Chapter 964 Alea’s Ascension
The Scarlet Butterflies spiralled down, moving gracefully towards Alea's head.
Despite looking beautiful, Alea could feel the danger stemming from them and sent a wind blade at one of the butterflies.
It flapped its wing and graciously dodged the blade, making Alea send a flurry of Wind attacks.
A wind blade finally hit it, making it explode. Blood spread out everywhere and touching the other butterflies, a sizzling sound spread in the surroundings.
That Scarlet Butterfly exploded as well, and as if a chain reaction had occurred, one-third of the butterflies were wiped out.
Scarlet Butterflies were creatures notorious for their harmless appearance yet deadly effects.
They did not attack anything in particular, but the moment they landed on anything living, they would suck the Life element out of it and make it decay.
Their touch also resulted in the body melting, and if one wasn't at least a Half King, they would simply die from their touch.
Maybe it was a necessity or maybe it was luck, but having the option to come back to life after dying was a much needed thing in this world.
Survival was next to impossible with a single life.
Not only creatures such as these commonly roamed the lands, there was a direct threat from the other races too.
However, there was no second chance during ascension. If one died, their soul would be wiped out. There was no reincarnating or resurrecting.
Everyone, including Alea, was aware of this.
Alea skillfully maneuvered her body to dodge the butterflies trying to land on her. She kicked her feet, landed on the ground on her hands, spun, and jumped to another area.
She repeated it multiple times and the places where her hands touched, bright flowers bloomed and attracted the butterflies.
Upon touching the flowers, the butterflies exploded. This time however, the blood did not splatter, rather, it formed into a mist and spread everywhere.
Alea's expression darkened. She quickly swiveled her arms and cast a bright mist of water to spread everywhere in the surroundings.
As the water touched the blood mist, it evaporated and a dense red fog was starting to appear.
On top of it, from the skies, another batch of butterflies, this time of blue color, dashed their way downwards. Their speed was much faster than the Scarlet Butterflies.
Knitting her brows, Alea began drawing circles in front of her and a bright golden disc was manifested. It flew towards the blue butterflies, but the creatures at the front saw it coming and dodged.
The ones who did not see it were burnt to a crisp and fell down.
The butterflies at the front that had succeeded in dodging were quickly met with another disc flying at them.
Alea's movements were quick and she made a hundred golden discs of pure Light energy in no time, encircling all of the butterflies and burning them.
The blue butterflies did not get a chance to show their might and were killed. The Scarlet Butterflies were still surviving and trying to fly towards Alea.
At this point, the ground beneath her rumbled and instinctively, Alea used Wind energy and flew up.
A thick black liquid seeped out of the cracks constantly forming on the ground, emitting a nauseating stench.
It boiled and bubbled, then started splattering around.
The splattering intensified in just a few seconds and some liquid flew at Alea.
Alea avoided getting in contact with this and flew higher. She cast a wind barrier, that sort of seemed like a giant slab, and pushed the remaining Scarlet Butterflies down on the ground.
The butterflies sizzled and exploded, not forming a mist anymore.
The liquid gurgled after the absorption of the butterflies and shot high up at the sky, exactly towards Alea.
She once again avoided it and cast a water column, imbuing it with light energy and sending it down on the ground.
With a lot more sizzling and gurgling noises, the black liquid evaporated and some seeped back into the ground.
Alea heaved a sigh of relief and using another spray of water mist, made all the blood mist vanish.
The thundering clouds above her head slowly disappeared, and instead of rejoicing, she quickly sat down on the ground in a cross-legged position, and focused on her Magic Core.
The internal tribulation was soon going to appear and she had to prepare for it.
Watching all of it, Lith raised his eyebrows in amusement and thought, 'She sure did everything effortlessly.'
Alea may seem like a frail girl, but in reality, she was anything but that. It was proven by the tribulation that had just descended down on her.
This form of tribulation she suffered through seemed simple and harmless, but it was much difficult to combat in reality.
