Boom!
The moment Gary stepped forward, a crushing pressure descended upon him like a mountain falling from the sky. His body immediately stiffened, sweat erupting across his brow. With tensed muscles that pressed down with an invisible pressure, he dropped to his knees on the very first step.
The room fell into stunned silence.
The middle-aged man watching from the front of the hall shook his head faintly, disappointment flashing in his eyes. Around him, the other children stared in disbelief..
"He couldn't even take a single step?" someone murmured in a hushed voice, the words hanging in the air.
No one else spoke.
The crowd of young children turned solemn, expressions growing serious as they looked at the bulky, kneeling figure on the staircase. The arrogance that had once radiated from him was nowhere to be found.
High above them, seated comfortably on a plush sofa in an elevated viewing platform, was a man clad in casual attire, his distinctive green hair setting him apart. His sharp eyes gleamed with faint amusement as he watched Gary struggle.
"So… Baron Avalon's son is nothing more than a disappointment," he said.
Next to him stood an older man, dressed in a more formal noble's attire, his clenched fists betraying the storm of emotion beneath his composed exterior.
"My Lord… I apologise for the disappointment," the elder man said, whose voice was filled with restrained anger.
The green-haired noble merely gave a small, dismissive wave.
"It's nothing, Baron Avalon. Let's just observe for now," he said as he laced his fingers together and turned his full attention back to the scene unfolding below.
Baron Avalon hesitated, clearly confused when he heard the man beside him, but he said nothing more.
Around them, the other guests remained quiet as well, their faces unreadable, with an air of indifference.
...
Huff! Huff!
Gary panted heavily while sweat streamed down his face, dripping into his eyes and blurring his vision. His teeth clenched tightly as the crushing weight of the soul-crushing pressure bore down on him.
"Is this my limit?" he thought, despair clawing at the edges of his mind.
"No… this isn't."
A surge of memories flooded his mind, flashes of his childhood, the praise, the admiration, the pride in his father's eyes.
He was always the one everyone looked up to. The gifted son of Baron Avalon, the one destined to awaken as a mage. Servants bowed at his feet, peers envied him, and teachers commended him. The thought of losing all of that...
"Son, if you can't even open your soul space... I'll disown you." His father's cold voice echoed in his head like a knife pointed at his neck.
He remembered the expression on the father's face, impassive and cold. His eyes weren't those of a worried father, but the judging stare of a man weighing value. No warmth, no fatherly feelings, no kindness.
The pressure weighed on his shoulders like iron chains, but the thought of failure… it was worse.
"I can't give up yet." With a growl, Gary pressed his hands against the cold step beneath him. His body trembling, every nerve in his body screamed in protest, but inch by inch, he pushed himself up.
"Ahhh...." A groan escaped his lips.
With a roar full of stubborn defiance, Gary forced his right leg forward, staggering as every pair of eyes in the room locked onto him in stunned silence. Sweat drenched his clothes, and blood seeped from torn muscle fibres as the overwhelming pressure continued to crush down on him. Yet, he didn't stop.
His eyes, now bloodshot, flared with a fierce determination as he stepped forward again, finally placing his right foot on the next stair.
"This… this…"
"How's he still moving?" The murmurs among the children spread quickly, their voices low but filled with shock. Still, many looked at him with glimmers of hope, their gazes drawn to the sight of the bulky boy pushing forward against impossible odds.
"Fool." Elyndra's sigh echoed inside Astrael's mind, soft and dismissive.
Astrael only shook his head.
The middle-aged priest watching from the front narrowed his eyes.
"He forgot what I said earlier," the man muttered under his breath.
High above, the Count let out a sigh of his own, his expression one of quiet resignation. Beside him, Baron Avalon's eyes flickered with a faint glint, too brief to catch unless one was paying close attention, but he too said nothing, merely shaking his head in silence.
Most of the other nobles and guests showed little reaction, their expressions unreadable. But one cloaked figure seated near the edge of the elevated platform watched Astrael with a glint in his eyes.
"Eh?" Gary turned slightly, confusion flickering across his face as he heard the murmur.
"What's going on?" That thought barely formed in his mind when the full weight of the soul-crushing and body-pressing pressure came crashing down again
AAAHHHHHHHH!
A gut-wrenching scream filled the hall as Gary's eyes went wide with blood seeping from them profusely. His limbs went limp as he fainted and fell down the steps with a thud.
Some people rushed forward and dragged him back, but their expressions were far from sympathetic, but disdainful.
With the boy fainting, some people came to pick him up and dragged him back; however, all of these people's eyes were filled with disgust.
"Wait… didn't he just take a step?"
"Did he… die?" one child murmured, looking toward the unconscious boy with wide, stunned eyes.
Instantly, whispers spread in the crowd of children while looking the Gary's condition with fear.
But the middle-aged priest remained impassive as he continued," Number 2."
Immediately the the whispering and murmuring stopped as they looked at the priest.
"Number 2," the priest said again.
"Yes.." A scared kid answered and pushed himself forward with a face of fear.
"You can start." The middle-aged priest said with a gentle face.
Everyone's body shivered as they watched the priest's previous cold face was an illusion.
"Y-Yes." After gathering the leftover courage, he moved forward.
"If I can't take a step, I will stop immediately." With a terrified expression, he thought, and with crossed fingers and closed eyes, he effortlessly stepped onto the first step of the stairs, astonishing everyone.
"Eh?" the boy opened his eyes with a confused expression as he felt no pressure as he thought.
"Continue." The voice from the priest made him compelled him to walk.
After taking another step, to his amazement, feeling no pressure, he continued with confidence.,
Three steps!
Five steps!
Ten steps!
Fifteen steps!
At last, the boy began to sweat as an invisible pressure bore down upon him. His body trembled, straining in resistance to the advancing steps. Meanwhile, the mana within the hall converged around his head, prompting him to close his eyes, a blissful expression gradually spreading across his face.
"You can come back now."
The boy, after opening his eyes, nodded and came down the stairs. After the look of reluctance to the blissful expression, he walked back with an air of pride and arrogance.
To which the priest just shook his head and announced, "low grade."
"Number 3"
Another child stepped forward with a hesitant and fearful expression, yet with a faint glint of hope shimmering in her eyes.
To the crowd's amazement, the girl was able to climb twenty-one steps