Chapter 398
"M-Master, you've been hugging me for too long, everyone's watching..."
Rita's cheeks flushed slightly, as if she noticed the gazes around her.
Although it's common for girls to like each other in Valkyrie, it's rare for them to openly express their relationship; at most, it's only revealed within the Valkyrie community.
The so-called "sisterhood" is a way of showing the close relationship between the Valkyrie.
Of course, some of them are indeed only close sisters, but most of the Valkyrie who have formed sisterhoods are much closer than sisters.
Hearing Rita say that, Freya reluctantly let go of her.
She was aware of her popularity among the Valkyrie, and even though many Valkyrie knew about her close relationship with Rita, showing it in front of so many people would cause Rita considerable trouble.
"Let's continue tonight."
Rita said in a very low voice.
Freya's eyes lit up. The thought of being able to hug her familiar soft body pillow tonight made her immediately decide to ditch her idol body pillow and her sister body pillow from a parallel world.
"Let's continue tonight."
"By the way, sir, about the question from earlier..."
"Wait until I tell you, I need to catch up with Bianca and the others first."
As soon as she finished speaking, Freya stepped forward and gave the hero she had raised a tight hug.
"Welcome back, Bianca Durandal Atagina."
In this world, Bianca also embarks on the path of inheriting Durandal's name. Just like the Bianca in the parallel world, she ultimately uses herself as a medium to drive Durandal's seven gems and simultaneously World Bubble into her body.
During the return journey, he learned of Freya's whereabouts within the World Bubble created by SU, and then stabilized his new power with SU's help.
By fixing the energy into the shape of equipment, Bianca obtained a world-class armor called the "Innate Star Anchor".
"Your Saintess Lord."
Bianca blushed as she accepted the hug.
Freya is an idol in the hearts of all Valkyrie, whether it is her past background, the series of preferential policies for Valkyrie she introduced after taking power, or the fact that she is the strongest Valkyrie in the Alliance.
Valkyrie ultimately worship the strong. Few Valkyrie are jealous of those Valkyrie are powerful; instead, they genuinely admire such strong individuals.
"I've always seen how hard you're working. Just keep getting stronger at your own pace; you have plenty of time."
"Yes."
Bianca nodded in agreement.
After Freya released her, she consciously stepped aside, but she knew very well that there probably wasn't enough time. Otherwise, SU wouldn't have forcibly sent Freya to a parallel world.
On one hand, it was to prevent the Alliance from going to war with the World Serpent Organization. It should be noted that although the World Serpent Organization was torn apart by Freya, those who left were not the backbone of the World Serpent Organization. Those World Serpent remnants who joined the Alliance under SU's persuasion were the core force of the World Serpent Organization.
In fact, the core members of the World Serpent Organization did not suffer significant losses.
To be honest, the real loss of the World Serpent Organization in this collapse was a significant loss of time, resources for training members, and a shelter used as its headquarters.
After the Battle of the Abyss, the World Serpent Organization, which should have been on the verge of destruction, finally met its original end thanks to the efforts of the Gray Serpent over a thousand days and nights.
In the end, only the world where the Gray Serpent was injured was completed.
Bianca, who was able to learn a lot of inside information from SU, naturally knew the reasons why SU did what he did back then.
If Freya is allowed to remain in this world, the conflict between her and Kevin will inevitably become irreversible, resulting in the loss of important operators on both sides and leaving no room for the two to join forces again.
On one hand, in order for Freya to cooperate with Kevin, SU must help Freya gain the upper hand over Kevin, and at the same time, create a fait accompli of Kevin joining the league so that Freya has no chance to back out.
It can be said that SU's plan to send Freya to a parallel world was a multi-pronged strategy. It could both resolve the unrealistic ambitions built by the Gray Serpent, which Freya had schemed against, and also use this fact to strike at Kevin, making him look inferior to Freya, and then persuade him to join the Alliance before Freya returned to this world.
Bianca sighed softly.
Having understood Freya's thoughts, she naturally had no intention of going against Freya.
However, she also plans to work at her own pace.
After hugging Rita and Bianca, Freya didn't show favoritism and hugged Sophia, who had behaved rather moderately.
Compared to Bianca, who seemed to have cheated and suddenly surged ahead, leaving everyone else in the dust, Sophia's performance appeared unremarkable. However, from the perspective of a soldier, Sophia's performance was outstanding.
It can only be said that Bianca is more like a Valkyrie or a heroine than a 'knight'.
Sophia is more like a soldier who obeys orders than a 'Valkyrie'.
"You've done very well lately. You don't need to keep supporting Bianca. I'll give you more opportunities to hone your skills. Do your best."
"Yes, Your Saintess Lord."
Freya's approval made Sophia very happy.
Seeing the joy on the other person's face, Freya was just as happy for her.
