CRACK! "AHHH! Hey, cut it out already!" CRACK! "AHHHH! How come you have so much energy?! Your attacks are getting stronger!" CRACK! "AHHHH! Didn't I already pass my tests? I'm not guilty! I proclaimed myself free from blame for any misdeeds that I am only tangibly related to. It's not like I personally pulled the trigger on over a quadrillion people." CRACK! "YEOUCH! You know what?! Screw you! Who are you, anyway?! Are you some arbiter of justice? Well I don't recognize your authority over me! I never signed up to be judged by you and your stupid criteria to determine guilt. You don't even have a mechanism for me to lodge any appeals! What a dumb and primitive justice system!" CRAAAACK! "AAAAHHH THAT HURTS EVEN MORE, GODDAMNIT! If you think you can make me acknowledge the validity of your judicial authority to me, then think again! I will not let any pretender god or delusional spiritual entity boss me around! I only respect my own rules and principles. I'm not fooled. Whoever or whatever you pretend to be, I will never be coerced into following your mystical regime." CRACK CRACK CRACK!" "AAAAHHHHRRRRRRRRHHHHH!" No matter what Ves said, the lightning storm above his head never abated. Instead, it continued to grow stronger and more violent as the lightning bolts descended down onto his body with unerring purpose and accuracy. A grand and overpowering sense of oppression emanated from those dark and energetic storm clouds. While Ves had witnessed numerous storms before on different planets and most notably on Davute, those were merely ordinary weather phenomena. They did nothing more than frightening children and cats with their loud noises and explosive light shows. Occasionally, the heavier storms inflicted light infrastructural damage. Numerous trees and other objects that weren't properly equipped to resist powerful currents always had to be replaced after the passing of the storm. That was all Ves really knew about them. He never ascribed to any of the fringe theories that lightning storms were a manifestation of Zeus' wrath or a more generic form of divine punishment. Yet what was happening right now made it seem as if this was exactly what was happening! It was one thing if this seemingly sentient and living lightning storm attacked an individual with religious inclinations. It was another thing for it to launch an unprovoked and undeserved attack on a secularist! "Have you ever heard about a concept called freedom of religion?! I'm free to choose what I believe in, even if it amounts to nothing. Can't you leave me alone and bother someone gullible enough to fall for your deception?" CRAAAACK! "AAHHHH! My flesh is burning!" The lightning bolts that struck him were anything but normal! While he was not a meteorologist, he was still a mech designer who was well-versed in the sciences. This gave him an excellent understanding on how electricity was supposed to behave. If a lightning bolt wanted to strike him at all, then his Unending Regalia should have redirected much of the incoming current to the floor without zapping his body in the process. Ves had personally designed the Unending Regalia for this eventuality because he anticipated scenarios where he might be performing repairs on a damaged starship or something and accidentally bump into an exposed power line. None of that work was being put to use as the lightning bolts were either empowered by phasewater or metaphysical power! "This doesn't make any sense! How can you bypass my armor and strike my body directly?" As soon as he spoke those words, inspiration suddenly dawned on him. "Hey, do you mind if I study and record your lightning bolts so that I can reverse-engineer your punishment mechanism in an innovative electricity-based mech weapon system? It'll be great! Just think of all of the mech pilots, starfighter pilots and starship crews my soldiers will be able to zap. Can your attacks go through energy shields as well?" Ves manually activated his shield generator, causing a small energy shield to surround his armored form. CRAAAAACK! Yet as the next powerful lightning bolt struck his body, it went straight through the energy shield as if it didn't exist! "AAAAAAAAAHHHHH! If you think that's enough for me to stop, then think again! I will figure out your secrets!" The apparent power of the lightning bolts should have fried his body into burnt steak by now. No ordinary human would have been able to resist this kind of punishment for long! However, Ves somehow managed to tough it out for the time being. He wouldn't have remained so defiant against the storm if not for the help provided by his cyborg cat. Pride welled in his heart as he saw his latest creation come to life. Though it wasn't a mech that he preferred the most, he had largely designed his cyborg cat as if it was a miniature living mech. 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶 Though his divine artifact was just in the early stages of coming to life, it already possessed an abundance of raw power! The majority of the galactic energy baptism that Ves had received from the Milky Way and the Red Ocean ended up pooling inside his cyborg cat. Normally, those exceedingly high-grade energies could never be contained by a relatively small and ordinary material product, but the addition of a fragment of his Divine Core seemed to change its very nature. The cyborg cat had spontaneously evolved from the moment it received the fragment of his Divine Core. The galactic energies that were stuffed inside its half metallic, half organic body began to flow into the fragment, causing it to grow and mend the trauma that it had suffered from getting torn out of the greater whole. As the fragment of his Divine Core went through a metamorphosis where it was gradually transforming into something greater for the cyborg cat, Ves could clearly sense that his powerful cat became even better equipped to receive and absorb the incoming lightning bolts! The greater protection offered by his cyborg cat largely compensated for the escalating power of the lightning bolts raining down on him, but it wasn't enough. CRACK! "AHHHH!" He could sense that the