Evan and Eliza stood in a vast, empty space with plain grey floors and a featureless ceiling. Seated before them was a humanoid avatar, its features delineated with distinct eyes, nose, and mouth. Its face was devoid of emotion, exuding a serene yet enigmatic presence
The figure donned iridescent robes that shifted between light and dark, and its golden eyes seed to pierce into their souls.
[The Hero Leader of this Generation.]
The avatar's mouth parted and it spoke with an androgynous voice, before standing up and speaking.
[I am 'Kairos', the one bearing the duty of 'Spirit of Karma and Justice'.]
"Sup, I'm Evan. This is Liz."
Evan's introduction was quite casual in comparison to Kairos' formal tone, but the Spirit did not seem to mind as it turned its gaze towards Eliza.
[Your Karma is so closely interwoven with this one, I hope it remains that way.]
After saying those ominous-sounding words, the Spirit conjured a courtroom bench, placing its hands on it as it spoke.
[So as not to waste your ti, I would begin your First Trial imdiately.]
Evan nodded in affirmation, not too bothered as he already knew what Trial he was going to get.
From the ga, Evan knew that if a 'Hero' with a 'Good' Alignnt was to enter the Cavern of Trials, with 'soone else', then the Spirit of Karma would definitely give them a specific trial.
A very annoying trial.
[For you, Hero. I pose a question.]
As Kairos spoke, the setting changed dramatically. The once-empty space beca a fiery hellscape, with volcanoes spewing lava and flas engulfing the horizon.
To Evan's sides, massive pits filled with swirling magma opened up. Abruptly, an unseen force pulled Eliza away, placing her in a cage above the left pit of lava.
To his right, another cage appeared, packed with hundreds of people bound to its bars.
[A Choice.]
Kairos gestured to both cages suspended perilously over the lava pits, posing a dilemma.
[Between your significant other and the lives of a thousand innocents.
Who would yo-
"Liz."
-u save?]
"…"
[…you didn't even let finish.]
Despite showing no expressions, Kairos was clearly dumbfounded by Evan's quick response. It hadn't even finished asking the question yet!
"Doesn't matter. My answer wouldn't change."
Evan didn't even bother trying to give the template hero answer by saying he'd try to find a way to save both.
"You can't seriously expect to choose a thousand unrelated people over her, right?"
[You would choose the life of 1 over 1000?]
"Obviously."
The boy acted like the Spirit of Karma was crazy for even entertaining the thought of him NOT picking Eliza.
[What about 10,000?]
"Burn them, freeze them, shred their bodies to pieces. Heck, I'd even help you kill them if you want."
[…]
Kairos was stunned by Evan's response, and Evan laughed a little before deciding to stop ssing with the spirit.
"Let's leave aside how I can and have saved ten tis that number with Liz's help. What makes you think I'd pick 10,000 people I have no Karma with over her?
Because I'm a 'Hero'? Sorry to disappoint, I'm not the type of Hero you expected."
Kairos narrowed its eyes at Evan as if it were trying to see through him.
'Not a single fluctuation in his emotions. I'm impressed.'
[Let's up the scales to a higher number. Don't worry, she cannot hear you so you can freely speak your mind.
How about a million?
Take Lacertilia for example.
If a million of its citizens—the sa people you fought that Dragon to save—were about to die from a different threat, and you could save by forsaking her, what would you do?]
Evan wasn't surprised Kairos knew about Lacertilia, given its connection to the planet and the Cavern of Trials' capabilities.
The question had Evan placing a hand on his chin as he began contemplating.
"Whatever would kill a million people is a very serious threat…"
Kairos leaned forward, anticipating Evan's answer and the boy nodded to himself before finally concluding.
"Guess I'd use Limit Break and BoD so I can save Liz faster."
*BAM!
Evan turned with surprise and saw Kairos had fallen face-down onto the ground. While he was wondering why, Eliza, who had seen how it had fallen over the bench due to shock burst into laughter.
Quickly standing up and dusting off its robes, Kairos coughed and turned to Eliza.
It had not actually isolated sound so Eliza could hear everything that was being said despite the fact that Evan could not hear her.
[You find this funny?
If you were in his position and had to sacrifice him for the sake of a million others, what would you do, oh 'Child of Life'?]
"…you think I'd make choices any different from his?"
[Your skill is ant for you to Save lives.]
"Yeah, I know. I'd use it to Save Evan's life. Doing so would enable Evan to save billions more. What's a re million compared to that?"
Eliza's reply astounded Kairos and the Spirit wondered just where on Aidos these two ca from.
"I don't know what she said to you, but from your tone, I'm guessing it's not too different from my answer."
Evan spoke up when he noticed Kairos had gone silent. The spirit turned towards Evan and heaved a sigh before asking.
[Why does the law of Karma consider you to be 'Good' if you would not even hesitate to abandon thousands.]
"You think the 'Chaotic' Modifier in my Karmic Alignnt is there for fancy?"
Hearing the Hero's question, Kairos' eyes widened a bit and It nodded in affirmation.
[True.Perhaps my personalBiason the concepts of 'Good' and 'Evil'are affectingmy judgent.The girl's reply is the sa asthe notion ofsacrificing the few to save the many.
Your act of Saving lives would Align you as 'Good'butyour thods would modify you as 'Chaotic'.]
