As soon as Nyon gave the order, a hidden faction of the Tal’darim audience was sprung into action.

A dozen ascendants loyal to Nyon, without a warning, warped away. Seconds later, they appeared inside their own ships in orbit. Some of them were carriers pilots while others controlled destroyers.

Three of the ascendants returned to Nyon’s flagship, a giant mothership. The mothership could hold a maximum of hundreds and thousands of Tal’darim. Even normally, the mothership should have tens of thousands of warriors inside.

But today was special. Nyon gave all the crew members the day off to attend the Rak’Shir duel. The warriors didn't suspect anything, but in reality, Nyon quickly replaced these warriors who he couldn’t really trust with his own supplicants who would obey his every command.

This was the beginning of the coup.

As soon as all the ascendants were in place, the ships they controlled set sail. Engines were ignited. Weapons and shields were brought online. Under the confused eyes of the other ship pilots inside the Death Fleet, one mothership, three carriers, and six destroyers moved toward the Pit of Ascension.

Most of the Tal’darim were focused on the duel. Whether it was the battle between the Highlord and the two Ascendants below him or the involvement of the hybrids was enough to keep the Tal’darim’s eyes glued on the Pit of Ascension.

Of course, the millions of Tal’darim weren’t blind. A lot of protoss saw the ship movement, but as confused as they were, they didn't do anything. There were hundreds of capital ships in orbit, but all the ascendant pilots were at Rak’Shir. Their supplicants were left behind to secure the ships, but these supplicants were hardly in a position to make decisions to step in. The most they could do was contact their overlords.

Unfortunately, their overlords were too busy to answer.

Outside the pit, Nyon waved his hand, and his supplicant forces converged and surrounded the field where most of the high ranking ascendants were.

A thousand psionic blades shined in the crimson field.

“What is the meaning of this?” Ji’nara demanded. She was above Nyon, but Nyon didn't give a damn about ranking anymore. He merely smirked and gestured at his own army.

Ji’nara’s expression changed as she also summoned her own supplicants. For ascendants of her position, supplicants were in the thousands. The idea of bringing them all with her to view the Rak’Shir was foolish. Zenish was able to step into the duel this quickly with his army because he was prepared to help Guraj even before the dual began. Nyon could do so because this coup was part of his plan and he was ready for it. Ji’nara, a good ascendant who had no plan of stepping out of line, wasn’t expecting trouble. She kept her supplicants a short distance away. Now that she needed these warriors here to back her up, she needed time.

A distance away, a supplicant army more than equal to that of Nyon approached, but the next second a swarm of interceptors came down from the sky and overwhelmed the supplicants. Zealots, who made up the bulk of the army, were completely obliterated. Their blades were useless in this situation. Even if they could take on a couple Daelaam zealots or a dozen zerglings and win, there was nothing their melee skills could do against interceptors.

Vanguards faced a similar scenario as they were dissected by the interceptor lasers. Some fired desperately, but their scatter cannons only burned away friendlies and left the interceptors unscathed.

Adepts and slayers were more fortunate. Glaive cannons and particle disruptors were fired into the air and took down dozens of interceptors, but among the swarm of thousands of interceptors, those prizes seemed insignificant. Without further support, these ranged supplicant units collapsed as well.

One of the ascendants fired a psionic orb into the air, but all he got was a participation award as three destroyers turned on their destruction beams on him. His shield disappeared first, and was quickly followed by his body. A couple of other supplicants tried to return to their ships. As they enabled their warping systems, their heads suddenly were separated from their shoulders.

Blood hunters rewarded these quick-thinking pilots by giving them a death by the blades rather than one by orbital bombardment.

Before long, Ji’nara’s supplicants were gone.

Among the audience, Ji’nara’s eyes widened and she screamed. Her supplicants were the basis of her ascension, and now that they were gone, she was as good as dead. Anyone below her would gladly challenge her. She was about to ignite her blade and try to take Nyon by surprise when Alarak stopped her.

“Fifth Ascendant. I am impressed.” He said slowly while secretly trying to contact his pilots. As long as he could delay Nyon for a while, he could have an entire fleet by his back. Then, he would decide if he wanted to talk or to fight.

But Nyon was too smart for that.

“Seize them.” He ordered.

All of Nyon’s supplicants moved forward. Inside the circle, all the ascendants drew their blades. Most of them brought a handful of supplicants with them just to show their strength, and now these supplicants and ascendants formed up into an army of several hundred.

Alarak was confident he could stand his ground. As soon as reinforcement arrive, he could condemn Nyon as a traitor, which he is, and have him seized and executed. Hell, he might even be able to take a fraction of Nyon’s fleet!

Things changed when three destruction beams landed among the ascendants and burnt their way through the defenders. The destroyers maintained their energy output until half the ascendants and supplicants were gone.

The rest stopped themselves from charging. It was a wise decision.

“Fools. I just massacred her forces. What makes you think you have any chance against me?” Nyon smirked. Just because he used his supplicants to surround the ascendants didn't mean he needed the zealots and slayers to do the job. Otherwise what are ships for?

“You have no honor!” Ji’nara screamed. She took the most losses in this exchange. Not only was her supplicants obliterated, she herself was almost roasted by one of the destroyers. She managed to get out of danger’s way in time, but two ascendants by her side perished in the flames. She spent a lot of time and resource to acquire these two ascendants fully loyal to her, and the loss was painful.

Nyon smirked. Honor? What is it? Victory was the only thing that mattered. He flipped his blades. “Surrender, or die.”

The ascendants looked at each other.

Alarak was the first to lower his weapons. Other ascendants joined him. Ji’nara looked as if she wanted to dissect Nyon alive, but she gave up in the end nonetheless.

