Act 1:(chapter14) From boy to king

The room looked fairly normal with sofas and armchairs spread out across the entire room with tables dotted about as well. The only thing that was slightly unique about it was the massive window wall at the end which showed the vast void of The Beyond and the rows of Infinite Realities it contained.

There were three women/girls in the room who looked around 19+ in age. The one with the red skin and small horns (which had now strangely disappeared) was leaning on the large window with her eyes closed while the other two spread themselves out on one of the sofas. They were all stunningly beautiful that it made me almost jealous as I recognised them instantly.

If I remember correctly Nova called them his three generals.

I recalled the memory when Nova took command over Eclipsis's army.

"Lazuli, Shion, Kuni," Kara called from behind holding the doorknob of the entrance. "you guys stay here with these three. Since your all friends with my brother I'm sure you'll get along just fine."

"Wait where are you going?" Kuni called back.

"I have some other matters to attend to. I'll be back with my brothers in a few hours so sit tight." Kara replied as she closed the doors behind us.

There was a long pause as the three of us faced the closed entrance unsure of what to do next.

"You just gonna stand there like a bunch of scarecrows or what?"

We turned round to find the comment had come from the girl with pitch black hair who wore a tomboyish friendly smile. The other two were also looking at us with friendly expressions with the purpled haired girl wearing a toothy grin while the red skinned girl had a calm but pleasant smile of her own.

Shrugging our shoulders, Shion and I sat down on the sofa opposite the two girls while Kuni pulled up a chair next us.

"I feel like introductions are in order." The black-haired girl said putting her hands behind her head while indicating that we should go first.

"My name is Shion Marble." Shion said first raising her hand slightly in a formal greeting.

"And m-my name is Lazuli Titana." I said giving the girls a slight wave.

Aren't you smooth?

Shut it, Stella! My nerves just came back for a brief moment that's all.

I don't know how but I could feel the teasing grin on Stella's face.

"Oh, right." Kuni piped up after a small pause before clearing his throat. "My name is Kuni Saber and usually I'd announce my title as well but considering the power I can sense coming from you guys I don't think it'll have any weight."

He laughed weakly scratching the back of his head.

"I like you." The black-haired girl said to Kuni. "You gotta nice sense of humour."

She gave a Kuni a wink which made him blush ever so slightly before looking over me and Shion.

"Name's Andrea." She said giving a lazy two fingered sault.

"Minerva Grace!" The purple haired girl said suddenly piping up as she held her hand out for a shake in a very over the top manner. "Nice to meet ya."

Minerva had a very wide but also lovable and friendly grin on her face, so I took her hand and shook as did my other friends.

"I love your hair." Minerva said surprising my friend next to me. "Such a beautiful shade of blue plus your Ethos seems to have a unique smell about it."

Shion was speechless and caught completely guard and had no idea how to respond to that.

Andrea broke the very brief awkward silence andpointed behind her with a thumb at the girl leaning on the window.

"The brooding one over there is Rei by the way." She said before putting her hand back behind her head as Rei snickered slightly before opening her eyes and began walking towards us.

I nearly gasped when I saw two things.

Her hair was the purest shade of white that I had ever seen, and it flowed behind her almost like a fountain, but it was her eyes that caught most of my attention. Nova, while that form when he revealed himself to be The Yin-Yang King, was the only other person to have such unique eyes. Rei's eyes were a black that was so dark you could almost be sucked into it as it was blacker than oil, blacker than darkness itself yet they also looked so peaceful with not even a hint of malevolence within them.

"All three of you I have taken interest in." She said walking past Shion and Kuni looking into their eyes before bending down to my sitting level while she still stood.

She took hold of my chin gently and looked directly into my own eyes that were shielded by my glasses.

"But you, Lazuli, have intrigued me the most as you're the only one out of your friends who have evolved into an Awakened Ethereal."

There was a brief pause as I probably felt the exact same as Shion had a few moments ago before being saved by Minerva.

"Hey Rei, I think you're scarin' the girl here." She jokingly.

Rei pulled back from my face and sat down in between Andrea and Minerva.

"Forgive me." She said lowering her head slightly. "I've always been a little impulsive so as an apology me and my sisters will answer any and all of your questions that we capable of answering."

"I got one." Kuni said raising hand. "What's this Awakened Ethereal and Ethos stuff that I keep hearing about."

I looked at Shion, who had recently discovered what it was and shrugged her shoulders.

You can transfer memories and information you know.

Wait what?

Yes, make some kind of physical contact with Kuni's head and you'll be able to transfer your knowledge to him.

Since Stella had yet to be wrong, I did what she said.

"Kuni, can you give me your head quickly?" I requested getting a strange look from Kuni but he did what I said and leant forward.

I placed two fingers on his forehead and imagined the transferring of the information that he wanted to know.

