The void moved, twilight darkness shifting like a tide of spilled black paint. Right before his eyes, Keilan witnessed the slow dimming of distant stars, followed by the immediate snuffing of their radiant light.

  It wasn't only the space in front that was like that. All around them—the entire fleet—darkness shifted as space seemed to come alive.

  His heart ran cold just as a strange electric charge suffused the room. Keilan felt his skin tingling as power flooded space; great, apocalyptic power.

  Space, which had been dark yet lit with the distant glows of stars and other celestial bodies, went completely dark, a null void where neither light nor any form of luminescence existed. It felt like something had eaten the glow for light years, swallowing stars and nebulae alike, until all that remained was an ozone-charged atmosphere and the quickly building threat of nonexistence.

  Just when it felt like the oxygen had been sucked completely out of his lungs, leaving him slowly drowning in suffocating darkness, space lit back up as a bright scarlet light cut through the darkness in a vertical wave. And right in front of them, in the far distance, a red sun came into existence.

  It hovered above them like the suns in any solar system, shining deathly crimson light down on them in a sharp glow.

  “Something's wrong with the sun,” Keilan murmured as he stared deeper in, looking right at the sudden split that speared straight through the center of the celestial body, a gash in its center, a sort of stab wound, almost tearing it in two.

  Keilan had never witnessed a celestial anomaly like this before, but from all written accounts, what should have happened in a case like this should have been an implosion or an explosion; he wasn't really sure. All he knew was that a big hole in the middle of the sun was not something to stand and watch, but a sign to flee as fast as they could.

  “It's almost as if—”

  Something happened then, a shift across the surface of the sun. It was like a very transparent curtain had been sharply drawn across the round body and then removed just as quickly as it had been drawn.

  A cold shiver flooded Keilan's body as he realized what that was. He opened his mouth to call out a warning but somebody else beat him to it.

  “That's not a sun, that's the eyes of a serpent.”

  Thunder boomed so hard that the ship they stood within rattled, dislodging objects from various high surfaces. The glow within the ship flickered, and its outer-layered shield glowed bright as it sought to contain whatever dangers came with the sound.

  Right in the wake of the booming thunder came lightning, humongous forks of scarlet tongues that slithered across the heavens like spearing knives.

  Keilan hissed at the sudden sharp light, and he raised his hands to shield his eyes from the blinding brightness. Having lived with the Verrilles for months, he easily recognized those red lightnings for what they were.

  Destruction.

  “Solis, please tell me that is your grandmother coming to rescue us.”

  He could hear the grit in his voice as he responded. “No, that is not grandmother.”

  Keilan couldn't agree more. He hadn't met The Duchess, but from all accounts, she wasn't this huge and certainly didn't have a serpent eye. So if this wasn't her, then what?—

  “Well,” Huiron added, not a trace of fear in his strained voice. “I guess we now know where the escaped dragon went.”

  And then Keilan saw it. The sinuous body, so great its scales were like continents. Trails of crimson lightning flickered between its scales, licking at space with destructive avarice. They gave off the feeling of destruction, the need to consume until all was no more.

  To the right, something shifted and Keilan instantly noticed the minute movement of the shadow of what he knew were wings. He couldn't see the whole thing, just as he couldn't comprehend the sheer volume of the dragon’s full body.

  This thing was bigger than the sun, larger than the space around them, so great that his spirit lord's eyes struggled and failed to grasp the true form of the creature.

  The dragon didn't do anything else, yet space was suddenly torn by the sounds of distant roars.

  Monsters emerged from the dark into the crimson glow, their titanic forms terrifying in all their nightmarish glory. They came in different forms and shapes, from humanoid walking earth golems to nightmares of bloody flesh and open musculature.

  Their numbers dwarfed anything Keilan could have ever imagined, or what their scout ships had been able to make out. Those creatures came in the thousands, hordes of them marching, slithering, and flapping into the light, surrounding the fleet with a number that made the concept of a fair fight completely laughable.

  “We never had any chance, did we?” Oola said with a sobering tone.

  “No, we didn't,” Keilan returned. Had they gone through with their plans to fight back, they would have been utterly decimated.

  “Where did the rest of these come from?” Enis said. “I have utmost belief in our scouts, and if they gave us a number that they say they saw, then as a commander I absolutely believe them. Something is not right here.”

  “Err, if you ask me, I'd say that's probably because of the twenty thousand foot tall rat thingy that materializing hundreds of monsters every second, even as we speak.”

  Keilan followed Huiron's finger, and there it was; a creature vaguely resembling a rat. It had the body shape, and the scurrying posture, but that was where its resemblance to a rat ended.

  This thing had countless mouths—at least countless in Keilan's estimation, because he lost count of them right around the hundred mark. Each mouth, rather than the pointy-ended shape they usually had, ended in round, open voids filled with rows and rows of tiny but deadly-looking teeth.

  It had no eyes, not one that he could visibly detect, and anytime it barfed out a new army of monsters, the spikes along its back glowed and crackled with purple spatial energy.

