"Hey. I know you're already awake." Shiro muttered to the bracelet on his arm. "I will be intruding anyways."
He delicately created an entrance to the 'space' inside his [Tail Gear] using his authorities. He had done so in a stealthy way, allowing him to not alert the world of this anomaly. He had used so much of his power in the last few days, which is why he now has a higher chance of alerting the will. He did not suffer from some exhaustion problems, however, thanks to his materialized soul. That made him far incomparable to his previous self that always gets injured by overexerting himself.
In a blink of an eye, he found himself in a void. Nothingness is prevalent here save for the humanoid figure in front of him. She looks just like before. She has a mix of black and white in her hair. Her heterochronic red-blue pupils lit with a light of wisdom, unlike before. He saw her, the artifact spirit, carefully assessing him.
"Done looking?"
"Yes."
The artifact spirit nodded with a stoic look. Shiro is all too familiar with this behavior as this is how he usually acted as the Magus.
"You copied not only my appearance but my mannerisms too?"
"That is not wrong. In the first place, your existence allowed me to be made." She replied. "Shall I call you 'Master'?"
"We do not need those formalities here. Feel free to call me as you like."
"Understood, Master."
"Why did you even ask me..?"
"I thought you like free choice?"
The artifact spirit continued to spout reasonable replies that left Shiro speechless. It is supposed to be a clone, but why does it feel that she is even more troublesome than him?
"Anyways... Before we go into the other things, do you have a name?"
"No. Do I need it? We are the same."
Hearing this, Shiro corrected her:
"You do. You indeed share the same traits as me, but we are fundamentally different."
"Just like how an original and a copy are not the same."
"Exactly."
Due to her inheriting most of Shiro's traits, she is quite to catch on. She has the same analyzing eyes as him, and her overall vibe is similar to him, too. Just as how he knew how her mind works, she knew how his work. She is simply a mirror image of him, save for his uniquenesses.
"Please do not give me boring names such as 'Kuro'."
"...Well. Alright." He thought for a while before continuing, "How about Nichiro? It's a derivation from my name. It also has the double meaning of 'sun'. Sounds cool, no?"
"It does. Nichiro..."
(A/N: 'Ni' means 'two' and 'chiro' is the derivation of 'Shiro'. Its base meaning is 'two Shiro' or in this case, '2nd Shiro'.)
Shiro saw her contemplate for a while before nodding with a look of satisfaction.
"Let's talk about business now." Nichiro said. "First, I do not have your complete memories."
"Figures."
When Shiro knew the existence of this artifact spirit, he wondered if she could copy the memories that he is still regaining. Turns out, she can only have the memories that he 'remembers'.
"Second, I can provide help to that destined battle. Now that I am here, the final function of the tail gear was unlocked. The Goddess Chain."
The final form that one could ever achieve with this gear. It surpasses the 'Ultimate Chain', the form that allowed Shiro to leap straight to the Ancient-class and obliterate every single Incubators and their civilizations. Most of its capabilities are unknown, but it will undeniably be of huge help.
"I can only acquire the corresponding information once you enter that state. All that I can do is help you. As for the consequences, they would not be that bad. With your materialized soul, it is enough to prevent any accidents that could happen. Like last time."
"How about you?" Shiro asked.
"I would not be affected much. You should worry more about yourself."
As the artifact spirit of the gear, she would exist as long as the tail gear is not broken; which is something nearly impossible to happen.
"Third, I arrived at the same conclusion that you did. That girl, Altair, is the biggest anomaly in this world. She could have the full strength of a Beyond Creator-class. If she does, anything that you do would be ineffective."
"...I see. I've been saving that for the worst-case scenario, but it seems that I would need to act with this in mind."
Upon seeing Altair's state, he immediately knew that she would be no lower than a Creator-class. The ability to override reality and interfere with something such as Excalibur surprised him greatly. He knew that the Excalibur in Salter's hands are real. It is not a copy or an imitation made by some power. Clearing four of its seals without following the restrictions placed by Gaia is an unheard-of feat.
"You also need to know something."
"Hm?"
