Defiance of the Fall

Yselio hummed a nursery rhyme as he read through the reports, occasionally making a calculation with his fingers. Things were progressing as expected, and he was beginning to unravel the patterns behind the deployments. The universe might seem random and fickle, but that was only because you couldn't see the Order hiding within. And so long as you understood the rules, you could nudge them in your favor.

It took a few hours to collate the necessary adjustments, but Yselio believed they should let him move his battlefronts closer to the so-called Allbright Empire. The little frontier faction was a sheep ripe for the plucking now that they were forced to transfer more and more soldiers to the Eternal Storm. Yet, they dared host outsider sealbearers within their domains. Ending their future would broaden his own, increasing his fate with the Left Imperial Palace.

And the price was more than acceptable. He only needed to sacrifice twelve out of the sixty-four worlds he'd taken control of. Two of them had decent strategic value, but what did he care about some merit in the grand scheme of things? The only headache was the Central Chapter of the Kan'Tanu. Yselio sighed and looked out the window, but the fires obscured his view.

Suddenly, a knock on the door and Ylvin stepped through shortly after. Speak of the devil.

"Welcome back," Yselio said with a smile. "How are things at the capitol?"

"That Sect Master is slippery like an eel," Ylvin snorted before glancing at the fence in the corner of the room. "What's this ugly thing, then?"

Yselio laughed as he looked at the creature trapped within its pen. It was in good vigor even after three days and furiously slammed against the barrier upon sensing the newcomer's aura. The interesting markings had only grown denser after the forced impartment of Desolate Energy. Yselio wouldn't be surprised if this little Early D-grade critter could slaughter most Middle Stage Hegemons by this point.

Frontier Hegemons, anyway.

"I've been perusing the archives of the Broken God Chapter lately," Yselio said. "This desolate region is really quite interesting. There are remnants of the old empire everywhere, and these pitiful savages don't understand what they're sitting on. I picked this little guy up in a dimensional fragment. The remnant seems to have passed through an uncharted plane, and the inhabitants have picked up some rare characteristics."

"Still working on your perfect killer? Do you have that much free time?" Ylvin said with a pointed look. "I'm assuming you've gone off to play only after finishing your assigned tasks?"

"Something like that," the prince laughed, lifting his hands in surrender upon seeing his uncle's brows furrow. "Truly! I'm working hard on our mission."

"Then why are you still barely in the Top 100?" Ylvin spat. "The top position might be difficult, but you're embarrassing the Heavens by this point."

"What does Father and my Imperial Uncles care about some small-scale scuffle on the frontier?" Yselio said with a shake of his head. "I'm keeping my eyes on the real prize."

"So long as you remember," Ylvin relented before glancing at the critter again. "I still remember the aftermath of when you tried to mutate that Siren within your palace. Did any of your staff survive its song?"

"Only the stronger spies and assassins who'd infiltrated my staff," Yselio grinned.

"Hm. By the way, you were right. Those siblings from the Blade Sea were accepted," Yrvin said as he took out a gourd.

"Oh? Where are they now?"

"They're still at the edge of the sector, but they should be here in a week."

"Good, they can take charge of the sixth field army upon their return," Yselio muttered. "Kervin is lacking fate. Maybe he can find it in the Million Gates Territory with the vanguard."

"While we're on the topic of spies?" Yrvin laughed. "Dealing with the children of the other Heavens is fine; they're the ones who snuck in here. But the elders back home will take it as an insult if you make it too obvious."

"Kervin is one of my dear cousins?" Yselio said with feigned surprise, laughing when Yrvin rolled his eyes. "Did you see the report on Zecia's ladders?"

"I did. Two new names, both late registries appearing on the Early D-grade ladder."

"What do you think?"

"Both received exactly 125,000 the moment they registered," Yrvin said. "They must be related to the events in the Stellar Ladder. No other event has given such sizable pre-enlistment rewards. They're likely even the main perpetrators, judging by the fact that the Vigil's Holy Maiden was only awarded 75,000 Merit."

"Zachary Atwood," Yselio hummed. "It was about time he appeared. He's bound to hold the most fate of his sector."

"He's all but guaranteed to be a sealbearer," Yrvin agreed. "If you ask me, one of the most promising targets for finding the next piece of your own."

"If it's fated," Yselio smiled, his finger slowly tapping on the table. "Two newcomers, likely newly ascended. Just months after my poor cousin died and Emperor Vastermal met his unfortunate setback."

"You think they're responsible?" Yrvin said with interest.

"Who knows? Does it matter?" Yselio smiled.

"Do you wish to send word back home?"

"And give the First Heaven an excuse to send cousins here in the open rather than in the dark? " Yselio laughed. "Not a chance. Perhaps if we need a borrowed hand in the future. Until then, obfuscate any details. Let Zachary Atwood drown in a sea of minutia within the reports."

