Ascension Read Free

his drenched cloak and grasped hold of a porcelain mask.
    â€œYour problem Rabisu is that you complain too much,” this third figure had coldly stated. “And this is why our lord finds you both insufferable, and expendable.”
    Rabisu refused to accept this. He rose and met the masked figure, and examined his face of porcelain with a mocking expression.
    Rabisu leaned forward. “Did you say something Alu? It’s difficult to understand anything you mumble out from behind that ugly mask. Why do you hide behind it anyway? What if I were to remove it…”
    Threatened, Alu immediately leapt backward and reached out at Rabisu through a pair of gloved hands.
    â€œI have waited over the last millennia to banish you from existence,” Alu grunted, shifting his gloved fingers through the air. “Give me just one more reason that might reward my patience.”
    â€œThat’s more like it.” Rabisu shed his own cloak and lunged at him with outstretched claws. “I revel in getting under another Corrupted’s skin. It only serves to validate me as superior when he or she loses composure before my taunting.”
    Before either one could further undertake their threats, Lilith had placed herself between them; by constructing two swarming walls of insects: impeding potential conflict.
    â€œRabisu… Alu, my dear brother, you must save your energies for these so-called heirs of the Naacal,” said Lilith. “We’ve been gifted this great responsibility. Let us not disappoint our lord.”
    â€œI’m not really the sort to heed another’s warning,” Rabisu sighed. “But in this case, I am content.”
    It wasn’t because of any Naacal heir that he chose to act with caution. Rabisu believed, regardless of whether these humans might have inherited a fragment of a Naacal’s power, that humankind were still weak - made of tender flesh and the most brittle of bones. But it was the ramblings of a certain water guardian within an Indigo’s service that made him apprehensive. For an Indigo, as they’d often been referred to in history, was a Naacal heir who had ascended and formed a celestial bond with a guardian. This celestial bond was known to possess and supply an Indigo with great power.
    â€œWell, now that you’ve proven fearful of challenging me, lead the way to these supposed heirs of the Naacal,” said Rabisu, picking at his teeth with his claws. “It is clear you are no match for me.”
    Rabisu wasn’t the least bit surprised to see Alu dismiss this additional slight . Even if he wanted to, what else could he possibly do about it? Rabisu surmised.
    All Alu did was glare back at him through the slits of porcelain, before promptly, a strong beam of yellow light pierced forth from behind the openings of his mask. Through this light, the spirit panned about the coastal landscape.
    â€œOur lord said we’d pick up of their scents the further we travelled eastward.”
    Rabisu glanced back at Alu with his nose raised, hoping the masked Corrupted would resume their hostile exchange of words. But once it had become clear that Alu was no longer willing to engage him, Rabisu let down his guard; stretching his upper torso of black marble, and adjusting his stiff neck. Once more, he tried to draw the Corrupted’s ire by flexing a pair of dark vampiric wings before his porcelain face.
    â€œYou’re no fun,” he said, his gesture having been ignored. He beat his wings, ascending high up into the night sky.
    While he flew, thoughts flooded his mind of why his lord had sent for him to deal with this threat. It was an age since a Naacal descendent had challenged their rule , he thought to himself. Those few Corrupted; those who’ve chosen to join their cause and become guardians have grown scarce. During this era, few bonds with humankind have been made .
    It seemed to him his lord was living in the past, haunted