Ago

Alex proved his will was unbroken. At least not broken yet. Drawing from unknown sources the drive to move forward albeit slowly, he reached the first wooden step. But just before he could gather his strength, a powerful force jerked him backwards almost pulling him off the mountain face. Stumbling, Alex barely caught onto the wooden steps by digging his fingernails into the wood, splinters piercing into them.

He looked back only to see the weighty chains being pulled by now fully formed and materialized bodies of flesh, too numerous to count. Their numbers too many, the chains uncountable.

The sight was simply unbelievable. A tattered man holding onto the mountain via his fingernails while being pulled from the mountain face towards an endless abyss below by massive chains, and an army of unknown numbers. However...

ROAR!!!

With all his strength he roared and yanked hard, pulling towards the mountain. His facial veins bulged as though they would rupture at any moment. Grabbing onto the chains behind him, he pulled them towards the mountain simultaneously before jumping onto the top of the stairs. Each of his motions was accompanied by a strong pull.

Lifting his hand to climb forward, he is yanked back again. It was a struggle against restraints at every step. The pace was slow, much slower than on the previous mountains. Alex carefully moved forward, taking every step lest he be thrust into the abyss below.

Soon Alex noticed that he was growing weaker and even older physically. As he climbed the mountain his young body was aging. He could feel that his vitality and vigour were directly sapped by the wooden steps and into the mountain beneath. The longer he spent on the mountain the older and weaker he became, making him slower. The rate of this increased steadily as he climbed upwards.

His speed had slowed significantly. Weeks turned into months and months into years. By the time he had under the powerful resistive forces, the loud schizophrenic voices in his mind and the accelerated ageing arrived at the peak of the 7th peak, he was a middle-aged man.

The bodies formed by the spectral arms had formed into full fleshy beings with vigour, the chains hanging from him had grown sharp pointed edges tearing into his flesh and remaining clothes and the formerly solid wood had begun to flake off beneath his feet. Alex was in such a haggard state he could not be recognised as the same man who started the trial. His body was wrecked in various ways.

Drawing strength to stand he looked ahead of him only to see not one, but two massive mountains in the distance. The second being far far away from the first. Clearly for him to be able to see that mountain from where he stood, it must be so much larger than the other mountains that they seemed like little hills compared to it.

The wooden bridge leading to the 8th mountain lay before him covered in fog and looking moist from rain, but not wasting a moment more he continued onto the bridge with his middle-aged body.

Step by step he walked carefully as the bridge had already begun to rot badly. The 8th mountain beckoned him as though it could not wait to have a challenger, unlike all the other mountains. With the challenges piling up higher and higher, regardless of which Alex kept on going.

The 8th mountain appeared quite different as he approached it on the decaying wooden bridge he noticed the mountain appeared to be unusually green and on getting closer he found that long thick vines hung down the 8-meter high steps but undisturbed by the sights he carefully and steadfastly walked the bridge to the end

On getting to the mountain face he picked up a vine and saw the though sharp thorns that when they dug into him seemed to drain his lifeforce at a faster rate aging him faster.

On being on the climb again, the forces against him picked up with the full bodies pulling him back and the pointed chains digging into his flesh, but as he would have it, no matter how they pulled against him, he hung onto the blood-sucking vines. But this made him weaker and weaker making him much slower on his climb.

No matter how much strength he tried to muster he became slower as he aged more but ironically the aid of the vines ensured that he was not pulled off the mountain.

As he reached the next steps the pulling force became stronger the voices became louder so loud that they made his vision blurry and climbing became a doomed task however Alex persevered and several months passed before he finally made it to the 8th pinnacle but by this point, his skin was just the wrinkled wrap of a bag of bones a literal bag of bones wrapped in sinew but at this deplorable state a visible flame appeared within his eyes the red flames seemed to carry the core of his soul and burnt on with determination as its fuel.

The flame seemed to be providing the bag of bones called Alex with the strength to climb onto the wooden suspension bridge that led to the 9th mountain the bridge was so treacherous looking it seemed to have been built by children posing as engineers on a playground under the sight of the 9th mountain everything seemed to be mundane no pressure was released no becoming sensation could be felt as though to ask why should a lofty being like it pay any mind to a creeping ant on the floor below him

The flame within Alex seemed to be offended by the mountain's disdain for it and quickly Alex walked onto the bridge and into the heavy fog. Strangely enough the bridge did not shake nor creak like it had been frozen in place by a powerful force as he began walking down it towards the 9th mountain.

The pulling of the chains seemed to have lost all their effects but the remaining skin with the bag of bones started flaking away from him. Bit by bit and by the time he arrived at the 9th mountain he had become a complete skeleton, bound by numerous chains that wrapped around him like a massive coat of armour. These chains were being pulled by complete bodies with facial features, the faces of his loved ones, the faces of acquaintances and the faces of absolute strangers.

The faces were distorted in a mask of hatred and despise. The voices within his mind had calmed down and turned into discernable voices whispering doubts into his mind as though whispering them directly into his soul.

The skeleton walked onto the 9-meter-high steps while the voices of doubts were directly burned into ash by the raging flame within him. Higher and higher he climbed this time with little to no hindrance from the chains as the flame he had awakened seemed so forbidden to resist but this was not without a price as cracks began to appear on the skeleton and his

Speed was reduced to a crawl with every step increasing the cracks in the skeleton and causing the flame to flicker. This was not a physical attack from the mountain but one aimed at the soul core as the mountain seemed driven to break and absorb Alex's soul core.

Unlike the other tests, this one seemed hell-bent on eradicating and absorbing the very essence of his being. However, as the flame flickered more it seemed to grow a deeper shade of red and it became even more resilient. It was like a tool being ruthlessly refined. Even the skeleton regenerated slowly and recovered its integrity before being shattered once again

Years passed on the massive mountain with days being consumed as seconds. Eventually, the struggle ended in Alex's favour with him arriving on another platform.

Strangely, this platform was not at the peak of the 9th mountain but at a point, a little above midpoint and occupying the entire platform was a magnificent pavilion that blocked the pathway up the mountain.

"Sigh this was truly an unexpected outcome." The wooden cup said in their usual cacophony of voices

"Indeed, it is just unheard of that someone so young could awaken a soul so strong." The bronze cup commented.

"Hmm, it's not that impressive," The silver cup said arrogantly - though I thought he would be just a whisp of soul flame at this point if not totally eradicated. He thought

"Don't you think so big brother?" the cup said fawningly turning to look at the small toddler carrying a golden Chalice filled to the brim with blood-red wine

All this was going on but Alex paid them no mind, as his entire focus was turned to the massive glowing stone doorway in their midst. This doorway seemed to be drawing the essence of the will of all existence and refining it constantly.

Charming and enchanting the doorway was engraved with a myriad of hexes which Alex could make no sense of. Except for the engraving at the very top of the doorway that read "Ago."