Days passed in the blink of an eye. They turned into weeks, which fused seamlessly into months. Fourteen weeks had passed since I first entered the Sanctuary, and a lot had changed. I had changed.

The antelopes had tested positive and had been cured over the last few weeks, but they were only one of many groups of beasts I had helped recently. My contribution to their recovery was minuscule, even though everyone thought differently. At the end of the day, it didn’t really matter who did what. What mattered most was the beasts’ well-being.

As remarkable as tending to beasts was, I was captivated by the power coursing through my veins. The sense of power was almost as nice as the weeks I spent with the beasts in the Sanctuary. Not everything was great, but my days in the Grand Camp were fulfilling, to say the least.

And I was not the only one who thought like that. I was not the only one who had changed.

Daniel flashed before me, daggers brandished as he burst into currents of electricity. His hands blurred before my eyes as his blade carved into my chest and right arm. Yet, as his strikes landed, so did mine. My vision shifted as I took on Aureus’ eyes before activating Paralyze.

Daniel staggered. His traits deactivated momentarily, and he rematerialized to my left. I lunged at him, sword arcing through the air as earthen walls burst from the ground around him. Daniel grunted, but faced me head-on. He was faster and accelerated as he regained control of the Lightning Aspect, but I used Paralyze again, shattering his focus a second time.

This time, he didn’t stagger and attacked, redirecting my strike with one dagger and slashing my side with a second. However, as his blade connected to my exposed side, it carved into a dark green exoskeleton rather than skin. Daniel’s eyes narrowed, and he moved away, but the walls behind him collapsed on him.

“Fuck!” he cursed, muscles bulging. Horns jutted from his forehead as his body expanded, and he charged again.

Violet arcs zapped between the horns and shot toward my face once Daniel was close enough. Predator helped me detect the bolts ahead of time, and Nullblade tore through them, dissipating the attack easily. Daniel growled in displeasure and smashed into me. The silvernit sword carved a flower of red across his thigh and dug deep enough to force a reaction. But it was not the reaction I’d hoped for.

Daniel erupted with power. Lightning poured out of him, snaking across his chest and limbs, and he disappeared before my eyes once again.

As he reappeared beside me, his daggers had been replaced by a massive war axe that came crashing down. I leaped to the side and flinched as the arena floor where I’d stood a moment ago burst apart. However, I was not yet out of danger. I rolled over the ground and leaped to my feet, retrieving a set of throwing knives from my storage belt.

Daniel was almost upon me, his empty hand about to reach my neck, when I hurled the three knives in my hand toward him. Coated in Nullblade, they pierced through Daniel’s tough skin and dug deep enough to push him one step further. I stopped using two Soulfusions simultaneously and discarded Nox’s exoskeleton to reach for Aureus and the Earthen Aspect.

Our minds became one, even if it lasted only a moment, and a thick wall of stone erupted between us.

Yet, rather than stopping, Daniel barged through the wall. The wall, fortified and made from stone, stood no chance as Daniel turned his body into a lightning bolt. He slowed and staggered, eyes searching his target, but he couldn’t find me. Instead, he located more knives lodged into his chest and thigh, each coated in paralysing poison.

“I’m here,” I shouted, focusing on the golden eyes burning in my skull to trigger Paralyze once more. My core was sucked dry as Daniel’s head swivelled toward me. He froze as I closed the distance between us, Nullblade still coating the silvernit sword.

Daniel’s Soulfusion with Coco came to an end. His body deflated, and the horns disappeared once more. I took that as a sign and attacked, thrusting my blade toward Daniel’s neck at close range. Too close.

The second the corner of his lips curled upward, I knew I had messed up. Paralyze’s effect had worn off prematurely–maybe it hadn’t affected him in the first place. He burst into action, slapped my blade to the side with a lightning-fast strike of his arm guard, and discharged a lightning storm at me point-blank.

The world around me was swallowed by lightning. The storm crackled in my ears as it hit me. My body spasmed uncontrollably. The smell of burned skin struck me first, and I screamed at the top of my lungs. The sound of death swallowed my screams, and for a moment I was certain I would die.

That moment faded as soon as colour returned to my vision. The lightning storm disintegrated in Ruler Kazriel’s grasp, and a soothing warmth filled my body, dispelling pain as quickly as it had consumed me.

I was not sure when it happened, but I was on the ground, back pressed against the cold floor.

“What a fucking mess,” I cursed between two gasps for air. “I almost had you.”

