Chapter 409 - Heading For The Kingdom

"What do you mean by we can't?" Naturally, Herellia and Horell found the answer incredulous after hearing the current state Aurus was in from Argentum. They were obviously inclined to help out their friend Aurus since he was going through a problem, but instead of supporting them, Aurus's clone, Argentum, instead told them that they wouldn't be of help to Aurus at all.

"Do you think we can't fight? We've both fought against many opponents throughout our lives, Argentum," she continued while Argentum just listened in silence. "If you still think we can't help Aurus out with the level of power, then at least tell us how."

Feeling that her rationality had been clouded in a fit of rage, Argentum quickly remind her, "Just so you don't forget, Aurus has already destroyed five villages, ten towns, and three cities. Think about that for a second, Herellia. Settlements wherein thousands of people live in it. Sure, you might be able to fight against a whole village if you went all out, but it would be a pyrrhic victory."

He then added, "Fighting against a whole town, you would need at least 100 more copies of yourself to do that. As for fighting against a whole city…maybe 100,000 copies of yourself wouldn't even be enough to achieve what Aurus did…alone."

"I'm not exactly saying that you two are of no help, Herellia," Argentum said, letting out a light sigh. "What I'm saying is that, even if you two helped Aurus out, you would just die for nothing. The same goes for myself. I might be strong, but I'd still die if I tried to help Aurus out."

"Then…what should we do?" Realizing that her earlier thoughts were foolish, Herellia went silent for a bit, while Horell just listened to the conversation of the two. Seeing that the two of them were staring at him, waiting for his answer, Argentum could not help but let out a long sigh. "For now, nothing. There's really not much we can do to help Aurus out."

"But…" As the two heard this word, their interests were piqued as they waited for Argentum to continue. "If my hunch is hopefully correct, then by the time Aurus makes another move, we'll probably be able to help."

"And when will that next time be?" Horell asked, to which Argentum shrugged his shoulders. "I have no clue. It could take only a few hours, it could take a few days. Heck, it could even take a few weeks or a few months for him to make another move. I can't read his thoughts anymore, so I really have no clue."

Hearing that, Herellia and Horell could not help but look down at the ground, both of them having glum expressions. Scratching his head as he wondered what he could do, Argentum eventually offered, "Well, my town is always up to date on news related to Aurus, so if you two wouldn't mind…would you two like to join me back at my town?"

In response to his offer, both Herellia and Horell looked at each other for a bit before nodding as their way of saying yes to his offer. Being the representative of the two, Horell went ahead and said, "Alright, we'll join you. I have a feeling that the chance of us being able to help would only arise when we're with you, so I'll just notify the elders to manage the alliance in my stead while I'm gone."

Nodding in response, Argentum then looked at Herellia and asked, "How about you?"

"Other than the fact that I have no more attachments unlike Horell, what else do you want me to say?" Herellia shrugged her shoulders as she replied. "Horell has already said what I wanted to say anyway."

"Okay. Let me just prepare for our departure," Argentum said as he nodded in response to Herellia's words. Circulating his energy towards a certain spot in his body, he then contacted a certain person to come to where he and the other two were. About a minute later, a rift appeared a couple meters above them, revealing a gentleman wearing a blue tuxedo.

Naturally, both Herellia and Horell were surprised to see such a man appear in front of them all of a sudden, prompting them to keep up their guards. However, by the time the man exuded his aura, the two instantly lost all will to fight against the man, quickly realizing that even if they resisted, the man would still have his way around them.

"Felix, stop scaring them, will you?" Noticing what the man in the blue tuxedo, Argentum could not help but let out a sigh, prompting the man to laugh out in response. "Sorry, sorry. I just wanted to tease your friends."

Whoosh!

Not long after, the suffocating aura pressing down on both Herellia and Horell had vanished in an instant, allowing them to breathe easy again as Argentum introduced Felix to the two and vice versa. "Felix, this is Herellia and Horell. I'm sure you know of Herellia already since she was being taught by Eleanor. As for Horell, he's a good friend of mine from quite some time ago."

"Of course, of course. Glad to meet you eye-to-eye, Miss Herellia," Felix said in response to Argentum's words, lightly smiling as he bowed towards Herellia. He then looked at Horell and went silent for a bit, prompting the latter to ask, "Is there something wrong?"

"I think I know why you asked me to come here," Felix said not long after to Argentum, to which the latter let out a light chuckle, saying, "Was it that obvious? In any case, could you teach him the technique?"

