As the months passed and the tournament’s date neared, Rieren continued her training and cultivating. She barely rested as the weeks went by. Rieren had to get through at least one stage in the Exalted realm. If that meant cultivating day and night, gathering Essence and spending all her Credits to hoard as much of the world’s natural energy as she could, then so be it.

Her friends were busy with the same thing. In fact, as far as she had heard, everyone who would be participating in the tournament was sharpening their skills and their cultivation.

Rieren had received piecemeal news from various sources about the way they were organizing themselves. She herself would be forming a separate “faction” which included Kalvia and Amalyse. They had agreed to the Empress’s proposal to work together in the tournament.

It made sense. After all, the three of them were the ones with the tightest bonds. If Rieren had to pick any two people in the Shatterlands who she trusted the most, it was Kalvia and Amalyse. They’d fought together, shared a common history in Lionshard Sect, trusted each other with their secrets, and most importantly, as Rieren had realized, they cared.

Meanwhile, the Stannerig clan was sending another led by Oromin, though Rieren hadn’t heard about who his teammates were going to be. Both the Ordorian clan and the dissents who had opposed the union of the Archnoble clans had created their own factions to represent them at the tournament.

Lastly, the Sect they had visited, the only one still operating properly in the Shatterlands, was sending three of their disciples as well in their own faction.

The Shatterlands had finished organizing for the tournament.

All they were waiting for now was the tournament’s official beginning and the final rules of the specific competition from the northerners. She had to wonder what they were waiting for. Something nefarious, no doubt. Rieren had no love lost for Essalina Arteroth and anyone who associated with her.

Besides, they had the most significant task. Selecting the particulars of the competition itself. Their rules might go on to determine who came out as the all-important champion.

Rieren decided not to worry about it overmuch. There was only so much she could do.

Instead, she needed to get through to Mid-Exalted. It was getting annoying how long this was taking. Just because Rieren had foreseen this would be the case didn’t make it any easier to bear.

A good thing, then, that Batcat came to the rescue.

The little Spirit Beast was walking causally towards her. In the secluded spot Rieren had claimed for herself, she had been channeling such a tremendous amount of Essence that she was certain bits of it got concentrated enough to become visible. It had even churned the air into a storm and was constantly shaking the ground. The winged kitten paid none of it any heed.

Instead, it came to a stop next to Rieren and made some biting motions.

“Memories?” Rieren asked.

She wondered how that might help. Through her recent experiences, Rieren should have gained enough of a reputation in the city and the surrounding lands to advance. By now, she ought to have enough Essence as well.

But something was still missing. Some understanding that she had to yet to gain. Something akin to the enlightenments needed in the previous realm.

A vision.

Batcat bit her ankle. Rieren waited for the cat to pull itself free before routing the Essence she was channeling through the little Spirit Beast. It was only a moment before she was lost in another memory, transported into a vision of her past.

The whole world had changed around Rieren. The sky was pitch black, but not that of nightfall. No, this was an unbreakable curtain of smoke. Fires raged over the surrounding country, blazing outwards from the city in the middle of the memory that spewed out a gigantic column of darkness towering into the sky.

Vanharron. The capital of the Elderlands was burning. All thanks to Rieren, of course

She knew this moment well, of course. Here was the time when Rieren had decided that the current civilization populating the world was no longer salvageable. The gods had corrupted it to such a degree that it could no longer be fixed. Their divine touch had perverted all it could and shattered everything else that it couldn’t.

As such, Rieren had held no compunctions regarding burning everything to the ground. Not alone, of course. There were others who’d long nurtured enmities against the capital and those who resided in it. But she had certainly been one of the chief instigators.

“How long do you intend to stand there and watch, Arianaele?”

Starloper landed next to past Rieren with his habitual soft footfall. The sight of him made current Rieren’s heart squirm. He seemed so alive in this memory.

While he resembled a human in most of his form, certain differences stuck out. His hair glinted like it was gemstones woven into strands, his skin was the maroon of a dying sun set, and each claw ending at the tips of his fingers was shaped differently. Small blue horns jutted from his shoulders. The wings jutting from his back were bones covered with the same glinting hair.

Past Rieren turned to Starloper. Present Rieren noted just how much… different she had looked then.

She was still the same person, of course. If they stood together, others would have no trouble recognizing that they were the same people. But it was past Rieren’s eyes that spoke of their difference. The way she held her mouth, the way her brows had creased, how certain parts of her were now forever-tense.

