The Keys to Ascension Read online

  A mass of angry crowd yells came from behind Kericles. He looked backwards. The stadium… It stood mostly intact—only stained by a few black marks where fire had hit.

  He sensed danger, then spun and dodged a spear thrust before cracking the foe’s skull. He kicked the head of the next easterner on the ladder, sending the enemy falling and screaming.

  The ground behind him shook as the crowd from the stadium became more boisterous. It sounded like a second battle raged. Kericles glanced back to see a few fires set in the stadium and people spilling out running in terror while others charged random stores and horse carts before destroying them.

  What’s going on!? “Are they rioting over sports while a massive foreign enemy endlessly throws men and weapons at their city!?”

  Lizeto punched an easterner off the wall. “Yeah, man up, wimp.”

  Kericles shook his head. “You’re all fools! Whether it be sports or religion, you destroy yourselves in ways no foreign enemy could.”

  Lizeto stepped to the side, allowing another knight to guard the ladder. “It was enough to crush your people.”

  Kericles sucked in his lips. He almost decked the fat fool right there, but a spear came for his ankle. He jumped over it then kicked the climbing easterner in the head. This dazed the enemy before Lizeto stabbed a massive hole in his face with a poleaxe.

  The riot expanded through the city and so did the fires. Riot soldiers with clubs and wide shields started forming on large avenues to contain the chaos.

  Kericles made out some of the crowd’s shouting.

  “Cheaters! His foot was out of bounds! Out of bounds!”

  “My team never wins! Ahhhhhh!”

  “That ref couldn’t see The Divinity’s arse if he squatted over the man’s house!”

  “Illegitimate! Illlleeeegiiitimaaaaaate!”

  The riot didn’t seem to encourage the enemy, who finally ran back to their siege camps, many falling to arrows in the back. No more foes came.

  The Hyzantrian defenders shouted, “The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity. The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity. The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity.”

  Finio stepped up next to Kericles. “How stupid was that attack? They lost thousands, maybe tens of thousands.”

  Kericles examined the walls. “Some of those cracks look pretty deep. Next time breaches will form. They just have to build, or bring up, more catapults. I’m sorry friend, but we still need a miracle to win this.”

  Ch. 60

  Theto couldn’t stand it anymore. His people. The people that exiled him, banished his mother and brothers, and killed his father. His people were now going to kill him, his mercenary friends, and an entire army of their own troops.

  “But sir, we’ll crush them! The plan is sound. The plan is sharp. The plan is golden! How can you let your dogma get in the way?”

  The mercenary general and his officers, including Major Ripface snapped their heads and glared at Theto, who stood near the back of the room, not really a part of the discussion before his outburst.

  Ripface yelled while pointing his finger toward the exit. “Theto, out!”

  The Hyzantrian general, a white-haired man wearing a fancy general’s hat, held up his hand. “Wait. I have no doubt that the mercenary plan would bring victory today. But, it would damn us in the eyes of The Divinity. Faith and Divinity-inspired tactics can win the day, but not demonic powers.”

  “How can you believe that? It’s clear to anyone who looks that high beings are no demons and that…” The Divinity doesn’t exist…Do I believe that? Have I lost my faith?

  The general pointed his hand toward the exit. “Now you may leave.”

  I used to believe wizards were maleefas and high beings were demons. Am I truly doubting The Divinity himself? The high beings show their power; they speak to wizards. Do even the priests truly speak to The Divinity?

  The general spoke with an edge to his voice. “Now. Before I decide to burn you for your blasphemy.”

  “Yes sir.”

  Theto left. For some reason he strode to the outer wall where archers and knights stood awaiting an assault. Stuck behind enemy lines in an enemy fort, Theto couldn’t help but realize: this may be my final resting place. The eastern horsemen didn’t hide the catapults whose numbers grew every day. They appeared capable of attacking at any time.

  They tried to guard the river that led to Hyzantrian territory, but Hyzantrian ships were fast and armed to the teeth. The mercenaries and Hyzantrians wouldn’t be starved out, but they could be slaughtered.