After Sophia, Freya also embraced other Valkyrie, and many Valkyrie considered it an honor to be embraced by Freya or to embrace Freya.
There's no way around it; after all, Freya only looks 14 years old, and many Valkyrie are older than her. When the two hug each other, it's inevitable that there will be scenes of her being embraced.
Although Freya herself had no intention of putting on a show, her act of embracing each Valkyrie still boosted her prestige among the Valkyrie once again.
Compared to the current mascot Grand Bishop, the Saintess, who has established a gentle persona, is clearly more popular.
As the Valkyrie of the Alliance gradually returned to the Alliance, the turmoil in the outside world intensified. However, the Honkai's offensive did indeed weaken considerably after Freya's return.
The following day, Freya, full of energy, convened an important meeting in the conference hall on the top floor of the comprehensive headquarters building in the central area of Changkong City.
Almost all the important figures in the alliance, the heads of various departments, and their respective adjutants were summoned.
As an alliance formed by the merger of the two major organizations, Schicksal and Anti-Entropy, the alliance follows Schicksal's original centralized management, but adopts Anti-Entropy's executor system for some members, granting cadres a high degree of freedom. However, the core power of the alliance has always been in the hands of four governors.
Therefore, the meetings that usually decide the future direction of the alliance are led by the four governors, who then bring their respective adjutants to the meeting, which is at most a dozen or so people.
No, sometimes Freya and others simply couldn't be bothered to attend meetings and would send their own adjutants instead. Tesla and Einstein, on the other hand, often didn't even show up.
Often, the meetings that decided the future direction of the alliance were decided by the two adjutants, Rita and Ryoma, who verified and discussed the decisions with each other, while A374 and Amber were only responsible for taking notes, Theresa, the head of the councilors, was responsible for stamping the documents.
Yes, even if Theresa was only responsible for stamping documents, she was still much more responsible than the other three consuls who did nothing else.
The reason this meeting was held in this top-floor conference hall, rather than the previous top-floor meeting room, is because the top-floor conference hall can accommodate hundreds of people, while the top-floor meeting room is just an office for a dozen or so people to discuss.
Representatives from the weapons research department, including Changguang; the head of Mikoyan Heavy Industries; Ryoma, president and adjutant of MEI Corporation; Cocolia, director of the intelligence bureau; Siegfried, head of the transportation and distribution department; Laguna, vice principal of the St. Freya Academy; Lewis, captain of the Valkyrie Guardian squad; and other key members of the alliance gathered together at this moment.
If we can wipe out everyone here, then this world will be completely free of anyone who can fight against the Honkai.
Freya and the other four governors took their seats, while Kevin, the former leader of the World Serpent Organization who had recently joined the alliance, also took his seat with his adjutant, disciples, and other cadres.
Freya also invited them to participate in this meeting.
Freya also gave some seats to the Twos from parallel worlds to listen in.
After the highly respected Planck gave a brief opening speech, Freya asked Rita to explain to everyone present what she had gained during her three months in the parallel world.
Regardless of whether it's the updated, stronger, and more stable [Key of Reason].
Whether it's the highest-level Mei Biological Enhancement Technology obtained from Kevin, or a group of helpers found from a parallel world, it all signifies that the Alliance is about to enter a new era.
At the same time, the emergence of the Key of Reason, along with the deepening research into the Sea of Quantum, has led to a continuous stream of research findings that are sufficient to overturn past theories.
However, the development of civilization will inevitably lead to a more intense offensive from the Honkai, and increasingly condensed and powerful Humanoid Honkai Beast are the future trend of this world.
The era of winning by sheer quantity is likely coming to an end. At least until quantity can no longer affect quality, the future development of the Alliance will depend more on the individual enhancement of Valkyrie.
Rita briefly explained the core of the meeting, which was... how the Alliance should develop in the coming new era, and how the Alliance should respond to the impending fierce offensive of the Honkai.
The conference hall quickly filled with the sounds of chaotic discussion. Many people were attending an alliance meeting for the first time, especially such a high-level one, and were clearly bewildered...
However, among the group of people discussing the matter, there was clearly one person who didn't fit in—that was Gray Serpent.
456. As everyone knows, Theresa is the leader.
Yes, it's the Gray Serpent.
Among the people discussing the topic, Gray Serpent stood out from the crowd.
He seemed completely out of place in the world.
The long-established World Serpent Organization has survived even the most difficult challenges, such as its leader being trapped in the Sea of Quantum.
However, the three crises that the World Serpent Organization has encountered in recent years have turned this organization, which has a history as long as that of modern human civilization, into a withered flower of yesterday.
And all three crises happened to be related to him.
Gray Serpent clearly put in more effort than anyone else in the organization.
