Chapter 1118 Aria, Aekari and Shiro
"Mum, when can I get a new body?" A faint silhouette asked as Aria glanced towards her.
"Soon, your father is still looking for a suitable body for you. You know your soul is unique. If you don't find one that's suitable then you'll destroy that body in seconds." Aria explained as the girl pouted and threw herself on the bed.
"Arg!!! If only she didn't change the course of history. Why was she even allowed to do that! I had found the perfect body in that dungeon!" She complained as Aria walked over and patted her head.
"Well if you could find it in the dungeon then so can everyone else. Not a lot of people would think to interfere with you like this. Plus, she has special system privileges that allow her to counter your actions should you try to interfere with it." Aria explained.
"But she's only a lowly tier 2 at the time!"
"Not always, she was stronger in the past." Aria shook her head.
"Then can we kill her and take my body back?"
"No, you cannot kill her. Well… it's more like you're not allowed to kill her. Why do you think me and your father has been keeping her weak all this time." Aria reminded as the girl sat up.
"Can you at least tell me why we can't kill her? With your power, you should be able to kill her without too much trouble."
"I can, but it's important that she stays alive. It doesn't matter how powerful she is, as long as she is alive. As for telling you why it's important for her to stay alive, it's not the time yet. Just know that what I'm doing is for the good of the world." Aria reassured before standing up and leaving the room.
Making her way to Aekari's room, she opened it and saw him trying to supress the wound while preparing for their next moves.
"Do you need help?" Aria asked but Aekari shook his head.
"No it's fine, the pain should fade after a bit. Whatever it was that hurt me seems to be trying to consume me again. It's getting stronger." Aekari frowned while putting on his shirt.
"Alright, anyways I wanted to tell you that the Demi God Rokarn seems to be making his move now. The invasion into the Garden will start soon once the barriers have weakened enough. Should we take this chance to grab Lisandra so that our daughter can get her body back?" Aria asked as Aekari thought about it for a moment.
"Perhaps. But it depends on the restrictions the system has in place. You know that it's changing all the time, the stronger she becomes, the harder it is to interfere." Aekari sighed as Aria nodded her head.
'I didn't think she would come into contact with Rokarn again. He knows I've done something. If it wasn't for the system, he might try and help her. Hm… to get to Earth, we'll need to weaken the restrictions, which means Rokarn gets some degree of freedom. Things could go south if that happens. We might have to give up on getting Lisandra's body for now.' Aria thought to herself before opening her mouth.
"If we weaken the system's restrictions and open a path to Earth, there's a chance that she'll summon the primordial gods to help her. You've seen how much of a problem they caused last time when she was injured by the Watchman. I'm afraid that if we were to go, it wouldn't be favourable to us. Plus, she's slain a god which means the thing that harmed you can consume our core." Aria said as Aekari clenched his fist.
"How long do you think our daughter can last without her body? Her soul is slowly weakening without a body and we only found one that was compatible out of billions." Aekari asked as Aria sighed.
"We can try again once the second half of the new age arrives."
Talking to Aria some more, Aekari watched as she left the room.
Looking at himself in the mirror, he sighed wearily.
He was tired. His hatred for Nytri burned bright but it was starting to dim. His world had already been destroyed after he killed Nytri the first time. He had tried everything he could to turn back time and save everyone but it was useless.
He no longer had a reason to hate her as he caused the very thing he feared. The destruction of his world.
However, he had a new goal. His daughter, as long as he can find a suitable body for her, he was ok with giving up his hatred. But knowing Nytri, she would never let Lisandra give up her body.
'Asking her for Lisandra's body is off the table. Perhaps she can make a body suitable for Eris with her nanobots…' Aekari thought to himself but the chances were low. After all, she hated him. She hated him for killing her, betraying her trust and doing everything in his power to make sure she doesn't come back stronger than ever. He was even involved in stopping the primordials from killing the Watchman.
At this point, the chances of him receiving help from her was practically zero. But he will give it a try the next time he sees her, if Eris can live then he'll be happy. But if she refuses to help Eris then he will have to fight her as usual. Try to kill her then take Lisandra's body for Eris.
Even if he no longer has a reason to fight her on a personal level, the fact that she was about to become the Destroyer was worrisome.
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After leaving the room, Aria had a cold expression. She could clearly tell that Aekari was starting to lose his edge now that Eris was reaching her limit. Unlike her, he couldn't give up on Eris.
'I need to give him another push.' She thought to herself while making her way back.
Suddenly, she felt pain on her chest as it forced her to kneel down.
Gritting her teeth, metal started to pierce her skin and eat away at her flesh.
Activating a tier 8 magic circle, she healed the wound and stood back up.
She understood that her recent use of tier 9 magic might have stimulated the dormant power, causing it to go berserk at times. Thankfully, the effects were small for now.
'I need to try and reset her strength soon… If she becomes stronger, this will be problematic.' Aria narrowed her eyes.
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"How do the barriers look right now?" Syradil asked as they were currently having a break.
"It's intact. The one of the moon is slowly corroding away as you can see. My estimate right now is that it'll be gone by the end of the week." Shiro replied while projecting a hologram of the moon.
"Hmm… Knowing Rokarn's strength and the strength of his army, they should be able to break this apart. Why are they waiting?" Syradil asked as this was strange. In the previous Gardens, Rokarn would invade the moment he could rather than giving this much time for them to train.
"Who knows. But apparently he knew me before so that might be why. Perhaps he's waiting for something to happen before the promised time." Shiro guessed as Syradil nodded her head.
"Maybe."
"Well regardless, are you ready?" Shiro asked as she snapped her fingers. Suddenly, several staves appeared around her as Syadil shivered.
Rather than using swords, they were now literally beating the Divine Energy into her.
Resuming her training with Syradil, Shiro's mind would occasionally wander to Rokarn and what he had told her.
The fact that Aria's deepest fear was her and that Rokarn knew who she was before.
'Did Aria corrupt Aekari so that she could stop me? I'm apparently her biggest fear so it would make sense for her to do that.'
In the end, it didn't matter if they knew her or not. She had a clear goal. Stop the destruction of Earth by killing Rokarn and kill both Aekari and Aria for what they've done to her.
Even if Aekari was corrupted by Aria, it didn't wipe out the crimes that he committed.
'My future self told me that I would kill Aekari which was reassuring. But, she never said anything about Aria.'
&123;Do you think it was because the system was no longer around? Error's been a large part of why you could kill a God since it targets their core. Sure you have other ways of reaching that but so far, Error has been the most effective.&125; Nimue asked as Shiro nodded her head.
'Perhaps. Error was something given by the system. Until I can simulate his properties using my own power, it'll be hard for me to kill a god once the system disappears. To be fair, I still don't know how I did that. After all, it's not like I can conjure up a terminal that shuts down the system.'
&123;Who knows. There's no doubt a source of the system, it's just a matter of finding it. Plus, you have Hermes' Blessing don't you? As long as you have a clear understanding of the location, you can teleport to it.&125; Nimue reminded.
'True.'
Thinking about this, Shiro made a note in her mind. She had to keep the system around until she killed Aria so that her main threat would be gone.