Saat Lex terbaring di tanah, menerima kenyataan, sambaran petir pertamanya dari tribulasinya sendiri akhirnya siap. Lex menatap ke atas dari tanah, tidak bisa menahan ingatan pada suster Honey.
Dahulu saat dia belajar di akademi di alam Kristal, suster Honey merawat dan menyembuhkannya hingga pulih sempurna saat dia terluka. Dia bertanya-tanya apakah dia akan luang menemui dirinya setelah ini selesai - dia mungkin butuh satu atau dua plaster.
Sambaran petir, berbentuk Farham, dilontarkan dari awan hitam, menargetkan Lex - yang pertama dari sembilan.
Karena dia naik ke level 1 Heavenly Immortal, dia hanya perlu menahan 9 sambaran petir, masing-masing beberapa kali lebih kuat dari petir paling kuat saat dia naik ke level 9 Earth Immortal.
Lalu dia akan hadapi tribulasi api, dan kali ini dia bahkan akan mendapatkan Tribulasi Spiritual! Menghebohkan! Seperti itu belum cukup, Lex tidak tahu berapa petir yang harus dia tanggung dari tribulasi realm, atau apakah tribulasi realm menyertakan ujian lain.
Singkatnya, ini akan menyakitkan... atau tidak.
Tepat saat binatang petir hendak menyerang Lex, dia mengulurkan tangan ke depan dengan santai, seolah tidak terburu-buru, dan menangkap sambaran petir berbentuk binatang itu di lehernya. Lex menggunakan mata kirinya untuk mempelajari hukum yang membentuk petir itu, membandingkannya dengan sambaran yang dulu menyentuhnya saat dia jadi Earth Immortal.
Lex hanya punya sesaat untuk melakukannya sebelum petir menyatu ke tubuhnya. Momentum masif petir itu hilang saat Lex menangkapnya, jadi hanya petirnya saja yang melukai Lex - atau mencoba.
Dahulu saat memasuki realm Earth Immortal, petir dari tribulasinya utama tidak sempat melukainya, tapi setidaknya sangat sakit. Kali ini, petir itu bahkan tidak melakukan itu.
Ia mencoba, tapi gagal. Sebaliknya, ia hanya mengirimkan aliran murni energi ke tubuh Lex. Lex tidak tahu nama jenis energi ini, tapi itu hanya bentuk lebih terpusat dari energi yang telah mengubahnya dari fana menjadi abadi. Sekarang, sudah abadi, energi itu hanya menemper tubuh, jiwa, dan rohnya, membiarkannya jadi cukup kuat menanggung beban hukum Relasional.
Masalahnya, sekali lagi, Lex sudah cukup kuat menanggungnya. Energi itu hanya membuat perubahan jadi resmi, supaya Lex tidak bergantung pada aspek lain dirinya untuk menahan pengaruhnya.
Tribulasinya kali ini sebenarnya terasa lebih mudah dari saat jadi Earth Immortal. Adil saja, dia tidak sedang perang saat tribulasi, jadi itu membantu.
Setelah energi petir pertama habis, Lex menatap kembali ke langit berawan, dan melihat energi berkumpul untuk sambaran kedua tribulasi realm. Itu yang akan sakit, dan yang paling parah, dia tidak mendapat manfaat sama sekali karena dia bukan realm.
"Lotus, bangun. Surga mencoba menipu kita dari upgrade yang layak," ujarnya, mengaktifkan wujud Lotus. Meski dia bukan realm, Lotus-nya pasti terikat pada satu, dan punya status realm, jadi tentu bisa mengambil manfaat dari tribulasi ini.
Sebabnya, peningkatan kekuatannya memperbaiki Lotus, dan sebaliknya, jadi...
Dunia putih sekali lagi, disebabkan petir begitu masif Lex tidak bisa sepenuhnya mengira ukurannya. Ia menyentuh tanah dengan dendam menggelegar begitu menghancurkan hingga hukum realm terbakar habis.
Hukum yang membentuk realm banyak, dan saat hukum saling bertarung, mereka membentuk jaring rumit begitu kompleks hingga Immortal pun tidak sepenuhnya memahami hukum realm. Saat hal itu terjadi, pasti ada pembengkakan. Pasti ada hukum yang tidak berkontribusi positif ke fungsi realm, dan hanya representasi usang dari berbagai perubahan yang realm alami.
Seiring waktu, hukum itu akan berubah, atau ditelan hukum lain. Saat tribulasi realm, tapi, hukum itu langsung dibakar habis, kembali jadi energi Chaos khas yang jadi bahan hukum.
Saat sambaran petir tribulasi realm menyentuh Lex, efek sebenarnya dari petir itu mengabaikannya total, hanya lewat tubuhnya sebelum memasuki realm. Kali ini, tapi, karena Lex telah mencapai status realm, dia menderita konsekuensi yang sama.
Semua pembengkakan di dalamnya, semua limbah dari material dan hukum tak terhitung yang dia satukan ke tubuhnya lewat teknik kultivasi atau cara lain, semuanya dan lebih, mulai terbakar, jadi energi Chaos.1 Energi lalu menyatu ke sisa tubuhnya, memperkuatnya.
Hal sama terjadi pada Lotus, dan karena Lotus menyatu dengan Midnight Realm... redundansi di Midnight Realm perlahan dihilangkan. Tentu, karena petir harus lewat Lex ke Lotus, lalu ke Midnight Realm, realm itu hampir tidak terpengaruh. Sebagian besar manfaat, serta kerusakan, ditanggung Lex dan Lotus.
