Defiance of the Fall

The waters quickly turned red, but Zac stanchly kept his focus as he crushed another Supreme Nexus Crystal before he roused the slumbering Creation Energy in his body. For this purpose, there wasn’t even any need to create a Mark of Creation, and he just looked as a new leg rapidly regenerated to replace the missing one.

The pain of growing a limb was excruciating, but no more so than many other wounds he had suffered over the past years. It wasn’t enough for him to lose his focus, and he kept picturing how his legs looked. He had known that this situation would happen sooner or later, so he had already memorized every last part of his body, both through scanning himself and by using [Spiritual Anchor].

He remembered every hair, every pore on his body, just so that he would be able to recreate them without any aberration. Soon enough the foot was added, and Zac was hit by a wave of weakness. Unfortunately, it was not the weakness of needing sleep, but rather something much more sinister.

He had once more lost a good chunk of his longevity.

Zac couldn’t be certain, but he guessed that he had lost a few decades reforming his leg, which didn’t feel too dreadful now that he had reached D-grade Race. Still, that was only one of two limbs missing, and he sighed as he turned toward his missing left hand.

Regrowing his left hand wasn’t necessarily needed to get out of this place, and his combat effectiveness wasn’t contingent on having it either. Needing to regrow it was rather a matter of his pathways. He was already disadvantaged as a Mortal, and now with his pathways broken in two places his energy was completely turbid, which made dealing with the Twilight Energy all that much harder.

He also had skill fractals on his Left arm. Luckily, skill fractals were protected by the System, and they would be back as soon as his spirit body recovered. However, he wouldn’t be able to use them until his hand regrew.

The process repeated itself once more, and he barely had enough Creation Energy to complete the process. With him having used his Annihilation Energy on Uona, he was completely tapped out for this hidden ace. He would either have to wait a few months to slowly gather more energy or forcibly open his cage again if he wanted to make use of the two powers of the Remnants.

His limbs were successfully regrown, but he still rested another three hours at the cost of a small hill of Nexus Crystals. Only then did he feel his state stable enough to leave. His crystals would run out before the trial ended, and Zac knew that there was only one way to go. So he steeled himself as he slowly made his way out of the small alcove.

The chains of [Love’s Bond] were still firmly embedded in the stone, but Zac still almost found himself dragged further into the depths the moment he was exposed to the torrential waters. But he ignored the pain as he started pulling himself up, moving meter by meter along the rock with the help of his chains.

However, progress was slow as he was climbing against the current. The chains were barely able to rise against the currents, and there were barely any footholds for him to climb using his own hands and legs. Swimming was out of the question as well. The second he let go of the wall, he would instantly be dragged to the depths.

Zac only managed to climb 100 meters or so before he felt himself approaching his limits, and he quickly started to cut another dugout in the wall. A minute later he had created another safe zone, and he blocked the pathway best as he could before started up the costly process of keeping the ambient energy at bay.

This cycle of short climbs and long durations of rest kept going for over ten hours, at which point he once more was ready for another round of soul cultivation. He had made decent progress in this time, climbing over a kilometer along the cliff wall. The strategy worked well enough, but he still worried a bit about his prospects. The waters above him were still utterly pitch black, making him wonder just how far down he had been dragged.