Gazing out into the Void left Leon speechless. The sheer enormity of empty space could leave anyone feeling dizzy, but his focus wasn’t on the Void itself, but on his assembled fleet of Void-capable arks, all of which had finally assembled.
The city ark was in the center of the formation, where it could be most easily defended. Surrounding the city ark were the four carriers, all equidistant from each other. Bolt in Shadow would be leading the formation, and the six Raven-built heavy cruisers would flank the carriers to the right and left. Silver Spear and Bright Intent flew in the gaps between Bolt in Shadow and the other heavy cruisers, with the seven destroyers flying to the rear of the formation. Finally, the twelve scout frigates flew above and below the city ark, ready to fly out and see what they could see as soon as they were ordered.
All of the crews had been extensively trained on their arks, and Leon was confident each one would work as designed. There were still doubts creeping into his mind, however—they had never tested the Nestorian drives over such a large distance before, and so much could go wrong…
Still, looking out over the fleet he had at his command for this expedition kept him calm. Such a force could carve a great Empire out of any plane it came across—so long as the local power structure resembled Aeterna’s, at least. Hopefully, this level of power would be enough to do the same in the Nexus, too.
“Your Majesty,” the Jaguar said as he stepped forward, a solemn look on his face. The elders joining Leon’s expedition were with him, as were several others armed with many of the Thunder Kingdom’s most advanced comm slates, each with a comm lotus petal encased within. The Jaguar would be coordinating this opening move of the expedition from Bolt in Shadow’s observation deck, keeping Leon from having to micromanage everything. The Jaguar confidently stated, “We’re ready to begin. On your orders.”
As they’d agreed several days before, the Jaguar extended his comm slate. When Leon nodded, a rune on the dark glassy slate illuminated, and Leon knew that his image was being projected from every projection enchantment in every ark among the fleet. His words would reach every person partaking in this endeavor.
The projected windows of the observation deck made for a wonderful backdrop, in his opinion, with the light reflecting off Aeterna far below, and the sheer dark abyss of the Void far above, lit only by distant stars. To his right and left stood his wives, each dressed to the nines and looking as resolute as he did.
Gravely, Leon began. “Over the past eighty-thousand years, the power of our people has waxed and waned, but never have we forgotten where we came from! We came to Aeterna as Kings and conquerors, but were humbled, laid low, reduced to a mere shadow of our former power. In these dark times, the Ten Tribes came together, joined their power, and became brothers! And now, today, we take the most important step in the rebuilding of our legacies! Today, we launch the greatest endeavor in the history of the Ten Tribes! We take to the Void more powerful than we’ve been in eighty millennia, ready to reassert our position in the universe!”
Leon paused a moment, letting many listening in person stomp their feet and cheer. He wasn’t able to tell, but he hoped similar scenes were happening all across the fleet.
After a moment, the cheering died down, and he continued, “Though we may come from different Clans, different Tribes, or even different races, today, we are all brothers and sisters! Our strength united can fell any foe, our genius combined will solve any problem, and our will together will see us through any hardship! The task ahead is dangerous beyond anything the Ten Tribes have ever faced, but with us together, with all of you by my side, I know that we can accomplish anything!”
Once more, Leon paused, though this time only for long enough to draw Iron Pride and raise it above his head.
He shouted, “For our Ancestors! For our Tribes! For the Thunder Kingdom!”
His cheer echoed throughout the observation deck, and those watching began to chant, “For the Thunderbird Clan!” He noted that it was the Jaguar and the elders who began the chant, though it quickly spread amongst everyone present.
With his magic senses, he could feel the chant spreading across Bolt in Shadow, with just about everyone taking it up. He wondered how far it spread throughout his fleet.
After several seconds, Leon subtly gave the Jaguar a look, and his Marshal tapped a rune on his comm slate, shutting down the projection.
“Well said, Your Majesty!” the Jaguar said, his mere act of speaking indicating that Leon’s image was no longer being broadcast to the other arks. He then straightened up and before anyone else could add anything, formally declared, “The expedition is ready to launch on your command!”
Leon smiled. It was showtime. He glanced to his right and left, making eye contact with his wives, then on Anzu. Then, his eyes flitted across the room, briefly landing upon all of his friends and former retainers. All of them had been with him for decades, and they were still with him despite the danger of the expedition.
He couldn’t spare the time to tell them how much it meant to him to have them still with him, so he didn’t even try—he felt he’d already expressed that enough over the past year—but he saw nothing but determination and excitement among them here at the threshold of their greatest adventure yet.
With a smile lighting up his face, Leon turned his eyes back to the Jaguar. “Let’s begin! Jaguar of the West, take us out!”
The Jaguar rendered a low, respectful bow, and then he began barking orders at his adjutants with their comm slates. The observation deck became noisy as the orders were relayed to every ark in the fleet.
It was time to go.
