The question stayed in the air, the words he spoke persisted for a long time and gathered the dense Aether in the air, impressing his will upon them.

It was a question, but it was undoubtedly an order. One that the gods would find it impossible hard to deny, for the words of the God King carried authority that could compel all things, both the living and the dead, animate and inanimate.

It was a power unique to Golgoth that made him such a powerhouse, and placed the reaches of his power to be inestimable.

Except for Minerva who made no gesture, the rest of them opened their palms, and a series of Runes so complex and dense it appeared solid hovered above their palms.

That Rune was a key that represented the present condition of the vault in each of their possessions. These vaults were containers to retain vessels of great power, and each god was tasked with guiding and healing each vault, for if they were to fail and its contents escaped, it would herald the doom of them all.

It was the source of their greatest danger, but also one of their greatest weapons. The powers of the gods were rooted in many foundations and the vault was the most important one.

Except for Minerva who had none, taken by Golgoth for his personal experiments, but she had been adequately compensated by Golgoth with an entire continent on Trion, something none of the gods could lay claims to, even the God King himself, and she was permitted to allow someone as powerful as Telmus to exist within her bloodline, in a way he was to be her weapon, her own living vault.

Golgoth eyes were fixed intently on each of the vaults with a maniacal intensity and until he scrutinized every single strand of Runes on the vault, ten more times before his gaze left them and they were permitted to keep them.

His armor creaked as he sat up straighter, “Brothers. Sisters.” The God King stretched out his hands, “The end of days is nigh.”

The expressions of the gods lit up, not in fear or despair but in excitement, for it seems as if they had received the best news they had been expecting for a long time. Even the taciturn Minerva shook in agitation.

Kuranes stood up from her throne, her eyes shining forth with such a rich glow, the entire Palace lit up like the sun, she walked up to the throne of the God King and knelt on a single knee as she looked up, “Would you be finally free… Brother?”

Golgoth nodded once, “Your wait has been rewarded and your patience has led to our victory. A recent event opened a new path for me that I had once thought to be impossible. Our great enemy has made a mistake, and revealed too much of his hand and his treasure, he will not be allowed to retrieve it. The presence of that trickster was within my calculation, he wears my skin, but he does not follow my will. Be calm and watch, and let us come together like never before. Put aside the petty quarrels that have splintered us for so long, for our Ascension and freedom is before us all. Are you ready to seize it? It shall be the greatest battle of our existence, but our victory is assured.”

“What does that mean going forward.” Tiberius growled.

The God King chuckled, “It means I can now move more freely at this moment. The leash over Bloodline Elevation is gone. Let your descendants begin to shine bright. Let the light of Trion begin to rise!”

©

It was a difficult thing for a living ship to sleep, but over the years Absomet figured out a trick she used to make that accomplishment possible. It was a rare occurrence and she had come to treasure every time it happened.

It was always right before a great battle, the sort that could lead to even her demise, in other word a planet shattering battle.

The living metals coating her body would read the flow of Aether, for it could tell when bloodshed was coming. The living metal was a sensitive antenna that made her entire being, would ring like a bell in her senses, placing her in some much tension, that she would need to sleep to ease that stress off her intellect.

Since the moment she rescued Augustus and followed the trail of an Origin Treasure, that sensation of impending slaughter had been growing, until it reached such a feverish pitch she had to go to sleep, although she did not need to, this sensation of over stimulation causing her to shut down to properly enjoy it came so rarely she would always satisfy it.

Absomet was a being that chased pleasure, she would never go against her nature.

This made her miss when Augustus escaped his imprisonment, but that was the plan anyway, although she did not intend to sleep for a month, that was what had happened, it was all well and good, however, because the tracker she had placed inside him still worked.

To keep an eye on her prey, she placed a piece of herself inside his Mental Space, this method was safe and was quite difficult if not nearly impossible to detect, for it was a part of her body and it did not need to emit any signals or draw from any power source, she could simply trace its direction using the connection she had with her own metallic flesh.

It was the reason she was on a beach in the middle of nowhere, she had been following a trail of devastation for a while now across four worlds, and with each world she traversed the questions on her mind grew deeper.

The Empire controlled 340 planets, but that was not the entire number of worlds inside and around the Domain of the Empire. There were thousands of planets that were not under the Empire’s direct control but served as personal lands for many powers and even the gods.

The four worlds she had gone through while chasing after Augustus had been devastated, it was obvious that a planet wide battle had happened, it had been quick and decisive for none of the planet’s calls for help lasted very long, which was an alarming fact, for many powerful Dominators were on those worlds.