Fighting soul debts required immense willpower. You had to acknowledge the darkness without becoming it. Accept the impulses of a chaotic soul mass while refusing to be defined by them, maintaining your own sanity.
This trial was the same. The same principle, but magnified to an extreme degree.
The pressure wasn't just testing physical endurance. It was testing whether they could face their own darkness, the beast within every human, and still choose to stand upright.
Finn forced his head up, looking at the descending pillar. His neck screamed in protest against the crushing weight. His vision swam. Every muscle in his body burned with the effort.
But he looked up.
At the pillar that was the representation of the heavens. At the force trying to push him down. Trying to tell him to know his place. To remain on his knees. To give in to base instinct and darkness.
"Fuck. That." He snarled through clenched teeth.
