Damn Happong and his worthless father. How had everything gone this sideways? And what infuriated me most was being forced to leave my family behind. No more putting off my Ascension for another couple of years. I had to do it tonight.

  I made it to the cave in under an hour using Zirgul as transport — just stood on it and had it fly. The energy drain on the sword was heavy, but every minute counted. Dinrim and the butcher might try to use my family as leverage. I hoped they'd have enough sense not to. Otherwise, there'd be no mercy.

  But it probably wouldn't come to that. Dinrim was a bureaucrat. If trouble came from him, it would come through the law. Sure, he and the butcher were friends, but an open confrontation wasn't his style. Dinrim would weaponize the legal system against us — accuse me of assault, provocation, whatever — but he wouldn't stoop to thuggery. He didn't need to. That's why I'd left. While Dinrim was interviewing both sides, questioning witnesses, filling out paperwork, I could finish my initial Ascension.

  The cave greeted me with its familiar silence. First thing, I went to my stash. Pulled out the spatial rings and, using the ring Ekakock had brought me, extracted all the collected soul stones.

  Twelve. There'd been more, but I'd used several to recharge the gatekeeper's soul stone. Ordinary stones wouldn't let me summon with such low cost. There was no way these twelve would be enough to pull Ekakock from the twelfth ring without the gatekeeper's stone. That was the gatekeeper stone's special power.

  So I'd hidden that stone — my most valuable asset — and brought the rest. Time to work on my own Ascension and create new meridians.

  "Please let this work..."

  I'd been preparing for this a long time. Most of the diagram was already done. I wasn't completely confident the construct would hold — my knowledge had gaps. I didn't remember everything, and the memories faded a little more each day. In the past, I'd had the luxury of sitting in Ramuil's library as his champion, plotting my revenge. Now I was frantically trying to reproduce what I'd learned, risking mistakes.

  "I can do this!" I said firmly, placing the stones at the correct points on the magical diagram. A few adjustments, and then I turned to myself. Stripped down, grabbed the ink mixed with metal shavings, and began drawing the meridian diagram on my skin. This time, the focus wouldn't sit three fingers below the navel but three fingers above it. I'd decided this was optimal, even though it meant sacrificing one power node.

  Next came runes — drawn directly on my skin with blood from a cut finger. Crooked, but necessary.

  "Think that's everything." I surveyed the construct one final time and took a deep breath. "I either ascend or I die. No third option."

  No point stalling. I took my place in the circle. Deep breath. Another.

  Breathing technique is the foundation — it's how practitioners learn to draw the world's energy into themselves, same as air. That's what I was doing, feeling the energy swirl around me. This cave was the perfect place for an experiment like this. More energy here than anywhere else near Daiward.

  "To Meku So Deku Yuma Fathares Gu..."

  The stones ignited first, one by one, and demonic soul energy flowed along the construct's lines, feeding the drawn runes. The air went heavy immediately. I felt the energy currents spiraling around me, building immense pressure.

  How much? Could I really absorb all of this without burning up? I wasn't sure.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  I formed the modified Harmony symbol on my stomach and began absorbing the demonic energy from the air, shaping a new focus in the form of a reverse spiral. That was the key difference from a normal focus.

  At first I felt only warmth. Gradually it became a burn, then genuine scorching heat. Like someone had shoved a red-hot coal into my stomach, searing my insides.

  I knew this would happen.

  I knew.

  I had to activate the protective mechanism, or I really would've been incinerated from within. The small circle drawn around my seated position lit up, and the relief was immediate — though the burning didn't fully stop. Worst part was, this was only the beginning. I'd managed to form the seed of a focus, which could destabilize at any moment and burn out my organs. Demonic energy was far more aggressive than normal.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  I was managing to stabilize the force thrashing inside me. Barely.

  Too much. Way too much.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  Okay. Meridians now. I tried to direct the power in small amounts, but it didn't work. It surged through the drawn channels in a torrent, bringing unbearable pain. I doubled over, wheezing, nearly blacking out — but held on.

