Awakening (Continued)

Even today, this young lady worried about being recognized and changed out of her Chiba Academy uniform.

E!very!thing! was! perfect!

After finding a puddle to take a look at herself in the water's surface, Kiana felt that she could not possibly achieve any higher level of perfection.

If she still got recognized like this, then this young lady truly had no other options left.

Now, to go find the main force of Schicksal...

"BOOM!"

Right at that exact moment, Kiana suddenly heard a dull roar echoing from afar.

It was Senior... no.

Discovering that the sound did not originate from Lin Yu's side, Kiana let out a slight breath of relief.

However, relying on the formidable physical constitution of the Kaslana clan, Kiana quickly saw clearly what had happened at the place where the roaring sound erupted.

On the path she had originally planned to take back, an airship had suddenly appeared in the midair at this moment.

Judging from the energy fluctuations radiating around the airship, it had one hundred percent just been beaten up by some other attack, which was why its energy shield was fluctuating.

As for the other side, dozens of semi-humanoid robots had also appeared near the airship.

Watching the two sides crackling away as they started fighting, Kiana was simply dumbfounded.

The airship over there... that was Schicksal's Hyperion airship that her old man used to mention, right?

The robots on the other side were the Anti-Entropy tactical mechs that Senior had mentioned, right?

This young lady had prepared so much back and forth just now, even cutting her usually most cherished hair, and now you people are showing her this????

No, the Honkai had already appeared, Senior had gone off to risk his life, and you two sides are still here fighting a civil war???

Watching the two major factions in front of her already engaged in battle, Kiana felt her blood pressure begin to surge sharply.

Hmph, when all is said and done, humans are just such foolish creatures.

...Somehow, this young lady felt like she was being angered into getting sick.

Discovering that she seemed to have heard a sound she shouldn't have, Kiana looked around her surroundings with extreme suspicion.

It was just a pity that in the end, she still didn't find out who exactly had spoken those words.

Forget it, forget it. Right now, counting on the Schicksal people over here to save Senior was basically impossible.

Sigh, taking advantage of the fact that they were fighting, let this young lady take a look around.

Stepping onto the train, Kiana made her judgment after pondering for a brief moment.

She would just go to the right.

Senior, you have to hold on.

If you die, this young lady will absolutely never forgive you!

Changkong City

Theresa, who was carrying out a mission in Changkong City, had naturally received the call for help sent by Himeko.

Upon receiving this message, her first reaction was to rush back and directly blast those Titans who had ambushed the Hyperion to pieces.

Yet mere minutes after she made her move, she received a directive from Schicksal headquarters.

"Theresa, as for the Hyperion, I have already dispatched other A-class Valkyries to provide support."

"Grandpa?"

Looking at the man within the light screen, Theresa spoke with a suspicious expression.

"Even if Valkyries from other branches are free, they..."

"This mission concerns the Third Honkai Outbreak, so naturally I won't only let the Far East Branch fight on the front lines."

Otto within the light screen spoke with a solemn expression.

"In fact, over the past few days, I have already had a large number of A-class Valkyries with no tasks on hand come over here to prepare for support."

"Only I didn't expect that those fellows from Anti-Entropy would still dare to actively attack the Hyperion after triggering the Third Honkai Outbreak."

"This is a provocation, but it might also be a strategy. Therefore, Theresa, first let the other A-class units go support, and you continue with your mission."

"I suspect that those people from Anti-Entropy might want to use this method to lure away you few S-class individuals, and then stir up big trouble inside Changkong City."

"...I understand."

Gazing at Otto at this moment, Theresa could see a rare earnestness in her grandfather's eyes.

Otto, who was usually so poised and unflustered, was genuinely a bit nervous right now—at least in Theresa's eyes, that was the case.

"However, Grandpa, you..."

"What about me?"

Seeing Otto's expression, Theresa ultimately swallowed back the question in her heart.

This matter should probably not have much to do with Grandpa.

The whole affair was stirred up by Cocolia, the war was initiated by Cocolia first, and Grandpa didn't do anything malicious from start to finish...

Sigh, because of Cecilia's affair, my trust in Grandpa's character has been sliding downwards sharply lately.

Am I being a bit too extreme, constantly thinking about pinning the blame on him?

"Lord Otto! This is bad!"

Just as Theresa was about to cut off the communication, on the other side of the light screen, Theresa's sister Amber suddenly spoke to Otto with extreme panic.

"The intelligence department just sent word... Lord Theresa?"

"It's fine, continue speaking."

Seeing Amber interrupt her report, Otto narrowed his eyes slightly.

"I have nothing about myself that I need to hide from my granddaughter."

"I understand."

"The intelligence department just discovered that the Honkai Energy detection system in Changkong City has recovered to a state where it can be used normally at a minimum level, and then they found a bizarre thing."

"That reaction on the exterior of Changkong City suspected to be the Herrscher of Thunder has already vanished."

"However, inside Changkong City, two Herrscher reactions have appeared. It's just that one of the Herrscher reactions seems rather unstable, so they judge that the detection system might have experienced a malfunction. But even so..."

