"Ring me up, Dante!"

“There weren’t always dragons in the Valley,” Andante read. His cadence fought between sounding like a piece of renowned literature and an oxymoron. “There were Phoenix” Azure finished. The two brothers looked at each other. It dawned on them that they had possibly found something incredibly sinister. A morse code only understood by the inhabitants of Jupiter. “Can you two bird brains, stop gawking at each other and move with some sense of urgency?” A tall man walked by them, his steps along the palace floor were graceful, yet displayed reluctance. Andante pulled his younger brother by the forearm just short of where the tattooed phrase “THEY WERE PHOENIX” rested in fancy Jupiterian calligraphy. He tailed after the handsome man keeping a vice grip on the sudden revelation. His gaze focused through the ceiling-high windows of the long corridor at the city, all the while making sure he didn’t fall behind. The eternal tempest in the Jupiterian skies roared as loud as usual at this time of Sol. From the farthest reach of their planet, the Jupiterians congregated by the millions in the sky of the capital, overshadowing the sounds of their very planet with their impatience and small talk. Flashes of blue, and white lightning lit up the sky, seemingly to have its own free will. They called them “Dragons.” It surged in and out through the haze and gas the planet emitted and acted as a gate to the innermost cities of Jupiter. Unlike Gaia’s white mist known as clouds, the haze enshrouding this planet are eternal catastrophes. Hurricanes, ice storms, and the most violent dragons flashing in the blink of an eye. The temperatures could freeze the grandest of asteroids should one ever threaten the magnificent royal capital, Lionheart. A blanket of soft red light fell upon a quarter of the planet, signifying nightfall had begun in some part of the world. The moon alternated each night, this night, the moonlight that covered that part of the planet was Io. It became more apparent the dragons were being pulled to an area in the sky where the palace sat in the center of the planet, although no one in the crowd took any particular notice. The brothers hadn't realized the man had disappeared. At the end of the corridor stood two designated exits on opposite ends that read "AZURE" and "ANDANTE", just short of a beautiful throne room and a grand terrace further down the hall. The brothers looked at each other. "Time to ride the dragons," Azure remarked and they fell backward outside. Almost immediately, the lightning struck them zapping their bodies leaving not a trace of stardust. A bolt of magnificent lightning struck the palace in a blinding light, fading momentarily. The dragons and the Jupiterians fell silent. The ceremony had begun.

“Noble beings of light and wisdom, the time has come once again for the Tournament of the Galaxy Champion Ceremony!”

The man again reappeared hovering above the terrace in hues of blue-clad armor. He had an uncanny resemblance to Gaians. His brown hair was long and sage-like. He expanded his wings that were made of some kind of sapphire crystal-powered technology. It was obvious he was someone affluent and very important. It was also obvious that he was advertising the tech, by wearing it to such an event that so many Jupiterians religiously attended every year. The Gaians would have mistaken him for some type of angel. The regal man spoke very monotonously as if he lamented his duty, scatterbrained and plagued with nervous errors.

“It is with great... As..the great 3rd sage of Jupiter... and...Prince of Lionheart, I Dionysus.. haaaaave uh, summoned you, into thy midst of..."

It was clear public speaking was not his strong suit. The dragons split into 3 striking the palace and another man who appeared to be a King stood on the grand terrace. Accompanied by him were the two enigmatic youths whose facial structures appeared identical to one another's. Azure seemed to be nodding off, and Andante, viciously observant; both unharmed by the dragons. The lighting acted as a lightbulb for Dionysus' deteriorating mind.

“The new heirs and guardians of our kingdom’s treasures, Azure and Andante Kerberos. Rise as we marvel at his Majesty, Ruler of our great city Lionheart, Jupiter, and all the galaxy. 4,287..89! 89 Cosmiac Ruler, King Pisces!”

The crowd cheered almost immediately as if they were about to burst from gluttonous anticipation. Azure covered his ears wide-eyed from the deafening roar, Andante wincing as if he had been punched in the gut.

“Wait what? How old is this dude Dante?”

