Chapter 106 - Infiltration mission

Words : 1046 Updated : Oct 7th, 2025

Chapter 106: Chapter 106 - Infiltration mission PoV: Lovelace That Aurea sometimes give me such a headache... The worst part is the way she makes me feel like the time I was with that woman. But, that aside, I have a mission to focus on. I’m going to infiltrate the main church of the capital. In this building, the isolated area extends deep underground, and from there it forms some sort of branching, like a dungeon excavated underground. I’m too curious about it, and this is something I can’t do with anyone else. I have to come alone. Because even Aurea couldn’t mimic my shadow jumping ability, and that’s the thing that will allow me to get into that place. Then, I’m sorry, but I won’t wait for her free weekends to do this. Actually, I was waiting for her to go to the school so I could do this more freely. It’s late at night, and few people walk through the streets at this hour. I’m on top of a tall building close to the church. I again extend my perception outwards, hearing everything in a big radius around me. I mean, almost everything. The inside of the temple is completely cut off from my perception range. I can listen perfectly to what a couple is whispering at the other side of it, but nothing from within the building itself. From my position I can see two priests chatting at an open side door, but I can’t hear them either. In any case, that’s a good cue for me. I melt into the shadow of the building, then I jump to the shadow of a person that is walking on the street. I can jump to whatever shadow that I can see, within a certain range. It’s tiresome and draining, but it’s as stealthy as anyone can be. Perfect for what I’m doing right now. When the person in whose shadow I hitchhiked in passes near the temple, I jump to its shadow. In a shadow as big as the one of a whole building, it would be easy to walk around, in theory. In practice, that big shadow is actually broken down in pieces by small lights. Any lamp or open window can break the shadow, so I actually still have to jump around. If anyone was paying attention to the lights and shadows of the scene, they would be able to see a blob of darkness ’jumping’ from one shadow to the next, very quickly. At least almost nobody would pay attention to that, and even then, most people would dismiss it as a trick of the eye or something like that. Only someone who knows exactly what they are looking for would be able to notice me. And I don’t think that the priests here know much about this kind of ability. And this is how I finally manage to reach the shadows of the two priests by the door. From what they are saying, it seems that one is going out and the other is staying, so I quickly jump to the shadow of the one who’s staying. I wait patiently for them to finish their conversation, then stay quietly in the priest’s shadow as he gets into the temple. So far, so good. He is probably heading to the dorms, which is not the place I want to go, so I jump out to the shadow of a chair as he passes by it. I am in what appears to be a dining hall for the temple workers. It’s empty, as dinner time was already over a couple hours ago, and most people have gone to their quarters. From the shadows I can easily sense other shadows and ’listen’ to what’s going on around them, but other forms of perception extension are a lot harder. So I scurry from shadow to shadow until I find a closed storeroom. As a shadow, it’s quite easy to slip in under the door, and then I get back into my human form. Good, nobody noticed me until now, and the only way to find me here would be to open the door, and I would have plenty of time to flee into the shadows again. In human form, I extend my perception outwards to sense everything that is happening inside the temple. As I expected, all sounds and mana from outside the temple are blocked, so it’s impossible to know what is going on outside from the inside. Also, as I expected, there is a space at the center of the ground floor of the building that is closed off, as well as everything that is underground. There is no sign of the Pontifex in the accessible areas. I’m certain that he is inside, because I saw him enter before the sunset, and he never came out. He must be in the enclosed area, then. And there is where I shall go now. I melt down into the shadows again and scurry through the floor, heading inside. The halls and corridors are mostly empty, and the few people around are focused on their tasks. I pass the praying and studying priests quickly and without being noticed. I don’t feel any holy power from this place. Instead, there is a sense of unease and fear coming from the priests. Until I finally find the entrance to the closed area. It’s a fine door made of carved wood coated with gold. The bas-relief seems to be depicting the victory in the war of more than a thousand years ago. There is a huge problem, though. The hall that I have to traverse to reach that door is completely lit. There is no furniture; it’s an empty room with murals that depict the life of Juno. And there’s an ambiance light that doesn’t seem to come from any place in particular and reaches all places equally. That means that there are no shadows for me to jump to. Even the underside of the door seems to not project any shadows whatsoever. I’m stuck; it is simply not possible to push forward right now. I’ll head back to the palace. Though I should note that even this lit room doesn’t have any sort of holy aura.

Chapter 106 - Infiltration mission

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