It became difficult to continue at one point, not because the pain was unbearable, but because the single hole that was opened was far too wide for Alex's Intent to continue to open any more.
Alex fell into a push and pull with the seal for quite some time, the storm continuously raging in his mind. It became a war of attrition very quickly, which he was bound to lose.
He needed to combat it somehow, and his many battles with the Grand Elder came to his rescue.
If a battlefront entered a stage where neither party could advance, then the right thing to do was not to pour more soldiers there, but to attack them from a different side where the enemy was not defending.
Alex targeted the other side of the seal and opened a second hole. Immediately, the battle shifted in his favor, the seal becoming smaller and smaller.
Smaller, sadly, did not mean weaker.
