The lonesome moon hauntingly floated in the ocean of space, mournfully lingering in Earth’s tranquil wake. From behind her pale majesty the legion emerged, those seeds of Tartarus, cresting her ashen glory surging recklessly onward to the verdant globe beyond. Across the gulf, the legion hurtled toward the Earth soon glowing rubescent in her outer atmosphere. Faster and faster, the risk of collision increasing with the hellish roar of reentry, the end seemed certain until abruptly the asteroids slowed spreading out to take calculated orbit around the globe. Circling their prey in premeditation, something stirred inside their pitted hides.

Within the largest of the asteroids, a faint pulsing echoed throughout its caliginous passages as the iron seed came alive. Following that increased pounding, one was drawn deep within to a vast cavity at its thrumming core. Looming in the gloom, ringing the pit, cruel, vicious faces chiseled from blemished stone glared down. These fiendish monuments, the cultus, were a fearsome sight, incapable of smile or frown with jagged maws and lidless eyes. Cyclopean in size and nightmarish in physiognomy, these were the Cthon Daimōnes, the scourge of worlds and their gaze saw neither pleasure, nor light, nor beauty.

Below, the rephaim lurked in the shadows along the periphery. Only the shine of their lacquered scales betrayed their presence, these guards of the seed; servants of the lowest nature. They hid in the searing crevices, blending with the rock heedless to the frantic activity unfolding around them.

Strange almond shaped creatures of green metal, the laelaps, hovered throughout the vast grotto attending to various interfaces scattered about, silently receiving and transmitting information throughout the invasion fleet. No larger than the torso of a young child, they wirelessly communicated with the digital spirit of the asteroid. And far above, in repositories shallow and harsh, woke the horde, bringers of the scourge.

At the center of the chamber a shaft of light streaked from floor to the ceiling forming a diaphanous pillar. Towards that column strode a titan of dragon kin. He was Akkad, leader of the invasion, venerated heir and avatar to the cultus. Covered in glistening scales of a sallow shade, he lumbered with a slight hunch, scarred and battle hardened; a consumer of worlds beyond sum. He stalked forward, flexing his broad shoulders as the talons of his feet clacked on the stone. Akkad swayed with each step, letting the weight of his body carry him forward while his tail served to balance his mass on short, thick legs. Something akin to a purr cackled in his throat as he neared the pillar of light. Within the ghostly glow floated a rudimentary image of the Earth that shined in his oily black eyes.

Akkad went to seize the illusory world in his gnarled claws casting shadow on the gleaming sphere, hesitating to relish the expectation. “Soon shall I prove myself upon your shores,” he whispered raggedly, sighing roughly. “You will know my name. Succumb to me. Call me…conqueror.” A tiny blip appeared just outside his grasp on the holographic display. “What is this?” Akkad turned to a nearby laelap, his hand slipping from the light. “What is that?” he repeated in irritation, violently jabbing a claw at the anomaly.

The laelap approached the pillar of light. The Earth faded from view and the blip was magnified. A disc floated before them. Its calculations completed, the laelap emanated a glimmering aura which expanded until it assumed a vaguely humanoid silhouette subsuming the form of the laelap within it. The silhouette turned to Akkad. “It would appear to be a spacecraft, daimōn.”

Akkad leaned in menacingly close to the laelap’s silhouette. “Where did it come from?”

“Point of origin is difficult to ascertain. It does not match any known design.”

Akkad traced the outlines of the disc. “Why didn’t we pick it up when we entered the system?”

“Apparently it was hiding in the corona of this system’s star.”

The daimōn swiped at the disc. “An ambush.”

“I do not believe so, daimōn. It has powered up no weapons systems nor has it taken any aggressive action.”

“Yet,” Akkad countered. “I want a full scan of that ship.”

“Yes, daimōn.”

As the laelap hovered away, a blazing particle drifted into the cavern unnoticed. The size of a grain of sand, the radiance it possessed burned brightly in the dimness buffeted by some unknown force. It twirled through the arid confines eventually reaching the center of the vast chamber. There it exploded. Brilliant white light burst through the chamber flooding every crack and crevice with a searing luminosity that forced Akkad to cover his achromatic eyes and stagger back a step. The damnable shrieks of the serpentine grated throughout the cavern, many fleeing into the bowels of the asteroid in terror. The exalted effulgence quickly receded, coalescing into a figure that floated three feet above the cavern’s floor. Clad in silken fire with tendrils flaring around him like billowing samite, the intensity of his glow granted the figure’s face an opaque, almost photonegative quality. He said nothing as he hovered there surrounded by the Cthon, instead surveying the realm into which he had materialized. He found himself confronted by the wretched horde, ululating wickedly, clutching the walls, myriad eyes of spearing jet balefully fixed upon him.

From the margins the horde leapt sprinting on all fours like beasts toward the interloper. The being did not flinch. With a wave of his hand, an invisible force threw the creatures back violently slamming them into the lithic wall with shattering force. Another pair sprung from the tunnels hungry for flesh. The figure extended both his hands and gripped them into fists before lifting them skyward. The pair found themselves jerked from the floor. With the flick of the figure’s wrists, they crashed into one another and dropped limply to the pebbled, rubble strewn deck. The walls roiled as more readied to pounce.

“Stop!” the daimōn commanded, calling an end to the senseless melee. The rephaim hissed from all sides in tenuous obedience, the horde hesitated. “Speak. Now!”

The figure bowed his head respectfully. “I mean you no harm.” His words hummed with power.

Akkad’s fanged mouth hung open in bemusement. “You speak our tongue.”

