why are you both capable of punching above your weight class?

    "Potential, that''s what. What differentiates you, Keilan, and Solaris from the other Spirit lords is the quality of potential you amounted, and how you earned it.

    "Potential is one of the single most important concepts that relies entirely on merit; the more effort you put in, the better its quality when you eventually earn it. I don''t know much about Solaris'' past, but knowing the broad view of how he took and rebuilt what is now known as the ''Solarian Empire'', I can safely assume that he worked tooth and nail for that power. He put in his blood and sweat, and those of others, though forcefully taken, to become what he is today: one of the most powerful warriors to have ever walked the planet.

    "You and Keilan, on the other hand, survived an impossible ordeal. There is a reason why even the most powerful of nobles with expertly trained scions still require a powerful guardian to be in attendance during a Proto-space expedition meant to level said scions.

    "Proto-spaces, to give a brief overview, are unpredictable. You could think yourself safe enough if you only keep to the zone you''re most powerful in, and then all of a sudden," Gray snapped his tiny fingers. "A higher realm monster, for one rare reason, comes badging into the zone."

    "I thought that was impossible?" Damien frowned.

    Gray shook his head. "It is rare, but not unheard of. The fact that there are zones to isolate the different realms of monsters doesn''t mean the monsters have to adhere to them. It all comes down to potential."

    "Too bad your great potential couldn''t help you against Brunos," Keilan snickered.

    "He cheated!" Damien protested.

    "Okay, how?"

    "I mean... I don''t know, yet. But I''ll find out." He swore.

    "Just accept it, Dame. You lost. Brunos beat you at your own drinking competition."

    Damien was about to retort when Gray interrupted. "Will you both stop acting like children, for once?!"

    Damien fumed but kept his mouth shut. He did give Keilan the stink eye, though, for good measure.

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    "Thank you! Now as I was saying." Gray continued. "The more powerful, compared to you, a creature is, the more potential you gain, and with a better quality, too. Even monsters understand it, that is why a majority of them choose not to go down a tier, but up.

    "By surviving and thriving in a Proto space for months, the sheer quantity and quality of potential you both gained would be more than enough to stave off any draw backs you would have accumulated from your years of speed leveling.

    "Speed leveling?" Damien asked.

    "Yes, speed leveling. Nobody is supposed to grow this fast without acquiring a weight on their soul from all the excess potential and not enough soul strength to absorb it. Most people who participate in speed leveling like this always slow down at some point to bleed off their momentum and give their soul time enough to finish absorbing the excess potential."

    "That was why you wanted me to absorb that orb construct you came along with," Damien said, realization dawning.

    "Yes," Gray smiled. "That was until I perused your memories and saw that you wouldn''t need it."

    "Soul enhancers, for lack of a better term, upgrade the soul. They passively enhance your soul so that you won''t stall ever again. Unlike you, Keilan would have eventually stalled. But you... Let''s just say, due to your unique origins, you have a better soul than most."

    Damien immediately leaned forward, eager. "Tell me more."

    Gray grinned. "Ohhh, I wouldn''t want to spoil the surprise.

    "You both spent the entirety of half your teenage life in a Proto-space, ascending the zones. The sheer qualitative benefits alone were probably enough to remove any stall effects.

    "What about Solaris, is he also like us?"

    "I doubt that," Gray answered. "Like I said, you both survived the impossible, without any outside assistance from any greater being. Solaris, talented as he is, did not go through the same ordeal. The potential he gathered was probably enough to see him through to Spirit King, and I''m sure he''s still carrying a soul weight, right now. But as long as he hasn''t bled off the excess potential, he isn''t advancing anywhere."

    "Wait! So he isn''t going to advance ever again?"

    "Hold on," Keilan interrupted. "What do you mean by ''outside assistance from any greater being?''"

    "I did not say he isn''t going to advance again, just that his advancement will be stalled for the foreseeable future, probably at least a hundred years. To a Spirit King, that''s just a weekend.

    "And yes, I meant exactly what you''re thinking. The reason you earned the quality of potential you have was because there wasn''t anyone more powerful to hog all the greater benefits. A higher realm being needs more quality and quantity of potential than you. So even if they provide the smallest of assistance in your monster hunting expedition, they''re automatically granted benefits sufficient enough for them. Even if it is the least of what they can be granted, it is still a fortune to you."

    Keilan then spoke Damien''s mind. "Aren''t you a higher being?"

    "Yes," Gray sighed. "And now we get to the reason for all this: I cannot help you any longer."

    "What?"

    "I mean, aside from the passive upgrades to his senses Damien benefits, I will no longer render any assistance during your battles."

    "You do know that our fighting capabilities would reduce drastically if you aren''t there to offer insights into the enemy''s techniques?"

    "Yes," Gray admitted. "But not as much as the detriment to your future growth if I keep holding your hands through every battle. You will keep growing, regardless of any help I choose not to render. And any knowledge you require into the fighting capabilities of your enemies can be offered before or after the battle, not during.¡±

 Chapter 67 : An Overwhelming Display of Power

    Following the invasions and subsequent conquering of multiple cities by the Alliance, the empire soon began losing battlegrounds, fast, as they were continuously barraged on multiple fronts. This allowed the Alliance to swiftly gain control of multiple cities as the Empire was slowly overwhelmed by the powers arraigned against it.

    But not for long.

    Solaria, known widely for its strength and adaptability, soon began pushing back. The allied forces in the borderlands began a slow, fierce retreat as the Empire, Torinian, and Hive forces threatened to consume them in numbers, all the while, the Great families attacking the Empire''s northern fronts stalled in their attacks as they, too, faced fierce opposition.

    The war took a huge turn when unsurprisingly, but shocking all the same, portals began opening on the western parts of the continent, northwest to be exact.

    The Solarian generals, aware that an invasion on both Camlen and Gandor, while possible, would quickly lose momentum as they faced fierce opposition from both kingdoms as well as their Great allies, decided to attack from the northwestern region of the continent. This forced the Alliance to devote soldiers down there to contain the enemy.

    The results of these events gave the empire some breathing space as their enemies also began defending against an invasion on their own turfs. The smaller kingdoms were the first to fall, giving the Empire a foothold in the region. Powerful techniques were unleashed as cities were overrun or, more unfortunately for some, razed to the ground. Those cities were then transformed by the empire as staging grounds for a direct attack on the Alliance heartlands. Only the recent forces reinforcement provided by the Spirit King Great families saved the alliance from being completely pushed out of the northwest.

    After months of tugging back and forth between the Alliance and the Empire, another development came into the mix, adding fuel to an already inflamed inferno.

    Aware of the blood feud between the Ren Dragon nest and the Elason brothers, Alliance military speculists speculated when they thought the Dragons would choose to carry out their revenge. Though they predicted the right time, the location of the attack still left them stumped.

    Zirsts was an isolated coastal city in the northern part of the Greensend continent. Although surrounded by large forests and vast grasslands, it wasn''t completely isolated from the rest of the continent; just isolated enough that it would take time for any kind of help to arrive should they need it.

    The city of Zirsts, although considered large, was nothing more than a small port city mainly used for sea and aerial travel between the Greensend and the Desolate continent ¨C formerly Norelane. It was frequented mostly by pilgrims, historians, cartographers, and treasure hunters.

    A city of twenty million, most luckily to have fled the region to more protected and prosperous kingdoms like Nuraea, which was led by the Great family, Fyre. The other remaining inhabitants, mostly either too poor to relocate or too old for such a long-distance journey, opted to stay back.

    That bright, sunny morning, the population of Zirsts woke up to the blaring of a citywide siren that warned of an impending Tsunami that blotted out the horizon.

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    Of course, they knew it wasn''t natural.

    The already gloomy tone took a more darker note when, instead of an expected Solarian invasion, the city''s population bore witness to the soul crushing sight of an entire nest of Sea dragons riding the giant wave which bore straight for their city.

    Panic immediately set in as both the sick and the poor tried to flee the oncoming calamity, pushing each other in their bid to escape the city. The city''s defenders, although trained, had not predicted an attack from a dragon''s nest, let alone planned for it. In other words, they were woefully unprepared.

    Their terror, already at a mountainous level, was forced to go higher as a deep, primal roar reverberated through the sea and out into the ears of everyone. Its deep echo shook the entire city to its foundation, causing as much psychological damage as physical ones.

    And from that depth rose a majestic yet horrifying sight as a Sea dragon rose out of the water with greater force, its ascent birthing another tidal wave as it slithered its way through the sky.

    Brightly shining sapphire scales adorned a long, sinuous body tipped with a regal-looking draconic head. From above its white slitted eyes grew long curling horns of deep blue, with an extremely sharp whitened tip. Its four powerful limbs, although short by draconic standards, were tipped with scythe-like claws of deadly proportions, brimming with powerful energy. Spatial tears spread through the sky just from their passing.

    And the aura...... Such terrifying aura. Every living soul in the city felt a violent shiver pass through their souls as the dragon''s aura descended with unimaginable power and oppression, its presence promising a very quick and agonizing death.

    And flying behind the thousand-foot-long creature were twelve more fearful dragons of almost equal size, although lacking the same oppressiveness or majestic sight: Nest Elders.

    Those were powerful dragons who answered only to the Nest King, while also guarding the borders of the nest territory. These beings alone were capable of contending with any nation in the world: an unbreakable force.

    And they brought their lower-ranked forces too.

    The city''s few military analyst present knew immediately; this was a show of power.

    An overwhelming one.

    Approaching the city, a lot of the inhabitants were apprehensive but hopeful when the powerful dragon king and its elders stayed their claws from attacking. Thoughts of mercy and forgiveness had begun creeping into their minds when hundreds of dragon younglings descended on the city like packs of hyenas. Their descent coincided with the landfall of the Tsunami, giving the city little time to respond; and like a pack of hungry wolves, they were savage.

    The city''s protective dome, powerful though it was, did not last longer than a moment before it was instantly overwhelmed, causing subsequent devastation to the city from its pressure overload.

    And then the Tsunami swallowed the city.

    Automated techniques began flying around as the city''s defensive constructs targeted the dragons, doing no physical damage, though they did stoke the Dragons rage which was already burning. These constructs had been made for the fragile flesh of humans and flesh creatures, not for hardened dragon scales.

    Soul-piercing screams of agony echoed through the city as blue corrosive dragon''s breath consumed the city''s inhabitants, melting flesh down to bones. The city''s defenders, being the first to clash with the dragons, fought a very fierce but underwhelming resistance, until they were soon drowned, dissolved, torn apart, and then immediately devoured as the ravenous dragonlings overwhelmed them.

    Cries and pleas for mercy were moaned out, but anyone familiar with the dragon races knew them to be deaf to the concept of mercy. Their pleas were ignored as the younglings fought each other for the quickly dwindling flesh, most times tearing apart their victims alive in ravenous hunger.

    The massacre lasted for hours as the extremely perceptive dragons brutally rooted out any hiding survivors. They made sure to empty the city as they searched through every nook and cranny.

    All the while, the dragon king gazed from above, its long sinuous body curled into a circle over the city, watching like a predator to an inconsequential prey.

 Chapter 68 : WAR â€“ Stormshredder I

    Salin stood on the starboard side of the Elora, a two-hundred-ton troop ship among the Empire''s seventh fleet. The ship hummed lightly as it swept through the air, a few hundred feet above the Dragon Sea. Salin smiled in reminiscence as he watched a group of birds fly by, admiring their gracefulness and freedom.

    "Get back to work, Cretin!" He grunted as something hard slammed into his back. He didn''t bother turning, though. He knew who had hit him.

    Ever since the humiliating failure in his previous assignment, his life had taken a drastic turn, negatively. His release from the warren had been the only good thing that had happened to him since then, other than not facing execution.

    Now, though. He sighed as he returned to his work. He placed both his hands on a crystal orb roiling with unspent power, channeling his energy into the Essence crystal.

    Who would have thought that the once prestigious hidden protector would be relegated to one of the most humiliating jobs in the military? Used as an Essence battery. Not only was the job humiliating, but it was also one of the jobs with the highest fatality rates as those who did it were required to constantly stand in the open, where any stray technique or monster could obliterate them in an instant. It was a death sentence wrapped in a pink ribbon. And the only people relegated to the degrading job were those accused of desertion, unauthorized murder, or theft of military property. He was none of those, but still, here he was.

    Salin''s vision swarmed as his head was slammed into the ship''s hull, violently.

    "What order did I just give you!?" A voice spat into his ear as a hand continued to press his head deeper against the hull.

    Salin blinked tears of pain from his eyes as he quickly answered. "To get back to work."

    The hand pressed harder. "Get back to work, what?"

    Salin swallowed bile in his throat. "Get back to work, cretin."

    He gulped in air as his head was released, the hand violently dragging him up and turning him around. Salin was forced to look straight into ordinary brown eyes as the taskmaster scanned him from head to toe, unhidden distaste on his face.

    "That''s what you are, cretin. A degenerate. Do you disagree?"

    Salin shook his head, not eager for another bout of cruelty. He just wanted the man to leave.

    "Good. Now, you have been spared from execution, by the grace of the Emperor, may his name be forever exalted. An execution which you sorely deserved." Hatred spewed from the man like dripping venom. "You have been spared, but not forgiven. Do you understand me?"

    Salin nodded.

    "That''s good of you. As recompense for your transgression against the Empire, you will spend your entire life paying for it. Do you disagree?"

    This time Salin shook his head.

    Thankfully, the man, satisfied with the amount of cruelty dealt for the moment, soon turned around and moved on to his next victim, never looking back at Salin.

    Salin sighed ruefully, rubbing his throbbing temple as he immediately went back to work, eager to avoid the ire of the taskmaster.

    The man, a few months ago, would have been groveling at Salin''s feet, begging for his scraps. He sighed at the workings of fate. His recent experience had already taught him that a giant today could very well become an ant tomorrow.

    Salin frowned as the ship jostled, hard. That was strange, he thought as his eyes looked to the sky, seeing a calm, blue sky. Then why was that?

    It wasn''t until a commotion began on the ship that he understood he wasn''t the only one who thought something was wrong.

    A few soldiers on the bridge began pointing forward into the distance, causing more people to look. Salin turned forward, scrunching his eyes as he couldn''t see what they were talking about. He looked past the Giant Command ship leading the fleet of two hundred ships, and then he saw it.

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    About seven miles from them, a figure floated in the skybefore their approaching fleet, a single figure. Salin couldn''t make out their face, but from the way color drained from the Captain''s ¨C a Monarch realm wielder ¨C face, he knew something was seriously wrong.

    When two Spirit lords immediately flew out from the command ship, it finally sank in that they were in deep trouble.

    Soon enough, a siren swept through the entire fleet, with a command coming an instant later calling the soldiers to arms.

    Three miles from the figure, Salin finally recognized them, or more precisely, their description. He knew of the figure floating before their fleet.

    Sandy blond hair, almost golden, drifted gently in the wind over what Salin recognized as Dragon scale armor, blue dragon scale to be precise. That was armor worth a single major city.

    A long spear rested on the figure''s arms as blue eyes, reminiscent of the deep ocean, calmly took them in, without regard.

    Keilan Stormshredder.

    Salin''s breath caught as he took in the brother of the man who had led him to the situation he was in now. Although the brothers lacked any physical resemblance in their features, Salin, now one of the lucky few to meet the grey-eyed demon and come out alive, recognized the one feature they took after each other.

    The unsettling piercing gaze.

    Salin grunted, his knees, alongside everyone else on the ship, buckling and going down hard on the floor. He looked up, seeing the origin of the auras crashing down on them from the two figures who took up a defensive position in front of the entire fleet. Empire Pillars.

    Keilan Stormshredder took them in with the same disregard as anyone else, a single sentence coming out a second later. "Good, you''re all here. Let''s begin."

    The world heaved as another aura erupted, far more powerful than the previous ones.

    Salin knew their death probability had just gone up.

    And then the aura drastically intensified as an illusory image rose from behind their aggressor.

    And Salin knew he was surely going to die.

    In response to the powerful illusory image generated by Keilan Stormshredder, the two Empire Pillars also copied, generating their own strange illusory images.

    Aside from the Emerald colored wings and some other features, the image looked exactly like Keilan Stormshredder.

    Salin looked at the others, seeing the same illusory strange resemblance to their summoners. What was going on?

    The entire ship heaved forward as the three Spirit lords collided, their mere collision sucking the air out of his lungs and crushing him deeper down. An instant later, a filmy, transparent ward spread from the Command ship down towards the entire fleet, enveloping it all in a protective dome that seemed to shield them from the powerful auras and shock waves he could feel generating from those clashing powers.

    "CLEAR THE AREA! I WANT SPACE BETWEEN US AND THEM, OR WE''LL BE SQUASHED IN NO TIME!" The ship captain shouted, his words going from ship to ship. His advice was heeded moments later as all ships began a slow retreat, careful not to hit anyone behind.

    Salin stood up, taking a deep breath and then stumbling toward the orb.

    "I WANT ALL PROJECTILE CONSTRUCTS ARMED AND POINTED AT THE ENEMY!!" The captain roared. "WE WILL PROVE THAT THE EMPIRE IS NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH."

    The ship shook and then heaved to the side as something whished by, and Salin prayed that the protective ward would hold against the devastating shockwaves generated by those titanic clashes.

    "DEPLOY THE SKYRIDERS, LET US SWARM HIM WITH FAR MORE THAN HE CAN HANDLE!"

    From the troop ships, soldiers on large eagles detached in swarms. Trumpets sounded all over the ships as other soldiers hailed the Eagle division.

    The next orders, though, did not come from the Captain.

    "GET DOWN!" A voice filled with incomprehensible power slammed into his mind like a sledgehammer, his body obeying long before his thoughts could even process it. And that was what saved his life.

    The giant illusory image seemed to flap its wing, a single wing, and that was the last thing hundreds of people saw before they were shredded into tiny minced meats. More than a dozen ships began listing downwards, their hulls parted in twain and their wards overloaded and bypassed.

    And those were the lucky ones.

    Salin looked over at the SkyRiders who had detached moments ago in pride. Had he not been inured to the ravages of war, he would have been puking his guts out by now.

    Where the thousands of SkyRiders had been, only a few remained. An army of thousands reduced to little patches of disorderly men filled with panic and terror. Blood stained the air, both in mist and liquid form, as thousands of shredded bodies dropped into the sea. Soon nearby monsters began flocking to the scene in droves.

    Salin tried to get back to his work as he was slammed into the side, the ship, along with a dozen others, listing violently as an emerald gust of wind crashed into them. Their Command-generated ward lit up like a second dawn as it absorbed most of the attack.

    "NAVIGATORS! I WANT US OUT OF THIS PLACE, NOW!!" The captain roared, fear on his features now.

    From the Command ship, a single beam fired, its distant passing generating shockwaves of intense heat that battered against his natural resistance.

    Salin breathed a sigh of relief; the battle was over. Surely, StormShredder couldn''t recover from an attack like that, right? He''d have to retreat, right? Wrong!

    Salin never saw it coming, and neither did anyone. One moment, Keilan Stormshredder was floating in the sky, holding well against two Pillars in a combat of such blurring speed through the air that they rapidly flickered in and out of existence. The next, an emerald titan instantly materialized a breath later.

    Salin began wondering where Stormshredder had gone. Had he retreated? He didn''t have long to wonder as the titan slammed an equally titanic emerald spear into the command ship.

    And this time Salin knew they were surely dead.

 Chapter 69 : WAR â€“ Stormshredder II

    His body moved before he could finish formulating any sort of plan, running with all his strength, along with some other soldiers who were quick to react to what was coming, toward the back of the ship.

    He''d just jumped, with all the strength he could muster, across to another ship, when the shockwave hit.

    The ships at the frontline took the brunt of it, all of them reduced to pieces, sliced and diced like meat to a butcher''s shop. Blood flowed alongside the torn metal as they fell into the sea.

    Salin couldn''t believe his eyes. Such destruction, all just from the aftershock of an attack not even directed at them.

    He looked up, his eyes immediately falling on the titanic emerald construct that now defended against three opponents: two Spirit lords and a very damaged Command ship.

    Although the command ships were built purely for their defensive capabilities, and their utility in being able to house entire armies and serve as mobile repair stations for mildly damaged ships, that didn''t mean they lacked any offensive capabilities.

    A beam of tightly condensed elemental energy shot out again from the command ship, its passage bright and fiery. The titanic construct raised its forearm, taking the full brunt of the attack. It stumbled backward, clearly disoriented, its movements sloshing and disturbing the sea water, causing a massive tidal wave.

    The other Spirit lords came in an instant later, a deafening explosion going out moments later as they collided with the construct. Salin was forced to go down on his stomach just to avoid the shockwaves that were sure to follow an instant later, and he was right. Some unlucky soldiers screamed out as they were flung off the ship, the sheer power of the shockwaves pulverizing them in seconds.

    Heart beating heavily, Salin raised his head. The construct was now leaking green essence alongside the heavy cloud of smoke drifting off its form.

    He''d begun to think it was finally done when its face slowly turned towards the command ship, and in one smooth motion, it threw its spear.

    And for the second time in a few minutes, Salin was forced to run as the ship he was in was ground to metal dust. He was lucky to be alive as the ship took the majority of the attack. He wasn''t without injury, though, from the look of his missing arm. And he also had the sea to worry about.

    A scream involuntarily pushed out from his throat as he plummeted toward the sea, the wind whistling loudly in his ears.

    With an oomph, the breath was knocked out of his lungs as his fall was instantly stopped shut.

    "Hang on!"

    Through disoriented eyes, Salin looked up at his savior. "Thank you." He managed to get out.

    The man didn''t show any signs that he''d heard him, though he adjusted his eagle sideways, bringing Salin up until he was comfortably balanced on the large eagle''s back a moment later.

    The explosion from the destroyed command ship yielded devastating results. A fleet of up to two hundred ships was now reduced to mere dozens, with all of them clearly taking on some kind of damage. The command ship, itself, was nowhere to be found. The only evidence of its presence was the few floating rocks jostling on the water.

    Of the people who had managed to survive the fall into the sea, nothing remained of them but a sea of blood and bones. Even the monsters were not spared.

    "Emperor save us," The SkyRider whispered, his voice unwittingly reaching Salin''s ears. Salin also prayed, though he was doubtful anyone would come to save them.

    Like an earthquake, the sky rumbled, the clouds darkening. Blood drained from his face as the sky for miles quickly took on a darkening grey color, and a sky whirlpool formed.

    "Hold on!" The SkyRider said, immediately turning his eagle away from the explosive clash miles away.

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    Hundreds of other survivors began hastily fleeing, some on their skyRiding companions and others on the remaining ships. No one wanted to be anywhere near that cataclysmic event any longer, even the obvious battle maniacs.

    They had only gone a few miles when they felt it. Like a metallic tearing, the air was sucked away, drawn towards the dark whirlpool in the sky. Salin, luckily, was already out of its area of influence, but some others were not.

    Of the seventy ships or so remaining, a drastic number lost their momentum, the air forcefully deprived of their occupants. Like a stone, they all dropped onto the sea, causing a cascade of large waves that flowed after each other.

    Of the hundreds of SkyRiders that had begun the retreat, only a hundred or so survived.

    Together, they all fled.

    A couple of SkyShips flying at top speed alongside a few hundred SkyRiders.

    The sound of exploding thunder was their only farewell.

    Salin never looked back.

    ***

    Keilan stepped onto the cobblestones of the castle, tired. He quickly made his way toward the internal teleportation platform.

    The castle, although prohibiting any external teleportation in, couldn''t very well leave its thousands of workers to suffer through the stairways. So a teleportation network was created, an internal one, adhered to by everyone, Spirit lord or not.

    He sighed. The recent battle, though brief, had taken much from him. His soul well was almost drained and his mental strength was strained. In essence, he needed some sleep.

    It had been a long time since he''d had any urge to sleep, but since he''d just come back from a battle against two spirit lords and a full on fleet, alone, he needed the sleep.

    He waved at the guards standing at the teleportation platform. "Fifth floor. War room section."

    "Yes, Spirit lord." The guards bowed, immediately slotting a stone key into a depression made on the large twin teleportation pillars. As soon as the stone key was slotted in, the twin pillars hummed to life, a purple-black film immediately appearing in between.

    Thanking the guards, Keilan didn''t waste time and stepped into the portal. There was a brief instant when he was exposed to something grand and unimaginable. An endless sea of dark clouds and purple-roiling skies. And then like a light switch, he was instantly brought back, stepping out of another platform inside the castle. He didn''t know what they place was, and the hundreds of surveys conducted into its discovery had yielded nothing. No one short of Spirit lord had even experienced it.

    He took a deep breath, acknowledging the guards with a nod, and then he carried on.

    The palace was humming with activity, even more than usual. At first, he thought it was because of the war escalation as the Empire pushed back, but as he moved deeper, he frowned. Something else was going on.

    Luckily, he would get his answer soon enough.

    The two powerful Monarch realm wielders standing guard at the Council entrance nodded in acknowledgment as he approached. He nodded back. Others would have fumed at the lack of obvious supplication from the guards, but he wasn''t so vain as to get angry that he wasn''t been kowtowed too. Besides, the guards were meant to keep an eye out for anything suspicious. They couldn''t very well be doing their jobs if they were all busy bowing to every spirit lord that passed by, would they?

    The Council room was gloomy as he stepped inside. Fenore looked worried, but calm, as always. Brunos was studying a large map on the oval table, a large jug of beer in his hands. Danor, unsurprisingly, looked the most nervous, judging by his clear fidgeting. Menoe, present now that the Cults were allowed to participate in the war, was calm as ever. And his brother...Keilan sighed as he walked in, swiftly reaching Damien and greeting him with a knock on the head.

    "Owe!" Damien glared. "What did you do that for?"

    "An awakening. Your attention was clearly elsewhere."

    His brother clearly wanted to say something, as he briefly opened his mouth, but luckily, he closed it back, turning away. "He''s here, tell him."

    "Tell me what?"

    Fenore''s second in command, Helera, approached him, handing him a paper.

    Keilan frowned, scanning everyone, before he turned his attention back to the paper. It was a report. So he read.

    Despite his mental capacity to instantly comprehend any book in a few seconds, he still took his time in reading the report again and again until he had already read it five more times before he raised his head.

    "What is this?"

    "What does it look like?" Damien replied. "The Ren Nest has decided to act."

    Keilan sighed, ignoring Damien as his brother''s eyes scrutinized him for his next words. "Blaming ourselves won''t accomplish anything. What response do we have?"

    "Nothing, yet," Fenore answered.

    Keilan nodded, turning to Menoe. "What''s your take on this? I assume you already have one."

    The woman gave him a motherly smile filled with pride, and Keilan struggled to hold himself back from smiling in return. This was a War Council after all. "Unlike other creatures, the only thing dragons respond well to is force. They have challenged us, thinking themselves the ones with the upper hand. What we need is a clapback, a powerful one. And I don''t mean all of us attacking in force, I meant just a few of us going after them."

    "Wouldn''t that just make them more angry?" Danor said.

    "Not if they''re overwhelmingly dominated. Dragons only fight back if they have a chance of winning. Show them that they''re powerless before you, and they will instantly back down."

    "Seriously," Damien said. "Just like that?"

    "Just like that." Menoe smiled.

 Chapter 70 : An Eventual Come Together I

    Large-scale conflicts between kingdoms were events that mostly depended on chance and the equipment one could bring to bear. That was a lie, Helera knew. Although the main fighting force consisted of thousands of soldiers, the true outcome of a battle was decided by the level of Spirit lords one could field, both in quantity and quality.

    Helera watched as the allied forces, composed of multiple small kingdoms, with a comprised number reaching half a million, crashed into the host of three Empire armies.

    The allied forces surpassed them in numbers by a large margin of two hundred thousand, but the Empire had them in quality.

    The battlefield erupted in a combined chorus of screams and clashing metals and then accompanied by an undertone of parting flesh and breaking bones as the soldiers began clashing.

    She stood on a hill overlooking the battle whilst attended by a small number of Monarch shields standing guard and waiting for her signal to move.

    A few dozen miles in the distance, on the opposite side of the battlefield, perched on a floating platform, were two Empire lords, also accompanied by their own squad of Monarchs.

    The reason Spirit lords didn''t take to the battlefield first was that it was an unspoken rule to let the lower realmers battle it out, giving them the chance to grow more powerful. It was a win-win situation.

    However, although the Spirit lords didn''t take to the battlefield, that didn''t mean they were not present. There were always people who wouldn''t adhere to any form of agreement. That was why she was here, standing as a deterrent to their enemies, and them doing likewise.

    The first Empire lord was a middle-aged gruff gruff-looking man who seemed in his forties, although she knew that to be false. A dull bronze armor with criss-cross red lines of flames shrouded his body, no doubt an enchantment.

    The second was another person in a black hooded robe, which covered their head. A hidden pillar, no doubt. To her, looking at the two, the first man was more intimidating, but if she had to pick, she''d rather face him than the robed figure. Hidden pillars came with many unfortunate surprises.

    Like she''d said, wars were mostly left for the lower staged essence wielders to battle it out, but that didn''t mean the higher realmers didn''t interfere when they saw the battle turning against their favor.

    The Empire might have out-leveled them in the quality of soldiers brought to bear, fielding more Monarchs, more powerful lower realm lords, and also having better equipment than the alliance legions, but that didn''t mean the alliance was powerless. Numbers could do a lot for the outcome of a battle, as the Empire themselves had shown.

    With Camlen leading the charge, the alliance, with two hundred soldiers more than the Empire, quickly swarmed their lines, although not without drastic casualties.

    She detected the moment they decided to act. The cloaked figure disappeared, melding into a smoke of shadows, while the other blasted directly off the platform, heading straight for her.

    Sadly acknowledging the future casualties of this battle, Helera moved to meet him. As someone who''d once stood where the common soldiers once were, she felt more for them than anyone could ever understand.

    The Monarch shields of both sides spread out, seemingly coming to a tacit agreement to reduce the casualties on both sides. Although they knew someone in their number would not be leaving the battlefield alive, they still carried out their job with an admirable resolve.

    Despite the deafening cacophony of sounds erupting from the battlefield, when the Spirit lord clashed, the explosion echoed over them all.

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    Helera, with two large bastard swords, crashed into the maul-wielding lord in a deafening explosion that saw them briefly pushed back.

    The maul, trailing sparks of red flames, sped through the large mushroom of smoke toward her. She dodged, but not quick enough, taking a glancing hit to the shoulder. That pain made her glad that she hadn''t taken the attack full on.

    She spun, mentally disoriented and a little bit out of balance. Although she quickly righted herself, those few moments of weakness left her open to their next attack, as a dagger suddenly appeared out of a portal of dark smoke, scoring a deep gash on her arm. She gritted her teeth from the pain, blindly swinging her armored hand and deflecting another aimed at her ribs.

    Taking a moment to right herself, Helera flashed out of the area, appearing a short distance away. Her opponents were content to let her go, assured of their victory.

    The man idly swung his weapon, managing to project contempt and boredom in equal measure. But she saw how he watched her like a hawk. His partner was nowhere to be found, and that unsettled her more than anything.

    They clearly knew of her, studied her even, so they likely knew that even assured of victory, they''d have to work hard for it. She definitely wasn''t about to make it easy for them.

    Helera moved, instantly appearing to the right of the man, her sword already bearing down on him with the force of a dozen boulders. He deflected her attack, turning her sword away while he moved out of the way. Though he succeeded, he clearly didn''t come out unscathed, judging by how his weapon then changed hands.

    "It is inevitable, you''re fighting a losing battle. Give up and spare us the trouble of putting you down. You''ve got no grey-eyed demon to help you now," the man said with confidence, though she did notice how his eyes seemed to flicker around as he spoke the last sentence.

    Helera didn''t waste time with a pointless exchange of words, she attacked.

    Their battle carried them across the battlefield, flickering through the skies in a blur of movements. Although they seemed to be moving erratically, they made sure they weren''t carried far from the battlefield. That was a mistake no one wanted to make.

    The Monarch shields sped through the skies after them, deflecting any stray techniques that seemed to be heading toward the common soldiers fighting while leaving the ones heading in the distance alone.

    One flashed, conjuring an unstable hand construct out of his element and using it to carefully influence a technique into the far distance. He still took damage from that, cradling a shattered arm. She winced in obvious pity, that was her technique.

    Helera flew through the skies, evading hundreds of flaming needles from her pursuer; all the while, she constantly positioned her flying earthen-made shield anywhere a dark shadow seemed to materialize, escaping the tendrils that tried to snare her. Her arm was still numb from her first experience.

    Hours into the battle, Helera was content to stay on the defensive, slowly dragging out their stamina and whittling their energy well. However, now that she thought so, it was a bad idea from the start, as while she only used her energy to block unavoidable attacks while only attacking at opportune moments, She was still being worn down faster than them.

    She knew that she couldn''t continue like this forever. Sooner or later she''d be eventually drained and left in the open.

    The battle had already carried on into the night, with the night sky illuminated with thousands of flashing techniques. Soon, to her unavoidable effort to fight it, she began to noticeably flag, dodging attacks a second too late and failing to take advantage of any openings. Her will was drained, strained to its limit. Half an hour later, she began taking more hits; her weakened form blasted continuously into hills and forming large depressions.

    Her thoughts started becoming incoherent, unable to think and process critically. Fear showed in her Monarch shields as they saw her being whittled down slowly. The other lower realm wielders might be spared, taken as prisoners of war, but they knew their cases were different. Monarchs were too dangerous to let live.

    Sooner than she thought, she was completely drained, crashing into the side of a mountain and causing an avalanche. The two Spirit lords hovered above, content to enjoy her humiliating death.

    "Lasted longer than I thought," one said, spitting to the side in distaste.

    "At least it''s all done. Her death will set the tone for the soldiers of Camlen. She is an influential figure, after all, losing her will drastically weaken their morale," the second one replied.

    Helera was too tired to speak, nor laugh even. But her amusement showed.

    "What do you find so funny?" The cloaked man peered down at her.

    Mustering a smidgen amount of strength. She opened her mouth. "Did you think I was going to foolishly fight a losing battle?" Her lips spread in a wide smile.

    Confused, they were about to speak when they both suddenly froze, no doubt already understanding what she meant. Their faces paled as space began tearing, evidence of an imminent spatial arrival.

    And the aura that preceded it was one they all recognized.

 Chapter 71 : An Eventual Come Together II

    Damien hovered over a battlefield of fire and destruction, the earth soaked in the blood of hundreds of thousands and littered with the bodies of less. At first, the thing that caught his eye when he appeared was the smoke. Pillars of twisting smoke rose into the sky, slowly turning the clouds dark. Thunder rumbled in the distance, evidence of the sky soon about to clean the dirt off of itself.

    On the battlefield were smoked craters filled with the debris of shattered SkyShips and the bodies of those unlucky to have been in the way of any stray Spirit lord techniques.

    He caught the sight of the survivors, still fighting savagely as they drenched themselves in the blood of their enemies. The gloomy atmosphere was lit up in a myriad of colors as thousands of essence wielders exchanged deadly techniques as Camlen and Gandor battled Solaria.

    Damien took all these in an instant, so he was already turning his head to a shattered hill in the distance where he could see two Spirit lords standing over the injured form of one.

    Their frightened eyes met his before he''d even finish turning, and the next thing he felt was space destabilizing as they both tried to flee, all thoughts of their victory forgotten.

    "Nuh-uh," Damien said, and space parted as he took a single step, appearing over the three.

    His will erupted out in a wave, immediately locking down space in a hundred-mile radius.

    Hovering over the three, Damien took in the situation, and for what it was worth, he suspected that things could have gone worse. Helera was certainly injured, but it wasn''t anything she couldn''t come back from in a week or two. He could tell how beaten and broken she was. Her essence pathways had taken serious damage, evidence of the serious fight that must have taken place. It was a testament to her strength that she was still alive even after going toe-to-toe against two Spirit lords, one of them being an Empire hidden pillar. Those guys were very tricky and pointy.

    "Hello there," he greeted; it was only polite that he did so. "I''m Damien."

    The two Empire lords took a step backward as he spoke, their auras quivering in fear. He admired them, though, as despite the certainty of death, he could also sense their resolve. They wouldn''t make their death any easier for him.

    [Are you sure you aren''t the villain?" Gray said.

    Not expecting that kind of question, Damien was shocked. "What!? Why would you think that?"

    [Look at them; they''re practically pissing their pants right now. No hero of the people should elicit that kind of feeling from anyone.]

    Finally understanding, Damien sighed. "I never said I was a hero, Gray."

    Why did everyone think him a hero? From the start, he had never wanted to be one and didn''t even have the mindset. He could accept helping a stranger whenever he came across one in need, but he wouldn''t go out of his way just to do it. He had already accepted that fact years ago. Even Keilan, joyful as he was, Damien knew that Keilan was like the element he controlled: unpredictable. He could be calm most of the time, laughing and joking with everyone in a childish manner. But in a single instant, he could turn into a wrathful being, all death and fury. Keilan anger usually led to a scorched earth situation, nobody would be spared. Both of them were never ones to live by the code of morality, but that didn''t mean they hadn''t set uncrossable lines for themselves. Even the greatest villains had codes that kept them grounded.

    [Huh, that''s surprisingly relieving.]

    "What!? One moment, you''re criticizing me for being a villain; the next, you''re relieved. Pick a side."

    [No, I wasn''t criticizing, I just wanted to poke you. And besides, for the future you''ve got coming for you, morality is a shackle that would get you instantly killed.] Seeing that Damien was about to say something, Gray halted him, already reading his mind. [I don''t mean you should turn into a monster, that''d just get you killed faster. But if you had to pit your life against the deaths of trillions, know that you''re worth far more than them.]

    "Now, you''re giving me an odd feeling. Morally unshackled as I am, I don''t think I can do that."

    He pointed his spear at the two spirit lords, making sure that they knew he was still watching them.

    Gray sighed. [Trust me, Damien. Just.. trust me.]

    A little anger bled into Damien''s reply. "How can I trust you when you refuse to tell me anything, anything at all about my family?"

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    [I will tell you this. Karma is a tricky thing; it could hide you from even the greatest of beings or leave you dead for the weakest to find, all through a single instant.]

    "What are you saying?"

    [I''m saying that your karmic line to your father is the only thing keeping you from instant death. Your father cannot hide his connection to you, because his karmic line was already formed the instant you were born.

    [You, on the other hand, are still hidden because you don''t know who he is.]

    Realization dawning, Damien said. "So as soon as I''m made aware of him..."

    [You will die as his enemies descend upon you like wolves,] Gray completed.

    Something still nagged him, though. "Wait, isn''t his karmic line already leading to me? Why haven''t I been attacked, If what you''re saying is true?"

    Gray took a deep breath even though he didn''t need to. Damien frowned at the new development. [His line isn''t complete because you aren''t aware of him. They could trace his line, but it wouldn''t lead them anywhere. Though as soon as you''re made aware, even If it was a brief thought that proved correct or the knowledge is discovered by someone else, both your karmic lines would connect, and you will die.]

    "But you know who he is, why am I not dead then?"

    [I don''t know who he is because such knowledge was never infused into me. I do know where to find it, though.]

    Damien gave a bitter laugh, startling the scared spirit lords who had been standing there for minutes, watching as Damien mentally argued with a being living in his head.

    Gray whispered, [I''ve never lied to you, Damien, and I''ve never thought to do so. Lying to you is a sure way to sow distrust, and trust me... For what''s coming, you''re going to have to trust me in order to survive.]

    Damien was about to say something when he stopped and his head instantly snapped to one side, eyes narrowing.

    [Don''t fight it,] Gray warned, stopping Damien from what he was about to do. [You''re going to need all the strength you can get for this. And the sure way of at least coming out alive is to go all out.]

    Damien was reluctant, but he knew Gray spoke the truth, so he relaxed his will on space, and an instant later a will that would have broken through his spatial blockade bled through. Space cracked and a man appeared.

    Crimson hair dotted with tiny motes of golden lights drifted over the frowning face of a handsome middle-aged man. His golden robes limned in silver brimmed with infused power, the soft silky material drifting gently as it was caressed by the wind. The man''s intimidatingly crimson-gold eyes took in everything with disregard as he appeared, a little distaste peeking through his cold expression. And just like Damien, his eyes calmly turned to their position when he was done.

    Solaris.

    ***

    Aelar stood on the foot of his throne as he held council.

    "Our forces have seen heavy casualties as our enemies begin to push back. On the valleys of Kiston alone, in the past week, we have over fifty thousand dead and seventeen thousand injured, fifteen thousand of which will require at least weeks to recover from," Thalor finished.

    Aelar nodded, turning to his son. "How goes the advances?"

    "Our fierce push for the kingdom of Torinia has made good progress," Vaelion said. "In the last week alone, we have taken two of their cities in a hail of fire. Despite that, I am sad to report that most of the survivors, probably predicting their imminent lose, had already fled before we took their cities."

    "Acceptable. We can''t always have everything," Aelar comforted. "What of our ships?"

    Thalor once again began to give a report, but the Emperor''s attention wasn''t there anymore, his head snapping sideways to the east, eyes narrowing and expression tightening.

    Seeing his lack of attention, the other Spirit lords in the room stopped, a questioning look in their eyes.

    Aelar turned to them, voice tight as he laid answer to their unasked question. "Solaris has appeared. Vaelion, prepare yourself, you ride with me."

    ***

    Yuseria sat on the command chair on her personal Command ship, watching as a large-scale battle took place.

    The herons of Tyria ¨C powerful spirit ladies ¨C engaged in a furious battle with their Torinian-Solaria counterparts. The earth quaked as a constant flurry of powerful Spirit lord techniques flew erratically, some finding their targets while the others missed. Some missed so widely that they had no chance of landing on any of the fighting soldiers on the ground, while the ones that didn''t... Yuseria sighed as she twitched a finger, a Monarch who stood close by getting the unworded command, and soon enough, light flashed from the command ship, and another technique was unraveled, falling on the common soldiers in a shower of sparks.

    Suddenly, her attention snapped to the distance, an curious and worried expression on her face.

    "Nesra, take over. I have a meeting to get to."

    ***

    Ragar laughed widely as his hammer smashed into the chitin armored arm of the Red Hive Spirit lord, crushing in it. His attention was already on another opponent as he left the previous one to crash into a mountain far in the distance.

    From the ground, earthen spikes rose in a flurry, catching the second ant in its abdomen. Green liquid began leaking as the Spirit lord subsequently escaped its death by a narrow margin.

    "More! More!! I WANT MORE!!!" Ragar roared, laughing maniacally. "IS THIS ALL YOU''VE GOT? I FIND YOU ALL WANTING IF THIS IS ALL YOU CAN OFFER!"

    "Brother, when are you going to listen to my advice and put on some protection?" Halar said, his obsidian spear piercing through into his opponent''s head. "At least if you won''t take armor, some energy shield, perhaps?"

    Ragar waved his hands dismissively. "Bahh!! Armors are for weaklings! True battle comes from risking it all."

    Halar was about to say something but stopped, his attention going elsewhere alongside Ragar''s.

    Ragar began another bout of laughter, this time so hard it scared the group of Spirit lords surrounding him. He turned to his brother, his excitement burning like the sun.

    Halar sighed. "Go, I''ll wrap up this place. Ragar, ple¡ª"

    He couldn''t finish, because Ragar had already left.

 Chapter 72 : WAR â€“ An Eventual Come Together III (The Great Families)

    Keilan strode into the war council room, the other occupants immediately turning to face him.

    "What''s the situation?"

    "Solaris has just appeared," Fenore grimaced.

    Keilan frowned, "That was.... expected, but also unexpected. Why are you all so frightened?"

    He immediately noticed their hesitation to answer his question. Fenore turned her face away. Brunos pretended to be studying something on the map, while Danor nervously twiddled his fingers, his eyes roving anywhere but Keilan''s. It didn''t take long for him to piece the answer out.

    "Damien is there, isn''t he?"

    Reluctantly, Fenore nodded.

    "Who''s with him?"

    "No one," Danor answered, his anxiety pouring out in waves. "Helera offered to stay with him but he sent her away, promising he had everything covered."

    Keilan began to worry but soon tamped it down. This was a delicate situation, he couldn''t allow fear to rule his next decision. "Has there been any request for aid?"

    "No. None."

    "Well, then," Keilan said smoothly, moving to a chair. "We''ll just have to sit and watch."

    "What?!" Danor exclaimed, with Fenore and Brunos not far behind. "Your brother is facing Solaris, alone! We should armor up and head there right now!"

    Keilan turned his face away from the illusory landscape of the borderlands projected over the map, "if my brother hasn''t requested aid by now, we should trust him to have it all handled."

    "What if he''s not as powerful as he thinks and Solaris overwhelms him?"

    "Then I''ll head there, myself."

    "You will die!"

    "I know."

    ***

    Relief on their faces, Damien didn''t hold back the two Spirit lords as they immediately fled to the Emperor''s side. He didn''t have the strength to spare just to hold down a bunch of lackeys.

    Instead, he turned to Helera, a vial of green, almost golden, liquid appearing in his hand, which he then poured into the woman''s mouth.

    "This should give you enough energy for a few hours. Get everybody back through the portal,¡± he ordered.

    Helera was already on her feet. She experimentally stretched her hands, legs, and neck, probably checking for any pain. Damien didn''t deny her the time. "Yes, lord Damien." She stole a fearful glance at Solaris. "Wouldn''t you need assistance wi¨C with him?" And in a bout of instant courage, she pushed out. "I could stay."

    Damien gave an appreciative smile, "Thank you, but I''ve got it covered."

    He didn''t have it covered, at all. But it wouldn''t pay for her to see doubt on his face, so he did his best to show unconcern, and it seemed to work as she nodded and then began heading toward the commanders of their armies.

    Damien, finally alone, levitated a bit closer to Solaris.

    "Solaris," he nodded. "Haven''t seen you in a while."

    The man scrutinized Damien in a sort of interested¨Cdisinterested look.

    "Alone, I see?" He said, a little mirth finally showing through his cold demeanor.

    Damien didn''t answer. Instead, his body became extremely tense. He knew he had no hope of winning this fight, only delaying it long enough for reinforcement to arrive.

    "Don''t bother," Solaris said, reading Damien''s expression. "You will be dead long before any form of help arrives."

    Damien shook his head, not surprised that someone like Solaris could read his thoughts through a simple expression. "You underestimate me. People who do that usually end up dead."

    "But I am not them, am I? I can see it in your face. You have no chance of winning this, you might as well surrender to me," the man looked expectantly at Damien.

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    Tension bled out of Damien like a raging river through a dam as he laughed. His sheer amusement enough to wash away any anxiety. When he was done, he turned to Solaris, "Didn''t you know? You should know by now that I bow to no one, especially not to you."

    Damien expected a reply from Solaris, but instead, the man just studied him, an unsurprised look on his face. A moment later, he calmly looked over at Damien''s shoulder, and an instant later, Damien also took notice.

    Space parted like a torn cloth, and four figures stepped through.

    One, a woman with raven black, flowing hair draped over the back of a furry cape. Her armor was made up of thousands of interlocking metal plates that seamlessly covered her from neck to toe, leaving no open gaps. She looked like one of those mythical warrior maiden in the heroic stories he and Keilan used to read when they were little.

    Her jade-colored eyes took Solaris in a calm, wary demeanor, like a powerful huntress standing before a calamity monster.

    "Hello, Solar," she nodded in greeting. "I have to say, judging from your brazen actions, it seems that your newfound powers have gotten into your head."

    "Nice to see you too, Yuseria," Solaris returned. "Aren''t you supposed to show respect ''n'' all? I am a Spirit King, after all."

    This time, another person spoke up. "You might be a Spirit king, but your actions have judged you unworthy of any such title. And besides, do not fool yourself with your meager accomplishment. You should know full well that should we choose to ascend, it would take naught but a thought."

    The second person was an elf, a sun elf to be exact. He had the telltale golden eyes of the royal family of Aetheris, coupled with golden draping hair and a calm demeanor. Although his features only narrowed down the identity to a few figures, the ancient eyes of the male immediately clued Damien in on his identity, Aelar Aetheris. He was putting on fitted golden-plated armor that went up from his wing-sided armor down to his boots. From his shoulder down to his forearm ran menacing eight-inch spikes that steamed of constrained energy. Trails of golden lightning ran through his entire body, like a thunder elemental.

    Aelar Aetheris was a legendary figure, even to someone like Damien. The man was a myth only heard of, but never seen. Stories of his exploit had been circulated amongst the Spirit lord community to the extent Damien sometimes wondered which was real or made up.

    Behind him was another elven male of youthful appearance, and judging from the natural features, he was also of royal blood, Vaelion Aetheris. This one Damien was more familiar with. Vaelion was strong, certainly, but he hadn''t yet accomplished any feat worthy of marking him above the average Spirit lords. Damien had no illusion of the man''s true strength, though. After all, he came from a Great family, a great family where personal strength was one of the single most important criteria for any form of leadership. If he was to take over after his father, Damien knew that he had to have great power.

    "Is that so?" Solaris curled an eyebrow.

    "We both know what this is about," Aelar replied, his voice stony and without emotion. "Your uncontrolled need to become like us has driven you mad, and that madness has manifested in this pointless war."

    Damien kept his expression unchanged, but inside, his mind was swirling as everything finally clicked. Historians had all come up with theories about the cause of the last great war. Dozens had been formulated and then immediately discarded when their basis proved unfounded. In essence, no one truly knew what moved Solaris to begin the bloodbath that was the first great war. So everyone had just chalked it up to him simply being hungry for more than he had.

    Solaris barked a deep laugh, jolting Damien from his thoughts. He laughed for a few seconds before he finally comported himself, but there was still mirth in his eyes as he spoke.

    "You great families," Solaris sneered. "You act all high and mighty, looking down on me and calling my ambitions pointless. But let us not forget that history always repeats itself." Solaris smiled, seeing the sudden sharpness in the eyes of the heads of two great families. "Yes, I know. No matter your efforts in trying to destroy information, history will not be so easily cleansed."

    Solaris then turned to Damien.

    "The families you so easily ally yourself to are no different from me. They, along with the others are the progenitors of the great wars. Do you know how many lives were lost when they vied for control? Billions, that''s how many." Solaris then pointed at Aelar. "His family, alongside the Tyrians, Rayuns, and the Barekens choked the Aesland continent in a sea of blood as they battled for power. Entire lines were completely wiped out as their alliance divided the continent amongst themselves. All the smaller kingdoms you see today in the Aesland continent are just puppet kingdoms at the beck and call of the Great families."

    "Careful with your tongue," Aelar warned, his tone threatening and with a shocking show of emotion. But his warning fell on deaf ears.

    "The Teirye were more successful," Solaris continued. "Either they didn''t have as many enemies compared to the four, or they were just too powerful, but they managed to acquire the entire Winterlands continent all to themselves, using the now smaller kingdoms as a buffer while they burrowed themselves in," he spat. "like cowards."

    From Yuseria''s back emerged long, metallic wings that shimmered in the moonlight, her stance threatening.

    "The Fyre and the Nesene family clearly weren''t as powerful as the rest," Solaris shrugged. "But they did ally themselves in crushing down all opposition to their claim of both Greensend and Norelane. After which they hastily retreated to hole up in their claimed territory, like scared animals."

    "Solaris." Yuseria''s voice had now taken on a dangerous edge, a war bow appearing in her hands.

    Still, Solaris was undaunted. "And do you know the worst of their crimes? The Redlands, formerly known as Ursela. A continent of such beauty and wonder that majestic creatures graced its lands with their presence. Ursela was the capital of a once great Empire that spanned this entire planet." Finally, Solaris turned his eyes to look straight at Aelar''s and Yuseria''s. "And the great families ravaged it, warping it into a wasteland of blood and death."

    "As I said, no matter your efforts over the millennia to wipe out history, it will never go without a fight."

    Halar Rayun, covered in a detailed, earth-colored armor of precious stone, whipped out a fearful looking hammer. "Enough of this, we fight!."

    "In this, I agree."

 Chapter 73: INTERLUDE â€“ The Aveanii

    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 ¨C at the second domain tier of the Spirit King realm ¨C 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!

 Chapter 74: WAR â€“ A Bleak Future

    Unsurprisingly, Halar was the first to make contact with Solaris. Both opponent hammers clashed in a conflagration of earth and fire, visibly melting the air and generating a heat wave that Damien felt from a mile away.

    The others came in an instant later, moving through the aftereffects towards an unmoved Solaris. Golden lightning boomed from Aelar, scything out in jagged lines that could have melted a large river down to its rocky bed. Openly, Solaris scoffed, waving his hands and dispersing the probing attack. A whistling sound cut through the booming thunder as three arrows impacted Solaris one after the other, an explosion capable of erasing mountains erupting a moment later. Damien, yet to move, watched as the smoke finally cleared. Yet before it even did so, they could see the smoking outline of a humanoid figure, a humanoid figure who proved to be unharmed as the smoke finally cleared. There wasn''t even a scratch on his silk robe.

    Solaris laughed as his form finally came into view, waving his hands and dispersing the rest of the smoke. "An admirable effort," he said, hands folded behind his back. "But I must not have made it clear. This battle Is not going to be between us."

    Seeing their confusion, the Solarian Emperor smiled devilishly, "Did you think I just sat on my thumb while my cities were being overrun and my armies devastated?

    "Your continuous victories have made you all complacent, and you will pay dearly for that."

    Behind him, in the distance, the signature-colored portals of the Solaria Empire rose towards the sky, three in number. And from them came¨C Damien''s eyes widened in horror and revulsion as swarms of abominations poured out of the portals, eliciting bone-chilling screeches as they caught sight of the alliance soldiers who were yet to fully retreat.

    The creatures¨C humanoid with crimson solidified blood in the shape of blades for arms, instead of flesh. Their legs were a mix of different creatures from the Bovidae family, sprinting across the battlefield with speed comparable to any early-tier Monarch. Their faces were also the same, a blend of different beasts, both sapient and non-sapient, all bared with deadly-looking fangs.

    Attached to their backs were wings made of hundreds of tiny blade-like feathers, also of solidified blood. Some of those monsters took to the air, flapping their bat-like wings and sending dozens of deadly sharp blades down at the alliance soldiers.

    But those were not what made Damien look away in revulsion; it was their torsos. Their bodies weren''t covered in any kind of skin or scales or furs; they were made of muscles, blood-soaked muscles.

    "What have you done?!" Damien roared in part fury, part horror.

    "This?" Solaris was still smiling, waving his hands at the abominations. "These are your recompense. You have had your time, now it is mine."

    "This isn''t just happening here," Aelar said, his voice an undertone of fury. "I have just received an emergency message, these... Grotesque creatures are already on Aesland."

    "Same as I," Yuseria said, her fury in full display.

    "And I," Halar added, surprisingly calm. "My brother has just requested I return." He looked at Solaris. "You have won this round." And then like dust, he disappeared, the others following a second later.

    Damien didn''t know how to react. His emotions shifted from horror to fury and then back as he watched the creatures tear into the remaining alliance soldiers. Confusingly, they ignored those from the Empire.

    Solaris, Seeing this, smiled. "I will let you try your hand in the futility of trying to prevent this; Not out of any form of pity but just because I want to see you despair when you eventually realize the depths of your loss."

    Like a fire doused by water, Damien''s emotions cooled, becoming something cold, a feeling he paid no attention to as he pushed it to the back of his mind. "You will regret this."

    "No, I won''t," Solaris replied, his form already dematerializing. "Take your time to despair properly, Elason, because your death will come thereafter." And then he was gone.

    Damien was furious, but there was nothing he could do to Solaris, yet. So he forced his mindset into salvaging what remained of the tired forces below fighting for survival.

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    ***

    Monarch Merene swiped her sword, a dozen needles erupting and slamming into three of the abominations, carrying them into the ones behind. Her breath came out heavily, but fear kept her from any form of relaxation.

    She had been among the Monarch shields tasked with the protection of the lower realmers against the stray techniques of the Spirit lords, so she was very exhausted after the battle, a combination of fear and spirit strain from all the stray techniques misdirected enough to see her grounded for atleast two days. Fear had soon taken hold as their only Spirit lord guardian was pushed to the brink of death, a death which would have foretold an equal experience for her and the other Monarchs. Thankfully, the arrival of the calamity had changed her status from that of a walking corpse to a woman about to go on a rest, a short one, but still, a rest nonetheless.

    Her hopeful dream was then quashed by the arrival of a man whom she''d immediately figured out as the Solarian Emperor, a cold-looking man.

    The arrival of the infamous Solaris had immediately foretold a grim future for all who would be caught in the crosshairs of what was surely building up to be a devastating battle. Even the Monarch shields in their full battle ready form would have been erased in seconds if they tried deflecting any stray techniques from those two monsters.

    The arrival of another three figures ¨C rulers, judging from their appearance ¨C had then sealed their grim future. No being of a lower realm could survive the proximity of a Spirit lord battle, talk less of five. The whole terrain for miles would be turned into a wasteland.

    Thankfully, again, the figures seemed to have gone straight into a discussion, a heated one if she had anything to say about it. This brief calm had aided more than half the allied soldiers in the field to retreat through the portals. A calm which had then been disturbed as the Spirit lords engaged in a brief yet devastating battle that saw over a thousand fighters dead, all in seconds.

    When the brief spat had ended, Merene had expected it to be all, since they had immediately gone back to their worded spats. Now, the sight of the abominations before her made her wish for the simpleness of deflecting Spirit lord''s attacks. Already, she had seen men being dragged by those monsters, their screams immediately cut short as their bodies were blocked from view.

    Her flaming snake construct moved behind her, chomping down on a creature that had been aiming for her back. It took considerable effort for her construct to finally end the thing, which saw her willpower strained to the brink of collapse, but still, she didn''t hold back. It would be better to fight her hardest right now than hold back for a later future. Death could come at any time.

    And death did come...

    ...in the form of a furious-looking man descending over the twisting forms of millions of abominations. Soldiers cheered and hopeful calls were shouted out as the walking grey-eyed calamity hovered like a butcher''s knife over their enemies. Merene relaxed a little, devoting more willpower to her construct to keep it whole and functioning.

    "GET BEHIND ME AND BACK INTO THE PORTALS!" His voice echoed In every mind, a slice of anger bleeding into its gentle tone.

    Merene immediately obeyed, beginning her retreat alongside the little survivors. They formed into a square formation as they moved, the injured taking shelter in the middle while those in working form shielded them, preventing any of those things from breaching.

    Merene, still facing the swarms of abominations, could still see that despite their valiant effort in stemming the tide, the creatures seemed unending. Her eyes widened in horror as, from the ranks of the abominations, smoke-shrouded forms began emerging. Familiar forms.

    Repulsion spread through the ranks as soldiers who were already dead began picking themselves up, their bodies rising onto their feet like puppets attached to strings. Their moving forms were sluggish yet fast, no doubt capable of matching up to a lord. And their eyes? Merene''s heart bled as she stared into those dead eyes, dead eyes that were filled with nothing but hunger. No life. No emotions, nor any kind of remembrance could be seen in them. Their forms were just walking puppets.

    Screams of horror and heart-rending emotional pain erupted as soldiers watched the bodies of their loved ones desecrated in such a vile manner. Chaos threatened to engulf them as morale was brought to an all-time low, but order kept them from rushing toward the walking dead.

    A wall of grey energy rose up in between the soldiers and the large swarm, shielding the soldiers and leaving the small clusters that were already past the line for the soldiers to deal with.

    "YOU HAVE BLED AND HAVE WATCHED THE BODIES OF YOUR LOVED ONES DEFILED IN A MANNER EVEN REPULSIVE TO THE SOUL; I BLEED WITH YOU AND I LAY DOWN THIS PROMISE ON MY LIFE. AS LONG AS I STILL DRAW BREATH, VENGEANCE SHALL BE CARRIED OUT!" The voice of the Calamity sounded in their minds, this time allowing for the soldiers to witness his fury. "BUT NOW IS NOT THE TIME TO WALLOW IN DESPAIR. YOUR SURVIVAL IS STILL AT STAKE, FIGHT FOR IT!"

    Merene emotions calmed. It was not gone, though, only contained to the back of her mind. A reminder. She saw the same effect play out on the faces of the other soldiers, their resolve firm and projected out for all to see.

    Seemingly satisfied with their response, the calamity acted.

    The air was sucked away as something began forming in the sky. The atmosphere transformed into a dark grey hue, its effects projecting a bleak future. And on the sky appeared a large star, grey in color and brimming with barely contained energy.

    Soldiers began making their way through the portals, watching as other stars, these ones lacking the same power, rained down from the sky at the abominations in ground shaking explosions.

    Merene, being one of the few Monarchs and the one with the highest authority presently, was the last to step back through.

    Her last sight before the portal closed was of the large star descending on the swarm in an explosion of cataclysmic proportions.

 Chapter 75: Do you have Whiska?

    In the aftermath of the new developments, the war, for the second time, was heightened to a new level, a far more dangerous one. In the beginning, nations around the globe that were participating in the war, including Solaria, were reluctant to unleash their full military might. They held back, predicting a very short and likely victorious war, and also, they wanted to be fresh and kicking for the massive land grab that was sure to follow.

    The Empire, though, followed a different belief. For Solaria, it was to keep their true armies fresh and ready for a moment like this. A decisive moment to strike.

    From the Empire heartlands, golden filmy portals rose to the sky, dozens of them. And into them marched legions ¨C a million per legion. Their destination? Everywhere.

    Aesland, already struggling against the tide of unending self-replenishing abominations, received a sudden hit on their coastal flanks as millions of soldiers from the three ¡ª Solaria, Torinia, Hive ¡ª poured out, swarming their shocked and less prepared lines and sending them back into fierce retreat.

    The great families residing on the continent, not to be undone, retaliated in kind. Aetheris, Tyria, and Rayun, which were all militaristic nations, sent out a force of equivalent size. They punched back, and punched hard. Successful, they began closing back their flanks, but they couldn''t do anything more. They were already surrounded.

    Winterra, or Winterlands, as it was popularly called, also saw an equal level of invasion. The Teirye, having chosen a passive approach to the war, weren''t prepared at all for the legions that poured into the continent, talk less of the abominations. Their continent''s coastal kingdoms were overrun in days, forcing a horde of refugees to move into the continent''s heartlands. These refugees, only accompanied by a few soldiers, were swarmed in a single day as the abominations increased their numbers, almost doubling in size. The Teirye, having had far fewer casualties than the others during the early battles, immediately sent out their Spirit lords and legions, turning the abominations into ice sculptures and drowning the rest in conjured sea. But still, they were unending.

    Greensend saw the worst battles in the war. Most of the smaller nations were already overrun in the early battles as well as fallen to the abomination''s first wave. This left only the great nations to stem the tide while simultaneously pushing back the Solarian legions.

    To the soldiers who saw more battles than most, Spirit lord appearances became a common thing for them ¨C at least the ones lucky enough to survive through the previous appearances.

    Cities were burned to the ground. Forest turned into soot and ash. And rivers emptied into their bedrocks. All in a bid to halt the tide.

    ***

    Distant thunder rattled the troop ship as the fleet finally entered the warzone. The sky was darkened, but lights from millions of techniques flashing in the air lit the horizon like a second sun.

    Ymal stood at the front of his division, terrified, yet ready all the same for what was to come. Any soldier worth his weapon would have heard of the new development by now. The defiled, as they called them.

    Soldiers died in droves, all in a losing attempt to hold back those things, things which had already swept over twenty percent of the continent in days, swallowing cities and converting their populations into more defiled. Because of this, the war had seen a sharp increase in Spirit lord activities as even the top of the hierarchies began making more appearances. Though they always left a devastated region in their wake.

    Despite this all, the swarm seemed unending.

    Already, as they approached the battlefield, Ymal could hear the screeches and roars, shrill sounds coming from the unnatural creatures ¡ª Creatures of UnLife. This made it all the more terrifying, if he had anything to say about it.

    "Alright, listen up!" The Monarch commander of the ship called out. "As you all might know, a new party has joined the war. They are ruthless. They are hungry. They are unending. And worst of all, they are dead, a walking dead. Despite their lack of any conscious thoughts, they are not to be underestimated. It would only take a single grip to bring you down, so I''d be more careful if I were you."

    The Monarch''s gaze panned the entire deck, his eyes taking in every soldier lined in formation.

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    "Our mission here is to hinder the swarm before it approaches the Destan Valleys. I hope I don''t have to explain to you what would happen if they manage to step into the valleys." A distant rumble, alongside a bright flash of light punctuated his words.

    Ymal couldn''t help himself, he shivered at that thought. The Destan Valleys was one of the largest trade routes on the continent. It could even be contested as the largest. It was capable of crossing armies, a thousand abreast. Caves dotted the valleys, which made it a frequent den for all sorts of brigands and criminal sorts. If those creatures poured into the valleys, there would be no way to flush them out.

    And worst of all, the one which terrified Ymal the most, and probably the higher ups, was that the valleys had a dozen routes leading into the territories of multiple kingdoms. A direct route to the capital of Camlen.

    "Today, we, alongside Gandor and the other smaller kingdoms and city-states still remaining in this war, will make our stand here, about seventy miles in proximity to the valleys." The Monarch''s face turned grim as he looked at them all. "Let me warm you now: this battlefield is unarguably going to be one of the most bloodiest in this entire war. If we''re unlucky, we could continue to see battle in this region for years, a situation which I hope none of you are willing to experience.

    "Good, though before you go in, I have been instructed to give you this last warning, a short one. Be aware that there will be Spirit lords on this battlefield, occasionally. They will only appear when the swarm seems to be increasing past our capacity to handle. The warning to you is to be mindful of your position whenever such a time arrives. Nobody wants to be unfortunate enough to fall to friendly fire."

    Finished, he nodded, and then turned around, heading back into the ship.

    Already knowing what would come next, Ymal, alongside the multitude of soldiers gathered, began stretching their hands, legs, necks, and every part of their bodies they could think of.

    "Prepare for Air drop!" A voice called out through the sound enchantment laced throughout the ship. "Griffin Corp, prepare for aerial combat! Ground troop commanders, report to the joint command stations to receive your assignments! You drop in three seconds."

    As one, every soldier not on a mystical creature turned to face outward from the ship.

    "Three!"

    Ymal breathed in.

    "Two!"

    He breathed out.

    "One!"

    His blood turned cold.

    "Zero! Drop! Drop!! Drop!!!"

    And then he jumped.

    ***

    Damien stepped into the bar. Despite the cloudy atmosphere, the mood in the bar was a little brighter than he''d expected.

    "Nice to see that some people are still upbeat despite everything going on," Keilan commented, a little smile gracing his lips.

    [Yea, well, that''s because they haven''t seen much of the war, have they, being all secluded and all,] Gray chipped in unhelpfully.

    "Gray," Damien sighed, already making his way toward the counter. "Can''t you be cheerful for once?"

    [Ha! Cheerfulness is for babies. Are you a baby, Damien?]

    Ignoring Gray, Damien signaled the attention of a bartender attending to one of the other patrons.

    "If it''d get me away from all this mess, I''d like to be a baby, thank you," Keilan said, giving Gray the googly eyes.

    The little man then made a disgusted face, [Ewrgh! Stay away, I''m not Damien, that trick won''t work on me.]

    "Hey!"

    Damien''s eyes narrowed as he was promptly ignored, the little shit turning back to Keilan. [Though, if after two years you still want to return to being a baby, let me know, I could hook you up with this time wielder I know. She does excellent business.]

    "I don''t know what''s more weird, a grown-up man who wants to return to being a child," Damien said. "Or there being someone who caters to this kind of needs."

    [Trust me, Damien,] Gray tapped his shoulder. [When you get out into the real world, you''ll see weirder things than this.]

    Thankfully, the arrival of the bartender saved him from continuing the conversation.

    "Good evening, sir, how may I help you?" The lady smiled.

    "Uhhh, go¨Cgood evening," Damien said, then shook his head to clear his thoughts, scrunching his eyebrows. "Sorry, would you mind if I ask what singled me out? I mean, this is a bar, I could be here for a drink."

    The beautiful lady graced him with an amused smile, waving the almost emptied bottle in her hand around the room. "I know every one of these people sitting here. You, on the other hand, are new. There are only two reasons new people come to this side of the region: one, is for the boss. Two," her eyes panned to Damien and then moved to Keilan, taking them in while seemingly ignoring Gray entirely. "Judging by the appearance of you and your companion over here, I don''t think you''re number two."

    Damien coughed nervously, embarrassment coloring his cheeks pink as they''d been so easily read. Keilan began whistling, shifting his eyes anywhere but the lady''s.

    "So, what can I do for you, gentlemen!"

    Still embarrassed, Damien murmured. "Umm, we''re here to see your boss."

    The lady smiled. "Figured so. Though I''m sorry to say the boss isn''t taking visitors right now. His orders."

    Damien, having regained some of his dignity, managed to utter his next words calmly. "Just tell him it''s Damien, he''ll make an exception."

    "Alright, if you say so," she shrugged. "So in the meantime, what would you like to drink?"

    Damien smiled. "Do you have Whiska?"

    "Yes, and chilled too."

    "Yes, thank you. I''d like that."

    She nodded, turning towards Keilan. "And you?"

    Damien had to elbow-punch Keilan before he finally turned his face around. "Um, I''ll have what he''s having."

    "Alright then. Two Whiskas coming right up!"

 Chapter 76 : A Leading Expert in Mass Destruction

    They were already halfway through their drinks when the lady returned, informing them that the boss was ready now.

    Damien muttered a thanks, and when he judged her at a more comfortable distance, he hurriedly rushed to finish of his drink. He''d be damned if he left such exquisite work of ingenuity unfinished.

    [Wow, the great Damien, brought so low simply by the brilliance of a beautiful woman. I should let Solaris know of this.] Gray teased.

    "Shut up," Damien murmured.

    "Gray," Keilan said. "When she was addressing us, why did she skip you? At first, I thought she might not have detected you due to your stature, but later on, it seemed like she didn''t even notice your presence, like at all."

    Gray chuckled. [Finally decided to ask, did you? Alright, the reason why she can''t see me, why anyone can''t see me, including your prestigious circle of Spirit lords, is because I don''t want them to.]

    "How? Is that a technique or something?" Damien asked as he stood and then began making his way toward the back of the room, Keilan and Gray following behind.

    [This is just one of the workings of intent, and also a bit of superior soul strength. But since I do not have a soul, I have to make up for it with a bludgeoning level of intent.]

    "What do you mean you don''t have a soul?" Damien frowned.

    [What I said. I''m soulless.] Gray said. [I am a construct. An extremely advanced one, but still, a construct nonetheless. Constructs do not have souls.]

    Now it was Keilan''s turn to frown. "Why do you sound so indifferent about it? You seem not to care about it."

    [Because I do not care, Keilan,] Gray said stiffly. [To me, having a soul is as foreign as fire to water. I acknowledge its benefits, but my lack does not hinder my functionality.]

    Damien, seeing where this was all heading, decided to get back on topic. Though he earned himself a glare from Keilan, he didn''t worry. After all, he''d already set a reminder in his mind for this conversation at a more convenient time.

    "About this technique, you said an intent and a soul are required for it, yet you admit to performing it without a soul. How?"

    Gray, gladly accepting the escape, explained. [Intent isn''t an infinite force. It is born out of the workings of willpower, or more precisely, one of the nascent workings of willpower. To use intent with more finesse and less mental drain, a soul is required, preferably a stronger soul.]

    "Huh," Damien rubbed his chin. "So what you''re saying is that the difference between what you''re doing and someone with a soul is like a sword and a hammer?"

    Gray chuckled. [More like a sharp dagger and a stone.]

    "Holy shimoly!" Keilan exclaimed in awe. "This must be some kind of extremely powerful technique, then."

    [You have no idea. Although a lot more people know about it, only a few are truly capable of utilizing it. It takes a certain mind and soul to be capable of manipulating the senses of another.]

    "I need to learn this."

    Not only for its practical use, Damien also recognized the threat of falling victim to a technique such as this. Not only could he be killed without even knowing how, but he could also have a stalker following him ¡ª a potential butcher''s blade hanging over his head ¡ª and he''d never know. He didn''t want to live in fear of such a potential threat.

    "Me too, I also want to learn," Keilan eagerly added.

    [Sure,] Gray said in a deadpanned tone. [As soon as you take some time away from the war.]

    The atmosphere immediately turned awkward. Luckily, they were already at their destination.

    When he knocked, the door instantly opened by itself. Damien turned to Keilan with a raised eyebrow. Shrugging, he stepped inside.

    The room they entered was filled with all sorts of tomes and books, some properly arranged on the shelves which lined all three corners of the room. The remaining were left scattered in multiple heaps on the rug-covered floor. Damien knew the knowledge contained in some of those books would leave every researcher in ecstasy for years to come.

    Their host was sitting on a high-back chair, twiddling his fingers and looking all stern and such as he waited for them.

    He was easily over six foot, with short-cropped brown hair with the beginning of a touch of grey despite the man having never reached his second century.

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    "Is this room going to be like this forever?" Damien looked around.

    The man shrugged in answer, ignoring Damien as he turned his full attention toward the second person behind him.

    "Hi, Elas," Keilan smiled.

    "Come here, my boy," Elas said, standing from his seat and moving toward Keilan with arms wide open.

