Cocolia and Alexandra

An army vehicle sped across the endless snowy plain, Cocolia relentlessly pressing the accelerator, hoping to get through this area as quickly as possible, because a region teeming with monsters everywhere was simply too terrifying.

In the back seat sat Alexandra, whom Cocolia had rescued using the Russian Rescue method, entrusted to her by her husband, Cocolia's superior, Colonel Alexei, before his death.

Amid the raging blizzard, the car suddenly stopped, unable to move forward no matter what.

"Damn it, why break down now of all times!" No matter how Cocolia pounded on it, the car remained stuck in place.

"Thump, thump, thump!" A dull sound rang out, and Cocolia felt her heart leap with each beat. Not far off, several Chariot-class Honkai Beasts strode toward them with long, heavy steps. Though Cocolia had a military background, facing a group of colossal beings she knew nothing about still sent a chill through her heart.

But in this car, besides herself, there was only Alexandra, a pregnant woman completely defenseless. Since they couldn't leave, she had to steel herself and face it. She drew her pistol and fired a shot at the nearest Chariot-class Honkai Beast.

The tiny bullet struck the Chariot-class Honkai Beast's body and immediately bounced to the ground. Not only did it fail to cause any damage, it couldn't even slow it down. At the same time, several Charge-type Honkai Beasts appeared around them.

Alexandra stroked her slightly swollen belly, her eyes filled with despair. She knew all too well what kind of terrifying monsters these were, ones that bullets couldn't even touch.

"Please be careful!" A loud shout broke through, interrupting their thoughts. They looked up to see a young girl with white hair and blue eyes flying through the sky. With a casual wave of her hand, a patch of the Honkai Beasts before them vanished.

"Wh—!" Before Cocolia and Alexandra could recover, the girl darted back and forth at a speed the naked eye couldn't track. In the blink of an eye, all the surrounding Honkai Beasts were wiped out, as if they had never existed.

Staring at the beautiful woman before them, Lance in hand, heroic and striking, the two were too stunned to speak.

Cecilia turned around, two streams of hot tears flowing down her face.

"To meet you at this point in time, I'm so glad!"

A question mark slowly formed in Cocolia's mind. She wondered what was wrong with this person—she had saved them, not the other way around, so why was she so emotional?

What Cocolia didn't know was that Schicksal's bombing was about to begin. If the Herrscher of Corruption hadn't hacked into her communicator to tell Cecilia that two survivors were still nearby, they would have died not from the Honkai Beasts but from Schicksal's missiles.

"Being able to save two more people in the face of a great Honkai eruption—what a joyful thing that is." That had always been Cecilia's thought, unchanged for years.

Schicksal HQ, Floating Island.

"Schicksal Third and Fourth Armories, missile launch sequence initiated. Targets confirmed locked."

"Begin attack." Otto gave the order coldly. Schicksal's carpet bombing of Siberia had begun.

"It's more exciting watching it live." Enoshia hovered in the air, watching countless missiles trace graceful arcs through the sky before pouring down onto the earth like dense rain. Below, flames burst forth and thick smoke billowed. The scene was truly spectacular.

Being inside the target zone, theoretically countless missiles should have made intimate contact with her before hitting the ground, but none of that happened. All missiles automatically veered away when they were less than a hundred meters from her, leaving her trapped in a cage formed by the smoke from their exhaust.

To prevent Otto from backstabbing her while she fought other Herrschers, Enoshia had tampered with the programming of all Schicksal's missiles. Any missile that detected her would immediately turn away, no matter how many there were. The Herrscher of Corruption being hit by weapons controlled by human electronic terminals—that would be far too ridiculous to mention.

"Column, you bastard, you missed!" Enoshia watched as many missiles landed on empty ground, not even their shockwaves hitting a single Honkai Beast. Even if Otto didn't care, she felt the loss. Every missile fired was money, after all. The cheapest one, conservatively, had to cost tens of thousands at least.

At 14:00, February 8, 2000, as the bombing ended, a large force of Valkyries entered Siberia to begin the decisive battle against the Herrscher of Frost. Watching the transport planes continuously arriving, Enoshia's brow furrowed tightly.

After the bombing ended, tens of thousands of Honkai Beasts still remained across Siberia. And because an anomalous gravity zone had formed around the Herrscher of Frost, covering roughly ten thousand square kilometers, although the most missiles were fired at this area, the most missiles also deviated from their targets.

Even though the Herrscher of Frost was right there, if the Valkyrie forces wanted to nip her in the bud, they had to clear out the Honkai Beasts around her within that gravity anomaly environment.

Otto divided the Valkyries into three teams. The left wing was led by Theresa and Siegfried, the right wing by Cheng Lixue, with Shub, Salome, and Shigure Kira in that team.

Cecilia personally led the third team, responsible for support and rearguard. Otto's intention was for her to be the main force facing the Herrscher, conserving as much stamina as possible before the decisive battle.

"Parvati, Ashwatthama, and two more... ones I've never seen in the game. Well, the Thirteen Flame-Chasers have over a dozen Emperor-class Honkai Beast genes inside them, so there should be far more types of Emperor-class Honkai Beasts than just the Ice Pig, the Twins, and the White Pig. But four Emperor-class Honkai Beasts—Otto really doesn't value Valkyrie lives at all." Enoshia silently mourned for them, then immediately flew toward one of the Emperor-class Honkai Beasts.

Around 15:30, February 8, Cheng Lixue's squad encountered an attack by hundreds of Honkai Beasts. The most eye-catching among them was naturally the one that looked like a scorpion, over three meters tall and more than fifteen meters long.

Its large pincers and all its legs were ice-blue, while its body was emerald green. The front of its body had four stacked segments, with its head growing on the very frontmost one, a silver-white mouthpart. The front half of its stacked body was covered in hexagonal protrusions. These protrusions densely covered its front half and its six long legs. Both front pincers were a meter long, also covered in diamond-like hexagonal bumps, with only the front claws, like the mouthpart, being a mirror-smooth silver-white. Its eyes were yellow, also hexagonal.

Aside from its size, what set it apart most from a scorpion was its tail. The whip-like tail had no stinger, looking instead like a straw aimed at others.

But none of that was the most important. The most important thing was that all detection results showed this was an Emperor-class Honkai Beast never seen before! Cheng Lixue immediately ordered the Valkyries ahead to fall back the moment she got the result, but it was already too late. The beast's tail sprayed out a massive cloud of ice mist, and several Valkyries who were too slow to run were turned into ice sculptures in an instant.