Still smiling, Leon turned back to the projected window and gazed out upon Aeterna one last time. However, his attention was captured by a lone figure hovering far above the surface, almost directly over the Grave Warden’s great tower.
It was the Grave Warden himself, watching their progress. As if he could sense Leon’s attention—and given his power, Leon didn’t doubt that he could—he grinned and waved. In the likely case that Ambrose could see him, Leon nodded and raised a hand in farewell.
Ambrose then disappeared, but at nearly the same time, spheres of darkness tinged with dark blue began to appear in front of the fleet—the leading arks were engaging their Nestorian drives, opening teleportation portals to the Nexus that they would fly through.
A shudder of magic raced through Bolt in Shadow as it activated its own drive, known among Leon’s engineers as a ‘Leonine drive’. Such was the name given to all Thunderbird teleportation drives, in a case that Leon found both embarrassing and ironic. He didn’t like having things named after him, but he was wryly amused that the more modern drives had been named after his ancient kinsman, while the ancient drives on Bolt in Shadow, Bright Intent, and Silver Spear were named after him instead.
With some curiosity, he turned his attention to the engineering room where Mari and Nestor were working with two dozen other magic engineers to fully activate the Leonine drive. Though much of the navigation work was being handled by the repaired wisp that Leon had taken from Storm Herald, the work of handling the machinery and enchantments still had to be handled by human hands.
Another portal opened in front of Bolt in Shadow, with a deeper blue at its core than the other portals—at least, until Silver Spear and Bright Intent activated their Leonine drives, too.
The engines engaged, pushing Bolt in Shadow toward its portal. It accelerated faster than the other arks, in accordance with Leon’s order that his ark be the first to embark and first to arrive at their destination. Tremors ran through Bolt in Shadow’s frame as it drew closer to the portal, growing more intense the closer they were.
When the prow pierced the portal’s event horizon, Leon’s magic senses were nearly overwhelmed by the explosion of magic power. Waves of magic rippled outward; light flashed, dark holes in the universe appeared around Bolt in Shadow, and arcs of lightning raced up and down the hull.
But they kept going, and in seconds, the view of the outside went dark, the projection enchantments unable to show what the ark was traveling through.
Leon kept his magic senses extended, though, feeling insane pressure and energy all around the ark. The hull began glowing in places from the heat, and a metallic scream filled the air from the strain placed on the ark’s frame. A few people on the observation deck began to shout in alarm and fear, and Leon felt Elise’s hands clamp down on his arm as the ark trembled.
For all that concerning noise, however, Bolt in Shadow remained intact. The elders shouted for order and those who were screaming in panic were silenced.
Just over two minutes in total they spent in the teleportal tunnel, and barreled back into the physical world in an explosion of magic power. Darkness covered the exterior of the hull like an oily film, while coronas of bright white light followed their exit. Between the ark and the coronas flashed bolts of lightning, stripping the ark of its ink-like dark exterior.
Again, Leon had to reign in his magic senses from the sheer sensory overload, but a moment later, he projected his magic senses again.
Bolt in Shadow looked none the worse for wear, to his immense relief. Though great strain had been placed upon her, the ark had suffered no significant damage. As far as he could tell, no one had even been injured, though at least one storage room hadn’t been properly secured, causing many crates of supplies to be thrown around and spilling their contents all over the floor—spare parts for Ulta suits, if Leon guessed rightly.
He focused his attention on the bridge, noting that Anshu was directing everyone expertly, ensuring that all diagnostics were being run and that all systems were still operational. Likewise, Nestor had taken complete control over the engineering room, the engineers calling out various intermediate reports and system statuses to the dead man.
Leon exhaled a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding, and slowly, Elise’s fingers released their death grip on his arm. He glanced at her and smiled, receiving a slightly more nervous smile from her in turn.
He looked around and called out, “Everyone all right?”
A chorus of ‘Yes, Your Majesty!’ filled the room.
With no small amount of relief, Leon exhaled again, and at that moment, the window projections switched back on, showing what now lay before the ark.
Light poured into the room, almost uncomfortably bright even with the projection’s brightness filters. A white sphere hung in the Void before them, emitting light and magic in quantities that Leon had never felt before. It filled the projected window, utterly and completely dwarfing everything else they could see. The light was so overpowering that they couldn’t even see distant stars when they turned around. The sphere was so large that even their view of Aeterna minutes ago looked small in comparison, and they’d only been several dozen miles above the plane then.
The Nexus. Nothing else could be this enormous even this far away.
He projected his magic senses ahead, but even with a range of tens of thousands of miles, his magic senses didn’t even get close to the sphere, which he estimated to be at least ten times his maximum range away.
But Leon wasn’t upset about that; his eyes now beheld the Nexus from relatively close—close enough to watch waves ripple across the outer surface like an infinite ocean made of light. This light wasn’t light magic, but thicker, denser, and infinitely more dangerous—the Nexus’ outer surface was completely composed of a layer of origin power, causing the Nexus to shine so brightly that it could be seen from anywhere in the universe, so long as there was an unobstructed view.
