"Must we traverse the entire distance as if undertaking a pilgrimage?".
Elias questioned while laying face up atop the back of a bull-like beast whom he has tamed with some suggestion magic and with his arms crossed and one leg over the other while caring very little about the chaos unfolding around him as Isla tore through the horde of blood bats surrounding her with rigorous fervor lost in her own world as the words of Elias fell upon deaf ears.
He sighed to himself and began absentmindedly tapping on the mana barrier he had casted around both he and his mount so as to be spared from all that blood spraying around wantonly, she had been at this without rest for more than 1 hour now, the blood bats were notoriously difficult monsters to kill due to their impressive regenerative abilities that could even bring them back from atomization and it was quite fast also.
Plus an innate ability of theirs was that the more injuries they suffer, the stronger they become at a steady pace which could also be quickened by another ability of theirs they possess which was synchronization and the greater their numbers, the greater their strength multiplied and the faster that growth became.
For this reason and more it was always advised that a blood bat be killed at it's earlier stages when they're at their weakest through basic purification spells, sometimes if lucky and found even earlier during the four day cocoon periods of formation in crystalize blood then you burn them to ashes.
It was nigh impossible to completely wipe out their species no matter how much one may try because they come into existence through blood. So long as any blood has been spilled anywhere in the world through any form of violence, somewhere in the universe and this reality or the next then they were bound to come into existence, not from the blood itself that has been spilled but from the act itself being committed as the trigger.
People have called them the manifestations of our sins, the violence that begets more violence and the acknowledgement that it can truly never end no matter how much you may want to bring into the world because itself demands violence or the threat of it in order to maintain it's structure, nature demands violence to exist, it is an integral structure in the building blocks of reality itself and a mandate of the divine.
And that to deny both the usefulness and the tragedy of violence while hoping for peace to descend is to be an idealistic and hypocritical fool forever trapped in a cocoon of his own ignorance.
Well, that was the more sophisticated consensus about it at least. In the case of Elias, he just saw these creatures as humorous little things that the Arcane created and potential weapons of mass destruction that surely are already being carefully cultivated by quite a few powerful people and organizations in the world for centuries on end in secret.
Although no known records of being able to control them exists publicly, the boundaries of what is possible and what is not, exist to be broken by the progression of magic under the drive and desperation people can develop for the sake of power.
In essence, just ticking time bombs that may soon cause a whole lot of problems.
'Still, if such a thing is happening, and the Tower master who watches over the entire realm and many more after it allows such practices'.
'Then either he already has ways to solve it which is sure or such an event is meant to occur as a prelude to something more'.
Although the Tower master's duties include stopping most threats to the realm before they arise, occasionally sometimes there exists some specific events throughout the history of the world which remain out of his jurisdiction as they are backed by the presence of fate, something that not even he could just easily meddle with.
'Ah well, it's all just an assumption anyways'.
He raised his hands a little up high and snapped–
<
All the blood bats came to an immediate halt in mid-air and some amidst reformation, Isla stopped in her tracks also and began panting heavily but the look in her eyes were one of rage, that which she then directed towards him and commanded "release them"!.
"I'm not done yet so don't interfere".
Elias heaved a small sigh "don't be a fool, they've already caught up to you and nearly grew above".
"A minute longer and you would be dead".
"It's over now, whatever frustrations you have left in you will have to be expended later".
"Unless of course, you wish to fight me instead Isla".
They stood deadlocked in a battle of the eyes which lasted a few seconds before Isla broke contact and clicked her tongue in annoyance leading Elias to smile
"Alright then, let us continue on our way".
"It's been like a week since we undertook this journey".
She cast a look towards him and scoffed "no it hasn't, four days at most maybe".
Elias raised a brow "Is it? Hm, can't say as it confuses yet on why we must continue in such a manner".
"Even more confused on how I let myself get dragged into it".
A tired sigh escaped her lips "for an existence such as yours, I notice you whine quite a bit".
"Hurts, but I still maintain that I'm justified here" he shrugged.
The rest of their journey continued in shared silence with little to no discussions after and soon enough they were approaching the outskirts of a city, under the suggestions of Elias they decided to take lodge in one of it's taverns for the night.
The moment they walked in all heads turned towards them, most especially Elias as it felt like seeing a unicorn walk into your house and for those who were warriors with trained senses they could feel it immediately that he was one such existence that could not be trifled with.
