The body of raze, or rather the husk of his body had not fallen before the Dragonoid horde had begun to swoop down at him. Rage in their eyes as the initial fear of a mere human killing their commander faded from their bodies, Moyo would have it no other way. With a quick burst of dimension step and his katana gathering intent blades around it, Moyo unleashed his realm over the horde, increasing the gravity over them as most of the Dragonoids fell crashing to the ground, their wings unable to sustain their increased weight. With the rage born of battle, Moyo saw Annika float above his realm, thunder booming in the clouds above as she summoned what was beginning to look like a maelstrom, from the very skies above she rained down bolts of lightning in their hundreds, the very ground exploding with the force of her lightning as she drained her very core of all the power she possessed.

Like clockwork, the storm bringers under her control continued where she left off. Even though they were not as strong enough as her, they made up for it in the increased number of bolts they dropped, buying time as their female leader broke shards after shards of lightning in a haste to refill her core. Moyo had not been idle, with the distraction provided to him by the storm bringers that tore into the wings of the Drago, Moyo waded between their midst, katana flashing as he infused his very willpower and intent into his voice of the titan skill, stabling and slicing wherever he met flesh, dimly aware that the sentinels had followed behind him, swinging their weapons at the disoriented Dragonoids and caving heads in.

Normally a single level 40 initiate could do nothing to an advocate, they couldn’t even scratch the skin of one, talk less of a draconic specie on an advocate level. But a bunch of initiates whose paths were modeled for brute blunt power and moving together as a group while under the protection of an advocate of theirs with his suppression ability hanging over said advocates? well, it got the job done, to say the least. The rest of the advocate dragonoids who had managed to survive the brutal efficient onslaught came together and with rage in their eyes activated some sort of joint attack. An intricate-looking sigil appeared in the night sky, blazing with the might and authority of the draconic race, Moyo began to feel dread building up in his chest as he felt the amount of raw aether it was siphoning into itself in preparation to unleash what was sure to be a devastating attack. He turned to the army of Bastion.

“run!” he shouted,

Seeing the urgency and look of panic in his voice, Mrs. Martha blazed with power as she began weaving her hands also in an intricate gesture as the dome that previously covered the whole of Bastion suddenly reappeared in the city once again, a nagging thought jarred Moyo to the fact that he had forgotten it was gone. With no time to attack the Dragonoids directly, Moyo pitted his entire willpower and intent against the Dragonoids, dimension stepping close to them as he channeled said will into his voice of the titan, reality echoing around him with all the power of an advocate.

“hold” he commanded,

For a few precious seconds, the half-formed sigil in the sky slowed, its power halting, till the Dragonoids turned to him, pitting their will against him in unison and speaking with one voice,

“no” they commanded,

Moyo felt a brief spike of pain in his mind as his control over the area was broken, the sigil gathering power again in its now fiery blinding light. Moyo stabilized himself, landing on the dome protecting Bastion, for once he was short of ideas. He was sure he could survive this attack, but the people depending on him, he couldn’t just roll over and let them die. As the sigil neared completion, he saw Ayo land close to him, his eyes widened in alarm,

“what the hell are you doing out here?” he growled, part in shock and part in fury,

“you have five seconds” she replied cryptically as she knocked an arrow and her body began to blaze,

“what?”

“five seconds, now!” she shouted as a beam of pure sunlight hit her, her very being beginning to glow with the very bright light of the sun, her arrowhead glowing read as it heated up,

Understanding flashed before his eyes as Moyo watched the arrow leave her bow, Ayo dropping to her knees in exhaustion, falling below the barrier as Idris appeared out of nowhere to catch her. All these he noticed in a blink, already Moyo had torn open a spatial rip with a sort of urgency and speed he had never had before. Appearing behind the Dragonoids at the same time the arrow exploded in their eyes with the blazing heat and light of the sun itself, causing the Dragonoids to scream in agony. Moyo paid them no mind, grabbing them as he tore open another spatial rift, he threw them into it, immediately feeling the weight of three Dragonoids in his spatial space.

