B3 Chapter 379: Temperance, pt 1.

Shimmering like oil, the pool of black at the center of the room boiled. It reached upwards like a living thing, tendrils and droplets questing.

Kaius felt magnetized towards it. It was as if it was calling to him; reaching out to somewhere deep within him and ushering him forward. Unwittingly, he took a step back and clenched his fist. His nails dug into his palm, the stinging pain bringing clarity.

He looked at Xenanra, worried. There was no break?

But he needed that rest — needed the opportunity to learn that came with it. He’d had more questions for the Ascendant. There was so little he knew — about the path, and the depths of the system that his world had lost.

He’d hoped that she could answer more about Animus; about his experiences and what he had felt. What the pillar meant — in the same way he had learned about the others. More importantly, how they related to each other. The connection he could feel as the triumvirate within him burned — stretching through the entirety of his being and into the world around him.

More importantly, why was she here? He’d only ever taken his trials alone — excluding his most recent encounter with Porkchop. What had changed? He hadn’t even received a System-borne explanation like normal. He would have assumed Xenanra was here to give it in person, if the trial was as vital as it seemed to be.

Apparently not.

He looked the ascendant in her face and saw a tense smile. The corners of her mouth were stretched tight, baring her shark-like fangs. She looked worried. Concerned — as if she didn’t quite wish to put him through what came next.

That alone made his own dread rise; cold fingers of tension stretched up his spine and reached into his neck. It curdled within him.

Why was she worried? Why did she approach this trial with such…distaste? Every other challenge she’d put him through — whether it was endless death or ceaseless combat — were an unyielding that would have broken most men. Then, she didn’t look worried.

He remembered her deep smile — the hopeful twinkle in her eyes. She’d been gleeful for the challenge that he would experience, for the life that he would live. That, he could easily understand. Especially now that he could feel his own Animus — feel his love for struggle, the sweat of tribulation and the way it filled him with ardour.

Not here though: not in this shadowed cavern holding an unknown horror. Even now, he could feel it tug, like it wanted him to peer in. Some primaeval part of him shied away from the sensation.

He took another step back.

From the corner of his eye he could see its inky depths. There was a curdling maleficence that sat beneath its oily shimmer, reflecting the soft light of the cavern in disgusted rejection of the revealing bright. Reflections were twisted — his own face seeming wide mouthed and large of tooth.

He shuddered, forcing it from his mind — focusing instead on the Ascendant before him, using her weighty presence as a grounding rod.

“The pool. What is it?” he asked. “Why does it call to me so? I can feel the pull urging me forward.”

He breathed. “More importantly, what changed — why is there no break?”

Xenanra folded her hands behind her back, giving him a slow nod. There was steel to it — and a little respect in her eyes. As if she could acknowledge the force of will it took to put that bubbling darkness out of mind.

“The answers are intertwined. The pool itself does not matter, you will find out soon enough. Don’t worry if it will be difficult — or if this trial will see you dead if you fail like most of your previous trials. This…test is different from the others. A test of will, and a test of Honour.”

Imperious, she rose into the air — floating forwards until she hung at eye level. She fixed him with her stare — the air shaking beneath her might. He remembered then, the totality of what she was.

Her primacy. Her godhood.

When she spoke once more, her words resonated — plucked at the very fibres of his being.

“The path is a treacherous thing. Not just for those who walk it, but for the world that births them. Thankfully, the people that represent the largest risk are those least likely to reach the end. Those of weak will and soft minds. However…the most dangerous are those that have the will and capability, but are…lacking in some other way. By nature, a would-be Ascendant’s very ambition makes them susceptible.”

Kaius drowned in her words, each breath flowing like molasses.

“The system cares little for interpersonal conflict, but there are some dangers that it cannot ignore. Those that — if given the opportunity — would tear down everything it has sought to build. It must be managed; risks reduced as much as possible.”

Kaius stood rooted in place. With every word the Ascendant said, his compulsion to look past her grew. His need to stare into the black. An urge — to seize what should be his.

He refused, biting his tongue until he tasted iron.

His mind was his own, and his will was steel! If this was some test of his morale or resolve, Xenanra would find him a hard man to break. Still, what could possibly be so dangerous as to give even the System pause. How could someone — any sentient — become so powerful?.

He struggled to believe that it would be a direct threat — some danger brought by strength of arm or force of magic. No matter how inviolable Ascendants seemed to be, the System was beyond even them. It wasn’t even a tangible thing! Even if he ignored its omniscient grasp on reality, there was nothing to strike, no structure or inscription to shatter. It simply was!

Was it even threatened directly? Xenanra said it was what it sought to build.

Kaius wracked his mind — drawing on all of his experience and every scrap of interaction he’d had about the system itself. He could only come to one answer. Power.

Stolen novel; please report.

Xenanra simply smiled at him. It was a tight thing; let slip the constrained unease within her.

“In a sense, you are right, Kaius — But you are far too young and undeveloped to know the specifics. Think of it this way: the system is a force of creation. It inspires change; dynamicism. It drives people onwards to grow, and to mold the world around them. Such a thing is not linear, of course — it breeds conflict wherever it goes — but at its core, it is a creative force. There is always more, and the corpses of the old fertilise the rise of the new. Some might possess the ability and strength to ascend, but there is always the risk they may…interupt this cycle. Rather than adding to the world with every breath, they take — and they destroy.”

Kaius narrowed his eyes, thinking of black spirits and dark hearts. Yet… something in the Ascendant’s explanation did not line up with his own experience. Hells, she’d said it herself — the System cared little for interpersonal conflict. Of all he had seen, it cared little for if someone was a noble paragon or the blackest of blackguards. If it had, men like Old Yon or those that had killed Father and brought his dynasty low never would have had the capability they wielded so capriciously.

Xenanra shook her head as she plucked the thoughts right out of his mind.