The giant, rams-horned owl that landed before V-Ruby-One was silent for a moment, looking it up and down. Emuh examined claws and dark wisteria fur (which had somehow initially struck him as a pinky-purple, but on second viewing, was most definitely dark, subtle, lustrous even), and then snorted; the sparking electricity that danced across his ragged feathers switched abruptly to dripping, rancid Oil.

"OOH-HOO. WHAT A DISASTER." It sounded like an insult, yet somehow, not. "CANNOT SLEEP. MUST STAY NEAR THE SPIRE. REBELLIOUS LIMBS AND BURNING FLESH! SPARK-SEIZED MUSCLES AND WAKING DREAMS! -WAS THIS CHOICE, OR ACCIDENTAL?!" and here the owl cawed a harsh, rough laugh.

After a moment, Emuh stepped aside. "LET US SEE HOW WELL YOU CONTROL THESE THINGS!"

Wings flared, and Emuh vanished into the alcove. "COME! CHALLENGE YOURSELF AGAINST EMUH'S TRIAL!" The voice rang as though through a far larger space: and indeed the moment V-Ruby-One stepped inside, the shadows would seem to swallow it.

The room shifted, changing: a broad, flat plane, only dimly lit, extending off toward infinite horizons. The place smelled of old bones and dust. The only sound came from far below Ruby-One's feet, far below the plane of stone beneath them: a soft and distant scuttling.

V-Ruby-One's Trial of Transcendence has begun.

Almost at once, the earth split wide. The ground cracked before V-Ruby-One, and then the rift split, spreading rapidly. It would be a moment of precarious balance, of the rock beneath its claws shuddering and shoving upward--and then it fell still.

A ravine yawned deep and black below it.

And... things moved, down there. The scuttling was now louder, and deep below--forty feet? Fifty?--the faintest silhouettes were visible now and then as they passed through what very little light reached them from above.

Now and then, sets of glowing eyes and maws shifted upward, narrowing, snarling, as though they would love nothing more than to reach V-Ruby-One and tear it apart. In fact, they looked... rather like it.

"DOES IT RECOGNIZE THEM? DOES IT KNOW HOW TO SPLIT ITSELF IN TWO? DOES IT KNOW THAT ONE CAN FIGHT THE OTHERS? ...IF IT CAN CONTROL THEM... OR WILL IT RESORT TO ITS MAGICS? -CAN IT CONTROL THOSE? WHO KNOWS? ...WHO?"

1/3

It wasn't... much. It was cold, it was violet fire, it was enough to flare downward and for a moment it seemed as though it had gone out. Certainly it was far too far away--forty or fifty feet for a weak spell. But it did flare briefly upon touching one of the clots of fur and Oil below, and reignited in a weak spark and flickering purple flame.

All of the eyes swivelled upward. Every single creature stopped.

It had been enough, at least, to provide light: enough to show V-Ruby-One what it was that they were facing. Dozens of themselves, but misshapen: crooked, missing parts, slicked with oil. One had a skull half-exposed as though the flesh had burned or rotted away. Another had a tongue lolling out where the lower jaw was missing--and it leered, grinning upward. Others shambled, or limped; one dragged itself, entrails smearing black Oil behind it, its entire bottom half missing entirely.

To destroy them--be it merciful, or filled with hatred--V-Ruby-One would require a more powerful magic.

2/3

At first, what fell--plummeting into the steep, dark gap below--didn't seem enough to kill everything. It was brutal, yes. Devastating, even: plunging rocks shrouded in Chaotic flame tumbled down like meteors. It was a showcase of the power of Chaos, and in the distance, even Emuh made a croak of approval. Still, only a few of the creatures were struck... at first. These collapsed, howling in frustrated rage, in agony. But more stood, rushing in.

Yet now the magic seemed to escalate, as though something else entirely had taken by its spell--or been taken by it--and added to its power. Massive Chaos fireballs formed in the darkness above V-Ruby-One, rushing downward in roaring crackles. Some struck the sides of the ravine. In moments, the entire ravine was collapsing: filled with violet fire, the cracks of neon green lightning shattering stone from its edges and its walls. The screams of pain and fury echoed upward, and the glimpse of dozens of copies of V-Ruby-One dying in flame, or crushed by tumbles of rocks, or seized or even burst open by lightning, proved a vision of horror all its own. The roar of destruction filled the ravine, and V-Ruby-One's ears, and the entire room-

...And then it all faded. The lights brightened. The ground had smoothed over. The fire vanished--and now Emuh was landing before V-Ruby-One, looking it up and down as if assessing. A nod, as the same violet flame crackled down along its feathers, and then it stuck out a taloned foot to rap the beast at its chin. "WELL DONE!" Emuh crowed, even as the sense of falling struck V-Ruby-One. It felt as though the world was falling away beneath it. As though its magicka were being hollowed out, scooped away to leave an empty place that grew larger by the minute.

"PERHAPS NOT WELL-CONTROLLED, BUT CHAOS IS INNATE IN ITSELF! NOW GO. -GET OUT," Emuh added, and a blast of Black Winds shoved at V-Ruby-One, aiming it for the open door.

3/3

V-Ruby-One has Transcended. It is now a Transcendent Pupil, and may work its way back up to Transcendent Master. Upon attaining this rank, its player may post in Update Me to choose a Specialization (viewable in the Magic section of the Guidebook).

It has also learned the spell:

Font of Corruption:

Transcendent Intensity Manipulation. Impart a portion of the user's magic to convert an object or small body of water into black Oilstone or Oil as a true source of Corruption. This Font will corrupt anything nearby over time, granting Corruption Points and providing a place for corrupted Gembound to stabilize. Transcendent spells may be used once per thread.