Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 512 Reckless Charge
Unlike typical sneak attacks, Li Wei did not choose the night; instead, he chose to launch his operation in broad daylight.

As the Night Raven pierced the sky, hurtling towards the Holy Spirit Church, the headquarters of the Holy Bishop of the City, its shadow swept across the streets with a loud roar, causing everyone on the street to instinctively look up at the sky. Then they saw a strange black shadow fly past them, and then…

He crashed headfirst into the Church of the Holy Spirit.

"What happened?"

The Krant soldiers on guard duty were taken aback.

Was that an attack?

"The Empire has invaded?"

"It's a cannonball!?"

People eventually learn from their mistakes. The Empire figured out Krant's tactics, and Krant had some understanding of the Empire's combat methods. Although they hadn't fully summarized them, they at least knew that the Empire's favorite tactic was to launch a bombardment before the battle even began, completely crushing the enemy's resistance, followed by airship bombardment, and then the ground advance of mechs and infantry.

At this moment, it's hard to say whether this is a signal of an imperial attack!

"Beep beep beep—!"

Soon, the piercing alarm sounded, and the Krant soldiers tensed up, quickly returning to their camp to prepare for a possible Imperial attack.

As for that strange black shadow, well, Krant had no idea that the Empire had built flying mechs; they thought it was a shell that had gone astray!
At the same time, the Night Raven had already smashed through the glass and rushed into the Church of the Holy Spirit.

"Ping pong!"

The magnificent stained glass windows, painted with images of praise to the Holy Spirit, were shattered instantly. Then, a massive, black steel mech flew in, followed by a burst of scorching air from beneath it, which counteracted the impact. It then crashed to the ground with a thud, shattering the clear, mirror-smooth floor.

"Hooray! That's awesome! I've wanted to do this for ages!"

Katie excitedly raised her hands and cheered loudly. It seemed she had wanted to tear down this dilapidated church for quite some time.

Sister Elizabeth, on the other hand, was ashen-faced and trembling uncontrollably.

"A well-preserved image of the Holy Spirit in prayer, dating back to the Fourth Age... This is the symbol of a holy bishop..."

She didn't even dare to look back at the broken glass window, feeling as if she had committed a heinous crime.

"Perhaps the Holy Bishop will soon cease to exist."

Li Wei, who was in charge of piloting the mecha, naturally didn't care about this at all.

"Alright, where do we go next?"

"………………………"

Upon hearing Li Wei's question, Sister Elizabeth forcibly suppressed her inner turmoil and looked around through the observation window.

"Keep walking straight down the corridor to the end, then turn right. That's the passage to the underground cathedral."

Are you sure this is the place?

"Yes."

Sister Elizabeth nodded.

"If there's one place in the entire headquarters that's most mysterious and unpredictable, it's the Underground Grand Cathedral. I've heard that people here don't even dare to mention it casually. I only learned about the Underground Grand Cathedral by chance when I overheard a conversation..."

As she spoke, Sister Elizabeth couldn't help but recall that time. Back then, she was just a novice nun who had achieved excellent academic results and was able to come to the Holy Bishop's Headquarters for further studies. All she had to do were some chores like cleaning, and the rest of her time was spent praying and studying the scriptures.

One day, Sister Elizabeth was wiping the statue when she suddenly heard faint voices coming from not far away.

"Today... mission..."

“…I know…it’s…the turn of the Underground Cathedral…”

Sister Elizabeth paid no attention to it at the time, focusing intently on her work. A moment later, the conversation ceased. Then, a few moments later, Sister Elizabeth saw two nuns emerge from the other side. They walked towards her, and Sister Elizabeth instinctively stepped back, bowing slightly in greeting.

But the next moment, Elizabeth saw one of the nuns reach out her hand. Before she could react, everything spun around her, and then, accompanied by a cold collision and pain, Elizabeth realized that she had been forced to the ground by the nun, who was grabbing her neck and looking at her coldly.

"What did you hear!?"

"Hey?"

Faced with the nun's aggressive questioning, Elizabeth's mind went blank. She had no idea how to answer. She only felt the nun's grip tighten, making it hard to breathe. Then Elizabeth's vision went black, and she fainted.

When Elizabeth woke up again, the two nuns were no longer in the corridor. If it weren't for the scar on her neck, Elizabeth would have thought she was dreaming.

But that wasn't a dream.

This incident left a deep impression on Elizabeth, as it was the first time she had encountered such pure and terrifying murderous intent. Moreover, it happened at the Holy Bishop's headquarters, which Elizabeth found hard to believe. After all, in her view, the people at the Holy Bishop's headquarters were all devout and good people; why would anyone want to kill someone over a mere disagreement?
He almost got killed just because he suspected he had heard something?
However, Elizabeth was very clever. Instead of inquiring further, she pretended to know nothing and continued her work. After all, they had almost killed her simply because they suspected she had overheard something. If they discovered she was still gathering information, it would likely be even more dangerous.

