Chapter 40: Lightning Tribulation

Philip looked at the sky as the dark clouds kept on swirling on his zenith. There was a constant rumbling sounds as the swirling of clouds occur.

He then noticed something that is hovering above his right shoulder.

"What's up little fella?"

It was the 「 Shard of Love 」. The shard was spinning and rotating above his right shoulder as if it was looking at something or someone from behind Philip. As Philip noticed the shard, the shard then stopped moving and flew back to his left hand.

Seeing the shard's action, he then looked behind him only to see nothing. He thought that it was looking at Erica but she is actually far on his right side.

Philip immediately looked up as a thunderous sound, louder than the other, echoed throughout the surroundings. Then, he felt a powerful energy source that was coming from the east.

Philip looked at the east and saw a streak of white lightning entered the dark clouds. He then lowered his body as he had an ominous feeling about that streak of lightning.

The dark clouds became darker as sounds of thunder and crackle of lightning became more apparent inside the dark clouds.

[Scanning...]

"Emily? What are you scanning for?"

「 That streak of lightning. 」

Philip had no reply as he looked at the clouds. Even Emily had to scan that streak of lightning because of its powerful energy amd unknown origin.

Then, Philip could see streaks and branches of lightning crawled in and out of the dark clouds. The color of the lightning vary from the six colors of the rainbow, white, and gold.

"There's black..."

Philip spotted a single branch of black colored lightning. It looks like black lightning was rare among the colors, followed by gold. Little did Philip know, there was one color that he couldn't see.

Several meters away from Philip, who is on top of the platform, were Erica, John, and Smith, who are lying on the ground while observing Philip from the distance. They lied on the ground because they were scared that a stray lightning might strike them.

"This does not look like any other normal Lightning Tribulation!"

"Yes, you're right!"

Smith and Erica was shouting at each other as the thunder and crackling sounds became more and more louder with each passing second. Knowing Erica, she had read a lot of manga and novels, that includes the one from China where Lightning Tribulation is common in cultivation novels. She claim that there was no other that had described it like this.

Philip, however, had a non-existing cold sweat that ran along his right cheek, indicating that he was nervous. And then,

[Scanned!]

As the system finished scanning, the sky roared loudly and thunderous booms happened.

"Emily?!"

「 It's Charles! 」

As soon as Emily revealed that the streak of white lightning was Charles, 「 Red Lightning 」 struck down towards Philip.

*KRRRSSHHHH*

"What the?! Ha!"

Philip punched the red lightning with all of his might as soon as the red lightning reached his range of punch. The red lightning struggled as it formed branches of lightning towards the ground, it really wanted to strike down Philip. But the force of Philip's punch was greater than the power of the red lightning.

After a few seconds, the red lightning dissipated. Then the system chimed in.

[Congratulations! You have deflected 「 Molten Infrared Lightning 」 (Red Lightning)]

「 Molten Infrared Lightning. The lightning that originates from the core of the planets. The one that melts. 」

[You have received the ability, 「 Sword Intent 」]

"What?"

「 Looks like for each lightning that you deflect, it will give you a skill or something else. 」

"Understood."

As Philip nodded his head, the dark clouds turned a shade brighter as the sky in the horizon turned orange.

"I see, so that's how it is!"

Philip smirked as he powered up even further. He was excited by next lightning strikes that he will receive, especially the reward that he will get. These were the rewards that he was looking for and by the looks of it, there will be 6 lightning strikes or maybe 10.

*KRRRRRRRR*

Then, an 「 Orange Lightning 」 struck down on Philip. He met the lightning strike with his right fist as he also punched the lightning. But, Philip was surprised by the intensity of this lightning. It was several times more powerful than the red lightning.

Philip almost kneeled as he struggled to push back the lightning. He then used his other arm and reinforced his right arm to block the lightning. It was still not enough. Philip became irritated and went on to pull apart and tear the lightning into two. As if tearing a thick phone book above his head. The lightning then spread into two and traveled to the ground.

[9 Gates of Wrath: 1st gate opened]

[Congratulations! You have deflected 「 Flare Binder Lightning 」]

「 Flare Binder Lightning. The lightning that was produced from the surface of the stars. The one that causes a prominence. 」

[You have received the exclusive item for the variable of Matter, 「 Tesseract 」]

「 Tesseract. By using the Tesseract, all matter will obey you and change their properties and form into whatever you command. 」

Philip nodded as he prepared for the second lightning. Knowing that the orange lightning was several times more powerful than the red lightning, if his guess was right, the yellow lightning will also be several times more powerful than the orange lightning.

