Feeling Chronos’ energy flowing through her body, Shiro redirected it towards her eyes as the runes started to light up.

  The strands started to appear in her vision once more and it was akin to a spider’s web.

  Looking at the strands in front of her, Shiro could see that they were split into three colours. Light blue, dark blue and pure white.

  There were countless strands in the room and most of them were connected to Chronos. However, for the few that were disconnected from him, Shiro felt as though she could just reach out and touch them.

  "What do you see?" Chronos asked curiously as he could see the runes light up in her eyes.

  Each of the runes seemed to be composed of tiny tier 8 magic circles that reminded him of the magic circles he uses for his spells.

  "I see countless strands. Light blue, dark blue and pure white. Most of these strands are connected to you but there’s one or two that I can interact with. Or at least that’s what I think." Shiro muttered with a frown as Chronos furrowed his brows before widening his eyes.

  "Wait I think I get it. What you’re doing is seeing the strands that connect to the river of time. I interact with them using magic circles, my divinity and my senses that I’ve trained over time since I cannot see their forms. Try to pull on one but don’t actually pull on it so we can guess which colour is which." Chronos asked as Shiro nodded her head.

  Reaching out towards the dark blue strand near here, Chronos closed his eyes.

  "That one is the strand connecting to the past." He explained as he guessed it was coloured a dark blue since it had already happened and the possibilities are no longer there. There was no sign of change.

  Reaching out to the light blue strand, Shiro could feel the energy drain from her body in an instant as Chronos quickly transferred more energy.

  "This one is the future. I use this for divination along with slowing time so that it seems like it has halted."

  Looking at the pure white strand, Shiro wanted to reach out to it but the closer she got, the more her energy drained. Even Chronos had a difficult expression on his face as the energy consumption was increasing with each second she had these eyes activated.

  "Stop, the last one is probably the present. While what you have is a boon, I doubt you can use it with ease. In just that short moment, you have already sapped away 40% of my energy. When you’re a god, the energy you have access too is much bigger than what you have now. Even at your normal condition, I doubt you’ll be able to sustain your eyes for more than a single second." Chronos furrowed his brows as he retracted his energy.

  Feeling a wave of fatigue hit her body, Shiro stumbled for a moment as the cool sensation faded from her eyes but now she felt the strain. Similar to when she looks at a screen for too long, she had to close her eyes for a moment before they returned to normal.

  "Seems like we can’t rely on this for now but in the future it’ll prove to be helpful. Or at least I hope so since the energy drain is rather insane." Chronos folded his hands as Shiro nodded her head.

  "However, setting that aside, let’s continue with your theory. I’ve managed to achieve a bit of success with it but the energy drain is quite strenuous compared to my old method. The good news is that you were right with the fact that it wouldn’t strain the body as much." Chronos smiled as he placed his hand on her shoulder.

  Waving his hand, a tier 8 magic circle slowly constructed around them as he furrowed his eyebrows in concentration.

  Creating a small orb of water in front of him, he allowed it to fall as the orb slowed down to a halt.

  Seeing the orb stop, Shiro reached out slowly as she tapped the surface.

  Droplets flicked off the surface as it time resumed but the moment it disconnected from her finger it was frozen in time once more.

  "Fuuu……" Breathing out heavily, the magic circles shattered apart as Chronos took a moment to regularise his breath.

  "It’s hard to stay in that state since I have to make sure we’re dead centre during the expansion as mistakes are magnified in this state. Even if we’re a little bit off centre, it’ll cancel the spell. But as you can see, in this state, we’re the only thing still moving in the river of time. Anything that comes in contact with us will also resume but once it separates from our body, it’ll be slowed down as it is no longer in the centre of the expansion. Most of your focus will be on keeping yourself in the middle so fighting will be difficult. As you can see, even for me, the most I can do is make a droplet of water while standing still. Moving around and fighting is impossible for me in this state." Chronos said as Shiro nodded her head.

