Chapter 7: Chapter 7 – Don’t Mess With The Astrals (1)

Astral Institute of Technology

 

Princess Sophia’s POV

 

Grandmama portaled sister Athena and I straight to little Chrono’s Lineage Chamber Laboratory after tucking him in. Walking through Grandmama’s Dimentional Portal was always an unsettling experience. While I had full confidence of Grandmama’s ability and trusted her with all my life, I couldn’t shake off that lurking feeling of helplessness. While i was at Principle Stage in both the disciplines of Time and Space, my Spacial expertise lay more toward gravitational control. Regardless, even Athena who delved into the Path of Teleportation, is unable to transverse long distances, not to mention bring people along with her.

 

Grandmama’s abilities have always been a mystery, all we had seen her reveal was her Spacial Portal and Spacial Manipulation when she sporadically froze Athena or levitated objects. What’s even more befuddling is her head of whitish-silver. While many attribute that to her old age, I knew she was the same as me. If her main talents were in the study of Time and she had already surpassed us by so much in the Principle of Space, what kind of existence is really beneath her facade of a fragile quirky Grandma?

 

The Lineage Laboratory flashed in front of our eyes in a matter of moments. The lab had been cleaned up but Chrono's Lineage Chamber hadn’t yet been replaced. Also, there was still a gaping hole on the ceiling from which Chrono’s had shot out of.

 

“I almost jumped out of my skin” Aerial exclaimed as she fumbled quickly to greet us. Placing her 8 fingers atop of each other with her thumbs tucked in, she stretched both arms straight while bowing forty-five degrees and gave an Astralian Salute,

 

“Empress Dowager, Princess Athena, Princess Sophia”

 

I gave her a light nod before proceeding to brief Grandmama and Athena,

 

“ A Technian operative by the name of Dr.Steel attempted to inject some sort of virus or explosive 20minutes before Chrono’s awakening, luckily my foresight warned me just minutes before.”

 

“ What’s scary is that Dr. Steel has been a researcher with us for more than 15years, records show that he had performed his professional duties to a tee, until yesterday...”

 

Athena’s icy eyes squinted, her furrowed eyebrows formed a threatening frown. An aura of spine-chilling killing intent seeped out uncontrollably. She took a deep breath and then coldly said,

 

“ Grandmama I’d like to excuse myself for the rest of the day.”

 

Athena turned around without waiting for a response and vanished after a purple flash.

 

“Grandmama are you not going to stop her?” I asked, concerned for Athena.

 

Grandmama shot me a calm look, “ If it weren’t against the rules, I’d be one leading the charge. “

 

I heard a crackle coming from her clenched fist. There was a faint menacing force coming from within her palm. Just as she shook her fist open, I caught a glimpse of a fading black hole.

 

‘Did Grandmama crush the fabric of space within her palm?’ I thought to myself in awe.

 

She met my shocked stare with a mischievous grin and said, “ Have a detailed report of little Chrono’s awakening ready asap, I’ll look go make sure that reckless girl doesn’t get herself killed.”

 

Princess Athena’s POV

 

I quickly teleported a few times to reach the Throne Room of the Astral Knight Headquarters. I could feel my blood boiling… The insolence of the Technians to even dare consider assassinating my baby brother. I gritted my teeth at the thought as I sat firmly on the command post of the HQ. This was a throne elevated by a small flight of steps. I proceeded to draw my spear out from my storage ring and held it in my left hand. A brassy thud echoed as I slammed the base of my spear onto the floor beside me. A pulse of energy swept across the whole headquarters, causing the strong to stumble and the weak to drop to their knees in submission.

 

“ Astral Guardians assemble! ”

 

My battle armor started to materialize around me, almost out of habit, i could feel the cold alloy forcing my pulsating anger into a cold unusual tranquility. This was where I felt most comfortable. I am the calm before the storm - my spear a thunderous guillotine.

 

I tapped on the arm of the chair with the fingers of my right hand as one Astral Guardian after another fell in formation, bowing with a knee on the ground. The Empire of Astral has 2 main offensive forces. First of course, is the Astralian army. Talent from the Astral Military Academy and conscripts across Astrals many territories form highly disciplined regiments.

 

Second are the Astral Knights. They comprise mostly of highly skilled cultivators, powerhouses who specialize in specific types of dimensional energies. Astral Guardians are the crème of the crop amongst the Astral Knights. Each one has to have reached the pinnacle of the Principle Stage, fulfilling a number of criteria before they are able to receive the tile of ‘Guardian’ and the honor that follows. These are the upper echelon of the Astral Empire’s strike force; mostly nobles within the Astral Empire. However, as revered as they were by the citizens of Astral, there were 3 people that they both feared and respected: the Empress Dowager, Emperor Aion Teleos and finally, Athena, commander of the Astral military and acting Head of the Astral Knights.

