The scene shifted. This time, the location was very familiar to Durandal—the office of Otto Apocalypse himself at Schicksal Headquarters. She had reported to him here many times.
On the large screen now was footage she, while not having personally experienced, was certainly no stranger to.
In the footage, a woman of breathtaking beauty with white hair and turquoise eyes stood on a frozen lake. In her right hand was the emblem of Schicksal’s strongest Valkyrie—the 6th Divine Key, the Black Abyss and White Flower.
“That’s… Lady Cecilia!? So what I’m seeing now is information from the Second Honkai Eruption, 15 years ago?”
Otto, his eyes fixed intently on the screen, revealed a sinister smile at the corner of his mouth:
“Fire the Honkai Fission Missile at Cecilia’s location.”
“What?!”
The Honkai Fission Missile—through a physical chain reaction, it artificially aggregated and released a massive amount of Imaginary-side Honkai energy in an extremely short time, achieving the effect of annihilating all surrounding matter.
Precisely because of this, the weapon’s developers considered it the ultimate trump card against Herrschers and Honkai Beasts.
And now, the target of such a terrifying weapon was Schicksal’s strongest Valkyrie.
Under Otto’s command, the Honkai Fission Missile flew at full speed towards Siberia. Just as it was a mere hundred meters from Cecilia, a figure with purple hair and amber eyes appeared before her.
Durandal was stunned. She certainly knew this sudden arrival was the Herrscher of the Void, Sirin. But what happened next brought her an unprecedented shock.
Without a word, Sirin hurled Cecilia through a portal. She herself, however, bore almost the full brunt of the Honkai Fission Missile’s damage.
The Overseer of Schicksal wanted to kill Schicksal’s strongest Valkyrie, while the Herrscher whom Schicksal had always sought to eliminate was the one who saved her. Whether it was Durandal or any other Valkyrie educated by Schicksal, witnessing this scene would bring immense shock.
“So, what are your thoughts upon seeing the fate of the strongest Valkyrie who came before you?”
“Since the first two Valkyries who wielded the Black Abyss and White Flower both met unnatural ends, Schicksal automatically began to view the 6th Divine Key, with its power to wither and decay, as a curse upon Valkyries. Little did they know… the greatest curse in the lives of those two S-Rank Valkyries was simply encountering Otto!”
Durandal fell into silence. Enoxia could sense the anger emanating from her after she spoke, though it wasn’t directed at Otto.
“Don’t worry, Rita is fine. She just fainted. Sometimes, the more one knows, the more danger they’re in. I assume you wouldn’t want her to see what I just showed you right now either.”
“I really had no other choice. The relationship between you and Rita is… probably only one step away from that kind of relationship now… Anyway, because your connection is so tight, if she were conscious, she could easily enter the same dream as you.”
“Dream…”
Hearing that Rita was unharmed, the tension in Durandal’s voice eased considerably.
“Yes, a dream. But the events I showed you are all facts that once happened… Truly worthy of being Schicksal’s strongest Valkyrie. Receiving such a shocking truth, you didn’t immediately break down or lose your composure, instinctively assuming I must be deceiving you.”
“At least from what I can see now, if you wanted to throw Schicksal into chaos, it would be more effective to attack Headquarters while I’m in London, rather than going to such great lengths to drive a wedge between me and the Overseer with false information.”
“But… that doesn’t mean I completely believe everything you’ve shown me.”
“That’s fine. Events from 60 years ago might be too distant, but for the Second Honkai Eruption 15 years ago, Schicksal’s archives still hold quite a few traces. Whether I’m deceiving you or not, you can investigate for yourself.”
As these words faded, Durandal’s vision was filled with a dazzling white light. When the light dissipated, she found herself back in the secret passage. Rita was slowly getting up from the steps ahead of her, as if just waking from a pleasant dream.
“Lady Durandal…”
Rita, freshly awakened, didn’t seem fully conscious. After taking just a few steps, she lost her balance and began to fall backward.
Durandal immediately stepped forward and caught her in a princess carry.
“My apologies for the trouble, Lady Bianca.”
Both Rita and Durandal’s cheeks flushed slightly warm. Maintaining this position, they simply walked out from underground.
——-
Some time later, at Enoxia’s home.
“…In any case, Schicksal didn’t come back entirely empty-handed this time. At least they confirmed the intel that ‘World Serpent knows the location of the Thousand-Crossing Chariot.’ Otherwise, World Serpent wouldn’t have gone to such lengths to interfere.”
“As for Durandal… I admit I was too impatient. Although Otto has wronged many people, besides concealing her origins, he hasn’t really wronged her personally. Faced with someone who could be considered her benefactor, even knowing he has committed monstrous acts, changing one’s feelings from respect to disgust takes time…”
“Not to mention, it’s impossible for her to fully trust information provided by someone of unknown origin like me… I merely told her what Otto has done. The feet are hers to walk with. What path to take in the future, how to walk the path she chooses, is for her to decide.”
“Eno, you’ve worked hard,” Cecilia said with a smile.
Enoxia waved her hand dismissively, sighed, and said with a slightly teasing tone:
“Cecilia, for you, the news from my trip to London might not be all good… You may have daughters, but it seems both the Kaslana and the Schariac lines are likely to end with your family, I’m afraid.”
As the saying goes, ‘Yuri is wonderful, but unfortunately doesn’t produce children.’
“You have a point there. Kiana and Raiden Mei, Bianca and Rita, Sirin is unlikely in the future either… If people lived merely to reproduce, they’d be no different from animals. Anyway, there are plenty of Kaslanas and Schariacs around. It doesn’t matter if my branch ends. As long as Kiana and Bianca can find happiness.”
After a while of casual conversation, Enoxia received a message from Sirin.
At the AE Invasion laboratory in the Sea of Quanta, strong abnormal fluctuations had been detected in the Sea of Quanta.
