POWER AND RESPONSIBILITY.

Ever since Nya named Astrid as her successor, Astrid has now taken an active role in her day-to-day Pendragon activities. She took over the adept branch from Kiva, who had decided that she wanted to have a baby with her wife, Amara, and had thus taken a leave of absence, heading for Adryn-V.

While Amara and Kiva were gone, Morgan took over as deputy-director of the Spartans and Astrid took over the adepts. Even through her now busy workload, Astrid still found time to feed her sexual appetite with men she saw around the campus. She even taught a few of the adept girls some sexual-based adept techniques she herself had developed; she trained them on how to focus during their meditations with vibrators she randomly activated as they meditated, she taught them how to use sex to boost their magecraft, she even taught them how to use mana to boost their virility and stamina. What started out as simple advice to a few girls had expanded into her very own training curriculum.

Astrid was in her office, bouncing on the dick of one of her subordinates below her while sucking on another one beside her.

"I see you took my body enhancement lessons to heart," she comments as she comes up for air,

"Your training is the best," the adept groaned,

"Yeah, we love your slut-style meditation," the one below her grunted as he slapped her ass.

"Glad you like it," Astrid giggled and she went back to deep-throating the other adepts dick.

After fucking them for an hour, she let them go once they had stuffed her pussy with a load of cum each. Astrid didn't have to worry about getting pregnant from any of the many loads of cum she'd taken deep in her womb thanks to the strong contraceptive wards they'd used on her at the Menagerie, it rendered her completely safe, so that customers could keep blasting cum deep into her pussy without fear of knocking her up, and so she could enjoy the feeling of having cum shot into her over and over and over again without any consequence. As she cleaned herself up in the shower, she closed her eyes and began to pleasure herself.

Lately, she'd been feeling her powers growing, she figured it probably due to becoming her mom's recognized successor. However, with her growth in power came a growth in her libido. Her body demanded more sex, as if in recompense for the increase in power; one morning she had woken up with a dick in her mouth, she didn't even know whose it was –since she had apparently opened a portal in her sleep to steal someone's dick— but she was sucking on it like a pacifier. She hadn't been aware she could open small portals like that, or that she could instinctively find a dick in her sleep, for the first time since she left the Menagerie, she was worried about her out of control lust.

She went to consult her mom on the matter, because her mom was also a slut and wouldn't judge her.

"What seems to be the problem?" Nya asked when Astrid entered her office

"Something's wrong with my sex drive," Astrid said, "it's out of control."

"Define out of control?" Nya asked

"Once I opened a portal in space-time in my sleep, and used it as an arcane glory hole," She said, "then there's the time I went to bed in my room then woke up in the middle of a gangbang on the other side of the campus,"

"That does sound concerning," Nya pondered, "Alright, let me see what I can find,"

Nya sat with Astrid and peered into her daughter's soul. A few minutes later, a window prompt appeared in her mind;

[NOTICE! SINCE ASTRID CRIMSON HAS BECOME YOUR SUCCESSOR, SHE HAS ACQUIRED THE TITLE [SUCCUBUS], AN ADVANCED FORM OF THE TITLE [SLUT]! NEW EPIC [HEIR TO THE THRONE] HAS BEEN ACTIVATED, DESTINY [SHE WHO CHALLENGES FATE] IS IN EFFECT!]

[ALERT! EFFECTS OF [SUCCUBUS] HAD INCREASED HOLDERS BASE POWER LEVELS AND INFLUENCE, AT THE REQUISITE OF AN INCREASED LIBIDO! [SHE WHO FUCKS WITH FATE] CAN NEGATE THIS TITLE; DO YOU WANT TO PROCEED?]

Nya explained what she discovered to Astrid, explaining about epics and destinies as well.