  I kept switching the symbols formed on my stomach.

  Harmony. Unity. Control.

  Harmony. Unity. Control.

  Again.

  Again.

  Again.

  My body was on fire. It felt like rivers of molten metal flowing through me. And I had to control each one. Stabilize them. Force them to flow where I needed. I had to merge them with the old meridian paths so I could use normal techniques in the future.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The air around me had superheated too, making it agonizing to breathe. Every inhale, combined with the fire in my veins, was excruciating.

  I would endure!

  I would succeed!

  For my family.

  For Mirion, whom I intended to find.

  For the life they stole from me!

  Almost there. Just a little more.

  And at the moment I felt I'd reached my limit — that the new channels were complete — I quickly switched to a different symbol.

  Purification.

  The heat stopped burning. In its place came something else. I think the best word for it is "resonance" — as if every meridian in my body was vibrating in harmony with the world and the Spiral.

  Purification. Control. Harmony.

  Purification. Control. Harmony.

  I would endure!

  It ended suddenly. The heat and pressure simply vanished. I couldn't hold myself up and collapsed onto the floor. Seconds later my stomach seized, and I spat out a clot of blood.

  "No no no no... Can't stop now..."

  I was on the verge of passing out, but I absolutely could not let that happen. I wasn't finished. I'd created the meridians — literally burned them into existence with demonic fire — but now they had to be filled with spiral energy. If I didn't do it now, rejection would set in later and the whole plan would collapse.

  Shaking violently, I forced myself back into meditation pose and formed the Unity symbol.

  "I am one with the world. I am one with the Spiral..."

  Inhale. Exhale.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  The surrounding energy began flowing into my body, bringing astonishing relief — a pleasant coolness. Power filled the meridians, soothing them, almost healing them. But it was a deceptive feeling. Dangerous, even. Spiral energy might be gentler, but that didn't mean it was safe.

  At some point I thought it had worked. But I'd made an error somewhere. In the floor diagram, the quantity of energy, something...

  It felt like someone had thrown a noose around my neck. My body seized in a horrific spasm. Blood boiled in my veins. The energy in my brand-new meridians alternated between searing hot and ice cold.

  I tried to regain control but couldn't.

  How do you use breathing techniques when you can't breathe?

  I'd made a mistake. And it might cost me my life.

  No!

  I was not dying here. I didn't break in hell and I wasn't dying now.

  My eyes darted around the cave until they landed on the neatly arranged vials of potions and the box of "beans."

  Convulsing with pain, I dragged myself out of the circle, crawled to the trophies, and shoved several beans into my mouth. Then I reached for a red potion in a silver-framed vial. I thought it was a healing potion, but I wasn't certain. Just a memory surfacing from after the Revenant fight — the healer had given me something from a similar vial. The problem was that it had been similar. Not identical.

  I was seconds from blacking out. My vision was going dark. With the last of my strength, I uncorked it and poured it down my throat.

  But I didn't finish it. The darkness took me first.

  "You're too reckless, Nathaniel," Mirion said, sitting on a rock.

  My teacher wore his white warrior's robes with long sleeves, and the whiteness had always struck me. Everyone around us wore rags — myself included. Unlike our bodies, clothing didn't regenerate when we came back, and the demons rarely gave us new sets. But Mirion's robes were always the color of fresh snow, which made them feel almost wrong for a place as terrible as the twelfth ring.

  "You said recklessness was part of youth," I smiled.

  "I did. But is that a reason to take pride in it?"

  The smile left my face. I shot the old man an irritated look. He was blind — his eyes hidden behind a crimson blindfold — but sometimes I felt he saw far more clearly than anyone with sight.

  "What did I do wrong this time?"

  "You got Yuvan, Don, and Hanna killed."

  "They'll resurrect in a couple of hours," I said, annoyed. This time I'd decided to surprise the demons and take out the senior warrior on the opposing team. Yuvan, Don, and Hanna had helped me pull it off. They'd sacrificed themselves, but I'd accomplished the goal.

