Ascension of the immortal Asura

Two figures stood in an open area filled with thick fog, the expressions on both of their faces serious and stern.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" John asked Laia as she stood next to him.

"Mhm," Laia replied without hesitation while nodding her head.

"You may be cursed by the Heavens right now, but your curse is nothing compared to what it will be if you help me," John reiterated, "are you sure you want to help me? Once you do, there's no going back."

"I'm sure," Laia replied without a trace of doubt in her voice or on her face. "I'll no doubt encounter future situations where I need to choose to remain in the good graces of the Heavens, or save the life of someone, perhaps even those I hold dear. I'll choose the latter everytime, and so I'm already destined to walk opposite of Heaven's blessing."

John stared at Laia in silence as he studied her face. He could tell her mind was one hundred percent made up, and so he did not ask her of her choice any further.

"Good, because when my tribulation starts, it'll be unlike anything you've ever seen," John replied firmly, "and if I'm to trust you to help me, I'll need your unwavering support."

"You'll get all the help I can throw at you, I promise," Laia replied as a small smile appeared on her face.

Normally John would find that smile mesmerizing to look at, but his current focus was elsewhere. The toughest fight of his life was about to start, and he had no mood for anything other than focusing on that fight.

"Good, then you're going to need protection as well," John said to Laia. Laia was about to ask what protection John could provide, but her eyes went wide as a creature suddenly appeared before her.

"Kirii, guard Laia at all costs," John instructed.

"Aye!" Kirii replied through their soul connection, his eager tone indicating he was ready to face the lightning from the heavens once more.

"Is that…is that a Lightning Kirin?" Laia asked, almost unable to believe her eyes.

Kirii had revealed his true form, as that was his most powerful state. While he could remain in disguise, that would lower his combat prowess, and he would need his full combat state in the battle to come.

"Yep," John replied succinctly, not hiding the fact. Laia already knew his most important secret, so what was one more.

"A Heavenly Lightning Kirin," Laia muttered in astonishment as she walked up to Kirii. Her hand reached out towards Kirii's head as if to touch it, but she stopped just short of it. Kirii nudged his head forward onto her hand, while his eyes closed in content as he enjoyed the soft strokes of Laia's hand on his head.

"I never thought Kirin's actually existed, and only assumed them to be one of the many creatures of legend," Laia said as she continued to rub Kirii's head. Her gaze shifted towards John and she stared at him as if he were a true anomaly.

"Just how many secrets do you have?" Laia asked. First John's combat prowess was beyond compare, then he revealed himself to be 'Asura,' and now he revealed he had a mythical Lightning Kirin as a beast companion.

"I have a few more," John replied, a small smirk lingering on his face. If Laia knew the true extent of his secrets, he was sure she would not know how to process it all.

Laia stared at John in silence for quite some time, as she could tell his slightly sarcastic reply held some truth to the words. She could only imagine how someone from such a backwater place such as the Yuan Continent could have so many secrets, but didn't press any further.

"Are you ready?" John asked, his playful expression replaced with one of seriousness.

"Mhm," Laia hummed in confirmation, her face becoming serious as well.

"Good, then here's what's going to happen," John started to explain his tribulation to her. "The tribulation will be far beyond anything you've ever seen, and you will instinctively want to flee as far as possible when that starts. Trust in me, and trust in Kirii. We'll keep you safe, ok?"

Laia stared at John for a moment, before she nodded in confirmation.

"Ok," she replied, trusting John's words.

"Good, then when the tribulation starts, it might seem like I need help at the start based on the power of the tribulation strikes, but that's part of the plan. I need to take a bit of damage, so only start healing me when I tell you to."

"Got it," Laia replied.

"Good, then here we go," John said to her with a confident smile on his face as he stepped a few feet away from her. His mind, Qi, and divine sense focused inward towards his dantians as he prepared to push them past the limit.

His Essence Qi began to surge as it slammed against the barrier to the next realm, and John could feel his Essence Qi step over the edge as it tried to transform into a higher state. A frown appeared on his face as he felt his Body Dantian become active as well, as if stirred into action by his Essence Dantians starting transformation.

'Tch, I was hoping that I could push my Essence Dantian to the Heaven Tribulation Realm first, and then my Body Dantian at a later time, but it seems as though the two have become intricately linked to one another for this ascension process,' John mused internally.

'Oh well, that's fine. Even if I only pushed my Essence Dantian to the next realm, the Heaven's would probably still target me with everything it has. I might as well go all out right from the start.'

With this in mind, John no longer held back at all. Both his Essence and Body Qi began to surge into his dantians, while his comprehensions of the next realm started to transform both his Qi and Dantians into a higher state of being.

A dark and ominous aura enveloped the land as it started to become darker. Clouds started to gather from all directions, the color of the clouds becoming darker by the second. Within seconds, the somewhat calm and quiet area had turned into a tempest, the wind picking up to incredible speeds while rain started to fall.

Boom!

The first flicker of lightning raced within the clouds, followed by another, and another. Soon the blackened clouds above turned bright as the lightning raced through non-stop. It was like an apocalypse had descended on the land, as the wind and rain ravaged everything in the area, while the lightning strikes within the clouds gave insight into the power to come.