Despair no longer held meaning for this Rieren. No, she was well past such things. Loss no longer existed in her recognizable vocabulary.

If one of her cherished ones were to die now, Rieren wouldn’t hesitate to keep going. No matter who she lost. Even if it was Starloper, the one person who had become the closest friend she’d had after losing everyone and everything else.

For herself, she didn’t find dying a possibility that held any real meaning for her anymore. She might be defeated. She might fall. In fact, she might even die. But so long as an iota of life remained in her, she would keep going. Rieren was no longer a little awry spill that could be wiped away with ease.

No, she was now the ocean itself. Irrepressible. Ever-present. Unshakeable.

“It is a wondrous sight, is it not?” past Rieren said.

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Starloper’s glinting hair sparkled as he shook his head. “I take no delight in this destruction of yours.”

“We decided it was necessary.”

“We decided it was necessary to remove the rest of the Banishedborn, if possible. That it had to end in this slaughter and annihilation…”

“It isn’t going to get any less bloody, Star.”

The only Banishedborn who had sided with Rieren vented out a big sigh. He knelt on his haunches, a position he often favoured. “Well, from this point on, the blood will no longer be mortal blood.”

“I haven’t Ascended yet.”

“But soon. With any fortune.”

“Have you…?”

Starloper looked up with a little smile. His teeth were pure black, but they glimmered like polished obsidian. “Preparations will be ready in time. Fear not, Arianaele.”

Present Rieren shook her head. She looked down at the kitten. “What is the point, Batcat? Why must you show me this?”

Batcat, of course, didn’t answer. Rieren knew well what was coming next. This moment was when Rieren sank full-well into the ruthlessness that was required of her. The moment when Rieren took pride in how she had attained her passage into the Celestial Realm.

“Do you want to hear how I managed it?” past Rieren asked Starloper.

Starloper looked like that was the last thing he wished to hear, but he nodded anyway. “Go on, Arianaele.”

Looking back, Rieren realized that her past self needed to get that atrocity out. If she told no one, if there wasn’t a single soul who could have heard, who could have taken in even a bit of the horror that Rieren had perpetrated, then she had no idea how she might have borne it. Present Rieren couldn’t be certain that past Rieren would have borne it.

And so, past Rieren recounted her tale. “I killed my saviour. That’s all there is to it, Star. I ended the life that granted me life.”

“Granted is perhaps taking it too far…”

“It isn’t untrue.”

Present Rieren certainly couldn’t disagree. During the chaos of the war between the ones who had come to be known in this timeline as the dissidents—who had ended up being soundly defeated—and the imperial court run by the gods, Rieren had nearly lost her life. In one of the encounters that had forced the Forborne Emperor himself to take part, Rieren had almost been killed.

She wouldn’t have minded her death. Back then, she had believed that the corruption came from the head of the Elderlands. That the Emperor was more than simply complicit in allowing the gods to sink their claws into society and take over their civilization.

But despite her defeat, despite the threat she had posed to the empire, the Emperor had allowed her to live.

Rieren had gone on to learn that he intended to interrogate her about the particulars of all who had opposed him. She could imagine the kind of information that intrigued him and the court. How had they organized to pose such a substantial threat, how had they grown so powerful, who had aided them, and so on.

But through the course of her imprisonment, Rieren had learned a frightening and shocking fact—the Emperor wasn’t at fault for the empire’s condition.

Or at least, he hadn’t been in the past timeline. He had to at least be aware of it in this one, which made him complicit enough in Rieren’s opinion. In the previous one, however, he had been sincere in his belief that those she had accused of being Banishedborn were merely strong members of the imperial court and its allies.

His story had been genuine. The ways he had tried to help his subjects, the methods he had employed to keep the danger to a minimum, all the efforts at rebuilding and safeguarding.

There had been times he had gone out personally to aid. It didn’t matter if it was a battle against powerful Abyssals, it didn’t matter if he was required to perform menial tasks. The Forborne Emperor often joined in.

Rieren had seen first-hand proof. After all, as prisoners of the imperial clan, she and her fellow co-conspirators were made to work where the court saw fit to use them. The Emperor had joined them. Things were dire. Humanity itself was crumbling. They had to put aside propriety, throw aside the inhibitions of the past, and work together to save what remained of the empire.

The realization had come too late in the previous timeline, of course. That was partly why one of the Forborne Emperor’s first decrees in this timeline had been one of cooperation. Forced cooperation if need be.

