Accepting Chronos’ help, Shiro watched as tier 8 magic circles appeared around her.
“Goodness… I haven’t used my avatar much but this feels rather strange.” Chronos muttered with a frown as his figure appeared in front of Shiro.
“Right then, we have only a limited amount of time so let’s get started. As for the little sh*t that almost killed you, step to the side. I won’t be able to help you if you get dragged along.” Chronos scoffed as Nan Tian scratched his head embarrassingly and took a few steps back.
“Now, now, don’t be like that Chronos. He didn’t know.” Shiro chuckled as Chronos only shrugged before looking towards Shiro.
“Can you hand me your sword for a second? I want to make some small adjustments to the runes so that it can suit what we require better. Since your friend has already etched two, it’s easier for me to edit the runes.”
Nodding her head, Shiro handed her sword to Chronos.
“Hmm lets see… These runes aren’t bad but they’re limited. All that you’re doing is putting all the stress into your sword rather than using it as a guiding tool. A lot of the potential is buried right now since you’re using it as a crutch rather than in your terms, a gun.” Chronos explained as divine energy radiated from his body.
Creating a pen of light in his hands, he started to adjust the runes.
“Like a conductor, you want to use this sword/baton, to guide your surroundings. Use it to control the flow of time. If you want it to bend, it will bend but you cannot force it to do something against its nature. Urge it gently and don’t fight it. Now give it a go.” Chronos smiled as he handed the sword back.
Nodding her head, Shiro closed her eyes before opening them with the runes now glowing.
Slowly, the strands of time appeared in her vision as the runes on her sword lit up with a bright golden hue.
Tracing her finger along the face of the blade, she started to complete the magic circles while observing the strands.
“Your time with the eyes is short so remember their positions. Use your sword to guide the strands that you want into place. Do not cut with the sword but rather push the strand representing the present.” Chronos guided as he watched the changes carefully.
Adjusting the magic circle with every word that Chronos said, Shiro realised that there was no longer as much resistance as before.
Each magic circle seemed to complete itself in an instant with just a simple gesture which corrects its position.
While making sure the runes are correct along with the coordinates, it is also fine to move the sword into an optimal place so that she didn’t need to waste more time crafting new runes and messing up the whole process.
Naturally, it was still difficult since they didn’t want to risk Shiro’s body.
Whenever things looked like they were about to go out of control, Chronos would separate Shiro from the sword and allow it to discharge all of the energy that it had gathered.
“Wrong wrong wrong, you’re putting too much emphasis on wrestling the flow of time to do what you want. The more you wrestle with it, the harder it becomes. Urge it gently.”
During his lectures, Chronos’ body would flicker before stabilising once more thanks to the energy that the other gods are providing.
Seeing that everyone was trying their hardest, Shiro wanted to complete this soon since keeping Chronos’ avatar here was definitely difficult. Even for five primordial gods.
[Goddess Gaia said do not worry. Just focus on studying the old man’s teachings.]
Reading this, Shiro couldn’t help but smile.
Looking at all the runes on the sword, Shiro realised that a few of them didn’t even need to be constructed later. She just needed to use a part of the runes already carved into the sword to recreate it.
Realising that this was possible, Shiro’s movements became smoother as Chronos’ gaze flickered.
With each movement and magic circle she completes, the flow of time would shift ever so slightly. It was small but this was progress.
Whenever she was close to running out of mana, Nan Tian and Chronos would help her resupply to keep her eyes activated.
Doing some final adjustments to her sword so that it could recreate some other runes, Shiro felt something click in her mind.
Her thought process on how this should work shifted as she now understood where she had gone wrong.
Realising that it was her passive skill, Item Master, activating due to the sword meeting the requirements, Shiro couldn’t help but smile.
Closing her eyes, she focused her mind.
Deep within her mana realm, in the land of red circuits and code, a single tree started to stir as runic patterns emerged on the ground around it.
At the same time this happened, Shiro’s right arm that was holding the sword started to change. A layer of black metal and red circuits coated her arm and connected to the sword.
The golden runes shifted to a dark red colour as Shiro opened her eyes. Taking a step forward, all of the runes on her sword lit up simultaneously as the circuits created the remaining runes that the magic circle needed.
Flooding her divine energy into her sword, the space around her started to twist.
Suddenly, a pulse of energy exploded out from her sword as both Nan Tian and Chronos felt their movements turn sluggish for a moment.
In the next moment, Nan Tian completely halted while Chronos could still move. Albeit barely.
Seeing Shiro dashing towards him, he understood that she succeeded in slowing time down to a near halt. But for powerful beings, this little bit of time dilation was nothing since he could still move.
However, Shiro wasn’t done.
Adjusting the grip on the sword, all of the runes shifted as a second pulse of energy exploded out.
This time Chronos realised that he had blanked out for a moment before snapping back to reality.
Seeing that Shiro had appeared behind him, he couldn’t help but feel cold sweat down his back as not even he knew what happened.
After all, before he could register everything in his eyes, he had blanked out for a moment.
“As expected of a god. I can’t even anchor you down for more than a fraction of a second.” Shiro muttered as the pulses of energy were immediately sucked back into the sword.
Shattering to pieces, the black metal and circuits detached themselves from Shiro’s arm as she couldn’t help but kneel down in fatigue.
In that short moment, her mana was drained dry.
“What just happened? Who do you mean by anchor?” Chronos couldn’t help but ask curiously.
Even as a god of time, he didn’t know what happened since he couldn’t perceive it.
“So you know how you said that time was forever moving right?” Shiro asked as Chronos nodded.
“I had the idea that if I could pin someone down to the flow, their time will go to the past during the time that they are pinned. However, this was much harder than I expected and practically impossible until you told me to use my runic eyes. By strapping a strand of the present to your body, your entire being became the ‘past’ in the next few moments, stopping you from perceiving your ‘future’ or rather, my present, for a short amount of time. During this gap, I should be able to assassinate a person or two before the strand loosens and you’re launched back to the new present.” Shiro explained as Chronos widened his eyes.
The reason why he couldn’t perceive what had happened was because it was forcefully rewritten as something that should belong to the past. She had metaphorically killed him for a moment before his core corrected everything. If it was someone much much weaker than her, she could even permanently keep them secured to the flow.
Feeling a sense of excitement in his heart, he was about to say something before his avatar started to disassemble itself.
Clicking his tongue in annoyance, he could only sigh as his vision shifted back to his body.
Seeing the exhausted look of the others around him, he shook his head.
“She’s created something rather insane.” He muttered.
“What do you mean?” Gaia asked as she was too exhausted to understand what just happened.
“Even though it was short, she made me, the god of time, a historical figure rather than a living god. I became locked as a piece of the past, meaning I could no longer be in the present. If she was more powerful, she might have been able to make this a permanent change.” Chronos laughed as he glanced up at the sky.
“I’m going to seclude myself for a while. I want to experiment with some new ideas that she had given me.”
Seeing Chronos walk away, Gaia glanced towards Shiro and smiled.
“Did she just teach a god new tricks in his domain of power?” She muttered.
