I'd like to encourage anyone who'd like to give writing a chapter of this story to contact me, I'm still eagerly allowing new co-writers.
This chapter was written by myself. Yes, I'm still writing (or trying to at least). Enjoy!
The anti-Kingdom resistance group known as the Undeathly Sabres had an impressive track record as far as such groups were concerned. They'd disrupted communications, attacked supply lines and even taken out an entire KDC base or two, and all the while, seemingly evaded the Light Empire's multidimensional gaze...
But not anymore.
Bodies of resistance fighters, some pinned to walls and the ground by large black rods impaled through them, littered what remained of the base. Further out, several building-sized mechas lay dormant. A few of them were utterly torn to scrap metal, but most had only small holes through the cockpits, the mighty machines rendered useless with their pilots killed. Their base itself had been obliterated and around the crater where it had once stood the jungle burned.
It was hard to believe all this devastation had been caused by one man.
"I'll ask you one more time" said the silver-masked man in question, his white cloak pristine despite the carnage all around. "Where is Necrosabor?"
While most of the Silver Lords had masks that obscured their entire faces, this one had a visor, currently open to reveal the man's eyes - strange, inhuman eyes, entirely purple except for the many concentric rings all the way from the edge to where normal eyes would have a pupil.
"I... I don't know!" stammered the survivor. In all honesty, the Undead Sword had never even been to this base. While most Undeathly Sabres liked to think of Necrosabor as the group's founder, the truth was that he had left them to their own devices shortly after liberating them.
"Then you are of no use to me", he said raising a hand.
Suddenly red smoke engulfed the area, followed shortly after by blaster fire from multiple directions. When the smoke cleared, the Silver Lord held a man in a winged black power suit up by the throat. A couple of automated blaster turrets had emerged, only to be destroyed, more of the black rods impaled through them.
"Futile", he muttered.
He suddenly looked upwards, seeing something no-one else could see.
"Understood", he said, and vanished without another word, leaving the two survivors perplexed and shell-shocked.
The visored Silver Lord now entered a huge five-sided chamber where nine figures currently sat. The walls of the chamber faded back and forth between polished white marble and translucent crystal of an ever-shifting array of colours. Each wall bore a large stained-glass window through which light poured as though the sun shone directly onto its surface, colouring and illuminating the table below, around which the Silver Lord took a seat
The nine figures gathered around that table were the highest authorities in the entire Kingdom as of this moment. The four remaining Silver Lords were gathered, seated in silver thrones (while a fifth throne sat empty). At the other side of the room, four physically-identical men sat upon golden thrones - four clones of the Emperor, ruling in his stead.
Hovering around the outside was an ethereal figure dressed in a white robe - an entity known as the Voice of the Kingdom. Even the Silver Lords didn't fully know what this spectre was or where it had come from, but it seemed to carry the light of the Emperor himself, and several of the founding laws of the Kingdom hinged on its presence.
The true Emperor was undergoing some process he had only referred to as "The Ascension", and was effectively comatose inside a glowing crystalline cocoon in the deepest chamber of this iridescent cathedral.
"This is about the Silver Lord selection ritual, isn't it?"
While the Silver Lords were all concealed behind masks, cloaks and armour, each one had a distinct insignia on their masks to distinguish them. This Silver Lord, with a spiky golden shape somewhere between a crown or an explosion, was the largest and had a large hammer on his back.
"Partially", said one of the Emperor clones. This one wore a more militaristic uniform than the others, with high-tech gauntlets concealing his hands. "There was another matter we also wished to discuss. You aren't the only group here whose numbers have diminished..."
"Yes, we are aware of the recent death of X"
Amongst the few people who knew that the Kingdom was being run by clones in place of the original Emperor, said clones used designation letters from the clone project to distinguish themselves. Clone X was the clone who had been killed by Necrosabor.
"And we haven't heard from Y since the dark god Hades was unleashed" said another of the Emperors. This one wore white and gold robes with pockets containing numerous glowing bottles. He stood up and slammed the table. "We cannot allow the judgement of the dead to be carried out by an evil god who would forsake our champions and fail to punish the followers of Darkness!"
"Calm yourself, Z", said another of the clones, this one wearing the most extravagant blue and white robes - this was Clone Omega. "As we were saying, we are the last remaining sixth-generation Emperor clones. Should we be slain by these dark assailants, the Kingdom would be without its figurehead and its guiding light. And with the Ascension in progress, a new generation of true clones is impossible. Nevertheless, we are initiating a new imperial clone project, based on samples from later generations..."
One of the Silver Lords interrupted, this one marked by a strange red triangular icon. "You can't seriously be considering using clones from the DNA of other Emperor Clones!" she snapped. "Any..."
Clone W cut her off. "We are aware of the failures of such ventures in the past, rest assured", he said. "We have a new method that should eliminate such complications. Moreover, this is merely a contingency operation to be initiated if another among our number is slain. The Light Empire cannot be without its Emperor"
"Not unlike the Silver Lords", said Z. "You know as well as we do that the contract requires four surviving Silver Lords to inherit the powers of the fifth. We must complete the ritual and crown another Silver Lord before another of you is killed".
"With all due respect, that will not happen".
"Nevertheless, we must begin the process as swiftly as possible", said Clone Omega. "Name your champions and their trials".
At this, a pristine white quill and scroll appeared in the hands of the Voice, who had previously been gazing distractedly at the windows but now looked focused.
The female Silver Lord spoke first. "I'd like to nominate Admiral Takhan Nuva Singh. And his trial shall be the suppression of the insurgency on Earth-711"
"You're putting a fusion up for a Silver Lord position?", said the Silver Lord marked with a gold blast shape. "Don't you think that might cause... issues down the road?"
"I shouldn't think so", Red Triangle replied. "If anything, the contract itself should stabilise the fusion..."
"If that is the case, I would nominate the White Lucario", said the visored Silver Lord. His icon resembled a tally-mark, four vertical lines crossed by one horizontal one.
"You know full well why we never nominated them for a Silver Lord position before!" cried the Sliver Lord with the red triangle. "I'll admit Takhan being a fusion perhaps makes him a risky option but the White Lucario is an entirely different matter!"
"Alright, since everyone else is going all-in on the crazy multi-picks, I'll bite", said Gold Blast. "Put me down for Taskmaster"
"Taskmaster?" said Clone Z. "The double agent into that traitorous Starfleet captain's crew? An odd choice"
"I've taken a liking to that guy" said Gold Blast. "Besides, those photographic reflexes could be real useful to us one way or another"
"In case you've forgotten, those reflexes come with a loss of memories".
"Eh, way I see it that'll not be a problem for a Silver Lord", said Gold Blast. "Besides, if anything, the contract itself should stabilise him..."
"It doesn't work like that!"
"What about you?" said the Voice cheerily, turning to the last Silver Lord, a heavily built figure with a blue sword emblem.
"As a matter a fact, I might have just the candidate we need", he said, his voice seemed to echo slightly. "Although he's not currently working under any branch of the Kingdom's forces. I met him wandering the Time Wilderness".
"That's allowed", said the Voice. "He just has to pass a Trial like the others to be considered. And I'll need to know his name..."
"He said his name was Thanos"