The Path of Ascension Chapter 377

Chapter 377

 

Ra’thala swallowed as he listened to headman Tiu’ja talking to the other village elders. There was an uneasy feeling lingering in his gut that told him something bad would happen today.

He didn’t know what, but it was something in the soldiers’ eyes. It was something in the way they weren’t looking at the village storehouses but instead looking at the gathered villagers.

His mother pressed his shoulder as she chanted a mantra but he was trying to lean as forward as possible to hear the talk.

His father, leaning on his walking stick, pulled his little brother back from almost getting crushed in the moving crowd but like his mother, he seemed frustrated and angry.

Leaning into his father’s side he whispered. “Father wha—”

“Silence.”

Slinking back, he tried to listen.

His mother tugged his fathers sleeve. “He’ll be fine. He’s only twelve. They only take fourteen year olds.”

Her words made that sinking feeling settle into place even more strongly but as his parents went back and forth, something happened by the village leaders.

Looking frustrated, the lead soldier stepped around the headman and said, “Warlord O’dchigin demands tribute. Not in food this year, but in bodies. The grand armies need more recruits and so every village must provide fifty able bodied men to join. There are no exceptions. Do not resist.”

As if the last words had been a command the other soldiers fanned out and started moving through the crowds.

They started grabbing men and dragging them off to the side and Ra’thala’s heart skipped a beat as he worried his father would be taken away as a soldier grabbed him. Thankfully upon seeing his bad leg and walking stick they moved on.

The gathered men looked sullen, but when Tua’fef tried to protest, he was smashed with the blunt end of a spear for his troubles, silencing everyone else.

That was until the lead soldier did a count and said, “That’s only forty three. We need seven more.”

Pointing his spear he started pointing at the remaining villagers. “You, you, you, you.”

Until he pointed at Ra’thala’s father and one of the soldiers whispered into his ear and he moved on.

Ra’thala and his family breathed a sigh of relief. Their family was safe. The feeling was short lived as the leader counted once more and ended upshort once more.

His eyes tracked to Ra’thala and pointed. “You.”

Ra’thala mother yelled and tried to protest, his father said something about the harvest Ra’thala only half heard but he heard little of it.

He had thought he was safe.

When one of the soldiers started to drag him forward his mother tried to hold him back but earned a smack for her troubles.

Ra’thala tried to stop the soldier but there were three more pressed in close ready to react to anything he or his father did.

Not wanting his mother to get hit again he shoved off the soldier’s hands saying, “I’ll go. Just don’t hit her.”

Thankfully they stopped, but the feeling of dread didn’t vanish even when their village was long out of sight.

***

Warlord O’dchigin stood before his legions and looked down on all of them. Ra’thala, a simple new recruit, could feel the weight of his great Celestial power as it pressed down upon him and everyone else. It was only his training that kept him from dropping to his knees in front of the local tyrant out of sheer terror.

His tribe had been conquered long ago, three generations of Ra’thala’s lineage, but while time had passed for them the warlord was said to be nearly the same as he was when he swept the plains.

Two months of being beaten and yelled at didn’t seem enough to become a soldier but apparently that was all the time they had.

He could see it in the warlord’s eyes even from below the platform built for him. He was hungry.

“Today the great war against the Sal’dia alliance reignites. Today we march! Tomorrow, we feast on the fruits of our neighbors.”

***

Ra’thala breathed heavily as his squad thrust their spears forward in a haphazard wave. Sergeant Tha’ll yelled at them to sync up, but it did little good as everyone was trying to hide behind their shields more than thrust forward.

Most of the unit were fresh recruits, their losses in taking Heart’s Jewel had been significant and the replacements pulled from the surrounding villages were still green.

Ra’thala changed the trajectory of his spear slightly to the right and cut deeply into the less armored forearm of the legionary before him.

In his three years as a conscript of the Warlord, he had learned that aggression and fierceness were the way to survive the battles. After all, your enemies couldn’t kill you if they were dead.

Before he could land another blow and force the legionary back, the air cracked with enough power to cause everyone on both sides to wince.

Both sides immediately scrambled away from each other as the two Celestials battled. Their blades moved so fast they were blurs, and the shockwaves that came off their swings were dangerous.

A legionary who was too injured to retreat was cut to a bloody mess as the battle moved over him, which made clear the fate of anyone caught up in the Celestials’ battle.

