Perhaps unsurprisingly, Tsubaki’s first attempt at her Trial of Blood did not go as well as she had hoped. Two days into her trial, she was beset by serpents that burrowed into the hollow she had carved for herself in a large tree. She fought rather valiantly, killing the majority of the creatures with the broken spike that she had acquired. Unfortunately, several of them had managed to bite her before that point.

Without any knowledge of the antivenoms required to cure herself, there was little she could do but allow her body to give way under the assault of the last few serpents. She took a deep breath once she was back in that black void, closing her eyes to compose herself. “Delete the character and load up the next area.”

Fifi hesitated for a brief moment, having seen how much work Tsubaki put into her previous attempt. Still, this was her request, and so Fifi carried it out. Once Tsubaki was off to her new destination, an abandoned island on the frontier of a savage empire, Fifi decided she needed to better prepare herself.

Opening up her contact list, she sent a message to an old friend. “Vivi, are you free?” She asked once she felt the call connecting. She knew that this Vivi was the same one that she had briefly met before coming to this world, but she had already spoken to her a few times.

“Of course.” Vivi’s voice came back through the connection. “Is there something that I can help you with, sister?”

“It’s…” Fifi bit her lip, glancing to the spot where Tsubaki had previously stood. “It’s about the Keeper’s assistant, Tsubaki. She is attempting to undergo some form of trial, and I wish to get your advice. Apparently, she did the same thing in Vision Expanse?”

“Ahh, her Trial of Blood.” Fifi could hear the wry chuckle from Vivi on the other end. “Yes, I remember that well. It was right after the game was released, too. Let me guess, she asked for no equipment, no power, and to be sent somewhere with no realistic hope for survival?”

“That’s correct.” Fifi confirmed. “She said that she will only consider her trial complete when she has completely conquered her surroundings, but is asking that I send her to an unfamiliar area every time she dies. If she is not keeping any of her previous experience to help her, and is constantly going to areas where one mistake will lead to her death… is this not a doomed test?”

“One hundred and thirty-eight.” Vivi spoke up, briefly confusing Fifi. “That is how many times Tsubaki died when she was taking the trial in my game. Every time she died, her character was reset. However, there were not as many areas for her to go in my game at that time, so she was stuck in one spot. Still, she destroyed all of her old camps and equipment each time.”

“The most terrifying thing about Tsubaki is not her battle strength, which is likely surpassed by Lifre. Nor is it her wisdom, which is surpassed by Dana. It is her determination, for which there is no equal. Whether she faces countless obstacles or even an almost guaranteed demise, she will do whatever she has to in order to reach her goal. It is her determination that has brought her to the point where she is today, allowing her to build up experiences fighting enemies far beyond herself in level.”

Fifi blinked in confusion at that, glancing back at the game. “You say that Lifre is stronger than Tsubaki? I… do not see that.”

“In terms of raw power, the Goddess of Adventure and Trials holds a natural advantage over the Goddess of Light and Stealth. Lifre can increase her strength to match any challenge she may face. More importantly, she is the only one among the Citadel to have slain a true god before entering its ranks, back when she was a mortal. She did so in single combat, as well. The god may have been weakened by captivity, but you should know more than most the power of a god.”

Vivi seemed quite captivated with the subject as she continued. “On the other hand, Tsubaki has countless years of experience. Even though Lifre objectively has more power, and in fact so does Dana at this point, I would not say that either of them would be able to defeat her. Her experience in fighting and overcoming more powerful foes has taught her how to handle people like them. She will never underestimate the weak, nor fear the strong. There is a reason that Tsubaki is the most trusted of the Keeper’s assistants.”

Fifi paused for several long moments when she heard that. “Is there anything that can be done to help her with this trial?”

Vivi let out a light laugh. “If you wish to help her, increase the difficulty even further. In Vision Expanse, there is a reward raffle system for achievements. At times, I had tried to affect the results, wanting to cheer on Tsubaki and give her a powerful weapon to help her. Each time, she immediately broke the weapon or discarded it. Only when I gave her the most primitive items that she would easily be able to craft herself did she keep them.”

Fifi nodded her head, knowing that there was no such raffle system in Fragments of Acidia. “So she really is the type of person that strives by pushing their limits. I was worried that the stress of doing so would cause her heart to break.”

“Trust me, that is one thing you will never have to worry about with Tsubaki.” Vivi said with the utmost confidence. “The greater the challenge, the more impossible it seems, the more determined she will be to overcome it. And by the time she’s done, she will convert all of that combat experience to her fighting style, learning even more how to take in every advantage she can in a fight.”

Fifi gave another nod at that, turning to look at Tsubaki’s progress. She had begun scouting the island that she was sent to, but there was little for her to see. The island itself was small enough for her to see every corner of it from where she appeared, and lacked any form of foliage to use for shelter. Instead, she studied the water, testing it against her skin and peering into its depths.

Fifi knew that the waters of this world held both the risk and reward Tsubaki was seeking. Dangerous monsters swam about, but there were similarly great treasures able to increase her abilities.

It took roughly three weeks for us to finally acquire all of the materials that we needed, having spent an extra day at the black hole mines just for Dana to perform some experiments. Eventually, we made our way back to Station Lemora, walking back to Mira’s shop. She was sitting at the counter, same as before, and I did not notice any of her goods missing from the last time we arrived.

