On the day of Nexus' birth—when the universe reached its grand crescendo and the Eternal was forged by the hand of D'Ettore—another being was brought forth. From the abyss known to celestials as D'Void, the realm of emptiness where flawed souls of gods were cast, Kontos emerged. The almighty elders had birthed him there, shaping flaws into form.
From the first breath of his existence, Kontos carried terror within him. His gift was multiplication—an endless swarm of bodies capable of overwhelming even the greatest of cosmic armies. Alone, he was a threat beyond measure; multiplied, he became calamity. And yet, even his infinite legions could not rival the Prime Celestials, who towered above all others in glory.
To conceal his true body, Kontos split endlessly, scattering himself into countless hosts. Yet no celestial—whether perfect or imperfect—was ever born without a gift. Each carried within them the sacred essence known as Cosmic Flow. It was written in the scriptures of the high priest Papadopoulos, 1532:
A substance divine, binding power to form. To mortals, unseen. To Primes, a living mist.
Humanity could never fathom its full mystery. But to Nexus, its glow was as clear as the stars that were glued to the cosmos.
The battle began. Damaris, watching with pounding heart, realised it would not last long—not for Nexus, though her strength was halved. Even diminished, she was still a Prime, and Primes were relentless.
"It seems," Nexus said, her voice ringing with dreadful poise as her head tilted, bones snapping softly in her neck, "I can still see your Cosmic Flow."
Kontos answered as he always did—like a brute with no soul, voice void of reason.
"Celestial… must die."
The words became a roar, violent and unending, ripping through the air with such force the chamber itself trembled under its echo.
Then came the charge.
From the shadows around him surged his multitude, the swarm of Kontos' army, wielding weapons of otherworldly design. The ground quaked beneath their numbers. The battle was no longer a prophecy—it was upon them.
Charging with deadly precision and a thirst for brutality, the Kontos army lunged, their weapons poised to strike. Damaris curled herself, her arms covering her head as she tried to avoid the attack.
Nexus was swift with her attack, slashing at the attackers who threatened to shred her into threads and in moments that felt like dying seconds, Kontos' army was dealt with.
Smirking slightly, Nexus knew how the battle was going to end. Though Kontos was still adamant about claiming a lost victory.
"Celestial must die!!" it roared, multiplying again. His numbers filled the chamber, leaving no space for the two women.
This did not bother Nexus, but Damaris was fearful of the impossible outcomes. To make the battle work in Kontos's favour, his army forged weapons that were impossible to evade. In each of their arms was what the rich and powerful pirates wielded:
A musket—a weapon so dangerous and easy to use.
Nexus stood, shocked. Damaris shared the same overwhelmed gaze, but hers was far more intense. The past conditions of the battle were easily dealt with, but this one was surely going to lead to her death.
As they began to fire, gunpowder forged from shadows wasting away as hot, metallic pebbles left the muzzles, Damaris could feel her goal shifting away. With her life flashing before her very eyes, the slaves would be left without hope.
But Nexus wasn't the one to give up; she had already spent years asleep in this tomb, and she was the one who called upon Damaris to free her from this prison. She would be able to escape her deadly fate, but the human woman who saved her from eternal slumber would be forced to rest forever.
Nexus possessed many abilities in her time of ruling over the cosmos; she could reconstruct the laws of reality, time and space itself with eternal life—but with that power halved, she could only foresee an escape route. Acting as quickly as possible, she raised her blade in the air, the weapon blending with every ounce of her Cosmic Flow, and with a terrifying force, she brought it down against the ground, shattering the blade with extreme force, the fragments forging a shield that blocked the leads from tearing through their flesh.
As her blade shattered, so as the very balance of the chamber, the walls cracking as the ground on which they stood began to shake violently, stones from the ceiling falling. With this greatly distracting Kontos, Nexus turned to the woman, grabbing her by the waist, "We must leave now!" she warned, using just the wing she had left to soar just inches above the ground.
