Sunlit sighed in contentment, his day finally over.  His palace was dead quiet, the events of the day having quieted all but the softest of murmurs.  As he finally got off his feet, his hard work done and satisfied that he now had fewer enemies at home that he had to deal with, a young maid he hadn’t gotten into bed yet came timidly into the room, a washbasin in her arms.

With a smirk pulling at his scarred face, Sunlit beckoned her over, enjoying the power he had over her, reveling in the way she could barely keep her tears of terror contained as she began to clean the blood off his hands.

The blood belonged to many of Sunlit’s generals.  It had been several months since the Sword campaign, and he’d been convinced not to purge his general staff quite yet.  That changed when one of his most trusted advisors, Metellus, came to him with evidence that many of Sunlit’s older generals from before he became Emperor were planning to depose and murder him.

Naturally, that couldn’t stand.  He called an emergency meeting ostensibly to discuss the continued threat from across the Argonaut Sea, but when the treasonous generals arrived, Sunlit had them all taken into custody.  Once they were secured, they were brought to him, where he castigated them publicly for their treason and their incompetence, laying bare all the mistakes they’d made that led to their retreat from the Sword.  Eventually, they proved Metellus correct and attempted to break free of their bonds, decrying him as a false and weak Emperor.

Sunlit didn’t like that.  He had been willing to hear them out, perhaps to show his magnanimity, but no Emperor could survive such a blatant challenge to his authority.  Deucalion led the generals in their denunciation and their subsequent rebellion, but Sunlit cut them all down.  Deucalion, one of his oldest and—at least, until the Sword campaign—most reliable generals, he reserved for last, strangling him so tightly that Sunlit crushed his neck, beheading him.

Once it was all over, Sunlit made Metellus the acting High Commander of his Empire’s armed forces.  Time would tell if his current favorite did better than his predecessors.  He was already earning Sunlit’s continued favor by beginning to purge the officer corps of those loyal to Deucalion and the other traitors, and it had only been a couple hours.

For the moment, though, Sunlit just smiled and watched his maid clean the blood off his body.  He’d drag her to bed before the day was out, and then he had an inspection at one of his Empire’s arkyards to carry out.  The losses sustained on the Sword—the mere thought of which had Sunlit ready to try and bring Deucalion back to life just to strangle him again—had to be replenished.  Sunlit didn’t care overmuch about the actual men he lost, but he still had to acknowledge that losing more than half a dozen ninth-tier mages was an enormous blow to his Empire’s power and prestige.  There were only a few left, now.  With only five ninth-tier mages in his Empire and so many lost arks, it would be hard to argue that his Empire was anything but the weakest of the four.

Thankfully, Keeper had kept to his word, exerting plenty of diplomatic pressure to keep the other two Empires off his back, despite their alliance with Leon Raime.  Sunlit’s blood began to boil just thinking about that, but it was with the Sky Devils that Leon Raime was with, so it was there that Sunlit had to focus.  Once he drained Leon Raime of his blood and used it to awaken his dormant bloodline, he’d have more than enough power to subjugate those arrogant shitheels once and for all.

In fact, all of Aeterna would essentially be his, and once the plane was united under his wise and glorious leadership, they could pool their resources, create great works, and perhaps even turn their attention skyward.  Sunlit had always wondered what other planes would look like, he’d always fantasized about receiving their tribute and obeisance, he’d always salivated at the thought of their exotic women…

He shook himself out of such thoughts for the moment.  There would be time enough for that later.  For the moment, he had to destroy Leon Raime.  He had to destroy the Sky Devils.

Another maid entered the room, looking no less terrified than the first.

“Y-Your Imperial… M-Majesty…” she sputtered, hardly able to form the words, “a-a call from H-Heaven’s Eye!”

Sunlit momentarily frowned.  His initial demand for their loyalty had been ignored.  However, Sunlit knew what kinds of people ran Heaven’s Eye—monied men who wanted nothing more than an expansion of their wealth.  He could allow them much if only they finally saw the light and joined him.

Of course, the current Director would be executed once Sunlit had properly exerted his control over the rest of the plane, but he could allow the guild itself to continue to exist—so long as it remained loyal to him.

They just needed the right motivation, and he was certain he’d found some they couldn’t ignore…

---

Leon found it hard to remain calm.  He paced back and forth in his main study in his brand-new palace.  As luxurious and comfortable as it was, the place was still not yet ‘home’, though his family was settling in fairly quickly.  He had plenty of room for his personal projects, for his training, and to see to his duties, but his inability to calm himself down now wasn’t related to any of that.

It stemmed, instead, from the fact that Tikos was on its way, another batch of Hesperidic Apples in tow.  Thanks to the tender care of all of its new subordinate tree sprites, not only did they now have eight Hesperidic Apple trees—though four were still too young to bear fruit—but their harvest had been the largest yet, with a yield of twenty-nine apples.  Leon had hardly been able to believe it when Tikos told him.

