I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 306: The Blood Empress Rises

Without waiting for Horell to answer her questions, Herellia went closer to where he was and stood in front of him. As Horell could not help but radiate an aura of confusion and curiosity as he wondered what Herellia was about to do, Herellia, on the other hand, calmly looked at the lightning pillars that were coming closer and closer to the two of them. While she was doing this, she allowed the energy inside her body to circulate as small chunks of her robe detached from the edges, transforming into small crimson petals that lightly floated in midair.

Of course, this had gone unnoticed under Horell’s sense of vision as it was focused on the lightning pillars rather than what Herellia was doing. Seeing that she was only calmly looking at the gradually closing lightning pillars without making a move, the aura of curiosity that suffused from Horell was gradually replaced with fear as he could not help but ask her, “What are you doing, Herellia? Didn’t you say just now that you were going to do your part?”

In response, Herellia let out a sound that was synonymous with the phrase of ‘be quiet’, prompting Horell to temporarily suppress his fear as she soon uttered, “Be quiet for a second, Horell. I’m waiting for the right time.”

“Right time? Right time for what?” Horell replied to her words with a question before mulling over what she was talking about. It did not take long for his sense of vision to redirect itself towards the lightning pillars as he instantly felt a bad premonition in his mind. Without delay, he asked with an aura of lingering hope around him, “Don’t tell me…you’re waiting for the lightning pillars to come closer?”

Herellia responded to his question with pure silence, tacitly agreeing that what she was currently doing was indeed the case. Then again, her sense of vision did not shirk away from the lightning pillars in the first case, utilizing it to the fullest extent as she waited for the right moment to attack. Naturally, with his personality, Horell started to dissuade Herellia from what she was doing, saying with a nervous chuckle, “You’re joking, right?”

“Are you seriously waiting for the lightning pillars to come closer before you make your move?” Horell soon asked her before continuing, “Do you really want us to be on the fine line between life and death before you make your move?”

“Herellia, this isn’t like y—” Unfortunately for him, before Horell could continue berating Herellia for what he thought was a bad decision, Herellia had finally made her move, summoning all of the energy in her body as she manipulated all of the small crimson petals she had formed towards the lightning pillars nearest to them.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

In less than an instant, a great number of crimson petals emerged out of nowhere from Horell’s perspective, bringing Horell an immense amount of shock as he did not know when Herellia started forming these petals. Nevertheless, it was at this moment that he realized that he was the one at fault, muttering to himself, “I should apologize to Herellia later.”

“For now, I’ll put a bit of distance from her so I don’t distract her from what she’s doing,” he said to himself not long after. But just as he was about to move farther away from where Herellia was, a great number of crimson petals soon surrounded him, prompting him to look at Herellia. Surprisingly, Herellia was looking at him with an aura of nonchalance surrounding her, only for it to turn into a light chuckle as she asked him, “Surprised?”

“Of course,” Horell said in a tone of slight concern. “You should’ve told me earlier that you were planning something like this, then I wouldn’t be saying all of those words to you!”

Rather than replying to his words seriously, Herellia instead responded with another chuckle as she said, “My bad, my bad.”

Just as she was about to continue their conversation, she noticed that the lightning pillars had finally gotten close enough through the crimson petals, prompting her to radiate an aura of bloodlust as she hastily told Horell, “Give me a second.”

Swish!

And just like that, Herellia’s attention was now fully focused on the swath of crimson petals she had created while waiting for the lightning pillars to come close once more. Without delay, she summoned all of the energy inside her body before infusing it towards the crimson petals as these petals soon arranged themselves in a mysterious formation. Not long after, this mysterious formation radiated a slightly intense crimson glow as the lines that made up a normal magic circle could be seen in between the petals.

Pushing outward with one of her palms, Herellia sent the crimson magic circle towards the nearing lightning pillars as she muttered, “[Blood Empress Decree: Verse One].”

Whoosh!

“[Submission].”

Swoosh! Fwoosh! Whish!

In an instant, the size of the magic circle had increased multiple times as it collided with the 10 nearest lightning pillars that were about to hit them. At first, Horell thought that the magic circle wouldn’t be able to do anything to the lightning pillars as it had not manifested anything, prompting him to close his sense of vision for a bit. But then, after noticing that nothing had happened to them for some time now, he decided to gradually open his eyes, only to be left at a loss for words as shock covered his whole body.

