Cocolia rubbed her itchy nose.
Envying Ziegfried
After searching ME Corporation for a long time without finding a way in, Himeko suggested retreating for now, considering they might be discovered by Anti-Entropy's forces.
"No! How can we just go back like this?! I'm not going back! Even if I'm alone, I'm going to save Mei!" Kiana objected.
Just as Kiana was preparing to act on her own, Bronya suddenly connected to their comms and said she would find a way to help them get inside.
Himeko disagreed. After all, Bronya being controlled was what had led to Mei and Wendy being captured by Anti-Entropy, and Bronya's appearance at this particular moment was far too suspicious.
Himeko couldn't trust the current Bronya.
But Kiana was willing to trust Bronya.
While infiltrating ME Corporation's headquarters building, Kiana learned from Himeko that Theresa had once been offered S-Rank Valkyrie status, only to refuse it herself.
After Kiana dealt with several Anti-Entropy robots, she remarked that if Schicksal could develop robots like these too, Valkyries might no longer have to go to war.
Unfortunately, Theresa and Himeko quickly shattered that idea. Schicksal had also researched unmanned Honkai energy weapons before, but their drawbacks were too great, and the gains simply did not justify the cost.
They were far inferior to Valkyries. Honkai energy could only be stably preserved within a Valkyrie's body, but the price was that the human body serving as the vessel would be continually eroded by Honkai energy, shortening her lifespan and causing her to die young.
Kiana and the others arrived at the passage Bronya had mentioned. Bronya used her authority to open the door and sent them a map, urging them to hurry. The researchers were preparing to dissect Mei and remove the Herrscher Core from her body.
"Ahhh! I absolutely won't let that happen!"
Kiana's reaction was exactly the same as her movie counterpart's.
Bronya reminded her, "Brainless Idiot Kiana, don't be so loud. This is a movie theater, not the dormitory."
"Sorry, sorry."
Kiana looked around, somewhat embarrassed.
"Huh?! Theresa isn't actually an S-Rank Valkyrie?" Pardo asked in surprise. She had always assumed Theresa was one, considering she had nearly soloed a six-core Herrscher in the previous movie.
"According to Ms. Himeko in the movie, Theresa's strength is already enough to make her an S-Rank Valkyrie. She probably refused because of Cecilia's death," Su guessed.
Kiana's figure reminded Theresa of Ziegfried. In response to Kiana's question, Theresa spoke of fighting side by side with Ziegfried in the past, as well as many of his glorious deeds.
What caught Kiana's attention most was that Ziegfried had actually grabbed the butts of every Valkyrie aboard the Hyperion at the time.
Kiana was incredibly envious.
At once, all the female audience members watching the movie revealed looks of disdain in unspoken agreement.
"Slander! That's completely slander!" Ziegfried hurriedly explained.
"I know, darling. Kira explained it to me," Cecilia said with a gentle smile. "But darling, how are you going to explain it to the audience watching the movie?"
Ziegfried, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, froze again.
"That bastard dad really is..." Kiana blurted out instinctively, but suddenly realized Mei was beside her and forcibly swallowed the word "envious."
"Kiana, what were you about to say?" Mei looked at Kiana gently, though her smile was somewhat stiff.
"Mei, I definitely wasn't envying that bastard dad!" Brainless Idiot gave herself away.
Bronya wordlessly rubbed her forehead.
In the front row, the women looked at one another. Patrick said, "This feels familiar... Isn't this the rumor Kira made up back then?"
"Huh?! It was a rumor?" Kiana, seated in the row behind them, curiously leaned over. Ever since childhood, she had known that the reason her bastard dad and bastard uncle had such a bad relationship was this incident, and she had always thought it was true.
Shub nodded, revealing her trademark shark teeth. A dangerous gleam flickered in her beautiful eyes as she said, "If it had been true, then when he touched me, he wouldn't have kept that hand."
The moment Kiana and the others entered the passage, the door behind them shut. Cocolia's voice then came over the broadcast, mocking Theresa for being unworthy of her reputation and falling for such a simple trap.
Theresa showed Cocolia no mercy either, bluntly calling her nothing more than a sinister fox.
