Ascension may undergo some extensive rewrites in the near future.  I've been unhappy with how quickly some events progressed as I let loose the reins, and the characters went wild.

I've asked a question though my profile, but received no answers from followers. Should I open a Patreon, use another service, or not bother? Remember, this is an original work, not a translation. I am unemployed again, so writing is keeping me occupied for a while.

 

Nuri gently held Aila, but soon frowned. She felt something was off with her Master, and within a short period of time, she couldn't understand what it may be, but she grew quite worried.

"Alara! Ivadra! Someone! Please!" Nuri yelled. Everyone within range of her voice rushed into the room.

"I feel a surge in light elements." Alara said. Ivadra looked at her sister.

"I feel the dark elements surging."

"And I feel life. If I'm not wrong, all her elements are surging. I just don't know why." Nuri said softly, but it wasn't long until Ellie rushed into the room.

"Master!" She rushed to her side. "It feels like when we were in the past." She said softly, and reached out to take her hand. Alara tilted her head.

"The past?"

"A long time ago. Great cities. Lots of power." She closed her eyes. "But the people were evil. They made the demis, and murdered thousands of men and women slaves to do it. So much pain, and despair." She said softly, then lifted her eyes that she had closed. "She's generating an abnormal amount of elemental essence...oh." A young girl slowly appeared in Aila's arms.

"Ellie." Aila whispered.

"Master, I'm here." She said.

"Care. Symi. Promise." Aila said and looked at her with tired eyes.

"I will take care of her, Master." Aila smiled at Ellie's words.

"Good girl." Aila closed her eyes. Nuri scanned her with life elements and sighed.

"She's hibernating, and really deep now." She scanned the girl. "Poor girl. Starved like we were." Ellie looked her over.

"So young. Master spent a lot of energy to bring her here." The girl slowly opened her eyes and saw Ellie. "Master said to take care of you. You're Symi, right?"

"Symi." She turned over in Aila's arms, and looked at her face. "Promised mom. Look after Symi." Ellie smiled.

"If our Master made a promise to your mom to look after you, we'll keep that promise." Ellie said. "Come here. Let me take you to get something to eat. Kaala made some hearty stew." Symi looked at Ellie, then reached out her hands so she could be lifted. Ellie smiled and lifted her carefully.

"Nuri, let Alara and Ivadra stay with Master. I need you to look Symi over. Maybe let her drink some of your milk. Do you eat enough cheese? Master once said that milk drains the body, so you have to eat cheese to fix that." Ellie said while she held the child in her arms.

"I'll make sure to have some with some bread later." Nuri smiled after Ellie carried Symi out of the room. "She has definitely changed."  Nuri slowly released her hold on her beloved Master, while Alara and Ivadra slipped into the bed on either side.  Each groaned as they felt something drain them a little before the pressure eased.  Aila felt like a hungry beast that almost forgot who its companions were.

"She's passively absorbing the elements to replenish what she's lost, but the suction is incredibly strong. Do we have any beast cores?" Ivadra asked. Nuri pursed her lips a bit.

"I'll go talk to Elena. She's the strongest out of all of us with that earth element of hers. She'll need to take the other bears out on a hunt."

 

* * *

 

"My Queen." A pale white young woman knelt on the stone down at the base of a platform dais. A few stairs were carved in the large stone platform, so that people could easily walk up to the throne. The Queen on the throne wore a black dress that showed off her shoulders, a fair amount of cleavage, and parted at the sides to show off her long muscular legs.

"Have the invaders been subdued?" The equally pale woman said, her voice caused a slight tremor in the surroundings when she spoke.

"Yes, Mother. Can't even call them invaders. More of a scouting party. Merely a twenty core level mercenaries, and a hundred high foundation realm. They are being washed at this moment." The woman crinkled her nose, which made the Queen chuckle.

"Then summon the others, daughter. It's time to eat." The young woman giggled like a girl, and smiled brightly.

"Thank you, Mother." She quickly left, and tables were set up in the throne room. Fully armored soldiers were the work force, with their faces covered by their helms. Half a dozen men and women were brought into the throne room, all freshly washed, their hands bound at the wrists. Six girls, one as young as five, rushed into the room not long after.

"Mother!" The Queen smiled as the youngest ran up the stairs to her throne.

"Giel, still so young even though you're over fifty.  Come and sit up here with me.  It's time to eat." The girl grinned, her pale white skin quite similar to her Mother's, even if her face didn't resemble her. Her black eyes sparkled as she licked a fang.

"Is there a sweet one here?" She asked and looked over the selection. "That one!" She pointed, which made her mother smile.

"She does look sweet, doesn't she?" She pointed to a soldier. "Bring her." The soldier bowed.

"Mother, why do you use the zombies to serve the food?" The girl asked.

