BOOM!
With a single punch, she pierced through a combat mecha that stood twice her height. Bracing herself with one hand, the girl pulled her fist out. The mecha collapsed with a crash. She scanned her surroundings; the entire beach was littered with broken parts and arcing electrical wires.
"There's no time."
The girl muttered to herself and pressed the comms unit by her ear again.
"Alvitr, you hold off Anti-Entropy's forces. Get me a skiff. I'm heading directly to New Zealand for support. We can't let the Herrscher get away!"
"Don't worry, Lady Durandal. The Immortal Blades will complete the mission!"
Bianka "Durandal" Ataegina gave a slight nod.
She had anticipated that they might be intercepted by Anti-Entropy while passing over the Americas, but she hadn't expected them to deploy so many forces.
It didn't make sense. Being part of Schicksal, Durandal naturally never heard anything good about Anti-Entropy. "Holding us back" and "causing trouble" were relatively polite assessments.
But she considered herself an independent thinker. Schicksal's evaluation of Anti-Entropy was bound to be biased and couldn't be fully trusted.
Based on her own observations, no matter how much Anti-Entropy opposed Schicksal, their goal was never to help a Herrscher destroy the world.
On the contrary, since their Sovereign claimed to be the first Herrscher to fight for humanity, Anti-Entropy's interests should align with Schicksal's on major issues.
Her mission, as one of Schicksal's only two S-Rank Valkyries, was to eliminate the Fourth Herrscher. What reason did Anti-Entropy have to stop her?
Could there be some hidden story she didn't know? Durandal knew now was not the time to ponder such things. Her gaze swept across the battlefield, quickly locking onto a downed Valkyrie skiff.
But she had only taken a single step in that direction when a sense of dread washed over her. She stopped dead in her tracks and rapidly retreated.
WHOOSH—
A dozen blood-red arrows landed where she had been standing, their fletchings, the same bloody color, quivering as they rose and fell.
Durandal focused her gaze to her left. A figure stood there, cloaked in a wide, heavy black robe. Only when the sea breeze billowed the fabric against the body did it occasionally trace the distinct curves of a woman.
"Heh, finally, someone who can talk."
Durandal didn't let her anxiety show on her face. She rolled her wrists, her joints cracking. If the opponent intended to stall her, then she would just have to beat them into submission first! She wanted to see who, besides Anti-Entropy's Herrscher Sovereign, could stand against her, Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie!
But just as she was preparing to warm up, the woman opposite her suddenly tossed her bow aside and raised her hands in a clean, decisive motion.
"Let's be clear, I surrender."
The black robe concealed the person's age, but from the sound of her voice, Durandal guessed she was probably around her own age. Her voice was surprisingly pleasant. Of course, now wasn't the time to think about such trivial things.
"What's the meaning of this?"
"No meaning at all," Raven said, shaking her head in a defeated manner.
"Come on, you're Schicksal's strongest S-Rank Valkyrie. Me? I'm just a mercenary who gets paid to do a job. Doing the job is professional ethics, but risking my own life is entirely unnecessary."
Durandal nodded, thinking her words made perfect sense.
But then she snapped back to reality, looking at the obscured woman with suspicion.
"Are you trying to stall for time?"
"No, no, no! It's not me, I didn't, I wouldn't dare!"
"But you just mentioned professional ethics..."
"Oh, that. It seems that as a Valkyrie, you don't understand the mercenary's code of survival. How should I put this? In our eyes, everything is a transaction. Cocolia gave me that much money, so firing a volley of arrows to hold you up for a few seconds is doing right by her. Any problem with that?"
Durandal shook her head. No problem. No problem at all.
However, as a warrior, she couldn't stand this transactional view of combat. It was a desecration of the dignity of all Valkyries like herself who had willingly dedicated their lives to the fight.
But... the situation was urgent. She would let it slide this time.
"In that case, don't get in my way."
Durandal shot Raven a glare and turned sharply, running toward the skiff. But she kept her guard up, not completely dropping her vigilance toward the figure behind her...
