An electric tension crackled through the air of An Layan as the eve of the Trials drew near. The culmination of what had to be one of the oddest Trials in history had descended upon the city, like a thief in the night, and an atmosphere of thick anticipation and simmering unease lay over the city. Even a cursory look at the Ledger confirmed the sentiment as all that it would talk about was news and opinion pieces on the current event, namely how Houses Whiterose and Redwood now stood neck-and-neck in points, poised on a knife's edge. Every corner bustled with activity – cultivators from all corners of the archipelago flooded the streets, their eyes alight with a mix of curiosity and nervous excitement. The events of the Trials had been broadcast live to everyone’s statuses and now that it was the finale, they had come hoping to be part of any final alliances and join teams. Much ado had been made about the rewards the teams had extracted from the Tower of Trials, with rumours circulating about rare and precious treasures that lay within. The cultivators whispered among themselves, sharing tales of what they hoped to find in the Tower, fuelling their determination and drive to succeed in the final Trial.
Ayo barely noticed, lost in thought. It had only been a few days since the Tower and the dragon eggs and the realisation that her own House, Whiterose, had built their power on exploiting these magnificent creatures had shaken her to the core. Her confrontation right after with Mairo and Wole hadn’t helped matters at all and their words still bounced around in her head.
“I’m sorry, Ayo. We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to hide it from you, it's just…” Wole ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “Yes. We were terrible. We told you, we did horrible things. We just didn’t tell you the full extent of it because—”
“Because we didn’t want you to hate us,” said Mairo quietly and they’d looked so ashamed and devastated Ayo had had to resist the urge to scoop them up in their arms and protect them from harm.
Even now, she couldn't bring herself to look at them directly as they stood by her side, keeping her gaze trained on the sky as the Legends of each House descended upon the plaza, their entourages in tow.
From House Stormrider, the austere Grand Elder Wonu materialised from a grey mist portal that swirled and danced around her like a tempestuous storm. Her counterpart from Ashfall followed suit; the Patriarch emerging from a pyroclastic cloud, his presence as commanding as a volcanic eruption.
Next came Elder Oneshi, soaring through the sky on his magnificent dragon Sanaa. The sight of them together was breathtaking: the noble elder astride his monstrous beast, her scales shimmering in hues of green and emerald under the sun and his noble presence momentarily erased the stain of Ayo's newfound knowledge. But the memory quickly returned, souring the spectacle for her.
Then, a hush fell over the crowd as a scarlet star lit up the twilight sky and then the Redwoods were there. A crimson comet streaked across the twilight sky, trailing flames and brilliant leaves as the carriage plummeted towards the plaza. As the fiery streak dissipated, there stood Lady Saada, her imposing figure radiating an aura of raw power. Beside her, the Red Queen materialised from a swirling vortex of ember leaves, her ruby eyes gleaming with an intensity that sent shivers down spines.
Ayo's gaze lingered on the Red Queen, a cold knot forming in her stomach as she considered her actions. She was still sure she’d done the right thing, allowing Folarin to take some of the eggs, but meeting the Redwood Matriarch in person was causing her to second-guess herself. She, along with all the other Legends was keeping her Domains under firm control but what leaked out was terrifying. There was blood, naturally, but it was the blood from a devastated battlefield, a mountain of corpses left behind by a raging, angry mountain. Ayo’s own forays into Laws gave her enough of an understanding to shudder at that Domain. What sort of Law had that woman bound herself to? None of Ayo’s guesses were good. And she had just handed the most powerful soul beast in Vestige to that.
As the Legends settled into their designated positions, a hush fell over the gathered crowd. A man materialised amidst a swirling calligraphy-like vortex – the Inkspire Legend, his form composed entirely of swirling ink. He raised a hand, silencing the crowd with a gesture.
"Welcome, esteemed colleagues," his voice boomed, echoing across the plaza, "to the culmination of the Trials here in glorious An Layan. It has been a privilege and an honour to host this esteemed competition, and I commend all the participants for their dedication and skill.”
As the Inkspire Legend's speech droned on, Ayo listened with only half an ear, her focus drifting. She knew that the true test of the night was yet to come, and her thoughts were consumed by the impending arrival of the Ordinator.
And then, as if on cue, the Fragment in question appeared, its presence heralded by a chorus of gasps and murmurs from the crowd. Ayo's heart skipped a beat as she watched the air shimmer, distorting the light around it, before coalescing into the silver-clad form of the Fragment. It stood motionless, its helmet visor reflecting the swirling colours of the cultivators around it, revealing nothing of its thoughts or intentions. The silence stretched, thick and heavy, before the Fragment finally spoke.
