“This is impossible!” Josh roared. His transformation ended, and the brute gasped in pain. By now, he’d been through the experience enough times to stay standing. His shoulders shook from overexertion, but his determined gaze stayed locked on Aiden. “I’m coming for you!”

“Yeah, like we haven’t heard that a thousand times already.” Anna scowled at Josh from where she sat cross legged, meditating with emerald motes around her. She breathed easily, but the moment she attempted to move within the void and away from the little grove she’d established, it shattered and left her reeling.

James had given up Josh’s brute force approach and played with his lightning, similar to Anna. His confidence grew as he walked a trail back and forth, unable to spend very long away from the entrance.

Aiden glared at Josh, James, and Anna. How many days had passed in the darkness? How long had they been trying for? Two, ten, twenty?

For this?

Anna reached half of Aiden’s progress long ago but hadn’t moved since. Her stagnation left a bitter taste in Aiden’s mouth. James and Josh though? Both pushed against the invisible pressure, temporarily took a step or two forward, but they always failed to sustain their progress and snapped back to the beginning.

“This is taking too long.” Aiden turned and looked at Nin’Yala. Even he hadn’t made it to the Argul Den Mother, but his dilemma wasn’t a lack of know how.

No, he could reach her within a few hours if he pushed himself to. The training showed him proof of what he’d been worried about. He tried to stave off the disappointment as the truth settled over him again.

They weren’t ready to join him, maybe never would be. Preparing the three of them, the strongest Zion had to offer, would take far too long. And if they weren’t ready, the others would never be.

Aiden didn’t know how much longer Khione could wait for them to get strong enough to accompany him, just because they wanted to prove themselves to him and be strong enough to help.

His reluctant acceptance of their proposal had been in hopes they would be faster than this, be able to close the gulf. He’d told them, had he not?

Their ability to help wouldn’t matter if Khione died and took him with her. Until she was secured and their contract was complete, he couldn’t escape the constant dread that he’d simply cease to exist. One moment fine, next, nothingness.

He couldn’t wait for them forever, had waited longer than he felt comfortable with. Now, the waiting felt like wriggling worms through his insides and ants crawling across his skin. Each second a moment of torture.

He wanted to push them harder, speed up the progress. Maybe increasing the difficulty would be the push they needed to advance… Or maybe it would be what crushed them entirely. Both results seemed worth considering further. If he could get them to give up…

On the other hand, completing Nin’Yala’s trial himself and utilizing the strange impromptu training would better prepare him for facing Xenith’s champions. From what he understood, Leyla and Veletya had been to-be champions. In training, but not yet qualified.

Thinking back to his fight with them, he knew he didn’t push himself fully. In fact, he didn’t think he’d ever truly allowed himself to just let go. The power he had, it was still unknown to him, even after testing and training. Its depth only grew greater, leaving him with more to explore.

Would there ever be an end to the training? What if he called the training off and just left with Leyla. Go fight the big boss and see where things go? An empowered Leyla with the Vorpal Blade pitted against Xenith, that was a fight Aiden anticipated.

But what if his haste cost him everything?

Aiden smacked his face with both hands, trying to clear his head. He was spinning himself in circles again. All the considerations bogged down clarity, fogged his direction. Only one thing mattered.

The time for action had come. He couldn’t sit and wait anymore.

All other thoughts faded away into silence as one took root. “It’s time to end this.”

If only he and Leyla faced Xenith, then so be it. The others would forgive him, and if they didn’t, he would live knowing he did what he needed to do for himself. If he forever waited for them to be ready, for himself to be ready, this would drag on until there was simply no time left.

Ready or not, he would complete this mission, then maybe he’d take up Leyla’s offer to disappear with her somewhere.

With his mind made up to complete Nin’Yala’s training and then find Leyla so they could challenge Xenith—her rules about the necessary participants be damned—he focused on the weight pressing down all around him and pushed against it with all his will.

“There we go.” He grinned as his aura expanded around him, resisting better than before. “Let’s get this shit done.”

The first step forward took half an hour and left him barely able to breathe, yet grinning like a madman. He would keep going, he had to. Even more, he wanted to.

The dome barrier around him formed again. Layers upon layers, thickening its walls, then condensing as he made sure it would stand against the renewed weight of his next step. Once he felt confident, he pressed onward.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

The barrier held, though quaking and cracking under the pressure.

It still held.

Aiden didn’t dare take the next step forward immediately, instead repeating the process of reinforcing the aura barrier again. Refinement of the barrier was unlike anything he’d done as of yet. Even his experience discovering Paths when held under the Valkyr’s custody didn’t require this much sheer intent and willpower.

But it continued to work.

Another step.

The barrier shuddered, the cracks webbing from top to bottom.

And yet held.

Morbid curiosity urged him to drop the barrier entirely to see if his body could handle the weight of the pressure. Durability was his primary attribute after all.

The feeling passed.

Pancakes were delicious. That didn’t mean he wanted to discover what it felt like to become one, especially if the intensity truly ramped up as much as he expected it did. Each barrier, he gave more time to forming, solidifying the newly empowered barrier as this is the shape I want it to keep. Thinner, more compact, closer to himself.

