Glory to the Brave (Ascend Online Book 4)

by Luke Chmilenko

  Having continued to clear itself with every second that passed, I felt my thoughts abruptly freeze as my vision finally cleared at the same moment that I finished my roll, giving me a perfect view of the sky above me.

  A sky that burned as if it were on fire.

  Twisting and rippling with barely controlled magic, it was filled with a massive maelstrom of orange clouds that stretched upwards as far as my eye could see, countless streaks of brilliant, crimson lightning flashing throughout its gaping maw. Arcing from cloud to cloud as if it were a living thing, I saw a series of bolts lance out from amid the storm, each of them connecting with distant shapes that I could just barely make out. When they vanished as fast as they’d appeared, I could faintly make out several burning objects falling from the sky leaving a trail of ash marking their descent as they did so.

  Where am I? I asked as my body moved of its own accord once again and rolled over, my vision shifting to reveal what was once finely cobbled stone street beneath me, a massive impact of some sort having burnt and shattered the majority of them. What is this place? And what the hell is going on here? Am I in some sort of…battle?

  With the questions only continuing to build as I pushed myself back onto my feet, the cobblestone beneath me moved to reveal a razed city street filled with rubble, a line of partially destroyed rowhouses and buildings on its edge closest to me. Around me, I could hear countless voices shouting both nearby and in the distance, the cries occasionally drowned out by the sound of magic and combat. Regaining my balance slowly, I saw my silver-armored arm come into view as I planted it on a large fragment of stone and used it as leverage to help me rise the rest of the way. As I did, I heard someone call out, causing my head to snap to the side.

  And land on what had to be a legion of similarly armored orcs as myself, picking themselves off the ground from whatever had knocked us down, their silver armor bearing blackened scorch marks across it.

  “Get back on your feet!” I heard a harsh voice demand, it taking me a second to realize that it had come from me, all the orcs scrambling to move faster. But apparently not fast enough for my liking. “I said move! We don’t have time for you all to laze around!”

  The second shout was apparently enough for the orcs to finish rising despite the obvious injuries that they all bore, one of them close to me cradling a visibly broken arm to their chest but offering no complaint in the process. It was then, during that rush of movement, that I heard the same voice as before calling out once again, this time its source revealing itself in the form of a smaller figure that stepped out from amid the rising orcs.

  H-hold on a second, is that what I think it is? I asked myself as my eyes darted up towards the somewhat humanlike face that appeared before me, her marble-hued skin blending almost perfectly with the silver helmet she wore. The only thing that stood out was faint azure veins that stretched across her face, each of them visibly glowing with magic. Is that…a Naffarian? Is all of this I’m seeing a memory from the crystal? Is this the city that once stood at Crater Lake?

  Despite feeling more and more confused the longer that my surreal experience wore on, I, fortunately, didn’t have to wait long for an answer as the woman spoke in a quick and authoritative voice.

  “Magelord!” she claimed as she strode forward, one of her hands rising up to touch the side of her helmet where I expected her ear to be as she listened to something. “The barriers have been shattered, and Exarch Xinnius is now calling for us to retreat and regroup with him at the second curtain’s entrance!”

  “I can see that for myself, adept!” my voice replied, a flare of blind anger shooting through me at the woman’s words. “And why in the stars is he calling for a retreat? If the barriers have failed, we need to press forward to reactivate them, not fall back!”

  “I’m sorry, magelord, he didn’t say,” she replied with a shake of her head. “He only told me that the Irovians have breached the outer walls to the east and that he needs every available hand to repel them before the first ring is lost.”

  “The outer walls…have been breached?” I said, the anger that I felt instantly morphing into disbelief and fear. “But how is that poss—”

  A deafening roar from high above suddenly interrupted me before I could finish speaking, the sheer power behind the mighty cry making it feel as if the ground beneath my feet was threatening to pull itself apart. Lasting for several seconds, I felt my fear morph into outright terror as a colossal shadow momentarily blotted out the sky, causing my eyes to dart back upwards.

  And land on the massive two-headed dragon that was now flying high above us, twin pillars of fire billowing out from each of its maws towards something that I couldn’t see.

  “N-no,” I heard myself whisper as I stared up at the silver-scaled creature, a complicated array of emotions shooting through me. “The rebels…not today. They can’t be…”

  “They are,” the adept replied, her voice sounding suddenly different than it had a second earlier, enough so that it prompted my eyes to twist back towards her.

  Just in time to see her run me straight through the chest with a brightly glowing glass-steel sword, its inner crimson light reflecting in her eyes as she glared at me.

  “Freedom reigns,” she hissed in an angry tone as she violently twisted the blade, causing me to fall to my knees in agony, whatever magic that was within her weapon causing my body to seize, leaving me desperately trying to take a breath, let alone do anything else. “Today will be the last day that we live in a world of chains, one way or another.”

  Then with her words finished, she withdrew her sword from my chest with a spray of blood and planted a hard kick in my side which sent me toppling heavily over, my head hitting the ground hard enough for my already darkening vision to blur. Dazed from the impact and bleeding out from what had to be a wicked wound, I lay there struggling to stay alive as the woman turned to face the orcs behind her, none of whom had so much even moved a finger to stop her attack.