    Damien smiled at the old man fussing over Keilan, his memory inadvertently flashing back into the past when their mother ¨C Mara ¨C had done the same for both of them. Back then, they''d both loudly refused, citing all sorts of things about being grown up and above those embarrassing show of affection. Now though? Damien''s mood soured. What he wouldn''t give to have Mara fuss over him again.

    Gray, sensing his mood, put a gentle hand on Damien''s shoulder. He smiled in appreciation as a soothing feeling settled over him.

    Damien''s attention was immediately brought back as Elas called. "Alright, now that we''ve all been happily reunited, what brought this visit?"

    Damien raised an eyebrow.

    "Don''t give me that," Elas said. "I''m happy to see you both; but unlike me, you both have sensitive jobs which usually require your attention at a moment''s notice. For both of you to take the time off to come visit," He shook his head. "Things must have gotten desperate."

    Damien took a sit alongside the one already occupied by Keilan, sighing. "Sure, things are desperate. You must have heard of Solaris''s new weapons?"

    Elas nodded, his mood visibly taking a downturn. "Yes. I knew Solaris from back during the first war; sure, he was extremely ambitious, with a very loose string holding his morality in check. But this?" The man shook his head. "This is something far beyond the scope of forgiveness."

    "We know a fleshcrafter is behind the creation of those things. Do you know which one?" Keilan asked.

    "Yes," Elas nodded, opening a drawer and bringing out a file. "Rizhak. Even by fleshcrafter standards, this one is considered a loon. And powerful too. Our information places him at early tier Spirit lord."

    Damien''s expression turned sour as he heard that. That was terrible news. "A bad combination."

    "A bad combination," Elas repeated.

    "Why would Solaris choose the guy, then? Like you said, he''s abnormal even by fleshcrafter standards. Having a loose weapon like that is sure to prove self-destructive."

    "Oh, they''re already familiar." Elas gestured at the file in Keilan''s hand. "He was the one who performed the paper tiger operation."

    The paper tiger operation referred to the con which Solaris ¨C the true Solaris ¨C played on the rulers of the world. The man had employed a fleshcrafter to transform his son, Tenral, into the spitting image of his father, and then leaving him as a paper tiger to deterr any would be invader. The scam had lasted for decades until Damien, almost killing the fake one, had drawn the true Emperor out.

    Unfortunately, his plan to end Solaris once and for all had immediately been squashed at the discovery that the man was already a Spirit King.

    Damien couldn''t help himself, he laughed. When he saw the others looking at him with raised eyebrows, he immediately tried ¨C and failed ¨C to put on a straight face. "I mean... Who came up... with such a name?"

    "Me." Elas glared.

    That immediately got him to sober up. "Sorry." He muttered.

    "I assume you know where he''s being kept?" Keilan said to Elas.

    "Yes, in the Castle."

    "Yup," Damien said. "That''s a dead end. No wonder Solaris doesn''t leave the place for a long period."

    But Keilan didn''t give up. "There must be some way to, at least, flush him out long enough for someone to sneak in there and end the fleshcrafter, right?"

    "Sorry, boyo." Elas shook his head. "That ain''t gonna work. Shadow Hall also has a cadre guarding the man."

    "Wow, talk about protection."

    "Is there no other way? What of the abominations? We can''t keep fighting them as they come at us unendingly."

    Elas nodded. "I agree with you on that, but there''s nothing I can do about it. You, on the other hand, are well known for mass destruction."

    "Hmmm," Damien nodded in agreement. "A leading expert, if I might add."

    "Sure," Keilan said. "Why don''t I run now to a battlefield, a battlefield also filled with our soldiers, and then unleash a mega-storm? That''ll fix everything."

    "I sense sarcasm," Damien said.

    "Ya think?!"

    Elas, though, was looking at them with confusion. "A Megastorm?"

    "Oh, it''s just this new technique Keilan created, or more correctly, an upgraded form of his normal storm conjuration. It''s basically a far bigger tornado than the one he usually creates," Damien said nonchalantly.

    Elas then turned to Keilan. "I''m one of the few Monarchs always kept updated on the going on around the world. Why haven''t I heard of this?"

    "That''s because I haven''t used it outside of a proto-realm," Keilan sighed. "It takes time to create and is like ten times the number of my above-average tornadoes."

    Elas looked contemplative. "My organization has studied the powers of your tornadoes, moving at 800 hundred m-"

    "No, that''s the average ones," Keilan interrupted. "I managed to squeeze my tier three ones to move at a thousand miles per hour, the highest ever recorded," Keilan smugness was so potent Damien could practically feel it rub against his skin.

    "Wow," Elas sat back. "That''s powerful. And you say your MegaStorm could beat that?"

    "By a wide margin," Keilan nodded. "A single one of my MegaStorm has far more power than those ones, ten times that."

    "And how many can you create?"

    Keilan rubbed his chin, clearly thinking. "Without my astral image, only a single one, and it''ll completely drain me. I could triple that with my astral image, though."

    Elas leaned back with a sigh, clearly overwhelmed. "I can see why you haven''t unleashed something like that outside of the proto-realms. That''s a technique that could easily wipe out multiple legions."

    "Exactly," Keilan agreed. "Unleashing something like that on our side of the continent would be doing ourselves more harm than the Solarians."

    Damien, though, had already lost interest on that topic, a question sneaking into his mind. "Hey, Elas. Has your organization figured out how those things are resurrecting the dead? The abominations, I mean."

    The man, still clearly overwhelmed, answered. "All the defiled are controlled by hundreds of some kind of micro organisms ¨C we haven''t figured out what they are, yet. Our experts in the field have also detected a spiritual link connecting them to something, probably their progenitor."

    "A Hive kind of creature?" Damien asked.

    "Unfortunately, yes."

    Now, it was Damien''s turn to lean back, but the difference this time was that he wasn''t overwhelmed, just resolved. He looked Keilan in the eye, seeing the agreement written there, and then nodded, his resolve firmed.

    Turning to Elas, Damien asked the question he''d come here for. "What do you know of the ancient Empire that ruled this world?"

 Chapter 77 : Spirit Kings & World Spirits

    Elas''s head snapped up. "How did you know about that?"

    Damien sighed. He''d already given an explanation to Keilan and wasn''t thrilled to have to start again. But it couldn''t be helped, so he began summarizing the brief altercation that had occurred and the accusations that were spewed. He''d already explained such to Keilan.

    "So, is everything true? Was there an empire that spanned this world? And why do they not exist anymore?"

    Elas raised his hands to stall the flood of questions that was threatening to flood out of Damien''s mouth.

    "One at a time," Elas said. "Yes, to your first question. The answers to the rest are pretty subjective, seeing as the only people who know the true, unspeculated version are the Great Families and the Spirit King Cultists." The man sighed. "And you know how well the outcome''s going to play out if you approach any of them for answers. But fortunately for you, we''ve ¨C my organization ¨C also been able to put together a story from the bits and pieces scattered around."

    Damien shrugged, that was good enough. "So it''s true then? Solaris wasn''t the progenitor of the great wars?"

    Elas laughed. "Not by a small margin. You have to understand, our world wasn''t always like this. Once, Ra, the World Spirit, was a Spirit King level being. World Spirits, from the knowledge we''ve been able to scrounge up, aren''t all almighty or completely impenetrable. With numbers, they could be overwhelmed and even defeated."

    "What''s that got to do with the Great families?" Keilan asked.

    "What I''m saying is that, likewise, when the World Spirit had still been in the realm of Spirit King, there were also Spirit King individuals, and they were not always restricted to outer space."

    "They lived on the planet," Damien realized. "Why didn''t the World Spirit evict them, then? It should have been capable of doing so."

    Elas smiled. "You see... Power is a fickle thing, no matter how great yours is, if armies of equal rank individuals descend on you, your power will become worthless."

    Damien, understanding where Elas was heading, asked. "How many Spirit Kings were there?"

    "Enough that the planet would have literally been split in two if they had come to blows."

    Damien took a deep breath, his mind struggling to digest what had just been said. "Gray?"

    [Your friend speaks true. World Spirits are certainly powerful, extremely so. Their two levels of existence ¨C their will and literal planet-level energy well ¨C make them into an effective behemoth in nigh impenetrability and raw power. No Essence wielder is capable of single-handedly taking on a World Spirit of equal realm.]

    "Because of their their ''impenetrability'' and ''raw power''?"

    [Not only that. Taking on a World Spirit is the equivalent of fighting more than a dozen Essence wielders of equal realm. World Spirits lacks the great mobility and certainly the pure destructive offensive capabilities of Essence wielders, but the sheer defensive capabilities of the World Spirit would leave both your willpower and energy well drained more than half a dozen times before you can even break through their shield.]

    "You said they lack offensive capabilities. What of the Sentinels, then, aren''t they offensive techniques?"

    Gray chuckled. [I never said they completely lacked offensive capabilities, what I meant was that, compared to the average Essence wielder of equal realm, a World Spirit will always lose in the offensive.]

    "So they make up for their deficit in offensive capabilities with more than average defenses?"

    [Far more than average. Now, pertaining to their offensive capabilities, that''s where the Sentinels come in. Like fleshcrafters and all sorts of invasive types of Essence wielders.]

    "Invasive types? What are those?"

    [Essence wielders who specialize in concepts like Soul, Mind, and Blood, are commonly termed as invasive wielders.] Gray''s voice then took on a warning tone. [And heed this warning: Do not battle their ilks without prior preparations. There are fates worse than death.]

    Damien, seeing as the warning came from Gray, couldn''t help the uncontrollable shiver that briefly crossed his spine.

    [Now, to get back on topic. Sentinels make up for their creator''s lack of true offensive powers. They are the hammer to their World Spirit''s shield. Do you get me now?]

    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

    Damien nodded. "I understand what you''re saying. But all your explanation did was make them more powerful than a bunch of Spirit Kings could handle."

    [Sure. But do understand that the explanations I''m giving you are factoring the personal powers of the Spirit Kings in the average tier. If half a dozen elite tier Spirit Kings attack a World Spirit, it would undoubtedly fall.]

    Still unsatisfied with the answer but lacking the time enough to fully go into detail, Damien turned his attention back to Elas. "Do you by any chance have an estimate of the Spirit Kings'' population then?"

    Elas, who had also taken the time to digest some things, came to. "Sure, somewhere between ten to fifteen. Now, we haven''t been able to fully narrow it down, but from what we were able to accumulate over centuries of research, we placed their numbers between those two numbers, presently great families included.

    "Now, to continue. The Empire, then, a Mega civilization that spanned the entire world, was, undoubtedly ruled by a Spirit King Emperor of supposedly great power.

    The other Spirit Kings were installed as pillars of the Empire ¡ª I assume that''s where Solaris copied the power structure upon which he built his Empire''s foundation. The only difference between both is that one Empire''s pillars were stationed on every continent, acting in their role as literal pillars who held everything up and prevented chaos from breaking up in their respective assigned sectors. The pillars of Solaria are just a tiny fragment of those, with their powers drastically limited to a fraction of the Greensend continent."

    "So, what happened to the Empire?" Damien asked.

    "Greed."

    "For wealth?" Keilan raised his eyebrows. "I can''t imagine what figures like that would still need monetary wealth for."

    "Oh, there''re still ways money can greatly aid powerful figures like them," Elias laughed. "But no, I wasn''t talking about money."

    "They wanted more power?" Damien guessed.

    "You can say that. But truly, they simply no longer wanted to be under the heels of anyone, anymore.

    "You should understand this far more than me that as one grows more powerful, you become more averse to the thoughts of being under the authority of someone, especially someone of the same realm. Wasn''t that the reason for your back and forth with Solaria for almost a decade, now?"

    Damien agreed. Since his first taste of true personal power, he''d become so enamored with his power that over the years, as he grew, he''d slowly become loath to allow someone else to take charge of his life. That was why when the kingdoms on the continent had finally taken notice of him and had come knocking, he''d refused.

    Of course, that had started the problematic issue of hiding from them when they''d eventually become forceful in their bid to have him.

    "The pillars, some of which were the Great families you see today, decided to separate from the Empire and vie for control of their respective sectors. You should know how that went."

    Damien pictured it. An Empire as great as that, whose subjects suddenly turned dissident, taking a vast chunk of its territory along with them as they left. He shook his head.

    ''No ruler will ever stand for that''

    "The Emperor, and the Spirit Kings still loyal to him, instead of being the ones to curb such national unrest and bring the ones responsible to heel, suddenly found themselves on the defensive."

    The small green orb of wind which had been revolving around Keilan''s finger for a while now, dissolved as the man turned to Elas in surprise.

    "Yes," Elas smiled. "I was also shocked when I read about it too. The great families, taking advantage of the Emperor''s minute indecision, descended on the capital in great force. Of all the locations where battles broke out, the capital, which was located on the Redlands, by the way, saw the greatest level of destruction by far. It was completely razed to the ground, nothing remaining but the ashes of the capital, literally."

    "Solaris said as much, although he did blame the warped nature of Redlands on their heads. I see now that he was right," Damien acknowledged.

    Elas nodded. "I admire that man''s level of diligence. For all his faults, he doesn''t slack in the achievement of his goals, not like some of the others. What took us multiple centuries, he was able to gather in little over a single century

    "I don''t think even you can fathom the level of death and destruction that occurred in that time. An entire continent filled with billions of people, all completely destroyed in a single day. It was completely assured that that area would forever become warped as a result of such atrocity."

    "So, what happened next?"

    "What else?" Elas shrugged. "Once the capital was destroyed and the emperor killed, the others dissolved into chaos, with every man for himself. That made them vastly easy targets for the great families to descend upon, especially as they were all allied in their single goal.

    "It took years, and a literal bloodbath, but eventually, the great families won. The end."

    Damien didn''t ask why the great families Spirit Kings were longer residing on the planet again. He knew why: the World Spirit was already an Ascendant Realm being. No Spirit king would be fool enough to go against that.

    ***

    When Damien stepped out into the main bar, with Elas accompanying them, his spine straightened as he came face to face with the lady, a little smile gracing her lips as she took notice of his reaction.

    Damien''s cheeks reddened as he heard Keilan snicker behind him.

    ''Traitor. I''ll have my revenge someday.''

    Elas, elite intelligence gatherer that he was, also didn''t fail to notice the reaction Damien had to the lady, a poorly hidden grin on his face as he turned toward Damien.

    "Ahh, I see you''ve met Lena," he gestured toward her. "Lena, this is Damien and his brother, Keilan. I hope you have been a gracious host toward our visitors?"

    Although she tried to hide it, it was easy for Damien to detect the brief confusion that crossed her face as her eyes flickered from Damien to Keilan, no doubt mentally questioning their lack of resemblance.

    Being the best gentleman that he was, Damien quickly stretched his hands forward. "Nice to meet you, Miss Lena?"

    Lena smiled. "Lena is just fine, thank you. And the pleasure is all mine." She shook his hands. "Forgive my prying, but I find myself intrigued how you both met Elas, here."

    Elas, the great talker that he was, immediately snatched up the conversation before Damien could answer. "You see, once upon a time, there were two little boys¡ª"

    But he didn''t get the chance to finish his sentence because, just at that moment, a horror-inducing aura settled over the entire bar, over the entire town.

    And then the world exploded.

 Chapter 78 : WAR â€” Uncontestable Power

    The influence of Karma. It was considered one of the most neutral forces of reality. Yet, even so, those of immense ancientness with enough wisdom to match knew it as unquestionably the most terrible to be on the bad side of.

    A behemoth could be brought down by an ant if it accrued enough negative karma. A star could explode and, by some miracle, leave the planets in its system untouched simply because of the positive karma of a single child.

    It was a concept that benefited everyone in equal measure, without regard for age, level of Power, status, or descent. And when it came, its effects were subtle, unknown to anyone until the final result.

    Menoe hovered over a vast battlefield, defending and attacking as she exchanged attacks with the high priest of the inferno cult while blocking passage against enemy soldiers.

    The Empire of Solaria had been cunning as of late. Their strategy in directing the hordes of defiled toward the main region of the Destan Valleys. Millions upon millions of abominations pouring into the region, which they obviously knew would lead to an instant response of equal measure from the nations vested in keeping that region out of the abominations.

    What the alliance had been late to realize was that the hordes of defiled were just a distraction, a way to keep them busy while the Empire plotted another route into the valleys.

    Kairutte, a major city in the Empire of Fyre, located on its borderlands. It was mainly known as a business hub for the Fyre, and luckily also for them, with an exclusive access, outside of those mainly used, into the Destan Valleys.

    Menoe understood that the reason why the Solarian Empire hadn''t sent its hordes of defiled through this route was due to the rules of the iridescent stipulations. Brazen as they were, they weren''t foolish as to play so close to fire.

    The route leading into valleys was separated from the city of Kairutte by a single canal, a canal which was owned by the Fyre''s. It wasn''t anything much, a simple canal whose only use was to mark the line between Fyre lands and the land leading into the Destan Valleys, since that was an international domain.

    While monitoring the flow of the lower realm battles, she conjured an ice wall, a wall from which flew hundreds of spikes that whistled through the air in nigh invisible blurs, aimed at the enemy Spirit lords. A smile tugged at her lips as she saw the enemy Spirit lords scatter in a haste to avoid her technique.

    Unfortunately, that wall, the best defensive technique she had in her arsenal, was destroyed as a condensed beam of pyromantic flame tore into it, melting and breaking it as the wall began to collapse.

    Not willing to let such conjuration go to waste, Menoe let the rest dissolve, and with her intent, she melded the remaining snow into the ambient Cosmo energies, her essence spreading through and freezing everything in its path, including another essence.

    She smiled. ''That should reduce their essence regeneration for a while.''

    Technically, Menoe understood that over that river, across to the lands leading into the valley, was considered an international domain. Meaning no one could lay a single claim to it.

    Solaris, daring as he was, was wise enough not to direct his eternally hungry abominations so close to the territories of Fyre, a territory which was barred from his entry for as long as this war lasted. So he used his soldiers instead.

    Below her, hundreds of walking treants crashed into the armies of Solaria, courtesy of the druidess, Desane, priestess of the Nature cult.

    Above them, the leafy, branchy crowns of the treants formed into one massive, gigantic crown, which then stood the waist-cocked form of the high priestess, herself, controlling the mile-long tendrils of flora which lashed out furiously at the enemy Spirit lords. Those leaves, despite their fragile-looking state and flexibility, were stronger than most steel and sharp enough to cut through Spirit lord fortified skin.

    The battle hadn''t been going for long, yet had seen casualties in the thousands. A miracle given the forces at play here.

    Menoe had just taken a disorienting blow from the inferno high priest, leaving her rolling in the skies. She had just about been ready for a follow-up attack when everything instantly quieted, the sounds of the furious battle vanishing into thin air in a single moment indeterminable to anyone, even her.

    The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

    Then the sky changed.

    Menoe looked up, unable to believe her senses. The sky, both the white clouds and the blue skies itself, had vanished, replaced with the view of what Menoe instantly realized was a truly vast snowflake, a snowflake of mind-boggling proportions, even for someone like her. She was certain people from the other side of the continent could witness this construct of unimaginably vast proportions.

    A voice then came down, filled with such vast and uncontestable power that it mere presence shook her to the core. But what gave her relief was that the voice, although one of such fearful power, was somehow recognizable.

    "Spirit King Solaris. In Violation Of The Stipulation Set Down For Your Descent Onto This Planet, Judgement Has Been Decided."

    Aisene.

    "I Have Done No Such Thing," a voice filled with unhidden fury instantly replied. That was when Menoe became aware that the Cults Spirit lords were no longer the strongest beings on the battlefield.

    The Emperor of Solaria''s aura crashed down on everyone with a distant fury, a fury which, luckily, was directed upwards.

    His golden-dotted crimson hair roiled furiously in a non-existent wind, its hue brightening as the emperor''s fury soared. He was clothed in such yellow-crimson hue of power that, for an instant, Menoe had to shield her eyes from the intensity.

    And his power was such that Menoe had to take a step back, gathering her power despite the presence of her Spirit Queen priestess.

    Power rolled out of him in such clear visible crimson waves that she felt her icy hold on the ambient energy melt in an instant, her influence instantly erased before she could even do anything.

    "Is That So?" The voice replied. Long gone was the friendliness Menoe often associated with its owner; now, it was simply a reflection of the concept she followed. Cold and emotionless. "Then What Is This?"

    As if by some unseen influence, Menoe''s, and everyone else''s, eyes were slowly drawn towards a location near the canal on her left, a canal which was owned by the Fyre''s, and on it was the live body of a single soldier, a soldier of Solaria.

    "This should not be." Solaris'' voice came unbidden into her ears.

    "No, What Should Not Be, Solaris, Is The Presence Of A Single Of Your Forces On Great Family Soil."

    "I Contest This!"

    "Contest All You Want, Solaris. I Am The Arbiter, And My Judgment Is Final."

    The moment Aisene finished speaking, the vast snowflake up above In the sky lit up with such blinding intensity that instantly dwarfed that of Solaris.

    The Emperor fought back, his aura soaring as more power poured out of him.

    For an instant, Menoe felt something new erupt from the body of the Emperor, something vast and otherworldly, spreading wide as it engulfed her in pyromantic fury.

    And then all was white.

    ***

    Though distant to all but those on the Greensend continent, every Spirit lord and even those below felt the unfathomable power of a being unfamiliar to some of them.

    City-wide enchantments were instantly brought online as those unfamiliar with such power sought ways to hide from it, draining dry the meager defensive energies of their little cities.

    For those familiar with such power, they stood calm, cautious, yet assured in their protection, for they knew the reason for such a descent.

    Aelar, Emperor of Aetheris, stood on the balcony of his Castle, both his son and seneschal behind him.

    Although he was deep in another continent, his gaze was still able to catch the blinding pillar of light, as wide as his Castle, coiling as it descended on the continent of Greensend.

    "Such power..." His son whispered, awe and fear evident in his voice.

    "My lord," Thalor, his seneschal, said fearfully. "Won''t the World Spirit respond to this?"

    Aelar nodded. "On a normal basis, it would." He then turned to look Thalor in the eye. "But a World Spirit is nothing before the might of a Celestial Cult, and our World Spirit is not blind to that fact."

    ***

    "This is a risky move," Nesra said, looking at her Queen. "What if the World Spirit decides to just kill her? She might be a Spirit Queen, but her power pales before that of the World Spirit."

    Yuseria smiled, her gaze settling on the distant pillars of power as they no doubt laid destruction on the forces of Solaria.

    When she had been made aware of the stipulations set for Solaris as he fought to descend, she had wondered if anything would come of it. Solaris was not stupid. No, far from it. Power-hungry he was, but that hunger came with a lot of admirable caution. She never thought a day would come when the great Solaris would miscalculate in one of his schemes.

    Silently, she thanked whatever forces made this possible.

    "Yes, the World Spirit could certainly wipe out the Spirit Queen arbiter in a single instant. But then what? It obviously knows that the moment it does so, its lifespan will be measured in hours. Would you chose certain death just for a few bruises?

    "Know this, Nesra. For your authority to truly be taken seriously, you don''t just need to have vast powers, you have to have an uncontestable one."

    ***

    "This, was unforeseen, brother," Halar whispered.

    "Yes, but it''s exciting isn''t it?" Ragar couldn''t keep the big smile from his face.

    "What is exciting about this, Ragar? There is a possibility of the World Spirit retaliating in a fit of rage."

    "Hah!" Ragar slapped his brother on the back, the force rattling everything but the man himself. "Have you stopped to wonder why the World Spirit let through the power manifestation? As a being of vastly superior power compared to the Spirit Queen, it certainly could have desolved that attack before it touched down on the planet, but for some reason, it chose not to."

 Chapters 79: A Lesson In Arrogance

    An emerald dome of large interlocking plates, sheltering the entire town, drifted down in motes as its structure dissolved, successful at its job in handling the impromptu attack.

    Damien immediately spread out his senses, enveloping the entire town and most of its surroundings. He saw the massive splash attack surrounding the town at the edge of the dome''s protection.

    "How did they appear without us knowing? This should not be possible," Keilan said, perplexed.

    "I plan to find that out soon enough," was Damien''s answer.

    "The town¡ª" Elas began.

    "Is safe," Damien assured him. "Other than some minor, healthy shocks and a few light bruises, the people are fine." He kept the fact that their near future was uncertain.

    Elas, though unable to ascertain their attackers, still stood calm, not a shred of fear in his eyes. Damien smiled at the sight.

    ''he has so much confidence in us that he doesn''t believe he will die''

    That, more than anything, resolved Damien to deal with this without any casualty.

    Finally, the dome cleared, revealing a sight that would have sent anybody else into despair.

    Above the town, drifting languidly through the skies, were blue sapphire-scaled dragons. Sea dragons. Damien counted six of them. All Spirit lords.

    "How did they find us?" Surprise and worry bled into Keilan''s words.

    "Their king seems to be absent, so I''d summarize that these must have been in the area and by coincidence, detected us."

    The six, two of which were mid-tier Spirit lords, with the remaining falling into the category of Low-tier, or early tier as most people called it, regarded them with unhidden hunger.

    "Leave now, or your blood will water this land." He didn''t bother shouting, they clearly heard him.

    One of the mid-tier dragons drifted down a little. It bared its fangs at him. "You are the one known as Damien Elason, the so-called grey-eyed calamity?"

    Damien didn''t bother clarifying the question. Clearly, they''d already ascertained his identity before attacking.

    Behind him, his sphere of perception detected the widening of Lena''s eyes. Her eyes snapped back down toward him, taking him in with a newfound expression. Damien didn''t have the time to uncover its meaning, he had bigger fish to fry.

    "I know why you''re here, so I''ll give you this warning again, the same way I did for your prince. Leave. Now."

    One of the low-tier dragons immediately roared, its deep primal roar echoing through the land for miles. "You dare threaten us!?"

    This time, Damien''s voice came out as a whisper. Yet, it carried through the entire town, reaching the ears of everyone, including the dragons.

    "Trust me, I do not threaten."

    Unwilling to give the dragons more of a headstart than they already had, Damien moved.

    [Use this moment to train your intent.] Gray quickly suggested.

    Damien refused. "A mistake might not kill me, but it can certainly obliterate this entire town and everyone in it. I can''t play with the lives of people like that."

    Still, Gray wouldn''t be deterred. [Hey, there''s nothing better than pressure to push your growth.]

    Just to get the little grey man off his back, Damien quickly acquiesced. "Alright, I''ll find a way, but I won''t play with the lives of these people."

    [No argument here.]

    A single spatial step took him over the town just as another emerald dome materialized above it, Keilan appearing behind.

    Despite his fearlessness, Damien knew not to underestimate dragons. They weren''t a pinnacle race for nothing.

    He could have gone through this battle without any form of protection, relying solely on his body to weather any attacks thrown at him. But he knew how foolish that would be. Certainly, he couldn''t be killed by these dragons, but if another attack came while he was still regenerating from his physical injuries, it could see him immobilized or worse, captured. So he did something he hadn''t thought to do for a while.

    Over his simple white shirt and black, brown pants, a long coat draped over his body. Grey, with silver lines tracing down from his shoulder down to his wrist, and an incalculable number of tiny nigh invisible ¡ª even for him ¡ª runic inscriptions emblazoned all over it. And lastly, a silver raised collar protected his neck, giving him a final noble elegance.

    [Are you sure about this?]

    "Like you said: I need to learn how to use intent. What better way to sharpen my willpower than to push it beyond its limits."

    [... You have a point.] Gray said, his voice strangely cautious. [... Just be careful, Damien. Don''t push yourself beyond anything you can handle.]

    "Sure."

    Damien could admit, relying only on his raw physique for his recent battles had been more stupid than daring. He hadn''t suffered any devastating injury, sure, but he could have. A head on attack from an image powered Spirit lord could have seen him severely injured, or worse, dead. Luckily, that hadn''t happened.

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    What he was about to do was something he had been avoiding for some time, more likely out of fear than caution. His physical prowess was supreme amongst Spirit lords, able to contend even with the powerful scales of dragons.

    [I suggest you take back that claim.]

    Damien coughed. ''maybe fifty-fifty''

    He was extremely strong physically, though, but his mental strength remained his easiest weak spot. That was one of the reasons he''d avoided the fight when Shadow Hall''s hands had come for him.

    Shadow Hall assassins, especially those at the rank of ''Hand'' were, above everyone else, masters in the shadow arts of infiltration, assassination, and all sorts of shadow activities. That meant some or, more likely, all, were certainly adept at what Gray called ''invasive type concepts.'' He didn''t want to be brought to his knees just by the snap of a mind wielder''s fingers.

    ''But I can''t do that anymore, can I?'' he said to himself. ''Fear is good, healthy, even. It warns us when it''s time to take a cautious approach, but refusing to face and overcome those fears would likely see me dead faster than the other way around..''''

    And besides, what right would he have to be called unparalleled amongst his peers if he couldn''t even shore up his own weaknesses?

    Resolved, a spear appeared in his hands as his aura spread, momentarily contending against the six Dragons, until Keilan joined his with him and their aura strength firmed.

    Determination he''d thought lost to complacency ignited within him, burning brighter by the second, till it showed in his aura.

    ''Nahh, I don''t want to be content with a mild superiority amongst the others. I want to become so strong they''d have to shield their eyes to truly look at me''

    And with that, he attacked.

    With a burst of speed so powerful it cracked the sound barrier, Damien impacted the closest dragon, his spear thrusting against the powerful dragon''s scales and crushing it.

    A roar reverberated through Damien''s entire arm and straight into his body as the dragon recoiled from his attack. A deep, large hole could be seen in the location where its bulky head met its long serpentine body, with rivers of blood pouring out.

    ''We can''t have such a waste.'' he grimaced, calling on Keilan.

    "On it."

    And soon, a small gust of wind swirled through the air, capturing the blood into a whirlpool that was then funneled into an emerald constructed container placed on the ground.

    Dragons were walking treasures.

    He turned his attention to the rest, gouging their lack of decision other than the immediate retreat at his opening attack.

    ''Menoe was right. Dragons respond to true power''

    He''d show them true power.

    Not giving his first victim time enough to heal, Damien once again disappeared, tearing through space to appear on the other side of the dragon. He delivered the same attack again, eliciting another cry of pain, this time mixed with rage.

    Before he could get out of the low-tier Spirit lords range, he got a glancing blow from a limb he didn''t see coming, sending him crashing into a hill close by.

    His body blew off the cap of the rocky mound, boring a hole deep into its foundation until he''d formed his own artificial valley.

    Yet, physically, he was unharmed.

    But his eyes struggled to focus through the sudden spike of headache that pierced into his brain, causing him more pain than if he''d suffered physically.

    Luckily, the dragons proved uninterested in the settlement, immediately slithering through the air toward him.

    Two of them were held back as a giant birdlike construct of emerald essence crashed into them, scratching and clawing against the scales of one, eliciting a loud metallic scraping sound. The other dragon suffered more, as a hammer of wind slammed into it with a thud that lifted sand from the earth.

    Not one to let his brother have all the fun, Damien rose back into the air, his spear leading the way.

    The dragons, judging by their proximity to each other, clearly wanted to capitalize on their numbers.

    He didn''t let them.

    A flurry of starfalls flashed one after the other into their midsts, leading to small but powerful explosions, explosions which did nothing harmful other than forcing the dragons away from each other.

    Damien came in, this time targeting one of the Mid-tier dragons, since his previous victim was now extremely wary of further attacks.

    He knew his spear, sharp as it was, could not as easily pierce through the mid-tier scales as how it did with the low-tier dragon, so he came in with a full punch.

    His fist managed to slam into the dragon''s side, causing nothing but a small crack. Before he could get over his surprise and disappointment, the dragon''s claw came in with a blur, catching him square on the chest.

    He slammed back into his artificial crater, suffering no physical damage, though he had to stagger back up to his feet as his brain threatened to tear itself apart. He felt something warm trickling down his nose and ear. Raising his fingers to check, he was rewarded with the sight of blood.

    ''I can''t take much more of this.''

    His brief intermission ended as the dragons formed into a circle around him, their mouths opening wide and spewing high-pressure jets of blue-white corrosive liquid down on him.

    The world slowed down to a crawl as Damien watched death come straight at him. He wasn''t defiant like some people would when staring death in the face, oh no, Damien was terrified. So he did the only thing he could do at the moment.

    He stepped through space, immediately appearing beside Keilan, whose bodily construct was cracked in multiple places and leaking droves of essence.

    The two dragons he''d been battling with immediately fled, clearly un-eager to resort to an equal numbers fight.

    "You look like the unfinished work of a blacksmith," Damien choked out a laugh at Keilan.

    "Trust me, brother, you look significantly worse. Is that blood on you?"

    "Later," Damien waved his brother off, his eyes sharpening as the dragons, back together, arranged themselves before him and Keilan. Their mouths opened in a low, reverberating growl as they stared at him threateningly.

    "Let''s not take this any further. Clearly, none of us wants to bring out our Astral images. So let''s just call it a day, alright?" Damien said, trying for peace.

    Now that his confidence had been subdued, he was already woke to the fact that if this fight continued, it would surely, at the very least, lead to a significant injury that would see him immobilized for the foreseeable future. And in a world where he was being hunted by an organization of shadow assassins who were obviously waiting around the corner for him to make their job easier by suffering a debilitating injury... Damien didn''t want to risk it.

    "The mouse opens its mouth now that it realizes it is not a lion," The mid-tier level elder growled. "Did you think a few words and the threat of an Astral image would see us leaving? Your head is wanted by our king, and he will have it." The other dragons growled in agreement.

    Damien frowned but didn''t reply. Another threat would only escalate the matter beyond what it was right now. So he held back his anger at the insult.

    "Good," the dragon continued. "It is good that you now realize your place. Surrender yourself now and spare yourselves the terror of being hunt¡ª"

    The monologue was interrupted as the sky immediately vanished, replaced with the view of something else, something truly vast.

    Everyone, including the dragons, stepped back as they no doubt felt the chill that spread through his spine.

    The thing, shaped like a ginormous snowflake, radiated a pressure that was no less than its size. And although he recognized the core essence it was made of, the familiarity, his fear did not abate.

    And as soon as it came, Damien immediately felt the brief attention of something brush past their location. Though he didn''t feel anything hostile from it, clearly, the same could not be said for the dragons seeing as they''d immediately fled.

    They didn''t even look back.

    [This should teach you a lesson in arrogance.]

 Chapter 80 : WAR â€” A Stern Advice & An Ascension

    "Yeahhh!" Damien cheered. "That should teach them."

    But Gray wasn''t smiling. [I was not referring to the dragons, Damien.]

    "What?"

    [Damien,] Gray continued. [I have been with you for the better part of half a year now, and during these times I have studied you. Watched you. Do you know what I have noticed?]

    Damien didn''t answer, too surprised to say anything, so Gray answered for him.

    [Arrogance. Most of your problems could have been better avoided if you weren''t so arrogant.] Gray said. [You need to learn to be more polite.]

    "Me? Polite?" Damien barked a laugh. "To be polite is to be seen as weak! Especially against the people I deal with. I have gotten just fine by being who I am. I am not going to kowtow to some royal just because I want to avoid problems. And if anyone wants to take it up with me," he shrugged. "They can come to me themselves!"

    [Are you done ranting?] Gray cocked his head. [Because I am going to be straight with you right now. The sooner you get your childish arrogance in check, the sooner you avoid unnecessary problems.

    [You are no longer some kid from a backward village who has something to prove. You are a figure of high status, and in the circle you are to walk, a certain level of restraint is required.] Gray sighed. [Damien, you don''t need to be arrogant just because you want to project strength, that''s a behavior better left for young scions who haven''t earned a single iota of their power. If anything, no one would pay you any respect if you''re seen as childishly arrogant.]

    Damien''s face twisted, turning toward Keilan. "Are you going to say anything about this?"

    "Trust me, brother, you do not want my opinion."

    "Oh, so you''re taking him, too?" Damien pointed at Gray.

    "There is no side, Damien! There is the only truth, and I will never be afraid to tell you the truth, regardless of your feelings. Yes, you are arrogant, too arrogant, in fact. I''ll admit a certain level of it was required when we were both trying to stay out of the clutches of the hyenas. But, Damien, those times are gone. You are powerful, more powerful than all, if not, most of the Spirit lords on this planet. You do not need arrogance to project power, Damien. Only a fool would take politeness for weakness."

    "They killed them, Kei! They killed her. Damien choked, his eyes clouding. "Their arrogance did. They didn''t see us as anything more than bugs to be squashed so they killed them. How can I not treat them the same way they did to us?"

    "Yes, they did." Keilan floated over towards him, putting both his hands on Damien''s shoulder. "But that doesn''t mean we should be like them. We shouldn''t, Dame. True power comes from an unwillingness to follow the paved route. We have to be better."

    Finally, Damien calmed, turning his face away as he tried to wipe the tears away from his eyes. "Sure."

    Keilan studied him for a few moments before he finally spoke. "Why don''t we take some time away from all this? This war. This suffering. Let''s go have a vacation. I''ll make scrambled eggs the way you like it."

    Damien choked out a laugh. "Yeah, okay."

    "I can''t believe we''ve all forgotten what just happened."

    Gray opened his mouth to say something but was cut off as the world trembled, the ambient energies toiling and roiling in agitation.

    And then everything turned white.

    ***

    Spirit lords were the ultimate weapons, a strategic asset required to be considered at least a mid-level kingdom. Their presence was such that the only response whatsoever that could have any chance of countermanding an assault was to send in your own Spirit lord in opposition.

    A war that resulted in the deployment of Spirit lords was a war that was almost certain to end in a ''mutually assured destruction'' kind of scenario. If you were lucky enough to come out the victor, it would be without a leg and an arm, as it was nigh impossible to come out unscathed in a war that saw the participation of Spirit lords.

    That was why it was well known that, when deploying Spirit lords against another Kingdom, make sure to have far more than your opposition, enough to serve as deterrence at best and a way to mitigate the damages if it, unfortunately, devolved into an unavoidable situation.

    Their worth was such that nationwide celebration could be thrown just for the ascent of a new Spirit lord. And a nation could see a drastic decline at best or total annihilation at worst if their Spirit lord protectors were killed. That was what led to the rapid expansion of the Solarian Empire during the previous grand war and the subsequent skirmishes that took place afterward.

    Solaris knew what he did when he started his war. Instead of fighting an endless battle to slowly whittle down his enemies, he had instead destroyed enough troops that their devastating loss had surely led to the appearance of the Spirit lord leaders, and when those came, he''d destroyed them too. This had led to a lot of nations being deprived of their protectors, leaving them ripe for the taking. A lot more of this had seen the man conquer almost a third of the continent.

    After the war, kingdoms who should have been wise enough to lick their wounds and go home, decided to get into skirmishes with the Solarians as they were baited out by fear of an invasion. Camlen was a prime example of this, and would immediately fallen if there hadn''t been a Spirit lady heir to the throne after the ambush of their previous ruler.

    Gandor and the new Camlen rulers, after realizing the strategy Solaria was playing, decided to adopt their own: that of deterrence.

    The knowledge that a greater force was standing behind the two kingdoms immediately led to the cautious withdrawal of the Solarians.

    But overall, one thing was very certain: when there was war, there was surely to be a rise in the ascent of Spirit lords.

    Merene dashed to the left, avoiding the blood daggers that were aimed at her from a winged defiled.

    This one was a true defiled, a Monarch-level one, not the human-looking ones taken from conquered cities.

    She dashed forward, substituting her usual flame sword for a whip. Her opponent managed to avoid a direct hit but still took a glancing touch to the wing. Lucky me.

    Her approach to the downed abomination was soon stalled as she was immediately attacked by a dozen human abominations, these ones lacking any form of weaponry other than their crazed ferocity and numbers. Luckily, her construct was there, circling her and consuming the defiled blocking her path..

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    Although she felt bad for the deaths of those people, as most of them had been civilians who had been turned against their will into abominations, she didn''t let their unfortunate situation cloud her judgment. These weren''t human any longer, they weren''t even creatures of life, just creatures controlled by their hunger and an unending level of stamina.

    And her death would follow if she brought hesitation to this battlefield.

    Soon enough, her construct had managed to clear a path for her, bringing her the full view of her opponent already on its feet, sharp, deadly claws aimed at her as well as the daggered wings.

    Instead of withdrawing her whip back to its usual sword shape, she left it like that, pouring more energy into it as its flaming intensity slowly began heating the air.

    She didn''t give it the chance to attack. Her whip snapped out in a flaming blaze that left behind after images, catching the abomination in the wing as it shifted it to shield its body. The result was a loud shriek as a part of the wing was torn off, falling to the ground in a crimson puddle of blood.

    By now, she already knew that these creatures, the original ones, were capped at the early Monarch tier. All of them. This was bad luck for the people at the early Monarch and below; but for those already above? They were practically child''s play. The only way they could hope to defeat her was if she was swarmed. And she had her construct here to mitigate that.

    Another lash of her whip saw another wing also reduced back to a puddle of blood, and a third removed its head.

    Immediately the defiled collapsed, other defiled¡ªthe human ones¡ªrushed toward its body, a feast beginning as they began tearing chunks off of its corpse and stuffing it into their mouths.

    Merene grimaced. This was one of the most bizarre things that they were known for. And the weirdest thing was that they weren''t just doing it to quell their unending hunger, it was for an, admittedly, good reason.

    Feeding on the corpse of an original defiled granted the lower ones with more power, not enough to contend with a Monarch, though, just powerful enough to see any lord realm pushed to the brink if they wanted to come out alive.

    This was always a pain to the Monarch sent out to deal with them.

    Luckily, they weren''t going to survive past this. Making sure her construct was nearby, Merene brought both her palms together, the air beginning to heat far more than before as she began condensing her fire essence. This went on for a few seconds as even she began feeling the heat generated from her own flames, yet she continued condensing, her eyes locked on the dozens and dozens of defiled as they all piled on the body of the original, all wanting a piece of it.

    Her energy well was already a bucket full remaining when she felt the ball of fire couldn''t take any more energy, so she released it.

    The moment the ball of inferno left her hands, Merene ran. Not toward the feasting creatures, but opposite them.

    Strained as she was, she knew she couldn''t get the swarms of defiled away from her long enough to escape the explosion that was sure to follow, so she devoted what little energy she had left to her serpentine construct, watching as its shape grew a little bit larger and its flame a little bit hotter. Luckily, that was enough to get her far out of the way before the world rocked¡ªthe atmosphere turning to day for a moment¡ªand then she was thrown forward like a rag doll.

    Her head rang, and her vision blurred as she struggled through the shockwave-induced concussion. In the back of her mind, she knew in a second or more she was going to be swarmed by hundreds of those creatures, and she tried to get up before her death came.

    Unfortunately, that was proving difficult at the moment as even her body refused to move, her body feeling a sort of weight when suddenly, her vision darkened.

    ***

    When Merene finally opened her eyes, her first thought was that ''why was everywhere so quiet?'' And when her brain was finally functioning enough to take in her surroundings, she realized that she was longer on the battlefield.

    ''Where am I?'' she thought. ''Am I dead?''

    Studying her surroundings, the first thought that came to her mind if she had any words for it: Fog. Everywhere was covered in fog so thick she couldn''t even see what she was balanced on. It saturated everywhere, like the entire place was made of dense clouds.

    The next thing, though, shook her to the core. Soo much power!...

    The Cosmo energy in this place was on a new height, one even she was certain no Spirit lord had. A lower being would have been killed a thousand times just from the sheer energy in the air.

    ''Come to think of it, why am I not dead?'' she thought, her eyes looking down on her skin and seeing it perfectly fine. Infact, she could only sense the energy mentally, not physically, like how she usually did. It was like a dense layer of something was protecting her from¡ª

    Her eyes widened as she realized where she was.

    "Good," a voice came to her then, coming from everywhere and nowhere at the same time. "You Have Finally Realized. Congratulations Are In Order, Merene Danker."

    Immediately, she bowed. "I greet the World Spirit."

    The Spirit who owned her planet ignored her greeting, "I Will Be Lessening The Protection Around You So As To Increase Your Connection With The Ambient Cosmo. Make A Wise Use Of It." And then she felts its direct attention shift away from her.

    Merene took in a nervous breath as she finally took in the place every Monarch sure to ascend into Spirit lord eventually appeared. She didn''t know what it was called, just that it was a place of power so immense it could see her dead simply by its presence. Thankfully, like every Monarch who had any hope of ascending, she''d already prepared for this. Sort of...

    She felt the cocoon layers of energy peel away from her, leaving only a thin layer remaining, enough to leave her protected without the comfort of been shielded from the pressure radiating from the ambient Cosmo energy.

    Despite her protection, she knew that a single mistake would see her dead before she could even so much as blink. Ironically, that thought seemed to give her a measure of calm. Atleast she''d be dead before she knew it.

    No Essence wielder, not even the Spirit lords, had the mental capacity to control the essence saturating this place on their own. It was too complex a task to be done without an outside assistance. That was one of the functions of the energy layer around her; aside from it protective function, It also helped filter down the strings of essence she would be drawing in into something she could manage.

    Taking a deep, refreshing breath, the atmosphere rich with the pure unadulterated essence of air, Merene made herself comfortable.

    And then she got to work.

    ***

    Merene sat, rivers of sweats pouring down her body. Her head felt heavy and completely stuffed in a way she couldn''t fully understand, like someone had taken a hammer and used her head to play ''slam the ball''. Her eyes refused to clearly focus despite her efforts. And yet, she felt extremely happy, a satisfied smile on her lips.

    Before her was a spitting image of herself, this time only made of flames. The hair, instead of a raven black that was usually tied into a ponytail, was instead made of a swirling, sea of fire that swept down over the shoulders. She could have left it a simple black, as before, but she simply liked the eerie appearance of a hair made of elemental essence, so she let it be.

    The eyes were most attention drawing, and the most scariest, in her opinion. An iris of deep, flaming, molten red, like a doorway into a realm of neverending swirling flames. It was then wrapped in a sclera so black it would have made the color black seem shabby in comparison.

    Her skin was charcoal black, which accentuated her flaming hair and eyes more. She was clothed in a simple black material that only covered her upper body, as well as dull glowing bracers that protected her lower arms, leaving her toned muscles in full view.

    A black gorget, matching the upper armor, shrouded the neck from any attack that was sure to aim there.

    And on her lower body was nothing but a black-red flaming skirt that danced in the air, tiny strands of fire lashing out every few seconds. Her legs weren''t any different, covered in an obsidian glass-like scaled boot that rose up to her knee.

    Overall, she knew that she looked intimidating, extremely so, and she couldn''t wait to summon the image in battle.

    Finally, now that she was done with the creating part, it was time to finally bond with it.

    With her last remaining shred of mental will, Merene drew the image into her, space lessening between them as it seemed to move despite still sitting immobile in its position. Soon, it was so close that Merene felt the power radiating out from it, the strength of a Spirit lord. And then it sank into her body.

    And Merene Ascended.

    ***

    For the second time Merene opened her eyes, and this time she saw that she was finally back on the battlefield, her mental strain gone, washed away by the overwhelming power running through her veins.

    The power of a Spirit lady.

    Her mental eyes opened deep within her newly gained soul space, seeing the ginormous Astral image levitating over a sea of flame and ash.

    She brought herself back then, her vastly expanded senses taking in the battle still raging everywhere. Already a dozen Spirit lords ¡ª her peers ¡ª had already locked their attention onto her position, a sense of recognition and acceptance flowing through.

    She smiled, stretching her arms as she soon stood up. Power flooded out from her as she prepared to make an entrance.

    And then the world turned white.

 Chapter 81 : Memento Of A Spirit Queen & A Vacation I

    There were extremely rare events that were certain to draw a worldwide attention. Ordinary wars could have been counted amongst them, but those were likely to only garner the majority of their attention from the affected regions. A Grand war, on the other hand, could definitely be counted amongst such rare events, seeing as its effect spanned multiple continents.

    The power manifestation of a Spirit King was something that hadn''t taken place since the Civil War when the Great families emancipated themselves from the clutches of the Great Empire.

    All over the continent, on multiple locations, silence reigned and battles were halted when, at first, a vast construct of frosty white spread across the sky, blotting out the sun and bringing with it a terrifying aura unknown to all but a few.

    Though some people panicked, others waited, tense, but calm all the same. They sensed the apathetic feeling in that aura, like it took no notice of them the same way a human being would do to an insect.

    They didn''t have to wait long.

    All over multiple battlefields, where Soldiers were desperately fighting back the abominations unleashed by the Solarians, ginormous pillars of roiling energy descended on the land, their descent shaking both the essence and the land itself.

    Wherever the Defiled were, the pillars landed, and where it landed they were no more. Those fearful, hungry, unending creatures were reduced to nothing but ice sculptures, the greatest art collection to have ever been created.

    They were left there as a memento, a memento to the power of a Spirit Queen.

    ***

    "Kei, when you suggested we go on a vacation, I never imagined something like this."

    Keilan, whose eyes had been previously closed, opened a single eyeball. "Mhnn, and what did you expect?"

    Damien looked around at the lake they were hovering above. Lost for words, he simply said, "Not this..."

    There sitting, crosslegged, over a lake situated in the middle of a sea of trees. Sunlight streaked from the sky, illuminating the liquid in glittering lights. The trees were green the majority, though some took on vibrant colors such as sky blue, pink and orange. Close by and also in the distance, they could hear the hoots and squawks of birds, mixed in also were the shifts of grasses as other animals shuffled around, making noise that was certain to attract any predator skulking nearby.

    The island¡ª Their island was fairly tame compared to most, as they''d already cleaned the place off of all monsters when they''d claimed it. What was now left were the simple, ordinary animals, animals that were left to roam about as they pleased.

    "Damien." Keilan laughed. "Compared to the chaos out there, yes, we''re on a vacation. At least, now we''ll have time to train up on how to use intent."

    "If only I could get it as fast as you. All I keep accomplishing is just half measures," Damien grumpily muttered, his eyes on the floating ball of fire which they were supposed to turn cold simply with their will.

    [Quit the chatter and get back to work!] Instructor Gray growled at them; his face scrunched up in a way that made him look more humorous than intimidating. [And if you actually paid attention, Damien, you''d know that Keilan''s faster grasp of intent stems from his affinity alignment.]

    "What does affinity have to do with this, now?" Damien sighed.

    Immediately taking the opportunity to lecture, Gray answered. [Affinity alignment goes a long way in your progression through the realms and your overall power. You can reach Spirit King with a powerful Essence, but as soon as you meet someone with a lesser essence but with a greater affinity alignment, you would be landed on your ass in no time.

    [Take you both for example. Damien, you wield the essence of destruction, a grand essence, only equal to to few. Keilan, on the other hand, wields the essence of the wind. The Wind is a fairly powerful element, sure, but compared to the essence of destruction? It is powerless.

    [Now, if Keilan, with his wind essence battles you, who would win?]

    "Me, of course," Damien scoffed. What sort of question was that?

    [Wrong,] Gray wagged his tiny forefinger at Damien. [The only way you could defeat Keilan is through raw power, which you, admittedly, have in abundance, far more than everyone if I might add. But when it comes to control, Keilan would wipe the floor with your face.]

    Damien gave Keilan a side glance, seeing the other guy whistling as he looked around, pretending that he hadn''t been listening to Gray''s hype up.

    "Dear mister excellent controller," Damien began, a smile slowly creeping up his face."Would you care to teach this lowly one in your secret arts?"

    The other guy narrowed his eyes then, instantly taking on an aloof air, his nose tilting upwards like some of those nobles who acted like they got a shovel stuck up their butt. "My secret arts are not for the likes of you, peasant." Keilan huffed. "You are better off with that faulty element you call destruction."

    Damien''s eyes widened, "You little Shi¡ª"

    [That''s enough. Both of you.] Gray interrupted. [We''re already on a dwindling timer as it is. If you both continue like this, you won''t learn anything.]

    When he was sure that they were paying attention, he continued.

    [Like I said at the beginning, the easiest route to intent-wielding is imagination. You imagine what you want, place it firmly in your mind, and then release it into the world, with your will as fuel and your soul as pillar to back it up, and voila, reality succumbs to your will,] he then gestured at the now raging crimson flame, Damien watching as in barely a second, it turned white-blue, a frosty aura rising from it.

    And what truly caught Damien''s amazement was that, despite its icy nature, the flame never ceases moving, its movements fluid as before.

    ***

    The wooden bow creaked noisily a string was slowly pulled.

    "You keep making noise like that, and you''ll surely wake up the entire island," Keilan admonished.

    Without looking at him, Damien replied. "Why don''t you let me do my thing and then you do yours when it''s your turn, mm?"

    The other guy shrugged. "Alright. Fine then. My lips are sealed short. Nada. Zitz. Zap. Zrum."

    This time Damien turned towards his brother with a glare. "Now who''s trying to wake up the entire island?"

    Unfortunately, his voice, or more probably, Keilan''s, startled their prey, the deer instantly sprinting deeper into the forest.

    "Now see what you caused." Keilan snickered. "You did tell me to shut up, and I did." He shrugged. "Wasn''t my fault that the deer reacted to your voice."

    Damien did not have a reply to that, so he simply ignored him.

    Slowly, they traced the deer''s path, stalking it as it continued fleeing. Normally, they could have killed the animal in an instant, and even catch it in the blink of an eye had they used any of their physical attributes, but since they were training, instructor Gray had restricted them walks only, no running, jumping, or anything that could take them across a large distance in a short time.

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    So here they were, following a deer for the better part of half an hour until, eventually, they caught up, staying back only a hundred feet behind.

    Their assignment, assigned by their dear instructor, was to shoot at the deer, and while the arrow was in flight, halt its passage with nothing but their intent.

    Yeah, simply, right? Damien scoffed. The assignment was a nightmare. He could barely halt the movement of a flame, talk less of an arrow in flight. Thankfully, for the poor animal they were going to be subjecting to their inhumane practices, their arrow tips were blunted. In the event of a failure, dear deery would only suffer a little sting.

    Slowly, Damien aimed, sweat beading down his face as the bow creaked again. Fortunately for him, the deer did not hear.

    Aiming his arrow at the rump of the deer, Damien took a deep breath, slowly releasing it as he let loose the arrow.

    With a twang, the arrow took flight, soaring through the air in a graceful curve, its passage smooth and beautiful.

    And then it landed not more than twenty feet before them.

    Damien turned a glare at Keilan to see the other guy rolling on the leave-filled ground, choking on a barely contained laughter. Unfortunately, again, that seemed to get the deer''s attention, its head snapping upright and its eyes swiveling towards them before it fled again.

    "Now, this one''s on your head," Damien growled.

    "W-w-worth it. I... can''t believe... y-you once t-thought t-to take up archery," Keilan laughed out loud, its loudness scaring some poor birds away for their nest.

    "This is just a setback."

    "A setback, eh?" Keilan smirked. "Or your amazing aptitude for archery revealing itself?"

    They immediately set off again, chasing their one-of-a-kind deer. It didn''t take them long to find it, nestled in between two trees as it feasted on some fruits that had fallen from the tree above.

    Unfortunately, it seemed they were no longer the only hunters around. About seventy feet, and hidden by a bush, a limen calmly watched the deer.

    Its dark colored fur learnt gave it a natural camouflage as it stalked from one tree generated shadow to another. Its golden-colored eye slits contracted as it focused on the deer. tiny wooden horns, which curved out from the side of its head to form a half circle¡ªlike a crown¡ªover its head gave it a truly intimidating look as its broad head lowered close to the ground, its breath barely disturbing the grass.

    Overall, the six-foot-tall creature looked fearful. Unfortunately for it, it wasn''t going to find any meal here, as with barely a sound, an arrow took flight, another following close behind. And in a move that made Damien sigh in resignation, Keilan slowly willed the air away from the arrow aimed at the deer, decreasing its movement as he deprived it of a platform to move on, leaving it to land noisily at the foot of the deer, startling it into another flight.

    The Limen, though, wasn''t that lucky.

    An arrow, blunted at the tip but moving at full speed, impacted the predator with a barely heard thud on its rump, eliciting a startled hiss as the creature leaped upwards.

    The animal, quickly figuring out where the attack had come from, turned its golden slits at them, baring its large fangs, before it scampered into the forest, away from the direction the deer had gone.

    "You cheated!" Damien said, turning a glare at Keilan.

    "Oh?" The other guy quirked an eyebrow. "And how''s that?"

    Damien pointed at the emerald bow with detailed designs of intertwined arrows on its body, "That, is definitely not allowed."

    "Says who?"

    "Says Gray. You definitely heard when he said not to make use of any outside assistance other than our will."

    "Oh, but I didn''t, dear brother. The bow and arrows I used were already approved by Gray himself."

    "Liar!"

    "If you say so," Keilan shrugged. "We''ll just have to ask Gray when we get back."

    Damien could only grumpily follow as they made their way back.

    ***

    It took them another thirty minutes to make their way back from the deep forest and into the island''s edge, a time which they devoted half to capturing a boar for dinner.

    Luck smiled on Damien as he watched the boar dance around Keilan, leaving the man to fumble and crash multiple times before they finally caught the animal.

    For the rest of the walk home, Damien couldn''t keep the smile away from his face.

    "Hey! Gray!" Damien shouted as they stepped into the large clearing. "Did you allow Keilan to use an essence constructed weapon for training?!"

    [Yea¡ª] Gray instantly popped up outside the two storey wooden house they''d built, his answer interrupted by the voice of a little boy who was already running straight for them.

    "Keiyhan...! Keiyhan...! Keiyhan!" little Adrian laughed happily as he ran towards them.

    "Ohhhh, my little knight." Keilan, his grumpiness at being embarrassed by a boar instantly forgotten, instantly dropped the carcass as he caught up with the boy, using his essence to pick the boy up, glide him gently a few feet up, and then land him onto his arms. "How have you been?"

    "Been," Adrian repeated, giggling loudly as he ruffled Keilan''s hair.

    "Hey!" Damien spread his arms wide. "Where''s my hug?"

    Turning toward Damien, the little boy stretched his hands. "Damen...! Damen...! Damen...!"

    At the sound of his name, Damien''s breath caught. This was the first time Adrian would be speaking his name. "Oh, my little speedster." Tears welled up in his eyes as he took the boy from Keilan''s arms. "My little, little, speedster."

    They coddled like that for some time, before someone appeared to take him away from Damien. "Alright, it''s time for his bath," Lena said, swiftly picking the now sad boy from Damien''s hands and then tickling him, instantly, his big smile bubbled up again.

    "Hi, Lena," Damien greeted.

    "Good evening," she replied, her blue eyes landing on the carcass on the ground. "I see you brought dinner."

    "Well," Damien grinned. "We couldn''t return without bringing a nice gift, eh?"

    [And how did you manage to catch this nice gift?] Gray instantly butted in, hands folded as he hovered over Lena''s shoulder.

    The lady glanced at Gray, not minding his appearance at all.

    When they''d decided on the vacation, Keilan had also offered for Elas to come with; and the man, happy to spend some time with them before everything went to shit again, instantly agreed. Lena could have stayed back, but in her words "This vacation would be more fun than staying back in the town and having to answer a bunch of questions I don''t want to." So she also decided to come with.

    Damien, seeing that she, along with Gray, would be the ones watching over Adrian while he and Keilan trained, decided to introduce the little man to them.

    The introduction was a thing to behold; who knew that someone as knowledgeable as Elas, knew absolutely nothing about a being like Gray? A being who also had far more knowledge than him. It was an absolute ecstasy for him as he immediately took to badgering Gray with questions.

    "Gray!" The man shouted from the top floor. "How do I sift the information I want from the wind?"

    Gray released a long, drawn out sigh, turning to Elas, he shouted back. [Just press down on the Wind essence with your will and request for what you want; if your will is strong enough, you''ll get the information you want.]

    "And if it''s not?" Elas asked.

    [Well, then,] Gray shrugged. [I hope you have something to cure extreme migraines.]

    Satisfied, Elas waved at Damien and Keilan, and then returned back to the room from which he came.

    "What''s that about?" Keilan asked.

    [Apparently, your friend found out that Wind essence was one of the top best for information gathering, and now he wants to learn how to sift out information from it.]

    "Why? Isn''t he a Mind essence wielder? Why doesn''t he use that?"

    Gray gave Damien a deadpanned expression. [The Mind essence, for Monarchs, is not one that can be used remotely; it requires touch inorder to take information from somebody, and that information is usually not guaranteed to be correct.

    [The wind, on the other hand, is like a library you can access from anywhere. It has the cumulative knowledge of this planet''s history, all of which are mostly assured to be correct.]

    "Wait," Keilan perked up. "How do I not know this?"

    [Because you haven''t delved deeply into the essence of wind, yet. Luckily, I am here to change that.]

    ***

    That night, after a heavy meal of wild boar meat, Damien, Keilan, Lena, and Gray sat down under the night sky as Elas began narrating stories about some of the most embarrassing moments of his life. Adrian had already been laid to sleep, having consumed more food than should have been possible for his tiny stomach.

    "So, there I was, having crept into the room through the window, watching in surprise as my target was having it with his mistress, loudly too.

    "Party spoiler that I was, I decided to immediately end their fun. Slowly, I approached from behind the lady as she rode my target, screaming all sorts of obscenities that made me pray for forgiveness as I heard them.

    "Though, in my defense, I was right that he wouldn''t have been able to see me as his mistress was blocking his view while his face was turned upwards, loosing all kinds of derogatory words at her. Little did I know that they were already at their climax.

    "So, I slowly crept forward, hidden by the shadows dancing in the room, and then by some unfortunate luck, my target caught a glimpse of me as he jerked upwards.

    "Being a lord realm himself, it was quite easy for him to throw the lady aside, leaving me in full view as his little friend barfed, all over my face!"

    "Oh, Celestials Balls!" Damien put down the little slice of meat he was about to throw into his mouth, turning away and catching Keilan as he spat out the drink he''d just taken in.

    "Ohh, I didn''t hear the end of it when I got back to submit the mission success. No matter how I tried, I couldn''t get the smell of off me, and I kid you not, everyone perceived it.

    "So there I was, hastily running through the halls towards the mission''s department, while a whole lot of people frowned suspiciously and then smirked as they no doubt figured out what the smell was!"

    Lena covered her lower face as she shook her head; and Gray... Gray just stood there, looking at everyone in confusion.

    "I don''t get, what little friend was that? There wasn''t any mention of somebody else in the room."

    Damien stood up abruptly, dropping his plate on the floor. "Nop! No. No. No, I will not be the one to explain that to you. Ask Keilan."

    "Ask who? Please, Gray, I don''t even know what a little friend is... Elas was the one who brought it up. Go to him."

    Gray then turned hopeful eyes towards Elas, to which the man sighed as he gestured at a wooden chair nearby. "Alright, take a seat, let uncle Elas give you a lesson on the human reproductory system."

    By the time Elas began, Damien had already made himself scarce.

 Chapter 82 : Beach Event â€” Vacation II

    The morning was a beautiful day, with bright rays of sunlight flashing down onto the beach, accompanied by a calming sweep of the ocean''s breeze.

    The beach was majorly quiet save for the brief, intermittent laughs of joy coming from a young boy sitting on the lap of a beautiful young woman.

    She was putting on a simple tight-fitting gown; her legs crossed as she watched the spectacle about to play out.

    Her fair skin shone a bright luster under the bright sunlight, and an emerald-thin construct shielded her eyes from the direct rays of the morning sun.

    Beside her, on another emerald platform also hovering a few feet off the ground, was a man. He was clothed in a thin fabric of emerald color, shaped like a coat except with an almost transparent feature. Another thin, almost transparent construct shielded his entire body from the morning sunlight as his eyes calmly focused on the show about to play out.

    Hovering over the shore water were two men. One, a light-skinned man, almost bordering on golden. His sandy blond hair was tied back into a ponytail and his blue eyes took on a hue similar to the deep ocean. His physical features were shaped in such exquisite beauty that no doubt saw him as the center of attention wherever he went.

    And a quirky smile adorned his face as he playfully eyed the other man on the water.

    This man, the second one, was a person of a much darker hue. Not dark, dark, just enough not to make him seem like he was radiating sunlight like his counterpart. His facial features were a little bit more subtle compared to the overwhelming beauty of the other man. Same with his physique, with a slim, wiry frame that was all compacted muscles built for both instant agility and massive strength.

    His stormy grey eyes calmly locked into those of his neighbor, almost roiling like a storm, if the other man had anything to say about it.

    And his grey hair... Such beautiful blend of black and white that stood out under the sun, taking on a characteristic that seemed to reject any modifications from the natural surroundings.

    Both men were wearing nothing save for shorts, leaving their upper bodies bare. Their shorts were made of some kind of fabric that looked flimsy to anyone else but were capable of enduring longer than the body of an adept stage essence wielder.

    [Good morning, everyone.] Gray appeared in between the two men, both his hands raised into the air in a very exaggerated manner. His voice came again, reaching everyone clearly despite the lack of any shouting or any form of magical amplification. [Today, we''re all here to witness the combat duel between Keilan, here,] he gestured at Keilan, and then to the other man. [And Damien.

    [This competition, although it is one you all have been dying to see, is unfortunately not a true determination of their strength.

    [Today''s competition is aimed at training these two on the essence of focus.]

    He then turned to both Keilan and Damien, gesturing for both to come together. [For both of you, the rules? It''s simple. No essence aid. Meaning, no essence aided techniques. No essence-aided flying. No essence-aided body protection.

    [The main reason for this duel is to test your skills on intent. Is that understood?]

    They both nodded.

    [Good then. Go back to your positions.]

    Damien gently jumped back, this time relying only on his physique and not his powers.

    Arriving back on his position, instead of hovering over the water like he did before, this time his feet touched down on the water; and instead of sinking, it stayed firmly, like it was on solid ground.

    As soon as he accomplished the feat, he took a deep breath. ''That was close. A minute there and I''d have lost before we even began.''

    The main obstacle to the duel, of course, was the feat of keeping their will from slipping and dropping them into the water, all the while they battled each other.

    Internally, Damien squirmed in nervousness. Sure, he could admit that over the four days since they''d arrived on the island, his non-existent skills in wielding intent had grown past the stage where he''d consider it non-existent. He was strong enough to wipe the floor with anyone who wasn''t knowledgeable in its use, sure. But when he eventually met someone with enough strong will to defy him? Well, at least he had the ol'' raw power to fall back on. Though he''d rather avoid that.

    [Ready?]

    Now that he thought about it, as his feet gently slid on the liquid, he realized he liked the feeling of water under his foot.

    The feeling of the liquid under his foot had the similarity of stepping on top of those glass tile platforms other people used in their buildings, except this one was less solid and had a truly cool, tickling feeling under his feet.

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    [3.]

    Damien positioned his spear facing sideways, which gave him the flexibility of either sweeping into a defensive position or delivering an instant slash, depending on how Keilan started out.

    [2.]

    The spear was made from a simple tree branch, cut down and modified with enough enhancement ¡ª courtesy of Gray¡ªto prevent it from an instant shatter at the first collision.

    [1]

    The sharpened tip had been scavenged from the bones of some dead animal, and also enhanced¡ªagain, courtesy of Gray¡ª to last long enough not to shatter at the first touch of their skins.

    [0. Go.]

    Damien immediately took off, his feet, alongside those of Keilan''s, lapping loudly on the ocean water as they quickly approached each other.

    His sideways slash, aimed at Keilan''s upper torso, was immediately blocked as it met a similar movement from the man.

    Foiled, Damien quickly jumped back, giving himself some space. Keilan mirrored the gesture, apparently following the same thinking pattern as he.

    Undeterred, Damien came in again, this time with a stab at the groin, which was immediately turned into an upper slash as his brother pushed out his lower area while his upper body leaned forward.

    Damien''s excitement at claiming first blood was instantly squashed when, In slow motion, his attack was subtly shifted a few inches away from the chin it was supposed to impact, his spear tip harmlessly whistling past Keilan''s cheek and then upward into the air.

    By the time Damien had brought the spear down again, Keilan had already stepped out of range.

    "Hey! Watch where you''re stabbing that thing! I still want to have kids someday, you know?!" Keilan glared at him.

    In response, Damien simply shrugged. "You do know that these spears are pretty useless, right? They can''t even pierce your eyeball!"

    "Oh. Oh, so it''s my eyeballs you''re targeting now, Huh?" Keilan swept his spear In an exaggerated flourish. "Let''s see how you feel when I start plucking out all the balls on your body." And then he came at Damien with a shocking speed that left him staggering.

    For the next ten minutes, a very long and horrifying one, Damien hurriedly blocked, jumped, dodged, backstepped; and then he repeated the sequence again. Sweat, which should not have been on his face in the first place, began streaming down in droves as he sought ways to get out of this chokehold. His brother came at him like the wind: furious and unrelenting. Whenever Damien attempted a strike of his own, by some unseen influence, his spear trajectory would miraculously shift away from Keilan.

    He knew what his brother was doing; Keilan wasn''t manipulating the wind with his essence; he was doing it with his mind and his intent, and he was doing it very well. Damien knew that if he didn''t find a way to break out of this metaphorical noose his brother was slowly tying around his neck, he''d be under the water in no time.

    While he struggled to avoid Keilan''s attacks by the skin of his teeth, he desperately scrambled for ideas to get him out of this unfortunate situation, searching for something to put them back on an even footing. That was when it hit him.

    No, not the idea. Keilan''s spear.

    While Damien was in the air, thanks to an uppercut from Keilan''s spear shaft, a thought suddenly crept into his mind. What Keilan was doing right now was manipulating the wind, his element. He couldn''t summon tornadoes like before, nor could he rain down scything winds, but what he could do was thicken the air around him, thereby setting up a constant shield.

    Damien could break through it, sure. He could shatter it at any time, which would put him back in the game. But he knew that an attempt like that would require more focus than he could currently spare, a focus that was devoted to keeping him above water. So he was now caught in a deadlock. Should he release his will from keeping him upright, sacrificing himself, so that he could land a hit through Keilan''s shield, or should he find something else?

    Well, the choice wasn''t hard to decide. Breaking through Keilan''s shield wasn''t a certain guarantee that he''d win; but it would certainly guarantee his loss should he fall into the water.

    And then something else came to him.

    Keilan''s success at intent-wielding was no doubt due to his adherence to the use of only the wind element. He wasn''t controlling any other element aside from the wind, and he also wasn''t doing it with his essence well. No, what he was doing was using his will as a paddle to cajole the ambient essence of wind into doing his bidding.

    Damien had been trying to emulate him ever since his success, but he''d been constantly failing at every turn. The only reason he was able to stand on the water was because he was using his will to force the water into becoming somewhat solid, which would surely drain him faster than Keilan. Now, he suddenly realized that he hadn''t been getting the process wrong, just the tools he''d been using. His element wasn''t wind, it was destruction.

    A triumphant smirk appeared on Damien''s face as everything finally clicked.

    His mind immediately latched onto the essence of destruction saturating everywhere. A war had been going on for the past few months now, and the essence of destruction was practically choking every essence in the surroundings.

    Damien flexed his will, a simple command going out, and Keilan staggered from his relentless pursuit as the wind platform he was standing on suddenly glitched, flickering in and out of solidity. Quick reaction, though, saved him from plummeting into the water.

    Damien wasn''t disappointed at the failure. In fact, he was ecstatic; he could finally use intent.

    His eyes glanced at Gray, seeing the knowing smile, a smile of approval. It warmed Damien''s heart.

    ''lets see what I can do, shall we?''

    Casually, he approached Keilan, his will threatening the essence of space to behave on threat of destruction. Since there was no one else to fight his will, the essence obliged, and then solidified under his foot.

    His brother instantly became wary at the newfound confidence in Damien, taking up a defensive posture, left hand forward in a warding gesture while his other hand drew back, elbows first, like he was about to stab forward, except his spear was unevenly crossed below his other arm.

    Damien dashed forward. He wouldn''t be able to get this opportunity again.

    His spear came up in a sideways slash at his brother, fully prepared for it to be blocked, and Keilan, in a rare act of oversight, decided to leave himself open, trusting in his defences so he could have the chance at an equally open attack. He was more than shocked when Damien''s spear wiped out his defenses with barely a pause, impacting him in the face.

    Although the attack did basically nothing to him, the sheer shock alone on his face was a memory Damien would never forget. And in that happiness, Damien forgot what he was supposed to be doing. His will slipped.

    And he plunged into the warm water.

 Chapter 83 : Vacation III â€” And So it Begins I

    That night a party was thrown celebrating both brothers graduating into a new level beyond the common. Keilan went into the forest and came back with a couple of boars, fresh, without any marks on their bodies. Damien and Elas were in charge of the drinks, a rare blend of the natural fruits hanging around, some of which had an intoxicating taste to it. They made sure to clean out the entire tree, and those around it.

    Elas, genius that he was, was able to scrounge up something truly fantastic from the different kinds of fruits he meshed together.

    "You know, we could make a lot of money from this if we introduce it into the market," Elas suggested.

    Damien nodded, taking another sip and then using his tongue to clean out the tiny remnant drops still on his lips. "That''s a great idea. I know a gu¡ª"

    "You''re not turning this island into an alcohol factory, Dame," Keilan interrupted without even looking in their direction; one of the boars was over his shoulder with a wood staked through its mouth and out the other side.