As a warrior who had participated in the catastrophic war of the Second Honkai Eruption, Amber spoke very earnestly to Otto.

"I feel that this time, accompanying the awakening of the Herrscher of Thunder, other Simulated Herrscher entities might have awakened along with her."

"After all, last time, the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin, also created Simulated Herrschers to massacre civilians on a large scale after awakening her powers, so I feel we still shouldn't take this matter lightly."

"Very correct judgment, Amber. Well then, Theresa, you heard it too."

Upon hearing the conversation between Otto and Amber, Theresa immediately spoke with extreme earnestness as well.

"I understand, Grandpa. The Herrscher in the urban area can be left to me."

"Mm, very good. Amber, send the coordinates to Theresa."

"Theresa, don't let me down."

After the light screen vanished, Theresa took out her communication terminal and viewed the coordinates Amber had sent her.

The current Theresa was still quite a distance away from the location where the Hyperion was attacked; realistically speaking, her rushing back now wouldn't actually play all that significant of a role.

Furthermore, right now, at a location a bit further ahead to her left lay the spot where the urban area's first Herrscher reaction had emerged.

There was no help for it; she would head to this side first.

A Simulated Herrscher... hmph, even the genuine Herrscher Sirin nearly fell beneath my Divine Prayer Barrier; a Simulated Herrscher is no match for me.

Himeko, you must endure.

If you invoke the Nexus system again, your lifespan will only be shortened once more.

Anti-Entropy Headquarters

Inside the Anti-Entropy headquarters, Einstein ultimately did not follow Tesla out to Changkong City.

After all, once the two of them regained their composure, they realized that the Anti-Entropy headquarters needed to have one veteran stationed there to handle emergencies.

That dog of an Otto was a smart person; both Tesla and Einstein possessed this self-awareness.

Now Cocolia was causing trouble in Changkong City, and given Otto's understanding of the two of them, they would certainly not sit by and watch Cocolia's malicious deeds go unchecked.

If both Tesla and Einstein went over, then in the event that...

There wasn't even any need for "in the event that"—Otto had definitely prepared for it.

Once he discovered that both Tesla and Einstein appeared on the battlefield, Otto would definitely make a move.

If the Anti-Entropy headquarters happened to be targeted by Otto or other enemies of Anti-Entropy at that time, then even if Einstein and Tesla smoothed over the mess Cocolia had stirred up, what could the two of them do once their home base had been wiped out?

Damn it, did Otto factor all of these things into his calculations?

The moment she thought about what was happening in Changkong City right now, Einstein felt her headache grow increasingly severe.

Whether Tesla would be able to handle Cocolia was not something Einstein could easily draw a definitive conclusion on.

Yet just moments ago, their Anti-Entropy detection system had already detected the outbreak of a large-scale Honkai event on the outside of Changkong City.

Although this sort of large-scale Honkai event still fell short compared to the ultra-large-scale Honkai outbreak of a Herrscher's awakening, the only person who could manufacture this tier of Honkai in Changkong City right now, upon reflection, was Raiden Mei, who had been implanted with a gem.

Mei had awakened, and even if Tesla managed to stop Cocolia, she might ultimately be wiped out in one fell swoop by Otto.

Troublesome, truly troublesome... wait, what is this!

While inspecting the communication channels and preparing to notify Tesla that she ought to be careful, Einstein suddenly caught sight of a message log.

Right around the time Mei had awakened previously, less than thirty seconds prior, "Tesla" had contacted Siegfried at that moment.

However, Tesla at that time should not have had the time to contact Siegfried.

Was there an anomaly in this record...

Tracing downward along this record, Einstein's expression grew steadily uglier.

This record indeed had not been sent by Tesla.

Moreover, the log clearly recorded a transmission sent from "Tesla" to Siegfried, stating that "Raiden Ryoma" was dead...

This sentence was far too bizarre, and if Mei were to hear it...

No, barely thirty seconds had passed before the large-scale Honkai event erupted.

This indicated that Mei had definitely heard it, and Siegfried had been right by her side at that time!

Siegfried was in danger!

And this log...

Following this log down, Einstein only felt the anger in her heart being somewhat ignited.

The culprit had acted very cleanly, but in front of Einstein, who had sensed that something was amiss, even the cleanest methods would leave behind omissions.

After investigating this log, Einstein discovered that someone had bypassed the system's backdoor using Anti-Entropy's other message transmission systems, and then hacked in.

This incident illustrated an extremely severe situation.

Someone had combined forces with parties outside the organization through the backdoor of the organizational information transmission system, and then began stirring up trouble.

Aside from Einstein and Tesla, there was no one else within the organization who possessed this kind of technology.

The two of them were undeniably impossible to be the masterminds; putting it another way, this matter was a massive problem.

This meant someone inside the organization had teamed up with someone outside the organization, breached the organization's liaison system, and then directly instigated Raiden Mei to awaken as a Herrscher...

CO!CO!LIA!