THE BEYONDER'S THRONE ROOM

…Naturally, the heroes and villains were perplexed with what they had just heard from Airdan. Especially T'Challa, who himself came from royalty, and his eyes wide open with shock once he pieced together what the High King meant. "' Title Passing'?" The stunned T'Challa asked out loud, then turned his attention to the Beyonder. "Does he mean-?"

"Correct," The Beyonder replied, cutting the Wakadan King off. "What you all are witnessing is a ceremony that occurs in all the Kingdoms of Athia every twenty-five years. The 'Passing of the Titles' is when the King and Queen pass down their crowns. The title of Queen goes down to their firstborn daughter and her soon-to-be husband. And as the mage pointed out, it is not just Ava who celebrates this custom." With a simple wave of his hand, the Beyonder changed the image again and showed each of the kingdoms in Alandra. Starting with…

AMIA

… It was a lavish land filled with endless fields of green grass and a forest of tall trees. All were surrounded by a large body of water known as the Lake Amia. In the northern part of the lake was an island the size of Manhattan that was just a few miles from the mainland and had two steel bridges, both painted royal blue and had the nation's symbols of white circles with a blue silhouette of a woman raising her hands, connected both the island and Amia itself.

On the other side of the bridges were roadways that ran up to a mountain, and like Ava City had, the upper portion housed the land's capital, Amia City, which had tall, technologically advanced buildings, also painted blue and, just like Ava City, which contained cables that supplied energy throughout the city but were also painted white with the energy coursing through the transparent tubing was of the color blue. As for the city's citizens, the 'Alphas' wore white rings with blue stones on top and had two blue bangs in their hair. They would generally go around via hovercrafts or the trains on the railways. But here on this day of 'Passing the titles', all everyday life in the city seemed to be put on hold as the majority of the populace gathered in front of the Amaian High Royal Skyscraper, which was high enough to rival that of the Central Park Tower and containing a royal blue bus-sized Athain Stone on top supplying the city with power.

Addressing the cheering crowd on a balcony above the Skyscraper's front doors were the four fair-skinned people who made up the Royal family of Amia, all of whom smiled and waved at the crowd. There was King Gaelin, a middle-aged man, appearing to be in his mid-fifties, with a slim body frame with broad shoulders, short auburn hair with greying sides, and hazel eyes. His traditional Royal garb consisted of a white shirt and pants underneath a blue robe, and on his head was a blue pointed crown with a blue gem on the front, as well as his eye-shaped ring, which was primarily white and with a blue pupil, on the ring finger of his right hand. Standing alongside Gaelin was Queen Amia, a blue-eyed woman with her long blonde hair in a braid around and around the same age as her husband, but she was still seen as someone with great beauty and regal presence. She wore the same white and blue ring on her right hand, a blue robe over a white dress, and a white crown with a blue gem and blue wings.

Standing between the King and Queen were their two children, the Prince and Princess of the Kingdom. To the left of the Queen was the blue-eyed, blonde-haired, stunningly beautiful twenty-five-year-old Princess Amia, whose resemblance to her mother was so striking; the only thing that helped tell the two apart was the young princess's attire, which was a figure-hugging shining white dress with gloves, high-heeled shoes, and a tiara with a blue stone. Naturally, her beauty attracted all men within the country, and they all grew jealous of the man she was set to marry soon. Though her smile masked the nervousness of the struggles that came from her new role as Queen, Amia was nonetheless ready to face them, as she knew that she had the support of her mother and trusted family advisors, all of whom helped train her to this role.

Standing to the right side of the King was High Prince Belnar, a slim, hazel-eyed thirty-two-year-old man with auburn hair, wearing a distinguished blue jacket with glistening white shoulder tassels, gloves, pants, and shoes. His appearance was also similar to that of his father, and he was widely considered handsome by many women in the kingdom. Aside from his duties as a prince, he also served as the head general of the Amian Elite Guard, a position that he had to give his second in command, who was observing the event from one of the top floors of a nearby building. Regardless, Belnar turned to his sister, and his smile became more genuine as he watched her grow into a strong woman worthy of accepting the crown. He could not be any prouder of her. But still, whether as leader of an army or as an advisor, Belnar will never stop looking out for her.

