The attack on Chronicler started with a predictable ambush.

The hero wasn’t surprised. The Horizon Dawn traditionally practiced against foul play. Handicapped and outnumbered was their way of life. The quote ‘Honor is the pillar of vows. Necessity is the iron of the sword’ was a tenet taught to every member at a certain point of their journey. It was the lesson Dream made after his discussion with Symphony, entailing the reality of heroism. Yuri Ushakov hadn't reached, but the philosophical weight behind it was woven into his lessons.

To be a hero was to shoulder the galactic dignity of temperance and kindness in the universe addicted to the cocaine-addled high of abusing the best in humanity. The Dawn accepted the vital fact; their opponent would play dirty. Every single Knight in the Order must prepare themselves against dirty tricks, — be it a simulated battle under the disorienting effect of a drug or underwater antigravity battle against multiple opponents. The most brutal record of these practical sessions was a 3-on-1 simulation between Dream, Chronicler and Saint against Ace. In that battle, Ace was subdued after obliterating Dream’s large Intestine, and scoring the double knock-out with Chronicler under the full-on support of Saint.

Compared to the horror of surviving the dreaded combination of Ace and Empress for five minutes, the six Tribunes jumping at Chronicler was an afternoon traffic level of annoyance.

The ambush was immediately detected. It was pathetic. In Chronicler's opinion, his best friend ambush was hundred times more discreet. Attacking using the opponent's victory as a cover was Dream’s favorite tactic. He got caught by that trick twice, and already learned the importance of using [Geo Supreme] as a sonar.

The G attacked from underground, punching his way through the earth with a titanic crunch. The monster bit nothing. The Knight of Dawn already took to the air. Two more attackers, Enigma and Apex, came to meet him in the sky.

They were caught by the swirling current of water.

[Hydro Supreme]

Water fell from the sky like a gift of heaven. An eight-headed serpent of water produced from the physic-altering force emerged. Those many heads swarmed upon the attacker. Enigma was taken out by the three currents, nailing him down to the earth. Apex, being the strongest Fea, fought through the water. He formed his hand into a sword of eldritch energy, but a lightning bolt streaming between the liquid caught him unprepared.

[Electro Supreme]

Not finishing with his electricity trick, Chronicler sent an arc of lightning to hit Glint who was about to rejoin the battle. With the same mass of water, he blocked the flame of Fellsbane, sniping at him from behind. In the steam that erupted, Chronicler felt the slight shift in the water particle and acted immediately.

[Paradiso]

Chronicle created a Rhomboidal-shape seal, and threw it at the movement in the mist, trapping the B — Blood — inside an isolation barrier.

It was at that moment the Tribunes’ strongest magical arsenal — Caster — popped in from the sideline and slaughtered everything in front of him with the barrage of magic. Darkness, flames, lightning, wind and light gathered in the current of destruction aimed at the hero still afloat in the air.

Not wasting time to fight an attack head-on, Chronicler wrapped himself with a cape of water and shot down as a watery comet, letting Caster’s attack pass into the sky as a waste of energy.

The watery meteor smashed into the earth, revealed in a hero in a three-point landing. Multiversal Power of massive magnitude gathered around him as the roaring jet of water blasted from the ground like a raging ocean, making itself known from the planet's crust. The raw roiling lake erupting from the earth unleashed such a force it forced fives Tribunes to take a step back. The Blood shattered his biding in time to face the blowing surge of power.

In his pathetic state as a torso with a broken mask, Jester witnessed the true nature of what he had truly offended. The energy of the multiverse came to life as nine lights — nine praises of his masteries — came to herald his counter-attack.

The Knight rose tall against his oppositions. Nine spheres of color around him exploded with shining light, casting his invincible shadow to all who witness.

…

The Rescue Team (Requiem, Lena Atalante, Ayla Orman, Ruine)

In the distance, Requiem saw the eruption of power from the rapidly boiling battle.

“Should I be worried?” He asked Lena Atalante who was purging the roach behind him. “Aren't they supposed to be outnumbered?”

