Despite my insistence on not training for the week, I still used the opportunity aboard the ship to get my wishes all done. At seven points per wish and forty two per day, the week netted me a full two hundred ninety four points. I made sure they were all in Creation, evening out my weakest stat a bit. It was a nice little bump as we approached the temple, getting me just that little bit more ready.

Other than that, we just hung out. Spent time together as a group, and just generally enjoyed our last few days of prep before we arrived at the temple. On the seventh day, I got a call from Zeke and Killian, telling me and the others to meet them in the observation dome.

We all packed up and headed over there, and when we arrived, we found them both relaxing in a pair of chairs, stargazing. "Shane!" Said my uncle with a wide grin. "We just arrived. Thought you might want to see a distance view of the place you're going to be spending a significant amount of your time for the next few weeks at least." He took a long pull off the icy blue drink with the swirly straw he was sipping.

Stepping up next to him, I rolled my eyes. "And you needed to show us this lounging on beach chairs and sipping icy poolside drinks?"

"NEED to?" He said with a scoff. "I NEED to do very few things. It's one of the main perks of being me. Basically baby sitting you is the only thing I need to do. Speaking of which, look at the temple and quit interrupting my starbathing." He flopped back down, fully dressed and seemingly unconcerned that 'starbathing' wasn't a real thing.

Still, I stepped past him, gazing into the viewing portal that was already open and gaping at the site of the Ruined Soul Temple in all its majesty.

Our destination floated in space, built atop a large chunk of rock that was flat on top but looked like it had been scooped out of the ground with a spoon or something. The building was made of burnished bronze, the metal glowing with an unearthly light. Golden symbols blazed, throbbing like a beating heart, scrawled across every surface, but they weren't carved into the bronze, instead seemed to be permanently branded onto it with energy.

The temple was surprisingly small, at least the main building, and it was open enough to see that it wasn't bigger on the inside. Just a small well kept area, at the center of which sat a bronze brazier, blazing with a golden light that pulsed in time with the symbols around it. The brazier seemed to be the center point of all the symbol chains, each of them feeding into the golden flame.

Surrounding the small building was a huge web of intricate golden runes and symbols, with open spots where large circles showed the perfect image of a thousand golden lotuses.

There was something sacred about the building, something holy. The bronze looked old and weathered, but it was still whole, and for the life of me I couldn't understand why it was called 'Ruined'. I whistled, and Zeke chuckled from where he slumped in his chair. "Yup. It's always a pretty interesting sight. Your parents and I were in one of these trials, along with Killian and a few of our other friends."

"That's the Ruined Soul Temple?" Callie said in confusion. "Why do they call it ruined? Looks pretty well maintained to me."

Zeke shrugged. "How the hell should I know? Who has any idea why people refer to anything as anything. Ascendants are absurd sometimes. All I know is that while you can always access certain parts of the temple, the trials are only open for a limited time. We got here on schedule, so the Temple should open later today. Don't bother trying to get a position closer to the building, it doesn't really matter anyway."

I squinted at the viewing portal. If I paid close attention I could vaguely make out a tiny shape in an elaborate dress. "Is that Bethy?" I asked, pointing to the figure.

"Probably." Said Zeke with a shrug. "Lark showed up after we left, and he's bound to have faster methods of transport. An A-rank ship is impressively fast, but Lark is the kind of person who can demand teleportation services on a whim. Hell, he could have had a whole ship teleported. He probably brought his daughter straight here."

I wondered if he was still around. Despite the terror of everything I'd heard, I kind of wanted to meet him at this point, just to see if he lived up to the hype.

Everyone seemed excited that Bethy was here, at the very least. And the massive metal clad blonde figure besides her was probably Gabriel. She'd offered him a ride last time we talked, and apparently he'd decided to come along. I hoped they'd gotten Satala settled. From what I was told, The Vampire was offering her protection, so I doubted there had been much trouble, but I kind of worried about her stuck back in the Glade alone.

"So." Said Killian, cutting off my train of thought. "You'll be taking the shuttle down there, same one that brought you onboard. It'll be a quick trip, but we can't get too close with such a big ship or we might activate the Temple defenses. There's plenty of pretty terrifying destructive capabilities hidden under that fancy exterior."

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

I tried to glance over the symbols, seeing if I could recognize them, but no luck. Whether that was because it was some abstruse form of powerful enchanting I'd never seen, or if these were homebrewed symbols the architect threw together on the fly, I had no idea, but the whole place might well have been painted blue and covered with glitter for all the mystical understanding I gleaned from studying it.

It only took us about twenty minutes to board the shuttle and get ferried down to the base of the temple. To no surprise, Zeke didn't follow us off the ship. He waved us goodbye, telling us it was the general agreement that high ranking Ascendants stay off the platform until after the trial. No one had ever figured out how to successfully cheat in the trial that they knew of, but none of the factions wanted to be in competition when the first person did.

