Chương 194: 4.59 Strides

Irwyn, as it turned out, really didn't like kisses. It was a wet squelch of moisture against skin he simply… did not care for.

'Cuddling', as Elizabeth called it, was still pleasant. A back massage had to be deferred until Elizabeth could once again cast magic so they may find a point between a shattered spine and being physically unable to feel pressure through his defensive magic. That being said, Elizabeth certainly had plenty of ideas, to the point Irwyn highly suspected most were not being made up on the spot. Some were rather simple.

Irwyn affirmed the lack of physical attraction or carnal desire, though he did compliment the visual aestheticism of her perfectly symmetrical and unblemished sculpted body - which did make Elizabeth perk up a bit. He definitely didn't feel anything urging towards either of their naked forms. Maybe slight awkwardness at not wearing clothes, as that still felt like a bit of a faux pas. Against deeply ingrained social norms. The same could definitely not be said about Elizabeth.

It should probably be taken as a compliment to be so clearly… desired. Elizabeth asked to have one hand - but explicitly only one, for some reason - released from the bindings and then got on to do things even Irwyn knew should only be even mentioned in private. Given his lack of participation, he eventually asked if she would mind him reading a book in the meantime. That apparently caught Elizabeth off guard so much that it led to almost a full minute of bawling-over laughter.

Once that was overcome and Irwyn assured her that he really did not mind whatever she did to her own body, he was eventually convinced to try to assist in those endeavors. The subsequent discovery was that he also did not like reaching into certain places with his hand - or any other part of his physical body, for that matter. Elizabeth's disappointment was greatly reduced when Irwyn realized this discomfort did not apply to magic. Thereafter, she had even more ideas, with new ones sprouting constantly.

Some were rather… dubious at face value, but Irwyn chose not to question that and do as he was asked. While he clearly lacked Elizabeth's enthusiasm and experience, his skill with magic alongside her knowledge of anatomy produced obvious results. While Irwyn was clearly not achieving even a fraction of her euphoria, he was happy that Elizabeth was happy, so this kind of physical experience ended up being overall positive for him.

It also seemed that the withdrawal was either finally fading, or everything else she was going through was strong enough to suppress the pain. Elizabeth actually seemed almost blissful by the time they finally opened a book again - which had to be hours later. Even then, she insisted on frequent breaks from literature. Surprisingly frequent, even. Irwyn was certainly no expert on the matter, but it seemed strange from the snippets he did know. Mostly from failing to ignore Rainer and Kalista back in Ebon Respite.

Elizabeth excused it as the Trial preventing exhaustion, so Irwyn left it at that. The most important thing was that her condition was getting better. Over the following hours, there were also some unexpected conversations.

"I have a confession to make," Elizabeth started such at one point.

"Well, go on," Irwyn nodded.

"I feel a bit guilty about it, but I… ugh… couldn't help myself and had a book commissioned back when we were in City Black."

"Book?" Irwyn's confusion had not been lessened.

"Of drawings. Based on… you."

"Of… ah. I think I understand," he nodded. He would not have before, but the previous hours had been extremely instructive as to the meaning of her intent gazes and what they lingered on.

"Sorry. Hope that you aren't too upset."

"Just slightly," Irwyn said after a moment of thought. The dislike was relatively mild, and most of it came from old habits of a street rat that was firmly against any semblance whatsoever being recorded. On the other hand, there was some of that positive feeling of being so clearly desired, especially for a prolonged period of time like… actually.

"During which visit?"

"The first."

"When we had known each other much less," and also not too remote from his execution being deferred. That made the act a lot more dubious.

"Yes, hence my guilt. As well as the reluctance to confess before today. Lust might have been a bit ahead of my heart there. And head."

"It is not something major. But at least speak with me next time. And definitely do not let Waylan know anything of the sort exists - he would never let either of us forget he has that knowledge."

"If Desir hopefully doesn't let anything slip."

"Desir?" Irwyn questioned.

"Why would he know?"

"He has too good of a nose for these kinds of things. I am honestly not sure if he had seen it or just bluffed me with a guess, but I didn't quite manage to control my reaction at the time."

"For all the jests he had played on you, Desir hadn't actually bothered me about any of this stuff. Maybe because he apparently could tell my disinterest at a glance when we first met? I don't think he will go out of his way to change that."

