Titan King: Ascension of the Giant

The cold touch of the scythe blade against his skull and the crushing sense of imminent death snapped the Dracolich out of his stupor.

"I, Phorzak, pledge my fealty to my lord!" the Dracolich rasped, relaxing his body and prostrating himself completely on the ground, his words laced with the utmost reverence.

An arch lord!

The mere sliver of an aura Orion had revealed was more than Phorzak could withstand. He knew, with absolute certainty, that the mysterious being before him was at least an arch lord, if not something far greater. Against such a power, submission wasn't just the path to survival—it was the only path.

"Excellent."

With his free left hand, Orion wrought a contract of servitude, binding the guardian of the Fiend Serpent Caves exit to his will.

His story was a tragedy of epic proportions.

Long ago, in another life, Phorzak had been a blue dragon. Alongside his rider, he had joined The Inquisition of Light on a crusade to conquer the Abyss, a naive attempt to purify its inherent evil and spread the light into its darkest corners.

The very idea was laughable, childish even. But to a zealous band of ascetics and knight of the Lights who could not tolerate a single speck of darkness, it was a holy war. Bound by a rider's pact, the blue dragon and his master had charged into the Abyss.

Predictably, they both fell. The light was devoured by the darkness. The ascetics immolated themselves in holy fire, and the knight of the lights fell to corruption. The blue dragon managed to flee to the first layer of the Abyss before succumbing to his wounds.

By a twist of fate, he died in a vast graveyard. His corpse was soon inhabited by the spirit of a native Abyssal skeletal dragon. And so, a new being was born—a creature possessing all the memories of a noble blue dragon, but the body of an Abyssal horror.

"So you're saying you killed the previous guardian of this passage?" Orion asked as they began to move.

"Yes, Master," Dracolich Phorzak replied. He walked behind Orion, recounting the tale of his second life: his awakening, his time wandering the first layer, and the circumstances that had led him to claim the Fiend Serpent Caves as a refuge.

From his memories as a blue dragon, Phorzak knew that from the second layer downwards, the Abyss was pure chaos. Beyond the endless slaughter between species, there was the Abyssal Tide—a phenomenon that periodically surged up from the deepest depths, carrying with it countless monsters from a world below. In the higher planes, these mysterious creatures were known as the Source of Sin, or simply, The Unhallowed.

"What was the strength of the previous guardian?" Orion asked, processing the intel. He intended to take Phorzak with him on his campaign; Legendary level beings were the backbone of any real fighting force. But if Phorzak was leaving, this Abyssal Tributary would need a new guardian.

"Master, the former guardian was merely an Alpha peak Fel-reaver," Phorzak explained. "After I slew it, the rest of the Fel-reavers race submitted to me. I have been recuperating here ever since."

The Lord of the Four Domains had only been dead for a few years. Phorzak couldn't have been here for long.

"If you leave, are the remaining Fel-reavers strong enough to defend this place?" Orion stood before a sheer rock wall. Through it lay the first layer of the Abyss—the starting point for his conquest.

"Master, there are still two zombie commanders among the Fel-reavers race. As long as no lord attacks, they should be able to hold it."

Orion stared at the exit, not responding. He could sense the two commanders Phorzak spoke of; they were late-stage Alpha-level, barely passable.

In truth, he wasn't overly concerned. Even if an Abyssal lord invaded the Stoneheart Horde through this tributary, his true form back in his territory would detect it instantly. Any invaders would just be delivering free Lord's Stones to his doorstep. Still, he planned to magically conceal the entrance after they left. He couldn't be bothered with the hassle.

"Let's go," Orion said after a long moment. "This place is too small for us."

He took a step forward and passed through the stone wall as if it were mist. Xalathar and Dracolich Phorzak followed. Last came the Bloodfiend Vex, his face alight with manic excitement. According to the ancestral memory of his Demon kind, only by entering the greater Abyss could he find the resources to truly evolve.

The first layer of the Abyss was a world of twilight.

Twilight, but not darkness. Unlike the utter blackness of the Abyssal Tributary, the sky here was a vast, deep expanse filled with countless stars. They were all crimson. Bathed in the glow of a single moon, they cast an eerie, bloody light upon the land, creating a world that was both dark and strangely vibrant.

This was the first layer. It knew no day or night. There was no true light, but no absolute darkness either.

A mysterious soul-sigil appeared in the hand of the Deathly Soul-Reaper. Orion sealed the entrance to the Abyssal Tributary, burying it deep beneath the earth. His work done, he turned to the reverently waiting Vex and Phorzak.

"Here."

Orion considered for a moment, then unslung the lance with the flaming banner from his back and tossed it to Vex.

"I will raise this banner to forge a soul for my legion. I will rally the masses under my call. In my name as lord, I will conscript all who are willing to wage war across the Abyss."

Orion vaulted onto Xalathar's back, his voice calm but heavy with purpose as he addressed the stunned bloodfiend. "Vex, will you be my standard-bearer?"

Vex was only a newly-minted, early-stage Alpha-level, but Orion saw something of Dirtclaw in him.

Like Dirtclaw, Vex possessed a mad ferocity and an unyielding will. Dirtclaw was now an upper-legendary powerhouse, a pillar of Orion's forces. Here in the Abyss, Orion had no objection to cultivating another.

Vex had the potential. To have evolved from a demonic maggot to imp, to half-bloodfiend, to a true bloodfiend—so long as he didn't die, Orion was certain he would flourish.

"Master… I… can… can I… really?" Vex's body trembled, his voice shaking with an emotion that wasn't fear, but an excitement so profound it bordered on pain.

Standard-bearer. To an Abyssal Demon, the title meant something more.

To forge a soul for my legion. The soul Orion spoke of was a Legion Soul, a Banner Soul. By raising his banner on the first layer, every warrior who joined him would offer up a sliver of their soul. The combined will of these souls would forge the Legion Soul. As the standard-bearer, Vex would be blessed by both the Banner and the Legion Soul, his power amplified by Orion's own.

Furthermore, Vex's ancestral memory told him he could fuse himself with the Banner Soul, not only increasing his combat strength but dramatically accelerating his own growth.

To put it plainly, the role of standard-bearer was the opportunity of a lifetime—an honor he couldn't possibly refuse.