“I speak many tongues.”

“You also speak lies. You invade my command, attack my guards, and expect me to believe you come peacefully?” The daimōn surveyed the crumpled forms of his men. “But they did provoke you did they not? Impulsive.” Akkad clicked his teeth together in disappointment. “An impressive display,” he conceded. “You show much courage coming into my den. You have earned my interest, though not my mercy. We shall see whether that shall be the case. Why have you come? Who are you?”

“I am Peshotanu of the Theria.”

Harrowing shrieks went up throughout the chamber only to be silenced by Akkad’s upraised arm. “The Theria. I have heard of your kind across countless worlds; so many called to you when we found them. But you were not to be found.” The daimōn’s hand lowered and curved through the pillar of light. Earth once more floated before him. “And yet here you stand a myth too late to comfort.” Akkad extended his arms and mockingly bowed, his malicious stare never leaving Peshotanu. “What have I done to draw the interest of the gods?”

“Trespassed.” Peshotanu floated toward the shaft of light and the Earth it held. “You have entered my domain.”

Akkad rounded his shoulders, flexing the muscles of his great arms. “This world has been marked for the scourge, an honor I have been chosen to bestow.” The horde screamed in support, a whine to split all Creation.

Peshotanu did not flinch. “There is no honor in what you plan.”

“The eradication of the weak...there is nothing more honorable. It is the will of Ixion. It is the command of Topheth.” Akkad bowed his head in veneration to his masters. “The scourge will either strengthen them or extinguish them. That is the way.”

Peshotanu shook his head. “How wanting you are, beast.”

“Wanting?” Akkad thundered insulted, stalking toward the Therian. “I will show you how wanting we are! Our sensors show you have but one ship versus our fleet. Even a god cannot defend against the onslaught of my forces. We will drown you in fire!”

Peshotanu put out a hand to stop him. “If I could penetrate your most secure defenses, what makes you think I could not destroy your entire fleet just as easily?”

“Then why don’t you, Therian?” Akkad dared, seething.

“In respect to your rephaim, to your horde,” Peshotanu replied. “Would you forfeit their souls to the void?”

Stillness. Akkad felt the palpable fear of his men at the risk of being cast into space. A true warrior died upon a world in battle and became one with its great spirit, their blood spreading life, marking the soil, making them part of something greater. But the abyss, even he trembled at the thought of facing the great blackness. To be threatened with such dissolution incensed him. “We will not retreat.” A howl went up among the rephaim. “We will not retreat!” he bellowed, the horde joining him. “You claim this world? Cast us to the void and I shall crash what remains of our fleet into this world and render it barren. You cannot what is to come.”

Peshotanu paused before eventually yielding, taking in the whole of damnation. “Perhaps.”

“What then?” Akkad growled. “What is to be done?”

Peshotanu gazed unflinchingly into the dead eyes of Akkad. “We pursue an honorable resolution.” The figure circled the daimōn until the Earth once more came into view.

A cackle gurgled in Akkad’s throat. “What would that be?”

“The rite of Moirai.”

Akkad chortled a flinty laugh joined by the callous cries of the horde. “War by proxy? That right hasn’t been used in centuries and then only between Cthon. Few races have proven worthy of invoking it and none have dared.”

“I dare,” Peshotanu challenged. Such boldness stunned the horde.

Akkad finally spoke. “What right do you even have to declare it?”

“My claim to this world is ancient. And as I stand here before you, have I not earned your respect?” Peshotanu queried the stygian heights and the horrors that populated them.

“You have,” Akkad conceded, the horde quiet.

“Then,” Peshotnau started, his attention returned to Akkad, “as we now stand, I ask to parlay as an equal.”

Was this a bluff? Akkad was unsure. He could challenge by force, but to fail...the tales he had heard of the Theria were enough to give even the strongest pause. None had ever breached the seed yet here he stood. There was but one choice. “What do you ask?”

“Terms.”

“Given”

“By the rite of Moirai, it is my right to decide the method of battle and...the location.”

“That is your right,” Akkad agreed readily.

Peshotanu nodded. “Let a duel of fate settle this matter. Should I win, you will recognize my sovereignty. Should I lose, I surrender this planet to your forces.”

The Earth hovered between Peshotanu and Akkad as the daimōn licked his fangs relishing this challenge. “The site of battle?”

“The world in question.”

Akkad was livid realizing what had been done. “You cannot-”

Peshotanu’s attention shifted to the Earth. “And by right, until this is settled, none of your forces may enter my domain.”

Akkad shuddered in rage, spitting in disgust at the prospect. “But...my choice-”

“Must be within my domain.”

“You would have me choose one of these...men to represent the Cthon?”

“Or forfeit.”

“That is heresy!”

Peshotanu smiled subtly. “You conceded.”

“You tricked me!”

“To violate your word is to strip yourself of honor.” Pehsotanu turned his accusatory glance from the daimōn to the horde above daring refusal.

Akkad struggled to contain himself. If he were to nullify the rite, it would strip him of prestige. In so doing, he could face challenge to his role as daimōn, endanger his standing with the great Ixion. Curse the invasion. What wrath would that bring upon him and his forces? To the honorless went the void. Yet, hollow was the laugh that Akkad loosed, his once rigid frame softening. “You are a crafty one.”

“I am what I must be,” Peshotanu confessed.

“Your clever mind shall not save your domain,” Akkad swore. “I accept your challenge and I shall best your champion. The will of Ixion and Topheth shall be done. May existence quake with the battle to come and the scourge to follow. And regardless of your will, the seed of our blood shall be planted.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 3