It was a unique sensation.
He knew who he was. And yet, in this moment, he also felt like someone else entirely.
He was the young man raised in the colony city of Neon, who'd known nothing but how to survive and work hard. A normal human, dreaming of the day he might awaken- might become an advanced human.
But he'd lost his family again and again until all that remained was Rose.
She became his only family. And he had sworn to do anything, everything, to protect her.
He was still that man.
And yet, as he stood before a Dharma Manifestation Entity bent on destroying everything he held dear—an entity who was only a thug, a soldier of something even more terrifying—he knew that he had to change.
He had to be more than the boy from Neon.
And deep inside, he felt it. A second part of him, an identity pulsing with potential. A power begging to be accepted.
The Lineage of the Adrastia Emperor King!
In these past days, and now more than ever, he found himself leaning into it—into the power he once hesitated with, now recognizing it was essential to surviving the darkness that was coming.
So even if it felt foreign—even if it didn't yet feel like him—he let go. He stopped fighting the majesty burning within his bloodline.
Because he asked himself- if he couldn't assimilate anything... if he couldn't stand against this Dharma Manifestation Entity right now...
He'd be captured. Rose, captured and tortured. Killed. Experimented on.
None of those were futures he would ever allow to come to pass.
So once more, today, he made a decision.
He would not be just a boy from Neon who was just in love. Not just another advanced human. There were thousands of them... and still, monsters like Judge Zerrion Draal roamed free.
Still, the Lunaris Throne had slaughtered hundreds of thousands of humans he was meant to protect.
The ruling figures of the Thirteen Dynasties knew. The Dynasty Keepers, the most powerful rulers of the Thirteen Colony Dynasties, knew of the atrocities of the Lunaris Throne.
And they had done nothing.
It was his daughter, Nyxaria, who had been experimented on. Who had enough and had decided to fight back.
These were no small crimes. They weren't personal grievances. These were horrors on a scale that threatened to unravel the workings of colony cities themsleves.
The world was boiling over, bursting open gates that once sealed Ancient Ones as the Evolutius Catacombs seethed with activity.
Chaos was coming. More corruption. More death.
The powerless would die in droves—or worse, be enslaved. Used.
In a world ... he had to become something more.
He couldn't just be the naive young man who loved a girl and wanted to protect just her.
He had to accept the legacy inside him.
He whispered the words, feeling them reverberate through his heart, his veins, his bones.
The lineage of the Adrastia Emperor King roared within him. It fused into his soul like wildfire, the regal light blazing purple and gold in his eyes, glowing ever brighter—even as Judge Zerrion Draal seethed ahead.
If a naive boy wouldn't suffice, then he would become a king—a king with the power to enact change, to march through Evolutius Catacombs and Cenotaph Wild Lands where Ancient Ones rose unchecked.
The command slipped from his lips.
On the surface of Fort Cape of Hope, two figures exploded from fiendish, white-flaming cocoons—Solareth and Myxilith, surging into the skies like titanic beings.
Solareth shimmered with the golden light of the sun, his body inscribed with white-flaming runes. His wings radiated white-gold, his form massive and commanding. Above his head, nine solid stars blazed with divine intensity.
Myxilith looked like a burning wave of darkness, robed in billowing silver-white. Her form gleamed as nine solid moons of the same shade orbited her silhouette, her presence vast enough to blanket the skies.
And still, the flaming sea of Achilles' power expanded.
Four more white-gold flaming portals spiraled open—birthing two more titans, nearly identical to Solareth and Myxilith. Their faces were nearly the same, their presence equally dominating. Each of them bore nine solid stars.
Ascendant Lunar and Solar Constructs—Stage III.
Each one burned with such terrifying brilliance that they stood just a sliver away from becoming full Dharma Manifestation Titans of the Sun and Moon.
Achilles had summoned them, even if he couldn't wield them at Dharma Manifestation.
Behind him, the central orbs of light tied to Rose, Luna, and Nyxaria Moonveil Lunaris faded, revealing the women standing tall, their own nine dazzling stars spinning behind them—so real they looked carved from light.
He turned toward Rose, who stepped closest, anchoring him with her warmth. His heartbeat slowed. He breathed.
And he prepared to take his next step.
To become something even greater.
He looked toward the raging Judge Zerrion Draal, even as his Ecological Empathy III surged—sensing Overseer warships arriving, panic rising among the Advanced Humans within Neon's walls, all while a Beast Swarm threatened from the outside.
Conflict was about to bloom from every corner of the colony city.
He felt all of it. And still, he spoke.
"For falsely labeling me and those around me as Heretics—" he said, voice clear, unwavering, "—you and the Lunaris Throne you represent have declared war on me."
"And for conspiring with Ancient Ones to unleash the Evolutius Beasts on Neon..."
"You have declared war on the Colony City of Neon itself!"
His words thundered like falling stars.
Did Judge Zerrion think he was the only one who could broadcast his voice across miles?
The Overseers and Advanced Humans across Neon recoiled. They had heard him clearly.
A Judge of Lunaris behind the Beast Swarm?
"Preposterous lies from a Heretic wielding the powers of an Ancient One!" Zerrion Draal bellowed. "Die for me!"
The massive form of Judge Zerrion Draal burst forth, his Dharmic Ethereal Self manifesting with a roar. Six arms moved like the judgmental thunder of the havens, crashing downward—
Seeking to erase everything below!