Runeblade

An endless sea of lights swirled through a void of purest black. Ekum floated in the centre of the swarm, so still that his flawless physique looked closer to the work of a master sculptor than a living Ascendant.

It was a choice. Movement would have been as pointless as twisting his quintessence and Imperium to craft a hollow facsimile of sunshine and open skies. It would have been fake, a pointless exercise when he could feel the choking weight of unbreakable chains on his soul.

Once, he had occupied himself by walking through halls and battlefields from his memory. He had run free with the wind on his skin, trained to light a deep fire in his muscles, and even practiced his meditation for a few centuries. For a little while, it had even been relaxing. Cut off from the wider universe, out of reach from his responsibilities and burdens, he’d been able to breathe. The years had flowed as he watched those lights dance through the night, each a compacted view of the world that was his charge.

Eventually meditation dulled all but the ache of his bindings, the battles grew boring and routine, and the endless font of wine and meat sour.

It was fake. The only thing of substance available to him was his duty. Watching the grotesque mockery of an integration filled him with nothing but bile. It had languished for millenia, cursing him to a half-life. It wasn’t even the schemes and betrayals that had hamstrung the development of the world so long ago. That alone could not explain things. Uncountable integrations had faced similar circumstances as the foundations of a world were broken, but it was only ever a setback!

Someone, somewhere, should have triggered the advancement protocols. Yet through a cursed combination of poor luck, compulsive knowledge-hoarding, and contagious cowardice, he had been forced to wait for thirteen thousand years!

A muscle in his jaw twitched, his teeth grinding together with enough force to crush granite. He smothered his frustration. Old furies were of no help to him now, not when he had finally found seeds of true promise.

Even if he had felt distaste for the world, he’d watched it often. First with hope, then later with scorn. Every moment he had observed hundreds with the promise to break the deadlock. A scion born to an ancient lineage, the umpteenth rediscovery of Honours, or just simply a talented fool that had caught the eyes of the fates. Ekum had been disappointed every time.

Either they refused the risk required to go truly far, or they reached some modicum of capability and rested on their laurels. Worse were the minor few who did push, but over extended and took their secrets to the grave due to a simple fear of competition or jealousy. Pathetic.

And then, in what might as well have been the blink of an eye, it all changed.

It had started with an idle sweep of the world in the hopes of finding a few dozen things to occupy a small slice of his eternity. Instead of a hopeless distraction, he’d found Kaius.

What a surprise that had been — Ekum had almost passed over him at first. A boy, trapped in the Great Depths. He’d thought Kaius nothing more than meat for the grinder, but a closer look had shown him more. A full and complete legacy, something vanishingly rare in this backwater.

The boy had been talented and driven. Even better, Kaius had been fortunate enough to be born the son of a genius, one who had crafted a rudimentary form of glyph-binding for him. That alone had been enough for Ekum to watch the boy like a hawk. It had guaranteed Kaius an Honour the second he inscribed it for the first time.

For the first time in uncounted ages, he’d felt a little bit of hope.

He almost couldn’t believe how well it had gone. Not only had the boy quickly become Observed by the system, he’d allied himself with another talent! A greater meles, possessing a full legacy of his own, driven through the same Depths portal by a twist of fate.

What a terror they were! Surviving a full year in the Depths as unclassed was no small thing. The very moment the pair discovered Honours, they had clawed after them desperately. They’d even beaten a Guardian and unlocked their classes early! That was uncommon, even on a multiversal scale.

The ghost of a smile twitched on Ekum’s face. The Major Honour they’d received for slaying the Guardian had finally triggered the advancement of the Integration. With that, his escape was close to guaranteed.

Though he was tempted to check in on their more recent progress, Ekum held himself back. The upheaval of the second stage had injected some vitally needed chaos into the fabric of the world, and shattered some of the deadlock. He had much to occupy himself with. He could only hope the pair had taken his advice seriously, and were making good progress. It was vital they delved beyond the fiftieth layer of the Great Depths while they were still in the second-tier, even if it killed them. The sooner the third phase started, the better.

