Ascension of the immortal Asura

As he stepped into the training room, John saw Araxus standing a short distance away. A large smile was on his face as he waited for John to walk over, at which point he raised his arm with his right palm facing upwards.

John looked at the empty hand with a questioning expression, one that changed to surprise as an item appeared on Araxus' palm. As the item appeared, the atmosphere around them seemed to change. It went from calm to chaotic, as if every sort of energy had sprung up into existence near them.

John's gaze was fixated on the item in Araxus' hand. The item was a small, black crystal, no larger than a grain of rice. While the crystal was black in color, a multicolored source of energy glowed from within, its color ever changing. It instantly reminded John of the chaotic energy he encountered when he slipped into the spatial dimension filled with chaos energy.

At the same time, it was also different. The chaotic energy in the spatial void was formless and also boundless. It seemed to contain every source of energy at the same time, changing from one form to the next ceaselessly.

While this was similar, the energy emanating from the crystal was without a doubt lightning aspected. The forms of lightning changed, but the source energy remained lightning. The crystal flickered ceaselessly, throwing light throughout the training room, bathing it in different color hues every second.

"What is this?" John eventually asked, his gaze still fixated on the crystal.

"A Chaos Lightning crystal…I think," Araxus answered. "Or at least, the Yang-Sovereign thinks. I showed this to him a few years ago, and that's what he guessed it was."

"A Chaos Lightning…crystal?" John repeated, a questioning look on his face. "Lightning comes in crystals now?"

"Apparently," Araxus replied. "I didn't know about it either, but when I was on the Continent of War three years ago, I stumbled upon a hidden cave. I ventured deep into its depths, and eventually found a singular crystal embedded into the cave wall. It was larger back then, but it's been losing more and more of its mass and energy as time goes on. Also, whenever I absorb the Chaos Lightning within to study it, it diminishes the size of the crystal. After years of studying this crystal, this is all that remains."

John remained silent for some time, digesting all the information Araxus had just given him. It was all so shocking, from the existence of Chaos Lightning crystals, to the fact that he had found this crystal on the Continent of War.

As the crystal flickered before his face, John felt a familiar aura flicker into existence, then out of existence a moment later.

"Frost Lightning!" John said out loud, surprised by the fact that he had felt Frost Lightning within the Chaos Lightning crystal. It had a very similar aura to the Frost Lightning Araxus had unleashed in their prior battle.

"Of course it contains Frost Lightning," Araxus said with a smug expression, "this is Chaos Lightning. From what the Yang-Sovereign told me, Chaos Lightning is the source of all lightning types. Every type of lighting that exists can be found within Chaos Lightning."

Araxus' explanation stunned John to his core. Every type of lightning that exists was contained within Chaos Lightning? It seemed far too amazing, far too profound to be true.

"Isn't that…a little too strong?" John couldn't help but ask. "If Chaos Lightning contains all forms of lightning, is there a reason to learn any other type of lightning instead?"

"Ah…I guess I exaggerated a little bit," Araxus said with a wry look on his face. "What I meant to say is that, according to the Yang-Sovereign, true Chaos Lightning can contain the multitude of all lightning types, but that doesn't necessarily mean it actually does contain it."

A confused look appeared on John's face, as Araxus' explanation was contradictory.

"Let me explain," Araxus quickly said to further clarify. "True Chaos Lightning contains the multitude of lightning types, but that doesn't mean every Chaos Lightning crystal contains all of those lightning types within. According to the Yang-Sovereign, this Chaos Lightning crystal, while amazing, only contains a portion of the Lightning Dao. He figures that either this crystal lost some of its profundity over time by leaking energy continually, thus losing certain types of lightning contained within, or when it crystallized, it crystallized in an incomplete form. Either way, while true Chaos Lightning contains the multitude of the Lightning Dao, this crystal contains pseudo-Chaos Lightning, or incomplete Chaos Lightning. It's as if I have a book containing all the information regarding the Lightning Dao, but its missing most of its pages."

"I see," John replied after a moment of consideration.

