Ascendance The Original Lands Book 1

I stayed up for hours that night, texting Allen and Tirieal. Allen seemed to think that China made these sh.i.p.s and they are now invading. Tirieal had a more reserved opinion.

Once I felt like I had enough of hearing talk of those sh.i.p.s, I jumped onto my computer and played a few real-time strategy games, computer games where you command things.

They're my all time favorite genre of game. Command and Conquer kept me occupied for hours, before I finally decided to call it a night, or morning, and get some shut eye.

I dreamed my home was on fire, which the whole town was on fire. Bodies littered the streets, while blood gave the city a forbidden color. Flying above the town, firing on it was the mysterious fleet. Their fighters and mechas rained down upon it, completely leveling several buildings.

I fled through the town, trying to escape. I almost made it, until one of the mechs jumped down and landed in front of me. What scares me the most, though, is not the fire or my town being destroyed.

It's what I wasn't able to do when the mech intercepted my path, it glared down on me and raised its rifle. I couldn't move, I couldn't scream, I couldn't even breathe. I couldn't do anything, and that scares me.

I woke up in a cold sweat. I jumped out of bed almost immediately while grabbing my phone, and headed straight for the shower.

I made a detour on the way and stopped by the kitchen

My mom was nowhere to be seen, I guess she was out and about. She tended to do a bit of shopping on her off days.

Seeing a lone piece of paper on the table, I moved forward towards it.

It was a note from mom, I leaned down to read it and rested my arms on the table.

Sebastian,

Went out to the store. Will be home later, we'll have spaghetti tonight in preparation for your company.

Love you,

Mom

Figures, mom always enjoyed shopping.

With a sudden thought, I pulled out my phone and texted mom, asking that she bring home some snacks for my gaming session with Allen tonight.

With any luck, she'd read it. Otherwise, we'll be going back to the store.

I slipped the paper back on the table, and turned back and headed towards the bathroom.

The sweat was making my skin a bit sticky, I didn't like the feeling.

I grabbed a towel, a change of clothing, and jumped in. The water was amazing and seemed to temporarily wash away all my worries.

***

The shower was exactly what I needed to cool off and relax. That nightmare had me tense for a bit.

After I got dressed and dried off, I sat on the couch and turned the television on.

Currently, there is an emergency news broadcast. There was an image of the fleet in the top left corner, right behind the beautiful blonde caster, who had a model's face and body.

"Government officials have said they have managed to make contact with the fleet, which has stopped short of United States waters." She said. I leaned forward, my interest peaked.

The announcer continued, "From what officials tell us, this fleet is from a new land on Earth, currently hidden by a barrier. The only information the government has released, is this fleet is here to find..."she paused, her eyes scrunching up slightly, "An Emperor for their nation."

I reached down at that moment and pinched my skin.

I'm awake, alright. I thought, sighing softly.

This can't be real, a fleet of highly advanced warsh.i.p.s that supposedly come to earth looking for their leader, I thought to myself, trying to understand the situation.

The screen behind the news caster changed, the image of a man appeared. He was wearing weird clothing, clothing that nobody of this day and age would dare to wear in public. His blood red hair was well groomed, it waving over towards the right side of his body. His face looked completely clean, not a single mark on it besides the beard that almost looked like it was painted on by an artist of extreme talent. His eyes had a piercing look, yet they also held the image of one full of purpose.

He looked like he was cosplaying for an anime, but this was an HD cosplay with very exquisite details. He wore porcelain white armor, trimming the armor was an exquisite blue pattern, it kind of looked like vines except it looked beautiful and well placed. On the man's shoulders sat a cape, it covered his back.

I couldn't tell the color of it. Behind the man stood several soldiers, in the same armor with capes. They however wore helmets, where small white wings trimmed with blue rested where the ears should be.

Strapped to the men's sides were swords.

Swords? These guys mustn't know what a gun is, I thought.

The news caster cleared her throat, after she realized she paused for several minutes.

"What we have on screen behind me, is an image of the man who calls himself a Lord Commander, he says he is in charge of the mission." The lady continued, her hands slowly fidgeting with each other.

I hope she doesn't get in trouble for that.

