Self Destruction is the Metamorphosis
Varric, Ardyn, Atina, and Seraphis had completed the illusory loop countless times. Each time, Seraphis noticed the speck in the void, each time both he and Ardyn felt the change with Atina, and each time Ardyn raged just before they were sent out.
Yet none of them fully understood that they were in an illusion. Neither of them broke free or truly woke. They were all walking half-asleep in something manufactured and hearing wisps of the waking world—and unable to make sense of the whole.
And the entire time, the High Emperors and Empresses watched, judged, assumed, and hoped.
Eldora sighed and gently sat back. Her huge frame was still stiff, but her vitality was returning at a good rate. Elsa looked at her and the other sitting High Emperors and Empresses with concern as she listened to her speak. "This is rather complex. I am still not sure what Sidus Serpens is actually teaching here."
Elsa nodded and turned back to the silver sphere before them, her eyes immediately finding Atina to assess her student's condition. Eva—Elsa's mother and the other female tortoise beastkin amongst the High Emperors and Empresses—looked to her daughter, her expression calm. "You brought them to us. They have re-connected Sidus Serpens to the cornerstones. Trust your students to finish what they themselves have set out to do."
Elsa nodded with a sad smile, her eyes still frozen to the sphere.
In the backdoor to Sidus Serpens, the loop was again at its end. Ardyn's soul stirred with slight, distant understanding. But this time, she paused. Something calmed within her as she assessed her situation. Her battle robes tensed with anticipation and her soft strands of hair coiled together as if readying for war.
Her soul sea was turbulent and she sensed odd abnormalities within it that made her shudder—something was wrong. She calmed herself again and then looked to Varric and found the same, but it was Atina that made her heart tremble and break.
Her companion and sister was almost completely destroyed. Her soul was in tatters, her soul sea no longer a sea but a vast, barren desert.
Ardyn forced herself to calm again and that was when she saw it—Atina was in the worst condition, but her magic raged more intensely than Ardyn's and Varric's, and it was evolving to something Ardyn could not explain.
With this, Ardyn began to awake. Her senses flowed over Seraphis and what she saw gave her hope and terrified her at the same time. She slowly reached out to him, over their soul connection—her soul hibiscus pulsing quietly. "Are you okay?"
"I am, Mistress. Are we in an illusion?"
"By the look of things, you would know that better than me. Do you understand it yet?"
"It is a loop and we have traveled it hundreds of times." He paused. "Am I dying? My senses are fading with each loop."
Ardyn tensed mentally. She could see the void within Seraphis holding him and destroying him at the same time, but he had no soul damage and his magic was stronger than ever. "No. You are evolving. It is time to conquer and reshape this loop."
Ardyn felt his elation as well as his tiredness. "Thank you, Mistress." He tensed. "But I think your rage is what resets the loop."
Ardyn nodded and responded calmly. "I know."
Above the vast valley, Salton sat forward, his gills opening and closing as he began to speak, the smell of the briny sea wafting around his form. "There is a change." He sucked in a breath. "Did anyone notice how far the Minor Emperor has already evolved?! What is that one's name again, Elsa?"
Elsa smiled broadly. "That is Ardyn's servant, Seraphis."
All eyes turned to the silver sphere. Ryvvan nodded in satisfaction. "They truly are the greatest of us. Sidus Serpens is once again guaranteed."
Eldora and Braylon sucked their teeth as one. "Let's not be so hasty. The High Emperor and Empress are still locked, and I see no evolution in either."
"I agree with Eldora. What of the two minors? We need true strength to assure Sidus Serpens."
Cav—Elsa's father and the male tortoise beastkin amongst the sitting High Emperors and Empresses—scoffed, his eyes glowing a bright pink as he looked into the sphere. "You two see nothing. The minors evolve big and flashy because they are still so far below us in power. The High Emperor and Empress are actually our same level—higher than some—and their evolution is slight in our eyes."
All eyes turned back to the sphere and, as they focused, they realized the truth of Cav's words. All four of the tested had gained, and Sidus Serpens was remaking each one.