Defiance of the Fall

s frayed mind running amok from not knowing whether this was real or fake.
Was this just the System messing with his head, preying on his fears, causing a bout of paranoia that would trap him in this illusion forever? Or was it trying to create a rift between himself and his mother, making sure that he never joined Leandra ’s camp?

Did the System have other plans for him?

’

Zac’s mind was a mess, and he felt a weird sense of disconnect with reality like he had been living a lie his whole life.
The whole room around him started to twist and contort like it tried to superimpose on his own sense of reality.

His emotions started to spiral out of control, but Zac quickly stabilized his thoughts.
He knew that these feelings were mostly fake.
This was the Heart Tribulation.
The System had shown him an illusion that had caused a crack in his mental fortitude, and it had tried to push him toward insanity from there.

But his mind wasn’t so easily shaken, not after all the things he had gone through the past year.
He had looked at the Terminus and survived, how could this compare? Perhaps the things he had seen were real, perhaps they weren’t.
It wasn’t much that he could do about it in either case if he didn ’t get stronger.

The fact that their mother might have ulterior motives about Kenzie had been something that Zac had considered a real possibility since the moment he figured out their origin.
Witnessing this scene did nothing to change that.
He would still keep his guard up for anything that might come his way.

It was the same with his own heritage.
Perhaps Robert wasn ’t his biological father, but so what? He had been as real a father as any could have been.
The fact that there might be some other guy out there didn ’t matter in the slightest to Zac, he could just be considered a sperm donor at best if it even was true.
There was no point in looking into the matter any further.

It was far more important to keep improving and get stronger.

Only then would he be able to achieve his goals, only then would he be able to feel a sense of safety and freedom.
He needed to become stronger to protect his sister and everyone else that had come to mean something to him over the past year.
To protect Earth itself against those who wished it harm.

The room drenched in the red glow cracked, and he immediately found himself back in his body, the real one.
He didn’t know exactly what had changed, but he somehow felt stable, like he could face anything with a calm heart.
Was this a hidden benefit of succeeding against the Heart Tribulation?

He breathed out in relief, but he quickly remembered that he wasn’t out of the woods just yet.
He just overcame the Heart Tribulation, but there was still the Soul Tribulation to deal with.
Just before he was dragged into the illusion he had felt like his soul was lit on fire, and it had made itself remembered multiple times during the hallucinations as well.

Another wave of terrifying agony assaulted him the moment he remembered his predicament, setting his whole world on fire.
He screamed in pain, but he quickly activated the Fragment of the Axe and spread it across his whole soul.
The Soul was the connection to the Dao, and his fragments would be able to dampen the effect of the Tribulation from what he knew.

And thankfully, the searing pain quieted down by a noticeable degree the moment his soul was covered in a dense layer of his Dao.
It was just like when he used the Seed of Trees to ward off the corruption in the wound that Mhal left in his side.
However, the mysterious energy that had descended upon him was still there in full force, meaning he wasn ’t safe just because his tactic had worked out.

’

Zac quickly looked inwards and breathed out in relief when he saw that his soul was fine apart from some small wounds that could be fixed with a normal Soul Healing Pill.
It was a lot better than he had feared after having felt those bouts of agony during the Heart Tribulation, and nothing compared to the time after the Shard had ripped it apart and ensconced itself in the tears.

But one part was a bit worrying.
The scars were still there, and not only did they seem more integrated with his soul, but they had now regained some of their luster.
Had they somehow managed to feed on whatever energy the System used to put his soul under pressure?

The pain quickly got worse though, making Zac unable to gather any further clues from the scars.
The Dao energy of the Axe was somehow losing its efficacy, but Zac had an idea and swapped to the Fragment of the Coffin.
The pain became manageable once more, and Zac soon set into a cyclic pattern where he moved from one Dao Fragment to another to handle the Soul Tribulation.

Zac lost track of time as he just focused on enduring, but it gradually grew harder as the effect grew steadily worse, even if he kept swapping between Daos.
However, a sudden shudder from within his soul suddenly blasted his defenses straight open, giving the tribulation energy free access to his soul.

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However, Zac felt no pain at all as two whirlpools appeared, one black and one white, and they dragged the Tribulation Energy into the abyss with extreme fervor.
Zac was shocked to see that the energy didn ’t go into the scars though, but the other side of the whirlpools were clearly inside the cage that housed the two Remnants.

Both of them seemed enlivened, and they started fighting with each other once more.
However, they quickly calmed down and focused on absorbing the unwilling Tribulation Energies.
Zac tried to figure out a way to break the connection, but he couldn ’t destroy the two whirlpools no matter what he did.

However, it thankfully looked like he had the System on his side this time.
It Seemed that it considered him having passed the second Tribulation as well as the Soul Tribulation was actually becoming food, and the energies around Zac dissipated the next second.
Better yet, the Fractals of the cage woke up once more and stole most of the energy from the Remnants.

They looked clearly upset about the situation as they slammed their tendrils against the walls, but the cage didn ’t even shudder as it continued its siphoning.
A few minutes later a surge of extremely pure energies seeped into his soul and body, and he felt extremely invigorated.
The wounds on his soul closed by themselves, and he felt a huge surge of power coursing through his body.

He had made it, he was finally an E-Grade Mortal.