I was in a fantastic mood as we gathered around a big tree in the middle of the valley. "That was awesome." I said happily. "We totally crushed them. That new Path of yours is pretty scary, Cal." I glanced over at my mentor. "And Abel you were really killing it with the cannon fodder. I didn't kill Mel, by the way. I figured it was an opportunity for her to be here. She still had plenty of soul refinement she can get from this place. I did break her arms and legs though."

He shrugged. "It's just a soul fragment, she'll get over it. Besides, I saw the fight, she was trying to burn your face off. Speaking of, how is your leg? I thought I saw her get you."

I glanced down to see my still smouldering calf emitting a faint whiff of smoke. "Huh. I'm buzzing on soul energy, didn't even notice that was still there." I triggered a heal burst. I only had one left, and getting more would be tough until this all ended. Still, it beat limping around on a badly burned calf once I could feel it again. I wondered if the soul refinement energy felt different because I was a soul myself right now.

"Ok, so we need to get ready to move." I said with a laugh. "Everyone rest up and we can get started looking for the next flag. I don't know what the next two trials will be, but I want to be prepared."

Callen raised an eyebrow at me. "You don't?" He asked incredulously. "Because they're always the same. The first five are variable, but the last two trials are the soul crushing stairs and the twelve palaces."

I froze, wheeling around to look at him. "Ok, apart from that first one sounding extremely unfortunate, I thought all the trials were random. No one mentioned the last two being stable things to me before now?" Killian or Zeke should have said something.

He shrugged. "Most people don't mention it. Five of the seven are random, knowing what the last two will be doesn't mean much in terms of strategy. That's how people know about the keys though. The twelve palaces at the end are MOSTLY accessible to anyone. The first second and third palaces though, the highest ones, those are sealed by the keys. The rewards that you can gain from this are in the palaces."

It occurred to me that I hadn't considered how people seemed to know more about the keys than I did in some cases. They'd been mentioned, but their use would have to apply to some static portion of the trials. I could see their point though, knowing that the last trial was a set of palaces (and it was a trial so there had to be more to it) didn't help me at all.

Bethy looked annoyed. "Daddy didn't tell me anything either. He's so mean, he was just gonna let me run off and get into trouble without knowing everything. I'm gonna feed all his shoes to my cats. Last time he was mean to me I threw all his capes into the planet's core. He got so mad." She giggled at the mental image.

"Didn't you say your dad ATE one of your siblings for being annoying?" I asked Bethy incredulously. "Aren't you worried he'll get mad and...punish you?"

She snorted. "Please. I'm daddy's favorite, and mommy is his strongest bride. He would never do anything to me. Besides, he likes that I'm not scared of him. All my brothers and sisters are ass-kissers, daddy says I'm his only child with a backbone. My oldest brother Lucas was pretty offended when he heard that, he's daddy's main war general. It's his own fault though, he never stands up to him."

I suspected the possibility of being murdered and eaten had something to do with that, but her family stuff was none of my business. I shouldn't have broken my rule about not asking her things like that. It was my own fault. "So...the soul crushing stair sounds...horrible. What is it?"

Callen seemed as relieved as I was to change the subject, apparently Bethy's disturbing nature even applied to people like him. "Well, you know how the prizes are things like new abilities, or bloodlines or skills or whatever you're interested in? In order to have those effects, you have to be physically here to be altered. At the moment we're only here in soul form. The trials prepare the soul to act as a bridge between the real world and this place."

"So our bodies are going to be pulled in for real?" I asked in confusion. "Won't we be stuck...wherever we are? That seems risky."

"Not at all." He said, waving his hand. "Just as a fragment makes its way here while our bodies stay behind, the transfer leaves a fragment behind there as an anchor. The soul crushing stair draws in the body, using the circles we're sitting on as a ritual. Each step on the stair takes you through an emotion. The emotions become stronger the higher you walk, and the body is slowly shifted between locations."

It was a bit confusing, but I basically understood. Every step was like progress on a loading bar, and once the download was complete my body would be here and my ghost or whatever would be left sitting in the circle to hold my place. "What about the landings, what do they do?"

"Same thing the islands did in the first trial." He said with a shrug. "The stair isn't just danger, it's opportunity. The faster you can walk, the more you can endure and the faster you can refine your soul. It's the reason for the purifying trials leading up to now. Those vary, but they're always there. The more you've purified your mind and heart the faster you can walk. Anyone who can't even pass those trials would just collapse and shatter on the stair."

