Resilience
Finally, on the afternoon of the 2nd week's 7th day, Heian Ciemnosc and Alejandro arrived before the island he had sighted many hours ago. Even though 'most' land tends to get bigger the more one gets close to them. This island remained small and without any structure on top of it. In fact, it had become smaller than he had seen it before. But it was no optic illusion. They arrived at the island. Heian Ciemnosc disembarked from his Simmer Shark and walked on it for 20 minutes before finding himself isolated on an island of less than 200 square kilometers circle-shaped.
The island’s grounds were all sand and not even a little pebble. Furthermore, it felt like he was walking on a gummy floor with a thick layer of sand on top, about 10 inches in volume. However, the sand barely moved, and even when he bent to pick up some of it, it rapidly returned to the ground as if a magnet drew every sand grain to the ground. But with his Spirit Sense, Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t read anything below the layer of sand.
After trying a few times, ending up almost falling forwards because of picking up a large sum of sand, Heian Ciemnosc started looking for the Earth door. He might get something after understanding the Earth door’s marvels. However, he spent only 5 minutes looking before realizing this Earth Door’s was most likely hidden. Heian Ciemnosc sat cross-legged after some time to think. He was helpless here and could only rely on himself.
After mulling it over and starting to recuperate from his earlier reckless behavior, Heian Ciemnosc started to nature read this place, every little sand grain and every little millimeter with as many grains or flying sand that not even cultivators could see. After experiencing many things he couldn’t notice otherwise, Heian Ciemnosc opened his eyes, surprised. He looked at the ocean before turning around, where a door finally appeared.
Step- crrg, step, step, step. Heian Ciemnosc walked to it. It had an obscure, brown color and was of ordinary proportions, like any other Elemental door. Positioned in the middle of the island, it looked desolate as a few sandy wind strands flew by it, circling and diving and raising in the air like a rapidly moving serpent. Heian Ciemnosc looked at all these strange phenomena as they increased after he ‘discovered’ many things around here. When he finally arrived, his shoes were spotlessly clean, and the surroundings calmed down as if no wind could have ever been raised here before.
There was a sudden sensation. Everything went still, peaceful, and undisturbed. Heian Ciemnosc immediately felt contented with this place. It was much to his liking, and there were no repercussions to being there. As Heian Ciemnosc thought about it, it seemed the Water door had to be connected to a female’s or a feminine male’s behavior. This Earth door, whatever its connection was to the people, had already won a few points in Heian Ciemnosc’s brain.
Walking to stand in front of it, Heian Ciemnosc placed his palms on it. Immediately, he felt like his fingers whenever they entered someone’s body and ripped flesh, bones, and organs apart. His whole body shuddered in the sensation as if he had entered the island’s heart. Heian Ciemnosc’s closed eyes frowned, but over time, they relaxed as his eyeballs started moving, comprehending and receiving so much information.
… After a slight while, Heian Ciemnosc opened his darkest eyes, revealing them to the setting sun as he didn’t bother sitting cross-legged to meditate. After experiencing enough, and his cultivation path had further solidified, Heian Ciemnosc no longer needed arduous meditation time to press on some matters in order to understand them. His comprehension and innate instincts not only seemed to return, but they were even evolving!
Dooowmp~!
The Earth door opened, and Heian Ciemnosc immediately saw the other side. It looked just like the island, only vaster, even endless. Just as Heian Ciemnosc peeked inside, the Earth door pulled him in swiftly, rapidly, but softly and gently. Heian Ciemnosc’s body disappeared into the door that then slid underground, hiding itself from any prying as it was eaten by the island. On the other hand, Heian Ciemnosc fell with his chin head-on, falling first.
Shutting his eyes, Heian Ciemnosc opened them while standing up. He felt his clothes suddenly getting thicker, more heavy. Before Heian Ciemnosc knew it, a bout of information poured into his head, and he looked up with amazement. There were no faces or something unique about this first stage of the Earth’s trial. All Heian Ciemnosc could see was an ordinary desert.
