Chapter 175: Alliance

Howard took roughly 15 days to wake up and 5 days to feel somewhat back to normal. At least, normal enough to walk and somewhat jog in place.

Jenny had personally studied the changes in his blood, and had to make an adjustment to the previous tonic she was using in order to deal with the strange changes that had arisen in Howard's body. Whereas before, she would only see a single Ki Cell at most underneath the microscope, there now seemed to be hundreds. This was because in addition to Howard's normal Ki Cells, there was his normal human biology. Yet at this moment, he seemed to have changed completely from a human to something else.

It was almost as if he ascended to a higher form, yet he was still the same Howard no matter how she observed him. Doing a simple warmup, Howard smiled and jumped up and down while Oclen charged into Harkel's Ghost Domain.

He made it 50 steps before he even slightly slowed down. 

Howard, noticing this, smiled and walked over to Jenny. She had been staring at him strangely for the last 5 days. Even when they kissed, it felt like she was scared to truly be embraced.

"Jenny, are you mad at me?" Howard raised his brow and smiled. "Are you mad that I used Fire King's Last Stand again? Hehe, because I assure you I'm 100 percent back to normal."

"No, of course I'm not mad at you," Jenny smiled. "In fact, I'm in awe of you. I-I wish I was so impressive. I'm just the girl next door. You're something else. I-I'm not even sure if you're human."

'Hmmm?" Howard wrapped his arms around Jenny and stared into her bountiful eyes. She looked like she had two horizons inside of her beautiful orbs while he gently leaned towards her lips. "Hehe, I can prove to you I'm human. However that's only if tonight you don't mind we sleep together."

"You-you might get hurt," Jenny blushed and looked at Oclen facing in her direction. "As your doctor, 5 days before you do anything to lovey dovey with me! If you do, I-I'm going to never forgive myself if you get injured!"

Jenny and Howard smiled and laughed together while Oclen jumped into the air at the hardest part of the course.

A thousand ghost arms formed in front of him and instantly slapped him against the chest.

Boom!

A large explosion went off while Harkel clapped his hands and walked over to Howard and Jenny's side. His amorphous body, and his haunting amber stare, greeted the two of them with a smile. 

"You can probably only do basic training for the next 10 days. I'm afraid even Oclen underestimated how long it will take you to recover. Yet, I love basic training! How does 10,000 pushups a minute sound?!"

"He-he really needs to rest," Jenny bit her lip and stared up at the extremely terrifying Harkel. "Hmph, I-I studied him extensively! Too much strain will hurt him more than it will help him!"

"Hmmm, are you doubting me, Jenny?" Harkel laughed and patted her on the head. "Well, did you know that I met Demon King Earl after he developed his Ki Hearts. Do you know what he did? He did pushups! Now Howard, get down and do 10,000 pushups! If I see you slacking off, I'm going to make Jenny's training even harder!"

"Haha, of course!" Howard smiled and happily got on his hands and knees and began doing pushups as fast as he could.

Jenny, at the same time gulped. Part of her hoped she'd never have to train with Harkel again. He was like a 1000 times worse than Amnnibell and Barabin combined. Most of them knew her main focus was science, so they just made her do basic training. Yet… Harkel didn't seem to care. All he told her is that "he saw a fine piece of jade with some of Howard's blood mixed in" and he was going to sharpen it.

"Jenny, do me a favor and go back to the obstacle course I made you. I expect you to make it to the end this time! Otherwise, you're doing the other one with Orclen!"

"Yes!" Jenny's body instantly felt goosebumps travel up and down her sides. "I-I'm sorry, Howard! Don't push yourself okay!"

"Hehe, this is nothing," Howard struggled to do a single pushup and smiled. "The best way to heal is to push yourself a little bit. I'll be back to normal in no time!"

###

Armecolith stared at a gigantic ice chariot that had been frozen in the center of the sky above him.

If he tried to break the seal that Waxel had created, it would take every bit of his strength plus a little more. He did have a technique that would allow him to instantly crush Waxel's seal, but it would make his power instantly drop to the S rank.

He also felt like he was being watched by some powerful being! He definitely wasn't going to let even an iota of his strength dissipate! Not when something in 1000 Monster Valley had its eyes on him! Whatever that thing was, though, right now, it was too weak to kill him, let alone scare him!

"I forgot there are a lot of old bastards in the Furance," Armecolith sighed and looked up at Waxel, surrounded by sixteen beautiful woman that had locked their arms to protect him. These were his sixteen horsemen that formed his domain. It was a pity that when the seal was created, he would lose his ability to ever use it again!

