They eventually moved on from this strange vision as well, while Xershi emphatically spoke. “Such a thing is self-indulgent and dangerous. It is forbidden for a reason amongst my people. Because when you improve yourself, you improve your ability to improve, even if it’s by the smallest margin. You must begin again, spreading out the improvement through the construction. And this improvement leads to another, as you unspool almost eternally chasing the standardization of that shift. No machine ever finishes itself. And the results… usually begin to become warped. A single flaw leads to a horrifying series of shifts that spiral-”

“So there is something that even you are a stickler for,” Pullas observed, earning a glare from Xershi. However, the distraction let some of the color leak from her cheeks.

“This is about the natural order.” He said. “Such practices are taboo on my home planet due to some very indicative disasters that have occurred in our history.”

As a group, they continued their movements. The scenes began to blur together, between strange and sensual. The three saw a group of individuals beginning to undress and hop in a pale lake. As they hurried on, the laughter and playful splashes echoed behind them. At another bend in the road, one humanoid bodily picked up another and carried them off to a nearby cave. A fire in the middle of the cave threw long shadows out of the interior, so even as they proceeded along the bend, those dark silhouettes continued to kiss and choke one another, stretched to the point of being a farce on the ground.

A series of dull-colored slimes pressed their gelatinous bodies together until they began to merge into one giant being. A spider laid an egg sack and then began to eat her unborn spawn with sharp mandibles that clicked with each bite. A woman with an exaggerated body and wearing only a torn cotton shift lay on a stone dais and panted. Each breath caused her chest to rise and her back to arch further.

It was around this time that Randidly noticed that while these people were definitely under the thrall of the owner's image, they were real people, not projections. And more than anything else, they seemed to enjoy being a part of the whispering and erotic sighs of this ring.

The sky above them began to lighten from wine red toward a blushing pink as the scenes steadily became more explicit. Two men in religious robes ripped the clothing off of each other, frothing at the mouth. Their hands pawed and grasped at each other, their slightly paunchy bellies jiggling with each lusty grope.

Around the next bend two humanoids were very clearly having sex, the woman bent over and supporting herself against one of the pink cacti. The man’s rhythmic thrusts into her caused her swollen breasts to swing and thwap against one another. but what truly disturbed Randidly was a younger humanoid stood some distance away, just watching them with wide eyes.

Randidly pressed his lips together and moved forward. Behind him, both Pullas and Xershi had stopped making comments to try and lighten the move. If anything, that had just seemed to give the scenes more power over them. The heat of this place spread itself across their skin until they all felt an anxious urge to keep moving. Randidly’s annoyance was growing, but he was an old hand at burying that and focusing on the task at hand. They stumbled across a man with an absolute cucumber between his legs, just methodically pleasuring himself while looking at the admittedly suggestive wiggle of the pink cacti in front of him.

Finally, after a long brown centipede walked in a circle and continually ate its own shit, the sky lightened all the way to bright white light. They passed from the dull ground to an area with soft green grass. A white gazebo sat in the middle of the area, next to a field that would be perfect for gardening. Beyond the field was a small fenced area with a few gravestones, likely a family plot.

Randidly blinked at the light and heat from the sun. It sat low in the sky, red and swollen. Although this place appeared normal upon first inspection, it was clear that most of the influence of the image had just shrunk back into the sun.

On the bench in that gazebo was a slight woman, who was the source of everything they had walked through. Despite the path to get here, the finish line was a surprisingly nice place. The sort of place Randidly could imagine himself retiring.

After some of the inflated bodies they had encountered, it was almost strange how normal the woman looked. Her hair was black and her smile was quick and easy as she hopped down off her bench. “Well, I’m glad you agreed to at least meet with me. There is no need to indulge your baser desires as some others have chosen to, but you should at least wade through taboos at some points. And this is definitely the best way for me to demonstrate my prowess.”

“Demonstrate?” Randidly frowned. He had already begun to sweat. The heat radiating off of that sun was definitely more than just temperature, considering the effect it had on his body.

“Yes, I apologize for strong-arming you, but I really wished to prove my own capability. I’m tired of lingering on this floor.” The woman raised her fingers and wiggled them. Randidly just stared at her, his two companions similarly silent behind him. The weird intimacy and discomfort of the scenes they walked past didn’t make it easy to interpret the last ten or so minutes.

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

She crinkled her nose. “This… is more difficult than I thought. I wish at least one of you would have been tempted to leave the path, but all three of you stayed true. Ahem, very simply, I wish to join your Ascension Pact. I only have one request: help me to dethrone Duulys Ambar.”

Several thoughts raced through Randidly’s head. First, he generally wasn’t comfortable with the individual whose image encouraged such carnal indulgences, which almost made him feel guilty for being judgemental. Second, he didn’t want to become involved with a conflict against the most powerful figure in the lower Sonara if he didn’t have to. Third, it was difficult to see what benefit there would be to including her.

