Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

The temple, or rather, the cathedral, stood somberly before Glenn, its dark bricks melting with the darkness. Black sand trickled down the hourglass at the top of the structure, casting a huge shadow over the group. A pair of doors, made from the same black stone that composed the cathedral, had been shattered open.

"This is original, to say the least," Glenn remarked, unfazed. "Am I supposed to be scared or something?"

Sahro ran his fingers on the sheath of his katana. "Should I cut the church down?" The marks on his forehead glimmered with a crimson, electric crackle.

Milena clicked her tongue. "What is with you and destroying everything you see? No, let me take a look at what's inside before ruining everything. There might be some more pieces of forgotten history in there."

"Hints about the era of the First King and the Guardian are more precious than our total weight in gold," added Lucian. "I know I would trade almost everything I own for the truth about what happened back then."

Liara walked up to Glenn, the piece of Seal tightly clenched in her hand. The white cross on her forehead was shining with a pale light, activated just like Sahro's own Inheritance Sigil. "This is it," she muttered.

Glenn drew a short breath, calling on his Mana. Black flames surged out of his left, purple hand.

"Stick together," he said. Liara flicked her fingers, the same black flames swirling around her in a more refined, delicate way. If Glenn's stolen black flames were purely an incarnation of a hungry fire, Liara's flames were instead calm and precise, controlled. 'It's interesting to see how we use the same power differently,' Glenn thought.

"Guys, just a heads-up, Glenn is thinking more about Liara than the actual operation," snitched Diamanes, making Liara blush.

"That is..." Glenn glanced at Liara and winked, making her blush even more. "A total lie, of course. Now, let's get in there before I hack DIamaness off with an axe."

Sahro sneered while Milena rolled her eyes. Lucian grabbed Glenn's shoulder and grinned widely as he leaned in his ear.

"Make sure to invite me when you marry the Queen of Thalorieth," he whispered. Glenn shook his head with a small smile and stopped into the black cathedral, his heart light and his friends close by. Whitey patrolled the skies, while Pebble had chosen to go with them in his baby form, nestled on Glenn's shoulder as he surveyed their surroundings with his one, beady jade eye.

As soon as they stopped into the cathedral, the shadows seemed to crawl back away from them. The interior had been completely obscured to them when they arrived, but now they could finally see it. No corridors or entry halls. They were directly in the cathedral center room. Rows and rows of wooden pews filled the place like any normal church. No cracks or windows allowed light in, aside from one single stained glass at the very end of the room, depicting a black hourglass on a purple background. Purple light filtered into the room, giving it an eerie, mystical feeling.

Below the stained glass was a simple altar of the same black stone. 'Whoever built this place loves the color black,' Glenn remarked.

"Welcome to our humble abode, travelers," someone spoke above them. Liara froze in her steps, her expression crumbling. Glenn looked up, his fists clenched tightly. Sitting on a hanging chandelier, he had skin as dark as charcoal, the symbol of a whirlwind on his forehead and a burning bird on his shoulder. His eyes had taken on the dark-green of Corruption, and his right arm had mutated into a sort of cannon-looking thing.

Once a Black Heir, now a dark elf.

Once a friend, now a foe.

"Salim...!" Liara hissed through her teeth as she grabbed her sword and spear. Wings of light spanned out of her back, tainted with the black flames of her ancestor, the undead Elven King.

"Oh, Liara." Salim jumped down, his flaming bird training behind him. He landed behind the black altar, his dark-green eyes stuck on the Elven Queen. "So we meet again, at last. Ishtaqtu ilayki, habibati."

Liara's face darkened. She turned to Glenn and the others, who were preparing for a fight. "Leave this to me."

She stopped forward, her white wings turning entirely black from her ancestor's flames. "I was never your love, Salim. I was never yours to begin with. You are nothing but a traitor!" She spat.

Salim looked at her for a long time. "I have dreamed of that moment for so long. The Celestial Gods are more than you'll ever be, Liara. Join us, and maybe I will let you watch as my bitch while I burn that pathetic attempt at rebuilding Thalorieth!" Fiery flames exploded out of his mutated arm, burning the wooden pews. His fiery bird screeched violently, reveling in the flames. He laughed fanatically, Corruption spreading visibly through him, filling his veins with dark-green power.

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Liara scoffed. "Thalorieth isn't so weak it would fall to the likes of you. Talking to you is a waste of breath." She drew a deep breath and planted her feet on the ground. "I will take you down," she announced. "For my father."

She charged forward without letting him answer, countless swords of light following behind her. Salim aimed his mutated arm at her, releasing a massive blast of fire. Liara did not even bother to dodge; instead, she conjured a pure white armor to protect herself. The flames licked the magical defenses harmlessly, going past her and crashing against Glenn and the others' defenses.

"It looks like she'll be able to handle it herself!" Glenn glanced at the cathedral, looking for where the rest of Seal could be hidden. "Let's go after the Seal while she's busy dealing with this piece of shit!"

"You got it!" Lucian exclaimed as he pointed at an inconspicuous stairway in the corner of the church. "We can go down from here!"

