My class [Death Knight] is just barely legal…

We reappeared on the other side of the portal and found ourselves in the middle of an ongoing skirmish. It turned out that our delay wouldn’t matter in the long run, as Dalius’ hadn’t managed to secure the second target in time anyway.

Emeri and I ducked behind a nearby stalagmite as some rogue skill fire flew overhead. From what I could gather, the final statue lay buried at the bottom of an expansive network of caves beneath the capital of Alterian.

We had hoped Dalius would have managed to conquer the place by now, but he was still being held back by the inquisitor that had captured me before. I cursed when I noticed that man’s presence. It didn’t bode well for the rest of this mission. Thankfully, he was the only tier 5 on the side of the enemy, while the rest of their troops were slowly succumbing to our side.

Furthermore, we weren’t far from our target. Despite the chaos that the battle created, a dim orange light was visible at the end of the tunnel. Even from this distance, I could make out the vague outline of brickwork, in stark contrast to the untouched, rougher edges of the rest of the cave.

Unfortunately, not everything was looking so optimistic. The inquisitor had established his superiority over Dalius before, and this time was no different. Our protector was slowly losing ground, the momentum against him slowly mounting. A few of his followers attempted to create opening in the inquisitor’s defences for Dalius to exploit, but all failed.

I couldn’t see Dalius turning the situation around, even with out help…

Emeri shook me out of my Reverie and pointed at the torchlight in the distance.

“Look! That’s where the statue is kept! As long as Dalius can hold off the inquisitor, we should be able to charge through! Focus, Arthur. We haven’t lost yet, Dalius just needs to buy us some time.”

I nodded more confidently than I felt, intent on seeing this through. I had promised her that I would aid her in her quest and we had faced worse odds before. To that end, I made the split second decision to start summoning the pursuer again, despite the fact that I hadn’t recovered all my mana yet. In fact, I didn’t even have enough mana to let it copy [Dark embodiment]. Instead, I focused on the most destructive skill in my arsenal, in hopes that the pursuer could forge us a path to the church.

The tear in space reappeared and remained in place until the familiar shape of the pursuer crawled out of it with both hands. Its form was flickering, not having enough mana to fuel itself for long, but it would have to be enough.

“Clear a path to the fiery light at the end of the tunnel!” I ordered it.

The berserker charged forward with religious fervour, releasing such a furious bellow that all eyes settled on him and all battle momentarily paused.

As the beast charged, small black orbs began to float at its sides, launching at the nearest target the moment they were finished forming.

The marbles spun and flew with more speed than I could have managed, crashing into their victims with an ear-piercing screech, before blowing up and leaving small craters.

Any that stood in the pursuers path was swatted to the side like an unwanted doll, while the rest found themselves to be the target of a continuous assault of exploding projectiles.

Our enemies attempted to rally, but they were annihilated by the blasts as they started to group up, rendering their resistance meaningless. The sudden shift in the battle gave Dalius’ men a boost in morale and they joined the pursuer in its charge, pushing their advantage until the remaining resistance collapsed.

Right as we were about to reach our goal, a whip of fire grasped my pursuer, constricting its neck with undulating heat. Simultaneously, a wall of fire blocked us from proceeding into the chapel. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the inquisitor turned around and flying in our direction, his expression one of mild panic.

The pursuer grew enraged at the attack and diverted its attention to the new attack, launching a sudden barrage of orbs in the inquisitor’s direction.

The clergyman blocked the projectiles with another firewall, but was forced to take a step back when the orbs exploded against his shield, their overloaded property destabilising his own mana.

Perhaps contrary to the inquisitor’s expectations, the pursuer wasn’t just a person with gigantifying skill. Maybe that explained why, when the pursuer charged right through the firewall, the holy man was taken off guard.

My elemental swung his weapon at break-neck speeds, nearly blinding us with the amount of rubble and dust its attack sent flying. Unfortunately, the surprise attack wasn’t effective and the inquisitor simply created a beam of fire that pierced right through the pursuer, defeating it and dispelling the source of its power.

My summon had left one last present for our opponent, however. Right as the inquisitor turned to face the now caught-up Dalius, a dozen overloaded orbs flew out of the dust cloud and hit him in the back, making him stumble and distracting him just long enough for Dalius to leave a nasty-looking wound with a gravity well.

Instantly, the firewall that blocked us was dispelled as the inquisitor lost focus. His battle with Dalius reignited behind us, but this time Dalius was the one on the upper hand. He would be able to, at the very least, buy us enough time to view the vision, now.

Our troops streamed into the minimalistic chapel at the end of the cave, Emeri and I hot on their heels, where we immediately discovered the statue at its centre. It depicted a man merging into the sun, half of his body already sunken into its fiery depths. The man, who was supposed to be Helios, I supposed, had a serene smile on his face. As if he was enjoying his ascension.

