Sovereign Ascendant

The descent into Prime Terra began with light.

Not the cold, artificial glow of a warship's interior, nor the dim and lifeless stars scattered across the void. This was true light, warm and golden, cascading across the atmosphere like a celestial embrace.

Gaius had seen many worlds. Barren wastelands of iron and war, frostbitten moons where the only sound was the wind howling across dead rock, planets of endless jungle, thick with ancient beasts and forgotten ruins.

But he had never seen anything like this.

The sky stretched above them, a deep and endless blue, rich and vibrant. And the clouds—not the dull, gray masses of storm worlds, but towering shapes of soft pink, violet, and gold, shifting in slow, fluid patterns, as if they were alive.

The rivers and oceans below shimmered like liquid rainbows, a thousand colors weaving together in endless currents, reflecting the heavens in their depths.

Mountains, impossibly vast, rose toward the skies, their peaks wrapped in layers of emerald green, with forests sprawling across their slopes, dense and filled with life.

It was a world untouched by war.

A world of paradise, of endless bounty.

The Homeworld of Humanity.

Prime Terra.

—

The Ignis Imperium broke through the atmosphere, its engines humming with controlled power as it glided toward its destination. Even a warship of its magnitude seemed small in comparison to the sheer vastness of the Imperial Capital.

It was not a city.

It was a continent.

At the heart of Prime Terra, stretching across thousands of kilometers, was the Crown of Man—the Imperial Capital of the Regulus.

Even from high above, Gaius could see its grandeur.

Massive rivers, woven like veins across the land, flowed with honey, wine, and pure spring water. Their banks were lined with ivory trees, their branches heavy with golden fruit, their roots carved with ancient runes that pulsed with living energy.

The city itself was a living contradiction—where the greatest heights of technology met the timeless beauty of civilization.

Towering spires of pristine white marble and reinforced adamantine stretched toward the sky, their surfaces lined with glowing filigree, weaving circuits of Qi-enhanced power.

Bridges of floating glass and golden steel connected the city's many districts, arching over the vast riverways and marketplaces below.

The streets were wide, polished avenues, lined with sculpted colonnades, towering statues of past Reguli, and lush gardens of celestial flora.

And above it all, hidden beyond the golden clouds, was the Imperial Palace.

—

Gaius watched as it came into view—a structure both impossibly vast and impossibly elegant.

It did not sit upon the land like the castles of lesser empires.

It floated, suspended above the capital, shrouded in clouds of radiant gold.

The only way to reach it was through the purebred Alicorns—beasts of legend, the offspring of the Pegasus and the Unicorn, their wings vast and radiant, their horns shimmering with celestial Qi.

The palace itself was a masterpiece of design, merging the grandeur of ancient Rome with the intricate beauty of Arabian geometry.

Colossal domes of polished orichalcum reflected the light of the twin suns, archways of masterfully sculpted stone rose in perfect symmetry, their surfaces adorned with inscriptions of the first Titans, the ancestors of humanity.

And at the very center—the Grand Sanctum, where the Regulus himself ruled.

It was not just a palace.

It was a throne above the world, a symbol of absolute dominion.

—

The warship docked in the lower districts, where the military sector of the capital was stationed. Even here, far from the highest reaches of nobility, the infrastructure was beyond anything Gaius had seen.

The landing platform alone was a vast expanse of polished onyx, wide enough to house entire fleets. Soldiers marched in disciplined formations, dressed in ceremonial gold-trimmed armor, their capes flowing behind them as they moved with mechanical precision.

The Imperial War Academy loomed in the distance, an immense structure built into the side of a mountain, its towers embedded with training arenas, weapon forges, and simulated battlefields.

Everything was flawless. Perfect.

It was the Imperium at its peak.

Gaius exhaled, his gaze drifting across the horizon.

This was the center of power. The heart of humanity.

And now, he was standing in it.