[Foundation Trial of ChaosAscend the Stairway of Chaos to the best of your ability.
Time Remaining: 23H 59M 59S]
Elizabeth took a deep breath before she took her first step up the heaven-piercing stairs.
"Vanishing Potential, A t.i.tan"s Const.i.tution."
The same message she received during her first visit appeared in her stream of consciousness. However, this time, with her incomparably more powerful Soul Land, Elizabeth had to take a moment to review the message as she felt dozens of insights her previous self was blind to.
Unlike her previous display of dominance during her second visit to the Ancient Phantasmagorial Timepiece, she took the slow and steady route of carefully absorbing as many insights into Chaos as her perception allowed.
"I only have a day and there aren"t any supplemental techniques to help with the progression," Elizabeth thought, "Well, I suppose I have Chaos Requiem, but that doesn"t change the fact that Chaos is leagues more difficult than any other energy to understand."
With nothing to go by but the messages each step would teach her, the only thing she could do was try her best to understand as she progressed. Fortunately, with her Trash Tier Affinity for Chaos and bar-none Understanding, it was still relatively easy to ascend the first thousand steps; absorbing all the insights possible in the close to three hours it took.
Like her first round through the stairs, a pressure had gradually built up as she rose up the stairs. However, even without the reliance on her Chaos Seals of Pressure, her meager Understanding was more than enough to balance any pressure that might have affected her.
Eventually, though, Elizabeth began to struggle and by the 2,000th step, she had reached her limits after utilizing only her Understanding.
Unlike every other type of Energy, both the cultivation of Affinity and Understanding of Chaos were tied to a Cultivator"s Cultivation Base. No matter what Elizabeth did in the Mortal Realm, her Affinity for Chaos could at most reach the peak of Sub-Trash Tier. In the Foundation Stages of the Spirit Realm, she would only be able to work with Base Grandmist; limited by her Trash Tier Chaos Affinity. The same concept applied to her Understanding.
Thus, to continue progressing, to ascend the Stairway of Requiem and attain as high a score as possible, Elizabeth had to start relying on her Chaos Seals.
Her first Chaos Seal gave her control of a Chaos Field of Pressure; with weak pressure, but pressure nonetheless. It propelled her an additional three-hundred or so steps before the second and eventual third Chaos Seals of Pressure were activated to take Elizabeth up to the 3,000th step.
Keeping her Chaos Seals of Augmentation reserved for the final push, she skipped over to the activation of her 7th Chaos Seal and completed an "Inkling" Transformation of the hands and arms.
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She suffered a truly miserable experience as the parts of her body that had yet to be transformed were destroyed and rebuilt thousands of times over; and sadly, that was just the start.
When her 8th Chaos Seal was activated, the transformation process continued from "Inkling" to "Partial" and after another agonizing experience, Elizabeth"s fingers and forearms had developed black scale-like armor. By the end of it, even with her tolerance, Elizabeth gave herself a couple of seconds before ruthlessly activating her 9th Chaos Seal and completing a "Full" Transformation.
For about half an hour, Elizabeth stood immobilized as her sanity was tested. The pain couldn"t even be called soul-rending as Elizabeth would almost prefer to literally have her soul shredded to pieces over the torture she currently faced.
Having experienced the exponential growth to the pain each activation induced, Elizabeth wisely paralyzed herself for an hour, immediately after initiating the full transformation. Had she not prepared this step ahead of time, there was no telling what kind of damage she would have done to herself if both her body and mind fell to primal instinct. If she lost her sanity and continued ascending the stairway or began to turn to self-harm to seek relief, the consequences could turn fatal.
Fortunately, though she suffered immensely, her willpower managed to hold up in the end. She had overshot the time her body should have been paralyzed by twice the necessary amount, but instead of cursing internally as she was p.r.o.ne to do whenever an inefficiency in her cultivation arose, she quietly accepted this time"s mistake as a happy accident.
Thirty minutes might seem like a long time to be idling, but the repose gained from escaping the pain of a full transformation made the wait seem more like a vacation than anything else.
