While the city was enjoying the parade, Shiro took this time to try sending a drone into the cathedral.
Since most of the guards were around the hero, the cathedral was mostly unguarded.
‘Hmm… even if the defences are weakened, the formations are still a bit problematic.’ Shiro thought with a frown.
{My queen, you know how you said that there should be an entrance on the bottom?}
‘Yeah?’
{What if you attack both of them at the same time with your drones? That way, you can see which side has the largest amount of defences and attack the weak one.} Nimue suggested.
‘Hmm… that’s quite plausible. Why not, let’s do this.’ Shiro nodded after a short moment.
Making two advanced drones that can at least fight for its own survival, she made it so that they can both change forms at any time so that they can handle flight and land travel.
Throwing them in the air, she had them change into birds and fly towards their respective destinations.
Once they were within range of their targets, they shifted to resemble a floating drill.
“Let’s do this.” She muttered with a grin.
Encasing the both of them with Celestial path, she sent them shooting towards the barriers.
*PING!!!
A loud glass shattering sound could be heard as everyone looked towards the cathedral in shock.
All of the guards immediately changed directions and dashed towards the cathedral while the hero followed behind them.
If there was an attack on the cathedral, there was no way that he could just sit by and do nothing.
Meanwhile, Shiro closed her eyes and controlled the drones manually.
One was digging towards the biggest source of nanobots under the island while the other was manoeuvring through the cathedral.
With her memory of how the cathedral would normally be set up, she was able to make her way through with relative success.
However, as the security was increasing, she had to make sure that she was both quick and careful with how she controls the drone.
Activating the sensors, she had the drone deploy small nanobots and map out the surrounding area in an attempt to find an entrance that leads underground.
It didn’t take her too long to find it as it was located near the back room where they keep most of the props that were used for each church session.
‘Hmm… that would be a bit troublesome to get to.’ She thought with a frown.
As for the second drone, it was still trying to make its way through the underside but with slow progress since the material was reinforced several times. Even if it could cancel out the mana to some degree, it was still quite a chore for it to dig through.
{My queen, why don’t you invade the cathedral first. When they discover you, they will concentrate most of their manpower on you. Once that happens, you could use rift walker to get out and enter through the underside since the drone should have made a path for you.} Nimue suggested.
‘Hmm… but there’s the problem of people that might be over level 100’s in the cathedral. If they do appear, there’s a big chance that they could just cancel out my skill and I’ll be cornered. At that point, I’ll be forced to use my berserk skills to escape and if I don’t leave quick enough, I’ll be killed you know?’ Shiro shook her head.
{Then what do you suggest my queen?}
‘How about I conceal myself as one of the worshippers and sneak in? It may disgust me to no end since I’ll be wearing the annoying goddess’s church attire, but it’s a small price to pay for not fighting B ranked powerhouses.’
{But what if they’re suspicious of your identity? After all, I’m sure that most of them will be concerned about a newcomer that they have never seen before.} Nimue warned.
‘True. But I think I’ll use the hero for this. Since he’s rather naïve right now, I can trick him and have him take me to the base without raising suspicion. If anything, I’ll just say that I’m a new priestess who can’t fight. After all, I’ll just use my life fire to heal. No biggie.’ Shiro shrugged.
{So instead of killing him, you’re using him? I suppose you are sparing him after all but what about your choice of changing him?}
‘Well… it’s just an illusion so anything goes really. Plus, think of it as a mutual partnership. He’ll probably want to stop the scientists from experimenting on children while I want the intel. It’s a win-win situation.’ Shiro chuckled shamelessly.
{Tsk, shameless.}
‘I call it taking advantage of the situation.’
{So shameless then?}
Flicking her wrists, she had her nanobots create the holy church’s priestess outfit.
Looking at Shiro wearing the white and gold attire, Nimue had to admit that it looked rather good on her. Of course, that was if she ignored her face of absolute disgust.
Taking a deep breath, Shiro suppressed her feelings of rejection and put on a neutral/ worried face.
“Now then, let’s give our hero a little greeting.” She smiled.
Flickering towards the cathedral, she blended herself into the crowd of church members.
Naturally, she suppressed her aura so that most people wouldn’t even spare a glance at her.
Once she was inside the church, she slowly separated herself from the ground and ran to where the hero was.
‘He should be around the corner.’ She thought to herself as she prepared to ‘accidentally’ bump into the hero.
*Bang!
Crashing into him, she fell back with a soft cry.
Before she could even land, the hero quickly grabbed her waist and stopped her from falling.
“Are you ok?” He asked with naïve worry.
Suppressing her urge to shake his hand off, Shiro nodded her head gently.
“Um… what’s happening? The barrier broke all of a sudden.” She replied softly while looking up at the hero with ‘clueless’ eyes.
*Dabump!
Feeling his heart suddenly beat at the beauty that was in front of him, Aekari quickly turned his face away.
“I’m not sure. My guess is that it should be an intruder and from what the guards say, they discovered a foreign signal from the back room. By the way, I don’t think I’ve seen you around.” He asked while trying to calm his blush.
“Ah um… I’m new to the church. I wasn’t supposed to leave today but the barrier broke so I wanted to help. You’re the light hero right? Is it ok if I follow you? I can heal you with my skill if you need.” Shiro asked while tugging at his coat.
‘F*cken kill me!’ She cried out in her mind.
{Resist it my queen, think about volume 4 of the research.} Nimue cheered while trying to suppress her laugh.
‘I can hear you! Damn it!’
“Ah of course. What’s your name?” Aekari nodded his head while sneaking a glance back at her face.
“Shiro. It’s a foreign name that means white.” She smiled.
“Ah a foreign name, it’s beautiful.” Aekari praised.
“Thank you.” Shiro replied while hiding her face.
Meanwhile, her internal self was currently in the process of throwing up in disgust at her act.
“Do you know how to get to the back room?” Aekari asked with a smile.
“Not really since I’m new. That being said, I don’t think I met most of the guards yet so they might not know me.” Shiro frowned slightly.
“It’s ok, I’ll help you. Let’s go, the longer we wait, the more time the culprit has.” He nodded his head and started to jog towards the backroom.
Naturally, he had no idea that the real culprit was beside him.
Making their way to the back room, they bumped into a few guards who the hero just said that Shiro was with him and they nodded.
When they arrived, they saw several paladins with a frown while standing in front of a hole that led deep underground.
“What happened?” Aekari asked with a frown while walking beside the captain.
“We don’t know how but it seems like there was a base under the cathedral this whole time. No one knows when this appeared but there’s quite a lot of weak life signatures underneath which suggests that there are people on the verge of death.” The captain replied with a shake of his head.
“What!? Then what are we waiting for!?” Aekari widened his eyes.
“Shiro, do you want me to help you jump down?” Aekari asked.
“Ah it’s fine. I don’t want to trouble the hero too much.” Shiro shook her head.
Nodding his head, Aekari pulled out his holy sword and jumped into the hole while Shiro followed behind.
‘This better be worth it!’ Shiro cried out in her mind since she was regretting her decision of pulling off this act.
