Moyo sat along with those who would later be known as the leaders of the new world, the great ten as they would be called by the world at large. To be honest, Moyo disliked the intricacies that came with ruling, left to him he would drop it all and go exploring, he was about to go exploring, but he couldn’t leave things as they were. The clan titan blade for better or worse had responsibilities they would need to live up to, for all purposes they were the rulers of the continent Asa, and while Moyo winced at the thought of a group of people heading the world in a form of dichotomy, he had realized even before Mrs. Martha had pointed it out to him that humanity would be scattered and remain scattered unless a group of people could come together to create a sort of unity till most of what was left of humanity could grow well into their own rights.

What they had accomplished today was the groundwork for generations to come, a stepping stone in the right direction, years from now if humanity still existed, books and tales will be told of them, that thought gave Moyo respite from his scattered mind. He glanced at them all, purple eyes taking each of them in before he began to speak,

“I would like to start with a note of appreciation for coming to this meeting, despite your busy schedules” he started,

“Not so busy, it’s been a day since the landing, we’re all just thankful to be alive,” William said as the rest chuckled, Moyo gave a weak smile,

“The landing? is that what people are calling it now?” he asked,

“Da, it has a nice ring to it,” Perun said stroking his red beards with a smile on his face,

“Whatever the people wish to call it, the fact is there are lots of things to put in place, before the next landing so to speak,” Han said,

“Indeed, the union has seen what happened during the first landing, we would not want to be caught unprepared” Frank replied,

Moyo turned his gaze to the advocate of the union, noticing he followed the path of the hundred weapons, a rare path also. He noticed William mirror his gaze also, seeing as his continent would be close to both the Luminian theocracy and the union, it was prudent he understood his next-door neighbor was not one he could show all his cards, at least as far as the union went, the theocracy was a cool bunch but Moyo wouldn’t put it past them to also be another power-hungry group.

“What preparations do the union have in place if I may ask?” Moyo asked,

“we’ve been pushing forward with increasing the ascenders in our ranks to the minimum of acolyte, plus our paths are geared towards machines and technology” Frank replied,

“I thought all forms of technology had stopped to function at the advent of the archailect?” archbishop Matthew asked,

“Come to think of it, a sect of the titan blade, the hammers of Ogun if I’m corrected rode on machines, how was that possible?” Han asked, sitting up,

“you’re asking the wrong guy,” Moyo said shrugging,

you don’t know the intricacies and powers of your sects?” Han asked astonished,

“My sect groups are more of family to me, should they deign it to inform me of how their paths work, then I would know” Moyo replied quietly, daring Han to again try insulting him, the Asian man wisely kept quiet.

“We noticed early on, that conventional technology would not work and break down or rapidly rust if tried to be activated, however, when the first of us got our paths, we realized we could use any existing metal to create new technological paths by infusing our intent into it, seeing as we were following the class of weapon users. Furthermore, once I ascended to advocate, I realized that I could in small amounts, create my own aether-infused weapons from scratch with no physical metal” Frank explained as he opened his palm and a black pistol appeared in his hand,

The weapon held the strength of an advocate, it gave off the aura of an advocate and Moyo was sure the bullets were also capable of killing an advocate. Moyo silently shifted the union to the top of his watchlist, sending a message to Mrs. Martha through his HUD as she replied with the word noted. The union was coming off as more and more capable, which meant they had been preparing for a while, silently getting stronger, Moyo even doubted if they had a single advocate in this case and they were just here to size up the competition.

