In Theresa's eyes, Siegfried switching the Judgment of Shamash from pistol mode to greatsword mode clearly meant he planned to get serious... my foot.
Although Siegfried transformed the dual pistols into a greatsword, the blade of the Judgment of Shamash did not ignite with those flames that possessed terrifying lethality.
Siegfried still didn't want to fight seriously... one could even say he didn't have a shred of will to fight.
From this point of view... mm, strictly speaking, the probability of him being hypnotized by Anti-Entropy was really low.
And coming back to it, although the matter of Grandpa releasing Honkai Fission Bombs to try and kill Siegfried and Cecilia seemed very stupid, in reality...
In reality, it was indeed very stupid.
But one couldn't say that just because Grandpa's operation was stupid once, one should feel 'he wouldn't be that silly', and conversely feel that Siegfried and the others were the ones with problems.
The critical issue now was how to calm Kiana down.
Theresa could clearly notice that Durandal's emotions were becoming increasingly off.
Siegfried had no will to fight.
Welt didn't look like he wanted to fight much either.
But Durandal was truly anxious this time.
The mission Otto handed down might not be that important in Durandal's eyes, but her own father constantly displaying a manner of 'wanting to say something but stopping' made Durandal's emotions increasingly wrong.
After Otto hinted to Durandal with words, she actually still didn't fully believe Otto's explanation.
But now, Siegfried's attitude of wanting to speak yet saying nothing instead made Durandal believe this was the manifestation of being mentally manipulated.
As outsiders, Rita and Himeko watched the four Divine Key users confronting each other on the battlefield, completely at a loss for what to do.
The gap in strength between the two of them and these four was simply too great. At a time like this, never mind interfering, even speaking rashly might affect their companions, leading to bad results.
But continuing this stalemate would only plunge the Schicksal group into a greater disadvantage.
Anti-Entropy had developed a special teleportation system that could 'teleport mechs' at some point. Once Anti-Entropy's combat units contacted their troops at The Deep, the combat units pursuing the 'Immortal Blades' would very likely return to The Deep to defend.
Of course, for Divine Key users... no, even for an ordinary S-Rank Valkyrie of Rita's level, a dozen Titans weren't much of a problem.
But Himeko, who counted as half a non-combatant, would nine out of ten die if surrounded by Titans.
Durandal and Theresa were both people who valued sentiment. Once their companions were in danger, they would naturally be distracted in battle.
And the enemies before them, one was the former strongest of Schicksal, the other the First Herrscher holding a Divine Key; obviously, they were enemies Theresa and Durandal had to deal with seriously.
*Difficult... although Anti-Entropy doesn't seem to have much will to fight right now, stalling for time isn't a bad thing for them.*
*Are Mr. Siegfried and Mr. Welt stalling for time on purpose?*
*Or is there really another hidden story behind this?*
"Ah, I can't take it anymore."
Siegfried, who didn't know how to explain this matter at all, felt like he had never wanted to kill that dog Otto as much as he did at this moment.
Now, with just one sentence, Otto had directly erased the [Justification] of their faction.
Siegfried and Welt couldn't prove Otto was lying, and Otto used his past idiotic operation as a shield, checkmating Siegfried with those two inexplicable Honkai Fission Bombs from the past.
Originally, when Siegfried, the victim, accused Otto, others couldn't refute it.
But Otto muddied the waters with one sentence, turning Siegfried from a massive disadvantage to a 50/50 or even a slight advantage.
Although Cecilia had been resurrected, Siegfried couldn't temporarily notify Aaron to come over and release Cecilia to confront his daughter and Theresa.
The resurrection of the dead was a miracle that no one would easily believe, no matter where it happened.
And right now, Siegfried could feel his intuition telling him that this matter absolutely could not be known by Otto.
Otto's Siren Project was superficially a plan to use the power of Sirin, the Herrscher of the Void, to create new equipment to fight the Honkai.
But the reality was, the original intention and the desired experimental result of this plan was the 'resurrection of Sirin'.
Now, in a sense, Sirin had successfully resurrected.
It was just that his daughter had a kind side, so Sirin couldn't freely dominate her body to cause harm everywhere.
After the success of the Siren Project plan, both Siegfried and everyone in Anti-Entropy could clearly feel Otto's emphasis on Sirin.
From this point of view, Otto might really value 'Sirin' who had already 'resurrected'.
In this situation, if he knew someone else had completed 'resurrection'...
Wouldn't that man do even more insane things?
*No choice, this matter can only be hidden for now.*
*And Bro Aaron has met Kiana too. If he judged that this matter could be told, he wouldn't have kept mum to me, this silly father, until now.*
"Siegfried, do it."
Sighing slightly, Welt knew he had to play the villain.
"Lady Theresa and Kiana won't go back obediently. Rather than stalling here, we'd better incapacitate them first."
Watching the four Valkyries before him prepare for battle, Welt also immediately concentrated Honkai energy into his Pseudo-Divine Key.
"I know you can't bear to act against your daughter, and don't want to fight Theresa, your old friend. So—"
"Ah, I understand."
The moment Welt said those words, Siegfried's figure instantly disappeared from his spot.
And Durandal, who had been constantly agitated, although catching Siegfried's movement in that moment, was still a split second too slow in her action.
Siegfried indeed didn't want to move against his daughter and old friend.
So in this moment, he helplessly held his weapon against Rita's neck.
"Rita!"
Seeing her friend taken hostage just like that, Durandal was thoroughly enraged.
"Father... why are you doing this!"
"Has your mind truly been controlled by Anti-Entropy?!"
"No, I just don't want to fight you. Also, Kiana, you've forgotten the past, so let me teach you one thing today."
