Being a hero always has its price, but what happens if that price is too high to pay? Fresh off their victory over Graves and his followers, Marcus and his friends have managed to enjoy a few weeks of relative calm and peace as they continue to build Aldford, preparing the town for a new wave of settlers coming from Eberia. But as the days wear on with no new arrivals in sight, they begin to fear the worse, eventually setting out to search for their promised reinforcements and soon realizing that they weren't as alone on the frontier as they thought they were. Just managing to rescue a caravan of settlers in the nick of time from a horde of bandits, Marcus and the rest of Virtus barely have a chance to catch their breath before they find themselves thrust into the middle of Eberian politics, revealing a plot that threatens to not only take away their hard-won independence. But to destroy Aldford completely.

Heroes don't stand for themselves. They stand for others who cannot. Betrayed by those they'd taken in and narrowly avoiding a disaster of untold proportions, Marcus and his friends are once again thrust into a fight for their very survival, this time against Carver and his band of murderous adventurers. But as their newfound war quickly reaches a stalemate, both sides find themselves scrambling for a way to break it, while viciously battling one another for every inch of ground that they can steal in the process. Yet just as Marcus and the others manage to gain an advantage that could very well end the conflict, they find their world turned upside down as an even greater enemy appears on the horizon. Pushed to the brink, it will take every ounce of cunning and courage they have to find a way to survive. Assuming they can at all.

Its time to be the hero you've always wanted to be. Diving into a revolutionary new video game, Marcus and his friends escape a stagnant society, entering into a world that defies their wildest imaginations. But from the moment that he logs in, Marcus finds himself separated from his friends and thrown into remote village under attack by a horde of goblins. Forced into battle, Marcus rallies the beleaguered villagers and with their help, manages to drive off the invading creatures. With the village in ruins and their supplies spoiled, the survivors desperately turn to Marcus for help in rebuilding the village. Realizing that this game is nothing like he's ever played before, Marcus is swept up into a whirlwind of adventure as he struggles to defend his new home, quickly finding that marauding goblins are the least of his problems.

A side novel set in the same world as the bestselling Ascend Online series. This story takes place in between Ascend Online and Legacy of the Fallen, following a different cast of characters. Sometimes, just being a hero isn't an option. Sometimes, you just need to get the job done. Lazarus Cain is a member of the Grim Shadows, one of the Thieves Guilds in the city of Eberia. Unfortunately, Lazarus is having a bad day. Waking up in a torture chamber, suffering from amnesia, he'd be pretty much screwed if not for the mysterious, magical sigil burned into his chest. Sometimes a really bad day should be shared with others, especially professional torturers. Lazarus will need to use all his cunning and skill to work with his comrades, uncovering schemes within schemes, discovering that The Grim Shadows are not the only Thieves Guild in the city mired in conflict. What's more, the leaders of the other guilds, the Thief Lords, don't respond well to treachery...