Kuni's eyes immediately went wide as a shocked expression appeared on his face before he pulled away and sat back in his chair.

"That's something…" He breathed still looking surprised. "So that makes you way stronger than both Shion and me."

I nodded.

"I see your already getting the hang of your Ethos Abilities." Minerva said stroking her chin in a dramatic fashion. "I'm guessing you've already spoken with the sentient Ethos infused within in you. What's their name?"

Curious aren't they.

"She called herself Stella, The Cosmic Star Ethos."

"Flashy name." Minerva pondered. "I like it!"

"You like anything that has something "jazzy" about it." Andrea teased.

"You're going to be powerful in the future." Rei said looking at me in the eye. "Ethos that have titles to them are some of the strongest out there."

Is that true?

Yes. Ethos, like myself, who earn nicknames have power that is vastly stronger than Ethos that don't

I nodded as I thought that over for a minute.

"Another question." Kuni piped up again. "Before I went unconscious it looked like Nova was going to fight, what I now know, were his siblings. What was that outcome to that?"

Andrea looked at Rei who grinned.

Rei widened her right eye which then displayed what looked like a film onto the wall behind us like her eye was a projector.

"These are my memories of the fight so I can only show you what I saw."

My mouth gaped open as I watched the brutal fight play out on the wall as Shion began to furiously write down in her notebook while Kuni displayed a reaction similar to my own.

"Those must be their Capere Forms." Shion said as she watched Diablo and Kara appear in completely different states. "Nova is still only in that Lunar/Solar magic combination form and taking care of them easily and that eye…"

Omuni.

What?

The strongest of Ethos have abilities within their eye and or eyes known as Omuni. Seems like Nova's (Trio) has an Omuni that allows him to see even when blinded and sperate/fuse the forces and aspects of a subject.

"He's more powerful than I could have ever imagined." I murmured as I watched Nova destroy the Outer-Realm he was in while Rei and her sisters teleported out of harm's way before the memory film closed.

"So how, in all that is holy, is Kara and Diablo still alive." Kuni said turning to look at the three generals.

"His majesty's sibling both possess Skills that make them almost impossible to kill." Minvera explained. "Kara is immortal in both the fact her body does not die nor does it age."

"Diablo," Andrea continued. "has a Unique Skill that gives him four lives in total before death sticks and each time he dies he resurrects himself at a location of his choice. He'd be on two lives now."

"The Yin-Yang King can kill them at any time he wants, the only reason why they're still alive is because my lord does not want them dead yet." Rei said and a flash back to that Immortality Negation ability that Nova has thanks to his Ethos.

Kuni and nodded to each other as we mulled this over.

"I have a question." Shion said looking up from her notepad and looked at the three girls in front of us. "What exactly are you three? You're a part of Nova's Shadow Army meaning you're not quite dead or alive and you can use Ethos but you don't give off the same power that an Ethereal does so you can't be that either. Especially you. Something also tells me this also involves this "Demoreal" thing that I heard Kara say in that memory of yours."

Shion rudely pointed directly at Rei while me and Kuni struggled to stay calm.

What the hell is she thinking!? From what I gathered about Nova's ability to create his own army, each soldier is a reflection his own power and if these three are his strongest soldiers with Rei being stronger than both Kara and Diablo combined that means all three of them are well into the realms of Omni Rank so what is she doing antagonising them like that!?

There was a long pause as the three generals stared at Shion who stared back at them not blinking before Rei broke the silence with a burst of laughter.

"I like you, hahaha!" she giggled. "You still talk to me like that with full knowledge that I possess power that allows me to almost think you out of existence. You got some backbone kid. Very well, I'll answer that question since it also involves Nova a little."

All three of us raised an eyebrow at that as Rei cleared her throat.

"I'm guessing you all know about the Alpha-Verse."

"Alpha-Verse?" I asked confused.

"Oh right," Rei seemed to realise. "we call all the different constructs in existence, including the void of nonexistence outside the Relics, the Alpha-Verse as a collective."

"Ah." We all said and nodded letting Rei continue.

"Anyway, as you know the twin of the Primis Omega (the one you live in) is the Abyss which has its own version of the 1705 event when Ethos descended down to earth except there are a few differences." Rei said as we listened intently. "In the Abyss Omega, 90% of all the Realities were drenched in Ethos leading to 100% of the humanoid population within those Realities being infused with and mutated by the Ethos. The beings that were mutated by Ethos were called Ethereals in the Primis but in the Abyss they were called Demoreals."

She paused and briefly exchanged glances her sisters before continuing.

"All three of us are Demoreals."

"So that's why you seemed a little off." Shion sighed nodding.

"Exactly." Minerva continued. "Unfortunately, the Demoreal King was a big fan of conquering and after discovering the existence of Omegas he set his eyes on conquering The Primis. Your Omega."

