"Back off," Sol warned the Dark Emissary, and she slowly turned her head, staring at his hand latched onto her wrist.
"...And if I disobey you?" Giza asked, slipping her hand from his grasp easily.
"I already know you won't," Sol glared. "Stop pretending."
"Is this woman truly your enemy, Sovereign?" Xie spoke up after falling mute.
"She is," Sol looked at him. "I have promised her, and I will carry out that promise no matter the cost, I will kill her soday, sooner rather than later."
"Wh-" Fuhua who was too shocked to move in Giza's presence stared at Sol with her eyes almost bulginh out of their sockets. "Is he insane? How can he declare such a thing before that monster?" She wondered, not daring to say those words out loud and risk gaining Giza's attention.
"If there is nothing else, I will take my leave, though they are interesting, especially this one..." Giza gestured to Xie. "I only ca as a pleasantry, to see for myself if you had returned or if it was a ghost." She turned, slowly gliding her finger across Sol's chest again and then vanishing, erging from his shadow and resting her elbow in his shoulder.
"I will see you, sooner rather than later then, Sol Vestic, King of all Heavens." Giza silkily spoke his title in a mocking tone and then disappeared inside of his shadow once more.
"I-is she gone?" Yu asked.
"Yeah, you can relax." Sol answered while he relaxed his muscles as well. "He hadn't expected to be greeted by the enemy as soon as he returned, but thankfully she had co with no ill intent; as she had said it was a visit to confirm his existence.
"I was so frozen that I could not even shake..." Yu admitted with a sigh of relief. "How are we supposed to fight that kind of power?" She asked. "I used to think my father was powerful, but then I t Xie Tsung, and not even a day later I co across what could essentially be the most powerful being in existence-"
"There is no guessing it, not after I have seen her with my own two eyes," Xie admitted, shaking his head and scratching his arm nervously. "Sovereign has the strongest being in existence as an enemy, I was frozen with fear... , the Blood Raven, I have never witnessed fear of this calibre before!"
He dug his fingers into his flesh and looked up at Sol. "How will we defeat that monster?" He asked.
"There is a way, surely there is, I just haven't found it yet." Sol answered. "Unlesss you want to suffer deviation from self-doubt I suggest you not think of her at all, for now, I need to find the others."
"How will you?" Jena asked, "I have been trying but I haven't been able to contact Mom, as if the whole system is offline."
"Not offline, concealed." Sol answered, holding his arm up and showing her the sigil on his forehand. "Ikaris has reached the Primordial realm, she has hidden them all inside of her soul, that is the only way that Giza and Umbra would be unable to find them."
"But, if she is concealed in the sa way you would be, how will you find her?" Grecia asked, already nervous about eting the Goddess of Balance, the more people ca along the more she realised how big of a deal her younger sister was.
"The sa way she would find if our roles were reversed." Sol responded, raising his hand outwards and then hugging it to himself.
"We are connected by soul, by mana and by will," Sol explained while the sigil began to glow brightly. "She is my goddess, and I her god."
"A bond that defies reality, two halves of a whole." Xie smiled when the sigil's light and his mana swallowed all of them and began reaching the far corners of the destroyed collective.
***
An entire planet of grasslands and mountains, with lakes rather than oceans and small forests in between; it was New Atla, purged and reconstructed, and almost three tis the size it once was with a rich mana presence filling it with wildlife.
In one such plain there was a small child, a babe with her hands held high and an orb of Celestial mana rotating above her, she was focused, with a trickle of sweat rolling down her cheek while she added more mana making the orb rotate faster.
[Forced Sun; failure]
"Keep your head straight and your mind still child, you have been on this task for a week now, you should have already mastered it." Ikaris was dressed in casual Arkadian wear, sitting on a rock with her legs crossed and a small golden fruit in her grasp, with her sword laying across her lap. "Talia, focus," She took a bite of the fruit.
"Sorry, Mama," The little girl huffed and fell in the grass flopping to her back and sighing while the Red mana surrounding her dispersed and faded with the winds.
