Was it not grand?
The Eighth Adrastia Emperor King had just told Chancellor Mackiy and General Lydia that his son would take them to go against the enemy Outsiders they had never truly won against.
Their forces would simply need to prepare for what was coming...a reversal of the cosmic order that had held for millennia.
When he thought about what he was saying, even Adras himself wanted to question the thodology. Why did his son want to do it this way? Could they not use their power after a fee years to crush the Outsiders directly?
When he had asked this, his son had given him an answer that still made him shake his head in bewildered admiration: they would obtain far more Existential Authority of Fables if they were manipulating things behind the scenes than being entirely involved themselves!
The narrative weight of orchestrating victory rather than simply achieving it would generate exponentially more power.
Adras raised his hand and looked at it contemplatively, a silent platinum color flashing within his flesh like lightning captured in amber.
Rose had unlocked his Nar’Thyss lineage too, the genetic locks broken with the sa precision she had used on his son.
But the power he had attained was nowhere close to what Achilles commanded. His son had not just awakened the lineage...he had transcended it entirely.
But when he thought of this disparity, Adras only smiled. Pride in his progeny far outweighed any concern about being surpassed.
Opposite him, Chancellor Mackiy couldn’t even find his words, his ancient face cycling through expressions of disbelief like a man trying different keys in a lock that wouldn’t open.
He hesitated, his mouth opening and closing several tis before he finally managed to speak.
"We have actually gauged the level of power behind the Outsiders sowhat over the years," he began, his voice carrying the weight of terrible secrets finally being revealed. "The Founders also told us so things...fragnts of truth too horrible to fully share. We know that the Outsiders... they exceed us in power completely. Not marginally, not significantly, but absolutely."
He paused, seeming to age further with each word.
"We know that if it ca to an all-out war, they would destroy us without a doubt. The mystery that has haunted us for generations is why they haven’t already. They seem to take a thrill in the cruelty and butchering of the Butchering Grounds, as if our suffering is more valuable to them than our extinction. So... we kept the status quo. We fed them the narrative they wanted while desperately searching for any advantage, any hope of eventual victory."
The silence that followed his admission was deafening.
"What?!" General Lydia’s roar shattered the quiet like a hamr through glass. She ignored all protocol, all hierarchy, her rage making her stellar armor flare with dangerous light.
"What is this? You an you have been sending us to be butchered for years just to... keep up appearances?!"
Her voice cracked on the last words, betrayal mixing with fury in ways that made space around her ripple with barely contained violence.
"All those soldiers I’ve watched die, all those orphans I’ve comforted, all those friends I’ve buried...you’re telling their deaths were just theater? Just playing along with the Outsiders’ sick entertainnt?"
Chancellor Mackiy was unable to answer her directly, his head dropping as he shook it slowly, looking more tired than beings of cosmic power should be capable of appearing.
"When our enemies eclipse us entirely," he finally said, his voice barely above a whisper, "what can we do but keep up appearances? Buy ti? Hope that sohow, soday, sothing would change?"
At such a ti, Adras smiled coldly, the expression sharp enough to cut reality.
"You are scared," he said simply.
In the silence that followed, Chancellor Mackiy raised his head, eting Adras’s gaze with unexpected fierceness.
"Yes!" The word exploded from him with vehence that surprised even himself. "Yes, I am scared! We all are! We’ve been scared for so long that fear has beco the foundation of our entire civilization! Every decision, every strategy, every sacrifice...all of it driven by the terror of what would happen if we stopped playing their ga!"
Adras nodded his head slowly, as if he had expected this answer.
"Let tell you a story that my father told ," he began, his voice taking on the quality of oral tradition being passed down. "One of the Adrastia Emperor Kings who ca before ...perhaps the Third, perhaps the Fourth, the records beco unclear...once looked to the stars with longing rather than hunger."
He paused, ensuring he had their complete attention.
"That Adrastia Emperor King had looked to those sa stars and said: ’Our lineage can assimilate many things and make them our power. We take what exists outside ourselves and make it part of our existence. But in the future- and he was certain of this...from among us will rise an Emperor King who can truly assimilate everything... even Existence itself.’"
BOOM!
Existence.
Its very essence!
The words echoed through space with the force of prophecy being fulfilled. The void around them seed to shiver, as if reality itself was paying attention to what was being revealed.
Adras looked at the two figures before him, his purple-gold eyes blazing with paternal pride that transcended normal emotion.
"Such an Adrastia Emperor King has co. My son has arrived." His voice rose, carrying power that made nearby asteroids change course. "With him here, why would you still be fearful?!"
The question hung between them like a challenge to the universe itself.
Chancellor Mackiy’s mouth opened, closed, opened again. When he finally spoke, his voice was small, almost childlike in its hope mixed with disbelief.
"You’re saying... your son can actually stand against them? Against beings who treat our entire civilization as entertainnt?"
"Stand against them?" Adras laughed, the sound containing edges of knowledge that shouldn’t exist. "My son doesn’t plan to stand against them. He plans to fuck them up, Chancellor."
...!
General Lydia leaned forward, her earlier rage transforming into desperate hope. "How? Even if he has power, even if he can assimilate things others cannot...the Outsiders operate on principles we don’t fully understand."
"You don’t worry about that."
He stood, his form radiating certainty that made doubt seem like a foreign concept.
"Prepare your forces. Not for the usual grinding warfare of the Butchering Grounds, but for sothing unprecedented. Prepare them to be characters in the greatest story ever told...the story of how the Star Seas broke free. Or sit back in your fear and Butchering Grounds forever."
...!
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