Chapter 703 Floating Archipelago

After their first incident with the assassins, Shiro continued to make her way to the tower.

Since she didn't make herself known, assassins didn't come after her as they didn't know of her location, letting her reach the tower with ease.

There were a few monsters that happened to be in her way while making her way over but they were dealt with easily.

After getting Nivlim, her fighting prowess had soared dramatically and allowed her to display powers similar to that of a mid to high end warrior with two divinities. Of course, she couldn't compare to them completely since their bodies have been reinforced but she was quite close if she took into account of the effects that her sword brings after consuming stacks.

She made a few short stops at some towns just so that she could fill her hunger a little but that was it.

Currently, she was just a little further from the City of Ouranos, a city that was specifically built around the Primordial tower.

Just because some people hadn't completed this in a long while doesn't mean people won't try. It was always their desire to see if they were different from the others. If they were that shining star in the sky that could turn the improbable into a reality.

Most of the time their hopes would be shattered or they die.

Landing a little further away from the city, Shiro looked up at the giant network of flying islands with wind tunnels and bridges connecting them to one another with the tower in the centre of this archipelago of floating islands.

"Where did you say the entrance of this tower was again?" Shiro asked as Quella's familiar flickered beside her.

[There are a few entrances and the higher you go, the less tests that you have to take. At the top of the tower, I believe there is only one test and it's the hardest one but it's the easiest in terms of your stamina. Because think of it like this, instead of going through test after test, your stamina would be continuously drained at an exorbitant pace but if you climb up the sides, you can still conserve some of that stamina.] Quella explained.

"There's a catch though isn't there?"

[Of course. After a certain distance, you will lose your power of flight and will have to climb up there by hand. The higher you go, the harder it is. When you feel like you can't go any higher, just put your hand against the surface of the tower and think about a door and it'll send you inside the trial at your current level.]

"Uff that's going to be rough." Shiro frowned while looking at the top of the tower that was far beyond the clouds.

[There's one more thing I want to tell you. Don't listen to the vendors when they try to sell you items to help you climb. The moment you use those items, the climb will be much harder.]

"Oh? And no one had thought of that?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.

[Nope. If they find something that could potentially help them climb higher, they will grasp onto it. While you may make some improvements to distance, the rest of the climb will increase in difficulty rendering the items useless.]

Hearing this, Shiro nodded her head and walked up to one of the air tunnels that led up to the floating islands.

Normally, she would want to stick around for a bit and find out a little more such as the armours or weapons that they used but she was already prepared so she didn't care about those kinds of things right now.

Landing on the cold stone pavement of the first island, Shiro saw a few guards glance towards her before looking forwards again.

Walking towards the wooden board with a map of the area/city, Shiro saw that she was on the first floating island called Iru.

The archipelago of floating islands had 7 large islands and quite a few small islands. Most of the smaller islands were used as housing while the large islands were stores and such. Naturally, there were also some houses here but they were most likely the most expensive since it was near the centre.

[While you go to the tower, I'll go talk to my sister for a bit.] Quella informed Shiro as she nodded her head.

"One of your sisters is here?"

[Of course she is. I have quite a few sisters and they look after libraries all over the world.] Quella replied.

"I see… just out of curiosity, how many sisters do you have?"

[Hmm… let's see… around 42, maybe 45? I forgot. I might have counted some of my sisters twice.]

Hearing that Quella had around 42 to 45 sisters, Shiro paused in shock and immediately felt pity for their mother.

She had never given birth herself so she didn't know the pain but she didn't need to know to understand that their mother must have been in so much torture to squeeze 42 babies out of her body.

[You must be wondering about my mother right? Well to be honest none of us sisters remember our mother. We just kind of appeared and understood that we were sisters.] Quella replied as she had seen Shiro's expression on many others when she told them about her family situation.

"Wait so you just… poofed into existence?" Shiro tilted her head.

[Somewhat.] Quella replied. Despite not seeing her, Shiro could guess that she had just shrugged.

[Anyways I'll go look for my sister now.]

Nodding her head, Shiro watched as Quella's familiar flew off into the distance.

Shaking her head slightly, Shiro looked for the closest island to the tower.

Seeing that it was the island called Ouros, clearly inspired by Ouranos, Shiro started to make her way to the island through a series of air tunnels.

She would occasionally glance around her to look at the scenery and saw that a few guards were patrolling around the islands with flight just in case someone fell off the edge despite barriers being built. People still get drunk up in the floating islands so they had to take care not to let anyone die in an accident.

Just as she was travelling through the air tunnels, Shiro saw two kids playing around then one of them tripped on their leg and slammed into one of the barriers.

"Ouch." Shiro couldn't help but pity the kid since that was a pretty loud slam. If the barriers weren't there, he would have fallen off the edge with that trip.

Seeing the kid stand back up and laugh, Shiro sighed softly and had a small smile on her face.

Looking up at the sky, she couldn't help but shake her head at the situation around Yin. She had grown up so fast in the span of a single year. From egg to a.d.u.l.t bird who could now cook.

Thinking about what life would be if Yin was a normal child, Shiro immediately dismissed that thought since she would have needed to abandon her if that was the case. She wouldn't have been able to look after her nor would she have been able to raise her properly with everything that's been going on.

While she may have missed out on raising Yin properly, she didn't mind as Yin could easily protect herself.

Remembering the Yin that she had seen in the future, Shiro smirked and couldn't wait to see her little girl grow up into a fully fledged a.d.u.l.t who didn't cause any trouble.

Picturing the smug Yin who ran into the rift whenever she said anything, Shiro shook her head.

As she was already thinking of a smug Yin, her mind couldn't help but drift off towards the thought of Tia.

Thinking back to the body of her biological daughter that she had inhabited for a short while, Shiro wondered why she would even give birth during the age of demons and gods.

Wondering about what she would even call her partner, Shiro furrowed her brows. She couldn't imagine herself acting shy while calling her partner by honey or darling. Just the thought brought shivers down her spine since it felt so weird for her.

She felt like she had to be top or else it'd feel off.

Thinking about such steamy thoughts in the middle of the day, Shiro couldn't help but blush and quickly shake her head.

'No lewd thoughts. Trial only.' She chanted to herself and made her way to the tower.