The clearing where the members and allies of house thousand blades sat bore witness to the vibrations of the duel between master Killian and Moyo, however this time, the fight had a different air to it. Even as master Killian flung Moyo around like a doll, the movements of the titan blade showed signs of improvement. Bouncing back from every punch, every slam into the ground, Moyo had confidence in his move, however, the most obvious of the changes was the way his intent flowed through his body. Over the course of the whole day, master Killian with oddly enough, the help of Ashira had taught him how to use his body like a blade, and while he was a long way from perfecting it, his movements were already becoming as sharp as a blade, as opposed to the brutal bludgeoning method he had employed in the past.

With a dive and a roll, he dodged a shrouded master Killian, the training rod in his hand as he forced intent through it, wincing as it sputtered and dissolved away in the air, in time for a kick from master Killian to catch him in his mantle covered chest and send him slamming into the silvery realm barrier of the same master that was dishing out his training. The realm of the stellar blade was a work of beauty as well as deadlines, even as he tried to dodge the never-ending attacks of the master, the floating stars in the realm shot concussive beams at him that shattered his mantle at a touch, leaving him without protection against the deadly attacks of master Killian. Another deadly treat was the glowing moon that hung in the air and slowed his movements down as well somehow reducing the potency of his attacks.

Moyo had begun to wonder how strong master Killian had been as an expert, the scary fact being that he had shrouded himself down to a gold-ranked expert. Even as Moyo stood up, channeling intent through his body in a rush of power, he tapped into Ashe and felt the world around him become laser-focused on master Killian who nodded,

“Channel it, your Ashe and intent belong to your existence, they obey you”

Moyo thought it was easier said than done, channeling the both of them felt like his body was about to implode on himself, he had asked Ajax who told him cryptically that he was tapping into a greater existence, and while the power belonged in right to him, he just wasn’t strong enough to withstand it, but seeing as he could already withstand the hit of a gold-ranked expert without passing out, he couldn’t help but wonder what rank or ascension level he would have to get to to be able to wield his Ashe and intent together, and the daunting fact that master Killian expected him to channel both of them through his katana when he was already close to death by channeling it through his body.

With a shout he shot his hand out in a fist, shooting out the intent and Ashe together in a straight line towards master Killian who simply blew out a breath and dispersed the attack, much to the dismay of Moyo who had already gone on the attack. Master Killian took a step forward and spoke,

“First edict of the radiance: shimmer”

Moyo felt reality twist around him, warping his perception as master Killian bent in odd shapes, the air around him becoming distorted, giving him the perception of being drunk and getting nauseous. He had no defense against the palm that slammed into his chest, dispelling his newly formed runic mantle and blasting him backward. Moyo coughed and dry retched, hearing claps behind him,

“well done!, you lasted an extra 5 seconds against Killian this time!” the voice of Ajax his master said,

Moyo groaned as he got his bearing, reality settling back to what it should be as he stayed in his fetal position. After a few minutes, he stood and turned to master Killian, stumbling on his feet as he croaked,

“w-what was that?” he said,

“Edicts, a concept you shouldn’t know of till at least gold rank, but seeing as you’ve gone far already with your core manifestation, I decided to show you just what you can chase, in the future I mean, no trying to get it done now,” master Killian said,

He fell back on his back, huffing as his waning endurance began to replenish itself from the abundance of aether in his core, the landscape of his had been growing stronger as he absorbed more aether orbs, now he could fight indefinitely if his endurance held out, which it would, seeing as it absorbed the aether from his cores landscape. Whatever that edict was, it destabilized his core, cut off access to his attributes so suddenly that his body couldn’t cope. Even as he stood up, he spied the Kairos girl Ashira as she swung her Bizarre-looking katana that was bordering on the length of a great sword with such movements that Moyo couldn’t even hope to imitate.