There were a surprising number of people here, but I didn't see anyone I would consider unusually similar looking to myself or dad. I had no clue what my sister actually even looked like. I decided to head over and talk to Gabriel and Bethy. The Crusader probably had a better chance of knowing where she was.

When we arrived, the bouncy Vampire noticed us first. She squealed with glee, hurling herself onto Callie and I. "Friends! Hey guys! It's so good to see you. I'm glad you made it. Daddy said this trial is pretty boring, and that going with friends should help."

"So is your dad sticking around?" I said, looking around. Whether to confirm he was here or that he wasn't I didn't know, but I was curious either way.

She shrugged. "Who knows. He might stay and sleep on the ship, or he might be hiding behind that pillar over there." She pointed at a pillar, but after a slight pause, she nodded seriously. "He's not behind the pillar I don't think. Now we're narrowing things down."

Callie giggled at that, and I had to smother a grin myself. Same old Bethy. I turned to Gabriel. "Hey man. So...you said the Star Queen was going to be here. And her daughter. I don't suppose you've actually MET Chelsea before? Because I could use an introduction." I offered my hand as I spoke, and he took it, shaking briefly and then pulling away.

"No." He said firmly. "She's far too important to run into someone like me. I might be an Adamant, but I'm still an F-ranker. Even the leader of my sub branch isn't higher than D-rank. Chelsea is the little princess of the Radiant Papacy, she's far more important than any of us."

Bethy gave a pointed cough and narrowed her eyes at him, pouting. "Excuse me? Speak for yourself, I'll have you know I'm very important. Maybe you're just giving your little crush too much credit."

"Please don't even joke about that." Said Gabriel warily, looking around in concern. "There are multiple juniors of the church here that would burn me alive if they even suspected I was harboring those kinds of intentions. The Judgement Pope's grandson has a well known affection for her, and his purifying flames are at the Master rank. I could probably hold my own in that fight, but I'd rather not have to do it just because you don't think I'm giving you enough credit."

For someone like Gabriel to be worried about losing to another person they must be a monster. Gabriel's Path was that of the Adamant, always charging forward and never losing. I knew that there was some selective combat mixed in there, since if he fought an E-ranker he'd lose, nevermind someone like a D-ranker. Still at his own rank it must be a scary person who could intimidate him.

The flames of purification were actually an ability I was familiar with, being one of Zeke's mask abilities. I still wasn't sure if that was the Red Revenant's actual ability or just a skillset he developed for his followers. The Church seemed to rely far less on the Revenant's specific gift than say, the Black Sorrow Cult, most of whom used at the very least a variation of their goddess's Enshrining Darkness almost universally from what I'd seen.

Regardless of the origin, being a Master at F-rank meant the guy had already undergone soul refinement the two levels possible. The peak of Green, the highest someone could reach at F-rank, was also called the Azure Soul Body. The soul solidified when you actually reached blue, and past that the only way to improve was to rank up. If you didn't reach the Azure Soul Body by F-rank reaching godhood would be impossible.

From what I'd been able to puzzle out, there were actually two soul ranks past violet, which was where the soul would naturally be in S-rank. In order to reach godhood your soul needed to have advanced those two thresholds ahead, or else you wouldn't be able to sustain the Impact needed to attain divinity, and your soul would shatter at the attempt.

People like the pope's grandson, had private heritages and training resources to help them reach their peak in time, but for the rest of us the Ruined Soul Temple was the only viable soul training mechanism. As a candidate I wasn't eligible for the WCP's heritage if it even had one. My family left me to fend for myself. But not Chelsea, at least not mom's side. I wondered what she was like?

Gabriel seemed to sense my thoughts and sighed. "I can, however, accompany you over to speak to her. I don't know if she'll meet with you, but it can't hurt to try. If she doesn't you can always try again in the temple. That is, if you think you're ready?"

I froze, but only for a second. Callie's warm hand slipped into mine, squeezing gently, and it felt like she was pushing calmness and serenity right into me. I let out a long breath. "Alright." I said firmly. "Yeah, take me over to her. The temple doesn't open for a while yet. Before that happens...I want to meet her. Introduce me."

He nodded solemnly, clapping me on the shoulder and turning to head off into the crowd nearby. Bethy, meanwhile, bounced up and down with a squeal, clapping her hands."Oh this is so exciting! Meeting a new sibling is always so much fun. I've met a bunch of mine, and they're usually super nice. Except Varis. He was mean, but daddy ate him so its ok." I winced at the casual way she mentioned that. Note to self, don't ask about Bethy's family.