Chapter 47: The Path to Absolute Strength
Chapter 47: The Path to Absolute Strength
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The Beginning of an Endless Training
The obsidian throne looms behind me, its cold surface a silent witness to what is about to begin.
I grip the ancient book, its leather cover rough beneath my fingers. The language inside is still unreadable—twisted symbols, cryptic diagrams—but I feel the weight of its meaning. It's not just a book.
It's a challenge.
A manual for surpassing the limits of strength itself.
I sit before it, flipping through the pages. My body aches from the countless battles in this temple, but pain means nothing now. I pop a shard into my mouth, letting its cool sensation wash over me, numbing the worst of my wounds.
Then, I begin.
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The Fundamentals of Strength
The first pages are simple. Diagrams of postures, stances, muscle structures pushed beyond their limits.
"Hah… This is just body training?" I mutter.
But as I read further, I realize how wrong I am.
This isn't ordinary training.
The first exercise alone—something that looks like a simple squat—has instructions spanning five entire pages. It details exactly how to distribute pressure through each fiber of muscle, how to crush the limits of human strength by forcing the body to rebuild itself beyond its own limitations.
The first time I try it—
CRACK.
A sharp pain shoots through my legs. My muscles lock up. My bones feel like they're splintering.
I collapse onto one knee, gasping.
"What… the hell?"
I've fought for centuries in this hellish realm, endured wounds that would kill any mortal, yet a single movement from this book nearly broke me?
I grit my teeth.
This is different.
This is not about gaining strength. It's about forcing the body to evolve through sheer brutality.
And I've already stepped into it.
There's no turning back.
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Breaking the Body, Rebuilding It Stronger
Time ceases to matter.
I practice each movement again. And again. And again.
The pain never lessens—it only changes. My muscles tear apart, reform stronger. My bones feel like they're shattering, but when they mend, they feel denser, heavier, more resilient.
Each time I push my body past the brink, I feel something shift.
I throw punches into the temple walls—at first, my knuckles shatter. Days later, they're harder than the obsidian itself.
I swing my axe faster than before—until my arms dislocate from sheer force. When they heal, my grip is like iron, my strikes faster than thought.
Even breathing becomes a battle. The book details a technique for increasing lung capacity, but following it feels like drowning in fire.
I collapse. I break. I heal.
I repeat.
This is not just strength training.
This is the destruction of weakness itself.
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A Million Years of Breaking Limits
The demons still respawn, endlessly drawn to this temple, but now?
Now, they are part of my training.
At first, they were sparring partners. They forced me to adapt, to use what I learned in real combat.
But soon—
They are nothing more than punching bags.
I don't dodge their attacks anymore. I take them. Absorb them. Let my body suffer through every wound, every broken bone, every crushed organ.
And when I heal?
I am stronger.
Years pass. Then centuries. Then millennia.
The temple that once trapped me, tested me, tormented me…
Now?
It belongs to me.
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The Purest Form of Power
One million years in, I can feel it.
Every fiber of my being has transcended what a human body should be capable of.
I no longer need weapons. My fists crack the very air when I throw a punch. My kicks leave shockwaves that splinter the stone beneath me.
A demon lunges at me—I don't even move. It rips its own claws apart just trying to cut my skin.
I don't just have strength.
I have something beyond it.
The demons—those same creatures that once nearly tore me apart—
They no longer look at me as prey.
They fear me.
And yet—
I keep going.
Because I am not done.
Not until I have reached the absolute peak.
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Ten Million Years – The Final Stage
Time loses meaning.
Every movement, every battle, every training session—it all blends together.
My body is no longer just human flesh and bone. It has become something else.
I feel the density of my muscles, the weight of my own existence.
Every step I take is heavier, more deliberate.
Even the air itself bends slightly when I move.
The book—the same book that once challenged me, that nearly broke me?
I no longer need to read it.
Because now, I understand.
I have become everything it was meant to teach.
And when I throw a single punch—
The very walls of the temple tremble.
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A Final Realization
The temple is silent.
The demons, those respawning beasts that once plagued me, no longer return.
They've learned.
They understand.
This place, once a test of survival, has become my domain.
I turn, staring at the obsidian throne, the book still resting upon it.
Ten million years.
Ten. Million. Years.
And now?
I am ready.
For what comes next.