28. Little Sirin Takes a Crushing Loss

Sirin turned her gaze to Theresa and Yae Sakura.

"It's time to settle the score for the injuries you caused to my family."

"Theresa, watch out!"

Yae Sakura swiftly appeared in front of Theresa, slashing a Spear of Subspace with her sword.

"Thanks..."

"Our tactics worked, but the situation doesn't seem to be improving."

Yae Sakura said in a deep voice, while holding her spirit sword horizontally in front of her, watching Sirin warily.

"If all else fails..."

Theresa gritted her teeth. She could try to activate the Divine Prayer Barrier to trap Sirin in place, while simultaneously having Ain activate the Hyperion's main cannon.

However, if that happens, we don't know if Sirin will be alright, but she'll definitely be finished.

However, at that moment, a bright red color appeared before their eyes.

"Stop thinking about your Divine Prayer Barrier. What good is that piece of junk?"

Himeko slung the greatsword over her shoulder and gave a bright smile.

"The Far East Branch's ace hasn't even made his appearance yet, why are you in such a hurry?"

"Thank goodness, Himeko! I knew you were alright!" Theresa exclaimed in delight. "But that armor of yours..."

"We'll deal with that later, let's take care of her first."

Himeko's eyes darkened, then she casually skipped over the topic.

"Heh, I didn't expect that you would deliver another one to my doorstep right after I just recovered one core."

Sirin wasn't worried about the risk of her going wrong. Although she didn't have much Honkai Energy left and Benares was injured, she was an Apostle of Honkai, and she could tell the state of the other side with just a glance.

Given that red-haired woman's condition, it would be a miracle if she survived past next month, let alone the fact that she is currently carrying the burden of a core, which only worsens her physical condition.

Moreover, even disregarding everything else, in terms of sheer numbers, three cores against one core give her the advantage.

"Don't be too happy yet, Second Herrscher."

Himeko pointed her greatsword at Sirin, flames burning continuously in the darkness.

"Let me see if these so-called Herrscher can be hurt by my sword!"

As the words fell, greatswords and spears, spirit blades and chains began to intertwine in the small space before the Hyperion.

Sirin's attention was entirely focused on the core of the Herrscher of Flame and Himeko's Key of Blankness, completely unaware that there were more than one pair of eyes watching her from within the Hyperion.

"Now is not the best time..."

Einstein stared intently at the screen.

"We have to wait until she's completely focused and unable to escape..."

"..."

Inside a secret room on the Schicksal, the blond man suddenly opened his eyes.

Shaking his slightly dizzy head, he lifted the hatch and stood up from the incubation chamber.

"Where am I...? Have I died once?"

Although it was phrased as a question, the man knew perfectly well what had happened.

"Am I facing a predicament where even memories can't be synchronized...? The last time I encountered this situation was..."

Otto pulled his attention away from the sudden flashback in his mind and began to search for his most recent memories.

"My memory ends with me injuring Fu Hua and preparing to head to the Hyperion..."

"Based on my habit of simultaneous memory processing, many more things must have happened afterward..."

"Do you have any records of 'Void Archive'?"

"..."

There was no response.

Otto realized the seriousness of the situation.

"The Void Archive?"

As Otto focused his consciousness into his body, he discovered that the Void Archive seemed, perhaps, or maybe, shut down.

"What's going on? Does the other side have a way to target the Void Archive?"

After fiddling with it for a while and confirming that the Void Archive was just shut down and there was no major problem, Otto breathed a sigh of relief. But then, a question arose in his mind.

How exactly did he die?

Sirin killed him? Absolutely impossible. First of all, he carried a certain amount of Holy Blood. Although not as much as Durandal had mentioned, it was still enough to render a Herrscher powerless.

If it were Sirin, even a three-core Sirin, he would be absolutely confident in trading one for one with her, and there would be no way he would end up in a situation where he couldn't even get his memories back.

"If it wasn't Sirin... then someone attacked me. After all, it's impossible for me to have crashed my plane and drowned in the sea halfway through the journey."

Having made a small joke, Otto continued to try to deduce his own death through reasoning.

"If he was murdered, then we still can't avoid the same problem: even if that person can target the Void Archive, I still have the Holy Blood as a trump card..."

"Unless I don't have a chance to use the Holy Blood, or the opponent defends against it, or I have a chance but don't make a move?"

"Tsk, this is really troublesome... I can only wait until the Void Archive restarts before asking about the situation."

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Little Sirin Suffers a Big Setback

Otto didn't have to wait long before the Void Archive began to shimmer with crystalline light again, and soon returned to its former state.

"Void Archive, what's the situation on your end?"

"The situation is not good. I feel like I almost saw my deceased creator."

The Void Archive surprisingly displayed a bit of humor.

"Your deceased creator?"

"Forget it, this isn't a pleasant memory. After all, I vaguely remember that the AI of the same model as me has turned into a gray-haired beauty."

"Although I don't have a good impression of you, I still really covet your Soul Steel body."

"It's just a body. I'll leave you one once my plan is complete," Otto said nonchalantly.

"So, now it's time to get down to business. How did you get tricked?"

"Well..."

"Um?"