  "That’s enough for now. I just need to know that it’s possible. I don’t need to worry too much about the mental calculations since that’s my specialty. If I create a process for myself, I can have a part of my mind focus on that while I fight." Shiro nodded as she made sure to analyse everything that she had seen.

  "Do you want to give it a try?" Chronos asked with a smile.

  "Sure."

  Transferring some energy to Shiro once more, he took a small step back as Shiro breathed softly.

  Closing her eyes, she imagined herself to be in the centre of a room with all the runes that she needed floating around her.

  She could remember the small details in the tier 8 magic circle and it was hard to decipher. She doubted that she’ll be able to cancel a tier 8 spell unless she brute forced it which made it inefficient for battle as the activation time will be much faster than her cancellation.

  She had to train herself so that she could analyse and decipher the tier 8 magic in a single moment or else she’ll never be able to cancel out a tier 8 spell during a fight much less a tier 9 should she fight Aria.

  Grabbing the runes, she started to piece them together before setting them aside so that she could work on a different part of the magic circle.

  Constructing the first quarter of the tier 8 magic circle, Shiro could understand why Chronos was having such a hard time. There was so much balancing that she had to do across all of the runes in such a short time that it was akin to trying to fight the watchman while also cooking dinner.

  One side of the runes were volatile and needed delicate attention while the other had to be wrestled down with strength. Trying to keep these two sides in check for just a single quarter of the magic circle spoke volumes of the difficulty. The fact that Chronos could smoothly construct it after a few short moments demonstrated his proficiency as the god of time.

  *PING!!!

  Shattering apart the moment her control wavered for a single moment, Shiro furrowed her brows before starting again.

  "I’ll keep supplying you with energy, don’t worry and keep going." Chronos smiled as Shiro nodded her head.

  ###

  Shiro didn’t know how long it took but while her avatar didn’t feel tired, her mind was feeling the fatigue pile up slowly.

  After her nth attempt at forming the tier 8 magic circle, Shiro stumbled back as Chronos quickly caught her to stop her from falling.

  Seeing the avatar flicker, he sighed.

  "Perhaps we should stop here. Your time is running out and your avatar is reflecting that. Just take what you have learned so far and practice." Chronos smiled as Shiro nodded her head reluctantly.

  Disabling the room, he watched as Shiro’s avatar disappeared before glancing towards the other gods.

  "How was she? Ouranos asked as Chronos sat down.

  "It’s crazy." Chronos sighed as Ouranos raised his eyebrow.

  "Crazy how?" Nyx asked curiously.

  "Have you ever seen a mortal creating a magic circle meant for gods? I didn’t say anything since she seemed so determined. Her eyes never lost focus of her goal and she almost completed it. For the first time in my life I have almost seen a mortal reach the realm of gods through magic alone without ascending." Chronos chuckled.

  "How close was she to completing the magic circle?"

  "80%. She managed to construct 80% of the magic circle! Once she gets used to the process of creating a gods magic circle, there’s a high chance for her to use tier 8 magic despite only being tier 6! She’s already broken the boundaries now that she has reached Demi god state. A state that many queens and Empresses do not reach and now she’s aiming even further beyond. If I didn’t want to preserve my appearance then this old man would have been seen as crazy in front of her hahahaha!" Chronos laughed as he hadn’t felt this passionate about a student achieving breakthroughs in a long time. The last time this happened his prized student died to his research so he restrained himself from repeating what had happened before.

  But seeing Shiro achieve such leaps in power caused his heart to pound with excitement. He wanted to experiment! To discover! To-

  "Chronos, calm. You’re getting a little excited there." Nyx interrupted his train of thought as she could clearly sense his excitement.

  "I know that you’re excited about what’s happening but you have to keep in mind. Shiro is the life line. We can’t let her die. Even if it is experimenting to achieve breakthroughs, you cannot do so with the risk of Shiro dying." Nyx warned.

