The moment we stepped into the domain, the air shifted. Heavy. Ancient. The kind of weight that pressed on your chest before anything else even happened. I barely had time to take in the sight of the endless stone structures rising around us before the ground beneath my feet erupted.
In the blink of an eye, Zhongli's geo constructs wrapped around me, locking my wrists and ankles in place. Four golden shackles, shaped like bracelets yet heavy as entire mountains, clamped down hard. I staggered, nearly collapsing under the sudden force. My limbs trembled as if gravity itself had turned against me.
Greg let out a tiny squeak and scrambled higher up my shoulder, glaring down at the shackles like he was ready to bite them off. His little tail whipped against my cheek in frantic protest. I chuckled bitterly. "Yeah, buddy, I don't like this either."
I smirked through gritted teeth, lifting my eyes to Zhongli. "Damn you, Zhongli. You didn't even hesitate. I thought we were friends."
Zhongli's amber eyes looked down on me, calm as the earth itself. His voice rumbled like distant thunder. "Of course we are. That is precisely why I do this."
For a split second, I imagined Paimon's shrill voice echoing in my head—'Hey! Don't bully Shigeru like that!' Nilou's worried whisper followed, 'Shigeru, you don't have to push yourself so hard…' And Lumine—hers would have been the quietest, but the sharpest—'Endure it. Don't give up.' Their words weren't here, but they lived in me. I clenched my jaw tighter. "Tch. You three really left me with no excuse, huh."
The shackles pulled at me, dragging my body lower until my knees scraped against the domain floor. I tried to move, but each attempt only confirmed the truth—this wasn't just weight. This was something deeper, heavier than mere stone. It felt like my entire existence was being pinned into the ground.
Above me, Mountain Shaper's voice carried, cryptic and steady. "For your first trial, mortal… make your body accept the burden. Let it adapt. Only then will you stand."
So this was it. The beginning of my training.
I clenched my teeth, digging my fingers into the stone floor, and tried to rise. The pain shot through my body instantly, tearing at my muscles as though my flesh itself was rebelling. My shoulders screamed, my arms quaked, my lungs begged for air—but still I pushed. Again, again, and again.
Greg tilted his head, watching me with unblinking lizard eyes. He slapped his tail against my neck like he was saying 'Get up, idiot. You've got people waiting for you.' I laughed hoarsely. "You sound just like Paimon right now. Great, even my lizard's nagging me."
The bindings refused to move. The weight refused to lessen.
Mountain Shaper offered what he thought were words of advice, but to me they sounded like riddles. "The mountain does not carry itself, yet it endures eternity. What is burden but a teacher of stillness?"
I barked a breathless laugh. "You could just say 'get used to it,' you know." My voice cracked, but I refused to let despair sink in. "Riddles aren't going to help me when my arms are about to snap."
Still, I didn't stop. I couldn't. Every time my body cried out to quit, every time my vision blurred from the strain, I saw their faces. Lumine's quiet resolve. Nilou's gentle smile. Paimon's stubborn support. The thought of their tears—the thought of failing them—burned deeper than any muscle tearing apart inside me.
"What is this pain," I muttered through clenched teeth, blood dripping onto the stone, "compared to watching those I love cry?"
It hurt. Gods, it hurt. My whole body felt like it was being shredded, bone grinding against bone. Blood seeped through every crack in my skin. Greg pressed his tiny head against my jaw, grounding me, almost like saying 'Don't forget why you're doing this.'
Yet in the middle of that agony, I heard Zhongli's low murmur. "Your strength lies not only in the body, but in the essence within."
The words struck me harder than any blow. I froze, realization dawning. All this time, I'd used my elemental power as a weapon, as armor. Always external. Always surface-level. But what if…
What if I turned it inward?
What if I let the elements flow through me—not around me, not against me—but inside me? Into every vein, every cell, every breath of life?
