High Artificer, Ch 37: Titan Army

Sam stood in the Void outside of Council, assessing those who had gathered for the hunt.

There were hundreds of them.

Apparently, hunting a legendary beast beside an Astral Titan was something a lot of them wanted to do.

He’d sent out the summons to all of the High Races, as well as to all of the Sixth Evolution members of the civilized races. Then he’d sent even more out to hundreds of Fifth Evolution beings that he thought would be interested.

And they had answered.

For all of this galaxy’s flaws, these at least had courage.

Dragon Spirits made up the largest percentage, which was normal when it came to a challenging fight. Every one of them who’d received a summons had come, dropping everything to rush here.

The summons had appeared as a starry silver scroll in front of each of them, its material shimmering with flames and brilliant light. 

When they noticed it, it unfurled in front of them and his voice rang out, as well as an image of the Vos’Rekan in the Deep Wild.

He’d ended the message with his titles as the Lord of Endless Starlight and Guardian of Aster Fall, and told them to meet him near Council in two days if they wished to participate.

Two days was long enough for them to consider the idea and take a teleport to Council to meet him.

He’d set out a brilliant marker in the Void that everyone above the Third Evolution could sense, so there was no mistaking where the rally point was.

Now that people from dozens of races had gathered, this would be a moment of unity for the galaxy, as well as an announcement of a Titan’s return.

He had been waiting here at a comfortable height of three miles tall. Silver mist and starlight radiated around him, making it look like he was a being from the dawn of time.

No one had dared to approach him. They only observed him from a distance, their attention fixed.

He’d seen Broden and Harsen’s eyes widen as they took in his familiar features, since he was making no effort to hide that. He winked at them.

“I promised to take you on a hunt for a Vos’Rekan, didn’t I?” he asked with a chuckle, his voice ringing in their minds. “Don’t give me away. It’ll ruin my fun at the academy.”

“I had my suspicions,” Broden replied in a grumble, but he couldn’t hide the shock in his tone. “But I didn’t believe it was possible. When I saw that recording and what that Titan could do, I couldn’t put it together with you, no matter how impressive your hall was. Now, I can see that I was a fool.”

“I want to fight you again!” Harsen laughed, his voice full of passion. “Now I know you were holding back! I want to see what you can do when you’re not!”

“He just destroyed more than a dozen worlds, dimwit!” Broden roared as he turned to Harsen, looking at him like he was a fool. “How are you going to fight him? He’ll smash you flat with one finger!”

“I won’t be satisfied until I find out for myself!” Harsen growled back at him. There was a wild light in his eyes and his body flickered as golden scales began to appear on it. 

“You’ll have a chance to see what I can do when we face the Vos’Rekan,” Sam said, feeling amused. “If you’re still not satisfied after that, then we can fight.”

He had a feeling that Harsen would see enough during the battle to change his mind, but if not, he didn’t mind beating him up again, if that’s what it took to keep the man from asking him every week.

Dragon Spirits had hard heads. 

He’d be fine.

“But how did you end up at the academy anyway?” Broden asked, turning away from Harsen as he ignored him. “Why would a Titan come here?”

“Originally, it was for a special reason,” Sam said, “one there is no need to share, but if things go well, I’ll stay to teach Artificing and Enchanting and make them better known. The new headmaster already knows, as did Asperio.”

Keros was standing near the rest of the faculty and when he heard Sam’s words, he gave Broden and Harsen a nod. Then he turned to the entire faculty and frowned.

A wave of crystalline flames spread out from him, pulling all of them into a communication web, and he began to explain how to act in front of a Titan. There were old courtesies that hadn’t been used in the galaxy in ages.

He also sent a particular message to Broden and Harsen, telling them that as far as the academy was concerned they were beyond honored to welcome him and they would work to conceal his presence there. 

It wasn’t a strict secret, but at the same time, he would be unhappy with them if they told too many people, so they were obliged to keep it among just the faculty who worked with Sam and only if needed.

The students were not to be told, but if they managed to find out on their own, that was fine.

Broden and Harsen still looked astonished, but given that the crowd looked the same thing as they studied him, it wasn’t that noticeable. 

“We’ll speak more after the hunt,” Sam told them. “Do your best and I will help you meet with the World Core to upgrade your Paths.”

Then his attention turned to the rest of the crowd

It was time.

He let his height drop back to a simple seven feet as he walked toward the gathering. 

Until now, no one except the High Council and the unwitting faculty members had met the Titan who had been appearing around the galaxy, so for most of them, this was their first time seeing him in anything except a recording.

He had decided not to hide his features, but he did hide his name, only allowing his selected Classes and very limited information to show.

Lord of Endless Stars and Guardian of Aster Fall.

Astral Titan.

“Thank you all for coming,” he said simply as he stopped in front of the crowd. 

“It has been a long time since my people appeared here and I know that you have questions. I will answer some of them.”

He let the words hang in the air and it wasn’t long before questions began to pour out from the crowd.

