by Aleron Kong
Time passed and his voice grew raw from screaming. He was forced to fall to one knee, then both. The one thing he managed to do though, was keep his head up. Tears flowed from his eyes like crystal rivers, but he kept his eyes trained on the sphere. Sometime in the midst of all that agony, he knew he was looking at his Power Core. A strangled gasp tore from his throat as more power was pulled out of him. The sphere lost cohesion again, and that was when it finally clicked.
At a base level, he suddenly knew that he had to preserve the structural integrity of the sphere, that every time it lost cohesion, he risked failing the Rite of Ascension. He’d thought that the black and gold were two opposing sides of his nature, that one had to win and the other had to fall. In a flash of insight, he understood that both aspects were part of who he was. It wasn’t that they couldn’t coexist, it was that he was forcing them into conflict. It was he that was keeping the fundamental parts of his nature from being whole. He couldn’t force himself to be something he was not. He couldn’t force either part of himself away. He’d learned long ago that you did not gain power over yourself by denying what you were. You had to accept and hold close the various parts of yourself, the gorgeous and the ugly alike. Then, and only then, could you choose how much to indulge your various impulses. By pretending part of you didn’t exist, you had no control at all. That was why, though it was hard, the chaos seed stopped struggling against what his path would pull out of him and put back in.
Instead, Richter stopped running from the suffering. He began to accept it. Slowly but surely, he did what he could to embrace the pain. It would have been wonderful if that had magically made it lessen or go away. Sadly, that wasn’t how life worked. It didn’t get better because you learned a lesson about its nature. Sometimes if you were lucky, however, understanding why you had pain could bring a kind of peace.
While his nerves were fried and his senses were flayed, a random thought appeared in his mind. In a perverse way, his torture at the hands of Nexus months ago might have actually prepared him for the hell he was currently enduring. It had taught him a lesson that only prolonged suffering could convey. That pain was not defeated by fighting against it. Agony was not conquered by trying to overcome it.
No, pain could not be beaten into submission. It was not an enemy to push away. It was a piece of you to be cherished. Even his castration at the hands of Sonirae could not have taught him that. Only by surviving and living with anguish long enough for it to adopt a cruel normality could you come to understand it. For to truly understand something was to love it. His mind was filled with swaths of scarlet suffering, and he now knew that trying to deny that was holding him back. There was only one choice. He had to let go.
He stopped struggling and rode the river of pain. He held it close like a lover. Not tight, to master it, but soft, to welcome it. Slowly, his mind began to accept a truth that his heart calmly repeated again and again. This torture wasn’t happening to him. It was him. He was agony, as much as he was joy, anger and chaos. The pain he was feeling was the pain of life, which would both take and give. His suffering was a searing knife, cutting away everything but his core self. Over time, minutes or hours, he would never know, Richter calmed and began to understand. By accepting his pain, he gained power over it. Even though every part of him felt scraped raw and rubbed with salt, he slowly stood back up on his own two feet.
The flows of energy coming from and entering into his body grew calm. The surface of the sphere stabilized and the two colors, gold and black, flowed together in harmony, no longer in opposition. The power continued to stream out of him, into the Core, before returning on tendrils of gold and black. His status page cycled down until it was the same as his first moment in The Land. The entire time, the pain had continued until he’d finally recognized it. He was feeling every sensation he’d experienced since coming to The Land, but in reverse. Not only the physical sensation, but also how this magical world had impacted his mind, soul and very essence. That was what his core was. It was everything. Suddenly, the pain was gone, and he was as he had been when he was first born into The Land.
Name: Richter
Level: 1, 0%
Age: 24
Race: Chaos Seed (Human)
Alignment: Neutral
Languages: Sapient Mortals
Reputation: Level 1 “Who are you again?”
STATS
Health: 100
Mana: 100
Stamina: 100
ATTRIBUTES
Strength: 10
Agility: 10
Dexterity: 10
Constitution: 10
Endurance: 10
Intelligence: 10
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 10
Luck: 10
RESISTANCES
SKILLS
MARKS
None
None
None
ABILITIES
Limitless: 100% affinity in any and every skill
Gift of Tongues: Ability to comprehend almost any sapient languages
Nexus had stood by the entire time. His gaze had been more focused on the Core of energy floating in the air than the man it had come from. While Richter had been on a journey of self-discovery, the Auditor had seen this scene play out countless times. Most creatures never reached this point. They could not achieve the simple yet profoundly difficult goal of accepting both who and what they were. That was the minimum of what was required to ascend. After all, how could you move beyond the bounds of your current self if you could not even understand it?
