Akn

Within golden blood, faint black fog swirled. Other times, it was within pale white blood that golden radiance shone. Two contrasting energies that most would think opposing, played out a perfectly synergistic cycle within thousands of drops of blood.

Even as the golden radiance shone softly or the black mist swirled slowly, the blood itself pumped with ferocity reminiscent of tidal waves, coursing through a body harder than steel.

Lucian felt as if his own body were a wild beast bearing its fangs and flexing its legs. Like a turbine spinning at inhuman speeds, his blood coursed with so much power that he felt wary of himself for a moment.

One-twentieth.

One-twentieth of his blood was coursing with that synergistic cycle of energy. Trueblood.

Of course, the difference of tens or even hundreds of drops of trueblood didn't mean as much as it once did, not now that he was well established in the 4th stage. But thousands? Thousands of drops that filled a twentieth of his body? That was power enough to be envious of. Power enough to match those beyond his own progress in the 4th stage.

He exhaled long and slow as he opened his eyes.

That was one step forward on the path he'd made solely for himself. One step beyond the bounds and limitations of the method he was given by others. There would be more steps, a tenth, a fifth, half his blood. One day he would fill every drop of blood in his body with that power. And more, there should be more he could do to improve the Grand Life Tome, more limitations to break.

'Calm down, calm down.'

He was shaking slightly, caught in a high from the sudden influx of power. It was regular, deep breaths that brought back the calm he wanted.

'There may be other ways, but only if it's safe. I would have damaged my cultivation at the least trying to create Trueblood like I did. If it weren't for that… precursor.'

Even to this day he didn't understand it. All he'd felt was a shifting of something familiar, what he'd grown to understand as the vague sensation of 'Flux'. With that shift, his physiology had changed somehow, had adapted to his wishes.

If he could make it do that again, perhaps he could achieve even more. But how do you manipulate something you can't even sense let alone touch?

Turning, he looked at writing drawn on the dirt ground with a stick. He already knew Nil had left, he was always careful to keep track of his surroundings as he cultivated. After all, Eudes Clarke had managed to sneak up on him twice that way.

"I've gone ahead for now. I'll see you at the peak."

'I guess his injuries finished healing.'

Picking up the single piece of dried meat left on the log next to him, he stood to look at the two mountains that awaited him.

'THE peak? I guess dangerous or not, he's decided to risk the taller of the two.'

A smile crept onto his face as he thought it. With a fierce bite into the dried meat, his smile died at the lackluster taste, and he made his way forward.

'I miss the food of the estate and palace.'

With a foot on the first step, the familiar pressure picked up right from where it left off at the peak of the last mountain, pressing against his body. That, he was ready for. It was the other part that caught him off guard.

A spiritual pressure that blurred his senses for a moment. Far softer than the physical pressure, but it brought about a grim expression where the other did not.

Taking a second step, and then a third, both pressures increased.

'So It's trying to weed out the weak among us. Fine then, let me show you.'

With a faster stride now, he advanced. The first few tens of steps were easy, but after a hundred he began to struggle, sweat beading not from the physical exertion or pressure, but the spiritual battle going unseen. At 150 steps, all three of his spiritual anchors were funneling as much power to his soul as they could to resist the pressure.

His legs buckled as he was forced to take a knee, panting heavily.

"Wha… What is it trying here? How is anyone supposed to…"

Standing again, he took another few steps.

"No, no complaining. Just do it."

Another few steps.

"Just a few thousand more, nothing to stress about."

One more step.

"At least, my soul is holding stably. Nothing like outside pressure to force adaptation."

Another step forward.

"Wait… My soul is stable? But it should still be recovering."

His thoughts were sluggish, and even as he stood there for a few moments trying to recollect the thought he just had, it seemed about to disappear.

"Stable. Right, my soul. It's more stable than it was. That's good."

Taking a break from walking the steps, he sat to adjust to the pressure, the clouds in his mind clearing slightly as he did.

"External pressure. More stable."

...

"Right!"

His eyes finally shone with recognition as his thoughts pieced together.

'The pressure. It forces my soul to stabilize quickly. If I can make use of that… If my soul truly stabilizes quicker, I can form more anchors!"

Scrambling to his feet once more, he continued upwards another few tens of steps, the spiritual pressure growing so much that a headache destroyed any complex thoughts, but even still, desire burned in his eyes.

"I can use this. I can definitely use this."

A dozen more steps, and blood trailing from his nose, alongside a horrible case of vertigo announced his limit. As he was now, only three anchors acting as bridges to support his soul, he could not advance any further.

Sitting down, he struggled to move himself just one more step higher and succeeded.

'There. That's fine, I'll stop here'

Closing his eyes, he focused on resisting the pressure, adapting to it, and by doing so, stabilizing his soul which still felt the shock of a newly formed anchor and an influx of power.

'Just wait Nil, I'll improve and reach the peak first. When you finally catch up, I'll have found some decent food.'

**

After leaving the timeless labyrinth, Takis was separated from David and found himself in a small, well-lit room. There, he had been greeted by another.

A tall, blue-skinned man, taller than his shadow Lucian by at least a foot or two, with strange engravings throughout his blue skin.

Eyes without color met his gaze, as the large demonic-looking man seemed to conjure a spear from the hard ground which rippled like water with the act.

"May I ask who you are?" Takis said politely with only a small edge hidden in his voice.

"The name Akn would not be unsuitable." The demon gave a strange reply in a rich, accented voice.

"This is yours now, but it is all I have for you, ascendent."

The demon gave very brief pauses between his syllables as he spoke, and the spear in his hand begun floating towards Takis.

"Take it, and then leave here."

Takis looked at the spear hovering before him, studied it's perfectly sculpted decorations and flourishes, and it's longer than average spear blade that tapered to such a fine point. He had seen only one spear of equal make before, and it belonged to his father.

Nevertheless, he did not grasp the floating weapon but looked back to the large, blue man whos appearance reminded one of nothing virtuous.

"Are you the creator of this place, Akn?"

"In a way I am. In a way, I am not. Take your reward ascendent, your path here is ended."

The prince frowned at the blue man. Something was wrong with him, this 'Akn' didn't seem wholly there, like his attention was drifting elsewhere.

"Why am I cut off? Why can I not continue?"

Akn's attention must have been elsewhere as he stared into nothing.

"Akn!"

The princes' shout seemed to catch the demon's attention as it turned its head to him, a pointed tongue as long as a hand working its way through the air as the blue man stretched open its jaw, revealing pointed teeth.

It looked at the prince with a tilted head before speaking.

"Why are you still here ascendent? Go now, your path is ended."

Again, Takis opened his mouth to demand answers, his frown having become a scowl, but the blue man waved a hand and the prince felt an intense sense of rejection from the world around him. The spear hit him in the chest as he flew backward through open doors, and everything went white.

When he opened his eyes again, Takis was standing near the maelstrom once more, on an invisible floor beneath calm waters that didn't reach his ankles, as the violent torrent of the whirlpool spun beneath.

He was exactly where he had been when first entering the Maelstrom.

'So that's it? I'm just kicked out?'

Disappointment and shock battled for dominance in his mind. He couldn't believe it! After so long, after tackling that labyrinth with everything he had, being pushed near to the brink, he was given some trophy and told to get lost?

'Akn was it? I wonder if Master knows anything about him.'

An excited girls voice calling out his name broke Takis from his thoughts, and he turned to see his younger sister, Irina rushing towards him at a dangerous speed, in the very far distance, a large ship awaited him.

He barely had time for the warm and relieved smile to spread before the girl tackled into him.