Ajax found himself materializing through the Nethervoid into a planet he was unfamiliar with. Crashing to the muddy ground amidst the torrent of rain that poured down, lightning flashing as thunder boomed. He was but one soul, one man amidst countless thousands that plied the roads, both on the ground and in the air. Getting to his feet, he felt the power of the Archailect distinctly, awareness flooding him as he tried bringing up his Hud.

Nothing.

His hand immediately grasped for his blade at his waist, its reassuring presence soothing him for an instant, its smooth hilt warm to the touch. He blinked away the rain, glancing around him as flying constructs shot past him through the skies, portable tele hubs spitting out ascenders and average citizens as they hurried along, led by ascenders in purple and blue robes. He immediately attempted to shroud his core to gold rank, heaving an inward sigh of relief as it worked. Berating himself for not immediately shrouding himself, he wondered why the ascenders who were obviously guards of some sect or clan hadn’t felt his power.

Taking a deep breathe of the aether in the air, he felt his suspicions settle, this was a tier 4 world, master ranked aether fueled this world, meaning it belonged to a house. Drawing his cloak closer to his body, he began moving with the throng of people, heading towards what looked like a city in the distance. Distaste at the rain, wondering why no elemental mage had cleared the skies, he watched as a gold ranked ascender arrived on a streak of lightning, riding it as if it were a casual mode of transportation.

He was clad in blue robes with a purple sash, shouts of relief rising from among the crowd, Ajax felt the power he exuded confidently, noting the strength as obvious peak gold ranked. The brown-haired man spoke.

“Citizens of Stormsreach!” he shouted.

“Stormsreach?” Ajax thought.

He wasn’t familiar with either the name of what was apparently the city or the planet as a whole, he paid attention to the next words of the man.

“Your journey is almost at an end, up ahead is the city of sky rock, there the safety you have been promised awaits, have faith in the Stormseeker and the titan!” he said.

Ajax’s head snapped at the name, locking on the gold, the titan, the titan blade, it had to be him, there was no one else who bore that name. Before he could talk though, or even try to assess who the man was to Moyo, he felt a disturbance in reality, like an uncomfortable buzzing in his mind. The gold ranker reacted immediately, Ajax watching as he summoned lightning to his hands, shaping it into a blade that bled with intent and mana, right in time for a pathway to tear open and an abhorrent creature of the abyss tearing its way into reality.

He gripped his blade reflexively, eyes watching as the ascenders in robes unleashed their powers and realms, protecting the hundreds around them, coordinating with precision to overlap their realms of thunder and lightning, much to Ajax’s distaste, he had seen enough rain and gloomy clouds for a lifetime. Silent but on guard, he watched the silver ranked ascenders follow the lead of the gold ranker, hurling bolts after bolts of lightning fashioned into different shapes at the abyssal creature. Ajax wondered if his senses were messed up, for what he felt from the creature was an abhorrent caricature of four distinct aspects of the abyss. He felt its power corroding the area around it, his Hud writing gibberish runic inscriptions as he snarled silently.

He was a wraith among the hurdled thousands, his power easily parting the realms of the silvers like it wasn’t even there, moving away from their view as he silently observed the feline looking creature with numerous blade looking tails. The moment the tails flashed, Ajax moved, slapping one away before it decapitated a silver ranker who had barely blinked before the tail moved. Another hadn’t been so lucky, his head parting with his body before the gold ranker who led them had been able to deploy what looked like a rare defensive construct.

The creature was of gold rank, a peak one, and it was proving quite the task for the gold ranker whose blade flashed with its tails, catching and deflecting as quickly as possible. Ajax heard the screaming power of flying constructs on their way, sleek shaped things that were manned by ascenders falling from the skies like lightning as they unleashed a torrent of intent and mana fueled attacks on the creature, bombarding it as it screamed in pain.

The gold ranker became a blur, the clouds above him booming as with every strike, lightning arced down like a blade, slicing into the creature that did its best to heal itself. Ajax found himself moving again, cursing his reflexes as he sliced another tail that went for another silver ranker.

“GET BACK” he commanded, noting the error of his ways as the command settled on the silver rankers who scuttled backwards like frightened birds.

Gold rankers were not supposed to have such powerful commands at their disposals, but it had done the work he intended, the silvers were clear of the area. The moment he actually focused on the creature, raising void bringer as he pumped just a little power into the weapon, the gold ranker flew clear.

“smart” he thought.

He had been trained well, by Moyo?, he doubted it, probably someone under him, the gold’s sword skills were average, nothing of note, nothing to show he had been trained by the titan blade. He swung the weapon, praying he had been able to control his strength. The intent attack carved a path through the land, tearing the creature in half as well as the pathway that had been slowly corrupting the land. It obliterated its existence, wiping it from reality, leaving Ajax blinking in shock.

