I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 292: Forsaken Decade

Thanks to their incredibly high speeds, they were able to traverse a decently sized portion of Tempest Cliff within a matter of a couple of hours. Within this timespan, they assessed their surroundings and pondered whether or not they could use the surrounding environment to their advantage. Eventually, they stopped at a specific location that seemed to give Herellia a slightly better edge when it came to the existence tribulation that was about to befall her.

On one side of their surroundings was a vast and grand plain that seemed to be devoid of beings, perfect for the trial that was about to become as the three could rest at ease, knowing that no innocent being was going to be dragged into the eventual mess. If one looked farther beyond the plains, one would see a few hills that looked like mountains due to their angle of incline.

On the other side, a plethora of large and thick trees baptized by the harsh winds of Tempest Cliff covered the surrounding area, to which the three thought that they could use it to their advantage when it came to protecting themselves against multiple bolts of lightning.

As the three radiated auras of satisfaction and expectation after coming to terms with their surroundings, Herellia took in a deep breath through her body as she composed herself, double-checking to make sure that she was in her best condition. As for Horell and Argentum, they made sure to distance themselves from Herellia. Of course, they distanced themselves far enough to not be caught up in her lightning, but close enough to help her out when she needed it.

After a few minutes or so, the aura radiating from Herellia had now turned into that of determination and slight nervousness. Taking another deep breath to calm herself down, she turned her sense of vision towards the two and said in a slightly shaky voice, “I’m about to start my existence tribulation. Make sure to support me when it seems to be getting rough, okay?”

“Of course, that’s why we’re here,” Horell said in response, radiating an aura that seemed to tell her that there was nothing to worry about. Argentum, on the other hand, let out a light chuckle as a somewhat carefree aura radiated from him, replying to her words with a slightly playful tone, “Don’t overthink too much, overthinking isn’t good in these types of situations. If you want, I could enhance your abilities before the existence tribulation truly starts.”

In response, Herellia went silent for a short bit as an answer eventually surfaced in her mind, prompting her to radiate an aura of affirmation as she responded, “Only use a few buffs on me at the start. Once you see me struggling, go all in.”

She then focused her sense of vision towards Horell before continuing, “The same goes for you as well.”

“Alright,” the two replied simultaneously to her words as they nodded their heads. After that conversation, the three of them went silent, with Horell and Argentum’s senses of vision fully focused on Herellia. As for Herellia, her sense of vision was focused on the light blue skies that covered the world, taking a short glance at the sun that was now at the peak of the sky.

“It’s time to get this over with,” Herellia muttered as she psyched herself up, doing one last check on her current condition before going ahead and closing her sense of vision soon after. She then went ahead and attuned her body to the energy in the surroundings before redirecting all of the energy inside her body towards a certain part. In this case, she redirected all of her energy towards the crimson veins that covered the exterior of her body.

After a minute or so, the crimson veins on her body started to glow faintly, allowing the two slightly far away to know that Herellia was now starting to trigger the tribulation. While they were waiting for the tribulation to start, Argentum could not help but look at Horell and ask him, “Did Herellia learn how to trigger the existence tribulation for the Animate town you two went to?”

Surprisingly, Horell shook his head as he turned to look at Argentum and replied, “Nope. She learned how to trigger the existence tribulation from Zelefaire.” He then added, “Of course, I learned how to trigger mine through Zelefaire as well.”

“Zelefaire, huh…” Argentum muttered, recalling the few times Herellia and Horell mentioned Zelefaire to him. At this moment, he could not help but wonder as to what kind of being Zelefaire had become after evolving to the Animate existence level. Nevertheless, since he was still far away from that level, he placed the thought at the back of his head, only for a thought related to the current scenario to surface not long after.

Pondering over the recently surfaced thought for a bit, Argentum could not help but think to himself, ‘The question does make sense in a way. I wonder if the system allows it.’

With that in mind, he went ahead and asked the system in his mind, saying, “System, since I can trigger a Power Baptism through the system with the help of Power Baptism energy, surely I would be able to trigger an Existence Tribulation through the same methods as well, right?”

As a soft notification sound resounded throughout his mind, the system’s feminine-sounding voice soon responded to Argentum’s query, saying, “That is indeed correct. Of course, the user should create Existence Tribulation energy if the user wants to trigger an Existence Tribulation.”

“I see…” Argentum muttered to himself as he briefly let out a sigh of relief. Although he felt that such a thing would be natural for the system, he still could not help but be at ease after hearing that the system did have the capability to trigger an Existence Tribulation. Then again, Argentum felt that there was no problem if the system could not do such a thing since he could trigger the tribulation manually with the help of Aurus’s memories.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Around five minutes had now passed since Herellia started her attempt to trigger the tribulation. At this moment, the crimson veins surrounding her body now had an intense red glow, with the veins themselves now turning white. Not only that, but Herellia’s aura had undergone a great change as well throughout these past five minutes, giving Argentum and Horell the feeling that her aura would collapse at any time…but behind that collapse would bring forth a wave of greater power.

