Chapter 339: Fractured Acceptance

A silence settled over the black glass plain after Nyx had ceased speaking. The implications of her words held a different weight over each of them.

It was Dera who steadied herself first. The Human Authority had, in truth, already belonged to her for years. Only now the difference was in the absence of every single peer she had once compared herself to. She glanced over the others - Mob with his flickering golden wings, Ken half-transformed and panting, Remu’s hands tinged with the afterglow of witch-script, Francisca’s seven tails knotted in tension, Temmy’s spiritual pressure drawn in on himself, Daniel still finishing off the blood at his mouth, Ruka at his side with wary eyes - and the two other figures who had arrived alongside the forced teleportation.

One was a broad-shouldered man, his scales still unfurling across his forearms and neck, heat rolling off him in uneven pulses. The Dragon seat had found its candidate. The other was a quiet, sharp-eyed woman, whose presence carried the tell-tale fraying of a spatial authority. An emerging progenitor signature from an otherwise unremarkable race, who had never managed to secure a main seat before. It seemed the mechanism which had allowed this to happen had not been as restrictive to the old circle as the system had wished.

Francisca was the one to clear her throat. "You’re saying that the seats... simply moved to us because we were the closest match?"

"Yes," Nyx replied shortly. "Compatibility is not a matter of sentiment. It is residue, battle history, proximity to concentrated growth, and surviving pressure which would have shattered others. You bore those markers. The authority has followed them."

Ken’s claws flexed. "And the old ones? You said dead or stripped. Which is it?"

"Both remain possible," Nyx stated. "I am not yet certain if the distinction between the two cases is worth examining the trails more closely. What does matter, is that they no longer hold their seats. Yours do."

Daniel gave a short, ugly laugh. "Convenient, ancient monster. Ancient monster who shows up and informs us that we’ve been drafted and expects us to thank her for the favour."

Nyx’ black eyes settled on him. "I expect you to last long enough to either serve as an asset or leave me be. Your gratitude is not due."

Mob shifted his wings. Even as he tried to keep the new angelic authority from spilling outward in flashes of light, the feathers still bled with irregular pulses of illumination. "You said you wouldn’t train us the way you train the hybrid," He paused, looking up at Nyx. "You mean Lucifer. Where is he?"

The question fell cleanly, and several others turned towards Nyx at once.

Temmy’s voice was quiet when she spoke. "He’s part of this. If the seats moved to the people around him, he should be here as well."

Nyx regarded them all with an expression of mild surprise. "Lucifer is not a standard progenitor. He already bears a completed Vampire seat and True Divine foundation. The secondary resonance of demon energy he holds is still unresolved, but he is currently in a category of his own. He is subject to further individual instruction."

"Whose?" Remu asked. The witch authority in her eyes made it sound like a reprimand.

"Mine," Nyx said, and Remu’ breath hitched. "And another. That arrangement is older than your awakenings, and not up for discussion."

Daniel forced himself to stand straighter. "So he gets private lessons from the First Progenitor while the rest of us receive a warning and a shove back to our realms?"

"Yes."

It left little room for theatrics. Ruka was the one to speak next, and it was the first time he’d uttered a word since the meeting had begun. "And what if we can’t stabilize the powers?"

Nyx’ darkness stirred once. "Then you will become liabilities. The same process which saw fit to clear away the previous generation will not be particularly choosy in regards to unstable replacements. Stabilize enough to hold the seats. Avoid becoming hostile to one another. That is what is owed."

Dera crossed her arms. "You’re not offering us protection. You’re not giving us any answers regarding who takes down the old progenitors. You’re telling us the rules of a game we were forced to play."

"Correct," Nyx said. "I am not your guardian. I am the first existence this universe has produced which reaches its apex, and I have an interest in what grows here. A low tolerance for unnecessary collapse is all the involvement I am due with regards to you."

The man with scales gritted his teeth, another pulse of warmth rolling off his frame. "And if we refuse the seats?"

"You cannot," Nyx replied. "The authority has already attached itself to you. You may only strive to master it, or be consumed by it."

Francisca’s tails lowered somewhat. "So we return. We try not to break ourselves or each other. We wait for whomever has taken down the old ones to acknowledge us."

"Yes."

Nyx raised a hand, and the black glass plain began to lose its definition at the edges.

"This is the only general summons I intend to deliver. Return to your realms, begin the work of not dying. When the next step of this cycle arrives, you will either stand or not."

The space folded again, and they appeared in various parts of the sealed universe, some alone, some near the people they had left with. All of them bore the same feeling of understanding. The old progenitors were gone. The seats had moved. The First Progenitor had informed them all, and offered little else beyond the truth.

And in the silence which had stretched out over the forced assembly, there was one undeniable truth:

They were no longer merely the remnants of the previous cycle.

They were the replacements.

A/N

Thanks for reading this far, it has been a glorious ride, I love all your supports and contributions, and I will continue to do my best to keep you all entertained despite my tight and busy schedules. It has not been easy for me and my mental health.

And one day I hope this novel would be the talk of the ages.