In his field of vision, he saw that 10 lightning pillars, which were the nearest to them, could not move any further beyond the large magic circle Herellia formed. And just as he thought that this was the limit of the magic circle, it then did something unbelievable to Horell, redirecting the energy of the lightning pillars towards the center of the magic circle, forcing them to clash against each other.

Bang!

As a result of the collision of a thousand Abyss-level lightning bolts, a loud explosion sound resounded from the collision as a shockwave covered a great portion of the surroundings as well. Due to the shockwave, Horell had no choice but to brace himself for the aftershocks as he hovered slightly above the ground, only for the shock that covered his body to intensify one step further.

“Who knew this skill was actually this overbearing,” Herellia muttered to herself in slight surprise as she looked at the magic circle she had conjured. Thanks to the great improvement in power she had undergone, it was no problem for her to ignore the shockwave that came from the collision of the lightning bolts, as well as the aftershocks that came with it. But just as she was about to focus her attention on the skill she had cast once more, she noticed that Horell was slightly struggling to endure the aftershocks.

Without hesitation, Herellia channeled all of her power towards one of her feet before stomping on the ground with full force, negating the aftershocks in one move. Although she knew that Horell was now looking at her as if she was a monster, she placed this thought at the back of her head as she focused her attention on the magic circle. At that moment, she noticed that a great mass of dark blue strands was formed from the collision, prompting her to use some of her energy to command the magic circle to make a small entrance for the dark blue strands to enter.

Naturally, after these dark blue strands found a small hole to pass through, they went to where Herellia was, being absorbed by her body in less than an instant. It only took a while for her to acclimate to the improvement brought about by 1,000 Abyss-level lightning bolts, allowing her to let out a sigh of contentment as she allowed the magic circle to continue defending the two of them from the lightning pillars.

“So…where were we?” These were the first words Herellia said to Horell after allowing him to see her current combat power. In response, Horell could only muster out one word from the shock he was feeling, looking at Herellia with an aura filled with awe and fear as he said, “Monster!”

At first, Herellia was stupefied to hear such a word from one of her lifelong companions, only for her to let out a boisterous and playful giggle soon after as she responded with, “Alright, alright. Call me whatever you want if that makes you happy.”

“Anyways, could you cast some regeneration buffs on me? I want to try something out,” Herellia said to him not long after, to which Horell replied with a tone of curiosity, “What do you want to do?”

“Well, I want to try one of the skills I’ve obtained from my new evolution. Plus, I have a great feeling that this would help me and you get out of this trial faster,” Herellia replied to his question with an aura of confidence and determination surrounding her, leaving Horell no choice but to let out a sigh as he followed her wishes.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

In a matter of a few seconds, quite a few balls of energy that varied in size were soon absorbed by Herellia’s body, enhancing the vitality and the vigorousness of the cells making up her body, as well as the energy flowing inside her body. Lightly nodding towards Horell as a gesture of gratitude to what he had done, she then told him, “Okay. The first thing we’re going to do is…”

“Split up.”

“Eh?” Listening to Herellia’s words, Horell thought that he had heard wrongly, asking Herellia to repeat her words one more time. After confirming that he had indeed not heard wrongly, Horell looked at Herellia with an aura of slight indignation as he asked her, “Then why didn’t you let me leave earlier? I was planning to distance myself while you were casting your skill so I don’t disturb you.”

“About that…” In response, Herellia let out a light and awkward chuckle as she asked Horell, “Could you give me around half of the energy inside your body?”

“Isn’t that just equivalent to telling me that I should go die?” Horell said in response, to which Herellia hastily replied, “No, no, no, no. I can assure you that you’ll definitely be safe. You’ll be under this magic circle anyway.”

Feeling that something was off, Horell soon pondered over Herellia’s words, trying to read between the lines. Fortunately, it did not take long for him to put two and two together as he looked at her with slight worry and asked, “You’re telling me…you’re leaving the protection of the magic circle you cast?”

“Yeah. Temporarily,” Herellia said as an aura of elation and expectation soon emanated from her as she said, “I just want to test a skill out.”

Listening to Herellia’s last words, Horell went silent for quite some time, allowing more and more lightning pillars to strike the magic circle protecting the two of them. At this moment, a total of 80 or so lightning pillars had now been dispelled by both Herellia and Horell.