Its see through glass-like structure let him see just how far he continued to advance over the next several hours. Nin’Yala and Blizzy’s comfort pile of monsterly cuddles drew closer, and James, Josh, and Anna remained farther and farther behind him.

There was no stopping now and nothing he could do for them. If he pressed onward, completed Nin’Yala’s training, and conquered Xenith with Leyla's help, they wouldn’t have to train anymore. They could finally rest, return home, and protect their families from whatever magical chaos would continue to make its way to Earth.

He needn’t drag them into the impossible, and he wouldn’t hold it against them for being unable to participate. Saving Khione was his problem. She was his patron, so he would bear the burden.

Another step.

They wanted to help, and maybe they had already helped more than they knew, more than he knew. Just having them there rooting for him was something more than he had when he first came to Midrath, knowing he had people counting on him, relying on his choices, but also being supportive and encouraging.

They had not asked him to bear the burden alone, but he had, and it had reforged him greater. Still did.

Groaning, another step.

His confusion and his worry had blinded him to the results of the path he’d chosen. He saw the others around him as equal, as capable of the same potential, and maybe they could be if given enough time to grow.

Time was a commodity they didn’t have an abundance of. The clock ticked, the sand in the hourglass running low. Much of it was his fault, as his worries had crippled his ability to decide on a path and move. So much time wasted. Even now, he wondered if he would be too late.

A half-step, hesitant.

The cracks grew instantly, and he pulled his foot back.

Six steps.

So little, yet so far.

The distance to Nin’Yala seemed to stretch farther and farther after each step. What at first took him one step took him three, maybe four now. Hastiness would lose him far too much time if he would have to combat the pressure too as he reinforced his barrier enough to simply stand again, if he even remained conscious.

Hazarding a glance backward, he saw the litany of emotions in each of their faces. Amazement, awe, determination, frustration.

This was him now, his role, his purpose. More than himself, he was Zion's leader, a symbol. His shadow was long and his back stiff. He would shelter them, and they would give chase.

Reinforce the barrier, pull it tighter—tight enough to replicate Crystalline Embodiment—release a held breath…

Then take another step.

Aiden learned quickly what would happen should his barrier collapse. The shattering of ice shards and their tinkling as they fell to the ground. A deep chill erupted from his chest to fill the space of the barrier, but it leaked outside beyond the crystalline dome and into the area around Aiden.

But as before, Nin’Yala’s huff stifled the brewing storm and left behind only a repaired barrier… and a headache from hell.

Massaging the pressure behind his eyes away caused him to groan in relief, the unsettling experience happening far too fast. Had he blinked when his foot landed and the barrier burst, he would’ve missed the whole thing, could’ve believed it hadn’t even happened.

His headache made sure to remind him of his mistake, but the experience overall was enlightening and left him with more questions than answers.

“I can’t imagine either one of you would like to explain what all of this means?” Blizzy chirped at him, amused, and Nin’Yala didn’t bother with a response. “Great, thanks.”

In moments like this, Aiden regretted being at the head of advancement. How nice it would be for someone else to have suffered through all of this and left arecord for him to simply emulate their results from. Or for some kind of instructor to explain just what he was even doing.

Was the dome aura? Was the blizzard domain? Why did the blizzard erupt outward when the dome collapsed, and how was he reinforcing the dome?

But no, he had to figure it out the hard way.

When he pulled on his Paths and threw them at both, it didn’t seem to make any change. The dome absorbed them as if already familiar with them. No matter what aspects he tried to augment, the result fizzled. Nothing changed.

All that remained to test was Blizzard Mastery. However, he didn’t know where to start with the combined Discipline. All his testing previously kept reinforcing what could and couldn’t be done was limited to his imagination. He’d tested, played around with what he could do when sparring with Josh, James, and Anna.

He’d held back though, hadn’t been able to let loose for fear of harming them. Not once had he been able to test the limitations of his abilities, so maybe it was time he really, truly put all of his imagination to work on just… letting go.

Aiden took a deep breath and looked at the dome. It protected him, shielded him from the pressure, and bore the metaphysical weight, but…

It didn’t push back. Aiden didn’t push back. He accepted he would be crushed by Nin’Yala’s pressure, unable to resist, to fight back, that the weight was something to bear.

Whatever the Agrul Den Mother’s reason for bringing them here, Aiden had found his own purpose for this exercise. His hungry eyes fixated on Nin’Yala, the obstacle. If he could resist her, Arkayan would surely be negligible and Xenith would only be a matter of time.

“Nin’Yala, who’s stronger, you or Xenith?” Aiden called, grinning.

Her spiked back bristled at the mention of Valhalla’s Authority holder, but her growl made Aiden think the great alien wolf wouldn’t back down if it came to a fight either.

“That’s what I thought.” If she wouldn’t back down from Xenith, Aiden would rise up to face her, then Xenith.

When he focused on the barrier, excitement buzzed in his chest as so many possibilities formed. There were many things he wanted to test, but first, he leaped forward so the dome collapsed, grinning something fierce and feral.