Raine and Leese's Bismuth Ascension marks the sisters' transition from exceptionally capable Peak Platinums toward Bismuth rank, and it demonstrates both the power and the limits of the System's advancement structure. They have prepared for more than a year, not by rushing directly into the trial, but by cutting a route through frontier worlds, distributing Cato-spears, accumulating useful equipment, and delaying until their advantages were as complete as possible. The ascension therefore functions as both a rank-up and a test of whether Cato's engineered alternatives can outperform the progression path the System considers normal.

Preparation and Requirements

The sisters had technically been ready for the ascension for over a year, but readiness was not the same as safety. They wanted incremental equipment improvements and needed to consider how conspicuous two Bismuths would be in the frontier. Their movements also served Cato's wider preparations: while advancing, they spread Cato-spears and searched worlds for resources and strategic access. The delay gave them a deeper stock of advantages, even as it prolonged their exposure to the dangers surrounding them.

When Raine finally called up the quest, the requirements made the scale of the undertaking explicit. The Bismuth advancement demanded Peak Platinum rank, one Feat of Glory, fifty Dungeon Delves, and seventy-five World Elites. The sisters had completed every numerical requirement. Their Feat of Glory did not come from an especially high-rank dungeon, as might have been expected, but from surviving fifty assassination attempts by the Assassin's Guild. The contract remained active and had been upgraded to Bismuth-only after repeated failures to kill them. Their survival was thus not merely a defensive accomplishment; it was the unusual achievement that completed their qualification for the next rank.

Their preparation also included concealment. Few Sydeans traveled widely through the System, and most outsiders did not know what Sydeans looked like, so Raine and Leese used cover identities based on a vaguely similar reptilian species from Kellach. Armor concealed much of the difference, while the disguise was expected to withstand casual inspection unless they encountered someone from Clan Kellach. Raine's sensory capelet gave her an additional defensive advantage: unlike ordinary perception Skills, it provided a superior view of her surroundings and benefited from multiplier equipment, making ambushes substantially harder to arrange.

The Grounds on Akea

The quest directed them to the nearest Bismuth Ascension Grounds on Akea. Yaniss had told them that easier and better grounds existed in the inner worlds, but the sisters did not dare enter those regions before reaching Bismuth. They could not yet withstand Azoths or Alums, and without direct clan backing they would not have been welcome there as mere Platinums. A remote site on Akea was therefore a calculated compromise between access and survivability.

The grounds stood on a remote mesa, far from any town and enclosed by a glowing dome. The boundary barred anyone below Peak Platinum and anyone above Low Bismuth, defining the intended range of participants with unusual precision. Inside were four circular metal frames, made from copper, silver, gold, and platinum, each capable of hosting a portal. Raine suspected that the rank of a frame would not necessarily predict the strength of the enemies within it, an early indication that the trial's apparent structure could not be treated as a simple escalation chart.

At the center stood a pillar. As Raine and Leese approached, two pedestals rose from the ground, each bearing a slot whose symbol matched the Estate Tokens they had received at Platinum. They inserted the tokens rather than continuing to save them, accepting whatever advantage or consequence came from using the accumulated access mechanism at the moment of ascension. The copper frame then illuminated and formed a portal, beginning the first stage of their trial.

The Copper Trial

The first chamber imposed an immediate reversal of expectations. The System announced that the Bismuth Ascension Grounds' Copper Trial would restrict Skill and equipment strength to Copper and allow each participant to choose only four Skills, locking all others for the duration. For most Platinums, such a reduction would have required them to remember how to fight as drastically weaker versions of themselves. Raine and Leese were different. They had not been Platinum for very long, and Cato's augmentations made their Copper-restricted forms vastly more powerful than ordinary Coppers.

Raine selected four Skills and performed a brief stretch and series of weapon movements while her combat algorithms adapted to the restriction. Leese acclimated beside her. The landscape offered little cover beyond low dunes, but Raine was confident that their Copper-strength bodies could probably handle Gold-rank opponents. The trial's formal reduction therefore failed to erase the practical value of their preparation; it removed the visible rank advantages while leaving the accumulated quality of their bodies, equipment, and combat processing largely decisive.

A hissing sound and shifting sand announced the first assault. A horde of Copper-ranked scorpions surged toward them as a black tide. Raine changed her weapon into a broad-bladed poleaxe and met the swarm directly. The ensuing slaughter was easy but prolonged. The scorpions' corpses dissolved into the sand almost immediately, preventing the dead from forming a mound around the sisters as the waves continued. When the swarm finally withdrew, the ground began to tremble and a single enormous specimen erupted from below. The larger guardian was dispatched within seconds.

The System then tested them with successive enemy forms rather than with a single repetitive battle. Hook-beaked birds, monsters armed with pikes and spiked balls, stone golems, and sand elementals each demanded a different approach, despite the sisters' limited Skill selection. The waves were not dramatically harder than one another, but they varied the combat problem: movement, reach, defense, timing, and adaptation were all tested through different bodies and attack patterns. Raine understood that the trial was teaching a set of lessons, yet her experience and combat algorithms already supplied the required answers. The trial was built to produce competence through escalating pressure; Cato's gifts had converted it into a demonstration of how far engineered preparation could exceed the System's assumptions.

The Copper stage yielded no essence and no ordinary loot drops. Its only reward was a token that opened the Silver trial. As the sisters stepped through the newly formed portal, Leese wondered whether the other Earthers had found the trial equally easy, or perhaps easier. Raine agreed that they probably had, while recognizing that the System must constitute an entirely different experience for people from Earth. Their exchange places the ascension within the larger contrast between native System progression and the transformed capabilities of those whom Cato has equipped.

Wider Conflict and Significance

The ascension began at the same moment that the System recognized Cato's invasion. Shortly after Raine and Leese used their tokens, a Crusade notification appeared, calling participants to Haekos to destroy an enemy of the System. Because they were far from Haekos, Raine imagined that the quest had spread across a vast region, perhaps from the frontier to the Core Worlds. She had heard fragments about the Crusade and understood that some gods had realized Cato remained active, even though ordinary participants did not appear to be responding in force.

Raine and Leese chose not to divert themselves. Dealing with gods was Cato's problem, while their own priorities were to grow stronger and prepare the way. Their decision reflects the divided labor within Cato's campaign: Cato confronted the System's divine defenders, while the sisters advanced through its formal ranks and extended his influence through the worlds. The ascension was consequently never an isolated personal milestone. It unfolded inside the System's mobilization against Cato and became part of the same strategic contest.

That contest also clarifies why the sisters' success matters. The System's quests provide direction, reward, and a path of least resistance, but Cato's preparations alter the value of following that path. Raine and Leese obey the advancement quest while simultaneously using their rank progression to serve an anti-System project. Their ascent does not simply confirm the System's power; it exposes the possibility that its own mechanisms can be exploited by people whose equipment, loyalties, and objectives lie outside its intended order. The trial's waves are cleared, its restrictions are endured, and its next portal opens, but the deeper result is a challenge to the System's claim that rank is the decisive measure of capability.