"Disciple teams," its voice boomed, devoid of any emotion, "the final Trial is upon you. This city, An Layan, is your battleground. Within its walls lies an artefact of immense power. Find it, claim it, and return it to me, atop the highest spire in the city. The team with the artefact at the designated location at dawn will be declared victor."
A collective murmur swept through the crowd at this most unexpected of occurrences and all around disciple teams huddled together, hushed whispers and worried glances exchanged. Ayo's heart hammered in her chest. A city-wide battle? What the hell was this?
"However," the Fragment continued, its voice cutting through the murmurs, "there is another option. You may choose to forgo the competition and allow the artefact to remain hidden. The Trials will then conclude with no victor and your Legends will remain untouched. Of course, this choice must be made by the leaders of each team. So come forth and decide."
Ayo's blood ran cold at the Fragment's words and her gaze darted towards Folarin, searching for any sign of hesitation, any flicker of doubt.
"But what about the citizens?" she blurted out, unable to hold back any longer. "They haven't chosen to be part of this!"
The Fragment turned its head slightly, the visor remaining opaque, its voice devoid of any inflection. "That is not relevant to this Trial, or to be honest, to me. You want to save them? Then the choice lies with you."
A suffocating silence descended upon the plaza. Ayo's team grouped closer, like frightened chicks, their faces etched with concern and confusion. She turned finally to Wole and Mairo who wore twin expressions of deep worry, but smiled when they saw her watching.
“It's okay. We'll go with whatever you decide.”
Ayo swallowed and nodded, once. She also never once looked in the direction of any of the Elders, both of her House and allied. She already suspected what they would want.
“I choose to forgo the Trial,” she called out. “Let this end now, without bloodshed.”
A fresh smattering of murmurs erupted amongst the crowd, but Ayo's gaze was fixed across from them where Folarin stood tall, her eyes locked with the Red Queen. Ayo could almost feel the tension crackle between them, a silent battle of wills unfolding. The memory of their conversation about the Crested Dragon eggs flashed in her mind, and hope flared in Ayo's chest.
Folarin stood frozen for what felt like an eternity, her gaze darting between Ayo and the Elders. Ayo held her breath, willing her connection with Folarin, their shared knowledge about the Crested Dragons, to influence her decision and the silence stretched on, agonisingly long.
Then, Folarin's gaze met the Red Queen's again. A flicker of fear, quickly replaced by a steely determination, crossed Folarin's face and raising her chin and her voice, she shouted clear across the plaza. "We fight!"
Ayo's heart sank and a cheer erupted from the Redwood team. Lady Saada's lips curled into a predatory smile. "Excellent choice," she purred, her voice dripping with a dark satisfaction and then she was gone a blink later, her red soulblade describing an arc towards Amha’s neck.
Without further warning, the Red Queen also launched herself forward, a blur of crimson and fire, aimed directly at Elder Oneshi and the other teams reacted instantly, chaos erupting across the plaza and the air came alive as essence erupted in dazzling displays of light and power.
The other members of House Whiterose, caught off guard by the sudden attack, scrambled to defend themselves. Despair washed over Ayo. The hope for a peaceful resolution, the one she clung to despite the odds, had vanished. The final Trial had begun, and death would soon follow.
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A loud explosion tore through the area as the Red Queen and Elder Oneshi clashed above. Flames erupted from her outstretched hand, meeting the staff Elder Oneshi conjured in a clash that sent shockwaves rippling through the plaza. The other Legends weren't far behind. The Ashfall Patriarch unleashed an avalanche of molten rock at some Inkspire Signs only for Grand Elder Wonu, the Stormrider Legend to sweep it aside with a swirling tempest. The former snarled at her, saying nothing and turned just in time to evade a storm of red-hot paper from the Inkspire Patriarch.
Ayo could do little but watch in horror as the carefully maintained peace between the Houses shattered. Her gaze darted desperately towards Folarin, hoping to find some semblance of reason in her eyes. But the Redwood disciple was nowhere to be seen. In her place, a chilling sight unfolded.
Lady Sefira Eboncrest stood tall amidst the chaos, surrounded by her House members. Ayo was nowhere near her, but somehow, their eyes met and the woman shot her a slow, cruel smile. Then with a guttural roar, she unleashed a torrent of inky darkness, aimed directly at cultivators wearing the colours of House Suncrest. Betrayal. It was a cold, hard truth that settled in Ayo's stomach. House Eboncrest had betrayed them all.