strength of the lightning bolts was growing faster than the rising absorption capacity of his cyborg cat. It was as if his new divine artifact was trying to raise the height of the walls to block out a flood that threatened to engulf a village, but simply couldn't do so fast enough to keep up with the rising tides. For now, his augmented body was coping against the electrical damage pretty well. He was never so thankful for the mostly involuntary augmentations he received during the Groening Mission. The operations performed by Dr. Jutland may have turned him into a half-alien monstrosity, but it was those very same alien traits that were helping him cope with all of the excessive destructive energies! The same biology that allowed the hexapod beasts to absorb and feed off powerful energy sources with unsurpassed efficiencies was now working hard to absorb and rein in the remnant power of the incoming lightning bolts. Even though his resilient flesh still incurred a bit of damage, his organic body was already hard at work trying to redirect much of the energies to the floor or into his Jutland organ. Normally, his Jutland organ never earned any consideration from him because it never provided him with any help in his work activities. This time was different. Ves was truly thankful to Dr. Jutland as this alien-derived organ which had subsumed his heart and taken its place was readily absorbing much of the excessive foreign energies! Not only was it sucking up a lot of electrical energy, it had also absorbed a fair amount of the high-grade galactic energy that hadn't been able to merge with his flesh or his Spirituality. Even though the lightning energy seemed to be powerful enough to cause a bit of harm to the Jutland organ, it was so resistant against energy damage that it repaired its wounds within a matter of seconds. Each time it did so, the Jutland organ changed. Though Ves couldn't see this happen with his own eyes, his senses had received such a large boost that he was able to sense what was happening to his own body in surprising detail. "Amazing." Each time a lightning bolt struck, it delivered a lot of damage to whatever it struck, including his Jutland organ. Yet as the destructive electrical energy ran its course, it strangely did not keep frying everything it touched. Instead, it reversed its very nature, in a manner of speaking. Ves couldn't explain it. In one instance, the electrical energy was like a rampaging brute that sought to hack and slash everything in its way. In the next instance, it transformed into a gentle and innocent-looking doctor who healed and mended the wounds that its previous incarnation had inflicted. "What the hell is going on? Are you bipolar or something? Do you have a split personality? If you have a mental illness, don't you think that disqualifies you from acting as an arbiter of justice?!" CRAAACK CRAACK CRAAACK! "OUCH OUCH OUCH! NOT SO MUCH, PLEASE!" Although the latest salvo was more violent than the last time, Ves had made sure to pay close attention to what the incoming electrical energy was doing. The lightning bolt fried his cyborg cat and his own body with great fury, yet as they ran their course, they suddenly changed from a force of destruction into a force of creation. "It's... it's beautiful..." Ves became utterly entranced by observing the second half of the lightning attacks. They mended wounds and injected vitality into damaged tissue. The lightning bolts even repaired inorganic matter such as the damaged metal plates of his cyborg cat! Ves couldn't figure out how it worked or why it was doing this, but that didn't stop him from collecting as much data as possible. As Ves continued to observe this powerful and surprisingly beneficial aftereffect, he saw that they didn't merely repair what was broken. They improved upon the parts that had proven themselves to be too weak to cope with the incoming destructive energies. "It's... as if we're being refined in real time!" It was so strange to see this taking place on him of all people! He was no stranger to seeing his works improve or transform, but they were all designed with the express purpose of facilitating their own growth. This was why he was not so surprised to see that his cyborg cat was continually becoming stronger and more cohesive after undergoing so many phases of destruction and creation. It was a lot more unnerving to see this happening to his own body! "I'm growing stronger in every single way!" Ves gasped as he understood the amazing extent of this transformation. His body, his mind, his Spirituality and even his companion spirit was undergoing a painful baptism of lightning that not only made them stronger and more resilient, but also integrated the potent galactic energies that he had received a short time ago. The power of creation seemed to be able to merge and integrate everything it touched! "Amazing!" Ves repeated even as he tried to resist the pain of repeated lightning strikes. The galactic energies that were too powerful and high-end for him to control with his paltry strength suddenly became as docile as kittens in the face of this lightning energy. The way those galactic energies obediently integrated with his own being reminded himself of the times where he utilized his own Spirituality and life domain to create new life out of a bunch of spiritual ingredients. The processes were so identical that Ves eventually made a profound realization. "The lightning storm... contains the power of life!" It was a counterintuitive idea, but the empirical evidence did not lie. The destructive storm clouds hovering over his head were mostly preoccupied with raining down punishment, but also conveyed a small measure of mercy by attempting to revitalize what it had just broken. The problem was that the power of destruction was far greater than the power of creation! "Damnit, do you know how to balance out your energy composition? You're too violent! Have you ever heard about restorative justice? You would be able to do a much better job in reforming my wicked ways if you give me a carrot instead of a stick!" CRAAAAAAAAAAACK! "STTTOOOOOP IITTTTT!"