I Reincarnated Into A Single-Celled Organism! - I Reincarnated into a Single-celled Organism! - Chapter 54

I took a step forward. It was very slow, and very deliberate. I had not used a physical body like this since I reincarnated. I could barely remember how to walk. Plus, I could immediately tell that despite evolving into a human, I still contained all of the skills from my original body. My cells both existed individually, and as the whole unit I called human.

Evolution didn’t turn me into a natural human. I was still made up of 137 billion individualized cells. As soon as I evolved, my body went into a forceful Mitosis, doubling my cell count as I compressed. As that was, I still didn’t have the cell mass of a normal human being. I was only the size of a toddler. Yet, my body was still shaped like an adult male. It made me feel thin and unstable.

However, I had already made my choice. I wasn’t going to step back and allow Mara to be harmed. I could only take another step, and then another.

Boom!

A lightning bolt struck down on top of me.

-1,000,000,000 HP

I let out a cry. It was tribulation. However, how is that fair? The power of that bolt would have destroyed me in a single shot of my previous level. How was I even intended to survive such a thing? I hadn’t even considered it when I chose to evolve, but if this was a ninth-level evolution, then that meant that there had to be an equivalent tribulation. I had survived by being underwater. I had never had to face the trials of a tribulation directly.

This was the first time I had ever faced the horror of my tribulation, and I had no body of water to protect me. No, that didn’t even matter. Even if I didn’t have a body of water, I had a feeling these bolts of lightning would have come right through. There was no way to defend against this. The only way to survive was to prepare ahead of time, but I had foolishly thought I could just wing it.

Another bolt struck. My body shattered into pieces.

-1,000,000,000 HP

I had started with 1,999,999,900 HP after evolving into a human. Two billion HP seemed like enough to survive anything, but each lightning strike took away a billion. The only reason I was still alive was because, between the two strikes, I had healed about five thousand HP. That meant that I was at the very cusp of death. This tribulation was truly unfair.

Was this the destiny I was fated for? I was only becoming human. Were the fates, or the gods, or the heavens, or whoever controlled this kind of stuff truly made it impossible for a single-celled organism like me to become a human? Was this what it was like to defy the heavens themselves? It seemed like I was always meant to die.

My only regret was that I couldn’t take those ridiculous knights with me. It was true that more lightning would come, and it would tear apart the countryside. I had no clue how big this tribulation truly was, but it was enormous. The damage would be incredible. However, the damage wouldn’t happen if the person who started the tribulation died. Before the tribulation really started, I’d be destroyed by the third lightning strike. Even the fish put up more resistance than that.

I was truly pathetic. I thought myself invincible. I was even starting to compare myself with a god, and yet three strikes from heaven were enough to destroy me. I had been a big fish in a tiny pond, the frog at the bottom of the well who had no clue how large the world could be. Nothing I had heard had ever prepared me for this moment.

I had no strength. I had nobody. My only option was to wait for the final strike. The air seemed to grow with electricity as it prepared itself. This was going to be a large one. It felt like some kind of holy emersion, like it would obliterate this place. Maybe, that was for the best. Mara would be spared her grisly fate, as would the rest of the Tanner family. If there was any god, the knights would all die too.

Boom! Crrrrrraaaaaacccckkkk…

The final bolt came, but it barely exited the clouds before striking some barrier. A sound exploded out like metal scrapping against metal, and everyone within thousands of miles was forced to cover their ears. Of course, I had no ears to cover, or they’d be bleeding. The barrier above held back the beam. It was like the two were in a battle. I could see cracks forming on the barrier like it was about to give out.

Then, the beam stopped. A moment later, the barrier started to charge up with energy. It erupted out, slamming into the clouds above. There was a massive eruption, and then the clouds split. They were blown away just like that. Within a minute, all of the clouds had disappeared.

“What the hell…” The leader was staring up, his eyes wide in shock.

That’s when he noticed something come down. I noticed it at the same time. It was a drizzle, but it wasn’t rain. I recognized it as mana, the energy force of the world. Most mortals wouldn’t even be able to tell it was coming down, but for the paragons, it was a sight to behold. Such a thing had never been seen before, and might never been seen again. It’d be like if it started raining blood, or snowing ice cream. Even I knew that much.

“This is our lucky day!” The leader laughed. “Come on! Kneel and receive your blessing! This mana will help us evolve! It’s a pure experience! This is the essence of a paragon’s power.”

The three men were so excited, they forgot about the little girl who was half-naked on the ground.  The three men kneeled on their knees, and when the little droplets of mana struck their skin, it was like their skin absorbed it.

It wasn’t just them. Although Mara was still dazed and confused, her body was too shaken and fearful to move, even though she felt the warmth of the drops. Her body was absorbing them too.

Well, how about that? I began to suck in all of the drops. If the men had kept their eyes open, they would have noticed that the drops that were falling straight down suddenly slanted away. They became a funnel, and that funnel rushed toward a center point. That center point was me. My body started to heal and mend itself. My HP regen was accelerated, and within a few minutes, my body reformed.

At this point, the drizzle had mostly ended, and the drops falling on the group of paragons were only a couple. The leader frowned, finally opening his eyes. Although the clouds had cleared, it had become night. The starlight and moon were the only light, but it was enough that I stood clearly in front of these three men. The one in lead frowned.

“Who are you?”

I tilted my head. “Spirit.”

Mara’s eyes opened. Most of her physical wounds had healed, but mana couldn’t heal her mental wounds. She was very dirty, and her dress had been torn to shreds. She was looking at me, her expression unreadable.

“Hello, Spirit.”

He lunged forward and stabbed me in the stomach.

-1,000 HP

I looked down at my stomach, and then back to him. I felt no pain at all. Most of my cells had been pushed aside, and the few that had been damaged were quickly being replaced. He might as well have stabbed the water itself. I reached out and grabbed the hilt he was still holding onto. I twisted the blade and then pulled it to my side. It did another thousand damage, but I didn’t care. It came out of my body without a drop of blood left on it. I had already regenerated the damage.

“What the hell, are you?” he asked, looking shaken.

“Spirit,” I repeated, lifting my hand.

I wasn’t sure how well I could speak. My voice also sounded rough and graveled. Since my body didn’t have quite enough cells, I was standing by using turgor pressure. It was the same principle that allowed plants to stand upright. When plants began to droop and otherwise look ill, it was probably because they were losing the water pressure in their cells.

However, I also knew I had far more pressure than I needed. It was making my body feel a bit stiff.  After all, I had put the entire contents of a pond into a body the size of a single person. That had to contain quite a bit of pressure. I decided I’d relieve some while showing this guy a lesson. I used Water Jet.

“Die!” He yelled, raising his sword as he saw me point my palm toward him.

Water erupted out, a nearly horizontal beam. It shot through the space the guy had been standing and then slammed into the hill next to the house, cutting a deep grove into it. I shut off the flow nearly as quickly as I had turned it on. When I looked back to where the guy was standing, I needed a double take. I wasn’t the only one. The two knights behind him, and even Mara, were staring. All that was left were a pair of feet still within their boots. The rest of him from the knees up was just gone. The sword fell back down a moment later, clattering on the ground.

I didn’t know my power.