My Anime Shopping Tree & My Cold Prodigy Wife!
Episode-174

Chapter : 347

But the Major General, the soldier who had faced down ambushes in the dark, who knew that sometimes, the only way to survive the night was to unleash every single bullet you had in a blaze of desperate, overwhelming firepower, knew better. You couldn't plan for a future you didn't live to see.

The internal debate, fierce and brief, was over before it had truly begun. The soldier had won. Survival trumped strategy. Immediate power trumped future potential.

He took a deep, steadying breath, the scent of rosemary and almond from his bustling factory a strange, almost poignant, counterpoint to the grim, deadly decision he was about to make. The soap empire would continue to run, to generate the gold that would fuel his daily conversions. But the war chest, this precious, hard-won treasure of one thousand coins… it had to be spent now. It had to be forged into a weapon.

He focused his will, his gaze fixed on the System interface, on the pulsating icon that represented his loyal, powerful, and about-to-be-reborn, partner.

“System,” he commanded, his voice a quiet, resolute whisper in the silent office. “Initiate the upgrade. Transcend Fang Fairy. Now.”

The choice was made. The die was cast. The path of caution had been abandoned for the path of immediate, terrifying power. The long game would have to wait. The war for survival had just begun, and Lloyd Ferrum was cashing in all his chips for a single, desperate, and hopefully, world-shattering, opening move.

The air in the private training hall didn't just still; it became a vacuum. The moment Lloyd confirmed the command to Transcend Fang Fairy, the world seemed to hold its breath, the familiar laws of physics taking a nervous step back. This was not like the Ascension, which had felt like a contained explosion of energy. This was a rewriting of reality itself, a tearing of the veil between the physical and the spiritual, and Lloyd was at its violent, glorious epicenter.

He felt the connection to Fang Fairy, their bond a white-hot river of energy, suddenly transform. It became a vortex, a maelstrom, pulling not just on his own meager Spirit Core, but on his very soul, his life force, the essence of the eighty-year-old Major General and the nineteen-year-old Lord Ferrum combined. A guttural cry ripped from his throat, a sound of agony and ecstasy as the thousand System Coins were consumed, converted into a torrent of pure, unrefined, cosmic data that flooded their bond.

He didn't need to summon her. The process dragged her into being.

The space before him didn't just shimmer; it fractured. Cracks of pure, white-hot energy, like lightning frozen in time, spiderwebbed across the air. From these cracks, a light poured forth, not the blinding, simple white of her Ascension, but a complex, multi-hued incandescence that pulsed with the colours of a birthing star—deep violets, brilliant azures, stark, impossible whites. The light was so intense it felt solid, a physical pressure that forced Lloyd back, his boots scraping against the cracked stone floor, his hands thrown up to shield his eyes. The very stone beneath his feet began to hum, vibrating in sympathy with the cosmic frequency being unleashed. The air became thick, heavy, tasting of ozone, of storms, of the strange, clean scent of the space between worlds.

The light pulsed once, a silent, concussive boom that made the dust on the high rafters dance. It pulsed twice, and the scarred walls of the training hall groaned, new, hairline fractures appearing in the ancient stone. It pulsed a third time, and at the heart of the incandescent storm, a form began to coalesce.

The light did not fade; it was drawn inward, consumed, folded into the being it was creating. The maelstrom contracted, the violent energies tamed, shaped, given purpose. And when the last of the blinding light had been absorbed, leaving behind only the lingering scent of ozone and the faint, almost subliminal hum of immense, contained power, she stood before him.

She was the same, yet utterly, fundamentally, different.

Her form was still that of the tall, ethereal woman, but where her Ascension form had possessed a certain otherworldly smoothness, this form had a new, breathtaking definition. She was still clad in the swirling, twilight-storm-cloud bodysuit of solidified energy, but it now seemed to flow with a deeper, more complex light, subtle patterns of silver lightning tracing paths across the deep indigo, like constellations on a living night sky.

Chapter : 348

Her silver-grey hair, which had before crackled with a faint static, now seemed to be woven from pure, liquid moonlight, each strand a filament of captured energy, moving with a slow, deliberate grace even in the still air of the hall. It was longer, fuller, a cascading river of light and shadow that pooled around her feet.

But it was her face, her expression, that marked the true, profound transformation. The beautiful, blank perfection of her Ascended form, the impassive gaze of a powerful but un-sentient being, was gone. In its place was… personality. Awareness. A profound, piercing intelligence that was no longer just instinct, but true consciousness. Her golden eyes, which had always held a deep loyalty, now held a universe of thought, of understanding, of a wisdom that felt both ancient and newly born. Her features, while still impossibly, ethereally beautiful, were no longer a mask. There was a subtle curve to her lips, a hint of curiosity in the arch of her brow, a calm, self-possessed awareness that was utterly captivating, and slightly terrifying. She was no longer just a spirit, a weapon, a partner. She was a person.

She took a single, silent step forward, the movement a symphony of fluid, predatory grace. She looked at Lloyd, her golden eyes holding his, a thousand unspoken conversations passing between them in a single, shared glance.

Then, she spoke.

Her voice was not human. It was not the simple vibration of air in a larynx. It was a sound that seemed to emanate not just from her, but from the very air around them. It was a low, melodic hum, layered with the distant, gentle rumble of a coming thunderstorm and the faint, clear resonance of a struck crystal bell. It was a sound you felt in your bones as much as you heard with your ears.

“Master,” she said, the single word a perfect, harmonious chord. “The connection is… complete. I see now. I understand.”

Lloyd could only stare, his heart hammering in his chest, his mind struggling to comprehend the sheer, overwhelming reality of her. She could speak. She was sentient. The bond between them was no longer just a conduit for power; it was a bridge between two minds, two souls.

“You… you can talk,” he managed, his voice a hoarse, incredulous whisper.

A small, serene smile touched her lips, a smile that held a universe of ancient, quiet amusement. “The potential was always there, Master. The energy you provided, the catalyst from the… ‘System’… it simply unlocked the final gate. My consciousness, which was a scattered collection of instincts and impressions, has now… coalesced.”

Her golden eyes, so full of a new, profound awareness, seemed to look right through him, seeing not just the man, but the intricate, glowing interface of the System that was visible only to him.

“I can feel it now,” she murmured, her voice a low, resonant hum. “The ‘Shopping Tree’. The source of the power you wield. The currency of coins. The pathways of potential.” She tilted her head, a gesture of pure, analytical curiosity. “It is a strange, powerful, and wonderfully… illogical… force. It does not obey the known laws of this world’s magic. It imposes its own. And you, Master, are its nexus. Its chosen user.”

Lloyd’s mind reeled. She knew. She could see it. The Transcendence hadn't just given her a voice; it had deepened their bond to a level he had never imagined, giving her access to his own unique, secret reality. She could see the System.

“This changes everything,” he breathed, the words a statement of the obvious, yet feeling utterly inadequate.

“Indeed, Master,” Fang Fairy replied, her smile widening slightly. She took another step closer, the air around her crackling faintly with a gentle, contained power. “Our potential is now… shared. Your will, my power. My senses, your strategy.” Her golden eyes held his, a silent, unshakeable promise passing between them. “The ghosts from your other life, the enemies who hunt you in this one… let them come. They will find that we are no longer just a boy and his wolf.”

She raised a single, slender hand, and a single, brilliant spear of pure, white-hot lightning coalesced in her grip, its light casting their two shadows, long and sharp, against the scarred walls of the training hall.

“They will find a storm,” she declared, her voice a low, beautiful, and utterly terrifying, clap of thunder. “And we are its heart.”

---