Chapter 128: The Omnipresent Body Brain
Leest rubbed her sleepy eyes, let out a yawn, and sat up lazily.
Suddenly, she realized that the trio was standing around the head of her bed, rubbing their chins and silently staring down at her. Startled, she accidentally rolled straight off the mattress.
"Ouch, that hurts."
Clutching her head, Leest looked up at Shirazawa and the other two with tear-filled eyes.
"Master~" she whimpered, pouting pitifully.
Shiro immediately stepped forward to help her up, ruffling her adorable little head while seamlessly pinching her soft, squishy cheek.
"Get dressed. We'll be waiting for you in the living room."
"Okay~"
Shirazawa instructed the maids to bring some well-fitting clothes, handle Leest's bath, and help her change.
Before long, a tiny loli wearing a purple lace dress appeared before the three of them. Her exquisite features were paired with light blue eyes, a small, pert nose, and pink lips. She looked exactly like a breathtakingly beautiful doll that had stepped straight out of a manga.
Leest kept her head bowed, staring intently at the tips of her toes. Once again, she had regressed into the timid, self-conscious, and cowardly child she used to be. She held the pitch-black scabbard tightly in her arms–a habit that had evidently become second nature to her.
Shirazawa had no intention of reclaiming the weapon, completely fine with letting her continue to use it.
"Tell us, what exactly did you go through during this period?" Shirazawa asked gently, running a hand through Leest's smooth, silky hair without putting on any superior airs.
Hearing her master's inquiry, Leest hesitated for a long while before stuttering through her experiences training inside the labyrinth.
The story was actually quite simple. It was essentially the tale of a young girl wielding a divine weapon who, under the protection of a super white spider, slaughtered her way all the way from the Upper Stratum down to the Lower Stratum of the labyrinth. Although she faced countless narrow escapes, she fortunately managed to turn every disaster into a safe exit.
When Leest finished her tale, she nervously peeked at Shirazawa's expression. Seeing his deeply knit brows, her heart instantly tightened.
"Master, Leest really worked hard, but my leveling speed is still so slow... Please don't be angry," she explained weakly.
"..."
The trio was completely at a loss for words.
*You call that slow?*
*Do you even hear what you're saying right now?*
If a progression rate like that was considered slow, then what on earth did that make the rest of them? One had to remember that it took the two spiders over a year of brutal grinding to reach the Fifth Evolutionary Stage that Leest was currently occupying. Who would have thought that such a stellar, proud record would be casually shattered by a former goblin? There was simply no logic left in this world.
"Master..." Leest tugged at the hem of her dress with her tiny hands, looking so thoroughly pathetic and endearing that it tugged at their heartstrings.
"No one is blaming you. You did an exceptional job, Leest," Shirazawa comforted her, rubbing the top of her fluffy head.
"Really?" The little loli tilted her head, blinking her wide eyes at Shirazawa.
"Yes," Shirazawa answered firmly. The little loli instantly beamed with joy, throwing herself into Shirazawa's embrace and affectionately nuzzling against him. "Hehehe~"
The three powerhouses exchanged glances, still failing to deduce the exact catalyst behind Leest's sudden surge in strength.
Right at that moment, the pitch-black longsword cradled in Leest's arms began to tremble slightly, letting out a sharp, faint hum. The blade seemed to detect some sort of existential threat, inexplicably generating an emotion of intense resistance as it actively tried to pull away from Shirazawa.
"Hmm?!"
The abnormal behavior of the pitch-black sword startled the four of them, causing everyone to lock their gazes onto it. Shirazawa stepped forward, gripped the hilt, and effortlessly drew the blade from its scabbard.
"Little guy, *I* am your true master!" Shirazawa stared at the sword, his gaze stern and his tone bone-chillingly cold.
The pitch-black blade pulsed with a deep, abyssal dark radiance, seemingly trying to fight back against his authority. A fraction of a second later, it abruptly ceased its struggles, resting submissively and obediently within Shirazawa's palm. However, in the very next second, the tsundere dark blade automatically sheathed itself right back into the scabbard, completely refusing to show its face again.
"Could the root of the problem lie within the weapon itself?" Ariel pondered aloud, guessing at the most logical variable.
