EG Monster Island Chapter 10

**** AUTHORS NOTE ***

A continuity error was pointed out to me, where in Condensation I mentioned three levels of competition, then in Craesti and this I only talked about two (three age bands versus Condensation vs. Core). I think I'm going to amend the age bands in Condensation to be only 2, <16, 17-21, and Mentor Jameson/Lo are 21 years old (the equivalent of 25 Earth years). I think that's the best solution for the story. What say y'all?

*** AUTHORS NOTE ***

The pressure of that first step slammed onto my shoulders like a sandbag. The feeling wasn't physical, not really, and it wasn't mental either. The only word to describe it was spiritual, like the pressure that the Doom Jelly exerted on me. It was the tower telling me to kneel, to bow, to give up, and making the world say the same to me. It was a quiet command at first, the volume not changing as I walked across the first step. I glanced to my left and saw Vaya keeping pace with me. She smiled at me, and we moved to the next step together.

I felt more than saw Jon and Bridget pacing us, and then heard Jon grunt slightly as the weight increased. It was still light enough that I wasn’t worried. Halfway through the step, though, a whisper of a voice sounded nearby. I glanced around to see everyone else looking around. Something from the tower. I guess it isn’t content to just push us down, I thought. Not good.

The other teams that started with them were now a few steps ahead, but I wasn’t worried. No rush, no rush. No time limit. Just move, smoothly and steadily. A scream sounded from above me, and I realized that the first group had rounded the tower already. The scream suddenly got louder, as an Illyrian rolled, or jumped, off the Staircase. It vanished in mid-air with a bang, appearing in the Illyrian staging area. The leader of the Illyrians looked down with contempt, then kicked the whimpering being.

“Hardcore,” I whispered. Yup, they are not good. More thunderclaps sounded from above as more contestants were eliminated. Then one of the Topraki ahead of us suddenly grew into a werewolf, hulking out with fur and fangs, before he lashed out at his neighbors. He was lifted from his feet and flung off the Tower.

I stepped to the third stair and started to make out the words being whispered in my head. Failure, they said. Give up. You cannot succeed. Over and over again, I was told that I would lose, that I could not endure. The whispers were still quiet, and I ignored them. Nothing you can say is something I didn’t tell myself every day of my childhood, I growled at the words. So bugger off!

Each stair, each step up, increased the weight on my shoulders and the volume of the whispers. At ten, the weight doubled, causing more grunts. I tried to run my Aether through the General Strengthening Technique, but it failed to form. When I then tried to direct Aether to my legs without a technique, it simply failed to move. I was unable to utilize my Aether to resist the weight trying to crush me to my knees. Stairway of Determination. Not Stairway of Pressure Strengthening, I thought. I guess it would be too easy if we could just power through it. Though I wonder if this gives unfair advantage to the Weltreich, or those of us who’ve tempered ourselves significantly higher than the average? I’ll ask after, don’t want to distract them.

On the twentieth step, the weight increased again, but that wasn’t the hardest part of the challenge. The voices, once barely there whispers, were now at the volume of a person behind you talking in a normal voice. Easily ignorable, until they changed. “Give up. You failed to save me, why can you save others?” A little girl’s voice asked.

“You selfish jerk, you left me. Give up and leave them too!” Jasmine’s voice demanded in my head. I froze in shock, then shook my head. “You’re not real,” I growled under my breath. “I won’t let you get to me.” More thunderclaps sounded from in front of me and above me as competitors were removed from the tournament. I continued to plod forward, my casual steps having become slow, thumping ones at the twenty fifth step. At this point I estimated that I was being pressed down with something between two hundred and fifty and three hundred kilograms.

A quick glance to my side showed Vaya openly crying, but still keeping a determined face. Somewhere in my subconscious I heard the command for another group to ascend the Tower, but I threw it out of my head. “Doesn’t matter. Speed doesn’t matter, only height. Slow is smooth. Smooth is fast. More importantly, smooth lasts.” I thought, adding my own twist to the famous motto.