Panic surged through her. Where was Folarin? Where were Iman and Diallo? Had they foreseen this betrayal and fled? But before she could dwell on it, a deafening roar tore through the air. Ayo wasn’t quite sure what had happened but she looked up to see Sanaa flailing in the air, a chunk of her wing red and ruined from an attack. The dragon roared again, the sound ending in a piteous whimper and dissolved into emerald essence as Elder Oneshi recalled her back into his soulspace.
“You bitch,” snarled Elder Oneshi, and Ayo was started more by the curse. “You weeping, diseased sore on the world. I will cut you out, right here and now.”A cold smile settled over his features. “Domain Release: Verdant Sanctuary."
And the world ended. As pressure like a divine anvil descended upon them all, the plaza disintegrated like ash, replaced by an endless expanse of emerald green. Trees the size of mountains speared forth from the earth, their leaves shimmering with an otherworldly glow that formed a dense canopy overhead. The greatest of these trees–Elder Oneshi, Ayo realised with a chill–cracked open its eyes, just a little, and the wave of green essence that blasted from them atomized so many cultivators unfortunate enough to be standing too close.
Then came the response. The Red Queen, a blazing pillar of fire and blood, raised a single hand. "Domain Release: Cinder Throne!"
The world shifted once more. Half of the verdant landscape twisted and contorted, the once vibrant leaves turning to smouldering embers. The ground beneath their feet morphed into cracked, volcanic rock and a suffocating heat filled the air, the very breath burning Ayo's lungs.
And then the Redwood came. Blood exploded from the ground in huge geysers, pooling around a grand, horrible throne of bone and wailing human skin. The verdant blast seemed to weaken the instance it crossed the boundary between the two lands and it seemed almost child's play for the throne to flare with magenta light and slap it out of existence.
Ayo shuddered in sudden understanding. So, this was what Elders Amha and Ade had meant. This was the true power of a Legend – their soulscapes, their very essence, bleeding into the world around them. It wasn't just about brute force, but the ability to warp reality around them, turning the battlefield into a reflection of their inner selves.
Ayo stood frozen, the weight of the revelation crushing her. The fight for the artefact paled in comparison to the titanic clash raging before her and more and more cultivators evaporated to nothingness from stray attacks as the duelling House heads unleashed more of their power.
Luckily for them all, there were more than two Legends on the battlefield that day. Grand Elder Wonu came crashing down out of the sky like a meteor, pursued by the still eerily silent Ashfall Patriarch and as their Domains intersected with the combatants, something flickered and every non-Legend was flung out and back to the plaza.
The release in pressure was instant but as Ayo looked around, her relief shrivelled and died. They'd only been gone five minutes and already An Layan looked like a wasteland. Buildings had been shattered and broken, Ledger spires burned and in the sky above wheeled three dragons.
It shouldn't have been possible, but more chills ran down Ayo's spine as she realised she didn't recognise any of them. Folarin. Folarin had hatched and bonded with them. One of them swooped down, unleashing a fresh breath of essence upon some Ironfists and Ayo staggered as the victims just exploded, their blood brought to life just long enough to flee from their owners’ bodies.
“Ayo we have to move. Now!” Wole was screaming in her ear and sense returned to her a jolt. She allowed him to drag her off, following Mairo as he ruthlessly cut his way through. They didn't stop until they got to a relatively quiet corner and Wole turned around and grabbed her face.
“It's not your fault, alright!” He said, still yelling at her. “None of this is your fault. You have to hold on to that or you'll lose yourself. Tell me you believe it.”
Ayo blinked, confused, but Wole’s hands were warm and seemed to penetrate through her daze. The rest of her brain unlocked then, bringing pain and horror but she still nodded, even through her tears.
“Yes,” she choked out. “I believe you.”
“Good,” snarled Mairo as he pulled both her and Wole into a fierce hug. “Because we need to act now.”
Ramisami burst into existence with a roar, followed by Hakir and Zuberi. Ayo hastened with the others to mount their dragons, allowing the sheer indignation and outrage from Zuberi to flow through the bond in her. Allowing it to cast aside everything else other than burning rage. They threw themselves into the sky with wild abandon and Ayo was gratified to catch the look of surprised fear that bloomed for a moment across the Redwood disciple’s faces.
“So. You’ve found yourselves some dragons and now you motherless pieces of shit think you own the skies,” Wole told them with a nasty smile and drew Tidereaver. “Let us show you how utterly wrong you are.”
