Ascendance (Part 3) by Planeswalker  

The morning sun started to rise over the Zeranian mountains.  
Years ago, it had been the site where thousands of dwarves had fought for their 
lives and failed.  
Last night, it was where the military of the Holy Kingdom of Janju had fought 
for their lives and failed.  
Today, as the sun illuminated the Citadel of the Sect’s spires, two friends 
stood overlooking the city, ready to wage war.  
The mortal girl stood in her new suit of polished silver, holding the same sword 
that the night before had been useless against a beast of darkness, but today, 
blessed by the herald standing next to her, it would be enough to smite any 
creature of evil.  
Around her neck hung a crystal that caught every mote of light and shone with 
the brightness of her heart, near identical to the jewel which was given to her 
to summon her guardian angel.  
The immortal herald stood in his natural, hairless form, wearing his favourite 
armour, the same he had worn the previous night.  
The dark silver armour, highly polished, reflected the sunlight in a blinding 
glare.  
The morning breeze caught his purple cape and held it billowing behind him.  
In his hands he held his staff, and he was ready to put an end to the evil he 
should have stopped long ago.  
“Are you ready?”  
“Yep.”  
“Sekrik’s in the caves under the Citadel.  He seems to have harnessed a great 
power.  Lets put an end to it.”  
Aeon put a hand on Corsara’s shoulder and they disappeared.  
Moments later they reappeared in the catacombs.  
For a few moments they stood there while Corsara’s eyes readjusted to the dim 
light, Aeon’s not needing to adjust.  
When they were ready, they proceeded through the caverns, with the herald 
leading the way, following his instinct.  
As they rounded the first bend, they stopped, as an army of walking, animated 
skeletons and rotting zombies stood between them and their quarry.  

Sekrik was taken by surprise when the duo burst through the heavy wooden doors 
he had used to bar the entrance to where he chose to open his artificial rift 
between worlds.  
“But...  But...  MY ARMY!” stammered the shocked necromancer.  
“They were no match for us.” said Corsara, breathing heavily.  
“MY DRAGON!”  
“Ummm...” mused Aeon, “I don’t think you’ll be hearing from THAT any time 
soon...”  
“It’s of no consequence.  It’s too late for me to be stopped by the spy and her 
Ancient One.  I HAVE ALREADY OPENED MY PORTAL! SOON I WILL BE UNSTOPPABLE!” 
screamed the insane warlord, stepping aside to show a rippling stone wall, 
almost liquid in composition, with black smoke pouring through.  
Aeon turned to Corsara, “I’ll sort out the portal, you stop the madman.”  
“That won’t be necessary!” shrieked a voice from beyond the wall that surprised 
them all.  
“No...” muttered Aeon to himself.  
The herald stepped behind a boulder to hide, and pulled Corsara in behind him.  
A woman stepped through the rippling wall, and while she seemed human, the red 
tail of a scorpion emerging from the rear of her jet black armour betrayed the 
fact that she was not.  
Another major clue was the black horns that emerged from the top of her head 
through her shoulder length auburn hair.  
“Who has been using the dark power at my command?!”  
“Mighty demon, I am Sekrik, Grand Necromancer of the Sect.  I wish to use your 
power to lay siege to this world.  I command you to lend me your power!” cried 
Sekrik.  
“Do you know who I am? I am Incarnate, the almighty herald of the god of 
darkness, the invincible Necros, you Dare to command me to do anything?! For the 
last year, you have stole creatures from us.  We believed you to be strong 
enough to serve us as our liaison to this world, but we see now that you are 
weak and unworthy.  You will now pay for your crimes against the Necrolites!”  
The dark herald removed the gauntlet from her left hand, revealing a lizard-like 
claw.  
She advanced towards Sekrik.  
“No! Please! I can be of use to you! I know spells!”  
“Spells that you stole from us!”  
Incarnate stuck her claws into the forehead of the necromancer, and then pulled 
them back out, dripping with blood.  
The man dropped to the floor, as dead as his empire, and as dead as his former 
tutor.  
Jorven saw his pupil die with dead, unseeing eyes, and went back upstairs to 
clean his masters goblet.  
“Stay put!” Aeon hissed to Corsara as he stepped from beyond his place of 
hiding, “Pretty speech Incarnate.  That whole killing mortals thing still 
working for you then, huh?”  
“Aeon!” Incarnate spat, “You are here to meddle with the Necrolites again.  Why 
is it that you never aid us against good any longer?”  
“I keep things in balance and help the underdogs.  At the moment, evil’s got one 
up of the good guys, so I choose to go against you fine people.  Besides, you’ve 
technically done my job for me.  I was here to kill Sekrik myself.”  
“Then run along home Herald.  Leave me to take this world for Necros!” shouted 
the woman.  
“I can’t let you do that.  Run along home yourself Incarnate.  This world is 
under my protection.”  
The dark herald removed her other gauntlet and lunged for Aeon.  
With reflexes that would have snapped the arms of a mortal, he brought his staff 
up from his side and blocked the attack.  
Incarnate gripped the staff and tried to wrestle it from Aeon’s grip, “Remember 
what happened last time we fought?”  
Aeon brought his knee up into Incarnate’s ribs and knocked her aside, “Yeah, I 
remember.  I beat you silly.”  
Aeon changed the position of his hands on his staff to hold it by the centre.  
He closed his eyes for a second and the room was filled with a whirring sound 
while the staff underwent a transformation.  
Blades emerged from one end of the staff, changing it into a magnificent blade 
which any human would have had trouble even holding with both hands.  
The Herald of Balance balanced his blade in one mighty hand and spun it in 
glorious arcs in the air, while Incarnate took this opportunity to don her 
gauntlets.  
Moments later, the heralds charged at each other, they met with a colossal crash 
and a blinding flash of light.  
For every time one of the two took the offensive, the other parried the 
manoeuvre and retorted with a blow of their own.  
For an hour the pair raged.  

