The skies they crossed were a restricted airspace. Heavily monitored. No-fly zone unless you had the right credentials of an Overseer, or in Achilles' case, enough power to make credentials optional.
Their warship soared through without a hiccup, while Achilles extended his Ecological Empathy III and had his senses sweeping across the fortified landscape below.
Beyond the walls and energy barriers, he felt it- an eruption of power that was tightly packed into one small human body. An Advanced Human. A Transcendent!
She stood at the very center of it all like a solitary creature while not far from her…
A crimson portal pulsed.
Achilles locked onto it immediately as his eyes shimmered with cold anticipation.
That portal wasn't just ominous; it was leaking Primordial Energy that, for him…meant a fresh source to assimilate.
The warship hovered over the enclosure as the hatch at the bottom opened with a hiss, and down descended Achilles, Rose, Luna, and the four Apex Ethereal Physiology Masters behind them.
On the ground, there was just one person.
One lone human woman and the glowing crimson portal behind her.
No guards. No backups or fail-safes. Just her.
The other aerial vessels hovered miles away, keeping their distance as if they knew what had happened here before.
Around her, several darkened screens flickered dimly as the woman turned while they arrived, facing the portal at her back like it was nothing.
Her eyes met each of theirs in turn- dark, lucid, and carrying the kind of silence that caused everything to feel serious, but each gaze just took a second!
But when her gaze landed on Achilles, it didn't move. She studied him, her voice cool and oddly calming as she finally spoke.
"I expected my time here would be ending soon. I just didn't think it'd be the day after your supposedly 'arduous' battles with three Ancient Ones. Weren't you meant to be recovering? Resting? Not...sightseeing?"
Her voice was cold and sounded as if it was almost teasing.
Achilles looked up at the five glowing obsidian Ethereal Stars above her head as he nodded, completely unbothered.
"I was tired, so I slept and now I'm refreshed. I figured I'd stop by and handle another Ancient One. Would that be a problem?"
Behind him, Luna tensed. Her face was all stern professionalism while her eyes held a flicker of nervousness. Achilles, meanwhile, spoke to this woman who had black hair cascading like a waterfall and obsidian pupils studying him as if she were any other Advanced Human.
The woman blinked, surprised by his calmness.
Then she smiled and shook her head.
"Not a problem. Just one condition—if the Behemoth is going down, I have to participate in its downfall. It's part of my Challenge."
"Challenge?" Achilles raised a brow.
Beside him, Luna's jaw almost dropped the moment she heard this word as her brain was already spinning, connecting dots at lightning speed as she obtained such information!
The woman, known until now only as Monster, nodded. She motioned casually toward the crimson portal behind her.
"Yes. A Challenge issued by the Lunaris Throne, which reigns over the Lunaris Royal Colony Dynasty."
One sentence. That was all it took as everyone except Achilles and Rose went pale.
Major David. Major Inu. Eloise. Selene. Luna.
All were frozen because no one, not even the Overseers of the Lunaris Colony, knew this woman's identity. Not truly. And now she had casually begun unveiling it before Achilles!
The heat in the air rose sharply around Achilles as Rose's eyes narrowed, glowing with green flame as she stared calmly at the woman who just so happened to be chatting a little too intently with her man.
The woman glanced at Rose briefly, then returned her focus to Achilles.
"I am Nyxaria Moonveil Lunaris," she said with serene grace. "The Last Daughter of the Lunaris Throne. Ruler of multiple Colony Citie stretched out
A name drop. A big one at that!
Luna and the others paled even more when they received the confirmation, and meanwhile, Achilles…did not blink.
Royalty? Dynasties? His Lineage couldn't care less about such things as comparing the Adrastia Emperor King Lineage to Dynasties that weren't even hundreds of years old…. It was nothing as he did not feel any lesser than others.
And Nyxaria smiled again as his lack of reaction only made her more intrigued.
A beat passed before Achilles responded, just as dryly.
Since she introduced herself and that she was the Last Daughter…
"I'm Achilles Maxwell. I am…the only son of Adras."
He replied as if his name and Father's name held the same if not greater weight than even Nyxaria's!
Her lips twitched at such a scene as she laughed.
Behind Achilles, Luna and the others watched cautiously as when she finally composed herself, Nyxaria's eyes sparkled with interest as she spoke.
"After this is over," she said, "I'd love to talk. About how best to use that power of yours. If helping others is your thing, or if you simply seek more power. The Cenotaph Wild Lands are filled with the Colony Cities and Aeonic Treasures, and the Remnant Holy Lands...they're teeming with danger and opportunity. If that's your kind of thing."
In front of everyone, Nyxaria gave an invitation.
Achilles smiled, calm as ever as he replied. "Definitely something we can talk about afterwards."
His gaze turned toward the portal behind her. It was distorting, rippling, and leaking power crazily this whole time.
Nyxaria didn't flinch as she sensed the rising madness beyond the crimson portal, and still…
"Do you know why they call me Monster?"
Achilles and Rose exchanged glances and then nodded.
They'd seen the footage. The reports Luna had shown them.
The five stars above Nyxaria's head blazed to life one after another. Her body shimmered and then surged with darkness!
Vast, shadowy waves poured out from her like an endless tide before they sank into her body, and her form expanded. Grew.
One meter. Two. Four. Seven. Ten meters! Until she no longer resembled a human at all. Before them now stood the towering form of a Behemoth.
An Obsidian Winged Panther.
Wings cloaked in black flames crackled with such heat as the air warped around her. Her eyes shimmered like black holes as if they could pull in everything!
Above her, the five obsidian stars swirled with blinding gravity as her transformation was complete.
The Transcendent Human.
Nyxaria Moonveil Lunaris.
Her ability factor allowed her to transform into a terrifying Behemoth!