Divine Beast Ascension

“How has it felt to cultivate again?” Eeole asked with an obvious grin.

Jarrit happily sighed, “It’s amazing! I wish you would’ve found me sooner.”

“Remember, you’re not to mention your techniques or arts to anyone. Consider it as classified as Oli’s third essence,” stated Eeole, glancing at Jarrit over his shoulder.

“I understand!”

“Good... Right now, the sooner you’re a god, the better. Then, we can begin your real training.” Now standing only one krin from the formation containing Oli, Eeole sighed, “We’ve been lucky so far. But the moment he wants to really make a move, we’ll have to be ready. For that reason, we’ll give you whatever is necessary. So, unless I call on you for a task, you’re to spend every moment training. Take as many cores as you need.”

Brimming with eagerness, Jarrit’s white hair bounced as he nodded over and over again. “And, once I’m a god, I can-”

.....

“Yes. Then I’ll give you what I promised.”

“Thank you, Master Eeole!” Bowing deeply, Jarrit didn’t dare hide his gratitude. “Then, I’ll be off. If you need me, just let me know.”

Another rift opened, taking Jarrit away.

Eeole was left alone in front of Oli. He decided to sit down on the ground and observe the young gorilla. “... We need to hurry, Oli. If what Warak said is true, then we’ve got even less time. I’ll make sure our contingency plans are ready for implementation at a moment’s notice. But... we still need you. So, prove us both right. Survive. Fight for your sanity. Make the most of this torture and you might come out with more benefits than I’d expected...”

Eeole wasn’t sure how long he sat there. He didn’t bother to count the hours or days. As someone that had lived more than one hundred thousand years, a few days was nothing and a few years could pass by like a dream if he dosed off. But it had been a while since Eeole, with all his strength and ability, had felt time move so slowly.

Deep inside Oli’s unmoving body was the soul jade. There, Oli’s consciousness was trapped and unaware of the outside world. The young gorilla had no idea that his body was creating a hybrid form. Nor did Oli know that the constant fluctuation of cosmic energy was stimulating his bloodline, forcing it to better integrate into his body to increase his sensitivity to essence.

All that Oli knew was pain.

Trapped in that unmoving position within the abyss of the soul jade, Oli felt like he was sweating, aching, and breaking. But he could see none of those things happening to his mental self inside the soul jade.

“Ggghhhuuuhh...” Oli groaned. And he groaned...

Every time that Oli felt like he was getting accustomed to the pain and discomfort, it would suddenly spike in intensity. It was a constant state of torture. And Oli had no way of knowing how long the process would take, and no way of speeding it up.

Still, Oli kept his eyes open. The one thing that could help was the distraction from his father’s memories.

Time moved by far slower inside the soul jade. Though it kept Oli from feeling the full brunt of his pain, letting it hit him six times slower than it normally would, it also messed with Oli’s conception of time. He lost track of time ages ago. Oli only cared about staying focused on his father’s memories to keep from giving in.

One positive side effect was the opportunity to scour through all of his father’s stored memories. It became a matter of flipping through them one by one instead jumping around like he had always done in the past.

Eventually, Oli stumbled upon a peculiar memory. One that actually lingered in the boy’s mind and kept Oli from moving on. So he played it out again, trying to pay even more attention despite his excruciating pain.

In the memory, Oli spotted someone else he knew. It was the shadowy man! Oli watched as Dioro met with the man not long before Dioro was about to enter Devil’s Canyon.

“PAUSE!” Oli shouted, now having better control of the soul jade.

As the phantasmal scene was paused before Oli’s eyes, he spotted something. There was an additional paper wrapped around the scroll holding the Infinite Torture Soul Art.

Oli skimmed through the following memories as he searched for the moment his father would first unfurl the scroll. And he quickly found it.

Dioro was alone, standing over a monstrously large canyon. The width from wall to wall was hundreds of krin. The depth was at least a couple hundred krin, in the most shallow parts. There were stone pillars and natural structures lining the bottom of the canyon, and caves dotting the walls and floor. Right away Dioro, and Oli watching the memory, spotted more than a dozen different beasts scattered through the nearby reaches of the canyon.

“... Devil’s Canyon...” Oli groaned in awe, ignoring his pain as best he could.

Then, Oli found the moment he was looking for.

Retrieving the scroll, Dioro removed the outer paper and stored the scroll. He then unfurled that paper and left Oli in a daze.

“That’s... a map? To Devil’s Canyon?!”

But, before Oli’s imagination ran wild, he noticed something. There was no way for the entire enormous canyon to be depicted on that sheet of paper. And the details of the map showed that many parts had been cut off or not included. But Oli noticed Dioro climbing into the canyon according to the path and instructions depicted on the map.

Oli continued to monitor the experience with absolute fixation. He didn’t even blink as he watch, partially because his mental body didn’t need to.

Dioro carefully entered the canyon and cautiously followed the trail. And, what surprised Oli the most, was how Dioro failed to encounter any of the deadly creatures Dioro had spotted earlier.