Leo, the invincible!

CH14 Leo, the invincible!

***

Bang!

The fourth lightning bolt landed.

The blue bolt attacked his nerves directly.

The pain Leo felt almost drove him crazy as he dropped to the floor and rolled in pain.

Fortunately, the black hole came to his timely rescue once again. Any longer and he may have ran mad.

Healing and regeneration once again replaced the destruction.

Leo was drenched in sweat as he lay on the ground.

His body begged him to stay down. He wanted nothing more than to close his eyelids and fall asleep.

However, a pride from somewhere deep in his bones caused him to rise up again.

-

Boom!

He didn't even get to speak this time before the fifth violet strike came down on him.

Its target?

The very bones housing his fragile pride...

He felt his bones break.

It was like the lightning was trying to break his pride by breaking his bones. He dropped back to the floor as no bone in his body didn't at least have a fracture. The bones of his limbs directly broke into multiple fragments.

Once again, regeneration replaced the torture of destruction.

-

Boom!

He was still considering whether to get up or give up when the sixth black bolt landed on him. It pierced through his heart. The seventh silver-coloured lightning followed afterward.

Boom!!

It looked like the World Consciousness had stopped playing with him.

The black lightning spread from his heart to attack every organ in his body, even his unused little brother between his legs wasn't spared from the cruelty.

Only his brain wasn't attacked by the black bolt.

It wasn't because the bolt was nice or anything like that. Rather, the honour of frying his brain was reserved for the incoming Silver bolt.

BOOM!!!

Leo was still screaming his lungs out (almost literally) when a thunderclap sounded in his head and everything went blank.

Fortunately, before he died of organ collapse or was reduced to a vegetative state, the black hole acted again to save his life and heal his body.

Following the previous theme, his organs regenerated completely, becoming better than ever.

It took him some time to regain control of his body.

The teenager didn't get up immediately. Instead, he lay there on the floor while looking up at the sky.

Golden bolts swarm the dark clouds.

"Boy, stay down! That's the bolt of destruction. You'll be destroyed, body and mind!" Rowland shouted.

Leo didn't need Rowland's explanation. He himself knew what those bolts were.

There was a reason why there were so few number of SS-rankers (Legend-rank Humans as well as Extinction-class beasts) in history.

Between the 7-rings and the 8-rings stood the baptism of the golden bolt of destruction.

A person's 7 rings-carrying Gift and Mana Core had to receive a baptism of 9 bolts of golden lightning before the Mana Core could bear the next ring.

Many 7-rings individuals, usually S-rankers (humans and beasts), have fallen to these bolts.

Following the usual theme, Leo would only receive one low-powered bolt, however, he wasn't sure the bolt was something he could survive.

His only chance of survival was to hold on long enough for the black hole to save him.

He managed to turn to Rowland who was forced to watch, before looking away again.

He took a deep breath. Then he slowly forced himself up.

"No matter what you do, I will never stay down! No matter how difficult it is, I will always keep moving forward. I'll say it again. I am Leo..."

He gave the sky a double middle finger (which he learned from the Grand Space Pirate King's memories).

"...and I am INVINCIBLE!"

BOOM! BOOM!!

Two golden bolts, a yellow-gold and a red-gold bolt, descended on him. The worst pain in this world isn't the physical, but rather mental pain.

Physical pain will come and go. However, mental pain takes a toll. Some argue it never truly goes away.

The reason why the golden lightning was so dreadful was because it attacked a person's psyche.

-

Leo found himself in a familiar space when the golden lightning hit.

It was the cave where he had been placed after his birth while his mother led the assassins away.

Leo wasn't alone. There was another person in the cave with him. A strange yet familiar face.

It was a woman with lush black hair cascading down her back. Her face was delicate, highlighting a mature beauty. Her eyes were glowing red, like the rarest of rubies.

It was Amelia Kroft, the Chain Queen, and more importantly, Leo's mother.

"How is this possible?" Leo muttered.

"This is but an illusion created by the World Consciousness from its knowledge of me, my son. I am your mother, yet I am not." Replied 'Amelia'.

"You are a test?"

"I was supposed to be your ultimate test, but something or someone with a good grasp of the mind and illusions has interfered. Now, I am what Amelia would have been... a concerned mother."

