The Augustine seemed to be stirred by the beautiful melody that resonated across the planet. Diego, Estell and Isadora finally summoned their own blades, the four sabres of the family lit up, as if they had missed being on the same battlefield.
SHING! SHING! SHING! SHING!
The sharpening of saber's rang out.
Each scrape of Lu against their blades produced another sound. Each shing seemed to harmonise with the heavenly orchestra called down by Vincent and Maria Decimus.
Diego spoke out one last time before he lay on the ground and closed his eyes.
"They'll be here in 2 minutes."
As the family heads prepared to defend their children and possessions, their children sought refuge in Augustine Manor.
Valerio led his childhood friends through the manor without a hint of their stamina being conserved. The main reason they could continue without tiring was Aurora's Light Lu; they blazed through the long hallways of Void Ore and down to the training arena under the mansion where Valerio had awakened his physique.
As soon as the vast training grounds appeared before Valerio, he started decelerating, the rest of the cohort followed in tandem. Soon enough, everyone had come to a standstill, yet nobody spoke; the sounds of gasping and breathing filled the grand training grounds.
Valerio was the first to catch his breath, not because he had conserved his stamina but rather because the others had been overexerting themselves to carry him at the same speed as them.
His voice rang out, echoing around the grand halls with a hint of hope.
"Do any of you know what's going on?"
Everyone promptly shook their heads; they were all starting to regulate their breathing, after all, they were all trained heirs. Valerio didn't say anything else, looking over his friends.
Their postures were straight, their breathing slowly evening out, not a single one hunched over and breathing heavily, even though it was exactly what the body would want to do. Their posture and attitude sparked that same flame of desire that seeing his parents fight had sparked, a desire for strength. A desire to push through his physical limits rather than the mental ones he had been pushing past his entire life.
"We just need to wait."
All eyes turned to Oliver.
Anyone who saw Oliver would be scared of him; his ability to stay calm in any situation could make him appear as a psychopath. It was only these friends of his who knew him and understood him.
All eyes turned to Oliver.
He was as calm as always, his breathing steadying, back straight, voice even as he directly stated the most logical and safe method of action. If it had been anyone but his childhood friends who saw his reactions to his parents battling, the planet being invaded and more. They would have mistaken him for a psychopath when in reality, Oliver simply acted with necessity most of the time.
"Oh yeah, of course, we just need to wait. I hope waiting resolves that man's anger too," spat Lucy, her tone laced with sarcasm as well as subtle anger as she glared at Oliver for making such a, what seemed to her as, a ridiculous suggestion.
Felix drove an elbow into Lucy's arm, threw her a look and spoke, "Fine, fine, yeah, Olly's right. We can't realistically do anything other than wait, but did you guys not hear that man? He spoke as if we were at the corner of a universe, instead of being in the universe."
Aurora responded, "I was thinking about that as well, are we in some sort of spatial pocket. No, but what type of spatial pocket could contain a universe inside? Moreover, what could our families have done that could earn such ire?"
"They're hiding something from us…" Valerio took a breath, seemingly staring at the ground as he continued talking, "Did you guys never find it strange? The history of this galaxy, the uncontested domino of our families? The lack of rebellions or other families rising to our level? Isn't it as if they literally exist above the rest of the universe?" Valerio looked up at his friends, "To me, it seems like our universe isn't a universe at all, or if it is, there's much hidden from us."
A sigh escaped the twins, a subtle smile forming as they glanced at each other.
Felix's Spiritual Lu erupted as a starry galaxy appeared above the ground. Hues of purple, blue, and yellow mixed to form their galaxy.
"We saw this map while researching a spying mechanism," Felix pointed towards the image above the ground, "but soon enough our parents zoomed out."
The shimmering galaxy decreased in size to a mere point as the perspective of the image zoomed out to another galaxy. Except…
This galaxy didn't consist of stars but galaxies.
What did that mean?
