Fortune Backlash

What Zuko didn't know was that he had taken damage to his body as well, it's just that the damage to his Soul was too overbearing and consumed all of his thoughts. In comparison to feeling Soul pain for the first time, the damage to his physical body wasn't even registered.

Giant air bubbles escaped Zuko's mouth as he lost control of his breathing. His eyes twittered every which way as he desperately sought something that could save him, and the only thought that governed his mind was the fear of death and the feral desire for survival. All of his dignity had vanished.

*Flash*

Zuko froze like a pitiful Magic Beast(Realm 1) that had caught the attention of an Enlightened Beast(Realm 4). He couldn't resist, he couldn't flee, and whether he lived or died was no longer in his control.

"MOON MOTHER, SAVE MEEEE-"

*Flash*

"-EEH-HU-KAHK!" Zuko choked violently as he saw the 2nd Tribulation complete its power up. He was frozen for a single second longer before primordial fear hijacked his instincts, and he turned around to flee.

"KIIIIII!!!" He wailed as he forced his body to swim as fast as he could, his body releasing pitiful sounds that exposed his racial identity all the while.

Unfortunately, there was no existence that could escape if they were targeted by a Tribulation. Eridel had designed it very carefully, making sure that no loophole could be found. And in the end, even he himself had unexpectedly become a victim of it.

A Tribulation could be delayed, it could even be destroyed. But it would always come back, and it would be stronger than before. You could keep on destroying it (in a rare situation where you possessed an item or something similar that could give you that kind of might), but it would always come back, stronger than ever, and at that point your fate was sealed.

Nobody could escape.

BOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The 2nd Tribulation Light crashed onto Zuko, spreading deep cracks all over his body and destroying many of his legs.

Zuko didn't even make a sound this time. It couldn't be seen given the nature of his eyes, but they had essentially rolled back. He… had fallen unconscious.

All Enchantments slipped off his body, including the Divine Lunar one, and considering its effects, it could be considered certain that he would not be waking up for a long time. Death was nothing if not assured.

Others in the past (apart from a minute few individuals with unparalleled accolades) had taken 2 White Tribulations at most, and that had been enough for them to stomp in any direction they wanted. If that was all Zuko had to withstand, even if he fell unconscious now, he would have already won. He would have endured gold as the first strike then 2 whites, and his tribulation would be over.

Alas, from the beginning, his Tribulation had been white. Which meant, at the very least, he would have to take another white one for the 3rd. Which he obviously was not in the position to do.

Normally, most people could endure their Tribulations, after all, it was tailored for them. It wasn't necessarily meant to destroy them, in fact its primary purpose could be considered to cleanse them. Cleanse their impurities and cleanse their accumulated Fortune backlash. Augments and other upgrades came after.

But unfortunately, sometimes there would be a situation where their accumulated Fortune was too heavy for them to withstand.

Zuko, by complete luck of being at the right place at the right time became an Apostle of the Moon, which allowed him to turn from nothing into the strongest Sea King. That kind of Fortune was not light at all, and its backlash would be corresponding.

Now, he was paying the consequences.

He would die.

Or so he should have.

His recent bout of Fortune, also known as the fruit that caused him all this suffering, hadn't finished its job. And its creator had given it very clear directives that made its performance look like it was the workings of conscious thought, rather than just energy that was moving around here and there.

Within Zuko's body, the silver coloured essence that had been peacefully merging with Zuko's cells and Mana abruptly lashed out like a vicious tsunami. It pounced upon the reckless Tribulation essence which, in all honesty, was doing exactly what the silver essence had been doing (even better in fact), but only in a far more uncontrolled manner that held no regard for safety.

Moreover, the benefits of Tribulation essence could only be fully reaped when all 3 Tribulation Lights had done their job. Only then would the Tribulation essence stop slacking and initiate an unparalleled show of power, sometimes even resulting in the most sought out occurrence: Evolution.

And it was this illustrious Tribulation essence that the silver essence was audaciously moving against. This alone was enough to make knowing eyes quake, but what happened next could not be easily comprehended.

The Tribulation essence disappeared. The Tribulation essence had vanished in almost an instant, and taking their place was a denser, richer silver essence that didn't hesitate at all to absorb more of the surround Tribulation essence around Zuko's body.

And this… What had just occurred was the mortal equivalent of gas absorbing water to make more of itself, or water absorbing a solid to do the same thing. Utterly ludicrous.

Now in the Magic World, a lower tier energy absorbing a higher tier one wasn't rare. In fact it was the most common thing ever, after all, basic cultivation was the act of converting the higher tier raw Magical Energy into the lower tier Mana. But something like that could only happen with complete cooperation. Everyone who absorbed Magical Energy had an unknown cooperation with the World, or a knowing cooperation with a Realm 7 god that allowed them to assimilate the energy into Mana.

But there should have been no cooperation here whatsoever.

This was a rule-breaking, no-sense-making phenomena that only one entity on this Planet could explain, and it was the Planet itself.

Not long later, all the Tribulation essence had been absorbed, and the Tribulation Circle up above had only flashed once. Ridiculous.

The silver essence didn't stop there either. One would think that with the much higher density and quality of the energy, it would be far more difficult for it to assimilate with Zuko. But defying physics once again, the assimilation rate actually increased.

Just what kind of fruit was this?