Ascension - (Alarian Warriors)

“Hello?” She called out.

She was met with a scared whimper in return. It sounded like a puppy, more than a beast. She tilted her head and slowly knelt, bringing her form closer to the ground in the hopes of being less threatening.

“Little one, are you scared?” she asked, this time in a much softer tone.

She was answered with another soft whimper, and a pair of small yellow eyes staring at her from the darkness.

“We have removed the shards poisoning you, it is safe to come out now.” She coaxed while proceeding to sit down on the ground.

Very slowly a small black pup walked over to her cautiously. Through her training Aveyon had learnt that when someone or something felt threatened in this manor, they could become trapped in their own minds, most commonly seeing themselves as a child, small and defenseless.

“It is okay now; you can return to your true self.” She told it. “You will no longer be forced to do anything you do not want to.”

The little creature looked up at her, questions in its eyes. Its small head looking around as if trying to search for something. It was cautious and frightened but seemed to relax slightly as it didn’t find what it was looking for.

Aveyon watched as the pup grew before her eyes, until its snout was in line with her own nose. She smiled, having accomplished what she needed to. She faded from its mind and pushed herself back to reality. Best to let the creature come to its senses on its own now, or risk it is growing attached to her.

Vincent held her firm as she returned to her own body with a short sharp gasp. “Is it done?” He asked.

“It will be fine now, it is free.” She responded.

“I’m not sure I like how defenseless you are when you are in someone else mind.” he added with a worried expression.

She let out a half laugh. “That is why I have you. And besides, I would never do it if I were alone.”

She walked the few short steps toward the beast that was now motionless. Raising her hand, she focused on the ichor that tainted its blood. She could feel it much like her own blood, without the shard stopping her from reaching with the beast it was easy for her to extract what she needed to, completely freeing the animal from the hold of the demon lord. With nowhere else to put the vile black blood she filled the vial at her hip with it, she’d dispose of it later.

She heard the elves in front of them gasp as the hideous wolf-like creature morphed and shifted into the large black Fenrir she had seen within its mind. The poor creature was likely very confused, but it was now completely free of Ashera’s control. Aveyon coughed again, remembering the smoke as it grew thicker by the minute.

“Princess!” One of the elves exclaimed as she was about to turn away.

“What is it?” She asked, turning to find her answer.

The wolf hadn’t finished changing, it had also shifted into a human female. Who now sat up, covered in blood, with a shocked expression on her face.

“I killed them...” She whispered as tears streamed down her face.

“A shifter!” The other elf commented in shock, staring at the bare women.

“Do not just stand there! Give her some cloth you barbarians!” Aveyon called, snapping them out of their shameful staring.

They rushed to her aid, wrapping her up and giving her water to wash out her mouth.

“Is a shifter rare?” She asked Vincent. The group, along with the struggling women, began to make their way out of the burning village.

“No, not really. But if Ashera has moved on from normal animals with his experiments...” He trailed off. Animals, humans, demon’s and now shifters. He was moving up the chain, testing the power on stronger foes. Was no one safe?

With the beast tamed and the majority of the fires out, they were finally beginning to be free of the smoke. Tending the women more, they didn’t get much out of her. She couldn’t remember what had triggered her transformation, only that she had no control. She described it as a blind hunger that was never satisfied.

Aveyon instructed the elves to take her to the Sanctuary, she would be more protected there, with the barriers and spells they had in place. They agreed, two warriors left on horseback to escort the women, leaving Aveyon, Vincent and one male elf behind to deal with the villagers that had survived.

They remained in the village for a few days, assisting where they could. They helped rebuild some semblance of shelter for the remaining people and heal the people of burns and surface wounds. A few had broken bones or missing limbs that they couldn’t heal. Aveyon could now at least use her spirit wielding to help with the pain, blocking off nerve receptors in the brain for a short time. But most of the work relied on the men, they did the heavy lifting while she tended to the wounded.

After three days, the two male elves returned to the village. Which by this point was mostly back up and running, they had buried the dead, salvaged as much of the buildings as they could and helped to replanted what crops they could. The humans here were going to have a hard time, but at least they had shelter and a better chance of surviving now than before.

Unless Ashera sets lose another beast. Aveyon thought bitterly as she waved goodbye to the small number of remaining villagers.

How many villages were burning right now? They didn’t have the means to travel around quickly enough to be everywhere at once. Realistically she needed a network of people spread out across the land to help protect it. She shook her head, the odd thought taking her by surprise. She needed? Surely, she hadn’t meant that... She was starting to think like the leader everyone wanted her to be. It was unnerving.

Pushing the uncertain feeling away she turned to the male elves who had traveled to the Sanctuary. “How are they down there, is the girl okay?”

“They are well Princess, the women, though in shock and withdrawn, is in good hands. The pregnant one...” He notability cringed at the mention of a baby. “She had a message, she said to call on them as soon as they are needed, many are willing to join the fight.”

Aveyon nodded; this she knew too well. “We will, but for now I think it is good that we have to two outposts working in our favor.

“I completely agree.” He responded. “If we had more cities like Elendor, or even more places like the Sanctuary, we could help more people.”

Ah, she wasn’t the only one thinking along those lines. She nodded as silence fell between the group. They just didn’t have the numbers to pull something like that off.