"That girl. She looks just like the previous me. If she is a creation without a story, think about how empty would she be. This point might be helpful."
"...Thanks."
After their business, Shiro saw that Nichiro is about to kick him out of her space. He could resist this, but he is sensible enough to know that she wants her privacy. Hence, he left quietly.
"You need to succeed, Sh-Master."
Nichiro possessed a small number of memories that Shiro had not. These memories are not simple ones but the portion that came from his planning time with Fenrir. These memories are extremely fragmented and would not make any sense, but she managed to deduce the general idea behind them.
"Else, everything will be for naught..."
*****
In a different place.
"You."
"You..."
Two women faced off in the dilapidated park in Shinto Town. It is where the Fuyuki Fire occurred, so it carried a hint of gloominess. People avoided going here due to this reason. However, it is different today. The level of gloominess and chill in this place spiked to other levels.
"Fu..."
Castoria breathed out to relieve her instinctual hate towards the woman in front of her, the White Titan. She is responsible for the destruction of the world and the main dilemma behind her world. If that did not happen, Castoria and the other faes would have lived a different path where they are not misled by those whom she calls "irresponsible fuckers".
"I'm curious. How did you bypass everything? It's not like those two would allow you to be here."
"They did not. I forced my way through here."
"...I knew it."
With Altera's authority focusing on destruction, only she could pull this off. The other women specialized in other fields which is why Castoria knew that Altera is the other one who could arrive in this place.
"Where is Shiro?"
"He's doing a mission."
"A mission. Is it from that 'Chat Group'?"
"Un. With its time dilution, perhaps an entire day is enough for him to come back."
A day. Usually, a mission would only last for about a minute to an entire hour in real life. As for the reason why she arrived at this conclusion...
"I could not see anything about his recent future. Not even any parallel possibilities exist. It could only mean that he had arrived at a crucial node."
Crucial node. That's how Shiro termed it during their talks back then. They are the points in time where he would regain a good portion of his strength. Shiro set that up to recover faster in his fourth life, to protect himself better.
"A crucial node."
"Hey. I know you're already awake." Shiro muttered to the bracelet on his arm. "I will be intruding anyways."
He delicately created an entrance to the 'space' inside his [Tail Gear] using his authorities. He had done so in a stealthy way, allowing him to not alert the world of this anomaly. He had used so much of his power in the last few days, which is why he now has a higher chance of alerting the will. He did not suffer from some exhaustion problems, however, thanks to his materialized soul. That made him far incomparable to his previous self that always gets injured by overexerting himself.
In a blink of an eye, he found himself in a void. Nothingness is prevalent here save for the humanoid figure in front of him. She looks just like before. She has a mix of black and white in her hair. Her heterochronic red-blue pupils lit with a light of wisdom, unlike before. He saw her, the artifact spirit, carefully assessing him.
"Done looking?"
"Yes."
The artifact spirit nodded with a stoic look. Shiro is all too familiar with this behavior as this is how he usually acted as the Magus.
"You copied not only my appearance but my mannerisms too?"
"That is not wrong. In the first place, your existence allowed me to be made." She replied. "Shall I call you 'Master'?"
"We do not need those formalities here. Feel free to call me as you like."
"Understood, Master."
"Why did you even ask me..?"
"I thought you like free choice?"
The artifact spirit continued to spout reasonable replies that left Shiro speechless. It is supposed to be a clone, but why does it feel that she is even more troublesome than him?
"Anyways... Before we go into the other things, do you have a name?"
"No. Do I need it? We are the same."
Hearing this, Shiro corrected her:
"You do. You indeed share the same traits as me, but we are fundamentally different."
"Just like how an original and a copy are not the same."
"Exactly."
Due to her inheriting most of Shiro's traits, she is quite to catch on. She has the same analyzing eyes as him, and her overall vibe is similar to him, too. Just as how he knew how her mind works, she knew how his work. She is simply a mirror image of him, save for his uniquenesses.
"Please do not give me boring names such as 'Kuro'."