***
Tolu scanned the battlefield and felt exhaustion tugging at her limbs like a physical weight. They had skirted around most of the conflict, focusing solely on the artefact and delivering it to the Ordinator and as Tolu watched the devastation taking place, she was becoming more and more convinced that they’d made the right choice.
As the tremors from the clashing Domains above subsided, the Legends moving their battle elsewhere, a new horror rushed forward to take its place. Three monstrous dragons soared through the air, their scales gleaming obsidian black and red under the choked-out moonlight. Their essence breaths a blot of red against the world. The Redwood inner disciples. But even from this distance, Tolu could see that they were at a distinct disadvantage. Their movements were little more than lumbering, brute force against the practised grace of Ayo, Wole, and Mairo.
Ayo weaved through an attack with the agility of a dancer, unleashing a shimmering storm of moonlight threads that sliced at one of the Redwood dragons. Each razor-sharp thread glinted with a cold, ethereal light, severing sinew and bone in its wake. Mairo, a whirlwind of chaos and burning embers, sent another plummeting with a blast of pure sunlight from his bow. And Wole was the eye of a storm, cocooned in a spinning cyclone of frothy water that lanced out to extinguish each of the Redwood dragons’ essence breath and swatted their attacks out of the sky. The Redwoods countered with desperate roars, their fiery breath spitting venomously, but their attacks lacked the precision and coordination of Ayo's team.
But dread crept into Tolu's heart the moment she caught sight of Folarin's face, momentarily visible through the chaos and twisted into a mask of fury. What was that one going to do? Unaccustomed to losing as she was, Folarin wasn't going to view this as just a battle anymore; there was desperation there now and it was scary.
Salim nudged Tolu suddenly, interrupting her thoughts. "Look," he said, pointing upwards and she followed his gaze to the point in the sky where the air was starting to shimmer, distorting the view above.
Tolu felt her breath catch as she realised what was happening; with six powerful cultivators gathered together, all of them on the brink of reaching Icon level but holding back and unleashing attacks and techniques with wild abandon, it was only inevitable that the System would notice and refuse to tolerate it. The essence around them rumbled with an ominous warning and Folarin's gaze snapped upwards, as if sensing it too. Wole’s spear was a blur as he lunged for her, but she was still a hair's breadth too fast.
"I'm ready for tribulation!" she screamed and then dived out of the way.
And a blinding light erupted, engulfing the battlefield. When it faded, Tolu blinked away the afterimages to find the sky eerily still. Ayo, Wole, and Mairo lay sprawled on the ground, unconscious. Their dragons, riderless and confused, let out mournful cries, circling above their fallen companions before dissolving back into essence and returning to their soulspaces
A horrifying realization dawned on Tolu. The tribulation had taken them.
"They’re not dead," Salim said, his voice grim but steady. "Sigils don't die from falls. We just need to get to them before..." His voice trailed off as Folarin, Iman and Diallo landed with triumphant sneers.
"Well, well," Folarin said, her voice dripping with malice, "Look what we have here. It seems Ayo's and friends are a bit... indisposed." Her crimson dragon coiled beneath her, its eyes glowing with predatory hunger.
"Sebel," Salim hissed, his eyes catching on something and their leader nodded grimly. He’d noticed it too. Right below them and just a little bit away from where Ayo and others had fallen, sat the artefact. The sphere of tightly woven essence pulsed like a star and hummed with an otherworldly energy but Folarin seemed not to notice, intent on gloating over the unconscious bodies of her enemies. Tolu could hardly believe it herself. It was right there. How could everyone else have missed it? Were they so intent on killing each other that much, they couldn't see what was right under their noses?
“Forget the artefact,” Tolu found herself whispering. “We need to protect them.”
Sebel let out a pained groan. "Are you serious right now? We’re Signs, Tolu, and they are Sigils. And, as you might have noticed, they are riding freaking dragons! Our best bet is to figure out to take that sphere without them noticing and return it to the Ordinator."
But Tolu was already moving, darting up and away like a shadow and after letting out a frustrated scream, Salim and Sebel reluctantly followed. Tolu wielded her sword with precision, loosing an arc of pink energy that struck Folarin's dragon mid-bite as it lunged towards Mairo. The creature roared in anger and turned to face them, and Tolu looked into its dark, pitiless eyes and felt no fear.
Salim and Sebel caught up, standing shoulder to shoulder with Tolu as they prepared to face the Redwoods.
“What now?” gasped Salim as a look of great dislike appeared on Folarin’s face and the three obsidian dragons flared their wings.
“Now? We fight,” Tolu replied, her grip tightening on her sword. “Ayo saved our lives when she didn’t have to. It’s time we returned the favour.”