Very quickly they spotted the tavern's manager and requested a lodge in one of their available rooms of which to their good luck weren't all booked, Elias made the necessary payments and declined the offer for refreshments before leaving to their place of stay for the night.
"Ah, I knew I was forgetting something" he paused in his steps taking Isla a bit unawares and looked towards a far distance over many thousands of miles to spot the creatures whom he'd left in a frozen state.
<
In moments the blood bats faded to bits and dusted away with the wind as both continued their walk up the stairs to their lodge, once inside and secured with some protection spells Isla turned her gaze towards him and asked "now are you ready to tell me why we had to stay here".
He pushed open the windows and took a long look at the hustle and bustle of the city's residents down below, the children still out either causing some bits of mischief wherever they see fit or helping with some errands and the guards making their nightly patrols across the land.
"Hm" Elias turned towards her and smiled "I simply wanted to rest is all".
"Now sleep Isla, arguing is pointless now".
Isla stood facing him in silence for a few moments trying to find the energy to argue, stuck in a state of feeling so annoyed she went back right back to being level headed, eventually she just turned round and walked over to the bed then took off her boots leaving it crudely at the side and then her clothing which she hung over the frame.
She stood now in nothing but her undergarments and finally let herself lay down on the bed face up with both hands resting easy over her stomach, Elias cast a cleansing spell over her and the entire room to remove any dust or grime, it didn't take long after this for her to fall into a deep sleep as the mental exhaustion overtook her while he continued observing the city deep into the night.
A little while later he made the decision to go for a walk around the city and cast a look towards the sleeping Isla before, layering some extra protective spells before teleporting onto the rooftop of the tavern. He stood in the blowing nightly breeze staring up at the skies, more specifically the oversized giant moon shining it's peaceful light onto the world.
And then his gaze snapped towards the far ends of his right almost into city's outskirts, confusion marred his face but his curiosity had been strangely awoken and in light of such a rare event occuring, he moved to satisfy it's hunger.
Elias teleported himself over to the area where he could sense the spatial disturbance originating from, but something about this was odd and untraditional. It was releasing a strange energy he'd never felt before, it wasn't mana nor the other source of power those things in the other realm possessed. No, it was really a strange new thing and this disturbance as turbulent and as violent as it looked to be on the surface felt incredibly discreet and silent.
Tears formed only to be healed and then re-opened just the same, this process repeated itself over and over again bringing Elias to the conclusion that whatever was trying to come through didn't possess the natural power to do so in one smooth move and was also facing some rejection which could only occur if said entity was foreign and did not belong to this realm, but in the same breath the foreign entity was trying it's best to be discreet while juggling between using enough power to break through the realm while battling against the rejection it was facing and then finally it's need to be secretive.
"Quite an uphill battle I've come across here" Elias made a silent comment to himself and chuckling lightly at the end.
And he also had to realize what terrible terrible luck this foreign entity was having, perhaps if it's entry point was somewhere else in space or on another world, it'd surely be having an easier time. But it had to be on this world in particular and now it was locked in an ongoing battle where retreating meant certain death.
Assuming the entity intentionally did or didn't choose such an entry point could mean multiple things, either it was intending to come here from the start and set no specific point of entry and to that end he'd say the Tower master would have detected such a thing already and eviscerated the foreign entity on the spot.
Which leaves only the second option here to consider, perhaps it did have co-ordinates set and the realm it was trying to enter wasn't meant to be this one originally, meaning something occurred and by accident it got flung directly into this path which could also explain why it hasn't been dealt with yet. Because rather than trying to invade, it's simply just trying to survive more than anything hence said entity not being immediately marked as a malicious threat by the Tower.
'But the Tower master is still undeniably aware'.
'Which means he's thoroughly assessed the foreign entity and left it's fate up to the heavens'.
'And it occuring here out of all places with only I sensing it also, couldn't get anymore subtle than that'.
'Alright Fate, I'll play along then".
Using his shared connection as a piece of Emrys's soul he called out to the little fairy who sent a projection of herself to him and requested that she help whatever was struggling in there come into the world to which she complied causing him to smile.
"Thank you Aine, have fun"- The young fairy turned turned giddy for a moment before vanishing away to continue frolicking around with her new playmate whom Elias was already aware of.
The smile slowly wiped off his face as he focused his attention on the strange visitor being pulled into this world....
[A few hours ago in a far distant realm].
Deep into the bowels of space, a man lay carelessly atop his space motorcycle, swinging his legs freely and smiling as he read through the pages of the book in his hands.