“Order your ships to stand down, or I assure you, you will be long dead before your ships arrive.”

Nyon pushed on.

The ascendants nodded. No one doubted Nyon’s words. The six destroyers just took out half of them in twenty seconds. Knowing Nyon, he probably had a net of observers around the fleet of the ascendants. It would take minutes to move from orbit to the Pit of Ascension. By the time these minutes passed, the destroyers would have enough time to reduce the resistance to ash and destroy the ash.

Meanwhile, inside the pit, the battle was pretty much over. Guraj was beheaded by Ma’lash with a swift strike before losing both arms to a hybrid reaver. Her determination to fight until the end brought one reaver to the grave with her, but that was it.

Saved from destruction, Ma’lash didn't have time to thank the hybrids. Already, several Tal’darim outside the pit that were loyal to him were trying to contact him like crazy. It took Ma’lash a couple seconds to sort through all the distress messages and realize what happened.

“Nyon! What have you done?” If Ma’lash had a mouth, it would be wide open in shock. The Highlord had trouble connecting the quiet, cunning Tal’darim who saved the entire Death Fleet to someone bold enough to stage a coup and try to take the throne without the traditional Rak’Shir duel. Then again, just like Guraj and Zenish, Nyon was an ascendant, and all ascendants yeaned for ascension.

As Highlord, Ma’lash’s job was to crush those who sought to challenge him and those who went against the tradition. He would gladly do both by crushing Nyon.

The situation was bad and Nyon came prepared, but Ma’lash was still the Highlord. A single order from him could strip Nyon of most of his fleet and army. Most of the Tal’darim weren’t sure what happened and therefore weren’t capable of doing anything, but Ma’lash’s command could change that. Before long, the entire Tal’darim world would turn against Nyon and his handful of supplicants. The rebels would burn.

“Death Fleet, in the name of the Highlord of the Tal’darim…”

Suddenly, the hybrids started screeching. Both their protoss side and their zerg side warned of imminent danger. Ma’lash frowned before realizing something was darkening the skies. Whatever it was, it blocked out the sun and covered the entire Pit of Ascension with shadows.

Ma’lash looked up.

It was a mothership. A Tal’darim mothership.

He didn't remember dispatching a mothership here. Therefore, the mothership could only belong to one person.

Nyon.

Sensing what was about to happen, Ma’lash tried to manually active his emergency warping system, but just as he did so, four blood hunters emerged from the shadows and slashed down on Ma’lash. Their blades aiming for his chest and his skull.

Ma’lash swore. Two of the blood hunters were caught in mid air by two hybrids and another was intercepted by one of Ma’lash’s last ascendants, but the last blood hunter wasn't intimidated. His weapons were still heading straight for Ma’lash. These blood hunters never thought about leaving this pit.

Ma’lash was forced to break his warping process and deal with the blood hunter. He wanted to leave, but he didn't want to leave half his body here either.

By the time the blood hunter was down, the mothership in the air was ready for fire.

“Nyon! Don’t you dare…”

“Fire at once.” Nyon commanded with accomplishment in his voice.

The mothership’s purification beam came out of the bottom of the ship and slammed into the Pit of Ascension. The moment it hit the ground, the beam turned the entire pit from metaphorical hell to actual hell. Everything in its way was melted and reduced into the most basic particles. Hybrids, reavers and destroyers alike, burned. Ma’lash himself didn't stand a chance. He was at the center of the explosion, and he took the full brunt of the blast.

It didn't go well for him. The Highlord died with barely a scream.

What was left of his supplicants, the best of the best who survived all the combat against Guraj and Zenish’s forces, disappeared equally quickly.

When the smoke disappeared, the pit of Ascension was reduced to a gaping hole leading to the center of the planet.

The pilot of the mothership did a scan for life signals before contacting Nyon. “My lord, all life signals in the pit are gone. It is confirmed that Ma’lash, along with his supports, is dead.”

Inside the field and hearing the report, Nyon gestured for what used to be the Pit of Ascension before turning back to the ascendants, who have realized what Nyon just did.

“Ma’lash is dead, and I am now the Highlord of the Tal’darim! Any questions?”

The supplicants around him waved their blades, telling the ascendants what would happen if they indeed had some questions.

Alarak was the first to kneel. The rest of the ascendants soon followed.

What happened later was easy. As the ascendants surrendered, most of the Tal’darim mass obeyed as well. Some blindly loyal to Ma’lash seeked to avenge his death, but they were quickly rooted out and publicly and brutally executed. Nyon didn't hesitate to use brute force to enhance his control.

It took a few days for all the Tal’darim to calm down and get used to Nyon’s command of the Death Fleet as the Highlord. That was when Nyon broke the news that Amon betrayed the Tal’darim, and that he would lead the Tal’darim against Amon.

This created another uproar, but Nyon had a good teacher, and he learned quite a lot from Jean about manipulation. At first, he went to the ascendants and announced the news. Those who were bold enough to choose death over submission were all gone at the pit, and the rest have already surrendered to Nyon as the Highlord. They had little reason to pointlessly throw away their lives for Amon, who has openly interfere into the Tal’darim internal affairs. Plus, most of the upper level Tal’darim weren’t as stupid and blindly loyal to Amon as their underlings.

With the ascendants enlisted, Nyon went on to ease the resistance before opening declaring war on Amon. He first asked the ascendants to list out those under their command who were blindly loyal to Amon and who would definitely stand against him and put them into a single fleet. He then sent this fleet on a suicide mission, which failed and killed everyone in the fleet.

With the toughest obstacles gone, Nyon finally announced the news. Resistance was inevitable, but they were weak enough to be put down.

And that was how Fifth Ascendant Nyon jumped to the place of the Highlord of the Tal’darim.