Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance Chapter 258 Soul Pain Part 1

Chapter 258 Soul Pain Part 1

Mira was soon transported into a very inconspicuous room. The room was rather large, maybe 30 meters long, 30 meters wide, and 30 meters tall. However, there were a few strange things about this room.
One, there was no ceiling, only an endless void of nothing. When Mira looked into the void, her instincts were screaming like crazy to never approach such a place. Only death awaited if she ever fell into such a place.
Another strange thing about this room was that at the very top of the walls, the tiles were completely white. There couldn't possibly be anything whiter than those tiles at the top of the walls. However, the tiles became progressively darker down the wall and this continued even onto the floor. At the very center of the floor were tiles so black that they looked similar to the endless void above. The only difference between the two is Mira being able to stand on the tiles in the center of the floor while only instant death awaits her in the void.
Besides those two things, there was nothing else in this room. No other people, beasts, items…nothing.
Mira wasn't sure how to feel about this room, but the whole place gave off an eerie feeling. She had a feeling the endless void that was above her came into play somewhere, but she wasn't sure how.
It also didn't take a genius to know that the different colored tiles come into play as well, but she wasn't about to be testing out different theories. What if she fucks up and the whole place comes crumbling down and she falls into the void? No thanks!
After Mira's brief examination of the room, she looked down at the pitch-black tiles underneath her and noticed there was only 1 square meter of space on the pitch-black tiles underneath her.
Mira sat down on those pitch-black tiles because she felt it was the safest place to stand and she didn't really feel like wandering around this death trap of a room. At this point, she could only wait for the test to begin.
And just like what she's experienced before, the test started without any warning and Mira instantly knew what this 'test' was about.
"Urgh!"
She felt a stinging pain in her soul like someone was pricking it with a needle. These little pricks were enough to cause damage to her soul, but 'thankfully' this wonderful place healed any injuries almost immediately.
That wasn't the only problem either because when Mira grunted in pain, the white tiles at the top of the walls crumbled and revealed an endless void behind them.
"Fuck! Are those tiles a countdown or something? Why did they-Ah!"
As Mira talked, more tiles started crumbling and Mira almost started cursing out loud again.
'Dammit! These tiles react to how much noise I make! So does that mean depending on how much or how loud I scream in pain, more and more tiles will crumble? What the hell?! What kind of fucked up creature even thought of such a method of torture?! Not only do I have to resist the pain in my soul, but I can't let out a peep! I was already wailing like a pig when this place tortured my body, I can't even imagine how much pain I'll have to go through now! Goddammit!"
So instead of cursing out loud, Mira decided to do it in her mind, and rightfully so. The tiles do react to how much noise she makes and depending on how loud she is, depends on how many tiles crumble.
That in itself isn't too bad because as long as she has enough self-control to stay on the pitch-black tiles in the center, she should be safe for a while. She can also scream her heart out as much as she wants, so long as she isn't so loud as to crumble the pitch-black tiles beneath her.
One could say this place tested the limits of the test taker's will, pain tolerance, and self-control. If they lack any one of these things, then death is inevitable. For example, most people at Mira's Realm, or most Realms for that matter, don't experience pain in their souls. Even if they do, they would at most experience a shit load of pain before either dying or becoming a mentally handicapped cripple.
However, with this test they will neither die due to damage to the soul nor will they become a cripple. Hell, even falling unconscious from the pain is basically impossible. No, they are forced to endure the pain to their soul until they either die by falling into the endless void or they have to have enough will to live, self-control, and pain tolerance to beat the test and move on.
Now, you might be wondering just how sensitive the tiles are to sound because if they weren't sensitive enough then this trial would be way too easy.
Well, just for reference, Mira's little outburst when she cursed under her breath caused 5 meters worth of tiles to crumble! 5 meters! Almost a whole 10% of the room disappeared because she cursed under her breath. Just imagine if she raised her voice! The walls might just crumble leaving only the floors! If she didn't have the proper amount of self-control to not only deal with the pain but still be aware of her surroundings, she might accidently wander over into the endless void that was revealed after the walls crumbled away!
That's why this test is so frightening because the more one starts to lose their mind in the pain, the higher probability there is of death. And if one, for whatever reason, left the center and started wandering around the room in pain, they might not even know how they died before falling into the void.
So, staying on the pitch-black tiles in the center of the room is pretty much a necessity.
Naturally, Mira didn't see through all of these things in an instant. She just knew that staying on these pitch-black tiles was probably for the best.
But honestly, Mira felt like this test wasn't going to be that difficult. She's experienced excruciating pain to her soul multiple times and the only reason she let out a grunt, in the beginning, was because she was just surprised.
The pain in her soul started to increase as time went on, but Mira had barely let out a sound throughout it all and had only grunted a few times which caused another 5 meters of tiles to crumble off of the walls.
The sensations went from needle pricks to scratches, to scrapes, to stabbing, and it wasn't until Mira felt something literally cutting her soul into pieces that she started letting out loud grunts in pain.
"ARGH!"
The rest of the tiles on the wall crumbled in an instant revealing an endless void beyond the walls. Now, only the floor remained and Mira was starting to feel a little less confident in passing this test.