    Damien grumbled, picking up another cup. He sighed loudly at the taste, raising a subtle thumbs up at Elas.

    "I can still see you!"

    ***

    Later that night, Damien sat on a boulder, his thoughts far away as he stared into the skies. Who would have thought a place so unreachable would hold countless civilizations? His head came down, tracing down the moonlight as it streaked down onto the surface of the water, giving it a serene glow.

    The moonlit water suddenly took him back to a moment back in his childhood. The woods on the western side of the village, aside from the usual prowling monsters, which were somewhat rare depending on the location, had been crawling with hares and deers.

    Usually, they wouldn''t have disobeyed their parents'' instructions and gone out at night, but Keilan had been in the early stages of his crush on Boria, the village head''s daughter and also twin sister to Borvin, a jerk who always found one reason or another to come at Damien. Thankfully, he wasn''t a pushover. Borvin learned that the hard way.

    They''d wandered into the woods, looking for what Keilan described as ''The perfect one for his perfect one''. A few minutes later they''d already come across at least half a dozen hares, but Keilan hadn''t been satisfied because none of them had white fur. Their task would have been all but impossible had the moon not been full that night, lending them its silvery light.

    Luckily, about twenty minutes later, a white one had come into sight close to a tree, nibbling on a fallen branch. To this day, it would continue to be a mystery why there were so many of those animals still up and about in the late hours of the day instead of going into their hole to sleep.

    Their slow, quiet stalking apparently hadn''t been quiet enough as the animal immediately perked up the moment they got within a few feet, and then in a burst of speed, it dashed away. Keilan, not one to give up, had immediately given chase, leaving Damien to follow.

    Running through the half-dark woods in the night, with fallen branches and rope-like roots sticking out, had been enough to see Damien soon stumble onto the ground.

    To this day, he wasn''t sure what had persuaded him to look behind, but the burning blue orbs that had locked eyes with him still gave him the chills to this moment.

    A shuffle close by had unwillingly taken his attention as Keilan walked up to him with the live hare held tightly in his arms. When Damien had looked back, the woods were once again dark.

    He didn''t know why his memory was suddenly taken to that moment, but that night he''d vowed never to go back into those woods at night ever again.

    "You know, when I was young, I used to sneak out of the house at night to the lake close by."

    Damien, brought back down to earth, asked without looking. "To go swimming?"

    "Hehe, no." Elas chuckled. "I snuck out to go see my childhood sweetheart."

    Damien snorted.

    "You see, the reason we made that place our meeting spot was because I couldn''t go to her house because of her father, obviously, and she couldn''t do the same because of my mother. So we simply just met up on the lake shore close by."

    "Weren''t you afraid of monsters?" Damien said.

    "Nahh. The village hunters had that taken care of. Besides, the lake wasn''t that far from the village, basically a mile walk. And I''m pretty sure most of the hunters knew of our movements, but for some reason, they didn''t say anything to our parents. Though I could still see the knowing smirk on their faces whenever I crossed paths."

    Damien grunted.

    "Tresha, that was her name. A reaaaal beautiful lass, that one. Had long chestnut hair that shone in both sunlight and moonlight. Body the color of brown, delicious malros fruit. And her voice? Her voice could have brought the dead back to life. All the village boys wanted her but she chose me." The man smiled wistfully. "I wasn''t the most handsome, nor was I the richest, but for some reason, she still picked me over them all."

    Damien rolled his eyes at the theatrics. "Elas, I''m not so fragile as to be buttered up first. And I know you well enough to know your approach whenever you want to ask something uncomfortable. So, what do you want?"

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    The other man sighed. "Got me alright." He chuckled. "Look at you, all smart and such, catching me, an intelligence specialist to boot, in the arts of subtlety."

    "Elas." Damien sighed.

    "Okay. Okay, fine..." The man raised his hands in a calming gesture. "Don''t get all cranky on me here." He moved to take a position close to Damien, resting his back on the boulder.

    "If you don''t want the subtle approach, I''ll just come right in with the opposite. Your sudden trust in Gray worries me."

    "You think I''m being mind-controlled." It wasn''t a question.

    "There are a variety of ways to get someone to trust you outside of just mind-jacking them."

    Damien looked down on where the man was standing. "So, which one do you think?"

    "That''s the thing, I don''t know, and it scares me. You aren''t some bumpkin who''s unfamiliar with the darker side of this world, so I don''t understand why you would trust someone so explicitly the way you do Gray. Damien, you just met him."

    Damien sighed, this wasn''t surprising. Heck, he would have been suspecting Keilan of being mind jacked had the same thing happened to him. But the truth was that he knew himself, he knew what he was feeling, and he knew it wasn''t a lie.

    "You know, ever since I woke up in that jungle," Damien began. "I''ve always been on my toes, anxious. I haven''t told this to anybody, even Keilan. I''m sure you must have noticed, being the intelligence specialist that you are, so you must have seen how I was always jittery, always looking over my shoulder, scared that one day something would appear before me that I''d not be able to escape from. Something that could easily subject me to its will. That was a major reason why Keilan and I continuously dove Into hiding whenever the kingdoms got a whiff of us again.

    "When I met Gray, it was like," he snapped his fingers. "Those feelings were suddenly washed away, and I could breathe again. I don''t know how to put this, but when we did what we did that bound us together, it was like something I wasn''t aware I''d lost, an essential part of me, was suddenly returned. I don''t know why I feel this way or why I continue to trust him despite everything he''s withheld from me, but I believe Gray is out to protect me."

    "You know that word ''protect'' could mean many things, right?" Elas said. "As a spy, I am very familiar with the word ''protect'' and how it could be twisted, mostly to the detriment of the person that''s supposed to be protected."

    "Yeah, I understand. But I can feel it deep within me, I know that Gray is the only link I have to my origin, and I need to know."

    "Why?" Elas said, perplexed. "I mean, I''m not going to criticize your need to know about your origins; that''s a worthy effort, but I''ve seen people with no knowledge whatsoever of where they came from, and they''re still doing fine on their own. I understand what you said about your father''s enemies catching wind of you, but isn''t that more of a reason to avoid getting into that pot of boiling water? There is always the option of abandoning the past should it prove detrimental to your future."

    Damien sighed. He understood what Elas said, and the truth was that the man was right. But, "While my brain agrees with you, Elas, my heart says otherwise. I need to know, not just for curiosity''s sake, but to be prepared for anything that could blindside me.

    "My greatest opponent is Solaris, and I''m not sure I could even defeat him. And then I hear from Gray that compared to the enemies that will come after me, Solaris would be but a speck, a completely invisible one. I can''t live my life at the mercy of luck, Elas, I just can''t. If I''m going to be fighting people who could kill me with but a flick of their fingers, then I''m going to strive for a power that would make them use all their strength simply just to touch me," Damien finished with conviction, a fierce resolve burning in his heart. "And Gray''s going to help me."

    Damien knew that he''d been very complacent ever since he caught up and surpassed the people of this world. None of them could kill him. He was the strongest. Well now, witnessing the sheer power of a Spirit Queen, he finally realized that this planet was getting too small. And very soon he''d grow too big for it. And when that time came, he didn''t want to be at the bottom rung ever again, subject to the whims of the powerful. He wanted to be powerful enough that his mere name would serve as a detriment to anyone looking to put him under their heels.

    He wanted a power that would make him unafraid of anyone ever again.

    ***

    They arrived back at the clearing to meet a gloomy atmosphere. Damien sensed Lena upstairs, moving from one room to another, packing clothes into a bag.

    "What happened?" He said to a grim faced Keilan sitting nearby.

    "Solaris."

    Damien took a minute to calm his bubbling anxiety. "What about him?"

    Finally, Keilan looked up, the burning fire in their midst reflecting off his blue eyes. "I just got a message. The Emperor''s fleet has been sighted alongside a massive host, moving straight for Camlen."

    "Just his fleet? Keilan, you know the sun fleet could move without the presence of the Emperor. Why the grim face?"

    "Damien, Solaris was sighted on his capital ship."

    "He''s desperate," Elas suddenly interjected, clear confidence radiating of his words. "The power manifestation of the Winter priestess has just wiped out every defiled he has on the continent, and those on the other continents would soon follow as the Great families descend on them. Solaris''s forces are already spread too thin, even with the assistance of Torinia and the Hive, he knows that if the war continues as it is, he will lose."

    "But why attack now? He might be spread thin, but we''ve also suffered just as much as him, if not more. The majority of our alliance was made up of the smaller nations, and most of them are already wiped out. We''re basically on an even footing now."

    "You see, that''s the thing," Elas answered. "That man is smart. He''s turning his loss into an advantage. The war against the defiled was one that saw a continuous battle for days as your alliance fought against an unending swarm. They''ve all been running on adrenaline all this while. Take that away instantly, what do you get?"

    "A bunch of relieved soldiers," Keilan whispered, his eyes widening. "Soldiers who would be too relieved to respond to another instant attack."

    Elas nodded. "The soldiers of the alliance are tired, but they''re also relieved. Their adrenaline has worn off, and no doubt some have already fallen into a deep slumber that would leave them incapacitated for, probably, at least a week. Spirit strain and all. The entire alliance has just taken a deep breath, and before they release it, Solaris plans to punch a hole into their lungs."

    "And he''s coming to do it himself."

    ***

    In a location outside of reality, a small room just at the threshold between reality and unreality, a being turned its gaze down toward a location.

    They dropped the book in their hands onto the onyx-polished table, their gaze piercing through unreality and into reality, settling onto a star system.

    The system consisted of three planets revolving around a large yellow sun, with six moons likewise revolving around the outer circle of those planets, forming a two-layer circle.

    Though, that wasn''t what drew this being''s attention.

    Their will brushed aside the planetary scrying ward without alerting the World Spirit, settling down on the event that was just about to play out.

    "Well, that was fast."

    And then they returned their attention to the half-finished book, a smile playing on their lips as they looked forward to the future.

    "And so it begins.¡±

 Chapter 84 : And So It Begins II â€” Pain

    Spirit lady Merene drifted down onto the main castle''s entrance, the guards at the portal¡ªMonarch level guards¡ªbowed to her as she approached. Outwardly, she kept a stoic expression, but inside, she was doing everything she could not to squirm at the extreme awe and nigh worship she saw on their faces. She might have been old by Monarch standards, but no amount of experience, in her opinion, could prepare anyone for such level of reverence, especially from those who, not so long ago, had been her peers.

    "We greet the Spirit lady." Intoned, their eyes almost watering. Although she felt uncomfortable by it, she couldn''t fault them. Until recently, the kingdom of Camlen had had only two Spirit lords to their name, an extremely low number for a kingdom considered as one of the giants of the continent. If not for their abundance of Monarch realm wielders and the protection of the grey-eyed Calamity, their kingdom would have long since been conquered by the ever-encroaching Solaria. Now, though, the kingdom of Camlen was proud to boast a total number of eight Spirit lords, a mind-boggling increase to their previous number.

    One would have wondered why, with the number of Monarchs available to Camlen, alongside the blood bath of a war that had begun, the numbers seemed so... Little?

    She knew how hard it was to advance to Spirit lord¡ªthe requirements. She knew some people who''d been there before her advancement into the Monarch realm and who were still stuck in the realm to this moment. The level of challenges one would be required to put themselves through, alongside several delicate circumstances to help strengthen the soul and spirit, would have seen most Spirit lord candidates dead before they could reach anywhere.

    Aside from her job as a scout, which usually saw the most attention from enemy Spirit lords, since they usually made sure to curb out any eyes that would prove a problem to their movements, she also acted as a shield for the stray Spirit lord techniques that were sure to devastate the lower realmers should they be as unfortunate as to be in a direct path of one. This job alone had seen the more Monarch Wielders death than most. All it took was a single misstep for instant annihilation. No second chances.

    She had to admit that even with all that, she hadn''t come close to the threshold, only the risk she''d taken during her previous battle had proven the push she''d sorely needed.

    Most people failed to realize that a single Spirit lord was more than a full army could handle. They were walking calamities, and her nation¡ªshe thought with pride¡ªhad just gotten eight more.

    She strutted down the hallway, having stepped out of the internal portal system. Walking with her head raised high, a sudden bout of pride building up in her. She also made sure to acknowledge everyone who stopped to bow. She might have just joined the highest ranks on the planet, but she wouldn''t let that change her view of those lower than her. She''d once been in their position, and she would not forget that.

    When she walked into the council room, she shouldn''t have been surprised by those in attendance, and yet, she couldn''t help the shiver that ran down her spine as she laid eyes on the true powers of the alliance. She might be a Spirit lady now, but there were different levels of Spirit lords.

    Queen Fenore stood on one side of the large, round table at the leftmost side of the room. She appeared to be in a deep conversation with her right hand, Spirit Lady Helera, but both still paused to acknowledge her with a subtle nod.

    King Brunos was in a conversation with some unfamiliar individuals she hadn''t gotten the chance to meet yet, and judging by the wide-eyed look most of them had, they were definitely newly ascended. She did notice the absent presence of his immediate students, though.

    Next was Spirit lord Danor. He didn''t look much, by Spirit lord standards. But she also knew that looks could be deceiving, so she didn''t put much weight on his appearance. He was dressed in a simple shirt and pants with a brown coat over it all. His appearance was that of a simple unawakened farmer, but the sword hilt peaking out of his coat proved the contrary.

    Next to him were three newly ascended, also judging by their wide-eyed look. They were all dressed in flamboyant silks that looked expensive enough to put some nobles to shame, and all had swords with crystal-encrusted hilts. Someone unaware would have assumed them the masters and lord Danor the servant.

    The man, himself, seemed to be listening in to what King Brunos was saying, gesturing here and there to different positions on an illusory map hovering above the table.

    All three leaders were considered amongst the most powerful Spirit lords on the planet, with multiple legendary deeds to their names.

    "Fenore," King Brunos suddenly spoke up. "Any response from Damien?"

    The queen shook her head, "I was only able to get in touch with Keilan. Damien was unavailable."

    "That''s fine. Keilan will inform his brother."

    King Brunos then turned towards Helera. "The Great families?"

    "They are still cleaning out the remaining defiled from their territories, but they did promise to send in a couple of Spirit lords or so for assistance."

    Lord Danor frowned. "Why can''t they just deploy their entire cache of Spirit lords to wipe out those infestations? That sounds faster."

    "Danor, you know very well the destructive level a Spirit lord could reach. Deploying their entire cache would basically be stabbing themselves in the stomach simply to remove a tumor that could be best left to wither and die."

    "So they''re trying to keep their losses at a minimum, then?"

    "Yes. Although we should be expecting the attendance of the head of the house, Fyre, Trenor. Oh, and also, another complication has just come up there. The clan chiefs, alongside their Great chieftain, have been sighted on Aesland."

    Merene frowned. She knew who the great chief was, but apparently, she didn''t know enough, seeing as she was suddenly left perplexed as to the sudden ease of tension in the room, like a weight had suddenly been lifted from their shoulders.

    "Well, that''s a somewhat positive news I never thought I''d be hearing." SwordLord Danor said. "Slera might be a recluse, but she is no doubt, still a powerhouse. Having her somewhere in the continent with Solaris looming over us would have been deadly."

    "I also agree." This time, the queen was smiling. "I also want to inform you that the Viper queen isn''t the only one recently sighted on Aesland. Muktit has also made an appearance."

    Danor suddenly began clapping, a thundering clap that caused tiny strands of lightning to flash across the room. No one, except the newly ascended, paid any care to it. "Positivity upon positivity. The absence of Slera, alongside Muktit, will go a lot in lifting a burden of our hands."

    "But this makes me wonder, though." King Brunos spoke up. "Why would the Solarian Emperor weaken himself so, sending away two of the Spirit lords among some of the most powerful on the planet?"

    "He''s confident in taking us on alone. That should be obvious. I''m sure that, just like us, Solaria has also been bolstered by its own recruits of Spirit lords."

    Brunos waved his hands in dismissal. "The recruits would have been plausible, had it not been certain that aside from their clear threat to our armies, the only thing they could provide right now would just be the numbers." Merene might have taken this as an insult if the man hadn''t then turned towards them. "And this should serve as advice to you newly ascended. You might be Spirit lords, but do not let your pride deceive you. You will die if you go up against any old-timer. Even amongst Spirit lords, there are levels."

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    Merene nodded, taking the advice to heart. She''d seen the powers of her Queen, and also her right hand. And she''d also witnessed that of King Brunos. And if they, Spirit lords who''d reduced entire mountains to rubble could defer to another?... She sighed. ''I need a way to recognize when I''m out of my depth.''

    "As I was saying. Their newly ascended Spirit lords could be used to batter us like flies, but we also have ours to keep them contained. So I think something else is at play here, and coming from Solaris?" The man looked at everyone gathered. "I hope you all are as worried as I am."

    ***

    Damien appeared over the city of Cirin, Keilan behind him. The city was noisy, more than the usual, and bustling with extreme activity as people hurried from one place to another.

    The capital of Camlen was a megacity with a population of close to seventy million residents. It was the center hub for all sorts of activities in the entire kingdom, with skyscraping infrastructures of gleaming silver and pale blue glass. Blocky, rectangular buildings lined the residential section of the city, and a river ran through the center of the city, pathing a direct route down from the Dragon Sea on the right side of the city and into the land, going for as far as the eyes could see.

    Damien had seen this a hundred times, and knew the entire layout of the city from the back of his head. What drew his attention, though, was the population.

    The entire population of Cirin was being evacuated.

    Hundreds of Troop ships rested on the river and raised platforms connected through to the concrete sidewalks that had been hastily modified to contain the crowd of people waiting to board.

    Damien knew full well that those troop ships, great in numbers as they were and capable of carrying more than a thousand passengers comfortably, would be almost insignificant compared to the city''s population. Thankfully, he could see the forms of more coming into the city from the south, presumably from Gandor.

    Those could help, but like the ones already lining the river, they wouldn''t be enough to transport the full population of Cirin.

    Fenore must have also predicted that, because from another section of the city, large purplish black pillars rose into the sky, wide and brimming with spatial essence. And into it went thousands of people as they made their way to some of the locations that had been hastily propped up to hold them.

    "I see Fenore isn''t holding anything back." Keilan whistled, his blond hair dancing to the slowly awakening wind.

    "It''s only wise," a voice joined in as Fenore stepped out. "Wealth could be regained, but the lives of my people are a different thing."

    She was dressed in a newly acquired armor made of an unusual kind of pale emerald crystal that streamlined down her body like a simple form fitting attire. Her green eyes stared down at the quickly emptying city with a grim expression. "This city was built to withstand the destructive powers of Spirit lords, at least long enough for reinforcement to come. However, I know your power, Damien, and I also know that of Solaris, witnessed it, infact. And I won''t be foolish enough to think my city capable of withstanding that."

    Damien stared into the eyes of the Princess who had been made queen before she''d been ready. Her father, King Dorion, had been a benevolent enough king, at least compared to the rest. Damien hadn''t met the man since he''d died before Damien had even been born?

    Anyway, Dorion''s reputation had been one of the major reasons he''d agreed to the mutual defense pact that had been proposed by Fenore and Brunos.

    "Everything''s going to be fine." Damien tried to console her. "The battle won''t even take place in the city."

    "How sure are you of that?" a voice cut through the air, coming from a far distance, yet close. Soon, space tore and a man stepped through. Solaris.

    Instantly, everything changed. Damien summoned Gray in spear form, and his old armor appeared around his body.

    The air roiled as Keilan immediately tensed, battle ready. His bleeding emotion caused the air to subtly tremble, a feeling that was no doubt felt by the other Spirit lords.

    All over the city, lights flashed as multiple presence made themselves known. Brunos stepped through a roiling circle of fire to appear behind Damien, alongside Danor. Both their newly ascended Spirit lords¡ªat least the ones they could spare¡ª appeared behind them.

    The sky darkened and thunder rumbled as another presence appeared in a flash of lightning. He was a man of imposing stature, with a silver, silky hair and wearing a simple white robe. On his hand was a metal staff that brimmed with barely contained power, tendrils of lightning snaking up the staff and into his body.

    His blue eyes took in Solaris calmly. "Solaris."

    "Ahhh," the emperor smiled. "Trenor, it''s been a while. I heard you went into seclusion after our last... Meeting. I hope you''re feeling well now, though? Enough for round two?"

    The man, Trenor, who was obviously the head of the Fyre Great family, said nothing, but the tightening in his eyes and fist was answer enough.

    Behind the man were almost a dozen Spirit lords, dressed in armor emblazoned with the insignia of the house, Fyre.

    Alongside them also appeared the cultists. Merene was attired in her usual blue white priestly robes. Her eyes calmly took in all that were gathered, a reassuring smile appearing on her face when Damien met her eyes.

    That seemed to calm him a little.

    Appearing beside Menoe was another figure, also with a power comparable to the most elite Spirit lords on the planet. Desane, high priestess of the nature cult was kind of a mysterious figure, In Damien''s opinion. This was the first time he was seeing her, but that didn''t mean he hadn''t gotten her description beforehand. Like the Winter Cults, Desane was a reclusive figure, always in the forest surrounding the cult''s temple. Her natural domain.

    That was why it was always warned to steer clear of the southern forest whenever one was traveling. The Nature cult might be somewhat inactive, but that didn''t mean they couldn''t bite in a instant.

    Since he didn''t have any relationship whatsoever with the cult, he wondered why they were here. This war, no matter who won, would not affect the cults. Their power was unquestionable.

    All through the appearances of the multiple powerful figures, Solaris remained calm. Unbothered. His eyes took in everything with an indulging smile. It was until they were finally done did he begin to speak, and he never even addressed their show of power.

    Damien became worried.

    "You know," Solaris began, looking at Damien. "When I promised to make you suffer, I couldn''t seem to find something that''ll torture you enough."

    His hands were folded behind his back, and a patronizing smile on his face.

    "I thought of capturing your brother here," he continued, gesturing at Keilan. "And simply killing him, but that would have to be quick and wouldn''t deliver the level of pain I wanted. I don''t just want you to see the corpse of your brother, Elason, I want you to watch him slowly die."

    "Wow," Keilan said dryly. "Don''t you make a man feel so special?"

    Solaris didn''t even glance at him, continuing as if no one had spoken. "Now, I want you to know that while I might have chosen that, I''ve decided to add another to it.

    "You see, I''ve studied you, watched you for any weaknesses I could smash my hammer into. Simply killing your brother wouldn''t be enough. No, that would be too much of a mercy to you."

    He chuckled darkly, his fiery eyes blazing.

    "You see, I''ve noticed that whenever you do battle, you tend to avoid places crowded with people, places that could easily accumulate massive casualties. And if you are then forced to battle there, you always seem to have ways in which to minimalize the level of damage done, mostly through employing other Spirit lords as protectors, shielding the population from harm. And other times you simply evacuate them, just like now. " Solaris smiled. "It is admirable. Heroic, even. But that naivety has left a hole in your mental armor for my weapon to penetrate. So thank you, Elason, for helping me find the perfect punishment for you."

    And in an instant, he moved. Damien, already tense from the beginning, had been watching for this moment, so he was able to react immediately to the attack. Unfortunately, that was not what occured.

    From the body of Solaris, something seemed to spread, immediately enveloping everyone gathered in fiery energy. And from the expressions of the clergy and Trenor, he quickly summarized that this wasn''t something good.

    [A Domain,] Gray whispered, shock and fear evident in his tone.

    Time hadn''t been affected, but Damien felt his body still, unable to move as something held him firmly in place. He couldn''t even turn his head, as even the ambient energy around his surroundings vanished, replace with the sole essence of Sunflame. Despite his inability to move any part of his body, from the corner of his eyes, Damien watched as Solaris appeared, not before Damien, but Keilan.

    Damien''s heart froze and his eyes widened in terror as Solaris stepped close to his brother.

    "I told you, Elason, I will make you suffer." And then he slammed his hammer onto the Keilan''s chest plate. And Damien watched his brother vanish in a roiling of spatial energy.

    Damien mustered all his strength to struggle against the constraints holding him down. He flooded his body with energy to muster his essence well. Used his willpower to flood his body with mental energy to remove any foreign influence. He even attempted to remove the foreign influence around his body. All was futile.

    His attention snapped back to reality as Solaris appeared before him, a calm smile on his face.

    "Trust me, for what I have planned for your brother, you will crawl to me for mercy. Luckily for you, I don''t want you dead, yet. So I''m going to be sending you away, too. Do try to stay alive."

    And in another spatial roiling, Damien''s vision darkened.

 Chapter 85 : And So it Begins III

    On a place far away, located in a corner of the world untouched by mortal civilization, an island drifted, a single island. Flowers of different bright colors filled the entire flat-shaped landmass, its view a neverending grassland.

    Beautiful animals thought lost or extinct roamed the island, nibbling gracefully on the rare and exotic fruits littered everywhere. A Deer with furs as black as night with long bone-white antlers that curved smoothly over to its muscled shoulders roamed near a tree with low-hanging branches. Its violet-roiling orb scanned the surroundings, finding another of its species not too far away and then hopping gracefully over to it. Griffins with silver and black striped furs rested on their nests up on the trees, some simply resting while others monitored the younglings. Overhead, a rainbow-plumaged bird soared past, guided by wings so large they created huge shadows on the grass-covered ground.

    The bird, its tail feathers half the length of its full body, gently padded the air as it glided by. The bird flew through the skies, bullying past a flock of white little birds, dispersing them in panic. Soon, its flight took it over a valley situated in exactly the middle of the island.

    This valley wasn''t so different from the rest of the island, the only difference being the flora, which looked more controlled than the wild ones left to grow anywhere outside. Oh, and also the house situated on one corner of the valley.

    Selyria Molei strode through her little garden, watering the ones which needed the nourishment and leaving the rest until it was their time.

    She took in the beautiful atmosphere, her senses spreading wide and far, encompassing the entire island in an instant and going past that. However, she had little use for such distance, so she had to retract it a little as there was nothing aside from this little island for miles. It was like a black dot in a sea of white.

    She smiled at the effects her perception had on the animals on the entire island, gently chuckling as all the predators immediately ceased their hunting, no doubt feeling the brief attention of something else, something far more than they could ever hope to attempt at hunting. A higher existence.

    Unlike her peers, her ascended form wasn''t restricted by the World Spirit from this planet; this, no doubt, caused a no small amount of grumbling from the others at the blatant favoritism the World Spirit showed her. But still, they couldn''t argue, who wouldn''t want a seer in their employ?

    Every essence wielder at some point, whether they practiced it or not, develops some sort of skill at divination. More along the lines of preternatural prediction than actual divination, but still, it was far beyond anything anyone below Spirit King could ever hope to achieve. The basic divination skill was useful for correctly predicting future events, the distance and time depending on the level of the being. They couldn''t get any deeper context to what they were searching for, though, but that was somewhat unneeded seeing as they needed to have acquired a certain amount of information for them to have any chance at getting a correct prediction.

    Selyria was a seer, an expert at acquiring information about the future. There were very few things that could restrict her sight, and those that could, at most, could only block out the deeper context of the event, not the wider effects. That was why she had been able to see the effects of the doom that was foretold to occur, but not how it would happen.

    The World Spirit, powerful as it was, was not as adept at far-seeing as she was. It could predict the outcome of certain events, but not to the same level as an essence wielder specialized in the arts. That was why she had been employed, her salary? A free, unrestricted movement anywhere on the planet. All she had to do was assist in predicting anything major that could impact the planet.

    The continental-wide devastation that had occurred on the Norelane continent, now Desolate, had been one of her major predictions, and like what was soon about to happen, she hadn''t been able to get anything more than a simple warning.

    Done with the plants, she began making her way back to the small hut on the corner of the valley. It would take a while to get back, seeing as she was choosing the mundane way of movement, but she didn''t mind. At times, it was always soothing to just move like the mortals.

    "Welcome, what can I do for you?" Selyria said, glancing at a seemingly empty space a few feet to her left.

    "You speak like I am a stranger," a voice replied, and soon enough, tiny motes of lights appeared in thin air, slowly drifting together until they coalesced into the form of a woman.

    She was a beautiful woman with an extremely pale skin, almost pure white. Her hair was the color of snow and tied in a bun, same as Selyria''s. Her frosty blue eyes could have made Selyria quake in fear had she not been of the same realm. And her dress? Now, Selyria knew she wasn''t much for fashion, but even she had to admire the dress her fellow Spirit Queen wore. It was a dress with a thin, almost invisible, layer of fabric. The pale blue color, although lacking the intense beauty of a deeper hue, made the dress more beautiful than any other color would have. She lifted her eyes back to the wearer.

    "One of these days, you''ll have to make one of these dresses for me."

    Aisene fondly rubbed the form-fitting fabric. "Only if you promise to divine the perfect man for me."

    Selyria rolled her eyes. Aisene always did this. She was beautiful, one of the most beautiful and sought-after women on Zanderst¡ªThe Moon Cities. She certainly had no shortage of suitors bawling for her attention, but for some reason, she always turned them down, citing the need for a perfect man. In her words, a ''Knight In princely beauty''. Selyria, despite her far-seeing capabilities, still found it hard to comprehend that.

    "How many times do I have to say this? You don''t need my help in finding a perfect date, Aisene. If anything, you should be complaining about your overabundance of choices."

    "Overabundance of choices? What choices?" She affected an air of confusion.,

    "Don''t play coy with me, Aise. I know for a fact that a certain handsome from the planet, Za, has recently proclaimed his love for you. We both know a lower status isn''t a problem for you when choosing partners, so why don''t you give it a try? I hear he''s also a prince, and a knight too. Definitely a double package, that one."

    Aisene made a gagging expression. "You lack taste In men, Sel. Otherwise, you wouldn''t be encouraging me to date children."

    "He''s three thousand years old."

    "And I''m seven times that," Aisene blandly replied. "Why would I want someone so young and inexperienced?"

    "The novelty? Listen, Aise. If you want someone your age, then accept one of the other dozens of suitors waiting at your doorstep. Isn''t one of them a priest of the Nature cult?"

    "I don''t care about prestige, Sel, I want true love. I want to be rescued from a tower by a knight with a princely beauty..."

    "You''re a Spirit Queen; I doubt you''d get anything more than a scratch if you were thrown down onto this planet."

    "That''s a lie, this body certainly won''t survive it."

    "''This body'' is an avatar¡ªnot even your main avatar¡ªthat isn''t even built for combat. You wouldn''t have been allowed onto the planet, otherwise."

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    That brought the woman up short. "Is it... Is it still angry?"

    "You mean, Ra?"

    She nodded.

    "You do know that you basically attacked it, right?"

    "Hey! In my defense, I was adjudicating; my authority would certainly have been questioned if I''d required the permission of another entity to carry out judgment."

    "It was on its territory."

    "And I''ve apologized. How many times do I have to say this?"

    Selyria frowned, a tone of admonishment entering her voice. "That''s not the point, Aisene. You, without permission, manifested a portion of your power down on this planet. Now Ra might be cautious, knowing that acting out would have led to a serious reprisal, but not every World Spirit is like that. You might not get lucky next time."

    "You do know that it could have erased my manifestation had it wanted to. It let my influence onto the planet. Sounds like permission to me."

    "That was at my advice. Ra wanted to wipe out a moon or two as warning, but I held it back, cautioning of unknown repercussions should the Cults take it as an act of war. We already have a possible apocalypse hanging over our heads, we don''t need a certain one."

    "Fineee! You''re right. I''ll ask permission next time."

    A voice swept past, unemotional yet filled with restrained fury. "There will not be a next time."

    Aisene looked up, even though she didn''t need to, seeing as the influence of the World Spirit saturated everywhere. "How am I then supposed to deal out punishment when Solaris goes out of line?"

    Her question was left in the wind, with no reply. That was answer enough.

    Selyria shrugged as the other woman turned to her for help. "I guess you''ll have to find another way, then."

    "Ahh, the thing I do for justice."

    "Justice?" Selyria snorted. "Aise, we both know that this has nothing to do with justice. You hate Solaris to the core."

    The Other woman opened her mouth in a clear attempt at denial, but then she stopped and then shrugged. "Yeahhh, I definitely hate him."

    Selyria slowed down, looking for the right way to word her next question. Finding none, she simply blurted it out. "If I may ask, why don''t you simply kill him? I get that he''s an investment the infernos are unwilling to simply let go, but let''s be honest here: we both know they wouldn''t go to war just for the death of a first domain King, not if that person was accumulating enemies he shouldn''t have any right too."

    Aisene also slowed down, matching Selyria''s stride. "Ah, you don''t know the end of it. Unfortunately, it appears Solaris has more importance than was previously speculated."

    Her silence prompted the other woman to continue.

    "You remember the rare affinity stone he found?"

    Selyria nodded. That had caused a small stir amongst the Spirit King community. The sun-fire affinity, while not being on par with great affinities such as destruction, life, soul, and some others, was still a tier above the common ones. It was an affinity every fire user aimed to one day wield.

    "Yes, I remember."

    "Well, aside from the fact that he ''luckily'' found that rare treasure at a young age, it seems his talent for the affinity is more than was previously graded... Which you already suspected, didn''t you?"

    Selyria shrugged, not willing to deny it. "It seemed obvious, but I didn''t want to say anything. Besides, I thought you already knew. It shouldn''t have been hard to notice. Solaris was already a genius with the fire affinity right from his awakening; upgrading to the Sunfire essence was nothing more than a power-up. Why''s that the problem?"

    "Well, the inferno''s are already ecstatic about it, boasting about how they''re going to make an Ascendant out of Solaris one day." Aisene made a gagging expression. "It''s disgusting, really. This is a Celestial Cult for crying out loud!"

    "Well, a potential Ascendant isn''t something to scoff at, you know? What if he actually makes it?"

    "That would only happen if he wasn''t already dead from all the enemies he''s made."

    "You think he could win this war?" Selyria asked.

    "His opponent is someone with a great affinity and a lot of question marks to his name, so I''m not really sure. Which is weirdly exciting."

    "Damien Elason."

    "What?"

    "Damien Elason, that''s his name."

    "Why should I care about that?" Aisene said with eyebrows raised.

    "Well, seeing as he''s the only thing standing between Solaris and his goals...?"

    The other woman snorted. "This war is nothing but an exercise to us. We might oppose Solaris'' ambition, but truthfully, we don''t really care. The only would-be losers are those little Spirit lords who''ll soon find themselves ousted and their territories taken. Even the Great families, the worst they could suffer is being slowly isolated from each other as Solaris conquers everyone else. The name of some talent with a weird affinity characteristic is as insignificant as the names of some of those Spirit lords."

    Selyria didn''t buy into it. "You''ve investigated him, haven''t you?"

    "Of course, we have! A young genius, by this planet''s standards, suddenly comes along with an affinity for destruction. That''s a great affinity, Sel. He might not have shown as much alignment as the other boy he seems to move with, but it''s still a great affinity. There''s no way we wouldn''t have investigated."

    "And what did you find?"

    "Nothing. Short of the little discovery that he''s basically an orphan with no knowledge of his parents, we found nothing. At first, we wanted Menoe to drag the boy somewhere for some questioning, but that was scrapped since he already had a motherly relationship with her, a relationship that had been there for years. She couldn''t do anything to him now even if she tried. If he had been below Spirit lord, we could have sent someone else to ''talk'' to him, but I no longer think that''s possible."

    "I didn''t think you all would have given up after such a small setback?" Selyria said.

    Aisene scowled at her. "Don''t tease me, Sel. There was nothing else we could do short of descending ourselves, and I''m sure it wouldn''t take much to predict the outcome of that. The only reason Ra allowed a combat avatar of Solaris down on the planet was because of his tier. The avatar of a first-domain King is nothing compared to that of a Seventh-domain, like me."

    Selyria couldn''t argue with that. The gap between tiers wasn''t as large as those between realms, but the power of a Seventh domain and that of a first domain was like the distance between the earth and the sun. A Spirit lord avatar of Aisene could go toe to toe with Solaris in his true form and still stand her ground without any problem.

    "Well," Selyria said. "I''ll be glad to inform you that that ''insignificant'' Spirit lord isn''t as insignificant as you think."

    "What do you mean?"

    "There''s something strange about that boy, I can''t put my finger on it and neither can the World Spirit."

    "Well then why don''t you go question him? You aren''t as restricted as the rest of us, and I''m certain that, even as a non-combatant, a mere Mid tier Spirit lord couldn''t hope to lay a finger on you."

    "No can do, Aise. Like I said, there''s something strange about him, and I don''t mean the simple mystery that could be solved by a couple of questions, I meant the one that could prove dangerous to someone like me, and even the World Spirit."

    That brought the other woman up short. Aisene stopped, disbelief warring in her face, but Selyria knew she wouldn''t dismiss her claim. Her credibility wasn''t something to scoff at.

    "I don''t understand."

    "Trust me, Aise, neither do we. When I met him, I''d already had half a mind to atleast get some answers I had questions for, but something held me back. As soon as I had that thought, I immediately felt a warning from deep within me telling me that the moment I take so much as a step towards him, something bad would happen..."

    "And you aren''t the only one who felt this?"

    "Yes." Selyria confirmed. "The World Spirit has a different reason for wanting to ''question'' the boy, but the warning is still the same."

    "If this is only happening to Spirit Kings and above, why hasn''t anything happened to Solaris yet? He''s a Spirit King."

    "I don''t know," Selyria said. "Probably because of his avatar being somewhat on par with the boy? I''m not really sure. All I know that we can''t go anywhere near him."

    "Have you tried divining the answer?"

    "Oh, I''ve definitely tried, but all I see is a Seer''s welcome."

    "What''s that?"

    "This is something between us Seers, a situation where we encounter some sort of shroud against divination¡ªthey come in different forms. The shroud isn''t a complete blockage since all we have to do to get the answers to our question is simply to walk through it and out the other side."

    "Like an open gate," Aisene said.

    "Yes. But the warning to this is to never walk into that shroud, else you''ll never come out. The shroud around the boy is in the form a gray mist. It didn''t take any form of special skill to tell me that the moment I stepped into that mist, my death was already assured."

    Aisene sighed heavily. "So what do we do now?"

    "Nothing other than to simply watch. Solaris is going to trigger something he''s assuredly not going to come back fr¡ª"

    Instantly, both their heads snapped toward the same location. They couldn''t see anything with their physical eyes, but their senses more than carried out the task perfectly.

    "A Domain... That must have taken a toll on his avatar."

    They saw as Solaris made use of his domain to remove the influence of Space around him, and then while all those arrayed against him were completely frozen, he forcefully teleported Damien and his brother.

    Selyria sighed, already feeling the dark clouds gathering. "And so it begins."

 Chapter 86 : Awakening I

    Damien grunted, disoriented, as he was forcefully spat out of space and onto a hard surface. He groaned, turning onto his back. His head ached badly, and he, for the first time in many years, felt like outwardly disposing of everything he''d eaten up to this moment. That... I don''t want to experience something like that ever again.

    "What... Was that?" He said out loud since his head still ached and he couldn''t speak mentally.

    [That was a domain.] Gray answered, appearing in Damien''s view. [You were rejected out of another''s domain.]

    Damien, head still spinning, could only groan out, "A what now?"

    [A Domain.] Gray repeated, smirking. [Why do you think they''re called Spirit Kings?]

    "Ahhh. My head''s not in the right place for this. I think Solaris did something to me... Keilan, can you help me up please?"

    Damien frowned when he received no reply, so he tried again. "Kei?"

    [Damien... I''m so sorry.]

    That was when it hit him. His brother was gone. Keilan was in danger. Damien stood up so fast he staggered into a tree. "We need to find him!"

    [Damien, stop! You aren''t in any shape to be worrying about anybody else right now!]

    But Damien wouldn''t listen. His brother was in mortal danger, and he didn''t even know where he was. That thought immediately flung his imagination down a negative spiral as he worried about what Keilan must be going through right now. Scenarios of Keilan with his arms and legs cut off flash through his mind. And when that didn''t seem to terrify him much, more images began to pour into his mind. Keilan being spiritually tortured, with his unknown torturers using unknown means to pierce through the physical layer and into the Spiritual to slowly mutilate his brother. He knew how painful a minor spiritual injury could be, and the thought of Keilan being slowly carved into pieces sent his thoughts down the deeper end.

    He panicked, summoning his spear as he prepared to tear through space to find his brother. Even if he didn''t know where Keilan was, someone would know, and the world would pay should anything happen to his brother.

    [Damien stop!] Gray''s voice slammed into his mind, making him stagger. Still, he didn''t slow down. Damien spread out his senses, pushing through the mental pain as he tried to find a tiny location where space was fragile and easy to break through. His senses brushed through the location he''d just arrived in, finding the spatial cracks already healed.

    Finding nothing fragile enough for him to pierce through, he began making preparations to bludgeon open space, fragile or not.

    [Damien, I said STOP!] This time, Gray''s voice managed to slow him down. His annoyance bled through, and he was about to continue when Gray''s next words finally stopped him. [You''re in danger! Can''t you see that we''re being surrounded!]

    And as if he was being dowsed with frozen water, Damien''s senses revved into action, immediately sharpening and catching the irregularities in his surroundings.

    The first thing he took notice of was the mist. A dark and extremely dense mist had begun to slowly creep into the woods. Already, he knew he was already surrounded. And as the mist became denser and denser, his perception was slowly pushed back by.

    Damien immediately went into combat mode, his spear snapping into a defensive position as he finally became an island in a sea of mist.

    "Shadow Hall." It didn''t even take much to guess.

    [Shadow Hall.] Gray repeated. [I assume this was the trap all along. Solaris couldn''t fight you while also dealing with the others, so he found a way to keep you occupied.]

    Damien couldn''t help it, he chuckled. "I was beginning to wonder why Shadow Hall suddenly gave up on me. I mean... They''re renowned for completing a contract within a few days of receiving it, and mine has still been up for at least a month now."

    [Well, now they''ve come and I''ll advise you to clear your head of any distractions and focus on this battle. You won''t be helping anyone if you''re dead.]

    Damien agreed. "If Solaris thinks a mere Mist wielder is going to hold me down for long," Damen growled. "He''s going to be sorely let down."

    [Hold your horses there, Damien. It seems you aren''t still thinking straight. Do you think Solaris would be foolish enough to send a single assassin against you?] And then Gray did something to his perception¡ª Up''d it somehow¡ª and like a lamp switch, his senses were able to bypass the mist, only a little, but it was enough. And what he caught immediately turned his mood somber.

    Hanging from a tree to his right, on one of its highest branches, was a cloaked figure with a bow and an arrow pointed at him. He couldn''t get the color of the cloak but he didn''t need that to figure out that the figure was a Shadow Hall assassin.

    Another tree to his left took the weight of another figure in a cloak, but this one wasn''t wielding a bow, but a spear. Below the figure stood another with twin daggers in their gloved hands. This one was somehow different, standing with their waist cocked to one side and their body angled forward in a predatory manner. He took in their appearance and immediately identified them as a female.

    Another figure appeared behind him¡ªstill inside the mist. They were cloaked like the rest and held a staff in their hands. Damien might have had some guesses as to the affinities of the earlier ones, but this one came up null. They were probably extremely adept at holding back their passive aura. What he did notice, though, was how the distance between him and the figure seemed to flicker, going from short to long in a flipped instant. One moment, they were close enough for his spear to reach; the next, they were so far out of his reach that it would take multiple burst steps to reach them.

    [That''s a Space wielder.] Gray said just as Damen figured it out.

    Inwardly, he cursed his bad luck. Having a group of assassins surrounding him was one thing, but a space user being one of them now put him in a world of trouble. Now, he''d have to be careful of how far he stretched.

    [We have a Nature wielder, a mind Wielder, a shadow wielder, and a space wielder.] Gray said, an orange arrow pointing at the assassins consecutively. [Now where''s the mist wielder?]

    "They should be deeper in. Since they''re the ones keeping me boxed in, it stands to reason that they''ll have to keep themself safe. However, I believe that once this fight starts, they''ll eventually have to make themselves known. Both they and the space wielder are probably responsible for the spatial lockdown keeping me in. Once one is dead, the other won''t be able to keep me locked in again."

    ''And then i''d be free to look for Keilan.'' He didn''t say that part out loud.

    [That''s one thing, though you''ll have to find a way to deal with the rest. A full cadre isn''t going to be easy.]

    "Yeah..." Damien murmured. "Makes me afraid of what the second team is up to."

    [Be thankful that you don''t have to deal with two.] Gray scolded. [Now, they still think you''re unaware of their exact numbers, this should give you a good opportunity to get ahead. The outcome of this fight will be determined by how it starts.]

    Damien agreed wholeheartedly. However, instead of feeling good that he was having to deal with a single cadre instead of two, he still couldn''t help the nervousness that was slowly creeping in at the missing enemies. In situations like this, it was better to keep your enemies at eye distance.

    While Damien would have loved to begin this fight with the death of the space Wielder, he knew how impracticable that would be compared to his imagination. Not only could they conjure up some space weirdness to slow him down, but they could simply just locally teleport away, which would give away Damien''s hand and set the other down on him in an instant.

    Now, he had the upper hand, so he had to make good use of it. The choice was somewhat complex, so he simply selected out those that would take him a while to deal with.

    The mind wielder, unique In the sense that their ilks never bothered to come within melee distance of their opponent, always preferring to hammer at the mind from a distance, was cut off. Though they might be weak physically, Damien didn''t doubt that they could still manage to hammer him one before he got too close. Besides, he had the shadow wielder who was standing below the tree. She''d definitely catch him long before he could so much as smell the mind Wielder''s perfume.

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    The Nature wielder was out of the question. While he''d also have liked to remove the archer since they were likely to be a pain in the ass, Damien considered the distance. By the time he crossed the distance between them, he''d be riddled with at least half a dozen arrows. He also knew that a spatial step towards them would instantly be sensed by the Space wielder, which would definitely undo his entire planning since they could probably contend with him for dominion over space. Damien wasn''t a space Wielder, so he knew he''d undoubtedly lose in that department.

    Eventually, it all came down to the Shadow Wielder. He reasoned that, while she was certainly agile, Damien believed he could catch her off guard if he timed it right. While hopping through the air at the physically weak mind wielder would have been expected, outright going for one of the strongest melee fighters was something they''d definitely not see coming. Besides, the shadow, to his knowledge, had nothing that could physically impede him.

    [Good luck.]

    Damien gathered all his strength, focusing everything on his feet, and in a burst of speed that cracked the sound barrier, he dashed to the left.

    The lady, extremely agile that she was, would certainly have had a high perception, so she quickly got wind of his true direction the moment he moved, but by then it was already too late.

    His spear came down on her in a vertical slash, aimed at bisecting her from head to toe. Unfortunately, she was fast enough to move out of the way, but not wholely.

    Seeing the lady with her left arm missing, blood spurting out of the shoulder stump like a burst pipe, Damien finally realized one thing: there was no healer. He''d been so worried about being overwhelmed that he didn''t stop to consider the situation his attackers would be getting themselves into by attacking him. While people of their realm could certainly heal and regrow an amputated limb, it usually took time and a massive amount of energy. They definitely couldn''t do that while still in the middle of a battle.

    Damien sensed the others moving at him, so he quickly took advantage of his luck. He gritted his teeth as he forced through the mental hammer that soon slammed into his mind, coming out the other side toward the retreating shadow wielder.

    Retreating, she didn''t do anything to stem her wounds, fully focused on putting distance between them. Damien didn''t let her.

    From his body erupted three conjured stars, flashing towards the retreating shadow assassin. She dodged the first one, used her working hand to deflect the second¡ªnot without suffering some fractures¡ªand then her luck ran out when the third star impacted her left leg, blowing it clean off.

    Unfortunately for him, he didn''t get to finish her before she was quickly teleported away, replaced with the form of the archer as she quickly released a single arrow that split into two, then four, then six. By the time the arrows were already within a few feet from him, they''d already multiplied into a dozen.

    Damien didn''t stop to block.

    He stepped forward, his foot cracking through space. He was already prepared for the space wielder to mess with space. And surely, that was what happened. Damien felt space resist him as he tried to teleport, so he didn''t fight back, saving his already lessening mental strength. He wove to the side, pushing his body to its limits. And though he dodged most of the projectiles, a couple managed to impact him. Luckily, they didn''t impact any of his exposed part, slamming into his armoured chest.

    Damien grunted from the force of the arrows, finding himself carried through the air and then slammed into a tree, breaking it and crashing into another. He went like that for a few seconds, breaking half a dozen trees, before he finally slammed into a tree that managed to hold him.

    He was already up before he knew he knew it, lucky enough to move away before another flurry of arrows reduced the tree to cinders. He didn''t get a moment to breath as another attack slammed into him. Damien grunted, staggering as the mental equivalent of a sledgehammer crashed into his mind.

    ''that mind wielder has to go''

    He knew his mental ward, quivering as it was, couldn''t take much more of that, so he resolve to remove the mind wielder from this fight. It didn''t take them much to notice his next victim as Damien immediately changed direction from the rock he''d been planning on taking cover in to the mind wielder.

    Now, Damien couldn''t see their face because of the hooded cloak they were wearing, but he''d like to imagine their eyes widening as they saw him dash for them. A spear in his right hands, Damien fired out a breath of destruction from his left, bisecting the trees on its path as it sped towards his victim. As planned, the space Wielder interfered, elongating the space between his spear and the mind wielder.

    Damien didn''t mind; that already proved a part of the theory building up in his mind. Knowing his attack would soon sputter out due to the distance, he threw his spear. Now the space Wielder had two things to deal with. Either they left the breath attack to stop the spear, or they left the spear to soar towards its destination.

    They chose neither.

    Damien watched his spear slow down as the influence of space constrained it. Now Damien knew his spear couldn''t be forcefully teleported because of its metaphysical weight, but that that didn''t exempt it from succumbing to some space shenanigans as the distance was increased again. He didn''t mind, and this time he conjured a dozen star falls, raining them down at the mind wielder.

    Finally, he saw the limit of the space manipulation. In slowed down time, he watched the space Wielder choose between three attacks, all of which were deadly to the someone with such a frail physique as a mind wielder.

    Again, the space Wielder choose neither, and like a rock breaking, Damien felt space slowly crack as the mind wielder was being moved.

    And like a controlled projectile, Damien changed direction.

    All this while as he''d been running and avoiding the techniques flying at him, Damien hadn''t forgotten his first goal: to remove the shadow wielder. He''d made sure to at least be within burst distance of her, but because of the space wielder he couldn''t afford to get much closer.

    Now as the space wielder saw him speed towards the shadow lady who was on the floor, bleeding from two amputated limbs, they had two choices to pick from: either they chose to save the mind wielder, who was basically still whole and filled with energy, or they could save the Shadow wielder who was missing two limbs and a quarter of her energy which were already being drained just to heal a single limb.

    The choice wasn''t hard to make.

    Damien''s fist, coated in a not-so-small amount of destruction essence, came down on the lady''s head with shattering force. There was a dull crack, like a something about to break, and then like a burst melon, her head exploded in blood and brain matter.

    ''One down.''

    Damien stood up, not calmly, since about two dozen arrows were already whistling towards him. He clenched down on his stomach at the smell of internal matter smeared all over his body. No matter how many times he''d seen and done this, somehow, he couldn''t get rid of the same reaction he''d always had since he was a kid. Gore was disgusting.

    It seemed the death of one of their numbers suddenly lighted a candle on the reality of what this was. Damien was not one to be underestimated. Despite their numbers, they could still die.

    They attacked him in force.

    The concept of time slowly bled off as Damien found himself assaulted from all sides. He ran from a rain of arrows while having to weather another mind attack. Surprisingly, the mind wielder immediately came into melee range, their spear against Damien''s. At first, he thought the assassin''s ego had finally gotten to them and they''d made a grave mistake, but after he tried to retaliate, he realized what was happening.

    Anytime he tried to strike at the mind wielder, he somehow found the distance between his spear and his opponent elongating, widening till he either had to pull back or risk over extending himself. But when the other person did the same, the opposite seemed to happen, as he then found space contracting, shortening the distance between his body and his opponent spear.

    Damien, already getting frustrated, tried to fire off another flurry of star falls, but just as he thought to do it, another mental attack slammed into him, breaking of his concentration. So Damien improvised.

    He spun into a roundhouse kick, and while he was still in the air, spinning, his leg aimed at the mind wielder, he twisted a little, angling his spear towards the space wielder and then he threw.

    Now, having witnessed deadly attacks aimed at their comrades, Damien assumed they were already inured to things like this and would not panic when they eventually became the focus of an attack. But no, that was not what happened.

    Damien could practically smell the fear radiating off of the space wielder as his spear sped towards them. Seeing that they couldn''t move his spear, they decided to move themselves. And in that brief moment of panic, they lost their concentration on space.

    Like a rope suddenly being loosened, Damien felt his body free up, fresh air entering his lungs. And then his feet slammed into the shoulder of the mind wielder.

    Apparently, Damien had overestimated the physique of the wielder, as he''d been expecting them to at least survive such an attack. He didn''t doubt they wouldn''t come out without a serious injury, but atleast he expected them to survive.

    Landing, he looked down on the torn body of the man? Now that his hood had been removed, Damien saw that it was a man. His foot had torn through the shoulder sideways down and deep into the middle torso, leaving the man to fall dead in an almost divided form.

    Damien blinked, suddenly feeling his head clear, the headaches slowly receding. With widening eyes, he looked down on the small circle they were all standing in, taking in the presence of a formation that had been subtly diverted from his attention all this while.

    He looked up, catching the space and nature wielder who were now standing close to each other, a third figure appearing between them.

    The space wielder snapped their fingers, and then Damien found himself somewhere else. He felts something clamp down on him and he looked down, finding all his limbs enclosed with mighty chains that ran down the floor and into the mist shrouded distance.

    The room he was in was dark and filled with barely seen moving roots that slowly began twirling up his legs. Already, he was feeling something being injected into his body.

    But none of this really stuck in his mind.

    What Damien was really thinking of was Keilan. His brother was going through some form of extreme torture and here he was, shackled, and slowly drained of his strength. He was being taken away from his brother. Keilan was going die and Damien was too weak to do anything about it.

    Through blurry eyes Damien caught sight of the latest arrival pull out something from his cloak. A lamp? The thing looked like a lamp but radiated a powerful amount of mental energy, more than a single Spirit lord could generate without draining themselves multiple times.

    Something slammed into his mind and his mental shield broke open like an egg. Damien sagged, feeling his vision darkening.

    Gray''s voice came in then, audible at first but soon began quickly fading. [Damien! Don''t let go! Hold on to me! Damien...]

    But Damien was already gone.

    And then something else took over.

 Chapter 87 : Awakening II

    Keilan stood, his senses primed, weapon in hand, as he waited for his assailants to act. He could sense their presence in the vicinity, multiple of them, and he could have acted first to put himself on the offensive, but there was something in this hall that was messing with his senses. He couldn''t afford any mistakes.

    The hit from Solaris hadn''t done any damage to him, and he''d have been glad for that if it wasn''t clear now that that hadn''t been his intention.

    Presently, he was clueless as to where exactly he was. Oh, he knew he was in a large hall, hundreds of feet in both height and length, but aside from that his senses couldn''t get anything else. Whispering to the wind afforded him nothing more than what he could already see and sense.

    The hall, as he''d previously said, was a large room lined with equally giant pillars that went on into the distance. There were statues positioned on the wall close by that he could see, and looking at the opposite wall brought him the same view, but aside from that he couldn''t see anything else. The rest of the room was entirely shrouded in a creeping black mist, a veil that almost entirely blocked of his sight except for a hundred feet or so in radius that his sight managed to pierce.

    An Essence veil.

    The mere presence of the technique was the only identifier of the people he was certain were hiding in the mist: Shadow Hall.

    They were the only ones known for their proficiency in this technique, a technique that was extremely hard to disperse If the rumors were true. Not that he couldn''t do it, though. He''d already tested the mist and seen that with a push, he could disperse it. Why he hadn''t done so yet was just that the energy payment would leave him with a sizeable chunk less than when he''d begun. And with the number of assassins in the mist unclear? No, that was a card that was best kept in his front pocket for now. He had the feeling that they already knew, and were simply waiting for him to attempt it, probably the reason they hadn''t already attacked yet.

    The parting of the wind was the only warning he got before thin strips of silk material snaked out of the mists, coming from multiple corners. Silently swearing, he moved, dashing toward the ones approaching from his front. If he could trace where the materials were coming from, he could follow them back to their wielders. Having chosen to follow the ones coming at him from the front, he didn''t see any reason to leave the rest hanging, so he cut. Although the essence of wind was somewhat muffled here, like it was covered in a heavy blanket, its dulled presence was still enough for his present needs.

    Tiny blades of wind materialized, slashing and cutting until the now split materials were reduced to nothing but patches, slowly drifting to the ground.

    Instead of feeling satisfaction at eliminating the excess threats, Keilan stopped, his senses screaming at him. He positioned himself well enough just before more strips appeared, far more than the previous.

    Although his eyes told him the materials were harmless, something else whispered the contrary. These things were deadly and he didn''t know why. What he knew, though, was not to let any of them touch him, so he continued slashing and cutting, summoning a small blade storm to surround him while he also made use of his spear. But the strips kept coming and coming. Keilan knew that he was hard to weigh down since his element was the wind. He was known for being relentless and was proud of the distinction, but he also knew that if these things kept coming unendingly, his luck would run out sooner rather than later.

    His speculation proved true a few minutes later when one of the clothes grazed the back of his palm. He hissed, jerking his hand back and dipping into a chunk of his energy to summon a larger blade storm; and in a blink, he tore through everything in an instant.

    Immediately he did that, the attack stopped, and Keilan looked down to take in his injury, except when he checked, he could only see an unblemished skin, nothing more.

    A frown crossed his face as he ran through his memory, sure that one of those things had touched him. He''d felt the stab of pain, and was still feeling the dulled echo of it, so he was pretty certain it hadn''t been a trick of the eyes. Checking the rest of his body yielded the same results: no injury. Tiredness? Sure, but he hadn''t suffered any physical injury.

    Wait, tiredness? Why should I already be feeling tired? This attack, although intense, hasn''t gone on for more than half an hour.

    The realization hit him like a brick, forcing his head down to look at the strips of clothes scattered around. These things were too fragile to do any kind of physical injury to him, but that wasn''t what they were built for, now were they?

    Looking deeper within himself found him the result he was searching for. His mind was being drained. These clothes, although unable to inflict physical damage, could certainly inflict mental ones. A single one could probably inflict only a minuscule amount of damage, nothing enough to bring him down. But as he looked down at the hundreds of strips littered in a circle around him, he couldn''t help the shiver that ran through his spine. These things would leave him as a mindless shell if they continued on like this.

    The fear that had been contained in the back of his mind slowly began bubbling up, filling him with terrible images of his future should more of these things get to him.

    Keilan looked up, straining his senses to the limit and gathering the blade storm closer to his body. His eyes began a frantic search through his surroundings, desperate to catch any of those things before they could get to him.

    A sigh swept through the room, coming from a destination he found hard to place. "Ahhh... So much for an easy takedown." Keilan turned sharply as someone appeared behind him.

    A young-looking woman with dripping-length raven black hair and dim glowing purple eyes. She was putting on a purple-black robe with the raven-in-flight insignia of The Shadow Hall. Aside from the fact that she wasn''t shrouding her face with her cloak, an oddity, the only other thing that caught his attention was the purple amethyst hanging on her brows. A closer look told him that those crystals weren''t held up by anything. They were melded into her skull.

    Keilan wanted to sag in resignation, but he held himself still. How could his luck be so rotten as to let him run into a Mind Essence Wielder? He definitely hadn''t prepared for this. Their types were always a pain to deal with. Their weak physical attributes should have made it easier to deal with them, but nooo, that was a trick Keilan wasn''t going to fall for again.

    His previous encounter had seen him swinging his spear furiously at an empty space while the Wielder stood just behind him, laughing. If Damien hadn''t been quick to his rescue, putting them on the advantage since the wielder couldn''t manipulate two minds at once, Keilan didn''t know what would have happened to him, but it certainly wouldn''t have been good.

    Their kind was the type to come up with a devious technique capable of bringing down far more physically powerful people than them. Though a person with a stronger will could last long, it was almost certain they''d eventually fall.

    Anyone wise knew enough not to go toe to toe with a mind wielder in a battle of endurance.

    Another figure stepped out from his left. A female. She looked exactly like the first person. A twin? "He''s a cute one," she said, eyeing him with such longing expression that it made Keilan more worried than happy. "Veeeery cute."

    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.

    A huge lump of saliva went down his throat. One mind wielder, he could handle. But two? His survivability rating had just gone down drastically. Against these two, he''d be lucky if he came out with his mind entirely intact.

    "I agree, sister. I would have loved to twist legs with him a little if it weren''t for the mission." A third figure then cat-walked into the open. And Keilan knew he was dead.

    The three entirely looked the same, with nothing different in their dressing and expression. Their mannerism, though, was different.

    One rolled her eyes at the comment of the third, an uncaring expression on her face as she took him in. The other eyed him like she would have preferred his clothes to be anywhere else but on him. And although the second was more subtle, the third outright looked at him lecherously, her intent plain for all to see.

    Now at least one thing was certain: Keilan now knew he definitely wasn''t going to last ten minutes.

    "How much did he pay you?" Keilan asked. He knew he didn''t have enough bad blood with anyone to warrant this much. Three hands? This was a fortune that would leave entire kingdoms bankrupt simply just to hire. Thankfully, he had accumulated enough wealth over the years to compete with all but the most powerful of Kingdoms. His entire wealth In exotic monster parts should be enough.

    "Oh, he wants to buy his life," the first figure said, now sashaying to his right. "He''s scared," the second followed up, taking a similar step to his right. "Are you scared, pretty thing?" The third smirked, also moving. Keilan was too scared to be angry about being called a thing.

    The three moved, sashaying in a manner that could only provocative toward those whose lives weren''t about to end, until they met in his right, standing together three abreast.

    "What do you want? I''m sure I can afford to pay far more than Solaris paid you." He couldn''t.

    All three looked at him for a moment before one spoke. "A contract has been placed on the one known as Damien." Another one picked up from there. "You are the closest person to him, the metaphorical chink in his armor." She ended, leaving the third to follow up. "You are going to pave the way into his heart for our dagger to pierce." They spoke in a coordinating manner that left him all the more scared, like they could see into each other''s minds.

    In his mind, Keilan couldn''t help but grumble. Why couldn''t they just simply assassinate him for him? Why did he have to be used as a pawn for his brother''s downfall? Outwardly, he said. "Why me? Solaris is surely capable of beating him, I''m sure he doesn''t need me for that."

    It sounded less worrying when they said he was only required to bring down Damien, like he wouldn''t be killed but simply subdued, but Keilan knew the true undertone to their deceptive assurance. Sure, he would be required, but they didn''t necessarily need the real him now, did they? A mindless husk, controlled from afar, could essentially act as him, thereby deceiving his brother. Though, that was if his brother was too dumb to recognize the true him.

    "Although you are not required for the death of the target, our employer, Emperor Solaris, wants the target to suffer dearly. What better way than to use his brother, the only person that he loves, to kill him."

    Another of the triplets sighed. "It would have been so romantic had you not been brothers." She looked at him hopefully. "Any chance you could make it romantic?"

    "No." Keilan flatly replied.

    Eerily, the three cocked their heads to the right, speaking at the same time. "Confident now, are you? Let''s see how long you last."

    With that, the talk was over. Keilan met them in a storm of flashing clothes and spear-swinging. He froze the atmosphere, halting the movement of the clothes and their Wielders; he then moved, intent on taking advantage of this brief lapse. However, that was squashed when he was slammed with a mental attack that left him staggering, which forced him to release his grip over the wind. Going back to square one, this time Keilan stuck to the simple wind techniques, small gusts of winds accompanied by tiny blades.

    They continued like this for some time as Keilan slowly made his way toward them, keeping a cautious attention on the clothes flashing at him. His passage was almost halted when most of the strips suddenly turned into a wall between him and the triplets, he had to increase the proximity of his wind blades to shred through the cloth wall. During this time, he felt his mind weakening as he was continuously grazed by those mental weapons.

    He swung his spear, wind blades echoing the attack, and tore through a hundred strips at once, though his steady features were soon turning frustrated as he made no progress while the triplets continued to slowly whittle him down.

    It didn''t take long for his mind to finally lag, growing so weak it was a struggle to even hold up his techniques. Desperation overcame him as his limbs began shaking, unable to even hold him up. And a few minutes after that, he was entirely brought down.

    Keilan knelt, too exhausted to stand. He watched as the three slowly strutted towards him, surprise on their faces.

    "He lasted longer than the last. Impressive." He couldn''t see the one who spoke as his vision had already begun to blur.

    "Fifteen minutes... A new record."

    "That is five more minutes longer than our last contract, even with all the preparations made."

    "We should keep him. Fifteen minutes is a treasure that could help us further our technique." They quieted at that, seemingly thinking it out.

    "We could," one began. "But that would be going against our agreement. I don''t know about you two, but I do not want to go against the Solarian Emperor."

    A sigh. "Ahh, such a pity. I would love to have him, at least if not for practice, to sate my burning desires. But alas, not all wishes can be granted."

    "Let''s get this over with before I change my mind. Look him, even in this bloody mess, he''s still cute."

    "What a pity. Such exquisite specimen."

    Immediately, Keilan felt an attack slam into the core part of his mind. The part holding his identity, his memories, everything that made him him. If this continued, Keilan would be nothing but a husk of himself in a matter of seconds. He could feel the mental ward he put up slowly been torn apart, which put him in a world of unimaginable pain.

    Somebody was screaming, a loud piercing cry that managed to tear through the sea of agony in his mind. He didn''t know who it was, and neither did he care, all he wanted was for the pain to go away, for his mind to be free. And in that moment, that desperate moment when he sought for something, something to rescue him from the pain, his mind fell...

    ... And slipped into something.

    Something vast and incomprehensible.

    Melded into it.

    In a blink of an eye, Keilan''s mind exploded, the tiny mental shield protecting it shattering as his mind sought to expand. And expand it did.

    In an instant Keilan lost himself, lost himself into it, and it into him.

    His mind engulfed the entire world in an instant. Brief glimpses of continents, oceans, nations, battles, people. They came and went in a blur.

    He caught glimpses of a man, grey in both hair and eyes, his expression impassive as he hovered over somewhere.

    He also caught glimpses of a city, a large battle was being fought inside and outside as vast hosts of legions fought against each other, their powers shaking the world in its fury, while tiny crimson lines ran through the battlefield, through the atmosphere, invisible yet clear to the vastness of his mind.

    And despite all that, the battle, the war, seemed tiny and insignificant in comparison to his vastness.

    And as quick as the feeling came, everything returned back to normal, his senses snapping back into his body.

    To the people who wanted to shackle him.

    He felt indignation at that. Fury. They dared to try shackling him. They dared to attempt caging him. Him. Him, whose existence was primal.

    He would not be shackled. Never.

    And in that briefest moment, a word came unbidden, taken from somewhere distant yet close by, unfamiliar yet familiar.

    --------------- Wind Arts : Rage ---------------

    And then the world was torn asunder.

    <hr>

    Keilan would have been elated at the instant terror that overcame his assailants, but he too was also terrified.

    A deep, rumbling howl echoed through the entire room, like the cry of a monstrous monster.

    And then everything went to shit.

    The mist that had proven difficult to dispell were washed away as a raging calamitic wind swept through the entire room. The three assassins were the first to be picked off as they had been standing close to the center of it all : Keilan.

    Like a breaking glass, something seemed to shatter, and the hall exploded, bursting like an overripe melon as the wind became too much for it to handle. The ceiling was picked up and flung away like a weightless material, and the walls were torn into like knife through butter.

    Reality seemed to tremble as the raging wind swept outwards, instantly encompassing what Keilan now realized was the ruins of a vast city. Buildings were reduced to dust, stone and metal alike.

    To Keilan, the whole destruction seemed to have gone on for a long time, but he knew that truly, only a minute had gone by.

    And when the uproar settled, the first thing that caught his eyes were the bodies of the triplets, chopped into tiny chunks as they flopped onto the ground, impacting it with an audible thump.

    Keilan smiled through blood drenched lips, his eyes and ears equally bleeding profusely.

    With a crimson clouded vision and a triumphant smile, he thumped onto the ground.

 Chapter 88 : Child of The Wind

    For beings as old as Spirit Kings, there were few things that could draw their attention, and fewer that could truly keep them. What Keilan did was the latter.

    In a massive ice fortress in the center of the Cult of The Everlasting Winter, as they were formally called, a massive presence awoke. It unfurled like a blooming flower, engulfing the entirety of the Cult''s territories in an instant, a territory that spanned far over a hundred million kilometers. From within the fortress, in a room that was no more than a cubicle, burning orbs of frozen blue blinked open, its intensity powerful enough to pierce through the fortress, through the entirety of the moon that was its territory, and landed on a planet in a group of three.

    "Hmm..."

    <hr>

    On another moon, in the territory of the Cult of The Unquenching Inferno, the same thing occurred. A massive will engulfed the territories in an instant, its presence banishing the concept of cold in the area. And with a confused frown barely seen, they looked down on a planet in a group of three.

    <hr>

    In a location outside of reality, outside, but not quite in the realm of the unreal; somewhere in between. A threshold. A being turned its attention down on the planet between another two. This was the second time in a few days that their attention had been drawn down to the planet, a noteworthy occurrence.

    They gazed down on the planet with obvious intrigue, instantly finding the reason for attention.

    A frown marred their expression as they pieced out what had happened. "A Spirit lord manifesting an Ascended Art. Interesting..." And then they went back to what they were doing, their curiosity contained.

    They would get their answer soon enough.

    <hr>

    Reality tore and Daimen stepped out, accompanied by the bodies of those... Lessers who''d thought that isolating him in the unreal was enough to hold him. Hopefully, where they were now should serve as a lesson, a permanent one.

    His face twitched as he felt something hammering at the back of his mind. Annoyed, he opened a small crack and allowed the presence out.

    [Damien, stop!] Gray shouted. [You''ll draw unwanted attention down on us!]

    Daimen stared at Gray. "I am Daimen."

    That brought it to a stop. Like a switch, it turned suddenly wary. [Dai, Daimen?]

    Daimen''s even stare was answer enough.

    [Please stop. You, of all people, should know the sort of attention we could draw if you continue like this.]

    "I know."

    [Then, why don''t you stop? This is the opposite of what we should be doing. Let us th¨C]

    Daimen cut him off, his patience already at its lowest. "Gray, what were you created for?"

    Gray, surprised by the change of topic, managed to stammer out. [To, to assist you.]

    Daimen stared at him, at it. The audacity. "Do you think your higher realm makes us equal?"

    Gray shook its head, stammering. [No. No, my lord.]

    "Good. You were made to serve me, and you will Serve." And then he mentally flung the construct back into his mind, locking it in the cage where it belonged.

    Daimen scanned his surroundings, his eyes taking in the dismantled bodies around him and then looking over at his own bloodied form. The blood and viscera weren''t his. The mist that had saturated the forest was now gone, but even so, he wasn''t concerned. Nothing on this planet was of any threat to him.

    Finding nothing interesting, he willed himself away.

    He appeared in the sky over the city of Cirin, finding the city a disheveled mess. To say this was still a city was an exaggeration. The once mighty capital was now a crumbled mess of death and destruction. A massive horizontal trench had been carved from one side to the other, crisscrossing the vertical river and dividing the city into four.

    A raging inferno had already consumed a large swath of the city, spreading even as he watched, through dry earth and water alike. Another section had been completely reduced to dust, everything. It was now just a bare patch of land filled with mountains of sand. He also took notice of a third of the city which was now underwater, consumed by both the river and sea. His vision suddenly twitched and he had to firm his will to bring himself back. Perplexing, he felt like he should have felt something for the state of the city, some sort of sympathy or rage, but he felt nothing.

    Here and there, he caught wreckages of what should have been Command ships, troop ships, and strike ships, their parts shattered and flung in different parts of the city. One command ship looked somewhat whole, probably because it had only crashed into the city wall, suffering minor damages compared to the rest. Though it looked like it wouldn''t be able to fly any time soon.

    Bodies lay dead everywhere he looked. Thousands. Millions. Both civilians and military personnel alike. They were scattered in messes of burnt down corpses and missing parts. The location near the river had clearly seen the worst casualties, as it was overwhelmingly choked full of bodies.

    Again, Daimen felt like he should have felt something for them, at least some form of pity, but still, he felt nothing.

    Why should i?

    Though now that he really thought about it, he realized that he indeed felt something. He cocked his head to the side, quickly piecing out the emotions running within. Pity. Rage. Anguish.

    Strange. He flung those disturbances away.

    Finally, having taken sight of the city scale mess, he looked down onto a location he had been actively ignoring until this moment, catching the eyes of multiple Spirit lords.

    He looked over at the gathered Spirit lords. Menoe, the Winter High priestess. Desane, the Nature High priestess. He narrowed his eyes in confusion at her, getting the same in return. There was something strange about her... Daimen couldn''t piece it out, but he sort of felt a connection between them. He shook his head; now was not the time. Brunos and Fenore were also in attendance, looking at him with what he identified as sadness and hope?

    Daimen would have questioned the reason for their sadness if the shattered city wasn''t in full view. However, now that he looked closely, he discovered that their sadness wasn''t directed at the city, but at the bodies laid between them.

