It’s been two months since we came back from space. Isilia and Edvimar are gone, Shiro was suffering from trauma, Lisandra was venturing out with Yin in order to help her find the fragments needed to help Yin level up and Lyrica had left the city in order to get stronger so that she could avenge her parent’s deaths.
During that fight against the watchman, neither me nor Lisandra could do anything as we watched helplessly.
Even though Shiro blamed herself the most, I knew that she tried her best while me and Lisandra couldn’t even lift a finger.
Thinking back to what had happened, anger flared in my heart.
“HYAHH!!!!” Twisting my body, I pictured the face of the watchman on the monster I was facing and ripped through its flesh.
Finding the ribs, I pried them open and tore his body in half.
Cracking my neck, I flicked off the blood on my hands while taking deep breaths to calm myself. I knew that I was angrier at myself more than I was at the watchman.
Angry at my own uselessness.
“Your highness, we’ve cleared out this room. I think there is one chamber left and the nest will be cleared out.” Felsha reported as I nodded my head.
She was the one who took control of the demons for a while when the new age started and naturally, I punished her accordingly.
“Alright, tell everyone to get ready, we’ll charge in and finish everything in one go.” I ordered.
Watching Felsha deliver the message to the rest of the demons, I sighed and glanced up at the ceiling.
I thought back to the state of Shiro and closed my eyes.
The sight of her trembling figure with eyes that have lost their l.u.s.tre was clear in my mind. We had actually hid behind her shadow and let her take everything on herself.
All of our talks of being useful to her seemed so hollow now that I looked back. We promised that we’ll be stronger but to what extent did we risk ourselves to discover strength like her?
I knew that Lyrica must have understood this hence why she ventured out. To risk her life in order to gain power.
I wanted to do the same. But if I leave as well, I wasn’t sure how well Shiro would take it. If all of us left one by one when she needed us the most, it’ll only harm her more. I couldn’t leave. Just the knowledge of me still being around should be helpful for her.
Even as we entered the final chamber of his nest, my mind was still wandering back to the matters in the city but it was fine since I was undefeatable in this nest.
Compared to these monsters, I was their greatest fear.
I peeled the scales off the monster’s skin, tore his bones out and gouged out his eyes. To me, he was incredibly weak and I knew this is how the watchman felt when he faced off against us.
Similar to how I was able to stop the monster from fighting back at all, the watchman did the same.
‘I want to get stronger.’
I wanted to get stronger so I won’t be like this monster.
Despite being the strongest in his nest, some random person like me could appear and rip him to pieces.
I wanted to be strong so that the same situation wouldn’t happen anymore.
After killing the monster, I had the demons harvest everything from the nest and make our way back to the city.
Felsha and Asphil noticed that I was slightly out of it but they didn’t say anything.
Once we were back in the city, I had the demons deliver the better materials to Helion so that he could put them to use.
Arriving at his workshop, I knocked on the door and laid down on the sofa. It had been my comfort spot ever since I returned from space since the rhythmic sounds of Helion hammering the metal calmed my nerves.
“You seem to have a lot on your mind today.” Helion called out to me with a smile as I nodded my head.
“Mn, a little.”
“Same as usual?” He asked. He knew that I was stressed out about getting strength, but I couldn’t leave.
“Maybe you should talk to Shiro about it. I heard from Silvia and Nan Tian that she seemed to be making stable improvements.” Helion suggested with a smile as I sat up in surprise.
After not hearing any news of improvement for a while, this was a surprise to be sure.
“What happened?” I asked, wanting to know more.
“Apparently she’s starting to talk more now. Though she’s only comfortable with talking to Nan Tian. I heard from him that she actively tried to leave the med bay today but failed. Shiro did say that she’ll try again tomorrow.”
Hearing this, I sighed in relief and leaned back.
“That’s good.” I muttered.
“Now that Shiro is recovering, maybe you can talk to her more to see how she is. Perhaps you might be able to ask her if you can leave for a short journey.” Helion suggested.
“No. If I do that she might be burdened which could have negative effects. She’s just started recovering so I don’t want to hit her with news of me wanting to leave.” I replied with a frown.
“I know. I’m saying that you should talk to her after some time. Normally, Shiro wouldn’t mind you venturing out so I was thinking that you assess her current mental state by interacting with her more.”
Hearing this, I thought for a moment before nodding her head.
“Alright. I’ll talk to her for a bit to see how she is.”
I continued to talk to Helion for a bit before returning to my room and slept till morning.
Once I woke up, I immediately made my way to the med bay. Nan Tian had been staying next to Shiro and hadn’t left since. Even when she slept, he continued to stay next to her since he didn’t want the same thing that happened on the first day to happen again.
That day, he had left for a short break and when he returned, he saw Shiro breaking down in a corner. He knew that her mental state was fragile right now so he accompanied her.
Turning the corner, I could already see the doors to the med bay.
To my surprise, I could see Shiro in front of the door with an expression of absolute fear.
Her chest moved up and down rapidly as I knew she was hyperventilating. Nan Tian stood next to her with a face of concern while she kept a tight grip on his shirt.
Hiding myself, I observed silently while praying in my mind. I wanted her to overcome this barrier. I wished that I could see her just reach out and push that set of doors apart.
‘Come on…’ I thought in my mind.
However, 20 minutes passed and Shiro wasn’t able to take a single step forward.
Taking a step back with a downcast expression, Shiro walked back to the bed while Nan Tian comforted her with a small smile.
After seeing this, I wasn’t sure if I should continue with my plan.
‘She must be feeling shitty right now. Showing myself to her might just make matters worse.’ I thought to myself.
Leaning against the wall for a moment, I thought back to the expression I saw and knew that her mental barrier must be bigger than anything I imagined.
After all, this was a woman that didn’t even bat an eye to pissing off a whole pantheon of gods. Seeing her figure now, I wouldn’t have thought that they were the same person if I didn’t know Shiro. The change was quite drastic but that just showed how much of an impact she had suffered from the watchman.
Feeling my phone vibrate, I glanced down and saw that Nan Tian had sent me a message.
[Nan Tian: I noticed that you were watching a moment ago. Shiro hasn’t noticed so I didn’t say anything. You might want to visit a little later but that’s up to you. She’s quite down about what just happened but I also believe some company might help distract her mind right now.]
Thinking about it for a moment, I decided to come back later since I didn’t know how I could react to this situation. I figured that things might be easier once I give her a bit of time to calm herself.
Replying to Nan Tian, I glanced back at the med bay and started walking away.
Suddenly, I received a notification.
It was a similar format to what Shiro had shown us before and I knew it was a message from a god.
[To my dearest descendant. I noticed that you seemed to have a bit of trouble so after some preparation, I am finally able to provide you with a way to get stronger. As your ancestor, I realised that I haven’t given you anything to congratulate you on your ascension so I suppose this will have to do. The system is a bit stingy with the requirements when it comes to messaging you so this is about all I can say. However, I hope you can forgive me for the delay.
From your Ancestor, Demon God Makron.]
Attached to the message was a single item.
[Invitation to the Demon Realm.]