Ra’thala huddled behind his shield like the other veterans, just trying to catch his breath even as the Sergeants forced the fresh recruits back into some semblance of formation. In his many battles, he had only dealt with this a few times, but he had learned from his veterans to take the moment of rest for what it was. One of their few breaks while in pitched combat.

Celestials were forces of nature, and it wasn’t a conscript’s place to get in between such Divines.

Taking a swig from his canteen, he sighed in the enjoyment of the simple pleasure.

Before he could take a second smaller sip while enjoying the show, Captain Ak’aran slipped in the boot-churned mud.

He tried to catch himself; he spun and twisted but the enemy Celestial lunged and cut Captain Ak’aran deeply across the flank.

Their squad retreated further as the Captain was pushed back, but how could their speed compare to a Celestial’s?

In a heartbeat, the Celestials were among them and body parts flew as their swords flashed.

Ra’thala’s shield exploded as he blocked a shockwave from the collision between the two Celestials, but the move saved his life.

Not that he would be alive for long. Captain Ak’aran failed to recover and fully went down, falling on a pile of bodies and blood-soaked mud.

Still, he didn’t stop fighting.

His sword flashed as he defended himself from the enemy Celestial.

Ra’thala tried to move to retreat but the enemy legions were rushing forward, spears leading the charge, looking to mop up any of those who survived the Celestials fighting in their midst.

The logical part of his mind noted that was a good move but the primal part of his brain knew that he either had to fight his way through them or the Celestials if he wanted to get out of this alive.

Knowing death was the result either way, Ra’thala charged.

Not towards the legionaries but to the Celestials.

The enemy Celestial didn’t even bother to look at him and slashed out, his blade seeming to grow in length as it moved, but Ra’thala was already diving.

That move saved his life, and he watched his spear as it neared the Celestial.

The world seemed to slow as everyone seemed to watch the temerity of a simple mortal who dared to attack a Celestial.

Would it work?

Could a mortal harm a Celestial?

The world seemed to hold its breath as it waited for an answer to the question.

His spear bounced off the Celestial’s armor without even leaving a scratch.

The Celestial’s sword flashed and on instinct Ra’thala dropped his spear as it was cut into three pieces where his hands had just been. He could even feel the cool morning air as part of his gloves’ hard leather had been cut cleanly through.

The Celestial had tried to cripple him. A bad sign that sent terror into his bowels.

Ra’thala could only hope he was about to die as the Celestial raised a mud and gore covered boot to stomp his head flat.

Not resigned to his fate anymore, even after his failed attack, Ra’thala grabbed one of the pieces of the haft of his destroyed spear and twisted hard enough that it pulled something in his back, but he managed to replace his head with the bit of wood.

The boot didn’t stop its descent, but before it could crush Ra’thala, a pained howl spread.

Right before his eyes, there was a boot with a stick piercing the boot. Most magical of all was the top of it was covered in blood.

For the third time, the world seemed to stop as everyone focused on the bloody boot and the mortal who had managed to wound a Celestial.

Ra’thala still wasn’t resigned to die, but he had a small bit of pride knowing that both sides’ soldiers would be talking about this tonight. At least he wouldn’t be tortured slowly.

The Celestial’s blade was descending, and Ra’thala had accepted his death, when suddenly all of the momentum was sapped from the blade.

Captain Ak’aran had used the time Ra’thala bought with his desperate maneuver to throw a dagger at the enemy Celestial.

Where his mortal spear had been unable to penetrate the Celestial’s armor, the captain’s dagger sunk up to its hilt in the Celestial’s heart.

His eyes were wide as he looked down from the dagger to Ra’thala, before he slumped to the ground.

The rushing legionaries skidded to a stop and tried to retreat but Captain Ak’aran was on them in a second and body parts flew once more.

In less than the time it took Ra’thala to pull himself out of the mud, Captain Ak’aran slaughtered the legionaries, clearing an area around them.

“You saved my life.”

The words were said in a flat tone that made Ra’thala fearful the Celestial would be upset with him for daring to interfere in his business, even if it had been to save his life.

Maybe he would hide his shame by removing the witnesses?

“It was help you or die by legions spears, honored Celestial.”

Ra’thala wanted to curse himself for his flippant response, but it had just slipped out.

Thankfully, Captain Ak’aran grinned.

“Report to my tent this evening. I will have a reward for you.”

Before Ra’thala could respond, Captain Ak’aran was gone.

