Thick mist filled the hallway and there was a whining sound as the arrays within the hallway seemed to restore themselves to normal capabilities. The hallway could no longer pull anything out of Jim’s eggshell, but it had not stopped trying. The mana-mist that had formed in the hall seemed to swirl around Jim’s egg as a funnel formed. The mist was pulled into the ground around him but was obviously not touching him. It was like Jim’s body was in a world of its own, untouchable and transcendent, beyond all that could be seen or felt. In some ways it was like the birth of a godking, but it did make Laurence realise what was happening.
He’s becoming a Heaven ranker... “Well done Jim,” he said as he looked on with pride. Jim had started later than everyone but Louisa, so the fact that he took around as much time as Cleo to go from Saint to Heaven ranker was testament to his talent. There was no doubt in Laurence’s mind that if Jim had been a child born within his clan he would have been a Golden Child.
As Laurence looked on at the transformation he could not help but think about the different effects of becoming a Heaven ranker depending upon the Book that one studied as they rose to prominence. Yun ascended like a benevolent creator, his birth made the world around him and his death would end it. It was a cyclical aspect to the existence of all things that were created that gave Laurence an interest in the difference between Yun, Cleo and Jim’s ascents. Yun’s ascent seemed to give an answer in Laurence’s eyes towards the simplest path to becoming an Ascendant Immortal.
I wonder if that is part of me though... Does my nature, and the fact that I am a False Immortal of Creation and Destruction taint my path? Does it give me a clarity that I would not have had if I was simply a Heaven ranker? He sat wondering as he reminisced over Cleo’s ascent. Hers was less like a creator coming into being but more like the birth of an Elemental. A single being that was a personification of an element in a way that was far more intimate than just the basic personification that came with being a member of the Ignis clan. She was not just a red-haired girl who was quick to emote, now she was fire incarnate, burning with pride and passion. While Yun’s feelings had not changed much other than he had become more protective of his creations, Cleo’s emotions had become distinctly more pronounced. Have I changed? Will I change more when I become a Heaven ranker too? Or am I something else entirely?
Laurence’s musings began to come to a close, and at the same time so did Jim’s ascent. The diadem-egg that had surrounded me cracked open and he strode out, his body wrapped in purple strands of will that made up the egg beforehand. He had obviously changed, his entire demeanour was something else entirely. He snuck into the hallway like a young thief and strode out of it like a king in his prime. He radiated strength and confidence in a way that could only be matched by those who were completely comfortable with their power, something that he had never really been before. In this moment he was not just James Caesar, but rather Order incarnate, king of kings.
Jim walked out of the hallway and quickly walked over to Laurence and Cleo when he entered the completion room. By then he did not have that same sense of being Order incarnate, but instead had reverted back to being Jim, just a much more confident and self-accepting version of himself.
“How was it?” he said, looking at the wall that showed the interior of the hall.
“Very impressive, Jim,” Cleo said, quickly standing up to ruffle his hair. Before she had a chance to sit down, the next person walked in, Louisa. She walked briskly through the hall like everyone else had, but she did not slow down at the halfway point. Instead she kept going and only began to slow down at the seventy step mark. By eighty she was beginning to get tired, but not in any way the same as Jim or Laurence did. At the ninety-five step mark she reached the level of drained that Laurence had at eighty, but she simply popped the charge on her pointer ring and walked through to the exit.
“How? How did you do that so easily?” Laurence gaped at Louisa as she walked out of the hall. “Jim and I had a way harder time than you, I don’t get it. Explain please”.
“Only because you asked nicely,” she said, sticking her tongue out at Laurence. “It’s because of how the Shift changes my body. I didn’t actually feel a drain on me until about step sixty-five? Sixty-six? Around there. I assume that you both felt it much earlier on than me then”.
“I was half drained by step fifty,” said Laurence.
“Same,” said Jim.
“I wasn’t drained at all. Apparently it does nothing to Heaven rankers,” said Cleo, smugly smiling as she cosied up to a slightly disgruntled Laurence. He put his arm around her anyway, even this side of her he found cute.
“Come sit down,” said Jim. “There’s only Winoa and Yun left. I wonder how hard Winoa will find it”.
“Yeah, Yun has it easy,” said Laurence, turning back to the wall to watch the progress of the test.
Winoa walked in, took one look at the long hallway and began drawing mana towards herself. She turned and fired a shockwave out of her palms, knocking her towards the exit at high speeds, only slowing herself down at the last ten steps. She felt the drain, but noticed slightly too late, and her cushion was not deep enough to stop her entirely. Merely three seconds after she had entered the hallway she rolled out of the exit door and into the completion room.
Brushing herself off, she stood up and looked at her friends, “What’s going on guys? Why are you all looking so shocked?”
“Well,” said Laurence, “I feel like an idiot. All of us non Heaven rankers struggled through the hall when we could have just knocked ourselves to the end”.
“It’s what I always do with these tests. Trust nothing and try to get to the end as fast as possible if the situation allows”.
“I think that’s fair,” said Jim. “Now all we have to do is wait for Yun to walk through and we will be free!”
Less than a minute later Yun walked through and the turtle-woman followed. She smiled at the group before putting down a stone pillar in the middle of the room. “Well done everyone, we certainly have an inventive bunch here. Most enjoyable test I’ve seen in weeks. If you’d like to all just hand me your pointer rings I can let you all be on your way and I can go back to the front”. She clapped her hands and the group all put their rings on the table in front of them. The woman waved her hands over the rings and there was a flash, followed by an unlocking sound. “Okay Challengers! You can have your rings back.
“Now let me tell you what your rings have the ability to do as of this floor! You should all know that they have the mana storage ability, which will have been enlarged once more here, they have a small storage space within them, nothing important, but enough for emergency rations and the like. They can communicate with anyone who you’ve spoken to before through any distance as long as there is not something actively blocking the messages, and finally the new feature is that with your rings you can now travel through any gateway to any other gateway you’ve been to! This is the chance for you to all go home if you feel like it, so make your decision. Carry on, or return home!”
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