Within Schicksal HQ, as Durandal and Rita absorbed that footage—like a declaration of war—the pair lapsed into prolonged silence.
A good while passed...
"Rita, compile these files at once. Sync them to Anti-Entropy and World Serpent."
"This..."
Rita, mid-ponder, couldn't help querying: "Lady Durandal, sharing intel with World Serpent? That's straightforward enough." "After all, pre-disappearance, the Bishop had already allied with their Sovereign." "But Anti-Entropy..."
Plainly, Rita wasn't sold.
Yet Durandal held firm. "Rita, I know—if Bishop Otto were here, he'd never greenlight this." "But I'm not Bishop Otto. I have my way."
"Understood!"
Rita dropped further remonstration. She turned on her heel, off to execute the directive—immature in her eyes—that Durandal had voiced herself.
En route, though...
"This man..."
Rita dipped her head, eyeing the tablet's screen: the black-haired youth's visage.
She was meticulous. Thus, she hadn't forgotten: years back, post-Third Eruption, amid Nagazora's ruins, in some Anti-Entropy-abandoned underground lair, she had extracted a singular test subject.
And now...
"'The villain we've shaped ourselves'?"
Murmuring the line unconsciously, repeating it under breath... even Rita, versed in the world's shadows, tasted a bitter cocktail on her tongue.
In the end, myriad thoughts distilled to a sigh. "Truly... the whims of fate."
Her footsteps faded into the distance.
Ere long...
Anti-Entropy, North American Salt Lake Base.
Since the "Sea of Quanta Incident" wrapped, Sovereign "Welt Yang" had reclaimed his throne—stripping the radicals of their old unchecked sway. Now, firebrand Cocolia languished in irons. Meantime, conservative stalwarts Drs. Einstein and Tesla seized the reins anew.
As for that freshly returned second-gen Sovereign, master of failed parleys, Mr. Yang-the-Sleeper... He was drilling his protégé. Bronya Zaychik.
This emotion-restored girl was his chosen successor. She was the new Herrscher of Reason—and future Anti-Entropy Sovereign. Barring mishaps...
"Big sis Bronya..."
"Seele, you just came from the training room?"
"Yeah, I tried the highest difficulty today... but wiped."
"Don't lose heart. And don't push too hard—you're already stellar, Seele."
"Mm!"
In a corridor nook, the two girls crossed paths by chance, then fell in step. Mid-chat, they reached a doorway. The electronic portal hung ajar.
From within boomed decibels of raw fury. "Those Schicksal idiots, I swear to fuck—and that Cocolia bitch..."
Yeah, that bleep-riddled, volcanic tirade? No-brainer: Dr. Lobster was boiling over again.
Bronya and Seele couldn't resist peeking...
Inside, not just Tesla fuming—Einstein stood by too, palm to forehead, sighing nonstop.
"Wh-what's going on?"
Bronya ventured, curious.
Spotting her, Tesla drew deep breaths, reining in her ire. But anyone could see: her mood was foul as sin.
A closer squint: Welt Yang was there too. He clocked Seele trailing Bronya and could only sigh: "Seele, mind checking on the orphanage kids?" "This... involves some delicate matters. We need Bronya's input on details."
At that...
"Oh, sure!"
Seele was ever the perceptive sort. She knew some doors stayed shut to her—for now.
So, seeing Mr. Welt's intent to send her away, she very sensibly bid Bronya farewell and left on her own.
And just then...
"Oh dear, looks like in their eyes, you're still just an outsider."
In Seele's mind, a voice rang out—tinged with a touch of 阴阳怪气 sarcasm.
Perhaps it was an illusion... but she even caught a hint of... petty glee in it.
"Don't say that, other me."
Seele didn't dwell, simply explaining patiently: "Mr. Welt and Bronya-sis are both seasoned warriors." "I can't go adding to the mess."
"Hmph~"
A cold snort echoed in her mind. Then, silence.
In truth, neither Seele nor "Seele" knew that Welt's reason for dismissing her was actually... to protect her. Because the news they'd just received was far too bloody. The underbelly... far too dark.
They feared she couldn't handle it.
As for Bronya... No helping it—she... was one of the parties involved.
Right now, still in that room...
"Bronya, take a look at this."
After Seele left, Welt sealed the electronic door. He had no plans to let too many ears in on this intel.
And Bronya... she took the tablet from Dr. Einstein, who handed it over wordlessly, then... read through the full dossier Schicksal had just beamed over.
It included the utter annihilation of the West Asia Branch... and that black-haired youth's "villain manifestation."
"..."
Bronya fell silent.
At that moment, Dr. Einstein spoke up to supplement: "Based on the intel pieced from these videos, cross-referenced with Previous Era archives, we can preliminarily judge him as this civilization era's Tenth Herrscher."
The Tenth Herrscher—the Herrscher of Domination. Or, alternatively: The Herrscher of a Thousand.
"He's shown no intent to hide his identity from the start—operating in broad daylight all along."
Dr. Einstein sighed helplessly: "Moreover, my analysis suggests he's nothing like Kiana... or the Mei from back then." "He seems untouched by any Herrscher persona. Everything he's done so far? Pure self-directed judgment."
Undoubtedly, that was the knottiest deadlock.
Bronya remained mum.
By now, the files in her hands detailed everything on that black-haired youth... aka "Ling Ke."
Autumn 2013: He appeared out of nowhere in the Far East's Nagazora City. Prior to that? No records whatsoever.
Around the same time, he was nabbed by Anti-Entropy's radical exec "Cocolia," and months later, the Third Eruption blew wide open.
April 2014: He was scooped up by a Schicksal survey team from Nagazora's rubble and shipped to the West Asia Branch. From there... until yesterday: a grim saga as an experimental subject.
The dossier flashed image after image, log after log—enough to make one's scalp crawl.
Bronya spotted Ling Ke's photo. She remembered him.
Because back then, it was her—before meeting the Mei-sis and idiot Kiana who'd change her so much, before their bond deepened—who'd personally dislocated his limbs and dragged him before Cocolia-mama.
What came after? Bronya didn't know. She'd been dispatched by Cocolia right after for another op: surveil the Third Herrscher vessel—Raiden Mei. That sparked the chain of events to follow.
Now, she was long past being the world's top killer. She had true friends, an inheritance, and Seele back safe.
But looking back now...
"What exactly happened back then, afterward?"
An ill premonition stirred unbidden in Bronya's chest.
Then, she turned to the room's other three...
"Mr. Welt, Dr. Einstein, and... Dr. Tesla."
Bronya said gravely: "The Bronya needs to see Cocolia-mama." "Right now!"