~"My oh my! Look who finally showed himself."
~"I won't lie that I missed you, Aha, but yes, hello, everybody."
~"Welcome, Yue."
~"Good to see you."
Fuli and Mythus welcomed me, while Lan and Qlipoth nodded in greeting.
~"You at last become one of us, Yue."
~"It would be impossible if not for the assistance of many, Nanook, but here I am. Akasha, Aeon of Ordination."
~"Akasha? You've changed your name?"
~"It's more title than a name for me. Just call me Yue in private."
~"Good, I can also see that you got yourself quite the following."
-"Heh, our Yue here is now an Emperor of two empires at once."
~"Truly?"
-"Xipe is correct. When he stopped his self-imposed isolation, Yue quickly gathered many people around him."
~"Can we not discuss me? We are here for a reason."
~"No need to rush, Yue. We still need to wait for the rest."
~"Who will be joining us?"
~"Nous and HooH confirmed their intent to attend."
~"I see. Terminus will also join us. Knowing her, she will appear when we are ready to begin."
~"Good to hear that. We will start when they arrive."
-"Qlipoth, what about mortals?
~"I left that to the IPC."
~"I was wondering, is this matter truly so serious that you called all of us here?"
~"This is much worse than the Swarm, Nanook."
~"Is the situation so bad?"
~"I'll explain when everyone gathers."
We continued to talk about some minor matters, having a friendly reunion while waiting.
I turned my attention to what was happening in the hall where all 'mortal' forces were gathering. Inside, leaders and representatives of various forces mingled with each other, talking about deals and contracts.
As our force was not well-known, few people approached our delegation at first, but that changed when both Jade from ICP and Stellaron Hunter Kafka came to them. Two of the most famous forces walking toward some unknown group drew the attention of many in the surroundings.
-"We meet again."
-"Indeed, lady Jade."
-"Please just call me Jade. I don't see many of your previous companions, miss..."
-"Just Astraea."
-"Yes, Astraea."
-"They are busy, so I'm here in their name."
-"Understandable. I would like to establish a cooperative relationship between our forces."
-"Oh my! A snake trying to make friends?"
-"While I may have some personal interests in mind, I never manipulate people who are near me, spider."
-"Please, I never do that to my friends, right, Silver Wolf?"
-"Do you have friends, Kafka?"
-"See, I had never manipulated a friend."
-"Ehem, can we keep peace today?"
-"Oh, don't worry, Astraea. Jade and I are actually quite close."
-"She is indeed one of my best freelancers."
-"I see, you indeed share some of Elysia-Mobius energy. While I don't mind reaching cooperation, this has to wait until we know more about why this meeting was called for."
-"Yes, Elio also places great emphasis on this meeting."
-"Well, while I don't have all the knowledge, I also understand that this meeting quite literally will decide the fate of the world."
While I was listening to talks in the hall, Hooh and Nous arrived. Terminus also showed herself, but her companions were who attracted my attention.
~"Terminus, I know that many of those World Bubbles were used by you in experiments, but why do you always give power to people with the same appearance?"
~"Coincidence."
~"Sorry, I don't believe you."
-"Ehem, can we leave this for later?"
~"Sorry, Xipe. How can I call you four by your names?"
-"Yes! But we will also call you Yue."
~"Sure."
~"Go and join Yue's force for now."
~"Pass this to Astraea. She will arrange things for you."~I gave a memory stone with an explanation about four of them to one of them.
-"Acknowledged."
Looking at four of them leaving this space, I could stop a sigh.
~"Why do they seem to know me, Terminus?"
~"I don't know, but this only helps us, so I don't mind."
~"If you say so."
~"Let's start the meeting."
Following the Qlipoth words, Xipe, Ena, and I took our Aeon forms and followed the rest of the Aeons to the hall. We didn't entirely materialize there, but we made our presence felt by those inside.
When auras of eleven Aeons descended upon people there, everyone quieted down, and some even fell to their knees. Despite IPC and Qlipoth being, It was Masked Fool who took the podium first.
-"Ladies and rest of you, shall we start this party?"
~"Haha, Sparke, be kind and give quick introductions."
-"Yes, yes! There are too many of us to speak about everyone, so I'll just mention important ones. First! Our glorious Laughter, Aeon of Elation, Aha! Next, there are some other Aeons, Remembrance, Equilibrium, Hunt Enigmata, Erudition, and Preservation, aka the host."
-"Show some respect to the Amber Lord!"
