A New Star Chapter 29

The other great discovery I had made was something I made very sure to keep secret from everyone, as I simply didn't have enough trust of any of them, whether it was the count or even my parents. That was more because I intended to use it, which I knew there would be strong protest against, versus any other fear. I had the intention of making use of it quite soon, as well, so I was already well along in my preparation as my eighth birthday came and went, the affair given little fanfare. It was but two weeks after that that I felt I was fully ready to use the device, and I had everything stocked and ready.  

The location of the laboratory I had commandeered was nearly two hundred miles north of the estate and fifty miles to the east, at the edge of the range. The place I was heading was another five miles east and three miles north of that, a mountain that stood out a little as it was north of the rest of the range. Mountain ranges weren't always necessarily exactly even, but this mountain was far enough from the rest that it felt a little unnatural, as if it had been created there or placed there from somewhere else. I had studied with the count the first three days of that week and now, on the fourth day, made my way to the mountain. I had created a small shelter about two miles from the mountain, judging that that was a safe distance, and had stocked it with medicines, healing potions, pills, and a healing bath I had constructed by carving a pit in the floor and creating a highly medicinal bath mixed in with concentrated healing potions.  

I made my way to the mountain and walked up to the summit, which was strangely deserted, as it was every time I had come up here. There were no animals, insects, beasts, monsters, or other lifeforms that came near the summit, and the mountain itself lacked most of the dangers that were numerous in the surrounding area. At that summit was a ring of standing stones, about my height and twice as thick as my body was wide, each of them carved to be octagonal and with a thick, heavy line of runes written in a vertical manner on each side. The runes glowed purple, and my investigations so far had yielded several clues that, when combined, spoke to the purpose of this formation.  

The point was simple; a person would stand in the center, activate the formation with their mana, and then they would undergo a Tribulation. That was one of the few things that was clear, as well, that Tribulation was definitely with a capital 'T' and not a lowercase version of the letter. I didn't know much more beyond that, other than it was supposed to be very painful, which didn't bother me, as pain was an old and very comfortable friend, and that it was supposed to awaken a greater power. It seemed a bit chancy, for sure, but it also checked out, as far as I was able to determine from analyzing the site and from some research in the library back at the estate. My plan was to activate the standing stones, undergo the Tribulation, and if I was still in fighting shape, retreat to my redoubt. If I was too injured, I did have medicines on me, but I didn't know if they would be able to survive whatever was to come.  

When I was sure everything was ready, I assumed my place in the center of the formation and got myself prepared, taking a few slow, deep breathes before starting. I let a little trickle of mana flow out of me and into the pillars which did…nothing. I frowned a bit, and then let out more mana, but that had about the same result. Frowning even more deeply, I figured if this was some ancient machine, maybe I would just give it a good old kick in the ass, firing out a dozen bolts of lightning to hit every pillar at the same time. That was enough to do something, a heavy humming filling the air as all the pillars lit up brightly. A moment later, everything in the surroundings went entirely silent and I felt all the hair on my body stand on end.  

"This seems- 

The Tribulation Begins! 

bad." I said, looking up at the darkening sky.  

A massive vortex of black clouds had formed high above the mountain and a terrible pressure crashed down around me, nearly driving me to my knees. I stood straight, not being cowed by some old formation, though that thought barely had enough time to complete before the first bolt from the heavens landed. It was nearly as thick as my arm which, considering how much I had grown even at an early age, was saying something. It was a bolt of lightning that struck me, purple in color, at least at the outer edge, darkening in the center so much it approached pure black at the core. The pain, as I blocked the strike with both arms, was monumental, causing me to stagger a step back and gasp, panting as I tried to recover.  

The storm above swirled and a second bolt fell, thicker and longer than the first, crashing into my still reeling form. I was nearly driven to my knees, the power and energy contained within the strike not just carrying an immense electric charge but being so strong it fell like a hammer blow. I could hear and feel and smell the flesh of my arms starting to cook away, crushing the healing pill I had held under my tongue to start the process of recovery. Even as the medicinal energies rushed through my body and started repairing the damage, the sky darkened further and swirled faster, a peal of thunder ringing out first to signal the third bolt.  

The power of this bolt was enough to drive me to my knees, forcefully so, slamming me into the ground and causing the stone of the platform in the center of the pillars to crack slightly. The bolt more than overrode the healing from the pill, but the medicine had bought me some precious time. I shuddered to think what would have happened to my arms and torso if the pill hadn't affected some quick repairs; even now the last of the medicinal energies was still trying to fix me up. It wouldn't have the chance to do much, as the clouds spread even further, creeping beyond the edge of the single mountain like a flood of ink pouring from an overturned well.  

That swirling, dark miasma shot forth a fourth bolt with no warning, the lightning now as thick as my leg and with more energy than a runaway freight hauler. It slammed into my still kneeling form, driving me down, but I resisted, pulling the lightning in with my affinity, letting it course through my body and cleanse me as it destroyed me. This event wasn't just a punishment, it was an opportunity, and I was going to seize every second of it to become stronger. I was not letting the energy just lay waste to me as it pleased, oh no, I was channeling it, controlling it, directing its ferocity and furor to bend to my will. The clouds expanded again and swirled while I discharged the last of the energy into the ground, straightening up and giving that dark sky a bloody and feral grin. That was, perhaps, a bad idea, as several peels of angry thunder boomed forth before the fifth bolt fell, smashing into me and frying my flesh, scouring my bones and cooking my organs. 

