Chapter 388 Black Monarchy
Arriving on the scene, Shiro immediately activated her disguise so that people couldn't see her true face. Naturally, the same applied to Lisandra since once people saw her, someone would make a connection between them.
As for Keiko, she walked over to the shrine with a serious expression.
"Give me a run down of the situation." Keiko said while putting on her guild jacket that had the emblem printed on the back.
"Ah faction master!" The faction members cried out in excitement.
"You see, we've noticed some strange occurrences with these shrines not too long ago and tried to investigate. However, when we arrived, we couldn't detect anything so we sent a few men to observe the situation but we weren't able to enter. Just now, we detected some intense mana fluctuations and tried to find out the root cause-"
"Let me guess, you found f*ck all and called me here when I'm busy." Keiko frowned as the member nodded hesitantly and retreated by a few steps.
Before Keiko could do anything serious, Shiro placed her hand on Keiko's shoulder. After all, with the anger that Shiro detected, it might become a bit messy.
"Don't worry about it, we can spend more time together later. For now, let's go look at the problem." Shiro smiled.
Glancing back at Shiro, Keiko nodded her head reluctantly.
*Sigh…
/p>
"Fine. But this better be some city destroying problem or else it aint worth my time." Keiko replied. Unless everyone is in danger, she would rather not attend to it when she could be spending time with Shiro instead.
Walking over to the shrine, Keiko narrowed her eyes and since she could immediately detect the intense amount of mana that was suddenly aimed towards her.
"Hm… seems like it's sentient." Keiko frowned. Mana can't just suddenly direct itself towards her unless someone or something is controlling it.
Tapping her fingers on the barrier, she wondered if she could destroy it with brute force.
Pulling her fist back, she punched forwards.
*BANG!!
A shockwave exploded out as her fist was sent recoiling back.
"Reflection huh." Keiko muttered while looking at her fist.
"Are you seriously calling me for a simple reflection barrier? Don't we have barrier breakers in the faction?" Keiko asked while glancing back at the faction members.
"Ah, we've already tried that. But it has no effect on the barrier."
Hearing that they said, Keiko's frown deepened as she pulled out a pitch black dagger.
"Let's give this a go then." She sighed.
Her arm seemed to blur for a moment before a multitude of slash marks could be seen spreading through the surface of the barrier.
Each slash seemed to eat away at the mana as the barrier was soon destroyed.
Widening her eyes, Shiro couldn't help but gulp since there was no way she could react to that kind of attack right now.
Storing away her dagger, Keiko turned back to the rest of the members.
"Send a message to all available members of rank 5 and above. Tell them to meet up at this location while I go in first. Make sure to keep the area on lockdown in case any civilians come in by accident. Sh- I mean, Nytri and Lisa, follow me, we'll go inside for now and see what's happening."
That way, she could at least keep Shiro near her and spend some time together.
/p>
"Sure." Shiro nodded and followed behind Keiko with Lisandra.
As the three of them entered the shrine, the remaining members followed her instructions and locked down the area. They also had the burning question of who the two strangers were but they weren't in any place to question the faction master's orders or the people she brought with her.
For all they know, the two may be someone who's powerful but kept their status on wraps. Therefore, they made a mental note to give the two some respect when they see the two of them again.
###
Upon entering the shrine, Shiro instantly activated her Analysis skill. Overwhelmed by the sheer amount of runes and magic circles that was suddenly revealed to her, Shiro's body swayed for a moment.
Seeing this, Keiko quickly flickered to her side and caught her.
"Are you ok? What happened?" She asked in worry.
"Ah don't worry, just shocked by the sheer amount of crap I just saw." Shiro shook her head and tried to calm the dizziness that she was feeling.
Taking a moment to reorientate herself, Shiro looked towards the magic circles and noticed that they had a section which sent a mental attack at whoever read the runes.
'Damn, annoying.' Shiro frowned since there was no way she'll get disorientated with just looking at information.
Analysing the magic circles, Shiro realised that it was similar to the one that had appeared in New York.
"Say, Keiko." Shiro called out.
"Mn? Yeah?"
"Have you heard of the New York disaster where a giant portal was opened up?" Shiro asked.
"Ah the one caused by the black monarchy f*cks? They've been a pain in the ass in a lot of places, is this one of their tricks?" Keiko asked curiously.
"Yeah, though you need to make sure that none of your high ranking members try to dispel or break the magic circles. Once you do, you'll empower the spell whenever you try to fight the monsters it spawns." Shiro warned.
"Eh? It can do that? That's the first I've heard of it." Keiko frowned.
"That's because only me and a few other people know about it since we were the ones that tried to solve it in New York." Shiro replied.
"Though… I wonder why they haven't put anyone to protect this 'totem'." She muttered.
"In that case then we should retreat for now and have some of our experts examine this. No point risking it only for it to activate too soon. Even though I'm a 'hero', there's only so much I can do alone." Keiko suggested. Since her class was that of the assassin hero, she excels in one on one combat but group combat wasn't exactly something she was good at.
"Mn, agreed. Because we were too hasty in resolving the issue in New York, one of the strongest people around couldn't do anything because he broke one of the totems." Shiro agreed.
If not for their hastiness, Nan Tian could have helped out in New York and reduced the amount of damage they suffered.
However, what's done is done and the best thing they can hope for is to reduce the amount of damage they suffer in the future.
Making a mental note on all the magic circles and runes she could see, the three of them left the shrine.
"Change of plans, send a message out. Put all affected shrines on lock down and no one is allowed to enter them. All rank 5 and above members meet me on the 5th floor. We're going to have an emergency meeting." Keiko shouted out as the members obeyed.
Holding Shiro's and Lisandra's shoulders, they teleported back to the headquarters.
"Since you have some expertise in this area I suppose, would it be ok if you joined us in the meeting? OF course, if anyone ridicules you, I'll make sure they don't sleep well tonight." Keiko promised as the three of them made their way up to the 5th floor.
"Ah don't worry about it." Shiro chuckled.
Looking at the serious Keiko who still wanted to spend time with her, Shiro couldn't help but like this a lot better than the previous one.
'She's just like a cute little sister that wants to spend time together despite the fact that she had some homework. Kind of like wanting to do the homework in the older sister's presence so it wouldn't be as lonely.' Shiro mused to herself.
{Make sure you don't pamper her too much now or else she might be fighting with Lyrica when they meet.} Nimue chuckled.
'I'm sure it'll be fine. Plus, with what's to come, I don't think going into a relationship is the best option right now.' Shiro shook her head.
Arriving at the meeting hall, Keiko saw that there were already a few members gathered.
"Greetings faction master." They bowed.
"Mn, we'll wait for the others to come before starting the meeting. For now, let me introduce you to these two. They're my fa- friends so you need to treat them with the same respect as you do with me. I'm bringing them into the meeting since they experienced something similar and might be able to provide us with some useful information in regards to the situation." Keiko said as the high ranking members nodded their heads.
Waiting for a while longer, the meeting soon began as the members all gathered in the room.