By sundown the entire Bastion had heard the supposed rumor of their lord bringing an entire coliseum to the ground, of course for an expert, the mythical height even the newly appointed leaders of each faction hadn’t reached, it was expected. What no one expected was the fact that he had brought it down in one hit. The entire domain had felt the oppressive intent of the attack that sent shivers down the spines of advocates, and for the acolytes, it felt like an inevitable crushing palm of death. While it had driven the fear of the titan blade through their very soul, it had also sparked up a drive, for as early as possible the next day, the entire coliseum and every spare ground had been packed with acolytes and advocates training.

Moyo had been woken up, bleary-eyed by a manservant he had no idea he had and whose name he had forgotten deliver a message from Mrs. Martha, telling him to come over down to the palace. Moyo had blinked for a few seconds, his head rebooting to the fact that he had a palace. With a sigh he stretched as he stood, trudging to the bathroom while grumbling about unnecessary luxuries, he still had that hot bath though, in his defense he didn’t want to waste resources. As he stepped out into the veranda, Moyo stared down at the whole of Bastion, its crystal walls wide and stretching into the distance. A giant level 150 bird had screeched and attempted to swoop down into Bastion before it came crashing on the dome that protected the domain, with a squawk that was cut short by the barrage of skills and techniques that lit up the skies, it fellas a roasted chunk of meat as the people cheered. Moyo had sensed Annika s’ infant authority in one of the lightning that had struck the monster, smiling to himself he vaulted from his veranda towards the ground below where a line of people awaited to see him, already a line had grown with grudges and complaints for him.

With a wince, he activated his step of the titan skill,

“Nope,” he muttered to himself as he vanished from sight and appeared a long way away from Ife,

He hadn’t even eaten breakfast and he was expected to start settling disputes and marriage proposals and even acolytes and advocates wishing to either challenge him to duel to gain prestige and glory or beg for his training. With an audible sigh he strode down some street where most of the growing restaurants had sprung up, one thing about the new world was the mixing of cultures. Humans of different nationalities had been displaced after the coming of the archailect, and this district he nicknamed the chow district had a wide array of indigenous food. From the Asian menu to the African, Italian, and English all-night steak house, Moyo had always dreamed of coming here. Most of the time the various restaurants had been sending in their latest dishes to the palace itself, where somehow the food were vanishing as they passed the rigorous poison tests that Ayo and Annika had set up, much to his dismay as they would state it was for his good.

He stopped at a large sign, his eyes growing wide at the name, “BUKA HOUSE”, after meeting Femi, Moyo to his dismay had realized that at least 3% of the citizens of bastion were actually from his tribe, this continent had previously been Africa Afterall, just with new landscapes and geography and while most had died, a few displaced people still existed. The name Buka was slang for a street restaurant during the old era, a place where people could eat for cheap prices and while Moyo was in fact richer than three to four factions put together, he still couldn’t and wouldn’t pass off the chance for a cheap meal. With the skies becoming brighter and the restaurants opening up for business, Moyo placed a mask on his face and stepped into the establishment, his stomach rumbling.

The inside was warm, as compared to the chilly morning that suffused the air outside, and while his body made him impervious to extreme weather, he gave a quiet groan of pleasure at the warm sensation that hit him, glancing around. The floors were made of dark brown wood that shone as a teenager who sat on a chair and used some sort of skill pertaining to his path to control the cleaning equipment to sweep and mop the ground, his gaze on some book that he snapped shut as he saw Moyo enter. Giving a quick shallow bow, he inquired what he would like to eat, Moyo asked to see the menu and the dark-skinned boy with brown eyes and dark hair directed him to a table. The table was made of the same wood as the floors, along with the chairs, and were arranged in a way that Moyo suspected the long wooden but ornately designed table were somehow for VIP guests.

