Tony swiftly learned that though Maximus was a great navigator, a pup in a backpack was easily distracted. He knelt and Maximus hopped down.

"I'll follow you, buddy. Show me where the glow stick goes!" Maximus took off like a shot and Tony sprinted after him. To his surprise and woe, he was able to keep up with the dog while carrying Jorogu's lifeless body.

Glow stick go dis way! Maximus took a sharp left and then a right, paws scrabbling on the platform, and darted into a smaller structure. Tony followed and slid to a stop behind the dog. The room was small and bereft of windows. In the center of the room, there was a "web" made of some sort of shifting metal pulsing with a rainbow of greens, purples, and yellows.

Maximus pawed at his leg. I go on back now, please? Tony knelt again and the dog went face-first into the sling. The small dog wriggled, tail wagging all the while until he was right-side-up in the harness. Tony waited until Maximus had steadied himself and set Jorogu down, freeing his hands to catch the Access Key as it popped out of his inventory. It was an odd thing to witness, a small pip of light, a popping sound and then the item appeared. Tony pushed the spike into the center of the web on a guess. The Access Key flashed red and its light merged with the cascade of color, dancing among the other flashes of light on the walls of the small room.

Tony scooped Jorogu up and stepped onto the mercurial web. A chill shot through the soles of his boots and up through his spine as a warp map flashed in front of him. A wide array of planetary points showed on the map and one off-planet; the Haght'anak warp point was a small circle in space. Tony selected the Flagship and would have jumped if the web hadn't held him in place. The glowing lattice sprung up from the floor and wrapped around him, pulsing with a red array light. A blast of heat surged through the room. Tony could feel sections of the web burn away. As soon as it was gone, instead of being flung into a star, like Tony thought he would be, he found himself standing back on the warp pad of the Haght'anak.

A mob of easily thirty people stood in the warp room. As one, they turned to look at him. Selenians, Ashtar, and Celestial Elves stared at Tony and the body in his arms. Their voices all rose at once, a cacophony of questions, demands, and concern and they pushed forward, swarming him. A debuff appeared under his status bars.

Stressed

You are overwhelmed, mentally, physically, spiritually or all of the preceding

Dexterity and Strength increased by 5, Charisma and Stamina reduced by 5

Duration: Varies

Remove yourself from the Stressor to begin Debuff Countdown

Tony didn't need to be told twice. "Pardon me, 'scuse me, please move," Tony found himself repeating over and over as he pushed through the crowd. He heard Maximus yelp in the same instant that some grasping limb struck Tony across the face. He turned to look and saw the hands of a fire-aspected Ashtar trying to tug his dog free of the harness on his back.

"Get your hands off of him!" Tony's voice seemed to bludgeon the gaggle of recently respawned Ascendants with the unspoken "or else" its violent tone carried. The crowd parted in front of him and Tony rushed out. He took note of the various spells being charged, weapons drawn, and arrows nocked in his direction.

Tony didn't care.

As soon as he was out of the room, the timer on his Stressed debuff began to count down, only fifteen seconds. Tony still had a good chunk of time to get Jorogu into the tank and time to spare on the bonus objective. He leaned against the wall around a couple of corners and took a minute to breathe. Maximus joined in, panting heavily. The Ashtar that grabbed at him had scorched his fur and knocked five percent of the pup's HP off as a result.

"Are you okay, bud?" Tony asked.

Too hot hands from mean boy hurted me, the small pup whined both physically and mentally, the pitch of the whimper fanning the protective anger burning in Tony's gut.

"After we save spider-lady, do you think you could find the mean boy?"

Prob'ly, why you wanna find him? Maximus sniffed behind Tony's ear, as if searching for the answer to his question there.

"I think it would be a good idea to teach him a lesson," Tony growled.

Maximus nipped the lobe of Tony's ear and unleashed a rapid series of barks. No! Bad daddy, no hurt peoples! Only ve'y bad peoples like can butt and were-spooder!

Tony's eyes went wide. The dog was right, knocking some sense into a presumably low-leveled Ascendant for trying to dognap Maximus wasn't the right thing to do, no matter how much better he would feel in the moment after.

"Alright, buddy, alright. I won't hurt him, promise," Tony cooed.

