"Alright, I'll keep it brief. That girl lying on the bed is your friend, right?"
"A friend... I suppose so..." Xina nodded, pretending to remain calm. Deep down, she prayed that Kiana would not suddenly wake up at a time like this. Otherwise... things would get very awkward.
"Child, do you want to protect your companion?" Maji placed a heavy hand on Xina's shoulder and spoke solemnly.
Uh, at this point, could I really say no...?
The corner of Xina's mouth twitched. She nodded stiffly and answered Maji, "Yes..."
"Then wait until your friend wakes up, and help me persuade her to leave Schicksal!"
"You..." Xina nearly spat out a mouthful of Honkai energy solution in anger. She suppressed the urge to tie this old man to a chair and interrogate him about the gem's whereabouts, squeezed out two crocodile tears, and began playing the victim.
"Fine, I admit it. I lied to you earlier. I knew what the mission target was, but I didn't tell you the truth." Xina lowered her head and began fabricating a more coherent story.
"So... what did you hide?" Maji looked at Xina in confusion, seemingly waiting for her answer.
"The order I received was that someone intended to use the Serenity Gem to create a large-scale Honkai disaster and directly select a suitable host for it—in other words, artificially create a Honkai disaster." Xina calmly pinned her own objective on someone else, intending to force Maji into making a decision.
From their long conversation earlier, she had already roughly figured out Maji's personality. All she had to do was wait for him to take the bait and reveal the Serenity Gem's location.
Sure enough, after Xina dropped such explosive news, Maji could no longer sit still. He looked at her seriously and asked, "Child, is your information reliable?"
"Although... those people really are rather unscrupulous in some matters, they are indeed experts when it comes to intelligence..."
"Damn it!" Maji hurriedly turned around and fiddled with the closed laptop on the desk. Before long, footage resembling a live surveillance feed appeared on the screen.
In the footage, a bluish-purple gem floated inside a glass container, radiating a faint glow in the dim environment. Around it, a group of people wearing high-grade Honkai energy protective suits bustled about in the nearly sealed space.
They continuously removed purple crystals from specially made containers and piled them around the outside of the Serenity Gem's container.
"That's... Honkai energy crystals! Why are they putting those things there?!"
Bzzz, bzzz...
A few seconds later, the surveillance feed began flickering as though something were interfering with it, until Maji's computer screen was filled with static.
"I understand! I understand!" Maji covered his face as beads of sweat dripped down his cheeks. Staring at the static-filled surveillance feed, he beat his chest in anguish.
"That vixen Cocolia! So this was her real plan! She never intended to analyze the gem..."
"She wants to soak the gem in high-concentration Honkai energy crystals and trigger a chain reaction!"
"Your intelligence was correct. Cocolia intends to create an artificial Honkai disaster right here and select a new Gem Adaptable!"
"Then can we still stop them?" Xina asked.
"Stop them..." Maji raised his head, looked at the frail girl beside him, then glanced at the time on his watch. "If we go now, we should still make it in time, but..."
"But what? The safety of this entire city rests on the two of us now. Even if there's danger, I have to go."
Xina tightly clenched the hem of her clothes, and her voice could not help growing anxious.
Who would have thought that Cocolia, that woman, was even worse than she was? What kind of twisted logic did people like that even have?!
"Just you alone? Are you trying to get yourself killed?!"
"So what?" Xina glared at Maji indignantly, enunciating every word. "I can't just stand by and watch a new Herrscher appear." Because I'm determined to get that gem!
Once the word "Herrscher" was spoken, the pain and hesitation on Maji's face vanished, replaced by resolve and determination. "That's right! A Herrscher... if something like that appears..."
"You stay here and take care of your friend. I'll go give it a try. If I fail, contact your superiors and have them deal with this."
"You? Can those old bones of yours handle it? How about we go together? If something goes wrong, I can run!" Xina stepped aside to clear the way and tentatively made a suggestion.
"Alright. Follow me!"
With that, Maji pulled back his chair and strode toward the door.
For a moment, Xina seemed to see a vigor belonging only to the young within that weathered old man.
That wasn't easy! He finally took the bait!
Xina let out a long breath. After Maji left the room, she pressed a hand against the computer and destroyed the machine capable of replaying the surveillance footage in a simple, brutal fashion.
Then, she leisurely followed behind Maji toward the Serenity Gem's storage site.
