1 Part I Chapter 1 Revelation of the Defiler (Excerpt)
Galaxia Prime 13,968 C.A. (Celestial Age)
A kingdom within Paradia also known as the 'First Realm'
She stood out on one of the several balconies that decorated the exterior of her forty-five-story palace within Galaxia as she gazed out at the capitol city of Alterria. She brushed away a few strands of hair from her face as dozens of traffic lanes jam-packed with airspeeders and other hovercraft made their way from one sector of the city to the other in a constant flow of traffic. Surrounding the traffic were buildings that stretched kilometers into the sky, the royal palace was shorter than the average building within the capitol. Nevertheless, she remained unbothered by the meekness of palace as she never truly focused on nor cared about her prosperity, her priorities were centered on her family and the citizens of Galaxia. As she turned around to walk into her bedroom, she began to sense a chaotic yet familiar presence within the palace making its way towards her. Closing her eyes, she concentrated solely on the chaotic presence and with a inconsequential amount of exertion she started to probe the mind of the individual. Once she recognized exactly who it was, she used her telepathic link with her handmaidens and ordered them to bring their guest to her bedroom. She trusted them completely and considered them her closest allies outside of the Goddesses.
Her handmaidens had protected her for the past two millennia that she had been a Goddess. They'd been blessed with immortality by her. Her decision to make them immortal had come as a request by them because they didn't want to leave her. At first, she was uncertain of using her powers to do so but the young women had grown on her. So, in her mind it had been a no-brainer to make them immortal. As she continued to focus her mind, she could hear the footsteps of the handmaidens as they walked down the halls checking into their respective stations. Then she heard another, this one's thoughts were focused on her and only her, there was also anger and frustration building within him. She wondered what had happened to cause him to become this angry, whatever it was it obviously had something to do with her. At least that's what she suspected, otherwise he wouldn't have come here. As her eyes opened the captain of her handmaidens strode into her bedroom along with two other handmaidens, they were dressed in black and silver cloaks, all three of them had cowls on which they usually did when a guest was among them. The handmaidens were trained to always keep their identities hidden when individuals from foreign kingdoms were in the palace.
"Yes Farah."
"Lady Viennashal, The Lord of Chaos has once again come to visit you." Farah stated as she motioned for the two handmaidens behind her to escort their guest in the room.
Viennashal nodded slowly, her handmaidens reappeared a moment later with their guest. As he entered the room clad in dark red robes that signified his place among the Collective as a Lord. His gold armor that he wore no matter the occasion shined bright as he made his way toward her. Farah turned away and stood in the bedroom doorway while the other two handmaidens stood out in the hallway. As he reached her, she embraced him, and they shared a brief kiss. For a long moment, she wondered how this could have happened. How could she have allowed herself to fall in love with a lord of the Collective? If the Goddesses had found out they would be outraged, possibly even devastated enough that they would remove her as High Ruler of Galaxia, but she doubted that the Congregation of Gods would go to those lengths if they were to find out about her undisclosed relationship? As she allowed herself to loosen her grip around him Viennashal sensed something else from her partner that she'd never sensed from him before; fear. Asjuntar the Lord of Chaos was troubled and had a sense of anxiety written all over himself, she used her mental abilities and peered into his mind but found nothing but fiery anger and fear, this immediately worried her because Asjuntar was never this angry.
"What is it?" She asked hesitantly.
Asjuntar frowned ever so fleetingly and then his face turned back to its neutral expression. She stared into his dark brown eyes and watched as he stroked his chin as if he was attempting to formulate the best response possible.