  “I am sorry that I must do this one final time, but it is in the name of all our freedoms,” I heard her say softly before her voice shifted to a higher and more authoritative volume, accompanied by a flare of magic emanating outward from her body. “Your magelord is dead, and I am assuming authority in his place! You will all obey my command!”

  “Yes, mistress!” rang out the collective cry of all the assembled orcs. “We listen and obey!”

  “Good, and I’m sorry again,” I heard her say one last time as the scene continued to darken, the pain and agony that I felt gradually fading away into nothingness. “Now, let us go find the exarch. He apparently needs our help.”

  Then with those last words hanging on the air, my world abruptly went dark once more, followed by the ground giving out from under me and sending my consciousness plummeting once more through an infinite night. This time, however, the sensation wasn’t as jarring nor as fast as my first experience, allowing me an opportunity to process everything that I’d seen.

  She betrayed him, I thought as I fell through an empty void, trying to make sense of what I’d seen in the memory. She betrayed him and…took his orcs…somehow? Were they being controlled by a spell or something? And then there was that dragon that appeared that must have been a signal of some sort. But not only that, they mentioned that the Irovians were attacking too. I wonder if this memory was from the last few days or maybe even the last few hours of the Nafarrian city that was once at Crater Lake?

  Unfortunately, that was about all the time that I had to ponder the memory that I’d just experienced as the black veil lifted itself once again, causing a wild barrage of both colors and sound to assault my senses. This time, however, the transition only took a second to finish, reality snapping into focus at the same instant that I saw my glass-steel sword snap up to block a large golden axe belonging to the orc before me.

  “Accept it, Nerius!” I heard a voice shout as I took the blow on my blade and deflected it to the side, instantly sending a t
wisting riposte that scored a long and bloody wound on the arm of where the orc’s similarly colored auric armor didn’t protect. “Your reign, our people’s madness, has come to an end! Illistra has fallen, and the Irovians flood into the city by the thousands as we speak! Surrender now and you might still be saved! Do not be a fool!”

  “You will address your king properly when you speak! I command it!” a loud voice, presumably Nerius’s, shouted in response, echoing loudly through the large, domelike room that we fought in. “And you do not know the words you speak! Your actions will be the doom of our kind and all that we have built!”

  “Look around you, Nerius. You command nothing anymore! We fight to save our people!” I found my voice shouting back as I continued to fight the orc, its tone identical to the woman’s that I’d just seen in the previous memory. “We are finally free of the chains that our ancestors bound us with! Let us free you as well!”

  “You mean the bonds that they unified us with!” The vehement response came without a second’s hesitation, the thrum of powerful magic beginning to build in the air. “Without them, we will be vulnerable and divided for others to dominate again! I cannot allow you to succeed! I would rather die!”

  “Damn it, he still has access to the Source!” A third voice shouted in response to the surge of energy. “Stop him before it’s too late!”

  Feeling a sense of urgency shoot through me after that exchange, I heard myself whisper a curse at the same instant my magic-filled hand rose up before me. Blazing brightly with barely contained power, the spell that I was channeling discharged itself, sending a bar of brilliant azure light shooting straight at the orc attacking me. Connecting solidly with its chest, the magic was met with a brief instant of resistance against its armor before abruptly giving way and burning a fist-sized hole where the orc’s heart would have been. Feeling a profound surge of regret and sorrow wash over me as I saw my assailant collapse, my body shifted briefly to glance down the line that stretched out to my left, towards where I knew my allies would be.

  Wait, are those…Irovians? I asked myself as my eye landed on a mixed line of both dark elves and nafarr, all fighting side by side against an opposing group of golden-armored orcs, all appearing identical to one that I’d just slain. What are they doing here? It looks like they’re helping us. But why?

  Like before, however, the memory didn’t stop to give me any of the answers I was looking for, instead pressing onwards with the rest that it had to show me, dragging me along like the passenger that I was.

  With my perspective then snapping away from the line of battle beside me, the next thing I knew was that I was running forward and darting through the gap that the orc had left when he’d fallen. Feeling magic that I couldn’t identify course through me as I moved, I effortlessly dodged an attempt to grab me by the orc my linemate had been fighting, rushing past him and into the open chamber that loomed behind. Building up speed as I continued to run, it only took me a second to spot my target in the form of a tall and powerfully built Nafarr dressed in a set of golden robes that billowed around them as he poured power into a crimson orb.

  Feeling my heart leap at the sight, I pushed myself to run even faster while nimbly evading the countless chunks of stone debris that littered the ground between us, shouting out a wordless scream as I did so. Serving its purpose, the noise prompted the man to look up from the magic that he was channeling, his ash-colored face twisting into a scowl. Visibly straining as he did so, I saw him shift the orb to a single hand while raising the other towards me. Feeling my body tense in response, I had a single instant to reach for something before three balls of fire shot out from his palm, spinning in a spiral as they sliced through the air.

