Dark Matter Ascension

Jericho saw a flash of light and then was standing before Troxanir again. "The deed is done," he stated with a bow.

Troxanir let out a cackle of delight and lifted his Signer with an invisible thread of force. "My dear Signer…you have done wonderfully. Now, off to paradise." He flung Jericho sideways, and the Black Hole Conclave member felt the wonderous ocean of pleasure – endless pleasure that consumed him entirely.

The world inside of the Void Shield was safe – as were all the people within. Jace had not been able to expand it very far before the explosion hit – only able to affect Quinn, Dee, Shhiv, Priam, and the row in front and behind them. Everything else vanished in a flash of white, and they all suddenly dropped as the ground supporting the chunk protected from annihilation by the Void Shield was dropped down into a crater.

The impact on the ground was jarring, but everyone looked okay. Especially Shhiv – who was inside a pearly white sphere from the ring that Jace gave her so long ago. Immediately, Jace's vision went to where the altar would have been in front of them. Greg had slammed into the ground of the crater – heavily burned and screaming out in not just agony, but sorrow as Missy was nowhere to be seen.

Xera's voice came over Jace's comms, "We've been set up!"

"By who?" Dee asked as she looked around at the handful of survivors Jace's sphere had managed to protect.

"Star Council," Xera replied, her voice filled with fury. "Star Father must be holding a grudge that I sniped Quinn's talents for my faction. Fuck!"

Jace got up and first checked on Shhiv. She gave him a very slight wave from inside the bubble, but he couldn't hear what she was saying. He put his hand on the sphere and gave her a nod, then rushed over to Greg.

Priam had beaten him there, and the Priest healed Greg's injuries with a Skill. Greg was sobbing, and looked at Jace. His eyes were red, streaming tears, and his look was that of rage and horror. "Who did it?!" he shouted.

Jace reached into his TPSB and pulled out an additional comm unit. Greg snatched it from his hand, shoved it into his ear, and barked the same question to Xera.

She replied, "Star Council. We are going to get them back. I promise. And Missy is here – her consciousness was transported to her new body. It's okay. Calm down, Greg."

"No!" he screamed. "I lost everyone!" his eyes scanned the massive crater, and he broke down crying, grabbing onto Priam and wailing as all but a handful of his friends and family were annihilated in a moment.

Jace didn't know what to do. But Ollie tapped him on the shoulder, "We need to get out of here. If the Star Council wants us dead, this is their world. We have to get back to The Cosmic Corridor."

"Too late!" Quinn shouted as she was manipulating her wrist pad. "We have them incoming! Twenty seconds judging by satellite speed!"

Jace grabbed Greg and shook him, "We need to go. Now!"

Greg looked up at him and grit his teeth, "No way! I'm going to rip these guys in half! I'll obliterate them!" an aura of menacing, brown, crackling energy began to seep out of Greg's body.

Priam stood up and raised his hand, "Exarch's Ward (Rank 14) [Multi-Target]." The golden barrier appeared around everyone except for Shhiv. "Shhiv! Deactivated the ring!"

She did so, and she was left standing on the ground. "What are we going to do?"

Jace grabbed Greg and hauled him up to his feet, "I'll hide everyone. We need to get the survivors back to Khrox. Revenge can wait."

Greg's eyes cleared slightly, and he nodded, "Do it!"

"Dark Matter Cloak (Rank 3) [Group]." The entire group vanished from all but each-other's sight, and Jace signaled for them to follow him. "Come on! We have to get to that portal in London!"

Mizarion was languishing in the small office. He only looked up when a knock at the door roused him from the confines of his sparsely furnished, decent prison. "Yea?"

Casey opened the door, her spider lower body rapidly scuttling inside before the door was shut behind her. "I am sorry they did this to you."

Mizarion frowned even more than he was before as he shoved his body back into the bed. "Why the hell did Star Poppa think it would be a good idea to work with Troxanir?"

"Mutual foe," Casey replied. "Star Father knows the Nebula Alliance is weak. The Pulsar Coalition doesn't care much about worlds not close to the universe's center. The Planetary Independence Pact doesn't care about other worlds than their own, either."

"Star Dad thinks the best plan is to piss off whoever runs the Dark Between Stars? That's stupid!"

"X having Signers is bad news. They always meddle," Casey said, trying to get Mizarion to see her reasoning.

But he didn't want to hear it. "Quinn was our ally. She trusted me. Fat chance she trusts me anymore after this, if she survived."

Casey sighed, "I can't convince you, can I?"

"Never. What the faction did is fucked up. All manners of wrong. The Star Council is…" he shook his head, "The good we did? What's it all for if we are willing to destroy allies we worked with? Without X's Signers, we wouldn't haver Earth and the resources of their solar system."

This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

"True, but they are an unknown variable. And this recent unprompted attack on the Nebula Allian-"

"Unprompted?!" Mizarion shouted as he stood up and drew to his full height, rivaling the spider-centaur woman's height. "They had a bounty on Quinn and her friends! Of course X's people went after him! You saw what happened to Flicker as well, that video was everywhere."

"Star Father wants to make sure that his plans are not interrupted by the Dark Between Stars." Casey knocked on the door, and it was opened. As she left, she gave one parting comment, "You should think about who you want to serve. The Star Council in our glorious task of uplifting civilizations, or someone else. His patience is running out." The door shut behind her.

Mizarion sank into the bed once more, lamenting his situation. Pulling up his System Screen, he tried to message Quinn – but the System said she was dead. "Damnit!" he screamed.

Jace was able to keep the Cloak on everyone as they fled Earth and got back into Khrox. As soon as they stepped foot out of the portals from Earth, everyone was warped away. Greg's surviving guests to their homes, and the Signers for Xera's faction into the apartment building's ground floor.

