Lucifer: Don't worry, lad. The God will not go back on his word; speak your wish—he says'.
Raphael: 'Hrm…'
"Grant me every ounce of power at your disposal, including your own".
Lucifer: 'Listen… It might seem like a good idea to get all the power that you can from any origin, but there are consequences to holding immense foreign power. In the case of a God, you must endure their power to acquire them—if you aren't granted a quest to obtain a fraction of it. The power of a God is no joking matter; even if you think yourself to be on par with one, you aren't. There are countless weak Gods and countless strong ones. Humble yourself and fight with a quiet and cold mind, and a fierce and hot heart'.
"I'll heed your words—but, I need this power; there are too many adversaries that are beyond me. So, I'm certain that this is what I need…"
Lucifer: 'Very well; so be it. The God is bound to die and ascend to a higher plane, so I doubt it's a problem to grant you all the power that he can; isn't that right?'
I emerged from the tomb, and set foot on the barren land.
Lucifer: 'Prepare yourself, lad. The Demon God suggests Lightning Tribulation for you to receive his power and more… For this to be successful, lightning must strike you multiple times, so that you can be granted power, and absorb the power of the God and his essence. Endure this till the last strike and you can become the new God of the Sky in these lands—he says'.
…
"Huu… let's begin-" I prepared myself as dark, ominous clouds gathered. I enhanced my body with the power of everything that has a resistance towards electricity, modified my body so that I can't feel pain, and used some Magic to heal myself every split second. A side-objective of mine was to capture some of the lightning in ice; not just any ice, of course… Hmm, why don't we call this Aether Frost; a type of ice created by me, with the ability to imprison lightning within its crystalline lattice, transforming the frozen substance into a pulsating, luminous spectacle that dances with the volatile energy of storms.
…
A second passed; a bolt of dark red lightning struck. Another second passed; 4 bolts of the lightning struck. Another second passed; 8 bolts of the lightning struck simultaneously. Another second passed; 16 bolts of the lightning struck simultaneously. Another second passed; 32 bolts of the lightning struck simultaneously. Another second passed; 64 bolts of the lightning struck simultaneously. This continued for an hour or two. Hundreds of thousands of bolts of red lightning struck me; each, passing onto me, the powers of the Demon God. With every second that passed, the hue of the lightning changed; from a dark red to a light, pinkish red. I collected shards of stray lightning for every hue.
As the end drew near, the lightning grew purer until it was pure white. Simultaneously, the grip on my modifications fell loose, and by the time the final bolt was imminent, I could perceive pain again; although, suppressed by my tolerance towards electricity, it was still immense. After all, it was the power of a God.
It hit me like a herd of elephants, trampling over me; one after the other. It stung more intensely than a giant Borneo carpenter bee; on every pore of my body. It was like I went through a meat-grinder and back in that split second. It brought me to my knees. If it weren't for my healing Magic and natural hyper-regeneration, I would've been toast and incapacitated.
The pain and concussion passed—like a grain of sand in the wind, till I no longer had any recollection of the pain, even.
Raphael: 'You continue to surprise and surpass. You are now a God, through and through. Although, a weak God; a real God—with bleak divinity'.
Lucifer: 'The skies of these lands are yours, lad-! You had the strength to resist and overcome the powers of the Demon God of Salem. 'Tis no meagre feat for a young lad such as yourself. I'd go as far as say that you have the right to God-hood as a natural born. Well done, lad. Also… I don't suppose I need to absorb the God's power…'
"Thanks, you two. But… I don't feel—like a God'' I tightened my grip into a fist.
Raphael: 'How did you know that you felt like a Mortal? There are some things that even Gods cannot understand, boy. But, all of us have a role in this universe; a burden to shoulder. Be it mortals, Gods or whatever existence. But, you are a God now, and that is the truth; and the power and responsibility is far—greater. And, I am more than willing to guide you through God-hood; so that you do not make the same mistakes I did…'
"Thank you; really. I'm incredibly grateful to the both of you. I would've gone insane in the membrane, if not for you guys" . Maybe, maybe not. There's still a mystery lingering… an invisible force that stops me from descending into madness. For me, that force is more terrifying than the majority of the monstrosities out there.
"Man-! Life's good without back pain!" I sighed with a relieved mind. Come to think of it, it was around this time that I could be graced with the company of Lucifer and Raphael, huh?
"Hmph, come on. I've a surprise for you guys-" I jumped into the air, and within a second, I was in a cabin, in the woods.
Opening the door and entering the cabin, I was greeted with warm air, a cosy atmosphere, and a beautiful painting equivalent to the Mona Lisa of this realm. It portrayed two Gods clashing.
By the painting, I entered an underground chamber. It was a dull room with no decorations other than a spider-web in a corner of the room with a living occupant(The Avatar called him Arc for some reason), and some alchemy apparatuses and tools.
"Alchemy's amazing, y'know?" I said, "I asked… ordered the Avatar in charge of Salem to gather all knowledge about Witch-craft, Alchemy, or whatever you wanna call it, and to gather every single Alchemical ingredient in this realm—along with a few minions, of course—, and experiment with anything and everything. Now, if you'll excuse me…"
I proceeded to devour everything in the room using my metamorphosis ability and dissolved it inside my body—now turned a slime. And so, I materialised a potion of a glowing, rich greenish-yellow colour.
"Voila-!" I exclaimed, "This will allow me to interfere with myself at a subatomic level for some time. Separating our consciousnesses from one concretion is like the yolk from an egg but hundreds of thousands of times harder and delicate. It'll take some time and the effect of the potion will probably wear off, and I probably shouldn't ingest a large amount of it because that'll only backfire, so I'll slow down time in the physical realm, and accelerate my thought process to cope with the slowness. I'll try to enhance my metabolism to max, and also increase the concentration of the potion a bit…".
Jeez, I sound like a nerd-
…
Anyway, the process took some time. I can't really just say how many minutes or hours because I'll need to calculate the time; mostly because I don't use seconds to measure time any more. It just kinda fails… So, let's see… I think it took around 2 hours and 10 minutes, considering that I also slowed down time quite a bit. For me, it felt much longer…
To measure time, I personally just keep check on some pulsars and quasars, and the vibration of atoms(Not subatomic particles because at this point, I'm just not capable of that).
--END OF CHAPTER 12--