Imdiately, an imnse pressure descended upon the throne room.
Kael’s expression changed instantly as he felt the weight settle onto him.
It wasn’t the kind of pressure created by a powerful aura, nor was it the simple burden of carrying sothing heavy. This weight spread across every part of his existence. It pressed against his body, his mind, his soul, and even sothing deeper that he couldn’t properly describe. It felt violent and unnatural, as though reality itself was attempting to asure his worth.
His knees trembled slightly.
The pressure was unbearable.
Yet Kael gritted his teeth and forced himself to remain standing. He understood instinctively that this wasn’t a contest of strength or power. This was a judgnt. A comparison between two existences. The first to buckle beneath their own weight would lose.
Across from him, Varek’Voran was suffering the sa fate.
The weakened Quasi-Transcendent’s massive shadow-covered body shook violently. Countless tendrils writhed around him like disturbed serpents as he struggled against the pressure. For perhaps the first ti since their battle began, genuine strain appeared on his face.
Then suddenly he roared.
The entire throne room shook.
"Stupid mortal! What do you think you’re doing?! Do you know who I am?!"
His voice bood throughout the chamber.
"I am the great..."
The words stopped.
Varek blinked.
For a brief mont confusion flashed across his face.
"I am the great..."
Again he stopped.
This ti the confusion deepened.
His shadow tendrils slowed.
The arrogance in his voice weakened.
His skeletal fingers slowly rose toward his skull.
"I..."
His glowing eyes flickered uncertainly.
"I am..."
The confidence was gone now.
Only confusion remained.
Then finally he muttered.
"Wait..."
His voice sounded smaller.
Fragile.
Almost afraid.
"Who am I?"
The mont those words left his mouth, Kael felt sothing change.
The pressure weighing him down lessened slightly.
Not enough to disappear, but enough for him to notice.
At the sa ti, the figure representing Varek’s Cosmic Weight on the scales trembled violently.
Cracks appeared.
Thin fissures spread across its body like fractures in glass. One beca ten. Ten beca hundreds. Within monts, the entire figure was covered in countless cracks while so unseen force desperately struggled to keep it together.
anwhile, Varek seed completely unaware of what was happening.
His confusion rapidly transford into panic.
"I had a na..."
His hands gripped his skull.
"I know I had a na."
The shadows around him began fracturing.
Large portions peeled away, revealing his true skeletal form underneath.
The sight sent chills through Kael.
Varek’s body was a ruin.
His skeleton was covered in cracks from head to toe. Entire sections appeared broken apart and only remained connected because shadows were holding them together.
Then Varek scread.
Not in anger.
Not in battle fury.
But in despair.
He grabbed one of his ribs and tore it free.
Then another.
His fingers clawed desperately at his own body as though searching for sothing hidden beneath the bones.
"WHO AM I?!"
The scream echoed throughout the throne room.
"I REMBER POWER!"
Another bone snapped free.
"I REMBER GREATNESS!"
His hands dug deeper.
"I REMBER STANDING ABOVE COUNTLESS BEINGS!"
His voice cracked.
"But why?"
His movents slowed.
"Why was I there?"
The madness in his eyes intensified.
"What was I trying to beco?"
He froze.
Then a hollow laugh escaped him.
The sound was painful to hear.
Broken.
Hopeless.
"I don’t rember."
His laughter beca louder.
"I don’t rember."
The words repeated again and again.
"I don’t rember..."
Kael remained silent.
For the first ti since eting Varek, he felt a strange sense of pity.
This wasn’t ordinary mory loss.
Varek hadn’t forgotten a few years of his life.
He had forgotten himself.
Everything that made him who he was had vanished. His goals. His dreams. His identity. His purpose. They were all gone. All that remained was a hollow shell desperately searching through the ruins of its own existence.
And because of that, the scales continued to tilt.
Slowly.
Steadily.
Inevitably.
A being who no longer understood himself could not stand firmly in a judgnt of worth.
The cracks covering Varek’s Cosmic Weight continued spreading.
Kael felt the pressure on his own body lessen further.
Then finally, the scales reached their limit.