They were mostly on the history of the Titans, what a Titan was, and if they had really built Council and half of the galaxy. There were plenty of myths as well, mixed into the rest.

He answered the questions one at a time, doing his best to keep his patience, but as he spoke, his attention was on a spell that he was weaving across the crowd. 

He’d started it while everyone was gathering, and now it was time to finish it.

Starlight flared around him, creating a subtle concealment spell, one that would fade in just over ten years. 

Until then, it would be difficult for people to remember his features and to think of there being a Titan at the academy. 

Even the faculty that was currently staring at him would find his features blurred in their memory, with the exception of those like Harsen and Broden that he excluded from the effect.

Any attempt to record him would end up with his face indistinct as well.

This was for Altey’s sake.

A few people might be able to put together his appearance with the new faculty member at the academy, and he didn’t want it to interrupt her experience. He would continue to keep his connection to her as hidden as possible, so she could have her normal academy years. 

Rolen was beneficial in that regard, since he was Sam’s more obvious student and helped to take some of the pressure off of her. 

He had needed to create a unique spell for the obscuration, one that he imbued with a touch of chaos to ensure it worked since the type wasn’t his specialty, but it hadn’t take him that long to figure it out.

Echoes of Truths from the Heart of the Void and the laws he could see represented as runes let him easily test and design it. 

He called it Veil of the Sovereign.

In a decade, once Altey graduated, this spell would clear up and people would realize that he’d always been there. The blurred recordings and memories would also become apparent again.

At that point, it wouldn’t matter if they put it together.

He let the spell settle in like a cloak of starlight that touched everyone, and continued answering questions as he assessed the strength of the crowd, debating how to put them to the best use.

He was glad to see that all of the available members of the High Council had come, including Winter, Asperio, the Dragon Spirit, the Archali, the Lifeweaver, the Dwarf, and the Cer’Aleth. 

Only the Winged Furies and the Wind Wraiths were missing, for obvious reasons.

If the councilors had refused the call, he would have thought less of them, which they undoubtedly knew. It was probably why they had come. 

That was as it should be. 

Now they would have a chance to see the terror they had sent their descendants to fight, and they would finally understand the strength of a Primordial enemy, as well as their own frailty.

It would be a pivotal moment for them.

As for the others here, there were plenty that he hadn’t met before, including over a hundred Dragon Spirits, most of them at the Fourth Evolution. Almost the entire upper echelon of their strongest fighters had come.

Dozens of other races were also present, presenting a good variety of the strongest that the galaxy had to offer. Most of them were governors or leaders of their respective worlds, and often of several worlds.

Few worlds had true powerhouses, at least from Sam’s current perspective. It was common for a Third Evolution being to be a governor, while a Fourth was a world’s main defender or ancestor.

Very few races had even a single Fifth Evolution being. Those that did were in the upper tier, close to the strength of the High Races.

It showed how badly higher-tier nodes were needed. 

There should have been a thousand times more high-level individuals. The galaxy was vast and had nearly endless beasts to fight. It wasn’t a lack of experience that kept them at lower levels, but a lack of appropriate Paths.

Most who tried to reach higher died in the attempt.

When the Titans had been around, they’d often let younger races use the nodes on the various Titan worlds or sent them toward one of the those they’d given the High Races, including the one at Council, but after they left things slowly changed.

This hunt would help to fix that.

As for the academy faculty, Harsen and Broden, along with Keros, represented the strongest members, but a couple of other Fifth Evolution faculty had come along, as well as a dozen or so Fourth Evolution ones.

The Academy Board was also present, standing slightly distant from the faculty, which didn’t help his overall impression of them as being generally useless. 

They had met him before, but he didn’t exempt them from the Veil of the Sovereign. Thanks to that, none of them had recognized him yet. 

He didn’t trust them to have much common sense, so they could put things together in ten years along with everyone else.

Despite that, one of the Winged Furies among them looked ill at ease, shifting his weight as he scowled. Fear and anger were mixed together in his aura as he looked at Sam.

His name was Ultnar. 

Another Winged Fury named Oakmar was standing behind him, along with a Wind Wraith named Kaliss. 

Yuris Highwing was there as well, that self-inflated Winged Fury who had come with Jasperi to bother Sam once. He had to be there as one of Ultnar’s followers.

This was the contingent that had been trying to cause him trouble at the academy. Given everything else that was going on, he’d nearly forgotten about them. 

Their current turmoil was due more to his actions as a Titan than as the Head of Artificing, however. Capturing Yaivon and executing the Wind Wraith High Councilor had an effect on their followers.

He tagged each of the group with a minor spell to keep track of their whereabouts, fusing it into their auras where they wouldn’t even notice. He could use it to scry on them in the future if he wanted to see what they were up to.

It didn’t look like they planned to cause trouble at the moment, which was to be expected after what he’d done with their bosses. 

If they caused any issues, he would feed them to the Vos’Rekan.

