Ajax sat right in front of Martha, both occupying the near large palace hall she called a room. He sat as still as he could, eyes on her as she went through printed reports after reports in silence, signing with what he could only call some sort of heat pen. He considered it redundant when she could had just sent it through her Hud, but far from him to point it out, he was simply here to get the payment Josh promised him.

The Shieldborne had their own personal funds, set aside for their use, and Ajax had asked the Valoris as he called himself why he hadn’t paid him personally. To be frank, he wanted to be as far away from the oracle as possible, aside from the fact that he wouldn’t admit it to himself that she scared him, she also irked him out with her holier than thou attitude and he had just enough of that from her.

With his chaotic aspect sealed away to relieve him of discomfort on the domain realm of Moyo, he was at half strength in a way, relying also on the borrowed aspect of Eses. He wondered if that made him her emissary of some sort, but with no requests or even orders coming from her as well as his messed up Hud, Ajax for the first time in a very long time found himself without purpose, aside from training Josh that was. He once again took stock of the office, the large shelf filled with memory shards and knowledge from a library that somehow was linked spatially to her office.

It was deep within the palace of Moyo, taking an entire wing that could be called a kingdom if he measured correctly. Filled with bustling ascenders, both of her clan and others, moving around hastily as it occurred to him that a war was actually on the horizon, a war that would inevitably knock on the doors on the fledgeling empire of the titan blade himself. He moved uncomfortably on his seat with a sigh, Martha looking at him from the rim of her glasses, pausing in what she was doing,

“Am I delaying you Mr Ajax?” she asked.

Ajax gave her a deadpanned look.

“Silently scribbling away at papers while leaving me seated and staring at you?, I would wonder why” he retorted.

Martha tapped her pen on the table slowly, removing her glasses and reclined on the chair, Ajax could feel the presence of the gold ranked spiders above, crouched on the beams and awaiting a simple signal from Martha to attack should Ajax show the slightest signs of attacking her. It was cute, and in better times, Ajax could had scared them, seeing as they were peak golds and their veils were perfect, just, too perfect. Their veiled presences actually left voids in the exact spot they stood on, a tell sign for someone like him, he focused solely on Martha though who stood, her curves outlined despite the flowing gown she wore.

She gave a great sigh, inclining her head before nodded.

“Come with me Mr Ajax” she said.

Ajax cocked his head upwards and smiled at the spiders who froze as they realized they’d been found out, standing and walking with her. He had explored the continent sized palace and had come to a single conclusion, this wasn’t Moyo, at least, not the one he remembered. Filled with aristocracy, the highest echelons of the worlds Moyo called his own who had the funds to purchase a single piece of land on the palace ground. His presence had been odd, a single looking ragged looking man with a blade strolling up and down. He had been given a badge, one with a mountain and a blade above it carved in Aserite, the single emblem of authority of Moyo himself.

Shocked when Martha had given him, he asked why, Martha had paused before replying him.

“Because I felt like” she had replied.

He doubted it, but he wasn’t ready to look into the mind of an oracle, he had heard of others who had tried and had gotten their very minds cooked. He chose to believe she was trusting him, that was, until he had seen her cleanly decapitate the skull of some philanthropist diamond ranked woman who just moved to the palace grounds. The large continent, despite in its entirety being known as the palace grounds was actually broken down into two quarters. The outer part was where these so called nobles lived, heads of entire clans loyal to the main clans of the house, playing their politics despite the war footing the entire planet was on.

He had come across the scene by luck, hopping around through the skies with his power, under the watchful yet cautious gaze of the sentinels that guarded the inner palace themselves. One minute Martha had been talking to her, watching as the woman who would soon lose her life in question had been giggling with a smiling Martha. It had been the first time he’d see the oracle give a genuine smile, and then her hand moved with a blur like movement only a master could summon. The woman still had a smile plastered to her face when her head flew off her shoulders, her guards frozen for a brief second before they moved to draw their weapons and spells.

A deadly mistake.

Golds that they were, they hadn’t sensed the spiders who were golds as well that had sneaked up to them, Ajax did, and he watched them dispatch the guards just as quickly as they arrived. And then, the Shadowweavers’ head had turned to his direction, Ajax sighing to himself. He was in her front in a second, staring at the gory scene, hearing the thrum of transport vessels the sentinels used moving towards their position. Martha glanced at him.

