I arrived at the trial relatively early. Even strolling, I’d given myself plenty of time, and this one wasn’t too far away. When I got there, I was pleased to see Harper, Elena, and Mnemosyne had already arrived, and were standing talking to two strangers. That said, the number of actual contestants seemed to have dropped, from a hundred to about seventy five, not counting the small crowd of emissaries like Bernadette and Chad.
“We had drop-outs, huh?” I asked as I arrived. I interrupted their conversation, but it had just been Mnemosyne sniping at Elena again, so I didn’t feel too bad. “Sorry, just wanted to get caught up. And hello new friends, I’m Mephistopheles, nice to meet you.”
The taller of the two, an olive skinned guy with curly black hair and kind brown eyes, nodded cheerfully. “Yeah, you too. I’m Jacob, this is Hector.” He jerked a thumb at his companion, a short, pale guy with broad shoulders and red hair. “That name is a bit of a mouthful, huh? Though you certainly fit the image.”
“You can call me Fist if you want,” I said with a shrug. “Most people here do.”
“Hector and Jacob were actually just telling us about the drop-outs.” Elena chimed in. “Apparently some of the contestants were shaken by the surprise introduction of the beetles. It was a bit of a tone shift.”
I chuckled. “Not if you had the same first trial as I did, but then, who knows if they all did? So, what is this one supposed to be?”
I turned to glance up the tall mountain behind us, lined from bottom to top with a single large and very shiny golden staircase. It was engraved top to bottom with enchantments, and was very obviously D-rank. I had some ideas of what it probably did, but it didn’t hurt to ask.
“Don’t know yet,” said Mnemosyne. “You got here not long after we did. They haven’t announced the rules yet.”
As if waiting for this exact sentence (which he might have been) Darian the Kitsune erupted into the center of the group with his white fire, appearing in a flash of magical flame looking excited. “Hello, everyone!” he crowed excitedly. “It is I, Darian, your favorite announcer, back for the next round of our exciting competition. How are you all feeling today?” There was a muffled smattering of grumbled responses, which he treated like a rousing cheer of response.
“Glad to hear it! I see the numbers have thinned out, which is a shame, but it was bound to happen.” He shook his head sadly. “Some people just can’t take a joke. But fear not! I know that all of you remaining have a healthy sense of humor and whole heartedly approve of our little surprise twist last round!” Every one of us fixed him with iciest possible glare, but he just pushed on. “Now, with the understanding that your silence will be considered enthusiasm and support for my methods, let’s move on!”
Turning to stare at the steps, he raised both arms dramatically. “Now, as you all may have noticed, we stand before a beautiful and finely crafted golden staircase!”
“The staircase of shocking people!” jeered Chad from the crowd.
Darian spun and glared in his direction. “You know we aren’t supposed to call it that in front of the fodd-er, in front of the candidates. Its new name is ‘the staircase of determination’.” He paused, looking back at us with a grimace. “But…yeah, that’s what it does.”
Removing a small copper coin from his pocket, he tossed it onto the first step, seemingly delighted as it exploded in a flash of electrical discharge. “As you can see, these steps are flowing the vibrant power of determination. Also lightning. So much lightning. It’s honestly unsafe how much lightning is being pumped through the steps. Luckily for you, it is also contained. Each step is limited by a cap, the cap raising slowly step by step.”
He pointed up the mountain. “There are a thousand steps here. Each step is a one percent increase, with each of the ten platforms being the hundredth step and counting as a full doubling of the voltage.” He paused. “Or amperage? Which one hurts you?
“In any case, you can give up at any time and you’ll be shunted off the steps to safety. BUT, if you reach the top, our lady has generously donated another luxurious reward! A Torment Token, imbued with her own power to categorically block a single fatal blow when activated. It can be manually set to trigger when requested, or automatically when anyone over a certain rank attacks.”
My head snapped up. That was…really good. Having something like that during the candidate selection for the WCP would be a HUGE game changer. Especially depending on how they defined ‘one attack’. Could it block one army? One blow? One battle?
Whatever the answer, I was all fired up, motivated to really test myself here. This one seemed straightforward too. The lightning was obvious and painful, no hidden twist necessary. Of course, it could kill one of us, but we could give up whenever we wanted. I was more concerned with how to ration my Gluttony time. I was probably going to try to make it halfway before starting, then use a minute on each of the last five platforms. That should help keep me going and offset some of the damage, with Mornax doing the rest.
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“Now! Everyone get ready! We’ll be mounting the stairs in only minutes!” With that last proclamation he vanished, appearing next to the crowd of emissaries in another flash of ghostly flame.
“Well, this is going to suck,” I said bluntly. I was pretty sure my armor was insulated, but even if it wasn’t Mornax would help. Still, I knew from experience that pain and even some damage could get through my defenses. Hell, electricity might be the best possible attack to use on me in that form.
