Otto, who was intimately familiar with the true nature of this world, could naturally deduce with ease that the so-called other side of time and space was the Sea of Quanta. And Avalon, the ideal land King Arthur had sought throughout his life, was likely some World Bubble.
The holy sword with the power to control space was probably the Second Divine Key he had been searching for.
Even before receiving enlightenment from the Honkai Will, Otto had never given up searching for the various God Keys over the course of several centuries.
During the five hundred years Schicksal had governed all of England, he had already searched the entirety of Britain through every conceivable means.
Yet he had still found nothing.
The gifts left behind by the Previous Era—those weapons Schicksal called sacred relics and God Keys—had basically all been discovered by excavating ruins hidden underground.
Thus, Otto had once speculated that the Second Divine Key might have been buried even deeper beneath the earth.
But he had never expected... that it would be hidden so openly in the sky above the city.
Why Ming Yu was searching for the Second Divine Key no longer mattered to Otto.
As an especially crucial part of his plan to revive Kallen, this God Key capable of manipulating space was something he was determined to obtain.
"Notify Durandal to head to the scene and prepare for action. Amber, dispatch the Valkyrie and mech units within Britain to London at full speed. Recover the Second Divine Key."
He issued several orders in succession, then instructed Rita Rossweisse, who was at the scene:
"Rita, approach the Second Divine Key and gather detailed information."
"Understood."
The dark golden-haired girl rose to her feet and was about to move forward when dazzling flames exploded before her eyes.
The fire spread continuously and would reach her location in mere seconds.
Such a powerful attack made her expression turn grave.
—This attack was far more powerful than anything an ordinary Honkai Beast could unleash!
Was it some device guarding the God Key...?
No matter what, faced with an offensive of this level, she would have to give it everything she had.
The fourth-generation Valkyrie armor began to deploy: Palatinus Equinox.
After changing into combat armor, the girl stepped forward and swung her scythe with all her strength, raising an icy mist that neutralized the approaching flames.
Ice and fire collided, and for a time, thick water vapor filled the area.
Only after the mist dispersed did she catch sight of a small doll-like figure standing atop the Thames River, holding a flaming greatsword before the train.
Though Ming Yu, the target she had originally been monitoring, had already vanished, Rita no longer had the spare attention to search for him.
—Because she could clearly feel that the doll was staring at her with hostile eyes, ready to launch another attack at any moment.
Though it was tiny and could even be described as "cute," the danger it radiated was absolutely no less than any Honkai Beast Rita had encountered in her past combat missions—perhaps even greater.
Rita cautiously raised her scythe.
The previous strike had not targeted her directly, yet she had still needed to drive the power of Palatinus Equinox to its limits just to barely withstand the residual flames.
The conclusion was shocking, but she was likely no match for that doll wielding the flaming sword on her own.
At the same time, she noticed figures rapidly approaching from all directions.
Clearly, they were here for the God Key that had seen the light of day once more.
"Interesting. It seems there truly is some mysterious organization behind the scenes that possesses God Keys Schicksal does not... Rita, intercept them. As for that armed doll guarding the God Key... leave it to Durandal."
Otto had reached the same conclusion as Rita.
At present, the only one who could defeat that armed doll guarding the God Key was likely Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie.
Muddying the Waters to Touch the Train
London in the dead of night was unusually lively at this very moment.
Rita held her ice scythe and warily faced the armed doll on the water. At the same time, countless masked figures clad in black closed in from all around, completely surrounding her.
Rita calmly held her scythe upright and said softly:
"I have never heard of an underground organization like yours existing in London."
She had never heard of any organization capable of mobilizing so many soldiers.
Especially not in Europe, where Schicksal Headquarters was stationed...
"The serpent has not yet reached the time of its return, Miss Rita Rossweisse."
One of the figures opened his mouth and replied in a shriveled voice:
"For now, we can only ask that you rest here forever."
They drew their weapons in perfect unison and aimed them at Rita. In the distance, the armed doll once again raised Judgment of Shamash, aiming in Rita's direction as it prepared to unleash a second slash.
"...At this distance, that guardian's attack will swallow all of you up as well."
Rita narrowed her eyes, pouring Honkai energy into her ice scythe as she tried to stall for time.
"That does not matter. As long as we can ensure the burial of an S-Rank Valkyrie of Schicksal, it will be a very worthwhile trade for us."
The shadowy figure spoke casually.
Their encirclement was meant precisely to prevent Rita from escaping the armed doll's attack range.
"...Do you really have that ability?"
The infusion of Honkai energy was complete, and structures resembling gauzy wings unfolded behind Rita.
"Crescent Mode"—the particle flow distribution system unique to Azure Empyrea.
The particles released into the surroundings through this system could rapidly absorb the thermal energy in the environment, turning this place into a hell of extreme cold.
At the same time, a humanoid phantom like a mirage emerged behind Rita.
This was her fighting at full power. Even so, taking that blazing strike head-on would still be difficult.
"No one can stop the serpent's will—"
As the shadowy figure's words fell, the small armed doll swung once more, and towering flames swept toward Rita.
"—Move!"
Almost at the same instant, an angry shout came from the sky, followed by a white knight's lance falling from above.
Countless massive vines spread out in an instant, forcing the shadowy figures surrounding Rita to retreat.