Himeko said that made the mission simpler. As long as they entered the laboratory and rescued Mei, they could carve a bloody path out, and tear down ME Corporation while they were at it.
"Then I'll be waiting for you in the laboratory. I hope you don't die on the way and leave me waiting for nothing."
The road to the laboratory was far from easy. Since they had already been discovered, the guards immediately sprang into action. Unmanned mechs practically filled the corridor blocking Kiana and the others.
What followed was a valiant battle, but strangely enough, Theresa never made a move from beginning to end. All the flashy effects were piled onto Himeko and Kiana.
"So amazing. Ms. Himeko looks about the same size as me, yet she can wield such a greatsword. It seems I still need to work harder," Fu Hua muttered to herself.
Himeko, seated in front of Fu Hua, did not dare turn around at all. She knew this student of hers well; Fu Hua was a martial arts fanatic. If she were the Himeko from the movie, it would be fine, but she was just a shut-in who coasted through life!
Himeko was truly afraid that the straightforward Fu Hua would drag her off for a spar!
"Hahaha, old relic, how dare you say you're built like Himeko? With that flat chest of yours..."
Bang!
Fu Hua rubbed her wrist.
Little Knowledge, seated beside her, covered the fresh bump on her head with both hands as tears involuntarily welled in her eyes.
Hearing that bang, Himeko became even less willing to turn around.
Following the information Bronya had given them, Kiana and the others arrived in the laboratory. They saw Mei unconscious, her hands restrained and her body suspended in midair, as well as Bronya, still dressed in her darkened outfit.
"Give Mei back to me!" Kiana shouted angrily, holding dual pistols.
Cocolia rebuked them for not understanding the true value of a Herrscher at all. So long as humanity understood how Herrschers controlled the forces of nature, human technology would advance by leaps and bounds.
"Bronya, stop them," Cocolia ordered.
But Bronya did not move. Instead, she began speaking to herself. In her heart, Cocolia was like a mother, but she did not want to hurt Mei either. So she burned out the biological chip in her brain and told Kiana to take Mei away.
Upon hearing that Bronya had burned out the chip in her brain, Cocolia's tone became both furious and frightened. This time, she was genuinely panicking.
"Are you trying to kill yourself?!"
Bronya turned to look at Mei.
"Bronya thinks Mei is more important than her own life."
"Bronya will no longer accept any order that would hurt Mei."
"Goodbye, Mei."
Bronya slowly closed her eyes, and her body fell backward.
Crack.
The child looked in horror at the steel spoon Seele had snapped in her hand.
Just as he was about to cry out those words, a bun was stuffed into his mouth, and Seele's voice rang by his ear.
But that tone was no longer gentle.
"Brat, don't cry!"
The Premiere Ends
"W-What kind of joke is this? Bronya just... got written out like that?" Pardo looked utterly disbelieving.
"Isn't Bronya one of the main cast?" Vill-V said.
In the front row, Kiana could not help saying, "When I first read the script up to this part, I really thought Bronya was about to get written out. Back then, I even felt that bastard uncle's pacing was too fast."
"Kiana can actually sense a movie's pacing?" Bronya asked in surprise.
"Bronya!"
Kiana hurriedly woke the unconscious Mei and forcibly smashed apart the machinery restraining Mei's hands. Mei's first reaction upon waking was to ask about Bronya's condition.
Theresa told them they had to return to St. Freya Academy as quickly as possible. If Bronya received treatment in time, there was still hope for recovery.
But Cocolia clearly had no intention of letting them leave so easily. She summoned every Titan Mech to surround Kiana and the others and decided to accelerate the experiment.
During their retreat, Theresa dropped another bombshell. She was not human; more accurately, she was not a normal human. She was an artificial lifeform created from the DNA of an ancestor of the Kaslana family.
"Kallen..." Otto stared at Theresa introducing her origins in the movie and recalled the script Yaqing had given him, falling into a daze. At that moment, he seemed to resonate with the Otto in the movie.
"Hm? Otto, why did you suddenly call my name?" Kallen looked up in confusion, drinking iced cola and eating popcorn.
Since Theresa wanted to drink bitter melon juice and Kallen found bitter melon juice difficult to stomach, she could only let go of Theresa and allow her to sit on the sofa by herself.