“His majesty Azure,” Andante replied back.

Azure grinned in a childlike manner, closing his eyes, but still covering his ears.

“Must everything the Jupiterians do be so overabundant?” Andante added. "and that speech was like Tazmali scorpion dung." Azure commented.

A smile broke through Andante's expression as he agreed with his brother's bluntness. He then looked closer at Dionysus letting his mind wander. After surviving the rigorous tournament on Mars and moments away from being crowned champions; he wondered just where exactly this “decree of Saturn and Uranus” he and his brother would read at this very ceremony was.

“Our great leader will call forth The Black and Violet Dragons. Will these two champion be chosen by the great ancient flux and flow?" the Prince's cognition sharper than a blade.

Andante look up at the sky “So... The day has finally come. Once we get them—”

“Young man?”

"Yes, my King" Andante spoke out telepathically.

He had completely missed the King’s speech. Andante walked up beside King Pisces and Dionysus shot one of his crystal feathers into the sky. Ripping through the planet's atmosphere and opening up to a clear visual of distant Mars. Dionysus' wings began to glow in tandem with the rift in the sky and Andante appeared on the desert battlefield of the red planet. The crowd watched various scenes transpiring throughout the tournament.

“So basically, the King announced we're about to inherit an ancient galactic power they've had for eons known as Saturn and Uranus. This would make you thee Guardian of Saturn and I thee Guardian of Uranus. We are to be thy new guardians of time -the cosmic flux and flow. Turns out, they're ancient Jupiterian decrees we gathered piece by piece by taking out the enemy on the battlefield. Remember when we defeated Titania and Umbriel and we got the final phrase?”

Azure looked down at his arm before continuing

“He says once fully read in their presence, we'll be infused with the blood of all the guardians before us.”

His voice in a sardonic tone seemingly made to mock the Lionheart accent. Andante noted that Azure was strangely excited to meet the King.

“Does that mean we're gonna turn into planets?” Azure telepathically asked with concern as Andante watched the sky emotionless and immobile.

“...I wish I could see this planet, Dante. The energy sure looks beautiful.” Azure commented full of desire.

“It's a technocratic disaster...” Andante scowled telepathically

"What does tech look like?"

His face softened, "Well, in the sky they are replaying my battles in the tournament."

"with Zodi?" Azure asked excitedly

"Something akin to it. Only Zodi doesn't suppress Cosmians true capabilities or have a finite potential."

"Sounds cheap.. and... kinda tragic." Azure deduced.

"They promised to be able to restore your vision with it once we won and became the guardians. We’ll finally be able to undo your curse and return home."

''Yeah... zodi - zero, technology - 1”

“We just gotta keep a low profile until th-”

“I know, I know, sheesh!”

The female Cosmians of Jupiter fell into a trance in the crowd, cooing as they marvelled at Andante's eclectic display of gracefulness. He traded his stoic persona and disposition for one of quiet indulgent pride.

Andante, a youthful, athletic Plutonian with skin the colour of Martian sand dunes. There was something Martian yet strangely Gaian to his appearance. His jet black hair wrapped and intermingled in tribal-looking beads that fell to his feet in a single warrior's ponytail braid. He donned a dark, burgundy, and crimson tunic with a pouch that contained a pair of brass knuckles on his belt. An oversized crossbow of light rested on his left arm in the shape of a falcon named “Phalqun’s cry.” A master sniper and a martial arts prodigy. Adorning his neck and waist were beads, stones, and marbles of various patterns and colours. Breaking a bead off the ensemble would transform it into a sphere of void energy, or what some call dark nebula or black holes. Placing it into his crossbow, he targeting his enemies with precision, disintegrating any body part he felt would cripple his opponent into submission. He rarely would completely finish off his enemies; the pain was beyond agonizing that they would all forfeit, only to be taken out by the Martian tournament officials, sometimes even more brutal then the swift ending Andante would have given. Some beads could manipulate and distort gravity so powerfully they were visible to the naked eye. The Jupiterians dubbed him as The Twilight assassin.