“No questions why I did it?” she asked.

Ajax had shrugged, biting into a fruit the seller had called an ‘apple’, its juicy taste spreading in his mouth.

“She had begun selling spaces in the underground fortress on one of our planets, a free place meant as a refuge for every soul. I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt, she’s a member of the earliest colonizers that came along with us from Gaia” she explained.

Ajax glanced to where the body was already breaking down into aether and mana, biting into his apple again.

“And the calvary coming?” he asked.

She smiled.

“they’re executing a total wiping of her assets and fellow conspirators, her clan will be sanctioned and be pushed completely out of Ibere, no one takes advantage of the titan’s benevolence” the oracle had completed with a finality.

He took that memory to heart everytime he had conversations with her, that, and the fact that he always kept a thin defensive line of aura all over his body, just in case she decided to go rage mode on him like the unfortunate woman. He dragged his attention back into the now, calmly following her past the wall that had parted for her, giving them access to a tunnel that led deep underground. He could feel the spatial magic taking effect, runes carved into the very walls of the tunnels aiding the aether that powered the mini pathway.

He kept his vigilance up.

“Mind sharing where we’re going?” he asked.

“Where I’m pretty sure you’ve wanted to go for a while now” she replied.

Ajax raised his eyebrow.

“And that would be?” he asked.

“Why to see Mr Rohan of course” she said glancing back at him.

Ajax paused.

“You let him out of his prison?, why in the archailects’ name would you do such a thing?” he asked.

She shook her head.

“There are many ways to get a person to talk Mr Ajax” she replied.

“I’ll take that as you didn’t release the psychotic bastard then” Ajax responded.

“Besides the fact that the very action would be counterintuitive, seeing the number of resources it took to catch him” she started.

“You mean I did?’ Ajax added.

“Releasing him would be stupid, moronic even, but no, he’s simply not in a position to attempt escaping” she finished without answering his question.

He kept silent after that, matching her steps as they began to meet checkpoints, sentinels, peak gold rankers who saluted her passage and eyed him warily. He glanced upwards, staring at the runes that were carved above them.

“Am I to believe we’ve traversed at least half of the continent in few minutes?’ he asked.

“you’re the powerful ascender, you tell me” Martha responded half-heartedly.

Ajax supposed it was possible, localized pathways carved into structures were not unheard of, just sometimes unstable and risky, hence the use of tele hubs. They had arrived at a large door, where Josh stood, clad in his armor and the Aetherblaster attached to his hip, Ajax didn’t see his hammer with him. The Valoris was flanked by five diamond ranked sentinels, each carrying their signature hammers and eyes locked on him. Josh nodded to Martha.

“Lady Martha” he said.

“Lord Valoris” she replied, glancing at the sentinels who bowed to her.

Josh’s eyes flicked to Ajax, and then to her questioningly, she nodded.

“he’s needed” she responded.

Josh turned to Ajax again dubiously before glancing back at her.

“The order wouldn’t like that, it’s bad enough he carries the very aspect of the great destroyer” he said softly.

“Nice to meet you here too” Ajax muttered.

Martha patted Josh’s shoulder.

“Matthew?” she asked.

“Still in whatever trance he’s in, Samantha says he’s almost done, whatever the hell it is he’s scribbling” Josh responded.

That perked Ajax’s curiosity, Matthew, if he wasn’t mistaken, was the man who literally burned with the aspect of the titan, much like the champion Idris. He wondered if the man was some sort of emissary of Moyo, he doubted it, he looked to scholarly to be a warrior, like one of the numerous scribes that littered the palace of Altair, always recording each blade forged by the ancient. He saw Martha glancing at him, her eyes glowing as she placed a hand on the great door of mithril.

“Touch nothing, do nothing, just, stay behind me” she ordered.

Ajax simply glared at her.

The great doors opened, Josh marching in with Martha, accompanied with the sentinels. Within the room was a dimly lit corridor filled with lamps that burned weakly, incense filling the entire area and ascenders garbed in purple and gold robes moved around slowly, bowing lightly to Martha, eyes locking on Ajax. He wondered what their problems were when a diamond ranker stepped out of the darkness, a bald-headed man with arms folded behind himself, a light goatee on his face. floating behind him was some weird creature that looked like different creatures stitched together by a child.

It gave a gurgling sound, eyes locked on him, now this was eerie, what the hell was being encouraged within the depths of the house?. The diamond ranker bowed to Martha.

