Chapter 4: F-Rank Luck? The Trial Countdown Keeps Ticking

Chapter 4: The God That Hunted Number One Is Mine Now

A thin line of light appeared in the eastern passage.

Warm yellow.

It emerged from deep inside a crack and crawled up the wall. Not a single speck of dust fell when it passed across the ceiling.

Cassian tightened his grip on the bent, broken chain blade.

His right shoulder tensed with it. He shifted half a step left, making sure he could still see the black-gold light at the edge of the divine seat.

The ruined Chain Gate stood between the central hall and the eastern passage. Half a length of dark-gold chain hung inside the gate track. The broken lever leaned crookedly to one side.

The Core and Veyra were behind him. The passage ahead split farther out, giving him a route to draw the thing away from the central hall.

Assuming it followed him.

The light on the wall suddenly stopped.

A faceless head bulged out of the stone. Its body looked like a shadow burned into the wall, with a single golden point flashing deep inside its chest.

War Instinct I stabbed into Cassian’s mind.

He saw himself step back, his right foot touch the ground, and light slice open his throat.

Cassian chose neither action.

He swung the chain blade sideways first.

The flat of the blade struck stone.

The figure scattered into more than a dozen threads of light. They wound around the blade and gathered again inside a crack closer to the central hall.

Cassian’s arm went numb.

He hadn’t felt himself hit anything.

"Sunscar Revenant."

Veyra’s voice came from behind him.

She wasn’t sitting as straight as usual. Her right hand was already spread against the edge of the divine seat, touching the faint light of the Eclipse Shrine.

"That is only a scar it left behind."

"Can you tell me something more useful than its name?"

The figure slid another foot closer.

Veyra watched it, breathing more slowly than usual.

"It will send its true anchor into an occupied divine territory. Once the anchor lands, this place will no longer remain hidden."

The Core displayed a warning at the same time.

[Hostile Divinity Approaching Territory Boundary]

[Warning: Foreign Anchoring Will Pierce Exact-Coordinate Protection]

The secrecy Cassian had just bought with five Divine Essence might not last another fifteen minutes.

"How do we kill it?"

"When it sends the complete anchor across the boundary," Veyra said. "Before that, no matter how many times you cut it apart, you are only breaking scars."

The figure suddenly left the wall.

Thin as a sheet of burning skin, it lunged straight at Cassian.

He retreated two steps toward the eastern passage.

The figure twisted in midair. The golden point inside its chest turned with him.

Cassian backed across the edge of the Shrine’s reach.

It stopped approaching the Core.

Every thread of light on the wall bent and chased him instead.

He could draw it away.

Relief came first.

If the plan failed, he could at least pull it into the outer corridor. As long as it kept following him, it couldn’t immediately mark the Core or Veyra.

Then he saw the real thing flicker inside the figure’s chest.

Complete hostile divinity.

Not residue on the verge of going out. More than a dozen false scars shielded that golden point, and its brightness made his palm itch.

The fear didn’t disappear.

Greed simply forced its way in beside it.

Cassian stepped back across the threshold.

The Sunscar Revenant followed at once.

"I’m giving it the outer corridor."

He lifted the residual chain with the chain blade, wound it around the back of the weapon, and wedged the point into the gate track. No divine light appeared. Only the strength in his arms held the chain under tension.

"When the real anchor crosses this point, I release the latch."

"You cannot see the real anchor."

"It still has to follow one of the lines that can kill me."

Veyra looked at him.

"Death does not only come from the real thing."

Cassian said nothing.

War Instinct I could tell him where he might die. It couldn’t circle the right answer for him. He still didn’t want to hand over any part of the process.

Especially not to someone who had only just regained the use of one hand.

He nudged the broken lever with his heel.

It was only connected to a rusted latch, but it could still move.

Three Sunscars lit up on the wall to his right.

Cassian lowered his breathing and retreated toward the central hall.

The first figure rose from the floor.

The second slid across the ceiling.