I held on through the pain and injury, fighting for control of the wild energy, pulling as much of it as I could into my core and forcing it to cleanse and empower my affinities. One in particular, as should be no surprise, pulled in the lightning energy, like attracting like as my Greater Lightning affinity grew and changed. I observed as much of the process as I could, but I was doing all I could to just control and tame the lightning; I had precious little time for anything other than focusing on not cooking myself alive. The mountaintop had already been smashed and burned, the stone pillars glowing so hotly that they had begun melting and left afterimages in my eyes when I glanced at them. I didn't even fully have time to recover from the fifth bolt before the sixth descended, thick as my torso and a hundred times as long, the energy contained within enough to scour the flesh from my hands and start cracking my bones.  

I persisted through that bolt, taking the handful of seconds of reprieve afterwards to force as much energy as I could through my body and into my core, the space where the orbs hovered. My Greater Lightning affinity continued drinking the energy in, as much as I could shove at it, like a man dying of thirst given access to a cistern of fresh, pure water and unable to control himself. I fed it as much as I possibly could, there being a surfeit of energy available for it to devour, pulling in more and more as every fraction of a second passed, for that was how I was living in the moment currently, every tenth of a second seeming an eternity. I hadn't even finished with the sixth bolt when the clouds in the sky swelled and spread, the darkness extending over a dozen miles now and the power leaking from it like nothing I, a woman who had grappled with the power of a star and killed a god, had ever felt.  

All beasts and monsters in the area had long since fled, those with any sense or wit having done so the moment the tribulation started, but the rest having done so by the third bolt. There were no other noises now apart from my labored breathing, the bubbling and gasping noise raw in my throat as I tried to hold myself together and repair the damage with nothing but raw energy, a task I was finding difficult. My limited success in the act didn’t dissuade me from trying, even as the world turned pitch black and the clouds blossomed like a black rose of death, enveloping everything around them and drinking in the silence like a fine wine. I knew I was in serious trouble now, clinging desperately to life, but at least I wouldn’t have to fight a horde of beasts and strange apparitions after going through this electric baptism; I doubted there was much left alive for nearly a mile around me at that point. 

Looking at those swirling clouds, feeling the air still and time itself pause in its ticking, I spoke as a whisper of the dead, drifting from a silent, cold crypt. 

"Stronger than steel, colder than death." 

The final beam of lightning appeared, thicker than a runaway freight train and with a million times the energy. I had only a single brief instant, less than a heartbeat, less than an eyeblink, to observe it before it smashed down into me, seeming to teleport into my body. Despite the instantaneity with which everything happened, I could distinctly see and feel it. All of it. 

I felt my left arm be destroyed first, vaporized by the bolt as it was the initial point of impact. My right arm fared little better, only partially destroyed as the bones and some little flesh was left. The bolt then hammered into my chest, and it felt like I had stood in front of a dreadnought accelerating to FTL speeds. I could feel my ribs exploding, sending fragments of bone through cooking organs. I felt my life trying to flee and I clung to it desperately, willing myself to live through the horrible ordeal, even as I heard the sizzling of the flesh of my legs cooking away. I will not even try to recount the smells or sounds beyond that, as they haunted my dark dreams for decades afterwards, the feeling of lightning and thunder cooking and pulverizing my flesh something I may never fully rid myself of. 

No, not like this! I roared in my mind as I healed against the damage, pushing back at the lightning with everything I had, forcing my flesh back together with nothing but will and madness. It was all futile, as the lightning scoured my body and very soul, destroying everything it touched, a wild beast rampaging in a teahouse, smashing all the delicate fineries into flinders. I could feel my very life ebb away. 

I will not die! 

I 

Killed 

A 

GOD!!! 

I screamed in my mind, grabbing the lightning and pulling it into myself, into my core, into the network of paths and circuits that allowed mana to circulate through my body. I tore into it, devouring it as a man a month without food devours a steak, even biting with what was left of my teeth to get more. I pushed it down, down, down into my very core, absorbing more and more as the power started to fade and the skies cleared. I would conquer this, as I had conquered all else, and none would stop me. No one could stand in my way. I would rise again. 

The mountain itself was mostly gone, a smoking crater all that remained of the once proud peak, the forest leveled for miles around from the force of the blast. It was a wonder that the strike hadn't just atomized me on the spot, but I had little time to ponder such things, slowly starting to drag myself across the ground. Little of that time remains in my memory, only a vague recollection of forcing myself to my knees at some point, crawling across the broken ground with just my mostly skeletal arm to pull me forward.  

How long it took me to arrive at the little fallback I had setup earlier, I could not say, and once there I had the monumental task of clearing several tangles of wooden debris, blown across the entrance by the bolt rendering the mountain unto dust. I nearly despaired, but I persisted, a hazy memory now of ripping and burning the obstacles away before dragging what was left of me into the nook and sliding into the healing bath. I had just enough strength and presence of mind to do two things, the first of which was keep my head above the healing bath so as not to die an ignoble death of drowning, and the second was to drink the strongest healing potion I had of the group arrayed by the edge of the bath. As soon as the bottle was empty darkness took me, and I knew no more. 

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