Chapter 299: Myriad Calamity Shower

"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.

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In Argentum's mind, he thought that Herellia would surely heed his warnings as he was Aurus's clone. In connection to that thought, he was hoping on the chance that Herellia would pick up the idea that Argentum had a system as well since that would reduce the time needed for Herellia to believe in Argentum's words.

"Herellia, can you hear me?" Argentum said through the energy strand, prompting Herellia to stop looking at the clouds and focus her vision towards Argentum. Without delay, she replied in a calm and collected tone, "What's up?"

"I have a feeling that you might not believe me, but…" Argentum hastily responded to her question as he explained what he had read from the notifications in his system. "The next round you're about to face is filled with a type of lightning far more dangerous than the purple ones darting through the clouds right now?"

"Eh?" Hearing such a piece of important news out of the blue, Herellia could not help but radiate an aura of disbelief as it was just too sudden to her. In response, she could not help but radiate an aura of suspicion as she asked him, "How do you know what the next round is going to be?"

Letting out a sigh that said 'I knew this was going to happen', Argentum decided to not beat around the bush and said in a slightly defeated tone, "Since Aurus has a system, then I have a system as well. I got a message from the system telling me about your next round. If you don't believe me, just cast the [Eyes of Undeceiving Truth] on me."

With her sense of hearing focused on Argentum's words lingering inside her mind, Herellia only took less than an instant to process the information that was said. She could not help but take a few deep breaths as she felt an immense amount of dread from imagining the next round if Argentum's words were to be the case. Letting out a long yet soft sigh, she then asked Argentum, "So, what do you want me to do in preparation for the next round?"

"You've undergone an evolution, right?" Argentum asked, his mind working on overdrive as he felt that the changes brought by Herellia's transitional evolution would allow the subsequent trials to continue staying at the same difficulty, lest the two of them made a move of their own.

"Yeah, what about it?" Herellia replied, only to soon realize what Argentum was trying to imply. Although she was almost a hundred percent sure that the thing Argentum wanted to say was the thing she realized, she wanted to make sure, prompting her to ask him, "You want me to gain a better understanding of the new skills I've received?"

"Yes! That's exactly what I want you to do!" Argentum said in a gleeful tone, inwardly letting out a sigh of relief as he felt that Herellia would know what to do while the next trial hasn't started yet. In response, Herellia lightly nodded before saying, "Alright, I'll try to familiarize myself with the new skills as much as possible. Do inform me when the next round of lightning bolts come crashing down, okay?"

"I definitely will," Argentum said in response to Herellia's words before cutting off the connection between the two of them. He then focused his sense of vision onto Horell, who was still looking at the dark clouds, and said, "Horell, could you keep an eye on the dark clouds and alert me if there's a change going on? I need to do something for a bit."

"Eh? Alright," Horell said in response to Argentum's request, only to be greeted by an Argentum that had its sense of vision closed while it sat cross-legged on the ground. Letting out a light sigh, Horell then panned his sense of vision back to the dark clouds and muttered to himself, "You could've said thank you at the very least."

Ignorant to what was going on in Horell's mind, Argentum brought up the spell creation feature of [Sage's Water Magic] in his mind and focused his vision on the True Water spell portion of the skill. Working his mind to overdrive, he then muttered inwardly, "It's time for me to put these vacant spell slots to good use."

And just like that, the three of them were preparing for the next trial in their own ways. Herellia was currently sitting cross-legged on the ground with her sense of vision closed, allowing herself to become more familiar with the new skills she had obtained after evolving to a Pseudo-Animate lifeform. Every once in a while, one would see ribbons of crimson and gold surrounding her body while white energy particles were scattered around her body.

As for Argentum, his mind was focused on maximizing the usage of the 9 vacant True Water spell slots he hadn't used yet, deciding to make most of the True Water spells have the purpose of boosting a certain ability to its limit. He also decided to make a few defensive spells with the remaining slots, realizing that he should make a Blessed Water spell leaning towards the defensive aspect of things once Herellia's existence tribulation was done.

As for Horell, he continued to look at the dark clouds, taking note of every change that was happening. It was only after about twenty minutes since Argentum told him to keep eye on the dark clouds did a change finally occur, prompting him to alert Argentum that something was happening to the clouds. Fortunately, by that time, Argentum had made sure that all of the True Water spells in his arsenal would help out Herellia one way or another…at the cost of a lot of mana being used up for every spell he discarded.

Lightly stretching his body, Argentum then stood up from where he sat before asking Horell, "So what change happened to the clouds?" In response, Horell only pointed towards a certain section of the dark clouds, prompting Argentum to follow the path of Horell's finger, eventually seeing what he was pointing towards.

In that certain portion of the dark clouds, the lavender bolts of lightning were undergoing the same process as the crimson bolts from before, fusing as one before transforming into a bolt of lightning that radiated an intent of destruction many times intense than before. Thanks to this fusion, a loud rumble resounded throughout the area, shaking every bit of energy that made Argentum and Horell's body. Fortunately, Herellia was too engrossed in familiarizing herself with her new skills, allowing Argentum to inwardly let out a sigh of relief as the two of them continued to look at the new type of lightning that had emerged.

Thanks to the Power Baptism he had undergone before, Argentum knew that the next type of lightning bolt after the purple one was a light blue lightning bolt. But when compared to the Power Baptism version, the current bolt of lightning that had emerged from the dark clouds took on a slightly darker shade, a royal blue lightning bolt. As he thought about the color that perfectly described the color of the current lightning bolt, it was then that he felt that there was something else to the royal blue lightning bolt. Behind the inherent destructive intent of the new lightning bolt, there was also a trace of arrogance brought about by its superior power, as if any lightning bolt or being under it was inferior when compared to it.

"So that's why there's the word 'Calamity' in the name of the next trial," Argentum muttered to himself as he noticed that the number of royal blue lightning bolts gradually increased. With a long yet soft sigh, he then said…

"The next trial is going to be a calamity alright."

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