Maximus let out a jovial yip and licked at Tony's earlobe.

As they walked to the regeneration and respawn chambers, more Ascendants walked past him, staring at the body in his arms, then at the dog on his back. In most cases, a glare sent them on their way and he could move on uninterrupted. There was one incident where his glare had nearly started a fight, but the Celestial Elf that was so quick to get in Tony's face swiftly backed down when they realized he had nearly six levels on him.

Maximus's chorus of barks and yowling accompanied by his "mental broadcast" nearly caused Tony to fall over laughing. Yeah! Heck you, Bubby! You meanie butt! I pee in your shoes, you be mean-a my daddy again!

"You are going to get so many treats when I have free hands, bud."

Having finally arrived at the Regeneration Pods, Tony lowered Jorogu's legs to the floor and held the rest of her up against him. Her body was cold to the touch, but when it came into full contact with his, it grew warm and trembled. He looked down at Jorogu's face, hoping to see her eyes opened, looking back at him with that shy smile splashed across her lips.

No such luck.

Tony pressed his palm against the panel to the right of the pod and it hissed open. He stepped half inside and stood Jorogu against the back wall. Wires and sensor pads shot out from seemingly nowhere and fastened to her. Tony fought back the urge to tear them off, they would help, he was sure.

Concentrating on his quest items, Semiramis's heart appeared in his hand. Tony peeled back the tattered Yutaka covering Jorogu's chest wound. Despite having seen what was underneath the Yutaka in the bathhouse, the act made Tony uncomfortable, but not nearly as uncomfortable as what he had to do next.

Gritting his teeth, Tony pushed the Queen's heart into Jorogu's open chest. The organ immediately pumped, writhing in his grip. Tony withdrew his hand, eyes wide as he watched arteries and veins sprout from the Queen's heart and splice into Jorogu's.

"Regeneration Pod Activated. Sealing in ten seconds," the ship's AI spoke. Tony stepped out of the pod and watched the door slide up, mere inches ahead of the roiling blue-green regeneration fluid.

You have Completed a Quest!

King of Hearts: To save both the sentience and people of the Arach Empire, you must perform the Rite of Rulership on behalf of the Arach Queen and her heir.

Bonus Objective Completed! As a result, 3 Derangements (Jorogu) have been subverted!

Bonus XP Awarded!

Rewards:

Congratulations, you have reached Level 14!

Congratulations, you have reached Level 15!

You have 3 Unspent Talent Points

You Have Unspent Skill Points

You have Unspent Attribute Points

Your Ascendant Attribute Enhancement Bonus is Available!

Ascendant Class Options have been Unlocked!

You may Select a Dread Knight Set Piece Shards of Brísingamen Rarity: Unique Durability: 100% Armor Slot: Neck Type: Artifact Remnants of the fabled "Gleaming Torc" Shards of Brísingamen holds two minor Enchantments Fire Immunity (Minor): Functions as Greater Fire Resistance [Fetch ID: #379] Greater Fire Resistance: Damage from Natural Fire-Based Attacks reduced by 80%, Damage from Magical Fire-Based Attacks reduced by 40%, can withstand extreme Hot Weather for up to 20160 minutes before penalties for overexposure and heat-based damage apply. Gjöll Stone Amulet

Rarity: Unique Durability: 100% Armor Slot: Neck Type: Artifact

A carved piece of Magma harvested from the riverbank of Gjöll at the onset of Ragnarök. It is said that this amulet holds the unbound essence of the great Flame-Wolf. Only time will tell. Effect: Unknown

Your Social Link with Jorogu has Increased!

Social Rank: 6 Status: Betrothed

Through your actions, your devotion toward this person is unparalleled. Your status is widely known through the Arach Empire, its allies, and its enemies.

Tony winced at the last phrase of the Social Link notification. He had no doubts that an empire would have political enemies, especially after the mention of border security and how the males evolved into engines of destruction. What enemies did the Arach Empire have? Were there Lizard or Bird people out there? Another colony of Spider-people with conflicting views?