  Before they could reach me, however, I threw a handful of what looked like powdered crystal into the air in front of me, creating a curtain of shimmering light. Whatever the substance was, it served as a perfect shield to catch the spell that had been thrown at me, the fireballs detonating the moment they touched it. Despite that, however, it didn’t completely block its effects, a wave of searing flames then washing over my body and causing me to hiss in agony. But that sensation was mercifully short-lived as this time a familiar surge of magic welled up from within me, so much so that I was able to recognize it as Blink Step. Lasting for the briefest of instants, I saw my surroundings blur the same way that they’d done so for me countless times before, the wall of fire replacing itself with the point-blank expression of the golden-robed Nafarr. Eyes widening with sudden surprise at my appearance, there was a momentary delay before I saw his lips begin to move in what I knew would be a spell that would kill me the instant that it finished.

  But the Nafarrian king’s near-infinitesimal delay cost him that opportunity, leaving him with no chance to finish whatever deadly magic was on his lips as I thrust forward with my free hand, which had pulled free a second weapon from my belt. Putting all of my strength and momentum behind the attack, I felt it tear through the protections that the man had surrounded himself with as if they were paper, the enchantments snapping out of existence the instant that I touched them. Therefore, there was nothing but shock on the Nafarr’s face when the thin black crystalline shard I held in my hand buried itself in the center of his chest, causing his mouth to open in what looked like pure agony. Driving it into his flesh until my hand touched his robes with a surge of triumph, I sharply twisted on the shard, feeling the end that I was holding snap off, leaving the rest of it deep inside his body.

  “I’m sorry that it has come to this,” I said as I raised my sword to deliver a killing blow to the half-stunned king, who staggered backward a step from my attack, one hand reaching up to clutch his chest while the other still held the burning orb, “but our tyranny finally dies today.”

  Gritting my teeth as I steeled myself for what came next, I slashed downward with my blade towards the king’s exposed neck, not wanting to draw his suffering out any further. But despite his mortal wound, the fight had yet to fully leave him as he just barely managed to throw the arm at his chest upwards, catching the glass-steel edge on his robe-covered forearm. Biting deep into the protective fabric and then into the flesh and bone beneath, the motion was just enough to stop the blade, buying the man one final opportunity to speak.

  “No,” he whispered back in a wet sounding voice, his bright, painfilled eyes meeting mine as he spoke. “Because of you, we all die today.”

  With those words echoing through the air, I then saw him let go of the blazing orb he was holding onto, allowing it to fall towards the ground. Panicking at the sight, I tried to move to catch the falling ball of magic, my voice screaming a warning out in the process. But that single shout was all that I was able to do before the sphere touched the ground, everything around me vanishing in a blinding burst of fire and pain, relief only coming when the comforting veil of darkness fell over me once again.

  And sent me plummeting once more through a well of infinite night.

  She died killing the Nafarrian slave-king, I thought, breathing a mental sigh of relief now that the pain was gone, feeling somewhat unsettled at the sensation of being burned alive. Until now it had been a death that I’d been able to avoid experiencing myself—and one that I was certain I would take pains to avoid in the future. But that reprieve only lasted for a few seconds before the darkness around me was once again torn away, this time dropping me directly into a world of near-blinding agony that I could barely think through.

  N-not again, damn it, I hissed mentally as my vision cleared once more, revealing to me a massive chamber that appeared to be all but destroyed, almost every inch of it seared completely black. So badly was it damaged, that it wasn’t until my golden-robed arm came into view that I realized where I was.

  Or perhaps, more importantly, who I was.

  Is…is this the king’s memory? He survived his spell? I asked myself through the pain as my arm reached out shakily to grab hold of the ground, using it as leverage to drag myself forward. Just ho
w many of these memories am I going to—

  “Stars damned…rebels,” my hoarse voice hissed as I continued to drag myself across the ground, the sheer anger and rage accompanying the words causing my thoughts to grind to a stop. “H-how…did they get so much venite? W-was it…f-from them? Or—”

  A wracking cough suddenly rising up from within interrupted me, sending a renewed wave of agony surging through my body. Wheezing and hacking for several seconds, I eventually managed to spit something free that landed on the ground in front of me with a wet sounding slap, its sudden brightness attracting my attention. Blinking as I gazed at the glowing ooze, I saw it to be a nearly even mix of coagulated blood that contained countless azure shards that a part of my mind identified as mana.

  Mana that had somehow managed to crystalize inside me and was now rending my body apart from within.

  “Damn…it. Already,” I whispered weakly at the sight, my arm coming into view again as I began to drag myself across the floor once more, but this time with even more urgency fueling my movements. “I…don’t have much time left. I must…I must…”

  Mumbling to myself as I continued to crawl across the floor, the next few minutes then passed with glacial slowness, the severity of the slave-king’s injuries causing my mind to retreat inwards on itself in attempt to distance itself from the pain. I wasn’t sure at all what this particular memory was trying to show me, but it was by far the most unsettling one that I’d experienced so far. Eventually, however, I finally reached whatever destination that I’d been crawling towards, which from what I could see was an ornate arcane circle that had been carved into the chamber floor. Breathing heavily from both my exertions and my injuries, I used the last of my strength to pull myself onto the circle before collapsing, laying my head down on the cool stone.