Obviously, the silver essence was not just for show. As Zuko’s body digested more and more, visible effects began to show and they were blooming rapidly.

First, the cracks across his carapace began to heal, slowly at first and picking up speed later. Then, in tandem with the healing, the colour began to change, losing its darkness rapidly and becoming paler and paler. The white markings that were already there glowed even brighter, and it even looked like they were changing in design. It was as if they were upgrading.

Of course they were.

By now, the 3rd Tribulation Light had charged 2 times and was about to charge for the final time. But Zuko was still changing.

He started growing in size and the shape of his carapace began to morph, growing protrusions mainly around his back that looked like the beginnings of spikes. Something was changing around his face too, his eyes specifically. Zuko had 2 normal all black compact eyes that most insects had, but the shape of his face around those eyes was beginning to change, almost like it was making room for more.

Other slightly more minor changes were taking place, like the overall shape of his body which seemed to be becoming more thick the closer it was to his head, with his head becoming the thickest, but before anything more substantial could happen, the 3rd Tribulation Light had finally finished charging.

*Flash*

Zuko was still unconscious, but the Tribulation held regard for nobody, not even its creator. After all, its driving force was still the Laws of Fate. And before the Laws of Fate, nothing could escape. Speed and tangibility meant nothing. If you were destined to be struck, you would be struck.

One might even say that the Light was for show. In the abnormal scenario that you accomplished the impossible and somehow dodged the Light at the last second, just as quickly as you could process triumph, pain like never before would sunder you once more. Which is to say, regardless of whether or not you actually got hit by the Light, you would STILL feel the full effects of its Tribulation as if you hadn’t dodged in the first place. It was like a glitchy game.

As for Zuko, who laid there, effectively defenceless, with no enchantments to defend himself?

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

The Tribulation Light struck, as it was designed to do, and when the oppressive white light had finally faded, the only thing remaining of Zuko was his Head and a few extra metres, but they themselves were badly damaged. What made things critical was that his Heart hadn’t been included in those extra metres. In fact, the only major organ that he currently still had was his Brain.

Everything else had been obliterated with not even a scrap in tact.

Perhaps if you looked veeeeery hard, you could find a cell or 2. But such things, especially as damaged as they were, didn’t often last long.

In a situation like this, 99.9% of lifeforms would have had their last breath. What was there to even breathe with? Even creatures like the hammerhead worm that could grow into 2 entire new worms if it were cut in half, would have a very hard time surviving after being reduced to this, talk less of a Centipede that had far inferior regenerative capabilities.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

But as one could expect, a gift from Eridel himself was nothing to scoff at.

On top of that, all 3 Tribulation Lights had been overcome. Barely, but still definitively.

Just like the fact that there was nothing that could stop the assault of a Tribulation Light, there was nothing that could stop its rewards if you lived long enough to harness them.

Zuko was unconscious and couldn’t absorb the new Tribulation Essence on his own, but if him being unconscious was useless information before, it would be useless once more.

The Tribulation essence moved throughout the remains of Zuko’s body and once more met in contact with the silver essence. This time the Tribulation essence wasn’t absorbed like before, but expert eyes would be able to notice that they seemed to be interacting in some way. And the more they interacted, the more they seemed to act differently.

It was almost imperceptible, but it was still happening. But what the result would be was unknown because in the next moment, Zuko’s body- what was left of it, was abruptly wrapped in a silver cocoon that completely shrouded what was going in from any prying eyes.

Still, this at least confirmed one thing, and that was that Zuko was evolving. When he next appeared he would be a different creature.

A much more powerful one.

…

‘As expected, to be honest.’ Eridel thought, once more using an avatar to rest on a fluffy cloud. His eyes may have been gazing up at the sky as if he were sunbathing on a sunlounger, but his true sight was on something else entirely.

It was almost grotesque how calm and unruffled he looked if you could comprehend the complexity that was going on in his mind. To put things in perspective, if his thoughts were converted into material water, it would be enough to drown an entire continent and submerge it below the sea, and this was when he was calm.

The thoughts that were circulating his mind when he was concerned about his 3rd Soulmate was enough to kill every lifeform on this planet with its sheer gravity if it was converted into anything material.

But that should never be confused for some kind of expert surveillance. Unless he was consciously looking at everything at the same time, something that took a small but noticeable percentage of his computing power, he could actually overlook things. Especially when his planetary instincts (what he liked to call the Will of a World), was making him so narrow minded.

In any case, it took nothing at all to look at the events of what was going on around Zuko and even predict the future to an extent with the assistance of the Domicus Records.

The Domicus Records is a feature of the Eridius System that works very much like the fabled Akashic Records, but not as powerful. It’s like an AI that uses ALL information that’s been recorded to predict either the past or the future.

It could also be called the ‘mind’ of the Eridius System. The words that people hear when they communicate with the System were completely automated by the Domicus Records, and the decisions that it made, such as making Anomalies and the like, are also done by the ‘will’ of the Domicus Records.

Moreover, its computing power was increasing in conjunction with its gathered knowledge, very similar to the Matrix Soul Cultivation path.

The Domicus Records isn’t too useful to Eridel right now since he could do all that it could do with multiple times the effect, but he liked to use it from time to time, almost like he was training a pet.

It wasn’t too useful to him now because it was so young and didn't have enough data, but it was growing.

Sooner or later, it might even surpass his own computing power.