Knocking Rita out cold directly onto the ground with a hand chop, Siegfried spoke helplessly to Kiana.
"On the battlefield, always pay attention to everyone's movements, silly daughter."
?!
Durandal, realizing Siegfried made no follow-up moves against her friend, felt her body suddenly become incredibly heavy.
"This is... the power of a Divine Key?!"
"Exactly."
Welt, having already opened up distance from his opponents, activated the ability of this Divine Key using the Star of Eden in his hand.
Under his manipulation, terrifying gravity was instantly applied to the bodies of Theresa and Durandal.
"Damn it... this gravity!"
"Temporarily... can't move!"
Because they were worried about Himeko and Rita, Durandal and Theresa had indeed been distracted.
Faced with the gravity released by Welt using the Star of Eden, the two could feel their bodies becoming heavier and heavier.
Although for the two of them with extremely strong physical fitness, this power right now couldn't kill them, nor could it even hurt them.
But the opponent suppressed the two of them with just one Divine Key. If this situation continued like this...
"Lady Theresa, and Kiana. I suggest you don't struggle blindly anymore."
At this moment, Welt, who had controlled the two, although appearing to have a calm and breezy demeanor on the surface, was actually not feeling good right now.
"I don't want to hurt you two, so right now I am only using the Star of Eden to incapacitate you. However, my patience really has a limit."
"Siegfried is my friend. I really don't want to use a Quasi-Black Hole to attack his daughter and former comrade in front of him."
Continuing to maintain this power, Welt could feel severe pain issuing from his body.
After the Second Honkai Eruption, he originally had only one core left.
After finally recovering his physical body, he encountered Murata Himeko's father, Ryusuke Murata.
Welt, who had been calculated against by Ryusuke Murata, had his injuries aggravated after fighting Ryusuke Murata, who had seized the power of the Sugars in the past.
Now, basically half-crippled, if he continued to maintain this power, he would probably pass out on the spot before long.
"Spare me the pretty words—give my father back to me!"
At this moment, Durandal, in a rage, directly took out the weapon she had never fully mastered.
"Black Abyss, White Flower, and Little You, answer me!"
After blasting the two weapons forcefully against the space, the gravitational field around Durandal was instantly interfered with by this strike, unable to function normally.
Even under her strike filled with anger, a crack actually appeared in the space around Durandal and Theresa.
"Bad!"
Seeing Welt spit out a mouthful of blood due to the power backlash, Siegfried immediately poured Honkai energy into the Judgment of Shamash in his hand.
He completely hadn't expected his daughter to possess such terrifying power.
And what was worse, the blow Durandal struck in haste had already sliced out an invisible blade while tearing the space.
With Welt's current body, if he took an attack of this magnitude, he would probably have to revert to core-preservation mode to survive shortly.
Siegfried, directly liberating the Meta-Morph Factor, blocked this blow dangerously using the greatsword in his hand.
*Crack!*
Under the collision of the Divine Keys' attacks, the spatial rift around everyone suddenly became larger.
Theresa, who originally wanted to seize this opportunity to counterattack, suddenly stopped her attack upon looking at this rift.
She was very angry at Siegfried and Welt right now, so angry she really wanted to beat those two up.
The problem was, her intuition was warning her that she absolutely could not act recklessly at a time like this.
And, this spatial rift... why was it still spreading?!
*Did the attacks of Kiana, Siegfried, and Welt possess power to this extent?*
*Although it's true all four of us are Divine Key users, even with Welt who ambushed us, I didn't feel a single shred of killing intent from him.*
*He didn't attack seriously either. The only one attacking seriously right now is Kiana dual-wielding weapons.*
*With her power, it's impossible to tear space so easily.*
*When a person exerts power beyond that person... what exactly is happening?!*
Theresa felt her brain turning into a chaotic mess.
But Welt, who was much smarter than her, realized where the problem lay immediately.
As a powerhouse who had exchanged blows with the five-core Sirin, Welt counted as battle-hardened and experienced.
Something like a spatial rift was absolutely impossible to create relying solely on the attacks of the four of them. So the problem didn't lie with the four's attacks, but with...
—*Damn it, is it The Deep?!*
In this moment, Welt felt everything connecting together.
Someone threw Anti-Entropy's intelligence out to lure Schicksal to attack Anti-Entropy.
And as long as Schicksal really took the bait and sent powerful enforcers to The Deep, then that group's plan was half complete.
And knowing that Schicksal might attack The Deep, Anti-Entropy had to transfer a portion of their powerful combat power here to defend The Deep.
Reaching this step, that group's plan completed the second step.
Schicksal and Anti-Entropy fighting was basically a foregone conclusion. In fact, they, this group, had even delayed the fight for a while due to the relationship between Kiana and Siegfried; it was already quite slow.
The Deep itself was a bit unstable, but Welt, who hadn't been at Anti-Entropy during this period, never expected the space at The Deep to be unstable to this degree.
But it was still wrong; this space shattered too abruptly.
Unless...
—*Someone is launching an attack from the other end of the space!*
*Crack... crack crack crack!*
A sound like a mirror shattering rang out upon that spatial rift at this moment.
"You guys back off quickly! There's something wrong with this rift!"
Faced with Siegfried's prompt, Durandal and Theresa, knowing the situation was bad, exchanged glances and immediately began to retreat frantically, taking the unconscious Rita and Himeko with them.
And at the same time, Welt had already begun to pour massive amounts of Honkai energy into the Star of Eden.
*Damn it, I have to make it. As long as I can release a Quasi-Black Hole...*
*Crack!*
Only, it was a pity. In the next instant, the space shattered completely.
And as the space shattered, Welt looked incredulously at the figure that appeared abruptly before him, and fell heavily onto the ground.
.......................