Villain

by Ivan Kal

  The Seven had agreed to his proposal, and he was glad for it. He needed the Krashinar for what he was about to do. Iris was going to come with him, as well as some of the Nomad Fleet.

  Some of the Nomad Fleet had decided to stay in the Empire, as not everyone agreed with what he had done, and he understood. There were nights when he couldn’t sleep for the guilt he felt, the sensation of knowing all those people and still killing them.

  “Are you sure it’s there?” Ryaana asked, not for the first time.

  “When I was using the Conduit, I felt something there that had a similar feel to the bore. It’s worth checking out.”

  Ryaana sighed, and he could tell that she didn’t really know how to act around him. He understood and tried to give her space.

  The Seventh arrived, his large form slithering next to them.

  “It is agreed. The Old Hunters and the Eternal Hunters are free to go with you. We have called for a few spawneries as well. You may take them with you when you go, in order to grow more. We’ve made the call across our territory, and the ones who wish to come will answer,” the Seventh sent.

  “Thank you, my friend,” Heart of the Mountain told him.

  “It will be the first time one of the Krashinar has left this galaxy—an honor. We are pleased that you have asked us to come.”

  Heart of the Mountain nodded his head. “There was no one else I could’ve asked.”

  The Seventh bowed his head and then left, leaving them alone again.

  “Are you certain we can find whatever came through? It’s been a long time,” Lurker of the Depths asked.

  “If I am close to whatever came through I will recognize it, and the only place where I felt anything similar to what I felt from the bore is in Andromeda.”

  “We shall see,” Lurker of the Depths said.

  Heart of the Mountain glanced to the sky. His eyes couldn’t see Moirai, but he could feel her. She was eagerly awaiting their departure. It was going to take them a lot of time, or rather it would’ve taken them a long time—but ever since the Conduit, his powers, and that of the others, had grown tremendously. He could bend space from one corner of the galaxy to the other in an instant. He felt that they could make it to Andromeda even if they had to take entire fleets, stations, and shipyards. Heart of the Mountain intended to establish a presence there, a base of operations from which to look out for whatever it was that had entered their galaxy.

  He didn’t know if it was a threat or not, but he needed to find them and figure that out. The others were a bit hesitant, but Heart of the Mountain was done with this galaxy. He couldn’t stay here; it was too hard too. He had done what he had because he’d felt like he had no choice. He didn’t know if that was true, but it didn’t matter. It was done.

  There were other threats out there, other universes, where apparently something lurked—and he wasn’t about to let it threaten the life that he had paid such a steep price for.

  He was going to find it and make sure that it wasn’t a threat. And if it was…

  Well, then he would make sure that it wouldn’t be able to threaten anything.

  CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

  Edge of Milky Way Galaxy

  Loranis of the Enlightened stood on her ship. She was alone; all of her Created were dead, their Sha ripped out of them by the weapon. She didn’t know what happened after the weapon fired, still didn’t know what had occurred, but just before the massive wave of energy exploded out of the Conduit, she had felt Aranis die, and she knew then that their mission had failed.

  But then so much power had exploded out into the galaxy, and she felt a guiding mind in the Sha. She felt the mind of Adrian, of the Heart of the Mountain. She felt him reach out to the galaxy and kill all of the Enlightened troops, and she waited for him to kill her—and then he hadn’t. She felt him start the repairs, and she felt confused and shocked. She watched as he took from the galaxy and repaired the damage.

  One who was not of the Enlightened had finished their work for them. She had checked and found that the barriers had been completely restored. But he hadn’t wiped out all life—instead, he took only as much as was needed. She didn’t know if they had been wrong, if using the weapon allowed him more power to do what was necessary, but she was thankful that he hadn’t needed to take everyone.

  Her people’s mistake was corrected, even if life still existed in the galaxy. But now, she was without purpose, had no goal. For the first time in a long time, she was alone, and free.

  She looked at her holo, seeing the galaxy suspended there. It had been her home for so long, but now, for the first time ever, she could do something else. She smiled—there was an entire universe out there, and she could go anywhere she wanted.

  It would be a long journey, but she had the time. She was still Enlightened; she would live forever. She set a course toward the unknown and left her birth galaxy behind.

  She wondered what kind of wonders she was going to find out there.

  EPILOGUE I

  Year 1195 of the Empire — Fate system; Andromeda Galaxy

  Heart of the Mountain stood over the table inside his sanctum, which was buried deep beneath the mountain on a lifeless moon. The images from the satellites showed the native population developing as predicted. It was an amazing opportunity to watch them as they developed. His sanctum was on the moon orbiting a planet that had a fledgling race, one which had just started their industrial revolution.

  “You’ve been starring at the screens for days now, you know?” Iris’s voice brought him out of his study.

  “Ah,” Heart of the Mountain said as he turned to look at her, “I didn’t realize.”

  “Of course you didn’t. You never do.”

