The coming month descended into a gruelling blur—pain, fear and fatigue melding into one. Travel during the day and train during the night.
Training felt hurried; the reality of an opponent that could lead him to death pushed him to his edge.
Each night Vera rid his body of pure qi.
His flesh turned hollow, relenting to his manifestation.
A sense of insufficiency. Each night he pushed harder than he could, a man haunted by the future.
Pain grew day by day.
Not the pain of twisting meridians, but a pain akin to a thousand ants biting away at his flesh.
The trembling in his body was indistinguishable from fatigue or fear.
Even so, he was fuelled by a dread that urged action.
Each cycle rendered left him disoriented. Even in the cold of night, sweat pooled. A fire burnt through rational thought. The throbbing in his head made the sound of nature run thinner each day.
Nonetheless, training would continue; memories of Vast Heavens made sickness feel like an excuse.
The pain felt justified for where he was going. Anticipation told him he still wasn't enough for what was approaching.
Travel was undisturbed by demons; nonetheless, Vera felt like he was being watched. Sleep thinned under anticipation. Rest felt so far away.
The closer Vera got to the domain of the Bixie, the warmer the continent felt. Lush forests morphing into dry desert. The clear sky radiated the heat of a thousand suns in the day.
The domain of the Bixie slaughtered anything that dared to enter. Shrivelled flesh draped brittle bones across the desert. The phantoms of the desert reflected his body in the myriad corpses.
The inevitability approached reality: movement devoured sleep.
Night, on the other hand, felt like Vera was back in the deep cold. Dry frost crunching over his flesh that never stood still. Patches of sand freezing over into lakes of ice.
Memories of home felt far away. The threat of life and death engulfed Vera's mind.
The extremities of the terrain turned into a blur; Vera didn't have the time to care for it.
By the end of the month, Vera's ability to fortify grew significantly. Even so, the sound of the guardians walking away from his corpse engulfed his mind.
Vera stood before a vast plain of sand, not even a dried twig in sight. All long burnt to ashes, dispersed into the air he inhaled.
Every breath stung; unadulterated heat burnt through his insides.
Across the plains, Vera saw massive sheets of glass appearing in sequences of four.
"Is this the trail of the Bixie?"
Vera murmured in a coarse tone; not even a drop of moisture permeated from his words.
His eyes filled with conviction, borne from anticipation. Fearful yet full of resolve.
Each step led to an ever-growing void, reaching to the pits of the earth.
The void released an immense light.
Each step shattered a thin layer of glass. His body shrivelled from the sheer heat of the void.
A dense stream of manifested qi covered Vera.
A low, heavy sound escaped the void. Each sound followed a step.
The light emerging from the void turned to shadow; each loud thump signalled the Bixie's approach.
The air resonated as a low voice broke through the loud thumps.
The picture of the Bixie Vera had in mind shattered.
Holy, sanctimonious, a representative of justice.
"I welcome thee, challenger."
Golden imprints of flame, engraved against its void black skin. Each limb was the size of an oak tree.
Eyes that Vera imagined to be filled with hellfire manifested with samadhi.
"Hast thoust come to seek the qualification?"
The Bixie's regal presence stood akin to a golden mountain.
"The qualification to ascend?"
"... Yes."
Words snagged in his throat. In front of the Bixie, he couldn't adulterate his intent. The only word that left him was the truth.
"Then, shall we begin?"
Sincere in action, the Bixie's presence was one that commanded truth. In its presence, Vera could only think about battle.
Raising his arms as he prepared for battle, Vera locked eyes with the Bixie.
The light of day morphed into that of night.
The glass under Vera's feet shattered.
His fortification had reached a new level. A massive layer of air pooled in front of Vera.
His speed edged through that of sound. The air collapsed unto itself in the presence of transonic speeds.
The ground trembled as the Bixie's tail whipped towards him, its length doubling over the Bixie's body.
But Vera's goal wasn't a full frontal attack. Pressing his legs into the ground, he rushed outside of the tail's trajectory.
A blinding golden light burst through his hands, hurtling towards the Bixie's eyes.
Plumes of flame pulsed through the divine beast, turning the golden beam into adornments of the night sky.
The golden imprints on its body grew a shade brighter.
The hurtling tail tensed mid-air; a sharp crack erupted around it. The air screeched as the tail recalibrate and chased Vera again.
As the whiplike tail approached, his legs tensed like a taut string. His body flickered away as the tail sliced right by his eyes.
Not a moment to waste, golden hues pulsed through Vera's arms. The beams hurtled towards the retreating tail.
