Chapter 1158 Iris“ Eyes
While Aoi was enjoying the feeling of touch returning to her body, Shiro furrowed her brows.
Editing Aoi's source code, Shiro could tell that the changes were only temporary. They lasted for a short time and would disappear unless she was to edit them again. Even with her current mastery over time, the flow would fix itself forcefully unless she was to overwrite her current state and set it as a 'future'.
'That's a bit too risky right now. If I was to force it, Aoi may instantly die due to the fracture in the flow of time.' Shiro thought to herself as she retracted the red circuits and pulled out a laptop from her inventory.
Sitting down by the throne, Shiro huddled herself into a ball with the laptop on her knees and started to type up a document for her findings. Since she had sealed her divinity away for now, she no longer had access to her database. Therefore, there was a chance she may forget this so she wanted to keep a note of it.
"You can unlock yourself pretty easily. The ice has lost its powers so it's just normal ice. Also, the sensation should wear off in about 2 hours or so. I'm not able to completely change you back yet so don't get too happy. Though this has given me more of an idea on how I should proceed. In order to fully master the art of creation, I need to improve my mastery over time so that I can rewrite both the past, present and future. Once I succeed in that, I'll be able to set your body back to normal." Shiro explained without looking towards Aoi.
"To make more progress, we'll need to do this daily." Shiro said as Aoi shivered.
Shiro figured that Aoi was probably cold but the glimmer in her eyes didn't feel right.
Furrowing her brows, she could feel goosebumps on her skin but didn't know the source.
"Alright, is there anything else you need my help with?" Aoi asked as she adjusted her mental state.
"Nothing else for now. I just need to consolidate the knowledge I've obtained and improve. I've pretty much figured out how I can level up now." Shiro said, pointing at the stats above her head.
Despite her level now being 250, she didn't gain any stat increases which makes sense to her since she already reached the limit of level 1000. Any strength she gains now has to be reliant on her divinity and the amount of belief her followers give her.
"Ah I see, do you need me to prepare a room for you?" Aoi asked as she broke off the ice chains restraining her.
"Nah you don't have to. Just go about your work. I can sleep here. Oh also, if you can, can you call Iris and Nine back? I want to have a quick word with them." Shiro said as Aoi nodded and left the room.
After a short while, both Iris and Nine peeked through the door and saw Shiro typing on her laptop.
"Come in." Shiro called out as the two stood in front of her.
"I've figured out where to go from here so there's not much need for me to go out. Is there anything you need to do or are you fine with staying here for a while?" Shiro asked.
Looking at Iris, Nine shook his head.
"We don't have anything to do for now in short term. But eventually, we'll need to go back. There's a debt to be settled and it'll have to wait until we're stronger." Nine shrugged as Shiro nodded her head.
"Well if you want to be stronger, I can go around killing monsters with you for now. That should help you get Exp, as for actual experience, I'll make a time chamber for you. It'll dilute the time so that time passes faster in the room and it'll give you sufficient time to train." Shiro offered as Nine paused in surprise.
However, remembering that she used time magic to help her make the food taste better, he understood that with her control of magic and time, this was probably an easy task for her.
"In that case then I'll be troubling you." Nine smiled as Shiro nodded.
"It's fine, there's no trouble. Oh speaking of which, Iris, if you don't mind, can I study your physique for a bit? I'm compiling some data right now so a unique case like yours will be quite helpful." Shiro said as Iris nodded her head.
"Of course."
"Oh and Nine you'll have to step out for a bit. I'll call you back in once I'm done." Shiro said, placing her laptop down.
Raising an eyebrow, Nine nodded his head and watched as Iris gave him a small wave. He didn't know why but it felt like he was delivering her to a beast.
'I'm probably overthinking things.' Nine thought to himself.
Stepping out of the room, he closed the door and decided to guard it in case anyone wanted to disturb Shiro and Iris.
Noticing this, Shiro waved her hand and blocked off the noise from the inside for now.
"I'll seal the mana in this room for now so that you can undo your bandages if you don't mind."
Nodding her head, Iris reached towards her bandage and removed it from her face.
Blinking her eyes in surprise, Shiro was shocked to see corruption near her eyes. The darkness seemed to flicker with weird glitches and numbers.
"Is there something wrong?" Iris asked as she blinked her eyes.
Within the darkness that tries to spread out its influence, a pair of florescent pink eyes stared back at Shiro.
"How do I explain this… Hmm… what does your eyes look like to you normally?" Shiro asked, conjuring a piece of ice to act as a mirror.
"A strange question. But except for the unusual glow in my eyes and some runic marks around the edges due to the seal, there's nothing else that's wrong with them." Iris replied, looking at herself in the mirror.
Hearing this, Shiro furrowed her brows.
"So it's just me that can see it then. That's a little unsettling. Can you lay down on this table? I'll do a quick check up on you." Shiro asked as Iris nodded.
Laying down on the ice table, Shiro approached her and closed her eyes.
Red circuits appeared on her arm as Shiro tried to infiltrate Iris's body only for the corruption to spread through her body and lash out at Shiro.
Slapping Shiro's arm away, the corruption retreated, leaving Shiro surprised as this had never happened before.
"Hmm… we'll leave it here for now. I'll call on you in the future once I made some progress." Shiro said as Iris looked at her with a confused stare before nodding.
Putting on her bandages once more, Shiro watched as the corruption get sealed away and furrowed her brows.
Instructing Iris to rest for now, Shiro sat on the throne in a foetal position and contemplated what she had learnt.
"The powers around Iris' eyes are similar to Error. The energy it radiates reminds me of when I first came into contact with him. Hmm… perhaps once Error recovers enough to talk I'll be able to get some answers. For now, I'll just develop my abilities over time." Shiro muttered, closing her eyes so that she could get some sleep.
Even though she's been supressing it all day, Shiro could feel her nerves tensing the longer she stayed alone.
Her mind wondered if the city was safe but knew it was just her anxiety messing with her.
Taking deep breaths to try calm herself, Shiro wanted to hasten her recovery which was another reason for her departure. If she stayed in Asharia, she didn't know if she could stop herself from looking for Nan Tian to calm her nerves. If she kept doing that, she'll never get herself out of this shell.
Holding her knees tightly, Shiro ignored her worries and tried to sleep.
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Laying in bed, Aphrodite smiled happily while checking up on what Shiro had done.
Seeing that she had racked up quite a lot of affection points on the meter with Aoi, she couldn't help but raise her eyebrow.
"Oh my, such talent. In one encounter and she's already made such progress. She's even better than me." Aphrodite muttered while glancing behind her to see the blushing and nude Athena putting her clothes back on.
"So? How did you enjoy it? You've resisted me for so long, how does it feel to let loose." Aphrodite asked as she eyed Athena's body.
Saying nothing, Athena tried to suppress her blush as a cage appeared around Aphrodite once more and this time she was thrown out for good.
Dismissing her aura that was clearly one that was meant to make one hot and bothered, Athena glanced back at the screen and noticed something in the corner.
Immediately, her blush disappeared as she donned her armour and forcefully created an avatar.
Descending to the mortal realm, Athena glared coldly at the being in front of her.
"What are you doing Odin. This place is not within your realm of influence."
"I sensed an interesting clash in power for a split moment. Though it may just be me getting dull." A young man smiled while glancing at Athena out of his one visible eye. The other was covered by a runic eyepatch.