"The man has told us that they already know the name of the Emperor and his location, and are working with the government right now. A government spokesperson has said, and I quote, they are working with the man on reaching an agreement. The government have also said that the Lord Commander has not released the name of their target to them as of yet. They are working to secure that information also." The blonde lady said, managing to get all of that out in a single breath. I was impressed if anything, that was a mouthful. I wonder if she has a boyfriend.

I leaned back against the couch and closed my eyes. The news caster continued to talk, except now moving on to other topics and promising to keep the viewers updated on the situation.

With the remote in my hand, I turn the television off, not wanting to hear anymore.

***

After a few hours of playing more Command and Conquer, I hear the front door open. I get up and head to the front room. Plastic bags being being shuttled through the living room catch my attention, and I turn the corner to find myself face to face with my mom, her arms full of them.

I reach forward and grab the bags from her, then carry them toward the kitchen.

"Seb, please get the rest of them out the car. I need to use the bathroom!" she says, while rushing off, "I've been holding it in!" she finishes, not looking back.

I sit the groceries down on the floor, and head out to the van. I grab as many bags as I can, almost all of them. I promise myself to return out here and shut the door after I get the rest of these in. I manage to carry them to the front door, feeling like superman as I go.

As I get to the door, I realize that I can't open the door as my hands are full, and do the only thing that seems logical in this situation, I knock on the door using my head. I don't wait for long as my mom comes up and opens the door, I scuttle past her quickly, my arms feeling almost like Jell-O.

I make it to the kitchen, feeling like I've been holding the world up with my hands. I let the groceries fall to the floor, while guiding them down gently.

The bags hit the floor with a tiny thud. Hopefully, there were no eggs in there. It would drive my mom crazy, she can't stand the bread getting squished or eggs getting cracked. Knowing her, she picked out the carton of eggs that was perfect. No broken or cracked ones, I blame the chef in her.

I extend my arms, popping them at the elbows and stretch them. I've never been athletic much, I'm underweight by a little bit for my age. It's nobody's fault but my own, I suppose. Never been much of eater, I almost am to the point of actually disliking to eat. Not really normal, since people love food.

Everyone has their own likes and dislikes, though. And unfortunately, food falls into one of my dislikes. It might be because I have a fear of choking. My anxiety is bad too, so that doesn't help much.

My mom walks into the kitchen seconds later. "I got you plenty of snacks for your gaming session tonight, dear." She told me, a grin plastered on her face.

In seconds, I walked over to her, dodging around several of the plastic bags that stood between us, and wrapped my arms around her tightly. She returned the embrace and we stayed still for several seconds.

"Did you hear about what the fleet is doing here?" I asked, finally working up the courage to talk about what was eating us both up. I knew my mom better than I thought, and lately, she has been a bit off. She's been off since that fleet has appeared.

"Yeah, I heard it on the radio, it was also a largely discussed topic in the stores I visited."

"No surprise there, I mean giant robots with cool flying sh.i.p.s. Seems like something ripped out of Star Wars, minus the robots." I replied.

My mother chuckled, her hand moving to hide her smile. "You always did like Star Wars."

I nudged my eyebrows at her, moving them up and down several times. This brought along another wave of laughter from her.

"You know me all too well," I said, while turning away from her and leaning down to pull things out of bags.

She certainly spared no expense on the snacks. Ch.i.p.s, candy bars, small snack cakes, and even a few frozen pizzas. There were also several two liter drinks.

Tonight was going to be a stress free night of gaming, Allen and me were going to have a blast.

***

It didn't take long for us to put up the groceries. We had food and snacks that would last us for days. Mom seemed to love buying stuff in bulk all at once. It kind of made no sense to me, as she'd still go out and get items even if there was plenty of things to eat at the house. She's the type of person who'd also spend two-hundred dollars on groceries in one day, and order Pizza for dinner that night.

I can't say I hate it though, Pizza is one of my more favorable foods, and she takes advantage of that.

"Why do you think the aliens are picking a leader from among us?" I asked, we moved from the kitchen to the front room. I rocked in a recliner that sat in between the couch and a loveseat.

