The Keys to Ascension Read online

  Some bats landed, others dispersed north, many of those flying directly overhead. Then, a black wall rose from the ground. It connected to walls rising on the sides too. Finio couldn’t see ahead of the army, but he assumed a wall rose there also. They reached heights as tall as any castle, then stopped before a roof grew inwards.

  Where an army of monsters once stood, now a giant black box loomed over the land. Then, on several spots around the box, the ground shook and scattered upwards. Chunks of it rose, forming into the rough shape of men, but much larger. Earth golems surrounded the building, standing on a seemingly mindless guard.

  Some scouts gasped as they all saw the wizard blast through the sky east; in the direction of the other largest monster army.

  The Scout captain said, “Axillaries, to me.”

  The only irregular scouts were Fino, Lizeto and a few of his knights, and Kericles and a few of his men. They rode to the captain.

  “We don’t need guys like you to watch armies slowly march on our capital.”

  Kericles pumped a fist. “Then let’s sally out and take these beasts on!”

  The captained focused on Kericles. “You will go to the capital, but there you will wait with the main body of the army. Our engineers will have that wall in shape by the time the monsters get there. We aren’t Citian, we don’t blindly charge into every battle.”

  Kericles exhaled: “Eeeeyaaaaah. I can’t stand all this watching and waiting.”

  Finio spoke up. “Sir, we’ll go around and head to the capital right away.”

  The captain smirked. “And don’t get your hopes down based on what you’ve seen with us. From what the return scouts say…Hyzantria has a plan.”

  #

  Parto and two other inquisitors crouched near a cave entrance. One whispered, “Why no defense? They don’t need a single guard?”

  Parto said, “They have no idea how good our intelligence is. Every peasant faithfully reports what he sees…as is his duty.”

  Well, they didn’t report this until yesterday…but this cave is near no fields.

  Parto lightly touched different daggers under his robes. He didn’t know if it comforted him or if he did it as a tick. “Alright, keep your eyes and ears listening. I’ve always considered this cult more dangerous than a bunch of Citians, but in truth, we don’t even know if they’re connected to this invasion. It’s time to find out.”

  The other two nodded. They spread out, then snuck into the cave.

  Traversing the cave, it darkened until almost nothing could be seen, just like the last cave, except it was night this time so not much could be seen in the first place. Parto felt his way forward with his hands, just barely hearing the steps of his fellow inquisitors.

  He hoped to see a flickering fire like his attack on the other cult location, but he saw none. Eventually, they reached a bend in the cave and it widened. Parto suspected that maybe a hundred yards in front of him stood another wicked temple, but he couldn’t see through the dark.

  One of his partners moved far right to the cave wall there, the other on the left. Parto walked in the most dangerous position, straight down the middle. Eventually, his hands touched something smooth; something manmade. He softly chirped like a cricket to signal the others that he found something.

  He felt around for an entrance, finding a great door. He didn’t yet try to open it, knowing it could alert the maleefa inside to their presence.

  The inquisitors gathered beside him. “This is extremely similar to the layout of their other hidden temple. If it is the same, this door is the only entrance, but there will be tunnels in the back that allow for an escape route. We’ve got to open this door as silently as possible, but if we hear alerted movement, we go in fast and we kill.”

  They nodded. One moved to the right of the door, the other to the left. Then, Parto pushed against the door. It wouldn’t budge. He ran his hand across it, finding no lock to pick.

  The inquisitor on the right asked, “Should we check the sides?”

  Parto shook his head. “No, there won’t be a way in.”

  “Then how?”

  Parto didn’t know. The building had no apparent weak spots.

  The inquisitor to the left said, “Why don’t we knock?”

  Parto smiled, blowing air out of his nose. “Yeah, say we have a message.”

  The left man didn’t laugh. “I’m serious. I’ll get naked and knock, claiming I’m lost and hoped to sleep in this cave then explored up to here.”

  It sounded like the dumbest idea Parto had ever heard, but he also didn’t have any others. “Get naked then.”

