Manifest War: The Weapons Within

The air went back to normal as the folders finished fading in, enticing the two leaders to come and take them. Gabriella reached out and picked up the folder, curious unto what could be inside. She read the first page and started to laugh slowly, increasing in volume with each passing second.

“What? What does it say??” Leo wondered with a curious cadence, now grabbing his folder.

“Seems like Queen Azhane finally snapped. I knew it would only be a matter of time before my plan worked!” Leo read the pages and was at a loss for words, shocked they had received such a timely gift.

Within these folders were countless documents of detailed information about the nation of Volaire and the Belouis Family. Documents highlighting financial information about how much each nation paid them to use their trade routes, Volaire’s spending habits, under the table dealings, and civilian tax rates.

Going further into the pages, there was information about their current military strength, highlighting the exact numbers of soldiers and their average resonance level. There were even locations of hidden bases and strongholds that weren’t public knowledge. Some of the pages had extensive profiles on The Six, providing information on their abilities, weaknesses, past life, and any secrets related to them.

This folder had page after page of highly sensitive content that would originally never see the light of day. No nation would dare reveal this kind of information and yet the five leaders had it all in the palms of their hands. Even though these documents could cripple Volaire to the very core, the very last few pages had the most damning information of them all.

In full, explicit detail, there was a profile for the current Queen, Azhane Belouis. There were lines upon lines of text highlighting issues in her early life, cover ups for unfortunate situations related to her, and most of all, her abilities.

The document went on to list her full capabilities, not sparing a single detail. It also shared her weaknesses and once The High Priest and Empress read these contents, excitement filled their hearts like a playful child.

The Document read:

Azhane Rialia Belouis can cross over a near infinite amount of dimensions, teleporting her in rapid succession or across massive distances. While seemingly quick to the naked eye, these teleports have a brief delay to them and are able to be exploited should a foe be fast enough. She is also able to create pocket dimensions that have properties similar to black holes, absorbing and erasing everything they touch. However, Azhane Rialia Belouis cannot attack and defend at the same time. She must choose her fights carefully.

Azhane Rialia Belouis’ Manifest, The Grasp of Nihility is a highly powerful weapon that possesses dangerous dimensional level abilities. When its Core Energy threshold is met, The Manifest will activate its special ability and transport the wielder and their foe to an empty dimension known as The Plane of Nothingness. The flow of time slows tremendously inside, moving at a one second to one minute ratio. Every minute that passes in the plane is one second in Alaira.

Within this plane, the opponent will succumb to an onslaught of ethereal blades, spawning from other dimensions created by the Manifest. The wielder will also be able to fight completely unhindered and can unleash devastating amounts of carnage, as the plane will reset once the battle ends. This ability will only end when the opponent perishes or completely loses the will to fight, the Vesta cannot command it to end otherwise.

While The Grasp of Nihility is highly potent, it has a major flaw. The Vesta that wields this weapon, may only activate its special ability three times a year. Upon the third use, the wielder’s connection to the Core of Alaira will be blocked and severed for a short time. The length of time falls between four - eight months, depending on how much Core Energy was expelled. During this period, the Manifest goes into a slumber to recharge itself and the Vesta will have no access to their abilities, placing them within Pearl Class strength wise.

Number of uses remaining: 1

Leo and Gabriella looked at each other with child-like smiles as they read the last page.

“This is too good to be true. All these years believing she was this all powerful entity that had no weaknesses, and yet that was never the case. We were scared for nothing. This information changes everything!” The High Priest said while gripping the pages tightly. The two leaders were beside themselves with excitement, incredibly happy to learn all of this knowledge.

Previously, no nation would dare to invade or attack Volaire because they always had Azhane Belouis in their back pocket. Despite Volaire’s fairly average sized military, which was easily dwarfed by the likes of Arista and Lumen’s, Azhane’s strength and presence alone was enough to keep people at bay.

Like a small nation with access to nuclear warheads, no one wanted to test their trigger finger. However, with all of this new information, there was now an opportunity to take her out of the equation entirely and strike while she couldn’t be a factor.

“Yes, this is amazing information indeed! But, what I find even more curious are the amount of cover ups the Belouis family did for Queen Azhane. This girl was a demon in her youth it seems like. The disappearance of a large number of people was because of her. Who would’ve thought?” Gabriella replied while quoting an article in one of the documents, mentioning a time when thirteen year old Azhane used her abilities on a high ranking noble because he disrespected Janelle Belouis. He had completely vanished, so the Belouis family covered it up as a tragic accident.

