Ascension - (Alarian Warriors)

“Don’t ever close your eyes in battle!” Vincent’s voice snapped Aveyon out of her panic.

With her heart racing she opened her eyes to find a snarling demon only inches from her. It had first seemed that he was attacking Vincent, but he had gone for her. She hadn’t seen Vincent pull his weapon out and counter the demon, probably because her eyes were shut, but he appeared to be holding back the demon’s strike... for now.

Vincent griped his sword with both hands, glad he had thought to carry it today. Though it was hidden under his coat so the monks wouldn’t be offended. He pushed the demon back with such force it staggered losing its footing, a shocked expression appearing on its face.

The demon licked his lips and shuffled his stance, finding its footing again. This time when it attacked, the demon channeled more of his energy into the blow. The vibrating blades impacted Vincent’s as expected, and the demon smirked.

Vincent’s sword shattered under the pressure and his face morphed into horror. He quickly jumped back before the second swing could hit flesh. He looked down at his hand, only holding the hilt in disbelief. Normal weapons appeared to be no good in this situation, all he had left were his fists.

“Can’t Protect!” The demon hissed, his gaze glancing between Vincent and Aveyon. With his supernatural speed he drew his second sword, with a flick of his wrist he threw it at Aveyon. The blade flashed a deep red as it split into several smaller daggers flying directly towards her.

“NO!” Vincent’s temper flared; he was wasting time. He needed to get them out of here and fast. He wasn’t strong enough to win this battle as was evident with the demon being able to shatter his sword with one swing. Turning his back on the demon, he knew it was a bad move, but it needed to be done. He lifted his hand and concentrated on the space before the Princess, visualizing a barrier and using his own wind-infused essence to conjure the shield. Blue streams of light left his fingertips and rushed at her exploding into a shell-like wall.

Aveyon gasped as the daggers hit the barrier before her, as each one struck, she saw Vincent flinch. A barrier was a dangerous piece of essence to use, the impact and force applied to the barrier had to go somewhere. And if you didn’t have enough time to anchor it to something else it would be the caster.

“RUN!” Vincent Ordered.

“I cannot leave you!” She protested, her hands pressing against the magical shield.

With his back turned Vincent didn’t see the demon’s next move, but Aveyon did. She made a sound in between shock and horror as she screamed for him to watch out.

It was too late. The demon had raised his sword high in the air and plunged it down through Vincent’s body focusing him to his knees.

Aveyon fell to her own knees clasping her abdomen as foreign pain flooded her. Vincent’s pain, only in that moment did she realize just how much their bodies were linked to one another.

Vincent looked down to see the sword sticking through his chest. It had missed his heart by mere inches.

Aveyon didn’t know what had happened, but when the demon shook his head, she began to feel incredibly drained. Her breathing laboured and harsh as her eyes began to feel heavy.

The demon looked shocked, his eyes a swirl of blue with no red in sight.

“Princess?” He breathed softly.

He appeared to be a different person until his body convulsed and she watched in terror as his eyes began to fill with a glowing red again.

Why would a demon call her Princess in that endearing tone? And what was this strange behaviour?

“You really would risk your life for her? Pathetic!” The demon was speaking with Ashera’s voice again. Any glimpse of the blue-eyed creature she had seen a moment ago, now gone.

Slowly sliding his sword out, a sickening sound of wet metal grazing against bone rang through Vincent's ears. Blood spurted and ran down his abdomen pooling to the ground. Unwilling to fall, using what strength he had left he spun on his knees. Infusing his clenched fist with essence he landed a punch on the demon’s abdomen, it connected and hard.

The demon had felt the impact, coughing blood as the full force of the punch passed through him. Vincent had hit him with a calculated blast of energy sending a pure wave of essence through his body, it tore at muscles and cracked bones from the inside out.

It hissed and jumped back, holding his lower half. He clearly hadn’t anticipated an attack and had let down his guard. The Demon strode toward Vincent as his limbs buckled and he fell to the ground, into the pool of his own blood. Damon kicked him in the face, a fierce strike that sent him flying to the other side of the room, glass shattered behind him, and he landed hard on the ground the glass tearing his skin to shreds.