Without making a fuss he sat on his table, the boy coming out with a rather large woman who had some sort of brown book floating beside her, as she came closer, he quickly realized it was a cookbook, its writings animated as the pictures slowly moved around the cover. The woman named mama T smiled as she introduced herself to Moyo who was still disguised,

“Good day ascender, how may we serve you today?” she asked with a large smile,

“a good morning to you too madam, was hoping for a rather large breakfast” he replied,

She nodded along, snapping her fingers as the boy strode forwards and gave him a rather large menu list, the foods made up of a mix of different African dishes, but he found what he was looking for and it was enough to almost bring tears to his eyes. A dish of pounded yam with a soup known as egusi soup. Choking back a sob of delight, Moyo was close to bringing out a diamond coin from the folds of his clothes when he paused, usual ascenders didn’t even have a gold coin and he had shrouded his core back to acolyte, where would he claim to have gotten such an amount of money from?. Seeing as the price for a plate was ten bronze coins, Moyo dropped a bunch, watching as her eyes widened with delight, immediately her words became honeyed,

“Ascender, we humbly invite you towards the front seats where we can better serve you, plus a man of your…standing shouldn’t dine in the area reserved for initiates and fledglings” she stated as she hastily packed all the coins away, barking at the ball to go give the order to the cooks with extra emphasis on meat.

With a chuckle he declined, asking for something to drink while he waited for the meal. It was a sign of the growth that Bastion had a booming economy, and while most of the trade with the other zones on the continent had to be done through the expensive tele hubs and portals, plans were being made for land travel, as soon as the roads were safe and security were guaranteed for the merchants that were about to ply them. Soon enough the restaurant began to see an influx of people, from initiates of newly created sects that were totally unknown to Moyo, to independent acolytes and advocates that strode in like they owned the place. Moyo glazed over most of them as they entered, his mind on the tournament that he would be taken to in two weeks, coincidentally after the tournament Bastion was about to hold.

The jitters about leaving his planet were slowly settling in, a few months behind, the thought of leaving the planet would seem as ludicrous as some game-like entity wiping out most of the world and sending them into some post-apocalyptic dystopia where one had to fight to survive, now he just took it in stride. The main reason Moyo was a bit eager to go was for his growth, to be honest, no one on the planet was as much a challenge for him any longer and he refrained from going all out when training with his advocates who were arguably the strongest set on the planet currently. It was a chance to see what his planet was standing up against at large and a chance to come back with new knowledge about how to get stronger in the archailect at large. His thought was dragged away from the train it had created by a bunch of initiates who were led by an advocate with two acolytes behind him.

Immediately they entered, Moyo knew they were up to no good, seeing as they blasted out their aura indicating they were body cultivators. They headed straight for the serving table where the kid visibly shook, one of the acolytes slamming his hand on the table as the boy gave a little jump, hastily bowing,

“The advocate of the flashing fist sect has arrived! we require your best table as usual” the acolyte shouted, visibly intending for everyone to hear him.

Moyo crossed his arms, calling up his HUD as he messaged Idris, asking about the sect, Idris replied a minute later, with no idea. Moyo gave a silent snort, apparently, this sect was trying to set itself up as a sort of crime head around the restaurant area. Watching the proceedings and seeing as the other independent advocates didn’t as much turn in the direction of the loud sect, he flicked his eyes to the acolyte that was intimidating the boy, and with a sharp laser focused burst of his intent on the acolyte, he sent the acolyte stumbling back in fear, glancing around in terror, trying to find where the overwhelming sense of destruction had come from.

Mama T stepped out of the door that led to the kitchen, a dozen knives floating behind her as her face held barely controlled rage, in her arms was a tray of food, his food. Moyo was too hungry and too cranky to allow anything to happen to the food, standing up and walking over, passing the advocate who raised an eyebrow at such a show of disrespect, he collected the food from mama T who gave him a brief smile, her eyes wondering if he hadn’t noticed the advocate, she was an acolyte herself. She turned back to the advocate,

“You are in my establishment, advocate or not, you would respect yourselves here,” she said coldly,

The advocate gave a brief smile to mama T, snapping his fingers as the second acolyte, a bald man with a goatee blocked Moyos’ path,

