On July 4, 2017, the Hyperion took off from the Salt Lake City base and headed toward the North Pole.
Since an agreement had been reached with Congress, the Hyperion encountered no obstacles on its way from Salt Lake City to Canada.
At 1:00 PM local time, in the Hyperion’s command room.
“Let’s take this opportunity to do a final review of the plan and everyone’s assignments. This operation uses Kiana as bait to lure the Herrscher of Domination into attacking us first.
Based on past experience, they will definitely intercept the information that Anti-Entropy is sending Kiana to the Arctic base ahead of time. And as a Herrscher who can’t use her full Herrscher authority, Kiana is undoubtedly a massive prize for the Herrscher of Domination. So even if they know it’s a trap, they won’t be able to resist the temptation.
Our mission has always been just two things: protect Kiana, and eliminate every last puppet.”
At 3:00 PM, the Hyperion entered the Nunavut region of Canada.
“We’ve already covered more than half the distance to the Arctic. The Herrscher of Domination… surely they haven’t given up, have they…”
Standing at the bow of the ship, Bronya looked around. There was only the clean, tidy deck and the sky rapidly moving past.
“Bronya, multiple unidentified objects are approaching the Hyperion at high speed. Some of them are heading toward the bow!”
“Bronya, received.”
About half a minute later, several giant, shapeless chunks of iron slammed into the Hyperion’s bow, and hundreds of puppets and countless out-of-control mechs poured out.
“Well, well, well, if it isn’t the Herrscher who can’t even use her Herrscher authority. Why don’t we show you… how the Herrscher of Reason’s authority is really used?”
The puppet waved its hand forward, and several identical mechs appeared out of thin air on the deck, launching a counterattack against the Hyperion’s defense systems.
Bronya felt a sharp pain in her chest and collapsed to her knees, cold sweat continuously seeping from her forehead.
Clearly, gaining access to the Herrscher of Reason’s core was not the same as being able to freely create whatever one wanted. It had only been a few days since the Herrscher of Domination obtained the Herrscher of Reason’s authority.
And the higher the specs and the more complex the structure of something constructed with the Herrscher of Reason’s power, the more Honkai energy it consumes and the greater the difficulty. Theoretically speaking, in just a few days, Anti-Entropy’s own mech models absolutely could not have been reproduced.
However, in practice, the puppets discovered a new way to use the Herrscher of Reason’s authority: overload construction. With this method, they could rapidly construct things that exceeded the upper limit of Honkai energy, or greatly shorten production time. But the cost—literally—was an enormous burden on the body.
And thanks to the Herrscher of Domination’s authority, what they were doing now was equivalent to a cartoon protagonist suddenly unlocking a hidden power—except the cost of that power was borne by Bronya, the bearer of the Herrscher of Reason’s core.
“Oh my, if mechs constructed with the Herrscher of Reason’s authority open fire on a Herrscher of Reason who can’t use her authority, what do you think will happen? Hehe, just thinking about it is fun.”
The mech opened fire. Bronya tried to dodge, but she couldn’t move her body at all.
At that critical moment, Fu Hua, also at the bow, tackled Bronya to the ground. The heat ray practically grazed her forehead as it flew past.
“Tch, boring. You guys play around slowly. I’m leaving first.”
Half of the puppets and mechs that had boarded the bow split off to surround Fu Hua, while the rest continued pushing deeper inside. Although Fu Hua finished off all the enemies before long, she didn’t dare move too far from Bronya because she needed to keep her safe. In the end, quite a few puppets still slipped through.
“I never imagined the Herrscher of Domination would find, in such a short time, the most ‘correct’ way for them to use the Herrscher of Reason’s authority.”
Walter, positioned at the stern, slowed down all the enemies. Seele, Rosaliya, and Liliya attacked together and successfully held off the assault on that side.
“…Bronya is just exhausted? That’s good. Fu Hua, thank you for your hard work…”
After confirming the situation on the other side, Walter began counting the puppets at the stern.
“Mr. Walter, does Theresa’s side not need help?”
“Ah, no. We’d only get in the way if we went over. That’s why we arranged for her to hold the second defense line alone.”
At that moment, Kiana was in a specially modified room, surrounded on all sides by electromagnetic barriers. Even if puppets broke through the defense line, they wouldn’t be able to directly drag her into the Theater of Domination.
The room had only one door, and outside it was a relatively spacious area. Theresa leaned against Judah, watching the approaching puppets sternly.
“Tch, a little grade-schooler who isn’t even as tall as her cross dares to block our way?”
Its answer was Judah’s chain spear. Theresa activated Judah, and more than a dozen weapons all flew out. Since she had no teammates nearby, she could go all out.
After just the first round of attacks, half the puppets that had broken through to this point were already on the ground.
“Damn it, why is this little brat so tough to deal with?! But… it doesn’t matter. Our plan has already succeeded…”
A muffled thud sounded, and the electromagnetic barrier around Kiana disappeared.
“The power system wasn’t attacked at all. Why…”
“Little brat, why do you think… we’ve been able to grasp your intelligence so accurately every time…”
Theresa already knew the answer. Whether at the Salt Lake City base or here on the Hyperion now, there were Anti-Entropy employees who had already been dominated. All of the puppets’ earlier actions had been a diversion. Their goal was to create an opportunity for this traitor.
At that moment, several puppets bypassed Theresa and entered Kiana’s room through the ventilation ducts.
“As long as we’re united in purpose, there’s nothing we can’t do. So then, Kiana—see you in the Theater of Domination.”
Theresa rushed in the instant the electromagnetic barrier failed. Judah’s attacks sliced the puppets’ bodies to pieces, but before they completely lost the ability to move, they still made direct contact with Kiana.
Then, she could only watch helplessly as Kiana vanished from where she stood.
