[Warning: This chapter is long af... ;)]
For the past month Aster needed to set out to find the path forward into the S rank. The first thing he did was scour every single kingdom of the 23 he had under his banner. He wanted to check to see if there were any old monsters hiding away....
In the royal crypt of the Kingdom of Lutharion he found what he sought. An old man sat propped against a cracked throne, skin parchment-thin, veins glowing faintly with the last embers of a dying core.
The air around him tasted of dust and endings.
Aster knelt, mask of gentle concern perfectly in place.
That day old man told him
"Peak A-rank? That's just a pretty cage with golden bars, boy. Beyond it lies only one door: a vow that scars your existence so deep even death cannot erase it. Speak it aloud and reality itself will chain you to it. Break it once (no matter the reason) and everything you are collapses into nothing... Haha, just look at m---"
He simply bowed, thanked the man who took his last breath due to a crumbling path...
That same night, in the deepest chamber of Ebonreach's obsidian palace, Aster stood alone beneath a single candle that cast no shadow.
The words came out steady, deliberate, final.
"I am every face the world needs me to be… and from this day I vow I will never be seen as I truly am until the final mask falls."
The candle snuffed itself.
And a cocoon made of pure mana wrapped around him. For three weeks the palace remained silent, guards and anyone else forbidden to enter the sealed wing. Inside, Aster's body hung suspended in a cocoon of mana slowly evolving past the coil that wrapped mortals.
On the twenty-first night, the cocoon shattered like glass.
When he opened his eyes again, the gentle white-haired king was gone.
Pure black hair fell to his waist, eyes burned dark orange like dying suns, and the Path of Thousand Faces sealed itself around his soul.
And on his face was a perfect, featureless white mask of living porcelain materialized reshaping bone and flesh beneath in the space of a heartbeat.
[You have ranked up.]
[Rank - Low S Rank - 20,080 EL]
[Path - The Path of Thousand Faces - Aster must never allow any living being to know his true identity, appearance, and intentions at the same time. If a single person ever sees through all his masks, his Path shatters and his cultivation collapses to absolute zero, body and soul included.
Path-Granted Ability: "Nameless Reflection"
-A single, perfect mirror that exists only in the moment someone tries to perceive his real face.
-The mirror shows the observer exactly as the thing they fear the most....
-While the mirror is active, Aster can step into that reflection and become it completely (voice, aura, memories, even bloodline signature) for as long as the observer believes.
-Every time a new person is permanently deceived by a mask, that mask becomes a permanent fragment of his soul, granting him a sliver of their affinity, talent, or lifespan.
-When the one hundred thousandth unique mask is forged, the mirror will finally show his real face (only to himself), and he will ascend beyond the need for masks entirely.]
----
"Ah… how lovely." He said before leaving to get to work.
Two days later, beneath a sky choked with funeral cloud, twenty-three conquered crowns were dragged into the grand plaza of Ebonreach on chains of shadow. Aster stood at the top of the obsidian steps in absolute black, the new Crown of Ebonreach now joined by twenty-three lesser circlets orbiting him like obedient moons.
He raised one hand.
The crowns melted into rivers of molten metal and gemstone, flowing upward to fuse with the central crown in a single heartbeat.
A sound like the world exhaling reverberated.
And Elaris answered....
Mountains shifted and grew new spines of black glass. Rivers reversed, carving new paths toward Ebonreach's heart. Forests uprooted and marched, planting themselves in perfect defensive rings. Nine million eight hundred thousand square kilometers of stolen land grafted itself seamlessly onto the kingdom's borders overnight, until the horizon itself looked like it had always belonged to the shadow.
Ebonreach was no longer knocking on the door of the ranked kingdoms; it was leaning against it with a smile.
Aster turned to his assembled legions.... hundreds of thousands kneeling beneath storm clouds that now belonged to him and spoke, voice soft, amused, final.
"We're not climbing the Stele yet. There are still so many pretty little crowns waiting to be collected."