'Amelia' walked towards Leo. She reached out and held his face.

Leo felt a familiarity with the touch from the very depths of his soul.

"I know everything you have been through. I know what you have lost and suffered. I also know that you have not given up." She said. "No matter what you choose to do in the future... no matter what you become, never forget one thing... Your father and I would be so proud of you if we were alive."

Leo gasped. He tried to force back the tears, but he failed.

The agony hidden deep within his heart for the fifteen years of his life gushed out.

Even the suppression of his emotions as the price paid to the Arcane Sanctuary failed to stop the floodgates from opening, much less after it had opened.

'Amelia' wrapped her arms around Leo's head and comforted him lovingly.

Afterward, she sat him down and got him to tell her everything about his life. The boy who had closed his heart off to the world let loose and told her everything he kept locked away.

If he couldn't tell his mother about his life, who else could he tell, right?

Leo was able to offload all the mental baggage holding him down.

Just as he finished speaking, they heard a rumble at the entrance to the cave. The makeshift door blocking the entrance shook wildly, with sparks of golden lightning flashing by from time to time.

"Looks like our time is up."

It looked like there was a lot both of them still wanted to say, but the door finally broke down. A golden light pierced into the cave.

"Never forget, Leo. You always have, and you will always be loved." She said before she blocked the light for him.

The next thing he knew, he was back in his body.

The golden lightning had disintegrated his body. The only thing left was his head! The golden flame from all those years, sealed by the Arcane Sanctuary floated above his head.

Leo was so terrified!

The red-gold lightning tried to destroy his soul while the yellow-gold disintegrated his body to dust.

Fortunately, his soul woke up before the process was complete or else he would have died without even realising it.

Leo suddenly felt the urge to scream.

He eventually did.

A tear appeared in the space before his mouth as he did.

The familiar black hole which resided somewhere within his body materialised in the physical realm.

The red-gold and yellow-gold lightning mana flowing in whatever was left of his body were sucked into it. Even the dust particles of his body and the golden Primal Flame were also sucked into the vortex.

Slowly, his body rebuilt itself from the neck downwards.

His torso reappeared, then his arms and finally his legs. He also felt his growing dragon reappear in its rightful place between his legs.

His body was rebuilt from head to toe. There was even new hair already growing on his scalp.

Leo noticed his body was stronger than before.

His eyes shifted to the dark clouds above. The cloud was already rescinding.

For some reason, he no longer felt malice when he looked at the clouds at this time. Instead, he felt gratitude.

Looking at it from another perspective, although the lightning strikes were painful, they actually helped rebuild his body for the better.

They helped destroy the dregs in his body so that it could be reformed anew.

The body Leo got after the lightning baptism was different from the one he had prior to it.

His new body was perfect!

It was at a perfection that he couldn't attain by merely physical exercise.

He slowly stood to his feet.

This time, he didn't taunt it.

He wouldn't disrespect the World Consciousness now that he felt grateful to it.

He couldn't bow because of the significance of a bow. So, instead, he did something from the Grand Space Pirate King's world which perfectly conveyed his respect and gratitude.

He saluted.

This was the highest show of respect a soldier in the Grand Space Pirate King's world could sincerely give to another.

He didn't care if Rowland or the Consciousness of this world understood what he was doing, but he did it anyway because he felt somehow the World Consciousness would understand.

As much as Leo suffered at the hands of the entity, he was shrewd enough to understand that nothing good would come from overtly feuding with the Consciousness of the World.

He decided to take the win and let bygones be bygones, at least for now, until he was able to actually retaliate against it.

The clouds cleared and the spatial lock broke, releasing Leo and Rowland from the pocket dimension.

Suddenly, Leo felt a weakness from the core of his being.

His vision slowly blackened.

Just before he lost consciousness, he saw a flashing message in his Mindspace.

-

[Congratulations!]

[User has survived the Fated Misfortune at the highest possible difficulty.]

[Note: User has earned the acknowledgement of the World. Additional random Fated Fortune event has been bestowed by the World to the User.]

[Rewards from Fated Misfortune Bet is being calculated.]

[Rewards will be available when User regains consciousness.]

-

And so, Leo lost consciousness while still in his birthday suit.

(To be continued...)