Just as the people of Amia weren't the only ones enjoying this joyous occasion, they also weren't the only ones who enjoyed the waters of Lake Amia, as the water flowed down from the lake to a long river stream going to the southeast, which led the water from out of the Amia into…

SENSET

…where the water made its way through canyons until finally, it reached a sandy desert with some big trees and vegetation, a livable environment for the people who lived in huts that made up their villages on both sides of the river. The water coursed through the desert for miles until it stopped, curved, and moved to the left side, thus earning it the name 'The Crescent River.' The place where it stopped to change this direction was that of a circular stoned wall that looked to be over fifteen thousand miles long and stood at around twenty feet in height. Despite appearing that it's been erect for over a thousand years, the wall did have some technical accessories, the first being a sliding silver door with the country's symbol, a gold symbol with a purple female silhouette, facing the river and villages and serving as the front entrance and exit. The second was a long, gold-painted cable built within the edges of the walkway on top of the wall, with the energy flowing within the clear tubing having a dark purple color.

Interestingly, the wall was built in the country's center and between the 'two sides' of the massive desert. On the right was the sandy portion, but it was the one that was brimming with life, thanks mainly to the river. On the left was that dry, endless barren wasteland, filled with nothing but a dusty, cracked rocked service, no visible signs of plant life or water, and was a place where no living being could last for a day. But whether it was the villages that thrived from the flowing waters of the Cresent River or the feared barren wasteland where no one would dare venture into, it was within the protection of the wall that was of genuine importance to the country.

And that something was Sunset City, with its tall, sleek buildings all possessing the gold, energy-flowing cables built into each building and connected to the wall. As for the city's inhabitants, they also possessed long pointy ears but, at the same time, had dark skin and black afro-textured hair. Their clothing resembled that of African and Nubian descent, with the males wearing multi-colored short-sleeved shirts with long bottoms over loose-fitting khaki pants, with the shirt bottoms hanging down to the knees and sandals on their feet, and the women wearing light-colored dresses with no sleeves and their hair, and ears wrapped up in cloths. As for the Alphas of this land, they had purple lines that ran down the center of their hair, with the female Alphas covering theirs with their headwraps, and on their fingers were golden singlet rings, each with a purple stone.

The city's streets were indeed crowded, but instead of usually purchasing items from small steel capsules, that made the marketplace. But on this day, whether it was watching it through small screen tablets or the large holo screens inside the local taverns, the citizens all watched part of something momentous occasion for Senset and Athia.

That occasion was the 'Passing of the Titles,' where a massive sea of cheering Senset citizens gathered in front of the royal palace. The lower level appeared to be a giant statue of a creature that looked like that of a maned lion but had the beak and large opened wings of a falcon, while the rest of the building looked like a pyramid, with a purple tip-shaped Athian Stone that was the size of a tank on top.

Standing on the balcony, located in the center of the pyramid, was Senset's Royal family. On the left was King Mova, who was a dark-skinned man with brown eyes, a grey beard, and an impressive physique for someone who appeared to be in his fifties. His attire consisted of a gold shirt with a long tail that went down to his knees and was complete with gold pants and shoes. His accessories were purple beaded necklaces with fangs, a gold crown shaped like a feline's head with purple eyes, and a long purple mane on top that ran to the back of his feet. Completing this look was that of his eye-shaped ring, which was colored gold with a purple pupil in the middle.

To the right was Queen Senset, a purple-eyed woman around the same age as her husband but was also lean and fit. Who donated a gold and purple dress with gold bracelets, a necklace headpiece that resembled the head of a falcon's head, and an eye-shaped ring of her own.

Standing in between them was the young Princess Sunset, a thin, beautiful twenty-five-year-old woman in a purple cress, and along with gold bracelets and a necklace, also wore a golden headpiece with the head of a beaked cat on the center and two golden tassels on the sides that hung in front of her pointy-ears. Despite being nervous, she still maintained her proud composure for the sake of the people she would soon rule over.

