Exodus has been walking through the forests of Elysium for a few days searching for a source of power that he could use. He realized shortly after waking up that his power had been sealed away from him. He realized that the gems in his rings have all been taken away and that he has lost the majority of his power, so he has been searching for a source of power great enough to fill in his rings. As Exodus walks farther and farther away from the heart of Elysium he begins to pick up on a strong ether reading from several hundreds of miles away.
'Could that be what I think it is?' Exodus internally thinks to himself.
Exodus decides to run at full force to see for himself if this signature is as strong as he thinks it is.
"So Rex, when do you want to get married?" Nia says as she nuzzles into him.
"I'm not too sure, but I don't want to delay it any longer than I already have."
"Already have? How long have you wanted to propose to me?" Nia breaths into Rex's ear.
Rex looks down at Nia and reponds: "I've been thinking about it for a year or two by now. We've been together for so long and I want to spend the rest of my life with you, but I just didn't know how to do it for the longest time."
Nia looks up at Rex. "Oh really? What changed this time?"
Rex closes his eyes in through and reopens them to respond. "Remember last week when we went to go visit Tora and Hyo in Torigoth?"
Nia thinks back to last week and remembers their time there. "Yeah, I remember it."
"Well the real reason we went to visit them was because I wanted to ask Tora some advise on how to propose."
"I guess he's got the most experience after all. Hey do you think the public is going to find out?"
"About our wedding? Probably, all they have to see is your ring and everyone is going to know instantly."
"That'll be fun to deal with." Nia sighs. "And just when the press was starting to settle down too."
"Welp, we'll just have to deal with it."
"By the way you never answered my question earlier."
"About when you want to get married?"
"Yeah that."
Rex thinks long and hard about it.
"Lets do it in one month from now."
"Are you sure we can get the whole thing prepared in that amount of time?"
"I think we can, after all we know Tora and Morag."
"Making use of your resources aye?" Nia slyly wiggles her eyebrows.
"I learnt from the best!"
After a few hours of running Exodus makes it to the outskirts of Elysium and finds himself in front of a large dragon-like titan with a city on its back.
'A titan of this size? This will work out perfectly.'
Just before Exodus enters the city he realizes something. This place has thousands of core crystals inside it.
'So those filthy humans still haven't changed at all I see. That is to be expected of them.'
Exodus begins to put on a sinister grin. "Looks like I'm going to need to do a little population control before I go towards what I'm looking for."
As Exodus walks into the main gates a guard stops him.
"Excuse me sir, do you have proper identifica-"
Suddenly his head is completely caved in from the force of Exodus' punch and his body tumbles to the ground.
"Looks like it has begun." Exodus begins to charge right at all the people who are now fleeing in terror.
Morag is currently out at the garden that was put in her palace in Alba Cavanich looking at the plants and thinking about everything she'll have to deal with when it comes to getting Gormott and Uraya to cooperate a bit more when she hears a crazed man screaming something at the front gates.
"Another protester I suppose." Morag has had quite a few of those since her accession to the thrown and at this point it doesn't even phase her anymore. However she goes over to listen in anyways to what this guy is saying.
"You must let me see the Empress at once! We are all in grave danger!"
"Back you, I said back. You're going to be the one in grave danger if you don't step back."
"No please you must listen to me, I was apart of a research team and we discovered something bad. Something very, very bad. This thing could destroy all of Elysium if we don't take immediate action!"
"Oh really? What research division are you apart of then?"
"Ummm... I wasn't apart of any of the research divisions, but-"
"What is this? Not apart of any of the research divisions? We could throw you in prison right now for illegal access to the inner lands of Elysium. It's a surprise that you even made it out alive."
"PLEASE! WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE IF WE DON'T DO SOMETHING ABOU-"
"That's it you, you're gonna get it now!"
Right as the guard is about to hit the researcher with the blunt end of his rifle Morag intervenes.
"Don't hit that man."
The guard looks over and immediately stiffens up at seeing the Empress.
"Y-your majesty! This man is clearly insane and is trying to cause chaos here."
Morag narrows her eyes at the guard. "You are stepping out of line speaking to me in that manner. I would watch yourself solider."
The guard visibly shrinks at the comment. "Y-yes ma'am. It will not happen again!"
Morag then looks over to the man and says to him: "Follow me."
"Y-yes, your majesty."
Morag leads the researcher to the garden where Morag continues to look at the plants and listen to what the researcher has to say.
"Tell me what you saw."
"R-right away." The researcher clears his throat and gains his bearings before continuing. "I was apart of an unauthorized team of researchers who went into the heart of Elysium in the hopes of discovering something grand that we could bring back and show to the people in the hopes of becoming recognized and maybe even become an official team in the research division."
The man stops talking and Morag gestures: "Go on."
"When we made it to the center of the continent our team discovered an ancient temple that our scanners indicated was at least two thousand years old. What we found inside was an obelisk of white crystal that incapsulated a man. This man was a beast. When we freed him..." The researcher takes in a sharp breath. "He killed all of them. He killed every last one of them. It was h-horrible. He killed them so quickly that I didn't even see it happen. T-the walls w-were stained r-red with there innocent bl-blood."