Elemental energies would cause a ruckus during ascension. They had to be sorted out properly if one had to cast any attack.
This meant that a person was pretty much powerless initially and had no way of surviving any incoming attack.
The butterflies sure descended slowly, but Alea had to sort out one elemental out of the total six running chaotically in her body.
Sorting it and then sending an attack would deplete half the mental strength of a person and tire them out.
The more elemental affinities one had in such a situation, the more disadvantageous they would be.
However, more elemental affinities meant more variety and the attacks weren't limited, thus giving the cultivator a greater opportunity to survive.
Once the initial Wind elemental energy was sorted out in her body, she had a much easier time untangling the rest and fighting back.
The universe fought with a cultivator and tried to resist their ascension by sending tribulations. There were no benefits of surviving it, other than being able to ascend.
However, the tribulations that came after this—the one within one's core—brought a great deal of benefits.
The core powered a cultivator and was the source of their immortality and strength. If it were to vanish, the body would not be nourished and soon age and crumble, making the soul seep out.
The soul would not be able to naturally enter the reincarnation cycle due to it and would wander freely.
The only way to come back to life again was through possession, or the soul would simply extinguish after a certain period of time, succumbing to eternal rest.
Life, death, reincarnation… It was all a really complex matter and various aspects to it with this thing being one of it.
In any case, surviving the internal tribulation trouble brought a great deal of benefits, but it was also the toughest to do so.
One could take help from others for surviving this like Lith had done in his last ascension, but doing so would mean missing out on a great deal of experience.
Fighting a tribulation alone and with someone's help was an entirely different thing. Even if one could take help, it doesn't mean they should.
Lith's case last time was something he couldn't help. The tribulations were overpowering and he did not have the means to deal with it himself.
Not just him, no one else in his place would be able to deal with such a tribulation. They would simply perish.
What tribulation Alea was going through right now, he wanted to see it. However, looking around, he saw that his mother and aunt had already left the sitting area and were by Alea's side.
They were staring at her abdomen and were probably looking at the internal tribulation she was going through.
Unless needed, one shouldn't interfere with the tribulation. Such was the rule and they both were following it.
Lith sat down and waited for Alea's tribulation to be over, taking deep breaths and focusing on his own elemental energies in the meantime.
Throughout his ascensions, he had suffered through one problem after another. This time may or may not be an exception to it.
Hence, he was mentally preparing himself for it.
Initially, he would suffer the most since he had not one, two, or three, but a whole twelve elemental affinities, which were all of them. Sorting them out would be the most difficult part.
Things should be fine after that, he thought, and began meditating.
Time passed.
After half a day, some visible changes appeared on Alea's body.
She was sweating hard and her body radiated a lot of heat.
Agalea wiped the sweat off her face and Lilith sent a cool breeze to help her cool down.
Another half a day later, her body was trembling, with her brows starting to get covered in frost. This spread everywhere on her body and she practically turned into an ice sculpture.
Lilith sent a hot breeze to her and made the ice melt.
A day later, Alea's complexion turned deathly pale. This was a really bad sign, but Lilith and Agalea didn't do anything and waited.
One more day passed.
Alea's cheeks caved in, her eyes hollowed out, and her overall body turned thin, with her becoming frail to the point where even a raindrop could fracture her.
Two days later.
Alea's golden blonde hair turned white, her body seemed to be aging.
Agalea let out a pained expression and it was becoming unbearable to watch, but Lilith comforted her and asked her to wait.
The patience finally bore fruits.
Three days later.
Alea's complexion turned healthy once again, her cheeks filled out, her body returned to its original shape, and overall, she turned into an even better version of herself than before.
The air around her crackled, her aura bursted out, and finally… Her eyes slowly fluttered open.
"Alea!" Agalea cried out and hugged Alea. "I was so worried!"
Alea's lips formed into a gentle smile and she hugged her mother back.
"Mama… I've ascended."