Power Awakens
Chapter 37

So much concentrated life force, It was absolutely unbelievable, Lazrael ached, It longed, It hungered, It wanted. The temptation was intense, he wanted to travel to the source, it was almost too great, but Lazrael had plans, and the cycle had begun. He would reach his goal.

Dethack called the caravan to halt, there was a pull on the matrix and he felt the unleashing of immense torrents of power as if from a distance. To Dethack, it could only mean one thing, the Nexii must be coming into his power. Who else could draw such power that could pull on the matrix and be felt from this distance? He just needed to find out where in this miserable stinking city he was. With a crack of the whip, Dethack pushed his caravan along the North Mank Road towards the centre of the city.

Knom was connected to the Matrix, he could feel the pulse, it was so distant, the power must be enormous, it had to be the Nexii. He now knew at least in which area of Rodina he was in, but it was months of travel from Morthan. He had to make preparations, the Nexii had to die.

Xeng Hu San looked up from the Kistor Cycle, as far as he was aware the only surviving copy on the planet and he was not letting this dangerous text out of his hands. He could feel it. Thousands of leagues away and he could feel it. Wearing Koan like a cloak, he was attuned to the planets aura. He was not attuned to the matrix, but even so he felt the infinitely small fluctuation in the planets aura. Any power that would register on an aura the size of a planet was nothing short of terrifying, and he was terrified.

It had begun many thousands of years ago but now he was thinking of the immediate future. The end of the Kistor Cycle, the beginning of the Adaf Cycle or the beginning of the Chaos Chronicles, which one would it be, he would soon find out. Even the Kistor Cycle never differentiated between those two probabilities. It was unthinkable to contemplate the probability of the Chaos Chronicles. The Chaos Chronicles had two distinct paths, but they both ended up with the same conclusion, one just took longer than the other one, endless years of death, terror, chaos, and madness, followed by the eventual slow end of all life on the planet. Unthinkable. Even more unthinkable was the third probability, hinted at in both Prophecies, access to the Universal Node point, if it existed, all of creation at risk. Surely this was just a fable.

Xeng Hu San went through the complicated procedure of re-establishing the wards around the pedestal that held the Kistor Cycle and other equally important artefact next to it, an Unmaker. A blade so rare that there were only four in existence infused with Majee, the last person to wield this blade was Zeetek himself and Xeng Hu San knew that one day soon the Nexii would come to claim the sword that was his inheritance.

The Chaos Chronicles was housed separately in it’s own pedestal in the West Tower. The book itself was constantly in flux with reality, partly in this plane and partly in the lower plane. Incredibly powerful stability fields had been placed all around the book, lest it began to affect the matter around it. Xeng Hu San would have destroyed the book if he knew how but past attempts had proved disastrous, a problem for another day. Right now he had to prepare, the Nexii was coming and he needed to be ready.

Kyoto had been battling his way across quarter of a continent for almost a year. The journey should have lasted just under six months. However, for reasons unknown, he had been beleaguered by constant delaying battles with Juunai Tribesmen, thousands of them who seemed to be roaming the empty Plains of Phoebas in little bands, constantly seeking out Kyoto and his Acolytes. In almost every running battle, the Juunai Tribesman were obliterated, but they were fanatics and threw themselves into battle with no regard for their own life.

Kyoto couldn’t understand why they were attacking his War band, unless it had something to do with delaying him to protect the Nexii. They were almost in Bruk and they had only lost a few of their number to these incessant attacks. Soon the Bruk Northern Lancers would come to the aid of the beleaguered Acolytes, not that they needed help in defeating the Juunai Tribesmen, they just needed help in keeping the tribesmen from further delaying their journey.

Kyoto was meditating in his tent preparing for his turn at sleeping, partly attuned to the LifeMatrix thoughts of the cost of the delay drifting across his mind. Even though he was not paying full attention to the matrix he felt it. The power must be enormous for him to feel it at this distance. The Nexii had finally come into his inheritance, he had used his Majee powers for the first time. Kyoto knew the enemy would also be alerted to it, Kyoto needed to hurry. He left the tent and roused the Acolytes; he needed to reach Jaac as soon as possible.

But these Juunai tribesmen, surely they were not aligned to the enemy, something to ponder for another time. Kyoto needed to hurry.

Cespar was using his connection to the LifeMatrix to enhance his failing memories. He had managed to unlock a particular memory of a passage in the Marcel Scriptures and now he knew it was time to take the Progenitor to read the words.

It was hidden in the deepest level under the mountain library with powerful wards as protection, but as Cespar had now progressed to the head of knowledge following the departure of Kyoto, he was now the Keeper, the only one who had access to these wards.

Just as Cespar was about to remove himself from the LifeMatrix he felt the incredible power of a Majee hundred of leagues away, even in his state of Koan he knew there was no-one on Cromus who possessed this amount of ability. Was it the Nexii, thought Cespar.

His rheumatic eyes shot open and he blasphemed for the first time in his life. “Holy Baln protect us, the Power has arisen and we are all in grave danger.” Cespar feeling more fragile than at any time in his life promptly ran to find Petrek, the progenitor as the prophecies described him. The time was right but already events were moving too fast for Cespar. He knew that Petrek had an appointment to keep and it was a rare and great honour that would not wait.

It was impossible not to feel it as the Nexii worlds are intricately connected. Grakkor stormed through the castle and burst through Precktis door. Precktis sat there stunned and pale but not from the sudden intrusion, he felt as if he might just be sick. “Did you feel it Grakkor?” he whispered.

“I did Precktis, we all did.” Grakkor seemed excited. “The time for chaos to reign is upon us, no more planning. Mobilise the Elvan Army.”

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