“Worry about Chronicler?” Atalante stuck the [Feather Edge] into a Centurion-Rank Fellow and decapitated it. “Are you serious?”

“Yep,” Ayla Orman nodded in agreement. Her feet lit in freezing fire, pinned the Predatory Fairy to the ground. A few shots from her sidearm into the struggling Fairy’s cranium turned it permanently offline. “Chronicler is strong. The records about him in Manachron Library are the stuff of legend.”

Orwell’s subordinate on site — Ruine — joined the conversation after skewering a squad of Fairies on the spires of rocks, “Orwell never explained his abilities. Is it some top secret?”

Atalante surprised everyone with the truth.

“Nope, Chronicler’s capacity and Path are publicly available information,” She shrugged. “After going through it, I believe the availability acts like a deterrent.”

“Paths?” Requiem never heard of that term.

“Dream never had time to explain that concept to you?” Ayla said. “Oh well, can’t say I am surprised. He is still working at his own Path after all. Let me explain. It is a way to raise your Rank from ‘S’ onward. Moving to S-Rank is easy. You only have to pump your parameters. Moving beyond that requires you to walk a unique ‘Path.’ Think of it as a core thesis underpinning your development; a conceptual vehicle that proves you are worthy to rival and surpass the King of the Gods.”

Even Ruine from Diogenesis found the information fascinating, “Is that why the gods are stuck at SS-Rank? They don’t have these ‘Paths.’”

“Exactly,” Atalante nodded. “Those guys are coasting on their Divine Core, and it only took them so far. After that, you need to invent the wheel. Goals and methods that have the Governor’s seal of approval. Even among the Dawn only Chronicler and Ace had a firm ‘Paths.’ They are even kind enough to record their methods for us to study.”

“So what is Chronicler’s Path?” Requiem asked.

“Path of Monarch,” Ayla answered. “Basically, overcoming the mortal limit by cooperating with your vassals.”

Ruine and Requiem blinked.

““What?””

“Chronicler’s Origin is the [Glyph of Forms]. It is an avatar of a concept carved as words,” Ayla explained. “This allows him to produce catalysts for every Arcane under the sun, but there is a limit. He can’t throw every Arcane out at once. To remedy this problem, he used the [Glyph of Forms] to construct embryos for a Spiritual life-forms that would do the casting for him. They are his vassals.”

It was Atalante who explained the method

“Basically, he created minions to aid his cast. He improved Hades’ method to create Spirit Lord using the environmental influence and an incubator. Unlike Hades, Chronicler’s version of Spirit Lords operated with [Glyph of Forms], using the sigil for genesis and his own essence as an incubator. Meanwhile, the Primal Arcane to substitute the environmental factor.”

As Phantasia’s native, Ruine’s mouth dropped from the statement.

“He created a Spirit Lord?” The poor girl’s brain automatically remembered the bedtime stories. “That is enough to destroy the SCA! Are you telling me Chronicler could create the greatest weapon of a legendary Primordial divinity like Hades?”

“It’s not just ‘a’ Spirit Lord,” Ayla corrected. “He had at least nine of those, and given that Chronicler’s version is an improvement, they will be more powerful than Hades’ minion once mature. The moment all nine hit full maturity, Chronicler will have the existential clout of SSS-Rank.”

“Nine Spirit Lords!” Ruine shrieked. Her composure broke down from the inability to imagine the raw power. “That would make him equal to a Primordial and comparable to an entire Pantheon. This,” she stuttered, “this is overkill. Is Orwell sane to pick a fight with the man who can destroy the entire SCA countries several times over?”

“Yeah,” Atalante shrugged. “Those poor bastards.”

Right on cue, the skyline exploded with color.

…

The Fairy didn’t know what hit them. Even Caster, who was the best Spellcaster to ever grace the food-chain, couldn’t comprehend the mystic bombardment. The attack was laid so hard and so fast that it was more like a sweep than a fight.

