Chapter 853: Andar and Nivi

"Shielding Module at 75%. Multiple Sources of Level 9 and greater threat detected. Recommend immediate evacuation. Spirit Matrix Warding Zone reduced by 1.002%. Recommend Spatial Minutiae movements. Triads..."

"Why should I leave when things are just getting interesting?" Andar sarcastically interrupted his CSA (Companion Spirit Artifact) - Nivi. He already knew most of the information she was about to give him, and it always irritated her that her usefulness was relegated to an unwanted announcer, although Andar felt she was closer to his family member.

One of the many offerings given to him as a sign of his present station, one of them was of his first experiments with his master even before he became an Acolyte, Nivi, his CSA.

Andar had created this CSA with the hopes that one day he would become a powerful mage who would build his personal Magus Tower and one of the essential pillars of any Magus Tower was the Spirit Artifact that managed it. They would grow alongside the Mage, although most Mage choose to build their CSA at Rank 7 because they would have access to more specialized materials, Andar had begun his own even before he unlocked his Spirit Matrix.

For that reason his CSA acquired certain odd traits, in their inexperience they made his CSA too sentient, giving it all the characteristics of a young girl. Andar saw no reason why this change was unwelcome, but Nivi began to change after seeing how other CSA behaved, deciding to speak in a more robotic manner.

Andar lets her do her own thing, knowing she will soon grow bored with it and choose to remain herself when she understands that Andar would never have any reason to change her. Why would he ever want to do that?

Creating Nivi had been his attempt to fight against his despair from the fear of never attaining the esteemed station of a Mage, and he was surprised and incredibly when the Governor of the region where he was born had brought the entire Spirit Module that had kept this CSA before fleeing for his life with his master, he had thought it would have been destroyed by the angered Mages chasing them.

Although Nivi was a rather rudimentary CSA with weird behavioral fractals grafted to her Core, Andar had spared no expense in creating a specialized Aether merging fractal for her that could merge her with his revised Aegis Rune that held his Cloud Whale.

Cloudy was now happy that he had a new neighbor, a rather sharp-mouthed CSA. But the Rank 7 Cloud Whale was a gentle giant and was quite unflappable. Andar's ever-growing essence and Aether had pushed the evolution of the Cloud Whale to a ridiculous degree, and only a vast amount of stabilizing essence treasure fed to the Cloudy had ensured that it had not mutated into an abomination with his insane rate of growth.

The greatest Cloud Whale on record was a Rank 5 beast. Cloudy would soon reach Rank 8 and there was no sign that his ascension was slowing anytime soon, Andar's essence and Aether were so pure and powerful that it was almost as if the beasts were merged with a powerful Archmage.

Many things had happened to Andar after he was chosen to bear the fate of the Mages in the universe, the primary one being that Andar was now a Rank 4 Mage in less than six months.

Given the vast resources of the entire Magus World, he had been able to collect extensive amounts of Vitality Sources, and with nothing holding him back, Andar began his elevation as a Mage in rocket speeds, averaging an increase in Rank every two months.

The Light Devourer inside his Spirit Matrix was nearly insane with happiness with the sheer amount of Vitality Essence Andar had been ingesting, and it actively assisted Andar in merging with the Endless Vault, increasing his efficiency in unlocking higher floors and the creation of more Spirit Matrix Tiles.

With all the resources he was now able to collect, he was capable of pushing his Meditation Art to heights never seen before in the Magus World, and as a Rank 4 Mage, Andar's sparring partners became Archmages, they were the only ones who were capable of pushing him to the limits.

Time and time again they all reminded him about how special he was, even compared to the scale of every universe in existence. The so-called divine geniuses could maybe fight two or three ranks higher than their own, and for this reason, they had specialized groups and rankings devoted to the showcase of their talents.

None of them could ever imagine fighting an opponent that was a Higher Order than them, every common sense instilled in them knew that it was impossible, but creation was vast, and there were outliers.

Every single Archmage was once one of those frightening geniuses and they had been repeatedly humbled by Andar's progress and power.

The stars all mourning for a mysterious figure had shaken Andar from whatever pride might have been sneaking into his heart and the sudden call for war on a strange planet called Trion had pushed his focus into overdrive.

He had traveled with such mighty forces that Andar had grown a bit suspicious, from the information that he had received, this planet had barely been surviving against three Archmages and two Demon Princes along with their small forces for the past million years, what could warrant such high levels of deployment against them.

With his status, he had discovered that this order had been given by an esteemed Tower Master, Silas Black, master of the Black Tower.

Knowing there was more to this battle that should meet the eye, Andar had become careful in his actions, while taking this trip as a valuable training exercise. Mira and his mother had followed him on this trip, and he had made sure Mira who was a Rank 2 Mage stayed behind in the safety of an Archmage Tower that would be floating outside the planet for the duration of the battle.

Andar had felt the wrongness when he had neared this world. It was easily the biggest planet he had ever seen, and in the distance, it glinted like ruby, but he knew this was not the color a healthy planet should carry, and he was not wrong.

When they got closer to the world, he discovered that the shiny red was nothing but clouds that were filled with blood. Weaker Mages could not sense it, but the moment Andar entered Trion he went white, as the most intense feeling of disgust ravaged his senses.

The Light Devourer inside his Spirit Matrix was going crazy with equal amounts of dread and disgust. Whatever was inside this world was beyond wrong, it was an abomination.

That sentiment was proven to be correct when he saw their enemy. Dominators. He had read about this glorious race and its immense power, but what he saw was nothing like that.

They had their power, but they were no longer people, they were living aberrations that had no right to exist in a sane universe. Their gods were worse, shining beacons of depravity and madness that made even the Demons from the Abyss appear to be tame.

Andar had despaired when he saw their enemies, he was not eager to fight them as he almost felt they should be cleansed from orbit rather than engaged in close combat as the Tower Master had insisted.