"They aren't aliens, I think." My mom said as she skimmed through the television channels, stopping on some drama that had a clown on screen.

"Well, I think they are. They aren't from the world as we know it, so wouldn't that make them aliens?" I asked, getting ready for a debate.

She started, "The part of the world they come from is still on earth, according to them. They somehow closed us off from them." My mom pulled her sandels off, exposing her tanned feet. She laid back on the couch, and let her head lay on the arm rest. "So since they come from earth, that would mean they aren't aliens." She finished.

That stopped me dead. They did say they were from another part of the earth, and they did look like humans.

I'm not into guys, but that alien's face was handsome and almost perfect.

I think this is going to be a topic of debate all over the world.

"Well, I can't argue that. Just give me some time to get some dirt on them, I'll come back to you then." I said, surrendering the discussion for now while promising my return.

My mom shrugged, her eyes glued to the clown drama on television.

I was finding it completely boring, so I got up and headed to my room.

***

The weekend passed by in a blur, the gaming night that Allen and I had planned was a complete success. We fought zombies and played some co-op, I can say I ended up irritated with Allen a few times when we fought each other, he used a few underhanded tactics I didn't approve of. I suppose I'm more of the honorable fighter when it comes to things like this. Fair fights are more interesting than cheap ones, in my opinion.

Allen took his victory over me with a grin stretching ear to ear.

Well, at least he isn't taking the opportunity to take friendly jabs at me. He does it sometimes, much to my dismay.

***

Monday morning came by faster than I would have liked.

Sunday passed by in a blur, as always. The weekends always zoom by.

I used my phone alarm to wake up for school. For some, this wouldn't work too good. For me, it's perfect. Almost any type of sound will wake me. My door opening and my mom entering the room would wake me, though I don't know if that's because of any sound. Maybe my body is just trying to protect me and it senses a change in the environment.

That's possibly something I'll never know, and I'm glad I can say I don't particularly care much for knowing it at all.

While the weekend flew by, many noticed that there was a lack of information regarding the fleet of sh.i.p.s. It still holds position where it is, though now there are noticeably more warsh.i.p.s around it from other countries.

Several countries including Canada, the United Kingdoms, France, and even Japan have sent several warsh.i.p.s to reinforce the United States fleets. Can't say this makes me feel any better.

From more pictures and even videos that have emerged on the internet, I've seen more of those mecha units, as well as what appears to be some sort of advanced fighter plane. They patrolled in between their sh.i.p.s.

The world can send all the troops they want over there, and I don't think it'd do any good.

The morning went by fast, and in no time, mom and I were on our way to pick Allen up, and then we'd head to school.

Allen jumped into the van with a greeting as soon as it pulled into his driveway, his mother and father always worked early in the morning to late in the evening. Hence why he always rode with my mom and me. Mom made time in the mornings and afternoons to take us and pick us up, her boss was an old friend of my father, she had told me. Said they had been classmates back in high school.

Mom has worked for him for many years, and in all those years, he has taken good care of us.

Mom and I returned his greeting, her going even farther by asking if he slept well.

He replied that he hadn't, said he wanted to do another gaming session with me. Which prompted a chuckle from my mother accompanied by a maybe.

My mom set a course to the school, and soon, we were pulling into the parking lot. She reached over her seat and kissed me on my forehead.

"Have a good day, you two. I'll see you when you get home." She said, glancing back at Allen too as she said it.

He waved, and got out, me following his lead soon after as I opened my door moments after he pulled open the sliding door.

Mom drove off a minute later, after making sure our doors were shut and we had our backpacks.

Together, me and Allen turned and headed towards the building. I noticed four familiar figures waiting for us.

Tirieal and his siblings waited like usual. I don't think they had many friends, so they cherished Allen and I, though they didn't talk to Allen as much as me, he was still a companion to them.

"Good morning to you, Sebastian and Allen," Tirieal greeted respectfully as we approached the sidewalk leading up to the school. He wore his usual tan khaki pants and buttoned up shirt. Tirieal loved to dress nice. He did have an old fashion tone to him, so it made sense.

His siblings also greeted us as we approached.

