The moment her nanobots came into contact with the black aura, Shiro felt her shock go through her body. A dark presence trying to grip at her heart which disappeared quickly.

  Taking a step back, Shiro had cold sweat down her back.

  "Are you ok?" Nan Tian asked as he quickly rushed over.

  "Mn, I just didn’t expect this kind of reaction from the aura. I’ll need to take some special precautions when it comes to tracking her down." Shiro replied as she didn’t attempt to collect the sample a second time.

  Instead, she conjured up several pillars around the sample and scanned it as it is. That way, it didn’t attack her again.

  Scanning the sample, she discovered that the aura of the Shadow Empress was highly volatile. The moment you come into contact with the tracks, the corruption will attempt to forcefully make you fall.

  Since she had been close to falling a few times, Shiro had built up a small resistance that allowed her to forcefully break from whatever tried to make her fall. Otherwise, she might been feeling the effects of the corruption.

  Activating the Argus Satellite system, she started to track down where the aura originated from.

  Closing her eyes, she could see a trail leading towards the south. Zooming in, she spotted a faint figure flickering through the shadows.

  The moment she focused on her, the woman snapped her head up and made eye contact with Shiro.

  ’What a sharp sixth sense. It’s not any worse than mine.’ Shiro thought to herself.

  {You might want to be extra careful with this one. She doesn’t feel like a fallen should. It’s more…… volatile. Not sure what to think of this but keep your guard up.} Nimue warned as Shiro nodded her head.

  Before she could even look to track down the Shadow Empress, Shiro felt her aura flare up as the shadows around them started to move.

  "Stay away from the shadows!" Shiro called out as the three of them jumped into the air.

  Watching all of the shadows in the forest swell up before transforming into a giant beast with a woman appeared on the head, Shiro couldn’t help but feel a headache appearing since coming into contact with this beast is advised against. The moment you do, there was a chance of being invaded by a dark presence that tries to make you fall.

  Looking at the woman, Shiro could see long flowing black hair and a pair of purple eyes that bore into her.

  [Niphim LVL 990 Fallen Empress of Shadows]

  "Are you trying stop my goal as well?" Niphim asked as the size of the monster beneath her continued to grow, fusing with all of the shadows within this forest.

  "What is your goal? For an Empress to fall, the goal is surely something rather difficult to accomplish." Shiro asked as she gestured for both Nan Tian and Khionah to prepare for combat but hold for now.

  "My goal…… my goal…… what is my goal?" Niphim muttered as she clutched her head.

  "That’s right…… my goal, the Raven bastard. He’s in the south…… I must kill the Raven bastard. Don’t get in my way." Niphim gritted her teeth as hundreds of black tentacles shot out of the ground.

  Widening her eyes, Shiro slammed her hands together.

  Remembering the hexagonal pattern that created the strongest shield, she forced her mana to condense into thick pieces of ice that slammed against the ground.

  *BANG!!!!

  As the tentacles collided with the ice, they started to freeze immediately as ice travelled towards Niphim.

  "Try not to kill her just yet. If she’s talking about Ravens, it could be the strange figure that’s been calling himself the merchant. He’s a variable that we need to deal with so having her help would be good!" Shiro shouted out while Nan Tian and Khionah spread out.

  "Wait, she wants to kill him?! Before we had our non aggression agreement, he had been trying to get me to use a percentage of my authority to purchase his offers. I’m not sure what his goal is but he’s been collecting authorities from other Queens." Khionah shouted out as Shiro furrowed her brows.

  If she remembered correctly, Authority of a Queen is what allows them to place down more anchors, absorb some power from her followers and improve their strength. It is also what lets their element stand above the rest.

  ’If the merchant has been collecting these authorities then is he trying to gain all of their powers?’ Shiro thought with a frown.

  {Maybe but right now the problem is Niphim. She’s out of her mind right now.} Nimue warned as the ice started to corrode.

  Dropping the shield, Shiro condensed an orb of energy in her hand and threw it in the air above this giant monster that Niphim had created.

  "Nan Tian!" Shiro shouted out as Nan Tian nodded his head.

  Aiming his palm toward the sky, mana gathered around him as a tier 6 magic circle appeared, stacking on top of one another. Once enough energy was gathered, he slammed his hand down as a pillar of light descended from the heavens.

  Activating her own orb of energy, a giant layer of ice appeared as the uneven surface started to refract the light from Nan Tian’s attack, splitting one ray into thousands.

  *TSS!!!!

  Seeing the monster being burnt by the attack, Khionah admired the strength of these two and wondered what she could do.

  Closing her eyes, she curled her lips into a grin. If anything, she can limit how many shadows are in the forest.

  Copying from Shiro’s idea of refracting light, Khionah clasped her two hands together, creating thousands of ice shards throughout the forest.

  Focusing the light of the sun into the forest, she illuminated it as much as possible, erasing a large majority of the shadows.

  Suddenly, the beast started to shrink as Niphim frowned.

  Clicking her tongue with annoyance, she pushed her hand out and two portals appeared.

  Black mist flowed out of the portal, covering the forest and letting her monster recover its original size.

  Before Shiro or Nan Tian could attack her, her figure faded into the darkness on the monsters back.

  "She left." Shiro frowned as her speed in the shadows was extremely fast. Since she was still travelling to the south, she wanted to avoid another confrontation if possible. Let her and the Raven Merchant fight one another.

  However, they still needed to deal with this monster in front of them.

  Judging by its size which is slowly decreasing now that Niphim has left, Shiro knew that it would disappear in due time. But the longer it stayed, the more corruption it brought to the world. The forest that was peaceful had now almost completely wilted with the ground drained of nutrients. Black wood and cracked earth.

  "Let’s back off for a bit. I have my tracker on the Empress so I can keep an eye on her. If the monster loses its targets, it should calm down and slowly disappear." Shiro said as she camouflaged the three of them.

  Watching the monster stay in the same place, Shiro sighed in relief.

  "How are we supposed to deal with her? Any direct contact and she’ll try to corrupt us. Even though it was small, I definitely felt it trying to make me fall when I attacked." Nan Tian asked as Shiro nodded her head.

  She felt it too.

  "I don’t know but we’ll have to let the Raven Merchant sort it out. The best case scenario would be killing the two of them at once. But if we can help Niphim break out of her fallen status, that would be good as well. If it does get down to it, I don’t mind using a charge of my skill to ask the system about this." Shiro said as Nan Tian nodded his head.

  Once the monster completely disintegrated, Shiro looked at the destroyed land and shook her head.

  Waving her hand, mana flared from her body as she was going to repair this place. Revitalise everything and clear the effects of the corruption.

  With her resistance, this should be an easy task when also paired with some divine energy.

  Slowly, the dull grass regained its lush green colour, the leaves appeared once more and the tree’s had their wood repaired. Any signs of the monster ever being here disappeared and the forest regained it’s previous lustre.

  ###

  Meanwhile, wandering around in a temple, a figure paused in his steps and his lips curled up.

  "One…… no, three people. Three people are after my head today. So lively…… I should pack up before they arrive otherwise it might be rather embarrassing, displaying my experiments like this." He chuckled darkly as he walked up to one of the Queens strapped to a table.

  Her eyes were dull and her body was surgically opened. A strange crystal could be seen being attached to her inside while the flesh started to pulse.

  There wasn’t just one Queen either, if one was to look behind her, there were a few being hung up by hooks, having their body opened up from the middle.

  Opening his mouth, the Raven Merchant pulled something out before placing it inside the Queen’s body. Suddenly, her eyes flickered back to life as he started to sew the opening shut.