Seeing the strange girl requesting to ’borrow’ their celestial items, the duo quickly made some space between them and readied their spells and attacks warily.

  "Who are you." The man with the shield asked with a frown.

  "Oh no one important. Just know that the only thing we have in common is that you have a shield that I want and he has a jewel that I want." Shiro grinned while landed not too far from the both of them.

  Hearing that she wanted to take the Celestial Shield and the jewel that the other person had, the man furrowed his brows and stood on guard.

  "Hm…… seems like you don’t want to cooperate." Shiro tilted her head while slashing apart a fireball that appeared above her with the spear.

  "You there, with the jewel. Since you’ve tried to harm me with the intent to kill, are you ready to take the treatment from me?" Shiro asked with a grin.

  "Hmph, take a better look at your feet." The man sneered as Shiro raised her eyebrows.

  Looking down, she could see the faint outline of a spell circle that was about to activate.

  "Now, I would applaud you for making such a stealthy spell. However, doesn’t you announcing it defeat its entire purpose you dip sh*t?" Shiro sighed as she stabbed her spear into the ground.

  *PING!!!!

  Shattering the spell in an instant, the man widened his eyes in surprise.

  "Huh?"

  "You see, spells with long times to cast aren’t effective against me." Shiro chuckled as she disappeared from her spot.

  Reappearing behind the man with the jewel, she twirled her spear and tried to stab him in the head.

  However, before the spear could hit, a barrier appeared and deflected her spear off to the side.

  "Mn? I thought you were enemies with this guy here?" Shiro asked as she glanced towards the man with the shield.

  "Yes I am. But compared to him getting the celestial items, I feel as though you are much worse. The destruction that you would bring is many times bigger than the threat of this man." He replied.

  "Interesting. In that case then tell me your name."

  "Why would you need my name?"

  "So that I know who’s grave I need to prepare." Shiro chuckled darkly as she dashed towards him.

  Pivoting on her foot, she threw the spear towards him as fire flickered on the spear tip.

  Widening his eyes, he quickly raised his shield and parried the spear.

  *BANG!

  Shocked at the impact of the spear, he could feel his shield wavering for a short moment before stabilising.

  Just as he looked up, he saw Shiro with her fist pulled back. Her eyes seemed to glow with a red hue as a pair of gauntlets materialised.

  Danger overwhelmed his senses as he knew that he had to get out of the way. There was absolutely no benefit in trying to block or parry that fist.

  *BANG!!! CRACK!!!!

  Quickly rolling to the side, he watched as the gauntlets smashed the ground into pieces.

  Before she could continue for a second attack, earthen spears shot out of the ground and pierced towards her.

  "So it’s become a 2 verses 1, I’ll take it as a high quality warm up then." Shiro laughed.

  Cancelling out the gauntlets and activating her celestial raiment in one quick movement, she stomped down as the void opened up beneath her and swallowed the earthen spears.

  "Damn, she’s a freak. Oi! Shield b*tch! Wanna team up and take her down?" The man shouted out.

  "My name is Egan not ’Shield b*tch’ and yes, I agree with teaming up. Between you and her, I’d much rather you have the items and not her." Egan nodded his head.

  While this was all happening, Shiro only looked at the two with a smile.

  In that short exchange, she could tell that neither of the two had anything that could really threaten her. The mage couldn’t use large spells since she’ll just cancel them out while Egan didn’t have any skills other than trying to block or parry an attack.

  Of course, that wasn’t to say that she’d go easy on them. Nope, the exact opposite. Since she understood that they didn’t pose a threat, she’ll crush them and have them hand over their item’s ’peacefully’. If that wasn’t possible, then she’ll go the murder route.

  "Shiro, do you need help? Or should I allow you to have your fun a little longer?" Kuromi called out from behind the two men.

  "!!!"

  Shocked at the sudden appearance of another woman behind them, Egan quickly slammed his shield back.

  *KRRR!!!!

  Brushing the shield aside, Kuromi froze his arm to an ice pillar extending out of the ground while the mage tried to attack her with a fire spell.

  Unfortunately for him, the fire was consumed by a void that opened up between the two of them.

  "Oi, are you trying to harm my big sis in front of me?" Shiro narrowed her eyes with a smile.

  "Well considering how well you’re countering these guys, I doubt I’ll need to give you a helping hand." Kuromi smiled as Shiro nodded.

  "Nope, I got this in the bag. Of course, if either of these guys want to just give me the item straight away, I’ll allow them to live."

  "Never! I’ll fight to me last breath if I have t-"

  *PUCHI!!!!

  Before Egan could finish his sentence, a spear pierced towards his head as a luminescent barrier shielded him from his death.

  "Hou? Seems like that’s the ability of that shield." Shiro narrowed her eyes after seeing the barrier while Egan couldn’t help but sweat at the fact that she could decide to kill him so easily.

  "Well I can spend a bit more time to deal with you later since you’re still frozen in big sis’ ice. As for you mage, are you going to hand the jewel over or do I have to take it from your corpse?" Shiro smiled.

  *Gulp

  "Don’t do it!" Egan shouted out as the man only ignored him.

  "If I gave you the Celestial Jewel, can I join your team?" The man asked seriously.

  "Oh? Big sis, what do you say about that? Do we need a man like him?" Shiro asked since it was quite surprising for this man to want to join them.

  Well, not so surprising considering the fact that fighting them means death.

  "Hmm…… I don’t think we do. The guards are already good as they are and we don’t need someone like him in the group." Kuromi shook her head.

  "Welp, you heard her. Give me the jewel and we’ll let you live. However, you cannot join us." Shiro narrowed her eyes.

  Gritting his teeth, he could only sigh and hand her the jewel.

  "Smart choice. What about you then Egan. Will you do the same?"

  "Ne-"

  "Think carefully about your next words since it may be your last. I’m being quite tolerant here since I’m allowing the both of you to live." Shiro warned as her spear aimed towards his head once more.

  ". . ." Pausing for a moment, Egan sighed and nodded his head slowly.

  "Good." Taking the shield, Shiro opened up a portal underneath the two of them and teleported them away from the battlefield.

  "That’s quite nice of you." Kuromi smiled.

  "Well you did say to try to take them peacefully if I can. It wasn’t the most ’peaceful’ thing I can do but at least they lived." Shiro replied.

  "True. But at the same time, if not for the shield, you would have killed both Egan and that mage sooner." Kuromi laughed.

  *Cough*

  "I don’t understand what you mean." Shiro acted while glancing at the jewel and the shield.

  Now that she had four celestial type weapons, her power in this trial was increasing by the minute. The only problem was her energy level but hopefully, that could be solved soon or else she wouldn’t be able to use all of the weapons with maximum efficiency.

  "Anyways, I think we should get out of here. Things are starting to slow down since the Teriu city guards are starting to surrender." Kuromi suggested while glancing around them.

  "Alright, I’ll teleport us out now." Shiro nodded and created an orb. Activating the portal, they disappeared from the battlefield.

  However, when they arrived at their destination, they saw a woman sitting down on a chair and watched them with a smile.

  Instantly going on guard, Shiro readied her spear.

  "No need to be bloodthirsty. I’m just here to talk. It’s a little earlier than expected but it seems like the owner of the Celestial Armour decided to retreat after seeing your power. Therefore, you’ll have to make do with just four out of the five weapons right now." The Empress chuckled.

  "Who are you." Shiro questioned with a frown.

  "I am the one that you’re looking for. I’m the Celestial Empress and it is also through me that you will receive your Celestial Empress’s Decree in order to class up."