A golden radiance erupted throughout the throne room.
The Judgnt was complete.
The scales had chosen.
Kael had won.
A profound feeling washed over him as he instinctively understood the result. Whatever tric this judgnt used, whether it was Cosmic Weight or sothing even more profound, Varek had been placed beneath him.
Kael didn’t waste ti celebrating.
The judgnt would only last for a limited period.
He needed to act imdiately.
Without hesitation, he activated Sovereign Claim.
A notification appeared before him.
---
[Sovereign’s Claim Activated]
[Selecting Target...]
---
The familiar thread of connection erged once more.
This ti there was no resistance.
No crushing weight.
No overwhelming existence snapping the connection apart.
The thread reached Varek effortlessly.
It attached.
Stabilized.
Completed.
Another notification appeared.
---
[Target Selected]
[Target: Varek’Voran]
[Please Select A Trait To Extract...]
---
Countless streams of information appeared before Kael.
He ignored all of them.
His attention remained fixed on Varek.
The weakened Quasi-Transcendent was still trapped within the collapse of his own identity. Through the connection, Kael could now sense his ntal state directly.
What he found shocked him.
Previously, from appearances alone, Kael had assud things were bad.
Now he realized they were far worse.
Varek’s mind was in ruins.
Entire sections were missing.
mories had shattered into fragnts.
Concepts had beco disconnected.
Even the idea of who he was seed broken beyond repair.
It resembled a magnificent palace that had collapsed into rubble.
Kael honestly had no idea how to deal with sothing like that.
Should he comfort him?
Offer encouragent?
Try talking him through it?
The ideas ca and went almost imdiately.
Kael knew many things.
Being a therapist wasn’t one of them.
Still, he couldn’t simply let Varek destroy himself.
From what he understood about Sovereign Claim, there was a chance that losing the target might also an losing the extracted trait. He wasn’t completely certain, but he rembered what happened during his first Tower Trial. Back then, after claiming a rock and obtaining an Endurance bonus, the bonus disappeared the mont the trial ended.
Whether that was due to distance or the target vanishing entirely, he didn’t know.
What he did know was that he didn’t want to lose Varek now.
After several awkward seconds, he finally spoke.
"Uh... buddy."
His voice echoed softly through the throne room.
"Can you calm down?"
The effect was imdiate.
Varek froze.
The shadows stopped moving.
The cracks stabilised.
The madness vanished.
Everything simply stopped.
Kael’s eyes widened.
Through their connection, he could feel exactly what had happened.
It wasn’t just the body.
The mind had stabilised too.
The confusion was gone.
The panic was gone.
The despair was gone.
There was nothing left.
No thoughts.
No resistance.
No hesitation.
Only absolute obedience.
The order had overridden everything else.
Kael felt a chill run down his spine.
How terrifying.
This was a being that had once stood on the threshold of Transcendence. Yet a single sentence from him had instantly suppressed its will completely.
The realization gave Kael an entirely new level of respect for Sovereign Claim.
At the sa ti, it also made him uneasy.
If such an ability existed for him, then similar abilities might exist elsewhere.
The thought of becoming the one being controlled made his stomach turn.
Having your thoughts overridden.
Having your will erased.
Being forced to obey without question.
It was horrifying.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Kael looked toward Varek.
The massive shadow-covered figure stood silently before him. Despite all the power hidden within that body, he now resembled a loyal servant waiting patiently for instructions.
"Uhm... could you shrink a little?" Kael asked awkwardly. "My neck is starting to hurt from looking up at you."
Varek imdiately bowed his head.
"As you wish, Master."
The countless shadows compressed inward.
His towering form rapidly shrank until he stood only slightly taller than Kael.
"Better."
Kael nodded in satisfaction.
Originally, he had planned to ask several questions.
But before he could speak, he felt sothing through their connection.
Varek’s mind.
It was completely open to him.
Like a book with every page exposed.
Kael paused.
Then his eyes lit up.
Why ask questions when he could simply read the answers himself?
Without hesitation, he dove into Varek’Voran’s mories.
User Comments
0 comments from readers