"Well..." Void Archive said somewhat embarrassedly, "You might not believe it, but I forgot."

"You forgot?" Otto's voice rose a little. "Then you might as well say I drowned in a plane crash; that would be more believable."

"But I really forgot." Void Archive's voice was a little aggrieved. "The other party clearly knows my structure extremely well, even better than you do."

"This is not as simple as shutting me down. While directly shutting down my consciousness, the other party also accessed your synchronized memory records and then completely restored my data to the time period when your synchronized memories were in place, not a second more or less."

The small golden cube swayed slightly, as if it were spreading its hands.

"You ask me what happened? You might as well ask yourself if you traveled back to Previous Civilization and then ran into my creator."

"You really are something, you're not useful enough to make me angry..."

Otto shook his head helplessly and began to calculate again.

"The other party is related to Previous Civilization... Did they inherit the legacy of Previous Civilization, or did they know some of its predecessors?"

"If this condition is to be met, it seems there is no one in St. Freya who can do it... No, if Xia Ling's strength is far beyond what I initially thought, then she is capable of using spatial abilities to frequently make other connections with the outside world while appearing in St. Freya."

"According to the records of the Void Archive, there are only a handful of pioneers in this era who could accomplish these things... So, it was the work of that pioneer named Su?"

"It should be. As the guardian of the Sea of Quantum, the other party would not have overlooked someone who drifted from the sea to the Intrinsic World. Moreover, my place may not be the only bet of the other party. Therefore, Xia Ling has also obtained a part of the inheritance of the pioneers?"

"That makes sense... but we still need to find another opportunity to test it out."

It must be said that even though there were many errors in the process, Otto still managed to deduce a result that was close to the actual situation with very little information.

While Otto was still reflecting on the cause of his death, the battle on the Hyperion's side was gradually coming to an end.

Just as Xia Ling had predicted, after Himeko returned to the battlefield, the battle line composed of Himeko, Theresa, Yae Sakura unexpectedly reached a stalemate with Sirin for a time.

However, this is normal. After all, three people with the strength of S-rank Valkyrie are facing a Herrscher who has three cores but is severely depleted of Honkai Energy. Even if they cannot win, they can at least hold their own.

While they were distracting Sirin, a gaze that would be a fatal blow to Sirin was secretly watching her.

On the main battlefield, as the greatsword and spear clashed several times, Sirin gradually grew impatient.

Whether it's the withering black mist or the Conquest's Lightning, both will vanish into nothingness under the flames casually whipped up by the opponent.

If it weren't for the fact that the opponent couldn't get close to him because of the withering power that was hard to dispel around him, he might have been in an even more sorry state.

Although Sirin was reluctant to admit it, it was the truth: the person in front of her had surprisingly good compatibility with the Herrscher of Flame, and with the help of this armor, it even produced an amplification effect of 1+1>2.

If this woman hadn't been in poor health to begin with, she might already be...

Thinking about this, Sirin couldn't help but feel a bit absurd. When she last awakened, there were hardly any people in the world who could match her strength.

How come everyone I randomly picked could beat me after I woke up this time?

However, her long-term persistence was not in vain; at least Sirin could sense that the woman was nearing her end.

The Herrscher Core is a huge burden for a normal person, and the armor itself didn't take into account how long the user could live. Its only function is to allow the user to get infinitely closer to the Herrscher.

So, I'll hold on a little longer, and once this woman dies, I'll be able to...

With this mindset, Sirin's attacks gradually began to weaken.

However, at that very moment when she relaxed...

Theresa's Stigmata suddenly heated up.

Theresa's eyes flashed, and the Judas' Vow instantly gathered the light spears together. In exchange for abandoning defense, all the light spears firmly bound Sirin.

"Heh, you idiot, has your brain shrunk along with your height?" Sirin mocked mercilessly, "Have you forgotten what kind of Herrscher I am?"

"Don't worry, even if she forgets, I'll remember for her."

Xia Ling's voice suddenly rang out from the air, and then Sirin's ability to escape was abruptly halted.

For Sirin, it felt as if the space around her had suddenly thickened. Although she could get out given time, this moment of distraction was exactly what Xia Ling and Einstein had been waiting for.

"System control, ready. Output control, ready. Track control, ready."

"Target locked. Distance error adjustment complete."

"I won't waste this opportunity you found for me."

"Emission."

Ain's fingers landed smoothly on the launch button.

In an instant, a bright blue light filled Sirin's eyes.

After the flash of light came the burning pain of being hit by an energy cannon.

"It's alright, it's fine. As long as there's still Honkai Energy, the Core of the Herrscher of Death will be able to..."

However, Sirin's readily available reply was delayed.

To her horror, she discovered that the Honkai Energy within her body was rapidly dissipating into the surroundings.

No, it wasn't the natural kind of overflow, but rather... all her precious Honkai Energy was converted into other forms of energy.

Thermal energy, electrical energy... Sirin struggled, trying to break free from this strange energy conversion.

However, things didn't go as planned. When she successfully escaped the bombardment, she had less than one-tenth of her Honkai Energy left.

"Damn you humans!"

Sirin's anger reached its peak, but reason told her that she had to run away as soon as possible.