Delton continued onward with Rokex, who was reciting the first line of the chant over and over, on his back. Focusing on the bridge in front of him, he did not recite his version, unlike all of the various humans on the bridge.

Controlling his power more, every time he had to jump a gap, he managed not to break any more boards.

Now halfway up, Delton had increased his pace to a light jog, no longer as scared as before. His pace could be considered average as he passed some people, while others passed him.

However, as he got past the halfway point more and more people were passing him. Some of them had even passed him with enough speed to cause a slight breeze. There were very few who bumped into him or shoved him, causing him to furrow his eyebrows.

However, Delton contained his anger and walked on with his regular pace. Just then, an incredibly muscular and large man, at least thrice the size of an average human, pushed him to the side, forcing him to take a couple of steps to the side, leaning on the rope handles for support. The rope had almost snapped because of its weak nature.

Delton quickly regained his balance and cursed at the man, but he realized that the man had already spent off, while pushing aside every one in his way. Some even fell off and snapped the rope, making the bridge less stable and wobbly.

Delton grit his teeth, but found that almost everyone was passing him. Puzzled at this, Delton thought about it for a moment and looked behind him to see that a majority of the purple mountain had crumbled. Looking down, he saw that a stampede of the bridge treaders was closing in on him. He said, “Shit! This bridge is gonna fall if that mountain fully crumbles. Shit! Shit! Shit!”

He turned back and picked up his pace. Looking ahead, he noticed a lot more board, along with humans, falling. Originally, there were at most three people per board. Now, there were at least five, and most of them were pushing and shoving each other, trying to get to the front.

Seeing the gaps, Delton tried his best to control his strength, but the surge in humans made it difficult to land properly, so the wooden board broke upon landing. Hopping over to the next one, Delton turned behind him to see that three humans had fallen down the bridge because of that broken board.

Apologizing slightly, Delton took on a running pace, but he still controlled his power as best he could, so as not to cause indirect deaths.

A high-pitched shout came from a couple hundred steps I front of him, “Break past these human constraints and soar!”

Delton focused at the source of the shout for a moment, only to see a purple-robed, with gold butterflies on it, young girl, who had been pushed off the bridge, suddenly sprout wings that looked like a large pair of webbed human hands. Flapping her wings, the girl regained her stability and continued her chant as she flew towards the base of the pitch black mountain.

Delton’s jaw dropped, but he used his hand to push it back up and shook his head to recuperate, but another shout shook his soul and forced him to turn back, “Create an unstoppable body!”

He opened his third eye to hone in on the source, and saw that an old, thin and bald man, wearing rags, had something that looked like bone start to protrude from his own body. Soon the bones formed an exoskeleton, similar to a beetle, around his body, easily making it thrice as big.

Even though the old man’s face was covered with a bone helmet, Delton could tell that he was smiling. The old man then charged through the bridge, shoving several humans in front of him off of it. Realizing that the old man was quickly catching up, Delton squatted down and prepared to jump at the right moment. Then, a middle-aged woman, who was wearing a business outfit and had graying hair tied to a bun, shouted out, “Develop an insightful mind!”

She, then turned around and effortlessly picked the bone-shelled old man and redirected his charge off of the bridge. She smirked and recited her chant again, while moving quickly up the bridge.

Staring at the old man plummeting down and with the help of his third eye, Delton made out several finger-shaped piercings on what looked like the weakest spots on the bone armor. Delton nodded his head to continue on, while ignoring the various other shouts and spectacular transformations around him.

However, even with trying his best to ignore them, some humans caught his attention. A man flew past him by the side of the bridge by firing energy projections from his hands and feet. Another bumped into him from the side of the bridge, on which the rope had not snapped yet. It was an incredibly nimble and quick child, who was actually running on the rope. Lastly, there was a beam of light that tore past him, leaving behind a charred mark, right down the middle of all of the boards.

Feeling enlightened by these fantastic sights, Delton began to recite his own chant, too. As he said each word, he found a part of him starting to stir, as if the Talents inside him, which were slumbering, we’re now about to wake up.

He then came across an incredibly fat man, who stood facing him. The fat man was wearing a plain T-shirt and shorts, and oil-like sweat dripped down his body and clung to his clothes. He squatted down, completely blocking the bridge and shouted out, “Only after countless sacrifices can you overcome fate!”

After saying this, an energy projection, the width of the bridge, hovered above him. When a young man simply tried to jump over the the fat man, he crashed into the energy wall. The wall wrapped around him and completely devoured the young man. A strand of energy then flowed down to the fat man, and his body started to glisten, exacerbated by his sweat. He shouted another line, “Forge a body from the blood and sweat of others!”

As most people were in a daze, they continued to jump right into the wall. However, some had powers that let them go around, while others had the physical ability to simply jump high above the energy wall.

Feeling that his **Muscle Controller** talent had awakened again, Delton immediately increased his heart rate. He approached the fat man and said, “Move out of the way!”