 

Some of the Guardians frowned beneath the shadows of their bowed heads, worried at what would entail. The Guardians were usually assigned solo missions or had to work in small groups. They are after all generally known as apex cultivators in Tertius, each one able to eradicate small cities by themselves. Princess Athena had never summoned so many Guardians at once and the last time this happened was amidst the Great War lead by Emperor Aion Teleos 200 years ago; before Athena was even born.

 

Many of those who served in the Great War never returned but three of the strongest survived. They were bestowed the title of Founding Knights. Under Emperor Aion Teleo’s command, they founded the Fellowship of Astral Knights. Additionally, with the unique skills of their respective families they managed to accumulate significant power and influence within the Empire. These three were the Duchess Isis Daimona, Duke Hephaestus Strongarm and Duke Zhuge Tian Gong. The Daimona Nobles were practitioners who specialised in the arts of poison and medicines. The Strongarms were born with a high affinity to the Sigil of Flames and are renowned blacksmiths. The Zhuge Clan were prominent scholars who pride themselves in their understanding of Dimensional Arrays.

 

“Why have we been summoned Princess?” Duke Strongarm, known for his short temper, inquired with a glint of excitement in his voice.

 

I scanned the 20 Guardians lined up before me, first ignoring the question and proceeded to announce,

 

“Rise… Stand at ease.”

 

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The Guardians stood up uniformly and I declared,

 

“The Technian abominations sent an assassin to Prince Chrono’s Lineage Chamber and so they shall pay their debt.”

 

“The audacity of those scraps of metal! Heh… this old man has been itching for some action for decades!” Duke Strongarm grinned, rotating his right shoulder as if ready to engage in battle at this moment.

 

Duke Zhuge Tian Gong stepped forward, gave an Astralian salute and questioned,

 

“Is the young Prince of good health? How did the Technian pass the guards and defensive arrays protecting the Institute?”

 

“Lil Chronos is fine, the Technian scum was a sleeping agent undercover as a researcher in the Lineage Department. He’d apparently been working there for more than 15years so he had access to the Lineage Project, luckily Sophia’s foresight anticipated the assassination and handled it before any harm could be done.” I replied impatiently.

 

Duchess Daimona took a step forward and queried,

 

“ Are we starting a war with the Technians? the Emperor and Empress have not yet returned…. While I despise those cyborgs more than anyone, is it wise to provoke that old chunk of scrap metal?”

 

I knew Duchess Isis was referring to Emperor Technia, very few in Tertius had the guts or rights to speak disrespectfully of the Technian Emperor, regardless of allegiance, but the Founding Knights could.

 

I waved my hand and responded,

 

“If I wanted a full blown war, I wouldn’t have summoned only the Guardians.”

 

“Today, we are but debt collectors.” I proclaimed and smiled.

 

“What? No war?” Duke Strongarm interjected, his previous excitement perceptibly deflating.

 

“ Don’t worry, you’ll all get your fair share of action, I want 10 Guardians to each make their way to a previously scouted Technian Dimensium mines and erase everyone in them before meeting us at the Technian Capital of Zukun…. Oh and bring back all Dimensium reserves from those mines” I tossed 10 storage rings to the 10 Guardians on the left.

 

10 Guardians stepped forward, bowed and marched out.

 

“ The three Founding Knights and the remaining 7 Guardians will follow me and head directly to the Technian Capital of Zukun,” I dictated as I pricked my index finger and let out a droplet of blood onto the orb embedded into the arm rest of the throne. A rumbling followed as the ground within the room shook. The Guardians gasped, eyes wide open as the entire room started to dislodge itself from the headquarters, levitating then shooting itself toward Technia. Several screens and command stations erected from the ground. A younger Guardian stammered in amazement,

 

“The headquarters is a … warship??!”

 

---

Author’s Notes:

 

I wanted to delve a little more into the characters of the Astral Princesses and also set the tone of the Astral Royal Family - loving and quirky within the family but overbearing toward anyone else. A semi-filler chapter where 3 Noble families and the founding knights were introduced as well.

 

Duchess Isis Daimona

-Isis was the Egyptian Goddess of Love, healing, fertility magic and the moon

-Daimona → refer to Author’s Notes in Chp4

Duke Hephaestus Strongarm

-Hephaetus was the Greek god of fire and the divine smith, patron of craftsmen

-Strongarm… well blacksmiths strong arm.. need i say more? XD

Duke Zhuge Tian Gong

- The Zhuge family was created to stick to the concept of east meets west. Inspired by Zhu Ge Liang, the ancient Chinese statesman and military strategist known for his intellect.

-Tian Gong (天宫) is translated literally to sky or heaven's castle but the name was actually inspired by the Tiangong Space Station, just as a nod to humanity's ingenuity

The powers in the novel revolve around Sigils so it’d only made sense that there were array specialists.

The 3 families were created to cover, Medicine, Smithing and Arrays.

 

What do yall think about Athena’s character? How would you add more depth to it? 

(P.S. I'm quite displeased with this chapter so I'll probably come back to edit it in future)

 

Until the next chapter,

Much Love

MrB The Novelist

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