B3 Chapter 344: Entrance, pt. 3

Kaius stared up at the floating ascendant in confusion, trying and failing to grapple with the implications of what Xenanra had said. That they were on a path — to what? Ascendancy? Surely she must have been metaphorical — men did not become gods, and even with ten-thousand levels, Kaius refused to believe that it would let him become something so…supreme.

Xenanra simply floated, looking down upon them from her throne of suede and lacquered wood. A smile was on her face — one that could have just as easily been knowing as it was mocking.

It had to be mocking — she knew the conclusion that he had reached. What else could such a thought be but impudence? It was by leniency alone that she had not struck him down already, surely.

Xenanra rolled her eyes.

“The Legacy, the Aspect Triumvirate — by the boundless, what did you think these things were? A simple product to improve your class? Please.”

She let out a howling laugh, as if the mere suggestion was incomprehensible. A moment later her eyes snapped back to them — glowing with a zeal that stripped him bare.

“They are refinement. A test that only the greatest succeed at — and succeed you have! Two of your number are performing above expectations by the standards of a world with a far less tumultuous history, and two of you have somehow managed a near flawless record! And you!”

She thrust a clawed finger directly at Kaius. He noticed it was tipped by a dagger-like claw sharp enough to tear out his heart.

“You have a fragment of conceptual magic in the first tier — do you even understand what that means? You are quite the promising prospect, if you manage to avoid dying, falling, or going completely insane.” Xenanra cackled, clapping her hands in apparent joy while space shattered into mind bending shards with each impact. “New planets are such fun!”

With little more than a twitch of her finger, Xenanra sent her divan rocketing through the air. It shot down, straight for them, and came to a dead stop — hovering two longstrides away and one above the ground. This close, Kaius suddenly realised the ascendant was small — the size of a child, at most.

Not that her statue gave any pretence at weakness — her might was undeniable, and he really would have to be mad not to acknowledge it after everything else.

Xenanra smiled — all genuine kindness washed away by teeth that looked designed to strip flesh from bone.

“I know you wish to know more, but I cannot speak more on the topic. I may not be bound to the same severity of restriction as the Watcher, but I am bound all the same. Just know this, and engrave it on your heart and soul to treat it as a balm in the harshest of winters.”

Kaius leaned in — ready and willing to hear all that she would share.

“I said the integration is a good thing — something for the betterment of all at the largest scale of thing. Part — a small part — of that is to select for worlds, societies, and peoples that have the greatest potential to become fields that might one day grow an ascendant — and if one arises during the integration, all the better.”

She twirled through the air, divan spinning as her arm swept over empty obsidian walls covered in shifting script.

“The path is long — filled with loss and pain and death. It is an unavoidable fact, a necessary pressure that is required for you to remould yourself into a likeness of greatness. For it is you who walks, and there is little anyone else can do to assist you with the biggest steps, and the heaviest burdens.”

Her turn slowed as she faced them once more — mania radiant in her white eyes, six equidistant black dots flickering in and out.

“But you can still be fed — fertilised and pruned. Strife can be created and controlled, dosed with careful measure; a Crucible can burn so that you might temper — as long as you have the stomach to thrust yourself into the fire, and the steel to return with your heart still beating.”

Her eyes softened, returning to unblemished ivory. She gave them a slight smile — a sad one.

“Much like the integration, it is a good thing — but not easy, and not without pain and loss.”

Kaius saw her age then — the weight of uncountable millenia hanging over her head like a cloud, a graveyard of the dead reaching up towards her — as if she floated to avoid their grasp.

“There is more — specific instructions on individual trials, and the like — but I believe you have yet to ask me a question?”

Silence reigned as Kaius struggled to grapple with what she had said. It was too large — too insurmountable to even fathom. He’d always strived to climb to the very peak — but he’d lived under the natural fact that some things were just not equal. There were men, and then there were gods — how did Xenanra expect him to react when she told them that they too might obtain such heights.

It was preposterous! Sheer, unbridled avarice and pride! Only the most foolish, the utterly insane could dare to even try!

It made him hungry.

For a moment, Kaius could have sworn he saw the ascendant’s featureless eyes flicking to him as her lip twitched, but even with his mental stats it was gone so quickly he could have imagined it.

Ianmus finally broke their silence, his voice filled with a curiosity that bordered on desperation.

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“The pillars of magic, how many are there — please!”

Xenanra laughed, “Simplified, and at a level that does not breach my restrictions, there are three mundane branches. Though, all three have so much variation contained within their breadth that it would be impossible to give even a passing reference to all of them. That, and they are not so discreet as calling them ‘pillars’ makes them sound.”

Kaius was fairly sure he could hear Ianmus choking behind him, his breathing coming so fast he half expected to hear his body hitting the ground at any moment.

“Sorcery, keyseals, and the runic arcs — they’re more of a sliding scale between focus on intent and form. Beyond that…there’s more, such as conceptual magic. Which, I will note, I can only even mention because that one—” she inclined her head towards him. “—somehow managed to get a scrap of insight in the first tier. That’s about the limit of what I can say.”

A peak behind him revealed Ianmus on his knees, looking at the ascendant in fascinated awe — and clearly trying to restrain himself from pressing for more. No matter how much the mage might have wished, he hadn’t forgotten who they were dealing with.

Kaius turned back, taking the time to ponder if he had any of his own questions.

There was one thing — something that had been scratching at him since Xenanra had outright confirmed the existence of other mortal realms like their own. Something he’d wanted to know long before he’d gotten his class, but had become more pertinent since.