23. Sacred Citadel
23
Sacred Citadel
Ki’REMI
T he celestial fortress city of Sivania loomed ahead, an impossible construct of grandeur and divinity.
They sat in a skimmer, which set off from the rear deck of the larger Sacran vessel they initially traveled in.
A pair of supernal sentinels stood guard in the transport behind them and remained silent, motionless, statuesque in their armor.
As they blazed toward the citadel, Ki’Remi sent a command to his neural node.
Record.
He had to get this shit down because talking about what he was seeing wouldn’t do it any justice, for no words adequately described what lay before him.
A city carved from stardust, its towers stretched into the cosmic abyss, and its spires of gold and silver were entwined with veins of iridescent crystal.
Walls that shimmered with lightning, glowing with the breath of the divine, with lattices of celestial script snaking over their silvered surfaces.
Flyers and skimmers sculpted from gems, still light as a feather, powered by unseen engines that made no noise and left no emissions.
He sent out a careful spread of metanoids, and the data they began to transmit almost overrode his senses.
Code and sigils he’d never seen before flowed over his neural cortex in symbols, hieroglyphs, and cryptograms so complex and ancient that he had no way to decipher them.
He sensed Mirage in the background, collating the intel with glee, and caught her gasps of amazement from millions of klicks away as she processed.
Tis all my dreams come true, she murmured into his node.
He barely registered her words as his vision struggled to intake the aetheric atmosphere.
The air, too, was dense, not in pressure, but in presence.
It pressed down on his bones.
An unseen force rippled through his marrow, whispering of powers older than galaxies, of eyes that witnessed the birth of time itself.
Beside him, Issa exhaled, her expression guarded. ‘Welcome to Sivania,’ she whispered. ‘The bastion of the Higher Gods. The place where destinies are rewritten or erased for eternity.’
The lander descended, falling to street level.
Its roof fell away to give the pair an unprecedented view.
Ki’Remi sat alongside Issa in the open-air transport, his gaze sweeping across the impossible cityscape.
Vast bridges of suspended energy arced between cosmic-breathed buildings, supporting the citadel’s transcendent traffic.
Some residents were walking, some were gliding, and others were riding hover flyers that defied every law of aerodynamics he knew.
The metropolis thrived in layers, each level distinct in purpose.
Above them was the domain of the divine: floating palaces, temples, and terraces. Entire districts appeared devoted to indulgence and worship, the air alive with the sound of sacred chants whispered prayers, and the harmony of celestial existence.
Below was the realm of the Sacran demi-gods and mortals, who were granted the privilege of living within the Seventh Heaven.
Here, the streets bustled with activity that appeared more commerce-driven.
Even lower, in the darker shadows of the lower city, Ki’Remi glimpsed the underbelly of Sivania.
Twas a labyrinth of twisting alleyways and clandestine structures, a place where faith and desperation intermingled in an uneasy alliance.
The Rider glanced at this woman. ‘You grew up here?’ he rasped.
Issa’s gaze flicked over the skyline, a shadow crossing her features.
‘Not in the golden palace,’ she murmured. ‘I lived in the demi towers beneath them.’
The skimmer slowed in a busy air lane parallel to one of the city’s vast suspended walkways.
Curious eyes fell on them, and then eyes widened on recognizing Issa.
The Rider sensed the shift in the crowd, the ripple of unease, the sudden tension threading through the walkway.
People stopped in their tracks.
Some froze, staring.
Some dropped to their knees, muttering prayers.
Others’ faces twisted with fury.
A man in flowing indigo robes stepped forward, his eyes blazing with fanatical light.
‘She is now among us, the thief, the traitor!’
Another utterance rose.
Twas a woman cloaked in black, with a symbol of the Solanite cult carved into her brow.
‘She holds the sacrosanct essence hostage!’
‘Release the Sullied against her.’
‘You stole from the Divine Immortal!’
‘You must return what is sacred!’
‘Sulfiqar’s mercy is gone because of you! He turned to violence and derangement because of you,’ they screamed. ‘We will send the Sullied to tear you him and apart!’
A Solanite priest, draped in ceremonial gold, raised his shout above the rest, his face alight with religious fervor.
‘The balance should be restored! Sol will rise again!’