  It was truly a horrifying thought to take in the countless heads, countless teeth, and realize that whatever spatial construct it had hidden within itself was not originally meant to store and wholly transport other beings.

  This thing was a grinding machine, one that likely reduced its prey to grains of bones and meat and stored them within its storage spaces to feast on on a later date.

  “That's a Divine King,” Nalon said from beside him.

  Keilan turned to the man. “How so?”

  “The energy it emanates. It is on the cusp of evolution. It is not the only one.”

  As the warder pointed out, the ship's glass zoomed in, assisting them against the great distance between them and the monsters. Keilan made out the other creatures. A trail of light, like a piece of cloth, glowed with violet light, emanating mental pressure that sent a dull ache into Keilan's head even with more than a million miles of distance separating them.

  The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  “Um, what sort of SOS signal did you guys say you sent again?”

  “What?”

  “What essence did you use to send your SOS signal?”

  Solis blinked. “A Mind essence signal…” he realized immediately.

  “Yeahh,” Keilan swallowed. “I think we have your SOS swallower.”

  A third monster emerged into the light, walking farther than any of the other monsters. The aura it emanated was instantly recognizable, he'd felt it twice before. This was the monster that had instilled fear and caution into the fleet, the horde’s mysterious Divine King leader.

  It looked like a lion, if a lion were actually made of metal and glowing wood. The creature's mane was wreathed in burning red flames, just like its eyes. Its double tail flickered around with a glowing tip, and a growing light emanated from its mouth as it bared great fangs at them.

  Yup, there was no doubt about it. Aside from the Dragon that hung between visibility and invisibility around them, this creature was the most powerful of the bunch.

  “All weapons hot and ready! Shirell, broadcast my command to the other ships. I want all weapons hot and pointed at those massing monsters.” Solis ordered.

  The other commanders went into full chaos immediately, demanding what he was doing and whether he'd gone senile. And even Commander Kanos, who was usually the calm one, had to demand an answer from Solis.

  “What is this? Do you mean to send us to an early death? We're already surrounded; any threat we pose will likely be taken and responded to with fatal force.”

  “My parents never raised me to shy from a fight, Kanos, even ones where my death is certain,” Solis returned. “If I will die, I will die the Verrille way, on my feet.”

  The other commanders turned to Vanis. “Please talk some sense into your brother. You seem the sensible one, make him see sense. Negotiation is the best recourse we have.”

  Vanis’s face was turned towards the horde massing around them. He moved to stand just behind his brother, resting his hand reassuringly on his Solis' shoulder.

  Solis had not even bothered to turn to check for the decision of his brother.

  “On this, I stand with my brother.” He said, and that was all.

  The commanders, helpless, turned to the other Lese scions, likely expecting them to help them convince the brothers to depart from this joint absurd train of thought. Keilan was likewise baffled.

  “I do not believe a strength like this was gathered as a means to simply intimidate us, commanders,” Sareina said. She stood like the princess she was, hands folded over her belly, a stern and accepting expression on her face. “These monsters intend to eliminate us. I'd rather go out like our lost captains than die out like a candle flame.”

  “What about the people? The civilians?”

  Solis shrugged. “I'm sure they wouldn't want to end up as monster food. A big middle finger to the monsters, even as they pass on, would be a chance none of them would pass up.”

  They turned to Huiron, and this time even Solis turned to see what the other man would say.

  Huiron stepped back. “Don't look at me! I don't want to die yet! I've got fortunes waiting to be spent and tons of things I haven't done yet. Why would I want to die like some fairy tale hero?”

  The expressions on everyone's face changed instantly. The commanders all let out varying expressions of relief, while Sareina looked at him with hurt. Actual hurt. Vanis eyes went cold, while Solis sent him a scathing, murderous glare, and this wasn't even the mock ones he sent out to everybody. He was truly pissed.

  “On the other hand,” Huiron raised a stalling finger, “I won't capitulate either. Which was why I sent out an SOS a long while ago, my own SOS.”

  For the second time, the faces of everyone immediately changed, all morphing into singular expressions of shock and confusion.

  “Yup, I sent out a successful SOS.” He repeated, and then closed his eyes and puffed out his chest, with his arms cocked on his waist. “Reinforcement will be arriving anytime soon. You can praise me now.”

  “You complete, utter, magnanimous fool.”

  Huiron opened a single eye. “That's a whole lotta words, Solis. I don't see any praise in there.”

  “Praise? You want praise?! Tell me why you kept this secret to yourself, only revealing it now, right in front of the Ascendant Dragon who can probably hear us from where it is?"

  And truly, he was right. The dragon's eyes narrowed, and a cloud of smoke spewed out of its nose, blowing with such force that the ship rattled heavily like a sea-faring vessel in proximity to a tornado.

  Huiron blinked at the sight. “Oh…”

  “And if your so-called reinforcement hasn't arrived since, what makes you think they'll arrive now?!”

