Whoos.h.!.+

A few hours later, Kurohana was finally within proximity of her palace, making her let out a sigh of relief as she could not help but mutter, "I wonder how long I've been gone."

Not daring to waste time, Kurohana darted towards the inside of her giant white cube, instantly seeing the orb which showed the happenings around Aurus near the center of the insides. She walked towards it and conjured a chair to sit on not far away from the orb, sitting on it at the instant it was done.

She then waved her hands for a bit as she tried to call for the things that happened to Aurus while she was gone, easily finding out that he had suffered through a bout of bad luck, though that was somewhat mitigated with the summoning of an SS-grade ally.

"I should have created a clone while I was gone," Kurohana could not help but sigh as she looked at the current Aurus who was travelling through the pathway with Herellia. "If it weren't for me being gone, then Aurus would not have any bad luck at all. Thanks to me being gone, my plans of Aurus being used as a weapon material in that world have been delayed slightly."

Staring a short bit at the two through the orb, Kurohana got a spark of inspiration, to which she could not help but lightly chuckle at the thought of it. "Familia, I hope you don't mind me using your material."

"But before I do just that, I should really ask for permission."

Tempest Cliff, Tempest Branch Alliance Base.

At the current speed of the two, it did not take them long to head towards the Alliance Lobby of the base situated within the small ecosystem of the base.

Thud. Thud.

Looking at the insides of the alliance lobby that did not go under any significant change at all, Aurus could not help but look at Herellia and ask, "So…why'd you bring me here?"

"Didn't I tell you?" Herellia, who was busy releasing her SP to connect it to the large crystal that was situated on the ceiling of the lobby, could not help but stop releasing her SP as she looked at him with a bit of confusion. "You're going to replace h.o.r.ell as one of the Pillar level members of the alliance. And since you're grown to an S-grade Inanimate, I'm increasing the effects of the alliance buff as well."

"You're actually serious?" Aurus thought that Herellia was joking as she said this while they were traversing the pathway. "Wouldn't the other members become mad when they find out what you're doing?"

"Other than the Executive level members, who might think that it's too early to give someone like you, a newcomer of the alliance, a level of authority like this, the Pillar level members have no objections to this since I've asked them about this a few days ago," Continuing to acc.u.mulate the SP around her body, Herellia replied to Aurus' question.

"But what if I betray you…just like h.o.r.ell?" Although Aurus was thankful to Herellia for putting her trust on him, he did feel that it was way too soon for him to become a Pillar level member.

"Yeah, that's impossible. I know your motives," Herellia did not get agitated at Aurus' words, facing them without worry as she replied with a slightly cheerful tone. "Since we both know we have systems, I won't hide anything further from you. I have a skill named [Eye of Undeceiving Kin] that allows me to see through the ulterior motives of beings…though its limited to early Animates at most since I haven't leveled it up that much."

"And through that skill, I found out that…" Herellia looked at Aurus before continuing. "From the time you entered the alliance up till now, you won't betray the alliance since you aim to become the strongest. Why would you rely on nefarious means to become the strongest?"

Hearing the words that came out of Herellia's nonexistent mouth, Aurus could not help but chuckle. "Well, you're not wrong." Afterwards, he then placed himself at the center of the magic circle under the crystal that hung on the ceiling of the lobby, remembering the first time he went through this process. "Take your time, I don't mind waiting for a bit."

"I'm actually done preparing," Herellia said as all of the acc.u.mulated SP that circled around her body started to coalesce into a ball before heading towards the crystal.

Fwoos.h.!.+

Not long after absorbing the SP, the crystal shot out a beam of light as the runes surrounding the magic circle where Aurus stood started to light up one by one, covering Aurus' body with a white shroud of light that made him look like some sort of stick deity.

As for Herellia, she could not look at Aurus' current appearance at all as she was focused on the crystal, muttering before her voice got louder and louder until it could deafen a person's ears.

"As the leader of the Tempest Branch Alliance, I beseech the G.o.ds to heed my call."

"With the power vested in me and the power given to me by the Deity Crystal, I shall now announce that a previous Executive of the Alliance has now spread its wings, becoming a greater power that could affect the balance of the alliance, yet its main purpose is to help it wholeheartedly. Indeed, I now announce the creation of a Pillar of the Alliance, serving as its guardian and savior in times of need."

"With these words said, please accept my plea."

"Ariansus Triholos Spiritas Branchus, Pilares Ultimatum!"