Loud explosions resounded behind us, reminding us that we were on a tight schedule.

Emeri pulled out her key and stuffed it into the keyhole at the bottom of the statue, before pulling me into the final vision that Helios left behind. My vision went black, before I opened my eyes somewhere else.

An endless white expanse. That was where we found ourselves, staring at an elderly man covered in a brown petty coat. For a moment, the expanse seemed familiar. It reminded me of my mental space as well as… something I couldn’t quite put my finger on.

The elder in front of us vaguely resembled someone I recognised as well. The sharp jaw, prominent eyebrows and eyes that shone like the sun… This was Helios himself, though he was older than when we had seen him last.

He was staring at us, too. Or, in all likelihood, staring through us. Slowly, Emeri and I turned to see what he was looking at. Sure enough, there was someone there. Another Helios, in fact! The same old man with the same posture and the same stature. Except, there was one major difference. This mirror-image of the elderly Helios didn’t… it didn’t have a face.

Instead, a nondescript hole that was neither white nor black, neither round nor square, neither flat nor wide stared back at us.

The way its faceless visage almost seemed to pull me in as it shifted from one shape to another scared me. If even the memory of this thing could affect me in such a way…

The real Helios didn’t seem enthused at… ‘meeting’ this creature either…

It didn’t look like they were going to fight, though… No, they were here to talk.

The mirror image spoke first, its voice raspy and hoarse. Or was that ‘voices’? As the mirror spoke, many different sounds and voices came together to form words. Not just human ones, either. Bestial roars and insectile jittering accompanied every vowel, revealing the creature’s nature.

Congratulations! Are you ready to ascend to tier 9?

This was the system. A true form of the system, given a voice. And it was asking Helios if he was ready to advance to the ninth tier.

Emeri and I turned our attention to Helios, the one who had seen fit to leave this particular memory in the form of a statue in the first place. To our surprise… he shook his head. He refused.

For a moment, I didn’t know what to say. What to think, even. Why would he refuse?! This was the penultimate tier, a level of power almost unheard of! Why reject something like that, when Helios had been fighting for his goals for so long?!

The system seemed just as unenthused by the prospect of rejection as I did, actually.

Its faces began to switch more quickly, more violently, while its voice became more chaotic and lifeless at the same time, making it harder to interpret.

Congratulations! Are you ready to ascend to tier 9?

It asked again. Again, Helios shook his head morosely, his mind made up.

Again, the system asked.

Congratulations! Are you ready to ascend to tier 9?

Again, he refused.

The cycle repeated itself over and over, the only sign of time passing visible on Helios’ face. He was continuously growing more determined, as if he was leading up to something…

Eventually, when it was starting to seem like the cycle was going to continue on forever, Helios put his hand into his pouch, digging around as if to search for something. A look of grim determination flitted across his face, as if he regretted what he was about to do.

Finally, he found what he was looking for and pulled it out, displaying it to his system-made counterpart.

In the palm of his hand rested a small, perfectly shaped cube that was divided into smaller, square patches that were continuously changing colours.

As the system noticed this newly introduced object, it began to behave oddly. For one, its repeated questions were beginning to stutter, blending into each other. For another, the white expanse around us began to darken bit by bit, almost becoming pitch black while the dark sky inverted into white to match.

It seemingly grew enraged, its body twisting in unnatural angles as a guttural sound drowned out the rest of its voices.

Congrat- ERROR- ReadY to ASCEND to TIER 9?

Ready to ASCEND?

TiEr 9999999?

ERROR- Ascend?

Tier 9; ERROR-Cong)

‘gzs)gr’àQ AQscebd?

ERROR-

Ascend.

Helios didn’t see fit to respond, instead holding the cube forward as if to ward of demon with a holy symbol.

The system’s form warped, growing into a massive amalgam of everything I had ever seen and nothing I would ever see again. Creatures, plants, earth, water and wind all combined to create one constantly changing existence that roiled with fury and attempted to reach for Helios, hoping to swat him aside.

Helios dodged despite his unawakened stats at the moment, his reflexes betraying thousands of years of battle experience.

Eventually, though, he succumbed. As he knew he would. In one last act of Rebellion, however, he threw the cube down one of the system’s gaping maws, watching it disappear down its gullet.

The system released an ear-piercing screech as a part of it began to change to match the cube’s constantly changing properties. Evidently, it had lost control of a part of itself.

Helios’ face fell as the corruption stopped, however. It had only managed to corrupt a small part of the system before losing power.

What happened next was as described on the statue. The system turned into a massive sun and swallowed Helios, who accepted his face with a reluctant, simultaneously accepting smile. As the man sunk deeper into the sun and turned into the god he had always wanted to be, I couldn’t help but wonder if my fate would match his.

My sight went black as the vision ended.