Chapter 965 King Rank Tribulation
Cold wind breezed past, making even a peak Half King shudder.
It had somehow gotten chilly around Lith, who was in a meditative state, preparing for his ascension.
From the seated area, Lilith, Agalea, and Alea watched him. This time around, it was just them watching Lith"s ascension. Even the maids weren"t here, including Lith"s personal ones. They were all busy.
Taking a deep breath, Lith focused on the twelve elemental cores surrounding his main one. These were glowing brightly, appearing as if they would explode at any moment.
Lith bridged the elemental cores with his Magic Core and let the energies flow freely.
Like a parched person, the core hungrily absorbed all of the energies and its outer transparent color started changing as per the energy concentration.
Within Lith"s Magic Core, abnormal expansions defying s.p.a.ce and Time took place.
New land stretched out, the boundless ocean spread together, and a vast amount of unnatural phenomena took place everywhere.
After a certain point, the expansion stopped. The elemental energies flowing into the core seeped out and spread into Lith"s body.
It happened at a rapid rate, much faster than Lith"s extraordinary reflex could even perceive.
Dark clouds formed in the sky and covered the silver-crimson moon. Thunder roared as nature noticed a being trying to defy it.
The elemental energies within Lith"s body went haywire and the tribulation was here.
This time around, the chaotic elemental energies made Lith"s head hurt and his body confused.
The Water elemental energy that was traversing everywhere within made him feel like he was water itself, sloshing inside a container.
The Lightning elemental energy zapping around made him feel a tingling sensation similar to one would get when they get up after sitting for too long.
The Fire elemental energy made his body heat up, making Lith sweat profusely.
Light and Dark energies clashed, making Lith feel as if he would explode at any moment.
Life and Death clashed as well. One was making his innards collapse while the other was healing it.
Destruction and Earth energy clashed too, an amusing thing Lith didn"t think could occur.
Earth element was causing petrification of Lith"s insides but Destruction element was eating it up and destroying it.
A game of Go was being played by the two, an amusing sight that couldn"t occur normally.
The s.p.a.ce element made Lith feel the world around him contract and expand while the Time element caused the contraction to appear faster and the expansion to be slower.
It was a strange occurrence, but Lith focused on untangling all the elemental energies.
The thundering dark clouds got closer. At a center point they started revolving, forming a vortex.
Red lightning streaked across this vortex, with a deafening roar, flames erupted out from within and a silhouette descended down.
Lith looked up at the tribulation clouds and despite the world around him zooming in and out, he could faintly make out there being a flying monster of some sort.
The monster let out a shrill cry and charged at Lith, its sharp talons threatening to rip apart his head.
Danger bells rang in Lith"s mind and his body rolled to the side instinctively.
The monster cried out a high pitched cry. It skillfully flapped its wings and went back to attacking Lith.
From the seating area, Lilith, Agalea, and Alea could clearly see the tribulation monster.
It was a two storey tall bird with red scales and multiple sharp talons. Flames ran along the spine of this bird and formed a b.u.t.tercup comb on its head.
"What is that?" Alea asked.
"An otherworldly creature," said Agalea. There were far too many otherworldly creatures and knowing about each one of them was next to impossible.
Ever since the world was unsealed, everything had turned chaotic. From summonings to tribulations, what creature would appear was unknown.
People did record their experiences, and had named the creatures, but no one had the time to read all of that. People focused on their combat and survival skills to fight against whatever calamity was thrown at them.
What this creature would do and how Lith would fight it was to be seen.
Lith in the meanwhile was suffering through a strange sense of vertigo. His vision was disoriented, movements affixed on pure instincts to dodge, and his entire focus was on untangling the s.p.a.ce element that was causing the most problem.
His instincts were no expert, they simply were alarms that maneuvered his body to move in a certain direction.
It came at a cost.
Lith"s shoulder was ripped off by the shrieking tribulation monster"s sharp talons, making him bleed.
The high pain tolerance came at a clutch and Lith felt nothing but a p.r.i.c.k as a major section of his body was torn off.
"At this point, I should just let my body do the flight movements and focus fully on the untangling part," thought Lith as he did a barrel roll.
ƈοm Due to its giant stature, the tribulation monster was having trouble catching Lith properly. It was similar to an eagle trying to catch a mouse.
