The Keys to Ascension

by Dilland Doe

  She let go of him and handed him a closed envelope. He took it. When he looked up from the object, he saw her back.

  “Hey, where are you going? I just got here.”

  She kept striding, even the back of her looked more gorgeous than a winged saint of The Divinity.

  A part of him wanted to run after her, but he didn’t want to conflict with her will. It seemed she had a plan, or maybe she was just playing with him, but either way, he wasn’t gonna ruin it by being intrusive.

  She should at least tell me her name.

  #

  Parto felt naked at night not in his inquisitor robes. Sure, he still had a handful of daggers hidden on him, but he didn’t feel one with the night without his black, concealing clothing. For some reason, the letter had him meet her at an old shrine off the road a bit between developed farms.

  She wasn’t there yet, so he examined The Divinity’s symbol in the moonlight. The symbol had mostly stayed the same, but a thousand years ago it was a little simpler—a little less epic and domineering. Maybe this was a preimperial shrine.

  A horse approached. He couldn’t see the rider well in the dark, but his hopes fell as it appeared to be male.

  The person dismounted and aggressively strode toward Parto, who exhaled as he saw the man’s face.

  They both spoke at the same time.

  Parto said, “Theto.”

  Theto said, “Parto.”

  Theto leaned toward his brother. “Has she been visiting you the whole time as well.”

  Parto nodded.

  Theto whispered quick and with force. “You can come visit us and our children, but let’s make clear. We can’t share her, Parto. She loves me and I her. I do feel bad about your feelings, brother, and I hate for one of our rare meetings to be so conflictual, but I will not tolerate you interfering with our relationship.”

  Parto didn’t back away from his aggressive brother. “You know, you never were any better at sedeux than me. You came on faster and played the notable role of lead scorer, but scores don’t happen without passes and someone else opening up the field for you.”

  Theto narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “What are you talking about? Focus, Parto. I love her.”

  “I suppose you know her name?”

  Theto’s face went slack.

  Good, he doesn’t either.

  The night stayed silent for a moment. Theto’s face turned angry again. “I was the best sedeux player out of all of us. I never lost in a single one on one match, and we played a lot.”

  “Sedeux is a team sport.”

  Theto sighed while growling, shaking his head.

  He knows I’m right.

  Theto pointed at his brother. “You played a bit role. Lots of people could do what you did on the field. No one could dance and score like me. No one.”

  “I love her too,” Parto said.

  They stared at each other. Parto didn’t really know what he was doing in this conversation, but while they were together again and on bad terms, he might as well say what should be said.

  “And you betray The Divinity with your magic. Do you have no faith?”

  “What?” Theto blinked his eyes and shook his head. “How is this relevant?”

  A piece of Parto told him it wasn’t and that he was acting a fool, but another part wanted to tell his brother off. “Faith is always relevant. And if you continue down this path, you won’t be. Ever. The Divinity doesn’t forgive maleefa.”

  Theto sucked in his lips, then laughed. Not a laugh that ended the tension, but a crazy laugh one does before they hit someone. Theto swung. Parto easily dodged backwards.

  Theto drew on his maleefa demons and sent a shockwave forward. Parto instinctively lifted his arm with the special guard. It somehow absorbed the wave; he wasn’t sure it could do that.

  Parto pulled out a long and short dagger. Focused, he would not go for the kill, but he would like to make his brother bleed. Theto suddenly had twenty arms, all moving around, waiting to grab or punch Parto.

  Parto couldn’t tell which one was real. He crouched, prepared to strike. Theto stood upright, moving all his fake arms around.

  Parto sprang forward, taking several feigned stabs toward Theto’s heart before seeing which arm consistently went to block the attack and stabbing toward it. Parto hit it directly, but it just shimmered.

  Theto’s many arms flashed toward Parto who backflipped away.

  He intentionally tried to grab my wrists with a fake arm. He must have another way to block me.

  Theto charged.