Kirieal, Nyzal, and Vourn, I noticed. Kirieal was the only girl among the four. Her long brown hair rained down her shoulders, looking as perfect as it could be. Her face was shaped perfectly with not a single scar or bump. Her light caramel skin was as smooth as her face.

Nyzal and Vourn resembled each other almost too perfectly, the only difference between them was their hair. Nyzal's charcoal hair was spikey, sticking up and pointing out towards the sky as if rebelling out.

Vourn's was well groomed, as if he were some rich kid with no cares in life, his hair was more along the line of being submissive.

These two were complete twins, in everything but personality and hair.

Tirieal's hair was cut short but well groomed too, he used gel from what I can tell to help style and give it shape. The lower sides of his hair is cut short, giving off a professional feel to him.

All three of the boys had dirt eyes, with Kirieal having emerald. They were even more beautiful than the gemstone itself, it looked like.

"Sebastian, did you happen to see the recent bit of news about the alien fleet?" Tirieal asked, as they turned and walked in step with us towards the school doors which led to the large gym, where basketball was played.

Several students sat on the bleachers, but there was noticeably quite a few missing, as there were several large gaps between clumps of students.

"I guess everyone is at breakfast, as usual." Allen commented, while looking my way.

"Yeah, you guys hungry?" I asked, looking towards Tirieal and his siblings. I didn't ask Allen, I already knew for a fact he was hungry. Sometimes, it felt like there isn't ever a time he isn't hungry.

"No thank you, we ate at home." Kirieal answered smoothly, her soft angelic voice answering in place of Tirieal.

"Oh, okay. We'll stay in here with you guys then." I said, moving towards the bleachers. I barely heard Allen's groan.

We took a seat on the bottom row of the bleachers, Allen sitting to my left and Tirieal to the right with his siblings following suite.

I turned towards Tirieal, "In answer to your question, I don't think there's been anything else about them release, besides the few images and videos that are currently flowing around on the internet."

Tirieal nodded, "You're right, though there are rumors that the goverment and that Lord Commander guy have reached an agreement on their mission."

I blinked, "Where'd you hear about that? It's likely not a credible source if the news hasn't announced it yet."

"What's funny is you find the news credible," Allen cut in.

"I agree, it's just something on the internet on a few forums I've read."

Out of nowhere, I hear the crumbling of a chip bag and look over to see Allen stuffing potato ch.i.p.s in his mouth, he raises an eyebrow as Tirieal looks over at him as well, "What? I'm hungry."

I shake my head.

***

The school day was going almost as great as it could on a Monday, several new assignments of course but the teachers don't ever give us too much work.

I had just taken a seat in Mr. Llarue's class, when the intercom comes on and the secretary requests me to the office with my things. I look over at Allen and shrug, he nor I understanding why I was called up to the office with my things.

The walk was no longer than a few minutes, but along the way, there were several men in black suits around the area.

Must be some sort of program or awards assembly today.

I arrived and opened the door to find my mother and a pair of the black suits there waiting on me.

"Sebastian!" My mother exclaimed.

I raised a brow, wondering what the commotion was. "Whats going on?"

At this moment, one of the men stepped forward, his garnet-like hair cut short, with sunglasses blocking his eyes.

"Mr.Larouge?" He asked, though I assume he already knew the answer considering my mom just blurted my name out.

I frowned slightly, wondering what these men wanted, then my heart skipped a beat. Maybe they had found out that I torrented a few games in the past, and were here to get me.

"Y-yes, I'm Sebastian Larouge." I stuttered, trying to calm myself down.

The man smirked, seeing my distress, "I'm Agent Miller, with the Department of Homeland security. We're going to need you and your mother to come with us for a little bit."

The man gestured towards the door. My mom nodded at me, and I exited the office with her and the pair of agents behind us.

"What's going on? Am I in trouble?" I asked, my heart going faster than an E5 Tornado.

I heard the two agents pause behind me, neither of them not taking another step, so I turned towards them. It looked like he was debating on whether or not to tell me.

"Honestly, Mr.Larouge, I'm sure you've heard of that mysterious fleet." He started.

I released a sigh of relief. So this isn't about the torrented games, but then if that's the case, that means...

"They're here to request for you to be their next Emperor."