Alarak pulled his blade out of a zealot and smiled viciously at his look of disbelief. Neither the zealot nor his four comrades expected it when he drew his blades on them.

“Shall we move now?” An adept asked. “Nyon still has an army and a defensive position, but we have the element of surprise.”

Alarak smirked. “Then what are you waiting for?” He flickered his fingers. “It’s time to protect our leader.”

He walked toward the fortress. Hundreds of zealots, adepts, and ascendants followed.

An ascendant and a group of 20 zealots were standing guard at the main entrance of Nyon’s fortress. They were joined by another group of zealot reinforcements.

“Ascendant.” Among the 15 or so reinforcing zealots, one of them ran up to the ascendant guarding the gate. “Highlord sent us to secure the gate.” He reported, glancing at the disabled photon cannon beside. The EMP also disabled most of the defensive structures, along with the warping mechanisms. Amon didn’t fail his name as the creator.

The ascendant nodded. He had received orders to lock the entire place down. “Spread out. Stop anyone from entering. Execute all that disobeys.”

“Anyone, ascendant?” The zealot pointed at a group of tal’darim advancing from outside. “Including them?”

The ascendant noticed the First Ascendant walking in front of the group and knew this was not going to be pretty. His orders demanded him to stop anyone from entering, but he couldn’t really stop the First Ascendant. Alarak was, after all, the second most powerful tal’darim on the planet.

Still, he walked up. The reinforcing zealot leader followed.

“First Ascendant.” The ascendant greeted. “We are under orders to lock this place down. There shall be no entrance.”

“I received orders to reinforce the Highlord.” Alarak seemed confused.

“There was no such order given to you.” The ascendant replied coldly. “Highlord had ordered his personal fleet to return from orbit. He had never summoned you.”

Alarak took a deep breath. Luckily his forces had surrounded every front of the fortress, and there was no way for messengers to get out. Otherwise things would be really bad for him. A few carriers could obliterate the rebels.

“Step aside.” The First Ascendant demanded. “In the name of the First Ascendant I order you to step aside.”

The ascendant was unmoved as a ball of void energy formed in his palms. “I apologize, First Ascendant, but Highlord has delivered his orders. Leave, or we will take lethal actions.” The zealots behind hin ignited their blades.

“Well then.” Alarak tilted his head. “DO IT.”

The ascendant frowned, and the next second a bane blade penetrated him from behind. It was the reinforcing zealot. Screams came from behind as guard zealots were taken by surprise by reinforcing zealots. The guards had a slight number advantage, but they were easily disposed of. They never thought their own brothers would turn on them.

Alarak watched the slaughter with a smirk. When all the zealots loyal to Nyon were dead the head of the reinforcing zealots walked up to him. “First Ascendant.” The zealot said with a deep voice. “Nyon has betrayed our god, but there are still some of us loyal to our master. Our master has informed us of the situation. Hundreds of my brothers are scattered all over the fortress and ready to strike.”

“Very well.” Alarak silently made a side note to kill these zealots loyal to Amon after he becomes the Highlord and to make sure his underlings were more loyal to him than to Amon. “Let’s proceed, shall we?”

“Highlord, messengers sent to the front gate have not reported back.” Nyon and a few hundred zealots were gathering in a field inside Nyon’s palace. A blood hunter reported. “The Death Fleet is nowhere to be seen either.”

Nyon groaned as he checked out a burnt device. It was the device that held The Assistant. It was burned when the EMP hit. After all, despite its high tech, the device was electronic. and EMP were the natural enemy of electronic devices. Frustrated, he tucked the device away.

For some reason he felt unsafe without the Assistant behind him telling him what to do. He could feel a net being set up around him, and it was gradually closing. He needed to do something, but he didn’t know what. If the Assistant was here she could think of something, but the AI was gone, possibly forever.

“Highlord,” One ascendant and two zealots moved into the palace in a hurry. They kneeled down in front of Nyon. “First Ascendant Alarak is moving toward this position with his forces. they are slaughtering every guard in the process.“

“What? Alarak?” Nyon growled. “How dare he do this? He will pay!” He ignited his blades and started walking out of the palace. “Zealots, follow me and…”

He was cut off as the two reporting zealots drew their blades and slashed down on him. It was surprising, but Nyon was not an easy prey. He stepped back, barely dodging the blades, and then mindblasted the two rogue zealots into a pile of psionic energy.

That was when he felt a powerful psionic energy smashing into his body. It was the ascendant. He had a smile on his face as he gained an upper hand. The element of surprise was truly significant in this scenario. Nyon was caught by surprise, and he was struggling to direct his psi energy to protect himself.

What happened seemed a lot, but it all happened in two seconds. The zealots behind loyal to Nyon didn’t even realize what had happened. When they did it would be too late.

Nyon felt the ascendant’s psionic energy closing in. He started to feel something wrong with the ascendant. The ascendant was much stronger than he should be. The hint of purple void energy suggested some foul play coming from a certain xel’naga.

But just before Nyon could fall, the ascendant screamed and imploded. Nyon, saved, looked at the one that saved him.

Ji’nara.

“Highlord.” The female Second Ascendant walked up with a concerned look.

“I am fine. I understand your loyalty, Ji’nara. When I destroy Alarak, you will be the First Ascendant.” Nyon praised. “Now, let’s show the traitor why I am the Highlord.”

As the group walked out of the palace and on the route to meet Alarak, Ji’nara smirked inside. Loyalty? Only fools and weaklings were loyal to others. The strong, like her, would only be loyal to herself.