NOVPUBSwallowing her irritation at the audacity of the Angel, Ghribba nodded at the Sovereign. As much as she wanted to tear off his wings and beat the Angel to death with them, there were countless more powerful Celestials behind him, and Ghribba would not live for long if the words of her actions reached them without giving a credible reason.
The Sovereign smiled and announced grandly, his voice was so loud that despite the storm in Aerovah, many immortals could hear him.
"The storm in your realm is weak, Silver Queen, a mere nuisance to what ravages the Celestial Realm, yet all our storms have been quelled. Why have you allowed it to remain after all this time? Do not forget that many Celestial interests are tied within your realm, and it is your duty to protect that investment. Your personal loss is not an end to your duty."
The Silver Queen swallowed her anger and did not bother explaining her position to the Sovereign. Despite this being her realm, even as an Old One, she had to depend on the Celestial Realm for the resources she needed to maintain her position and grow stronger.
This level of disrespect was barely at the limits of what was considered tolerable from a lower life form like this. If the Sovereign went above this, she could kill him without much interference from the Celestials, but with the cunning look in the eyes of that Angel, Ghribba knew he understood his limits and would not cross them.
Turning back to the storm, Ghribba's perception went ahead of her and wrapped around Aerovah, and as her mind touched the storm, she located its eye and set to shatter it when something within the storm changed.
Ghribba did not understand the transformation she had sensed; all she knew was that at that moment, the storm she was holding had transformed from a force of nature into an ocean of power.
A power that was so great it burned her perception to ash and made her body freeze in place, as countless tremors ran through her body and she nearly abandoned her humanoid form to transform into the great aquatic body that was her real self.
'Wha–what is this?'
Her perception may have been fried to ash, but the moment it touched the storm, a wave of incredible power filled her to the brim—so much power that it almost felt as if her body was about to burst.
Ghribba's connection to her realm was going wild, as the feedback of the power it was sensing had broken past all the thresholds she had set in place.
The power that filled her body began to settle into her core, and as they moved deeper, they brought a wave of nourishment that Ghribba had not experienced for millions of years.
This was not just power; this was potential, evolution, and a life force that was so grand that she had barely tasted a diluted essence of it when she slaved away for the Celestials for billions of years, and now this storm that surrounded her dimension was filled with it.
Ghribba was an Old One, and as much as this was shocking to her, it did not stop her mind from racing through countless possibilities at the great opportunity that had just arrived at her door.
"Why are you not quelling the storm, Ghribba, are you going against a direct order from the City of Light?!"
Ignoring the Sovereign, Ghribba tentatively touched the storm with her perception and shivered as power began to pour into her body in seemingly unending torrents. She could not help but laugh out loud when a small chuckle escaped her lips and soon broke out into a full-blown maniacal laughter.
"Ghribba, follow the orders given by the City of Light or you shall suffer the consequences of this action!"
Snapping her fingers, the Sovereign, who was millions of miles away, was forcefully teleported from his position to stand before her.
The Angel standing more than twenty feet tall with seven pairs of flaming wings cut a powerful figure, but before Ghribba who was more than a hundred feet tall, even in her base humanoid version, he resembled a child, and looking down on him, the Silver Queen asked a question even as she giggled,
"Tell me something, Darius, the storms inside the Celestial Domains had been broken, yes?"
The Sovereign sputtered in shock at being taken without his consent and was about to condemn the Silver Queen, but there was something in her eyes as he looked at the Old One that seemed to be barely holding on to her sanity as she struggled to stop laughing.
He swallowed what he wanted to say and replied to her,
"Yes, three hundred spots where storms arose in the Celestial Domains have largely been destroyed, only a few are left, and it should not be long before they are all gone."
"Oh, that is a shame," Ghribba said with a note of regret in her voice. For once, I wish that your ruthless efficiency were not delayed."
The sovereign's eyes tightened in suspicion. "Silver Queen, are you aware of the power behind this storm?"
Ghribba's eyes flashed. She bent down, picked up the Sovereign in her fist, and brought him up to her face. She began to squeeze, making the Angel gasp in pain.
"Oh, a moment ago, did I not remember you referring to me by my name instead of my title?"
The Sovereign appeared confused, but before he could reply, Ghribba tore off two of his wings with her fingers, and when he screamed in pain, she crushed his head between her teeth.
Watching the headless body bleeding thick golden blood filled with light, she swallowed the screaming remnants of the Sovereign's head and turned to her realm.
She noticed that this power did not affect anyone inside her realm, but they had not yet reached out into the storm; when they did, everything would change. She could not allow that to happen; this storm was hers, the answer that Reality had given her.
A wave of her hand killed off every single living thing in her realm, and Ghribba, disregarding the humanoid form she wore in respect to the Celestial, transformed into a massive octopus-like beast with hundreds of tentacles. She wrapped herself around the disks of Aerovah, allowing the storm to baptize her fully.
Her cries of exultation transcended space and time and reached the farthest corner of this space for billions of light years.
Her powers, which had been stuck at the beginning stages of the eighth-dimensional level, began to shake as they slowly expanded.
Ghribba had toiled for billions of years under the Celestials for a shred of the power she was gaining with her breath inside the storm. Why would a glorious Old One like her choose to turn her dimension into a place of commerce when it could have been a realm strictly for her worship?
She saw no need to be a slave to the Celestial any longer when her powers could grow without limits inside this storm, and heaven helped the Angel who came for her miracle.
Ghribba was not the first to notice the power in the storm. Reality was beginning to change.