It only took a few hours ride and they made it back to the elven city. It was midday and normally the busiest time of the day for the marbled city. As they entered the streets, it was eerily quiet. Something was wrong.

“No guards...” Vincent muttered as they trotted to a stop by the entrance.

“I don’t like this.” One of the other elves added.

Aveyon dismounted; a stern looks on her face. Everyone, in turn, drew their weapons holding them at the ready. They slowly advanced through the city, careful not to make any noise.

Aveyon noted some damage to a few of the buildings, indents in the ground, and small amounts of blood drops here and there. It was as though a battle had taken place. An uneasy feeling began to grow in the pit of her stomach. Vincent’s on-edge demeanor wasn’t helping either.

The streets were silent, only the wind could be heard tugging at the group as they explored. Aveyon spun on her heels; she was sure she had heard footsteps to her right. She glanced back at the others and motioned for them to follow her. Entering the small side alley, they began to make their way down the back streets. The scene grew heavy as they found evidence of combat smeared on the walls and ground deeper in.

Aveyon cringed as she felt a sharp jab at her mind, but she wasn’t as weak as she once was. It was a little painful to hold it off, but she wouldn’t let him in this time. It had been a while since Ashera had tried to attack her, he had tried several times during her training. But with the combined minds of the elves around her, and Vincent’s strength through their bond, she had thankfully always had help to hold him off until she could do it herself.

Her momentary lapse of concentration allowed something to leap out from the shadows and attack, as if planned. Vincent and the elves luckily deflected the weapon before it collided with her. She jumped back surprised at the snarling face of what appeared to be a demon. This one was different to the crazed Damon that they had freed. Every part of this creature had a black substance oozing from it, and its eyes were glazed over and completely white, it appeared like a lifeless corpse and yet it was moving even if it was unnatural in its form.

Before any of the group had a chance to react, Kirra leapt down from the rooftop. Twisting in the air, she swung her sword and cleanly sliced the demon’s head from its shoulders.

Aveyon’s eyes bulged as the blackened blood sprayed all over them. Wiping the blood from her face to looked to Kirra, a raised brow with questions in her eyes.

“Don’t fret, the bodies are already dead.” She instructed standing tall. Wiping the black blood like substance from her face as well, she made a disgusted expression. “Though they tend to explode like that.”

“Dead?” Aveyon asked.

“The bodies have been reanimated.” Kirra explained. “Probably with this horrible black blood, I assume is Ichor.”

“My ichor is not black...” Aveyon was puzzled.

“Something has been down to it, maybe because it is being produced by the reanimated corpses.”

“Now we have to worry about the dead, not just the living?” Vincent added.

“Apparently.” Kirra responded with a frown.

“What happened here?” Aveyon asked.

“Not long after your team left, we were attacked. We sent most of the citizens to the underground training ground and put up a barrier so that only we elves can enter.” Kirra sighed. “Unfortunately, that didn’t work as the dead began to rise and attack us while inside.”

“How many?” Aveyon asked, worry in her voice.

“Only three, they were taken by surprise, once we knew they were here we were fine. However, we couldn’t sense them at all, they have no presence and can’t wield essence, they are merely puppets.” Kirra continued. “We found that decapitating and burning the bodies ensures they don’t return. You need to be careful to clean the substance off the freshly dead if you do not want them to rise on you again.” She ended with a pained expression, it seemed she had learnt that the hard way.

“Ashera is already one step in front of us...” Aveyon muttered.

“What do you mean?” Vincent’s brows creased, confused.

“The Princess can now free those that are under his control, and those that he had turned feral with the shards. But if there is no mind to free...” Kirra trailed off.

“It makes our next step harder, we have no choice but to fight, we were trying to avoid it by freeing the enslaved, but if they are already dead.” Aveyon explained with a heavy sigh.

“If it is a spell, surely it can be undone.” One of the male elves added.

“True, but it will take time.” The Priestess concurred. “Come, I will take you to the others. The underground area has now become our home of operations. Erisena will continue your training, I need to head out and gather more clans. With these attacks, it’s imperative that we all group together and protect each other. We will need the manpower for the coming mission to Terramore as well.”

Aveyon and the others followed closely behind keeping a close eye of the streets for anymore lingering attackers.

“Can we make the city safe like the Sanctuary? Using wards to prevent harm within its walls, the training area being the exception. Vincent, you know them, right? Or we can ask Erosvent for help.” Aveyon offered.

“I know them.” Vincent concurred. “But I’ll need a number of high skilled essence welders to pull it off.”

“What are these wards you speak of?” Kirra questioned slightly confused.

Aveyon explained that after she was attacked Erosvent had basically stolen spells from the wizard that had kept her as a prisoner. Altering them to be a protection for her and those at the sanctuary. The other two male elf’s that had been there concurred that they were indeed useful which helped to convince the Priestess.

Kirra stopped for a moment her mouth slightly ajar. “Yes, that is a splendid idea, perhaps I will stay and learn these wards to spread to the other clans as I gather fighter’s as well. The more defenses we have the better. And a safe place to sleep will never go astray.” She took off at a run again, the group following.

“It won’t be a pretty addition to the city, but it will be useful.” Vincent added.

Kirra laughed. “Aesthetics can wait, protecting what little fighters we have left is much more important.”