Before the thunderstorm got into the full swing of things and started pouring down lightning, Toz, Nil, and Lucy had managed to create a space around Mindle that should keep her safe and as much of the noise and light from the lightning and thunder as possible, away from her.
Toz and Nil had erected lightning rods several meters high in a large circle around the rock formation they used as camp. Hopefully, they would attract any lightning that would have otherwise struck close to Mindle.
Lucy had used the rocks and the darkness that had followed the thunderclouds blotting out the sun to create a concentrated dome of darkness around Mindle. It would keep the disturbance from the thunderstorm away from Mindle. It would hide Mindle's bright and firey breakthrough from any other beings in their surroundings. The dome of darkness would also help keep the mana within it steady and help Mindle absorb and convert it.
Although Toz was impressed with the dome and wanted to compliment Lucy, this wasn't the time.
The first lightning bolt had flashed down to the ground, and the thunder had begun roiling.
The thunderstorm had a soft start, but it didn't last. It didn't take long for lightning bolts, rivaling those from the Lightning Clouds above Sleepless Brights, to rain down on the ground like toys of a spoiled child throwing a tantrum.
The lightning bolts caused both the sky and the ground to shake with each impact.
And the thunder from each overlapping lightning strike stacked together, mounting into enormous rumbling that shook the sky.
As the thunder continued building, it didn't just sound like thunder anymore. Saying that it sounded like the sky itself was roaring like some primordial beast was more accurate.
Despite all the heavy noise and disturbance, Toz and Lucy worked hard to keep the dome intact. And Mindle retained her focus as she compressed her mana.
But with each lightning bolt hitting the lightning rods, one of them went down. And with the safety net of lightning rods no longer drawing the lightning away from the group, the lightning bolts landed closer and closer to them.
Thankfully the rain wasn't heavy, but that was only in comparison to the lightning and thunder. As soon as Nil left the cover of the rocks to set up more lightning rods and try to at least delay the inevitable, he got soaked, and his wet fur stuck close to his body.
The water splashed and rained down from atop the rocks Toz and Lucy were using as cover. Cold water ran down Toz's wet hair and down his back.
The only one not affected by the water was Mindle. The dome blocked everything except mana. And the few times it cracked, letting water slip in, due to the sky shaking or the extreme fluctuations that followed when a lightning bolt struck slightly too close to the group, the water evaporated.
Although it couldn't be seen from outside the dome of darkness, Mindle's breakthrough was reaching its climax. And the heat she emitted as she focused on compressing the mana instead of controlling the heat it gave off was enough to make the air around her shimmer.
Unlike the time during her birth when the heat had been enough to even melt the air around her egg, this time, it was happening on a fifth level plane.
Humans and beasts weren't the only ones who got stronger at higher levels. Planes did too. Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to withstand the clashing of the creatures living on it.
Compared to the first level plane, First Ignition, Roaring Skies, was much more durable. The ground would require a greater impact to blast apart, and a much higher temperature would be needed for the air to twist and shimmer merely due to heat.
But despite nearing the end of her breakthrough, Mindle wasn't in the clear yet. And the worst the thunderstorm had to offer was yet to come.
During the few seconds of margin Toz got while working to keep the dome intact, he saw more and more beasts appearing in the clouds and on the ground.
The number of beasts grew in tandem with the thunderstorm. It was impossible to determine where the lightning manifested by the beasts ended and where the thunderstorm began.
But as the thunderstorm stepped up its intensity, it soon grew too much for the lightning rods that Nil was setting up, to handle. During the time it took Nil to set one rod up, two would be destroyed by the ferocious lightning.
The lightning strikes landed closer and closer to Toz and the cats. The dome cracked more often due to the increased turbulence of mana that the thunderstorm caused.
All three of Mindle's helpers could feel how her mana fluctuated unstably and was on the verge of escaping Mindle's control.
Though Mindle could hold on for the moment, if the situation got any worse, the breakthrough could fail.
And the lightning continued creeping closer to the group, forcing Toz and Lucy to focus more on repairing the dome than on reinforcing it. Nil did his best to draw the lightning away from the rock formation. But despite his newly acquired fourth level of power, there was only so much he could do.
It didn't take long for a lightning bolt to find its way right next to the group, cracking open the dome of darkness like an egg. Mindle's entire body trembled, and her mana was a hair away from slipping out of her control. But thanks to Toz and Lucy instantly fixing the dome and restoring the calm within it, Mindle surpassed that incident.
Toz was thankful that the lightning strike had been a weak one that only cracked the dome.
However, he seemed to have jinxed it as he saw a much more powerful lightning bolt coalesce in the clouds right above them. Toz felt the lightning attribute mana gather together and begin streaming downward, pointing out the path that the bolt would travel.
Toz was prepared for the worst and aimed to intercept the lightning bolt headed directly for Lucy's dome using a chain connecting two lumps of metal, one of which he threw into the sky to catch the lightning bolt. And with the other lump of metal at the opposite end of the chain resting on the ground some distance away from their camp, hopefully, the lightning strike wouldn't affect Mindle too much.
However, the power loaded within the lightning bolt was too much for the hastily made chain, and when the lightning bolt was half the way across it, the chain burst apart, freeing the lightning that headed directly to the ground.
