Ascenders: Rising From Zero

In a pathway, spanning from the Forest Pillars, two lean, abnormally long figures at height of 7 feet, strolled into view. Upon closer observation, one could notice the obviously sharp tip of exposed fangs that curved out a little on their lower lips while their sky was a pale ghastly color of light brown, each of them wearing a sort of featureless dark robes that however highlighted their shapes.

They were Adzes, commonly referred to as Vampires of light and Dusk was their activity time.

"Tobia, what do you think about this mission?" The feminine Adze asked. Her head was crowned with long black silk hairs.

"Easy, Deola, Easy!" The finely curved oval set of face that was Tobia replied, chewing on a reed of gra.s.s.

"Easy?" Deola asked, raising a thin eyebrow. "Because of what is happening in the city?" She turned her head to him.

"What? What is happening in Drago?" He asked, uncertainty written all over his face as he frowned slightly.

"You don"t know?" It was Deola"s time to be puzzled. "You have been a sleeper Agent in Drago for decades now and yet you don"t know when things are all wrong in Drago?"

Tobia merely shrugged. "What has being a sleeper Agent got to do with Drago Current Affairs?"

"So you just sleep all through the day and do what again at dusk?"

"Nothing. I sleep all through dusk again. "Cept there is a mission. What? The pay is good enough to take care of my sleeping habits." Tobia added up defencively when he saw the pair of annoyed eyes staring him.

"Tch... That"s why you don"t know of the Dragon that popped up from nowhere and the demon sack." She sighed, shrugging.

But to some extent, Tobia was right. They had been planted there in Drago long ago to carry out whatever secret affairs the Circle wanted done without involving themselves directly.

And because they were vampires with the death aura, it was easy to sniff them out. And to avoid that, the Agents has been asked to maintain very low profile so as to avoid nosing questions, seeing that the Vampires were not really welcome everywhere due to the type of Law they practiced.

The Law of Death, drawing Agbara from the Death Orisha, Iku.

And the low profile they had kept until Asoju Verasin called in on them about a matter of urgency that they had to see to, in Drago. He had equipped them with the soul sensor for them to master the soul essence captured within it for easier tracking. As to why, the Asoju hadn"t reached The Adze Circle first, Deola was at loss.

And that meant something was really up... Afterall what they wanted to capture was a beast with two souls. Where has that been heard, ever?

"I don"t know but the way the mission was just thrown across to us... hmm... this is going to be really deep." She sighed, hugging her self.

"yea... I agree totally. The penetration will be so so deeper than usual." Tobia teased, leaning towards her with a sly grin.

She shoved him away, frowning while her pale cream color cheeks had a tint of red.

"What are you saying? Can"t you just focus, for once?"

"Well, don"t blame me. I"m just interested in anything pertaining to deep." Tobia lickedhis lower lips was he reached for her.

"Dont touch me, you pervert." She blushed, slapping his two hands away while jogging a little forward. "Seriously, focus."

"Well, well... I"ve been told I have a good focus at going in deep. And fast." He chuckled, seeing the pout on his partner"s face.

"Oh... Now that you talk of deep. How about I drill deep into that soul of yours?" Deola began catwalking, smiling seductively.

"You mean, deep?" Tobia leaned his weight back as two hands went to rest behind his neck. "I"m game!"

"Right!"

POW!

"What?" Tobia questioned with a smirk as he ma.s.sages his cheek were Deola"s fist had connected with.

He ducked again, evading a follow up punch, stil smirking. "I get, my penetration Powers"s is irresistible." He laughed as his form s.h.i.+mmered and vanished, a firefly hovering in his spot.

"Firefly? Don"t tell me you are scared of my deep punches?" Deola laughed heartily with hands on her waist.

They had a mission to do but with what was happening in the city, they currently had all the time.

The firefly buzzed around her left ear, diving in between her long soft black hair. "No, Deola... I only accept deep things when I"m the one going in deep." It buzzed.

"Okay." Deola rolled her eyes, trying to suppress a smile. "Just get back to normal, Tobia, jare" (A/N- *Jare is a type of Nigerian exclamation)

Tobia seemed to agree and transformed back. A shadow rose from the ground, vertically as it solidified and took the form of the Adze once more.

The innate ability that the Adze had was their ability to transform into fireflies. It was widely guessed that this ability had been sp.a.w.ned out of their obsession with things of light. One of which was their profound practice of the Law Of Death.

The Laws Of Creation were also termed as Laws Of Light And these, the Vampires has adored. However, they were demons in all rights, so, that would to anyone, be a practical no-no.

But not to the Adze.

They set upon the Law of Death which was one of the many Laws of Creation. As to how Death was under the law of light, people had pondered. The thesis was that, according to historical references and scholarly knowledge, all things were subject to death.

Even the Orisha, G.o.ds in all their might could die. And as such, this meant that the law of death was an Aspectual Law, which without it, reality would be totally unbalanced.

