Immediately, an immense pressure descended upon the throne room.
Kael’s expression changed instantly as he felt the weight settle onto him.
It wasn’t the kind of pressure created by a powerful aura, nor was it the simple burden of carrying something heavy. This weight spread across every part of his existence. It pressed against his body, his mind, his soul, and even something deeper that he couldn’t properly describe. It felt violent and unnatural, as though reality itself was attempting to measure his worth.
His knees trembled slightly.
The pressure was unbearable.
Yet Kael gritted his teeth and forced himself to remain standing. He understood instinctively that this wasn’t a contest of strength or power. This was a judgment. A comparison between two existences. The first to buckle beneath their own weight would lose.
Across from him, Varek’Voran was suffering the same fate.
The weakened Quasi-Transcendent’s massive shadow-covered body shook violently. Countless tendrils writhed around him like disturbed serpents as he struggled against the pressure. For perhaps the first time since their battle began, genuine strain appeared on his face.
Then suddenly he roared.
The entire throne room shook.
"Stupid mortal! What do you think you’re doing?! Do you know who I am?!"
His voice boomed throughout the chamber.
"I am the great..."
The words stopped.
Varek blinked.
For a brief moment confusion flashed across his face.
"I am the great..."
Again he stopped.
This time the confusion deepened.
His shadow tendrils slowed.
The arrogance in his voice weakened.
His skeletal fingers slowly rose toward his skull.
"I..."
His glowing eyes flickered uncertainly.
"I am..."
The confidence was gone now.
Only confusion remained.
Then finally he muttered.
"Wait..."
His voice sounded smaller.
Fragile.
Almost afraid.
"Who am I?"
The moment those words left his mouth, Kael felt something change.
The pressure weighing him down lessened slightly.
Not enough to disappear, but enough for him to notice.
At the same time, the figure representing Varek’s Cosmic Weight on the scales trembled violently.
Cracks appeared.
Thin fissures spread across its body like fractures in glass. One became ten. Ten became hundreds. Within moments, the entire figure was covered in countless cracks while some unseen force desperately struggled to keep it together.
Meanwhile, Varek seemed completely unaware of what was happening.
His confusion rapidly transformed into panic.
"I had a name..."
His hands gripped his skull.
"I know I had a name."
The shadows around him began fracturing.
Large portions peeled away, revealing his true skeletal form underneath.
The sight sent chills through Kael.
Varek’s body was a ruin.
His skeleton was covered in cracks from head to toe. Entire sections appeared broken apart and only remained connected because shadows were holding them together.
Then Varek screamed.
Not in anger.
Not in battle fury.
But in despair.
He grabbed one of his ribs and tore it free.
Then another.
His fingers clawed desperately at his own body as though searching for something hidden beneath the bones.
"WHO AM I?!"
The scream echoed throughout the throne room.
"I REMEMBER POWER!"
Another bone snapped free.
"I REMEMBER GREATNESS!"
His hands dug deeper.
"I REMEMBER STANDING ABOVE COUNTLESS BEINGS!"
His voice cracked.
"But why?"
His movements slowed.
"Why was I there?"
The madness in his eyes intensified.
"What was I trying to become?"
He froze.
Then a hollow laugh escaped him.
The sound was painful to hear.
Broken.
Hopeless.
"I don’t remember."
His laughter became louder.
"I don’t remember."
The words repeated again and again.
"I don’t remember..."
Kael remained silent.
For the first time since meeting Varek, he felt a strange sense of pity.
This wasn’t ordinary memory loss.
Varek hadn’t forgotten a few years of his life.
He had forgotten himself.
Everything that made him who he was had vanished. His goals. His dreams. His identity. His purpose. They were all gone. All that remained was a hollow shell desperately searching through the ruins of its own existence.
And because of that, the scales continued to tilt.
Slowly.
Steadily.
Inevitably.
A being who no longer understood himself could not stand firmly in a judgment of worth.
The cracks covering Varek’s Cosmic Weight continued spreading.
Kael felt the pressure on his own body lessen further.
Then finally, the scales reached their limit.