    He took in the corpses of Danor, SwordLord and ArchChancellor to the Academy of Steel. The man might have been somewhat of a coward, always preferring a less violent path, especially towards those he knew could put up a serious fight, but he was also brave in his own cowardly way. He would have lived longer if he hadn''t been as unfortunate as to clash weapons with Solaris... Same with the Fyre Head. Daimen looked at the body of the man. An enigma. He usually took a backseat role, leaving the everyday running of the house to his fami¨C

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    Daimen shut down the diverging thoughts, coming back to the present. These people were inconsequential. He didn''t have any thoughts to spare for them. They must have seen it in his eyes because those who were about to approach him stopped, a confused look in their eyes. He paid them no more attention.

    Certain that the person he was searching for wasn''t here¡ªwhich he should have expected ¡ª he prepared to will himself away, when he stopped, a deep feeling of dread coming from within. His head snapped westwards, mirrored by the others, but judging by the lost look in their eyes, they couldn''t comprehend what it was. This wasn''t something any Spirit lord should be aware of.

    ''An Ascended Art.''

    Worry overcame the positive emotions that should have been felt at finally location the person he was searching for. This should not have been possible. An Ascended technique was something no Spirit lord should have been capable of manifesting, but judging by how significant Keilan''s affinity alignment had grown, Daimen had no choice but to acknowledge the possibility.

    With a simple intent, space tore open and he appeared over another city. Daimen would have admired the power Keilan had been able to eke out of the technique If it wasn''t still uncertain whether he lived. The level of destruction certainly wasn''t up to the level a true Ascended technique could reach, far from it, but it was still overwhelming enough to see any Spirit lord dead.

    Daimen turned his eyes down on an island of stone surrounded by a sea of sand, finding an unmoving body lying on it. The world flickered and he was suddenly hovering over the body.

    He breathed out a sigh of relief when he confirmed Keilan was still alive. However, ''Alive'' was the only positive thing that could be said for the situation Keilan was in.

    Daimen scanned him, finding his will easily bypassing the natural rejection every soul had to outside intrusions. Keilan was barely holding on as it was. Though his soul might have been whole and uninjured, the same couldn''t be said for his Spirit.

    Daimen dragged Gray from his cage. "What happened here?"

    This time, the servant was quick to answer. [He was assaulted by members of the assassin organization called Shadow Hall. They attempted to entirely subvert his will, using him as a puppet to bring you down.] It stopped.

    "And?" Daimen didn''t take his eyes off Keilan.

    Gray sighed. [By trying to take away his freedom, they pushed him towards something he was certainly close to, but shouldn''t have been able to touch this early.]

    "Manifesting an Ascended Art."

    [Yes. Keilan wields the essence of the wind, and there''s one thing that''s recognized about the wind: it cherishes its freedom.]

    Daimen finally understood. "He was already closer to manifesting an Ascended Art before, give or take a century or two, and he''d have manifested one; what they did was shorten that timeline by trying to shackle him, thereby pushing him into something his mind wasn''t able to fully withstand."

    [Yes. I''m still shocked how he''s still alive.]

    Keilan''s Spirit layer was so cracked and pitted that the only thing holding his Spirit together was the equivalent of strings and patches.

    "How is he still alive?"

    Gray''s eyes widened, an expression of sadness and approval on his face.

    "Answer me."

    [He should be dead.] Gray turned to face him. [The only way death could have been circumvented was through the soul enhancer he took in.]

    Daimen nodded, understanding. A soul enhancer, while primarily made to hasten soul growth, could also have a cascade effect on the other layers of self. After all, the Soul was the true existence of a being.

    Keilan, judging by how his soul still looked healthy, must have gotten significant growth, which could have then bled a small part of its stability into the Spirit. This was the only reason Daimen could think of.

    "How can he be fixed?"

    [His spirit has taken so much damage it''s a miracle he''s still alive, the only remedy I can think of that is within reach is an immersion into a life water, but that would mean approaching a Nature Spirit King.]

    "Did you hear that?" Daimen raised his head towards the people he''d been ignoring up to this moment.

    "He''ll have the best care we can offer," High priestess Desane stepped forward, echoed by the Winter high priestess. They both looked at Gray strangely. Afterall, until this moment, none of them had ever seen something like it.

    Daimen would have preferred to see to the healing himself. He felt like he could... The ability somewhat within his grasp, but somehow, the how continued to elude him, always a little bit beyond his reach anytime he grasped for it. He trusted no one with Keilan in this fragile state. However, unless he wanted to see Keilan dead¡ªwhich was an extreme possibility given his present state¡ªthere was nothing more he could do other than to trust the integrity of the High priestess.

    Daimen nodded in agreement, prompting the Nature High priestess to come closer, though he had to stop her just before she could lay hands on Keilan. "I hope I don''t have to remind you what would happen if he dies?" The look in his eyes said it all.

    He felt her subtly shiver, briefly frightened by something unknown, but in an instant, she comported herself, straightening full back.

    "Lest I remind you, Mr. Elason, I am a High priestess. I do not deal kindly to threats, and unless you want to treat him yourself, you will step aside and let me do my job." She stared at him evenly.

    They both stared into each other''s eyes for a moment before Daimen stepped back, satisfied. The woman didn''t pay him any mind, bending down to touch Keilan. Immediately, root-like tendrils extended from beneath her dress, snaking out to wrap around Keilan, and when they were finally done, completely wrapping him all over, large leaves began growing out of them, sprouting spontaneously and in great numbers until they''d completely covered Keilan, encasing him in a cocoon made of leaves.

    Done, the High priestess stood back up, a contented smile on her face. "As you can see, he''s already being infused with life energy." She gestured at the cocoon which was now brimming in his senses with life essence. "Though the real healing will begin when he eventually goes into a life water."

    He nodded in satisfaction. "I never knew you had a life water."

    Desane snorted, tucking an unruly strand of hair behind her ear. "We''re the Nature Cult, of course we have a life water. We might follow the nature aspect of life, but we still have our descent from life itself."

    Daimen simply stared at her, which elicited a cough of embarrassment from her, a contrast to the proud personality she''d taken not a few minutes past.

    "Uhh, we, um, got it from the Spirit Kings."

    Daimen nodded, turning his head towards another location. "And what do you want?"

    The two high priestesses looked at him in confusion, only until the air dispersed, like an opening curtain, to reveal the form of a woman.

    Her hair was white, not like Menoe''s, more like the color of morning fog, incorporeal yet visible all the same. She was wearing a black robe embellished with green colored stripes. And her caramel features looked at Daimen with disguised shock.

    "Osilera," Menoe turned towards the woman with both surprise and suspicion. "What are you doing here?"

    Like the other high priestesses, this woman also took on the same nigh ageless features. One could tell that she was old from the look of her milky white pupil, but her physical features told another story.

    Taking in her passive aura and the way she''d disguised herself, coupled with how the others immediately reacted to her presence, Daimen quickly summarized her identity : The Wind High priestess, or more formally, Cult of the Unceasing Wind.

    The woman, Osilera, quickly straightened her dress even though it was unruffled. Her head rose up in a haughty pose, probably as a defense mechanism after being caught spying.

    "Isn''t it obvious? I''m here for the Wind Child."

    "No."

    Briefly startled at the clear refusal, she tried again. "He''s a Child Of The Wind, he deserves to be with his own kind."

    Daimen stared into her milky white eyes, something that would have unnerved anyone else. "No."

    Menoe stepped forward just as the Wind High priestess took a threatening step towards him. "Stop! Please! Damien, nobody''s taking your brother." She turned toward the other woman. "Osil, you can''t just demand the boy like you own him. He''s a person and has a family, a family who has more right over him than you."

    Osilera scowled. "Family only in name; so that authority is mute. Don''t you see? This is a Child of the Wind, a true Child of the Wind." She took on a pleading tone. "You might not have felt it, but we did, i and everyone else who wields the essence of the wind. We felt his presence engulf the world, this whole world, Menoe! Throughout my entire existence I have never encountered such. This could be a new discovery about the Celestial Seal of Air that we haven''t uncovered yet, or more likely, haven''t been allowed information on. Think of the benefits he could bring."

    Daimen chuckled, the sound coming out dark and dangerous.

    "So, you simply want Keilan for your own benefits?" His tone turned dismissive. "Leave."

    The woman''s features turned murderous at the clear disregard in Daimen''s expression. "You¨C"

    Daimen''s eyes turned back just as she was about to act, a great power rising from her. All was dispersed in an instant as something seemed to impose on the essence of wind; a great weight. And it didn''t just affect the essence of wind, but every other essence. All of them were subdued.

    For the woman herself, she staggered backwards as if slapped, shock and confusion on her face.

    "I will not repeat myself a third time." Daimen said. "Leave."

    Understanding that she''d been beat, the woman had no choice but to obey, stepping through the wind and disappearing, but not before she rewarded him with a look promising revenge. Daimen dismissed it.

    He turned back towards the other two High priestesses remaining, finding the same expression mirrored on their faces. Shock. Confusion, and an undertone of fear. They were finally realizing he wasn''t the same person they knew. Good.

    "See to the welfare of Keilan." Daimen said to the Nature Priestess, and then he slowly lifted off the ground, his departure clear to them.

    Menoe hesitantly stepped forward, fear and caution on her usually calm features. "Damien, where are you going?"

    Daimen turned back halfway. "Where else? Karma has been sown, I am going to collect."

 Chapter 89 : Undaunted

    All over the city of Xeris, capital of the Solarian Empire, parties were being thrown everywhere as its population celebrated the victory of the empire. Houses, Taverns and Fields. Celebrations were going on everywhere as the people drank to the downfall of the Alliance. Camlen had fallen, its capital destroyed. Gandor was on the defensive, on the edge of surrendering, though that was unlikely given the unwavering resolve of their king. Danor, the renowned SwordLord, and ArchChancellor of the Blade Academy, was dead, killed by the Emperor himself. The head of the great family, Fyre, was dead, also killed by their Emperor. And if their happiness couldn''t get any higher, the grey-eyed calamity was nowhere to be found. He was already assumed dead, or otherwise incapacitated. His brother, the Stormshredder, was likewise pronounced dead. They had already heard the tales, and the one thought they all shared was that: who could survive the Shadow Hall assassins?

    Since the war hadn''t officially ended yet, the empire overall was still in full on battle mode, predicting a desperate attempt at revenge from their already defeated enemies. The troop ships were already grounded, unable to do more than provide transportation for armies, so the empire made use of their other ships. StrikeShips were very much active, mostly outside all the Solarian Cities. They flew, eyes wary and watching for any threats. They roamed over the forests, employing some of their best scrying equipment to unveil any hiding entity.

    Over the cities, themselves, hovered Command ships. Massive ships in unusual designs, mostly in the shapes of castles. They slowly roamed over the cities, confident In their nigh absolute defenses. After all, how many people could single-handedly bring down a Command ship?

    Deep inside their halls were the commanders and admirals who coordinated the defense of the city in their constituency. Most, if not all, were newly ascended Spirit lords who''d been promoted politically alongside their realm.

    Over the city of Xeris hovered five Command ships, which commanded a combined number of five hundred Strike ships that roamed outside the city in a hive manner. They provided a captivating view as they danced through the air, their flyers showcasing their skills for all to see, which made the whole celebration all the more interesting.

    The sky was bright, with an unclouded sun shining down on the city. This was seen as a good omen, signifying the Sun Emperor, himself, showering his approval down on his people. What could possibly go wrong?

    Well, that was soon answered as over the sky, people began noticing something different. At first, it was the Spirit lords, with their high perception who took notice, their eyes squinting at the dotted light that was soon becoming larger and larger. When it finally became large enough for their perception to take in fully, they discovered two things: first, the thing wasn''t a dot, but a meteor, a meteor trailing a miles-long burning energy. Second, the thing hadn''t been getting larger, it had been getting closer.

    Immediately, a loud siren rang out from one of the command ships, signaling a probable danger, an alarm which was soon echoed a few seconds later by the other command ships and the city command center a second after that.

    One command ship, a construct in the shape of a mountain. It had been modified with the capacity to hold up to two armies in its bowels, and on its body were the protruding forms of offensive and defensive constructs. They were all pointed at the approaching anomaly as the command ship moved to intercept. Now, a construct as massive as that with its multitude of defenses was certainly powerful enough to hold back any Spirit lord for at least an hour, so it was assumed that it should be able to swat out anything that hadn''t originated from a Spirit King.

    Everyone watched with a little bit of relief, waiting for the anomaly to either slow down or be swatted away like a fly. Seeing as it would be hard to accomplish the latter, they predicted the former.

    Expecting the anomaly to either slow down or impact the command ship with a force that was likely to see it repelled; it instead sped up, increasing its speed.

    The command ship hummed with power as all its defensive constructs were activated. A giant orb of energy appeared to surround it just as its offensive construct readjusted its aim, pointing towards the fast-approaching anomaly.

    Seeing that it wasn''t going to stop, they began firing. A thick beam of fire flashed out of a pole, burning through the air with such intensity that its fiery haze could be felt by even the Lowest essence wielder on the ground. An ice beam filled with the intent of stillness joined its fiery counterpart, leaving tendrils of ice in the air as the essence sought to freeze the atmosphere itself.

    From the top of the mountain, two energy beams of esoteric essence fired. Space and Time. One sought to continuously increase the distance between the approaching anomaly and its destination, while the other was more subtle, influencing the concept of time to make sure the target never got to where they were going. Together, these two essences were enough to slow or even stop any Spirit lord on the planet, regardless of tier.

    As they fired, more beams joined in, with more concepts added into the mix, all in a bid to halt a single entity. The world brightened up as those essences influenced the world in a colorful display.

    Still, the anomaly was undaunted. It impacted the beams in a such colorful display that for a brief moment, the sky over the city was graced with the view of a second sun, a sun of rainbow colors, and out the other side came the anomaly, unshaken and still in full speed. However, it had lost a little bit of its luster, but that didn''t matter; all the defenders could see that their attempt had failed, so the defense now fell to the command ship itself.

    Like a mighty guardian standing before a great evil, the command ship rose intimidatingly to meet the anomaly. Its external shield extended outwards for miles around as it sought to block the anomaly should it change course, while the internal one contracted, becoming a thin layer around it.

    What happened next would forever be a mystery to all who witnessed.

    Undaunted, the anomaly simply passed through the shieldings, like they didn''t exist. It didn''t lose momentum at all, but like before, it lost a little bit of luster, becoming a little bit more transparent instead of the thick bar of energy it had been. Though no one could still see into its gray-silvery layer.

    The command ship wasn''t spared Its own share of defilement, drifting to the side and pouring out smoke as the anomaly passed through it from top to bottom, exiting in an explosion of rocks that soon got pulverized as they impacted the city-wide shield.

    All eyes watched, scared and with bated breath as the anomaly approached the city dome. Those other command ships that had left the first line of defense to their comrade positioned themselves behind the dome, prepared to devote their best to protecting their capital. Already, the Strikeships under their command had already been recalled from wherever they were, assembling into a great host that chased behind the anomaly. They knew they weren''t going to get there in time.

    From the command ships themselves rose powerful auras as the spirit lords decided to come out instead of holding up inside their ships.

    This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

    One. Two. Four. Seven. Nine. Their numbers kept increasing as they announced their presence, finally settling at twelve. The majority of those twelve were the recently ascended, coupled with a few old timers who stood at the front. Together, they all projected a terrifying sight. Twelve Spirit lords, all coming together in a single endeavor. Cheers rang out from the city as the people roared their happiness. Their pillars would save

    The anomaly impacted the dome, and another sun was born.

    The light from the dome explosion alone was enough to see thousands blind, their visions darkening as the intensity of the explosion proved too much to handle.

    And then the quakes hit.

    A portion of the city exploded out in a mountain of fire and rocks as the formation providing energy for the dome overloaded. There were very few survivors. The rest of the city suffered severe quakes, but not enough to see a comparison to the residential district.

    The explosion in the sky soon dispersed, fading away to reveal the form of someone they''d all thought dead.

    His grey hair slicked down his back, undisturbed by the roiling atmosphere. His grey coat with silvery linings projected more power than the Spirit lords who stood against him. And his eyes... His grey eyes which had been expected to be full of rage; Instead, was simply impassive, calm, with not a single ounce of emotion within them.

    But what truly made everyone run for the hills was the object in his hands. Many couldn''t piece together what it was, but the power contained within that thing... That tiny orb, so small it wouldn''t have been perceived as a threat if not for the danger it radiated, a danger that was felt by everyone.

    And then the grey-eyed calamity flicked it down on the city.

    And all was death.

    <hr>

    Since the start of the war, different levels of destruction had been wrought, from Sea Dragons drowning an entire city in so much water and blood that to this day, the city was still underwater. The City of Yarlen had suffered one of the worst casualties in the war; used as a scapegoat to pass a message to the enemies of Solaria. It had been leveled, suffering from both its formation overloading and the attack of a construct imbued by Solaris himself. The ruins had been turned into a feast gathering for all sorts of scavengers.

    Then there was Cirin.

    The capital of Camlen had been a city of massive proportions, holding up to seventy million residents, which had made it one of the largest cities on the planet; larger than Yarlen with its fifty million residents and far larger than Zirsts with its twenty million.

    All had seen destruction so great that their lands were incapable of being built upon ever again, due to the risk of death spirits haunting the area.

    Keilan''s Ascended Art and the power manifestation of the Winter priestess was a close comparison to the level of destruction that fell on Xeris.

    Xeris, with a population close to ninety million, watched in trepidation as the tiny glowing orb fell down onto the city with such leisure, that it was practically insulting to the reactions of the city defenders. The Spirit lords who had previously appeared to defend the city to their last breath scattered, their minds overcome with terror. And when the orb finally impacted the city center, the sky turned crimson, a deep angry red, like the heavens had been replaced with a sea of blood.

    What came next would forever be etched into the minds of the Spirit Kings who saw.

    In a natural atmosphere now forever replaced with crimson, a wave of silvery grey energy spread.

    In a few seconds, it had engulfed over a third of the city, like a tsunami, and everywhere it passed, all was turned to ash. Men. Women. Children. Young. Old. Sick. Healthy. None were spared. Even the rivers which crossed the capital were suddenly no more, evaporated into thin air, including their pathways.

    A minute later, over forty percent of the city was no more. One minute, there was chaos; everyone fleeing for their lives; the next? A huge swath of the city became deadly silent, so silent one could hear their own heartbeat. The ones who survived were too dumbfounded to even think of panicking.

    And with a rage incomprehensible, another being responded.

    <hr>

    Salin stood to the side, head bowed, as he waited for Hidden Pillar Neskt to finish delivering her report.

    "Gandor is in full retreat. They''ve pulled their forces from all around the continent, concentrating them in rings around their territories. Fenore has ordered the same."

    The Emperor nodded, his emotionless eyes taking in the entire room, moving over Salin like he didn''t even exist.

    "Good. Send in two legions, I want them kept occupied as I move for Winterra."

    Salin shivered as the emperor''s eyes once more moved over his direction. Although the Emperor didn''t acknowledge him, he wasn''t blind to the fact that his presence, and that of everyone in the castle, was already noted. One didn''t need to focus on a fly to know its whereabouts.

    The disaster that had occurred with the Stormshredder had seen Salin taken from his post and into another. Apparently, the level of destruction the Empire had suffered from that single debacle ¡ª two Spirit lords, as well as the death of close to a million men, if the reports were true ¡ª had seen them take a step back for the first time. Having been reminded of the sheer power a Spirit could bring to bear, it had led to the creation of the defiled. Finding his usefulness wasted on such menial work as an essence battery, Salin had been shifted into another, a more dangerous one. Salin, with his infiltration skills, had been conscripted, along with other lord stage wielders, to infiltrate the cities of the little kingdoms in the alliance, taking out their first responders just as the defiled approached. Although the mission had seen a devastating casualty rate as some of the infiltrators had been discovered, it had still been a huge success.

    "Father," King Tenral moved forward from where he''d been standing beside The Bulwark. "If no one will say this, I will; we need to be cautious. Taking out the Fyre Head is one thing, since he came with the intent to battle, but Father, you can''t just brazenly encroach on Teirye lands, you know that."

    The entire room stilled at the words of the heir. Salin couldn''t help but tentatively raise his head, confusion on his face. He wasn''t a member of the Empire''s elite, so he was lost on what was going on right now. Luckily for him, his head was still raised when the Emperor slowly turned towards his son, and although he didn''t see how it happened, he nonetheless felt the instant heat that enveloped the room, and the subsequent shockwave that occurred as the heir was lifted off his feet and flung into a wall so fast he broke through it and out the other side. The Emperor hadn''t even lifted a finger.

    Calmly, the man turned back toward Hidden Pillar Neskt. "Continue."

    The woman hurriedly bobbed her head, no doubt feeling the same heaviness as everyone else in the room.

    "Queen Slera has requested for reinforcement on Aesland, citing the words ''We are barely holding on as it is, and that''s with them dealing with the swarms of defiled while also contending with my forces and Muktit''s. In all truthfulness, Should they turn their full attention down on us, I am very certain that we will lose.''"

    The Emperor turned towards the Bulwark. "What do you think?"

    "I think what she says is true. Aelar isn''t one to be carelessly trifled with, and that''s without the Heron Queen and the Mad king backing him up. I''m afraid that without you, we would have had a hard time contending with them." The man said with certainty. "Slera and Muktit do not have you."

    A nod. "Prepare a legion for me; I will be heading to Winterra soon; hopefully, it shouldn''t take long to bring the little kingdoms on that continent to heel. In the meantime, you and Tenral will provide backup on Aesland."

    The Bulwark nodded. "As you will, Emperor."

    "Also," the man turned to Neskt. "Any report on the anomaly?"

    Salin looked on in confusion. What was that?

    "No, my lord. I''ve sent out gatherers, even some of the hidden pillars, but for some reason, they cannot approach the area."

    "Why is that?"

    "We don''t know, my lord. I plan to go there as soon as I''m done here, but what I''m getting is that there is a metaphysical barrier that my hidden pillars can not cross, those that have done so are dead."

    Finally, interest seemed to shine through the Emperor''s eyes. "Dead?"

    "Yes. If what I''m getting is correct, their souls were destroyed."

    "How?"

    "We don''t know." The Emperor''s knife bowed her head.

    "Fix that. I wa¨C" Suddenly, the Emperor''s head snapped upwards, a confused frown on his face. Salin''s confusion grew as he looked around, finding the same expression mirrored on the faces of all the other Spirit lords, as well as some of the Monarchs in attendance. Anxiety had just began bubbling up when a cry rang out all over the city. ''That was the alarm.''

    "Can anyone sense what that thing is?" The Emperor said.

    "No yet, it hasn''t gotten into range of my perception."

    The Emperor''s face was contemplative for a while, before he suddenly stood up, his eyes widening. "Get Ready for¡ª" he stopped. "GET DOWN!" A crimson wave spread out from the man just as the world was ignited.

    And Salin knew no more.

 Chapter 90 : Finale â€” And So it Ends I

    Daimen watched as Solaris came at him, all fury and unrestraint. The man''s flame imbued Warhammer roared in with the expectation to crush Daimen to a pulp. He would have said he was elated when he saw the shock on the man''s face as he caught the hammer dead on with his palm; but truthfully, he didn''t care.

    A punch straight to the shocked man''s face sent him spinning backward in a howl of wind, and Daimen had to deal with the more than a dozen Spirit lords who suddenly sprang up in his path.

    He looked up, even though his senses had already gotten everything around him. Surrounding him were the forms of the Solarian Pillars, with the majority of them being newly ascended. While the ones unfamiliar with him looked at him with varying expressions of confidence, thinking him outnumbered and out of his depths, the old timers were more cautious.

    Behind the Spirit lords were the looming shapes of the Command ships, all remaining four of them. They kept a comfortable distance from him. He let them delude themselves into thinking they were safe.

    Despite the levels of confidence he saw within everyone arrayed against him, they all pointed every weapon available to them at him. That was a start.

    The Solarian Emperor appeared once again, though this time he kept his distance. Daimen raised an eyebrow at the cautious look on the man''s face.

    "Who are you?"

    Daimen cocked his head. "What makes you think I am not who you see?"

    Another man drifted forward to float beside the Emperor. "Damien would never do this," he waved at the city below, with a large swath that had now been completely erased. "He would not murder innocent civilians just for a few misunderstandings he has with their leaders."

    Daimen turned his attention to the man. "You know nothing of who Damien is."

    "I know enough," the man said with great sadness, a sigh coming out. "I admit we might have had our differences, but I understood him enough to know that he would not do this. This... This thing that you are, this is not Damien."

    Daimen turned back to Solaris who was still quiet, looking on with confusion.

    "Do you have an opinion on this?"

    The man''s face cleared, his fury returning. "None of this matters. Damien or not, you will die."

    Arrayed against him were the forms of fifteen Spirit lords. Daimen had taken to reducing their numbers recently, but what remained was enough to give anyone a pause, even him.

    He identified three fire Wielders, two water wielders, two wind Wielders, two shadow, one light, one mist, one mind, one gravity, one life, and two Sunfire''s... Interesting.

    He vaguely identified one of the fire Wielders as an old timer, a man of gruff looking stature with a bronze armor attuned to the fire affinity. Daimen marked him. The other old timers was a light affinity sword lord of renown. Danor had hated his guts. He recognized the life wielder, a woman of indeterminable years, definitely the work of her affinity. She was clothed in a silky material similar to his ¡ªalthough in a far lesser grade¡ª and held a staff topped with an emerald gem brimming with nature energy. This one, Daimen actually paid careful attention to.

    One face did draw his eyes though. Daimen almost rolled his eyes as he effortlessly pierced into the invisible mist that was beginning to saturate the area. He scanned the woman¡ª although not without her knowing¡ªbypassing the attention ward enchantment that had been sewn into her robe. This time, he took satisfaction in the look on her face as all her shrouds were stripped naked. Daimen''s rating of her went down significantly as he saw the dumbstruck look she still wore. A proper assassin would have found a way to make themselves scarce. Too bad.

    The only other notable figures worth his attention were the Solarian Emperor and his son, Tenral. Samon was included.

    Looking at those standing against him, Daimen knew that he wasn''t going to win this fight as he was now. No, he needed an edge, something to equalize the playing field.

    And for the first time since he came forth, Daimen smiled. "We shall see."

    And then he dug deep within himself, into the deepest part of his soul, his existence, finding something that should have never been touched this early. And then he unleashed.

    The world trembled as a phenomenon never seen before appeared. Up above him, two massive tears seemed to run through the sky, jagged wrenching tears that screeched in his ears and soul simultaneously. And then they parted to reveal a realm of gold white and ethereal yellow. The power of those places was so incomprehensible that the mere sight of them gave him a debilitating headache so bad he''d have died had he not sensed the danger and quickly averted his eyes. The only reason he wasn''t taken advantage of as he recovered was because the others had also gone through the same experience, with some different results.

    From those realms descended twin pillars of energy so powerful that their mere presence suppressed all other ambient essences in the areas. Except one.

    Like a lost connection now reconnected, they slammed into Daimen''s back, their widths ¡ªwhich were individually a thousand times wider than him¡ªcontracted until they formed into a pinpoint at the tip, piercing him like twin spears.

    Daimen arched his back inward at the sheer power flowing into him. His aura soared massively as those pillars flowed into him, through his physical layer, past the Spiritual, and finally into the Soul layer, connecting into something he admittedly couldn''t make sense of yet.

    After what felt like minutes but actually seconds, the pressure from the pillars lessened as the sources themselves seemed to fade, melding into the ambient energy.

    Despite their evident departure, Daimen could still feel their presence. He flexed his palms at the upgraded power raging within him. Raising his head brought him the view of a myriad of frightened expressions.

    Instantly, they summoned their astral images, and Daimen was forced backward as he was buffeted with the roiling aura powers of fifteen image-powered lords.

    <hr>

    The sky rumbled as a golden streak descended on the sea of abominable creatures with a might that shook the earth for miles around. Aelar rose back up as just another streak crashed down in the distance, wiping out another wave of defiled.

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    He looked towards his son, giving a sign of acknowledgment before he turned back toward the lady hovering behind him.

    "What is it, Neriel?"

    She gave a brief nod, which Aelar overlooked. They were in the middle of a war.

    "As commanded, I found the cause of the anomaly," she said just as Yuseria swept past, her metallic wings spread wide and firing hundreds of dagger-shaped feathers down on the endless swarms of defiled. Her bow came up, a single arrow firing into the sky an instant later. The arrow blazed a smoothed curve over the sky, trailing a green glow as it passed through a dense blue cloud; and when it came out the other side, it was with a thousand more arrows. Their impact leveled the earth for about two miles.

    "And...?" he said to Neriel.

    "The brother of the calamity, Keilan, was attacked by three hand level assassins."

    Aelar''s eyebrow rose up. "For a single man, that''s... Excessive." He met her eyes, seeing that she wasn''t finished. "Continue."

    "They weren''t just any common hand, but the mad sisters." And now Aelar''s surprise went up another notch. Even he would be hard-pressed to deal with those three. "I couldn''t get close to them because of the grey eyed calamity. There was something about him that I couldn''t place, so I took the precaution to stay away."

    Aelar was intrigued, but he wanted to stay on topic. His curiosity was going to have to be sated later. " Get back on topic, What happened to the Stormshredder?"

    Aelar''s eyes narrowed as he saw Neriel take on an apprehensive look. "I don''t understand exactly what happened, but I assume the sisters must have pushed him beyond the breaking point to cause the sort of destruction that I witnessed."

    "What happened, Neriel?" Aelar said with irritation.

    "He erased the ruined city of Kantac, my lord. He completely erased it... Turned everything to sand." Her eyes widened. "Never in my wildest dreams did I think I''d see a destruction of that caliber caused by a single being..."

    Aelar became thoughtful. He would be lying if he said he hadn''t thought of approaching the brothers to serve him. Damien had been his first choice, but Keilan hadn''t been dismissed either. Their little spat with the false Emperor had been what had drawn his attention. Two newly ascended Spirit lords, appearing out of nowhere with a brazen feat that drew more attention than was intended. The death of the Solarian Northern general had sparked a greater interest that went past the Greensend continent. The result of their first battle with Solaris had then almost persuaded him to approach them himself, forcefully if they refused to see reason. What had stayed his hand was the level of bad karma the Great families had accumulated from the civil war that saw them emancipated from the first Empire.

    Their deeds during that war had sown a deep web of negative karma that still saw them paying the price to this day, thousands of years later. Their loss of power and the rise of Solaris was evidence of that.

    The city of Kantac had been the previous center of the Greensend continent a century ago. It was a neutral city, a sort of location where all the powers could meet without fear of betrayal. A green zone. The rise of Solaris had seen the city destroyed in the battle of lords.

    He ransacked his mind for knowledge of any technique that could cause the level of destruction Neriel described, but came out with nothing. The only beings that could cause a destruction so potent were the Spirit Kings, and he knew that the Stormshredder definitely wasn''t one.

    "I assume a power like that doesn''t come without a price... What happened to him?"

    Neriel shook her head. "I don''t know... He''s alive, but barely. Frankly, I don''t think he will survive. However, the Nature priestess has seen to his healing."

    "And the brother? What''s his reaction to this?"

    "I don''t know. I kept back for about a mile or two, so I couldn''t get a deeper look. But from where I stood, his expression was dead. I don''t think he felt anything at all."

    Aelar frowned. "Where is he now?"

    "He didn''t leave with the Stormshredder, so I assume he must have gone somewhere else. Solaria, maybe?"

    Aelar had already turned his attention elsewhere. He raised his right hand to the sky, which then darkened and rumbled with thunder and flashes of golden lightning. His hand slowly squeezed into a fist as the power in the sky built up, increasing to the extent the atmosphere turned cold and electrifying... And then he brought it down.

    For over ten miles, the earth was dislodged as a rain of lightning descended. Every defiled in the technique radius was reduced to ash and broken skeletons. He let the lightning continue on for a minute before he let go. And when he was done, he turned his attention to the crowd of lords gathered around him.

    "Destructive much?" Yuseria raised an eyebrow.

    "There''s no longer time for this, we have to get to Xeris."

    "What happened?" Halar stepped moved forward with his brother trailing behind, as usual.

    "I don''t have time to ex¡ª" he was interrupted as a sensation pricked his mind, a sensation that made the hairs on his body rise.

    "What was that?" Someone whispered.

    Aelar didn''t know, but he hoped to find out soon. "The rest of you, get back to work. Yuseria, Halar, I''d advise you, but I assume you''re already prepared for what we might face?" He didn''t get an answer, but their silence was enough.

    <hr>

    Aelar appeared over an active battlefield brimming with untold power. The city of Xeris was a significantly lesser version of its former self. A huge portion of the city was just... Gone, eradicated like it had never existed. The only evidence of what had once been there was the mountain level ash that occupied the hole in the center of the city.

    "Oh my..." Yuseria gasped. Even Halar, the mad king, as he was nicknamed for his love for battle, looked grim. It wasn''t the destroyed city that has caused such expression, but the level by which it had been accomplished. No Spirit lord should have such potent destructive capabilities.

    Space tore again and another person stepped out. He was a diminutive figure attired in a metallic armor that flowed around him in a liquid-like state. There were so many runes enchanted into the armor that Aelar found had to keep track of.

    "Grimnar." He nodded in respect at the head of house of Bareken. "I thought you weren''t going to take part in this war?"

    The dwarf spat to the side. "This has gone past what I envisioned."

    They all turned their attention on the battle raging in the distance. A battle of such intensity that Aelar had never in his life dreamt of. A single Spirit lord facing off against sixteen others and two command ships. To say he was facing of was an understatement, Damien Elason was dominating the battle.

    The boy waved his hands, unraveling half a dozen techniques aimed at him. His spear came up in a devastating blow that blew off the upper half of a fire wielder, killing her instantly.

    Aelar watched with intense eyes as the concept of space seemed to disappear, blocking passage to the light wielder that had been about to flash past.

    The atmosphere flash crimson as Solaris descended with his flaming hammer, and with a force that would have seen Aelar forced to dodge, he struck. The world vibrated as Solaris''s hammer struck something beyond the physical, an occurrence that wasn''t meant to be possible.

    "He''s physically wielding concepts..." Halar commented with a calmness lacked by the rest of them.

    Aelar grunted. The amount of impossibilities he had seen possible these last few seconds was about to see him questioning everything he had ever known.

    He was forced to heighten his senses as Solaris came back for another hit, this one successful. The Elason boy''s entire arm was blown clean off in a conflagration of gore, bones, and flame. Aelar was just about to retreat, thinking this battle lost, when two things happened in quick succession. He flinched backwards as a colorless ripple swept outwards. Horror then settled in as he realized that that thing hadn''t touched him physically, or spiritually. It had bypassed all his innate and artificial protections to touch into his soul. If this had been an attack, he would have died.

    Everyone staggering backwards in fear seemed to have granted the Elason boy the reprieve he needed, because with another shocking surprise, grey light flashed out, and with a speed only granted to a few, his destroyed arm grew back in a flash, constructed out of an essence that was certainly not destruction.

    "That was life." Yuseria said with shock. "I don''t know how he tainted the essence that made it out like that but I can swear on my life that that energy was life. Not nature, life."

    Two great affinities... What is happening?

    "If you all keep gawking here like fools, then fools you''ll eventually be." Grimnar said into their minds. His famous staff appeared in his left hand in all its metallic glory. "This is an opportunity to permanently remove Solaris from this board. I won''t waste it. When he''s taken care of, we can turn out eyes to the Elason boy. I don''t know about you, but I certainly do not want someone with that kind of power on the same planet as me."

    Aelar nodded in agreement. Allies they might be, but that was only for the sake of Solaris. Once he was gone, they didn''t need another upstart challenging them. The Fyre''s would surely agree.

 Chapter 91 : Finale â€” And So It Ends II

    Over the skies of Xeris, the world burned as Daimen did battle with not one, not two, but fifteen Spirit lords. Scything winds tore through the skies with great fury, tearing apart space in their wake. Blazing blue fires burned holes in space as they sped toward him. A sea of shadows quickly crept in, threatening to suffocate him in its dark embrace; they also were supported by an equal measure of mist, which began locking down space; all the while, it also tried to slip through his defenses.

    Daimen defended against this, and more. Star falls swept through the sky, missing the Spirit lords but burning through the command ships which were too slow to react. With one hand, he fired breaths of destruction, burning through both magical and physical shields. His other hand ¡ªwith his spear¡ªwarded off a constant stream of close range attacks.

    This battle had begun with Daimen at the top, and now they were on equal footing. But Daimen knew that eventually, this battle was going to turn against him. So he fought, fought with everything he had, putting his all. His will was draining fast. His energy reserves not far behind. He gave his all... And his all was thrown back at his face.

    By now, his senses, drained as they were, were still focused on his opponents, pushing everything unimportant from his mind. The Solarian Emperor was utterly overbearing and dominating, certainly, but Daimen knew that the man wouldn''t have been a problem had his pillars not been with him. Daimen was so tired that the only thing that kept him from just leaving was the fact that a karmic debt was owed, and damn him, he''d collect.

    "Everyone calls you a savior, a messiah that''ll save them from me, but we both know that that''s not true, is it?" Solaris hissed, a colossal wall of fiery haze rising from behind him with as much intensity as a low tier Spirit lord''s flame. "Look below at your handwork, at the millions eradicated... You are no hero, you''re a villain."

    Daimen didn''t reply, his full concentration on the battle. He knew that a continuous battle in an open sky like this would definitely lead to his fall, so he timed his attempt just right, borrowing a combined hit from Solaris and Samon to propel him downwards. Daimen dipped his metaphysical hands into the essence of destruction running through the world and did something he hadn''t ever tried before.

    Like a monstrous beast, the head of a titanic dragon rose from behind him. It was hazy and leaked grey fog at the end of its neck, but it was still easily identifiable as a dragon. And like a dragon, its giant maw opened wide, and from it came a thick, giant breath of destruction. The Spirit lords that had been on his back a few seconds ago scattered like flies, fleeing in different directions. Daimen was about to direct the beam at them when he felt himself spiritually slapped, and the world was flooded with fiery energy.

    Wary, he ported backward a few miles away. Solaris didn''t chase. Instead, he hovered over a sea of roiling Sunfire essence, tendrils of flames licking gently at the atmosphere. His pillars hovered behind him over his domain, their confidence returned at the sight of Daimen''s ragged features. He was already thinking of a last minute resort when space parted, and four figures stepped out.

    Aelar looked just as he always did: Stoic and outwardly emotionless. However, this time Daimen detected a hint of something else, a sense of wariness in the man''s aura as he regarded Daimen.

    Yuseria wore an expression of both wariness and confusion, both directed at him. Her armored wings were spread wide as she turned towards the Solarian Pillars, a bow appearing in her hands.

    Halar, the mad king, who was usually a very boisterous man, a contrast to the look most of the other great powers portrayed, was now calm and collected, a careful look in his eyes as he gazed intently at Daimen and then at Solaris.

    However, it was the fourth person that actually drew the most attention. Grimnar Bareken, head of house Bareken. The only great family who was based underground, refusing most contact with anyone above ground. Last he''d heard, the man was staying away from this war. The only presence his house had in the war was simply to sell weapons to the others.

    "Hiya, Solaris! I see you''ve been very active lately." The man waved.

    Solaris nodded. "Grimnar."

    "Nothing more to say? No witty insults for an old friend?" He pointed at Solaris'' hammer which blazed with energy. "I made that hammer for you, Solaris. Not my apprentices, not my spawns. Me! And how am I being repaid? My home besieged by you and your abominations."

    "Don''t make me the villain here, Grim. If you and your ilks hadn''t interfered in this continent the last time, this war wouldn''t be happening."

    Aelar moved forward. "We interfered because you were getting out of control and your hunger would have eventually seen eyes set on our territories." The man waved a gloved fist. "There is a way we do things, Solaris. You don''t see us warring with each other for territories."

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    Yuseria took on from Aelar. "We are content with what we have because having too much can sometimes be more of a detriment than a benefit."

    Daimen''s face immediately went cold, a sick feeling building up in his guts.

    "We are the only ones still standing in this war, Solaris. The upstart powers of Camlen and Gandor are fallen or soon to be." Aelar continued. "If we continue this war, it will only cost us more in gold and men, things that could see us at a serious disadvantage when this whole debacle ends."

    Solaris'' eyes narrowed. "I will not be the loser in this war, Aelar."

    "Who said you''re going to be?" Grimnar said. "If this war continues as it is, I''ll have to fully step in. That means my fresh legions will begin marching on for your capital. Look at it, Solaris, it''s basically destroyed. You''ll need a mountain of precious stones, irons, and a lot of gold to get all this back to how it was. And you can''t do that when the five of us are charging down on you."

    Daimen moved back, his hands tightening on his spear.

    "Five?" Solaris'' eyebrows rose. "What of the sixth?"

    Grimnar shrugged. "Fyre has been pretty weak lately, and I''m not just talking about this war. The last grand war saw them with a devastating loss, a loss which has been continuously mirrored in this war. They lost their rights to this continent when they failed to hold it from you."

    "And what of him?" Solaris jerked his head at Daimen, who was now brimming with fury. The four Heads turned towards him. They were wary, yes, but Daimen saw it as more of a passive thing than an active one. They didn''t fear his ragged state now, they feared what he would become once this war was settled. Slowly, the four moved away from him towards Solaris, their backs turned towards the person they were fighting against a second ago.

    "Frankly, we wanted you gone, Solaris. Your presence in this world is like a knife sharpening up to one day point at us. But a knife is something we can defend against. Worst case, you kill us and then our Kings descend on your true body up there, and then the Inferno''s would have to step in. It''s a huge loss for everyone." The dwarf then pointed his metallic staff at Daimen. "Him, on the other hand, is a nobody. An upstart. Someone who doesn''t know his place. He challenges those who he has no right to even look up to, all because of some great affinity he has up his sleeve, an affinity he doesn''t know how to use. Normally, I''d have suggested we force a Spirit oath on him, but I''ve seen a lot of crazy things happen this last hour to put any hope on that. So I say we rid ourselves of a pest who doesn''t know which house it has gotten into."

    Daimen didn''t wait, he fled. He tore through space just as a red beam of Sunfire bore a hole through his right knee, tearing off the leg right at the knee. Daimen hissed in pain as he fled. He dug through his essence well and tried to channel the little life energy that he had into his legs, but was met with a splitting headache as his mental energy became insufficient to work such a powerful technique.

    Daimen landed on the top of a mountain, and had to flee again as he detected another spatial incoming. He had enough mental strength for one more teleport, so he used it, appearing instantly in the middle of the hungry ocean. He took off immediately, flying with all his strength towards the south. He didn''t know where he was going, only that he had to keep as much distance as possible from those backstabbers.

    Truthfully, he shouldn''t have been surprised. This world thrived on deals and benefits. Solaris had been a thorn in their side until Daimen came in. His strength, although untrained right now, had the potential to grow into something truly powerful in the future. And no matter how peaceful he might seem, those who''d been in power for millennials wouldn''t want someone like that in their backyard. He should have expected this, and now he was going to pay the price.

    That was the last thought he had before all the things he''d been keeping locked in burst out, and a sob choked up his throat. He had been arrogant, thinking of himself as some kind of special boy who couldn''t be touched when truly, he was weak. He had thought that being personally powerful was enough to protect himself from people like this. Meanwhile, they had been planning on coming at him like sharks. Now he was going pay for it, and Keilan would too.

    [I''m sorry Damien.] Gray said from beside him. [Powerful you might be, but you cannot fight against a greater number of Peak level Spirit lords when you''re still a mid-tier. It''s just not possible.]

    "And I''m going to learn that lesson the hard way," Damien said dryly just as space tore about five miles behind and his pursuers stepped out. He grunted as an iron staff tore into his leg with enough force to spin him through the air. He gnashed his teeth a moment later as lightning slammed into the staff, flowing through it and into his body.

    Gray''s voice was the last thing he heard before he blacked out. [Who said you''re going to pay anything?]

    <hr>

    "You have failed, Gray."

    Gray stared at the enigma, Merak. He might not have been officially acquainted with the man, but beings at their level were already so skilled at intent that the common means of introduction were usually abandoned for a quicker way. With his intent, he read the man''s origin, finding the parts the man left public and leaving the private ones alone.

    [Do not question me on my job, Sapphire Master.] Gray hissed back.

    "Your job?" The man''s eyes burned with the equivalent power of a sun. "Your job?! You were given a simple task, a task which you''ve continuously failed woefully at! And now you tell me not to question your competence!" He stepped forward. "The Sapphire lords have tasked me with his protection, and trust me when I say, I will see it done."

    This time, it was Gray''s turn to take a threatening step forward. [Lest your lords forget, they weren''t the ones who gave me this task, so therefore, they hold no authority over me. And also, let me inform you just in case you weren''t made aware.

    [There are beings who have a vested interest in the boy, Merak. Beings outside your comprehension. And unless you would like to be erased, you will loosen that obsessive diligence and let the boy handle his own problems. He doesn''t need his problems handled for him.]

    The man, Merak, took a deep breath, even though he hadn''t needed to in uncountable years. "What will you tell him when he wakes?"

    Gray turned towards the place where Damien was sleeping, peacefully and fully healed. "The truth... Atleast enough that it doesn''t break him."

 Chapter 92 : Relocation

    Damien opened his eyes to the view of an endless dark dotted with innumerable pinprick lights. What the...? He frowned, blinked and then did it again multiple times before he finally came to grips with his surroundings. He was in a room made of some kind of black stone... Darker than the darkest color he''d ever come across. The wall, without any sign of adjoining, seamlessly melded with the floor... Or as he looked closer, saw that the floor and the wall weren''t simply just adjoined but of the same material. Like he was in the inside of a bowl.

    The ceiling, instead of the usual ones he was used to, was made of an illusion so realistic that he struggled to comprehend it. In fact, he couldn''t. His eyes only saw, but his brain understood nothing.

    "You''re awake." Somebody said beside him, and Daimen sharply turned at the voice. His eyes opened wide as he saw Keilan sitting on a chair beside his bed.

    Damien was off the bed so fast his vision turned woozy, but he didn''t care. He slammed into Keilan like an out-of-control cart, engulfing him in a tight hug.

    "I feared you weren''t going to make it." He whispered.

    Damien''s body shook as Keilan chuckled. "I thought so too, brother," Keilan said while he gently patted Damien on the back. His gentle pat then turned a little bit harder when Damien refused to release him. "Uhh, Dame? I''m fine, but you''re going to suffocate me if you keep hugging me so tight."

    Damien jerked backward, eyes widening. "I''m sorry, I''m sorry, I''m so¡ª"

    "That''s okay." His brother interrupted. "I''m injured, not dying."

    "You were dying, Kei."

    "Yes, but that isn''t the case anymore, is it?" He grinned widely. "Anyway, enough about me. I see you like your new view." He nodded up at the illusion swirling in the sky. Damien hadn''t been in space before, but he''d spent hours gazing into it, and he could swear that this illusion was a near replica of the cosmos. Like they were truly deep in space. It was breathtaking.

    "Yeahh," he said uncertainly. "Where are we?"

    [Somewhere safe,] Gray popped up beside him. He was putting on an elaborate robe instead of the crisp suit he usually wore, which made him look more wisely?. Damien didn''t know why, but a feeling of guilt crept in as he stared at Gray.

    He opened his mouth to utter some kind of apology even though he didn''t know why, but all that came out of his mouth was. "I lost."

    Silence reigned for a few seconds, and the Gray said. [Yes. Yes, you did.]

    "And now I''m hiding..."

    [Yes.] Gray sighed and then frowned, murmuring. [When did I start adopting human mannerisms?... Anyway, back to you. A loss doesn''t mean the end. You can learn from it... And should. What you should understand now is that a loss isn''t meant to push you down; it''s meant to bring you up. You learn from it, and then next time, you make sure not to make the same mistakes.]

    "Yeah... What he said." Keilan nodded at Gray. "Damien, you can''t let a single loss hold you back."

    "I failed." Was what Damien said. "You destroyed the three assassins sent after you and I... I couldn''t ev¡ª"

    "I will punch you if you finish that sentence, Dame," Keilan growled. "Do you hear yourself right now? I killed three assassins, but so what? I almost died. Almost. But you, you..." He barked a laugh. "Gray told me about the ones that went after you. Five, Dame. Five assassins. That''s a entire cadre, a force probably no one besides a Spirit King could fight off, and you came out the victor. And shortly after that, you took on fifteen empire pillars all by yourself, including the Emperor himself. Damien, If that isn''t already broken, I don''t know what is."

    Damien''s mind went back to that moment. For some reason, the memory felt distant and distorted, like it belonged to someone else and he was just looking through a memory crystal.

    Damien remembered the things he did, the monstrous acts he committed. He''d spent basically all his life fighting against monsters who killed innocents without reason, and now... And now he''d become one. A monster he fought.

    "I killed those people," he whispered. "Innocent people, and I erased them. They didn''t attack me nor did anything that I found overly offensive... they were just under the protection of those that did, but that didn''t stop me. I''m a monster."

    A sigh. "Dame, you''re fragile now, and me feeding you lies to sate your morality dilemma would be tying a bleeding wound with a piece of clothe and hoping that it doesn''t eventually rot, so I''m going to be frank.

    "We''re all monsters. Nobody gets to Spirit lord without the blood of innocents on their hands. A lot of us have accepted it and are learning to mitigate those kinds of deeds in the future. But Damien, you can''t prevent what you fail to accept. That''s all I''m going to say. You have to learn to accept loss to prevent loss."

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    Damien chuckled, "You''re a terrible adviser, Keilan."

    The other man shrugged. "Hey, I do my best."

    Damien turned to Gray. "So, when are we going back?"

    [We''re not.]

    "What?" Damien and Keilan exclaimed at once.

    [Look, that world is a backwater, without any connection whatsoever outside its star system. Hell, I sometimes wonder how the cults found that place.] Seeing the look on their faces, Gray sighed. [You can''t get anything tangible from that place. It''s best to simply leave and start ov¡ª.]

    "Hold on, hold on," Damien interrupted. "Before we move towards the craziest relocation plan you''ve no doubt extensively planned out, I want to know... where are we?"

    "We are outside of your planet, at a temporary abode I built in the unreal," a voice answered, one that wasn''t Gray.

    Both Damien and Keilan jumped at the voice, sharply turning towards a location that they were very certain was empty a second ago. And out of the dark corner came a man, at least that was what Damien assumed he was, seeing as he looked five years younger than he and Keilan, barely past twenty.

    His hair was the color of night. Not dark. Night. It was so dark Damien believed it could beat the color black In a contest. It was slicked all the way to the back of his head, with only a single strand hanging over his left eye.

    He was putting on a simple black shirt and pants which looked ordinary, but somehow, Damien found himself stumped on their real worth.

    Aside from those, though, what drew him were the eyes. The man''s eyes were the color of sapphire... A round glassy orb of burning sapphire. And on both orbs were what Damien instantly recognized as a single rune. That was the last thing he saw before all went dark.

    <hr>

    When Damien came to, he was back on the bed, looking at the illusory thing on the ceiling. He groaned as he attempted to stand up, and then had to lay back down as he was assaulted by a sharp headache.

    "Why am I in bed?" Someone groaned beside him and he turned to see Keilan laying on another bed beside his. Damien frowned... He could have sworn there hadn''t been any space on that side of the bed, talk less of another bed.

    [You looked into the true eyes of an Ascendant.] Gray popped up beside him, again.

    "What?"

    [You looked into the true eyes of an Ascendant,] Gray repeated. [You''re lucky he had to put you out before you looked any longer, or else you''d be dead.]

    Instead of feeling terror or dread, Damien laughed. The others turned towards him with different expressions of confusion, but Damien didn''t care. He laughed so hard tears began streaming down his eyes.

    "The irony. Me escaping from a battle with half the most powerful Spirit lords on the planet, only for me to die in the hands of my savior?"

    [Yeah. Haha. Funny.]

    "I''ve looked into your eyes before, Gray. It didn''t do what his did."

    "That''s because your minder here isn''t a true Ascendant." The stranger answered.

    Finally calming himself, Damien looked towards the man-kid? Who was standing opposite his bed with arms folded. "Who are you?"

    The man was quiet for a while, head cocked, before he answered. "My name is Merak."

    Damien didn''t stutter out his question. He was too mentally fucked up at the moment to care whether he lived or died. "Gray said you''re an Ascendant?"

    "I am."

    "Why are you helping us?"

    "Because it''s my job."

    [Ohh, for Celestial''s sake. You both are so terrible at introduction.] Gray interrupted. [Damien, this is Merak. He''s an Ascendant and also your protector.]

    "Wait, protector?" Keilan said. "I thought you were his protector."

    [I am his minder, not his protector. I do not have the skills for that.]

    "What''s he protecting me from? I don''t think you''d fight a couple of Spirit lords and one Spirit King for me, would you?"

    "No," Merak said flatly. "I will not."

    "Then what are you protecting me from?"

    [That''s the thing, Damien. If you have to discover what he''s protecting you from, then you''re already doomed.]

    "Where''s Adrian?" Keilan said, instantly drawing the attention of everyone.

    "What?"

    "Where is Adrian?" Keilan turned towards Gray. "You said we were moving, I want to know why Adrian isn''t here?"

    Gray blinked once, and the twice, and then he began stuttering. [Uhhh... Umm... Yeah...]

    "The child will not be going with you," Merak said.

    "What did you just say?" Damien stood up, all the mental pain vanishing.

    "I will not repeat myself."

    Out of nowhere, a faint howl echoed as a gust of wind began swirled into the room. And just as it started, it immediately vanished.

    Damien rushed towards Keilan as he began coughing out blood. "Don''t just stand there, help him!" He didn''t know what to do, so he simply patted Keilan on the back. Maybe it could help... He didn''t know. He was already going into a full-blown panic when a light, pinky size, came out of nowhere and melted into Keilan''s chest, and instantly, the coughing ceased.

    "That should be a sufficient warning not to channel essence till you''re fully healed," Merak said. "Presently, your spirit is so torn up I''m surprised you aren''t dead, or worse, spiritually paralyzed. You have done the impossible, and sometimes, doing the impossible comes with a price. So until you''re fully healed, no wielding. Understand?"

    Keilan nodded.

    "I haven''t forgotten about Adrian. Where is he?"

    "Look, child. Where you''re heading, you''ll need all your strength just to keep yourself from becoming a slave to someone, and trust me, I will not intervene if you''re enslaved. Honestly, I shouldn''t have intervened in your last battle. This one," he jerked his head at Keilan. "Is already helpless as it is, so he''s going to need your help. You cannot juggle two helpless people at once, especially if one needs a constant handholding for everything."

    Damien stared into the man''s eerie blue orbs. The runes were gone now, leaving only plain, simple, sapphire orbs. "Yes, I can."

    Merak didn''t take his eyes off Damien''s. "Here''s what''s going to happen. You''ll either do as I advise and simply go, or you''ll be incapacitated and then moved like an unruly child. Your choice." He then sighed. "I do promise you the safety of the child. And I assure you, I keep my promises."

    Damien didn''t accept it, but he knew that there was nothing he could do. So he consoled himself with the fact that he''d come back someday, no matter how long.

    "This isn''t over."

    "Yes it is. And Damien? Let me let you in on an advise: not all Ascendants are as forgiving as I, and Spirit Kings less so. The tongue is as much a weapon of mass destruction as self destruction."

    "Where are we going to?" Keilan said.

    Gray jumped in. [We''re heading to the Lese World Cities.]

    "The what now?"

    "Lese World Cities," Merak said. "Unlike your previous home, you''re going to have plenty of opportunities to grow there. And you''re in good timing too."

    "For what?"

    "You''ll find out soon enough," Merak waved his hands and out of nowhere came a swirling portal of blue, purple and black. "Now get going, I have other business to attend to."

 Chapter 93 : Epilogue â€” Strangers

    Merak stepped through unreality, his true form smoothly passing from his hidden abode and into physical space.

    Firmly into the star system, he observed the surroundings. Everything was quiet, for now. He was keeping his presence quiet at the moment, that was why the World Spirits of this system didn''t immediately take notice of him. Although one other being did notice him, but he wasn''t worried about that. Those truly powerful knew when to stay out of issues that didn''t concern them.

    He stepped through space again, instantly appearing above a temple. This one was dedicated to the Celestial of Life, which was located on the moon city of Zanderst.

    He allowed his tightly shut presence to leak a little bit, and then used his intent to direct it down toward a single being below.

    Instantly, he felt the invisible barrier layered around the temple come down, and he stepped through.

    He could have crossed through the Spirit King level defenses without anyone being aware, but no matter the rank of the cultists present, this was still a Grand cult. Respect was needed.

    Appearing into a spatially expanded space, a vast land, more than half the size of the planets below, filled with an ocean of trees so large that they grew far taller than some of the mountains on those planets. They were continuously nourished by the abundant life energy saturating the atmosphere.

    He took a deep breath, even if he didn''t need it. Some habits were still needed to keep people like him grounded on where they started from. The energy, which could fully heal beings up to the fifth domain tier, did absolutely nothing to him other than to give him a refreshing air.

    "I greet the Sapphire Master." A voice said from behind.

    Merak turned, nonplussed. He was fully aware of the location of every being in this star system even before he''d stepped into it.

    The Divine King of this temple was a wiry framed man with the features that most nature affinity cultists took ¡ª a characteristic of their essence. However, his was different¡ªtaking on a grand white-gold appearance¡ª since he''d already graduated from wielding the specialized Nature affinity to the all-encompassing life affinity, finally joining the elites in the life Cult.

    The man''s facial and bodily features were nothing special. His age would have been impossible to place because of his indeterminable facial features, but that wasn''t a problem for Merak. He could simply read his origin.

    A black robe clothed his body, ordinary in appearance as it gently lapped the flowing air.

    "Divine King." Merak nodded at the bowing man.

    Taking the acknowledgment as permission, the high priest raised his head, an inquisitive look in his eyes. "Forgive my prying, Ascendant, but may I know the reason for your visit?"

    Merak, though, was already leaving. "No, you may not."

    The Divine King took the curt response in stride, not at all surprised at the strangeness of his abrupt disappearance as soon as his presence was made known.

    Next, Merak made his way to the center of the planetary circle, a distance from the sun.

    This system wasn''t large compared to most he''d visited, being occupied with just three planets that slowly revolved around the sun, alongside six moons that likewise revolved around the outer circle of the planets, forming a two-layer circle with the sun in the middle.

    It didn''t take more than a few seconds after he''d made his appearance that he felt space part as a new being appeared.

    "Leceia." He nodded in greeting to his fellow Ascendant.

    "Merak." She nodded back, a greeting of equals. "It''s been long; Your presence has been missed."

    An amused smile graced his lips. "Is that so?"

    "Ohh, I assure you that this isn''t a false compliment." The woman took graceful steps towards him, her heels clicking down on space like solid matter. "Where have you been?"

    "On assignment." He didn''t explain further. "I assume you''re aware of why you''re here?"

    As soon as the words came out, her expression took a swift turn, going from the earlier playfulness into one of extreme seriousness. "So it is true then?"

    Merak gave a simple nod.

    "When the Emerald lord informed me of my task here, I at first thought it was a joke, a very expensive joke. You are not stupid, Merak, far from it, so I hope you know the repercussions should any of this go sideways?"

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    "Trust me, Leceia, you don''t know the full of it." Merak snorted in amusement, a rare expression on someone like him who was usually all composure and no-nonsense.

    "If this goes sideways, it could easily start a war with the primals, and I bet you that the repercussions will be far beyond our imagination." Her head nodded toward a direction. "Will it interfere?"

    "No," Merak said with surety. "Even something as powerful as it knows to stay far away from Cult business."

    Leceia nodded, her belief in his certainty unruffled. "Before we start, is there anything else I should know? Something beyond the original assignment?"

    Merak smiled, glad for her sharp thinking. If she hadn''t asked him this question, he''d have immediately sent her away. He didn''t want someone who lacked the skills to cover their tracks.

    "First of all, I assume you know for whom we''re here for?"

    He sensed it when she began reading through the origin of the planets, her will subtly encompassing all of them without them being the wiser.

    She nodded. "Only what I was permitted to know, but yes."

    "Good, this should make it easier then. We are to sever all negative karma. It would be unproductive for him to have to worry about his past negative acquaintances, especially ones from this backwater star system."

    "Okay," Leceia nodded. "But I sense an and there..."

    Merak, again, smiled. This was a novel experience; him smiling.

    "You know how to cover your tracks from deep level scrutiny, yes?"

    The emerald haired woman turned to him, her bright jade eyes quirking in amusement. "Isn''t that why you are here? I''m the dagger and you''re the cloak, mhm?"

    Merak snorted. "More like I''m both and you''re just an extra."

    <hr>

    When Damien finally stepped through the purplish-black place, the first thing that greeted him was the sound of water lapping on a rock. And then the sounds of strange animals, ones he hadn''t heard before, came into hearing one by one.

    The day was bright and sunny, and there was... Are those pink clouds? Damien looked around the sky, his eyes seeing more and more of the strange pink clouds. He was just about to confirm with Keilan whether he too was seeing the same when an abrupt sound nearby jolted his gaze downwards.

    The first thing he realized was that, yes, he was one a planet, a planet with a strange, dense, pinkish sea of fog.

    The second thing he took notice of was that, no, his brother was not with him, neither was Gray. Damien couldn''t even sense the little figuring in his head anymore. He could still feel their connection, though. However, it was just... muted. Distant.

    The third thing that he finally understood was that he wasn''t alone.

    "Finally done taking in the sights, eh?" The stranger said the moment Damien''s eyes finally landed on him?

    The man?¡ª Damien decided to go with man¡ª was a strange person. Damien couldn''t seem to press down on his age as his features seemed ageless. Yet, both his body postures and the little whisps of white hair on his head pegged him as an old person, ancient, in Damien''s opinion. But he also knew how looks could be deceiving.

    Counting the walking stick he seemed to lean on, or the way his back was all hunched, like a person nearing his death moment.

    Yeaaaah, he''s definitely an old man.

    "Where am I?" Was the first thing Damien said.

    The man stepped forward from the rock his other hand rested on, a curious gaze on his face as he seemed to scrutinize Damien.

    "Damien," the man said in a way that made it seem like he was tasting it.

    Seriously, could a name be tasted?

    "That, is a name I never thought I''d hear from someone with such unique descent."

    Hearing his name from the mouth of a stranger in a stranger place was one thing, but hearing the way the man spoke about his descent like he was familiar with it woke something up in Damien. "Who are you?"

    The man tilted his head to the side, his lips tugging to the side as he kept looking at Damien.

    Ok, this is getting creepy.

    "Where is my brother?" Damien looked around, now hoping for hope that he''d maybe catch a glimpse of Keilan lying down somewhere.

    "Relax," the man''s hand came up in a calming gesture. "I mean you no harm."

    "Then who are you?" Damien repeated. His curiosity was beginning to turn to fear. However his fragile features, Damien didn''t delude himself into thinking he could do anything to the man. He felt it deep within himself. The old man was extremely powerful.

    "Names have powers, extremely so. Do you still want to know mine?"

    Getting the unworded hint, Damien immediately shook his head.

    "As for where your brother is, I assure you that In no time at all, you will be by his side... Along with your... Minder construct." The man''s eyes shifted outwards, gazing into the thin air like he could see something Damien couldn''t. Whatever that was, Damien had no idea.

    About his assurance, Damien was not assured, like at all. He''d become powerful enough to understand that when powerful people said something vague that sounded positive, it was definitely not positive.

    "I see you still do not believe me," the man shook his head. "No worries, the only reason I brought you here was to get a personal feeling for you, one I could not get if I had simply watched from a distance."

    Damien had no words to say to that, so he simply kept his mouth shut. It was already clear as day to him that this man was definitely not ordinary. And anyone who could seemingly snatch him from space without even Gray being aware was not the kind of person he wanted to offend.

    "Do not worry, you are safe. But I do not know for how long."

    Damien''s eyes widened, which made the man chuckle. "Like I said, I mean you no harm. I won''t assure you the same about others, though. Your father made quite a great deal of enemies, and I''m sure they will not be happy when they learn of your existence."

    This time Damien couldn''t stop himself. He opened his mouth to immediately ask what the man knew, when a raised hand held his tongue.

    "For your safety, I will not tell you anything more than has been said. What I will warn you is not to pull that stunt of yours ever again." Seeing Damien''s shocked look, the man smiled. "Yes, I know about that, and I''m pretty sure your father''s enemies are already aware. Now, the question is, how long do you have before they figure out the smell tickling their noses?"

    This time, Damien powered true his self imposed restraint, his desperation for answers giving him all the courage needed. That was when he noticed that he was beginning to fade, his body turning incorporeal.

    Just before he disappeared, the man chuckled as he saw Damien''s look. "Grow strong, Damien, Grow strong and live up to your name. The fun has just started. Quick word of advice: don''t hesitate to take advantage of any opportunity given, no matter how risky it made seem. You never know, it might save your life one day. Now go, I look forward to seeing more of what you can accomplish." He then winked. "Because I will be watching."

    And then Damien was gone.

 Volume 3 Blurb

    The battle between the Grand Celestial, Chaos, and its peers has left hundreds of lesser Celestials sundered; their corpses shattered into fragments that are now scattered all over the universe. A Gold Rush.

    After leaving his previous den of wolves, Damien lands right in the middle of a far more larger and vicious den of wolves. Keilan has taken something he shouldn''t have, while Damien has lit a bonfire so large and bright it has drawn attention... Attention he doesn''t want.

    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

    As the brothers step into the Lese World Cities, they''re hunted by enemies they know nothing about. How long will it take before they''re caught?

 ANNOUNCEMENT!

    DEAD MEN TELL THE BEST TALES.

    There is no secret a Ghost doesn''t know. They are the ultimate secret holders. They live, haunt, and acquire secrets, even ones lost to time.

    Forced into becoming a GhostSeer through unnatural circumstances, Niram''s job is to make sure that ghosts stay in the graveyards and away from the humans. He will have to pacify curious ghosts and hunt down Mischiefs who want nothing more than to haunt everything that comes in sight. But that''s not all, is it?

    Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

    A few nights past, a group of homeless children trying to take cover from the night storm, runs into an abandoned haunted house. Now it''s Niram''s job to find out what happened to them.

 Chapter 94: Prologue â€” An Investigation

    At the edge of a star system, space split, warping into the form of a swirling portal of Gold, purple, and yellow. And from the portal stepped out a figure. Her waist length hair was the color of darkness. Her eyes were of the same color, only with tiny, nonexistent yellow dust swirling around the pupils. Their piercing intensity, added with the glass over her nose, which somewhat dampened their burning glow, gave her a very scholastic look.

    Her skin was the color of midnight, dark beyond mortal imagination. Added with the yellow filling her body, she resembled a dark forest filled with a sea of burning yellow fireflies. Her body frame, despite the simple brown garment concealing its full figure, would not be so easily cowed; it subtly tightened in places, enough to give someone a very imaginative guess of its true shape.

    Overall, she was the image of a scholar who wasn''t shy of showing her bodily features.

    Kairen slowly emerged into the star system, a look of boredom on her face, a look that was instantly washed away as she fully took in the system.

    "Nar," She called, snapping her fingers. "Confirm I''m not seeing this wrong."

    Over her shoulders, a figure appeared, a tiny figure. The figure was made of a golden-yellow color, with waist length hair and a dress that reached just below her knee, dancing to a non existent breeze.

    "You are not, Adjudicator Kairen." Nar said, and then paused an instant before she continued. "There seems to have bee¡ª"

    "I know that," Kairen smoothly interrupted. "I can obviously see."

    Adjusting her glasses, she took in the star system again. As usual, a sun burned at the center, its illumination nearly lightening up the entire system. But it wasn''t the sun that had snatched her attention. No, not that. Around it, where there should have been a planet¡ª no, planets¡ª orbiting around, there was nothing.

    "Was I wrong, or wasn''t there supposed to be planets in this system?" She asked just to confirm.

    "You are correct, Adjudicator." Nar responded, instantly coughing out a hurried "Yes, there are supposed to be planets in this system," when Kairen turned a raised eyebrow on her.

    Kairen nodded, gesturing at the planet-less star system. "Then why are there none?"

    This time, Nar''s answer came out clear, yet, perplexed. "of that, I do not know."

    Kairen audibly sighed. This was going to be serious work. Slow and cautious, she drifted deeper into the system, letting her portal vanish behind. Immediately, she began a scan of the star system, her will unfurling to cover the cold, dark environment.

    "There isn''t even a moon," she murmured. Now, that was disturbing.

    World Spirits could move. Certainly. It would take time and a massive amount of Cosmo, which was probably why they all hated doing it, but they could move.

    However, taking their moons, an extra weight which they didn''t need, was something no World Spirit would ever do.

    "Nar, please read this system and tell me how many planets and moons are supposed to be here."

    "As you command," her assistant said, and an instant later, an answer came. "Three planets and six moons, Adjudicator."

    Kairen''s eyes immediately narrowed. This was extremely serious. A single planet relocating was rare but not unheard of. But three? That was impossible.

    "Give me the report again," she said.

    "A total numb¡ª" Nar began.

    "No, not that one," Kairen cut her of. "I meant the report the regional command sent to us."

    "Oh," Nar blinked. "Well, an anomaly was detected in this area and regional command flagged it as important, sending the nearest division to investigate."

    Not important enough, apparently, Kairen thought, if they were so rushed as to send her, someone not of serious importance, they must have been truly desperate to know what it was.

    "Did they say what the anomaly was?"

    "No, Adjudicator." Nar replied.

    Since there were no visible evidence lying around as to the possibility of how three planets and twice that amount of moons managed to disappear, she decided to find one of her own.

    Her will spread out in a wave, enveloping a quarter of the system in a few short moments. Though it didn''t cover as much range as she would have liked, it was enough.

    With her intent, she tapped into an inherent skill every Ascendant had. Instantly, lines of innumerable colors appeared, clouding her view of the system.

    You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.

    She shifted her glasses, and then began sifting through them, searching for the ones which connected to the missing planets.

    What she saw completely stunned her.

    The lines, instead of twisting as they pierced back into deep space, leading to the location of the relocated planets, only drifted down, hanging over what no doubt were the locations those missing Celestial bodies once occupied.

    And worse: they were cut, their connection severed.

    That could only mean one thing.

    "It would appear that our missing planets aren''t missing but were destroyed." Nar said, voicing the conclusion in Kairen''s mind.

    Agitation growing, Kairen dove back into the curtain of karmic webs, this time employing more of her Ascendant abilities.

    As an Ascendant Adjudicator, she tapped into one of the facets of her affinity, making use of her command of time. Reality warped as Kairen dove into the past, determined to uncover the truth.

    She watched as, like a loose string being pulled, time reversed. Minuites went by and nothing happened. The sun continued to hover in its position, bringing light to an empty space. Likewise, the karmic lines didn''t change. They continued to hover there, like a loose thread. Kairen went back seconds, minuites, hours, days. She was determined to go back as far as her authority allowed when something changed and she hit a wall.

    Involuntarily, she flinched backwards, startled at the abrupt block. Steadying herself, she took in the metaphysical wall, her eyes widening a moment later as she understood what she''d just encountered.

    "Time was severed." She concluded.

    "Yes," Nar confirmed.

    "But how?" She said, perplexed. To completely annihilate planets without a single pebble remaining is one thing, but to precisely erase the timeline of when it had occurred? That was a whole other thing. And sure enough, as she checked, she confirmed that after a few short moments, time resumed. She stepped over the metaphysical potholes of time, landing back in re-materialised time, and this time, she was met with the view of multiple planets ¡ªthree to be exact, hovering calmly and undisturbed.

    "This... Is very serious," Nar said, once again voicing Kairen''s thoughts.

    Her mind whirled with speculations as she snapped back into the present. She could have continued observing for a few more minutes, but she wanted to be hale and prepared just Incase whoever did this was still lurking nearby.

    "I''ve concluded that only two ways could have led to this..." Nar offered, and Kairen waved for her to continue.

    "Due to the impossibility of this being carried out by a single Ascendant, it could only mean that either a group of Ascendants did this, which is unlikely.

    "Two..." Nar trailed off, giving Kairen a knowing look.

    Kairen shook her head, "That''s impossible, Nar." She already knew the type of beings Nar was referring to, and Kairen knew how unlikely that was. The absurdity of figures like that appearing would have immediately alerted the temple, and they wouldn''t have sent her unless it was to an early grave.

    "Let''s stick with one." She said. "Two is an absurdity that would have awoken the system guardian, itself. And since it seems to still be slumbering..." Kairen finished, her eyes slowly moving towards the large flaming orb radiating pyromantic light.

    Firming herself, Kairen slowly drifted closer to the sun, making sure to reign in her aura down to a level that didn''t come off as threatening.

    She slowed down as she arrived at the threshold of its passive presence, keeping her distance.

    If World Spirits were apocalyptic when pushed to anger, then Sun Spirits made them look tame.

    "I greet the system guardian," Kairen called, making sure to remove all forms of authority from her voice, keeping it respectful.

    It took three more calls, the third time requiring a bit of boldly intent-infused words before she felt it awoke.

