Chapter 310 - Going All Out (1/2)
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Thanks to the effects of the movement speed boosting spells Argentum had cast on himself stacking on top of one another, it did not take long for him to arrive at where Herellia and Horell were lying down, surprising the two at the instant he had arrived.
”Argentum? What are you doing here?” Noticing that Argentum was now in front of them, Horell immediately sat upright before focusing his sense of vision onto Argentum as he asked his question. In response, Argentum focused his sense of vision towards Herellia for a bit before responding, ”Herellia told me to come here. She wanted me to come here to talk about the next round of lightning bolts coming our way.”
Hearing her name being mentioned, Herellia instantly sat upright before looking at Argentum, pointing at herself, and asking, ”I did?”
Just as a brief aura of confusion radiated from her due to the statement Argentum let out, she noticed that there was something different to the aura surrounding Argentum. It was as if he was trying to say something to her, prompting her to read between the lines of Argentum's previous statement. Fortunately, it did not take long for her to catch on as she said with an aura of understanding, ”Ah, that's right. I did.”
Soon after that, Herellia went ahead and established a connection with Argentum, leaving Horell, who wanted to ask the two of them questions about the next round of lightning bolts, in a state of suspense.
”What was that all about?” This was the first thing Herellia asked Argentum at the very moment the connection between the two of them was established. In response, Argentum let out a light sigh as he responded, ”Some time ago, Horell wanted to be of more use to you, so he told me to tell him about the mechanics of the next trial. Of course, I can't tell him that the mechanics of the next trial came from me, right?”
”So you told him that it came from me instead?” Herellia said, only to ponder over it for a bit before saying, ”Well, yeah. That makes tons of sense.”
After removing the confusion she had regarding the situation that popped up just as Argentum had arrived, Herellia then moved onto the main agenda as she asked him, ”With that out of the way, what's the real reason why you came to where we were?”
”What else could it be other than the next trial you agreed to undergo?” Argentum answered Herellia's question with a question of his own, taking on a slightly snarky tone. He then let out a long sigh before saying, ”I seriously regret telling you that you can choose whatever you want. If I knew that the next trial would be this scary, then I would have told you to reject it outright.”
”Wh-what do you mean by that?” Feeling the aura of remorse surrounding Argentum as he said that statement, Herellia could not help but feel slightly fearful for the next trial that was about to hit the three of them. In response to her question, Argentum said, ”The next trial is composed of lightning bolts one level higher than the dark blue ones you just fought against.”
”Are these new bolts dangerous?” Herellia went ahead and asked, to which Argentum replied in a grave tone, ”Well, a single bolt of that level would decimate all three of us at once. Is that dangerous enough for you?”
”That dangerous?” Listening to Argentum's words, an aura of great dread radiated from her in an instant, which she had hastily suppressed, knowing that Horell was adamantly looking at the two of them, waiting for them to start speaking up to him. After suppressing her aura of dread, she continued to focus her sense of vision onto Argentum and asked, ”Do you know how many of those bolts are we going to face in the next round?”
”No clue at all,” Argentum replied, only to add, ”Well…what comes to your mind when you hear the words 'Dual Millennium'?”
”I don't know. What do those words mean?” Herellia said without delay, to which Argentum responded by radiating an aura of brief confusion. Not long after, he presumed that Herellia did not know what numbers were…well, to be more exact, other words for numbers like dual and millennium.
”Either way, we're up against quite a lot of these new bolts, with the heavens even giving me a tip. Wanna hear what the tip they gave was?” Argentum continued to talk, with Herellia replying, ”Sure.”
”Survive. That's the only tip they gave me,” Argentum said in response to Herellia's words, prompting her to say, ”Seriously? That's all they gave you?”
”Yeah. We could assume that the heavens mean that we should be prepared as much as possible for the bolts that are about to arrive,” Argentum responded to Herellia's question with this statement before telling her that it was now a good time for them to talk about the next trial with Horell.
Noticing that both Herellia and Argentum were not preoccupied anymore, the aura of being in constant suspense had finally been replaced with that of relief and concern as he asked the two of them, ”So…what's the next trial about?”
”We're up against lightning bolts one level higher than the ones we've faced some time ago,” Herellia was the one who responded to his question. After becoming silent for a bit, he then continued to ask the two of them, saying, ”How many of these bolts are we up against?”
”It could either be 2,000 of them…or a million.” This time, Argentum was the one who responded to his question, making Horell radiate an aura of immense fear and terror as he looked at Argentum and said, ”You're joking, right? A million of them?”
Even Herellia could not believe what she was hearing, wondering where such a big number came from. In response, Argentum let out a light chuckle as he said, ”Well, there's a possibility for the next round to have one million bolts coming down to strike us.”
”Can I…can I not participate in this trial?” Horell said at the very instant Argentum was finished talking, making the latter radiate a solemn aura as he replied, ”Unfortunately, you can't. If you don't help Herellia out with me in this trial, then Herellia will undoubtedly die.”
”Are you serious, Argentum?” Horell said with a shocked tone, only for him to recall the second sentence Argentum said to him, turning the aura of fear surrounding him into that of slight elation. ”You're joining us?”
”Yeah.” Argentum nodded before saying, ”It's more or less the reason why I'm here with you guys.”
Rumble…
Just as Argentum was finished talking, a loud rumble resounded from the dark clouds, giving off the intent that the lightning bolts inside the dark clouds were charging up their final blow that would smite Herellia once and for all. Although that message was left ignored by the three of them, what was left unignored was the fact that the dark blue lightning bolts were congregating in certain areas of the dark clouds before fusing as one, forming a lightning bolt that radiated a level of destructive intent and power far greater than any normal being who underwent an Existence Tribulation would witness.
Amidst the dark clouds, this new lightning bolt gave off an intense white glow that set it apart from the dark blue lightning bolts surrounding it. Then again, the lightning bolt seemed to be made out of pure white energy, as if the energy contained within it was incredibly pure. Nevertheless, this seemingly pure energy was made with the intent to hinder Herellia from succeeding in this trial.
Naturally, more and more of these lightning bolts were being formed as time passed. But as the trio continued to look at the dark clouds, they noticed that the number of dark blue lightning bolts were not diminishing at all, but rather, increasing alongside the white lightning bolts. Although they were curious as to why that was the case, they knew that they could not afford to get distracted by the lightning bolts at this moment, prompting both Horell and Herellia to stand up before looking at Argentum.
”What's the plan this time around?” Herellia asked Argentum. As for Horell, he silently looked at Argentum with an aura of expectation surrounding him, waiting for his orders.
In response, Argentum went silent for quite some time as he looked at the white lightning bolts that were forming in the dark clouds before looking at the two in front of him. After doing this a few times, he focused his sense of vision onto the two of them before saying, ”First off, we're going to go all out on our attacks against these white lightning bolts. I have a feeling that these things are more intelligent than the dark blue ones you guys faced before.”
”Second, before the trial starts, I'm going to cast all of the buffs I have in my arsenal on the three of us in order to make sure that we take out a lot of these white bolts with one attack,” he continued to explain the plan he had in mind.
”Third, before we start attacking these white bolts, the two of you go ahead and cast your strongest defensive skills over the three of us,” Argentum said before taking in a deep breath and asking them, ”Is that clear?”