When she saw us entering the shop, she smiled happily. “Ah, the fragments from last time. Wasn’t sure if I’d be seeing you again or not. Though… weren’t there five of you before? What happened to the other man? Or… no, you adventurers can’t truly die, right?”

I shook my head in response. “Gerard had other business to take care of, and won’t be joining us for the time being.”

“Ah, that’s a shame. He may not have been a fragment, but he seemed special in his own rights.” Mira gave a small shrug at that. “Anyways, did you get the materials I asked for? If you need to substitute items in, I can try to accommodate, as long as they are still suitable for the recipe.”

I gave a small nod towards Dana, who opened her inventory and retrieved a large pile of materials, ranging from the black metal pulled from the black hole mines, to a jar of glistening sand. There were different varieties of wood and golden leaves, even monster materials included in the batch. Everything that she said she needed for the four of us.

Mira let out a light whistle at that. “You managed to get all of it? And quite a large amount, at that.” She held her hand forward, scanning the materials with her own assistant device that took the form of a ring on her finger.

Once done, she nodded her head, the materials flying up onto her counter and organizing themselves neatly. “Alright. Would you like to stick around and wait? It won’t take me long to craft your artifacts.”

“Oh?” I was a bit surprised by that, as I hadn’t seen the crafting system of this game yet. I wasn’t sure what she would have to do.

“Yeah, you’re other-worlders, aren’t you?” Mira chuckled. “Sorry, I keep forgetting. You probably haven’t learned how to craft with our methods yet.”

As she spoke, a window appeared before her, projected by her assistant device. “This is something all craftsmen have to learn sooner or later. You can register different crafting techniques with your casting device, and it will take care of those steps for you. Once you’ve ‘taught’ the device enough, you can begin registering entire recipes, and they’ll be processed. The hardest part is when you need to let materials sit for a while, since you need to find a way to record a time dilation, or figure out how to program that in yourself.”

“For this, though.” She held her ring forward again, the ring releasing a bright flash of light enveloping the materials. When it faded, I noticed some of the gold, sand, and silver had vanished from the pile, as well as a far lesser amount of some other materials. “I hope you don’t mind, but I used some of the other stuff to supplement the design.”

In her hands was a polished mirror with a golden frame, ornately carved and with small gems adorning it. “I assume you know how to bind an artifact to yourself and give it purpose?”

I gave a small nod, accepting the mirror from her and studying it. Even without binding the mirror to my divinity, the reflection within seemed unreal. It didn’t just reflect back my physical appearance, but also showed almost spectral waves of energy radiating from my body in various colors and mists.

Using my Keeper abilities, I could identify three specific enchantments on it, each of which could only be activated if its wielder possessed the domains of either Mirrors, Souls, or Illusions. For Mirrors, it could open a gateway to a special realm, and then open another door to any location via reflective surfaces. For Souls, it could identify the true name of anyone the mirror’s light landed on. And finally, for Illusions, it could dispel any illusion reflected in its surface.

I bound the item to myself with my divine power, already thinking how I would enchant it later. In my opinion, this was well worth the money spent getting the mirror, and even the money invested in the ship itself.

Next up was Dana, who received a pitch black whip seemingly made of congealed shadows. This was my first time seeing a true artifact for a fallen god, so I was quite curious about its function. When she studied it, she seemed pleased with the final result, hugging it to her chest.

Then there was Lifre, whose artifact took the form of a thick book. Most of the wood that we had gathered was for her, with the pages containing various monsters of great power. She had been rather specific about her request, wanting a book that she could use to summon godly monsters.

Finally, there was Tsubaki. She did not specify what form she wanted her artifact to take, leaving the decision entirely to Mira. Instead, she told Mira her domains, and waited to see what she would do. Mira seemed to take this as a challenge, and had provided Tsubaki with the most extreme list of ingredients. We had to bathe various ingredients in the photospheres of seven stars, each at different stages of their life cycles.

When she was finished creating the artifact, though, I was left quite surprised. Her artifact, or should I say artifacts were seven pearls of different colors. No, on closer inspection, there was an eighth pearl as well, though this one was hidden amidst the others, its form impossible to distinguish without special powers.

“These are what I’m tentatively calling the Essence of Shining light. Feel free to rename it, though. It’s always the customer’s option to do so. Each pearl has a special effect that can only be triggered with the fragmented power of light. Oh, except this special one at the center. That one needs your Stealth power as well.”

“The other seven have the power of Fire, Stone, Healing, Poison, Ice, Time, and Destruction. Shining the light from the pearl on a target will cause them to experience that power firsthand.” When Mira said that in a smug tone, Tsubaki merely blinked at her.

“How did you get so many powers unrelated to Light to work on an artifact requiring it?”

Mira chuckled at the question. “Who says that they’re unrelated? There are monsters throughout the galaxy that fire beams of light from their eyes or mouths for various effects. It is that light that I have allowed you to reproduce.”

Tsubaki nodded her head slowly, looking at the pearls. “I think I shall call it… a Ray of Hope. If it contains so many different forms of light, then may it offer me the light I need in any situation.”

“Personally, I like my name better, but the customer is always right.” She said with a grin, sending the pearls over to Tsubaki. “I can set them up on a necklace for you if you want, or some other form of accessory?”

Tsubaki thought about it for a moment, before shaking her head. The pearls flew back, hovering above eight of her nine tails. Seeing the odd tail left out, Tsubaki created a ninth orb of pure light above it, the pearls swaying just beyond the tips of her tails.