Jair poured silver-glowing liquid onto the stone worktable before him, painstakingly tracing out a sequence of symbols he knew by heart. Manafire rippled across the table in a constant cascade, the heat alone enough to drench him in sweat.

But that wasn’t the only thing making him sweat.

Distant shouts and footsteps echoed back to him, snarls and hissing portended his approaching doom. His pursuers had entered the mountain.

Though every cell in his body screamed at him to hurry, he kept his movements deliberate and the flow of molten starsteel steady. Even with all his knowledge and every resource he could draw upon, it had taken him two years to collect enough of the rare mineral.

He'd come close to this ascension twice before, and both times the process had been interrupted before it could be completed. He would not falter this time, even to the very moment of his death.

The snarling and baying of the pursuing drakenhounds grew louder, nearer.

Jair's heart raced with an overpowering mix of hope and dread, but with supreme effort of will he forced himself to proceed calmly.

He held one hand directly above the glowing symbol on the table, as close as he could bring himself to the searing heat radiating from the molten starsteel. With his other hand he pressed two fingers against his forehead, eyes drifting closed as he mentally traced familiar pathways within his spirit.

"Soulblade, Manifest!"

Silver fire burned in his vision, even through closed eyelids, as the weapon in his soul transposed itself into physical reality.

─ Reforged Soulsword (2nd Form) (99%)

─ Rank: Uncommon

– Class Requirement: Mageblade

His trusty sword appeared beneath his hand, worn and mundane but carved with the familiar symbols that resonated down to his very soul.

Jair pressed the weapon down into the starsteel, then began laying out the other elements necessary for the ascension. Two fully charged silver workings, intricate latticeworks containing between them enough mana to level the mountain, four blue dragon-tear pearls, and a single pure sapphire cut to exacting specifications.

Sizzling and hissing rang out in the distance as the forerunners of the enemy assault ran into the first line of his traps. That would only slow them for a few seconds.

"There's enough time," he whispered, but his hands trembled with adrenaline he couldn't entirely suppress.

He set the catalyst items out along the blade, guard, hilt, and pommel, then held both hands over them.

Half done. The easy half.

"Compression."

Tightly-controlled pressure flooded down from his hands, crushing the ingredients to powder in an instant and flattening the storage workings. Mana pulsed as their containment ruptured, but not a single grain of pearl dust spilled from atop the sword as the compression held them perfectly in place.

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Distant firelight burst into existence in the corner of his vision, yowls of surprised pain accompanying the flare—the last of his traps.

Breathing hard, Jair transferred control of the spell to only one hand so he could pick up the half-empty crucible of molten starsteel with the other. Mouth dry, stomach tense, he poured the silvery metal very carefully over the sword, though it took every ounce of his willpower to continue moving with smooth precision.

Even if every instinct urged him to hurry, he knew rushing would only make things worse.

Holding the downward compression while allowing the starsteel through the intangible field of power strained Compression to its limits. By any rights, he should have waited another month before using it for something so strenuous. If he survived past the ascension there would be painful repercussions to his recklessness.

Good thing surviving wasn’t necessary to his plan.

Starting at the tip and working toward the pommel, he covered the powdered pearls, then the flattened silver workings, and finally the shattered sapphire just below the guard.

Final step. He'd never come this close before. All the traps had bought him the precious seconds he needed. All he had to do was finish the seal.

With a quick jerk, he sliced the tip of his finger against the blade's point, then pressed it into the starsteel where the sapphire had rested. Painstakingly, he shifted the compression spell to mix his blood into the metal and once again began to trace out--

Something crashed into his back, shattering his shields and hurling him forward across the table. Breaking the spell before he could finish.

"No!"

Jair landed right on top of the project. The pattern collapsed as his compression faltered. Molten starsteel spilled in lumpy waves over the edges of the incomplete sword. When he pulled his hand back more starsteel clung to it, leaving the sapphire exposed. Beneath him the fourth pearl scattered out of place.

His hand burned as the starsteel melted through skin and muscle, but he couldn't spare a thought for that. He barely felt the claws tearing into his body, so focused was he on the sword.

Frantically, desperately. He used his hand to press the blade back into shape, smooth the edge, wipe away the extra material splattered over the edges.

Red spilled across the back of his hand, the pain still not reaching him as he stared down at the incomplete ascension.

He couldn't fail now. Not after so long. Not after trying so hard. He'd done everything perfectly, moved as fast as he possibly could, right up to the last moments.

And it still wasn't enough.

Blood flowed from his chest where something had stabbed straight through, staining the silver metal pink.

What could he have done differently?

He searched desperately through his memory for any step he’d been slow or inefficient to complete, any ally he could have better utilized, any resource left untapped.

Nothing. There was nothing he could have done better. No way to move faster. No way to delay his pursuit another moment.

I refuse. I'm not going through this all again!

He'd spent too long trapped in this desperate quest, but there would be no use going back unless he changed something.

"I REFUSE!" Jair roared it aloud, slamming his half-melted hand onto the sapphire. "Compression."

His body screamed at him to stop. His spell pattern burned too hot, close to rupture, threatening to tear him apart from within.

He didn't stop. Couldn’t stop. Failure now would break him and he refused to be broken. Not again. Not now.

Through blurred vision and a mind growing fuzzy, he focused his compression. He stamped the spilled blood down into the metal in a single final surge of mana, searing the pattern of his soul into the misshapen blade.

─ Reforged Soulsword has been ascended. Form 3 unlocked.

Power resonated through him as the ascension clicked into place. An imperfect ascension, but it would have to be good enough. He couldn’t possibly have done anything more.

With the last of his strength, Jair pressed two fingers to the blade's edge.

─ Connection established: Jair Welburne.

Then his body slid backwards off the table, landing in a lifeless heap at his murderer's feet. Jair’s awareness stuttered, reality freezing around him as he drifted free, his soul drawn toward the red-glowing throat of the grinning monster who’d killed him.

Not today.

He focused inward to where his soulspell lived, glowing like a golden star. A second silver star now orbited it, further proof of the ascension’s success.

Finally. Something had changed. The nightmare could end.

New options.

For the first time in a long time, Jair felt hope instead of dread as he touched the golden star within his soul and time began to reverse itself.

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