Hearing this, Shiro suddenly recalled her own white scythe, which she hadn't utilized in a very long time, and promptly summoned it into the room.
Shirazawa realized that his weapon had clearly birthed an ego–and a rather rebellious one at that. He proceeded to summon his other katana, the one that symbolized death and corrosion.
In an instant, three weapons... wait, to be precise, it was actually two. After all, during the initial appraisal, Shirazawa's weapons had displayed under the unified name
One white scythe and two katanas–one black, one corrupted–radiated a bone-chilling aura of pure desolation, instantly causing a suffocating, oppressive weight to blanket the entire room.
Shirazawa narrowed his eyes, directly channeling the raw emotions radiating from the twin blades in his grasp. The katana representing corrosion was as pitch-black as stagnant ink, looking completely saturated by the concept of death, faintly emitting a sinister, malevolent energy. It seemed utterly furious at the dark blade's act of rebellion, vibrating violently as if it were a strict older sister thoroughly lecturing her misbehaving little brother.
*Vrrr–!*
The rebellious dark blade let out a sharp hum of its own, stubbornly voicing its unyielding defiance.
*Vrrr, vrrr~*
Meanwhile, the gargantuan scythe resting in Shiro's hands also began emitting rhythmic vibrations, acting exactly like a stressed peacekeeper trying to mediate between two fundamentally mismatched souls.
*Stop it! Both of you stop it, don't fight anymore!*
"Presumptuous!"
Shirazawa barked out a sharp command. In a flash, the twin blades in his hands completely cut their internal squabbling, instantly plunging back into a state of absolute, serene silence.
"This..."
Ariel felt a sudden, acute wave of palpitations hit her chest stemming directly from Shirazawa. Even though he had only permitted a microscopic, negligible fraction of his true aura to leak out, Ariel distinctly detected a trace of profound primal terror. Her spider instincts were screaming at her that the Shirazawa standing before her right now was exceptionally dangerous.
"Master..." Leest shrunk her neck back, timidly cowering close to Shirazawa's side. She realized that she had seemingly caused some sort of massive blunder.
"It's alright, Leest," Shirazawa comforted her. "Moving forward, this blade belongs entirely to you."
He handed the katana imbued with the dark attribute directly over to Leest, voicing a decision that left the other three completely dumbfounded.
"...?!"
Ariel and Shiro's eyes widened to absolute circles, entirely unable to believe their ears.
"Master, what did you just say?" Leest asked, looking completely dazed and adorable.
"I said, from today onward, this blade is officially yours to wield. Its ego was birthed strictly because of your presence; consider it the ultimate reward for your hard work and unyielding dedication."
Shirazawa offered a warm, gentle smile, his eyes filled with pure encouragement as he locked gazes with Leest. "Therefore, please cherish this gift properly, and never fail to live up to its expectations."
"...T-Thank you, Master! I will absolutely treat it with the utmost care!" Leest nodded with immense solemnity, her eyes sparkling with a brilliant, radiant light. "Did you hear that, Little Black? Moving forward, you are officially my partner~"
*Vrrr~~*
The dark katana instantly let out a highly ecstatic, joyful hum. Simultaneously, it sent a wave of profound gratitude toward its former master–its primordial creator.
"A-e, is doing something like this really okay?" Shiro asked, a trace of anxiety bleeding into her tone.
It wasn't that she was being stingy or loath to part with a legendary weapon. Rather, it was because this specific blade had been forged utilizing Shirazawa's previous physical body, meaning it shared ten thousand intricate, unbreakable threads of connection with his very soul; it wasn't an item one could simply gift away on a whim.
"It doesn't matter. It has already achieved a completely autonomous self-evolution. The ego it birthed is explicitly bound to Leest's soul, not mine."
Saying this, Shirazawa lifted the Corrosion Blade, pointing directly at the dark steel. "This blade, and this blade alone, is the one that belongs to me. Ever since our Body Brain and Body Brain No. 2 vanished during the deification process, we've been short of one parallel consciousness. Now, that deficit has officially been fully restored. It has inherited the will and consciousness of the Body Brain, achieving a true rebirth through an entirely alternative medium."
Ariel: "Huh?"
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