Ved realised a troubling fact about himself but he no longer had any time to dwell on his thoughts. The lightning bolt was about to reach him and he activated his soul force. The moment it entered the range of his soul sense, the tree stirred and shook, the dragon raised it head and roared The image was blurry, if one did not focus they might not even realise it was there, the tree was bare with only a few leaves and branches. It trunk had dozens of holes and it was missing the tap root. The dragon did not have fully formed eyes, it was missing a few limbs and it tail was short as if cut in half. It was an incomplete and illusory image but it was there and the vessel spirit saw it clearly. It mind shook, it couldn’t comprehend what it was seeing, this should’ve been impossible yet it was looking at it. In it long life, it had never ever seen nor head of a being as anomalous as this drake. In all of history, there is a record of only two beings coming close to achieving similar feat but even those two monsters still fell short of him and both of them had divine grade bloodlines. The lightning bolt seemed to slow down when it entered the range of his soul sense. Not just to his perception, it had actually slowed down a little. But it was still fast, so fast he couldn’t even react before it hit him. The world turned purple, the air turned to plasma and the island shook. A ball of lightning and fire spread out and ripped the ground apart for hundreds of metres, his soul force shattered like glass. The shockwave that followed cracked and shattered the 10 kilometres large island into many pieces. He had expected to be dealt significant damage. While the damage he took was greater than the one he recieved from the last two bolt combined, it was nowhere near what he had expected. It was as if the bolt had less effect on him than the surroundings and it was not because of his durability, he was certain of that. And he believed he knew why, he could feel it, his image was interfering with the lightning bolt somehow. He couldn’t understand it but he knew the image was lowering the damage he was taking. Then something strange happened inside him. The lightning ravaged inside his body and damaged even his organs but his body was also absorbing it. Slowly and in lower quantities but the purple lightning was being assimilated into his trait. He would’ve been excited if his body was not currently being ripped apart into shreds. He roared in agony as his scales melted and his flesh slowly disintegrated. He now understood why it was called extinguishing tribulation. The piece of the island he was on melted into lava and he sunk under the sea. His body crashed on the ocean floor creating a giant crater but the bolt continued to push him down. A giant 30 metres wide hole appeared on the centre of the crater. The hole went down for hundreds of metres using his body to break through the soil and stone. Then the water came crashing down but it was evaporated by the lightning bolt before it could even reach the bottom. The ocean boiled and every living creature within tens of kilometres died. And all of this happened in a single second. By the 2nd second, his eyes exploded, his ears melted and the spikes on his back popped out and shot out like burning knives. His regeneration trait worked overtime, trying to heal every damage he took but it was failing to keep up. However without it, the lightning bolt would’ve killed him by now. Fortunately it failed to reach his brain and heart, his will instinctively provided more defence for those two organs. However that wouldn’t last for long. His other organs on the other hand were a different story. Surprisingly the first organ to get disintegrated was his poison sack, followed by the pancreas. One by one his organs stared failing and crumbling like dust. By the third second, he felt his image flicker. Something told him if he tried to keep it up for much longer he would die. He panicked, he had no control over the image at all. Fortunately it suddenly disappeared on it own before his soul could shatter. However that removed the only thing holding the lightning bolt back. Without the image he felt all of it effect completely. Check latest chapters at 𝓷𝓸𝓿𝓮𝓵·𝕗𝕚𝕣𝕖·𝙣𝙚𝙩 All of the remaining scales on his body fell off at once, his body turned black almost instantly and started crumbling like a sand castle. Ved panicked, no matter how hard he racked his brain, he couldn’t think of a solution here. He couldn’t even use his web to create some defence since his web organ was gone as well. The fourth second came, his teeth melted and fell off like pools of lava. His bone became dry and cracked. It started with his tail, then his ribs and spine. Then his arm shattered, his claws cracked and fell off. A piece of his ribs stabbed his heart. And lastly his skull. It was harder than the rest of his body. But by the fifth second, a small crack appeared on it. A tiny flicker of the lightning bolt went through the crack and electrocuted his brain. For a moment his thoughts process became faster. He saw everything in slow motion. The lightning bolt connected the sky and the sea like a giant purple pillar. It diameter of 30 metres meant his entire body was fully covered by it. He processed all of the damage he took and a chilling conclusion dawned on him.He was going to die, it would be miraculous if he survived this. The crack on the skull widened, then just before the lightning was about to fry his brain it suddenly disappeared like smoke. The clouds dispersed like they were never there. The world turned back to it normal shade. The thunderous sound that shook the sky was gone. The sea was still boiling and countless tons of water came crashing down on him in the hole like a waterfall. His already broken bones cracked even more. Fortunately all of his pain receptors were completely fried, unlike the lightning bolt which could deliver damage directly to his soul, the water couldn’t. Ved knew he was mostly likely still going to die. His regeneration trait could not keep up with his wounds at all. The lingering aura of the lightning also slowed down his regeneration. He closed his eyes and waited for death then the system notification came. ( Congratulations to host for surviving the extinguishing tribulation lightning. Commencing the evolution process.) A drop of golden liquid descended from the sky, passed through the sea like it was air and landed on him. He didn’t know what the drop was, but it tried to enter his body and it was stopped by something inside him. Then the drop turned into thousands upon thousands of golden strings that coiled around him and formed a gigantic 20 metres tall golden cocoon. Inside the cocoon,Ved could barely process anything that was happening. His mind refused to remain conscious but he forced it for a bit longer. After the cocoon formed, it hardened and became a golden egg. Inside the egg, golden liquid spewed out and submerged him. He could feel this liquid seeping into his battered body, subconsciously he curled up into a ball and his minded drifted into his dreams.