  Heart of the Mountain waved his hand and closed the holos as he turned around. He had grown used to the silence and being alone—well, alone with Iris and Moirai, but the two of them were just as content to spend their time in silence as he was. Ryaana hadn’t come to see him in quite a while, and he knew that she still hadn’t forgiven him for what he had done all that time ago. Lurker of the Depths came from time to time, to see how he was doing and to let him know how Ryaana was faring. Both of them were in Andromeda, and both were exploring it.

  He had nothing but time on his hands. Andromeda was filled with mysteries, with strange worlds. There were only a few races here, and it appeared the theory that each galaxy supported only a smaller number of intelligent beings at one time had been correct. So far they had encountered seven space-faring lifeforms, and eight pre-spaceflight. Heart of the Mountain had taken to observing them all.

  The three of them were yet to find any trace of the signature that had invaded their universe, but Andromeda was a large galaxy, and they had barely explored even a small part of it. There was time, too—the damage was repaired and the universe safe.

  Heart of the Mountain frowned, then, as he felt something happening to the space inside his sanctum. He turned around only to see the air split open to reveal another space beyond it through a shimmering veil. Then someone stepped through and entered his sanctum.

  It was an alien woman, with dark-green skin that looked radiant, and long, curved white horns that pulsed with power. Heart of the Mountain grabbed her with his power the moment she stepped through and slammed her against the side of the room, denting the metal and eliciting a surprised gasp from the alien.

  “What! Unhand me this moment!” she cried.

  Heart of the Mountain walked over to her, taking a moment to study the rip in space that had brought her here. He could feel that it felt similar to the bore he’d closed. He realized that this was a portal that led to another universe—only, this one was far better contained, and its opening far gentler than the one that had caused all the trouble before.

  “You’ve entered my home uninvited. I will…unhand you once you’ve told me who you are and what you are doing here,” Heart of the Mountain told her as he walked over to stand in front of her.

  Her f
ace scrunched up, and he felt her try to break his hold. She was struggling, and he could tell that she was incredibly powerful, as powerful as he was perhaps. Heart of the Mountain reached out to Moirai, who was sleeping deep beneath his feet, and borrowed her power.

  The woman now had no hope of breaking free.

  Her strange violet eyes looked at him in confusion. “Who are you?”

  “I believe that I’ve already asked you that question,” Heart of the Mountain said.

  She scowled but then spoken. “I am Hestia of the Titans. My comrades and I have just become aware that this universe has produced another of our kind, and I was sent to welcome you to the fold.”

  Heart of the Mountain frowned. “Your kind?”

  She blinked at him as if he was stupid. “You, of course! We can feel it when others like us break through. Although…are you sure that you are newly ascended?”

  “Explain yourself more sufficiently.”

  “You have achieved a new height of power, of understanding of the universe. You can make a connection to it. That makes you like us. We have a group—an organization, really. We all help one another and share information. There is so much that you don’t know, and we can teach you, guide you!”

  Heart of the Mountain considered this for a moment. “You said that you felt one of your kind. So you felt only me?”

  “Well, we can’t really feel you, but when a universe produces more of us, we just kind of know,” she said awkwardly. “We’ve been searching for you here for a long time. Usually it takes us a lot less time to find the new ones, but something here was throwing us off.”

  Heart of the Mountain assumed that it was because there were three of them, but he didn’t say as much. Instead, he let the woman fall to the ground. “Tell me more.”

  “Thanks.” She rubbed at her arms. “How are you this strong?”

  Heart of the Mountain shrugged. “You said that you had an organization?”

  “We call ourselves the Titans, and we are something like caretakers. We guide our universes to the right path, making changes here and there. It’s really quite an awesome job, and I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it after a couple of eons of learning. And we have the best teachers!”

  Heart of the Mountain already knew that he didn’t like this organization, and he didn’t plan on being a student for any amount of time. The woman felt like he did, in the Sha state, but he could tell that he was stronger. He wondered if that was because he had been exposed to the enormous amount of power from the Conduit, but the why of it didn’t matter.

  “That is a portal to another universe?” Heart of the Mountain asked.

  “Yes! I can teach you how to do it if you want. It’s quite easy!” Hestia said excitedly.

  “First, why don’t you tell me more about these Titans. Then we shall see,” Heart of the Mountain said. There were other things out there in the multiverse. This alien woman hadn’t been the one that tore through the barrier before, he was certain of that, but perhaps she could point him in the right direction.

  Somehow, he could feel that the things were about to get very interesting.

  EPILOGUE II

  Year 1382 of the Empire — Fate system; Andromeda Galaxy

  Heart of the Mountain finished looking through his memories and stretched his arms over his head. He had gotten quite stiff from spending so much time in the same position. The memories of the past were in places painful: his loss of Anessa, the destruction that he had been forced undertake… He didn’t like to remember, but he had to.

  The one thing that his recollection had showed him was just how little he understood. That meeting with Hestia was just one of many examples; he hadn’t known what the Titans were, yet the way he’d acted was reckless. He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

  But one thing he did find out was about the bore, and the signature that had come through. He was certain now that it wasn’t Chaos and Order themselves, but something that had their power draped over them: a herald. That meant that the Titans were right. Chaos and Order had set their eyes on this universe as their feeding ground. If what the Titans had told him was correct, the herald would’ve established itself in one of the races, guided them and shaped them to their purpose.