Meridians lit up like fire through the Bixie's tail; a regal white qi ensconced its tail.
Sand stood frozen mid-air; an explosion roared through the desert.
Less than a moment of silence passed, yet this was all the rest they needed.
Claws akin forged iron slashed at Vera, the heat they bore igniting the very air.
Manifestations engulfed Vera's legs; explosive dashes pivoted through each slash. Vera broke through the Bixie's net, entering its range.
Samadhi fire grew brighter in the Bixie's eyes.
Pulses of flame started to break through the Bixie's imprints, their frequency indistinguishable from a stream of flame.
The stream of fire was insufficient to weaken Vera's approach.
Tensing his core, he kicked off the molten sand. His heel crashing into the Bixie's ribs.
The guardian recoiled as it received the blow, its regal visage faltering momentarily.
The sound of its ribs cracking paralleled that of Vera's body crashing into the ground.
Molten glass enveloped him, his fortification barely staving off the heat.
The Bixie stumbled back by a few steps, fragments of its shattered ribs poking through its hide.
Pressing away from the ground, Vera stood up. Rest meant death when the stakes were this high.
The two locked eyes again; the 20 paces between them felt like one.
As the tension reached its peak, the Bixie dashed towards Vera, orbs of molten qi apparating around it.
The golden imprints on its body turning to a shade of maroon.
Lines of molten red passed through the air, all aiming at Vera. The distance between the two was devoured by the Bixie.
Blood trickled through Vera's nose as he dashed towards the orbs. Swerving his torso, he weaved through each orb. The heat they exuded left trails of fire in the air.
Explosions erupted from behind Vera.
Shockwaves rampaged through every bone in his body; instability crept into his movements.
Nonetheless, he moved.
The maroon imprints now turned to a light red. The Bixie's body was overheating; its movements were momentarily dulled.
Persistence was a gamble; the winner was Vera.
A golden hue engulfed his right leg as he entered a low sweeping stance, pushing through the aftereffects of the orbs.
The Bixie's tail rushed towards Vera to block his sweep.
A moment too slow.
An iron-like shin ripped into the Bixie's hind leg. The impact was clear. Bone tore through flesh, crashing into the bones of a pseudo-divine. The weaker took the brunt.
A sharp pain shot through Vera's body. The skin over his shin broke open; his blood glistened over his bare bones.
Golden blood oozed through the Bixie's hind leg. Limping as it retreated by a few paces. Its eyes fixed on Vera's pained expression. Its eyes bore a sense of indecision.
One that wore away as Vera stood up.
The conviction in his eyes, unchanged even now.
Attrition at this level was a fool's game.
Ignoring the ache in its hind leg. The Bixie's eyes turned to a sense of finality. The samadhi fire that roared in its eyes disappeared, leaving its eyes a dark void.
Its maw turned a bright white from the heat building up in it.
An intense heat brushed against Vera's face. His eyes darted across the plains, locking onto the Bixie's maw.
This wasn't the same as the orbs he saw before. The momentarily deteriorating terrain told him so.
It was like what he had experienced in his battle against the blue ogre.
A cold sweat passed through his body.
Sensation was overwhelmed by the threat.
Vera knew instinctively defending meant death.
All the qi covering his body was forced into his legs.
Veins ripped open, the pressure from the manifestation tore through Vera's legs.
The ever-hissing air turned silent for what seemed like an eternity, but not more than an instant.
The ground under Vera shattered as he dashed to the left.
He did not relent.
Preservation against this attack meant death.
The Bixie's visage turned invisible from the light.
A thick bolt of light passed through the desert. Waves of wind blew through, turning the brittle bones in the desert to white ash.
Vera lay on the ground; the reverberations from the attack left him concussed.
All things in the bolt's path sublimated, turning into a caustic, ionised mist.
Stumbling back onto his feet, his eyes ran across the plains. The scale of the attack felt unreal.
Standing in what once was a desert, now a forest of glass. He looked for the cause.
His eyes latched on to the Bixie's. Samadhi fire slowly filled into the void of its eyes again.
Its once golden imprints turned to a bright white.
Steam escaped its body at an alarming rate. The heat in its body barely being regulated.
This state reminded Vera of the day he fought Vast Heavens. Only this time, he'd embraced the fear of death from the start.
Sublimated sand turned back to glass in the sky.
They descended back unto earth, the light of the night sky shimmering through them.
Action regardless of outcome.
Vera's body was enveloped in the golden hue of his manifestation, his body itself turning ethereal.
His strength grew as he approached death.