  He stared over the heads of the enemy army, at the sand and sky on the horizon. What if mother passed by this very fort? Is she even still alive? What about the girl? Would I have married her? Or even learned her name…

  Steps strode toward him. He turned. Georgy’s handsome smirk grew as he neared. He sang. “Those Hyzantrians have faith! Ouuuuuuuuu, and Theto apparently does nooooooot.”

  Theto shook his head.

  Georgy slapped him on the back. “If you said any of those things outside of war or within Hyzantria, you’d be dead right now.”

  “Trust me, I know.”

  Georgy smiled with his beautiful perfect teeth. “The Hyzantrians have a plan.”

  “Oh, yeah…what is it?”

  Shrugging, Georgy said, “I don’t know. They didn’t tell us.”

  #

  Lizeto urged his horse forward in a full charge. He’d slaughter the fools and prove to the Citian how buff he was. Finio’s magic flowed through him and his horse, giving him the physical prowess of a god. His knights followed behind him, and behind that ran the stupid Citians who refused to ride horses into battle.

  The heathens leapt onto their horses, fear in their eyes. “You should fear me!” Lizeto’s lance blasted through a man’s side. Lizeto dropped it and drew his sword, swinging it left through a man’s neck.

  Lizeto veered right of the catapults that they came here to destroy. Enemy horsemen scattered; a few into the trees behind the catapults. Then Lizeto caught other movement from those trees. A throng of horsemen rode out from them, throwing spears at Lizeto and his knights as they ran by. The Citians still charged, not yet engaged in the battle.

  The spears mostly dinked off the armored men and horses, but the easterners circled around, slamming them with heavy curved swords.

  Skillfully parrying the blades with his weapon and blocking with his shield, Lizeto avoided direct hits, but the foes with their streaming ribbons surrounded him. He could see little but snorting horses and the blades and points that repeatedly thrust and sliced toward him.

  A blow hit him on the back of the head, the world spun and toppled, but he kept fighting, avoiding more blows. An easterner opened himself on Lizeto’s right. He swung his sword, slicing the man’s neck. Then a body collided with Lizeto on his left, knocking him off his horse. The enemy’s weight pressed against Lizeto. He tried to lift his shield, but the foe held it down while also swinging down a sword. Lizeto yelled as he swung his blade, parrying the strike.

  Armored men around him fought for their lives. Lizeto again blocked the enemy sword with his own. He noticed the weight on his shield let up a bit. He roared as he rammed his shield forward, bloodying the man’s face. Lizeto deflected the sword a third time while repeatedly bashing with his shield until the man fell over, dead.

  Lizeto stood, but stumbled, his faculties not fully intact. Men, beast, and metal flashed around him. What was he supposed to do? He couldn’t die. He had to prove to his dad how tough he was. The old count couldn’t tell Lizeto not to fight out of concerns of safety. I’m a tough bad ass!

  A spear from somewhere flew at his head, he blocked it with his shield. A horseman rode by him swinging a sword. He deflected it with his blade. Then something blasted into his left shoulder from the rear. He bellowed as an easterner’s ribbons flapped in his face as the foe rode by before a knight swung his sword through the enemy’s entire neck. His head toppled to the
ground as the horse ran in-between catapults away with his body.

  Green mist came from the left, then surrounded him.

  Kericles shouted, “You got a spear sticking out of your buff muscles, chubby.”

  “Eat rat poop!” Lizeto yelled through the pain.

  “Maybe later. There are more coming, we have to get out of here. Back to the ships.”

  Lizeto pointed with his sword. “But the catapults.”

  “Mission failure, let’s save our lives!”

  Lizeto yelled, “Knights charge away! Knights charge away!”

  Surrounded by estra-armored Citians, Lizeto backed away from the catapults. The Citians defensively slaughtered any attacking easterners. Somehow the knights got the message and charged away. Recharging in whenever they could to stop the Citans from being overwhelmed.

  Eventually, the easterners backed off, staying by their catapults.