Missy was sitting on a couch, nervously playing with her hands, when they arrived. She stood up and bolted over to Greg, hugging him and sobbing. "I'm so sorry, honey. So, so sorry."

Jace turned away from the sight, looking at Shhiv and grabbing her close, hugging her tightly. "I need you to stay safe," he whispered.

"I am around you. Plus we have Xera's backup," she said as she returned the hug.

Xera's voice came over the comms – only Dee, Quinn, and Jace's though. "All of you have died. Well, your profiles have. Time to adopt code names."

"Is this really the best time?" Quinn asked, exasperated.

"I have to establish these profiles, so sooner rather than later."

"What about who did it?" Jace asked. "Star Council?"

"Undoubtedly," Xera replied. "Someone set off bomb under the building. But they think all of my assets are dead. I'll be playing it off that way, and have a word with Star Father. While I do that…Jace, I've got tasks for you. We need to strike fast and hard. Someone has been querying Quinn, trying to message her."

"Who?" Quinn asked.

"Mizarion. I've been blocking him, since you are supposed to be dead. But I know where they are holding him in Khrox. We need to get ahold of him and see what he knows. I know they've confined him."

Jace nodded, kissed Shhiv deeply, and then pulled his armor out of the TPSB and got his equipment all in place. "I'm going now."

"I'll come too!" Dee said.

"Me three!" Priam replied.

Xera cut them both off, though. "No. You don't have new identity profiles, or the Symbol Shift Skill. You stay put until you have the Stardust to level up once and take the Skill."

Dee and Priam slightly deflated, but Quinn's face hardened into a resolute look of determination. She stared at Jace, "We have to save Mizarion. He's a good guy, no way he was involved in this."

"I'll get him out," Jace replied as he took off, leaving the apartment building. Symbol Shift (Rank 1), he thought as his symbols shifted to Black Hole and Supermassive. "Xera, are you going to warp me?"

"In the usual amount of time. Emergency warping all of those guests went through a lot of my bypasses. I need to let them refill. Just begin walking to the Star Council's headquarters. I'll send you an image in your HUD."

A building appeared in Jace's vision – an enormous, square tower made of burnished bronze and gold. He began walking down the street, and Ollie wrapped himself around his shoulders – hidden by the armor Jace wore.

Xera was fuming. Furious. How dare he? She thought. "Josie! Any luck?"

"Star Father is not answering any calls," she replied.

Xera let out a grunt of frustration, "Damnit. Fine. Let's override it."

"You sure?"

"Positive." A screen appeared next to Xera, flashing gold and silver. "Hold that," she told Josie. Activating her Shadow Council protocol, she shrouded her form in blackness as she answered the video message. "Star Father."

The imposing man was sitting at the same desk as he had sat at before – but his suit was now a bright, cream-colored white. "X. I am sure you are aware of the fate that befell your Signers."

She wanted to scream. To completely lambast him with a verbal assault that tore him to shreds whilst playing upon his desire to be of high morality – but she kept calm and spoke in an even tone. "You killed them all," she said.

"Yes. And as far as I know, you have no more Signers. This is your warning – stay out of my way."

"Or what?" Xera replied. "You cannot do anything to me. Khrox, The Eternal City, the Cosmic Corridor, this whole place is my realm."

Star Father crossed his arms, leaned back in his chair, and stared at the camera aperture as if he was staring into Xera's eyes. The piercing, golden orbs were trying to say something to her, some hidden message – but she had no clue what it could be. The man frowned, "I did not want to take out your Signers, but I have no choice."

"I took out your rival in the Nebula Alliance!" Xera let her emotional wall crack slightly, trying to make it seem as if she was off-balance, hoping that Star Father would let something slip if he saw her struggling to contain her emotions.

He leaned forward and his mouth shifted into a grimace, "I have kept an ear to the ground, as it were, regarding these 'Astral Incursions', as my data collectors have learned they are called. When were you going to tell all of us that there is something beyond our universe?"

A chill washed over Xera. How did he figure it out? She thought. I blocked everyone from accessing everything regarding the Astral Verge!

Star Father's frown deepened. "I know of the Astral Verge, and the existence of other universes beyond."

"How'd you find out?" Xera said, exasperated with his monologuing, and feeling genuine emotion bleed through rather than controlled expressions.

Star Father smiled, "Troxanir himself told me. In exchange for letting one of his Signers onto one of my worlds via some convoluted Skill, he signed a Pact with me. I will leave this universe behind, safely traveling past his Astral Demon form, and venture into this Astral Verge. Then, I will take over a universe all for myself. I will be a new god-no, more than that. I will be…" he frowned, "What would be above a god? Ah, a father. I will be a father to all of a universe. My children will grow, become the strongest beings imaginable, fueled by the pure might of the stars surrounding us." He grinned, "My only desire has ever been to raise others to a higher level of civilization. Getting to do it on a universal scale? A few hundred-thousand people dying is well worth the price."

Xera felt her blood boiling. Star Father was betraying his faction – leaving them all behind so that he could become the equivalent of The Architects in another universe. Xera had half a mind to just let him leave. Just let him get out of the universe entirely and then keep him sealed out. But he had been around for a long, long time. He had knowledge of The Cosmic System, and whilst he could never re-make it in another universe, he could share that knowledge with other founder species. And they might find a way to get into her universe aside from the singularity 'funnel' at the center.

"Well," she said as she let out an exhalation and pulled her emotions back into check. "I hope you enjoyed living while you could." She waved her hand, and the screen vanished. "Josie!" she shouted. "Unlock the emergency reserves."

"But-"

"Do it!" Xera shouted. She pulled up the comms to Jace, "You have a new mission – kill Star Father."