Thankfully, the battle ended shortly thereafter. With the death of one Celestial, the enemy forces had to retreat, and Warlord O’dchigin’s army was able to advance right to the end of the valley where they would camp for the winter.

That evening, Ra’thala waited by Captain Ak’aran’s tent until he was called in. Inside, he found five other Captains waiting around and Ra’thala’s fear returned with a vengeance.

Their next words didn’t appease that fear. “Let’s go for a walk.”

Ra’thala’s fear reached a fever pitch as they left the circle of sentries standing watch at the edge of the army.

They were surely going to kill him once they were far enough away from the camp that no one would hear.

Thankfully they didn’t.

Instead, they led him to a spot in the woods that looked like any other.

“In here.”

Ra’thala had no idea what they were talking about, but he followed as the Captains walked into nothingness.

Inside he found another forest but this one was in daytime. Covering his eyes from the sudden change in brightness, Ra’thala heard the Celestials chuckling at him.

“Wha—”

“Alright, we need to move quickly. Forward. Ra’thala, follow us closely.”

Ra’thala did as he was told as the Celestials led him through the forest.

He was just starting to relax when a wolf taller than him appeared out of seemingly nowhere and tried to take a bite out of the nearest Celestial.

The Celestial ducked the blow but instead of drawing their blade and cutting the beast in two, they grabbed at its back even as all of the other Celestials did the same.

Ra’thala was thoroughly confused as the Celestials wrestled and then tied up the wolf, but his questions were answered by Captain Ak’aran.

“A life for a life. You saved my life today, so today I give you life. This is technically illegal but we all know each other and no one will tell if you don’t. Tonight, we will make you a Celestial but tomorrow you need to say that you reminisced on the battle earlier and you felt something awaken inside of you. Do you understand?”

Ra’thala shook his head vehemently. “No, honored Celestial.”

That earned another round of laughs, but Captain Ak’aran pointed to the beast tied up. “This is an inferior way of becoming a Celestial, but it is a way anyone can do it. As per the Great One’s laws, it’s illegal but it’s hard if not impossible for anyone to tell so it happens, even if rarely. Tomorrow, this Monster Den and its filthy monsters will be guarded, so we needed to sneak in tonight.”

Pulling out a dagger, Captain Ak’aran pushed it into Ra’thala’s hands. “Stab the monster and end it. Normally fighting such a beast, you should push its foulness away, letting it return to the stars above but this time you must quench your thirst with its poison.”

Even with the wolf being tied up and unable to do more than wiggle slightly, Ra’thala feared.

The monster had rage in its eyes. A deep rage that he had never even considered possible in a living creature.

Driving the dagger down into the monster’s flesh was like cutting into hard wood but by throwing his weight into it, he managed. It took three more thrusts before the monster’s struggles ended, but then he felt something rush into him.

He could also feel the foulness that the caption had talked about. What had entered him was empty instead of filled with the might of the stars.

Still, it was at that moment he knew he was a Celestial and that excitement overwhelmed everything else.

Before he could get too excited, Captain Ak’aran said, “Good, now we need to get back to camp before people start to get suspicious.”

Before Ra’thala could react, a fist landed right over his eye. A second and third fell, and he could already feel his face was swelling.

“Wha—”

“We need a reason to have left camp. And punishing you for interfering with my battle is about the only excuse we have.”

Knowing that reminded Ra’thala that what they were doing was illegal and he shut his mouth, not wanting to offend a Great One even indirectly.

Once he was well-tenderized, he was led back to the camp while the Celestials explained what he needed to do. Once they were there, he noticed soldiers pointedly avoiding looking at him, fearing to earn the ire of the Celestials as well.

No one would speak of this evening’s walk, which he realized was the point.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The next day, Ra’thala followed the orders he had been given and publicly stood outside Captain Ak’aran’s tent and proclaimed that he had understood the universe and had become a Celestial.

That drew a crowd and publicly Captain Ak’aran and two other Celestials, not any of the ones from the evening before he noticed, tested him by pressing their hands to his lower chest.

Thankfully all three of them proclaimed him a Celestial and even from the corners of his eyes he could see the envy of the others.

Once he was led inside, he got a few more suspicious looks from the other Celestials but he kept to the story Captain Ak’aran had insisted he repeat a dozen times last night on their way back to camp. Thankfully the Celestials were satisfied after a little more questioning and gave him his Celestial Guide.

