Coughing up a mouthful of blood, Shiro's body twitched in pain as she almost fell forward.

Before Hades or Kalus could help her, she forced herself to sit back up straight.

"I'm ready." Shiro said as she glanced at Hades.

Furrowing his brows, he could sense that her internals were completely in shambles. The fact that she was even alive was a miracle and that was coming from the god of death!

Placing his hand on her back, he started to inject his divine energy into her body.

Feeling the cooling sensation spread through her body, Shiro focused her mind towards that trail as her mana stopped circulating through her body.

For a being that essentially lives on mana, this was akin to taking out their lungs and trying to find new ones before they died without proper respiration. However, at this moment, Shiro's mind was solely focused on finding the source of her divine energy.

While this was happening, Nimue had sweat rolling down her face as she was repairing and maintaining the mana realm as best as she could. Even though she shouldn't heal the mana links right now, she could relieve the pain as well as the stress on Shiro's body.

But to do this, she was essentially acting as the medium. With all of Shiro's mana flowing into Nimue so that it didn't go rampant, it was surprising for Nimue to actually be able to focus on her task.

The ocean surrounding the islands was boiling right now as something akin to a natural disaster could be observed from Iziuel and Estrella's point of view.

While their faces were full of worry, Atesh waddled over to Nimue as he placed a hand on her back.

"Mn? What is it Attie? Your aunt here is doing something important." Nimue said with a forced smile.

But without saying anything, Attie only focused his mind as fire erupted out of him.

Arching through the air, the fire danced around for a moment before morphing into a giant tree which supported the roof of the mana realm.

Feeling reinvigorated, Nimue glanced at Attie in surprise as fire continued to erupt out without signs of stopping. Strangely enough, the fire did not burn anything at all. Instead, the islands seemed to blossom as even the ice island gave birth to what seemed to be ice flowers.

While Nimue didn't know what was happening, Iziuel knew since she had a connection to nature. Sensing the abundance of life energy within the fire, Iziuel was shocked since it was something that was similar to the world tree but it seemed to almost be more potent?

All of Shiro's mana that she had decided to cut off flowed into the two spirits as they worked to maintain her mana realm. Attie's flames continuously healed her body as the ambient mana was the fuel while Nimue made sure that everything was balanced as Attie's flames were still flames in the end. Too much and Shiro's body would still be in danger.

With both fire and water working side by side within Shiro's body, the pain from shattering her links slowly disappeared as her face relaxed.

While this was happening, Shiro's consciousness seemed to trace the divine energy into the deeper recesses of her soul.

The concept of time seemed to disappear as Shiro traced the energy. It was unknown when the scenery changed but by the time she had noticed the shift in scenery, the mana realm could no longer be seen. She was floating in the middle of a void as trails of light seemed to disappear in this spot.

"It's rather empty right now isn't it?" A voice rang out as Shiro quickly turned back in shock.

Seeing Kuromi walk past her with a smile, Shiro's eyes teared up as she immediately hugged her.

"Pft haha, we haven't met for so long and you've actually become a cry baby." Kuromi smiled softly and stroked Shiro's hair.

"Mn." Not denying this, Shiro continued to hug as she refused to let go of her in fear of losing her again.

"If you keep hugging me like this I won't be able to breathe." Kuromi laughed as Shiro glanced up from Kuromi's bosom.

"But what if you disappear." Shiro asked as there were still tears in her eyes.

Seeing Shiro act this way, Kuromi's heart softened as she stroked Shiro's hair.

"It's alright. We're in the deepest parts of our soul right now I won't be going anywhere any time soon. Plus, even Nytri is here." Kuromi glanced back as Shiro could see a lonesome figure sitting with an absent expression.

Glancing towards the two, she only waved her hand slightly before staying silent.

Seeing this, Shiro remembered how antisocial she was when she reached tier 6 because she had killed her best friend. But after finding out that Isilia was still around, Shiro's guilt soon became relief as she could see her again.

"Are you ok?" Shiro didn't know why she had asked that question but it was as if something inside her soul wanted her to ask her past self.

Glancing towards Shiro, Nytri smiled sadly.

"I don't know. I'm lost." Nytri shook her head as Shiro furrowed her brows.

Glancing back as Kuromi, Shiro bit her lip as she didn't want to leave her embrace just yet.

"Let's go together." Kuromi chuckled.

Walking towards Nytri, the two sat down next to her.

"So where are we?" Shiro asked while glancing around her.

"I don't know but I would argue that this seems to be where the divine energy is being kept." Kuromi shrugged while poking Nytri's cheeks.

Glancing to the side, Nytri ignored this and looked at Shiro.

"Are you happy?" She asked which confused Shiro but she nodded her head.

"I am. I got family and friends. Times are tough but they're not bad." Shiro replied with a smile.

Hearing this, Nytri smiled but it wasn't a sad smile like before.

"That's good." Nytri chuckled.

"So I'm the third incarnation then?" Shiro asked as there were only three of them here. Nytri the Nanomancer, Kuromi the eldest daughter of the Asakura clan and now Shiro the Demi God.

"Yes you are. I suppose you're like a fusion of us two." Kuromi said while resting her chin on Nytri's shoulder.

"But at the same time you're you. The three of us are similar to separate entities but we are the same person." Nytri smiled.

"Mn so why are we here then?" Shiro asked.

"Because you wanted to find the source of your divine energy no? You followed the trail and you found this place." Kuromi smiled.

"But before we do anything else, can I ask you something lil sis?" Kuromi asked as Shiro nodded her head.

"Are you able to give me up?" Kuromi asked with a somewhat sad smile.

"Eh?" Hearing this, Shiro felt as though her heart stopped.

"We're the past now and you have to look towards the future. Just like how you were able to give me up, you have to learn to give up Kuromi too. We're your foundations I suppose. You can't keep clutching to us. You used to rely on me, Nytri, but you've outgrown that now. You've learned to depend on the you who is Shiro rather than Nytri of the past." Nytri said as Kuromi nodded.

"And now you need to do the same with me." Kuromi finished as Shiro didn't know what to say.

"So I can't bring you back?" Shiro asked as tears welled up again.

"Unfortunately no. There can't be two of the same person at once. If there are two, one must 'die'. The only reason we could talk before was because of the special circ.u.mstances in the quest. You need to grow up and learn to give up on things Shiro." Kuromi sighed as it pained her to see Shiro continuously pursue her revival even though it was impossible.

"But what if I don't want to give up on you." Shiro replied stubbornly.

"So stubborn." Nytri smiled as Kuromi agreed.

"What can we even do if you refuse to move on? I don't want to leave on a sour note." Kuromi smiled sadly as Shiro bit her lip. She understood that she had to move on.

She understood this for a while now. But she truly didn't want to give up on her big sis.

Holding back her tears, Shiro looked back at her two past incarnations.

"I'll become the strongest, I'll defeat all the queens, I won't give up. I'll live a proper life, I'll find Isilia and I'll protect the people I love. I won't let them suffer and I'll put an end to all of this. I won't disappoint the two of you." Shiro promised as she gritted her teeth. Despite wanting to hold back the tears they continued to pour as the realisation kicked in for Shiro.

This was going to be the final meeting between them as she understood where this was. This was the core of her soul. If these two disappear from here, they won't reappear.

"Good. We believe in you." Kuromi smiled as specks of light appeared in the void.

One by one, they lit up as Shiro broke past the only bottleneck that had been holding her back unconsciously.

Like a flicker of fire which came into contact with oil, divine energy erupted out as it rushed towards the mana realm…

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.