...I had fought hard and failed countless times to finally make it to the top of the Mountain, even entering the dark clouds that had been taunting us all for generations and conquering them, breaking through and discovering the shining light.

Promising eternal paradise on the other side...However... 

What greeted me on the other side was something that I could have never predicted... A revelation that had left me staring up at the sight before me in complete shock and bewilderment that I was almost unable to comprehend the sight before me.

It...completely shattered both my mind... My heart...My hopes... My dreams into tiny little pieces that could never be reformed, lips quivering as tears once again began pouring from my eyes... Not out of joy though...Far from it…

For what I had discovered beyond the clouds was not the paradise that I’ve been promised all my life... No, the truth was so much more cruel and something I don’t think anybody on the surface could have ever imagined in their wildest nightmares.

Beyond the clouds...there was even more of the Mountain to climb; in fact, it was so tall that it pretty much acted like a whole second Mountain to have to climb, if not even larger! Even worse, there was another set of dark clouds that could be seen far up this second Mountain, once again blocking what was hidden on the other side.

I...I didn’t know how to process all this... At first I wondered if I had lost my mind and this was nothing more than a horrible hallucination because I had pushed myself too hard getting up here and that I’d snap back to reality any moment now to see paradise waiting for me right there all along. 

Then that false sense of optimism quickly turned into panic, wondering if I had died at some point during the climb and I was stuck in my own personal purgatory of climbing this same Mountain over and over again for all of time. 

Eventually, once my mind had finally accepted the truth of the situation, that was when I had completely snapped.

“AHHHHHHHHHHH!” 

Screaming at the top of my lungs as I began to punch into the surface of this evil Mountain over and over again! 

Year after year!

Fall after fall!

Climb after climb! 

I’ve repeated this process over and over and over and over and over again with this lunatic structure fighting me every step of the way, suffering through so much pain and torture, thinking that if I just didn’t give up, I’d achieve my dream in the end and make it to the promised paradise...

ONLY FOR THIS DEMON MOUNTAIN TO BASICALLY SPIT ON ALL THE YEARS OF HARD WORK AND SUFFERING I’VE PUT INTO MAKING IT HERE, AND YET IT HAD THE NERVE TO DEMAND I START OVER AGAIN WITH AN EVEN HARDER CLIMB!? 

Not only that, but there was a real possibility that beyond these second set of clouds wasn’t paradise either...BUT INSTEAD EVEN MORE OF THE MOUNTAIN TO CLIMB! FOR ALL I KNOW, THERE IS NO PARADISE WAITING FOR ANY OF US, AND THIS FREAKING MOUNTAIN WAS JUST A NEVER-ENDING, TORTUROUS CLIMB! 

To say I was livid would be an understatement, continuing to punch into the cliff side over and over again with my free hand... Doing it like that for so long that my fists even started to bleed. 

I went on like this for a good minute or two before finally starting to wind down... The rage inside was slowly replaced by complete and utter despair as I began to break down into a wailing mess... It... It just wasn’t fair! I-I worked so hard and suffered through so much pain and loss to make it here, and this is how all my hard work is rewarded!? 

H-How can life be so cruel...? W-Was all that time I wasted climbing this mountain…

For nothing?

Just then, as I pull back my blood-soaked fist from the wall, I messed up by trying to adjust my foot ever so slightly but instead caused it to slip off the rock it stood on, losing my balance, and in a desperate attempt to keep myself from falling back down, I grab hold of the handle of my pick-axe with both hands to keep myself sturdy.

However, it was far too late... All that action did was help pull out the pick-axe from the wall and completely sealed my fate.

No longer even bothered to fight against it and just allowed my body to go limp and accepted that it was once again time for me to fall back down all the way to the bottom yet again. 

The only thing I’m able to do within my power was to gaze up at the never-ending mighty Mountain and watch as it drifted further and further away the longer I fell until it completely disappeared the moment I fell back into the clouds, where I was once again surrounded by nothing but pure darkness. 

The perfect surrounding, as it matched exactly with how I felt on the inside after witnessing the paradise I once believed in die right before my very eyes…

Hopeless and empty…

The years I’ve spent building up my skills and strength every single day to make this harrowing climb were all for nothing in the end… All that was left to do was to just... Close my eyes, trapping myself in this cold and empty darkness long after I’ve fallen out of the dark clouds, small droplets of tears slipped through my eyes as I awaited the moment my body finally made contact with the earth for one last time. 

All this time neglecting to consider how cruel and unforgiving my opponent truly was, and in the end I now had to force myself to accept the unforgiving truth...

That this Mountain will forever be the true victor

...

Peer tradition—my body had come violently crashing into the ground, the impact a lot more aggressive than usual with how high and long I’ve been falling, causing me to bounce about a couple of times before coming to a quick stop that left me there lying on my back. 

While gathering my bearings and pushing through the typical pain that came from falling from such a height, I saw that my ungraceful landing had drawn the eyes of some onlookers hanging about in the area, though their interest quickly faded as people falling from the Mountain was just a typical occurrence, and all quickly went about their day with no regards given towards me.

I attempted to try to lift myself off the ground at least enough to be able to sit myself up, but the pain that my whole body experienced was absolutely excruciating; the pounding pain felt in both my arms and legs was so bad that it was like a group of giant boulders was crushing them.

That was nothing compared to the pain that could be felt in my back as it took the full brunt of the fall, feeling like my spine had completely shattered into a million pieces; even breathing too hard would cause the pain to flare up to unbearable levels.

So the only option for me was for me to lie here on the ground in the middle of this busy field, moaning like some sort of fragile old man while doing my hardest to keep my breaths steady to mitigate the pain as much as possible.

A task that was much easier said than done, as I could only do so with my teeth clenched together and making sure my breaths weren’t too aggressive and set off my back again, I started to question whether the pain would ever go away the longer I lay here and feared this fall might have actually left me paralysed.

Fortunately, however, after lying here for a solid ten minutes, the pain soon started to deteriorate, though that didn’t mean I still wasn’t in tremendous pain, but it at least reached a tolerable enough level to allow my breath to flow naturally, so that was a good sign that I didn’t manage to break anything permanently. 

Decided to lie here for another fifteen minutes or so to allow that extra time for my body to heal up at least enough to move about reliably without too much issue, watching the cloudy sky float by while letting my mind wander and reflect on, well... Just about everything I’ve been through up to this point. 

Wondering to myself if all that effort training my body and even attempting to climb this Mountain in the first place was really worth it? Did I start taking my training seriously much too late in life, and now I’m much too old to be able to reach the top? Would anything have even been different even if I did start attempting to tackle this Mountain sooner? 

Is there even an end point to the Mountain at all or even a paradise waiting for anyone who can conquer it?... Or was it nothing more than a legend created by desperate people to cling to some hope of something greater waiting for us as long as we just keep climbing? 

Then there was the scariest question of all…

What do I do now?

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