Baptism by The Fury of Lightning

[Crucial Information:

Evolving into a demigod as a blessed of Amadi, the god of lightning, comes with no risk.

You will not face the risk of evolving into a mad creature. You will retain your sanity and current form unless you wish to change your appearance.]

Niklas was delighted after reading the information on the floating window interface before him.

[Progress towards evolution: 100/100.

Affect the world around you and obtain evolution points.

Since you are aligned with good, you have to affect the world around you with your goodness to obtain evolution points.

Extra evolution points: 167.

You have totaled the points needed for evolution. Do you wish to evolve now, yes or no?]

Niklas happily selected the 'yes' option. Instantly, he was transported to another realm. The sky was purple, with patches of red clouds. The terrain was rocky and coloured earth brown. There was a distant, rocky mountain that had its peak buried in the cloudy sky. The sky was dominated by noisy, regular flashes of lightning at an average interval of one second. The flashes of lightning seemed to travel to the peak of the distant mountain and converge, striking down on the surface of the mountain.

The lanky, red-haired man, Niklas, was seated on a boulder when he appeared in this mysterious realm. He got down from the boulder and stared at the phenomenon of the flashes of lightning and the distant mountain. There was a sliver of fear of the unknown in his heart, but it was inundated by his firm belief that he was going to be fine. This stemmed from the fact that the system had assured him that the evolution process wasn't going to harm him.

He had been staring at the converging rain of lightning at the distant mountain peak when he suddenly had an unnerving feeling that something powerful was coming. He instinctively looked up at the sky, and he saw the widest, longest streak of lightning he had ever seen in his life appear. The intensity of the light from the lightning blinded him, and he shut his eyelids tightly and turned his head away from the sky while raising his arms in front of his head to shield the light.

Niklas felt the monstrous lightning travel to the distant mountain peak, and what followed was a powerful earthquake that shook the mountain and the ground below because the formidable bolt had furiously struck the mountain peak. A strong wind blew across, raising dust in its wake. Niklas shielded his eyes from the dust with his left hand as he looked at the mountain peak. He knew that the powerful thing, whose presence he felt earlier, was at the mountain peak. The presence on the mountain peak disappeared. Niklas was flabbergasted.

"Don't worry too much; I'm still here."

Niklas was given a jump scare hearing another person's voice and, at the same time, feeling the presence of the powerful being beside him. A handsome human being whose gender could not be easily ascertained by mere observation stood at Niklas' right side. This unknown person wore a customised form of emerald blue plate armour that looked thin. Niklas recovered from the scare and considered the stranger beside him.

'She looks stronger than me. Is she even a she? I will take it as a she.'

The stranger smiled at Niklas. The smile placated the anxiety in Niklas' heart, and he didn't notice. He didn't even know when he returned the courtesy.

The armoured stranger said, "I am Rain, messenger to Amadioha, the lightning god."

Niklas opened his mouth to speak, but Rain interjected, saying, "There is no need to introduce yourself, Niklas.

"You should have an idea of why you are here. You are here to evolve your being. You are here to advance your state from an ordinary awakened state to a demigod state.

"To fulfil this evolution, you must climb to that distant mountain peak and bathe in the fury of lightning. The fury of lightning will cleanse your body and restructure your genes. It will rid you of the constraints that limit your being. It will remould you, making you a demigod."

"Uh… Yeah." Niklas replied with a slow nod. He found her tone too serious for the situation.

"Go forth and take your blessings," Rain said as she gestured with her right arm.

Niklas set off for the mountain. After some steps, he noticed that the messenger wasn't following him. He stopped and asked the messenger,

"You are not coming with me, why?"

Rain said, "This is not a mission for me, but it is for you. I will stay here and watch, for I am the keeper of this realm."

"Keeper of this realm?" Niklas whispered to himself as he continued his journey to the distant mountain peak.

He wanted to ask the messenger what the name of this realm was, but he restrained himself from doing so. He increased his strides as he journeyed. He estimated the distance and guessed that it would take him two hours to get to the mountain peak.

15 minutes later, Niklas was at the foot of the mountain. He wondered why he got here at such a quick time, but he didn't think much about it. He began to scale the mountain. He had never climbed a mountain in his life. His only experience with climbing came from PE classes when he was in high school. After climbing for ten minutes, he found a spot on the steep mountain to take a break, and he took a break. He looked up at the distance he still had to cover; it was still a lot. He wondered,

"Does time here flow at the same speed as in the real world?"

"Nevertheless, I have to scale this mountain quickly. I hope nothing happens along the way."

Niklas resumed climbing. The climb was a long one. He would occasionally take breaks to rest his muscles. Eventually, he got close to the mountain peak. Lightning would crash on the rock, and stones would be splintered in different directions. Niklas suffered regular, painful blinding from the lightning strikes and rocks falling on him. It was his firm will that had him holding on tight. He suffered and slowly ascended up the mountain.

TARGH!

Lightning struck Niklas on his crown, and he yelled in pain. This was absurd because he was immune to lightning bolts after he was awakened. Pain could only be incurred if he was struck by a special lightning bolt. The bolts that struck the mountain peak were special. There were pure and holy lightning bolts that could cleanse the body of infirmities and exorcise objects. Hence the name, Fury of Lightning.

Niklas' body had gone numb, but his mind was still active. Luckily for him, his left-hand grip on the mountain was strong, saving him from falling off when he was struck by lightning. He gritted his teeth as he forced the rest of his body to respond to his stimulus. Slowly, he recovered, and he resumed climbing, albeit at a much slower pace.

BAM! BAM! BAM! BAM!

Four lightning bolts came close to hitting him. The last one missed him by three centimeters. Unfortunately, he still received a good amount of electrocution. He bled from his nose and ears.

"I thought this was supposed to be risk-free," Niklas groaned.

He continued his struggle to the mountain peak. He was lucky not to be struck by the lightning as he finally crawled onto the flat mountain peak. He kneeled erect while he pumped his fists and arms, celebrating his victory.

"Arrrrgh!"

Niklas screeched like a madman, vehemently being violated by continuous bolts of lightning.