Ash had returned to Velora a few days prior.
He had slipped away long enough to visit Vaeloria and Nia for six days inside of the Haven, giving them another boost of power through the bond. He found it a bit weird how the Eternal Bloodline gave him everything they were, yet only they grew stronger when they had sex.
[A/N: Nia and Ash hadn't had sex yet.... I will properly give her a chapter soon... It's only been oral off screen...]
If not for his physique offering a multiplier for sex, then he'd just be doing it for the pleasure… something he didn't mind that either.
----
Now the grand ceremonial plain outside the capital's walls was drowning in bodies. One hundred thousand soldiers stood in perfect, mirrored lines beneath the violet sky of Elaris. They all wore the new crimson-and-white of Ash's regime as per his orders Seris had personally made sure the old colors were gone.
Ten thousand of these were Talents he had personally chosen. The rest were apart of the Velora Army's main force. Each and every one of those ninety thousand followed, Seris.
The air hummed with restless murmurs.
"…another speech about unity?" a grizzled sergeant muttered, shifting his weight.
"Tsk, Alaric's late again," a younger soldier whispered back. "Maybe he's drowning in all of that wine!"
Snorts and low laughter rippled through the ranks.
"Bet he's just gonna promise us gold and glory again—"
"Quiet," Seris's voice cut across the plain like a cold blade, low but carrying to every ear.
The laughter died instantly.
A sliver of her aura leaked crimson ash coiling around her boots as the ground beneath her feet cracked faintly.
One hundred thousand throats swallowed at once.
The sky darkened without a cloud.
Ash descended.
Crimson-and-white robes flared once in the sudden wind, then settled like fresh blood on untouched snow. Black-white hair fell in its usual careless mess. For the first time in public, he let them see the face beneath the disguise... sharp, and inhumanly beautiful.
One hundred thousand people inhaled as one.
His golden-pink eyes swept the ranks.
First the main army who were under Seris's command. In their eyes he saw awe, confusion, flickers of disdain, even outright hostility.
'I'll fix that… no doubt.'
Then the ten thousand chosen with Caelan and Kael at the very front, fourteen-year-old bodies practically vibrating.
They stared up at him with pure, wide-eyed confusion.
Ash let the silence stretch until it hurt.
He nodded once.
"I won't make this some long introductory speech nor tale," he said, voice calm, conversational, yet every syllable landed in their skulls like it had been spoken directly beside their ear. Hands folded behind his back, he continued.
"I am the new King of Velora. For those who have seen King Alaric over the past few weeks…"
He activated Perfect Disguise for half a heartbeat (silver hair, kind eyes, gentle smile), then let it shatter.
"That was me."
Murmurs tried to rise again. He didn't give them the chance.
"I won't go into too much detail about the how… because today is the day Velora turns over a new leaf."
A pause.
'I could simply make them follow me… however, from my main troops… I don't want that. I want something genuine.'
"In less than ten years… Velora will become the second Empire the world of Elaris has ever seen."
Dead silence.
Then the scoffing began (quiet at first, then louder).
"Empire?" someone barked sarcastically. "With what army?"
"He's lost his mind."
Laughter, bitter and disbelieving, rippled through the back ranks.
Seris's fingers twitched. Thalion adjusted his glasses, the future timelines flickering behind his eyes turning ugly.
Ash didn't speak.
He simply snapped his fingers.
|Revenant Requiem|
The world did not move.
They did.
One hundred thousand minds were ripped out of their bodies and dropped, screaming silently, into Ash's memory as though they had always been there.
They found themselves in a familiar place... The Ashfall plains.... they were floating in the skies above the Ashfall plains and the sight of this immediately made some of them clench their fist as they saw the Kingdom of Dravenholt.... a million km away.
"Dravenholt," a veteran spat, voice thick with centuries of hate. "Those holy bastards."
"Burned our cities every 'holy day,' " another growled. "Called us heretics for sheltering their own damned refugees."
