Chapter 686: Thunder Tribulation?! The Mukbang Streamer: Lady of the Shadow Fox!
The Lady of the Shadow Fox was not trembling in fear as the heavens roared above her. Quite the contrary.
Having completely absorbed the corrupted origin essence of the Tree of Agony, her spirit had swelled to a grotesque, transcendent magnitude. She felt infinite. She felt divine.
And so, the heavens responded.
Clouds the color of bruised iron swirled violently, coalescing into a vortex directly above her. The air grew heavy, thick with static that made the hairs on one's arms stand straight up. This was the birth of Heavenly Lightning.
However, the flood of archaic information surging through the Shadow Fox's awakened mind whispered a different truth. This was no trial. This was not a test bestowed by the gods to elevate a mortal.
It was a rejection.
It was the world's suppression mechanism, a violent antibody response designed to annihilate a cancer that dared to grow too large. The world itself was trying to erase her existence before she could ascend beyond its laws.
Yet, fear was absent from her heart. In its place, a manic, euphoric excitement burned like wildfire.
'The world rejects me? Good!' she thought, her lips curling into a jagged, ecstatic grin.
The appearance of this annihilation lightning was proof—undeniable proof—that she stood but a single step away from total transcendence. If the world felt threatened enough to strike her down, it meant she was already powerful enough to rival it.
As long as she endured this baptism of destruction, she would shatter the final chains.
How could this not be the ultimate form of evolution?
Her greed for power, nurtured by centuries of hiding and scheming, had long since eroded her reason. Now, standing at the precipice of godhood, her eyes saw only one path: Transcend the world, and then... devour it whole.
"Come then!" She threw her arms wide, exposing her chest to the brewing storm. Her voice was a screeching challenge that pierced the howling wind. "Let me taste the wrath of this world! Let me witness the flavor of your Heavenly Lightning!!!"
Rumble—!
The sky answered her arrogance.
With a sound like the cracking of a tectonic plate, a pillar of blinding white light crashed down. It wasn't merely electricity; it was a physical hammer of judgment, hot enough to vaporize steel instantly.
Despite her bravado, the Shadow Fox was experiencing this tribulation for the first time. Instinctive caution flickered beneath her madness. She did not take it with her bare flesh alone.
"Rise!"
A tide of pitch-black, viscous energy erupted from her body. It was the concentrated essence of the void she had cultivated, a hungry darkness that surged upward to meet the falling star of destruction.
Boom!
Light met shadow. The collision sent a shockwave tearing through the landscape, flattening trees and pulverizing rocks into dust.
Originally, a sliver of apprehension had lingered in her heart regarding the might of the heavens. But the moment her Devouring Power made contact with the pure plasma of the lightning, her eyes widened in shock, followed immediately by rapture.
She felt it.
The destructive energy wasn't destroying her darkness. It was... dissolving into it.
"I can... I can eat this too?"
Her eyes lit up with a brilliant, terrifying gleam. The realization shattered her last restraint. Why defend? Why block?
If it is energy, it is food!
She shifted her strategy instantly, commanding her black mist to wrap around the lightning pillar like a python strangling its prey. She didn't repel it; she absorbed it.
The process was laughably easier than she had imagined.
The violent, thrashing energy of the heavens was broken down, assimilated, and converted into raw power that flowed into her veins. It tasted like ozone and absolute power.
In mere moments, the pillar of judgment vanished, leaving only a burp of black smoke.
At this moment, the Shadow Fox finally understood the true horror of the cosmic egg she had discovered. The entity she had fused with, the body she had hatched and seized... its power was the authority to devour all things.
Even the laws of the world, even the divine punishment meant to restrict transcendents—it was all just another meal on the menu.
What else in this universe could possibly harm her?
The Shadow Fox became completely unhinged. She floated higher, her silhouette framed against the dark clouds, her tails swaying with hypnotic, predatory grace. She pointed a clawed hand at the swirling vortex above, her disdain and madness unconcealed.
"Hahahaha! Is that it? Is that the best you can do?!"
Her laughter was a screech that grated against the ears of everyone present.
"Even the judgment of heaven is nothing but nourishment for me! Come on! Strike me harder! Bring the lightning more fiercely!"
She wanted it. She craved it. She needed to gorge herself on the sky.