I closed my eyes, inhaled the taste of stone dust, and focused. The first element I reached for was Anemo.
Air. Movement. Freedom.
I tried to draw it inward, to lighten my body, to let it carry me. But it slipped. My concentration broke. Pain surged back in.
I tried again. Failed. Again. Failed. Greg hissed and pawed at my ear every time I slumped down, like a drill sergeant who wouldn't give me a second of peace. "Alright, alright, I get it," I rasped. "Don't give up. I won't."
I lost track of how many times. My body screamed louder each time I failed, but my will screamed louder still. Hours passed. Days. Maybe even weeks. Time didn't exist in that place anymore, only pain and persistence.
Then it happened. A flicker. A faint spark inside me that wasn't mine. The Anemo stirred—not around me, but within. The shackles didn't loosen, but my body felt lighter, as though my very bones had learned to float.
I stood. My legs trembled, but I stood.
I looked up at Zhongli, sweat and blood dripping from my chin, and gave him a broken smile. "First trial's done."
For a heartbeat, I thought of what Lumine would say if she saw me like this. Probably fold her arms and scold me for being reckless… right before patching me up. Nilou would cry, gentle and warm, while Paimon would smack my head and call me an idiot. The thought almost made me laugh. Almost.
That was when another thought hit me like lightning. If I could do this with Anemo… why not with all the elements?
The madness of the idea didn't scare me. It thrilled me.
So I threw myself into it. One by one, I tried to pull each element into my veins, into my very being. Electro coursed through me, burning like fire yet sharpening my nerves, my speed. Geo anchored me, reinforcing every tendon, every bone. Dendro seeped into me like roots, wrapping me in endurance I didn't think I had.
Xiao's voice broke the silence once, low and grim. "He truly is insane. A suicidal maniac with no regard for his life."
I grinned faintly through blood and sweat. "Heh. You're not wrong, Yaksha. But that's fine. I'll be your insane maniac if it means saving them."
Greg pressed tighter against me, his little body trembling from the raw energy sparking off my skin. I steadied him with one finger, whispering hoarsely, "Hang in there, buddy. We're just getting started."
He blinked at me once—slow, steady—and somehow, that was all the permission I needed to keep going.
The second trial came in the form of storms. Cloud Retainer summoned winds that cut like blades, tearing through the air with precision. I had to walk through the hurricane she unleashed, shackled and half-broken. Each gust hurled me backward, each gale carved lines of blood across my skin. My only weapon was the Anemo now flowing within me. Step by trembling step, I learned to bend the storm instead of being swallowed by it.
Cloud Retainer's voice soared above the maelstrom. "Do not fight the storm, mortal. Become it. A bird does not tear against the wind—it soars with it."
I spat blood, staggered, then pushed forward. "You really think… you can outtalk me with riddles while I'm being diced into sashimi?!" My voice broke against the wind, but still I moved.
Greg clung to a nearby pillar, his tiny claws scraping stone as his beady eyes tracked me. His tail flicked once, slow, almost as if mocking my stupidity. I growled back at him. "Yeah, laugh it up, you gecko. You're not the one turning into shredded cabbage."
When my knees buckled, I heard Nilou's voice echoing in memory, soft yet unyielding. Please come back safe, Shigeru. Promise me.
I grit my teeth, every muscle screaming as I staggered forward again. The storm cut me open, but I began to listen—not to fight, but to yield. Anemo surged inside me, matching the gale. I spread my arms, letting the wind catch me. Instead of resisting, I stepped with it. When it tried to hurl me backward, I bent low, redirecting the current. Slowly, the storm that once sought to devour me became a path. Step by step, I walked through it.
Cloud Retainer's sharp eyes glinted as she called out, "At last, you begin to understand. A bird does not reach the skies by brute force, but by harmony with the wind."
With a final push, I staggered out of the gale, my body drenched in blood but still standing. Greg leapt from his pillar onto my shoulder and flicked his tongue against my cheek, as if to say, finally. I collapsed to one knee, gasping, but I had cleared the trial.