The young princess's coronation was a moment seen by all the people of Senset. From the people in the city to those in the nearby villages, watching the ceremony from inside their huts. All while the water within the Cresent River continued to flow through the sandy valleys through the twin mountains until it drifted into the waters of the Great Athian Sea and near the shoreline that belonged to…

PAIX

….in had a small beach town known as Aermis, which was both a place for those to vacation and for deep sea fishing and finding and bringing Athain stones underneath the sea. At the boat docks located on the far side of the beach, two Athian seamen, who were clad in white hooded wet suits with worn-out grey heavy gloves and boots, guided two hovering crates containing their cargo, be it the stones they found and dug up in the sea floor or the sea life that they caught in their nets. They walked and placed the crates over to a ten-foot white pad with the nation's symbol, a silver dot with a white female silhouette in the center. A technician, a thin, light-skinned male Athian with balding red hair wearing clothing that was loose but durable for working the docks, typed down a sequence of keys on a podium built near the pad, which resulted in shiny silver energy emerging from the pad and enveloping the crates until, finally, they vanished in a red flash of light out of sight in a brief flash.

The crates later appeared on another pad, but one next to another loading dock building near the cliff just above Aermis. It didn't take long for two more workers to grab them by the corners and then push the crates over to a seventy-foot hovercraft in white paint and enter through the sliding rear door of its trailer, where six other crates had been loaded. Once the workers secured the last two crates, they left the trailer, where the door slid shut and the four giant hover jets underneath the craft to power on, which admitted silver energy as it lifted the craft off the ground. The craft then took off to the right side and flew over the large forest and towards its destination.

That being Paix City, a metropolis of skyscrapers on top of another mountain, and each building was painted white, with glowing silver energy flowing through the clear tubing with thin white painted cables to provide the energy its citizens needed, located at the very end of the forest. Like the rest of the kingdoms, they, too, were celebrating the 'Passing of the Titles' as the vast majority of the citizens, with the Alphas having silver bangs in their hair, gathered in front of the Royal Tower, which stood four hundred meters with a large silver Athian Stone on top. Joining the rest of the people on this joyous day were all four members of Paix's Royal Family. In the center was that of King Alwin, a pale-skinned, middle-aged, blue-eyed man with blonde hair and a thin frame and wearing a silver robe over white clothing, a white pointed crown with a silver stone in the center on his head, and a white eye ring with a silver pupil on his right hand. Right beside him was Queen Paix, a thin, pale-skinned, silver-eyed woman around the same age as her husband but still quite attractive. Her attire consisted of a silver robe over a white dress, an eye-shaped ring on her right finger, a white crown with silver wings on the sides, and long blonde hair tied in a long braid.

The other half of the royal family were King and Queen's two pale-skinned son and daughter. Standing by King Alwin's left side was Prince Paeris, a thin twenty-five-year-old male who shared his father's blond hair, blue eyes, and silver bangs. His attire consisted of a distinguished silver jacket with white shoulder tassels, gloves, pants, and shoes. He used his smile to mask his true feelings, which was to be something more than just the country's prince, but these 'outdated' customs regarding who should become the kingdom's male ruler prevented him from doing so.

And, of course, there was the guest of honor herself, Princess Paix, the tall, beautiful soon-to-be Queen of the kingdom with an uncanny resemblance to her mother, from her long braided blonde hair to her silver eyes. On this day, she wore a silver dress with white elbow gloves and shoes, her silver hair bangs hanging over the white tiara she wore above her brow.

Just as they shared this joyous day, Paix also shared its vast forests with its neighboring country…

BRITTA

…where trees stood tall, rivers flowed, and wildlife flourished. Also, within the woods was a small Athian town known as Artha, where all the sleek steel buildings were painted blue and had cables that channeled red energy into them. Standing tall above the town and the forest was Mount Britta, a massive mountain with the unusual feature of having its entire front section shaped into that of a city, with the buildings, all chiseled from the mountain, had navy blue colored plates. This was Britta City, which also had cables that ran red energy into them, and deep within the city and in the very back of the mountain itself, the power source came from the city's tallest building, the Britta Royal Skyscraper, where at the top had a base that had the national symbol blue circle with apple red outlines and female silhouette. Right on top of the base was a tank-sized apple red Athian Stone, which was connected to cables that ran down the tower into all of the buildings and, finally, into the ground in front of the mountain. This not only supplied the city with power, but it also channeled the energy under the ground and into Artha, as well as other nearby towns.