"...Well. Alright." He thought for a while before continuing, "How about Nichiro? It's a derivation from my name. It also has the double meaning of 'sun'. Sounds cool, no?"
"It does. Nichiro..."
(A/N: 'Ni' means 'two' and 'chiro' is the derivation of 'Shiro'. Its base meaning is 'two Shiro' or in this case, '2nd Shiro'.)
Shiro saw her contemplate for a while before nodding with a look of satisfaction.
"Let's talk about business now." Nichiro said. "First, I do not have your complete memories."
"Figures."
When Shiro knew the existence of this artifact spirit, he wondered if she could copy the memories that he is still regaining. Turns out, she can only have the memories that he 'remembers'.
"Second, I can provide help to that destined battle. Now that I am here, the final function of the tail gear was unlocked. The Goddess Chain."
The final form that one could ever achieve with this gear. It surpasses the 'Ultimate Chain', the form that allowed Shiro to leap straight to the Ancient-class and obliterate every single Incubators and their civilizations. Most of its capabilities are unknown, but it will undeniably be of huge help.
"I can only acquire the corresponding information once you enter that state. All that I can do is help you. As for the consequences, they would not be that bad. With your materialized soul, it is enough to prevent any accidents that could happen. Like last time."
"How about you?" Shiro asked.
"I would not be affected much. You should worry more about yourself."
As the artifact spirit of the gear, she would exist as long as the tail gear is not broken; which is something nearly impossible to happen.
"Third, I arrived at the same conclusion that you did. That girl, Altair, is the biggest anomaly in this world. She could have the full strength of a Beyond Creator-class. If she does, anything that you do would be ineffective."
"...I see. I've been saving that for the worst-case scenario, but it seems that I would need to act with this in mind."
Upon seeing Altair's state, he immediately knew that she would be no lower than a Creator-class. The ability to override reality and interfere with something such as Excalibur surprised him greatly. He knew that the Excalibur in Salter's hands are real. It is not a copy or an imitation made by some power. Clearing four of its seals without following the restrictions placed by Gaia is an unheard-of feat.
"You also need to know something."
"Hm?"
"That girl. She looks just like the previous me. If she is a creation without a story, think about how empty would she be. This point might be helpful."
"...Thanks."
After their business, Shiro saw that Nichiro is about to kick him out of her space. He could resist this, but he is sensible enough to know that she wants her privacy. Hence, he left quietly.
"You need to succeed, Sh-Master."
Nichiro possessed a small number of memories that Shiro had not. These memories are not simple ones but the portion that came from his planning time with Fenrir. These memories are extremely fragmented and would not make any sense, but she managed to deduce the general idea behind them.
"Else, everything will be for naught..."
*****
In a different place.
"You."
"You..."
Two women faced off in the dilapidated park in Shinto Town. It is where the Fuyuki Fire occurred, so it carried a hint of gloominess. People avoided going here due to this reason. However, it is different today. The level of gloominess and chill in this place spiked to other levels.
"Fu..."
Castoria breathed out to relieve her instinctual hate towards the woman in front of her, the White Titan. She is responsible for the destruction of the world and the main dilemma behind her world. If that did not happen, Castoria and the other faes would have lived a different path where they are not misled by those whom she calls "irresponsible fuckers".
"I'm curious. How did you bypass everything? It's not like those two would allow you to be here."
"They did not. I forced my way through here."
"...I knew it."
With Altera's authority focusing on destruction, only she could pull this off. The other women specialized in other fields which is why Castoria knew that Altera is the other one who could arrive in this place.
"Where is Shiro?"
"He's doing a mission."
"A mission. Is it from that 'Chat Group'?"
"Un. With its time dilution, perhaps an entire day is enough for him to come back."
A day. Usually, a mission would only last for about a minute to an entire hour in real life. As for the reason why she arrived at this conclusion...
"I could not see anything about his recent future. Not even any parallel possibilities exist. It could only mean that he had arrived at a crucial node."
Crucial node. That's how Shiro termed it during their talks back then. They are the points in time where he would regain a good portion of his strength. Shiro set that up to recover faster in his fourth life, to protect himself better.
"A crucial node."