In the end, Horell let out a sigh as he said, “Fine, fine. Here, take it.”

Whoosh!

Without delay, Horell summoned around half of the energy making up his body before sending it towards Herellia. As a result, the energy that made up his body started to flicker while the aura emanating Herellia had undergone a great change thanks to the energy infused into her. Letting out a sigh of contentment as she allowed the energy sent to her to fuse with her own energy, she then looked at Horell and warned him, “As long as you don’t go outside the boundary of this magic circle, you’re guaranteed to be safe.”

“Alright. I won’t go beyond this magic circle,” Horell said in a solemn tone as he hoped in his mind that Herellia would be safe in whatever she was about to do next. Lightly nodding as a response to Horell’s words, Herellia then went ahead and moved outside the protection of her magic circle as she hastily sent a strand of energy towards Argentum, who was looking at the two of them from afar.

“You finally contacted me,” Argentum said at the very instant the two of them were connected, letting out a light chuckle in the process. After that, he asked her, “I presume that the magic circle protecting Horell right now is one of the new skills you obtained, right?”

“Cool, right?” Herellia said in response to his words with a giggle, proud that she was able to unleash a skill with that level of power. Argentum replied to her question with what he truly felt, telling her, “Yeah, it’s pretty cool. Anyways, why did you contact me?”

“I want you to cast all of the movement speed boosting buffs you have in your arsenal,” Herellia replied, to which Argentum followed without hesitation. While casting the spells that boosted movement speed, he could not help but wonder as to why Herellia, who surely knew that buffing herself up would lead to the difficulty of the trial increasing, willingly asked him to cast buffs on her all of a sudden.

“Well, I’ll find out sooner or later,” Argentum muttered to himself as he soon sent balls of energy towards Herellia, somewhat enhancing the aura of power around Herellia as soon as the balls were absorbed by her body. Herellia then went ahead and closed her sense of vision for a bit as she allowed her body to acclimate to the buffs she had obtained. While doing so, a lightning pillar seemed to have noticed that Herellia was outside of the magic circle’s protection, proceeding to head towards her without hesitation to smite her down.

Unfortunately for the lightning pillar, Herellia was one step faster.

Whoosh!

Just as the lightning pillar was about to hit Herellia, Herellia opened her vision before zooming towards another area at full speed, using the buffs she had obtained to their fullest extent as multiple crimson petals were soon created from the edges of her robe.

It did not take long for a large swath of crimson petals to cover most of Herellia’s upper torso, prompting her to stop as she then willed these petals to move in accordance with what she was thinking.

Swish! Swish!

Gradually, the crimson petals started to converge in front of Herellia as a rough object started to form. In the midst of the forming process, Herellia went ahead and summoned out a great portion of the energy inside her body before infusing it towards the mass of crimson petals in front of her. Surprisingly, as if the mass in front of her was a human that finally found water, the energy she infused into the mass of crimson petals was hastily gobbled up as she moved her mind at the highest speed it could go.

Whirr…whirr…

Not long after, the rough mass of crimson petals had finally transformed into a tangible object that Animates recognized, turning into a crimson halberd that floated in midair. Without hesitation, Herellia gripped tightly on the halberd’s shaft before getting a feel for it. After feeling that the weight of the halberd was just right, she then focused her sense of vision towards the remaining lightning pillars on the sky, noticing that a great portion was heading towards her way.

In response, Herellia inwardly let out a loud chuckle as she pointed the halberd towards the gradually nearing lightning pillars before slashing down horizontally.

Whish!

Surprisingly, as if Herellia had parted the clouds with a single wave of a sword, the lightning pillars that were getting closer and closer to her had been bisected, transforming into dark blue strands that hastily made their way to where she was before being absorbed by her body.

She then closed her sense of vision for a bit as she committed the sensation she felt just now into her memory as she muttered, “70 lightning pillars were dispelled in just one move. If I lured more lightning pillars to come closer, would it be possible to cut more at once?”

With that in mind, she opened her sense of vision once more before taunting the lightning pillars to come get a piece of her. And just like that, a great number of lightning pillars, which were afraid of coming closer a while ago, decided to head towards Herellia and stop her before she could use that move again.

Of course, she did not let that happen as she gripped on the crimson halberd far tighter than before. After that, she swung it once more, radiating an aura of excitement as she shouted, “[Blood Empress Decree: Verse Five].”

“[Domination]!”

——–

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