Daniel appeared beside me, his expression betraying his shock. “I…I didn’t think he would let the attack hit.”

Worry and shock turned to anger, and he spun toward Ruler Kazriel. “You told me you’d stop the battle in time!”

The Ruler regarded my friend with eerie calm. “I did. Can’t you see? Adam is still alive.”

As true as that was, I wanted to hit the Benevolent Ruler in the face – preferably with Nullblade. Then again, it wasn’t the first time I’d felt like doing that. It was more of a daily occurrence. A desire that was hard to suppress.

Daniel glared at the Ruler, lips parted, but what was he supposed to say? It wasn’t like a Ruler would listen to him. Daniel had advanced and was now officially an Expert, significantly improving his combat ability, but the chasm between him and the Rulers remained massive.

“Your performance was acceptable.” Ruler Kazriel turned to me. “While you are still far from perfection, especially with that poison of yours, I’m sure you will perform decently enough.”

Poison was not my favorite. I’d much rather fight my enemies head-on, but there was always a need for dirty tricks. Maybe not against the Caldera in the Katrak; however, it wouldn’t matter against Unblemished beasts and other enemies. Nullblade was enough to penetrate their defense, whereas high-level poison would harm higher-ranked creatures in ways I couldn’t do just yet.

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“I hope you can refrain from using poison against the Caldera. You’ve read enough about the Caldera’s customs and the importance their Katraks hold. They’re sacred, and we do not wish to enrage them.” Ruler Kazriel rubbed his chin and added, “That being said, use everything at your disposal if you’re up against an Expert. We can always justify a dirty fighting style with a few white lies. Like dirty fighting being permitted in a fight across the Ranks, or something like that.”

He nodded, satisfied with himself.

“Can Daniel come with us to the Caldera now or not?” I asked when the Ruler kept to himself.

“Hm? Oh, yeah, sure. Daniel here has already filled and refined one 4-Star Gate. That should be enough to offset his previous issues with how long he’d been ‘Spirit-touched.’” Ruler Kazriel clearly didn’t like the way the Caldera valued people for how long they had access to ether, and he put little effort into hiding his opinion. “If that’s not enough, his Soulfusion should garner some attention.”

Daniel snorted. “Adam’s Soulfusion is much better. He can fuse both his Soulkins and has no problem maintaining Soulfusion for ten minutes. If I am already good enough to attract their attention, how popular will he be?”

He snickered at his own words. “Adam, the underdog, has become the star of the Grand Camp.”

Heat rose to my cheeks. Daniel exaggerated slightly, but I embraced his words anyway.

“Adam is an important piece in our negotiations. We had to push them a little to postpone the Katrak, but I think it was worth it. Scott broke through last week, and I think the others are ready as well.”

Others? This was the first time I’d heard that others would join the Katrak. Honestly, I thought Scott and I would be the only cadets entering the Caldera’s territory.

“How many are going?” I asked, then quickly added, “What’s going to happen over there in the first place? All I know about the Caldera is from the ethics lessons you made me listen to and the Outsider Language class.”

The Ruler didn’t answer right away. He checked a message on his watch and turned back to us with a smile.

“Does it matter? Your mission is to defeat the Caldera blessed by the Spirit of Volca again. Once that’s done, you better defeat a few more challengers to reinforce your standing among the Caldera.” He stared me deep into the eyes, which prodded a familiar discomfort – like Kazriel could stare into the depths of my soul and beyond. “As long as you do your job, you will be rewarded. A token – consider them favors – for every Caldera you defeat.”

Kindness seeped out of the Ruler as his intense stare shaped into a benevolent smile. “Those tokens are worth a lot. A handful are all you need to pick your third Soulkin.” He glanced at Daniel and added, “Impress me and squash the Caldera until they consider you a prodigy with a Greater Blessing of the Primal Spirit, and I will pull some things and help your friend with his World.”

My lips were already parted when the Ruler uttered the last bit. I froze dead in my tracks, hair standing on end.

He’ll give me a World Aspect if I– What in the Rulers’ Names do you want from me?

I didn’t have even the faintest tell on Ruler Kazriel. He was a blank sheet, to say the least. Over the last few months, I’d asked him more than a dozen times about his goals. Why did he invest so heavily in my growth, and what were those negotiations all about?

“You’d help us acquire a World Aspect? Why?” I could only ask. Daniel’s eyes flicked between me and the Ruler in quick succession.

