Act 15 — Blood’s Ascension
Era: Power Unbound (Era 3)
Previous: Act 14 — Rescue of Destiny
Next: Act 16 — Hell Hosts vs Angel Swords
Overview
Blood’s Ascension follows Mason Crowe during his final known operation as a soldier of the Hell Hosts.
Following reports of Obsidian Veil activity within the Ashen Kingdom, Blood and a small Hell Host force are deployed to investigate.
Using his experience as a former bounty hunter and operative of the 612th Hunters Battalion, Blood tracks the Obsidian Veil squads through the hostile volcanic landscape.
The pursuit eventually erupts into combat.
During the battle, Blood is shot and falls into lava.
His fellow soldiers believe he has been killed.
Instead, the lava transforms him.
Through an Ascension Event unlike anything the Hell Hosts could have predicted, Blood becomes bound to the ancient power of the Ashen Kingdom and emerges as something far beyond the human soldier who entered it.
While the Hell Hosts list Mason Crowe as Missing in Action, Blood travels deeper into the kingdom and eventually reaches the castle of the Ashen Lord.
Waiting for him is Ember Solis, his childhood friend.
The Hell Hosts lost a soldier.
The Ashen Kingdom gained a ruler.
Sub-Acts
15.1 — Ashen Kingdom
Reports begin reaching the Hell Hosts of unusual Obsidian Veil activity within the Ashen Kingdom.
The purpose of their presence is unknown.
With the Obsidian Veil having already demonstrated its willingness to operate secretly across the galaxy, the Hell Hosts dispatch a small force to investigate.
Among them is Blood.
The assignment suits him perfectly.
Before becoming a Hell Host soldier, Mason Crowe spent years working as a bounty hunter. Within the 612th Hunters Battalion, those same abilities had been refined into military skills.
Tracking.
Pursuit.
Hostile-environment survival.
Target hunting.
Blood enters the Ashen Kingdom as a Hell Host Lieutenant General.
It will be the last operation he completes as an ordinary human.
15.2 — The Hunt
Blood and the other Hell Host soldiers begin tracking the Obsidian Veil squads through the Ashen Kingdom.
The volcanic environment makes conventional pursuit difficult.
Extreme heat, ash, unstable terrain, and volcanic activity surround the team as they move deeper into the region.
Blood takes the lead.
Rather than engaging blindly, he follows the movements of the Obsidian Veil personnel across the hostile landscape, gradually narrowing down their position.
Eventually, the trail leads the Hell Hosts directly to them.
Whatever brought the Obsidian Veil to the Ashen Kingdom remains unknown.
Blood intends to find out.
15.3 — Obsidian Veil
The Hell Hosts finally encounter the Obsidian Veil squads.
Combat begins almost immediately.
The volcanic terrain turns the confrontation into a dangerous close-range battle, with both sides fighting around unstable ground and exposed lava.
Blood engages the Obsidian Veil alongside the other Hell Host soldiers.
During the fighting, he is hit.
The wound causes Blood to lose his footing near the volcanic depths.
Before the other soldiers can reach him, he falls.
Blood disappears beneath the lava.
There is no realistic possibility of survival.
The remaining Hell Host personnel are forced to continue without him.
To them, Mason Crowe is gone.
15.4 — Ascension
Blood does not die.
Beneath the lava, something impossible happens.
The heat that should destroy his body does not burn him.
Instead, it begins to change him.
Whether the phenomenon originates from the lava itself, the Ashen Kingdom, something ancient beneath the region, or Blood’s own unusual compatibility with the environment remains unknown.
His body begins transforming.
His armour changes with him, becoming darker and heavier as molten fractures spread across its surface.
His connection to heat and fire becomes something beyond ordinary biology.
Even the MR-102E Marksman Rifle he carried into the operation is altered during the event, emerging as an ashen version of the weapon that had followed him throughout his Hell Host career.
Blood survives the impossible.
He emerges from the lava transformed.
Fire no longer threatens him as it once did.
Ash and volcanic energy answer to him.
Mason Crowe has undergone an Ascension Event.
But nobody from the Hell Hosts is there to witness it.
By the time Blood emerges, the surviving soldiers from the operation have already withdrawn.
From their perspective, they watched him fall into lava and disappear.
No body can be recovered.
No communication is received from Blood.
No evidence exists that he survived.
The Hell Hosts eventually list Lieutenant General Mason Crowe as Missing in Action.
Blood is alive.
His people simply do not know it.
15.5 — Ashen Lord
Blood travels deeper into the Ashen Kingdom.
The transformation has left him changed physically and connected to the region in ways he does not yet fully understand.
