Skyfire Avenue

“Sister!” Lan Jue cried. Captus burned with crimson light but there was little Lan Jue could do. He was barely managing to defend himself. A blue light sprang up around his body, strange and monstrous. As it coiled around him Lan Jue’s aura surged in strength, so much that the Princess was struggling to keep him contained.

Lan Jue brought his sword down like a hammer, and a fissure of power shot out with a thunderous roar. The power of Captus raced for the Violet Prince, pregnant with All-Heaven lightning. Red and blue light coiled around each other and caused space to ripple uncomfortably around them. A stretch of space a thousand square meters long collapsed into a void.

The Violet Prince snapped his eyes toward Lan Jue’s attack. Moments later his head stretched and bulged, twisting into the nightmarish visage of a crocodile. He spat an orb of purple-black energy that collided with Lan Jue’s attack.

The Prince’s Birth and Destruction Domain swallowed everything in came in contact with. Even All-Heaven lightning, for all its strength, was quickly castrated.

Next, tendrils of the corrupt energy splayed out like tendrils and wrapped up Skyfire Avenue’s leader. The Violet Princess took advantage of his distracted and appeared at his back. She reached out to grab him.

But he stumbled forward seven quick steps and lashed out with his left hand. Seven Star Hammer!

Boom! The difference between Nirvana and the Infinite was highlighted in close-combat. Suddenly Lan Jue felt a pressure crushing him from everywhere at once, so intense he could hardly breathe. He felt like every bone in his body was going to shatter.

His Seven-Star Hammer fist was formidable, but the power that enveloped him caused him to stagger. The Prince had risen overhead while he struggled, and thrust a palm down toward the top of Lan Jue’s skull.

He was already at the limit of his capabilities. The might of his Boundless Starlight Domain kept the influence of the aliens’ power from him, but had shrunk to where it only barely covered him. No strength remained to force his territory wider.

Points on his body began to twinkle with starlight, like an inseparable fragment of the Milky Way. A storm of All-Heaven Lightning erupted around Lan Jue as he thrust Captus at the Prince in a last-ditch effort.

The radiance that surrounded him was born of his intrinsic protogenia, a power he was taping into to temporarily swell his powers to the Infinite. However, this was akin to quenching thirst with poison. He was injuring his body’s flows of energy. If they survived the effects might actually decrease his cultivation – maybe even his lifespan. It was a desperate attempt against two enemies that surpassed him in strength.

The Prince and Princess didn’t confront Lan Jue directly, and instead retreated under his self-destructive advance. His attacks hit nothing. Though he’d managed to free himself from the clutches of their Domains, it wasn’t enough to open a path of escape.

The golden runes etched into Captus’ blade had begun to dim as Lan Jue weakened. The burning energy around him was showing signs of collapse.

“Aaaagghrrr!” The Violet Prince roared and attacked with the same method he’d used against the Pharmacist. The Princess answered him with a shriek.

The two sounds combined to create a strange sort of incantation. It reverberated into his soul. He felt something deep within him quiver and his mind became muddled. The blue light that encased him dissolved away.

Both violet figures attacked. The Prince approached from behind and struck Lan Jue in the back. Where he hit, Lan Jue’s clothes were burned away to ash. Captus tried to protect its master with a shell of red power but the Prince broke through.

A handprint appeared where the Prince had struck, black and purple and full of evil intention. Immediately lines of dark veins began to spread from the wound as the aliens’ poison spread.

“Aahh!” Lan Jue screamed. His body began to twist, plagued by unendurable spasms. He felt like he was being pulled apart, while at the same time a maddening energy was worming its way through him. It was headed for his Core.

The pain didn’t persist for long, then Lan Jue felt himself lose control of his body. Pain was replaced by absolutely numbness – he couldn’t move a finger.

This was the end!

A singular thought crept up to Lan Jue through the haze that was consuming him. Then, everything went dark.

ζ

The Prince watched as Lan Jue floated in the vacuum of space, unconscious. He scowled at the human as though in thought.

The Princess, on the other hand, was elated. She pulled Lan Jue to her side and pinched his face in her hand.

“In the human way, I should thank you. I will bring him back with to mate with.” Her words were full of a dark satisfaction.

The Prince continued to look thoughtfully at the two of them. “His Core has not been completely overcome. There’s something left, something that rejects my genetic invasion. Be cautious, there’s something different about this human.”

“This is as it should be,” she replied. “If he were a typical male why would I choose him as a mate? Our progeny will inherent strength from both he and I. Whatever power he possesses that locks us out will become a part of us.”

The Violet Prince nodded. “That is likely. I will also bring this female back with us, I can feel a connection between her weapon and the one Monarch possesses. He also told us the weapon your male bears is the same. You shall have his.”

As he spoke he produced Captus from the clutches of his Domain and handed it to the Violet Princess. He kept Occisus for himself.

Both of the Banishing Blades quivered as though unwilling to yield to these monsters’ control. But their struggle was to no avail, not against bearers who could call upon the powers of the Infinite.

The victorious alien royals shot back toward the home worlds as dual beams of light. They penetrated the strange, gelatinous exterior of Monarch and penetrated deep within.

Truly controlling the potency of the godblades was no easy feat. Both the Prince and Princess had felt the danger hidden within Ultus. They knew nothing of the creation of human weapons, but they could guess that these were the product of that bygone immortal realm.

Commanding these weapons would undoubtedly bolster their strength and aid with the evolution. Once the process was complete and an alien immortal realm created, they could quickly increase their cultivation without fear of universal reprisal. This was the home worlds’ plan, to propagate more powerful aliens to join them, and thus strengthen their fledgling reality. Over time they would have enough power to threaten the universe itself.

Lan Jue and the Pharmacist appeared with them in the depths of Monarch. They were placed in orbs of some jelly-like material.

“You first, or shall I?” The Princess cast an eye at her ‘brother,’ clearly eager to begin.

The Prince looked over the ethereal sword cradled in his hand. “You go on,” he said. “I’m in no rush. Besides, the humans are on the move.”

“Very well! Then I will begin.” She wasted no further time. The clothing that concealed her melted away to reveal her too-perfect figure. Her alluring frame would have toppled mountains in the world of man, but here the Prince paid her no mind.

She lazily lifted her right hand to motion at Lan Jue, and in response the thick slime that encased him peeled away. Lan Jue was revealed, also without clothing.

Tendrils of cancerous veins crept out from the mark left by the Prince and anchored Lan Jue to the ground. He hovered there as though he were weightless.

A strange light burned in the depths of the Princess’ eyes. She ran her long fingers along her face. “I feel... hot. Is this the influence of human genes?”

“We’ve evolved to assimilate many human qualities,” the Prince replied. “There are likely to be side-effects. Couple with him, see if this catalyzes some change in you.”

She grinned. “Yes. Now let me think, how do these creatures reproduce?” She knelt by Lan Jue’s side as though admiring a piece of art. Her eyes ran up and down her perfect human specimen.

The Violet Prince’s body had been designed to be perfect, but for some reason the Princess wasn’t the least bit interested in his carefully crafted appearance. She knew his true form, and that was the image that stuck in her mind.

This human male was different. He’d left her with an abiding impression from the moment she met him. She had assimilated human DNA into her own just a short time before their first encounter, getting accustomed to her new skin.

Human emotion was also new – vibrant and novel. Alien society was focused solely on growth. Consume, adapt, strengthen, repeat. Nothing else was important.

She was different. After remolding herself in the image of these humans, she had begun to change mentally as well. Though her emotions could not rightfully be described as human, they were alike enough. She was curious to learn more.