[A/N: Just to clear the air... Lyssandra and Shia haven't been forgotten! They will be brought back in volume 2 which is soon approaching ;) ... Let's just say they joined up together....]
Far above the highest ranked kingdom, where the sky itself seemed to stretch endlessly and the air tasted of eternity, floated the Elarian Empire.
It was not a single landmass like the Kingdoms below.... but a titanic spiral of floating continents stacked like the rings of an impossible tower, each ring larger than the last, rising in perfect, impossible geometry toward a summit that had never known cloud or storm.
The lowest ring alone dwarfed every ranked kingdom beneath it; the highest ring (the Imperial Crown) was said to be so vast that dawn arrived there seven full minutes before it touched the rest of the world.
Rivers of liquid time flowed upward between the rings in shimmering silver ribbons, while constellations of pure spatial distortion drifted like lazy jellyfish, folding distance into origami for the Empire's citizens.
Palaces of white adamant and living star-metal grew directly out of the sky itself, their towers piercing higher than mortal eyes could follow, and at the very apex hovered the Empyrean Throne an ever-blooming lotus of frozen spacetime.
Within the Throne Lotus, in a hall carved from a single piece of compressed eternity, four figures sat in perfect, terrible silence.
At the center, upon the throne of frozen starlight, sat Emperor Auralion Elariel. His hair was the midnight black streaked with silver, like stars fading in the dark, long and unbound, moving as though underwater; his eyes were jet black with faint silver flecks.
To his right sat the Empress, Seraphine Elariel with skin like polished moonstone, and silver hair, she had a voice soft enough to stop hearts with a whisper.
To his left, the two princes:
Crown Prince Celetis Elariel he was silver-haired, cruelly beautiful, eyes containing endless mirrored corridors.
Second Prince Nyxion Elariel was black-haired, smile sharp as a guillotine, and eyes that were voids like Auralion.
In the air between them hovered vague image of a woman. (the being from the cloud domain)
Her final message, still ringing with her cold, indifferent voice.
"Eliminate Ash Solace. Succeed, and the oath that binds the Elarian bloodline to me ends forever. Fail, and I will collect what is mine."
Three months of absolute silence followed that command. They looked everywhere and tried everything, from using spies, to putting lower kingdoms to use but he was nowhere to be found.
Ash Solace, known to the those still alive to tell the tale or those who dug deep enough to know he was merely A-rank, and he had simply vanished.
No trace in his kingdom.
No mana signature.
No footprint at all.
Emperor Auralion eyes narrowed.
"He is either beneath notice… or he has learned to step outside notice. Either way, the Goddess grows impatient."
Nyxion pushed off the pillar, smile sharpening.
"Then we stop looking and start erasing. One little kingdom folded into the void will solve the problem nicely."
Celetis flicked two fingers: a thin line of stopped time shimmered and vanished.
"Tsk, it should be done cleaner... we can send hunters. If he's truly only A-rank, he won't even see us coming."
Empress Seraphine smiled at the Celetis' suggestion and lifted one hand. Then behind her two hundred presences materialized in perfect rows behind her. These were her two hundred S-rank Void Reapers, armor black as the space between stars, faces hidden behind expressionless masks, auras locked down so tightly they seemed like statues carved from silence.
Emperor Auralion's voice fell across the hall like the closing of a tomb.
"Celetis. Nyxion. Take the Two Hundred. Ash Solace is to be removed from the face of Elaris. If the kingdom beneath him must vanish to guarantee it, then let it vanish. Return only when there is nothing left to return for."
The princes bowed in perfect unison.
Nyxion's laugh was soft, eager.
"Consider him already dead."
Celetis' smile never reached his eyes
"I'll bring you the moment he realizes he lost, Father. Frozen forever."
The chamber rippled once.
Two hundred and two S-ranks stepped into folded space and disappeared, descending toward a single, unremarkable speck far below like silent comets made of ending.
The Elarian Empire had issued its verdict.
On behalf of the 'Goddess'.