CHAPTER 2

Power corrupts and it corrupts absolutely.

There was always that one ugly risk when granting someone power. Either they make beautiful things out of it or the exact opposite. One could never tell for sure how things would turn out.

Cautionary accounts told repeatedly by different historians about men in power abusing their authority exists already. Yet, as a Mother, Ashval Eiya could not afford to just leave her 'children' defenseless against foreign threats.

It was why each year, same as today, many find themselves drawn to the free city of Adarna where the Ladder of Eiya was located. All those who have gathered there only wanted two things: the chance to be granted power and the opportunity to weild one. And Gunn Valentine was no exception. He too would like to know.

Whether it was for honor, for fame or for money, almost every Adralan, big and small, dreamt of becoming Eiya's champion at one point. Therefore, it was no surprise that the Seeding this year managed to attract over eight thousand participants all across the five continents. The biggest attendance by far since its debut.

Historically, however, the Champion selection wasn't always like this.

Long ago, before the Seeding became the norm, it used to be that heroes were born exclusively out of the wishes of Eiya. Adralan's select Champions only emerged when there was a dire need for Eiya to protect itself, its beloved children, and the world of Adralan as a whole. There were always five of them per generation. One from each continent.

For the past few hundred of years however, the threats to Adralan had increased exponentially. The five man hero squad that Eiya used to summon was no longer cutting it.

With Adralan being engulfed in chaos and with enemies attacking Her relentlessly from all sides, Ashval Eiya was once pushed to the brink of death, forcing the diety to retreat inside the confines of the Sacred Tree.

Just before slipping into her eternal slumber, Eiya gathered all that was left of her divinity and created one last attempt to defend Adralan. That was when the Administrator, Eiya's Avatar, emerged.

From then on, it was the Administrator who called every decision while Eiya was asleep.

With the emergence of the Administrator, the system that allowed the monopoly of power to be concentrated on the chosen five was permanently abolished. And instead, a new system was established; giving birth to the era that will be known in history today as the Age of Weavers.

Unfortunately, not everyone succeeds during the Seeding process. Each year, only a persistent few overcomes the many trials of the Ladder. Most forfeit halfway. Some even met their untimely deaths along the treacherous steps to the top. But for Gunn, he hoped that his story would be that of a success. For him, this was a do or perish mission.

"Participants whose family names starts with the letter 'V', please come forward and gather around over here." motioned the Ladder Guide. "Sir Valentine, you are up." he added.

You see, Eiya's Ladder isnt really a ladder to be exact. It was more of a tree... but only gargantuan; and by gargantuan meaning three cities wide.

Miles and miles away from the base of its tree trunk stood a perfect ring of ivory wall; over 500 feet in height with a 50 meter thickness all across. And within that perfect halo, barely 10 meters wide, there exists the Narrow Gap, the only entrance to the Great Ladder.

Intelligence report revealed that the Narrow Gap not only acted as the sole entrance to the tree, but it was also the Ladders first Sentry.

"If you bear no ill will, you can go in without any problem. If not, the gap would spit you right back out." He overheard the Ladder Guide saying. "The Administrator sees everything, including the shade of your soul. You've been warned."

'Lies!' protested Gunn in his head. While there was no shadow of a doubt that the Sentry identifies and kick participants out with questionable characters, there was definitely more to it than just being dubious. If the basis was only limited to that, then how would anyone explain seeing a flock of priests devoted to Eiya being flung out of the Gap? Some of them got through and some didnt. Why was that? It just didnt make any sense.

And although this stage was the Ladders first challenge, the unclearness of the way the participants were being rejected right at the gate was becoming too problematic for Gunn. First of all, although he considered himself as someone who who was neutral, Gunn was carrying something in him that might trigger the Administrator's disapproval. What he harbored could easily kick him out of the Seeding just because he can be tagged as 'shady' with it.

Fortunately, Gunn came prepared for today. And to reduce the chances of being caught, he decided to work his way around the Ladders first obstacle; his PLAN B might just do the trick.

With nervous feet, he approached the gate cautiously. 'Right foot first, come on!' He was scolding himself inwardly to hurry up and move and not just freeze like an obvious 'thief' that got caught red-handed.

"Is something the matter Mister Valentine? Please go in already. We dont have all day!" yelled the Ladder Guide from eight meters away. The Guide had other candidates waiting and he needed to send them to the Narrow Gap every two minutes. Gunn was already taking five and he was obviously holding the line.

Jolted, Gunn eventually decided to move. And as soon as his entire body went in, what he felt next was too overwhelming for him to even process.

His informant didnt kid when she said that stepping in to the Narrow Gap would be similar to drowning. Gunn felt as if his body was being crushed from all sides by this powerful invisible water. In fact, the pressure was so immense, it was paralyzing.

But with presense of mind, Gunn immediately snuffed himself out of the trance. Collecting his cool, he managed to get back up and stopped himself from blacking out again.

'A few seconds. That's all I need before the Sentry trips the alarm.'

And so, quickly, right around when the Narrow Gap's invisible sentry was about to drag him out by the leg, Gunn pulled the syringe out from his left breast pocket and shot himself with liquid lucis straight to his own chest.

The result was instantaneous. With the liquid lucis coating Gunn's entire body with clean energy, he managed to trick the Ladders sentry into thinking that he was a 'friendly'; that he was qualified to get in. With that amount of lucis injected to his body, that alone should be enough for Gunn to get a free pass.

'You have no reason to deny me entry, Administrator.'

Months before coming to Adarna, Gunn already have a working theory about the Narrow Gap. He thought that it wasn't just ill will that would trigger the Sentry to remove anyone from the entrance. Anyone that has very low level of lucis or having a tainted one would too. At least that was what he hypothesized.

All throughout Adralans history, only those who were blessed with tremendous amount of clean Lucis were the ones who were handpicked by Eiya as her champions. Gunn somehow pieced together this secret by chance when he was scouring through the archives of Adralans Greatest Heroes. Their individual autobiography revealed it all.

Gunn was able to figure out the connection through the intelligence he gathered that all past Champions of Adralan shared the same abnormality for having an enormous amount of lucis stored inside their body. It was the single common string that binded them all together.

Having realized that, Gunn thought of a plan on how he would be able to replicate that same attribute. That was when the engineered liquid lucis idea was born. And although securing the formula cost him a fortune, Gunn made the right call to purchase it off of the black market. To him, the result was all that mattered in the end.

'I have to hurry.' he reminded himself. And since Gunn didnt know how long the effect of liquid lucis would last, he opted to sprint all 50 meters of the Gap in one swift go despite being slightly unstable.

Seconds later, he came out on the other side panting. Looking around, he suddenly realized that there was something odd about his surroundings. There wasnt a single green patch in the area and everyting was white. 'Where did all of this snow came from?' he wondered.

That was when Gunn realized that although it was summer in Adarna, it was actually winter inside the ringed walls of the Ladder.

"Trippy..." He added. The feathered snow flakes kissing his eye brows and cheeks as they fell was a mood.

All of a sudden, he felt like something was burning from underneath his skin. And when Gunn looked at his hands and his arms, cracks of open wounds started to form up. His face wasnt spared either.

Recoil. That was the first thing that crossed Gunn's mind at that same exact time. He knew that the side effects would come but he just didnt expect this over the top level of backlash to happen.

His veins were bursting from all over and all Gunn could do was watch himself suffer in excruciating pain.

Devoid of strength from the tremendous loss of blood, Gunn was now on the gravel, coiled like an unborn. His plasma tainting the white powdery snow in deep red. With his entire body under a state of shock, Gunn couldnt even scream for help. And that was sad.