The sigil cracked, with no one to control the flow of aether in it, the sigil began to lose its stability, Moyo cursed as he had seconds to act, to do the impossible. And with a move born of desperation, he opened his spatial rift, throwing out the Dragonoids in the face of their sigil as they stared with wide eyes. In that same heartbeat, just before the sigil exploded in what Moyo was sure to resemble nothing less than a missile strike, he unleashed his realm over Bastion.

Then it exploded.

Moyo had no idea what took place as it exploded, it was the aftermath he remembered. He had blacked out, waking up to see his flesh hanging off his white gleaming bones and the agony...

Oh the agony....

His mouth opened up in a scream but his mind and body went back to the moves he had practiced over and over. Even as blood poured out of his very body, his skill greed of the titan absorbed the essence of every Dragonoid on the field, the dismembered ones rather as the ones he had thrown directly in front of the sigil had been turned to crisp. His titans’ wrath worked over time as he could see his notification pinging like crazy, his skills ranking up. By the time the army of Bastion came out unto the now charred barren land, Moyo had healed completely, but he was drenched in blood, his blood.

Without as much as a word he turned his gaze to the dungeon portal where the next horde of dragons were about to pour out from inside it, dimension step took him close to it. And with one rage-infused roar, he pushed his realm into the portal, pushing back the head of the Dragonoid that was about to stick its head out and stabbed it into the portal falling alongside it. Moyo had often wondered what hell would look like at times, but with the coming of the archailect, he had doubted such things were real. However, what he was looking at in his front could have been the version of hell the archailect had envisioned. Fire blazed everywhere, the very ground was lava, and what looked like humanoid shapes screamed in agony as they slowly submerged beneath the liquid torture. Beings of different shapes and sizes were being torn apart by the hundreds.

Moyo once again gave a heartfelt thanks to his master for his training, nothing could have prepared an average human for the horrors he was witnessing. When a wave of pure evil intent honed in on him, Moyo knew he had found who he had been searching for. A giant scaly hand burst out of the lava, trailing flames that covered the flaming red hand with black claws as dark as night, a head with six horns arranged in a crown shot out of the lava also with red reptilian eyes, a broad shape and a tail that had the head of a morning star at the end. Moyo stared passively at the final boss of the crisis.

Evon the Dragonoid, level ***** (capped at 100)

The evil Dragonoid on the path of the scorching lava, given the sobriquet world conqueror, was a former *error title restricted* to a supreme being. Deciding to rebel against the supreme being, he gathered a bunch of loyal subjects including Urguth and At’ll, seizing a nexus point and sacrificing an entire planet of life forms to wield a rune barrier to protect him and his accomplices while they made their nefarious plans for the nexus point. Xerxes world burner, the head of the dragon brigade along with a few brave members of the brigade including Tania sun wrath and a few neutral rulers broke through the barrier in time to put a stop to them. Sentenced to an eternity as a crisis boss till he eventually meets his death.

As the full towering form of Evon stood before Moyo, dripping lava in copious quantities, Moyo was surprised he didn’t feel fear or terror.

He felt anger.

“curious, you do not melt or tremble in fear fleshling” Evon rumbled with the voice that sent waves of power all around him. Moyo was staring at some unfathomable being scaled down to a expert, and even at that, he could feel the literal intent of the monster, like a physical material over his bare skin.

