The words lingered, heavy in their neutrality.
[The Successor simply did not embody those paths.]
Kaiden’s brow creased.
[The Successor’s heart was not fully in them.]
[He did not believe in rushing at the cost of thought.]
[He did not believe in endless consumption at the cost of self.]
A pause followed, longer than usual.
[The Heavenly Demon theorized that these trials respond to alignment.]
That earned a quiet huff from Kaiden. "Alignment," he echoed. "So if I’d truly believed in becoming a walking vacuum cleaner being the right path forward..."
[Then Gluttony would have accepted the Successor as such. Granted the Bottomless One fell, defeated by the Successor’s choice. One must prove the correctness of their answer.]
The certainty wavered there.
[At least... that is the hypothesis.]
Kaiden’s eyes narrowed a fraction. "You’re not sure."
Another pause.
[Correct.]
[Even the Heavenly Demon could only make educated guesses.]
[These constructs predate his ascent.]
That, more than anything else so far, told Kaiden how deep down the rabbit hole he was right now. If even that crazy guy who rebelled against the universe wasn’t sure, then...
"Haah..." Kaiden exhaled slowly through his nose, gaze drifting back to the seven-armed titan. The Original Sin remained frozen in place, vast and indifferent, its presence pressing against his perception without ever moving an inch closer.
It was rare, unnerving, even, to hear the Demonic Pornstar System speak with this kind of uncertainty. This wasn’t feigned mystique or deliberate vagueness. This was a genuine absence of knowledge.
Kaiden was quiet for a few seconds longer, eyes fixed on the titan as if trying to read intention out of something that had never once twitched. Then he glanced inward again, lips quirking faintly.
"So," he asked casually, as if they weren’t standing at the edge of something cosmic, "when I begin the next part, are you going to go silent again?"
The answer came without delay this time.
[Correct.]
Kaiden nodded once, accepting it easily.
[The Demonic Pornstar System will be suppressed upon the commencement of the next trial.]
[The overseeing entity does not permit guidance. It wants to hear the challenger’s answer, and only his answer.]
"Figures," Kaiden muttered. He rolled his neck once, working out the last remnants of stiffness, then paused.
"Final question, then."
The system waited.
"Do you know how many times I got eaten by that fat piece of shit? I lost count somewhere along the way."
There was the faintest hesitation.
[If the Successor refers to the Bottomless One-]
"You know I do," Kaiden cut in dryly.
The answer came immediately after.
[One hundred and sixty-three.]
Kaiden blinked.
Then he whistled low, slow, and genuinely impressed. "Wow. One-six-three. What a number."
He let that sink in, shaking his head with a crooked smile. Dying once or twice was one thing. A dozen times was trauma. A hundred and sixty-three times? Being eaten alive at that?
Yeah. What a horrible trial.
[The Successor displayed exceptional mental fortitude during the trial.]
Kaiden paused mid-breath.
His eyebrows lifted slightly as he glanced inward again, surprise plain on his face. "Huh."
Praise wasn’t something the Demonic Pornstar System handed out. Usually, it was a blunt transactional acknowledgment. This was different.
"...Thanks," he said, and meant it.
Silence followed. It was the calm before the storm.
Kaiden turned his full attention back to the seven-armed titan. The Original Sin loomed exactly as it always had, vast and patient, each arm raised as if the universe itself were waiting on its cue.
He straightened, shoulders settling.
"Alright," he said softly, orange eyes burning steady. "Let’s see the next challenge, shall we?"
A faint smile tugged at his lips as a different thought rushed through him, warm and grounding.
"My girls could be waiting for me as we speak."
Kaiden’s smile lingered for a heartbeat longer before he let it fade.
He inhaled once, slow and measured, then let it out just as deliberately. As the breath left him, something within shifted.
Gluttony receded.
At the same time, something else rose to meet the space it left behind.
Pride answered.
Instead of surging with a need to consume, it asserted itself.
Kaiden straightened without realizing he’d done so, spine aligning as if drawn upward by invisible lines. The air around him changed. Subtle sigils flickered into existence around his limbs and shoulders, translucent arcs of arcane geometry that hovered just out of reach, rotating slowly as if considering him in return.
His orange eyes sharpened then turned purple, light refracting through them with crystalline clarity. Where Gluttony had been sensation and pressure, Pride was intent made manifest. Control, presence, certainty. The quiet understanding that he stood where he deserved to stand, and the world would respond accordingly.
The Demonic Pornstar System stirred once more, faintly.
Then went silent.
The absence was immediate and unmistakable, like a limb falling asleep and vanishing all at once.
Just him.
And the trial.
The realm answered his stance.
The ground beneath Kaiden’s boots rippled outward in a perfect circle, rearranging, stone flattening into smooth obsidian planes etched with glowing lines that pulsed in time with his heartbeat. The horizon fractured, folding inward, sky shattering into overlapping layers of color and void.
Then the world reassembled.
Towering structures rose where emptiness had been, vast spires of rune-etched metal twisting upward into a skyline that felt both ancient and newly forged. The air filled with drifting motes of arcane light, sigils breaking apart and reforming endlessly, as if the environment itself were running calculations faster than sight.
Kaiden remained still at the center of it all.
He felt it then, the pressure returning, but different. Instead of hunger, it was...
Expectation.
The first monster emerged without ceremony.
Then another rose.
And another.
The skyline filled with motion as gates irised open along the spires, disgorging shapes both monstrous and precise.
They locked on.
Kaiden felt dozens, then hundreds, of hostile intents snap into alignment with him as the sole focal point of the world.
A slow breath left his chest.
"Let’s get to work, shall we..." he murmured, more to himself than anything else.
The sigils around him brightened in response.
The monsters moved.
They advanced in patterns.
Coordinated. Layered. Probing.
Kaiden raised one hand.
The air in front of his palm condensed, sigils snapping together into a precise lattice as arcane pressure coiled tight, waiting for release. He did not rush. Did not flinch. Pride did not demand speed.
It demanded dominance.
And as the first wave closed in, the world held its breath.
...
Far away.
Very far away.
Back in Runewoven.
A pair of armored guards stiffened as a door slammed open at the far end of a corridor reserved for exactly one group.
Boots struck the polished floor with sharp, furious steps, each impact echoing like a countdown. Mana flared in the air, hot and electric, trailing behind the woman striding forward with purpose that brooked no interruption.
Vaelira’s blonde hair whipped wildly while her eyes blazed as she marched straight toward Kaiden’s private wing.
"I have had enough!" she declared, voice carrying with a dangerous hiss that made nearby staff freeze in place.
Her hands clenched at her sides.
"It’s time I told this arrogant loser exactly what he needs to hear!"