Martha walked below the cloudy skies; her gaze focused on the tall spire in the distance of the palace grounds on the planet of Ibere. Walking across the large palace grounds that could comfortably be a mini continent in its own right, large walls of Aserite shone in the distance humming with pure unbridled power. she tightened her robe around her body, watching as the skies above were being cleared of vessels to reduce traffic, in preparation for the fleet of the legion. She had felt the power of Moyo shake the planet to its core, the aether in the air growing stronger, so strong in fact, that the silver rankers and below had to be evacuated to domes and safe areas where the aether could be filtered for them to even function properly.

And then Ayo had contacted her, with the ravings of Shola, the stellar sentient of the Defiance who kept saying that Moyo was calling her. Martha felt irked, irritated truly, her sight had shown her nothing of such, everything was still an inky blackness that corroded her sight. If he was back, why hadn’t he contacted her first?, she wasn’t sure if it was jealousy or maternal instincts she was feeling, but she had assumed she was his right-hand woman. She shook her head to clear her mind of any stray thoughts.

She knew Moyo, whatever had not allowed him to come straight home was dire news, and the fact that he needed the legion with him was a sign that somewhere in the infinite space, things were worse, and she knew that, her fellow…. oracles had said so. She stretched her hand, a multi-coloured coin manifesting on it with a single eye etched into it. Closing it in her fist, she walked on.

“Not yet” she thought to herself.

She didn’t need external influence interfering just yet, not when she had the literal ultimate trump card in the titan blade himself, something she knew they were truly after. She felt the presence of her first hand as he manifested next to her, his grey cloak billowing softly.

“My lady” he started.

“report” she replied.

“As commanded, half the fleet of the legion are near orbit already, the omega blade is with them, they’ll dock at the orbital station, all troops have been commanded to come down though” he finished.

“Good, and accommodations?” Martha asked even though she knew the answer.

“Ready for them, along with weapons and feeding, ground defenses are ready as well, lord Boyle reports that orbital batteries as well as surface to air batteries are online” he replied.

“Good, the other clan head?” she asked.

“Lady Samantha is with him” he replied.

Martha frowned, nodding as she walked on, a loud boom drawing her attention to the skies above, large shapes could bee seen in orbit, the legion had arrived. It consisted of the Kaminaris of the first cohort, the claws of the second cohort, lances of the third cohort, Zhiyuans of the fourth cohort and brawlers of the fifth cohort. She had prepared for the wearied ascenders, an entire domain had been set apart for them to get their feet, to relax before the inevitable attack would come for them. They knew it would, they had seen battle, they had watched their lord supposedly perish and now half their brothers were going on some adventure to find him.

The refugees would be processed at the orbital station before being sent to different worlds of the empire. She stopped at the front of the spire, carved out of crystals, it shone with the aspect of the titan, and she paused to admire its new look. It glowed with a mixture of gold and purple, and Martha felt the raw power from it, shaking her head as she mused about just what new power Moyo had gotten. Guarded by gold rankers who knelt as she approached, her hand next to her, they wore the purple robe and golden sash tied at the waist of the order of the titan.

Through her efforts, and no small convincing of Matthew, the pontiff of the order had managed to reduce whatever supposedly religious activities the order members were attempting to engage in. it didn’t help that those who joined received the boons of the titan blade passed through Matthew himself. Powers that grew as they slowly ascended the ranks of the order. It was why Martha ordered the most promising of their members to either the legion or the clans themselves, to let them see that Moyo was just an ascender, albeit a powerful one though.

She had relented during these days, as the refugee ships poured in, wide eyed people hoping, praying that the titan blade shielded them from the coming darkness, it had led to something of a following, venerations growing in number. So much that Matthew had come to her, awe in his face that whatever or wherever Moyo was, he had an absurd number of venerations to work with, enough to rival the other primordials. She had been the one to congratulate lord Altair Thousandblades as he had ascended to the rank of primordial a few days before, the ascender actually deciding to send forces to Ibere to shore up the world.

Martha had politely declined, the primordial somewhat offended, his children and soon to be rulers as well, Killian and Duval stating she didn’t trust them. Martha had come to close to pointing out to them that it was under their watch that Moyo had met his temporary end, it wouldn’t had been fair to them though, as she heard, they had faced down four abyssal lords along with most of their forces, it was every man for himself. She had pointed out that they were an empire now, and if they couldn’t stand for themselves, then when all these was over, they’d be seen as easy pickings.

She wasn’t sure what surprised the Thousandblades the most, the fact that she was so sure that they would survive, or the fact that she considered the house an empire without the presence of the titan blade. She supposed she understood, other houses ruled with vassals, the house of the titan blade was a family, one that had gone through the fires together. She placed her hand on the crystal doors, carved from the same crystal, feeling the aspect of the titan within her resonate with it.

“OPEN” she commanded.