  Parto’s instinct told him to grab his throwing daggers, but he resisted. Those would be too hard to avoid a deadly blow with.

  A shockwave sounded behind Parto, without looking, he flashed his guarded arm back, absorbing the blast. Then, Theto arrived, swinging with twenty arms.

  Parto rolled to the left, defensively swinging his daggers so that any attempts to strike him would be met with steel.

  Theto turned on a coin and continued the charge.

  After jerking to the side like he would roll away again, Parto instead kicked forward. The perfectly aimed foot flew toward his brother’s gut, but then hit an invisible wall, sending a shockwave up Parto’s shaking leg.

  He flashed the leg back anyways, ignoring the pain as his brother came upon him. Parto flashed to the ground. Theto collided with his brother’s body and tumbled over him.

  Jumping back to his feet, Parto stabbed again and again toward the arms, trying to figure out which two were real. They all moved far quicker than most opponents could.

  Theto got to his feet, then backpedaled as he kept trying to grab Parto’s wrists with fake hands. Parto was keeping track, he had it narrowed down to eight arms that he had not hit. He just had to keep his eyes on his brother. His daggers went through two more. Six.

  Massive roars from all around them seemed to shake the world. Both brothers stepped away from each other while realizing that six vein popping monsters, which stood taller than buildings, surrounded them while each launched mottled tentacles from their shoulders.

  Theto muttered, “Them.”

  The bothers dodged incoming tentacles, but there were too many, and they noticed the attack too late. First an ankle, then a wrist, and finally their bodies were wrapped tightly by the strong appendages.

  Parto locked eyes with his brother. “Them. Who’s them and where is she?”

  Theto’s eyes grew large. “I don’t know.”

  Ch. 69

  Finio rode behind Lizeto’s knights staring at the about twenty towering monsters attacking the black fortress. From the walls, men loosed arrows and lunged with spears as tentacles grabbed man after man off the fortress and into large mouths full of sharp teeth.

  Lizeto yelled, “No, dad!” He clenched a gauntleted fist. “Ahhhh!” He snapped his head to Finio. “Why won’t the army help?”

  “They’re using the same strategy they use every time their army is weaker, they retreat to the capital walls and let the land defend itself.”

  The Citians rode up behind and dismounted.

  All looked to Finio for a plan.

  “Citians, march on the nearest one. After its attention is grabbed, the knights will ride in from two sides and slice at its legs.”

  Everyone nodded at him.

  He rode to the right with Lizeto and half the knights while the Citians marched forward. Finio expanded his power to all the Citians and Lizeto. It flowed more now than it did in the past. He was slowly expanding the channel through which Kwitty’s power flowed.

  Finio hadn’t heard from either of his brothers since this new attack began. He hoped for the best, but expected they were among the many to die in the initial attacks of these things.

  One backed away from the walls as it saw the bulky green Citians coming forward. From its chest, a volley of tentacles launched toward the Citians. With their enhanced speed, their weapons flashed through the air, smashing and slicing through the attack.
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  Brownish green blood spurt from the tentacles and the monster yelled. The knights rode in from the sides as the Citians charged forward. Locking eyes on incoming knights, the monster stared oddly right at them, or over…right at Finio.

  It crouched down, then leapt away in a soaring leap before running toward two other monsters who plucked men off the fortress walls. It yelled in a gurgled voice, “Key! The last key! Ha ha ha haaaa! The keyyy!”

  The two monsters leapt away from the walls as their heads snapped toward their comrade. Then, all three seemed to stare right at Finio.

  His group had reformed. The Citians marched toward the creatures while the knights flanked to the sides.

  Finio didn’t like this. The odds against one of the things seemed even, but against three…

  It quickly became too late. Kericles led his men forward in a screaming charge. Tentacles launched toward them from hands, shoulders, knees, and chests, but then halted and snapped back to their owners as the creature crouched before leaping high over Finio.

  Tentacles came raining down. The knights chopped through a few, but others wrapped around Finio and yanked him away. “Ahhhh! What do you want with me!?”