  Parto and the other clothed inquisitor hid on each side of the door, while the now nude inquisitor, who left his clothes and blades against the cave wall, approached the door. He knocked.

  They waited, listening for sounds inside. They heard none. He knocked again.

  Parto sensed many connections to high beings. He whispered, “At least six maleefa.”

  The naked man knocked a third time. Now, they heard people creeping toward the door. Without any windows, and apparently any eyeholes, they had no way of seeing them, unless they had a maleefa that could do that, in which case he’d see three inquisitors and the mission would be doomed.

  A young male voiced asked, “Hello, this is a private temple. Please go away.”

  Parto’s mind expanded in light. They can’t let anyone leave. They’ll have to come out to kill him before he can tell anyone. This idea actually makes perfect sense.

  Parto got the naked inquisitor’s attention and motioned for them to leave.

  He spoke through the door. “Oh, okay. I was just exploring this cave. Sorry to bother you.”

  From the door: “No worries. Have a nice night.”

  The naked inquisitor took a few steps away, then ran, silently in a way only an inquisitor could, to his clothes. Parto and the other clothed inquisitor moved to the side of the temple, waiting behind the wall. After throwing on his clothes, the other inquisitor came next to Parto.

  “What are we doing?” he whispered.

  Parto responded, “They can’t let anyone who found them live. They will come out and kill you now.”

  “Unless they just flee through the back tunnels you said they’ll have.”

  Son of a…

  Noise came from the door, then it opened inward. Three men sprinted out of it, running at inhuman speeds and carrying swords. They dashed into the cave and around the corner.

  The inquisitors launched from their hiding spots and rushed toward the opening. A man in a robe had already started closing one of the large doors. Parto sliced his throat as he ran by, then dashed at two other maleefa who stood frozen before Parto slammed a dagger into each other their hearts.

  Heat rose from another who summoned some sort of fire, but another inquisitor stabbed him through the eye.

  The inquisitors spread out, and crept toward the two open passageways connected to the large room they stood in. Parto went toward the right one, the others toward the left.

  Parto leaned beside the opening, listening. He heard no sounds. Are they really fleeing?

  He crept in, moving quickly, but carefully. Similar to the layout of the last temple, a few rooms connected to the hallways: some bedrooms and another some sort of magic room with scarred walls.

  Reaching the end of a hallway, Parto entered a large room with stairs on a side away from him. Near the stairs, his fellow inquisitors exited their hallway. Parto moved toward them, stopping about ten yards away so that one surprise explosion wouldn’t kill them all. He spoke lowly. “Any maleefas?”

  They shook their heads.

  Parto pointed to the stairs. One by one they went. The stairs led to an underground cave. The three of them crept forward, able to see by the torches burning on the right cave wall. The stairs became smaller behind them.

  Then, a high-pitched magic sound was followed by blasts exploding to the rear. Two sections of the walls caved in—not blocki
ng the path but creating two holes in the sides. Troglodyte screams sounded, then from both holes the greenish creatures marched out forming a spear line—two trogs deep.

  Parto sensed high being connections in front of him. Deep ahead in the cave, three robed figures stood, too far away for a throwing dagger, but in range for some magic. Rats.

  The inquisitors glanced back and forth at their two enemies.

  Parto nodded toward the trogs. “Take care of them. Start with those on the left, the torchlight will limit their vision.”

  They nodded, then Parto dashed toward the maleefa.

  Lightning and fires balls shot toward him. He adjusted his sprint right and left to avoid them, but more came. He ducked just under a bolt. The hairs on his back stood and tingled. He jumped to the right, then a fire ball blasted by him, its heat searing the side of him.

  Almost in range, he pulled out his throwing daggers. The third maleefa in a yellow robe had not attacked yet. He held out his arms, and Theto froze. His body hung suspended in the air mid-run. His daggers remained clutched in his hands. He could hear the dying of trogs behind him.

