"ARG!!" Crying out in shock, blood poured out of Rialinâs mouth as she tried to turn her head back to see her assailant.
However, before she could even see her face, Shiro quickly ducked down and kicked the handle of the sword with her heel.
*PUSHI!
Tearing out a chunk of her neck and some bone, Rialinâs head was barely attached to her body thanks to the remaining skin and flesh.
Seeing as how her regeneration doesnât seem to heal the wound, Shiro knew that Rialin was going to die but wasnât going to take any chances.
Grabbing her spear from the portal, she twisted her body and pierced her skull, ripping the head from the body.
As blood dripped onto the floor, Shiro quickly grabbed Rialinâs body and pulled it further into the tent. Making herself two orbs, she sent one of them flying out of the camp as she made sure that no one had spotted the flying object.
It didnât take too long for the orb to make its way out of the base as she teleported out before anyone could enter the tent and find out what had happened.
Sliding along the ground slightly, she looked back at the base and saw that a few of the soldiers seemed to be panicking.
âGood job I got out of there quickly.â Shiro thought to herself as she looked down at Rialinâs decapitated head and body.
Noticing a golden marking on her hand that seemed to glow with Celestial Energy, Shiro traced her fingers along the marking with curiosity.
Just as she did this, the marking jumped from Rialinâs hand onto her own as she gritted her teeth from the searing pain she could feel. It was as if someone had grabbed a hot piece of iron and just stabbed it through her hand.
âDamn, the Celestial Gauntlets is a pain in the ass to fight against and itâs also a pain in the ass to have.â She thought with a frown.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro tried to ignore the pain while checking for anything else that could be useful on Rialinâs corpse.
Unfortunately, Rialin didnât hold much else aside from a few encoded notes. Storing them in her pocket, she was going to decode them later with Kuromi.
"Now then, what to do with this head of hers." Shiro muttered while swinging the head around as if it was a bola.
Thinking about it for a moment, she had a great idea as it would no doubt push the battle forward. However, sheâd only see the results of her idea tomorrow morning when they all see what she had done.
Chuckling softly, she made her way back towards Teriu since her job here is now done. She wasnât going to examine the gauntlets just yet because she was a little too close to the enemy base for her liking. If they suddenly surrounded her and stopped her from leaving, she would be done for.
As for Rialinâs corpse, she left the headless body where she had teleported and took the head with her.
On her way back to Teriu, she noticed the pain in her hand fade as a connection of sorts was made from the gauntlets to her reservoir.
Much like how her pseudo strand acted, this connection could tap into her reservoir despite her having only one soul strand.
Realising that this meant that she could use her energy without worry of running out too quickly, as long as it was through the gauntlet, Shiro couldnât help but grin when she imagined the kind of chaos she could create with this kind of power.
âIâll do some testing with this gauntlet before the battle if I can. It would be quite awkward if I didnât know how to use this weapon once the fighting begins.â Shiro thought to herself as she increased her speed.
Once she arrived at Teriu, she sneaked past the guards and entered the base closest to the wall.
"Iâm home~" Shiro called out with a grin as Kuromi popped her head out from the corner.
"Welcome back. Considering your tone of voice, Iâd say the mission was pretty successful." Kuromi smiled.
"Yup. Iâve also brought a souvenir." Shiro grinned while pointing at the severed head.
"Peachy. Any reason as to why youâve brought it back?" Kuromi asked.
"Basically, Iâm thinking of hanging this head just outside the main gates once night settles. When morning arrives, sh*t will go down." Shiro replied with a grin.
"I see... Delightful. Setting that aside for now, I can assume youâve also retrieved the Celestial gauntlets since youâve killed her right?"
"Sure did. I havenât brought the gauntlets out yet since I donât know how to do that. All I know is that it has something to do with this tattoo of sorts that I now have on the back of my hand." Shiro replied while showing Kuromi the mark.
Taking a moment to examine the mark, Kuromi couldnât help but raise her eyebrow and ask Shiro about what she felt.
Taking a moment to explain everything she knew, Shiro waited for Kuromiâs response.
"Hmm... If thatâs the case, then things should work normally if you activate Celestial Raiment with the gauntlets acting as the âpseudo strandâ. With this, I think your energy consumption would return back to normal." Kuromi smiled.
"Yup. And you know what that means." Shiro grinned.
"Yes, I do. You can fight to your heartâs content without worrying about running out of energy too soon." Kuromi chuckled.
"Bingo."
"But to do that, youâll need to make sure that you can actually use the gauntlet. So, before night falls and you go off and hang the head on the wall, weâll do some experiments to see how you would use the gauntlet." Kuromi suggested as she brought out a brand-new notepad.
"Damn, youâve managed to get another one already!? How many have you gone through now?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"I think Iâve gone through 20 notepads or so? I havenât really been keeping track. If you need to know though, I can count them for you now and tell you how many Iâve filled up." Kuromi replied.
"No thatâs fine, I was just curious." Shiro shook her head.
For the next few hours, they experimented on trying to activate the gauntlet. Much like the Celestial Spear, the gauntlets needed to be âchargedâ. Thankfully, the gauntlets werenât damaged so this should have been an easy step.
Unfortunately, it would actually take triple the amount of energy to activate her Celestial Raiment through the gauntlets since it needed her energy to materialise itself. The moment she activates her Celestial Raiment, itâll take all the energy from the gauntlets and forces it to deactivate. And with it being the one to activate her armour, it cancels each other out.
Realising that this meant she could only pick one or the other and not both at the same time, Shiro couldnât help but sigh in disappointment.
"Well we have only just begun our experiments. Iâm sure that if you give me a few days, I can probably find a way for you to use your armour with the gauntlets at the same time while making sure the energy cost is low." Kuromi comforted after seeing Shiro acting âdownâ.
"Mn. Itâs fine, I can probably vent my frustrations in tomorrowâs battle when I punch my fist through someoneâs cranium with the gauntlet." Shiro shrugged.
"Grim. But when were you not grim?" Kuromi chuckled.
"Very true. Anyways, itâs pretty late now so I think itâs a perfect chance for me to hang this head on the city wall now." Shiro smiled while gesturing to the head sitting on the table.
"Mn, I know you probably know already but be careful to not be spotted and donât force it if things are unfavourable."
"Well I suppose itâs nice to hear you say it as well. Iâll be right back." Shiro waved her hand slightly before taking the head.
"Take care."
Leaving the base, Shiro started to sneak towards the main gates while vision was low in the dead of night. Making sure that she avoided the patrols carefully, she soon arrived at the city walls.
âRight then, Iâll probably need to make sure that I hide the head on the wall until sunrise since thereâs a chance that they spot it too early. The best way is probably to hide the head using my shadows. Since itâs night, I have natural resources to help me so I wouldnât need to use too much energy.â She thought to herself before following the plan. Hanging the head so that it was easy to spot, she flicked her wrist and controlled the shadows so that it would hide the head.
Unless one brought a torch directly beside the head, they wouldnât see it in this kind of darkness.
Giggling softly, she couldnât wait to see their reactions when the sun rises.