My next two rooms were cakewalks. The more armors added in, the easier the group was to take apart. My danger sense combined with my overlay made the mid combat portions of my Belial form incredibly simple, and the more I trained them the more I honed those reflexive moves. I realized after I finished the third, however (which was a bit more challenging) that I'd run into a slight problem. My soul had finished its refinement in orange, but I had no clue how to break through to yellow.

After my experience in the forest, I felt like my soul had sublimated, but apparently whatever had happened wasn't the necessary trigger to jump to the next rank. I sat for a while in my third room, meditating on the potential methods I could think of to break through. Unfortunately, it wasn't a problem I felt particularly equipped to handle. It was like trying to flex a muscle you didn't know you had. You could think about it all you wanted, but the actual mechanics were just...a mystery.

I sat like that for about an hour, eventually getting bored and deciding that there was no way to break through here. At the very least, I could still train my Belial form. I'd been getting substantially better with it. As a technical subskill of DS Mastery, it was folded into that Skill, and I was pretty thrilled with the progress. I'd even started work on my second form, though it was still in development.

Eventually though, I acknowledged that I needed to move on, and stood up to head through the door to the next chamber. As I entered, two others stepped inside. I was preparing to meet some new people, but to my shock, I found that I knew both of them. Sadly, only one of them was a friend.

"You!" Shouted Kellix, the masked man from the first trial. Apparently falling off the island didn't kill you. After he yelled, he drew his rapier and lunged at me, blurring across the room to try to kill me. Sadly for him, a massive fist manifestation hit him like an oncoming bus and slammed him bodily into the now closed door he'd come out of.

I nodded casually to the other figure. "Hey Abel." My mentor was looking as amused as ever, and waved at me as he strolled over. I found my eyes drawn to the seriously injured form of Kellix, bashed literally THROUGH the door. "Damn. You didn't pull that punch, did you?"

Abel shrugged. "Reflex. Years of people screaming 'you!' at me in an accusatory manner. By the time I figured out he was pointing at you and not me it was already over. Environmental conditioning."

That drew a sharp laugh from me. "Why do I not find that hard to believe. Surprised you aren't with Mel. You guys split up for the duration too?" Their teamwork was even better than mine and Callie's. I wasn't sure why Abel would feel the need to split up, unless it was just to enjoy himself rampaging solo.

"I hit a wall." He said with a shrug. "Peak of yellow, about to break into green. Breaking the second soul shackle is much harder than the first though. Now I understand why you need access to a heritage or this temple to break through more than one."

I nodded. "I wanted to ask you about the first...soul shackle? Are we good to talk, or do we have to worry about this idiot attacking us from behind?" I pointed to the damaged but still functional body of Kellix. We can just kill him before he picks himself up if you want."

Abel chuckled and shook his head. "Nah. He won't bother us again." He let his Path leak out, bloodlust and violence permeating the air. "Will you?" Kellix made a low whining sound and jerked his head side to side. "See." Abel said, jerking his thumb toward the immobile form. "What a great guy. Plus the more we leave alive the more fun we get to have later. Elimination games are so boring."

"That sounds more like you." I laughed. I was impressed again by his Path. That weird oppression he used. I wondered if that was unique to his path or if I could learn it too. That was a bit personal though. I decided to stick with the more important question as we sat down. Or at least the more urgent. "So, what can you tell me about the soul shackle? I knew there was a barrier of some kind, but not what it does or how to get past it."

He shrugged. "The soul shackle is hard to explain. The body is connected to the soul. When you rank up, your soul goes along with it. You know this, it's why I'm at the peak of yellow. But the body's connection to the soul isn't all positive. It uplifts but also limits. You have three soul shackles. The first shackle binds the mind. Break the heart shackle and your soul can ascend to the next rank. The heart shackle is different for everyone, so I can't give you specifics."

"How did you learn all this?" I asked incredulously. "Aren't you from the same backwater I am?"

This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

He snorted. "Sure, which is why I spent the three months on the ship when I wasn't training asking around about soul refinement. I'd already broken the mind shackle, and it was a...weird experience. I'd hoped learning more about souls would help me understand what I went through."

I blinked at that. "Oh. That...makes sense. Now I feel stupid, I should have done that. What about the other two shackles. I imagine the second shackle is what lets you get your soul to the required two levels above. What about the third? What do you become if you break the third shackle?"