    Like a mighty beast of myth, one which seldom acted but was known for its power, the Sun Spirits awoke.

    Kairen felt an shudder go through her avatar as a powerful will landed on her.

    Quickly, she got herself under control, pushing out the words before terror stole her tongue. "I Greet The Sun Spirit. My name is Kairen Kord, I am a¡ª"

    "I Know What You Are, Servant Of The Celestial, Order." The Spirit cut her off. "Speak."

    Kairen swallowed as beads of sweat began trailing down her brows. She ignored the oddity.

    "I don''t intend to take much of your time. I am tasked with investigating an anomaly that was detected in this star system," she said, making sure to emphasize that she''d been sent, and should her presence be missed, someone else would come calling. Although she didn''t see any chance of getting attacked, it wouldn''t hurt to put down some safety precautions. "I appeal to you, and I assure you that the Cult of Order would be very appreciative if you could tell me the reason why three Planets seem to have been completely annihilated in this star system¡ªYour star system?" When she was done, she waited, tense, for the Sun Spirit''s reply.

    Like World Spirits, Sun Spirits were known for their patience. Unless they were forced to anger, such spirits seldom acted with haste. Kairen was already prepared to wait for hours just for a reply, but was surprised when it answered immediately.

    "I Do Not Have The Answer You Seek."

    Kairen stood, dumbfounded. And it was that dumbfoundedness that led her to blurt out her next words, "But you''re the Sun spirit! How can you not know?" Her mouth snapped shut so hard it sent ripples across space, and she looked at the flaming being with terror.

    Luckily, it seemed not to have taken offense. Instead, it rewarded her with another quick response.  "Does A Phoenix Still Shields Its Spawns After They Have Reached Maturity?"

    Kairen wondered why the Spirit had to bring the prideful mythical beings into this, even though she understood what it implied. Those World Spirits were all Ascendant level beings, so they were basically adults by Celestial standards.

    Kairen opened her mouth to speak, but was immediately rolled over. "I Tire Of You." The Sun Spirit rumbled. "Go Away Before My Patience Dwindles."

    Not willing to push her already strained luck, Kairen nodded and then began heading away towards where the beginning of a portal was starting to swirl.

    As she approached the portal, she turned to her assistant. "There are only two things that could force a Sun spirit to look away from an attack on its territory, and I don''t think the first one counts."

    "Adjudicator Kairen?" Nar said. "You detected them, right? The primal cults..."

    "And the sub division of the Life Cult," Kairen completed. Only a suicidal person would dare attack a cult, and beings at her level were not suicidal. Something foul was going on, and as an Adjudicator of the Cult of Order, it was her Celestial given task to bring them to light.

 Chapter 95: Fragment

    Damien appeared inside a cavern, Keilan and Gray fortunately included. The place wasn''t like any cave he was used to. It had the telltale signs of something that had been artificially made, judging from the smooth, unpockmarked walls and the soft glow coming from the walls even though nothing seemed to be generating it. The uncountable number of runes inscribed on the dome like room made true to his assumption.

    "This place must be like a thousand feet wide and twice that in height..."blindinglyistled.

    [Yup...] Gray answered absentmindedly.

    "Where are we?"

    [Hold on,] Gray said, again, absentmindedly.

    "Gray?" Damien called.

    [Celestial''s ball! ] Gray immediately swore, and Damien turned at the emotion laced with it. Gray was truly angry.

    "What?" Damien asked. "Isn''t this our destination?"

    [No.] Gray huffed. [It is not.]

    Damien silently swore. It seemis luck was turning back nowadays. "Then where are we?"

    [I''m still trying to figure that out.]

    "Uhhh, Dame?" Damien turned toward Keilan.

    "What''s the matter?"

    Instead of answering, Keilan simply pointed towards the center of the cave, where something... Some sort of visible wind element, swirled calmly in a stationary position.

    Damien frowned in confusion. He should have noticed it the moment they arrived.

    "What''s that?"

    "I don''t know," Keilan whispered. "But whatever it is, its beautiful."

    Damien stared at Keilan for a few seconds before the other man took notice. "What?"

    Damien narrowed his eyes. "Are you alright, Kei?"

    "Yes, I''m fine" Keilan nodded, and then paused. "You can''t hear it, can you?"

    "No, Kei. I don''t hear anything."

    "Maybe because of your distance..." He trailed off, a longing look on his face. "Come, join me, let''s move closer."

    "Uhhh," Damien said slowly. "I''m not so sure that''s a good idea, Kei."

    "Come on," the blood haired man pleaded. "I''m sure it won''t bite. Look at its. Can something as beautiful as this be harmful?"

    Damien stared at his brother. "Are you sure you''re alright, Kei?"

    Keilan ignored the question. "Look, if you won''t come, I''ll just go alone. And then you''ll be too late to help me should something bad happen."

    "I thought you said the thing was harmless?" Damien raised his eyes at Keilan, but the person in question didn''t reply, already moving.

    Damien grumbled but followed, All the while murmuring at how stupid it''d be if they ended up dying to some sort of abnormal wind elemental after all they''d just recently survived.

    The thing in question didn''t look like anything special, other than its visible characteristics and how it seemed to swirl mezmerisingly in a pattern Damien wasn''t sure he could ever predict, while still being stationary. Other than that, it didn''t emit anything Damien could feel. No aura. No deep instinctive feeling. It didn''t even affect the wind Damien could feel in the room. It was simply just... There.

    "Can you hear it?" Keilan whispered.

    A dry answer. "No."

    "Maybe you aren''t close enough... Move closer."

    Damien did. "I still can''t hear anything, Kei."

    "Are you sure?"

    "I am certain, Kei. However, I could ask you the same question. Are you sure you''re okay? Maybe your injury had some adverse effects on your... Senses?" But Keilan ignored him.

    "Maybe you should touch it, Dame." He suggested.

    "I''m not touching that thing."

    "Why?" His brother looked at him with confusion.

    "Why? What sort of question is that? Keilan, I don''t know what exactly this thing is, and neither do you. I shouldn''t need to tell you not to touch things you don''t know." He looked at Keilan, hoping he''d finally gotten through, but the response was still the same. Keilan ignored his words entirely.

    "This thing is harmless. See." And he plunged his right hand into the swirling thing just as Gray screamed.

    [STOP!]

    Instantly, they both froze. Damien with his hands stretched towards Keilan, while the other with his hand into the swirling thing.

    "See?" Keilan smiled when after a few seconds nothing happened. "I said it was harmless."

    The thing melted into his arms.

    Everyone stared with horror as they waited for something to happen, some screaming and maybe clawing, but when after a few seconds nothing seemed to happen, Keilan gave a big, relieved smile.

    "Like I said, harmless." And then his eyes rolled into his head, and he collapsed.

    "KEILAN!" Damien rushed towards him, catching him just before he hit the ground. "Please, save him." He said to Gray.

    [He''ll be fine.] Gray said with certainty, staring at Keilan with a very intrigued expression. [He''ll wake soon enough.]

    "How do you know?"

    Just then, Keilan took a deep, shuddering breath, jolting upwards from Damien''s arms. His green eyes glowed blindingly for a moment before it settled, and when it did, its color took on a deeper hue. True emerald.

    [How''re you feeling?] Gray alighted on his shoulder.

    Keilan looked confused for a moment before his mouth widened into a big smile. "Fine. I''m very, very fine. Magnificent, even."

    "Are you sure," Damien asked with skepticism. "I mean, you just fainted."

    Keilan pushed of off him and stood up. The smile was still on his face as he raised it to the dome''s high ceiling. "I feel like I could fly." And that sentence, the way he said it, scared Damien.

    He was just about to argue against it, warning Keilan about his injury when Gray interrupted.

    [Stop worrying about him, Damien,] Gray said. [He''s as fine as he could be, atleast for now.]

    If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.

    "What?" Both Keilan and Damien looked at Gray.

    [Do you know what you just took in?] Gray expression twisted in a way Damien found hard to discern. [You just took in a fragment.]

    "A what?"

    [A fragment.] Gray repeated, and when he saw their confused look, he sighed. [I can''t even blame you for your ignorance. After all, you shouldn''t even be aware of this, talk less of getting anywhere near it.

    [The thing you just took in is, for all intent and purposes, is the key to becoming a Celestial Aspect.]

    Damien snorted, and from the corner of his eyes, he saw Keilan give an indulging smile. That was absurd.

    Gray saw their look. [Laugh all you want, until you start getting hunted for that thing in your soul.]

    That quickly sobered them up. "Gray, are you sure?" Keilan said. "I didn''t feel anything... Celestial coming from it."

    [And what would you expect a Celestial to feel like?]

    Keilan shrugged. "Well... Celestial, right? Isn''t that a definition on its own?"

    "You said Keilan was going to be hunted," Damien interrupted.

    Gray sighed. [Keilan, you just took in a fragment... A fragment that was placed in a,] he waved around at the layers and layers of uncountable runes filling the entire cavern from top to bottom ¡ª except the ground. [Vault. As you can now see. That tells us that this thing belongs to somebody, and that someone is going to want their prize back.]

    Damien froze, and so did Keilan. He looked around at the cavern again, finding no entrance whatsoever on the walls. It was like the only way to enter was through portation. But if that were true, then...

    [Yes, the only way to enter is through teleportation,] Gray answered when he asked. [And no, you can''t do the same. You see these runes on the ceiling? About twenty percent of them are locks keyed in to specific people, and only those people can enter or leave this vault.]

    Damien had never studied runescripts nor did he know jack shit about it. He''d known few people who dabbled in the art, and fewer still who were experts. From what he''d heard, the stuff was ridiculously hard to learn. Though he''d learned that, however much runes were rigid, they could still be tweaked, adjusted to fit a different purpose than was originally intended. He suggested the same to Gray.

    [Yes, I could certainly adjust some of them to key you both in,] Gray nodded. [But not before whoever they''re connected to is made, aware.]

    Damien''s first thought was to suggest Gray do it. He and Keilan could handle whoever came. But that thought quickly died out the moment he remembered he wasn''t back in his home planet anymore. He couldn''t expect the same rules that

    "How do we get out then? We just blast through the walls?" He stared at the wall calculating how much force he should put in to completely break through it.

    [Don''t even try it,] Gray warned. [Those walls are so powerful I doubt even your image-enforced strength would be capable of making a single impression. And if I didn''t count that, there''s the remaining seventy percent runes that are meant for security. One step close to those walls and you''d be dead before you can blink.]

    Damien froze.

    Gray tiny hands pointed at the rune layers around the sides of the huge upside-down bowl.

    [Those runes running around the walls... They''re imbued with so much technique that you could trigger one and find yourself ninety-nine percent younger. Or you could trigger another and find yourself in another room, stuck there till your thousand years of remaining life are wasted. Another rune there will see you dead so fast that the only thing you''d feel is a fraction of a second of heat. And then there''s th¡ª"

    "Okay! Okay, we get it!" Keilan raised his hands. "Though if there''s no way out, how did we get in?"

    [That''s what I''m still figuring about. Merak''s portal was supposed to drop us in one of the Lese outer territories. Something must have happened to divert our transfer to this place.]

    Damien didn''t know how, but he was sure they could hear the sounds of laughter. He looked at the others, seeing their ignorance, and then he kept his mouth shut.

    "Wait, can that happen?" Keilan looked up from where he was examining one of those runes.

    [Oh, definitely. But that can only be accomplished by a few beings, and I''m assure you that that kind of thing is very bad.]

    "Why?" Damien asked.

    Gray stopped from the dozen things he was probably doing that they weren''t aware of, and then he snapped his fingers, manifesting a dark wall of absolute black in mid-air. Damien compared the color to that of Merak''s hair... a color beyond black. And running and twisting along the black wall in a pattern Damien didn''t understand were lines of purple... and they were many... Like thousands and millions many. Oh, and they softly glowed.

    [This is, for easier understanding, the dimension of space¡ªobviously, it''s a far lesser version of what it truly is¡ªwhich falls under the sole dominion of the Throne of Space, Space, or as it is commonly known, The Gatekeeper. This black wall is space as we know it. An endless, ever expanding  dimension that still fills even the most powerful Ascendant with awe whenever they cross through it.

    [Running along this dimension, in a deeper layer invisible to all but a few, are what are called, gateways. Those gateways are what people use when they teleport or portal out. They''re not the same gateways you know, just so you don''t misunderstand. And at any given moment, there are an unimaginable ¡ªeven for me¡ª amount of beings passing through them... Unimaginable.

    [To be able to find someone in those gateways, even though you''ve managed to identify which areas of space the lane passes through, is all but impossible. It would require a mind capable of scanning through entire galaxies... And those are the kinds of beings you don''t want finding you.]

    Keilan frowned. "Are they the people searching for Damien?"

    [No,] Gray snorted. [They''re the people who''ll use him as a means to curry favor towards those who are.]

    At this, Damien slowly sat on the ground. He wasn''t afraid of dust since there seemed not to be any. Not that he should be surprised. To say he was overwhelmed was an understatement, Damien was contemplating if it''d be easier to simply give up and just walk through those runes on the walls. Look at him, he could barely handle a few Spirit lords and a King in a dumbed down construct he called an avatar. He couldn''t handle beings like that. All the time Gray had been warning of his inherited enemies, Damien had been imagining beings like Spirit Kings or Ascendants. A Sot Ambitious? Yeah he knew. But when no clue was found on the earth after years of searching, he''d began looking to the skies. After all, anybody that could threaten Ra¡ªThe World Spirit ¡ª not to kill him or blast an inanimate Gray into the sky was someone extremely powerful, right? But his mind struggled to conceptualize beings who could who scan entire galaxies with their minds. Damien didn''t know how large a galaxy was, but he imagined it must be extremely large, right? Heck, he couldn''t even scan the entirety of Camlen, talk less of an entire Galaxy. Damien gave up and stood. He couldn''t do anything if those people found him, no matter how much planning was done. All he could hope for was that he was never found. Other than that, he was simply going to live his life.

    "Let''s get back on topic. How do we get out of here?"

    [We can''t. I mean, it''s not impossible, but the only way to get out of this vault is to simply shatter through those runes from a distance.]

    "Why didn''t you suggest it earlier?"

    Gray sighed. [Because it''s the same as tweaking those runes: We''d be loudly announcing ourselves, and worse, it wouldn''t be one person that''ll come. You do not want to draw the attention of the person who owns this vault.]

    Might as well get it over with. "Who''s it?"

    Absently, Gray answered. [A Divine King.]

    Uhhh, Damien scratched the back of his head. "I know what a Spirit King is, Gray. What''s a Divine King?"

    Gray signed. [This is the reason why we didn''t want you wallowing in that backwater you call a planet. A Divine King is a Spirit King on the verge of Ascendency. Their on their last Domain tier before becoming Ascendants.]

    Damien jumped. "Great! They''re still Spirit Kings, so the World Spirit of this planet will fight them if they try to get in. Let''s go." He said, and then began heading towards the walls, his mind contemplating how to shatter the walls Infront of him without collapsing the entire thing.

    [Damien,] Gray called. [The World Spirit''s dead.]

    Damien stopped.

    "What?" He said as he turned around, Keilan also looking to Gray with wide, confused eyes.

    [The World Spirit of this planet is dead.]

    "Is that even possible?"

    [Ha! World Spirits can be killed, Damien. They''re just really, really had to take down. It all comes down to precision.]

    "How''s the planet still standing, then?" Damien asked. Now that he really paid attention, he noticed how off the atmosphere was. Everything just seemed so... Monochrome.

    [Like I said: Precision.]

    "Gray, if we can''t break through the walls to get out of this place, how do we escape?" Keilan interjected, his hands raised to stop Damien from spewing out another question.

    The gray tiny figuring smirked.

    [We''re not going out, we''re going in.]

    Damien looked around at the bare round cavern. "Where?"

    In answer, a ripple spread out from Gray, so subtle Damien only saw but couldn''t feel the effects. And from the middle, where the fragment once hung, a single crack formed in space, tearing its way down in one smooth line until it was almost seven feet long.

    Out of nowhere, a gong sounded, making Damien cringed at the horrible sound.

    [Behold!] Gray wriggled his hands in a dramatic gesture. [My solution!]

    Nobody was amused.

    "Your solution?" Keilan eyed the line. "Where does it leads?"

    Damien didn''t need to ask what Keilan meant, he could already feel the spatial energy spewing out from it.

    At Keilan''s question, Gray''s features immediately went from smug to chagrin.

    [Ahhh, I don''t know,] he said. [I didn''t check.]

    "Why am I not surprised," Damien palmed his face. "We have no choice though. Might as well take the risk and see where it leads."

    Keilan answered with a shrug.

    Damien wasn''t going to be stupid about it though. Risky it might be, but he wasn''t going in unarmed. He stretched out his hands, "I''m definitely not dying without you in my hands," He said, to the grumbling of Gray, who disappeared to wrap around him as a coat and in his hands as a weapon.

    For Keilan, the blond haired man mimicked Damien, stretching out his hands and then frowning when nothing appeared.

    "Keilan, you can''t summon your weapon," Damien reminded him, to which the other man simply sighed, "so much for the great and mighty Stormshredder."

    "Don''t worry, Merak said it''s not permanent." Damien consoled.

    Together, they approached the spatial tear. Damien studied the thing, finding nothing of note. With a deep breath, he punched the line, his hand disappearing up to his elbow, and like a curtain, Damien parted the line, dividing it until a hole was formed.

    Still getting nothing, they jumped inside, Gray cackling all the way.

 Chapter 96 : Prison Break I

    Damien stepped into a cavern similar to the one he''d just stepped out from: artificially hollowed out and smoothed all around. There were runes here, however, these were not as much as the previous one. And it didn''t take Gray to point it out for Damien to figure out what those runes were for.

    "These are runes meant to hold something," Keilan murmured, looking through the high ceiling.

    "Yeah," Damien agreed. Unlike the runes in the previous cavern which were hard to discern because of their diversity, these ones all took the same role, which rang through the little ambient energy like a bell.

    Concerning what was being held, Damien only had to look forward to getting his answers.

    Standing in a row facing where he''d just appeared were a group of people. Damien counted close to twenty, arraigned in rows, five abreast, with arms spread sideways, facing the entrance from where he''d come through. Weird.

    "Gray? Why are they like that?" He asked as he studied the faces. They all wore neutral expressions, with hollow eyes that spoke of something dreadful had Gray not immediately explained.

    [Prisoners,] the grey colored being rubbed its chin, slowly drifting closer. [Held in stasis by concepts of Mind, Gravity, and Space.]

    He pointed at the circles of runes in which each prisoner was standing in.

    Damien frowned as his eyes went over the runes, getting nothing other than a mild migraine and a creeping wish to just lay down and sleep.

    [Yeahhh, don''t get too close,] Gray said and a gust of wind pushed Damien back.

    "Can you figure out their identity?" Keilan spoke up, and there was a new shine to his eyes that made Damien frown.

    [Already done,] Gray said. [So before we release them, a few warnings have to be set first.]

    He looked at them both, getting their permission, before he continued.

    [Both of you should never speak of what just happened back there.]

    He gestured back at the tear in space they''d just stepped through.

    [Keilan is injured as it is, he can''t get into fight against Spirit lords, talk less of who''ll come after him once they figure out what he has within his soul.]

    Damien nodded, taking the warning to heart. Their experience on Ra had shown them what lengths the powerful could go for more power.

    [You should not even speak of it outside, as nothing said into reality can ever be truly hidden.] Gray looked at them, for once, with a serious expression. [There are ways to peel secrets that don''t require capturing the holders. If you want to talk about this, a mental message is okay, and even that is going to be risky at times. But I''ll warn you when that time comes.]

    A shiver ran down his spine and Damien nodded. [Second: The knowledge of your home world should stay hidden, same as the previous warning. Both are risks against different enemies.]

    Another nod. [Good. Now that that''s done, let''s get to freeing these needful souls,] he said, and the essence of wind gathered on his tiny palm.

    "Hold on!" Damien interrupted. "Warnings, I can accept. But Gray, you can''t just free people without telling us first. What if they''re hostile?"

    Keilan nodded in agreement, but Damien got the notion he wasn''t entirely present. He let it go for now.

    [Didn''t I tell you?] Gray said with a frown.

    "Tell me what?"

    The grey man gestured at the dull-eyed prisoners. [These are our way out.]

    "You can''t be serious," Damien scoffed. "Gray, they''re prisoners. They can''t get themselves out."

    [You''ll see,] Gray said, and before any of them could so much as blink, the wind blade flashed.

    All over the room, on the rune circles holding each prisoner still, wind blades appeared, an echo of the one wielded by Gray. Simultaneously, they all slashed down on a single rune in each circle, tearing into the paved floor.

    Damien froze, power at the tip of his fingers as he waited for something, some kind of light show or indication that something had just occurred. But nothing happened. The only indication whatsoever of the act committed by Gray was the immediate clarity in the eyes of the standing prisoners.

    He watched with held breath as they blinked once, twice ¡ª their raised hands falling ¡ª and then focus shone in their eyes, which was immediately directed at Damien and his brother standing beside him.

    "Well, this is something you don''t see every day," a man at the front chuckled.

    Looking at him, Damien would have taken him as no older than his early twenties, but he quickly discarded that idea, seeing as beings of higher realms ¡ª which he was, if the massive power Damien felt from him was any indication ¡ª usually had some say about their physical appearance.

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    His hair was a curl of golden brown, tied back in a short ponytail. His black eyes, tinged with a bit of crimson, stared at Damien with open curiosity. His eyebrows, which were curved in an expression of confusion were a little bit more bushier than Damien''s. And Damien could see the nascent appearance of a beard under his chin.

    He was putting on a skin-tight suit of black with a jagged line of crimson lightning curving around both his arms and legs, with the symbol of a crimson lightning striking down on a black throne. They all were, though will varying symbols.

    "Spirit lords," another man huffed. "How did they get in here?"

    This one looked somewhat older, maybe three or four years older than Damien. His hair was black with a strand of crimson running down his brow. His dark eyes stared at Damien with suspicion, and Damien''s heart skipped a beat when he met those dark, deathly eyes.

    An Avatar.

    "How did you get in here?" The man said, taking a threatening step forward.

    Both Damien and Keilan went into battle mode immediately. The wind visibly rippled as Keilan''s emotions bled into it, and the atmosphere cooled as Damien''s powers rose just at the edge of his skin, ready to blast out at his command.

    He knew there was no way he and Keilan were going to survive this¡ª since there were fifty of them against his three. And judging from the power he could sense from them all, none were below Spirit lord¡ª but he sure as wasn''t going to lay down and simply die.

    "Behave, Nalon," the first man spoke. "They have freed us, and to treat them as anything but grateful is ill-mannered. Besides, you don''t want to go against your karmic debt, do you?"

    Reluctantly, with a grimace, the avatar stepped backward, leaving Damien and Keilan with a nod of apology. Though he felt relieved, Damien didn''t let his guard down.

    The man who''d spoken¡ªthe first one¡ª stepped forward, gracing them with a nod and a half. "My name is Vanis, of house Verille," he said with a look that spoke of recognition from Damien, like they should have recognized the name. "And I thank you for freeing us from captivity."

    Damien blinked in confusion, looked at Keilan, and got a shrug, and then they both nodded back.

    With a look of understanding, Vanis said. "You don''t recognize the name, do you?"

    With a grimace, Damien shook his head. "No."

    "Which means you''re not from Lese," he rubbed his chin. "You''re not our captors, which makes your fortunate ¡ªatleast, for us¡ª appearance intriguing. May I ask how you appeared here?"

    Damien winced, remembering the warning Gray had given them a few minutes past. However, he decided to go for honesty, a curated one.

    "I don''t know," he answered. "We stepped through a portal and suddenly appeared here."

    "Ahh, a disrupted portalling," Vanis nodded. "There are few ways something like that could happen, and since you happen to be in the same vicinity as us," he waved at the others who were already beginning to gather around. "I''d say something comes to mind."

    He looked to his side, where the avatar, Nalon, was standing, and then snapped his fingers. "Get us out of here."

    "As you will, my lord."

    If the atmosphere had been a bit hostile when Damien and Keilan prepared to fight, now it was full-on wrathful.

    A great pressure fell on them as a being stepped out of a tear in space, causing a violent crack to carved through the rune filled ceiling. Keilan grunted as he was forced down on his knees, and Damen stepped back, wary. Confusion immediately marred his face when he found himself unaffected by the pressure. He felt its presence at the back of his mind, but for some reason, it didn''t affect him.

    As quickly as it''d come, the pressure vanished, leaving a roiling atmosphere in its wake. Damien rushed toward Keilan, helping him up while his senses scanned the other man''s body, fearful about his spiritual injury opening.

    He drew Keilan back as he looked at the being that had just appeared, finding a unsurprising resemblance to Nalon. The man was ten feet tall with a dark devouring eyeball and a full-on crimson hair that danced on nonexistent winds. His body was sculpted completely from essence, Damien detected¡ªthe essence of destruction¡ª which caused a brief bout of surprise. The body was covered in the same skin-tight suit his avatar had been wearing. Although that was immediately covered up in a flowing robe of black and crimson. His radiating might was such that it instantly washed away any notion of a fighting from Damien. This wasn''t someone they could even attempt to contend with, talk less of beat.

    "Surprising," Vanis looked at Damien with intrigue. "You withstood his aura. That''s something you don''t just see from anyone." He coughed as he saw the look on both Damien''s and Keilan''s faces. "However, I apologize for the abruptness of it all. I should have warned you."

    "Let''s not waste time," Nalon interrupted, already striding towards a wall, his avatar having disappeared when at one point. "They should be appearing at any moment."

    Vanis nodded, gesturing at both Damien and Keilan. "We should go."

    Though he was reluctant at first, his hesitation was quickly washed away when he thought of house easy it would take them to kill him. Which they could have done at anytime they wanted.

    With a single punch, Nalon carved a large hole large enough for two people to cross through, pulverizing earth into sand and dust. Damien crossed over just behind Vanis, Keilan at his side.

    They came out into a hallway made of smoothed-out walls, just like where they''d just appeared from.

    Without waiting for the rest to step out, Nalon continued onward, Vanis following behind, with Damien and Keilan forming the third row.

    "Where are we going?" Keilan asked.

    Vanis looked behind. "Out, of course."

    His answer caused a frown on Damien''s face. "How? I thought there wasn''t a way out of here."

    The other man, Vanis, raised an eyebrow. "And what made you think that?"

    Not willing to take the blame, Damien mentally dragged Gray from his head, bringing him to full view. "Him."

    The tiny gray man huffed.

    [Rude,] he said. [I was just getting to the good part in my book.]

    Keilan looked over. "You read?" He said with confusion, confusion that was also mirrored on Damien''s face.

    [Of course, I read,] Gray said, and then turned to Damien. [What else do you think I spend my time doing in that empty void you call head?]

    Damien had to force down a sharp retort when someone coughed, Vanis speaking up an instant later. "A minder... And a mouthy one, too. No leash?"

    Damien grunted. "I wish." He didn''t say more than that.

    Understanding that nothing more was going to be said about Gray, Vanis moved on. "To your question. Yes, your minder was somewhat right. You cannot leave this place," he then gave a mischievous smile. "Unless you have a Spirit King with you."

    Damien looked at the towering man striding at the front, his footsteps thudding heavily on the ground as he moved.

    Deciding not to torment himself any longer by staring at the power incarnate leading them, Damien turned back to Vanis. "Do you know where we are?"

    Vanis shrugged. "An outpost, probably. Somewhere far but not in the main territories of our captors; otherwise, we have had a chance at escaping."

    "Why''s that?"

    "Because we''d be dead," The Verille lord smiled. "A prisoner of the Aveanii is forever a prisoner."

    His next question was rolled over as Nalon voice came in then, "Prepare yourselves, we have company." And as soon as he''d spoken, the wind flowing through the passageway picked up, a gentle twist that didn''t do more than ruffle their clothes. And when it finally died down, something stepped out.

    "Bird man!" Gray shouted.

 Chapter 97 : Prison Break II

    From his awakening till this moment, Damien had come across a significant amount of different races. He''d met the elves, who, although looked human in appearance¡ªexcept for their ears¡ª carried themselves as a separate race from humans. Where most humans were brutish and barbaric, an elf was the opposite: Regal and Majestic. They carried themselves with such pride they often looked down on humans as no different from animals. That had resulted in no small amount of wars being fought just because some human royalty got slighted by the cutting tongue of an elf.

    He''d met the dragons. Large and majestic creatures who radiated might merely from their presence. While at times they were violent and prone to quick and animalistic wrath, they were still recognized worldwide as a supreme race, even by the proud elves.

    He''d also met the beastkins. Creatures born without sapience but at some point in their lives gained the ability to think and speak like the other supreme races. Their race came with a myriad number of species, making it impossible to truly give them a fair grade.

    He''d met the dwarves, a very reclusive race who usually preferred the permanent darkness of their underground tunnels to the brightness of the surface. They were hardly seen out of their forges other than to trade weapons with the surface dwellers. However, just like every other race, there were oddities. Some dwarves having taken up contracts on the surface as mercenaries and crafters for top-tier nations and organizations

    The thing that barred their way was a race Damien had never come across before. It had the head of a bird, a raven, to be exact, with a black plume falling over the shoulders of a humanoid body...a body which was so thick and packed with powerful muscle that the air warped at its proximity. It had human legs, with five toes, and aside from the claw tipped fingers, the only thing differentiating it was the head. Its beak was raised in what Damien recognized as a haughty gesture, a sign of superiority, and on its black surface were three dots of silver in a line that led up towards twin blazing orbs gazing down on them like they were insects.

    From its back erupted twin curtain of wings, so wide they blotted out the view of the passageway behind it.

    "Save me the trouble of cleaning up your filth," it said. "Return to your cage."

    Nalon stepped forward, saying nothing.

    "Psst, Damien," Keilan shoved Damien on the ribs. "Is that a man chicken?"

    Eye twitching, Damien shoved back. "Shut up." He paused, and then added. "No, it''s a chicken man."

    "It''s a man chicken," his brother argued back. "Look at it; it''s made of chicken first and then man after. So, Chicken. Man."

    "No," this time, Damien turned towards his brother. "It''s a man chi¡ª"

    "Will you both cut it out," Gray hissed. "You''re drawing attention to yourselves."

    Damien forced himself not to jump, slowly turning forward to see that multiple eyes had been drawn in by their little argument.

    Vanis''s eyebrows were raised, with his lips tugging a little to the side in a failed attempt to look unamused. Nalon rewarded them with a brief glare before turning back towards the man chicken, who didn''t even look at them, having never taken its eyes away from Nalon.

    "I will not repeat myself," it said.

    "Can you handle it?" Vanis said to Nalon, ignoring the man chicken.

    "It''s a third domain," Nalon said.

    "Is that a no?"

    Nalon snorted. "I was qualified enough to be made your warder, Vanis. A third domain shouldn''t be too much of a problem for me."

    "Such brazenness," the man chicken said, its voice reverberating down the entire hall, shaking loose a few rocks from the walls. "I shall enjoy dismantling you."

    Damien didn''t have time to blink before he and the rest of the former prisoners were all enveloped by a wave of crimson, shielding them from the aftermath as Nalon and the man bird crashed into each other, shattering the passageway and carving out a massive crater.

    [Well, now we have our way out,] Gray quipped, amidst a rain of sand and falling rock, which parted to reveal a cloudless sky of black, filled with tiny pinpricks of light.

    Damien had seen a lot of great battles in his life. He''d even fought in some. Battles that were so great they changed the layout of the land, completely leveling mountains and creating new ones. He''d participated in battles that had dried up and shifted the paths of rivers. Heck, his last battle had destroyed a massive portion of a city which was home to millions. And yet... And yet, he hadn''t seen anything come close to what was happening right in from of him.

    He felt the pressure as the two Spirit Kings clashed. Not spiritual pressure, no. This was a consequence of the ambient essence being cowed. Their every exchange visibly warped the world, twisting and folding it in such an unnatural way that had him turning away his eyes lest he suffer the migraine he could feel coming.

    They¡ªhe and the other escapees¡ªwere surrounded by an orb of shifting crimson energy, watching through it as Nalon exchanged blows with the bird Spirit King, who had a sea of some kind of essence stretching far behind it.

    A domain, Damien recognized.

    From the domain erupted a thousand blades of cutting essence, firing both at Nalon and those behind him. Fearing for the worst, Damien stepped back, shoulders squared just in case they also needed to fight. He knew there was nothing he could do in a battle of this magnitude, which would definitely lead to his death. Thankfully, the only good thing about stepping into a fight like this was that he''d be dead before he knew what hit him.

    Nalon waved his staff and Damien watched with amazement as a sliver of energy peeled off from the orb, the tendrils forming into a wall of Crimson lightning. And when the blades hit, they simply evaporated with a loud popping sound, sending quakes down into the crater they were in.

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    In response, a large fist made of the same crimson essence manifested over Nalon, its shape going as far as the elbow. And with a great pressure that saw their domain-crafted shield jostle slightly, Nalon sent it against the bird thing, causing another explosion that wiped out another large swath of earth.

    [He can''t keep this up for long,] Gray spoke up, drawing the attention of both Vanis and Keilan.

    By now, they''d already destroyed so much land Damien couldn''t see the end of the crater, even with his spirit lord-enhanced vision. The battle kept digging them deeper and deeper into the earth.

    "Why?" Damien asked.

    [Unlike the Aveanii over there, Nalon isn''t making full use of his domain, which is why he''s on the defensive. And while that might work for the moment, his defenses will eventually give, if not against this Aveanii then against another.] Gray said, and for some reason, looked at Vanis for back up.

    The other man smiled slightly, a nod of acknowledgment going to Gray.

    "Your minder is correct," he said. "Nalon is a second domain Spirit King, while the Aveanii is a third. Fighting a higher-tiered individual with such a significant crutch as failing to utilize your domain properly is a recipe eventual disaster. " He then smiled devilishly. "Which is why Nalon won''t be fighting him to the death. This is just a stalling tactic."

    Damien was just about to ask who they were stalling for when the sky tore, the ripping sound tearing into Damien''s ears like clothes shredding. And then a mass of crimson energy poured in, swallowing the dark skies and replacing it with an ocean of roiling lightning spreading so far that his eyes could only take in a fraction of its size.

    Like the beat of a thousand drums, thunder boomed, shaking the world in such fury that the two dueling spirit lords immediately ceased their fight, retreating away from each other. That was the last attention Damien paid them.

    The previously dark world was painted a bloody crimson as red lightning flashed all over.

    That was when the pressure came.

    Power of such breathtaking strength descended on the world with such crushing power that this time Damien grunted, forced down on his knees so fast he felt his bone crack. He felt like a dozen mountains had been stacked onto his shoulders, crushing him down slowly and excruciatingly. He wasn''t the only one, everyone else crashing down on their knees, with the two Spirit Kings managing to do it with somewhat grace.

    Through the pain of his cracked knees, Damien heard Vanis''s voice. "Uncle."

    He looked back in shock; what sort of family members did this guy have? He was about to voice out his thoughts when the world heaved, and something else rose in challenge.

    Instantly, the orb rose into the sky. "We can''t stay here any longer," Nalon said, the orb parting as he stepped inside. His opponent didn''t contest.

    "Why?" Damien couldn''t help but ask.

    [Because, one Divine King has just made an entrance,] Gray answered. [The Aveanii''s has also responded.]

    And just like that, the ground warped, going from bare, barren rock to a mass of brown essence, with tiny wisps of energy rising off of it. In the distance, so far Damien shouldn''t have been able to see, but for some reason could, a bird man stood.

    It stood calmly in the center of its domain, which matched the crimson one In size ¡ª judging from what Damien could see. He felt its attention brushed over them as they flew, blacking out his mind for a moment, but it didn''t act, pegging them as insignificant. Instead, its beaked face turned upwards towards the roiling crimson sky.

    "Xirou," the Aveanii said, its voice so deep the air quailed at the sound of it. "Why Are You Here?"

    In response, another voice answered, coming from nowhere and everywhere. It brought with it the promise of destruction, of utter annihilation. Nalon''s orb-shaped domain cracked at the sound of it, leaving the man with a grunt, a piece of his body cracking into dust. "You Have Something Of Mine, Je''Ruh. I Am Here To Collect."

    The only warning they got was a deep thrum, a sound that shook Damien to the bones. And then a sea of crimson lightning fell, dousing the world in destruction.

    Rising fast into the sky, Damien watched as the mass of roiling earth essence rose, forming into a low dome that took in the lightning impact without a flinch.

    It was swift in its response.

    Tendrils of earth essence began twisting, snaking out from their positions towards others. For as far as Damien''s eyes could take in, he watched those tendrils twists into the shape of needles, twenty foot long and pointed at the sky. Hundreds and thousands manifesting every second.

    "We won''t survive this," Damien said with wide eyes, watching as a single one of those needles, which brimmed with pressure equivalent to a peak tier Spirit lord. And there were thousands upon thousands rising alongside it.

    Nalon grunted, adjusting his footing. "Hold on," he said, and then he slammed his palm onto the surface of his domain orb.

    Damien felt the mass of energy being poured into the domain, so great that a single minute of it was three times his soul well.

    And then they fired.

    Damien didn''t see them move, but he felt the displaced air from their passage. The orb shook heavily as Nalon navigated it away from the mass of invisible needles, somehow seemingly able to see them.

    Damien closed his eyes, tightening his grip on Keilan. Wait, when did he do that? It didn''t matter, he was soon going to die, and at a young age at that.

    Why, why did it have to end so soon? He had a lot of things to accomplish. Adrian was still far away, probably in tears from their absence. Damien couldn''t die. He didn''t want to die.

    He gritted his teeth as a something tore through the side of the orb, shattering it into motes of energies. And he had to block out his hearing to the screams that sounded as some of their group were blown away.

    He felt pressure on his hand as Keilan also tightened his grip. "Dame?"

    "What?" Damien grunted without opening his eyes.

    "You need to open your eyes."

    "Why?"

    Keilan shook him. "Just do it. I think you might want to see this." He whispered. "Definitely, you''ll want to see this."

    Tentatively, Damien peeled open his eyelids, watching as spikes of lightning streaked down, seemingly at random, but wherever they licked, explosions resounded, leaving behind rocks and sand to fall back down.

    "How are we not dead?" He whispered.

    "The Verille Master is lending us his protection," Nalon said.

    Damien looked at Vanis, who snorted and then pointed upwards.

    And then Damien saw him.

    He was a man of middling look, with a black, ruffled hair and twin burning crimson orbs located where his eyes should be. His lips were spread wide in a manic grin as he gazed down at the Aveanii Divine King.

    The man punched down on the mass of roiling lightning he was standing on, and then the rain of lightning ceased. Damien was about to take a deep, relieved breath when all of a sudden, giant red beams of destruction crashed down on the earth, tearing and punching through the dome protection set up by the Aveanii Divine King.

    The Aveanii waved its hands in a contemptuous manner, erasing its failed defenses. Its next act almost popped out Damien''s eyes.

    From the ocean of crushing earth essence, something crawled out. At first, it was a single arm, clawing through the mass. Soon, another arm followed, then a head, a body, and finally an Aveanii came up. Damien instinctively recognized it as an elemental, judging as the makeup of its form was constructed purely out of earth essence.

    Within three seconds, a million Aveanii elementals had already risen, wings spread wide with bared weapons in their hands. And they continued growing.

    "Good," The Verille Divine King smiled. "Atleast You Aren''t Going To Be A Bore."

    And then elementals in his own image, made out of crimson lightning, came into existence.

    Of all the beings manifested, on both sides, Spirit lords made up the majority, and not weak ones either. There were a few Spirit Kings Damien took notice of, but those ones stayed back, hovering behind their Divine kings.

    With an unheard Command, both armies fell into each other.

 Chapter 98 : Prison Break III â€” An inevitable tide

    Over the remnants of a world, a cataclysmic battle was taking place. The sky bled a deep crimson as red lightnings of great power¡ª mighty enough that they formed craters miles wide¡ªdevastated the land. Mountains crumbled at their mere passage while rivers were reduced entirely to bare rocks. In a few seconds, the land over a thousand miles in radius was destroyed and reshaped into an image barely reminiscent of its previous shape.

    From the earth rose needles of equal power to the lightnings, whistling into the sky with the weight of a dozen mountains. Their effects on the world were such that the world warped as they passed by, gravity warping and folding into itself, with thick openings in space forming in their wake.

    Damien watched in awe and fear as the armies of two divine Kings crashed into each other, tearing out explosions a shaking the world in their fury.

    An earth, bulky warrior wielding a huge Warhammer crashed into another warrior, this one crimson and lithe, wielding twin blades with serrated edges. Crimson danced out of Earth''s way in two quick strides, effortlessly like it could read its opponent''s footsteps. And just when Damien began to think Earth was probably out of its depths, it proved the contrary.

    Although it lacked the quick and easy mobility of its opponent, it proved it wasn''t an easy opponent to take down, as shown when the twin blades tore into its sides, shockingly leaving only two light cuts despite their evident sharpness. Crimson was quick enough that it instantly withdrew, but by then, it was already too late.

    Earth element grew over the blades, trapping their serrated edges just as the Warhammer came up out of nowhere, catching Crimson dead-eyed under the chin. The crimson warrior was lifted off its feet like a flunged doll, crashing into the midst of another fight. And that was all Damien could see before Nalon whisked the orb further upwards.

    "Those things look smart," Keilan commented. "I thought they''d be... Simple."

    "I don''t know much about the realm of the Divine Kings," Vanis shrugged. "But I''ve seen enough to note that not all those warriors you see here are as smart as you think."

    When Keilan and Damien both looked at him in confusion, he explained.

    "From what I''ve seen and the little gossip they''ve let slip, the elemental armies of divine Kings are not all smart, or intelligent for that matter. Some are capable of independent thoughts, while others ..."

    He pointed at a duo who were battling a mile or two away in the sky. At first, Damien didn''t notice what the Verille lord was getting at, but then he saw it: the little lag in their battle, like they didn''t know what else to do after the first slash and smash. An instant later, they continued again, as if nothing strange had just occured.

    Damien knew how fast-paced Spirit Lords'' battles could be. A mistake made in a second could be the eventual determiner of that battle. And he knew how easy it''d have been for him to wipe out an enemy if they''d lagged off like that.

    "They''re automated," Damien realized, which brought a proud smile to Gray''s face. Strange. The grey being continued to stay quiet, leaving Vanis to continue.

    "Yes," the Verille lord said, seemingly not noticing Gray. "Look up there."

    He pointed at the domain proper, where Damien bore witness to the forms of three Spirit Kings, standing a step back behind the Verille Divine King. And although they took up subservient postures behind their creator, Damien had no delusions that those Spirit Kings were weak.

    They radiated power superior to even Nalon, a second-domain Spirit King. Crimson pillars of light burned around each of them, mixing with crackling lightnings. Damien had to admit that they made for a truly intimidating sight. They all seemed to be doing nothing, except one, whose right palm¡ªmade of lightning ¡ªwas pointed downwards.

    "That," Vanis continued. "Is what I call a ''Controller''. I don''t know the real term for them, and neither will Uncle tell me, so I simply termed them as controllers."

    "And," Damien swallowed nervously, fearing the sheer enormity of what he was about to ask. "They control all this?" He waved at the crimson armies... Millions, as they fought.

    Vanis shrugged, "I don''t know." And then he rolled his eyes. "Not privy to the knowledge, to the extent even my warder won''t tell me." He shot Nalon a glare, to which the man pretended not to see, pointedly looking anywhere but at Vanis.

    Damien opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted as their orb shook, lifting some people off their feet. He looked around, steadying himself on the glassy surface.

    "Uhh, what''s happening?" He said, just as the orb shook for the second time.

    [We''re being attacked.] Gray answered. [It seems our would-be captor does not want us out of this dead rock.] He pointed, and Damien saw.

    Down below, a few miles behind and flying towards them so fast Damien knew they''d catch up in no time, were two Spirit Kings. One was the Aveanii they''d crossed path with on their escape, the third domain. The second? Damien didn''t recognize him, but Nalon grunted as he took in their approach.

    "A third domain and a first domain," he muttered. "Not good."

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    They sped past the two warring armies unchallenged, a trail of warped energy the only thing left in their wake.

    "But it did nothing when we were leaving," Keilan said. "Why start now?"

    It was Nalon who answered.

    "The Aveanii''s have a warped sense of familiar relationship," the man grunted, steering the orb just as a whistle passed by. "The reason our escape wasn''t uncontested was so the Verille Divine Master would hold back."

    "And now?" Damien asked.

    "And now we''re approaching his domain, where his will holds absolute sway. Which means once we enter, master Xirou can finally go all out."

    "And the Aveanii Divine King doesn''t want that?" Keilan murmured. "Aren''t they equal in strength?"

    For the first time since they met, Nalon laughed. A bellyful laughter which rang somewhat awkward in Damien''s ears, seeing as the man had always taken on this brooding persona. Even Vanis smiled, and this time it wasn''t hidden.

    "This is an average Aveanii Divine King," Vanis explained. "Uncle Xi, on the other hand, is not. And the Aveanii Divine King knows it."

    With a suddenness that saw their vision colored, a golden black light enveloped their orb, slowing their light-speed ascent into an instant crawl. Nalon spat out some brown stuff which instantly transformed into whisps, disappearing into thin air. He crashed down on his knees, his eyes bugging out like they were about to fall off.

    "What''s happening?!" Damien said, uncaring of how panicked his voice sounded.

    [The Aveanii Divine King has decided to personally interfere,] Gray said grimly. [It''s dragging us back.]

    And truly, as Damien watched, the orb ¡ªwhile being slowly crushed¡ªbegan falling back downwards, drawing closer to their pursuers.

    "We''ll have to fight," Nalon said grimly and Damien followed his gaze downwards at the pursuers who were rapidly approaching. "I''ll handle the third domain," he said, and then looked up at the remaining sixteen or so Spirit lords gathered, most of which, Damien noticed, were peak tier. "Most of you won''t survive this." And that was all he said before the orb shattered, plunging them into utter chaos.

    As soon as Damien was bared to the world, without any form of protection, the first thing that assaulted him was the atmosphere. Energy burned in his senses, so powerful he felt it pressing both on his mind and body. A crackle just at the edge of his hearing. Heatwaves just shy of scalding. And the pressure...

    Damien had to firm his will just to stand against the pressure, a weight which seemed like a mountain dropped onto his shoulders.

    "Okay, before we go into the most dangerous battle of our lives," Vanis said, smiling grimly at the failed joke. He shared a look with Nalon, and something seemed to pass between them, and then he continued, leaving his warder to drift downwards to meet their pursuers.

    "As many of you might know¡ªor not," he said. "We do not have a Nature or life wielder with us, which means any injury incurred will not be healed until we''re safely out of here. I''d advise you to be careful, but truthfully, careful is not what we need at the moment if we aim to survive this."

    And out of nowhere, a weapon appeared in the right hand of the Verrille lord. A weapon brimming with crimson gold energy. On one end were twin blades, each a complete two-foot long, wickedly looking blade. And running down the golden handle were hundreds of tiny runes spiraling from the twin blades down towards another blade¡ªsingle this time¡ªjutting out at the other end.

    A bident.

    The man brimmed with crimson energy just as an Astral image manifested behind him, magnifying his power manifold, to the extent even Damien had to move back.

    His shock only lasted a while before he summoned his own, not wanting to be outshone.

    All around him, the air trembled as more than a dozen Spirit lords summoned their astral images. Damien couldn''t help the shiver that ran down his spine as he felt the atmosphere begin burning.

    He turned just as he felt Keilan move forward. "No Kei, you can''t join this."

    His brother''s face tightened, a grimace on his face. Thankfully, he recognized the risk he''d be putting everyone in, not only himself, if he partook in this battle.

    "Stay with him," Damien said to Gray, to which the little figure simply smiled and nodded.

    [Stay safe,] he said. [And don''t push yourself more than you have to.]

    Damien nodded, turning back to their group to catch Vanis looking at them with an inscrutable expression. The man nodded when he caught Damien''s eyes, and then they both turned towards their approaching enemies.

    Already, Nalon and the Third Domain King were battling. They flitted through the sky with such speed Damien instantly lost track of them, the only sign of their presence being the sound of a greater explosion ringing out in the distance.

    Like an inevitable tide, the other Spirit King drew closer. What preceded it was its aura. Damien felt it in the back of his mind as the effects of the Spirit King''s aura washed over him like a tsunami, crashing down onto him with a shivering effect.

    Although he didn''t feel the full effects, the other Spirit lords sure did. Damien sensed it as many of them visibly shivered, a few of them staggering as their knees wobbled, even though they were hovering in the air.

    Then the aura itself came. Damien felt the air constrained ¡ª tighter than before ¡ª as the proximity to the Spirit King''s presence shortened.

    Like the flame behind a shockwave, reality warped and twisted as the Spirit King approached, and he watch as two Spirit Lords lost consciousness, falling back to the earth.

    "Leave them," Vanis said, voice tight. "We have enough problems as it is. We don''t have the capability to take care of those too mentally weak to fight for their survival."

    Honestly, Damien hadn''t even wanted to. A majority of his mental faculties had been set out to deal with the aggressive effects of the Spirit King''s presence; he didn''t have enough to spare for those who couldn''t even make use of the entirety of theirs.

    "I wonder what your warder must be thinking, sending a bunch of lessers against me, children, in fact," The Aveanii Spirit King said as it came within half a mile of them. "No matter, though. I imagine I shall be rewarded handsomely when I deliver the dismantled corpse of the Desolate Duchess'' grandson back to her."

    "You talk too much," was all Vanis said, and then he attacked.

    Damien was behind him, so he was able to see clearly as almost a thousand bolts of Crimson lightning appeared over the other man, falling down on the Aveanii in a tide of destruction. This was an attack he knew well he had no chance of coming out unscathed.

    And he was also in full view as the Aveanii, contemptuously, waved its hands. A low thrum, barely perceptible, rang out, and like an ocean, it swallowed the lightnings.

    Damien didn''t let his shock, or the fear that crept in, stop him. He came in next, stars blinking into existence above him, dozens of them. And then he rained them down on the Aveanii...

    And his heart sank as, with visible ease, the Spirit King picked out one of the stars out of the air, erasing the rest without even looking.

    "Destruction... but warped," it said as it brought the star closer to its beady brown eyes. "Hmm... The properties in this are worth a good study."

    With a snap of its clawed fingers, Damien''s technique was reduced to smoke.

    Glancing at Damien, it said. "Fortunately for you, your corpse will need to be preserved, which means no dismantling for you."

    And then it attacked.

 Chapter 99 : Prison Break IV â€” Heaven Fall

    The only warning Damien got was the blinding spike in his spirit, and with all the strength he could muster, he dived to the side.

    A shiver ran down his spine as he felt a sharp pain down his legs. He looked down, coming face to face with a huge chunk of his lap missing, his bloodied bone peaking out.

    Gritting his teeth, he moved out of the way just as another attack came in, the other Spirit lords joining in. The air howled as the attack landed, the shockwaves pushing him back. Damien didn''t relent, he came in again, this time with a thick breath of destruction from both his arms just as Vanis manifested two titanic arms, overlaying them over his own. With sudden swiftness belaying its size, he punched.

    Damien detected it before he felt it. The air thickened, reality warping as a will imposed itself upon the world. His attack, Vanis''s, and other techniques from the other Spirit lords which landed alongside theirs, suddenly lost their powers, as if snatched up by a giant invisible hand. And like a tiny flame being snuffed out, their techniques vanished.

    Calmly, the Aveanii gazed down at them. "Disappointing," it drawled.

    Indignation burned within Damien at that. Anger. Sure, he was a Spirit lord. He knew he didn''t have any chance of contending with a Spirit King, especially one in their astral form, but the fact that it had been rubbed on his face, and in such an insulting manner, woke something up in Damien.

    Damien unfurled his will, stretching it wide till he felt like he was shrouded by a huge cloud¡ªa metaphysical one¡ªand then he pitted it against that of the Spirit King''s.

    He realized his mistake immediately, and would have surely had his mind shattered¡ªor worse, dead ¡ªhad Vanis and the other Spirit Kings not come to his rescue, saving him from the vast sea that was the will of the Spirit King. And even with that, they felt like a tiny dam pushing against the tide of a mightier body of water.

    But they still held.

    And with that, they pushed back, contesting the ambient essence in the area.

    "Unexpected..." The Spirit King said, its voice now steady and lacking the usual mockery. "I think I need to remove the children''s glove."

    And for the second time in a few days, Damien began the fight for his life.

    A stream of jagged crimson lightning fell on the Aveanii, accompanied by a swarm of star falls. Other techniques joined in too. Blue lightnings. High pressurized water. Balls of flames. Needles of darkness; they were all backed by the power of multiple astral images, increasing their powers manifold.

    Damien felt the power, and the Spirit King surely did. And this time, it had to contend against their will for it to be able to deploy its intent.

    The Aveanii crossed its muscled arms, taking the myriad techniques. The explosion pushed Damien back, and he had to grit his teeth to fight against the burning pain on his leg. When the smoke finally cleared, the Spirit King slowly emerged, unharmed generally but for a small singe on its forearms.

    And then the fight began In earnest.

    Damien dived just as the Aveanii pointed a finger in his direction, dodging quick enough to avoid an invisible attack that wiped out two elementals who had been brawling a mile or so behind him.

    He brought up his spear, slashing down just as he went past the Spirit King. Shockingly¡ªnot for him but for the Spirit King¡ªthe spear tore into the flesh of the Aveanii, shocking everyone around. Gray had always said countless times that he was more powerful than any Spirit King. Damien hadn''t taken him at his words. Now, with the evidence staring straight right at him, he finally allowed a bit of hope into his mind.

    The Aveanii''s eyes narrowed as it seemed to truly take in Damien for the first time, its beady brown eyes scrutinizing him from head to toe, and then to his weapon. It said nothing, but Damien knew that look, and it didn''t bode well for him.

    He flew back just as a curtain of crimson lightning appeared right In front of him, briefly blocking his view from the Aveanii. It lasted for only a second, until the Aveanii crashed through it, tearing open the crimson technique with its bare hands.

    More than a dozen techniques rained down on the Aveanii as it sped towards him, but the creature paid no true attention to them, dodging the truly hurtful ones and outright smashing others out of its way.

    Damien stretched his body''s capabilities to the limit, pushing it into dodging the swift approach of the Aveanii. An arm punched forward, barely missing him but clipping the side of his shoulder. Damien grunted in agony as another patch of his skin was ripped off, baring his bones to the world. He fought through the pain, widely slashing his spear In front of him to ward off the Aveanii. It didn''t matter.

    With a speed beggering that of light, it caught him by the wrist. A tightening of its palm saw Damien''s wrist break, and swiftly torn off a second later.

    The sheer agony of the injury blinded Damien for a second, and would have resulted in his death had Vanis not attacked at that moment, bringing down his bident on the Aveanii.

    A line of runes on the bident awoke, its power blazing into Damien''s senses. Luckily, the Aveanii sensed it, knowing it to be a threat, which resulted in it cutting of its grasp for Damien''s neck.

    "I know you''re not okay, but I just have to ask," Vanis said as he came to hover right in-between Damien and the Aveanii. "Are you okay?"

    Knowing what the man was trying to get at, Damien nodded. "I will be, just give me a sec."

    "That''s good," the other man smiled. "Because a second is all we have."

    Damien would have smiled but for the agony roaring all over his body. Searching for something to vanish the pain, his mind flashed back to a few days ago when he was him but wasn''t. When he''d summoned and tapped into those twin blazing pillars of energy. He remembered the feeling of one¡ªthe cool, regenerative feeling it gave him when he wielded it. Hopeful, he projected that feeling down on his body, willing for it to fix him, to which he was immediately shocked to realize nothing had happened. Instead, a new flood of pain erupted in his mind, projecting down into his body. He was in so much agony he failed to detect when someone arrived at his side. Only the sudden coolness and the shivering feeling that washed down his body was what alerted him.

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    Damien looked to the side, coming face to face with two snow white irises which were intensely trained on his face.

    "Thanks," he said as he took in a deep, relieved breath.

    His savior grunted, pulling away their bare hands from his skin, an armored glove made of ice instantly forming a moment later.

    "This is only a stop gap which could easily become harmful should true healing be delayed," the man said just as two short staffs appeared on both his hands.

    Damien nodded. "Thanks again...?"

    "Morec," the young man said. "Morec of house Queilon."

    "Thank you, Morec," Damien repeated. "I owe you one."

    Snow White eyes peered into that of grey, studying it for a moment before turning away with nothing but a grunt.

    Damien didn''t know whether to feel awkward or happy, but he sure felt relieved. He straightened his posture, shifting his spear with his mind to his left hand. He had zero training experience with his left hand, but like Elias used to say: There is no better teacher than pressure. Damien smiled at the memory. He missed Elias so much.

    Swiftly bringing his mind back to the present, he focused on the single Aveanii standing against over fifteen Spirit lords, finding its eyes trained on no one else but him.

    Damien felt the power locked in those eyes. Sensing the ocean waiting to be unleashed should one of them falter. And for the first time in his life, he trembled. Not at its aura, but at the real possibility of his death.

    He''d fought a lot of battles, with many of them coming close to his death. But the difference between those battles and this one was the surety. Damien knew that in a battle against another Spirit lord, a single mistake could easily lead to other hasty decisions which could end in his death. Those were events which could be circumvented with enough strength or good ol'' escape. This one was different. What did talent mean when he couldn''t dodge the attack of a faster and more powerful opponent. He had yet to take a direct hit from the Aveanii, only receiving a few grazes on his body; and those ones were powerful enough to wipe out his flesh down to the bones. What would happen if it landed a hit directly on his head? Damien shuddered at the thought.

    Usually, he wouldn''t have been afraid seeing as Gray was on the battlefield. The other being had shown that he could move Damien away from danger faster than even his senses could detect. But now, Damien knew how different a Spirit lord''s battlefield was compared to that of Spirit Kings. The sheer scale of the twin wills he could feel looming over everything was enough to disillusion him of any escape should his life be put to mortal danger.

    "Many of you will die before your Divine King rescues you," the Aveanii said just as twin curtains of feathers flared up behind it, a blade of vibrating energy appearing on its right hand. It raised the sound blade, pointing it at both Damien and Vanis. "You two will be among."

    And with a flap of its wings, it vanished. Damien''s heart skipped a beat the moment the Spirit vanished. And he was ashamed to say that he felt relieved that when the being reappeared, it didn''t appear next to him, instead it appeared to the side of a Spirit lord to the left, chopping the woman''s head in one swift stroke.

    Damien quickly got his fear in control, turning to follow the Spirit King, but by then, it had already disappeared.

    To the right, a body was cut in twain, parted from shoulder to hip.

    "He''s taking us out one by one," Damien said just as another Spirit lord fell behind them, his head chopped clean off.

    "I can see that," the Verrille lord gritted his teeth.

    To say Damien was afraid would be an understatement. He was terrified, shitless. They''d left the ground with twenty or so Spirit lords, a good number of which had been wiped out just from the passing technique of the Aveanii Divine King. A few others had succumbed to their fear at the approach of the Spirit Kings, blacking out and falling to the ground. And now the remaining were being torn apart one by one, without them even seeing their attacker.

    Slowly, he felt their barricade on the Aveanii''s mental strength crumble as the Spirit lords were slowly removed. Already, he knew that all it''d require was a strong push for the remaining to shatter, but for some reason, it didn''t.

    Closeby, a man panicked and fled, turning into a streak of light. He didn''t make it five meters before the light sputtered out, a body cut in half by the waist tumbling into existence an instant later.

    "We should teleport out of here," a voice mentally echoed in Damien''s mind.

    Shocked, he looked around, trying to find the person. It wasn''t until Vanis glanced at his left towards a lady in a purple battle robe that the identity of the speaker was revealed.

    "We could," the Verille lord replied. "But I''d seriously advise against it."

    Damien didn''t need to ask why, he already knew. Space travel was a pretty delicate thing, and an extremely volatile environment as this was a place where it was very unwise to try a teleport.

    "Then what do we do?" The lady asked again, this time sounding panicked. Damien couldn''t blame her, he was feeling the same. They were basically locked into themselves, unable to act as the Aveanii took them apart one by one.

    "When you meet the Abyssal Dragon," a voice whispered into their midst, sounding oddly joyful and mocking. "You tell it¡ª"

    The voice cut off sharply, replaced with a choking sound.

    Damien looked to the side, just in time to watch as the Aveanii materialized in full view, and he sucked in a breath at how close he''d been to death. He watched as the Aveanii, whose vibrating sword was inches away from the forehead of Vanis, slowly dropped down, dematerializing without a sound.

    The Spirit King''s eyes were wide opened, surprise plain in them. It tried to say something, its voice coming out patchy and warbled. And slowly, like a fire losing its accelerant, the light in its eyes died down, and an instant later, its body turned into some form of essence which soon dispersed into the atmosphere.

    Damien watched as, jutting out from where the heart of the Spirit King should have been, a crimson clawed hand pulled back. He looked down at the hand, tracing it back towards its owner: a crimson female with straight long hair crackling with tiny tendrils of lightning. Her eyes, which were a deeper shade of crimson, looked them over, briefly¡ªthe other Spirit lords¡ªbefore turning towards Vanis.

    "Go," she said, her voice echoing out without any form of inflection. Dead. "Your participation in this battle is over."

    And with a gesture, a swirling crimson portal opened right over them. Before any exclamation could be uttered out, Damien was swallowed up.

    He stumbled out a moment later on an obsidian platform. Amidst the cries of relief and sorrow, Damien heard Vanis murmur behind him. "We''re safe."

    He turned to face the other man, about to demand where his brother was when something impacted him.

    Feeling the presence of his brother, Damien took a deep breath, squeezing the arms wrapped around him.

    "I''m glad you''re alive," he whispered.

    "Me too," Keilan said. "You don''t know how terrified I was that you were going to die. If it wasn''t for Gray, I don''t know what I''d have done."

    Grateful to the little gray man, Damien nodded, pulling away from his brother.

    "Thank you, Gray."

    [Huh? Oh, yeah, yeah, sure.] Gray replied mentally. [Now go away, I have a story to catch up on.]

    Despite that, Damien still felt Gray''s attention on him. Shaking his head, he looked over at Vanis, finding the other man''s eyes already on them.

    "We''re safe," the young man repeated. "I''m sure of that."

    Feeling oddly assured, Damien looked around at his surroundings, finding the other survivors either in a mode of jubilation or mourning. Both instantly reminded him of how close he''d come to losing Keilan, and likewise, which also made him thankful, again.

    "Where are we?" Damien said as he finally took in their platform, or something like that. Because, truthfully, he''d never seen something like this.

    Vanis opened his mouth to reply when they felt it. The ambient essence reacting. This wasn''t the reaction of a common technique, this was something more, something deeper. Something Damien had only felt once in his life.

    He met the eyes of Keilan just as reality heaved, a jagged tearing sound piercing deep into both his physical and Spiritual senses.

    Everything blacked out for a second, the world plunging into utter darkness. And then he heard it... The words that came before all was turned to ruin.

    ART OF DESTRUCTION: HEAVEN FALL

 Chapter 100 : Staring Into The Abyss

    Damien had never seen a planet in its entirety before, and seeing one now, even one as desert-filled as this, still didn''t quench the awe that he felt.

    He stood on what was probably a space ship, or dimensional ship as Gray called it. The entire construct, at least the part that he could see and sense, was made up of some kind of black alloy that was seamlessly conjoined with some kind of red crystal, forming the shape of a seafaring ship... From what he could tell.

    The distance between the ship and the planet was so vast that Damien wouldn''t have been able to see nor sense it had it not been so large as to dwarf his view. There was a great depression on the celestial body, so vast Damien reckoned the end was probably on the other side of the planet. That was probably where the planet''s water body once lay, seeing as it was all now dried up and lifeless. Desert ridden.

    The other three vast landmasses, which rose significantly over the dried bedrocks, were what he swiftly recognized as continents, seeing as that was where the two Divine Kings fought.

    Over the planet, Damien watched as the Verrille Divine King called on his ascended technique, reality tearing below the domain as a jagged wound formed.

    It took a moment for Damien to realize why he could see the tear. Previously, the domain had been so thick with crimson that he''d found it hard to see through it, like a thick wall of Crimson paint. Now, it seemed to have lost a bit of its shine, its thickness, becoming somewhat transparent.

    Damien looked closer, his gaze slowly drawn in by the tear in reality, his vision stuttered as the opening seemed to widen, and as Damien stared into a realm of pure crimson, it stared back.

    With a start, he felt himself getting sucked in, something within him drawn in like a boat to a whirlpool. And no matter how he tried to pull back, he couldn''t seem to break free. Soon, his vision began darkening as he was slowly compressed, and just before his vision completely darkened, he felt the presence of Gray flared up within him, and darkness took him.

    <hr>

    The first thing Damien felt as he came to was the presence, the incomprehensible aura that made his entire being quiver. It was of such intensity and magnitude that Damien immediately felt himself choking, yet on reflex, when he tried to grab for his throat, he felt himself unable to do so.

    His eyes¡ªor at least whatever he had here that was helping him see¡ªsnapped wide open as he felt his being slowly being squeezed. He tried to fight back with his aura, but the feeling was like trying to push against the tide of a thousand-foot-tall wave with a plank. Eventually, he drowned. And as he felt himself slowly going under, his newfound vision dimming, something rose from within him.

    Gray''s presence flared up out of nowhere, flowing up to wrap around him, and instantly, Damien felt the aura''s effect lessen. It wasn''t completely gone, but he felt like he could keep it at bay for the moment until he figured out where he was and how to leave.

    And for the second time¡ªwithout being suffocated¡ªhe opened his eyes.

    "What. Was. That?" Damien gulped, or tried to. His body seemed to not register the command.

    [That was the passive presence of a Celestial,] Gray said, and for some reason, he sounded grim. [A Grand Celestial at that.]

    Instantly, Daimen''s interest was piqued, and he asked stupidly. "A Grand Celestial? And I survived its passive presence."

    With a snort, the other being replied. [You''re at the fringe section of its plane, which means its presence is somewhat diminished here, and for good reason too,] subtly, Gray nodged Damien''s attention to focus on his environs. [Look around and tell me what you see.]

    The first thing he noticed was the ocean of crimson lightning that he stood on. Its intensity and vastness were such that Damien quickly recognized that the Domain summoned by the Verrille Divine King was but a tiny dot compared to this. His metaphysical eyes widened as a thick bar of crimson lightning struck nearby, its thickness more vast than any planet Damien had ever seen. This thing could erase Ra with only a single strike.

    His eyes narrowed as he noticed other lights within the ocean: tiny golden lights in an ocean of crimson. There were uncountable, like stars in a sky. What baffled him was that despite how tiny and dim they were compared to the crimson ocean, they weren''t stifled or oppressed, like him. Instead, he felt the ocean part around them, like a rock situated in the middle of a raging river. And the presence... Damien felt shock as he intuitively knew what those lights represented.

    "Those are..."

    [Souls,] Gray completed. [Souls of Spirit lords.]

    Again, Damien felt it as his attention was slowly moved around, taking in some lights which were as flickering candles, and he looked deeper into the plane¡ªor what Gray understood it to be¡ªand then was greeted with the sights of some lights that burned with the equivalent brightness of suns. Deeper in left Damien stumped as he failed to conceptualize what he was looking at.

    [These are the souls of every being with an affinity for Destruction.] His minder explained. [From the foundation realm to Ascended, and beyond. Every soul connected to Destruction could be found here. You''re in the Spirit lord section, which is why you were able to last long enough for my rescue.]

    Damien understood it then: what the other being left unsaid. Had he not been here, Damien would have eventually perished, his soul snuffed out.

    "But why?" He asked. "I''ve never been affected by presences before, even those of higher realm beings. Why did it feel like I was dying? Especially to what, as you explained, was the Spirit lord''s downsized version of the aura."

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    Expecting an answer, Damien was was left with shock when Gray brushed past it, his voice quivering. [We need to leave.]

    Shocked, but for a while, before anger came. "Don''t avoid the question, Gray," Damien demanded. He was done with this: the warnings with minimal explanation of why. The subtle conversations going on about his welfare without requesting his input, like he was a child. He was fed up with being told he wasn''t strong enough to know. He was done with being told what to do with zero explanation as to why. He was done.

    [Damien, we can''t stay he¡ª] Gray said, this time with urgency. Damien wasn''t having it.

    "ANSWER ME!" he commanded, his voice thick with such vehemence that he felt it like a punch to the guts.

    [BECAUSE DESTRUCTION IS NOT YOUR AFFINITY!] Gray roared back. [I don''t know what was done to you nor am I allowed to know, but you aren''t aligned with the essence of destruction. That''s why you weren''t accorded the protection of the realm.]

    Damien felt his entire being freeze. Everything seemed to wobble as his vision stuttered. He looked at the plane, but he saw nothing. He''d been living a lie all this while.

    [Now I''m really serious, Damien, but we''ve got to go.] Gray repeated, and Damien would have argued had he not felt something then, an activeness to the once inactive presence.

    And with another vision stuttering, he was gone.

    <hr>

    Damien opened his eyes to find himself face down on the floor. His ears were ringing so much and he felt like his head was about to explode. It took a while for everything to finally settle, and that was when he realized he wasn''t alone.

    "... Damien! Can you hear me?!" He blinked at the voice, unable to comprehend it at first.

    "Damien?!" The voice called again, this time with a calm shake on his shoulder. "Nod if you can hear me!" and this time Damien was coherent enough to nod.

    "Oh, thank goodness," Keilan said with clear relief. The other man plumped down beside him on the floor.

    "Don''t do that again," he said. "What happened?"

    Damien was too angry and dumbfounded to give out an extensive explanation, but he couldn''t simply leave Keilan in the dark, so he shook his head with a murmur. "Later."

    Thankfully sensing the gloomy mood, Keilan didn''t push. Instead, he gently slapped Damien on the shoulder just as Damien rose to a sitting position.

    Taking in the deck, or what seemed like it, he immediately registered the crowd of people moving around. And while most were paying him attention in different ways, Damien realized that he recognized only a few.

    Vanis was standing nearby, looking down on Damien with an expression of both surprise and confusion. The man was still in his skin-tight suit, which looked tattered now with burnt patches and bloodied sections. His previously slicked-back ponytail was now loose and puffed up on the left side of his head. Damien would have smiled at the sight had his eyes not immediately locked onto those of Nalon.

    The Verrille warder was glaring down at him like they''d both just had a physical altercation. The man stood just behind Vanis, looking also tattered in his torn-up dressing. There was a deep scar on the left side of his face, which made Damien wonder why it hadn''t healed, especially as the man was a Spirit King. Another scar ran down his left arm¡ªthe visible one¡ªdripping essence little by little which soon disappeared into the atmosphere. All this made the man look more intimidating, but considering what Damien had just seen and felt, the gaze of a Spirit King just felt... diminished.

    "Are you okay?" Vanis asked, and Damien was about to reply when something seemed to pop, and a face appeared so close to his face that their lips almost touched.

    "Huh... Seems like your friend here had a strong reaction to my technique," the man said just as Damien shoved himself backwards, Keilan doing the same beside him. The man cocked his head to the side, seemingly listening to something only he could hear. "Positive or negative, though? It''s unclear."

    Up close, the man''s appearance seemed somewhat diminished, unlike the visage of a maniacal god that Damien witnessed. His face, which still took on that of a man in his mid years while still looking indeterminable, had a little tug on his lips as he scrutinized Damien. His eyes, which were previously twin burning orbs of crimson, were now dulled down into black pupils with a tinge of red. And despite the apocalyptic battle he''d obviously just finished, his clothes and hair looked almost impeccable, if with a little ruffling.

    Over the man''s shoulders, Damien saw Vanis sigh, palm on his face. "Uncle Xi, you''re scaring them." The manner in which he said this clued Damien in that this wasn''t their first conversation on this matter.

    "Huh... They don''t look scared to me," he shrugged, and then moved in closer to Damien, peering at him like he was some strange creature. "Are you scared?"

    Doing his best not to retreat out of fear, Damien slowly shook his head, Keilan mirroring him.

    "See?!" The man said again, this time sounding oddly ecstatic. "And they haven''t fainted! Look, Vavan! They aren''t fainting!"

    Slowly, so as not to startle the apocalyptic creature right in front of him, Damien turned an inquisitive look toward Vanis.

    Luckily, the other man quickly understood. "Usually, people¡ªmostly Spirit lords ¡ª who come close to him tend to faint due to his passive aura. Which he doesn''t like."

    "YES!" The man in question shouted. "They''re weak! To climb the top, the mere presence of a Divine King should never be a problem!"

    Another sigh. "Uncle, have you perhaps thought, for a second, that most Spirit lord''s souls aren''t trained to handle the presence of higher beings, especially those a full realm above?"

    "Bahh!" The man waved it off. "That shows incompetence on their part. A Spirit lord with supreme quality potential shouldn''t have a problem with handling simple presences," he smiled widely. "Like your friends here."

    "They aren''t my friends," he said, and then with a quick "No offense" to Damien, to which he simply shrugged off. After all, the other man was speaking the truth.