-----
While Aster and the Ebonreach Kingdom found themselves knocking on the doors of the rankings. Two women found themselves seated cross legged. Both with near identical features aside from their hair and body shapes.
"Sister," Yonna said quietly, "the way past A-rank isn't merely attaining more existence level.... It's a vow that redefines your entire existence."
Sonna blinked, confused. "How do you know this?"
Yonna's sighed and spoke. "Because I stood outside Kale's door the night he crossed the threshold. He spoke his vow aloud… and the world listened."
"Kale is already S-rank?" Sonna's voice cracked. "I have to tell As—"
She froze, lips pressed tight, cheeks blooming crimson.
Yonna's brow arched. "Tell who? You've been… different ever since we left Velora. Smiling in your sleep. Humming. Almost like the old you before—"
"Shut up," Sonna muttered, face burning brighter. "We're meditating. Sit. Vow. Now."
Yonna smirked but obeyed, folding into lotus position.
----
30 Months had passed for those inside of the Haven (those A ranked), during this time three people stepped into the S rank which were Nia, Thalion, and Seris. Now, there time was less exciting that Aster and Kale because there was no killing inside of the Haven. They had to train the old-fashioned way, by atmospheric absorption and through grueling hellish training.
This wasn't all bad however because the Greater Chamber provided mana four times denser than outside which made training four times faster in return. (The Lesser Chamber has two times denser mana.)
Those three weren't the only ones who made progress either as if one looked around the Greater Chamber you would see thousands of cultivators with their eye's clouds seated on clouds. All ten thousand of Ash's selected Talents who were mostly B ranks were now sitting in the A rank; this included the twins Kael and Caelan.
These two experienced the most grueling training out of all of the troops. This was because Ash specifically told Vaeloria he planned to let them lead the ten thousand strong army. And right now they were two young monsters waiting to be unleashed.
At the chamber's heart, four figures waited.
Vaeloria stood with ten tails floating like black banners, darkness curling lovingly around her ankles.
Nia's tricolor hair (black, white, fire-red) flickered with restless embers.
Thalion adjusted his glasses, brow furrowed.
Seris simply stared at the cocoon that hadn't stirred in two and a half years.
"Will Ashy be alright?" Nia whispered, worry cracking her voice.
They all stood watching the cocoon that hadn't moved a bit since taking form.
"Will Ashy be alright?" Nia asked with evident worry in her voice.
"Seriously.... what kind of evolution is he undergoing?" Seris muttered. "Even if you combine the time the three of us spent, it's only about nine months."
"Even with my path ability... I'm not able to see when he will be done." Thalion said as he fixed his glasses.
Vaeloria just watched the mana formed cocoon before saying.
"Heh, not even I have heard of someone taking 30 months to evolve.... but whatever it is I'm sur----
She couldn't even finish her words before the entire Greater Chamber began to tremble.
RUMBLEEEE!
Thirty months of absolute silence inside the Greater Chamber came to an end with a tremor that rolled through every cloud, every rose petal, every soul present like the heartbeat of a sleeping god finally stirring.
The cocoon at the chamber's heart began to fracture along invisible seams, hairline cracks spreading in slow, deliberate spirals while liquid mana bled out in shimmering rivers that evaporated before they touched the clouded floor.
Ten thousand A-rank cultivators seated in perfect lotus snapped their eyes open at once, breaths catching in unison as the air itself grew heavy, charged with something ancient and hungry.
Nia's tricolor hair flared like living fire, Thalion's glasses slipped down his nose, Seris took an involuntary step back, and Vaeloria's ten tails froze mid-sway, every instinct screaming that whatever was about to emerge was no longer the boy they had known.
RUMBLEEEE!
The cocoon shattered outward in a perfect ring of light and darkness, fragments dissolving into glittering dust that hung suspended like a halo of broken galaxies.
Ash floated in the center of the Greater Chamber, in a fetal position, naked and radiant, ten luxurious tails that were snow-white with rose-pink tips, fanned behind him like a living aurora, matching fox ears twitching atop rose-threaded white hair that now fell down his shoulders, every inch of him screaming primordial perfection that refused to choose between beast and.... deity.
