It was time for Asteria to return to Ravenheart — or at the very least, her own Citadel after these five, long and painful months.
Sliding smoothly down the snowy mountain range, Asteria felt massive pangs of relief, pride, and joy. She had significantly furthered her mastery of runic sorcery and truly got to grips with her complex transformation ability. She could now comfortably remain in her multi-limbed, spider-like form without any difficulty, even while performing entirely mundane tasks. And as it turned out, having multiple arms was incredibly useful, despite being so alien and weird at first.
Asteria had basically lived in the freezing high-altitude temperatures and inside her [Grave of Abundance]. Thankfully, the interior of her storage memory remained relatively warm and completely away from the harsh elements; more so, she found she could actively change the layout of the interior as much as she could alter the exterior.
'Luxury, truly.'
Landing on the solid ground below, Asteria stretched her limbs high in the air after spending far too long in the thin, biting mountain air. Returning to the lower altitudes felt better, though it was still quite cold down there. 'I absolutely hate the climate of Ravenheart. Can we please move?'
"Asteria! Welcome back!" A bright voice rang out from behind her. It was Seishan, sporting a charming and warm smile after not seeing her sister for months.
"Ah, right." A small, tired smile appeared on the Queen of Nightmare's face when she saw her. "I'm back, it seems. Did I miss anything important while I was up there?"
Seishan thought for a quiet moment before clicking her tongue. "Yeah, the Waking World is in absolute chaos right now. That's about all, though."
'Oh. Am I going to get incredibly busy again?'
"Like what?" Asteria pressed, her brow furrowing.
"We formally announced to the public that you're a Saint — congratulations, by the way — and more Nightmare Gates have been opening up rapidly across the Waking World. Higher categories, too," Seishan sighed, her shoulders dropping. "The Great Clans overall haven't taken much of a stance, as the government forces usually deal with them, but they simply don't have enough manpower anymore. We may have to step in soon."
"I see. Does that mean I'll be getting sent across the NQSC for a while then?"
"Perhaps." Seishan shook her head in visible frustration. "I honestly thought I was catching up to you, but you had to go and become a Saint while I was still trapped in the second nightmare."
"Ah?" Asteria's eyes widened a hitch. "I apologise for not noticing, Shan."
"It's nothing. Though you might be right about being sent around to different places to help. It could be good public relations to show our clan's strength compared to the failing government." Seishan began walking away before turning around to deliver one last note. "Mother wanted to see you the moment you came down off the peaks. You should probably head straight to the throne room now."
***
"Has Shan told you about what has happened as of recent, my daughter?" Ki Song's voice seemed noticeably more aged and tired compared to when Asteria last spoke to her, even if the Supreme actively tried her best not to show it.
Asteria stood tall in front of Ki Song's puppets once more, her [Unseen Mantle] wrapping her refined figure in a chromatic, black silk dress as she usually wore. "Briefly. I am officially recognized as a Saint, and more Nightmare Gates are opening?"
"Mmm," the Queen of Worms replied slowly. "The situation in Antarctica isn't great, either. The Obel Scale determines there will be yet another catastrophic chain of nightmares soon — these current gates just seem to be the prerequisite."
"Chain of nightmares?" the Queen of Nightmare herself asked, genuinely curious about the foreign, ominous term.
"Yes. A massive influx of gates will completely overrun an area — or an entire continent, in this specific case," Ki Song replied calmly. "It seems to be in its infancy in Antarctica now, but it will only get worse from here."
'So the world is ending, is that it? And we're completely powerless to stop it?'
The Queen of Nightmare hesitantly asked the brooding Supreme the single question that worried her most. "Do we know the true cause of the sudden increase?"
Ki Song didn't speak for a long, tense moment. But when she finally did, Asteria's entire reality seemed to crumble.
"The more Awakened there are in existence, and the more powerful those individuals become, the more gates that inevitably open in the waking world," the puppet shrugged entirely nonchalantly. "It is the exact reason why there are so few Saints allowed to exist. If there were any more, we wouldn't be prepared in time to fully abandon the Waking World for the permanent safety of the Dream Realm."
Gritting her teeth tightly, Asteria tried to calmly follow up on the horrific truth that had just been revealed. "Mother... are you planning on sacrificing most of humanity simply because you don't want to grow your strength to fight it?"
The Supreme let out a long, heavy sigh. "Asteria. If we allow more Saints to be born, the Waking World will end far quicker than if we actively prevent their growth."