    With a frustrated growl, the Verille young lord, a spirit lord at the peak of the realm, glared down at a Divine King, a being who was a realm and several tiers above him.

    "Aren''t you supposed to be busy confirming the death of your opponent?" He said.

    The Divine King waved his hands in an unconcerned gesture. "Mehh, he''s not dead."

    "What?!" This time, the young looking man seem to lose his composure. Damien couldn''t blame him, he also felt the same. "Why are you here if it''s not dead?!"

    "Like I said: Mehh!"

    "Uncle¡ª" Vanis began, but was immediately cut off as the divine King turned to fully face him.

    "Do you think a simple Ascended calling is enough to down a Divine King?" Despite having the man''s back to him, Damien couldn''t stop the imagination of the a raised eyebrows from creeping up in his mind. "Average as he might have been, Je''Ruh is still a Divine King, and it''ll take far more than that to completely erase him." The man continued. "Far more time than I have to spare, and I''d definitely have suffered a few injuries if I''d pushed further, so let''s just take the win and go."

    "Where''s it then?" The word came out before Damien knew he''d said them. And with such force that his head rang, his teeth snapped shut.

    In response, the Divine King raised an eyebrow; and instead of the death that Damien expected to come from speaking out of turn, he instead smiled. "As we speak? He''s probably several million kilometers away from here."

    "Just like that?" Vanis said with clear skepticism. "How did it even get the strength to escape? I saw your technique¡ª we all saw it. Nobody should be able to escape that."

    "Oh, my dear Vavan," the older lord said, to the chagrin of the younger. "The injury I inflicted upon him was enough to see it suffer for several thousand years. Trust me, anything more than that, and he''d be a cloud of potential whisping back into reality."

 Chapter 101 : Primarchs

    The core system of the Imperium was an exquisite blend of artificial beauty and might. The star system, an unusual in a fringe galaxy, was comprised of four mid-sized planets arranged in a geometric formation, reminiscent of a colossal box, if such a box stretched light years apart in both widths and heights. And situated in the center of this celestial arrangement was a massive planet, a behemoth four times the size of its neighbors, its surface shimmering with an aura of raw power that warped the very fabric of space for light-years around.

    Encircling this formation were ten moons, encircling and revolving around the planets in a mesmerizing dance.

    And in separate corners of the system, three brilliant orbs of fiery energy hovered like vigilant guards: System guardians. Their radiant might was so imposing that space melted in their presence.

    "What?!" The voice of the Supreme Primarch rumbled through his entire existence, shaking his being from the physical and into the Spiritual.

    Fearing the consequences should his answers not be taken kindly, yet also fearing death should he refuse to answer, No''reth bowed deeper. "We couldn''t find the Fragment."

    No''reth only knew how close he''d come to death after he''d been saved. In the sky, in perfect view to all, a moon, out of nowhere, suddenly turned to dust, wiped out in an instant.

    "Calm, brother," his savior said, wind essence flickering around him as his wings flared, its shadow blanketing the entire hall. "Or your wrath will see this planet dead."

    No''reth agreed, and so did the World Spirit, if the subtle quiver he felt was of any indication.

    "How do you expect me to be calm, Ko''seth?!" Supreme Ty''ranth roared. "My fragment is gone! No doubt stolen by that old bat''s spawn!"

    No''reth felt the Primarch''s fury as a physical force, so thick and powerful that it made his knees buckle. He felt it as the planet physically trembled, earthquakes no doubt occurring in various locations on the planet.

    "You," Primarch Ko''seth turned towards No''reth, eyes boring down into him like they could see into his entire existence, and that was probably true. Ascendants were still unknown even to Divine Kings like him.

    "I assume you conducted an origin reading? What was the answer?" It demanded.

    No''reth dearly wanted to shrink into himself, becoming invisible, if it meant getting away from those piercing emerald eyes. But he remembered the Aveanii pride and stood up straight, though he kept himself from flaring his wings. That could easily be taken as a challenge.

    "Nothing, lord Primarch," No''reth said steadily.

    The Primarch''s eyes kept boring into him, which prompted him¡ªwith a little gulp¡ªto continue.

    "Multiple of us read the vault and also the prison; there was no evidence of the theft," No''reth said. "Our conclusion at the time was that the culprit was a Shadow wielder, probably from the Hall, b¡ª"

    "Enough!" The Supreme Primarch cut him off, its mere voice shutting down No''reth''s existence for a brief second.

    "Shadow Hall are not aware of the fragment in our possession," the Supreme Primarch said, facing its sibling. "And even if they knew, they wouldn''t dare to rob me."

    Primarch Ko''seth nodded slowly. "An ascendant moving anywhere close to the vault would have instantly drawn our attention, which leaves one of the prisoners as the culprit."

    "What about the Verille Divine King?" No''reth''s mouth snapped shut as soon as the question came out. He bowed his head as the two ascendants turned towards him.

    "I spoke without permission," No''reth said with grim resignation. "I offer my life as compensation."

    With blatant disregard, both attention immediately turned from him, no doubt wiping him from mind until they needed him again.

    Surprisingly, Primarch Ko''seth choose to indulge his question. "The very fact that the Verille Divine King is still alive is evidence enough that he was nowhere close to the fragment."

    "This makes it all the more worse, doesn''t it?" The Supreme Primarch said. "One of the escaped prisoners is with my prize, and we don''t know which one it is." Instantly, No''reth felt it as the essence all over chilled. Not just in his environs but the entire world. The will of a being above everyone else unfurled, quelling all others. "Give me one reason why I shouldn''t go over there right now and take back what is mine?"

    No''reth felt like a tiny branch against the raging river that was the will of the Supreme Primarch, a tiny branch that would have been swiftly swept away had it not been for the massive rock standing in front of him, shielding him from the full effects of the Supreme''s wrath; but even he knew how quickly a rock could crumble under the weight of a river.

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    "Brother," Primarch Ko''seth''s voice was calm. "You know very well how ill-advised that would be. A movement from you will surely draw greater attention, including those from the core dominions. Barging into the heart of the alliance with nothing but a skeleton plan would swiftly see our endeavor fail spectacularly. No doubt, your first opponent will be the Duchess."

    "I do not fear her," Supreme Ty''ranth growled, its golden orb-for-eyes glowing almost as bright as the System guardians hovering in the system above.

    "And you should not," Primarch Ko''seth said. "You are a Supreme Primarch, a being on the threshold; and she is still just an ordinary Primarch, yet do not forget, we could see ourselves losing should we underestimate her. And let''s not forget the others. This is not a battle we are ready for, yet."

    Slowly, the Supreme Primarch calmed, and an instant later, the looming will hanging over the entire world, like an executioner''s axe, died down.

    "You have a plan," the Primarch Ty''ranth said. "Otherwise you wouldn''t be so calm about this."

    No''reth sensed the amusement of the second ascendant, and he couldn''t help the shiver that passed through him at that. He preferred the calm nonchalant he''d been shown.

    "They shouldn''t be far," Primarch Ko''seth began. "Xirou cannot leave his guard post for long, which means he will be dropping them at one of their fringe worlds and heading off. I have set the owl specie in our ranks after them. Once the Verille King is gone, they are to bring back all the escapees."

    <hr>

    Merak hovered over the wreckage of what had once been the intact body of a dead world. The planet that had been desert-consumed, although still whole, was now a mess of floating rocks and all sorts of discarded minerals left behind from when the World Spirit was still alive.

    While his eyes stayed on the planet, his senses swept over the entire star system, taking in every presence within it.

    There wasn''t a system guardian seeing as this World Spirit had been one of the few who''d decided to move away from its original location and into an unknown, probably to avoid being subjected to the whims of Ascendants in need of a place to call their own. The only presences he could detect, aside from his own, were those of the thousands of Aveanii''s swarming the place, Multiple Divine Kings amongst them.

    They couldn''t detect him, as they should not. Divine Kings had no business catching the presence of an Ascendant in stealth, especially one of his caliber. The same was also said for the other ascendant¡ªan Aveanii ¡ª supervising over the entire investigation.

    Behind him, reality tore as a portal opened. Merak didn''t turn, he already knew who it was. And like him, the new individual''s presence was also undetected.

    "This must be good, Merak," Leceia grumbled. "I had to leave a truly good meal unfinished."

    Merak didn''t apologize. Instead, he nodded at the floating wreck littering this portion of space. "Look through the origins of this planet."

    The other Ascendant eyes narrowed at him, but still, she acquiesced, focus turning down on the planet.

    It took only the blink of an eye for her to raise her head. "I do not see anything worth my attention, except for the presence of your ward." She cocked her head. "Wasn''t he supposed to be sent to Lese? How come he''s on an Aveanii outpost combating Spirit Kings?"

    "I wondered the same thing," Merak said. "And I did the same thing you just did, yet I found no reason why the boy should have appeared here."

    He took a deep breath despite no longer needing to. Old habits die hard. "Look again, specifically at the place of his arrival."

    With a frown on her face, Leceia did so. Merak saw it as her face went through different emotions. Curiosity, surprise, and then shock.

    "The entire thing has been wiped away, cleaned out of reality. I had to struggle through to get so much as a glimpse of them arriving here," She said with wide eyes. "I assume this is the work of the Minder construct?"

    Merak nodded. "Gray, as he prefers to be called, would not have been so thorough had nothing important taken place. It took a little listening in on the conversation of the Aveanii Supreme and his brother to understand what had happened."

    The way the other Ascendant''s eyes bored into him told him how intrigued she was now.

    "Someone has been fortunate enough to acquire a Fragment," Merak said.

    "Who?" She moved closer.

    Merak raised an eyebrow. "You know I can''t say the name. We do not know who else could be attracted to this." He nodded back downwards. "Look closer."

    Frowning, but understanding what Merak was getting at, Leceia obliged, continuing her scan. Although her focus had mainly fallen on the boy, Damien, he had no doubt that she had already taken notice of the adopted brother.

    The woman sucked in a breath. "Both Ascendants and Transcendants will hunt him down should they learn of this." She whispered, horror plain on her face.

    Merak nodded grimly. A fragment, inconsequential as it might look, was something every being with the burning ambition for the peak actively sought.

    Leaving aside the fact that the Cult of The Unceasing Air would never leave a fragment of their Celestial in the hands of a person who wasn''t among them, and who surely would never be, the other Ascendants and Transcendants with fragments of their own and who were always looking to acquire more would never leave the boy intact.

    They''d tear out his soul to get what they want.

    "I assume now you have to take him in under your protection?" Leceia finally said.

    "He was already under my protection, by association. This just finalizes everything." He shook his head. "I''ll have to inform the Sapphire Masters of this new development."

    Leceia nodded, and a portal began forming close by, signaling her departure. She stopped just at the edge.

    "Why do you have to protect him?" She asked. "We could simply take your original ward and leave the adopted brother for the wolves to find. After all, I don''t think he''s important to the plans of whatever is brewing."

    Merak eyed the other woman. And they said Leceia was smart. "I don''t know the full extent of what is happening, but the little I''ve been able to grasp tells me that the boy ¡ªDamien¡ªis destined for something important. I don''t know about you, but I do not want to face his wrath when he finds out what we did to his brother."

    Without another word, the woman stepped into the portal, shutting it off behind her.

 Chapter 102 : Elements & Affinities

    The ride, or flight ¡ª Arghhh! Damien didn''t have the mental strength to figure it out ¡ª back to wherever the Verille''s came from and where Damien was supposed to have appeared at, was slow and somewhat uneventful.

    The many lonely Celestial bodies he came across on the way should have been able to ignite some sort of excitement within him, but honestly, right now, he didn''t feel like it.

    It was still about two hours... Two hours? Damien wasn''t really sure since it was more likely that time ran somewhat separate in deep space compared to world times. Anyways, it was about two hours past¡ªin his mind clock¨Csince they''d left the Aveanii outpost and made way for one of the Lese fringe worlds, as Vanis said.

    Xirou, the Verille King, had said something about having to leave a guard post and hurrying after Vanis and the other captured lords and soon having to return before the Aveanii got any ideas. Vanis hadn''t said anything much but instead grimly appreciated his uncle for leaving his ''delicate duty'' and rushing to their rescue. Xirou, on the other hand, hadn''t seemed so bummed about it, citing stuff like ''Stretching my muscles once in a while'' and ''getting into a fight where I don''t have to explain to Mother why I did it.''

    Anyways, Damien stood at the deck of the dimensional ship, which closely resembled those of sea-faring types, and stared into the deep space as the vessel moved. But while his eyes stared, his mind was elsewhere.

    He still didn''t know how to piece together the information Gray had dropped on him right before they''d left the Destruction plane. Damien''s mind was still too swirling to calmly request an answer, so he''d decided to stew in his misery for a while.

    The affinity for Destruction had been something he''d been with for a decade now, basically the entirety of his life. It had saved his life more times than he could count. In the early parts of his life¡ª post awakening ¡ªwhen he''d still being clueless and stumbling in the dark, his affinity had lessened their struggles. When he and Keilan had been trapped in their first proto-realm, his sheer destructive ability had saved them countless times from monsters they otherwise shouldn''t have been able to fight against, let alone, counter. Now to hear that he didn''t have any affinity for it...

    Damien sighed and looked down, his eyes trailing an asteroid as it slowly cruised by.

    If destruction wasn''t his affinity, then what was? Damien thought to himself. And for the second time in a few hours, his mind went back to those two essences he''d called on in his battle against Solaris. He didn''t know what they were, but somehow, he felt a sort of connection to them, a connection he''d never had with the element of destruction.

    "Gray?" Damien sighed mentally. "I need answers."

    Gray was silent for a while, and when Damien was beginning to think the other being wasn''t going to answer, a calm voice responded, calmer than Damien was used to.

    [Damien, you need to understand: I do not have full knowledge about the intricacies of your existence. I was made to shield you from heavy scrutiny and to help you through huddles you have no way of being able to surpass, all for the sake of plans I have no knowledge about.]

    Damien sensed it as Gray sighed.

    [However, while the majority knowledge of your existence is unknown to me, I have been able to piece out some things.]

    Gray drifted into existence and everything froze, reality ceasing. Damien looked around with shocked eyes, watching as the everything seemed to slow down to a crawl, and then, it all stopped. Frozen.

    [Don''t be worried,] Damien snapped back at the sudden sound of Gray''s voice. [We''re in the middle of nowhere, which means there''s less of a likelihood anyone is going to look into the recorded memories of this place. Though just to be safe, I''ll have to make sure that the possibility of that happening is reduced to less than zero.]

    "How?" Damien asked, curious. He knew that Gray was some sort of cleaner¡ªso to speak¡ªbut he''d never heard of how he did his things.

    [Origin reading: an ability you''ll develop when you have enough willpower to push through reality. Not to alarm you, but I didn''t freeze time in the normal sense¡ªtime still runs normal, at least to those outside. What I did was take us outside of it, like a boat detaching from a ship. Eventually, when we''re done, I''ll put us back.]

    Damien could feel his mind swell from all the information he''d just gotten right now, but he focused on what truly mattered at the moment: his affinity. He could deal with the rest later.

    "If I''m not linked to the concept of destruction, then why am I still able to use it?"

    [That is something I don''t understand, and maybe I never will. As far as I''m aware, there''s no way to link yourself with an element you don''t have an affinity for.]

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    Gray moved to sit on the railings, tucking his tiny shirt tighter.

    [There are ways to connect to elements you aren''t born with: you can see that with Young Solaris, who became a Sunfire user by consuming a Sun affinity stone. Or the nature wielders who graduate from wielding their specialized element into a more broader one: Life. If you noticed, the one thing all this has in common is that all previous elements were all a sub-section of a more powerful whole. While the base fire element is broader and somewhat more flexible, Sunfire is a special kind of destructive. The nature element is a subsection of the Life affinity, which means it mainly has a greater effect on Nature than on people. Life affinity is more broad and powerful, plus, it is a Grand affinity.]

    Damien frowned. Honestly, he''d heard that word too often to simply glaze over it like he used to. While he had some knowledge about the grand affinities, he knew his foundation was sorely lacking.

    "I''ve heard those before: Grand affinities. What are those?"

    Gray smiled. [For every Grand Celestial, there is an element over which they hold sole dominion over. Seal of Destruction over the element of Destruction. Throne of Space over the element of Space.] He gave Damien a meaningful smile. [Throne of Life over the essence of life.]

    [Like other common elements, Grand elements also have roles they play in the working of reality, but the difference between them and the commons is that their roles are deeper, with more meaning and more impact should they be disrupted, hence their greater effects.]

    Gray snapped his fingers, manifesting a crimson lightning on one finger and a blue one over another.

    [Put a common lightning user against a Destruction user, and they''ll lose every time. A recently ascended Ascendant with a common lightning affinity is likely to lose against a Divine King destruction wielder,] and then he said in a staged whisper. [Xirou is an example.]

    [Elements with a greater capacity for destruction all draw essence from the core essence of Destruction, itself. Hence, the GRAND.]

    Damien nodded. "So, Life..."

    Gray''s smile grew. [Yes, you have an affinity for it. Soul too.]

    This time Damien had to take a step back. Just in case, he looked around to make sure no one was watching.

    "You mean the other element I used?" He asked. "I didn''t know what it was, so much so that I was beginning to think it was simply my mind playing tricks on me."

    [No,] Gray comforted. [Your mind wasn''t fooling you. The soul is a Grand element¡ªA Throne¡ª And is considered one of the most powerful among the Grand Celestials. That''s the reason everyone fears a Soul wielder. Fight them and you could be dead before you know it.]

    Damien nodded, taking the warning to heart. "So, I have an affinity for two Grand elements," he said, sort of stumped on what more to say. He had zero experience with affinities other than they were things everyone was born with.

    [Yes, you have two Grand affinities, which is rare, by the way. Now, I''m going to really advise you to take Merak''s warning to heart: do not mouth off to just anyone you see. You could be enslaved for less, and an affinity for two Grand elements could serve as a wafting flavor for those looking for the slightest opportunity.]

    "Wait, isn''t it common for people to have two Grand affinities?" Damien asked, refusing to comment on the second part of what Gray said. He already knew that and he hated having to be constantly reminded of it.

    [Oh, you don''t understand how rare it is to develop a Grand affinity, do you? Damien, In a population of one million, only one to a hundred have a high possibility of developing one. Getting two drastically reduces that number, and even when someone gets a second grand affinity, most of them don''t survive long.]

    Damien frowned. "Why?"

    [Haven''t you noticed? A common affinity puts a weight on your soul, and a Grand affinity is much more powerful. Most people could survive the weight of one grand affinity, but two? They would be crushed.]

    He continued.

    [The key to all this is a soul with greater strength, that''s why you don''t get affected by the raw effects of an aura: your soul is just too powerful to be affected. Also, I don''t think you realize this, but your second affinity¡ªthe soul¡ªhas been subtly influencing your soul for a while now, stabilizing it from all the overdose of potential you''ve been continuously consuming for years.]

    "Why can''t I use them then?" Damien said too mentally exhausted to get angry. "I tried healing myself in the battle against the Aveanii Spirit King but what I got instead was a full dose of pain. What''s the point of getting some great power If I''m not able to use it?"

    Instantly, the other being''s mood turned solemn. [Sadly, that is not a situation I can help you with.]

    "This again." Damien''s mental exhaustion grew. "Why?"

    [Remember when I said that there were things about your existence I was not granted knowledge of beforehand?]

    Damien nodded.

    [Well, this is one of them. Truthfully, I knew nothing of your twin affinities until you unlocked them in that battle. I realize now that the only reason I was allowed knowledge of your issue with destruction is so that I can guide you until such a time arises when you eventually unlock your true affinities.]

    Sadly, Damien looked out into the distance, watching as everything moved in a crawl, even the asteroid which had just passed by. Damien could still see it, even though many minuites had passed.

    "So that''s it then?" He frowned. "I simply have to wait for luck to fall on me to help me unlock my affinities?"

    [I didn''t say that,] Gray smiled. [This might sound cryptic, but that''s the best answer I can muster: the answer to your inquiry can only be found within you.]

    Damien stared at Gray with a deadpan gaze. And just to follow up with the joke, he said. "All I have to do is speak to my inner self, don''t i?"

    Gray stared back, unsmiling. Damien waited a while for the laugh to come, but it didn''t.

    "Wait, you can''t be ser¡ª"

    [Sorry, we''ll have to cut this short,] Gray said suddenly. [You have a caller.]

    Damien cursed just as reality wobbled, and then the whole world seemed to shred, tearing into a dozen different pieces.

    When it all cleared, he turned to find himself face to face with Keilan, Vanis standing a small distance behind him. While his brother instantly understood the reason for his agitation, Vanis clearly did not, judging from the raised eyebrow directed at Damien''s way.

    "It''s nothing," he said as a reflex. "What''s going on?"

    "Come see, Xirou said to let everyone know to get ready. We''re approaching our destination."

 Chapter 103 : Sun Spirits & World Spirits

    Sceleris, a system under the authority of the sovereign house, Scele. Vanis had said, with a subtle amount of pride, that although the house was sovereign, they were still majorly under the influence of High House Verille, since Verille was led by an Ascendant and Scele, who were led by a Divine King, sorely needed the protection.

    Since the house had just recently joined the alliance, under the civil invitation of house Verille, their twin planets had been moved from its previous system and into one closer to the Lese territories.

    The dimensional ship drifted into the system, and Damien, for the first time in his life, laid eyes on an intersystem civilization.

    In the distance, he made out two planets, one a vibrant purple and the other a deep sapphire. And in a counterclockwise motion, he sensed as they slowly orbited a large ball of blue gas in the center.

    Damien frowned. "Is that a sun?"

    With a confused look turned his way, Vanis answered. "Yes. Why the question? You haven''t seen a blue sun before?"

    Unabashed, Damien answered. "Yes." Honestly, he didn''t even know they existed. How did those planets get their light then?

    Vanis nodded like it all seemed clear now. "Ohh, you''re from one of those backwater systems, aren''t you?"

    Damien froze, instantly remembering the warning Gray had given. Behind him, he felt Keilan do the same.

    The young Verille lord waved his hands. "Don''t be ashamed," he said, mistaking their anxiety for embarrassment. "It''s not a bad thing to come from an underdeveloped system."

    The young man then turned back to the Celestial bodies hovering in the distance.

    "To explain," he began, and then stopped, turning to face Damien again. "I assume you know about the System guardians?"

    Damien shared a confused glance with his brother, and then back at Vanis, shaking his head.

    For his part, the other man clearly looked like he wanted to say something, but held his tongue.

    "Like World Spirits which are planets awakening sentience," he began. "Sun Spirits are also the same, except instead of their territories simply encompassing only their Celestial bodies ¡ªlike the World Spirits ¡ª they encompass the entire system."

    The man smiled with a distant look in his eyes.

    "They mostly act as protectors for World Spirits, especially those who are yet to reach maturity."

    "Maturity?" Damien repeated with confusion. "I thought World Spirits were all born mature?"

    "Oh," Vanis tucked his new wear tighter¡ªa black coat with red linings. "I didn''t mean matured in the mortal sense."

    "You see," the man began again. "Celestial creatures are immortal; they can''t die a natural death or age like us, so the only way to determine how they age and grade them is the level of essence they are able to generate.

    "Unlike us, who grow our powers through the devouring of potential, commonly from beings we''ve killed, Celestial beings are not like that. They, over time, drink from the ocean of potential running behind the curtains of reality. And that''s where the differences come from: we grow by fighting for potential, while they''re being fed theirs, except ours Is faster while theirs take time."

    Out of nowhere, Xirou''s voice boomed. "YOU''RE BEING TEACHY AGAIN, VANVAN. DON''T WEIRD OUT YOUR NEW FRIENDS!"

    Damien raised an eyebrow just as Vanis grimaced, pinching the upper part of his nose. Damien expected him to retort, but instead, the young man simply ignored the comment, turning back to his new student like nothing had happened."

    "Sorry about that. Anyways, what I was getting at is that System guardians¡ª Sun spirits, officially¡ªas Celestial creatures, can get an affinity beyond the usual Sun fire."

    Damien couldn''t hold it any longer. "How do the planets get their lights, then? I don''t imagine agriculture will prosper from the blue light shining down."

    Vanis looked on with confusion. "Who said planets relied on their Sun Spirits for light and crop growth?"

    He raised his hands just as Damien was about to speak.

    "Ignore that," he said. "To explain, Once they reach maturity, which is at the Ascendant realm, a World Spirit doesn''t need their Sun Spirits for anything any longer. Even the gravitational pull of their moons ceases to affect them. They become efficiently independent."

    Damien nodded, finally understanding. He stared out into the distance, watching as they slowly approached the planets. That was when he finally saw.

    In a line going to and from the planets, were uncountable numbers of tiny dots. They appeared as tiny dots to his eyes¡ªwhite, yellow, blue, purple, red, and other colors¡ªbut Damien quickly realized that those tiny dots were probably massive moving structures.

    He stared with wide eyes as they got closer, watching as the tiny dots grew into massive monstrosities.

    The first thing he took in first were the dimensional ships. Massive, blocky creations, not unlike the sleek design of Xirou''s ship, flew to and from both planets. Some were simply massive pieces of earth carved out and modified into space-moving vehicles. They lack any form of artificial designs, discounting the massive runic lines running all over them, which brimmed with a crazy amount of energy.

    Others came in the shapes of castles, simple cube designs, and even the sea-faring ship types, just like Xirou''s, except they lacked its detailed design. To him, they looked shabby compared to the swift, parting vehicle he stood on.

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    And then came the others. Damien couldn''t help the jaw-dropping as he watched a massive griffin fly past their ship, twice the size of the largest land-based castle he''d ever seen. Its feathers were a vivid violet, alluring in its dangerous beauty. And on it ran lines of black, thick and unmistakable as they traced down its entire feathers.

    The aura the beast radiated though... Damien whispered in awe.

    "A Spirit King beast."

    "Yes," Vanis said beside him. "Judging from your reaction, I assume where you''re from, Spirit King beasts aren''t used as mounts?"

    "Honestly," Damien said, forgetting he was supposed to stay quiet about his previous home. "I haven''t even seen a Spirit King beast before."

    Damien sensed as the other man nodded, like he could relate. That was highly doubtful.

    "See there," Vanis said, and Damien traced his pointing hand down towards a massive steed with an ethereal silver-white coat as it gently galloped down an invisible path towards one of the planets in the distance¡ªthe purple one, judging by its swift turn as it got closer.

    On the back of the horse was a young man wearing some kind of tight-fitting material, the same as the one Vanis and the others had been wearing when they''d been freed. Damien didn''t shy away from asking Vanis.

    "It''s a body armour, helps us Spirit lords with surviving long time in space. You should know that as Spirit lords, we can''t survive long in space," Vanis said, turning a questioning eye at Damien. And this time Damien knew that, so he nodded.

    Satisfied, Vanis continued. "The suit extends our natural time far beyond the usual. Makes it easy for long voyages outside."

    Frowning, Damien asked. "Then why am I still alive?" he gestured at him and Keilan. "We aren''t wearing any body suits."

    "That''s because you''re on this ship," the young lord answered, gesturing at their moving wonder. "Uncle Xi had the same enchantments on the suits placed on the ship."

    Slowly, their ship joined in with the invisible line of traffic moving toward the planet''s orbit. This made Damien frown since, from what he could see, space here was large enough for all vehicles to approach at the same time, saving the time that would have been wasted on the line.

    "It''s simply for security''s sake," Vanis said when Damien asked. "Yes, all these vehicles could approach the planets in their own lane, but as according to protocol, it''s not allowed. Likewise in every other system."

    Shrugging, Damien turned away to watch as their ship approached, turning left into a ''Y'' path toward the purple-colored planet.

    His blood chilled as something seemed to pass over them, a curtain of sorts. Damien felt it as something attempted to look through his soul, finding itself blocked. A second attempt, though, instantly saw it successful.

    The whole thing happened in such split second Damien at first thought he''d imagined it, and when he looked around, seeing the bitter look on everybody''s face, he couldn''t help but ask.

    "So I wasn''t the only one who felt that?" He said to Vanis. "What was it?"

    "The World Spirit," the young lord answered, looking like he''d just taken a bitter alchemical potion. "It does this to everyone who approaches. A sort of border check."

    Damien nodded. That explained it. "Can it be blocked?"

    A snort was his answer. "Impossible," Nalon said, moving a little closer, distaste plain in his voice. "That was the soul scan of an Ascendant, a Spirit lord should not be thinking of blocking that."

    "Nalon, be nice," Vanis scolded, voice firm, to which the man in question answered with a reluctant nod and a step back. Vanis turned towards Damien.

    "No, an Ascendant-originating soul scan cannot be blocked."

    Damien nodded. Like almost everything, his knowledge of soul scans was very little, but at least he knew something about this.

    A soul scan was some sort of free-form mind technique. It allowed the user to push their will past the innate barriers of another being, going past the different layers of self and into the soul. On Ra, this was viewed as a sacrilegious thing, a defiling of the soul, so it was a technique that was seldom used by the wider community, only employed by those with zero moral compulsions. In essence, the fleshcrafters."

    Huh, Damien''s mind flashed. He wondered what later became of them now that Solaris no longer had any use for them.

    It was doubtful they''d be allowed to remain on the planet, given their distasteful proclivities. Their love for chaos was also another thing he didn''t think would be allowed to remain in the New World Order Solaris was sure to begin creating.

    Hmm, oh well. Not like it was his business any longer. He had his one troubles to worry about, like his affinity issue and how he was supposed to grow his power now.

    The fight against the Spirit King had showed him how far behind he was. The fact that Vanis could conjure up hundreds of lightning, while Damien still struggled with the dozens, showed him whose mental strength was more powerful.

    And to top it off, he didn''t have any kind of powerful hidden card like an Ascendant technique, or something similar. How was he supposed to compete with all the talents he was sure to face? If all of them were like Vanis, then that meant Damien was bound to land at the bottom of the pecking order, again.

    He refused to be put in such situation again, ever again.

    A couple of moons orbited the planet, and it was on one of them that their ship docked, coming slowly to land on a docking field, alongside a thousand other ships arraigned in two opposite lines.

    The moment their ship docked, Damien turned to Vanis, about to ask what next, when he felt his vision shake, a voice roaring out an instant later.

    "XIROU!!" The entire dock rumbled. "YOU PUT VANIS IN THE CROSSHAIRS OF YOUR BATTLE!"

    Damien turned to the man in question, watching as his expression turned sheet white, fear evident in his face. He looked at a grimacing Vanis, giving the boy an apologetic look.

    "Sorry kid," the man said. "But I''m not waiting for her this time."

    And with that, his body popped, disappearing into nothingness.

    "GET BACK HERE!" The voice called again, this time accompanied by the furious form of a roiling haired woman.

    Although his first view of her was her standing sideways, looking up into the sky, like she could tell where Xirou had fled to, Damien was able to take in her appearance, and wow, was she a wonder to behold.

    Her hair was a deep, shadowy black, long and trailing down her back in a smooth line. Within it, Damien could make out tiny pinpricks of crimson, glowing somewhat dimly, but visible enough in the sea of black.

    Her eyes were a normal white, except instead of a normal pupil like other people, hers were of a deep crimson color, not glowing but somewhat close. It was ringed by a band of black, which, as Damien looked closer, had tiny tendrils stretching into the white.

    Apparently satisfied with the fear she''d put in Xirou, the woman turned towards them, her white streaked black dress flowing against the tide of an invisible wind.

    It was at that moment Damien took notice that everyone else, except he, Keilan, and Vanis, were on their knees, head bowed.

    "WE GREET THE LADY VERILLE!," they all chorused, deep and filled with such reverence that Damien had to take a step back, his eyes going to the woman.

    On her part, she seemed not to have taken notice of their gesture, her eyes landing straight on Vanis.

    With an uncertain smile, the young lord gave a halfhearted wave. "Hello moth¡ªoomph!"

    His words hadn''t finished forming when she took him in a hug, crossing the distance before anyone had even noticed she''d moved.

    "Ohhhh, my sweet boy," she cooed. "I was ready to lay waste to their civilization had anything untoward happened to you."

    "Well, I''m fine," Vanis said, voice muffled as he pushed against the tight grip of the woman who was his mother. "Uncle Xirou rescued me."

    "Don''t even let me begin with that reckless buffoon I call a brother," the woman growled. "His hunger for battle could have seen you injured, or worse. Wait till I lay my hands on him."

    "I''m fine, mother," Vanis protested. "Infa¡ª"

    "Hold on," the woman cut him off. "It appears those chickens are becoming too daring." She said just as space shuddered, ten massive presence blooming out of nowhere, engulfing everything In a curtain of darkness blacker than night.

 Chapter 104 : Mistress Of Madness

    Reality parted as Divine King Ra''poth stepped into the Sceleris system, nine others with him. As an Aveanii of the owl species, he was very adept at the shadow element, a birthright of their species. So he wasn''t worried the detection constructs on this system, especially ones as subpar and less encompassing, could have any chance at detecting their intrusion.

    And truly, he was proven right. Their intrusion went undetected, and slowly, they crept forward, moving alongside the thousands of other vehicles approaching the planet.

    Their task, to recapture the escapees of the ruined outpost, had been a go right from the moment of the Verille King''s abrupt disappearance, which was strange, but he put no thought to it. Xirou was an abnormality even amongst Divine kings.

    "We''re approaching the outward domain of the World Spirit, Divine King," one of his subordinates, Sa''keth, Informed him.

    Ra''poth nodded and then signaled. Hiis entire squad understood, and they pierced back into the unreal.

    Diving into the unreal was still a strange occurrence to him, even though he''d been doing it for millennials now. They weren''t truly in the unreal. No, not even Ascendants were capable of doing that. What they stepped into was the small border between reality and unreality, a small divide between them, easy to pierce through but hard to navigate. Within it, he could barely see through the curtain that was between him and reality, a thick, hazy cloud of something blocking his view, which made piercing out a hard thing to accomplish since their crossing would have to be pinpointed, or else they risked finding themselves in another system. The laws of time and space were very tricky here.

    That was what made navigation a hurdle, as, in essence, they had to push through the unruliness of the unreal and establish a minimum amount of Space-Time law to help with movement and timing.

    Had their intrusion been done in actual reality, the world spirit would have easily detected them. That was a given; it was an Ascendant and they were not. But piercing through unreality drastically lowered any chance of that happening.

    For one, the world Spirit''s essence was that of dream, which held little sway in an area so close to the unreal, making it vastly difficult to trace any undocumented mind.

    Another was the fact that the owls were very adept at infiltration, wielding the element of shadow, a subset of darkness. The dark was their natural domain, a playing field rigged entirely to their favor. And in a location where light held no sway, darkness ruled.

    Their trip back into reality went uneventful, which satisfied Ra''poth. Although it was rare, the border outside of reality was sometimes stated to hold wandering creatures... Creatures whose existence were antithetical to reality while also hungering for it. Had they encountered any one of those, he wasn''t ashamed to say that their chances of survival would have, at best, been very low.

    Stepping back into reality, right over the moon occupied by their escaped prisoners, Ra''poth flared his shadow crafted wings. It was time.

    His entire squad was shrouded in the essence of shadow, which muffled anything that tried to get in and out of their stealth field. Still, Ra''poth took things to the next level, swiftly employing his intent to coerce the ever-expanding darkness of space into aiding in their concealment.

    Now, Ra''poth had to admit, there were a dozen other layers of concealment techniques he could have added, but the trick to them staying concealed was knowing when something became too much. Sometimes, too much stealth could be revealing.

    Safely hidden, he slowly let his domain spread over the skies of the moon, blending it in with the natural darkness of space, all the while making sure not to trigger the world Spirit of their presence.

    His domain-wrought soldiers weren''t summoned¡ª they wouldn''t be needed for this, which left him free to focus solely on perception. Where there was light, shadow existed, so Ra''poth made use of that. There was no being on the system who was powerful enough to contest his authority over the shadow element, so he let it lose, wrapping his will around every shadow down on the moon. He left the ones on the planet untouched. That was a territory, and even though his will could touch the shadows there, it was completely certain the world Spirit would detect the intrusion.

    His first warning came almost an instant later when his will slammed onto a wall. Reeling from the shock but making sure to keep their stealth working, Ra''poth slowly ¡ª with his metaphysical sense ¡ª took in the wall, working his way down its shadowy base and up its unbreakable structure.

    That was when he realized: this wasn''t a wall. This was a will, a greater one than his.

    His spirit screamed just as a great weight crashed down on him, piercing through his stealth techniques like it non-existent.

    "The audacity," a voice said, coming from everywhere. And Ra''poth instantly recognized it as female. "Your kind has become too daring. A lesson needs to be taught."

    His techniques were shredded, and a deeper shadow blotted the moon''s sky.

    Ra''poth only had a split second to warn his subordinates when light bloomed, clearing out and leaving him with one less Spirit King.

    Feeling the aura before he saw it, Ra''poth looked upwards, an had to step back at the freezing gaze or of the system guardian.

    It looked humanoid, except for the frosting parts that were its limbs. Where its head was supposed to be was a burning flame, an ice burning flame.

    "THEY''RE MINE!" The voice from before demanded, just as another being appeared.

    The moment she came in full view, Ra''poth recognized her. The dark shadowy hair. The crimson bloodline eyes. And even the maniacal look.

    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.

    Narkyra Verrille. Mistress of madness.

    The Sun Spirit, no doubt recognizing the authority of the one who had spoken and who she was descended from, didn''t fight her claim over them, and with another flare of light, it returned back to its previous location.

    Slowly, the woman turned towards them. "You¡ª" she began.

    Ra''poth didn''t let her finish, he attacked.

    He poured out his domain like a river, swiftly encompassing and taking over a vast amount of space. With his intent, he pressed down on the concept of space, suffocating it and depriving it of its characteristics. Satisfied that his blockade had worked, he summoned his armies.

    From the sea of shadow surrounding him, figures made of the same element rose, pulled out of the domain with invisible strings.

    On either of his sides, the other Spirit Kings also moved, summoning their armies, until the area for more than a thousand miles became filled with legions upon legions of shadow soldiers.

    On her part, the daughter of the duchess simply looked at them, watching their display with a faint amusement.

    Insulted, Ra''poth flared his wings. Ascendant or not, an Aveanii tolerated no disrespect, especially from one of the lessers.

    With a flap of his shadowy wings, he disappeared, melting into the shadows along with a majority of his more powerful summons.

    Ra''poth would have preferred to let the legions batter at her defenses, draining some of its power. He knew the legions couldn''t accomplish much, but every little they could do was one step closer to warding her off. He knew how unfeasible that would be.

    He di¡ª

    "How stupid could you be, to fight a Shadow Ascendant with shadows?" The woman said, and to Ra''poth''s sheer terror, her voice came from everywhere, including the tunnel of space he was now using to teleport.

    Acting fast, he stepped out of the shadow tunnel just before he felt it implode, its reaction spreading both within and without.

    Ra''poth reeled, staggering backwards as he felt his grip on the shadows beyond his domain torn off, the backlash hitting him both mentally and physically.

    Splitting out a few essence-created blood, Ra''poth pulled out his bow, a huge curved monstrosity with a cloud of shadows streaming off of it. He had crafted this from the bones of a Divine King Darkness creature and the captured essence from a shadow elemental.

    Entire continents had been plunged  into eternal darkness from the arrows generated from the bow, an it had also suffocated twice that with the element-laced arrows.

    Taking a back step while his subordinates rained cataclysmic destruction over the head of the Ascendant, Ra''poth pulled the bow''s strings.

    The moment his hands touched it, reality quivered, and the world seemed to slow to a crawl. While Narkyra was busy deflecting a shadow weapon capable of slipping through any defenses, he sensed it as a majority of her attention snapped back onto him, piercing with intense focus.

    Ra''poth''s wings twitched in anticipation. Good, now she knew not to underestimate them.

    A ripple visibly spread through space as an arrow formed, manifesting into reality from the darkness essence, a grand element.

    Ra''poth recognized that darkness was not as powerful as the more esoteric grand elements like soul, space, time, and karma, but there was one undisputed fact: it was a grand element.

    Ra''poth''s anger flared as in a bid to counter his offensive, the woman ripped off the wings of one of his subordinates. The head followed an instant later.

    Down to eight, his remaining subordinates didn''t waste time, acting like they''d already read his mind.

    In a snap instant, they all surrounded the woman, deploying half a dozen techniques to injure and restrict the woman.

    Taking the chance given, Ra''poth let loose.

    There wasn''t so much as a whistle as the arrow flew, crossing the already suppressed space in an instant.

    The Ascendant, already tied down dealing with the other techniques falling in, failed to counter.

    The dark cloud that rose from the impact turned space into a darker shade of black, blotting out both his physical and spiritual senses, and when it finally dispersed, Ra''poth''s eyes widened as the woman came out looking mostly unharmed, except for the darkened patch of skin which ran from her hand down to her elbow, the hand which held the arrow right by the middle, an inch or so from her skull.

    Shifting the arrow away from her face, Narkyra eyed Ra''poth, seemingly taking him in for the first time.

    "That hurt," she said, her eyes trailing him and unto the weapon in his hands. "Your weapon... I like it. It''ll make a good present for someone."

    Eyes widening, Ra''poth flared up his domain just as the woman sped forward, his eyes just barely tracking her movements.

    With a casual wave of her hands, millions of daggers, black as night with white streaks down their jagged edges, rained down on his armies, wiping out a huge swath of them in seconds.

    He wasn''t the only one who suffered her attacks. As from behind her, out of a hole in reality, two jagged daggers, reminiscent of the ones previously summoned, landed in her hands.

    Feeling the aura from those weapons, Ra''poth''s entire being shivered in true terror. Hurriedly, he contracted his domain, de-summoning the many soldiers who would just be fodder for her. He left the powerful ones though, as without them his chances of survival were nigh non-existent.

    Seeing his reaction to the summoned weapon, Narkyra smiled. "Good, you know of this." She said and gave a casual swipe, eviscerating another Spirit King without even looking in their direction. "I could use it against you, but what would that say about me? Wielding swords against children." She finished with thick derision.

    Dematerializing into dark smokes, the weapons disappeared. "I don''t need those to unmake you."

    Ra''poth took the opportunity, firing off half a dozen arrows in a split instant, while also lacing the technique into his domain, which soon began spitting out millions of arrows every second.

    He knew he couldn''t continue for long, as his energy well would soon run dry with the level of techniques he was using, but he didn''t care. What was a full well if he wasn''t alive to use it.

    Accompanied by his summons, Ra''poth decided to get bolder.

    He slipped through his domain, appearing at the edge in an eye blink. He fired two arrows just as another technique from his subordinates landed, catching the woman in a devastating explosion, which spread so far it wiped out a good number of the fleeing vehicles in the distance.

    Good, he thought. They could win this. He immediately switched his mentality from surviving and escape into pushing the woman into fleeing.

    "I think, it''s time for the rest of you to go," a voice came forth, thick and otherworldly. Not unlike the woman who had been standing right before them. "I only need the Divine King. So the rest of you can DIE!"

    Right before his eyes, Ra''poth watched as the essence that constructed the physical layer of his subordinates unraveled, peeling away into nothingness. Their Spirits went next, shredding into tiny pieces. And when their souls were laid bare, the deepest part of their existence, reality contorted, warping them into monstrosities that didn''t last long before they exploded, an explosion which didn''t get a chance to spread far as they were all soon swallowed up by a huge shadowy maw.

    Last man remaining, Ra''poth looked on with terror as the woman stepped out, looking completely unharmed from all the attacks taken. Her eyes, which had been a dulled down thing, now shone bright and menacing. Her lustrous black hair now roiled like it had been caught in a storm.

    "You, Divine King Ra''poth, are going to tell me what you want with my son."

    Ra''poth flared his wings, triggering the technique laced within in. Reality warped and space heaved as a portal began to form. Ra''poth forced down his will and used his domain as a sledgehammer to break open space. He didn''t look back as he stepped through...

    ... And landed right before the feet of the woman.

    "Your intent over the essence of shadow has been rescinded." Ra''poth looked up at the amused voice before him, meeting the eyes of Narkyra Verrille. Mistress of madness and daughter of the Desolate Duchess.

 Chapter 105: Tame by Ascendant Standards

    Damien was in shock right from the moment the attack began, and that was how he continued on until it ended, which... If he was looking at it well, didn''t take long.

    He watched as Vanis''s mother appeared right before them, slipping through the dome of protection that had been laid over them right at the moment when the attack had began.

    "Gray," Damien sent mentally, which was a struggle because he really, really wanted to just scream right now. "What just happened?"

    The gray being chuckled. [Congratulations, you just witnessed an Ascendant battle, which, if I''m being honest about this, was pretty tame by Ascendant standards. Nevertheless, you witnessed it, and even survived with all your physical and spiritual faculties intact.]

    "What do you mean by ''tame''?" Damien said with widened eyes. "You call that tame?! Gray, a patch of space the size of two large continents is still fluctuating from the powers unleashed. How can that be tame?!"

    Damien couldn''t understand. Sure, the battle between Xirou and the Aveanii Divine King was more visibly destructive, wiping out a large part of the continent they had escaped from, but that fight couldn''t be compared to this one, especially as thousands of fleeing people had been consumed by Shadow, probably never to be seen again.

    [Yes, Damien. It was tame.] Gray said, and the his voice turned grim. [i hope you don''t witness a true Ascendant battle until you''re ready. Those are things even Divine kings scarely survive.]

    "But the Aveanii Divine King did though," he pointed out. "They managed to stand up against Vanis''s Mother, who''s a freaking Ascendant, by the way!"

    [First of all, that fight was between stealth specialists, which means it couldn''t get as much boom boom as with the more forceful elements.] Gray said. [And second: Narkyra Verrille was holding back.]

    Damien frowned. "Holding back? Why?"

    [Because of her son, Dummy,] Gray said, and then because he was probably feeling abusive, added a mental knock, which made Damien hiss, rewarding Gray with a mental middle finger. [Had she gone full-on Ascendant mode, I doubt anything within a few light years of here would have survived, talk less of a few Spirit lords who were practically beside her. There''s a reason she called of the Sun Spirit.]

    At this, Damien''s eyes slowly turned up towards the bright blue orb hovering in the distance. At first, he had expected to feel some part of its aura, its might, but he couldn''t feel anything. Nada. It was like the Sun spirit only existed in his eyes, not in his senses.

    "I didn''t know she had the authority to command the Sun Spirit," Damien said grimly in his mind. "What kind of power does one need to command the Sun?"

    [Oh, no, she didn''t command it,] Gray snorted. [That wouldn''t have gone well for her, or anybody else for that matter. Narkyra couldn''t be seen publicly appealing to the sun spirit, it would have defeated her purpose of appearing mad and intimidating. No, while she was demanding outwardly, a private conversation with the sun spirit was also going on, and that was the one that yielded results.]

    Damien took that in stride. He didn''t know much about Sun Spirits, and that was something compared to the fact that he hadn''t even known of their existence until but a few hours ago. But what he''d learned had led him to believe a Sun Spirit took orders from no one. To see the contrary would have changed how he viewed those Celestial behemoths.

    "So, Shadow..." Damien said, his mind whirling. "I didn''t know it was that powerful."

    Seemingly already understanding what he was going to say, Gray continued without any pause.

    [Shadow has less influence when there''s light around. And look at the sky, Damien, it is mainly dark, the domain of the grand element of Darkness. Shadow is a subset of darkness, more a child of light and dark. And while it derives its existence from light, darkness grants it more power. A shadow wielder is more powerful at night than in the day.]

    "Hold on..." Damien said. "Darkness? The darkness element is a Grand?"

    Damien had met a lot of people with stealth affinities, and while he wasn''t overly familiar with the dark element, he''d fought against a few of its wielders. And honestly, none of them had done anything to warrant any admiration for the element.

    [Yes, it is,] Gray confirmed. [Darkness pervaded reality right before even Creation was born, and even before some of the other grand elements had come to be. But it, alongside its twin element, light, lacks the... Esotericness granted to the others, which has somewhat lessened it''s weight in reality, making it a very nigh-common affinity to get, just like light.]

    "If it''s a grand element, then why are it''s wielders as weak as the common element wielders?"

    [Having a grand element is a boost, not a key to greatness. You can see that see that in your fight with the Shadow Hall Space wielder who attempted to capture you. A true Space wielder wouldn''t have needed six more Spirit lords just to hold you. Space is a Grand element, just like Destruction. And while it lacks the sheer destructiveness of your element, Damien, it still has its specialties.]

    Damien nodded, taking the hidden warning to heart. In his mind, he made a note not to underestimate any grand element.

    He was just about to ask another when something crossed his mind and his eyes widened with fear as he turned towards the Ascendant.

    But when he looked, there wasn''t anything untoward that made it seem like the woman had taken notice of his lapse in concentration, or the discussion that had taken place.

    [Don''t worry, I tweaked time a bit around us. The Verrille Ascendant noticed nothing.] Gray assured.

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    Damien raised a mental eyebrow at Gray, questioning the validity of his claim. He knew he shouldn''t be doing that, but he just couldn''t help it.

    [Pfft, while the woman is a good stealth specialist, she''s nothing before me,] the little gray figuring finished with so much smugness Damien had to be petty back. He gave back a mental knock.

    [Ouch!] The little grey man yelped, even though he probably didn''t feel the pain. [Rude.]

    "Yeah, yeah," Damien wagged a mental tongue at him, and then he stopped, his brows creasing. "Say, Gray, what happened at the end? I didn''t see the fight because, well, they were moving so fast there weren''t even blurs, but I doubt even a lord realm wielder would have failed to catch that word at the end."

    Damien hadn''t just heard that word, he''d felt it. A sort of rejection, like reality itself wanted you gone and actively worked to do it. He hadn''t felt such an intrusion before in his life.

    [As you know, the true forms of Spirit Kings are made from essence. A mind made body, so to speak,] Gray began after a brief bout of silence. [Above all else, essence responds to will. The greater the will, the faster and greater the response. What the Aveanii should have instantly recognized was that fighting an Ascendant, one who wields the same element as you and also has an obviously greater will, was a stupidly bad idea.]

    Gray quieted then, the silence dragging for some seconds. And when Damien opened his mouth to persuade more answers, he continued.

    [What Narkyra did was command the essence that constructed the bodies of the Spirit Kings to unravel, which then bared their souls to the world. A death sentence.]

    "Why''s that?"

    [The soul is a sacred thing, a container for the true existence of a person''s being. There is a reason why it is the deepest layer of existence, protected by both the body and Spirit. Once a soul is unveiled to the world, deprived of its natural protections, a sort of contamination happens where all the ambient essence saturating reality mixes in with it. Only an extremely few people have been lucky enough to survive this, and the rest?] He shrugged. [Well, you can see what happened to the Aveanii Kings.]

    Following behind as Narkyra led them down the docks, he finally understood why Gray had explained how powerful the soul element was.

    He hadn''t been the recipient of the Ascendant''s command, yet he''d felt the effects nonetheless, at least a backwash of it. To understand that he could one day be in the shoes of those Spirit Kings, put a great deal of fear in his mind. Afterall, his astral image had been constructed with the essence of destruction.

    Grimly though, he knew that dwelling on that was a sure way to lose his path and live in a constant, perpetual fear. No, Damien didn''t want that. He''d already been defeated once, and to be accepting, that was a waking call.

    He wasn''t all-powerful, nor was he invincible. He was liable to suffer defeat through betrayal as much as a simple beat down, and given the battle he''d just gotten out of and how everything had played out, it was getting more and more likely that the latter was more certain.

    Damien had once vowed never to let anyone treat him like some pawn ever again, and despite all he''d sworn and threatened, he hadn''t done anything to enforce that rule.

    Solaris had used him to further his conquest, using Damien''s hostility as fuel to further rile up the Great War.

    The great families, Aelar, Yuseria, and even Halar, who was stated to be the simple one, had all thrown him under the cart if it meant they didn''t have to battle Solaris. And even though it stung him a great deal, he still understood. If they were brutal enough to betray the Fyre''s, who''d been among their numbers right from the start, who was he to complain? The power Solaris wielded was something that didn''t just make them wary, it terrified them. Damien might have been a future threat, sure, but Solaris was a present one, and Damien knew which would be easier to take down.

    He wanted that.

    Not just the power to take down his enemies, he wanted the power to make them think twice before even thinking of attacking him.

    Moving to the Lese Worlds, Damien had been told countless times how he should behave lest he incur the wrath of someone more powerful and be made a slave. And while he understood that, he knew one ultimate thing: power absolved everything. If he had the power to enforce it, no one dared contradict.

    "Okay Gray, you can take down,"he waved his hands as he turned his focus on the rest of their group. "Whatever it is you put up."

    Gray gave no verbal confirmation but Damien sensed it as whatever was put up came down, like reality righting itself. Even Narkyra sensed it, judging by the brief frown she had on her face and the way she calmly looked around, but she must not have known where the abnormality came from, because soon enough, she turned back to their group.

    "Come," she said. "I have no doubt most of you are distraught from your recent ordeal, and I don''t blame you. Fighting a Spirit King while still a Spirit lord is one unfortunate thing, but having to do that whilst in the middle of a clash between Divine Kings is a whole other kind of nightmare." She pressed a fist to her chest. "On behalf of High House Verille as a whole, I apologize. The troubles of my family should never be endured by another, and I assure you, compensations will be made to your various houses."

    Damien looked around, taking in the others of their unfortunate group. Now that he wasn''t fighting for his life against a Spirit King or escaping the ambush of another, he finally took in who still remained with them.

    A man stepped forward, looking Middle aged while radiating the aura of a Spirit lord. He bowed to the Ascendant. "Ghorah of House Derker thanks the Primarch for her commiseration, but without the aid of Young lord Vanis and our saviors," he gestured at Damien and Keilan who stood behind the entire group. "We surely wouldn''t have made it out alive."

    On his part, Damien fought not to cringe as the Ascendant''s crimson tinted eyes turned towards them, seemingly taking in their existence for the first time.

    The woman cocked her head to the side, like she was listening to something the rest couldn''t hear. "Damien and Keilan, is it? Your unusual arrival has earned you a great deal of thanks from my family and I''m sure, the others represented here."

    Damien breath hitched as the woman blinked before him, teleporting before he''d even registered her disappearance.

    "Say, how did you land in an Aveanii outpost?" Crimson eyes locked down on grey and blue.

    "Mother, don''t intimidate our helpers," Vanis''s voice came right from behind her, out of sight. "They don''t know how they landed there, and neither do we. But we think the Aveanii must have been up to something in that outpost that was powerful enough to interrupt a gateway passage."

    "Hmm," the woman grunted noncommittally.

    "Thank you," she said. "Wherever your path leads you, know that you can always call on High House Verrille should you need assistance."

    Thankful that the intense scrutinization was gone, Damien opened his mouth to thank the woman when Vanis interrupted again, stepping around his mother.

    "If you don''t mind, mother," the young man said. "I would like to invite them to stay with us, at least until they are able to find their own way."

    Narkyra said nothing, simply looking at her son, which made the man sigh. "Fineee," he said. "I simply don''t want them to fall into any unfortunate... Situation, especially as they''re new. You know how Lese is."

    "I do not object," his mother said, and then gestured at both Damien and Keilan who stood there looking at the two with confusion. "Of course, you''ll have to ask them." She said to Vanis, who then turned a questioning look to both brothers.

    Damien look at Keilan, getting a grunt of affirmation from him.

    "Gray?" He said mentally, while making sure to keep an outwardly straight espression.

    [I do not see an issue with this,] Gray assured. [You have sown good karma by rescuing them, and I think Vanis is trying to pay back that debt. You should take it.]

    Damien mentally grunted, and then turned his full focus back on the Verrille nobles.

    "We''d be honored to accept your invitation."

    Vanis smiled, giving Damien a nod, to which he reciprocated.

    "Great!" Narkyra said. "Gather around, let me save you all some stress by portalling you to your various houses," She said just a multiple portals began forming

 Chapter 106: Draconic Society

    As Damien stared at the portals, he couldn''t help but remember the ones created by Merak. But where Merak''s had been a mix of Sapphire, purple, and black, Narkyra''s was a simple black with thin streaks of white, And frankly, her''s scared him more than Merak''s. He didn''t know whether it was the resemblance it had to a dark abyss in comparison to Merak''s shining one, but no, he didn''t want to go into that. But what choice did he have?

    As he watched the others move towards the various portals, Damien finally realized that aside from Vanis and Nalon, there were still other Spirit lords who also bore the emblem of the house Verrille.

    "Who are they?" He whispered to Vanis, making sure to keep his voice hidden. From the corner of his eyes, he saw Narkyra glance in his direction and then back at the exiting lords.

    For his part, the young Verrille lord raised an eyebrow. "Why the sudden question? They have been with us since the beginning, and you never asked."

    Chagrined, Damien gave a nervous laugh. "Well, with all the life and death situations we''ve been in since the beginning, my mind wasn''t all too... focused on the people in the group, especially ones who chose to stay in the background. I just don''t want to have made any slights by not acknowledging them."

    Vanis nodded. "Good point. However, you have nothing to be afraid of. Those are wielders sworn to the house. They are of the house but not of the family."

    Damien nodded slowly, even though he understood nothing of what had just been said. Probably they were simply common soldiers.

    Now that he was satisfied he wasn''t going to be making new enemies right off the bat, Damien turned his worry back on the portal.

    Behind the Verille young lord, he followed as they approached the portal used by the other members of the Verrille house.

    In an effort to hide his anxiety, Damien began looking around. His eyes hadn''t gone more than a few seconds when it jammed another that had also been looking his way.

    Looking at the snow-white eyes of Morec, the ice-wielding Spirit lord from house Queilon, Damien forced a smile, hoping the other man hadn''t seen the nervous look on his face. His worries were confirmed when the man raised an eyebrow, glanced at the swirling black portals, and then back at Damien with a questioning look.

    Unsure what to do, Damien smiled back again, this time with his body forcibly relaxed. He hoped that was enough to disarm the other man... Who then ignored Damien and stepped into his portal.

    Huh...

    Sighing, he turned forward, watching as Vanis calmly stepped through the portal.

    Slowly, Damien approached the portal. Worrying his hands, he tried to form up the will, whispering encouraging words in his mind.

    He closed his eyes and was about to take a step closer when a voice whispered in his ear. "The woes that I go through for you," and before Damien could turn, he felt a booted foot slam into his back, launching him straight into the swirling black abyssal maw.

    Damien only had time to get out a tiny squeak before he found himself sprawled on solid ground, and then anger came.

    He rose, fist cocked with a furious expression as he made to deliver a punch to Keilan''s face, but instead, he felt his fist redirected as a tiny breeze pushed it away.

    Slowly and with shock, he looked up at Keilan. "I didn''t know you could do that."

    "Because I couldn''t," his brother said with a frown, eyes trained on the left side of his head where the wind had directed Damien''s fist to, an inch from his face.

    Now that was surprising. Damien wasn''t an expert on the concept of wind. In fact, he barely knew anything at all, and the only source of knowledge he had was from Keilan, who... If they were being entirely honest, didn''t know much as well, being entirely self taught, but he was pretty sure that wind wasn''t supposed to exist in space, so how did that happen?

    Well, that question had to be shelved for a later date, seeing as they had already attracted attention.

    Amongst the other curious gazes trained their way, Damien met those of Vanis, who was looking at Keilan with a frown, which was also mirrored on the face of Nalon. But unlike Vanis who only watched, the Spirit King moved forward, a demand clearly written on his face. Luckily, his movement was halted by a gesture from Vanis.

    Relieved, Damien nodded at the other man, grateful.

    "Now that everyone is done with the gawking, let''s get going," a voice said behind them, and Damien fought not to jump at the sudden appearance of Narkyra. How could he have forgotten she was with them?

    Taking a deep breath, Damien turned his attention from the group and down to where they were, which was, now that he finally saw, was probably a bad idea.

    Calling what they stood on as a platform was probably an overstatement. The platform, or more correctly, a thin disk, so dark Damien could actually see his reflection, and a few feet wide, stood unmoved in the vastness of space, or maybe it was moving so fast Damien couldn''t tell.

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    Nevertheless, he wasn''t taking any risk. Slowly, in the most natural way he could muster, he stepped closer to Keilan, making sure to position himself within arms reach.

    Keilan, on his part, noticed what Damien was doing, but probably as a sign of apology or something else¡ªnot that Damien was going to easily forgive him¡ªhe made no mention of it, nor did he attempt to push Damien away.

    And then Damien looked at space, and his eyes widened.

    Approaching from Xirou''s ship, he hadn''t really taken in the view before him, and now Damien regretted that, because what was in front of him was the wet dream of an artist come to life.

    To his left and stretching so far and wide as to seem endless, was a sea of sky blue mist. The sea looked thick and, at the same time, transparent. Inside it, Damien could make out the shadowy silhouettes of an uncountable number of creatures, gliding gently through the mist as it glowed brightly, engulfing the dark space in blue, ethereal light.

    That wasn''t all.

    On the opposite side of the blue sea was what looked like a green forest. Damien looked again, and yes, he saw them. Trees so tall that they would have reached the skies on any planet. They were thick with an aura of life so powerful Damien immediately felt his injuries begin to heal.

    The space forest was just like the blue sea opposite of it, stretching far and wide Damien failed to see where it ended. And even from where he stood, millions of kilometers away on a platform of darkness, he still made out the forms of what must have been titans moving within the forest.

    And sitting between them both was one of the weirdest planets Damien had ever seen. He wasn''t even sure it was a planet, seeing as it was flat and round like a disk, with a colossal amount of crimson mists pouring down its edges like a waterfall, with thousands of red lightning streaking within.

    There were two of the disk-shaped planets, both so large that Damien reckoned another couple of planets could fit right inside each of them with space to spare.

    There wasn''t a moon that he could tell, but there was another anomaly: a stream of gas crisscrossing in and out of itself, its light so bright that his eyes watered as they stared at it, which made Damien look away before he incurred any unknown and unwanted side effects.

    Together, the triple wonders painted the dark space for miles in a mesmerizing blend of Crimson, blue, and green.

    Trying and finding no explanation whatsoever why both planets and sun looked like that, Damien chucked them all to Reality shenanigans. He''d ask Gray about it later.

    Being a Spirit lord, Damien had borne witness to countless cracks in space, mainly from battles where astral images came to play¡ªheck, he''d been the cause of a majority of them, so it was easy enough for him to recognize the cracks behind the planets for what it was. What stumped him though, as they got closer, were the massive black chains with crimson streaks that came out of those cracks, ending at a seemingly random location In space.

    There were four chains, each large enough that a single chink would be mistaken for a mountain¡ªlarger than one, if what Damien was seeing was right. And each chain had one end through the cracks in space, going to some unknown location, while the other end ended at some random place in space, sticking to it like an adhesive had been added.

    Unwilling to let this slide, he looked towards Vanis for answers, the other man instantly sensing his gaze.

    It took him a second for him to piece out Damien''s shock and the reason for it, and then he smiled.

    "Grandmother fought and imprisoned an apocalypse-tier dragon who had attempted to take this star system from her." The man explained.

    Damien frowned. "Apocalypse tier?"

    "Not surprised you don''t know of this. Starting from Spirit lord, creatures of each realm are given certain classifications to help differentiate them from..." He grimaced. "Us. If you know what I mean."

    Damien understood clearly: another form of racism. Although creatures with animalistic origins gained sapience and could think and interact just as much as any other being, there was still a certain supremacist mentality that some humans rode over them. He was a little shocked, though, that they''d use something like that for Dragons. After all, everyone knew they were one of the supreme races.

    "Calamity for Spirit lord creatures. Desolation for Spirit Kings, and then we have the apocalypse, which is the worst, if what I''m being told is true.

    "Anyway, to continue. After defeating the dragon, Grandmother imprisoned it as a silent warning to anyone who would attempt to take her home again," he then chuckled. "Of course, there''s always going to be one person who thinks they''re the exception."

    Vanis then pointed at the other pair. "I don''t really know, and from what some rumors say, but the spouse of the dragon attempted to rescue them and also teach grandmother a... Lesson." He smiled. "Well, I''ll simply say that she made sure that they stayed together."

    "How long have they been there?" Keilan asked.

    The Verrille lord shrugged. "I''m not exactly sure, but I''m certain it''s close to or more than three hundred thousand years."

    Damien''s eyes nearly fell off at that. Beside him, he heard Keilan gasp.

    He could scarcely comprehend a single millennium, talk less of thousands. How could people withstand such amounts of years?

    "Not to be boastful or anything," Damien said after getting himself back together. "But I''ve fought dragons before, and although their powers are recognizable, they aren''t anything special."

    Vanis quirked an eyebrow, a smile tugging on his lips. "Nest dragons?"

    Damien frowned. "Yes."

    "Then I''m not surprised," the young man said. "Dragons don''t fully come into their powers until Spirit King. Fighting them at that stage is tantamount to suicide."

    Damien disagreed, but he kept his mouth shut. This wasn''t an argument that could be settled with mouth alone, so he turned his attention back on the chains.

    "Why haven''t their nest come for them?" Keilan asked. "Usually, dragons do not suffer any humiliation done to one of theirs, so I''m surprised why they haven''t attacked to free the imprisoned after all these years."

    Chuckling, Vanis said. "To explain a bit of draconic society. Nests are mainly for the dragons below Spirit Kings. They are considered children in the eyes of those beyond, and as such, referred to as nests. Beyond that are the Dragon empires. Large, monolithic societies spread across dozens and hundreds of star systems. There are very few who are capable of challenging a dragon empire," he then smiled grimly. "We are not one of them."

    "These two," Vanis pointed at the chains. "Are definitely from an empire, but since the draconic society is built on personal power and that alone, those two have been left to suffer the consequences of their weaknesses."

    Damien nodded in understanding. He knew how much weight the Dragons put on personal power. The strong ruled, and the weak either followed or were crushed underfoot, so it wasn''t all that surprising that two dragons who had lost and were subsequently imprisoned would be left to rot. Instantly, the thought took his mind back to Renogoth, the Sea Dragon king.

    Last he''d heard, the creature had been hunting for his head because of Damien''s hand in the death of his son, Regonoth.

    Well, Damien shrugged. He wished them well in that endeavor.

 Chapter 107: An Emergency Invite

    Kairen Kord stood in a seemingly random location in deep space. The only thing around her that she took notice of was an asteroid-torn planet in the distance, slowly leaking out its golden life essence in a gaseous form, which, ironically, beautified that location in a mixture of gold and black.

    On another side, this one somewhat close to where she was, an asteroid shower trailed past; millions of bright tiny dots reminiscent of space as seen in the night, from a location unpolluted by artificial lights.

    She stood alone, unbothered. One would have questioned the wiseness in this since she was likely to be attacked by some of the predators that prowled the deep space, but Kairen didn''t mind. They could come, but it was very unlikely that they''d be leaving alive.

    She sensed it before she saw it: a rip in space, glowing with a golden white light, manifested a mile before her, and from it stepped a woman Kairen never expected to be meeting in this kind of circumstances.

    Leceia Ren was a very beautiful woman, even by Ascendant standards. Her raven black hair, uncharacteristic of one who followed the Throne of Life, shrouded a beautiful love-shaped face unmarred by any form imperfection. It was so beautiful it reflected the golden life essence of the World Spirit in the distance like a dark mirror. Her deep emerald dress, clinched tightly at the waist, projected an image Kairen tried very hard not to even think of. And those eyes, those deep golden white eyes, which had, many times, pulled in multi-stellar emperors, locked down on Kairen the moment she stepped through.

    At but a glance, Leceia Ren projected the image of one who only cared about their image and nothing else. One who simply served the Throne because of the prestige and authority it brought, but Kairen knew better. It wasn''t openly said, but Leceia was considered a pinnacle-level ascendant, capable of going toe to toe with every other Ascendant. She was even stated to have gotten the recognition of Merak, the silent obliterator. But Kairen kept that belief toned down. No Ascendant in their right mind would gain the recognition of Merak and choose to keep quiet about it.

    "Herald Ren," Kairen made sure to greet first, which was uncommon since she was an Adjudicator, but Leceia wasn''t just any Ascendant.

    "Herald Kord," the woman returned, mirroring Kairen''s nod.

    "I feared you would not accede to my invitation," Kairen said, eager to say something instead of simply standing there awkwardly.

    "I almost did not come," the other woman''s voice turned amused, her attention soon turning towards taking in their environs. "But it''s not every day a seemingly random Ascendant, even one of Order''s, invites me to a meeting. Our Celestials may have their difference, which I''m sure you can feel, but that doesn''t mean it needs to be carried out down the ranks."

    Kairen nodded, not taking the reference of being ''random'' to heart. After all, by the circles Leceia moved in, Kairen was random.

    "Judging by your continued silence of why I am here, I assume I was not the only one invited to this... Meeting?" the other woman asked.

    Kairen nodded. "Invitations were sent to others. And forgive me if this offends you, but I wish to begin when all invitees are fully gathered."

    Leceia nodded, saying nothing. Kairen began forming up topics to snuff out the silent awkwardness that was soon to follow, when light flashed, and another portal opened.

    This one a mixture of deep blue and white, with frosty smoke pouring out at the edges. From it stepped a man¡ª more a child than a man, really. It was very common practice for Ascendants to keep a youthful appearance when constructing their prime avatar, but Hozen Darin went further than that. The man, who was probably half a million years old by now, still carried the image of a child still in their early teens. His deep-set eyes, on the other hand, carried the aura of something that had seen civilizations rise and fall.

    Like some of the truly powerful unconcerned with projecting power through unneeded wealthy displays, the man was putting on a simple black shirt and pants, a contrast to his bleached white hair.

    Kairen saw it as Hozen''s hackles rose the moment he finally took in who he shared the space with. She applauded his efforts in trying to keep his newfound wariness contained, but it was obviously not working, seeing as she wasn''t the only one who noticed.

    "Oh calm down, you," Leceia smiled. "I''m not going to bite."

    "Forgive me if my wariness is overdone when I find myself in the midst of two grands," Hozen gritted out. "We all know the outcome if a fight breaks out."

    "Oh, look at that," Leceia murmured, with a look at Kairen like they were sharing a joke, "the primal is afraid."

    Leceia raised her white manicured nails up to her face in a motion of cleaning out dirt. "Trust me, Harbinger, if a fight were to break out, I wouldn''t need the help of an Adjudicator to end you." She finished with a bright smile.

    Inwardly, Kairen grimaced. That sentence would only serve to further frighten the man.

    Thankfully, they were saved as another portal opened up, this one a mixture of deep orange and red. And from it, another Ascendant stepped forward.

    In contrast to the childish features of the Harbinger of the Primal cult of water, Muzen ka of the Unquenching flame took on the appearance of a wizened old man. His appearance wasn''t too old as to seem deathly, but it was close. His garment, no doubt covering the bony figure hidden within, brightened with tiny sparks of fire. The man himself instantly took in the appearance of everyone around with his deep, piercing, twin crimson orbs, unsettling to anyone who wasn''t an Ascendant.

    The tiny whisp of dark hair remaining on his head, like the plumes on a helmet, drifted slowly to a non-existent breeze. Kairen raised an eyebrow at that. Why keep something that was practically gone?

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    "Herald," the man nodded at Kairen. "Herald," he did the same to Leceia, but with a deeper nod. And then he finally turned to Hozen. "Isn''t this meeting meant for adults? Why are you here?"

    Kairen stifled a laugh at that, unwilling to offend anyone even though they could do nothing about it. Leceia, who Kairen had expected to do the opposite, simply glanced at the old man and then away, her eyes continuously trained on the shining display in the distance.

    In response to the subtle jab, Hozen, in contrast to the expression Kairen expected from him, cooled, taking on a cold expression. He looked away from his counterpart in an open display of disregard.

    Kairen shook her head at that. Childrens.

    Luckily, the rest of the group began arriving one after the other.

    Jenst Marg, Herald of the Primal cult of earth was a buffy man with a face half covered in a huge scruffy beard and a puffed up hair on his head. He was putting on a brown robe clinched losely at the waist, with a furry cape made from the furs of some apocalypse tier monster draped over his shoulders.

    The man didn''t have time to acknowledge everyone before another portal tore open nearby, spewing out a misty-looking lady.

    Ferr Gorra reminded Kairen of someone high on some kind of euphoric substance, with her unfocused cloud white eyes which seemed to be looking at something the rest of them couldn''t see.

    Like her counterparts, she was also putting on a simple blue-white robe, which was more the color of the cult of water, and judging by the scathing look Hozen directed her way, Karen wasn''t the only one to take notice.

    Now that everyone had arrived, Kairen turned towards a seemingly random location. "Enough hiding, Shadow. Come out."

    At her words, the rest of the Ascendants, with the exception of Leceia, instantly turned towards that location, surprise and a tiny bit of fear on their faces. Good, they should be afraid. The fact that any assassin with a good alignment could easily sneak up on them was not good for the image of power they were trying to project. Of course, Kairen knew that sneaking up was more easier than actually killing their target, so it was easy to understand why they were less afraid.

    Reality rippled and the darkness of space seemed to pull back, unwrapping itself to reveal a man of wiry stature, as expected from one in his kind of business.

    His hair was dark and cut very short. And just like Hozen, he was putting on a simple black shirt and pants; cotton, if the nonexistent sound from his movement was anything to go by.