The only exception to the Law of death was Eledumare and perhaps the owner of the left path? After all, Eledumare had not killed him but set him guarded by Death itself, still the owner of the left path, progenitor of the Seven Demonic Laws lived on, albeit, in captivity.

The Adze set it upon themselves to refine their souls to be capable of cultivating Death Agbara. They were successful, at the cost of having incomplete souls. Which meant that if they didn"t feed when needed, their soul would undergo automatic soul decline, regardless whether they were healthy or not.

But it was worth the cost. By doing that, they had become the only spirit beings to access the Aspectual energies of Death. This was only possible because the Death Orisha, Iku was refused the tributary of having Irunmoles to do his bidding as the G.o.ds themselves feared him, along with a few other Orisha who were in charge of some negative Aspectual Laws, the Law of Sickness and Affliction for example.

And thus, their entire specie had broken records and set themselves at the eternal fury of The Irunmole Society, a war that had being fought to stalemate for several centuries running now.

Just then, hurried steps began moving towards them from behind on the path. Already, they had walked down into the forest, greeting the cliff that graced the horizon. Quickly, they jumped off the path, standing still in front of a large tree.

Deola grimaced, clenching her hands tightly.

"it"s that dog. It"s coming from behind us." She muttered, blinking.

"Which makes our job even easier." Tobia said, looking back to see the dog.

"No! I don"t want that dog to come in on us. We don"t know what we are going against so I"d prefer we have the element of surprise first." Deola"s eyes darted to and fro, making some sort of mental observations.

"we already have the surprise element here." Tobia flayed his hands. "ha, look, it"s almaot in front of us."

"No!" Deola"s eyes flashed as a gla.s.s statuette popped up in her hands.

"No, you won"t. I"m not letting you waste that artifact." Tobia growled, reaching a hand for the skeleton like statuette that wasn"t wrapped in a black cloak.

Deola shoved his hands and pushed the occupied hand behind her.

"That dog had the lingering essence of the Lightning fist Ape. It has two souls and you expect me to meet it headlong?" Deola frowned, panting. "Atleast, not now."

"That"s an artifact containing the aura of the Death G.o.d. You want to use that on a Ground Cla.s.ssd Beast? Really?" Tobia laughed bitterly.

"Well, Yes. Just what if it was suppressing its Soul stage? Ever thought of that?"

"No. but it"s not a Sentient beast. You"re scared. That"s wrong, we Adze are the ones to inflict fear, Deola." Tobia growled.

"No, I"m not scared. I"m only being self preservationist." With that, she brought the statuette to her face, squatting a little.

"Agbara Iku, Shadow Of Death!" She chanted, breaking the head of the figurine with a Snap of her thin fingers.

The effect was instaneous as Deola grabbed hold of Tobia. Instantly, their form was coated entirely with a thin line of red overlying a condensed shroud of darkness, hiding their form and darkening the entire area for a radius of a two hundred meters.

Not only that, the coating of chilly darkness that condensed on them began to induce intense fear on everything within its reach, including the Adzes. The environment became alive suddenly as horned Hind bears, Black Eyed Tirians, Earth wafting worms amongst others made their way hurriedly from whatever was around that was capable of creating such effect.

Tobia shrugged his shoulders, gritting his teeth as he ward off the invading panic on his mind while casting a glance at his now s.h.i.+vering partner. What did he expect? That she would have being better?

"You used it." He smiled bitterly. "Now what?"

"Now what?" Deola rose up. "Look, I know you want to blame me for using it but it"s My artifact, not yours..."

"Well, look how you are performing under its effect." He mocked.

"Besides, that dog was supposed to be in the forest. In! Not coming in. Don"t you get it? Why would something that"s supposed to be on the cliff plains be out here? Don"t say food? The do all their hunting at the cliff." Deola shook her head "Doesn"t this seem like something is really up about the dog?"

Tobia might have being right, maybe? But it was her artefact. Besides, high cla.s.sed beings neednt rely on artifact seeing that they could create whatever technique the artifact was intended for, with their own internal energy.

Only Low Cla.s.ses Beings depended on them. And again, they were sleeper agents im Drago because of their low cla.s.sing. If they happened to have high soul ranking, then they would have been snooped out long ago and expelled as their death aura became increasingly harder to conceal with advancement in soul cla.s.s.

Although they were few instances where attifacts were still preferred. The Shadow Of Death technique was something almost any High cla.s.sed Adze could conjure but with limited range and less potency.

The artifact on the other hand, contained some of the death G.o.d aura and once unleashed, not only hid the caster in a layer of stealth and invincibility, but also deducted energy from anyone around, introducing death to them after awhile along with an intense death fear.

And all of these effects took place immediately, unlike when it was casted by a being.

Now, What?

Now, they had to get up the cliff, and find the dog properly. The Shadow Of Death would have faded off by then, but for now, it would have being sufficient in driving their prey towards the cliff, albeit, in another path.