“You’re not wanted,” the voice of the supervisor of my last group home announced. “That is why you never were adopted, and why you will never be part of a family. Give up now, and let it be over. Why struggle so much, when you know what the result will be?” The fortieth step changed up the routine. Now, a ghostly image floated in front of me, the grim visage a stark contrast to the normally smiling face of the kindest women I’d ever met.

“You chose poorly, tower. Leave off,” I whispered, hoping my neighbors weren’t hearing me talk to myself. Of course, I was also ignoring Jon’s grumbles, Vaya’s tears, and Bridget’s snarling. I concentrated and could hear others ahead of us doing the same. “You will not break me.”

We’d almost caught up to two Illyrian’s and an Ashkhas, all of whom looked like they were on their last legs. (Change consequences for interfering to -10 steps to all team members, and disqualification for the person for that round only). The Ashkhas stumbled, dropping to a knee right in front of the rearmost Illyrian. In what could have been a reflexive action, if you missed the gleeful glare on its face, the lizard person side checked the Ashkhas to the floor. The Ashkhas yelped as he slammed down with the extra force behind his fall. With a crack of thunder and a flash of lightning, both the Ashkhas and the Illyrian disappeared. Another two Illyrians appeared right in front of us, and I had to dance quickly to dodge one as they looked around wildly. It began cursing immediately, then growled an expletive I’d never heard before and started to trudge forward, covering ground it’d already covered today.

“Light, do not mess with another climber,” Jon said reverently.

“True that,” I said. Damaging your team’s morale and driving them back, while counting as a zero. That would suck. I’d rather fall than risk that. We continued on, starting to struggle a tiny bit but taking comfort and strength from the presence of our teammates and closest friends. The last Illyrian that had started directly front of us dropped on stair forty three. The two that were teleported from in front of us were moving even slower than we were, so we’d passed them on the next step. I didn’t bother checking if they were still behind me. They didn’t matter, only the next step mattered.

Step. Step. Step. I chanted for a bit, keeping my mind occupied to ignore the taunts and jeers from my imaginary friends. You guys suck, I thought back to a particularly nasty one, imaginary friends are supposed to take you on rocket sled rides to the moon and cry candy, not tell me I am a loser. Get it right!

At fifty steps, the weight increased again. My shoulders strained against the weight, and each step was an effort. My legs started burning, but I was used to it. It’s a good thing we’ve been doing lunges down a hallway with increased gravity, I thought. Almost like Librarian Narwan knew what the challenge would be and made us get ready for it. No, our seemingly omniscient mentor could not have possibly done that. Wow, I’m getting sarcastic here. I giggled lightly at my thought, and Jon looked at me, almost expecting me to have cracked.

I just smiled at him, still ignoring the voices chanting for my failure in my head. So far, the Tower’d used my group home leader, Jasmine, the girl I saved, my Air Officer Commanding at the Air Force Academy, Jon, Vaya, and Librarian Narwan, all of them shouting about my failures and giving up. I’d already dealt with these thoughts, though, and was able to ignore them. I knew my friends and knew they wouldn’t say anything like what I was hearing.

Halfway through the fiftieth step, I noticed something else. The weight seemed to be seeping into me, absorbing into my skin and muscles. I focused on it quickly, and realized it was acting almost like the Aether of a tempering pill, and the strain I was pushing against was the destruction part of the pill, leaving this weird weight energy to be the rebuilding part. Wait, didn’t he say our minds and hearts would be refined? I don’t think wearing my heart on my sleeve means that my skin is my heart. Okay, I’m definitely feeling the strain. Once I get to the point of being unable to continue, if I don’t make it to the top, I’ll have to stay standing in this field for as long as I can. It’ll definitely make me stronger for the next round.

I focused on my hearing and realized no one was above us anymore. Well, directly at least. There were a couple of people up and behind that I could hear, and a larger amount directly across the tower from us, so I couldn't see them even if I’d wanted to. I’d picked the speed we were walking in the hope that we’d be able to continue it all the way up. That was proven to be a lie, as we’d already slowed shown slightly.