"Well, he's a Pseudo-Animate that's more attuned to mana than either you or I, so he's a better fit for the technique." Felix nodded as he snapped his fingers, sending a few strands of blue energy towards Horell. After Horell absorbed those strands of blue energy, he soon gained knowledge of the technique Argentum used, gradually turning him into a person with an appearance that surprised Argentum, Felix, and Eleanor.

Although it wasn't certain whether it was because the energy he was made of was dark cyan, but the color of his hair was similar to it, taking on a shade of light blue, while his irises instead took on a shade of crystalline blue. Sporting a light blue long-sleeved t-shirt, as well as some gray pants, it made Horell give off the feeling that he was slightly sporty.

Nevertheless, with Horell activating [False Visage of the Animate], Argentum soon activated the skill as well, returning to his human appearance as he asked Felix another favor. "Felix, could you take us to Verdant Breeze Town as soon as possible?"

"Sure, why not?" With a smile, Felix went ahead and enveloped the four of them in his energy before opening up a rift. Then, they passed through it, hastily making their way back to Verdant Breeze Town.

…

Back in the present day, in an area devoid of living beings.

Aurus had just gotten out of his seclusion after one and a half weeks of digesting the improvements in strength he had received from killing three cities' worth of people, as well as digesting the experience he had obtained while fighting against those that were of higher rank, specifically, finding ways to work around their Ideas.

With his comprehension over the Epiphany of Tempest now at Level 67, Aurus was confident that he would be able to plow through the next level of settlement above a city, which was a province. Although in reality, a province was just made up of a few cities banding together, there was still a person far above them in terms of authority and power, so it could be said that these multiple cities were a single entity and not at the same time.

Of course, Aurus had no care for such things like these, only thinking of provinces as a place where he would be able to kill more people that could give him even more Wind energy particles. With that in mind, he activated [Zenith Nihility Dash] and cranked it up to maximum as the primal instinct in his body commanded the system to show him a map of the continent.

After finding the province that was nearest to where he currently was, he then closed the screen brought up by the system before starting to make his way to the province with his movement skill. By the time he had arrived at the nearest province, it had only taken him around half an hour, even though the distance between him and the province was far greater than when he had to head to his first city.

However, once he had arrived at the province, one thing glaringly stood out among the cities, towns, and villages he had destroyed before. Unlike those settlements, where there would be still people more or less roaming around, in the province he had selected…there were none!

Well, to be more exact, there were still a select few throughout the area, but considering that their numbers were so little and their power wasn't that high, Aurus thought it was a waste of his strength for him to destroy one province just to kill all of these people for a measly amount of experience. Nevertheless, with such a drastic change in terms of the number of people he could kill, he could not help but ponder over it, with his primal instinct quickly coming to the conclusion that the people were relocated while Aurus had undergone seclusion.

With that in mind, Aurus could not help but become slightly furious, wondering why the strong individuals of the continent were barring him from getting any stronger. In any case, he knew that there were still multiple other provinces on the continent, so he went ahead and headed to the province that was nearest to the first province he arrived in.

Unfortunately, just like the first province, the second province was also more or less devoid of people, slightly increasing the rage Aurus felt. At this moment, he was feeling indignant for not being given the chance to max out his comprehension over the Epiphany of Tempest. But of course, he still had high hopes that the other provinces wouldn't be the same as these first two, thinking of it as just mere coincidence.

However, as he arrived at more and more provinces, the conclusion of almost every person fleeing the provinces had appeared in his head by the time he returned to the first province, making him stand in the middle of the street for a bit in silence as he wondered what he should do next.

At this point, there were two things he could do. The first thing was to head back to the cities and go on a massacre once more, only heading to the largest settlements once he was sure that he had become strong enough to stand up against them. As for the second thing…it was to instantly head straight for the largest settlements in the continent, the kingdoms.

As Aurus continued to ponder over the two choices, he thought of the first choice as being the ideal choice in this case, allowing him to fly under the radar of strong individuals while eventually gaining the strength to fight against said strong individuals. But surprisingly, as if his primal instinct had gone against its pledge of prioritizing the survival of Aurus's body, it instead festered thoughts of being able to fight against a kingdom.

Naturally, Aurus already had the strength to fight against a kingdom, though it doesn't come without its downsides. To have the strength to fight against a whole kingdom, he would have to activate a great portion of his buffs just to be even in strength compared to the strongest individuals. Plus, if he wanted his strength to go beyond strong individuals, he had the ability to do so, but once he used up the ability, he would be crippled for quite a long time, basically putting his back on the wall when that time came.

But in the end, Aurus had eventually come to a decision. Being led by the primal instinct, Aurus started to teleport to the place that no sane person would ever head to when thinking about the chances of victory.

His next destination…the Seraph Kingdom.