T he realization of your own weakness always takes you to the crossroads where you either accept it and move on, focusing on your strengths, or do your best to get rid of it, becoming a better version of yourself.
No matter whether it’s a physical, intellectual, or character weakness, there’s always a way to fight it, and the result depends only on your willpower. On your confidence that each new step, even the tiniest one, isn’t a waste of time and effort but a step closer to your true self.
The tiniest step.
Sometimes that’s all you need to begin your sprint to the finish line.
However, realizing just how hard the path of self-improvement is, many take the path of least resistance.
They begin to worship their weakness, showing it off to everyone as though to convert them to this weird religion. They come to believe that the acceptance of, and submission to their powerlessness is a superior sort of strength.
It becomes their way of life. Their motto. The noose around their neck. They can no longer see the other side of life. They’ll never learn what they could’ve become.
Their actions, their eyes, and their body language all seem to say: I’m so weak. Help me out. Take care of me. They evoke pity, spreading it around like poisonous vapor, infecting and weakening those who are struggling to become stronger.
Will used to see many such people. He had grown up among them, feeling like a wolf cub raised in a flock of sheep, losing his strength day to day, learning submission, and turning into just another sheep.
Obedient.
Spineless.
Predictable.
Fortunately, a born predator would only need a nudge to realize their true strength, and then the flock would have nothing left to do but whine and bleat, calling their lost kin back to their altar of homogeneity and feebleness.
The place where impossible met passion, known as the turning point, had always been and always would be ruled by natural selection. Each new challenge would always be harder than the past one, granting more strength and experience to the one who completed it.
Reaching this turning point, Raven fought his survival instinct. To its loud screaming, he gritted his teeth, pushing his boundaries once again. He felt like his brain was about to melt. This sensation was so realistic that, had it happened in the real world, he would’ve been sure that he was suffering a stroke.
A quarter of a step.
Failure.
Standing up.
Failure.
A half of step.
Failure.
Failure.
Failure.
Failure.
“Gah!!!” he cried, his voice resounding through the Sky Platform and the inner temple.
Time seemed non-existent. Just like in the Tombs, or inside Farris’s mind.
Raven walked on the edge, dancing over the abyss. A moment’s hesitation and he’d slip, plummeting into the murky depths, never to return.
But among all the darkness, he noticed faint sparks of light in the form of scraps of images flashing through his mind. But that was enough for him to realize that humanity was unaware of its true powers, of the entire worlds outside the small bottle they considered their universe.
Was he strong enough to uncork that bottle from inside and climb out?
He was swept away by the current and lost in its waters. But he pressed on, despite the never-ceasing torture.
From the depths of his mind came the words uttered by Darrau at the beginning of this challenge.
“What is power?”
Truly, what was it?
He was no less curious about that than about whether he was strong enough to survive this.
How could you know that your strength wouldn’t prove to be fake, crumbling to dust when you needed it the most?
What if the meaning, and the boundaries, of power were individual? Or time-dependent? And probably affected by such things as loyalty, vengeance, love, faith, and chance?
Affected — but how exactly? To what extent? How could you tell carelessness from courage or blunder from bait?
Raven realized that power was a very broad concept. Someone would consider overcoming their fears as getting power over themselves, while another one would be pushed to their limit by a single push-up.
He collapsed to the stone floor once again, having come just about seven feet closer to his goal. Staying down, he felt what everyone felt when they ran into an insurmountable barrier: an overwhelming urge to give up.
It was the simplest thing to do. He was no stranger to this feeling, neither to overcoming it, but this time... This time it was burning him from the inside, begging him to quit, screaming and spitting blood, inventing more and more arguments that he had already done all he could.
“Stop. Quit. Please. Please. Please. You’ve already done what no one else can.”
“I’m almost there.”
“You don’t need to prove anything to them. You can increase your sensitivity level some other time.”
“If I fail this challenge, it’ll be the end of me.”
“Can it even be completed?”
“I don’t know. I just need the Points.”
“Losing them is bad, yeah. But you risk losing even more.”
“I need them. I have no choice.”
“Whom are you trying to deceive? Just reduce your sensitivity to one hundred.”
“No point. I’d have to take a test. And I’m not sure if it’ll help. It’s about my Mind, not sensitivity level.”
“Then...”
“Enough! Shut up!”
Raven screamed, his eyes reflecting the full depth of his despair, his resistant alter ego weakening with every second, its voice dying down with his intention to keep fighting.
He had done all he could. He had made a bet and lost.
He probably was a narrow-minded dolt.
I just don’t have the strength.
He stayed on the floor, no longer trying to stand up, when he sensed a sudden change.
He wanted to look up and around but suddenly realized that he didn’t need to. He could sense the energy spreading all around him. His intuition told him that it was the source of the pain tormenting him.
This realization rekindled his spark, filling him once more with determination. Opening his eyes and looking around, he was glad to see that his efforts hadn’t been wasted and that all the torture he had suffered wasn’t without reason.
That must be the solution.
Observing the light blue mist filling the place, he took a few steps back, then sat down to meditate, which felt like trying to cross a swamp on a piece of plywood rather than on an actual boat.
What even was this energy that he was feeling? Where did he have to direct it? Could it even be directed?
A slow breath in. And out. And another.
He had to calm down.
Having steadied his breath and mind, he reached for the mist — and his body began to absorb it, washing away the pain that gradually gave place to pleasure.
Once again, he lost track of time and willingness to stand up and move. He remained seated on the cold floor, enjoyed the strange, encompassing sensation of infinity. His mind seemed to have undergone a transformation that cleansed it of everything unnecessary: words heard in passing, empty hours wasted on bus rides... Everything useless had been wiped from his hard disk.
It stopped just as abruptly as it had begun. He was back to normal, but he was now a different person. He could feel a change in himself.
Breathing out slowly, he opened his eyes. Black flames flickered in them for but a moment.
His body was bubbling with energy. He could feel that he had acquired something valuable by breaking through the invisible barrier, finally climbing out of the abyss to see the sun.
Even if all of this was just a weak nudge to the cork sealing his bottle, it was more than enough for him now.
His senses felt sharper than ever. Standing up slowly, he straightened his back for the first time since embarking on this challenge — and took a step forward, looking at the Key.
The pressure was still tremendous, but not in the same way as before. Raven had grasped the hidden meaning of this challenge: the goal wasn’t to take the Key (probably, it wasn’t even the main reward) but to absorb the energy filling this place.
Since he had done it the right way, he could expect his reward to be doubled or even tripled.
A step.
More pressure.
He sat down, adapting to his new strength. As his body absorbed more of the energy, he felt ready to proceed.
Another step.
And another.
Coming closer and closer to the middle of the platform, he soon found himself in front of the Key. His heart raced as he reached for it — slowly, not resisting the energy coming in.
Once he touched the artifact, it dropped more Keys, each accompanied by a system message.
Congratulations! You have completed the Level 10 Challenge.