Chapter 268 - Iziuel

Hearing Nimue speak, Shiro raised her eyebrows in surprise.

'You know who she is?'

{Yes. If I'm not wrong, she's one of the most prestigious spirits of our race. Iziuel, Spirit of the great forest.} Nimue replied as there was shock evident in her voice.

{I can't believe one of the most powerful spirits is used as a battery for the elven race…} Her voice choked up in sadness and anguish.

Staying silent, Shiro allowed Nimue to leave her mana realm and materialise herself.

"Ohya? Another one that I seem to find familiar. Feel free to tell me who you are as well. It is terribly boring here alone." Iziuel asked.

"Lady Iziuel, I am Nimue. Spirit of the lake. I was once your student." Nimue kneeled down and bowed her head in respect.

"Ah, so my name is Iziuel? Interesting… You say you're my student but I don't remember. For as long as I remember, I've always been here though. When did I have the chance to gain a student?"

"This was many years ago Lady Iziuel. Since your body is being used as a cursed battery, it is only natural that you'll slowly lose yourself." Nimue bit her lip.

"I see. How strange. I don't think I'm a battery though. If anything, I just feel occasionally tired and sleep." Iziuel chuckled nonchalantly.

Seeing how she was reacting, Nimue felt like her head had been stabbed over and over again. For her mentor to be acting this way, she couldn't even begin to wonder how many years it had been since she was turned into a battery.

"So that explains why you familiar. But what about your friend next to you? I know that her current form isn't what she looks like in reality. Could you perhaps reveal yourself?" Iziuel asked.

"Sure."

Undoing her disguise, Shiro revealed her true form.

"Hmm… I still don't recognise you…" Iziuel sighed.

"Lady Iziuel, that is because who you're seeing right now is the current queen of the spirit race. Hence the familiarity. As for her level, se may be weak right now but her potential is immeasurable. I can guarantee that she won't bring the spirit race shame." Nimue gestured to Shiro.

"Heh~ Well I don't know much about the spirit race so good job?" Iziuel chuckled.

"Lady Iziuel, where are you right now? If you tell us, we may be able to save you." Nimue asked.

"Ah, I don't know where I am though. It feels like my conscious is overlapping the whole city and my surrounding area is in complete darkness. *Yawn…. Mn, I'm feeling sleepy again… Can you come here often? It's rare for me to see anyone familiar." Iziuel asked.

"Of course. But coming here is a little troublesome." Shiro shrugged. She didn't mind giving Iziuel some company since she felt pity for the spirit.

"Let me deal with that, I can give you permission to unlock the formations to this place like the other people that visit this place. But don't tell them ok? They don't really like people coming here if they don't permit it." Iziuel chuckled softly before her voice faded away.

Taking a deep breath, Nimue sighed and bowed her head a few times before turning to Shiro.

"My queen, can we save Lady Iziuel? I can guarantee that she will be of great use to you. Unlike me, who can just give you passive effects, she'll be able to grant you an elemental affinity should you link up with her."

"Of course. I was planning to do that the moment I found out that you knew of her. Though we'll have to wait a while since there are a few problems that we need to sort out first before we rescue her." Shiro smiled.

"Understood. But I hope we can do it soon. Lady Iziuel doesn't have much time left I'm afraid. Spirits hardly fall asleep and are active all time round. For her to be constantly sleepy, it means that she's suffering from a severe lack of mana. When a spirit experiences that, they will be forcefully put into hibernation in order to speed up mana recovery." Nimue explained.

"So does that mean she's in a constant state of mana deficiency?" Shiro frowned slightly.  

"Indeed." Nimue nodded with a bitter expression.

"Then that's rather troublesome. The sooner we get her out, the better." Shiro furrowed her brows.

She guessed that the longer she left Iziuel alone, the more damage would have acc.u.mulated in her body. As much as she would like to help but, Shiro didn't know where she was and what kind of role she played.

The biggest possibility was that Iziuel was in the world tree but that posed another problem. Elves view the world tree as a religious symbol. If there was anything that went wrong with it or if the power source was to disappear, chaos would spread.

She needed to make sure that she had a replacement power source for Iziuel so that the barrier can continue to run.

"I'll keep that in mind. Go back to the mana realm for now and we'll think of ways to locate her later." Shiro said as Nimue nodded.

Shifting into mist, she returned to Shiro's mana realm.

Shaking her head, Shiro turned to the martial arts manuals on the walls.

Her most lacking aspect in terms of martial arts is fist combat. Having one would greatly enhance her power along with synergising with her phantom path since it ignores defence.

Checking through the manuals, she found that most of them were good but weren't on the level of 'paths'.

'If I choose a mediocre Martial Arts to focus on, it might weaken the effects of what I have currently. My best bet is to find something similar in quality or higher.' She thought to herself.

Realising that the quality increased the higher she progressed, she decided to go straight to the top.

There was only one manual on the highest layer.

[Ancient Heart Enlightenment (Red)]

A martial art that takes the true nature of your heart and projects it as a body cultivation style designated to you. Warning: Should one desire battle within their heart, this will only amplify the effects. It may lead to a path of no return.

One's mind will be consumed by a heart demon's if they are not resolute.

"Hou… Interesting…" Shiro narrowed her eyes and memorised the entire manual.

Placing it back, she had a look at the books under this layer and saw that they were only of the purple rank. Classifying them as mediocre in her mind, she hopped over to the weapon manuals.

Unfortunately, there weren't any manuals of the red grade and the rest were inferior compared to her Asura Sword Path.

Picking up a few purple graded sword techniques for the party, she memorised them down and left the area. She couldn't stay here for too long after all.

Dismissing her illusion, she walked out of the library and saw that Annie was still talking over the phone. Waiting patiently for a while, she decided to go through the Ancient Heart Enlightenment manual in her mind.

'The core concept of the Ancient Heart Enlightenment manual is to act according to how your heart feels. Without disguising your desires and thoughts, one can focus on any task with their entire being. Should one desire to save people the most, this manual would transform itself to help the user save people.' Shiro read in her mind.

The initial stages of this manual had no need for fighting but rather, to understand oneself. Once they master this stage, hesitation will disappear from their movements and their fighting style will become smoother.

At the second stage, a set of martial arts would slowly appear in your movements.

The final stage is where the martial arts would have been completed and you would have cultivated an unyielding heart, helping you

As she was studying the manual in her mind, Annie finally finished her phone call and saw that Shiro was waiting by the side with her eyes closed.

"Ah I'm sorry! I didn't realise that you had finished." Annie quickly apologised.

"Don't worry about it. I was thinking about something anyways." Shiro dismissed it with a smile.

"Even so…" Annie pulled a difficult face.

"It's fine. Why don't you make this up to me by showing me to the training rooms?" Shiro suggested. If she knew where the training rooms were, she could get herself a calm location and train the Ancient Heart Enlightenment.

"Of course. Follow me." Annie nodded and showed her to the training rooms.

Memorising where she needed to go for the training rooms, Shiro had Annie show her to the bedrooms.