"You've shown me the way!"
Cocolia's voice was harsh to the ears through the speakers. It was clearly deliberate for her to sound as annoying as possible in my opinion.
"So… what's the point of this anyways?" I asked curiously. "I thought your main goal was to get Mei's Herrscher core? Are you planning to kill Theresa instead now?"
"That would be a great bonus to kill her. However…"
The mech standing in the middle opened its arms widely.
"I'm doing a ransom! Raiden Mei's core for Theresa Apocalypse's life! What do you think?"
A deadpan came on my face.
"Yeah, I think I'm gonna take a hard pass on that."
I think I can just bring her back to her main base in Nagazora for the cure.
"You're thinking about the cure that Schicksal has right? Don't bother! The amount that she's been exposed to is far greater than anything modern solutions can come up with."
She wasn't lying for once.
Regardless, I didn't bother looking at her.
"I'm still gonna pass."
Theresa…
I had to admit, I didn't find Theresa annoying. She was actually pretty fun to be around most of the time.
She was… perhaps a possible trusted ally in the future and maybe even a trusted friend?
But still.
That was just a 'maybe' in a possible future.
Not only did we only know the barebones about each other(well, maybe she knows a lot more about me due to her intel), but there was also another thing.
There is no confirmation that Cocolia had the cure to whatever toxin she injected into Theresa right now even if she did get Mei's Herrscher core.
"So Mei, what do you think?" I asked the girl beside me as I placed Theresa on the ground for a better field of view. "How do you think Theresa was poisoned?"
"Hey! What are the two of you doing? I'm still right here!"
Mei squatted down, ignoring Cocolia's yaps..
"Have you checked her exposed skin? Maybe her hands? Her neck?"
Hearing that, I lifted her hands and checked.
No puncture wound or anything like that.
"Oi, faker." Mei glanced at the confused Yuna behind us.
"What?"
"How do you normally inject your toxins other than through the air? Do you inject them through your thorns or do your vines have any fang-like objects that you can inject your venom through?"
"Those are probably still thorns, Mei."
"Hmm, true."
"You are mocking me?" Yuna growled angrily. "Do you think I'd help you after what you've done to me?"
Her vines stretched out.
"If so, you're gravely mistak-"
One of her arms suddenly grabbed onto the vines, drawing all of our attention.
"W-what? What's going on?"
"It seems like your human side is still fighting back against you." I commented. "That's good to know."
"H-human side! Damn it… But why? Even though all those people did those things to us…" Yuna groaned as she grasped her head.
"DAMN IT!"
A loud scream came from her throat before she sprinted off.
"Ah. She's trying to run away again." Mei blinked. "Do you want to catch her?"
"Nah. I primed some Honkai energy inside her. Just tell me if she's getting near any people alright?"
I didn't really care too much about Yuna much right now. I kept her alive since perhaps she would be useful in curing Theresa. And at the same time, I was kinda lazy to keep track of her and prevent her from running.
Thus, if she did try to attack some innocents…
Yu/Na?
"Really? I did the same thing. However, I was just planning on blowing her up."
It seems like Mei and I were sharing braincells here.
That's cool to know!
"You buffoons are letting the pseudo Herrscher escape!"
"Shut up."/"Shut up."
"... Do you take Theresa Apocalypse's life that lightly?"
"Mei. Can you do some electromagnetism thingy to make her shut up?"
She snapped her fingers, causing a spark of purple lightning to flash on the mechs.
"Done."
Ah…
Peace and silence once more.
How nice it is to not have her screaming in our ear while we were trying to think!
"Now… could it be something she had eaten?" Mei asked. "Perhaps they slipped some of the faker's poison into Theresa's food."
I put a hand on my chin.
"That could have happened. But wouldn't that be hard to prove?" I ruffled around Theresa a bit more.
Then, a lightbulb flickered on my head.
"Oh yeah! Can't you denature the poison in her blood?" I asked Mei.
She shook her head.
"Unfortunately not. At the level of mastery I currently am at, I may denature all of her blood cells by accident as well."
"So there is something that the wondrous Herrscher of Thunder can't do."
Before Mei could get a jab of her own in, I noticed something.
"Wait." I raised a palm in front of Mei's face. Then, I reached into Theresa's collar slightly.
"Oh? Did you find something?" Mei asked curiously as she leaned in. "Or is this a half-hearted attempt at harassment?"
I ignored her, instead letting my fingers grasp onto something small slightly above her collarbone.
"A thorn." I pulled it out, revealing it to the sun. "They probably just took some of the poisons from the leftover vines and put it all here."
"Couldn't that chimpanzee be lying though? Perhaps the normal antitoxins at Schicksal would work on her."
"Nah. I don't think she was lying."
Wink wink.
She didn't say anything in response, instead raising an eyebrow. The fact that she didn't argue was likely her deferring to me.
Nice.
"So what next?" Mei asked curiously. "She looks terrible."
"Not too sure. But we should bring her back for proper medical treatment first. It'd probably buy us more time than her being in…" I gestured around us. "This."
"Alright." The purple-haired girl nodded. "Then let's go."
The two of us disappeared in a flash as I teleported us out of there.
In the meantime, the mechs were just standing there in confusion, not knowing what to do in the scenario.
Despite their powerful offensive power that could bring down Herrschers, they knew that trying to attack them with their… lackluster defences would be a waste.
Instead, they were supposed to just act as intimidation tools whilst Gojo Satoru and Raiden Mei made their decisions.
After all, it wouldn't matter what choice they made.
But to be completely ignored…
Cocolia could merely sit there gloomy as her words amounted to nil during their conversation.
With a sigh, Cocolia, in her base, could only say,
"Bring back the-"
But then something entered their ears.
"Nine ropes"
"Polarised light"
"Crow and Declaration"
"Between front and back"
Cocolia's brain seemed to be stuck in a lag spike as she froze for a moment. However, the words, as ominous as they were, immediately told her something was wrong.
"Now! Evacuate the mechas now-"
But too late.
"Imaginary Technique"
"Hollow Purple"
(A/N: Please give powerstones if you liked the chapter guys. Please comment and review as well!)