On the fifty third step, one of the dwarves sprinted past us. At fifty five, though, he crashed to the ground. He was moving fast enough that he rolled right off the Stairway before vanishing in a crash as he fell. He wasn’t screaming, but cursing his failure. Slow and steady wins the race, turtle not rabbit.

We crossed the fifty eight step before contestants behind us started to be removed. Only a hundred something steps left, I thought. No problem. I can do this.

“No you can’t,” Vaya’s voice sounded in my head.

You know, tower voice thingy, using contractions against me just lets me realized that the saying aren’t real, right? I thought back at it, then realized that was dumb. Oops, shoulda let it keep making a mistake. Hopefully it can’t hear me. No response came, although Ma showed up in front of me to lambast me as a failure. The voices were getting louder again, and seeing hateful expressions on those I loved hit me in the emotions every time.

At the fifty seventh step, Vaya’s quiet tears became sobs, but I knew she would be stronger than the tower. I’ll have to see if she wants to talk about it after, I thought. I know I’m going to want a hug at least. I hope Jamila is okay.

We kept moving, slowly catching up to the other teams that had started when we did. Well, those that were still there. As we rounded the Tower on the sixty fourth step, I saw an Illyrians very slowly dragging their feet forward on the seventy first. The frontmost one kicked the next stair, almost stumbling before righting themselves with a swaying motion. It was barely able to lift its foot high enough to step up, and then began shuffling forward yet again. Its compatriot, however, hit the edge and just collapsed forward. It got one more step from the fall, though, and vanished with a flash.

Just keep swimming. I mean, just keep walking. Walking, walking, walking! I thought to the jaunty tune. The seventieth step, like all others divisible by ten, was another significant increase in the force pulling me towards the floor. Minor tremors were starting to show themselves in my legs, core, and shoulder muscles as I strained to stay upright. Only long practice pushing against an even stronger gravitational force kept me moving forward. Okay, no more cursing out Librarian Narwan and Knight Kaminski in my head when they make us do training. It is obviously targeted and effective. I thought for a second, then laughed internally, well, less cursing at them. It still sucks.

After eighty steps, I saw a group of eight people standing at the edge of my vision, as the tower curved around right there. They were on step 99. Huh, guess something big happens at one hundred? Guess we’ll see, I’m nowhere near my limit. I kept trudging along, occasionally glancing over at my teammates to see how they were doing. Sweat dripped off our heads, but no one seemed to be on their way to a fall. We just kept moving, until, bearing nearly four hundred kilograms of pressure, they reached the line of people hesitating at the halfway threshold.

“Please move,” I said quietly, not intending to stop. The group had shrunk to six, but looking ahead I didn’t see anyone moving up the stairs that had been waiting.

The Topraki in front of me sidestepped, giving me a free path up, and mumbled, “Aether bless you.”

“Thanks,” I grunted, the weight increasing again as I stepped up. My knees nearly buckled under the strain until I was able to stabilize. The next step forward changed the game.

I was back in Keystone, standing next to Jasmine as the girl was getting ready to sled. Then I was in front of the truck, just before it hit. A few seconds later, I was a ghost, hovering over my squished body as Jasmine screamed. This time, though, instead of anguish, it was anger that perforated her throat. She stared right at me, floating in the air, and yelled, “You left me! You chose to leave, to leave me alone. You selfish, egotistical jerk! You just wanted the glory. People saying that you were so amazing, because you gave your life for a little girl’s. What about me? Why did you leave?” She fell to her knees, weeping, and my consciousness was back in my body.

“I didn’t. I,” I stumbled over my words, and felt the weight on my shoulders increase as I did. “No. It wasn’t supposed to happen, but I wouldn’t change it. I would not trade an innocent girl’s life for my own.” The weight decreased as I threw off the shackles of the vision, then I stepped forward. The voices were gone, but the energy that they were feeding into my mind was still seeping in.