Kali ini Lex tidak menatap langit, punya tidak ada energi sisa untuk memikirkan suster. Seluruh fokusnya pada menahan energi Chaos, mencegahnya jadi liar di tubuh dan jiwanya, dan menyerapnya supaya dia bisa sembuh sebelum sambaran berikutnya.
Tubuh Lex yang hangus tergeletak lemah di tanah, rambutnya terbakar, sepenuhnya rentan. Tentu, bahkan dalam kondisi ini dia tidak khawatir soal sambaran tribulasinya sendiri - mereka tidak cukup kuat melukainya. Atau setidaknya sambaran pertama tidak.
Jika Lex dalam kondisi mengamati langit, dia akan melihat petir perlahan berubah, seolah di ambang melampaui wujud Farham, dan memasuki yang berikutnya.
As Lex lay there in the ground, coming to terms with the situation, the very first lightning strike from his own tribulation was finally ready. As Lex looked up at it from the ground, he could not help but recall nurse Honey.
Back when he was studying at the academy in the Crystal realm, nurse Honey had tended to him and healed him back to perfect health when he got injured. He wondered if she would be free to see to him after this was done - he might need a bandaid or two.
The lightning bolt, in the shape of a Farham, was unleashed from the black clouds, aiming for Lex - the first of nine.
Since he was becoming a level 1 Heaven Immortal, he would only have to endure 9 lightning bolts, each one several times stronger than even the strongest bolt from his tribulation when he was becoming a level 9 Earth Immortal.
After that, he would have his Fire tribulation, and this time, he would even have a Spiritual Tribulation! How exciting! As if that was not enough, Lex had no idea how many lightning bolts he’d have to tolerate from the realm tribulation, or if the realm tribulation included other kinds of tests.
Suffice to say, this was going to hurt... or not.
Just as the lightning beast was about to strike Lex, he brought his hand forward with a casual grace, as if he was in no rush whatsoever, and caught the beast shaped lightning bolt by the neck. Lex used his left eye to study the laws that made up this lightning bolt, comparing it to the bolts he used to be struck by when he was an Earth Immortal.
Lex only had a brief moment to do as much before the lightning fused into his body. The immense momentum of the lightning bolt was lost when Lex caught it, so it was only the lightning itself which harmed Lex - or tried to.
Back when he was entering the Earth Immortal realm, the lightning bolt from his major tribulation hadn’t managed to harm him, but at least it hurt a lot. This time, the lightning bolt didn’t even do that.
It tried, but it couldn’t. Instead, it simply delivered his body with a pure stream of energy. Lex had no idea what this particular type of energy was called, but it was just a more concentrated form of the energy which had turned him from a mortal into an immortal. Now, already an immortal, the energy merely tempered his body, soul and spirit, allowing him to become strong enough to bear the weight of Relational laws.
The problem was, once again, Lex was already strong enough to bear it. The energy just made it the change official, so that Lex wouldn’t be relying on his other aspects of himself to tolerate their influence.
His tribulation this time actually seemed easier than when he became an Earth Immortal. To be fair, he wasn’t fighting a war during his tribulation, so that helped.
After the energy from the first bolt was used up, Lex turned to look back up at the cloudy sky, and saw the energy gathering for the second strike of the realm tribulation. Now that was going to hurt, and the worst part was, he didn’t even get any benefit from it since he wasn’t a realm.
"Lotus, wake up. Heaven is trying to cheat us out of a well deserved upgrade," he said, activating his Lotus form. While he wasn’t a realm, his lotus was most certainly bonded to one, and had the status of a realm, so it could certainly benefit from this tribulation.
As it so happened, any increase in his strength improved the lotus, and vice versa, so...
The world turned white once more, caused by a lightning bolt so massive that Lex could not fully perceive its size. It struck the ground with a roaring vengeance so devastating that the laws of the realm were incinerated.
The laws that made up a realm were many, and as the laws fought against one another, they formed a complex web so intricate that even Immortals could not entirely comprehend the laws of a realm. When such a thing occurred, there was bound to be bloating. There were bound to be laws that did not, in any way, positively contribute to the functioning of the realm, and were just an outdated representation of various changes that the realm may have undergone.
Over time, these laws would change, or be swallowed up by other laws. During a realm tribulation, however, those laws were directly incinerated, turning back into the unique brand of Chaos energy from which laws were made.
When the lightning strike from the realm tribulation struck Lex, the actual effect of the lightning bolt ignored him completely, merely passing through his body before entering the realm. This time, however, since Lex had attained the status of a realm, he suffered the same consequences.
All the bloating inside of him, all the waste from the countless materials and laws he had fused into his body through his cultivation technique or other means, all of it and more, began to incinerate, turning into Chaos energy.1 The energy then fused into the rest of his body, strengthening him.
The same happened to Lotus, and since Lotus was fused with the Midnight Realm... the redundancies in the Midnight Realm were slowly eliminated. Of course, since the lightning bolt had to travel through Lex to Lotus, and then to the Midnight Realm, the realm itself was barely affected. Most of the benefit, as well as the damage, was borne by Lex and Lotus.
This time, Lex did not look up at the sky, nor did he have any spare energy to think about nurses. All his focus was on containing the Chaos energy, preventing it from going rampant inside his body and soul, and absorbing it so that he could heal in time before the next lightning strike.
Lex’s charred body lay limp on the ground, his hair on fire, completely vulnerable. Of course, even in this state he was not concerned about his own tribulation strikes - they weren’t strong enough to harm him at all. Or at least the first strike hadn’t been.
If Lex was in any condition to observe the sky, he would notice that the lightning bolt was slowly changing, as if it was on the verge of transcending the Farham form, and entering the next one.
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