Achievement Unlocked - Guardian Qualification

There are few who can face anything without fear. Fewer than that can face Nothing and remain themselves. As one of the unlucky few tested by the Nothing at the edges of Yggdrasil to survive, you are marked. Good luck, potential Guardian.

Unlike other achievements, this one came with no rewards. I removed it from my vision and filed it away. Mortesax had said something about Guardians right at the end, alongside Breakers. I didn’t have the energy to care. I had a lot on my plate already and adding riddles of some immensely powerful being on top was a step too far. Even putting one foot in front of the other was an unholy challenge.

The first few minutes of consciousness were on autopilot. Thankfully, I didn’t have to explain anything to Naea. She had experienced a small amount of the damage I had taken during the sharing of our memories from our time apart. It was Naea who guided my body out of the dungeon, and it was only once I emerged back into the slightly humid air of Londimin that I had started being able to have fully formed thoughts.

My mouth was still a long way behind, so speech was a far off aspiration. Like a power station that had been cooled down, the processes for my body were having to come online piece by piece. My muscles felt like rubber and granite at the same time, in the exact wrong ways. Awkwardly, painfully, I put one foot in front of the other. It wasn’t time to rest, yet. Naea released a burst of healing magic through our bond, the effect similar to smelling salts. I nodded thanks and nearly toppled over.

I had taken on responsibilities, and one of them was sprawled out on the floor with worried onlookers nearby. The group with which I had ventured through the dungeon split away, all five of them moving together. I thought that was a good idea, but I couldn’t remember why it would be. While I might have been able to focus, it was definitely a “one thing at a time” situation.

Seth was in a vaguely foetal position on the ground as I gallantly strode over. I assumed it was gallant. People were staring at me, in any case. Naea’s presence on my shoulder was the obvious answer for that, but I had made quite a scene in the city too. “What did you do to him?” The bravest onlooker asked. That swagger disappeared as my eyes found the accusatory questioner without blinking, who in turn shrank and turned away.

When no one else seemed to want to get involved, I moved to the body. He was hard to look at. Not just because my vision was swimming with exhaustion, but because to my eyes, a visible cancer was eating him alive. The energy to care was lacking, but I tried. Even his magical equipment was being affected as more mana than Seth produced was being fed into his class. Objectively, it was an interesting process.

“What did you do to me?” A piteous voice asked, breaking my reverie. I looked at the man with disdain despite myself. His skin was sagging as the health given by the System was drained back to the source. I had crippled him in the final moments of our fight, but his back was healed now. No, the real damage came from…

“You’re dying from the weight of your class.” Naea gave her prognosis casually and without any sugar coating. Seth lifted his head, his black hair looking greasy and oily from blood and sweat. I shrugged. If Naea said so, it was probably true. The dangerous power of the class Seth forced together was exactly that - dangerous. It had been a potent weapon for a moment but I could see the corrosion of mana at this core in real time.

“Y-you have to help me, then?” Half-begging immediately, Seth’s eyes grew frantic. Even if I knew how, I would have needed some convincing. It was going to take more than the tendrils of mana that already tried to snake into my mind to make me help, one of Seth’s insidious skills working overtime to survive. I didn’t blame him for his lack of control. I doubted he could control any of his abilities at this point. I was still unsure of the full truth behind classes but I had just been on the precipice of losing control myself.

It must be terrifying.

I felt my anger wane as the image Seth took up in my mind became one of a wild animal. Scared, desperate, confused and now in pain. I had felt the weight of his life in my hands and walked away from the burden of it at the time. Thanking Past Grant for punting the problem along, I tried to squat. I fell onto my rear without a moment’s resistance, so I played it off like it had been intentional.

The crowd that supported Seth were still hovering around, but an expulsion of Dao had them suddenly interested in being anywhere but here. I wasn’t trying to hide my actions, I just didn’t want an audience. Neither would Seth. The exertion of a single Dao wave had sent me even more light-headed than before. Naea’s spirit snuggled up to mine, cushioning my aches with power of her own. I could sense her pride in what I was planning.

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If it didn’t work, at least I would know I tried. “I can’t stop what’s happening to you,” I admitted. Seth’s sallow face sunk even more. I continued quickly. “But I might… I might be able to stop it from killing you.” My problems were much larger than a single city. I needed to be more aloof, and this was definitely going to push my headache into migraine territory. Ah well. If I wasn’t supposed to use them, the System shouldn’t have given me so many tools to fuck with it.

