Chapter 524 Fallen
Chapter 524 Fallen
While this was happening, the red circuits extended towards Aekari like strings of curses.
Feeling this foreign entity trying to invade the deepest parts of his body, Aekari tried to resist but it was futile.
"ARGG!!!!" The pain was searing into his mind as his body seemed to ignore his commands.
Trying his best to reach out to Shiro, he wanted nothing else other than snapping that neck in half. He didn’t know what she did but his system was unresponsive. He couldn’t use any of his skills or passives.
Seeing this, Nan Tian quickly grabbed Aekari’s arm and dragged it away from Shiro. He didn’t know what she was doing but he knew that this was a golden opportunity. As this was happening, he couldn’t help but notice the red circuit patterns which gave him a sense of dread.
Unsure as to why that was the case, Nan Tian ignored it for now and allowed Shiro to do whatever she wanted to do.
After a few short seconds, Shiro plunged her hand into Aekari’s chest and ripped out a small flicker of light in one swift movement. Before Aekari could even scream, his body started to break down into ash.
"Just you wait Nytri! This avatar is done for but I’ll find you! In the next age, you’ll die by my hands!" Aekari roared out in anger.
"Sure, it’ll save me the trouble of finding you myself. Next time I’ll rip out your main source code." Shiro replied with a devilish smile.
Watching Aekari’s body turn to ash, her smile faded after he disappeared. At this point, sweat could be seen dripping down her face as she floated down to the ground.
Seeing this, Nan Tian quickly helped her while the elders announced their victory and had the remaining attack force rescue all of the captives within the dungeon.
"Are you alright?" Nan Tian asked with worry as Keiko also appeared next to her.
"Yeah, just a little surprised by how much this hurts." Shiro squeezed out while raising her right hand and showing Nan Tian the orb of light.
Now that he was looking at it closely, he realised that the light was actually a huge condensed string of letters and numbers.
Looking at this orb, Shiro closed her eyes and started to absorb it into her own code.
*PING!!!
As the orb shattered into the form of countless strings of code, the code started to fade into her right arm. While this was happening, the red circuits along with the dark silver colour on her arm started to fade, returning her arm back to its normal state.
Once the codes completely disappeared, Shiro felt a wave of fatigue crash into her mind. Stumbling back, she was about to collapse onto the floor when Nan Tian caught her once more.
"Ha... I’m embarrassing myself quite a bit today huh? I can’t even fly properly and now I can’t even stand." Shiro chuckled.
"Don’t worry about it. If you’re tired, both me and Keiko can look after you while you rest." Nan Tian reassured.
"I see.... In that case then I’ll be troubling you both." Shiro nodded and closed her eyes.
Picking her up into a carry, Nan Tian turned towards Keiko.
"I’ll take her back to the Inn with Estrella’s help. In the meantime, you can look for Yuki since she was Shiro’s main goal for coming here in the first place."
"Sure, just be careful ok? We don’t know what other dangers lurk around the place and y- Huh? When did your level drop?" Keiko widened her eyes. Since she was in tier 5 as well, she was able to spot his level a few times and noticed that he was level 500. However, now that she saw his level again, she realised that he had lost 43 levels from that fight.
"Ah, it’s just the price I needed to pay to summon the War God. Initially, I had lost 50 levels you know? But with Shiro killing the avatar, I got 7 levels back." Nan Tian chuckled as 50 levels were nothing to him. The fact that Shiro was safe and her mortal enemy was driven back was worth the 50 levels he had spent.
"It would have been more than 50 levels. If not for the fact that you had already experienced quite a few pseudo level ups, you would have been dropped all the way down to level 400." The War God reminded as his figure was on the verge of dissipating.
"Anyways, before I go, I wanted to give you one last warning. Since you’ve gone against the Light God, the coming age is going to a tough one. I’m not exactly on friendly terms with him so I don’t mind fighting him once or twice. But just know that his wrath is not something you should dismiss. Especially that girl you have in your arms. When she wakes up, remind her to keep an eye on everyone she cares about the moment the new age arrives. If not, they could be used as hostages against her." The War God warned.
"Thank you."
While this was all happening, Shiro was drifting through a void of sorts with no end in sight.
Looking around for anything that could be of importance, she was disappointed when all she could see was the endless void.
"Tch, what the hell is this place." She muttered with a frown.
However, just as she said this, a blinding light filled her vision.
Shielding her eyes, Shiro felt a gust of wind crash into her as her body was blown back.
Twisting her body so that she could land on her feet, Shiro looked down and saw a familiar city. However, it was a little different to her memories as it seemed... underdeveloped.
As her body was falling through the sky, Shiro felt her vision shift and she was now floating above a young man.
’Light God?’ Shiro frowned when she realised that this was a younger version of the light god. However, compared to his malevolent glare that he always had in his eyes, this one seemed untainted. If anything, it had closer resemblances to the young Aekari that she had seen in the trial back in Miriel.
’What’s happening?’ She thought to herself.
No answers came. With no choice but to watch what happens for now, Shiro leaned back lazily while giving the place a curious glance.
The scenes started to speed up in two time’s speed as Aekari’s life started to play in front of her eyes.
Yawning slightly, Shiro couldn’t give a crap since she didn’t really care about what happened to Aekari.
However, when the sky shifted to an ominous red, Shiro’s attention was drawn towards a shock filled Light Hero with the glowing figure of what she presumed as the Light Goddess.
"What the hell is all of this!?" Aekari shouted out in confusion. The world that he knew and loved was now in the midst of self destruction. Large chunks of land would collapse and casualties soared into the millions.
The ones that he cared about died gruesome deaths while he couldn’t do anything but watch.
"This is the future." The Light Goddess replied calmly.
"Where am I then!? Shouldn’t I be trying to help people!?" Aekari questioned with panic in his eyes.
"You’re not here because you died. You weren’t strong enough." The Light Goddess shook her head.
"What about Nytri then!? Isn’t she powerful? Where is she?"
"She’s not here as this does not concern her. Her fate does not end with this world. However, your fate does."
"What do you mean?"
"It’s simple. The life or death of his world does not affect her. The power she obtained will go to waste. Of course, unless you want to change your fate? I’ll give you that opportunity. Become a hero that can save this world. Take her strength for yourself and become a god." The Light Goddess persuaded as Aekari gritted his teeth.
Looking at the destruction caused, he decided to take the offer.
"I’ll do it! I’ll become a god and stop all of this." Aekari nodded his head.
"Good." The Light Goddess chuckled with a smile that resembled that of a devil’s and waved her hand. Time seemed to rewind as he was sent back to the past. This time however, there was a cruel light in his eyes as he vowed to take everyone’s strength so that he could stop this all by himself. He KNEW that he wanted to stop this so he must be the strongest. In the future, those that were stronger than him didn’t do anything so he MUST take their strength for himself.
As long as he was undefeatable, he could affect the fate of this world.
"They’re all EXP for me to gain." He muttered. It was also at this moment that a black stain appeared in his soul. His name tag that was once white turned into a shade of grey. He had fallen.