Now Is the Time

It's supposed to be a contact therapy to restore sanity, but it's really strange that all of this is mixed up!

She vaguely sensed that Persephone's body seemed to instinctively want to resist, but it was forcibly suppressed by the Doctor's will under the influence of nerve feedback. And when her lips and teeth touched the soft, warm, and pulsating skin on the side of her neck, she felt a slight tremor emanating from her embrace.

A hint of mint seemed to waft through the air—fatter than the one from a few days ago, but accompanying Persephone's rapid heartbeat. For a fleeting moment, she even considered biting down hard, to break open that tender neck and suck the blood brimming with intellect and wisdom—she even vaguely sensed that this was Persephone was hoping for, but the next instant, she dismissed this premonition as an illusion.

—You can't do that.

—This should not be done.

—I... don't want to harm her in any way.

The decision was made, and she regained her composure, both emotionally and physically. As she straightened up again, she seemed to faintly hear a sigh of regret.

This must be an illusion—there is evidence to suggest that it is indeed an illusion.

When Miss Surtr turned her gaze away, she found that the Maiden Doctor in her arms was no longer thinking. She was simply nestled close to her, fast asleep.

Persephone is asleep.

When I left the research building, it was 4 a. m.

Persephone has not yet awakened, so Miss Surtr left behind her left hand and used the technology developed in the previous timeline to construct a protective clone—this clone will return after Persephone awakens, but until then, she has other things to do.

She was going to see Skadi —the little orca who would come looking for her at 4:05 a. m. to ask for a permit to move freely.

—The fact that she was able to break into my bedroom at four in the morning shows that her schedule was not delayed at all.

—If that's the case, then if I leave at four o'clock, I'll definitely be able to run into her.

Miss Surtr thought to herself that after using the illusion technique several times, the skill gradually became perfect. Her left hand, initially disjointed due to a lack of understanding, gradually acquired a perfect disguise with her movements. Soon, this false limb no longer possessed any aesthetic flaws.

Of course, a disguised hand is never as useful as a real hand. But this problem should be resolved satisfactorily in a short time.

"Yes, not long. So there's no need to worry." She gently exhaled a breath of warm air, the temperature inside her body colliding with the cold northern air and turning into a diffuse white mist.

The street was silent. The streetlights no longer lit up with her steps, and the numerous, busy drones were no longer visible.

—Persephone is resting. A true rest, not a dolphin-like half-awake state.

—Until she wakes up, the city will no longer be subject to any power.

Is this a good thing?

She tilted her head, and a wisp of flame seeped from her fingertips into the ground, spreading outwards in all directions. Before Persephone awoke, she intended to take over the city's care from the young Doctor, to ensure no unexpected or strange changes occurred.

Of course, she couldn't be as meticulous as Persephone. But there wasn't much work for her in the quiet of four in the morning.

She stopped in her tracks.

The feedback from the fire told her a fact: there was no living thing in the building she was in— Skadi wasn't there, and the time was now 4:04.

404 is not a good omen.

She frowned, took off, and tore through the air, turning a minute of walking into half a second of flying. As she landed on the roof of her small building, she didn't sense Skadi's presence within a one-kilometer radius of her.

—The butterfly effect?

Was it because Persephone went to bed early that she was unable to finish all the paperwork before 4 a. m., thus causing the delay?

—Or perhaps...

The girl's mind was racing—she was just about to use an Originium Arts to search for someone when a more suitable option came to mind.

—I almost forgot, Skadi has already acquired the terminal. And she's not an electronics idiot.

She reached out and the PRTS terminal she carried with her fell into her hand. She turned it on, and when her gaze swept across the internal chat group, she still saw the 99+ discussion about Kal'tsit's condition. She didn't have time to pay attention to these spam chatterers for the time being. She just quickly opened Skadi's communication interface and submitted a chat request.

One second, two seconds, ten seconds, thirty seconds.

The terminal showed that the other party's phone was ringing. However—

She received no response from Skadi.

Chapter 151 Now is the time.

Is it the butterfly effect?

—It's possible, but such an obvious anomaly cannot be ignored.

—In short, let's first check Skadi's current situation.

Miss Surtr activated the emergency communication button on her terminal—a special button accessible only to high-privilege Rhodes Island operators. With a communication interval of one and a half seconds, a line of text suddenly lit up on the side of her terminal.

Nebula M78 756365104

PRTS: [Is there anything I can do for you? Elite Operator Surtr.]

Surtr: [Locate the current coordinates of Operator Skadi]

She typed as she walked into her office building. Once inside the living room, her gaze quickly swept over several prominent locations. She confirmed that the gift boxes hadn't been touched, but also saw no sign of a leave request.

It was obvious that Skadi hadn't returned early and left after writing a note of absence—she hadn't even entered the building in the past few hours. Surtr could clearly sense that Skadi's distinctive ocean scent lingered in the building.

Very well, things are getting interesting—her waiting and observation took about six seconds.

Nebula M78 756365104

PRTS: [Please wait... Access granted, data filed, calibration in progress... Coordinates of the terminal held by Operator Skadi located.]

Nebula M78 756365104

PRTS responded in eight seconds, projecting a coordinate point onto the Chernobog map on the terminal. The area pointed to by that coordinate was a functional block classified as 'to be cleared' in the city's redevelopment process—a place that had been struck by a small meteorite when the Catastrophe was wiped out. Of course, Persephone had calculated the impact point of the disaster before it arrived and completed the evacuation work there half an hour in advance.

—No man's land.

—Has Persephone ever cleaned up that area?

A thought flashed through her mind, and her body was already soaring into the air amidst flames the same color as the night sky. She locked onto her location; the flames that had seeped into the city's foundations hadn't yet reached that area. The girl's form then traversed the night sky, arriving above the coordinates marked by PRTS a few seconds later.

Skadi is right below.

She stared intently, the steel and composite carbon structures seemingly nonexistent in her field of vision. She saw Skadi sitting cross-legged amidst the collapsed ruins shattered by the small falling star—several overlapping collapsed structures forming a highly concealed chamber. Around Skadi, a ring of strange patterns drawn with an unknown liquid was operating powered by Originium energy.

Her breathing was steady; her lateral consciousness was not in control of her body.