Albera.
Lower Celestial Belt.
Celestial zone 49 ;also known as The Devouring Gyre desert.
They called this place the Maw. A place no cartographer who ventured close enough to name it ever returned.
A sandstorm that moved across the wastes not with the chaos of a natural storm but with the deliberation of something that had learned to be still on the inside. A formation so intricate that would put even the most formidable formation grandmasters to shame.
This was simply the work of a divine being.
With it's enchantments that drew creatures to it being worse than any sound or smell.
It was a pull seated somewhere beneath instinct, a compulsion that felt, terribly, like recognition. Birds, wolves, men, they all walked in. And for those that do enter the storm,return only as bones, arranged at its outer edge with an almost tender neatness.
This was the Devouring Gyre desert. A forbidden zone on Celestial zone 49.
At its heart, the sand did not go. It threw itself against an invisible boundary and fell back, grain by grain, as though it knew better.
And within that circle of untouched stillness rose the skeleton of a wyvern so massive it had ceased to be a corpse and become a structure — it's ribs arching like cathedral buttresses, a spine curving forty feet skyward, a skull whose unhinged jaw rested on the earth below like a gate left permanently open.
Age had not bleached the bones but deepened them, the color of ivory pressed into amber over millennia.
Between the bones, something like flesh existed. Translucent, slow-pulsing, the color of smoke in low light — neither quite visible nor quite gone.
It sealed the ribcage into walls, webbed the joints, filled the spaces between with something that resembled the memory of a body rather than a body itself. One could almost see through it. Almost.
As the storm howled at the boundary outside. In here, the air barely moved.
Inside the wyvern was a hall. The bones overhead vaulted high enough to swallow shadows, and the spectral flesh between the ribs filtered the light into something pale and sourceless.
At the far end, where spine met pelvis, a throne had been constructed from bones that were not the wyvern's — too many, too varied, stacked and fused with the same translucent sinew that held everything else together.
It did not look built. It looked grown.
The man seated on it was tall in the way that sharp things are tall. His shoulder blades pressed against his clothing like accusations. The bones of his elbows, his knuckles, his knees had all pushed outward against the skin, breaking through and protruding as though his skeleton had grown impatient with the flesh still covering it.
His clothes hung loosely from a frame they had once fit. His face had been reduced to its most essential geometry, all excess stripped away, leaving only angles.
His eyes were open. They held the same pale, directionless luminescence as the light in the hall , patient in the way that stone is patient, in the way the storm outside was patient.
He was not waiting for anything. He simply was, as the Maw was, as the bones were. A thing that had already finished deciding what it would become and found no further reason to explain itself.
At this moment,a smile crept out of his bony face. He raise his hand and the hall doors opened with a boom.
"I have seen the monarch" A guard, always outside this palace hall bows exaggeratedly with his protruded bones aligning themselves into some sort of ritual arrangement.
"An opportunity has arisen. Increase the resources for the sacrificial exchange of the bone sage dungeon. Increase the quota as much as possible." The bone sage commanded, slightly lifting up his protruded bone to hand over an imperial decree.
"This scroll contains the mission of the sons of the gyre. One of them must enter the fourth tier portal at any cost. My opportunity lies there"
The bone guard respectably accepted the decree, congratulating his monarch in advance.
"Ohh,and ask Nero to take over the bone sage's dungeon. There must be no mistake." Added the bone sage before the guard exited the throne hall.
***
Stasis World.
Norlan and Titus Grimblade were meditating on a mountain peak. They have been contemplating and revising their course of actions for the next 10 years.
The exact amount of time given by the Tower before everyone is forced to the trial of the nearest portal.Like how a game lobby that gives it's users a choice within a timeframe to choose their desired map before random deployment.
Anyway, over many back and forth,with Titus allowing Norlan to plan out their plans as he corrected where correction was needed,they finally finalized it.
It was simple,they will wing it. Go with the flow.Just let nature take it's course. Split up, accumulate strength and plan as the situation comes. Plan when they actually have a decent stronghold and some minions of their own. Afterall,it's not like they will just barge in through the ancient families gates and start a slaughter!
