"Seems so." Heru stretched his arms wide, copper skin gleaming under the pale sun as he approached, slinging a casual arm over my shoulders. "After we launch from the catapult and land near the safe point—Falice goes with Kimaris to learn demonic healing. Dante pairs off with Clara to track Zhan. Quinella follows Sathuna for spiritual work. Vex joins Wukong. And Ben? He's with me. We'll find Luke and Sandy together."
"That sit right with everyone?" I glanced around. Thorn peeked his beaked head through the gap between me and Heru's shoulders, his feathers brushing my cheek. Ben's group gave silent nods, their resolve heavy but unwavering.
"While our captain's still recovering, I'll speak on his behalf." Dante rose, chest proud, voice sharp. "We'll follow your lead. But only if you swear—we all see each other again."
"I swear it," I said, pulling Heru's arm off my shoulder and stepping forward. "On my name as [Traveler On A Journey]. You'll all reunite, at the end of your paths."
Thorn fluttered onto my arm as I turned to face them. "From now until your training ends, you're honorary members of the . I'll draw the attention away from the launch site. Supposedly."
BWOUUUMMM!!!
The sky split open. Black pyramids and crescent moons tore through the clouds—crashing from light-speed into orbit, forming a blockade around Idaten-II like gods had dropped their chess pieces in rage.
"GO NOW!" Sathuna's voice cracked like thunder. "Before their aether sensors lock onto your presence!"
[Skill: Autumn King's Conquest – Mach Rush!]
Thorn merged into my chest—and the world blurred.
In the blink of a thought, I was gone, launched across the continent in a crimson blur, distance melting beneath my feet. Every time I blinked, another fleet arrived. . . Twin armadas casting endless shadows across the oceans and deserts, united beneath the CGA's banner.
[Skill: Astral Third Eye – Detecting Eye!]
"Jump, Princess!" Thorn squawked, panic rising in his echoing voice.
A pulse of dread kicked through me—I dove left. A searing red laser cracked the air, ripping open the earth just behind me in a smoking scar. The ground scorched and hissed. I landed running, sprinting across the ocean, boots slamming into waves as the skies burned with light.
***
"Quickly! Deploy the medical extract, now! The High Empress is awake!" Corvus's voice cut through the haze of heat and rumble of far-off artillery.
I opened my eyes to jaundiced skies and the echoes of planetary war. Through blurry vision, I saw the arcs of lasers slicing from war-class cruisers. City-levelling energy beams screamed down from orbit like divine punishment—all focused on a single point.
Corvus knelt beside me, shrouded in his torn cowl, his face still cloaked in that familiar void of shadowmancy. "You were sedated," he explained, urgency pushing past his usual calm. "Some strange compound—dispersed your aether, left you powerless. I've never seen anything like it."
Sitting up, I found his cloak draped over my chest, the hood ripped open. My breath came in cold gasps, the fog lifting.
"What happened, Corvus?" I demanded, already fearing the answer. "From the moment I blacked out—I want everything."
"A lot of shit," he said, blunt as ever. "After [Mountain Crowned Monkey] flipped the arena upside down, he brawled with Idaten's guardian beast but not before flattening me and
That froze me. My hands clenched on reflex. "The two Kralscells fought?"
Corvus nodded grimly. "Their battle destroyed the entire city and then the county. Millions died in the crossfire before they could escape. Wukong and the guardian evacuated the civilians they could before things escalated from the tower. After the county was flattened by Song the
Coursing some corruptive energy through my brain my body recovered quickly. "And now?"
"We sent an emergency call. The Zorain of Grey brought his fleet.
I looked up. The sky was raining fire.
Lasers rained down like divine wrath, endlessly crashing down upon one man, one soul trying to escape a fate written in blood. My chest ached at the sight. My home burned in the wake of gods and tyrants.
Corvus shifted behind me. "The three Lords of Idaten-II... they're missing. We believe Traveler killed them. Right before the satellite fell."
