It was in that moment when time who had been all too courteous finally caught up to him that he looked up seeing something unexpected, the top was in sight, only a few dozen feet away.
His heart was pounding like lightning, excited yet terrified to finally confront what's at the top. A second wind came as he climbed, the laugh of Naia and the stubborn attitude of Cassia already sounding in his head granting him their graces.
Not a moment before he hurled himself over a precipice he could yet realize a bright light flushed in silver and heat scorched the top. Anecus knew immediately this was the being in his dream, the one basked in those radiant flames bereft of mediocrity. They were leaving something behind.
This unexplainable familiarity shrouding the figure made Anecus certain it held answers to the questions he hadn't thought to form.
However the heat was too terrible, the light too exposing, making Anecus wince until it finally settled. He peered over the edge feeling that Just as quickly as it came the warmth whispering his skin started receding.
The silver star ascended into the sky allowing Anecus to pull himself over the edge quickly gaining his feet.
The heat was all there was, causing air pressure to change. Wind whipping his now long hair hurt but not as much as the blasting sand now turned glass against his blistering skin. Anecus gritted his teeth in pain and anger, he didn't know why but this feeling of something profoundly larger than himself started to build in his chest, screaming at him to not miss the chance of conversing with an incomparable being.
Looking to the sky as the star left he screamed out "Who are you!" he clenched his fists as his eyes burned looking directly into the sun. "Why are you in my dreams!" gesturing to the wide expanse of this now falling apart ashen land "What is this all for! Answer me!"
The being not halting its departure made Anecus reach out causing him to trip, but it was for not 'Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! This was it!' wallowing in his pity he hadn't noticed when the white light encompassed him only for him to look up once again and see eyes burning him, made purely from white fire those eyes said nothing yet everything. In his mind Anecus only could gleam one thing from the Sickeningly beautiful eyes. 'Ascend, and all will be answered.'
With a burst of speed the star left, piercing the timeless sky onto whatever realm it was from. "Wait!" The force alone pushed Anecus to his knees, bringing his head down in exhaustion he whispered into the stone.
"...please."
The Silver Star did not answer his plea.
The light had long disappeared, still on his knees, looking dazed almost as if he was someone who missed the opportunity to converse with the divine. Turning his head to the center there was an obelisk about hip height.
A black oblong shape nested in a shallow cradle, its edges were too smooth to be any stone he recognized. On instinct Anecus reached out with SouldRend and the power it radiated made him freeze. The depth and density of the essence radiating from it was only comparable to his father, maybe even more.
"Peak five star…" Terror said to back away, the gut said this was the door out. So with a trembling step Anecus walked closer until he was in reach. It vibrated with power making it look alive.
I steadied my trembling hand and touched the egg shaped object, the moment I did my hand stopped trembling. At the same time dust around me no longer fell; it was like some invisible force was keeping everything away.
Summoning the Vibrating Edge I touched its shell with the blade, it hummed back with a perfect resonance. "Let's end this…" I muttered, hating myself as I drove the blade in the. The dome popped, for a moment nothing happened… until.
*Ding!*
╔═══════════════════════════════════════╗
║ ADVISORY: ECO STREAM CLEARED ║
║ [The One Yet To Be Born – VANQUISHED] ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════╝
A second panel unfolded bright white in color.
*Ding!*
[Notice: DIVINE LINEAGE FOUND]
[Awaiting consent from Pale Embers Unborn…]
["You have a soul that can fit the amorphous nature of the Pale Embers Unborn, your company is favorable."] Anecus was confused, "Is this the circuit or the egg talking?"
[Accept Divine Lineage]
[Yes] [No]
"I can decline?" Anecus whispered…'Decline the divine?' He tapped yes Then another panel appeared showing the Divine circuit and for the first it felt…aware.
[...Very well.]
The obsidian black egg turned into pale light and started streaming into my chest with a cold sensation.
[ LINEAGE ATTAINED: THE PALE FLAME]
[Status: Dormant 0/12]
[Forced Evolution Queued: "All gifts demand a price]
[Description: The union between the silver star and The Pale Embers unborn was to bring forward the visions that were the nightmares of Dreams slumber.]
Anecus was reading the words, trying to glean their significance when pain pricked. His bone marrow bubbled then cooled like a forge testing metal. His soul was forced to shatter and reform larger, stronger.
While he was suffering
The obelisk rotated with a soft grind causing the air to split forming a thin seam in the open air. Sand lifted into slow spirals making stairs of dust and light out into the now open seam.
Anecus fought through the pain and looked out over the infinite expanse of sand and black rock one last time before stepping up the stairs and leaving his first Echo Stream.
Weightless again in the dark void only lit from the twelve stars looming overhead. The Divine Circuit blooms in front of Anecus.
[» DIVINE CIRCUIT // TRIAL SUMMARY «]
» REWARDS « [Forced body tempering] [Vibrating Edge]
» PERFORMANCE GRADE : ✹ G L O R I O U S ✹
Anecus was reading his rewards and was starting to feel cheated until a third panel manifested. The glyphs read shifting scales.
» SYSTEM GRANTED SACRED TREASURE: SHIFTING SCALE «
Type: Tool
Rank: 4 - Mantle bound
Attribute: Reliably conceal what's within by masking pillars and star level by the rank of the item.
[Description: For the one the Circuit accounted for, Knowledge brought questions that led to Change. Change came to Dream and birthed Imagination, and from Imagination rose the first Vision.]
Looking past the description he noticed there was more and sighed.
[Star progression to → Mid 2★, physique above standard.]
To be honest Anecus was getting tired of reading all of his advancements and waved the panels away "Can we get this over with…I wanna go home." The Divine Circuit seemed to pause… then one final panel appeared.
╔═══════════════════════════╗
║ TEMPERING WILL NOW BEGIN ║
║ Estimated Duration: 12 hours ║
║ Method: Physical Reconstruction ║
║ Note: Evolution is painful. ║
╚═══════════════════════════╝
"...shit."