He and his brother traveled to Lionheart from Jovi, a smaller mountain village foreigners and aristocrats mostly chose to avoid and where they had grown up. The city gossip was that in this village, one could find the planet's most beautiful Cosmians in Jupiter. Women and men from the capital dreamed of marrying Jovian men and indoctrinating them into their techno crazed lifestyle. Jovi was also where the Diamond Canyons were located and were mined constantly under the King's orders.

Andante smiled towards the sky but shifted his focus to his brother’s previous remark instead. He loved his brother more than anything else in the galaxy, they were twins after all, and the last heirs to a kingdom that was also said to contain the mysterious origins of the legendary Phoenix tribe that they had only heard fables of. The place Zodi energy was first discovered and harnessed. A kingdom that disappeared over 12,000 millennia ago.

The Phoenix were a tribe that was said to have been extinct after a great war between Jupiter and Mars happened. Mars had sought to conquer and take over Jupiter, seizing a great power that all the Galaxy wanted. The decree of Saturn and Uranus. Why these two were no longer in planetary forms was at the time being researched by a Gaian Astronomer. What happened to the inhabitants of these planets still remains unknown, though various scientific theses had been documented by other Scientists. Legends say, The Pluto King sent the Phoenixs down to ensure peace and prevent war between the then warring Mars and Jupiter. The Martians and Jupiterians love for war led them to turn on the Phoenixs but were unable to extinguish the beings renown for their abilities of immortality and rebirth. Castaway to the atmospheres of Jupiter, it was said the Phoenix's soul live on in an infinite loop. The ongoing death and rebirth of the beings over millennias began to create a disastrous field encasing Jupiter's electromagnetic field; the royal planet became entrapped, covered in an array of turbulent alchemic energy. Sometime after, the Jupiterians discovered how to use this curse from the fault of their ancestors to their advantage. This was when the powerful energy known as Zodi was first realized on Jupiter. Harvesting the alchemy of the field's unlimited Zodi energy, they utilized this misfortune turning it into a protectant. A gate, keeping outsiders away while the inhabitants amassed wealth and cultivated a luxurious economy. Thus, beginning a new age, and new rule under the leadership of King Jupiter I. Prior to the defeat of the valiant Phoenix tribe, legend also tells of a great Phoenix that single-handedly brought down the war forces on both sides. He was a Phoenix being unlike the others, feared for his destructive power. A Zodi sage and gifted with the ability to directly channel the fires of Sol. Some say he was the incarnation of Sol itself. After he defeated King Aries of Mars, a new type of religion formed among the Cosmians. On both planets, there were those who believed that he was Sol incarnated, bringing peace and raining spiritual fire on whomever threatened said peace. It created a great divide between the Martians on their planet and the Jupiterians on their planet, and for a short period of time, it grew into a cult. The people who worshipped the great hero started to band together to overthrow their rulers, only to be thwarted by the two kings and completely forbidden on Jupiter by King Jupiter VIII. For eons, some believed the legendary Phoenix would return and claim the throne of Jupiter, releasing the Phoenix of Pluto from Jupiter’s atmospheric curse. Others believed the being would return to Mars, quelling the ongoing religious strife between the old generation and the new monarchy of Martians, before the inevitable war on the horizon ensues among its Cosmians. Time passed, mysteriously had Pluto vanished and fables of the great hero of Sol reverberated throughout the cosmos with different planets and their cosmic beings creating innumerable “Vesta of the Great Winged One' legendarium.

