"I am so sorry, Sect Master. I totally forgot that teaching you a Divine Skill might trigger the Tribulation. Most Cultivators wouldn't have an epiphany from it since it would take them centuries to fully integrate the knowledge, as opposed to just learning enough to be able to activate the skill." Elder Mariel was apologizing from her seat on the ground beside Cain atop the Mountain.
The Crushing Mountain Sect Master had made an ascension temple here for his own rise to Divinity many centuries before, and the Elder had appropriated it for Cain's trial today.
The rapidly growing storm cloud had attracted many curious Divinities, both human and Dragon, with a few other species that Cain couldn't identify through the distortion caused by the storm scattered in.
One was a Lycan for sure, as it was in full Lycan form, and one might be an Ancient, going by the black orbs for eyes, but since the others weren't upset at its presence, perhaps it was another species he wasn't familiar with.
"Back away from the Tribulation if you don't want to get caught up in it, little human." The Black Matriarch warned Elder Mariel as the clouds reached a radius of fifty kilometers and began to glow with golden light.
"Sorry, gotta go." The Elder sighed, then flew off to a safe distance, leaving Cain alone on the mountaintop, surrounded by Divine Realm Cultivators of many species from all over the world.
As the storm clouds intensified, Cain sensed that he was being watched, a familiar presence that he identified as Misha, as well as an unfamiliar one that he thought might be an Ancient.
"At least she gets to watch, even if she isn't here for it." Cain chuckled.
[Is there anything more appropriate than accidentally becoming a Divine Being because you wanted to prank a bunch of initiates during their trials?] A familiar voice asked in Cain's mind.
[You have a point. I never really tried to do anything but have fun in my second chance at life, but look where it led me. Maybe I really am your perfect Avatar.] Cain agreed.
[My Avatar? You were never my Avatar, only my favorite. But that's not the point. I should leave your mind before I mess with your trial. Good luck.]
As the voice faded, the density of the storm cloud stopped increasing, and the glowing golden light began to take on hints of multiple other colors, shining like a second sun in the sky before the first bolt crashed down onto Cain and forced his body back into its World Dragon form.
Every scale on his body shone with light for a moment, then dimmed as the energy was absorbed, tempering his mana into a slightly different feeling than it had before.
Again and again, the lightning crashed down on him, making his scales glow with heat as the Divine Energy began to build up faster than he could process it.
Cain merged with Kone and Su, gaining the double healing aura for ten percent of his life every five seconds, a truly stupendous amount of regeneration with his current stat line.
That was enough to cool his scales, so they didn't feel like they were burning his flesh, but he was starting to glow pretty brightly with the excess energy.
A flash of insight told Cain to step left, and he flicked to the side, almost making the next bolt miss him entirely until it suddenly turned at the last instant and hit him from the side instead of the top.
Cain could swear that the cloud was annoyed with him now, and he wondered if the Divine Will of the planet was actually sentient or if it was just a figment of his imagination. The Divine Energy was changing all of his senses by the millisecond, and it was becoming disorienting trying to recall where he was and what he was doing.
After he tried to dodge, the bolts stopped coming one at a time and began coming in pairs, then three, six, and finally twelve at a time.
That must be a normal thing because he could sense the excitement of the dragons over the worry of the other cultivators present, though the Lycan seemed to be just as excited as the Dragons, and the being with black eyes was simply curious, in a detached, scientific researcher sort of way.
A dozen at a time, the bolts hit Cain, and he focused his entire mind on letting them remake his mana and his body's stored life energy, then fill his body instead of collecting on his scales.
Once he was focusing on it, he realized that every scale could do it on its own, and his body became a veritable whirlwind, sucking all of the available energy from around him and causing the speed and intensity of the tribulation lightning to increase.
Eventually, it was cracking his scales with every hit, with barely enough time to regenerate in between volleys, so Cain activated [Regrowth], [Regeneration], and [Superior Recovery], the three best heal over time spells that he could recall, all at Immortal Rank, and let them keep his body intact through what he hoped was the peak of the Tribulation.
