Moyo pulled himself from the rubbles of the column he had been thrown into, standing up to see his entire team with weapons drawn, staring down Atreus who folded his arms and frowned at them. Before he could talk an oppressive aura permeated the room that drove everyone except Moyo to crash to their knees,

“Admirable, but futile, the fact that you have no idea what you face speaks of the level of offense you all are in,” Atreus said,

“Leave them out of this, your issue is with me” Moyo growled as he gripped dominion harder, flaring his entire power and aura along with his mantle, purple eyes glowing,

Atreus waved his hand in his direction as Moyo felt his control over aether in the air and his mantle was restricted to only a few steps in every direction,

“can’t have any of that,” the master said as a burst of movement grabbed Moyo by the throat in a grip so tight that Moyo couldn’t move a muscle before launching him through the air beyond Bastion.

Moyo blitzed through the air as he tried manipulating the aether in the air to slow his descent, he crashed nonetheless as whatever Atreus had done to his control of aether still fluctuated. Pulling himself out of the crater in the ground, he looked around to realize he was far away from Bastion, he had traveled over a thousand kilometers of thereabout seeing how close he was to the edges of the red zone. He felt a burning presence honing in on his position while subtly warping reality around him. Despite his very spirit screaming at him to run, hide from the cataclysmic disaster on two legs that were coming for him. He gripped dominion tighter, his master’s voice ringing like a bell in his head, urging him to stand his ground and swing his blade till he loses all sensations in his arms, a katana always advances, but in this situation, it seemed the katana couldn’t advance past this disaster it had fallen into.

He hadn’t expected the arrival of the dragon brigade, they were to stop those incoming threats that would break the rules on new worlds and head the combat forces against something known as the scourges or abyssal catalysts. To see one of the organizations akin to the military and police force of the archailect on his planet coming after him, drove chills down his spine. As he stared at the horizon, preparing to fight for his life, he heard the master voice at his back, and with instincts born of the brutality he took from his master in the dungeon, rolled and activated his path of the titan skill, moving far away from his previous position,

Atreus hovered a foot in the air, staring down at him like an adult looking at a petulant child,

“You are a member of this planet, therefore not in violation of the accords, however, how did a tier 1 world that hasn’t defeated its global crisis or seen the arrival of sects or clans yet have an expert on their world? a draconic slayer and a rare path? also a legendary skill?” Atreus said with astonishment,

“I got lucky” Moyo growled, staring up at the master he suspected could wipe him off the face of the planet with a thought,

“Impossible, luck has been calculated in this equation and is irrelevant, you will confess how you have somehow circumvented the laws and got assistance from some higher individual not native to this world or you will be erased from reality along with your domain, clan, and sects,” Atreus said with a finality that drove the fear of God into him,

“I got stuck in a dungeon alright?, and I survived, by my sweat and blood I survived” Moyo shouted,

Technically he wasn’t lying, he just decided to omit the part about meeting a battle-crazed hermit-looking man named Ajax who taught him a few things while beating him to an inch of his life and forcefully taking him as his disciple and raising his rank to advocate. Atreus stared at him for a few seconds and sighed,

“You know, on every planet, I go to, everyone sees my attire and crest and begins screaming in terror like the apocalypse has arrived” the red-haired man started,

“But here I am staring down at a brat of an expert who hasn’t left his home planet but still has the gall to stand up to me. Do you understand what I can do to you? I can break your limbs, sink your entire continent for fun, make you watch as I strike down everyone in your domain while not leaving your side and then skinning you alive and I’ll get a letter of recommendation from my bosses, and here I am being civil with you, still, you take it for granted?” Atreus growled, getting angrier with every word he said but still maintaining a stoic face,

With every threat, Moyo felt his body getting colder and colder, an otherworldly chill had settled in his bones. He slowly lowered his arms, sending dominion back into his spatial rip, but with a brief flex of his authority and willpower as a titan flared his aura around the area,

“I swear on the archailect that I did not gain any help from an outside influence while on my planet, I didn’t connive with any sect or clan to gain any undue advantage when my world opens up and I am in no way or form hoping to rule as a dictator over lesser beings,” Moyo said as he felt reality twist to check to verify his every word, Atreus squeezing his eyebrows in confusion as Moyo bit back a smile and a grimace as he felt his body restrict his airflows,

