Ascendant
The next morning, Rose has fully changed into her draconic form. She is covered in milky white scales and her wings are still present. Her body also seems to have changed into a bit more slender form than usual.
“Scarlet? Her body changed in this form too, right?”
“Yeah, a little.”
“Is that normal?”
“Hmm…I don’t know. She seemed more like a normal baby before than she does now. Papa?”
“Yes?”
“Can you take a look at her? Is that healthy? I don’t know.”
Picking up Rose he goes to inspect her by carefully touching and sniffing her, “She seems healthy. Her body shape is certainly unique though. Perhaps we should call her Libella.”
“Pfft I guess she is a Libella, huh?”
“Can someone let me in too on what Libella is supposed to mean?” Rayla asks.
“It’s a bit of a pun. It’s a mix of the words for dragonfly and pretty girl. It would be a nice nickname for her.”
“I see…Man I hate that I have to learn your guys’ language too now… I was already learning Elvish for her and that’s hard enough!”
“Eh you’ll be fine. You have potentially thousands of years of time to learn draconic.”
“Yeah, I still have to get used to that…”
The king, a little confused, asks, “Aren’t you a Fox-Beastfolk?”
“Yeah, but both oko and I use the Spiritual Magic Tradition so we’ll technically both live forever.”
“Hmm…I see. At least she won’t miss y- Duck!”
“What?”
Suddenly drawing his Rapier, the King thrusts his sword through the wagon tarp behind Scarlet, Rose and Rayla causing blood to splatter and paint the outside of the tarp purple as a gangly purple demon, about two meters tall with curved horns for eyes, materializes and falls over. It looks like it was stopped in the movement of trying to swipe at the wagon.
“Rayla, Scarlet, get up slowly and walk over to me,” the King orders.
“What? Why? What just-” turning around Rayla looks at the blood splatter and corpse and barely holds in a scream.
“We’re under attack. That one was invisible so I’m not sure if it was the only one. Come to me slowly, I’ll alarm the Saintess so she can seal the corpse before it regenerates. Roar!”
Only clad in their sleepwear, weapons in hand, John and Sher Aka suddenly jolt up from in front of the wagon,
“Are we under attack!?” Sher Aka asks.
“What’s going on!?”
“Yes we are”, the King answers, “Stay close to me, there might be more dem-.”
A dust cloud suddenly appears in the distance and the king kicks the air in front of him causing a small red demon with horns for eyes to crash into it at immense speed. Its torso nearly explodes from the impact while the detached underbody keeps running until it runs into a bunch of trees causing a loud crashing sound to boom through the camp as dozens of trees fall over.
The Blood Hounds then appear, causing the King to yell, “Protect them!” as he picks up Scarlet, who is holding Rose, throws her over his shoulder and starts running towards the Saintess carriage.
“Understood!” Martin yells, “Susan assist him! Taric status report!”
“Open Gate up ahead! Tier 3 General.”
“Understood!”
As he runs towards the Saintess, the King get attacked by two green winged demons with horns for eyes using a trident as they dive down at him while a red one at immense speed charges him from the front. In one movement, the King lets out his tail wrapping around an invisible demon behind him, stabs his Rapier forward impaling the red speed demon in front of him and opens his mouth towards the sky letting out a giant pillar of flame burning the green demons to ash. An arrow of light then flies by him and impales the purple demon he had wrapped his tail around.
“Are you alright your Highness? How is Rose?”
“She’s fine.” He says as he puts down Scarlet who seems in shock, “Scarlet, listen to me. Put Rose in your pouch and stay next to the Saintess. Do you understand?”
“Y-yes.”
“Good. You, Human. Where is the gate?”
“Up ahead! They’re let in by a general type demon who accumulated a bunch of tier five to six demons.”
“Alright, lead the way.”