The doors obeyed, swinging open of their own accords to reveal a chapel looking interior. A statue of Moyo stood in the middle, lifelike except it had been carved to giant size. In one hand he held dominion, his blade, and in the other he held a child, his body protecting the frame of the child. It was a representation of what the titan meant to the masses, a protector, and she could see a few poor souls whispering short prayers to him. According to Moyo himself, he rarely heard them unless he actually channeled veneration, and even at that, it was merely emotions being transmitted, not actual words. That wasn’t why she was here though, she moved like a wraith between the gathered members of the order who whispered furiously to themselves, something akin to panic in their gazes.

She had gotten a call from Samantha, telling her to hurry to the spire, dropping everything she had been doing, she had made her way. Pathway opening had been restricted; part of the security measures Boyle had put in place as his clan members had begun working on the defenses of Ibere a few weeks back. It had helped that most of militarily strategic minds had been recruited to his clan, allowing them to become a clan of both constructors and war strategists. She made her way deeper into the spire, going down into the deepest parts of the spire.

She paused as a diamond ranker revealed his aura, a large pole in his hand that burned with pure flame mana, floating above his head was a fully grown flame elemental spirit, eyes wide as he prepared to defend the entrance of the final chamber. She revealed herself, impressed with the ascender whose eyes went wide immediately and fell to his knees.

“Forgive this one lady Martha” he said, grabbing the spirit that raged at her.

Martha smiled,.

“Think nothing of it, you were simply doing your job” she replied.

“I’m impressed you sensed me, how did you do it?” she asked.

The diamond stared at her, eyes red, a reflection of his mage path.

“a skill of mine, it allows me to bathe the entire area in heat, sort of like a heat vision since the crystals are cool to the area” he explained.

Martha nodded, making a note to herself to either get Samantha to recruit him or join the legion, wondering how he had escaped her radar. The diamond stepped aside, allowing her to pass.

“Lady Martha” he called out, Martha pausing.

“There have been rumors” he started, unsure of his words.

She stared at him, no expression on her face.

“Rumors?” she asked.

“Yes, about lord titan blade, that he returns, that he’s not dead” he said, words stumbling out of his mouth.

It was bad enough that word of his apparent demise at war had spread to the house, but they had quenched it, saying they were lies, trying to control the narrative to avoid full scale panic. As a diamond ranker, it was normal he’d have access to the truth, but with his return still being something of a hush seeing as it had been mere hours ago she had gotten wind of it, she wondered again. Placing one hand on the diamond, she spoke.

“We can only hope, but we both know he wouldn’t abandon us in our greatest moment of need, right?” she said with a soft smile.

His eyes widened, beating one hand to hand to his chest, Martha nodding as she pushed on, leaving the ascender whose faith in Moyo had been restored, she made it to the final room. It was the personal abode of Matthew, his personal meditation room, and where the pontiff was currently in the throes of something. Samantha had explained it as some sort of possession, but it had been different from Moyo had spoken through him, his herald as Matthew explained. She paused, glancing at her hand who opened it, letting her through, Martha stepping into the space and marvelling.

What had formerly been a serene room filled with books was now a scattered place with books strewn around, Samantha standing in a corner, staring at Matthew who seemed to be writing something on the walls of his room. It was more like carvings, the letters something she had absolutely no idea of.

“Runic letters” Samantha said as a form of greeting.

“Or at least, some form of it” she completed.

“How long as he been like this?” Martha asked.

“a few hours ago,” Samantha replied.

“The same time we got news of his return” Martha said, connecting the dots as Samantha nodded.

“Do you know what they say?” Martha asked.

“No, but I do know they’re linked to Moyo though” the arcane elemental replied.

Martha stared at the words, something clicking in her mind.

“Wait a minute” she said as Samantha turned to her.

Turning to her hand, she spoke.

“Get to the library, inform Thaddeus that you need a red book from section 2 of the third sphere, if he gives you lip, tell him he’s off the exploratory project” Martha said as the hand nodded and vanished.

“It still makes me shudder when you guys do that” Samantha said, eyeing the spot where the hand had once stood.

“I recognize one of these letters” Martha said.

“Really?” Samantha asked, intrigued.

“I can’t definitely tell you what it means, but what I do know is that it’s something related to the old tongue of Moyo’s clan” Martha replied.

“The Yoruba?, of course!” Samantha said, slapping her hand to her head.

“I suppose so, but it doesn’t look like something you can decipher overnight” Martha said.

“And our resident herald isn’t at home” Martha continued, eyeing Matthew who was still lost in his trance as he kept drawing the letters.

“You think it’s a message from Moyo?” Samantha asked.

“I doubt it, he got across to Shola fine, plus he’s not the whole mysterious person” Martha replied.

“True, makes you wonder” Samantha said, staring at the words.

“perhaps” she said, pausing.

