Andar blinked, this was the first time he had done this since the last hour, this action was voluntary, he was making sure he was always at his peak for he could keep his eyes open for weeks if he wanted.
There were only two more inches to go before he could complete this process, but the repulsive force was almost getting to a point that he could no longer bear it.
The ephemeral image of the Bracer in the sky was getting clearer and it began to impose a new weight on Andar, compounding the stress he was enduring, and he could hear tiny popping sounds underneath his skin, as his bones began to crack.
Andar skin began to develop tiny tears that made him frown, he could be injured but he could not lose any of his body tissues or he would have to give up, losing just one drop of blood here would be devastating because the hurricane-class winds around him would hurl his blood to the distance and a part of his knowledge would be lost.
Knowledge was the foundation of his power, without the vast knowledge granted to him by his Endless Vault, his vast stores of Aether would be useless to him.
For a brief moment, he nearly gave up, but then he realized that he had not played all his cards yet. He had paused his usage of Gray Will a while back because he was at his limits, but now he began using it once more.
The pale skin on his arm began to rapidly turn gray like stone, and the physical durability of his flesh nearly tripled even though this action was killing him, proper timing was the key to ensuring he won this gamble.
Andar did not have much time, for if this gray reached his heart, he would lose consciousness. His increased computational ability made him draw the bracelets closer and now only one inch separated him from his prize.
That last inch could as well be a billion miles.
A massive shockwave erupted from the bracelets, and he nearly lost his hold, but with a loud cry, he endured the blast. His surroundings had been devastated as a deep pitz hundreds of feet deep appeared below him.
The mounting pressure was killing him. Andar figured out, that whatever he was doing was not meant to be achieved by an Acolyte, not by a long shot. Maybe even his Master, a Rank 4 Mage, would have thought twice before he attempted what he was doing.
He groaned internally, 'With all my knowledge, I'm still ignorant.'
The pressure increased again, and Andar began to scream, his clothes were torn apart and the thousands of air shields he was constantly placed on the most important portion of his body like his head and heart were being destroyed faster than he could replace them, and he had truly reached his limits.
He was blasting every bit of power he could into maintaining the complex weaving of forces around him and he could not push any more power or computational ability from his body any longer.
It was a hard pill for him to swallow but he knew that he had failed. He had done the impossible and created something beyond his limits. He should stop now or it would be too late and he would fail the rest of his test.
On the verge of giving up Andar heard a resonant cry, and he struggled to lift his head to see what gave it off, it was his Cloud Whale who was pushing through the terrifying catastrophe surrounding Andar, trying to get to him.
"My friend…" Andar could hardly whisper, "Stay back…"
The Cloud Whale roared its defiance and pushed to come closer to Andar, the winds began flaying its skin and the Whale wailed in pain, yet it did not try to protect itself, and when it reached fifty feet from Andar, a silver light began to glow around its body that was linked to Andar.
It could only maintain this light for a few seconds before it was blasted far into the distance, trailing blood along the way, and Andae could not tell if the Cloud Whale was alive or dead.
There was not much strength in that light that the Cloud Whale sent to him, but what flowed down alongside it, and into Andar's Spirit was the unshakable convictions of the Cloud Whale that utterly believed in her master. Every moment she had spent after bonding with Andar had been precious to her, and her belief in him was complete.
It seemed to tell him, "Master, everything you set out to do, then you shall surely achieve it."
This was the final reminder to Andar that there were many things riding on him, and he was too damn important to allow the possibility of failure to destroy his mental resilience.
"This is not my limit," Andar whispered and somehow, this word reached the clouds above, where the many frightening colors in the skies representing the watching Archmages had been swirling around.
Andar looked deep into himself, his time was running out as the petrification from using Gray Will had reached his stomach, and he pushed his mind into his Spirit Matrix.
He had stopped Engraving his Meditation Art when he reached his limit at 99 Engraving Slot, he had intended to resume when he finished all the foundational courses as a Mage. He should be knowledgeable enough to push for more Engraving Slots at that time, but he could no longer wait for that day.
Andar began to practice his Meditation Art in the midst of a Tribulation, even as his body was slowly turning to stone.
'I cannot fail, I refuse to let myself fail, I have been given too much, I have been loved by so much, to let their expectations of me die. I shall fulfill the promises I made to myself. I deserve to live and love and learn.'
With a strong shudder that made his petrified body almost snap in half, Andar silently made his one-hundredth Engraving Slot, and instead of a white tile appearing in his consciousness, a black tile appeared.
