Thud!
The bodies of the four youths finally collapsed, hitting the cold surface of the room's floor.
Their breathing was ragged, panting heavily as if they could never get enough air. Large beads of sweat poured down their temples, while every joint and muscle in their bodies screamed in protest, battered by a bone-crushing ache and agonizing pain.
Seeing Kazien and his three spouses completely laid out helpless, Goddess Nirfelia finally lowered her hands. The Creator decided to temporarily halt the hellish training, giving the four humans a pause to recover a shred of their sanity.
Even though his breath was still ragged and his body felt shattered, Kazien's instincts as a husband took over. He turned his head with great difficulty.
"Alvin... Allen... Arken... are you all alright?" Kazien asked in a hoarse tone, his eyes radiating deep concern as he saw his three spouses lying there breathing heavily.
"I-I am alright..." Alvin answered brokenly while closing his eyes, trying to regulate the chaotic rhythm of his breathing. "It's just that... my entire body feels like it has been run over by hundreds of horse carriages. It hurts so much."
"My body feels the same!" Allen chimed in, groaning softly while massaging his stiff shoulder. The purple-haired youth winced, holding back the pain. "Crazy... I knew this was training to fight a god-level entity, but truly, I never expected the training to be this brutal and insane."
Lying not far from them, Arken stared at the ceiling of the room, his chest rising and falling rapidly.
"I... I am alright, Huby." Arken answered, his breath still ragged, trying to give a faint smile to reassure his husband. "You don't need to worry. It's just... my whole body feels stiff, my muscles are twitching, and everything just aches."
Goddess Nirfelia floated down gracefully, approaching the four youths lying exhausted on the floor. Unlike her compassionate motherly form, this time the Goddess looked at them with a very flat gaze, as if trying to provoke their emotional side.
"Kazien, do you still remember?" the Goddess spoke, breaking the silence and opening the conversation with a resonant voice. "Try to remember carefully. The first time I pulled your soul into this divine realm... you felt like you only spent about thirty minutes here with me. But... when you returned to the world where you live, six months had passed."
Hearing the words Goddess Nirfelia had just uttered, the silvery-white-haired youth instantly jolted in shock.
The old, buried memory regarding the cosmic time distortion slammed back into his mind like a sledgehammer. The ratio of the time difference between the divine dimension and the human world was incredibly extreme.
"Are you and your three spouses sure you want to waste this precious time just mourning over that pain?" Goddess Nirfelia continued, applying a mental pressure far heavier than the physical one. "Remember this well! The longer you stall by lying around complaining like this, the faster time passes in your world over there! If you stay here too long, chaos might have already erupted, and your family might no longer be there when you eventually return."
As if doused with ice water, Kazien snapped to his senses. His mind suddenly cleared of all the pain. Ignoring his muscles screaming in agony and his bones feeling as if they were crushed, the youth immediately leaped up and stood tall. His pair of sapphire blue eyes glinted sharply.
"Yes... You are right!" Kazien said in a firm and loud voice, without the slightest hesitation in his tone. "Forgive my weakness. Let us resume the training right now, Goddess Nirfelia!"
Seeing their husband stand up with an unwavering resolve, Alvin, Allen, and Arken instantly forgot their pain. The aura of determination radiating from Kazien seemed contagious, igniting the remaining energy within their bodies.
Not long after, one by one, they stood firmly by their husband's side, ready to endure whatever torment and grueling training the Goddess would throw at them.
The determination of the four youths now burned much brighter than before. They realized they did not have the luxury to waste time lying around, resting, or complaining about their pain. Their previously exhausted eyes now radiated a sharp, unshakable new spirit.
"Good! I like seeing that look in the eyes of the four of you!" praised Goddess Nirfelia, a proud smile etched on her beautiful face. "We will immediately resume this training. Prepare yourselves!"
Without giving any further warning, the grueling training resumed. The invisible blows once again shot through the air at an insane speed.
However, this time their response was entirely different. Their resolve had crystallized. The burden currently shouldered by the four youths was no longer just about becoming stronger, but about the lives of millions of people, as well as the safety of the families waiting for their return in that world, were now completely in their hands.
The four of them were willing to endure any amount of suffering and physical burden to prevent the horrific future that would one day bring their world to absolute destruction.
Compared to the thought of their families being destroyed, the pain currently battering their physical bodies felt completely meaningless.
None of them had the intention to give up, let alone complain.
Kazien, Alvin, Allen, and Arken kept moving and pushed themselves hard to dodge the hundreds of invisible attacks. Even though their bodies still had to be flung away, slammed against the walls, or sent crashing to the floor time and time again, they would instantly get right back up in the exact same second and readjust their perception.
"Focus your minds even deeper!" shouted Goddess Nirfelia. "Because after this, the trajectories of my attacks will become even heavier, more complex, and increasingly absurd!"
Facing the attacks that came like an invisible storm, Kazien, Alvin, Allen, and Arken closed their eyes for a moment, centering the divine power within them. They expanded their holy aura fields, using them like a spider-web radar to catch every ripple of energy in the air, no matter how small.
Slowly but surely, an evolution occurred. The four youths began to be able to clearly 'see' the direction the attacks were coming from before the impacts even arrived, and they successfully evaded them with efficient and precise movements.
Seeing their incredible adaptive progress, Goddess Nirfelia smiled in relief. The Goddess did not hold back. She immediately raised the speed and volume of her attacks again, again, and again, until reaching a limit that practically defied logic.
Yet, Kazien and his three spouses no longer faltered. They maintained their absolute focus. Even though some of those logically defying high-speed attacks still managed to graze and injure their bodies, they continued striving to dodge, dancing amidst the invisible rain of death.
And at the climax, some time later...
Whoosh!
Kazien and his three spouses had fully adapted to the rhythm of the divine realm. They moved with lightning speed, flapping their silver wings, and successfully dodged all of the absolute blows without a single one of the Goddess's attacks managing to hit them.
Their sensitivity toward the movements of energy and the invisible anomalies around them had now become incredibly sharp, absolute, and highly precise. They seemed to have merged with the divine nature itself.
Witnessing the success of the four youths in breaking their mortal limits, Goddess Nirfelia smiled with a sense of immense pride. Instantly, she dispelled the thousands of energy pressures and ceased all her attacks.
"Incredible. Congratulations, the four of you!" the Goddess said in a gentle tone with a sincere smile. "You have successfully passed and completed this first stage of training highly satisfactorily."
Goddess Nirfelia spread her arms, and slowly the enclosed room began to change its shape. "Very well, let us move on to the next stage of training!"