Chapter 1277: Returning To Asharia

Since Gungnir needed to lock onto something in order to be thrown accurately, there was a single place perfect for this occasion.

Usually, one would target a certain mana signal but Shiro chose a place that lacked any sort of signal in a world flooded with mana.

She chose the null mana zone.

A place of her own making. It was the perfect target in order to not harm anyone as the resulting impact would only be absorbed by the zone with the mana being funnelled towards the repairs of the area.

Flickering through the cycles while catching up to her spear, Shiro could see the destruction that Anima had started in each cycle. Each world had its own problems and Anima simply amplified the destruction caused by it.

Since this was the result of their battle, Shiro felt obligated to at least try relieving their pressure. Snapping her fingers, she created a holographic projection of herself and sent it towards each of the cycles.

Little by little, it split apart into a million fragments, each having the goal of halting the destruction, reverting each cycle back to the way it was before Shiro's fight with Anima and Aria.

Each of the fragments may only have a small pool of mana but once they reach the cycle, they'll be able to use the ambient mana to bolster themselves. And once the destruction had been reverted, they'll disintegrate into ambient mana to foster growth for the cycle.

It was her way of apologising for dragging each realm into her conflict. They don't need to know it's her, they just need to think that everything was a nightmare and destruction was not incoming.

'Once destruction has been halted, the clones will revert the world using the codes to a state before the fight ever started. If I try to revert it fully, my mana won't be able to sustain such an act. Instead, I'll push the previous state further into the future so it overwrites what happened to make it seem like going back in time. Then I'll modify the memories of everyone in that realm to think what had happened was just a nightmare, the malfunction of a spell that caused everyone to perceive such a fate.'

The act of going to the past was much more exhausting than dragging the past to the future. There was less resistance to fight against and the mana drain was much smaller as well. With this method, she'll be able to sustain herself despite repairing every single cycle that had been involved by Anima.

Looking down at her hands, she could already see her body pushing for the next tier. With her knowledge and capabilities increased, it was hard to hold back the ascension but she was stalling it out.

It was a similar situation to when Anima couldn't stop Chaos' interference. It wasn't a matter of if, only when.

'There should be enough time to visit Lyrica and the others before I leave to see Anima.' Shiro smiled inwardly as she mentally prepared herself for what's to come.

She instinctively knew that it was a point of no return. Once she sees Anima, it'll be the last time they speak.

Feeling the spear finally reach her original realm, she activated the final teleport and disappeared from her space.

Arriving at the null mana zone, she could feel her own mana being absorbed rapidly.

"To think, something I made on accident back then would help me get back home." Shiro chuckled while summoning Gungnir back to her hands.

During her fight, this realm was not spared from the destruction. But a single scan of the world told her that there was no need to worry. Unlike the other cycles, this one had the gods, demigods, her friends and Asharia to help with evacuations.

While some deaths couldn't be avoided, it was still doing much better than the other cycles.

'Let me do one more task then.'

Unlike the other realms, she didn't want to push the past further into the future. But rather simply revive those that died during this calamity and help them find their way back.

Clasping her hands together, a tier 9 array appeared around her as she flicked her wrist and summoned an orb. It was a representation of their cycle, a method similar to what Anima and Chaos had used.

Snapping her fingers, a large array stretched across the world, covering it in a blanket of mana as a warm glow enveloped the lands.

Elsewhere, while Lyrica and the others were helping with evacuations, Lyrica paused in her tracks and turned her head towards Shiro's location.

She felt a foreign force of mana suddenly appear in their world before colliding with the null mana zone and disappearing. Shortly after that, a new signature followed. It was unlike anything she had ever sensed before, overwhelming to the point it seemed as though they could shatter the realm in two.

It was teetering on the edge of becoming something else while the owner was suppressing their own mana.

'Is it Shiro? But it doesn't feel like her… There are resemblances… What happened?' Lyrica thought to herself in worry.

Suddenly, a large array, bigger than the world appeared in the sky.

Widening her eyes in shock, everyone paused in their tracks and gasped at the scale of the spell.

Even gods couldn't believe their eyes' including Nyx.

"I can only imagine one person doing this but even then, it's a little too crazy for Shiro no?" Madison forced a smile while the others nodded their heads in agreement.

Out of nowhere, their systems rang back to life as they saw the message.

[The Goddess of Asharia casts her blessing to the world.

All those that have died will be revived.

All destruction caused will be repaired.

Everyone will be granted a barrier to prevent further injuries for the next 24 hours. Any act of malice or intended malice for when the time ends will have their codes erased.]

"The Goddess of Asharia huh? I suppose that's pretty accurate." Nyx laughed. While Shiro was indeed the First Born of Destruction, she had changed her own identity with her mastery over creation mana.

With no divinity to focus on, calling herself the Goddess of Asharia, a city she built, was rather accurate.

"Of course it's accurate, I chose the name myself." Shiro's voice interrupted Nyx as she had a grin on her face.

"Welcome back. How did things go after I had to leave? Seeing as how you're here it must've been resolved right?" Nyx asked curiously but Shiro shook her head.

"Aria is dealt with. But there's one more problem I need to resolve." She shrugged before turning back to her friends.

"Let's go get some food first. I've been through some crap so I actually want to relax for a little while."

"Alright so who's cooking?" Yin asked as everyone turned their focus to her.

"ME?? Do you even know how tiring it is to cook for everyone here???" Yin complained as she thought she could just sit back and enjoy some food instead of having to cook.

"Of course, who else if not you. It's time for you to do your duty as my eldest daughter." Shiro grinned as Yin started to complain but she still made her way to the cafeteria to begin her preparations.

As the rest of the group followed, Shiro was about to follow as well when Lyrica grabbed her by the wrist.

"What happened? Your mana is unstable like you're about to disappear at any moment." Lyrica asked with worry.

"Ahahah, can't fool your eyes huh? I always knew you were sensitive to mana." Shiro scratched her hair before looking at Lyrica.

"The one who started all the cycles and controls them now is Anima. Well… the original Anima. After this, I'll be forced to ascend and deal with her once and for all. If things go well, there shouldn't be any issues. If things go bad… well I shouldn't verbalise such thoughts." Shiro shrugged as Lyrica nodded her head.

"Can't we join you? We can help fight Ani-"

"Lyrica. I'd rather not put my friends in danger against someone I don't even know if I can beat myself. Knowing that everyone is here protecting my home is good enough for me." Shiro reassured. Seeing Lyrica's sad expression, Shiro had a fond smile her face while patting her head.

"Come on, let's go eat some food. I think I've got a few hours before I have to go and I don't want to leave things undone in this place before I leave. Otherwise, I might get distracted during my fight." Shiro joked as Lyrica sighed and nodded her head.

Joining the rest of the party, they enjoyed the meal and partied hard while knowing that there was serious talks to be had. This was merely a moment to relax and all of them knew. After all, Shiro wouldn't party this hard unless she was unsure of what's to come.

They knew she didn't want to leave regrets so they enjoyed the party as much as they could.

Looking at the party, Shiro had a soft smile on her face. She felt grateful that she could meet everyone and how they could party like there's no tomorrow. The amount of happiness they brought to her life was not something she could put into words.

'Perhaps this is also what drove Anima to do what she did. She found a close friend in Aaron yet they used his corpse as a medal…' Shiro thought to herself, feeling pity for her original.

Shaking her head, she drank more juice and rejoined the party.