Symbiotic Ascension : A Progression Fantasy Adventure

If Glenn had a doubt previously, that doubt was now gone.

Newborn Rulers are powerful individuals for sure, capable of razing down mountains and carving the deepest abyss in the earth. But Glenn could see himself fighting some and winning some. Exan, Harriet the King's Blade, and Duke Noir were among the few Newborn Rulers he had met, which he considered... tough to beat. The rest had been rather disappointing, power-wise. Not that they weren't absolute menaces to the rest of the world, it's just that Glenn was used to fighting people at the peak of their strengths.

When Alaric Magnus, King of Munirp, and Nosferatu, previously known as Dragon-Mask, clashed, Glenn knew this wasn't a battle he could partake in. This wasn't a fight in which a human could participate. Had he not known better, he would have thought these were Gods fighting, not mortals.

Mist crimson like blood was covering the land, blocking his sight. An acrid smell of metal was scratching his nose, and whispers of horror echoed all around him. But what was truly shocking was the sight above him.

Red and gold, blood and light. He could hardly describe what he was seeing, for it made no sense. Flashing lights, blurs, and drops of blood. Explosions rumbled as the shockwaves tried and almost succeeded in throwing him off his feet.

'I can't even see them!'

Glenn's eyes widened, and he threw himself to the side using Gravity Manipulation, narrowly jumping away from a massive blood cleaver that carved the earth. The shockwave sent him flying upward alongside countless terrified people.

'Everyone is going to die at this rate!' He clenched his teeth and pushed through the limits of his spell. Using Gravity Manipulation, he grabbed everyone in his line of sight and brought them further away from the fight. He noticed a few flashing lights from the corner of his eyes, pointing at his friends' spells or Aura, in Sahro's case, as they also did their best to protect as many lives as possible.

'Imagine you're doing your job like every other day, and suddenly two beings strong enough to pass themselves as Gods fight against each other above your head. I hate it when it happens,' complained Diamanes. Glenn pushed away the entity's voice, concentrating on his job, meaning being a good person, and stopping others from crashing on the floor.

Duke Noir was already organizing an evacuation, and Javier had disappeared with the demons in tow. Hopefully, he was going to bring them to Thalorieth, where they'll be safe from the conflict. Glenn bit on his lip and squinted as the wind blew in his face. The bloody mist was everywhere, filled in dark shadows that were probably other soldiers to help-

Shriek!

A bald creature entirely composed of blood jumped at Glenn, almost succeeding in surprising him. Unfortunately, he had been keeping up his Gravity Manipulation since the start of the mess, and it was easy work to send the... bloody thing away.

"What was that?!" Glenn peered through the mist, trying to discern any shapes. "Don't tell me the mist can create monsters?!"

"Okay, I won't tell you then."

Glenn ignored Diamanes' loud laughter and activated his Mana Sight.

Blood.

"Gah!" He fell to his knees, his eyes burning with a deep red light. It pulsed through his brain, shaking him to his core. An endless sea of blood, everywhere.

"Yep, maybe looking directly at a True Ruler's spell might be a little too much for you," cackled Diamanes.

Glenn pushed himself up, grunting. "Thanks for the warning, asshole."

He glanced left and right, but he couldn't see anything anymore. The mist was too thick, and he didn't dare try and reach the shadows in case they were more of those blood monsters.

"Glenn!" Liara suddenly dashed out of the mist, her eyes bleeding slightly.

"Liara, your eyes!" Glenn instinctively reached for her face, but she shook her head.

"I'm fine. The others are already out of the mist; you're the last one."

She grabbed his hand and spread a pair of white wings from her back. "Follow me!"

Glenn didn't get to even question it, that he was already soaring through the air, high, high above. The mist towered over the land, covering everything. It looked almost alive, growing continuously in all directions.

"How could you find me?" Glenn shouted inquisitively as they flew away. Alaric and Nosferatu's clash had taken them far further up, to the highest heights. They were just spots in the sky exchanging massive blasts of light and blood, often stopping the Moons from shining down their light.