Seth looked worriedly from myself to Naea, clearly not finding much to inspire confidence. Regardless, he nodded. He pushed away from the sword and shield he wore, moving to his hands and knees. His appearance of supplication was honestly helpful, though I said nothing as I rose to my feet. I had learned countenance matters when wielding the Dao. The Dao of the Dragon snorted with approval as I pressed it forth.

Can we do this? I asked.

We will do anything which we can do. That will be enough. The portion of myself which replied housed all of my confidence, my pride and my desire to control. It harboured my arrogances, unbridled by my personality and more subtle desires, the Dao roared to life and grabbed ahold of the class in the centre of Seth’s soul. At the same time, I reached out towards the strand of power the System left in my hands. The Dao Breaker achievement. The crowd I had moved away all flinched simultaneously as a cracking could be felt, not heard. Everyone with an Aspect shuddered, and those with Dao felt nausea rise in their throat.

I squeezed down with my Dao harder and harder and I ignored it all, even my own revulsion. Seth had minutes, not days. Even if I had confidence that a healing potion might be able to help, I didn’t have the materials or ability to make one myself. The only miracle the System was sending was myself. Miraculous was not a word I expected Seth would use to describe me in the future, though, as his howls started to pick up in intensity.

It was no quick thing, which meant Naea had to protect me from the tribal approach of those who didn’t understand. I absently noted that she was flanked by my five compatriots from the dungeon. It took a moment for me to work out why that was strange. Strangely, it was the frigid hand axe he brandished which stood out. Hassian. His presence was both natural and a surprise at the same time. Problem for later, I told myself with grim acceptance. The issues piled up.

The shattering of Seth’s class was becoming more intensive, and my attention was pulled away, commanded in a singular direction. There were a large amount of similarities between destroying Seth’s class and rejuvenating my inner world, but each process was reversed. Much like Mortesax had tried to do to me, I was now erasing Seth’s. Unlike the lich, I was trying to limit the damage as much as possible.

It wasn’t easy. In fact, I doubted it was possible to keep much intact at all. Within my own magical system, the Dao Constellation, ideas and images were being linked together to increase the strength of each separate part. The rains of the Dao of Tempests fed the land of the Dao of the Dragon. Both were fueled in part by the Hurricane Heart which had long become a filter for my own mana, acting as the sun to sustain life on the worlds below.

For Seth, he had never crafted an internal image. This might have been fine if the Aspects he used worked together, but the last one he used was warping the others. Like a puzzle piece shoved into a space it didn’t fit, the Aspect had then seemingly stolen most of the power from the class. This explained why Seth had changed from essentially an unhittable tank into an unhittable assassin. Whatever Aspect he used had then grown like a tumour, further breaking his mana channels apart.

The first attempt I made, and the reason Seth was now screeching like a banshee, had gone poorly. I grimaced at the thought but with no alternative, I set to destroying the three initial Aspects. I couldn’t apologise to Seth for taking these intrinsic parts of himself but with the alternative being death, he would have to get over it. As the Aspects shattered like fabergé eggs under my pressure, I wondered if they were particularly valuable. The idea made the destruction even easier as the Dao of the Dragon revelled in removing value from another.

I would have to work on my pettiness at some point, perhaps.

As I was finishing the task, a System prompt appeared. I hadn’t expected it, but that was my fault really. As luck would have it, good or bad I didn’t know, Nolan arrived on the scene at the same time. His eyes glazed for a moment as he, too, read the prompt he was sure to receive in response. The question which had been on his lips died, replaced by pursed lips. The tense situation extended, Seth’s wails ceasing as the class was removed.

Faction Absorption

By defeating the leader of another faction in single combat, and due to there being no laws governing the land, you may now take control of that faction. The faction, Londimin, will be subsumed into The Ascent.

Would you like to absorb the faction?

Before I could face that conversation properly, I needed to rest. I desperately wished I could wave Nolan away until later, but even he became a secondary thought as a new text box appeared before me. Unlike every System prompt to now, this prompt had a burgundy frame with gold lettering. The font, or I supposed handwriting in this case, was different, too. There was a mechanical nature to the standard System messages, but this one felt personal. Like a letter.

Thanks to Mortesax, I knew who the senders were. It seemed I had received my first correspondence with The Accord.

Breaker Qualification

Under the System no one is free. Nothing is fair. Only when the Tree is reduced back to the Nothing from which it came can we truly be unbound. The fertile grounds are made such by the bodies of those not strong enough to fight back. By destroying a System-granted binding, you have proven the potential to become limitless. Join us, Breaker.

I showed the prompt only to Naea. She frowned, saying nothing. I matched her expression. I doubted this was going to make things less complicated.