  Fire grew in the flame-thrower’s hands.

  “Wait,” said a woman’s voice from the darkness behind the maleefa.

  She stepped forward. Cloth wrapped her head. From this far away Parto could hardly see her eyes, but he’d recognize those eyes from across an ocean. His stomach fell like a rock in that ocean. His first kiss…was with a maleefa.

  Did she think I wouldn’t recognize her? Look at how she holds herself? I want to caress those hips so badly. It’s her. Oh The Divinity it’s her. What cruel fate that the only woman I’ve loved is not just a maleefa but a part of a conspiracy to overthrow The Sovereign!

  “He’s a key,” she said.

  The fire maleefa stuttered, “But…but they were lost. We are moving forward without them.”

  “No.” she said, “We still need them. We’ll have enough estra to transform for decades, but anyone who confuses that with ascension is a fool. The keys all live. Our true purpose can still be realized.”

  The fire maleefa, a dark-haired man in a red robe and with a mustache, turned toward the white haired and bearded mage in yellow. The one in yellow nodded.

  Parto cried out in his head, but on the outside he was frozen. It wasn’t cruel fate…She played me.

  Sounds of dying trogs stopped behind him. He knew a strong urge to rescue Parto would be rushing through his comrades, but he hoped their training would overcome it. No good inquisitor throws his life away for a lost battle. A long hallway with nowhere to hide…

  Their steps echoed off the stairs.

  Good job, men.

  She approached him alone. He thought about seeing her again every day. He wanted to hear her voice, stare into her green eyes and cute face, pick her brain, and hold her tight in a way that Parto had never held any woman.

  Seeing her come toward him gave him a glimmer hope. He didn’t know what he hoped for, but he couldn’t help but hope it, along with the fear of what maleefa would do to an inquisitor. He wouldn’t divulge anything. He’d been trained to resist torture.

  She halted a few feet in front of him. He could just barely see some of her light brown hair sticking out the side of her wraps that covered all her head but her eyes.

  He sensed power from a high being surge through her. She waved her hands. His daggers slid out of his grip. An assortment of blades—long, medium, and short—made their way out of his pockets, then floated toward the ground. They all lay in a pile next to him. Two short daggers floated from the piles as she pointed at them with her fingers. The flat of the blades touched his wrists. She then twisted her fingers and the blades bent toward the hilt before the touching ends heated and glowed. The metal merged together around his wrists.

  She did the same to his ankles, then melted a long blade in-between both of them, giving him shackles. She flashed her hands forward, and the remaining blades slid down the cave until they dinked against the stairs.

  “Okay, Tillio, I got him.”

  The yellow-robed maleefa put down his arms.

  Parto could move again. He stared at her in silence. He didn’t know what to say or even what to feel.

  She spoke quietly. “Parto, I’m on your side. You mean so very much to me and these people are evil.” She jerked his shoulder toward her like she would a prisoner, then whispered. “We will be together under better circumstances, I promise.”

  Her warm breath entering his ear almost forced Parto to collapse in pleasure. He instinctively moved his hands to caress her, but first his hands restrained against the manacles, then the metal yanked his hands away from her as her magic moved the manacles.

  Still in his ear, she said, “Don’t give us away. The wizards will split to go to different hidden temples. When it is just me and another, use your guard, the one I gave you, to break all magic around you. It is more than a shield. It can break any magic. I will let you flee, even kill whoever is sent with me if I have to. But for now, I may have to hurt you a little.”

  She flung her hand away from herself in the direction of the maleefa. The dagger-shackles on his wrists and ankles yanked him flying toward the maleefa before he crashed into the ground.

  Ch. 65

  Once again, Kericles stood ready to defend the capital of the empire that stole his home from him. But glory was glory, and Kericles would take it wherever he could find it. He and his handful of the men stood just to the right of Hyzantria’s center. Finio and Lizeto were mounted in the back somewhere in reserve, but Finio would be in the front of this battle through Kericles and his Citians.

