Immortal Ice Empress: Path to Vengeance Chapter 259 Soul Pain Part 2

Chapter 259 Soul Pain Part 2

Mira did her best to keep her mouth shut as she took out a piece of cloth from her storage ring and shoved it in her mouth. Not only did she want to prevent any noise from leaking, but she also wanted to prevent her teeth from breaking. Who knows if they'll heal even after passing this test.
Unfortunately, the pain only became worse over time and Mira couldn't help but let out a grunt or two as she felt her soul being torn apart!
Luckily, those grunts only took out another 2 meters worth of tiles leaving Mira in a 28 by 28 meter room.
Mira also noticed that when those 2 meters worth of tiles fell, the void appeared below where those tiles crumbled. Not only that, but it seemed like the void was encroaching on her as well. Now Mira was slightly freaking out because if the pain in her soul only became worse and she accidentally let out a scream, doesn't that mean the void will be within arms reach? Wouldn't she just straight up die if she touched the void?
'Fuck this shit hole! Fuck the creator of this place! Fuck you god! Fuck you death! And fuck me for participating in these shitty tests!'
Mira started cursing obscenities in her mind as the pain in her soul gradually became worse. Now instead of the feeling of something cutting her soul, she felt like something was corrupting it, causing parts of her soul to disintegrate.
Of course, how can this place allow the testee to die from its tests so easily? So whenever a portion of her soul decayed and crumbled, it would heal right back up.
At this point, Mira felt not only her soul crumbling, but her mind as well. While this was partly due to the pain she was experiencing, most of it was because damaging one's soul can cause one's mental faculties to deteriorate and if the damage is bad enough, they can become completely braindead, incapable of forming thoughts. At that point, one would become nothing more than a living vegetable with no consciousness or will at all.
Mira was constantly being put in a near-vegetable state only to be taken right out of it. Naturally, something this fucked up would mess up her mind no matter how strong Mira's will was.
Just imagine losing any capability of forming any rational thoughts for about a second only to be back to normal in the next second. This is what's happening to Mira over and over again and the rate at which the switch happens is only becoming faster.
Without Mira even knowing, it'll soon reach a point where Mira won't even be able to process anything and her body and mind will only be able to react on instinct to any external interference.
Of course, right now Mira's main external interference is pain. So much pain. If it were any other person, once they lost their mind, their body would no doubt start screaming bloody murder which will inevitabley lead to their ultimate demise in the endless void.
However, Mira was much different from a normal person. Hell, she was much different from even top-level cultivators in the Mortal World. Her body, mind, and soul have been forged through hell and hardships. Not only that, but Mira's soul even has a bit of experience inside of void-like entities.
,m That's not exactly correct since Mira's soul wasn't exactly resting in the void waiting for reincarnation. It just seems that way because Mira lost all of her senses when she was in that state making it seem like she was in a void.
Not only that, but Mira's will and self-control have been tested so many times that there shouldn't be many people better than her in this area. At least not in this Cultivation World.
With that being said, even as Mira's soul was decaying, corrupting, disintegrating, and regenerating on repeat, Mira's mind, body, and soul still followed her bodies orignal command and basic instinct: Don't fucking die!
That's right, Mira's only goal is to not die. And in this room, where any sort of noise leads her closer to death, even without Mira's conscious actions, her mind and body did its best to prevent any screams from leaking out.
Unfortunately for her, the test decided to ramp things up a bit so now on top of the constant disintegration of her soul, explosions and slashes were rampaging through her soul. So for a split second, Mira's soul would essentially be completely destroyed and the only thing left of it were a bunch of tiny little fragments.
However, immediately after the destruction of her soul and before it could dissipate, her soul would reform only for the process to repeat itself over and over again.
Naturally, this didn't feel good-
"AAAAHHHH!!"
-And Mira's broken mind was unable to prevent itself from letting out a quick guttural scream before her body worked to shut its mouth.
But that didn't stop the surrounding tiles around her from crumbling as the void came closer and closer to Mira until it wasn't even an arms length away.
That scream was incredibly loud and the only tiles left were the pitch-black tiles Mira was sitting on. The one-square meter worth of tiles was the only thing separating Mira's life from imminent death.
Even a simple raise of her hand would most likely end her life at this point, that's how close she is.
The situation would be incredibly stressful for even the most powerful and batte-tempered warriors because this is a test where strength, background, intelligence, knowledge, and even one's tolerance to pain don't matter anymore.
The only thing that matters at this point in the test is how good the testee's instincts are. One needs to have reached a state where both the mind and body's instincts can still function even if the host has lost the ability to form any sort of rational thought.
However, that begs the question, is it really the body and mind's instincts that are controlling Mira at this point or is Mira's will so strong that even when her mind is broken, she can still control her body even if it's only based on instinct?
If Mira were to answer, she would definitely go with the latter. She hadn't gone through all of those lives and the shit she experienced in them only to rely on something crude like her body and mind acting independently from her.
To prove this point, Mira's body started bleeding from every orifice in her body as blood even started leaking out of her pores to prevent any sound from leaking out. Her body was under so much stress right now that internal injuries started forming just because Mira was trying to hold in the pain.
However, this all changed when all of a sudden, Mira's soul crumbled and the pain didn't stop at only her soul. She felt this pain in both her mind and every fiber of her body.
This was by far the most painful thing Mira has ever experienced and probably will ever experience, but somehow she was able to hold on for a second before she couldn't hold it in anymore:
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!"
Mira let out the loudest roar she's ever released in all of her lifetimes. Even counting the 99 lives she witnessed earlier, this was the loudest yell Mira has ever released. It was so loud and forceful that even her lungs were starting to be damaged. However, Mira couldn't stop yelling.
Luckily, she felt her soul regenerating back to what it was before all this shit, but that didn't stop the tiles underneath her from cracking.
*Crack* *Crack*
*Boom!*
Mira's roars were so loud that even the pitch-black tiles under her cracked and crumbled, causing Mira's body to fall into the endless void…
However, luckily or unluckily, Mira's mind was still broken at this point as she kept yelling without even knowing she was falling into the void…