The first crisis, although caused by the Jackal's betrayal, was also related to the Gray Serpent's wrong decision at the time, because he failed to make a decisive move.
This first crisis also paved the way for the eventual destruction of the World Serpent Organization.
What followed was a second crisis. The World Serpent Organization, which had been driven to the brink of collapse, was in turmoil due to repeated suppression from the alliance.
If Gray Serpent hadn't spearheaded the Battle of the Abyss and allowed discontent to fester, the organization would inevitably have split apart.
Gray Serpent wanted to use Freya and the Alliance's power to eliminate unstable elements within the organization, while also weakening the Alliance's military strength and rescuing Lord Kevin, who was trapped in the Sea of Quantum.
However, the second crisis then erupted.
After the Battle of the Abyss, the World Serpent Organization had very few followers who remained loyal to Lord Kevin.
Gray Serpent's decision not only destroyed the core of the World Serpent Organization, but also left a huge vulnerability in World Serpent organization.
Then, the third crisis quietly arrived.
With the return of Lord Kevin, some of the departed believers have returned to the World Serpent Organization. In addition, with the activities of the Ice-bound Serpent, the Gray Serpent has indeed recruited many new members.
However, once the World Serpent organization, which had been lurking in the shadows, was exposed to everyone's view, how could recruiting new members be as smooth as before?
Not only did Freya recruit some new members, but various countries also planted a large number of spies into the World Serpent Organization. It was basically a group of spies surrounding Gray Serpent, a loyal subject.
If it weren't for the fact that the code names within the World Serpent Organization are all animal-based, one might mistake it for a very famous winery organization, judging from the composition of its members.
Gray Serpent never imagined that, in the face of the increasingly fierce Honkai offensive, countries would still have the mind to fight amongst themselves, and even mix in scum into the large number of new members recruited by the World Serpent Organization.
In fact, Freya intervened very little during the World Serpent Organization's third crisis, just as she had promised her older sister that she would no longer make things difficult for the World Serpent Organization.
Although Freya promised not to make things difficult for the World Serpent Organization anymore, simply providing intelligence to the spies planted in various countries, or inciting the members she had bribed to form factions within the World Serpent Organization, was enough to deliver a fatal blow to this organization on the verge of collapse.
Of course, the person who ultimately detonated the bomb Freya planted was SU.
SU didn't have Freya's talent for scheming, nor did he have Bishop Otto's cunning, but with his previous God's-eye view and some understanding of Freya, he still managed to guess Freya's scheme and thus prevent a worse situation from happening.
In any case, these remnants who joined the alliance with Kevin were the last Kevin loyal followers of the World Serpent Organization.
Judging solely from the crises encountered by the World Serpent Organization, Gray Serpent's performance can be described as neither good nor bad; overall, it is quite mediocre.
However, if we combine the period when the World Serpent Organization began to decline after the battle with Shencheng Medicine with the period when the World Serpent Organization completely disintegrated not long ago, we can find that the culprit that plunged the World Serpent Organization into an abyss of no return was the Gray Serpent, who was wholeheartedly devoted to the World Serpent Organization.
It was through his steady, step-by-step efforts that the World Serpent Organization was completely destroyed.
Because they couldn't accurately assess Freya's personality and overestimated the speed of Jackal's betrayal, Gray Serpent was unable to immediately lead the World Serpent Organization into hiding.
It was precisely because of Gray Serpent's hesitation that what was originally a full-scale war between Schicksal and Shencheng Medicine evolved into a full-scale war between Schicksal and various countries against the World Serpent Organization.
In order to maintain their positions, many high-ranking members of World Serpent simply chose to abandon World Serpent and sell the organization's whereabouts to their respective countries.
After that, the situation with the World Serpent Organization snowballed.
The snowball grew larger and larger over time, and the situation faced by the World Serpent Organization became increasingly dire.
This has left the Gray Serpent feeling lost.
He was clearly the most diligent and dedicated cadre in the entire World Serpent organization.
However, he brought more crises to the World Serpent Organization than the most damned traitor Jackal.
Even now, Gray Serpent doesn't understand why, despite acting in the best interests of the World Serpent Organization, he has only led it further down a quagmire.
"What's wrong with that guy?"
Seeing the Alliance executives below discussing, Freya, sitting in the upper seat, also spoke with Welt next to her.
"You mean Gray Serpent? I've inquired about it. I heard he's confused about the meaning of his existence. I heard he dedicated his entire life to the World Serpent Organization. You said he was like Otto, but that's not quite right. 'Gray Serpent' is a collective consciousness. It has a large number of identical individuals. The consciousness of these bodies is all concentrated in a consciousness network (HX) and they share the same memories."
"I know the Gray Serpent have some kind of collective consciousness. Have you discovered anything about it?"
Freya asked curiously, and Welt nodded in agreement.