Hector and Jacob followed us to the steps, taking up positions next to us as everyone else lined up. Not everyone appeared to be ready to go immediately. Some of the candidates hung back, clearly planning to scope out the damage as the rest of us blazed the path forward.
Of course, none of them had a shot at that prize token, so it was kind of a trade off. I glanced at the two newcomers to our little group. “You’re not planning to backstab us at the first platform or something, are you?” I asked casually. “Because aside from pissing me off I doubt that would accomplish much.”
Jacob laughed, clearly being the more talkative of the two. “Hardly. But we never had much of a group, and sticking with all of you makes it look like we have backup. Sorry not sorry, but I’d rather not get tossed off the steps so some asshole can pass me to try to get that token.”
“Are YOU going to try?” I asked with amusement.
“Hell no,” he answered emphatically. “I don’t have a deathwish. I saw what you went through getting that first prize, I don’t have time for that nonsense. I’ll just do the REGULAR impossible trials thanks. If I don’t make it, so be it, at least I won’t be dead or traumatized.”
Mnemosyne snorted. “That sounds like quitter talk. Not going to impress any goddesses with that. Must be relaxin’ to be a coward.”
He grinned sweetly at her. “If I need some advice on how to fail at shaving my head all the way I’ll ask you. Otherwise I think I’ll decide my own priorities, thanks. Cowardice is just a bitter name for self preservation. SOME of us are proud of having that.”
Hector rolled his green eyes. “Ignore him. He’s far from a coward. He likes to play at being pragmatic and cut throat, but he has twenty cats at home he adopted despite barely being able to feed himself. He’s a big softy and he’s here because of me. You couldn’t ask for a more loyal friend.”
Jacob glared at him. “Can you NOT ruin my reputation with your inconvenient need to be truthful to random strangers? I’m trying to get us an edge here. They were just about to let their guard down so we could pass them.”
“We weren’t going to do that,” I told him with amusement. “But it’s amusing that you tried.”
“Oh, my gods can this START already?” Demanded Mnemosyne. “If I have to listen to you all banter for much longer I’m going to stuff my ears with wax.”
I was about to agree with her when a loud bell tolled across the area. We all turned to find a tall, gangly looking guy with dark skin and blonde hair pulling a rope. Darian stood a few feet away looking apoplectic with rage, but when we all turned to stare at him he froze, then with a final dirty look spun to look at us.
“Apologies for the confusion. CHAD decided to ring the bell of determination. Which is supposed to be my job.” Everyone just stared at him, and his shoulders slumped. “Fine!” he spat. “Go ahead and start or whatever, gods.”
Grinning, I turned back to the steps, triggering Mornax, and took my first step forward. To my surprise, the first step of stage one wasn’t too bad. Mild static maybe, through Mornax. Smiling, I took a step, and then another. There was a slight build but it was only mild discomfort. I heard a bunch of people curse and set off after me, obviously trying to catch up, but I ignored them.
Step, step, step, it was easy at first, but about halfway up the first staircase, I started feeling a bit uncomfortable. Three quarters of the way up I began to actually hurt, and when I hit the first platform, the pain was starting to really dig in.
It wasn’t so bad I couldn’t push through, but it was definitely not fun. I saw Elena catching up though, so I realized my processing time wasn’t going to last.
Crossing the platform, I immediately mounted the stairs to the next one. The first step up was a one percent bump of the doubled power of the platform…meaning it was two percent on the original amount. That was going to get old fast.
Looking back down, I saw that it was more than just Elena catching up. A dozen or so others were managing to push through about as fast as I was, almost at the first platform, and as I watched, a tall man made of gleaming copper with absurdly defined muscles stepped past me onto the second step of the second staircase.
Another man with beetle chitin and a woman with crystalline skin had caught up as well, and they were pushing forward fast enough that I had to completely focus on moving ahead. I didn’t have time to second guess myself.
The pain built, agony growing inside me, but this wasn’t as bad as the other ones. The constant build of slowly growing burning pain was actually helping me clear my head. The pain dealt no damage, at least so far, so I was using it to fuel me rather than letting it hold me back.
It took me about a half hour to make it to the fifth platform. By this point, I was smoking and aching, my teeth gritted so hard I was worried they might’ve cracked, but I ignored it. What I couldn’t ignore was the fatigue. The constant muscle spasms from the electricity, regardless of durability, were starting to take their toll.
When I hit the fifth platform, I reached for the mask with my mind, triggering Gluttony as I offset the drain to the object. I felt the electricity swirl into my gut, swallowed by the dark flame pit inside my stomach. I knew I was just getting started, but for now it helped. Time to get started on the second half. I had a token to win.