Before the metal door on the first underground level, Maji, burdened by his aged body, leaned against the wall and panted heavily. He nervously stared at the keypad in front of him, praying inwardly as he entered the password he knew.
8 0 8 8!
'Beep—password correct!'
As the tightly sealed metal door opened before him, Maji finally breathed a sigh of relief. It was still too early to give up. Everything could still be remedied.
For some reason, though, he felt that something was off. If that vixen Cocolia did not trust him, why had she not even changed the vault password...?
As he pondered this, several warriors wearing special Honkai energy protective suits emerged from the secret chamber.
Each of them carried weapons. When the busy workers saw the sealed chamber door opened from outside, they raised their guns and blocked the entrance, preparing to assess the situation.
The leader stepped out of the chamber and looked at Maji in confusion. "Dr. Mackie, what are you doing here?"
Even facing several pitch-black gun barrels, Dr. Mackie showed no fear. He stood tall, looked at the Anti-Entropy Soldiers, and questioned them without either servility or arrogance. "What I want to ask is, what are you trying to do?! Do you know that you're artificially creating a disaster?!"
"We only know how to obey orders. We don't care about anything else!" The Anti-Entropy Soldier waved a hand dismissively and casually shoved Dr. Mackie back. "If you have any objections, you can contact my superior, Cocolia."
"What kind of nonsense is that?! These are the lives of an entire city! Have you people lost even the most basic humanity?!" Through the gaps between the Anti-Entropy Soldiers, Dr. Mackie saw the rising numbers on the Honkai Intensity Detector beside the gem container. He charged recklessly toward the open metal door, trying to do something.
"Old man, if you want to die, just say so. Don't get in the way of our work!" An Anti-Entropy Soldier smashed Dr. Mackie to the ground with the butt of his rifle. While viciously kicking him in the abdomen, he impatiently urged his companions inside the chamber.
"You guys done yet? Before long, this place won't be fit for human life. Finish up already so we can get out of this damned place."
"Damn it... Whether it's Otto... or Cocolia... have those big shots... never valued anyone else's lives?" Dr. Mackie lay on the ground clutching his chest and abdomen, staring blankly at the ceiling. That rifle butt had hit hard. He could clearly feel that two of his ribs had broken, and the fractured bones had even pierced his internal organs.
The internal bleeding swiftly drained what little life Dr. Mackie had left. His eyelids grew heavier, and his consciousness became increasingly blurred. In his haze, he seemed to see his granddaughter standing quietly at his side, watching him.
"That girl didn't come, so she must have gone to call someone to handle this. I've tried everything I should have, everything I could have. Lin, Grandpa is coming to find you..."
As he murmured, Dr. Mackie slowly closed his eyes. A muddy tear ran down from the corner of his eye, past his ear, past his hair, and finally fell to the ground, freezing into a brilliant ice flower.
"Ah! What the hell is that?!"
Shrill screams and hurried footsteps pulled Dr. Mackie's fading consciousness back. He opened his eyes in confusion, and before death arrived, he saw a sight that utterly overturned everything he knew.
The Anti-Entropy Soldiers who had just been barking orders at him and beating him at the chamber entrance were frozen into ice sculptures while trying to flee, yet he himself still lay unharmed on the ground.
The young girl he had taken for a Schicksal Valkyrie stood before the secret chamber door, holding a pile of high-concentration Honkai energy crystals and eating them like snacks.
Crunch, crunch...
After swallowing one high-concentration Honkai energy crystal, Xina picked up another and stuffed it into her mouth.
Her recent exertion had been a little intense. She needed to replenish some energy to support what she was about to do next.
"You... who exactly... are you...?" Dr. Mackie struggled to raise his right hand, pointed at Xina, and squeezed out the words haltingly.
"Me?" Xina stuffed Honkai energy crystals into her mouth while organizing her thoughts, preparing to answer the final question in the life of the old man who had helped her find the Serenity Gem.
"Didn't I tell you already? The Serenity Gem will cultivate a Gem Adaptable. Guess who that Gem Adaptable is?"
"..." Dr. Mackie did not answer. He merely stared at the Honkai energy crystals tucked in Xina's arms.
With no one playing along, Xina had no choice but to set up her own punchline. "That's right, exactly! It's me, Xina, ta-da..."
"To thank you for leading me here, I'll allow you to witness the birth of an Apostle of God in the final moments of your life!" Xina took the bluish-purple Serenity Gem from the small metal box in her pocket and pressed it tightly against her chest.
Before you continue