Kaius was more than experienced with the many varied ways in which growing stronger could be unpleasant.
Refinement was up there, though perhaps a little more tolerable than the years of agony it took to merge Rapid Adaptation, and the sensation of having his entire being melt when Brotherhood of Ichor and Animus had changed him.
The second he accepted the system’s prompt, his Aspects exploded. Every iota of essence that he had fed to his pillars, every scrap of power that he had forced to flow through his triumvirate, all of it.
One second, he was sitting focused, his entire attention directed inwards. The next, he was swept away in a tide of agony. It was like having every scrap of arcane power from the imperial mainframe injected into his veins.
His aspects might have been metaphysical, but the wave of shards that rocked through his soul cut him as easily as glass. From the point they once hung above his soul, a shockwave of energy expanded — scouring him from his deepest, most internal self.
Kaius gasped, lurching upright before he flopped back.
“Kaius!”
Nigh insensate, he couldn’t make out who had called his name, let alone respond.
Essence tore through him, attacking everything it touched. Lancing at his soul, it expanded and breached the edges of his soulspace.
Now in his body, it reigned with terror. Shudders wracked his body as his muscles seized, tearing sensations overwhelming him in a wave. His blood curdled, incapable of withstanding the simple superiority of the energy that suffused them.
Barely managing shallow gasps, Kaius grit his teeth as his gums wept blood. This wasn’t the end. No matter how destructive, he refused to believe that he’d made a mistake. He’d followed the system’s guidance to the letter.
Whatever was happening, it was a necessary step. No warrior was born in a cocoon of silk — blood and fire had always been his womb.
A single shudder wracked his chest, followed by a terrifying stillness. Health bloomed, a maddening itch only heightening his agony as the resource desperately tried and failed to restore the damage Essence left in its wake.
Rotten roots, had his bloody heart stopped?
Kaius tried to suck in a breath, only to hit a solid wall — his lungs filled with a soup of dissolving flesh.
Forcing himself to open his eyes, he saw only a painted smear of red. There was a faint impression of movement — his team crowding over him, maybe? It was hard to focus on with his body actively dissolving.
Kaius rode out the torment knowing, hoping, that whatever was next would come soon. Maybe he’d been wrong? Maybe there were latent risks to Refinement. Some preparation he had failed to make due to lacking knowledge.
With the thought, came fear. Surely not? The information packet they had received on this step of the Path had mentioned no such thing, nor had Xenanra.
The wave of essence hit his bones. The agony of it made him twitch. A crack ran up his arm, the limb flopping to his side. There was no more pain — he wasn’t sure if there could be more pain.
Gods’ scorn, the pain was nothing — it was the feeling of his body betraying him that tore him to the core. He should have been gasping. His heart should be pounding in his chest. There was nothing — no image he could focus on. Not even a sound, that too washed away as sticky heat trickled from his ears.
Even those worries fled as the essence reached his head. Unknowable colours flashed through his mind's eye, and his thoughts blurred, leaving only the most basal awareness behind.
Time became meaningless.
The system stepped in.
Suddenly he was back, a witness to essence being chained by an alien power. Step by step, he was reborn. Bones remoulded, blood pumped hot, and his breath came in a violent gasp as his nerves screamed once more.
“If you don’t answer me right now, I’m going to drag you to the hospital between my teeth!” Porkchop’s voice sounded loud in his mind, full of panic and frustration.
“I’m. Okay,” he squeezed out, “Getting. Better. Part of it, I think.”
After that, he pushed away his friends’ pleas — he needed to understand what was being done to him.
Everywhere the System touched, his body was remoulded. It wasn’t stronger — not like the rebirth he had experienced during his ascent to the second tier. There was a little of that, but it felt fractional.
No, instead it felt like an acclimation. The System didn’t remove all of his Essence. Traces remained, coursing through his flesh as they slowly dissipated into nothing. Unlike earlier, there was no pain. He’d grown tolerant of the violence of its presence. More than that, he could sense it with a clarity that he’d never been able to before. It felt like it was his — an ownership that could never be revoked without his will.
Once his body was reforged, his attention dipped inwards — to his soul. There, the reclaimed essence grew brighter as it was compacted. Bit by bit, the System separated the glowing cloud into three distinct forms.
Pillars.
One second, there was nothing. The next, he felt a crunch.
His Aspects stood proud and tall once more, their previous murky grey replaced by a shining white.
**Ding! Refinement Completed! Alabaster Foundation achieved!**
**Ding! Moderate Feat of Strength performed under Observation. You have been awarded an Honour: Trailblazer III**
Kaius took a deep, shaking breath as the process finished. It turned into a splutter, bloody remnants of his tribulation splattering into his lap. He blinked, only to realise his eyes were pasted over.
“Hells,” he said, wiping his eyes. It only smeared the blood.
“Here,” Ianmus replied, pressing a wet cloth into his hand.
He wiped at his face, staring at the shock of red that soaked the rag. His friends were clustered in close, their faces a shared mirror of concern.
“What in the fuck was that?” Kenva said, standing up and placing her hands on her hips.
“Refinement? I didn’t quite expect it to be that bad, but I'm fine now — better than fine, really,” He adjusted in his seat, only to realise the entire thing was saturated with his own bodily fluid. “Gross. I need to wash off his blood, I'll explain what I can while I do.”
He’d long since lost any shame about being in his small clothes in front of his team.
Hurrying to the washroom, Kaius turned on a spigot and practically dove under the stream of water. It was a wide room — tiled, with a wide bench that dominated one wall and a series of taps above them.
Scrubbing at the buckle of his armour, he slowly disrobed — a steady stream of brown and red running into a nearby drain. As he worked, he walked his team through what he had experienced — the detonation of his pillars, the dissolution, and the rebirth. All of it.
Listening to his story, Ianmus slumped onto the washroom’s bench. “So, it’s an experience we’ll all have to go through, then. It sounds…unpleasant.”
Kaius grinned, his teeth still stained bloody. “Oh gods, is it. Worth it though — I got the next Trailblazer honour.”
His team stilled, before similar hungry smiles spilled across their faces.
“We best hurry up then, don’t want others to steal our thunder now, do we?” Kenva said, removing her armoured jacket to scrub at the embedded grime under another tap.
“What about the Refinement’s effects? I know you said it felt Essence focused, but have you checked the system description?”
Kaius shook his head. “No, but I will soon. Now that I'm not distracted, I thought it best we discuss our current situation.”