  Citians made way for an armored horse with armor extending over a mound on the back of it. Finio’s bowl. Stupid chinchilla.

  Finio dismounted. “I’m gonna yank this spear out of you. It may hurt like hell and will be bloody, but don’t worry. I’ll heal you.”

  “What? Ahhhhhhh!” Pain exploded from Lizeto’s shoulder. “How deep is it!?”

  White light shined in his peripheral vision.

  “Hold on,” Finio said.

  The light continued to shine and Lizeto’s shoulder felt more and more like normal. Then, the light stopped, and the pain was gone.

  He turned toward Finio. “How?”

  “I’m a pretty good healer, huh?”

  “Thanks, friend. I’m ready for more, let’s go at ‘em!”

  Finio shook his head.

  Kericles butted in. “Naa, you’ll just get your weak butt hurt again.”

  “Hey!” Lizeto leaned toward Kericles who looked huge in his estra-armor.

  Finio put a hand on Lizeto’s steel shoulder. “Easterners will be swarming soon. It’s time to run to the ships. Let’s go!”

  #

  A week later, Finio stood on the wall—Lizeto and his knights to the right and Kericles to the left. Generals had banned more raids by non-inquisitors because the mobile horsemen stopped them too easily. Finio never knew fighting for his nation’s survival could be so boring, but that boredom would end today. The easterners lined up to attack again. Hyzantrians tried to repair cracks in the walls, but makeshift repairs weren’t the same as a full rebuild of the damaged sections. Finio suspected the first attack was just a test run. This would be the real thing.

  The catapults, and masses of men with ladders, spears, and swords, moved forward.

  Finio focused on Kwitty’s power, spreading it through all the Citians and Lizeto.

  Archers waited for the enemy to come in range, then the eastern masses split, creating channels between them. Through them rode screaming horsemen, strips of cloth streaming from their weapons.

  Archers loosed, leading the speeding cavalry. The arrows rained toward the enemy, who spread out after passing through their infantry. Then, sorcerer hands lifted into the air and a wave of fire blasted upward, scattering the tumbling arrows into the sky. The enemy raced toward the walls. Another volley of arrows came with some arcing and others shot straight.

  Some sorcerers sent a blast forward, others straight up, deflecting all the projectiles.

  The horses split just before the walls as warriors threw spears and sorcerers threw fireballs.

  The walls became a bloodbath and a conflagration all at once. Fire exploded, burning men alive and blowing them off the backside of the walls. Spears mostly missed, but plenty of them punctured archer mail, dropping the men in groans and screams.

  Meanwhile, the enemy infantry and catapults moved forward. Catapults loosed, sending massive boulders soaring toward the walls. Hyzantrian trebuchets loosed back while the enemy army charged.

  The Hyzantrians shouted, “The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity.”

  The horsemen fled through the channels created between the infantry, then those channels closed.

  Arrows again rained, but the men were already at the walls, heavy ladders thudding against them.

  Spears and fireballs showered the front of the walls as men waiting to climb launched their projectiles. Defenders ducked to avoid the attacks, but then enemies came over the walls.

  Finio stepped back behind the knights and Citians. He focused on his magic, unable to see much of the battle. But he heard boulders slamming against the ground, the walls, and men, who shouted over the clangs and pounds of weapons.

  He lost a few knights and a Citian. He didn’t know how they died, but he no longer felt their souls to send magic to. He wore the pot on his back. Putting it on the ground would be too risky.

  “Kwitty! What do I do?”

  From the pot: “You can double the effect; you just have to figure out how to further tap my power. You’ve been close, but never quite there. I think you just have to make the right growl.”

  Finio growled again and again, making weird noises from his throat as men around him fought, bled, and died. Then, a scratchy and wet growl sent a spark of power blasting through his connection with Kwitty. It was just a spark. He made the noise again, but felt nothing.

  Kwitty yelled, “Yes, keep trying. You’ll find it again. This time focus on maintaining the opening when you break through.”

