Hovering in the air, Shiro narrowed her eyes at the city in the distance.
Situated near a cliff was a single large castle that had been reinforced with several formations. Further down the path from the cliff was the city but it seemed desolate.
Each of the buildings looked as though they were about to crumble to dust from the previous battle. There were some still standing but they didn't look like they had been in use.
'There's probably a good chance that there are hidden chambers beneath ground for them to work in. Either that or this entire place is a shamble.' Shiro thought to herself before glancing back at Misu.
"What do you think we should do to take this zone?" Shiro asked as she was curious to see what Misu would say.
"It depends on how you want to do it? I suppose since I'm your ally, I should work towards your goal. If you just want the zone, I think with your fire power you can probably just raze this place to the ground like how the other Queen did no?" Misu suggested as she pointed at the almost destroyed buildings.
"That's true. I won't deny that I have the power to do that." Shiro nodded.
"However, with my understanding of you, you wouldn't want to do that. There are probably innocents working for the Queen within the zone. Killing them would be a shame no?"
"Cough, sorry to say but I'm not that benevolent." Shiro coughed awkwardly as she didn't think Misu had that high of a view of her.
"Then how benevolent do you think you are?"
"Hmm… not sure how to respond to that but I work with a strict set of guidelines. To save a person, I must ensure that I can save those I care about first. If I have to compromise the safety of those that I care about then I'm sorry, I'm going to be selfish. Of course, I will try everything first before choosing to sacrifice one. My second guideline is the purity of their soul. If they're 'good' people, I will try to give them a second chance if I can. Even those with slightly shaded souls can be redeemed if given time. However, once the colour is past a certain mark, I would not hesitate to let them reincarnate into their next life. If their soul is pure black, I will destroy them myself." Shiro explained as Misu smiled.
"I'd say that's quite benevolent. You see, the difference between you and other Queens is that you're at least willing to give it everything you've got to help people. It doesn't matter if they're helpful or not. From what I know, you won't choose to sacrifice the city either. You'd choose to sacrifice a part of you if that's enough. I've seen what you did during the first day, in the video. You put your body on the line to save as many as you can. You pushed yourself as far as you could. Other Queens wouldn't even think of doing that if their health is at stake. To them, everyone else would be nothing but EXP bags for her subordinates. Naturally, this isn't including everyone but rather the majority." Misu shrugged.
"Anyways, let's set aside that talk for now. Since there's a chance that there are people that might need helping, why don't we go straight for the castle?" Misu asked as Shiro nodded her head.
"Sure, I'll take the lead and break the formations."
Patting the wyvern's back, Shiro dived down immediately as she narrowed her eyes at the castle.
Since they were so high in the air, they were essentially a speeding comet towards the castle right now.
Twirling the spear in her hand, she grinned and spotted the first formation.
###
*Yawn
"Stop yawning." A guard clicked his tongue as the one who yawned apologised.
"Sorry sorry, I couldn't catch much sleep last night. You know my living quarters is near that place." He sighed.
"I know but you should get used to it now. I've been under her rule for a while now. After two months you'll get used to it. At the start, it's quite haunting to hear them get the reset but it has become background noise now."
"Yeesh. That's a little cold hearted."
"It's not. We're all trying to survive here. Do you want to look for a place to live outside of her rule? Where the countless monsters are roaming? Plus, if any of the higher ups heard you, you might get a reset too." The first guard warned.
"That's true. It would be hard for me if not for you. Say, what would you do if I got reset?"
"What would I do? Well, I'll keep you company as usual." The guard shrugged.
"Man, if I was into men my heart might have gotten touched then."
"Urg, don't think about weird thin- wait what's that." The guard paused, seeing a black shadow in the sky.
Narrowing his eyes, he realised that it was a wyvern as the protective formation around the castle activated.
"Attack! Warn everyone about an attack!" He shouted out as all of the guards near them sprang into action.
"Activate the defences!!!" Another shouted seeing the shadow get closer.
However, most of them knew that it was too late.
Mana swirled in the air, towards the shadow, as tens of tier 5 magic circles appeared around her.
*BANG!!!!!
Suddenly, air was blasted apart as a single spear was thrown.
Passing through the first magic circle, the spear was split into two.
Passing through the second, it was split into 4, 8, 16 and so on.
By the time it reached the formation, thousands of tiny spears were striking against the barrier.
"Take cover!!!"
Ducking down, all of them watched as lightning exploded from the spears, crackling against the barrier and shattering it to pieces.
With the first layer gone, they glanced up and saw the wyvern open its mouth.
*BOOM!!!!
Releasing a barrage of fire balls along with gun fire from the mounted weapons, the wyvern circled the castle.
Some of the guards that were quick to react mounted the anti air weapons while also notifying the higher ups in the fortress.
###
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro could see the final barrier holding strong. It was the barrier that the zone offered as protection and piercing it would be an annoyance.
"Let me deal with that. My skill set is pretty much known to a majority of people while yours is still a secret." Misu said as she flew past Shiro on her wyvern.
Standing on its back, black shadows started to flood out from her body as she closed one of her eyes.
Clasping her hands together, a green orb of light manifested as it started to pulse.
Throwing it into the air, she slammed her hand down as a tier 6 magic circle appeared under the wyvern.
A second tier 6 magic circle appeared above the castle barrier as a set of giant bone hands descended from the magic circle.
Tier 6 Ritual Summoning!
Activating one of her skills, Misu created two more tier 6 magic circles in front of her as she narrowed her eyes at the barrier.
Without saying anything else, she swiped down with her hand.
*BOOM!!!! CRACK!!!
Punching down, the skeletal hand cracked the barrier with ease as the hand itself shattered.
However, that was intentional as each of the pieces transformed into skeletal reapers that shredded the barrier with ease. Their scythes would drain the mana used to power the barrier and funnel it back to Misu. Her next attack would be empowered by all of the mana she siphoned from the barrier.
*Whistle~
"Not too bad but you know, something like this should be a normal attack now that you're allied with me. If you can't achieve that, you'll be left in the dust." Shiro grinned as she raised her hand.
While she didn't have a skill that could put people to sleep immediately, she had plenty of ways to knock them out so that they could mount an attack towards the heart of the zone.
Suddenly, a magical formation created from tens of tiny tier 6 magic circles appeared in the sky.
Feeling the mana gathering next to her, Misu couldn't help but widen her eyes.
However, remembering what Shiro had done during the first event, she knew she had to step up her game.
Her 'equal' was someone that would completely eradicate and event ground and make it impossible for mana to gather there. If anyone higher than tier 4 was to enter that zone, their mana would be drained immediately and they would be rendered useless.
Those that are weaker can be classed as 'lucky' since they're spared due to how little mana they have.
Snapping her fingers, Shiro isolated the sound so that only those in the castle could hear it.
In a single moment, everyone beneath the peak stages of tier 5 was knocked out in an instant as Shiro grinned.
"Let's go. We have a straight path to the centre now."
Watching Shiro dive towards the castle, Misu shook her head and glanced back at the two mechs and the siblings that had followed them.
'Are they even needed? I think this is a little overkill.' She mused to herself while following behind Shiro.