60. Sealing 2

"This is the seal..."

Shiro and Mitoka stood before something that looked like a blue, translucent crystal, at least four meters tall.

Inside the crystal, barely visible through the frosted glass, were a man and woman embracing.

"Shelina and her husband, Altia—the parents of Shestia and Albert," Sophia explains.

Shestia and Albert silently stared at their parents’ figures, their eyes gleaming with sorrow yet unyielding hope.

The sealing site lies about an hour's carriage ride north of Sotohaim, near the Great Tree Sea. Everyone came to witness the sealing firsthand.

My stepson, Altia, is a prodigy when it comes to martial arts. He somehow combined magic and combat to activate this barrier. After researching old magical texts, I discovered it's called a divine art—classified under that category—but I couldn't master it myself.

And Sophia spoke, her voice tinged with frustration.

"Shiro, this is a [Time Stop Barrier]. And for some reason, crystal generation from earth magic has activated around us. Probably, both effects manifested simultaneously when Altia desperately tried to protect Shireena. Either way, we’ll need divine magic," Mitoka said.

Ah. His thoughts—really crystallized into something tangible, huh...

And Shiro, impressed, remarks—

"Anyway, if I can use divine magic, could I bypass this?" Shiro checks.

That’s true. As a skill, Shiro could take the Unseal skill or one of its related abilities. But the real issue is the virus—the original cause of the封印, and how to deal with it.

"Yeah, can't we analyze it from here?"

"…Maybe we can figure something out if Shiro uses his Idea Skill to inspect it," Mitoka says, pondering.

"Yeah, let's try," Shiro replies.

Shiro says that, then approaches the seal crystal with Mitoka, activating his Idea Skill.

In that instant, time in this world stops—only Shiro and Mitoka can speak.

But then,

"Shiro, what’s this phenomenon?" Shestia asks.

"Eh?! Why isn’t Shestia’s time stopping?" Shiro blinks in surprise.

"...Shiro, for some reason, Shestia-chan and I have established a soul link. And because we were within five meters of each other. I didn’t notice since you were behind me," Mitoka answers.

A soul link is a system that enables consciousness and memory sharing, distributed processing magic control, and other functions at the soul level.

"Mitoka, Shestia—both of you are linked at the soul level. Any idea what might’ve caused this?" Shiro asks.

Both fall silent. Shestia looks especially clueless.

Then Mitoka speaks.

"Shiro, this might be related to that rewind event. Soul-level linking is normally only possible for gods. The only possible exception would be a special skill tied to rewinding. But Shestia doesn’t seem to know about it. Maybe it activated unconsciously during the rewind, or maybe there’s a condition—either way, Shestia is the one who triggered it."

"Huh… I see. That kind of function wasn’t part of my design, so it must be a world-specific implementation," Shiro mutters, pausing to think.

"I didn’t know I had such a skill," Shestia says, equally surprised.

Shiro stops thinking, shakes it off, and turns to Shestia with a light tone.

"Ah, well, for now, Shestia—this is my skill active. I can inspect all kinds of things in the world. Right now, time around us is frozen."

"Amazing," Shestia replied, eyes sparkling.

And so the three of them decided to examine the seal.

Using Ideya’s Inspection skill.

First, the crystal is a single anchor object, fixed to the earth.

And by itself, it appears as a solid.

Furthermore, the crystal has its own private space attached.

"Those two figures visible from outside—they’re projections from within that space. So it’s not that the two of them are inside the crystal’s shell. The solid crystal is there, and the space is attached to it—just happens to be visible for some reason," Shiro explained.

The time-stop barrier is fused to the crystal and activated, with time-stop parameters set. Shirena and Altea are now frozen mid-embrace inside that space.

"Kinda complicated magic, huh?" Shiro said.

"Yes. Perhaps because it wasn’t a full divine spell? Still, that makes it all the more impressive."

"My father was a genius with magic. In a way, even greater than grandmother. I think he must’ve done this to protect my mother," Shestia said, her gaze distant.

Shiro continued inspecting the two entities.

The humanoid existence entity is DNA-based life—luckily, access to their presence within the spatial barrier is possible even without divine magic.

"No anomalies detected in the entities themselves. Can’t perform soul-level inspection, though—can’t use divine magic," Shiro added. Then, he continued.

"This is a personal space, not an inventory—so living things can actually enter it, right?"

"Yes. Time is frozen, but the entity itself remains accessible. So, while we can't perform soul-level inspection—no divine magic—we can still collect blood samples, at least as a precaution."

"Can you transfer something directly from inside that barrier into my inventory?"

"...Yes, it seems possible... Got it. Analyzing," Mitoka replies, as if nothing unusual happened.

"...Wait, Mitoka, can you really do that? I mean, you're more than just an AI with a self-awareness upgrade, aren't you? I guess it makes sense—Spirit King's existence is already beyond my original design, so it's no surprise you're beyond my imagination," Shiro says, startled.

"...Well, yes. I think we need to have a serious conversation, Shiro. About the full extent of my existence," Mitoka says, nodding seriously.

"Shiro, a previously unknown virus has been detected. After querying the Spirit King Network’s World Tree Database, we’ve confirmed it’s a strain never seen before," Mitoka says.

"...Spirit King Network? No, never mind... just leave it for now..."

"Shiro, we can’t determine the virus’s specifics from DNA alone, but we might be able to develop antibodies. Also, regarding that mushroom—there’s another virus with a similar DNA pattern found in it. There may be a connection."

"What...? So that mushroom’s actually dangerous? I’ve had a bad feeling every time I saw it—was that why?"

"I’ve never seen a mushroom that big. I don’t think they’ve been around here for at least a few years," Shestia says.

"Yes, we should check how much the Guild has documented on this. Based on our analysis, we should probably warn Sophia not to touch or eat it," Mitoka says, then adds,

"Maybe we should ask Firumia next time," Mitoka says. "I don't have the full specs on how DNA-based life here connects to entities in practice. But there's a temple in this town—we can speak with the goddess there," she tells Shiro.

"Wait? Really? Then we should definitely go talk to her," Shiro replies.

When Shiro deactivates his Idean skill, he addresses everyone.

"Alright, I managed to analyze it. First, lifting the barrier is possible. But my tech's still not up to par. It’ll take a bit more time. That said, once we get past that, there shouldn’t be any issues with removal."

"Got it."

Sophia, unusually calm.

"Yeah, I can wait a little longer," Shestia says.

"Also, while we're at it—besides the barrier, we confirmed that Shirena's been infected by a virus, a pathogen, but one we haven’t seen before. Still, we can make an antibody—well, a remedy, really. No big deal. But here's a new development: that giant mushroom we’ve been seeing lately? Looks like it’s tied to this somehow. So we should probably warn people—via the Guild or the lord—against touching or eating it."

"Hmm, I see. Understood. I’ll pass the word along to the lord and the various guilds," Sophia says.

If you found this interesting, please consider rating, bookmarking, or leaving a comment—it really helps!