Chapter 546 - Furmis

"Calamity of Famine?" Shiro muttered while furrowing her brows.

Looking around her, she realised that she was in a farm of sorts which is very strange for a room that was supposed to be the 'Calamity of Famine'.

[Calamity of Famine]

To clear this trial, you must resist against your hunger for 3 days. Everything here is edible but the moment you eat one, you will be disqualified. Your feelings of hunger is amplified.

Shaking her head, Shiro started to look around for Yin and Nan Tian. Feeling their signatures not too far away from her, she jogged over.

". . . ."

Looking at the scene in front of her, Shiro couldn't help but pause for a moment and question if she needed glasses.

Yin was trying to eat some 'food' while Nan Tian was holding her back. What was strange about this was that Yin was trying to eat Nan Tian. She was glaring at his head and wanted to bite it off.

"Yin! Lil' Tian! What the hell is happening?" Shiro called out with a frown.

"Mum! Help me! This chicken drumstick is fighting back!" Yin complained while trying to break Nan Tian's guard.

"Chicken drumstick?" Shiro furrowed her brows. 

"I don't know but it seems like she had an adverse reaction to the trial. The moment we entered, there was a faint glow around her body before she turned to me and tried to eat me." Nan Tian smiled awkwardly as Shiro sighed.

Walking up to Yin, she hit her on the back of the head in order to knock her out.

Catching Yin in her arms, Shiro soon realised that her body felt extremely weak as hunger washed over her.

Falling on the ground, she had a frown and looked up at the ceiling.

"This is a bit troublesome isn't it." She muttered.

"Yeah. Since you know the structure of this place, how many more rooms after this one?" Nan Tian asked while sitting down next to her.

"There are 3 more not including this one. I'm guessing it's designed in a way similar to the seven sins. Since Yin's main skill is gluttony, do you think that's the cause of her strange condition right now?" Shiro asked as Nan Tian nodded his head.

"There's a good chance of that being true. If there are 3 more rooms after this then it's going to be quite annoying to reach the bottom isn't it?"

"Yeah. I think there are rooms like this since they're delaying for time. When I met the ice queen, she had already been around for a while and the anchor still wasn't completed. I'm guessing that these trials are trying to delay for the time needed to secure the anchor." Shiro frowned.

"What do you suggest we should do then?"

"What else? We'll break through everything." Shiro grinned.

Standing up, she took a deep breath and prepared to activate her skill.

However, before she could, Nimue's voice rang out.

{Are you sure you want to do this? You don't even know what that element is.}

'It's fine. While the mysterious element is dangerous, I'm granted control over it. All I'm going to do is activate my Celestial Raiment and use the element as a base. Since an island has already been created for it, I should be able to use it without any problem. Plus, it's the only element I've seen so far to surpass/bypass authority levels in the system so if I use this, I should be able to break the trial and reach the bottom without any problems.' Shiro replied with a grin.

{And if it doesn't work?}

'Have some faith in me haha. Don't worry, I've already conducted quite a few experiments with this element while making the Athera sword so I understand a little on how this element works.'

Closing her eyes, a burst of power exploded out from her body as her Celestial Raiment started to flicker a little.

Darkness soon spread from the tip of her fingers and reached her shoulder with glowing red circuits pulsing along her arm.

Gritting her teeth, she crouched down and pressed her hand against the ground.

Snapping her eyes open, a giant tier 5 magic circle erupted out from her palms as circuit like patterns started to infect the surrounding area.

Dragging themselves out of the ground as if they were tentacles, the circuits stabbed down and started to disintegrate the floor beneath then.

[Element ??? Is infecting the pseudo dungeon.]

[Trials are forcefully cancelled.]

[All 'dungeon' aspects are removed.]

[True name of location revealed.]

[First World Anchor of the Fire Queen.]

Once the dungeon aspects were removed, Shiro could now finally use her Rift Strider without worrying about the boundaries since she had tried to use it before. If not for the trials, she could have just phased all the way down to the bottom.

Pulling back at hands, Shiro tried to retract the circuits but they seemed to want to break out of her control.

'Oi, you better listen to me since I'm your master right now.' Shiro warned as she exerted her own pressure over the element.

Unleashing her nanobots against the circuits, the two elements started to clash around them as Shiro gestured for Nan Tian to pick up Yin for now.

Taking a deep breath, she attempted to retract the mystery element again. Thankfully, it listened to her and the circuits started to fade away. The darkness that was covering her arms disappeared and she was able to stop her Celestial Raiment without any problems.

"Fu…. Damn, that element is like a rebellious child." Shiro clicked her tongue and stood up.

"Regardless, shall we get to the bottom and meet this fire queen?" She chuckled since there should be an avatar at the core of this site.

"Sure."

Grabbing both Yin and Nan Tian into her rift, Shiro dived down towards the core of the place. On her way down, she could see several rooms that had been destroyed by her. Thankfully, no one was here since they were probably stuck in the Calamity of Famine. After all, that required you to stay there for three days and from what she had seen, there wasn't any time dilation involved so it would have been three days outside.

Travelling down the floors, they finally reached the bottom of this temple.

Adjusting her body, they landed on the floor without any problems.

Looking around her, Shiro could see that they were in a huge room akin to a giant hall.

Hundreds upon hundreds of tier 6 magic circles could be seen flickering around the place. However, a single glance told Shiro that they were highly unstable. Glancing towards the centre of the room, she could see a giant crystal of sorts that was placed in a formation filled with tier 7 magic circles.

'Hmm… the daughter of Aekari did say that you could only travel across worlds after reaching tier 7. Which means the original body of the queen is probably a tier 7 being.' Shiro analysed.

"Quite a rude one aren't you? Destroying my place the moment you entered." A young voice rang out as Shiro glanced towards the source.

A woman with crimson hair and scarlet eyes glanced towards her.

"Yo~ I say, it's been quite a while huh? Though we haven't formally met yet, Fire Queen. I only really got a glimpse of you after killing the Thunder King." Shiro grinned.

She could remember seeing the Fire Queen a second before she was exported from the quest but it was enough for her to memorise her appearance.

"Who are you?" The Fire Queen asked with a frown. She couldn't remember anyone with white hair during that time period. 

"Queen of the Yin Kingdom. Though my body was much smaller back then. Just to refresh your memory, did you enjoy the collateral damage of my bomb?" Shiro chuckled since she had made sure that her bomb injured a portion of the Fire Queen's forces when it was detonated.

"So it's the dumpling from back then. To think I'd actually meet you there. Though it seems like we're going to be enemies since your killing intent isn't exactly friendly." The Fire Queen narrowed her eyes.

"Depends on how you look at things. I'm quite curious about the Anchor, mind explaining?" Shiro asked with a smile.

"Not exactly."

"Figures. Before we do anything, mind telling me your name?"

"Why?"

"I need something to write on your gravestone after all." Shiro laughed.

Before this conversation even started, she knew that the Fire Queen wanted to kill her. After all, she could already sense hundreds of magic circles locking onto the three of them.

"Furmis. I'm the queen that governs fire." Furmis narrowed her eyes as hundreds of tier 5 magic circles flickered into existence around her.

"Shiro. I'm the empress that governs all spirits." Shiro grinned with killing intent.