If anyone had said these words, it would be shocking enough, but coming from Tarian, a man seemingly born with the talents of an Emperor that could shake the realm in all directions, these few words carried a weight that resonated with everyone here.
Theron looked at him. "Do you think he is using a treasure to fight like this? He cannot be stronger than a Mist Phantom, and so he cannot use any powerful treasures, or is there a treasure that can do something like this?"
Eyes turned to Tarian. If there was anyone who could answer this question, it would have to be him. With the profound reach of the Arathor Royal House, there were few things they did not know or control.
Tarian did not answer immediately. His pale gold eyes were fixed on the distant figure, and his face had gone very still.
"I do not know," he said at last. "I have seen stone shapers at work. I have trained against them. The ground cracks when they want it to crack, and it cracks in the shape they put into it, and the shape is always obvious because the shape is the weapon."
He paused. "Most of you cannot see the intricacies behind his movements. He is not shaping anything. He is just walking, and the ground is answering him. I have never seen that. I do not know what you would need to be, to make the ground answer you like that."
What Tarian was referring to was Elias's action of slamming the fifth leg of his construct into the ground. Elias was doing this instinctively, knowing that as a hunter, favorable terrain was important, and now that he had the power to make changes to his environment, he would be foolish not to do this.
To him, it was just the correct action to do in this situation, but his actions could not be more shocking to the others.
Sera narrowed her eyes. At these words, the layman sees the allure, while the professional sees the talent.
She knew that Elias had created a Lumina Construct and knew the implications of such a thing, and now she was aware that she was not even seeing the full scale of his talent. "Why does it seem like he is not even fighting them?"
Tarian nodded slowly. The cracks that the stone armored figure of Elias was making in the cobblestones were not stopping at the edges of his stance.
They were continuing outward, fine lines that branched and spread and spread, and the spawns moving across the cobblestones did not see the lines until the lines had already destabilized them. By the time he had taken his fifth step since the constructs emerged from his spine, the entire street ahead of him was webbed with cracks the spawns could not cross at full speed.
"He is making the road," Theron said incredulously. "He is making the road wherever he goes."
Even though this was fascinating, they were all geniuses here, and it was not something they could not think of doing; however, to have the power to maintain such a Lumina Construct for so long was just plain ridiculous… There must be a detail here that was missing.
Tarian was quiet for a moment.
He thought about what it would mean to fight a Siphon like this, and how the lightning he wielded would interact against the constructs moving at speeds his eyes could barely track.
He had also noted the armor, and he remembered that when Elias had arrived, that armor of his had been made from metal, but now it resembled stone, even his shield.
Was this his talent, legacy, a profound technique only available to Ascendant Candidates?
He did not know what any of these things were, not really. He could name the parts he recognized, the way anyone trained in the old arts would name them.
From the construct's aura, he knew that Elias must have some form of blood legacy, but that was the only thing he could recognize, and that was frustrating for someone like him who prided himself on his ability to gather knowledge.
He thought about the discussion he had with the steward.
'He walks between the divine and the mundane. Creatures like that should not walk the earth, at least not in my city.'
And then he remembered his own internal vow to make this Ascendant Candidate kneel.
The vow tasted different now than it had hours ago before the trial, when he wanted to dominate this Ascendant Candidate.
'No… no… it cannot end like this. I am not going to be on the sidelines and watch him take all the glory. No man born from a woman can stand above me.'
"Get up," Tarian said, to no one in particular, and to everyone. "All of you. Get up."
The candidates around him stirred. Some of them were too exhausted to move. Some of them were still staring at the distant figure with the expression of people who had been shown something they did not have the framework to process.
"Why?" someone asked. The voice was small.
Tarian did not look at the speaker. He was watching the armored figure continue moving forward without stopping.
"Because if he reaches the pit," Tarian said, "and what comes out of that pit is what I think it will be, then we are going to regret it for the rest of our lives that we stood by and watched without fighting for the chance to become legends."
"I don't know if we still have anything more to give… if these creatures turn on us again, we are not going to survive."
"Then leave this place, as you are not ready for what is to come." Tarian said, "My father did not build that wall to let us waste this opportunity. All our lives mean nothing if we cannot move against the inevitable tide of the future. I will go ahead and fight for my future; the rest of you can sit and watch."
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