I shook my head in amazement. "Who the hell made this place? Creating some kind of virtual space and pulling a person inside for real? Could the gods make something like this? Is that what all the heritages I hear about actually are?"

"An attempt." He confirmed. "But no, not the same. We don't know who made the Ruined Soul Temple. At least I've never heard of anyone knowing. All I know is that the place is mysterious and very old. It predates anyone still living that I know of. The gods are the oldest beings I'm aware of, for the most part, so if anyone DOES know it would definitely be them. If you do find out, I'd love to know myself."

Blinking in shock, I just stared at him. "It's just...here? Do you think one of the vanished gods made it?" I knew they were old as hell and could do weird things. It wouldn't be a shock for this to be some ancient divine ruin the gods had taken over when they tossed the rest of the divinities out.

"Doubtful." He said with a sigh. "The gods have been unable to create a proper replica of this place. The heritages of the various divine factions and S-rank families are TECHNICALLY soul cultivation methods, but they're frightfully slow and not nearly as thorough. Don't assume that everyone who goes in can break their shackles, or that they can manage it anywhere near as easily as here when they do. The soul is a mystery, even to the gods, and the ability to purify and refine it is one they haven't mastered."

Come to think of it, I'd never tried granting a wish to empower the soul, and no one had brought it up. I think some part of me just instinctually understood that my power was different from the soul. They interacted, but they weren't the same. If anything, that seemed to be what the Path was. A medium that allowed the soul and stats to interact. My soul refined much faster while on my Path. What part would that play in later ranks?

Callie cut in. "So, these emotions. What exactly are they? And are we supposed to like...throw them away? Because I don't really like the idea of abandoning my emotions."

Callen chuckled. "No. You don't abandon them. The trial is to experience them to the highest level without abandoning yourself. There are seven stages, and each one puts an obstacle in your path. Greed, hate, delusion, vanity, confusion, doubt, and sloth. Each emotion will try to tempt or scare you off the steps, make you turn back, and if you do, the spirit body shatters and you're ejected from the trials."

I sighed in relief. Callie had been dead on, I didn't want to be an emotionless robot, but resisting those emotions sounded fine. I could see how the forest and the maze would prepare someone for that, actually. Speaking of Callie, she was waiting eagerly to hear what I had to say. As the last person to get a flag, I had a hint for the next one, which would give us a head start on finding it.

"Anyway, good information to have, but I need to find more flags if possible. Even if some people break their shackles on those steps, they still need the soul energy to complete their refinement, and I doubt the stairs will take me through one and a half soul ranks." I wanted to get as much done here as possible. Plus I wanted the next key fragment. I still had to fight Adrian for the one I missed in the maze (assuming it was him) but the more I got directly the better.

"Well..." My girlfriend said, nudging me in the ribs. "What was the clue? I hope something more specific than 'in a cave or underground'. Mine was pretty damned lazy."

I grimaced, sighing before admitting. "It's by water." Callie clapped her hand to her head in exasperation, and I hurried to add. "I mean...running water? Probably? Could be a river. Or a waterfall. Granted it's not exactly a map like we had for this one, but given the welcoming committee here, it's probably smart just to head for the next flag from here. They get further out, and running all the way back only to run all the way out here and then further would be stupid."

Granted, it might not be along a straight line, hell it almost definitely wasn't, but it would be past where we were now by a decent amount. And the water clue mixed with my Eye of Revelation would give us a much better chance of finding it that any other teams. Probably. And I wanted to find it. It and every other flag possible before the end of this.

Knowing what was coming later, I was pretty set on beefing up my soul as much as possible. I wanted to face those steps with the strongest resolve I could muster, because I had a feeling I'd need every ounce of wherewithal I had. They don't call a place the soul crushing stairs because it's a pleasant day out with your pals. Just the thought of having to endure the extremes of emotion Callen mentioned was already making me nervous.

With a sigh, everyone got ready to move, having healed up where they were injured, or in the case of my leg, at least becoming mobile. Then I used Eye of Revelation to find the nearest river. Finding something huge like that was easier than locating a small flag in a big forest.

Weirdly, despite the soul pain and everything coming, something else was bothering me. The fact that no one knew where this place came from added another layer of weird to what we'd been through. I glanced over at Biscuit, where Bethy and Callie were riding on the back of the squirrel. Was he really just a construct? A soul shard of some random squirrel? Or was something else going on here I hadn't considered yet. Because if it was the latter I needed to be on guard. That kind of thing rarely worked out well for me.