After Shiro killed the true Harvester, the giant worm like being outside of the nest froze up for a moment before collapsing into a puddle of flesh and blood.
“Did Shiro succeed?” Kuromi muttered to herself as she quickly made some distance between her and the corpse since she didn’t want to be hit by the blood.
Looking around her, she couldn’t help but frown as the casualties that they had sustained in this battle.
‘Only 14 of us left huh?’ She thought to herself with a sigh.
During the fight, whenever one of the guards were pierced by the black tongues or slashed on by the black blood, they would either transform into one of the monsters they had encountered or have large portions of their body melt into a puddle of blood.
Shaking her head, she quickly regrouped everyone and had them collect the corpses of their dead companions.
“Even though we were prepared, having this many of us go is still quite a shock.” Phillip chuckled sadly.
“Indeed… Help everyone out here since you’re their leader. I’ll go look for Shiro since she’s still in the nest.”
“OF course young miss, do you want one of us to come with you just in case?” Phillip asked.
“It’s ok, just have everyone recuperate for now.” Kuromi shook her head before making her way towards the nest.
Climbing through the same entrance that Shiro entered, she was immediately assaulted by the rotting smell which almost made her faint.
‘Jesus f*cking christ what the hell is this smell???’ She cursed to herself before continuing deeper into the nest.
After walking for a while, she was shocked to see Shiro collapsed onto the floor with her clothes in tatters.
“Shiro!” Kuromi cried out in shock as she quickly ran over to the unconscious Shiro.
Turning her over, Kuromi could see that Shiro’s face was a little pale with black blood all over her face and body, causing her heart to shake with fear.
Quickly carrying Shiro on her back, Kuromi dashed out of the nest.
###
“Mn…” Furrowing her brows, Shiro slowly opened her eyes and looked around her.
“Where am I?” She muttered before sitting up. Seeing as though she was in a room, she knew that she must have been carried out of the nest since it was the last thing that she could remember.
Massaging her head, she looked to her side and saw the door which seemed to be unlocked.
Sighing softly, she glanced towards the system interface and was rather surprised at what she saw.
[Calculating Final Score… Error]
[Undergoing maintenance, please stand by.]
Raising her eyebrow at the strange notification, Shiro sighed before getting out of her bed.
Realising that she was in a different outfit entirely, she knew that someone must have changed her for her.
“It better be Kuromi or else…” She muttered since she didn’t like people seeing her bare unless it’s Kuromi since she’s her sister.
*Clack
Hearing the door handle move, Shiro looked up and saw Kuromi standing at the doorway.
“Oh my f*cking god you’re awake!” Kuromi sighed in relief.
“Damn, do you know how worrying it was to watch you when you’re unconscious? I don’t have access to the system so I can’t even see if you’re alive or not. Plus, it doesn’t seem like the trial has ended yet so I don’t even know what’s happening anymore.” She said while shaking her head.
“How many days was I unconscious for and what happened after I killed the real Harvester?” Shiro asked curiously.
“Well after the one on the outside suddenly collapsed, I went inside the nest to find you. But when I went in, I saw you unconscious in one of the hallways with your face pale and your clothes tattered so I brought you out. I didn’t see what was inside since I wasn’t too bothered. After I got you out, I had the guards regroup further away from the capital and brought you back to Yoru. It’s a little hectic right now since the royal family and the entirety of the capital has been wiped out so every family is at each other’s neck’s right now to determine who’s the next ruler. As for how many days you’ve been unconscious, let’s just say it’s been 4 days and I had to force feed you in order to keep you alive.” Kuromi explained.
“I see… wait a minute. You’ve been force feeding me?” Shiro raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah. Never thought I’ll be looking after a child of sorts. A grown up and unconscious child who’s survival was undetermined.” Kuromi chuckled as Shiro became a little embarrassed.
“Anyways, how are the guards?” Shiro asked.
Hearing about the guards, Kuromi fell silent for a moment before sighed.
“Only 14 of them are left. Within the few that died, Nui and Prim were part of that. I know that you hung out with them quite a bit so I thought that I might as well tell you.” Kuromi replied.
“. . .I see. Despite this all being a trial, it still gets quite depressing huh?” Shiro replied after a short moment to digest the information.
“Mn… Setting that aside for now, what’s going on with the trial? Did you not complete it? Why is everything still continuing as if this wasn’t a trial.” Kuromi asked with confusion.
“Ah about that, apparently, there was an error in calculating the final score and it’s undergoing maintenance.” Shiro replied.
“Ha? Undergoing maintenance???” Kuromi raised her eyebrows.
“Yeah, it’s quite strange for me to see that as well. Though I suppose the only thing we can do is to wait for it to finish maintenance for now I suppose. What do you suppose we should do within this time?” Shiro asked.
“Hmm…well I suppose what we can do is to help out those affected by the larger families fighting for dominance. After all, with this country not having a ruler, it has become a brutal place where it is literally a fight or die moment. For those that don’t have large families to back them, they’re out in the world alone without support. So I suggest we help them out and give them a banner to come under for safety. It’s not like we have anything else to do after all.” Kuromi suggested as Shiro nodded.
“Sure. If you need anyone to be a show of force, I can be that person. I’m not really into doing anything political.” Shiro replied.
“Oh don’t worry about that. Just think of it as big sis indulging herself for a bit while we have some time to ourselves.” Kuromi chuckled.
Following along with her plan, Kuromi continued to unite those without a family for the next two weeks as they became one of the major powers contending for the ruler title within a short moment of time.
Families that wanted to forcefully deal with Kuromi were dealt with by Shiro as those involved would be wiped out. Earning themselves the nickname of demon sisters by their enemies and guardian angels by their allies, the two passed their time in the trial without any knowledge of when they’ll be let out.
However, their journey to being rulers were cut short as the maintenance finally finished.
[Trial Complete. Grade: S]
[Difficulty: Celestial God]
[Side Quest Completion: A]
[Hidden Quest Completion: SS]
[Main Quest Completion: S]
[Guard Affinity: S]
[Additional Quest Result: SS]
[S Rank Rewards: S Ranked Celestial Catalyst, Ascended Celestial Mana Essence, Supreme Celestial Awakening Stone, Soul Sword Upgrade, Soul Bound Armour Upgrade, Soul Repair.]
[Additional Rewards: Celestial Empress’ Royal Decree, Celestial Empress’ Inheritance.]
Tilting her head at the rewards, she couldn’t help but feel as though she was forgetting something as she quickly looked over her records in her database.
‘To class up, I needed a B ranked Celestial Catalyst, a Celestial Awakening Stone and a Celestial Empress Decree. I’ve already collected one Celestial Mana Essence before coming here so I didn’t even need to ask the Empress for this item.’ She thought to herself as she massaged her eyes since she could have asked a different question.
Shaking her head, she couldn’t help but glance at the final S ranked reward. While it was noted as ‘Reward’, Shiro couldn’t help but feel a bad feeling rise up in her heart.
[Soul Repair]
It was quite straight forward in terms of understanding what it does. However, considering their situation, it could mean something entirely different.
Glancing over at Kuromi, Shiro could see her figure flicker for a few moments as dread filled her mind.
“This can’t be happening…”
