“For fucks sake!”
Jay wished he could massage the numbness from his legs, but his arms still hung limply to his side. If the trial had affected his body, it wasn’t showing in his arms. Their gauze tombs looked no different to before. The paint hadn’t even smudged or scuffed.
He settled for standing up and shaking some blood around his body. The blue rectangle joined him, following like a dark cloud.
Jay knew he was going to advance to stage two. It wasn’t even a choice, he needed to get stronger.
That didn’t make saying yes any easier. Stage one had taken its toll on Jay. As well as his body taking a beating, his mind didn’t feel right either. Maybe it was fallout from the out of body experience, maybe it was his body taking in the truths of the electricity, maybe it was something else entirely. But Jay didn’t feel himself.
Not that it mattered much. If he could think, he could fight. Jay knuckled down, put on a brave face, and mentally answered the sage’s message.
Catch the lightning. 23:36:45
The electricity felt stronger than last time. Jay noticed it almost immediately. Was that because his perception had increased, or was the bolt simply too powerful to fly under the radar?
When the electricity passed through his body, Jay didn’t feel the same fear as before. There was no hair-raising anticipation, no primal dread.
That didn’t mean it felt good.
Microscopic daggers stabbed Jay from within each time the electricity entered his body. At the end of the last stage, Jay thought he’d become one with the electricity. His body had stopped spasming and it felt like the electricity was ignoring it.
Stage two had other ideas.
It wasn’t just pain though. Pain was a fiction of the mind, a response to danger created to keep humanity alive. Jay felt pain, sure. But he felt something far worse alongside it.
Damage.
Somehow, Jay could feel the electricity hacking away at his body. He could feel it slashing its way inside, not content with simply scrambling his nerves but hungry for destruction.
Jay knew how damage felt. Every boxer knew what the sickening crunch of a broken nose sounded like. Jay knew it thrice over. He knew the soul-emptying pain of a liver shot and the desperate duel with consciousness after a punch to the ear. Millennia of evolutionary instincts screaming “GO TO SLEEP!” when all he wanted was to stand up and fight.
This was different. Jay wasn’t sensing his body’s response to damage, but pure damage itself.
Jay sat back down, clenching his jaw and forcing himself through the pain. He knew it wouldn’t stop until the trial was finished, so what else could he do but get to work? He closed his eyes, readying himself for a repeat of stage one. Readying his mind for another expansion, and the inevitable wave of pain that would follow.
He concentrated on his mind and body, preparing to separate them from his essence.
But then he stopped.
He stopped because he noticed something shadowing the electrical trail of destruction.
An unusual heat, blooming within his body. Barely perceivable, but undoubtedly there.
At first, the warmth just felt strange. But then warmth grew into relief, and from that relief blossomed tenacity. For a brief moment, Jay felt the ecstasy of strength. The pure, indescribable, elation that only came with growing power.
A sharp spike of damage clawed him back to reality. Jay whipped his eyes open and looked at his body. Nothing had changed, but he knew what he’d just felt.
And he absolutely needed to find out what it was.
Jay returned to his strained meditation. Whatever the hell the heat was, Jay knew it was good. He knew he needed to chase it. He closed his eyes. This time, instead of expanding to fill the room, he looked inward.
The last time he’d tried this, sat beside Lyra in the coliseum pavilion, he’d been told to ignore his body. While that helped Jay find his essence, he knew that it wouldn’t help him now.
He needed to look inside his body to find whatever it was that felt so fucking good.
Jay's focus drastically narrowed. Less than a minute ago, his consciousness enveloped the entire room.
Now the room didn’t exist.
An infinite veil of darkness shrouded everything that wasn’t Jay's body. He saw nothing past the confines of his own skin. Last time Jay gazed inward, he saw a swirling blue nexus, surrounded by a body made of pure energy.
Was that his domain, or his core? Jay didn’t know the difference, so he decided not to dwell on it.
This time, he saw his real body as it truly was. Beyond his skin, Jay saw his muscles. The rippling cables that moved his body. He saw them contort and convulse rapidly as the errant electricity streaked through them. He saw his organs, the machinery and piping that kept him alive. He felt the damage here too, the destructive force that was electricity running rampant throughout every corner of his being.
