"The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion."

― Albert Camus

Ven's eyes snapped open as a vicious bolt of lightning surged through his body. It used him as a conductor, forced into his body, and channeled past his flesh. A roar escaped his lips, a challenge to the thunderous skies above. He blinked to clear his eyes and the clouds above his airborne body rippled with an ominous light.

"You've got this, Ven!"

Ven glanced to the side to find Rafe, who stood in the air below. A burst of anger flooded his mind and Vendak took a step toward the halfling.

"YOU!" Ven shouted, the danger of the storm forgotten. "I'M GOING TO KILL YOU, YOU LITTLE RAT!"

"Hey now!" Rafe raised his hands and waved away Ven's threats. "You'd better focus, or you and your friend Mara are going to die." He hooked a finger, and Ven followed the motion.

Below them, seated in lotis position, was the cat-kin in question. She was surrounded by a rainbow of light and seemed to be undergoing an evolution of some kind. Her body was being refined and strengthened, and the impurities that oozed from her pores spread like a blackened swamp.

"What's happening?" Ven returned his gaze to the growing clouds that circled above. "This isn't how you described a nirvana tribulation."

"It isn't..." Rafe frowned as he scratched the back of his head. "Mater Ooulin left instructions that, when she broke through, I was to place you between her and the tribulation." He had a rueful grin on his face for a second, a flash that vanished quicker than it came.

"She was fated to die, everyone on that slaving ship was meant to be lost at sea." Rafe pointed at the chains of lightning that had formed above. "The tribulation that came for her is destined to be her ruination, so Ooulin decided to use your power to save her."

"Use it how?" Ven rubbed his hands across the blisters on his chest. "That bolt did more than cook my flesh, it scarred my soul..." Yet another thing to add to the list of the halfling's sins. When Mara was safe, Ven would return to his grudge.

"You're an abomination in the eyes of fate," Rafe inched further from Ven, his gaze still on the clouds above. "Ooulin figured that once it realized you were here, it would change its target and let her go..."

"Well, I think he was right..."

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

The lighting above reached a critical mass. It forked and surged as it concentrated into several dense clusters. The countless electrical currents twisted and pressed. A choir of unholy bellows cracked the air like thunder and Ven's muscles tensed. Eleven massive bolts, dragons of light that snapped at each other as they eyed Ven below.

"This is the Earth Deity's tribulation..." Rafe paled and sweat ran down his face in a visible wash. "We need to activate the barriers!" He lept away, toward the distant guild. "Try not to die Ven!"

His words sailed on the wind and into Vendak's ears. He ground his teeth and faced the hungry dragons, perched on the clouds above. I'm really going to enjoy killing that little guy... Ven normally didn't gain pleasure from murder or violence. Yet, the idea of Rafe's polished skull, seated in his hand and full of wine, filled him with a sense of peace.

"Rwwwaaaar!"

Eleven mighty cries resounded through the skies and roused him from his pleasant delusions. The lightning dragons raised themselves, wings spread, and glared down at him with purpose.

"Let's get on with this," Ven cracked his neck as he spoke, face drawn into tired lines. "I've had a long... long day."

The energy from the first bolt still tumbled through him. It no longer damaged and tore at his cells. Instead, it nourished them. Like Mara, Ven managed to tame the remnants and use them to temper his body. Flickers of the energy also caressed his mind and the wound on his soul began to close.

His words enraged the dragons. They lept, a display of perfect unison as the beasts rocketed toward him. Ven focused his mind and called on his aura. Black grains of shadow surged from beneath his skin and stretched through the air. A cloud of darkness that covered over a hundred meters. The shadows reached out, thousands of tendrils extended to greet the coming storm.

The dragons slammed into his aura, Ven braced within for the blow. He waited... and waited. The energy bodies of the arrogant creatures entered Ven's dark cloud, but they never reached their goal. Like water dropped into a sponge, Ven's aura soaked up their power without resistance. Their battle cries became whimpers that faded to silence. Ven stood, dumbfounded, as the clouds above began to clear.

"ENERGY CONVERSION SUCCESSFUL," Ven's system sound out in his mind, welcomed for the first time since he'd learned it could speak. "SOUL DEFENCE COMPLETE, TIME UNTIL RECHARGED: ONE POINT FIVE YEARS."

"Thanks, system, maybe I've been too hard on you..." Ven retraced his aura and let himself fall through the air. A fuzzy warmth filled his body and crawled across his skin. The energy he'd absorbed wasn't enough to fight off the fatigue from his earlier battle. He landed, his legs alive with protest as he stumbled toward Rafe.

"If I wake up and find you've tossed me into another life-or-death situation, I really will kill you, little man." Ven glared at the halfling as he dragged his leaden feet across the ground.

"Yeah, no problem..." Rafe stared at Ven, eyes wide. "How did you do that?"

"Do what?"

"You absorbed the entire tribulation..." Rafe shook himself. "That shouldn't be possible..."

"Hey," Ven poked his finger under Rafe's nose as he stumbled to the halfling. "You're the one who tossed me in there, don't ask me, ask your turtle-brained master!" Ven slumped to the ground, eyes still filled with his grudge. "Or didn't he tell you that I'd survive?"

"I swear, he said you'd live!" Rafe placed a hand on his heart, over the badge of the guild. "But he couldn't see your fate clearly at all, so I didn't have much to work with."

"Yeah, well I don't care," Ven leaned back onto the cool marble street. "Next time fill me in before you go experimenting with my life."

"Ok, ok," Rafe waved him off as he turned toward Mara's mediating form. "But you really saved her, Master showed me his visions of her deaths..." He shook his head and sat beside Ven. "He's never been wrong before, but now I've seen two visions of his that failed to come to pass."

"I don't care what that big turtle said," Ven mumbled, his eyes half shut. "I'll make my own fate, destiny doesn't exist."

"I hope you're right," Rafe looked down at Ven, a sad smile on his face. "But from what I've seen, nothing escapes their fate."