"But–"
"No."
A firm, absolute voice settled heavily into Asteria's ears, and an even firmer physical pressure landed squarely on her shoulders, attempting to force her to bow in submission and revere the Sovereign's ultimate power.
"Remember, you and your sisters are only Saints because I allowed you to be."
***
Returning straight to the Theatre of Crystal, Asteria headed down into the deepest, darkest parts of her Palace of Glass, entirely ignoring the staff who wanted her attention and the guards who needed her help.
She had much more concerning, private things to do right now.
"What on earth is the point of having power if you refuse to use it?" she angrily muttered to herself, her boots clicking loudly as she raced down the crystalline corridors and steep stairwells. "Preventing human growth because you're scared of a challenge? I finally have achieved some sort of real strength, and you're telling me it's completely useless and we're just meant to abandon humanity to die? Why?"
Opening a heavy obsidian door hidden deep beneath her palace vault, Asteria saw her small, loyal legion of Marble Saints who had sworn absolute loyalty to her — the Queen of Nightmare's personal servants.
She remembered the numerical rune vividly. [13/75]. It meant she desperately needed more servants if she wanted more raw strength to grow. It meant she had to actively find battles — to fight, and to win.
Summoning her [Grave of Abundance], Asteria gave a sharp mental command to change its physical shape. The dark wooden coffin expanded, shifting its boundaries into an overwhelming, massive door that seemed to have no visible end when looking through the frame. Turning towards the tall Marble Saints who stood in a rigid, consistent formation, Asteria asked them one simple thing.
"Do you want to fight?"
CLANG!
CLANG!
The Marble Saints bashed their heavy weapons against their shields in perfect unison in response to her obvious question — they were fundamentally built to fight, therefore they would gladly fight.
"Then please, step through this door, and I will take you to where we shall conquer."
Thankfully, Asteria found she could smoothly unsummon her storage memory while living beings were safely inside — they were simply transported within her soul sea. It was a bit unusual, but she didn't complain; the Queen of Nightmare may be a Queen in name, but she didn't want a massive, conspicuous escort wherever she went in the waking world.
***
Pulling out her sleek communicator in the Waking World, she immediately headed for the first person she thought of the moment she made her final decision.
Soul Reaper Jet. A Master of the Government, and someone with a plethora of real-world experience and tactical solutions. Asteria desperately wanted to know what she could actually do to help, despite now being under the tight scrutiny of a real Sovereign. She simply could not fathom or agree with the methods of the Great Clans. Abandoning humanity to the meat grinder of the Spell while suppressing potential heroes was a coward's gambit, and she refused to play along.
[Jet, Nightmare Gates. Where are they located right now if they haven't been fully dealt with?]
Master Jet replied fairly quickly, much faster than Asteria thought she would, almost like the agent was actively waiting for any extra help she could get her hands on.
[Great, we'll gladly accept any help right now. We are completely swamped with emergency work and uncontained gates. I'll send you the coordinates now.]
***
Asteria stood entirely alone at the edge of a desolate, ruined sector on the far fringes of the NQSC. The sky above was stained an unnatural blue-purple, the air thick with the sickeningly sweet scent of corruption that she now recognized all too well.
Directly ahead of her, tearing through the concrete foundations of a collapsed warehouse, was a newly opened Nightmare Gate.
It was a Category Three.
The spatial rift was a jagged, bleeding wound in reality, pulsing violently with dark energy. The government forces hadn't even had the time to erect containment barriers or position a vanguard; the local alarms were blaring pointlessly into the empty streets, warning of a calamity that nobody was coming to stop.
Asteria tightened her grip on her drawn [Blade of Destiny], its edge shimmering with faint violet sparks. Ki Song had warned her not to get any grand ideas about supremacy, threatening her very life if she stepped out of line. But looking at the dark rift, hearing the distant, terrestrial screams of nightmare creatures preparing to flood a helpless human city, Asteria's resolve hardened into solid stone.
She would not be a passive piece on a Sovereign's chessboard. She would not let humanity burn just to preserve a stagnant peace.
Summoning her [Grave of Abundance], thirteen battle-ready Marble Saints stepped out of it.
Asteria herself was stepping forward into the howling wind of the rift, the lone Saint prepared to welcome the horde.
The madness of the call was driving her insane; and maybe that's what she needed right now. Insanity and absolutely zero hesitation.