He still didn’t see his arms, although this time he was conscious of their absence. Everything behind Thane’s bandages was as non-existent as the rest of the world.
But Jay wasn’t looking for his arms. And he was no longer looking for the electricity.
Perhaps stage one was just to prepare him for this, forcing him to look outward to train him to look within? It was very rare for someone to see their own organs.
It was even rarer while they were still inside their body.
Jay recognised the absurdity of his situation, but he pressed forward. He didn’t need to look at his organs, he needed to dive deeper.
He descended further within himself. Seeing past the muscles and organs, past even the tissues that made them.
Jay looked directly into the individual cells that made up his body.
Even suspended as a cloud of consciousness, stretched throughout the entire room, Jay couldn’t even catch a glimpse of electricity.
He could see it now.
Not directly, but he could see the impact on his body. He could see his body’s reaction to the pure destruction piercing it.
Jay could tell when the bolt travelled through his body, because occasionally they would collide. And each time they collided there could only be one winner. Every time the bolt of electricity brushed against one of Jay's cells, it stuffed it with more energy that it could possibly contain. Jay heard his body’s agonizing wails as it wrestled with the energy within it.
For a moment, Jay wondered how the essence of electricity was affecting him. He couldn’t hang onto that thought for longer than a moment though. Because for as philosophical and conceptual essence was, the electricity striking his body was definitely real.
And real meant it fucking hurt.
Jay powered through the pain. Now wasn’t the time to ponder the nature of essence, there were practical insights already within his body, he just had to decipher them.
Jay saw two outcomes whenever he looked at the electricity’s aftermath.
The first held only pain. Jay couldn’t see the electricity rip through his body, but he saw the carnage in its wake. Cells, previously static and obedient, now shuddered with uncontrollable energy, ripping past their neighbours and tearing open microscopic gashes in Jay's body.
The energy still needed to escape somehow. After wreaking havoc within the cell walls, it punctured through them. Stabbing Jay with the piercing pain of destruction as it sliced its way out of Jay's body like an unwanted parasite.
But occasionally, less than one in a hundred times, Jay felt the blissful warmth once more. A burst of energy would inject itself into one of Jay's cells. But the pain never followed. The erratic shudder never followed.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The destruction never followed.
Instead, there was warmth.
Warmth that flowed through the cycle of solace, perseverance, and finally the thrill of power.
Energy still forced its way into Jay's body, but his body didn’t reject it. Whenever these lucky strikes hit, the cell wouldn’t wildly expel its energy. It would use it. Turning the pure power that was electricity inwards, elevating itself. The excess energy didn’t escape with violence either. It flowed out of Jay's body, gently releasing an energizing glow as it left. Every cell these lucky bolts of electricity brushed against rebuilt itself more efficient than ever before.
Jay's body wasn’t just healing. It was reforging itself.
It was so easy to get lost in the joy of regrowth, but the unrelenting stabs of destruction ripped Jay out of his elation every time. He held strong, however. Jay knew that the glowing warmth was healing him, whatever it was. He would put up with the pain and suffering for an eternity if it meant the warmth kept coming.
But eventually it stopped.
Jay knew he wasn’t done, he knew his body wasn’t completely rejuvenated, but the bouts of warmth simply stopped arriving. He was left sitting in piercing agony, waiting for a respite that would never arrive.
Several torturous minutes passed. Each missing even a single moment of warmth. Jay gave up on waiting and decided to try and finish stage two. He turned his perception outwards from within, expanding his consciousness to fill the room once more. It was easier this time, but that still didn’t make it nice. Although Jay knew how to spread his essence into a cloud filling the room, he still had the bouncing bolt of electricity to contend with.
This one fought harder than the last. Steadfast in its independence, it didn’t want to conform to this intruder invading its domain.
In this bolt, Jay saw a reflection of electricity that was absent in the last. Stage one was all about speed, this one had an undertone of power behind it.
In the world of fighting, speed and power are polar opposites. They reach the same goal, winning fights, but they pave different paths. They only collide in the most special of fighters. Naoya Inoue and Tommy Hearns managed to weave the two together, but most boxers found it impossible.
Jay understood this completely. He walked the path of speed because to him power was unreachable.