Ki’Remi’s brows shot up. Fokk .
Issa’s warnings about factions, cults, and warring celestial ideologies came to mind.
‘Freakin’ fascinating,’ he muttered under his breath, his logical cognition struggling to process the absurdity of it all.
However, they had zero time to gawk.
Without warning, the mob surged.
Ki’Remi reacted in an instant, moving before he could even think.
He pulled Issa behind him as one of the fanatics lunged forward, hands reaching for his woman.
Their guards unsheathed their weapons but did not intervene; they only observed with amused smirks, waiting to see how Issa and Ki’Remi would defend themselves.
In moments, the skimmer’s exterior was swarmed with fanatics, zealots, and believers from all sides.
Their palms reached and banged on the gleaming silver hull, their voices rising in a fever pitch of devotion and accusation.
One Sacran pounced too close.
Ki’Remi leaped out of the transport and into the fray on the hovering walkway.
He caught the attacker by the wrist and twisted hard, sending him sprawling onto the ethereal pavement.
Another tried to grab Issa, urged on by the cackling priest.
Ki’Remi drove an elbow into his gut, propelling him gasping to his knees.
The luminary was now chasing them down, shouting at the top of his lungs, urging the crowd to keep up the attack.
Ki’Remi whirled around and chased him down, grabbed the priest by his collar, hauling him close.
‘Don’t you have better things to do with your time?’ he growled, deep and thunderous. ‘Try coming at her again, and I’ll show you some balance.’
The holy man gasped, terror flickering through his fanatic eyes.
The Sableman shoved him from him.
Issa’s hand closed over his wrist.
‘Enough,’ she whispered.
She’d left the transport, and Ki’Remi glanced down at her, her hand pulsing to calm the rage inside him.
She turned to the throng, lifting her chin.
‘I have made my path clear,’ she said, her tone ringing with quiet command. ‘Sulfiqar will decide my fate. No one else.’
Her eyes flamed, and her body shimmered as she let loose some of her Ssignakht power.
Flames pulsed around her, and the crowd fell back.
Accepting defeat, one by one, the mob dispersed.
However, as they left, their eyes still burned with belief.
‘We are not done with you, fallen one,’ the priest muttered with a sly smile as he slinked away.
‘Let’s get out of here,’ Ki’Remi growled, leading his woman back onto the skimmer. ‘So much for a welcome.’
‘I never expected one, only ridicule.’
They sat back down, and at Ki’Remi’s chin jerk, the skimmer continued its journey.
Traffic eased as the flyer ascended above the avenues, heading toward a nearby roof, where a diamond crystalline landing pad sat.
They touched down with a whisper and were led out of the flyer.
Two more Ssigis warriors awaited them at the threshold of a magnificent gilded and crystal palace.
The pair of tall, armored titans had their faces hidden behind smooth, featureless golden masks. Their shoulders were draped in celestial white cloaks that rippled despite the lack of any breeze.
The atmosphere shifted as Zavei shimmered from thin air.
With a chin lift, he acknowledged Ki’Remi and Issa. ‘I got word that you entertained the locals on your way in.’
‘Is that all we are, an extravaganza?’ the Rider growled. ‘Is that why you paraded us through the city?’
‘You do provide a form of amusement,’ came the dry reply.
Ki’Remi sucked his teeth, even as Issa’s hand intertwined with him, her thumb stroking to calm him down.
How she was taking in all this humiliation without ripping the Saatifa’s commander apart, he’d no clue.
Zavei walked ahead of them, his midnight cloak unfurling like the night sky.
In front of them, the Seat of Eternity stretched into infinity, a schloss of impossible geometry, spirals, floating arches, and suspended corridors that curved into nothingness before reforming anew.
The air thrummed with unseen power, the scent of storm-churned ether curling through it, the whisper of ancient voices flickering in and out of hearing.
The path beneath their feet appeared like woven light, shifting with each step.
Ki’Remi took it all in, his meta ink flaring in silent defiance.
He’d walked through war zones drenched in blood and fire. Freakin’ carved his way through the worst of man’s cruelty and faced down death and worse, but this place unsettled him unlike any other.
Twas too much. Too pristine and unblemished, designed to make one feel small.
