A figure flashed by her, and Circe recognized the person to be the only Earth god in the caravan, Roger, he reached the site of the first crash and plunged into the crater, a few seconds later he erupted out of the ground while cackling maniacally like a mad man, although he quickly kept what he found inside his spatial ring, the light that flashed from it was enough to alert the rest of the people here that something very valuable must be raining down from the heavens and excitement rippled through the crowd.
As more meteors impacted against the earth, it was no longer welcomed with fear but with excitement as more people began to enter the burning craters and retrieve large lumps of glowing crystals, and they did not even need to know what they had dug up, just touching these crystals was filling their bodies with so much energy and vitality, some of them began to ascend into higher levels.
A maddening excitement that was unequalled filled the crowd and the entire area devolved into a scene of chaos. Families were forgotten, friends discarded, as everyone began to push for the chance to obtain blessings from the heavens.
The chance to become something great was before them and no one wanted to be left behind. It did not take long for the first murder to happen, and this seemed to spark a madness in the crowd and blood began to flow as men and women butchered each other for a chance to reach the heavens in a single step.
The Earth god that should have usually controlled the chaos, did not care what was happening behind him, he was busy going forward to hunt for more crystalized Aether.
The caravan was lucky to be in an area where many meteorites were falling, but this advantage would not be held for long before other powerful Dominators would begin to find their way towards this area, he knew he needed to hurry to acquire more.
He did not care who collected the crystals behind him, he would be seizing all of them when he was done, as far as he was concerned they were just acting as harvesters for him.
Roger had already prepared himself to flee with his most talented offspring and abandon this caravan so he could digest this benefit for the next coming years. He no longer cared if the business he had managed for thousands of years were to be destroyed. If he returned with a more powerful family comprising of two or more Earth gods, he would be able to rebuild something greater from the ashes.
His maniacal laughed rang out in the horizon, it was as if he had gone mad.
Circe was once again reminded of the chaos of Jarkarr and she stood still, not participating in the chaos… she knew this event was not normal, and everything in her heart told her the reason for this occurrence could be tied to one person.
Her heart began to beat so fast that it was hurting her and to her surprise, blood filled her throat and she had to cough it out, panic occupied her mind and the thought of fleeing Trion filled her soul, she had no idea when the fear of Rowan had begun to consume her but then she figured out that she needed a few moments to process what she had witnessed and the full weight of the monster that she had lived with before she could truly comprehend who he truly was.
Rowan was neither a man, monster nor a god, he was something worse, and everything he touches leads to ruin, not because that was his intention, it was because his presence had a weight that crushed the fragile reality she knew, exposing the rotting layer beneath.
She looked to the heavens, the descending meteors were so beautiful, and then she looked to the earth and saw the endless barbarity and bloodshed.
Brothers killing brothers, sisters killing fathers… the lust for power blinding them, and she began to understand… 'Is this how we are all to you? Misguided fools and children?'
Circe no longer felt the desire to pursue this power, this was what happened on Jarkarr, the world went mad, and the man with the eyes of a dragon reaped the life from the world.
She began to retreat but then she felt the claws on Archimedes tighten on her shoulders, and she paused.
"What is it?" she snapped, a bit irritated, the Lightning Kirin had not been gentle and Circe's collarbone had snapped under the claws of the beast, and she could feel blood pooling between her breasts as she bled profusely.
Archimedes could only mutely point at the sky and Circe looked up.
The pain and irritation vanished as awe and fear took their place. The night suddenly turned to the brightest day, as millions...no… billions of burning meteorites began to fall.
"what the fuck is happening?" Archimedes screamed, no longer bothering with disguises.
®
The silver line that moved through space did so with the aid of invisible Aether Streams that moved through the universe. Some called this stream the veins of the universe that channeled its lifeblood.
Whatever this silver line was, it contained a vast and powerful Aether that had no reason to be found inside the material universe. That Aether acted like a magnet dragging the surrounding Aether to itself.
Like a star whose gravity tugged planets to revolve around it, the silver line began to unknowingly drag a vast amount of Aether along.
Inside the endless void of the universe, this Aether was almost invisible, only acting to propel the speed of the silver line to go faster, but as it approached a Major World such as Trion with its unique defenses and characteristics, the vast amount of Aether being carried along by the silver line clashed against the outer surfaces of the planet.
The first impact was mild, this came from the Aether in front of the silver line that had been pushed ahead of it.
The collision with the planet caused a major portion of the Aether to disperse back into space, but a minor part of the Aether was compressed and their increased weight was enough to punch through the atmosphere of Trion.
The first thousand waves of meteorites were only the heralds, as they were the ones pushed ahead of the silver line, although this small portion was already causing quite a commotion on the planet below.
The second collision was much grander in scale as the true force of the Aether collected by the sliver line slamming against Trion made the entire planet light up.
It was fortunate that the outer layers of Trion were so dense in energy or the clash of Aether alongside the heat and the light generated by this collision would have killed everything on that side of the planet.
The result was a greater portion of that Aether was vented into space creating vast plumes of multicolored light that could be seen from all over the galaxy, and the ones that could enter the planet were only a minor portion, yet that represented billions of 'meteorites' pushing into Trion.
The silver line was buried deep inside this conflagration, and the moment it broke past the atmosphere of the planet.
Rowan woke up.
It was only for an instant but he saw his target and he veered towards her.