On the scorched ground not far away, Misaka Mikoto stared up at the sky, her face pale and her body rigid.
As Academy City's third-ranked Level 5, the Railgun, she was the master of electricity. She lived and breathed voltage. She calculated equations of electromagnetic force in her sleep.
But this... this was wrong.
She could feel the terrifying density of the electrons in that strike. The voltage was off the charts—numbers that shouldn't exist in nature. It was a localized disaster that should have turned that woman into ash instantly.
"Is that person... a monster?" Mikoto whispered, her voice trembling. "That wasn't just electricity. It was pure destructive mass. And she... she just 'ate' it?"
She watched the black mist swallow the blinding light, defying every law of physics she knew. Conservation of energy? Thermodynamics? None of it applied here.
"How can a biological entity consume plasma of that intensity without disintegrating?" Mikoto muttered in a daze, her scientific worldview cracking under the pressure.
She loved a challenge. She was often called a battle maniac who would pick fights with anyone strong. But the thing floating in the sky wasn't an opponent. It felt like a natural predator. A black hole given sentient form.
Beside her, Tushan Yaya's expression was grim, her usual icy demeanor melting into despair.
Moments ago, she had held onto a sliver of hope that the heavens would intervene—that this lightning would annihilate the usurper who had stolen their home.
But that hope had just been devoured.
"We can't let her continue, Sister," Yaya said, her voice tight with urgency. "If she absorbs more... she'll become unstoppable. Aren't we going to do anything?"
She looked anxiously at Tushan Honghong.
Honghong, whose mana was currently suppressed to the level of a zombie, stood quietly. Her eyes were sorrowful but calm. She shook her head slowly.
"You are not her opponent, Yaya," Honghong said softly. "And Rongrong and I... in our current state, we are less than dust to her. Intervention now would only mean meaningless death."
"Ah? So that's it?" Yaya's voice cracked. "Then what should we do? Are we just going to stand here and watch? Watch the monster who killed our kin, who defiled Tushan, just grow stronger and stronger?"
She clenched her fists at her sides. She squeezed so hard that her sharp fingernails pierced her palms.
Drip. Drip.
Bright red blood dripped from Yaya's fists onto the dry earth.
She hated this. She hated her powerlessness. She was a witness to the bloody slaughter of her people, and now she was forced to be a spectator to their killer's ascension.
"Hey!"
Misaka Mikoto suddenly turned, her eyes darting to the young man standing calmly beside them.
"Didn't you say that was the enemy? Can we really beat her?" Mikoto questioned Ren, her tone bordering on panic. "I came here to see if the Otherworld existed, not to commit suicide! Being an enemy of that... thing... it's not a game!"
She gritted her teeth. Sparks of blue electricity crackled nervously around her bangs (hair clips). "I don't want to die here!"
Ren stood with his hands in his pockets, looking up at the sky as if he were watching fireworks at a summer festival. He glanced at Mikoto, his expression utterly indifferent.
"What's there to be anxious about?" Ren asked, his tone flat.
"What?! Look at her!" Mikoto pointed at the sky.
"Let her eat," Ren shrugged. "Even if she passes the heavenly lightning, even if she ascends... I can still crush her like an ant."
The statement was delivered with such casual arrogance that Mikoto froze. It wasn't a boast. He said it as if he were stating that the sun rises in the east.
"You!" Mikoto stared at him, skeptical. "Are you crazy? Or just blind?"
From her perspective, she had never seen anyone stronger than the Level 5s of Academy City. Even the Number One, Accelerator, operated within the bounds of calculation (mostly). But Ren was an enigma. She had just joined the Chat Group. She had seen him transport them here, yes, but raw combat power? She had no reference.
"Forget it. I don't care anymore," Mikoto huffed, stepping back and assessing her escape routes. "If things go south, I'm taking the first opportunity to run. I'm not sacrificing myself for a stranger's war!"
She declared this righteously, trying to convince herself more than him.
Ren paid her no attention. His gaze was fixed on the Shadow Fox, analyzing the fluctuations of energy.
'Interesting,' Ren mused. 'That power... it's definitely derived from the Devouring King.'
It was likely a fail-safe or a seed left in this world by the Devouring King eons ago, long before Ren had encountered him. A parasitic system designed to hijack a host, accumulate energy, and eventually consume the planet.
