Chapter 159
"By the way, I'm going to West Asia with Theresa next week for an inspection. I hope our Acting Grand Bishop isn't really trying to use me to lure Otto."
"... I don't know. I've been researching Valkyrie's battle suits lately, but the Acting Grand Bishop had this idea before. It just depends on the situation... she might have other motives."
Tesla shrugged; she couldn't understand the Acting Grand Bishop's thoughts.
Of course, rather than speculating on the true thoughts of a little girl who is upset because her older sister ran away from home for several months, Tesla would rather criticize the Valkyrie's battle suit.
I don't know whose idea the Valkyrie's battle suits came from; they're either light, flimsy dresses with no protective capabilities or tight-fitting suits that can hardly be considered armor.
Although the Valkyrie's combat suit has some bulletproof effect, Valkyrie is completely useless against armor-piercing rounds or heavy fire.
In other words, the main function of the Valkyrie Armor is simply to look good.
It also has some effect on resisting Honkai Energy.
"Alright, then I'll obediently accept the overseas assignment."
"Yes, I believe in you."
"..."
At this point, Tesla adopted a "I support you" attitude, but her support was mostly verbal.
Clearly, she didn't have high hopes for herself.
"I really wonder how that young lady's older sister is doing now."
To be honest, Welt still hoped that someone could stop Freya's rampage.
"They say it's in the Sahara Desert, but who knows? That scoundrel who's with her didn't even bother to call us back before entering the desert. Has he forgotten his role as an executor? I think we won't be paying him his salary for the next two months."
"Isn't this a bit unnecessary?"
"Anyway, that young lady will give her sister pocket money."
"... Okay, then let's deduct two months' salary as you wish."
Achoo!
A tall figure trudging through the scorching desert sneezed loudly.
The small figure nearby quickly dodged to the side.
"Dad?"
"N-nothing, it's probably just that people are talking about me."
"Huh?"
"Kiana, I didn't mean that older woman at the bar the other day, I meant Welt, Ryoma and the others, yes, it must be those guys talking badly about me behind my back!"
The dazzling sun hangs high, baking the earth as if baking the land, casting its intense rays across the desert. The exceptionally high temperature makes this a forbidden zone for living beings.
"By the way, Kiana, is World Serpent's base really here?"
"Yes, our Great Ancestor said that they can only hide here now."
The two people leading the camel forward at this moment are Kiana and Siegfried, who have been away from home for several months.
Of course, the so-called running away from home is only one side of the story told by a sulking young lady.
For Kiana, this is proof that she is finally independent. Although it is cool to have her sister as a part of her, Kiana does not want to restrain her sister's nature.
Yes.
That wasn't some well-behaved child, but rather a good child with a rather rebellious personality.
"The World Serpent originally had a secret base in Britain, where they even hid the Second Divine Key."
"Really? The Second Divine Key is in Britain?"
"Yeah, Dad went to a bar to drink with the older girl earlier..."
"Gathering intelligence, cough cough, I mean gathering intelligence, Kiana."
Siegfried looked embarrassed. He had indeed gone to drink, but gathering intelligence was secondary. His main purpose was to report the situation of the two of them to the Valkyrie of the intelligence unit in the bar, and to collect the allowance Freya had given to her sister, which was also the funding needed for the search for the World Serpent.
Siegfried explained to Kiana that the money was his salary from Anti-Entropy, but he hadn't received his salary for the last two months. Siegfried thought he would contact Tesla once he had a signal to ask why his salary for the last two months hadn't arrived yet.
Freya could never abandon her sister.
Even though she agreed to Kiana's departure and made many preparations, including recruiting Siegfried to act as her informant, Freya still wanted to confirm Kiana's real-world situation with Siegfried, even though they could meet every night in the consciousness space.
However, the Valkyrie in the intelligence unit were all beautiful and youthful women, and when Kiana accidentally discovered this, a misunderstanding arose.
It has to be said that Kiana's slightly disdainful gaze is quite lethal.
"Alright, I've gathered some information. I went to confirm the location of the Divine Key. It's still in a Distorted Space above the River Thames Divine Key."
"Really?"
