"Are these… footprints?" Mei asked in surprise, looking at the small set of prints on the floor.
"This used to be a lab, what's so strange about footprints?" Kiana said dismissively.
Everyone turned to look at Kiana with a peculiar expression, the word 'idiot' all but written on their faces.
"Hey?! What's with that look?!" Kiana was not happy. Why was everyone looking at her in a way that made her feel embarrassed?
"But… Kiana, the footprints have nothing to do with it being a lab…" Mei said helplessly, facepalming.
"These footprints… are very new. And they lead towards the other side of the corridor," Bronya said, crouching down to examine them seriously. As someone equipped with the Valkyrie system, analyzing footprints was a simple task for her.
"Then they must have been left by the girl who just ran away, right?!" Liv, who had been standing quietly to the side, commented.
"Yes, that's very likely. But it's hard to imagine someone living in a place like this, isn't it?!" Mei found it somewhat incredible…
"Well~ Human life is very resilient…" Kiana, on the other hand, didn't think much of it. Her stupid old man had told her when she was little that besides insects, humans were the most tenacious life forms on Earth.
"This is an area with concentrated Honkai energy. A normal human couldn't survive here for long…" Mei said, her left arm crossed over her chest and her right hand on her chin as she reasoned, her expression complicated.
"So… that person could be a Honkai Zombie or…" Liv spoke up again, pausing slightly… as if waiting for Mei and the others to figure out the answer themselves.
"A Stigmata wielder (the chosen one)!" Kiana and Mei looked at each other and said in unison.
In an area saturated with Honkai energy, besides turning into a Honkai Zombie, the only other possibility for survival was to become a Stigmata wielder. This was the choice between life and death that the Honkai presented to humanity.
"This feels familiar…" Bronya said, lifting her head to survey the laboratory.
"Bronya?…" Mei was confused.
"The structure here is very similar to the laboratory where Bronya was modified, but…" Bronya's eyes filled with sadness as if she had thought of something.
"Could it be that this is that laboratory?…" The careless Kiana didn't notice Bronya's mood at that moment.
"…No, that's impossible. That laboratory is not in this sea," Bronya immediately refuted Kiana's speculation. The sea of that laboratory was etched into her mind; it was a place filled with blood and sorrow.
"Maybe there are many identical laboratories all over the world!" Kiana said casually.
"Whatever the case, let's follow these footprints for now. Whether it's a human or a ghost, we'll find out soon enough…" Kiana suggested nonchalantly.
"Kiana, in a horror movie, you wouldn't survive for more than five minutes…" Mei quipped.
"…Hmph~" Kiana puffed out her cheeks.
There was no light on the other side of the corridor.
It seemed that this corridor was the only place from which one could see outside the laboratory, into the ocean.
As the group stood in the lit area, the rusty and dilapidated room at the end of the corridor appeared even darker, like… the darkness of the deep-sea abyss, without a trace of light, where everything was cold and lonely.
As the group hesitated, wondering whether to enter the lab corridor illuminated by the cold emergency lights…
"Heehee…"
A strange laugh faintly echoed from the other end of the corridor.
"Who?! Who's there!! Is it a ghost! Wah! Mei-senpai, save me!" The white-haired furball Kiana immediately freaked out, leaping nimbly into Mei's arms and clinging to her neck, refusing to let go.
"Kiana! That wasn't a ghost… it looked like just a little girl," Mei said, almost unable to breathe from Kiana's tight hug.
"A black… shadow… flashed by, whoosh, it scared me to death…" Kiana said, her eyes welling with tears, which inexplicably reminded Mei of a dog that hadn't been fed, looking pitiful.
"There, there. We're all here with you… you're safe," Mei said comfortingly.
"Mhm, mhm!…" Kiana nodded distractedly, her eyes fixed on her hand. I'm never washing this hand that touched Mei's chest again! Kiana thought. If Mei knew, she would probably cough up blood.
"…! Mei-neechan, Kiana, Liv, that person looks like someone Bronya used to know!" Bronya, who always had a deadpan expression, said with a rare blush on her cheeks. "Bronya must find her!" Her tone was more resolute than ever as she ran directly into the darkness…
"Bronya!" Mei watched helplessly as Bronya's figure disappeared into the darkness.
"That girl, why did she run off again… Quick, let's follow her," Kiana said unhappily. Running off without a word is so rude!
"My apologies, Miss Kiana, Miss Mei. I must wait here for my master," Liv declined Kiana's invitation. To her, as the master's exclusive maid, no one here was worth a single finger of her master. The maid's code was to prioritize the master, and besides, her master had told her to wait where she was…
"Oh… right, I almost forgot about that guy Li Xuan…" Kiana said with a sudden realization.
"…" Mei and Liv looked at her speechlessly.
"Well, when he gets here, remember to bring him to us!" Kiana instructed.
"Yes, as you wish," Liv replied politely, watching Kiana pull Mei and rush into the other side of the corridor.
"Hehe~ what is Master doing right now? It must be something important…" Liv thought, resting her chin on her hands.
...............…..
Li Xuan was indeed doing something very important at that moment…
He was having a little heart-to-heart…
"Give up, you can't beat me," Li Xuan said calmly, looking straight ahead.
"Don't think I won't kill women. I've killed thousands of Honkai Zombies with my own hands~" Li Xuan said with his arms crossed, his gaze fixed on the girl in front of him, who was bound by the twelve Spears of Light from Judah's Oath. The obsidian-polished spears were not so cruel as to pierce the girl's body.
If those twelve spears had pierced her body, even a top-tier Honkai Beast would have been forced to submit…
This was the power of 'Judah's Oath'…
Under the dim light, Li Xuan awaited the girl's answer…
(End of Chapter)