“I do apologize for the rash behavior of my acolyte mama T, the flashing fist sect just wanted to introduce ourselves to you, seeing as we had just bought the piece of land in this area, the same land your establishment stands upon,” the advocate said,

A tall light-skinned man with a faint mustache and an athletic body, the advocate oozed strength on the lower spectrum of the advocate rank, Moyo glanced at his stat and realized the man named Luiz was a mere level 76 advocate. Fresh off the ascension, the man had clearly come all the way to bastion to start his business as a wannabe crime lord, a debatable job, wrong place, besides, who was selling land in Bastion? Mama T’s face went through myriad expressions in a flash, from surprise to fear and finally, anger. She nonetheless held her knives in an attacking position,

“This land belongs to the government of Bastion, we leased it from them” she replied coldly,

“And I just bought it madam mama T, perhaps this would serve as proof?” Luiz replied as he produced a piece of parchment,

Truthfully, the land had been sold by the Bastion government, with Mrs. Martha's signature on it. Moyo ideally didn’t have issues with that, but selling it to people like these was where he drew the line. He glanced at the acolyte in his front who tried to put on a menacing air, arms folded with muscles bulged, he gave a cold smile, activating his step of the titan and flashing towards his seat with the startled acolyte glancing around. Moyo felt the eyes of the advocate on him, assessing him, puzzled at why he couldn’t see Moyos’ stat table. A lesson people would learn later on was the fact that the one way to realize someone stronger than you was shrouding their cores would be the fact that their stat tables were unavailable to you unless they allowed it. The advocate left Mrs. Martha with the confused acolyte and walked toward Moyo.

Moyo sighed at the incoming confrontation and with a brief flex, unshrouded his core to advocate rank, using his intent on the advocate, bringing him crashing to his knees as the wood below him splintered. It got the attention of everyone in the restaurant, from advocates, all the way to fledglings, he sent a brief message to Josh and resumed eating. The acolytes ran towards their master who could barely talk under the realm of Moyo he had released, they too fell to their knees before crashing to the ground, convulsing at the pure anger that filled his realm.

Moyo had no time for the stare-down and rank bullying Luiz had wanted to initiate, and to be honest he was too hungry for that. With a frown he washed his hands and crossed his legs, the other advocates in the room drawing their attention to him with laser-sharp focus, Mama T staring on with confusion and wondering who he truly was. As Josh and a few titan sentinels of acolyte rank entered the Buka, the mood of the establishment changed, the advocates sat straight at the sight of the sentinels, acolytes or not they were the police force of Bastion and if they wanted to remain in Bastion, they had to follow the rules. Josh glanced around, searching for Moyo who typed a message in his HUD informing him to act along, Josh gave a slight nod despite not seeing him, glancing down at the sprawled advocate and his acolytes,

“Alright, we heard a disturbance here, what’s going on?” he asked formally,

Mama T stepped forward and bowed a little,

“Welcome honored sentinels, these men came in here, claiming they bought this piece of land we stand upon and wanted special treatment, started harassing my staff and if not for the ascender over there that subdued them, this would have gone on to become a full fight. Josh turned to the sight of the sprawled advocate and acolytes, glanced at Moyo, recognition in his eyes with a smile dancing on his lips that he killed in a flash, with a formal voice that had Moyo rolling his eyes he spoke,

“Ascender, you have our many thanks, Bastion thanks you for stopping these meddlesome bunch, you can drop whatever titanic pressure you have over them,” Josh said with a straight face as Moyo groaned inwardly at the joke,

“Many thanks, sentinel” Moyo replied as he released his realm, the acolytes groaning and passing out, the advocates tried to make a dash for it but met the hand of Josh grabbing his throat in a vice-like grip.

