None of the elves bothered Reina after that. The rest of the council went quite smoothly. When it was all done and she dismissed them, they bowed quite a bit deeper than they had at the beginning. A bunch even shuffled up to give her their congratulations, which she graciously accepted, greeting everyone by name. A few were surprised; they hadn't even introduced themselves.

She came back to Zane, who had just been sitting there the whole time, blinking.

"That's that," she said. And by the way she looked at him, Zane could tell she was back to her warm self. She'd seemed like an angry goddess for a second there.

She took his arm and nestled her head into his chest again. She looked up at him. "How's lunch sound?" she said brightly. Then she blinked—

"…Why are you looking at me like that?"

He snapped out of it a bit.

"Sure," said Zane. "Uh. I could eat."

She led him off.

She took him to one of the highest boughs, of the World Tree for a little private picnic. From there, you could see the cosmos spread out before them, clouds of colors waxing and waning—vivid whites and purples and blues splashed out against a sea of darker purple.

He and Reina ate fruits, chestnuts, and cheeses.

He took a bite of a grape-like fruit. It was the best fruit Zane had ever tasted—just crisp and tangy on the edge of too sweet without tipping over. The chestnut was the best nut too, a little shell of pure flavor. Same with the cheese—all creamy, just the right amount of salty.

Reina started telling him about where the cheese came from—it turned out the cows here could only live at a very specific part of the World Tree's atmosphere, so that was where they set up a special kind of farm. They grazed on leaves.

He sat there and munched and listened, sometimes looking up at the stars, but mostly at Reina, who, in his opinion, was the much prettier view. Her eyes sparkled as she spoke.

He wasn't quite sure how he ended up here. It felt like a lot of things had to go very right.

He was pleased it turned out this way, though.

***

After that, she took him to her home, a manor on one of the exclusive upper boughs. These boughs served as estates for the Temple of the World Tree's elite.

Her estate here sprawled up and down the bough's branches—down to a spring water pool, up to an observatory, but she led him to the main manor—three ornate stories of cozy, well-made wood.

The air here was pumped in from thousands of miles below using special vents. Only the freshest stuff. It always felt like early morning here. It took a bit to get used to the sheer denseness of the essence. Zane had thought he had it pretty good back on his home planet, but Reina could Level just by breathing here.

He happily took advantage of it. That was where he spent most of the weekend—with her, making his last preparations to break through.

Reina had also managed to fit into her busy schedule researching what Ascension would mean for him. She took him to one of her personal libraries, pulled out a leather-bound tome thick as a brick by a certain 'One-eyed Sage,' and flipped it open.

"Ascension marks the boundary between mortal and immortal," she read to him. "It's when you integrate fully into the Universe. The One-eyed Sage says that's the reason why Ascended beings—beings' in harmony with Nature,' as he calls it—can wield much stronger essence and Law. There's no friction between their powers and the Universe."

Zane nodded.

"It's also where domains come from—your influence extending beyond your body into the Universe," Reina said. "Just by being there. All your Skills get a boost from it. Conversely—all your enemies' Skills get a debuff. That's why when deities fight, whoever has the stronger Domain often wins."

"Got it."

"It's also called the 'Great Bottleneck' because after Ascension, progress comes much harder. Concepts that took years may take centuries. And each Level could take a lesser Planet's worth of essence to fulfill…"

She was rambling a bit, distracted.

Stolen story; please report.

"You're worried," said Zane, brow furrowing.

She hesitated. "Zane—the Trial… It's like a kind of baptism—a baptism by lightning. For the Universe to accept you, it has to test you. And the more potential you have, the more difficult the Tribulation..."

She had seen tons of souls in her time here—from Ancestors of the World Tree and former Patriarchs too. She had still never seen any the size of Zane's.

He felt she didn't need to worry—he would never fail on her. He told her so, and she smiled. "Oh, Zane..."

She took his hand.

"We still have to make sure you're as ready as you can be," she said firmly. She tapped a little ring on her finger, and a vial of thick golden-brown glass, stoppered with a chunk of neatly etched silver, came to hand.

Inside flowed a slow, clear liquid, something like honey or sap. A frosty mist seeped off of it.

"This is World Tree Prime Extract—the life essence of the World Tree itself," Reina told him. It was a treasure that was meant to be reserved for Minor Gods' bottlenecks. But she wanted him to have it.

World Tree Prime Extract [Sky (S+)]

It was a higher grade than even the Chaos Fruit. He wasn't sure he'd seen an S+-ranked treasure before. If even Noughtfire thought the Chaos Fruit was a very rare thing…

"Where did you get this?" said Zane.