  Mirion just shook his head in disappointment.

  "And if they don't?"

  "They always do. They're not broken. They'll come back — give it time."

  "That's exactly what troubles me, Nathaniel. You speak too lightly about the deaths of people you care about. In your rush to seize the moment, you forget those around you. They suffer. Or do you think they didn't agonize as they died on that field?"

  "Everyone suffers here," I pushed back. "This is the twelfth ring! I've been lying on that same field plenty of times. So what?"

  "That doesn't make it acceptable. Even if they come back, death is always death."

  "They wanted to. I didn't ask them to follow me or help. It was their choice."

  "They entrusted you with their lives, and you squandered them thoughtlessly. That fight wasn't hopeless. Not just you — all four of you could have survived."

  "What's your point, teacher?!" I snapped.

  "Think about the people around you. You have a habit of choosing the fastest, seemingly simplest path, but it isn't always the right one. I'm afraid that habit will come back to haunt you — when you finally get out of here."

  "You really believe we'll get out?" I softened.

  "I know it."

  "Oh — Nate! Nate! Wake up!"

  Something splashed in my face. I grimaced reluctantly and pried my eyes open.

  Chloe?

  She was leaning over me, slapping my cheeks, trying to bring me around.

  I pushed her away and immediately rolled onto my side, retching up a mass of thick, dark sludge. She handed me a waterskin right away, and I didn't refuse. After that, things were marginally better. I could finally breathe more or less freely.

  "What happened in here?" she asked, alarmed.

  "I... I tried to ascend. What I told you about — creating a new focus."

  "And? Did it work?"

  No, I wanted to say — but then realized that would be a lie. I could feel energy flowing inside me. Had I actually done it?

  I closed my eyes, turned my gaze inward, and... froze. Stunned by what I saw. I don't know what I did. I don't know how I did it. But I'd never seen anything like this before. I'd created a focus, grown meridians — but they were deeply strange. My focus wasn't a sphere, as it should be. It was a spiral. Two intertwined spirals, to be precise, and from them ran two braided lines of meridians branching throughout my body.

  "Incredible..." I breathed.

  "Something wrong?"

  "I'm not sure..."

  How was this even possible?

  It seemed that instead of growing demonic meridians and purging them of their original energy to replace it with spiral power, the meridians had simply split into two types of energy. I'd had something vaguely similar back when I'd grown the demonic focus on the twelfth ring, but that had been completely different. Since spiral energy down there was barely more abundant than here, demonic power had always dominated, claiming most of the meridians. Now I was looking at perfect balance between the energies, with no limitation on either. Unity of opposites, embodied in my body.

  But it was too early to celebrate. I'd never heard of anything like this and had no idea what to expect from a body like mine. Not a single power node was open, and the meridian layout itself was nonstandard. Could I even open the nodes I needed for familiar techniques? And if not — what then?

  My head was literally aching from all these questions.

  But the main thing — I'd done it. I'd actually done it.

  "Oh, Nate!"

  "What now?" I looked up.

  "Your eyes!"

  "They went light?"

  "Yes! No... I mean..."

  Frowning, I pulled one of the trophy spatial rings and extracted a mirror. I didn't need Ekakock's ring anymore. One look at my reflection, and I swore internally. Now I understood what had startled Chloe. My eyes reflected the same duality that lived inside me. My right eye had turned pale gray. My left — bright red.

  "What a look," I said with a crooked smirk.

  "I actually like it. White hair, mismatched eyes. Very exotic," Chloe grinned.

  "None of that matters," I said, already thinking I should cover the left eye. On the inner rings, once I could touch an element, I could claim elemental deviation. Red eyes weren't exclusive to demonic masters — fire practitioners had them too. "Do you know what happened to my family?"

  "Of course. They were taken to the town hall. Mr. Dinrim is questioning them about what happened."

  I nodded. Exactly as I'd expected. Dinrim was operating by the book, trying to look like a respectable, honest official.

  "Right then. Time to go back."