As her spear pierced the Champion’s head, Shiro felt her fatigue disappear along with her injuries.
Finding herself back in front of the stone tablet for a third time, she glanced up at the words.
[You have completed the Trial of Strength.]
[As you have completed the three trials, Victory, Flight and Strength, you have obtained the qualifications of the full Divinity of Nike. Would you like to continue with the sub trials in order to receive further benefits?]
“Yes.” Without hesitating, Shiro agreed since she was only allowed one divinity outside of the five primordial divinities. If she was to give up on further rewards for this divinity, she would have punched herself in the face.
[Which sub trial would you like to attempt first?]
[Zelos – Trial of Rivalry]
[Kratos – Trial of Strength]
[Bia – Trial of Force]
Thinking about it for a moment, Shiro wondered which one she should try first.
“Trial of Rivalry.”
Since she was going to do all of them, she might as well start from the first one.
[Due to the difficulty of the Trial of Rivalry, you only need to land 5 attacks.]
“Hm? Five attacks?”
Before she realised it, she found herself in the middle of the sky.
Pausing for a moment, she glanced down and saw that she was currently falling through the air.
Standing up straight, she crossed her arms and wondered why she was even falling.
“I thought the trial was rivalry. Why the f*ck am I falling?” Shiro muttered while glancing around her.
Suddenly, she felt danger behind her and quickly ducked to the side. However the arrow seemed to curve around and try to pierce through her head.
Widening her eyes, she summoned her bow and blocked it before it could pierce her.
Blocking the arrow, Shiro glanced back and saw a shadow version of herself. It was essentially a silhouette but had a pair of glowing red eyes instead.
“You want me to fight myself while falling?” Shiro raised her eyebrow and fired an arrow back towards her shadow.
*Clang!
Seeing her shadow block her arrow the same way she did, Shiro finally realised why it said [Due to the difficulty of the Trial of Rivalry, you only need to land 5 attacks.]
Since she only needed to land five attacks, this was going to be easy.
All she needed to do was trade blow for blow so that she could meet the requirements.
Adjusting her body so that she could be closer to her clone, Shiro twisted her body and slammed her bow towards the shadow.
Trading a few blows with her shadow, Shiro realised that it was going to be hard to even get a hit in since her shadow was on full defence mode. This was someone that not even a Minotaur could hit.
‘Are you kidding me?’ Shiro thought with a twitching smile.
However, just as she was about to land another hit, she felt her descent slow down.
Quickly making some distance between her shadow, Shiro narrowed her eyes.
Glancing down, she saw that there was a mirror like surface beneath her and she was currently in a fighting arena in the middle of the sky.
“Honestly, if this was a dinner date, it’ll be quite romantic I suppose. Of course, without anyone beneath me since I wouldn’t want them to look up my skirt.” Shiro shrugged before stomping down and dashing towards her shadow.
Twisting her body, she roundhouse kicked towards her shadow.
Seeing her shadow dodge the kick, she notched an arrow and forced her to block.
*BANG!
Launching a punch just after the arrow, Shiro frowned when her shadow managed to duck out of the way just in time.
If this was in the past, Shiro would have backed off a little but after her parents’ training, she knows that it was the wrong move. She needs to keep up the pressure and overwhelm herself. Force her shadow to make mistakes and take advantage of that opening.
Launchings attacks after attacks, Shiro was akin to a raging hurricane which didn’t allow you to counterattack at all.
Despite the shadow being a clone of her, she wasn’t able to find a chance to retaliate and was constantly forced to go on the defensive.
Grabbing her shadows, hands, Shiro’s lips curved into a grin as this was the opening that she needed.
Jumping up, she kicked her shadow in the chest with both her legs and didn’t let go just yet.
Pulling her shadow towards her, Shiro headbutted her in the nose and kneed her in the stomach.
Adjusting her grip on her shadow’s hands, she pushed up and tried to break her arms.