Issa, however, moved with familiarity through these halls.
She marched with eyes narrowed, not looking to the left or right in awe like he was, keeping pace with their deified captor.
Zavei finally slowed his steps, casting a glance over his shoulder. ‘Most mortals never step foot here,’ he intoned, smooth as polished onyx yet laced with warning. ‘For you are mere whispers in the breath of eternity. Inconsequential and unimportant. You should be honored.’
Issa let out a quiet exhale. ‘ Honored by whom? By those with no shame, by they who conspire in the high heavens?’ she murmured. ‘ Nada , no fokkin way. I don’t require their faux honor.’
Zavei smirked. ‘Ever the philosopher-poet, little star.’
They reached the heart of the palace and approached a pair of great doors, black as the abyss, carved with celestial sigils.
They stretched skyward until they vanished into the vaulted ceiling above.
The moment the warriors at their flanks moved to part them, a surge of divine energy whipped through the space, flinging the portal open.
Beyond the enclosure lay not a chamber not of imprisonment but of ridiculous luxury, thought the Rider.
The ivory embellished furniture was decadent, with throws and pillows made of hue-shifting fur.
White marble walls gleamed, their surfaces shimmering like catching the light from unseen stars.
The terrace opened to Sivania’s celestial skyline, spires glinting in the ever-fluctuating hues of an endless dusk.
Bridges spun from gold and stardust connected floating islands to the grand palace, suspended over an expanse of infinite sky.
At the center of the chamber sat a table set with a feast fit for the gods.
Ki’Remi’s gaze narrowed at the opulence.
At the fruits that bled clouds of color in slow, hypnotic swirls.
Goblets of liquid amber shimmering as if filled with the essence of the sun.
Platters of spiced meats that glistened with veins of metallic silver, steaming with scents he could not name.
Desserts so rich they clung to the air, thick and over-sweet, a decadence designed to unhinge all restraint.
It was excess. Over the fokkin ’ top. All of it.
That alone made Ki’Remi wary.
It was Issa who finally spoke, her voice quiet yet sure.
‘I need an audience with Ssigard.’
That earned her a raised brow from Zavei. His lips curved with a hint of malice.
‘The god of war?’ he echoed, the appellation rolling like a blade over smooth stone. ‘Ah, your beloved warlord. Your mentor.’
He leaned in, eyes gleaming.
‘He is fallen.’
Issa’s fingers tightened where they hung at her sides.
Zavei said nothing more.
He swiveled, his obsidian cloak billowing as he strode from the chamber, his silence a door closing.
Ki’Remi sliced eyes at Issa, noting the subtle shift in her shoulders and the exhale of breath she released.
‘This is worse than I imagined,’ she murmured.
The Rider folded his arms across his chest. ‘What exactly are we walking into, Issa?’
She locked her gaze with his, her own dark and unreadable.
‘A reckoning.’
The Sableman stalked toward the terrace, scouting and mapping for any risk.
The patio was open, a vast, endless balcony overlooking Sivania’s divine sprawl.
Ki’Remi gripped the stone railing, staring at the impossible beauty of the Seventh Heaven’s ruling realm.
This was no ordinary city.
It was a world sculpted by cosmic hands.
Bridges of pure light arched over floating canals of liquid stardust, where astral creatures glided, their forms luminous, their robes shifting like woven nebulae.
Towering golden obelisks stretched into infinity, each carved with ancient glyphs that told stories of war, creation, and sacrifice.
Sky markets bustled in midair, where merchants bartered in celestial tongues, exchanging ethereal trinkets, bottled dreams, and melodies sung by beings with a thousand voices.
A melody, an evensong of aetheric harmony, flowed over the citadel as though the core of the Seventh Heaven was alive and thrumming with the breath of the divine.
Ki’Remi exhaled.
It was magnificent.
It was also a place brimming with danger and the peril of the unknown on deification levels.
A threat he needed to unravel fast.
His tummy chose this moment to growl, and he turned away from the view of a city untouched by time.
He prowled to Issa. ‘Let’s eat and drink and perhaps forget for a short time the fokkin ’ shit show I sense is to come.’
So they did.
Hours later, they lay together on the massive bedstead in the expansive sleeping space as Issa’s fingers traced absent patterns over his chest, her touch soft.