Han was the first to talk after that revelation,

“Impressive, with this new development, humanity can slowly grow back into the age of technology,” he said,

“Indeed, however, I doubt the need to retrace our steps” Devesh started,

“The old ways failed us and almost led to our extinction, why should we tread the same part again?” he finished, Moyo inwardly nodded, at least someone was wise enough to see that

” Be that as it may, we’re a long way from even taking on such a project” Perun said,

“What say you titan blade? “Archbishop Matthew asked,

All eyes turned back to him, Moyo raised an eyebrow,

“My view is insignificant in this, I only care for humanity as a whole and the safety of my domain” Moyo replied,

“Quite the contrary Mr. titan blade, you are the only expert on the whole planet, the strongest currently,” Han said as the rest nodded, Moyo sighed as he rubbed his forehead

“When I put forth the proposition to push us all to spread around the world, I was hoping most of the decisions would leave my shoulders and rest on us individually and not a sole voice, like I said before, I’m not hoping to rule the world” Moyo explained

“And we know that we also will be ever grateful for how you dragged most of humanity along on your growth of ascension, but the thing is, you did it. Like it or not the world looks up to you know” William said,

Moyo only gave another sigh and closed his eyes, resting his head on his katana as he thought. The other leaders became quiet as they watched him warily,

“To be honest, I could see why humanity would want to return to its old ways, but Devesh was right, we need to move on, and why I do not see myself as some sort of leader for humanity, I can only suggest we face the threat that looms over us for now. Once that has been dealt with, everyone is free to move forward in whatever way they deem fit” Moyo said

“Agreed, the short-term threat we face could impact any long-term goals we might create” archbishop Matthew responded,

“all in favor ?” Han said as all hands went up,

“Then it is decided. That out of the way, I think we can all agree that the next time the sects arrive, it’ll be within significant numbers” Moyo said,

“Indeed, but if the rules I read are correct, then anything more than an advocate will be forbidden for the first year, we’re barely two months in, this should give us enough time to get experts of our own, minus the titan blade of course,” Devesh said,

“You are correct, I hope that most of the advocates on the planet would be close to or had crossed the threshold to expert by then” Moyo replied,

“a feasible prospect, does that mean we start pumping resources into getting our advocates to expert?” Frank asked,

“With the abundance of monsters and dungeons in the yellow and red zones, I have no doubt it would be possible, the trick however is not blindly sending them to their deaths, especially in the red zone where monsters of level 150 reside” Moyo cautioned,

“Well, you did it,” Perun said, eyes gleaming at Moyo,

The titan blade only smiled in return,

“As I said” he started,

“I have no power over your actions, your people, your choice, but in my humble opinion, farm the yellow zones, break into expert through that method, we have a year to prepare” Moyo finished,

“Perhaps the warnings of the titan blade are to be taken seriously,” Archbishop Matthew said,

Moyo couldn’t care less what they decided to do, he was pretty sure that anyone who made it to advocate could decide for themselves how they wanted to keep ascending, and should they go risking it into the red zone, their problem. However, humanity wasn’t flush enough with advocates that they could begin to waste them, he only hoped they employed prudence. With the talks of coordination and plans for the return of the sects, Moyo shifted the topic to lighter notes,

“So, the tournament, how many of you are sending your people?” he asked,

“You make it sound like clan titan blade isn’t filled with monsters in disguise,” Han said with a light smile that Moyo simply returned, neither accepting nor refusing the claims,

“It would be a good way for humanity to test their mettle against each other” Moyo replied,

“Indeed, I for one would want to see what our sects can do” Perun replied,

“I will begin preparations for the arena in earnest, the clans’ best mages would work on it,” Moyo said,

“And I believe the cost of funding would be footed by us all?” Devesh said with a raised eyebrow,

Moyo was close to snorting in laughter, excluding the fact that the clan could buy all their territories with the amount of silver and gold coins they had, his wealth alone was also staggering, but Moyo wasn’t about to play that hand now, let them think the clan was short on funds. With that settled, the groups separated and went their separate ways with Moyo remaining seated, his mind a jumbled mess. He felt a presence close to him as he glanced at Mrs. Martha,

“So, they accepted your proposal to spread the power to continents?” she said as he nodded,

“And with that settled, once the tournament is over, I can gladly go for my tournament” Moyo replied,

