078 Shiroyasha Becomes a Little Puppy

With her supreme perception, Shiroyasha detected an immense power gathering over the grasslands.

"It's definitely Reiryoku (Spiritual Power)," Kurumi confirmed. "Looks like their Spirit Arts ritual was a success."

Meanwhile, Souta stood there, completely oblivious to the energy shifts, feeling a bit embarrassed.

I really need to work on improving my spiritual sense…

"Hmm? It's reaching the critical point already… that was fast!"

Shiroyasha focused her senses on the energy flow, a hint of surprise flashing across her face.

It wasn't that she was alarmed by the power itself—far from it.

She was simply puzzled…

How are three seemingly weak magicians able to manipulate such an enormous amount of energy?

"Be careful. You two should fly a little higher," she cautioned.

Then, she expanded her spiritual sense, enveloping the entire Eurasian continent in her awareness.

Her ability to sense things was beyond absurd.

Once upon a time, while stationed in the Third Heaven of Little Garden, she had perceived a battle taking place in the Fifth Heaven, several layers away, and memorized every detail.

Each Outer Gate was roughly equivalent to Earth's total surface area.

Perceiving across multiple Outer Gates—despite all the dimensional and hierarchical barriers—was something even gods and buddhas would struggle to accomplish.

Compared to that?

Covering a single continent was child's play.

"The Spirit Energy is compressing… The Spacequake is coming!"

Kurumi tightened her grip on Souta and ascended even higher.

Moments later, a crushing sensation swept across the central grasslands.

The air itself groaned under the sheer weight of compressed Spirit Energy, releasing a high-pitched wailing noise.

Souta suddenly felt like he couldn't breathe—this must be the highest density of Spirit Energy ever recorded in this world!

And then—

The earth trembled.

Space shook violently.

A devastating shockwave spread across the entire Eurasian continent.

Souta's vision darkened as an abyssal void began consuming the land.

Wherever this darkness spread—

Mountains collapsed.

Grasslands vanished like illusions.

Everything on the surface was devoured without a trace, as if some invisible monster was devouring reality itself.

Cities in the distance? Gone.

Forests and rivers? Erased.

Had Shiroyasha not prepared in advance, marking countless Spatial Anchors across the three affected nations, there would have been no saving anyone.

However—

Under her control, these Spatial Anchors interconnected, forming a vast network spanning across three countries.

From this gigantic web, ripples of spatial energy surged outward.

Every lifeform touched by these ripples was instantly warped into a different space, disappearing without a trace.

And so, the Spiritquake's devastation was completely neutralized wherever the ripples reached.

Shiroyasha's godlike control over space-time was fully displayed.

She even accelerated her own perception of time, allowing her to process everything at a hyper-accelerated rate.

For her—

The entire world slowed down.

The Spacequake's expansion seemed to move at a crawl.

Her mind working at maximum capacity, she quickly calculated all possible fatalities and extracted them into her Game Field.

Meanwhile, anyone who would have only sustained injuries—she simply left them as they were.

Of course, mistakes were inevitable.

But when dealing with over a hundred million people, a small margin of error didn't affect the overall success of the operation.

Once the Spacequake subsided, Shiroyasha finally exhaled in relief.

The abyssal darkness faded.

The world returned to calm.

No living person remained in the disaster epicenter, though survivors at the periphery were still writhing in agony.

Kurumi and Souta slowly descended to Shiroyasha's altitude.

Souta swallowed hard, taking a moment to process the sheer catastrophic power they had just witnessed.

Then, he turned to Shiroyasha and asked,

"Did you get everyone?"

"There's always going to be some margin of error," she admitted, rubbing her temples as if mentally exhausted.

She could shatter an entire continent with a single punch—that would be easy.

But precise space-time manipulations on this scale?

Even for her, it was mentally exhausting.

If she hadn't set up her Spatial Anchors ahead of time, she probably wouldn't have been able to pull off such an intricate rescue across 1,000 kilometers of disaster radius.

"Alright," Souta nodded, flipping through Kurumi's documents.

"Next up… the Arctic Circle. There are a few Inuit settlements there, and in ten days, a Spacequake is going to wipe them out completely."

"I'll prepare the Eleventh Bullet to send you both forward in time," Kurumi said, manifesting her angelic rifles.

Shiroyasha, of course, could time-travel on her own.

She couldn't alter Little Garden's past or future, but external worlds weren't subject to those restrictions.

Still, since Kurumi was offering, she saw no need to waste her own energy.

Soon, Kurumi fired off an Eleventh Bullet, sending Shiroyasha ahead in time.

As soon as she vanished, Souta muttered,

"Looks like the people inside her Game Field don't count toward the time-travel headcount."

"Yeah. My own time expenditure didn't increase at all—it only counted as sending one person, not a hundred million."

Kurumi had noticed it, too.

Which was good news.

Otherwise, if she had to send a hundred million people through time?

The sheer amount of time energy required would be astronomical.

"This makes things way easier… But if Shiroyasha follows me back to the real world, then her Game Field will count those people again. She probably wouldn't be able to bring them all with her," Souta speculated.

This was why he hadn't suggested that he and Shiroyasha return to the real world first while waiting for Kurumi to finish her time-jumps.

The system was designed to prevent loopholes.

By now, Kurumi had loaded another Eleventh Bullet, aiming the barrel straight at Souta's forehead.

"I'll send you next, Souta," she said.

Souta: "..."

Why did this feel like an execution scene?

From that point on, the trio—Kurumi, Souta, and Shiroyasha—embarked on an endless cycle of time-travel rescues.

The Eurasian Great Spacequake wasn't the end.

In its aftermath, over fifty smaller Spacequakes erupted worldwide.

This went on for six entire months.

After repeating the same tedious task countless times, the three of them were starting to lose patience.

Finally—

The last Spacequake arrived.

This one struck Japan, obliterating an enormous circular region encompassing Southern Tokyo and Northern Kanagawa.

Once Shiroyasha saved the survivors, she sensed a new presence—someone overflowing with immense energy.

The trio hurried over—

Only to find Takamiya Mio, recently taken in by Takamiya Shinji.

At long last, she had appeared.

This meant…

The stage was finally set in Japan.

Souta and Kurumi sighed in relief—

At long last, the "prime cause" behind the Spirits' existence was confirmed.

"Alright," Souta said, "now we start dropping people back into the world."

He turned to the other two.

"Remember—don't send anyone to Japan. Everything here needs to unfold exactly as it did before."

Kurumi hesitated, her expression darkening at the sight of Mio.

She deceived me… She turned me into a murderer.

Cold rage flickered in her golden eyes.

But she quickly forced herself to remain calm.

Meanwhile, Shiroyasha…

Was already hard at work.

As the most overqualified delivery girl, she started yeeting refugees back into the timeline.