Rising

///June 15th, 2222\\\

 It's been nine years since we started the ACC. The press about it being the WR faded as we showed we were different. My biography about my life and primarily the war went up today. Ryan did more of a memoir. The first century of war, which was its title as well. From 2010 to 2110. He was writing a sequel, "The Second Century," which covered the last century of war. My biography was my whole life, "Life of a King." All the way from my childhood, to my experience in the IC, my revolution, and the DWW. Exactly 210 years. I thought for a moment. It dawned on me I was 226 years old now. Two centuries. My life had been war since 2010, all the way to 2210. Two centuries of war. In my whole expansive life, I had had 8 years of peace. Admittedly the last nine years hasn't really been direct combat. Small insurgency groups that had been quickly crushed and contained. Ares was a universal corporation now. Speaking of Ares, he was being knighted for his help to the commonwealth and the common man. The knighting ceremony, along with other ceremonies are held in the throne room. I spent most of my time in my office and both definitely showed it. The throne room was held in the lowest chasm of the castle. Maemia held the largest reserves of Maemiam, energy that forms in an atomic form specifically in crystals. The crystals on Maemia were the biggest. The throne room was a large stone room with a rift in the center that dropped 100 meters to lava with massive crystal spikes growing at an angle to form three arches of six crystals. A thick Maemiam crystal bridge stretched across to a throne carved out of the crystal. The High Throne of the Ancient Memeans, according to legend Azraguel the Conqueror sat here in 36,970 BCE back when most of Maemia was tribal. He united the planet under his immense power for a thousand years before some unknown thing caused them to evacuate to a different planet. He didnt join them. The clans fought and went back to tribal ways for a while, respecting the legend of Azraguel. After the IC was destroyed we retreated here, our homeworld, the original castle was far smaller. I sat in green and gold robes with a ceremonial sword made of the Core Crystal, the Maemian core of the planet, Azraguel allegedly made part of it into a sword. We did find a crystal sword so maybe. Ares walked in. He said he modelled the androids after himself. He was a tall man with angular facial features and large seemingly muscled with tan skin and red eyes. It was all appearances of course. He was actually metallic and plastic covered in nanobots. The angles of his face was just the cut metal and the muscularity was simply armor around key components and to look threatening same with the eyes; intimidation. He walked across the bridge and kneeled in front of the throne. I took the side of the blade and tapped his soldiers and said; "I knight thee, Ares the Onceman, to be a protector, a vigil, a symbol of the commonwealth and common man." A man standing guard took the iron and stuck into the lava pit that was being pulled up from a hundred meters down. He raised the back of the shirt Ares wore and prepped the iron. It was the symbol of the commonwealth, a gear, with a star in it and a bohr atom in the center of the star, he pressed it against the right shoulder blade of Ares, it burned all the way into the metal, some of the nanobots scattering from the heat. They returned and it was obviously there. He stood and the other guard brought a longsword in a sheath to Ares. He unsheathed the blade. It was an ancient memean sword. It was maem steel, forged in the lava of the Meme Mountain Ring. Runes were carved into the blade that glowed brightly and had a crystal in the center of the pommel that glowed brightly in his hand. It was the binding process. They were hard to make and given only to knights, a title that can only be given by the High King, Kings can submit requests for people to be knighted but very few were crowned Knights. The blades; Knightblades, were expensive and the crystals had to be meticulously crafted from Maemiam. All had intricate and unique carvings with runes that would form on the binding process. The binding was the crystal form fitting to the life energy, essentially a soul, and a person's biology and hands. He dropped the sword and it turned to light and flashed out of existence. He summoned the sword and held it high with both hands in a salute and threw it to my feet and it turned to light and he turned and walked away. Thank fuck, these robes were uncomfortable as shit. I was back in my normal clothes of a white t-shirt with black sweatpants. As I was walking up to the elevator to go to my office I got an alert on my arm. Some big shit at the Institute. I walked to the large hangar and saw the last preparations of Pridewealth. I got in and it strapped in. Alarms blared and the rock face moved out of the way. Blue flames shot from the jets on the back and they moved forward and shot out of the rock and I immediately pulled up and went upside down over the crown of the mountains and corrected myself. From there I shot across the sky and ocean and landed at the Institute on a grey and glowing red H pad. The pad moved downwards to the hangar. I felt and heard it as metallic claws grabbed onto the bottom of the ship. Once the H pad stopped the ship jolted as it moved across a rail system and I heard the H pad rise back up as the ship jolted to a stop. I got out and saw the massive, expansive room with over a hundred domestic, planetary jets and planes. It was impressive. I moved to the DOS Lab. People in white lab coats ran around working.

"Gramps, we found something outstanding!" Colner said excitedly.

"What?" I asked.

"A limiting factor to the Eldritch Powers," He said in hushed tones.

"Fuck," I responded dumbfounded.

"We don't know what it is but it exists, we see its effects," He said.

"Good work," I said. We caught up and I walked off to head home. A cure, we were getting closer.