Oaths were a tricky thing, Moyo had prepared for a similar situation as this. He had not lied, Moyo gained his knowledge from Ajax while in a dungeon, a proto space that was cut off from his world for a while till it got destroyed, Ajax had no interest in his world or ruling it for any sect or clan and Moyo hadn’t chosen to rule over a bunch of people as a clan leader, they had chosen him to do so. Atreus tapped one finger on his hand as he floated to the ground,

“See, the thing is, I can sense you’re lying, call it a perk from my path. Most of my fellow overseers would wipe out your entire planet for such a blatant display at trying to twist oaths to your desire, but honestly?, it’s not worth the stress, I’m not about to fill out reports on how I blew a backwater world to smithereens and have those rulers and their masters of sects screaming for blood about wasted resources” Atreus said as he landed,

“So, here’s what’s going to happen, since I obviously can’t pin you to any offense, I’m going to go easy on you, I’d let you and your domain go scot-free, on one condition. If you can survive my attacks for a minute, you’re free within the rules of course to continue on your way, if not, I file it up as you accepting help from outside sources, blab la bla, are we in agreement?” the master asked,

Relief and dread flowed through Moyo at the same time, in any of the two scenarios, Bastion would survive. While he might not be around to see what would happen should he lose, with the capable hands running the domain, he was sure it wouldn’t fall, not if whatever sect that comes gunning for it sends an advocate along to conquer them. The dread stemmed from the fact that Moyo wasn’t sure he could withstand a hit not less survive a minute while battling a master and one of the commanders of the dragon brigade. While the man’s stats were not visible to him, Moyo was pretty sure the path of the sun-burning dragon was a path of destruction.

Still, he withdrew dominion, gripping the blade tight as he channeled his intent from his core seeing as he couldn’t manipulate the aether in the air, Atreus smiled and clapped,

“Good!, quite sensible I see, might as well remove the restrictions on you,” he said as he snapped his fingers and Moyo felt his connection to the aether in the air restored to him.

Without a second thought, he blasted out his realm, wrapping both himself and Atreus in it, the man only raised an eyebrow, waiting for Moyo to finish whatever preparation he was making. Moyo began funneling the aether into dominion, feeling it change to battle intent as it came in contact with his katana. Eyes glowing purple and the inscriptions on his skin glowing as they came to life, Moyo, the titan on the path of the crushing blade his blade of the titan skill, swinging with every ounce of authority and willpower he had accumulated and trained to that point.

The air screamed as his attack tore its way through reality, space, and distance meant nothing in front of that particular attack of the titan. The very friction of the attack on the air set the grass around them ablaze, in that one blink of an eye it took Moyo to activate the skill and activate his path of the titan skill, the blade came in contact with the body of Atreus. With the finality of the attack of a titan, the overwhelming might of a swordsman expert of level 150, wielding the strength attribute of 3050 points and an evolved will of the titan of an attribute 3200, the attack devastated the land, created a sinkhole right in front of him and made a trail of destruction right before his eyes,

It didn’t wrinkle the clothes or ruffle the hair on the body of commander Atreus.

Not a hair was out of place, the commander glanced at a shocked and strained Moyo and down to his clothes, he sighed,

“Well, there goes my excuse of getting a new uniform, lost in battle won’t work I guess” the commander mumbled to himself,

With a flick of his finger, Moyo crashed into the ground, ribs shattered, lungs punctured and blood pouring out of every conceivable hole on his body. still, he survived, his greed of the titan skill kept his heart beating and his draconic titan body mended the rest, in a minute he was breathing hard but fine, glancing at Atreus with barely restrained shock, and his master called him the monster.

“Oh good, you’re alive, means I can talk and beat on you at the same time,” Atreus said as he kicked Moyo into the distance, his voice echoing along the way,

“See, the issue with you experts is that you think you’re in the big leagues now, just because you’re almost at the pinnacle of what a world can produce, you are indestructible Atreus continued as he kicked Moyo again into the distance, this time into the red zone

His mind was scrambled, his brain unable to acknowledge that he was being treated like trash or that he was now in the zone of level 150 monsters. Moyo staggered to his feet as a weird-looking monster that looked like a velociraptor and a Komodo dragon had a secret relationship barreled towards him with barely suppressed blood lust in its eyes. He gripped his blade tighter, prepared to fight when Atreus landed by his side, the beast came to a screeching halt.

