Either do nothing at all, or do it flawlessly.
This was Rita's unique aesthetic.
Elizabeth had been forced into a corner. Trapped within the distorted field, so different from reality, she felt a suffocating pressure, as if the entire world was against her. It was the helplessness of being swallowed by the deep sea, a feeling that constantly assaulted her battered body and mind.
And yet, if that was all, it would have been manageable.
Someone once tallied that the experiences of every A-rank Valkyrie were enough to write a web novel complete with all the proper twists and turns.
Regardless of the novel's content, genre, or whether its worldview was morally upright, it represented one thing: women who had come this far would never give up, even in the face of certain death!
Elizabeth admitted that in this contest, she had been utterly defeated.
She should have listened to Heinrich, pooled their collective strength to take Alexander back from Boothill, instead of rushing in so eagerly, only to lose everything.
But a total defeat didn't mean she had no way to escape with her life!
As a "Cosmic Egg" that constantly eroded the world upon deployment, the Reality Distortion Field, with its alien laws, was a singularity that violated the rules of nature. As long as it manifested externally to rewrite space, it would be ceaselessly resisted and corrected by the world itself, causing the field to gradually collapse until reality was restored.
To resist this correction, the caster had to expend a vast amount of Honkai energy and mental strength to maintain the field.
While it wasn't impossible to cleverly circumvent the world's instinctual correction through methods like "gaining the world's recognition," "manifesting only a small part," or "suppressing it within the body so it doesn't affect the surroundings," given the current situation, Rita, going all out, was clearly not using any of the above.
In other words, as long as she could hold out until Rita's mental strength and Honkai energy could no longer sustain it, the moment the domain collapsed would be her chance to escape!
This was an exceptionally difficult task. Whether in terms of raw power or soft skills, the A-rank Elizabeth was far inferior to Rita.
Even relying on her ghoul traits to drastically boost her adrenaline, she would be sliced in two by that gorgeous, ice-wreathed scythe in a few more breaths.
Fortunately, she had one last, and strongest, trump card.
"The Great Dunkirk Advance!"
As she forced her life energy to rapidly regenerate her severed arm, Elizabeth whispered the spell's name.
A translucent corridor, tens of kilometers long and several meters wide, silently enveloped her, shooting forward in a straight line at a speed of ten thousand meters per second.
Even though the countless scythe-shadows flying from behind shattered the corridor in moments, the distance of several thousand meters bought Elizabeth the time she needed.
"Rita, you must be curious how I, who wasn't even A-rank back then, managed to escape the heavily guarded Schicksal HQ."
Her tattered fingertips traced the void, and two crystals appeared in her palm. The azure crystal in her left hand contained the wail of a whirlwind, while the crimson core in her right palm pulsed with the beat of erupting magma.
Elizabeth violently ripped open her clothes and embedded both Honkai Beast cores into the slots on the silver-white metal belt at her waist.
"What I relied on!" she roared, forcing the rampaging energy flow down her throat. The blue and red sparks bursting from between her teeth seared bloody marks onto her cheeks. "—Was this!!!"
BOOM!!!
The energy fluctuations of wind and fire expanded violently, the furious power forcing back the scythe that was just an inch from her neck.
Rita, her surprise attack foiled, was sent flying by the shockwave. Her graceful figure spun several times in the air before she plunged her scythe into an inverted icicle to halt her retreat, the friction between them creating a long, organ-like screech.
The stunning beauty, her high heels planted on the tip of the ice prism, narrowed her wine-red eyes, her gaze sweeping over the hem of her Umbral Rose skirt, which had been melted into scattered ash by the high-energy particle stream.
"A Stigma Armament," she murmured.
"That's right! It's the Stigma Armament invented by Fu A and Zhou Can!"
The fluid, scorching storm dissipated, and wild laughter echoed across the boundless, pale earth.
Elizabeth—the creature called Elizabeth—was no longer as she was before. No matter how ugly or ferocious she had been, her form and actions had still been confined to the humanoid category.
But now, looking at the four-legged aberration standing its ground, where was there any trace of a human?
Merely curled up, it already occupied an area nearly the size of a football field.
A howling gale seeped from the azure stripes covering its massive body and its terrifyingly long fangs. The sovereign's cracked flames were like the crucibles of the nine hells, judging sinners.
The two different elements were perfectly harmonized within it, as if telling the world its very existence was a taboo.
—Stigma Armament, a forbidden weapon invented by Schicksal's former chief scientists, Fu A and Zhou Can. Its initial state is a round gem the size of a fist.
