Aimless Ascension

Gale awoke among the dead, his chest heaving up and down to breathe air. The biting cold air made his heart shiver as he spasmed to rise from the corpses enveloping him.

Black menacing clouds swirled in the sky, as tremors of red lighting flashed frequently. The dead lay in silence as if the great cataclysm descended on the world and destroyed everything for all the sins we have committed.

Gale crawled through the mutilated corpses, his injuries, and exhaustion wasn't making it any easier. His head was heavy, mind dull as he was drained of everything during the battle.

Blood of different colours, red, orange, and purple smeared everywhere. A ghastly reek stretched in the vast land of the battlefield. Gale had the terrible foreboding that he was the only one who survived.

The battle was abandoned hours ago.

They have won, if you call such a terrible sight a win, that was.

Mustering the bit of strength that he recovered, Gale stumbled up to lean against the huge corpse of a Thunderfiend. An eight-foot tall spear stood proudly on the homogenous fiend's gorged head.

Thunderfield was massive, stone-like skin painted in faint red and purple, eyes glowing red even in death, albeit a bit dull. Sharp protrusions had grown out of its body, as well as tens of tentacles spread from its body like razor whips, giving a menacing vibe to this demon. All of that was equally deserved.

When Gale sighted the Thunderfiend for the first time, a primal fear had overtaken him. Gale froze during the fight, just getting overwhelmed by its frightening aura. But now that it was dead and Gale being exhausted to no end, he didn't really have any more energy left to be frightened.

Gale still wasn't particularly sure how he had killed such a creature. But the scenes of thousands of life ravaged by this fiendish creature remained clear to him.

Gale eventually managed to deal with it, but it was already too late. The monstrosity had caused over thousands of casualties. These men and women, they listed under him, not in the feign dream of glory, but just to survive.

Gale failed them there miserably.

'It's the mortal's destiny to die,' A voice told him in his head. Gale was too tired to think too much of it. Red lightning clashed in the sky, as a deafening roar of thunder echoed throughout the blackened land. 'It is the mortal's fate to fail as well. But you, dear, have shown me something I was not certain possible. I. Cannot. Wait."

Gale shivered as the voice finished. He looked up at the gathering storm. It was rising by every second, spreading all around the sky, preparing to overtake the land on its release.

And it did take over the land in its torrential forces, red lightning flashing all around, booming in its inglorious wake.

Gale watched like a bystander, too exhausted to move even a muscle. Eventually, he closed his eyes as the storm swallowed him whole.

Darkness. Coldness. All that remained.

Then Gale woke up on the bed of the Wang's Inn, his chest rising and falling in heavy gasping. Gale found Vale next to him deep asleep and sighed in relief.

He clutched the water flask from the side table and drank a few mouthfuls of water, relieving his sore throat.

It wasn't the first time Gale was having such a vision, but it wasn't that frequent either. At first, he wasn't ready to accept that something was wrong with his head, but the more he dreamt of the nightmare, the more disconcerted he got.

Perhaps I should look up a good healer of the mind, he thought, and left the bed.

It was still dark, as it hadn't even been a couple of hours since he went to bed. Gale crept through the corridor on the way towards the veranda on the side.

Sliding the door open, Gale immersed himself in the openness, though the first thing he saw was a crouched-down figure leaning against the wall, looking at him.

Wang Li was equally startled to find him appearing there as he had. As Gale was deliberating over whether to leave or not, Wang Li turned her head towards the small pond, a half-moon reflected on the surface perfectly.

"Can't sleep?" Gale asked awkwardly, standing idly.

Wang Li remained silent for a while. She was slightly shivering in the chilly wind, crouched with her arms around her knees. "Sometimes I wonder," she said eventually, her voice shivering, "have I only made mistakes in my life?"

The question was rhetorical, but Gale replied, getting the conversation going. "Mistakes, failures, regrets, they are inevitable in life. I told myself all the time, but it didn't help any bit when you drown in misery."

Wang Li turned her head to give him a look before turning again. "Sometimes I wonder what my life would have been like if I hadn't strayed away from the martial path." She sighed, rubbing her legs. "I wasn't as talented as my sister, but I wasn't that terrible at it, either. I might be able to get into some silver-ranked sect if I tried harder."

Wang Li's voice cracked as she almost burst into tears. "But I chose family over spirit arts. How stupid I was, thinking I would not need to be at this and that rank of spirit arts to be respected in the relationship."

Oh dear, Gale thought. He couldn't muster up anything to say that might relieve her somewhat. This wasn't really his strong suit.

Gale watched as Wang Li quivered, tearing up, head bowed in the middle of her knees.

Gale let out a self-conscious sigh and brought a blanket out of his void-lock. He tossed that to her and walked a few steps to meet the naked sky.

"My parents divorced when I was young," he said eventually. "I was simply too little to understand anything about why they are breaking up. But now I know why. Sometimes, it's as simple as the accumulation of miscommunication, sometimes it's more . . . In the end, it depends on what you want from the relationship. You have a beautiful son. I think you love him enough to hold on and try harder."

Leaving those words, Gale didn't wait for a reply. He always found flying to be the most stress-relieving. He needed that. Now.

Gale lunged up in the air and released Stormsong as wild wisps of wind pulsed behind him, lifting him up in the air. Then with another pulse of wind Qi, Gale disappeared from Wang Li's sight.

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When I first started writing this, I hadn't thought the story would turn this root. Anyway, enough emotional drama, fun stuff coming next.

Thank you for the review, sugar_danny.