Here’s the last important ascendant of Krolgate. I have plans for another post about the ascendants that includes all of them, so keep an eye out for that if you care, lol. Anyway, here we go! Oh yeah, also here the previous one: Mareena, Fifth Ascendant of Krolgate - #2 by Bioman
Junes story begins differently than the other ascendants. They were just like any other champion of the Phoenix, flighty, fun-loving, and unambitious. The one thing that did stand out though, was their love of racing, especially racing people to exit gate. Being able to fly made it easy for them to win, especially since most fell to their death. But winning over and over again became boring, and they started to wonder if it was even possible for a non-flying champion to make it to the gate. That was until they met a champion of the megalodon named Mareena.
June saw her coming up the path, and as she parked her vehicle next to them, they just sighed, expecting another easy victory. “Wanna race?” They said. Mareena’s demeanor shifted, and June saw her smirk.
“What’s your name?” She asked them. Suddenly, June’s entire mood changed. This person wasn’t broken, they were ready.
“June, what about you?” June asked, beginning to get excited.
“Mareena, and I hope you‘re ready to lose” she replied, and June began to get excited. this might be a challenge June thought.
“This is gonna be so much fun” June said to themself. “Ready, 3… 2… 1… go!” June shouted, and then the two were off. The speed of Mareena’s vehicle surprised June, and they thought they might lose the race. But quickly a flaw appeared, and that was the vehicle’s reliance on ground to maintain speed, meaning Mareena would lose momentum hopping from floating island to floating island. Just as it looked like June would win the race again (though this time it looked like they might both finish), June felt something heavy hit their back, and they realized that Mareena and jumped onto them, and used them as the final launch pad. It also sent June spinning out of control, and they hit into floating island, which damaged their wingpack and caused them to fall, down, down, down, all the way down into…
the lair of the Megalodon. They crashed into the cold water, barely managing to hold onto consciousness from the impact. Suddenly, June was in more danger than they had ever been in before. Without their wingsuit, they had no way of getting out of the water, which was a major problem as they had no idea how to swim. As such they began to sink and flounder. Then, their hand brushed against something floating, and the quickly grabbed onto it for dear life, only to discover it was a floating body. This discovery caused them to let go, only to quickly grab back on as they began to sink once again. Not knowing what to do, they drifted for several days, barely staying afloat on this corpse. Then they started drifting faster as they approached a wall of the massive pit they were in. And they heard a noise, like the grinding of gears, or more like something spinning really fast. Then they saw that just below the water’s surface in the cavern’s wall were hundreds of spinning saw blades, and they were being pulled right in. June began to panic, looking for any way out. They saw a ledge above, and praying to anyone that would listen, they tried one last time to activate their wing pack. It worked for just a moment, but that moment was all the needed, as it boosted them up to the wall, where they managed to use the spiked handles of their weapons to stick into the wall and climb the rest of the way to the ledge, finding themselves in…
… the lair of the crab. Though this was part of the inner caves, the factory that produces champions for the Crab. They saw as the chopped up parts of the corpse that had saved them passed along a conveyor belt as they walked deeper into the cave beyond the ledge. They met an unfriendly worker in the factory and had to fight them, though after that June hid from anyone else they met. They decided to gather parts from the factory to fix their wing pack. They also searched for a way out. They traveled around the labyrinthine factory for weeks, until they finally discovered the way out. They went back to the place they’d been using as a hideout to gather the resources to do the final repairs to their wing pack, only to find their hideout had been discovered. The Crab itself chased after them, and they only barely made it to the exit, which the crab did not follow them through, as they had finally arrived in…
… the lair of the snake. While the repairs to the wingpack weren’t complete, June had managed to get it partially work, allowing it to assist with jumps, though they still couldn’t use it to fly. Feeling relatively safe just inside the forests of the lair of the Snake, June took a few days to rest. The end of their rest came when a champion of the Megalodon showed up right near their resisting spot. Remembering Mareena, June approached the champion, and challenged them to a race through the jungle. The other champion excepted, and it was on. Much like Mareena before, June was naive, and the jungle was clever. It was no easy task for June to make it through, but when they finally did, they thought for sure they must’ve lost. But the champion of the megalodon was nowhere to be seen, so June waited. After several hours , June decided to go back into the forest to find the megalodon champion. After some time they heard a shout that sounded like their racing partner, and they hurried to it, only to find themself back out into…
… the lair of the ogre, where the megalodon champion was waiting. “Hah, I beat you!” They gloated.
