Steel and Mana

Pascal couldn't react in time, not just because of his utter shock and disbelief. The spear, the Godly Artifact of Ariana herself, moved with such speed it was akin to teleportation, slicing through space and time to arrive before Mirian. Before anything could register in the young empress's mind, she subconsciously reached out, grabbing the shaft of the spear, watching as everything turned black and white before her eyes. She could fully perceive the old wizard's spell after it happened. It was both disturbing and awe-inspiring to look at it as it surrounded the whole room, locking it down and sealing any chance for her to escape. She didn't know any Expert-level spells herself… but this was one. This had to be one, performed by one man alone! She knew Pascal was strong, but... she had to escape! That was her first thought…

The spear hummed among her fingers, resonating with her will to survive, bringing her eyes back to it. Still, Mirian could tell she was not in control of it. Neither the spear nor her fate… She piqued the interest of the weapon, but it did not yield its powers easily, not even to people who it found interesting. At least, that is how she felt while holding it. She wanted to move the spear, strike down Pascal, and get rid of him at once, but the moment she first thought about surviving, the spear took flight, dragging her with it. Mirian disappeared from view without a second to spare, shattering Pascal's spell in the process.

By the time the old wizard blinked his eyes and the pain of losing his hand reached his mind, registering in his consciousness, Mirian was gone from the room. Then came the backlash of the shattered spell, making him look like an old man slipping on soap, throwing him to the ground. His fall was accompanied by loud bone-cracking sounds echoing in the chamber as he vomited blood onto the marble floor, spasming multiple times. His otherworldly howl was mixed with pain and utter disbelief, arising straight from his heart. It came not from the physical pain he was feeling, but the fact that the spear, HIS spear, attacked him… This should never have happened! Yet it was not over. He was still trying to pick himself up when another tremble made him fall back on his stomach. As for its strength, it told him that it wasn't the room that was quivering. It was the city.

Outside, to the horror of many, the city's magical defenses came to life as a blueish sphere surrounded the pride of Ishillia, shimmering in the bright summer moonlight. As the Judgment began rising in a hurry, a shockwave blasted out from its wooden body, making the magical dome above the city flicker, turning on and off, and shaking the city under it as any artifact present began malfunctioning. Without hesitation, the biggest ship of the Ishillian Empire slipped through it, still picking up speed, using its full capabilities to escape, disappearing towards the north.

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Amongst the stars, within the endless Cosmos and its colorful nebulas, an island of incredible proportions floated there peacefully. Was it made by hand? Or was it a naturally formed landmass that was captured and repurposed? It was hard to tell. What was clearly discernable was the massive city built on it and the millions of beings going about their business on its surface like tiny ants.

In the middle of it all stood a tall spire piercing upwards, establishing the direction of up and down for the people living there. Its smooth, white surface glinted in the brilliant light of the countless faraway stars, piercing through the clouds of nebulas, scattering when they met with its surface. Near the topmost of its floors, a woman sat within this majestic tower, meditating in a small, dark chamber. She wore a simple, black robe while she sat in a lotus position, her brown hair tied up in a neat bun as her slender body sat there, unmoving. If anyone could stand there and look at her, they wouldn't be able to tell if she was even breathing or not, as her chest barely even moved.

"Hm?" Her light-green eyes slowly opened with a sudden shiver running through her body. It made her tilt her head while smacking her lips as if trying to taste the air within the room.

Without being angry that her meditation was disrupted, she stood up, and just with one step, she was already in a different space, one that was akin to a labyrinth made out of bookshelves. She was clearly still within the same tower, yet the space within the room didn't match what would have been possible by just looking in from the outside.

"Wyland!" The young-looking woman shouted, her voice echoing between the infinite library as if they were in a cave somewhere underground.

"Hmmm? Ariana?" Came the reply as a magic formation appeared in the air, displaying the holographic image of a young man carrying multiple books in his hands, filling a bookshelf somewhere deep within this labyrinth. "I am cataloging the newly charted realms within the Alliance; what is it? Did another one pop up? I told them to only give me yearly discoveries and only trouble us if something rare had been discovered!"

"No, this is about the one we visited a few cycles ago! The one where we took Elyse and Valen to show them how to make contact with others when descending to a newly found, open realm."

"Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember! The one with the dysfunctional door, yes? The same we then sealed, yes?" He hummed, and the formation turned and changed in an instant. The hologram became real as Wyland appeared before her in the flesh, a bit shorter than Ariana herself. "I have been periodically keeping an eye on it because the artifact I left behind found a host three cycles ago. If I recall, Valen's sword is also with its own chosen, but neither of them managed to escape their realm's confines yet."

