Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance

Mira stayed in her soul for a bit longer than usual, destroying the monster repeatedly, trying to think of a better plan that won't make her endure so much pain. She looked around and detected hundreds of holes in her soul caused by the tentacles.

'If it keeps going like this, I really will die, losing my body and soul to this disgusting creature.' Mira thought, but there wasn't much she could do. The creature was immortal, after all. No matter what she did or how many pieces she cut it into, the monster always reformed to its original appearance.

'Or is it really invincible?'

Mira's eyes sharpened, and she raised her hand toward the monster. A clump of darkness soon appeared, spinning at such high speeds that it didn't look like it was moving. All the light in her soul soon got absorbed by the black ball, increasing its power.

After a second, Mira nodded and tossed the black hole, which she called a Singularity Strike, at the monster.

*SCREEEEEEECH!*

The monster thrashed around but was evaporated into nothing in the blink of an eye. However, as she suspected, the mass of tentacles instantly reformed itself as if nothing had happened.

Her Singularity Strike was still active, so it immediately absorbed it again, but this only happened a few more times before she noticed the walls of her soul slowly ripping apart. Mira quickly canceled the ability, not wanting to be the one to kill herself.

"Ugh!" A wave of dizziness hit Mira right after, causing her to stumble to the ground.

She created another Singularity Strike at the monster to give her another couple of seconds to deal with it, but as it evaporated the monster, the dizziness became worse!

"Wh-What the fuck is going on?" Mira cursed.

The black hole kept killing the monster repeatedly, only making the dizziness, which had now turned into drowsiness, worse.

"Dammit! Does killing that thing also affect me?!"

As Mira tried to stand up, the world around her seemed to shift and sway. The room tilted and spun, and the ground beneath her felt unsteady. She grasped for something to hold onto, but nothing was around her.

Mira's head pounded, and their vision blurred. The colors of her soul become a dizzying swirl of hues and shades, blending into one another. She felt as if she were trapped in a tornado, with the world spinning around them faster and faster.

Mira closed her eyes, hoping to find some relief, but even in the darkness, the dizziness persisted.

She felt drained of all her energy. Not Qi, but more like mental endurance and stamina.

'Fuck! So, not only is that thing an immortal monster, but there are consequences to even trying to get rid of it!'

The situation just became a whole lot more complicated due to this new information, and she finally understood why this portion of the Abyssal Torment Steps was so challenging.

'So, it's less about pain and more about whether I can resist such a high degree of mind control.'

Mira concluded and felt that her guess was spot on.

'I assume that if I can't reach the 1,250th step without resisting it, the monster will take control of my mind and soul.' Mira mused before she sneered.

"Heh! Very well! Try and take control of my mind and soul! We'll see who crumbles first, you or me! You might've caught me by surprise in the first half, but I won't allow such a thing to happen again!" Mira flipped the creature off and left her soul, returning to her body.

As she did so, numerous thoughts flashed through her mind. For example, she could use the [100 Glacial Warriors] technique in her soul and try and contain the monster, but she immediately dismissed that idea. The monster had already taken up 40% of the space in her soul.

It was impossible for her to block the neverending onslaught of tentacles, which would only become worse the further she descended, with her limited amount of Qi.

As for trying to use the black runes to absorb it, she didn't even consider that an option. The tentacle monster didn't have much energy for her to steal. If anything, it was stealing her energy. Since her black runes can't absorb energy that efficiently yet, what she'd receive would be just a fraction of what it had stolen, she'd also worsen her dizziness by doing so.

The rest of the possible alternatives weren't any better than those two, so her only choice now was to try and push forward, which was a common theme on the Abyssal Torment Steps. There are no shortcuts here, no easy mode—only hard work and suffering.

'Plus, how can I miss such a great opportunity to train?!' A grin formed on Mira's face, which widened into a smirk.

As soon as Mira's consciousness returned to her body, she immediately felt something trying to lock her memories away and take over her mind.

'Nuh-uh! I won't let you get away with doing that again!' Mira wrapped her consciousness around her Mind Palace and concentrated on reinforcing each of the rooms within.

Still feeling a drain on her memories, her brain started overclocking as she picked out all the important and necessary memories she didn't want to get stolen or couldn't function without and began engraving those strands onto the walls in her Mind Palace.

This went on for a while before Mira eventually finished that, and although she had still lost a decent chunk of her memories and brainpower to the monster, she still had full control over her mind and body.

'I suppose it's time to head down now!'

Mira lifted a foot and planted it firmly on the next step, where the process repeated. She spread her consciousness thin as another tentacle entered her soul, trying to absorb her mind, but it wasn't something she couldn't handle.

From then on, Mira descended the Abyssal Torment Steps with fearlessness and unyielding determination, each footfall echoing throughout the cavernous stairwell. The air is damp and cold, causing her skin to prickle with goosebumps.

In the depths of her mind, she felt the presence of the tentacle monster, with each step, its appendages increasing as it probed her thoughts and memories. She gritted her teeth and tried to resist it the best she could, but the creature was strong, and it began to siphon away small fragments of her memories despite her best efforts, leaving her feeling disoriented and lost.

With each passing step, Mira felt the monster's presence growing stronger and its tentacles multiplying, stealing away more and more of her memories and control over her mind and body. The pain she felt every time another one sprouted was excruciating, and after a while, she felt like she was teetering on the brink of madness.

However, despite its best efforts to control her, Mira kept a tight hold over her mind, constantly doing her best to fortify her Mind Palace. With every step and every added tentacle, she'd find another weakness that not only the monster but others could exploit if she ever found herself in a similar situation.

She skimmed through all her memory strands, searching for all the important ones to engrave into her Mind Palace so that even if someone or something did control her mind and locked her memories away, at least she wouldn't devolve into a mindless beast. The important memories would keep her base instincts in check.

***

After an unknown amount of time passed, Mira stood on the 1,249th step. By this point, her eyes were blank and hollow, hardly showing any signs of intelligent life within. Her body trembled intensely as if just standing there was a near-impossible feat.

Inside her soul, the tentacle monster had taken over 99% of her soul, leaving only a sliver of it for herself.

Most people would have already lost their ego if such a thing happened to them, consumed by the monster within. And Mira wasn't any different.

The soul is a precious and delicate thing within every organism. The slightest injury to it, even if it was only a tiny scrape, is incomparably more dangerous than if something like that happened to the body. Thus, having a giant monster take up 99% of one's soul was nothing short of a death sentence.

In fact, by this point, Mira hardly had control over her own mind. She couldn't consciously tell her legs to move or her arms to wave. The only thing that kept her moving was the preparations she'd made over 100 steps ago, which essentially allowed her body to act independently of her mind.

Around the 1,200th step, Mira had also hidden away a piece of her consciousness inside the throne room in her Mind Palace since she could feel it slipping away from her gasp. She didn't know if that was necessary, but at least that tiny piece could give out simple orders and keep everything from collapsing.

However, when it was time to take that last step, Mira didn't even know what was going on.

Still, with blank, dead eyes, Mira lifted her foot and stumbled onto the 1,250th step!

*Swoosh!*

With that, her body disappeared from the Abyssal Torment Steps, leaving this godforsaken place behind!