Towards the end, the pair had started to throw magical attacks around, but still 
neither could best the other.  
The battle finally came to an end when Incarnate pushed Aeon’s sword aside, 
turned and pierced his chest with her tail.  
Aeon tried to push the tail aside, but, weary from the fight, could not, he 
fell.  
Breathing heavily, she walked over to the fallen herald and picked up his blade 
from his side.  
She hovered it above his throat, ready to plunge it through Aeon and destroy her 
ancient nemesis.  
“Any last words Aeon?”  
“None that you’d want to hear...” he croaked.  
“Then it’s over.  I find it ironic that you should be finished by your own 
sword.  Or should I say staff? It matters not.  This is the end, old friend!”  
Incarnate’s face contorted as she felt a short sword plunge through her left 
shoulder blade.  
She spun around, whipping her assailant with her tail, Corsara fell to the 
floor, stunned.  
“So the herald of balance cannot fight alone.  It’s a shame that such a pretty 
young face has to die...”  
Incarnate threw Aeon’s sword across the cave and pulled the silver short sword 
from her shoulder.  
She dropped it to the floor and removed her gauntlets, then kneeled over the 
mortal girl.  
“I shall enjoy draining your life energy...”  
“NOT WHILE I LIVE!” cried Aeon.  
During Incarnate’s moment of distraction, he had picked himself up from the 
bloody patch on the floor and retrieved Corsara’s sword from the ground where it 
lay.  
Aeon dived at the pair and pierced Incarnate through the chest as she had done 
to him.  
“Aeon...” whispered Corsara with a smile on her face.  
“I don’t take kindly to being impaled!” bellowed the stuck Incarnate.  
“And neither did I!” retorted Aeon, picking up Incarnate and lifting her above 
his head.  
The dark herald swung her tail and pushed it towards Aeon’s face.  
Through the pain of blood dripping from the hole in his chest, he held onto her 
with one hand and caught her tail with the other.  
With the last of his strength, he amputated the tail that caused him so much 
pain, and threw it across the cave.  
“I cannot lose!” cried Incarnate.  
“Just watch...” muttered Aeon, throwing her back through the portal to where she 
came.  
Aeon fell to one knee, but managed to find the energy to seal the tear in space.  
The wall was once again solid.  
His task done, he fell down, into darkness...  

Aeon woke with a start, he looked around and realised that he was on the smooth 
plateau where yesterday stood the Zeranian mountains.  
He realised that he was not alone.  
“How are you?” asked Corsara.  
“Unnnngh...” murmured Aeon, sitting up, “I’ve felt better...  What happened?”  
“You defeated the scorpion woman, threw her away like garbage and then 
collapsed.  I dragged you and your staff outta there.  You know you’re really 
heavy?”  
As she spoke, Aeon inspected his wounds, now nearly non existent.  
“I’d have been heavier.  She broke off the heaviest part of my favourite 
armour.” he muttered, annoyed, “Thanks for helping me out back there.” he said 
cheerfully, getting up to his feet, managing a feint smile.  
“You’re welcome.  So what now?”  
“Now, you go home and I get on with my job.”  
“Your leaving us to fend for ourselves?”  
“You don’t need me any more Corsara.  Your people don’t need me any more.  The 
world’s safe and with the guts you demonstrated back there, you proved that the 
world’s got a capable leader.”  
“The world may not need you Aeon, but I do.  Why have you protected my family 
line for so long? While you were out for the count you were mumbling my name.  
What exactly do I mean to you?”  
Aeon sighed, “The truth is that I protected you and your ancestors because 
you’re all special to me.  You’ll never be able to check the family lines back 
that far, because the records no longer exist, but take my word for it that 
somewhere down the line, you’re my great great great great great I don’t know 
how many ‘greats’ great granddaughter...”  
Corsara’s heart skipped a beat. “You mean we’re family?”  
“And that’s why I can’t let you get killed.  Fate has plans for our family line, 
and you’ve got to be alive to continue the line.”  
“Will I ever see you again ‘Gramps’?” she asked, smiling.  
“I plan on popping along from time to time.  Don’t forget that you’ve got that 
crystal if ever you need to call me.”  
Aeon walked away and started to fade.  
Corsara looked down at her chest and the slender jewel, still catching the 
light, hanging there.  
“Aeon!” called Corsara after him.  
She ran at him and threw her arms around him in a warm embrace.  
“I have to go.  I know that in your heart you realise that.” commented Aeon.  
“I know, I know.  I just want you to know that I love you Grandpa.”  
For the second and final time, she kissed Aeon on the cheek, he gently ran his 
fingers through her hair and kissed her forehead.  
As he walked into nothingness, Aeon turned a final time, “I know.  I love you 
too Corsara.  Take care of yourself.” he whispered.  
As suddenly as he had appeared, he was gone.  
A cold wind, a wind of change blew through Corsara’s hair.  
As night began to fall, she walked down the mountain towards the uncharted 
masses of the world she lived in.  
She walked with a spring in her step, for she realised that wherever she went, 
and whatever she did, her guardian angel would always be looking out for her...  

End  

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