At this moment, Durandal had been smashed into the ground, and Rita had also been sent flying by a punch.
But from Otto's perspective, the two of them could only be considered at a disadvantage right now; it couldn't be counted as a defeat.
Durandal was the strongest Valkyrie he had trained himself; he knew better than anyone what she was capable of.
As Theresa's deputy, Otto had paid attention to Himeko Murata.
This woman was the descendant of the Schicksal traitor Ryusuke Murata. If Otto hadn't verified through an audit that she seemed genuinely unaware of her father and mentor's actions before joining Schicksal, he would absolutely never have allowed her to operate by Theresa's side.
But precisely because Otto knew Himeko Murata's background, he judged that Himeko Murata was incredibly outstanding in terms of tactical thinking and timing.
If Himeko Murata coordinated with the Hyperion's Nexus System, and then teamed up with Durandal and Rita, it was still possible to take down the opponent.
But a problem arose.
After taking down the opponent... what would be the benefit?
Info on K423? Herrscher of Thunder's whereabouts?
These 'benefits' were quite important to Otto, but the problem was that they weren't enough for him to 'gamble' Durandal and Rita's lives here.
As the child born of Siegfried and Cecilia, Durandal possessed the traits of both clans while also inheriting the terrifying talent of her two genius parents.
Because of this talent, Durandal had become the strongest active Valkyrie at the age of sixteen and already possessed the power to wield a Divine Key.
Of course, more importantly—Durandal was raised by Otto, and she was truly obedient.
Compared to the uncontrollable Siegfried, the obedient Durandal was clearly a much more useful tool in Otto's eyes.
Although Rita Rossweisse's strength was far inferior to Durandal's, aside from her lack of strength, she was simply too useful in other aspects.
Through ceaseless study, this young girl had trained herself into a jack-of-all-trades.
She could even find time to perfectly complete the tasks Otto gave her one by one while assisting Durandal in managing the Immortal Blades.
Although Otto was well aware that Rita had her own little schemes, Otto had always been generous toward such useful tools.
As long as Rita's little schemes didn't hinder his plan to resurrect Kallen, he could turn a blind eye to such things.
To resurrect Kallen, Otto could indeed sacrifice everything, but the problem was that the time had not yet come.
To let Rita and Durandal gamble everything to fight this unknown opponent to the death right now... In Otto's view, he would have to lose his mind to do something so insane.
Moreover, after analyzing the intelligence a bit, Otto felt that the missing Herrscher of Thunder and K423 should be safe for now.
According to intelligence obtained by the intelligence division Valkyrie Otto sent to infiltrate Anti-Entropy, the Herrscher of Thunder's identity was normally Mei Raiden, the daughter of Enforcer Ryoma Raiden.
Although Ryoma Raiden had lost power, he still retained some say within Anti-Entropy for the time being.
On the other side, Cocolia, the newly promoted Enforcer of Anti-Entropy in recent years, was the mastermind who induced the Third Honkai Eruption in Nagazora City.
She guided Mei Raiden to awaken as a Herrscher; surely it wasn't so she could kill Mei Raiden after she became a Herrscher.
So right now, for both factions of Anti-Entropy, Mei Raiden was someone they had to protect.
And K423... Heh, K423 has actually been under my surveillance for the past few years. Siegfried, that fellow, likely knows this very well, which is why he hasn't dared to get too close to K423.
But now, something has happened to K423. Siegfried, who has been watching this matter, has contact with people in Anti-Entropy and likely knew of Cocolia's plan long ago.
Knowing his K422 might encounter a Herrscher, normally Siegfried should have sneaked into Nagazora City long ago.
But so far, the Hyperion hasn't found Siegfried in Nagazora City... Hmph, this is enough to show that he likely knew K423 wasn't here, so he chose to leave.
As for this man... identity unknown, and he actively attacked Schicksal Valkyries. From these two points, he likely has no goodwill toward Schicksal.
This guy... Forget it, let's wait until Durandal and Rita return and submit their reports to see what they say.
Current intelligence is too scarce; this is about all that can be deduced.
K423 is so conspicuous; it's only a matter of time before her tracks are found if one searches the surrounding area a bit.
Regardless, the Immortal Blades' mission is already 'complete'. Next, as long as it's confirmed that the Third Herrscher really isn't in Nagazora City, things can proceed to the next stage.
Find the whereabouts of Mei Raiden and K423, confirm this man's true identity, and then... Heh, Dr. Magi's contact with Cocolia has been getting closer recently. It seems it's about time for his side as well.
Find a suitable location then, and see if a true Herrscher of Death can be catalyzed.
And if Durandal could have been equipped with the [Bright Knight: Excelsis] I prepared for her this time, perhaps this would be a different outcome.
The speed of testing the Godsbane Battlesuit needs to be accelerated too.
Hmph, fortunately, that kid Welt's body had problems again for some reason, otherwise it would be even more troublesome right now.
Let Theresa and the others withdraw for now. As for what comes next... we'll deal with it later.
....................
After hearing Otto's instructions and admonition, Theresa ultimately chose to obediently follow Otto's orders.
She felt that if she joined the fray, three against one was still fightable, but the problem was... actually, even Theresa felt there wasn't much need to keep fighting.
Hearts are made of flesh. Setting aside the two young girls down there, she and Himeko were such close friends; Theresa couldn't bear to let Himeko burn her life away using the Nexus System for an extended period.
Moreover, judging from the opponent's subsequent actions, his 'hostility' toward Schicksal didn't seem that severe.
After the Hyperion sent a recovery squad to retrieve Durandal and Rita, that man simply took a deep look at the Hyperion, pulled out a cloak to drape over himself, and silently advanced in a certain direction.