To his great surprise, Richter had not only been able to do so, but had done it with a binary soul. The number of beings he had seen achieve that on their first try could be counted on one hand. That was why he examined the man’s Power Core so intently. Nexus’s gold-flecked black eyes seemed to be able to discern truths in the ball of liquid light that most could not see. When Richter finally stood, a master of himself and his pain, Nexus turned his attention back to the chaos seed. The two men locked eyes, and Nexus gave a rare nod of respect.
Now stabilized, Richter’s Power Core rose higher into the air. As it did, the darkness receded and figures began to be illuminated. At the same time, a prompt appeared in Richter’s vision. It was accompanied by a voice that sounded almost robotic. He had never heard anything like it before. It bothered him. The lack of emotion coupled with the strength of the voice made him feel like he was being spoken to by a being infinitely more powerful than himself.
Test Completed. Integration of Self and Nature has been achieved at… 98%. Evolutionary options up to rank 8, Legendary, are now unlocked.
Richter stared at the sphere above him, both shining with light and reflecting nothing, and he was astonished by its beauty. Is this what I am without the strain of what I could be? Is that enough? He had no answers, but he continued to gaze up in wonder. When a voice filled his ears, it took his addled mind a few seconds to realize that it was Nexus who had spoken. Thankfully, the Auditor repeated himself.
“Choose your ascendance.”
CHAPTER 13 – Day 151 – Juren 2, 0 AoC
Richter looked at the giant with a calm that was earned only after great suffering. Nexus began to cast a spell. The ebony man moved both arms in a flowing pattern that became more and more intricate. Magical light of various shades sparked on his fingertips. Some of the shades were familiar to Richter; others were new. Even if he had recognized them all, however, the chaos seed would still have been astonished by their beauty.
He knew the flashes were ambient magic. Light would build on someone’s hands and arms when they cast a spell. The color of the light would give you a clue as to what type of magic the person was harnessing. For Richter, and most every other spellcaster he’d encountered, the light was always just one hue as they cast a spell.
What was so astonishing was the wide array of ambient magic surrounding Nexus’s fingers. Unless Richter was wrong, Nexus was using more than a dozen schools of ma
gic at once to cast the spell he was weaving. Moreover, he did it with the deftness of a virtuoso. The appearance of different lights at once showed that he wasn’t only shifting between different schools, he was using multiple types simultaneously. It made plain just how massive the gap was between the Auditor and himself. For the first time in a great while, the chaos seed was humbled.
Nexus did not notice Richter’s uncharacteristic humility. The chaos seed was most definitely correct; the Auditor stood several tiers above him in regard to raw power, but even the giant was being pushed to his limits. This complicated spellform sorely taxed both Nexus’s magic and mental energy.
There was a reason Nexus had been chosen as an Auditor, however. Difficult or not, the magic never faltered and the complex spellform took shape. As he continued his mystical work, incantations spilled from his lips and a wind built around both of them. It grew stronger and more powerful as time went on. At this moment, if god had stood in his way, then god would have been cut. In the eye of the gathering storm, the two figures, lord and Auditor, remained safe. The storm connected to Richter’s Power Core and the winds turned gold and black in hue.
The casting continued for minutes and the storm continued to expand. As it did, it washed over countless figures wearing Richter’s face. The whirling winds wore down each and they collapsed into black sand. All except a precious few, which were not destroyed by the wind but instead were polished like finished marble. Rather than the shapeless forms they had once been, each now had Richter’s face. The rest of their bodies had various differences, but they were all clearly him.
Through it all, Nexus continued to chant, his movements becoming even more frantic and the words of Power growing louder until he was shouting them into the void. The light and wind extended outward until the eighth ring of figures was revealed. Suddenly, he looked at Richter, his gaze fierce and exhausted at the same time. He spread his arms wide apart before slamming his hands together with a sharp crack!
His fingers snapped together so close to Richter’s face that the chaos seed felt the sound on his cheeks. A vibratory sensation passed through his body and, with no other warning, the swirling winds around them stopped. Silence reigned. The chaos seed felt the vibration rebounding through his body, mind and soul. Nothing was hidden; his every secret was exposed. It did not feel like a violation so much as an impartial evaluation. The energy rippling through him was as old as the turning of the Universe. It knew all, and knew him.
Seven seconds later, the sensation intensified within his chest. It passed up his throat and out of his mouth. Richter shouted a Word of Power he could not know and would never remember, a tone and frequency that was all of what he had been, but not all of what he would become. The reverberations of that Word rippled across the statues that were still standing. Power flowed into them, and though they did not move, he could feel life had been breathed into them. Each opened their eyes and revealed one orb of shining gold and another of fathomless black.
Every one of the figures was unclothed. They stood still as statues in their original positions. Except for not moving, they were incredibly lifelike, even if some were bizarre. Now that the storm had disappeared, he could see them easily.
The closest was only three yards away. The furthest was more than ten times that distance, in the eighth ring of figures. The light from his Core extended only another foot beyond that. The sky above him was a featureless black and he was standing upon a pit of black sand. The granules were as fine as powder, but hard-packed enough to be firm.