The third had no shape at all. It was only a golden point growing brighter as it circled the edge of the Chain Gate and shot toward the Core beneath the floor.

Death images crashed into his mind all at once.

The chain passed through empty light while the figure to his right formed behind him.

If he didn’t release the lever, the third light burned through his chest.

If he waited another half beat, a golden brand appeared on the Core and could never be erased.

Cassian pressed down on the broken lever.

The rusted latch released. The pre-tensioned chain snapped straight and bit into the third light.

There was no weight.

Gold shattered between the links like water scattered beneath a boot.

False.

The real light tore free from the first figure’s abdomen and slipped beneath the gate frame, passing the chain.

"Lower right!" Veyra shouted.

Cassian turned to intercept it.

The chain slipped off the chain blade. The hilt kicked backward and slammed into his right shoulder.

Blood soaked through his clothes. His vision went white, costing him half a beat.

The true anchor skimmed past the blade and left a charred line across the floor. Fortunately, it still hadn’t entered the deepest part of the Shrine. It circled once, then withdrew among the false figures on the wall.

The Sunscar Revenant didn’t attack again immediately.

More than a dozen faceless heads emerged from the cracks and turned toward Cassian together.

It understood the gate now. It wouldn’t use the same position next time.

Cassian pressed his left hand over his right shoulder.

It hurt. Worse, Veyra had seen everything.

He had tried to hold every part of the plan in one hand, then pulled the chain on the wrong target himself.

The warmth behind his ears irritated him even more.

"I can identify it," Veyra said.

"You were late just now."

"You did not let me touch the Shrine just now."

Cassian looked up at her.

Veyra’s right hand remained on the edge of the divine seat. Half an inch of slack only gave her enough room to move her palm. The dark-gold chain pressed tighter against her wrist with every movement.

"If I press my hand into it, the Eclipse Shrine can mark the true divinity once it enters the boundary."

"The cost?"

"The chains will pull my hand back."

Her voice was calm.

But her right hand curled slightly.

She had only just gotten that hand back.

Cassian’s first instinct was to refuse.

If she lost the ability to touch the Shrine afterward, he would lose the only person who could identify something like this. More directly, he didn’t want to watch the chains drag her hand back into place.

The thought didn’t feel like an entry in a ledger. He didn’t examine it any further.

The eastern wall lit up again.

He still had a way out.

He could leave now, and the Sunscar would follow him out. No one required him to die defending a ruined mausoleum just because he was ranked first.

But the true anchor had already revealed itself once.

Complete divinity was waiting outside the gate.

"How long can you hold it?" Cassian asked.

"An instant."

"You can’t kill it?"

Veyra’s eyes cooled.

"If I could kill it, you could stand farther away and watch."

Cassian let out a short laugh.

"Fine. You only mark the true anchor."

He picked up the chain blade and pulled its point from the gate track.

He tensioned the chain around the back of the blade again, this time running it across a different part of the threshold.

"If I don’t move, let go. If you can’t hold it, let go."

"I do not need you to teach me when to let go."

"Good."

Cassian kicked the broken lever back to its highest position.

"I don’t need you deciding when I charge, either."

"If it reaches the Core, my Shrine is the first thing I lose," Veyra said. "I am not doing this for you."

Veyra pressed her right hand into the Shrine’s light.

Black-gold light spread between her fingers.

The Eclipse Chains snapped tight.

Her hand was dragged back half an inch. Skin scraped open beneath the link around her wrist, leaving a line of blood. Veyra’s shoulder jerked. Her breathing stopped for a moment, but she made no sound.

The Sunscar on the wall was already moving. Cassian had no time to order anyone to stop.

He walked to within three steps of the Core and deliberately let blood from his right shoulder drip onto the floor.

The hostile divinity reacted as though it had caught a scent. More than a dozen streams of light lunged out of the wall at once.

War Instinct I tore his vision into broken images.

Left, and his knee was burned through.

Back, and the anchor entered the Core from behind him.

Use Predator Step immediately, and he would only charge into another false body.

Cassian didn’t move.