Within it lies a powerful psychic force that transcends limits, which can only be activated by injecting Honkai energy. Once activated, the wielder's innermost beliefs or driving force will be triggered, finally manifesting as a tangible, personal armament.
To put it more directly, it can channel the user's desires and materialize them, forming weapons and equipment that perfectly match their aesthetic sense and combat style, based on their own traits and beliefs.
In addition, the personalized Stigma Armament will develop special abilities corresponding to those desires, and its performance is so strong that it can be significantly effective even in battles at the critical level.
"Back then, I became a test subject in Section Four for violating regulations. After a series of experiments, I became what I am today," the transformed Elizabeth's voice was as deep as a tolling bell. "Seeing that I had lost my experimental value, and in the spirit of not wasting a single drop, those mad scientists gave me a 'broken' Stigma Armament, wanting to see if it would cause any chemical reactions."
"Playing with fire again," Rita sighed softly.
After Dr. Fu A and Dr. Zhou Can disappeared during the Siegfried rebellion, Schicksal lost the ability to produce Stigma Armaments.
The key was that these two doctors had never been fond of fighting. The total number of complete armaments they had produced was less than ten, and at least two-thirds of them had been distributed as rewards. How could the few remaining scraps have been used on Elizabeth, who wasn't even A-rank back then?
"Yes, the moment I got my hands on it, I knew. What 'broken' Stigma Armament? It was clearly those crazy scientists deceiving their superiors, applying for a 'broken' one but getting a real one for their experiments!" Elizabeth's tone was filled with an indescribable glee. "And I didn't disappoint them. The moment I got it, I turned it into my very own ultimate trump card!"
Rita said softly, "By embedding Honkai Beast cores, you can temporarily transform into the corresponding Honkai Beast—am I right?"
In the sky above, the crescent moon shone with a faint, cold light.
"Precisely!"
At this point, there was no need for Elizabeth to deny it. "The cores I just embedded into the armament were from the Emperor-class Honkai Beasts Vayu and Rajel. In life, their strength was at the critical level, just like yours. And with the complementary attributes of wind and fire, it's more than enough to hold out until you can no longer maintain the Reality Distortion Field!"
In her current wretched state, simultaneously bearing the power of two immensely powerful Emperor-class Honkai Beasts would come at a price even higher than the Nexus system.
But that was a problem for later. If she really died here, she would truly be left with nothing!
Elizabeth remembered clearly that just like powerful skills in games have cooldowns, a Reality Distortion Field couldn't be cast again for a short time after being used once.
This "short time" was at least half a day. With her powerful dual-Emperor-class combat ability, it wasn't impossible to survive until then and turn the tables!
This wave, the advantage is mine!
Time ticked by. During this period, Rita launched a few token attacks, but they were all blocked by Elizabeth's formidable defenses.
An Emperor-class Honkai Beast on the defensive was like an impregnable fortress. Rita herself was more adept at anti-personnel combat and assassination. With Argent Knight: Artemis under repair at HQ, she truly had no way to deal with this creature for the time being.
After a few more exchanges, the girl on the offensive seemed to have grown tired of it.
Her gaze drifted nonchalantly to the bright, waxing gibbous moon in the sky. With a flick of her hand, Rita leisurely took out a spare skirt and stockings.
She sat curled on the hard ice, hooking her toes as she pulled the black silk up from her ankles.
The spiderweb-like dark patterns converged into a mist at the bend of her knee. The moment the lace top bit into her snow-white skin, the air filled with the intimate, warm scent of nylon and body heat.
Even as a woman, seeing this bewitching and seductive scene, Elizabeth couldn't help but swallow hard.
"What—what trick are you playing now!"
"What other tricks could I possibly play?" The tip of her silk-clad foot tapped the mirror-smooth surface of the ice. A sigh, wreathed in frost, escaped Rita's lips. "The Reality Distortion Field will collapse in thirty seconds. I, a humble woman, am just tidying up my appearance beforehand, so my departure doesn't seem quite so unsightly."
"Oh, oh..."
The maid's self-pity was so sincere, combined with her poignant melancholy and sorrowful expression at her impending demise, that even Elizabeth couldn't help but feel a sliver of pity.
Until she saw Rita suddenly lift her lashes, the index finger of her gray silk-gloved hand pressing against her rosy lips, the cunning ripple that spread from the corner of her eye shattering the twilight gloom in her heart.
"Fooled~ you~"
Could she tolerate this? Of course not!
The divine-aberration, combining the traits of two Emperor-class Honkai Beasts, charged forward with the force of a wild boar, its momentum seeming to crush the very world.
Her plan was sound. The moment the field collapsed, Rita would inevitably enter a brief period of weakness.