Aveyon’s hand flew to her cheek as her face exploded with phantom pain, her eyes wide. The sheer power the demon held was terrifying, she wanted more than anything to run to Vincent. She tried to stand but he looked her dead in the eyes and shook his head. Her fists clenched; she would be no good to him anyway, she hated this feeling.

Vincent tried to stand, the motion made more blood spill from his wound, but he could feel that it was already healing. If it wasn’t for his uncanny healing ability, he would be dead right now. They both would be. He was focusing on quickly knitting the wound closed, he just needed a little bit longer.

The creature hissed in frustration and bonded forward, it appeared aggravated that it had missed its chance to kill.

“This time, I’ll make sure this idiot doesn’t miss!” Ashera’s voice said from the demon’s mouth. He raised the sword high in the air and swung it down hard; he knew he had hit when he saw the blood spray.

“WHAT!” The demon spat as he saw Vincent had caught the sword, not without harming himself.

Aveyon hadn’t even seen him move, but she’d felt the sting of her hands as the blade sliced through his flesh.

He was holding onto the demon’s flaming sword like it was nothing.

The creature went to pull the sword away but couldn’t. It protested with a grunting sound as they tried to wail, like a child that didn’t get its way.

Vincent held the weapon firm, his own essence pouring into the blade, working to cement the metal to his hands. His own blue glow slowly creeping up the dragon insignia of the sword, taking its power away from the demon.

The demon struggled frantically trying to pull the sword from his grip. How Vincent could hold onto the sword when Aveyon could smell and feel his burning flesh was simply astonishing.

The demon reached out with his free hand calling for his other sword, the small daggers he had thrown earlier gathered and reformed. The weapon, now whole again, sailed through the air into his outstretched hand. The demon caught it with ease and raised the blade high bringing it down to strike from the other side.

Vincent struggled to catch this one, but as the sword cut through his other hand, he seemed to get a better grip.

Vincent lifted his head and looked the beast in the eye. “No more games.” He stated.

The demon let out a frustrated growl. “What the fuck are you!? You should have been created the same way as Damon, why are you stronger!” Ashera’s anguished cry piqued Aveyon’s interest but she pushed it aside, now was not the time.

Blood was running down Vincent’s face from where Damon had kicked him.

“No matter, you’ll still-” The demon was head-butted by Vincent, cutting him off. The impact was so hard that he was forced to let go of his weapons and take a couple of steps back. Blood trickled down his face as he blinked his eyes in disbelief.

Vincent glared at the demon. Throwing the now glowing blue swords behind him, he took a step forward clenching his hands into fists. He wouldn’t need weapons to beat this cocky bastard into submission. Nobody attacks the Princess on his watch and gets away with it.

He went on the offensive, railing the demon with punches. With each blow, he channelled essence into his fists and barraged the demon’s body. Bones snapped, and blood spilled as he put everything into the blows, slowly draining his reserves of power. He wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long.

Aveyon watched in amazement as the battle changed directions, Vincent was hurt but he didn’t seem to mind. She caught him glance at her, and his head made a subtle movement for the doorway. She caught his meaning and began to inch her way around the back of the room toward their way out.

The demon seemed to avoid the attacks as best he could, but a fist got through here and there leaving him breathless. He no longer had enough time to call for his swords, every time he tried, he would get the wind knocked out of him and his mind would jumble. Without the weapons, he didn’t stand a chance against an onslaught of fists. He couldn’t keep up with the movements, Vincent was moving too fast, and already he could see the wounds he had inflicted had sealed shut.

“Damon, return. You’re useless in your current state.” The demon spoke with Ashera’s voice one last time. It jumped back several passes completely out of reach of Vincent’s fists and looked at the two. His blue eyes slowly took over again. He looked at them confused.

“I have to return.” He said with a painful expression.

Aveyon ran to Vincent’s side as he collapsed to one knee breathing heavily. “Wait... Damon, is it? Why call me Princess like that?”

“Why are we called demons, when we were created the same way?” He asked her with sorrow-filled eyes.

Before she could say anything else, or even make sense of his words, he vanished out of sight.

Aveyon didn’t know what to make of that, or even how to register what had just happened. However, Vincent was by her side and the fight appeared to be over, for now. She wasn’t even sure at what point she had slid to the floor, she looked up at him in disbelief. His face was a mess, she reached up and plucked a piece of glass from his cheek, he hissed and flinched away. She grimaced, sharing in his pain.