  "But what about the possibilities that she brings! What if-"

  "Chronos!" Nyx shouted as she stood up with a frown.

  ". . . Sorry. Seems like I have made a fool of myself." Chronos sighed as he was getting drunk on his passion and had lost himself for a moment.

  "It’s fine. Just don’t put Shiro in danger and we’ll be fine." Nyx nodded before focusing on helping Tartarus.

  Despite staying silent, Chronos’ eyes burned with passion as Shiro had caused his inner beast to break free. All that was in his mind was the possibilities involving the river of time. He didn’t need to be the one to achieve everything. Even as a spectator he will be happy. They say that those that reach the peak are crazy in their endeavours. Whether that be the burning passion to constantly test themselves against the risks or discard everything in the pursuit of truth, the ones that reached the top have done everything.

  Chronos had one desire in his life and that was to understand everything about the river of time. It’s possibilities, its mysteries, the powers a single entity could have over this powerful concept. And right now, he could see a path towards a part of the truth and the one who is laying out the path is Shiro.

  Each step she takes in this subject brings him closer to witnessing everything. Even if he has to give up his divinity, as long as he can witness everything, he will be satisfied. But her container is too weak. It cannot hold the might of his divinity. He has to wait patiently.

  But it’s fine. In the eyes of a being that cannot die due to the passage of time, a few years is nothing but a blink of an eye.

  He will wait with burning excitement to see what she can accomplish. The day he gives her his everything so that he can witness the thing that he wanted to pursue is the day he can leave the realm with a smile.

  Meanwhile, Nyx glanced back with a small frown.

  ’Chronos is becoming a little dangerous. I might have to ’deal’ with him if he gets too deep into his passion. I can’t have him risking Shiro’s life and putting the universe in danger.’ Nyx thought to herself since she could almost see the insanity brewing in his eyes.

  However, he is a great help to Shiro right now so getting rid of him will bring no benefits. Plus, she is injured and her condition is unstable. Getting rid of him will be no easy task.

  Gods might be allies but they won’t bat an eye to killing each other the moment their goals collide. The only person she is really ’close friends’ with was Gaia but Ouranos, Tartarus and Chronos all have their own goals. They only chose Shiro due to her persuasion but now Chronos has his own goal.

  There might come a time where they’ll become enemies but for now, they were allies.

  ###

  Opening her eyes, Shiro immediately deactivated her skill after making sure all of the lasting benefits were cancelled.

  Feeling a wave of shock go through her body, she tensed up for a moment before breathing out softly.

  Laying on the bed, cold sweat dripped from her forehead.

  "Are you alright? Did everything go well?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.

  "Mn. I managed to get some decent benefits. I’ll tell you about them in a bit but I want to take a shower first. I’m a bit of a sweaty mess." Shiro chuckled as Nan Tian nodded his head.

  After taking a quick shower, Shiro took a closer look at herself in the mirror.

  Focusing on her eyes, she could see the runes still being present but she didn’t think about doing anything with them yet since the drain was too big.

  ’I wonder who that voice belonged to. It sounded masculine but it didn’t sound like Attie." Shiro thought with a frown.

  She tried entering her mana realm but it was still blocked off which meant that it was still undergoing evolution.

  Taking a few deep breaths, Shiro decided to stay for a little longer so that she could stop using Nan Tian as her emotional support. If this continues, she wouldn’t be able to partake in long fights.

  Closing her eyes, she started to count the seconds as she could feel her mind becoming restless with each passing moment.

  Her arms started to shake as her breathing intensified.

  Looking into the mirror, she could see the shadows begin to twist as the edges of her vision started to darken.

  Shaking her head, she got changed and left the toilet before sitting on the bed and held onto Nan Tian’s sleeve without saying anything.

  Understanding that she stayed in there for a longer period on purpose, Nan Tian didn’t speak and just allowed her to take a moment to recover. He knew that she was trying to make some improvements with her own methods.

  "Sorry about that." Shiro said after calming down.

