"Cough, cough." Theresa coughed twice and changed the subject. "Time is tight, so let's move quickly. We shouldn't delay the new student's morning classes. Follow me."
With that, Theresa casually covered her comic book with the documents beside it and led the two of them toward the Testing Ground.
"Why do we still have to walk? Can't we just get there all at once?"
Xina grumbled as she followed Theresa to a building resembling an indoor sports arena. The vast podium was completely empty, until Theresa walked to its center and a translucent virtual screen rose from beneath the floor tiles.
Theresa placed her hand over the screen, and a mechanical voice sounded. "Access detected. Verifying identity. Verification successful. Welcome, Principal of St. Freya Academy."
Then, before Xina—country bumpkin that she was—could hide her astonishment, the entire Gymnasium transformed layer by layer, eventually becoming a futuristic indoor space that seemed to be made entirely of transparent glass.
"Whoa, so the academy has a place like this too?"
"Oh? Xina, didn't you see anything like this in North America before? Oh, right..."
As though she had remembered something, Theresa's old face flushed red, and she hurriedly changed the subject.
"See? This is the Martial Arts Arena that Destiny Headquarters built at St. Freya Academy to assess Valkyrie ranks. It can freely switch environments to simulate real battlefield conditions."
"It can switch environments too?" Xina looked around in surprise, then blinked expectantly at Theresa. "Principal, let's switch it and take a look~"
"Sure, sure!"
The anticipation and admiration in Xina's eyes greatly satisfied Theresa's tiny vanity. She took out the control panel and pressed a few buttons.
The surroundings rapidly shifted, completing their transformation in just a few breaths.
At last, what appeared before Xina was a field surrounded by pristine snow and thick sheets of ice.
This was...
"This is a section of terrain recreated from the ruins of the Second Honkai Eruption—the Siberia Assessment Grounds."
Second Honkai Eruption... Siberia...
Xina pondered for a moment and silently committed those two terms to memory.
"Alright, Principal. Xina still has classes this morning! Let's use this field and start the test."
Himeko waved the watch on her wrist at Theresa, signaling that she should stop there. Theresa stuck out her tongue and turned her attention back to the virtual screen before her.
"Hmm... these will do."
After careful consideration, Theresa placed her hand on the screen and began operating it.
Hearing that the test had begun, Xina followed Himeko's guidance and walked to the center of the testing area.
Bzzz... bzzz... bzzz...
Three alarm-like hums rang out. Pink, mosaic-like energy fragments suddenly appeared in the empty space before Xina and began to ripple.
They eventually formed three unlucky Death Stalkers wielding different weapons, though they looked much like those bastards in Singapore who had shot arrows at Xina's forehead.
Just as Xina stared at the Death Stalkers' black clothes and unhooked her whip from her waist, two Honkai Beasts appeared behind them. Each had three pairs of wings—one large pair and two small pairs—and a red halo above its head.
"DAMN!"
Seeing the Honkai Beasts, whose colors were primarily white and pink and entirely unlike the Death Stalkers' pitch-black hues, Xina suddenly felt at peace. Even the hand swinging her whip unconsciously dropped.
Mistaking that relaxed behavior for Xina being frightened by the Honkai Beasts, Theresa hurriedly reassured her from outside the field.
"Xina, don't be nervous! Those two Honkai Beasts are very ordinary Assault-Class Honkai Beasts. Your Teacher Himeko has already set them to non-attack mode. Just use your attack abilities on them!"
"This has nothing to do with whether they'll attack me, okay?!"
Xina looked at the Honkai Beasts, which did nothing but hover in place while flapping their wings, then shifted her gaze to the three Death Stalkers.
"Putting the Honkai Beasts aside, I can see three truly evil creatures. SHOW ME YOUR HAND A... no, that's not right. Return to dust, Death Stalkers!"
Crack! Crack! Crack!
After being coated in an icy-blue sheen, the long bladed whip rapidly extended and lashed out like lightning at the Honkai Beasts... no, at the Death Stalkers behind them.
The moment Xina's bladed whip struck a Death Stalker, a huge, vicious wound split open where it had hit. White frost rapidly spread from the wound to the rest of its body, until the entire Death Stalker had been turned white by frost. Then, the force of the second lash instantly shattered the frozen Death Stalker into fragments scattered across the ground.
The whip, having lost its target, did not lose any of its contained power. Several visible streams of frigid air flew toward the empty space behind the Death Stalker fragments.
The Honkai energy isolation barrier, which should have appeared after the attack to protect the venue's facilities from damage, failed to fulfill its intended purpose.
Crack, crack!
With several cracking sounds, faint frost slowly spread across the isolation barrier. If Xina had not reacted quickly and withdrawn her power in time,
Theresa's little treasury would probably have had to pay out another hefty sum to repair the arena.
"Could this be the result of Fu Hua's impromptu guidance? Even some A-Rank Valkyries would be crying 'holy crap' at this level of power, wouldn't they?!"
Himeko and Theresa could not help widening their eyes at the sight before them.
They now seemed to understand why Xina could still receive an S-rank evaluation despite having a D in physical condition.
This girl's body might be a little... frail, but physical fitness was different from talent. Fitness could be cultivated after all!
As long as her physical fitness improved, wouldn't she be Schicksal's rising star of tomorrow?
At that thought, Theresa pointed at the last two Honkai Beasts and shouted at Xina, "Xina, stop spacing out! The assessment isn't over yet! There are still two Honkai Beasts over there! Hurry, defeat them!"
"Ah..." Xina stared blankly at the two Honkai Beasts, which were white and pink all over, and an inexplicable melancholy arose in her heart.
Just judging by their colors, I can tell these little guys are good kids. I can't quite bring myself to hit them!
"Himeko, why is Xina just standing there?" Theresa asked in confusion as she watched Xina remain rooted to the spot without making a move.
"Uh..." Himeko could not explain Xina's problem either. But when she thought of the three Death Stalkers' black clothes and the black target in the warehouse that had suffered a merciless whipping, she seemed to arrive at a bold guess.
She somehow produced a pair of sunglasses and tossed them to Xina from afar. "Here, Xina, put on these sunglasses and give it a try!"
Putting on the sunglasses Himeko had thrown her, Xina looked at the now pitch-black Honkai Beasts and silently tightened her grip on her whip. "Now that's more like it..."
Before you continue