Court Of The Ascendants Ep. 2 [FINISHED]

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Outer Plane

The red beast plummeted back to the ground. When it was trying to get back up, it noticed Silveria, and roared at her. However, regardless of this, suddenly time seemed to speed up around it, and it roared yet again, not knowing what was going on. The shadow silhouette frowned, knowing that the lion would not last much longer. But it still had a chance, or so he thought. But, naturally, he thought wrong.

By this time, Rodrick was already out of his daze, and stood up, facing the lion, who was still slowed down by Silveria's power. He noticed how his sword began to glow, and raised it, confused, with the tip facing the lion. From the empty space that split the blade in half, a beam of blue light emerged, heading straight towards the red lion. The beast had no time to dodge before a hole was torn in it.

Rodrick looked down, staring at his blade in disbelief. "I had no idea it could do that." He said to himself, though he also noticed that this attack drained him of the energy he had absorbed from the lion's blast.

It was at this moment that the shadow being pulled out a longsword and prepared to lunge at the Ascendants. However, before he had the chance to do that, two scythes came flying out of the field that the young Ascendant had created earlier, covered in white flames of holiness... With a creature's hands still attached to them. The shadow being immediately understood what had happened. He couldn't hope to defeat them all by himself, having lost his summon and his ally.

"Next time we meet, the Liberator Tyrant's will shall be done!" The shadow silhouette shouted. And with that, and a strange spell that seemed to envelop the area around him in shadow, he vanished.

The young Ascendant landed softly behind the others. "The people at the base have not noticed our battle, but this won't remain the same for long. At this point, I do believe our best bet is to storm right in and hope they will be far too shocked to react." The young Ascendant said, and then walked over to the tallest hill, overlooking the strange field that surrounded what they presumed was the Agent base, before addressing his companions once again, raising his hand with it's palm aimed towards the field at the same time. [b]"Are you all ready?"[/b] He asked.

[The Inritus Extraho]

Lind nodded quickly, and lifted himself slightly off the ground. "Let's go then." he murmured, and then began quickly weaving the threads of time together once more, and began to accelerate the party. "We're faster, you all. Let's go." In fact, he had pushed almost all of his strength into it, flying weakly over the hill. Still, it would be worth it. He could still weave a sword fine, just that his Ascendant powers were much weaker now.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

(Nobody but TIE has posted so...)

Outer Plane

The Ascendant stood by, waiting for the others to confirm whether or not they were ready. As he waited, he listened to Lind, and then felt as the effects of his time-altering power worked over him and everything else, accelerating his every move and his every thought as well as those of his teammates.

When everyone had finally confirmed that they were ready to jump in, the Ascendant nodded yet again. He then extended his arm and pointed his palm towards the field that concealed the enemy base in which the Crystal indicated the spies were.

"Undo." He spoke in his unknown tongue, and then, the field undid itself, revealing the enemy base. Several spires and ziggurats clustered together made it up. It wasn't particularly large, but there were several lowly Agents around there, as well as some overseers, directing whatever operations were to be had.

As soon as the Ascendant's word was uttered, he jumped down the hill and flew at top speed towards the Agents, twin orbs of holy flames forming in front of his palms as he did so. He finally stopped before them, taking but a moment to see the confused faces of the Agents before outstretching his arms, each palm pointed at one of the overseers.

"Blast." He spoke, and then beams of holy flame emerged from the spheres that sat in front of his palms, piercing through the overseers and causing a great deal of collateral damage, sowing chaos amongst the ranks of the Agents.

By this point, Rodrick and the others caught up with him, as he was faster than them, and all had been accelerated equally. Acting quickly he took the Rathrakian Crystal and tossed it up into the air. A beam of light from far away impacted the Crystal and was reflected to a nearby ziggurat. "Go!" The Ascendant instructed, trying to get across the message that he could stay and hold the rest of the Agents off while they fought off the Adversary's inquisitors and rescued the spies. There were still quite a bit of mooks between them and the ziggurat, but they would have to fight them off by themselves, as the Ascendant was busy.