I turned to him slowly, my voice cold. "You understand your mistake. Don't you?"
Corvus swallowed, his voice lower. "Yes. The CGA will call it a treaty violation after
My silence was answer enough.
"Pictor better try," I muttered. "We've buried enough children across millennia. I won't watch it happen again."
***
'Damn. They really want you dead, huh?' Thorn's voice echoed dryly through my skull as another laser barrage lit the far horizon in jagged bursts of red and violet.
I rolled my eyes and dragged a boulder free from the sand with both hands. "Just stay curled around my hearts, Thorn. One leak of aether, and you're the first thing I throw."
A snort of amusement flickered in my mind. 'You love me too much for that. Even if I annoyed you to death.'
Beneath the boulder—something hissed. A twitch. Sparks. The stench of burnt hydraulics.
I glanced down.
Wires spasmed in broken arcs. Scraps of crushed plating crunched beneath the stone. An aura of gluttonous hunger, feral and acidic, radiated like a cornered beast. At the centre of it: a reptilian android, half-buried beneath collapsed wreckage, crushed under thousands of tonnes of stone and steel—yet still moving. Barely. But moving.
"Hello, Ramirtec," I murmured, dropping down into the crater, boots crunching metal as I landed beside him.
He twitched. What was left of his once-regal armour was little more than crumpled silver foil. One arm had been crushed into splinters beneath the debris. Sparks leapt from his jaw like dying fireflies.
"Y-you-u..." the machine rasped, his voice broken, glitching—but still spitting defiance.
"Me." I crouched low, my hand hovering just above his dimming orange optic. "What's the [Messiah of Gluttony] doing this far from the cage? Did Pride let their little pet off the leash?"
He froze. His gaze locked on my hand, calculating every movement. He knew. One touch. That was all it would take. The aether in my blood would slip past his plating and dissolve him from the inside out—no skill activation required.
"...That-t i-is n-no-one of your-ur c-concern," he managed, voice stuttering in corrupted pulses. "It-it is-s for-or t-the sake of the-the-the greatest-test justice-ice—"
BANG.
He cracked his own head against the stone, resetting his vocoder with a sharp jolt.
"Clarity's intentions," he said with renewed coherence, "are not for a mere volunteer to comprehend."
"Hah." I leaned closer, my grin splitting like a cracked mask. "And yet this volunteer holds the same rank as you. I haven't even pledged myself fully to your little cult. Yet Clarity still wields me as their sharp knife just like they do you. Only difference is my rare orders are given personally instead of through the [Messiah of Pride]." I let that venom seep into my voice. "Must burn, doesn't it?"
A hiss escaped the synth buried in Ramirtec's throat. He trembled—but held it back. Wise. Even at his prime, he couldn't touch me.
"Harm me," the machine growled, "and the Thrones won't stay still. You'll lose everything. Just like you did within that white room in the depths of
I moved. A single swift motion. Fingers wreathed in cold black fire cracked against his faceplate. With a twist, I tore what remained of his helm free, revealing the tangled mess of exposed wires and scorched circuits beneath.
I pressed one finger just above his left optic, a centimetre from the metal, where the skin of machinery met the failing pulse of synthetic nerves.
"One more word about my past," I said quietly. "And I'll kill you here. Now. I'm sure Clarity won't mind. They do love a bit of sport between the Sinners."
The silence stretched like a blade. I watched the calculations flicker behind his artificial eye—protocols jostling for dominance beneath fear. Finally, he gave in. "...The boy your forces are protecting. The one handed to the Kralscell of Corruption. Ben Lake, of the Fire Cloud." Ramirtec's voice dropped to a hush. "He has what Clarity has been seeking. The right compatibility."
My hand pulled back a fraction. My eyes narrowed.
Thorn's thought rippled through my skull like a shiver. '...He's serious?'
"How do you know?" I asked, voice sharpened to a blade's edge.