"Ordinary observation methods cannot detect it. It was only after the Great Ancestor's guidance that I noticed a slight anomaly in the space. The World Serpent was pushed too hard by Xiao Er, and many of the equipment in the base could not even be destroyed before they had to be evacuated."
Kiana was also quite helpless about this. The organization left to her by her Great Ancestor had been driven to this point by her own sister, mainly because of the dereliction of duty by the two executives.
One of them was the betrayal of Jackal, a senior researcher and one of the top officials. This guy was practically the MVP in the conflict between the two major forces, Schicksal and World Serpent.
Secondly, Gray Serpent made a misjudgment; he was too optimistic about the all-out war.
Ultimately, the leader of Schicksal at that time had changed to his sister Freya. Given Otto's style, he would definitely underestimate the World Serpent organization. If he could deal with it easily, he would; if not, as long as it didn't interfere with his plans, he wouldn't cause too much of a purge.
But his own sister, once she makes a move, she will absolutely beat him to death.
"Yes, I see it, that demon city..."
"It's a truly horrifying sight."
At the edge of their vision appeared the ruins of an ancient city.
This city, located in a desert where no living beings are allowed, is now inhabited by countless Honkai Beasts.
Even Schicksal had no intention of launching a direct assault on this place. This was the "Golden City," an unnamed dynasty in ancient Egypt destroyed by Honkai Beast. In fact, that dynasty was buried beneath the ruins of that city.
176. The wrong decision made at the time
That nameless Egyptian dynasty had long been buried by history. Centuries after the Honkai Beast conquered it, this "Golden City" became one of the few remaining Honkai Beast gathering places in the world.
The countless Rush-class Honkai Beasts in the sky became the reason why all aircraft were prohibited from approaching them.
Even the Floating Battleship of Schicksal have difficulty getting close, and even if the powerful weapons can kill these Honkai Beasts, the Honkai Energy released after the large number of Honkai Beast die, as well as the remaining Honkai Energy in this place, makes this place worthless for recycling.
The Siberian Plains, the main battlefield of the Second Eruption War, had become an uninhabitable land due to the Honkai Energy that remained on the ground.
Although the Great Honkai that gave birth to the Herrscher has only occurred twice so far, there are quite a few cities that have been conquered by Honkai Beast.
During the Second Eruption War, the Second Herrscher threw several meteorites directly at Earth, which struck a human city and caused the deaths of tens of millions of people. The Simulated Herrscher she sent out also caused the fall of several cities, which were naturally occupied by a large number of Honkai Beast.
The so-called Honkai Battlefield of Schicksal is more of an area where Valkyrie and Honkai Beast fight each other, mainly in the area where large forests meet towns.
Schicksal has no intention of attacking cities occupied by Honkai Beast, because there is no real benefit to be gained. At most, they can set up a few battlefields around the city to serve as a surveillance front.
In desert areas like Golden City, where the surrounding area is already a no-man's-land, Schicksal simply doesn't even set up a battlefield.
Kiana and Siegfried begin their search for an oasis.
The entrance to the true 'Golden City' beneath the ruins is located in an oasis outside the ruins.
"Luckily we brought enough supplies, otherwise we wouldn't have been able to hold on."
Siegfried saw a desiccated corpse half-buried in the sand not far away and couldn't help but sigh.
This was not the first corpse that Siegfried and Kiana had seen.
World Serpent was forced by Freya to hide underground in a large Honkai Beast gathering place, and inevitably suffered casualties during the escape.
In fact, of the original 700,000 core members of the World Serpent Organization, only 70% escaped Schicksal.
However, only about 50% of the original number actually fled here with the Gray Serpent.
There are many World Serpent members who are unwilling to give up their current status, and Jackal cannot provide a list of all registered members. Most of these members have escaped capture by Schicksal because of good luck.
However, a small number of them were of such high status that Schicksal could not directly capture them.
However, about 30% of the members were captured by Schicksal, and all of World Serpent's peripheral organizations were also destroyed by Schicksal.
"Dad, can you tell the time of death?"
"It's a bit difficult, but we can tell which direction the other party wants to move in."
Siegfried did not approach the body, nor did he think of his daughter.
"Kiana, have some water first."