Nodding at the young Ascendant and then following the beam of light with his eyes, Rodrick jumped and caught the Crystal in mid-air before extending his wings once more and firing a round of his white hand-cannon into a small crowd of lowly Agents, the blast created after the round's impact taking out a few of them. He then continued flying towards the ziggurat the beam of light had marked, waiting for the others to arrive, cutting down the few Agents that attempted to take him down.

[The Inritus Extraho]

Lind sped through the crowd, following in Rodrick's footsteps - wingbeats? - and sliced those who were merely injured by the earlier Ascendant's path, finishing off a couple agents and sliding next to Rodrick, his sword already up in guard. "Let's do this, Rodrick..." he smiled, and took a stance, standing with his back to Rodrick and facing off against a single Agent. Moments later, the Agent fell, punctured in four places by his blade. "How long are the others taking..." he mumbled to himself, seeing the Agents mass up.

[Stattr]

Silverina hear the roar and then let go of it as Roderick killed it. She then heard the Acendent speak and nodded, a sign of her being ready and she flew through and once her feet hit the ground she smiled and saw an agent come at her. She bent down as he tripped over her and hs epushe dherself upright again and got in a stance. He looked at her as he got up. He then got into a stance and she kept tapping her foot, drawing his attention to it she lashed out with her fist and got him right in the jaw. She then slapped both her hands at the agesnts ears, ramme done hand into his throat and then punching him in the stomach and as he fell she lashed her foot out and kicked him in the jaw.

She flipped her hair back and kept her walking stick in its pouch on her side as she fought hand to hand with one agent or two at a time.

[Nature-Spirits]

Tak'mar relinquished his aegis and dropped to the ground, assenting. He pushed on toward the settlement along with the rest, long, wickedly sharp thorns growing on his arms, and flew right at a diminutive pink-skinned Agent with a snake-like tail, which it sluggishly brought up in defence. Tak'mar stuck his arm, with a blade tethered to it, out, and sliced the head of the tail out, eliciting a shriek from the Agent. Next went the real head, and it was engulfed in otherworldly flames as it was absorbed into Oblivion.
And he continued onto the next one.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Outer Plane

"Right!" Rodrick said in response to Lind, holding his sword with one hand and his handcannon with the other. Throughout the path to the ziggurat his sword, which he now realized to be a conduit for his power, had been fed by the Agents of the Adversary that he had slain, so he believed himself to be prepared for the confrontation. However, there was still the matter of the others having to be there in order for the operation to go through.

"Yeah, they're taking their sweet time." He said as he plunged his blade into one of the Agents that were trying to fight them, leaving his blade inside for more time than necessary, allowing it to feed.

When Silveria and Tak'mar had finally arrived, Rodrick looked forward at the ziggurat. It wasn't as big as one would expect but it was still quite large. He began running up the stairway that led to the doorway inside, urging the others to follow him. Once all of them had crossed the stairs, however, something happened.

"Barrier." A shout was heard, and a thick wall of holy flames emerged from the ground in front of the stairway, preventing any Agents from heading up through it. There were no secondary stairways, so the path up was essentially blocked.

Soon, the group entered the ziggurat.


Agent Ziggurat, Outer Plane

"Tell us, how does your Court plan to destroy Reality #5237?!" Asked -Demanded, rather- a hulking creature best compared to a minotaur. Standing to his sides were two other Agents, a black humanoid with reptile traits and three horns protruding from it's head, and a creature made from red stones.

Just before they could be answered, however, they heard the intrusion of the Ascendants, and turned around to face them. The spies, who the Agents were interrogating, were still alive, but quite hurt. The space around them was sufficiently large for a battle to be held, but the Ascendants still had to be careful not to injure the spies any further.

