I Reincarnated As A Stick

Chapter 336: Truths Should Be Heard

While both Felix and Rosalia appeared in front of Eleanor, fulfilling their part of Argentum’s plan, Argentum, on the other hand, went ahead and fulfilled his part of the plan, landing in front of Melzarin without hesitation.

Bang! Thud!

With him relying on the element of free fall, a slightly large crater appeared around where he landed, kicking up a bit of dust that aroused Melzarin’s senses, which were focused on Eleanor all this time. Of course, he also noticed both Felix and Rosalia appearing in front of Eleanor, but since Argentum was closer to him, he decided he was more of a priority.

Focusing all of his fighting intent towards Argentum, Melzarin focused his vision onto him before asking in his haughty tone, “And what are you doing here, Argentum? You know that every move you do will be futile since there’s a large gap between us, right?”

“Who says I’m going to fight against you?” Argentum hastily responded in a confident tone, utilizing all of the buffs he had in his arsenal to combat against the pressure of Melzarin’s aura. Not long after, the pressure Argentum felt from Melzarin’s aura had turned negligible, allowing him to stand tall in front of the latter.

Knowing how large the gap between him and Argentum was, Melzarin was quite surprised to see that Argentum was handling the power of his aura quite well, even considering the fact that he was only focusing around 30% of it at him. Since he was more rational in terms of fighting when compared to Eleanor, he took note of Argentum’s previous statement, prompting him to relax his guard a bit. Of course, it wasn’t enough to remove the aura surrounding Argentum.

Nevertheless, Argentum could not help but let out an inward sigh of relief, thinking that the hardest step in convincing Melzarin was finally done. Taking in a deep breath as he collected and organized his thoughts, he then looked directly at Melzarin and asked, “Melzarin, what do you think of Eleanor?”

“Huh?!” Not expecting that kind of question from the get go, Melzarin was caught off guard as a flustered tone accompanied his response. Then again, as someone who owned an inheritance, he had to keep his cool at all times, never to give the opponent an opening. Lightly coughing soon after, a solemn tone accompanied his response as he said, “Well, Eleanor is a great being. She’s quite well-versed in the arts regarding the Fire element, and she’s also an inheritance owner like me.”

“Well, I was expecting that kind of answer from the start, I guess,” Argentum said not long after Melzarin was finished responding, letting out a light sigh before sending a large strand of energy towards him. At first, Melzarin thought that he was going to be attacked in secret, though even if he was, he would be able to defend against it either way. Of course, Argentum had an idea on what was going inside his mind, prompting him to say to Melzarin, “Don’t resist it. It’s just the usual communication line.”

Although Melzarin had his doubts, he decided to listen to Argentum’s words, allowing the strand of energy the latter sent to be absorbed by his body as a connection of both their minds had been established. Soon after, the sound of Argentum’s voice resounded in Melzarin’s head as he asked, “Can you hear me?”

“I can,” Melzarin responded, his tone still solemn. Perhaps, even slightly arrogant. Argentum lightly nodded in response to Melzarin’s words, taking a quick look at what was happening between Eleanor and the two. Surprisingly, even with the buffs he had applied on them a while ago, Felix and Rosalia were being pushed back by Eleanor, whose flames were now of a different color.

Pondering as to why that was the case, he then remembered that Felix mentioned to him that Eleanor had not gone berserk yet, deciding that this was a good way to segue into the crux of the matter when it came to Melzarin. Thinking up of a good question, Argentum then said to him, “You know what? Let’s skip the matter of what you think about Eleanor for now. But I do have a question regarding her.”

“And what might that question be?” Melzarin asked, his arrogance slightly disappearing.

“Felix mentioned to me a while ago that Eleanor had not gone berserk yet,” Argentum replied before adding, “Although I’ve been with Eleanor for quite some time now, I haven’t known this side of her before. Could you tell me what he meant by her going berserk?”

