Arylos lost himself in his books, pouring over theories of evolution and genetics while examining samples from life forms he took from the Great Work. Different tissue samples boiled away in flasks of clear liquid while others were dissected on the table before him with detailed notes about their anatomy. Arylos focused on a small seed under a series of magnifying lenses, examining how it was constructed. He grew interested in these seeds, unassuming at first but carrying a host inside of genetic information; just waiting for the right conditions to grow.

The idea seemed strange to him, like an egg that did not determine when to grow based on time and progress, but based on the world outside. Yet this seedling being had no consciousness or awareness of the outside. It puzzled him that such a small, insignificant thing could do what most evolved creatures could not. Even the Titans themselves couldn’t do this to such an extent.

He set the seed down and reached for a small scalpel and started cutting away at the hard shell, examining the interior under the lenses. The starchy white guts held little in the way of a brain or nervous system. Nothing that could be considered aware and yet this tiny creature was aware, maybe even aware of the Titan looking into it.

Arylos’s thoughts were interrupted by the sounds of footsteps in the temple halls, footsteps he could tell were coming straight for his study door. He set the seed down and folded the corner of the page of his notebook and closed it just as the doors were thrown open.

“Master Zjornfernheim, you need to see this!” a younger robed Titan called out in a desperate voice.

“Does it really require interrupting my studies?” Arylos returned in a bitter growl, flexing his stone wings.

“It’s the Great Work,” the young Titan responded. “The Dramad race, something’s happening.”

“The Dramad?” Arylos asked with curiosity. “Have they finally become aware of us?”

“Lord Adalfheim believes so; the Dramad are gathering a fleet and sailing through reality right now!” the young Titan exclaimed while fervently gesturing for Arylos to follow.

“About time,” Arylos whispered as he got up from his chair and followed the younger Titan through the temple halls, each one with their pace fast, nearly running. Arylos found himself agreeing with the young apprentice; if the Dramad are aware of Mortehksun and possibly coming, they would be the first species to do so. It would be the first time the species of the twin realities would meet.

The two ran through the halls until they came to a central chamber, the younger Titan throwing open the doors. Arylos saw members of the Covenant gathered around a large scrying dish with the waters of reality contained inside. He approached the dish and leaned against it. Inside, he saw an armada of massive metal ships, blue and white and sporting the Dramad’s colours soaring through the void.

“The time is nearly upon us, brother,” a Titan in white and gold robes with long silver hair said while approaching Arylos.

“I hope you didn’t call us here too soon, Adalfheim,” Arylos returned, watching the fleet’s movements carefully. “If this is another false alarm like those sorcerers playing with astral projection, I will hit you.”

“Why must you always resort to violence?” Adalfheim asked in a laughing tone.

“Because you interrupted my work,” Arylos returned while turning towards his older brother. “I might actually get work done on my seed research if you would just let me work in peace.”

“Why bother with seeds when intelligent life is gathering for a possible meeting?” Adalfheim asked in a mocking tone.

“There’s still the question of how they will get here,” another Titan wearing all black with four arms voiced while approaching the two. “No intelligent species yet has found a way to cross the Sunless Sea to get here.”

“Not without dying, Vulonheim,” Arylos returned in a snarky tone.

Vulonheim went silent as the gathering of Titans watched the image in the waters intently. None of the Titans could take their eyes off of the fleet, waiting for something to happen, anything to happen. They watched as the ships found themselves in a new star system just as many other fleets of Dramad ships arrived at other star systems.

“Why are they going to different stars?” one of the Titans present asked.

“It could be they are trying to find a way to the Sunless Sea,” Adalfheim responded in a calm voice.

Arylos watched the fleet movements intently, considering the proper paths to take. They would still be too far away from the Sunless Sea to begin an approach so maybe these were scouts. He watched them closely until he saw a pattern.

All of the ships were of military design and were radiating out in a sphere from their homeworld.

“Something’s not right,” Arylos voiced as he started to make connections.

The Titans present broke out into murmurs at Arylos’s vocal concern, yet he spoke too late. The Titans watched as each fleet broke into an attack formation and missiles were launched from their hulls. They watched as the missiles found their targets on the planets below, detonating with a blast that knocked other ships and satellites out of the atmosphere as the planet below burned from the impact of one missile, breaking the planet’s surface apart.

This campaign of war continued across other worlds, each one snuffing out a planet in an instant and all the Titans could do was watch as each planet, both advanced and primitive, were sterilised and the atmosphere of each burned bright and hot. The army advanced forward, not caring about the worlds below as they continued their advance. When a star system was burned, the army continued onwards, moving to another star system to repeat the cycle.

The Titans could only watch in horror as the Dramad were eliminating life in their local systems on an industrial scale. They did not care for the resources, the labour force, or the culture. All of it was annihilated without a care about the aftermath. Each burned planet warranted a gasp from the spectating Titans as all possible explanations went out the window.

“This…This cannot be,” Adalfheim voiced softly.

“They’re killing all of them,” Vulonheim followed up while covering his mouth.

“No, they’re not killing them; they’re exterminating them,” Arylos corrected while clenching his fists.

“Someone needs to do something,” one of the other Titans voiced while turning to the others.

“Yes, but who? Reality isn’t prepared for a war on that scale,” another Titan spoke up in protest.

“The Arkenians, didn’t they have similar technology?” yet another Titan cut into the conversation.

“The Arkenians?” Arylos asked in a growl while pointing to one of the destroyed star systems. “That was their world. Think they can help now?”