But in the world of electricity, power and speed were two sides of the same coin. The bolt flew, spinning in the air, reflecting glimpses of both qualities as it soared. Jay thought he could only have one, and if he waited for the coin to drop, he might be right. But while the coin was still in the air, speed and power coexisted in perfect harmony. Perfectly separate yet intrinsically intertwined.
Jay saw the veins of power bleed through the raw speed of electricity as he followed the bolt around the room. He watched his body beneath him grow stiller and stiller as the electricity accepted the intruder. Not out of weakness, but out of Harmony. Jay hadn’t marched into its domain and demanded it to conform. He’d observed. He’d learned. And he’d changed.
Jay looked down at his gently breathing body after grasping a second glimpse of electricity. He braced himself for re-entry. Moments before he rushed back into his body, a painful realisation rose to the forefront of Jay’s mind. If this reflection of lightning is slower, yet more powerful, surely the pain that comes with it would match that too?
Milliseconds into owning a body again, he wished he was wrong.
Screams of torture echoed throughout the stone prison. The headache that followed the last stage seemed like blissful paradise next to Jay's current fate. He flopped around the floor, unable to control his body, unable to do anything more than howl into the abyss in excruciating agony.
All good things must come to an end. Thankfully for Jay, all shit things did too.
He panted on the ground, heart thumping his chest, eyes wide in fear.
Is it finished?
Congratulations on completing stage 2 of the trial by lightning. Do you wish to quit now, or continue onto stage 3? 23:01:54
For fucks sake.
----------------------------------------
After allowing himself a few minutes to recover, Jay sat upright. He jumped to his feet. Slightly quicker than last time. He stretched his legs and jumped into the air.
He felt… good?
Good may have been a stretch, Jay was still fighting the last remnants of an electrically induced headache. But there was no denying that his body felt… better?
He couldn’t quite quantify it, but something had changed during the last stage. He knew the lucky bolts of energy were affecting his body, he just didn’t know how.
Jay probed inwards, giving himself a few moments to breathe before starting stage three. It felt easier this time, like it required less effort to look at his body. Before he needed to dig deep and trawl through the murkiness of his mind. Now it was as clear as day.
At least, some of it was.
He could see parts of his body with complete understanding, but some parts still looked cloudy. There was no pattern to which parts he could see and which he couldn’t. They came up in random spots throughout his body.
Are these the cells that got hit by the lucky strikes?
How can I make every cell like this?
The floating blue system screen gave Jay his unspoken answer. He had to push further.
Jay read the words once more. The trial didn’t mention anything about regenerating or reforging. Was he supposed to be doing this?
Does it even matter?
Jay couldn’t deny the positive effect the electricity had had on his body. Who cared about what the sage had laid out for him? He was here to get stronger. The trial was the path, not the end goal. He’d do whatever it took.
Jay grimaced at the blue screen in front of him. He stared deep between the lines as if the storm sage stood behind them. His jaw tightened. He read the words out loud.
“Do you wish to quit now?”
He maintained his stare beyond the words, chuckling at the absurdity of the question. He imagined the sage and Thane watching him. He hoped they also had no doubts about his answer.
“Fuck no.”
----------------------------------------
“So, what is the trial by lightning exactly?” Thane asked, wondering what his old friend had in store for Jay. The poor kid didn’t know what he was in for, taking on the storm sage as a mentor.
Thane got the feeling that Jay would be alright though. He asked good questions, a sign of a good learner and an even better harmonizer.
“He’s stuck in a box, with nothing but a bolt of lightning in there with him. He has to try and catch it.”
“How?”
The sage shrugged. “It’s up to him. He needs to find a way to encompass the lightning into his personal essence, there’s no best way to do that so I didn’t specify. This is what the coliseum came up with.”
“Is that it?”
“Of course not, I did add a little bit of flair in there. The initial amount of energy is miniscule. It should take at least three hours before Jay even notices the energy, that’ll help train his perception. After it’s spotted, the energy levels ramp up.” The sage’s mouth twisted into a knowing grin. “The closer Jay gets to completing the trial, the more charged the lightning gets. Since it’s bouncing around the room so fast, it’ll be constantly running through his body. He’ll be in agony by the time he finally catches the lightning.”
“You sick fuck.”