Whoos.h.!.+

At the instant Herellia was finished with her incantation, the shroud of light covering Aurus' body intensified in brightness as a newfound power was instilled inside Aurus, heightening his senses for a bit as he had a feeling that could peer through walls and see the whole alliance within a single glance.

This sensation lasted for a bit before dissipating, with the light radiating from the crystal and the magic circle dissipating as well, leaving only a powered up Aurus and a nonchalant looking Herellia within the insides of the lobby.

Aurus closed his sense of vision for a bit before opening it once more, trying to get accustomed to his newfound powers. It was a rare occurrence for him to obtain a great spike in his stats, hence the need to become accustomed.

It took him a few seconds to get accustomed before he hovered towards Herellia and got near her as he said, "I feel…stronger."

"Well, of course you do," Herellia could not help but sense the majestic aura surrounding Aurus and chuckle for a bit. "With your new standing, I'm quite sure that you can defeat the other Pillar level members, and also fight me to a standstill if push comes to shove."

"Well, we can't say that for sure, since I still have to use a lot of skills to even out the playing field," Aurus thought that it was laughable for Herellia to tell him that he could evenly fight against her. "Unlike you, you only need to use the better version of your originally strong [Sanguine Art] to toy around with me."

"Who says I'm not relying on skills as well?" Herellia could not help but have the urge to tell Aurus her skills. "Since you're still S-grade, I presume that you're quite lacking in pa.s.sive skills, yes? Well I don't, I got tons of 'em."

Sensing the somewhat arrogant aura popping up from Herellia, Aurus had the urge to put Herellia down a peg. "So what? I have a lot of active buffs, when combined with my pa.s.sive skills, would allow me to attack at the same level as you!"

"Oh?" Herellia could not help but radiate a mischievous aura as Aurus felt a nonexistent smile creeping up her body. "Do you want to fight it out, then?"

Whoos.h.!.+

In an instant, a blood red tendril was formed over Herellia's body, making Aurus shudder as he said, "No, no, no. There must be another way to measure this…right?"

Without giving any time for Aurus to breathe, Herellia chuckled as she waved down her tendril.

"Nope."

Bang!

"Ahhh!"

A few minutes later, the one-sided fight between Herellia and Aurus finally came to end, with Aurus being beaten to a near pulp. Thankfully, Aurus had his own healing skill that allowed him to have no injuries at the end of the fight. He also took this time to talk about their respective systems since they both knew the existence of both anyway.

Fortunately, Herellia was not privy to this since this was the first time she had someone to share her system with, with others not even knowing the existence of the system she and Aurus had.

After a hearty talk that lasted around half an hour, Aurus and Herellia were finished talking about their systems, leaving them dumbfounded by the other's system.

"Man, I can't help but feel jealous when I think of your system," Herellia could not help but look at Aurus as they stood by the entrance of the alliance lobby. "Not only do you have the most basic form of the system, you also have other systems to help boost your power more, Ally system, Weapon system, Artificial Intelligence system, if I had that, then I would have been an Animate by now!"

"It's not like your system ain't overpowered as well!" Aurus could not help but refute Herellia's words. "Sure, we both have the most basic form of the system, but you can nurture a weapon through your body and create Blood Contracts that's basically akin to my Ally system. Not only that, you can learn skills extremely quickly!"

After their long talk, the one that Aurus found out from Herellia was that she could easily max out the skills she learned within minutes, the longer only taking hours at most. As for Aurus, although he had still not peered into the full capabilities of the Learning Module, it would take him days or even weeks of grinding to raise his skills to max level.

"Don't you have the Learning module to solve that problem?" Herellia could not help but recall this portion of Aurus' system.

"Although it's quite useful, it could only nurture one skill at most. That would just leave me one less skill to grind," Aurus could not help but sigh at this thought. He could not help but think at this time as to why he got addicted to a game such as Infinite Stick Evolution.

"You do know…there's a way to reduce the grind…right?" Deciding that it was for the better for the alliance, Herellia finally talked about what was on her mind after a moment of silence.

"Eh?" Aurus could not help but exclaim as he looked at Herellia. "There is? Do I have to fiddle with the system to speed it up?"

"No, not at all," Herellia radiated an aura that basically said no to Aurus' question. "It's an item that you use to max out your skill's level, and enhance your skill learning speed process by a bit. Though it's a bit rare to obtain."

"Can you tell me about this item?" Since Herellia was able to pique his interest, even if it could be a bluff, he would try to find out about this to the bitter end.

"Sure, I can even tell you where to get one." Herellia did not mind Aurus asking about this as her aura became cheerful. "Although they come in many forms and grades, they're only known through one name."

"Comprehension Leaves."