Awakening (Continued)

Damn it, had Otto's Siren Project already developed a new product?

So that was it.

Her previous guess had been correct.

This kid really was the backup plan left behind by Otto.

Forcibly suppressing the Herrscher's power, the sedative that calmed the Herrscher down, plus the application of an ability suspected to be from the Siren Project...

No wonder Otto felt so confident of victory this time, even letting her act freely to boldly use her.

He had far too many cards in his hand.

"Hey buddy, I'm really curious—after you let me go, won't Otto actually blame you?"

"Mr. Siegfried, I know you have prejudices against Bishop Otto, but I hope you can understand one thing—he's genuinely just evil, not stupid."

Lin Yu, who had already started taking out ropes to secure Mei to his own body, spoke to Siegfried without even turning his head.

"With your current combat strength, you can't cause him trouble. Moreover, Cocolia is wreaking havoc right now. Anyone with a normal IQ between you and your Anti-Entropy friends would want to deal with that Honkai-triggering beast first."

"You're no threat to Bishop Otto, but you're a huge threat to Cocolia. If I let you go here, Lord Bishop will only think I did a good job—besides, I couldn't beat you anyway, you're giving me way too much credit."

No, I felt there was a huge problem with that sentence alone.

Even I couldn't beat a Herrscher, yet you knocked one down with a single punch, and you call that unable to beat them???

Outer Area of Changkong City

Within this region, Major Murata Himeko, an A-rank Valkyrie of the Far East Branch, was currently furrowing her brows and pondering some matters while looking at the various data displayed on the console.

"Major Himeko, we can confirm that the Herrscher's signature... has truly vanished."

"Tch, what's going on? This shouldn't be happening."

After sitting back down in her chair, Himeko began to review the events that had just transpired.

This mission was a large-scale operation taking place in the Far East. As the ace of the Far East Branch, Himeko naturally participated alongside her old friend and unreliable superior, Theresa Apocalypse.

Regarding a major mission where a Herrscher could descend at any moment, Himeko felt that Headquarters' configuration of two S-ranks plus a former S-rank, an A-rank, and a battleship wasn't absurd at all.

After all, a Herrscher was an enemy that demanded such serious treatment.

Only, prior to the Herrscher's manifestation, Theresa had been forced to leave the Hyperion by Bishop Otto's orders and head to Changkong City to execute another task.

Meanwhile, Himeko, left behind here, had no choice but to follow Bishop Otto's instructions and choose to remain on standby.

And then the Honkai erupted just like that.

Himeko desperately wanted to drive the battleship charging in, but the problem was that she had to be responsible for the lives of her subordinates.

The Second Herrscher had once defeated three S-rank combatants: Siegfried Kaslana, Cecilia Sania, and Theresa Apocalypse, all of whom wielded Divine Keys at the time.

And now, even if the Third Herrscher possessed only a fraction of the Second Herrscher's strength, it was still not something the Hyperion could contend with.

Admittedly, Himeko could connect to the ace Nexus system aboard the Hyperion and utilize Honkai Energy at an intensity of up to a staggering 1320 units for combat, but the price of such a trump card was immense.

Himeko's lifespan was already short due to special reasons, and utilizing such a high-load system would only reduce her naturally brief lifespan until it flickered like a candle in the wind.

Of course, it wasn't that Himeko was unwilling to risk her life; it was primarily because she had asked Theresa about intelligence regarding Herrscher entities.

And Theresa had told Himeko that a Herrscher's awakening would erupt with a massive Honkai burst at an intensity of 1000 units, while the Honkai Energy a Herrscher could wield far exceeded that level in terms of power.

On one side was a 1320-intensity output that required burning away her lifespan, and on the other was a Herrscher capable of casually unleashing even higher-intensity attacks.

If she charged in like a reckless hothead under these circumstances, she would most likely be blasted into molecules by the Herrscher along with her entire ship.

In reality, the moment the Herrscher manifested, she had already notified Theresa, and Theresa's side had stated outright that the other two S-ranks had also received orders and were currently preparing to advance toward the location of the Herrscher's eruption.

Yet just within these past few minutes, Himeko had abruptly received an awkward new report.

The intensity of the Honkai Energy met the standard, but the rate of diffusion was extremely sluggish; Honkai Beasts had also appeared, but their mass and quality weren't very formidable either.

Most crucially, the Herrscher's signature had vanished.

Not having to fight for her life alongside her subordinates was certainly a good thing, but Himeko currently felt that this situation wasn't right.

A Herrscher wouldn't simply vanish out of thin air.

Its signature had disappeared—did it suddenly drop dead... That was obviously impossible either.

There had indeed been fluctuations of battle erupting from that side earlier, but Himeko didn't believe that anyone in this world right now could solo a Herrscher within the span of a few minutes.

Rather than believing someone had soloed a Herrscher, she would rather believe that the Herrscher had slain its enemies and then intentionally gone into hiding to bide its time and cook up another major disaster.

Although Herrscher entities were enemies of humanity, they had all been human before turning into Herrscher beings.

They possessed human intelligence, human cunning, and coupled with that deep malice toward humanity, it was enough for Himeko to prepare for the worst-case scenario.

Yet now, because Headquarters was aware of this intelligence, a new problem had arisen.

The three S-ranks weren't coming here because Bishop Otto judged that the Herrscher was gone and told them to continue executing their missions.

If anything truly went wrong, Himeko would still have to pilot the Nexus and drag everyone on the whole ship into a desperate, life-or-death gamble with the Herrscher.

She couldn't make sense of it.