-"Shush, nerd, I'm speking now. Where were I... Ah! Harmony is here too, and for the first time in ages, Order has returned! Also, Finality graced everyone with Their presence."
~"Be a dear, and don't forget about our Youngest."
-"Right! Ehem, It's my honor to be the first in history to announce the newest Aeon. Aeon of Ordination, Akasha!"
This earned surprised murmurs from around the hall. Ascension of Aeon was an epoch-changing event, so everyone was aware of my existence, but for most, it was the first time they learned my name and Path.
-"Now that Aeons are out of the way, turn for us. IPC stands there, as you all knew before. Here are Stellarons Hunters, and over there are some Emmanators, but they are too boring, so I don't remember their names. Ah! Between the IPC and Hunters, there is a force of Akasha, so be nice to them! And I'm a Masked Fool. Done!"
~"Perfect. Qlipoth care to explain why we gathered here?"
~"Oswaldo Schneider."
-"Yes, Amber Lord. Ladies and gentlemen, what I'm about to say was learned by members of the Marketing Development Department from an expedition to the other world and establishing contact with forces there."
Oswaldo walked to the center of the hall and continued speaking.
-"The world we are colliding with can be considered to be stronger than ours. Most of the fractions there exist in a state of perpetual war. In their eyes, our world is price to be divided."
-"Can't we negotiate with them?"-Asked someone present.
-"It's futile. Only one contact attempt ended successfully, while the rest resulted in a battle erupting. I will now share some basic knowledge."
A hologram depicting a galaxy with marked zones of influence and major locations appeared over everybody's heads.
-"First, there are eight distinct forces present in the galaxy called Milky Way: Imperium of Man, Chaos, Asuryani, Drukhari, Tyranids, Orks, Necrons, and T'au Empire. Chaos and Imperium are the strongest fractions, while Tyranids and Orks possess unknown levels of strength, but certainly not lower than those two."
Additional holograms depicting people that appeared human, alongside armors and mechs, appeared.
-"Imperium of Man is a radical monarchy, believing in God Emperor of Mankind. Their technology is much less advanced than ours, but because of their unity, their forces can overwhelm IPC by at least ten thousand to one. While most soldiers can't compare to ours, we encountered stronger units that can compare to Pathstriders."
-"Why does their technology level seem so unnatural?"-Wondered one of Genius Society members.
-"While unconfirmed, we deduced that the technological level of Imperium must have been higher before. Something must have caused its decline. There exists a technological cult within Imperium ranks, but we lack any solid knowledge beyond their name, the Adeptus Mechanicus."
-"Is there any chance of reaching peace with them?"-It was Ayaka who asked this question.
-"It's hard to say. While they are racist against any alien race, there may be a chance to reach some accord. The only problem is the influence of the church, which will oppose any contact with those considered heretics."
While the discussion about Imperium continued below, we also spoke our thoughts. We isolated ourselves from the hall, not to be heard by the 'mortals' there.
~"Did you confirm if said Emperor is truly a god?"
~"Don't worry, Ena, he is not. At most, he can be considered a half-god ascended by faith."
~"God of faith... this can be tricky."
~"Don't be so cowardly, Yue. He can't do anything against us."
~"While, as Aeon, I'm not afraid of him, gods of faith can be more dangerous than divine gods because of their ability to manipulate mortals."
~"Yue's worry is indeed not misplaced, Aha. We need to have a way to shield our followers from the influence of the gods of faith. Especially as that emperor is not only a godly being."
We continued to listen to Oswaldo as he started to introduce the next faction.
-"Now, allow me to speak about the Chaos faction. This force consists of demons and corrupted mortals, but what is important is their place of origin, the Warp. An immaterial realm where all thoughts, emotions, and, most importantly, souls enter."
The existence of Warp especially surprised Fuli and her followers, who started whispering between themself.
-"In there, four leaders exist: the Blood God, Khorne; the Plague Lord, Nurgle; the Dark Prince, Slaanesh; the Changer of Ways, Tzeentch. Each of them is the true god with immense power, empowering those under their rule."
-"Can we even fight against them?"
Many people started to question their ability to defend against invaders.
~"Leave the gods to us. You are to fight their armies."~I spoke to those below to calm them down.
-"Yes, Lord Akasha!"
-"But how can we defeat someone who will revive if he is killed?"
-"By sealing."-Responded Astraea to a question asked by some unnamed person.
-"Sealing? Do we have the ability to seal them effectively?"