  “Oh…”

  The darkness moved, and an earthquake seemed to rumble across space, justling them with more force than the creature's entrance had caused.

  The eyes rose higher like a rising sun, only to narrow as it suddenly drew closer to the ships, more precisely the leading ship, where they were all located.

  There were no discernible features, but Keilan could swear amusement dripped from the creature's face. It wasn't afraid at all of whatever reinforcement that Huiron seemed to have called.

  Why was it so? Even a dragon, as powerful as it was, should have realized that Lese wasn't going to respond to this with a small force. They were going to come with more than anything even an Ascendant dragon could handle.

  Before he had time to contemplate further, space trembled, sending multiple monsters shifting in anxiety.

  A horizontal line split apart space opposite the dragon, and a deluge of roaring flames immediately gushed out, drowning space in a flaming waterfall, including the monsters around that area.

  The line stretched, growing over thousands of miles. And then a pair of giant hands emerged through the line, each finger greater than even the titanic Divine Kings.

  They tore open the line of fire, expanding and stretching it until it became a hole in space, a massive hole in space that easily dwarfed the dragon's eyes in size.

  And out of it marched figures of myths and legends.

  Looking at them, Keilan couldn't quite describe them as giants. It felt inadequate. These were beings that dwarfed any conceivable metric. They stood taller than the Divine King monsters, the lower parts of their body disappearing into the depths where even the lights of the dragon's lightning failed to reach.

  There were many of them, each clothed in raiments of many colors, signifying their aspects. But a few instantly caught Keilan's attention. Unlike the others, these were wreathed in raiments of golden flames, darkness, and crackles of crimson lightning that didn't back down one inch from the dragon's.

  Almost a dozen of them emerged. They weren't the only ones.

  Behind them emerged countless figures of smaller, yet titanic sizes, each burning with more powers than even the average monster. Their presences cast a ray of light across space, bringing all the monstrous creatures hidden in darkness to light.

  A legion of High Domain Spirit Kings.

  This was a group marching for war.

  A man drifted to the front of the group, hands folded behind his back as he moved to hover in front of even the ascendants in great forms.

  He was humanoid in size, smaller than all the other powers arrayed behind him. Yet as he drifted forward, his figure was no less visible than the others, clear despite the distance, sharp like he was standing right in front of them.

  He was dressed in a fashionable red robe that matched his equally flaming red hair. He glanced at the trapped fleet briefly, letting out a wink through his glasses as he turned back to the dragon.

  His scholarly, familiar features were calm as he regarded the dragon, letting out a little smile. “Greetings, dragon.”

  “You Came."

  Keilan's head snapped to the side, where Sareina stood with widened eyes, shock plainly written on her features.

  “Was there any doubt?” The man said. “You do have my daughter, after all.”

  “Still—”

  The Monarch of Red Skies, Lord Vilsus Duveyar, Duke of High House Duveyar, waved dismissively as he interrupted the dragon. “Let's not pretend that our presence wasn't expected, Virulax. You were clearly expecting Attrevia,” He adjusted his glasses, “but you'll just have to deal with us.”

  Behind him, a great bird wreathed in a mantle of golden flames bloomed into existence. It let out a powerful screech just as its wings unfolded, two great spans of fiery curtains that stretched out until they were but two lines of flames running into the distance, brightening space far more than even the dragon.

  Kiki, who sat on Sareina's shoulders, let out a screech in response to the other flame bird.

  The Duke of Dawn returned his hands to his back. “Now, dispense with all this tomfoolery and let us be done with this.”

  The dragon said nothing. However, its response came in the form of another set of slitted eyes opening in the darkness, and then another, and then another, and another, until thirty-two sets of slitted eyes shone through the darkness, each glowing with different affinities.

  Keilan's eyes turned grim as his heart fell. Instead of sounds of jubilation, the room went completely still with shocked silence, terror and resignation numbing everyone to growing despair.

  Sareina did not scream, yet tears dripped from her eyes. She closed her eyes and mumbled something Keilan actively blocked himself from listening to.

  Her father stared at the enemies arrayed against him. His features were no longer jovial, and they stayed the same even after the portal behind them was forcibly shut, snapping closed with a shockwave that whipped across space.

  The dragon reared its head back and roared, its aura erupting as its powers soared to the fore. It glowed blindingly, for a bare instant illuminating the figures that hid in the darkness behind him.

  Crimson lightning snaked across the heavens, eating its way forward only to be met with a sea of golden flames.

  Power poured out from the Duke, erupting forward into a cascade of writhing golden illuminance.

  His eyes glowed pure red gold, and his hair and robes fluttered madly under the attention of a non-existent wind. A halo of burning flames ignited behind him as he gestured towards the fleet of ships.

  “Nessus, take them,” he said.

  A cloud of darkness flowed forwards, emerging out of nowhere to swallow the trapped fleet into its depthless maw. Keilan's last sight right before it did was the Monarch of Red Skies flying into battle with a roaring dragon.