And so, Elizabeth gradually put the matter out of her mind until graduation, when her supervising priest led her to this corridor.

"Your performance is outstanding, the best in this term. Congratulations on becoming a full nun, Elizabeth."

"And now, I have one last thing to tell you."

As he spoke, the priest led Elizabeth through the corridor to a heavy door. Elizabeth was surprised to find that this door was different from the doors in the rest of the church; the doors in other churches were made of wood, but this one was made of stone.

And for some reason, the patterns carved on it felt both familiar and strange to Elizabeth.

"Behind this door lies our Holy Bishop's greatest secret."

"Huh?" "This church is not just a church, it's a fortress."

The priest's expression was very devout and holy.

"Behind this is a great underground sanctuary, where we can witness the miracles of the Lord."

"The Holy Lord's...miracle?"

Upon hearing this, Elizabeth's mind was suddenly reminded of that incident. She remembered clearly that she had indeed heard the term "Underground Cathedral," and it was after that that she was almost killed by two nuns.

"Yes."

The priest did not notice anything unusual about Elizabeth and simply nodded.

"With your abilities, you will surely enter the Holy Bishop's Headquarters in the future. At that time, you will be able to witness the miracles bestowed upon us by the great Holy Lord, just like us. At that time, you will know why we exist."

This passage left a very deep impression on Elizabeth. However, due to many events that followed, she joined the Puritan Church, thus parting ways with the Orthodox Church, and naturally could not return to the headquarters.

Of course, Elizabeth would sometimes think back to those days—she was also very curious about what that so-called underground cathedral and the miraculous gift from the Holy Lord were.

Especially after becoming an examiner, Elizabeth became increasingly curious, after all, she knew that many exorcisms and miracles in the common folk were nothing more than fabricated stories to deceive people. So what kind of miracle was the one unanimously recognized by all the clergy at the Holy Bishop's Headquarters?

That's why, when Levi asked Sister Elizabeth what was the most suspicious place in the Holy Bishop's Headquarters Church, she immediately thought of the underground cathedral.

Perhaps deep down, I'm just as curious about what's there.

I never expected her to return here in this way.

"Intruders!"

The shouts suddenly brought Sister Elizabeth back to reality from her reverie. She looked ahead and saw several paladins holding longswords and shields, standing without hesitation in front of a mech that was many times larger than themselves.

"Intruders, get out! This isn't your place..."

However, Li Wei clearly had no intention of listening to their nonsense. The moment these paladins appeared, he had already moved the cannon muzzle and aimed it forward.

"boom-----!"

Explosions and flames instantly filled the entire corridor, engulfing the paladins who had just been righteously reprimanding them. Li Wei suddenly accelerated, maneuvering his mech to roar across the corridor like a cannonball heading towards the stone door at the end!

"The enemy's target is the underground cathedral. Stop them!"

Seeing this, the paladins were also shocked. They shouted and rushed from behind, charging towards the mech at superhuman speed.

But the mechs were faster than they had imagined!

"Mr. Li Wei, we're about to crash!"

"pay close attention!"

Li Wei gritted his teeth, looked at the stone gate ahead, raised the cannon barrel in his hand, aimed, and then fired.

"Boom boom boom!!"

As shells were fired from the cannon barrels, they struck the stone gate directly. Sparks flew as the massive, heavy stone gate exploded and crumbled, collapsing downwards. Li Wei accelerated, maneuvering his mech forward. Behind him, the stone gate collapsed completely, burying the passage behind it.

"Oh my god..."

Sister Elizabeth held her head in her hands, at a loss for words. They had practically turned the entire Holy Bishop's headquarters upside down, and now, contrary to her usual self, Sister Elizabeth was hoping they could find some useful evidence here.

Otherwise... how else can this be explained?

Although the Qingli sect and the orthodox sect have differences in their understanding of doctrine, they at least believe in God!

Holy Lord, please bless me.

Sister Elizabeth gripped the All-Knowing Eye tightly in her hand, not even knowing what she was praying for.

I don't know if praying for God's blessing will still be of any use now.

But what can she do?

However, before Sister Elizabeth could finish praying, she suddenly felt as if she were falling rapidly!
"Mr. Li Wei!?"

"There's a big hole inside."

Levi gripped the control stick tightly and spoke to Sister Elizabeth without turning his head. After rushing into the room, Levi found nothing but a huge, vertical cave. The mech that had charged in naturally fell straight in.

The wind howled past the mecha, and just when Elizabeth thought she was about to be smashed into a pulp, a huge impact came from below. A moment later, the mecha landed smoothly on the ground with a loud "bang".

"We are here..."

"It seems this should be the bottom of the cave."

As Li Wei spoke, he turned on the searchlight. A blinding white light emanated from the mecha, instantly dispelling the surrounding darkness and revealing the entity that had been hidden beneath the veil of darkness.

"What...what is this?"

Sister Elizabeth was completely stunned by the scene before her.

(End of this chapter)