Moyo didn’t deign to give a reply, instead, he held dominion tighter, took a stance, and stared hard at the Dragonoid, Evon grinned,

“by all means, come, come to die” he rumbled at Moyo,

With barely restrained anger, his willpower of the titan in full force, and the authority of his path as a titan, Moyo activated his voice of the titan skill,

“hold” he commanded,

Evon gave a burst of loud laughter as Moyo felt the commander crash and shatter like glass on the skin of Evon,

“no, you hold’ Evon commanded,

For the first time, Moyo felt what his command felt like if it had been used on him maliciously. Reality twisted with what should not have been the power of an expert, bending and twisting around Moyo as he felt the invisible hands of a monster trying to crush him to paste. At that moment, he forgot about Evon, forgot about where he was, and channeled his entire existence, willpower, and intent into not being squashed to a paste. Time moved slowly, seconds felt like decades. Moyo felt his bones creak and snap like a twig, healing back just to snap again in a never-ending cycle. He had not been aware he was screaming till his throat became too sore for any sound to come out of it again.

Finally, the command broke, Moyo sinking below the lava waves, notifications blazing as his skills ranked up, but deep down, Moyo knew it was fruitless. Whatever skills Evon had, Moyo was sure they were legendary and maxed out or close to. As he sank deeper into the burning lava, his mind barely recuperating from the trauma he had put it through, Moyo felt what could only be the tail of Evon wrapping around his body and pulling him out of the lava. He found himself face to face with the monster that laughed,

“you all get weaker and weaker as time goes by,” the Dragonoid said mockingly,

“tell me, what were you expecting? that a mere advocate on the cusp of evolving into an expert could defeat me?. Before your pitiful planet of mud and water was formed, I had conquered entire universes!” Evon continued,

Moyo began to feel the trickle of anger jarring his mind awake, the thought of his world being nothing more than a plaything for monsters like Evon sent rage through his body, his jelly-like hands beginning to squeeze together. He felt Evon squeezing his body with his tail as his ribs and bones were broken, blood spurting out of his mouth,

“I won’t kill you advocate, oh no, I would make you watch as I tear your barely surviving world apart. Watch as your people are feasted upon by my brood, even now the barrier protecting your city would soon fall and your initiates and acolytes would become a feast for my brood” Evon gloated,

Those words were what broke the dam that had been piling up, all Moyo saw was red and with a half-broken snarl and roar, Moyo bit into the tail of Evon, chomping and tearing the flesh as he swallowed the piece. Evon loosened his tail as Moyo fell into the lava, his mind in agony, the piece of power in the bit of tail he ate healing him in an instant but causing agony as well. Moyo had no idea what he did for the next few minutes, all his mind could translate was that he suicidally latched unto the tail of Evon again and took another bite, the Dragonoid hissing in barely suppressed shock and rage, to eat the flesh of a Dragonoid was instant death, only masters survived such and due to their elixir infused bodies that drew the nutrients from the flesh of the Dragonoids. To eat the flesh of a Dragonoid as powerful as Evon? well, even masters would only try that if they suffused their bodies with healing elixir with every bite, and here was a human, barely stepping into the realm of an expert, with no seal at all eating bite after bite of Evon.

Evon was terrified, a bit.

Trying his best to step or squash the rabid human, the Dragonoid lord forgot all about commands and looked to derive the pleasure of feeling the human explode to paste between his hands. He failed time and time again to catch the human but failed, watching in dismay as the human kept on taking bites out of his now deformed tail. It was then he noticed a truly horrifying fact, his tail was not healing, and even worse, he could sense flashes of his authority in the human!. With barely constrained dread, Evon realized the human was infusing his authority and willpower with his! his mind protested the fact that it was impossible, that a mere humanoid could not take on the power of a draconic and survive. But then Evon sensed something that drove an even greater dread through his body and soul.

He could sense the authorities of both Urguth and At’ll in the human.

