"Mn..." Groaning softly, Shiro opened her eyes and found herself beneath a black sky.
Furrowing her brows, Shiro tried to sit up straight but realised that she had no strength in her body.
"Donât force yourself. Your body has just finished âdigestingâ our power I suppose. Congrats, youâve become a proper demigod. Well... goddess." Nyx chuckled as Shiro glanced towards her.
Unlike the trial, Nyx was now here in the flesh which caused Shiro to furrow her brows.
"What about the trial?" She asked.
"Youâve passed it with flying colours." Nyx chuckled as Shiro sighed.
She wanted to say goodbye to Quella and the others if she could but it seems like her body was sent out of the trial after she was knocked unconscious.
"Ah by the way, are you able to do me a favour?" Shiro asked.
"Are you talking about Syruneâs wish?"
Nodding her head, Shiro watched as Nyx pulled up a chair and crossed her legs.
"You see, there is a slight problem with that. The creation of the forgotten realms makes it so that it is technically classed as a dungeon within the system. Freeing it means that the effects of the towers are spread to the world outside too which may cause quite a few problems especially Gaiaâs divinity. Plus, thereâs the additional problem of your world not being ready for a surplus of divine energy. Sending this world over would cause quite a few problems. Though overall the world there is probably safer than your world considering whatâs about to happen in the near future."
"I see... Is Syrune right though? That the sisters are souls taken from our world and used as caretakers in this one. Also, what is the purpose of the forgotten realm?" Shiro asked.
"To see if we can manually make a garden ourselves to keep the universe from ending. You know your garden is the last one right? And that once it fails the test the universe resets. We wanted to see if we could make one and that was the forgotten realms. The experiment was... rather unsuccessful so now we have a place which is technically regarded as a dungeon rather than a garden." Nyx shook her head.
"As for the sisters, yes itâs true that theyâre souls we extracted from other worlds."
Hearing this, Shiro sighed.
"If some of the sisters wanted to leave, would you let them?" Shiro asked.
"Itâs not up to me. Theyâre bound to this âdungeonâ. To leave, theyâll need to break out of the dungeon themselves. But once they leave, theyâll be classified as monsters by the system since they broke out of a dungeon."
"But youâre not saying itâs impossible now are you?" Shiro raised her eyebrow.
"Nope. Perhaps you can set them free once the age of demons and gods is over." Nyx chuckled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Is there a way for me to access this place again then?"
"There is but itâs a little harder now that youâre a demigod. Take this, you can store it in your inventory." Nyx smiled and handed her a golden key.
[Key to the Forgotten Realms]
"You can use this in the future once things have settled down a little. If you want, I can use a bit of my power so that I can project you into the world for a bit. That way you can say goodbye if you want." Nyx offered.
"That would be great. Itâll be quite rude for me not to say goodbye after their help." Shiro chuckled while storing the key away.
"Close your eyes." Nyx instructed as Shiro nodded her head.
Closing her eyes, she could feel Nyxâs energy enter her body as her vision shifted.
"ÂŁ%$^%$!!! Holy crap!" Quella suddenly jumped up as Shiro appeared in front of her out of nowhere.
"Shiro?" She asked curiously.
"Sup." Shiro waved her hand.
"Ah so youâre still alive. You had me worried you know!" Quella pouted as some tears could be seen on the edge of her eyes.
When Shiro collapsed, her body started to disperse into gold flickers of light and there wasnât anything that she could have done to stop it from happening. She thought that Shiro had died which didnât seem to be the case so she could rest with ease now.
"Mn sorry about that. I didnât really have a say in whether or not I wanted to leave this place just yet. But Nyx is kind enough to let me say goodbye to you girls." Shiro chuckled.
"Youâre going back to your world huh?" Quella sighed.
"Mn, I have to." Shiro nodded.
"I see... Will you visit us often?" Quella asked.
"Iâll try. I got a key that allows me to access this realm but Nyx said that itâll be a bit harder now that Iâm a demigod." Shiro chuckled.
"Hais, making me go insane even with a goodbye. So youâre a demigod now?"
"Yup." Shiro grinned.
"Is there a tower for your divinity? I hope not since Iâll want to tug my hair out at the things people would do with your power." Quella chuckled.
"Please donât, youâll go bald." Shiro laughed.
"Baldness is the least of my concerns with you around." Quella rolled her eyes.
"Haha, perhaps. As for a tower for my divinity, Iâm not sure but I doubt it." Shiro shrugged.
"Do you know your divinity then?" Quella asked.
"I do but itâs kind of hard to describe it. Basically, Iâm able to make anything I want as long as I understand it properly. Remember the swarm of tiny silver things that appeared when I made some weapon and attacked the Ancient Terror?"
"Yeah what about them?"
"Theyâre called nanobots and itâs what allows me to create anything I want.
"So youâre basically the goddess of creation now?" Quella raised her eyebrow.
"I wouldnât go that far since I canât create proper life just yet. Maybe in the future." Shiro shook her head.
"I donât like the fact that you put a âyetâ in your sentence. Have you got a title then demi goddess?" Quella laughed.
"I donât."
"And here I was thinking that I should have someone make a statue of you with your name and title carved into the base like the other statues we have of the primordial gods." Quella smiled.
"Well you can just put Shiro â DemiGoddess of Machines or Machine DemiGoddess I suppose." Shiro shrugged since she still remembered that she had a âcultâ of people who worshipped her as the Machine Goddess back in her old world.
"Iâll keep that in mind then."
"Where is Tricia and Beril? I want to say bye to them too before this vision expires." Shiro asked.
"Theyâre on their way here now. I had my familiars inform them." Quella smiled.
"I see... Nyx, how long do I have here?" Shiro asked.
"You have quite a while since talking to these girls isnât that difficult. Talking to you however was difficult. Even with my power I could only talk to you for less than 3 minutes you know?" Nyx replied as Shiro chuckled.
"Thanks."
"The fact that you can talk to a primordial goddess with such nonchalance is to be respected." Quella face palmed.
"Fufu you can as well you know?" Shiro grinned.
"You know if mortals did something like that a few gods would have smite them then and there. Youâre an exception." Nyx reminded.
"And Iâm going to capitalise the crap out of it." Shiro laughed which caused Nyx to roll her eyes.
As the three talked for a bit, Beril and Tricia soon arrived.
"Sup, sorry for leaving without saying anything. I didnât really have a choice." Shiro waved as Beril pouted.
"And here I wasted my tears for you." She muttered while sitting down on a nearby chair.
"Well Itâs good that youâre alive. Quella has already informed us of your new status through the familiars. Congratulations." Tricia smiled as Shiro nodded her head.
"Thank you."
Spending some time with the three and telling them a bit about her world, Nyx informed Shiro that time was running out.
"Iâll see if I can come back properly next time so that I can give Beril another pat on the head." Shiro chuckled as Beril only rolled her eyes.
"Improve your technique first. Itâs not comfortable at all." Beril pouted as Shiro laughed.
"Sure, I got two daughters and a son that I can practice my patting techniques on. My daughters are a bit older but they like to be pampered." Shiro chuckled as Quella was shocked to find out that Shiro had two daughters and a son.
Seeing her body flicker, Shiro knew that time was up.
"Itâs good seeing you three again. Once I finish saving my world, Iâll come back for a holiday with my family ok? See you soon." Shiro smiled as they nodded their heads.
Watching Shiro disappear, the three couldnât hold back their tears anymore.
In the next few weeks, they had a statue of Shiro on a throne with her legs crossed. She was resting her chin on her hand with a nonchalant smile and beneath the statue was a plate with her name carved into it.
[Shiro â Demi Goddess of Machines]