A/N: Enjoy reading ^^

-Chen’s POV-

The heart of the lightning…I must find it.

I assumed my spirit form, looking behind me, taking in the reactions I have gotten from the people I would be leaving in the foyer. My eyes took a quick sweep of all of them – Kris, standing there with Jinhae in his arms, dangling limply, Lay who had an apologetic look about his face after my father’s revelation to everyone, Xiu Min and Tao who expressed nothing but anxiety and finally, my father, hard-faced as he eyed me, challengingly. I turned around, finding myself breaking into a smile. The excitement thrilled me, but nothing comes above the fact that I was about to prove him wrong, prove my right to be standing be standing next to the other nobles and ultimately, beside Jinhae.

I leapt off the window and the sound of crashing lightning immediately engulfed the surroundings, deafening and foreboding. It didn’t matter to me. I have always been surrounded by it since I was born. There was nothing new about it. The clap of the thunder had been an integral part of my growth, the blinding light, a symbol of who I was and who I would be. It had been there even before the great Fu released the very words that make up the prophecy. It lived in the great Lightning Nobles of old and it stirs within me through every vein in my body. The lightning and I were one. I am the lightning.

I sped up towards the hill that Lay had been telling me about just a few moments ago. The top had evidently been struck many times with the side of the hill almost crumbling off. I landed and skidded off when I saw lightning coming from every direction, aiming at me. Before they reached me, I caught a glimpse of a bright, red light that touched the ground all the way from where it came from in sky. It walked through the vast lands, destroying everything in its path, headed towards the badlands while it produced charges wherever I looked, striking at the trees and the castle towers.

The realization came to me as quick as the lightning bolts hit me from every angle. I lost sight of the red lightning, but the thought that the quicker I move and annihilate the heart, the lesser damage it could create on its path. I felt my knees giving in and I fell on them, supporting my weight with my arms. I pressed my palms on the ground, trying to assess what had become of me, taking in one steady and deep breath when the blinding pain seized me once more.

The lightning bolts beat themselves against my back and the earth underneath me began shaking violently. It had been a continuous cycle and I felt it getting stronger with every blow. I would have been charred at that rate, but I wasn’t even losing consciousness. Instead, the opposite seemed to be happening. I was growing weaker, my limbs were shaking with every time I tried to get on my feet, but the odd thing about it was how I seemed to be getting more and more sensitive to what was happening around me. I should be getting numb, but I could hear everything around me – the falling gables of the castles, the crackling of fire as the forest beneath me burned. I saw everything clearer, the colors more vivid and livelier with every time the light faded.

A silly notion suddenly presented itself in my mind. The previous ancestors gained their strength, basking under the thunderstorms and I’ve heard a lot of tales about them having undergone the same situation I currently had. They harnessed their strengths through it, but there was a catch to it. One must know how to properly do it as the physical body did not have the ability to withstand such force. It was fatal and thus a foolish deed. I shook my head, but the more I tried to deny it, I was getting even more aware of what was happening around me. Could it be?

I had to give it a shot though it seemed far fetched. Unlike the other nobles before me, they were born as normal Elyxians and taught how to harness the power of the lightning. As for me, I was born with the power. Maybe it was why my system wasn’t taking the blows the way a regular person would. I just had to break out of the and figure out a way to harness its power if what they were claiming was true.

I stood up, but another heavy blow came to me, longer this time. I let out a frustrated growl, echoing throughout the vicinity. Why can’t I overcome it when being struck by lightning was an everyday thing for me? The pain was excruciating like my bones were being pulled apart and that my skin was bursting open. It hadn’t been with the same intensity either. I felt like I would melt and everything I touched made me want to writhe in pain like being burned, pulled apart and lashed with a whip at the same time. It had been going on for what seemed like eternity and when I finally managed to open my eyes, the skies were already dark.

At last, I was lying facedown on the charred soil, feeling the rumbling and screaming of the people above and around me instead of hearing it. My heart raced inside my chest and it was hard to breathe. It had been going on for some time and I was surprised that I was still conscious when I knew that I should be blacking out. Still, I was too aware that it was frightening. I would probably get the final blow and feel my death coming. I shook my head against the earth, gauging my condition. Ironically, my clothes were still intact, withstanding the rather cold lightning. As I controlled my breathing, another bolt would come and strike me, but I couldn’t feel it anymore. It was just like something’s pushing me to the ground.