"Nobody?" She asked as she had already forgotten about it, as it had happened more than a century ago.

"Nope. It is unsurprising; they were very primitive, and the beasts almost wiped them out!" He shrugged, bringing Ariana to a codex that had their adventure in that particular world dated and cataloged down to the most minor details. "Yeah, so far, neither of our artifacts resonated with enough strength to grant the passage to their owners through my seal. So far, they are still considered to be in the growing phase and are not eligible to join our Alliance."

"You can add to it that I felt my spear finding someone. Again."

"Well, hopefully, this time it will work. Yours seems to be quite the picky one. How many choices has it discarded so far?"

"Ugh… Seven?" She shrugged, her head drooping forward, looking embarrassed. "Anyway, there is a new one now! I wonder how are they doing…"

"Should be fine." Wyland chuckled, dragging his finger along the pages and adding the new information to it. "Even if they never reach a level where they can join us, we can still defend their realm from harm as they fall under our jurisdiction."

"Some disciples complain when they get sorted to guard such places." Ariana chuckled, making Wyland grin.

"I use it as a punishment, yes. Speaking of punishments, how's Yue doing? Didn't Sect Head Ren send her to one of the newly found primordial realms to train?"

"Yes." Ariana nodded, looking around, whispering, "She fell behind her cultivation… A LOT. I tried nudging her to the right way, but… well, she is at that age, falling for boys and being more interested in them than cultivating. I don't get why Master was THAT angry about it; she was way worse at her age."

"Well, technically speaking," Wyland mumbled, scratching his chin, "Yue is already more than a hundred… Okay, after adjusting the time dilations between the Cosmos and the different realms she visited… she is still only sixteen! Yeah, you are right, Master Ren was worse."

"In what?" Echoed a new voice, making the two flinch like gossiping kids being caught at the worst possible moment. Turning around, a young, thin-looking girl stood behind them, reaching only about 150 centimeters in height. She was wearing a white, elegant robe with a beautiful, deep, lilac-colored inner side. Her long, white hair was held in a ponytail, while her purple eyes looked questioningly at the two. "Hmmm?"

"Master!" The two yelped, cupping their hands, making Ren sigh, waving hers.

"Haaah… Whatever, I reap what I sow! We utterly spoiled that little brat." She whispered while smiling and shaking her head, "Lucian, Lia, and Rinzen should be able to help her, and they also need this experience to finally step into the same stage as us. Anyway! I came here because LeiLei needs you."

"Master needs me?" Wyland nodded at once, not asking why, just quickly putting down everything from his hands, ready to leave.

"Yeah, we are going to have another batch of newcomers, ascendants of their realms. The others are on a mission, so he needs an experienced helping hand with welcoming the rowdy ones."

"I'm on my way!" He cupped his hands again, teleporting away at once.

"I can help, too!" Ariana spoke, but Ren had already held her back by then. "Master?"

"You are coming with me. A group of disciples disappeared not that long ago; we are going to look for them. They were protected by Lulu and Toobu's aura, but the two are on a different mission at the moment, so it will be us looking for them."

"Are we expecting trouble?" She asked, going deadly serious in a snap of the finger.

"Not really. It could be the usual, discovering something, falling into it, or whatnot. Or they got into one of the forbidden zones and were torn apart by the Cosmic Wind. The Cosmos is massive and dangerous... Anyway, I just didn't want to go alone and be bored!" She grinned, tucking some of her loose hair behind her ear, "In the meanwhile, you can fill me in with this realm you two were talking about. Sounds interesting!"

"Ah, yeah… Sure! You were too angry back then to pay attention to it. Honestly, it is a weird one. It was wide open when we found it back then, and the beasts down there became… Hmm... mutated. I think that is the right way to describe it."

"They reacted differently than ours?" Ren asked, humming, finding it intriguing as the energy of the Cosmos was still unfathomable for her, too.

"Yes. They began growing and bloating on it but never developed proper intelligence. They even began losing what they had and became automatons, only looking to consume more energy. In all honesty, the ones we killed and dissected were like nothing but biological energy storage units. They were… prime resources for creating artifacts; I think your Father would be really into them!"

"Don't tell him that." Ren shrugged again as the two were already away with a blink, flying through the thick clouds of the Cosmos. "He would go and disrupt the natural development of that realm. We are not conquerors… If they ever come forth, it will be their resources to share and trade with; we can't just go and take it from them!"

"I was just saying~!" Ariana chuckled, flying happily next to Ren, remembering distant, old memories from a time when they were people who didn't know how vast of a world was hidden right above their Sky.