He was fair and rugged in his looks, wearing an armless white t-shirt and baggy blue jeans, his dirty blonde hair reached a few inches past his shoulders and his eyes were like the clearest emerald with a double pupil in each eye.
On the wrists of his hands were cylindrical bracelets that reached just an inch below his elbows in length and engraved with four entwined ring-like patterns glowing a deep blue, a few million miles away from his was a reddish blue giant planet and surrounding him from all sides were hundreds of thousands of spaceships built for war and varying in size.
The smallest and weakest ones coming in at the size of a medium sized celestial satellite and bearing enough power to destroy multiple planets in one go, while the average battle ships bearing the highest numbers of the surrounding ships present were as huge as a planet and with enough power to obliterate an entire solar system alongside it's star with a weak shot.
Then there were the motherships numbering up to a hundred, the ultimate equalizer amongst the sixty world powers in the galactic empire, each the size of a star and said to be the most devastating weapons ever made in the known universe. Possessing enough power in a single shot to wipe out a huge chunk of an entire galaxy and cause a complete eradication with a second one.
The ultimate weapons of peace is what they called them, named that way for how many potential wars have been stopped just by their sheer existence alone and the great 1,000 year galactic war that came to a halt the moment that they were built by the twins who would come to be named as the gods of technology.
But that was just the public relations flowery tinted version of their story fed to the masses, in the reality known to those at the top, they were the greatest tools of conquest ever made and it's existence were solely responsible for the light speed expansion the empire had achieved in the last five centuries of it's 2,000 year existence.
And yet on this day every single world power in the known universe had put aside their eternal conflicts and politics to bring along those impossible weapons of war and more all for the sake of one man and one man alone.
[[GARETH MOSS, THIS IS YOUR LAST AND FINAL WARNING]].
[[RETURN THE -ASCENSION CORE- ANDSURRENDER PEACEFULLY, OR FACE CERTAIN DEATH!]].
Gareth winced a little upon receiving the transmission and put an index into his ear "how rude" he sighed and put the book into a compartment in his bike as he sat up. ascension
Nano machines poured out of the right bracelet in his hands to form a special microphone, he cleared his vocals a few times and ran a few tests looking serious the whole time.
[[Uhh....Gareth here speaking]].
[[Thanks for the offer but....no]].
[[You see, i cannot let you greedy bastards doom our universe]].
[[I'vestayed out of your politicsand your wars and your conquests]].
[[But this time, you're playing with something you cannot even begin to comprehend]].
[[So i will be keeping it, do accept my apologies]].
There was no need for further communication between the two sides, all that remained was war. All units reported to their battle stations plugged into the hyper-consciousness machine and all engines ready, shields up, weapons recalibrated and all systems are a go.
At the far back of the formation was a particular mothership that stood dislodged from the group with visibly greater enhancements and defensive measures compared to the rest, this ship hosted the commanders of this alliance and a highest General who stood tall with both arms behind his back as he instructed–
"Release the Rippers".
One of the commanders looked hesitant about complying as did a few others but he chose to voice his concerns first – "Sir, what about the core he has on him".
"It could be–
He was cut off with a simple hand raise by the General who turned his head a little to the side "I will not be saying much".
"Only know that the reason we come here today with such overbearing force is not to intimidate".
"Nor is it excessive like I understand some of you may believe".
He paused and looked forward once again to stare at the image of Gareth on the screen looking casual and unbothered with a confident smile on his face, a confidence of which had it been any other version of himself than the one of two months ago had seen would have seemed mighty ignorant and undeniably insane in his eyes. But now....
General Soren closed his eyes and took some deep breaths to calm the trembling of his hands, but try as he may that video only kept replaying over and over his head. And with the least of amount of trembles he could manage in his voice he continued–
"That man, is an existence at the same level as that core and therefore a threat like you will never be able to comprehend".
"So do not worry about it being damaged".
"Only pray....pray that enough of us remain to rebuild by the time this is all over".
"Now, release the Rippers".
The commanders shivered at the blood curdling sternness of his tone, but more than that was what they could feel radiating from the General. That such a man who seemed like an unmovable mountain even in a universe of storms could feel fear let alone one so palpable that not even the backing of the mightiest Armada in the universe could offer a semblance of calm to his heart, just what was this existence that they had gathered here to battle today.