"In the Black Hole Kingdom," Ramirtec replied. "During the confrontation with the [Hell King: Putrefaction Archer]'s apostle. The Sinner of Envy was there. She witnessed the human's [aspect] herself... and reported it directly to the Sovereigns. Since then... the search for the Axis has resumed and the other messiah's have all been searching under Pride's orders."
I didn't reply.
I rose without a word, turning my back on the wrecked machine, leaving him half-buried beneath twisted alloy and the quiet weight of his own defeat. No threat. No goodbye.
Just silence.
And the rising hum of something much bigger unravelling just beyond the veil.
'No way,' Thorn muttered, unsettled. 'Even we helped the last time an Axis was found. That was centuries ago. None of the others survived past infancy or died before discovery.'
"It's a trillion-to-one chance," I replied coldly. "Even if they were born in the same century, even if they're alive... they're scattered across the stars and once Erroneous' Virtues discover them they'll erase them like always. Let's focus on the now."
[Skill: Astral Third Eye — Connects Your Vision]
Through a spirit formed from my aether, I watched Heru and the others—fighting their way through the launch tower, floor by floor, toward the top. Toward the catapult that could sling them beyond the blockade.
Swapping to another spirit's perspective, I felt my chest tighten. Predictable. Obvious.
'What have your starry eyes seen, princess?' Thorn asked, his voice wary.
"Partisans," I muttered. "CGA loyalists. Disciples and Students pouring from their ships. All of them marching toward the tower."
'Great.'
"No," I said, eyes narrowing, "it's not."
I dismissed the vision, breath shallow as my senses returned to my own body. I was still being hunted. Still weakened from unleashing one of my [Regalius Breaker's], from clashing with the Kralscell of Songs and the Empyrean. Even with the [Philosopher's Stone Empyrean] fuelling my hearts, I needed time. I needed stillness. Neither luxury existed.
I pulled the comm-mirror from my coat's inner lining and flicked it to life.
"Sathuna," I said calmly, "you're aware you've got a few million bloodthirsty CGA Rangers standing outside your front door, right?"
"That's quite the way to greet someone, Strife," she said dryly. The screen shimmered and I saw her, barely holding herself upright while a begrudging Wukong carried her puppet-body. "But yes. Some of them already made it into the transport tower. Clara's jamming frequencies, but one of 's Guardians must've tracked us."
"Mm-hmm. So tell me—how many am I allowed to kill?"
"Only those who attack first."
I smirked. "You've gotten more honest than you remember."
Pocketing the mirror, I looked to the skies once more—yellow and torn. A great cut cleaved the atmosphere. And from that wound, more ships spilled through the void. These weren't from . Nor .
Another force had arrived.
"...Does this mean what I think it does?" asked the black mist curling around my aether-drunk hearts.
"I think so, Thorn."
'This'll be fun. When was the last time everyone got to stretch their legs?'
"Seven-hundred and forty-nine years."
I raised my hand, and dark liquid coalesced at my fingertips. Thorn withdrew his concealment.
"Let's take it all."
[Aspect: Taken Devourer — Taken Army!]
Aether poured outward in controlled torrents. Amber-silver gates opened around me—space twisted, bent, and tore—and from the void emerged my army. Knights. Fiends. Forgotten horrors. Shadows of everything I had ever consumed or conquered.
"It's been too long," I said, my voice calm, while four distinct silhouettes appeared behind me. One of a towering black knight, another of a serpent-like naga, one of a Kitsune with eleven tails, and a bear-sized echidna. "Have some fun."
Several CGA ships spotted me. They dove. Lasers primed. They never made it. Shadows of spiritual knights and monsters surged out from cracks in the air. Wet and clawed, they sliced the bombers mid-air—igniting bright fireballs that painted the sky. It was all the invitation the fleets above needed.
I gripped [Sigrid] from the air as the laser cannons in orbit began to charge, shifting to lock on my presence and brightening with the rage of suns.
Sighing, I said, "Let's go take something apart."