After Schicksal actively prepared to disengage, the opponent also chose to abandon the fight. From this point of view... at least Theresa felt this counted as 'actively releasing goodwill'.
However, considering the opponent was truly a tricky powerhouse, Theresa didn't let the Hyperion pursue his tracks after recovering her two dusty juniors.
If they provoked that man again and a fight broke out, leaving aside whether Rita and Durandal would get beaten black and blue, Himeko would probably have to go back and hook up to the Nexus System.
Her life didn't have much left due to the Stigmata being implanted too late. She let Himeko connect to Nexus earlier to resolve the Herrscher incident, but now that the Herrscher hadn't been found... why torment her old friend? No one with a sickness would be that disgusting.
"Hah... I really didn't expect that gentleman to possess such power."
After returning to the Hyperion, Rita clutched her lower abdomen, which was still in intense pain. Forcing herself to suppress the pain, she put on a relaxed attitude and sighed helplessly in front of everyone.
Lady Durandal's mood would likely be down for a while due to the combat failure today. The current me cannot let her worry about me.
"Yes, before the engagement, I didn't expect... Never mind."
The moment she thought of that inexplicable emotion that appeared in her heart, Durandal felt a wave of irritation.
Although it sounded mystical, in those few moments, she really felt a sense of 'bloodline connection' with him.
She had never felt this kind of sensation from anyone else since waking up in the sanatorium until now.
But once she thought about the appearance of that man, Durandal felt even more irritated inside.
If he really was her kin, then the fact that he revealed such a 'Honkai Beast' form made Durandal very worried.
It wasn't that she hadn't looked through Schicksal's database, but with her S-Rank Valkyrie clearance, she had only heard of humans undergoing partial zombification after being excessively infected by Honkai energy. Honkai Beast transformation...
At the very least, she didn't know what exactly that was.
Mn, judging from how he actively attacked me and Rita today, it can be confirmed that he definitely isn't someone from Schicksal's side... Anti-Entropy.
That's right, aside from Anti-Entropy, no other organization has the means to cultivate such a warrior.
I originally thought Anti-Entropy and our Schicksal just had different philosophies, but this time, besides revealing a warrior capable of 'Honkai Beast transformation', Anti-Entropy actually chose to guide the Herrscher of Thunder's descent in Nagazora City.
Millions of lives died in vain because of the Anti-Entropy Enforcer's actions. Looking at it this way, Anti-Entropy doesn't look much better than Overseer Otto in terms of being 'black'.
Sigh, what exactly do the big shots above think? One or two of them, none of them treat the lives of ordinary people as lives.
"Alright, let's end this matter here for now."
After disconnecting from Nexus, Himeko returned to the bridge with a weary face and spoke to the group.
"We were originally only responsible for capturing the Herrscher and fighting the Herrscher. Since such an unexpected event occurred, leave the rest to the intelligence department."
"We should be rejoicing that the opponent didn't intend to pursue. If a fight really broke out, we really wouldn't get any advantage."
"Mn, indeed. However, I feel that gentleman might not be such an unreasonable person."
Rita, who said this, immediately received looks from the three of them that seemed to say, 'Was your brain damaged from the beating?'
"You three don't need to look at me like that. I am incredibly lucid right now."
"It's just that, considering that gentleman didn't speak from beginning to end, perhaps he simply didn't want to expose his information."
"You mean... this guy didn't want to expose his true identity, so he beat the two of us up???"
Hearing the reason Rita deduced, Durandal felt very subtle inside.
On one hand, because of that feeling, the girl's subconscious had already identified the man capable of Honkai Beast transformation as her kin. Hearing Rita make this deduction, she inexplicably felt a sigh of relief.
But on the other hand, after hearing this theory, Durandal felt even more that she and Rita were a bit innocent. Going down to ask a question and getting beaten up... who could they complain to???
To be fair, even Durandal, who knew her brain wasn't the sharpest, felt that her side hadn't done anything wrong when reviewing this incident from a bystander's perspective.
In an area where the Third Herrscher appeared, if someone was sneaking around, anyone would suspect there was something fishy about him, right?
For someone who might be suspicious, isn't it normal for us Valkyries who protect the world to interrogate him?
And then we got beaten up because of this...
Wait, could it be for another reason?
The feeling of bloodline connection... only erupted later on.
That massive energy projection also erupted later on.
So in the beginning, that person might really not have intended to fight us with full strength.
Later, it was because our side pushed too hard that he helplessly chose to fight.
And toward the end, that kind of bloodline connection feeling erupted from him... Was he using this method to tell me his identity?
If that's the case, then everything makes sense.
He didn't want to fight us, but he also didn't want to expose his voice and thus have his identity deduced, so he used this special method to try and make me retreat.
But I failed to comprehend his meaning, so he had no choice but to beat me and Rita back.
If he really wanted to kill us, he could have completely continued to attack Rita and killed her first after forcing me and Rita back.
After all, with his strength, he really could have taken Rita down in a short time.
But that man, after injuring us all and realizing we intended to retreat, didn't continue to pursue us...
It feels like everything makes sense.
But, this...
Suddenly a relative pops up, this...
To be honest, I haven't prepared myself mentally yet.
Once a person's heart accepts a certain thing, they tend to easily ignore other unreasonable details, thereby continuing to affirm this fact, and then using various related details to continue proving this matter, thus further deepening the misconception that 'this is the truth'.
And now, a thought had clearly formed within Durandal's heart.
A thought that was wrong to the extreme, yet one she believed in without a doubt.