Rodrick simply stared forward in disbelief, as he recognized the number. If he recalled correctly from the conversation with Koriel all that time ago (He couldn't tell exactly how much, obviously), that was the number of his reality, human reality, and, coincidentally, that of Scry'ptor'ans and vampires as well.

He was promptly shaken out of his daze, though, by a blast of hellfire headed towards them. He dived to the side in order to dodge, managing to do so in time, and then stood up once again, ready to fight.

[Stattr]

Silveria heard Roderick and followed the group. Kicking an agent in the nuts and then twisting his neck on the way up and stopped next to Roderick and heard the number and raised a brow. She tapped her foot and felt the room and it's inhabitants and sighed slightly. She then heard sizziling and heard roderick dive out of the way and she held her hand up and stopped the hellfire ball soon it stopped dead before her and she just let it go as it hit the floor and she moved to the side to let the others see and got into her fighting stance. Her walking stick with in easy reach her her hands out in front of her and her rigth foot forward and left foot behind her. Almost like a tiger position and she waited, listening.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Agent Ziggurat, Outer Plane

The red-stone creature noticed Silveria in her battle-ready position and lunged at her, one of it's hands reforming into an elongated earthen spike. Meanwhile, the black reptilian charged towards Tak'mar, it's three horns thirsting for the alien's blood. The last enemy, the minotaur, stood before Lind, who he deemed to be the worthiest opponent, and then stomped the ground once, creating a small shockwave.

"You and your comrades will fall here, Ascendant." It said, before moving towards Lind with a vicious-looking double scythe.

As all of this happened, Rodrick, who apparently went unseen by the three Agents, managed to sneak over to the captive spies, and released them. They were far too injured to fight, though.

"Are you all alright?" Rodrick asked them, to which one of them nodded. He then prepared, and released another beam of light from his blade, stopping all the fights as everyone dived away from it. This opened a path for Rodrick and the spies to go through, though it left him almost drained of his energy. The spies were swift in their escape, and fled from the place with no one to stop them thanks to the chaos that the young Ascendant was causing.

However, the three Agents soon resumed their battles.

[Nature-Spirits]

Tak'mar ignored the Agent for as long as he could, focusing within, remembering the mantra for "pierce," the mudra for "wood." He smiled, stared into the Agent's eyes, made a quick flurry with his hands, and uttered the ten rapid syllables that made up the mantra and altogether lasted a second.
Abruptly his grey skin turned brown and long thorns grew from every patch of skin. A tiny laugh made its way up through his throat and bubbled out from his wide lips, and he reached behind him and grasped his spear, whipping it out and striking the Agent across the face with the sharp tip, holy fire burning where the cut was made.
"F'jh'axt'chatr'Xwa'ncaa'r'hfa'xyt!" he screamed, a contraction (as all phrases in his language were) that meant roughly, "Die, foul Star-Person, unclean foe!"
The reptilian sprang up, hellfire coalescing around it, and let loose three fireballs from its horns. However, at that moment Tak'mar's wings were suddenly present, and they propelled him to the side, out of the paths of the hellfire. He fired off a fireball of his own, a churning mass of hot white flame, and touched down, waiting to see what happened.
The creature swiftly slashed at its own wrist, and maroon blood sprang forth, rising up into a serpent-like thing that stood in the path of the holy fire. They impacted, blood and fire, and a loud sizzling could be heard as they cancelled each other out. Tak'mar gave a quick, barely noticeable nod as he witnessed the Agent wincing; it was alive, but that defense had cost it.
The Ascendant pounced, his wings jettisonning him forward, and held out his spear, ready to impale the creature.
It swung its head, the horns deflecting the spear, but Tak'mar let it fall, instead holding out the blade tethered to his arm; the Agent's manoeuvre had left it open to attack.
Within moments it had a gaping hole in its head, and purple flames consumed it, delivering the Agent to Oblivion.
Tak'mar landed softly and tucked his wings in, heading toward the exit. He scooped his spear up from the floor and walked out of the ziggurat, spreading his iwngs in preparation for lift off; he figured that Silveria and Lind could take care of themselves.
It was then that he realised which number had been spoken and what it signified.