Bridget screamed, hands going to her head as she crouched, then vomited over the stairway. A sizzling sound rose up, and the vomit dissolved, cleaning the steps. Bridget shot back up, never letting her knee or bottom touch the ground, and screamed, “NO!” Jon and Vaya shook off the vision simultaneously, Jon shivering and wrapping his arms around his chest while Vaya’s tears dried up and anger flared on her face.

Vaya stepped forward resolutely, and then glanced around in shock. I nodded, then turned back and started to walk again. No new vision popped up on the one hundred first step, though the weight increased incrementally. If I was still on Earth, this much weight would’ve killed me. Even just a few months ago, back in Aether Gathering, this would have prevented me from moving. Instead, it is moderately difficult. Am I really that strong?

The doubt that rose up with that question seemed to magnify into an increase in the weight pressing down on me. It took me only a second to throw off the feeling, but I’d still fallen behind Jon and Vaya. With a grunt, I stepped twice quickly, joining them on the hundred and ninth step. Mind focused, stepping forward, nothing else. Forward progress only.

I focused, letting nothing into my mind but the next step, and the step after it. This lasted until the one hundred tenth step, when another vision presented itself. This was a repeat of the one I’d seen in the tea ceremony, only this time (Name) told me I was a worthless loser, and that no one would ever want me. It’s a good thing the Tower doesn’t listen to us, I thought, or they’d know that, while I was afraid of that for a long time, that hasn’t been the case for years. (Name) was always good at making me feel loved. Time to keep moving.

There were still a dozen or so people climbing above me in my sight, though everyone had slowed down immensely after the hundredth step. I recognized two of the Topraki from the first group that ran to the Tower only ten steps ahead of us. They’d taken to sliding their feet forward rather than trying to walk normally. I wasn’t there yet, but was getting closer than I wanted to be. I don’t know if I’ll be able to make it, I thought, the weight is increasing too fast. I’ll probably stop being able to climb around the hundred sixtieth step or so. I sighed, stepping forward, before letting my anger at myself show. No, I refuse. This is the Staircase of Determination, and I’ll show everyone that I refuse to back down. I will make it.

Step by step, centimeter by centimeter, we continued to progress up the Stairway. The vision on the hundred twentieth step was a rehash of the first, only this time the little girl also got hit, and her ghost berated me for failure. It took me a few seconds to shake off the fear and doubt that came from that vision, but I was able to continue to progress. At a hundred-thirty, the weight got to the point where climbing to the next step was a torturous exercise in resistance training. At one forty, I was dragging my feet, literally, to continue to progress.

One fifty’s vision hurt. I was a little kid again, waiting with three others as a family looking to adopt visited our group home. The visit seemed to go well, then the mother looked straight at me and said, “Why would we want to offer this creature a home. It will never have a true family, or any place that is its own. It will always be hated,” before giggling and leaving the building.

I bent over and threw up after that vision, hyperventilating at the realization of my worst fears as a child. Bending over was a mistake, though, as I almost couldn’t stand back up. I looked to either side once I did, and noticed only Vaya was still with me. Jon and Bridget were still active, but had slowed down even more than we had. Bridget nodded at me, gesturing with her head to go on. She’s hanging back to support Jon. I smiled at her, not trusting myself to nod with the increase in weight this new section pertained.

I stepped forward, barely bringing my feet off the ground, and my vision focused in on the space right in front of me. Exhaustion punched me in the face, causing me to sway. There were only three people still in front of us, though a bunch had failed at a higher step than we were at now. I refuse to stop, I thought, repeating myself over and over again. Each step up was done only by dragging my foot up the edge of the stair and then pushing with my hands on my thigh to get the other foot up.

I’m pretty certain I zoned out of the vision for the hundred sixtieth step. Something, something, childhood fear, loser, I’m too tired to deal with this, I thought tiredly as I continued to walk. I couldn’t muster up the energy to look for my friends, to look beyond the next spot my foot would fall on. I kept moving. Slowly, jerkily, I progressed up the Stairway, chanting a saying from one of my favorite classic movies, Never give up, never surrender! Step, step, consumed my entire being. I would not stop, but I wasn’t moving very fast. Finally, a vision broke through my exhausted haze.