Dimensional Descent

"What?"

Rychard frowned for the first time in as long as he could remember. He couldn't remember having ever had a fluctuation in his emotions in recent years, at least not one that was large enough to show so prominently. He had gone through too much in the last several years. The destruction of his family, countless humiliations in the Void Palace, being swallowed up by that zone, the death of his last remaining family member and brother…

There wasn't enough to make him frown these days. But this was a bit much.

The news seemed to come one after another, but the most frustrating part was that it wasn't coming through the channels it should have. Rather than their own people reporting back saying that they had been attacked, they had been wiped out so fast that they couldn't even do that. Instead, Rychard was reaching reports from miscellaneous businesses of his and the Viola family that had been in the general area who were only contacting him to let him know that business would likely be slow for the next coming weeks due to the commotion. After all, tourists wouldn't be in a happy, buying mood if their tourist destination had suddenly become a warzone.

And yet, even after several such businesses contacted Rychard and the Viola family about this matter, likely all afraid that they would be accused of embezzling funds if they didn't do so, there was still not a word from the actual alliances of this coming war.

And then it came.

The first to contact him was Aleck Skies. The Patriarch of the Thrusting Skies Sector was absolutely furious, Rychard could hear the thunder booming in the background and the strikes of lightning spilling about. He had immediately accused one of them of setting him up, Rychard could hardly get a word in, not because Aleck was so overwhelming to him, but because he was absolutely shocked to find out that half of Aleck's fleet had been wiped out.

After Rychard regained his bearings, smoothed out his frown and took a breath, his aura changed.

"That's enough."

of his momentum. Even the sounds of thunder and lightning on the other side seem to have

do you have for

Skies family location was in the most covert region there was, but it was also in the region most susceptible to an ambush. How could we even maneuver in those asteroid fields? We relied entirely on this information being

but tell by your tone and surprise that obviously you weren't attacked. Am I supposed to take that

seem to take this accusation very seriously at all. Instead, he flipped

yourself. This was supposed to be an all out assault, did you expect to deal Earth a blow with nothing but a hoard

of this, Rychard expected something very different from the other side than what he actually expected. He wanted to hear a flustered response, a disorganized rambling, a man on his back foot, but instead all he got was a laugh and

perfectly justified judging by what actually happened? If I had brought out my full team, wouldn't I be finished? You mighty Viola and warriors of the Chaotic Water Sector might be able to afford

to justify myself to

into silence, his

I have to betray you?" Rychard finally asked. "Do you have any idea how much I loathe the Ascension Empire? What they've done to me? If you want to

Aleck only continued to