"Still, it's far better than nothing at all," Araxus hastily added. "And as far as learning other lightning types, there's still a reason to do so. Chaos Lightning is amazing because it contains multiple lightning forms. One second it can be unpredictable and hot, while the next second it can be destructive and cold. It's ever changing in a way I can't even fathom yet, and as such, when I use it, I don't exactly know what I'll get out of it.

With how impossibly complex and profound Chaos Lightning is, when I unleash it, all I can do is create some rudimentary Chaos Lightning. Compared to what's in this crystal, it's a night and day difference. Not only that, but after I release it, I cannot control what it changes into. I haven't learned nearly enough about Chaos Lightning to be able to control it like that yet.

The very nature of Chaos is its unpredictability, so I can't force it to be destructive or quick, or hot or cold. All I can do is use it, and hope it's good enough once it hits you. If I'm lucky, its super powerful when it hits my enemy. If I'm unlucky, they can get hit with healing lightning and I end up helping them more than hurting them.

Like when I used it against you, even now I don't know what form of Chaos Lightning it was when it landed against you. All I could hope for is that it was powerful enough."

"Oh, it was quite powerful," John couldn't help but say, recalling the damage it had done to him despite his Lightning Attribute Body. The unpredictable and uncontrollable nature of the Chaos Lightning had made it incredibly hard to defend against, and even harder to get under control once it had landed on him.

"So, for an attack like your Kirin art, which was absolutely amazing by the way, the Destruction Lightning you used is far better to use, as the purpose of that art is to cause maximum damage," Araxus continued. "Chaos Lightning is better to use in a situation when unpredictable attacks are better. Chaos lightning isn't necessarily more powerful, but it definitely has more wide-ranging applications."

"I see," John replied with a nod of his head.

"But the most useful part of Chaos Lightning isn't its combat potential," Araxus said, a sly grin appearing on his face.

"It's not?" John asked.

"No," Araxus shook his head. "The most useful part of learning Chaos Lightning is that it gives you an easy way to study the Lightning Dao in all its forms. Instead of having to track down all the different lightning forms out in the world and study them one by one, you can use Chaos Lightning to study those forms specifically. For example, if I wanted to study Destruction Lightning, if the Chaos Lightning Crystal contained Destruction Lightning, then I could focus on that aspect until I learn to cultivate it. It's how I learned to cultivate both Yin and Yang aspected lightning types, as you saw in our battle."

"I see," John nodded again. "If you could study all the lightning types, then why focus on Frost lightning? Why not something more powerful like Destruction Lightning?"

"Pft, as if Destruction Lightning is so easy to learn to use," Araxus scoffed while giving John a pointed glare. "Just because you and your freakish body can handle Destruction Lightning, doesn't mean everyone else can. Besides, like I mentioned before, this Chaos Crystal is incomplete, and so it doesn't contain the really profound lightning types like Destruction."

"Ah…I see," John replied with slight disappointment.

"The hell is that look on your face?" Araxus grumbled. "I'm giving you access to extremely rare Chaos Lightning, and you're pouting because it's not complete enough for you?"

"Haha, it's not that at all," John said, laughing to try to hide the fact that Araxus was spot on.

Araxus' gave him a pointed glare for a while, then smiled and reached out towards John, dumping the crystal into John's hands.

"Still, this crystal is amazing, and has enough inside of it that you'll be studying it for years before you've comprehended everything within. Here, take it," Araxus said.

"Are you sure?" John asked, surprised Araxus was fully handing him the crystal.

"Of course," Araxus nodded. "I've already learned most of what I can from that crystal, and there's only so little left, so it won't do me much good to use the rest. But for you, you should be able to learn a thing or two from it before its energy runs out."

John looked at the grain-sized crystal in his hand, then closed his fist around it. He looked at Araxus, and gave him a smile and a nod of thanks.

"Thanks, I'll make sure to put it to good use," John said.

"You better," Araxus said with a toothy grin. "Now then, shall we start this training?"

"Sure," John nodded while feeling the crystal pulse with power in his hand. It was time to learn to use Chaos Lightning.