While Shiro was talking to Isilia, Lyrica was getting ready. She knew that this excursion was going to be related to ghosts, so she wanted to research a little before leaving.
This was ok for Shiro since she wanted to arrange a time for all the people that registered to gather anyway. Having them go to a building near the town centre, she was going to filter it down to only 8 people to keep the group small.
“Wouldn’t it take a while for you to filter out all of them?” Isilia asked since she had figured that Shiro would have wanted to sort this out quickly.
“Don’t worry, I have an idea. I have an idiot who’s now quite familiar with souls since I keep giving them to him. I was thinking about having him as the examiner. We’ll see how they fair against him.” Shiro grinned as she summoned the lantern and placed it on the table.
“Oi, who are you calling an idiot.” The ancient terror clicked his tongue as Shiro looked at the lantern.
“Who else is here?” Shiro smirked.
“. . .”
“I plan to have him assess the recruits. I want to see if they are able to harm him at all since he’s in soul form.” Shiro shrugged.
“Bah, as if some little sh*ts can harm me. It’ll feel like an ant trying to bite me.” The ancient terror boasted as Shiro snapped her fingers.
Suddenly, wires wrapped around his soul within the lantern as lightning started to flicker.
“Holy sh*t! Gah! Fine! I’ll assess them properly!” He shouted out as his soul flickered from the pain.
“See? Should just be obedient from the start. If you do things properly I won’t taser you.” Shiro grinned.
“Che, no respect for workers at all. What a tyrant.” The ancient terror clicked his tongues.
Shiro didn’t say anything except raise a finger that was flickering with lightning.
“I’ll do it properly!”
“Good.” Smiling in satisfaction, Shiro dismissed the lantern as the ancient terror could only grumbled in annoyance.
Talking to Isilia for a little bit, Lyrica soon appeared with her armour already equipped.
“I’m ready now.” She smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
“Well I think we should go now since there are quite a few people that we need to filter through.” Shiro smiled as Isilia nodded her head.
“Take care out there you two. Don’t let your guards down ok?” Isilia smiled as Lyrica nodded her head.
Watching the two leave, Isilia smiled softly and prayed for their safety before closing the door.
###
“So how has it been? You’ve been quite busy with all of this management of the city.” Lyrica asked as Shiro sighed.
“It’s been quite busy making sure everything is working but overall it’s not too bad. Everyone else has also been busy with their own roles, especially Madi. Though it’s good that she has Asphil helping her out.” Shiro smiled.
“Mn, it felt like just yesterday that we were all students in the school and now we’re pretty much the strongest this world has to offer, before the new age I guess. You’re a demi god and the leader of spirits while Madi is a demon queen.” Lyrica chuckled.
“You’re not far behind yourself you know.” Shiro glanced back.
To think the shy girl from before that got bullied actually became the sword saintess.
‘If she continues at this pace, it won’t be long for her to reach tier 6.’ Shiro thought with a smile.
“What is it?” Lyrica asked as she could see Shiro staring at her.
“Nothing. I just remembered what happened a year ago. I still have this you know?” Shiro grinned as she pulled out a book from her.
Looking at the label, Lyrica widened her eyes as a blush appeared on her face.
[Efficient Notebook for learning reading and writing.]
[Creator – Lyrica Valenstaine.]
“Ah! You still have it?” She asked with embarrassment as Shiro nodded her head with a grin.
“Yup. I suppose you can say that it’s the first gift that I received in this world.” Shiro laughed as she stored it back into her inventory.
“Ah so I gave you the first gift.” Lyrica muttered as Shiro nodded her head.
Smiling softly, she shook her head before looking up at Shiro.
“Say Shiro, how did you and my mum meet? Can you tell me about some of the adventurers that you had together?” Lyrica asked with a smile.
“You want to know that? Sure I guess. But it’s a bit boring since the things we’ve experienced this year are crazier than what me and your mum had to go through.” Shiro chuckled.
“That’s fine.
“Well in that case then I’ll start with the first meeting…”
As they walked towards where all of the adventurers were gathered, Shiro told the story about how she met Isilia as well as the adventurers they had to go through. Surprisingly, Shiro and Isilia didn’t actually have that good of a start together and would often argue with Shiro just ignoring everything in the end.
However, after a few close calls with only each other to rely on, they eventually became friends that understood one another.
Soon, they arrived at the building and the story had to be cut short.
Pushing open the doors, Shiro could see a rather sizable crowd had gathered as all of them bowed to her in respect.
“There’s no need for bowing haha. As you are all aware, today we’ll be going on a scouting mission to Tokyo. The city has now been transformed into something rather sinister and my senses aren’t able to penetrate the miasma. It’s thanks to the power over souls that I could actually sense people being kept in the city so our main goal is to find out where they are and perhaps save them if possible.” Shiro explained while gesturing for everyone to sit down for now. Walking up to the centre stage, she smiled as Lyrica stood behind her like a guard.
“The dangers of this journey are high and I can’t guarantee your survival due to the strangeness of the city. However, as I have mentioned in the advert, I will try my best at keeping you alive. First of all, we know that the city is filled with ghosts so physical attacks are useless. We’ll be relying on soul and elemental magic. Primarily soul since it was the only way I could get a general understanding of the city so we can assume that it is the key to this city.” Shiro explained as she showed a few holograms of Tokyo that had been transformed.
“Since there are quite a few of you, I will be picking eight out of everyone since we want to keep our group small so as to not draw attention. It is also easier to manage things with just 10 of us in total. To determine who will join in the mission, I will have all of you demonstrate your control over souls against a little subordinate of mine. He has a foul mouth and attitude but do not be afraid since he’s rather docile once I step in.” Shiro smiled as she tapped her foot.
A magic circle appeared next to her as the soul of the ancient terror was pulled out of the lantern for now.
“Urg… finally some room to move. But you could have at least given me a physical body or something.” The ancient terror grinned as he swept his eyes across everyone that had gathered in the hall.
Seeing this creature, they were able to sense the foulness of his soul as many tensed up and some even almost puked but kept it in.
“He will be the assistant examiner/target dummy. I don’t expect you to deal a massive amount of damage considering his background so don’t be discouraged.” Shiro smiled as she slowly raised her hand and slapped down.
*BANG!!!!
Crashing against the floor, the ancient terror struggled to stand up as he could only grip his teeth.
“Violent woman.” He cursed as Shiro only smiled. A hallowed spear formed behind the ancient terror as he paled understanding what she was threatening to do.
Staying silent, he could only cry out in his mind.
‘Why did I have to be captured by a woman like her?!?!?!?’
Seeing Shiro being able to restrain such a beast, the adventurers were amazed as they organised themselves into single file quickly and started to demonstrate their powers over the soul.