-"They are beings of the immaterial world, so if Memokeepers work together, dealing with them won't be too hard."
-"Miss Astraea, do you have some knowledge of seals?"-Asked Memokeeper.
-"I don't personally, but there are many who are versed in sealing techniques in our force. Fu Xuan, do you have some sealing technique that can be used here?"
-"I do."-Fu Xuan demonstrated the seal by placing it on Memokeeper, who asked the question.
-"Something like that can certainly seal any Pathstrider. Even Emanator would need some time to break it."
-"Then this is a feasible method to deal with demons. Next, we need..."
~"Those four will be troublesome."
~"I fully agree with you, Mythus. We can't sever their source of power, not to mention that this conflict will only make them stronger."~HooH stated the problem with the gods of faith.
~"We can only fight them safely if we battle two versus one. Confronting one of them alone would be risky."~Ena voiced her opinion.
~"We can't give them any chance to enter this world. If Warp were to root itself here, it would spell our doom."
~"Qlipoth is right. Warp can't connect our words, or we will never be able to sever it later. Those goods would also rise in strength beyond our power to manage. Terminus, what do you think?"
~"This is the most dangerous enemy we have to face personally, but not the only threat our world will face. Yue, you are the only one who can truly threaten them with your Path, and as Spirit, you are also the only one fully immune to Warp because they can't affect your soul."
~"So you want me to take care of them?"
~"No, you can't show them that you can threaten their existence, or they will ally to destroy you. Especially that your world would attract them even more."
~"Then what do you want me to do?"
~"We will deal with Chaos Gods, while the other threat will be left to you."
~"Can you do it?"
~"If Hold helps."
~"We will."
In the hall, the consensus was reached, and the subject moved to the next race.
-"The next two forces are of the same race but need to be considered separately because of their differences, the Asuryani and Drukhari. They are a race called Eldar that is technically advanced and magically attuned but at the brink of extinction."
Holograms of different armors and weapons appeared before the people present.
-"Asuryani are one of the few likely allies we can find. While overly proud, they are concerned about the survival of their race and are sworn enemies of many other races. Drukhari are entirely different, as they are the most deprived being in existence."
-"What could they have done to receive such appraisal from you?"
-"We recovered living trophies. Humans are molded into trophies while still alive."
This earned a horrified reaction from the crowd.
-"Filth."-Feng spoke, looking at the data provided by the IPC-"Some beings don't deserve redemption."
-"True."
-"Ehem"-Oswaldo started speaking again.-"Those forces are minor, so we don't have to focus on them for now. The next force that I will only mention are Necrons. They are certainly dangerous, but they reappeared not long ago, and such do not pose great danger to us."
He waited for everyone to read the information given to them before continuing.
-"The last force that can be considered part of 'Humanity' is the T'au Empire. They are a caste-based oligarchy that was the group we were able to communicate with. We possess a channel of communication with them, and they expressed their interest in an alliance with us, but we are still negotiating the details."
-"Good, some force to assist us and provide us with information would be valuable."
-"Indeed. Now, the last two races are left, and we will start with Orks. They are a race of humanoid and sentient fungi that seek only fights through the cosmos. They can't be negotiated with. Only combat is their interest."
-"If they are not highly intelligent, why are they treated with such seriousness like Empire or Chaos?"
-"Thier sheer amount is the reason. There are more Orks than previous races together. They will certainly attack us. There is no question about that. That's why we are speaking about them."
-"There isn't much to talk about. We just have to kill them if they come."-Kafka told the simple truth.
-"Yes, but we will need to gather more forces, as IPC can't face them all alone. We will launch mass recruitment for a joint army of forces that will join the initiative. But before that, one last race needs to be introduced, the Tyranids."
~"Hive Mind? This is the second threat you were referring to, Terminus?"
~"Yes."
~"Why? They are a race that can't even come close to threatening gods. For mortals, they might be a grave danger, and even if they can limit so-called Psychic power, theoretically including the power of Paths in that category, there shouldn't be world-ending danger to us."
~"Alone certainly, but they already gained the power to threaten us. Qlipoth, tell us the true reason why you called us so quickly."
~"While we were aware of the world approaching ours for a long time, I called you here after the first invasion from their side occurred. A group of Tyranids appeared and destroyed one planet before returning to their world."
~"This doesn't sound like an accident."
~"And it wasn't, Xipe. The planet they attacked was a prison planet of IPC, one where Tayzzyronth was kept. What we will face is not a mortal Hive Mind, but a new Aeon of Propagation."