Whoosh!
The clouds split apart as a red streak blinked across the skies.
Within Japan's Air Defense Command, a row of radar technicians flinched as a blip tore across their monitors faster than anything they'd ever seen.
"Sir, we've got a high-speed object approaching from coastal Honshu, moving Mach 7... 70? Correction, Mach 90! How...? No, wait..." a technician stammered, fingers flying across the console. He gasped. "140? What is that!? No, the system's glitching. It must be."
The duty officer leaned forward, eyes narrowing. "Missile?"
"No heat signature, sir. No launch detected. It just… appeared."
Another voice piped up from the back. "It crossed our entire western corridor in under three seconds. We're already losing it over the Sea of Japan!"
"Alert Yokota, Misawa, and JASDF intercept squadrons. I want eyes in the sky now," the officer barked.
---
Sea of Japan – 3 seconds later
Far below, a fishing trawler rocked violently as a shockwave rolled across the water.
Inside Japan's Aerospace Monitoring Command, a flurry of operators sat bolt upright.
"Unidentified aerial phenomenon detected!"
"Where?"
"Started over Tokyo airspace, already crossed the East Sea!"
"What the hell moves that fast!?"
"Mach… Mach 140!? That can't be right! Is the system's glitching?"
---
Korean Peninsula – 12 seconds later
At the Republic of Korea Air Defense HQ, alarms wailed.
"Sir! We've got high-altitude radar pings, something just crossed the DMZ in less than five seconds!"
"Is it a missile?"
"No known heat signature."
"Is it… is it one of theirs?"
---
Meanwhile, aboard an early warning aircraft near the Korean Peninsula…
"Command, we're tracking an anomalous aerial object. No IFF, no transponder. Altitude 21,000 feet and rising. Object speed... impossible to estimate."
"Where is it now?" HQ demanded.
The operator's hands shook as he stared at the radar. "It's already out of our range, sir. It just crossed into South Korean airspace."
---
In South Korea, East Coast, KMAD Command Center – Gangneung
"Unidentified aerial anomaly detected, heading inland from the Sea of Japan. No friendly ID, no flight plan, no missile markers. Estimated speed… Am i... Am I seeing this right? 140? Call the maintenance crew, this thing is glitching."
"Scramble fighters," the commander ordered sharply. "Get confirmation from the Americans. And someone tell me if that thing's a monster."
---
Above it all…
Kaede didn't even notice.
She rocketed across the clouds, her eyes locked on a distant mountain range far beyond Seoul. Wind curled around her like silk, her focus narrowed.
Down below, a dozen early-warning radars screamed into the void. But none of that mattered.
She blinked, and she saw the island, as well as the burning destroyers a few miles away.
Right next to them...
She didn't slow down, flipping as she landed feet first on the ocean surface. She felt the water solidify under her boot, surface tension trying to resist the sudden compression, unable to flow away in time.
Boom!
It didn't need to, as she punctured through the ocean like a bullet through glass, turning the entire water body around her for miles into a vapour bubble.
Before the massive vapor bubble, easily the size of a small island, could collapse, the shockwave that had been chasing Kaede across the globe finally caught up.
It slammed into the bubble with the force of a wrathful god.
KaBOOM!
The impact detonated the ocean itself.
Water folded upward like a pancake flipped by an invisible spatula, surging into the sky in a violent column. The sea reversed upon itself, exposing its deepest trenches, jagged ravines and ancient, untouched darkness that had never once tasted sunlight.
For a brief, impossible moment, the ocean had no surface, only absence, depth, and stunned silence.
Kaede shot through the heart of it all, hovering amidst the twisted remains of steel destroyers and shattered hulls, now plummeting toward the bare ocean floor like forgotten toys.
Her crimson eyes scanned the chaos.
She wasn't afraid. She wasn't even surprised.
She had one thought, and only one.
'Kanae!'
Her eyes, scanning the chaotic scene for any sign of her sister, caught on a figure standing atop the shattered hull of a falling destroyer.
At first glance, he appeared cloaked, his silhouette outlined by the wind, but it wasn't fabric that gave that impression. It was his aura, a dense fog of luminous blue energy that clung to him like a living mantle, distorting the air around him.
Kaede narrowed her gaze.
"Who is he?" she muttered. "That energy… is he one of the...?"
She tore her eyes away, heart pounding, only to finally see what she had come for, Kanae.
Her sister hung limp in the grip of an insectoid creature, its wings a blur of motion, flapping fast enough to create sonic ripples through the air. The thing was massive, sleek, its chitinous exoskeleton gleaming black beneath the fractured light of the broken sky.
Kaede's breath caught.