"Alright, it's your call," Yrvin shrugged.

"The question is, just how are those two connected?" Yselio continued. "Zachary Atwood met with Catheya Sharva'Zi inside the Tower of Eternity. Was that their first meeting, or is there something more to it? Did Zachary Atwood know Arcaz Umbri'Zi even before that? And why is a Draugr part of a faction that hasn't even been assimilated? My instincts tell me that unraveling this mystery will move me closer to my goal."

"Do you want me to investigate?" Yrvin asked.

"It's not urgent; let one of the others take care of it," Yselio said. "I'd appreciate it if you kept investigating the thing from before."

"Still the Central Chapter?" Yrvin said with a raised brow. "Just what are you worried about? They seem to be following the agreement to a tee."

"Isn't that suspicious on its own? An unorthodox cult playing by the rules?" Yselio said before his brows furrowed. "No, something is hiding beneath the surface, and it's making me uncomfortable."

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Carl glanced out the vessel's window and felt the familiar queasiness upon spotting the planet in the distance. It was less than a day since he last found himself flying in the air, desperately avoiding the furious attacks of the defending cultists while assassinating Array Controllers and leaders.

Their pace was already frantic enough to wear him down to the bones, but the boss wasn't satisfied. The boss's appearance might have changed, but his penchant for destruction remained the same. If anything, it might have gotten stronger. Carl almost laughed at himself upon remembering the relief he'd felt when the scanners said the closest D-grade world was out of range. He should have known better.

Of course the boss would have a sleek personal vessel with more than ten times the speed of their normal ships, large enough to hold an elite strike squad—a squad he'd regrettably been selected for.

Sometimes, Carl struggled to understand how things reached this point. The first time Carl spotted him in the distance, he'd seen the madness in the boss's eyes. Carl still remembered his emotionless visage as he cleaned up the stragglers of the incursion by old Toronto. Just a few months into the integration and he was harvesting lives like they were crops.

Yet he found himself pulled ever closer to the malignant star that was Zachary Atwood. Some joked that it was Lissa who had tricked him into greatness, but Carl knew it was deeper than that. He could almost feel like his road into the future had been tied to the chariot of the Deviant Asura. And try as he might, he wasn't able to extricate himself.

Certainly, being bound to someone like Zachary Atwood had its upsides. He'd be lying if he said he didn't enjoy the pursuit of the Dao and his improved longevity. If not for his still-incomprehensible choice to approach one of the Valkyries all those years ago, he would probably be puttering around in Early E-grade by this point—and he'd seen how those people fared on the battlefronts.

He'd never have encountered the boundless magnificence of the Radiant Court, getting the chance to touch upon the very essence of the cosmos. It had let him cross the threshold of Hegemony in just over a decade, something which trillions of people could only dream of.

But why did strength have to be seized through so much bloodshed? Was slaughter really Heaven's Path and the true expression of the Dao? Carl shook his head as he finished up the engravings on his arrows. Like it or not, it was the reality they found themselves in. Not much later, his door beeped and slid open.

"We're ten minutes out. We're coming down on the capital the moment we arrive," Joanna said.

"What about the Town Protection array?" Carl asked hesitantly. "This thing doesn't seem like a destroyer."

"I'm not sure. The Lord said he would deal with it."

"Who could've guessed," Carl muttered as he got to his feet, grabbing his Spirit Tool Cloak from the chair.

The bright yellow runes across its green fabric shimmered, and Carl felt some of his anxiety give in as his presence was muted by its illusory effect. The weaker his aura, the harder it would be for trouble to find him.

They walked to the large hull where the bulk of their group was already waiting, armed to the teeth and ready. The air was heavy, and not only because of the bloody auras the elite soldiers exuded.

There was always that hint of uncertainty with these uncharted worlds. They hadn't been filtered by the System, so they could hold anything, really. A secret base with thousands of Late Hegemons? Perhaps. A Monarch ancestor visiting his hometown? Why not?

Carl's nerves were taut, but he put on a steadfast expression as he returned the greetings of the soldiers. One way or another, he'd become one of the pillars of the Calamity Company. He needed to project calm and confidence, like it wasn't crazy for a group of five thousand to invade a world that dwarfed Jupiter in size.

The boss stood by the large hatch, giving no indications of his thoughts. In his hand was an unfamiliar crystal, but it seemed to be a remote controller to the ship judging by its design.

"Are you ready?" Arcaz asked without opening his eyes.

"Ready," Carl said.

"We'll follow behind you," Joanna continued, and Carl inwardly groaned upon feeling the bloodthirsty aura awaken next to him. No one had drank from the tainted well of the boss's mind as much as this girl.

Only he and the boss had the power of flight, but no one had prepared parachutes or ships. What was the point? They'd only slow you down and turn you into a target. You might just as well jump down while firing back at whatever tried to take you out. Most had some way to temporarily maneuver in the air anyway.