  Now, Heart of the Mountain just had to find them.

  But Andromeda was a large place, and he was going to need some help. He walked over to the other side of the room and found two communicators, each designed by Iris, and each utilizing access-point technology. They could send messages to anywhere they wished, in this galaxy at least. With a sigh he sent a message, calling Ryaana and Lurker of the Depths to him.

  It had been a while since he had seen them, but it was time. They had a universe to protect—again.

  Author’s note:

  Well, here we are: the end of the Rise of the Empire series. As you’ve probably guessed, this is not the end of the story for some of our characters. There will be a sequel trilogy called Chaos & Order, which will follow Heart of the Mountain, Lurker of the Depths, and Ryaana, and will follow their adventures in Andromeda to show how these characters reached the point where we saw them in my other series. It will explain the origin of Chaos and Order, the big bad for my multiverse, and how Adrian/Heart of the Mountain became the universe-hopping god (little g) that we’ve met in the Universe on Fire and Tower of Power series.

  I hope that you’ve enjoyed Rise of the Empire and that you will take a look at Chaos & Order when it comes out sometime next year!

  Many of you already know this, but this is for the people who are not aware. All of my books take place inside a shared multiverse, and some characters crossover from series to series. But it is not required for you to read all the series in order to understand what is happening, each series has its own set of characters and storyline which is contained inside of that series. The multiverse stuff is mostly background and side stories, and I will always explain everything that is relevant in every series, so you will never feel like you are missing out. Reading the other series might give you some insight into the characters that appear across different series, but it will not give you all the answers as every series takes place at a different point in time, with thousands of years and sometimes more in between the events. Every series is also a different genre, and while the overall rules of the multiverse are the same, each series has its own feel, and you should not feel the need to read something in a genre that you don’t enjoy! Don’t worry, everything will always be explained where necessary and you will not miss out on anything!

  In case that you do want to check the other books out, here is the chronological order of the multiverse:

  Rise of the Empire (space opera, sci fi with fantasy elements in the second half of the series)

  Chaos and Order trilogy (coming soon! This trilogy will have the multiverse stuff as the main storyline and will set the stage for the background conflict)

  Universe on Fire (sci fi-fantasy)

  Eternal Path (mix of eastern and western fantasy)

  Tower of Power (LitRPG, fantasy)

  You are of course not required to read them in chronological order to understand things. The multiverse threads are mostly background in every series so far, but the characters that are crossing over do originate in a few of these series, and you might learn more about their origins. That’s it! Thanks for reading!

  If you liked this book, please consider leaving a review on Amazon. Honest reviews of my books help greatly by bringing them to the attention of new readers. I would be grateful if you could spend a few minutes writing a short review (a few words is fine) on Amazon.

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  Glossary

  Cast of Characters

  Empire

  Adrian Farkas-Reiss — Human; Former Lord Sentinel of the Empire; Warmaster of the Nomad Fleet; Dal A’sha to Kar Daim Anessa of the Shara Daim. Known as the Heart of the Mountain.

 
Ryaana Farkas-Reiss — Half human, half Shara Daim; Former Sentinel of the Empire; Battle commander of the Nomad Fleet; Daughter to Adrian and Anessa.

  Lurker of the Depths — Sowir, the greatest telepath in the Empire.

  Elias Bakas — Human; Leader of the Hand of the Empire.

  Jacob Kelly — Human; Inquisitor of the Hand of the Empire. Former leader of Earth resistance.

  Nkiruka — Human; Inquisitor of the Hand of the Empire.

  Tomas Klein — Human; Emperor of the Empire.

  Seo-yun Hyeon — Human; Minister of Science; Tomas’s partner.

  Laura Reiss — Human; Fleets Master of the Empire; Adrian’s adoptive mother.

  Nadia Wilson — Human; Minister of Civil Service.

  Aileen — Human; Sentinel of the Empire

  Oswald Mein — Human; Commander of Fleets.

  Nair Hakeem — Human; Fleet Commander of the First Fleet.

  Johanna Stern — Human; Fleet Commander of the Third Fleet.

  Gotu — Nel; Administrator of Sol system.

  Isani — Nel; Leader of Clan Warpath.

  Jusan — Nel; Leader of Clan Dai Ven.

  Shara Daim

  Anessa — Former Kar Daim of Shara Daim; Battlemaster of the Nomad Fleet; Dal A’sha to Lord Sentinel Adrian Farkas-Reiss.

  Kane — Kar Daim of the Shara Daim; Son of Anessa and Adrian.

  Vaana — Kar Daim of the Shara Daim; Daughter of Anessa and Adrian.

  Garaam — Dai Sha, commander of the Shara Daim Legions.

  Karoom — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Second Legion.

  Horas — Dai Sha of the Twenty-Fifth Legion.

  Arisak — Do Sun to Dai Sha Garaam.

  Erasi

  Valanaru — Gatrey; Ancient of the Erasi. Known as the Weaver.