The Titans fell into hushed murmurs as the idea of their policing force being destroyed in an instant terrified them. Arylos looked around at the other Titans watching the destruction below. He growled under his breath, knowing that with each passing second, billions are dying. He turned away from the scrying dish and headed towards the doors.

“Zjornfernheim, where are you going?” Adalfheim asked.

“To end this experiment,” Arylos returned while disappearing in a gust of shadows and embers. Adalfheim and Vulonheim turned to each other, afraid of what their younger brother would do.

The Elder Titans’s confusion was broken by gasps and screams coming from the other Titans. Adalfheim and Vulonheim turned and saw the Titans backing away from the scrying dish. The two came forward and saw something they had only seen once before.

A firestorm spread throughout reality at blinding speeds, tendrils of flames as wide as a giant star snaked through the stars and found the invading fleets. The tendrils struck and consumed each fleet in unholy fire. One by one, each fleet fell to ruin, sundered by dark flames that roared through the cosmos. The flames continued their purge until they found the Dramad star system. The flames pierced the star and to the spectator’s horror, ripped the star apart in a violent explosion that consumed the planets around the star in a sea of starfire and hellfire.

Within minutes, the Dramad race was rendered extinct.

With their destruction, the flames faded away from view, leaving behind the broken husks of the planets the Dramad destroyed and a silence filled the chamber as well as reality. Each Titan was at a loss for words for what happened. Adalfheim turned to his younger brother and both came to an unspoken agreement.

Zjornfernheim retains his title as Elder Titan of the First Flame; the first flame of existence given life and a will of its own.

Arylos sat on the cliff face of his mountainside home, fiddling with a stone in his hand as he threw it out into the ocean below. He dug his nails into the stone, choking back emotions that confused him. Emotions that hurt him in a way that a sword could not. He felt anger, fear, and shame, like red hot steel piercing his chest.

Off to his side, he heard footsteps come closer to him. Instinctively, Arylos lifted the hood of his robe to hide himself.

“It’s just me, Zjornfernheim,” a familiar woman’s voice called out. “You don’t have to hide yourself.”

Arylos stopped and lowered his hood back down, unwilling to hide from her. He clenched his fist in anger; she was the last person he wanted to see right now.

“I heard about what happened with the Dramad,” Aralym said softly while sitting down next to Arylos. “What caused all of that?”

Arylos took a shuddered yet growling breath, keeping his eyes fixated on the ocean below. “They answered our question, that’s all. We wanted to know what was the meaning of life, they said there was no meaning.”

“So they began killing other races,” Aralym wondered aloud while staring out across the horizon.

Arylos nodded slowly, feeling emotions well deep inside of him. “I had to stop them before they ruined everything.”

“You did what you had to,” Aralym answered softly while resting a hand on Arylos’s shoulder.

“I did the same thing they did,” Arylos growled while his wings shuddered. “I destroyed an entire race without a second thought because I determined they didn’t deserve to live.”

“But you saved countless other worlds in the process,” Aralym returned in a soft voice.

“That doesn’t make it right,” Arylos growled, finding nothing else he could tell Aralym. The two sat in silence, observing the ocean below and feeling the cool wind. Arylos choked back tears that came down his face as red blood. Aralym couldn’t help but feel sorry for her friend.

“Why don’t you just leave it all?” she suggested in a soft voice while rubbing the Elder Titan’s back. “Leave the Covenant and live out here. Or you could live with me; I have a small farmhouse that belonged to my father that is far enough away from the city.”

Arylos shook his head, not willing to lie to himself. “Because I have a responsibility–”

“To our people, yes I know,” Aralym cut off in a stern and tired voice, tired of this same old explanation. “But what about yourself? Don’t you want to live in peace like those people below?”

“That life isn’t for me,” Arylos returned while keeping his eyes on the red sun overhead.

“What makes you say that?” Aralym asked.

“Because I am nothing else,” Arylos responded while gripping his hands. “I live and I die for the sake of my people. And if I must repeat what I did today to do so, then I will do so without hesitation.”

Aralym reached out and held the Elder Titan’s hand in her own. “How much of that is Zjornfernheim talking and not your heart?”

“What do you mean?” Arylos asked softly.

Aralym laughed as she turned her gaze once more to the horizon. “You cherish life and evolution. You are enamoured by it, obsessed with it. I think what you did had nothing to do with us Titans but had everything to do with the people of reality. You saved them without considering us. Deep in that heart of yours, you live and die for life itself, not for the Titans.”

Arylos bowed his head. He could tell Aralym nothing; no words that could prove her argument wrong. He took part in the Great Work to experience a new form of life, to see just what chaos could create if allowed to do what it does best. Above every other member of the Covenant, he wanted to meet with the races below, to live with them and understand them.

“Tell you what, Zjornfernheim,” Aralym began while standing up. “How about you get a new name; one that you can use when you want to get away from it all. Maybe a name you can use when you meet the people of reality.”

Arylos laughed while standing up. “And what kind of name would you give me?”

Aralym rubbed her chin as she thought. “Maybe one that denotes you as a guardian? No titles or anything; just ‘guardian’.”

“I’m not a guardian,” Arylos laughed as he turned away. “I protect by destroying. That makes me a warmonger, not a guardian.”

“You’re right; guardian isn’t the word I’m looking for, but I need a word that conveys the same meaning,” Aralym smiled as four beautiful orange and yellow wings erupted from her back, churning with embers amongst the feathers with a dull orange and red light. She reached up and plucked a feather from her wing and then reached for Zjornfernheim’s hand and gently rested the feather in his palm.

“So you’re Arylos,” she told the Elder Titan with a smile.