Everything happened far too quickly. Stan didn’t even see what Durandal did before it was slammed against the wall.
“Hmm, so this is the cat-like Honkai beast mentioned in the reports? It’s rather cute, isn’t it?”
Stan’s body trembled uncontrollably. Facing this human, even though its detector was broken, its animal instincts screamed with an intense, overwhelming danger signal.
As an ultimate lifeform, its senses were tens of thousands of times sharper than those of an ordinary feline. Therefore, this danger signal was also that much more powerful!
Finally, under immense survival pressure, Stan chose the strategy it was most confident in…
Using its adorable appearance to garner sympathy, it directly began to act cute and roll around playfully in front of Durandal.
Undoubtedly, Stan made the most correct decision of its life at that moment. Unable to resist its charming antics, Durandal stepped forward and scratched its belly, her mood lifting pleasantly.
“Lady Durandal, what are you doing here?”
Durandal picked Stan up:
“Ah, Rita. This was actually the Overseer’s arrangement. He was worried you might fall into the enemy’s trap, so he ordered me to pose as a tourist, quietly follow behind you, and protect everyone from the shadows.”
“Thank you for your concern, Lady Durandal. However… dealing with a Honkai beast like this is well within my capabilities.”
Rita smiled with a “harmonious and kind” expression, once again pulling out her ice-blue scythe and positioning it just a few centimeters from Stan’s neck.
“Please put it down. This time, I will resolve the matter promptly.”
At that moment, sweat simultaneously broke out on both Stan and Durandal’s faces. One was worried about whether it would survive, the other was pondering how to convince Rita to let her keep the cat.
“Um… Rita, look, we’ve never encountered a Honkai beast like this before, which means it must have some value, right?”
Rita sighed helplessly and lowered her scythe. Durandal and Stan both sighed in unison in sync.
“By the way, Lady Durandal, it seems you haven’t met with Susannah, so she might very well have already…”
Durandal looked at Rita with confusion:
“But the Overseer told me that Susannah has already returned to headquarters and is currently assisting Amber with her tasks.”
“But… Ah, right, Miss Catherine might still be on the other side of the stone door.”
Hearing this, Durandal walked straight to the stone door and smashed it to pieces with a single punch.
Behind the door, the Sword in the Stone was still embedded in the strange pile of rocks, but Catherine was long gone. Rita stepped forward and carefully pulled the sword out. This time, nothing happened.
Rita examined the sword glowing with a blue light but couldn’t make anything of it. After looking around, she found no signs of a struggle or fight, deepening the mystery in her mind. However, she knew that since there was nothing of value left here, it was best not to linger and to leave quickly.
Just as the two were ascending the stone steps, nearly back to the surface, they spotted a figure at the entrance. Sensing ill intentions, Rita drew her scythe once more.
Enoxia smiled, her body dissolving into a dark mist that completely obscured their vision.
Observing and assassinating in darkness was originally Rita’s forte. But she was shocked to find that in such a confined space, she couldn’t hear any footsteps, breathing, or even the sound of machinery operating.
This S-Rank Valkyrie, skilled in assassination and reconnaissance, was caught off guard by Enoxia. She hadn’t even detected Enoxia’s location before she lost consciousness.
“Rita, are you alright?!”
Hearing the sound of someone falling, Durandal anxiously called out, but received no response.
“Huh?”
Sensing something rushing toward her, Durandal raised her gun to block and, despite being completely unable to see, kicked Enoxia away.
“Well, this proves that if she wields the White Flower, wearing either Luna Kindred or Immortal Star Armor, and we fight one-on-one head-on, I would definitely lose.”
Enoxia knew Durandal was strong, but the first exchange still took her by surprise.
“If Durandal had lived in the Previous Era, if she had also become a MANTIS… in terms of pure combat power, not necessarily on the level of Kevin or Elysia, but I doubt she would be any weaker than the tier of Kalpas, Kosma, or Sakura.”
Considering Durandal was native to Earth and not a Herrscher, looking across the over 50,000 years of both civilizations, in terms of innate talent, probably only Kevin—who could single-handedly kill a Chariot-class Honkai beast with a baseball bat in his middle school years—could be said to surpass her…
“Hmm… Cheng Lingxiao, if she had lived to this day, probably wouldn’t be inferior to her either? Ah, forget it. History has no ‘ifs,’ only outcomes.”
The reason Enoxia could afford to be distracted and let her mind wander during the fight with Durandal, besides holding back to avoid accidentally injuring Rita, was mainly because she was genuinely here on vacation. She hadn’t brought any of her equipment, and the lance in her hand was just a common Honkai energy weapon, unable to unleash her full power.
Even though Enoxia hadn’t intentionally tried to break it, after just one exchange, the ordinary lance in Durandal’s hands was sliced into several pieces by the Judgement of Shamash, rendered completely useless.
Disarmed, Durandal grew even more agitated inside. Seizing the opportunity, Enoxia directly merged into her body.
“Bianka, I have no intention of harming you. It’s just that there are some things you don’t know yet, and it’s better for you to see them.”