As fascinating as it was to think about, Tony didn't have the time to do so at his leisure. There was a God who wanted him dead and had the means to power up his enemies from seemingly anywhere, even without the "avatar" he used to try and kill him being present. Tony selected the Gjöll Stone Amulet and opened his sheet to spend his remaining points, only to be gobsmacked at the full gravity of what "Ascension" had done to his stats. All of his attributes had increased by five points, on top of that, fifteen was clearly a milestone level. The extra attribute points he had to spend on top of what was there left him giddy.

There was one customization to his Dread Knight class that he had to make before continuing.

Please select an Ascendant Specialization before continuing

Dread Knight - Blademaster Ascension

This specialization of the Dread Knight class enhances the Dread Knight's capabilities with their Dreadblade at the cost of advanced spell casting.

Dread Knight - Spellblade Ascension

This specialization of the Dread Knight class enhances the Dread Knight's spell casting capacity, granting them an Arcane Focus and spell slots equal to half of their total level in an Arcane Magic Class of their choice. Precludes advanced Martial Talents.

Dread Knight - Death's Triumphant Ascension

This specialization of the Dread Knight class enhances the Dread Knight's survival. Upon death, the Dread Knight respawns as a Shade of incredible power for 48 hours. If the Dread Knight does not return to the site of their demise, Death comes to claim them permanently. All second-wind talents and healing talents are refunded and precluded from purchase.

As tempting as picking up a bunch of spells for free and being semi-immortal was, Tony wasn't willing to sacrifice the Advanced Martial Talents; he was going to need those to kill Ignacious. On top of that, shades could be targeted by holy magic and easily destroyed and even though the pitfalls of Fatal Resolve had been very clearly indicated, he'd rather have it than lose it. He selected the Blademaster Ascension and moved through the rest of his upgrades.

Character Sheet

Name: Antonious King Race: Ascendant Essence: 3

Class: Squire (5) | Knight (5) | Dread Knight [Blademaster] (5)

Attributes

Strength: 25 Charisma: 20 Intelligence: 20

Dexterity: 20 Wisdom: 20 Wits: 20

Endurance: 25 Spirit: 25 Luck: 15

Skills

Melee – 20 Awareness – 10 Occult – 10

Survival – 5 Fortitude – 15 Athletics (Freerunning) – 10

Socialize - 5 Tandem Tactics: (5) Resolve: 5

Sagas:

Active Saga: War Against Heaven

Backgrounds:

Artifact: Pauldron of Vengeance Covenant Gjöll Stone Amulet

Familiar: Maximus

Talents

Summon Dreadblade (Life-Biting Essence)

Berserker’s Stance Frenzied Blood Rapture *new*

Pommel Strike Punishing Parry

Oath Charge

Invincible Will+ *new*

Fatal Resolve Adamant Slash Bloody Haste *new*

Frenzied Blood Rapture was a straightforward upgrade over Berserker's Stance, removing the killing condition on stamina regeneration and replacing it with "wounding" enemies who would grant experience when defeated. Invincible Will+ now added a twenty percent boost to Strength when attempting to break free of physical bonds in addition to the mental compulsion. Bloody Haste was something else.

Bloody Haste Cost: 10% HP Duration: 30 seconds Cooldown: 2 minutes Effect: Gain thirty percent Haste on Activation, Reduce Cooldown on inactive Talents

It was the first traditional "cooldown" Tony had unlocked; level fifteen was certainly the milestone it had been laid out to be. He remembered reading about World of Warcraft's raids and how there would be three bosses per "wing" of the raid and using all of their encounter-based cooldowns to save time as they would be ready to use by the time the next boss fight came.

Maximus's head plopped down onto Tony's shoulder, the pup was exhausted and now that Tony took a second to evaluate, he was too. It had been at least four days since Tony's head hit a pillow. Everything else could wait at least four hours. Tony traced the first steps he took into the hangar back to the room he woke up in. The room was, fortunately, untouched. He reached over his shoulder and placed Maximus on the ground. The pup perked up for a moment, tail wagging.

"You ready for a nap, bud?"

Maximus let out a low "woof" and jumped straight from the floor into the bed. Tony peeled off his armor, content to drop it on the floor, and climbed into bed. Maximus shuffled under the covers and curled against Tony's chest and let out a deep sigh.

Sleep claimed them both swiftly, and without mercy.