  "It’s alright." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro brought out two cups of juice and offered him one.

  Taking a sip, she sighed out and started to explain everything that she’s managed to accomplish with Chronos.

  How her eyes have changed and how she’s been trying to construct the magic circle needed to ’pause’ time but the requirements were harsh. Trying to keep everything balanced for long enough so that the magic circle was completed proved to be much harder than running Asharia.

  "Do you have any candidates on who the voice might belong to?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro shook her head.

  "The only ones that call me mum are Yin, Lisandra and Attie. Attie grows up in the future but even then the voice this time sounded different. And I don’t think I’ve adopted anyone recently." Shiro replied as she placed her hand on her chin.

  "Hmm…… but they must be rather powerful if they can bless you with something that even a god might struggle with powering considering the fact that it absorbed 40% of Chronos energy reserves with you just performing three actions.

  "Mn…… true. They weren’t even full actions either, just me reaching out for the strands." Shiro sighed.

  "Setting that aside, how will you be practicing the construction of the tier 8 magic circle? Plus, don’t you also need to be able to perform it in a snap if you want to use it in a fight?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.

  "I know. That’s why I’m thinking of maybe carving a magic circle or a ’process’ on Silvanis so that it can assist me when I want to pause time. This magic circle/process will help me construct a part of the magic circle so that I can have an easier time tuning the rest of it during combat. I won’t be able to carve the full magic circle since parts of the magic circle change all the time. That’s why it’s so annoying trying to construct it. If I’m unlucky, I won’t even be able to complete 20% of the magic circle before it shatters." Shiro shrugged her shoulders helplessly since there were still large parts of the runes that she didn’t understand.

  "Well take your time with that. There’s no need to rush." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro nodded her head.

  "I know. I think I’m going to rest for a day or two before continuing with everything. I’m feeling a bit tired after everything." Shiro yawned as she laid on the bed.

  "Oh right, I haven’t asked this yet but are the rewards for the new events as powerful as the first one?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian paused for a moment before shaking his head.

  "No. They’re helpful and boosted their power by a lot but in terms of potentially killing a god? No chance." Nan Tian replied.

  "That’s good then. I don’t think this world can handle anything like that." Shiro closed her eyes.

  "Also, how is Frost Giant’s Pass? I haven’t seen anything on it."

  "Frost Giants Pass still hasn’t recovered and I don’t think it will for a while. The place is completely devoid of mana and life. That attack of yours pretty much removed any possibilities of anything staying in that area. We classify that as a dead zone now." Nan Tian smiled wearily as Shiro chuckled.

  "That attack was a bit crazy wasn’t it?"

  "I think crazy is an understatement." Nan Tian shrugged.

  "True. Say, are there any monsters that need to be killed nearby? I think I want to give live combat a try with some potions. I…… want to see how my body reacts in a real fight." Shiro asked as Nan Tian paused and nodded his head.

  "There are. In one of the settlements that we’ve found and helped, there has been a report of an alpha dominating the forest near it and hunts have become harder for the survivors. They’ve just asked for some help not too long ago so I was thinking about giving this to Shiina. But if you want to undertake this you can."

  "Mn…… do we know what level it is?"

  "At least level 400 since it was forcing level 400’s out of the forest." Nan Tian replied.

  "Alright, 400 shouldn’t be too bad." Shiro nodded as they prepared to leave at dawn.

  ###

  Feeling refreshed after a good night’s sleep, Shiro yawned before going into the toilet to get changed.

  Putting on her main outfit that Aarim had created, she felt her breathing halt for a moment as she felt like she was dragged back to the moment when she stood in front of the watchman.

  ’It’s just an outfit, what am I getting scared for.’ Shiro berated herself as she took a deep breath and opened her eyes.

  Brushing her hair out of her face, she stared at the girl in the mirror and nodded her head.

  "It’s just a level 400. Even if it’s higher, it won’t be on the level of him. Just tough it out." She muttered to herself before leaving the toilet.

