Chapter 178: Fear of the Unknown

It did not take long for Aurus to transfer his control back to his original body, slightly shuddering for a couple of seconds before hastily teleporting to where his clone was without being seen by the opposing army. While teleporting, he made sure to appear in areas that allowed him to get a better sense of the aura that the opposing army was radiating. Alongside this was the fact that he manipulated the soul balls that hovered over the army to lower in altitude even further, allowing him to listen to the shouts of Chonk far clearer than before.

Whoosh!

"He just said Sixfold Power. I should hurry up a bit," Aurus muttered to himself as he then put his full focus onto teleporting closer to his clone, taking only a minute to arrive near his clone's body this time.

Whoosh!

At the instant he had arrived, he could see his clone idly standing between multiple trees that had holes in their trunks. If it wasn't for that, it would look like his clone was waiting for him to arrive, wanting to finally end the war and reach the existence level of a God.

Nevertheless, he still remembered what he had to do, hastily channeling a huge amount of FP from inside his body before transforming it into strands of energy that extended outside his body. Not long after, just like before, he manipulated these strands to intertwine with one another as a black light started to radiate from the center of this entanglement.

He then continued to entangle the strands even further as he placed it on the ground near where his clone was. While he was doing this, he looked at the perspective his soul balls had, deciding on a location that was close enough for Argentum to hit the barrier on the alliance with his newly unlocked [Nature's Wind Vortex]. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to find a suitable location, being a concentration of trees around tens of meters away from the barrier that blocked the alliance's entrance.

Whoosh!

Not long after, from the perspective of the soul balls, he could sense a faint black light radiating from the center of those trees, letting Aurus know that he had successfully opened up a connection between the two. He then manipulated the remaining strands of both portals to be engulfed by the black light in the center, expanding the diameter of the black light as the connection between the two portals had stabilized.

After making sure that there were no problems with the portals, he then transferred his control back to Argentum's body, moving it to jump into the portal without hesitation.

Whoosh!

In a matter of an instant, Argentum had arrived in the area where he had placed the second portal earlier, allowing him to have a clear view of the barrier that was blocking the alliance's entrance, as well as a clear view of the opposing army whose auras seemed to be puny for his Animate self. Nevertheless, the aura Chonk radiated far surpassed what his body had radiated, mostly due to Chonk being a Rank 1 Animate while he was still a Rank 0 Animate.

"If only I had more time to train this body, then I might've just gone ahead and used this body to end the war without a problem," Argentum said to himself before letting out a sigh. After arriving near the alliance barrier, he then sent his control back to his original body, making it teleport back to the top of the alliance base before passing the control back. Surprisingly, this process only took a couple of minutes, but it was more than enough for the aura radiated by the army to increase by onefold as Chonk shouted the phrase "Sevenfold Power."

"Judging by the speed at which Chonk increases the intensity of their aura by onefold, I still have around six minutes to prepare before I hit the alliance barrier in order to inflict high psychological pressure to the army," Argentum muttered as he went over the plan in his mind one more time.

What he was planning to do was to hit the barrier at the very instant Chonk was about to finish shouting the phrase "Tenfold Power". He noticed that the increase in intensity had only solidified after Chonk had said those words, even though the increase could be felt even before that. Six minutes was more than enough time for him to look at the spell he had obtained a while ago.

Ding!

________

[Nature's Wind Vortex]

MP Cost: 7 MP

A Level 0 Spell inclined towards the Wind element. Its more known variant is the [Wind Energy Vortex], a spell that allows those that learn the magic arts to cast a vortex of wind that could deal large amounts of damage on a great area. Although the normal variant is known more for its level of destruction, this variant takes it one step further as its appearance has transformed into something that's more akin to fireworks, distracting enemies due to the beauty of the attack.

The spell's damage depends on the caster's Intelligence stat, as well as various skills that enhance Wind-based abilities and spells.

________

"Since it uses over twice as much MP than [Nature's Wind Bolt], surely more of its energy would be redirected towards damage instead of flashiness, right?" Argentum could not help but ask himself as he pondered over some what-ifs. In the end, his heart was settled as he muttered to himself, "If else, I'll just use it before sending [Nature's Wind Bolt] afterward. I wonder if they'll fuse?"

While speculating as to whether the two spells would fuse, he eagerly watched over Chonk's army as he waited for Chonk to be close to reaching Tenfold Power.

…

While Aurus—or rather, Argentum was waiting for Chonk to 'finish' his second phase of Code Omega, a slightly tyrannical aura was radiating from the backside of the alliance base as a branch with red carvings all over its body stood in front of an arrow formation of sticks and saplings. 

Of course, the branch with red carvings was none than Herellia, who had ordered the arrow formation of sticks and saplings to use their strongest skills. Not long after, she had ordered them to aim these skills towards her, telling them that this would increase her power to a level they had never witnessed before.

These orders were all in line with the first phase of Code 1, which was actually a code made by Herellia in the case where they needed a lot of power as fast as possible. Unlike Chonk's Code Omega, Code 1 only had two phases: the charging stage and the berserk stage. At the moment, Herellia was starting the charging stage.

"Fire!" Herellia shouted without hesitation as she hovered a few meters off the ground, allowing those at the back of the arrow formation to still shoot her.

Pew! Whoosh! Boom! Zoom!

Attacks of various colors and styles had soon erupted from the arrow formation, all of them heading towards Herellia's floating body in a flash.

Just as it looked like Herellia was going to resist these attacks with her body, numerous amounts of blood-red strands manifested from her body, extending towards the direction of the attacks as she manipulated these strands to arrange them in the appearance of a blooming flower as dark red energy started to circulate throughout her body.