Rivers of liquid fire snaked across the horizon, glowing arteries feeding Sanctum Primaris, the Crown of Living Fire. Black-glass crater walls blotted half the sky. Seven magma moats burned like halos.
Then they noticed in further in the distance... Ash, Seris, and Thalion.
The actual Ash spoke as the memory began to play.
"Don't speak just watch.... Everything you see is... 100% true..."
Then they watched as he activated a skill... how he lazily drew his sword stroke. Then the white lunar aura erupted. Phoenix rebirth flames danced..... they were witnessing it all in real time. Every breeze, the mana rushing into Ash in droves, they felt it all.
The scrap sword glowed soul-piercing.
Ash's mana sense bloomed two and a half million kilometers wide.
They saw the Iron Saint King stagger onto his balcony. Saw the seven paladins drop to their knees. Saw every hypocrite look up in terror.
"Too. Damn. Late…" Ash whispered.
He swung.
A crescent of lunar fire, two and a half million kilometers wide.
Thin as silk. Bright as dying stars.
It didn't travel. It existed everywhere at once.
Five kingdoms vanished.
Cities, armies, saints, children—all burned to ash in perfect illusionary moons.
Then silver rebirth-flames swept the battlefield.
Ash burned them. Ash remade them. Five hundred fifty million souls opened silver eyes and knelt as one.
Then.... Revenant Requiem ended.
One hundred thousand soldiers slammed back to the plain.
They hit their knees.
Faces pale. Eyes wide. Tears streaming. Reverence burned brighter than fear.
No more scoffs. No more doubt.
They understood well the message he wanted to relay.....
Only silence remained until...
...Ash's voice sounded carrying the same calm tone as before.
"For the next six months… you all will undergo training. While it may be six months for the world of Elaris… those at C-B rank will spend eighteen months inside. Those at A rank will experience sixty months. Seris… you are in charge of the main troops. Step into S-rank while you're at it. Thalion, same for you."
His gaze slid to the ten thousand chosen.
"You…" His face warped into a slow, genuine smile. "Your training will be supervised by someone special. My lovers, Nia and Vaeloria, are already waiting."
The smile vanished, eyes turning cold enough to frost the air.
"I don't give a damn if you're male or female… look at either of them with lecherous eyes or thoughts… heh.
Just try it."
He waved a hand.
One hundred thousand bodies vanished into the Haven.
Ash smiled once more before he too disappeared.
He reappeared inside the Greater Chamber.
It was a breath held by the world itself.
The space stretched boundless yet intimate, a perfect sphere of soft dawn light suspended in endless quiet. The floor was living cloud... warm, weightless, the color of rose-gold mist at sunrise, shifting gently beneath his boots like a sleeping cat.
Above, a sky of liquid starlight drifted in slow, lazy spirals, each star a tiny lantern that pulsed with the heartbeat of someone he had ever protected.
Walls did not exist; instead, translucent veils of pale mist rose and fell like curtains of silk in a wind no one could feel, carrying the faint scent of rain on spring grass and distant cherry blossoms.
At the center floated a single, low dais of white marble veined with living moonlight.
A cushion of cloud rested atop it, soft enough to drown in.
Around the dais, nine ancient cherry trees grew directly out of the mist, as their petals were drifting down in slow motion to dissolve before they ever touched the ground.
Time here moved like honey: one year outside was ten years within. Every breath tasted of peace so deep it bordered on ache. Every exhale carried away a fragment of rage, of doubt, of exhaustion.
Sound was optional.
If he wished, the chamber would sing soft lullabies in Vaeloria's voice, or the quiet crackle of a hearth fire from memories he had never lived. If he wished silence, even his own heartbeat would pause to listen.
This was the heart of the Haven.
The place where even gods would come to rest if they were allowed.
Ash walked to the dais, robes whispering across cloud, and sat.
The cherry petals drifted a little faster, as if the chamber itself was glad he was home.
'Well… let's step into S-rank, shall we?'
He closed his eyes.
The Greater Chamber wrapped around him like the gentlest embrace in existence and began to count heartbeats in decades.