“Then we drank some spirits and I left,” Zane explained.

  Noughtfire stayed quiet his whole story through, except to ask a clarifying question or two.

  “…That,” he said slowly, “explains a great deal.”

  Zane looked quizzically at him.

  “The year Aiwe made his triumphant return to the City of Silver Spires is year zero on the Universal Calendar,” said Noughtfire. “It’s the origin of modern history. The Spires adopted the System first, and from there, its spread could not be contained. But it was always hotly debated how Aiwe managed to build the System in a cave in a year, with nought but scraps. Now I suppose we have an explanation.”

  Zane blinked. “You don't seem very surprised.”

  “I’m surprised,” said Noughtfire, stroking his beard. “It’s simply that I’m doing a good job of hiding it. It wouldn’t do to be seen gaping, disciple.”

  This made some sense, Zane supposed. “Do you think it's real?”

  He wasn’t as struck by it as Reina or Evan, who ran around in circles for a bit after hearing it. But he did feel it’d be pretty neat.

  “Hard to say,” said Noughtfire. “I doubt there’s any way to know for sure. It is quite the story, though.”

  He nodded thoughtfully. “Quite the story indeed.”

  At this point, Burnwater, who had been sitting patiently to the side, could no longer hold his peace. “Come now, Master. You love Aiwe!”

  “That’s rather strong,” said Noughtfire, amused. “Though yes, I do find him a singular figure.”

  “You called him a first-rate mind,” said Burnwater. “You can’t act all aloof now—surely you’ll check it out, at least?”

  “Of course I'd like to check it out,” said Noughtfire. “But it’s Astra. Its mysteries resist human understanding. The more you look, the less clear it becomes—and besides…”

  He turned to Zane. “After you left that last time, did Astra’s fog clear?”

  Zane nodded.

  “And the entrance to Aiwe’s sanctum was gone, I suspect.”

  “That’s right.”

  “It sounds to me like a unique instance of Fate. Never to happen again, and never to admit anyone else. It’s… bittersweet, in that way.” Noughtfire smiled. “Treasure it, Zane. It was meant for you.”

  That was pretty much what Reina thought too.

  Here, Noughtfire paused.

  “In any case,” he said, “the man you met is the young Aiwe. Bright-eyed—the sort of man who thinks every problem has an answer, if only you’ll look for it. I prefer the older one. The young Aiwe is rather like one half of the yin-yang… he only knows the light. It’s too much to call him na?ve. But he hasn’t yet been through the First Age. The older Aiwe knows the dark, too—that Aiwe, I find more compelling.”

  Zane wasn’t quite sure what that meant. It seemed to him Aiwe had been through quite a lot already—but he supposed it was a story for another time.

  “That’s done now,” said Noughtfire. “I expect you’ll be heading for Ragnos next.”

  Zane nodded.

  “Now. Let’s assume you make it through Ragnos.”

  A pretty safe assumption in Zane’s mind.

  “You'll want to know what's in store for your Minor God breakthrough.”

  “Sure.”

  “Then let’s speak of your Ragnos reward—the Last Wish flower.”

  Noughtfire flicked his sleeves—and an ashen flower bloomed over his hands.It was grays and blacks and whites, fluttering in the still air—existing in a world without color.

  “This will be vital to your Minor God breakthrough,” intoned Noughtfire. “The Minor God breakthrough is…demanding. Like most bottlenecks, its difficulty depends on your potential and your power.”

  He steepled his fingers.

  Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.

  “But equally—it’s a trial you’re well-suited to,” said Noughtfire. “For what awaits are the trials of the soul. No one can predict what shape they’ll take. They’re unique to the individual. But taken together, they are a test of the soul. They will center your greatest fears and weaknesses. At the end, the stuff of your soul itself will be tested by the universe. And if found wanting, you shall perish.”

  Sounded doable so far.

  “It will likely prove less harrowing than your Ascendant breakthrough if we only account for the danger of extermination. It won’t involve Tribulation Lightning. But the potential for trauma of the mind—the potential for lasting soul damage—is far greater. Many find the Minor God breakthrough the most harrowing of the bottlenecks. I suspect, due to your nature, you’ll have an easier time with it than most. But I would not get cocky. Remember—its difficulty is made to scale with your soul. It won’t be easy.”

  “I understand.”

  He would take it when he came to it. At the moment, Ragnos took up most of his thinking.

  He was quite eager to get his hands on a True God.

  “Then let us look even further,” said Noughtfire. “Though it tempts Fate to go so far… say your breakthrough to Minor God takes a year. Then the First Wave will be upon us, and you’ll be off to war—defending your home. I suspect I’ll have my hands full too. The Patriarch has tasked me with mounting the defense of our critical zones. It will be some time yet before instruction resumes. So let us call the first stint here, disciple. May Fate favor you.”

