The moment Mira pushed the orange door open, an invisible force washed over her. It was as if gravity itself had taken an acute interest in her, attempting to anchor her to the very spot she stood. She felt her knees buckle slightly, but she caught herself, steadying her stance as she stared at the intimidating pressure bearing down on her.
It was like having a mountain on her back and a planet on her shoulders. The very air she breathed felt thick, every inhale a laborious task. The pressure didn't crush her instantly; instead, it slowly increased, a relentless tide that threatened to grind her down to dust.
Yet Mira didn't step back or attempt to resist it. She embraced it.
'I'm guessing this Hell has something to do with weight.' Mira said as she kept herself upright.
"Correct!" The Guardian affirmed, "To be exact, it's the Hell of Gravity. Like the others, it's fairly simple. Just withstand the gravity until the end, and you pass."
'And when will it end?' Mira asked. The weight on her right now wasn't that bad. However, with every second, it increased slightly. There would come a point where she might have a hard time moving, much less fighting or training.
"It'll end when you die."
'...' Mira paused for a moment and squinted her eyes. If the Guardian were standing before her, she would've tried to strangle him. '...Enough joking around. Tell me when it'll end.'
"I'm not joking! Did you think every Hell would simply be an opportunity for you to get stronger? No! They are meant to kill you! That's the entire point! You getting stronger from them is because you adapted quickly enough before that happened." The Guardian spoke, his tone stern.
Hearing him like that, Mira understood that the Guardian was serious, but that still confused her.
'Then, how am I supposed to pass this Hell? Like the others, surely there's a way, right?' Mira asked, more so to herself than for the Guardian, but he still answered anyway.
"Of course there is. You just have to find it." The Guardian said cheekily, but Mira had already expected an answer like that.
However, it never hurts to ask. Maybe one of these times, he'll actually give a proper explanation.
'I see.' Mira nodded and stopped talking to him. She already had a few ideas swirling around in her mind, but none of them seemed feasible at the moment.
'What is gravity?' Mira asked herself.
Gravity. A force of nature, omnipresent and inexorable. It was what kept her feet on the ground, what made the stars dance in the sky. Now, it sought to be her undoing, a relentless force pressing her down, trying to crush her will, her spirit, her very being.
'It's attraction... a pull towards a center,' she mused, her mind spiraling back to her time on Earth. Although the people there knew what gravity was and even how it worked, they didn't fully understand it.
Her train of thought was abruptly interrupted when her knees twitched, the increasing gravitational pull attempting to bring her down, but she remained upright.
'The force is proportional to the mass...the greater the mass, the greater the pull,' her mind whirred, ticking through the facts.
"I don't think this isn't a battle I can win by strength alone…" Mira muttered.
'The weight on me... the force I feel… it's gravity acting on my own mass. If I were lighter...' Mira's thoughts trailed off, an idea beginning to form.
She straightened her posture and closed her eyes, turning her focus inwards onto her Qi.
From her knowledge, gravity wasn't an element in the traditional sense like Fire, Water, Earth, etc. It was a fundamental force of nature that governed the attraction between two objects.
While someone out there might have an affinity for Gravity and could control it at will, that wasn't any of her concern right now.
Everything she learned about Qi ever since she became a cultivator was that one's intent was extremely important. It was a very malleable energy whose limits weren't known, and Mira was about to test those limits.
In her mind, she visualized her Qi as light, bright and weightless. The concept of lightness... was it only physical? Or could it transcend into something more, something capable of counteracting the relentless pull of gravity?
Slowly, she began to imbue this concept into her Qi, focusing on the idea of lightness, of floating, of defying the pull that sought to bring her down. The process was mentally exhausting, especially since Dominique was in a trial, but she kept at it.
Time lost all meaning as she wrestled with her Qi, shaping it, bending it to her will. After what felt like an eternity, she opened her eyes, her body feeling a bit less burdened.
"Did it work?" she asked aloud, standing up fully. To her surprise, the pressure felt a little less overwhelming. It was far from comfortable, but it was progress, a sign that her idea held merit.
"I never thought you'd try that…" The Guardian's voice echoed around her, a hint of surprise in his tone. "Keep going. Maybe you'll actually pass this Hell." He quipped, but Mira ignored him.
While her attempt may have worked, that didn't mean it was the solution. The amount of effort she put in wasn't worth the results. She may be able to bend her Qi to a certain extent, but she couldn't merely give it unilateral commands and expect it to perform.
'Qi might be omnipresent, but I'm omnipotent. I can't just tell it to be invincible and expect that to work.'
There's a process to everything. For example, what is invincible? What makes up invincibility? What makes something weightless? Is that the opposite of gravity?
Essentially, coming up with words and giving them definitions didn't equal purpose. She had to understand the processes behind those words before she could use them to manipulate her Qi.
'Maybe that's why affinities are so important. It bridges that information gap. Those with a Fire affinity don't need to consciously understand what fire is or how it works. Their bodies innately understand that process.' Mira speculated. That was just a theory, but she felt like she wasn't wrong.
'So, maybe instead of relying on something esoteric like weightlessness, I should aim for more of an equilibrium.' Mira thought.
From what she learned in physics, weight is the measure of the gravitational force between two objects. So, true weightlessness is basically the absence of a second object.
'However, that's not possible for me. Even if I were deep in space, with nothing around me for countless light years, I think achieving true weightless still wouldn't be possible because of this Hell.' Mira inferred.
Therefore, perhaps the way to beat this trial wasn't to fight the Hell but to find or create another source of gravitational forces that can counteract the one she's experiencing right now!
There was only a slight problem with that theory…
'How the fuck am I supposed to do that?!'
Mira couldn't help but let out a frustrated huff. The very idea seemed ludicrous, almost impossible. But it was all she had for the moment. And in the face of the relentless pressure that bore down on her, it was better than nothing.
'I need to create a counterforce, something to balance the weight...' Mira thought, her mind already racing with possibilities. She had to think creatively, outside the boundaries of what she knew and what she believed to be possible.
She looked down at her hand, turning it over slowly. Her Qi flowed through her, a subtle force that was always there, always ready to respond to her intent. Could she use it, shape it, and manipulate it into a force strong enough to counteract the gravity?
"I wonder…" She murmured to herself, her eyes focused on her hand.
With renewed determination, Mira closed her eyes again and turned her focus inward, her mind delving deeper into her Qi. She visualized it as a well of energy within her, an infinite sea that ebbed and flowed at her command.
'Create a force, a pull of your own,' she willed, picturing a maelstrom of energy in her mind, pulling at everything that came near.
It felt strange, like she was testing the boundaries of a vast, unknown ocean. It was different from anything she had done before, but she didn't stop.
Time seemed to warp and twist around her, the world falling away as she poured her will into her Qi. She could feel it changing, adapting, morphing under her intent.
Then, it happened.
A new sensation, like a gust of wind, rushed through her. She could feel it, a subtle pull within her, counteracting the crushing weight that was pressing down on her. It was still a far cry from comfortable, but the relentless pressure had lessened, if only slightly.
She opened her eyes, looking around in wonder. She had done it. She had used her Qi to create a counterforce, a balance to the unbearable weight.
"Interesting… I must admit, I did not anticipate this approach," The Guardian's voice echoed around her, a hint of surprise in his tone.
Mira smirked, standing up a bit straighter. The gravity still pressed down on her, but it was more manageable now. She felt like she could move, she could breathe. It wasn't a complete solution, but it was a start.
She knew she had a long way to go, that she was only at the beginning of her trial. But she was ready for the challenge. She was ready to defy gravity.
[A/N: ;)]
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