"And I might have also over-reacted with the severity of threats at the time," she nodded. Then the topic changed. The rest of Elizabeth's withdrawal passed in a similar manner. As pain subsided, and Elizabeth no longer risked a betrayal of her mind and body, things got easier. Eventually, she recovered enough that Irwyn released her from the magical bindings, but still kept an eye on her as they got to more productive reading.

There were many books already in their hands, and infinitely more they could request with basically just a thought. Though Irwyn ended up being used as either a cushion or a pillow for much of that. There were some occasional new 'interruptions' as well, but Elizabeth was still very diligent with progressing her magic and base of knowledge, and thus not willing to waste time with such an opportunity before them once she was coherent enough to actually focus.

The Soul-nourishing effect of the monolith in the central area was also very much still present in the library section. It had been difficult to notice because of the other problems taking up their focus, but in hindsight the effect was apparent. That meant that research was eventually interrupted with carving. There, at least, everything went perfectly to plan. Elizabeth finally completed her Temzdaflame approximately two days later, and Irwyn was not too far behind with his start on the next goal.

Flame and Light, this time carved over the veins on his other arm, then combined to Star. Followed by Desolation and Descent. Weeks of recovery in between, which was still monstrously fast thanks to the monolith's nourishment. Then eventually, Desolate Starfall. As expected, the three Concepts merged flawlessly, leaving Irwyn with just two again. But they were both greatly refined. Much more powerful than what would be usual among his peers, and also perfectly focused on destruction.

Once he was done, Irwyn immediately noticed that the nourishing effect seemed to diminish, almost fading altogether. When he spoke with Elizabeth she did not get the same impression. Her recovery in-between carvings remained steady… but she was rather behind by that point. Since Irwyn was progressing slightly faster, the difference had accumulated over several weeks. That meant that she was still relatively far from her planned Perfected Temzdaflesh.

When looking at it that way, Irwyn guessed that the Trial perhaps did not want him to get too ahead of her, and thus throttled his progress a bit. It likely also meant that its next chamber would come sooner rather than later. Likely as soon as Elizabeth was done. Irwyn spent the following days practicing with effectively combining his Concepts into offensive magic and reading a few more tomes when the thought of anything he might have missed struck him.

He had done much charting for the path ahead and thought he had his nine Concepts mostly figured out. But maybe the coming months could make him reconsider. Eventually, the monolith as well as the side rooms faded away, with an archway appearing to mark the way forward. The guess had been quite spot on. Elizabeth still took an hour to get used to her new strength, then they stepped through. Unlike the second trial, they were not separated, instead entering directly into a new chamber.

It was not unbelievably spread out like the first, maybe only as long and wide as Ebon Respite. To compensate, it was tall. Towering above the height of mountains and even Irwyn's conception of where the sky should end. So far abovehead it became impossible to estimate the distance. The reason for that was rather simple. Namely, an absolutely mindbogglingly gigantic monster took up most of that space. And Time, since that seemed to be its attunement.

It twisted the flows of continuity so harshly that even Irwyn could recognize what was going on despite his lack of affinity with the element. Moreover, it seemed to be only a singular creature. Its form was mostly marked by the edges of the rampaging magic being otherwise transparent, so maybe it was wrong to even say it had a body, but far up in the sky, Irwyn noticed a majestic cerulean core. Large enough he could recognize it from all that distance. Undoubtedly, a heart they would have to reach and shatter.

|| Destroy the colossus || the golem confirmed as much a moment later. Irwyn and Elizabeth shared a glance and a smile. That was certainly much more straightforward than puzzles. By the time the first attack arrived, they were already moving, mana running like rivers through their veins. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. The Trial followed a formula. That much became apparent.

First of all, the 'chambers', as the golem called them, switched between direct combat and other challenges in a one and one pattern. The former had them facing monsters of all forms and elements, including prismatic - except for the specific five that they themselves wielded. Sometimes as hordes, sometimes as singular champions. The biggest difference was that the foes got progressively stronger with their own growth and more esoteric in what power they wielded.

Sure, a colossus of Time magic was strange, but it was still nothing compared to the butterfly monsters wielding some kind of Concept based on the 'passing of seasons' that made them killable only in the 'winter' part of their magical cycle. A cycle which was distinctly not synced between each other and difficult to interpret inside a swarm. Challenges also got progressively stranger. Unlike the monsters, those were always about mostly Starfire for Irwyn. They were also both more difficult and easier.