"An… ant?" she whispered in disbelief. 'She lost… to an ant? What the hell is happening here? What happened while I was gone?'
She took in Kanae's condition in a heartbeat, the cuts, the burns, the sluggish way her head hung forward. Her blood boiled.
'How dare it…'
'How dare a lowly creature hold her like that?'
Her fingers clenched.
"Commander's Authority," she growled.
In that moment, Kaede ignited.
A multicolored haze burst from her body, rippling like a divine shockwave across the battlefield. Threads of color, crimson, violet, emerald, gold, whirled around her as the very world responded to her fury.
---
Commander's Authority activated.
Activating Pantheon Function.
---
Pantheon LV1: 001 / XXX
Leader: Kaede ^Maple^ Tawata
Members: 001 / XXX
• QUERESHA. MONARCH OF PLAGUES
•
•
Realms: 002 / XXX
• PLAGUE REALM {QUERESHA, QUEEN OF INSECTS}
• DEMON REALM {EMPTY} ^
•
•
---
=Pantheon Core Skills=
∆Divine Conduction (Passive Core)
Your abilities passively resonate with any realm you visits. Even in unclaimed realms, your powers synchronize with ambient magicules, granting you temporary domain influence.
Effect 1: +20% to all stats and skills in neutral or enemy realms.
Effect 2: Gradually convert unclaimed territory into Sanctified Ground over time.
∆Godless Devourer (Unclaimed Realm Passive)
When you enter a realm with no current divine ruler or monarch, your authority expands aggressively.
Effect: All stats, and skills +25%. Enemy morale and resistance drop as the realm instinctively recognizes you as a candidate for dominion.
Once per realm, you can use Claim of the First Flame to attempt to claim fragments of latent deity energy in unruled lands. If successful and unchallenged, the land will recognise you as it's ruler.
∆Deific Adaptation Protocol (Pantheon Function Modifier)
All existing skills evolve with her Pantheon's expansion.
Effect: Skills gain Pantheon Subroutines, allowing them to adapt based on allied gods, terrain, and threats.
---
=Pantheon SubCore Skills=
∆Authority Boon: (Passive)
You are the Source Node of the Pantheon. Any deity or monarch who joins your Pantheon becomes linked to you through a metaphysical system architecture. This grants you:
Status Reflection: Gain a small percentage (2–5%) of each member's total stat growth or divine energy.
Skill Synchronization (Passive Echoes): A diluted passive version of certain unique skills your Pantheon members have.
∆Knowledge Boon: "Eyes of the Origin" (Passive)
Passive awareness of:
Realms connected to your Pantheon, including structural changes, invasions, or ecological shifts.
Thought-Pings: When Pantheon members focus heavily on you or call out your name or title, you hear them regardless of distance.
Tomes of Echo: Automatically learn new species, spells, and techniques created by your Pantheon members, storing them in a personal [SYSTEM-GRIMOIRE].
∆Divinity Boon: "Authority of Acyclic Chaos" (Active | Limited Use)
Gain a domain-level reality override function once per day:
Temporarily breaks all system rules in a localized area (It doesn't matter what it is, if it is, or why it is.)
Only lasts 10 seconds, but it trumps all conventional magic laws or divine authority, as it comes from foundational chaos, not inherited divinity.
---
Kaede paid no mind to the flowing lines of system text that shimmered before her eyes. Her focus was locked on her target, though a flicker of surprise passed through her. [Commander's Authority] had activated effortlessly, surging through her not with reluctance, but with something close to eagerness. And this time, it wasn't just active. It was dialed up to eleven.
Divinity Boon: "Authority of Acyclic Chaos"
For ten seconds, everything Kaede said or willed became law.
If she desired fire, the world would burn. If she demanded death, light itself would extinguish. In this moment, Kaede asked only for one thing.
"Hold still."
And the world obeyed.
The wind froze mid-gust. The waves halted in mid-crash. Even the clouds above stopped swirling. Time did not stop, but the world and everything within it did.
Her gaze never wavered as she stepped forward, walking calmly atop the narrow platform of hardened water she had shaped beneath her feet. Each step rang with the hush of divine stillness, as if even sound feared to disobey her.
And then, ten seconds passed.
The spell broke.
The ocean, long held in defiance of gravity, fell.
It crashed around them with a deafening roar, collapsing with such weight it seemed the planet itself had hiccuped. The world shuddered, reeling for an instant from the sudden release, like a pendulum knocked off rhythm before finding its balance again.
Kaede stood before the ant, her authority still holding it even as the world resumed.
Gently, Kaede pried Kanae from the insect's claws, her movements careful, reverent. The moment their contact broke, Kanae exhaled sharply, her breathing easing as if some invisible weight had been lifted.