She stretched her legs as she sat on the chair that belonged to Han, Moyo thought of what the Asian man would have done if he had seen her do that, not that he could touch Mrs. Martha, her concealed sect members that Moyo could see due to not only his rank but his willpower and authority that suffused the air were hovering around, always at the ready. He stood up and turned towards Bastion,

“It doesn’t feel right, ruling over people I mean,” Moyo said,

“You think someone else won’t do it if you hadn’t? Moyo, you do realize that this new world has opened up a lot of new ways for people with power to actually get stronger?” Mrs. Martha pointed out,

“Exactly, what’s to stop an acolyte from ruling over a small stronghold or town as he sees fit without a care in the world for those beneath him?” Moyo asked,

“Nothing, and it’s way out of your hands really. You need to realize that just because you’re the only expert in the world or the one to head the resistance the world has decided to create doesn’t mean you need to protect the world from itself, you already protect it from outside threats as best as you can” she replied,

Moyo kept quiet, actually realizing she was right, but still, he couldn’t feel like he just gave a lot of people power over the rest of humanity, except the union, of course, those ones were a shady bunch,

“You might need to watch out for the union though, something feels off about them,” Moyo said,

Mrs. Martha chuckled,

“they’re Americans, the whole secretive and keeping your strongest weapons hidden method still runs through them I believe” she replied,

“You think they have more than one advocate?” Moyo asked glancing at her,

“I know so, it appears we’re not the only one that has learned the art of shrouding,” she said,

Moyo raised an eyebrow at the implication,

“You mean the entourage he brought along has advocate disguised as acolytes among them?” he said,

“See for yourself” she replied,

Moyo activated his step of the titan skill, using his bond with his domain to locate Frank on his way back to his transport ship, and with one step appeared over the ship. His intent was skillfully woven around him along with his authority that he was invisible to them with his realm around him. If an expert were present, they would have sensed the distortions of aether around him, but advocates were just stepping into the realm of aether control, they were as blind as day-old babies. With his authority he skillfully ran his perception around the ship, sensing the over twenty acolytes and over thirty initiates the union had brought along. Landing on the ship and sitting on it, Moyo decided to watch what would happen next.

(*)

Advocate Frank of the union came to a stop beside the USS Lincoln, the name of the first transport ship the union had acquired. The rest of the acolytes and initiates that followed him to the meeting arrived behind him after a minute or two, the ship opened up and they all marched inside, no one uttering a single word till they all got in and the entrance closed up. The inside of the ship looked typically like the American aircraft carriers of old, the deck had a series of holographic projections showing different information such as the map of the world, and the directions back to continent seven.

Frank had been skeptical of the titan blade when he decided to come to check him out after the invite the titan blade had given to all the powers that be in the world and to be honest, he did not like what he saw, the titan blade had too much power. Apart from the part that the man was an expert, the amount of wealth he could see was staggering, and even though it might take a while for the titan blade to recover from all the wealth he had freely given out during the landing, Bastion was built in a red zone, with access to rare dungeons that could give rare if not legendary loots as well as a legendary dungeon core once in a while.

The union had managed to defend a yellow zone to the best of their ability, their city of the star still standing after the horrors they had gone through defending it. He silently fumed at whatever luck gave the tian blade that much of an edge initially, no one had the strength to grow that fast and that quickly if what his researchers said are true. From their studies of the archailects database, it would take years, to break into expert, especially now that the aether levels in the world were becoming stable, the rate of ascension would reduce, which means a lot of advocates would be stuck at that level unless they could venture into the red zone and do battle. Except to advocate would be stupid enough to go into the red zone without a group. With a snap of his fingers, he gave the command,

“unshroud”

At once over ten acolyte cores blazed to life as they threw off the self-imposed shroud and revealed their newly minted advocate strength,

“That felt good” one of them sighed,

“Yeah, makes me wonder why we had to hide our true strength, the clan only had five advocates and one expert, we were a match for them,” another said to Frank,

The union was not a democracy like the America of old, founded in what was formerly Texas at a military base, lieutenant general Frank had been Frank waters had been on leave when the archailect hit, communications had gone down as he had seen surface to air missiles fly through the air towards the messenger that came to herald the coming of the archailect. He had watched as the missiles flew through the air only to fall back down to the ground useless, had watched as the messenger laughed, waving a hand and the entire white house was erased from existence.

