Chapter 1231: Yurei
Chapter 1231: Yurei
Compared to the old capital, Yurei was much bigger and bore resemblance to Asharia with certain architectures and the general layout. The technology was ahead of its time when compared to the rest of this world.
While still lacking for someone like Shiro, Yurei was a city of technological advancement for everyone else.
Marking down Yurei's location in her mind, Shiro couldn't help but turn her gaze towards the lands that were marked as deadly by Lyrica.
Sending out her senses, Shiro realised that most of the 'puppets' in those areas were created from man and monster alike. High level monsters have all been merged into horrific amalgamations of flesh with features of different monsters being visible on the surface.
Just as she was about to send her senses further, she felt Shiro. C's aura. It was brief but a subtle warning.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro decided to trust this warning for now since she had seen Shiro. C's actions. If she was warning her not to look further, it means she shouldn't. Or at least not right now.
'Once I meet up with Lyrica again, she asked for the three of us to meet.' Shiro thought to herself before turning towards the direction of Yurei.
Thinking to herself to a moment, Shiro decided to try something out. With her new connection to creation magic, her idea should work perfectly well.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro closed her eyes.
In her mind, the blueprint of the planet appeared in front of her.
'Now that I have a connection to both creation and destruction, I can manipulate both mana without too much issue. Plus, with Error's help, I can scan the whole world. In theory, I should be able to place a 'Teleport Shrine' where Yurei is without ever having gone there. All I need is the coordinates and place a marker. This doesn't have to be permanent since it's a teleport just for me.'
Locking onto Yurei's current location, Shiro waved her hand and the space ruptured in front of her.
While it's a little unstable at the moment, the potential for this skill was much better than her standard teleport markers. Since she didn't have to go to the location. As long as she can lock on through scanning or having a proxy, she can teleport.
Of course, with the benefits of Error, there was a chance that she could just lock onto their code and teleport to their most recent location. But that was still a theory in the works that Shiro couldn't finalise just yet.
Snapping her finger, Shiro forcefully stabilized the portal before stepping through.
In a blink of an eye, she appeared in the Yurei airspace.
'Interesting…' Shiro thought to herself. Now that she was in Yurei, she could see the city that Lyrica had built for herself. In front of her, was a magnificent skyscraper that acted as the central pillar. It was as tall as the eye could see and hoisted up the ceilings of this underground city.
Countless roads could be seen leading towards this tower with the lights of magic tech flickering with a soft blue glow.
The illumination of the buildings and the natural crystals that reflected the lights made this a sight to behold for the naked eye.
With the tower as the centre of the city, the crystal formations embedded in the ceiling resembled a galaxy, shimmering and reflecting the glows of the tower lights. A cascade of neon stars that should've been impossible for this underground city but served as a calming spectacle in the dire times.
A faint cold mist created from jagged stalactites served as cooling and clouds, draping skies of the city in an ephemeral fog. While it was barely visible, the fog's true intent could be seen once a single beam of light flickered past from within the tower.
Reflecting off the crystals above and diffracting through the fog, a man-made aurora borealis could be observed, floating through the sky.
"You've outdone yourself haha…" Shiro chuckled as emotions welled up within her. She could sense a familiar mana signal behind her and knew who was there.
"I had to give the people of this world some semblance of hope. This scenery is just to calm their hearts and distract them from the reality outside." A soft voice replied.
"However, it's nothing compared to what you did. The phenomenon outside… How very 'Shiro'. I had a hard time realising who entered the city through the portal." She continued. However, her voice betrayed her excitement as she gripped the skirt of her dress.
"I had… a small enlightenment. There's a balance of creation and destruction within my body. That should help with the corrosion of this world to a certain extent and stop it from descending into oblivion for now." Shiro nodded.
A pair of delicate arms wrapped around her, taking Shiro by surprise as she didn't expect this. But despite that, it was a welcoming gesture.
"It's nice seeing you again Lyrica, how have you been?" Shiro said as she glanced back at the familiar green haired elf. Her first friend in this world.
"I've been good." Lyrica smiled brightly as all of the emotions she had been holding back burst forth. The years she spent in this world of solitude in search of power so she could be of use. The years of longing and loneliness accumulated until this moment.
She could still remember Shiro's frail countenance after the fight, where she chose to journey out alone. The guilt of leaving but the burning desire to become stronger.
"I've missed you."
Seeing her friend shed tears, Shiro smiled warmly and turned around before hugging her back.
"I've missed you too." She whispered while calming Lyrica down.
"Though I must say, I wasn't expecting you to mature this quickly ahaha." Shiro joked as Lyrica's appearance took her by surprise. Lyrica was now half a head taller than her and her beauty can only be described as a flower in full bloom.
Even for Shiro, she had her breath taken the moment she saw Lyrica.
"I did spend a lot of time in this place. It would be strange if I didn't mature." Lyrica laughed as she wiped the tears away.
"But what do you think?" She smiled happily while giving Shiro a small twirl so that she could show off her outfit along with her matured appearance.
"What do I think?" Shiro raised an eyebrow before thinking for a moment.
"11 out of 10." She nodded.
While Shiro and Lyrica were talking amongst themselves and joking around, they ignored the group of people looking at the scene from the tower.
Blinking their eyes in disbelief of Lyrica's actions, they glanced at one another.
"Are you sure that's still Lyrica? She's way too… bouncy?" Nitha raised an eyebrow. After the years she spent in the different realms she had visited with the group, her appearance had changed dramatically compared to what she looked like before. Not to mention the fact that her language skills had improved. She now had grey and purple hair that was cut short, a pair of dark purple eyes and wore a black dress with no sleeves.
"I mean, what do you expect, she hasn't seen her friend in years." Asher chuckled. His appearance hasn't changed much with the exception of looking more mature and a few small scars on his arms.
However, compared to their smiles, there was one who didn't have a smile but in fact shock on his face.
"Holy sh*t!!! That's the girl I almost killed with my sneeze! Vuldrin shouted out in astonishment.
"The f*ck?" the rest of the party said at the same time as this was news to them.
"Remember when I joined Lyrica because I said I could smell the scent of the one I almost killed? That's her!" Vuldrin said as he couldn't help but feel panic.
He couldn't sense her aura at all despite her being in front of them. Plus, after exposure to different realm rulers, he knows that she was in a whole new league compared to them. If she wanted to, she could extinguish him with the bat of an eyelid.
"Do you think she'll hold a grudge from me sneezing on her?" Vuldrin asked as his eyes twitched in uncontrolled anxiety.
"I'll prepare your coffin stupid dragon." Nitha said as she gave him the middle finger.
"Preparing the coffin for who now?" Lyrica's voice rang out as Vuldrin felt shivers down his spine.
A delicate hand patted his shoulder with a soft yet firm grip. He could feel he body freeze up as a soft voice echoed next to his ear.
"Yoo~ I wonder if I've met you before? Somewhere… on a mountain perhaps? Though it's pretty hard to forget a life and death experience right~?" Shiro asked as her charming smile twisted into a sadistic grin.
Before he could apologise with his life on the line, Shiro let go of his shoulder with a laugh.
"Oh well, you've helped Lyrica plenty so I forgive you. Plus it was my fault for breaking into your house to begin with."
Sighing in relief, Vuldrin felt the weight of a thousand suns get lifted from his back as the threat of death was no longer looming behind him.
"Hm?" Noticing something strange, he glanced down and saw faint ice crystals on the ground as if a spell was being prepared but cancelled out in the end.