Defiance of the Fall

A clap of furious thunder pushed those thoughts back to the recesses of Zac’s mind , and innumerable wounds opened across his body . The sense of being targeted was rapidly weakening , and the ball of condensed lightning deflated . It was similar to before he finished his core , like the Heavens had trouble locating him .

So the Kayar-Elu had made some preparations , at least . The increased severity of the tribulation was likely due to their experiments , and for once , Zac didn’t mind the hidden hand manipulating him from the shadows . Better that than dying .

Zac hesitated a moment before forgoing his plan of using the Remnant energy . More than 80% of the lightning ball’s energy had spread through the endless clouds . What remained should be possible to endure without taking such a crazy risk .

Thousand upon thousands of red bolts rained upon the ground , lashing out at everything . It looked like the end—the end of the world , the Dao , and the Era itself . A true apocalypse unfolded around him , and Zac was in the eye of the storm . A scream of agony was drowned out by the crackling roar of the lightning sea that appeared between the mountain peaks . Leandra’s array had hidden his presence , but it had done nothing to block the lightning itself .

A painful stab made Zac keel over , but the source wasn’t the lightning rampaging through his body . The Duplicity Core had tapped into his body , forcibly extracting all his Void Energy just as he was about to use it to fight off the tribulation . Zac was left without his main defenses against the lightning as multiple vortices opened up around him . Simultaneously , Zac could feel an odd connection with pockets of space across the whole domain .

And then came the energy . Life and Death , agitated by the aggressive force of the scattered Tribulation Lightning , poured over in droves , the quantities far surpassing what had been supplied by the Dao Threads . A different form of rumbles created reverberations that shook Zac’s bones as the closest mountain crumbled , its spirituality fully drained .

Zac was still grappling with the streaks of crackling red ravaging his body and could only look on with horror as it all poured into the Duplicity Core . At first , Zac feared the core wanted to forcibly elevate his Quantum Core , something he wasn’t sure he could withstand . Thankfully , only a trickle reached the core , while most were consumed and disappeared .

It was like the Duplicity Core had been topped up with fuel after running empty , and the wriggling transformation across its surface resumed . It was happily continuing its evolution , uncaring that Zac was still fighting for his life . Zac slumped onto the ground , his skin scorched and smoke releasing from his pores .

He took out an axe and drew a deep cut across his arm , releasing a large stream of ichor that crackled with red lightning . Despite having been through hell and back , Zac smiled while looking up at the sky . The clouds were filled with reluctance , but they were slowly dispersing after finishing their - Minor - Tribulation . It had already pushed the envelope to unleash such force against a D-grade cultivator and had nothing left to throw at him .

The ichor he’d excised contained the last of the lightning , given up because he didn’t have anywhere to use it . His soul couldn’t take any more tempering , and his cells were on the brink of collapse . Instead of trying to endure another round of refinement , he was better off just giving it up .

The tribulation was over , and he was mostly in one piece , yet the Duplicity Core hadn’t finished its work . A second mountain collapsed , and then a third , the scene reminiscent of his bloodline breakthroughs . In this case , he wasn’t the beneficiary , though . At least not directly . His bloodline wasn’t making any headway , and any attempt at siphoning some of the bountiful energy was rebuffed .

Zac could only watch on as the Duplicity Core continued its business . Truthfully , he was thankful for the respite . It wasn’t just the near-death experience just now , but the last months in general . Constantly being alert and at attention wore him down , and he had to fight the urge to enter a restorative hibernation .

He couldn’t let himself sleep at this juncture . He needed to observe what the Duplicity Core did with his Cosmic Core . What if he missed something important that would cause trouble when upgrading his core in the future? Zac took out some healing tonics and relaxed while the neighborhood was turned into a wasteland .

Eventually , the process stopped , leaving Zac frowning . For one , it didn’t feel like the Duplicity Core and Cosmic Core had connected yet . And since the cores weren’t connected , neither was Cosmic Core linked to his pathways . Yet , the vortices remained as the Duplicity Core swallowed unfathomable amounts of energy .

Then Zac realized what was going on .

It was waiting for him .