The New Executive

A few minutes later, Herellia and Aurus landed in front of the entryway to the Tempest Branch Alliance's base of operations. The two glanced at the entrance for a bit before rolling inside, since the entrance was not really unique in any way other than the fact that it could blend in with the nature.

Rustle...rustle...

A soft breeze could be heard as Aurus and Herellia slowly rolled...well hovered towards the inside of the alliance's base of operations.

"Wow..." Looking at the base of operations of the alliance that he was going to join, Aurus could not help but exclaim this word. He exclaimed not out of awe, but of shock.

What was seen in front of him was an extremely barren space that spanned around 20 to 30 meters in diameter. Nonetheless, the shape of the hall was extremely neat, looking like it was man-made. This was the only thing that stood out from Aurus' vision, other than that, nothing else.

"Is this really your base of operations?" Aurus could not help but ask as he looked at Herellia, who was releasing an aura that made it feel like this sight was normal.

"Hm?" Herellia let out a cheery aura as he replied. "Yes, this is our base of operations, but this is only the place where all the members gather. You haven't seen everything yet."

"Horell!" Ignoring the shock exuded by Aurus' aura, Herellia shouted out as her voice resounded through the hall.

Whoosh!

Not long after, a silhouette manifested from thin air as it appeared a few decimeters away from where Herellia and Aurus stood.

"Hehe!" The silhouette laughed as it gradually became more and more corporeal in front of the two's vision. Not long after, the silhouette became fully corporeal as it said, "Well if it isn't leader and Aurus! Nice to meet you again!"

Aurus could not help but look with shock at the silhouette in front of him. Although he was familiar with the silhouette's abilities as it casted an extremely strong barrier around him as he fought against Loran, and the fact that it was the first X-grade Inanimate he scanned, it would be hard for him to forget.

"Horell!" Aurus felt like kneeling down in front of Horell as he was basically the upgraded version of him in terms of magic. Nonetheless, he could not kneel down as he had no legs, instead he exuded an aura of reverence as he looked at him.

"It seems both of you have reaped something good from the Tempest Ruin." Horell glanced at the two of them and could not help but feel that the aura they exuded was stronger than before.

From Horell's perspective, Herellia was exuding an aura of an extremely large blade that was concealed behind a sheath, filling the air with the sensation of a serial killer near him. As for Aurus, he could feel a tornado coming from Aurus, which was definitely surprising for an A-grade to exude.

"Horell, I'll tell you the gains of our travel later," Herellia went closer to Horell and said. "Also, I'm sorry that I'm troubling you to do this, but could you call all of the members that are outside and tell them that they should come back to the base as fast as possible?"

Horell could not help but chuckle as he received Herellia's orders. "Not a problem at all. Are you finally going to let Aurus join the alliance?"

As a response, Herellia exuded a cheery aura as she said to Aurus, "Follow me."

All this time, Aurus stayed silent as he listened to the conversation between the two. Even at the moment Herellia called her to follow him, he just followed silently. He did not know why he had to stay silent, but he felt like he just had to.

...

"Wow..." As Aurus followed Herellia through a long corridor that connected to the big hall he saw before, Aurus could not help but exclaim in admiration at the sight he was seeing. It was a far cry from the hall he saw earlier.

In front of him was basically a small ecosystem, just like the place within the Tempest Cliff Inheritance where the jade statue of Evinkell...er, Kevin stood. The place he was currently looking at spanned around 100 meters in diameter, with five large buildings being placed in a pentagon formation throughout the place.

"Come and follow me to the alliance lobby," Herellia said after seeing that Aurus was done admiring the sight. Aurus exuded an affirmative aura and followed her with the [Gale Hover] spell activated, reducing the amount of time they had to use to head to the alliance lobby.

Around ten or so minutes later, Herellia and Aurus arrived in front of a building that looked like it was made from two stone blocks stacked on top of each other, with the stone block on top slightly smaller than the one below. In a sense, it looked like an extremely crude pagoda.

"We're here, the alliance lobby," Herellia could not help but say before looking at Aurus and noticing that he was silent all this time. "Why are you silent?"

"Well..." Since he was asked, Aurus had no choice but to speak. "I don't really know why I didn't say anything throughout all of this. I guess it's respect?"

"Respect huh?" Herellia let out a chuckle before saying, "To be honest, I respect you more since you brought me to a place that allowed me to grow stronger."

"Relax Aurus, this alliance isn't strict at all, think of it as one big family," Herellia added.

Afterwards, Herellia started to roll inside the alliance lobby, leaving Aurus alone.

"A family huh..." Now that he thought about, Aurus did not know what having a family felt like. In his previous life, his parents died early, while the relatives that took care of him only sent him items and money once he grew old enough to live alone.

Letting out a sigh as he placed the thought at the back of his mind, Aurus rolled to where Herellia was.

...

A few minutes later, Aurus was greeted by the sight of Herellia standing beside what seemed to be a magic circle formed by nature as a large crystal in the shape of pyramid hung from the ceiling directly above the circle.

Aurus thought about the placement of the crystal and the magic circle for a bit and asked Herellia not long after, "I have to stand here to be admitted into the alliance?"

"Mhm," Herellia let out a cheery aura as she replied. "Don't worry, this won't hurt you at all, since we don't have any sense of pain anyway."

"That's true," Aurus could not help but think that Herellia broke some sort of wall as she said that. Nonetheless, Aurus rolled towards the center of the magic circle and let Herellia do her thing.

"Hey Aurus?" Unexpectedly, Herellia asked Aurus while he was waiting for her to do her thing.

"Yeah?" Aurus replied.

"Do you still remember the hierarchy of members in our alliance?" Herellia asked.

Aurus went silent for a bit before replying with an affirmative aura. "I do, the hierarchy from lowest to highest are normal members, Executives, Pillars, and you right?"

"Yeah," Herellia let out a cheerful aura as she heard Aurus' answer. "I'll be giving you the position of Executive later, I'll tell you why after I introduce you to the other members."

'Alright then." Aurus had no qualms with what Herellia said, letting her take the lead.

"Hooh...haah..." After saying what she had to say, Herellia started to breath through her body as her SP radiated outwards, gradually forming a connection with the crystal above the magic circle.

Click.

Not long after, a click sound could be heard as the aura around Herellia intensified by a hundred times. She then looked towards the magic circle where Aurus was standing on and then chanted a few sentences.

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

"With the power vested in me by the Deity Crystal, I shall now announce that the being standing on the Magic Circle of Judgement shall be an Executive of the Tempest Branch Alliance, wielding a power incomparable to before."

"Ariansus Holos Branchii, Exvetibus Grandei!"

Whoosh!

As Herellia was finished chanting, the crystal above the magic circle started to glow faintly. The glow became more and more intense as time passed before shooting out a beam of light towards Aurus' body.

As for Aurus, he did not feel any pain at all. Instead, his vision was filled with extremely white light. This situation lasted for a few seconds before his vision turned back to normal. A few seconds later, a notification sound resounded through his mind as a screen appeared in front of his field of vision.

Ding!

'Congratulations Aurus for joining the [Tempest Branch Alliance]!'

'The passive skill [Power of the Alliance Lv.5 (Executive A-grade Variant)] has been obtained.'

'The active skill [Alliance Call] has been obtained.'

'The active skill [Judgement] has been obtained.'

'Power wielded by Aurus in the alliance: Executive level.'