The blade was a bright green weapon that seemed to pulse with life, barring the large slitted eye that was situated on its pommel, Moyo could had sworn he had seen the eye blink at him one time, but the deadly intent that the sword pulsed had made him stay clear of the blade. His attention was drawn back to the presence of master Killian that loomed over him,

“Now that you’ve merged your authority and willpower, the new form it has taken, well?” the master asked,

“Ashe means command in my language” Moyo replied as he caught his breath,

“It is a normal phenomenon for reality to accept the combination of your willpower and authority in someway native to you, mine was in line with my view of myself, yours will be something you resonate with”

Moyo thought back to it, he had always wanted to preserve his heritage in this new world, and perhaps his longing for such had transformed his willpower and authority into Ashe. Master Killian stretched an arm out for him as he grabbed it and got hauled to his feet, dusting himself master Killian continued,

“Edicts are the direct interpretation of your powers now, they resonate with it, giving you overwhelming control against your foe, so far as they haven’t fused theirs also, then at that point, it just depends on who resonated the more with their new forms”

Moyo nodded at the explanation,

“Look, there’s something we were not sure you should know, during your time training on the ship with the recordings of Amat and Latasha, and also when you fought Axut, you tapped into a state, it is one every swordsman will always chase to perfection,” Killian said,

“a state?” Moyo asked,

“Anshara,” his master’s voice said from behind him,

Ulsa and Ashira paused where they were both training, Ulsa opening her eyes as the feeling of sharp cold around her dispersed, Ashira bringing her moves to a stop as she turned to where they were,

“’ Anshara?” Ulsa said,

“The mythical state reached by all swordsmen where they become the personification of the blades and edges themselves, a state that has only been attained by the ruler Zane true blade himself” Ashira replied as her eyes opened wide,

“who’s Zane?, and you’re telling me with the skills of master Killian he hasn’t attained the state?” Moyo asked,

Master Killian smiled as he shook his head,

“You flatter me, but not even the ruler of house thousand blade on the path of the blade himself can boast of fully mastering the state,” Killian said,

“It’s an elusive feeling, the first time I felt Anshara, I was a diamond-ranked expert fighting in the battle for dominion over a galaxy, a rival house had sent a master and diamond-ranked experts against our budding house who only had two diamond-ranked experts and a score of gold ranked experts then” Killian started,

“I was this close to death, lost an arm and was bleeding out, the other diamond-ranked expert was preoccupied protecting the gold-ranked experts from total annihilation and was in no position to help me, I was fated to die there and then, but then I decided to swing my blade for the last time, and I would make the blade hit true.”

Master Killian took a step back, crouched, and began slowly moving through the footsteps of his path as he weaved and turned against an imaginary foe slowly, ramping up speed as he continued with his tale,

“I against the top diamond ranked expert of their house, a dual sword wielder that was better than me by far, but that’s the beautiful thing about that state, it had no respect for ranks, only your skill with the blade. Even as the expert came towards me, I resolved myself to die a death befitting a swordsman, and when I moved, I felt all burdens on my shoulder being lifted away, I neither cared about the war, the losses, the deaths, all I wanted at that point was to enjoy the battle itself”

Now the steps became faster as he twirled, his body beginning to glow as he moved, his blade beginning to shine,

“Then he struck, and all I remembered was an intricate dance of our blades, and the chopped head of the expert on the ground, coincidentally it was when I unlocked the first edict of my radiance” master Killian finished,

Moyo had a sudden pity for the expert that had gone against the shimmer edict of master Killian, he could understand the confusion he must had felt at that point,

“Wait, why are we talking about Anshara?” Ulsa asked,

Ajax just smirked at her and turned to Moyo, it took her a few seconds to understand, Ashira even longer,

“You mean” Ulsa sputtered,

“Must had been luck,” Ashira said,

“Nevertheless, he touched it, and if you can recreate it again in your duel against Vasanz, I assure you even house Dracon wouldn’t underestimate you in the tournament,” Ajax said,

“I wouldn’t advise you to work towards that, keep practicing merging your Ashe and intent together, it will be your best bet against what that young draconian would bring to the battle” master Killian interjected,

“True, and now that we have a plan for the duel, Ashira, come tell us what you know about the shard,” master Urush said,

Ashira nodded and used her blade to begin to etch on the ground,

“After I departed from house Kairos, I went through the construct empire trying to pick up dungeon runs to further my ascension when I heard from a group of wandering experts about the rumors of a primordial shard in a tier 1 galaxy” she started,

“Construct empire?” Moyo asked,

“a galaxy-spanning empire made of sentient machine life, boring place if you ask me, bland food and so on,” Ulsa said,

“With the glaring proposition, I boarded a ship to the nexus point on the edge of the empire, arriving at this galaxies nexus point with the rest of the wandering experts”

“What rank were they, these experts?” Killian asked,

“a few golds, silvers took the majority,” Ashira said,

“a house then, probably passed the message through anonymous connections, let the rumors fester to gather independent experts to go for the shard,” Killian said,