"My eyes are special," she simply said.

Glenn frowned. "I already knew that."

She smiled. "Did you, now?"

They soon landed a good kilometer away from the mist, joining with the others. Milena was heaving on the floor while Lucian watched the battle above with worried eyes. Sahro paced relentlessly, not even stopping to look at Glenn and Liara's landing.

The young man was welcomed by Pebble's panicked appearance in his arms, the dragon compressed into his tiny shape.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, Pebble," Glenn reassured him. He glanced up and took a deep breath. "Thankfully, there was a bigger fish to fry than me."

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"I need to become a Newborn Ruler," Sahro suddenly blurted out. He pointed his fleshy prosthesis at the sky angrily. "I can't believe I can't even participate in this fight!"

Glenn moistened his lips. "Well, if you find a way to quickly rank up, do share the method, yeah? Since Lucian wants to keep the secret to himself."

The Prince didn't reply to the verbal jab, instead focusing on his father's fight. "I'm sure he will be fine..." He muttered through his teeth.

"What do we do, now?" Milena asked, grimacing.

"For now, you leave this to the grown-ups," Exan said.

Glenn's head snapped to the side. "Exan?"

The man gave him a polite nod, not taking offense at Sahro and Liara's unsheathed weapons. "Sorry for the sudden intrusion, but the situation calls for rapid action, as you might have guessed."

Silver gears in his left eye clicked noticeably. "I must admit, another clash was not what we expected. Oh well. I trust in our King. I simply hope he doesn't..." He grimaced. "Cross the line."

"Gramps, we want to help!" Milena exclaimed. "We- We're a powerful team, surely there's something we can do."

Exan nodded. "There is, yes. Get the hell out of here. And yes, that counts for you too, Your Highness."

Lucian blew raspberries, disappointed. "I'm a Newborn Ruler too," he muttered.

"Yes," replied Exan, who'd of course heard him. "But you're also very young and don't have much mastery over your new status. Which is probably why the King suddenly disappeared out of nowhere, hmm? Gone to rescue you, I bet."

The Prince turned away, his cheeks filling with red shame. "I-I had the situation under control! Glenn and the rest dealt with it perfectly!"

Glenn cleared his throat." The Beyond is gone, Lucian. I'm not sure that's a real success-"

Ding!

The young man's eyebrows creased, and he looked down at his black wristband. The communication device he used to talk with his sister had just made an odd sound, like a phone. 'It could do that?'

"Anyway, see you boys and girls. I need to take care of this mess now!" Exan soared into the sky as a Titan of steel and machinery, and suddenly landed, making the world tremble from its weight. It aimed a ship-sized rifle at a massive wall of blood, shooting an equally massive bullet at it. The way of blood shattered as a gigantic cartridge fell to the ground, smoking.

Glenn ripped his eyes away from the machine of his dreams and interacted with the communication headband. There was only one message.

Emergency. Coordinates.

The young man's eyes stopped on that first word: Emergency.

Emergency.

He hastily types in his coordinates, which were provided through the use of his Observer. Almost immediately, a portal opened before him, trembling with instability.

"Wait, Glenn, what's going on-" Liara's voice faded away as he jumped through the portal. The destruction of the Beyond, the Dead God, the fight between Nosferatu and Munirp's King. All of that disappeared as only one word printed in black on the blue screen repeated through his mind.

Emergency.

Diamanes said something, but Glenn couldn't hear him. He stumbled out of the portal, his blood turning to ice as the acrid smell of fresh blood reached his nose. He glanced to the left, ignoring the nausea coming from the poorly stabilized teleportation, and felt his soul jump out of his body.

Lina, his sister, was lying on the ground, her hand clutched on a bleeding wound on her stomach. She smiled weakly at him, deathly pale from blood loss.

"H- hey, Glenn."

"Don't speak." Glenn kneeled and forced her to show him her wound. A laceration staring from her left leg up to below her thoracic cage. It was bleeding badly.