"So, do you want me to cancel it?" Nya asked

"Does it have anything to do with my new epic?" Astrid asked

"I think so, I've got a bunch of titles myself and they all seem to have some effect on my epic,"

"Can I see?" Astrid asked

"I don't see why not," Nya said, as she accessed the Horizon and projected a new window into existence in front of both of them;

[SUMMARY]

Name: Nya Crimson

Age: 87 (extended time in hyperspace has warped age.)

Condition: Normal

Alias: The Blood Angel; Grand Marshal; Mother; Director; Rias Patrelli; Regis of Ruin

Titles: REGIS; Strategist; Slut; Hive-brain; Angel of Death; Soul Eater; Living Nightmare

Epic: [King of Chaos]

Destiny: [She who Fucks with Fate]

Classification: Cosmic Being

Species: Vampiric lifeform

Rank: Overlord

Skills: Blood Aura; Soul Eater; [Various]

[REGIS COMMAND]

Jinn: Merlin

Caste: Warrior

Court Members: 6 [2 Paladins + 2 Sentinels + 1 Sage + 1 Wiseman]

Heir: Astrid Crimson

Origins Claimed: 2+ [Black Box; Orb of Thassah]

Territory / Sanctuary: Vulcan

Divine Sanction: Gate of Purgatory [Variants]

Faction: Pendragon

Allies: Avalon, Providence; Nosferatu

Adversaries: Alfheim

"Wow, you sure have a lot of titles," Astrid gawked, ever one of her titles could be used to describe the journey her life has taken

"So, do you want me to cancel your title?" Nya asked

"No," Astrid decided, "I just wanted to know what was happening to me. Plus, if it just means I get hornier, I don't mind that much."

"Glad to hear it," Nya said, "do you want to look at your status?"

"I have one too?" Astrid wondered

"You have an entry in the horizon," Nya said,

A new window appeared before the both of them;

[SUMMARY]

Name: Astrid Crimson

Age: 23

Condition: Normal [Horny]

Alias: 2nd Daughter; Sorceress; Gypsy; Deputy Director

Titles: Blood of the REGIS; Master Adept; Renegade; Slut; Negotiator; Smuggler; Thief; Heiress; Succubus;

Epic: [Heir to the Throne]

Destiny: [She who Challenges Fate]

Classification: Fae+

Species: Human++ [adept]

Rank: Master Adept

Skills: Astral magecraft; psionic manipulation; astral perception; thievery; adre-kunst; seduction; gambling; negotiating; piloting; tracking; camouflage

"Wow, so 'slut' is actually an official title for me?" Astrid said, "Seems appropriate."

"I also got 'slut' added to my titles," Nya said with a chuckle, "and you have quite the collection of skills."

"What does it mean 'human++'?" Astrid wondered

No sooner had she asked that the window changed;

[NOTICE! ASTRID CRIMSON SHARES HEREDITARY CHARACTERISTICS WITH MOTHER [NYA CRIMSON] AND FATHER [JOSA DAVOS] GENETIC PREDILECTION FOR HIGHER VARIANT OF HUMAN SPECIES!]

[ASTRID CRIMSON ASSIMILATED LIFE MATTER FROM COSMIC BEING [NYA CRIMSON] PROPOGATING FURTHER EVOLUTION TO ULTIMATE VARIANT OF HUMAN SPECIES!]

[ALERT! FURTHER EVOLUTION WOULD EXCEED PARAMETERS FOR HUMAN SPECIES PROMPTING DEVELOPMENT INTO A DIVERGENT VARIANT SPECIES! MAY AFFECT YOUR DESTINY AND THE PROGRESSION OF YOUR EPIC!]

"I guess that answers that question, huh?" Nya stated

Astrid was focused on the final window, if she evolved again, she would no longer be human? The notion intrigued her, but also terrified her, and the fact that such an evolution would also affect her epic and her destiny? It was too much of a risk; she was fine with just being an ultimate human.

"Let's stop for now," she said making the windows disappear, "thanks mom, you've really helped me out with this."

"Anytime sweetie," Nya said kissing her daughter on the cheek.

* * *

It had been four months since the vampires moved to Vulcan, and they were well adjusted. The sun filter in the atmoshell allowed them to experience the daytime without it's nasty effects, the chefs at the cafeteria offered authentic Nosferatu cuisine, plus the perfected synthetic blood was almost incomparable from the real thing.

The vampires that came to Vulcan were mostly those from Cassian's fallen clan, but a few vampires that followed Reina to Avalon, including Galina, also opted to join Pendragon, bringing with them a multitude of skills in not just combat, but trade, medicine, science and art.

The vampires of Pendragon were supervised by Morgan and Valla. The vampires were deathly loyal to the two blood lords, even former blood lords among the vampires regarded Morgan and Valla as their superiors, and the two rewarded their loyalty and fervent dedication with committing to seeing the vampires prosper. The vampires that stayed with Reina at Avalon helped to establish an embassy and worked to learn more about the Avalon culture. Speaking of Reina, she performed her duties as ambassador admirably, she was learning about Avalon politics through sitting in on meetings of the junior council, the larger assembly below the High Order.

Nya took great interest in training the vampires personally, with their strong bodies and regenerative abilities, she didn't have to hold back as much and really hammered the fear of god into them. She also took the time to sample their blood and assimilate the phantasms of those who had any. She had discovered that since vampires were so long-lived and were considered apex predators on their base capabilities, only a small percentage of them actually ever awakened their phantasms.

The Siege Perilous, oversaw all of Pendragon, a secretive board of directors that was comprised of Nya's inner circle and most trusted subordinates, knighting for their loyalty and dedication to her cause. They were her court, and included people from operations, intelligence, logistics, engineering, and other divisions, recruited in secret. Even Wes Lau, who had now made his way onto the High Order had sworn allegiance to Nya, and Mari had agreed, after endorsement from Terror.

After reverse engineering the gateway system employed by the Praxians, Pendragon's R&D branch perfected their gateway network, and deployed a gateway linking Nosferatu to Avalon, similar to the gateway they had linked to Templar. Nya and Merlin had begun receiving results of findings the probes they had sent out into the wild sectors, they had identified ancient ruins and wrecks worthy of further study. Their next grand project was the exploration of this alien galaxy for other Praxian or Origin sites.

The completion of Nya's newest flagship, the Black Excalibur II, was by far her biggest achievement. Identical in appearance to the original, but far superior in design, Nya's new command ship would be the face of Pendragon, along with the new line of Excalibur-class ships.

Unknown to most, Pendragon's true purpose was to serve one ultimate goal; to prepare Hyperion for Nya's inevitable takeover. Sure, she had assured her people that she was not going to actively try to conquer the universe yet, but situations change and if a time came when she needed to take control, she needed certain systems in place for a smooth transition of power. Of course, only Merlin was privy to this information, and Nya was sure that Eli was smart enough to figure it out on his own. She would eventually tell the others of these plans, but until then, it was strictly need-to-know, and no one else –not even Astrid— needed to know.

* * *

Shortly after the official commissioning of the Black Excalibur II, Nya, contracted by the High Order, enacted the Avalon expansion initiative to colonize the rest of their unclaimed sector as part of a new Avalon Federation. This plan had two goals; to expand the High Order's –and by extension Pendragon's— influence, and also to push back the Elven advance. Those damned elves had also been widening their reach and were creeping ever closer to Avalon. It was the Primark's decision that they needed a preemptive strike and, quite shockingly, Nya complied.

Nya was on the bridge of the Excalibur II when it and the accompanying fleet of new Paladins appeared within one of the neighboring systems. There were only two inhabited planets within this system, and both were only just entering the stellar age of their civilization.

