"Want to try Bronie's special cocktail? It's my exclusive secret recipe, you know?"
The bartender pushed a purple-blue cocktail toward the customer. The drink seemed to shimmer with a brilliant, starlike glow.
"Oh? And what's the name of this drink, and its inspiration?" Imhotep asked, her interest piqued.
"This one's called 'The Color Out of Space.' It's a cocktail I created to commemorate the strange sights I saw while traveling through the Sea of Quanta."
"Mmm... It truly is... hmm... as dazzling as a starry sky..."
Imhotep took a small sip, savoring the sensation on her taste buds as she gave her verdict.
-
A man dressed entirely in black, holding a black umbrella, hurried through the streets. Known as Gray Serpent, he felt a long-forgotten anxiety creeping back. Not long ago, news had arrived that The Sire was about to return from the Sea of Quanta, and the Stigmata Project was on the verge of entering its large-scale experimental phase.
Yet, from the very moment that man's return was announced, countless variables had instantly sprung up, obstructing the path of the Stigmata Project.
With the reawakening of the Second Herrscher, the once-unified Schicksal was completely split in two. The newly formed "New Schicksal" consolidated its power at a speed far exceeding original predictions. In less than a month, it had fully taken control of its allotted half of Schicksal's floating islands and territories.
Furthermore, the widespread Secondary Honkai Disasters triggered by the Second Herrscher's awakening forced both Schicksal factions and Anti-Entropy to drastically increase their monitoring of Honkai reactions worldwide. Valkyries and Titan Troops were deployed at a frequency several times higher than the average of the past few decades. The consequences of this high-intensity vigilance were obvious: the areas World Serpent had selected for the Stigmata Project's experiments were rapidly dwindling. The unintentional actions of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy were now relentlessly compressing World Serpent's operational space.
The man's masked face concealed his expression, but the flickering, unstable red glow of his cybernetic eye betrayed his inner turmoil.
At this point, World Serpent had been forced to relocate its experimental nursery to Arc City—the site of Shencheng Pharmaceuticals, one of its key footholds in the current world. Yet even here, in a stronghold World Serpent had operated for years, the now fully mobilized Schicksal had stationed two full Valkyrie Squads.
As the secondary disasters from the Great Honkai Eruption continued to unfold, this refuge city would expand to accommodate more people. Consequently, Schicksal would dispatch even more troops to garrison the area, leaving World Serpent with dwindling opportunities to act.
No... with the Second Herrscher's activity centered in this city, the elite forces of both West Schicksal and New Schicksal had already turned their full attention here. The Divine Authority Squad had submitted a request to monitor Arc City, while the Vice Captain of the Immortal Blades had directly notified Shencheng Pharmaceuticals of a "headquarters inspection." They were already noticing something unusual about this city.
"...A rabbit doesn't eat the grass near its own burrow... Heh. We wanted to watch the farce of Schicksal's infighting—'one mountain cannot hold two tigers'—and now we're about to become the joke. Hmph... And that arrogant fool, Jackal."
Gray Serpent's tone was volatile. After a moment's hesitation, he opened a communication channel.
"Gray Serpent? What do you want, calling me this late? Don't you know my time is precious?"
An impatient woman's voice crackled from the other end.
"Just a warning, Jackal. Schicksal isn't as fragile as you think. If we start messing around in our own backyard... you'd better be careful. The people at Schicksal Headquarters have already noticed something's wrong."
"I know, I know. You're always so paranoid. Schicksal's local Valkyries haven't even figured out the real problem yet. Besides, we have a Herrscher in this city to take the fall for us. I really don't see what you're so worried about."
"You'd better really know. Pinning the blame on that Herrscher won't be as easy as we thought... Her actual condition is vastly different from what we anticipated."
"Jackal, do not disappoint the Sire."
"Of course."
The communication was cut.
"That paranoid lunatic, Gray Serpent. Did his cybernetic enhancements fry his brain? Schicksal doesn't have the resources to deal with us right now. That Herrscher and the Honkai disasters popping up all over the world are already giving them enough headaches. If we pin everything on her, even Schicksal's Overseer won't suspect a thing."
"Who knows? This experiment might even lure all of Schicksal's S-rank Valkyries here for a clean sweep."
Beneath her Anubis mask, the woman curled her lip in disdain, clearly pleased with her own plan.
-
The man in black continued toward his destination—Raven's Bar, the true purpose of his journey. Half an hour earlier, Gray Serpent had received a distress call from Cioara. He had interfered with the police pursuit drones, clearing a path for his subordinate.
But shortly after, he lost contact with her. A growing sense of unease prompted Gray Serpent to rise and head to the bar Cioara ran to investigate.
The lights of the nearby bar were on. Inside, only a single white-haired customer seemed to be resting. Through his cybernetic eye's continuously zooming vision, Gray Serpent saw no sign of the person he was looking for—only a gray-haired girl mixing drinks for the white-haired patron.
Gray Serpent recognized the girl. She was a child Raven had taken in not long ago, left to manage the bar due to her mature and sensible nature. But the white-haired customer...
"A Schicksal Valkyrie..."
Gray Serpent paused, then finally strode toward the bar.
Creeak—
The bar door swung open, and a man dressed in black stepped inside.
"Our deeds have never been understood; it has always been thus: either praised or condemned—"
Imhotep raised her glass of violet liquid, reciting the words with keen interest. Her gaze shifted toward the source of the sound. Gray Serpent, who had just entered, stood frozen, staring at the white-haired, cyan-eyed woman before him—
"And you, who come from the shadows, if you wish to proclaim your truth, do so not with words, but with your true self—"
Imhotep's brow furrowed in displeasure. The man, still wearing his hood and holding a black umbrella indoors, was staring at her rudely.
"So... new guest, are you a Sage—or a rat?"