Arriving at the tower, she could see a slightly nervous Tenma with Beril, Tricia, Quella and a few other sisters waiting by the side.
“You’ve finally arrived.” Quella smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
“Mn, so what are we waiting around for?” Shiro asked curiously while glancing at the sisters who were standing around with anxious faces.
“Well… there was someone who went in ahead of us and let’s just say it didn’t end well.” Quella sighed.
Pointing towards a red splatter on the ground, Shiro raised her eyebrow.
“Oh my, that’s not good now is it. Did you find out anything about the monster that killed him or her?” Shiro asked curiously.
Seeing their pale faces and bad expressions, Shiro could guess that it wasn’t a pleasant sight.
“Well… I think it’s better for you to ask them since we came late.” Quella pointed towards Tenma who was now having second thoughts.
Nodding her head, Shiro walked over.
“Yo, so I heard someone got turned to meat paste. Got any information to share?” Shiro waved her hand and walked over to their group.
Hearing the way she asked the question, both Quella and Beril face palmed with a deep sigh.
Turning around to see Shiro, Tenma only clicked his tongue seeing how nonchalant she was being.
“Yeah we do. The person managed to make it to one of the later stages but the difficulty suddenly spiked up.
When he tried to attack the monster, his sword phased through the monster’s body and that opened him up to an attack from above which killed him in an instant. Unless we can hit that monster, we won’t be able to reach the final stage of the skip.” Tenma replied even though he was annoyed.
If anything, it was better if Shiro went ahead of him so that he could figure out what was happening.
“I see… so the person couldn’t hit the monster and the fight was over quickly. Hm, that is rather unpleasant now isn’t it?” Shiro mused to herself while glancing towards the other sisters who seemed to have down cast expressions.
“Beril!” Shiro called out.
“What is it?” Beril replied.
“Have you got more of that sleep powder?” Shiro asked since that would be quite helpful in the fight.
“No I don’t. Sleep powder of that concentration is annoying to make.” Beril shook her head.
“Tsk, a shame then.” Shiro shrugged.
“So do you want to go first or should I?” Shiro glanced over at Tenma.
“Be my gue-” Before he could finish his sentence, two sisters stood in front of Shiro.
“Please reconsider. Since you have two primordial divinities, your presence is needed. Surely you don’t need to take such a large risk.”
Hearing this, Shiro only chuckled and patted her head.
“I got these two divinities because I took risks. In the first one, I also got turned into meat paste with a large wound on my back. You can even ask Quella and Tricia. For the second one, I almost got turned to stone. If anything, I’ll need to buy time and figure out the weakness since it isn’t invincible. If someone from the past could complete it, so can I.” Shiro grinned and walked past the two sisters.
“Ah!”
Before they could hold Shiro back, both Beril and Tricia held their shoulders.
“Trust her. Her determination and will is one of the strongest I’ve seen. Her wound would have caused anyone else to pass out but she held out and laughed it off like it was nothing.” Tricia smiled as she watched Shiro enter the test area in front of the tower.
Suddenly, a barrier wrapped around the area, preventing Shiro from escaping.
Smirking slightly, Shiro summoned Nivlim into her hands and waited for the monster to appear.
*Krkrkrkrkr
Hearing the clicking sound of a carapace clacking against one another, Shiro watched as an ant like monster appeared in front of her.
Raising her eyebrow, Shiro only shrugged her shoulders and dashed forwards.
*Krkrkr!!
Just as she dashed forward, the mandibles suddenly launched forward towards her upper torso.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro bent her body back and dodged the attack with ease.
Flicking her wrist, Shiro summoned her axe in place of Nivlim and cleaved upwards.
*KRRRR!!!
Screeching out in pain, green blood poured against the ground as the axe was able to destroy the ant’s armour with ease.
Flipping the ant over, Shiro decapitated it in an instant and slammed the axe pommel against the ground.
“Next.” She grinned as the sisters watched her in shock.
Despite being the first monster, the ant didn’t have much attack but the armour was tough. The previous challenger had spent quite a bit of effort to kill the ant since he couldn’t pierce its armour but Shiro had finished the fight within a few seconds.
Even Tenma was shocked as her power was much higher than what he had expected.
Furrowing his brows, he glared at her axe and figured that most of it must be because of her weapon.
Cleaving through monsters like they were vegetables, Shiro switched between weapons with amazing fluidity.
Watching her juggle through weapons to fit different occasions, it reminded Tenma of a dance of sorts.
A lethal one that leaves tens of monster corpses in its wake.
However, despite her power and killing speed, Shiro was feeling a little tired from continuously moving around. Keeping one of the monsters on the brink of death, she retrained it under her before taking a break and getting some replenishment from her rations in the bag.
“How many more monsters are there till I get the one that can’t be hit?” Shiro asked as the sisters blinked for a moment before looking at the monster beneath her.
“Ah it should be the next one.” They replied in slight disbelief since Shiro had cleaved her way through the monsters with horrifying efficiency.
“Heh~ I see. That’s good. Is it the last one or are there more champions after this? So far they’ve been quite easy.” Shiro asked with a grin.
“I believe there should be four more after this one.” Tricia said while flipping through a few notes.
“Oh? Four more after this one? That’s interesting… I wonder what gimmick they have. After all, the first one is able to ignore physical attacks to some extent.” Shiro mused while stabbing her spear through the monster’s head. Killing it in one go, she hopped off with renewed vigour and prepared to face the next foe.
As the monster corpses faded into darkness, a portal of sorts opened up in front of her.
Slowly, a pair of claws ripped the portal open before glaring at her. It was a creature which looked like it was completely made from shadows as no armour could be seen on it. However, it wasn’t exactly misty either.
It was as if the shadow was completely like dough and was morphed into the creature.
With no eyes and only a set of white teeth, the creature ‘looked’ towards her as the shadows detached itself and formed two battle axes.
Raising her eyebrows, Shiro brought out her spear and dashed forwards.
Flickering out of sight for a moment, she reappeared behind him as she held her breath and thrusted forwards.
*BANG!!!
Releasing a torrent of energy, Shiro was not surprised to see that it completely phased through the creature’s body.
Raising the battle axes above its head, the creature slashed towards her.
Summoning her own battle axe, Shiro tried to parry the blades but to her surprise, it phased through her axe.
Feeling danger, Shiro quickly summoned Nivlim and stabbed towards the monster’s abdominal area while backing off. She wanted to get at least one counter attack off while dodging his blades.
Just as both blades were about to hit, they phased through one another as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
While Nivlim missed its target, the monster had also missed her which gave her some clues on how its body worked.
‘Hou… I think I have an idea on his ability.’ Shiro thought with a smile as the spectators were surprised that the monster’s blade had phased through Shiro.
“Does she have the same ability?” Tenma asked with a frown but Tricia shook her head.
“No she does not. But I think we’re about to find out why she was able to phase through the axes soon.” Tricia said as she recognised this look on Shiro’s face. It was one that understood what she was doing and had a plan up her sleeves.
