Chapter 836 Midnight Scouting

Hearing this, the party decided to settle down for the night since Chelsea was coming soon.

They didn’t want to do anything to Balire just yet since if they were indeed family, Chelsea should be the one to decide what to do rather than them.

Preparing a few rooms manually they decided to rest up for the night. ­

While everyone was resting up for the night, Shiro decided to do a bit of scouting herself.

Sitting on the roof of the fortress, Shiro was constantly sending out drones to the rest of the demon continent so that she could manually scan out the borders for herself such as where strong mana signatures are as well as potential land that they could conquer.

She was going to mark them out then compare it to the map that Akog had so that she knew which candidate these lands belonged to.

"Seems like you’re busy as usual." Isilia smiled as she climbed the ladder up to the roof. Sitting next to Shiro, she handed her some hot chocolate.

"Mn, I want to get as much information as I can for Madison since Akog wasn’t able to do much since he had been busy. But it’s understandable considering they only have a single city and a single mine. To be honest, I’m surprised they even kept the mine since I would have thought the other candidates would have taken it by now." Shiro shrugged.

"That’s so like you. You never really liked going into things if there was information that you could obtain did you?" Isilia laughed.

"Of course. If there was information to be obtained and I ignore it, anything that happens out of expectation is my fault for not doing the research. Any information that I could get might be life saving. Plus, it was also because I didn’t research enough that you were forced to kill yourself to help me survive." Shiro looked down with a soft sigh.

"Oh don’t be like that. I’m here now aren’t I? Plus, you saved me plenty of times haven’t you? Just take it as me repaying my debt fufu." Isilia chuckled while using Shiro’s shoulder as a headrest.

"Even so, don’t you dare use your life like that anymore ok? If you do I’ll be angry since I have plenty of ways to keep myself alive." Shiro pouted.

"I know. You’re even more tenacious in this life than you were in your last. Though speaking of which, once the new age begins again, it means Aekari will be back. Do you think you can beat him now that he knows you’re alive? He can also make that device to shut down your nanobots can’t he?" Isilia asked with worry.

"Who knows. I’m also able to enter god form for a bit so I’ll need to end things quickly. Thankfully, I also have a skill called extraction which allows me to attack his source code directly. Even if he has a form of immortality, as long as I can hit him with extraction, he’ll be dead. The only sad thing is that I won’t be able to torture him but as long as he is dead, I don’t really care. Plus, there’s also the problem of the light goddess that’s backing him. From what I know, she was the one who pushed him to become who he is today." Shiro narrowed her eyes.

"Oh? How did you know? I thought the light goddess was just someone who gave him a bit of her power rather than push him to become evil." Isilia frowned. Back in Aria, the light goddess was a highly respected god so it was hard to believe that she was the cause of him becoming evil.

"When I extracted him the first time, I wasn’t able to kill him but I did manage to harm him quite a bit and I even got a glance at his memories using the source code. What I saw was the light goddess urging him and his name slowly turned black."

"Fallen." Isilia muttered as Shiro nodded her head.

"Mn. I’m still not sure what becoming fallen means but I know that Yin said I was close to becoming a fallen when I was obsessed with killing the light hero." Shiro shrugged.

"Becoming fallen is when the system recognises your strong desire to slaughter or a single purpose of killing. I did a bit of research on this and those that become fallen are single minded slaughter machines that won’t stop until their desire is fulfilled. After that, they wander the world as mindless beings that require no substance to survive and will kill all who stand in their way. Naturally, this happens because the system supports this desire. The system is a tool to help and you can think of it as a way to grant your wish. Once you fall, you cannot go back as your soul would have been corrupted. Even if you reincarnate, your next life will be filled with a growing desire of blood and vengeance that will force you back on the track of becoming fallen even if you don’t want it. It’s not a joke to say that once you fall, there is no going back." Isilia explained with a frown.

"The system is a double sided sword. It assists you, but depending on what happens, it may also harm you." Shiro shrugged as she was grateful for the fact that she was actually able to avoid becoming fallen.

"Mn, it’s not an exaggeration to say that if the system wasn’t around, there would be no fallen, since it’s the system that amplifies and responds to this desire. Without the system, this desire wouldn’t be cultivated and it wouldn’t corrupt your soul." Isilia sighed.

"Setting aside the depressing talk, how does spending time with your daughter feel?" Shiro smiled.

"It feels good. After my husband passed on, it was hard but I couldn’t find Lyrica just yet. Now that I can actually be next to her, I feel relieved. Did you know that when I was making my way up here, Lyrica was actually hugging me tightly and refused to let go?" Isilia smiled.

"Well she did grow up losing both her parents. She’s probably worried that you might disappear again." Shiro smiled softly.

"Mn, she did tell me about how you helped her overcome her weak self after your first meeting in school. Thank you."

"It’s fine. You know that I don’t spend too much time on someone unless they’re being sincere. On the first day of arriving, she actually stayed up all night making me a notebook to help me and the system recognised it. If not for that, we might’ve just stayed as acquaintances without me knowing that she was actually your daughter." Shiro said while rubbing the bridge of her nose.

Talking for a little longer, Isilia helped Shiro with mapping out the information she collected before going back to sleep.

{She knows you quite well huh? You two also worked together quite nicely.} Nimue smiled.

’Mn, we have worked together for quite a few years back in Aria after all. She knows a few of my habits.’ Shiro replied with a smile.

{It’s nice that you have someone familiar that you can talk to often. It must have been quite lonely to come to this world on your own at the start.} Iziuel asked as Shiro nodded her head.

’It was. I hid it behind my goal of seeking revenge and getting stronger I guess. It was just something to keep me constantly distracted so that I didn’t think about it.’ Shiro replied since she felt alone in Aria ever since Isilia died.

But on ’Earth’ she was now surrounded by friends and family to alleviate this loneliness.

Shaking her head, Shiro did some final scouting before going to sleep herself.

Waking up early in the morning, the party had some breakfast before giving Balire some food as well.

They didn’t say anything to her just yet since Chelsea was coming soon.

Sensing a mana signature in the distance, Shiro brought out a sniper and saw that Chelsea was arriving on top of a large hawk mount.

Seeing the expression on her face, Shiro could see nervousness and disbelief which confused her a little but she knew that they were probably going to find out what happened later today.

Landing in the courtyard, Chelsea walked up to Shiro.

"Where is she, where’s Balire?" She asked.

"Follow me." Leading her into the fortress, she showed her to the room where they kept Balire.