  Finio made the noise but couldn’t quite get it right, then, the rush of energy blasted through him and he imagined the portal from which the power came staying open and stabilizing. It did. He sent speed, strength, endurance, and…accuracy through him to Lizeto and the Citians.

  A cheer came up from the men as they moved like blurs, slaughtering the enemies who came over the ladders. Soon, the men were cleared and Kericles screamed for more.

  A hand appeared over the wall. A Citian already swung a sword toward it. The hand lit up a bright orange and a small ball of fire flew toward Finio. He dove toward the ground as a sword cut off the sorcerer’s hand.

  The ball flew over Finio, then exploded, sending heat and force crashing into him. His clothes, skin, and hair lit on fire. He somehow felt his back melting off his sides.

  A Hyzantrian fire man sprinted toward him and doused him with a bucket of water.

  Finio’s face lay in a puddle of his own blood due to the blast slamming his face into the ground. His back no longer burned, but it screamed in pain. He felt the connections to the higher beings, but could no longer access them. He croaked, “Kwitty.”

  Then a boulder flew just over the wall and crashed right in front of Finio, crushing two Citians. The boulder bounced, brushing by Finio, its force knocking him twirling off the wall.

  *

  “Finio!” Lizeto yelled before instinctively blocking a sword with his shield then stabbing the foe who just came off a ladder. His movements seemed sluggish without Finio’s magic. The sound of collapsing wall sounded a ways to his right. Lizeto glanced. A breach had formed. A second later he heard the noise again away to his left. Two breaches.

  Kericles yelled, “Let the weak defend the walls, to the breaaaach!”

  Lizeto and his knights followed Kericles and his hulking green Citians to the left breach. There, a bloody struggled already raged as armored Hyzantrians slaughtered the incoming easterners.

  As Lizeto neared, massive fireballs crashed into the knights, blowing them and the easterners away while burning their skin.

  The Citians and Lizeto ran into the breach, swinging their weapons and destroying enemies. Three fireballs flew towards them. A few men, including Lizeto, yelled, “Firebaaaaalls!”

  The men ran left and right out of the breach. The fire exploded, only killing the easterners who rushed in. Lizeto ran in front of the breach to see charging lines of horsemen coming toward it. I wish I had a war horse right now.

  Lizeto yelled, prepared to take on the brunt of the charge.

  A green gauntlet yanked Lizeto. “Out of the way!”<
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  Lizeto yelled, “Coward!”

  Then he heard the storm of hooves coming from the city. A charge of Hyzantrian knights rumbled toward the breach. They met the unarmored easterners right in it, blasting through them and into the open battle.

  All the dead will slow the horses, maybe even trip them!

  Somehow the charge barreled forward. Lizeto followed behind it, fighting in open space and slaughtering any enemy that came near him. His knights and the Citians fought nearby.

  Mounted knights also blasted through the other breach, but soon the enemy split and ran around, launching devastating fireballs. The knights dashed away, coming back into the city. Lizeto returned as well, ready to start it all over again.

  More sections of wall crumbled. A few spots on top were overrun with invaders.

  Lizeto mumbled. “We’re gonna lose…Hyzantria is doomed.”

  Men ran toward new breaches, but easterners already busted through, spreading out into the city. They came in great masses because many archers had fled the walls or lay dead. A total rout would happen in any second.

  More infantry came through this breach. Lizeto did the only thing he could…he fought. His tired muscles groaned. Only his armor kept him alive as he angled his body to create glancing blows.

  Then a great cheer sounded behind him, followed by a chant.

  “The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity. The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity.”

  The chant spread all along the walls and throughout the city. “The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity. The Sovereign, The Authority, The Divinity.”

  An eastern foot slammed into Lizeto’s stomach plate, knocking him back and onto his butt. Another knight took his place, blocking the enemy.

  Lizeto’s legs screamed in pain as he stood. He looked behind him. Coming up the street, in his gold-colored armor and golden crown atop his helm, surrounded by similarly colored elite guards, was the Sovereign himself.