The North Pole...

After nearly a year of work, The Spindle Pyramids were nearing completion.

The double forty-step Pyramids were both on their final layers. I was spinning up the Blocks one at a time on each, the matching Blocks coming together, then joining the ones before them in the long line, which would then join the long square forming between the thirty-nine steps above and below them, which would come together after the last paired Blocks were put into place.

Leviathan and White Death Wolf were both watching all this raptly, this final level being twice as complex as any of those previous because of the meshing of energies coming together.

They were fascinated as they saw meta-patterns they had not really discerned before springing to life and function as the different Elements began to wind and meld together.

Leviathan had initially wanted to have Water and Thunder dominant here, but the fact was most of the Whales had no talent for Thunder, and what good did such power do Him unless He was fighting inside the Pyramid’s Domain?

No, Water and Psychic would help all the Whales Awaken to Psychic power. It was just as deadly a weapon as Thunder, but it would tie all the Whale Tribes together much more strongly, and make them an even more dominant force in the seas. With Psychic power augmented, He could strike far outside the Pyramid’s Domain with the enhanced power...

Indeed, could there even be an attacking army dumb enough to hit a Domain where all the Psychic power was in the hands and control of the Whales? They’d either sit there and be slaughtered, or be forced to flee in absolute terror, or perhaps forced to butcher one another!

Even a High Emperor wouldn’t dare trespass on a Domain dominated by multiple Emperors with Psychic power!

White Death Wolf had chosen Ice and Void in counterpart. This countered the core power of The Ice Emperor at the opposite end of the world, while catering to the natural cold here. The Void Magic played upon the fact that Void and Chaos Magic had some strange ties to the North Pole and northern hemisphere.

A wild and dancing Aurora Borealis was already starting to gather up above as it reacted to the realigned magical fields and magnetic flows coming through the Spindle. The Pyramids would move over time as the Pole did, which meant wobbling around through the ice. That was a minor thing, the ice would accommodate it.

Ice and Water, plus the Will of the universe and the Will of the sapient mind. This was going to be one of the greatest Domains on the planet, a Four-Element Imperial Demesne!

I had three hundred more sets of Blocks to make, and this would be complete. Ten hours of work...

------

Thunderbird and the Ice and Fire Phoenixes and Luans were present as the Spindle was completed, along with several of White Death Wolf’s Ice Vassals, and all the Emperors and Rulers of the Whale Tribes, many of the stronger Whales around the world coming here with their tribes to witness the establishment of not just their Emperor’s Domain, but His Demesne!

The Aurora Borealis was extending wildly, growing wildly now and visible over much of the Northern Hemisphere as the last few Blocks were sliding into place. The Mana flows through the Poles of the entire planet were visible arcing between the two halves of the edifice now.

I formed the last two Blocks, and they slammed together. Drawn irresistibly by the waiting formation, the last forty-long strip of the fortieth layer brought them in, sealing them to the line, completing yet another circuit.

More power arced, and the 39x40 foundation double layers drew the long strip of Blocks in and sealed it, completing the 40x40 foundations of the Spindle, already sealed to one another, and now pulsing with new power as the four Elements swirled and joined them.

Above and below, a rising and inverted 39-step Pyramid each came together as the force of the whole planet basically pulled them together with geomagnetism and titanic flows of power. The Auroras up above blazed with colors they’d never displayed before as the completed Four Element Domain lit up and surged forth from the North Pole.

One hundred and sixty miles in radius, and so even larger than the Demesne of The Ice Emperor!

Elemental vitality surged and played around all the Emperors gathered here. Phoenix and Luan synergy joined together, Thunderbird’s Void Mastery and Air Magic accentuating those of the White Death Wolf, and the Whales Thundered with Leviathan in Whalesong, Wolves howled trembling chorus with White Death Wolf as the Sublime Chord resounded forth and echoed throughout the Manasphere once again.

I was probably going to get in trouble for this again, as many Human factions weren’t going to be very happy with another Beast Emperor or two establishing Domains at the North Pole, but that wasn’t my concern. Greater harmony and sharing between the intelligent sapients of the world, showing them what teamwork could accomplish together, was!

Making a foundation for Heaven to build on!

The Human world was totally wondering what the implementation of Leviathan’s Domain, so soon after Britain submitted to Him, actually meant to them. Heralding a new era of submission to the Great Beasts, as the Church of Light was trying to play up and warn everyone?

Time to get out the word through the Churches of Heaven... and being the technologically-adept force we were, the internet.

-------

Dubai, weeks later...

I looked at the Sealed area around the great Magic City of Dubai, the center of the Mage Association of Asia, the second most powerful of its branches in the world, my eyes gleaming angrily.