Soon it was Azure's turn to step up next to the Prince and the kingdom watched the charismatic warrior’s adventures on Mars. They retold his story with some altered details that infuriated him: Azure, born cursed with blindness. His skin and appearance similar to his twin brother's, but his hair shoulder length in a dreadlock style. Each lock alternating in colour from black to pink evenly receiving an octarine tiger’s eye crystal bead. He hovered around on a pulsing light he could create at will using Zodi. The light was so condensed it formed the shape of a Gaian snowboard. Like a bat using ultrasonic waves, his eyes usually remained closed, while leaking out Zodi in order to receive back energy waves and auras. The technique was very difficult to master even for the most skilled of Zodi Alchemists but to a born genius of Zodi, it was second nature. Thus, allowing him vision of colours, star density and silhouettes. Whenever opened, his iris would shine a dim silver like his elder brother's. Technology frustrated him, as it is one of the few things he is unable energetic "see." Sporting a self-made black and violet tunic with strange patterns that he wore unconventionally, he swung two medium length blades in what seemed to be a warrior’s dance. The slightly straighter sword named MariMari and the handsomely curved, ZuriZuri.

"SYNTHESIS! SEXTILE!"

Just then, his countenance changed, slightly endowed with the strange power all Cosmians referred to as, Zodi. The crowd chanting his battle cries along with him "MARI! ZURI!" During this scene in the sky, they cheered as Azure famously combined the swords at its base to create a double-edged blade then throwing this powerful new weapon “the MARIZURI.” The swords were discovered in the hidden temples of the African Saharas on Gaia. Bestowed upon him by his teacher Grandmaster Colbalt, who explored many lands on the great blue and green planet. Azure believed he was their homeland's best storyteller and certainly his personal favourite. Andante thought the swords made him behave more Gaian. The Marizuri sliced through the desert air completely in its element and tumultuous in its motion, and like a hurricane in its path of destruction, violated its prey's body before returning to Azure in a boomerang fashion. Gifting his handsome face and body acutely was his defeated opponent's blood. The blade dripping as if a ritual was just performed. Azure recognized which battle everyone was watching from the cries of his opponent Titania. As the scene ended, the sky simultaneously resumed its splendor of cursed normalcy.

The crowd roared masking the King's old long cough and Prince Dionysus turned to his guardsmen who stood at the exits where the young champions rode the dragons. The guardsmen hurried off and when they had returned, brought with them a bowl of grapevines and two slightly oversized chalices of buzzing voltage. They worked together to place it securely in an open part of the terrace railings where they fit perfectly. Azure hovered returning back to position as professionally as possible, but not before marvelling at the cup.

The Marimari and Zurizuri began to compete with the sounds of current from the chalices and Azure chuckled whispering to his bloodthirsty companions, “Shhh! We already the champs guys, chill out.” King Pisces took a handful of grapes from the delicate bowl, “Father! please don’t over do it this time.” Dionysus pleaded. He rolled them around in his hand, watching some fall and evaporate from the static of the cup until he ate a single one. His clothes became oversized. He took and ate another, and he appeared as youthful as the Azure and Andante behind him. Andante watched carefully, analyzing what was happening.

“Come, Saturn.”

King Pisces called forth and immediately from the sky, a stream of black lightning crashed onto the terrace. Falling into the cup of voltage, his millions of royal Cosmian subjects looked on. Reluctantly the king continued.

"Awaken...U..Uranus."

Even more swift, a violet lightning bolt energy surged through the skies and then through the crowd, in a threatening, rebellious manner. It took its time as if defying the King's summon. Then finally, the lightning made its way to the palace terrace and wizzed around the room, excited and refusing to calm.

“My lord, the dragon won’t settle!” a guard nervously announced the obvious.

“Uranus won’t hurt anyone, but we will have to do things his way if we want his presence.” The King's raised voice a bit youthful from the transformation.

"He doesn’t like being bottle up huh? Sounds like my kinda guy!" Azure charmingly remarked.

"Our lightning dragons Uranus and Saturn have destroyed many victors who have tried to host their power." Dionysus explained. Uranus taunted him zooming passed his nose. Azure feigned a worried expression.

"Victors, if they deem you worthy, you will survive and become our true Champions and Royal guardians of time. After defeating all the warriors, you have obtained our ancient decree in its entirety. Please recite it to begin..."

Wasting no said time, Andante looked at his arm and spoke above Uranus' loquacious electric melodies.

“...O cosmic rings... of the ages dawn, rings of the ancients, boundeth the wicked and bringeth judgement,"

Dionysus eyes suddenly widened “This decree ..is different...Father?”

