Kael sat alone beneath the boughs of a long-dead tree just beyond the Hollow Veil, the earth beneath him still resonating with lingering echoes of the Seers' whispers. The relic on his wrist flickered with faint blue glyphs, its circuits humming like a sentient heart barely keeping rhythm.
In his hands lay the Tome of Annihilated Paths—a forbidden relic of thought and memory.
The cover pulsed with warmth. Not paper. Not leather. Something in-between. Alive, maybe.
He opened it.
First Revelation – Of the Tenfold Body
Words rearranged themselves as he read. Not lines. Not paragraphs. Impressions.
"Each body is not flesh. Each body is an embodiment."
The Tenfold Body—Kael's path to Tier 10—was not merely physical evolution. It was the stacking of ten distinct states of existence, each forged through different ordeals:
The Mortal Shell – mastery over basic physical being.
The Awakened Flesh – enhancing the body through essence.
The Tempered Core – purification by pain and endurance.
The Embodied Will – when mind fuses with motion.
The Blood of Law – forging resonance with a Heavenly Law.
The Hollow Vessel – learning to let go of ego.
The Mirror Form – embodying one's perfect contradiction.
The Soulborne Mantle – spirit weaponized into armor.
The Eternal Echo – time-imprinted self-awareness.
The Transcendent Unity – uniting all nine into a singular frame.
"Only through unification does the gate to Tier 10 open. Without it, no ascension. No godhood."
Kael's breath slowed.
He had only begun sculpting the Tempered Core.
Second Revelation – Tier Ten's Secret
A page turned by itself.
The words were etched in voidscript, a form known only to relics and immortals.
"Tier Ten is not a level. It is an undoing."
It spoke of the Cosmic Threshold, where all those who reached the brink of divinity faced a choice:
Ascend, and become something beyond form.
Or falter, and shatter into forgotten myths.
Few ever crossed it. Those who did either vanished… or became the devourers of laws.
"Ascension is not survival. It is death… of what you were."
Kael closed the tome momentarily. His hands trembled.
Not from fear.
From the weight of clarity.
Encounter in the Void Grove
The winds stirred.
Someone approached.
A young man in black robes stood across the dead grove. Slender, silver-eyed, with a blade forged from voidsteel.
"So you're the one who passed the Seer's Trial," the boy said.
Kael rose. "And you are?"
"Riven Valemir. First Blade of the Outer Sanctum. I was sent to kill you."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "Then make it quick."
Riven smiled faintly. "Or perhaps I just wanted to see who the Seers are whispering about. The one who walks three aspects."
The relic on Kael's wrist sparked.
[Warning: Hostile Intent Detected.]
Kael drew no weapon.
"You'll lose," he said coldly.
"Confident."
"Calculating," Kael corrected.
Riven lunged.
Void met silence. Their clash cracked the grove. Kael twisted, redirecting Riven's blade with open palms—barehanded mastery formed from the Embodied Will. Riven spun, slicing air, but Kael ducked beneath it and struck pressure points that shattered his enemy's balance.
A low hum sounded from Riven's blade—sentient steel awakening.
"Not bad," Riven hissed, leaping back. "We'll fight again."
He vanished in smoke.
Kael stood still.
Another rival.
Another thread in the web.
The Path Forward
That night, Kael sat with the tome again. He marked the Ten Bodies. Memorized the transitions. Reviewed his flaws.
Then he did something rare.
He dreamed.
Of golden flames.
Of himself surrounded by corpses.
Of a girl with violet eyes reaching for him—and then disappearing into stars.