"My brothers along with the Collective have found out about us. In doing so they've also discovered the existence of our children." He responded
Viennashal was half expecting him to say that, she'd been awaiting this day because she knew it would come eventually. It had been foreseen a millennium ago that this day would come, she had been preparing for it and dreading its arrival. For almost fifteen years she had kept the existence of her children a secret from everyone, now she would have to let fate have its way with them. Her children were the manifestation of a millennia old prophesy that spoke of a war that would engulf the realms and of a 'mysterious warrior' whose face was shrouded in darkness. The Goddesses who had received this vision were never able to ascertain the identity of this warrior, but they were able to determine that it was a female and that she would be of royal blood. Viennashal and Asjuntar were both sovereigns, although Asjuntar wasn't a ruler of a kingdom or territory within Paradia, he was in command of the Collectives military. She glanced up at Asjuntar and could see that he was more apprehensive than she was about all of this.
"You act as if you or I could've kept it from them. It changes nothing, we've been through worse together and have made it through many trials and yet here we are. We have to be strong now, the Collective will no doubt have some sinister scheme in store for us."
Asjuntar nodded quickly as he walked over to the balcony's railings, leaned forward against them and sighed. Viennashal could hear the regret in his voice as he began to speak. "They do indeed, though I'm not completely privy to it. All I know as of now is that the Collective plan to use our children against the Goddesses."
Viennashal found herself becoming enraged the more Asjuntar spoke. How could the Collective who never even met her daughters want to decide what should be done with them, what even gave them the right?
"So, you came here to gather up our daughters and deliver them to your brothers?" Viennashal questioned him, her voice seething with rage.
Asjuntar held his hands up in protest with a confused expression on his face. "Vienna, you of all people should know that I would never do such a thing. I'm only here to let you know of what's happened and that the Collective are going to call for a meeting within the Hall of the Ancients."
Viennashal heard the tone in her husband's voice. It was a tone she'd not heard from him before. In his voice there was sadness, anger and surprisingly a sense of guilt. A part of her wanted to yell at him and blame him for this, but she didn't yet know who was responsible for the Collective gaining knowledge of their children's existence.
"I will accompany you there, but our children will remain here in my palace under the guard of my handmaidens. I will not allow your brothers to have the opportunity to do something that would be outside of our control."
Asjuntar smiled at her. As he came closer to her, wrapping his arm around her slender waist. He took in every aspect of her olive skin as it shined and spoke to her in his normal reserved tone. "You always are distrusting of my brothers. I would never let them harm our daughters. Nonetheless, I still have to follow the orders I am given."
Viennashal looked up at him slowly. Asjuntar was always protective of her and their daughters, but when his brothers asked something of him, she always sensed a conflict brewing within him that she couldn't fully understand. Sometimes she didn't try to understand it, other times they would have long drawn out arguments that caused him to avoid her for long periods of time. She had a strong feeling that whatever was about to happen wasn't just going to cause him to avoid her, but possibly do something that he might regret later. After all he was the Lord of Chaos and chaos within the Five Realms was something that hadn't been witnessed since before her creation as a Goddess.
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Alessande opened her eyes quickly as she heard her father's voice through their shared telepathic link. It was something that she and her twin sister both shared with their father. She got up from the bench that sat within the enormous indoor garden, as she gazed around the mist filled chamber a dreadful feeling came over her and she knew her father's words were true. The Collective had learned of her existence as well as her twin sister Alicia. Her parents had warned her many times that this day would come, she'd been trained alongside her sister in the art of combat for almost fifteen years because of this day. Now she would have to put that training to use, but it wouldn't be something she was going to enjoy. Her father had given her strict orders what to do once this day came. Her mother had also given her strict orders to follow, orders that would set in motion a well-crafted plan created by her parents. A plan that she was neither excited about nor fully willing to commit to, even if she already had agreed to the plan; Alessande had been constructing her own plan to overthrow the God Collective.
