Guard takes point as he leads us down the stairwell of the building, his tal feet clanking against the concrete. It's the only sound in the otherwise eerily silent Empty City, and the way it echoes along the stairs is... admittedly a little unnerving. It doesn't help that the colorless nature of our surroundings makes everything unnaturally dim. Guard's core is the only real source of light, but its prismatic colors don't make a difference in the gloomy, corrupted corridors we find ourselves in.
Even with that source of light, I find myself having to channel Firmant into my eyes to make things out more clearly. Just , though: apparently, both Guard and Ahkelios can see in the dark just fine. It's a good thing I picked this trick up from Tarin, or I'd be doing a lot more stumbling through the dark right now.
At least I have that Interface notice to distract . I glance at it again, trying to figure out what it ans. Ritual stages, and five of them in total...
More than that, there's sothing about this that's different from most of the notifications the Interface has given . For one thing, it's rare for to even get a hint about the rewards I might receive from an Interface event. I'm pretty sure this is the first ti it's directly ntioned a reward for completing sothing, and even then, it's being frustratingly vague about it.
Ritual stages may reveal more about your connection with your Firmant.
Most Interface rewards co in the form of Inspirations, credits, or skills. I can't decide if the offer to just reveal sothing is tantalizing or worrying, and more to the point, there's sothing about the timing of this notification that bothers .
Or maybe it's the way it's set up. It feels convenient, but more than that, it feels... familiar.
"Ritual stages, huh?" Ahkelios says. He's been silent for a while, hopping along the stairwell to try to scout out anything that might lie ahead, but now he's joined on my shoulder once more.
I glance at him. "You know sothing about them?"
"I think so." Ahkelios leans in to get a closer look. "I got them once or twice. They usually show up if a dungeon has sothing important you need to do. Sort of like a list of tasks."
"A list of tasks..." My voice trails off as I read through the notice again.. "It's not exactly telling what it wants to do."
"Yeah, the Interface is kinda weird about that." Ahkelios grimaces a bit. "A Ritual only triggers if a dungeon has different... states of being, I guess? Basically, when you complete a Ritual stage, the whole dungeon evolves in so way. Sotis that evolution is minor, sotis the whole place changes. I'd call it interesting, but it usually just ans the dungeon gets way more dangerous."
Well, I can't say that's sothing I didn't expect. I sigh. "And the Interface isn't going to tell how to complete the Ritual stage, I take it."
"Not directly. At least not at first." Ahkelios hesitates for a mont. "It tells you more the further along you are, but the first stage is usually just sothing like an initiation process. It's always sothing big and obvious, close to the point where you get a notification about the Ritual."
"Which ans the notification is location based," I mutter. I wonder if that's why the portal opened to a different spot. Specifically, I'm wondering if Kauku has sothing to do with this. He'd ntioned helping get through the Empty City more quickly, and even though he'd been talking about the sewers underneath at the ti, I wouldn't be surprised if this Ritual thing has sothing to do with him.
Or maybe sothing to do with that mory he wants to retrieve. It's not like he's told anything about it. An oversight, on my part—I should have asked for clarification—but it's too late now, and I have a nagging feeling he wouldn't have told much anyway.
No, he seems like the type to try to lead there indirectly. Given the limitations he's told he's operating under, I'm assuming he's trying to minimize the amount of direct help he gives .
A small voice whispers to : what could possibly make sothing like him operate under any limitation at all? I brush off the thought; it's certainly worrying, but it's not sothing I can act on at the mont. I'll just have to keep it in mind.
If this is Kauku guiding , it explains all the changes—the way the dungeon manifested as a key instead of a simple portal, the movent of the items I've stored in here, and the change in starting position. And if this is Kauku guiding , then the next question would be...
"Can you fail a Ritual?"
My words echo in the concrete. There's a brief silence from Ahkelios, and I can feel a flicker of emotion trickling down through our bond—a sudden, deep sadness. When he speaks, there's a tremble in his voice.
"Yes." He doesn't elaborate for a mont, and there's sothing small about his words, about the way he carries himself. "The loop resets the stages, though. So failure usually isn't permanent."
"I see." I observe Ahkelios for a mont—he's clearly trying to shake whatever mood he's in off. I reach out for him, and after a mont, he climbs onto my hand and sighs.
"I feel like I'm rembering sothing," he says quietly. "I didn't rember until you asked about a Ritual failing. I'm really sad. I don't know why."
"It's important, isn't it?" I keep my words gentle, and I keep him held in my hands. Guard remains quiet, seeming to sense the importance of this conversation.
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"Yes." The little mantis takes a deep breath. He doesn't need to breathe, but the move seems to help him relax. "The Ritual stages are tied to... sothing. It's so kind of Integrator trap. I'm trying to rember."
I can tell, from the way he's drawing more Firmant from . The process is clearly painful for him, and I lend him support the best I can, strengthening the link between our minds and cupping my hands so he can lean against my palm. Ahkelios staggers, his artificial breathing growing deeper; he almost seems like he's panting. His chest rises and falls rapidly, his hands clench, he squeezes his eyes shut...
