Transcendent powers are those organizations with at least a single Primeval Class Being with a Disaster Ranking of Cataclysm, whilst also possessing at least ten Divine Constructs.
Above them were Hegemon and Apex powers, with the latter reigning supreme.
Below them were; Superpowers, Super-first rate powers, First Rate Powers, Second Rate Powers, Third Rate Powers, and Unrated Powers.
The Rouge Order was a Transcendent Grade Guild composed entirely of Professional Assassins.
P.S. I apologize for the lack of a release last week.
230 years prior to the start of the main storyline in The Dark Luminance Imperial Capital of Britannia.
During this period in time, Aleksandr and his group of friends ranged between the ages of 20 and 30 years of age and had yet to make their journey to Avalon or form The Divine Order under the "orders" of the Empire.
Instead, they resided within a wing of the Imperial Palace and devoted a significant portion of their lives to the development of their physical capabilities, Classes, Professions, and the comprehension of Divine Principles; with some focus being placed on familiarizing them with the basic history of the world as a whole as well as the current state of affairs of the Realm they inhabited.
They typically spent the free time they did have doing one of three things; screwing about within the Imperial Palace, visiting various locations of interest within the capital in individual groupings (causing all types of mayhem as they did so), or entertaining themselves at the colosseum.
At this particular moment in time, Aleksandr was alone in his private forge, which he usually allowed no one to enter so as to avoid being disturbed as he worked, watching as a human head-sized piece of Black Iron hovered in the air above his furnace and was doused by rising and falling pillars of multicolored flame.
Once the Black Iron became white-hot Aleksandr reached into the furnace and pulled it out before placing it on his anvil and lifting a hammer into the air in preparation to strike it.
The hammer, the anvil, and the furnace were all a part of one of Several of Aleksandr's Phantasms.
A Phantasm would best be conceptualized as the manifestation of an individual's talent, identity, or will and could come in the form of a Class, Skill, Profession, or Item and Categorized into the following grades; Sovereign, Primeval, Royal, Nobel, and Common.
Each of the five grades was divided into the three ranks upper, middle, and lower.
All Phantasms boast significant power though the degree to which the power was expressed depends on the power of the individual wielding it.
This Phantasm known collectively as The Forge of Hephaestus was an Upper-Ranked Sovereign Grade Phantasm that symbolized his identity as Sovereign of Blacksmiths.
The hammer was named Vulcan, the anvil was named Olympus, and the furnace was named Helios.
Vulcan could multiply his Strength by up to a factor of a thousand while simultaneously decreasing his overall speed and agility by a factor of ten. It also granted him the ability to imprint any Divine Symbol or Formation he desires onto any object or lifeform it comes into contact with.
Olympus could absorb and refine any form of energy from the environment and either store it for later use or channel it into any object he placed on top of it.
Helios could produce flames of any temperature and nature and was capable of purifying just about any material in existence in the world.
He was also capable of altering the size of any of the three objects at will.
Ding!
As he struck the Black Iron with his hammer a melodious ding rang out and was soon followed by more of such sounds as he continued striking the white-hot metal.
In the following stretch of time, he hammered the Black Iron into a double-edged sword with a blade around two and a half feet long and four fingers wide.
The sword had a hexagonal hilt and an approximately eight-inch handle.
Once he was done shaping the sword, he picked it up and gave it a few simple swings to get a feel for it at the same time as he utilized his Divine Sense to investigate its internal structure.
Being assured that its internal structure was flawless and its weight was balanced, he began the process of utilizing his hammer to imprint a series of interlocking Divine Formations within the sword that slowly came together to form a highly sophisticated Divine Array at the same as he channeled Primeval grade Source Energy into the sword via his anvil.
As he continued to work the density of ambient Source Energy continually increased and the environmental balance began to destabilize manifesting various phenomena, such as; flashes of lightning, gusts of wind, an increase in gravity, as well as several paper-thin spatial cracks.
Eventually, the spatial cracks began to widen, the flashes of lightning began to morph into full-on bolts, the gusts of wind became gales, and his movements slightly slowed as gravity continued to increase.
By this point, Aleksandr was in the midst of swinging his hammer in an effort to imprint the final Divine Formation within the sword and complete its Divine Array.
Once the hammer made contact with the sword and the Divine Array was completed and the sword released a pillar of intermingling black and white light as it absorbed a vast quantity of the Source Energy and Id from the surrounding environment.
In the following moment, a Divine Spirit known as Jormungandr, resembling a cross between a dragon and a sea serpent and cloaked in clouds of obscure mist, took shape within the pillar, opened its eyes briefly locking gazes with Aleksandr, and dove into the sword which was currently hovering in the air beneath it.
The gaze Jormungandr pointed in Aleksandr's direction conveyed numerous emotions, but most prevalent amongst them was gratitude towards Aleksandr's action of crafting a vessel to contain it.
Seeing this Aleksandr, gave a small smile as he observed Jormungandr and its Vessel become one.
After this was done the pillar of light faded from existence while the sword continued to hover in the air above the anvil.
The sword was now marked with the image of Jormungandr coiled around it from its pommel to the tip of its blade, with Jormungandr's head being located at the blade tip.
Understanding that the process was complete, Aleksandr dematerialized Vulcan and picked up the sword, giving it a few swings to get yet another feel of it now that it was inhabited by Jormungandr.
As he did, he got a good feel for all of the sword's components; its Divine Spirit, the Vessel in question, and its Divine Array.
After giving it a few swings and reassuring himself that everything was in working order he nodded in satisfaction before proceeding to appraise it producing a screen of information only he could see reading as follows;
[ Jormungandr ] (Imperial Ranked Double-Edged Sword)
Abilities:
- Penetrates/Negates the target's defense (Passive)
- Every attack dealt with this sword will be a Mortal Strike (Active)
- Instantly destroys any opposing Mortal Grade Item or Weapon (Active)
- Raise the number of Durability Points this sword would strip from any opposing Immortal Ranked item or Weapon by a factor of 100 (Active)
- Endows the user with a varying degree of control over the weather (Active)
- Triples the user's base Physical Attack (Passive)
- Increase user's Maximum Movement and Attack Speed by 275% (Active)
- Increase user's Instantaneous Movement Speed and Acceleration by 325% (Active)
- Recovers Durability Points over time. Rate determined by the density of ambient Source Energy and Id (Passive)
Requirements for effective use:
- Either; 1,000,000,000,000 Strands (100,000,000 Planes, 10,000 Skies, or 10 Worlds) of Strength, or acceptance of the Divine Spirit this Weapon Houses
Durability: 1,000,000,000
After appraising the sword Aleksandr dematerialized both his anvil and furnace before departing the forge.
As he left the forge he used his HALO to contact Asher.
Soon after he made the call, a small holographic screen with Asher's image popped up in his field of view.
"What are you doing?" Aleksandr asked Asher.
"Screwing around in the lounge with a few of the guys," Asher responded with a laidback air before continuing on with a question of his own, "You need my help with something?"
"I do. I just left the forge and I have a new sword I would like to try out." Aleksandr replied with a flat tone that didn't quite fit with his more ambiguous facial expression.
After he heard that, Asher paused for a brief moment and took a second, more appraising, glance at his closest friend before saying, "This should be fun then. I'll meet you at the training field with some of the guys."
"Good," Aleksandr responded before ending the call and continuing on his way.