“Perhaps?” Martha asked.

“Perhaps he’s not doing it consciously” Samantha said.

Martha could see a line of theory coming together within the gaze of the elemental queen as she was called by her people.

“We have no idea where he’s been, but we can bet he’s grown stronger, much, much stronger” she continued, Martha watching her.

“If Matthew is his herald, this could be something related intimately to Moyo” she completed.

“Like some sort of secret name or something?” Martha asked.

She had heard that primordials and ancients wielded powers that defied logic, the same way an advocate would see the powers of a diamond and their minds would just melt at the possibilities. She crushed the thought of trying to contact Altair or any of the allied primordials for help, she couldn’t even if she wanted to, with the darkness, everything outside of their system was hard to get in contact with. They would keep this under wraps for now, see where it led, so she turned to Samantha.

“Keep working on it, get the book from my hand, see what you cand decipher” she said.

“what’s in the book?” Samantha asked.

“Moyo once wrote his, ah, journal in his native language, sub-dialect of the Yoruba tongue” Martha said.

“Should we be going through it?” Samantha asked uncomfortable at the thought.

“He gave it to me, something to remember him by, besides, it’s the journal of a young Moyo, just learning his language. He wrote the equivalent or at least he attempted to, of each letter in English, that should help” Martha said shrugging.

Samantha sighed.

“I’ll need a lot of coffee for this” she said.

“Elixirs of endurance could help; we could spare a few legendary ones” Martha replied.

Samantha gave her a deadpanned look.

“I make the damned things” she said.

Martha smiled.

“Rest Samantha, we’ll need it in the coming days” she said as she left the room, mind adding another factor to the list of things.

Ω

Moyo landed on another planet, one that was still whole, at least to an extent, there, she watched vessels battling large chaotic creatures. There was no longer an atmosphere, the seas were dried up, and oddly enough, large cables of power that somehow ran through the planet were corroded and seemed to be turning to flakes. What held the planet, at least to an extent was what looked like a messenger, the sight had caused Moyo to pause though, trying to be sure of what he was seeing.

He refused to open his Hud, the sheer weight of what he had to go through was something that would come later. The messenger was a thing of mithril and cables, wings made of tiny metal parts fused together, eyes that glowed gold and a powerful sword that crackled with lightning. Against it was a creature that would drive any ascender to madness, its form shifted continuously, one minute a scary creature he couldn’t name, the next a wraith, the next a slavering beast. Moyo could see it took the entire willpower of the messenger to hold it at bay, even as the forces on the ground fought on, dying in their hundreds as they released drones after drones to battle the never end of the chaotic creatures.

Moyo was there, behind the back of the creature, grabbing it as it shrieked, its head rotating 180 degrees to face him,

“You!” it croaked as its attention was drawn away from the messenger who struck immediately,

Blade parting the creature to two as it died, the messenger panting,

“Titan blade” it said,

Moyo raised an eyebrow.

“aren’t you a sight for sore eyes” he replied,

Without giving the creature time to speak, he dived down, Oro in hand,

“DAPADA!” he roared.

Released his power, the entire word quaked as he felt reality attempt to stitch itself back, fighting the aspect of chaos. The creatures caught on fire, burning as quickly as they multiplied, Moyo at the forefront, androids of different shapes and sizes roaring in sheer joy. The chaotic creatures formed a face, one of a skull, eyes red and glowing.

“Titan blade, disciple of my bastard son” it said.

“I’m guessing you’re the grim?” Moyo asked.

“I go by Azael now” it replied.

“My my, how large your face looks” Moyo said, whistling.

“I see him in you, even now” Azael said.

“I am nothing like Ajax” Moyo growled.

“I should hope not, he was too weak willed” Azael replied.

Was Moyo mistaken?, he thought the both of them should be working together to bring down the Archailect, was there trouble in paradise?. He kept a cold look.

“Oh?, trouble?, or has he betrayed you too?” Moyo asked.

The face chuckled.

“This is our first meeting titan blade, a pity it is coming from his carcass of a galaxy” Azael said.

“we’ll stop you” Moyo replied.

“You, I believe, even my lord is wary of you, but who else?, the primordial?, the harbinger?, right now their last bastion is under siege and not even you can make it in time” Azael said.

“I will consume the very aspect of the supreme of construct in the mortal realm, cutting off one of your pillars, one by one they will fall” Azael said.

Moyo stretched his hand out.

“Goodbye Mr Azael” he said.

Azael laughed.

“Until we meet again, titan blade” he said as an explosion of the aspect of Moyo wiped out the creatures.

He stumbled, breathing slowly as he felt the drain on his form, he needed his rune, where his true power laid, these body was held together by sheer willpower and authority, and he was draining it already. He couldn’t wait for the Defiance to make it to him, many worlds were under siege simultaneously, but he would do his best, no more was he weak.

He would break Azael.