Skin that had been moon-pale was now sun-kissed light brown, smooth and flawless, every breath making the definition across chest and abdomen shift like liquid marble beneath silk.
Then his body slowly, gracefully uncoiled... arms spreading wide, spine arching in a stretch that belonged to something newly born and already eternal.
At that moment his eyes opened....
A single heartbeat later, every source of light in the Greater Chamber died.
Not dimmed, not faded but died.
The rose-gold clouds beneath turned to void, even the faint glow of ten thousand mana cores winked out as though snuffed by an unseen hand. Absolute darkness swallowed the entire chamber, thick enough to taste, heavy enough to press against the skin like cold water.
And in that perfect, suffocating abyss, only one thing remained visible: Ash, floating alone, body radiating soft white-pink luminescence that grew brighter with every passing second until he became the only star in a universe that had forgotten how to shine.
Vaeloria's heart stuttered once, hard enough to bruise.
In that endless darkness she saw him... her only light, the single fixed point that was the person she redefined her very path around.... and something inside her ancient soul cracked open like dawn breaking over a frozen sea.
The words wrote themselves across her status in burning silver script, searing themselves into her very existence. "My only light in darkness..." In that moment she gained clarity in her path for the first time in thousands of years.
[Path – Embrace true darkness… Embrace the only light you claim… When your light is all that shines, only then will the path forward open.]
As the light around Ash began to dim, his eyes became crystal clear.
Pure white sclera with rose-pink irises that looked less like eyes and more like twin newborn galaxies spiraling into being. For one suspended instant he simply hung there, naked and radiant, letting the darkness worship him.
Then he exhaled and with that breath he returned every stolen photon to the chamber in a single gentle wave of warm dawn light that washed over ten thousand upturned faces like the first sunrise after an endless night.
He looked around the greater chamber and smiled seeing so many people here.
'Everything's been progressing well then…'
Then he looked at his notifications.
------
[Path: The Path of The One True Architect - The user's path is creation... but never the creation of the same thing nor something present in existence. All creation's must be new and original.
Path Granted Ability: Vault of Singularities
-A soul-bound vault exists inside the user, capable of holding a maximum of 999 unique fragments of existence.
-The user is capable of taking one singular aspect from any being, object, phenomenon, law, bloodline, physique, and etc...
(For example, from a Dragon the user can take only their winged traits, or mana sensitivity, or their split pupil traits... Never can the user plunder/copy a complete source.)
-Every year, the user must create exactly two new creations using any combination of the vaulted fragments.
-All creation patterns will be stored after creation.
-Failing to create two completely new creations in a calendar year, the user's path will begin to crumble. (This goes for recreating anything as well.)]
"This path... it definitely wasn't what I intended, but holy shit..." Ash muttered as he then thought.
'And that damn memory, what the hell was that? I spent so many years watching what exactly?'
He then shook his head and brought up his status.
[Ash Solace
Race – Undefined (Eternal Myriad Genesis Bloodline (Mythic)) | Lust (???)
Age – 17
Rank – S (Existence Level 37,019.5)
MP – 27.13 billion
Talent – Cinderlight Nova (SSS) Sovereign's Tide (Ultimate) Bond Severance (Mythic), Nirvana (Ultimate), Absolute Null Zone (S), Perfect Disguise Veil (S), Absolute Density (Ultimate), Heart Sovereign (Mythic), Abyssal Crescent (SS), Myriad Thrones Covenant (SSS), Absolute Collapse (SSS), Absolute Desire (???), Desire Manifestation (???) Crimson Sacrament (???), Sin Eater (???) Eternal Night Apotheosis (Mythic)
Skills – Ero's Whisper (S, 10% MP Cost), Eternal Craving (SSS, 30% MP Cost), Crown of Dawn (SSS, 35% MP Cost) Lunar Apotheosis (SSS, 40% MP Cost), Eidolon Paradox (Ultimate, 85% MP Cost)
Physique – Singularity Genesis Physique (???)
