Chapter 148 - Eight Hours of Suffering (1/2)

(Jane's PoV)

One hour passed and I started to feel something. My body started to feel like I was surrounded by intense fire. The fire didn't touch me, but the heat was enough to make me uncomfortable.

I was thinking to stop my meditation and open my eyes, to see what was going on around me. But, I held back. I remembered what Siji told me.

”Whatever happens, don't lose focus,” He said.

It was hard to distract my mind from the scorching heat but I forced myself to do that. It was not easy, but I persisted. Not to mention the temperature increased as time passed.

Fortunately, I was a quick learner and strong-willed. Before long, even when I was supposed to feel my body was burning, I actually felt nothing. I managed to put my focus entirely in the flow of my spiritual power.

I had heard about how ones' senses could be manipulated by using strong suggestion. As long as the person had strong mind power, he/she would not feel the pain of walking on the path with broken glasses, literally. There would be no wounds either.

At that time, I forgot with the boiling hot I felt. Instead, there was something else that attracted me.

After being able to get rid of the heat I was feeling, I could sense something from my spiritual power. I could only feel foreign feeling when I tried to feel my spiritual power before. I knew it was there, but I couldn't figure out the form. I couldn't explain it in detail for my lack of knowledge about spiritual power.

However, after the heat dissipated, I could see something resembled white smokes in my consciousness.

Was this my spiritual power?

My consciousness which was usually a bit dark with four to five torches illuminating the area turned brighter. There was no need for torches anymore. Instead of a single room, I found my consciousness was more like a soccer field, no, even bigger than that. I couldn't see the end of it. As far as my eyes could see, I could only identify that white smokes flowing around freely.

What happened actually?

At time like this, where is Siji?

Before I could use my connection to call him, I felt a piercing pain in my left thigh, as if someone had just sliced a big piece of meat from my thigh. It was so painful that I forgot to breath for a while and I was pulled out from my consciousness by force. Cold sweat started to wet my clothes, but I didn't open my eyes. Siji's message echoed in my mind, to keep my composure and stay focus.

The excruciating pain didn't dissipate as quickly as the burning sensation from before. It was even harder for me to focus on my meditation. Another slash came and I bit my lips to prevent myself from screaming out of pain. My whole body trembled badly and I almost lost my composure. Pain was radiating from my back where the second slash was and tears threatened to spill from the corner of my eyes.

It hurts so bad!

No matter what happens, don't lose my focus! I reminded myself.

I took a deep breath before I pulled myself from the pain like I did before. Somehow, I managed to re-enter my consciousness again, but the pain didn't go away. What happened?

The pain was still there but it was bearable now. I noticed the flow of the white smokes was slightly disturbed in several parts of my consciousness. I reached out to feel the agitated white smokes and found out that it was because of the pain I was feeling.

The more I whined about the pain, the faster I surrendered to the pain, the worse would my spiritual power be. It would affect my ability, of course.