Chapter 298: Familiar

The first reaction Herellia had from a barrier abruptly appearing around her was an aura of intense disbelief and shock. Although she knew that it was either Horell or Argentum that had cast the barrier on her body just as she was about to get hit by lavender lightning bolts from both sides, she still remembered the words Argentum told her regarding supporting her. In her mind, she was thinking, 'Wouldn't this make the next trials harder?'

With that in mind, she could not help but let out an inward sigh as she placed the thought of the subsequent trials becoming harder in the back of her mind. For now, she decided to take advantage of the bought time given by the barrier, unhesitatingly heading towards another direction perpendicular to the oncoming lavender lightning bolts.

Crack!

Unsurprisingly, under the bombardment of a large number of lavender lightning bolts meant to smite a being down, the barrier that Herellia abandoned had cracked under one unified blow of the remaining bolts. Nevertheless, this gave Herellia enough time to prepare for the bolts with a high level of confidence.

Pointing the large crimson thorn towards the oncoming lightning bolts, she then decided to push herself beyond her limits as the burden on her mind had gone beyond the level where she could maintain a decent level of rationality. Nevertheless, she was thinking that she should boost her chances of eradicating all of the remaining lavender lightning bolts in one fell swoop while she still could do so.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Surprisingly, while the lavender lightning bolts were searching for Herellia's trace, taking quite some time to eventually figure where she had gone, she made three more crimson thorns, combining them into the large crimson thorn as it now radiated an aura a bit more intense than before. Although she felt like her mind was being stretched to its limits to accommodate the burden brought about by the three new crimson thorns, she tried her hardest to ignore the pain in her mind as she willed the new and improved large crimson thorn towards the lavender lightning bolts.

Swish!

Willing the large crimson thorn to turn an angle perpendicular to the tendril that was connecting it to Herellia, she then manipulated the large crimson thorn to rotate with the tendril as the axis, turning into what looked like an incredibly large yet blunt lawnmower blade.

Then again, this approach was highly successful as Herellia willed the large crimson thorn to rotate as fast as possible, not giving the lavender lightning bolts any time to pass through the blind spot of the crimson thorn. Of course, for those that were lucky enough to pass through the crimson thorn while it was dispelling the other bolts, Herellia went ahead and manipulated the crimson thorn to head towards the lucky lightning bolt and dispel it directly with a quick pierce.

And just like that, the remaining twenty bolts, which made Herellia feel like she was at her wit's end, were finally dispelled, allowing her to let out a sigh of relief as she recalled the three crimson thorns she had just made. After that, she made her way back to her original position, hoping that the next round wouldn't have an incredibly big spike in difficulty.

While doing so, she could not help but take a look at the dark clouds, noticing that the remaining area of the dark clouds that were covered by crimson lightning had now been occupied by lavender lightning. Seeing as there was nothing brewing on the dark clouds, Herellia thought that the heavens were giving her a time to rest, as well as time for her to acclimate to the improvements brought about by the last round.

To her surprise, the improvement brought about by the purple strands made by the last round of lightning bolts were far more potent than the last nine rounds…combined. Wondering what her next plan of action should be, she could not help but focus her sense of vision onto Argentum and Horell, only to find out that Argentum was radiating an aura of anger while Horell was radiating an aura of guilt.

Wanting to know what was happening, Herellia unhesitatingly went ahead and sent a few energy strands towards Argentum and Horell, unexpectedly allowing her to find out who had cast the barrier that gave her time to retaliate against the remaining lightning bolts.

"Horell! Why the heck did you cast a barrier around her?!" Argentum looked at Horell with an aura of intense fury. Although he had expected Horell to possibly cast a buff on Herellia after seeing her at her wit's end, never once did he expect him to cast a skill. As if the system knew the repercussions of what Horell had done, a notification sound resounded in his mind just as Horell had cast the skill, prompting him to open up the notification and see what it was.

Ding!

