"Now, now, don't drown yourself in despair.
The place you are in now, if you achieve that much power you will be only second to true calamity level people existing here."
"That doesn't make me happier even a bit." I replied to him. Remorse filled my eyes as I looked at the towering swords before me.
"We have some ambition here, but every power grows from something as unseen as a child in a womb."
That didn't feel right but it was something.
I sighed after a deep breath and went near one of the swords which was more jagged then the others.
I climbed its handle and reached the metal part of it. I just touched it's surface to feel it and immediately withdrew my hand.
Even it's flat was sharp enough to cut my hand. How am I going to climb it?
"Cover your hands with CHI', idiot" I heard a voice behind me speak
"How should I do it when I don't even feel it?" I replied back.
"You have do it raw. Just force your brain into making your body covered in CHI'.
You already know how it feels to touch it's surface. Soon from practicing and sensing different surfaces you will start to feel a different presence, that is CHI'."
"You think I will feel it" I asked looking back at him.
"At least, I hope you do."
So I started to climb.
My hands were already slippery from blood. I wasn't even a foot away from the ground before I fell down.
My feet were being torn apart, and my hand had strips of skin hanging loose.
I felt a sensation that my skin was getting grated on a large saw.
I could feel tears coming up from the pain. But I just sat there unable to get upon my legs.
I heard him quietly laughing, chains rattling.
I tried to constantly feel CHI' surround my hand but nothing... felt different.
I climbed again and this time I wasn't even able to hold my own weight. I felt anger crawling up my mind.
And so I rushed to do it again bearing as much pain as possible. I reached... a meter up or so, but I fell again.
After that no matter how hard tried, I never went up more than a meter.
This went on for a lot of time.
I couldn't tell how much as there was no day or night here.
And in the background he was laughing like someone had just cracked up a joke.
I don't have much to work with my one arm is missing.
I was looking at the edge of the sword which was zig-zag in form, when I got an idea.
I went on the edge of the sword and gripped it's thick edge with my hand and supported myself with two legs, pushing upwards.
In this way I climbed a great distance before falling back onto the handle. This time the pain was almost unbearable as I almost sliced upon my palm.
I heard him whistling in his corner, but there was some pride to it.
After some more time which felt like days, I reached a point where a direct fall could twist my ankle.
I was happy with this much progress, though my body was now completely useless.
"Can you tell—
how far did I get?" I asked him gasping from pain.
"Of course, that was almost a hundred meters up. Though you still have nine-hundred meters left."
I smacked my forehead with my hand which now looked like it had been chewed apart, with blood gushing out from tiny holes.
So were my feet, face and various parts where I had got lacerated by the swords.
I was still able to feel pain but...
There was no different presence of CHI' yet.
"And before you ask two months have passed till now" I heard him say.
Two months and still a hundred meters.
I could feel my face burning in shame. And even after all this there is no guarantee that this sword has a piece upon it.
I felt my eyelids closing and I fell into a slumber.
I woke up with a jolt as I remembered why I was here. It felt like a moment.
"You slept for a whole week" I heard a familiar voice say.
Shit, I thought to myself.
But it was for good I guess as my whole body has almost healed with heavy blood clots, dried out and tearing away from my skin.
My skin had exponentially become rough, though I could still feel that the swords would cut through it like nothing.
There is no point thinking anymore.
I was now obsessed with getting on to the top, no matter what.
After a long time, I had almost reached half way through but fell down.
I had to rub my way down as I don't want anymore injuries. Which felt like I was sliding upon a shearing machine.
But...
Now I have almost become numb to pain. I could still feel it or...
rather understand it but there was no immediate pain or overload.
I could now even see my inner skin clearly. Even I could see some parts of bones sticking out... Apart from that my whole body was reeking of blood.
I felt hungry eyes upon my back, waiting.
"Care to tell me?" I asked lazily.
"It has been four years now. And... I want to say it as your face is gloomy,
Naturally it would take a whole day for a person in a real world to even reach that height."
He let out a dry chuckle, which was filled with bloodlust and... amusement.
"You are enjoying it, aren't you?"
"Yeah, I am. I especially like it on myself as well as others. It feels... feels like being drunk."
Well I have a sociopath inside me. I don't why but I felt like it was the best person I could have.
"What would we do if I don't find a piece there?"
"You climb the next, though you would get other benefits if you are lucky."