WHOOSH—
The sound of something slicing through the air came again. Durandal sidestepped, and a blood-red fletched arrow grazed a few strands of her hair.
"Ahem! Just kidding."
Raven awkwardly dropped her bow again.
"It seems you do have some professional ethics after all," Durandal said with a sarcastic smile.
Raven reacted quickly. The moment Durandal smiled, she unhesitatingly and unceremoniously kicked the bow at her feet away, then once again, with extreme proficiency, gave the Valkyrie before her a French military salute.
"I surrender!"
The corner of Durandal's mouth twitched uncontrollably. She strode toward Raven, cracking her knuckles, her face still maintaining its cold, stoic expression.
"Do you take me for a fool?"
THUD!
Seeing that her erratic behavior seemed to have truly enraged Durandal, and seeing her rapidly approaching, Raven made no attempt to resist. Instead, she bent her knees and dropped to the ground without a hint of pressure.
As she knelt, she didn't forget to shout, "Hey! I'm really surrendering this time! You're not going to abuse a prisoner of war, are you?"
Durandal's eye twitched. How could she not know that this mercenary was purely stalling for time? But her methods... were just too... too... too shameless!
She refused to engage in a direct confrontation, constantly claiming to surrender. She might have believed it the first time, but not a second. If she fell for it again... did she, Durandal, look like an idiot?
"Hmph..." She let out a long, slow breath.
"Fine. I'll trust you one more time."
Raven, hidden beneath her hood, blinked. She had been ready to use her last-resort escape techniques, but she hadn't expected the "strongest Valkyrie" to actually believe her.
Is she an idiot?
She remembered before coming here, Cocolia had confidently lectured her on the principle of "a gentleman can be deceived by appealing to his principles"...
How to put it? Although in her eyes Cocolia was also a pitiful, lamentable fool, perhaps she really did understand human nature better than her.
Watching Durandal turn around again, wary, her strides large but her head slightly tilted, clearly not trusting her.
"Tsk, not that dumb after all."
Raven shook her head in regret, but she made no further attempt to stop Durandal. She knew from the beginning that such "tricks" could only delay her for a moment; they could never truly hold her back.
There were only two ways to stop Durandal.
The stupid way was, of course, to fight her. If she could hold out long enough, she could tie Durandal down and prevent her from leaving.
But why would she do that? She was just a World Serpent operative placed with Cocolia for surveillance. When she met Gray Serpent earlier, he had even hinted that she would be transferred back to World Serpent HQ soon...
Oh, right, she had long since left World Serpent. Her current relationship with both Cocolia and World Serpent was purely that of an employer and employee.
Did they expect her to sacrifice her life for their interests? No way. She had a promise with Bronya to buy a small island and live a comfortable retired life.
Besides, she wasn't very confident in her own abilities. That damn teacher of hers hadn't taught her much.
To be precise, that unbelievably powerful man fought entirely with his physical prowess and Authorities; he could never teach a weak, pitiful, ordinary person like her the skills needed for combat.
He had just given her some basic training and then thrown her into that place called the Elysian Realm.
At the thought of that place, Raven's eyes trembled, and a comical thought surfaced in her mind—Dr. Mobius is so gentle now...
Ahem, getting sidetracked.
In short, there was no way she, Raven, would fight Durandal to the death!
But there was a second method. Durandal and the Immortal Blades couldn't fly; they had also arrived in a skiff that had been shot down and forced to land here. So, all she had to do was make sure the skiff was out of commission, right?
As Durandal's figure grew smaller in the distance and her vigilance relaxed, a mocking smile spread across Raven's face beneath her hood.
"Let me teach you, strongest Valkyrie, that war is fought with your brain."
Durandal's steps faltered. Despite the cacophony of the battlefield, her superhuman hearing easily caught Raven's voice.
She turned around again, but Raven was still kneeling in the same spot, motionless.
She frowned, not understanding what she meant.
BOOM!
Alright, now she understood.
Turning her head, she saw the skiff she had set her sights on blown into a shower of flying parts.