Had the human killed both his accomplices?, how?, a tiny thought pointed out that Urguth could had blessed the boy with his powers, seeing as he was a reluctant member of their sentenced group, but even at that, a mere human should not have the power to absorb even the authority of Urguth. And for the first time, as the human appeared from below the bubbling lava, growling with bloodshot eyes, Evon stared at the restricted stat of the human and felt a subtle chill descend on him,

Draconic slayer

The human had obtained the title given to those who slew a draconic boss monster in their early days in the archailect, a title that if Evon remembered quite clearly would evolve into draconic bane, a title that ensured the wielder could fest and absorb the entire might of a dragon. Usually, such creatures were either killed on sight or sworn into an oath by an elder dragon to curb their excesses, but here was one in the flesh staring at him with cold dead eyes. Evon couldn’t take the risk again, with his authority and will, Evon commanded the human,

“die,” he said with the finality of a world conqueror,

The human simply grunted as reality tried wiping him out of existence, making a tsk sound while waving one finger at Evon,

“Nope,” the human retorted back in a similar command,

Reality perceiving the latent authority of Evon in that word called off its attack, Evon roared in rage, cursing the archailect, cursing the supreme beings, Xerxes, and his dragon brigade. If he had his full authority and might, the pesky fledgling draconic bane would be dead in a blink, instead, Evon would have to resort to getting his hands dirty and killing the human with his bare hands, not that he had caught the human.

Glancing down at the human who grinned at him, Evon moved with speed, barely scraping past the slippery flesh of the human who had dodged and somehow latched unto his back, biting directly into his skin as Evon tried fruitlessly to grab Moyo, the human dodging his claws and running up the body of Evon, a part of Evon became bitter, he, a literal force of nature, known as an apocalyptic omen in some worlds, reduced to chasing an ant about. Still feeling the human climbing up to his head, Evon felt a sense of panic. The human was slowly graduating from a pesky pest to a full-blown threat, with another roar Evon slammed his back into the mithril-shaped stone behind him, it could change shape to his every command, and in this instance, he commanded it to become a slap of stone, one he intended to use to squash the human behind him.

Moyo still felt his body running on rage and hunger, a sort of primal hunger he could not explain, all he knew was something inside Evon beckoned for him to consume it, and with the literal power and authority he had consumed from a bit of Evon, Moyo was going to. Immediately sensing with alarm that Evon was about to squash him with what looked like a liquid metal rock that morphed into a slab, he vaulted from behind the Dragonoid, into the waiting hands of the Dragonoid lord. His battle senses saved him at that moment, for Evon was about to crush him to death, in those few seconds Moyo could feel time slow. Gradually watching the hand of Evon about to squeeze him to a pulp, he stared up at the dark skies overhead where flames danced. With a chuckle, he realized he didn’t want to die.

He had barely survived the dungeon, survived the training, survived the xerran attacks. And like a whisper, his master’s voice came to him,

Foolish disciple, a katana can only advance, advance then…

Moyo had no idea where the thought came from, both in those few seconds he burst out in laughter, feeling as a growling Evon paused, eyeing what he suspected the Dragonoid thought was a deranged human skeptically,

“something funny human?” the Dragonoid growled,

Moyo felt his skill spatial rip activate, appearing over two sharp-looking mountain edges at once, and swallowing them in half. He glanced at Evon, a crazy smile on his face as he gathered his willpower and authority that had been infused with that of the Dragonoid,

“thank you” he croaked,

“for what?” the Dragonoid asked in confusion,

“for the gift of your life” Moyo retorted,

And in that instant, he opened the two spatial rifts over the two eyes of Evon, the two sharp mountain points falling sharp points first into the eyes of Evon that exploded in gore. Evon squeezed him at that point as Moyo felt all the bones in his body explode to sludge, but he didn’t blank out as he should. With a brief touch of willpower, he commanded the liquid metal with the authority of Evon to become a series of sharp points, and Evon fell back first on them. Every sharp point punctured the Dragonoid lord. Head, heat, stomach, core. All at once, they were all punctured.

Evon, the Dragonoid lord on the path of the scorching lava died.

