The jungle in the domain of Bastion was home to a myriad of creatures and nightmarish monsters. Deep in the heart of the red zone, it was the abode of monsters of level 150, but on this day, even the monsters took to seclusion as forces beyond their control did battle in the jungle, wreaking the lush landscape with attacks that blew trees and uprooted most from their path. Moyo, the titan blade on the path of the crushing blade broke out of the trees with his stick cracking as he deflected a punch from Idris that carried enough force aura, its kinetic force blew Moyo away.

Rolling in the air, Moyo landed in a crouch as lightning cackled beside him, Annika there in a clap of thunder as her spear blasted forward with such speed, the air screamed in its wake. His stick already broken, Moyo used one palm covered with intent to slap away the sharp tip of the spear, his intent forming sharp miniature blades that rang like a bell as they came in contact with the spear. One step of the titan and he was in the air, only to look up and see flaming arrows in their hundreds with the oppressive feeling of a sharp piercing edge around him and a strong force trying to hold him down. He smiled as he flexed his willpower, crushing the feeling and the surrounding force, the realm of crushing things was his domain after all. Like a bubble popping the aether surrounding him became free of any control.

Dropping like a rock as he allowed gravity to take its toll on his body, the arrows followed, whistling through the air and straight down at him with all intention to pierce through him, Moyo once again called his realm to surround him, aiming to stop the arrows when he felt the laws of physics change on him. A large green dome of runes flared to life as suddenly he wasn’t falling again but going straight up to meet the arrows, with a growl he tried opening up his spatial rift to draw out another stick when he felt the rip trying its best not to let his hand through, sticky to the feeling, and that was when he felt it, smiling at the trick. Another realm had been softly layered inside the realm of runes, interwoven so delicately that Moyo had glazed over it without even realizing.

Forcing his hands through was easy, it was his spatial vault anyways and the rip could hardly reject its opener, but the few seconds that caught him off guard had been enough for the joint attack his advocates had all been planning. He felt layers after layers of different aspects cover him as force aura blasted him from side to side, thunder clouds formed directly over the rune realm as lightning rained down on it, followed by webs that held him in place, exploding constructs appearing in his face as they whined to life, exploding, the flaming arrows finally converging on him and tearing the realm apart. The jungle exploded with a boom so great it sent all the birds, normal and monsters alike racing for the air in terror, the jungle once again becoming quiet as the point where all the attacks had met became a wasteland, the ground steaming hot before another thunder cloud formed overhead, darkening the skies and calling down rain to cool the ground.

Atop the thundercloud Annika panted, dizzy as her sight became blurred, kneeling on the cloud with the last of her strength,

“Did we get him?” she called out,

The air shimmered like mist as Mrs. Martha was revealed to be sitting on the ground, panting heavily, sweat soaking her clothes,

“I hope so, doubt it, but I hope so” she replied,

Idris appeared from the trees, cradling a broken arm with bones shooting out in a wrong way, hopping slightly in pain as he also collapsed on the floor,

“There’s no way he came out of that unscathed, no way, those were the same combination that we used to suppress the red zone when Bastion first appeared here” he wheezed,

A shrieking sound from above revealed Mr. Boyle who crash landed with the constructs behind him that served him in flight crumbling to specks of dust, he could only breathe, no energy to talk. Same with Ayo that slid down a tree, holding one eye in her palm as she opened up a healing elixir and guzzled it while panting. The entire advocates and sect leaders of clan titan blade were in a heap, exhausted with no energy of any kind left in their bodies. They had been at this for four days straight, contrary to Moyo thinking he could train them in two to three days, and even now they could barely activate their respective realms without passing out, but the training had been worth it.

Even as Moyo revealed himself to be sitting on the same thundercloud as Annika, idly swinging his legs as he grinned at them while they stared at him in astonishment and awe, he couldn’t feel more proud of them. To be honest the training was skewed in his favor and he wasn’t sure they realized his absurd attribute levels even for an expert had a role to play in it, his willpower of the titan swinging things massively in his favor. During those last seconds, he had to activate his mantle as his skin grew denser and harder to withstand the bombardment he had received. In a fight with another advocate, his advocates now had a deadly trump card to activate, confident in their realms to hold down any of their peers. Hopping down from the cloud, Moyo blitzed forward with his step of the titan skill, grabbing a slumped Samantha from the trees as she was on the verge of collapsing and laying her on the ground gently.