From within his soul realm, he heard the Thunderbird whisper, [Beautiful… Though I’m not and cannot see it with my own eyes, I have waited many long years to see the Nexus’ beauty again…]
Xaphan expressed different emotions when gazing upon the projection of the Nexus.
[Don’t get too close to that thing, Leon. Not even the most advanced ark ever built would survive a single moment of being ravaged by so much origin power…]
[I wasn’t planning on heading down there, Xaphan, but thanks for the heads-up.]
“So much power…” Cassandra exclaimed, walking toward the projection with abject awe writ large across her face.
Many others were equally captivated, but the Jaguar was not one of them; Leon’s attention was pulled from his wife and to his Marshal as his voice and those of his adjutants filled the observation deck, their shouting into their comm slates growing louder.
It didn’t seem that they were getting any responses.
Leon’s eyes narrowed in concern as he focused more and more on the Jaguar. The lack of response from any of the comm slates was gradually overpowering the awe of being so close to the Nexus, and silence fell upon the room, save for those on their comm slates.
A quick pulse of Leon’s magic senses confirmed that at least within almost fifty thousand miles, they were completely alone, with naught to give them company save for the thick waves of magic spilling away from the Nexus.
‘This… can’t have happened…’ Leon thought in rising panic, though he kept his face stoically neutral. ‘We can’t be the only ones who made it…?!’
Eyes turned toward the windows, everyone frantically searching for the other arks. Alix, Gaius, Alcander, and Sofia’s children were spread out across the other arks, while Alix, Valeria, and Elise’s parents were on the city ark with Eva, Cassandra’s grandmother. The Jaguar’s and his adjutants’ voices were joined by others praying or begging that their loved ones were safe, and Leon felt Elise’s hands once again clench around his arm.
He held his wife close and whispered, “Just wait. We left first, they shouldn’t be that far behind…”
With a deep breath, Elise nodded and kept her composure, but Leon could see the near-frantic worry in her emerald green eyes. Cassandra took his other arm, looking only a little more composed, while Maia took Elise’s other arm and Valeria anxiously sidled in closer to Cassandra while sending a sidelong glance in Leon’s direction.
For a moment, Leon thought about making some kind of address to allay any fears, but just before he could, a teleportation portal opened up almost two thousand miles away, its magic so lost amidst the runoff from the Nexus that Leon and Clear Day were the only two who noticed.
Smoothly sliding out of the portal came Silver Spear, emerging just as Bolt in Shadow had, with bands of light announcing her arrival while bolts of lightning scoured the hull of the inky darkness covering it.
“Look!” Leon called out, pointing to Silver Spear on the projection. Despite its flashy entrance, it was but a tiny dot on the projection. “Silver Spear has arrived!”
Relieved whispering and even a few cheers went up in response, while a moment later, three thousand miles in the other direction, another teleportation portal appeared. Bright Intent came flying out of it, putting on a nearly identical show to Silver Spear.
Thankfully, both ancient arks looked about as undamaged as Bolt in Shadow, though how far apart they had emerged did leave Leon feeling rather concerned. With their more advanced Leonine drives leaving them this dispersed, he worried for how the Nestorian drives on the other arks may have fared…
His worries were answered when five thousand miles behind them, a new teleportation portal opened, larger than any of theirs. To his immense relief, the city ark came accelerating out of it.
Unfortunately, the hull was blackened by more than just darkness magic, and Leon could see large dents and scratches all over the ark. The worst damage appeared to be to the main thrusters; out of the four in total, only one looked like it was working at full capacity, with two flickering with light and fire magic, and the fourth dark and inoperative.
Over the next couple minutes, more arks appeared all around them, most in similar states as the city ark. One destroyer even emerged venting atmosphere into the Void, though that soon cut out as, Leon assumed, bulkheads sealed the breached compartments and bronze giants and Ulta suit pilots emerged to further seal the breach.
The expedition’s arks had departed Aeterna in formation, but now they were scattered over tens of thousands of miles. Still, Leon’s relief grew as more and more checked in over the comm slates. Many joined him in their relief, their cries of despair turning into cheers and exclamations of awe now that they could concentrate on the Nexus.
The Jaguar, however, looked more and more worried as the minutes stretched on. Orders were given for the arks to assemble back into formation, with all but two of them able to at least limp toward Bolt in Shadow. The carriers and the city ark dispatched small transports to assist those remaining two arks whose thrusters had been rendered inoperable from the stress of their journey.
However, as Leon counted the arks, he realized the reason why the Jaguar was looking more and more worried.
Three arks were missing: two frigates and a destroyer.
They hadn’t all made it to the Nexus. The expedition had barely begun, and it seemed they’d already taken losses.
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