Kyle's bloodshot eyes were torn open in absolute focus.
His mind felt like it was burning as he looked at the current puzzle.
He had been looking at this particular puzzle for weeks already.
Whenever he got close to the end, he forgot some of the earlier numbers.
When he tried to recreate those numbers, he forgot the other ones.
At some point, Kyle didn't even see the puzzle anymore.
He just saw different concepts and relations between numbers, and he was trying to create a diagram in his mind that would fulfill all the requirements.
As his mind started burning more, the pain from unlocking the eleventh Cluster also became more pronounced.
Since Kyle needed to use more and more of his focus, he didn't have as much focus left to ignore the pain.
Numbers.
So many numbers.
Eventually, he even stopped looking at the puzzle and just closed his eyes.
The configuration of the unsolved puzzle was already burned into his mind.
Sometimes, everything suddenly made sense, and he looked back at the page to solve it…
Just to realize that he had misremembered the original configuration.
The earlier puzzles he had done had crept into his mind.
Since he had been so focused on the earlier puzzles as well, his brain was filled with a ton of different Sudoku grids.
They all started to merge together, ruining everything.
Yet, looking at the puzzle took focus away from Kyle's thoughts since he had to read and use his eyes.
Kyle knew that the best way to solve the puzzle would be to take a break and look at it again later.
At that point, the old puzzles would become blurrier, and the new one would appear with more clarity.
'But the rules specifically said that I am not allowed to take a break until I've solved everything! I have to solve the entire book in one go, or it won't work!'
Kyle gritted his teeth as his fists clenched around strands of his hair in frustration.
'Why can't I just remember more?!'
The pain from the eleventh Cluster became more pronounced.
Objectively, the pain of unlocking the eleventh Cluster was not as bad as being the victim of Sin Flames, but subjectively, Kyle felt like it was even worse now.
It felt so incredibly pronounced, and it distracted him to an insane degree.
It was like the pain was encompassing his entire being.
His mind felt it was burning and dying, even though that was not the case.
His Energy and Biological Energy were running smoothly and normally. He was not in any danger whatsoever, but he felt like he was destroying his mind with these stupid numbers!
There were so many fucking numbers!
His mind was filled with absolutely unnecessary numbers from previous puzzles.
There was no value in having these numbers in his mind. They only distracted him from the important numbers!
He just kept looking.
He wasn't moving.
His eyes closed and opened again.
Kyle had no idea how long he had already looked at this puzzle.
His mind burned more and more.
'There!' he thought as the picture became clear for just an instant.
He immediately wrote everything down, and the page turned green.
Kyle took a deep breath as the page turned by itself.
A new puzzle.
For just a moment, Kyle looked at the remaining pages.
There were at least 50 more!
'Continue!' he thought as he looked at the next puzzle.
Yet, the longer he looked at it, the more frustrated and desperate he became.
He had spent so much time on the last puzzle that all the relations between the numbers of the old puzzle were burned into his mind.
As he looked at the new puzzle, it didn't even make sense anymore.
It felt mathematically impossible, even though it very clearly wasn't.
However, he just kept going.
Months passed.
Slowly, the new puzzle's relations became clearer.
The progress was agonizingly slow.
The feeling Kyle currently felt was very familiar to him.
This was how it felt to be at a bottleneck when it came to comprehending a Law.
The progress was so agonizingly slow that trying to progress further would equate to wasting time.
Whenever Kyle had encountered such a situation in the past, he searched for a True Battle to increase his Momentum.
But that didn't help here!
More Momentum didn't make his mind think faster. It just increased the clarity of the Energy in the surroundings.
The Energy of these numbers was the same for all of them. They were just writings on a piece of paper.
However, Kyle kept going.
He just kept looking and trying.
Progress was so exceedingly slow.
It was so fucking frustrating!
BANG!
Kyle solved the puzzle as he got a moment of clarity, and he went to the next page.
Once more, the old puzzle refused to vanish from his mind.
He kept going.
He kept forcing his mind.
The pain was brutal.
He felt like he was dying.
Kyle's entire body shook.
BANG!
He solved the next one.
Another puzzle.
As he looked at the next puzzle, Kyle's body stopped shaking.
His mind still burned.
In fact, the burning had gotten even stronger, but for some reason, it didn't feel as relevant anymore.
It was like the pain was distant.
It was like someone else was feeling the pain.
It was not related to him.
It was like Kyle's mind was releasing bloodcurdling screams from behind a massive wall.
He solved the puzzle and went to the next.
The screams behind the wall became weaker, but they were still there.
Kyle solved the next one.
The relations of the old puzzles became weaker and weaker.
They vanished much faster, freeing up space for the new puzzles.
The relations of the new puzzles became clear.
They became logical.
He solved the next puzzle.
And the next one.
After an unknown period of time, Kyle reached the last page.
He started working on the last puzzle.
Yet, this one seemed much more difficult than the other ones.
No matter what Kyle tried, it was wrong.
The old solutions all vanished from Kyle's brain, leaving him with only the numbers of the current puzzle.
Slowly, one incorrect solution after the other replaced the solutions of the old puzzles.
A proverbial night sky full of stars appeared in Kyle's mind, every star being one incorrect solution.
Millions of incorrect solutions surrounded him.
He still hadn't found the right one.
And then, he stopped thinking.
He blinked twice.
Finally, he crossed out the entire puzzle.
The page turned green.
This was unsolvable.
Kyle turned the page and saw the back of the book's cover.
"Think of your Laws," Kyle read.
Kyle closed his eyes and thought about his Complex Law.
Everything made sense.
Then, he thought about the insights into the Law of Minor Wind he had gained.
As soon as he did that, he realized several relations between different concepts that he hadn't combined yet.
Finally, Kyle looked at how he thought.
It was… different.
Focusing was so much easier.
He could focus on the things he wanted to focus on.
There were no more distracting thoughts.
It was like…
His mind was clean.
Just like his Center.
BOOOOM!
Kyle's eyes widened as understanding entered his mind.
He understood how he had been able to completely get rid of distracting thoughts.
Kyle had rewired his entire consciousness, neatly putting everything in its respective categories.
It was like his previous mind had been a drawer filled with individual pieces of paper, while his new mind was a register with different folders.
'Huh, I've done it!' Kyle thought.
'I've comprehended the Law of Mind!'
'I've got all four Laws of the Aspects!'
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