Cain had dropped below one-quarter health when the tribulation stopped as suddenly as it started, leaving him glowing with energy and slowly healing his cracked scales and singed hide. Exhausted, he crumpled to the ground and let the spells work their magic.
Somehow, even the blue sky above him held more depth and meaning now that he had reached the Divine Realm, and he could sense the flow of the world's energy in a way that transcended the simple mana detection that he could do as an Ancient.
The first to approach him was the Black Matriarch, accompanied by the Lycan and the creature with black eyes.
"These two are guests from the Divine Planes. They were playing a game when they noticed your tribulation and decided to stop in to visit." The black dragon informed him.
"I hope it was satisfactory for you. It was rather painful at my end." Cain greeted them.
"Quite impressive, really. Not every Dragon can absorb that much energy. Your mana pool must have been absolutely ridiculous." The black-eyed creature, whose thoughts identified its species as a Celestial, agreed.
"Yes, it was enough to distract me from the game, and it takes a lot to do that. I just thought I really should come to see you in person first before you were invited to play with us." The Lycan informed him, then vanished into thin air with the Celestial right behind him.
"Was that a good thing or not?" Cain asked, confused.
"That depends on what team you're on for the game. The Lycans have a habit of stealing their brides and taking them on a journey through the various Planes and worlds with their family in hot pursuit as a method of courtship. You have a number of daughters, so it is possible that you might be on the chasing team." The Black Matriarch laughed.
That was an interesting tradition, but knowing how Lycans loved to run, it really did make sense.
Cain waited a few minutes while his body recovered from the Tribulation and then slowly got to his feet, feeling very different than he had only a few minutes ago.
Much less divine energy than mana was needed to activate a skill, but his regeneration rate hadn't decreased at all. His body had already been in the Divine Realm, and it didn't seem to get any stronger, but the amount of power he could put into his skills was now many times more than it had been when he was using Mortal Grade Mana.
Having the [Versatility] skill as a Demigod was completely broken and blurred the lines between a Demigod and a Lesser God, which could innately use all their skills at their own level, with the perfect understanding that their power granted to them. With the body of a World Dragon, even a Hatchling one, Cain was certain that he wasn't inferior to many Lesser Gods and certainly not any of the demigods that he had met so far.
Many more people were coming forward now to congratulate Cain, including both of the Divine Realm Sect Masters that he had met from the Foot Clan and Thunder Gods Sects. A new Demigod seemed to be a huge deal, even when it wasn't someone from their species, since he didn't know most of these people but they were still here to wish him well and welcome him to the fold.
"You seem like you have had another epiphany." Elder Mariel greeted him once the others had finished their greetings and returned to their homes.
"In a way, yes, I did. I have the perfect idea of what I should do for the Initiates trials. It's going to be incredible." Cain laughed.
His plan was to activate the Divine Trials but to set the deity they were supposed to appease to a randomized state instead of having the spell base their trials on what would gain his own approval. Letting the greater Deities pick and choose the fates of the initiates sounded like way more fun than having them audition to impress him while applying for someone else's Sect.
"You're still thinking of that?" She asked.
"Of course. That was the whole point of this experiment. I couldn't get totally sidetracked just because of a bit of angry lightning."
"Very angry Divine lighting." Cain amended when the sky let out a rumble of thunder.
"We should likely fix the shrine before we go down. The Sect Master made this for himself, we just borrowed it for your tribulation, and it's a bit broken. As you said, that was quite the experience, and the cloud made it to nearly sixty kilometers before it settled. If you weren't a Dragon, you would have been in very real trouble."
Cain patted her on the head, then returned to his human form. "I was still very much in danger. The power of the healing skills I used to avoid having my scales blown off would have healed you from dead to full three times a second."
"It looked like they still almost did get blown off. I have seen a lot of dead dragons after battles, but I have never seen scales crack like that before." Elder Mariel told him, straightening her hair back into its messy curls.
"Time to go see my Disciples. Then we can fix the mountain. I am sure they're more than a little bit worried, and we didn't have time to explain what was happening before we left. I mean, I'm sure they figured it out, but you know."
The Elder laughed at Cain's frazzled state and opened a portal back to the arena.
[New Skill recorded: Portal] Divine Rank Skill