When Nya's fleet was within range, she sent a message to either planet, by projecting a massive hologram of herself within their upper atmosphere and through their communications networks. Not being one for subtlety, she gave them a brief introduction of who she was and where she was from and delivered her terms; that they accept their offers of friendship and join in the new federation, where they will receive new technologies and advancements as well as join the galactic community. The leadership of one planet readily accepted her terms, while the other planet resisted. The resisting world declared hostility and fought to the best of their abilities with surprisingly advanced nuclear and fledgling plasma-based weaponry, and the Paladin fleet did suffer some superficial damage, but the far superior Excalibur was unscathed, and a plasma bombardment that reduced a mountain range to a smoldering crater field, plus the threat of a full planetary glassing from orbit if they further resisted prompted them to capitulate a week later.

"There was probably a more peaceful solution," the holo-comm of Kiva remarked about the whole thing

"Maybe, but I rarely do get to use the big guns," Nya shrugged, "and what's the point of having orbit bombardment capabilities if I never use them?"

In the following month, Nya and the High Order used this success as a launching platform for other colonial fleets into other systems in the sector, while at the same time consolidating their new territory. A week later, Avalon's standards were raised in the capital cities of its first established colonies, marking the birth of a new interstellar union, with Avalon at the heart of this new federation, and the High Order recognized as the official leadership of the federation.

Backed up by the efforts and resources of Pendragon and Cerberus Command, Primark Morag and Nya's ambition to colonize their sector of space was quickly becoming a reality, and it wouldn't take long before galactic maps had to be redrawn to include the emerging new superpower known as the Avalon Federation.

* * *

Astrid was in a landing shuttle, along with about a dozen adepts from both Pendragon and Cerberus Command, about to make landfall on the planet they were currently occupying. This world showed significant levels of advancement and had resisted their initial offer of peaceful integration, thus military action was approved.

As Nya's heir, Astrid was taking an active role in the campaign, and so she oversaw Pendragon's interests for this particular fleet from the command ship, Excalibur Mordred. She had donned her own custom combat armor to join the fray.

A report of an interesting discovery had piqued her curiosity and so she gathered her troupe of adepts, including a number of her students from Vulcan and headed out. As this was her first deployment as a commanding officer onto an active combat zone, she understandably had butterflies in her stomach, to calm her jitters she distracted herself the only way she knew how; she snuck off with an adept from Cerberus Command and gave him a blowjob.

"W-we real-ly shouldn't be doing th-this," he hissed trying to keep his voice to a whisper. Contrary to what he was saying, he had his hands to her head and thrusted into her agape mouth like a piston, while Astrid knelt before him, sloppily taking it. If not for the exclusion field Astrid had set up around them, the wet noises that escaped from her mouth would've attracted attention of everyone in the cramped shuttle.

Conscious of the fact that their ride was almost over, Astrid became active, massaging the dick with her lips and her tongue, doing everything in her wide dick-sucking repertoire to make him cum as quickly as possible. Not a minute later, he buried his dick in her throat, shoving her nose into his crotch as he offloaded with an audible gasp, her mouth was quickly filled with his spunk and she effortlessly swallowed it all, even while he was still shooting his load in her mouth. Once he was done, she licked him clean, finishing with a kiss to his tip, then got to her feet.

"Th-thanks for the, y'know," he said awkwardly

Astrid giggled as she flashed him a cute grin, "you're absolutely welcome, thanks for the pick-me-up, now get your game face on, we're almost there,"

Once they landed, the adepts disembarked and joined the soldiers of Ground Force who were on-site. Astrid, being the acting commander of the Pendragon detachment, was greeted by the captain of the ground force platoon that occupied the current site.

"Greetings ma'am," the captain saluted, "it's an honor to meet you, I've heard a lot about you,"

"All naughty things, I hope?" Astrid teased, flashing him a wink and flirting with the man.

"Um…"

"I'm just fucking with you," Astrid chuckled, "I'm a professional after all, we learnt to take things lightly unless the situation demands it."