He handed his water bag to his daughter. In this hellish desert, water was the most important resource. If he didn't want to become a dried-up corpse half-buried in the sand, he had to replenish his water supply.
"Dad, there's no need for that. I drank it half an hour ago... The Kaslana Family has a good resistance to heat."
If anyone were to touch Kiana's body, they would find that Kiana's body is extremely cold.
This is Kiana using Honkai Energy to activate the Ice Pig gene within her body.
Previously, under Schicksal's surveillance, Kiana was unable to significantly increase the Honkai Energy within her body, but after leaving Schicksal, she did not mind using Honkai Energy to enhance herself.
Although actively absorbing Honkai Energy is dangerous, the Kaslana Family members possess extremely strong Honkai Energy resistance, and the Honkai Energy in the several disaster-stricken areas that Kiana and Siegfried have passed through so far has not been able to kill them.
"Really? After all, in this kind of environment, you need to drink more water. The direction this corpse is heading is that way."
Siegfried put the water bag away; his body temperature was also not high.
He simply couldn't do what his daughter did—convert Honkai Energy into Ice power, or use the Ice power of the Ice Pig gene to condense the surrounding water vapor into ice.
However, in terms of tolerance for heat, Siegfried is still slightly better than Kiana.
After all, Siegfried had been fighting with the Heavenly Fire Sacred Judgment as his weapon for over a decade. Even though he had used the Heavenly Fire Sacred Judgment without washing his hands after using the toilet recently and genuinely felt a sense of disgust, as the owner and comrade-in-arms of the Heavenly Fire Sacred Judgment, Siegfried's tolerance for heat was indeed something his daughter could not surpass at the moment.
After marrying Cecilia, Siegfried took Cecilia's place and operated with the Snow Wolf Squad, carrying out numerous operations in the desert.
Once, after losing contact with his teammates during a battle, he lived alone in the desert for a week until the rescue team arrived.
Siegfried was highly experienced in finding oases in the desert and even surviving in such harsh environments.
Siegfried roughly estimated the time of death of the body, since the desert environment is special and the body decomposes faster under high temperatures.
Most importantly, the venomous insects and wild beasts living in this forbidden zone feed on corpses.
Siegfried was reluctant to approach the half-buried corpse because he was worried that venomous insects like scorpions would use the remains as a nest.
They brought a lot of water and other supplies, but they didn't prepare many antidotes, and different poisonous insects have different levels of toxicity, so they couldn't guarantee that the antidotes they had would be effective.
In fact, Kiana did not encounter any danger along the way, entirely thanks to Siegfried's caution and prudence, as well as his unforgettable experience of living in the desert for a week.
Sometimes, to avoid getting dizzy from the heat, he would even wet his T-shirt with urine and wrap it around his head.
Over there?
Kiana squinted and gazed into the distance.
After leading their camels for several more hours, the two arrived at an oasis just as the sun was about to set...
This oasis is so vast that it is home to the vast majority of creatures in the desert.
Of course, without the guidance of that corpse, Kiana and Siegfried would have spent a considerable amount of time finding this oasis, and more likely they wouldn't have found it at all.
Because the two had just passed through an indescribable membrane before reaching the oasis.
It was after passing through this thin membrane that a huge oasis, as large as a city, suddenly appeared before our eyes.
"This is really..."
Siegfried gaped, he never imagined that such a paradise could exist in the Sahara Desert, which is known as the "Death Desert".
A huge hemispherical protective shield hangs over this oasis, blocking the intense and scorching sunlight, which allows the ecology of this land to maintain its balance.
"No matter what, tracing its history, it is an organization that is older than Schicksal."
Kiana finally understood why her Great Ancestor had such a calm expression.
He was clearly not worried about the World Serpent being wiped out by his sister.
The World Serpent has far more hiding places than the Jackal knows, and some of these hiding places are unknown even to the highest-ranking officials, the Gray Serpent and the Jackal.
This oasis itself was converted from a ruin of a Previous Civilization, and the so-called nameless Egyptian dynasty was actually a decoy. The city that was attacked by the Honkai Beast was an experimental field created by the Egyptians hundreds of years ago by the World Serpent.
The failure of the experiment led to the gathering of a large number of Honkai Beast, making it one of the few large Honkai Beast gathering places in the world.