At this point, I was sure humanity had some deals with other Outsiders. Not just the Caldera but several Outsiders. There was no hard evidence, but that did not mean there weren’t any hints. For one, my stay in the Sanctuary had been long enough to befriend the researchers. Most researchers were kind and pleasant to work with, but others were crazy, to say the least. They were more than willing to grant access to the deeper levels of the Grand Camp’s network in exchange for performing a few tests on me.

All I wanted was to learn more about the Sanctuaries–maybe to find out what serums Ruler Kazriel had fed me, Aureus, and Nox for reproduction purposes once my training with him ended–but I discovered much more than that.

There were exports to Zones far outside mankind’s area of control, and transactions involving large quantities of materials that could only be collected at certain times of the year–quantities that could not occur naturally within human territory. There were also similar cases, including the transport of beast eggs and wounded beasts surrendered to the Sanctuaries.

I did encounter one of those beasts. Once a powerful Guardian beast, its cracked core had caused a drastic drop in its combat power. A beast like that would have died in the wild, yet it survived for years with such a broken core, only to appear in the Sanctuary one day. No one else seemed to notice anything odd–or at least, I didn’t think they did–but the sudden appearance of a crippled Guardian beast was a sign, to say the least.

The Council and Rulers had secrets I had yet to unravel, and I was not quite sure if all of them were as pleasant as trading agreements with other races. I hoped so, but hope was a fickle thing.

“Sure.” Kazriel nodded, the same benevolent smile lingering on his lips. “If you impress me.”

He lifted a finger to stop me from interfering as my lips parted. “That also means you have to perform better than the others. The Caldera delegation turned out to be more impressive than we initially assumed, and a few Scions will join the Katrak.”

Scions.

I swallowed hard, feeling the pressure weighing on me increase tenfold. Scions, also known as the Rulers’ official students, were hand-picked prodigies with massive Worlds that had relatively few restrictions, as well as other unique characteristics–whether those characteristics concerned their physique, their Worlds, or their Soulkins. I’d never seen a Scion, but I knew they were powerful.

“Don’t worry, you won’t have to fight the Scions. All you need is to be better than them.” Ruler Kazriel chuckled. “The Caldera have prepared thoroughly. They challenged the Scions and will join the Katrak with Calderas who’ve been touched by the Primal Spirit for as long as the Scions have.”

The more I heard about the Katrak and the situation around it, the more it felt like a contest of size–or power–between two races. As childish as it was, the Caldera couldn’t accept losing against me. Even Scott fought well against Zegrath, who was already considered a powerhouse. She was one Rank higher than Scott and two years younger in terms of being Spirit-touched, yet he nearly defeated her.

Daniel and Sophie’s performance had been great too, but I did not think they attracted much attention. The Caldera, however, did notice the power humans could carry. A trace of respect formed from our battle, and it developed into more. That too transformed into a much larger incident than it should have.

“Give me more details,” I asked, pushing a little further. “I need a more precise goal… and I want you to get your promise notarized.”

Daniel said something incomprehensible, and shot toward me, probably to stop me. Did I push too hard? I didn’t think so. Ruler Kazriel raised an eyebrow but nodded.

“Looks like I am not trustworthy enough. My word is no longer enough for youngsters.” He chuckled mirthfully. “I do not think you understand the power of us Rulers just yet. A notarized bet means nothing. They will get rid of it if I say it never happened. But let’s put that aside and focus on your other question: How many enemies do you have to defeat to deserve the right World Aspect?”

The Ruler tapped his chin thoughtfully, and sharp silence filled the air, severing every bit of benevolence that had been there moments ago.

“You need to surpass the Scions–either by emerging victorious in one more Katrak than they do, or by defeating Zegrath. I’ll even allow you to use poison,” he said. “If you manage that, I will not only support Daniel in the acquisition of the right World Aspect, I will help you with your third Soulkin. That includes providing the resources needed to nurture it.”

That was far from easy. Zegrath had been strong enough to kill Unblemished beasts when we first met. Months had passed since then, and I highly doubted she’d grown weaker. But it was not like defeating Zegrath was supposed to be easy. It ought to be a challenge–near impossible, even–or Ruler Kazriel wouldn’t offer such generous rewards.

“Deal.” I held my hand out and waited for Ruler Kazriel to take it.

His hand shot toward mine, his fingers ice-cold, gripping it firmly.

“But if you lose, you will pay for it. Lose against the Spirit of Volca, and I will do you the honor of executing you on the spot.” Our eyes met, but it felt more like death stared at me. “Don’t disappoint me, Adam. I hate disappointments.”