The Aurora show across the world and the founding of Leviathan’s Domain... amounted to a great light show, a thundering lack of anything happening in the real world, and literally a week later you couldn’t read anything about it. The Church of Light’s haranguing was relocated to page ten and ignored by just about everyone, and life went on as five years of conflict with the seas was being slowly unwound. The people were far more concerned about returning to the countrysides and smaller towns and villages, reclaiming the territory they’d had to give up in the face of all of those littoral attacks.

There was going to be a lot of fighting involved in those things, because there were plenty of Beast Tribes who had moved their own young into those areas, and if Humanity wanted them back, they’d have to fight.

It was the way of things, and surprised absolutely nobody. That aspect of our relationship with the Emperors wasn’t going to change at all. Prove your strength and right to the territory, or go away!

I was here for two reasons. The first and most important was because Mu Xuehua had called me up in a cold panic, telling me that she’d lost contact with Mok Fan in Dubai after something had happened.

There was also a second reason. The inventor of the multi-Element layering method, a Mister Huando Chen, had come to Dubai to register his Meshing Method with the Mage Association here, as was the proper way to do things. It would be tested, dissected, examined for things that might imperil the human mages who would practice it, and then either approved or disapproved as was proper.

It was supposed to be the academic’s moment of glory, the shining apex of his career, making an incredible discovery and contribution to the future of humanity for which he would be forever remembered.

He had been outright murdered, and the news of his death and discoveries concealed by order of the Mage Association’s chairman so the bastards could exploit it for themselves!

Mok Fan had gone ballistic, and come here to avenge his friend and spread knowledge of the Meshing Method. The Dubai Association had locked down and Sealed the entire area, not letting anyone flee with the knowledge, as it seemed like at least one member of the science team had managed to survive the massacre.

Mok Fan was inside the Seal, doing who knew what, and Mu Xuehua had wanted to know if I could do anything.

I reached out and carved a Portal right into that Seal. Yeah, it was powerful. Yeah, it was made by one of the most powerful Sages of the world, Caster Level at least base 25 and with some boosts from the Formations of the Association’s buildings, and gargantuan amounts of Mana.

Caster Level or go home!

I carved out an opening in the Seal, expanded it against the pressure of the magic, and opened a way for myself.

I passed inside calmly, instantly aware of a massive magical conflict taking place some miles away, in the desert outside Dubai.

It appeared Mok Fan had triggered his Demon Element, boosting all his Elements artificially into the Sage level, and was... dueling an ancient Black Dragon Emperor, who appeared to be toying with him somewhat?

I directed my attention back toward the city of Dubai, and a large number of Sage and half-Sage level presences there. They seemed to be looking for someone, and the most powerful of them seemed to be engaged in combat with another Sage-level combatant.

That... was an Archangel? The dweomer of the Wings they wore was unmistakable.

That was... Gabriel?

Sama had long investigated all the Archangels, breaking into the Synod and going through their information archives whenever she liked to do so. She knew who all of them were, where they’d come from, and a whole lot of information about them they no doubt would have much preferred to remain unknown.

Gabriel was the youngest of the Archangels, basically only an Archmage herself, with her Wings being able to raise her to the level of a Sage once she called on them for power. She was overmatched by her opponent, the defenses of the Wings being extremely profound and beyond Human ability to duplicate... but not beyond Human ability to overwhelm.

Her opponent was going to triumph, in the end. Judging by his Elements and Aura, that was the Chairman of the Asian Association, someone who had used and abused his position and power for years to get what he wanted, including sacrificing the hearts of human and Titan infants in a Ritual to forcibly subjugate and Contract the Black Dragon that was battling Mok Fan right now.

Forcing a Contract on any Beast was an abomination, let alone a relatively benign Dragon. That fucker was a Dark Mage, Poison running through his magic, and at his level, there was no way he wasn’t working for the Netherworld and bearing a Compact.

My question was what I should do at this time.

Huh. Seemed to be someone else out there, pleading with the Dragon Mok Fan was fighting.

The Dragon with a forced Compact.

Well, fuck the twat who started all this. I might not like Dragons, but I abhorred slavers completely.

Summoning and Silver Magic combined, and went arcing invisibly for the Dragon off in the distance, pumped by Sage Mana to give it the range needed, and smashed into the Emperor.

His eye turned my way as he felt the magic settle across that forced Contract, and instantly suppress it down to a tenth or less of its normal strength.

The Black Dragon roared with the vigor of fury unleashed, and surged into motion... away from the stone colossus Mok Fan was fighting from the inside of, heading for a certain Sage fighting the newest and youngest Archangel high in the sky.

The Virulent Heavens Sage was about to get an unwelcome surprise.

Mok Fan shed the armored stone colossus he was wearing and took off after the Dragon. Unseen and invisible, I trailed coolly after him.