Unfortunately, her strength was lacking a little however that was fine.
Jumping up, she wrapped her legs around her shadows neck and slammed her against the ground.
Stomping against the spine, she could feel a crack and tried her best to break it completely.
*CRACK!!
Breaking her shadow’s body in half, Shiro watched as it flickered out of existence.
‘One mistake and the battle is over. If I was the one who made the mistake, I might be the one on the ground instead.’ Shiro thought to herself since she had forced her shadow to make a mistake and capitalised on that moment.
If it wasn’t for her parents’ training, she would have probably been stuck in this stage for a lot longer since her fighting style was more adaptive than aggressive before.
Cracking her neck, she watched as her body was teleported back to the stone tablet.
[Trial of Rivalry completed.]
[Do you wish to continue?]
“Yes, just give me them both at the same time so that I can get it over and done with.” Shiro shrugged.
[Merging Trial of Strength and Trial of Force.]
“Ah wait a minute I was kidding.” Shiro paused.
However, the tablet ignored her and she was teleported to a new area.
“. . .” Staying silent, Shiro glanced around her and saw the stone tablet next to her.
[Trial of Strength and Force.]
[Keep your sanity while under the effects of rage and defeat 1000 trained warriors.]
[If you lose your sanity for even a moment, the warriors will get a 20% boost in strength.]
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro felt a sudden burst of killing intent in her mind but it wasn’t enough to make her lose her mind.
She was about to say ‘Is that all’ but remembered that the trial might make things harder so she decided to shut her mouth instead.
Cracking her neck, she wondered if she was going to be given a weapon but soldiers started to appear frown all around her.
“Well I guess this’ll do then.” Shiro cracked her knuckles, she dashed towards the crowd of soldiers.
###
While Shiro was completing her trial, Nyx was currently hosting a small tea party of sorts with a cloaked man with long black hair. His hood covered his face but one could tell that he seemed rather young thanks to the exposed hands.
“My my, Shiro is rather aggressive wouldn’t you say Tartarus?” Nyx smiled.
“Mn. Why did you send her to the Forgotten Realm?” Tartarus asked slowly.
“I didn’t send her there. It was part of mother’s instructions. Plus, wouldn’t it be fun to see if she could complete one of the Towers belonging to the five of us with just one ‘divinity’?” Nyx grinned.
“The chances are low or rather, they’re almost impossible.” Tartarus shook his head.
“That girl is a miracle worker.” Nyx chuckled while pouring some tea for the both of them.
“So why have you come to talk to dear old me?” Nyx asked with a smile.
“Because the others aren’t too pleased with the fact that she’s gone to the forgotten realm. Once she comes out, there’s a good chance that she’ll obtain something that could put her on the same footing as us despite only being a tier 5 entity.” Tartarus frowned.
“Why do you think her trial is so difficult then? If it was easy to stand on the same footing as the primordial gods then everyone would be a primordial.” Nyx chuckled.
“Even so-”
“Tartarus, there is no even so when it comes to mother’s decisions. You understand this. Why do you think mother has already given something to Shiro?” Nyx cut Tartarus off as she narrowed her eyes.
The stare off continued for a few moments as Tartarus sighed.
“Is she really that desperate?”
“Of course. This is the final loop of this universe. Each time the universe resets, it’s like a child has just died in front of mother. Obviously she’d want to avoid this. Since this is the final reset, everything will be rendered to null and the cycle will continue. While we may not remember, mother will. How many cycles do you think she had observed?” Nyx leaned back.
“Someone like Shiro is an anomaly. While mother may have seen Shiro in previous cycles, there probably hasn’t been a cycle where Shiro had been this powerful. It’s a spark of hope for mother so I hope you don’t extinguish it.” Nyx smiled.
Tartarus didn’t say anything and disappeared from his spot.
Looking at the tea cup that was still full, Nyx sighed.
“Rather rude.”