Gareth's demeanor underwent a sudden change, his eyes turned cold and calculative as the once casual air full of cockiness vanished almost like it was never there. His motorcycle folded itself neatly into a small box floating at his side and then slid a finger along the bracelet on his left arm, a screen popped as he proceeded to input a few commands before closing it.
Just then the fleet began their attacks, reinforced shields guarded their hulls as a powerful but discreet and almost undetectable frequency tore through the space bringing with it the effect of a near instant collapse of the surrounding solar system which would have continued on to wipe out the entire galaxy if not for it's true effect being focused entirely on Gareth in an attempt to trap him in a state of constant molecular disintegration and collapse with every attempt at rebuild his body undergoes.
But, nothing was ever that easy.
'Yes, they see it now' Soren could feel it, without needing to turn around nor check on the other ships he could feel it, the palpable fear from the commanders and ship mates as they've come to realize what they're dealing with, to realize the true reason why such an Armada was summoned on this day in a way words could never fully convey, they all needed to see it so they could believe it.
And believe it they have, that was the sole purpose for why he ordered the reapers be their opening move against him, Gareth, the monster who stood at at the center of it all unfazed and unaffected, passively counteracted by a discreet frequency of all his own acting as an invisible shield against all this and many more.
Soren closed his eyes once again and tried his very hardest to calm his nerves, now they could begin moving forward.
In all honesty, the little and average warships gathered here today were nothing but sheep to the slaughter, a costly distraction to buy time and even the motherships were to be the biggest distraction of them all. But all of this was to be worth the sacrifice, it had to be, they were betting on an entire Universe's worth of luck here to help them for that plan truly were to have a chance to succeed.
That was why the request to surrender was nothing but an empty ruse, whether he accepted it or not the orders were clear, that man had to fall without fail in this battle, because there would be no second chances.
"Enough, ready the weapons".
"Initiate hyper-state".
"And prepare for transformation in t–20 seconds".·
The attacks came to an halt as their hulls underwent a second and third reinforcement, then a blue wave of energy continuously washed over every ship forming a field around them and warping the fabric of space in a most violent manner.
Giant canons seemingly disconnected from the hulls of the ship began forming in a circle around every one of them and pulsing with an overwhelmingly dense energy, the fleet broke formation and spaced themselves a good distance away from each other as the ships commenced transformation.
Parts separated and reformed, reshaped and expanded, contracted and extended into the newly formed joints. The almost fluid-like wave of energy surrounding them was fast forming into an ultra reinforced sleek armor around the giant mechanical monsters, and right at the center of the now humanoid machines was a pulsing blue core.
Floating behind each one were eight giant canons in a circular formation all pointing forwards and still seemingly detached from the beasts, each also having a variety of weapons attached to their arms and they looked seemingly random at first or based off preference. But the uniform amount of reappearances scattered within and the presence of similar peculiar weapons told of a different story to Gareth, they were all constructed with a plan in mind.
Normally such giant beasts would move relatively slow and was a bad matchup compared to anything that could move incredibly fast such as he for example, but that was where the beauty of the hyper state came into play. It worked like having your own personal field of sped up time around you although not exactly also because time was such a complex thing that none had cracked the code to harnessing it yet, let alone being able to use it in such a manner.
A more apt description would be that it greatly shortens the space and distance between it and anything else by quite a bit, every movement was like a controlled but continuous little jumps.
And to compensate with having to operate at these extreme speeds at such a rate as opposed to long calculated jumps which was the norm, the hyper-consciousness machine was created thereby allowing man and other races alike to reach a state of oneness like a hive mind, a state which allowed man the capability of being able to comfortably and for a limited time, process things at the speed of Light both mentally and visually which was all they needed to operate the ships in this state.
As one would imagine, the gift of harnessing the power of jumps to such a level allowed for some truly maddening displays during battle. And standing the epicenter of it all as the highest command leading this hive mind of soldiers was Soren, the irises of his eyes gained a glow akin to the hyper-field around the ships and spun at extreme speeds. Now, the preparations were done, it was time to truly begin moving forward with the plan.
Gareth smiled and closed his eyes, at that very moment a smaller mech with a high frequency heated blade was slashing down at him, the radiating heat of the blade already more than powerful enough to turn him into ashes even from so far away let alone the massive blade larger than a continent.
But then it suddenly looked confused and stopped, raising it's arm to see half it had just vanished with no trace alongside it's weapon, soon too all of it was gone the next second.
He opened his eyes as something began emerging from the very fabric of space itself and pulling him into it, they were like little tendrils of energy which wrapped around him like a cocoon. The moment it was completed a great pulse of energy spread out over the entire fleet, then it began showing itself fully.