The elegant, spiral shape of a galaxy was created due to how stars, planets and meteors revolved around a supermassive black hole.
The galaxy Felix was currently showing was a supercluster. A spiral made not of stars, but smaller galaxies.
Just as the training ground broke out into a scene, the family heads were preparing for their final stand before returning home.
The patriarchs and matriarchs of the families stood next to each other, each and every one of them a stunning couple. Yet these couples were powerhouses that would hold up the skies today for their children and a chance at their future. Diego and Estelle stood in front of the family heads, their thoughts unknown.
Suddenly, the fabric of spacetime ripped.
Above the atmosphere of Fluxara, a dozen men and women appeared with a woman leading the group. Their sudden deceleration rippled the fabric of the world, what would have been sonic booms turned into silent tears into spacetime.
The leader had a look below, a chuckle leaving her mouth. The heavenly orchestra that had been building up became quieter as she spoke.
"So you are real. Legends of bedtime stories my parents had read to me."
She smiled.
"Hmm, I don't recognise this one? Did you marry Clarence?" A playfully sad smile painted the woman's face, as if she had wanted Clarence for herself.
"At least I know the rest, let's see," she murmured as she glanced down.
"Veronica Vermillious, Empress of Death"
"Maria Decimus, Empress of Order"
"Wow, another one I don't recognise," she exclaimed as she looked at Isadora.
"Looks like Maxi also got taken… Don't worry, boys, I haven't forgotten you a lot."
"Clarence Lux, Emperor of Light."
"Vermillious Solarius, Emperor of All that Burns"
"Vincent Decimus, the only one, who refused to share his title. I wonder if you'd tell me once I have you detained?"
"And finally, Maximus Augustine, Heir of the Void." A smile tugged at the woman's face as she looked over the cohort of families before letting out a giggle.
"How rude of me not to introduce myself, I am Mary Orion. The single person entrusted with, preferably, your capture or death, and the eradication of thi—"
She was cut short by an arrangement of runes, named a formation.
It instantly appeared above the planet as runes blotted out the starry sky and replaced it with runes of harmony and order, a trump card that Vincent had been saving for this fateful day.
The space around the universe solidified, denying entry and departure. Mary's face contorted as she felt around, and amazement replaced her expression. Deploying a formation over a planet would take years, even for the most excellent experts outside. Though it was much easier to circumvent laws in this place, to deploy it across the entire universe. Was that even possible?
Vermillious broke out into laughter as he watched Maria's face tighten, "To think– to think you'd have made another Vincent. Look at this pawn, she's already scared shitless."
Vincent suppressed the need to roll his eyes at Vermillious' antics as he spoke.
"This will be your resting place, you will die in the same place you look down so much."
Vincent imbued his will into his quill, and the heavenly orchestra that had quieted down suddenly became the only sound in the universe. The music seemed to pour into Vincent as his presence exploded outwards.
His quill started flickering across the air as Maria joined him and started drawing the second half of the array Vincent was forming. An array was an arrangement of runes similar to a formation; the only difference was that an array could be drawn anywhere with Spiritual Lu, whereas formations had to be drawn on a physical material.
Before a second had passed, an array had appeared above Maria, restricting her movements.
In that instant, the war of defiance had begun again.
Diego and Estelle [Void Stepped] into the group of enemies, attacking the closest person they could find and creating as much chaos as possible.
Isadora's horns pulsed in white and black, her scythe practically teleporting to the enemies as she hurled it over. Maxmimus stepped into the void, charging another [Void Sphere].
Just as it seemed that the four families had the absolute advantage, the surroundings' temperature dropped as ice started to spread out from the Orions.
This was a consequence of one of the most feared abilities of the Orion, their ability to turn anything around them into Ice Lu. The earlier invaders had been of diluted bloodlines; they couldn't manifest the talent properly. But the same couldn't be said for Mary Orion and her cohort.