The torn part of Lith"s shoulder started repairing itself as he ran around.
It was not the usual flesh reforming itself, rather, absolute chaos ensued at his shoulder area as elemental energies tangled together.
The Earth element tried to form an area of rock, but the Water element made it muddy while the Wind element amplified the Fire element and destroyed it.
It was a colorful sight and made the spectators confused.
Alea tilted her head and asked, "What is happening to little cousin"s shoulder?"
"Something similar would"ve happened with you, my dear, had you been injured like that," said Agalea in a soft tone.
"Ah, so it"s related to elemental energies?" Alea couldn"t feel the state of Lith as there was a barrier between them.
Agalea nodded.
Lilith propped her chin in her hands and, focusing on Lith who was running from the monster, said, "That"s an extreme case you"re looking at, little Alea. Not many possess an all elemental affinity, so chances of such a thing happening is less."
Alea blinked and turned to Lilith, as if she didn"t hear something properly. "Aunty, did you say all elemental affinity?"
"Hm?" Lilith turned to Alea. "Yes? Is something the matter?"
Alea covered her mouth and gasped. "Little cousin has an all elemental affinity!?"
"You didn"t know?" Lilith tilted her head and asked.
"No!" Alea aggressively shook her head.
Lilith let out a faint smile and patted her head. "Well, now you know. Even Lucy has it, and I do too."
Alea"s jaw dropped. What was this information!? How come she never heard about it and only did so now?
Alea shot a look at her mother, who smiled wryly and scratched her face with her index finger. "I thought nephew Lith already said it to you."
"He never did!" Alea pouted in annoyance. How come such a vital piece of info was left out? Everyone did her really dirty by keeping her in the dark!
Agalea let out a dry laugh. "It was such a minor thing that I totally forgot about it."
"How is this minor, mama?" Alea glared and asked, very unhappy by this.
Agalea could only awkwardly laugh and turn her attention back to Lith, hoping that Alea would forget about it soon.
Alea harrumphed and turned to look at Lith. This could wait. The tribulation couldn"t and she had to see every bit of it.
As her attention was back on Lith, she saw that he had finally stopped running like a drunkard. His body was steady and the shoulder was fully healed.
Lith took a deep breath and stood in an attacking stance. The s.p.a.ce elemental energy was finally untangled and not chaotic.
One of the twelve elemental cores revolving around his main core, a cyan-colored one, was glowing with a bright l.u.s.ter, letting out a radiance neither too bright nor too dim.
The others were twinkling chaotically and indicated they had yet to be untangled and stabilized.
The tribulation monster screeched once again and charged at Lith.
This time as it flew closer, Lith didn"t see a blurry vision, but its proper figure.
The tribulation monster, looking at Lith not moving, let out a happy yet angry screech and dived at him, its talons aiming for his head.
Lith willed the s.p.a.ce elements around him and vanished from his spot, making the bird grab thin air.
The bird screeched angrily as it was tricked and tried to search for Lith, who had just appeared behind it.
Lith extended his wings out and stabilizing himself mid-air, punched the bird"s back.
With a strong thud followed by a sizzling sound, Lith"s hand went numb as it hit the tough scales of the monster, then melted due to the intense flames burning on the monster"s back.
Lith grunted and using s.p.a.ce element, teleported away from the monster.
The monster hadn"t realized Lith had hit it as his attack felt nothing but a small tickle to it.
Lith saw his melted hand as he distanced himself. Colorful elemental energies fought for dominance in its place with the hand showing no signs of recovering.
"What in tarnation! Not only is that monster"s scales tough, but the flames are capable of melting my body. My regeneration"s not working either! This is the absolute worst. Untangling the s.p.a.ce element was a bad decision, but I didn"t have much choice. s.p.a.ce element does anything but help in offence…"
As Lith thought of that, he suddenly paused.
"Wait… does it really not help in offence?"
Lith pondered over it and not even a second later, the tribulation monster found him and screeched, charging at him again.
As it was halfway close to Lith, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"No way… who said s.p.a.ce can"t be used for offence?"
The corner of Lith"s lips curved up and he took on an attacking stance again. "Come at me, lil birdie. I"ll show you the attack power of the almighty s.p.a.ce element."