At this point, Randidly didn't have the spare attention to try and control his heart rate. Besides, he felt the demands of his body growing steadily as the battle progressed. As the engine of the body, the heart was needed to rejuvenate his muscles. Blood circulated through him, steadily being baptized by the waves of pressure that Randidly was struggling to contain. A lot of the blood vessels ruptured, but some survived. Those survivors continued to circulate, gradually thinning out the substance of Randidly's body until only the superior blood cells remained.

A forced evolution began to occur within Randidly. Along his skin, weaker cells ruptured and stronger ones divided and took their place. Within his body, the weak or damaged muscles were eviscerated by the waves of polarity, allowing stronger ones to quickly grow in their place.

Honestly, Randidly couldn't keep track of all the changes going on in his body. He could distantly sense that his physique was improving physically in a way that he couldn’t quite understand. But his attention was limited. With gritted teeth, all his effort was condensed to continue to push back the energy of the Aether Mines. The pain was increasing sharply as more and more of Randidly’s body toughened and steeled itself against the polarity.

BA-DUM....BA-DUM....BA-DUM....

Just as the Aether Mines released periodic pulses of polarity, Randidly's heart began to explode with force with each of its beat. It severed as an unexpected blow against the source of the polarity, as his heart was situated right in the central area where all of the Aether Mines were congregated. The sudden muscle contractions of the heart were powerful enough to eradicate the radiating waves of polarity, quickly reducing the strain on the rest of Randidly’s body.

In that opening, Randidly rapidly solidified his control of his muscles. With the extra breathing room, he didn’t push deeper toward the central area of his body, which was the approximate physical location of his Soulspace. The pain was intense, but Randidly knew that he wouldn’t be able to simply rely on grit and his physical body for what came next. So in that quiet suspension of corn starch and water, Randidly began to experiment.

Under his tight control, his muscles began to flex individually in vast waves, starting from the tips of his fingers and toes, running up the limbs and then unleashing the built-up muscular momentum to smash toward his core right as the polarity erupted from the massed Aether Mines.

Congratulations! Your Skill the Yyrwood Flesh of Yggdrasil (L) has grown to Level 258!

At first, his timing was slightly off, but Randidly quickly grew more capable of manipulating his body to resist the Aether Mines directly. The pain from Aether Mines might only target his non-System Aether, but Randidly’s body began to suppress the effect of the polarity on his physical body. Through brute force, he gradually quieted the Aether Mines.

BA-DUM, BA-DUM, BA-DUM, BA-DUM

Randidly’s heart rate continued to climb back toward normal levels. But after the period of time where he had slowed down to establish a baseline, the normal heart rate was completely transformed. Perhaps part of the improvement was the baptism of power that his blood and veins had endured as muscle fought polarity across his body, but each beat of his heart generated a surge of familiar warmth throughout his person. He was ignited by his own physical capabilities.

Rather belatedly, the image of the Stillborn Phoenix released a wave of its chilling influence to keep Randidly’s brain from nearing dangerous temperatures.

While the stalemate between the muscular effect and the Aether Mine’s polarity continued raging in Randidly’s core, Randidly hesitated as he felt gravity pressing against his skin. Then he shook his head. Around his physical body, Randidly’s own rumbling waves of physical force echoed outward and caused the surrounding mixture to rapidly harden. But compared the polarity, the mixture around Randidly was relatively weak; very quickly the hardened liquid shattered and cracked, allowing more liquid to flow down around him and harden once more.

Gradually, Randidly began to slowly move his body, straightening his limbs so that all the muscle fibers were elongated. And after his body was stretched out, he carefully examined his situation. Releasing a breath, Randidly began to gradually improve the efficiency and Control with which he utilized his muscles. Within about ten minutes, the mixture around Randidly ceased hardening; the waves of force radiating from his body were greatly diminished as he controlled himself more directly.

Of course, this process also had the effect of suppressing the Aether Mines further. More and more of Randidly’s muscular potential was driven inward to rage across his body. Less of the energy was wasted by exploding outward.

And at the core of it all, his heart continued its acceleration.

BADUM, BADUM, BADUM, BADUM, BADUM, BADUM

The heat had once more risen in his body toward an unbearable level. As he released low breaths, steam escaped his nose. Randidly felt the mixture around him becoming runnier as it was heated by the presence of his body.

Which meant it was probably time to stop stalling. Randidly released his Hallucination of the Bloodless Phoenix, no longer using gravity to keep his skin entirely still. Instead, the image was entirely focused on keeping his head cool. For a few seconds afterward, Randidly’s skin buzzed with some of the ambient polarity energy that was transferred through. But he quickly and systematically used his quiet warmed up muscles to flex and constrict those reverberations. Soon, the Aether Mines were rather painfully contained in only Randidly’s Soulspace.

Perhaps due to the tight space, the Aether Mines began to shift and rotate; it seemed that they weren’t suppressed just yet. The pain radiated out in new in unpredictable ways. Unfortunately for this new array of Aether Mines, Randidly’s body was only too happy to rise to the challenge. His heart continued to accelerate.