"They are still useful, little one. Now be good. Your food is here." The Queen put the girl onto her lap, and a table was put in front of her. The mercenary woman she pointed to was brought up the stairs, her fear emanated off her in waves.  She was far too weak to fight against the core realm dead soldiers.

The soldiers lifted her easily, and laid her on the table. The Queen pulled the woman's shirt off as though it was made of paper instead of leather.  Sol nodded in appreciation of her large full breasts.

"Not bad. Go ahead, little one. Have the first bite." The girl grinned, crawled up onto the table, and straddled the woman's hips.

"Life element user. Too impure. Mom, can you change her? She's quite attractive." The Queen shook her head.

"Her core would break, little one. Don't play with your food this time, Giel." She looked at the floor and gave the signal. Cries of pain rang out as the girls lowered their lips and bit deeply into their victims.

Giel pouted a bit, but looked at the woman beneath her.

"I wanted to keep you, and eat you for a long time, but mother said your core is too weak to be a feeder doll. Too bad. You smell nice." Giel lowered her mouth to the frightened woman's breast, and slowly sank her fangs into her flesh. She couldn't move as she was held down by the Queen's elemental pressure. Death elements could steal a person's strength, suppress their vitality, or kill them immediately if the Queen willed it.

"That's it, little one."  She heard Giel suck firmly on the breast, but what she drained was not blood, but life essence.  "Change the element as you drain it. Good girl. Only her life elements. Master made me capable of draining the rest, so I'll finish her off for you, when you're full."  Giel lifted her mouth, and growled.

"Mother, she's so tasty!  I can't...grr...can't....arrrr!"  The Queen watched as the girl lost her mind as her life element, and her blood was drawn into her mouth.

"Ah, so good!" Teeth dug deeper, and she ripped out large portions of flesh to feed her voracious appetite. Giel licked her lips, sucked on the wound to drink up her blood, and bit out more flesh from the large fleshy globes that the victim had been so proud of.

Though she was in agony, the death element kept her silent and still.  Her Mother didn't want anything to happen to her youngest daughter, as she was still mentally fragile at this age.  It would take another five hundred years for her to mature and look like a young adult.

When her small belly had swollen up due to the flesh she consumed, she pouted.

"She's so tasty, mother."  Giel said quietly, and looked down at the woman.  "Why couldn't you be strong enough to be a feeder doll?  You're much sweeter than anyone I've tasted before."  She sounded sad, so her mother gently lifted her and put her on her lap again.

"It's alright, baby.  We'll find you another doll soon." Her 'mother' laughed gently. "She'll be gone soon, baby.  Let me put her to sleep." Giel sighed, and took one last look at the woman.  She really wanted to keep her this time.

Sol ran death elements over the surface of the shivering woman's body. She dealt with the pain of the bites, the loss of life elemental essence, and was in shock from the physical trauma.  Sol could do nothing about the method Giel used as she still had to mature.  In her youthful state, her hunger would overwhelm her.

Sol didn't once believe she shouldn't have given Giel the status of being her daughter.  The girl was dying when Sol last infiltrated a human city, as she had been starved nearly to death.  When she took her home, she had to kill a few guards of the girl's former family, and this not only didn't frighten Giel, it made her happy.  Sol took her home, and changed her on the spot.

"Time to end your misery, child." The Queen sighed and shook her head. "If you had learned how to absorb the elements in a pure state, you could have become her doll, and lived for a while longer.  If you pleased her, I might have made you one of us. Instead, you're only food for your foolish choice to invade my home." The Queen lowered her lips to the woman's neck.

"Mother, that sounds like what my sisters do at night." Giel rolled her eyes as the Queen sucked firmly on the woman's neck, and made soft moans and murmurs as she fed. In only a few minutes, the woman who had been alive only a moment ago, became a dry corpse where even the bones began to turn into dust.

"Good choice, Giel.  She was sweet."  The Queen gestured to the soldiers, who cleared away the table in front of her.  She looked down at Giel, and noticed how she tilted her head. Giel frowned as she heard something in the air she was unfamiliar with.

"Mother, do you sense something?" Giel asked, and watched as the Queen tilted her head, and slowly started to smile.

"Master! Master is finally here!" She said excitedly. "Over two thousand years, and finally our Master has come to our world!" She stood up quickly.

"Daughters!" Everyone turned as their Queen called for their attention. "Over two thousand years ago, my Master came to me, and made me strong." They listened attentively as they had all heard of the story of the goddess who came to their Queen, and how wonderful she was.

"She is back! Master is finally back!" The Queen's eyes blazed with fanatical devotion as she heard a soft whisper at her ear.

"Master." She knelt down, which caused a stir among her adopted daughters. The whisper brought a tear to her eye.

'Sol. I have missed you, and so has little Symi.'