  "Did I wake you up?" Shiro asked as she saw Nan Tian standing besides the bed.

  "Mn, it’s fine though. I had to wake up soon anyway. Want to get something to eat before we leave?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.

  Going down to the food hall, she managed to catch sight of Yin and Lisandra who were preparing to retrieve one of the fragments that Yin needed.

  Apparently, it was located near one of the Queen’s settlements so they had to be careful.

  "Don’t worry mum, we’re not going to pick a fight. We’ve already pinpointed the fragment so it’s just a case of going there and retrieving it." Yin reassured as Shiro was worried about her safety.

  "It’s fine mum. The settlement is low importance and we’ve already done our research. There’s only one tier 6 guard in the settlement so I’m going with big sis just in case." Lisandra smiled as Shiro reluctantly nodded her head.

  "Fine. But any sign of danger and you must come back ok?"

  "I know mum. With Lisa coming along, even if we do get into a fight, not saying that we will, we should be fine." Yin grinned as she quickly finished her meal.

  "What about you mum? You seem like you’re getting ready for a fight yourself."

  "We’re going to go deal with a so called alpha monster that appeared near one of Madi’s settlements. I want to see how my body reacts to a real fight since it’s been so long. Hopefully I can fight like usual." Shiro smiled as Yin nodded her head.

  "I think it’ll be fine as long as you don’t destroy the forest since the people there might be in trouble if you do." Yin smiled.

  "Do I look like I- never mind. Taking into account what happened to Frost Giant’s Pass, I suppose it’s normal for you to worry. But it’s fine, I won’t be trying to change the landscape." Shiro chuckled.

  Talking to Yin and Lisandra for a little longer, they made their way towards the teleport hall.

  Nan Tian camouflaged them so that the citizens of Asharia didn’t see the two of them.

  Seeing how relaxed they were, Shiro couldn’t help but smile since her city was serving its purpose and keeping the people here happy.

  "Ready?" Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.

  Stepping through the portal, Shiro saw that they were teleported to a similar building with the same style of architecture but it wasn’t created from nanotech.

  "Just to keep things consistent, we had some sculptures and builders make sure each teleport hall at the settlements looked similar to the one in Asharia." Nan Tian explained.

  Looking around, Shiro could see that this city or rather, settlement, was called Brila. Most of the people here seemed like beast folk with a few demon guards keeping the peace.

  "The alpha is rumoured to be in the western forest not too far from the city. If we spend around 5 minutes travelling at a decent pace with our speed, we should be able to find it."

  "Let’s do that then. It’s better to get rid of it early than delay things." Shiro smiled.

  Nodding his head, Nan Tian used his mana to help Shiro fly as the two of them departed for the western forest.

  Closing his eyes, he gave the entire forest a quick scan as it wasn’t too difficult to locate the ’alpha’ considering there was one huge mana signal deep in the forest. All of the monsters were running from that signal so the chances of it being the alpha that was ruining things was 100%.

  Even without using her mana sense, Shiro could tell where the monster was since there was a decent amount of blood l.u.s.t coming from the centre of the forest. Unless one can conceal their blood l.u.s.t completely, it’ll be hard to evade her notice.

  "I found it. I can take it from here." Shiro smiled, pulling out a potion.

  "Mn, I will watch from the sky. Give me a signal if you need me." Nan Tian said as Shiro nodded her head.

  The moment she let go of his sleeve, she drank the potion and mana flooded her body.

  Feeling revitalised, Shiro stomped down and dashed towards the source of the blood l.u.s.t at breakneck speed.

  Weaving through the trees with ease, she flexed her fingers and summoned her treasured sword.

  "It’s been a while since I’ve last held you in battle." Shiro muttered seeing the rainbow grade sword that had followed her and evolved over time.

  Seeing the sun reflect off the blade, she smiled before narrowing her eyes.

  Activating boundary, she immediately sensed the monster that she was hunting.