Then Moyo felt it, the abyss of power Atreus contained in his very being, the orange and red flames that flickered in his eyes,

“scram” Atreus ordered,

Every monster around their vicinity took to their heels in pure unadulterated terror, running in whatever direction they could as they tried their hardest to survive whatever unfathomable being had stepped into their domain. Atreus smiled at Moyo, then slapped him back through the air into the yellow zone. Moyo felt a rib pierce his heart as he landed back on the ground, coughing out blood, without a thought and his mind that was close to shutting down from the brutality his head had just taken, he dipped his hand into his spatial rip and pulled out a rare healing elixir, pouring the content into his mouth as it helped his greed of the titan path heal his heart feast enough to prevent him from dying, his face shaken with pure fear now. Atreus landed next to him crouching,

“As I was saying, you all think to bend the archailect to your will with your authority, and probably when you become rulers, if you get there anyway, you could. But the archailect is no one’s chew toy, you wield it like you would a female, let it trust you enough to-“Atreus said stopping as a beep came from inside his suit,

“Ah, perhaps luck is on your side indeed, saved by the time,” he said as he stood up,

Moyo was close to tears, he would cry, but he simply had no strength to.

“As per our agreement, you are free to go, however, I would be watching you Moyosore titan blade, I can’t put a finger on it, but something about your pitiable sword skills reminds me of a certain vagabond I know,” Atreus said,

Moyo couldn’t lift his hands or his body. Atreus snapped his fingers as a swirling dark spatial hole came to life,

“Keep your nose out of trouble Moyo, I’d hate to kill a rising talent before he finally blooms, especially one to survive a minute against my techniques,

With that, the commander of the dragon brigade passed through the spatial way and the rip closed up behind him.

Moyo stared at the spot the master had been a second ago and promptly passed out.

(*)

Mrs. Martha, steward on the path of Anansi folded her arms as she stared into the distance where the clash between Moyo and the commander of the dragon brigade took place, she could feel the rest of the sect leaders preparing to launch a counterattack, Annika gathering her acolyte storm bringers along with the rest of the other sects doing the same thing,

“Even if we had a thousand advocates and acolytes, if that man so much as swings his hand in our direction, we’re all a big fat pile of ashes,” she said in a loud but steady voice to them,

Annika paused during her conversation with the rest of the team, Julius holding her spear for her, she turned with fury in her eyes as the skies darkened above, lightning flashing as Julius wisely took a few steps backward,

“and we fold our arms while he kills Moyo? have you forgotten how easily he threw us around like trash?” Annika growled,

“and that is the enemy you want to throw our barely created organization at? besides, do you know who the dragon brigade are?’ Mrs. Martha said, turning to look at everyone as they stood with their various squads behind them,

The force of the clash blew gales strong enough to reach all the way to Bastion, buffeting them with the force of an incoming storm,

“From what I could glean in my recent research, the dragon brigade are the equivalent of the archailects military force. The rulers are the next thing to gods in the archailect after the elusive and mythical supreme beings, and they will literally crap their pants when they hear they’ve somehow gotten the attention of the brigade. Their leader Xerxes is literally a catastrophe on a galactic level, they answer only to the supreme beings and have the authority to wipe out universes as they see fit, are you understanding the gravity of the situation we’re in?” she explained as she snapped her fingers and the first hand of the sect of Anansi appeared like midst at her side, hands folded behind him,

Annika had somewhat calmed down, reality seeping into her body of the situation they were in, Mrs. Martha pointed behind her at the distance where the air shook and wavered,

“ever heard the saying about an immovable object versus the unstoppable force?, that man Moyo is facing embodies the two, the path of the sun-burning dragon is a legendary path created by one of the supreme beings, it was built to overcome all other paths. Our lord has no hope of surviving that fight should the man take him seriously” she finished,

“so what do we do? watch him die?” Idris asked,

“We do what Moyo would have wanted, we make sure Bastion is safe, or rather, its citizens survive this ordeal safely” Mrs. Martha explained,

“Each of you has a rare dungeon core, when I give the say, you all disperse to four different sectors in the yellow zone and create a stronghold. First hand, initiate exodus protocol on my say so” she said as the man in a mask, the first hand bowed and faded away like a midst,

Annika huffed and took her spear from Julius, turning and shouting up to the cloud above,

“storm bringers! to me!”

From the sky dropped over fifty members of the storm bringer sect, acolytes all, dropped from the moving cloud as it parted to show the stormbearer hovering above,

“We need one of those” Idris muttered,

“You take it out of your sects funds,” Mrs. Martha said as she turned back to the battle happening on the horizon,

“how’s he holding up?” Mr. Boyle asked,

“It’s evident the man doesn’t have any evidence on him and isn’t taking him ser…it’s over,” Mrs. Martha said with surprise evident in her voice,

“What do you mean over?” Ayo asked as she stood beside her activating her skill eye of Ra,

“it’s true,” Ayo said,

“Atreus just…left,” Ayo said,

Annika activated her step of lightning skill and began traveling through bolts of lightning towards the position where Moyo lay. Mrs. Martha heaved a sigh of relief,

“call off exodus protocol, all sects stand down and stay on standby’ she said...