The attack had borne a mixture of both chaotic and cosmic energies, each tempering the other, cosmic keeping chaotic in balance, doing nothing but to cleanly wipe out the filth from reality, allowing the planet to heal in its own way. Cries of joy erupted as the gold ranker floated to him.

“You have my thanks stranger, clan storm callers thank you” he said.

Ajax bowed as well, storm callers?, not titan blade?. He managed to keep his facial reaction smooth, sheathing his blade even as the Stormcaller’s eyes flicked at it before it disappeared.

“What sect are you from honored gold?” he asked.

Ajax paused, weighing his answer before speaking.

“The reaping katana” he said softly, warring with his reply within himself.

The gold’s stared at him confused.

“Where are you from then?, somewhere far to the east?” he asked.

“West actually, unexplored land, we saw the signs, and my people sent me ahead” he replied smoothly.

“huh” the gold said.

Before he could further ask Ajax questions, a loud boom came from the city in the distance, klaxons blaring as he turned from Ajax, floating to the skies with a look of grim determination on his face. Ajax took one step, fading back into the darkness softly, watching as the gold turned back to address him, confusion in his eyes at his absence. Stormcallers, were they a sect allied to the clan of the titan blade?, impossible, a sect couldn’t control an entire world. All answers resulted to a clan then, an entire clan allied to the titan blade, meaning Moyo had two clans under his rule.

Meaning he had a house, meaning he was a ruler.

The thought stunned him even as he trudged his way through the crowds, marching with the throngs as they got to the giant gates of the city where bronze ranked experts manned the gates, watching as the people poured in and then into the underground bunkers. His eyes picked up whispers.

“No more ascensions”

“Ranks are stalled.”

“Skills still work fine though.”

The Archailect was a shell of its former self, this much he could feel from the air despite the weight of its presence. Fading away from the lines marching into the bunker, he propelled himself to the top of a spire, eyes roaming the entire city, searching for a cross country tele hub or at least a sign of some power greater than gold, the world had to have diamonds and even a master afterall. He sighted the palace in the middle of the city and watched quietly.

Built with shimmering crystals, each charged with mana and electricity, he would find answers there. Flying towards the castle, he stopped a few meters away, aware of defensive constructs the palace would definitely have, the winds around the castle flowing serenely despite the raging thunderstorms and flashes of lightning the citizens of the planet were apparently used to. Lightning flowed past him, ignoring him like he wasn’t there as he wrapped himself into the clouds, watching as a large ornately designed vessel moved from the east towards the castle itself.

It no doubt bore someone important judging by the splendour, that and the diamond ranked power he felt burning from inside it. With a thought, tapping into his stealth skills he had honed for years, he moved closer to the craft, flowing from cloud to cloud as quickly as the construct, with his restricted access to his skills, he could only rely on his own self-taught skills.

He passed through the barrier like a wraith, the stealth runes he felt in the air ignoring his presence, something to do with the cosmic energy within him resonating with them. And with one fluid move, detached himself from the craft, flying into the darkness and staying still. The vessel opened to reveal a brown-haired cropped man wearing a dark blue tinted glass, dressed in a blue coat with the embroidery of a bolt of lightning above a mountain, he paused as he got out. Taking off his glasses as he cleaned it, he glanced around, as if sensing something was off, Ajax stilling himself, willing the darkness to protect him.

It was something chaos was good at, stealth, and it served him well in this instance, the man putting on his glasses back and marching into the building. Releasing a huff of tension, Ajax glanced around, watching as patrolling units of silver rankers and some clad in what looked like mithril armored giant forms standing sentries in the outside, weapons sweeping all around.

“Construct empire technology?” he thought to himself.

What part of the Archailect was he in anyway?, he timed the sweep, watching as the darkness elongated and moved, flowing with the darkness. It took him a second to realize he had fallen into a trap, caught in one so subtle it marveled him, like prey, he had been given a false sense of safety, trapped in a web. Cursing as he rolled away, venom laced needles slamming into the ground where he stood a bare second ago as alarm blared, and the defenders shouted.

He came to a stop, staring at a masked covered ascender, a diamond ranker from the looks of his almost elusive aura. The mask painted in the form of a spider with two slits for eyes was worn by a grey cloak wearing ascender, two short blades in hand and around him his aura pieced into threads of intent and mana, a stealth specialist. Before Ajax could talk, the armored forms opened fire and he yelped even as he dodged through the rounds of bullets that tore through his former position.