Ste- THUD! With the information in his head, Heian Ciemnosc tried taking a step forward. It was the word ‘trying’ because the moment he did, his entire body fell flat on the ground, eating and greeting the sand as a sudden gravity pull rendered him utterly useless. Slowly, Heian Ciemnosc felt that pull lessen as his body could finally breathe, and his organs functioned as intended. Without his mighty bodily strength, Heian Ciemnosc might’ve become a pulp then and there.
Standing back up, Heian Ciemnosc sighed and shook his head after gesturing with his head exaggeratedly tilting to the right. Afterwards, he spent a few seconds to re-accommodate his thoughts. Once again, he tried stepping forward. However, instead of taking a regular step, he took a mini-step. He wasn’t planning on trying until he could finally step forwards peacefully. He wasn’t fond of constant humiliation. After all, pain meant one’s body was going through what it may need, but humiliation was just a kink, for that matter.
THUD. However, Heian Ciemnosc faced the same problem. His body plummeted to the ground as if he was its lover, and it wanted to eat him alive! Heian Ciemnosc spent a few tens of seconds before being let go. When he stood back up, instead of growing agitated, he tilted his head to the left, thinking…
Step… thud! This time, Heian Ciemnosc walked forward while his thoughts were relaxed, filled with only empty blankness, and still. However, although the fall wasn’t as rough, and the gravitational pull wasn’t as life-ending as before, he still fell and got his face kissed by the ground. His clothes were all dusted with sand, and his shoes started to break. When he stood back up again, it was several seconds earlier than in previous falls. However, it was still not good enough.
‘It’s not like that…’ Heian Ciemnosc thought before falling into a 1 minute-long pondering session. He understood that, even though it was a better outcome, it was still not the way to do this, whatever it was. He simply had to walk in the desert, but that proved so damn difficult… Heian Ciemnosc changed his thoughts from the previous ones to think of his body gaining lightness and not becoming bound by gravitational laws. He relaxed and felt empty but didn’t set his mind like that. He simply felt that way.
Step- thud… Once again, Heian Ciemnosc felt his body meet the ground. However, the pain while falling decreased, and the time he spent being licked all over by the sand was similarly reduced. With a facial expression exposing his thoughts of victory, Heian Ciemnosc lay on the ground for tens of seconds before standing up. He cleaned his clothes with just a few palms here and there before closing his eyes.
After meditating for a few seconds, he took another step. This time, he didn’t fall directly. But 3 seconds after taking that step, he fell down. It was progress! Heian Ciemnosc started time and again as he stood up after falling down. After half an hour, he could go 30 steps without dropping. Afterwards, he walked on a thin thread until he finally improved. A few hours later, Heian Ciemnosc figured the most incredible trick ever. He just had to keep a mentality of not crashing down, never falling, that his body was the mountain and not even disasters could move him, and that there was no pull that could win over his capabilities.
It was silly to think it through, but if Heian Ciemnosc had known it was that simple, he would have never fallen first things first. Naturally, even though he was aware of a person’s mind and how, sometimes, their minds were the most harrowing enemy or obstacle to overcome, that was mostly for ordinary people. However, he wasn’t aware of what having inner doubts and insecurities meant for a cultivator. To know he just needed to think everything would go perfectly wasn’t hard, but to do it was the hardest thing.
Trekking in the desert as he could go on for hours without even sliding a step once, Heian Ciemnosc felt strangely… at peace. Similar to what the beauty in the sky had done to him in the Water trial’s second phase. As he walked, Heian Ciemnosc decided on letting go of his clothes, starting with his shoes, letting his feet meet the warm and fresh sand. It felt like a good massage where he felt multiple sensations at once.
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His feet would sink before meeting a harsher layer of sand that helped him remain ‘afloat’ in the desert. His legs moved through the desert unobstructed, even when he was up to below his knees in the sand. Unlike in the desert, he found some flora, but they were all ordinary. Still, Heian Ciemnosc became pensive when he saw them, wanting to imprint them into his mind and efficiently succeed.
After a long while, Heian Ciemnosc finally met the end. It wasn’t the desert’s end, but he stopped on his tracks and turned around. Having felt as if he had completed something for a while already, Heian Ciemnosc turned shocked as he looked at the strangest of sightings in his life yet.