For the past hours, I have been trying to transform into my spirit form, but I couldn’t. I have come to terms when I would phase and then I would return to my physical form. It was what was most tiring. It was becoming an ordeal to try, but I have figured that if I was to make it, I’d have to endure. I blinked slowly, watching as the place I called home would shine like the light of the day for a brief moment then become dark again. Suddenly, I felt something cold and wet drip down my face.

I wanted to know what it was, but I barely had the strength to lift my arm. After the first one came another then another. Soon, I could see a thick curtain of rain and mist, drenching me wet. I moved my hand near my head and saw steam coming out where the water touched it. The water sizzled when it touched my skin and dissipated into white smoke. Out of curiosity, I touched the puddle of water that had formed just within reach and the water bubbled, boiled and turned to smoke. The sound calmed me down and I was able to think clearly for a while.

Taking the opportunity, I phased, my bones and flesh being replaced by that airy, translucent substance we all turn into. I could see the electrical charges that surrounded the white mist, but unlike the other times I’ve tried, I was able to make it. Still, I could feel the lightning beating down on me. I felt a burning sensation all over my body, concentrated on my chest as I tried to stand up, lifting my weight with my arms and legs until finally, I was standing up.

The chaos that the lightning had been causing worsened when one bolt, too big to contain, hit me right through my chest, but instead of hurling me back to the ground, my body absorbed it until it was nowhere to be seen. I breathed in, feeling the crisp evening air fill my lungs without difficulty. I should have known from the start. Now, instead of running away from the lightning, I was chasing it. I set off, springing myself up into the air to consume what remains of the bright, white lights that had been devouring my city since the afternoon.

The screaming ceased and the flames that the forest sizzled into black smoke as the rain drenched it. It was calm and peaceful, but I could still see the red lightning ravaging the badlands, hear the canyon grind and fall apart with a thunderous crack and sigh. Above all the sounds, I heard the monstrous growl of a monster coming from the heavens in the form of thunder. I could almost imagine it gnashing its teeth in ire, seeing that it couldn’t affect me any longer.

A smile crept to my face as I set off towards the badlands, avoiding the other bolts of lightning. I haven’t the need for these ordinary ones. I need to get to the heart. I’ve reached the few yards I would need to close the distance between the strange, crimson lightning and myself when suddenly, I’ve noticed a white light, forming an orb at the top of the canyon. I was able to make out the faint impression of a figure, a man’s, in the middle of the light. Whoever it was, he was the one causing it. He was the one Lay saw and ultimately, I wasn’t the one responsible for it.

I sped up towards it, ready to kill if I had to just to protect Jinhae. I suddenly saw her limp figure as Kris carried her in my head and it enraged me. No one hurts Jinhae. No one. I landed behind the man, seeing him clearer when he suddenly turned around. I was shocked to my core to see that we shared the same face. If my parents were keeping a twin brother from me… I shook my head. Not even then. He was exactly the same as I was.

Angered, I lunged forward, but the barrier he had created around himself stopped me from attacking him. Behind him, I could see the red lightning. It was massive, stretching out from the ground all the way to the infinity of the sky. Different from how I have perceived it from afar, it wasn’t just as straight bolt, but a skeletal tree devoid of leaves, its branches protruding to every direction. It was even brighter up close with a core that looked like pulsating blood.

I returned my gaze to my mirror image and saw him smirking, probably amused by my utter astonishment. It angered me more and I took a step closer, feeling the light barrier in front of me with its force, alive and warm.

“Who are you?!” I demanded in a hiss.

He merely smiled. “You hold the answer to that, Lightning Noble.”

“Is this an illusion?”

He laughed, the sound filled with mockery. “You question your very existence by questioning mine.”

I shook my head. “I certainly am not you.”

“I am your past, your present and your future!” he boomed. “We are one. I am the embodiment of the power that lies in you. I am the lightning and without me, you’re nothing.”

“IMPOSSIBLE!” I didn’t believe it. I’ve had my power within me since I was born. He couldn’t possibly be serious. My powers and I were one and he…he never existed.

“How so, young noble?” He walked towards me. “I am half of what is within you.” Without me noticing it, he grabbed my hand and pulled me into the barrier which burnt me yet never consumed my flesh. He stared at me intensely and I found myself feeling the fear…fearing myself. It was an epiphany that what he was saying was the truth. “You will harness the heart of the lightning because you are meant to. Do not fail the great prophets who had destined you to fulfill the final prophecy.” With that, he passed right through me. I felt the power course through me, making me short of breath for a moment, but when I looked around, I was alone, faced with the massive heart of the lightning.

“You’re not the destined one for not