Chapter 1239: The God Beast
'To think that a True First Born of Creation can't be awakened anymore… But that doesn't explain Aria's powers. Did she find a way to awaken?' Shiro thought to herself with a frown.
Letting go of the Fake Aria, Shiro stared at her while she was trying to regain her breath.
"How much danger does the God Beast pose to other realms? Would it not be better to eliminate it?" Shiro asked curiously. If this being was indeed a fusion of every single God that was born in this world, then the chance of it breaching other realms was not a risk that Shiro was excited to take.
"Please… Let him be. I will make sure he doesn't go to other realms. It's the only thing that's stopping this world from dying out." 'Aria' begged as she bit her lips.
"..." Staring at her for a moment, Shiro sighed. Even though she looked like Aria, Shiro had to admit that she felt pity for her. The realisation that you were a fake all along and that you were only created as a counterweight. The despair in seeing your world collapsing before your eyes.
"Fine." Shiro nodded. After all, she also knows that this God Beast was the reason why the flow of time was so different between the worlds. From 'Aria's' memories, the Beast acted as a break. If this world was the train, and the flow of time is the rails. The God Beast was slowing the descent towards the cliff.
If she was to forcefully remove it without 'Aria' being prepared, the world will resume its destruction. While Shiro had reached a balanced state, the damage had been done and the best they could do was delay this world's end until a solution could be found.
{I would've said that the solution was probably to win this game. But with the new knowledge, we're not even sure if that's true anymore.} Nimue sighed heavily as Shiro nodded.
She could see why Anima despaired at the truth of this world.
Even if they go back to the world of destruction, claim sovereignty, what next? She doesn't know about the truth that they had discovered, and she doubts she can find out anytime soon. With the third party watching her, the truth will not be discovered.
Scratching her head in frustration, Shiro looked towards the direction of the God Beast.
"Let's just take it one step at a time."
Waving her hand, a portal appeared.
"We just need to move the God Beast out of the way right?" Shiro asked as 'Aria' nodded her head.
Gesturing for Lyrica and the rest to follow her, Shiro teleported them to the airspace above the God Beast.
"Lyrica, can I ask you to move it aside? I'll be preparing the Bifrost in the meantime. 'Aria' said that she'll open the path once the Beast is moved aside so I'll stabilise the path with the Bifrost. That way we'll have a safe path."
Nodding her head, Lyrica took a deep breath.
"Standard formation. Nitha, you and Asher stay back this time and provide ranged support. We don't know how strong this thing is." Lyrica ordered as they both nodded their heads.
"I'll provide you with some support as well. Hopefully I don't need to be on the offensive since I might accidently kill the God Beast." Shiro smiled.
Taking a deep breathe, Lyrica jumped down head first. Narrowing her eyes, mana surged around her as it formed a protective barrier.
Golden particles of light converged with Lyrica in the centre.
*BANG!!!
Crashing against the ground, a giant cloud of smoke covered their view but soon it was brushed aside, revealing Lyrica's avatar.
Towering over the city, the avatar wore gold and white armour adorned with fluttering white silk. A golden crown could be seen above her head, created from a mass of swords. There were no facial features on the avatar except for a pair of glowing golden eyes.
Flowing pale green hair could be seen that matched Lyrica's hairstyle but looked as though a galaxy had formed within.
Clasping her hands together, a giant glowing wheel formed behind the avatar, revealing itself to be the wheel of samsara.
With the wheel fully formed, Lyrica separated her hand and conjured up two swords.
Sensing the danger posed by the avatar that had suddenly appeared, countless eyes snapped open from within the centre of the flesh like crystals. A large bestial maw shot out in an attempt to consume Lyrica.
Dashing forward without care, Lyrica was about to come into contact with the maw when fire erupted from the ground and a flaming dragon slammed the maw aside, paving a path for Lyrica.
"CADMI!" Lyrica shouted out as she threw both of her swords up into the air.
A giant tier 7 magic circle appeared above the swords which surprised Shiro somewhat. As they were Lyrica's friends, she didn't focus too much on their abilities. The fact that Cadmi could conjure a tier 7 magic circle meant that they were at the minimal, Demi God level.
Using Lyrica's swords as anchors, Cadmi created a box with her fingers and aimed it at the God Beast.
"I'VE LOCKED ON!" She shouted out as Lyrica jumped up.
Suddenly, the skies parted to reveal giant golden towers. Slamming against the ground around the God Beast, chains shot out with spikes attacked on the end and dug deep into the flesh.
The sounds of snapping muscle fibres could be heard as the giant body of the God Beast was forcefully uprooted from the ground, revealing a spiralling chasm of energy that flooded into the world.
Understanding that it was now her turn, Shiro took a step forward. An explosion of creation and destruction energy surged out as Shiro's core roared into action.
The land rumbled in accordance to Shiro's will as nanobots cleaved their way through the ground like an eldritch horror. Countless tendrils dug into the spiralling chasm as the energy of the Bifrost flooded in, ready to stabilise the pathway that 'Aria' will create.
"The silence is running out!" Cadmi called out as she was obviously straining herself right now. Her skill when paired with Lyrica, allowed them to completely silence anything she had targeted. That meant the flow of mana would be halted for a short period rendering them unable to use any skills, spells or racial traits. It was something they developed to avoid high level beings from running away.
A pillar of energy erupted from the chasm as a portal was opened.
Understanding that this was their chance to leave, Shiro waved her hand and locked onto the mana signals of everyone in the party.
Snapping her finger, she forcefully teleported them in front of the portal, causing Cadmi's spell to lose the target.
The skies darkened in fear as the God Beasts' body started to swell and convulse in an attempt to reshape itself.
'Aria will probably have a tough time restraining this beast if it transforms… Sigh I guess she's been truthful with us so I should help her out a little as well.' Shiro thought to herself as she gestured for Lyrica and the others to step through first.
Closing one of her eyes, she recalled the experiments she did with Aarim. When Aarim developed her ability to 'Save and Load' it was mainly used for an item or a person. But with Shiro's new understanding of codes as well as her new core, there was a chance that she could 'turn back time' on the whole world.
It wasn't a true rewind in the sense that what's done is removed, but rather moving the past to the future, so that what happens in between becomes null.
Scouring through the codes, she spotted the moment where the God Beast was still dormant.
Taking a deep breath, she controlled error and 'copied' every single code in the area at that moment of time except for their actions. Feeling her mana levels dropping rapidly, Shiro moved the code to the present and rewrote reality.
Feeling her closed eye strain from scanning through everything, Shiro held her hand over the eye and applied healing magic while watching the world change in accordance to her power. Every skill, every action that the God Beast suffered/performed started to reverse one by one. Soon, it returned to its dormant state while Shiro jumped through the portal.
Closing the portal using the power of the Bifrost, Shiro took a deep breath and signed.
"Are you alright?" Lyrica asked with a frown since she could see that Shiro's eye was injured.
"Yeah I'm fine. Glad to see that my new core lets me rewrite reality. The God Beast is dormant again and 'Aria' should have an easier time stopping it from encroaching on other realms." Shiro smiled while ignoring the absurdity of her actions. After all, she changed the entire state of that area. While it wasn't as crazy as turning back time for the entire world, it was slowly approaching that realm.
"Shall we go find your parents?" She asked with a smile while taking the lead through the pathway.