Re: Tales of the Rune-Tech Sage Chapter 586: Inexplicable Tribulation I

CH586 Inexplicable Tribulation I

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The lightning of the Heavenly Tribulation struck Alex with singular, ruthless intent. As the young man bellowed in agony, the celestial discharge tore through his frame, unleashing the full weight of the heavens' indignation within him. No corner of his body escaped the violent path of the lightning.

At first, the tribulation lightning ravaged Alex’s physical vessel. It surged through his blood vessels, shredding everything in its trajectory. This brutal onslaught forced Alex to vomit a mouthful of dark, viscous blood. As the lightning surged through his circulatory system, jagged branches splintered off into his mana pathways, tearing through the channels and incinerating any obstacles in their way. The lightning, flowing through both his blood vessels and mana pathways, ultimately converged upon a single target: his brain.

A sudden shock paralyzed Alex’s mind. One might have expected such a devastating assault to render him unconscious, sparing him some degree of the agony. Yet, that mercy never arrived. Instead, Alex remained fully awake. It was a bizarre sensation. In a sense, he felt detached from his physical form, yet he remained acutely aware of exactly what the tribulation lightning was inflicting upon him internally. Rather than extinguishing his mind, it felt as though the lightning had ripped his consciousness right out of his body. A portion of Alex’s awareness appeared to 'follow' the lightning as it invaded his Mindspace.

Much like a hunter seeking out its prey, the tribulation lightning navigated his mind with surgical precision, scouring every hidden corner of the Mindspace. Nothing was spared—not even an OmniRune. The Origin Greater Rune residing within his Mindspace was lashed mercilessly by the heavenly lightning. Throughout this ordeal, the fragment of Alex’s consciousness that remained—dragged along by the lightning's force—endured indescribable torment as the power surged violently through his Mindspace.

Eventually, the lightning seemed to conclude that its quarry was not present, and it retreated. However, this did not grant Alex any respite, as the tribulation lightning delved deeper into another concealed domain: his Soul Space. This was a mystical realm that housed Alex’s very soul—a domain forged at the dawn of his existence by the Will of the Creator. It was a sanctuary that could not easily be influenced by anything outside the soul, save for the agents of Creation; that is to say, the Heavens.

The tribulation lightning breached the Soul Space, wielding the authority granted to it by the Heavens themselves. Yet, the moment it arrived, its momentum faltered for a heartbeat. Had the lightning possessed a face, the sight of Alex’s soul would surely have caused it to flicker with shock. Nevertheless, the pause did not deter it from its grim objective. The unexpected sight merely meant the task would require more effort, nothing more. The lightning thrust forward, plunging into Alex’s unusually immense soul and scouring it in search of a specific target.

"Ahhh!!!" Alex cried out as a searing pain pierced his very essence. The agony was so profound that his screams echoed across the entire stele mountain, audible even outside the trial space. Eleanore, the only wife not currently engaged in a trial, rushed forward alongside Alex’s followers. Only Kavakan remained, still imprisoned within his own Anima trial. They hurried toward their leader as his pained screams reverberated across the mountain.

"Do not touch him!" the mysterious elder barked.

"What is happening to him?" Eleanore questioned, panic coloring her tone.

"Maintain your composure. Should he endure and hold his ground, he will be fine," the mysterious elder responded. Privately, even he was astonished by the spectacle. To keep the agitated group from doing something reckless—such as attempting to rouse Alex during his Heavenly Tribulation—the elder whispered a brief chant. A barrier instantly encased Alex, sealing off all sound so that none of his anguished cries escaped.

"What are you doing?" Eleanore demanded. The elder’s actions caused the others to instinctively shift into defensive postures.

"The trial he now faces transcends the scope of my original design," the elder explained calmly. "He has invoked a trial from the Heavens themselves. If any of you blindly attempt to assist him—thereby interfering with the tribulation—you will not only doom him... but pull every one of us into it as well." The elder’s gaze drifted across the tense gathering. "Remain calm," he commanded quietly. "And wait."

Unfortunately, just because he commanded it did not mean the group would comply. Yet, despite her distress, Eleanore managed to retain a sense of reason. She turned to Alex’s followers and asked, "How do you fare?" Havel, Mogal, and Silver were disoriented at first, but they soon grasped the meaning of her query. "Fine. Completely fine," Silver replied.

Only then did Eleanore release a breath of relief. Given the way Alex had screamed, his pain was clearly soul-related. The contract binding his followers to him was designed to share such soul agony as a final safeguard to preserve his life and essence. Since that sharing had not triggered, it indicated that although Alex was in immense pain, his soul had yet to reach its breaking point. This meant the event was not intended to kill him outright. Since no abnormalities manifested in his followers, Eleanore resolved to stay hopeful. After all, the entity before them was a Class 6 existence—an insurmountable power. 'He has done nothing duplicitous thus far... so let us maintain the peace,' the healer decided. She signaled the others, and the four followers, Sugud included, lowered their guards, settling the tense atmosphere.

Throughout Eleanore’s swift deductions, the mysterious elder did not spare the group another glance; his focus remained locked on Alex and the Elemental Stele. 'What a youth!' the elder thought to himself. 'Not only did you trigger the Pyramid of Elements trial, but you actually attained the summit? Why attempt that? At your cultivation level, only reaching the twenty-seventh step was required. Since when does a Second Order practitioner have the audacity to scale the entire Pyramid of Elements and invite a Heavenly Trial? Does he hold his life so lightly? Or have I been imprisoned here for so long that Second Orders now dare to challenge the Heavens?'

The elder’s expression flickered through a spectrum of emotions as he watched the youth endure the Heavenly Tribulation. What he remained unaware of was that Alex had triggered the tribulation out of sheer ignorance—or rather, a misguided assumption. Invoking knowledge from his past life, Alex had wrongly concluded that reaching the summit was mandatory to pass. Holding this belief, he ignored every sign that he had already succeeded and continued his ascent. The obstacles and gravity spikes were mere checkpoints—intended as places where a challenger could descend and return to finish later. In truth, the instinct he felt to turn back at the thirty-sixth step was both his subconscious and the trial itself urging him to stop. However, because Alex was fixated on the summit, he never analyzed the instinct. Consequently, he pursued a fool's errand to the very top, triggering a Heavenly Tribulation he was utterly unprepared to face.

'Fortunately, the Heavens operate via laws,' the elder mused. 'The tribulation has been adjusted to a power level befitting his rank. Otherwise, he would have been reduced to dust instantly.' Even so, despite everything he had witnessed, this was the first time the old man felt truly curious about the mettle of those from the Fortuna group. Although the Heavens adjusted the difficulty, the Pyramid of Elements remained an feat well beyond any standard Second Order cultivator. The elder could not help but wonder how Alex had accomplished it. 'Have the times improved that much since my imprisonment?' he wondered. 'Or is this the caliber of a genius from another world? Or... is the boy simply a monster?' ***