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ArabicGenshin Impacti: This Priest is Cringe, But She's Also Unbeatable — Chapter 44
Chapter 44: A God-Tier Skill! The Price is Pink Hearts for Everyone!
Celeste sighed. Just as she was about to explain the situation to her sister, a warm pulse rippled from the pink brand deep within her soul.
A new line of delicate text, as if woven from light, crystals, and petals, slowly unfurled in her consciousness.
[Effect 2: Pink Healing, Unlocked♪]
[Effect: The effectiveness of your healing spells is increased by 100%, but the visual effects will be forcibly rendered in pink. When a healed teammate’s wounds close, a cute pink heart will briefly appear on the location, persisting for ten minutes before dissipating.]
Celeste’s mind went blank.
“…”
Healing effectiveness doubled?
In a perilous Domain like this, that was practically an extra life.
You could call it a god-tier skill, no questions asked.
But…
Pink visual effects?
A pink heart appearing on the wound?
And it lasts for ten minutes?!
‘Just how deep does this Miss Pink Elf’s obsession go?!’ she screamed internally.
A scene uncontrollably materialized in her mind:
In some future, desperate deathmatch, she would raise her staff, her expression solemn as she chanted a sacred incantation.
Then, with a soft poof.
A dense, unyielding ball of pink holy light—probably infused with glitter, for good measure—would smack a critically wounded teammate right in the face.
The teammate’s fatal wounds would miraculously seal, and then, on his face still smeared with blood and radiating a murderous aura, a shiny pink heart would gleam brilliantly. He would then charge back toward the enemy, bearing this mark of ultimate humiliation, his expression a perfect mask of bewilderment…
The mental image was so cursed she had to physically shove it out of her brain.
“Sister? What’s wrong?”
Seeing Celeste’s complexion shift from pale to ashen, her expression completely dazed, Selene couldn’t help but lean in with concern.
Celeste didn’t answer. There was only one way to test this.
She turned, expressionlessly raised the equally pink and delicate staff, and aimed it squarely at her sister.
“Don’t move. I’m running an experiment.”
Selene blinked. “???”
Before her sister could react, a faint light flashed from the tip of Celeste’s staff.
She cast the most fundamental of spells: [Basic Healing Spell].
The soft, white light she expected never appeared.
In its place, a beam of bright pink light erupted, so dense it was almost tangible, as if someone had weaponized an entire bottle of fluorescent paint and glitter.
The beam shot from the staff’s tip, striking a tiny, almost invisible scratch on the back of Selene’s hand with pinpoint accuracy.
The light was so blinding and the color so garish that both sisters flinched, squinting against the sudden assault of “light pollution.”
Selene was so startled she stumbled half a step back.
But in the next instant, a surge of life energy—far warmer and more potent than any healing she’d felt before—poured into the wound.
The negligible scratch vanished in less than a second. Her skin became perfectly smooth, without a single trace left behind.
The healing effectiveness had indeed doubled! It was truly god-tier speed!
However…
As the light faded, Selene looked down at the back of her now-flawless hand.
At the exact location of the original wound, a palm-sized, perfectly rounded, and faintly glowing pink heart was imprinted on her skin.
It looked as if it had been carefully drawn with the latest model of fluorescent pink gel pen, radiating an impossible-to-ignore, fatally sweet and dreamy aura.
Selene stared. “…”
She raised her hand toward the rising sun, examining the sparkling pink heart, and fell into a long, deep silence.
Celeste stared back. “…”
Her gaze was fixed on the incredibly garish heart on her sister’s hand. Then, recalling the phrase “persisting for ten minutes” from the skill description, her temples began to throb uncontrollably.
‘It’s over.’
She, Celeste, the future Reaper of the Battlefield (self-proclaimed) and harvester of Domains, was about to be saddled with an inescapable, cringe-worthy nickname.
“The Pink Priestess”?
Or “The Heart-Shot Maiden”?
Celeste looked up at the sky, her eyes hollow.
‘Miss Pink Elf, this “unexpected turning point” of yours is certainly full of “surprises,” alright.’
She could only pray that when they next encountered enemies, their opponents wouldn’t be so amused by the screen-filling display of pink and hearts that they forgot how to fight.
…
Outside the Domain, at the Alliance’s Official Broadcast Plaza.
The massive light screen was split into hundreds of real-time feeds. The viewership for one of them was skyrocketing.
The focus of that feed was a pink figure, so dazzling in the morning light and flickering campfire embers that she was almost hard to look at.
“Holy crap?! Am I seeing things? What the hell is up with that Lin family sister’s hair?”
“I watched the replay from yesterday, it was still long, black, and straight! Did she have a genetic mutation overnight?”
“Is this some new kind of Domain-exclusive hair dye? It’s just so… so pink!”
“Hey, don’t knock it. Paired with that ice-cold expression of hers, it’s actually got this weirdly cute vibe…”
“Cute my ass! This is a battlefield! Sporting hair that makes her a walking, talking bullseye—is she afraid the monsters won’t be able to find her?”
The plaza, once a tense hub of analysis, was instantly filled with a wave of laughter and disbelief.
The fierce image of Celeste “bonking heads with a staff” was still fresh in everyone’s minds. Now, this dreamy pink hair instantly washed away that “Battlefield Reaper” pressure, replacing it with an indescribable comedic flair.
Inside the Central Observation Center.
Major Zhou Zhenyun almost spat the mouthful of strong tea he’d just sipped all over the master control screen.
He stared intently at the pink hair that stood out like a sore thumb in the forest. His facial muscles twitched, and his brows furrowed so deeply they almost formed a single line.