More sand and dirt were thrown into the air by the explosion, and by sheer coincidence, they came crashing down on her.
"Queen!"
A giant holding a shield appeared by her side, blocking everything for her.
She was about to say something when she heard a series of more explosions.
"So this was your goal in stalling for time?"
Durandal slowly turned, a hint of appreciation in her eyes as she looked at Raven.
But then she smiled contemptuously.
"You think this is enough to stop me?"
Azure gamma particles suddenly erupted from the hem of her skirt, launching her into the sky. She left Raven with only one sentence:
"Then let me teach you, mercenary—in the face of absolute power, clever tricks are just that: tricks."
"Tch, someone already taught me that."
Raven pouted, rubbed her knees, and stood up.
"Tsk, that woman. Is she really planning to fly from the west coast of South America to New Zealand using a gamma particle thruster?" Cocolia's voice came through Raven's comms.
Raven clicked her tongue but didn't reply. She just felt it was a pity—
She wondered if her wicked teacher was in New Zealand. If he was, she would love to see him fight Durandal.
Snapping back to reality, listening to Cocolia's nagging in her ear, Raven sighed helplessly.
"Hey! This mission was way over the top. I almost got killed by that Durandal..."
"Keep bragging. She didn't even lay a finger on you."
"She used her feet, and her mouth."
"...You just want a raise, don't you?"
---||---
"Is this the last place the Honkai energy erupted?"
Rita carried her giant scythe on her back, her eyes warily scanning the surroundings. But there was nothing but scorched earth.
Comms were still down. Relying solely on a map and comparing it to the completely devastated environment made it somewhat difficult to pinpoint their current location.
However, the ground was not entirely empty.
Keeping her eyes on her surroundings, Rita slowly crouched down and scooped up a handful of earth.
She rubbed it between her fingers. Mixed in with the fine soil were particles of pinkish-purple crystal.
"Honkai energy crystals?"
Unlike the usual dull, cold crystals, these particles still had a faint, insignificant glow, and she could feel some warmth in her palm. This meant the crystals had formed recently.
Thus, it was highly likely that this was the last place the Honkai energy had erupted, and the last place the Herrscher had appeared.
But unfortunately, the Herrscher was not here. And without contact with the Hyperion, it was difficult to determine its movements.
However, Rita was not disheartened. Instead, she looked at Michael with interest, only to see him standing quietly with his eyes closed.
"Hm?"
No matter how confident one was, this was no time to let one's guard down, right?
"Mr. Michael?"
Rita stood up with a frown and softly called his name, but he didn't react.
If she weren't so close, able to clearly hear his breathing and see the rise and fall of his chest, Rita would have thought...
"Still not planning to come out?"
Michael's lips moved slightly, his voice a barely audible whisper, especially in the howling wind.
The course of events was not following the script he had written.
He needed the Fourth Herrscher.
To be precise, he needed the Gem of Desire. He needed to implant it, along with a massive amount of Honkai energy, into K-423's body to awaken the other consciousness within her.
Of course, the plan didn't need any complications. In his script, there was no need for the four girls to form a bond with Wendy.
The Snow Lotus squad just needed to find Wendy, bring her back, and then extract the Gem of Desire from her body. That would be enough.
Everything that was happening now was clearly off-script.
Could it be an accident? A coincidence?
No, impossible.
He had the Authority of Wind. Although he didn't use it often, he knew its power.
With Wendy's level of compatibility with the Gem of Desire, she couldn't have done this. If she could, she wouldn't be in a wheelchair.
But that power was undoubtedly the Authority of Wind.
It wasn't him, and it wasn't Wendy. That left only one possibility—the Fourth Divine Key.
But wasn't that in the hands of World Serpent?
Michael chuckled softly. Everything was becoming baffling, and interesting.
As he chuckled, the wind on the ground seemed to pick up. Sand and stones were whipped up in an instant, almost completely obscuring his vision.
And in that hazy wind, directly in front of Michael, the figure of a girl, both strange and somewhat familiar, gradually came into focus.