In the face of such a major issue like a Herrscher, what else could possibly be considered more important in Bishop Otto's eyes?

"Major Himeko, it's bad!"

"Is it the Herrscher?!"

Himeko, who had already raised her guard, now looked toward the light screen above the console.

Then, she paused.

"No, not the Herrscher."

"It's Anti-Entropy! These bastards actually launched a shameless sneak attack at a time like this!"

Cocolia was feeling a terrible headache right now.

Originally, her plan had been a resounding success.

She had induced Raiden Mei's awakening, subsequently subdued her, and extracted the core before proceeding to the next stage of operations.

Moreover, with Gray Serpent's assistance, Cocolia had successfully transmitted that message to Raiden Mei.

Tesla certainly couldn't have been brainless enough to transmit that message directly outward.

In reality, that 'Tesla' at the time was a voice-dubbing generated by Gray Serpent through an AI voice system.

After hacking into Anti-Entropy's communication system and using the synthesized voice to broadcast those lines, Gray Serpent's mission was complete.

Furthermore, Siegfried was still on the Herrscher of Thunder's side; as long as Cocolia arrived at the scene in time, she could also have Siegfried exhaust the Herrscher of Thunder's power before placing both parties under arrest on the spot.

However, right now, Cocolia felt that the problem had blown up massively.

The area where Raiden Mei had awakened no longer showed any fluctuations of battle.

This indicated that Siegfried and Raiden Mei either hadn't fought, or the fight was already over.

And—Schicksal's battleship was right here.

The Herrscher's signature had even vanished.

The Herrscher signature vanishing, the battle ending, Schicksal's battleship being right here...

Connecting all these pieces of intelligence together, Cocolia instantly thought of a disastrous conclusion.

What the fuck, the duck that was already cooked and ready in my hands actually flew away and then got intercepted by Schicksal?

How could anyone endure this!

Damn it, if only the Quantum Teleportation System hadn't been unfinished... It was all the fault of those two stubborn old hags, Tesla and Einstein, for refusing to recognize my vision.

If they had just acknowledged me, I would have handed this technology over for them to research long ago!

Calm down, Cocolia, the problem isn't that massive yet.

The Hyperion might look difficult to deal with, but the issue was that her goal wasn't to punch through the Hyperion; it was to snatch the Herrscher out of their hands.

As long as she could have the Titan Brigade push their way into the interior of the Hyperion, she would be able to retreat once she grabbed the person and pulled back.

As for the Valkyrie forces... Hmph, weren't the ones cultivated by St. Freya Academy of the Far East Branch just a bunch of flowers raised in a greenhouse?

Having just fought a Herrscher, even if they only picked up scraps, they were bound to have suffered losses.

Yes, exactly, just attack right now.

The Gem of Conquest was something reserved by yours truly.

Right now...

--It was time to take back this thing that belonged to her!

Ever since parting ways with Lin Yu, Kiana had started heading back toward Changkong City alone along the original route.

Riding her motorcycle at high speeds along the road, Kiana thought about many things.

Even though Lin Yu said he was a professional, looking at the cluster of Honkai Beasts left lying ahead back then, Kiana still felt that Lin Yu's operation was extremely dangerous.

From their past actions up until now, Kiana felt that this senior named Lin Yu, while somewhat radical in his actions, wasn't reckless enough to actively seek out death.

His choice to jump off the building wasn't because he wanted to drag Kiana down to die with him, but rather because he possessed a technique that could alter his trajectory mid-air.

Therefore, since Lin Yu chose to act alone this time, he must surely have had his own reasons...

--Reasons my foot, no matter how you look at it, this is extremely dangerous alright.

Precisely because of this, Kiana felt that she had no other choice now.

Lin Yu had reminded her that if Schicksal arrived later on, she wouldn't be able to leave.

However, if Schicksal arrived, Kiana didn't think it was a bad thing.

Her old man Siegfried had also said that there weren't that many bad people within Schicksal, and most of them were actually pretty decent.

At the same time, no matter how strong Lin Yu was or how confident he felt, he still needed backup.

Lin Yu was a man of Schicksal; as long as Kiana came into contact with Schicksal's troops and explained the situation in detail, Kiana felt the probability of Schicksal sending reinforcements for Lin Yu was still quite high.

As for whether she would get arrested on the spot for being the 'traitor's daughter'...

If it really came to that, there was nothing she could do.

She couldn't just watch the probability of that unfortunate senior's death continue to rise.

Of course, Kiana hadn't thought about getting captured so obediently either.

If Lin Yu was an agent sent by Schicksal to protect her, it meant Schicksal's side already knew what she looked like.

And right now...

Stopping her motorcycle, Kiana found a spot nearby, scooped up a handful of dirt to smear across her face, and then gazed at her two braided pigtails, letting out a long sigh.

"Sigh... My hair..."

"After this operation ends, even if it's just for the sake of my hair, I'm going to make the senior treat me to a meal!"

Having finished speaking, the young girl found a slightly sharp piece of shattered tile and directly used force to cut off her own hair.

After completing all of this, Kiana took out a pair of glasses she had prepared beforehand.

Before heading to the television station today, Kiana hadn't just prepared a face mask; she had also prepared sunglasses for self-disguise.

Naturally, she knew this stuff wouldn't be of much use, but preparing it was better than not preparing at all.

Just in case... she meant just in case.

What if Schicksal's bunch happened to be fooled by her like this?

Once she put on the sunglasses, her sky-blue pupils would be concealed.

Once she chopped off her pigtails, her hairstyle would become messy as well.

Yeah, plus the dust on her face...