Beast Lord Ascension: Conquest of the Twelve Realms

Behind the towering skyscrapers of New Neoria, the sun was setting, casting long shadows across the bustling metropolis. For most, this marked the end of another day filled with the usual drivel of corporate work and daily grind. But for Elias Stroud, this was a concrete reminder of how little he had achieved in his thirty years of life.

His head hung low as he made his way down the crowded street to avoid eye contact with the hundreds of strange faces that passed him in a rush. It was an evening that promised a chill; his thin, worn-out jacket could hardly handle, and it was all he could afford. A heavy sigh heaved from his lips as he clutched the strap of his battered leather satchel.

"I need a miracle," Elias muttered under his breath, and he looked up at the digital billboard above boasting about the latest and greatest in Beast Tamer technology.

Brilliant colors danced across his screen, describing mighty men and women commanding behemoths. Beast Tamers were mythical heroes, utilizing powers beyond imagination through their bonding with these monsters. They saved humanity, and the ones sponsored by the government lived lives of luxury, surrounded by wealth, fame, and the admiration of millions. For a man like Elias, whose life was a never-ending cycle of debt, insults, and disappointments, this was a dream so far beyond reach. Even the very thought was laughable.

"Hey, loser!" A cruel voice popped Elias out of his scattered thoughts.

He turned to find Greg Walters, one of his co-workers at the corporation where Elias was little more than a glorified data entry clerk. Greg was tall and broad-shouldered; he sneered down at Elias with a confidence only wealth and privilege could buy.

"You still living in that rat-infested shoebox? I heard your rent's overdue again. Maybe try getting a second job cleaning toilets?" Greg laughed, and his entourage of friends joined in.

Elias clenched his fists but said nothing. Wasn't worth it. People like Greg actually got off on putting people down, especially people who couldn't fight back. All Elias could do was endure.

As if he knew what he was thinking, Greg sent Elias off with one last shove: "Vanish from my sight. You are not good enough even for the air you breathe."

The fire of humiliation burning his cheeks, Elias turned away and quickened his pace, hoping the jeers drowned between his thoughts.

'Just one chance', he thought, ' just one opportunity to prove that I'm more than this.'

Little did he know that the fate was listening.

Half an hour later, on the outskirts of New Neoria…

The narrow alley Elias veered into, to avoid the evening's hustle and bustle was eerily quiet. The only company in the dimly lit passageway was his echoing footsteps that reached from wall to wall. He was halfway home when a sudden, chilling gust of wind tore through, causing a shiver down his spine.

"What the fuck?" Elias muttered, head tilting upward.

A light shone in the sky above-a shimmering, rippling distortion that he had seen only on news reports. His eyes had grown wide as he realized what it was-a Heavenly Gate. The tear in reality crackled with ethereal energy, and from it, a deafening roar tore the air apart.

"Oh my God, not here, not now," Elias whispered, frozen in place, terror clamping an icy grip onto his heart.

He had seen such incidents on his holoscreen: whole neighborhoods leveled by monstrous beasts emerging from these portals. It was quite another thing altogether to see it in person. The ground shook beneath him; the pavement cracked with fissures as the air became charged with static, causing the hair on his arms to stand on end.

From the portal, a monster was trying to emerge, its body fully covered by jagged scales, and eyes aglow from within as if molten lava. The creature was like nothing Elias had ever seen; it was as if someone had taken the worst nightmares of humanity and molded them into a single form. A shriek came forth-the kind of noise to shatter windows-and Elias was flown away backwards.

'Run!' His mind screamed. But his legs wouldn't obey; he was paralyzed, staring at the grotesque form walking slowly toward him.

Then, amidst all that panic, he heard a voice-a soft, melodious whisper brought by the breeze.

"Hey! Don't be afraid."

A figure dropped down from one of the rooftops above, alighting easily in front of him before Elias could even register the words. She was a woman, her body robed in a billowing white cloak that shone with an ethereal glow in the dying light. Her hair was like silver stardust, and her eyes shone with an inner luminosity, almost as if they themselves were two stars. In her hand, she clutched a crystalline blade humming with raw energy.

"Stay back!" she ordered Elias. Her voice was firm, yet oddly reassuring.

Elias could only nod, his eyes entranced with the surreal scene unfolding before him. The monster roared once more and sprang forward with frightening speed. She was faster. In a blur, she crossed the intervening space, her blade cutting the air with deadly precision. A howl pierced the air as her sword bit deep, sending the beast reeling back.

It wasn't over yet. With a deafening roar, it belched a stream of fire that lit the corridor. Elias instinctively ducked his head, fully expecting to be reduced to ashes. Instead, he was enveloped in the shielding embrace of a protective spell. The woman had thrown up a circle of protection and deflected the flames with a flick of her wrist.

"Wh-who are you?" Elias stuttered, finally finding his voice.

It's not the time to explain," she replied, her eyes never leaving the beast. "But know this-your destiny is about to change.".

Saying that, she dived again, her blade scribing arcs of light through the air. The beast was enormous and powerful, but she was untiring, and her movements were a blur of agility seemingly impossible for any human. Weakened finally, the creature let out one last, forlorn roar before it slipped back into the portal.

Elias's heart was still racing while, in shocked horror, he stared at the closing tear in the sky. The woman finally turned to him, her face softening as she sheathed her blade.

"You… you saved me," Elias breathed, trying to wrap his brain around it all.

But before he could say anymore, she took another step closer, her shimmering eyes fixed upon his very own. Without warning, her head jerked down, pressing her lips to his. A surge of energy shot through Elias like filling his veins with warmth and light; like the universe itself had been poured into his soul. Eventually, she pulled away from him, and Elias stumbled backwards, dazed and disoriented.

"What… what have you just done?" he wheezed, grasping at his chest where that strange warmth still pulsed.

"I have awakened the power within you," she replied, almost in a whisper, her eyes clouded with something that looked almost like hope… and fear. "You are the one we have been waiting for—the Beast Lord."

"Beast Lord? What the hell are you talking about?" Elias's mind reeled; this had to be a dream, a hallucination brought on by exhaustion.

"There isn't much time to explain," the woman said urgently. "Others will be coming for you. But you are no longer helpless, Elias. You have been chosen to unite the twelve realms and bring balance to the universe."

With that, a sigil on the back of Elias's hand began to shine-a symbol that was almost an interlaced dragon and phoenix. It coursed with some form of energy he could feel racing through his body and stirring something deep inside.

"Wait! I don't understand any of this!" Elias shouted, panic rising in his throat. "Who are you? What do you want from me?

The woman smiled wryly, a wave of sorrow not leaking through her soft lips. "My name is Celestia, the Guardian of the Astral Realm. And from this moment on, your fate is bound to mine."

Celestia had already tilted her head to the sky, where another Heavenly Gate was forming, before Elias could utter a word. "We have to go now. We can't stay here any longer, or even more creatures will find their way here, and they won't be as harmless as these."

With a flick of her wrist, Celestia opened a shimmering portal of light. She seized Elias's hand and yanked him through just as a roar of oncoming monsters exploded in the air behind them.

In a twinkling of an eye, the dark alley and the abnormal scenery of New Neoria disappeared into thin air, as it turned into a world filled with glittering starlight and floating islands. Elias was dumbfounded with the phenomenal view that lay in front of him.

"A warm welcome to the Astral Realm," Celestia announced as her voice softened. "This is just but the surface of it, Beast Lord. The universe is much more bigger than you'll ever imagine."

As Elias stared into the vastness ahead, one thing became certain; he would never be the same again.