Waiting in the main plaza, Shiro could see a few people arriving as some were earlier than others.
Silvia and her group were the first to arrive as they waited by the side for everyone else.
Looking at their expressions, Shiro couldn’t help but chuckle.
“Seems like a few of you didn’t get enough sleep last night. Excited about today?” Shiro asked as a few of them scratched their heads in embarrassment.
“This is something similar to a once in a lifetime opportunity for us your highness, it’ll be stranger if we weren’t excited.” One of the alchemists called out as others agreed.
“That is true. But even if you are excited you should sleep. How else would you focus on the information that you can find in the city? Next time, just knock yourself out with a spell.” Shiro shrugged with a smirk.
“Well not all of them have a sleep spell so it’s rather hard for them to knock themselves out.” Silvia chuckled as Shiro shrugged.
“Then just whack yourself with a stick. But setting that aside, I believe that everyone should be ready? It doesn’t seem like we’re missing anyone so I hope all of you have finished anything important you might need to do.” She asked, sweeping her gaze across the crowd and nodded after making sure that everyone was here. Including the 24 that she had chosen from yesterday.
Seeing all of them nod, Shiro turned around and drew a rune in the air.
Several tier 6 magic circles appeared as they lined up to form a path towards a nanotech gate.
“Step through this and you should be at a cliff. In front of you will be the sea and, in the distance, there will be the mist protecting the country.” Shiro said as the portal opened in front of them.
“Single file now. Like when you were a kid, everyone line up and let’s go through.” Shiro joked as they stepped through the portal.
Nan Tian and Silvia were the last to enter as Shiro made sure to check that Asharia will be slowly making its way near the country as well in preparation for the event.
Once the course was set, she stepped through as well before closing the portal behind them.
Immediately, she could feel the wind brush against her as the smell of the sea assaulted her nose.
With her senses being strong, it was nothing but a salty hell for her right now.
“Right then, everyone, I want you to vote on a mode of transport. We have two to choose from.” Shiro clapped her hands with a smile.
“The first is through air and the second is by sea. Which one do you guys prefer? Those that want sea go to the left and those that want sky go to the right.”
Hearing that flight was an option, Silvia immediately walked to the left since she wasn’t keen on travelling by air.
Seeing that someone close to Shiro didn’t hesitate to take the route by sea, they immediately knew that something was wrong with travelling by air.
One by one, they chose to travel by sea.
Pouting a little, Shiro sighed but secretly she was smirking.
Fufu~ She gave them an easy way out but the boat was a trap all along.
Noticing a small flicker in Shiro’s eyes, Silvia felt a bad premonition in her heart but she couldn’t put a finger on where that feeling was stemming from.
Furrowing her brows, she watched as Shiro walked to the edge of the cliff.
“Second question, do you want a big boat or a small one? Big to the point of being an aircraft carrier, small to the point of a fishing boat.” Shiro asked as she turned around.
“We probably want something smaller so that we don’t make ourselves a big target no?” Silvia asked as Shiro nodded her head.
“Alright. In that case then hmm… I found a perfect one.” Shiro grinned as drank a potion and clasped her hands together.
Lightning flickered around her as nanobots surged forwards and started to meld together.
Watching the nanobots fuse and turn into a brown colour, Silvia furrowed her brows for a moment before facepalming since she realised what kind of boat or rather, ship it was.
They were watching a pirate ship being created before their eyes as the sails attached themselves to the ship.
Behind the ship, where the rudder should be, was a giant jet engine along with mounted rail cannons on the sides.
Since it was being constructed in front of them, all of them could see the weapons being loaded into the body of the ship. There were three layers of cannons along with a giant main cannon at the front where the opening would split into two and reveal the giant weapon.
There were lots of unfamiliar tech but the ones that Silvia recognised to be a weapon or a part of one was enough for her to sigh and sit down on a nearby boulder.
They just needed a ride there, not go for war.
“Oh don’t worry, these cannons can double as propellers.” Shiro smirked.
“Wait what?” Silvia looked up to see Shiro’s grin.
###
There was the faint sound of screaming as a pirate ship could be seen blasting towards Vrish’ Lir in the distance. All of the engines were roaring as Shiro sat at the front of the ship with a smile.
Her white hair fluttered behind her as she was completely unaffected by the rocking of the ship along with the speed.
However, those that were behind her were having the ride of their lives as many grabbed onto anything they could get their hands on.
Thankfully for them, the trip was rather short due to how fast they were travelling. By the time Shiro started to slow down the ship, they were now practically in front of the mist.
“Right then, the rest of this is up to you Nan Tian.” Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian nodded his head and closed his eyes.
Opening them once more, he peered past the mist and could see the formation protecting the country.
They had talked about this after they woke up since the ancient terror mentioned that it was similar to Odin’s All Seeing Eye and how formations never had too much of an effect on him most of the time.
They did a small test before walking to the plaza and Nan Tian could faintly see the barriers from the cliffs. So rather than brute forcing it, they were going to have Nan Tian navigate their way safely to the docks.
Handing over the controls to the boat to Nan Tian, Shiro stepped back and watched with a smile while everyone had recovered thanks to Silvia’s spell. While they could have cast it themselves, Silvia was already prepared to cast it the moment they stopped.
“Seems like all of you enjoyed that. Should we loop around and try it again?” Shiro asked with a smile.
Hearing this, they all immediately shook their heads since that was just asking for torture.
“Shame. Well setting that aside, we’ll be entering the mist now. Nan Tian will be navigating us through. I’m not sure how long it will take but hopefully not long.” Shiro smiled as they all sighed in relief.
Some of them even walked to the edge of the ship to try to look through the mist if they could.
Seeing that everyone was so excited, Shiro chuckled.
“Shiro.
Hearing Nan Tian call her name, Shiro glanced over.
“Mn? What is it?”
“You know how the pictures in that book showed you the runes that gods use?” Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.
“Yeah? What about them?”
“I think I found some now.”
“!!!”
Walking over, she could see that he’s been drawing out runes in his tablet while navigating through the mist.
“The layers of the formation occasionally line up to form these runes. I only recognised them since they were familiar to the ones that you showed me in the book. There are also some within the magic circles themselves.
Making herself a tablet, Shiro synced it up to Nan Tian’s as she could see everything he drew.
Narrowing her eyes at the runes, Shiro pulled out the book and found the matching runes.
Compared to the ones that the writer had found in the country, these ones seem more… ‘complete’ as they had additional segments.
“I see… no wonder that rune couldn’t be deciphered. It was incomplete. She probably needed to take more steps back before taking a picture.” Shiro muttered quietly as the pieces of the puzzle started to fit together.
Sitting down, she started to decipher the runes while Nan Tian tried his best to spot all of them hidden within the formation.
After 40 minutes, the mist finally started to disperse as Nan Tian sighed in relief.
“We’ve arrived.”
Running towards the front of the ship, all of the people on board could see the docks in the distance as the natives seemed surprised by their appearance.
Beyond the horizon was a single pillar of light that seemed to descend from the heavens.
“We’re finally here.” Silvia muttered as she couldn’t keep her eyes off of the distant lights. That was where they needed to go for more knowledge.