The rest still stared at him with astonishment as he sat on the ground with them, gesturing for a shocked Annika to come down from her cloud,

“You all did well,” he said as they gave non-committal grunts, evidently not believing him in the slightest,

Moyo chuckled as he scratched his head,

“You all pushed me to the wall, had to activate my mantle, something you would get once you become experts yourselves,” he said,

“Says the man with barely a singe on his skin,” Ayo said,

Moyo winced as Idris straightened his broken arm with a snap, grunting at the pain as the arm visibly healed back to perfection. He crossed his legs, settling in,

“The reason you feel you all aren’t performing well is that you’re going up against me, an expert whose realm has been steadily evolving to get stronger, plus there’s this thing with my path that’s meant to soak up damage and return two folds’ he explained,

“Against an average advocate, you would leave them in chunks, and I’m not trying to butter you up, you guys are currently the highest advocates on the planet, the strongest if I’m not mistaken with the knowledge of activating your realms and using them in line with your paths. By now you must have acquired the skills, right?” he asked them all,

“Realm of the weaver” Mrs. Martha said,

“Realm of storms,” Annika said,

“Realm of runes” Samantha continued,

“Realm of force,” Idris said,

“Realm of arrows,” Ayo said

“Realm of the smith” Mr. Boyle finished

“Good, we spend the rest of the day just activating your realms and keeping it up for as long as you can before it breaks,” Moyo said as they groaned and nodded,

With a smile Moyo hopped on his feet and stepped away with his skill, appearing far away from them, not before he blasted his realm out and brought down the weight of his whole willpower on the creatures in his realm, a subtle warning for them not to go near his advocates as he would know, they wisely scampered away in fright. Putting his hand through a rip he opened, he drew out his katana and took a stance, he had been putting off his training, being preoccupied with one thing or another, but with the coming tournament he had been invited to in two weeks, Moyo had to shake off the rust.

Aware he should had gotten nine skills by now but only having six, Moyo was determined to make the most out of it. With movements that slowly graduated from visible movements to blurs, Moyo began practicing the steps of the reaping katana his master had taught him, stumbling from time to time as he felt something was off, the realization gradually dawning on him. The movements for the path of the reaping katana were based on precise killing moves, each move had no finesse in them, they had no space for any other type of attack than the inevitability of death. Moyo had begun to have a quiet appreciation for the way his master held back against him, it was slowly becoming obvious that had Ajax used the full movements of the reaping katana on him, Moyo would be dead.

Coming to a stop as he allowed his heated-up body to gradually cool down, Moyo had begun to notice a few changes on his body, for one he had stopped being out of breath for a while, one time holding his breath to see how long he could, only to later realize that after an hour he could still hold his breath, with no sign o oxygen deprivation. The stage of expert was apparently the stage where the ascender slowly threw off their mortal coils, advocate being the peak of superhuman strength as expert being a godlike sort of realm, at least as far as mortals go. It was becoming very clear that the next two tiers were scary to attain and from what Mrs. Martha explained, very rare. If one million people start from fledgling, only half would make it to initiate, then probably 5,000 to acolyte, and then out of the 5,000 left, probably 1,000 would make it to advocate. It was at advocate the number of people ascending drops drastically even more than in the previous stages, either due to them not mastering their realms or not getting the requisite knowledge to do so, some paths couldn’t even go past that stage and from what they gleamed, only rare paths and above could even safely ascend to experts.

Out of the 1,000 that made it to advocate, 200 would make it to expert and a mere 50 could make it to master, the bottleneck of the stage of ascending to master was something they couldn’t even find, the library stating it as restricted access and needing the help of a ruler to overcome, Moyo finally understanding why Ajax made the deal to train him. He hadn’t forgotten that he owed his entire progress to a particular ruler who for some reason had seen him at that moment when the archailect displaced him and gave him a legendary skill that laid the foundation of his path. Frowning at the thought and how events had preoccupied his mind, driving him away from the main focus he had, he produced the golden parchment sent to him and reread it for what was probably the tenth time

“To the expert,

Moyosore titan blade,

Your battle against the arriving sects from the outer rims of the archailect has impressed the master Killian on the path of the stellar sword. Due to your sufficient accomplishments in battle as viewed by the entire archailect, you are hereby invited to come represent house thousand blades of the ruler austere of the thousand blades at the tournament of blades that will be held for a whole month on a nexus zone. Should you wish to accept this offer, kindly send a reply in a week’s time, however, we would want to vividly explain to you that the rewards, should you even represent house thousand blades are quite powerful enough to raise you and your fledgling clan to heights unheard of for a tier 1 and 2 planets. Type your reply on the parchment and send it through the clan of the path of a thousand distances, I await your positive reply.

Yours faithfully,

Master Killian,

House thousand blades.”

Moyo folded it back up and tossed it back into his spatial vault, deep in thought. Barring the fact that Ajax had previously informed him of such and he was hoping it would be Ajax to contact him, but seeing as it was some master named Killian, he was a bit suspicious, what had happened to Ajax? Writing his reply behind the parchment, he folded it and opened up his HUD, sending it to the clan of a thousand distances. The parchment turned to smoke in his hand and disappeared. With that out of the way, he again took a stance and began to go through the steps of the reaping katana again, trying his best to adapt it to his movements but falling short.

With a snarl he sent a blade of the titan attack screaming through the air, tearing into the trees and creatures in its part alike, a notification informing him he was now level 152. With a snort, he threw his blade back into his spatial vault. Sighing he crossed his legs and began to meditate, he opened himself to his core and was startled by what he saw, shocked, to be honest. His blue glowing core in the shape of a katana now had a blue hand gripping it, just a hand. Moyo watched as his skills in the shape or orbs slowly fed power into it. Puzzled by the sight that met him, he floated down to his transformed core, he touched it and felt his authority flowing through it. It felt like an extension of himself as if his authority was made flesh, only with a crystalline feel to it. After thoroughly running his perception through the core and feeling nothing wrong with it, he faded out of his core and back to himself, an idea in his mind.