Josh had ascended to advocate, in his early 80s, he was riding out the advocate rank slowly but surely, there was no rush after all. The advocate struggled weakly in his grip, but a slap to the skull that had a loud clapping sound which broke most of the glass wares had the advocate passing out. Josh glanced around, muttering an apology to mama T who nodded, glass wares were cheap to buy, and a broken establishment wasn’t easy to build back. Josh strode out with a straight face, not for once looking at Moyo but leaving a message on his HUD about how cool he looked in a mask. Ignoring the mischievous vice sect leader of the sentinels, he smiled at mama T who came close, returning his coins,

“We cannot in good faith take these after the help rendered,” she said,

“I assure you; I wasn’t doing it for a reward” he replied,

“Still, mama T appreciates it, all the meals you eat here during the duration of the tournament are on the house,” she said with a smile,

Moyo could only nod in appreciation, glancing around to see the atmosphere had gone back to its earlier jovial mood. Moyo wasn’t sure if it was because most ascenders didn’t want to show their skills before the tournament proper due to not knowing their opponents or just the sort of people they were, but he wasn’t liking it, then again, he couldn’t go around changing people one by one, humans would always behave like humans, powers or not. Finishing his meal and waving at mama T and the boy who nodded gratefully at him, he stepped out of the building and activated his step of the titan, vanishing and appearing back below dominion, his castle inside Ife. Crouching and blasting up into the air as he landed softly to see Mrs. Martha and Boyle sitting and enjoying a cup of tea with slices of cake.

“Well, look who decided to show up,” Boyle said with a smile,

Moyo drew a chair, wondering how long they had been sitting in his verandah to had brought up tables and chairs,

“Went for a quick breakfast, who’s handling the throngs of people?” he asked,

“The vice sect leaders, imagine my surprise when Josh excused himself to handle something you called him for” Mrs. Martha replied with a raised eyebrow,

Moyo sighed as he sat, picking a slice of cake as he chewed for a minute,

“An advocate and his acolytes, the flashing fists sect if I’m not mistaken came into the establishment and started raving about how they had bought a piece of land and were about to go full-on mafia, know anything about it?” he asked,

“Well, I should hope so, I sold the land to them” Mrs. Martha replied,

“You might need to upgrade your vetoing cause those guys were a bunch of crime lord wannabe,” Moyo said,

“Again, I know” she replied,

Moyo paused as he glanced between her and a Boyle who was focusing on a piece of cake like it had the secrets to immortality,

“Is there something I should be aware of?” he said,

“Best to let the rest show up first before we dive into the issue,” Boyle said,

Moyo sat back and tapped his fingers on the table, glancing between them, Mrs. Martha sighed,

“Loosen up, honestly,” she said as Boyle chuckled,

Annika, Idris, and Ayo entered his room as the manservant he learned was Augustus gave a slight bow as he let them in, quietly closing the doors behind him,

“sup” Ayo said as she drew a chair closer, the rest doing the same,

Moyo glanced to a corner where he saw chairs stacked,

“Um, whose idea was it to shift the meeting place to my room and brought a lot of chairs in here?” he asked,

“Oooh, cake! oh, ours, seeing as we don’t see you unless you’re around since you spend most of your time training” Annika replied as the rest nodded,

“Fine, but from now on we use the meeting hall proper” he replied as they all just murmured,

“Nice verandah though, be a shame to let it go to waste” Ayo noted,

“The answer’s still no” Moyo replied,

“Everyone, if I could have your attention,” Mrs. Martha said,

They all turned to her, Moyo resting back on the chair with the sun casting its warm rays on his body, he spotted Annika glancing at him from the corner of his eyes, raising an eyebrow in question as she looked shocked like a deer caught in headlights, coughed and looked away, he also noticed Ayo smiling as she looked away. Mrs. Martha dropped her teacup,

“Recently it has come to our notice that the union and the glorious empire have…plans for Bastion,” she said,

Moyo extended his realm around the entire verandah, cutting off any sound from leaving where they were and entering, Mrs. Martha nodded and continued,

“It seems that apart from sharing information and data concerning the best ways to ascend, they also see Bastion as a sort of wall against reaching their greatest potential, worldwide domination,” she said,

“So that’s what the whole fuss was about” Idris stated,

“Indeed, despite being continents apart, they have started an exchange of paths trade, the empire buying weapon-oriented paths from the union and the union buying martial arts paths from the empire,” she said,

