Chapter 312 - Animate of the Tempest Cliff (1/2)
”Haah…haah…” After the trio was done dodging all of the lightning drops that fell from the dark clouds, the first thing they did was to congregate in the middle of their respective locations and look at each other with auras of elation and relief. They then went ahead and looked at the dark clouds for a short bit, briefly radiating an aura of fear as they wondered if more lightning bolts would come striking down after what they had gone through. Fortunately, after looking at the dark clouds for a while, no glowing spots could be seen on it, hence that meant that Herellia's Existence Tribulation was finally over.
”It's finally over,” Argentum was the first one to talk among the three, focusing his sense of vision towards Herellia before saying, ”Congratulations, Herellia. From now on, you're going to be a fully-fledged Animate.”
In response, Herellia let out a light chuckle as she focused her vision onto Argentum before replying, ”Hehe. In that case, I'll be thanking you in advance. You're pretty much the reason why I was able to successfully clear my Existence Tribulation. On top of that, with your help, you even allowed me to enhance my evolutions! Twice!”
As for Horell, although he was excited that the trial was already over and that Herellia was now going to evolve, an aura of slight surprise emanated from him as he was still in disbelief that there were no more trials after what seemed to be such a gruesome trial…which did become easy at the end. With that in mind, he looked at Argentum and asked in an uncertain tone, ”Argentum, is Herellia's Existence Tribulation really over? From how we cleared the trial without much of a problem, surely there would be another trial after that, right?”
”Hoh?” Listening to Horell's words, Argentum could not help but tease Horell as he replied with a light chuckle, ”Do you really want to undergo one more trial? Well, I'll satisfy your wishes right here and now!”
It was at this moment that Argentum was not joking with his earlier words at all, prompting Horell to radiate an aura of fear as he imagined what Argentum would do to him to fulfill his previous words. Without hesitation, he moved a few steps back as he replied, ”I was just joking! Just joking! I don't want to undergo such a hellish trial like that anymore!”
Hearing Horell's pleas, Argentum and Herellia could not help but look at each other in silence before looking back at Horell and letting out boisterous laughter simultaneously. At this time, Horell radiated an embarrassed aura, which was soon replaced with another aura as he let out a laugh of his own, recalling what had happened in the Existence Tribulation.
After some time, the three of them were finally finished laughing, with Argentum looking at Herellia and asking, ”So…do you have any clue as to what type of human you're going to evolve into?”
”There are types between humans?” Herellia instantly let out an aura of slight shock after listening to Argentum's question. In her mind, she only knew that any Inanimate that evolved into an Animate would be the same in terms of combat power. But according to Argentum's words, there seemed to be other types of humans than the one she knew?
Noticing the aura surrounding Herellia's body, Argentum quickly responded to Herellia's question, explaining, ”In general, there are two broad types of humans in this world. There's the normal humans, and there's…”
”The Awakened,” Argentum emphasized his voice on these two words. With him emphasizing those words, Herellia knew that she had to know more about the latter two as she already had a few ideas regarding the first type. Without hesitation, she asked him, ”What are the Awakened?”
Recalling all of the information Aurus knew about the Awakened through his memories, Argentum went silent for a bit before responding, ”In short, the Awakened are humans that are born with an innate ability. Innate abilities are more or less the skills we use every so often. If we were to get more specific, there are multiple branches and types of Awakened humans. The only thing you have to remember is that an Awakened is significantly stronger than a normal human at Rank 0.”
Hastily processing and organizing the information she had obtained from Argentum, Herellia nodded her head, only for another question to pop into her mind as she looked at Argentum and asked, ”How do you know all of these?”
Naturally, Argentum could not say that he knew all of these thanks to Aurus's memories. And so, utilizing his quick wits as a Pseudo-Animate, he radiated an aura of slight confidence as he replied, ”I obtained some information regarding Animates here and there from my journey. Even Aurus doesn't know anything about this?”
”Even Aurus?” Herellia let out an aura of surprise as she first felt that Aurus, as a clone of Argentum, would be more knowledgeable about these sorts of things compared to his clone. Of course, she was indeed correct in that thinking, but thanks to Argentum's persuasive words, her thoughts had been shifted to another place, prompting her to respond, ”I see.”
Rumble…
After a moment of silence ensued between the three of them, the dark clouds started to rumble after what seemed to be a long time. Without delay, the three of them looked at the dark clouds and noticed that the dark blue lightning bolts and the white lightning bolts were now mingling with each other. While this was happening, Argentum noticed that the lightning bolts were exuding a peculiar intent. Without hesitation, he used his enhanced senses to glean information regarding the intent, only to be left at a loss for words as he muttered, ”The lightning bolts…are actually joyous that Herellia passed through the trials?”
Although he felt that it was weird, he placed this thought at the back of his head as the current event was indeed a thing meant to be celebrated. Not long after, the two bolts started to fuse as one, forming into a lightning bolt that the trio was familiar with, a lightning bolt that only popped up whenever Herellia was going to evolve.
”The rainbow lightning bolts are coming,” Herellia said to herself before looking at Horell and Argentum in front of him. With an aura of excitement and teasing surrounding her, Herellia told them, ”I'll be separating from you to for a while. For now, stay here. Whatever happens to me, don't move.”
Instantly thinking what was going on in her mind, Argentum let out a giggle before replying, ”Alright, we'll stay here.” As for Horell, he lightly nodded before radiating an aura of happiness, saying, ”I'm quite eager to see what you evolve into, Herellia.”
Whoosh!
And with that, Herellia had departed from the vicinity of the two, heading towards another part of the surroundings they were in. Unsurprisingly, Argentum went ahead and used his enhanced senses to find out where Herellia stopped, eventually seeing that Herellia stopped near some of the trees in order to shroud her evolution even more. With a lighthearted sigh, Argentum looked at the dark clouds before sitting on the ground, waiting for Herellia's evolution to come.
Rumble…rumble…
After a few more minutes of waiting, another rumble resounded from the dark clouds, carrying intent within it. Without delay, Argentum used his enhanced senses to find out what the intent contained, only to look at Horell, who was sitting beside him, and say, ”Herellia's about to evolve.”