"A corpse." He said with a snicker. "Mind, heart, and self. The shackles tether your soul to your body. Break one and you can reach the next level of soul refinement, break two and you go two above, break the third and your soul loses its connection to your body and floats away. You become an empty shell. Luckily, you have to actively try to break shackles, and no one is stupid enough to make the attempt on number three."

That made sense, but it didn't answer the biggest question. "How did you break your mind shackle though? How am I supposed to break it? And why can you only break the first one without the temple?"

For probably the first time since I'd met him, Abel hesitated. He seemed almost afraid to speak. "I can't say much. It might make breaking it harder for you. But I can tell you something that will explain the why of your last question. The mind shackle is a binding you place on yourself, and the heart shackle is a binding placed on you by others. Internal and external. You can overcome the influence you have on your own thoughts, but overcoming the place others have in your heart is different. I'm guessing you got that during the second trial."

I nodded slowly, considering his point. "You're right. I could see how that would be different. So, you said everyone's is different. What was your mind shackle?"

"Fear." He said bluntly. "Fear of failure. I used to be much different. I was always talented, and strong, but for a long time the constant expectation of victory spurred me forward. I probably would have ended up becoming an Adamant myself if I'd stayed on that path. But when I spent all that time on my own, leaving behind everyone else...there wasn't much I could call that but losing."

He looked unusually philosophical as he continued. "I was depressed for a long time. Pinned under the weight of guilt and the fear that I would let someone down again, but eventually, I came to realize that losing wasn't the end of the world. Hell, it was the best part of fighting. Losing means you found something you can't beat. It means you have something that challenges you to grow."

That explained so much about Abel. But part of me also worried about it. "That sounds like a big change. Almost like you lost an important part of yourself. Are you sure we're SUPPOSED to break the soul shackles?"

"Ascending is the process of releasing your humanity, kid." He said with a smile. "You can't get something for nothing. Not even in a world like this. Ascendants are both more and less than the humans we used to be. You need to give up a part of yourself to progress. Sure, you could ignore the shackles, get stuck at S-rank and try to hold onto who you were. But here's the thing. People change. The you who was here yesterday is dead. And today's you is going to die too. You can't stop that, and clinging to who you are won't change it."

Zeke had told me something similar once. I understood their point, and I agreed with them mostly. That fear of evolving was natural. I'd changed too much too fast. It made sense that there was still parts of the old me left. But the problem was that I didn't know what my mind shackle was. A restraint I imposed on myself? That could be so many things.

"Do you regret it?" I asked quietly. "Losing that part of yourself. Losing more of your humanity? Faster than you had to I mean."

He just shook his head. "You're focusing too much on the past. Let me put it to you this way. The soul Ascends as we do. To rise in power and quality, it sheds parts of what it was. Well, sublimates them, but they get crushed by the sublimation, so sheds still works in a sense. When a person ranks up, their being becomes much bigger in a sense, and stats are used to fill that in. It's why only strong willed people overcome recursion, the core of their being has to be strong enough not to get diluted and swallowed up."

"I know that part." I said in annoyance. "What does that have to do with anything?"

Abel rolled his eyes. "The soul of a higher ranked Ascendant isn't like the soul of a lower ranked. It changes. Which means to sublimate your soul early, you need to undergo that change early. You need to sever part of what makes you what you are so you can become something else. You don't break the shackle to rank up, you rank up because you break the shackle."

Put that way, it seemed less...scary. It was something I'd be doing eventually. Refusing to break it wouldn't make me more human, it would just put off the change. I blinked. "Wait, is that why we need to complete going up two ranks before we hit Master?"

"Yup." He said with a shrug. "Something weird happens at Master rank, the shackles become part of your soul. You can't break them anymore. Not sure what exactly. Something to do with Paths I expect. Who knows what ranking up to D-rank actually requires. Anyway. I should be moving on kid, and so should you. I kind of want to see if I run into anyone stronger than me."

I laughed at that then stood and headed for the next room. Personally I wanted to run into my sister more than anything. I had a lot I still wanted to know about her. Maybe talking to her would help me break my mind shackle, but even if it didn't I was still buzzing with excitement. As I stepped into the next room, I froze. Ten suits of armor, nine of them black one of them glowing a brilliant gold. I rolled my eyes at the temple. "Subtle." And then the fight was on.