    Kidrak Morr grinned at them all as he walked up closer to the gathering, openly reveling in the looks of shock and wariness on the faces of the primal Ascendants.

    The man nodded at Kairen and then directed a deeper one towards Leceia, who returned it with a subtle nod.

    "As expected from a Herald of Order," he winked at Kairen, his dark eyes glinting under the distant light of the dying world spirit. "Nothing can get away from you, can it?"

    "Your flattery is noticed," Kairen said. "And promptly ignored."

    Now that everyone had arrived, Kairen began. "Thank you all for coming on such short notice."

    "...not like we had any choice," someone murmured, a murmur which Kairen chose to ignore.

    "Normally, I wouldn''t call an emergency meeting like this and have it situated in the middle of nowhere, but precautions have to be made," She finished, looking at each of them to convey the gravity of what this entailed.

    "Hours ago, I was sent on an errand toward a random star system in the middle of nowhere to investigate the sudden appearance of an anomaly," she began, folding her hands behind her back.

    "An anomaly?" Hozen was the one to ask, though she saw the question mirrored in the eyes of the others.

    "I do not know exactly what it was, as I was told only a short while after it had happened," she said truthfully. "But what I am led to believe is that two grand elements were used."

    "Seriously?" Jenst began and was about to say something else when Kairen cut him off.

    "No, hear me out," she raised a palm in a stalling gesture. "Two grand essences suddenly spiking in the middle of nowhere would not have drawn the sort of attention my temple now puts on it. The reason for the alarm was that both elements weren''t just drawing from the ambient essence, they were drawing straight from their origin planes," she finished, watching as the dubiosity on most of their faces swiftly changed to shock and curiosity.

    It was rare for an essence to spike just by being drawn from the ambient essence, but not unheard off. Individuals with the greatest authority over an element in a planet could accomplish that. But for such spike to come from the essence being drawn straight from the origin planes? Well, that was a serious issue.

    Things like that, if left unchecked, could tear through an entire system in seconds, and if that continued, then the entire Galaxy was at risk. There were beings with the capability to draw straight from the origin planes, which was what made her temple nervous, since those beings weren''t supposed to be here without their knowledge.

    "What grand elements were they?" Hozen asked again.

    "Life and Soul," Kairen answered, looking at Leceia as she spoke. The others did too, which would have elicited some sort of discomfort on the Ascendant. But if the woman in question was feeling any sort of uneasiness, she didn''t show it.

    "Is this the reason you requested for my presence?" Herald Leceia asked, her voice cool and undisturbed.

    "No," Kairen shook her head. "While it would be easier to point fingers, we all know very well how unlikely it is for you to have any hand in that. No, what I called you all here for is that: on arriving at the star system, I was shocked to see that all the planets occupying that region were gone. Completely destroyed with no trace whatsoever."

    Now silence settled. They all knew what that meant. Everyone here in this gathering, one way or another, had the capability to destroy World Spirits. Completely eradicating them, though, without leaving a trace, was another story."

    "The System guardian?"

    "Doesn''t want to say anything," Kairen answered, which pinched her pride. An Ascendant like Leceia would have been able to intimidate the Sun spirit into cooperating.

    "If power was the problem on your last visit, I''m sure all of us together could remedy that," Kidrak offered.

    Kairen shook her head. "It would have worked a few hours ago, but the moment I left the star system, the Sun Spirit moved. I do not know where it is since it completely severed its karmic strings with the star system."

    Another silence, this one much more intense than the last. There was only one way to completely sever karmic strings, and that was to completely annihilate the thing at the other end. System guardians were brutal, willing to protect their homes with everything in their power. Kairen understood that for them to do that, there had to be the possibility of a win. The Sun Spirit fleeing spoke of the contrary.

    "I assume you have already read into the memories of that system?" Ferr finally spoke, her voice soothing in ways Kairen found difficult to describe.

    Again, Kairen shook her head. "I could not."

    Hozen frowned. "What does that mean?"

    "It means that the memories of the event had been removed. Destroyed," Leceia explained, a frown on her face as she gazed at Kairen.

    Kairen understood that frown. Even amongst all those here, none of them had the capability to remove a memory so much so that another Ascendant couldn''t piece through it at all.

    "Forgive me, Primarch," Ferr said. "But I fail to see how this concerns us," she gestured at the remaining Primals. "This is a matter of the grand cults, why are we here?"

    Kairen knew it would eventually come to this. Thankfully, she was ready. "I called you here because your various temple are the ones closest to the star system in question, and also: all of your cults, with the major exception of earth, and to a lesser extent, air, had a major participation in the events leading to that moment."

 Chapter 108 : Stewing In A Mind Prison

    Every major nation and city Damien had ever been to had had some unique or separate designs in infrastructure that had pedestalled them into the ranks of the tops.

    Xeris, the capital city of Solaria, had been an essence territory majorly built out of minerals like gold and silver, producing massive skyscrapers that shone blindingly under the sunlight.

    Now Damien knew that the city had been built decades before he was even born. Plus, he knew basically zero about infrastructures and whatnot, but he''d been able to scrounge up some information about what it had cost to raise Xeris. Well... He hoped never to be in a situation where he had to sponsor something like that.

    Cirin, capital of Camlen, wasn''t much different from Xeris in terms of population, except where Xeris needed to fend for a budding population then, a population which had peaked at an average number of ninety million, Cirin had only needed to consider a much lesser number.

    The city hadn''t been essence raised. No, an expense like that would have left the entire nation close to broke for months, which was a bad thing considering their position on the continent and their neighbors. A broke Camlen was a free meal for all, unlike Solaria which had simply scrounged up its expenses from the treasuries of the nations it had swallowed up.

    Cirin had been like any other city, with stone-made infrastructures built with the hands of captured slaves and menial workers. Its common residential buildings had been a thing of massive proportions, most of them with floors as high as four hundred, which made Damien wonder, at first, how the buildings had been able to stand at all. Turns out, the earth''s stability and perseverance aspects were no joke, which had helped a lot of buildings which normally should have collapsed, stand.

    Gandor had been similar to Camlen, its capital city, a thing of huge blocky designs, with the more artistic and detailed ones made for the wealthier residents. Gandor, though not as rich as some of the other major nations in the world, had still not been that far behind that it was considered a second-rate nation.

    Aetheris had been a much more richer and powerful nation, accumulating wealth over the millennials of its existence. The one time Damien had visited, before he''d began making international waves, had been a thing of marvel. Unlike Solaria, which only had one essence territory to its name, Aetheris had multiple, and they rivaled, if not surpassed, that of Solaria.

    Their Capital city, Solus, hadn''t gotten the moniker, the golden city, for nothing, seeing as a majority of its infrastructures were massive, cloud-reaching skyscrapers built entirely out of gold. And considering that elves were a longer-lived species than humans, it wasn''t any surprising that a majority of them were able to afford the lavish skyscrapers towering over their cities.

    All the other cities he''d visited in his many years of running, Damien had come across one form of unique infrastructure after another.

    The Verrille world city, a megalopolis of staggering proportions, undoubtedly the largest city Damien had ever come across, with skyscrapers of onyx metals and crimson glasses reaching and crossing the cloud barrier, their reflections shimmering under the sunlight in a mesmerizing fashion.

    Over the city skylines, Damien paid witness as countless beings flew past. Griffins of beautiful feathers glided past them, their riders either on the backs or on chariots attached to the beasts with tethers of light. They bowed to their group as they passed by, probably recognizing the people Damien was with.

    Others rode past, too; some on rainbow-colored Pegasuses and others on wingless horses. Some rode on lions and tigers, eagles, and other living beasts. Damien smiled as he saw a little girl ride past on the back of a sapphire glittering fish. He returned the wave that she sent their way, smile widening as out of the corner of his eyes, Vanis joined in.

    People on beasts weren''t the only ones flying; there were many on artificial constructs just like the flying disk Vanis''s mother had brought forth. Others even rode on crystals shaped in the forms of animals, while a lesser minority simply flew, powering their flight with their mental strength.

    And what made Damien smile more was that the people he saw weren''t all of the human race. On Ra, other races existed, sure, but they were not accepted everywhere. Some nations tolerated them, but others weren''t that accepting, outright rejecting their presence.

    As they flew by, Damien waved back to several species he''d come across and even some he''d never, like the glowing yellow man riding an equally yellow carpet.

    Two young-looking people, each glowing a mix of sky blue and white, flew past, riding on the back of a unicorn, whose horn was somehow conjuring a path on the sky, made out of a dozen colors. Through his senses, he saw as Keilan smiled towards them, unleashing the brightness of his annoyingly perfect teeth.

    The female, evidently caught off guard, glowed a lighter blue as she smiled back. Damien was beginning to pray the male riding behind her wasn''t some sort of partner or spouse when he, too, smiled back, his white form taking on a deeper hue.

    Huh... Damien shook his head. You don''t see that every day.

    The geography of the landmass was one of unique designs, evidently made with a conscious effort, unlike the ones he was used to. The continents were in the form of layered rings, massive ones, each smaller than the previous, and judging by what he could already make out, stretched around the flat-shaped world. And separating them were massive bodies of water. However, they weren''t entirely isolated, judging by the massive bridge outlines running from one continent to the other.

    Damien stared out in awe and wonder at the massive city sprawled out before him. He couldn''t even begin to grasp how it had been made.

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    "This is an essence territory, right?" He turned to Vanis. "It has to be."

    "It is," the other man nodded, looking at Damien with a smile. "Yes."

    "Then how¡ª" Damien waved his hands over the entire view, too stumped to even find the words. "How was all this created? The sheer cost alone..." His voice died down.

    "Essence Territories aren''t too expensive when you have the assistance of The World Spirit," the young lord shook his head. "Grandmother provided the energy while the world created the materials. Other than those," he shrugged. "Like I said: nothing too expensive."

    As they dived below the cloud barrier, emerging into an unclotted sky, something tingled Damien''s mind.

    "Uhh, Vanis?" He called. "Don''t get me wrong, this world is amazing, more than I can imagine. But I have to ask: why aren''t there any flying houses or fortresses in the sky? This is a city, a civilization practically, so it stands to reason that there must be a few wealthy elites who don''t want to live among the masses, preferring a more... Higher view, if you know what I mean?"

    Vanis chuckled, a sound which caused a few raised eyebrows all around. "Oh, there are. Many, in fact. But since Grandmother doesn''t want the skyway disrupted by flying fortresses and whatnot, there''s nothing any of them can do."

    "I''m starting to think your grandmother is a bit of a tyrant," Keilan joked, and then his eyes widened when he realized what he''d just said. Damien''s brother looked behind nervously at the Ascendant woman piloting their craft, but if she''d heard anything, no indication was made.

    Stepping purposefully on his brother''s foot, Damien gave Vanis an apologetic look. "I''m sorry about my brother, his mouth runs a bit much sometimes."

    Thankfully, Keilan didn''t refute the statement. Instead, he simply nodded with a grimace on his face and a subtle look at Damien that spoke of untold consequences.

    "It''s okay," The young lord said, dismissing the issue with a physical gesture. "We''re not that much of an authoritarian that every word said against us is taken to heart. Honestly, we don''t really care anyway. Yes, Grandma is an authoritarian, but so are all the other rulers. She''s just more forthcoming about such things."

    Damien nodded, understanding. He wasn''t going to take any high ground whatsoever on an issue like this, because he knew how true they were. When you had the power, your word became absolute, with any contrast being seen as a crime.

    Fenore and Brunos, whom Damien had taken under his protection, were both dictators. Yes, he admitted it. They weren''t the types who openly demanded that their every command be obeyed, but they weren''t all that far aside either, more a sort of benevolent dictators.

    Damien wouldn''t even deny the fact that he was also one, too. It was one of the packages that came with holding power in a brutal world. You either found a way to make your word followed, or you failed at achieving what you want.

    On the force of arms, Damien had at multiple times, forcefully imbued his will onto weaker opponents, even once a realm below him. He hated it, yes, but it couldn''t be helped. Sometimes, people were just too stupid to see the reality before them; they needed a few reminders to jumpstart their brains.

    Without picking up speed, their craft took them down into the center of the ring layers¡ªa round continent at the center. It was kind of marveling that this small continent here was probably larger than Greensend, which was arguably the largest continent on Ra.

    Right before they''d even landed, Damien had already seen the large procession waiting for them at what looked like a landing strip on one side of the continent.

    The large gathering consisted of about fifty Spirit lords, all of whom radiated peak-tier powers. And unlike the ones that had been freed, these weren''t dressed in any tight-fitting material. Instead, covering their bodies were simple black robes clinched at the waist with red linens. Emblazoned on their breast was the sigil of a crimson lightning.

    Standing in front of the line of Spirit lords were ten Spirit Kings, wearing an inverted design from the ones worn by the Spirit lords. Their auras were contained, as was custom everywhere, but from their bearing alone, there was no doubt: These were powerful beings.

    And leading those beings¡ªat least that was what Damien thought was happening, given that they stood in front of them¡ªwere two other people.

    One, a man of rotund proportions. He was bald with a spear-like beard falling from his large jowl. His eyes were large, probably the largest Damien had ever seen.

    The man was putting on a robe, just like everyone else, but his was different, with more embroidery sown onto it and a button running down the middle, which looked like it was struggling to hold back the jutting stomach.

    The funny thing was that the man radiated the aura of a Spirit King¡ªmore than that, he radiated power roughly similar to Xirou and the Aveanii Divine King.

    This man was a Divine King. Wow.

    The person who stood beside him, though, was the one who quickly hijacked Damien''s attention.

    The young man wasn''t any different from some of the craziess Damien had come across: ruffled, puffed up hair that probably hadn''t seen the touch of a comb in months. A surprisingly cleanshaven face, with black eyes tinged with tiny streaks of Crimson.

    But it was the face that drew Damien''s attention.

    Vanis sighed at the questioning look Damien turned towards him, Keilan mirroring, just as their disk touched the ground. As soon as it did, every soldier in the back went straight on their knees, both the lords and Kings. All went on their knees, leaving silence in their wake.

    The only ones not on their knees were the two people in the front, with the fat man simply bowing, which looked surprisingly easy for him.

    "Welcome back, Lady Narkyra. And you too, Lord Vanis. Your sound return was never in question," the man smiled with a voice surprisingly soft and regal.

    Now that''s something Damien didn''t expect to hear.

    "Thank you, Governor Turen," Vanis responded with a calm nod. "It was more the work of Uncle Xirou that got us all out of the planet."

    Subtly, Damien sneaked a look at Narkyra, expecting some kind of threatening comment on what she was going to do to Xirou when she laid hands on him, but instead the woman was nowhere to be found.

    He looked around, thinking that she might have just changed location, but she wasn''t. Narkyra was gone.

    Oh well, it wasn''t like her presence was any calming. Damien hadn''t gotten used to the presence of Spirit Kings yet, having an Ascendant standing behind him made matters worse.

    "Yeah, yeah!" the second person interrupted, barging through the calm greetings like a bull learning how to fly. "Hey, Vanis! Is it true that uncle Xi got into a domain brawl with an Aveanii?"

    On his part, Vanis sighed, a long drawn out one, just like how Keilan used to do when tasked with washing the dirty dishes when they were kids.

    "Hello to you too, Sol," Vanis said with a tired stare. "Yes, uncle Xi fought an Aveanii Divine King. And no, I am not going to narrate it to you at the moment, I''m tired."

    That was when the young man realized both Damien and Keilan had been staring at both of them for the past minute.

    Immediately, Vanis straightened up, his previous resigned bearing vanishing into thin air. He looked at Damien and Keilan both, one hand gesturing at the other man who looked almost just like him.

    "This is Solis," he gestured. "My twin brother."

    He then turned to the other man, Solis, and did the same. "Solis, this is Keilan and Damien, our saviors. If it hadn''t been for them, uncle Xi would probably not have found us and we''d still be stewing in an Aveanii mind prison."

 Chapter 109 : Jumped up Sense of Superiority.

    Solis, this is Keilan and Damien, our saviors. If it hadn''t been for them, Uncle Xi would probably not have found us, and we''d still be stewing in an Aveanii mind prison."

    As soon as Vanis said this, his twin brother, Solis, turned towards them with a scrutinizing look.

    Although they looked nothing alike, Damien still detected some little resemblance in their features. The identical and perfectly symmetrical jaw. The way their eyebrows seem to curl in an S-like way. Their curly hair, except where Vanis''s was groomed and smoothly swept back, Solis''s was the opposite, with a puffed up unruly hair.

    Their bearings, although mostly different, still had some things that was identical: the squared shoulders, the raised chin, and the look in their eyes, like the world was beneath them.

    Vanis was more subtle, hardly to be discovered if one didn''t notice his bearing when speaking to other Spirit lords compared to when he conversed with both his Uncle and Mother. Solis, though... His open disregard was plain, unhidden, as he turned his gaze on both Keilan and Damien.

    For his part, Damien simply met the gaze steadily. He didn''t smile, neither did he frown or show any sign of displeasure. His return stare was neutral, with a subtle message conveyed within.

    Do not think yourself greater than me.

    Their stare down was only a few moments long, but that was long enough that the other people in attendance started picking up on the low current, and with a parting smile, the other man turned his gaze on Keilan...

    Who simply scrutinized him just the same and then swiftly turned his attention away in an open display of disinterest.

    "We should get moving," Vanis interrupted. "Governor Turen, I want a place prepared for both my guests," he gestured at both Keilan and Damien, "Preferably one close to the main family house."

    Frowning, the Divine King bowed. "Forgive me, lord Vanis, but is that wise? Housing guests at the family home is¡ª"

    "¡ªunheard of. Yes, I know," Vanis interrupted. "But they are special guests, saviors of mine and the lives of other scions too. A debt is owed and I will see mine repaid with utmost zeal. Do as ordered."

    The governor grimaced, seeming like he wanted to say something more, but eventually, he gave up, acquiescing with nothing but a nod.

    Out of nowhere, two tiny coins appeared on the man''s hands, and with a flip, he passed them off to Damien and his brother.

    "Those are your entrance tokens," he said. "As guests of lord Vanis, your abode has been arranged near those of the young lord."

    Damien scarcely heard the man, his eyes trained on the token. The bronze coin looked ordinary, smooth and round. There was an etching on both sides that Damien had to look closer to identify: a rune.

    Damien rummaged through his memories for any identification of what the rune was and what it did, but he came up short, which, he sighed inwardly, was no one else''s fault other than his. He hadn''t exactly been diligent in his runic knowledge.

    Unable to find the knowledge on his own, he looked to his left, meeting the eyes of Vanis who was already looking his way with a knowing smile.

    "The entrance token is the key to your abode," he explained, ignoring the confused look directed his way by both his brother and the governor. "It is meant to be used by you and only you, with no one else having access to your personal quarters except through an invitation."

    Damien nodded in understanding. This was similar to the security systems used in vaults and secret rooms back on Ra, where energy had to be channeled into a certain object to grant access.

    Except, as Damien soon realized, he wasn''t keyed into the token; at least, he knew he wasn''t. So how was it supposed to work for him?

    Looking back at Vanis, the other man simply answered without any prompt. "A drop of both your blood and essence is enough. The house enchantments will take care of the rest."

    Damien nodded in appreciation, and then did as told. That was when he realized there was a bit of a dilemma here: his skin.

    The body fortification of Spirit lords was definitely nothing to laugh at.

    The skin of a spirit lord was equivalent to some of the most powerful metals Damien had ever come across. This had caused no small amount of problems when searching for armors capable of surpassing that which had been granted naturally. Damien had been fortunate enough to come across a lone Sea dragon, probably banished from the nest, which had helped him create his now obsolete armor.

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    Of course, by creating, he didn''t mean he had any personal effort in making the armor, just his luck in providing the materials, and the payment.

    Fortunately, he had a weapon capable of easily parting Spirit lord flesh.

    With a swirl of energy, Gray appeared in Damien''s hands, except instead of looking like a spear ¡ª Damien''s usual ¡ª he manifested in the form of a tiny dagger, more a throwing knife than an actual dagger, really.

    "Now, how does a no name lord acquire such a weapon?" Solis asked, with a sharp gaze directed at the knife. He wasn''t the only one who looked eager to know, judging by the questioning looks thrown his way by the governor and the others.

    Damien ignored them all, and with little hesitation, he slashed, drawing a sharp, thin cut on his thumb. It was deep enough to draw blood, but not so much that it became a major issue like the dozens of broken bones on his body. He was thankful that the cuts accrued from the battle had all closed.

    With a pinch of his thumb, Damien directed the drop of blood onto the token, alongside a thin strip of essence.

    The rune on the token lit up a deep crimson as soon as it encountered both, and then settled back into its dull, unassuming nature.

    Dimly, at the back of his mind, Damien felt something connect to him, a sort of tether. Immediately, he knew what it was, and with a mental command, a crimson purple portal swirled into existence right in front of him.

    Of course, like all other portals Damien had previously come across, he couldn''t see through its crimson, purple, and black screen, leaving him in the dark about what laid on the other side.

    Extending his senses was no better, worse even, as Damien had to deal with the sharp migraine as his senses delved into a realm that didn''t conform to the natural order of things.

    These other downsides were much more risky, as since you could neither see nor sense the other side where you would be emerging, you could easily fall prey to ambushes.

    No one complained though, since a massive amount of power was needed to even be able to create a portal, and if your power was insufficient to deal with anything unfortunate that you encountered on the other side, then you shouldn''t be creating one in the first place.

    Satisfied that his token worked, Damien mentally switched it off, dematerializing the portal.

    Excited, he looked over at Keilan, waiting to see as he summoned his. His smile died down when no portal manifested, and a look at his brother instantly clued him in on the why.

    "You''ll stay with me," Damien didn''t think much of it, placing a comforting palm on his brother''s shoulder.

    "He has his token," Solis, as usual, butted in. Damien was beginning to hate the guy. "Why can''t he use that?"

    And again, Damien sensed it as a dozen eyes pinned on them, waiting for answers.

    At first, Damien would have preferred to keep Keilan''s injuries private, but he didn''t know how long they would be staying here, and also, he knew how futile an endeavor it would be to keep something like that private. Eventually, sooner rather than later, someone would figure it out, if they hadn''t already.

    Damien looked at Keilan, getting an approving nod. "I''ll do it myself, Dame," he said, and then turned his eyes back to the nosey lord. "I have a spiritual injury, and as a result I can''t access my energy well," he finished with his hand raised, showing the token.

    Vanis nodded, probably confirming something he was already suspecting. Damien would be a fool to underestimate that man''s intelligence.

    His brother, on the other hand, simply shrugged. "How weak are you that you had to suffer a spiritual injury?" And this time Damien lost it.

    The air rippled just as he stepped forward, a low howl echoing out of nowhere.

    Damien''s eye twitched when the other Spirit lords tensed, their weapons halfway out, and then Vanis stepped forward.

    "That''s enough," he said with a tone that brooked no disrespect. "Put away your weapons before I deprive you of your limbs."

    Distantly, Damien sensed as the lord soldiers hurriedly did as commanded, their various weapons disappearing in a blink.

    Vanis then turned to Keilan. "I apologize for my brother''s disrespect, but I won''t lie to you and tell you it will stop anytime soon," Damien''s fist tightened as he heard Solis chuckle.

    "Solis only responds to power," Vanis said. "And so, to settle this and spare you any future disrespect, a duel has to be called. Keilan, you are the one being disrespected, so for your sake and in regard to your injury, the duel will only be one of pure skill, no essence drawing. Is that okay with you?"

    Damien stepped forward. This was absurd. His brother was still healing from his injury and now he was to fight some no brain noble with a jumped up sense of superiority.

    He frowned as Keilan''s hand fell on his shoulder, stopping him. "No, Damien. I have to do this, otherwise he won''t stop."

    "Bu¡ª" Damien began.

    "No," Keilan shook his head, and Damien''s mouth went numb at the finality in his tone. "I''m not a baby for you to pamper. This is my fight."

    Grimacing, Damien nodded, and then turned a withering stare at the man in question, who began whistling while playing with his fingernails.

    At the corner of his eyes, Damien saw as Vanis gritted his teeth, anger flashing past his eyes. But then he calmed down, gave Damien a pleading look, and then continued.

    "As payment if Keilan wins, Solis, you''ll have to pay a restitution of three hundred thousand Vicari¡ª yes," the young lord smiled at the choking sound Solis excreted. "Yes, you will pay it, brother, and I''ll make sure of that. Also, along with the fine, a promise will be made that you will stay away from both brothers unless you are invited¡ª"

    "But Vanis! You can''t ask me to pay such an amount just for a single duel!" Solis interrupted, his face still overcome with shock.

    "Who said you would be fighting a single duel?" Vanis smirked. "You wanted a fight? Good, now you have it, except it won''t just be with Keilan, but also his brother, Damien."

    At that, Damien''s lips widened. Oh, he could hug Vanis right now.

    Solis opened his mouth to speak but Vanis simply rolled over him. "Your only reward, which is contingent on you defeating both brothers, is your simple freedom. You won''t be restricted away from them, but that can only happen if you can defeat both brothers, while theirs is contingent on only one defeating you."

    "But¡ª" Solis began, an argument not far from his tongue. He was interrupted sharply by his brother.

    "It''s either you take it as it is or you stay away from them, no negotiations."

    Solis stepped back, fuming, and then, with obvious reluctance, he acceded.

    Vanis nodded, turned to the governor, and then commanded.

    "Prepare the dueling arena."

 Chapter 110: A Song Of Wind And Blood I

    Keilan stepped through a swirling portal, emerging onto the grounds of what the Verrille scion, Vanis, had called an arena.

    To call this place an arena was an understatement, extremely so. Without any form of exaggeration, the place Keilan now stood on was unarguably larger than the miles-wide castle compound at Cirin.

    Behind him, he noted, absentmindedly as the others of their new coterie stepped through, including the recent joinings. And despite his anxiety at the duel ahead, he couldn''t help but smile at the uncontained exclamation of surprise from Damien.

    His brother was, if anything, a good displayer of his emotions.

    Aside from the ginormous space they now stood in, which stretched so far even his Spirit lord-enhanced senses failed to grasp the fullness of, the place looked so... Normal.

    From above, Keilan felt the heat from the sun as it bathed the entire arena in light, painting it a bright golden orange. And aside from that, dimly, he also sensed, more within his bones than senses, the large dome of energy hovering overhead, likely covering the entire arena. The power radiating from the stuff was enough to make his bones vibrate, thankfully at an ignorable level.

    "Welcome to the arena Posenos," Vanis announced beside him, drawing the attention of both Keilan and Damien. "The greatest lord to mid-tier King arena in the core."

    "Mid-tier Spirit King? That''s the highest it can hold?" Damien choked just as his eyes boggled out. "I fail to fathom what a high-tier Spirit King arena looks like."

    "Grow strong, and you''ll find out," the man, governor Turen, said with a chortle as he walked up towards them.

    Despite the advice coming off as somewhat of a joke, Keilan still took it with extreme seriousness. He would grow so strong containment would be a thing of impossibility when it came to him.

    Keilan just hoped his injury healed fast enough so that he could go back to amassing power. His excitement at gaining a technique exclusive to beings so far above him that they were like the earth to a sun was beginning to wane and was soon turning into disgruntlement. Very soon Damien would begin ascending again, and Keilan would be left behind.

    Honestly, he didn''t understand why his brother still hadn''t climbed into the peak tier of Spirit lord by now. It wasn''t like he lacked the potential to do so, If anything, there was more than enough to climb and still reach the edge of the tier, but Damien still hadn''t done so.

    Oh, well. Keilan shrugged. Dumb as his brother might be, sometimes, he had to admit that Damien knew what he was doing; it was Keilan''s job to simply trust in him and pull him out whenever he went deeper than he could handle.

    The soft voice of Governor Turen snapped his attention back to the others. "The first part of this duel is between Spirit lords Keilan and Solis, and unlike how it is usually done, this would be a fight without the use of internal essence. As lord Vanis has commanded, the win condition for lord Solis would be the defeat of both brothers, while the Elason brothers only had to defeat the Verrille scion once to achieve victory."

    Keilan didn''t blink at the sound of his surname. At this point, he wouldn''t be surprised if some higher realm wielder somehow knew the meal he''d eaten at a certain point years ago."

    "Both contestants should please take to the center stage," the man called without shouting. Everyone here were beings with senses that could, at most, catch conversations a mile away.

    Keilan looked at his brother, meeting the worried gaze he saw there. He smiled comfortingly with a punch to Damien''s shoulder.

    "Don''t get all sappy on me, Dame. I''m supposed to take that role, remember?"

    Immediately, Damien''s worry vanished, replaced with a scowl. "Lose and you won''t hear the end of it."

    "That''s the Damien I know and love," Keilan laughed.

    Turning away from his brother, Keilan took a deep breath and then walked forward, ignoring the mocking grin Solis threw his way as the other man levitated toward his position.

    It took Keilan almost a minute before he got to his location, which he was certain was comfortable enough to be called the center.

    Opposite him, a mile away, was Solis, who had already drawn his huge bastard sword with an exaggerated flourish and a sharp smile pointed at Keilan. On any other person, a look like that would have been sweat-inducing, but Keilan didn''t mind; he simply glanced at his opponent with an expression carefully made to look intensely bored. Entitled brats like these hated those.

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    And truly, it worked, seeing as Solis''s smile immediately morphed into a scowl.

    Keilan wanted to chuckle but held himself. Instead, he focused on the huge monstrosity on the other man''s hands.

    Like his brother, Vanis, it seemed he, too, had been gifted with an extremely powerful weapon. Just by looking at it, Keilan instantly deduced that anything of Spirit lord make would be very susceptible to destruction should it come in contact with the blade, his skin included, which instantly heightened Keilan''s threat assessment of the other man. And that was even discounting the dozens of runes etched in rows on both sides of the blade. Like his brother, Keilan''s knowledge on runic structure was basically non existent, which made any deduction of the rune capabilities null.

    Keilan didn''t fight the nervousness that crept up at that realization, but he didn''t let it overwhelm him either. Instead, he took it, folded it, and then placed it into a corner of his mind, enough that he knew it was there without it interfering with his thoughts.

    With a steadiness contrasting his size, Divine King Turen landed in the middle of both opponents, holding a leaf-shaped fan that hadn''t been in his hands last Keilan checked.

    With a casual wave, a subtle tremble rippled through the ambient essence, and then an earthquake began.

    Keilan steadied himself and had to keep tighter control of his expression as the earth began breaking open, with multiple protrusions slowly tearing out.

    First, they appeared as sharp pointy objects made with thickened earth essence, and when the rest of their mass came out, Keilan couldn''t stop himself. His mouth snapped wide.

    Right in front of his eyes, Keilan watched as massive mountains grew out of the earth, rising like germinated seeds imbued with an excess of nature''s essence.

    They began with a circle around the two duelers, forming a sort of ring with both fighters at the center. And then behind those ones, other mountains also began rising, getting taller the further they went, until Keilan''s view of the horizon was soon blotted out by the humongous tips of some of the most gigantic mountains he''d ever seen.

    After a few minutes, the earth finally settled, bringing with it a quiet stillness all around, even from the people who were no doubt familiar with all of this.

    "At my mark, you will begin," Turen''s voice drew Keilan back into the duel. The man raised his leaf fan to the sky, and Keilan breathed in.

    He was injured, yes, but that didn''t mean he was entirely defenseless. The rules said no internal essence use; it didn''t say anything about an external one.

    With a deeper breath in, Keilan unraveled his will, spreading it out, and his eyes widened in shock at the instant effects his will had upon the world.

    He wasn''t the only one who took notice, either, as through the euphoria that came with his will enveloping much more than he had ever taken in before, he sensed the gaze of everyone land on him.

    Like a calm river, he felt the essence of the wind flowing through the world, essence and element together. Alongside it was the presence of the other elements as they also flowed through the world, something he''d never sensed before. Intuitively, Keilan knew he could touch them, command them into his bidding just like his own element. And this time he couldn''t help but laugh, the sheer euphoria of it all engulfing him.

    With a flex, he willed the essence of the wind into submission, and his grin widened at the sheer effortlessness it took.

    Usually, the wind was an unruly element, unwilling to be caged, ever willing to be free. It constantly fought off all attempts at commanding it, which made his use of intent a struggle at best. Now though? Keilan smiled at the condensed wind essence he held in his hands. It wasn''t as solid as a normal weapon, but he still felt its weight on his hands, like a leaf, a leaf with the power to level mountains.

    He looked up at Solis, finding the man frowning in confusion while his eyes studied Keilan and the roiling wind spear in his hands.

    Expecting a word from the man, Keilan raised an eyebrow when Solis said nothing, simply nodding with a serious face and a more careful arrangement of his sword.

    "Begin!" Turen called just as he disappeared.

    Keilan moved before his mind processed what he''d just done. His eyes watered at his shockingly new speed, twice that of his normal.

    Solis met him in the middle with a calm warding swipe of his sword, which Keilan heeded. He halted with such force that the shockwave pushed the other man staggering back.

    Keilan stepped forward, willing the wind to boost his speed a little. He grimaced when Solis met his strike again, catching it and redirecting it away from his shoulder with the flat side of his blade.

    "Although your grip on the wind is strong, I can already tell your use of it is amateurish at best," Solis said while he retreated a few meters. The man spat onto the ground. "What a waste."

    Keilan gritted his teeth but otherwise said nothing, because deep down, he knew Solis was right. He didn''t have as much experience commanding the essence of wind compared to the other people he''d seen. And with another gritting of his teeth, this time in embarrassment, Keilan tore a book right out of Damien''s page.

    He and Solis clashed in a conflagration of wind and destruction. This time, instead of trying to wield the wind like a knife, Keilan slammed it down like a hammer.

    Solis dodged just as a powerful gust of wind approached him, but Keilan was just a step behind. With his speed, he easily bridged the gap, surpassing it and reaching the other man just before he could halt his movement. Keilan stabbed forward, and instead of his spear tearing into skin, he willed in a wall of wind before the spear tip and then slammed it into Solis.

    With a whoosh of air and the sound of something breaking, Solis was blasted backward, crashing with massive force into a mountain close by.

    Through the thunderous sounds of boulders crashing, Keilan pushed forward, his spear leading the way. Thankfully, he hadn''t attacked at full speed, which gave him room for an instant halt the moment he sensed it.

    The smell that preceded the reappearance of the young lord sent shivers down Keilan''s spine. Suddenly, the coppery smell of blood filled the air, with a faint red ting following.

    Through the dust-filled mushroom cloud that shrouded the mountain Solis had crashed into, Keilan heard the voice, piercing through with a mad echo that forced Keilan to tighten his grip on his wind spear.

    "I think, I am beginning to like you," Solis said just as the outline of his figure stepped through the curtain of dust, materializing into view. The man''s eyes glowed with crimson madness the moment Keilan''s eyes met him.

    Fuck!

 Chapter 111 : A Song Of Wind And Blood II

    Ever since the battle began, Damien had immediately recognized that something was wrong. It wasn''t that his brother was weak. No, on the contrary, Keilan was among one of the strongest Spirit lords Damien had ever seen. Added to the fact that his powers worked just as much as a spear as well as a hammer, and Keilan was a monster on the field.

    Entire armies had been laid waste as well as armadas destroyed simply by the swipe of his hand, and Damien had also borne witness to the aftermath of his wrath on the wreckage of a city.

    Injury aside, Keilan was still a monster with a spear. And frankly, if Damien was being honest, his brother deserved the title of calamity even more than him.

    No, what actually tickled his senses was nothing too concrete, it was simply the ease with which Solis had instantly given ground the moment the battle began.

    Over the years, Damien had battled no small amount of Spirit lords, and the one rule everyone abided in was that: do not give ground to the enemy.

    In battles of their calibers, giving ground was almost the same as forfeiting your life. You never knew what trick or hidden techniques your opponent had under their sleeves, so giving ground was tantamount to yelling: ''hey, I''ve given you space. Do what you want.''

    Take Keilan''s battle with the mad triplets for example. Had they continuously hammered him instead of stopping to probably monologue, which Damien was pretty sure they''d done, Keilan would probably be dead and they''d be alive. Their arrogance and extreme surety in the effectiveness of their techniques had cost them the battle as well as their lives.

    Solis was different, Damien knew it. He knew that his knowledge of multi-stellar nobility was practically non-existent, with the exception of Vanis being his only reference, but what Damien was sure of was that, no matter where they came from, nobility was nobility. Solis should have had some serious training growing up, with expenses large enough to beggar the great families back on Ra. Xirou and Narkyra were evidence of this. Which begged the question of why Solis had instantly given ground instead of pushing just as hard as Keilan.

    The answer came when the young man crashed into a mountain from a blow from Keilan, causing a cloud of dust and a hail of rubble to crash down.

    From the mountainside, a location in the middle that had been hollowed out into an open cave for the audience to watch, Damien noted dimly as Nalon casually reduced a rain of massive boulders to dust the moment they came within distance of where he and Vanis stood.

    "I didn''t know your brother had an affinity for blood," Damien commented while his eyes stayed on the battle.

    Like everyone else, his senses were also spread wide over the area, so it was easy enough to notice the essence of blood take front stage in the ambiance. Also, he could smell it, the metallic taint of blood, emerging alongside a crimson hue in the atmosphere.

    Vanis grunted. "Like your brother with his unusual alignment with the wind, Solis also has one, except it isn''t with the family element, but with blood. He''s the same as mother."

    Damien didn''t need to ask what he meant. He''d noted that Narkyra''s appearance hadn''t been with a flare of crimson, like Vanis or Xirou, it had been with the creeping of shadow.

    Throughout the entire battle with Aveanii Kings, the woman hadn''t revealed an ounce of her affinity with destruction, only making use of the shadow element.

    When Damien really thought out it, he hadn''t really put much weight to it at that moment, but now with what Vanis had said, everything finally clicked.

    Inherited elements weren''t a thing commonly seen, and when it happened, the inheritor wasn''t certain to align with said inherited element. Tenral was an example of this. The son of the Solarian emperor had inherited the sun flame affinity from his father, but unlike Solaris who was a talented monster with the element, Tenral''s alignment with the affinity was nothing to speak about. Oh, he was strong, Damien didn''t argue that. Tenral had ranked at the upper tier back on Ra, with the capability of handling most Spirit lords single handedly. Unfortunately, that wouldn''t have been enough if he had encountered people like Aelar or Yuseria; or even Halar.

    With that in mind, Damien couldn''t help but think about Vanis''s alignment for destruction. Damien hadn''t seen him wield any other element aside from the crimson lightning, which at least said something about his alignment with the element. He''d find out soon enough.

    Down below, Damien grimaced as with a burst of explosive speed beggaring the ones he''d previously displayed, Solis slammed into Keilan with a massive punch that sent the other man crashing likewise into another mountain.

    It didn''t help that Solis kept grinning like a madman all the way, his eyes glowing a deep blood red.

    With a mental flex, Damien sensed Keilan disperse the rain of stones about to fall on him, and an instant later, he met Solis in a blur of green and red, and Damien became enraptured as the battle began anew.

    In probably one of the greatest battles Damien had ever seen, he watched as Keilan battled what was tantamount to an interstellar prince.

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    A howl echoed out just as a massive gust of wind pushed Solis back a few feet backward, a rain of blades following a moment later. The other man didn''t give ground for long, retaliating with a thunderous burst of speed that saw him vanishing before Keilan''s attack had even reached his location.

    "He isn''t attacking with blood," Damien said to no one in particular, but still, he received an answer.

    "The constraint on this duel has left little time for my brother to wield his element the way he wants to," Vanis said with an air of approval. "So he''s making do with the little room he has by using his element in one of the best ways imaginable."

    "And what''s that?"

    "Self-enhancement."

    Huh... Damien frowned and then narrowed his eyes down on the battle below. Like Vanis said, Solis had enhanced himself, and not by a small margin either.

    Previously, Keilan had been able to rival and even beat Solis when it came to sheer speed and power. But now, not only could he match Keilan in speed, he was wrecking him with sheer power.

    [The element of blood isn''t just any common element; it draws power from both the great elements of Life and Creation.] the voice of Gray suddenly echoed out in Damien''s head. [What the young lord has just done is create a few extra muscles while also Imbuing himself with excess vitality to boost his biology and also keep it from falling apart.]

    Damien grunted at that, saddened. He didn''t claim to fully understand all that Gray had just said, but he knew that a Spirit lord enhancing themself was never a good thing for their opponents.

    [Don''t despair,] Gray comforted. [He can''t keep this up for long.]

    "Why?" Damien asked, mentally.

    [Because, taking an excess of something for too long, while it might be helpful in the short term, a long term intake can swiftly In turn the other way around.]

    Damien grunted in acknowledgment, ignoring the side glance Vanis sent his way. While he agreed with what Gray had just said, Damien was more worried about how long Keilan would last before he was overwhelmed. Presently, he could already see the strain taking its toll on him.

    Wait, strain? Damien frowned just as he leaned forward, ignoring the open edge before him. Injured Keilan might be, his stamina shouldn''t have taken so much of a hit that a battle barely past its half-hour mark would begin tiring him.

    "Ahhh, you''ve noticed the second effect of my brother''s powers," Vanis nodded.

    Damien''s head snapped towards the other man. He didn''t have to ask before Vanis answered.

    "Solis''s alignment with blood is so much that I find it very... Uncomfortable¡ª" he grimaced. "¡ª to deal with when battling him. My brother''s limit to controlling blood doesn''t just stop at his body. With a superior will and soul, his will can extend into the blood of others."

    Damien couldn''t help himself, he shivered. Among some of the worst situations to be in, losing control of a vital part of oneself was probably at the height of that list, and he couldn''t help the intense worry that crept up at the thought of Keilan having to deal with that.

    He studied Keilan for any more signs of tiredness, but he found nothing. In fact, on the contrary, aside from the lag in speed, Keilan was still going hard on power. Already, their fight had warped the landscape, courtesy of the scything blades that tore through the earth, drawing out long trenches in the land and carving out large chunks off of the mountains. Solis was just as bad, his sheer strength was so powerful that when he swung, his blade sent forth echoes that did as much damage as Keilan, leaving behind large craters in their wake.

    "I don''t know why, probably because most of our battles are usually fought with techniques, but the sheer power a Spirit lord could unleash just from their physical strength alone is nothing short of amazing," Damien said with admiration.

    Beside him, he sensed Vanis'' nod. "True. We tend to fight with techniques so much that we forget the sheer powers we could unleash with our physiques alone," the man said just as Keilan punched forward, releasing a pinpoint blast of kinetic energy that caught Solis on the shoulder, flipping the man into the sky with a loud crack.

    "Ouch," Vanis grimaced. "His shoulder''s definitely broken."

    Damien agreed, and he also noted that Solis''s enhancement must have been reaching its limit, seeing as when he stood back up his shoulder stayed broken, unlike the many times he''d taken an injury. The man in question smiled, a contrast to what he must have been feeling, and with a crack of thunder and a cave-in of the earth, he launched himself at Keilan.

    With his senses, Damien saw as Keilan stretched forth his will, and this time instead of going for the wind, his element, he went for something else.

    With a start, Damien''s eyes widened as gravity was inverted, instantly launching the already-on-air Solis far up with a speed that beggared that of sound. And to the surprise of no one other than Damien, Keilan also launched himself into the air.

    Beside him, Vanis grunted. "He shouldn''t have done that."

    Damien couldn''t argue. Even he, careless as he was, was wise enough to know not to tamper with an affinity that wasn''t his. Keilan must have still been feeling the rush of his newly enhanced willpower to have tried something so risky.

    Soon enough, gravity reverted back to normal, and within seconds, both duelers came crashing down onto the earth.

    Damien winced at the cloud of dust that rose up from the two new craters on the ground. He knew a fall like that wasn''t enough to take them out like that, but a few injuries must have been incurred. And truly, when both of them rose back out of the craters, it was with a broken limb from Keilan, as well as another from Solis.

    For a few seconds, both Spirit lords studied each other from their respective crash sites, scrutinizing each other''s injuries, and when Damien began to think that they were going to call a halt to the battle, his brother launched forward, carried through the air by probably his last remaining willpower.

    With a bark of crazy laughter, Solis matched in stride, lifting himself into the air with his last walking leg and the shred of a probably drained willpower, his large sword raised high with his last working limb.

    Damien felt it as the air was sucked away just as Solis''s sword came down. His eyes blacked out for a second at the sudden deprivation of air, Vanis also, judging by the way his eyes widened and how hard his chest rose. When Damien finally turned his attention back down, his stomach dropped at the sight below.

    Keilan lay down on the sand, bleeding profusely from having both his hands chopped off straight at the elbow. His will must have been completely drained, because he was already unconscious.

    Standing over him was Solis, who probably wasn''t too far away from collapsing. The man''s right hand had been speared through from the palm right up to his shoulders, which spurted out blood in a gruesome manner.

    With a rueful smile, Solis also collapsed into unconsciousness just as the wind spear dispersed.

 Chapter 112: Old Man Tesulsn

    High above the arena Pasenos, two beings hovered. One, a man of raven black hair, with features one would have easily mistaken for a youth just past their second decade. They were putting on a simple cotton shirt and pants, which ruffled lightly under the wind. And their sapphire blue eyes, which had a single rune inscribed on the surface of both orbs, gazed down at the duel happening below.

    "Did you see it?" Merak said with a touch of awe, an unusual emotion for someone who''d seen almost everything there was to see in the mortal realms.

    The second person, a woman with long golden white hair which fell smoothly down her back. Today, she was dressed in a white blouse and a long flair skirt, which stayed undisturbed despite the more-than-gentle wind blowing in the surroundings.

    "Yes," Leceia nodded, also with a touch of awe. "Yes, I saw."

    Both Ascendants weren''t shrouded in any form of technique, but despite that, their presence was still undetected, even to the Divine King down below and the Ascendant watching from the next planet over.

    "Was this the reason you decided to protect him?" Leceia said without physically turning to Merak, but despite that, he could still feel her attention. "Because you knew what his alignment would amount to?"

    "No," Merak shook his head. Honestly, he would have loved to simply lie and agree to what she''d just assumed, but there was nothing to gain from that. Instead, Merak told her the truth, at least a part of it. "The boy keeps Damien grounded in his humanity," he answered and then explained when Leceia finally turned to him with confusion.

    "Haven''t you noticed yet?" He nodded at where the other one, Damien, was standing, beside the other scion of House Verille. "Damien has little humanity in him, I''ve noticed. He tries very hard to make it seem otherwise, but I''m sure even he is aware of how little compassion he has within. Keilan, on the other hand, is a ball of sunshine that dispels the darkness surrounding his brother."

    "Isn''t that a bad thing?" Leceia argued. "We both know how destructive compassion is for beings of our levels. The boy will die, and die swiftly if he holds on to it."

    "I agree," Merak nodded. "But there''s a difference between having little compassion and having none at all. Had Damien not been found by that hunter and had been left to experience the cruelty of that world without the cushion of love to fall back on, the Sunfire Spirit King would have been the last of that World''s problems."

    "So Keilan is his cushion?"

    "Yes," Merak nodded in affirmation. "And he needs to stay that way. Until Damien admits to his emotional shortcomings and confronts them, he will become a monster should anything unfortunate fall upon his brother."

    "This is a weakness plain for all to see," Leceia commented. "It has as much chance of backfiring and opening the boy to his enemies, especially now that he''s defenseless."

    Merak quirked an eyebrow, a tug on his lips. "Does he look defenseless to you?" He nodded down at the duel below.

    "You know very well the caliber of enemies they''ll encounter, especially now that his brother, Keilan, has just taken in a Fragment into his soul. Reality has a way of pitting the worthy against the worthy, regardless of realms."

    Merak grunted. "Then you should help him through his current predicament."

    "I am a Life wielder, Merak. My authority does not cover the soul."

    Again, Merak grunted. "Then we''ll just have to find another way. The boy has just touched the Air element, and damn me if I''ll let that go to waste."

    Leceia chuckled in amusement. "Look at you, being all caring."

    Merak huffed but didn''t reply. Instead, he changed the topic to another one just as important.

    "How goes the Adjudicator''s investigation?"

    Immediately, Leceia''s smile vanished, replaced with a deep, thoughtful frown. "I''d say ''going well'', but that depends."

    "That bad, huh?"

    Merak couldn''t help but quirk an eyebrow at the sigh that came out of the woman just as her shoulders relaxed, not in relief but in exhaustion, though Merak knew that to be exaggerated.

    "It''s like reality wants her to find the boy."

    "Why''s that?" Merak frowned.

    "Her investigation is coming on fast, too fast, regardless of the many blocks and ends we''ve placed behind us. And I don''t know how, but she''s catching on to the fact that the primal cults, as well as Shadow Hall, all played a role in the disappearance of those planets. It''s only a matter of time before your ward''s role comes up, and they start looking into the no-name Spirit lord with a web of powerful beings and association spiraling around him."

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    Hearing that, Merak''s face turned thoughtful. He wasn''t worried about Damien being discovered, not any longer. If reality wanted the boy discovered, then there was nothing he nor anyone else could do to prevent it. Still, he couldn''t help the shiver that went through him at the thought of the boy getting unveiled. Admittedly, Merak knew nothing of the boy''s true identity, and asking Gray would have been pointless, seeing as the Minder also lacked the information; but Merak had already seen the importance placed on the boy from the Transcendent Lords of two different Dimensions, and coupled with the swiftness with which the Order Lords were searching, even though they knew nothing of what they were actually searching for, spoke volumes of the war that was sure to occur when everything finally came to light.

    "The Adjudicator and the Primal Ascendants have to stay untouched," Merak finally said. "Their deaths would draw the attention of the Supreme Primarchs of those cults, and even Transcendants if this is as important as I think it is."

    "I noticed you didn''t include Kidrak Morr," Leceia homed in on him with narrowed eyes.

    Merak understood what that look was for, and he smiled at that. "No, I won''t be the one acting. I understand very well that a single move from me would send waves across the cosmos, and that is something we do not want,¡ª" he paused. "¡ªAt least not yet."

    Leceia nodded. "Then who?"

    Merak would have loved to send her, but for the same reason as he, Leceia could not act. A move from her wouldn''t draw as much attention as a move from him, but nonetheless, attention would still be drawn.

    "I haven''t decided," Merak answered. "Shadow Hall hasn''t outlived its usefulness yet. I''ll see them squeezed up for everything they''re worth before I cut off the head of that snake."

    <hr>

    Damien sat down at the edge of the bed with his eyes trained on the sleeping form of his brother. The result of the duel had seen Damien awarded the winner by default when it seemed Solis wasn''t going to be fighting in any capacity anytime soon.

    Aside from the physical injuries, both duelers had incurred a massive amount of mental strain that was certain to see them both bedridden for hours at the least. Thankfully, all missing limbs had been successfully reattached, and for the ones that were too far gone to serve any more purpose, a new limb had been grown.

    The abode they had been granted had been extremely bare when Damien had moved in. It wasn''t until Vanis had informed him that the decorations were left solely to the occupant''s discretion that Damien finally understood why. But with the urgency and need for Keilan to lay somewhere, he hadn''t done more than willed into existence a bed on one side of the massive, half-a-mile-wide rectangular room.

    Looking at the place, Damien didn''t need Gray to explain for him to understand that the place had been spatially expanded. Like seriously, what did one need a room larger than the entirety of some castles back on Ra for?

    Damien sighed. He was just going to leave it all for when Keilan awoke.

    Finally given the privacy to get his thoughts in order, Damien''s mind went back to the duel.

    Back on Ra, he had always been regarded as an extremely talented wielder, so much so that multiple kingdoms had made great efforts to bring him under their control, forcefully even. Watching Keilan battle Solis, a stellar prince, to a near draw in a massive battle of wills suddenly made Damien''s achievement seem insignificant.

    Frankly, even, he didn''t have any achievement to speak of compared to Keilan''s Ascended art or Solis affinity alignment. Damien was just... Average. He wasn''t outstanding nor was he a true force of nature in battle. He was just a wielder who was lucky enough to have had a great affinity at his command. And despite the fact that he should have been happy for his brother, Damien still felt somewhat jealous, with the feeling of inadequacy added to it.

    Multiple times, he''d been foreshadowed as some special existence with a powerful task ahead of him. Words like that coming from beings like Merak and Gray, and also the strange old man, really imbued within Damien the weight of what his future would entail, even though he tried very hard not to let those things get to him.

    How was he to live up to the destiny foretold when he couldn''t even contend with the first Spirit lord of great power that he came across?

    He didn''t have an ascendant technique at the back of his tongue nor did he have an affinity alignment to smooth things a little bit better for him. All he had was an affinity that wasn''t even his, and two others he couldn''t even access.

    "You know, Aizrah was always like this whenever his mood was down," a sudden voice from behind startled Damien into alertness.

    Turning around, the first thing Damien did when he saw who''d spoken was to blurt out. "You!"

    "Yes, me," the person standing a few feet before him said, and then he smiled. "How are you, Damien?"

    Instead of answering, he scrutinized the old man. The last time Damien had seen him had been when he''d been hijacked from what he now knew was a Spatial gateway. And considering the weight Gray had put on beings who could even so much as locate a person in those metaphysical paths... Yeahhhh, this old man was powerful, extremely so.

    It wasn''t a wonder how he''d been able to appear behind Damien without so much as a blip in his senses or on the ambient essence.

    Just like the last time Damien had seen him, his appearance looked unchanged: an ageless facial feature that still gave off the impression of vast ancientness. A physique that looked near broken down, with tiny whisps of white hair rising from his head.

    Definitely. Even though looks could be deceiving, there wasn''t a doubt that this man was old, very old.

    "Who''re you?" Damien asked. He knew how deadly a question like that could be to a higher being, but he just couldn''t help himself.

    With a raised eyebrow, the man said. "If I recall correctly, we had this conversation the last time we met, correct?"

    Damien nodded, his memories suddenly jumpstarting. He remembered asking the man this same question, and he also remembered the warning that had been passed along.

    "I apologize," Damien said with a subtle bow, careful not to give off the impression of being submissive. "My memory seems to have failed me."

    The man seemed to notice his gesture, because he smiled. "Spawn of Aizrah. Like your father, you refuse to bow to anyone. If there was ever a doubt about your lineage, your recent act has just disproven it."

    Damien would have apologized, but it seemed the man took no offense. Instead, he tried to ask about his father but was forestalled when the man raised a palm.

    "You wanted to know my name, but since I cannot give you my true name, I will give you one of many which I have been called over the aeons."

    He smiled at Damien.

    "You can call me, Tesulsn."

 Chapter 113 : Aizrah

    Damien stared at the old man, Tesulsn, as he''d called himself. He didn''t bother asking where he''d gotten the name from, given how ancient the man definitely was. It was probably from some lost civilization or something.

    "Correct," the man nodded and then smiled when Damien''s eyes widened. "Until you learn a modicum of mental shielding, your surface thoughts will remain open to anyone with enough will to pierce through your natural mental barrier."

    Damien didn''t know what to say. He''d always prided himself on the impossibility of his mind being intruded without his awareness... Which, now that he thought about it, shouldn''t have surprised him, given who was standing before him. The old man could probably rewrite his thoughts and Damien wouldn''t even suspect a thing.

    "Take a seat, Damien," Old man Tesulsn gestured to the left¡ªDamien''s left¡ªwhere a chair that Damien was pretty sure hadn''t been there before was now standing.

    With a lessening level of surprise, Damien moved to take his seat, unsurprised to find the old man already seated when he turned back.

    "You know my father," Damien spoke the moment he sat. Normally, he shouldn''t have been the one to speak first, given he was the younger here, but he just couldn''t help himself.

    Old man Tesulsn seemed not to take offense because he smiled, nodded, and then in a fond tone, he said. "Like I said before, you''re just like your father. Aizrah was never one for authority either. He detested them bitterly, even more than you, I might add."

    Unconsciously, Damien leaned forward. "Why?"

    He understood the disregard for authority. Damien might have shown respect to a few powerful people, but that was only because of how powerful they were. He had first-hand experience with how the powerful treated those they considered beneath them, and he hated it to the core. Not to say he wasn''t guilty. No, Damien had at multiple times bullied his juniors into doing his bidding against their will, but one thing he was proud of was that he''d never laid hands on them, not that that was much different, given how painful an aura pressure could get.

    Instead of answering his question directly, the old man asked. "Would you believe if I told you that your father was once a slave?"

    Damien grunted. "I know essentially nothing about him other than the few bits you''ve just given me. No, I can''t say I''m surprised." He shook his head. "Though that defeats the image of indomitability everyone seems to have of him."

    The old man smiled. "Do not doubt his strength, he is powerful. Very. The difference between what I''ve just told you and what you seem to have guessed is timing.

    "Compared to how slavery was done during his time, this present era could as well be considered tame. Then, slavery wasn''t a thing of choice and opportunity, where the powerful took the slightest chance to lock anyone, with only the barest bit of the law behind them. The difference between slavery and freedom then was how powerful you were. If you were weak, a chain would eventually find its place around your wrists and you would''ve been too powerless to stop it.

    "Aizrah had been a simple foundation realm wielder when his village was raided and he was put in chains." The man nodded at the recognition in Damien''s expression. "Yes, I see the similarity in both of your situations. Except where you and your brother escaped the butchering that occurred in yours, Aizrah didn''t.

    "A few years before Aizrah rounded out his second decade, he ended up¡ªalongside many others¡ª as the property of a young lord. At just the mid stages of the foundation realm, he found himself thrown Into the arena to battle it out with monsters a tier above him and, sometimes, a whole realm."

    Damien grimaced, certain now where he got his hatred for slavery from. Back on Ra, slavery had been prevalent in every society, the greater ones especially. But unlike what old man Tesulsn was describing, the ones on Ra hadn''t been that much openly acknowledged.

    Oh, the people knew about it; there was no doubt about that, but many just chose not to acknowledge it, and the few who did suddenly found themselves disappearing.

    "For the better part of a century and change, your father found himself the plaything of those who mixed business with pleasure. He fought, and he killed both monsters and friends alike."

    At Damien''s surprise, the man chuckled. "Yes, friends were pitted against each other. It was a source of great entertainment for the masters, watching those bonded by slavery claw at each other just for the chance to live another day. And most of the winners didn''t even live past the next day.

    "Aizrah was one of the lucky few who did. The will that boy had in him, a defiance which burned brighter than any star," the old man smiled wistfully. "That was what drew my attention to him.

    "Your father, you see, despite being in chains longer than the lifespan, twice over, of some of those who''d started with him, still didn''t give up hope. Oh, he despaired, certainly. He cried, wailed, and cursed at the heavens for his situation. Sometimes, he got the whip for it, a construct infused with the essence of mind and blood to inflict the most pain while leaving the victim with enough energy to survive.

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    "And despite all that, Aizrah lived, or more correctly, he thrived. Your father grew powerful, not as fast as you, don''t get me wrong, but steadily enough that when he finally stepped into the realm of Spirit lord, he became one of the champions of the arena, a feat he was more than worthy of, considering how long he''d spent."

    The man smiled again, but this time, Damien noted how different it was. This wasn''t the little compassionate smile he''d shown at intervals during his narration. No, this was something different. Ruthlessness mixed with a huge dose of pride.

    "You mortals have this saying: ''For every unfortunate situation, there will, eventually, come a turning point.''"

    Damien nodded, he understood that very well. No situation was permanent.

    "Aizrah''s turning point came at the realm of Spirit lord when he was pushed to the brink so far his mind finally snapped."

    The old man gestured at Keilan''s sleeping form as he continued. "You might not know this, but the soul, amongst other things, is a culmination of a person''s experience. The greater the experience, whether good or bad, the faster and greater the soul grows. And your father had an endless well of terrible experiences to grow from.

    "There comes a time when a being is pushed to the brink, with a choice given to either succumb and die or endure and prosper," the old man said. "It doesn''t work the same way for everyone, but those who pass through this crucible always come out with something tangible, a more stronger link with the element from which they draw strength from."

    "An Ascended Art," Damien realized with a whisper. He and Keilan hadn''t spoken much about it then, but from what his brother had said, it was like being put between a meat grinder and a wall. All you had to do to escape the meat grinder was to break through the wall.

    "Yes," Old man Tesulsn said with a nod. "Keilan here isn''t the first person to wield an Ascendant art in the realm of Spirit lord. Far from it, he''s not even among the first thousand. But what he and a few others like him have in common is that they survived through the experience, a thing most could not accomplish.

    "Wielding an Ascended technique links your mind and soul to your Essence plane, unbarring it to the undiluted weight of that plane, a harrowing of which only a few could survive at the Spirit lord realm. Survive and you come out with a technique no one below the Divine King tier could ever hope to achieve. Lose? Well," the man shrugged. "You''ll still come out with a technique, just not with your life."

    Damien nodded in understanding. Keilan''s situation was example enough. "So my father, Aizrah," Damien tasted the word, and found it awkward. Nevertheless, he pushed forward. "He became free when he called on an Ascended Art?"

    "Yes," Old man Tesulsn nodded. "And it¡ª"

    "Wait!" Damien interrupted with a frown. How could he have forgotten this? "Gray warned against the consequences of discovering who my father is."

    Chuckling despite the fearful expression on Damien''s face, the old man said. "Ahh, the Karmic link effect." He nodded. "Luckily for you, I took that into consideration when I told you his name."

    He smiled.

    "Aizrah is your father''s origin name, same as how Daimen is yours, which is ironic¡ª" he chuckled. "¡ªGiven your disposition on Domination."

    Damien frowned. "Daimen? Is that truly my real name?"

    Tesulsn nodded. "Both bear the same meaning, but Damien is of your own making. I wonder why."

    "What do you mean you took into consideration when you told me my father''s name?"

    Tesulsn nodded. "Aizrah is your father''s original name, and in the aftermath of his escape from slavery, the name was all but forgotten¡ªwillingly¡ª and then replaced with another, which then grew into the center of his being. In essence, Aizrah is still his name, but another has much weight."

    Damien stared at the man in confusion. Many of the things he''d just said had only served to pull Damien into a deeper well of confusion, he guessed probably because there was more nuance to it than the man was revealing. However, he still understood the basics. The name Aizrah didn''t hold as much weight as the name he was currently using, which made it impossible for their karmic link, as Gray had put it, to light up.

    Satisfied, Damien turned back on their earlier discussion.

    "We seem to have diverged from our original discussion," Damien said, ignoring the fact that he''d been the cause of said diversion. "You were telling me about the crucible of my father."

    "There''s nothing much to say after this," the old man shook his head. "Due to his constant, unfortunate situation for years, his alignment took noticeable leaps until the day of his freedom, and then all hell broke loose."

    "What happened?"

    "Unlike your brother here whose Art manifested in the deserted skeleton of a former metropolis," the old man said. "Aizrah''s was the opposite."

    Damien grimaced at that. While he understood the rage his father must have felt, the sheer loss of life was enough to leave a bitter taste in his mouth.

    Intuited that that was the end of the story, Damien sat back, resting his back fully on the backrest. To say he was happy would be an understatement, Damien was ecstatic. At last, he knew something of where he came from. No doubt, he loved where he''d grown up in, the people who saw to his wellbeing right from his awakening, but there had still being this neverending need to know about his origin, where he came from. Now that he knew something, a smidgen, he was sure, compared to the troves of knowledge out there, the hunger within him was finally sated, at least temporarily.

    Still, he couldn''t help but feel a sense of inadequacy at hearing about the feat of his father, especially his accomplishment at Spirit lord. It seemed Damien was the only untalented one in the family.

    "Ahh," Old man Tesulsn smiled sadly. "I know that look. Trust me, it''ll do you no good."

    "Why?" Damien retorted bitterly. "It''s not like it isn''t true. Both Keilan and my father manifested an Ascended technique at the realm of Spirit lord, a near impossible feat, from what everyone seems to say. I''m the only one who hasn''t, and I''m already at mid tier Spirit lord."

    The old man smiled knowingly. "I''m guessing that''s the reason why you''ve chosen to stall your advancement, despite the river of potential I can sense swirling within you?"

    Damien didn''t answer, but the turn of his head answered for him. The man wasn''t lying, Damien had continually stalled his advancement in the hope of atleast achieving something noteworthy right before his push for Spirit King. He hated the feeling of inadequacy that flashed through his mind whenever he saw Keilan or Vanis. The sense that he was nothing compared to them. And while he knew, deeply, that he could stand toe to toe with any of them, that feeling still refused to go away.

    "While I have the answer you seek¡ª" Damien''s head rose sharply just as Old man Tesulsn''s voice reached his ears, closer than before.

    His eyes rose to meet the man standing before him, who leaned heavily on his staff with one hand while another slowly approached Damien''s forehead. "¡ªi think there''s someone else whose answer would fit you the most," the man finished just as his finger touched Damien''s forehead, and all went black.

 Chapter 114: Mirror

    When Damien opened his eyes, he found himself standing in a realm of utter gray. More a small island than an actual realm, but still. The moment his eyes opened, Damien instantly recognized where he was: his soul space.

    Beneath his feet was a small tumultuous sea of twisting, curling gray fog, which he knew represented his soul well. The sea covered a distance of ten miles¡ªDamien knew¡ª where its edges vanished in an impenetrable mist that stretched endlessly upwards, rising into a distant ceiling reminiscent of the gray sea he stood upon.

    Looming over it all, in the distance, like a gargantuan titan, was Damien''s astral image.

    The mountainous essence-made manifestation sat in a cross-leg position, with its compressed muscled arms folded over its bare chest, exuding an air of strength and regality, while two orbs of thick metallic grey glared down over the entire foggy landscape like a displeased god.

    "Well, this meeting was sure long overdue," a sudden voice from behind said, jolting Damien to turn around sharply. Inwardly, he wondered why everyone nowadays could sneak up on him without his knowledge. However, that thought instantly vanished into the wind the moment he saw who stood before him.

    Damien had at many times, taken the chance to admire his good features in every reflective surface he came across¡ª Who wouldn''t?¡ªAnd while he''d say he wasn''t as handsome as Keilan¡ªwho resembled a very detailed sculpture made by some artisan with a disturbingly imaginative mind¡ªhe knew how much attractive he was.

    Looking at the person before him, Damien felt like he was once again looking into a well-made mirror, or a fresh flowing reflective stream or pond. Except this time, the image that stared back at him was too realistic for his liking. Extremely so.

    Looking back at his replica, Damien could only admire, too shocked to do anything else. The sharp angular face, defined jawlines, and strong cheekbones birthed an exquisite feature that had seen no small amount of interest from both genders and even a certain winter elf at one point, despite their very conservative mentality.

    Damien didn''t want to say he leered, but yeah, that was what he did. The body wasn''t much different from the head: strong shoulders holding two strong, corded muscular arms, more built for sharp dexterity than strength, framed a slim athletic body, which looked like it''d been built for extreme speed. However, despite all outward appearances, Damien knew intimately the amount of power contained inside those thinly framed muscles. After all, it was the same¡ª

    "When you''re done leering, let me know," the amused voice of his replica smoothly cut through Damien''s very attentive scrutinization.

    Sharply, Damien''s head snapped up, cut short from what he was doing. The first thing he felt when he met the devilishly amused grey eyes of his replica was embarrassment. Damien felt his cheeks redden just as his lips pressed into a grimace.

    With a shake of his head, he brought back his thoughts to the present, and his emotions too, and then he did the thing he should have done at the beginning.

    "Hello, Daimen," Damien said. "We need to talk."

    Normally, a fight would have been warranted in response to the uninvited presence of another being in his soul space, but given that Damien had been aware, deeply, that the replica had begun dwelling in this expanse of grey fog for as far as his meeting with Merak, the need for a battle was then discarded in place of a more serious discussion, a feeling which he was sure, judging by the anticipatory tone earlier in the replica''s voice, was also mirrored.

    Amusement slid off of the replica''s face in an instant, replaced with an irritated scowl. "If you keep calling me that, both of us are going to have a more physical discussion."

    Damien''s eyes widened, joined alongside with a quick step back, like that would have done anything. With wary eyes, he regarded his mirror image while he sought ways to block out his thoughts from being read.

    "Do not bother," the mirror snorted. "That would be as much impossible as stopping yourself from breathing."

    "Why''s that?" Damien said with narrowed eyes. He was beginning to regret coming here.

    "Because we''re the same," the second Damien smiled, unleashing two rows of perfectly white teeth. "Your thoughts are my thoughts, which means they echo into my mind about as much as a word spoken out loud."

    Damien grunted. Instinctively, he knew what had just been said was the truth, but still, his mind was his alone, he didn''t want another person having a secret pass into it.

    "Suit yourself," the mirror shrugged. "We have better things to discuss, anyway, and I reckon you don''t have much time to spare, Keilan soon to wake and whatnot."

    Again, Damien''s eyes narrowed. "How do you know that? And don''t tell me it''s from my thoughts because we both know that I have little idea of when he''ll awake."

    "How useless can a Minder be?" The second shook his head with clear irritation on his perfect features. "This is something you should have been able to detect right at the beginning of Spirit lord. After all, you both are soul-bonded."

    "Soul what?" Damien frowned.

    "Soul bonded," Daimen repeated with an eye roll. "You have spent so much time together, more than most couples perhaps, that your soul has become linked. You should be able to vaguely detect when something''s wrong with him, and he likewise."

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    Like a bout of Deja Vu, Damien''s mind went back to the ambush where Shadow Hall had attempted to stall him. He remembered the feeling of panic that had rushed over him at the thought of something bad happening to Keilan. Funnily enough, it had been that panic that had unleashed Daimen from wherever the being had formerly resided.

    "Now you see," the other being said. "I guess I owe him a thank you. But still, without my intervention, you would still be but a common wielder, if a bit better than the more common ones."

    "Common wielder?" Damien snorted. "I might have felt a bit inadequate at that moment, but even I recognized the contradiction in that statement. I wield a great element, Daimen. What is lesser in that?"

    "Ahhh, and that''s where the crossroad begins, doesn''t it?" The other man shook his head. "You are like a village soldier who wields weapons of the stone age and then calls them mighty, having never encountered steel before. The weapon might be mighty in your perspective, but that doesn''t mean it isn''t worthless to those who wield steel."

    "There are woods stronger than steel," Damien pointed out.

    "Don''t be obtuse, Damien," his second a said with an eye roll. "You know what I meant."

    Damien grunted at that with an inward sigh of agreement. Still, while he understood what Daimen had been getting at, questions rang in Damien''s mind.

    "Explain."

    With narrowed eyes and a subtle smile, the second did as bidden. "The fact that we wield two great elements¡ªdiscounting Destruction¡ªdoesn''t make us unique. There are beings out there with more than one great element at their disposal. Those are the people you should aim to compete with, not some boy with an early summoning and two children from a non-notable civilization in the butt of the Galaxy."

    Damien snorted, purposely ignoring the insult to Keilan, gentle as it might be. Though he did let his displeasure pass through whatever link connected them, which the other must have surely detected loud and clear, because he returned to Damien a conceding nod.

    "In case you weren''t aware," Damien finally said. "I can''t seem to touch those elements, unlike you," he mumbled. "The last time I tried, I got the pain of my life in response."

    "That is not surprising. What we are, what we will become, needs a greater soul strength than what you currently have to fully bloom."

    "What do you mean by that?"

    "We aren''t normal humans, Daimen." The pride when the mirror said that was so thick Damien could have used it as a coat. "We are something more, something greater." He spread both his arms wide. "Damien, we are the First."

    "Self-aggrandizement aside," Damien said when he was certain the other was done. "Can you explain like a normal person because I do not understand one bit of what you''ve just said?"

    Daimen sighed and his hands flapped down onto his lap with an audible slap. "I can''t even blame the Minder for this, because this was a knowledge that wasn''t given to it."

    "Why?"

    "Not all knowledge is meant to be known beforehand," Damien''s second said and then sighed. "Okay, to explain. The First, or more commonly, the Progenitors¡ªyou know what a progenitor is, correct?"

    Damien nodded. He hadn''t had much time to go into the topic, but he understood that a progenitor was the ancestor of a line¡ªan originator, if he was getting it right.

    Daimen nodded. "You are correct," he said, and Damien had to curse himself for forgetting that the other being could casually read his thoughts.

    "But your definition doesn''t cover the scope of what we are. We are not only the Progenitor of a line, as every father is, we are more than that, we are the First of our race."

    Damien stared at his second for a few moments, and when he was sure the joke wasn''t coming, he tried to confirm. "You must be joking, right? Because, as far as I''m aware, I''m still human, and definitely not the first human to have ever existed. Moreover, I am certain, so are you and the few other people in my life recently, that I have a father. How can I then be a progenitor?"

    "That," Daimen grimaced. "Is something I do not have an explanation for. Knowledge of our birth is one of the few things I have zero knowledge about, right alongside the identity of our father. The few things I know deep down, that I am very certain of, is that we are who I say we are."

    "Self-aggrandizing much?" Damien raised an eyebrow.

    "No," Daimen shook his head. "I am simply stating a fact."

    "Let''s say I believe you, what does this have to with my affinity problem."

    "Nothing, and everything." Daimen smiled. "Progenitors are the few beings certainly strong enough to wield more than one great element, alongside some other rare oddities. We are born with souls greater than the average being, alongside some other benefits which I''m sure will reveal themselves to you when you finally tap fully into your true affinities. But unlike everyone else, we need a greater soul strength to be able to maintain that power. A sharp sword without a good sheath is likely to harm the wielder as much as any other person."