And then he lets out a breath. His hands unclench. His breathing slows until he returns to the signature stillness of a creature made out of Firmant instead of flesh.
He opens his eyes.
"I really didn't want to rember that," he says quietly. "I think that's part of it. Sotis a part of fights rembering, and those mories are harder to access than others."
"Thank you," I say. It seems more appropriate than I'm sorry. Ahkelios shakes his head, but I see the appreciation in his eyes.
"Rituals and dungeons in general seem like an aspect of the Interface that the Integrators don't really want you ssing with," he explains. Considering what I suspect about dungeons, it's not exactly surprising. "They can't stop you from doing them—it's a part of the Interface they clearly don't have control over—but they can make sure that trying to complete them is more trouble than it's worth. I think they have a problem with Rituals in particular."
"Of course they do." It's not exactly a surprise, but everything I learn about the Integrators mostly just pisses off more. "I take it sothing happens when you fail a Ritual stage?"
"It might be different for you," Ahkelios says. "The Integrators are cut off from Hestia right now. But you rember what I said, right? About dungeons being loop-independent?"
"Unless Ritual stages are involved, apparently," I say, glancing at the notification again. Ahkelios nods.
"Dungeons are exempt from the barrier around the planet. They aren't part of the loop, and they aren't exclusive to you. To us."
I catch the implications of this imdiately. "You're saying other humans might be in this dungeon?"
Ahkelios grimaces. "Don't count on it," he says, sounding a little guilty. "Sorry, I didn't an to imply that. You unlocked one of the rarest dungeons possible. I doubt anyone else has access to it. The problem is, failing a Ritual stage creates backlash, and that backlash isn't just going to hit you. It can tear open holes to other people's Trials, put them in danger..."
He trails off, and I watch him for a mont. It's not hard to figure out what happened. "You lost soone."
Ahkelios nods. I can feel an imnse sadness radiating down through our bond—he feels things so strongly sotis. It's at odds with how he's usually the more ruthless of the two of us; sotis, I wonder how much the Trials really changed him.
"I can't even rember who," he says with a sigh. "I think I knew her before the Trials, though. And I think we were... close."
"I'm sorry for what you lost," I say. Ahkelios forces himself to shrug.
"It's nothing we can change now." He looks away for a mont, recomposing himself. By the ti he looks back, he's not exactly smiling, but that sense of imnse sadness echoing down through our bond has largely faded. "We should focus on the future. Make sure it doesn't happen again."
"We will." I lock eyes with Ahkelios, and after a mont, he nods.
"Failing a Ritual stage is different from dying, by the way," he says, almost like he's trying to change the subject. "You can die as much as you want; it'll just reset both the loop and the stage. But there every Ritual stage has sothing like... conditions. If you complete it without all those conditions being t, it's counted as a failure, and sotis the Integrators get tricky about it."
"Got it." The fact that a death doesn't count as a failure and still resets the stage is strange, although it's also useful. It ans I can forcibly reset a stage if I have to. I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but it's better than the blowback Ahkelios is talking about.
Probably.
A thought occurs to .
If these Rituals can blow back into other Trials, then there's a good chance that whatever boundary separates from those other Trials is weaker here. The fact that it's even possible for other Trialgoers to enter the sa dungeon implies that this is an intended feature: in a normal Trial, a Trialgoer might be able to use the chat function to team up with others and complete a dungeon.
My Trial, of course, is anything but normal. The temporal barrier that extends around Hestia might not reach into the dungeons, but—I check the chat feature just to be sure, and it remains disconnected—it's clearly still enough to interfere with my ability to interact with other people from Earth.
And yet...
Those barriers are still weaker here. Which ans that I might be able to do sothing. If a failed Ritual stage can backfire to the point where it affects other Trials and other Trialgoers—if Trialgoers can all enter the sa dungeon together—then, much like the Interdiaries, they connect different, distinct spaces together.
The normal approach to reach other planets, as I understand it, is by using gateways that fundantally utilize the Interdiaries. I've never seen any of them, because they aren't open during a Trial.
But maybe they aren't the only way. If I can push Phaseslip farther, if I can figure out what connection the dungeons have to the Integrators and the Interface as a whole...
Then I might not be stuck on Hestia much longer. I might not be isolated from the other Trials much longer. And if that's true, then the Integrators are going to have a whole lot more to worry about than just one Trial gone awry.
"I can feel you planning again," Ahkelios remarks. "You make a scary face when you do that, you know."
"What? I do not." I'm a little thrown out of my train of thought by Ahkelios's remark, but he does make grin. Truth is, of course, that I have no idea what I look like when I'm planning. It's just the principle of the matter.
"You do." Guard sounds amused.
I feign an exasperated scoff. "I don't need both of you harassing about my plans."
"We're not!" Ahkelios says. "We love your plans. They're good plans."
Guard waits for a bit, then adds, "Mostly."
I roll my eyes, but a smirk tugs at my mouth. "Let's not get too distracted here. We're still in a dungeon, rember?"
Beneath us, a blue glow slowly grows. We're getting closer to the first flower, presumably to what will initiate the Ritual, and to uncovering what's really going on with this dungeon.
I think I'm looking forward to it.
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