“Fuu… that should be the last major city in the central region.” Shiro muttered floating in the city.
“Mn, it seems like candidate 49 was dealt with early by Chelsea so there’s not much we need to do in terms of helping their family.” Madison nodded her head since that was one of her main concerns when coming to the centre region.
“Well it’s good that she was able to deal with it alone. I suppose if Balire was chosen as a candidate, it makes sense that Chelsea would have the same power comparable to a queen candidate. And seeing that she was able to wrestle you and Helion, she would probably rank in the high 20’s maybe even top 10.” Shiro shrugged.
“True. Urg… I can still remember seeing her rip the head of a dragon off its shoulders and hit another dragon with it.” Madison shivered remembering the things she had to go through during the training with Chelsea.
“That’s quite impressive. I wonder what else she could do.” Shiro admitted since it was rather ‘hardcore’ for her to hit a dragon with the head of another dragon.
“Anyways, since we’ve taken this city, it’s about time we head to the north. Helion should be finishing his first prototype so let’s go get him before we do anything.” Shiro smiled.
Nodding their heads they were about to leave the city when they sensed a group of powerful mana signals heading their way.
Recognising them to be the candidates that ran away, Shiro wondered what gave them so much confidence to come back. But once she saw then, she immediately lost her smile as her expression was cold.
Seeing their lifeless eyes and slow moving bodies, Shiro understood that it was probably something similar to a parasite that took over them and was forcing them to come back.
She didn’t care about cowards who ran away but forcing someone like this against their will was disgusting to her.
“I’ll take care of this.” Shiro said as she didn’t leave any room for disagreement.
Flickering away from the spot, she reappeared in front of the candidates.
Summoning her sword, she immediately blocked their first strike before grabbing the throat of the first one.
Activating her analysis skill, she found the parasite writhing within them in a single glance. She noticed that the parasites linked themselves within the host’s mana so taking them out meant killing them but not taking them out would subject the host to the parasites will or rather, the controller’s will.
Narrowing her eyes, she used her mana to forcefully rip out the parasite and discard the body.
Grabbing the parasite with her own hand, she didn’t even need to command error as red circuits pierced the parasite.
Tracking the signal down, she found the controller returning to the northern territory with another high ranking candidate.
Now that she found the controller, she had no more use for the parasite.
Crushing it in her hands, she looked at the other candidates that were preparing spells to fight against her while two others tried to engage in melee combat.
“Poor things.” She sighed as she would have probably given them a chance under a contract so that they can live but now she was essentially forced to kill them.
Snapping her fingers once, a small flickering flame appeared as she casually dropped it on the ground.
*BOOM!!!
Erupting into a column of white fire, the candidates were burnt to ashes leaving only Shiro alone on the now charred ground.
Crouching down slightly, she ignored her level up notifications and dashed towards the direction of the controller.
“Oh boy, she is livid.” Madison whistled seeing the instant destruction that she sent upon the candidates. Previously, even if she was surrounded like that, she would have played around for a bit before letting them clear out the candidates.
But this time, once she had obtained what she wanted, she eliminated them without hesitation. No playfulness, only brutal efficiency.
“Mn, I would say I pity the demon who pissed her off but not really. I think they deserve it after stripping the candidates of their will.” Lyrica sighed as Madison agreed with her.
Since Shiro was going to be taking care of a certain controller, the two made their way back to gather the party for a final assault on the northern border so that Madison could claim her spot as the proper queen. While the competition would begin once the new age starts, if there are no other candidates, she would become the automatic winner.
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While this was happening, Asphil and Priscera, the 9th ranked candidate, were making their way back to the castle.
As they were walking, Priscera suddenly stopped mid step as her face paled. Her mouth quivered before coughing up some blood.
“What the hell?!” Asphil was shocked since to her, Priscera suddenly started to cough up blood all of the sudden.
“She’s- She’s coming! Damn! They didn’t delay her at all, she’s coming here faster than before!” Priscera shouted out in fear as she immediately activated all of her berserk skills and anything that boosted up her stats since she could sense the source of the horrific killing intent coming closer.
Seeing that Priscera was going all out, Asphil was forced back from the pressure as sweat rolled down the side of her head.
She had never seen Priscera acting so panicked before so seeing her act like this was quite shocking.
Before she could even say anything, she realised that Shiro was already in front of them as she held Priscera by the throat and lifted her up in the air.
“You’re the one who implanted the parasites aren’t you?” Shiro asked with a cold voice.
Overcome with fear, Priscera wasn’t able to respond at all while Asphil’s entire body tensed up. Her senses told her that a single move would mean death and the best she could do right now was stay still and hope that she leaves without killing her.
‘We wanted to fight this thing? Impossible.’ She thought to herself with ridicule. Seeing Shiro through a projection and meeting her in person was two entirely different things as being in her presence caused an unimaginable amount of fear from the killing intent that was being radiated from her body right now.
She understood right now that even if Nostic reached tier 6, he was still going to die by her hand with ease.
Hearing no response from the woman, Shiro only narrowed her eyes as she released a few nanobots from her hand.
Suddenly, Priscera’s skin started to peel back as the nanobots started cutting her up layer by layer.
She wanted to cry out in pain but Shiro’s hand only gripped her throat harder.
Thrashing around in her grip, Priscera tried to break out by launching some spells at her but the magic circles were broken the moment they appeared.
Kicking her legs, she wanted to push Shiro back but it was as though nothing was hitting her.
Shiro stayed still like a statue while Priscera was being flayed by the nanobots.
Seeing her barely alive with her life fire, she made sure that her soul was secured to her body so that she could feel every last drop of pain.
Soon, only a skeleton and a pile of shredded flesh remained as Shiro reached out for her soul.
Stomping down, a portal appeared as she grabbed the lantern
“What is it this time? Another soul for me to torture? It’s getting somewhat boring you know? They just keep screaming and it becomes repetitive. How do people even do this for a living without getting bored.” The Ancient Terror yawned as Shiro narrowed her eyes.
“Well it’s just something to keep you occupied. Regardless, I want you to make sure she suffers as much as possible. If you get bored, destroy her soul.” Shiro ordered.
“Fine fine, I’ll do it. Since you got the whole tiny bot thing mind giving me a TV or something in here? I’ve seen you watch it a few times and it looks pretty fun.”
“Depends.” Without saying anything else, Shiro imprisoned the soul into the lantern before dismissing the lantern once more.
Looking at the candidate next to her, Shiro recognised her to be rank 10 from the information she had gathered.
Narrowing her eyes, Shiro left the area without saying anything.
After a few moments, Asphil collapsed on the ground as her back was filled with sweat.
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Looking at her hand, she could see that it was still shaking from fear as she took a deep breath and calmed herself.
‘I’m not fighting that thing!’ She thought to herself as she decided to go back to the centre so that she could try to come to an agreement with Shiro. It was wishful thinking but she had to give it a try.