"Aren't I supposed to be the little sister?" Kaede muttered, her voice barely above a whisper.
Kanae let out a short laugh that turned into a cough. "You really came to Korea," she said between breaths. "And you made a hell of a show out of it, too. You could've just used Cover Move, y'know. That was the point of you marking me in the first place, wasn't it? Would've been stealthier."
Kaede blinked, caught off guard. "Ah."
Kanae's smirk widened despite her injuries. "And that's why you're still the little sister."
The moment lasted only a breath before Kaede shoved a small vial against Kanae's lips, expression flat.
"Drink," she said firmly. "Last time I try to save you."
Kanae raised an eyebrow but obeyed without protest, tilting her head back. The liquid shimmered with faint traces of light, a swirl of silver and violet.
In seconds, her color returned. Her wounds sealed with an audible snap, and the fog behind her eyes cleared. She straightened, stretching her limbs as if waking from a long nap.
"Tastes like cough syrup," she muttered, standing unaided atop the shimmering water platform Kaede had formed.
Her gaze drifted to the ant, still frozen mid-motion in the invisible grip of Kaede's will. Then she looked skyward.
Above them, the helicarriers hovered like titans, watching silently from miles up. No doubt cameras were trained on them. Satellites, too.
"This is definitely going to cause an international incident," Kanae said quietly, crossing her arms.
Kaede didn't respond.
Kanae exhaled slowly. "At this point, though... I don't much care."
She turned back to the ant. "Now then. You asked about the king, didn't you?"
"How could you lose to this guy?" Kaede asked mockingly. "He's like super weak."
Kanae sighed. "I don't know if you noticed, but I can't fly and we're on the ocean. I was heavily disadvantaged, especially since he's also faster than me."
She drew her sword. "The blade was cool though, kept me in the fight longer than I expected. Maybe if I'd had one of those furry armours then I'd have been strong enough to win."
She tapped the sword on the ant's forehead. "As it is, this guy was completely different from what we expected. He killed Goto, and Minoru."
"He?" Kaede raised an eyebrow.
"Yeah. He kept asking for our king, no clue what that's about. My guess is, he was looking for our strongest." Kanae shrugged.
"Goto, huh?" Kaede sighed.
"Yeah, he tried to draw the ant's attention by claiming to be the king, but he underestimated its strength, we all did. Goto died and I had to pick up the slack, go all out from the beginning." Kanae answered.
"You still lost." Kaede mocked.
"I can't fly, like this guy, and apparently... You. Did you fly all the way from Maple Tree?" Kanae asked.
Kaede waved her away. "I wasn't flying. I was simply moving through the air via multiple methods. Basically cheating. I don't have a flying skill yet."
"That's called flying dipshit." Kanae deadpanned.
"Nuh uh! It's called propulsion." Kaede rebutted. "It's a thing where you launch yourself into the air and then..."
"Just kill the thing already!" Kanae basically yelled in frustration.
Kaede raised an eyebrow, genuinely offended. "Excuse you, propulsion dynamics are a complex system of..."
She stopped. The ant twitched.
She raised an eyebrow.
In the silence between their banter, something shifted. A vibration in the air, subtle at first, then unmistakable.
The ant was moving.
Not physically, Kaede still held it in place with her authority, but internally. Mana twisted unnaturally within its core. Like a virus rewriting itself.
"Is it..?" Kaede's mouth grinned.
The exoskeleton cracked, not from damage, but from shedding. A black fluid leaked from its joints as the entire body began to ripple, muscles warping, limbs elongating. Wings shredded and regrew in jagged layers of crystal.
"Oh, come on," Kanae muttered, stumbling back. "It's evolving?"
"Ooh," Kaede said excitedly.
And then the Authority snapped.
The spell holding it collapsed under pressure from within, like brittle glass, as the ant burst free of its shell.
It was taller now, broader too. Its once-uniform black carapace was crisscrossed with glowing crimson lines, pulsating faintly like veins of magma etched across its limbs and chest.
Where its eyes had once gleamed a solid red, they now shimmered with a strange dual hue, rings of violet encircling a sickly yellow core, burning with intelligence it hadn't shown before.
Three pairs of translucent green wings buzzed behind its back, moving so rapidly they tore through the air with every beat, releasing sharp sonic cracks that echoed across the ruined seascape like thunder.
Then its aura surged.
A wave of invisible pressure rolled outward, bending the ocean spray and rippling across Kaede's water platform. She blinked once, flexing her fingers.
Her fingers curled into a fist, then opened slowly, testing the tension in the space around her.
Kaede's eyes narrowed. A small, incredulous laugh escaped her lips.
"...Did you just eat [Commander's Authority]?"