Chapter 298 - Isilia

Flickering through the battlefield, Shiro assisted the guards at dealing as much damage as she could to the mech.

Since it was quite resistant to her attacks, the best she could do was to constantly destroy the mech's barrier.

Due to its hulking size and slow speed, it was effectively reduced to a punching bag.

"Arg! Damn pests! Can't you see that we should target her instead!? She has revolutionary technology on her body! If we were able to harness its power, humanity could reach new heights!" The scientists shouted out in anger while trying to control his mech.

But since it was a first generation mech that was designed to counter Shiro's attacks, he had little to no attack power except for his missiles. While he was able to track down the guards using the homing system, it wasn't enough to overcome the griffin's speed as they would just dodge at the last second.

Activating Phantom Path, Shiro flickered towards the mech since she wanted to get her hands on the intel.

Breaking apart the barrier once more, she narrowed her eyes and tried to release a strand of nanobots through the joint areas.

But before the nanobots could travel far, they were drained of mana and forced to shatter apart.

"Tch." Clicking her tongue, she kicked off the mech and created some more distance.

"Damn thing is almost impenetrable." She muttered in annoyance.

Making a few flying daggers, she flicked her hand and sent them towards the mech. After shattering the barriers once more, she opened up an opportunity for the guards to launch their attacks.

"HAAA!!!" Swinging his sword down, the Hero summoned a giant illusionary light blade in the air and slammed it into the mech, sending it crashing to the earth.

*BOOM!!!!!!

The sheer weight of the mech caused the ground to tremble and crack.

{They're quite relentless in their attacks aren't they?} Nimue praised while looking at the guard's coordination.

In their flurry of spells and attacks, there were hardly any gaps as each one would accurately hit the target.

'Well they're some of the best the church has to offer in this city. I wouldn't expect any less.' Shiro shrugged.

"URAHH!!! Damn it!!" The scientist shouted out in anger.

All of the missile hatches opened up as he sent them flying into the air.

*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!

By having them collide with one another in the air, he was able to catch the guards off guard with the sudden explosion.

*KIII!!!

Crying out in pain, the griffins retreated quickly to avoid the fire.

Flexing her fingers, Shiro quickly created a sniper and used a Calamity Dragon Arrow as the bullet.

Enhancing it with Celestial Path, she pulled the trigger without hesitation.

*BANG!

Hitting the head of the mech, the arrow tried its best to penetrate but still failed in the end.

Glancing over at her remaining MP, Shiro wondered if she should use her berserk skills so that she'll be able to speed up the fight.

'Wait a minute, if I shut down his barrier, that should give me enough of an interval to use Rift Walker and phase into the c.o.c.kpit.' Shiro widened her eyes in realisation.

{True. But you have to be careful since the chances of you exiting in hardware is also very likely.} Nimue reminded her with a frown.

"Hmm… OI! Hero!" Shiro shouted out.

"What?" Aekari looked over in confusion.

"Are you able to get everyone to restrain him for just a moment? I should be able to finish this off quickly."

Furrowing his brows, Aekari nodded after a short moment.

Passing her message onto the other guards, they signalled to each other before flying in a set formation.

A ray of light started to link each of them together as several tier 4 magic circles appeared around the mech.

"Now!" The captain commanded.

*BOOM!!!!!

Several golden chains burst out from the ground and started to tighten around the mech.

Understanding that this was her chance, Shiro dashed forward as fast as she could.

Quickly destroying the barrier, she sent out as much nanobots as she could to invade the mech.

A rough image of the mech appeared in her mind as she smiled and hopped into the rift. When she left, she was in front of the scientist who was pressing buttons rapidly in an attempt to break out of the chains.

"Wha-!"

Before he could even shout, Shiro jammed her fist into his mouth and pulled out his tongue in one swift movement.

"GAHHH!!!!!"

His cry full of pain could be heard over the mic as the hero flinched in shock.

"Oi, you caused me quite the trouble you know?" Shiro narrowed her eyes and swiped her hand towards him.

Sending several strands of nanobots to chew through his eyes, she had them consume as many disposable organs as they could in order to prolong his life.

Naturally, to avoid him from retaliating, she had already frozen his limbs to the console.

Ignoring his screams, Shiro focused on her main goal for coming in here.

'Where is volume 4…' She wondered to herself while browsing through the console. 

However, when she discovered that there was no volume 4 in the console, she realised that he must have the data on his body.

Quickly searching through his clothes, she gritted her teeth when she found nothing.

The worst part is that she couldn't even get his inventory if she killed him.

"What a goddamn scam." She cursed before setting her nanobots to violently combust the moment she leaves.

Jumping into the rift, she left the mech in an extremely bad mood.

By the time she left, the mech was smoking and on fire while the guards started to quickly dismantle the mech.

Just as she was about to continue, she noticed that time had suddenly stopped. Frowning slightly, she created two swords and stood on guard.

"Interesting… you're just like how Isilia described you to be." A voice called out.

"!!!!" Widening her eyes at the mention of her best friend's name, Shiro's head snapped to the source of the voice.

In front of her stood a tall elf that had short blond hair. A pair of crystal clear green eyes that gave one a sense of peace.

"Who are you?" Shiro asked with a frown. She wasn't swayed by his appearance since she knew that he could very well be the master of this trial.

"My name is Edvimar Valentaine. Father of Lyrica Valenstaine and husband to Talia Faeha. You may also know her as the deceased Elven Sword Saintess from Aria. Isilia." Edvimar smiled sadly.

"Wait, Isilia reincarnated as well?!"

"Indeed she did. When she told me of her past, I was obviously shocked at the fact that reincarnation existed." He smiled.

Explaining the story that Isilia had told him, he waited patiently for Shiro's reaction.

"Ok, give me a moment." Shiro shook her hand and started to digest all of the information.

Apparently, after Isilia sacrificed herself for Shiro, she woke up in the elven continent 5 years before the 'great metamorphosis'.

During that time, she realised that her level had been reset and so did her class. Trying to work her way back to her peak, she was able to become a level 200 powerhouse by the end of the 5 years.

But before she could complete her class up, the metamorphosis occurred, sending the entire elven continent to earth.

It was also during this time that Isilia started to travel around the world in search of information as this was something beyond her understanding.

Several worlds combining together into one with Earth.

She had initially hoped that Aria would be included and that she could find Shiro but even after 15 years of searching, she hadn't found anything that could suggest that Aria had merged as well.

But despite the lack of result, she had the information to create several theories of which she decided to return to the elven continent to continue her research.

"So you're saying that this place is a result of her research?" Shiro asked in surprise. What she had essentially created was a dungeon space that while doesn't offer EXP, it gave people the chance to obtain upgrades to their skills.

"Yeah, even in the end, she was still trying to look for you. It's unfortunate that you only came here after she passed away." Edvimar tilted his head back and sighed.