Runeblade

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 Torn flesh and spilled blood had been replaced by the cold weight of his scalemail, his missing limbs returned.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."

Kaius raised his head slowly, finding the Ascendant watching him with a curious look on her face.

"Conquest, perfection, hunger, and growth. A potent and heady mix if I've ever seen one — I've only seen a rare few like it."

Kaius struggled to respond. If it wasn't enough that he'd died what felt like minutes prior, he also had to grapple with new oddities to his aspect that he barely understood.

Xenanra walked — air supporting her weight like solid granite as she circled him, appraising him from all sides.

"I wasn't sure if you would go the distance, you know. Seeds like yours are always watered by blood and steel. Your own and others. Even with all of your capability and brute stubbornness, I still wondered. Few can truly fight to the bitter end with an easy out dangling in front of them like that."

Her words were matter-of-fact, but Kaius could feel the barest hint of respect. It flavoured the very air around her as the world echoed the ascendant's will.

"What do you mean?" Kaius asked quietly, swallowing through a dry mouth as Xenanra stopped in front of him once more. "The system said I had to fight — that success would come with victory."

Xenanra laughed with genuine joy, palpable amusement and pleased satisfaction washing over him in a wave. The world shimmered at the sound, leaving his head spinning with vertigo. The experience left his hair standing on end — though he struggled to tell if it was in awe or fear.

Rubbing at her face as her laugher petered out, the ascendant sighed and met his eyes.

"When things come down to the wire, when every scrap of strength and ability is drawn free, and your body lies broken and dying, the truth comes out. I mean truly down to the bitter end — act or die situations. They have a way of stripping things back. "

"Most people wouldn't have been able to stop themselves from forfeiting if they tried. When higher consciousness flees, and only animal instinct remains to rail against the darkness of exhaustion and terror, it will always revert to survival. You though? You have more bite than bark — a dog who will maul until you are put down. It is a rare thing, to see someone instinctively commit to victory or death."

Xenanra's look was grave now — serious and stern. She crossed her arms, pure white eyes nailing his feet in place.

"It is a dangerous thing. Lean in too far and it leads to a binary conclusion. It gets you killed, or it helps you grow until you are unkillable. A fool would say it makes you iron — I would say that tempering that brutish perseverance with a healthy dose of wisdom and caution will make it far more likely you get there."

Kaius nodded quickly. It was a sentiment he could agree with readily. His experience in the trial hadn't left him pleased or proud. No — he could still feel the sickly fingers of anxiety knotting through his belly. He was mortified! Tearing into his enemies with wanton violence was one thing — effective, in many cases — but he'd died. With an out right there, waiting for him to grasp it with nothing more than a little intent.

He should have forfeited. If not for some twist of the trial, he'd already be gone. What good would that do for the bloodebt he owed Father? For his friends? For Porkchop, whose very soul would be torn in the experience.

Selfish. The word hung in his mind.

He didn't blame himself utterly — every man could be forgiven for lacking forethought and wisdom in such a time of desperation. Hells, he hadn't even really been conscious.

It was still something he had to work on, be cautious of. This wasn't the first time it had made itself known — It had been present in his violent anger during their escape, and the desperate glee he felt during the hunt. A seed of reckless aggression and wanton brutality that would need to be carefully nurtured and pruned. Something to be made to serve him, lest he serve it.

Like the ascendant said, it would push him far, or it would kill him. Only he could be the ultimate decider of which way it fell.

Xenanra gave him a self satisfied nod, "Good — I knew you would understand."

Kaius bowed his head again, though one question still plagued him. Why.

"What was the point of it all?" He asked cautiously. "Why hide my revival — was teaching me that lesson the goal? Or was it to see if I had the will to carry on until the end?"

He wasn't sure what he expected his answer to be, but it definitely wasn't for the ascendant's mouth to twitch as she suppressed a smile.

"No. Boundless, could you imagine?" she shook her head. "Fighting until you died was entirely superfluous, as was forfeiting to an extent."

Kaius blinked. What?!

"YourTrial of Perseverance was entirely focused on if you can push yourself until you scraped the very bottom of your reserves, and find the embodied weight of Corporus waiting for you: to see if you understand on an instinctive level the duality of enforcement and embodiment. How it creates Truth, and you prove that it is True — how that process makes you just that hair more real. If you died or forfeited before then, you failed. And stay dead, in the former case. If you did so afterwards, you succeeded."

Kaius frowned, and recognising his confusion Xenanra tapped her fingers on her chin.

"The trial was personalised, that is true — but it was never about testing your aspect directly. It was the emotion and drive that lies under it. The Struggler's Madness is about improvement, yes — but is also relentless refusal to stop. It is Mentis that controls: Corporus acts. Forced into a situation where you had to react to a growing threat to live, but they escalated faster than you could keep up, you entered a state of pure action — amplified by being exhausted to the point of death."

"In that state, where you could never adapt fast enough, you were immersed in your aspect deeper than you have ever been before. That…weight you feel is not empowerment, but simple awareness of what was always there. An insight that takes most years to achieve, if they ever seek it at all. Still, the fact remains that embodiment was all that mattered, in this trial at least. Though, the very reason that fail safe was even there was because of how likely it would be needed in your circumstances."

She winked at him conspiratorily.

Kaius stared at the ascendant blankly, grappling with her words. His pain, his blood. The torn flesh and missing thoughts. The slaughter. It had all been for nothing?

He felt the ache of his missing limbs, the burning cold of torn flesh and spilt blood — the hot flood of tearing into flesh with his teeth as his blade became unwieldy.

He remembered the finality of that crushing dark at the end of it all.

Xenanra grinned, flashing him with predatory teeth. "Oh, I wouldn't say that — you learned an incredibly valuable lesson in a manner impossible to most. Would you really feel the need for mindful control in the same way without it? Few can say they have been killed by their fatal flaw and lived to tell the tale of it."

"Besides — it was rather astounding to watch you kick in a challenger's skull with your stump, and stab a second through the eye while you tore out a third's carotid with your teeth. Let alone watching you do it an hour after you'd already won."

She gave him a hungry smile. It was a predatory look — won that revealed a savagery that had been bound in chains of adamant and beaten until it had been brought to heel. It made Kaius wonder that, just maybe, the ascendant had spoken earlier from a basis of personal experience.

"I mean honestly, were you sold into a Hyritinian deathsword corps as a child? It really was a marvellous showing!"