The Hierarchy

---Faith's Perspective---

I wasn't sure where Khalil, Mizu, or Dani went, and as far as I knew, Ra was off doing his own thing. I wasn't sure of anything, until I saw a chunk of the Earth float into the sky, about two miles from Charlie and I.

"Right over there!" I pointed out to him. Charlie turned his head and from the very top of the floating chunk of Earth, we could see various bouts of golden strands popping and exploding with power.

Charlie and I were in full sprints at this point. I was far ahead of him in terms of speed, so I was underneath the chunk of Earth before Charlie even got halfway.

I felt heavy pressure from above as the floating chunk of Earth started to sink back into the ground. The soft dirt was falling off the very tip of the chunk, and it settled back into the ground. Instead of having two people on it, as I expected, there was only a man with short hair and a large necklace, holding two orbs on it.

I couldn't mistake what I saw. It must've been Ali Asterio's ability that rose the ground up. Dani had to do it, since she was in possession of it.

However, only one man came down from the chunk of Earth. I was stuck, watching him, waiting for him to start speaking to me.

"Oh? It seems you have come to me, haven't you? Hi Faith, I'm Oberon." Oberon said vaguely. I primed another Iridescent Saber, causing his eyes to widen in surprise.

"Oh my... you have them too? This is such a nice treat!" Oberon called out to me.

"What do you mean? What do you want?" I asked him.

"You see... I have the two most powerful people on Earth sealed within the Orbs of Pangea. These are orbs that use Iridescent Strands to function and trap the person inside," Oberon told me.

"Huh...? You... have Sky and Dani in there...?" I asked Oberon. He nodded with no expression in his face at all, waiting for my next reaction. "What does that have to do with me? You already have Sky and Dani, why am I even connected to this?" I couldn't help but ask him. 

Oberon started to walk closer and closer to me, taking one step at a time. He was moving uncomfortably rigid, and started to freak me out.

"Why do I need you? Come on, you know why. Everything Sky is in possession of, you have too. Hey, do you know the hierarchy of our cause?" Oberon asked me. I shook my head and he began to explain. 

"At the very tippy-top stands Eirikr Asterio. He's the one who will grant us eternal life in his paradise. Then, it's Cynthia Asterio and Fico, those two serve him directly and both have different powers coming from them. After them it's Arthur Vega, me, and then everybody else. That's the hierarchy, nice and simple isn't it?"

"I don't know if I'm supposed to care or not,"

"You're not. What you should care about is that low on the ranking, even I am allowed to do things of my own will, so long as it's for the best interests of Eirikr. There are three people left on Earth, all coincidentally Asterios, who would get in the way of his progression," Oberon admitted to me. I narrowed my senses in on the orbs sitting on his neck. Orbs of Pangea... was it?

[PREDICTION: YOU WILL BE SEALED]

[PREDICTION: YOU ARE SURROUNDED]

I listened to the text in my eyes and followed with his explanation once again.

"You are more dangerous than Dani. You have Iridescent Strands, and she doesn't. Those Strands alone are enough to transmit genetic data into any creature or object to reincarnate a vessel. It's what Illya Asterio did to try and bring back Sky, rewriting the data of so many atoms and giving them life she thought would belong to Sky. Little did we know, she wasn't insane and gave him life with White Strands, instead of Iridescent like the rest of us were given," Oberon told me.

Things were beginning to connect in my mind.

"We want this to be right, and we want it to be as powerful as possible. I am Oberon Slicious, father of Dani Slicious. However, she was turned into an Asterio at the very end of her life, which meant she had growing potential ever since she was reborn. That smart man... Sky Asterio... split his Strands into several hundred people and gave life to a generation of people with powers that would assault and dethrone Eirikr Asterio," He continued.

"Then why would you need Sky to bring Eirikr Asterio back? Why not just go fetch him like the dog you are?" I asked.

"Haha, funny. I'm sure you're fond of the information that there are a lot of Asterios. Not all related, per se, but there are a lot. The reason they share that last name, and the reason some of them aren't as powerful as the others comes from the family of Pure Asterios," Oberon stated. Not even I knew the full family of the Pure Asterios.

"Sky Asterio..." Oberon led, holding up one hand.

"Shike Asterio." My eyes grew wide.

"Alexia Asterio." They continued to grow.

"Zephyr Asterio." I took a deep breath as I realized the last one.

"Eirikr Asterio."

The bloodline was revealed to me, and so much information began to make sense to me. It was the same purpose Sky was able to have a body in The First Trial, and why Alexia didn't grow in skill until he was gone. Illya used her Strands to give him life.

Dani and Illya had merged into the bloodline, as well with Belle. I was the child of Sky Asterio, which put me as the purest Asterio left roaming free... besides Zephyr.

"As we speak, The Rubeki are storming Alicas, the capital of Antarctica, and they are hunting for Shike and Alexia Asterio. We will turn all of the Asterios inside out and use their bodies to restore Eirikr Asterio, therefore, bringing an end to the Apocalypse."