Morag is shocked at this news. She hasn't heard of anyone this powerful since the Second Aegis War.
"What did he look like?"
"He was tall and well built. He had white robes and long white hair. But his two most defining characteristics were his ten rings that had no gems in them, and his white core crystal that was in the shape of a cross that covered his entire chest."
Morag freezes at the mention of a cross shaped core crystal.
'Wait a minute. Only an Aegis has a cross shaped core crystal.'
Morag turns around and narrows her eyes at the man.
"What is his name?"
"Exodus."
"What is his goal?"
"The complete and utter annihilation of humanity."
Suddenly a guard comes barreling in from inside and he looks terrified.
"Your majesty! Come quick! We have some urgent news that we just picked up on!"
"Whatever it is it can wai-"
"Your majesty! Indol has just reported that a man has just caused a massacre in the heart of the city!"
"WHAT?!"
The guard hands over the report to Morag who proceeds to scan the report.
"It can't be."
"Your majesty there is already at least over two hundred confirmed dead at the moment."
"Is there a description of the perpetrator?"
"It says on the next page your majesty." The soldier gestures.
Morag flips to the next page and the things that strike her the most is the core crystal and rings.
"So I guess this researcher was telling the truth then."
Back in Indol, Exodus is currently going through the main area where they keep the core crystals.
"So they have imprisoned you all here I see. Then you SHALL BE FREE!"
With that Exodus raises his hands up and all the core crystals start to resonate.
While they are resonating he continues to go down deeper and deeper into the Indol titan to get what he is looking for. Exodus finally makes it to the core of the Indol titan and finds a large blue core crystal that is easily twenty times larger than your average core crystal.
"Their you are. I've been looking for you. Forgive me, my brother."
Exodus then proceeds to rip out Indol's core crystal. The titan begins to shake and rumble as it slowly dies from getting its core crystal ripped out.
"Now to turn you into something more useful."
Exodus then begins to concentrate the power of the titan core crystal to compact. It continues to get smaller and smaller until it eventually gets small enough to fit into the slot of one of his rings.
Exodus feels a small surge of power flow through him and he feels a bit stronger. He then flexes his arm and begins concentrating with his hand out. Suddenly a sword of light manifests in his hand.
"So far so good."
He continues to focus and gets the weapon to bend into the shape of an axe instead. He continues to cycle through the various weapons that he is aware of and comes to a conclusion.
"Alright, I can still change weapons. How about elements?"
He concentrates again and begins to phase through the various elements.
"Even better, now for the last test."
Exodus focuses on summoning more weapons. He is able to summon four in total.
"Is that really it? Maybe I'll be able to summon more when I get more power."
As Exodus is leaving he sees a human and decides to interrogate her.
"You. Who is the leader of your people?"
"Ahh! Please don't kill me!"
"I won't if you just answer my questions."
"Uuumm... The leader of our nation would be Empress Morag, sir."
"And where would I find this 'Morag?'"
"Sh-she lives in the capital of the Mor Ardain region, kn-known as Alba Cavanich."
"Good. Now how would I get there?"
"Your Highness! There has been an update in Indol!"
"What is it?"
The soldier has a grim look on his face. "We just got reports that apparently the Indol Titan has just died."
"WHAT?!" Morag is furious at this news. 'How could someone kill a titan of that size?!'
"The ether readings have completely faded from the titan. It is dead." The soldier says in reluctance.
"This can't be..."
"We've also picked up on a powerful ether signature heading right towards us. This ether is as strong as your's sire."
"As strong as me? How long until they reach the palace?"
The soldier flips to the next page of the report. "The signature will be here in about three hours."
Morag has to think fast as this might be devastating to the people of her region. "Alright. Call up Rex and Nia."
"Sire?" The soldier looks at Morag curiously.
"Tell them it is urgent and they must come to the capital immediately."
The soldier questions Morag's choice. "Do you call them to help fight?"
"Actually not at all. I'm going to need them to heal me after the fight that I am going to engage in."
The soldier looks panicked at this decision that Morag has come to. "Your majesty! You can't put your life in danger! Who will lead the people if you fall in battle?"
Morag turns away and looks out the window with confidence. "That's why I don't plan on falling in this battle. Call upon Brighid and Aegaeon."
The soldier looks worried but comply's.
"Yes your majesty."
After the guard leaves Morag summons another guard.
"I need you to evacuate as many people as you can out of the capital. We need to keep casualties to a minimum."
"Yes your highness." After that the guard leaves.
Morag continues to look out the window and begins to think to herself: 'I cannot let this man ruin more lives than he already has. He must be dealt with quickly and precisely.'
Exodus makes it to the gates of Alba Cavanich and looks around. He senses no humans nearby. They're all a few dozen miles outside of the city.
'Looks like I'll have to go kill all those puny humans.'
Just as he's about to leave he senses something strange. There is one human in the city. He looks in the direction of the tower at the very end of the city and realizes that there is one person and two blades standing at the top of the tower.
'So you've been waiting for me I see.'
Exodus decides to slowly walk towards the tower and look up directly at her. As he approaches the tower he begins to climb up the tower very quickly. After a minute of climbing he is at the top of Hardhaigh Palace and is now staring down Morag.
"So you're the leader of the humans."
to be continued...