But the point was that Rieren had allowed herself to be convinced that the Emperor truly did have the best of the Elderlands and its people in his heart.

It was this convincing that allowed Rieren in turn to persuade him that things were more convoluted than he had first thought. That the court truly was compromised. Since Rieren had believed Zhian, it was only fair that the Emperor give her words the attention they deserved. As such, Rieren had been able to successfully prove how his court wasn’t what it once had been.

“So,” past Rieren continued on her tale. “When the time finally came to confront them, when the Emperor had freed me so that we may face the true enemies of the Elderlands together, I left him.” She paused for a moment. “I left him to fend for himself against foes he could never hope to defeat.”

“You were saving yourself,” Starloper said. “You knew none of you held the strength to truly defeat the Banishedborn. Not if they were altogether, as the Emperor sought to confront them. Unless…”

“Unless we destroyed the entire city itself.”

They truly had destroyed the city. Even current Rieren had trouble believing that such a feat had been possible—not only the destruction of Vanharron, but all the Banishedborn residing within it.

Of course, certain things had made it possible. Rieren hadn’t done it alone. The Emperor had helped, as well as allowing Rieren to free the surviving rebels. The use of special items purchased at great cost from the System Shop allowed them to construct the trap. It was no easy feat to pin down the strongest beings in existence save the gods themselves.

But in the end, Rieren had left as soon as she could. She had not seen fit to care what happened to the Emperor. He might have escaped, he might have been caught in the same trap. Who knew.

Past Rieren couldn’t bring herself to care enough either way.

In fact, she hadn’t even fully cared for those who had allied with her. It was one of the reasons Gorint Malloh held her in little regard nowadays. All she had done was free one of the other rebels, shoving all responsibility to free the others upon him, before refocusing on ensuring the trap was properly set. And once that was done, Rieren had exited the city as fast as she could.

The explosions had been a sight to behold while she had stood on this outcropping three leagues from the walls, safe from any collateral damage.

“Sacrifices are necessary on our path,” Starloper said. “It cannot be helped.”

“Would you say the same if you were in any of their places?” past Rieren said.

“I forfeit my life the moment my master died, Arianaele. If an explosive finale to end by brethren was how my life was to end, then so be it.”

“Lucky you that it isn’t your time yet.”

“Lucky me,” Starloper said with no small amount of sarcasm.

The memory was starting to fade. Everything was fading to a colourless, soundless void. The real world began materializing around Rieren again.

As it reappeared, she learned just what she had been missing.

Rieren had found something of a goal. After speaking with the past version of herself, she had learned that maybe there was more to her life than simply being done with one goal and then finding something new and unrelated. No, her life had aligned to fixing the world, and that wasn’t going to end with the gods. It was a continuous process she could be a part of.

But to do that, to see it through, a goal wasn’t enough. She needed the intent. An intent that wouldn’t balk at necessities such as destroying an entire city if needed.

Rieren considered if that made her hypocritical. If her wish for something different in this timeline was incongruent with who she truly was—the same Rieren as before, unyielding about the world and herself as well.

Not true. It was simply another reason that her objective needed to involve the world she lived in.

When reality reappeared, it wasn’t just the peak of the Stannerig mountain she returned to. All the Essence she had gathered was finally elevating her spirit. It had turned her true surroundings into ghostly forms of themselves, all of which had been transported to an Aether-like cosmos, arrayed with colourful nebulae and universe-spanning galaxies.

Rieren closed her eyes, letting the moment wash over her. It was familiar now. Her senses were dulled but expanded as well, as though she was merging with the world around her.

When it finally ended, Rieren found herself atop the chilly peak again. A quick peek into her [Status] confirmed that she had indeed progressed through to the Mid-Exalted realm.

Batcat meowed, and Rieren smiled.

“You are right, kitten,” she said. “Let us see if I truly have advanced.”

She extended her sword. Activating Rippling Blade turned the blade shimmering white, its tip expanding even further by several paces. Next, Rieren focused on her newly-gained Aspect—lightning. Sparks crackled all along the length of her Receptor sword imbued with Essence.

When Rieren swung, arcs of lightning trailed along the wake of her sword’s entire, expanded length. She ended it with a stab, which launched a crackling bolt at her aimed target. The tree sparked and split along its middle. The crack she left had blackened to char.

A proper new Aspect. Rieren truly had advanced to Mid-Exalted.