He heard his own heartbeat.

One.

Two.

A figure brushed past his face. The heat left his skin numb.

He still didn’t move.

Then every false scar suddenly split apart.

A golden fragment the size of a finger bone dropped from above the gate frame.

It didn’t lunge at Cassian.

It fell straight toward the Core.

Veyra clenched her fingers.

The black-gold light before the divine seat stretched into the silhouette of a broken war banner.

There was no wind, but the banner’s shadow pressed toward the eastern passage.

The golden fragment stopped.

Only for an instant.

Cassian activated Predator Step I.

The world seemed to be yanked backward.

Sharp pain struck his knee first. Godblood Physique I forced his unbalanced body back onto his chosen route. Two Sunscars passed his waist, and War Instinct let him turn away from the light crossing his throat in the final half beat.

He crashed into the threshold.

His right shoulder felt as though it had been torn open again.

He gripped the chain blade in both hands, the bent point aimed at the golden fragment marked by the banner’s shadow.

"You’re staying."

The point drove in.

There was no blood.

Scorching power rushed up the blade into both arms. The skin of Cassian’s palms reddened at once. Every false body of the Sunscar Revenant turned toward him, their blank faces opening.

The banner’s shadow over Veyra’s hand began to collapse.

Cassian slammed down the broken lever.

The latch released. The blade pulled the tensioned chain upward, winding it around both the chain blade and the true anchor.

It couldn’t kill the enemy. It only stopped the golden fragment from retreating into the wall.

Cassian clenched his teeth and twisted the hilt sideways.

The first turn only opened a crack in the fragment. The false bodies were already rushing at his back. The pain in his right shoulder nearly made him let go on the second.

He thought of the outer corridor.

If he released it now, he might still escape.

This was his last chance.

Divinity poured from the golden crack, hot enough to make his palm tremble.

Complete.

Already in his hands.

Cassian laughed through the pain. It sounded terrible.

He threw his full weight onto the hilt.

Crack.

The true anchor broke.

The figures behind him froze at once.

Warm light went out across the wall one thread at a time. Soon, only the cracked golden core beneath the chain blade remained.

Cassian gave it no chance to reform.

Black-gold patterns lit across his palm.

[Devourable Hostile Divinity Detected: Sunscar Revenant]

[Kill Ownership Confirmed: Cassian Vale]

[Divine Devourer Activated]

The golden core was pulled into his palm piece by piece.

Heat drilled into his bones. Cassian’s back struck the stone gate, and a breath escaped his throat. It felt like a red-hot wire being drawn along the inside of his arm. When it passed his shoulder, the old wound hurt so badly the limb nearly went numb.

Then the wire became his.

Only after his hand reached a divine structure and his blade pinned it in place could he sense the thinnest point and focus his power there.

[Complete Devour Successful]

[Divine Essence Acquired: 6]

[Current Available: 6. Cumulative Acquired: 11]

[Skill Acquired: Divine Rend I]

Cassian stared at the number.

Six points.

More than the two Godblood Hounds combined.

He laughed aloud.

This thing had come hunting first place. Now every part of it was inside him.

A thread of golden light still clung to the chain blade.

Cassian pressed his thumb against the back of the blade and focused the new power on the connection he could already see.

Black-gold sharpness flashed once.

The golden thread parted.

No explosion. Just a clean severing that wasted far less force than twisting the anchor apart.

Cassian studied the cut, the corner of his mouth still rising. He almost looked for a second thread, but his right shoulder throbbed with his heartbeat.

He stopped.

Divine Rend I could tear through a divine structure he had already reached and identified. It wouldn’t close the distance or find the target for him.

Next time, at least he wouldn’t have to wrench a hostile god apart with nothing but a bent blade.

The chains settling around the divine seat sounded behind him.

Cassian turned.

Veyra’s right hand had been pulled back into place. A shallow blood line marked the skin beneath her wrist. Her fingers didn’t move immediately.

The black-gold banner’s shadow was fading too.