“By Felix, do you mean the Grand Blue Master perchance?” Before answering his question, Melzarin decided to respond with a question of his own, to which Argentum succinctly replied, “Yes. I obtained [Water Affinity] from his inheritance.”

“I see…” Melzarin said soon after, deciding to take a look at the trio as well. Seeing how it seemed that the three were in a stalemate so far, even though Eleanor was gradually getting an edge over the two, he quickly organized his thoughts and recalled all he knew about Eleanor’s berserk mode.

Not long after, he redirected his vision towards Argentum before responding, “Well, it’s pretty much what it is. Eleanor going berserk is basically her discarding all her rationality in exchange for greater power. Of course, she can’t enter that state directly. Well, to be more exact, she doesn’t want to directly enter the state. Instead, she decided to enter the state in stages in order to keep even a smidgen of her rationality while she’s berserk. In total, there are three stages, with the first two being the precursor to her final stage.”

“The first stage is when her flames turn dark, as what we’re seeing right now,” Melzarin explained before pointing at the three. “She doesn’t really have a name for this stage, but I just call it the Darkflame stage since…it’s kind of obvious. Her combat power increases by a decent margin while her rationality takes a small hit.”

“The second stage, she does have a name for it. She calls it the Eclipse stage, given how the flames now have a hint of white inside them,” he continued. “Sacrificing a bit more of her rationality, her flames now have a slight corrosion effect, allowing her to easily break through energy barriers and constructs.”

“Of course, her combat power in the second stage is still nothing compared to the final stage,” he said before taking in a deep breath. “At this stage, even I, who’s considered as someone at the stronger side of the spectrum amongst the inheritance owners, wouldn’t even be able to last 100 moves from her.”

“This stage, just like the first stage, doesn’t have a name. But from the flames she creates in this stage, I could say without a doubt that Samsara is the best fit for this stage, taking on a subdued gray while you feel life and death emanating from it.”

“Naturally, with her only having a small part of her rationality at this stage, it’s hard for her to discern foes from allies, which is why she rarely uses it,” Melzarin said before adding, “It’s quite weird as to why she would use such a technique in this fight.”

Hearing this, Argentum could not help but ponder over it and say, “Well, I guess it has something to do with you.”

“Me? What did I do?” Melzarin hastily asked, his arrogance now gone. At this moment, a more relaxed tone resounded from him.

“Whenever you meet Eleanor, what do you do?” Argentum decided to get straight to the point, asking this exact question. In an instant, Melzarin rummaged through his memories, saying with a confident aura, only to turn slightly flustered not long after, “Well, I just do what beings who want to show their love…to others do.”

“Such as?” Argentum asked, to which Melzarin said, “Boast in front of her, make her feel inferior, the usual stuff.”

“Oh my god. Those two actually weren’t kidding when they said that,” Argentum muttered soon after, which made Melzarin slightly curious as he asked, “Is there something wrong?”

“Uh…Melzarin. I can call you Melzarin, right?” Argentum said in response to Melzarin’s words, to which the latter nonchalantly nodded in agreement, not wondering how Argentum found his real name out. Soon after, his expression turned into that of enlightenment and shock as he listened to Argentum’s next question.

“How do I say this in the best way possible…hmm…ah.”

“Melzarin, have you ever wondered if Felix and Rosalia’s advice from back then was false?”

“Never in my whole life,” Melzarin responded before adding, “I’m quite close to them, so why would I doubt them?”

‘I…I’m at a loss for words,’ Argentum thought to himself, wondering how such a strong being could trust the words of his friends even though they were blatant lies. Furiously scratching his head as he tried to think up of a way to say it in the best way possible, he eventually discarded this thought as he decided that it was better to get straight to the point.

“Melzarin…” Argentum said soon after, gaining Melzarin’s attention as he asked, “What is it?”

“I’m sorry to say this, but…” Argentum responded soon after.

“You’re fucking stupid.”

