Chapter 441 - Sneaking Into Teriu Part 1

Slamming the spear into the ground, Shiro quickly made some distance between the two of them since that gauntlet was clearly dangerous. Since it's a Celestial type weapon, she guessed that the gauntlet itself probably focuses on bypassing defences since it was actually able to deal damage to the spear itself.

With the danger of losing one of the clues that may lead them to the empress, Shiro wasn't exactly eager to fight Rialin anymore.

However, even if she wanted to escape, it didn't seem like Rialin was going to be very cooperative. Not only that, but she could also sense the royal family soldiers making their way towards her location as of this moment.

'Tch, what a mess.' She thought with a frown. Since she didn't want to lose the spear, she might as well set it aside for now. Twisting her body, she turned around and threw the spear as far as she could.

*BANG!!!

Just as she threw the spear, Rialin launched her fist towards Shiro's back.

"Oi, it's a little rude to sneak attack someone like that." Shiro replied as she ducked down and narrowly avoided the punch.

Sweeping towards Rialin's legs, she knocked her over before punching towards her temple in order to disorientate her.

Unfortunately, it seems like Rialin's defences had been bolstered with the appearance of the gauntlet since she didn't even flinch at the punch. 

Clicking her tongue, Shiro decided to cut her losses and leave the area.

Dashing past the trees, she glanced back and saw that Rialin was currently chasing her.

"Perfect." She muttered with a smile since she wanted to drag Rialin into the soldiers so that they would suffer some collateral damage.

However, she needed to be careful so that she wasn't caught. After all, if one of the soldiers had a power similar to Phillip, her plan would shatter apart.

Activating the lightning variant of her armour, she reinforced her body and increased her speed.

Thankfully, Rialin seemed to be having a hard time catching up. While she did gain incredible defences and attack, her speed didn't change at all.

Before Shiro could even sigh in relief, she saw four people falling from the sky with spears ready to pierce her body.

'Takemikazuchi Technique – Lightning Pulse.'

Flickering from her spot, she reappeared near the soldiers like a flash of lightning and punched them on the gut, forcing their bodies to curl up in pain and fall to the ground.

Suddenly a tree entered her peripherals as Shiro quickly dodged out of the way. Looking behind her, she saw that Rialin had ripped the tree out of the ground and used it as a javelin. Even now, she was pulling up more trees.

"Damn! Think about nature ok you crazy woman!" Shiro shouted out.

Landing on the ground, she shifted her armour to the Forest element and slammed her palms against the ground. A magic circle expanded out as thick tree roots shot towards Rialin and started to bind her where she stood. Frowning slightly, Rialin tried to break free with brute force but the roots stayed intact.

Taking this chance to activate her portal, Shiro scrapped the idea of dealing more damage to the soldiers since she'll just be tempting fate at that point.

"See you next time." Shiro smiled and stuck out her tongue a little.

Jumping through the portal, she disappeared from her spot.

Meanwhile, a figure was watching the entire situation from the air. She had long dark purple hair with hints of red around the edges. A pair of ruby eyes and a rather curvy figure.

She wore a dark one piece dress that had semi translucent veils attached around the shoulders and waist.

"Hmm… interesting. Even after giving that Rialin a Celestial Gauntlet that is made for destroying weapons and armour, Shiro was actually able to preserve her Celestial Spear. Hmm… her capabilities with that Kuromi is rather high for someone of her level. Maybe I should increase this trial to Celestial God rank? Nah, doing so would be overstepping my boundaries a little. Plus, they still haven't reached the main stage yet. Right now, they're still doing the tutorial so I guess I can't be too harsh." The woman muttered with a smile.

Swiping her hand, a few screens appeared in front of her as she had a top down view of the map.

"Since she's blazing through the tutorial and has even gained access to the Celestial Energy much earlier than expected, I think I can push things up a little without too much problem. Let's see… with how things are right now, they'll probably eliminate their enemies in Teriu pretty easily and weaken the royal family. The other families would probably choose to not oppose them since it's quite tricky to stop this Shiro from leaving.

"In that case then, I'll change things up a little. The tutorial will now contain 5 Celestial Grade equipment. Celestial Spear than can pierce most defences, Celestial Gauntlet that can break weapons and armour, Celestial Shield that can block fatal attacks once every three days, Celestial Armour that massively bolsters ones defence and Celestial Jewel that reduces the cost of energy per spell. With these five, she should be able to complete the upgraded version of the main trial. Of course, to make things fair, I'll need to make sure that these items aren't easily obtainable like what happened with the spear or else the system may deem it as me making things favourable for the girl. To test her even more during the main trial, I'll give the 'enemies' a little gift as well." She said with a smile.

Once she was finished with the changes, she dismissed the screens and started to make her way towards the capital of this country.

[Warning: You are starting to interfere too much with the trial. Should the results be deemed to be harmful, you will be punished rather than rewarded for your balancing efforts.]

"Yeah yeah I know. Just observe things like you always have."

###

Jumping out of the portal, Shiro flexed her finger and teleported the spear back to her.

"You're finally here. You had me a bit worried there." Kuromi sighed in relief.

"Don't worry, I won't go down that easily. I've also managed to get some information during the fight. The woman, who I was battling against, has a weapon similar to the spear only this time it's a gauntlet." Shiro said with a frown.

"Oh? There's another weapon similar to the Celestial Spear?" Kuromi raised her eyebrows.

"Yep. Look, it even managed to damage the body of the spear. I think I'll need to be a little careful from now on since who knows if another Celestial Weapon will just appear like that." Shiro replied while handing Kuromi the spear.

Looking at the damage done to the spear, Kuromi narrowed her eyes as she thought about some things before giving the weapon back.

"I don't think we can repair this easily so we'll try to get you a different weapon to use and have the spear as a trump card. For now though, we have bigger matters to handle. Despite our ambush, there are still quite a few soldiers left so I don't think this will stop them from going to Teriu. Our next step would be to 'help' Teriu while sabotaging their defences so that the enemies can break into the city." Kuromi said with a smile.

"I'm guessing that this would make assassinating the leaders easier." Shiro chuckled since the main guards would be too busy dealing with the invaders. Of course, there may be a chance that the leaders evacuate the city like cowards during battle but that would only make it easier for Shiro to kill them all.

"Yup. Only problem left is our appearances. I'm pretty sure that most of the families in Teriu know of the shadow guards and our appearance after the battle that destroyed our family so we'll need to think of something to help us bypass this. We can't go for masks either since that would just draw in more suspicion." Kuromi furrowed her brows as Shiro closed her eyes for a moment.

"Hmm… why don't we just sneak our way in and help out while being undetected? Don't we need to be stealthy to sabotage the defences anyways?"

"I gues- actually... Shiro, quick question."

"Go on, I'm listening."

"How many people can you transport at once with your portals?"

"As many people as I want as long as I have the energy to move them through the rift. If I'm correct about my guess as to what you're planning then yes, I can transport everyone here." Shiro replied as Kuromi smiled.

"In that case then we've basically got our express ticket into Teriu without being detected."