He decided the third thought would be the best one to follow. “...if I’m being honest, your proposal sounds like more trouble than its worth. I could definitely feel the influence your image possesses. Still feel it, even. But I don’t know that we will need it.”

Something about this woman unnerved him, even if her smile remained light and warm. “Perhaps if you are lucky, my strength will be unnecessary. But Mr. Ghosthound, I’ve been able to feel you clearly climbing toward me for some time now. Your use of Nether… well, it’s quite distinct in this place. Duulys will have heard of you and he will sense you coming. In the end, the novelty of your power will draw him out. At that time, it would be better to have me at your side than not.”

Randidly considered that. Pullas kept her gaze on the ground, seemingly still affected by the walk here. Xershi stood with tension in his shoulders, but the natural surroundings seemed to help him recover as well.

“I admit my framing was a bit misleading. You don’t have to agree to help me defeat Duulys. Just let me come with you. If events develop how I expect them to… he will come for you. At that time, we can work together. Please.” The woman bowed her head. Randidly blinked at the frank plea in her words; most of the powerful figures in the Nexus wouldn’t lower themselves to begging.

The woman in front of him needed help. Randidly also had to admit he liked her smile. Those two details, combined with his rather heady experience in the Sonara thus far, gathering these connections that might become friendships, made him nod his head. “We don’t have a set Ascension Pact. We are just climbing together. As such, you are welcome to come along. I have a very pressing need to rise quickly through the floors, but we also aren’t ones to flinch from a fight.”

Plus, he would do a lot to get out of this heat as soon as possible.

“I’ll do my best to keep up. I’m Fiona, by the way.” The woman smiled again. Each smile blossomed slowly on her face, a private secret. She gestured with her hand. “The central staircase is right over here. We might as well use it, since the next ring is unpopulated. But I do have a quick question before we proceed. This area… what does it look like to each of you?”

Randidly took a glance around, his eyes again taking in the gazebo, the garden, and the small family cemetery over the hill. “Why do you ask?”

“Good,” Pullas spoke up suddenly. Her eyes flicked up and went to Randidly and then Xershi. “I was wondering why none of you were reacting to this environment. So it is some sort of inner projection. That machine in the middle… the shelves of books…”

“Wait, what do you see?” Xershi tilted his head to the side. “To me, the area is a sandpit. Based on the reverberations… a mechanical worm lurks at the bottom. A dangerous foe to fight, even as a group. They terrorize my homeworld.”

“Taboos are powerful things,” Fiona remarked, pulling everyone’s attention back to her. Randidly made a private note of how profound a transition she went through. When she smiled, she seemed to glitter and draw the eye. But when the expression slackened, there was something almost… dead about her features. An old exhaustion lurked underneath the skin. Maybe that, more than anything else, made Randidly sympathetic to her.

Because sometimes, he felt that sort of broken blood vessel weariness, lurking just behind him.

Fiona continued to speak. “If the road here was one of temptations, this is a place that tries to recreate your deepest taboos and give them a concrete form. Taboos exist for a reason; I don’t mean to say that you should frivolously break rules and cultural norms. Or that you need to address your deepest fears. But I also think they create small mental blindspots for yourself. That’s why I was curious about what you see. A sandworm? Fascinating. And you, miss-”

“This would be a place where I could study and categorize every part of myself,” Pullas still spoke in a small voice. She kept her gaze on the ground. But even that low volume made it clear there was a note of yearning in her words. “If finding a good death is my goal, it should be theoretically possible to approach the process scientifically. To think about the gears and cogs of my personality traits and instinctual needs and simply… trigger them in the correct arrangement. Orchestrate my own ideal death. But… there is a limit to what you can simply dissect and know. Better to follow this current path. To develop organically.”

Randidly frowned at Pullas for a long time. Something about what she said nagged at him. He tried to put herself in her shoes, considering her desire for control, understanding the appeal of being able to perfectly label and comprehend yourself. To want to control so totally. In response, his First Authority stirred. It was intrigued by the idea of dominating itself, possessing itself totally, pushing itself to the limits.

Of course, activating the power like that would cause the authority to fight itself. Just like the First Authority craved to dominate, it would refuse to yield, even to itself. It was an inherent contradiction that would doom itself. If he tried to misuse the ability in that manner.

“And you, Mr. Ghosthound?” Fiona asked.

Randidly glanced around, feeling rather disappointed in his own ‘taboo’. Was he missing something? “It- well, it’s just a field really. A gazebo, a garden, a few small graves-”

“Some taboos are more obvious than others. You probably had a thought, right when you saw the area for the first time,” Fiona prodded. “That first instinct will usually guide us. Although I also am curious about what the names on those graves are.”

Focusing his eyes, Randidly shrugged. “The graves are nameless. But the area looks intimate, like a family cemetery. As for my first thought- Ha. Well, I just thought… this looks like a nice place. The sort of spot I would like to retire to, someday.”