For a moment, Lyren thought that he had been saved. He was finally out of the void but there was something terribly wrong. He was still unable to breath properly as he had thought. The air around him felt like a liquid, very hard to take in.
His heart was already slowing down and there was ringing in his ears. The pressure was not gone yet. It was not as much as it had been in that void but something else was happening. The pressure was increasing rapidly.
The air almost solidified and even he found it difficult to blink. It actually took longer. In his meditative position, he felt like he was being plastered into place by an invisible force. As his eyes darted around, for he could not even move his neck, he saw a mind-blowing sight before him.
The patterns. They were dimming. No, the ones he had lit first were already flickering. It dawned to him. This was the pressure that was stopping him from climbing the stairs. With the patterns gone, he was about to get stuck in this pressure or maybe even turned into minced meat.
Again, he had been careless. He had fallen asleep at the worst place he could even think of. Almost like he was asking the pressure to crush him!
It dawned to him. It was this pressure that was crushing him in the void!
Lyren was suddenly filled with the desire to live. There was no way he was going to die here! His heart which was slowing down suddenly started pumping blood with extreme pressure. It was the last ditch of his body to survive.
An adrenaline rush.
His thighs bulged and his back arched as he stood up almost like a zombie ignoring the pressure that was building up. He took a heavy leap forward as he felt the pressure weigh down on him even more but he could not bring himself to care or anything.
All he wanted was to reach at the base and he had to do that NO MATTER WHAT! He jumped over ten steps in the first leap which could be considered as impossible but one should never underestimate the human body when it came to survival.
He took another leap forward and even as the pressure weighed more upon him, he did not stop. He could not stop. Even when it came to him only leaping only five steps, he did not notice as his eyes were set on the first pattern which was only now flickering as dying embers.
Even when it felt like he was running beneath water and his breathing stopping, his body was reacting on its own. As he got to the last five steps after what felt like forever, his speed had turned sluggish. Almost as though he was trying to run underneath mud.
His cells screamed and wanted to give in as they were being denied the air they required to perform and also they were being overworked. His bones were on the verge of cracking but they still held on. His heart was only sending a high pressure pump of blood after a longer period. It too was getting exhausted.
He could not breath and even his eyes could see nothing. His heart was beating vigorously as it did its best to get him through his predicament and as the first pattern went out, he was just making his way out and he did not even seem to notice that he was out of the stairs as he kept running.
It was only when his body gave in due to lack of air that he fell on his knees and his chest expanded and his nostrils widened with his mouth agape. He took in a deep breath almost as though he was trying to suck in all the air in the surrounding.
He let out deep breath almost immediately and instantly took in another deep gulp of the air and the process continued for a long time he could not even follow. His eyes had lost their light turning blank and even his brain was also in an oxygen debt. How he had remained alive was a sheer will that was stuck into his every cell.
The more air he took, he started hearing the distant ringing in his ears which then turned to a high-pitched ringing. His eyes slowly regained their clarity and he could feel his thoughts forming once again. His heart was picking up a rhythm that sent pulses all over his body.
His breathing did not slow down but he gradually closed his mouth and only used his nose to breath. He could finally feel his body organs. His hands supporting him from falling face first and his knees having a dull ache for he had fallen on them first.
He turned on his back and after regaining his clarity, his thoughts wandered once again. It was obvious that he had fallen asleep and somehow, he had ended up in that void. He had lost track of time and by the time the patterns had started closing in on their time limit.
Those vibrations he had felt was the pressure affecting him and the pain was significantly high in that void. He had woken just in time and he had wasted a few seconds trying to analyze his situation. The pressure kept increasing and that was because the lower he went down the stairs, the pattern keeping them alive was dying.
The last steps felt like he was trying to run beneath mud because the first pattern was already dying. This thought filled him with dread. Just when he had thought he was beginning to figure things out, he had ended up committing a mistake that nearly cost him his life.
This trial-error method really required caution but every time, he was reminded that he was just not cautious enough. This time, he had learned a firsthand lesson on what exactly was stopping him from climbing the stairs and he really did not want to have an encounter with it again.
He could not help but wonder, what would happen if he tried to climb to the final step, would the patterns die out before he reached the peak and he would end up crushed by the pressure? What if the first pattern had died out before he made it out? Wouldn't he be dead already?
For the first time, he was mad at the creator. Mad for they had put him in danger. Why were there no warnings or anything. He was here gambling his way out of this trial but it appeared that the creator really was a big fan of making fun of the weak.
His anger was justified and even the pattern in his hand acknowledged as it glowed and sent a pulse through his right hand. Lyren decided not be careless. He even vowed not to waste his time lighting up the first patterns until he found a way out or when he was trying out a hypothesis.
In this place overflowing with opportunity, it was way more dangerous for him than it was beneficial for him. He watched as the patterns slowly died out one at a time. The last of the embers of the patterns fizzled up and the dusk like environment returned. He had to get started soon…