Looking at Kallen's silly expression and Theresa sipping bitter melon juice, Otto had never felt so strongly that his life was this happy. Perhaps peacefully enjoying his old age would not be so bad.
As Kiana and the others withdrew, they received a communication from Wendy. Since Bronya was unconscious, Wendy had the principal relay her words. Wendy knew Bronya had attacked her only because Bronya had been controlled.
"I... won't hate her. Never. But maybe we won't have another chance to meet after this."
Wendy only gave Theresa one final farewell.
While Wendy was speaking with Kiana, the transmission seemed to cut out. Then Cocolia's teasing voice followed, telling them that the communication they had just heard was Wendy's last words.
Cocolia had already extracted the Gem of Hopes, and Wendy's life had reached its end.
Faced with MSR-7 Heavenly Father powered by the Gem of Hopes, Theresa finally made her move. The massive cross behind her smashed fiercely into Heavenly Father. After a grueling battle, the heavy robot known as Heavenly Father was defeated.
Although they had successfully rescued Mei, they had lost Wendy. Bronya had fallen into a coma, and even St. Freya Academy's technology could not cure her.
In order to save Bronya, Theresa decided to head to the central church of St. Freya Academy.
Beneath that church was hidden Schicksal's most advanced biotechnology.
Even the headmistress was kept in the dark about that technology.
The credits began to roll, and the movie came to an end.
The lights in the screening room began to brighten. Ling was stunned and said blankly, "T-That's it?!"
Since the movie began, Ling had not taken a single sip of cola, afraid she would need to use the restroom during an exciting part. Even though her mouth was dry, she had not dared drink a drop of water.
Sakura rubbed Ling's head.
Ling could no longer endure it. She picked up her cola straw and began gulping desperately. Soon, an entire cup of cola vanished, and she let out a satisfied burp.
The women in the first row and Kiana's group in the second row suddenly got up to leave. After all, because of the post-credits scene in the first movie, everyone was now waiting for the bonus scene.
Yaqing in the last row also stood up and left.
"Huh, Brother Yaqing is leaving. Aponia Mama, aren't we leaving too?" Little Void asked in confusion.
"As the director, Yaqing needs to attend the premiere ceremony. Little Void, do you want to watch the upcoming post-credits scene?" Aponia explained gently.
"Mm, I do, Aponia Mama," Little Void said.
The acknowledgments began to scroll. Since they had not collaborated with Anti-Entropy, there were no Anti-Entropy personnel listed in the credits. What stood out was that the screenwriter's name was Yaqing Schariac.
The credits finished scrolling.
"Continue injecting Honkai energy into the experimental chamber. Such a low concentration won't be enough to wake her."
Otto's voice rang out. The camera slowly shifted to an experimental chamber filled with highly concentrated liquid Honkai energy, and the person imprisoned inside was actually Kiana.
"Heh, long time no see. Welcome home, K423."
As Otto's voice faded, eerie purple energy swirled, and "Kiana" opened her eyes. They were golden eyes identical to Sirin's. In an icy, haughty tone, she said, "Return to my side, my followers!"
The camera shifted to the Siberian Snowfield, to the remnants of the Second Honkai War battlefield. Beneath the ice, Benares seemed to sense the Queen's summons. A tremendous force made the ice begin to tremble and shatter.
Benares successfully broke free of her seal and roared toward the sky!
All of this was under Schicksal's surveillance. Watching Benares break free on the screen, Otto, standing before the monitoring display, spoke in an unreadable tone. "Oh, have you come to protect your Queen?"
"Deploy all-domain defense satellites! All Valkyrie units, prepare for Level One combat!"
"Get ready to welcome the transformation of the world!"
This post-credits scene left the audience both confused and curious. After all, the movie as a whole had not featured much in the way of flashy combat effects or particularly hype moments, so seeing the exciting points of the next movie naturally made them curious.
"Huh?! I don't remember dubbing this part!" Kiana was bewildered.
At the same time, the shut-in Queen watching the movie at home because she did not want to go out was equally confused. She did not understand why she had suddenly become the same character as Kiana. Did that mean she would no longer have her own voice acting in the future?
"That's me!" Bella excitedly looked at the dragon-shaped Honkai Beast that appeared at the end of the movie.
Before you continue