‘You ever think about running?’ she murmured.
His digits tangled in her curls, his grip gentle but sure.
‘I don’t run,’ he rasped. ‘Not from a fight.’
She lifted her head, eyes catching the celestial glow outside their window.
‘Remi, this is no ordinary conflict,’ she whispered.
His clasp tightened. ‘ Nada ,’ he agreed. ‘But neither are we. Also, we’ve much to fight for, kidaya .’
His words must have triggered a memory because her eyes misted over. ‘I miss them so much,’ she breathed.
He reached a lean finger to wipe away a tear. ‘The more we should have courage then. Let the grief out, love, and weep for what has been lost. Yet also remember that this is the journey that’ll shape the future for those we battle for.’
‘For a beautiful, arrogant, overconfident man, you sometimes do say the wisest things,’ Issa teased, leaning in, resting her head on his chest.
He huffed, stroking her hair.
Too tired to make love, they wrapped themselves in each other’s warmth as their lips met in the hush of divine night.
It turned into a slow, aching press for solace.
Soon, Issa’s breathing settled into the rhythmic cadence of deep slumber. Her body curled into the sheets, exhaustion fading just a tad from her face.
Ki’Remi’s eyes lingered on her for an extended moment, memorizing her back’s gentle rise and fall, the way the golden glow from the celestial skyline outside played over her skin.
Hell, she’d fought too long and carried too much.
Now, her retribution was at hand, and he was relieved to be by her side, come what may.
However, any rest they both got tonight would be a reprieve, a temporary oblivion from the squall waiting for them at dawn.
Especially for him, given the mission at hand.
Ensuring she was deep asleep, the Rider slipped from the bed with the practiced ease of a warrior accustomed to moving in shadows.
Barefoot, soundless, he strode across the chamber, the silken fabric of his sleep pants loose around his legs.
He undressed at the far end of the room.
He rooted in his bag, the nondescript cross-body sling duffel he’d brought, and slid on his wrist comm.
He also took out a slim case of xentium alloys covered in coatings of metanoids.
When he tapped the surface three times, a panel lit up. It scanned his bio-signature, and the lock disengaged with a soft hiss.
Giving him access to the tight-packed meta-armored suit within.
He shook it, lips curling in satisfaction as it unfolded around him in layers of midnight plating and advanced tech woven with whisper-thin strands of metanoid-infused metals.
The armor engaged with a muted murmur, mapping itself to his body, syncing with his neural node in a split-second connection, and flowing over his head to create an impenetrable helmet and visor.
Scanning the terrain beyond the patio, the HUD interface flickered to life in his vision.
Before leaving, he released a cloud of metanoids and commanded a facsimile of himself to materialize on the terrace divan.
A flawless illusion, a Ki’Remi-shaped ghost, clad in pajama shorts and a loose vest, lounging with a crystal goblet of celestial rum.
The clone even moved, swirling the amber liquid with lazy precision, the perfect decoy in case any divine eyes fell upon this chamber.
Satisfied, the Rider activated his stealth protocols, disappeared from normal fractal vision, and stepped off the terrace’s edge.
The wind caught him immediately, curling around his armored frame as his thrusters flared with silent propulsion, sending him soaring into the vast, star-drenched expanse of Sivania’s night.
The metropolis sprawled beneath him, its golden bridges connecting floating spires, its celestial towers rising like jagged crystal formations.
The deeper into its heart he flew, the more the urban area shifted from opulent palaces and luminous corridors to more industrial and stark sectors.
His metanoids whispered.
They led him toward a sector thick with concentrated energy readings.
Weapons. Engines. War-machines.
He followed their signals, his form blending seamlessly with the dark, a ghost-wraith moving between gods.
Then, he saw it just as his neural node pulled up a name.
The Grand Sacran Celestial Armory.
It was a fortress within the citadel , an immense complex of interconnected domes, vast warehouses, and hangars sprawling across a floating expanse of reinforced plating.
Even from the outside, he sensed the sheer magnitude of the reserves located inside.
His sound-absorbing boots absorbed the crunch as he landed on the farthest perimeter.
The military storehouse was alive with motion.
