Divine Beast Ascension

Chapter 456: Dead End

Somehow, Dioro was slipping past the various beasts across the canyon. But it soon proved impossible to evade every beast.

Dioro eventually encountered a massive scorpion, rushing out of a nearby cave. The fight was quick, but Dioro was also startled to have the scorpion survive his first four attacks. It also frightened Oli. After watching his father dominate his way through the Mortal Championship, as well as another exhibition that Oli didn’t know much about, it was baffling to see his father be challenged by another elder beast.

Oli watched his father continue weaving through the canyon according to the map, never going in a straight line. It was confusing but only without the map.

This went on for days in the memory. It was the longest memory that Oli had ever encountered inside the soul jade, by far. It was filled with Dioro searching for something, as well as the growing number of wild beast encounters.

By the fifth day of searching, Dioro was encountering a beast at least three times a day, and it was sometimes a pack of beasts.

But Dioro pressed on. Oli watched as his father trekked through Devil’s Canyon with great caution and astuteness. He never strayed from the map, not once. And Dioro always showed tremendous care for the map. Cross-examining it over and over, Dioro went deeper and deeper into the mysterious and deadly canyon.

Finally, after twenty-six days in the canyon, Dioro was exhausted. He had barely been able to sleep due to the danger of his surroundings. And there was nowhere for him to take a break without needing to be overly cautious. But he finally reached his desired destination.

.....

Oli watched as Dioro confronted a seemingly small cave. However, the size of the cave drastically changed after walking in. And it was then that Dioro stopped checking with his map since that’s where it ended. All Dioro could do now was rely on his senses to navigate the darkening passage, getting further and further away from the light of the outside world.

Then the memory ended.

For a brief moment, Oli forgot the pain he was feeling. Instead, Oli was furious to be cut short just before the payout. He had watched his father for nearly an entire moon and it was all so he could be denied witnessing the final encounters that the map was clearly guiding Dioro to.

However, the pain and discomfort of the invading energy quickly overtook Oli again.

He sat in place for a while. Hours, days, suns passed... No matter what Oli tried, he would never be able to shake the pain that he felt. Whenever he felt it lessen or he was slightly more adjusted to the pain, Oli would feel it get worse yet again. It was so precise and careful. Oli felt like the formation was somehow sentient and would always know the exact moment to turn up the pain to deplete Oli’s willpower bit by bit.

Oli would still try and scan through the memories. But that was also proving less and less effective as more time passed. He even tried rewatching memories for more details. In particular, Oli watched his father’s journey into Devil’s Canyon a few times. Yet he never found any memories of Dioro’s journey in the cave or his exit from Devil’s Canyon. The next memory was Dioro’s reunion with Ania in Bore City, followed by them leading the clan away in search of Rathe.

But Oli couldn’t shake the desire to see what truly happened in Devil’s Canyon. There had to be a reason that cave was marked on a map! And it ate at Oli to be so close yet out of reach of learning the truth.

More time passed. With the slowed time of the soul jade, Oli never bothered to keep track of how long the process was taking. He wouldn’t be able to remember how long he had been inside the soul jade, let alone calculate how long that was in the regular world.

In search of something, Oli started trying anything he could think up to get through the pain.

As watching memories was getting less effective, Oli even tried cultivating. He tried to focus on his battle arts and the battle arts he would soon have available as an elder. Right away, that failed. The pain didn’t let Oli maintain such heightened focus.

Soon, Oli tried using his Infinite Compression Art. And immediately stopped. It felt like the entire world had suddenly toppled over him and shattered, leaving him forever buried in an immovable pile of rubble.

After taking some time to try and recover from that, Oli looked into his remaining options.

With nothing to lose, Oli decided to try one more thing. All of Oli’s pain was related to his physical body. That’s why it was unable to fully reach Oli’s mind and soul, which was sealed away in the soul jade for the time being. So, Oli decided to try something that didn’t involve his physical body.

“Since pain is inevitable... Why not focus... on a different kind of pain...”

Oli dove into his Infinite Torture Technique. He had nearly mastered the adept level. So, Oli wanted to make sure he could master that level and beyond. Since he was trapped there indefinitely, why not use that time as best he could?

And Oli’s strategy worked. Somewhat.

The external pain that Oli felt wasn’t lessened at all. But as Oli’s soul trembled from the torturous technique, and since his senses to the outside, physical world were lessened inside the soul jade, the pain in his soul could overshadow the physical pain. The external pain wasn’t gone. But Oli could at least focus on the gains and growth of the Infinite Torture Technique to help keep control of himself.

Racked with pain and discomfort beyond even what Eeole had projected, Oli cultivated and trained his Infinite Torture Technique for the duration of his time sealed in the soul jade. As time passed and Oli could gradually focus on the growth of his soul, the physical pain would ever so gradually become less and less noticeable. And, eventually, Oli would outlast the physical torture of the strange formation.