Chapter 560 - Souls

"What?" Nan Tian looked at Helion with surprise.

Even Yin was intrigued as she glanced towards him.

"You see, the souls that they use for the Soul Fragment weapons are simply too small to be the full soul. Even when they try to extract it with 100% efficiency, the 'size' of the soul is too small. Think of it as inserting mana into a puppet and controlling it that way, you only need a small strand of mana for that puppet to move. It's the same situation with the system and our souls. Think of the system as the mana and our soul is the main body. We pilot our physical bodies and when we die, the 'souls' that we find are just the tiny spark we used to pilot the body while the main body of the soul is under the system's ownership.

"Even if our main body was to die, our souls live on. Meaning, unless something was to target that main body directly, we wouldn't truly die. The system can then do whatever it wants with our souls. Whether that be to just erase us or transform us into monsters, I don't know." Helion explained as Nan Tian fell silent. It made sense from a few stand points since he knew that Shiro had already lived through three lifetimes now.

If her physical body was to die and her soul lives on like Helion said, it would indeed be plausible for this to happen.

"If you think of it from another perspective, there is also the question of how we can use the system to begin with. Where is it stored? Why can we access it? How is this giant network of information even accessible to us? If our souls are directly linked to the system, as in we use it to pilot our body's, then it would make sense that we can utilise the system through this connection."

"Interesting… then are you suggesting that we can possibly kill a person forever if we destroy their main body?" Nan Tian narrowed his eyes.

If that was the case, they could potentially erase the Light God once and for all.

"I don't know. After all, it hasn't been proven. If anything, just think of this as my own hypophysis." Helion shook his head.

###

*PUCHI!!!

Stabbing her sword through the heart of the last owner of the Soul Fragment weapons, Shiro wiped the blood off her face.

"Fu… That was a fun exercise now wasn't it?" Shiro chuckled as she grabbed the Soul Fragment weapon and threw it into her inventory. With this, she now had possession of every single Soul Fragment weapon in this city, totalling up to 40.

Looking at the armoury of weapons in her inventory, Shiro shook her head.

'Why do they even make these kinds of weapons? I get that the initial power boost is good but it's at the expense of pretty much giving up your sanity. Even if you want revenge, you can't enjoy it if your mind is not there.' She sighed before glancing down at her phone. Seeing the time, she figured that it was about time that she made her way back.

Flying through the sky, she searched for Iziuel and Attie.

In a few short moments, she managed to spot them walking through the streets as Iziuel showed Attie around with a smile.

"Iziuel! Attie!" Shiro called out.

"You've finished your business?" Iziuel asked with a smile.

"Yup. I managed to get some decent exercise too." Shiro chuckled.

"Nice. I've just been exploring the city with Attie. I think it's about time he went to sleep since we did go to quite a few places." Iziuel gestured to Attie who was yawning slightly.

"I see… Thank you for looking after him." Shiro smiled softly and hugged Attie.

Letting them back in her mana realm, she watched as Attie laid his body on the fire island and started to sleep.

"He was quite worried you know? He kept on glancing up at the magic formation that you had set up above the city." Iziuel said while glancing at Shiro.

Smiling softly, Shiro wanted to stroke his hair but decided against it since she didn't want to wake him up.

"I know." She nodded her head before leaving the mana realm.

Making her way back to the hotel, she saw Nan Tian with a rather serious expression while Helion was writing down a few notes into his notepad.

"I do hope that you two have been nice to each other." Shiro said with a chuckle.

"You're back. How did you enjoy the late night workout?" Nan Tian asked.

"It's been quite nice. I managed to recover all the Soul Fragment weapons along with a few research notes." Shiro replied.

Pulling out the swords and the note pads, she placed them on the table. Snapping her fingers, a magic circle wrapped around the swords as the killing intent was sealed off.

"I wasn't sure which note was yours so I just grabbed all of them." Shiro shrugged.

"OK, I'll go look through them now." Helion nodded.

"Oh right Shiro, Helion's told me a rather interesting theory of his if you're interested." Nan Tian smiled as Shiro raised her eyebrow.

"A theory you say? Count me interested."

###

Explaining Helion's theory to Shiro, Nan Tian watched as Shiro fell silent before opening her mouth.

"I think I have evidence that his theory is correct."

Pausing in his actions, Helion looked up in surprise.

"How?"

"Because I've managed to… 'exploit' the system? You see, I've received a mystery element dubbed as Error 403 in the system. It allows me to directly attack their 'source code' which could potentially be the main body of their soul. Whenever I do this, I'm allowed to obtain a skill from them and from what I can tell, I kill them for good. After all, I even managed to harm the source code of a god." Shiro shrugged as Helion dropped his notepad.

"You what?"

"I got a new element."

"Not that. The last part." Helion shook his head.

"I harmed the source code of a god." Shiro raised her eyebrow.

". . . I have so many questions right now." He sighed.

He was thinking that she had managed to kill a person for good or erase their existence but instead, she straight up harmed a f*cking god. And knowing Shiro, she was not one to joke around with something like that.

Looking towards Nan Tian, Helion wanted to double check if this was correct.

"She's right you know? I was there and my god was it magnificent. Shiro jumping into a fiesta filled with level 500's and killed the avatar of a god right in front of us." Nan Tian chuckled.

". . ."

"Mum, I think his brain short circuited." Yin yawned as she continued to watch a cooking show on the TV.

"Don't be rude. I'm sure he's just processing the information right now. After all, I did harm a god you know?"

"So you also know how ridiculous that situation is?" Helion raised his eyebrow.

"Just because I'm not surprised doesn't mean I don't know ok? I'm used to strange situations now. After all, my blood related daughter is a phoenix and her other mother is my friend that I met in a trial. My second daughter is an angel which I rescued from a trial and my third child, my son, is a spirit created from the fusing of special fires. Tell me if any of that sounds normal?" Shiro chuckled.

"I swear, every time I see you, the situation gets crazier and crazier. Next thing I know, all of you have become gods and are in a war against the world." Helion sighed.

"Don't jinx it now. It might actually happen." Shiro laughed as gods and demons were about to become common in the new age. Who knows, she might be able to reach Demi God rank by then.

"The chances are low but never zero. That pretty much sums up your life right now." Nan Tian chuckled.

"That is a pretty accurate description to be honest." Shiro shrugged.

"Regardless, I should help you resolve the problem with Akram before I lose my mind. My main question is what you want to do with the sword? You can either completely destroy it or I can remake it into something else." Helion asked.

"Hmm… are you able to remake it into something else? As in make it so that I can interact with the Soul Fragment used. After all, I'll have a charge of my Extraction skill soon and if I'm able to use it on the Soul Fragments, I'll be able to obtain their skill." Shiro narrowed her eyes.

Pausing for a moment, Helion stayed silent before smiling.

"That is doable."