Crack!

After a few more seconds, the redirection of energy had finally reached its limit as all of the crimson veins surrounding Herellia’s body shattered in unison. Concurrently, the aura she radiated had shattered as well, making Herellia give off the feeling that she was just a mundane branch. Of course, she was still large, but very mundane.

Not long after, a beam of white and red energy was soon released from her body as it was aimed towards the light blue sky, bringing forth a great number of dark clouds far beyond what a normal Power Baptism would bring. In an instant, the skies that covered the trees and plains where they were currently residing had turned dark.

At this moment, Herellia opened her sense of vision to witness the current scenario, noticing that there was still a beam of energy connecting her to the dark clouds up above. Recalling a certain memory at this time, Herellia took in a deep breath before shouting, “My name is Herellia, an Inanimate wanting to go against the natural laws set by this world. I beseech the great heavens to grant my request and allow me to transcend my current existence, transforming into a being of greater power!”

Bzzt…crash!

Ding!

Surprisingly, just as Herellia was finished saying that, the beam connecting her to the dark clouds had finally dispelled, which was soon followed up by a loud rumble resounding throughout the clouds. Simultaneously, a notification sound resounded from Argentum’s mind, prompting him to open the notification, only to wonder what kind of requirement he had to meet in order for such a notification to appear.

‘One of the user’s companions has triggered an Existence Tribulation to ascend to a greater level of existence.’

‘Due to the power inside the companion, the heavens have decided to let the user’s companion undergo 3 trials before granting its wish.’

‘Adjusting the difficulty of the first trial to the companion’s power…’

‘The decided first trial of the user’s companion shall be ‘Forsaken Decade’!’

“Forsaken Decade…” After reading through the notifications he had received, he then muttered the name of the first trial, focusing his attention on the first word of the trial’s name. He then looked at the large swath of dark clouds covering the sky, wanting to see if the trial about to befall Herellia was true to its name.

Crackle…crash! Bang!

After a short while, arcs of lightning now started to form inside the dark clouds, hastily taking on a red hue. Noticing this red hue, Argentum could not help but think of the red lightning from the Power Baptism, prompting him to ask himself, “I wonder if the types of lightning for Power Baptisms also have a specific name to them?”

As he said this, the red hue instantly turned darker. At this moment, the lightning darting through the dark clouds had now taken on a crimson hue, the intent of destruction radiating from them being tens of times far more intense than the intent of destruction radiated by a Power Baptism’s red lightning.

Sensing the intent of destruction emanating from the crimson lightning bolts, Argentum could not help but radiate an aura of nostalgia as he let out a soft chortle. He then said to himself, “As the intent has now stabilized, it seems that the trial is true to its name.”

“Herellia is going to face ten rounds of Forsaken Lightning,” he soon added, trying to recall what he knew about the types of lightning for Existence Tribulations. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to do so as the lightning for Power Baptisms and Existence Tribulations were similar in terms of color, but the intent of destruction they radiated being far apart.

In what he rummaged from his and Aurus’s memories, the first type of lightning would be red-colored lightning, taking on the moniker of Forsaken. The second type would then be purple-colored lightning, taking on the moniker of Ruin. After that were the light blue and dark blue-colored lightning bolts, taking on the moniker of Calamity and Abyss respectively. It was at this moment that Argentum realized that he faced an Abyss-level bolt in the last round of his Power Baptism, only for it to split up into multiple Ruin-level bolts.

After recalling the names of the bolts of lightning, Argentum remembered what Herellia told her a while ago, pondering over the first few buffs he would cast on her body before the first trial started. It did not take long for him to come to a decision as he let out a light chuckle, muttering to himself, “You know what they say, go big or go home.”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

Within a matter of a few seconds, Argentum hastily muttered incantations of two spells, allowing two balls, which were red and green respectively, to head towards Herellia and be absorbed by her body not long after.

“[Higher Ignis Magic: Ignis Fervor Maxima].”

“[Higher Zephyr Magic: Zephyr Magna Acceliaris].”

“I’ll save the other buffs for later,” he said not long after muttering the names of the spells he had cast, letting out a light chuckle as he radiated an aura of satisfaction. On the other hand, Horell noticed what Argentum had done and decided to cast a buff on his own on Herellia, sending a light cyan ball of energy towards her way.

“[Mana Resonance].”

Whoosh!

After Herellia had absorbed the buff Horell gave her, the crimson veins, which had disappeared after she had connected with the dark clouds up above, had now returned. The same went for the aura that radiated from her, albeit this time, the intensity of the aura had grown by a few notches thanks to the buffs Horell and Argentum had cast.

Casting her sense of vision towards the two as she radiated an aura of gratitude aimed at them, she then focused her sense of vision back on the dark clouds that covered the light blue sky. She was waiting for the lightning bolts to come striking down at her, deciding to use some of her skills to enhance her abilities even further.

Coincidentally, by the time she just finished activating her own skills…

The first bolt of Forsaken Lightning had finally struck down!

——–

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