The residual chain slipped free of the bent blade and dropped back into the gate track.

An interface unfolded.

[Allocatable Hostile Divinity: 6 Divine Essence]

[Predator / Covenant / Dominion]

Cassian’s first thought was to keep it all.

Six points in his own hands were reliable. But the gate beneath his feet was already turning back into scrap.

The hand Veyra had risked to mark the true anchor hadn’t regained its movement, either.

If the next thing came from the east, he would have to repeat the entire gamble.

That wasn’t preserving capital. It was only staring at the current balance.

Cassian walked to Veyra and opened the Covenant allocation for her to see.

[Investment: 2 Divine Essence]

[Benefit: Eclipse War Banner Basic Projection Stabilized; Veyra Evolution Pool +2]

[Irreversible Cost: Current Investment Cannot Be Refunded]

"Two points," he said. "Only to stabilize what you just did."

Veyra’s fingers finally moved.

"It cannot kill for you."

"Good."

"And it cannot leave the Shrine’s coverage."

"I can see that."

Veyra watched him for several seconds.

"Confirmed."

Cassian confirmed the Covenant allocation, then invested two more points into Dominion.

He left the final two untouched.

[Allocation Complete]

[Cassian: Divine Essence 2 / Cumulative 11]

[Veyra: 2/24]

[Eclipse War Banner: Basic Projection]

[Chain Gate: East Threshold, Limited Manual Control]

Black-gold markings extended from the edge of the divine seat to the eastern threshold.

The blood line beneath Veyra’s wrist remained, but her right hand slowly lifted and returned to its half-inch range. She didn’t look at Cassian first. She spread her fingers.

Once.

It worked.

Then a smaller, fainter war-banner silhouette appeared above her fingertips. Its reach stopped inside the Chain Gate.

It held no offensive power and couldn’t extend farther, but it marked one last trace of hostile golden light outside the gate.

Clear enough.

Cassian walked to the broken lever and pulled it down himself.

The residual chain rose through the track and closed.

It didn’t kill anything for him.

It only placed the eastern entrance inside his choices.

Cassian pulled the lever back.

The chain withdrew, revealing the dark passage once again.

The mausoleum was still broken. It had no troops and no healing, but for the first time, it wasn’t only a trap holding him inside.

A new public notification appeared at the edge of his vision.

[Newcomer Divine Essence Ranking Updated]

[Rank 1: Cassian Vale]

[Territory: F]

[Cumulative Divine Essence: 11]

Eleven points, with an F still sitting beside it.

Cassian read it twice.

Everyone back at Crownspire Awakening Square would see it. So would Rowan.

He smiled for a while before closing the interface.

A higher number would attract more expensive trouble. At least his balance wasn’t zero this time.

—

In the temporary council room beside Crownspire Awakening Square, Rowan watched the number beside Cassian’s name rise from five to eleven.

He pulled the three-year vassal contract from the bottom of the stack and crossed out "forty percent of territory resources" and "rescue protection."

"We won’t use this one."

"Rewrite it around passage access and resource procurement. Treat him as a cooperating party. Raise the budget."

He paused.

"Find an entrance where we can talk. Don’t send anyone in by force."

—

Cassian stood inside the reopened Chain Gate.

His right shoulder was still bleeding. His knee was reminding him that he wouldn’t be using Predator Step a second time today.

Two Divine Essence remained quietly in his balance.

Not much. But after activating the Core, protecting Veyra, and killing the hunter that had come for him, it was the first liquid capital he had truly kept.

He liked the feeling.

"Do you know where it came from?" Cassian looked into the eastern passage.

Veyra remained silent for a moment.

Her right hand still rested in the Shrine’s light. The blood on her wrist had hardened into a thin line.

"I only know it did not wander here naturally."

Cassian weighed the chain blade and looked into the darkness.

The ranking would keep drawing things to him.

Before a second target followed that number to the mausoleum, he would follow the Sunscar’s path back to its source.

The gate could finally close when he chose.

Next time, he would choose the battlefield.