"As I thought," Ikaris sighed and looked to her side where Arla was leaning against the rock, casually dressed and sketching away in a small book full of drawings of Sol and her friends, but mostly Sol. "She struggles with mana beyond the Divine tier, maybe i should remove the next seal and grant her more mana, that may be the issue, if she was Celestial..."
"Ikaris, she is only a year and seven months, she shouldn't be able to run properly let alone manipulate this kind of power, give her so credit, she is doing exceptionally well." Dina scoffed from the other side of the rock where she too was dressed casually, with, aside from her hair growing out and reaching midway down her back, the seed to be nothing different about the mage.
"I want to eat..." Talia huffed and raised her hands above her again. [Summoning Circle activated] Alpha announced while a small ring of sigils and runes appeared above her hand and a snack fell appeared in the air, missing her hand and dropping on her forehead instead.
"Talia, co, let us train first before snacks." Ikaris sighed and stood, picking up her sword and flashing it.
"You are pushing her too hard, Ikaris-"
"I am not," Ikaris answered. "Talia is powerful, even though she can't control her mana as we had hoped she would, her power is still beyond what her father and I expected it would be, as her mother, it is my duty to raise her in the ways of a warrior, she needs to be ready."
"What am I ready for, Mama?" Talia asked, sitting up and staring at Ikaris.
"Child..." Ikaris sighed and turned her gaze to the other two watching them, wishing she could explain the danger that laid in ambush on the outside, but ultimately choosing not to. "I will tell you when you are older." Ikaris smiled. "Arm yourself, Talia."
"Okay," The girl pouted, floating off the ground and stuffing the snack in her pocket, holding her hands high and summoning a hamr that was an exact replica of Sol's, scaled down to match her tiny stature.
"If you win, aunty Dina will give you a gift, and Aunty Arla will make a big cake!" Sara erged from the shade of the rock sitting where Ikaris was while the other two turned and started paying attention.
"Where have you been this whole ti?" Dina poked the maid's side.
"I was simply wandering, milady, there is not much that I can teach the little miss or learn from Lady Ikaris, so I took a stroll across the shadows of Atla; I visited Master's Sword." Sara smiled.
Of the four, she had changed the most, her hair was short again, much like it was when she was on Arkadia, and she had golden highlights on her bangs, as well as a new sun sigil on the back of her hand.
"Here I co!" Talia having been motivated to continue by Sara, bounced several tis and spun, attacking Ikaris without restraing and getting blown away when Ikaris blocked the attack easily causing a gust that sent ripples of wind around them, blowing Arla with her book off the rock and over to the other side while Dina withstood the gust and Sara beca slightly intangible causing it to pass through her.
"Again," Ikaris flashed the sword and went into a battle stance.
"Again!" Talia ca flying to compensate fore her tiny legs, swinging the hamr a second ti and yelping when Ikaris's parry sent it flying out of her grasp. "YA!" The tiny child spun and kicked at her mother while the hamr which was gone ca flying back.
"Good," Ikaris blocked the small flurry of kicks and then dodged the hamr with a smile, ducking beneath it again when it ca flying at the back of her head, and then swatting away a [Mana Blade] which flew at her. "Keep up the montum."
"Keep it up!" The energetic babe caught the hamr when it ca flying again and spun with it, swinging it downwards with a cry and yelping once more when the Blunt end of Ikaris's sword clashed with it and sent it out of her grasp once more.
"Mama, no fair!" Talia huffed, reaching for the sword.
"If you want a weapon that's easier to handle, try using a sword-"
"But Papa... hamr." She paused midway through her next attack and pouted.
"Oh, Love..." Ikaris knelt when her daughter began descending, dropping her sword and hugging her. "I know, he loves his hamr very much."
"I love hamr." Talia responded against Ikaris's neck. "Mama."
"Yes, Talia?" Ikaris asked, looking down at her, but she found the child's eyes glowing a bright gold and a small sun crest on her hand shimring as well.
"Ikaris!" Dina scread, pointing at her. "Your sigils!"
"My sigils?" Ikaris stared at her.
"They're all active!"
"What...?" Ikaris stood with Talia and began walking towards them.
"Does this an that-"
"Ikaris," She stopped whan the familiar voice reached into her mind and snatched her mana, forming a new tether after the last one was broken.
"Ikaris, co out."
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