And with the increase in trees, that number would only continue to increase.  If this latest increase was anything to be, then their bottleneck would go back to being tree sprites rather than trees.  Tikos, however, had a plan for that: so long as Leon was fine with it, letting the lesser tree sprites breed would solve that problem.

In principle, Leon was fine with the idea.  If Tikos ever lost control over the population, though, and the tree sprites returned to being hostile to humans, then he’d have to put his foot down.  Until then, he was happy to give them land, peace, and security.  In return, they’d give him thunder wood and Hesperidic Apples.  He felt that made for a fine trade.

Now, he was on the cusp of the tenth-tier and the final hurdle between himself and Apotheosis; remaining calm was simply not in the cards.  Still, as he waited, he eventually took a seat, though that did little to quiet his excitement.  He bounced, shivered, and almost violently tapped his foot.  When Elise walked into the room, he just about jumped through the roof.

“Oh!” Elise cried out as Leon turned his eyes to her, a ravenous gleam in the golden orbs.  She smiled at him and jokingly posed for him.  “Do I look that good, husband?”

Leon raked his eyes over his first wife.  Fire-red hair done up in a loose ponytail.  Green eyes glittering in the light.  Black dress hugging her body in all the right places.

“Absolutely,” he rasped.  But then he grinned and asked, “Good news?”

Elise shrugged.  “Just checking in.  You seemed wound up.”

Leon sighed.  “You can say that again.  I’m ready to fight or fuck the next person who walks through that door depending on who it is, just to do something.”

Elise grinned, then hurriedly rushed back to the door, darted past the threshold, and then ducked back in.  She then slammed the door shut and gave Leon a provocative look.  “What’ll it be, Your Majesty?  Think you can take me on?”  She held up her fists and swung a few times into the air.  “I haven’t been slacking in my training, I’ll have you know!”

With an unapologetic laugh, Leon leaped from his chair and took his wife into his arms, pinning her arms to her sides as he wrapped his arms around her, and buried his face in her neck, laughing all the while.  He spun her around a few times, Elise shrieking her delight the whole time.  And then, when he stopped, he looked her in the eye, their faces only an inch or two apart, stole a kiss, and said, “Thanks for that.”

He put her down and the two took a seat on a nearby sofa, Elise snuggling up close to Leon despite the wrinkles it put in her dress.  Leon was only too happy to wrap his arm around her shoulders to pull her against himself just a little bit more tightly.

“Are you ready for this?” Elise asked, her tone turning serious.  “Is everything ready?”

Leon smiled and softly replied, “I’ve been waiting for this for a long time.  With Iron-Striker still on the mend, everyone’s just waiting for me to reach tenth-tier.  Everything’s set, we’re all just waiting on the damned apples.  Once they’re here, I, and maybe even Maia and Red, will reach the tenth-tier.  Val will make ninth, I’m sure.  Cassie might hit tenth, but… probably not.  You… are you ready?”

Elise, her strong seventh-tier aura flickering slightly in excitement, turned her head up at him and grinned in anticipation.  She was hardly one who trained to fight as diligently as Leon and his retainers, nor did advancing through the tiers seem as important to her as it did for everyone else, but she still took clear pride in doing so.

“The Iron Needle is secure?” she asked.  “I don’t want you sleeping on the job again.”  She punctuated her statement with a painless pinch and a look of playful reproach that was far more biting.

“It’s with Nestor,” Leon said.  “Might even spare him an apple.  He said he wants to run some tests with it on the Needle, see how it reacts when the apple is more directly applied.  Haven’t decided yet, though.”

“See how long it takes to reach the next tier,” Elise said.  “One each for everyone else, and the rest can be gifts to the Tribes.”

Leon hummed in agreement.  He and his lady spent another few minutes quietly basking in each other’s presence, Leon finally managing to relax just a bit with her in his arms, when Valeria finally stepped in, a wide smile on her gorgeous face.  She didn’t have to say anything; her expression told Leon all he needed to know.

Tikos had arrived.  It was time.

---

Leon stared at the apples before him, each one with skin shinier than actual gold, and softly glowing with arcane light.

He’d seen plenty of treasures before in his life, but twenty-nine Hesperidic Apples in a tray before him was quite possibly the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen—his ladies excluded.

Assembled around him were his retainers, his family, and a few select members of the Elder Council.  The Jaguar had returned from the Sword and arrived with Nikolaos.  Singer-in-Caves and Sar were also present.  All were staring at Leon with expectation.  Under the weight of their gazes, and of his own anticipation, Leon moved slowly, taking the time to admire the sight in front of him before he could manage to reach out and take the first apple.

Once the apple was in hand, however, he sank his teeth in immediately.  Like a burst dam, power rushed into his body as he devoured the apple, flooding his veins and making straight for his soul realm.  His body and soul realm both shook in response as the power went to work.

Thankfully, he did not suffer a repeat of the last time he’d eaten Hesperidic Apples.

Instead, the boundary between his soul realm and the Mists of Chaos bent and warped, and the mist began to recede.  His soul realm grew as power entered him, pushing outward, expanding, approaching the limit of the ninth-tier.  The Thunderbird herself watched over the process with what Leon could tell was excitement, even with her inexpressive avian face.  Even Xaphan was sitting in his pavilion, quietly observing rather than continuing to recover his power.

