Shiro was currently sneaking through the entire mansion whilst sweat dripped off her face.
'How many formations do you need inside a house?!' She cried out in her mind.
Every few seconds after dodging a formation led to another one. This allowed the guards to slowly catch up to her since they could just follow where the formations where active. Especially Gilbert.
She couldn't help but curse at how good his tracking skills where. There were several close calls that she couldn't have escaped if not for Rift Walker.
As the pursuit continued, Shiro slowly mapped out the mansion but frowned when she couldn't find the master bedroom.
'Hmm strange…' She thought to herself.
Just as she was about to continue her search, she sensed Gilbert getting close once more and entered the rift.
Positioning herself above and behind a statue she lowered her presence and used Shadow Cloak for extra insurance.
She saw Gilbert crouching down where she was previously.
"Tsk!" He clicked his tongue in frustration. The intruder was a sneaky one this time since no matter how hard he tried; they would just disappear like a phantom.
'This is too strange… I've already gotten intel that both the Sermak Family and the Casadan family had intruders that passed them some vital information about the slums. Could they be doing the same here?' Gilbert thought with a frown.
Seeing Gilbert think about the situation, Shiro decided to pass the information onto him. She remembers that he was a butler. As a butler, he would have the chance to interact with the master of the Ospar household.
Pinching her fingers together, she created a flute and raised it up to her lips. Activating Cold Illusions, she saw Gilbert instantly pulled out a sword and stand on guard.
"Come out." He said calmly as his sword lit up with a black, purple and blue aura. Every flicker of the aura seemed to draw a picture of the galaxy with stars shining ever so slightly.
*BANG!
When a metal plate appeared in front of him, he immediately slashed his sword but was surprised when he saw the metal plate almost unscathed.
'What a brute!' Shiro thought with annoyance. She had the feeling that he was going to slash at anything that appears so she used her Nanomancer Class to create a plate so that she could test him out first. She didn't actually think he would slash at the first possible moment.
While he was paused in surprise at the fact that the metal plate was almost undamaged, Shiro took this chance to disassemble it and send out a piece of paper.
[What a brute. What if I had sent important information instead? You would have destroyed that you know?]
Shiro decided that since she was going to pass the information to him, she was going to mess with him a little.
"Since you have the capabilities to send this information to the two lesser families and even threaten them with spreading this out, I believe you have multiple copies." He replied seriously.
[Hou hou~ And what if I said that was a lie?]
"Then too bad. We can just mobilise with the two other families when the time comes."
[And if the entire thing is a ruse? What if I made it up and just wanted to take the families for a ride?]
"Why would you use so much effort in making something so believable just so that you can mess around with us?"
[Well, there can be a lot of reasons. The fact that the families cause destruction across the city could be one.]
"…" Gilbert had nothing to say since that is indeed the truth. Every time the families fight, it was always the civilians that suffer even if they're not injured. Properties would be damaged and shops might be completely destroyed.
[Silence huh?]
There were no more messages after that as the cold illusion faded away.
Gilbert sheathed his sword away as his heart was heavy. He was about to inform the other families that this may be a ruse until he felt something in his pocket.
There were two data ch.i.p.s and a paper message.
[Just kidding~ Of course you'll get the data as well. Do remember to eradicate the slum factions completely ok? ♡~]
"…."
*BANG!
Punching his fist against the wall, Gilbert wanted to give the culprit a slap or two for messing with his emotions.
"F*ck!" He cursed out.
Meanwhile, the culprit in question, was giggling outside the mansion since she had a camera on the ch.i.p.s which showed her his expression after reading her note.
"Now then, tomorrow should be the time where I'll get to fight my shadow again." Shiro muttered as her grin faded away.
She had already done all that she needed to do. Gather information and distribute it. If they don't make a move, then she'll show this to every adventurer in Cairosa and force them to move.
###
"Are you sure you want to challenge your shadow straight away?" Lyrica asked as she and Madison were seeing Shiro off.
[Yeah, the faster I complete this the better. Plus, if I get stronger, my shadow will get stronger as well.] Shiro smiled since she had already informed the duo about the contents of her 5th star up.
"Don't get too hung up though Shiro. I've heard that you can class up even without getting the 5th star. Last time you failed, you suffered quite the backlash didn't you? If it wasn't for your Fire of Life, you would probably still being bed right now."
[If you always take the easy route, life would get boring.] Shiro shrugged.
"True."
"Well good luck Shiro. By the way, we've got a surprise for you after you come out so send us a text when you're ready." Lyrica smiled.
Shiro nodded with a smile as she was teleported back into the Truth Realm.
Her emotions instantly faded as there was no more messing around anymore. Since she knew herself and what she could do, she didn't need to hesitate. Last time she allowed the shadow to take the initiative and that caused her to be on the defensive.
This time was going to be different.
[Begin]
Seeing her shadow form once more, Shiro immediately slammed her palm into the ground and sent out her killing intent.
*KRRR!!!
Shadow furrowed her brows and quickly activated Faded Snow Movement to prevent herself from being frozen.
*CLING CLING CLING!
Since she had used Faded Snow Movement on her legs, that meant her upper body was exposed.
Ice chains wrapped around the Shadows torso and secured her in place.
She attempted the same on Shiro but it was dodged easily due to the fact that her shadow had struck an illusion.
When her ice chains sprang up, she synchronised the Cold Illusion with the sound the chains made and created an illusion of her.
While she was countering her Shadow every step of the way, she was also forming the skill for breaking the Shadow's Mana Links.