A Domain Seal was a once in a life time ability that allowed someone to use all the Ki created by their domain to create a shield that couldn't be destroyed. Though many people had the ability to do this in the SS rank, only a few would. It was really almost like a death sentence. It would make it impossible to ever get out of the SS rank. Unless, of course, like Waxel you had a second type of Ki to control.

Yet even with that considered, he would most likely never be the same. Waxel had always preferred Ice Ki over Earth Ki and had gained more insights into the former. It would take him at least a 100 years to regain his strength. If not for Howard being his grandson, he would've probably went all out and died rather than risking his chances of becomming the strongest in the Furance.

"Hmph, I wonder if there is anyone I care about? I guess I care about the people I killed." Armecolith sighed and felt his army slowly moving towards the East Branch. "However, it's funny. People claim loving someone gives them strength, but it's nothing but a weakness! Look at you Waxel! In 78 days you'll be dead, and your grandson will die as well! Your live blinded your vision! Hahaha! I can't wait for the day you're unsealed to arise so I can finally wipe you out from existence!"

###

Monica and Priscilla didn't have to go far to find the army that Oclen had been talking about.

An army of 100,000, marching side by side, was in the distance and almost seemed to form a large massive wave surging towards them.

Because much of the Furnace was flat, the incoming army could be seen from over 100 Kilometers away. Each of the Archelon Zombies were at least 2 meters wide and 5 meters tall. With 100,000 of them side by side, it was like staring into a wave of death! There was no way they could win!

"We need an alliance, and bad," Priscilla bit her lip. "I-I've never seen that large of an army. Not only are they huge, but there's thousands of them! What are we going to do ?"

"Destroy them," Monica said, pointing at the large wave. "Destroy them before they even arrive! If Reslan and Annibell join us, we can attack them from a distance! Hmph, when Howard gets here, we'll be able to combine all our energy! Then those big bastards can all die!"

"I think you're underestimating that army," Priscilla somewhat trembled. "I could barely kill 5 by myself. There seem to be 80,000 in the B rank, and 20,000 in the A rank. Do you realize how much damage Howard could do when he got here by himself? In the C rank, you could build a gigantic ice wall! There is no way in hell we are attacking that army alone! I-I'm going to be a guardian someday! And we're forming an alliance?"

"With who? The Macralin? The Aresoul? The Varlen? All of them hate us right?" Monica crossed her arms in front of her beautiful body and somewhat nervously tapped her foot. She didn't see why they would form an alliance! Wouldn't this help them? After all, the Aresoul wanted to eventually fully control Jarlen Valley! If the East Branch got destroyed, they could easily do it! Why would they help?"

"You know what people hate more then their enemies?" Priscilla sighed and walked back towards the bus, putting her binoculars down as her blonde hair spun in the wind. "Newer enemies crushing their adversaries. Trust me. All we have to do is show them a picture. Luckily, I snapped one that's worth a thousand words."

"Hmph, we'll see," Monica sighed and bit her lip. "I-I just hope that Howard is having better luck than us. Hmph, that jerk is probably snacking on Jenny's lips right now!"

###

Howard did 10,000 pushups in 24 hours and could hardly breath.

It almost felt like when he used Fire King's Last Stand, something inside of him had been damaged. Jenny assured him nothing was wrong, but the more he tried to find his old strength, the further away it seemed to become.

"Your body is scared of its own strength," Harkel patted Howard on the shoulder while he got up from the floor. His blue eyes seemed to be slightly tearing, after all, 10,000 pushups should be as easy as taking a single step for him! "I-I have a new task for you. Why don't you go into that mountain over there, and try and activate that silver Ki Heart. Once you make piece with the feelings inside, I'm sure the little monster we all have come to love will show its fangs."

"Hmm, you figured it out," Howard smiled, "Haha, I-I don't suppose I can bring Jenny?"

"She will be waiting for you after! Now go! Oclen is already leaps and bounds ahead of you! Now hurry and disappear! Jenny and that beautiful smile of hers will be waiting to kiss you when you get back! Hahaha! You lucky boy. Such a beautiful specimen."

Harkel was a Ghost Authoritarian, but at one point he had a human form and many wives. He longed to return to being a human, but only perhaps the Demon King at his maximum strength could fix his body enough where he could regain it.

When he had died, it took him over 100 years to gain this Ghost Authoritarian form, and for that reason Ghost Authoritarians were exceptionally rare. Yet, even in this form, he knew of the location of a few of his wives that had laid low for years. What he'd do to see them again.

"I-I promise… I promise I'll pay you back in the future" Howard smiled and turned towards a black cave waiting for him in the distance. "However, that's after I deal with that Silver Flame. Let's hope I can handle it."