“Does not surprise me in the slightest. I told you, that woman wasn't fit to rule a kingdom. She's way too unstable.” Leo responded with an annoyed cadence, highlighting his dislike towards the Queen of Volaire.

“Well, no matter, I believe this will be the end of her reign anyways. Are your men stationed and ready to proceed? We can invade tonight and catch them off guard.” The Empress asked with a cunning tone.

“Yes, they’ve been on standby at the border since last week. My sources tell me that Volaire’s military is still scattered across their nation thanks to the Boundless, so I can imagine it will take them a while to react to our invasion if we hit tonight.” Gabriella smiled and stood, pleased to hear this news from the High Priest.

“Excellent, as are mine. Have your men invade from the west with haste and we will follow shortly after from the south. A two pronged invasion with the full might of our militaries!” She said while putting on her shawl, preparing to leave.

“We will do so immediately, Your Excellency. But what about you? Why are you getting ready to depart?” He wondered, thinking it would make more sense if she left with him.

“I need to get in contact with Varric Clover and handle a few things on my end. Once he agrees, I will have him join the front lines with your commander. Don’t worry, I shall return quickly.” With that final statement, she gathered her things and left the room. She headed toward the transportation wing of the Holy Core Church and stepped up to a large, open door with her guards in tow.

The nun standing outside of the door saw the Empress and immediately bowed her head before posing a question. “Your Excellency, where might this humble servant transport you this evening?”

“Send me to the Imperial Palace of the Arista Empire.” Gabriella commanded, eager to get back home.

“As you wish.” Just as the nun’s soft voice spoke, the door began glowing a bright gold color. A portal formed within the frame and Gabriella walked through, taking herself back to the palace at the heart of Arista’s capital city.

She demanded her servants to set up a meeting with Varric Clover, directing them to begin their preparations. They did so and after escorting her to her office, she sat down at her desk while servants rolled in a large mirror.

At first she saw her reflection, but then the mirror swirled the image and seconds later she was face to face with a fairly attractive gentleman. He was clean shaven, had shorter brown hair, green eyes, and a strong jawline. He wore a black trenchcoat with no shirt underneath, revealing an incredible amount of muscles and toned abs.

The man wasn’t alone however, on each side were two scantily clad women leaning against him and under his arms. The multitude of rings on his hands glistened as he groped their breasts like putty, causing the females to moan with pleasure. The man cheekily smiled as Gabriella’s face appeared.

“To what do I owe the pleasure, Empress Gabriella Ramos? It’s rare for you to contact me.” The man asked with a deep and confident cadence.

“Hello, Varric Clover. I have a job that could use your strength. Are you interested?” She replied nonchalantly, paying no mind to the suggestive actions happening before her.

“And what might this ‘job’ be? I can’t imagine it would be anything as simple as a hit job, you don’t need my power for something as trivial as that.” Gabriella adjusted herself in her seat and leaned in towards the mirror, trying to keep the volume of her voice low.

“I need you for a war of sorts.” Varric’s eyes went wide and he began to look annoyed.

“War? Tsk, listen toots, I have no interest in involving myself with your diplomatic affairs. Find someone else.” He replied, no longer showing interest in this job.

“But what if I told you that you would be fighting Azhane Belouis in the process?” The Empress responded with a soft smile. Varric stopped groping the two women and immediately sat up on the couch, his interest now fully piqued.

“Oh really?? She’ll be there?” He questioned while staring back at the Empress with crazed eyes. Gabriella nodded and explained what her current plans were.

“So you see, all we need is for you to force out that special ability of hers. You get to fight against her to your heart’s content and we get to remove a threat. It’s a win win, don’t you think?” Varric smirked as he thought things over briefly, running the idea through his head multiple times.

“Alright, you’ve got a deal. But don’t think I’m doing this for free. My work isn’t cheap.” He replied after careful consideration.

“Of course, of course. Name your price and I will see that it is met.” Varric was happy to hear this and he sent the Empress a devious smile.

“Pleasure doing business with you, toots. Give me a few minutes to prepare and I’ll be ready to proceed.”

“Good, good. I look forward to meeting with you in person. Use the portal to meet me here at the Imperial Palace and we will begin our operation with haste.” The transmission ended and the mirror swirled the image until the Empress saw her reflection again. She smiled before loudly cackling, unable to contain her excitement for the events to come.