There was an ‘image’ set a few meters before him. It was like a painting without a frame, true-to-life, and mixed with reality and space. It was a tunnel that had appeared out of nowhere within a cave’s corridor with orange-illuminated spots that seemed like torches but weren’t torches. It extended for what seemed several hundred meters. But Heian Ciemnosc hardly believed such an extensive tunnel and thought it must be due to the painting’s nature.
Heian Ciemnosc walked towards it, and 3 meters before even stepping into the painting, he was suddenly overwhelmed with endless awe as his body was transported to the cave’s corridor. Heian Ciemnosc looked up and saw a ceiling that was at least several thousand kilometers from the ground where he stood. The ‘torches’ at the sides of the walls made his skin feel its warmth, dangerous enough to have burned his clothes to ashes in less than an instant if he had worn them at the time.
‘Holy… fuck…’ Heian Ciemnosc’s darkest eyes focused on those torches, but instead of being such, they were just a ‘piece’ of magma floating in the air, attached to the wall and giving light to anyone who passed. Heian Ciemnosc finally gulped down after he looked at the ceiling and a magma lump for several minutes. Recomposing himself, he looked ahead of himself. He realized he wouldn’t be walking around the corner until he went past 15,000 kilometers. How stupidly crazy was that?
Furthermore, like what he experienced in the Middle Godly Station, Heian Ciemnosc could see everything before him without a curvature or a bump. Although the Godly Station did have many changes in altitude, this cave’s corridor was as flat as the world’s utmost definition could be explained. Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t tell if this was a marvelous discovery or simply a sight to awe to.
Tap, tap, tap, tap… Heian Ciemnosc’s footsteps were like a little kid’s bare feet walking through a squeaky clean floor in the house. Heian Ciemnosc started another walk. This time, it lasted him a couple days before he could finally reach somewhere. After nonstop walking, he stood before a pair of doors. They were a gate altogether, but to Heian Ciemnosc, he couldn’t open even one of them if he tried.
‘... What now?’ After spending 3 days walking, Heian Ciemnosc’s head had a lot to think about. He was calm and at ease, even delving into some past experiences. As he looked at the doors, 5 minutes after he stood before them, they finally opened. Strangely enough, similar to the magma lumps on the walls, the doors emitted no sound. Heian Ciemnosc waited until they were fully open and looked as they were in the midst of that.
A small hall with a throne in the middle, poorly illuminated and still in the cave, appeared before his darkest eyes. Some strange ring stood before the throne, like a mini-stadium for the throne’s personal entertainment. Heian Ciemnosc frowned as he thought but still walked forwards, fearlessly and wanting to get through the trial. When he entered the small hall, for what this cave’s standards were, the doors behind him finally sounded as they shut to a close!
THUD! THUD!
“!” Heian Ciemnosc’s back flinched, and he ducked his neck before looking back. The sudden noise overwhelmed him. But then, he felt weird as he rapidly returned his eyes to the front. Immediately, he found himself in the middle of that ring, seemingly for the king or queen’s entertainment. Heian Ciemnosc didn’t feel a gaze on him, nor did he see anyone sitting on the throne. Everything seemed deserted, not inhabited for… who knew how long.
‘Alright.’ Since he couldn’t do anything else, Heian Ciemnosc sat cross-legged in the middle of the ring with those sand-rock boulders, with a semi-perfect ball shape around him as he entered a meditative state. Heian Ciemnosc spent a few hours like that, already feeling his breakthrough coming, when he sensed the sand boulders move. Opening his eyes, he witnessed the semi-perfect balls soaring and slowly forming a wall around Heian Ciemnosc.
With him as the center, he slowly stood up, wanting to deal with this properly. However, he quickly realized it was not needed. The wall formed around him, looking like wood, sand, and dirt, was seemingly only for his eyes. All thoughts of this ring being entertainment for the throne vanished and didn’t return as his darkest eyes tremblingly widened!
Without enhancement or wanting to, his eyesight allowed him to see ‘everything’ those walls consisted of. From the tiniest cracks and designs to their past and future, as if he could see what they were before forming and after they decayed and were destroyed by time. It wasn’t just before they assembled a circular wall around Heian Ciemnosc, but whenever they were created. And their future wasn’t just after Heian Ciemnosc left, but from this moment onwards until their end.