That said, even with so much to keep him busy, he’d still checked in on them.

How brilliant it had been to watch Kaius confirm his father’s death in that quaint little Three Fields. It had lit a fire within the boy — exactly the sort of drive he needed if he would go far. It was finally enough to push the boy over the edge of breaking secrecy, after all of his bond brother’s needling. Kaius had shared Legacy Skills and Honours with the elders of the village, and in a single stroke had cemented the certainty that the Integration would eventually come to an end.

It would have been far more entertaining if Kaius had left to cut a bloody swathe across the continent, collecting skulls and levels by the dozen. Unfortunately, he knew that not everyone was built for such a Path. Kaius and Porkchop had instead made way for the city of Deadacre, rescuing that solar mage Ianmus along the way.

He’d been…dubious of the half-elf. He was talented enough for the environment he’d grown up in, but Kaius and Porkchop needed the support of the remarkable. Thankfully, the influence of the two battle-maniacs had rubbed off on the mage through their successive missions for the local guild. Yet more Honours had cemented them as a team, and soon enough they’d made decent headway in igniting their Aspects.

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The delight he had felt to watch them so desperately seek strength without giving away their secrets! The local Guild heads had seen through it immediately, and, thankfully, Kaius had shared his knowledge of Honours and Skills too — a choice that would eventually light a fire of change.

Rieker and Ro hadn’t been the only ones to notice the teams oddities either. First there had been that failed noble Grave-eye, and later that cut throat Onyx operative Old Yon. Bit by bit, the jaws of the trap had closed around them. The very memory of it left his spine tingling — he’d barely been able to tear himself away!

That ambush had been a thing of beauty. Four Silvers against three poisoned Steels, and they slaughtered two of the ambushers anyway! It was almost a shame to see them locked up in that forested complex. He’d been damn certain that would be the end of them. Even if the suppression wards were not keyed to Kaius’s glyphbinding, the team had still been physically locked away, with hundreds of enemies crawling around them.

But instead of surging into brash violence, they’d weathered the torture and waited patiently for opportunity.

One that came on the back of a Tyrant’s horde. Not even he had predicted that one, those creatures were well out of his purview of influence. They were the landmark danger of the second phase: powerful, artificially created essence users with a system-born need to press and challenge the local populace. It was pure luck that the sub-type local to Kaius and his team had been a tide-maker. Hundreds of thousands of beasts had fallen under its sway, an endless tsunami of muscle that had swept across the landscape, gathering under their leader’s banner.

Using the chaos, the team had sprung their containment — adopting the aen archer Kenva into their group. She had been perfect for them from the get go. It went beyond her Class and powerful Legacy: the woman was driven enough to stumble across Honours in the wake of change that swallowed the world. A natural fit.

They’d fled right into a Delve that should have killed them. Oh, the entertainment that had come from watching them struggle and bleed through the desert and jungle that followed. It had ignited a flame he hadn’t felt in centuries as he remembered the sheer vibrancy of his youth. Battle and death at every turn, never knowing if the next conflict would be your last! The dread ache of worry as your companions bled and broke! The sheer visceral hunger for more as your might rose like it never had before!

Such fun. It was made only sweeter by anticipation, as Kaius and his team had crawled ever closer to a looming Crucible. Those were the true prize of the second phase — a dedicated space, perfect for progressing Aspects, with personal tutelage from an Ascendant. It was where the truly talented were tested, and inducted into some of the System’s most jealously kept secrets. Cycling — the ability to manually generate and control essence. It was practically a requirement if one wanted to Ascend.

Unfortunately, even he was not allowed to bear witness to the trials of the Crucible — though he was confident that the team would succeed. Every step Kaius had taken towards it was another closer to a break in his confinement Yet the boy had one last surprise for him.