Running through the camp, they keep getting attacked by the same green, red and purple demons that the King and Saintess easily fend off and eventually arrive in front of a small army of brown muscly two meter tall demons whose arms are like clubs and have curved horns coming out of their eyes. They seem to be guarding the gate from which the other demons are coming out of. On top of the gate sits a black demon with a fan in its hand directing the other demons.
In a giggling voice it yells, “Surrender the seed and we will let you live,” before getting shot by the Saintess but instead of dying a bunch of the smaller demons fall over and turn to ash in its stead as more demons come through the gate to replace them.
Susan then speaks up, “Your Highness, carve out a path, your Holiness defend us and aim for the gate once the path is clear!”
“Understood!”
“On it!”
Doing some hand signs, Susan chants, “Sacred geometry, 888th form Mandala. Modell: Divine Realm.”
Slamming her hands on the ground a colorful tapestry spreads on the ground and from it a temple structure similar to the one in the Hot Spring town bursts forth causing the demons on the ground to be unable to move and scream in agony as they slowly sink into the colorful tapestry.
The King takes this as his queue and charges up a giant fire breath burning a path through the sinking demons causing the Saintess to follow suit and shoot her arrow of light into the gap destroying the gate. As the gate breaks so does the demon sitting on top of it which causes all the lower demons to crumble and turn to nothingness.
“Is- Is it over?” Scarlet asks but before she can get an answer the King kicks the Saintess away, picks up Scarlet and starts flying up as a gaping mouth opens beneath their feet and a worm-like creature with Human-like teeth and a large tongue bursts forth from beneath them.
“Moderate Boost Speed.”
Flying at immense speed, the King quickly gets out of range of the worm and flies towards the sky to get an overview of the battlefield where suddenly a woman’s voice says, “I assume you’re the father,” as a pretty woman with dark red hair and bat-like wings appears out of nowhere.
Almost instantly the King responds by breathing fire at her but it just goes straight through her.
“No need to be alarmed, this is just a protection. The little worm was just there to give us some space to talk.”
“I don’t negotiate with demons.”
“But you do want your daughter to stop being a target don’t you?”
“What do you want?”
“To offer you an alternative. You see I was a saintess candidate once too. It’s not as bad on the demon's side as everyone thinks it is. I certainly have more freedom here than I would have at the temple.”
“I ask you one last time, what do you want?”
“Let her become an Ascendant like me. You’re not fond of the church, are you? Neither are we. We don’t want there to be a growing number of Saintesses. I promise no harm will befall her from becoming an Ascendant.”
“You demons have a strange way to ask for things. Where I come from you kneel before the King and give them an offering not attack their Fledgeling.”
“I didn’t attack you.”
“Are you joking?”
“No. The demons so far were unorganized criminals. You could call them bandits if you want. The only one our organization had something to do with was the worm that I sent to separate you for a bit.”
“Then what was the bit about you having the power to stop the attacks?”
“That’s easy to explain, whether she gets ordained or becomes an ascendant doesn’t matter. It makes the power awaken either way thus rendering it useless for consumption.”
“I think I prefer the church over demons.”
“Perhaps with some time you’ll change your mind. Let’s meet again under more peaceful conditions. Do you like cookies?”
“Fuck off.”
“I see, not the time to share my baking hobby, huh? Giggle How about this? As a show of good faith I’ll use my influence to make sure you don’t get attacked for a week. I hope you can appreciate that, see you soon, grumpy daddy.”
The projection then disappears and Scarlet cries, “What the hell is going on, papa?”
“Just us being surrounded by idiots thinking they can take advantage of us like always my dear.”
Returning back to the ground the Saintess is busy sealing all the demonic corpses, so the king lands with Scarlet at the wagon next to the Blood Hounds instead.
“Is everything alright?” Rayla asks.
“How is Rose!?” Sher Aka adds.
“She’s fine.” The King answers, “All of you should rest. I’ll go look around for stragglers. Stay away from the corpses.”
The King then flies off again leaving Scarlet to get down on her knees and cry. Rayla quickly gives her a hug and comforts her, starting to cry herself.