Sitting in the clouds with her legs crossed, Shiro looked towards the sea of monsters with a rather complicated gaze. Previously, she had said that if there were more monsters like the first one she'll give up. However, after some poking around, most of the monsters were much weaker than the serpentine one.
If anything, there were only 2 others that were on par with it but that was still problematic since just one was troublesome enough with his regeneration. Add two others into the mix and it becomes a pain in the ass since they can just retreat and let the others deal with her if they get severely wounded.
An example would be if she managed to wound the serpentine, he could just dive into the clouds and run away for a bit while the other two lock her down, preventing her from chasing after him and he'll return not too long later back at full health.
"Any ideas?" Shiro asked as Quella's butterfly landed on her shoulder.
[Nope. Honestly, I didn't realise how dangerous this place really is. Now that I had a good look at the monsters, I can say for certain that you need more than three of the primordial divinities if you want to explore to this place. Maybe you should leave it till after you obtained Nyx's.] Quella suggested.
"Mn. But I see a possibility. The only problem is how effective this is." Shiro frowned.
[What possibility are you talking about?]
"One of the skills I got from Gaia. It allows me to send out a pulse of light that petrifies everything within range and it takes 20% of my energy as the initial cost. Naturally this ray of light increases depending on how much energy is used and 20% of mine is rather sizable so it could turn out to be something that's good for us." Shiro explained as Quella thought about it for a moment.
[How long would it take for you to be able to use this again?]
"Three days. Once I use this, I have to wait three days before I can use it again." Shiro replied.
[Well the initial petrification worked didn't it? The one with the arrow. So there's a good chance that this will work too.]
"I'll give it a try. And even if it doesn't, I should be able to escape without too many worries." Shiro nodded as she narrowed her eyes at the mountain peaks in the distance. There was one that stood high amongst the rest and that was the one she was going for.
*BANG!!!
Charging forwards, her initial speed pushed the clouds aside as her body flickered into a blur.
Just as she did this, two large jaws shot out of the clouds and tried to eat her before she could get close.
However, since these weren't the monsters that Shiro was on guard for, she wasn't too worried. Twisting her body, she summoned her bow and sent out two arrows which petrified their jaw.
Diving down to dodge the attack, she then summoned Nivlim and lashed out at the petrified jaw, shattering them to pieces.
Resuming her charge toward the mountain peak, Shiro nimbly dodged all of the attacks as she was now entering the territory that housed the three main monsters that she was wary of.
Feeling danger from three directions, Shiro widened her eyes and activated her True Spirit Nature.
Clasping her hands together, Shiro gritted her teeth and a burst of cold mist exploded out of her, freezing her surroundings in an instant as a giant ice cube appeared out of nowhere. Since she was able to travel through ice, she managed to dodge a thin beam of white energy which would have cut her in half in an instant.
However, the danger wasn't over as a set spiked claws reached out for the ice cube. In the centre of the claws were mouths that started to open wider and wider as a set of jaws shot out.
Jumping out of the ice, Shiro pushed her hand out as a giant magic circle expanded above and below her.
Frozen Slumber!
From the magic circles chains shot out and attempted to restrain the monsters who quickly dodged them so that they didn't get frozen. Using this chance, she dismissed her True Spirit Nature and dashed towards the top of the top.
With her actions, the final guardian appeared as it was the serpent like monster that she had seen first.
With all three in range of her, she curled her lips into a grin.
Activating Gaia's divinity, green energy exploded out from her as an orb of light could be seen in the centre.
Understanding what she had to do, Shiro detonated this green energy.
*KRR!!!!!!!!
As a pulse of energy expanded out with her in the centre, Shiro watched as a layer of petrification formed on the three large monsters. They tried their best to dispel this by cleaving off the parts that were petrified but the speed of petrification was simply too fast.
However, what Quella and Shiro didn't expect was the range of her attack.
Looking into the distance, she could see the layers of petrification coating the peak of the mountains as well. Looking back, the petrification had already coated the entirety of the ravine they were previously in along with spreading past the border towards the Section of Life.
[After this, there might be a slight change in which divinity is the most powerful.] Quella muttered since the power of her petrification was simply insane.
The fact that it also petrified the mountain and parts of the Section of Life was something neither of them had anticipated.
Thankfully, since Shiro could control her petrification at will, she quickly dismissed the petrification on the mountain and land since her only goal was the monsters.
Without delaying any longer, Shiro dashed towards the peak of the mountains as the monsters could only glare at her.
'Honestly, I would have wanted to shatter them to pieces and kill them for good but I don't have that kind of power just yet.' Shiro thought to herself.
Arriving at the peak of the mountain, Shiro had to blink for a moment as she couldn't believe what she was seeing. There was a giant lake of sorts with a shrine built on the side. In front of the shrine was a figure that was clad from head to toe in black armour. The figure had a sword rested beside him while monster skeletons decorated the edges of this place.
Landing next to the lake, Shiro felt her body go through a barrier of sorts.
"Quella you see this?" Shiro asked but heard no reply.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro glanced into the bag and saw that the butterfly had dimmed down slightly.
Understanding that communication had been cut short for now, Shiro walked up to the figure.
Once she was next to it, she saw that the armour was actually hollow inside as there were some writings on the shrine.
[One of the greatest armours and weapon crafted by the blacksmith god Hephaestus himself. Should one arrive here after surviving the sea of dragons they may claim it after proving their skills.]
Reading the writing, Shiro raised her eyebrow and glanced back at the amour which started to move.
Suddenly, she heard a soft ping as a notification appeared on her system.
[Claim two of Hephaestus' 10 masterpieces.]
Curling her lips into a grin, Shiro knew she hit the jackpot.
Summoning Nivlim, she was about to attack the armour when its body flickered next to her and kneed her in the ribs.
*CRACK BANG!!!
Sending her crashing towards the lake, the armour chased after her.
"GAH!!!" Coughing up some blood, Shiro immediately understood that she had underestimated it as two of her ribs had been broken already.
Quickly grabbing some medicine, she ate it while raising her sword to guard against the next attack.
Seeing its figure loom above her with its sword raised above its head, Shiro narrowed her eyes and twirled Nivlim into a reverse grip before brushing it off to the side.
Using this chance to activate her True Spirit Nature, a set of ice chains exploded out from the ground and tried to restrain the amour.
Seeing this, the armour stomped down, sending out a shockwave that shattered the ice chains apart.
"Tch!" Clicking her tongue, Shiro activated Gaia's divinity and surrounded it in a stone prison so that she could get a moment to breathe.
Making some distance with the short break she had managed to obtain, Shiro quickly applied some medicine and could feel a soothing energy flow to her ribs.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro knew that she needed to grab the offensive since she wasn't a defensive fighter.