Richter turned his head to see the first figure but, unexpectedly, Nexus spoke again. His tone was heavy with warning, “Stay in the light.”
The chaos seed out into the darkness. Before the storm had ended, he was sure he’d seen more shapeless figures beyond the eighth ring. If that was true, then the figures in the dark should even be above legendary rank. He understood the necessity of Nexus’s warning. Who wouldn’t be tempted by such a path to power?
Richter resolved to follow the warning though. A long time ago, he’d been told that if an asshole took the time to give you advice, then that was advice you should take seriously. He was allowed to examine everything in the light, but nothing more. Staring out into the darkness now, he was sure he saw something move. He also couldn’t shake the feeling that all the statues in the light were staring at him, and that something was looking at him from the darkness as well. Staying in the light was one piece of advice he fully intended to follow.
Richter was about to take a step forward to examine the figure closest to him, when a series of prompts appeared.
Know This! Every figure before you represents a path to ascension from a Tier 1 being to a Tier 2. Each figure is only possible due to your actions having imprinted a Potential on your Power Core.
Know This! The further you travel from your Power Core, the higher-ranked the Path of Ascension will be. Beware the folly of choosing a path that offers power at too high a price. Higher-ranked evolutions will have greater consequences if you fail to ascend. While you may choose any of these paths, success is not assured. Even the greatest of beings may be buffeted by the winds of chance.
It looked like the pain he’d gone through had only qualified him to make a choice about how to ascend. The tranquility Richter had been feeling started to fade. After all that, I still might not ascend? Always a fucking catch, he thought bitterly. There was one more prompt, and it seemed to describe who he was currently.
Know This! You are more than what can be seen and felt. At your current Tier, you have only just begun to understand the many facets of your complete self. Understand where you have come from so that you may know how far you might go.
Your current state of existence is:
Tier 1 Human
You are currently a Tier 1 Human, also known as a Mortal Human. Your race is one of the most recent stages of evolution in The Land. Humans possess Refined souls. These are not inherently more powerful than the souls of beasts or monsters, but often possess greater potential and resilience.
Humans are one of the shortest-lived yet most prolific breeders in the Land. With the correct combination of Attributes, they have a maximum life expectancy of 150 years. Humans have a broader affinity for skills than other races. No special bonuses to race. Humans receive four free Attribute Points per level.
Facets of your current incarnation
Body
Tier 1 Human
Mind
Tier 1 Human
Soul
Tier 1 Human
Special
Chaos Seed
Aura
Chaotic Gradient (Greater rank)
As powerful as Richter had become, it looked like he hadn’t moved past the potential of any other human at this point. He was the same as any other mortal human. The fact that he had one hundred and fifty years of life expectancy with the right “combination” of Attribute Points let him know he wasn’t immortal, but it was still longer than he’d expected to live so it wasn’t that bad.
The “refined” descriptor of his soul helped him understand something that he’d wondered about for a long time. Namely, why he wasn’t able to soul trap the spirits of humans, goblins and other sapient races. What “refined” meant he had no idea. The best people to ask, Sumiko and Hisako, were both Life masters. The two found the idea of trapping sapient souls to be so abhorrent that they’d almost attacked him the one time he’d asked about it.
The prompt gave him even more information. As he focused on each term, descriptions would appear.
Body – The corporeal form of a creature
Mind – The psionic potential and intellect of a creature
Soul – The strength and character of a creature’s spirit
Each of the first three descriptors also stated that his form was consistent with other mortal humans. The next line was apparently a catchall for anything that did not normally appear in a Tier 1 incarnation. This was apparently where he differed from
other mortal humans.
Special – Miscellaneous factors affecting a given incarnation
None of that was too surprising or even that insightful. Even his own status page listed him as human with “chaos seed” in parentheses. He hadn’t known about the tiers before now, but it wasn’t too different from the concepts of leveling.
The last descriptor was what he found to be particularly fascinating. Focusing on the word “aura,” it gave him a basic definition.
Aura – A field that surrounds the incarnation. This can be seen or unseen, felt or undetectable, passive or active.
Discovering that he had an aura was a bit of a surprise. Even more so that auras weren’t just something hot, weird chicks made you hear about before they gave it up. Still, that wasn’t what captured Richter’s attention. It was the description of his aura that finally gave him some clue about his Chaos Seed nature. It confirmed something that he’d long suspected, but hadn’t been able to substantiate.
Chaotic Gradient – An aura that is unique to creatures of Chaos. Simply by existing, they can affect events around them, twisting the strands of fate. This aura can be a curse or a blessing, depending on the Luck and power of the owner. The only thing that can be definitively stated about this aura is that it will trigger powerful events in the life of the one who possesses it.