In the end, Elizabeth came out wearing the sleeves of a scale mail armor. From the base of her shoulder to the tips of her fingers, black draconic scales cover her arms. Moreover, a pair of crystalline vector-black wings now jutted out of her shoulder blades. Somehow, the wings were both long and flexible enough for her to wrap around herself and personally appraise. Controlling them even came intuitively.
"Great," Elizabeth sarcastically thought, "I can now choose between looking like an anthropomorphic wolf or cosplay as an evil dragon…"
She quickly discovered that after a.s.suming a full transformation, her resistance against the chaos pressure skyrocketed, while the effects of her Chaos Seals of Pressure also increased in potency. Where she currently stood, the Chaos Seals of Pressure weren"t even required.
Thus, the ascension continued as Elizabeth remained transformed. She started slowing down once more at around the 3,150th step and found her limit at the 3,333rd step. Yet with the reactivation of her Chaos Seals of Pressure, the climb continued without pause.
Each renewed Chaos Seal of Pressure allowed her to advance exactly 1,111 more steps as if by design; leaving her at the 6666th step after about half the day"s time had expired. After the 3333rd step, she had already understood all there was for her to comprehend as all the subsequent steps only increased the chaotic pressure around her.
The only thing of value left for her to do was to a.s.similate with the Energies present and with the density increasing the higher up she went, the most reasonable course of action was to use her Chaos Seals of Augmentation to cultivate at the highest step possible.
Elizabeth cringed at the thought as the feeling of her torturous transformation was still close at heart. She also hadn"t forgotten the damage that activating her Chaos Seals of Augmentation would do after their charge of Grandmist expired.
"My body"s hundreds of times more powerful than it was the last time I activated my Sixth Chaos Seal," she thought with a helpless smile before the second part of her a.n.a.lysis utterly wrecked her morale. "Then again, I was only dealing with Fragmented Grandmist. This… This will probably end poorly, won"t it?"
She took a moment to curse the Sky Seizing Castle"s unforgiving arrays as they prevented her from using her Storage Talismans or Spatial Ring; barring her access to Spiritual Meals that would make the process marginally easier. When she hit her quota of curses for the day, she activated her 4th Chaos Seal and immediately shot up the stairs; a faintly discernible grey film of energy coated her body as she continued.
"Oh?" Elizabeth"s eyes sharpened as she counted past the next 1111th step without a drop to her speed. Her Fourth Chaos Seal of Augmentation would carry her nearly 1,400 steps before her new limit was reached.
She activated her 5th Chaos Seal and took a deep breath as the grey film wrapping around her body darkened. However, regardless of the pain, her excitement rose at the sight of Chaotic Energies beginning to condense as she approached what had to be the upper reaches of the stairway. Not halfway into her ascent with eight active Chaos Seals, she was engulfed in a Chaos Mist so dense it was hard to see even a hundred steps ahead.
Alas with the end nowhere in sight by the time her limit was met once more, Elizabeth had little choice but to activate her sixth Chaos Seal; in doing so, darkening her body to the point that it no longer seemed natural.
She held so much power with her Nine Seals active that the Chaos Mist around her was quaking in resonance. It rumbled and issued metallic cries with each of her movements such that had any Mortal Realm Pract.i.tioners been around to hear it, their eardrums would rupture and the sound that carried over could potentially fry their brains.
Feeling like a G.o.d as she approached the 9999th step with ease, Elizabeth paused in mild surprise when she stepped on the 10,000th step and felt the Chaotic Energies around her completely dissipate.
[Foundation Trial of Chaos
Performance: 1?? (Highest Core)
Rewards: 10 Twinkling Comet Gold Tickets, 10 Twinkling Comet White Tickets, 10 Twinkling Comet Black Tickets, 10 Twinkling Comet Cyan Tickets
Foundation Trial of Requiem
Reach the top of the Stairway of Chaos if possible.
Time Remaining: 11H 55M 38S]
All Elizabeth could utter was an apprehensive, "Oh…"
Though the density of the Chaotic Energies had reset, Elizabeth understood after taking just a couple more steps that this final stretch to the top of the staircase would be a nightmare.