“we’re looking at one of the great houses then?” Ajax said,

“That remains to be seen, but please, continue,” Killian said to Ashira who nodded,

“On reaching Agabod, we made camp below the mountain where the shard was situated, then house Dracon arrived, asking all to swear fealty to them, we resisted seeing as only a master came with them, but it turned out most of the experts were willing to follow house Dracon, and they turned on their fellow experts, the golds were good people, they fought to let a few of us escape, but were struck down by the master of house Dracon,” Ashira said,

Moyo felt the temperature around him drop drastically, turning to see master Urush with an outright look of pure deadliness, masters Killian and Ajax wore even deeper stoic looks of pure anger,

“a master attacked an expert?” master Killian asked, his voice soft but as sharp as steel,

Moyo had learned that in the greater archailect as a whole frowned, no, detested ascenders who hit below their rank or tier, seeing as there were a thousand and one ascenders on whatever ascension level you were on, it was considered a taboo to kill an ascender of a lower rank, and house Dracon, one of the ten great houses had broken a core tenet. Ajax stretched from where he had been watching Ashira talk, his blade Krial appearing in his hands,

“Ajax” master Killian called,

“You heard the girl, we have them right where we want them” Ajax replied, around him dark mists were forming,

“And we’ll deal with Abraxas in due time, but if they get the shard, its game over, the delicate balance between the 10 houses shatters,” Killian said,

“10 houses?” Moyo asked with a sigh, there were so many things he was unaware of,

“The 10 great houses of the archailect, they are the closest to royalties in the archailect, and their rulers are for all purposes, venerated as deities,” Ulsa said as she tapped his shoulders sympathetically,

“you’ll catch up,” she said as he nodded,

“They can’t reach the shard, the position of the mountain where we camped wasn’t the location of the shard, it was a fake location given by the leading gold ranker, he knew house Dracon and a few lower houses were after the shard also,” Ashira said,

“Interesting, and I’m guessing you know the real position of the shard?” master Urush asked,

Ashira went mute, then dipped her hand into her pouch, Moyo immediately knew what was about to happen, Ulsa sucked in her breath and Moyo felt three separate realms slam into place around them, one of never-ending winter, one of majestic moonlight, and one of the never-ending curse of the grave. The three masters had summoned their realm in haste as she brought out the blue-looking crystal shard and Moyo felt the purest aether he had ever felt permeate the air, he became entranced and wasn’t even aware as master Ajax appeared close to her and pushed the shard back into her pouch, effectively cutting off the aether.

He came down from his high, glancing around as Ulsa also took a deep shuddering breath as she also calmed down,

“Such pure aether” she whispered,

“How?” master Killian asked her,

“t-the expert was from house Kairos, my protector, he knew of the shard, he had obtained the shard as soon as we entered Agabod, back when we had all split off in different directions to track it. He gave it to me, it was our ticket to a tier 3 or 4 world and he died protecting me” she said, wiping her eyes as tears were already forming in them,

Moyo noticed her hair had begun to float of their own free will, perhaps a part of her path,

“So, what you’re saying is, house Dracon has no idea where the shard is right now?” master Urush said,

“No, but they know about me and my connection to the gold-ranked expert, they were hunting me”

Moyo glanced to the north where clouds of flames illuminated the air, right where house Dracon had revealed their base after the last confrontation. Should they know of the presence of the primordial shard here, all hell would literally break loose, glancing back at the masters that conversed in hushed tones before breaking apart,

“All right, listen up everyone” Killian started,

“a simple training week has now officially devolved into an arms race, and as such, two things take precedence, the duel and the protection of the shard. Seeing as how experts of house Dracon and storm razor, as well as those turncoats, would be after us, discretion would be advised, no one mentions the shard from the moment we drop our realms, the pouch would keep it safe, but I’d rather it be in the spatial rift of one of you experts” Killian said,

Ulsa and Ashira both indicated that they didn’t have one, leaving Moyo who raised an eyebrow,

“First of all, let me protest the keeping of a live weapon of mass destruction with me” he started as master Killian sighed and Ajax shook his head,

“And why must I be always thrown in the middle of situations like this?” he moaned again as Ulsa hit him on the head,

“Be serious” she growled,

“Easy for you to say, you’re not the one about to go toe to toe with a dragon while holding the shard in your spatial rip” he protested,