"So the rumors about you being a complete slut that'll sleep with anyone are just stories?" the man asked,

"Oh no, they're completely true," Astrid said casually, "I even blew one of your adepts on the way down here. But now it's time to work. After you."

The officer stared at her in disbelief, even though he wasn't offended by her declaration, he still found it difficult to take her seriously now. But she was the daughter of the former Grand Marshal, she had the Crimson blood in her veins, and possessed the power to back the hype.

"This way, please," the captain said as he led the adepts towards an odd formation of stones in a grassy field. the stones were all large and arranged in circular patterns. There was a perimeter of nuform around the site, garrisoned by ground force soldiers.

In the middle of formation was a recently discovered entrance leading underground.

As soon as they crossed the threshold leading into the under temple, the adepts expressed their surprise at the sudden shift.

"The mana in here is more concentrated than it was just outside," Astrid noted, "a shift this drastic doesn't happen naturally; there must be something incredibly powerful down here."

"Something like what, ma'am?" the captain asked. He and his platoon had only discovered this site when their combat adepts suddenly diverted them here, he had sent a report to his superiors, now Nya Crimson's slutty daughter, the Pendragon supervisor for their fleet, was personally leading an expedition into the catacombs.

As Astrid went deeper, she could feel the mana thicken, it sent shivers down her spine and her skin tingled underneath her vestments and armor.

"Ma'am, do you feel that?" one of Astrid's subordinates asks

"Yeah, like the mana in me is being drawn to the source," Astrid said. To a normal person, they wouldn't be able to perceive it, even an amateur adept would have difficulty sensing the sudden pull in the mana stream, but with Astrid's trained eyes, she can actually see the mana being pulled forwards. This mana sight was something that she discovered after going into hyperspace to rescue her mom, but ever since then, she hasn't been able to turn it off, so she constantly sees the flow of mana everywhere she went.

The closer they got to the source, the stronger the mana current became, it was almost like being in a vortex of multicolored energy sucking her deeper and deeper into its depths. There was so much mana in the air it was almost nauseating. She was almost convinced that she was on the trail of an origin, the origins she'd come into contact with previously had all had a high mana concentration and draw similar enough to what was happening here, it was why she kept her distance from them.

"Captain what do we know about this planet?" Astrid asked the officer, "what's its background?"

"Well, it's a class sigma planet, with a level 4 civilization, just entering the interstellar age," the captain started, "It is primarily dominated by humans, and our analysts believe their current civilization isn't that old, just between 5,000 to 20,000 years."

"And what's the name of this rock?" Astrid asked

"Well its official designation is Sol-3," The captain said, "However, the locals call it Earth,"

"Earth?" Astrid mused with a slight chuckle, "they might as well name it dirt, then."

"Yes ma'am," an adept replied

"What about the natives?" Astrid asked, "Any of them mana sensitive?"

"The population is predominantly human, but we've found evidence of omen and other fae races, long extinct from the planet. So far we haven't been able to confirm any adepts among the locals we've engaged."

"I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't any adept among them," one of adepts scoffed, "the mana outside was almost ridiculously dry."

"Inversely, it's overwhelmingly dense in here," Astrid noted, "I don't think we should fire off any magecraft in here, the mana is so dense here, even a small light spell could blow us all to shit."

"What do you think is causing this?" one of the adepts said, "the disparity between mana concentrations is too great here, it's almost like…"

"Almost like something in here is sucking up all the mana on the planet." Astrid finished, "look alive, we're almost there."

As they finally reached what seemed to be the center of the catacombs, the gathered group were in awe. the chamber was cavernous, yet what occupied it was also immense in scale; about a dozen giant pylons made of exotic material engraved in all manner of arcane glyphs and sigils that glowed radiant with mana. the pylons were arranged in a circle surrounding a massive sphere of psionic energy, the size of a building, inside the sphere was a mass of writhing, shimmering substance that was in perpetual motion around its confines as if looking for a way out.