[The Inritus Extraho]

Lind shrugged, and hopped off the ground, the shockwave passing under him, then his wings exploded into movement, driving him forwards faster than even the accelerated Ascendant who had led them there. He sliced outwards, once, slicing a path into the air, an evaluating strike by his standards, wondering what style this Minotaur would use.

The Minotaur parried, of course, Lind's blade shrieking down the scythe's edge, and then Lind stepped in as it continued, carried out of the way by his strike's momentum. He brought his sword around, maintaining contact with the scythe, and forced the tip of the weapon into the ground, stomping on it, then raised up a hand, a ball of holy flame forming, twisting and compacting in his hand as the Minotaur fearfully tried to pull free, then dropped his scythe and began to ran.

Sadly, Lind was not the 'honorable' opponent many thought him to be, and a beam of coruscating iridescent flame erupted from his hand, lancing towards his fleeing foe, and burning a hole the size of a golf-ball through the thing's thick skull. Lind nodded, and stepped on. It was time to move on.

[Zarkenis Ultima]

Agent Base
Outer Plane

As soon as Lind, Tak'mar and Silveria stepped outside, they would notice that there were no longer any Agents around. Not a single Agent could be seen in the entirety of their base, alive or otherwise, and not even the remnants of the purple flames that had taken them to Oblivion were visible anymore. Only a few figures could be seen still there. One of them was Rodrick, surrounded by the spies he had released, who were currently watching the one other figure preset there. The young Ascendant, who was currently kneeling in the ground, his violet eagle wings covering part of his body as he panted heavily, having obviously spent a great deal of energy in dealing with the vast ammount of Agents that had once guarded the Base. Though his great power was undeniable, he was still, at best, a novice when it came to using his ability, his voice.

Upon noticing the three Ascendants that had walked out of the Ziggurat, Rodrick waved at them, though the revelation he had when he entered the Ziggurat was so great that he had not uttered a single word since then, and certainly did not. Regardless, the three came down, and when they were next to him, the young Ascendant stood up, having recovered somewhat, and then walked up to them.

"We're done here, but there must be other Agents coming. It's not safe to go back the way we came, so I will use what remains of my energy to open up a gate back to Rhok'm'del's camp." He conveyed, before turning around and aiming his palm forward.

"Open!" He called, and an ivory gate appeared before them, opening up only to reveal whiteness. The group stepped through, the young Ascendant practically dragging himself over to the other side, only to find themselves back at the Inner Court Base.

Once they were finally there, things went by rather quickly. The spies and Rhok'm'del thanked them, though they said nothing about the ominous revelation that they had back at the Ziggurat, nor agreed to answer any questions in regards to that. Rodrick himself remained silent throughout the whole thing. The young Ascendant spent some time talking to Rhok'm'del in it's native tongue about other matters. However, they did not spend long at the Inner Court Base.


Garden Tower
Court Of The Ascendants

The five Ascendants would find themselves dragged across an ivory gate by an unseen force, and before they realized what exactly had happened, they found themselves standing before Maku, back in one of the Garden of the Court of the Ascendants, the Garden in which was the Tower that had been given to them as a gift for their first mission, in which they had taken residence every since they became Ascendants.

Blissfully unaware of what had transpired in the Ziggurat, Maku congratulated the Ascendants for their success at their mission, and then gladly upgraded the powers of Rodrick, Silveria, Lind and Tak'mar, though he simply limited himself to congratulate the young Ascendant again and give him a pat on the head before excusing himself, stating that he had other matters to attend to.

Rodrick remained in silence throughout all of this, pondering the meaning of what the Minotaur had said back at the Ziggurat. He didn't understand any of it, but it seemed truthful. He was simply confused. In the end, he decided that he would have to ask about it.

But for now, he, and everyone else, needed rest.

---

End Of Episode Two
To Be Continued...