Not only did the pressure return and increase with each subsequent step, but the amount it increased by seemed to grow over time as well. Moreover, whereas before there were only Chaotic Energies, after the 10,000th step, volatile Elemental Energies were also added to the mix.
The power Elizabeth possessed with her nine Chaos Seals active put her on par with Core Formation Stage Cultivators and shouldn"t be underestimated, but after advancing 10,600 steps and confronting new Origin Energies, even she had to grit her teeth as the pressure was starting to get to her.
After 10,750 steps, Fusion Energies almost instantly forced her progress to stop. But, unfortunately, with the end finally in sight, Elizabeth"s inner madness was spurred once again and she continued without caring about conserving her strength.
She made it to ten steps away from the end of the stairway before lacking the power required to proceed and stopping with eyes l.u.s.ting to reach the top.
If anyone was around to see her current state, they wouldn"t see a supreme talent at the Foundation Collapse Stage, rather, a deranged maniac; nude, as she couldn"t even protect her armors from the horrifying energies at her current position.
Where she currently sat meditating and absorbing the Energies around her, the density of the spiritual air couldn"t even be called misty. It wasn"t completely solid yet, but semi-liquid and viscous with a potency that trivialized the Meditation Chamber. Like a vacuum, Elizabeth devoured it all with wanton abandon.
Her Chaos Seals of Augmentation had a time limit of up to eight minutes and to just get as far as she did, it took three. But with the five that remained, what would have previously been considered impossible advancements were made in the cultivation of her Spiritual Pillars.
A minute in and her yellowish-orange Spiritual Pillars had all turned blood red; her True Qi cultivation instantly crossed into the rank of Chaotic Foundation Nascent Collapse.
Another three minutes in and red color had shifted into a light purple.
Unfortunately, Elizabeth had to stop the cultivation of her energy reserves there and focus on recovering physically, lest the cancellation of her Chaos Seals of Augmentation fatally injure her. However, in doing so, she managed to bring similarly incomprehensible levels of improvement to all her physical Stats.
It lasted for fifty-five seconds at most as she naturally chose to move back down to a less intense lower step, but she progressed enough to Level Up to Level 37.
When the effect Chaos Seals of Augmentation expired, the pain and damage done were predictable and Elizabeth had to set aside nearly a quarter of an hour to recover back to peak strength. However, the chance to enter the Chaos Substation Trial wouldn"t come often; it had to be taken advantage of to the best of her ability, lest she regret it in the future.
She didn"t know if it was even possible to retry this particular Substation and even if it were, the cost of doing so would probably bankrupt her of all the rewards she had acc.u.mulated thus far.
Thus, Elizabeth continued to activate her Chaos Seals and ascend near the top of the Stairway of Chaos. Since she got stronger with each subsequent attempt, she gradually reached higher steps. Moreover, as she was being constrained by practically every Energy she had previously trained, her Understanding and control of said Energies were also increasing at a noticeable rate.
An hour into her cycle of cultivating and recovering and she had converted all one-hundred Spiritual Pillars to a deep violet; completing another advancement in rank to Chaotic Foundation Immortal Collapse. Three hours later, those violet Spiritual Pillars crackled with divine golden light, yet Elizabeth was still a single step away from reaching the last 10,800th step.
She had around eight hours to rise one final step, yet couldn"t ascend even as her Spiritual Pillars darkened to pitch blackness, nearly seven hours in. Even her perfect cultivation of Chaos Requiem for the Foundation Stages that had been built up before attempting the Trial of Chaos began to tremble with uncertainty as her body approached the highest possible potential it was capable of supporting with her Cultivation Base.
It took everything out of her to finally reach the top: A Level 40 capped Cultivation Base at the Foundation Collapse Stage, her peak-level Trash-tier Chaos Affinity and the Understanding of nineteen Profound Truths working in conjunction; even the Nine Chaos Seals.
When she finally made it to the top, history repeated itself as her consciousness faded before she could look over her rewards.
Though unlike the first time, Elizabeth had the better judgment to leave measures to ensure she recovered quickly. She wouldn"t run the risk of sleeping through any Quest deadlines this time around.