Eridel could not for the life of him believe what was being presented before his metaphorical eyes as fear cascaded his soul.

Floating ominously above his ever growing planetary body was… a Magic Circle.

A gigantic Magic Circle that was so interlaced with dizzying Runes that just looking at it caused his mind to dull. He knew that if he dared to seek its truths, his mind wouldn’t be able to take it. His powerful soul that had never been impeded before now lay helpless.

The Magic Circle shone with a red light that gave the tumultuous World below an apocalyptic glow, and radiated an Aura that was so terrifying that it caused Eridel’s mind to shiver. But it was still growing. It’s terrifying presence was encroaching much farther than Eridel could see, and yet, he could feel that it was still growing..

The Magic Circle was missing its trademark cloud, but he knew what it was with a single glance. He invented its design after all.

‘How could this happen to me?’ If Eridel was using his Avatar, his body would have fallen slack.

Never. EVER. Did he think that he would have fallen prey to his own Tribulation rules.

‘But how could this be?’ Eridel thought as he glanced at the Tribulation above him. The Magic Circle was actually a red-coloured Tribulation Circle that was patiently charging up its energy, waiting to strike him down with its full might. It didn’t have its usual surrounding cloud but Eridel wasn’t about to be fooled by it. What was much more concerning was its red colour.

Gold, White, Blue, Red, Rainbow. These were the 5 Grades that a Tribulation could use and each one was more fatal than the last. The Abomination Of The North hadn’t gone through its tribulation, but Eridel was predicting it would face 2 white Tribulations and then a final blue one. And that was a being who if not stopped, could grow to the point that it was devouring entire Worlds.

Eridel… never thought he would be seeing a Red Tribulation today.

No. He did not even think that he would see it in a million years. Nor did he think that HE would be the target. Or that he would have to bear a Red Tribulation on the 1st Strike... This meant that if things didn’t get worse, he would have to take on 3 Red Tribulation strikes. There was no ‘if things were better’... there was only worse.

If Fate thought that a Red Tribulation was going too easy on him, it was more than capable of giving him a Rainbow one on the second or third strike.

“But how…? HOWWWWWW!!!” Eridel roared out in anger for the first time in 2000 years, his voice resounding throughout space like a primordial cosmic beast.

Eridel quickly suppressed his emotions and forcefully cut off his voice before trying to run hundreds of calculations, but his fear of impending doom was getting to him. Yet it was at this moment that he recognized the difference between his emotions during the time he was forcing Primordial Essence into his Planetary Core to awaken Magical Energy, compared to now.

He had always had suspicions but now, in this terrible moment of fatality, they were confirmed. His instincts as a World was… overpowering his will. Or at the very least, they were having a heavy influence on his actions. A World’s primary instinct was to evolve at all costs, and in the face of this overwhelming desire, death was a paltry consequence for failure.

‘It all makes sense now… It was that stupid ‘will’ that drove me to do something so foolish as to destroy my core for the mere chance of awakening Magical Energy. But now, there’s an absence of the ‘will’ despite the situation being even more dangerous than the awakening. I feel fear of death as most lifeforms do, but the desire to overcome at all costs is gone. Clearly, it was only my new instincts to evolve no matter consequence, that drove me to such suicidal boldness. Not some kind of threat to my life. What a joke.’

Eridel felt daunted by these revelations but refused to let it stall him in the face of certain destruction. He wasn’t just about to just lay there and wait for death.

‘Wait… could it be?’

It was at this moment that he remembered the moment that the Runes written on his Core merged inside during the start of his Evolution. Could the World’s evolution truly have had an impact on the effect of the Runes? Even the Runes that had already been activated long ago? …Is this why I have been bound by the same rules of my Residents?

For an instant, The Eridius World shook even more intensely before returning to its regular quaking. As if the World had shivered.

‘Did the Runes become a part of the World’s Integral Laws…? What does this mean?’ Eridel wondered what this could mean for the future, what differences could his evolution have had on his other plans when a sudden thought came to mind.

‘Why is it a Red Tribulation? This doesn’t make any sense, how could I have used up so much Fortune? I am a World and shouldn’t even be able- wait, is it because of my soul…?’ Eridel’s mind ran cold at the prospect of unknowingly using up so much fortune. In all this time… the Fortune he had been using was so extensive that Fate had decided that he’d pay back with a Red Tribulation. Unbelievable.

‘How could I have been oblivious to so much informa-’ A sudden flash of a bright red light that snapped his attention back to the Tribulation and his mind was once more gripped by fear, but this time for a different reason.

The Tribulation had just undergone its first pulse, racking up the intensity of its aura and increasing the feeling of desolation that was oozing out in all directions.

Eridel knew that if things kept on going the way it was now… he was going to have company.

It was this thought that spurred him into action.

Eridel withdrew his Primordial Essence to form a golden sea that crashed down on the Tribulation Circle like a tsunami. Nobody had ever attacked a Tribulation before and they were right to, because he knew that the Tribulations had countermeasures and things could potentially get worse.

But he wasn’t willing to let anybody know of his existence just yet and especially not in such a spectacular fashion.

Gigantic Tribulations weren’t good for first introductions.