[Location:**House Invictus]
[The towering, impossibly high mountain ranges in the East.]
To breathe the air in Caelus City was to understand your place in the world.
High above the cloud-line of the Holy Caelian Empire, the Zenith Peaks tore into the sky like the jagged teeth of a god. Here, the domain of House Invictus, there was no dirt, no rust, and no poverty. There was only pristine white marble, gleaming platinum spires, and the permanent, suffocating weight of absolute gravity.
A lesser man would find his knees buckling under the sheer atmospheric pressure radiating from the stones. But for the Patriarch of House Invictus, sitting upon his amethyst throne beneath an open, storm-raging sky, the heavy air was simply the natural order of things.
High above his open throne room, the golden lightning violently fractured the sky. Then, with a sudden drop in the already crushing gravity, the air in the center of the room warped and folded inward.
Julian Invictus stepped out of the rift, casually brushing a speck of wasteland ash from his violet silk scarf.
As Julian materialized in the grand courtyard of the Caelus City palace, the atmospheric pressure instantly spiked.
In perfect unison, every soldier present dropped to one knee, the heavy clanking of their gold-and-white armor echoing across the pristine marble. These were the Legio Fulminata—the Stormguard. Known throughout the Empire as the absolute elites of House Invictus, they were an unstoppable force of nature that followed every command of the next heir, Julian Invictus.
From the kneeling ranks, a single, towering figure rose and stepped forward. He had pristine white hair streaked with soot-black strands, a thick golden beard, and piercing Brown eyes that narrowed the moment he saw his nephew. This was Valerius Invictus, Julian's uncle and the Supreme Commander of the Legio Fulminata. Having helped raise the boy, Valerius was one of the few people in the entire Empire who dared to drop the formalities with the young Sovereign.
"Where were you?" Valerius demanded, his voice a low, rumbling thunder.
Julian let out a long, exaggerated sigh, dusting off his violet silk scarf. "Sheesh, Uncle. Stop nagging me, will you? Where is Father?"
"He is in the Throne Room. Why?" Valerius fell into step beside Julian as the young heir lazily strolled toward the inner palace halls.
"Oh, good. I have some important news to share with him," Julian said casually.
Without breaking his stride, Julian lifted his hand. Suspended in a pocket of isolated gravity just above his palm were the three Chaos Cubes.
The moment the artifacts were exposed to the pure, highly concentrated Aethel of the Zenith Peaks, the environment reacted violently. The air around the cubes warped into a suffocating, pitch-black void, only for the passive Path of Jovis magic radiating from Valerius and the palace walls to instantly strike back. Erratic arcs of golden lightning began to violently clash against the dark aura, creating miniature, explosive shockwaves of light and shadow as the divine magic and heretical chaos aggressively rejected each other.
"Wow. This is quite a good show," Julian remarked, watching the violent reaction with a mild, entertained smile.
Valerius stopped dead in his tracks, his golden eyes wide with alarm. He instinctively reached for the hilt of his heavy broadsword. "What the hell is that?"
"I don't know entirely," Julian replied, looking away from the sparking cubes. "But I suppose it gives an immense amount of power to those with weak Aethel, or to those who don't possess a Divine Pathway at all."
"Where did you get it?" Valerius pressed, his tone shifting from an annoyed uncle to a terrified military commander.
"Oh, don't worry about that, Uncle. That isn't the real issue right now," Julian said smoothly, dismissing the question with a wave of his free hand as he continued walking toward the Throne Room. "We have much more important things to discuss."
As Julian and Valerius entered the Apex Sanctum, the sheer scale of the room demanded absolute reverence. It was a space built for gods, perfectly fitting for the family whose very name meant "Unconquered."
At the center of the room, upon a massive, jagged amethyst throne, sat the Patriarch of House Invictus: Tiberius Invictus. He shared the same striking, aristocratic facial structure as Julian, but Tiberius's face was hardened by decades of war. Over his left eye, he wore a thick, rune-carved leather eyepatch, while his remaining right eye burned with a heavy, oppressive purple light.
Standing elegantly by the throne was Julian's mother, Helena Invictus. Her appearance perfectly justified the rumors spread throughout the Empire; she was breathtakingly beautiful. Her flowing, pristine white hair cascaded down her shoulders, and she carried a serene, almost ethereal grace that softly contrasted her husband's terrifying aura.
