Beyond the Will of Transcendence

CHAPTER 7

Azura held on with all her might, bearing the agonizing pain from the highly intense burning of her solarion with every depth of determination, even though her spirit core was threatening to explode.

But for the sake of her spiritcraft, there were no limits.

Even after a thousand years of being stuck in the phase of convergence, this was still her mantra as she trained.

As she intently endured, she could also feel the aura of her light energy raging hard through her entire body. Even if the pain did not succeed in breaking her solid resolve, the heat was merciless and willing to torture her until it could manage to crack her willpower.

"I don't believe it..." She mumbled somewhere in between, her words slurred and indistinct. "I don't believe that I cannot break through this cursed phase..."

It has been so long. Too long even. Yet, this cumbersome bottleneck remained averse to letting her go, no matter how much she tried.

Suddenly, for a split second, she felt a faint, slight cool in her spirit core.

She let out a tiny gasp. What was that?!

It felt different, yet familiar- very particularly familiar. She recognised it because for some reason it resonated with her solarion.

Hold on... She tried to reason. Was it a sign that she was about to break through?

Finally... After all her hard work and relentless efforts in the past millennium, the breakthrough to eminence was finally within reach.

Her heart grew robust with joy as the thought of her forthcoming success engraved itself on her mind. She went on with her cultivation now even more motivated than ever before.

But the same cool sensation came again. This time, lasting a little more than a second before disappearing like before.

No. Something was off. Azura thought.

Yes, the feeling was still familiar as she had reasoned initially, but something also felt strange about it. It was in her gut and she could not let go of this cognition.

She recalled a tad vividly that the first time she advanced to the eminent phase, even though that was ages ago, the signals were not exactly the same.

As the Sun, everything about her gave light and this light burned at all times, even though at varying degrees. But this temperature was low and cold. Yet, it resonated with her spiritual element.

Why? She wondered.

Now, for some reason, the heat caused by the aggressive flow of her aura throughout her body was slowly becoming less tormenting. The harrowing pain from before was also reducing little by little.

What? What was happening to her cultivation?

Then came the sensation again. It stayed longer this time before it started moving.

Slowly and steadily it spread, from its initial point to other parts of her spirit core, overwhelming its wholeness. Azura sensed the danger and tried to stop it by intensifying her training. But it was in vain. The more her solarion burned, the faster the coldness menaced her core. Soon, it started to feel like the coldness was feeding off her light energy.

No... This was a bad sign. She had to stop this altogether!

Immediately, she stopped the flow of her spiritual aura and released it from her body with a loud forceful blast that shook the environs.

"Your Eminence! Your Eminence!"

Azura let out a long exhale as she heard her chief attendant, Luna, barging through the doors of the Chamber of Transcendence. She came with a few other attendants and a couple of guards.