“You don’t collect that shard right now and you get to train with me shrouded as a diamond ranked expert,” Ajax said,

Moyo paused, then blitzed to stand in front of a shocked Ashira,

“Dear expert, it would be my honor to relieve you of the burden of the shard,” he said as he recited,

Master Killian shook his head, Moyo opened his spatial rift, and with great difficulty, the aether in the air already sparse as Agabod was slowly assimilating into the blight that infected it. Ashira once again brought out the shard and handed it to Moyo who had to wrest control of his mind with Ashe to literally throw the shard into his spatial rift. He had felt the power as it touched his hands and he had not wanted anything to do with it, it oozed of pure aether, so pure that he literally felt it rapidly breaking down his realm that hung around him, the masters were right, this was not a power he wanted near him.

Closing his rip, he panted dramatically, Ajax just shaking his head,

“Now that the issue of the shard has been taken care of, the duel, Ashira, what do you know of the fighting prowess of house Dracon’s experts?” master Urush asked,

“The main threat is the expert Kenuran, a gold-ranked, he tore through the gold-ranked experts that fought against him like a knife through rainwater, and I believe he has access to a bloodline power,” she said,

“So, a direct descendant of one of their rulers then?” Ajax said,

“Seems like it, what else can you tell us?” Killian asked,

Ashira turned to Moyo,

“Hit me with your strongest attack,” she said,

Moyo raised an eyebrow at her, glancing at the masters,

“she’s silver rank, she can take whatever attack a bronze tier can dish out,” Ajax said,

Moyo nodded and shifted backward, took a stance as he felt his dance of Ijakadi activate, the air around him solidifying as he breathed, he could feel his intent circulating through his body easily now, rather than just going from his core straight to his blade dominion then, now he could circulate it through his body, every swing of his body carried the sharpness of a blade with it, so when Moyo threw out a punch, layering it with Ashe as he felt his body buckle under the absurd strength of the attack, he expected it to tear through her guard easily,

Then for the last time that evening, Moyo got another shocking surprise, Ashira stepped forward and Moyo felt her intent shift from the slippery toxic air it had to a hard defense-like pattern, her mantle formed around her, and Moyo’s eyes widened as Ashira suddenly became covered in the leather of some creature with three horns with grey glowing energy, his attack dispersed into nothing before the protection of her mantle. Moyo just stood stupefied, arms dropping to his side as he was lost for words,

“Well. That explains the meaning of the path of the threefold monster, I’m guessing it has a third form?” Ajax said,

Ashira nodded, suddenly it clicked in his head, the nagging feeling he had been getting about Ashira,

“You fought Axut, a descendant of the jungle king on nexus point 1 didn’t you?” he asked as she nodded,

“you were the one that trashed the descendant of the jungle king?, impressive!, although with you being at silver rank, it was a given,” Ajax said,

‘I was shrouded down to iron tier” Ashira said haughtily as Killian smiled,

Ashira gripped her blade that had transformed from the slit-eyed blade to one with two horns jutting out where the blade itself met the hilt, on her body sat the large cloak of the animal with horns that shimmered into being above her head.,

“Prepare yourself for an attack,” she said to Moyo,

He was a bit miffed that she thought him weak enough to inform him of her attack, but when he felt the power of her intent shift again, he knew well enough to summon his mantle and gather Ashe for the attack. Her body blazed up in golden light and Moyo felt himself staring down the gaze of a predator, her blade became a slim weapon with a golden color, emitting a bloodthirsty feeling that pressed down on Moyo and when she swung the weapon, the intent infused attack screamed through the air towards Moyo who stood still and prepared to weather the attack.

The attack tore deeply into his mantle, grazing his real skin, but the most terrifying part of the attack was the internal damage, the attack did little externally to him, but it tore his insides to shred and if not for his skill titan’s wrath that healed him almost immediately, Moyo would had either been crippled for a long time or outright pass out. He groaned as he stood,

“You resisted one of my attacks, good,” she said,

“Does that mean I can resist one of his?” he said jokingly as he groaned,

“He brushed off the attack of two gold-ranked experts with mine like they weren’t there, no, but I believe you’re ready to face this Vasanz, “she said,

The outright dismissal of his capabilities stung, but he understood, master Killian clapped once behind them,

“Then it’s settled, Moyo, you keep polishing off your skill with Ashira here, then we plan our subtle or devastating escape from Agabod,” he said with a smile,