  It was a draconic monster that had two bulky arms rather than wings and a long spiked tail that was buried partially underground.

  Upon sensing her presence, the monster’s head snapped towards her direction as Shiro frowned for a moment.

  ’It’s dead?’ She thought in surprise since she couldn’t sense any aura from it. Despite having bloodl.u.s.t, the monster didn’t have any aura.

  Closing her eyes, she activated analysis as the world around her lost its colour and was deconstructed into wires.

  "Ah…… so it was a parasite. That makes sense." Shiro nodded.

  Immediately halting her charge and taking a step back, a giant bone spike erupted out from the ground in front of her as she grabbed it with her hand.

  Breathing out a mouthful of cold air, she narrowed her eyes.

  *KRRRR!!!

  Freezing the bone in an instant, ice started to travel up the tail as the monster quickly broke off the frozen parts.

  Seeing the lack of blood and the dried flesh, Shiro understood that the corpse must have been around for a while.

  Letting go of the bone, she walked towards the monster as each step she took would cause the ground to freeze around her.

  Snapping her fingers, snowflakes started to fall.

  *KRRR!!!

  Exploding into large ice spikes upon contact with the monster, it quickly wrapped itself with bone to protect its body.

  Seeing that it has taken a defensive stance, Shiro raised her eyebrow.

  Trying to defend against her was kind of useless especially since her sword ignored 80% of all armour. However, against this monster, even without the sword, she would be fine.

  Dashing forward, she pulled her arm back and punched the bone.

  *CRACK!!!

  Shattering it with a single punch, Shiro dismissed the sword and ripped a hole towards the centre.

  Narrowing her eyes at the living corpse that turned towards her, Shiro shook her head.

  "I figured that you’d put up more of a fight. What a waste of my time." Shiro clicked her tongue as she aimed her palm at the monster.

  Before it could even scream, a pillar of ice exploded out, crushing, freezing, then shattering its body into dust.

  Brushing the dust off her shoulder, Shiro made her way back to Nan Tian.

  "It doesn’t seem like I have any problems with a normal fight. My senses are normal and even if the parasite tries to hide from me, I can still find it." Shiro shrugged as she snapped her finger.

  Off in the distance, Nan Tian could see an array of blades exploding out.

  "That’s good news then." He smiled.

  "Mn, I suppose my main source of fear is the watchman. Unless I’m fighting against him, I shouldn’t have any problems fighting. Though I’ll just be on a time limit." Shiro shrugged.

  "We can work on that over time." Nan Tian smiled.

  Nodding her head, Shiro did a small stretch before glancing towards the settlement that Madison set up.

  "Do you want to shop around with me for a bit? Maybe pick out a dress or two for both Yin and Lisandra." Shiro offered with a smile.

  "I don’t see why not. Their selection might not be as good as Asharia but it’s the thought that counts." Nan Tian nodded his head.

  Spending a few hours shopping for some gifts for her two daughters, Shiro teleported back to Asharia with Nan Tian.

  It wasn’t hard to find both Yin and Lisandra since they were having a small celebration in the food hall.

  "Welcome back mum, how was the fight?" Yin asked as she pulled Shiro to the table.

  "It was a bit boring. What about your task?"

  "Easy as pie. Just one more fragment to go and I’ll be able to reach tier 6 as well." Yin grinned as Shiro patted her head.

  "We’ll I’ve brought back some gifts for both of you." Shiro smiled.

  Pulling out the dresses, Shiro handed them to the girls before pulling out another box. It was finely decorated with a small ribbon.

  "Of course, I also brought back a local delicacy since I figured that you might like it." Shiro smiled.

  Seeing this, Yin smiled happily and gave Shiro a hug.

  Spending some time with Yin and Lisandra, Shiro enjoyed the rest of her day before returning to her room.

  "Right then, I suppose I should try to make the magic circle a few times before I sleep since I’m not feeling tired." Shiro smiled, pulling out a few bottles of the mana potions.