Her plan would ensure her survival as well as Alicia's and right now Alicia was her focus. She didn't know how she was going to enact this plan that she had, but she knew that she would have to be quick and not seem too peculiar as she executed her plan. Because if her parents or anyone else in the palace suspected or sensed that something was amiss that would surely complicate things. She only hoped she had the strength to do what needed to be done, she had never deliberately disobeyed her parents before, but she could feel a strong desire to today. Alessande had never actually thought her parents 'plan' through to its conclusion until now, as she thought over the details, she began to realize that her plan was much better. Hopefully her parents wouldn't be too angry with her once her plan was in motion, because if this plan were to backfire, she and Alicia would be the ones to suffer for it. Alessande brushed away strands of her shoulder length dark brown hair from in front of her eyes as she rose from the bench. She reached into her pants pocket, grabbed a brown clothe from one of her old training robes and tied her hair back into a ponytail. Before she reached the archway exit, she stopped and glanced upon her reflection in one of the mirrors that hung on the stone, Alessande stood there for a long moment as many negative thoughts bombarded her mind. A small part of her wished that she could just live a normal and not have to do any of the things she was about to do.
She knew better though, since she was six years old, she'd been preparing for this day. Her mother instructed her handmaidens to train her and Alicia in multiple forms of combat. They're training had consisted only of melee weapons for the first couple of years, then when they were ten or eleven Farah and the handmaidens had begun to train them with ranged laser and plasma-based weapons. A year later Alessande started showing signs that her supernatural abilities were beginning to develop, several weeks later Alicia also began to start showing signs of her abilities developing. All Celestials were able blessed with abilities given to them by the Ember, the living cosmic essence that resided within all living beings and was responsible for the creation of Paradia itself. Alessande didn't fully understand everything about the Ember nor did she wish to, she was content with leaving certain aspects of her the world around her and how it all properly functioned a mystery. Her sister on the other was very curious about the history of Paradia as well as the rest of the realms.
Alessande and Alicia were identical twins, but they were both on different pages at this stage in their lives in more ways than one. Their personalities differed greatly; Alessande was disciplined, clear-headed, steadfast and ambitious, while Alicia was naturally skilled in combat, very resourceful and witty. They both shared an ever-growing streak of trustworthiness and forthrightness, which they're mother always praised them for. As for powers, Alicia had been blessed with supernatural strength, enhanced senses which made her a very capable opponent during sparring matches, then there were her precognitive abilities which Alessande envied only slightly. Mostly because Alicia had a heightened version of the ability, not only could she sense events before they would take place, but she could also feel the emotions of enemy combatants around her as well as gaining the foreknowledge of their actions before they occur. They're mother claims that she's never seen anyone in her lifetime be talented enough with the ability to accomplish such feats. Lastly there was Alicia uncanny telepathic abilities which had only recently started to reveal itself. She was pretty sure that telepathy wasn't they only thing the Ember had left in store for Alicia.
Alessande abilities were more complex than Alicia's and they were just as deadly. Alicia had spoken of how she always felt unnerved at just the idea of Alessande's abilities. Alessande smiled as she turned and headed for the training grounds on the lower floors of the palace. She thought about how Alicia's and her abilities contrasted with each other. Alicia had superior physical strength as did Alessande, they also shared telepathy. But that was it as for their abilities, Alessande possessed the ability to induce fear within her enemies or anyone for that matter, but her abilities mostly centered on her mind which gave her above average mental prowess. Not only could she induce fear within someone she could also manipulate someone's memory and even place mental wedges within their minds as a means to limit their capabilities to recall their lost memories. This meant that Alessande could steal knowledge or even remove the knowledge that an individual had learned. She also was blessed with an enhanced memory, which allowed her to remember things that she mental shouldn't be able to remember. She smiled as she strode down metal dimly lit corridor until she reached the lift and waited for its doors to open.
"Maybe this will all turn out alright in the end." She whispered to herself hopefully.
Either way, today was the day that Alessande and Alicia had been preparing for. The day that a looming assault by death itself would now be hunting them in the form of the 'God Collective', but she wasn't afraid. Alessande had taught herself long ago that fear was her enemy and she did everything she could stifle whatever anxiety floated to the surface of her consciousness.
"Today we'll make death the enemy." She whispered to herself confidently as the lift doors closed in front of her. Once again casting aside any trace of fear or doubt about what she was about to do. Today she would have to show the Collective what eleven years of training taught her.