The fat man, appeared to have heard him, and said, “Humans have unlimited potential, but the path of cultivation is a narrow long-winding road. Only after countless sacrifices can you overcome fate…”

“Don’t say I didn’t try to be rational.” Realizing that the fat man was just reciting his own chant, Delton enhanced the muscles in his body and tried to push the man down. However, the oil-like sweat caused Delton’s hands to simply slide off.

Suddenly, his third eye pulsed, as if telling him to move to the side or else he will perish, like a primal instinct. He, then moved to the side, as a sword pierced through his original position and into the fat man. The fat man slumped over the sword and coughed up mouthfuls of blood. Then, the hand holding the sword, swiped upwards, slicing the fat man in half from his torso. The fat man’s legs buckled and his body fell down, crashing through several wooden boards. The energy wall subsequently dispersed.

Delton turned to his side and saw a figure, clad in armor reminiscent of a knight. The figure flicked his blade to clean off the blood and merely said with a haunting voice, “Destiny is neither good nor evil, it is up for us to decide, taking hold over it.” The knight charged onwards, followed by several others, including Delton.

Now, three-fourths of the way up the bridge, Delton had increased his heart rate to levels reached prior to crossing the bridge, while relaxing his muscles on his lower body, making him take on a form with chicken-like proportions. He was bursting forward with speed that could rival those extraordinary humans that had passed him, but unlike them, he did not hinder or affect any of the other humans with his nimble movements.

He turned to look back and saw that the purple mountain had almost crumbled entirely, with the only portion remaining the one that is connected to the bridge. In the next instant, that portion also fell apart, and so did the bridge.

Loud screams rung out as the bridge began to snap and break apart, while it swung down. The stampede that followed had a fervor unlike before, as more humans became more ruthless and bloodthirsty to ascend in time and survive.

Delton hurried, but after only advancing a couple more steps, he found that the board he was on, no longer had as much resistance, as he felt himself slightly fall.

Feeling the fear of death looming over him, Delton instinctively activated Caelus’ thought processes to think of a way to ascend even faster. Without another thought, Delton enhanced the muscles on his legs to twice its normal size and jumped up, breaking the board he was originally on.

Instead of landing on the board a couple of steps ahead of him, Delton landed on the head of one of the humans. With another powerful hop, he jumped forward again. He heard the sound of several pieces of wood breaking behind him, a groan, then a quickly receding scream, but he did not look back,

With each hop, he landed on a human and used them as a stepping stone for his next jump. The bridge had completely collapsed at this point, and the only way he can survive was to use these bodies.

After a hundred or so hops, Delton barely managed to reach the base of the pitch black mountain. Immediately after, Delton collapsed, causing Rokex’s body to tumble forward.

Regaining his original mentality, Delton clutched his arms and began too shiver. He slowly crept to the base of the mountain to find that most of the humans that were crossing the bridge were plunging to their demise. With his third eye, he could see some of them through the mist, until they became small enough that the eye could not even register them. There were still a very small amount of humans who arrived at the base of the mountain, but they were those who gained abilities with a flight aspect to it.

Delton spoke to himself, “Fuck! Fuck! Did I kill all of them?! But it wasn’t me, it was Caelus, right? No! I’m the one who activated it. But if not them, then it would’ve been me. But I don’t want to be like those selfish assholes. Maybe I should’ve died?” He proceeded to kneel down and vomit in recollection of Caelus and his prior ruthlessness, as well as the actions that he had done under the same mentality.

Wiping away some of the remaining vomit from his mouth, Delton noticed that the pitch black mountain was also starting to crumble. He smashed his fists on the mountain, which in turn catalyzed more of the deterioration. Delton shook his head and picked Rokex back up, saying, “After Rokex heals his body, I’m going to escape this godforsaken trial. I can’t keep doing this. At least within Lucius’ memories, I don’t have a fear of death.”

He hiked up the pitch black mountain, and just like the one before, it was a pleasant hike. The only noticeable difference was that the pitch black mountain was crumbling at a faster rate, forcing Delton to increase his pace.

Having reached the top after an uncertain amount of time. Golden and orange lights bore down upon him, as if further stirring the Talents within his body. Delton’s body greedily absorbed them, as well as portions of the green light that had wrapped itself around Rokex, making his dual-pupiled third eye have a more noticeable green hue.

After the light faded away, Rokex’s body was fully healed to its original state. However, Rokex was still in a daze, so he simply chanted the first line, as he stepped onto the next bridge to the blood red mountain.

Seeing this, Delton simply said, “My debt has been returned, Rokex. If you’re ever back to normal, I hope you can forgive me.” He looked down the mountain and saw that most of it had already fallen apart.

Walking down, he reached the edge and said his chant with an extra line on the end,

“Humans have unlimited potential

Stay within the limits fate has set for you

Only then, can humanity survive

Strengthen a stable body

Develop a calm mind

Create a harmonious soul

Cultivate for a stable life

But cultivation is not for me.”

And so, he jumped off.