The next set of events was musicians and dancers performing for all those present in a large hall.
It was a lively show indeed.
Ethan sat upon his throne, Selene and Sol cradled in his arms, both wide-eyed, staring at him like he was so kind of fairy. Selene had woken up earlier due to the music and would have cried if not for sensing her father’s presence.
Sol, already having the glow of a mischievous child in his eyes, pulled at Ethan’s hair with a cute smile on his face.
Ethan was in a world of his own, away from the smiling audience and the music.
He was with his children in their own world, playing and speaking in a language only they understood.
Soon, the displays ca to an end, and it was ti for the main event. The Naming.
Zark and Madeleine stood up from their thrones reserved behind Ethan’s on the sa level as his wives and walked to the front.
Once again, the guests were reminded that the two were people they would absolutely not dare cross. But the people only saw their emperor’s parents, doting grandparents who wouldn’t allow their son to even hold his children for a second longer.
Selene ended up in Zark’s arms while Sol was in Madeleine’s. Together, they moved to stand in front of the imperial throne. A platform of gold energy materialized under them, taking them to the middle of the hall, so that all would see the babies.
The mont they reached, Zark glanced at Madeleine, a silent conversation passing between them.
Madeleine smiled and spoke, her voice resonating everywhere.
"Citizens of Anbord and guests gathered here today, you are welco. Today, we witness the true birth of the children of his majesty, Ethan Voryn Aetherforge Kael’Dri.
They will be nad by their parents as culture and history assure.
Now let the parents speak their nas."
Her voice sounded like music in everyone’s ears, loud and clear and full of confidence.
She was truly the emperor’s mother.
Ethan and Harley stood up, their gaze turned towards their children. Without even looking at each other, they spoke in unison.
"Selene Lunar and Sol Light Kael’Dri."
"And so shall it be." The voice was like a command, a certainty that shook everyone. They all felt the power behind it. The guests themselves, regardless, saw it even if they didn’t have the power or didn’t want to; they saw it. An incomprehensible being, covering the children with his radiance and authority.
An authority none of them could ever disobey.
Zark smiled, seeing their reactions. It was intended. They were even lucky because he didn’t speak. They just heard a projection. Had he spoken, the castle would have probably turned to dust. Only his family had the immunity to hear his voice.
Even with him restraining most of his power, his authority as the Golden Emissary, the Arbiter of Primordial Balance, ruler of the universe, was undeniable and could never be restrained.
Only Balance could command him. Even his wife and children couldn’t bypass that.
Lilith was one of the strongest there, already close to a demigod, so she was much more powerful and had encounters with true divine energy.
"He is above a god..." she whispered in shock. Kraken, seated by her, was shocked to see genuine shock and fear on Lilith’s face. Coupled with what she heard him say, she didn’t know how to react.
A being above even gods was an entity. A concept, maybe. These beings were most likely the laws that governed the world. And one was here? He was even the father of Ethan.
"Thankfully... we are linked to him." Hearing this, Kraken cald down, only to have her hopes doused in flas. "But, he has the power to sever the bonds without doing any harm to Ethan."
"What?" Kraken finally turned to Lilith, her expression frightened. She didn’t even bother to hide it, not like anyone would see it. They were all focused on not dying in less than a blink.
"Don’t try anything stupid. Ethan is aware of us. He will co to us himself. Until then... wait," Lilith said coldly.
The mont she finished speaking, they felt a heavy gaze on them. Turning to the source, they saw Zark looking directly at them, a warm smile on his face, though the glow in his eyes told otherwise.
All sound vanished, and everything ceased to function, leaving them in a staring contest with Zark.
"Hmm... you passed. Tell the child to stop hiding. The son of the Emperor never plays hide."
Lilith and Kraken both shook when they heard his voice in their heads and ears. They were being tested! By their father-in-law. He knew them. And they’d passed for so reason.
With a shaky turn of her head, Lilith turned to look at the mysterious person dressed in all black seated beside them: Xander.
"Son... you heard it right?" Lilith asked, her face pale.