“If he truly wants to be strong, he’s gonna have to go through a lot worse.” The sage chuckled.
“Doesn’t mean you have to sound so happy about it. What happens if he finishes early? That doesn’t sound like twenty-four hours of training.”
The sage’s smile only grew larger, Thane couldn’t help but feel worried for poor Jay. “Stage one should last about twelve hours. Then he’ll move onto stage two. It’s the same trial, except all the energy levels are doubled. This should take less time than part one, if he can handle the pain. The lightning is easier to spot in larger quantities.”
“That still leaves some time after though. What happens when Jay completes stage two?”
“If he completes stage two. If he completes stage two, he goes onto stage three. Where the energy levels are doubled again.”
“You really are a sick fuck, aren’t you?”
The storm sage let out a booming laugh that let Thane know just how much his opinion was valued. “It’ll make him strong! I wouldn’t have let him take the trial if I didn’t think he could deal with it.” The sage’s face regained a hint of seriousness “I am slightly worried for his body though. I don’t know if it’ll be able to withstand the high energies of stage three. Although I guess I’ll find out after twenty-four hours. However far he gets, he still needs to complete both trials.”
“You’ve already called in one favour today, don’t push your luck. My services aren’t cheap.”
“I’m sure it’ll be fine. I don’t think the coliseum would do anything too deadly to Jay. But you never know what the guys up there are planning.”
----------------------------------------
Once again, Jay looked down at his muscles spasming on the floor. During the first two stages, it looked much worse. Limbs flailed, launching Jay's pseudo-unconscious body into the air randomly. The electricity sending his body twisting and turning against its will.
Now the effect was far more subtle, but Jay knew it was nothing more than a façade. There was pain lurking under his skin, he just couldn’t see it yet.
Consciousness spread thinly throughout the room; Jay was more at one with the lightning than ever. He couldn’t control the bolt of pure energy flitting around the room. He couldn’t hope to. No one could. But he could control the way his body reacted to it. Each time the lightning crossed paths with his body, it pumped pure energy into Jay. At first, all this did was jolt Jay's nervous system. Now it did damage.
Damage was one word for it. Jay preferred demolition.
Each volt of electricity coursing through his body chipped away at Jay's physical form, but this was exactly what he wanted. Each muscle fibre snapped, each neuron torn asunder, each cell wall disintegrated, was an opportunity for regrowth, for regeneration. Jay wasn’t just building his body back stronger. He was doing far more than that.
He was reforging his body in electricity’s image.
At long last, Jay's body laid still on the ground. The lightning still ran through it, except now Jay's flesh put up no resistance. He’d moulded his body into a perfect conduit for electricity. If Jay's disembodied consciousness had a mouth, it would be grinning maniacally right now. He’d pushed his body far beyond its old limits. He didn’t even know if it had limits anymore.
Now came the shit part.
It was easy to reconstruct your body from the ground up when you weren’t in it. Easy to rip your nervous system into shreds when you weren’t using it. But Jay couldn’t live as a disembodied cloud of consciousness forever. He had to go back.
Wisps of Jay's consciousness swirled around the room and rushed back into his body. Jay's omniscience vanished as he once again became a lump of flesh staring at a blank stone ceiling. He didn’t have time to ruminate on the nature of self or his new body because there was something more pressing to consider. Pain.
Some people say pain is good, it lets you know you’re alive. Put any of those wisecrack philosophers in Jay's position and they’d pretty quickly stop talking and start screaming.
There was no getting used to this kind of pain, it wasn’t surface level, it wasn’t even deep. It was existential. Jay couldn’t even understand the pain he was in. He didn’t want to.
He just wanted it to end.
After what felt like an eternity, Jay's misery ended. Once more he felt like a human being.
His reward for the pain? A blue rectangle filling his vision, almost taunting him.
Congratulations on completing stage 9 of the trial by lightning. Do you wish to quit now or continue onto stage 10? 00:00:07
Jay closed his eyes and allowed himself seven glorious seconds of relaxation. He felt the urges of tiredness creeping up on him and tried to bat them away. Jay had signed up for three days of doing whatever the sage asked, and that’s what he intended to do. If he was told to catch lightning, he’d catch lightning. If he was told to fight, he’d fight.
He hadn’t been told to stop yet.