While Lynelle was still happily conducting her post-mortem analysis... alright, maybe 'happily' wasn't the right word. In reality, Lynelle was currently getting chewed out so severely by Herta that she felt her head was being sharpened to a point.
But over on Sirin's side, the situation was perhaps even more dire.
Of course, this 'dire' situation was specifically referring to the Babylon Labs.
Due to the differing flow of time between the two places, while Lynelle's exchange with Herta had taken less than twenty minutes, several hours had already passed for Sirin.
And Lynelle's body... showed not the slightest sign of reviving.
In her despair, Sirin remembered the words Lynelle had spoken to her before.
[Even if my resurrection does have conditions, they're definitely the kind that's very difficult to figure out. Like needing a massive amount of Honkai energy replenishment, or making sure the tenth thoracic vertebra isn't damaged, or something...]
"Could it be... those things Lynelle told me are actually the necessary conditions for her to revive?"
Sirin murmured to herself, her small hand swiftly slipping inside Lynelle's clothes.
Fortunately, although Lynelle was currently... exceedingly open-hearted, it seemed that when that Valkyrie fired her gun, she had deliberately angled the muzzle upwards, likely to follow the order of not harming Sirin.
And this meant that, even though Sirin had almost zero medical knowledge, she could still determine that among the body tissues Lynelle had blown apart, the so-called tenth thoracic vertebra was most likely not there.
So then...
"The reason Lynelle hasn't revived yet is because she's lacking Honkai energy... Right, that must be it. Lynelle needs Honkai energy. As long as there's enough, she'll definitely come back..."
Almost subconsciously, Sirin ignored—or rather, forced herself to ignore—the possibility that Lynelle might truly be dead.
This meant she was clinging, with near-delusional conviction, to the belief that providing Lynelle with Honkai energy would surely bring her back.
"Guards! Guards!"
Sirin set Lynelle's body down carefully and hurried over to the cell door, pounding on the iron bars with all her might, trying to get the attention of the Valkyries stationed outside.
"Hey! Didn't you say you needed to keep the test subjects safe? I heard your demands earlier! Then inject Honkai energy into this room, now! You still need Lynelle for your experiments, don't you? If she doesn't revive, what are you going to experiment on? Hey, answer me!"
"Huh...?"
The Valkyrie standing silently guard outside exchanged a glance with her captain, then quietly opened the squad's internal comms channel.
"Captain, what does this kid mean? 'Revive'? The lab didn't say anything about that. And what's this about injecting Honkai energy? That's a weird request, isn't that just asking to die?"
"Tch..."
Unlike the rookie Valkyrie, the older Captain's face beneath her helmet had gone pale.
After all, her extensive experience dealing with these scientists told her that the experiment she'd been dragged into seemed... a bit out of the ordinary.
But she really didn't want to hear any of this! Talk of resurrection and injecting Honkai energy—this reeked of some classified project!
Was a mere grunt like her even allowed to hear this stuff?!
She wanted to live a few more years!
"Recall the squad. You heard nothing. We're pulling out of here, now."
After a moment of silence, the Captain made her decision decisively.
"Huh?"
"'Huh' what? That Director has finished the surgery. Theoretically, our mission is complete. Didn't I tell you to load up our task queue with a bunch of high-priority missions before we left? Well, the situation is critical now. We need to return to the branch immediately to handle them."
"From now on, unless headquarters gives a direct order, our branch will remain in a perpetual state of emergency. If they request our assistance again, we'll just send a counter-request for reinforcements to shut them up."
"Captain, but those tasks..."
The rookie Valkyrie scratched her head. "I listed them as 'feeding the cat'..."
"Shut up! If I say the branch is facing an emergency, then it is!"
The Captain shot a fierce glare at the rookie Valkyrie.
"As for that girl's request... The lab previously warned us that the corpse releases corrosive fluids upon contact with Honkai energy. Injecting it could damage the cell. To avoid unnecessary trouble, we can ignore this request outright. We just need to strictly follow Schicksal's inter-departmental cooperation protocols."
"That's it. Squad, recall! We're withdrawing!"
"Yes, Captain!"
Since this entire exchange happened over their private squad comms, from Sirin's perspective, the two guards had simply fallen silent after hearing her plea, and then promptly left their post outside the cell.
"They're gone! They must still need Lynelle... Even if there are more experiments, at least, at least Lynelle will be okay..."
Her heart rekindled with hope, Sirin carefully gathered Lynelle into her arms, propping her up against herself.
After all, Lynelle still had a gaping hole in her chest; any rough movement might cause... parts to go missing. But Sirin didn't mind this state of Lynelle one bit.
During the previous experiments, she had already watched several companions pass away, one after another. Corpses... she was long since used to them.
And if it was Lynelle... she had nothing to fear.
Gently, Sirin wiped the blood from Lynelle's face.
She gazed at the iron cell door, waiting with brimming hope. The very Honkai energy she had dreaded and fled from, the energy that had killed several of her friends, had now become Lynelle's lifesaving medicine... Sirin didn't understand why their roles had reversed like this.
But it was fine. Once Lynelle woke up, everything would be okay. Lynelle knew so much. She had a way of turning those difficult theories into stories Sirin could understand.
And then, Sirin could finally give Lynelle a piece of her mind.
What should she say, though... Maybe she'd complain about why Lynelle didn't seriously tell her that she needed Honkai energy to resurrect, forcing the clever Miss Sirin to figure it out herself and find a way to get the lab to provide the energy to revive her...yes, that's what she'd say.
Then, Lynelle would probably wear an apologetic look, pat her head, and hold her close while saying sorry, right?
A faint smile unconsciously found its way onto Sirin's lips.
But...
Sirin waited, and waited.
She waited until the sky outside darkened once more.
She waited until the flow of blood from Lynelle's body had long since ceased.
But the familiar Honkai energy that had always brought her pain in the past never came.
Sirin's smile had long frozen solid. The light gradually faded from her eyes.
Mechanically, she lifted her head and stared out through the bars, towards the camera that was perpetually trained on their cell.
For the last few hours, a voice had been echoing in her mind.
Perhaps because she had been so focused on Lynelle, she hadn't been able to make out what it was saying clearly before.
But... as time passed, and the despair in her heart festered, she found she could finally hear it clearly.
It seemed to be telling her...
Accept Its power, and destroy this place?
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.