"Glenn, you stupid brat, heal her!" Tiamanes shouted, his usual polite manners gone and forgotten. Even so, his request came a little too late, for Glenn was already busy sending as much Mana as he could through Diamanes to process out the strongest Regeneration he could.

The flesh mended beneath his fingers, the blood stopping from flowing slowly but surely. Lina gasped with relief, her head leaning back against the tropical tree.

"I..."

"What happened?" Glenn cut her off. "Who or what did this to you?"

Lina coughed, grabbing her brother's shoulder. "Y- Your friend. The woman with the scars."

'The woman with the scars?' Glenn looked at his surroundings. A tropical forest, filled with gutted dark elves and Pale Sons, all hanging to their lives by just a thread. The shadow of a gigantic silver tree was cast upon the area, complementing the beautiful moonlight. A moonlight too beautiful for the current events.

'Who did this? I don't know anyone with scars?! Someone from the Thorns Church?'

'Glenn.' Diamanes' voice was grave. 'You know who did this.'

'No. No, I don't fucking know.'

He shook the odious voice and thoughts away and glanced at the portal he'd just come through. It was moments away from collapsing, Lina's Mana failing to aliment the spell. He hesitated and shook his head. 'I'll take care of this myself.'

"Don't worry, I was alone," he lied. "You can close the portal. Try to save your Mana for yourself. You should know how to do basic imbuements, right?"

Lina nodded weakly. "I n- need to send the Mana to the wounds, right?"

Glenn rubbed the blood off her cheeks and forced himself to draw up a reassuring smile. "Yes. My spell will continue to mend you even after I'm gone, alright? You just need to keep it fed."

She grunted painfully while straightening herself. "You... Should've told me sooner, instead of letting me keep up that damned portal."

"Hold on. I'll be back," he promised. Lina gave one last weak nod before focusing on her wound, sending a constant flow of Mana into it and Glenn's Regeneration spell.

Glenn walked past the wounded Pale Sons and dark elves, shutting his ears and mind to their pleas for help. 'I don't have enough Mana to help everyone.' He clenched his teeth. 'This is New Thalorieth. My mom should be around. She was still busy treating Mary-'

He stopped in his tracks and took a long, deep breath. He tried to ignore it, but the proof was before him. He'd activated his Mana Sight as soon as he'd arrived on the scene, and he could see it. Corruption lingering in the air, latching upon anything it could find and twisting it.

Now that he was looking, he could feel that damned energy all around him, covering everything in a thick layer of filth. Of evil and chaos.

Glenn's heart raced madly as he took one step after the other, accelerating with each one. He tracked the Corruption, following the trail it had left in its wake. He eventually found its source, standing before a strange pair: a wounded Orc and a woman cowering behind him. She had brown hair and eyes, and was holding the side of her bleeding neck. His mother was wounded.

Again. The young man felt his emotions quell. His fear and worries disappeared until he was nothing but an empty shell. Glenn turned his emotionless eyes to the Corruption.

The source was covered in rotten bandages oozing with dark-green smoke, and its flesh was melting through in some parts. It was wielding a pair of daggers sharp enough to look like they could cut through stone.

The source of Corruption turned toward Glenn, its face warped with twisted flesh and bones. Its eyes were gone, as were its nose and ears. Only its mouth was left, and it was twisted in pain and despair.

"Glenn..." It spoke with a course, yet feminine voice. "K- Kill me..."

She stumbled in his direction, dropping pounds of flesh with each movement. "Kill me!" She repeated.

"Kill me! Kill me! KILL ME, KILL ME KILL ME KILL ME!"

The creature cried painfully, stabbing at itself but failing to truly harm itself, for flesh grew back for each bit that separated from the main body.

With an empty gaze and an empty heart, Glenn conjured his spells. Black flames surged in one hand, while the other cradled a Black Hole. He was going to need that much, for today, he was fighting one of the greatest fighters he'd ever met. One of the most gifted.

One who once taught him the art of combat, and enjoyed a little too much making him suffer.

Mary raised her daggers, Corruption coursing through her blades.

The Moonlight was beautiful.

Way too beautiful.