And so Titus has to get some minions on the way, recruit some survivers along the way and finally when he is confident,eradicate the Marsh family by virtue of being the closet to them.
Norlan however, decided to clear some dungeons, some combat training and recon about Albera. He wants to hone his combat style: Zero Intent,as suicidal as it was to minor achievement. Able to last in the Zero Intent state for at least five seconds.
For recon however, is it not better to be prepared than to fail due to one's own incompetence? At least that's how Titus operated,and he is devoted to developing Norlan's growth in such trajectory.
And be as it may,the information that Aurelia gave him are either too high level or some forbidden shit covering the whole situation and trend of the whole Albera realm. While Titus,only had basic level information. Making recon of the intricacies up to Norlan to find out.
Also Norlan saw a few old friends that he now dared to visit: Sir Richard Hexwill and Edwin marsh. Who coincidentally are close to a tier 2 to dungeon that Norlan has chosen as his first training ground.
Since they were so kind to visit him while in the hospital,why can't he reciprocate?
Although they basically did nothing and did not act on their intentions on the hospital bed, Norlan as an orphan who has never known a true home grew up with spite in his veins. He would always avenge even a minor grievance,let alone those who put him under surveillance just waiting for his system to activate for grabs.
Plus,getting rid of these two would greatly ease his hatred for the ancient families of Earth while also deal damage to these families. Clearly Norlan saw these two as critical,proven elders of their own respected families.
Titus even guessed that they were the direct heirs of their families.
....
Anyway, the two actually decided to meet at the Hexwill family tier three dungeon where they will further consider other schemes and plans as they go on. Already decided on that spot as their base of operations. Even slightly having thoughts of monopolizing the place as the Hexwill intend to do!
And also getting rid of this family along the way would be nice.
But Titus still insisted to keep the more useful ones if possible. Always nagging about how an empire can't consist of only two people.
In Titus's words exactly, "An empire is formed by it's people, or do you really want to run your own errands left and right?"
There was a bit of back and forth as they argued a bit, but they finally came to a concrete conclusion.
Now, one would then wonder why they are still at this mountain peak when they have already made plans. Shouldn't they implement them on the dot? Especially Norlan if he wanted to catch up with his two adversaries who wouldn't just stay rooted on the spot, waiting for his intervention.
So why are they still here....
"You are about to breakthrough? How long has it actually been!"
Titus's voice came from besides Norlan as he walked and sat crossed legged facing Norlan. His face couldn't help but show glints of excitement and anticipation.
Norlan let out a deep breath, extended his palms to touch Titus's extended palms and his whole body glowed blue.
His eyes opened deliberately and slowly. Infinity and finite concepts contradicting each other in his gaze. Blue hues extending like starlight to envelope his entire body.
His thoughts were running at supersonic speed, absorbing the intricacies of the world,the minute details that were once locked out from his view were now his for taking.
But this world was too complicated and too detailed,his brain unable to process all that he was seeing. Putting much pressure on his conscious mind. Like carrying a mountain on mortal shoulders, suffocating on the weight of existence.
This was energy observation,the first basic technique learnt from the divine rank skill : Energy contradiction,which on the first 5 levels of awakened realm, allowed Norlan to passively become sensitive to energy.
On the first to second level,he broke through by observing how energy is contained. How energy is gathered,refined and stabilized within himself and objects.
Minor comprehension of this was enough to breakthrough the constrains of the bottleneck to the second level of awakened mortal realm.
To the third level,Norlan observed how energy is compressed. How energy when condensed to the extreme becomes more dense and potent.
To the fourth level,he observed energy expansion. How energy spreads from a single point to increase reach and utility.
To the fifth level,Norlan consolidated his comprehension about containment, comprehension and expansion of energy.
And now to the sixth level,Norlan is observing how energy in the culmination of containment, compression and expansion is expressed into the second technique of the divine rank skill.
Technique – Filter