Naturally, she was still going for the kill. Breaking the Mana Link was just an added bonus.
'The Mana Link is situated in one's Mana Realm. When the person uses mana to power a spell, the links would gather the mana from the realm/ their reservoir and send it through the caster's body. I need to track the mana back to the source and destroy the links that way.' Shiro thought whilst twisting her body to the side and avoided an ice spear that aimed for her rear.
Grabbing the ice spear with her bare hands, Shiro sent her mana into the spear and rewrote the spell so that it was her own.
"Ha!" She shouted out whilst throwing the spear towards Shadow with 3rd Phantom to boost its power.
*BOOM!!!!
Shiro wasn't particularly surprised when her shadow managed to dodge the spear.
'To track the mana back to the mana realm, I'll need to sense their body whilst they cast a spell. However, I can also flood their entire system. While that doesn't track to the mana realm since it'll close itself off to protect the links, I'll be able to restrain Shadow for a short moment. In that time, the mana realm will eventually reopen itself to heal her.'
Seeing her Shadow Clench her palm to create the same magic circle that took over her ice, Shiro flicked her wrist and created a hand cannon with a special bullet she was working on in the day.
While she could overwrite a spell to a certain degree, she wasn't able to expand it to a domain like her Shadow which is why she created a substitute option instead.
[Mana Disruption Bullet]
A bullet that sends out a pulse of mana that would overwrite parts of the magic circle to break it apart.
The effectiveness of this bullet depends on how much MP was used to create it.
*BANG! PING!
The magic circle shattered apart as her Shadow shot towards her with a hand cannon.
Twisting her body, Shiro created some heel guards and proceeded to roundhouse kick the bullet out of the air. It was an easy feat for Shiro since she knew where the bullet was going. After that, it was only a matter of timing.
"Pui." Spitting in disdain, Shiro disassembled her gun and charged towards her Shadow.
Rift Walker!
Her body phased into the rift. Shadow knew what she was doing and copied since the risk of Shiro appearing near her was dangerous.
However, both of them never expected the rifts to be connected. Shiro could see Shadow's surprise in front of her as both of them were in the rift together.
She reacted quickly to take advantage of this as she clenched her hands and activated Ice Chains.
Shadow quickly left the rift to avoid the chains.
Rolling heavily against the ground, Shadow looked up to keep an eye out for Shiro would follow after her.
Slamming her palms down, Shadow erected a rotating barrier of Ice that protected her from Shiro's strike from behind her.
Unfortunately for Shadow, this had caused her to be stationary.
Frozen Hell Series: Frozen Slumber.
*CLING CLING CLING!
Six chains wrapped around the barrier, forcing it to stop. Cracks started to appear all over the dome as the spell started to crumble the barrier to ice dust.
Activating Rift Walker to escape from the spell, her Shadow created two hand cannons and shot at the magic circles, destroying them with the Mana Disruption Bullets.
'Makes sense.' Shiro thought whilst appearing behind her shadow.
*BANG!
Sending a palm at her Shadow's back, Shiro barely managed to flood her body with Mana before she used Faded Snow Movement to disperse most of the damage.
However, it was perfect for Shiro since it allowed her to take a quick glimpse at where the mana came from.
While the route wasn't perfect, since the Mana Realm closed itself right after using Faded Snow Movement, she had memorised roughly 65% of the route.
'Wait… it's the same as mine.' Shiro narrowed her eyes as she realised the 65% she had memorised was the same as hers.
'I suppose it's because she's a direct copy.'
Looking at her Shadow who seemed to be frustrated about being suppressed by her, Shiro sneered in order to provoke her Shadow.
Unfortunately, she kept her calm and instead, activated her Pseudo Elemental Armour.
Flicking the spiked chains on her wrist, Shadow sent both chains lashing towards Shiro who activated Faded Snow Movement to dodge.
However, Shadow grinned since her goal was accomplished. Wherever her chains passed, a magic circle appeared in the air. The sheer quantity was too much for Shiro to avoid.
To make matters worse, one of the chains had detached itself and latched onto Shiro's body to drain mana from her.
"So you're also learning while you fight huh? A little too late though." Shiro smiled as her body exploded into ice mist.
Shadow widened her eyes when she realised that she was just an illusion.
*BOOM!
A palm stuck against her back one more time as she saw Shiro appearing behind her. She could feel mana claw its way through her systems and invade her Mana Realm.
She realised that after she collided with the ground, Shiro had activated Cold Illusions to wait for the perfect moment to strike.
"You're not the only one who can be a sneaky b*tch." Shiro said whilst pulling the trigger and shot Shadow in the head.
Since her Mana Realm was being invaded, she wasn't able to activate Faded Snow Movement.
*Ding~
A victory sound rang out as Shadow started to fade away along with all the damage that had acc.u.mulated in the truth realm.
Once she confirmed that she had won, Shiro panted heavily and collapsed on her back. During the entirety of that fight, she was abusing the hell out of her own mana links to perform as best they could. While she did that, she had to endure the pain whilst also controlling her body to try to fight on at an even footing with her Shadow.
During this fight, she had avoided close quarters combat as much as she could since she knew her shadow could perform better. Hence she stuck with long range and trickery which thankfully, paid off in the end.
Furthermore, the stress of forcing her body to constantly attack with little to no defence wasn't something Shiro liked to experience.
But the sight of trial passed caused her to smile.
An ice cocoon wrapped around her, sending her into a deep slumber.
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