“A change in hair color?” he said in a low voice. “Is it an external manifestation of some power?”
The clerk beside him immediately pulled up the relevant data. “Report, Major. This phenomenon occasionally occurs among Transcendents above level 60. It’s usually a reverse permeation of power into the body after an individual achieves an extremely high degree of control.”
“But… eighteen years old, in the College Entrance Exam Domain, hair turning pink for unknown reasons…” another administrative official muttered to himself. “This is likely the first and only such case since the founding of the Alliance.”
The clerk continued his analysis. “Hair color changes from power permeation are usually directly related to the power’s attribute. Ice-types tend toward blue and white, fire-types are crimson, and holy light types are typically pure white or pale gold… But this pink…”
A look of utter confusion crossed his face.
“Searching through every record in the Alliance’s history, there has never been a single instance of an orthodox, powerful ability whose ultimate manifestation is… Priestess Pink.”
Holy light could be white, gold, or even the dark gold of judgment, but it could absolutely not be this bright, saccharine pink that looked like it had eight layers of beauty filters applied to it.
Zhou Zhenyun stroked his chin, his eyes growing sharper by the second.
“It seems the secrets this little girl is hiding are even greater than we imagined. Nine times out of ten, this color is related to her mysterious ‘Heroic Spirit Summoning’ ability.”
Far from finding it ridiculous, he raised his assessment of Celeste even higher.
To be able to trigger a physical mutation at the college entrance exam stage—the potential of such a genius was terrifying.
“Make a record,” Zhou Zhenyun ordered, his voice firm. “List her as a highest-priority observation target.”
…
Inside the Domain, Celeste, having just completed the live debut of her “Pink Healing Spell,” was completely unaware that she had already triggered an academic storm (and a tidal wave of laughter) in the outside world.
She watched with a deadpan expression as her sister, Selene, poked at the sparkling pink heart on the back of her hand.
Selene’s own expression cycled from shock to bewilderment, and then to… a trace of eerie fondness?
“Sister…” Selene looked up, her eyes shining. “Although it looks a bit strange, the healing effect is really strong!”
“Hmph,” Celeste grunted, forcing her gaze away from that garish heart. “The effectiveness is doubled, but the price is aesthetic and mental pollution. It’s a fair trade.”
She looked up at the sky. The sun had fully crested the horizon, casting its warm light across the forest floor.
“Pack up. We’re not going far,” Celeste decided.
“Huh? Aren’t we going to keep farming points?” Selene asked, surprised. “We’re ranked fifth right now. If we push hard, we could even break into the top three or take first place!”
Celeste shook her head, her analysis calm and detached. “The point competition lasts for 72 hours, from 8:00 AM on the first day to 8:00 AM on the fourth. It’s already the morning of the third day. We’ve gone through two days of high-intensity combat, and our physical and mental exhaustion is significant.”
She paused, her gaze sweeping over the surrounding forest, which seemed to hum with hidden danger.
“The final night is destined to be a free-for-all—a carnival for some, and hell for others. Teams with high points will become targets. Teams that have been lying low will emerge to harvest points. Assassins and predators will swarm in like sharks that smell blood.”
She pointed to her own ridiculously pink hair.
“With such a… conspicuous target on my head, wandering around when we’re not in top condition is basically broadcasting ‘come and get me’ to everyone in the Domain.”
Selene understood instantly.
“Sister, you mean we should enter the ‘final circle’ lurking phase ahead of time?”
“Exactly,” Celeste nodded. “We find a place that’s absolutely hidden and easy to defend, then recover to our peak condition. We’ll rest up and wait for the final madness to begin.”
Instead of being dragged into a desperate, losing battle at the last moment with exhausted bodies, it was better to seize the initiative, use the last bit of safe time to recover, and meet the final melee at their absolute best.
“That makes sense!” Selene immediately agreed. “Should we find a spot near this camp, then? This was the Giant Goblin’s lair, so its lingering presence might deter others.”
“That works, but we need to be more hidden.” Celeste scanned the area, her gaze locking onto a depression in the cliff wall behind the camp, half-concealed by vines and loose stones. “That spot is good. The view is relatively open, and with our backs to the cliff, we only need to defend the front and sides.”
The two sisters got to work, quickly moving their tent and supplies to the new hiding spot.
Celeste also used the surrounding rubble and branches to set up a few simple but effective warning traps near the entrance.
After finishing, she finally let herself relax completely, slumping onto a laid-out mat without any regard for her image and letting out a long yawn.
“Let’s take turns resting for deep recovery. I’ll sleep first.”
Looking at her sister’s pink hair, which still stubbornly emitted a dreamy glow even in the dim corner of their hideout, Selene couldn’t help but snicker.
‘Hmm, a pink-haired sister seems… even cuter?’she thought.’I just hope the side effects of this color don’t get any worse.’
Celeste lay flat, feeling the energy slowly returning to her body. The pink brand deep within her soul had fallen silent once more. Her heart was completely calm.
Pink hair was pink hair. A heart was a heart.
As long as she could win, as long as she could get her sister to the end, she… would endure this “tiny” price.
[Ding! The Host has accepted the aesthetic alterations from the “Miss Pink Elf’s” blessing with an open-minded (read: completely numb) attitude., she has formulated a highly forward-looking salted fish—ahem, tactical—rest strategy, fully embodying the essence of joy: “If I’m comfy, I’m happy.” Elation Coins +150!]
Celeste’s lips twitched. ‘Well, at least I can earn some pocket money from this. It’s not a total loss.’