“Do not be such a baby, you were just getting far, far worse.” She stated as she reached up to pick out another piece of glass. He grabbed her wrist and raised a brow at her.

“A baby?” He retorted. Closing his eyes, he focused on healing his skin, pushing the small pieces of glass from his body with his abilities. Each one landed with a light metallic clink on the ground.

“Show off.” She commented.

“Enough joking, are you okay?” He questioned pulling them both to their feet. His hands were holding her at a distance as he studied her for injury.

She nodded. “You... You were amazing, I wish I could be of some help, any help. I could not even invade his mind, I just stood there like an idiot.”

“You did though, if only for a second. I felt it, you drained me a shit tone by the way.” He chuckled and she eyed him confused. “He didn’t hit me in the heart because of you. You saved my life, our life.”

Her eyes widened in shock. “I did not even know...” She trailed off thinking about the encounter. “If I am capable of such things, I really need the elves to train me. But... Did he not seem a little odd to you?”

He nodded before lightly pulling her towards the door. “Yeah, I don’t know how to explain it. Let’s get moving though, I think we should ride through the night. The sooner we get to the elves the better. I don’t think we can survive another encounter like that.”

They left the temple chamber in a shattered mess, she wondered how and why the monks hadn’t run in from all the noise. But the scene outside gave her the answer.

The three monks lay lifeless on the temple steps, blood smeared everywhere. She saw Vincent’s hands ball into fists, and she clearly felt that he thought he had failed them.

“Let us bury them, it will not take long.” she offered.

He picked up the bodies and they laid them to rest properly in the small graveyard to the side of the temple. Aveyon marked the graves with some stones, but they didn’t even know their names.

She stood in front of the newly disturbed soil mounds with a solemn look. This was their doing, the demon had been there for them, and the monks hadn’t needed to die. Her own existence was beginning to feel like a burden to others.

Getting back on the horse, Vincent was starting to look very worn and tired. She must have had a concerned look on her face as he seemed to notice.

“I’m alright, we will get plenty of rest once we reach the elves.” He kicked the horse into a light trot heading into the shelter of the trees, back into the thick of the forest.

Meanwhile in the third ream...

Damon, now back in his home realm, limped his way into the main chamber where Ashera was waiting for his report. Not that the lord needed it, he had been in his head the entire time.

He swallowed the lump in his throat as he approached the throne, he had failed. He was much too weak, but Ashera had cared enough to call him back to try again another day...right?

“Damon, my son.” The Lord began. “Welcome home.”

Damon frowned, not quite understanding what was going on.

The Lord laughed. “Please, did you really think I would expect you to defeat him, your job was only to access the current abilities of the one she is travelling with?”

Damon bowed before the lord before he spoke. “My lord Ashera, my orders are not yet fulfilled, the Princess is not dead...”

Ashera laughed again. “There’s no need to rush, I want to see her lose everything she will gain. But to lose something of value, one must first acquire it. She has made me wait for this long, so I will enjoy it.”

Damon dared not look his lord in the eye. “I’m not strong enough to overpower the male, and the Princess, she will get stronger.”

“We can fix that.” Lord Ashera toyed with a few blackened shards between his fingers. He tossed them to Damon who caught them with ease.

Ashera smirked. “Test that on something near the elf’s outpost, let’s see what happens. Better yet stab her with one and let’s see if she can withstand its pull.”

“Turn her?” He asked.

A haunting laughter filled the chamber. “Why not!? That could be fun.”

The lord stood and the demon fell to his knees hissing in pain. Damon clasped at his chest like something was burning him. The lord bent down and whispered orders to the demon as his breath came in short sharp gasps. He looked to the lord with shock. Why? He mouthed.

“You have new orders now, the old remain but let’s make it interesting, huh?” Ashera sat back down as a rattling cage sounded behind him. “Quiet wench!”

Damon stood as the pain faded and tried to see behind the Lord, curious.

“LEAVE!” The lord spat at the demon.

Damon exited the chamber as quickly as he came, the wrath of his father was not something he wanted to face again any time soon, but what was in the cage behind him? Shaking away the thought he clenched his fist around the shards, did he really have to do this?

The answer was no, he had no choice. He never did.