While she circulated this dark red energy, she could not help but think about how she had relied a lot on Aurus for most of this war, slightly feeling bad that she delegated Aurus to a lot of the tasks that would allow their alliance to have an advantage over this army. With this in mind, the dark red energy circulating in her body took on a deeper shade, being closer to black than red in a matter of an instant.

Not long after, she then channeled this energy towards the blood-red tendrils that were going to tank the attacks sent out by the alliance members, with the blood-red tendrils radiating an aura of tyrannical might as the aura surrounding Herellia's body gradually grew weaker.

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"Guh." Herellia could not help but lightly grunt after having a bit of her power be redirected towards the blood-red tendrils. "I seriously don't like using this."

"But since Aurus has shown his full power in front of all of us, why don't I show him the alliance's full power as well?" Nevertheless, she endured the feeling of growing weaker as the attacks finally collided with the blood-red tendrils. Surprisingly, the blood-red tendrils did not break down from the multiple and incessant attacks of the alliance members. Instead, the blood-red tendrils had absorbed the energy from these attacks, gradually increasing the intensity of the aura radiated by the blood-red tendrils as Herellia muttered, "[Forbidden Sanguine Arts]."

"[Power Siphoning]!"

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Eventually, the aura radiated by the blood-red tendrils had become so intense that they had nowhere to go other than Herellia's body, returning Herellia's combat power back to normal in a matter of seconds. A few seconds later, her power had increased to twice her normal combat power…then thrice…five times…ten times…

It did not take long for Herellia's combat power to reach a level that made the alliance members, who were not even close to her aura, shudder in fear as she manipulated the energy in the blood-red tendrils she had made to enter her body.

"[Forbidden Sanguine Arts: Blossom Augmentation]."

Whoosh!

At the very instant all of the energy inside the blood-red tendrils that had withstood the attacks made their way towards Herellia's body, the aura that she radiated had instantly increased to 30 times of her normal aura, giving her the feeling that she could kill all of the Inanimates in Chonk's army with one skill without a problem. Noticing the auras radiated by the alliance members as they looked at her, she then hastily suppressed this aura to tolerable levels as she landed on the ground.

Still feeling the newfound strength coursing throughout her body, she could not help but wonder what reaction Aurus would have once he found out that she was dishing out damage that could probably already be at the level of a Pseudo-Animate. This ponderation of hers made her radiate an aura of slight excitement and anticipation as she muttered to herself, "I hope we can show Code 1 as soon as possible. I seriously want to see the aura he radiates once he finds out how strong I've become."

She then realized that she had gone off track from her previous train of thought, muttering to herself not long after, "Well…I hope we can show Code 1 as soon as possible so the war ends early as well."

…

Around five minutes have passed since Argentum had arrived near the alliance barrier, waiting for Chonk to shout the phrase "Tenfold Power" so he could fire [Nature's Wind Vortex] and [Nature's Wind Bolt] towards the barrier, breaking it and inflicting immense psychological pressure to Chonk.

At the moment, Argentum was watching the opposing army charge up their skills as the aura they radiated was a far cry from what it was before. The army had finally passed through Ninefold Power, which meant that this was the last boost in terms of power they would get before the third phase of Chonk's Code Omega starts. Although Argentum knew for a fact that the third phase would happen sooner or later, he was going to make it happen at the latest time possible.

Whoosh!

Not long after, all of the members in the army, save for Horell, Chungus, and Chonk, had fired out their strongest skills, converging towards a certain spot in the air above Chonk's head. Noticing this, Argentum then made his way closer to the barrier, traveling about a few meters as he muttered the incantation for [Nature's Wind Bolt].

Swoosh! Swoosh!

Just as the spell was ready to be thrown towards the barrier, he then saw that Horell and Chungus had fired out their strongest skills as well, transforming the convergence in the air into a double-helix of light. Without hesitation, he threw the spell towards the barrier as he silently shouted the spell's name.

Whoosh!

At the very instant he threw the white wind bolt in his hand, he then placed both hands in front of him as he hastily muttered the incantations of [Nature's Wind Vortex].

"Veritas Opensei Flora Maxima." These were the words he muttered as Chonk had jumped in mid-air and swiped down on the double-helix, breaking it into multiple particles that spread all over the area.

"[Nature's Wind Vortex]!"

Whoosh!

Fortunately for Argentum, even though it was the first time he had cast the spell, he was able to send it out before the white wind bolt could reach the alliance barrier, allowing the vortex, that had taken on a white color as well, to fuse with the bolt as it transformed into what seemed to a be white drill that was surrounded by a green swirl.

"[Imperium Orbis: Tenfold Pow—" Just as Chonk was about to say the final stage of the second phase while radiating an aura of intense confidence and pride, he noticed that a bright white drill hastily made its way towards the barrier of the alliance, easily breaking it as if the barrier was some fragile glass.

Bang!

Accompanied by a loud explosion sound, the barrier that was hindering the members of the Tempest Branch Alliance had been broken just like that. In a matter of an instant, the aura of confidence and assurance that they would win the war, which circulated amongst almost all of the members of the army, was instantly crumbled after seeing the barrier blocking the entrance breaking with just one attack.

Of course, the most shocked out of everyone in the army was Chonk, who had the best vision out of all of them, noticing that the inside of the alliance base was completely devoid of any Inanimate. At this moment, he could not help but hold intense fear for the Tempest Branch Alliance while wondering as to who or what had the ability to break the barrier, even though all of the members of the alliance had already escaped before that.

"They're not there…" Chonk could not help but mutter. Not long after, he shouted, "They're not there!"

Without hesitation, Chonk turned around to look at his army with intense fear in his eyes as he shouted, "Change of plans!"

"After finishing the second phase, we shall not move ahead to the third phase!"

"Before starting the third phase, initiate Code Beta!"

"Who knows when the Tempest Branch Alliance might attack us!"

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