"I'll break open the barrier," Arzas said, turning his terrifying eyes to Carl. "I'll be relying on you."

"I—Yes," Carl croaked, hurriedly looking away.

"Good. It's time."

There was no warning, no shake from entering the atmosphere. The hatch just opened, and Arzac Umbri'Zi jumped out.

"Huh," Joanna said after a moment of silence. "He said he'd deal with the barrier, but I didn't expect he planned to blow it up himself."

"Then you haven't been paying attention," Carl muttered as he flew out of the ship, his bow drawn and ready.

Far below, a citadel stretched across an expansive mountain range, with the central palace right below them. It was on the smaller side as far as D-grade capitals went, but its population should still be over five million. And yet, there was nothing to shoot.

Carl's augmented vision spotted more than one hundred potential targets scrambling to man their stations or floating into the air. However, almost all of them were within the palace, whose protective array was already activated. A few strong people stayed in the hanging mansions just beneath the peak, but the main array protected them.

Only the common neighborhoods and slums in the valleys were without protection, but the strongest signals from down there were Middle only E-grade. Not enough for him to waste his special arrows and potentially expose himself.

Carl's heart hammered upon seeing the main peak's array towers light up, and he checked and double-checked to ensure that both his cloak and obscuring skill were running. He should only look like a streak of sunlight at most, but Carl still felt incredibly exposed. Not as exposed as the boss, though.

Arcaz had turned into a black streak, moving with speed approaching Carl's arrows. There was no finesse, no subterfuge, to his approach. If anything, he was impossible to miss. He was flying right toward the barrier's center, radiating the aura of a vengeful god. He must seem like a heavenly calamity for those poor mortals looking up at the sky right now.

The defenders unleashed a storm of skills toward the approaching streak, but Carl shook his head. Such a weak response couldn't possibly curtail the Deviant Asura. They should have fired their Array Towers at him instead of waiting for them to fully charge. As expected, a monstrous burst of Miasma and the skills shattered.

Still, Carl wasn't sure how the boss planned on breaking through. Over the past months, he'd seen just how durable Town Protection Arrays were. Even the weaker ones could usually endure a good beating from their Cosmic Vessels and War Machines. The boss was strong, but a single Hegemon shouldn't be enough.

Then, a primordial roar shook the mountain range, and Carl could barely believe his eyes when the boss turned into a black dragon hundreds of meters long. It released a shroud of death and destruction, barreling right for the barrier.

The scene was so shocking it made Carl's mind shut down momentarily. But it was forcibly rebooted when five terrifying beams shot down at the barrier. They came from the vessel, and each targeted a different section of the shield. An earthshattering explosion reverberated through the mountain range as the undead dragon crashed into the shield, and Carl could barely believe his eyes when it popped like a soap bubble.

Was the shield just for show? Or was the boss just that strong?

Carl guessed it didn't matter. He'd go crazy if he kept trying to look at things with common sense. The big guy had already emerged from the dragon's mouth, shooting toward the strongest cultivator. Meanwhile, that corrosive domain of his spread through the courtyards, filling every nook and cranny. A pang of warning reminded Carl of his job. He quickly nocked an arrow as the Branches of Inferno and Apostle's Arrow entered the bow, prompting the patterns he'd just engraved to light up.

[Apollo's End] activated, and an explosion almost rivaling the boss's followed a searing streak of flames. He couldn't take all the credit—most of the force came from the Array Tower he'd just blown up. It was just about to fire at the Yphelion, but how could Carl let that happen? Instead, flames and unstable energies consumed a whole section of the palace, throwing the planetary defenses in disarray.

A second streak of flames joined the first, forming a second radiant pillar as another Array Tower blew up. Two balls of crackling destruction tore apart the sky where he fired the shot, but Carl had moved far away already. His back was slick with sweat, but he still added the unnecessary flair that made the trajectories linger in the sky. After all, any shot aimed at him wouldn't target his men.

The frontrunners had almost reached the ground already, with people like Joanna using energy to speed up their descent. They looked like a human waterfall forming a trail from the Yphelion to the planet below. Carl shook his head, maintaining his altitude while nocking another arrow. He'd stay up here, thank-you-very-much.

He'd already decided on his path. With an emperor and generals who were all maniacs, the Atwood Empire needed some levelheaded people to keep the ship afloat. Some Yin to all that Yang. For instance, guardians who could stand firmly at the vanguard, protecting the common soldiers and civilians from the Deviant Asura's monstrous fate.

That wasn't him. Neither was he a scary assassin skulking in the dark, taking on tasks that couldn't be made known to the public. That was Ogras' job. Carl would settle for something simple. He'd help clean up the messes and keep things nice and tidy while staying out of the boss's way. Then he'd take his paycheck and go home to his wife and daughter.

He'd be the Atwood Empire's janitor.