Chapter 103 - Aurus vs. Herellia (2/2)
Bang!
As Aurus' voice reached Herellia's sense of hearing, the cloth that seemed to block her rationality was finally removed, stopping her futile struggle for good. She looked at the hall for a bit before asking herself, ”W-What happened?”
”We fought, that's what.” Not long after, Herellia heard a voice answer her question. At the instant she turned her field of vision to look at the origin of the voice, Herellia found an extremely familiar silhouette. ”A-Aurus…what…”
At that instant, the memories that did not seem to be processed during the fight, now came to her as the aura that covered her body changed from extreme rage to intense somberness.
”I…” Herellia was at a loss for words after realizing what she has done. She maintained silence for a bit as she tried to gather her thoughts. After a while, she then muttered out a simple ”Sorry.”
”Although I feel wronged for being attacked, no problem at all,” Aurus replied. He could not help but sense the complicated aura radiating out of Herellia's body as he asked, ”What's wrong?”
”Haah,” Herellia could only sigh. ”Although a week has passed since that incident, the safety of the alliance is still in jeopardy.”
”A week?” Aurus could not help but think about this. Isn't this the same time when he left the alliance to hunt for bosses? ”Did something happen while I was gone? Did I do something wrong?”
”No, you did nothing wrong at all,” Herellia replied with a somber tone. ”It's just that…to think that I placed my full trust on him.”
”Before you continue your answer,” Aurus interrupted Herellia just before he thought she would continue, pointing towards where she was. ”Let me help you out of there and heal you up. Sorry for going so hard on you.”
”Mm, it's not your fault,” Herellia maintained her somber tone in her replies. ”Rather, I want to thank you for bringing me back to reality. I might just be overthinking right now, but the possibility still exists.”
Aurus controlled Staff No. 2 to head between the dent and Herellia's body, before controlling it to move like a lever, popping Herellia out of the dent he made from the attack.
”[Darkflame Manipulation].”
”[Formosus Exuberance].”
”Combine!”
”[Formosus Exuberance: Chaotic Healing]!”
Whoosh!
Aiming the healing skill towards Herellia, a great chunk of her HP and injuries were healed in that short burst of healing power. Not long after, small embers of darkflame covered her body, recovering more of her HP and injuries until she had none left.
”Woah,” Herellia could not help but say. ”This healing skill is quite strong.”
”I grinded it for a long time before it could reach this level,” Aurus radiated an aura equivalent to a wry smile as he continued, ”Then again, I can't compare to your level of grinding, seeing that you have had the system far longer than me.”
”When did you know?” Although Herellia wanted to be the first one to tell Aurus about her system, it did not occur to him that Aurus already knew about her system.
”From the part where you talked about the Goddess of Kinship blessing you,” Aurus replied. ”Anyways, what happened while I was gone?”
With the topic back to what it originally was, Herellia could not help but sigh for a long time as she looked at Aurus, sensing the improvement he had after going out for a hunt. ”For now, only I know about this since I did not bother spreading it to the other Pillar level members. As for you, since you're a fellow system user like me, it won't hurt me telling you this.”
With a serious aura covering her body, Aurus realized that something big had happened while he was gone. ”What happened?”
”Horell left the alliance,” Herellia replied.
”What?” Out of all the things he least expected, this was something truly out of his expectations. He could not help but stay silent for a bit before asking Herellia, ”You're joking…right?”
”Nope, not at all. I wish I was,” Herellia sighed. ”As for the reason, it's actually worse than you might think.”
”How worse could it be?” Aurus asked.
”I told you about the Animate that wants to control the whole Tempest Cliff, right?” Herellia tried to refresh Aurus' mind.
”Yep, I remember it quite well,” Aurus replied with an aura of affirmation.
”Well, although Horell said that he was going to leave the alliance to not affect it while he was transitioning into Animate, his true purpose was to head back to that Animate, sensing that his mission was now over,” Herellia replied with a somber yet serious tone.
Bang!
As if fireworks went off in his mind, Aurus could not help but stare at Herellia with disbelief. ”Are you serious?”
”Follow me, I'll lead you to my secluded area. I'll explain more in-depth there.” Herellia turned around and faced the pathway that led to the small ecosystem as she started to hover off the ground.
”Alright then,” Aurus accepted her wishes since this incident did ultimately have something to do with the safety of the alliance. As he started to hover off the ground, he then heard a question from Herellia that made him slightly dumbfounded.
”Hey Aurus, do you want to become a Pillar level member?”
”Wait…are you serious?”
As they continued to traverse the pathway, a few seconds later after Aurus' question, a soft voice from Herellia answered his question.
”Yes.”