Chapter 08: Tribulation(05)

Vector's expression turned to one of horror as he recalled his last tribulation.

He looked at John.

('Grab Matt and get as far away from me as possible. If this is a tribulation… QUICK! GET OUT OF HERE AND TAKE MATT! RUN!!!')

Justice didn't hesitate; he grabbed Matt before the other could react and burst through the gymnasium wall and out of the mountain. In the entire time he had known Kai, not once had he heard fear in his voice. That is until just now.

He wasn't sure what this tribulation thing was, but since it scared the same guy who came up with the bath bomb idea and didn't freak out when things that contained the power of a star were about to blow up in their hands, then he was sure this was going to be bad.

As he got roughly 20km away from the mountain that the complex was under, everything went dark for a moment. Their surroundings were immediately painted white as a blast of heat and air pressure threw them to the edge of the horizon.

BOOOOOOM!!!

Justice dug himself out of the ground while looking around. He sensed Matt half a kilometer away attempting to pull his top half out of a small cliff face. Justice flew over to Matt and helped him get out of the cliff.

BOOOOOOM!!!

As both boys looked back in the direction of the complex, they could see a 50 km across mass of black clouds circling like a whirlpool off in the distance. A flash of light as bright as the sun shone beneath the clouds. This was followed by the sound of an immense explosion with a rush of wind, sand, and rocks that blew past them at 50 km/second.

Shielding his face Matt glanced over at Justice.

"Well I guess it's definitely cultivation not super powers."

Justice's eyes went wide as he looked over at Matt, completely ignoring the rocks and debri that pelted him.

"So all that cultivation crap you two keep talking about is actually real?!"

Matt looked into Justice's eyes with a somber expression.

"Since Vector is undergoing an actual real-life tribulation, I'll have to go with… Yes. I hope he'll be ok."

Justice looked back towards the center of the black clouds.

"Maybe I should go check on him."

BOOOOOOM!!!

Matt grabbed onto Justice's shoulder and spun him around so their eyes met.

"If you go near him the tribulation will get stronger. Meaning we can only wait it out. I wish we could help him, but us going back will just make this a whole lot worse."

Justice gazed into Matt's eyes.

"Fine…"

BOOOOOOM!!!

Matt covered his face again as another blast of sand and debri slammed into them.

"Five more to go."

Justice looked at Matt with confusion.

"How do you know there's five more?"

Matt uncovered his face while gazing at the distant tribulation clouds.

"There's always nine lightning strikes or rather tribulation events in the books. Here's hoping it's just gonna be lightning and not something crazy like cultivator ghost experts or like divine elemental spirits."

BOOOOOOM!!!

Justice gulped and grabbed Matt by the shoulders shaking him.

"GHOST EXPERTS?! DIVINE SPIRITS?! ARE THOSE THINGS A POSSIBILITY?!"

Matt tried in vain for a moment to get out of Justice's grip. Then he just gave up and looked at Justice.

"HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! This is all stuff from eastern fantasy novels! I didn't even know any of it was real till Vector uploaded all that stuff into my head."

BOOOOOOM!!!

Justice set Matt back down and rubbed his temples.

"So this stuff is all from fantasy books, but it's really happening? "

Matt shrugged as he rubbed the spots Justice had been holding.

"Considering there's been an imperial dragon from outer space, body cultivation turned out to be real, breathing techniques work, we're about to be invaded by aliens and now Vector is going through tribulation… I'm going to have to say yes. Definitely really happening…"

BOOOOOOM!!!

Justice looked back towards the tribulation clouds.

"So why is this tribulation thing happening to Vector?"

Matt rubbed his chin in contemplation.

"My guess would be he went to the next… Wait a second…"

Matt's eyes went wide then he looked down at his lower abdomen.

"HOLY S**T I'M A GOLD CORE!!!"

Justice spun to face Matt again.

"A gold what?"

BOOOOOOM!!!

Matt raised his head to look Justice in the eyes once the debri stopped flying.

"Sense your abdomen. There should be a round ball of dense energy. That's a golden core. It represents the third major stage of cultivation. "

Justice got a confused look on his face then looked down.

"You mean my elemental core? That's been there since I awakened. All S ranks and above ha… What the f**k… where'd it go? Wait… Is that a baby!? AM I F**KING PREGNANT?!"

Matt's jaw dropped.

"Did you just say baby? HOLY S**T! Dude, it's a nascent soul! YOU'RE A NASCENT SOUL CULTIVATOR!"

Justice froze. His head slowly rotated to look back at Matt.

"So that thing is a nascent soul?"

Matt smiled ear to ear.

"That's your soul you've just gotten so strong it took a physical form. Wait… if you're a nascent soul cultivator, but you've never gone through a tribulation even being that strong. Then…"

Matt and Justice both turned to look at the tribulation clouds once again.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

The two boys were thrown back another 10 km as the final blast of tribulation lightning struck. The tribulation clouds dispersed as the entire area shook. The impact was felt as far away as West City, where it registered as a 2.0 on the Richter scale.

Once they got up they both quickly started flying in the direction of the complex. As they neared the site of the tribulation they both turned pale as their jaws dropped and their eyes went wide.

A 30 km area of the Rocky Mountains was now a charred smoking rubble strewn crater 10km deep. Magma was flowing out of several spots slowly filling the bottom of the crater.

Unknown to the boys a beastwave was spread out headed in every direction. The beast wave stopped rushing forward about 100km from the blast site. So no one except for the Navajo lands was affected. Though due to how spread out the beast wave was it was quickly dealt with.

When the two boys finally got near where the complex once was, they saw Vector. Their jaws dropped once again.

Vector was floating in the lotus position 8 km above the center of the giant crater. Multicolored lightning was swirling in a vortex above him and flowing into his open mouth. He was glowing with pale silver light as electrical arcs of the same color danced across his now naked perfectly toned athletic frame. His eyes were solid silver once again and he had grown to 160cm tall.

Matt looked at Justice then back at Vector, his eyes wide with amusement.

"HAHAHAHA! Those aliens are so f**ked!"

Justice and Vector both just stared at him. Matt stopped laughing and looked back and forth between the two of them.

"Don't you remember? The space dragon was S rank. He's probably as strong as some of the top ten or at least top twenty trial aliens. That means that I'm stronger than most of them! Me, Matt!"

Vector shook his head while extending his hand towards the side of the crater. Carbon dust gathered in front of his outstretched hand forming a 50cm diameter ball. Then silver electrical arcs surged onto it from Vector's fingertips turning it white hot in an instant.

He spread open his hand and the white glowing ball slid over his hand and spread out covering his entire body leaving only his head exposed. Once it stopped flowing it quickly cooled forming a black suit that looked identical to the hero suit his grandmother had given him for his awakening.

Matt stared at Vector.

"Was that telekinesis?!"

Vector glanced over at him before turning to look at the sky. His gaze followed the path of the sun's as if he were looking for something.

"Kinda. I think it's called psychokinesis. I mean it's technically just cosmic energy control. Why? You do realize anybody who's at least S rank can do it right? Well at least with small stuff. It still takes a lot of practice though."

Justice nodded in agreement.

"He's right. It's not that easy though it took me almost 2 years to figure it out."

Vector's eyes narrowed then he concentrated his senses towards Jupiter where had noticed something odd.

'That's weird… I can't sense anything deeper than 50km past the top of the storms.'

Vector looked at the two others.

"We should head back to the school. I need to replace my holo-device. I don't want them thinking I'm dead."

Then Vector took off flying to the east. The other two simply nodded and took off following him. Both were lost in their own thoughts after the preceding events.