B3 Chapter 351: Authority, pt. 1

Awareness socked him in the mouth.

The challenge!

Kaius slammed upwards, his heart racing as he ripped his blade free of its scabbard into an aggressive high guard, spinning as he looked for his next opponent. His primal instincts were inflamed, the cutting edge of adrenaline coursing through him as he prepared himself to fight. To live.

Only to find himself standing in the middle of an empty ballroom.

Lowering his sword in confusion, Kaius kept his blade ready as he checked himself over. Torn flesh and spilled blood had been replaced by the cold weight of his scalemail, his missing limbs returned.

He raced inwards, reaching for his strength — finding his stamina and mana surging at his nascent intent, and the barely-sealed potency of his spells waiting for him.

Every muscle in his body slumped as he doubled over, dragging in heaving breaths. He was safe — alive. The feeling of relief was quickly followed by a cold weight in his heart.

He’d died. Sure as the System ruled all, death had found him in that trial. He could barely remember the end, through that mind-killing haze of bloodloss and total exhaustion, but he was sure it had been his end. Faint as it was, the memory of his heart seizing as it tried to pump blood through his ruined and drained body was unmistakable.

Why hadn’t he forfeit! Even at its strongest, his bloodsong had never taken him like that before — had never stripped him of his will and reason. It was supposed to inflame his passions, nothing more.

Could it really have been simple fatigue leaving him weak to the backlash of VOS? Or had that strange flare in Corporus infused him with true madness?

And yet, even as the thought entered his mind, he knew it wasn’t true. It had been weighty in a way he didn’t understand, but it hadn’t influenced him. No, his biting aggression had come from somewhere deep within him — unchained as his mental and physical exhaustion reduced him to his most base instincts.

He clenched his fist as hard as he could, fighting back against the memory of the weakness that had perfused him — the lead weight that had crushed him like a millstone.

Had he even won? Could the challenge even have been beaten?

With the clarity that had come with his restoration, he knew that the last cycle of warriors had been unending. His memories were hazy, not absent. Twenty-nine hadn’t been the last cycle — he wasn’t quite sure how long he had fought after that final door had opened, but it had been more than long enough to kill every challenger at least once.

An hour, at least — by the bloody gods, by the end of it he’d been little more than a giblet with one arm and a couple of knee length stumps! He winced, cringing away from the visceral memory of tearing out a challenger’s throat with his teeth.

What had it all been for? And what was that weight that he’d felt?

Still uncertain of his success, Kaius focused on his pillar — and found a familiar sensation waiting for him, a solidity to his body that seemed to bubble just below the surface. His newly clear mind tested its depths, exploring it curiously. He still had no idea what it did, but it felt similar to the revelation of Truth that came with igniting a pillar — like his body had more meaning, more weight.

It wasn’t the only change. His aspects had always been distant things — passive effects that were just there. Moulded and grafted to his soul, rather than an intrinsic piece of it: much the same as his skills. Now, Corporus filled him utterly — felt as keenly as the golden flames of his soul, even if it burned with no more strength than it had before.

Kaius frowned, still grappling with the changes that had been wrought. Aspects were too new: he had no frame of reference for grasping the subtle differences between what Corporus had been, and what it was now.

Before he could poke around more, a notification chimed — forcefully tugging at his attention.

**Ding! Trial of Perseverance Overcome!**

**Under Strife and Struggle, you have felt the embodiment of Corporus and the growing Authority of your physical self. Congratulations!**

Kaius’s frown deepened. Authority? It told him very little about the nature of what he was experiencing, but he supposed that he at least had a name.

With the completion of his trial overcome — even if he didn’t understand how when it had ended in death — Kaius decided he’d best get settled for whatever was coming next.

He looked around. Although more pressing concerns meant that he’d barely paid attention when he’d first awoken, the ballroom really was grand. Rich hardwood flooring stretched across a hundred strides of open space, while a high arched roof was supported by fluted columns and dangled dozens of delicate silver chandeliers.

Spinning slowly, he took note of the paintings on the walls. They were detailed — almost excessively so for canvases taller than he was. He knew little of such things, but it screamed wealth.

An oddity, considering he was inside a Crucible.

Sharp claps cut through the silence of the hall, high and behind him. Kaius span — finding a mezzanine floor high up the far wall, with a familiar Ascendant beaming down at him.

“Bravo!” she yelled, continuing to clap. “That was a brilliant showing!”

Kaius blinked — only to suddenly jump back as he found himself eye to eye with Xenanra. She stood on thin air, her triangular double-rowed teeth on full display as she grinned.

Rallying himself quickly, he bowed low — giving his respect to the god who graced him with her personal attention. Even now he could feel the weight she exuded at all times, pressing down on his very soul.

Wherever she trod, reality seemed to move to accommodate her. It wasn’t active as far as he could tell. Hells, he was pretty sure that she was restraining the effect, for it held none of the overwhelming suffocation he had felt from both her and Ekum before.

She was still heavy.

Kaius froze in his bow, struck by the similarities of the sensation to what he felt from Corporus. Not in scale, power, or flavour — but the very core of it, that feeling of influence. It was unquestionably inferior; as close as one of the Godsmaw’s trees would be to a blade of grass — still, she was a god!

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His musing only left him more confused, and more uncertain.

If Xenanra noticed his reaction, she gave no indication.

“You really do have an interesting seed.”