Luckily the fall this time was only a couple seconds at best, still enough to severely cripple my body but that was hardly a concern for me.
Slamming against the ground I immediately sprung to my feet, looking around desperately through the incinerating heat. I needed to find somewhere I could stand and not be burning to a crisp, not because I feared I would die or anything just because the sheer pain was overwhelming.
'I really thought I had gotten used to pain, how stupid.'
A moment later an idea came to mind. As I looked up and saw the trees I noticed that dark portions were on the underside of the tree and despite the fact this was bright enough you could convince me I was above the surface of the sun. These trees were still perfectly black.
Reaching my hand up I grabbed onto the crystal branches and began to climb. I needed to reach above the canopy quickly overwise. My limbs would probably be too far gone to use.
I climbed as fast as I could, then I climbed faster still. By the time I eventually reached the top, my fingers were completely gone, my face was burnt off almost completely, my feet were mere stubs.
It was all alright now that I had reached the top though, as my regeneration did its work I felt the cold crystal I was laid on. The tree-like plants felt and looked as if they were made of some kind of clear ice. It was obviously not ice though.
I tried crushing a stem with my grip, then I tried bashing it when attempting to crush it with my hand didn't work.
'Much tougher than ice.'
The sky above me took my attention. The light below was still growing stronger and stronger. I was glad that this tree blocked quite literally all of the light from below but the light seemed so bright it was illuminating the whole entire previously black abyss.
Out in the distance I was now able to see countless different things. I saw many of the crystal islands like the one I was currently on but there were also more regular islands. They were made of some black substance and stretched as high as a mountain. Some in the far distance were so incredibly colossal that even from a distance they seemed to scrape at the sky.
I sadly wasn't able to see much more in this time, the sky around simply became too bright too quickly.
Despite the fact I was now no longer directly in the light I was starting to overheat. The light even when not directly making contact with me was still beginning to cause me to go light headed despite the only source of heat reaching me being the reflected light off the previously pitch black void surrounding me.
It was manageable only because of the cold ice tree I was on. I was able to lay on it and cool myself down. I feared even imagining what trying to withstand this ludicrous heat would be like without these trees.
Depending on how quickly I got incinerated there is the possibility I could stay conscious the whole time, simply writhing in agony for however long the light lasted for.
I noticed the light covering the sky was now no longer becoming any brighter. Now it was steady at a humble scorching temperature.
It would seem that now I had truly escaped the immediate dangers and so had little more to do other than continue developing my weave.
---
Boredom, sheer utter boredom.
I didn't know why it was only starting to pick away at me now but once it had began to sprout in my mind it refused to leave. What made it worse was exactly how boredom effected motivation. Being bored makes you lethargic and lazy, you struggle to muster up the motivation to do anything. This then causes you to only become more bored from the lack of activity.
It was a feedback loop which could only be overcome by simply overcoming this feeling and resolutely withstanding the feeling.
'God does it feel awful though.'
Every moment was dragging on and on. Worse yet the sky was simply too blinding to sleep through. Even when closing my eyes the pain to my eyes made it impossible to rest.
I had made very significant progress in my weave. The progress was always supposed to be exponential of a sort, as your channels get carved out it becomes easier and easier to make new ones however the progress I was making only seemed to be reaching more and more ridiculous speeds.
I had already been able to start on the locks, in just a couple more days I would be able to begin to gather mana. This allowing the start of progress to my core would only make the progress even quicker.
I knew this already of course but the fact I could already get to this point was staggering. Soon enough I might even be able to contend with the titanic strength of the demons. I imagined being able to finally unleash my rage on those who had wronged me, on those who had wronged all of humanity.
I hated how passive I had been to the demons, I knew I didn't stand a chance against them but the fact I had hoped to even communicate with them. It felt like I had compromised my humanity by even thinking of bargaining with those creatures, no matter if it would have been the smart thing to do.
'I need to communicate with the demons at some point though, if only to learn how to best exterminate those bastards.'
There was simply too much for me to be able to find out on my own, I would eventually need to rely on the knowledge they had gained.
At that moment an idea struck my mind.
'If I was somehow able to make my voice itself turn into the kind of mana sound waves the demons used I may be able to speak to them.'
The main problem even if I was able to do such a thing would still be the fact I couldn't hear anything they say, along with the fact I don't even know their 'language'.
'I'm surprised I haven't seen any demons down here though, the fall shouldn't have been enough to kill one of these demons. Then again, they are undoubtedly able to prevent the demons from flying. Maybe they do so by preventing the use of mana, making them far more vulnerable.'
It didn't seem outside the realm of possibility that even if the demons no longer had access to man they would still be able to survive the fall. That was just how insane the power of these things were.
'Let's assume that there were demons who survived the fall, first of all why wouldn't they simply fly out of here?'
There was only one explanation I could come up with on the spot, that was that the demons simply lacked the ability to do so still. Whatever the demons up above did to the ones down here would prevent them from rising up to the top forever more.
'Wait no, maybe they do have the ability. It was just that they obtained it far too late. The incinerating light was something I was sure not even a demon could survive direct contact with and if they were up so far in the sky, there was nothing you could hide using.'
That thought also raised a very uncomfortable thought in my mind.
'How am I going to get out of here then?'