“These seem like long-term goals, how do they affect the mobsters buying up our lands here?” Moyo asked,

“Who?” Ayo said,

“Stopped a bunch of ascenders today trying to play mafia on a restaurant, turns out they bought the land from us” Moyo replied,

“And they did, a few days back my spiders uncovered a plot by the union and empire to plant agents all across the continent, sowing discord later, causing mayhem and gradually escalating it as the agents grow stronger off our dungeons and strength till eventually, they cause the continent to fracture into warlord held states, then they step in to set things right, undermining and possibly fueling a rebellion” she explained,

Moyo sat still, his whole body rigid, rage filled his very being and he was one move away from tearing open a portal,

“don’t” Mrs. Martha’s voice broke through the haze that clouded his mind,

“You were about to find your way to their continent and end them, don’t,” she said again,

“You want me to stay still while they break down everything we’ve built in the name of power?” he said, teeth gritted,

“I want you to focus on protecting humanity as a whole, leave the politics to us, besides, you haven’t heard the juicy path” she replied,

“Do tell” he said,

“Luiz, the advocate on the path of the flashing fists was one of such agents, through monitoring him, we’ve been able to pinpoint all the sleeper agents in the entire continent, tonight, with your permission we turn their sleep to a permanent one,” she said,

“Granted” he replied again, eyes cold,

He felt Annika’s hand on his, his temper reducing slowly,

“we’ll get them,” she said soothingly,

“Oh, we will, Boyle?, if you would,” Mrs. Martha said,

“most certainly, through our own…means, I’ve been able to acquire manuals for the paths that the union offers its people, slowly incorporating their current technological path into ours, it’s archaic, more tech than aether but with ours, we’ve been able to create a continental spanning array net that senses whenever an ascender with those paths step on our shores, even now we’re preparing to transport them via tele portals to the various point on our continent where they would be placed” he explained,

“Wow, that’s a lot of thinking, when did you guys plan all these?” he asked,

“You were busy doing your training montage thing yesterday before you blew up the coliseum Samantha had to build back up again” Idris replied,

“Seems you all have it in hand then,” he said,

“Also, one last thing, this tournament, the clan needs to bare its fangs,” Mrs. Martha said,

Moyo stared at her, glancing at the rest of them,

“Is that the opinion of the clan as a whole?” he asked as he looked at all of them,

“Yup, dudes thought we were all bark and no bite, it’s time to let loose” Annika replied,

“Yeah, we crush them, hopes and all” Idris said,

“My people are spoiling for a fight Moyo” Ayo replied,

“Then let the clan participate, not like I want a legendary core in the hands of the union or the empire, who can we trust then?” Moyo asked,

“Imperial empire, the theocracy, and the federation, not too sure on the Bharat empire though,” Mrs. Martha said,

“And did they plant agents in those factions also?” so far, we only informed the imperials and holding off on the rest till after the tournament, William said to trust your judgment, that man holds you in high esteem Moyo,” Mrs. Martha said,

Moyo gave a brief smile,

“Extend the purge to his territories too should he require them,” Moyo said,

“I will pass it across, he’s doing well, by the way, adopted your method a bit differently, he’s now emperor William sun wielder with a bunch of lower houses made up of acolytes spread across the land,” she said,

Moyo nodded and sat straight, staring intently at the table,

“I want you to pass a message across to those participating in the tournament,” he said,

“You do know we also want to participate right?” Idris asked,

“Fine by me” Moyo replied,

“Very well lord Moyo, what does the titan blade require of his clan members,” Mrs. Martha asked with a smile,

“No holding back, crush them all” he replied as his eyes glowed purple,

Mrs. Martha smiled fully, nodding her head,

“As the lord demands” she replied,

*****

That day, Bastion was thrown into a frenzy as the public heard of clan titan blade’s participation, while that same night, around Asa and the continent of the imperial empire, ascenders were quietly snuffed out by shadows and invisible hands, the union and imperial empire unaware that the agents they had placed in those territories had ceased to exist.