Back to Back Evolutions

Aeshma gave a rebellious roar at the tribulation. It was a sound that was so incredibly soaked in fury that the bystanders even wondered if he had something personal against it, but that was all. Even he didn't dare to attack it. Nobody did.

They had all learnt their lesson.

The Tribulation didn't act beyond expectations and after 9 pulses and 3 strikes, Aeshma had been reduced to a steaming mess; his body barely managing to stay on its 6 feet. However, even then, he continued to stare at the sky with his 6 bloody eyes as if it had murdered his entire family and desecrated their graves.

Really and truly, Aeshma had become a mad Dragon. There was no other way to explain his behaviour. But even though they probably shouldn't be anticipating the following growth that every Tribulation survivor was rewarded, considering what it meant for someone like that to grow stronger… they couldn't help it.

How much further could this mad Dragon grow?

The air of expectation was extremely dense as every Dragon watched transfixed.

'This is it.' They thought. They could feel the surrounding Magical Energy converging into Aeshma's body like a slowly growing tsunami that was coming from all directions. They felt like they were watching the birth of a legend, and the awe they were involuntary feeling wasn't in any way inferior to that of the awe they experienced when they were watching the Divinity Reclamation of their goddess.

So other than Aeshma's blood-curdling growls, it was extremely silent. And as the surrounding Magical Energy continued to gather, the tension in the air only increased.

Some of them even began to sweat. It was just too exciting! However, a smaller but growing group of them consisting of the more intelligent minds were wondering why it was taking so much Magical Energy and why it was taking so much time.

Normally, the breakthrough to the 4th Realm occurred almost immediately after the Tribulation, sometimes taking up to 10-15 seconds if the person was really, really talented, but it had been 40 seconds now.

Was Aeshma really that terrifying?

They didn't know, but they shivered at the thought.

Finally after half a minute more of waiting, they heard it. The sound of a pop. It was barely audible and they could hardly hear it, some of them even felt like they imagined it. But without fail, they all felt that the time had come.

The tension had broken and the terrifying tsunami was about to crash!

WHOOOOOOSH!

"ROOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAARRRRRR!!!!" Aeshma let out his most dignified roar yet as Magical Essence flooded his system, and what happened next caused quite an amount of eyes to boggle.

Aesma grew. Nothing special at face value, after all, he was entering the 4th Realm. Of course he was growing. But it was the speed at which he was growing… that was simply ridiculous.

Their eyes follow him with astonishment, going up and up and up just to keep track of him. And soon enough, they began to realise why his breakthrough had taken over a minute to gather all the Magical Energy needed.

Aeshma… Aeshma was not becoming an Enlightened Beast. He was becoming a Celestial Beast!

"WHAT?!" "HUH?!" "IMPOSSIBLE!" "THIS-!" "HOW?!"

Sounds and words of astonishment broke into the air as the gravity of the situation dawned on them.

'A Celestial Beast?! Seriously?!' The Crystal Dragon thought with shock. He was completely and utterly flabbergasted. Till date, he had only heard of 2 Celestial Beasts; Apis the Celestial Elephant and Jungo the Celestial Monkey King, he was sure their weren't anymore of them on the continent because such gigantic beings weren't the kind of creatures that could just hide if they wanted to.

Apis being an innately tall Elephant was 500+ metres tall as a Celestial Beast, whereas Jungo, a monkey that was of course smaller than an Elephant, was 400+ metres tall. But 400 metres tall was still a terrifying height and wasn't something that an ordinary Enlightened Beast that averaged on 70-100 metres tall could compete with.

But more than that, Celestial Beasts had mysterious powers that nobody had enough information on, so even without their daunting size, they were still insufferably imposing. And now, Aeshma was about to become one of them? Even with the ridiculous abilities he already had?

The Crystal Dragon King gritted his teeth. Dragons were much bigger than Elephants, so how big would Aeshma become as a Celestial Beast? Wait, forget that, he had just finished an evolution but now he was already undergoing another one? What kind of abnormal creature was this?

For the first time in his life, the Crystal Dragon King felt insignificant. When Gaia had surpassed his strength, he had taken it as a matter of course. Gaia was a goddess, the goddess of creation itself to be exact; From the beginning she had been far, far above him in strength, it was only that she had received a dastardly injury that caused her to have to 'slowly' regain her strength from scratch.

Aeshma on the other hand was a regular mortal like him, who on top of that had only entered the fold of the Dragons when he was already in the 4th Realm. But now, look at the situation…

It truly made one feel worthless.

Going back to the source of attention, Aeshma was still growing with seemingly no end in sight, but there were some new additions. Mainly, the forming of the Celestial Runes; the supernatural runes that were customary to every Celestial Beast. Most of the people here had seen them before, as the upper echelons of one of the strongest races in the Continent, they had all made at least one visit to the Celestial Desert where Apis ruled and another to the Jungle of Gold where Jungo ruled.

They had seen the Celestial Beasts in the flesh, and they both had the mind-twisting runes that their eyes found uncomfortable to look at, some of them feeling much more than discomfort when they actually attempted to comprehend them.

Aeshma was gaining these too. Bright red runes that looked like they were made from divine light slowly appeared over his body. However, as jealous as the bystanders were, they could tell that he was once again in a world of extreme pain.

After that first heaven-challenging roar, he seemed to be doing better, standing steadily on his feet as he glared at the sky with hatred as he soaked up all of the Magical Energy. But as soon as those Runes began to appear, he directly crumpled to the ground without a single sound. Only his head seemed to be barely resisting as he, for some reason, tried to glare at the sky once more.

But any moment no-

DUM! Aeshma's massive head fell to the ground.

Aha, yes, as expected, he passed out. He actually passed out from the pain.