Kyla sat deep in meditation, hovering several feet above the ground as rocky cliffs jutted towards the sky around him. Though his physical form appeared only 18, he had in fact trained relentlessly for over 120 years since unlocking his first sparks of power. And still, the cosmic forces he wielded were but a fraction of what would be needed to face the threats now looming over both Earth and its vulnerable galactic allies.
As a Realm Lord of Earth, Kyla had attained formidable strength - including telekinesis, atmospheric manipulation, even flashes of super-speed when intensely focused. But many secret realms remained sealed to him, cosmic domains where beings of truly god-like might held influence not just over planets, but whole galaxies and universes beyond normal conception.
In five years, the legendary Gate of the Planetarium would open, allowing qualified heroes to attempt the trials that could permanently unlock one as an Immortal Being, guardian class. Only such an ascended individual could stand against the Supreme Beings who coveted defenseless worlds like Earth for their own twisted pleasures. Kyla was currently the planet's greatest hope...but he would need to intensify his training a thousand-fold to survive even the preliminary combat rounds in the harrowing competitions ahead.
As Kyla meditated on the forces swirling both within and around him, his concentration was suddenly pierced by three sharp mental pings against his psychic barriers - the Watchers sought an urgent meeting.
"The situation grows dire." Watcher Aureus spoke ominously before her gathered allies deep within the hidden forest meeting site. "The Supreme Being known as Lord Argentine has turned his sadistic sights more forcefully upon Earth following his failed bid to acquire domain rights over Planet Safira."
Kyla clenched his fists, well aware Lord Argentine was but one of many rapaciously self-entitled cosmic predators bored with their own immortal existences, constantly seeking new living playthings to torment however they wished across less protected worlds. Much sport came from harming those helpless to resist.
Watcher Helix chimed in, "Combined defenses of the 70 allied planets were barely sufficient repelling the last incursion upon gentle Nabiru. But Argentine's wrath means further attacks will only escalate until he claims entire star systems as fiefdoms."
Kyla met his fellow guardians' anxious gazes. "Then we must hasten preparations to stand against the coming storm. I swear to you the full measure of my rapidly expanding abilities in union with..."
A sudden thunderous boom resounded across the heavens, cutting Kyla short. Space itself seemed to flex and stretch overhead as a colossal wormhole vortex ripped open the atmosphere, disgorging a truly massive alien armada spread wider than the horizon. At its helm loomed a blood red, skeletal mega-structure of alloys and pulsing plasmatic flesh - Lord Argentine's personal reality-rending, planet-killing, world harvester flagship: Red Death Incarnate.
Argentine had arrived...and Earth now balanced on a razor's edge of annihilation.
Kyla raced across distorted gravity ley lines, teleporting entire continents in flashes toward the nightmarish invasion fleet plunging through Earth's atmosphere. Already the outer defensive perimeters were being shredded by thousands of swarming attack drones while, behind them, battalion craft began spewing relentless beams that liquefied whole cities instantly under their scouring barrage.
Channeling all his magics into pure kinetic force, Kyla relentlessly crushed drone after drone out of the air with merciless precision. Yet even as he held position fiercely above the Atlantic siege line, Kyla glimpsed flashes of destruction already reaching across Africa and Europe simultaneously.
Earth's few scattered macro-shields were collapsing rapidly. Those heroes rallying to boost the safeguarding were already being sniffed out and ambushed by hunter killer sweeper teams. Trillions of lives now stared utter extinction in the face against Argentine's inexorable onslaught.
Realm class magic was proving entirely inadequate even slowing the genocide. Kyla felt true despair seeping into his anger...then his visions detected a familiar energy signature racing onto the battlefield - Zylos! The noble Domain Lord from enlightened Planet Nabiru had returned from exile with unspeakable powers unlocked during his years adrift beyond charted universe borders after Earth had turned against his kind those seasons ago. Side by side with Kyla once more, fellow champion Zylos now unleashed salvos of cascading prismatic rays toward the heart Argentina's armada. The desperate partners were determined to fight literally to their last breaths...even if Earth itself should collapse in heartbeats beneath the burning heels of Argentine's monstrous ambitions.
Zylos roared defiance as his protective aura sphere detonated under Argentine's pounding death-rays, buying precious seconds for wounded Kyla to teleport clear. Though the courageous partners now faced all-but-certain oblivion alone against the god tyrant's world-racking siege engines, Zylos squeezed every last erg of his being keeping Earth's flickering pulse alive a few moments longer. Have
Nearing total systemic failure from channeling such fathomless energy torrents against his sneering tormentor, Zylos suddenly perceived a silent psychic cascade washing outward from Kyla across dimensions in all directions - a planetarian level distress siren. Through their profound past fellowship, the signal somehow infiltrated Zylos right down to the quantum strata as Kyla tapped mythic layers of Earth's intrinsic morphogenetic field...and its response at last was pure, titanic planetary scale empowerment erupting back through his ravaged frame!
Kyla had momentarily transcended! Tapping Earth's secret primacy codes roused living god-force fusion from the world soul itself to defend her children. His broken body now blazed anew with geo-magmatic might against all attacking blasphemers while reality itself quaked apart under the clench of his curling fists.
Lord Argentine suddenly found scales balancing very differently. No singular planetary embodiment had attained such mythril level stand alone since the allegedly fabled Luminon Aeons. In his long millennia never had the Tyrant King been thwarted when personally claiming a new trophy world...yet today two unlikely heroes together forced him to feel an unfamiliar sensation quite like fear.
Forcing his colossal command ship about toward rapidly self-sealing breach points in the heavens, Argentine's glowing gaze lingered spitefully upon magnificent Planet Earth where champions Kyla and Zylos stood united still against his forced withdrawal. The stubborn world would endure independantly for now, but the coming astral winds only fanned flames forging wishes of vengeance.
Someday, somehow, Argentine silently vowed his hated adversaries would face only oblivion...once Earth's shining temple were hopefully dying around them.