On the other end of the communication line, Kyuusyou stood frozen for a moment, terminal in hand. She then abruptly dodged a Titan's fist swinging at her from behind and, with a single-handed sword strike, cleaved the massive machine in two.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. No martial ethics at all—sneaking and cheating... Wait, only two Titan squads? Are you guys just feeding me units to free up your population cap? Planning to switch from mechanized to biological warfare, are we?"
The purple-haired Valkyrie glanced disdainfully at the dismantled Titan squads before reconnecting the communication line.
"So, you're saying Wendy removed the Gem of Desire? Otherwise, she wouldn't be holding it in her hands?"
The purple-haired girl's voice was laced with confusion.
"I don't know for sure, but the gem in Wendy's hand matches the one I saw in my dream, and it's definitely brimming with dense Honkai energy. You're saying Wendy is a Herrscher now...?"
Kiana's voice on the other end was also filled with confusion.
"It was always highly probable, but now it's practically confirmed. Even Schicksal's scientists couldn't keep that gem stable in its physical form for long, which is why they stored it inside Wendy. Now, it's appeared in her hands as a solid object."
"Only a Herrscher could extract the gem so completely without harming the host's body."
"But shouldn't the Gem of Desire be her Core after she became a Herrscher... just like Mei's? Why would she rip out her own Core?!"
Kyuusyou's explanation only left Kiana with more questions.
"Actually, a Herrscher can regenerate their Core. As long as their original consciousness remains intact, their status as an Apostle of God is anchored to this world."
"So, she must have extracted the Gem of Desire and then absorbed a massive amount of Honkai energy to condense a new Core."
"That would also explain why so few high-level Honkai Beasts have appeared in New Zealand since the initial outbreak. All the Honkai energy was siphoned off to regenerate her Core..."
Kyuusyou's lips twitched as if she'd just remembered something, and she muttered under her breath.
"That squad guarding the New Zealand Branch building... they were so unlucky. They ran into every single one of the few high-level Honkai Beasts that did show up..."
"Kyuusyou, what are you mumbling about...? Never mind. So, why would Wendy rip out her original Core? Does that even make sense?"
"Oh, it makes perfect sense, especially if she's the Herrscher I remember dealing with... If she thought having the Core in her thigh was inconvenient, she'd rip it out and shove it somewhere else without a second thought. And if she ripped it out and didn't like its shape or design, regenerating a new one would be no problem at all..."
As Kiana listened to Kyuusyou's explanation of just how whimsical this Herrscher was, her eye twitched. She glanced over at Wendy, who sat in her wheelchair looking completely harmless.
Hey, Muninn. We haven't been found out, have we...? I was acting so well I almost believed it myself.
Wendy watched Kiana walk a short distance away to take a call, then turn back to stare at her with an increasingly strange gaze. A flicker of panic tightened in Wendy's chest.
What's there to panic about? It's not like they can kill you. I just peeked into her memories—you have been recognized, but by the Venerable God's companion. She's seen your current form in another world.
So, should we drop the act?
Wendy glanced at Muninn, seemingly ready to follow the raven girl's advice.
Not yet. That "Knight Miss" is fundamentally a smart person. She won't recklessly expose you now. Based on the information she has, doing so would almost certainly lead to a fight between us.
Muninn analyzed the situation for Wendy through their mental link.
So we just keep acting?
Exactly. They won't do anything to us for now, anyway.
Muninn gave Wendy an imperceptible nod. Reassured by Muninn's confidence, Wendy calmed herself and prepared to continue her performance.
-
Meanwhile, Kyuusyou and Kiana's call was drawing to a close.
"If she's like the other Wendy I know, she might just be playing along with you because she finds it fun," Kyuusyou explained. "That Wendy is a free spirit who hates being tied down by purpose or duty. She refuses to blindly follow the Honkai's orders to destroy humanity and seems to have a fondness for movies and ice cream."
"That girl prefers playing to killing. Of course, Kiana, this is just a reference. The Wendy of this world is her own person, and the one from the other world is hers. They might have similarities, but it's nearly impossible for them to be identical. For now, only you can handle this. I have my own mess to clean up over here—you need to find a way to stabilize the situation with her."
"Naturally, becoming her friend would be the best option... That girl, if she's anything like the other one, values her friends deeply..."
The communication gradually dissolved into static, the signal becoming garbled and unclear. Fortunately, all the crucial information had been conveyed. Now, everything depended on Kiana's performance.
-
Kyuusyou lowered her communicator and gazed at the massive, gold-painted Titan Mecha before her. She began cracking her knuckles, a cruel smile spreading across her lips.
"Ah... Padrino MFG?"
"Do you know... the Padrinos Overlord Fist from the Schicksal Armory—how it came to be???"
-
A white formal dress and a floating black crown of thorns replaced Houraiji Kyuusyou's Valkyrie Battlesuit. Her murky, dim red eyes sent a chill down the spines of the technicians monitoring the Godfather's movements from the aerial battleship.
"Another Herrscher?! What the hell is wrong with Schicksal's Far East Branch?! Are you mass-producing Herrschers instead of Valkyries?!"
On the bridge, a technician stared at Kyuusyou's transformed appearance on the screen, cursing Schicksal's high command.
"—Come, come to me. I grant you the Authority to take peace from the earth, that men may slay one another..."
"O mortals—"
"No mercy, no salvation!"
"Only revelry, only slaughter!"
The purple-haired woman's humming voice on the screen seemed to carry a corrupting influence. The mouths of the bridge crew who heard it went dry... A primal urge began to sprout rapidly within their hearts.
It was a thirst for blood, a desire for the most primitive, savage slaughter—the lust for conquest and destruction that humanity had hidden and suppressed beneath millennia of civilization and order.
"...I permit you to kill without guilt, I grant you victory without shame—"
The girl's final words from the screen plunged the bridge into true chaos...
"Turn off that monitor! Now!"
Some of the more strong-willed individuals seemed to realize what was happening. They shouted reprimands, trying to cut off the source of this unknown mental corruption and awaken their colleagues—but it was too late. The situation on the Anti-Entropy Battleship's bridge had once again gone out of control.
-
"Tsk, tsk, tsk... The Second Seal: War... Lady, you truly don't hold back, do you?"
Huginn clicked her tongue as she watched the bridge below descend into chaos once again. People, driven mad, tore at each other with fingernails and teeth, desperate to drink the blood that now seemed like fine wine and devour the flesh they saw as a delicacy...
Amid the turmoil, only a few strong-willed individuals, led by Cocolia, managed to escape the main bridge.