Ssisigan warriors stalked the grounds in pairs, bristling mega-guns slung over their backs.
The gleam of their gilded armor reflected in the hovering orbs of starlight-fed security lamps that lined the premises.
Sentinels stood at key points, their eyes glowing with embedded divine tech, scanning for threats beyond the physical plane.
Ki’Remi ghosted past them, his suit shifting its molecular structure to mimic the space around him, bending light to render him undetectable.
Inside, the sheer scale of the weaponry was staggering.
Rows of mechs, towering constructs of astral warcraft, their plating inscribed with stellar glyphs pulsing with dormant power.
Racks of plasma rifles arrayed the walls, the barrels forged from alloys not found in any sector of Pegasi.
Hover tanks, sleek and deadly, outfitted with energy cannons capable of leveling city blocks.
Drop ships, equipped for intergalactic mobilization, ready to ferry troops across the cosmos.
The gods were not simply defending themselves.
They were preparing for combat.
A struggle of annihilation.
Against whom was the question.
Ki’Remi’s metanoids slithered into the interface ports of the weapon arsenal, siphoning data in rapid succession and feeding it to Mirage.
Decryption codes. Firearm schematics. Deployment patterns.
Every second inside the armory heightened the risk of exposure, but this intelligence was vital.
Mirage needed to know what they were confronting so she might build deterrents in case the conflict the Sacran Ascended were prepping for was not a civil war but one reaching into the mortal world.
His HUD flared with an alert.
Movement.
A pair of Ssisigan warrior guards entered the warehouse, eyes scanning the shadows.
Ki’Remi pressed himself against a wall, melding his presence into the background as their boots echoed over the polished obsidian floors.
‘The battle-gods are restless,’ one muttered, voice carrying the weight of unease. ‘Ssigard is lost.’
‘Who will take his place?’ the other replied. ‘Those loyal to Sulfiqar do not yet realize the extent of the coming retribution.’
The Sableman clenched his jaw.
So, the battle deities were stirring, jostling for power. The issue was who would be the victims of their unrest.
One of the guards hesitated, his gaze sweeping the location where Ki’Remi stood, stealthed.
His instincts prickled, sensing something beyond perception.
In milliseconds, he raised his weapon, aimed and fired.
The power blast cut through the space inches from Ki’Remi’s head.
He cursed and moved, flitting through the shadows, dodging their aim with inhuman reflexes.
Go , Mirage urged him. I’ll send a flood of metanoids to erase your sigil and instead ID you as a local Sedevan dissenter.
He raced for the exit.
The enraged celestial sentinels blasted again, their shots carving through crates, sending sparks showering through the dim area.
However, he was faster.
With a burst of thruster energy, he shot upward, twisting midair, maneuvering between towering war mechs before vanishing into the rafters.
Once outside, he raced skyward, rocketing out of the armory’s perimeter.
He didn’t stop ascending, streaking fast and far beyond the divine sentries’ watchful eyes and reach.
Not until the floating spires of Sivania were distant gleams in the dark did he pause, crouching on a darkened rooftop.
‘Got it all?’ he rasped.
Mirage’s drawled into his node a second later, crisp and laced with satisfaction.
‘I did,’ she purred. ‘You’ve outdone yourself, Sable. The data I mined and stripped is substantial . I’m scanning now to determine the threat level . ’
Ki’Remi took a series of flying leaps, landing on the terrace of his and Issa’s temporary chambers.
His meta armor peeled from his body like a liquid shadow.
As soon as the night’s cool air hit his skin, he stretched, his muscles stiff, his mind still racing.
‘How bad?’ he muttered.
Mirage exhaled. ‘Oh, darling. It’s worse than bad. The Sacrans aren’t just sitting on a treasure trove of firepower. They’re planning a freakin’ monumental assault.’
Ki’Remi’s lips pressed into a thin line.
For the first time in years, since the nuclear wars on Earth and the fall of human civilization, his spirit suffused with an existentialist dread.
‘Against whom, though? Is this a civil war or one that will spill out into Pegasi?’
‘Tis civil for now. Which is not how I feel towards you now, lover.’
The husky chastening came not from Mirage but from behind him.
The Rider’s soul lurched, and he sucked his teeth.
She was awake and waiting.
Fokk .