“Lukas” Martha said.

“Lady Martha” the man replied in his deep baritone voice.

“We welcome you to the Confinium, your prisoner awaits, however” the diamond named Lukas said as he pointed to Ajax.

“That man reeks of the destroyer, allowing him within would be desecration, despite his surprising help apprehending the agent of the destroyer” he completed.

“So you all just freely inform diamonds of the greater happenings of the Archailect?” Ajax asked, insulted.

“Knowledge is freedom Ajax, we, unlike the majority of the Archailect, believe in keeping our people in the know” Josh responded.

“Did you also teach them to talk to their superiors anyhow?, cause believe me, I could take all their heads right now and they’d be none the wiser” Ajax said.

“And I wouldn’t even need to draw my blade” he finished.

The diamond turned to him, cold eyes staring at him, Martha sighing, turning to him also.

“Lord Ajax omega blade, former master and probable friend of lord Moyosore titan blade” she started.

“Blessed be the name of the defender” the diamond and every other purple robed ascender uttered together.

Josh gave a grunt of irritation, Martha shooting the diamond a stink eye, Ajax simply chuckled.

“They even worship him?, oh, he’d love this, does he know?” he asked.

“No, we venerate him, not worship, he’s a primordial, a warrior first and foremost” the diamond retorted.

“Then you copy his fighting skills, you emulate him in character, not create a damned cult around him!” Ajax growled.

Martha snapped her fingers and a chill settled across the room, the feeling of a thousand eyes staring at him from the darkness caused Ajax to shudder lightly, all attention drawn to her. The diamond and his ascenders went down to their knees.

“We beg your forgiveness lady Martha” the diamond said.

Martha tsked.

“The prisoner Lukas, time grows short” she replied.

“of course,” Lukas replied.

Ajax made to move when Martha placed one hand on his chest, halting him while Josh marched on with the sentinels.

“Listen carefully” she started, her tone cold, grating on Ajax’s nerves.

“Whatever title you hold, its meaningless on Ibere, you hear me?” she started.

“Each of these cultists, as you call them, are vaunted ascenders, whose very lives were changed either directly or indirectly by Moyo. They carry his boon, his blessings and the farthest thing from the fucked up cultists you have in the Archailect, you hear me?” she growled.

“Lay off my people, I’m trying to prepare you for his return, he’s not the Moyo you knew, he’s been tempered in flames, he’s the primordial of a fucking house, need I say more?, lord Ajax?” she finished.

It took a lot of restraint for Ajax not to utter a single word, but he nodded.

“Good, I respect and despite you in equal measures, it takes a lot of balls to bring down a house as powerful as Dracon, something I intended on doing if they had crossed us at some point” she said.

Ajax simply stared at her, unsure of what he should say.

“So realize something Ajax, Moyo might be the freedom fighter, the defender and protector as he’s called’ she said, turning away from him.

“But someone’s got to do the dirty work of keeping that freedom running and his hands clean” she finished.

Ajax followed her after a few seconds, moving deeper into the corridor.

Ω

Ajax stared at Rohan, so bound up in Aserite chains from his neck down that he felt pity for him for a brief second. The once leader of the undying cult had entire pikes drilled into his very palms, straight into the ground, the coffin with which he had been transported was right above him, ready to fall at a moment’s notice. He noticed the eyes of Rohan following his movements, Ajax pausing next to Martha who sat on a table, picking her nails idly, Ajax watching the terse silence as the ascenders of the order of the titan made a circle around Rohan.

Together they produced rods of Aserite and stabbed it into the ground, pulse of titan aspect flowing heavily into the room. Ajax felt his chest constrict as he stifled a groan.

“Hurts, doesn’t it?” Rohan’s hoarse voice asked.

Ajax glanced at him and then to Martha.

“You simply allow him to talk?” he asked.

“For this meeting, his lips are to be sealed immediately we leave” she replied.

“Oh, hear this joke” Rohan said enthusiastically.

Ajax wondered how he was still upbeat, his red eyes and dry tone said something else, but Ajax could hear it in his tone, he still had something, some trump card. Rohan tried to move, the chains glowing as the smell of cooked meat filled the room, Rohan cursing, tears dripping down his face.

“a bastard, an oracle and a pretender walk into a prison cell” he said as he began laughing madly" Ajax gritted his teeth

“I guess I’m the pretender?” Josh asked idly.

