Seeing the expression on Shiroâs face, Anima chuckled and crossed her leg.
Reaching forward, she flicked Shiro on the nose.
"Hey!" Shiro pouted as Anima smiled.
"What? You seemed like you were deep in thought. Donât worry about it too much. After all, your divinity has developed quite nicely. You want to know why I said that you can try to balance things out? Itâs because you have began to develop traces of a creation divinity. Nanobots were a faulty creation but it has developed in an interesting direction even by my standards." Anima smiled while waving her hand.
Summoning an illusionary orb that was pitch black in colour, Anima opened her mouth.
"Imagine this to be our original divinity. Pure destruction with not a hint of creation. When you obtained nanobots, it was no different. However, through the passing of time along with your acts, hints of a creation divinity started to appear. This was further enhanced by your titles. Sure, titles give you boosts in power but they also serve as a small foundation of your divinity. The power of a god comes from their name, story and belief people have in them. Previously, all of your titles were purely on the destruction side of things but recently, youâve started to balance it out. Such as Merciful Goddess and Goddess of Protection. Both of these titles belong to the creation side an when people recount their tales of you, it is not of pure destruction but of someone who wants to protect.
"As a Demi God, belief is a powerful thing. It can change your nature before you know it. While it is not balanced just yet, there is indeed hints of a creation divinity within you. Itâs just a matter of cultivating it to balance out our nature of destruction. Though itâs pretty hard considering our identity. To balance out the primordial destruction a being of equal strength must be present. If you want to seek balance you have to cultivate a divinity of creation that can stand side by side with our destructive nature." Anima explained as a small speck of white could now be seen in the middle of the orb.
"Plus, itâs not as though Chaos isnât helping. She already gave you her blessing no? If we were in our original state, she would not be able to bless us. Our destructive nature would swallow her blessing in an instant and render it useless. But by being shattered to pieces, reincarnated and rendered incomplete, it opened up space for her blessing. Even if you were to recover your original power, that blessing will remain since it has already touched the core of your being. Itâs just a matter of you trying to balance things out now mini me."
"I see... So itâs not all doom and gloom then." Shiro sighed in relief.
"Oh no, it is still doom and gloom. Weâre the First Born of Destruction after all. Thereâs just a teenie weenie chance of you finding balance." Anima waved her hand as Shiro clicked her tongue.
". . .Che!" Shiro clicked her tongue as Anima laughed.
"Oh please, we were never the dreaming type. Even if I reassured you, youâll know the truth. Disregarding how we might act, we see things realistically. We just donât verbalise it to bring down the mood. Answer me this, how many times have you gone into a fight with full knowledge that youâll lose but still pump yourself up for the fight, finding ways to take advantage of your situation so that you wont die?" Anima asked as Shiro leaned back.
"Quite a few times. If I included the times in Aria then Iâve long lost count."
"No you havenât. You just canât be arsed to bring up all the records." Anima cut in as Shiro frowned.
"Che."
"I donât need to say this but who cares. Donât give up." Anima closed her eyes as Shiro nodded.
Enjoying the silence for a moment, Shiro also closed her eyes.
"F*cking hell this is taking a while. I had figured that Iâll disappear after giving you our knowledge but your body still canât handle me just yet. Is there something I missed when I scanned your body?" Anima asked as Shiro opened her eyes.
"I donât know. But that reminds me. You said that everyone weâre close to would be affected by our aura right?" Shiro asked.
"Yeah why?"
"What will happen from now on? Lisandra, Yin, Attie, Nimue, Iziuel and Estrella all have contracts with me. When they get stronger, a portion of their strength is passed onto me such is the case of Yin being the Sin of Gluttony. When I get stronger, they experience the same. Now hereâs my question, during that fight, I killed Rokarn and reached level 1000. Since my class was always a level higher than my tier, this means Iâve become a âGodâ. With me recovering a shard of myself, I can presume that my influence of destruction has been increased. What will happen to the ones that have contracts with me? Will they fall?" Shiro asked as Anima was silent for a moment.
Closing her eyes, Anima took a deep breath.
"I wouldnât go as far as fallen. There will definitely be a change but it wouldnât be as bad as you think. Their mind should be relatively safe since you have started to cultivate the power of creation. If that was not the case I would be more worried. There is one person that youâll need to look out for though, thatâs Lisandra. Out of all of the people you have contracts with, she is the one with the strongest connection hence why her level is linked to you. Since you have now reached level 1000, there is no doubt that she too will ascend and gain a divinity of her own. Since she is cultivating a divinity for ascension, she is more prone to your influence. My guess is that sheâll probably struggle at controlling her power of destruction." Anima explained as Shiro nodded her head.
"But Iâm sure itâll be fine. Everyone around you is tenacious after all." Anima reassured before standing up.
"Since this is taking longer than expected, we shall continue the training." She grinned.
"Huh?"
###
After Rokarnâs death, the party quickly carried Shiro back to the station and used one of the teleport items she had created to bring them back to Asharia.
Upon reaching Asharia, Lisandra, Yin, Attie, Nimue, Iziuel and Estrella all started to feel a pulsing wave of pain in their chest.
While the others were able to stay conscious, Lisandra wasnât able to hold on as the darkness in her wings started to spread. With Lisandra being unconscious, they tried to grab her but Beelzebub stopped them.
"I advise against touching her at this moment. Allow me." He bowed, encasing Lisandra in a barrier so that they could transport her but this barrier was corroding with each passing second.
Placing everyone in the med bay, Nan Tian turned towards Madison and her... subordinates.
"Since all of you are supposed Ancient Lords, are you able to enlighten us on whatâs happening?" Nan tian asked as Satan frowned.
Before he could say anything, Asmodeus stepped forward.
"Of course. I suspect that all of the people here that are experiencing pain is closely tied with the young lady over there. From what I can tell, a chaotic energy is surfacing from within their body, most likely due to the nature of the young ladyâs divinity. This energy is... rather destructive. Thanks to Beelzebub and the young phoenix who share the sin of Gluttony, they are able to slow down the effects of this destructive aura and absorb any excess energy that radiates from the body. That is why most of you are still conscious except for the winged miss. As an example, I suppose it is best you look at the barrier. Without this barrier, the aura that radiates from the winged miss would try to consume everything around her." Asmodeus explained, causing the rest of the party to frown.
"Anything we can do to help them?" Madison asked as Asmodeus smiled helplessly.
"Unfortunately, that is not our speciality. Most of them are experiencing ascension similar to what you experienced, your highness. Only that theirs is more painful due to the young miss laying on the bed. Belphegor can cause them to become somewhat numb to that pain but we cannot halt or slow it down. If we were to interfere, it would bring more pain to them due to the failed ascension." Asmodeus explained as Madison frowned.
"So we are to do nothing then."
"Tis so. We can only wait and see. Ultimately, there is no danger to their life as of this moment, only large amounts of pain from the chances occurring within their body." Asmodeus nodded his head.
Hearing this, Madison sighed in relief.
"Now if youâll excuse us, we have some... harvesting to do. As you know, it has been quite a while since we were woken up and with so many lingering souls on the battlefield, one cannot help but feel hungry. Worry not though, we are merely consuming the energy left behind. The soul will continue to reincarnate." Asmodeus bowed as Madison narrowed her eyes.
"Very well."
Smiling at her response, Asmodeus bowed and all of the Ancient Lords left the room.