“encircle me in the luminescence of thy 83 maidens who together, create a paradigm of divine law and righteousness. Bestow upon your foes a prison of 3rd dimensional agony. Reverberate thy karma of chronos throughout the galaxy. I Andante, invoke Saturnian order. Synthesis!"

The black lightning shot up straight into the sky and disappeared. A wheel of rings adorned his forehead and he bore a half sinister smile.

“Azure.”

His brother followed suit audaciously.

"O comic rings of omni-vision and frequencies, hymns that bestow prophecies and uncovereth the twelve sages that govern the motion of the omniverse through thy vibrations. Giver of Gaians, Cosmians and Starseeds fore and hind sight through chronos. Deafen the unjust with multiplied cries of the forgotten and forsaken. Pierce the fabric of time and unshackle the oppressed with a bolt of Uura so great, every Cosmian feareth to call forth your rebellious and true name among the scattered legends...

As Azure spoke Uranus began to whizz around him increasing in velocity, but nothing seem to be changing and Uranus was refusing to enter him.

"Father, I've heard this speech. It's the forbidden Plutonian language!" the Prince said in what seemed like his most energetic expression in eons.

"Hey bro? What gives? I thought this was the decree?" Azure projected telepathically over to Andante.

"A shame...It seems you invoked the decree incorrectly," Dionysus shouted over Uranus' boisterous ambience. "Uranus will finish him off in just a moment my king."

"If you keep playing around you may just prove Dionysus right little brother."

"Hah, psychin!" Azure opened his eyes, practicing a wink.

"I Azure, invoke Uranian chaos. Synthesis!"

"What! This is impossible!" Dionysus exclaimed frightened.

The King remained silent tossing two more grapes into his mouth seeming to enjoy the spectacle of lights.

"Oh it’s very possible sir,"

Azure grinned surging with Uranus' lightning. He levitated as he absorbed the ancient power of the planet. The two just over the terrace in the sky which fell silent. Similar to Andante, another mark of a wheel of rings, this time vertical, appeared on his temple. The twins teaming with life as if they were just resurrected.

"for you see,"

Azure continued

"Uranus and Saturn were never dragons and they have never had any other hosts… except us!” Azure cried out in a revelatory and animated, heroic tone.

"We are the last phoenix of Pluto and the original guardians of Uranus and Saturn, Azure and Andante Kerberos!”

He struck a battle pose and momentarily looked over to his elder brother.

"BRO. really? That was your cue! You promised me the next time we did an introduction we'd strike a battle pose."

"Azure.. can we deal with this after?" Andante sighed

"Save it yo, ring me up when you wanna be a team player Dante. You're gonna make the readers think we're uncool brothers that fight every chapter, when you're the one ALWAYS doing battle poses, just not with me!"

Andante took another sigh and refocused at the task at hand.

"King Pisces of Jupiter, you stole this power from us when we were infants and locked it away in your skies, but we infiltrated this planet 5,000 millennia ago and here we stand and the end of your Tournament of the Galaxy gaining back our birthright.

King Pisces' expression now up to speed from the turn of events, turned to look out at his kingdom to see the crowd suspended in animation.

"Birthright?" Prince Dionysus repeated. "Guards!" The King's guardsmen advanced to the edge of the terrace. The two chalices crumbled and fell from its pristine place.

"The laws of karma and time will now attend to your retribution.” Andante assured benevolently.

"There is one thing I want to know. Just what connection does the 'Valley' have to our ancient ancestors, the Phoenix?" He asked the question eager to uncover more about his tribe's mysterious origins that eluded its own kin.

King Pisces slowly ate the remaining grape in his hand and he became a little child, who seems as if he wore his father's royal ensemble. His illness however remained. The crown from his head fell to his shoulders.

“Your excellency!”

More guardsmen entered the terrace rushing over to their liege.

“Up at once, I cannot see” the boy fussed. One held him just above the bridge of the terrace as he stood on the railing, another held his crown over his head.

Now as a child, The king spoke.