Shorty, Who Are You?

Bianca Durandal Attagina—this was the name personally chosen by the captain of the Blade of Immortality squad for herself.

This young girl had become a Valkyrie at an early age, and in the years that followed, she had relied on her extraordinary talent and terrifying luck to rise all the way to become one of Schicksal's only three S-rank Valkyries.

Yet even after achieving that, Durandal had not relaxed in the slightest. Whether at work or in training, she pushed herself to the absolute limit.

Even a ruthless boss like Otto could not help but tell Durandal to take a couple of days off whenever he saw her mission schedule.

After paying such a price, Durandal's strength naturally continued to improve without pause.

If everyone had their own limits, then Otto, who had always watched Durandal, had discovered that this girl's limits seemed impossible to see.

This time, entrusted with an important mission by Otto, Durandal had naturally made every possible preparation.

Not only had she brought every member of Blade of Immortality, but she and her close friend—also Blade of Immortality's vice-captain—Rita Roosevelt, had both equipped their strongest Valkyrie Armor.

Although Durandal wanted to catch up properly with her senior, Himeko Murata, and Theresa Apocalypse, she knew very well that this mission had not left her that kind of time.

After noticing the unnatural expression on Theresa's face, Durandal spoke calmly.

"Lady Theresa, Lord Otto sent us here as reinforcements."

"Fine, then in that case..."

"Lord Otto said that the Blade of Immortality squad only accepts my command."

After watching Theresa skip out of the bridge while carrying Oath of Judah, Durandal continued.

"Lord Otto instructed me beforehand. Command authority for this operation belongs to me. If possible, please do not let personal feelings interfere with this mission."

"I know already."

Theresa glared at the Blade of Immortality squad in displeasure and said indignantly.

"You haven't changed at all."

"You're so rigid that nobody could possibly like you."

Hearing Theresa's angry words, Rita Roosevelt, standing behind Durandal, covered her mouth and chuckled before speaking to Theresa with impeccable politeness.

"Lady Theresa, this concerns a Herrscher, after all."

"It is not surprising for Lord Otto to take such a cautious attitude."

"You... stay away from me."

After hearing Rita's overly polite words, Theresa shuddered and inconspicuously moved two steps to the side.

This was not her first time meeting the girl before her, but no matter how others treated Rita, Theresa simply could not bring herself to like her.

After all, whenever Rita came to St. Freya Academy on business, she would somehow appear behind Theresa whenever she let her guard down.

Every time their eyes met, Theresa felt like Rita would scare the life out of her.

Come on, even if she had been adopted, she was still the granddaughter of Schicksal's Grand Bishop, okay?

Why did this woman look at her as though she wanted to pull her into her arms—or even devour her whole?

And there was also the fact that this woman's phone charm was actually a chibi version of Theresa herself.

Thinking that this woman might have designs on her, Theresa moved another two steps away.

"Rita."

"Understood, Lady Durandal."

Upon hearing her superior's words, Rita reined in the emotion in her eyes and switched into work mode.

Then she spoke to Theresa with complete seriousness.

"Lady Theresa, Lord Otto hopes that whatever you see next, you will not act on emotion."

"This concerns a Herrscher. Lord Otto does not wish for the damage Honkai has caused in Changkong City to continue spreading."

"I understand."

Seeing Rita withdraw that look from her eyes, Theresa could not be bothered to continue arguing with the frightening maid.

"I'll have the Hyperion land. According to the instruments, those targets are temporarily gathered nearby."

"Or rather, they're right beneath us at this very moment."

After seeing the Hyperion, Gu Yu decided to have everyone stop moving.

Since the Hyperion had already come looking for them, there was absolutely no need for them to keep moving.

If they were allies, there was no need to run.

If they were enemies... they could not run anyway, so they could only adapt when the time came.

With such a prominent Kiana here, whether Theresa or Otto had come, neither of them could possibly just activate the Hyperion's Nexus System and blast them all to pieces in one shot.

He had nothing to fear... my ass.

Although he did not know why, something in Gu Yu's heart had always been telling him one thing.

Death was never the most terrifying thing.

In this world, there were many things worse than death.

For example...

"How strange. Other than both my parents being dead, I'm just an ordinary person. How could I have such profound insight?"

Gu Yu shook his head with a snort and buried the thought back in his heart.