With its guidance, he learned of the way to pull in Celestial power from the stars above and how to layer the accumulated Celestial power to create the ever-moving Constellations that would be empowered by his Star Power and drive his Stars.

Today was the first day of his new life.

***

Ra’thala looked at the peak of the mountain where the very tip seemed to stretch. He could feel the Star Power power brimming from deeply hidden wells of Star Power scattered around the area in a shape he didn’t fully understand.

As a True Great Celestial, he had reached the peak of his home world thus, if he wanted to advance further, he needed to leave.

The Nine Skies Map he had been given had gotten him through the early days of his power accumulation, but he had reached the first major bottleneck, the Blank Sky that separated True Great Celestials from Divines.

Since reaching the peak of power, he had traveled far and wide looking for how to fill in his Blank Sky, but he had had no success. No one on their world had completed that step in generations, but, in his travels, he had repeatedly heard rumors that those who had claimed a fragment of the Sky, making it a portion of their very being, had left to go somewhere.

Unable to progress, he decided to try his luck and so sought out the passages between worlds. Most of it was hearsay and easily proven wrong, but after two years of searching he had finally stumbled upon something… different.

He wasn’t even sure it was the right thing, but it was where the rumors said Divines disappeared into and none of the others had checked out. Still, he wasn’t reckless, and so returned to the nearest city and paid a few messengers to spread the news that there was in fact a Sky Bridge in the mountains.

Duty to anyone who wanted to follow in his footsteps complete, he trekked back up the mountain to where he found the Star Power layered thick.

He felt nothingness between his feet and where the mountain should be but suppressed his fear to press forward.

At first, nothing seemed to be happening other than the oddity of walking on air and the ever-present worry that he was about to fall to his death when this invisible platform vanished or simply ended, but before too long, he started to notice the world started to… melt.

The world started to blend together before his very eyes and with excitement he trudged forward until the blob of colors was a uniform gray. He walked for what felt like years in that empty grayness, but just as he was starting to lose hope, the grayness started to have blotches of indistinct shape and then color.

That color turned into recognizable shapes and after walking over what must have been a continent, he once more found himself standing on a mountain range.

Except this mountain wasn’t in snow covered mountains but was instead in a desert that stretched across the horizon but none of that caught his attention. The air was full of power but of a richer sort than he was used to. Divine power.

If he wasn’t at the peak of the Celestial realm, he felt he could have become a Divine with a short few years of absorption. Just feeling the greater power made his Constellation pulse with power like a thirsty man gasping for air.

He was brought out of his exhilaration as he noticed people flying through the air a few dozen feet over the rolling sands.

Even from where he stood, he could feel their power was greater than his True Great Celestial.

Divines.

Jumping from rock to rock, Ra’thala quickly descended the mountain. The Divines he had seen were long gone but he must have been on a trade route of some kind because he quickly found another group.

Two women and a younger man. The two women were Divines but the man was like him, a True Great Celestial.

From the resemblance between the man and one of the women he suspected they were related. A family with multiple Divines?

That was amazing in a way that he didn’t have words for.

Even True Great Celestials on his home world struggled to have their children become Celestials without disgraceful methods like he had used.

Seeing him, the group slowed down letting Ra’thala see that they weren’t actually flying but riding on sticks that glowed with Star Power.

His Constellation method only had two abilities he had worked tirelessly to recreate but he had been working in rearranging his Star Power into a new ability unique to himself.

The fact they had ways to use Star Power that wasn’t reliant on abilities was amazing and his attention was pulled away as one of the women, the oldest, said something in a language he didn’t recognize.

He had anticipated this and had studied all known languages from his homeland to at least a beginner level and so tried a few of them while keeping his hands away from the stone blade at his hip.

Finally they landed on a language both of them knew. In his world it was an old trade language, but with an established method of communication, he was able to explain who he was and what he wanted.

“You. Come. Stand. City.”

Knowing that was the best they could do and he needed to trust they weren’t going to kill him, Ra’thala stood next to the young man where he was indicated to go.

A suction force locked his feet onto the sticks and before he knew it, they were sliding a foot above the sand faster than he could run even if going at his full speed while activating his Speed Constellation and burning all of his Star Power.

Still, anything could become mundane before too long and he was just trying to keep the sand from pelting him in the face while they crossed an endless ocean of sand.

Thankfully, before dark they arrived at a massive city nestled next to a winding river that created greenery in the otherwise barren landscape.