Honkai Double Traverse: Taking Cyrene to Honkai Impact 3rd

It was as if a flicker of amber glimmered in Kiana's sky-blue eyes, while Raiden Mei's eyes lit up with a terrifying, almost scarlet blood-red.

Only Cyrene showed no fearsome pressure at all. Pink crystals seemed to fill the edges of their vision, accompanied by a faint haze.

That, instead, was what shocked Raiden Ryoma the most.

"—Otto really is a scumbag, and an idiot worthy of being put in a museum."

?55. Otto the Gambler, Jiang Cheng's Strength! (7.k)

The same sentiment, voiced by someone else, eased the oppressive atmosphere a little. The three girls turned toward the voice—

Jiang Cheng, who had been completely uninvolved and ignored by everyone from the start, now stepped into the middle of the storm.

"Schicksal does human experiments more often than anyone else, and they're better at them, too. They abduct innocent girls from all over the place and experiment on them in Babel Tower. The Valkyries within Schicksal are experimental materials, too. The scholars there all love experimenting on people. One of them, Dr. Magi, killed dozens of Valkyries in a single month and showed no remorse. Instead, he applied to have even more Valkyries brought to his operating table."

"He's twisted and loves gambling and stirring up trouble. He won't stop until he gets what he wants, but he isn't very capable. Whenever he causes a mess, he can't fix it himself and has to rely on other heroes to sacrifice themselves. But he can't stand anyone who might outshine him. The Second Honkai could have been dealt with much earlier, but he ambushed Welt and Siegfried, saving Sirin again and again until she became a six-core Herrscher. That left Siegfried no choice but to enter a berserk state to barely win."

"Later, Otto feared Siegfried's strength, so he fired a Honkai fusion missile at him. Cecilia had to sacrifice herself to protect her husband. And Cecilia was one of his test subjects, too. Even though the strongest Valkyrie was completely loyal to him, he still experimented on her daughter Kiana from childhood without Cecilia or Siegfried knowing, until he was exposed after the Second Honkai."

Unlike Raiden Ryoma's awkward attempt to change the subject, the torrent of information Jiang Cheng revealed left everyone present frozen in place.

Whatever they had been thinking or doing before, however anxious they had been, they couldn't help following Jiang Cheng's lead and turning their attention to him.

All three girls, as well as Raiden Ryoma, saw the unmistakable look of disdain on his face—

He looked even more disgusted than he had when facing Cocolia.

"Once he notices you, he'll interfere with you and try to use you as a stepping stone for his plans. If you do what he says, you'll meet a miserable fate. If you don't, he'll interfere again, trying to drag you into his plans, which are crude and laughably inept."

"Even if you're stronger than he imagined, he won't choose to live in peace with you. He'll still find ways to exploit you, using his half-baked wisdom to create a horde of monsters he can't deal with himself. Then he'll make it so that if you don't defeat the monsters he created, the world will be destroyed."

"He's a monster who can never live in peace with anyone, an enemy who'll cause all kinds of disasters if left alone. He lacks both the vision and the ability, but just happens to have enough resources to cause plenty of destruction. Either you kill him, or you obey him like a dog and help him achieve his goal—the one he could never accomplish on his own."

Before Jiang Cheng crossed over, he had heard that Otto once invited Joyce to succeed him as Archbishop of Schicksal. If Joyce had accepted, there wouldn't have been all the mess that followed.

But that was impossible. Otto was a damn dog who wanted to interfere in everything and stick his nose into everything. Even if Joyce had become Archbishop, Otto would only have found ways to interfere with him.

Besides, the invitation to become Archbishop had been an attempt to control Joyce in the first place. If he accepted, it would be like putting his neck in someone else's noose. If he wanted freedom, if he truly wanted to save humanity and lead it toward a better future, he had to forge his own path, create a new organization, and bring in those unwilling to collude with Schicksal.

How could you build something new without destroying the old?

Everything had to be renewed.

This rotten world needed to be turned upside down. Amphoreus and the Star Rail galaxy...

Forget it.

They were a load of crap. No need to change them.