They ran past Liara and Salim as black and red flames competed against each other, the former winning with a huge margin. Salim smirked, glancing at them running past, and retreated to the back of the church.

"How have you been since our separation?" He asked, taunting her. "Did you miss me? I was your only friend, after all."

Liara gritted her teeth, refusing to give him a reply. She threw her spear with all her strength at Salim, aiming at his heart. A beam of light shot through the church, piercing through a wall of black bricks and shattering it open.

"Do you wish to hear your father's last words?" Salim's voice rang behind her. She spun in the air, throwing a wave of black flames that latched onto the walls, charring them. She couldn't see the dark elf anywhere. With a thought, she activated her Mana Sight, revealing the truths and uncovering hidden things.

Before she could find him, Salim shot her with a massive blast of flames, more powerful than his previous attacks and much more dangerous. Her armor sizzled under the strength of the spell, threatening to break. She cleaved down with her sword, separating the flames just in time to see the end of Salim's mutated cannon-arm.

"Your father didn't say a word," Salim muttered. "I didn't let him."

She barely managed to lean out of the way as a blast of molten lava shot past her head. The part of the church behind her melted from the heat, crumbling down. The black hourglass fell with a dull sound, half-buried in rubble.

"You speak too much!" She spat as she countered with a black-flame-clad fist in Salim's guts. The dark elf bent forward, his eyes widening in pain. The blow sent him tumbling back, his fiery bird striking down at Liara to earn some time for its master. A shriek was all it could hear as Whitey shot through the hole in the church and clawed the tiny bird. The griffin held his head high and proud, the fire bird squealing under his talons.

Liara walked up to Salim, ignoring the horrible smell of burning flesh, and pressed her blade's tip against his throat. "You were once a good person," she whispered. "Or at least that's what I want to believe."

She beheaded him without waiting for an answer, merciless. Salim's head rolled on the ground, a grin drawn on his molten flesh and bones.

"Hahahaha!" Salim's laughter echoed through the church. Liara raised her guard immediately as the 'corpse' turned to ashes, a magical construct meant to trick her.

"It was quite entertaining watching you fight," Salim grinned as he came out of a burning pile of pews. "Unfortunately for you, I am immortal. You cannot kill me." He raised his hand at the ceiling, laughing fanatically. "That's the power the Celestial Gods have given me! Immortality, and the strength to dominate even the legendary Queen of New Thalorieth!"

He disappeared and reappeared before her in a burst of fire, slapping away her black flames. His flames consumed her armor as his hand shot for her throat, clenching it tightly. "That is where you belong, Liara. With me, serving me as I put my seed in you! I will be the King of Thalorieth and rule alongside the Celestial Gods!"

Liara gasped, failing to call on her Mana. Something was blocking her from using her powers, blocking her Ethereal Mana from forming into a spell. She peered into Salim's dark-green eyes, and she realized. This wasn't Salim anymore. Nor a dark elf or Black Heir. That thing was just a shell of the person she once knew, devoured from within by Corruption.

Salim clenched her throat tighter, cutting her air off. Whitey had been overthrown by the fire bird that had transformed into a massive flame vulture tall enough to topple even the griffin, and was busy trying to break past the damn scavenger to help his master.

Liara closed her eyes. She called on her Ethereal Mana, refusing to let it go even as that foreign force tried to disperse it. She wrangled with the perturbation, black flames suddenly covering her from head to toe. Salim screamed painfully as his hand caught on fire, the flesh falling off the bones.

"You damned bitch!" He hissed, his eyes bloodshot. His mutated arm bulged out as large pimples exploded into yellow pus.

Liara fell to her knees, gasping for air. Salim had burnt her throat badly, ripping skin off even during his retreat. Her sight blurred, but she held on, standing up. She glared at the hourglass, ignoring Salim, who was desperately trying to extinguish her black flames.

"Show yourself!" She croaked, shooting a volley of light swords at it. The hourglass warped, and her spell shattered away. The invisible veil fell off, revealing the man hiding on the hourglass. A carved dragon mask hid the upper half of his face. He was busy manipulating a stone orb made of the same material as the piece of Seal Liara had found.

'That's the rest of the Seal!' she realized.

He slowly turned in Liara's direction, his mouth visible under his mask.

"Oh, the Heir of the Elven King, I see? That must explain how you've discovered me. Interesting." He turned to Salim. "Dog, don't kill her. Keep her alive. I want to study her."

Salim turned a blood-crazed stare at Dragon-Mask. "But Master! You've promised me I would have her for myself!"

Dragon-mask turned a surprised gaze at Liara. "Oh, she's the one? That princess you spoke of? How come she's stronger than you, even though it's been only a couple of years and she doesn't use Corruption?"

Liara looked at the stairway Glenn and the others had gone through. Desperate for some help. Her back was drenched in cold sweat. She didn't need her Mana Sight to understand that Dragon-Mask was miles more powerful than she was. Every inch of her being was screaming at her to kneel and ask for forgiveness. She froze, horrified.

The stairway had disappeared. She and Whitey were alone to fight Salim and what she was almost certain was a being as powerful as the King of Munirp himself.

A True Ruler.