Black Magus

3rd of Quartutus, 1492.

***

While I had given my Legions much, I had not given my Legionaries everything, and those things were not free.

Regardless if one stayed for their lifetime, retired, or separated from the forces after our time in Maru, to enter the Legions was to begin down the path of absolute potentiality. As their leader, as their God, my job was to accompany them, to guide them, but not give the answers freely.

The assistance given to Duke in the months prior was a crude example of that, given in the form of a training exercise for Iris. Every time after that was an exception.

Every time after was now a rule, for my ascension made my job infinitely easier. The power of the divine worked subtly. And so subtle I would be. Even while I made myself present in the minds of my Imperators.

The easiest way I could describe the effect was an alteration of perception. Which, I supposed, was accurate. Faith and thus divine mana were influenced by perception. Thus, it would only make sense for it to affect perception. It changed how I could be seen by my followers. It changed how the followers of others saw me. Monstrous or divine.

That was merely the tip of the iceberg, however.

It changed how I taught my Legions, and in ways I never would have thought possible. And so, as Iris had once done, I descended to teach and, in turn, learn from one of my first friends; metaphorically so.

Among all the Conditor, Duc'cec was among the most peculiar, for he'd obtained everything he never asked for; things many mortals spent their lives chasing, delving into the pits of depravity or seeking the most pious path to absolute power.

In that way, Duke felt Sapiavi were different from other creatures. Or that they were similar to the Felipians regarding their belief that power was a synonym of survivability. Competence. Not a force of one's will on one's environment. And yet, he claimed that very power. The power to force his will on his environment.

It was something entirely foreign to him. Duke left his nest at a young age like most male Sapiavi, allowing the winds to take him where he needed to go. To the Bodhi Tree. And so, where many of our classmates saw this as a time to teach and grow humble, he and a few others saw this as a time to learn and become proud. Proud of his Legion. Proud of himself.

Proud of his heritage as a Sapiavi with a lineage born from an apex predator.

The subjects of his lessons were Expansion and Contraction, delivered by the vehicles of Action and Reflection. Those lessons began shortly after my ascension, when he dove into the storms of the 1st Legion raging above Ligin, leading his fleets of newly augmented pilots and flying mages to their apparent doom. Within those toiling clouds, he acted and thus learned how to contract, following the whims of the storm as he dipped, bobbed, and rolled into position within the eye and expanded, unleashing the perks of his class and the war spells of their Raphew onto the training dummies and evolved beasts scattered to the winds.

Simultaneously, his Doppelganger was with his many subordinates, expanding in response to the many changes that befell the Bodhi Peninsula. While they weren't dipping in and out of the storms with their Imperator, the Sky Striders had been scouring the Bodhi Tree's upper atmosphere, analyzing every square meter to update the cartographic records and distribute them across the three networks; and all the while, more of them had contracted and took time to get acquainted with their Uma and determine their next phase of operations.

Expansion.

That began four days after my ascent and immediately after, Duke stepped further down his path. But of course, it began with contraction. A recall, of sorts, that saw nearly every Sky Strider convene, retrain, and be tested on the mountain of technology given to them from Iris Cole Engineering and Blue Peak Aerospace Industries. While the latter was the brain-child of their sponsor, ICE was something they brought into their facilities on their own accord. Combat drones. Bays for manufacturing, maintenance, or storage. Virtual reality training rooms- the largest and most advanced ones on the market.

With those tools and more, they mastered the use of the absurd upgrades Geri made to their fleets without making their existence known to those below and more, without causing something to inevitably go awry; for such things were natural when the spring and winter-infused intakes, jets, and rockets created their own air and made it impossible for the drives to overheat.

Only then did they expand, and at their lead was Duke, flying higher and faster than ever before. Higher and faster even than his new air and water-attuned [Jetstream Contour Feathers] permitted him to fly, for thunder could not echo above the skies; and while his integrated CAMS, POTTER, Raphew, and AVA broadened his capabilities enough to have him survive in the void of space, they were still not rated to perform in a vacuum. Thus he contracted.

By his lonesome, Duke ascended above the skies and accelerated further as his integrated CAMS came online, wreathing his body in translucent scales that functioned the same as a spacesuit, yet gave him unbroken views of the airless void.

As it did with many, such wondrous sights made Duke pause everything. His thoughts, his actions, and his thrust. Placing him into a violent spin that got worse as he corrected and over-corrected and struggled with the laws of Newtonian Physics, forcing him to contract more.

Into the depths of his mind, he dug to recount all he'd learned of physics while he carved away the instincts of a creature born for the skies. Bit by bit, he stayed his flapping. Piece by piece, he remembered his augmentations. Millimeter by kilometer, he delved deeper into his mind to take command of his body and thus his thrusters to stabilize himself as he charged deeper into the abyss.

His stabilization gave rise to an expansion. An explosion of tests, challenges, and trials born from the spirit of will to make him more at ease in the void of space; he dove deeper into the great empty for hours unto days, and at ease, he became.

His easiness saw him rise to his woven world of Krakatol. Not to land but to skim through its skies, taking from it the gaseous, thunderous, and water-based materials to have them trail his contraction into the void; his contraction into his mind and the augmentations within. The Swarm Hive Cortex. A gift from the ArcaTech that allowed him to design and fabricate hollow scaffolds of metal joined together via actuators and sockets, filled with electronic organs and covered in synthetic muscles, false nerves, engineered skin, and arcane feathers.

Birds.

Drones. Controlled either remotely or autonomously.

Duke intended to start his swarm off with a dozen reconnaissance drones consisting of 6 cranes and 6 harpy eagles. He found it was much harder than he anticipated, however, as the augmentation only assisted in fabricating and controlling the drones, not commanding them efficiently. Thus, he expanded. He compartmentalized his enhanced mental faculties to create functions, programs, and subprocesses; gaining ever more control over his swarm from his incorporeal throne in deep space, even as they descended to complete his orders; for Duke was not the only one to expand and contract.

After the murder of an Eomen and the subsequent execution of Ranren Torhorn, Zaos and thus the elves of Rhar had contracted to grieve and make plans regarding their future. Thus, Eotrom and her Legions would expand to prepare and take action to seize the future. Other Legions had begun already. The Undying Night extended their wall of storms across the Rharian borders from Ligin to the Tri-Point. Vulcans let the volcanoes bellow and howl with fury and then channeled the flows away from Kasia and toward Rhar. The Deliverers continued their silent war, delivering fallen Rharian souls to damnation. The Blooded continued liberating the Rharian denizens who wished to leave. Lunarians kept a fleet behind to survey the coast from afar. The 10th…

The now-Sky Skimmers swarmed across the Rharian skies, analyzing the mountain of cartographic data being transmitted by their Imperator's drones, migrating and feasting on the forgotten armaments of trespassers and poachers. With the materials ingested, the drones did as life forms did and multiplied, laying eggs from the coast to the Tri-Point. Eggs that hatched in record time; dozens of hours, not dozens of days. Eggs that boasted more capabilities than their predecessors.

Rather than ingesting seeds, berries, bugs, fish, mammals, and even other birds, the second-generation drones manufactured and planted them. Flowers that would grow and subtly change Rhar's climate. Sensors that would be eaten by fauna and be taken deeper into the forest than they could travel. Cameras and microphones. Remotely controlled probes. Automated robots. More drones for the hive.

So it was. One front turned into two.

So it was. The next step down the Eternal Path was ensured.