The only thing they noticed were the nine spheres of colors orbiting Chronicler like stars. Each radiates enough power to be compared to an S-Rank mage. Each sphere had a name to represent the Chronicler’s right to rule magic.

The red glowed of inferno — Surtr

The navy reflection of the ocean — Ocelot

The amber shines of the earth. — Era

The green breeze of wide open sky — Mistral

The yellow sparks of electricity — Dyna

The white holy lamp — Aegis

The purple luminescence of the void — Opis

The icy blue gleaming of cold and frost — Yotun

Together, these nine exerted a suppressive effect on every element and law under their purview. The C — Caster — tried to throw another combination attack with the five elements under his control, but the mystical cocktail simply fell apart. Each component in that attack was overpowered by higher authority before materializing.

What followed was a concert.

Aegis, the white orb of light, flew into the cloud above. The sky brightened, and the cloud rained beams of high intensity laser across the wide area. Out of the Tribunes, only Apex possessed the speed and reflex to evade the deadly attack. Enigma and Blood were peppered with the rays which pierced their body without resistance. They were only saved by their lack of vital organs. Meanwhile, Caster dove under the impenetrable body of Glint.

The worst suffered under the baptism by laser beam was the defeated Jester. As a torso, he had no defense against the monochromatic high-density emission that hit what remained of his body like a bullet. For the clown, each hit was like getting shot by a hot poker.

The ever-so-silent Apex ran forward. He knew they must interrupt the spell raining death-ray from above. Every step he took contained the unquenching thirst for survival as he fought step-by-step to the Chronicler.

It was doomed to fail. Who could run when the ground crumbled beneath their feet?

Era, the embryonic daughter of earth, crumbled the very footing they stood. Within Chronicler’s earthen wall, the earth fell, crumbling from underground. The very bedrock of the isolated arena was hollowed to create a ravine.

Apex was flung into midair, failing to even touch the helm of his target.

Then the geyser of water, courtesy of Ocelot, rose from the sundered ground and swallowed him.

…

Orwell felt the earth falling and summoned the flying icy Amalgam to evade the consequence of Chronicler cutting loose.

“Like I said,” Orwell glanced down at the Beast Praetor sealed on the ground. “Your subordinate had one shoddy target selection.”

Kane growled as the earth fell beneath him. The combination of Ice Parade and gravity forced him into the darkness of the pit quickly filling with water.

The immense power surging in the ground and air painted the reality for Kane. Even if they had reinforcement, the Fairy's chance of victory was slim to none. The line-up assembled against them was formidable enough to shove every straggler the Fairy Realm could deploy. Other Praetors might tip the scale, but he doubted the Royal Clan would throw such a war asset to salvage a failed invasion. There was only one thing Kane could do to turn this around.

Kane didn't want to tread this route. This method was agonizing and it would be impossible to use Danghai as a beachhead afterward.

Unfortunate, it appeared Kane didn't have other choice for survival.

…

On Wayward’s end, the raining laser beam, ground falling beneath his feet and the massive water eruption demanded the massive alteration of his strategy. As a seasoned warrior, Wayward realized the entire area was under the bombardment the moment the light rained. He promptly palmed the Insect Praetor in the face and threw him across the district.

The victimized Shandler pirouetted into the earthen-wall like a missile, crushing through the solid barrier and slamming against the building behind the wall in a daze.

The Insect Praetor shook the double vision in time to see Wayward, shrouded in blue fire-bird, coming at him with a flying kick.

The foot crushed into Shandler and set the entire structure ablaze in flames.

…

The water wasn’t the end to the Tribunes’ suffering. The next on the dinner course of pain was the collaboration between Yotun and Mistral. The avatar of air and cold combined their force to bring upon the snow-storm of epic scales. The sky darkened with clouds. Icy wind flung the Tribunes into the air and clouded their vision with violent gales.