"Y-yes..." the mysterious person said, his purplish pink eyes glinting.
Unbeknownst to them, the ceremony was still going on. It seed that Zark had put them in a different dinsion without anyone noticing, and they will never know unless he tells them.
At the declaration of their nas officially, a deep golden light covered them. Right in front of the audience, the babies floated from the hands of their grandparents, hovering high above. Projections materialized slowly above them, radiating a strong and heavy aura.
Above Selene, the air crystallized, as though moonlight itself had decided to take form.
A vast silver serpent erged from nothingness, its body forming scale by scale in a slow, deliberate spiral. Each scale glead like polished starlight, etched with faint blue inscriptions that pulsed gently, not with mana, but with sothing older... oath-script symbols that did not describe but define it.
The serpent coiled around Selene in a wide, protective arc, never touching her, yet unmistakably bound to her existence. Its movent was silent, fluid, reverent, as though even it understood the fragility of what it guarded.
Then...
Its eyes opened.
Deep blue irises split by a narrow silver slit, vast and intelligent.
The mont those eyes opened, the hall reacted.
The space formations anchoring the main hall tightened, reinforcing themselves without instruction. Several magical arrays across the castle flickered, then stabilized at higher thresholds. A low, harmonic resonance spread outward, causing sensitive beings to feel a gentle pressure at the center of their chests.
Not oppression, but recognition.
Ancient beings stiffened. Dragons drew slow, controlled breaths.
Urrandel’s pupils shrank as his psychic perception slamd into sothing that refused to be quantified.
"...A Covenant Manifestation," he murmured, awe threading his usually calm voice, whatever that was. "No... more than that."
Leviathan’s fingers trembled against her armrest. "That’s not a guardian spirit," she said quietly. "That’s a Primordial Vow-Form."
Lilith’s lips parted, breath catching. "She was just nad... and the world is already kneeling."
Kraken swallowed hard, gaze locked on the serpent. "That thing would devour oceans if it chose to."
The serpent’s head lowered slightly, angling toward Ethan, not in submission, but in acknowledgnt.
Ethan felt it imdiately.
Not a voice.
Not a thought.
A promise.
Selene stirred in the air, tiny fingers flexing once. The serpent responded instantly, its coils tightening imperceptibly, inscriptions glowing brighter for a heartbeat before settling into a steady, lunar glow.
The ssage was clear to anyone who understood such things.
This child was claid.
Not by empire.
Not by blood.
Not by decree.
But by sothing that existed before thrones, before realms, before the concept of inheritance itself.
And the naming ceremony had just crossed a line the world could never walk back from.
...
Switching to her twin, the scene was just as intense.
Above Sol, the air ignited.
Light did not rely brighten... it asserted itself, as though the sun had rembered its authority and chosen this mont to reclaim it.
A vast serpent projection took shape in a surge of crimson radiance, its body long and powerful, forged from living solar essence. Its scales burned deep red, layered and molten in appearance, each one traced with faint dark-gold inscriptions that pulsed like a beating star at the center of creation.
Then the horns ford.
From the serpent’s crown rose a pair of dark red, draconic horns, sharp and regal, curving slightly backward in a manner unmistakably predatory. They mirrored the developing horns on Sol himself, an undeniable declaration of lineage of what he was becoming.
When the serpent opened its eyes, the hall felt the heat.
They were dark gold, vast and ancient, split by vertical red slits that radiated command. The gaze was not wild, nor wrathful. It was imperial, the look of sothing that ruled simply by existing.
A crushing, sun-heavy aura poured outward.
Not chaotic fire.
Not destructive fla.
This was order through heat, dominance through radiance, the authority of the sun that decides when worlds wake and when they burn. The pressure made even seasoned kings straighten instinctively, their bodies reacting before their minds could.
The serpent did not coil protectively like Selene’s.
It lood behind Sol, its massive form arched like a living crown, a guardian both, proclaiming not shelter... but inheritance.
Moon and Sun stood together.
One calm and eternal.
One blazing and sovereign.
The twins were chosen before they were even born. Their fates, set in stone.
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