Watching the battleship descend from the sky, Kiana could not help feeling that something was off.

Normally, with her personality, seeing such a cool battleship would have made her stare at it with gleaming eyes.

But now, Kiana felt as if there were certain presences aboard it that gave her an extremely strange feeling.

"Kiana? Are you okay?"

Seeing cold sweat continually run down Kiana's face, Raiden Mei concernedly took her right hand.

"I'm fine. At least they aren't Honkai Beasts. From that alone, they should be humans."

"We're humans too. They'll help us."

"Ah, yeah."

Comforted by her best friend, Kiana truly felt a little more at ease.

"A Schicksal battleship..."

Unlike Kiana and the others, Bronya, who already knew detailed information about Schicksal, slightly furrowed her brow.

Even now, she still felt no sign of her memories returning.

Yet the knowledge in her mind told her that she understood Schicksal's general situation very well.

Looking at it from that angle, since she knew information about both Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, she had to have once belonged to one of those two organizations.

At the same time, after realizing that point, Bronya had discovered...

—The amount of knowledge in her mind about Anti-Entropy seemed to far exceed what she knew about Schicksal.

Could it be that she had originally been with Anti-Entropy?

No, she should not jump to conclusions. Since Bronya even knew about certain secret experiments, perhaps she was no longer with Anti-Entropy.

Even though she had forgotten her memories of being an assassin, her thinking had not been limited because of it.

She had already analyzed another possibility.

Perhaps she was no longer an Anti-Entropy member. Maybe she knew too much, and that was why Anti-Entropy had tried to hunt her down.

Before she woke up, she seemed to have heard some woman shouting her name, saying something about attacking Bronya too.

Wow. Anti-Entropy was terrifying.

With certain speculations already forming in her heart, Bronya sighed softly.

If that was the case, then perhaps she should first consider joining Schicksal.

Maybe she could rely on that large organization to recover her lost memories.

As for Yae Sakura...

—At this moment, aside from Gu Yu after transforming, she was the strongest combatant among the group.

She could sense that there were three powerful presences aboard the battleship in the sky.

Even as a Pseudo Herrscher, she had a considerable chance of being subdued if she faced any one of them.

And considering that their intentions were unclear...

Glancing at Gu Yu, who had manifested his belt around his waist, Yae Sakura silently made up her mind.

This boy had saved her heart. Although he had said something about "miracles and magic not being free," his casual remark about "owing a favor" clearly showed that he had not taken the matter to heart.

Since he was Yae Sakura's benefactor, then if necessary, she would protect him even at the cost of her life.

"Alright, I don't know what each of you is thinking, but calm down. After all, if it's a blessing, it isn't a disaster. If it's a disaster, you can't hide from—"

"What the hell?!"

However, halfway through his sentence, Gu Yu saw a group of women descend from the battleship and immediately shielded everyone behind him.

Although he had long prepared himself for changes to the plot, but...

—Why were Durandal and Rita, these two S-rank Valkyries, here???

Before being transported here, Gu Yu had not held any ill feelings toward either girl.

They might have opposed the protagonist group, but both of them were heroes who had genuinely been saving the world.

But when the two stood before Gu Yu, he realized that these two were not girls at all.

Including Theresa, who stood there holding Oath of Judah and staring at Kiana, all three S-rank Valkyries radiated an incomparably terrifying aura.

Although the three did not currently show hostility toward them, Gu Yu was certain that if they really fought...

—This bunch of unawakened Herrschers would not even be enough for Durandal alone.

"Hm, there are actually survivors in Changkong City."

After glancing at the people before her, Durandal's gaze suddenly sharpened.

Although she did not know about one of Otto's plans, Durandal did know that a certain girl was the Herrscher of the Void.

She did not know which of the people before her was the Third Herrscher, but...

—That white-haired, blue-eyed girl was undoubtedly the other half of Sirin, the Herrscher of the Void.

However, before Durandal could walk toward the girl, Theresa beside her grinned and stepped forward first.

"Yahoo, Kiana. Do you remember me?"

"Huh?"

Looking at the little girl dragging a massive cross behind her, Kiana asked in confusion.

"Shorty, who are you?"

PS2: As usual, please vote.

PS3: How did the number of chapters I owe increase by one instead...

PS4: There's no reader group, so stop asking. Seeing you all tear into each other in the review section has genuinely scared me.