VOS.

Somehow, some way, Kaius’s class touched on a scrap of conceptual magic for his capstone skill. Utter insanity. While he had never personally heard of the Vesryn Order, he was all but certain it had nurtured many Ascendants. Conceptual magic, even a shard of one, was not something meant for mortals. It was dangerous, corruptive, and overwhelming. But if mastered? Well, Ekum would have killed for such an advantage while so young.

He wondered what his peer within the Crucible thought of it? The system had informed him of her name, of course — Xenanra. Unfortunately, it was unfamiliar to him, though that was of little surprise considering the uncounted multitudes that lived within the System. It was possible she was far older and more powerful than he — many ancients had an odd fondness for those new to the Path.

Looking for other distractions had been annoying, but at least the upheavals seemed to have shaken some of the dust from the world. There’d been a surprising number worth his attention. Still, a portion of his focus had remained on that Crucible, and sure enough, the team had eventually left with their Aspects fully embodied. Kaius had even managed to awaken his blade to Epic — a large boon.

He spent weeks watching them cleave their way deeper into the depths. For a while there, he’d almost thought they would push all the way down to the fiftieth layer in a single delve! Unfortunately, that hadn’t been the case. Though they’d gained honours and strength, it wasn’t enough to keep up with the growing danger with their levels capped.

The Class evolution’s they’d gotten for their trouble though? Those has been brilliant. Both Kenva and Ianmus had pushed hard enough to rise to Heroic, and Kaius and Porkchop had maintained their momentum.

It made it all the sweeter knowing what was waiting for them when they left. Another ambush. Nearly a dozen Silvers, all significantly higher level — as if it mattered when the difference in quality was so extreme. He could still taste the fear as he watched the slaughter through Old Yon’s eyes. How confused he’d been, as hardened men were splattered into a fine paste. The man’s bitter spite as he’d died. He’d relived the memories a dozen times over!

Unfortunately, he hadn’t been able to spare his full attention for much longer. The team might have been on a collision course with a Tyrant, and he was more than curious how the team had dealt with the discovery of the imperial ruin beneath Deadacre — but duty had called.

Now though, he had some time. It had been tempting to keep a fraction of his attention on the team, but he’d held off. It would have done their efforts a disservice, and he’d come to appreciate the rare opportunities for fun after millenia in isolation.

In the same instant that Ekum reached out towards the swarming lights above, a pulse rocked the endless expanse of void. Ripples cascaded through the spatial fabric, and the glowing storm above burst with radiance, each fleck brighter than a burning star.

They surged in, flooding him with knowledge.

Ekum froze. Simple shock spilled from him in a wave, so forceful that screaming vents opened in the fabric of the realm.

The third phase had come. How? Could Kaius have delved to the fiftieth layer already?

Twitching a finger, a single mote of light shot into Ekum’s forehead. It brought revelation. Howling laughter spilled from his throat, worsening the instability that surrounded him.

They’d done it! The bastards had actually done it! How long had he scorned them for what they had done; raged at the part they’d had to play in his confinement? He’d seen their preparations, of course, but the chances of successfully refining a soul enough to support a higher class rarity were so mind-bogglingly small that he’d never thought they would pull it off. Especially without essence and Authority to lean on. It was the rarest of all the triggers!

By the boundless, he was surprised they even had the balls! He would have thought they would have argued over it for a half-century or more before moving to action!

His maniacal laughter slowed, leaving only a hungry grin on his face. His escape was certain now. A few centuries, at most — practically no time at all. Even better, he would have plenty to keep himself occupied in the days to come.

The thought made him think of Kaius. How would the boy be taking this development? Ekum had warned him he’d need to fight and strive if he wanted to flourish. No one stayed at the peak by resting on their laurels.

Ekum sat down, a granite throne materialising to catch him. Sprawling across it, he willed a steady stream of lights towards him. It was time to catch up on everything he’d missed.