Ishrin seized control of the energies he had gathered in the dungeon. He had kept them from entering his core to delay his Tier-up, and now it was finally time.

“Lisette is going to be so mad at you!” Melina said with a chuckle. “But do go on!”

Shit, Ishrin cursed internally. It was too late now. Stopping the process now would cause unfathomable damage to his foundation.

The bottleneck to Tier 2 was among the easier ones to overcome. One simply had to grow their core until it could start pulling at the mana in the air passively, without the need to cultivate with a specific breathing pattern. From that point on, one could reach the peak of Tier 2 just by existing, if they were too lazy to cultivate. Of course, cultivation was always a good idea, no matter how badly Ishrin thought about sects and old school cultivators. It sped up the process, made it more efficient and effective, and prevented further trouble along the line. Besides, it really forced you to know yourself.

Ishrin thought about what was to come as the Tier-up began.

Tier 2 would allow him to confidently measure with adventurers up to this planet’s Tier 5 without risking his life. It would open up many spell combinations. It was a step towards the power he needed to get what he wanted. Which was…

What was it?

A shadow of doubt swept across his mind as his will wavered. The flow of mana, the energetic force of the universe, threatened to escape his control as his mind wrestled with an existential question. He had been so sure up until now but… he had not asked himself why he was doing all this in a long time, had he? Surely not ever since the first day on this planet, Prima Luce as it was called. Back then, he had thought he was doing it for his wife, and he still thought that but it was just… so hollow now.

The mana grew wilder in his channels, and pain shot through his body.

Not the time!

He quashed his rioting mind, and with it, the rioting mana calmed down. He would have time to come to grips with whatever was going on later. Tier 2 was too low a tier for this stuff to matter yet. But he would probably not see Tier 3 unless he sorted this out first.

And with that, the Tier-up was done. Yet, the whole ordeal left him too drained and pissed to actually enjoy and bask in the glow of the new Tier. His body felt stronger—both thanks to the rituals and the tier—his mana channels larger and more efficient and his core was growing on its own now.

Yet…

“You don’t look too good, Ishrin. Was the Tier-up problematic?”

Ishrin smiled warmly at Melina. At least, as warmly as he could, although he felt that his smile was a bit hollow. “A bit. I should rest.”

“That’s good,” the foxgirl said. “I have to go too. The new Guild Master is coming soon, and we need to prepare for an expedition to the volcano. I wish I—never mind. Please take care, okay? You look like you have some shit going on.”

Ishrin felt like liquid fire was moving around his belly. “I will,” he nodded weakly.

He watched her leave as he sat on a large log at the top of a small hill at the center of the field. For some reason, he felt guilty. Because, he realized, the thoughts that had allowed him to clear his mind during the Tier-up had not been about his wife at all. They had been about the girl who was watching him struggle, silently supporting him and believing in him.

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

***

Ishrin’s mood was somber. Many questions crowded his mind.

He had once again drawn the failed summoning ritual on the floor of his room. He stared at the lines, as if demanding them to reveal memories long faded from his mind to him. He was still recovering from the Tier-up and its associated emotional rollercoaster.

If anything, the whole ordeal left him with the gnawing need to get to the bottom of the ritual problem. To finally understand what went wrong. He was actually trying to obsess over his dead wife, in an attempt to force his thoughts to a known form of order rather than the unknown chaos state they had reached, but he would never admit as much to himself.

That asshole god Albert claimed that I knew Liù was alive. But when the ritual failed, I was already operating under the assumption that she was dead. Something happened in the meantime that made me forget.

And if she wasn’t dead, it means that I wasn’t pulling a soul from the Beyond…

I was trying to pull someone alive through the ritual. Someone strong enough that, hadn’t he stopped me, the sole act of summoning them would have nuked a universe.

Shit…

He literally told me that she’s alive right now, didn’t he? He told me that she’s out there, and that I might see her again. But he didn’t tell me how. Which means that either he planned and predicted everything so that circumstances bring us together, or…

That my actions will inevitably lead me to her.

Now, what’s something I would do no matter what?

I would try to grow in power. Now that I know Tier 15 isn’t the limit, I would try to go beyond that, eventually.

But in order to grow beyond Tier 15, one would need enough energy to dim a galaxy.

Ishrin paced around. Something about this didn’t sit right with him.

I almost did not tier up back there. Have I lost my resolve already?

He shook his head, trying to not to think about what his mind wanted to think about. Instead, he refocused on the reason he had ended up here in the first place.

My ritual almost destroyed a universe.

He paused, stopping dead in his tracks so suddenly that Liù—who had been flying circles around his head—bumped into him with an angry chime.

Oh, Albert, you motherfucker. She was never dead because she was a fucking ascended! A demigod! That’s why the ritual ended up sucking so much energy! I never built a safeguard into it because why would I? But how can it be? I saw her, in the flesh, as low a tier as I was…

Except… I must have realized that something was wrong when she ‘died’. Something someone didn’t want me to know. Because then I would have pushed for Tier 16. I would have tried to do it with brute force.

Causing, in the process, the death of a universe.

Ishrin’s mouth quivered. Albert had stated how he really didn’t like when people broke his universes.

Ironic, how I ended up threatening the universe anyway.

He shook his head. Sticking it to the man was all fun and games, but Albert had made it very clear that he was no man to whom it can be stuck. Instead, Ishrin tried to recall what he could about his wife from back when she was still alive.

He stared at the floor again. One by one, some pieces clicked. Others did not. He remembered, dimly, how she always seemed one step ahead of him in cultivation. He remembered how she didn’t seem to care about it at all, instead pursuing beauty and tending to the things she liked. Like the little pixie she always played with.

He remembered being puzzled at her progress. He spent so much time pondering the universe, studying, learning, meditating, growing… but she never cared, did she? And why would she? She was already ahead. She had always been ahead.

He was… just a plaything to her.

She was just pretending to love him, wasn’t she?

She was an ascended, an immortal demigod bored out of her mind. Like that omni-guy from that cartoon Mekano always hated, she had taken him as a trophy husband. For entertainment. To watch him flail through life.

And I loved her. What a bitch.

Suddenly, all the guilt Ishrin had been feeling ever since the Tier-up, disappeared.

I might not be able to stick it to the man, but sure as hells I’m going to give her a piece of my mind. I’m reaching whatever Tier you are and going beyond, my former love. Just you watch.

From his pocket, the pixie Liù chirped.

“I’m not mad at you, cutie.” He said with a soft smile. “I could never be mad at you. You’re officially the good Liù now.”

Wait, damn. I really hope I didn’t tell Melina about my dead wife. I sure hope I didn’t. That would really ruin my day now.

Which reminds me. I really was rude with her earlier. And now she’s going on an expedition.

It was going to be a long night.