And now, the Shadow Fox had fed it well.
Between the spiritual energy of the Tushan foxes, the humans she had slaughtered, and the demons she had absorbed, the kill count was in the tens of millions. The Devouring King's little creation had found a very compatible host.
"You like to eat so much..." Ren smirked, a dangerous glint appearing in his eyes. "Then let's see if your stomach is truly bottomless."
Seeing the Shadow Fox swallow another bolt of lightning and lick her lips with greedy dissatisfaction, Ren had an idea. A very amusing, very cruel idea.
He pulled up the system interface.
[Ren: Attention, everyone. The next segment of our program is starting.]
[Ren: It's a special Food Streaming event.]
[Saeko Busujima: Food... food streaming? Ara? At a time like this?]
[Kushina: What is it, Ren-kun? Is someone cooking?]
[Ren: Hehe, not cooking. It's a live stream of a glutton enjoying a rare delicacy.]
[Ren: The streamer is right there. Look at the sky. The Shadow Fox Lady.]
[Ainz: Uh... Ren-san? That appears to be the enemy undergoing a tribulation survival scenario. Calling her a streamer is... unique.]
[March 7th: Food streaming... wait! Does that mean she's eating the lightning?! EHHH?!]
[Ren: Exactly. The delicacy on the menu today is 'Heavenly Lightning Flambé'.]
[Exusiai: Whoa! That sounds spicy! Though, eating electricity... is that safe? It's quite strange.]
[Ch'en: This is nonsense. How can a humanoid entity consume pure lightning? It defies biological principles.]
[Tsunade: Open your eyes, Ch'en. She has fox ears, nine tails, and is emitting an aura of pure evil. Do you really think she's human?]
[Ch'en: ...My mistake. I keep applying Lungmen standard operating procedures to this insanity.]
[Mikasa: Ren. Look. The lightning... it's disappearing.]
Mikasa's reminder drew everyone's attention back to the visual feed.
Above the Shadow Fox's head, the terrifying glow of the storm was fading. The vortex was slowing down, and the thunderclouds were beginning to drift apart.
It seemed the world's suppression mechanism had run out of juice. The tribulation was ending.
"Is that all?"
The Shadow Fox floated in the clearing sky, looking at her hands. Her voice dripped with disdain and palpable disappointment.
She licked the corner of her mouth, her eyes darting around like an addict looking for one last hit. "I'm still hungry. I could eat more... much more! I can feel my power growing with every bite! Why stop now?!"
She clenched her claws at the dissipating clouds. "Don't run away, you coward of a world!"
Too bad. The laws of nature had their limits.
Rumble!
Just as she was about to lower her arms in frustration, the sky suddenly convulsed.
The dissipating clouds didn't just stop; they reversed.
Like a video being rewound, the dark masses slammed back together with ten times the speed. The vortex re-formed instantly, darker and more volatile than before. Purple arcs of electricity danced within the black clouds, transforming into a deep, ominous crimson.
"Hmm? This is..."
The sudden, unnatural change made the Shadow Fox frown in confusion. She tilted her head. This didn't feel like the world's reaction. It felt... forced.
But the next second, logic was abandoned.
CRACK-BOOM!
A bolt of crimson lightning, twice as thick as the previous one, slammed down onto her skull.
The Shadow Fox was stunned for a microsecond. The pain was sharper, the taste more intense. But then, the sensation of power flooded her core.
"Yes! YES!"
She threw her head back and laughed, engulfed by pure excitement. She didn't care why it returned. She didn't care that the sky looked wrong.
She could continue to eat. That was all that mattered.
On the ground, Ren stood with his hand slightly raised, his fingers manipulating the atmospheric mana like a conductor leading an orchestra. He smiled. The fish had taken the bait, hook, line, and sinker.
[Ren: Alright, bets are open. Guess how long she can keep eating before she pops?]
[Aqua: ...I knew it! You're the one doing this, aren't you, Ren-san! You're feeding the enemy!]
[Sakata Gintoki: Oi, oi. I feel like she's going to have a bad time. This is like forcing a competitive eater to finish the entire menu after they declared victory.]
[Aqua: Tsk tsk, you're so bad, Ren! But I love it! Make her eat until she cries!]
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