Kontos roared, his rage overshadowing him. As he pursued them, he wasn't aware of the blade fragments embedded with Cosmic Flow Energy, something that every celestial weapon possessed.
Acting quickly to stop the pursuit, Nexus commanded the movements of her blade fragments, using them as a prison to hold Kontos in place as she made way for the halls, speeding past the debris threatening to crush them. With the exit just meters away from where they were, the celestial woman dashed, shattering the stone door.
Finally, they had made it outside, Nexus' tolerance lost, her flight lost since her power was greatly diminished, forcing her to drop to the ground, holding Damaris in a curled position in order for her not to shatter her bones.
Both women rose to her feet, Damaris groaning in pain, but Nexus remained unfazed, shaking the sand from her hair.
Gazing at the chamber, now reduced to nothing but debris, Nexus sighed, her hand still gripping the hilt of her broken blade, which she used to cut her hair, leaving it barely touching her shoulders.
Damaris stared at her, awe-struck. The woman's skin was a faint blue, her eyes red as flame, her form both terrible and beautiful.
As Damaris had her reasons for staring, Nexus did as well. She was created with one of the abilities to see the heart of lesser beings, the same reason she had chosen her path to the abyss, but this woman before her bore only purity.
"Hmmm..." Nexus exclaimed, turning her back and walking to the sea with the hair she had cut off, not before muttering, "Not one of them, I see"
Damaris' gaze followed the strange, blue woman, noticing her as she threw the locks of hair into the sea, as she watched them dissolve. The young woman moved closer, trying to get a better look at this celestial, but her movements were noticed.
"Can I help you?" Nexus asked.
Damaris jerked back, shaken by Nexus's hostility, but something about this gave her a sense of understanding. "I... apologies... I just wanted to know...." she stuttered, trying her best to get the question to the other side.
"Yes, I am a celestial," Nexus answered, but she knew the questions wouldn't end there. Standing to her feet, the wing on her back returned, then she continued, "Two-hundred-and-fifty years from now, I was what early humanity called their protector. But the name which I was given was Nexus Prime"
Damaris couldn't hold back her shock. ' Impossible, she thought to herself. In the scriptures of Papadopoulos, the 'Prime Celestials' all existed, born from the same name, from fifty generations. Each star that stood in the night sky represented every generation.
Though she wasn't quite sure if she was mentioned, Nexus knew the truth.
"There is no need for you to worry," Nexus continued, "From your ability to take in the forbidden knowledge given to you by my blade, you already know of that cursed priest and his scriptures"
Damaris was amazed by Nexus's ability to read her thoughts, and she was sure never gazed into it. "You know of Papadopoulos?"
Nexus chuckled, "Well, of course, a celestial knows far more than you humans do. I do apologise for the forbidden knowledge you had to consume"
Damaris squinted, then she realised what Nexus meant by the 'Forbidden Knowledge' "The visions?"
Nexus nodded, "Yes, those things you saw when you made contact with my blade had gifted you some of the cosmic flow I embedded into it," she said firmly, "Now, when you did so, you absorbed the little cosmic flow it possessed, which is why it shattered"
Damaris' eyes widened. "I… I have Cosmic Flow in me?"
Nexus nodded once again, "Indeed," she said, before continuing, "Now that you have absorbed this knowledge, our business is the same. My honest apologies for dragging you into celestial trouble."
She stretched out her hand—metallic, terrible, and divine. "Now that we are interlinked, let me show you."
Damaris was hesitant, but she was now curious than ever. Taking a deep and steady breath, she placed her hand on the woman, and in an instant, her body fell limp, her feet rising inches above the air as her senses went dull.
This feeling, this sensation. She had felt this same thing when she made contact with the woman's hand, but this one was different.
Instead of visions that left her mind disoriented, she was given information that she could not see but decipher with words.
It was time to learn the origin of the celestials. The true story of Nexus. And the reason she had returned to this realm.