Chapter 955 Fading Corruption
Looking around her, Shiro didn't know where she was. The last thing she remembered was seeing a vision of the future with her friends dead around her before something slammed into her body, forcefully knocking her out.
Walking around for a little while, Shiro wanted to look for an exit since the relic was about to appear soon and she didn't want to miss the start.
Suddenly, chains erupted out from the ground as eyes started to appear.
Locking on to Shiro's body, the mass of flesh narrowed its eyes.
"You cannot… prevent my birth. The power of Chronos is only temporary." It spoke directly into Shiro's mind.
"Is that so. What are you?" Shiro asked. There was a strange calmness in her heart, it was as though she knew that this flesh couldn't hurt her at this moment.
There was no fear and all that remained in her heart before this mass of flesh was curiosity.
However, rather than answering her question, Shiro watched as the mass of flesh slowly dissolved into black ash before disappearing.
Sensing a bit of danger behind her, Shiro ducked down and watched as a sword missed her head.
Glancing back, she could see Nan Tian's pained face which confused her since he should be dead but there was the crest of Nyx and Gaia on his body.
Looking down, she noticed that her body had changed. There was black corruption spreading all over her body and the world around her had now changed. Asharia was destroyed in the background as waves upon waves of nanobots consuming the world with each passing second.
"Eh?" Tilting her head in confusion, Shiro felt eerily calm as her body seemed to move on its own.
Waving her arm, a pair of jaws manifested underneath Nan Tian as he quickly stomped down and destroyed the jaws before dashing towards her.
Pain filled his face as he swung his sword with the intent to kill her.
While she was surprised, Shiro couldn't do anything as her body moved to dodge each strike.
The scene felt surreal as it was akin to watching a movie. She knew what was going on but couldn't do anything to affect what was happening.
"This wasn't supposed to happen." Nan Tian said with gritted teeth.
Gripping his sword, tier 8 runes started to appear on the blade as Shiro felt her body weaken.
Mana and divine energy seemed to leave her body as a tether could be seen connecting her body to the sword.
Nan Tian's hands trembled as hesitation appeared in his eyes but Shiro opened her mouth.
"Do it."
Hearing these words, Nan Tian stabbed down with his sword, severing the tether as Shiro's vision went dark.
Regaining control over her body, Shiro looked around once more.
Despite being confused and curious about everything that was happening, there was an overbearing calmness which suppressed all of her other emotions, preventing her from speaking out.
"Are you sure this is everything you want to send to your past self?" A voice rang out as Shiro recognised it to belong to Chronos.
"Yes. Along with this message." Shiro's own voice replied.
Appearing in front of her, was her fallen state who looked at her with a small smile.
"Whatever you do, do not use the void bomb. The power of the void is what causes that creature to grow. Estrella cannot participate in this battle." Her fallen self warned as everything turned to ash.
Standing there, Shiro was silent.
There were faint black tendrils flowing out of her arms as she could see her name tag slowly turning white again.
Opening her eyes slowly, Shiro could see that she was in the medical ward located in the main tower of Asharia.
Sitting up, she furrowed her brows as her heart grew heavy.
Everything she saw was a vision of the future and her future self turned back time using Chronos' power.
'The power of the void is what causes it to grow… How else can I destroy the relic then.' Shiro thought with a frown as she looked down on her hands.
She didn't know if it was an illusion or not but there was the faint flicker of corruption on her fingers.
Clutching her fists, Shiro sighed as her body was still damaged. She still couldn't feel anything.
Hearing the door open, Shiro glanced to her side and saw Nan Tian walking.
Seeing that Shiro was awake, he sighed in relief.
"Are you feeling ok? Does it hurt anywhere?" He asked while sitting next to her.
"I think you forgot the fact that I can't feel anything right now." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian scratched his head.
"True. So what happened? You suddenly passed out." He asked with worry in his voice.
"It seems like something has gone wrong in the future. My future self used a charge of this item to turn back time with the help of Chronos." Shiro said as she pulled out the two rainbow grade items that she was in possession of.
Hearing this, Nan Tian frowned as Shiro started to recall everything she saw. How the mass of flesh devoured the world and how everyone was killed.
"Before Pandora's Box was opened?" Nan Tian muttered as that was what her future self had shouted out when activating the ability.
"Mn, seems like there's more to this relic than I had imagined. I'm not sure what the Light Goddess had planned asking me to come here but I didn't think it would be this bad. What do you think her goal is?" Shiro asked with a frown.
"I don't know. What else do we know about this?" He asked.
"Apparently the power of the void causes it to grow. I won't be able to use the void bomb in this fight and Estrella might need to sit it out too." Shiro sighed while checking the time. It had only been 4 hours in she had passed out in the fallen camp.
Thinking about it, Shiro stood up.
"We're definitely destroying this thing. We can't use the void bomb so I'm going to make a new blueprint. A proper cannon from space. It might harm my body but it's better than everyone dying." Shiro narrowed her eyes as Nan Tian grabbed her wrist.
"What's the point of everyone surviving if you destroy your body? If you're making something from space, at least let me help." Nan Tian frowned as Shiro looked back.
Opening her mouth, she was about to reject it but hesitated. Most of the time she had put everything on her own shoulders when it was a dire situation. The main reason was because the other's would be in more danger than her should they join.
But the same couldn't be said for Nan Tian. He was also tier 6 with the power over light. The same applied to Madison, Isilia and Lisandra.
"Alright. Call Madison, Isilia and Lisandra over. We're going to be using the remaining time to create a weapon that requires four tier 6's to power. Send Asharia away from here since the blast radius might destroy the city." Shiro replied as Nan Tian smiled.
"Understood."
While Nan Tian was calling the three to the command room, Shiro sent an avatar to the fallen camp, warning them of what's going to happen and how they should evacuate before everything is destroyed. She wasn't going to take any chances.
However, there was one thing that bugged her.
Why would the light goddess warn her of all this when the system would have contacted her regardless. What did she gain from telling her about this?
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to set this aside for now since she'll kill the two of them eventually.
"Nyx, you're watching right now aren't you? I'm planning on using the upgraded ascension skill to reach tier 8 and fire this weapon. Which god would be good for empowering this attack? I know I can't use Chronos anymore due to that vision of the future." Shiro called out as a faint figure appeared in front of her.
"Honestly, it depends on what you want to do. But I have to warn you. Using the upgraded ascension to reach tier 8 AND the power of the primordial gods will destroy your body." Nyx frowned.
"Yes but it's better than whatever that mass of flesh is to awaken. I'm not sure how much firepower I need but I'm not taking any chances." Shiro frowned as Nyx nodded her head.
"We know. We can tell you that the enemy when awakened was able to kill Chronos in the future. There's a good chance that it's tier 8 in strength. But it should be suppressed right now, as long as it does not awaken you should be good."
"Tier 8 in strength?" Shiro furrowed her brows before looking down at her hand.
"That's fine, I have skills to target the core of a tier 8 being. It's a good chance to test it out since I plan on killing gods in the future." Shiro closed her eyes before opening them with determination.
"Alright, the most we can do is to reinforce your body once you reach tier 8. Any more and we'll be doing more harm than good ok?" Nyx sighed as Shiro smiled.
"Thanks for the help." Watching Nyx's body disappear, Shiro looking into her mana realm.
"Error get ready for a big meal."