Achilles had seen scenes of devastation before.
He and Rose had witnessed multiple Leyline Fractures.
They were there when one was deliberately triggered to cover up the actions of a certain rich young master.
And yes, there had been destruction then, but the death toll had been kept minimal.
But what he saw now was anything but minimal.
He gazed at the shadow of a once-grand colony, tall buildings wrapped in incandescent vines, now shattered and decimated. Towering High Orcs, terrifying in size and strength, crashed through both concrete and flesh.
He remembered them from scattered memories left behind by Ancient Ones, this lineage was among the most brutal. Their strength branched across multiple territories of the Plane.
And this region? It was only a portion of the Holy Land that had risen for the High Orcs.
This lineage was infamous for its savagery. For its unchecked lust.
So instead of merely witnessing golden-skinned giants tearing down buildings, Achilles saw some of them committing unspeakable, vile acts.
Thousands were already dead, and that was only in the immediate vicinity.
When Rose saw this, and especially the Astral Core Ascension High Orc leading it, she didn't hesitate. The explosion of her power and fury was so intense, it disrupted the stellar light in that Entity's Luminblood Stage.
Their arrival created a brief pause in the carnage.
The High Orcs halted. They looked up.
And they saw Achilles.
Floating in the sky, surrounded by white flame, his eyes held a fury that threatened to consume everything.
He didn't know the names of the people below, the mutilated, the burned.
But that didn't stop him from caring.
How could he not, when he saw a man curled protectively around a woman and a child, charred, broken, bodies twisted by lightning?
How could he not, when he saw a child's hand, severed from its body, clutching a green teddy bear?
The horror surrounding him blurred into a kaleidoscope of grief. And in every disfigured face, every broken limb, he saw his parents, the ones who had died during a Leyline Fracture, laid over the bodies below.
And his rage ignited.
He turned his burning eyes to the High Orcs, and to the monstrous Astral Core Ascension High Orc glaring at him in disbelief.
"You humans dare to attack me? Have you forgotten your place, your status as puny slaves?!"
Golden light erupted from the High Orc's body, filled with star-forged brilliance. Misty, illusory doppelgängers of himself formed around him, each emanating terrifying power.
Each illusion carried a massive, golden club. More than a dozen stood there, eyes glowing, postures threatening, as they circled Rose and Achilles like wolves.
He was used to using his strength to take what he wanted.
His doppelgängers roared.
"WE are the Ancestral High Orcs! Our blood runs with the strength of kings! We are mighty!"
The chant echoed outward, beginning with the strongest High Orc and reverberating across the ruined colony. Down below, the others slammed golden fists against their leather-bound white robes, matching his cry.
It felt ancient, an anthem of terror that rolled over the less than one and a half million surviving humans in the Colony City of Green.
Achilles watched these golden beasts chant, standing on mounds of corpses, and something inside him twisted. His fury crackled into something else entirely.
A storm of starlight.
His blood pulsed, releasing a wave of pressure soaked in royalty, laced with rage.
"You call yourselves mighty, for crushing the weak?"
Starlight surged around him like a cyclone, and in the skies, the Astral Core Ascension High Orc faltered.
Because Achilles' light, his power, was greater.
Purple and gold blazed around him, wings unfurling from his back like divine blades of judgment.
And his voice dropped.
"I'll show you… mighty."
Vibrant Haki dropped like a tidal wave, crashing down, striking every High Orc like a war drum. Their muscles spasmed, their footing faltered.
Then, gravity twisted.
A crushing pull yanked every High Orc Achilles could see skyward. Dozens of bodies rose, helpless, their arms and legs flailing in disbelief.
Most were in the Ethereal Physiology stage. A few were even in Dharma Manifestation.
Hundreds of them, golden skin glinting in the searing light, were now suspended in the air.
Achilles clenched his fist.
And with it, the gravitational force surged inward from all directions.
The suspended orcs twisted. Folded. Bones snapped. Flesh collapsed into itself. Within seconds, glorious warriors of old had become grotesque spheres of meat and muscle.
A few hundred orcs, reduced to gore.
The Astral Core Ascension High Orc looked on in stunned horror, his eyes locked onto Achilles, who still burned with white flames, and the green-flamed woman who had thrown him back and healed the wounded Overseer of the city.
Now, she turned her eyes to him as well.
They stood alone in the skies for only a moment,
Behind them, the Phoenix Legion bloomed.
Radiating green, gold, and purple flames, they swooped into the city, their shrieks piercing the air like war cries.
They weren't just beasts. They were an army.
From the clouds above, warships that had been cloaked in stealth finally revealed themselves. Their hatches opened.
Figures emerged, Luna. Major David. Nyxaria Moonveil Lunaris. Dozens of others.
Andromeda Sentinels. Dr. Shaw. Overseers.
They descended in formation, silent, lethal, unyielding.
A coordinated army of justice and vengeance.
And at the center of it all, still burning, still hovering, Achilles stared down the High Orc.
His voice was quiet now.
"I'll show you… mighty."
Achilles moved across the skies the moment his words faded. He was not alone.
Rose felt the same searing rage as he did. She, too, wanted to bring ruin to the one responsible. Though she hadn't yet achieved Astral Core Ascension, the Limited Assimilation he had granted her, along with Biological Nurturing V and her unlocked Lineage…granted her power beyond all established norms.
Together, they surged toward the Astral Core High Orc as his Illusory Golden Clones howled and launched like missiles to intercept!