The sixth step''s pressure was like nothing I''d ever felt. Every nerve ending in my body screamed for relief, but there was noneing. My left handnded on the step''s edge, and I felt my fingers shatter one by one as I dragged myself upward.


    Blood poured from my mouth in a steady stream. Each breath was agony, my lungs fighting against the crushing weight pressing down on me from all sides.


    Below, Sofia had copsed to her knees, unable to watch anymore. Even Mariana''sposed face had cracked with concern.


    "His determination..." someone whispered. "It''s not human."


    Mr. Snyder''s face had transformed from mockery to horror. The Guild representative took an unconscious step backward as he watched me defy what should have been impossible.


    I hauled myselfpletely onto the sixth step, my vision swimming with red. The world tilted around me, but I forced myself to focus on the seventh step looming ahead.


    "No," Mariana whispered, her voice barely carrying to me. "Liam, please. Your body can''t take much more."


    I couldn''t answer her. Speaking required energy I no longer had. Every ounce of my strength was devoted to staying conscious, to keeping my broken body moving forward.


    My right hand reached for the seventh step. The moment my fingers touched the stone, my left calf muscle snappedpletely, the tendon tearing free with an audible pop.


    I screamed, the sound barely human.


    "His leg!" The Fifth Elder turned away, unable to watch.


    But I didn''t stop. Using my arms, I pulled my shattered body onto the seventh step. Fresh agony bloomed as my left leg fracturedpletely, the bone splintering under the immense pressure.


    Blood pooled beneath me, painting the ancient stone a glistening crimson.


    "This is madness," Mr. Snyder muttered, his earlier smugness entirely gone. "No one should be able to endure this."


    I fixed my eyes on the eighth step. My body was failing rapidly now, but my will remained unbroken. With excruciating slowness, I dragged myself forward, leaving a smeared trail of blood behind me.


    The moment I touched the eighth step, my right leg shattered. The bone broke through skin, exposing white fragments to the air. The pain was so overwhelming that for a moment, everything went ck.


    When consciousness returned, I found myself still clinging to the edge of the eighth step, refusing to fall even in unconsciousness.


    "Incredible," Mariana breathed. "His will exceeds his physical limits."


    I pulled myself onto the eighth step, my legs nowpletely useless. Blood streamed from my ears, nose, mouth, and eyes. My internal organs were being crushed by pressures the human body was never meant to withstand.


    Below, the crowd had fallen into stunned silence. Even the birds had stopped singing, as if nature itself was holding its breath.


    The ninth step seemed impossibly far away now. I couldn''t walk. I could barely even crawl. But I would not stop.


    Using only my elbows, I dragged myself toward the ninth step. Each inch gained was a triumph of will over flesh.


    "Look at his eyes," Sofia whispered. "They''re... glowing."


    Indeed, a faint golden light had begun to emanate from my eyes - not from any cultivation technique, but from pure, unbreakable determination.


    The ninth step''s edge was finally within reach. As my fingers touched it, I felt something in my chest crack - another rib, perhaps, or something deeper. Blood gushed from my mouth, spattering the ancient stone.


    But I did not stop. I pulled myself onto the ninth step, every movement sending waves of agony through my broken body.


    I had done it. I had conquered the nine visible steps that most believed were the entirety of the Stone Staircase.


    But I knew the truth. The real test was just beginning.


    Beyond the ninth step, the staircase continued, hidden in mist. The tenth step materialized before me, more ethereal than solid.


    "Impossible," Mr. Snyder gasped. "The hidden steps... they''ve appeared for him!"


    I reached for the tenth step, my mangled hand trembling violently. The moment I touched it, a wave of mental pressure crashed into me - not physical this time, but spiritual.


    A voice, ancient and powerful, spoke directly into my mind.


    *Give up. You are not chosen. This path is not for you.*


    I gritted my bloody teeth and pulled myself onto the tenth step. My body was beyond pain now, existing in a realm of pure agony that transcended normal sensation.


    "He''s reached the tenth step," Mariana announced, her voice filled with awe. "The steps that appear only to the worthy."


    With renewed determination, I crawled toward the eleventh step. My blood left a continuous trail behind me, my body barely recognizable as human anymore.


    The mental assault intensified as I touched the eleventh step. <dfn ss="in-imprint-b">This chapter was first seen on *.</dfn>


    *Why suffer needlessly? Descend now, and live. Continue, and perish.*


    "No," I croaked through broken teeth and bloody gums. The single word cost me dearly, but I needed to say it aloud. "Never."