Kairoswalked backto the bench and sat down before snapping its fingersandthe space around them returned to normal. Eliza's body then floated right back to where Evan was.
[The aim of this Trial is not to see if you are 'right' or 'wrong',but to see your Conviction. It Is a Trial of 'Character', so to speak.
If you were to agree to forsake a thousand, yet Save ten thousand…you would have failed.]
Eliza's eyes widened inlightsurprise when she heard thisandthe spirit continuedits explanation.
[If you are forsaking 'others' for your 'companion',then stick to that tillthe end.
If you are forsaking your 'companion' for 'others',then stick to that tillthe end.
No Double Standards Allowed.]
Kairos tapped the tableanda small brooch with the number '1' on it appeared pinned to their shirts, confirming they had passed the trial.
[Both of you are 'Chaotic Good', so I should not have been surprised you both gave the sa answer.]
When the spirit spoke, Evan's lips curled up into a light smileandhe asked.
"Both of us? Are you sure? Who said Liz's alignnt was also 'Good'?"
Kairos raised a brow in confusion for a mont. A second later, it realised that when they both stepped in, it only scanned Evanas itsensed the boy was a Hero.
It made no attempt to check Eliza and assud both of them were the sa due to their similar answers.
'Is she a Neutral?'
Kairos' eyes glowed with light as it looked at the intangible threads of Fate and Karma surrounding Eliza, and then it nearly doubled over in shock.
[What!? There's soone like that on this planet?!]
The Spirit's expression morphed into one of stupefactionandEvan burst out laughing when he saw that expression.
'Hahaha! It was worth it to see this expression in reality!'
The Karmic Alignnts were: Good, Neutral, Evil.
Each Alignnt had subsets of 'Ordered' and 'Chaotic'.
However,there was a third subset thatwas unknown to many, even those who dabbled in the Law of Karma due to how rare it was.
It was the 1 in a Trillion kind of rarity.
The 'Balanced' subset.
And that was where Eliza lay.
Balanced Neutral.
Neither Chaotic nor Ordered, and neither Good nor Evil.
The girl was smack dab in the middle of it all.
It ant she had the exact amount of both sides withinher,and could be anyone and none of them. Theultimate moral grey area.
Such perfect balance was rareto co by, much less in a mortal child who was just 17 years of age.
It was no wonder Kairos' was stupefied.
Without giving it a chance to recover, Evan clapped his hands and activated his Hero Authority,putting in his requestto skip the remaining8trials.
Upon seeing their brooch numbers change from '1' to '9', Kairos snapped out of his shock and glared at Evan. Evan waved back just as 'Aidos', overriding Kairos's authority as Dungeon Master, transported Evan and Eliza to the end of the Ninth Trial.
◇ ◇ ◇
Evanfirstofallconfird if everyone had arrived at the Ninth Trial as well before turning to Elizawhoclearlyhad questions for him.
"Alright, shoot."
"…this 'Balanced Neutral' thing…is it special?"
The boy nodded inaffirmation,beforeproceeding to explainits speciality and rarity.
"You see…Aidos has a population of over 10 billion.
Assuming every world is similar, you'd need to go through 100 Worlds before you have a shot at finding one."
He then held up his hand and displayed a part of the System Archive, showing a diagram ofwhat looked likea pH scale.
"These 'Alignnts',aren't just 'Karmic'.
Before you can have the 'Balanced' subset in your Alignnt, youneed toalso be 'Balanced' on the 'Polarity Spectrum'."
"And what is thatifI may ask?"
"It is a Scale used to specify the 'Positivity' or 'Negativity' of an Existence."
The powers, abilities, skills, techniques, energies andmostimportantly, World Laws that different existences can manipulate, depend on what side of the Polarity Spectrum they're on.
Light magic, for instance, was Positive. Thisdidn't make Darkness inherentlybad; it was just on the Negative side. BothPositive and Negative complent each other, like Yin and Yang.
Those aligned with the Positive would struggle to use Negative abilities—if they could use themat all.
Using Roselia as anexample;she was a Demon—a race aligned with the Negative end by default. Demonic Energy and Darkness Magic, which many demons excelled in, were also Negative.
"Exceptions aside, like acertainDemon King, Demons struggle with Light magic and cannot use Divinity.
It's not impossible for them to useLight Magic, but it'shighlyinefficient.
For example, Roselia might use 50 energy units in Dark Magic to inflict 100 damage units, but with Light Magic, she'd need to burn 500energy unitsfor the sa damage."
"That's more than just 'terribly inefficient'."
Evan chuckled at Eliza's comnt, then placed a hand on his chest, continuing his explanation.
"Although I lean towards the middle, I'm still on the Positive side of the spectrum. Due to my Draconic powers, Dark Magic isn't a problem for .
However, I'd struggle with DemonicEnergy;that's assuming I couldevenacquire it.
But you, my dear..."
Evan closed the distance between them and continued.
"...as a 'Balanced Neutral,' you don't have those limitations.
Do youreallybelieve other Child of Life skill wielders can handle 'Negative Life' as easy as you do?"
Eliza fell silent, recognizing that sheindeedfound it easier to use Negative Life abilities than others.
She had observed that while her father excelled in Negative abilities like Unhealing, rupturing internal organs, and negating regeneration, his skills in Positive abilities like healing or buffing were lacking.
While her mother excelled in Positive abilities, Eliza had the best of both worlds, which she attributed to her Skill.
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