At the same time, Heian Ciemnosc felt like he was watching the living and dying of countless living beings as he looked at each wall. However, Heian Ciemnosc was… strangely calm again, so peaceful it could be said he was watching every passerby come and go through the Wrath Nihility Academy’s streets. Heian Ciemnosc suddenly felt something as he looked at the last wall section and finished going through its time. It was strange, especially since he knew that time was long gone from the world, but he still engrossed himself in these moments.
Crack- crack.
“?” Turning around, Heian Ciemnosc noticed the first section wall he experienced crumble and return to its semi-perfect ball form. Heian Ciemnosc felt somewhat baffled, but before he could study it with his seemingly automatically enhanced eyes, he felt the wall’s ‘energy’ rush towards him. It reached him in an instant. Heian Ciemnosc was hopeless to attempt anything as it went inside his body.
Futoooooooooooooooooooooo~~~~mp…
As if time had stopped, Heian Ciemnosc fell backwards, his arms hung forwards, his fingers delicate and loose as his darkest eyes weren’t fully opened and shocked yet, still in the midst of it. However, in the next iota of a second, his neck and head were thrown backwards, and his eyes closed as severe, galactic bouts of knowledge invaded his mind and wreaked havoc in there. His chest slightly stuck out, his right leg folded, and his left leg fully extended. He suddenly recuperated and immediately fell on the ground with his bum.
Thud- slide slide.
“...!” Heian Ciemnosc slid on the ground. His body only stopped after his back collided with the last wall section he observed. This brand-new experience was overwhelming, mind-breaking, and nature-threatening. Heian Ciemnosc couldn’t imagine! However, his darkest eyes were like an enjoying child. He hurriedly stood up and meditated briefly. He waited until he recomposed before opening his eyes. And as it happened, as if knowing Heian Ciemnosc’s thoughts and desires, the second wall section he experienced started crumbling!
Fwuoooshh… Futoooooooooooooooommmpppp~~~~...
Heian Ciemnosc experienced the same thing again. And once again, he sensed everything stopped right before he was struck by that strange sand-like energy. Heian Ciemnosc saw a swampy, creepy green light flash before him, followed by the Earth element’s corresponding ‘image’ of a warm, light lime color with a murky green glow. The next thing he knew was - he started sliding through the floor. He enjoyed it like a child thrown into the air and caught by his parent’s hands. Snortling in a good mood, he stood up and repeated the process. Before long, the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eighth wall sections crumbled and sent him into that paradise.
They were like doors, opening for them, revealing the infinitude of knowledge and bathing him in a unique sensation no one else could feel in the entire world! Heian Ciemnosc felt his body nearing the breakthrough, so when the last wall section/door crumbed and opened to him, without standing back up again, he let his body remain on the ground, with nothing stopping him as he entered his meditative state with his ring finger, pinky, and thumb intertwined, resting. His index and middle fingers semi-intertwined, Heian Ciemnosc didn’t notice the last door slide him towards the throne.
He also couldn’t wake up and notice it, starting his breakthrough forthwith, because his body unnaturally halted his back 1 nanometer from touching the throne’s lower section. It was made of stone, had no legs, and supported its structure like any other building, with walls as its foundation. However, the throne seemed to gain color, from sand and gray to a notorious dark…
Red, golden, and white tried to seep into the throne… but it was hopeless. The throne - remained- dark.
Rumble, rumble, rumble, rumble~...
The small hall slowly enlarged outwards. The ceiling immediately started becoming hundreds of thousands of kilometers tall, and the space around was many times that stupidly bizarre amount. The throne behind Heian Ciemnosc’s back started shrinking, slowly crumbling to his size before sinking into the ground. Heian Ciemnosc kept his darkest eyes closed.
… Finally, when something seemed to change from the deepest corners to the utmost exterior, his darkest eyes opened with his hands still joined, and his gaze ultimately cold, serene yet to-die-for lovable still. Just then, he leaned back, just in time to feel his back felt by something. He turned around, only to see an empty ground with nothing, not even the tiniest of cracks. He shrugged and looked around, not giving it any further importance or attention.
‘Eh? Why is everything much larger out of nowhere?’
…
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Let It Rain's note: Eh?? Why do I hear boss music?!!