Main theme: Enemy by Imagine Dragons and J.I.D
Theme: Liar by Lucas King

Who is the third who walks always beside you?
When I count, there are only you and I together
But when I look ahead up the white road
There is always another one walking beside you
Gliding wrapt in a brown mantle, hooded
I do not know whether a man or a woman
—But who is that on the other side of you?

What is that sound high in the air
Murmur of maternal lamentation
Who are those hooded hordes swarming
Over endless plains, stumbling in cracked earth
Ringed by the flat horizon only
What is the city over the mountains
Cracks and reforms and bursts in the violet air
Falling towers
Jerusalem Athens Alexandria
Vienna London
Unreal

A woman drew her long black hair out tight
And fiddled whisper music on those strings
And bats with baby faces in the violet light
Whistled, and beat their wings
And crawled head downward down a blackened wall
And upside down in air were towers
Tolling reminiscent bells, that kept the hours
And voices singing out of empty cisterns and exhausted wells.

In this decayed hole among the mountains
In the faint moonlight, the grass is singing
Over the tumbled graves, about the chapel
There is the empty chapel, only the wind's home.
It has no windows, and the door swings,
Dry bones can harm no one.
Only a cock stood on the rooftree
Co co rico co co rico
In a flash of lightning. Then a damp gust
Bringing rain

What the Thunder Said by Thomas Stearns Eliot OM

Age of Endings book has been completed. Transcript for the beginning of the Age of Inquisitions is available below.

All continuing versions of the Age of Man books are to be sent for abridgment and editing, and the original, unabridged version of the Age of Man collection is to be kept locked away in the Belladonna Archives. Only those with ARKOS level clearance are allowed to read the unabridged texts and transcripts. Anyone who reads the unabridged texts and transcripts without the correct clearance is to be detained and interrogated immediately, and is to be kept under surveillance for signs of criminal activity until further notice or change in suspect's profile or behaviour demands otherwise.

Transcript provided below:

It was a period of realignment for Remnant.

Six months have passed since the beginning of the Second Great War, and Remnant have slowly beginning to rebuild. Even since the Surge ended three months prior, the kingdoms have taken this time to lick its wounds and nurse its sores. The kingdoms of Vale, Vacuo, and Mistral have been patching over their mutilations and treating their most grievous injuries, whilst settlements such as Kuchinashi have begun to buckle and break under the strain of the new responsibilities thrust upon them by the aftermath of the Surge. Meanwhile, other towns and cities, such as Jewel and the young Shelter, have begun to grow and prosper under the new possibilities presented to them.

And in the middle of it all, the New Dawn have begun a steady rise from a meagre alliance of factions into a global power with political block of its own. The nongovernmental organisation has grown to incorporate the city of Shelter and hundreds of towns, ports, and settlements into its tapestry, and has made pacts and ties with the remaining cities, academies, and kingdoms. Many in Beacon Academy, mostly the Beacon Militia and those of the first years, have shown their support for the New Dawn, and have granted the organisation a powerful seat within the kingdom of Vale.

The Grimm of the Ascendant Court have grown silent. They have retreated into their lands to soothe their own wounds, waiting for the moment to strike once more. With two of the relics now in their possession (although the people of the New Dawn believe them to only have one, thanks to the machinations, secrets, and fears of Professor Ozpin), the Daughter and the Ascendant Court now represent the greatest danger to the people of Remnant, as they continue their plots to turn the world into a place for mankind's Rebirth, whether they want it or not.

However, the people of Remnant stand against the Court. They have begun to rise up against the Grimm with shield and sword, with tooth and claw. They have been presented with a common enemy, and have brought their guns and bayonets to bare against this dangerous foe. Unexpected allies are beginning to claw their way out of the gutter, and with the Hero of Remnant standing alongside them, they felt like they had nothing to fear.

For some, they even believed that the war was already over.

But they did. They had so much to fear, for the Ascendant Court was not their only threat, and the war was not over. Not yet.

There was so much more willing to stand against them.

Dark forces are beginning to stir from their slumber, and dig their claws into the people of Remnant's world.

A dark alliance has come into being in the background, skulking away in the shadows with malicious plans of their own, led by a cabal of leaders driven by greed, religious fervour, and raw lust for power.

Mobs of criminals and anarchists are beginning to take chunks out of Remnant, spreading corruption and gluttony across the lands like a virus, or plague. They plan to spin their threads across all of Remnant, cocooning them in a web of lies and deceit, all for their own suffocating desires and ends.

And now, fractures and stress wounds have begun to form in the people of Remnant themselves. Distrust is growing amongst its heroes, and its villains are moving to take advantages of the cracks growing in the foundations.

Morality is beginning to degrade. Good will is beginning to take a backseat. For those that hold the candle of idealism and hope for a better world, they now find themselves surrounded by a endless wave of cynicism and nihilism assaulting them on all sides.

Those whom once had heroism in their hearts are now finding that same heroism chipped away, broken by the cruel world around them as they grow more and more monstrous.

And for the Hero of Remnant, his greatest enemy will not, for now, be the Daughter or Hephaestus.

It will be his own pride, and his own hubris.

For the people of Remnant, an uncertain present gives way to a darker future.

Pro-tip: leave enough characters alive at the end of a story to justify a sequel.

Yeah, I'm leaving a ton of these tips out for you guys, aren't I?

Anyways, welcome to Ascendancy Part Two: Electric Boogaloo! God, can you imagine how far we've come as both a writer and readers? I never thought I would get this far as a writer, honestly. I mean, can you imagine that we'd ever make it here after three years? I never imagined that it would take me this long to reach this point in this story, which I have been building to all these years.

Let's hope it doesn't take that long to finish it then, yeah?

But seriously, this part of the story? This is what I have been building towards. This is where the good stuff is.

Over the last three years, I have been evolving as a writer, of which I attribute both to writing this story and also taking writing lessons as a course in university (here's hoping that I can go for my Masters degree in October!). Seriously, it has been thanks to not only my university tutors, but all of you guys, that has allowed me to evolve and grow as both a writer and a person. You guys have kept me in check, in a way, helping me make important decisions for my work, helping me figure out what kind of writer I want to be, showing me how to evaluate and compare my writing with others as a way to improve.

In a way, you guys have all been as much of a tutor to me as those in university.

But anyways, we're back with the second part of Ascendancy, where things are going to get darker and bloodier. The deconstructive themes that I was working with in the first story of this saga? They're all coming back in to bludgeon us with a hammer. The themes in general are going to get darker, and the ideas are going to get more mature?

What do I mean by this?

I mean that soon, once all is said and done, we're all going to need to ask ourselves a simple question:

"How far can one go to justify evil?"

Yeah, things are going to get a lot darker for all of us.

Well, as they say, do not go gentle into that good night.

So get yourself ready, everyone! Cross your fingers and hold your favourite characters tightly, because I guarantee that not all of them are going to make it through this story. No one is leaving this phase of Ascendancy unscathed, and not everyone is leaving it alive. Dark forces are on the rise, a malicious alliance is forming to take them down, the Second Great War has shifted into one of lies and secrecy, fought in the streets and alleyways and not in grand battlefields and warzones, the dark pasts of those at Beacon are coming back to haunt them, and our heroes are about to discover that the line between good and evil is so much thinner than they had ever imagined.

Now stay tuned, and read on. That is an order.

And good Hunters follow orders, don't they?

Now then, as always...

Titanmaster 117 out!