Eventually, his journey brings him to the castle of the Ashen Lord.
Blood enters transformed by fire and ash.
His armour is blackened and fractured by molten light.
The soldier who once served the Hell Hosts now carries the presence of something ancient and powerful.
Someone is already waiting for him.
Ember had known Mason Crowe long before the Hell Hosts.
They first met as children on Malgor, when Mason travelled through the Ashen Kingdom with his family.
Years passed.
Mason became a bounty hunter.
Then Blood.
Then a Hell Host commander.
Now something else stands before her.
Ember looks at him.
She recognizes him immediately.
“Took you long enough.”
She walks forward and embraces him.
There is no fear.
No ceremony.
No hesitation.
Whatever the Ashen Kingdom has turned him into, Ember still sees the person she knew as a child.
Mason Crowe survived.
Blood survived.
But neither name completely describes what he has become.
The Ashen Kingdom has chosen its new ruler.
Ashen Lord Blood.
Characters
Blood
The central character of the Act.
Blood enters the Ashen Kingdom as a human Hell Host Lieutenant General and member of the 612th Hunters Battalion.
After being shot during a confrontation with the Obsidian Veil, he falls into lava and undergoes a catastrophic Ascension Event.
Blood emerges transformed and becomes the new Ashen Lord.
The Hell Hosts remain unaware that he survived.
Ember Solis
Blood’s childhood friend from Malgor.
Ember appears at the end of the Act after Blood reaches his castle following his transformation.
Despite his radically altered appearance and presence, she recognizes him immediately.
Her reaction establishes that beneath the transformation, she still sees the person she knew long before he became Blood.
Factions
Locations
- Ashen Kingdom
- Ashen Lord’s Castle
The exact location of the confrontation with the Obsidian Veil within the Ashen Kingdom remains undocumented.
Major Events
- Obsidian Veil squads are detected operating within the Ashen Kingdom.
- Blood and several Hell Host soldiers are sent to investigate.
- Blood tracks the Obsidian Veil through the volcanic region.
- Hell Host forces engage the Obsidian Veil.
- Blood is shot during the battle.
- Blood falls into lava and is presumed dead.
- The lava does not kill him.
- Blood undergoes an Ascension Event.
- Blood’s body, armour, and MR-102E Marksman Rifle are transformed.
- Blood becomes connected to the power of the Ashen Kingdom.
- The Hell Hosts list Blood as Missing in Action.
- Blood travels deeper into the Ashen Kingdom.
- Blood reaches the castle of the Ashen Lord.
- Blood reunites with Ember.
- Blood becomes Ashen Lord Blood.
Lore Introduced
Blood’s Ascension
Blood’s transformation represents a form of catastrophic Ascension fundamentally different from the Elysarian Ascension experienced by individuals such as Robert Anderson.
No Ascension Chamber is involved.
Instead, Blood’s transformation occurs after an environmental event that should have killed him.
Why Blood survived remains uncertain.
The precise nature of the force responsible for transforming him is also unknown.
What is clear is that his Ascension permanently connects him to the Ashen Kingdom and transforms him into its new ruler.
The Ashen Lord
Blood’s transformation introduces the title of Ashen Lord.
The title represents more than conventional political leadership.
Blood’s authority is directly connected to his Ascension and the ancient forces of the Ashen Kingdom.
His transformation marks the beginning of a new period for both Blood and the kingdom itself.
Unknowns
- Why were Obsidian Veil squads operating within the Ashen Kingdom?
- What were they searching for?
- Why did the lava transform Blood instead of killing him?
- What force within the Ashen Kingdom caused his Ascension?
- Why was Blood compatible with the transformation?
- Did the Ashen Kingdom consciously choose Blood?
- How much of Mason Crowe remains unchanged after the Ascension?
- Why did the transformation affect Blood’s equipment as well as his body?
- What will happen when the Hell Hosts discover that Blood survived?
Consequences
Blood disappears from the Hell Hosts and is officially classified as Missing in Action.
His disappearance particularly affects those who had become close to him, including Destiny, who had only recently returned after her own nine-month disappearance.
The Hell Hosts do not know that Blood survived.
They do not know that he has undergone an Ascension Event.
They do not know that one of their former commanders now rules the Ashen Kingdom.
For Blood, the transformation begins an entirely new life.
He entered the Ashen Kingdom as Mason Crowe.
He fought there as Blood.
He emerged as the Ashen Lord.
Yet his reunion with Ember Solis demonstrates that the person beneath those identities has not completely disappeared.
To the Hell Hosts, Blood is missing.
To the Ashen Kingdom, he is sovereign.
To Ember, he is still the boy she knew on Malgor.