Ryuu and Master Izaria watched as Mira tortured herself mentally and physically over the last few days. It wasn't just Ryuu's jabs that injured her. No, those were healed in an instant.
It was the fact that Mira was placing so much stress on her mind and body that neither could keep up.
Her body constantly trembled as she bled out of every orifice; the longer this went on, the worse it got, but Mira never once thought to stop.
Every time she woke up, she would almost instantly lose control. Her body would shake with rage, adrenalin flowing through her veins as her instincts wanted nothing more than to slaughter everything around her.
Then, Ryuu would knock her unconscious, only for her to wake back up again a few seconds later. Doing such a thing over and over again, hundreds if not thousands of times puts tremendous stress on the body. If she were any normal person, she would have already been driven insane.
However, Mira was anything but normal.
…Or maybe it's just that she was already insane, to begin with, that such actions didn't faze her at all. Ryuu and Master Izaria couldn't tell.
This went on for four days straight, but then her body suddenly stopped trembling.
"D-Do you think she's alright?" Ryuu asked anxiously. Although he wanted to be glad that Mira stopped shaking and bleeding, he couldn't. At least when she was trembling, he knew she was alive, but now, she looked more like a corpse than a living person.
He couldn't even sense her heartbeat!
Master Izaria frowned and scanned Mira with her Divine Sense. She didn't want to dig too deep into Mira's secrets, as her instincts as a cultivator who has lived through thousands of years' worth of hardships warned her against doing so, but she should be fine as long as she just made sure Mria was alive.
Ba-dump...
Ba-dump...... Ba-dump............Ba-dump
She breathed a sigh of relief as she sensed Mira's heartbeat. While it was faint at first, when she listened further, each thump sounded like someone pounding on a steal door. In fact, it beat with so much power that Master Izaria thought she had felt the heartbeat of a dragon rather than a fox.
"She's fine," Master Izaria answered, "It seems she's just entered a deep state of meditation, so her breathing has slowed, and her body has entered a supremely relaxed state."
Ryuu let out a turbid breath hearing that, and his body relaxed.
"Good," He nodded, "I didn't want the person I spent the last four days helping to die on me."
After saying that, he undid the Sword Threads around Mira and fell to his butt.
"I-I'm going to take a short nap. Take care of Mira for me if something happens." With that said, he fell asleep.
Master Izaria smiled wryly, understanding her disciple, as he worked hard to keep his Sword Threads up for an entire four days. She didn't offer to help him, nor did he ask for it. If he wanted to help Mira, that was his responsibility.
Her job was to stop Mira from destroying the nearby city and all those innocents, not to help her with her problems. If it were up to Izaria, she would've just killed Mira and been done with it.
'Though I guess I can't kill her, seeing how that bitch Aelina likes her so much. I would rather not have to constantly look over my shoulder, waiting for that snake to strike.' Izaria scowled, thinking about Aelina, then turned her attention back to Mira.
The thought of killing her had entered Izaria's mind on more than one occasion, especially after what she had just witnessed.
'Someone hiding that much pain… that much anger…' Her eyes flashed with a murderous glint, 'Shouldn't exist in this world.'
She could already imagine the trail of blood and corpses Mira would leave behind in this world. Innocent or guilty, right or wrong, none of those things mattered to someone like Mira. There were only the dead and the soon-to-be dead.
'Who knows what sort of destruction she'll bring upon the world? If I don't kill her now, I might not have a chance again.' Master Izaria thought, raising her hand while staring at Mira's neck.
However, a second later, her hand fell to her side, and an amused smile played upon her face.
"Ahhh~ Who am I kidding? This world has been boring for too long! I want to see what sort of waves this girl will make!" She chuckled.
"Will she shake the world with her power, die a worthless death, or continue hiding in the shadows? I can't wait to find out!" Master Izaria's smirk widened, eager to see what the future had in store for her.
***
Mira had no idea that she had almost died just now, as she was too busy thinking about how she should construct her new "mind."
Now that she had tamed most of the rage swirling around inside of her, it was time to rebuild the jumbled mess that is her mind.
She could just stick with what she originally had, but clearly, that didn't work out so well.
'What I need is a mind that can handle all those pent-up emotions and not break down immediately.'
She didn't doubt that another situation like this might happen again in the future. While she might've tamed her rage for now, it's not like it was gone. It would come back again, and it would be stronger the next time it did.
The same goes for all the other emotions.
'Who knows? Next time, instead of getting angry, I might end up so depressed that I kill myself without a second thought!' Mira shivered at the thought and knew she had to prevent such a scenario at all costs!
'But how do I rebuild my 'mind'? And what should I make it?' Mira pondered.
She knew that she wasn't exactly creating a new 'mind'. If she had to do that, she would already be dead.
It was more like she wanted to fix how her consciousness interacted with her brain and how everything was structured.
'Order and efficiency, huh?' Mira thought, and her first instinct was to go with a palace similar to the Mind Palace technique she had heard about in one of her lives.
It was versatile, orderly, efficient, and strong as long as she structured everything correctly. It also gave her room to grow in case she wanted to add something new in the future.
'Alright, I'll go with creating a palace. I already have a good idea of how to create my Mind Palace anyways.' Mira thought and immediately went into action.
First, she started cleaning up the remains that the emotional storm left, and since this was her own mind, all it took was a thought.
Then, she went on to create a sturdy foundation. She dug a massive hole deep into the recesses of her mind until she reached the edge and filled it with dense, sturdy metal.
After finishing the foundation, she moved on to creating the frame for her mind palace. She didn't want something overly massive that was a pain to navigate, but it had to be big enough that it had room for growth.
The rooms need to be isolated from one another but easily accessible, and all the hallways had to lead back to the main one. She also required a massive library for all her knowledge and future knowledge.
Once she finished that, it was time to move on to the filtration system. Her mind didn't need to be filled with waste, and if such a thing happened to enter, it had to be easily detectable and quickly disposed of.
Next up was the insulation. Mira had to make it so that the things she wanted to stay, stayed, and the things she wanted to keep out, stayed out. This was a bit trickier to make, but Mira managed to create something she was satisfied with.
All that was left now was to finish the home off with an interior and exterior that wouldn't falter, even under the worst of conditions, yet it had to be flexible enough that if a heavy enough load came, the house wouldn't snap.
Mira thought back to when she visited the World Tree during one of her item trials and decided to take a page out of its book. Not only was it strong enough to hold up an entire world, but it was malleable enough that it wouldn't break even if more weight were added to it.
Obviously, she didn't have a physical World Tree with her to use, but that's the intent she put into her walls and floor when making it.
Now that the physical palace was finished, she had to separate each emotion, knowledge and thought into their own rooms so they were isolated from the rest yet easily accessible.
Mira didn't want to have to deal with a jumbled mess like she had over the last few days. She wanted everything to be orderly and efficient.
For example, if, for whatever reason, she was sad one day, then she could come to the 'sadness room' and deal with that by herself. The rest of her mind wouldn't be affected by it, and she would still be able to make rational decisions even if she were said.
Taking all those emotions and forcing them into their designated rooms took a while, but when she was finished, she felt a sense of clarity!
"...Congratulations, you have passed the last trial for the Hell of Weakness…" The Guardian's bitter voice rang out in her mind
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