After that particular councilman was left questioning his very existence, crushed by the weight of undeniable facts, Speaker Eren acted as if he hadn't noticed a thing.
With practiced nonchalance, he slipped back into his bureaucratic persona.
"Schicksal's performance following the outbreak of the Third Honkai War has fully demonstrated their sophistication in the field of Honkai suppression," Eren began smoothly.
"Therefore, as Speaker of the Fire Moth Council, I hereby propose a motion: from this point forward, every six months, we shall dispatch three councilors and ten combat personnel to Nagazora City for an exchange of knowledge. We shall now put this to a vote."
Eren looked down at the councilors seated below. Some things didn't need to be said out loud.
An "exchange of knowledge"? Everyone knew exactly what that meant—they were going there to steal secrets.
Granted, doing so likely meant handing Schicksal a massive gift in return. But as long as someone could return with what they'd learned and catalyze a transformation within Fire Moth, then with the organization's deep foundations, surpassing Schicksal was only a matter of time.
Furthermore, this provided an opening for certain councilors with more extreme leanings to pull strings behind the scenes.
For instance, those who founded the MOTHs; wouldn't they seize the chance to get close enough to assassinate Schicksal's key figures?
These many little schemes were best left unspoken to outsiders.
Einstein, of course, understood the subtext of Speaker Eren's words. She had met Durandal before and had a very favorable impression of her; she had no desire to see such conspiracies fall upon the girl's head.
Thus, when it came time for the show of hands, Einstein chose silence.
However, the silence of a single person could change nothing. Speaker Eren's proposal passed with a two-thirds majority.
Naturally, Durandal—who was currently within the Spiral Workshop, continuously absorbing and converting Honkai energy—remained oblivious to the events in the Fire Moth headquarters' conference room. Yet, she had long since anticipated something of the sort.
Regardless, now was not the time for distractions. This was the critical moment of the operation, and Durandal didn't dare be careless for even a heartbeat.
She could clearly feel the Holy Blood within her beginning to boil.
In any field, there exists an invisible "ceiling." Most people, no matter how hard they strive, can never surpass that limit. But that iron law seemed to be loosening where Durandal was concerned.
In the realm of combat, as long as Durandal put in the effort, she grew.
Her Honkai resistance would increase alongside the dosage of Honkai energy she was exposed to. Once her origins were revealed, this peculiar constitution received a logical explanation.
The power of the Holy Blood inherited from her mother, Cecilia, possessed an incredibly strong Honkai resistance.
The power of the Stigmata inherited from her father Siegfried's House Kaslana possessed an incredibly strong Honkai adaptability. When the two combined, they naturally produced a "monster" like Durandal.
However, even a "monster" could face a certain "limit," because her Holy Blood was finite.
At the end of the Second Honkai War, Cecilia had used the Abyss Flower to channel her Holy Blood, neutralizing the Honkai energy surrounding the rampaging Herrscher of the Void's Core, saving the lives of tens of thousands in Siberia.
In other words, the limit of the Holy Blood was roughly equivalent to the Honkai energy possessed by a single Herrscher.
Fortunately, Durandal was not Cecilia. She also carried the Kaslana bloodline, allowing her body to endure a certain amount of Honkai energy on its own without needing to consume vast amounts of Holy Blood for neutralization in a short period.
This was why Durandal had initially planned to solve the problem alone. She had calculated everything clearly; at most, this stunt would land her in the hospital for a period of rest due to severe anemia.
Once her body's hematopoietic functions replenished the lost Holy Blood, she would be back at full strength.
Of course, that was the risk she would have faced alone.
With Elysia helping to share the burden, Durandal could just barely maintain a balance between her body's blood production and the consumption of the Holy Blood.
Yet, this balance was simply too energy-intensive. Fortunately, the presence of the Moon Ring made up for this deficiency.
The Moon Ring could convert Honkai energy into other forms of energy, which naturally included bio-energy.
Generally speaking, bio-energy is the energy provided by living plants in nature, which use biomass as a medium to store solar energy. Humans, being animals, cannot utilize it directly, let alone use it to support their various vital activities.
But one must not forget: the root of the Kaslanas lay in a test-tube baby created by Dr. MEI using her and Kevin's bloodlines.
The organelles within a Kaslana's cells were different from those of an ordinary person. What was impossible for a normal human was not necessarily impossible for a Kaslana.
Once she found that delicate balance, Durandal's actions became increasingly fluid.
She could sense that Elysia, connected to her through the Moon Ring, was not having an easy time. After all, though Elysia was exceptionally gifted, she had not yet reached the "inhuman" level that Durandal had.
Thus, Durandal consciously began to squeeze her own potential.
She pushed the efficiency of the Moon Ring's Honkai conversion and the efficiency of transmitting that energy to the Selene through the interface until their sum exactly equaled the rate at which she was absorbing Honkai energy from the outside.
In doing so, no more Honkai energy would flow through the Moon Ring's diversion function toward Elysia.
Though this clearly shattered the fragile balance Durandal had just found—causing her face to turn pale from "excessive blood loss"—she could clearly feel the pressure on Elysia's side lighten considerably.
Seeing this, Durandal quietly breathed a sigh of relief. At this moment, she seemed to have completely forgotten the consequences of her actions. After all, this was a plan she had long since discarded.
Yet, after seeing the pained expression on Elysia's face with her own eyes, she hadn't even had time to think deeply before instinctively doing what she felt was right.
Elysia, standing nearby, immediately sensed something was wrong the moment Durandal made the adjustment.
She felt her body grow significantly lighter, and the Honkai energy flowing from the Moon Ring through her body to the Selene interface gradually dwindled.
"Durandal!"
Elysia looked at the person beside her.
Those eyes, which always held a hint of a smile, now looked as if they were ready to spit fire.
However, the only response she received was Durandal's slightly weak, relieved, and somewhat simple-minded smile.
Looking at her like that, no matter how much anger Elysia had in her heart, she couldn't find a way to vent it.
Finally, as time ticked by, Durandal finished absorbing almost all the excess Honkai energy generated by the Third Honkai Eruption, converting it through the Moon Ring and the Selene.
She slowly let go of the interface connecting her to the Selene. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly, the world went black, and she collapsed into a dead faint.
--+--
T/N: If you want advance chapters, you can find it at [email protected]/AspenTL