The priestess quietly watched as Raven and his party designated everyone their tasks. Some were less than thrilled, while others were simply glad that they wouldn't directly be on the frontlines. And then there were those like Mono and the Djinn siblings, both of whom were disappointed to find themselves in the backlines instead of the front.
In the end, however, with everyone's station carved into stone by Raven's orders–the only ones left in the meeting room were the hero's party, his companions like Moxy, Brenna and the others–and lastly Kara, the priestess of Aphrodite. She'd been patiently waiting for her turn to talk to the group's leader, and now that everyone else was gone, she finally decided to step forward and take a seat at the same desk as Raven.
"What do you want now?" Heaving a sigh, Raven leaned forward on the table.
His eyes were red from being tired, and the last thing he wanted was to deal with a mindless zealot of a dead goddess.
"Oh, don't be like that. When have I ever been anything but helpful?" With a mock smile, Kara leaned forward on the table and looked around at everyone standing behind Raven. Beckoning them closer, she urged one of them to further reach out and give her their hand. "It's time for an Ascendance; your unusual growth is proof of it. So, why not allow me to help you guys further your potential? That's what I'm here for, after all."
"What ascendance?" Raven asked, his eyes squinting with doubt.
The others were just as dubious and wouldn't offer the priestess their hand just yet. Erika, especially being the servant of the goddess that scorned Kara's goddess, didn't want anything to do with her, but more often than not, the high priestess would force her help on their party.
"Well, since you're terribly unaware…" Turning her attention to Raven again, Kara heaved a sigh and stretched her hand towards him. Fanning it about in front of him, she explained what was going on inside of her head. "It has been a while since anyone has crossed this threshold, but when they do–or at least when they used to, their class would require an ascendance."
Gesturing Raven to give her his hand again, Kara patiently waited for the hero to give in after all. And although reluctant to do so, being tired, it didn't take long for the hero to break and do just whatever it was that Kara wanted.
"Fine, here you go." Offering her his hand, he watched as the priestess closed her eyes and circled a finger on the back of his hand. Eventually, as she continued to do so, a light magic circle emerged from the spot that she'd been focusing on. "What is this?"
"Consider it…an rank up for your class from being a Dark mage to…" Shutting her eyes even tighter, Kara searched for the class of which Raven would soon be a part of. That's when the priestess realized that the ascendance was due long ago, possibly even before the party took on Aran–the king of Aranuvia. "I see the words…war, a war…"
Shaking her head, Kara opened her eyes and, with a look of surprise, whispered.
"A warlord, a dark warlord…" Her eyes bulging like an owl, she stared at him for a moment. She couldn't believe what she'd just ascended him to, especially since… "But you've never fought a war, then how?"
"I'm too tired for speculation, Kara…" Taking his hand away, Raven closed his eyes and brought up his screen of stats. And sure enough, inside of his head, he noticed his class changing from a dark mage to a dark warlord.
'Nightsilver's soul, that's the only thing that makes sense for now.' Sharing a dead part of the general's soul, Raven deduced that it was his presence in him that had caused him to gain such an unexpected ascendance in class.
However, since everyone else still hadn't gotten their rank ups by Kara yet, the warlord decided to brush past that matter and instead focus on what kind of upgrade to their class the others were about to receive just now.
The first one to go after him was Amedith. His darkened nails surprised Raven for a moment, but the surprise was quickly overshadowed by what Kara had to say.
"As a magus, your potential is infinite. It depends on what you want to specialise in and that thing will become part of your ascendance…" As soon as Kara was done explaining how things worked for Amedith, the warrior closed his eyes and pondered over the matter for a good few minutes.
In the meantime, Aria stepped up to the priestess and to nobody's surprise, she was granted the ascendance into a Necromantic barbarian. Her affinity for controlling the undead as well as clones made her a perfect powerhouse that required no magic to use her abilities. Thus, keeping that in mind, it only made sense that her ascendance had something to do with increasing the fighting numbers of the party.
By the time her ascendance was done, Amedith had finally made up his mind, but what he said was beyond what anyone could've expected.
"I want to be a spy in addition to being a warrior." A streak of blush carried across his cheeks, and when questioned why such a strange request, his embarrassment only grew even though his reasoning was near perfect. "Recently, I found that my shield can withstand any number of blows now, and since Lily can shapeshift, I'd like for us to be the duo to spy on our enemies. For one, I can withstand any attack as long as I'm not off guard, and the other, Lily can sense lies and changes in emotions, so together we can be far more effective than any other spies that we currently have."
A moment of silence lingered in the air, but when Raven was done giving Amedith's suggestion a thought, it didn't take long for everyone to accept the warrior's suggestion about his ascendance.
"A warrior who can come back home without fail and a shapeshifter who can taste shifts in emotions and change the bodies of anyone she's holding hands with…" Looking at Kara, Raven gave her the nod. "Sounds perfect. Just make sure to take lessons from Monty and take him to your initial missions so he can bail you out if needed."
Nodding right back, Amedith and Liliyana agreed to their leader's suggestion. However, even after their ascendance was done into spies, there were still quite a few people left.