The adepts immediately felt the pull, even their mana was being absorbed by the pylons to keep the forcefield active.

"What… what the fuck is this?" Astrid demanded.

* * *

The discovery of planet Earth was actually a surprise to Nya, she had given up hope that the blue marble where her soul originated from was existed within Hyperion. To learn that it had been stumbled upon during her colonization efforts made her chuckle at the irony.

She personally went to investigate the report that Astrid had submitted, along with Eli and Merlin, she arrived at the place she remembered was called 'Stonehenge', which had now become a Pendragon excavation site. She followed the passageway into the catacombs underneath and arrived at the cavernous chamber.

"What am I looking at?" She asked one of the scientists who was working at the many stations set up to monitor the pylons and their prisoner.

"It's approximately 5,000,000 years old," the scientist said, "but we don't recognize the technology, it's not consistent with Praxian design."

"The pylons are a form of ancient magitek, much older than anything I've ever seen." Astrid said coming up to her mom and giving her a hug, they hadn't seen each other in about a month.

"How do you know?" Nya asked embracing her daughter

"I can feel it; the way the mana interacts with it; this was made using powerful alchemy. Someone very powerful set this up." Astrid explained as the embrace ended

"Can our alchemists replicate it?" Nya asked. A number of Pendragon scientists, were trained in alchemy to learn more about Praxian technology as well as magitek.

"In time," Astrid said, then she noticed her brother, he was standing extremely close to the sphere, staring at its contents intensely.

"Something on your mind, baby bro?" she asked

"Yeah; can you turn it off?" Eli asked

"What?" Nya queried, "whoever set it up syphoned the mana of the entire planet to keep that thing in there, do you really think it's a good thing to let it out?"

"You were thinking the same thing." Eli commented

"Well, yeah, but I was hesitant since you're both here," Nya said

"Shutting this thing off is beyond me," Astrid admitted

"Not for mom, she's a cosmic being,"

"I don't know magecraft." Nya said, even though she had a mana core in her, she hadn't bothered to learn a single magecraft since she had so many other skills and phantasms that did basically the same thing.

"But you do know how to manipulate mana," Astrid said,

"And you do know how to break really hard things," Eli added

"Worth a shot," Nya shrugged as she walked up to one of the pylons,

As she got closer to it, she spoke to Merlin, who was in her head,

"What's in there?" she demanded, "I don't accidentally want to release something else like the Maja."

[I can't get a read on it] Merlin explained, [there's too much mana, it's interfering with my scans.]

"Anytime now mom," Eli said impatiently

Nya hesitated for a moment longer before she placed her hand on one of the pylons. Immediately, she felt a vast amount of power being ripped out of her and into the pylon, it was sucking her dry.

"So, you're a greedy eater, eh?" Nya hissed to the pylon, "Let's see just how much of me you can stomach."

In her chest her mana core glowed a bright red, becoming visible through her clothes and her hair and eyes glowed red as well. Instantly, the runes on the surface of the pylon also glowed red, getting brighter and brighter until they shorted out, As soon as the first pillar went dark the others followed, but before the barrier completely dispersed, Nya opened up a red fissure and swallowed the entire thing whole.

"Mom!" Eli exclaimed, "what was that about?"

"I don't know what that is, I'm not about to let it spill out all over you." Nya defended

[I believe I can solve that mystery now,] Merlin said appearing in physical form

"What is it?" Eli and Nya demanded at the same time

[It's seems to be of Praxian design, I recognize the signature, but there's more than that…] Suddenly, Merlin's artificial eyes widened in realization [My god… h-how is this possible?] the jinn exclaimed, looking upset,

"What is it?" Nya demanded

[This… this thing,] The jinn snarled. [It's… it's alive.]

"Alive?" Eli echoes, "That's impossible, it's Praxian-based, and even they're not that good. The only living technology we know to exist are…"

"Origins." Nya said, "The Praxians made their own origin."