Runeblade

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.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

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.

"Do not get too lost in the specifics. You will not find them easily, nor are they meant for your ears. All you need to know is that some men — be they the greatest of heroes or the worst dictators — are not meant for true power. This trial is to test if you are one of them. I sincerely hope that you won't fail me."

Kaius swallowed, his tongue sticking to the roof of his mouth. "And if I do fail…?"

"Like I said. You won't come to harm — but your path to the peak will likely be cut off. Or, at the very least, it will become far more difficult."

Xenanra paused, drifting away from him. She stopped a bare few strides away, rising high so that he was forced to look up.

"You will be barred from the final reward of this Crucible, and will be forever unable to attempt it again until you pass, both in this location and others. Later Crucibles will test you similarly to this upon entry, and until you succeed they will be barred to you too."

He blinked. That didn't seem…so bad? He'd been worried that his path would be broken — not that he would be denied guidance.

Xenanra gave him a nod. "The system cannot truly bar you from seeking ascendancy — not when, by right, it is a scream of defiance against the heavens. But you'll find the path harder, longer."

She paused for a moment as if gathering her words. "It is a thing of statistics, you see. When you deal in the unending magnitude of volumes that the system does, you judge on the basis of trillions. The only surefire way to prevent the sort of chaos I have mentioned from occurring would be to bar all from ascendancy. That would be…untenable. Some will always slip through the cracks, but tests like these limit the damage. Besides — more than one failure has struggled through their rebuke to be reborn through their own efforts. Hence, the opportunity to be tested once more."

From behind the Ascendant Kaius felt the pull deepen. Roiling fluid grew thick, scattering the half-light of the cavern into twisting shadows that seemed to reach for him with claws. Every bubble and pop called to him. A siren call with which he fought against with all the power in his being.

A part of him rebuffed the attempt — a dominion of self that rejected its touch. It was resiliency that he had found in his Aspects: in that bleeding hyper-reality that was thrown off by their burning rays. It banished the shadows; left him clear and firm in his convictions.

Yet still, the pull grew stronger — until it had wrapped him in chains of iron and adamant. It crushed his chest in, choking every breath from his lungs. Kaius quaked like a willow in a storm, gasping.

"What is it?" he pleaded, shuddering like a leaf as he stared past the ascendant with wild eyes. "What must I do? Withstand this temptation? Stay strong in the face of this force you refuse to explain? Tell me. Please."

"I will not. I cannot: I am bound. Approach the pool and peer deep and stay firm in your convictions. There is no trick — all that matters is that you be who you are."

The Ascendant's reassurance, if it could even be called that, fell flat. Her six dotted eyes tracked him like a hawk, her brow was furrowed and tense, her smile was thin.

There was something more to this trial. Something she wasn't saying. Something that, by her own words, she couldn't say. Kaius didn't know what it was, but in the magnetism he felt — the claws that gripped his bones and tried to twist his limbs; that tried to force him forward step by step — he knew it wasn't natural; it wasn't hale, it wasn't nourishing; it wasn't pure.

There was something dark about it.

Even buoyed by his Aspects: his body strong; his mind tempered; his soul burning bright — he barely fought the feeling to a standstill.

The rhythmic scream of the bloodsong surged through his veins as he burned bright. The wave of tension through his body hounded the sound higher and higher until it roared in his ears. Could he trust her truly? Yet where did trust come into it?

Xenanra herself; the System. They were beyond him. He might one day be a power that his world had never seen before, but they were worlds unto themselves. They were forces beyond gods, beyond light, beyond gravity. They simply were. Long had they risen, far longer than him. In their eyes, he was but a child — one to be nurtured or punished as they pleased.

For a moment, Kaius just struggled to breathe.

He did not fear what came next. It worried him that his path might become harder, but he did not fear the challenge it would bring. If he was to be tested, then so be it — if he failed, he would simply do better next time.

All that mattered were the hidden depths of what he had been challenged with. Dare he approach? What if Xenanra's trial was more about those of weak will: those who would bend the knee and obey without second thought to those of greater power? Could he risk it?

He must. If there was anything he learned, it was that the climb demanded conviction!

Kaius stared at the contamination that boiled at the centre of the cavern.

If he must approach, it would not be under the urging of some thing. He had lived a life of battle; of exertion and sweat. He would not be contained, corralled or controlled by some oozing fluid summoned from the depths of the System's own nightmare!

Reaching deeper within himself Kaius sought the comforting support of his Skills and burning warmth of the triumvirate within him. He felt the grounding strength of the burgeoning Authority that had begun to suffuse every aspect of his being. It kept him centred.

He breathed deep.

And fought back.

Gritting his teeth, he tore at the foreign tendrils that crept their way up his nerves and into his neck. He clawed at the icy fingers around the back of his skull, oil slick; greasy and defiled. He refused their touch.

Taunt like a bowstring. He rejected the impulse to lunge forward and instead took a single, slow step. His mind ached like he had called upon Vos; his body burned like he struggled under a mountain — yet he crossed the cavern slowly under his own command, staring deep into the roiling pit.

Xenanra watched on, and Kaius noticed the ghost of a smile on her face.

He'd impressed her.

The glugging fluid hissed, and Kaius fell to his knees and watched as his Will started to crack. This close to the source, the crushing grip of the fluid grew too strong.

His body went slack and his eyes fuzzy.

He slipped forwards — into the pool.

It welcomed him into its depths, racing into his nose and mouth to fill his lungs. Wrapped in an oily grip Kaius found himself ushered down, down, into the black.