Titan King: Ascension of the Giant Chapter 1728: Eve of Ascension

The Titan Continent. Hundred Flowers City.

Before Argentis ever came to this continent, Hundred Flowers City had been the most peaceful, most tranquil city in the whole Stoneheart Horde—for here lived one of the first Titan King Orion's consorts. A Garland-folk woman fond of peace, with something of a bleeding heart in her temper besides.

"How beautiful."

In the garden, vine and blossom grew interwoven, reaching toward the sun, and the morning light refracted off the dawn-dew in ring upon ring of rainbow haze. Violet brushed a slender white finger against a petal, and a dewdrop, as though it had come alive, bounced and skipped into her mouth, sweet as wine.

"Not bad—you've made it peaceful enough here." Behind her, up a cobbled path crowded with bellflowers, came Orion at an easy pace, a dragonling sprawled on his shoulder; a soft breeze stirred, and butterflies scattered on the down. Familiar voice, unfamiliar figure—Violet turned and gave a brimming smile.

"You've come." Orion stepped up before Violet and reached out to touch her near-flawless face, his heart still moving the way it had the first time. "Aren't you curious why your own strength has climbed so fast—risen to great lord in so short a time?" Orion drew his hand back and leaned easily into the flower-chair beside Violet, arms stretched out natural, head tipped up to the strangely clear sky of Hundred Flowers City.

"It must be because of Caelus." The smile on Violet's face turned clear. She gave Orion's Insect King form an earnest looking-over for a while, then bent her head again to tend the flowers and grasses at her feet.

"Little thing, so dim you can't take a hint? Three days off—get out and go play on your own." Orion shifted his posture, hooked thumb and middle finger together, and flicked off his shoulder the street rat, who'd been studying Violet all curiosity, a little flame of gossip burning at the bottom of his eyes.

"No—mas—ter—tch—you old lech—forgets his student the second he sees a pretty face—" Outside the palace, the far-flung street rat caught up to himself a beat late, realizing something mid-flight, his pleading flipping on the instant into a machine-gun spray of wild grumbling.

Orion shot a glance the way the street rat had vanished, then brought his gaze back to Violet's garden—just as the small fountain at the garden's center kicked on, water beading and spattering everywhere, bloom on bloom of every color opening.

"As his mother, you don't fret over Caelus's safety?" Orion, rarely, was making small talk, savoring this stretch of quiet.

"With you and his master there, I've no need to worry. Caelus is like you—an eagle in the sky, a great dragon in the heavens. He won't trouble himself over the flowers and grasses on the ground, won't be snared or held back by all these pretty trifles." Violet lifted her head, her smile like a flower in bloom, and as she moved, all manner of flower-sprites and elemental spirits appeared around her, chasing and frolicking and dancing lightly with her at their center. "Living each day well, living happy—that's the best support and care I can give you and Caelus."

Orion fell silent, recalling that stretch of years when Violet had been turned into a seed. The Violet of now understood how hard-won life was, and prized every passing moment of beauty before her. So peaceful, so tranquil a Violet—Orion hadn't the heart to disturb her. But the matter touched Caelus, touched the Stoneheart Horde, touched the placements Orion was about to set in motion; he thought it over and spoke to ask all the same.

"Caelus is about to break through to the demigod realm in the Valkorath Realm. Will you go to witness it?" This was Caelus's moment of glory, and Violet's moment of glory too. As his mother, Violet deserved to be remembered by every soul of the Stoneheart Horde.

"Demigod?" Violet started, her lovely eyes fixed on Orion, full of question and doubt. "So soon?" But thinking of Caelus's quality and his cultivation surroundings—long past the early starting-out days of the Stoneheart Horde—Violet soon came round to ease and understanding.

"Yes. You'll come with me?" Violet tipped her head a little, putting the invitation to Orion.

Orion nodded, rose, took Violet by the hand, and opened the teleport, descending into the Valkorath Realm.

The Valkorath Realm. Hundred Flowers City.

Like the one in the Titanion Realm, Violet held a Hundred Flowers City in the Valkorath Realm too. The difference was the tall, grand white tower standing at the city's center, the whole of it from base to spire overrun with wisteria in small bloom. That was the mage tower, where Caelus cultivated, and his favorite dwelling besides.

Coming here, Violet turned wildly elated. She left Orion behind and made for the mage tower at a quick step. As she walked, the flowers and grasses of the whole city seemed to answer a summons, their breathing falling into one rhythm, their sway running near the same; with every step she printed, Violet stirred up clouds of pollen that scattered down as starlit dust, beautiful past all matching.

But as she neared the mage tower, Violet stopped. She'd caught Caelus's aura, caught that familiar seed-world, caught a strange change about to take place in Caelus.

Violet lifted her head and looked at the white tower.

"We were buried deep in the dark once, but the light never gave up on us. Caelus—fly. Rise on the light, ride the wind."

—

The Mirage Void. Blackstone City.

The Wishing Tree stood towering on the peak, its branches spiraling up in every direction like grey-green dragons, gnarled and coiled into a canopy. Far off, a wind blew in from the desolate places, and the layered leaves, like startled little creatures, flitted and rolled in waves.

Seated in a ring beneath the Wishing Tree, Orion, Thresh, Delor, Speaker Faenor, and Kaidric opened their eyes one after another, reading the keen killing intent hidden in the wind.

"The fish have taken the hook." The corner of Chieftain Delor's mouth lifted; this moment was the very thing he and Faenor had descended for.

"Seven streams of killing intent, thick to the last and not hidden in the slightest—elders, they mean to put you in the ground." Faenor turned to Commander and Orion, a thread of gladness and jest spilling from his eyes.

"A pity. It's not dragon-whales that came, just a pack of sharks." Commander ignored Faenor's joke, full of disappointment at the enemy come this time. "Past the three the Boundless Expanse holds itself, the other regions sent only four apex powers. Looks like the Mirage Void isn't as united as we'd figured—no sheet of iron. Managed right, we've no small room to work with."

As Blackstone City's lord, the situation Orion least wanted to see was the strong of all twelve regions gathering and taking his Blackstone City in one breath. The situation as it stood was the one everyone most wanted, the one the plan called for.

"No telling whether putting down these enemies come knocking will rouse that hidden Sovereign of the Boundless Expanse. Quite the thing to look forward to." Chieftain Delor bent his head and stroked the pitch-black longsword at his waist, faintly worked up.

"Do we set a hand to it this time?" Faenor looked to Commander; he was the strongest here, everyone's backbone, and the bait flung out besides.

"No need. Stay hidden. Show yourselves early and the enemy won't see a sliver of hope of winning. Then, even as we startle that Sovereign awake, we'd draw in the strong of the other regions too—not worth the trade. Beset on all sides does Orion and his people's growth no good." Commander narrowed his eyes, seeming to read the strength of the killing intent in the wind, weighing the gains and losses. It was the real of it: the Stoneheart Horde wanted to grow fast, but the pace couldn't run too fast—too slow and they took a beating, too fast and they drew in more powerful enemies. Holding the measure, keeping command of every step of this war's progress—that was the fine handwork Orion and Commander had to get right.

"We'll have to pass word down—have everyone pull the lines in for now, and not let those glory-greedy little ones overplay their hand." Commander looked at Orion; every member of the Champions Alliance had been thrown into this war, and their safety had to be secured.

"I've already sent the order out. Everyone will get word." Orion gave Commander a reassuring look, then his expression turned stern and grim.

Since the dream-gate had been opened, the allies entering the Mirage Void weren't only the Champions Alliance, the Death-Soul Race, and the Saint Gran Council—there were the Stoneheart Horde's demigod allied powers across every world, and the various organizations that had thrown in with the Stoneheart Horde's camp of their own accord on word of a high plane surfacing. Beyond the demigod powers out of the Abyss and Hell, these organizations included local-tyrant powers out of all manner of great worlds. A good many of the local-tyrant powers didn't reach even the level of loyalty that heeds orders but not summons; they only flew the banner of the Stoneheart Horde's camp to scoop up benefit and resources for themselves in the Mirage Void, and paid Orion's orders no mind at all. Worse still, some would clash with neighboring allied powers and badly damage the peace.

"Heh. The ones who won't listen—die and they're dead, and they had it coming." Commander caught the pointed something under Orion's words, not a shred of pity in him for those disobedient organizations.

Orion nodded. With Chieftain Delor and Speaker Faenor at his side, on the matter of allied powers, by sense and by reason both, he couldn't answer the subject head-on.

"That boy of your house is about to step into the demigod realm. When he's out of seclusion, toss him over here to season a while. There's no shortage of powers in the Mirage Void fit to hone him—we can blunt his edge a touch, make him taste what defeat's like. A thing like that can't be put off; the longer you drag it, the easier he founders." On the subject of Caelus, Orion was proud—this was the Stoneheart Horde's second demigod in the true sense since himself. What Orion had lived through was the something from nothing of zero to one; Caelus's coming was the breeding growth of one to two. From here on, the Stoneheart Horde had truly set foot on a road with a future.

"Heh. Brother, the breeding of a people is no simple thing." Kaidric had met Caelus, and knew the Stoneheart Horde well enough; he understood that the people Orion belonged to had a long road yet before it grew up.

"It's the ceaseless turnover of power and strength that makes one new generation after another, that walks out one true power after another amid no end of chance happenings." Not long acquainted with Orion, Chieftain Delor gave a well-meant word of pointing.

Orion nodded his agreement; he too had only lately come to grasp the truth of it. His decision to step down, to give up the Titan King's seat, had this among the things that swayed it.

"This generation of the Stoneheart Horde's young people is excellent." The Saint Gran Council had looked the Stoneheart Horde over, and Speaker Faenor knew its situation well; past Orion's four children, the Stoneheart Horde had no small number of fine seedlings besides.

"Truth be told, only with your Stoneheart Horde truly grown strong can we make the ground we've seized our own. A scrawny beast won't have a strong gut—what it swallows down, it brings back up in the end." The halo of wisdom at Speaker Faenor's back flickered, his face all unfathomable depth.

"Heh. We've still got time." Orion was strong, but the Stoneheart Horde, by comparison, was weak and small. It was Orion's awkward spot, and Commander cut the subject off, not wanting Orion to lose face.

"Back to the point. This time it's still me, Orion, and Kaidric who set our hands to it—three against seven, playing out a long, teetering fight on the edge."

***

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