A small chill went down my spine.

"The average Demoreal is far stronger than the average Ethereal, in fact they would be high Dragon Ranks-low Demon Ranks and most Demoreals range in this power but luckily that meant most Demoreals weren't strong enough to traverse between Omegas. Very few Demoreals are actually Omni Ranks who were strong enough to go into the Chaos Void and actually survive the travel between Omegas."

"But if they were that strong why didn't they conquer it already?" I asked as the question popped into my mind.

"Viro Cosmos." Rei explained. "He would fight off the Demoreals who came to The Primis making it incredibly difficult to conquer it. Yes, they could most definitely destroy it, but The Demoreal King is greedy and stubborn, so he forbad that."

"Leading to your ancestors to be safe and sound." Andrea said.

"However, the old man was an idiot."

We all recognised that voice and turned to see Nova suddenly leaning on the window.

"""Your Majesty""" Andrea, Rei and Minerva said immediately getting onto their knees and bowing before Nova gestured them to rise and sit down.

"Viro was reckless in the creation of Valhalla." Nova continued as a chair formed behind him as he sat down. "So reckless in fact, that it's creation caused the Delta-Realm that housed all the Omegas to weaken. More specifically the section of the Delta-Realm where the Primis and Abyss were kept, leading to tears and cracks form within the two Omegas that would allow one to travel between The Primis and The Abyss without worry of being harmed by the Chaos Void."

Nova practically spat the name Viro every time he said it.

"These cracks and tears acted like portals that would open and close at random which meant the all the Demoreal King had to do was wait for a crack/tear to open and then send his armies through."

Nova sighed as he seemed to re-live something.

"Obviously my old man couldn't handle all the different armies appearing at once, so he decided to do this. Being the strongest of my siblings I would go behind enemy lines and attack the Demoreals at the source while him and my brother and sister fought off any armies that slipped through cracks/tears that I hadn't found."

"I'm guessing that's when you met Andrea, Minerva and Rei. Did battle with them before adding them to your army?" Shion said sounding fairly sure of herself.

"You'd think that." Nova snickered sarcastically suddenly seeming pretty agitated. "How old do you think me, and my siblings are? 16, 19, maybe even 25. Nope Kara is actually going on 200 with Diablo at 150. I however, is going 2500 years old."

What the f-!

Nova continued, interrupting my thought.

"I bet you're wondering how that even works. The whole Cosmos family transcend the Concepts of Space-Time meaning we can appear as whatever age we want. Kara was decided to appear the age of 19 while my brother decided to appear the age of 17-18. My two siblings were prodigies the like the world had never seen. Kara, the first born, transcended the Concepts of Space-Time when she was 15 while my brother was an even bigger prodigy and transcended those concepts at the age of 11."

Nova seemed to notice the shocked expressions Kuni, me and Shion were wearing.

"I know, crazy right?" He said with a thin smile. "I was never always this strong you know."

He looked at his hands.

"In fact, I was actually born a Wolf Rank and was probably the weakest Ethereal out there. After getting brutally beaten in a fight with a Lion Rank on the same day my twin brother transcended the concepts of space-time, the old man seemed to snap."

Nova clenched his fists until they were almost white knuckled before he relaxed.

"Time in the constructs that have them within the Abyss work differently to the ones in the Primis. 1 year in the Primis is 100 years in the Abyss. Viro forced me into the Abyss through a crack. An Ethereal no matter the age was an enemy to all Demoreals so this was almost a deaths sentence. He told me "not to return until I had transcended the concepts of Space-Time and was as strong if not stronger than siblings" and left me there alone."

Nova paused before looking up from his hands and at looked at all of us.

"For 1000 years I was trapped. 1000 years I was forced to fight, kill and grow stronger just to survive and when I finally returned, I was far stronger than my so-called father." Nova spat. "It was during that period that I met Minerva, Andrea and Rei."

Nova took a breath, trying to relax himself before continuing.

"And not even two years after returning home I am then sent back into the Abyss, a living hell full of carnage, violence and destruction, for another 1000 years or so. During those 1000 years I became so strong I could destroy an entire Relic or two at my full power. I was stronger than my own father. During those 2000 years in total a boy turned into a King."

I lay in bed not being able to sleep. Even though I had transcended the very concepts of space-time and The Beyond lacked those concepts as well it was still important to get some kind of sleep according to Rei although it wasn't entirely necessary. Rei and her sisters returned within Nova and all of us went to bed at what we felt like was night even though time didn't exactly exist here.

I tossed and turned in my bed as Nova's words looped in my head.

"This is pointless." I muttered and pulled the sheets of me before getting up and walking out the bedroom I had been given.

You still got some questions I'm guessing?

