Several days later, John found himself only a few steps away from reaching the pedestal. However, the lightning in this portion was so strong that John was barely able to hold on, even with the Supreme Battle Art.
Due to the strength of the lightning, John was forced to once again use the Supreme Battle Art to withstand its destructive power, even if it meant cultivating the Celestial Lightning Script slower. He was starting to get worried however, as his blood essence reserves were already less than half of what they were before he entered the trial.
'If I'm unable to advance the next few steps soon, I'll perish. I need to push myself harder.'
Although still using the Supreme Battle Art, John once again lowered its power, allowing the lightning to assault his body. Flesh stripped away, revealing muscle and bone underneath, but John grit his teeth and continued to cultivate the Celestial Lightning Script. Through continuous cultivation, John finally realized why his wounds were healing far faster than what should be possible.
After tempering his body and creating the lightning runes, John was able to notice that whenever the lightning passed by a rune, the rune would slightly alter the properties of the lightning. After passing through his body enough times, the once destructive lightning would have a slight healing property.
Although this healing property was only good for repairing lightning damaged parts, it was what had allowed him to get to this point so fast.
John endured this hellish training for as long as he could.
'I can't hold on much longer. I need to give these last few steps my all and push through with brute force.'
Although he knew it was probably not the best idea, he had no other choice. His blood essence reserves were waning, and once those ran out, his Supreme Battle Art would disappear. Once that happened, he was as good as dead, since he had no way to replenish those reserves in this field. Completing the trial while being at his peak strength was his only option.
While he had been using a half powered Supreme Battle Art up to this point, John finally unleashed his maximum powered battle state. A wild, violent aura emanated from John.
"It's now or never. Only a few steps more."
John grit his teeth and stepped forward with all his might. Using the Celestial Lightning Script helped alleviate some of the burden on his body, but even so the might of the lightning was almost more than he could handle. Flesh stripped away from muscle and bone as John pushed forward with all his might. Blood flowed freely from his body as he advanced forward with little regard to his safety.
By this time, John was just one yard from the pedestal. Using the last of his remaining strength, John took one last step forward and reached out towards the round object on the pedestal.
"Just...a...bit...more…"
John grunted though gritted teeth as his hand slowly but steadily approached the object. Just as his last strength was about to leave him, John's fingertips brushed up against the object. The ever flowing destructive lightning suddenly ceased, and John collapsed to the ground, barely conscious.
Gasp! Gasp!
Breathing heavily and struggling for every breath, John did his best to raise his arm and pop a healing pill in his mouth.
"With how damaged my body is, it will take at least a week to fully heal."
John's thoughts began to grow weary as he silently fell asleep, completely exhausted from the trial he had just conquered.
...
A week later, John finally healed himself to the point that he could stand up, although he was still quite wounded. John inspected his body and was completely excited to find that most of his body was covered in runes, with only a few areas left to temper. The small flickering runes glowed slightly on his skin, making him look quite exotic.
'Almost one hundred percent of my body now contains runes.'
After standing up, John looked at the object on the pedestal. During the trial, he was far too occupied with living to be able to look at the object closely, but now that he was standing right in front of it, he was surprised to find that it was an egg. The egg was six inches tall, and had a slight scale like pattern on the outside.
"An egg? What type of egg is this? This is the reward?"
John was quite disappointed in the revealing of what was on the pedestal. He had figured it would have been some awesome weapon or amazing lightning based opportunity, but it had ended up being an egg.
Looking closer at the pedestal, John noticed an incredibly intricate formation surrounding the egg. The fluctuations of the formation made John shudder, as he realized the source of that dreadful lightning was this formation itself.
'Well, If the egg is the reward for such a dreadful trial, I'm sure it's quite amazing. Lets see.'
John reached out and went to grab the egg. The second the touched the egg, John found himself appear in a different place.
"What? What just happened? Where am I?"
John looked all around at this new place he found himself in. A slight red tinge hung in the sunless sky, and violent clouds churned overhead. John took a step forward and heard a crunch underneath his foot.
"What's this? Is that…?"
Upon closer inspection, he noticed that he had stepped on a skeleton. Looking all around, John noticed that he was standing on top of a small mountain made completely of human remains. As far as the eye could see, he saw mountains of corpses. Rivers of blood weaved through the small mountains of corpses, making the world look like a literal hellscape. An extremely sinister aura of death and despair hung in the air.
"Where the fuck am I? What is this place?"
Although John had braved other nightmarish places such as the sinister room and gate in his palace realm, this was still beyond shocking. Had he not tempered his will so furiously before, John was sure he would have gone mad already.
"What do I do? How do I get out of here? One second I was in the trial room, and now I'm here. Was that whole thing a trap? But how does that make sense?"
John furiously wracked his mind for solutions to this predicament.
Boom!
Boom!
John quickly took out his scythe and raised his head as he heard loud sounds echo out from the distance. The sounds grew louder and louder, eventually reaching a point that John could barely withstand. A short while later, John opened his eyes wide as he spotted a massive figure step out from behind one of the mountains of corpses.