A year passed in the blink of an eye, Lucas, who's body had matured considerably, was now 9 years old. While still unable to compare to Seth, who had a well-toned and muscular body, Lucas was growing well for his age.
Today, Lucas was finally going to undergo tribulation to reach Rank 2, which would raise his power greatly, allowing him to take on Rank 1 beasts without a worry.
"I think you're ready. To start the tribulation, activate your traces as many times as you can, then concentrate all that energy in your stomach area. Heaven and Earth will try to strike you down because a Rank 1 should not have that much concentrated energy, which will be your tribulation."
Lucas followed Seth's instructions, igniting all his traces 18 times in a row. The nourishing energy flowed around his defined body, looking to strengthen it further. Yet, Lucas used a fine control to compact that energy inside his stomach, limiting its area of effect.
It was at this moment that Lucas saw ominous, dark clouds gathering above him. The light gray, ethereal clouds turned darker and denser with each passing moment, until the first lightning bolt shot down at a speed too fast for Lucas to react.
The crackling snake of electricity was a flashing, bright white, and the sweltering heat was like standing in the heart of a furnace.
Unsurprisingly, the bolt attacked Lucas, going right through his body towards his stomach, clearly aiming for the dense energy stored inside. The energy shielded itself tightly and let the bolt hit it at full strength.
*Rumble*
The sound of thunder could be heard, and the bolt definitely hit the target. However, the energy survived the first strike.
There wasn't much time for Lucas to analyse the energy, as multitudes of lightning bolts attacked the energy of time over and over again. With each strike, the energy got more lighter. It was a battle of endurance, seeing who would last the longest, Lucas, or Heaven and Earth.
Lucas' body wasn't the main target of the strikes, yet it was still damaged badly, his skin was blistering and charring, the smell of burnt flesh filled the air, Lucas was sure he was going to die as he felt the sizzling pain spreading everywhere throughout his body, his nerves were going haywire.
But, the clouds soon started to disperse in Lucas' direction, sending him the nourishment needed to heal his body. Lucas could feel the peaceful and pleasing sensation from the energy of Heaven and Earth, and the amount of traces he had increased by double. He still had minor damage that would take a couple of weeks to heal, but Lucas was finally Rank 2.
...
...
"Agh!"
Lucas shot up from the ground, his heart pounding in his chest, almost startling Seth who was making sure he was okay.
Lucas winced as searing pain spread throughout different parts of his body. He didn't waste any time and released the energy of time, the chilly feeling was concentrated on the parts with the most damage, but Lucas felt like the energy he released increased.
'So, I actually succeeded. I'm finally Rank 2. Now I see why teacher didn't allow me to start the tribulation until I could use activations 18 times in a row. My compacted energy would dissipate and then my body would be left to deal with the tribulation all alone.'
He felt his mind was also clearer, and his memory was better, Lucas finally remembered all the Ranks stages. He focused on Rank 2, giving him a clearer idea of how much effort would be required to get to the peak of Rank 2.
Rank 2:
Stage 1: 160 traces
Stage 2: 320 traces
Stage 3: 640 traces
Stage 4: 1,280 traces
Lucas still felt a lingering fear from that scene, the power displayed from the lightning had the ferocity of a thousand suns. Heaven and Earth's anger was not to be underestimated.
"I'm sure you will need to get accustomed to your new power, but I think you're ready to try to learn a new technique. It used to be taught to all the future patriarchs of our family. Sadly, that family is now gone."
Lucas could feel that Seth could only barely reign his emotions in, it seemed this was a topic he didn't want to harp on for long. He gave Lucas another scroll that looked to be ancient, some of the edges were burnt out and the scroll itself looked really frail.
Lucas took it without a word and opened it up. The scroll had a wordy description this time, it read:
'Name: Time Reflection
Description: Create a permanent shield around the user that reflects attacks that don't go over the shields limit. The shield starts out extremely weak, but gets more powered as energy gets put into it. If the shield is broken, the user will suffer an extremely heavy backlash that will leave them close to death, no matter the rank. This does not shield from mental attacks. The shield will only activate against anything the user classifies as a threat or intent to harm.
Requirements: Rank 2+'