  As far as he could tell, the Hyzantrians did a good job repairing the walls. They looked just as strong to him, but the generals decided to line their entire army in front of the walls and meet the enemy head to head—Just how Kericles liked it. Still, he much preferred being in charge of his own band, leading his men to glory and knowing what in glory’s name was going on.

  I’m just a cog in the Hyzantrian war machine. ‘Stand here,’ they say. And I do so.’Move left.’ I comply. ‘Poop behind that tree.’ I release myself. But when the enemy come, no one has to tell me how to kill.

  Scouts said a massive army of troglodytes and palberos marched, but all Kericles saw was darkness. Torches flickered on the walls behind him, but that just barely illuminated the field ahead.

  Will I be able to see these creatures in the midst of battle? What’s the plan here?

  He leaned forward and looked down the line past his own green-armored men. The Hyzantrians, some blocks in chain, others in full plate, stood stoically, like they didn’t care what kind of foolish plans their leaders had brought on them.

  The deep, vibrating yells of palberos broke his thoughts. Kericles, along with everyone else in the army, stared at the dark figures in the night—an unseeable amount of troglodyte rows, scattered with palberos that towered over the smaller creatures. Wings and screeches filled the sky as bats flew overhead.

  What excellent scouts.

  An officer, or someone, Kericles didn’t really know, commanded, “Stay strong in your faith. The Divinity guides and protects us. Through him, The Sovereign’s armies will defeat all enemies.”

  The army as one shouted, “The Divinity. The Sovereign. The Authority. One source, rules all.”

  The monsters didn’t seem intimidated. Their dark figures kept coming, not really marching, but walking in formation never the less.

  These things can’t be that tough. Why have we hid from them for so long while they take out isolated forts and mine estra; estra that should be sent to Citia for estra-armor!

  Kericles burned inside, ready to take part in the first large battle between human beings and creatures of the night. “Rwhaaaaaa!”

  The Citians around him yelled, “Rwhaaaaaa!”

  Kericles saw himself bashing through the enemy, his hammers exploding heads and breaking limbs. Oh he was ready for a fight. He was ready to kill.
He’d exclaim to Zephyra and all the Citian isles how he, King Kericles, defeated the inhuman invasion of their world. “Rwhaaaaaaaaaaaaa!”

  His men flexed their arms and lifted their weapons as they shouted.

  The enemy came close to charging distance. Energy blasted through Kericles, urging him to attack at once.

  The strong beasts, their bodies seemingly rounder than that of men, kept coming, past charging distance. Why aren’t we attacking? We’re just gonna stand here and let them spear us to death? How did we lose to these Hyzantrians with their cowardice and false beliefs?

  Kericles leaned forward and glanced down the lines. The Hyzantrian faces stood ready to fight, but didn’t show the same anxiety to start the killing like he and his men.

  Forget their orders, I’m charging!

  Then Hyzantrian commanders yelled, “Light the fires!”

  A little late for arrows.

  Kericles expected to see arrows rain into the middle rows of the huge army, but instead, the arcing and dropping shooting stars that were firearrows scattered along the side of the enemy army. Formerly hidden bond fires ignited in flame, flickering fire farther into the sky than the height of palberos.

  At once, the entire monster army in front of Kericles stopped walking and shuddered like the Earth itself quaked. Trogs released frogy yells and the palberos moaned deeply. Both covered their eyes.

  “The Divinity! The Sovereign! The Authority!”

  The Hyzantrians started charging even before Kericles.

  “Rwhaaaaaaa!”

  Finio’s power rushed through Kericles and he ran with the strength of a demi-god. His enhanced Citians sprinted ahead of the Hyzantrians then crashed into the troglodytes whose spears pointed downward or even lay on the ground. The enemy offered no resistance.

  Kericles’s hammers flashed through the air again and again exploding skulls like a death machine. Even the big palberos fell with ease, although with a little more effort as Kericles had to nail them in the stomach to force them to buckle, then he could reach up and smash their brains out.