Moyo should be dead, he was dead, theoretically, but sometimes fate played weird games. His greed of the titan skill had activated at his dying moments and began absorbing the essence of Evon. Evon, however, was no mere monster, he was a Dragonoid lord, his very essence was not something a mere expert that Moyo had become could just absorb easily. For Evon despite all his flaws and late thinking during the battle with an expert he had underestimated was, in fact, a master on the verge of becoming a ruler, his essence would take a long time to be absorbed. As such the heart of Evon, the Dragonoid fused with the heart of the human known as Moyo titan blade, and the very flesh of Evon fused with the flesh of the human, evolving the body path of the human from a draconic body to a legendary body path created specifically for the human known as the path of the draconic titan.

Even as the changes took place, reality began to fray at the edges as the dungeon crumbled, the legendary dungeon core the dungeon had appeared between the now healing arms of the human, cradled there as the husk of the body of Evon began to shape itself into an aether crystal that absorbed the human, like a cocoon. It would take weeks for the human to absorb the power of Evon to the last and as such the archailect took steps to ensure he would not be interrupted. It wasn’t a gesture of goodwill from the archailect, oh no, it served as a mark on the human. Far and wide in the vast reaches of the archailect, the sleeping powers that be felt it, their servants, heirs, and factions would soon begin to move, searching for where a being had killed Evon, heir to the great draconic clan and child of an elder dragon and a supreme being.

In a quiet cold world, a man with a thousand blades floating in the air above him, different shapes and sizes paused, looking to the sky as he grinned,

“well, it seems Ajax was right, the boy is something,” he said to himself, with a snap of his fingers the man with a silver mask appeared beside him, kneeling in submission, frozen in that posture,

“send the notice out, inform the emissaries, let the archailect know, it is time” he ordered,

With a tightly controlled snap, space swallowed the masked man, and the ruler on the path of a thousand blades continued his stroll through the frozen world, a pillar of light his destination on the horizon.

Planet C-102,

yellow zone,

sector one,

A week after the attack

Bastion had survived, with its crystal walls crushed and two bodies wrapped in white cloth sitting in front of Ife, the city still reeled from surviving the attack of the Dragonoids, and the loss of their advocate. It had come to them as a shock when Mrs. Martha announced to the survivors that Moyosore was missing after the attack, the people could hardly believe their ears, many had wailed, and a day of mourning had been declared. The bodies of the two sentinels who had died defending Bastion were lit on fire and given a befitting burial.

In the core room of Ife, Annika stared at a giant crystal containing their leader Moyo, her body rigid as she heard Mrs. Martha enter the room,

“why did we lie to them?” Annika asked,

“because we have no idea when or how he would come out of the crystal cocoon” Mrs. Martha replied,

“even though, the people are distraught,” Ayo said entering the room,

“they need to adapt without him, Martha is right” Boyle the primordial forger said as he entered also,

Idris just stood beside Annika quietly, staring at the cocoon.

After a while they settled in their respective chairs,

“it doesn’t feel the same without him you know, a part of me feels like I’ve failed him” Mrs. Martha whispered,

“then we’d better make damn well sure Bastion is still standing by the time he comes out” Josh said, barely shed tears in his eyes,

They all nodded, their will united to preserve the legacy of the man who brought them together. After the meeting, they all filed out, save Annika and Mrs. Martha who still stared at the red shimmering cocoon,

“you never did tell him did you?” Mrs. Martha said quietly,

Annika turned to her, eyes flashing as thunder boomed on the outside, Mrs. Martha observed the girl who looked at her in shock,

“I was once young like you too; it was obvious in your eyes. A strapping young man, toned, powerful, commanding a presence, I was surprised you didn’t say anything to him, plus the way he stared at you at times like a prey” Mrs. Martha said as they both laughed, reminiscing on memories of Moyo.

Eventually, they both left the room, closing the doors behind them, Bastion quiet in the night. A slow hum began to emanate from the crystal, it began to glow as the red color seemed to leech out of it into the human inside it. Then it stopped, the humming seized and a crack appeared on the surface…..