Afterwards, there was no bloody scene at all, not even a single drop of blood—the Honkai Zombie simply dissolved into a swirl of purple smoke and vanished without a trace.
It wasn't until Durandal appeared by her side that Sakura snapped out of the state she'd been in just moments before.
Seeing that Sakura's expression remained calm as ever, Durandal looked pleased.
"Well done. I'm quite confident now that you'll be able to become a fully capable Flame-Chaser before the Third Honkai Eruption truly breaks out."
Hearing this, Sakura showed a flicker of surprise.
She naturally knew what a Flame-Chaser was—only those capable of independently leading a combat squad could be called by that title.
From that perspective, apart from her overall command authority, Durandal herself was essentially just another Flame-Chaser.
That was the way of the flat management structure in the Schicksal organization.
There were no layers upon layers of managers here, no exploitation of the lower ranks by the higher-ups—such things simply didn't exist within Schicksal.
But by the same token, this kind of management was also highly prone to one-person rule.
If the organization's leader wanted to become a dictator, there would be no one below capable of rallying enough force to resist.
That's exactly what happened with a certain Overseer fifty thousand years later.
Durandal, of course, had no intention of becoming a dictator.
She looked at Sakura before her and decided that, while offering affirmation, she should also apply a bit of pressure.
"Sakura, although your performance has been excellent, you may not necessarily become the first member to be promoted to Flame-Chaser."
"Emile and Ato were already Fire Moth soldiers, and Kevyn possesses extraordinary talent as well."
Sakura nodded. "I understand."
She knew Durandal was telling her not to grow complacent.
And truthfully, Sakura didn't feel there was much to be proud of anyway.
That last battle might have seemed easily won, but Sakura knew very well it was only because she'd faced a single Honkai Zombie.
If there had been even one more, the situation would have been entirely different.
Even if the zombies didn't cooperate with each other, given the preparation time she'd needed to kill just one, it would have been difficult to deal with another immediately after finishing the first.
The likely outcome would have been death or serious injury.
So what she needed to do now was to compress her combat preparation time as much as possible, to truly achieve swift and decisive strikes.
Seeing that Sakura had indeed felt the pressure, Durandal took out her communicator and called Emile back.
Just moments earlier, two new red dots had appeared on the electronic map.
The closer one was the responsibility of their three-person team, while the farther one, being near Schicksal's temporary field office, was assigned to Elysia's squad for cleanup.
And so, for three straight days, both combat squads led by Durandal and Elysia remained constantly busy.
It wasn't until the fourth day that reinforcements from Fire Moth finally arrived.
Seeing who had come, Durandal felt both unsurprised and somewhat taken aback.
Unsurprisingly, as she had expected, the aid did include the 5th Squad led by Himeko.
Taken aback, because the other squad leader turned out to be a somewhat 'familiar face' as well.
Once mentioned in the story and appearing in CG—the psychic MANTIS who died during the 8th Herrscher incident, with her short orange hair and a brisk, capable air: Dystopia.
Durandal was speechless.
Did Fire Moth not realize that this so-called 'reinforcement' was very likely a case of 'sending meat to a dog'?
And yet they'd sent her here too. This was really...
What could Durandal say about it? Of course, a warm welcome it was~
To show their appreciation, Durandal and Elysia personally went to Nagazora City Airport to receive them, while the other personnel rested temporarily at Schicksal's field office.
Upon seeing the ten Fire Moth combat personnel descend from the aerial warship, Durandal and Elysia stepped forward to greet them.
"Welcome. Nagazora City is glad to have you all here."
After the welcome, Durandal gave a brief introduction. "I'm Durandal, leader of Schicksal. This is our deputy leader, Elysia."
Hearing this, Himeko and Dystopia couldn't help but exchange a glance.
Then Himeko extended her hand, shaking both Durandal's and Elysia's. "I'm Himeko, captain of Fire Moth's 5th Squad. These are my team members."
She gestured to the four people behind her as she spoke.
Each of the four introduced themselves in turn.
Next was Dystopia.
She also shook hands with Durandal and Elysia, though her speaking style was more brisk.
"Dystopia."
And Dystopia's team members seemed to have taken on their captain's 'color'—their speaking styles were similarly concise, offering only their names.
"Well then, let's get in the vehicles."
Durandal gave Elysia a look, signaling her to drive the vehicle carrying Dystopia's team, while she herself would take Himeko and her group.
After all, if it were the other way around, Durandal felt that probably neither she nor Dystopia's team would speak a word the entire journey.
And Elysia was perfectly suited to handle that type of personnel.
Seeing the look, Elysia gave Durandal a reassuring glance.
If she could handle Durandal, a mere Dystopia would naturally be no trouble at all.
In the passenger van, Durandal struck up a conversation with Himeko, who sat in the front passenger seat.
"Captain Himeko, I heard you were once a student of Dr. Einstein?"
Himeko hadn't expected Durandal to bring up her past.
She fell silent for a moment before nodding.
"Yes. I once yearned endlessly for the sky. My greatest dream was to join a space station, to research and build spacecraft capable of exploring outer space."
"Unfortunately, the First Honkai Eruption broke out in my hometown. That made me realize that humanity's first priority was to face the threat of the Honkai."
"So, on my teacher's recommendation, I joined Fire Moth."
Durandal: "..."
So, whether it was Himeko or Himeko, their dreams were startlingly similar, huh?
But with her here, perhaps in the future, not only the Himeko from Star Rail would be able to fulfill that initial dream.
"I met Dr. Einstein once on the Mu Continent. This reinforcement was something I directly mentioned to Dr. Einstein."
This was Durandal's way of explaining why she had brought up Einstein.
--+--