The fourth day began with silence.
No beasts prowled. No whispers mocked him. Only a vast cavern of obsidian stone, its floor smooth as a mirror, its ceiling unseen.
And then the weight came.
It pressed down on him with invisible force, first like a hand, then a mountain. His knees buckled instantly. The blackfire blade clattered against the ground, its ember sputtering.
[System Notice: New Trial Initiated , The Gravity Chamber.]
[Condition: Survive under tenfold weight.]
[Warning: Physical capacity inadequate. Sacrifice required.]
He gasped as his bones creaked. Blood vessels burst across his skin, painting him red. Each heartbeat felt like thunder, trying to break free of his chest.
He tried to move, just one arm, one hand, to reclaim his blade. It was like lifting a mountain with broken fingers.
[Option: Sacrifice memory to reinforce musculature.]
[Cost: The taste of honeyed bread.]
He grit his teeth. The taste of honeyed bread, sweet, warm, something he had once shared with fellow disciples during a rare festival. A small joy, stupidly ordinary, but his.
He clutched at the memory desperately. Not this. Anything but this.
But the pressure grew. His rib cracked audibly. His vision blurred.
[Confirm Sacrifice?]
"…Do it."
The taste vanished. A blank spot filled his tongue, his mind. He remembered the bread's shape but not its sweetness. The hole it left felt bigger than the trial itself.
Strength surged into his limbs. He forced himself up, trembling, veins bulging. His hand closed around the blackfire blade once more.
Hours crawled by. The gravity pressed harder, a merciless weight crushing marrow and muscle. His body screamed. His teeth shattered when he clenched too hard.
Sacrifices piled:
The joy of running through grass as a child.
The warmth of summer sunlight on his skin.
The comfort of a full night's rest.
Each loss made him less… human.
And yet, each time, he rose again. His frame grew harder, his muscles denser, his eyes darker.
On the throne above, the Demon Lord's silver gaze narrowed.
"Do you see it?" he murmured to no one in particular.
The daughter stood nearby again, watching silently.
"He does not bend as others bend," the Demon Lord continued. "Others break, scream, beg. He loses something, yet gains more. He is not tempering himself. He is… being carved."
The daughter frowned. "Then why not stop him, if it's dangerous?"
The Demon Lord's lips curved faintly, but not in amusement. "Because the fire that destroys may yet forge. I would see which this one becomes."
By the sixth hour, the disciple collapsed, his body twisted unnaturally under the weight. His breath was ragged, chest rising shallowly.
[System Warning: Host integrity failing.]
[Emergency Protocol Suggested: Core Sacrifice.]
[Cost: A fragment of loyalty.]
His eyes widened. A fragment of loyalty?
Until now, it had demanded memories, sensations, emotions. Now it hungered for the foundation of his very will, the thing that defined him as "loyal dog."
"No…" His voice was hoarse, trembling. "Not that. Never that."
But the weight crushed him further. His bones bent. His blade's ember dimmed.
Then, something flickered.
[Alternate Path Detected.]
[Prototype Function: Efficiency Reinforcement (Unstable).]
[Cost: Channel pain directly instead of sacrificing memory.]
He froze. His mind reeled. For the first time, the system wasn't demanding something lost forever.
"…Channel pain?"
At once, agony lanced through his body, raw and searing. His nerves screamed as the system amplified his suffering, feeding it back into his muscles. His flesh quivered, but it held.
It hurt more than memory loss, but it didn't leave him emptier.
He roared and forced himself upright, blackfire blade blazing as if in defiance of the invisible mountain.
Above, the Demon Lord's silver eyes flashed.
"Ah," he murmured. "Something stirs in him. Not just suffering… adaptation."
The daughter tilted her head, uneasy. "Is that… good?"
The Demon Lord did not answer. Shadows coiled tighter around his throne. His gaze pierced the projection, as though trying to see through the disciple's skin, into the abyss within.
"Good? Dangerous? Perhaps both. This one is not walking a road he is being pulled along a current older than any path I have laid. And I intend to see where it leads."
[System Notice: Trial Complete.]
[Reward: Musculature reinforced beyond mortal limit.]
[Warning: Prototype Function unstable. Use with caution.]
He collapsed to his knees, trembling, but alive. His mind burned with agony, but not emptiness. For the first time, he hadn't lost a piece of himself.
A shaky laugh broke from his throat. It sounded almost mad.
"…Maybe I don't have to lose everything."
The blackfire blade pulsed faintly, as though answering.