Anyway, Otto had suffered countless setbacks in the main story and manga. Countless things had happened beyond his expectations. His self-important actions had dragged him and the entire world into danger more times than anyone could count.

Schicksal had never been overflowing with strength. If Otto really had a pile of brilliant, mysterious plans—like the tactics his fans had speculated about before Jiang Cheng crossed over—he wouldn't have suffered setbacks time and time again. In the Anti-Entropy visual novel, he'd even been hit right in the face and shot in the head, forcing him to fire missiles at a city and make Joyce sacrifice himself to protect it.

Most of what Jiang Cheng had said went over everyone's heads. Even Raiden Ryoma couldn't understand it all and could only piece together a little based on what he knew.

—But that was enough.

"Let's go,"

Raiden Mei said softly.

The scarlet in her eyes had vanished completely. Even she seemed calm now.

"Mm-hmm." Cyrene nodded vigorously.

"So the enemy we have to face is this big bastard?"

Kiana grabbed her slender, pale arm, and the amber in her eyes turned to disgust.

It hadn't disappeared.

It was just that the color she shared with Cecilia, whom she saw as her mother, had now mingled with the blue of her eyes.

—At least he'd successfully changed the subject, and anger had temporarily replaced the sadness from before.

"It certainly looks that way," Raiden Ryoma said, his expression serious. "From what I know, much of what Jiang Cheng said checks out."

"...Sorry."

Raiden Mei lowered her head and apologized softly.

"I saw you having a nightmare this morning, but I still got upset over something so trivial..."

"There's no need to apologize."

Jiang Cheng refuted her without hesitation.

"Otto the bastard is a threat, but he's also practically killed off everyone useful under his command."

"Of the three S-rank Valkyries from the previous generation, he drove Siegfried into defecting, killed Cecilia with his own hands, and ruined Theresa with a few rounds of brainwashing. The only S-rank Valkyrie left is Rita, and she can barely take on the weakest upper-tier Honkai Beast, an Emperor-class."

"The new generation hasn't had time to grow, and the previous one is already dead. Schicksal is in a serious talent drought. That bunch of scrap metal can't stop anyone. I could storm Schicksal alone and crush him. The only problem is that he has many bodies. If I can't kill him for good in one go, he'll drag me into a quagmire of war."

"...Serves him right!"

Kiana spat out the words without hesitation.

The girl who'd been aloof, serious, silly, and foolish showed her mocking side now.

"So, first we test our strength. Then I'll make preparations based on what we can do," Jiang Cheng continued, his voice relaxing a little. "Otto loves making a mess and forcing everyone else to clean up after him. But as long as we keep ourselves hidden, seize control of the information, and kill him before he causes trouble, he's just a bastard."

Everyone present nodded.

And so, their conflicts were temporarily set aside. Their shared hatred brought them together—for now.

Raiden Ryoma clapped his hands.

Behind him, a helicopter descended slowly. The fierce wind from its rotors whipped his trench coat, making it flap and snap.

"I'll do everything I can to quell the unrest caused by this incident and draw everyone's attention to me, keeping your information hidden." He spoke each word carefully. "From here on, do whatever you need to do."

He sounded so serious that it was as if he were entrusting Jiang Cheng with the whole world, rather than sending him from one place to another.

"I'll turn this world into a place I like."

Jiang Cheng replied, enunciating every word just as carefully.

—The two of them suddenly seemed to be starring in a hard-boiled action movie, and even the light in the sky seemed to grow sterner.

Especially since both of them wore matte black trench coats of similar material. The refined, restrained fabric billowed in the gale, their patterns respectively depicting an elegant picture book and layers of chrysanthemums.

Silence.

Solemnity.

The atmosphere was so heavy it seemed you could wring water from it.

The roar of the rotors drew closer, and the wind was so strong that everyone's long hair streamed unnaturally behind them.

Raiden Ryoma turned and climbed the rope ladder into the helicopter first. The others followed close behind. Jiang Cheng skipped the ladder and relied on his physical strength to endure the instability.

Raiden Mei climbed with effortless grace. Kiana sprang up in a few fluid bounds like a cat, moving so smoothly you'd think she was a seasoned train-hopper.