(*)

Moyo woke up to find himself seated on a log of wood in front of a burning bonfire, the sky was dark and the stars shone brightly. Across from him, the dreadlocked hair and golden eyes with the golden katana at his side were a dead giveaway, Moyo sighed as he stared into the twinkling eyes of his master,

“Great, I get beaten so badly, I’m literally having visions of my master” he mumbled to himself as his master laughed in his deep imposing voice,

“You think this is a dream?” Ajax asked as he calmed down from his laughter, staring at his disciple,

“Well, the last thing I remember, I was getting my ass handed to me by some dragon brigade commander named Atreus” Moyo replied,

“don’t know the guy, know the brigade, scariest thing an individual like you and I will face on our way up the ladder of power in the archailect,” Ajax said,

“Well, he surely felt like a hammer made to crush those he saw fit” Moyo grumbled,

“And it is within his purview to do so, however, the fact that you survived spoke volumes,” Ajax said,

Silence reigned for a few minutes as Ajax poked at the fire with his katana, both of them basking in the presence of each other, the bond they shared coming to the surface in that silent moment,

“Still using your katana like a simple household utensil,” Moyo said quietly as Ajax chuckled,

“you’re getting stronger Moyo, you might not feel it after getting the beat down of your life right now but you are,” Ajax said, also quietly,

“you’re right, sure doesn’t feel like it. Don’t know how I’m going to show my face back at Bastion, it's my domain now you know, wished you were around to see it” Moyo mumbled, dipping his hand into the coal in the bonfire and playing with the red hot substance, his draconic titan skin made him immune to the heat and flames,

“The thing about your path is that it’s unique. It was built to absorb damage, absorb it, assimilate it and then dish it back out. What happened today?” Ajax asked,

“I ate a load of beating”

“You absorbed the damage, even now your body is assimilating the damage, and the odds are you’d see and feel the difference by the time you wake up. Keep absorbing damage” Ajax said, staring intently at Moyo,

“you mean to keep getting my ass whooped?, thanks master, premium advice there, PTSD 101 for swordsmen” Moyo grumbled,

“You choose to be a stubborn disciple of mine, you are part of a few monsters in the archailect that I can say would be walking disasters in a few years, the more you go into battle, the stronger you get. You went from advocate to expert in the short span I left you, in the archailect as a whole it takes people a decade or more to step into that realm, but you did” Ajax replied,

“You are a steadily building volcano, your body and path assimilate the impressions of power of your enemies, molds you with it and advances your attribute and path with it, ensuring that when next you face said enemies, you are not the same as before,” Ajax said,

Moyo had a steely edge to his gaze now,

“So, you’re saying next time I meet that pompous master, I could whoop him?” he asked,

Ajax snorted,

“don’t be daft, I’m saying you could burst his lips with a punch before you run for your life,” Ajax said,

“But imagine that punch hit an expert,” Ajax said smiling widely,

“a punch meant for a master on an expert, well,” Moyo said as he began to smile,

“Exactly, oh that cute girl is staring at you and shouting your name, nice rack by the way,” Ajax said as Moyo stared confused,

The bonfire and reality around them shattered like glass, Moyo falling into an endless abyss,

Moyo titan blade woke up to see Annika shouting into his face to wake up, her cleavage right in his face, her dark face somehow blushing,

“hi,” he croaked weakly,

“Say one word about this and I will burn you to a crisp with lightning,” she said scrambling backward,

“Nice to see you too,” Moyo said as he sat up weakly,

Behind him, coming in droves were the sects of Bastion, fully armed and prepared to protect their lord, it was an adorable but horrible gesture,

“I also thought the same thing you’re probably thinking,” Mrs. Martha said appearing close to him,

Moyo glanced at her and back to his torn clothes, sighing as he stood up and swiped notifications away,

“We move back to Bastion and strategize, I have a few ideas,” Moyo said, a glint in his eyes,

Mrs. Martha smiled at him,

“Glad to see that ordeal didn’t break you,” she said,

“Quite the contrary, things are about to move into a faster gear, it’s time Bastion went territory conquering” Moyo the titan on the path of the crushing blade said…