He unshrouded his core to diamond rank, feeling his power burn through his form as he moved, his blade still sheathed. The spider masked ascender met him in combat, movements fluid as they were calculating, impressing Ajax, he would had complimented the deathly silent ascender had he not been aiming to kill him. As if that wasn’t enough, he had to dodge the attacks of the armored ascenders, creating distance between the both of them, cursing as the castle’s security caught up to him.

A runic circle burst to life beneath his feet as he let a bit of his chaotic energy seep, shattering the workings so smoothly, it would had no doubt left the mages who had summoned them puzzled. The spider realized immediately, jumping backwards and drawing on something in the air, battle instincts saved Ajax from being diced into a hundred pieces, blade drawn to stop the almost imperceptible intent threads from slicing his body.

“DISPEL” he commanded them, watching as they unraveled from reality.

Then the other diamond ranker arrived from the skies above like a bolt of lightning, Ajax wondered why he simply hadn’t arrived from the castle he had just entered. He wiped out the thought when he felt the sharpness and lethality of the intent laced attack that crashed into him from on high.

Now this was a swordsman.

He paused that thought when he stared down the barrel of a gun, the ascender staring at him with cold detachment.

“You have one chance to say who you are” he said.

“Ajax” Ajax replied.

The ascender raised an eyebrow, Ajax wasn’t sure if it was a prompt for him to continue or if he thought he was mocking him. He took his chances.

“Ajax of the reaping katana, I know Moyo, you may know him as the titan blade” he completed.

He felt the entire area burn with power as he completed his words, watching the man in front of him literally spark with lightning.

“invader” he said and released the trigger.

Ajax barely had time to surround himself in a sphere of chaotic and cosmic power, all attacks being nullified as he bounced away as if in a bubble.

“we’re friends!” he shouted, getting irritated.

One swing of his blade, it was all it would take to wipe out every ascender in this castle, but even as he felt something above the skies lock in on him, he opened the sphere, raising his hands in surrender, hoping they were kind enough to look favourably on prisoners.

“Take me to him and I’ll prove myself!” he shouted.

“Assuming he doesn’t attack me on sight” Ajax thought sourly to himself.

He watched the grey cloaked masked man put one hand on the diamond lightning ascender who had both blade and gun pointed in his direction. Ajax realized every single weapon was pointed in his direction, even whatever terrible construct was literally above the planet pointed at him, that, he would need ruler ranked power to even deflect, whatever clan this was, Moyo had hit it big having an alliance with them.

He watched the lightning diamond reluctantly sheathe both gun and blade, using one finger to gesture at him to float down, Ajax bit back his indignation, complying. He landed a few meters from the man, watching as he spoke.

“I am vice clan lord Julius of the stormcallers, you said you are Ajax?, the Ajax?” he said.

Ajax froze.

“you’ve heard of me?” he asked.

“Yes, just now, through me” a voice said as a pathway made of webs opened up and a young woman with silver hair stepped through.

The entire castle went to their knees, even the diamond rankers as she stopped a few meters from him, she was master ranked. She stared at him with rune laced eyes, Ajax feeling uncomfortable, almost naked from her gaze that seemed to read his entire existence.

‘curious” she said.

“I saw you swear allegiance to that being of oblivion” she finished.

Ajax had to restrain himself from drawing his blade, his mind calculating his odds even as diamond rankers poured through the pathway, each in different colors, followed by a man that stank of the aspect of the titan. A halo above his head, eyes of purple and raw power burning from him, Ajax knew he would have to at least unshroud his core to ruler rank and then some to even have a chance against them.

“Who are you?” he asked.

“The question is, what a traitor like you is doing here, one call to the brigade and the overseer would be here with chains to drag you to whatever hole they can fit you in” the woman replied.

“Then again, I doubt it would keep you there, abomination that you are” she finished with venom lacing her words.

Ajax wondered if she was related to the dragons in any way to hate him as much as this.

“We are the clan leaders of house titan blade” the man said.

“House?” Ajax said, surprise etched all over his face.

“And in the name of the titan blade, by the lord of this great empire, you are placed under arrest” the woman said.

More of those grey cloaked ascenders surrounded him, weaving runes of restriction around him, runes he could easily had shattered, he knew that, the woman knew that, judging from her eerie gaze, and yet he allowed them to. She spoke again.

“Your presence here bodes bad news for us, are you here to end us all, destroyer?’ she asked.

“I only came to see a friend” Ajax said softly.

The woman stared at him for a few seconds.

“we’ll see about that” she replied as she turned, marching back through the pathway, the man who burned with the titan aspect following her. Ajax took a deep breath, watching as the diamonds all kept one hand on their weapons, staring at him gravely.

“I could had killed you all you know” he muttered as he allowed them march him through the pathway.