He had run outside his house, trying to get command on the satellite phone he had when the reboot happened and he woke up oddly enough at fort hood base, a base situated on the edge of the green zone that bordered the yellow zone and with nightmarish creatures attacking left and right. With the precision and accuracy of a man that had risen to the rank of a lieutenant general, Frank waters had gathered what was left of the base, took stock of their ammunitions that had failed to work, and set out as a fledgling to rid the base of the creatures that had laid siege to it. Out of the over 500 soldiers on the base, most with the class warrior and a few among them with the hybrid classes mage-healer, only a little over 200 had survived, but they did so by unlocking their paths. Frank had thought they were the first in the world to have done so, but now he realized why they hadn’t been given the first time rewards he had so desperately been fighting tooth and nail for when one of them had dug deep into the archailects database and found out that nugget of information.

In a week the now self-appointed general of what was left of the United States army had broken through to initiate, along with most of the rest of his army. He had unlocked the path that allowed him to imbue metals with intent after an agonizing path obtaining process, soon enough he along with a few other people who had unlocked paths that were weapons-related began mass producing weapons for their troops, a feat that went a long way in finally helping them gain complete control of their base. With that done the general had placed found an uncommon dungeon, raiding it with his people and losing a few more again in the process, but they were soldiers, they would carry on.

Creating the stronghold he called the union, he and his soldiers along with the hundreds of people that began arriving at the stronghold daily as it went up had fought tooth and nail to defend the stronghold, this time with the path of a hundred weapons Frank had been able to give a select few, the path somehow devolving due to not enough aether shards or high tier dungeon cores. They had ended up with paths such as the blazing projectile that allowed the user to use any projectile weapons while feeding it their intent for bullets, a quite useful path during the early days.

Now the union had created another base in the yellow zone, a city that was home to over ten thousand citizens with the strength to battle any of the sects, except the titan blade, and Frank wanted that level of power, but first, thanks to the help of the titan blade, they had realized how to get to expert. He glanced at the soldiers,

“Better your enemy underestimates you, colonel Estevan, now send a message back to the union, inform them that operation overhaul is a go, deploy all hands on deck, we’ve seen the way forwards and we would grab it before anyone else does so, except the titan blade, of course, he already owns his continent” Frank ordered as the colonel who had asked about the shrouding saluted, walking briskly away. The titan blade was right, only by cementing their control on their continent could they even be called a power, and general advocate Frank was ready to make the union great again. He was about to leave to his quarters when his HUD blazed to life with a call,

“Incoming transmission from a foreign advocate, project on the main screen” Frank ordered,

He picked the call to see the face of Han, the advocate of the glorious empire on his screen,

“Advocate Han” he greeted,

“Advocate Frank” Han replied,

“To what do I owe this call?” Frank asked,

“I believe we could be of benefit to each other” Han started,

“In what way?” Frank asked,

“Well for one, I think its time our two…shall we say powers worked together to shorten the chasm between the clan and us” Han directly said,

Once again Frank was happy that the USS Lincoln had a sound dampening passive force, with a raised eyebrow he folded his hands,

“I’m listening” Frank replied,

(*)

Atop the USS Lincoln, Moyo silently listened, his face slowly turning into a frown as the meeting between the union and the glorious empire went on, with a thought he brought up his HUD, sending a message to Mrs. Martha, a message he was sure she had grown tired of listening to every time,

“You were right, carry on as intended”

And with a step of the titan skill, vanished from the area itself.