Only Cyrene, with her short legs, had to hold the railing and climb up one step at a time.

"Aw, couldn't they have made the rungs a little narrower?" Her cheeks puffed up like a steamed bun.

The cabin wasn't cramped at all.

It was nothing like the narrow spaces in movies, TV shows, or blueprints, designed for tactical and strategic reasons—and, most importantly, to save money.

Raiden Ryoma was the Shadow Emperor of the Far East.

If he wanted, he could build a mansion out of solid gold. Money was just a number to him.

Compared to the luxuries of modern society, even Zhang Juzheng's thirty-two-man sedan chair was nothing.

The interior of his private helicopter was, in fact, extravagantly spacious.

Even with five people on board, everyone had plenty of room. They each even had their own seat, except for the double seat in the very middle.

That double seat looked a little out of place among the others, like someone had dropped a husky into a pack of wolves.

—Who had it been saved for?

The answer was obvious.

At any other time, Jiang Cheng would have chosen another single seat to avoid the girls arguing over the spot beside him. But he wasn't in the mood today.

He'd make it up to them this way.

He sat down on the right side of the double seat, and softness pressed against him almost immediately.

Slender, smooth, and supple, with a healthy fullness—the almost overwhelming touch, like milky coconut flesh, could only belong to the best-built girl there.

—Raiden Mei.

She said nothing, simply settling down quietly, her long eyelashes casting faint shadows across her cheeks.

It wasn't just because of the princess carry she'd witnessed earlier. It was also because of the fear she'd seen that morning—the first time Jiang Cheng's face had shown such terror and helplessness.

The helicopter shot into the sky with a roar. Outside the window, the scenery raced backward like an old film reel, quickly dwindling into a few sketchy speed lines.

The testing facility Raiden Ryoma had prepared was indeed excellent.

Although they hadn't arrived yet, plenty of things in this world didn't require seeing them in person to get a sense of them.

When Jiang Cheng saw the area representing the wilderness streak past on the virtual screen floating in front of him, and their coordinates showed they were already far from Nagazora, he knew he'd probably be able to let loose this time.

Even though he already knew how strong he was, he still needed to assess his overall capabilities. It'd be no fun if he had some huge weakness—like dropping dead the moment he encountered poison.

There was no need to study their expressions. Raiden Mei beside him—her face visible beneath her drooping dark-purple bangs—and the other girls all looked serious.

"Want me to tell you more funny stories about Otto getting humiliated?" He tried raising a finger.

Before long, Jiang Cheng saw the building standing abruptly on the yellow-brown wasteland, looming into view.

Its exterior had been painted the same dusty yellow as the wasteland, but that did nothing to hide its imposing weight.

The helicopter descended slowly.

Several staff members were already waiting out front. They saluted the helicopter in unison.

Raiden Ryoma was the first to hurry out. He issued a few orders to the staff who approached, telling them to lift some of the lockdowns.

The staff immediately turned and left.

"This is the weapons testing base I use most often," he explained calmly. "Its only advantage is that it isn't very discreet. Plenty of people know about it."

Jiang Cheng and the others followed close behind.

As complete amateurs with no expertise in this sort of thing, none of them asked questions.

They simply continued forward along the neatly paved road, watching Raiden Ryoma go through a few procedures—

Then the doors opened.

Several staff members who looked much like the others bowed and watched them enter the building.

Like every secret base—

Behind its plain, deliberately unremarkable exterior lay an interior that was cutting-edge and high-tech.

Blue Titan lights were clearly installed in every corridor, their stark glow running in a continuous line. It was impossible to tell whether they were just for show or whether fully operational Titan Mechs were hidden behind them, ready to deliver a devastating blow at a moment's notice.

Jiang Cheng wasn't interested.

He simply followed along, turning corner after corner, descending floor after floor by elevator, and going through one procedure after another.

Until finally—

They stopped on the lowest level.

"The Honkai outbreak can't be concealed, and almost no one in the world doesn't know that the Herrscher Core is inside Mei. But plenty of people also know that I research plasma technology," Raiden Ryoma's voice echoed through the empty corridor. "That gives me a perfect way to divert attention. So—"