A golden radiance erupted throughout the throne room.
The Judgment was complete.
The scales had chosen.
Kael had won.
A profound feeling washed over him as he instinctively understood the result. Whatever metric this judgment used, whether it was Cosmic Weight or something even more profound, Varek had been placed beneath him.
Kael didn’t waste time celebrating.
The judgment would only last for a limited period.
He needed to act immediately.
Without hesitation, he activated Sovereign Claim.
A notification appeared before him.
---
[Sovereign’s Claim Activated]
[Selecting Target...]
---
The familiar thread of connection emerged once more.
This time there was no resistance.
No crushing weight.
No overwhelming existence snapping the connection apart.
The thread reached Varek effortlessly.
It attached.
Stabilized.
Completed.
Another notification appeared.
---
[Target Selected]
[Target: Varek’Voran]
[Please Select A Trait To Extract...]
---
Countless streams of information appeared before Kael.
He ignored all of them.
His attention remained fixed on Varek.
The weakened Quasi-Transcendent was still trapped within the collapse of his own identity. Through the connection, Kael could now sense his mental state directly.
What he found shocked him.
Previously, from appearances alone, Kael had assumed things were bad.
Now he realized they were far worse.
Varek’s mind was in ruins.
Entire sections were missing.
Memories had shattered into fragments.
Concepts had become disconnected.
Even the idea of who he was seemed broken beyond repair.
It resembled a magnificent palace that had collapsed into rubble.
Kael honestly had no idea how to deal with something like that.
Should he comfort him?
Offer encouragement?
Try talking him through it?
The ideas came and went almost immediately.
Kael knew many things.
Being a therapist wasn’t one of them.
Still, he couldn’t simply let Varek destroy himself.
From what he understood about Sovereign Claim, there was a chance that losing the target might also mean losing the extracted trait. He wasn’t completely certain, but he remembered what happened during his first Tower Trial. Back then, after claiming a rock and obtaining an Endurance bonus, the bonus disappeared the moment the trial ended.
Whether that was due to distance or the target vanishing entirely, he didn’t know.
What he did know was that he didn’t want to lose Varek now.
After several awkward seconds, he finally spoke.
"Uh... buddy."
His voice echoed softly through the throne room.
"Can you calm down?"
The effect was immediate.
Varek froze.
The shadows stopped moving.
The cracks stabilised.
The madness vanished.
Everything simply stopped.
Kael’s eyes widened.
Through their connection, he could feel exactly what had happened.
It wasn’t just the body.
The mind had stabilised too.
The confusion was gone.
The panic was gone.
The despair was gone.
There was nothing left.
No thoughts.
No resistance.
No hesitation.
Only absolute obedience.
The order had overridden everything else.
Kael felt a chill run down his spine.
How terrifying.
This was a being that had once stood on the threshold of Transcendence. Yet a single sentence from him had instantly suppressed its will completely.
The realization gave Kael an entirely new level of respect for Sovereign Claim.
At the same time, it also made him uneasy.
If such an ability existed for him, then similar abilities might exist elsewhere.
The thought of becoming the one being controlled made his stomach turn.
Having your thoughts overridden.
Having your will erased.
Being forced to obey without question.
It was horrifying.
Pushing those thoughts aside, Kael looked toward Varek.
The massive shadow-covered figure stood silently before him. Despite all the power hidden within that body, he now resembled a loyal servant waiting patiently for instructions.
"Uhm... could you shrink a little?" Kael asked awkwardly. "My neck is starting to hurt from looking up at you."
Varek immediately bowed his head.
"As you wish, Master."
The countless shadows compressed inward.
His towering form rapidly shrank until he stood only slightly taller than Kael.
"Better."
Kael nodded in satisfaction.
Originally, he had planned to ask several questions.
But before he could speak, he felt something through their connection.
Varek’s mind.
It was completely open to him.
Like a book with every page exposed.
Kael paused.
Then his eyes lit up.
Why ask questions when he could simply read the answers himself?
Without hesitation, he dove into Varek’Voran’s memories.