“What, no you didn’t, I got here hours ago, I just went back in to make sure you were alright!” June shouted
“Hah, likely story, airhead” the other champion jeered.
“Fine then, if you don’t believe me, let’s do a rematch in this lair!” June bellowed.
“Haha, whatever you say windbag, meet you at the maze!” And with that the other champion ran off, June grumbling as they ran after their opponent. June quickly lost sight of their opponent as the giants came to life and separated the two. After several days of travel, June arrived at the entrance of …
… the lair of the Drake. Their opponent was nowhere in sight. Satisfied that they’d won, June sat down and decided to work on their wingpack again to keep themself busy. Just as they finished repairs on the wingpack, their opponent showed up at the entrance. “Looks like I win!” June said smugly.
Their apponent, huffing and puffing, said “rematch!” June laughed.
“You’re on!” And off they went again, into the labyrinth. Even though Junes Wingpack was fixed and they could fly again, their ego dictated that they had to win the same way they had won the other two, only using the wingpack as a jump assist. Having seen the labyrinth from above before, June had an idea of how it worked, and was able to get through it without too much issue. Even so, they finished only a few minutes before their opponent this time, as they bothe arrived in…
… the lair of the Phoenix, once again.
“Oh come on!” The megalodon champion said as they exited the previous lair and saw June waiting.
“Hey, at least I’ve only been here a few minutes this time” June said, grinning.
“Well, this last stretch is all that matters anyway” Junes opponent said, puffing angrily. “This one’s for all the marbles, the first one through gets to be the sixth ascendant of Krolgate, and the loser the seventh. And I mean, who really cares about the seventh, right?” June just chuckled.
“You ready?” June asked, getting into a racing position.
“Always” their opponent said, taking the same pose. Then they were off, jumping from floating island to floating island. The megalodon champion, being larger and stronger, took the lead. Even with the jump assist from their Wingpack, June just couldn’t seem to catch up. But then, suddenly, a bullet passed right by June’s head. Two more champions, a champion of the snake and a champion of the drake, had come out of the labyrinth and were now firing at June and their opponent. Suddenly the race changed, as though they were still racing each other, they were now also racing these other two, who were intent on killing them. Every once in a while, June and the megalodon champion had to help each other. In the end, the megalodon champion made it to the final island first. They turned and winked at June, but right before they could enter the beacon, the snake champion shot a grappling hook into them, and pulled them off the platform, using the momentum to fling themself further. Suddenly, winning didn’t matter to June, and they jumped off after the megalodon champion. They caught them and began flying back to the beacon.
“You can fly?” The megalodon champion wheezed.
“Yeah, ever since labyrinth.” As they flew up, the body of the drake champion fell past them. They reached the last island and June dropped the megalodon champion before landing in front of the snake champion. Ina burst of anger, June materialized their energy swords and sliced down the enemy without a second thought. It was barely a fight, as the few shots June took they barely felt through their rage after it was over, June limped to the megalodon champion. “Come on, you gotta take your rightful place as the sixth ascendant, you won fair and square.” June began dragging the megalodon champion to the beacon, but they put their hand on June’s hand.
“Stop, just stop” they said. “I’m already done for, I can feel myself slipping away”
“No, no you can’t die now, you’re so close, I’ll help you, we can go together!” June said desperately.
“Please, before I go, tell me, what is your name?”
“I can tell you when we get to the other side, just come on”June tried pulling some more, but their wounds were starting to really affect them, and they could drag their friend any further.
“Please, you have to go, for both of us. Just fulfill this one last wish to, know the name of my greatest opponent. June let go of their friend and began to weep.
“My name is June” they said between sobs
“Well June, my name is Calsey. Nice to finally officially meet… you.” And with a final shuddering breath, Calsey was gone. June could hear other champions at the entrance to the lair, and they shakily got up and started shambling to the beacon.
Just as June went through, they looked back at the Body of Calsey and said under their breath “goodbye, friend…”
Alright, that’s it for now, I’m probably gonna make an epilogue post at some point, but until, then, hope you enjoyed!