Even If I'm Reborn as a Cute Dragon Girl, I Will Still Make a Harem-Chapter 17Book 6: : Transcending Tribulations

Luna spun around suddenly, her breath hitching as her eyes widened in shock at the scene behind her.

The cylindrical life-support devices were simultaneously draining their dark green liquid. One by one, their hatches opened, and figures resembling Ciel began stepping out.

Each moved stiffly, their eyes tightly closed—like soulless walking corpses.

“Has Lady Ciel… finally reached this point?” The little robot named Chris let out a long, weary sigh.

“What do you mean?” Luna asked, her voice tinged with anxiety. “Is Ancestor using some kind of ultimate move? Does it mean there will be terrible side effects?”

Chris shook its head as it replied, “There are no side effects… but it’s too soon for her to use this. Her body has only just awakened. Attempting this now drastically reduces the probability of success. On top of that… this is a path of no return… She can only hope to succeed as failure is not an option.”

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“Huh?”

Three paused, the black river surging around her as she prepared to deliver a fatal blow to Ciel. But the sudden and familiar fluctuation from above the sky forced her to halt.

She glanced upward. The sky of the small world darkened once more as thick, ominous clouds began to gather.

“Clouds of tribulation?”

Three froze, her eyes narrowing in confusion. She had only temporarily mobilized a trace of Complete Authority. Her current body remained in the Demigod Realm—it shouldn’t trigger a heavenly tribulation.

“They’re not mine… which means…” Her gaze dropped to Ciel, her expression shifting to one of disbelief. “You’re trying to ascend to the Divine Realm now?”

“It’s the only option, isn’t it?” Ciel replied calmly.

Three sneered. “Heh. If the Divine Realm were so easy to achieve, I’d have already ascended, crushed you, and ended this long ago.”

“Never know until you try,” Ciel remarked, closing her eyes as she began to steadily elevate her realm.

“This is madness,” Three said but quickly stowed the black river, letting it vanish into the void. She retreated swiftly, withdrawing all her aura. She wasn’t foolish enough to clash with a Divine Tribulation. Even a mere trace of its power could obliterate her soul.

Moreover, with her actions already on the heavenly order’s “blacklist,” she couldn’t risk using any of her power during a heavenly tribulation.

Ciel took a deep breath, forcibly pushing her realm to its current limit, yet she was slightly far from the threshold of that realm. She extended her hand and whispered, “Come.”

The space around her warped, and an identical figure stepped out from the distortion—a perfect copy of herself.

The figure walked forward, stopping behind Ciel, and wrapped its arms around her in a gentle embrace. In an instant, the duplicate disintegrated into faint particles of light, which merged seamlessly into Ciel’s body.

Her aura surged, becoming far more potent and refined.

Ciel opened her eyes, which now gleamed with an intense brilliance. She tilted her head back and stared up at the dark sky. Thunder as thick as mountains roared like golden dragons, weaving in and out of the roiling clouds.

This was a true Divine Tribulation, an ordeal countless times more terrifying than any Demigod Tribulation.

Failure wouldn’t just result in the destruction of one’s physical body—one’s soul would also be obliterated, leaving nothing behind but smoke and ashes.

Truth be told, Ciel had never intended to take such a drastic measure. This was her trump card, reserved for a potential confrontation with the Queen of Dragons.

Having only just awakened, her preparations were far from adequate. Yet, the current situation left her no choice, as abandoning Lilith and fleeing was simply unthinkable.

A memory resurfaced in her mind—a cherished moment she held close to her heart. It was of Lilith saving her from the depths of hell in the distant past.

To Lilith, it might have been nothing more than a fleeting act of kindness, but to Ciel at that time, Lilith was the only light she had ever seen in an endless, despairing darkness.

From that moment on, she swore to become Lilith’s light. And now, it was time to fulfill that promise.

Ciel raised her head and stared fearlessly at the thunder churning in the sky. The golden swords surrounding her hummed in unison, converging into one before returning to her grip again.

“Come,” she said, pointing her sword at the sky.

As if enraged by her defiance, the thunder surged violently, brewing a force that seemed to defy imagination.

The dark clouds above suddenly parted, and a thunderbolt, as thick as the diameter of the lake beneath Ciel’s feet, came crashing down with deafening fury!

Ciel met the thunder head-on. The golden sword in her hand shattered instantly upon impact. She conjured a barrier with her divine power, but it, too, was ripped apart in moments.

The thunder was moments away from tearing her body to pieces when, at the last second, a scroll flew out from her sleeve. The scroll unfurled in the air, releasing a dazzling burst of light that overpowered the thunder’s destructive energy.

It was a demigod-level magic scroll she had prepared in advance. Although it couldn’t fully withstand the thunder’s wrath, it managed to block enough of its residual power to save her life.

Ciel successfully transcended the first thunder of the heavenly tribulation but was left looking ragged. She had only narrowly survived—and had needed to rely on an external tool to do so.

“You barely made it.” Three sneered mercilessly.

Ciel cast a cold glance at her, then softly called out again.

“Come.”

Three’s mocking expression froze as more figures, identical to Ciel, stepped out from the warped space and merged seamlessly with her.

“Those are her past selves? No wonder she has so many demigod artifacts.” Three’s face twisted in disbelief.

With each figure that fused into her, Ciel’s strength grew incrementally. Though the first tribulation bolt had left her in a battered state, these clones tempered her, raising her potential even further.

Ciel extended her hand, and the scattered small golden swords trembled briefly, shedding their scorched outer layers before swiftly flying back to her. When the swords converged into one again, they shimmered with renewed sharpness, exuding an aura sharp enough to slice through space itself.

The tribulation thunderbolt fell. Ciel met it head-on fearlessly once again. Then came the third… and the fourth.

Each thunderbolt was slightly more terrifying than the last, their power escalating with every strike. Yet, with every silhouette that merged with her, Ciel grew a little stronger. Each time, she narrowly overcame the thunderbolt’s destructive force.

Watching this unfold, Three’s face darkened. She couldn’t possibly allow Ciel succeed in her ascension to the Divine Realm.

After enduring several consecutive heavenly tribulations, Ciel swayed unsteadily on her feet. The final few silhouettes merged with her, bolstering her strength and pushing her aura back to its peak.

She was now facing her final third tribulation thunderbolt. This stage was known as the Flesh Tribulation. Passing it would grant one a nearly immortal and indestructible divine body.

The next was the Heart Demon Tribulation, a trial meant to cleanse one’s heart of distractions and inner demons, fully transforming their spiritual consciousness into divine consciousness.

The final stage was the “Authority Tribulation,” the most challenging of all.

It required refining and completely fusing Authority with the physical body. Then, one had to seize their own “path” from the heavenly order to complete their ascension to the Divine Realm.

Though there were three more stages, transcending any one of them granted access to a portion of the greatness of the Divine Realm.

At that point, Ciel would no longer be comparable to a faker like Three, who could only mobilize a sliver of Complete Authority through the Demigod Realm.