An Impregnable Fortress

Miss Surtr gently tapped the corner of the table.

Expose them? Question them? No... there's no need for that. Surtr and Warfarin are good friends; friends shouldn't act like this.

That...

"Is there anything I can help you with?" Miss Surtr asked, trying to be as gentle as possible. "Or is there anywhere you'd like me to go with you? I have plenty of time right now, or perhaps I could suggest a trip during your vacation?"

"I have a feeling you're overthinking things." Warfarin, however, only glanced at her with a slightly puzzled look. Then she took a sip of her black tea with thirteen sugar cubes. "I'm fine, incredibly fine. But not so fine that I want to go on vacation... If you invited me in the summer, we could capture Kal'tsit and go to Siesta. But right now, I just want to have a cup of tea with you here."

"Really..." Surtr wasn't used to adding sugar to her black tea; she didn't like adding anything at all—she picked up her teacup and casually gulped down half a cup. The sweetness and bitterness of the tea swirled on her tongue.

"Then..." She placed the teacup aside.

Afternoon tea is finished.

Well, this guy doesn't understand what a lady's tea party is.

Warfarin's expression stiffened slightly, and she shook her little head helplessly.

"You idiot, don't you know how to play by the rules?!"

"But we're not playing cards." Surtr tilted her head slightly. "Hmm... Warfarin, would you like to play cards? I'm not very good at it, but I know the basic rules of all the card games."

"You—!" She saw Warfarin's chest suddenly swell up—and then be forcefully pressed down by the white-haired Sanguinarch herself.

Warfarin took a few heavy breaths, then a deep one. She took several deep breaths.

And without any ladylike manners, she drank the tea, which was usually sweetened, in one gulp— Miss Surtr seized the opportunity to pour her another whole cup.

"Okay, I admit it, beating around the bush with you is a completely wrong and stupid thing to do. I'll just get straight to the point."

"Didn't you come to have tea with me?"

"Yes! But tea—never mind." The white-haired Sanguinarch's shoulders slumped abruptly. "This at least strengthens my resolve not to get involved. If I keep wasting my time with you, my heart will explode sooner or later... Surtr, are you free for the next few days?"

"I'm always free." Surtr selectively ignored the rambling she couldn't understand. "But tonight is an exception. Persephone has assigned me a task tonight. A solo task... If it's urgent, I can ask her to cancel it."

"It's nothing urgent." Warfarin shook her head, her long, smooth white hair swaying gently. "It's a request... how should I put it, you see, I took the day off today, right?"

"Yes, because you worked overtime earlier." Surtr nodded in agreement.

"Yes, that's right. Rest is good, but the Rhodes Island main ship will arrive soon... I heard it could arrive as early as tomorrow. Then, I'll probably get very busy."

"Hmm, so what is the request? Do you need my help?"

"No, that's not it." Warfarin continued to shake her head. "I just wanted to give you a heads-up... Chernobog and Rhodes Island are two different working environments. Working under Persephone is also completely different from working under Amiya. I think some operators might get sick, or they might not adapt well. And if someone falls ill and doesn't have enough care, I hope you can help them."

Surtr felt a question mark rising in her head.

Rhodes Island ... What is Rhodes Island? Rhodes Island is the headquarters of Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals. It has no shortage of doctors and nurses. Yet now, Warfarin, a top-tier doctor, is here asking her for a favor?

Please, Surtr, who has only a smattering of medical knowledge and only knows battlefield first aid and the idea that brute force can work miracles?

She felt that either she was crazy, or Warfarin was crazy.

"But... does Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals lack Medical Operator?" she tried to struggle with the question.

"It's possible that Medical Operator has fallen! And given the manpower available in Persephone, it's estimated that it will be difficult to find professional medical personnel to treat our own operators—rather than entrusting this to those clumsy volunteers, it's better to let someone you trust handle it!"

Warfarin suddenly grabbed Miss Surtr's hand—in those pure eyes, one could detect sincerity, as well as a deeply hidden guilty conscience and panic.

Surtr, unsure whether she should expose her—she certainly wouldn't have before, but now... She was a little uncertain...

Until the last weight fell with a thud.

"Please, for the sake of our friendship, you'll agree, right?"

Chapter 112 - An Impregnable Fortress

Wake.

Far from the tea party, in a place where the sea breeze swells on the other side of the world, a girl dressed in a nun's habit awakens.

The land where she slumbers is the ruins of the sea. All she sees are the bones and blood of otherworldly demons.

She has no name—at least she doesn't remember her own.

It seems someone once called her Specter, and it seems someone once promised to cure her illness.

But when she opened her eyes, a fiery light emanated from the depths of them.

Blazing fire, the blazing fire from a dream.

In her dream, the girl drifts alone on a desolate and withered wasteland, receiving a stream of fire from a sacred object.

Sacred fire, giant's fire. The girl's memories are of a fire bestowed by a molten Fire Giants, as tall as a mountain, whose every move could cause the earth to crumble and the clouds to shatter.

Flames surged...

The mad aura from the ancient abyss that had once resided within the girl's body was silently replaced by flames. She sensed many old wounds within her body, muscles and bones that had been repeatedly destroyed and regenerated through the use of deep-sea power, leaving them scarred and battered, all rapidly being rebuilt—the manifestation of her power remained unchanged; she could still wield terrifying weapons and unleash carnage with her rapidly regenerating body. However, the essence of the power within her was altering.

She has a new identity.

"I..." the girl murmured. The light emanating from her deep red eyes was purer and more intense than ever before.

A name appeared in her mind.

—Surtr.

—Surtr, the Dominator of Flames.

"My...master." She rose from the shadows. The aura of a hunter emanated from her without restraint.

She disturbed some creatures, some monsters, and some otherworldly beings that dwell in the deep sea.

And accompanied by soft whispers and sticky, sliding sounds, a cloud of flesh Tide of Flesh, hidden within the tide, surged toward her.

A sea of monsters, a dark sea, a terrifying sea.

The tide surged up with huge waves, crashing down on the area where the girl was like a collapsing mountain.

The girl was easily swallowed up, like a Mars falling into a bag.

The next moment, Mars ignited the cloth that made up the bag!

"I will sacrifice this hunt..."