The terrifying lightning left a terrible impact, creating a 20-centimeter-deep hole in the ground.
El's body staggered, his body wavering as he could not bear the excruciating pain. In an instant, his body fell to the ground, unconscious, lying helplessly.
"Adrian-san!" shouted Kayo in a loud voice, fear covering her face. Without thinking, she immediately ran towards El, her eyes wide open, her heart full of anxiety.
Kayo hadn't gone far, immediately darting towards El after seeing the last lightning strike. With quick steps and all her might, she approached El's fallen body.
Kayo's heart was beating fast, her face filled with fear and panic, worried about El's fragile state. "What should I do? Why did lightning strike all of a sudden?"
Suddenly, amidst the panic, El's voice sounded weak and full of pain, grimacing. "It really hurts... it's crazy... Now, I understand... what a natural bottleneck means... Damn Yuri!" he said hoarsely, as if he was struggling to speak.
Seeing that El was still conscious, Kayo was silent for a moment, then unbearable tears rolled down her cheeks. She cried, not out of fear, but out of a deep sense of relief.
Kayo felt grateful that even though El had just been struck by a strange and mysterious lightning bolt that was so terrifying, she was still able to survive. Joy and anxiety were mixed within her.
Since the day El was struck by purple lightning, otherwise known as Tribulation Thunder, life has continued as usual. Together with Kayo, El would often venture into restricted areas to hunt down stage 2 Gastrea, while increasing their IP rank.
Due to their diligence, their IP had now gone from 9,500 to 5,640, a remarkable achievement for Civil Security that had just formed a month ago.
Over the past month, they had experienced many events. The Seven Star Inheritance Arc had also passed, but El had yet to meet This World's MCs, Rentaro Satomi and Enju Aihara.
During those days, it was not uncommon for El and Kayo to find Cursed Children in a severely injured condition, even their bodies rotting in abandoned buildings, neglected without any sign of respect.
El and Kayo always helped the injured children, treating their severe wounds with care, as well as providing proper burials for the dead.
After making sure the surviving children recovered sufficiently, El brought them to the sanctuary run by the Cursed Child Elders.
Hopefully, there they would receive the proper care and protection that the harsh outside world could not provide.
However, despite often coming face to face with the tragic deaths of the Cursed Child, El did not feel the slightest pity, sorrow, or grief.
His already damaged soul may have stopped breaking further, but every time Rinnegan was activated, the visuals of death and life he witnessed grew more numerous, hundreds, even thousands, every second.
It made his heart grow cold, numb and as if he was used to the never-ending cycle of suffering.
However, behind this routine, there was a small friction between El and Yuri, following a lightning incident that made El feel an extremely painful experience.
This incident happened the night after Tribulation struck his body.
At that time, El, full of frustration, protested, "This is absolutely ridiculous! Who's cultivating, who has to undergo Tribulation?"
"Even after going through it, I didn't get the cultivator profession! What the hell is this?" El looked at Yuri with a look of annoyance in his eyes, feeling himself being subjected to an experiment without proper preparation.
Yuri just listened with a sweet smile on her face. "I'm sorry, but your body wasn't destroyed was it?" said Yuri without sincere apology. "Oh yeah, you should prepare for another Tribulation in the future."
For a moment, Yuri paused and added. "However, I'm postponing it until you reach authority level 4 as a Beyonder."
El only snorted at that, but her curiosity about the world of cultivation was piqued. "In that case, how many realms are there in total in cultivation?"
Yuri looked at them seriously, then began to explain about the cultivation levels in their world. "Right now, I'm at the initial realm, which is Mortal," he said, his voice calm yet firm.
Then, Yuri explained a few things about Cultivation in their world. On the way to immortality, there were nine major realms of cultivation to go through.
Each major realm had nine minor realms within it. With each ascension of a major realm, a cultivator could trigger the Tribulation.
But, once each time a cultivator reached a new major realm, they would be bestowed with a unique skill, a specialty that signaled their progress in cultivation.
Yuri herself, admitted that, although only a fraction of his strength remained now, he had once been in the fourth realm.
In that realm, a cultivator is given access to the Battle Avatar and Spirit Lake as energy sources. This was an ability that symbolized authority and power in his world.
Therefore, El had to endure and be patient. There were still three more Tribulations to go through to restore Yuri's realm to its former glory and each Tribulation would be extremely painful.
Of course, the conversation between the two of them took place in secrecy unknown to Kayo. Neither El nor Yuri felt the need to share this information.
The reason was not out of disrespect for Kayo, but because they felt that this topic was irrelevant to her.
At this time, El decided to postpone her hunt against Gastrea, not because of fatigue or boredom, but rather there were more important things she wanted to accomplish.
This time, El was focusing on making new and more powerful weapons and equipment.
It had been a week since El sent Kayo to school, although the little girl strongly resisted her decision and continued to protest day and night when she first entered school. Eventually, though, the little girl got used to it and liked her school.
But what else could it be? El intended to explore the outer area much deeper, to kill stage 3 and even 4 Gastrea, which were obviously very dangerous.
Putting that issue aside. With Kayo not around, El felt her quarters were quite quiet, giving her room to focus on his plan to create a new weapon she could rely on.
El stood in front of a simple workbench, where Metsu and two additional ingredients had been prepared. El planned to utilize the Other Path technique: Creation of All Things to fuse Metsu with the two materials.
This would probably be a huge challenge that would probably drain a lot of energy, but El felt that there was no harm in trying.
On the table, the first material was black emitting iron, which had the unique property of conducting energy. El got this iron from the creation of the Other Path Technique.
Then, the second material was a Varanium bar, a special metal known for its effectiveness against Gastrea.
El paused and observed the two materials seriously, he weighed the design that had been formed in his mind.
Before starting the creation process, El activated Rinnegan. His irises swirled rapidly, forming ripple patterns like the surface of water with six tomoe, making his eyeballs appear like a map of the universe filled with mystery and power.
When Rinnegan was active, the world around him seemed to freeze in a deep silence, as if time and fate itself were holding their breath, observing the actions of this eye wielder who transcended the laws of nature.
El nodded his head slowly, as if giving himself permission to go further. Calmly, he raised both hands, pressing his palms together and forming a snake seal.
"This is definitely going to be exhausting," El muttered under his breath, putting all his focus into using the Other Path: Creation of All Things.