Chapter 2

Both armies faded past the invisibly linked walls of atmospheric glass like raving dunes. The flow of vibrations traversed Novic's neurons, doublehelical in perception, and the anarchy of his mind and soul pushing his being into a neuro-epistemic frenzy of energy. Feet light and soul mighty he struck, leaping onto the first battlecarpet that clashed with his fleet, as the grand hour faded into a clash of blades.

Novic was all fury and fire, his sword cutting through the steel walls of the battlecarpets, searing all that found themselves beneath him into mountainous halves of exploding flames. The blade of his sword brought down scores of soldiers with each blow he made, slashing like an enraged cyclone, he brought down rank after rank of the enemy's forces.

Searing through his being like a maddened thunderstorm, the raving resonance echoing his rage made that massive halo of an enraged purple tear through his palm, an untamed force if destruction unleashed itself from the very depths of his core, and it made the astral expanse quake. Like siesmic pulses the ether reverberated and those concentric waves of marmoreal depths swept the distance, as rank after rank of the city's fleet was consumed within the waves of this cosmic surge of energy.

Grinning to himself, Novic knew they weren't his main targets, they were just minions standing in his way, calling them stumbling blocks was an overstatement, they were just time takers, not even worth his time.

Those steaming cracks etched themselves over his face, flaring of deep purple embers, as he intensified the energetic surge erupting within him. That colossal and heightened cosmic wall of an ever rising wave of energetic pulses inhibiting those live and radioactive streaks of savage lightning, fell upon the heliobattlements of this solar city, once again sending this astral expanse into a colossal surge of siesmic like turbulence, the quaking expanding far into the depths of this cosmic void.

The pulses trailed their way through the never ending void ahead, searching for a heart and a mind that could heed it's call. Galaxies flew by as the now dying waves traversed farther in it's search for such a soul, battling against it's life force of vibrations, it strained to sustain itself.

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Sitting at that massive table bearing a hexagonal board, gently moving the pieces, this being played this strange game silently, immersing his mind and soul into the infinite thrill of its volatile and strategic configurations. His hair fell gracefully from his scalp, covering the left half of his face, his dark armour glistening from the feeble light coming from the only lamp still burning in this room. Unconcerned knowing his battleship was now on course, heading towards the direction he already had in mind, a few rounds of Geomacy was what he needed to while away his time.

A gentle wind blew his dark hair making the flames of his lamp flicker, the rumbling and lightning from outside his sailing battleship intensified, blurring everything within this room in its blinding white. The curtain of white died out as soon as it came, and that mysterious grin made his lips tilt to the left. Rotating the board on its single pedestal, he moved six more pieces over its surface.

"Equivax", He called, "did you hear that."

"I did", The voice came from a reclining outline in a sofa placed at a dark corner, "he's at his raids again."

"Hypernox" The figure at the gameboard called soothingly.

A black eagle with a bronze beak landed on his right shoulder. Making six more moves he said to his pet, "I don't think he'll be expecting us Hypernox, will he ?"

Hypernox screeched high, the piercing sound echoing through the infinite expanse of this cosmic realm of dark and turbulent clouds being torn apart by interstellar seas of lightning. The screech an affirmation of his master's thoughts.

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Taking the air within his armour deep into his lungs, Novic watched with satisfaction as his fleet sailed through the now fallen battlements; past the floating wreckage of battleships, the memorial of their crushed foes, now what was left of this city and his inhabitants were his to take.

Ploughing through the haze of fog and smoke which had erupted from that massive surge of energy he had unleashed upon the heliobattlements, making everything ahead of them blurry. Knowing it would only be a matter of time before they got past this smokescreen or for it to fade away, Novic was pleased to watch patiently, and who was it that would be bold enough to attack his fleet now ? He reasoned, challenging the unknown.

They struck from the unknown, coming in a fusillade was an understatement, they came as a storm, savage and furious at their place, colossal and monstrous in their destructiveness. That rain of titanic halos of darkness and storms, bearing majestic spikes of lightning - thorny lances of a cosmic and celestial power. They fell upon Novic's fleet wiping out most of his flanks and shattering the cosmic shield that he had raised. The blizzard trailing the passing of that fiery storm of darkness sent him crashing upon his battle carpet.

Straining back onto his feet, mad and dazed by the attack which had taken him by surprise, even though he had anticipated such a coincidence, reacting to it would have nonetheless been futile. It struck and blew past in a second, fast and furious, dark and deadly, it was the peak of chaos.

His eyes flared, straining to see who the cosmic scum was, that had thought they could take him down easily. Whoever they were, he was hell-bent to make them know that they had underestimated him, like cowards they had struck at him from the shadows, an action they were going to pay for dearly.

But once again Novic was wrong, the pronoun had been mismatched, it was singular and it was a he. Growling and falling on his knees,he rammed his left fist on the deck of his battlecarpet, confirming the fears which had ravaged his mind since that storm struck past. It wasn't a mirage, this child of darkness had returned and he was at large.