And she, having rested and waited, would be at her peak. With one side weakened and the other strengthened, even if she couldn't finish her in one blow, she could at least inflict heavy damage!
Until those elegant, cherry-blossom lips opened once more. "Silly Elizabeth, silly Elizabeth. It seems you've truly forgotten what the instructor warned us about in class back then."
The Schicksal instructor had once taught a piece of common sense to many trainee Valkyries, including the two of them: Stay away from idiots. The saying 'fools have fool's luck' is just survivor bias. Most idiots die early, live miserably, and have lives full of darkness. Associating with them does more harm than good.
Elizabeth, who had thrown in her lot with the Nazi remnants, had clearly not remembered those words.
"First, just because I said there are thirty seconds left doesn't mean there are. Who told you to believe the words of your enemy?"
The mountain-like body did not stop because of these few words. This was a rational move.
But Rita didn't care if she advanced. She said softly, "Second, it seems you never once considered what the inherent ability of my Reality Distortion Field—White Moon Oriole's Resurrection—actually is."
A flash of a blade, and Elizabeth's charge came to a shuddering halt. Her massive body, with defenses far exceeding the critical level, capable of withstanding even the continuous bombardment of small-scale Honkai fission bombs, staggered and fell to the side.
Two pairs of eyes, their light gradually fading, stared blankly at the sky. There, the bright moon, which had been high in the sky, had at some point become a full moon, and was now shining with a dazzling brilliance.
White Moon Oriole's Resurrection, aside from the basic abilities mentioned earlier, possessed only one unique power—Lunar Phase Resurrection.
After Rita deployed the field, as time passed, the white crescent moon hanging in the sky would gradually wax.
When the lunar phase turned into a full moon, the ability known as the "Domain of Everwinter" would activate.
Target: All living and non-living things under the cover of the Reality Distortion Field.
Effect: Unconditional, wide-area instant death across the entire domain.
Theoretically, not even an S-rank could be immune to this instant death. At least in training, even someone as strong as Durandal had felt a deep sense of dread—it was a moon of death that could instantly erase her and everyone within the World Bubble inside her.
To defeat it, one either had to defeat Rita while the moon was in its waxing phases—new moon, first quarter, gibbous—before it became full, or forcibly break through space and flee.
And yet, this very same White Moon Oriole's Resurrection was evaluated by Durandal as the "gentlest" Reality Distortion Field.
In the end, whether it was a Reality Distortion Field or a personalized Stigma Armament, the abilities they possessed came from the user's true self.
Elizabeth yearned to become someone else, someone better, so her Stigma Armament's ability was to "transform into the original form by embedding Honkai Beast cores."
And Rita's ability symbolized that until the very last moment, she was always giving her opponent a chance to repent.
Arriving before Elizabeth's corpse, the young woman bent down and picked up the Stigma Armament, which had reverted to its original shape.
Her high heels clicked against the ground, and a massive ice coffin rose from the earth, sealing her "friend's" body within.
A slip of paper fluttered down.
Rita's fingers paused. She bent down again and picked it up:
[Take your parents and run. You can't beat that Aschour guy. He's the strongest at the critical level, with no weaknesses in the truest sense.]
"..."
The wind of the wasteland brushed against the girl's bangs. She suddenly let out a low laugh. "I thought you said if you're going to be a villain, you should see it through to the end? You just had to disgust me one last time at the end of your life, didn't you?"
"Sorry, but I'm not accepting this favor."
"But as for the reverse psychology... I'll bite."
She clenched her fist, crushing the slip of paper to dust.
After doing all this, Rita turned gracefully and, with an air of casualness, dispelled the Reality Distortion Field.
As expected, many people had remained where they were.
Elizabeth had turned their loved ones into ghouls. Even after witnessing the sudden disappearance of over a thousand people, and even though they had almost been killed by their "relatives" moments before, the simple-hearted people still came forward with concern, trying to ask the sole survivor, Rita, for news.
The maid, who had been so valiant and heroic just moments before, bit her lip and vanished from the spot as if fleeing a disaster.
Even though she had witnessed similar scenes many times, for this famous S-rank Valkyrie, the expectation in people's eyes was still far more difficult to face than any flood or beast.
Fortunately, the battle on the other front was still raging, giving Rita a reason to rush over.
The Traveling Mansion spell she had set up in Richmond Park had been triggered, which meant Boothill had encountered an extremely difficult enemy.
The strongest at the critical level?
Rita, dashing through the forest, licked her slightly dry lips, a sharp, cold light glinting in her eyes.
Him?
Hah. Is he even worthy?
...