He dismissed them from his mind as he looked over the rest of the crowd, silently arranging them in his plans.

Many of them were nervous and whispering about the beast they were going to face. Almost none of them had ever seen one. 

Those who did almost always died.

“I am aware of your fears about the Vos’Rekan,” he said simply. “That is why it is a great hunt, not a tamed lion in a cage. This is the truth of the Void. Let it drive you forward to reach greater heights.”

The Dragon Spirits shouted in approval, tilting back their heads as they roared happily, but most of the crowd was more subdued.

“It is time to meet your allies in this battle,” Sam said, “my Silver Army. They have fought a Vos’Rekan with me before and they wouldn’t miss this hunt for the world.”

A massive silver portal opened in the Void behind him and ranks of Silver Nagas poured out, followed by thousands of astral golems in a gleaming array, so many that they covered the horizon of the Void.

“My Lord,” Sleset hissed eagerly as he flew toward Sam. “We stand ready!”

He stopped a short distance away and saluted with his hand over his chest, radiating with the desire for battle. Sam nodded at him in approval and turned back toward the crowd. 

“The Silver Nagas are my heralds and standard bearers,” he told them all. “They will lead the formations for this battle and help to keep you from dying unnecessarily. These golems will form up with us as well, to add to our numbers.”

The golems and Silver Nagas would help to ensure that his Blessing of Silver Stars was present across the formation and that no gaps appeared, even if some of these fighters failed in their duty.

Most of this display was pageantry, to further cement his authority and power in the minds of those who had come. He wanted them to carry these stories back with them afterwards.

When it came to the Vos’Rekan, he would let them help, but in the end it would be a fight between him and it, just like the last one had. 

If they went alone, it would eat all of them.

The Titans had a simple rule of three to one when hunting Vos’Rekan if they wanted to be safe, since their abilities varied widely. Not all of them were specialized to fight the ancient beasts, especially the younger members.

Caerlon and those like him could fight them one to one, but if their levels and experience were similar to the Vos’Rekan, they relied heavily on their artifacts and classes to get an advantage.

The last time Sam had fought one, he’d been under its level, only at the Fourth Evolution while it was at the Fifth, and his artifacts were weak, but he was different.

He had built his Fourth Evolution to destroy Vos’Rekan. 

Stellar Conversion had closed the distance in that battle. Then he advanced afterwards and added even more abilities.

Even without being a Sovereign, he was one of the strongest warriors to ever face them. 

He was looking forward to taking this one apart.

He checked over the army and then a wave of his hand brought out a dozen of his avatars, which stepped forward to lead twelve separate companies in the battle. 

He’d already recreated all of them at the Sixth Evolution and imbued them with the Truth of Endless Starlight, making each of them as powerful as a new Sixth Star Titan. 

Starlight flowed around them in silver spirals and flared in their auras, where it mixed with a touch of silver-grey chaos. 

He didn’t restrain their presence and the joint pressure of their energy and the reflection of the Truth of Endless Stars twelve times over made space tremble and made it feel like reality was inverting.

To those who had gathered, it felt like twelve massive rivers of starlight were shaking the heavens, all of it flowing toward Sam.

Twelve avatars was enough for this.

They took their positions at the front of the army, each of them at the head of a unit of Silver Nagas. Then they arranged the golems and warriors who had come to fight behind them.

Finally, everything was ready. 

It was an army with a strength that hadn’t been seen in this galaxy since the First War, and perhaps even longer, not since the Titans had gone to war against hordes of Vos’Rekan when they dragged the galaxy out of the First Age and into a new era.

Perhaps this would do the same.

“It is time,” Sam said as he looked across the army. “The Vos’Rekan are ancient creatures, true Primordials whose bones are full of potential. It was with the fragments of power they hold that the Titans forged the Divine artifacts and Evolutionary Nodes in this galaxy.

“That is what you are fighting for today...the chance to be something more. The outcome of this battle will forge a new world, one where you have access to greater Paths and personal strength.

“I will also make you a greater promise than the Titans ever have before. Victory in this battle will change everything, leading to the dawn of a new age. The beast’s strength will fuel a new system, one you can use to improve your Abilities and Evolutions, as well as that of your descendants, anywhere in the galaxy.”

He saw some shifting looks of concern at that, as the High Races in particular realized what that meant for their control of their nodes, but it was too late for them to protest. 

They were locked in by the ranks of the Silver Nagas and golems around them, as well as the burning gazes of the younger races.

It was a final test Sam had designed.

If any of them tried to disrupt the battle or to fight their neighbors to preserve their own power, rather than working for the good of the galaxy on the whole, he was going to kill them on the spot.

He raised his hand and a silver portal appeared in the air, one that led directly to the system where the Vos’Rekan was sleeping.

“Remember those beside you, for what you do here will be written in the stars. Now, follow me.”

Then he reached out and gathered the entire army into his aura, pulling them along with him as he stepped through.