Then, his guess was right, 「 Yellow Lightning 」 struck down on Philip. He punched the lightning as it approached him, but this time, he used his newfound skill, the Immovable Step. This will increase his attack power and the lightning will be unable to push him back.

*CRACKR-CRAAACKRRRRRR*

The results was obvious, even if the yellow lightning was relentless, Philip wasn't being pushed back. But to Philip's surprise, he could feel his arm get numb as he could feel the lightning seemingly thumping down on him repeatedly. The branches of the yellow lightning was also crawling around his right arm as if to numb it. Philip became annoyed.

[9 Gates of Wrath: 2nd gate opened]

"HAAAA!"

*BOOOM*

For the first time, there was an explosion that happened. The explosion was not the typical fire, smoke, and dust but yellow electricity, wind, and shockwave that reached even to the location of Erica and company.

"Haaa... These lightning are ridiculous! How is Charles this powerful?"

「 And I guess you should stop holding back. 」

"Fufu... I guess you're right."

[Congratulations! You have deflected 「 Bolt Voltaic Lightning 」]

「 Bolt Voltaic Lightning. The lightning that shaped the the planets. The one that terraforms. 」

[You have received the ability, 「 Sword Domain 」]

Philip was intrigued at the abilities that he was receiving. It was connected to the sword, he can't wait to use it later.

Before the fourth lightning struck down, Philip then stopepd holding back and he pulled out 「 Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru 」 from his 「 Hotbar 」. He then used his 「 Empathy 」 and made himself angry, he remembered what happened to Emily several hours ago in Russia, after he defeated the Immovable Dragon.

[9 Gates of Wrath: 4th gate opened]

"Oops... Damn, I was meant to make myself angry, but I didn't realized that there was still some rage when that happened to you, Emily."

「 Philip... 」

Emily was touched that Philip cared for her this much that he's still hiding his rage from the black figure after what it had done to Emily. But she was worried because Philip kept on using the 9 Gates of Wrath, which is very bad for Philip.

Then, the crackling of the cloud became even more louder that it made the ground shake due to the vibration of the sounds coming from the sky. The clouds had a tint of green on them as green lightning showed off while seemingly diving from clouds to clouds. And then,

*CRAKA-THOOOOOOM*

「 Green Lightning 」 struck down towards Philip. This time, Philip will not face the lightning head on. He waved 「 Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru 」 against the lightning as if to cut it.

"「 Death Slice 」"

Philip used the skill of 「 Shi-Kama Tamashī-Kiru 」 for the first time to "kill" the green lightning that was striking down on him.

As Philip activated the skill, the lightning seemed to stop midway as it split apart into two, and thinned out before disappearing. He was successfully at "killing" the green lightning.

[Congratulations! You have deflected 「 Stable Gamma Lightning 」]

「 Stable Gamma Lightning. The lightning that forms the core of a neutron star. The one that devours matter. 」

[You have received the ability, 『 Sword Realm 』]

*POW~~*

As soon as Philip heard that he received the ability of 『 Sword Realm 』, time slowed down and the world turned blurry and gray. No, more accurately, time stopped. It was different from 「 Bullet Time 」 because there was no impending danger that was approaching him.

Philip tried to move his body but to no avail. It seemed like he had pulled a legendary card from the Lightning Tribulation that time would stop. But then, the system talked to him. The voice was different from the robotic voice of the system and Emily.

『 Sword Realm. The sword has chosen you. The sword will be you. The sword is everything. 』

Then, a surge of information flooded Philip's mind. The meaning of sword and the true value of a sword, everything about the sword.

After the surge of information ended, Philip expected to return back to the original world where time would return back to normal. But before that happened, his eyes became bloodshot as he saw something moving in front of him.

『 9 Gates of Wrath has been activated. 5th Gate of Wrath has been opened. You are consumed by 「 Wrath 」. Power has increased by 200 times. You're negative side has been increased by 25%. 』

The third voice of the system echoed in his mind as he kept staring at the black figure in front of him. Yes, the same black figure from the Russian Runestone, inside this suspended time world. Philip couldn't do anything but stare at it with bloodshot eyes, he couldn't forget what he did to Emily. He couldn't believe that it showed up here of all places, even during his Lightning Tribulation.

Seeing Philip's stance and bloodshot eyes, the black figure stopped walking towards him and raised its right hand and waved. Then surprising Philip, a chat bubble appeared on top of the black figure and an waving hand emoticon inside it.

{👋}