Chapter 521 - Descending Beams Of Light
In the sea of raging thunderclouds above the plains, static electricity could be seen jumping from clouds to clouds unpredictably.
At first glance, everything seemed normal.
However, the thundercloud's movement was unnatural. It was gathering strength at an unbelievable rate.
Gravity was twisted, and space became distorted.
"Something's not right about this… this region is unstable—no, should I say the entire sky is unstable instead?" Leon mumbled with furrowed brows.
Aria nodded before saying, "In any case, we still need to make the rain stop, or the elves will be in trouble."
"Then I will trouble you to get started on that first, Aria. Either way, this place is beneficial for your cultivation." Leon smiled lightly before stating, "I will go investigate what is happening up there. It's giving me an ominous feeling."
"Alright, be careful."
"Un, you too, Aria. You might be a Lightning Awakener, but these are, after all, thunderclouds that can potentially form the Heavenly Tribulation. It won't be a little more careful."
"I got it." Aria smiled sweetly.
After giving Leon a quick peck on the cheek, she immediately separated from him, taking off on her ice-lightning sword to find a suitable spot in the thunderclouds to absorb the Thunder Essence and Water Essence accumulating within.
A static barrier was shortly formed from the lightning aspect of Aria's ability as it surrounded her, protecting her from stray bolts of lightning.
At the same time, the lightning barrier acted as a lightning rod, quickly attracting all of the thundercloud's static discharge towards her.
The temperature quickly started to drop as the surrounding space was shortly affected by Aria's law of ice and lightning.
Water vapors became frosty and emitted icy cold energy as they were drawn towards Aria, while some fell like hail from the sky.
Ice and Lightning Energy collided on the surface of Aria's barrier, bashing against each other until they merged and formed strands of white ice-lightning energy.
Leon watched Aria refined the energies coming from the thunderclouds for a moment before he proceeded to further into the skies, quickly rising several thousand feet in altitude.
As he flew above the thunderclouds, he began to frown.
Although he had the pendant device protecting him from the sky's suppression with its anti-suppression rune, he could tell that the sky's suppression force has weakened.
"No, the sky's suppression has not precisely weakened. It is fluctuating… but what is causing this fluctuation?" Leon mumbled in thought.
As Leon continued to rise higher and higher in the sky, he reached an extremely high altitude—an altitude that he had not previously thought of reaching before breaking through to Transcendent.
He had reached the stratosphere layer at roughly 100,000fts.
There were no clouds in this layer—or rather only a few types of clouds ever appear in this layer, such as; polar stratospheric clouds, extreme cumulonimbus clouds, and clouds related to the formation of hurricanes like the one seen right below.
It was also considered the first heaven.
"If not for the fluctuating force of suppressing weakening, I'm not sure I would have been able to reach this height with my present cultivation even if I have anti-suppression runes," Leon muttered.
In the early morning, the airspace within the first heaven was below the freezing point. However, such coldness was still well within Leon's level of tolerance.
More importantly, there were fewer elements in this region. The air was cold, and the winds were strong, while space was felt in abundance.
There was no doubt that the higher Leon climbs, the more spatial elements that could be sensed in his surroundings.
Even so, just cultivating at this altitude would increase his refinement of Great Pseudo-Grandmist Energy by many folds greater than cultivating on the surface.
Nevertheless, this was the least of Leon's concern at the moment.
As Leon observed the surrounding space above the clouds for suspicious points of interest, his gaze soon paused on the brilliance of the sun.
Although the sun was not yellow, it was generally observed as such from the surface. However, what Leon saw was more than just yellow.
It had a strong tint of red.
"We are running out of time. The sun is about to erupt!" Leon determined.
He realized that all the fluctuation of forces happening within the suppression zone were foreboding signs of the Cataclysm's eruption!
At the realization, Leon immediately plunged back towards the surface.
Just as his figure disappeared into the clouds below, the sun suddenly flashed with intense red light as its surface erupted with an explosive burst of extreme scorching hot flames!
The powerful wave of solar flare bursting out from the sun affected every celestial body in its immediate surroundings.
According to the star map embedded in Leon's memory, Gaia was the third closest planet to the sun within the Vandelhelm Star Realm.
There were two other planets before planet Gaia, which was the small red planet of Ouphus and the slightly bigger yellow planet of Laetis.
However, the surface of these two planets was immediately scorched by the sun's solar flare! Even their atmosphere was blown away by the powerful passing flame wave!
Within moments, the solar flare reached planet Gaia!
Although the explosive flame waves themselves failed to reach the planet, Gaia was still greatly affected by its heatwave!
The debris ring surrounding planet Gaia was distorted as smaller pieces of debris were immediately pushed out of orbit!
Some were flung far away from the Gaia while several more descended towards the planet's surface alongside scorching sunlight piercing through the veils of clouds!
A few beams narrowly missed Leon by a small margin.
However, he could feel the intense heat radiating from these pillars of light as they shot past him and descended on the earth like the arrival of judgment day.
"Ahh, my eyes! It burns!"
Several people cried after glancing up subconsciously when light beams descended, while many resisted the urge after hearing their painful cries.
"I can't see! It hurts so much!"
"I think I'm blind! Help me!"
They continued to wail.
Many people trembled at their suffering while they endured the world's rising temperature as it quickly reached the peak of summer.
Many knew that this day would come again.
However, no one was truly prepared for it when the time actually came! The Cataclysm arrived too swiftly and without warning!