    Another voice, different from the first, whispered from somewhere deep within me.


    *Continue, son of destiny. What awaits is worth any price.*


    This unexpected encouragement gave me strength. I dragged myself onto the eleventh step, my consciousness flickering like a candle in the wind.


    The twelfth step glimmered before me, a challenge that seemed almost insurmountable in my current state.


    "He shouldn''t be alive," the Fifth Elder murmured. "By all medical knowledge, his body should have given out steps ago."


    Yet I continued. Using thest reserves of my strength, I pulled myself toward the twelfth step. My fingers, now stripped nearly to bone, left bloody smears on the ancient stone.


    As I touched the twelfth step, the mental pressure doubled. Visions assaulted me - visions of failure, of Isabelle dying, of all my efforts amounting to nothing.


    "Get out... of my head," I growled, blood bubbling between my lips.


    With a final, desperate surge, I dragged my body onto the twelfth step. I was no longer recognizable - just a broken, bleeding form persisting through sheer force of will.


    The thirteenth step appeared through the mist. As I reached for it, a mental shock mmed into me with such force that my grip faltered. For a terrifying moment, I began to slide backward.


    "NO!" I screamed, the sound barely human.


    By some miracle, my exposed fingers caught the edge, tearing further as I clung desperately to the step. Blood poured from my ruined hands, but I refused to let go.


    With a primal roar that came from somewhere beyond pain, I hauled myself onto the thirteenth step.


    "His divine sense," Mariana whispered in disbelief. "It''s actually growing stronger through this ordeal."


    I fixed my gaze on the fourteenth step. The world around me had narrowed to this single purpose - to climb, to endure, to conquer.


    Blood pooled beneath me with each agonizing movement. My vision had narrowed to a tunnel, darkness encroaching from all sides. But still, I crawled.


    The fourteenth step received me with another wave of mental pressure, but I was ready for it now. I pushed back with my strengthening divine sense, carving a path through the assault.


    "His spirit..." Mr. Snyder''s voice cracked with unwilling admiration. "This is why we fear themon man who refuses to ept his ce."


    The fifteenth step loomed ahead. As I approached it, the sky above darkened suddenly. Thunder rumbled in the distance.


    "Heavenly Thunder," Mariana breathed. "The staircase has summoned judgment from above."


    Lightning shed across the sky as I touched the fifteenth step. The mental pressure was now joined by a physical one - the pressure of heaven itself bearing down on me.


    Still, I continued. My broken body somehow found the strength to pull itself onto the fifteenth step.


    The sky turned pitch ck above me. Lightning cracked, striking closer and closer to the staircase.


    "He must stop now!" Sofia cried out. "The Heavenly Thunder will kill him!"


    But I hade too far to turn back. The sixteenth step materialized before me, and I reached for it with bloody determination.


    The moment my fingers touched the sixteenth step, lightning struck the staircase directly. White-hot energy coursed through my body, charring my skin and setting my nerves aze.


    I screamed, a sound that seemed toe from the depths of my soul. The lightning illuminated my broken form for all to see - a creature of pure will, refusing to yield even to heaven itself.


    Somehow, impossibly, I began to pull myself onto the sixteenth step. My body smoked from the lightning strike, the smell of burned flesh hanging heavy in the air.


    "How?" Mr. Snyder whispered. "How is he still moving?"


    The answer was simple, though none below could truly understand it. I moved because I must. Because Isabelle''s life depended on my sess. Because surrender was not an option I would ever ept.


    As I dragged myself fully onto the sixteenth step, the sky erupted. Lightning shed continuously, striking the staircase again and again. Each bolt should have killed me, yet somehow I endured.


    The seventeenth step appeared through the storm - a beacon of possibility in a sea of lightning.


    My vision faded in and out. My consciousness hung by a thread. My body was a ruined vessel, barely containing the indomitable spirit within.


    Lightning struck me directly once more, charring what remained of my clothes and skin. The pain was beyond description, beyond humanprehension.


    But even as my vision darkened and consciousness began to slip away, my bloodied, burned fingers reached forward toward the seventeenth step.


    "I..." The words came with great effort, forced past burned lips and bloody teeth. "I will never give up..."


    And I began to crawl toward the seventeenth step, a nearly unrecognizable figure engulfed in a sea of thunder, defying heaven itself with every excruciating movement.