He reached a soul realm radius of nine thousand and nine hundred miles before the expansion stopped.  Given what happened the last time, he gave himself a few moments to analyze the changes within himself, and once he decided that it was safe, he brought another apple to his lips and took a bite.

Again, his soul realm shuddered and grew, pushing the primordial mists back.  He felt the power rushing up within him.

At nine thousand nine hundred and fifty, he ate another apple.  Power flooded his body and his soul realm flexed and grew.

Once his soul realm reached nine thousand nine hundred and ninety miles, its growth drastically slowed, as if the Mists of Chaos were finally starting to push back, putting pressure on his soul realm as if trying to deny him his increase in power.

But as he bit into his fourth apple, his soul realm pushed up against this barrier, and after a moment, broke through.

His body froze, then crumpled in on itself as ecstasy flooded through his mind.  His aura fluctuated, then roiled and churned.

When Leon came back to his senses a moment later, he found that he’d fallen to the floor and just about everything in the room had been blasted away from him.  Tikos held the apples in its wood-like arms, while everyone else stared at him with concern, which was rapidly fading away into excitement.

To his surprise, it was Anzu who stepped forward first.

“Big brother?” he tentatively whispered as he went to his knees beside Leon.  “Are you… all right?”

Leon took one look at his little brother, his best friend, and then cast his gaze inward.  The Thunderbird was flying through the sky of his soul realm, joyously screeching and filling the air with the booming of thunder.  Xaphan was more subdued, but he’d gotten to his feet and walked over to the edge of his pavilion to stare out at Leon’s soul realm, quietly regarding it.

A quick estimation put Leon’s soul realm at ten thousand and ninety miles, and Leon could sense a remarkable increase in the amount of magic he had available to him.  More importantly, though, he sensed something else in his soul realm, something more profound, something more… inexplicable.

His soul realm had grown, moving through the pathetic barrier that the Mists of Chaos had thrown up at the last second—or so it had seemed.  Now that he was on the other side, though, even though the pleasure and excitement of increasing his power raced through him, Leon almost felt like some kind of limit had been placed upon him, almost akin to the relief of finally removing pants that were just a size too small after a hard day.  His ‘waist’, or soul realm, resounded with his joy, and yet also felt like it had reached a limit.

“I have… more power,” Leon replied to Anzu with a wide grin.  “More than I’ve ever felt in my life.  I feel like I could snap my fingers and wipe the face of Aeterna clean.  Maybe a little dramatic, but I feel… great.  And more.  Like… I’m on the edge of something even greater, like I’m standing on a dozen boxes trying to peer over a wall, and if I only push myself up onto my toes, I might see over it.  Like I’m standing on a cliff above some great sea of power and understanding, and I only need one more step to plunge headfirst in…”

Arms were thrown around Leon’s neck, courtesy of Elise, followed closely by Valeria, Cassandra, and a very aroused-looking Maia.

“No plunging headfirst into seas yet, my love,” Elise said with a laugh.  “We need to get these other apples eaten!”

With her words, the rest of Leon’s retainers cheered.

“And a celebration soon after!” the Jaguar boomed.  “Our King has reached the tenth-tier!”

His words carried outside of the room, and Leon could hear the cheer echoing throughout the palace and beyond, and the Jaguar’s words were picked up by other voices.  He had little doubt that within a few hours, his gain would be known by every man, woman, and child in the Ten Tribes.

He grinned and gestured for Tikos to pass out the remaining apples to everyone while reserving two for Iron-Striker to aid in his recovery.  They had plenty, so he even reserved one for Nestor’s experiment.  He was ecstatic, his mood only dampened by the strange feeling he was getting, like he’d relieved his anticipation only briefly, like he’d surmounted a mountain and had only a moment to appreciate his accomplishment before catching sight of the even larger mountain behind it, a mountain he knew he had to climb.

Regardless of that feeling, he’d made it to tenth-tier, so he ignored that feeling for the time being and focused entirely on his increase in power.  He may not be able to sweep all of Aeterna of life, but at the tenth-tier, he could see almost to Occulara itself, and he was sure that any other Kingdom aside from his own and the four Empires, he could certainly destroy at a whim.

But such thoughts could be had later.  For the moment, he focused only on the accomplishment he soon found himself sharing as Elise, Alcander, Gaius, Alix, and Marcus all reached the eighth-tier, whereas Anna and Anshu remained at the eighth.  Helen, meanwhile, reached the seventh-tier, and despite her usual attitude toward training, she seemed quite pleased with herself, especially when Anna pulled her into a tight, congratulatory hug.  Anzu came close but didn’t quite make it over the finish line to the ninth-tier, but Valeria blew right past that barrier, reaching the ninth-tier and then some.  Maia, Cassandra, Red, and the elders in the room also gained some power, but none replicated Leon’s push into the tenth-tier.

But while that accomplishment was his alone, the celebration that followed was one that his entire Kingdom took part in.

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