Focusing on the distance, he used his bare hand to create a blade of the titan attack, the air in front of him shimmering as it gained an almost visible edge, and then he poured his authority through his mantle into it, surprise filling him as it slid in place effortlessly, like it had been waiting for him to do that all these while. As he sent it slicing through the distance, it made no noise, just carrying the overwhelming strength of the titan along with it as it crushed anything in its path before slicing it into two cleanly. Dissipating after a moment, Moyo stretched his frame as he stood, walking back toward where the rest were leisurely. Even if he had yet to acquire a particular fighting style that suited his path, he had a few ideas, and in time he would get there, but for now, he decided he would enjoy the few days left he had before going for the competition.

************

The next day, the factions were ready to move their bases to their respective continents, they had acquired the teleportation array for a steep price that bit into their available funds and while the bulk of their people would remain on Asa due to the effects of teleportation, the advocates would personally be in their cities as they teleported to their respective continents, coming back in time for the tournament as the clan had approved the use of their teleportation hub which would be temporarily linked to the teleportation hub of the other factions as soon as they had it running. Moyo stood with William the advocate on the path of the sun wielder, watching as the city of sun valley began to evacuate its citizens who stepped out into the plain fields,

“I suppose I owe you a massive debt Moyo” William murmured,

“The same way I owe you a debt for doing what was right I presume” Moyo replied as William glanced at Moyo,

“doesn’t remove the fact that all that sun valley has become was through your help,” William said,

“And you’ve paid that back by defending humanity, I consider the debt fulfilled,” Moyo said as he held his hand out for a shake,

“I would take your word for it then expert,” William said as he returned the shake,

The silence continued as the acolytes of sun valley directed their initiates and few fledglings towards the valley proper,

“I’m not sure how to broach this topic, but I’m not sure if you noticed the sudden closeness Han and frank are having, their respective factions are already working jointly to train each other in preparation for the tournament, but I can’t help but feel something else is afoot,” William said,

Moyo glanced at William for a second, considering what to tell him,

“Is this coming from a place of genuine suspicion or just fear of having the union next door?” Moyo asked,

“Partly because my neighbors who loved guns before somehow ended up with gun paths all over again, and they’re next door. Also at the same time, I’ve noticed the alliance between them” William said as Moyo chuckled,

“To be honest, I’ve washed my hands off any faction, everyone has their paths, including you. That said, I see no reason why you can’t make your alliances” Moyo said,

“Too early, apart from you I honestly don’t trust any of the others, archbishop Matthew seems like a good guy but it’s hard to know with those religious types, besides, what deity are they worshipping?” William said,

“Now that you said it, I probably should inquire, but I understand your point, however, your alliance with the clan could place eyes on you, they know they can’t come for Bastion, you, however, would need to consolidate your territory and quick” Moyo said,

“no need to tell me, I guess no receiving help from the clan in that regard? I hate politics” William grumbled as his golden eyes wrinkled with displeasure,

“The exact reason I washed my hands off running the clan myself, Mrs. Martha loves it, perhaps you should speak to her yourself, see what you two can agree on” Moyo suggested,

“Sounds like a good idea, anyways, it’s time I get moving, just the cost of this teleportation array has taken half the treasury of the empire, ps, I didn’t come up with the name, one of my people did,” William said rolling his eyes,

“I will await you at the start of the tournament, oh and catch,” Moyo said as he threw a pouch at William who caught it and opened it, his eyes growing wide,

“a thousand diamond coins? how rich are you?” he asked as he stepped through the gates of the city, the teleportation array starting to spin as it glowed brightly,

Moyo winked at him as the city disappeared, with that dealt with Moyo more and more cities disappear in a flash of light. Extending his realm, he took a step of the titan and appeared at the walls of Bastion, smoothly passing through the streets as he stopped at an inn. Entering the building as all noises ceased, everyone, staring wide-eyed at him, he walked towards the receptionist who bowed at the waist at him,

“Lord titan blade,” she said,

“Is the occupant of room 001 around?” he asked,

“Yes lord,” she replied,

Moyo nodded and took another step, blitzing through the corners to arrive at the door which opened up. Moyo stared at the black-haired man who smirked at him,

“Took you long enough expert,” the man said as he gestured for Moyo to come in,

Moyo warily entered the room, glancing around,

“Why are you here?” he asked,

The man sat on a chair, crossing his legs and snapping his hand as his faze blurred and revealed a red-haired man, Atreus the overseer of the galaxy,

“We need to talk,” Atreus said,

“About Ira?” Moyo asked as Atreus gestured for him to sit,

“That, and the fact that a ruler chose you to represent his faction, and also the fact that your world would soon meet an armada of sects coming to bring you to heel,” Atreus said,

“oh,” Moyo said,

“Oh indeed, now, shall we begin?” Atreus asked,

Moyo sat and crossed his leg as Atreus raised an eyebrow and smiled,

“I’d be glad to” Moyo replied.