'One of the user's companions has directly interfered with the trial taker's chances of surviving the last round of the first trial. The heavens have decided to increase the difficulty of the next trial in response to that action.'

In response, Horell responded to Argentum's question in an apologetic tone as he said, "I know what I've done, and I deeply regret it. I'm sorry, Argentum. I just didn't want to see Herellia be bombarded by the lightning bolts and I…sigh…"

Hearing Horell let out a sigh, Argentum could not help but let out a sigh of his own as he told Horell, "Well, Horell. Just so you know, you've pretty much directly interfered with Herellia's Existence Tribulation. In other words, she has to bear the consequences of it once the next round comes crashing down. You do know what that entails, right?"

"Of course I do," Horell said as the aura of regret around him intensified. But just as he was about to continue explaining the reasons why he had cast that barrier on Herellia, a voice they did not expect to hear soon resounded in their minds as it said, "So you were the one who cast the barrier on me?"

After radiating brief auras of surprise, the two of them returned to their previous auras. The first one to respond to Herellia's words was Argentum, asking her, "How did it go? I could barely see what was happening between the trees."

"Terrible," Herellia said succinctly before focusing her vision on Horell from afar. She then said, directing her words to Horell, "To be honest, Horell, if it wasn't for your timely barrier activation, I probably wouldn't be here standing uh…somewhat far away from you two." After that, she let out a light chuckle, slightly alleviating the atmosphere between Argentum and Horell.

"Then again, we shouldn't ignore Argentum's words," Herellia added soon after before continuing, "Thanks to your interference, the difficulty of my subsequent trials would increase as a consequence. I'm not saying I'm blaming you for doing that, I'm just saying that I might need to change my plan of action."

"What do you have in mind?" Argentum asked while taking a short glance at the dark clouds. Herellia pondered over the plan in her mind for a bit before responding, "So far, I've used one of my trump cards, which sacrifices all of the crimson thorns I've formed in exchange for combat power. At most, I can use it one more time, but at that point, it would be somewhat hard for me to move my body."

"Other than that, I still have a few more trump cards up my sleeve, and I feel like a great number of them would be used in the following rounds," she added soon after. After that, she finally got to the main part of her statement from earlier, saying, "If I want to reduce the number of trump cards I use from here on out, which means a greater chance of me clearing the Existence Tribulation, I would need you two to use all of your buffs on me, disregarding the consequences that come afterward."

"To be honest, I'm also thinking of having you two directly help me out in defending against the lightning bolts, but that's just a last resort thing," she continued. She then focused her vision onto the two and asked them, "What do you think about the change in my plan?"

"I'm not so sure on where I stand," Horell was the first one to reply, radiating an aura of uncertainty in the process. "On one end, I want to agree with the changes you've made as it would increase your chances of successfully clearing it…but at the same time, I don't want to agree with it because, with these changes, the final trial would definitely end up becoming incredibly hard."

"What Horell said," Argentum followed up on Horell's response. "Although it would indeed make the next rounds of your tribulation easier, in the long run, it would end up giving you an incredibly big burden that you have to shoulder. Worst case scenario, you would die before you successfully clear your tribulation from the spike in difficulty alone. Are you willing to take that risk though?"

"Well…" Just as Herellia was about to respond to Argentum's question, the dark clouds let out a rumble far louder than before, resounding throughout the area, possibly even being heard from the entrance of the Verdant Blossom Branch Alliance's base. Hearing such a deafening rumble, the trio could not help but focus their senses of vision towards the dark clouds. They noticed that in the middle portion of the dark clouds, another type of lightning was brewed.

Unexpectedly, this type of lightning did not have any destructive intent to it at all. In fact, it could be said that the intent emanating from it was quite the opposite. An intent filled with life and nourishment could be felt from the new type of lightning being brewed. The intensity of the intent was at a high level that even Argentum and Horell could feel the intent from afar. As for Herellia, she could not help but feel that the new type of lightning was made for her.

Ding!