The third trial belonged to Mountain Shaper himself. He rained boulders from the heavens, each one a mountain crashing down. I wasn't allowed to dodge. I wasn't allowed to flee. I had to catch them.
The first boulder shattered my arms to the bone. The second ripped the scream out of my throat. By the tenth, I was half-conscious, body breaking under impossible weight. But Geo surged inside me, knitting strength into my marrow. My fingers dug into stone, skin splitting, blood dripping into the cracks.
Mountain Shaper's voice was low and solemn. "To carry the mountain is to embrace eternity. Rise, mortal."
I wanted to collapse. My lungs burned. My ribs cracked. Greg crawled up onto my shoulder and flicked his tongue against my cheek like a silent nudge.
I groaned. "I get it, buddy… keep going. Don't rub it in."
More boulders fell. My arms snapped, my shoulders caved, but still I raised them. Each time the Geo within me bound my bones, I lifted the weight again. Not once. Not twice. But a hundred times. My body turned into a pillar of bruises and blood, yet still I braced myself. I learned not to catch the stone with raw force, but to anchor myself—let my stance root into the ground, my breath sink low. Geo wasn't about resisting. It was about enduring.
At the final crash, the earth split around me. My knees hit stone, but I was still alive, still holding. And when the boulder finally rolled aside, I stood again, swaying but unbroken.
Mountain Shaper inclined his massive head. A rare nod. Approval.
The fourth trial came from all of them at once. No food. No water. Endless battle.
Moon Carver's illusions conjured feral beasts that ripped into my flesh. Cloud Retainer hurled winds sharp as blades. Mountain Shaper crushed me under phantom avalanches. Xiao drove his spear through me again and again, shadows of demons writhing around him. Madam Ping watched silently, her eyes filled with a sorrow only she seemed to understand.
"Stand," Xiao barked, his spear clashing against my bones. "You want to protect them? Then stand!"
I roared, staggering to my feet though my stomach was empty, my lips cracked from thirst. Dendro seeped within me, roots twisting into my veins, whispering life where none remained.
I saw Nilou's smile, Lumine's piercing gaze, Paimon's ridiculous pouting face. They weren't here, but their voices echoed inside my head, louder than the storms, fiercer than the spears.
"You better come back safe, Shigeru," Nilou's voice pleaded.
"Don't you dare lose now," Lumine commanded.
"Paimon's not gonna forgive you if you give up!"
Their imagined words struck deeper than any blade. I lifted my cracked fists and kept moving. "Fine, fine! Don't shout all at once! I'm dying over here!"
Greg skittered down my arm and slapped my bleeding hand with his tiny tail. I glared weakly. "Oh, now even you're bossing me around?"
For days I fought, my body breaking over and over. When beasts tore me apart, I forced myself to rise again. When avalanches buried me, I clawed my way back to the surface. When Xiao's spear pierced my chest, I dragged myself forward, leaving blood in my wake. Every death that should have claimed me became fuel for another stand.
Moon Carver's voice wove through the illusions. "Resolve is not forged in comfort, but in despair. Show me your resolve, mortal."
And I did. Bruised, burned, broken, but never fallen. At the end, when the illusions dissolved and the domain fell silent, I was on my knees—but alive. Still breathing. Still standing.
The fifth trial… Zhongli himself. He stood before me, unshaken, spear in hand. "Come," he said. "Strike me."
I threw myself at him with everything. Anemo, Electro, Geo, Dendro—every element flooding through my veins. My fists burned, my bones broke with each blow, yet he parried every strike with one hand, calm as the earth itself.
"Why?!" I screamed, teeth breaking against my own jaw. "Why make me fight you when you know I can't win?!"
His reply was unshaken. "Because to protect them, you must stand even when defeat is certain."