  As if wrapped by a hundred snakes, tentacles constricted around all parts of his body. He struggled, but couldn’t move. His cousin and best friend became tiny as the monsters ran away with him.

  *

  “Finioooooooo!” Lizeto yelled.

  He glanced around the siege. The three taking Finio away left an opening toward a back gate. “Come on!”

  He rode toward it with his knights. The Citians ran after him. As they neared, the burden of lethargy and his heavy armor weighed on him. He narrowed his eyes, summoning his own strength to hold himself up as Finio’s magic no longer enhanced him. All three brothers…taken? He clenched a fist. Why!?

  Lizeto lifted his sword in the air toward the men staring at him from the walls. “It is I, the heir! Let me in!” They glanced at each other, then signaled the gate keeper. The solid metal gate that looked just like another part of the wall, lifted upward.

  Everyone hurried in before the gate dropped back down.

  Lizeto yelled to the knights and Citians. “Rest up, I’ll be back.”

  He rode through the courtyard, dodging men running every which way. He hoped Kericles wouldn’t fight without him, he didn’t want that fool getting himself killed.

  At the keep’s entrance, Lizeto leapt off his horse and ran into the fortress’s center, looking for his father.

  He assumed his old man would be near the strong center spire so he could view the battle and send flag signals to commanders below. Lizeto launched himself onto stairs and started running. Moldy ham! So many stairs.

  He charged up the stairs that turned at right angles before every flight. His breath quickly left him and he had to slow so that he didn’t collapse before reaching the top. Eventually, he made it.

  His dad stood in all black, leaning on his cane as he looked out the tower where two monsters precisely picked men off the walls who desperately shot arrows from their parapets and swung swords at the tentacles that came in and out. From all sides of the fortress, Lizeto heard men yell as tentacles wrapped their limbs and yanked them into the air.

  Heaving up and down in heavy breaths and passing by the elite guards around his father, Lizeto said, “What do we do?”

  “Nice of you to show up.”

  “Why are they attacking us?”

  “We’ll all be dead soon and my plans are destroyed, so let me tell you the truth.”

  What truth? Lizeto stared at his father, having no idea what he referred to.

  “I allied with these monsters, and we both were allied with the previous ones. I thought we would dispose the sovereign and let nobles rule. I thought that is what they wanted, or at least that they could be bought off with estra.”

  He sighed, rubbing his head before returning his gaze out of the tower. “I saw them targeting nobles as well as the Authority’s troops. I knew they didn’t want any legitimate leadership left…including me. So I rebelled before the entire country fell to them. But maybe I should have taken my chances with them as allies. I have no idea how to kill these things. They must be killable, or else they wouldn’t be taking their time in this attack. They’re carefully annihilating every last man.” He pumped his fist in the air. “There’s nothing I can do but buy for time and hope for a miracle.”

  Crap. My dad doesn’t believe in miracles.

  Pain descended upon Lizeto’s head and wouldn’t leave. They had to evacuate, but the things attacked from all sides. He knew he and his knights could kill one of them, but not more than that at a time. They needed to live to fight another day. They needed to retreat to the capital, but could he really abandon his home and his father?

  And what did that thing want with Finio? It carried Finio carefully. These things aren’t blind killers. He looked toward the count. “Father, can we surrender? Let your men and your people live. Then, many of us can sneak off to the capital to fight another day.”

  He slammed his cane into the ground. “Did you not hear what I said, boy? They’re taking out nobles. They won’t let either of us live.”

  “Then give the order to surrender after we escape. I have some elite knights and Citians with me. Take your elite as well, and we can make a run for it.”

  The count shook his head, his right hand strangling the cane’s curved handle. “Count Rylo Pinsta would never abandon his fortress.”

  Lizeto glanced at the elite guards around him. In their shinny armor they stared ahead, offering no clue to their opinions on the matter.

  The count spoke. “Thanks for bringing elite reinforcement. Sally them out again and again. Kill these things.”