On this day in particular, cheers could be heard echoing within the hallowed walls of Mount Britta. All were coming from the citizens who had gathered in front of the Royal Skyscraper, with the Alpha citizens having red bangs in their hair. Like the city's prior, the country's Royal Family addressed their cheering subjects by standing on a balcony above the building's main entrance. Four made up this monarch family, from the fair-skinned, fifty-year-old King brown-eyed Respen and the red-eyed Queen Britta, who was the same age as her husband and had braided reddish brown hair. Both wore apple-red robes over blue clothing and blue eye-shaped rings with red pupils on their fingers. The only key difference was their red-painted headwear, from Aspen's being a pointed crown over his brunette hair and Britta's being a red-winged tiara.

Also present were the Royal Couples' two fair-skinned children. From twenty-five-year-old Princess Britta, a thin woman with the same red eyes and reddish-brown hair as her mother, long hair in a braid and wearing a red dress with blue gloves and shoes, as well as a blue tiara with a blue stone and her red bangs hanging over it, and seven-year-old Prince Respen the second, a boy who shared bis brunette hair and eyes. Though proud upon receiving the title of Queen, the young Britta would be lying if she said she wasn't nervous. But luckily, she managed to mask these feelings from her people by smiling and waving at them. As for young Respen, he too had a smile and appeared happy to be there, but, was secretly waiting for this event to be over with, as he thought this royal gathering was just like all the gatherings he attended since birth, in that it was long and tedious.

And finally, the last country to participate in the titles' Passing was that of…

SHIN LA

…It was a land of crystal-clear waters and also had beautiful forests which, interestingly enough, had leaves that were not green, but were lively bright orange. Standing tall above these vibrant trees was that of another mountain, but one that appeared to be in the shape of a horned serpent-like creature curled up and with his mouth open as if letting out a roar. And on top of the rocky serpent's head and between its horns was that of Shina La City, a metropolis of violet-painted buildings with golden orange energy flowing through the cables and hovercrafts move from the sky to either travel to other buildings or out into the forests below to make deliveries to the nearby towns.

The city's populace, be it those who lived and worked the buildings or walked the sidewalks, all of whom had tanned skin, black hair, and an appearance that resembled those of Asian decent on Earth, with the Alphas all having orange-colored bangs in their hair. On this day, most of the population gathered in the city's center, specifically, a fifteen-story building that seemed to mimic an Ancient Japanese design and in shining golden orange paint and purple edges and rooftop.

The roof had some features of its own, with the front having a giant painting of the Shin-La national symbol of an orange circle with a purple female silhouette, and on the top having the city's power source, which was a giant golden-orange Athain Stone which transmitted its energy through the cables connected to it and powered all mechanical devices and buildings within this city.

Standing on the balcony on the tenth floor and high above the cheering citizens stood the ruling family of the Shin La empire. From Emperor Murasakino, a middle-aged, brown-eyed, slim man with black hair, and the slender, black-haired Emperess Shin La, who gazed upon the people she ruled and protected along with her husband with her orange eyes. Both wore orange robes almost identical to Japanese clothing, with Muraskino resembling a Sokutai and Shin La's resembling a Kimono. They also wore distinguishable headwear, with the Emperor wearing a kanmuri, which was a purple cap with a long orange pennon, and the Emperess holding her black hair up in a bun and keeping it in place with an orange pin resembling a dragon's head. The final member and the most crucial person in the city on this great day was Princess Shin La, who donned a purple kimono and had her black hair in a bun. Like her mother, the young Shin La gazed upon the people she was destined to rule with wide open orange eyes, and with great poise and elegance that she learned from her years of training, she gave the people of Shin La city a bow as to show them that as their soon to be empress, she was to serve them.

Thus concluded the list of the kingdoms within the continent of Alandra who took part in this ceremony to pass their respected crowns to new rulers that would lead the Allied Kingdoms into peace and prosperity. However, little did the Royal Families and the people under their rule know that this joyous occasion would end in tragedy.