"Second: even the Ascendants who managed to remain unaligned found that at higher ranks, B, A, S, the realm itself began to resist their advancement. The advancement past B was significantly harder than the advancement to B. The advancement past A was harder still. Nobody has ever advanced past S as an Ascendant. Whether this is because the realm's resources are calibrated for its native souls, or because there is some deeper mechanism that makes SS-rank very difficult for anyone whose body still lives in another realm, I do not know. I only know that the pattern is consistent."
"How consistent?"
"Every past Ascendant who reached A tried to reach S. None succeeded. Two of them died in the attempt. One returned to the physical realm as an A-rank soul, which is impressive but not what they came for."
Bruce absorbed this.
