Chapter 297 - Myriad Calamity Shower (1/2)
”Is that…me?” Herellia was left at a loss for words as her sense of vision was fixated on the puddle of red viscous fluid under her. Just a while ago, her appearance was that of a branch that was used to bash an Animate's head inward. But now, her appearance was a far cry from what it was before, which was that of an exquisitely chiseled sculpture of a beautiful woman covered in a red robe. If the surface of her skin was of a different color, others would surely think that she was a real Animate woman!
Taking in a few deep breaths to calm herself down from the excitement she felt, she eventually closed her sense of vision, allowing her to sense the changes on her body that was brought about by the lightning from a while ago. The first change that she hastily took notice of was the amount of power coursing throughout the body. If one were to consider her previous amount of power to be as large as a small light bulb, then the amount of power in her body right now was that of a nuclear reactor! Not to mention, she felt that she could think more things at once every second, prompting her to wonder as to how many crimson thorns she could create before reaching the limit.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
In an instant, the robe covering her body, which used to be the crimson veins that covered her body previously, soon had parts of it transform into a great number of crimson tendrils. Soon after, these tendrils were then transformed into ten crimson thorns, leaving Herellia at a loss for words as she felt that her mind had not reached its limit yet.
And with that, she continued to conjure more and more crimson tendrils before combining them into crimson thorns, increasing the number of thorns that circled her body as she gradually looked more and more like a crimson cactus. Eventually, she had reached the limit of what her mind could endure before losing a great portion of her rationality. In total, she had created 144 crimson thorns, all of which exuded a level of destructive intent far more potent than before.
After coming to terms with her new limit, Herellia could not help but wonder as to how much of a boost [Amaranthine Release] would give once she sacrificed all of the crimson thorns surrounding her right now. Fortunately, the logical side of her mind told her that saving the skill for a later time was better as there was no point in using the skill while the dark clouds hadn't made a move yet. With the thought of the dark clouds in her mind, she then went ahead and tilted her head to focus her vision on the dark clouds, only to notice something weird was happening.
”Eh…the new lightning bolts are being absorbed by the purple lightning,” Herellia muttered to herself as she subconsciously manipulated the thorns closer to her robe, making it look like she was wearing a robe adorned with crimson thorns. Nevertheless, most of her attention was fixated on the dark clouds wherein a surprising change was occurring.
At this moment, after the new type of lightning had finished their job of allowing Herellia to partially ascend to a higher level of existence, the iridescent lightning bolts then went ahead and spread throughout the area occupied by the dark clouds, splitting off into large chunks. Soon after, these large chunks of iridescent lightning bolts were then swarmed by the lavender lightning bolts without hesitation, absorbing the intent of life and nourishment emanated by them.
While looking at the current situation, Herellia thought that the lavender lightning bolts would get weaker as the intent radiated by the iridescent lightning bolts was a polar opposite to the intent emanated by the lavender lightning bolts. Unfortunately for her, rather than becoming weaker, the destructive intent of the lavender lightning bolts instead grew stronger as they absorbed the iridescent lightning bolts. In less than a minute, the collective destructive intent of the lavender lightning bolts had become ten times more intense than before.
Just as Herellia was pondering on what she should do in preparation for the next round of lightning bolts that came down, Argentum and Horell had finally come back to reality, their senses of vision now focused on the situation that was occurring within the dark clouds. And just like Herellia, they could not help but feel a sense of dread, with Horell feeling even more dread than Argentum.
”I shouldn't have cast that barrier on Herellia,” Horell muttered to himself, pinning himself as the reason as to why the difficulty of the subsequent rounds had greatly increased. ”Aw man…I wanna apologize to Herellia so badly…”
”There's no point moping over what has already happened,” Argentum, who was listening to Horell's lamentations on the side, could not help but feel that it was grating on his sense of hearing, prompting Horell to stop. In response to Argentum's words, Horell focused his vision onto Argentum and said, ”But it's true though. The chances of Herellia succ.u.mbing to the difficulty of the subsequent rounds have greatly increased.”
”And that's what you think,” Argentum said before focusing his vision onto Herellia, who now had a far greater number of thorns surrounding her body when compared to before. Letting out a light chuckle filled with a hint of interest as an aura of confidence surrounded him, he then told Horell, ”Take a look at Herellia and tell me if her chances of succ.u.mbing have increased. Do you think she'd give up that easily?”
Listening to Argentum's words, Horell turned his head to look at Herellia, only to see that a far stronger aura was emanating out of Herellia at this moment. With such a sight in front of him, Horell could not help but compare the aura Herellia was emanating before to the aura she was emanating right now. In less than a second, he concluded that her chances of succ.u.mbing to the difficulty of her Existence Tribulation had stayed the same, or rather…decreased.
It was then that Horell remembered what Argentum told him a while ago, recalling that he was told that Herellia was in the process of evolution. After becoming silent for a bit more, he then thought to himself as an aura of slight elation and expectation surrounded him, 'It seems that the heavens want to give Herellia a second chance!'
And with that thought lingering in his mind, his mood had undergone a 180-degree turn, having greater hopes for Herellia's chances of surviving through the Existence Tribulation as he felt that the power coursing throughout her body was no less than his or Argentum's. Taking in a deep breath to tone down his excitement, he then turned to look at Argentum and asked him, ”So, what should do in order to help Herellia out?”
”For now, let's remain on standby,” Argentum said as he focused his vision back on the dark clouds, noticing that the iridescent lightning bolts had now disappeared. Although he felt like the next trial would be harder than before, he had great confidence that Herellia would be able to pass through most of the second trial without a problem. Unfortunately for him, it seemed that the heavens were just toying with their emotions as a notification sound resounded in his mind.
Ding!
'As the trial taker's strength has greatly improved due to the transitional evolution given, the heavens have decided to adjust the difficulty of the next trial to the trial taker's current power.'
'The heavens have decided on the next trial given to the trial taker.'
'The name of the next trial shall be…'
'Myriad Calamity Shower!'
Whoosh!
After reading through the new notifications he had received, Argentum's aura had turned into that of despair in an instant, wondering what he could do to alleviate the burden that was about to befall Herellia. Noticing that abrupt change in Argentum's aura, Horell went ahead and asked him, ”What's wrong, Argentum?”
”I have a bad feeling about the next trial,” Argentum replied, wondering as to whether he should tell Herellia the next trial that was about to come crashing down on her. In less than a second, the thoughts inside his mind all said the same thing, prompting him to send an energy strand to Herellia, who was still looking at the changes happening in the dark clouds.