“Huh?” Melzarin was once again caught off guard by Argentum’s words, not expecting to hear that coming from a being he had just met. Naturally, the reaction to that would be on the aggressive side, with Melzarin gradually increasing the pressure of his aura on Argentum. Fortunately, it did not continue as Argentum continued, “You’re fucking stupid for still believing in Felix and Rosalia’s words. They’re lies, man. Blatant. Stupid. Lies!”

“Do you really fucking think a woman would fall for you if you decided to boast about your merits in front of her? Do you think she’d fall head over heels for you if you decided to say to her one day ‘Hey, you’re shit’?”

“Of course not!” At this point, a rage had consumed Argentum out of nowhere as he continued to talk. “Naturally, there are some exceptions to this, but for the most part, no woman would be sane to be with such an abusive man like that! You gotta show love, care, and compassion, man! Make them feel like being with you is worth it! Never shove your pride up their asses!”

“You’re better than that, Melzarin! Act like one!” Once he finished saying these words, Argentum gasped for air, seemingly venting out all of the rage that had consumed his body in the heat of the moment. Fortunately, he regained his composure, noticing that an aura of repentance, disappointment, confusion, sadness, and everything else negative had taken hold of Melzarin, the aura binding him a while ago now gone.

At this point, Argentum felt that he had gone too far with his words, wondering if he should apologize to Melzarin. But then, all of a sudden, Melzarin gradually looked at Argentum and asked with a hint of hope, not utilizing the connection they had.

“Do you think…I still have a chance…to redeem myself?”

Although he wasn’t expecting such a question to come out of Melzarin’s mouth so quickly, Argentum took in a deep breath before responding with a light chuckle, “Well, what do you think?”

Hearing that reply, Melzarin had regained his confidence in himself as a new aura had surrounded him. At this point, an aura of arrogance was now a thing of the past for him. Right now, he was an enlightened dark skeleton. A dark skeleton would now right the wrongs he had done these past ten thousand years or so.

Of course, that all came crumbling down as he asked Argentum with a slightly flustered aura surrounding him, “W-what should I do to make things right? H-how do I tell E-Eleanor what I feel f-for her?”

“Beats me, man,” Argentum said with a shrug of his shoulders as he did not have any romantic experience. Nevertheless, he knew that any move other than what Felix and Rosalia told him would be better, so he pondered for a bit and said, “How about…you try confessing to her directly?”

“I…I think I don’t have the courage to do that,” Melzarin said in response, his body slightly shivering from the nervousness he felt. Unsurprisingly, Argentum never gave him a choice to back out as he said, “It’s either you confess to her directly or you don’t. Do you really want to keep your feelings for her in the dark that badly?”

“I…I think the latter’s a good choice…” Melzarin muttered, to which Argentum let out a long sigh before saying, “Confess to her…”

“Or I’ll ask Rosalia to tell me one of your most embarrassing secrets.”

“And then, I’ll spread it to Eleanor.”

Whoosh!

In an instant, the flustered Melzarin had returned to his enlightened yet confident self as he looked at Argentum and said with a solemn tone, “Please don’t do that. I’ll confess.”

“Good,” Argentum said with an aura of joy before looking at the three. At this moment, the duo were flung away by Eleanor, with the latter already in the Eclipse stage.

“First off, we should help the two subdue Eleanor and stop her from going berserk,” Argentum soon said to Melzarin, to which the latter nodded before lifting Argentum up with his hand and dashing to where Felix and Rosalia were.

…

“And that’s basically how it went,” Argentum said to Felix and Rosalia through the connection they had, ending the narration.

For quite some time, the three of them went silent, with Melzarin focusing on Eleanor’s current condition, updating them from time to time. Fortunately, someone broke the silence between them, which was Rosalia, who asked Argentum.

“In short, you dropped a truth bomb on Melzarin and then proceeded to blackmail him to make him do what you want?”

“If you interpret it that way, then yeah,” Argentum replied.

“I think I should do that sometime as well,” Rosalia said in response, lightly chuckling soon after.

“Yeah…” Felix responded, only to add after that.

“No.”