Or perhaps just less dangerous. If there was any limit to the number of attempts they had, those were always very generous, unlike the monsters that were universally tough enough to push the pair to their limits. The challenges mostly forced them to innovate while also testing the furthest edge of control whenever possible. At one point, Irwyn was forced to develop a spell that allowed him to briefly turn himself into a ray of sunlight.

It was incredibly unwieldy, took half a minute to cast, and was probably very dangerous if someone interrupted it mid-cast, as Irwyn was forced to drop most of his defenses just to make it work. But it had allowed him to pass through a thin hole in a wall as the Trial demanded. Another time, it made him perfect a technique for capturing a blindingly fast, magically resistant, and elusive creature - then made him re-create the method to work in conjunction with Elizabeth's not ten minutes later.

Then there were the 'rest' areas that sprouted around them after every completed chamber. They grew progressively less restful as time went on. A rule they quickly realized after the Time colossus was, that each subsequent rest area would have one more hazard than the previous one. The addictive feast did not reappear, but others sometimes did. Or at least their variants.

Some kind of novel poisonous gas that was strangely adept at passing through magical protections until they figured out a specific method of countering it was clearly a favorite, for example, with dozens of permutations. They were usually things more annoying than dangerous. A pack of Time-attuned wolves that would resurrect and attack every 15 minutes, but could be all easily killed with one attack. A slowly moving spike trap that would take hours to pose any threat.

An unstoppable bouncing ball that didn't have enough force to even be felt by a barrier. Individual glowing caltrops scattered across the floor. And similar such things. The only thing they actually achieved was making Irwyn and Elizabeth rely upon each other even when resting. Especially for the carvings. A lot of those annoyances suddenly became actual threats when Elizabeth would be incapacitated for hours at a time, unable to spare the focus on defenses.

And while Irwyn was abnormally fast with his, the threat still applied to him as well in those minutes. Therefore, they had to take turns to defend one another when struck by inspiration or solidifying breakthroughs. Which might have been the point. Forced to put their lives in each other's hands constantly, even outside of pitched battle. Until the extension of trust became as easy as taking a breath. And their progress all the while was staggering.

Irwyn had completely lost track of time, but it must have been many months. Perhaps years. The thought of 'what is happening outside' had long turned into 'hopefully there is some serious dilation tied to the Trial'. Especially as they progressed further into Conception, the recovery time between each carving kept getting longer and longer with each leap. Even Elizabeth was surprised by that. Apparently, it was a unique issue for them.

After all, basically everyone else as far as she knew would eventually hit a wall in their progress. At some point, their Soul would no longer be strong enough to bear another Concept, which meant that instead of just waiting for it to stabilize, they had to spend years gradually nourishing its strength. Their talents, as well as the multiple mergers, were supposed to help push that issue back, but not running into it at all was marvelous and possibly unprecedented.

The most Elizabeth had read about someone keeping up was until their sixth Concept, which was already called a 'ludicrous example'. That was likely part of the nourishment the monoliths provided as well. And eventually, they approached what might well be the finish line. Hopefully. The golem overseeing them never responded to any requests to elaborate on how far they needed to go to reap the final rewards and leave.

But if they were not on the very brink like they thought, the Trial would probably have to stretch into decades. Irwyn felt inside himself. The well of power he could tap into was barely even comparable to what he had held at the start. Like an ocean against a puddle. Starfire, Desolate starfall, Empyreans unreachable, Skystride, Manaburn, Empyreankind, Flame, Light, Desolation. All nine, carved and finished. Synergistic. Beautiful.

He had put much thought into them and how to carve each, and reaped the results of those efforts. Empyreans unreachable was his primary defensive option, as he had theorized in the first library, dedicated to creating indestructible barriers. That they were naturally intangible and thus see through was also a positive, no longer requiring any investment whatsoever to allow for visibility. As a Concept it also protected him conceptually from anything trying to move past the boundary.

For example, a real issue in the past had been Time magic ignoring physical obstacles and thus requiring additional countermeasures. With the Concept, Irwyn's barriers created an impregnable separation from the rest of the world. Drawing inspiration from the firmament and the stars above it, no trick of space or perspective could easily just bypass the boundary. It was somewhat less effective at fortifying his body directly, but that was a more than worthwhile tradeoff. Skystride was his mobility option.

The inspiration came from his very first vision. Specifically, the chant of an Edict. Beneath Light's skies. Irwyn had carved Light again, but differently than before - rather than piercing, he had made it as quick as possible. Merged with Motion, he was able to create a Concept that allowed him to take on some partial semblance of Sunlight's alacrity. Only partial, yes, but that still offered him incredible speed. And despite being a Light based Concept, it was easy to use alongside Starfire.