"You could say that." I said as I walked down the corridor, passing Kuni and Shion's rooms with a ball of red and blue light in my hand to clear away the darkness.

I came across a room that looked a little like a cross between a lounge and a study and sat down on one of the sofas.

My questions specifically where what was going to happen to me now? What's going to happen to Kuni and Shion? Am I safe? What about my parents? Is Alex ok and where did he go?

"Let's see, your safe here, you've transcended the concepts of time so there is only one Lazuli Titana not an infinite amount for each of the infinite timelines and since I turned back time it'll be kinda like you were never even born. I'll answer the one about Shion and Kuni when there awake."

I turned to find that I had sat down and rested my head on Nova's shoulder who was also sitting on the sofa next to me.

I felt my face burn with embarrassment as I quickly pulled away from Nova and put some distance between us on the sofa.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry I didn't know you were h-here pleas-" I stumbled over my words lightning fast, but Nova stopped me.

"Calm down it's ok. Your tired and didn't know I was here." He had a friendly smile on his face as I took in a deep breath.

There was a long pause. It wasn't awkward, it was rather peaceful in fact.

"So, it's like I was never even born then." I sighed breaking the silence.

"Not quite, but similar. Since you've transcended the concept of time there is only one you. If you were to go back or forward in time you wouldn't meet past or future yourself." Nova said looking up at the ceiling.

"That makes sense, I guess. Oh yeah, what about Alex?"

Nova looked at me and raised an eyebrow for a moment.

"Alex is also connected to me as well."

"Wait he is? How?"

Nova smiled slightly.

"He was my first Shadow Soldier."

"He was?" I said curiously, unable to feel surprised at things when it came to Nova anymore.

"Yep, he was Demoreal who was a member of the council that answered and advised the Demoreal King. He excels in illusions and gathering information, he actually created the illusion of "The Yin-Yang King" appearing just before the Divine Tournament."

"Makes sense." I said sighing. "At G.E. High he was the best at both those things. So where is he now?"

"He's probably talking with the Demoreal council right now."

"Wait I thought you guys were at war or something with the Demoreals?" I frowned as I tried to make sense of it.

"I had a little talk with my siblings before I reunited with you guys. Some events have happened and there's a cease fire. I'm supposedly meant to meet with council tomorrow to negotiate which will probably lead to two outcomes."

"Which are?" I urged.

"Outcome one, everything is sorted out and the war (which has lasted 2000 years from the Demoreals view) will come to an end. Outcome two, we argue and don't sort anything out leading to the war continuing."

"Let's hope it's option one then." I laughed weakly sitting back in the sofa.

"Yes lets." Nova replied.

There was another long pause.

"Of course," Nova broke the pause. "there is the possibility this is a trap and the entire Demoreal army descends down to kill me since I've probs been the Demoreal King's main thorn in his backside. If that happens, I'm probably going to be gone for a few hundred years or so."

As another long silence appeared, images of destruction, clashing armies and the killing innocent humans, Ethereals and Demoreals the like formed in my head. All-out war.

A war that could lead to the destruction of the Primis itself and maybe even my death and the death of my friends… Nova's death.

It sent a chill down my spine, making the hairs on the back of my neck stand up straight.

I looked at my hands and noticed them shivering slightly.

Am I… scared?

"Hey Nova."

"Hm?"

"Is it ok if I um… rest on you just for a bit."

Nova looked at me for a brief moment as I looked down causing my glasses to droop of my nose a little, feeling… I don't even know what I was feeling, it was just so overwhelming. Everything that had happened.

"Sure."

I looked up to find Nova watching me with his piercing bright blue eyes with a caring expression on his face.

I don't know if he had noticed me shaking or figured out that everything was hitting me, and I was absolutely terrified, but I didn't care.

I scooted over close to him, resting my head on his chest as his army gently and smoothly pulled me in tight as I cuddled up to him.

I could hear his breathing through his chest and the drumming of his heartbeat which acted almost like a lullaby as I felt all the fear I once had fade away.

"I'm sorry Lazuli." He muttered.

"Hm?" I murmured not looking up.

"For everything. For wiping your memory, for dragging you into something that doesn't involve you, something that could be dangerous."

His voice seemed to shake slightly as I could hear the guilt in it.

"It's fine." I whispered. "Yes, it's overwhelming and I'm scared but I met you because of it. It's also opened my eyes to things that I didn't even think was possible, I mean I went from a Hydra Rank to Demon Rank in a day, that sounds like a win to me."

That got a chuckle out of Nova.

"I suppose you're right but don't concern yourself about all of that now. Just get some rest." He said softly.

A combination of hearing his breathing, heart beat and feeling the warmth of his body sent my mind adrift as all my troubles slipped away before I finally closed my eyes a fell into the warm and peaceful darkness of sleep.