Martha snapped her head up to the Valoris, putting one finger to her lips, shaking her head.

“Oh, come on, let the child talk!, you brought down Rohan, leader of the undying cult!, you have as much right to be here as that bastard of a brother of mine” Rohan said.

Ajax tensed at that, eyes flicking about as Josh snapped his head to Ajax in surprise, the order ascenders tensing, Martha simply sighed, clipping her nails idly. Ajax stared at her, she knew, she somehow knew.

“Fucking oracles” he cursed internally.

Martha gave a light smile, as if she had heard his thoughts before speaking.

“Get this over with Ajax, we have a war against the prime of the abyss to prepare for” she said.

Rohan chuckled.

“Go on brother, what do you want to know?, father’s plans?, how he despises you?, the son who couldn’t live up to his expectations, hmm?” Rohan said.

Ajax simply stared at Rohan, sighing before sitting on the ground, he felt all eyes on him, even Rohan who seemed to be confused. Ajax gathered his thoughts, shutting his eyes as he felt a weight on his chest, heavy, needing to be dropped urgently. He opened his eyes.

“I don’t hate you” he started.

“What- “

“Make no mistake, I want to rip your head off your shoulders, just not for the reasons you believe” Ajax continued, cutting Rohan off,

“you’ve caused the deaths of untold billions, for those reasons alone, I want you dead, that, and the harm you brought towards my disciple” Ajax said.

Rohan looked lost for words before growling.

“What madness do you speak about?” he asked.

“People die everyday in the Archailect, the very system itself is a meat grinder designed to weed out the weak!” Rohan said.

“True, but that is left to fate, not the hands with which you have drawn down untold calamity on us” Ajax said.

“you’re the one who released father” Rohan growled.

Ajax nodded.

“True, and I will pay penance for that, starting with ending his existence in time” he responded.

“I see it in your eyes Rohan” he continued.

“You want me to hate you, despise you, it’s all you’ve ever known, hate and conniving, seeds planted centuries ago by our father, no, your father, and I’m sorry for that” Ajax said as he gave a light smile, pushing himself to his feet.

“he’s coming you know!” Rohan said, rage in his eyes.

“As soon as he completely breaks down the walls around reality, this cosmos will be drowned in the howls of the chaos born, children of the great a- “Rohan said as pulse of aspect burned, shutting him up.

Ajax stared at him sadly.

“We know, we’re expecting it” he said.

Rohan took a few seconds to get himself before talking again

“The prime of the abyss comes and the reaper of chaos, the true Chaosborne lord, your empire is doomed right before it even began” he said, laughing faintly.

Martha stood up.

“Alright, we’re done here, do you have it, Lukas?” she asked.

All eyes turned to Lukas who gripped a very imperceptible thread in his hand, a thread that was attached to the back of Rohan’s head. His eyes widened.

“What did you do to me oracle?” he growled.

Martha gave a light smile, giving him no reply as she walked towards the exit, Ajax watched as Rohan tried to trash, Martha turning to Lukas.

“Totally sensory deprivation, seal him till the titan returns, assuming he doesn’t run mad by then” she said.

She turned to Rohan, a terrible smile on her face as the shadows behind her lengthened, Ajax could had sworn it had shaped itself into eight limbs, four on both sides.

“You almost killed him, back during the tournament, I heard about it, how we almost lost Moyo” she said softly.

Martha stood before Rohan, her eyes filled with a cold, unrelenting fury. The chains that bound Rohan burned with power, every link biting into his flesh. Blood trickled from his wrists, pooling beneath him.

Martha’s voice became low and venomous,.

“You see, Rohan, it's funny how life works. You almost took away the one person who meant everything to me. Moyo... my dear, sweet Moyo.” She spoke.

Circling him slowly before leaning in close, her hot breath close to his ear, she continued,.

“It may take me a long time, but I will break you Rohan, you will beg for death, for oblivion, and even that, I will deny you, not till there’s nothing let within you but a husk of a body, useless to me and anyone” she said.

“Then, and only then, will I allow you to fade into oblivion, nothing of your legacy remaining but hushed whispers” she completed.

Standing straight, she left the room, Ajax turning to Rohan who for the first time in a long time looked haunted.

“Sucks to be you” Ajax said shrugging as he left the room, the clanking of the coffin sealing Rohan away.