"Like?" I asked him sarcastically.
"Usually a skill or a weapon that you can use regularly. Though how good it will be...
I don't know."
"Have you seen it?"
"I was born within your mind and I will stay within it forever. So I don't know what is happening in someone else's mind."
Somehow that had given me something new to look up for. I didn't mind physical powers but now they didn't do much.
Their progress had now become stagnant.
Another year had passed and now I was just a few meter away from the top.
I pushed myself to my limit. The pain was so overwhelming that I almost drove my knee into the tip of the sword.
There was no code or anything like that here. And I wasn't even able to see if other sword tips had anything.
I thought this was going to be a waste, but then the ground trembled.
Slowly I could see the sword break from the center.
Something growled inside me as it happened and for a moment I thought I could feel CHI' in my veins but it was gone.
But I remembered the feeling. It felt like death-coldness creeping or rather... flowing in my veins.
The growling was getting louder and louder till—
It started coming out of my own mouth. And I laughed, out of my soul like an... a wounded animal. Along with me I also heard another laugh.
It was his. He too was laughing like an animal but... it was more of a hunter.
From the cracks golden light shone out, as if it was trapped there for years.
As the sword slowly crumbled, I fell down.
I thought I would get smashed into the ground,
But I was saved by the light which was now surrounding me. It made my fall slow.
It was also healing my body. My bones were getting back into shape, skin forming back. It was almost like... time was reversing on my body.
But my left arm didn't regenerate. The empty feeling there was now eating my head.
A slow humming sound of bells filled my mind
It freed my mind from years of strain, and somehow I felt my mind elevate.
The light entered my forehead and felt a burning sensation, but it was calm.
I thought something might change in the space I was in, but nothing happened much.
They space did feel it had grown a bit with new swords or rather mountains of swords appearing on the edge of the horizon.
The existing swords were also resonating with the same golden light and some had even grown to form mass structure which did not make any sense.
And some of the swords had changed their shape into tridents or long slim swords.
I slowly touched the ground like a light feather.
And in front of me were two spheres.
One of it was like a small ball. It strangely felt like a small planet.
It was of golden color yet there were hints of blood-red in it. There was even a point where the whole ball seemed to be getting sucked in.
It felt like CHI' but... it was different.
"What is that thing?"
"That is a CHI' core. If you touch it at your stage of cultivation it would break your last remaining hand.
And than it will be easy to take over you."
I looked at him like really now?
"It is basically a lock-embodiment of a CHI'."
But it didn't feel like him.
He was pure death and bloodlust but this one felt like... order.
"Are you the same in every mind?"
"What?
You think I wear the same skin in every mind. If that would happen then the world would become stagnant."
Yeah, that felt stupid.
So that means...
"How are you different?"
I was hoping for another clever lie but,
"You have to earn that...
and before that happens, you would likely be dead, by my hands.
And for your concern we(CHI') reflect the becoming of the person we are in."
Reflects his becoming...
he was changing or rather evolving... into a monster-human.
So am I the monster here?
I felt like he was holding something back and so was I.
"Anyway, you did find a shard." He interrupted my thoughts.
I looked at the shard.
It was a piece of metal which was... sealed inside a sphere. Upon the sphere something was written in strange symbols.
My brain automatically read it as 'Kasrat an-Nur'.
"Kasrat an-Nur?" I asked him, puzzled.
"It is a shard of a broken piece of ethereal light. It is basically a fallen piece of god's enlightenment."
I didn't fully understand it but now,
One was down and six more were left to go, I thought to myself.
But...
The gods played a nice card.
I took ten more years to climb another two swords to find nothing not even a useless skill.
The only thing it did was heal my body and elevate my mind.
Though I can't deny that my body had passed the stagnant stage and I could feel a lot of difference in myself.
Especially in recovery and raw physical power.
The mind space also didn't changed up except I could feel layers of boundaries surrounding the space now.
And now I could divide my conscience into different pieces though Zegrath didn't know about it.
I wanted to test my strength out but Zegrath said it would be better if I don't.
It was clear he was stopping me from going out.
It made me doubt him, that he might be lying about the time fluctuation, so I quietly sent a piece of my consciousness out of my mind-space.
But in the outside world nothing had changed.
He still didn't entirely felt safe but, here he was the only one who knows...
and that too is a dangerous thing.