Chapter 116: A Grand & Intoxicating Innocence Finale

Kaius sat frozen, locked in the chair. His heart pounded in his chest, every thump straining to push blood through his system, like his vital fluid had turned to treacle. He longed to turn his head, to check on Porkchop. He felt his bolstering support flowing through the bond, and sent his own across in turn.

He dared not reach out with anything resembling real speech. Not here. Not in the presence of divinity.

Could it possibly be true? That he had potentially doomed everything? He’d merely strived for success, merely strained to reach the rewards that the system had offered. How could it deliver so cruel a punishment?

Ekum chuckled, flippant in his disregard of his dread and fear.. “It is only a punishment if you fail, my boy. Show me that steel that you’ve held for the last year. You’re better than this. I might only care for my freedom, but it would certainly be more… pleasant if it was your success that led to my release, instead of your failure. I get a little golden star on my record if your world survives. Hence, a proposition.” The ascendant paused, the room falling silent except for the slow constant crackle of logs aflame.

“Bear the weight of your crown and burn the world in your ambition, for it will be lost if you do not. Do not let up, do not relax, and do not slow down. Forge a power base, cultivate allies, and destroy your enemies. Temper your strength, and plumb the mysteries of power. Above all else, delve. Delve as deep as you can, as fast as you can. If you do this, I will give you guidance. Enough to ensure you have a goal, a place to direct your struggle.”

Ekum the Pale stood up, his full height looming over them both. The ascendant turned, leaning back on the hearth’s mantle.

“Which leads me to the last. A piece of advice. Master your aspects and reach the fiftieth layer before you rise to the third tier. I recommend a lot of killing, a lot of soul-searching, and delving as high above your level as you can manage.” The ascendant said, a thin half smile barely visible on his lips.

Kaius stayed rooted to the spot, trying and failing to digest Ekum’s words. Reaching the fiftieth layer before the third tier would mean facing creatures up to a hundred levels higher than him, at best. Let alone the Champions or Guardians. Did the ascendant wish him death? And the third tier? On what time frame did he expect him to become a powerhouse of humanity?

And what the fuck was an aspect?

Ekum laughed. The very essence of the world quaked.

“Third tier? Powerhouse? That’s not even true on this backwater shithole.” He chuckled, throaty and deep, as he wiped tears from his eyes. “Oh, that is too good. No. I do not suggest suicide. Both of you are Observed, you are not cut from the same cloth as the unwashed masses. More than that, you’ve achieved a Major Honour in your assessment period, ushering in the second stage! Have some bloody faith in yourselves!” Ekum’s tone grew flinty, threatening to stop his heart with toxic intent alone. “This will be the work of decades, but this does not mean you have time to slack. And no, I will not explain what an Aspect is. The whole point of them is self-discovery, and the update will cover the bare essentials. ”

Ekum the pale waved towards them contemptuously. “We’re done here. Follow my advice and we will see each other again soon enough.”

Shock fired down Kaius’s spine, arcing through his limbs like branching lightning. What did he mea-

A hand of adamant will set its grip upon him, and he slid above-through-towards the world.

…

Kaius slammed back into his body. For a moment, all he could do was reel, then as the finely carved dwarven statues surrounding him continued to twist and sway he bent over and hurled. The leftover remnants of that morning’s breakfast splashed against the pavestones, his throat constricting painfully as he slumped his weight onto his arms.

Porkchop moaned off to his left, his brother’s splitting headache seeping across their bond to aggravate Kaius’s discomfort further.

Shuffling away from the pool of sick, Kaius scooted until his back rested against the cool stone plinth of the statue they had rested beneath, before their rude abduction. His head sank back, resting on the uncomfortable edge as he stared blankly off into the distance, eyes hollow and haggard. Processing what they had just been through.

He cared not what Ekum the Pale had said, the being was a god. No two ways about it. It was the only valid descriptor. Even if he was somehow beyond gods, or whatever he had meant by being an ‘ascendant’, from the perspective of a mere mortal, it made little difference.

Never had he been so totally trounced, so totally sure that his continued existence occurred only at the whims and behest of another. Having the sanctity of his mind violated so casually was the smallest thing that weighed on him. The entire time he had felt the weight of looming death. A doom that screamed at him from all angles, as his skills lay barren and silent, abandoning him in his time of need.

“Fuck.” He whispered, tensing his fist in a half hearted attempt to rouse some fire and indignation within him. His blood stayed as cold as ice. What use was anger in the face of a god? It was like raging against the wind or the mountain. Useless.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Yet it was the content of Ekum the Pale’s words that worried him the most. What could he have possibly meant, that he might have just consigned his world to ash? Did the heavens and hells care so little?

There was a shuffle from beside him as Porkchop pulled himself over to him. Kaius turned, looking at the haggard look on his brother’s face and feeling the uncertainty and anxiety that washed across their joined souls in waves. A reflection of him.

“What did he and the system mean by the second phase, Porkchop?” Kaius asked weakly.

Porkchop slumped. “I don’t know, I’ve never heard of it, or about the ‘integration’. The start of the system is as opaque to the Matriarchs as it is to everyone else.”