Honestly, if there hadn’t been a challenge, Randidly had no idea how his body would have shifted in a low-pressure situation. Some part of him still needed an external threat to push his body so far beyond what the human body was used to.

Once he was able to stabilize in response to the swirling Aether Mine array, Randidly did his best to ignore the constant pain and instead marvel at the physical changes that had come over his body. Obviously he had started this training to improve his ability to break past the veil of mental restriction that Randidly felt, but the results were so much more than that. His entire body had been gradually strengthened by the practice in ways that even Randidly wasn’t sure about yet.

At the same time, Randidly felt the veil had steadily moved closer to him as his body had grown stronger. Now, floating in the mixture, it wasn’t even an arm's length away. With a quick movement, Randidly could rip through that barrier and-

Randidly.

The surprising touch of Neveah’s mind on his own combined with the constant distraction of the pain made Randidly briefly lose that careful sense of rhythm that allowed his body to suppress the Aether Mines. The Aether Mines exploded outward, shifting out of the spinning array that was currently giving him so much trouble and returning to their prior formation.

Of course, this expansion meant that the pain sharply decreased. With that little bit of extra help, Randidly quickly reasserted his control and pushed the Aether Mines back toward one small spot at his core. Once more they began to rotate furiously, but they were safely controlled. Only then could he spare the attention for Neveah. Yes? What is it?

That swirling formation of Aether Mines. Neveah’s consciousness was there with Randidly, indicating different sections that she was focusing on. Do you see the contraction? Compared to other times, the resulting increase in polarity released by the Aether mines is much less than you would expect, considering the growth of the polarity in response to pressure so far.

Randidly’s mind was spinning a dozen plates. On the one hand, he was manipulating many parts of his body at once to create a surge in muscular strength while also doing his best to monitor and predict the waves of polarity produced by the Aether Mines. On the other hand, he was doing his best to ignore the sharp pain of housing such a condensed array of Aether Mines. So his response to Neveah was rather blank.

She chuckled mentally. ...well just believe me when I say that I think you tricked the Aether Mines somehow. Because of the rising strength of your body, you are producing a force that isn’t affiliated with any Skills… or from the perspective of the Aether Mines, a force that is not-produced by non-System Aether. And this spiral array…

Neveah paused, realizing that Randidly was basically not listening. Releasing another amused mental chuckle, Neveah just said. Just follow my lead. I think you are almost out of this. Do you have a little gas left in the tank?

Randidly just narrowed his eyes.

BADUMBADUMBADUMBADUMBADUMBADUMBADUM

The heat was practically unbearable even with the Stillborn Phoenix running damage control; Randidly’s entire body was wreathed in it. He could feel the water in the mixture around him beginning to boil. His skin grew increasingly red. But on the other hand, his muscles were practically gushing with power. It grew increasingly hard to control the muscle contractions, especially when Neveah tried to guide Randidly to guide the power of his body in a very specific manner.

Luckily, Neveah began intervening more directly in Randidly’s body, taking away a large portion of the mental load he was carrying. The pain was still a constant companion, but Randidly was at his physical peak. With Neveah taking half of the stress, he followed her in causing his body to precisely invert the rotation of polarity within the Aether Mines.

Which was extremely difficult, considering the Aether Mines were pressed into a small sphere-shaped space and Randidly was dealing with the muscles of his body. But Neveah and Randidly worked at the process for almost an hour, gradually adjusting the timing until it was perfect. By the end of it, Randidly’s body was exhausted and trembling from dealing with the heightened strain of his overheated state and the pain of the Aether Mines.

But just as he was ready to ask Neveah to take a break, something snapped into place. The physical force produced by his body slid perfectly into the rotation of polarity around the Aether Mines. Something there was a click. Then, first only a single one Aether Mine and then in a rippling cascade, the Aether Mines that Randidly held snapped onto one another and fell into an inert state.

After a minute, the Aether Mines had completely ceased their activity. Rather awkwardly, an exhausted Randidly hauled himself out of the tub, dried corn starch stuck to his clothes. He lay on his back and looked upward. With a wave of his hand, he drove away the silver mist and looked out at the sun sinking toward the horizon.

“This makes things…” Randidly blinked, still rather stunned. “Much simpler… if Kaan Swacc hasn’t shown up by now… he probably cannot sense they deactivated...”

We got lucky. Neveah replied. First, your physical body being so much… greater than an average person. Without the Alpha Cosmos altering you, you would have been insensible from the pain far before the point that rotational lock appears. Second, your ability to generate force without relying on Skills feeding on non-System Aether. But even with these things, we still only have two days to take advantage of this unexpected break.

Randidly looked down at his right hand in wonder. He could see the mental limitation hovering there, perhaps now only a hand’s length away from his body. Even as his heart rate slowed down, Randidly grinned. “I think two days will be plenty of time.”