Affinity – Phoenix Fire, Paradox, Lunar, Dreams, Cinderlight, Illusions, Mist
Authorities - Lust
Contracted Beast – Vaeloria | Ten-Tailed Celestial Fox (S)
Bonds - Nia Solace 100% (Early S Rank (EL 21,000)), Vaeloria Lunareth 100% (Early S Rank (EL 22,000)) Sonna Voss 90% (Peak A Rank (EL 20,000))
Item – Ever-Calm Haven
[Bloodline: Primordial Singularity - All users previous Bloodlines were combined and enhanced. From now on any bloodline will automatically fuse into the Myriad Genesis Bloodline and be enhance by 200-fold.]
All previous effects remain but are enhanced.
When forming bonds the user can now take Myths, Paths, and Aspects. And multiplier increases to 200-fold.]
-Talents
[Cinderlight Nova - A blinding light that spans 50,000km and leaves only Ash afterwards.]
[Sovereign's Tide - A 150,000km domain of mist that devours life and mana.]
[Bond Severance/Forging - Can break or create any oath in existence.]
[Absolute Desire - Higher form of Charm. When active any target within the user's mana sense feels an instinctive, overwhelming pull.
-The stronger their desires, the stronger their attraction and the weak their resistance.
-Works as long as they are weaker than the user's battle prowess.
-Beings stronger than the user will face 10 sec paralysis.]
[Desire Manifestation - Any desire directed at the user becomes tangible energy, that converts into EL.
-The more people who desire the user, the stronger you will become in real time.]
[Genesis Overdrive - Once per year, the user can full transform into the Genesis form of any assimilated race in bloodline.
-Allows for full transformation into assimilated race, boosts battle prowess by one full rank.]
[Eternal Night Apotheosis] -The bearer becomes the living embodiment of the starless night that ends all cycles.
-With a single thought, the user may eclipse any region (from a battlefield to an entire ranked kingdom) in absolute, starless night that devours the concept of light itself. Within this night, all non-lunar mana is annihilated on contact; skills, talents, bloodlines, and physiques that do not trace their origin to the moon are silenced and crushed into dust.
-Every living being touched by the darkness is dragged into an inescapable dream-prison woven from their own deepest fears and desires; time inside the dream is dilated a thousandfold (one second outside = over sixteen minutes inside). Three uses per uses per century]
[Crismon Sacrament - A single kiss, touch, or glance can bind the target's soul to you. They will never desire another for the rest of existence. Their power becomes yours to command.]
[Sin Eater - Devours the concept of restraint from any target. They become mindless beast of desire until the users choose to return it.]
[Eyes of First Dawn are now fully implemented into the user. They will always work, current uses are
Appraisal - The user can see information on anything as long as your power is sufficient.
Blink - The user can see the perfect timeline of 24hrs.
Inspect- This lets the user glimpse the threads of races and existence. The ability comes from the Path, allowing them to identify specific traits to select when creating.
-Authority
[Lust - The User is Lust in human form. You can now weaponize lust with a thought, reshape or erase desire itself.]
-----
"Fuck..." He said as he read all of his new aspects.
Nia's cry of "Ashy!" and Vaeloria's low, trembling "Ash!" shattered the silence at the exact same moment.
Both women launched themselves across the void, hair streaming behind them like comet tails, crashing into his arms with enough force to crack lesser ribs.
He caught them effortlessly, one arm around each waist, fingers tangling in tricolor fire and midnight silk as twin scents of ember and starlight filled his lungs.
"I missed you," they said in perfect unison, voices thick with two and a half years of waiting.
Ash chuckled low, warm, already tasting the hunger that had been building for thirty months straight and pressed his forehead first to Nia's, then to Vaeloria's.
"How about you prove it?" he murmured, voice velvet and sin.
Without another word he vanished, taking both women with him in a ripple of rose-pink light, reappearing on the furthest, most secluded cloud-island the Greater Chamber had to offer... an entire continent of privacy hidden behind veils of mist and silence....
They would not emerge for months.
And no one, not even the newborn S-ranks, dared disturb....