  “Father, they’re too smart for that. They’d group up and take us from different sides. We can’t bring them down with such a small force.”

  “Then die trying.”

  Lizeto’s father watched the battle, not even looking at the son that he ordered to his death.

  The front of Lizeto’s head moaned in pain. But dad…“What position did I play in sedeux?”

  The count continued watching the battle. The growls of the monsters and the shouts of men came from all around them.

  Breathing in a shaky breath with his eyes watering, Lizeto said, “Dad! What position?”

  The count dismissed his son with a flick of the back of his hand. “Do as I command.”

  “You’re as cold as the rumors.”

  His dad didn’t react to his son’s words.

  Lizeto turned around and jogged down the stairs. He got on his horse and made his way back to the knights and Citians, who sat listening to the terrorsome battle.

  Kericles and the Citians stood and shouted for battle as they saw Lizeto.

  How can they be pumped for battle against such monsters?

  “We’re retreating to the capital.”

  Kericles shook his head. “I’m not. Citians fight. There will be no greater glory than this day. I’m gonna take a few of these monsters down.”

  Lizeto muttered, “There are more than a few.”

  Kericles laughed through a cocky grin. “Don’t worry, you can run. I know Hyzantrians don’t have the heart for battle like us Citians, but me and my men are walking out this gate and taking these mothers on.”

  Lizeto slid off his horse then flashed toward Kericles and grabbed him around his armored throat. “The Divinity, man! You’ll just get slaughtered.”

  Kericles smirked. “Says the man who’s trying to choke his rival through estra armor. Ha ha.”

  Citians around them chuckled. Even the knights smiled.

  Lizeto let go of him, shaking his head. Then frustration blasted through him and he stomped the ground. “Ahhhhh!” He pumped his fists up and down while moaning some high-pitched squeal. “Fine. But we fight smartly. We—”

  Somehow Kericles got the gate house to open the back gate. It groaned open and th
e Citians walked out it.

  Lizeto stared at their hulking green armors with his jaw hanging open. “Fine! Mount up!” He and his knights jumped on their armored horses and followed the Citians out of the gate.

  Kericles charged the nearest monster as the heavy gate closed behind them. Lizeto nodded to his knight captain, and they each led half the knights flanking around Kericles’s charge.

  This monster had viewed this tactic before. It didn’t even send the tentacles flying at the attacking foes. It jumped away by two others, then the three of them leapt back from the walls before turning toward Lizeto and Kericles.

  “Haaaaalt!” Kericles yelled. His green rows stopped instantly. The knights slowed, then stopped as well.

  Lizeto pulled his knights back. The captain on the left flank near the wall did so as well, so the horses stood diagonally behind the Citians. The monsters came cautiously forward. They didn’t seem like aggressive beasts slaughtering armies without fear. They looked like clever tacticians searching for a weakness and waiting for the right time to strike. The three of them came in a row, just a few feet apart from each other.

  Lizeto stared at the tentacles growing out of different parts of their bodies. That’s a lot of tentacles.

  Their discolored veiny appendages all shot toward the Citians like a small army released a volley of arrows. The Citians tensed, prepared to beat down and dodge the tentacles that outnumbered them. Then, the tentacles flashed back as the three monsters leapt in the air, soaring high before coming down aimed at the Citians.

  One guy held up a long sword and braced for impact. A brownish-maroon foot came down, impaling itself on the sword and slamming the warrior to the ground underneath it. The monster roared. The other monsters landed less injuriously, then kicked a few Citians away before flashing down with their tentacles, wrapping around limbs and necks before tossing the Citians tumbling through the sky.

  They lift those hunks of estra like they’re nothing. Lizeto held up his sword. “Chaaaarrrrge!”

  Knights from two sides sped toward the embattled Citians. Kericles and his men bashed and chopped a few tentacles. They hit the monsters’ legs with a few damaging strikes, but almost half of the Citians already lay out of the fight by the time Lizeto rode by a disgusting and massive leg.