  It wasn’t quite a goodbye, since they’d be meeting again, even before they got back to their next stint of lessons, whenever that’d be—but it did feel like the ending of a period.

  ***

  Back home, he spent a stress-relieving weekend with Reina. They got another postcard from Evan and Avery, though there wasn't much news—the only news seemed to be that they got a new pet.

  It wasn’t like their other pet, Reginald the Superbara. Because this one actually appeared to do something—these were Avery’s words. Although whether it was good or bad was up for debate.

  They’d come across a puppy about the size of a baby bear—with fur black as night, constantly shifting, like it was made of fluffy shadows. Evan saw it shivering out in the tundra one day, gasped, and before they knew it, he’d taken it home.

  However, the dog quickly started eating them out of house and home—and it had grown to about three times its size since then. They later learned it was a top-tier Godbeast called the ‘tiangou’—or a ‘heaven-dog’—which would slowly gain the powers of the creatures it devoured. When full-grown, it was said to eat the sun during an eclipse.

  Evan promised Chomper wouldn’t do that, though, since Chomper was a good boy.

  Avery, meanwhile, was of the opinion that Chomper was another menace. Evan was basically running around putting out fires all day. Avery also warned that although Chomper seemed like a very happy doggo, this was a trick, and he could attack at any moment. She also reported that he was kind of dumb.

  “…”

  Anyway.

  Zane finished his Laws about five months ahead of the deadline Noughtfire set. It came as something of a surprise—he was pretty sure the last one—Infusion—was meant to take longer.

  It was just that he’d met a great teacher.

  He did wonder about Evan and Avery sometimes. It had been a few years.

  He’d see them soon, he supposed—just a few months from now, when the Pan-Earth conference took place. The last big conference where Earth’s finest came back from the far reaches of the galaxy and met up to go over pre-war strategies. It was slated to happen just after his Ragnos run.

  After that, he’d be off to make the final breakthrough to Minor God. And after that… war.

  His next few years were laid out pretty clearly.

  Everything he’d been working for was slowly coming together, it looked like.

  ***

  Most of his time was spent prepping for Ragnos these days. That largely meant pounding dreamsteel whenever he could—

  Skill up!

  Asura Titan’s Body, Second Form III -> IV

  He felt a strange tingling in his belly whenever he digested the dreamsteel—like a new kind of energy was building in his body. Though it wasn’t yet clear just what it was or what it did.

  He kept chomping away.

  One week, he went for a walk with Reina, who’d hammered out the final rights for the intergalactic broadcast deal. Its centerpiece was four System Store credits from Elias, up from three in the initial offer.

  They were winding down a little-known upper ledge, stretching down the trunk of the World Tree. Below them, worlds opened up, with kingdoms stuffed on massive branches. They even saw a bough that held a giant lake; they saw puffs of mist—a pod of whales, geysers shooting up from blowholes.

  They settled onto a platform, and she settled into him and started telling him about what she’d found.

  The System Store offered a dizzying amount of items—though she was interested in only a few. The System uniques—stuff you could only get from the system itself. Most of it came from the system itself.

  It was neat to see what’d come of Aiwe’s vision. The fellow ended up going a lot further with it than they’d discussed. He supposed Aiwe had quite some time to make modifications.

  “There are small-time buffs like the Heart of Wrath that go for a System coin each,” said Reina, passing him some old tome cut-outs. “They’re about on par with Signature Title Unique Skills. Then there are the major buffs—this one’s ‘take all damage from essence pool before you take from Health’—though it’s fifteen System Coins.”

  There were a few unique armors, but Zane had no use for them. His body was his armor.

  “Then I found this.” She showed him what looked to be a drawing of a shard of jagged glass. Its edge was slicked pure white.

  Shard of True Destruction [???]

  12 System Coins

  The purest form of Destruction, held in stable form by the System. Its secrets are among the most esoteric known to man. But those who can unlock them unlock a greater portion of Destruction.

  Zane nodded slowly. “That’s the one.”

  Destruction made his Flare special—and he only ever had a tantalizing glimpse of it from his Ascendant breakthrough. If he could just get some more…

  She wrinkled her nose. “It’s too bad Elias only had four Credits. We could be that much closer.”

  Zane got the sense she quite enjoyed wringing money out of the man.

  She made a contented sound, and he blinked.

  For a little while, they just admired the view.

  “Right now there’s less than ten Coins in the Galaxy, and they’re all jealously guarded,” she said. “But when the war starts, the System generates challenges to earn extra.”

  She felt he would earn his way there.