"Son. Where have you been?" Helena asked, her face lighting up as she glided forward to pull Julian into a warm, aristocratic embrace. He had been missing for three days without a single word to the family.
"Do you have no sense of responsibility as the heir of Invictus?" Tiberius's voice boomed from the throne, the atmospheric pressure in the room dipping slightly with his irritation.
"Come on, Father," Julian whined lazily, gently patting his mother's back. "I was only gone for, what, six hours?"
"Six hours?" Tiberius scowled, gripping the armrests of his throne. "Are you kidding me, boy? You were gone for three entire days without telling a soul!"
Julian blinked, pausing for a moment as if doing the math in his head. "Oh... it was three days? My mistake. I really thought it was just a few hours or so." He let out a cheeky, completely unapologetic chuckle. "Hehe."
"What is so funny, Julian?" Tiberius demanded, his solitary purple eye narrowing dangerously.
"Ahhhhh, come on, Father," Julian sighed, dramatically waving his unburned hand in the air. "Cut me some slack, will you?"
Tiberius, finding no success in scolding his son, shifted his glare to his brother. "And you, Valerius! Didn't I explicitly order you to keep an eye on him? Where is your sense of duty?"
Valerius, the terrifying Supreme Commander of the Stormguard, threw his hands up in sheer exasperation. "Sir, with all due respect, your son literally disappeared into thin air! You know as well as I do that he is one of the strongest and most absurdly crazy people in this entire world. How exactly am I supposed to cage a storm?"
"Ah, Uncle, 'crazy' is a bit of a stretch, okay?" Julian gasped in mock offense, placing a hand over his heart. He then leaned forward, widening his bright purple eyes and giving his hardened, warlord father an exaggerated, innocent pout that vaguely resembled a sad kitten. "I am just a completely normal, twenty-two-year-old boy. Look at this face. Is this the face of a crazy person?"
Valerius crossed his arms, entirely unamused by the young heir's act. "Also, tell me where you got those Chaos Cubes, Julian."
"Ah?" Julian blinked, feigning mild confusion as he casually pulled the three dark, humming cubes from his spatial pocket, letting them hover in the air between them. "Oh, these? You recognize them, Father?"
Tiberius's lone purple eye locked onto the heretical artifacts, the air in the throne room instantly dropping several degrees.
"Well," Julian continued lazily, "I was flying out to the coast to go swimming—oh, wait, no, not swimming. I went for work. Yes, definitely official House business," he corrected himself smoothly, not sounding convincing in the slightest. "Anyway, I overheard three unknown individuals in the Uncharted Wastes plotting to destroy something or other, and..."
"And what, Julian?" Tiberius leaned forward, his voice tight with anticipation. "Did you capture them?"
Julian tilted his head, genuinely bewildered. "Capture? Were we supposed to catch them?"
Tiberius let out a heavy, exhausted sigh, pinching the bridge of his nose as if trying to stave off a migraine. "Julian... really? We have to interrogate traitors to find out who they work for, right?"
"Oh, right. Good point," Julian nodded cheerfully. "Anyway, I completely vaporized them with lightning. There isn't a single trace left."
Valerius closed his eyes in sheer defeat, while Helena just offered a small, amused smile.
"So, what are these things anyway, Father?" Julian asked, tossing one of the hovering cubes in the air and catching it with his spatial gravity. "You seem to know what they are."
Tiberius completely ignored his son's question. The exasperated father vanished, instantly replaced by the terrifying, battle-hardened Patriarch of the strongest House in the Empire. He shifted his piercing gaze to his brother, his voice booming with absolute, crushing authority.
"Valerius."
"Yes, Patriarch," the Supreme Commander answered, standing at rigid attention.
"In the name of Invictus, I, Tiberius Invictus, command you to send a missive immediately," Tiberius ordered, his voice echoing off the platinum pillars. "Inform the Vanguard of House Valentine, and summon the Pope of the Holy Caelian Church for a High Gathering. Do it now."
He stared at the dark, swirling chaos trapped inside the geometric cubes, a heavy storm brewing in his eye.
"We have much to discuss."