Hail fell around Chronicler. It was the image of the World’s end. Rays of light fell from the cloudy sky as the blizzard raged. The hero stood under this cataclysm above the circular ravine surrounded by earthen walls as the water raged under his will. The fire and lightning hadn’t come yet, but Chronicler’s very shadow already heralded the coming of Armageddon.

Under the snowstorm from the frozen pit of hell, the flames of the F — Fellsbane — vanished. It fell into the water below.

Only five Tribunes remained.

Toss around by the blizzard like a kite, Caster attempted to muster some resistance by throwing a flickering fireball at Hikma, but the maw of darkness controlled by Opis snaked out from the blinding hail and sank its fang into the Caster’s hand, swallowing the flames whole. The cat-like Fairy tried to overpower the darkness with his own, but a lightning bolt courtesy of Dyna blasted fell.

The bolt struck Caster in the face.

The C remained conscious after being smote with lightning. His innate lightning resistance shaved some damage. Sadly, it didn’t stop three more laser beams from punching through his chest. As a final insult, several towers of flames from Surtr erupted from the roiling waves clashing in the ravine.

One flame tower Caster full force. Everything turned blank for the Tribune as he fell into the water.

Caster wasn’t the only Fairy put to flames. The fire accurately swallowed every Fairy from Ace down to Glint.

Third on the chopping block was Enigma. The E grew the wings and jet propulsion to evade Surtr’s flame pillar. It boosted toward Chronicler, maneuvering through fire and lightning like a spaceship in a dog-fight. The flesh below it warped into the Gatling gun and opened fire at the Spirit Monarch.

Chronicler must applaud the Fea for innovating. Automatic killing-machine or no, there was romance in trying to fly through the hostile environment of high icy-winds, flaming pillars, and thunderstorms. No flying machines on earth could survive this onslaught much less return fire.

In an automated response, Era, still imbued in the ground, covered its Monarch with a hardened shell reinforced by [Geo Law], blocking the bullet of eldritch energy.

With the winds and hail of Mistral and Yotun as his eyes and ears, Hikma tracked the position of the flying Enigma through the opaque barrier surrounding him. He commended the Fairy’s spectacle with an attack worthy of its survival through the baptism of hail, fire and lightning.

[Glyph of Forms]

“Disintegrate-Particle-Flash,” Chronicler created the symbol to supplement the Arcane around his wrist. Unlike, his nine minions, this Arcane attack was manually fashioned by Hikma own hand. It was a custom-made delivery with the attention and care a baker might put into his daughter’s wedding cake.

[Lumo Supreme]

[Pyro Supreme]

[Electro Supreme]

It was a lance of light; a high-energy subatomic particle beam meant to disintegrate the very bond of creation.

The white lance fired from the hero’s fingertip pointing upward. It burned through the barrier protecting him and expanded into conical shape according to the law ordained by physics. As calculated, it flew into Enigma’s flight path and swallowed the Fairy whole.

The E was the most versatile Fairy, capable of adapting and maneuvering around nearly every obstacle, with regeneration ability to trump anything. However, versatile as it was, it couldn’t survive cellular disintegration. The E was swallowed by the disintegration ray, its ebony flesh reduced to atomic dust and the core housing it being dissolved a miro-second after.

The Primus of the Fea, Jester, witnessed the lance of disintegration piercing the cloud to reveal the light of the sun. The sheer power of that attack must rival even the Royal Clan's Imperial-Rank Fairies, which led their race.

The Primus hung from the edge of the ravine Chronicler created. The water rolling beneath him as the ray of the sun hit his eyes, reflecting a shadow of the knight.

The miniature hell he had survived by the skin of teeth convinced the Fairy this thing must lie about being a man. It was an almighty god of judgment sent by hell itself to cast them into the pit. Forget those Anomalies, this unknown king standing above him was their bane. The Fairy never had a concept of a boogeyman until today when this man arrived from nowhere.

Jester knew if the entity calling itself Chronicler still drew breath, they would never succeed.

At the very least, they must prove this towering mountain-peak was surmountable. They needed to prove he could bleed.

If not, the species called Fair Folk would surely perish in this war.