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While the new type of lightning was still in the process of brewing, a notification sound resounded in Argentum's mind all of a sudden, making him wonder as to why the system would notify him at such a random time. After he had read through the notifications, Argentum finally realized that the new type of lightning was not created for no reason, focusing his attention onto Herellia as he thought to himself, 'It seems that her plans are going to be changed quite a lot after this.'

'As the trial taker has successfully passed through the first trial given by the heavens, although there was slight direct interference, the heavens have decided to partially grant the trial taker's wish of evolving their existence. The heavens have decided to grant the trial taker a transitional evolution, allowing the trial taker to acclimate to the newfound senses that would eventually be brought about by the final transitional evolution.'

'The heavens are sensing the trial taker's current species and existence level…'

'Species and existence level confirmed. The trial taker is of the Inanimate existence level, species being Branch Grandius Formosus — Blood Belhazard (Special+).'

'The heavens are deciding on the ideal transitional evolution for the trial taker…'

'The heavens have decided on the trial taker's first transitional evolution.'

Bzzt…crash!

After a couple more minutes, the new type of lightning was finally finished brewing, making its way down towards Herellia as a series of lightning bolts that gradually changed their color over time. Knowing that the lightning bolts coming down made her feel like there was a connection between her and the bolts, Herellia did not resist, allowing them to strike down on her body as she felt immense pleasure from the collision.

Whoosh!

Surprisingly, Herellia started to levitate off the ground after more lightning bolts had come down and collided with her body, as if she had ascended. Although Argentum knew what was currently happening to Herellia, Horell did not, prompting him to look at the currently calm Argentum and ask in a slightly panicked tone, "What's happening to Herellia?"

Argentum concisely responded, "She's evolving."

Whoosh! Whoosh!

After a few more seconds, Herellia's body was soon covered in the new type of lightning bolts, acting like a cocoon that shrouded Argentum and Horell's vision from the evolution process that Herellia was undergoing. Then again, the changes that were happening to Herellia's body could be described as a change far beyond normal comprehension.

The first change that had happened to her body was that the crimson veins covering her body had disappeared in an instant, turning into strands that floated around her body. Soon after, her body was then stretched out in the figure of a beautiful woman, transforming Herellia's appearance to that of an exquisitely crafted wooden sculpture.

Some time later, a few of the lightning bolts were absorbed by Herellia's body, making Herellia feel like she could move her limbs as if she was an Animate. And then, the crimson strands, which were previously the veins covering her body, were once absorbed by her body, covering the majority of her upper and lower body in a way that made it look like she was wearing a crimson red robe. On top of that, some of the crimson strands made their way towards the hair portion of her appearance, dying it a slightly dark crimson red.

Whoosh!

And just like that, within ten minutes or so, Herellia's transitional evolution was done. As the lightning bolts acting as a cocoon gradually dissipated, the newly evolved Herellia was soon revealed to the visions of Argentum and Horell, who both could not help believe the immense change brought about by the evolution she had undergone.

Noticing that the two of them were looking at her with auras of shock and disbelief, Herellia could not help but ask herself, "What made them so shocked?"

She then went ahead and looked around her surroundings, her sense of vision eventually stopping on the puddle of red viscous fluid she was standing on as some of the dark clouds parted away to allow a bit of sunlight to shine down. Surprisingly, these rays of sunlight were directed towards the red viscous fluid she was standing on, allowing her to realize that the reason why the two were shocked…was because of her!

Ding!

While both Argentum and Horell were still at a loss for words thanks to Herellia's current appearance, Argentum obtained a notification from the system, prompting him to check what it was all about. After a few seconds of reading through the notifications, he could not help but look at Herellia a few times before glancing at the notification he had received, muttering, "This feeling of overwhelming power…is incredibly familiar."

'The trial taker's first transitional evolution is now complete.'

'The trial taker's new existence level is of the Pseudo-Animate existence level.'

'The trial taker's new species is…'

'Lucus Animus — Magna Sanguis Imperatio (Rare).'

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