I staggered, blood soaking the floor. "Lumine… Paimon… Nilou… Greg…" My voice cracked, but I still raised my fists. "You hear that? He's trying to kill me with philosophy! If I die, tell the world I went down arguing!"
Greg tilted his head, unblinking. His tongue flicked once, then twice. A silent, lizard-sized applause—or maybe just hunger. I chuckled through blood. "Yeah, yeah. I'll survive. You're not getting rid of me that easy."
The duel stretched endlessly. Days bled into weeks. Weeks into months. My body became a graveyard of broken bones and torn flesh, rebuilt by sheer will and the elements clawing through my veins. Again and again, Zhongli struck me down, only for me to rise. Every element inside me screamed in protest, but together they stitched me back to life.
At last, after what felt like eternity, I stood before him one final time. My fists trembling, my breath ragged, but my stance unshaken. I swung. He blocked. But this time, my feet didn't falter.
Zhongli's amber eyes narrowed, then softened ever so slightly. "You endure."
I dropped to my knees, my chest heaving. But I had passed. Somehow, against all odds—I had cleared even his trial.
Anemo balanced me. Electro sharpened me. Geo fortified me. Dendro rooted me when my legs wanted to collapse. I wasn't a master. Not yet. But I had taken the first step onto a path I hadn't even dreamed possible.
And still, the trials continued. Sometimes one adeptus tested me. Sometimes all of them came at once, storms and fire and illusions crushing me. Every burden heavier. Every scar deeper. But I persevered.
Because in the end, what was my suffering compared to seeing them cry?
Greg sat nearby, his little lizard body framed by the endless glow of the domain. He tilted his head, unblinking. A silent witness to my madness.
My lips curled into a broken grin. "Don't give me that look. You're stuck with me till the end."
I spat blood, straightened despite the weight pressing down, and whispered into the empty air, "No matter what… I'll keep going. For them. Always."
The domain did not answer. The adepti did not soften. The shackles did not relent.
But I did not fall.
______________
End of Chapter 143
Quests Completed:
*stepped into Mountain Shaper's trial and accepted the price of training.
*endured the Geo shackles and learned to center resolve through pain.
* forced Anemo inward, learning to carry wind instead of being carried by it.
* moved through Cloud Retainer's gale by yielding and redirecting the wind.
* took Mountain Shaper's falling stones and rooted through repeated failure into endurance.
*faced the combined assaults of the adepti — illusions, avalanches, the Yaksha's spear — and rose each time.
*withstood Zhongli's relentless testing until the last parry, proving the will to stand after inevitable defeat.
*parted briefly from Lumine, Nilou, Paimon, and Dehya and turned their worries into fuel for the trials.
Rewards:
*+250,000 Mora (Earned in Mountain Favor) — a modest stipend placed in the Shigeru's pocket by an impressed aide; labeled "for repairs."
*+2 Knowledge Capsules (Adepti-grade) — condensed lessons on elemental attunement; taste: faintly of stone and sea breeze.
*+1 Passive: Tempered Resolve (Unlocked) — when HP falls below 35%, elemental resistance +12% for 10s (triggers once per fight).
*+Elemental Weave: Prototype (Temporary) — can channel two elements internally at once for 60 minutes after rest; grants one "weave burst" in combat (cooldown applies).
*+1 Cosmetic Scar: Mountain's Mark — a pale cross-scar across the forearm.
*+5 Greg Approval — Greg now sits closer during downtime and gives an extra tail-flick command (mood +10%)..
*+1 Stone-Blessed Tonic (Consumable) — reduces knockback and stagger duration by 40% for 3 minutes (single use).
*+1 New Keyword Learned: "Standfast" — shorthand for sustaining through impossible odds; can be invoked as a rally line to teammates once per long rest (morale +small buff).
*+1 Passive: Internalized Elements (Training) — reduces elemental overflow backlash by 20% (applies during training and preliminary skirmishes).