"I'm very sorry! The mission failed."
Patrick leaned weakly against Welt Yang, reporting her intelligence with a trace of self-reproach.
"I encountered a mysterious person along the way. She had at least the strength of an S-rank Valkyrie. There was also a humanoid Honkai beast by her side, but I felt it was more like a Herrscher—or rather, a pseudo-Herrscher. Even Schicksal has no records of them."
"She seemed to be a Valkyrie, yet not one from Schicksal. Or perhaps a Valkyrie who had betrayed Schicksal. Whether she was friend or foe couldn't be determined, but she held extremely strong sympathy for those Schicksal test subjects. She attacked me just as I was preparing to approach the target, and the mission failed..."
"..."
"Was that the mysterious Valkyrie you mentioned yesterday, the one who arrived at Babylon Tower before you?"
Welt Yang helped Patrick sit down on a stone beneath a tree, thinking of the mysterious Valkyrie Patrick had reported yesterday.
However, because the circumstances had been unusual at the time, the intelligence had not been very detailed.
"Mm."
Patrick sat on the stone with her head lowered, resting and relaxing her body...
After being defeated by Himeko, she had recovered some strength there before escaping Babylon Tower. She just hadn't expected... so soon... for so many Honkai beasts to appear. She had already encountered several Honkai beast attacks on her way here.
"A mysterious, unfamiliar S-rank Valkyrie. It seems... things are heading in an unknown direction."
Welt Yang clasped his hands behind his back and looked up at the sky, lost in thought.
"Has [she] awakened?"
Welt Yang suddenly asked another question.
"Mm."
"It seems we were still too late..."
In fact, Anti-Entropy had learned of the Second Herrscher's birth even earlier than Schicksal. But... they still had not