Chapter 1228: Cause of Destruction
While reading the books that she had gathered, it didn't take long for the person sent by the elders to find her.
"Here are the books that you've requested. The elders also asked me to pass this letter to you." He said as Shiro nodded her head before dismissing him and opened the letter.
[This book is a diary rather than a history book. It wasn't given to us but rather Shiro left it here and never took it away with her. We tried to give it back but she rejected. Hopefully this gives you some insight. And don't worry, this book isn't the original copy so you can deal with it however you wish]
Raising an eyebrow, Shiro waved her finger and burned the letter before glancing at the diary.
She had a general gist of the history of this world after reading the books and it wasn't too different from what the youth told her earlier.
Aarim, Helion, Madison, Lyrica, Silvia, Chen Yu, Nan Tian and everyone else all existed in this world. However, they passed while trying their best to keep people safe. From what she could gather, their strength was lacking compared to the ones she knew from the side of destruction.
The only one that was left is Shiro. C.
Thinking to herself for a moment, Shiro grabbed the diary and opened it up.
Glancing through the words, Shiro realised that this was Aarim's diary.
It detailed all of her experiments, her knowledge on the puppets and what potentially happened to this world.
While it wasn't anything she didn't know, Shiro could sense Aarim's passion and her personality through the sentences she wrote in the diary. According to Aarim's hypothesis, the pulse of energy that occurred was very likely a byproduct of an awakening that tipped the world balance.
When she attempted to link both worlds together with her 'Destruction self', a change started to occur. The objects around her seem to become unstable as an unknown energy source would slowly corrupt them. Taking over little by little until the balance was tipped. And the energy took over, causing the object to turn into ash.
Naturally, humans or any living being aren't exempt from this effect. The closer you are to the source of this power, the more the body will degrade. It'll slowly harden from the inside out before breaking away like porcelain.
In Aarim's own words, when the two energies were separate, the strength did not matter since the energy didn't come into contact with one another. However, due to her experiments, it may have set off a catastrophic domino effect that caused the two to meet.
Now whenever someone is exposed to this energy, it's like a tug of war suddenly happening within their body. Naturally, if either side gains the upper hand the balance will be tipped. For the residents of this world, their body is entirely composed of energy from their world.
If creation energy gains the upper hand, nothing will happen. But if destruction gained the lead, their body would break apart.
At first, the momentum of this energy was slow. There was only one source and that was the mage tower. Quarantining it off was simple and treatment for the initial stages of what they called Mana Corruption was effective.
All it took was to empower the body with more creation energy to keep the destruction from growing further.
Later, they discovered that Shiro's strength was key to fend off the Mana Corruption. Her own mana affected the world as a whole and the stronger she was, the easier it became to keep this energy at bay. Unfortunately, she could not keep up with the growing strength.
Shiro tried to resolve this quickly and they managed to devise a way for her to travel through the connection they had created. Unfortunately, it meant that she would be suffering from a large exposure of destruction mana thus they needed to make the trip short.
Then one day, everyone got a notification. With a single crack, the destruction energy flooded the world, and everyone was infected by Mana Corruption.
Shiro's strength could no longer keep up.
The diary from this point on was rough and blurred. From the handwriting Shiro could tell that Aarim's strength was fading at that point. As the person closest to the original source, her Mana Corruption had to be the deepest.
But even with the blurred handwriting she could still pick out some words.
Shiro, contract. Upgrade, strength. Second pulse, fusion for creation.
Closing the book slowly, Shiro leaned back and looked up at the ceiling of the library.
"F*ck…" She muttered with a deep sigh.
With her knowledge of what she's been through and now paired with the knowledge of Aarim and the history of this world. Shiro understood that her own abnormal growth, especially her awakening as the First Born of Destruction caused the balance to tip within the side of creation.
As her awakening was premature and much sooner, Shiro. C was not able to prepare properly.
Had it been the other way around, perhaps it would be their world suffering from the influx of creation.
'Seems like Anima wasn't wrong huh? Just tipping the balance and causing the other side to try their best to catch up would bring destruction. To think my growth would actually doom an entire world without me ever knowing. And it's actually the side of creation no less. I wonder how Shiro. C felt. Seeing her friends disappear one by one knowing that it was the Shiro from the side of destruction causing all of this.' Shiro thought as Nimue was silent for a moment before opening her mouth but closed it without saying anything.
She didn't know how to react to this knowledge and how to help Shiro.
'Bah ignore me. It was unavoidable anyways. It's why I'm striving for balance now right? So that the universe isn't tipped towards the path of destruction.' Shiro shook her head and stood up.
Looking at the diary, she decided to keep it for now and placed the other books back to where they belong.
Making her way out of the library, she closed one of her eyes and remotely controlled her clone. Quickly finding Gazir, Shiro told him to relay her message to the survivors. She was going to journey alone to find her companion and this clone will serve as a bodyguard. If they wanted to journey out, they could either use this clone or the mini Shiro's she gave them all.
Without giving him a chance to say no, Shiro teleported back to the surface.
Stretching her body, Shiro took a deep breath of fresh air before closing her eyes.
'We're going to do this in one go Nimue.' She said suddenly.
{Huh?}
'We're going to scan the whole world in one go so I can locate Lyrica.'
{Do you even hear yourself right now?! This is actual suicide!}
'I have a plan. Reading Aarim's diary just now gave me an idea. I'm going to help you with keeping my body from breaking apart. I'll be drawing creation energy from the planet in order to reinforce my regenerative powers. I don't need to use destruction mana since my body is made from it. If I do it well, I should be able to keep it directly in the middle so the tug of war within my body doesn't stop.' Shiro smiled.
She had to succeed in this. The sooner she brings a balance to her destruction powers, the faster this world can heal and stop itself from edging closer to oblivion. It will give Shiro. C a chance to potentially correct things in this world.
Shiro had the plan in mind, she had the blueprints theorised. All that's left is to experiment and put it into practice. While she told Nimue that she was going to scan the world, she needed the powers to do so first. She couldn't cycle her destruction mana too much otherwise the world itself would reject her.
She needed an equal amount of creation to offset the destruction. That way she can use both energies without being expelled from the world.
Flying into the sky, Shiro made sure she was far from the ground in case she was to release a pulse of energy that could affect the safehouse.
Closing her eyes, she clasped her hands together and visualising what she's about to do.
'In order to cycle both energies at once, I need to have them fight in a tug of war that never ends with no victor or loser. This will be the core of my mana. The foundation of my being.' Shiro thought to herself as mana surged towards her.
In her left, a vibrant gold creation mana shimmered. In her right, the dark purple and red destruction mana lashed out.
She had to fuse the two together without making them clash. If creation flowed to the right, destruction will follow. If destruction flowed to the left, creation will follow. A constant loop.
Within the mana realm, Nimue watched as the walls twisted and morphed as Shiro experimented with how her body circulated her mana.
Noticing a change in the deepest part of the mana realm, Nimue made her way over and saw Shiro's new core slowly forming.