First was the core in it's chest where Gareth resided in, shaped like a box and then there was it's upper torso, white, sleek, compact and made of a material that the scanners couldn't seem to recognize. But just from it's size alone which was already dwarfing the planet sized mechs multiple times over they could tell that this was something on the level of a mothership or more.
And then came it's full form, on it's face was nothing but a black visor mask and around it's head was an orbiting ring of molten hot metal in a constant state of flow. It's full height was about 1.5X larger than even the biggest mothership here, around each of the construct's forearms were four peculiar red orbs and a fifth sitting in each of it's palms which were coincidentally spread wide facing towards the fleet.
Soren could feel it quite well, that every last ship bar the motherships were about to be wiped out if he did not act fast in stopping it.
'Initiate synchronization'.
'Activate hyper and perimeter shields'.
Through the effects of synchronization, even the smallest ships got to access an energy capacity more than 60x greater than their original which allowed for a much great output in power, while the medium ones received a minimum of 20,000 and the motherships a value of 1,000,000.
With the amplified shields that spread out like a thin film from them and over every planet, star, celestial body or organisms and objects in countless galaxies for as much as they could protect, every attack gets sent through space towards the farthest reaches of the universe away from here.
But defending wasn't the only thing Soren planned on doing nor why those shields were deployed on such a scale, with the greatly improved output in power of the entire fleet, the synchronized floating cannons were made to fuse into a greater whole becoming more than 30x the size of the motherships, the building power so great and so dense it was tearing, warping and collapsing the very fabric of space around them on a galactic scale exceeding the rate at which the shields could counteract or warp away it's effects as even the fleet itself began suffering casualties although still far less and tame compared to what the damage would have been without the shields. And then it fired....
It was such an overwhelming power, so much so that it went entirely beyond their calculations, upon it's release the canon was immediately destroyed as space and time warped so much that for a very slight moment reality itself glitched as web-like lines began spreading outwards through every inch of every last atom or molecule in the universe.
There was no room or time granted for Soren to regret what he had done, without knowing they had doomed their entire universe to it's absolute destruction. How could he have known, he was but a highest pawn following the orders of the ones whom they all revered as gods, they whom had orchestrated everything that occurred today down to the loss of their universe all in the name of defeating the greatest threat. Truly, how could he have ever known, how could he have ever understood the truth of how deep this sinister plot went nor what he really was being used to accomplish today after having set such a doomsday event in motion....But—
"Not today".
Gareth's voice travelled through the void and into the farthest reaches of the universe carrying with it a certain vibration that put their entire world in a state of suspended animation. Three distinct pulses released at intervals, each ringing like a heartbeat across the universe and at the third ring everything began vibrating at an incredibly violent rate as the energy responsible for ripping apart the universe found itself being pulled out of every facet of the world and into the core of Gareth's construct.
And simultaneously as this occurred so too did the universe's repair progress untill everything was right back to what it was with the sole missing aspect being the dense destructive power which had been absorbed into Gareth, but still the state of suspended animation wasn't lifted from the world.
"Now you finally show yourselves".
And there they were, materializing out of the fabric of space, two giant humanoid beings standing only a head shorter the Gareth's construct, one male and one female, Ronan and Soul. Each with luminescent blue hair engrained with streaking lights reaching all the way down to their ankles and on their faces were three pair of eyes which glowed with a deep reddish hue.
Each wore a matching grey fitting exo-armor that radiated a transplant blue field of energy around them, their mouths were spread wide open in a toothy grin that displayed their shark like metallic teeth and from their vocals came a deeply disturbing laugh that reverberated with such power it seemed to make the very space around them tremble, but deep inside the core all that could be seen on Gareth's face was a strong look of disdain.
"There they are, the most disgusting siblings in the universe".
Ronan shook his head sarcastically at Gareth's remark "judging a person's lifestyle is beneath you Gareth".
"Besides, it's a staple of being a god according to the myths".
Gareth's brows furrowed, the black visor mask on his construct's face lighting up with a pulsing red light in it's center "you really do believe yourselves gods".
"Why of course" Soul remarked in a light jolly and yet disturbing tone as she questioned "as there exists nothing higher than us in this universe now, what are we if not it's gods".
The pulsing red light stopped and was now drawn into a full vertical line "you...are it's greatest error".
"And I am here to correct that mistake.....you traitors".
EnD.