Manaburn was Flame, since the partial elements needed to be equal in number and strength to more easily grasp a Domain in the future. It focused on lingering damage and erosion, attacking the very magic of his enemies' spells. While Desolate Starfall was a tool of direct and brutal destruction, this was an apparatus of prolonged battles. Best used against foes that could not be pummelled to ash directly.

Irwyn would instead slowly incinerate the very foundation upon which their Concepts stood, until the crack was large enough to succumb to his relentless magic. Empyreankind was a supportive Concept, best used with his old Empyrean blood spell and a few other similar magics made specifically to interact with it. It allowed him to borrow some semblance of the Stars themselves! And those were not known for subtlety and modesty.

With it, his supportive magics were able to outright multiply his mana output by massive factors, allowing Irwyn to much better leverage his seemingly endless supply of magic in battle. He was also able to incorporate it into Constellation of will for a notable boost in efficacy. Flame and Light were rather modest in use. A pair for symmetry that fit towards the Domain he had his eyes on, while also allowing him to wield just raw Light or Flame when it was required.

That was rarely, especially since the Trial never pitted them against enemies that wielded those elements, but it was likely the biggest gaps Irwyn had left before carving them. He had also left them more versatile than focused. There were not many things those elements could still do better than Starfire with so many better Concepts behind it, but if such a situation arose, he was ready. Desolation was borderline filler.

Irwyn did not have anything else that he needed, so he had carved his last Concept to be more of a learning tool than anything else. The thinking was simple: Since he sought to focus on the destructive parts of Starfire, and Desolation specifically, it would be a good thing to understand it better. While his Desolate starfall could fill that role as well, it was deeply intertwined with Starfire itself, as well as the specific method of delivery.

By comparing Desolation in isolation to his other Concept, he was likely to reap some insight. In fact, he already had seen results while waiting for his partner. Elizabeth was just Carving her very last while Irwyn stood guard. He knew of hers too: Temzdaflame, Perfected Temzdaflesh, Voidseeker, Fathomhold, Blaze within, Elven kin, Void, Flame, and the yet unfinished Perfection. The only one that was not very self-apparent among hers was the Fathomhold.

As she had explained to him, it was a name for some of the Elven cities dwelling deep, deep within the Void. In particular, those that were on the 'edges' as far as such geometric ideals existed 'down' there, and thus were more fortresses than anything else. Stalwart against intrusion from the countless monsters hungering after any beacons of civilization within the endless nothingness.

A fine defensive Concept at a glance - though Irwyn definitely did not understand all the intricacies which made Elizabeth choose it specifically. Though she was rather abashed that she did not know the correct term in the Void tongue, and the automatic and thorough translations in the Trial's libraries meant she could only use the established word from the universal tongue. While inconvenient, all the automatically translated dictionaries they had gone through had been rather funny.

It was hard to even describe how much more powerful they had become throughout the Trial. While Concepts did not always work together, each new one strengthened both the Soul it was carved into as well as the wielder. This empowered became increasingly more pronounced the more Concepts there were. And was very much multiplicative. In other words, Irwyn's first Concept of Starfire was unchanged, but he could use it to effectively wield hundreds of times more power than when he had first carved it.

It wasn't nearly as exponential as intentions had been, but the difference was still great. Punching upwards was maybe much more possible, yet still by no means easy. There was a slight shift in the air as the monolith began to withdraw, together with the side rooms. Irwyn did not need to look to know Elizabeth was standing up. A moment later, she appeared by his side, specifically exempt from the separation that his layered barriers demanded - another trick he had been forced to learn in one of the challenges.

In truth, she had to basically solve an entire labyrinth designed to be impossible for anyone but her to get past his defenses. The entryway into the next chamber had already risen, the hungry blackness staring at them. They did not go through yet.

"The next one is battle," Elizabeth said, staring at the arch intently.

"I know," Irwyn nodded. They were both thinking the same thing. Their last had been two trials ago and filled with a full horde of incredibly varied and unpredictable nine-Concept monsters. But the difficulty always escalated. So, how could something be more difficult than that? How could the Trial possibly offer a greater challenge? The answer on their tongues was dreadfully simple.

"Together, no matter what," she said, full of determination, as she grabbed onto Irwyn's hand.

"Together," he agreed. Then they stepped through. Side by side and as ready as anyone could possibly be.