“Heh~ So you and Kuromi merged together in a way?” Lyrica asked curiously.
“Somewhat. I’m still the dominant personality but think of it as me inheriting her memories. I know everything that she’s gone through.” Shiro replied with a smile.
“I see…”
While they were talking about the merge of Kuromi and Shiro, Aarim was rather curious about the exact details but decided not to voice her questions since that would be a little too insensitive.
However, there was something she could do and that was to look at her true nature. From what she’d heard, it seemed like she had been looking at Kuromi all along and that was keeping a veil on Shiro’s nature.
If she looked now, Aarim knew that what she saw would be Shiro in her truest form.
Activating her skill, she glanced towards Shiro in order to see her true nature.
‘What the…’
Shocked to the point where she could not even speak in her mind, Aarim couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
A graceful figure floated around Shiro as its body was akin to a faint blue membrane in the shape of a woman. Within this membrane, it seemed to contain a galaxy. There was darkness but there was also the warm embrace of the sun. Her expression was serene as it would put anyone in a calm mood.
The figure seemed to sway gently and every move would cause the stars to shift.
Making eye contact with the figure, Aarim noticed a small flicker of sentience that soon faded as the figure continued to watch over Shiro.
‘Could that be Kuromi?’ Aarim wondered to herself before shaking her head. She wasn’t too familiar with the workings of true natures so she couldn’t say for sure. But she didn’t want to say anything since it would be akin to giving Shiro false hope should it not be what they thought it was.
“Now then. On to the more important topic. What’s this about you getting into trouble with the church?” Shiro asked as she glanced towards Lisandra.
“Urg… don’t remind me.” Lisandra sighed since she wasn’t exactly happy about the situation.
“Basically, they want to appoint me as a core member of the church, saying crap like ‘it’s my duty as an angel.’ Not only that, they’re asking me about which god I worship along with my goals of coming down here. But even after I told them the truth, I worship no god and my goal in coming here is to follow you mum, they still don’t believe me. They have even tried to offer me a bunch of benefits but I wasn’t interested.” Lisandra replied.
“Hmm… That’s rather annoying isn’t it? Kind of like a salesman who keeps knocking on your door or calling your number despite you saying no.” Shiro muttered while leaning back a little.
“Tell me about it.” Lisandra nodded.
“What have you done about it so far?” Shiro asked. As her daughter, surely Lisandra wouldn’t be too passive about it right?
“Well… I tried to refuse as best as I could and even release my aura but all that did was make them bow more. Rather than intimidation, my aura was apparently ‘holy’ and it made them want to worship me. Saying things like ‘Ah yes, this is truly the aura of a higher being!'” Lisandra replied while poking her fingers together.
“. . .” Staying silent, Shiro could see why Lisandra had so much trouble with them. It was akin to dealing with masochists.
The more you hit them, the happier they get or in her case, the more she displays her aura, the happier the church is.
“It’s been tough on you, dealing with religious masochists.” Shiro sighed.
“Ha? When were masochists in this conversation?” Madison raised her eyebrow in confusion.
“I mean… masochists like it the more you hit them, right? Isn’t the church the same to Lisandra?” Shiro asked with a wave of her hand.
“. . .Holy f*ck you’re right.” Madison paused for a moment in surprise.
“Alright, enough about masochists and what not. I’ve sent a message to Keiko and Keomi for them to meet us in this city. Keiko’s still doing some work in the front lines so she might take a while but Keomi is arriving in around a weeks’ time. In the 7 days that we have, we’ll do some dungeon clearing along with this church business that you have going on. Of course, if we can’t deal with it, I don’t mind showing them some force as well for bothering my daughter.” Shiro smiled.
“Um, mum, they have level 200’s in their ranks. I don’t think it’s a good idea to face them at your current state.” Lisandra warned with concern.
“Mn? Oh you’re worried about that. I forgot to tell you but my body has completely recovered.” Shiro grinned as the party paused once more.
“Wait, your links are healed?!” they cried out in shock.
“Yup. One of the rewards for completing the trial was a complete recovery. My links are now in perfect condition. If you’re curious about what my power is like, you can just search up recent news about Mount Fuji.” Shiro smiled.
“Oh I also caused a bit of trouble on my way here and I’ve been issued a level 3 dangerous person ID. I’ve put up a barrier so that they can’t see us.” She continued.
“Wait, you were issued a level 3 dangerous person ID? What the hell did you do!?” Madison asked with shock.
“Well… it’s better for you to see.” Shiro smiled and passed them a photo that she printed out secretly. The photo was a scene of what had happened after she fought the fighting dummy and it displayed the destruction in all of its glory.
“Mind you, I did try to hold back since I don’t know what 100% of my power is like.” She shrugged as the party looked at her like she was a monster.
‘Ah wait, she IS a monster.’
As they looked at the picture, Madison managed to find a clip of what had happened on Mount Fuji and they watched the hundreds upon thousands of magic circles suddenly appear around Shiro within a single moment.
“Damn, Shiro are we still using the same system?” Madison asked jokingly.
“I do believe so. But regardless, if you’re still curious why don’t we level up some more then? We’ll go to a high level dungeon and clear it for some levels.” Shiro smiled.
“Oh? What dungeon do you have in mind?” Lyrica asked
“How about the level 150 dungeon, The Abyssal Crypt?” Shiro suggested.
“Sure. Me and the party have been doing a level 140 dungeon for a few days now and I think it’s about time we got an upgrade.” Lyrica nodded with a smile.
“Great. In that case then let’s go. Oh but before that, I think I’ll need to put my disguise back on.” Shiro said as she changed her appearance back once more so that she looked more like Atesh’s mum.
Seeing Shiro stand up, Yin was a little unhappy that her time with Atesh was cut short as she quickly floated up to his side.
“Can I hold him?” Yin asked as Shiro raised her eyebrow.
“You want to hold him?”
“Yeah.” Yin nodded.
“Hmm… sure. Just so you know, if you drop him, I’ll be starving you for a week.” Shiro warned.
Nodding her head, Yin carefully held Attie in her embrace as a smile crept up on her face.
“Lisa! Look, he’s so small!” Yin called out with giddiness as Lisandra chuckled.
Leaving the three siblings to have fun with each other, Shiro edited the illusion to look like she had just met up with some friends.
“Speaking of which, why have you disguised yourself like this?” Lyrica asked curiously while walking next to Shiro.
“Mn? Well if I destroy the church, I wouldn’t want to make an enemy of every church in the world now do I?”
“You know, if you wanted to do that can’t you just make a new illusion when you fight them?” Lyrica asked.
*Cough!
“Fine, but don’t tell anyone the truth ok?” Shiro coughed before leaning close to Lyrica’s ear.
Feeling Shiro’s breath near her, Lyrica couldn’t help but blush as her ears twitched a little.
“Attie is just too cute ok!? I want to look more like his mother.” Shiro whispered the truth into Lyrica’s ear.
“What are you whispering to each other about there? Could it be talks of romance?” Madison called out with a smile.
“Nothing~ You’re overthinking it.” Shiro laughed before walking back to Attie so that she could hold him more.
Making their way towards the dungeon gate, they entered the level 150 dungeon, The Abyssal Crypt.