At the same time, a blonde girl landed in front of Rita. Facing the surging flames, she calmly called out:
"QUEEN!"
A white knight carrying a shield answered her call, raising its shield before the two of them.
Then Durandal gave another command:
"KING!"
Another white knight wielding a greatsword appeared on the battlefield and swung its blade at the small doll beside the train.
"Lady Durandal..."
Rita let out a breath of relief.
With the situation urgent, the blonde girl ordered:
"Rita, I'll deal with that thing. Arrest all those mysterious people, then... look for Ming Yu's whereabouts."
"Understood."
The dark golden-haired girl nodded and quickly leaped down from the vines, beginning her operation.
However, she was somewhat pessimistic about the latter half of Durandal's order—
Even with her command over ice, she could only barely withstand the aftermath. That young man who had taken the blast head-on earlier had probably not even left a corpse behind, had he?
In the Thames River, near the riverbank.
Ming Yu poked his head out of the water and took a breath of fresh air.
—Just now, relying on a projected Oath of Judah, he had charged straight into the sea of fire unleashed by Heavenly Fire: Unleashed, then leaped into the river.
Though the Oath of Judah he had projected was not the genuine article and lacked the same level of Honkai energy defense as the real one Theresa possessed, the Judgment of Shamash in the armed doll's hands was not authentic either.
After canceling each other out, he had successfully used the projected cross to block that bootleg Heavenly Fire: Unleashed head-on, then taken advantage of the flames engulfing everything to jump into the Thames and escape Rita's sight.
Naturally, such concealment could not obstruct the armed doll's observation, but Ming Yu had reason to believe it would not prioritize attacking him.
After all, if it detected the amount of Honkai energy within their bodies, the nearby S-Rank Valkyrie Rita was clearly far more threatening than he was and would be the more likely priority target.
Though he was the one who had broken Chariot of Sanctus's seal, both World Serpent and Schicksal likely had too little attention to spare for his location right now.
—For Otto, Chariot of Sanctus was a God Key he absolutely had to obtain. Compared to dealing with him, immediately dispatching two S-Rank Valkyries to ensure its acquisition was far more important.
As for World Serpent... in their eyes, Ming Yu, who belonged to Schicksal, was probably considered an accomplice of Rita and the others. From the standpoint of strength, the two S-Rank Valkyries were their priority, not a mere B-Rank like him.
That gave him the perfect chance to fish in troubled waters.
In his view, to protect the God Key from being damaged, whether it was Kevin's armed doll or Durandal, they would both move farther away before fighting in earnest—perhaps from the river surface to the city streets.
And that was indeed what happened. After blocking the first attack, the armed doll's second attack locked onto Rita, while Durandal had already arrived on the battlefield and joined the fight.
If Ming Yu remembered correctly, Kevin's armed doll was nearly evenly matched with Durandal's Palatinus Equinox at this point in time. In the original timeline, Durandal had only won after exhausting its stored energy.
In other words, it would still take quite some time for the two to determine a victor.
Sure enough, after Durandal easily defused the armed doll's assault and began counterattacking, the doll realized it could not end the battle quickly and dashed across the water toward the shore.
Only far away from the God Key could it attack with full force.
Listening to the lively sounds of battle on shore, Ming Yu drew a deep breath and slipped beneath the surface, swimming toward Chariot of Sanctus.
The time to fish in troubled waters was now!
To speed things up, he projected one of Judah's chains and sent it forward, hooking it onto part of Chariot of Sanctus and pulling himself over.
Up close, this massive God Key truly looked imposing.
There was no time to admire its appearance. Ming Yu placed his hand on the train.
The moment he touched the Second Divine Key, just as when he had first touched Oath of Judah, its fundamental information and scenes from its past flooded into his mind.
Yesterday, I mixed up Palatinus Equinox and Azure Empyrea. Oof. It has been corrected.
Recollection: Elysia's Debut
Previous Era, Fire Moth Special Operations Command Room. Time unknown.
This Fire Moth commander watched the bad news continuously arriving from the front line with deep concern.
The target they had mobilized so many tanks and fighter jets to surround was neither the army of some nation nor a vicious band of mercenaries, but simply... one person.
Assuming that being could still be described as human.
He looked at the high-definition photograph of that being displayed on the screen.
Long white hair, four trailing hems marked with Honkai patterns, standing in the sky out of thin air as she fearlessly faced the numerous modern weapons attacking her.
—This was the second time this world had seen a powerful human individual with extraordinary abilities, different from Honkai Beasts.
Fire Moth had already classified such entities internally and begun analyzing them.
Human individuals possessing such powerful authority were recorded as Herrschers.
The large-scale Honkai disasters that gave rise to them would be recorded in history according to their order of appearance as the Xth Honkai Eruption.
What he faced now was an existence that could be called the Second Herrscher.
Compared with the previous First Herrscher, not only was the level of Honkai energy she possessed much greater, but her authority was also entirely different from that of the First Herrscher.
According to combat records, the First Herrscher could create fighter jets, tanks, and even mechs out of thin air through touch, becoming an army unto himself and causing Fire Moth considerable trouble when they first faced a Herrscher.
The battle against the First Herrscher had been more like a conventional military war. Thus, Fire Moth had ultimately succeeded in killing him after exhausting the First Herrscher's stamina.
Before you continue