A toroid-topped resonant transformer builds up an intense alternating high-voltage field until the surrounding air can no longer act as an insulator, causing dielectric breakdown along thin ionized channels of superheated plasma. In reality, a Tesla coil steps up voltage through resonant inductive coupling between primary and secondary windings, producing discharges that can reach hundreds of thousands of volts. Here the crackling, branching arcs are regenerated every few frames using jittered, recursively forking line segments that leap from the toroid to the ground spikes and open air, mimicking the chaotic, self-avoiding paths real lightning-like discharges trace as they seek the path of least resistance. Watch the toroid's emissive glow flicker in sync with each new discharge burst, and note how branches thin and fade the further they travel from the source, just as real corona discharge loses energy with distance.