    It was going to take a while for Damien to digest this because, Frankly, he struggled to believe one bit of it, most especially the progenitor part. Despite how much sincerity he could detect in Daimen''s speech, Damien still failed to quantify all that he''d just said. He reckoned he could only believe when he saw evidence or someone else corroborated Daimen''s story.

    "So all I have to do to wield the Life and Soul essence is to further grow my soul?" Damien asked. "My soul is stronger that Keilan''s, yet he managed to summon an Ascended art while I cannot. Why''s that?"

    "Because you have a higher bar than him. Forgive me if any insult was implied, but Keilan wields a weak element. Great to other people, perhaps, but weak to me, weak to us. The Primal Celestials are just a bunch of second-rate entities who have nothing but jealousy for the Grands. They try to spread their influence as much as the Grands in an attempt to become just as powerful, but what they don''t seem to be getting is that: no matter how strong concrete becomes, it''ll only take a powerful wave to break it apart."

    The other man took a deep breath, despite air not existing in this place. They were all here in the Spirit, anyway.

    "What I''m trying to imply is that¡ª"Daimen continued, "¡ªno matter how much a fire can burn, or the air can destroy, all it takes is the removal of the concept of destruction from their makeup and then they suddenly become useless."

    This, Damien instantly knew, wasn''t any form of exaggeration. He knew that because he''d done it before¡ªDaimen had done it.

    "You did that against the battle with Solaris," Damien said, remembering the way the concept of destruction in those elements had been removed. It was definitely a sight Damien was sure never to forget.

    "Yes," Daimen agreed. "The wind may be powerful, or even the Air, but they pale before the might of a Grand element. Only a fool loses to a primal element wielder while wielding a grand element."

    Damien coughed, fully realizing that he was definitely guilty of that. He opened his mouth to speak but his mirror simply rolled over him.

    "As much as I''d like to continue this conversation, I''m afraid it has drawn to its close. Keilan will soon awaken and you also have another bag of information to digest," the man said just as his form began to unravel.

    "Fight Damien. Fight like your life depends on it because surely, it does. You need a great deal of potential to avoid losing to the first real opponent that comes for you."

    "Wait!" Damien called back. "You haven''t explained what I need to do."

    "I don''t need to. Deep down, you know the answer."

 Chapter 115: Interludeâ€”Pain

    "Galaris!"

    "Galaris!!"

    "Melei?"

    "Galaris, wake up!"

    "Where are you?"

    "You can''t see me, but I''ll always be with you. Now wake up, Galaris!"

    With a sharp intake of breath, Galaris'' eyes snapped wide open. He grunted, squeezing his eyes back shut in response to the streak of blinding light that assaulted him. His second try proved a lot better, and with a slow, gradual squint, his eyes were finally able to withstand the light.

    That was when the pain on the rest of his body finally registered, and he let out a deeper, long, drawn-out groan.

    His head hurt, and his brain felt like a hammer had been taken to it multiple times. His entire body wasn''t much different, with pains stabbing into him from all over.

    Instinctively, he tried to move and immediately choked back a scream at the sharp pain that bloomed from both his left elbow and right ankle. With blurry eyes and multiple bouts of sharp breath intakes, he managed to turn his eyes down on the assaulted areas.

    His elbow, being the closer one, was first. Galaris grunted at the macabre sight of his forearm. The only thing lucky about it was that it hadn''t been torn off, simply twisted in a different position than his upper arm. Though it still hurt like hell.

    His ankle was the same, and given the reinforced metallic box that had crashed onto it, Galaris was once again lucky it hadn''t been entirely crushed. But given that he was a Monarch realm wielder, a crushed foot and a twisted arm were probably the most he could get from those.

    With a slowly building realization, Galaris soon recognized that the abandoned wreckage he was half submerged in was his house, and with a great amount of pain and a greater will egging him on, he slowly pushed himself up.

    "Melei!" He called while he shifted off a brick off of his lap.

    "Melei!!" Galaris called again, getting no answer. And while he feared, he still pushed on. After all, Melei was stronger than him¡ª A peak-tier Monarch on the cusp of stepping into Spirit lord. If he could come out of this with nothing more than a broken ankle and a twisted elbow, then so could she.

    "Melei!!!" He called for the third time, voice quivering. With a grunt, he grabbed a long wooden stick¡ªa shattered piece of a whole¡ª and used it to push himself fully off the ground, dislodging a couple more bricks and wood that had collapsed on top of him.

    "MELEI!" Galaris screamed, this time with a full-blown panic. That was when he noticed the smoke and red tint in the air.

    He raised his face to the sky, finally taking in his surroundings fully for the first time.

    The world was a deep, bloody crimson, a contrast to the previously blue-white hue. Galaris choked out a cough at the cloud of ash that flowed into his mouth. Quickly, he snapped his mouth back shut, unwilling to swallow any more ash.

    It wasn''t hard to figure out where they came from, seeing as the atmosphere was choked filled with them. The previously white clouds were nowhere to be found and had been replaced with a sea of grey ash that blotted out the sky beyond.

    Galaris stumbled his way through the wreckage of what had once been his home, grunting and groaning at the agony of it all. He would have preferred to use his will to at least try and move a little bit of the wreckages away, but he knew how drained he was. How he was even still standing was a surprise to him.

    Still, he wasn''t going to find Melei if he didn''t try, and that was even discounting his daughter, Eria. Galaris muscled through the pain, both mental and physical, and then he spread out his Monarch realm senses.

    It didn''t take long before he began feeling an active pain brewing in his mind, but luckily, what he''d already covered was enough.

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    Now came the hard part. Galaris firmed his mind, dug into the chaos surrounding him, and began filtering out the wreckage.

    Normally, this would have been an effortless task, but given that about ninety percent of his will was devoted to keeping him standing and conscious, he had to at least make do with the little he had left.

    While he worked, his mind tried to piece out what had happened. What had turned the world this way: an utter, quiet wasteland filled with crimson and death. He wasn''t exaggerating. Aside from the feeling of destruction that still pervaded the atmosphere, it was also choked full with the essence of death, so much so that all other essences, barring that of destruction, were all but gone, suffocated under the weight of a great element.

    Slowly, his mind began tracing back the lines, and like a dam whose last hinges had just been pried apart, everything rushed in.

    Unadulterated horror overwhelmed his mind just as a flood of memories poured in.

    The six beings that had appeared had been tiny, given the distance, yet they''d been filled with so much power that every being, regardless of whether they had been awakened or not, had witnessed their birdlike visages millions of miles apart.

    Their wings had been a thing of awe and terror; as bright as the sun, and yet all they inspired had been terror. Their auras had not been much different, so utterly crushing that thousands had died before Galaris'' eyes, unable to withstand the pressure from a million miles away. He had no doubt that they were tiny fraction compared to the casualties worldwide.

    Their voices had been the stuff of nightmares, so thick and heavy that mountains had collapsed and uncountables had gone deaf just from the sounds alone. Galaris remembered that the only reason he and Melei had survived those calamities had been because of the active protection of thousands of Spirit lords as well as both their Kings.

    And then the World Spirit had responded. All over the world, people had felt it as massive presences awoke, just as powerful as the king and their invaders. Their auras had not been hostile, at least to those on the planet, but it had been crushing nonetheless.

    A battle had ensued in the heavens, with techniques that had shrouded the skies in an aurora of powers. The world had quaked from the short battle and the World barrier itself had lit up blindingly to contain the effects.

    Galaris remembered the nightmare that had consumed the world when the world sentinels¡ªcreatures large enough to cover vast regions of a single continent ¡ªbegan crashing onto the earth, causing death in such magnitude that it had instantly dwarfed that of their invaders.

    Continents were consumed by titanic waves, resulting in the deaths of billions all over the world. Volcanoes erupted, spewing smoke and lava into the air, which soon saw the clouds wiped out by a sea of encroaching ash.

    But still, their world spirit had held. Despite the deaths of its sentinels. Despite the deaths of the two Kings that had sworn to protect it. It had still held.

    And then their invaders had turned their full attention on the planet itself, and the transparent barrier protecting it.

    Galaris choked back a scream as the memories of their attacks rushed into his mind like a flood. The utter destruction that had followed as their attackers turned their full might on the world itself.

    Hundreds of millions had collapsed, their brains exploding, just from the reverberating shockwaves as the world barrier fought to hold back the techniques.

    He remembered the heavens crashing down just as the barrier broke, and the desolation that overcame what had once been his home.

    Dimly, Galaris felt himself crash down on his knees. He didn''t even mind the pain; it was nothing compared to the feeling of agony that had pierced through his mind as the world was desolated, reduced to nothing but a bare piece of itself that was soon consumed by the crimson mark of destruction.

    Galaris''s fingers dug into the earth, tears pouring down his eyes, and his lips twisted into a painful grimace. When he opened it, he turned his eyes down to find his hands clutching a handful of gray ash. And with a dawning realization, Galaris dug his hands back into the cracks from whence it came, pried apart the layers of woods, sand, and metal to reveal¡ª with a spine-drenched shiver¡ªa half-destroyed skull situated in a small mound of ash.

    A mournful howl echoed out from his lungs just as his fingers pried out a piece of bone from the mound. His vision shook and with another dreadful shiver, his fingers dug more into the ash, prying out another skull, this one smaller than the previous.

    With both skulls in his hands, Galaris roared in painful agony to the sky, praying for all possibility that this was not true. That this was some sort of illusion played on him by the World Spirit or the twin Kings. But alas, nothing happened. His vision wasn''t warped nor did his wife appear suddenly out of nowhere with that mischievous smirk of hers.

    With dread and tears-filled eyes, Galaris looked down on both skulls in his hands. He didn''t know what to think, what to do. All his mind could piece out was the eager shake that had woken him up that morning, of Eria and her inexhaustible amount of energy, as she''d requested and pleaded for him to come play outside.

    He remembered Melei''s smile as she''d gladly thrown him out to the wolves, eager for them both to be out of the house so that she could clean.

    Galaris''s heart broke, shattered so utterly he knew there was no chance of it ever recovering.

    "Yes," a voice said to him then, creeping and deathly. Galaris didn''t bother looking. "Remember this moment well, Galaris. Master it, soak it in. For when next we meet, our enemies shall feel the same."

 Chapter 116: Authority & Dominions

    For the second time in minutes, Damien''s eyes opened. The first thing that registered in his mind was that the old man was no longer there, and so were the chairs. It was like he''d never been there at all. The second thing that then flashed through his mind was that he knew what Daimen had been referring to¡ª at least a guess. And if what he thought was correct, then he sure had a world of pain in his future.

    With a huge sigh, Damien moved towards the bed, plumping onto it with another great sigh. He looked down on his brother''s sleeping form, the peaceful, happy look on his face. With a sad smile, Damien placed a palm on Keilan''s foot.

    "Get well soon, Kei. We''ve got a long, hard road in front of us, and I need your help to keep from stumbling."

    There was a beat of silence, and then Damien''s eyes widened when another voice said.

    "Hmm, is that so?"

    Damien slapped a palm over his face, praying with feverish gusto that the floor might open up and swallow him. With reddened cheeks, he looked down on the lying form of his brother, meeting the bright, ocean-blue eyes that stared back at him in turn.

    "You heard that, huh?" Damien eeked out.

    "Yup," Keilan smiled. "Louddddd and clear. Wait till I tell Gray about this."

    Instantly, Damien''s expression changed and he gazed down at Keilan with a look that had once made kings and powerful beasts quiver in their boots.

    "If you so much as whisper a thing to Gray," Damien growled. "I''ll strangle you in your sleep."

    Instead of feeling threatened, as he should have, Keilan''s eyes twinkled with mirth. "How do you plan on doing that, huh?" He smiled. "I barely sleep, remember?"

    Trying again, Damien leaned down a few inches off Keilan''s face and then growled again. "Don''t test me, Kei."

    "Now you just look like someone with constipation. Are you constipated, Dame?"

    Damien blanched and then snapped backward in horror. "You''re evil."

    Keilan chuckled. "No argument there."

    Damien''s only reply was a grunt. "How long have you been awake?"

    "About the time you were still standing over there¡ª" he pointed over to Damien''s previous location. "¡ªlooking into the distance like a brain dead person. I was somewhat surprised you didn''t react when I woke."

    Damien sighed and then pushed his brother a little bit to the side. "Scooch," he said and then crashed back first onto the bed, side by side with Keilan. Ignoring the grunt and scathing look his brother sent his way, Damien explained.

    "Yeah, I wasn''t in the present at the time. By any chance, did you see another man when you woke? Ancient looking, with tiny whisps of white hair on his head. Height somewhere around the short side and making heavy use of a walking stick. Did you see him?

    Keilan turned his face to Damien while his body stayed facing upwards.

    "No," he frowned. "Why?"

    Damien sighed. "I think I''ve just met my first immortal¡ª no, not think. I''m pretty certain I''ve just met my first immortal."

    Keilan''s eyes turned dangerously sharp, and Damien forced down the shiver that almost crept up. He hated it when Keilan did that.

    "Explain," his brother said. More like commanded than a request, but Damien didn''t mind.

    "Well, you remember the portal Merak conjured for us when he sent us here?"

    Keilan nodded.

    "Well..." And then Damien proceeded to explain how the old man had picked him out of the spatial gateways without the awareness of Gray or even the man himself who''d conjured up the portal.

    He explained completely how the man had in no subtle way told him against inquiring his name, and then revealed how the man had revealed his knowledge of Damien''s father.

    Damien didn''t leave out anything. He explained how his second meeting with old man Tesulsn had gone and the short story he''d given about the background of his dad, and then he ended it all with the explanation of Daimen and what they''d talked about. When Damien finally finished, a little bit over half an hour had already passed, and his breath was almost gone."

    Keilan was silent for a while, his eyes focused on Damien but also far away.

    "So, about this Daimen," Keilan said slowly. "He awakened when I was ambushed by the mad triplets?"

    Damien nodded. "Yes."

    "I''m still confused. Where did he come from? How did he possess your body? And not only did he possess you, he unlocked two new affinities you didn''t know about. How?"

    Damien grimaced. He didn''t know what to feel about the answers in his head. "I think Daimen stems from a part of me that would have been, had I not known¡ª" he coughed. "¡ªyour family."

    "Our family," Keilan said firmly. "And I think I agree with the explanation."

    Damien frowned. "What''s that supposed to mean?"

    "Let''s not pretend you''re a good person, Dame," Keilan snorted. "Left to your own devices, you''d erase anybody that so much as looks at you sideways."

    "That''s untrue!" Damien protested with a full turn, facing Keilan.

    "I love you, brother. I truly do." Keilan smiled. "But I will not lie to you to pamper your ego. Compared to most people, your morality bar is below average. And I accept you despite it all."

    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

    Damien, feeling subdued, could only murmur. "I didn''t think I was like that."

    "Yeah, you sure about that?" His brother smirked. "Okay. Tell me, Dame. What do you feel when you think about the millions that died at your hands back in Xeris?"

    "Sad?" Damien said, unsure. He could admit he''d felt a great deal of sadness and regret right after that horrendous event, but now all he felt was a mild sense of sadness when he thought back to it.

    "You see?" Keilan said. "Sadness, and probably not a great deal of it, also."

    And then he flicked Damien on the head.

    Damien yelped and rubbed his forehead. He glared at Keilan. "What was that for?!"

    "Nobody our age commits a massacre like that and only feels a tiny bit of sad sadness in less than a week, Damien!"

    "What do you want me to do, then?!" Damien shouted back. "I can''t force the sadness, it''ll only be a great insult to those people!"

    Keilan sighed. "I can''t tell you what to do, Dame. But don''t just let your new alter ego lead you into accruing so much negative karma you die from a knock to the head by a child. You need to atone for this, Dame. You know that, right?"

    "Yeah," Damien nodded. "I do."

    "Good," his brother smiled. "You won''t walk alone; I''ll be by your side. Like you said: "I need you to keep me from stumbling"."

    Damien groaned. "What would it take for you to forget that sentence?"

    "Nothing," Keilan replied. "That sentence is priceless."

    "I''ll kill myself."

    "And leave me alone in this hungry world?" Keilan glared at him. "Don''t even think about it."

    Damien huffed. "Fine," he said quietly. "You wouldn''t survive without me, anyways."

    Damien waited for a witty comeback, but instead, Keilan changed the topic.

    "So, about this old man," he said slowly. "Tesulsn?"

    Damien nodded, while he stared straight up at the plain, white ceiling.

    "How sure are you that he''s immortal?"

    Damien took a deep breath, shifted a lock of gray hair away from his eyes, and then opened his mouth to¡ª

    [You have a visitor,] Gray''s voice interrupted just as Damien began to speak.

    Before Damien could react, the room brightened just as a black line appeared in mid-air, and with sharp swiftness, it parted right from the middle, transforming into a circle with a mix of blue, black, and purple colors shining at the round edge, twining around each other like mating snakes.

    From the purple-black screen that made up the inside of the circle, Damien watched as a black booted foot¡ªwith a metallic-looking material wrapped around the soles¡ªstepped through.

    They didn''t have to wait long for the rest of the body to come through, and when it did, Damien laid eyes on the form of a male youth in his early twenties or late teens. The young man had a shock of deep black hair, and his eyes were the color of deep sapphire, though thankfully without any runes this time.

    There was a beat of silence as Merak took in everyone in the room, glancing past Gray with nothing but a nod, and then doing the same to Damien, though without the nod. He focused on Keilan, and with a narrowing of his eyes, he spoke.

    "We need to talk."

    Damien reckoned Keilan also detected the severity in the man''s tone because they both rose into a sitting position the next instant.

    "What is it?" Keilan asked.

    "The thing you took from the Aveanii outpost," the other man began, surprisingly ignoring Keilan''s apparent lack of respect, "I assume Gray has informed you of what it is?"

    Keilan nodded. "A fragment, a piece of a Celestial."

    "No, not a piece," Merak shook his head with a look at Gray. "Saying the word ''piece'' implies the Celestial essence itself was destroyed. No, that is impossible. What you''re carrying is a piece of the authority required to claim the Seal of Air."

    Daimen frowned. "If a Celestial can''t be destroyed, then how did its authority shatter?"

    [A Celestial and their Essence are two different things entirely,] Gray answered. [They command the essence, becoming it partly, but that''s temporary. If a Celestial is sundered, the entity holding the power is destroyed and their authority is severed and then scattered into the cosmos in physical form.]

    "A Fragment," Damien nodded alongside Keilan, understanding finally.

    "Yes," Merak continued. "And the next person who gathers all the fragments of that Essence gets to become the next Celestial Aspect, hence the gold rush that''s happening right now in the wider cosmos."

    "Wait," Keilan said. "Gold rush?"

    "Yes, gold rush," Merak confirmed with a nod. "Did you think people didn''t want them? Boy, this is a Fragment."

    Beside him, Damien felt it as Keilan closed his eyes and then took a deep breath. When he opened it, he asked. "So, how doomed am I?"

    "Good that you asked," Merak said. "As of this moment, you only have the Aveanii Supreme Primarch after you, though he doesn''t know you''re the one who stole his prize."

    Damien already knew who a Primarch was; a Supreme Primarch, on the other hand, was a new thing to him. He assumed it was probably a higher-ranked title than the ordinary Primarch, though it didn''t hurt to ask.

    "Yes," Merak nodded. "A Supreme Primarch is a being on the cusp of the next realm: The Transcendent Realm. We''re the equivalent of the Divine Kings, and as such, our powers are more powerful than the average Ascendant."

    "I didn''t know it belonged to someone like that," Keilan whispered with a tone of resignation.

    "It doesn''t matter. You''ve made your bed and will have to endure the rocks you find under it. For the moment, Primarch Ty''ranth doesn''t know who exactly consumed the fragment, and so he''s fallen to the person with the most influence amongst the escapees."

    "Vanis," Damien said with shocked realization. "We have to warn him!"

    "Worry less about the Verrille Scion and worry more about your brother, boy," Merak said with irritation. "The Verrille boy has two powerful Ascendants to protect him. You, on the other hand¡ª"he turned to Keilan, "¡ªhave none."

    The silence that followed was such that Damien could have heard the dim bump bump of Merak''s heartbeat. It didn''t last though, as his face morphed into a deep, angry scowl, and then he stood¡ª

    "Oh sit yourself back down, child," Merak said, this time with a subtle tug of his lips and a little twinkle in his eyes. Weird. "You''re always so fiery when it comes to people you love, which could be a failing someday, but for now, I approve."

    The young looking Ascendant turned towards Keilan. "I have chosen to place you under my protection, same as your brother. Is that okay with you?"

    "Are you joking?!" The relief in Keilan''s voice made Damien smile. "Yes! Yes! How many times should I say it?!"

    "Once is enough," Merak said with his hand raised in a calming gesture.

    "So," Damien said excitedly. "Now that Keilan is under your protection, when will you destroy the Aveanii Supreme Primarch thingy?"

    [Merak will not be doing any such thing,] Gray said, spoiling the mood. [The Aveanii dominion might not be as powerful as the galactic core nations, but that doesn''t mean they don''t have eyes on them. The death of their leader would draw a level of attention we do not want.]

    "Correct," Merak nodded. "And that doesn''t count the fact that while this dominion is a weak one, there are more powerful Dominions out there. In specific, the dominion which this one separated itself from. They might be estranged, but a parent is always a parent. They will always look after their children."

    "So what do we do?"

    "You both? Nothing," Merak said. "I came here to enlighten you on the dangerous situation you''ve unknowingly found yourself in, but there''s nothing you can do to stop it."

    "What if we inform Narkyra," Damien suggested. "She could openly protect Keilan."

    [No!] Gray shouted right at the same time Merak said with extreme seriousness.

    "No."

    Damien frowned. "Why?"

    "Excepting the fact where the Verrille Ascendants would kill you themselves to get it, after all, they were the ones fated to have acquired it from its original founders," Merak said, "there are other beings whose ears this would reach. You do not want this information reaching the ears of the core nations."

    The severity with which Merak had spoken, coupled with the vehement nod he got from Gray, clued Damien in on the seriousness of the situation. He nodded at both Ascendants beings, eliciting a nod from them both. That didn''t last long, though, because the satisfaction on Merak''s face instantly transformed into a deep scowl, which he sent Damien''s way.

    "Your turn."

 Chapter 117: Doom! Doom!! And More Doom!!!

    Damien stared at Merak like a deer caught in front of an approaching light wielder.

    "My turn?" He frowned in confusion and then protested. "But I didn''t do anything!"

    "Are you sure about that?" Merak cocked his head with eyebrows raised. "Then the power flare of soul and life energy in your previous world wasn''t of your doing, then?"

    "Uh¡ªUmm¡ª" Damien stammered. "That wasn''t me."

    "The actions of your alter ego, whatever they may be, are still yours, Damien," Merak said in a scolding tone. "Learn to accept it."

    Duly chastened, Damien nodded.

    "Now," The Ascendant continued. "My second reason for being here, same as Keilan here, is to warn you of the impending danger you are in."

    [The Herald?] Gray said while he drifted up to hover face-to-face with Merak. [How close is she?]

    "Closer than I''d like," the black-haired ascendant said. "Far enough that it isn''t an immediate problem, yet."

    "Hold on," Damien interrupted, drawing the eyes of both Ascendants. "What are you both talking about?"

    "The effects of your light show back on your home planet didn''t just end at your Star system, it went beyond that, drawing the attention of the Cult of Order."

    "Uhhh," Keilan said. "I don''t see what the problem is. Order is good, right?"

    [Pfft!] Gray snorted in derision. [No cult is good or bad, it''s all about advantages. The cult of Order, which takes their authority entirely from the Throne of Order, is the equivalent of the city guards in your mortal cities, except their self-proclaimed jurisdiction covers the entire cosmos.]

    "Order is perhaps the strongest pillar of reality," Merak added with obvious distaste, "which, unfortunately, grants it more authority over reality than anyone would like."

    "What does this have to do with me, then?" Damien asked, still confused.

    "When you summoned those pillars, you weren''t just drawing from the ambient essence. Damien, you were drawing from their origin planes."

    The memories of that day came to him then, somewhat difficult to parse through. What he remembered was an influx of power, more than he''d ever tried to wield before. He remembered feeling like he could, with a wave of his hands, erase the souls of the Solarian Pillars that had been arraigned against him. He remembered fighting with barely a care for his physical body. After all, abundant life flowed through his veins. What damage could he take that he couldn''t heal from?

    "Yes," Merak said with a knowing look that instantly snapped Damien back to himself. "The effects of drawing from an origin plane. You feel like nothing in reality could even hope to challenge you."

    Grimacing, Damien nodded in agreement. He saw now the reason why he''d lost, or a major reason why. His soul had already been struggling to contain those essences, and his excessive use of them, to the point of idiocy, hadn''t been doing it any good but had only served to hasten the soul exhaustion that had later left him too tired and dried up to wield any essence. Damien felt like giving himself a knock on the head for that.

    "Fortunately for you, your feelings were right," Merak interrupted his introspection. "Essences drawn directly from their origin planes are pure compared to the ones in the ambiance, which have been filtered from all the cross pathing done with all other essences. I will tell you now that, truthfully, had you turned the full use of those essences directly on the true form of the Spirit King you''d fought, you would have killed him."

    Damien''s eyes widened, and beside him, he heard Keilan gasp.

    [Origin planes are where those essences were born,] Gray explained. [And as such, they are of extremely pure quality, with another advantage...]

    "The passive will of a Celestial," Merak completed.

    Damien shook his head with his right thumb raised to press against his throbbing temple. "Can you explain that?"

    Merak nodded and then continued. "The origin planes aren''t just the birthplace of those essences, they''re also the dwelling, the territory of the Celestial that rules them."

    "Thrones and Seals," Damien murmured.

    "Yes," Merak nodded. "The presence of the Celestials Aspects in their territories grants those essences, already pure, a greater weight to their effects."

    "Which is why you said I could have killed Solaris with it," Damien realized.

    The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

    [Yes,] Gray said. [Which is where the Cult of Order comes in. Openings like that are exponentially harder to control and, unfortunately, are prone to a more powerful effect than intended.]

    "I don''t get you," Damien said, which was followed by an agreeing nod from Keilan.

    "What your minder is saying is that where a simple ambient drawn essence could wipe out a city¡ª" he looked pointedly at Damien. "¡ªan origin drawn one could erase an entire star system."

    "Again," Keilan said. "Isn''t that a good thing? They protect against disasters like the ones Damien could have caused. By the way¡ª" he turned to face Damien, "¡ªhow did you control those essences from destroying our entire solar system?"

    Damien shrugged. "I don''t know," he said truthfully. "From the little I can piece out, I don''t think I had any issues controlling both essences."

    At the claim, both Gray and Merak narrowed their eyes at him, and a glance seemed to pass between them before they both nodded, seemingly accepting his word as it was.

    "Anyways," Merak said. "Had something like that occurred in some of the more powerful nations or clans, the cult would have left it as it was and trusted the sovereigns there to deal with it. Your case, on the other hand, is different."

    "Because of the location where it came from?" Damien guessed, eliciting a nod from Merak.

    "As far as they''re aware, there shouldn''t be a being capable of opening a tear through reality around that area, and they would have been right. An Ascendant would have been detected the mere instant their auras were unleashed; talk less of expanding their will to tear a hole through reality," Merak explained. "Only a few Divine Kings could have been capable of accomplishing such a feat, and none of them had been in that area, which left the small community of Spirit Kings and a greater number of Spirit lords who, realistically, shouldn''t be able to do such a thing."

    Damien nodded, understanding. The only reason he''d been able to do that hadn''t been through the piercing of reality, as Merak had explained. What Damien, or Daimen, had done had been more internal, a release of something that had then called to the essence beyond.

    "The Adjudicator investigating the anomaly, Kairen Kord¡ª" Merak said, and then followed it up with an eruption of blue energy from his hands that spread out in a wave, disappearing from Damien''s senses just as it crossed the walls of the room they were in, "¡ªis getting close, faster than I predicted."

    "What happens if she finds me?" Damien asked with concern.

    [Then war starts,] Gray answered while Merak nodded in agreement. [I do not fully understand the reason why your existence needs to be kept a secret, but what I do know is that it would be a bad idea for The Adjudicator to find you.]

    "She wouldn''t be capable of recognizing what your existence means, but the higher-ups, The Transcendent Lords, certainly would."

    [Have the Sapphire lords been made aware of this new development?] Gray said to Merak.

    "Yes," Merak nodded. "So have the Emerald Lords."

    "Sapphire lords? Emerald Lords?" Damien frowned in confusion. "I assume the Emerald represents the nature element?" Damien asked, getting a nod from Merak. "What does the Sapphire represent, then?"

    "Oblivion," The young-looking Ascendant replied, and then his eyes brightened, morphing into twin orbs of blazing blue energy that gave off the feeling of an end, an absolute one. Beside him, he felt Keilan shiver and his expression turned sheet white. Damien couldn''t blame him, seeing as he also felt the same.

    "Oblivion, just like Destruction, is a great affinity that embodies the essence of the end, but unlike Destruction whose end isn''t final, Oblivion''s is."

    The subtle weight Damien was feeling soon died down, and then Merak continued.

    "It isn''t a secret that there''s a schism between the Grand Celestials, with evidence of a battle that has now left hundreds of Celestials Sundered," Merak said. "While we don''t understand it, those of us serving under the Grands can feel it, the antagonistic divide between the fundamental pillars of reality. Another talent might receive a more cordial welcome after their identity has been fully parsed out, but you, Damien, would be instantly killed the soonest a shred of evidence points you toward relating to any of their opposition."

    Damien nodded, raising his thumb to massage his temple again. His mind was struggling to parse through all the information he''d just gotten in these past few hours.

    "What am I to do, then?" He asked, eager to be done with this all. He could feel the weight of it all bearing down on him, and he knew that sooner, he''d either succumbed to it or become something else.

    "Unlike your brother, whose ability to do much has been blocked," Merak said. "You are different. Your feats have surely marked you as worthy, and because of that, reality will soon begin pitting you against other worthy. Both of You."

    The ancient being turned to Gray. "You have to hasten whatever plan you have, they''ll need it, especially if they''re to make a good showing in the upcoming tower climb."

    [I understand,] Gray nodded.

    "Uhhh," Damien said with unhidden irritation. "We''re both here, you can talk to us directly."

    Merak turned to him, and to the man''s credit, he managed to look apologetic.

    "Both of you are going to be participating in the upcoming tower climb, an event that is sure to draw participants from different corners of the Galaxy and even beyond."

    [While the climb is an easy way to set down your rank amongst the other talents of your generation, it''s also one of the fastest and more beneficial ways to smoothen your path towards Spirit King,] Gray continued.

    "Don''t blind them to the information that it''s also a way for the existing powers to scout the participants for future recruitment, and also, to mark their characters and determine who is more likely to cause problems in the future," Merak said with amusement in his eyes.

    [Well, that too,] Gray nodded.

    Instantly, the amusement died down from both their faces, and Merak turned towards Damien and Keilan. Damien, especially.

    "You want to become someone whose freedom is respected?" The man''s intense gaze pierced into Damien, seeing into his deepest needs. "Start by being someone to be feared. The tower climb is the first step to accomplishing that."

    [A feared wielder is one whose freedom is never contested.] Gray added, getting a nod from Merak.

    And just like that, the black haired ascendant began dissolving into tiny blue twinkling lights. Before his face vanished, he did the same thing the previous person that had dissolve Infront of Damien had done.

    Seriously, did they have a school for this?

    "I''ll be seeing you soon, Damien," Merak said. "Hopefully for a non urgent situation."

    And then the man disappeared, his transformed twinkling lights vanishing into thin air, leaving both Damien and Keilan to stare at the empty place space he''d once occupied.

    "Well," Damien stood up. "Time to get to training."

 Chapter 118: Eye Problems

    In a vast empty expanse devoid of all essence, especially that of shadow, Divine King Ra''poth knelt, both his hands and feet shackled to the earth by huge chains infused with the will of an ascendant. Anything lesser wouldn''t have been able to hold him.

    His prison, a vast space larger than most small world continents, was filled with a creeping dark mist. Ra''poth wasn''t intimidated by that; the dark was his comfort zone, and he thrived in it.

    What really terrified him was the person who had locked him here and who he was certain would soon be coming for a visit.

    Unlike the common ascendants who were simply feared for their realms, the Desolate Duchess inspired terror beyond that. The woman was so feared that even Supreme Primarchs moved carefully around her. And Ra''poth knew very well that she was going to be interrogating him, or at least, a minor avatar of hers.

    He knew that against someone like Narkyra, there was still hope that he could withstand her interrogation. The Duchess, on the other hand, was another thing.

    The Emperor had entrusted him with recovering the escapees who''d stolen his prize, and he had failed. He resented himself for that and would do anything to remunerate, but he knew all his chances were gone. He was in the hands of an Ascendant, and there was no escaping that. The only way he could preserve the Emperor''s secrecy was to deprive his captors of any information, and cause an apocalypse or two on his way out.

    Ra''poth smiled at that. He was going to die, sure, but his enemies were going to suffer for it.

    <hr>

    The crimson-gold sunlight of Vel two streaked down through the huge canopy of leaves to touch down on Damien. Raising a hand to shield his eyes, even though he didn''t need to, Damien looked around at the waiting area for wielders who were awaiting their turn to enter the arthropod proto space.

    The waiting area was a little cafe situated half a mile or so from the twin glowing purple pillars that were the entrance to the mini world. It was a tall tree, about three hundred feet tall, with hundreds of branches stretching far and wide, with leaves large enough to serve as a bed shielding those on the floor from the glare of the sun.

    What amazed Damien the most were the roots; brown and thick, yet flexible enough that they pierced through the earth from below, forming into little loops that went in and out of the ground for close to a hundred meters around.

    The entire area looked like it had been made for a larger number than the hundred-plus Spirit lords currently sitting here.

    Damien picked up a round, buttered up pastry from the plate In front of him, biting into it with less regard for the splotches of butter that dribbled down his chin.

    To the side, he sensed the looks of disgust thrown his way by some of the other fancier looking Spirit lords in the cafe. But since they did nothing more than throw scrunched-up faces at him, Damien chose to ignore them.

    The arthropod proto space, as Damien called it since there wasn''t an official name for it, was a mini world comprised mainly of Mind affinity creatures, with the majority of them being insects.

    Damien needed a place to train and strengthen his mind, and while he dearly would have preferred another place that wasn''t filled with creepy, multi legged creatures of nightmares, he knew that he had no choice. The arthropod proto space was the only realm that housed some of the most powerful Spirit lord mind creatures on the inner continent.

    There were others, but those were only partially filled or were too weak for him, or the spaces were just on the other continents.

    Mind creatures were the least preferable opponents to deal with as most people preferred the simpler ones who could shoot out rocks or breathe out lightning. And that was why their proto spaces were very few.

    Someone plumped onto the inverted root chair beside him, and Damien turned.

    "I think the waiter at the counter has an eye problem," Keilan said just as he sat down. Like a child, he began sifting through his pastries.

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    Damien looked behind at the young man their age who was standing behind the counter. Admittedly, the man was good looking, with deep black eyes and an equally black, ruffled hair that had been cut short at the temple.

    Damien raised an eyebrow as the man sharply looked away from what Damien was certain had been their table, switching his attention to the other people at the counter.

    He turned back to Keilan, inwardly thanking his luck that he was still chewing on his buttery roll.

    Doing his best not to let his amusement mirror in his expression, Damien shook his head. "Yeah, I don''t think so."

    Keilan looked up from his food in confusion. "You sure?" He asked, to which Damien nodded.

    "Then why does he keep blinking when he looks at me?"

    "Umm," Damien slowly said. "That''s because he¡ªuh... Likes you."

    "Likes me? Everybody likes me. Well, except Solis. Oh, and Samon, too. Definitely Samon. That guy hates my guts."

    Damien shook his head with a grimace. "Don''t be dumb, Kei. The guy like, likes you."

    Realization dawning, Keilan froze. "Ohhhh."

    "Yeahhh."

    "Well, why doesn''t he say anything then?"

    "I''m pretty certain that''s not how it works, especially for somebody you just met."

    "Mehhh," Keilan rolled his eyes with a dismissive gesture. "Who cares about some unwritten rule that some unknown person put up? I''m going to go talk to him."

    Damien''s eyes widened. "Keilan, don''t." He stretched his hands to hold back his brother, but Keilan was already off his seat. "You''ll spook him off."

    Doing his best not to look back, Damien turned his full attention down to his meal. While he did that, a voice at the back of his mind chastised him for being the scared one, instead of Keilan.

    Between the two of them, Damien had always considered himself the more outspoken one. He wasn''t afraid to approach anyone and had to threaten his brother anytime he became too shy to approach a crush. Then why was this different?

    A minute and a half later, Keilan returned to his seat, followed behind by the man.

    "Take a seat," Keilan gestured at the looped branch opposite Damien, and then he, in turn, sat down.

    "So, introductions first," Keilan said. "Damien, this is Tym."

    He then turned to the other man. "Tym, this is my brother, Damien."

    Damien put down a crunchy stick filled with chocolate and then found something to clean his hands with. When he was done, he stretched forth his right hand. "Hello, nice to meet you."

    "And you too," Tym said as he returned the handshake, an indescribable look on his face as he looked between both brothers.

    Damien chuckled, understanding what it meant. "Yes, we''re really brothers."

    "Oh¡ªumm¡ªsorry," the other man said with a flustered expression. "I, umm, thought you both were..." He coughed.

    "What?" Damien raised an eyebrow and then pointed at himself and Keilan. "Me? Him? Ohhh, definitely not."

    "Hey," Keilan protested. "That was hurtful, but true, though. Me and Damien is a no, no." He made a gagging expression. "Ewww."

    "Now who''s being hurtful?" Damien narrowed his eyes at his brother.

    "Oh, that''s good," Tym blinked, and then his eyes widened. "Oh, I didn''t me¡ª"

    "Relax, Tym," Keilan said. "We understand what you meant."

    "Oh. Okay," Tym calmed.

    Now that they were done with the basic introduction, Damien was about to speak when Tym interrupted.

    "Oh, I''m sorry. I can''t stay long," he said as he stood up. "I''ve got to get back to work. It was nice of you to have me, Keilan, and also you too, Damien. I hope to see you both sometime again."

    Damien nodded with a smile and then shook the man again, while Keilan simply smiled, and then he winked, a wink which, Damien noticed with a hidden smile, looked more like a person with eye problem.

    "Sure thing, Tym," Keilan said. "I''ll come find you after we''re out."

    "Okay!" the man returned, halfway back to the counter. "Thanks again for having me!"

    With a sigh, Damien turned towards the grinning face of his brother. "I''m pretty sure you scared him away."

    "I did not."

    "Ohh, yes you did," Damien argued back. "He didn''t even stay up to two minutes, all because of you."

    "Don''t even start," Keilan glowered. "When it comes to chasing away relationship prospects, we both know who''s good at it."

    "Name one person I''ve chased away. Daimen glowered back.

    "The girl from the town close to Cirin, when we were still peak lords."

    "I didn''t chase her away," Damien said with triumph. "You know that we couldn''t stay because of the issue with the Mayor, which, if I remember correctly, was your fault."

    Glossing over the accusation, Keilan tried again. "What of the one at Nuska?" He snapped his fingers. "Sira."

    "She got pregnant for another person," Damien said. "How''s that my fault?"

    "Fiel?"

    "Was forced into an arranged marriage," Damien countered.

    "Lyrs?"

    "Don''t even go there," Damien scowled. "You know very well why she ran away."

    "Yes," his brother smirked. "Because of you."

    "Sure, because of me," Damien acceded. "How''s that supposed to excuse the fact that she tried to sell me to slavery? Sell us?"

    Keilan opened his mouth to retort but was then interrupted as a voice swept through the cafe.

    "Number Twenty one!" The voice said and then repeated. "Number Twenty one!"

    "That''s our number," Damien said and then began standing. And just because he didn''t want the good pastries to go to waste, he shoved a whole one into his mouth, ignoring the intense looks of disgust a fancy passing lady sent his way.

    "You''re an animal, Damien," Keilan shook his head.

    "But you still love me," Damien mumbled through the delicious food in his mouth.

    "I''m doomed."

 Chapter 119: What Is Funny And What Is Not

    Damien grimaced the moment he stepped in between the twin glowing pillars that were the entrance to the proto-space, arriving on the other side.

    "Yeah, I was right. I hate this place," he said right as he came through the other side.

    They were on a grassland filled with some kind of purple grass that looked like it''d been baptized under a necrotized sun, given its shrunken, dead looking features. The place was a nightmare of night and death, with thick black mist saturating the entire atmosphere. And despite his Spirit lord enhanced vision, Damien still found it difficult to see through the mist.

    "Yup," Keilan stepped beside him. "Can''t argue this."

    With a sigh of resignation, Damien stepped further in. He could already taste the stench of crawlers in the air, and he definitely didn''t like it.

    The grass beneath his feet crunched loudly like dead wood as Damien moved, which drew a wince from him and a scowl from Keilan.

    "Why don''t you just blow a trumpet to fully alert the entire space to our presence," Keilan hissed. "Since that seems to be your goal."

    "It''s not like I did it on purpose," Damien grumbled.

    "I find that hard to believe."

    "Whatever."

    [Would you both focus?] Gray said, appearing into vision. [You''re in a space filled with mind controlling monsters. You of all people, Keilan, should know the consequences of failure.]

    Through the corner of his eyes, Damien saw Keilan shiver, and he had to hold back a smile from creeping up. That should serve him right.

    "You''ve been quiet lately, Gray," Damien looked up at the floating tiny figure. "I know where you''ve been staying, I just don''t know what you''ve been doing."

    [Ehh, I''ve just been catching up on a few novels.]

    "Novels?" Keilan said with raised eyebrows. "You? Gray? Novels?"

    [I think I''ve said something of the sort before,] Gray rolled his eyes. [Besides, what''s so unbelievable about it?]

    "Nothing," Keilan shrugged, but Damien wasn''t willing to let the matter die.

    "Ohh, not nothing." He folded his arms. "If Keilan won''t say it, I will. We don''t believe you, Gray."

    [That''s insulting you know? You''re kind of insinuating that I shouldn''t be able to read.]

    "I made no such accusation and you know it!" Damien scowled. "What I''m trying to understand is you having an interest in novels. You don''t seem like the sort."

    [Oh, and how would you know that? Hmm?] Gray scowled back.

    "It''s just that¡ª you¡ªumm. Arghhh!" Damien growled. "If you''re truly reading, then what''s the title of the story?"

    [If you must know,] Gray said with an exaggerated air of arrogance. [It is called Hopeless Love.]

    "Hopeless Love?" Keilan said skeptically. "That sounds like a cringy romantic story."

    [What did you say?]

    "Nothing."

    At that, a smile slowly crept up on Damien''s face, soon morphing into something devilish. "Don''t be shy, Kei," he said innocently, purposefully ignoring the pleading look his brother sent his way, and then he turned towards Gray. "Keilan doesn''t want you to know that he also reads romance novels."

    Gray paused, and then slowly turned to Keilan with a smile. [Is that true?]

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    "Aren''t we supposed to be focusing on our surroundings?" Keilan replied, completely bypassing Gray''s question.

    The little grey man huffed. [Deny all you want, it''ll come out one day.] He said. [Anyways, you''re right, we need to focus more on the mission.]

    "I still don''t understand why we had to come here," Damien said. "We could have simply asked a mind essence wielder to help train our willpower."

    [Training will not grant you potential,] Gray replied. [And there''s a certain benefit that comes with training under the threat of death: You learn better.]

    [Besides,] Gray continued. [You could always take the easy way; it''ll only cost you a longer time than we''ve planned.]

    "How long?"

    [Mhmm, give or take, a decade or more.]

    "What?!" Damien and Keilan both said at the same time.

    [Ha! Did you think the Verrille boy came into the power you see now all of a sudden? While you both were trapped in that Proto space, he was training. While you both were fleeing the ''recruiters'' of the petty nations in your home planet, he was training.]

    Gray came to hover in between both brothers. [And his trainers weren''t some ordinary Spirit King; they were powerful Divine Kings and even Ascendants. That was the reason it was even accomplishable in that short amount of time. You two are fortunate enough that while you didn''t have the same training as him, you went through a much more heinous experience than he could handle at that age. All you just have to do is go through a few more and you''ll match him, and even surpass him if the ordeal is great enough.]

    Damien grunted, but ultimately agreed. He knew very well that his mental strength, strong as it might be, was no match for that of Vanis''. Damien had seen the man control a vast number of swarm techniques, far more than Damien could. All that was done with his mind.

    At most, when wielding his Starfall technique, Damien could hold up to maybe three dozen stars at once without feeling like he was being stabbed in the brain with a blunt knife. Seeing Vanis control more than a hundred really hit him with the grim understanding that, amongst the vast number of Spirit lords on the planet, Damien was probably on the middle of the ladder. He didn''t want that. What was the point of pursuing something if one couldn''t aspire to be the best at it?

    That was why they were here. Damien wanted to put his mind through the greatest ordeal he could think of, and that was going against creatures specialized in the art.

    Slowly, they moved past their entry point and approached the ambient thick mist. Damien would have preferred to fly, seeing as it would have made things much more convenient, but he knew how dangerous that could be. Not only would he be leaving himself wide open for sniping, but he didn''t know what was infused within the mist. It would be very annoying if he found himself crashing to the ground all because of some poison infused mist.

    "Does anyone else find it nerve wracking that our senses are severely limited?" Damien asked right as they reached the mist border.

    Keilan grunted beside him. "I hate this. Reminds me of when I got ambushed."

    [I don''t have any issue with it,] Gray said cheerfully. [This mist isn''t enough to constrain me.]

    "Why don''t you help us scout ahead then."

    [No can do, boyo,] Gray said, and then his voice took on an air of exaggerated sageliness. [To soar through the sky, a bird must first learn how to jump from a tree.]

    At that, Damien rolled his eyes "Please, Gray, don''t ever try to be mysterious ever again."

    [But it was mysterious, right?]

    "No," Damien and his brother said at the same time. "No, it was not."

    Damien sighed and then turned forward to face the mist wall that was in front of him.

    "Is that a cockroach over there?" Keilan said suddenly.

    With barely an instant to think, Damien turned and lashed out with a scything wave of destruction, cutting through the mist and tearing a dozen metre gash into the earth.

    Looking at the area, Damien expected to find an at least injured creature, if it wasn''t dead already, but what he found was a torn up earth and a disturbed curtain of mist.

    He shot a glare at a grinning Keilan. "Haha. Funny," Damien said dryly.

    "Oh," Keilan heaved with barely contained laughter. "It¡ª it. It definitely was funny!"

    Damien ignored Keilan and then turned to Gray, who, he found, to his utmost un-amusement, was struggling to hold back a laugh. "Aren''t you supposed to be the neutral one? I fail to see what''s funny about this. There could have actually been a Cockroach over there."

    [Yes. Yes, I agree with you.] Gray said. [But did you even check where the Cockroach was before you lashed out?]

    That was when Damien remembered that Keilan had not specified where the Cockroach had been. And with that embarrassing knowledge, he decided wasn''t going to be engaging in any childish argument any longer.

    "I''m done with you both," he said before he stepped into the mist.

    Involuntarily, Damien shivered as he stepped across the wall of mist. Despite not sensing anything untoward, something at the back of his mind pleaded for him to run away, to flee this domain of deathly creepiness. And Damien would have done so had Keilan and Gray not stepped inside a short while after.

    He mentally sighed in resignation, careful not to let any of it show on his face, but given the look Gray shot his way, he doubted he''d been successful.

    [Before I go, I hope I don''t need to warn you both to be careful,] Gray said, drawing the attention of both boys. [Most of the creatures here might not have the raw strength to bring you down, but what they lack in physical, they greatly make up for it with Mental. So, stay safe.]

    Damien snorted. "If we wanted to stay safe, we shouldn''t have walked into this place in the first place."

    [Don''t be witty, Damien. You know what I meant.]

 Chapter 120: Crittering Critters

    They hadn''t gone far when Damien felt something approaching, and this time, he wasn''t wrong. The clink clink was the first, like the sound of clashing knives. Then he felt the aura of the monster, which shocked Damien the more because he was supposed to have long since felt its presence before seeing or hearing it.

    What came crittering through the mist, with footsteps like a hundred sticks stabbing at the same time onto the earth, was the least monster he''d expected, but no less deadly.

    A centipede.

    Six black, glassy orbs, equally set on opposite sides of its bulbous head, and then lining down to meet each other in a V-shaped formation turned with unnerving intensity to focus on Damien, with twin long antennas twitching in the air.

    Its long, black, scaly body, segmented into more than a hundred sections, reminiscent of a train of attached carts, with more than a hundred knife-like legs¡ªfour below each segment¡ªmoving with preternatural coordination.

    Attached to the side of its head were two deadly sharp looking mandibles. Damien instantly recognized them as the origin of the clink clink sound he''d heard at the beginning. He grimaced as he stared at those weapons that were half his full body length, with their outer edges down to the tip colored a deathly bone white.

    "I can''t stress how much I hate this idea," Damien said right as his spear materialized in his right hand.

    Beside him, Keilan grunted and then tapped a brown, ordinary looking belt on his waist. As soon as he did, there was a brief flash of purple-black light, and then he too soon had a long spear in his hand.

    Its longer part was made out of brown wood, one of the most powerful types on the planet, if what they''d gotten was true. It had been boasted with more sturdiness than some metals, which had made Damien more skeptical until a test had been conducted right in front of them.

    The tip, which, thankfully, was made out of real metal this time, was leaf-shaped¡ª somewhat like Damien''s ¡ªand so sharp it had gone through Peak tier Spirit lord material without stress.

    Thankfully, it had been gifted. Damien knew the cumulative wealth of him and his brother. They couldn''t afford it.

    Far behind the two hundred feet long body of the centipede, two stingers, roughly ten feet long, rose in a smooth curve that pointed down at them.

    Damien could only utter out a curse before the entire body of the centipede curled, and then it brought its back end down on them.

    Damien brought his spear up the moment he landed on the right side of the centipede, Keilan on the other side.

    A thick breath of destruction slammed the Centipede, pushing it back and leaving a scorching mark on its form.

    Damien''s eyes widened as he looked at the injury, not even a deadly one, on the dark reflective body. That attack should have done more than that.

    With a warbling screech that briefly had Damien''s body locking up and his head ringing, the monster moved.

    Damien had only been locked down for a brief instant, but it seemed that that was enough for the hundred legged creature, as it slammed into him the moment his body was freed.

    Damien could only manage to turn a little, putting himself a little bit out of range of its outward blade before it crashed into him, flinging him into the air with a good level of mist displacement to crash with a grunt on the ground.

    Before the mist could rush back in, a gust of wind blew, dispersing it further and clearing out a larger circle for them to fight in.

    Distantly, as Damien rushed back to meet the monster, which was now trying to lock onto a speedy Keilan who was actively attacking from every angle, he noted how much less result had come out from that gust.

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    The effect of that intent should have been enough to clear out a mile around them. Instead, it only worked up to a dozen feet.

    Damien knew he wasn''t the only one who took notice of this, and he was proven correct when instead of his usual signature area attacks, Keilan simply came at the monster with pinpoint accuracy.

    A swarm of tiny emerald blades tore into the centipede''s sides, tearing a deeper gash than Damien''s attempt.

    Not one to be undone, Damien decided to take things a little bit further.

    As he speedily approached, half a dozen star like constructs began forming up behind him, leaving a long trail of blazing grey light.

    Despite all Gray had said about Mentally inclined monsters lacking in physical strength, Damien recognized that they were still Spirit lords, and as such, should have at least the basic physical fortifications all Spirit lords were accorded at their ascension.

    With that taken to mind, he poured more power into the technique, feeling the effect on the world. The monster must have felt it also, because it sharply turned its attention from Keilan, its twin antennas twitching crazily.

    Probably recognizing the dangerousness of the technique bearing down on it, the monster moved to get away. And that was when Keilan struck again.

    A hammer of unformed wind crashed onto the monster, collapsing its legs beneath it with a heavy thump.

    Damien''s technique landed.

    Instead of targeting a wide area of its body, Damien instead lined the stars to impact with pinpoint accuracy on a single segment of its long, serpentine form.

    The first star left a deep scorching mark on the targeted segment. The second one sent cracks spidering through the entire black shell, and the third one created a deep furrow that sent a geyser of what Damien assumed was blood¡ªtar like blood¡ªgushing out.

    The fourth and fifth tore the entire thing completely out of its line, leaving an explosion that completely shattered the nearest segments in a hail of blood and body parts.

    Nose wrinkling, Damien watched idly as the light in the monster''s eyes died and then its body went slack.

    Keilan removed the weight on the corpse and then moved up to Damien''s side.

    "Can you do something for the smell?" Damien choked out. It hadn''t been up to five seconds yet and the monster was already reeking.

    The only response he got from his brother was a single nod, and then Damien sensed the smell tone down. It didn''t completely disappear, but it also wasn''t as unbearable as it had almost became.

    Out of curiosity, he asked. "What did you do to it?"

    Keilan quirked an eyebrow. "You sure you want to know that answer?"

    Immediately, Damien shook his head. This time, ignorance was something he was gladly going to embrace.

    "I can''t believe an early tier monster, and a Mind affinity one for that matter, gave us such a hard time," Damien said with a grudging look of respect to the dead monster.

    "Speak for yourself," his brother chucked. "I was breezing through it. You were the one who went and got himself thrown away like a rag doll."

    Damien sighed in resignation. He recognized the futility of trying to follow up the argument, so he didn''t. Instead, he turned his face towards their surroundings.

    "We should probably start going. This brief fight might not have been as silent as we think, and a dozen other monsters might probably be on their way as we speak."

    Keilan grunted with a look of distaste on his face. "Yeah, I agree." He said. "I definitely do not want to fight half a dozen more of that thing."

    "Want anything from it," Damien pointed at the corpse. "It''s mandible? We could use it to create an extra spear for you."

    He looked down at the three foot long blades. "Your space belt certainly has enough space for it."

    The Space belt, as Damien liked to call it, had also been a gift, courtesy of their host, Vanis. Made by a Spirit King Crafter with an affinity for Space, the thing had enough room to hold probably four full sized Centipedes.

    Damien had encountered Space infused items before, but not one of this size which had then been fitted onto a thing as small and fragile as a belt, a leather made one, infact.

    He had inquired further from Vanis and the answer hadn''t been that different from what he''d known. Yes, a metaphysical space had been created and then attached to the belt, like an anchor. It was vastly different from their host house and most of the other homes on the planet, which had simply had their interior spatially expanded. This was why Vanis'' home, which outwardly was a tall, metallic tower, contained more space than the arena they''d used for Keilan''s duel. At least Damien thought so.

    The belt''s sturdiness had been settled when it had been put to the test right in front of Damien again.

    Damien recognized the worth of those things; at least, he was sure he did. And if it hadn''t been that Vanis was trying to repay a life debt, he''d certainly not have accepted, and he was sure Keilan would not have, too.

    A shadow from the corner of his vision was all the warning he got, and it wasn''t enough. Something crashed into him, and a sharp, blinding pain ignited on his left hand. For the second time in a few minutes, Damien was lifted into the air, farther than the previous time.

    He crashed onto the ground, slamming his left shoulder¡ªwhose arm was already burning with pain ¡ª onto the edge of something, and then he kept falling.

    Before he went past that, though, he just managed to catch a glimpse of their attacker: a long, sinuous body segmented with hundreds of metallic legs.

    He took a second to register how large this one was; far larger than the former. And then he was gone.

 Chapter 121: Employing The Art Of Diplomacy On Monsters

    The air was silent as Damien fell. There was no whoosh. No howl. Nothing. Only silence... And the mist. It saturated everywhere, wrapping around him like a cocoon as he continued to fall. It also blocked out his vision, which made it hard to see where he was falling.

    Damien didn''t worry, though; he could always fly back up. He''d been reluctant to try that given the atmosphere and the strange feeling it gave him, but risk had to be taken if he wished to get back up there to his brother. To the monster that had thrown him down here.

    Damien''s will wrapped around his body, engulfing him in a second layer of protection. With that, he willed himself upward... and only had a moment of wide-eyed surprise before he crashed back down, harder than before.

    His vision blacked out for a second as he felt the backlash of something rejecting his command over reality.

    By the time the pain in his mind finally vanished, Damien was already on the ground.

    He crashed down with such force that the air in his lungs rushed out in an oomph sound. There was a crack and another sharp blinding pain, which fortunately saw his previously dislocated shoulder reattach itself. Though the burning pain in his arm still remained.

    Damien gritted his teeth as he simply lay there on the rocky ground. He wanted to get back his breath before he rose to deal with whatever it was that was responsible for his unfortunate setback, because what in the celestial''s balls was that?!

    Damien had passed through this location right before they stepped into the curtain of mist, and he was very certain that there hadn''t been a cliff anywhere around.

    The first answer that cropped up in his mind was that the phenomenon had been the working of a Space affinity creature, but Damien soon discarded that thought. He would have detected it had a working as tricky as teleportation been carried out anywhere in his vicinity.

    But would I? He frowned.

    Looking around, the atmosphere was still saturated with the strange mist which still had the unfortunate effect of restricting his senses. Because of this, Damien reckoned that it probably wouldn''t be strange if he had failed to grasp any working being carried out close to him.

    With that thought, he heightened his wariness. If there was a space affinity monster around, who knew what else was lurking in the surroundings? An ambush like the one carried out by the second centipede, but this time with more than one of the creepy monsters could easily see him suffering a gruesome injury.

    Though I''ve still got an issue to deal with at the moment, he thought as he brought up his burning arm to his face, grimacing at the long gash on it and, more alarmingly, the webs of black lines spreading from it.

    Venom, Damien recognized.

    Thankfully, it was from a monster a tier below him, else he wouldn''t be this calm. The effects of this one wouldn''t result in anything too serious, though the pain was something he''d have to find a solution for, else it became a huge detriment for when he came across more powerful monsters. Because there was no doubt about that.

    There were other ways to deal with poisons if one didn''t have a healing wielder nearby. Unfortunately, it only worked against poisons from weak opponents, which luckily, the centipede that had inflicted him had been.

    Damien didn''t have a wide area to heal, which made it all the more better. The feeling he got from that stuff always made him... uncomfortable.

    Destruction energy roared within him, and Damien directed it at the injured arm. The essence of destruction clashed with the essence the venom was composed of, and Damien gnashed his teeth together as an intense chill settled over him, followed by an intense heat the next instant. Unsurprisingly, his element won, and Damien breathed out a sigh of relief.

    Don''t slack off, Damien, he cautioned himself. Not all monsters would be as weak as that one. You don''t want to suffer through the agony of having to deal with a poison from a mid-tier monster, which would be worse since there''s no healer nearby to save you from any fatal effects.

    With all that taken care of, it was time to find his way back.

    Damien moved to the right since that was where the cliff was. If he couldn''t fly, then climbing would have to do.

    Except when Damien approached where he was certain the cliff had been a second ago, there was nothing. He felt nothing.

    Damien stretched his hands, expecting to feel rocks or something, but he felt nothing, so instead he used his spear, grimacing when it yielded the same result.

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    When I find whoever is responsible for this, I''m going to flay them alive and use their hide as a cape against the mist.

    Honestly, Damien would have loved to panic. Panic was good. But he knew how unhelpful it would be. Keilan was going to be fine. He wasn''t as helpless as he looked.

    With that, Damien turned around to the left... And promptly fell with a plomp into a body of water.

    A brief spike of Panic lanced through his mind before he got himself under control. With tightly held calmness, Damien leveled his head out of the water and then used his spear for direction. A quick turn around with his spear leading the way saw him scratching against something hard and uneven, so Damien moved towards it.

    It took a few seconds, but Damien managed to reach the shore, and then, shifting his spear to the left, he brought his right hand up to¡ª

    "Oh, no you don''t," Damien said just as something clamped down on his knee. He raised his other foot to slam down but was jostled and a second later, dragged under.

    Damien let go of the rock that he''d been holding, shifted his spear back to his right hand, and prepared to do an underwater battle.

    <hr>

    Keilan grunted, stabbing his spear once again into the centipede below him. It released a weak screech, a far cry from the massive, headache-induced ones it had released earlier at the start of the fight, and then it went slack, dead, like its brethren before it.

    He jumped down from the corpse, grunting from the fatigue of it all. Fighting a monster with nothing but his will and a spear was already taking its toll on him.

    Unlike the first one, this one had been a massive pain, and he was glad Damien hadn''t been there to see it. The amount of times Keilan had had himself flung into the sky was too embarrassing.

    By now all the open parts of his body were filled with cuts and bruises, and it would have been worse had he not been wearing armor.

    The personal armory of Vanis was a thing to behold, and Keilan was thankful for its existence.

    With a sigh, he staggered down the monster''s corpse, using its sides to keep himself from falling.

    Reaching the back, he approached the twin, six-foot tall piece of destruction that was its back legs. The ones from the previous monster hadn''t given him much to be admirable of. But this one? Yeahh, he was taking those things.

    Keilan stabbed his spear into the tiny piece of flesh connecting the back leg to the hardened body. That was the only part that required less effort.

    A few seconds of grunting saw the first bladed legs collapse with a loud thud to the ground, and a few seconds later saw the second follow behind.

    Thankfully, Keilan didn''t have to carry it around. With how weakened he was at the moment, it was a wonder how he was able to lift his spear.

    With a sharp grunt, Keilan lifted the sharpened end of the appendage and then pressed it to the belt. There was no fanfare. No light show. One minute, the leg was in his hands; the next, it was gone. Poof.

    Keilan did the same for the second and then stood up, taking in his surroundings once more. If the fight with the first centipede had been loud, then this one had put it to shame.

    He took a second to rest, or maybe a minute and more. Keilan sat back down on the brittle grass, ignoring the feel as it crumbled underneath him. With a great sigh of satisfaction, he rested his back on the body of the dead centipede.

    He would have preferred a more fleshy hide to rest on, but beggars couldn''t be choosers, so he decided he''d have to make do.

    While he rested, he thought about his brother. The first target of the centipede had been Damien, and again, Keilan had watched his brother flung into the air like a toy to come crashing down a few meters from him. The sight would have been funny had Damien not vanished after.

    Keilan''s last view of his brother had been of Damien''s face, wracked with a grimace, and then he''d been gone.

    Keilan would dearly have loved to simply barge into the mist where his brother had last been seen, but he knew how unwise that was. Damien would have come running back out by now had he been able to, and the fact that Keilan hadn''t sensed nor heard the sound of fighting meant that his brother wasn''t occupied by another monster.

    The other option would be to wait and see if Damien eventually made it back to this location, but that would also mean sitting ducks for the next monster to come find him. And who knew how powerful the next one would be?

    Damien would be fine, Keilan assured himself, even though a greater part of him thought otherwise. The only thing that stopped him from panicking was that his brother, unlike him, had his full abilities to work with. Short of a Spirit King, no monster should be able to take down Damien, especially with his astral image called.

    With that little bit of consolation, Keilan stood back up, regretting a little bit that he couldn''t simply lay down here and sleep for the next nine hours.

    Rest can come later, he thought to himself. But for now, he had to survive this place.

    Thankfully, he''d had a few minutes of rest, and although it wasn''t as long as he would have liked, it was still something. It left him with more strength to deal with what he soon detected as a pack of monsters. What kind of monsters they were, though, he didn''t know.

    Keilan''s grip on his spear tightened when orbs of crimson began appearing all around him, multiplying from a few couple to more than a dozen in seconds.

    "Well, at least I know it isn''t another centipede," he muttered just as the wind gathered around him, riding on the command of his will.

    Keilan wouldn''t say he was surprised when he saw what those crimson orbs belonged to, after all, this was a Space primarily filled with insects.

    The sight of a scorpion, one with a great deal of height on him¡ªthirty feet? Thirty five?¡ªdidn''t fill Keilan with as much confidence as he was normally accustomed to.

    He was still injured after all.

    Behind the first monster came more of them, emerging through the mist like wraiths. Their huge, deadly looking claws clamped down repeatedly in what Keilan recognized as an intimidation tactic. And their stingers...

    Keilan''s head rose slowly as he traced the smooth onyx carapace up to the twelve feet of terror-inducing launcher pointed down at him.

    At least now he could see the resemblance with their centipede cousins.

    Keilan looked around at the six monsters surrounding him in an inverted crescent shape, and with a shrug, he tried for diplomacy.

    "Is there any way we could settle this amicably?" He hedged. "Like civilized adults."

    He didn''t get a worded response, but seeing as instead of retreating as he''d hoped for, they crept forward with their crittering legs digging up deep furrows into the earth.

    Keilan sighed. Well, at least I tried.

 Chapter 122: Insects... Arent They Cute?

    Damien gurgled as murky water rushed down his throat. He thrashed, kicking down on the thing curled around his leg, and kicked some more when instead of his feet finding solid purchase, it pressed down on something flexible.

    Oh, for crying out loud! Damien cursed inwardly as he gulped in more of the dirty water. What is this?!

    His next attempt, positioned so that it could slam closer to his captured leg, was halted as something else rose to curl around his free leg, pulling him further in.

    As Damien was forcefully dragged further into the murky water, two options came to him then: one, he could let himself get dragged down, eventually reaching the origin of whatever it was that was pulling him in. That had the fortunate effect of making it easy for him to kill whatever was dragging him in.

    Two, he could break free now and save himself from any more unforeseen issues that might crop up under the water. So far as he''d seen, this realm had come with multiple, unexplained surprises, and Damien didn''t want to experience one more, especially as he was underwater. He was a spirit lord, sure, which meant he could breathe underwater for longer than the average person. But longer didn''t mean indefinite, and Damien didn''t want to fall into the unfortunate circumstances of having more of these things curl around him.

    Now or never, Damien, he thought. You either blast your way out of here right now or deal with worse later on.

    His decision hadn''t even been fully finalized when he shaped and willed multiple stars into existence... Except instead of the greater number Damien was gunning for, he got a measly couple while the rest sputtered out like a wind-blown candle flame.

    Damien didn''t have the time to wonder why that was; he simply directed the ones at his disposal downwards to where he could sense the things wrapped around him.

    Satisfied, he detonated them.

    The only good thing that came out of that was that the explosion didn''t just tear apart whatever was holding him; it flung him up, too.

    Damien broke through the surface of the water with a wide-eyed look and a panicked flap of his hands like a bird losing flight.

    He plumped face first onto the sand with such force that his head pierced through the surface layer, digging deep and leaving his body sticking upright. He wiggled himself out a second later and then sighed. Keilan would have laughed at him till kingdom come had he witnessed that embarrassing fall.

    Damien stood up and took in his surroundings. Again, he was still surrounded by the mist, this time a darker purple. Somehow, silver lights managed to streak down despite there being no celestial body hovering above the proto-space. Or maybe it wasn''t the moon that was shining down, Damien thought. He shrugged, at least he could see better now.

    The sudden beat, and whoosh¡ªwhich was strange, given how silent the wind had been ever since he''d stepped into this hell hole¡ªwas the only warning he got, and this time, he reacted accordingly.

    Damien jumped into the air, like he''d been propelled by a spring, snatched his spear¡ªfrom wherever he''d lost it¡ª and in a smooth motion, he brought it down in one swift strike. All done within a fraction of a second.

    There was a heavy thump as something crashed onto the ground, and Damien turned to watch as his attacker was dragged across the ground, courtesy of their uncontrolled momentum, leaving a large, deep trench on the earth.

    Contrary to his expectation, the ant didn''t stay down for long, nor did it suffer any injury, as far as Damien could tell. It was a Spirit lord, after all.

    It rose onto its feet, turned to face him, and then snapped its pincers hard enough that Damien could hear the cracking sound a half mile away.

    He narrowed his eyes at the creature. "Am I supposed to be scared?"

    The creature''s left wing was already gone, courtesy of Damien''s opening attack, which left the right wing which it still managed to flap, bursting forward with such speed that it made the normally still air thrum.

    He moved forward to meet it, swinging his spear in a crisscross motion as he slid under the creature.

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    Coming out from behind it, Damien was just fast enough to dodge the stinger that would have pierced into his skull, and then he slashed, tearing through one of its six legs, and then he was flung away as its wing finally caught him.

    Damien landed on the ground with an oomph, digging in his own trench ¡ªhuman sized¡ªinto the earth.

    With a groan, he rose back up. "This, is getting too embarrassing."

    In reply, the ant released a screech that caused his body to vibrate lightly.

    Damien gritted his teeth and glared at the creature. "I wasn''t talking to you."

    And then they dove back into each other.

    But this time, Damien was done letting himself get beat up by creatures below his tier. He was supposed to be competing with peak-tier Spirit lords for crying out loud.

    Three Star constructs formed over him as he moved. Still in motion, he pointed his spear at the zipping monster before him and then channeled a breath of destruction.

    The bar of destruction essence appeared in a flash of gray light, and then blinked out, leaving a featherless ant in its wake. Damien came in a second later, reaching the chittering creature before it could finish recovering. He ignored the uncomfortable feeling the sound had on him, and in one fell swoop, he brought down his technique.

    The ant scattered into a dozen parts, bits and pieces flying in different directions, as well as fluids from its abdomen which had the unfortunate effect of spraying all over Damien.

    "Ewww," Damien gagged as he tried to remove the icky stuff from his face. "Gross."

    He looked down at the dozen pieces sprayed around. "If you weren''t already dead, I''d kill you."

    [Why are you talking to yourself?] A voice said from behind, and Damien jumped with a high-pitched scream he dearly hoped no one heard.

    "Whaaa!!!" He said. "Stop doing that, Gray! You nearly tore my heart out."

    [Hmm mm,] Gray hummed with a knowing look, but he said nothing. Instead, he continued looking at Damien.

    Getting the memo, Damien coughed and scratched the back of his head. "Welllllll..." Damien said nervously. "I was simply bored, that''s all."

    [I can see that,} Gray said and then turned around, seemingly taken in their environment. [Nice view.]

    Damien rewarded the little Gray man with a deadpan gaze and a dry reply. "Haha. Funny."

    [No, I''m serious. I love the beautiful sky. Can you see it? And the life filled grasslands. See how it stretches into the horizon.]

    "Do you have a reason for being here, Gray?" Damien said. "I''m busy at the moment and you''re distracting me."

    [Oh,] Gray said lightly with a smile slowly spreading on his lips. [Busy, you say...]

    "Yes, busy." He pointed at the shattered remains of his latest opponent. "As you can see, I just finished dealing with this thing and I also have a brother to find. I don''t have much time for pointless chitchat."

    [That... I won''t argue against,] Gray nodded with the stupid smile still on his face. [In fact, I believe you''re going to be very busy at the moment. Extremeeeely busy.]

    Damien''s eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"

    The little gray figuring smiled. [Tell me, Damien. How often do you see an ant on its lonesome?]

    A chill swept down Damien''s spine at that, and he raised his head sharply to the sky, ears primed to catch any odd sound.

    [Before I go. Damien,] Gray''s voice brought Damien''s attention down, and this time he took it seriously as the other being''s voice turned serious. [I don''t want to force you through something as important as what you''re doing, but I''ll advise you to hasten it. Something is about to happen... sometimes bad. And you definitely do not want to get stuck in this place when whatever it is comes to head.]

    Damien looked at Gray. This was the first time he had truly seen the grey man worried in an immediate sense. Sure, the Order Ascendant had made him worry, yes, but it hadn''t been to the level of something like this, which clued Damien in that whatever was about to happen was not far from fruition.

    "Do you have anything on what it is?"

    [No,] Gray shook his head and then said quietly. [I''m not a Diviner, so my far-seeing abilities are somewhat restricted. I only have a vague feeling to go through.]

    When Damien met Gray''s eyes, there was no mirth in them.

    [Good luck Damien,] he said, right at the time a faint droning sound reached Damien''s ears. Many droning sounds, [You''ll need it.]

    Damien didn''t watch to see Gray disappear. He whipped out his spear, spinning it through the air into the dark mist. His eyes might be severely restricted at the moment, but his ears were not.

    And surely, there was a screech a second later, followed by a thump. Damien caught back his spear, returned with a bit of insect juice, and then ran towards his assailants.

    Estimating a number closer to a dozen, Damien knew it was time to stop holding back. Subtlety had never really been his strong suit anyway, and the many creatures that had attacked him in the short span he''d been in this place was evidence of that.

    A dozen stars manifested behind his head a second later, and unsurprisingly, he felt them begin to unravel, like something was actively trying to loose the threads of his technique.

    Damien pushed through it with his will, and grunted when he felt whatever it was push back. Still, he refused to give up, so he pushed back.

    Still, he felt two of the stars unravel, but the rest stayed. Damien wasn''t going to give ground, this time.

    The stars vanished into the misty ambiance, and a second later, a loud explosion rang out, lighting the world in a bright flash and displacing a huge amount of mist. Through it, Damien watched as closer to a dozen monsters fell from the sky in scattered pieces. He didn''t feel any better, though, as he''d greatly underestimated the number of ants heading his way.

    Alongside the flying variant Damien had earlier come across, wingless, landbound ones crawled forward in a swarm. Damien counted more than twenty, and that wasn''t even adding the flying ones.

    "Alright then, let''s make some noise."