Chapter 694 Hades' Weapon
Looking around her, Shiro made sure that there were no monsters around before dashed to where the sigil reacted most intensely.
Using the sigil as a guide, they soon arrived before a hole entrance behind one of the boulders.
Furrowing her brows, she contemplated to herself for a moment before jumping in.
Positioning herself so that she didn't hurt herself too bad, Shiro slid down the hole.
During her journey down, she noticed that the temperature seemed to be increasing despite the lack of a fire.
[I'll check on the situation ahead.]
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as the butterfly went on ahead.
After a few moments, she returned.
[You can go ahead without worry. This is going to a place that is similar to hell in terms of the scenery but that's part of Hades' test for the weapon.] Quella reassured.
Hearing this, Shiro sighed in relief and stopped slowing down her descent.
Travelling at full speed, she could see a faint orange glow at the end of the tunnel.
Slowing herself down just enough so that she landed softly without any problems, Shiro looked around and raised her eyebrows.
Despite them being in a cave, she couldn't see the ceiling and the entrance to the tunnel that she had just gone through was currently floating in the air.
In front of her was a hellish landscape with pools of lava flowing into the distance while large black chains hung from the top with the base being hidden by the smoke.
She was currently standing in the middle of a large island where there was little to no cover available.
Floating in the middle was a single set of chains that was surrounded by a dark scarlet aura.
Understanding that this was the weapon, Shiro raised her guard and approached with caution.
Just as she took a single step, a giant magic array expanded out above her.
Large black anchors slammed against the pool of lava, causing a rain of burning hot lava to spew towards her.
Stepping back, she avoided most of the droplets but a few managed to land on her jacket and burn a hole through the surface.
"Tch, I liked this jacket too." Shiro clicked her tongue with annoyance.
Cracking her neck, she jumped up slightly before bursting into a dash.
*BANG!!!
Dropping a second set of chains, more lava splashed towards her but Shiro was able to dodge most of it despite having to sacrifice some of her jacket which really annoyed her but there was nothing she could do about that.
Once she was around 20 meters from the set of chains, she felt danger ahead of her as a shadow of something huge could be seen looming over her body.
Glancing up, a giant illusionary image of a gladiator could be seen holding one of the large chains and swinging it towards her. Despite most of the chains being hidden by the smoke, Shiro could still see where it would roughly land due to the moving smoke.
Quickly dashing to the side, she managed to avoid it just in time as a deep imprint of the chains could be seen on the ground.
To make matters worse, lava started to flow in from the edge and filled the crater in, reducing the amount of room she had to work with.
Furrowing her brows, she quickly dashed towards the chains.
The gladiator managed to slam down his chains one more time which severely reduced the amount of land she could use but that was fine.
Now that she was in front of the chains, Shiro reached out with her left hand and grabbed the first section.
[Test of Hades' Stage Two]
Defeat the Underworld Guardian and retrieve the Chains of Hades.
Seeing this notification, Shiro watched as the illusionary image of the gladiator slowly shrunk down to the size of the Minotaur.
In his hands were two chains similar to her chains but one had a hook on the other end.
Glancing down at the Chains of Hades in her left hand, Shiro narrowed her eyes and dashed towards the Guardian.
Twisting her body, she swung the chain towards the Guardian who blocked the strike with his arms.
Tugging it as hard as she could, she flung her body towards him before he could react. Wrapping some loops of the chain around her left arm, she summoned her bow and fired an arrow at the Guardian's head at point blank range.
*BANG!!!
Watching the Guardian stumble back a few steps, Shiro smirked and flipped onto his back.
Wrapping the chains around his neck, she pulled as hard as she could.
However, his muscles were hard to compress with her current strength so at most she made him feel a little uncomfortable but that was it.
Reaching towards her, the Guardian tried to grab Shiro but she was too nimble and with his giant body, moving around with a simple task for Shiro. She didn't even need to unfurl her wings.
Of course, that did not mean she didn't activate her divinity at all that would be stupid. Aside from the wings, she had already activated all the bonus features such as the Boon of Rivalry and the Boon of Force.
While this may seem like an easy fight in general, Shiro was actually under a lot of pressure as sweat was beginning to fill her forehead.
While she didn't know what properties the Guardian's weapons had, she felt an overwhelming amount of danger from them and knew that should she be hit, she'd be in a pickle.
After avoiding his onslaught of grabs along with her futile attempts to damage him with her chain, she understood that the difficulty of completing this trial was roughly two to three divinities since the physical prowess bestowed upon you by one divinity was clearly not enough.
Thankfully though, she had her bow to bridge that gap.
Kicking off the Guardian's body, she unfurled her wings and sent a concentrated barrage of arrows towards his head which succeeded in knocking him on his back.
But before he fell, he lashed out with his chains which were surprisingly fast.
Dodging to the side, Shiro flinched slightly as the wind generated by the force of the chain had actually split her skin.
"Tch." Clicking her tongue, Shiro glanced down at the blood that flowed down the side of her arm.
However, before she could wipe the blood away, she felt light headed as her body swayed ever so slightly.
"Huh?" She furrowed her brows in confusion as this condition only lasted for a short moment.
[I think I figured out what the chains do.] Quella's voice rang out besides her as the butterfly landed on her shoulder.
"Took you awhile." Shiro sighed.
[Naturally. This was the first time you were hit by them, even slightly.] Quella replied.
[Anyways, from what I've seen, it's good that you were barely damaged by that hit since if it had hit you completely, your soul would have been dragged out. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem since people with two divinities have received enough reinforcement to withstand the force but you only have one so it'll be tougher on you. I'm being serious in that you should probably give up on this since if you're even hit once, you'll die.] Quella warned as Shiro furrowed her brows.
"Do you know this weapon then?" Shiro asked while holding up the Chains of Hades.
[I do and I know that it's one of the higher better blessed weapons. But the risks are too high. We can try to find this again when you get a second divinity.]
"Well that settles it. Since this is one of the better weapons, I can't let this opportunity split out of my grasp." Shiro grinned.
[Are you crazy?]
"Yes. Yes I am."
[If you die no-]
"I have no plans in dying, don't worry. However, for my personal goals, I can't let such a good weapon slip out of my grasp."
[What kind of personal goals are you even talking about for you to take this risk?]
"The kind that involves filling up the rest of my slots with the five primordial divinities." Shiro grinned before pulling back as hard as she could on her bow.
Sending an arrow towards the Guardian, she dashed towards him without hesitation while Quella's butterfly hovered in the air.
Her mind was currently in turmoil as the 'personal goal' of Shiro's was something truly outrageous.
While there had been one or two people obtaining one of the primordial divinities in the past thanks to their increased slots as a result of the environment, none had obtained more than one primordial divinity and Shiro wanted to obtain all five.
Looking at Shiro who was currently fighting the Guardian, Quella only sighed and remembered what Shiro had told her on their way here.
"Chances are low but they're never zero. There is always a possibility no matter how outrageous."