It was like being hit in the head with a hot hammer. No, it’s even worse than that, at least with a hot hammer to the head you feel the pain, you can rub the pain.

It felt as if Azaroth’s brain was being poked by a red-hot iron poker with no way to relieve the pain.

Only it was low in his stomach, on his normal core. His stomach twisted and rolled with the pain, his muscles locked, jerking furiously and he hit the floor with a thud.

Then the pressure lifted, leaving Azaroth with a sweat-soaked uniform and burning muscles throughout his body. His body turned to rubber and he could only stare at Kael as he dragged him on the floor with his legs, separating him from the others.

Kael gave them a space of four feet each.

Stallus was staring up at the ceiling, her fingers twitching beside her while Alex was trying desperately to speak and making no progress with opening his mouth. Catena’s eyes were closed and he was breathing hard.

Azaroth could still feel it, the pressure that had warped around his core and squeezed it for all it was worth. Surprisingly only the normal core was affected, seems the chaos core could hide itself after all.

The pain began to fade but his body hadn’t begun responding to his command so Azaroth stopped trying but instead conserved his energy.

"At last some progress," Kael said. Azaroth could feel Kael’s eyes looking at him behind the mask he wore and he felt odd, like cattle for sale in the market.

"Listen, don’t try to fight back, what I’m doing is dangerous enough. That’s why I drained your cores so it will be empty and you will have little chance of fighting me with it," Kael said.

Azaroth didn’t know what Kael was doing, the only thing he could figure out was that Kael was putting immense pressure on their core, for whatever reason.

"Now to the next step." Kael walked down the row and stopped in front of Stallus. She was the first person in the row.

Kael spread his hand on top of her and her eyes widened, her fingers twitched faster and her jaws worked but it was already too late.

Kael released his essence pressure and the air ripped straight at Stallus. She jerked as if she had been hit, her body locked up and her one eye widened with pain.

Kael continued for what Azaroth counted as five minutes before stopping, Stallus had passed out four minutes in.

Alex flinched when Kael got to his turn, his dark eyes begging but Kael only shrugged and hit his core like a hammer to a nail. Alex’s eyes rolled up two minutes in.

Catena didn’t open his eyes when Kael got to him, it was as if he was indeed asleep. Even when the essence pressure hit him, he just lay there shuddering for the five minutes and only stopped when Kael was done.

Azaroth’s red eyes were trained on Kael as he made his way to his place. Whatever Kael was doing, he couldn’t feel any difference in his normal core.

Azaroth was not entirely convinced that Kael was not just using them as punching bags. 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

When the pressure hit, Azaroth jolted in pain. The pain was focused this time, it was as if the essence pressure was a nail, Kael the hammer, and Azaroth’s core the wood.

The pain pierced through him and his body twisted in its rigidity, Azaroth clenched his jaw and narrowed his eyes in pain that moved through his body in a recycling manner.

When Kael finally stopped, Azaroth’s eyes stung with a mixture of blood and sweat. He could feel no energy in his body at all while he lay there on his back.

Azaroth heard Kael’s voice like a far away murmur, he had to listen and it took a while before he could place each word.

"....what I’m doing. Naturally, it would take some more months before your cores advance but if you must have a fighting chance later in the future you have to advance now," Kael said.

So that was what was happening, Azaroth thought. Couldn’t he have let them know though? Why act so mysterious?

"What I’m doing is putting pressure on your cores. Practicing heavily with it every day is a sure way to get you to advance and you’ve been doing that, practicing hard every day," Kael said.

"But it’s not enough! I will give you months of practice with this. It’s a dangerous thing to do since cores are delicate things at most, they can be broken with essence pressure." Kael looked at them.

Azaroth didn’t find that reassuring at all. He hated risk, and what Kael just described sounded like a risky situation to him but what Azaroth hated most was people choosing risks for him.

What Kael was doing was what Azaroth himself could risk but that was on his terms! Don’t choose the risk he’s willing to take for him.

That aside, Azaroth liked it. Wasting months when you could just get hours of pain and advance? Seems like a good deal to him.

Kael continued. "Why don’t a lot of people do this, I know you are asking. Well, Awakeners do this a lot and die because of it a lot too. You can speed up your Advancement by putting pressure on your core but it’s mostly positive for low-level initiates like you guys."

"Of course, it is possible for other ranks but can you take the pain for months? Years? People tried it then found out that even with their Awakened body, their bodies aren’t designed to take that kind of pain for months and years," Kael said. "Not to talk of shattered cores."

"But hours? Easy." Kael returned to the first row, to Stallus, and spread his hand again. Stallus groaned and Kael released his essence pressure.

Azaroth frowned. So there was a way to speed up advancements through the ranks? His muscles had started working enough that Azaroth smiled his wolf smile.