"It's one of the sacred treasures of the World Tree," said Reina. There were only two samplings of extract, and they were so precious to the Faction they were called 'heirloom treasures.' One was set aside so only the Priestess could use it, and the other was meant to be used for emergencies—only in the most dire straits.

Reina, however, just took that one and gave it to Zane. She'd managed to consolidate power quite quickly here—no one could really say anything.

"..."

In terms of rarity it could rival many Heaven-grade treasures. The only reason it was Sky-grade at all was because it was meant to be used by Nascents and Ascendants. But for that power level, you could hardly find a better treasure.

"With your Chaos Fruit and this… You can't ask for a better foundation. Zane—you've got this," she told him. He could see just how fiercely she believed in him in her eyes. A lot of it would depend not just on soul size but also on soul quality. It would be a matter of willpower too. She patted him affectionately on the chest at that.

Especially when it came to endurance, in her eyes, no one could be better than her Zane. She murmured so as she lay on him. That was the thing she associated most with him—he just would not break where others would.

Even so—she would do everything she could to make his journey easier.

For the second time that lunch, as he lay there stroking her head as she napped, he wondered just what he had done to deserve her.

He looked at her. At the S+-ranked vial that had just been plopped into his hand. Then back at her.

…His situation really was quite baffling to him.

***

Another custom the elves had—they didn't believe in intimacy until marriage. It was something to do with purity. That Val guy screaming about Zane' defiling' his goddess did make somewhat more sense, now he thought about it.

Suffice it to say, Zane and Reina did not believe in this custom.

It became a topic of conversation among the serving elves—it was rather hard to ignore all that shaking on the bough. Some had been baffled as to why their Mistress, who seemed to them almost perfect—beautiful and sensible—had chosen a creature as brutish as Zane. They were almost as baffled as Zane was.

Maybe it was due to his martial powers, one said—he was said to be quite a good fighter.

There were also some fringe speculations that it was his prowess in… other things…

At first this was dismissed as very silly.

Then a few of the servants caught sight of the look on their Mistress's face on one of the few instances that weekend the two of them came up for air.

By the end, among the serving staff, that fringe speculation became the widely accepted reason…

***

Skill evolved!

Mephisto's Pleasure Sutra [Legendary (E) -> Uncommon (S) ]

Level up!

Level up!

Level up!

Essence Level 390 -> 393

After a few intense training bouts with Reina, he felt as ready as he would ever be.

She gave him one last kiss, and he headed off to the Azure Flame Faction again, feeling quite pleased.

He did get a fair few odd looks on his way back. He wondered if he smelled funny or something.

***

Before he was ready to settle down and get going—probably in some deserted place on his home planet, one he wasn't too worried about getting blasted—Noughtfire sent him a letter asking for Zane to visit.

So he went up to the little cloudy mountain planet where Noughtfire had that monastery. The same place he'd picked the Chaos Fruit. And there was Noughtfire himself, leafing through an old notebook by candelight.

"Ah," said Noughtfire, looking up. "Zane. Yes."

"Hello," said Zane, waving. Noughtfire waved back, a little amused.

"Before you begin on Ascension," said Noughtfire. "A warning. I have lost disciples to the Heavenly Tribulation. It is—it should hardly need saying—nothing to be trifled with."

Then he paused. "However… where there is great danger, there is often also great opportunity. I should mention the existence of one such chance. Have you seen Tribulation Lightning in person?"

Zane shook his head.

"It's…" Noughtfire paused, choosing his words with care. "It is to Stormfire the way 'burning' is to fire. It operates at the most fundamental plane of existence. It is the expression of a basic truth of the Universe… one that only appears in Tribulation Lighting. Do you follow?"

"…Sort of?"

Noughtfire nodded. "I speak of it vaguely because I don’t fully understand what it is myself… I have only glimpsed it. But even a glimpse of that truth has had a heaven-and-earth—"

Noughtfire's lips twitched— "Effect on my Stormfire. It took me two sets of Tribulations to grasp; it wasn't until after True God that I managed it…"

He stroked his beard. "Perhaps you can accomplish it in one. I speak of a higher form of Stormfire—one, as far as I am aware, only I have even glimpsed. A 'Heavenly Stormfire.' Zane—I am simply informing you that you have come to a crossroads up the mountain. Should you choose to look for it, there is a higher path. It is much more treacherous. And each further Concept will be a greater ordeal. But… it is, in the end, the higher path. No other, at its level, will be its equal."

Noughtfire regarded Zane for a moment. Then shrugged.

“Do with that what you will.”