Chapter 982 Waiting
It's been a few weeks since Lyrica had left Asharia. During this time, Shiro hadn't been able to sleep at all. She refused to let me out of her sight and whenever I did she would always panic. It seems like she needs at least one person with her at all times since she seemed to stabilise a little when Silvia was with her.
We've been forced to put her to sleep manually since she refused to rest but every time she woke up, it would always be a panic attack. I suppose it's a blessing that the backlash from firing the weapon couldn't be felt by her anymore since she doesn't have a reaction unless she makes large movements.
Silvia is still developing a way for us to heal Shiro's body since the backlash doesn't seem like it'll be ending any time soon. There hasn't been any news from the gods either but I guess it could be that the system was restricting them after Hemera and Gaia interfered last time when the watcher arrived.
Regardless, our goal was to help Shiro recover her body so she could at least walk around.
We know that it will take time for her to recover but staying in the med bay wasn't the right choice. If she continues to be cooped up like this, we won't be able to make any progress.
Yin, Lisandra and everyone else in the party had visited Shiro a few times during this period and they kept her company when they could.
After learning about the full story, each of them seemed determined to become stronger and more reliable so that Shiro didn't need to take all of this burden by herself. Madison took the demon legion out on more excursions to clear out dangerous mountains so that people wandering the world could possibly have an easier time.
Helion was helping her by providing more equipment to the demons while simultaneously trying to find new recipes to contend against strange attacks such as the word magic that we experienced that day.
Aarim was maintaining most of the magic in the city to make sure that everything was working properly. Thankfully, Shiro had automated most of the things just in case she ran out of mana so the portals were still functional. However, things have become slower since Isilia's Anchor crystal had shattered to pieces. We had to place more burden on Madison's anchor so the second city was lacking a little but Aarim balanced things out by living there. With her providing mana and support to the second city, it was able to hang on without many problems.
Estrella was… very frustrated. She had left Shiro alone during the battle since her void powers were useless against the relic but she wasn't able to be by her side when the watchman appeared. She started to train her own legion of spirits that levelled up similar to her so they had to go out and hunt often to get EXP.
Estrella had also told us that despite having her links fried for the time being, Nimue, Atesh and Iziuel were safe for now since she could still sense their auras in Shiro. They were just in a sort of stasis for now so when Shiro recovers, they should be able to reappear.
Chen Yu hasn't done much in terms of his guild since there wasn't much need for their strength so they were just training. Their main goal was to attack priority targets of enemy Queens so it wasn't the right time for them to make a move just yet.
Yin and Lisandra were training in their own ways but I've noticed that Lisandra would have moments where she seemed to be struggling. I don't know if it's due to Shiro almost falling but the colour of her wings told us that she was barely hanging in the middle. We did do a check up with the help of Silvia but everything seemed normal which was concerning.
On a side note, Keiko did reach tier 6 which was much needed good news to everyone.
Koji and Mio wanted to visit but Shiro was afraid of facing them in this condition since the moment I mentioned it, her body would tense up. It seemed like she didn't want her parents to see her in this state which was unfortunate since both Koji and Mio were heartbroken since they only visited when she was sleeping.
Seeing their daughter's condition, Koji and Mio were furious. Koji seemed to have taken a hard hit since he was also the one who put ascending to tier 6 on hold since he couldn't find the inspiration. But with his daughter being in danger and he wasn't able to do anything, it seemed to have lit a spark in his heart since he immediately resumed his training. Mio did the same but she went somewhere else. She gave us a talisman to send a message to her if anything happened but it seems like she was going back to reapers.
It might be because she was a reaper that her tier 6 had a different requirement.
Glancing towards Shiro who was holding my sleeve. I could see that She seemed tired, but she forced herself to stay awake. It's been harder to force her to sleep since if we don't do it properly, she would harm herself just to stay awake.
There wasn't much I could say to her since if I spoke about how everyone was doing, she might feel depressed about her current situation. For now, I'll keep her company to the best of my abilities.
"Are you hungry?" I asked since it's been a few hours since her last meal.
Hearing my question, Shiro shook her head for a moment but eventually nodded.
"Alright. I'll see if Yin can make you something quick."
Sending a message to Yin, I asked if she could make a light meal for Shiro. Her response was simple and quick.
[Ok.]
After a few minutes, Yin was already at the door with a simple meal of rice congee and a few light sides.
Helping Shiro sit up, Yin slowly fed Shiro since it was painful for her to move her body.
"Ahh…" Opening her mouth, I could see that Shiro wanted to apologise due to her expression and Yin was the same since she shook her head.
"It's alright mum. You took care of me before so it's only natural that I do the same for you. Just take your time alright?" Yin smiled as she lightly hugged Shiro, not wanting to hurt her body.
Glancing down, Shiro forced a smile and nodded.
After eating the meal, we helped Shiro lay back down as Yin left with the trays. After a while, I managed to cast a sleep spell on Shiro so she was able to finally get some rest.
Unfortunately, even in her sleep, she seemed to be in pain. Her grip on my sleeve would tighten occasionally as if afraid that I would leave.
Seeing the tears that rolled down her face, I couldn't help but sigh heavily and wiped them away.
I wondered if this was a punishment for her going against fate so often. She received an insight of the future back when she first met Nyx and changed her fate by creating the anchor. The second time she used Chronos' power to turn back time and sent a vision, but this resulted in her developing a trauma and Isilia being taken along with Edvimar. The trade-off was that everyone else is now alive.
'You even pushed yourself to the point of breaking by stacking berserk skills when your body was suffering from the initial backlash too. I guess there is a limit to how crazy you can be at times.'
Closing my eyes, I decided to rest for a few minutes before doing more work.
I need to keep everything running so that when Shiro recovers, everything would be ready for her grand comeback.
I'll help the army develop their training some more by mixing the martial arts that the sect teaches so that they're more effective in mechs. I can't do much about the weapons but we can use the simulations to help them develop combat experience.
'I wonder if there will be more system events like this one. Hopefully none at this scale but if there are some, we might want to think about participating in one or two of them with Madison so we don't fall behind. We still need to set down one or two anchors since there are still plenty of people roaming in the world. We can't make another floating city but I suppose a normal city should be fine for now. We'll convert it when Shiro comes back. Now that Shiro's taken out of the picture for a while, it seems like most of our plans revolved around her. Hais…'
Shaking my head, I started changing some of the training schedules for the military.
'I suppose I have to take over your spot when it comes to tormenting them. Come back soon.'