Chapter 378: Fog, Finale

Kaius grinned as he read the description of his final Aspect.

It was largely defensive in nature — bolstering his resistance to all forms of injury, but especially soul related effects thanks to his Seed. What that would mean in truth, he didn’t know.

Maybe he would get lucky, and Vos would fall under that purview, but he wasn’t sure. The damage he sustained from his insight into the great rune was odd. It didn’t feel like he was getting attacked — more like his being itself was rebelling against something it was not meant to bear.

Still, he could test it in the future — he still had much practice to do if he wanted to get any better at drawing on less of Vos’s overbearing strength.

Other than that, it seemed his Animus aspect — The Ceaseless Warrior — improved his…will? A broad thing — one he expected would prove to have subtle effects on many things. It was also, thankfully, an easy thing to test.

Reaching for his mana, Kaius found the energy leap to his command. His control was more deft, and he found spinning the energy into multiple threads both easier and faster. Grinning as he released his grin, he grabbed stamina and health next. Both proved equally impacted.

It wasn’t by much, but it was noticeable — and enough that it would definitely have an impact when he inscribed.

He’d have to test what it meant for his actual casting later — if it let him influence the flickers of Slip Step more reliably, it would prove a priceless boon.

Satisfied with the changes, Kaius found Porkchop shaking his head as he came out of his own vision fugue.

“How’d you do?” he asked. “I got The Ceaseless Warrior — makes my soul a little tougher, though the specifics are a little on the light side.

Porkchop snorted, “The Obstinate Questor; it feels accurate, but I’m not sure how I feel about even the System calling me stubborn.”

“Don’t be so stubborn then.”

“Speak for yourself! Anyways, it’s interesting — it boosts my resistance to movement hampering effects. Should be handy.”

Kaius raised his brow — another defensive measure. “Do you think they’ll all be like that?”

“Who knows — regardless, I’m sick of waiting — want to go see what’s on the other side of that fog?”

Kaius followed his brother’s gaze to the impenetrable white wall that the path onwards plunged into. It was denser and thicker than the fog that had come before. Like it carried new meaning — no doubt the trial would shift now that their focus was on embodiment.

“By the forsaken hells, yes. Let’s go.”

….

**Ding! Significant Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded an Honour: Triarch**

Kaius felt creeping tendrils of solidity stretch through everything he was. Hyperreal and dense, it made the world around him seem washed out and pale. Like it was a thin reflection on a tarnished silver plate.

His chest heaved as he fell forwards, propping himself up on his hands and knees in front of a familiar arch of stone and black space.

“Rotten roots, I know this place has to lean heavy on metaphor, but I think having us climb up a literal mountain was pushing things!”

He gasped rolling onto his back as he let out a wide smile. It had been a hell of a climb — gravity itself had grown stronger with every step they had made, and the path had been treacherous and steep.

Climbing ravines, dodging rockfalls, and leaping over crevasses, they’d helped each other every step of the way — and oddly, found just how complementary their Animus aspects were. How they both pushed themselves to go further, try harder, and take just one more step.

It was then, in that unity, that Kaius had started to feel the presence of his soul filling the deepest reaches of his being. Of all his aspects, it was the most inward focused. Primally obsessed with asserting the very core of his truth.

If it was universal, he saw why his and Porkchop’s seeds had both been defensive. The Authority steeped through him — melding with the rest of the triumvirate to ground him in Truth. It reinforced his very existence, making him more stable — more self assured. Not to the degree that he was stagnant and unchanging — just simple awareness of who he was, and an understanding that the only thing that would ever change that was his own will, actions, and intent.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Right next to Kaius, Porkchop lay on his side — panting heavily.

“We got the Honour though!”

“That we bloody did, didn’t we?”

Kaius grinned up at the sky once more. Even if it wasn’t the promise of rewards that drove him onwards, it made them no less sweet when he received them.

Not seeing the point in delaying, he dove into its notification, eager to see its description.

Triarch: