Inside the castle room, Ethan Lane was having a great time playing with Kiana. Kiana was no longer afraid of her at all; on the contrary, she had become quite attached.
"Hey, hey, hey, don't pull my hair! Don't pull my pants, they're going to fall off!" Ethan Lane was quite distressed. She had never expected that Kiana, who was so gentle in the manga, would be so mischievous in reality, tormenting her to the point of tears.
"You're Ethan Lane, right? There's something I want to ask you." Hearing this, Ethan Lane's heart leaped with joy. She immediately picked Kiana up and asked, "Theresa... Auntie... Sister, what is it?"
She had almost blurted out Theresa's future title, so she quickly corrected herself. But the word "Auntie" was like a bolt from the blue, causing Theresa's face to darken as she said ominously, "What did you just call me?!"
"Sister! Theresa is the cutest in the world!" Ethan Lane immediately changed her tune and promptly prostrated herself in apology. "Hmph, I'll forgive you this time. If you dare to use those two words again, I will definitely let you know how many ways there are to use the Oath of Judah."
"Yes, yes, Lady Theresa is magnanimous. This humble girl thanks you for sparing her life." It seemed Ethan Lane had accepted her female identity and was beginning to refer to herself as a humble girl.
"Follow me." Theresa turned and left the room. Ethan Lane, holding Kiana, followed helplessly behind her. The three of them arrived at a room that looked like a bedroom. But why was Theresa taking her to a bedroom?
She casually closed the door. Ethan Lane looked at Theresa in confusion, not understanding her purpose in bringing her to this room. Just then, Theresa turned around, looked at her with a profound expression, and uttered a shocking sentence.
"Take it off!" "Ah! Take what off?!" Ethan Lane almost dropped Kiana in her hands and asked, at a complete loss. "What else could it be? Your clothes, of course!" Theresa seemed completely unaware of the ambiguity of her words, leaving Ethan Lane dumbfounded.
"This... isn't this a bit much? I mean, taking things off on our first meeting..." Ethan Lane said hesitantly. "Oh, why are you being so long-winded? I just want to see your Stigmata," Theresa said, seeming to realize her words had been problematic.
"Is that so? You should have said so earlier. I thought you..." Ethan Lane breathed a sigh of relief and undid a few buttons on her clothes, revealing the Stigmata on her chest. Before Theresa could get a look, Kiana, as if discovering a new continent, leaned on her chest and started touching it nonstop.
"Uhm... Kiana, what are you doing? It's just a Stigmata, it's not fun to play with," Ethan Lane said, exasperated. "But Sister Ethan, I feel like this Stigmata makes me feel very safe," Kiana said in a childlike voice.
Ethan Lane shrugged helplessly at Theresa, who had no choice but to walk over and gently lift Kiana down. "Kiana, your great-aunt has some things to take care of. Why don't you go play on the side for a bit, okay?"
"Okay," Kiana replied, but she didn't leave, instead standing nearby to watch the show. Theresa walked over to Ethan Lane, looked at her Stigmata, and suddenly reached out and touched it.
Ethan Lane was startled and was about to resist, but she quickly relaxed. Although the current Theresa had a good impression of Otto, Ethan Lane believed she wouldn't do anything to her.
Ethan Lane felt a stream of Honkai Energy slowly enter her Stigmata, but it was immediately expelled by the Spiritual Qi in her body. The Spiritual Qi even traveled back along Theresa's finger and entered her body.
Theresa withdrew her finger as if she'd been electrocuted, then closed her eyes. She didn't choose to expel the Spiritual Qi that entered her body immediately; she wanted to see what it would do.
When the Spiritual Qi entered her body, it seemed confused at first, then, as if guided, it began to move along her meridians, starting to repair the hidden injuries along the way.
However, the Honkai Energy in Theresa's body, as if stimulated, also followed the meridians to where the Spiritual Qi was. The moment it arrived, it immediately launched an attack as if it had found an enemy. Gradually, the Spiritual Qi diminished and was eventually consumed by the Honkai Energy.
The Honkai Energy that had consumed the Spiritual Qi went berserk, rampaging through Theresa's meridians and causing widespread destruction. But Theresa herself possessed Vishnu's genes, giving her incredibly strong regenerative abilities, and she quickly healed the damage.
Theresa relied on her own strength to quickly suppress the rampaging Honkai Energy, her expression not even showing a flicker of change. For her, such a small-scale Honkai Energy rampage was not enough to affect her.
Theresa closed her eyes and thought for a moment, then opened them, glanced at Ethan Lane, and asked her to leave the room. Ethan Lane was a bit bewildered. Was she just being toyed with by Theresa? She shook her head and turned to leave, only to run into Cecilia's group returning to the castle on the way.
"Lady Cecilia, Sister Kira, Sister Patricia." Ethan Lane bowed slightly in greeting. Cecilia smiled and asked, "Ethan, where is Theresa? Weren't you with Kiana?"
"They are in that bedroom. I was just playing with Kiana for a long time. Kiana is cute and very lively." *Yes, quite lively, almost tormented me to death...* Ethan Lane thought, speaking against her conscience.
"Good. Shigure, Patricia, take Ethan for a walk on the streets. You can report back tonight," Cecilia said. "Yes, Lady Cecilia," Shigure replied, and led Ethan Lane out of the castle.
Cecilia watched them leave, smiled slightly, and then turned and entered the bedroom. Inside, Theresa was holding Kiana, lost in thought.
"Theresa, did you find anything?" Cecilia asked. Theresa, roused from her contemplation, thought for a moment and said, "Find anything? Quite a lot, but none of it is important. What's important is the feeling she gives me."
"A feeling? What do you mean?" Cecilia asked, intrigued. The feeling Theresa mentioned seemed to overshadow all her other findings, which made Cecilia very curious.
"I don't know how to describe this feeling, but I can sense that her appearance will bring earth-shattering changes to the Valkyries, to Schicksal, and even to the entire world," Theresa replied.
"I don't know about the earth-shattering changes she'll bring to the world, but I know what kind of changes she'll bring to the Valkyries. On a small scale, she improves the overall strength of the Valkyries. On a larger scale, it's the first glimmer of hope in humanity's fight against the Honkai." Cecilia's words were also somewhat sensational.
If Ethan Lane were to hear this, she might be surprised. She had never thought of it that way. She just wanted to save the Valkyries who shouldn't have died on the battlefield. She didn't think she was that great, saving all of humanity and all that...
Cecilia relayed all of Shigure Kira's findings to Theresa and showed her the hem of her own clothes as proof that she wasn't exaggerating. Theresa said with some amazement, "I originally thought Shigure Kira's report was too exaggerated, but I didn't expect the reality to be even more incredible than the report. This is truly a blessing for the Valkyries, especially for you, Cecilia."
Cecilia smiled faintly and didn't continue the topic. She said, "You still haven't told me what your findings are."
Theresa smiled and said, "Findings? Quite a few. First: her Stigmata doesn't belong to any known family or historical record, not even from the Previous Era. It might have been born from her special power."
"Second: her power is extremely special. It seems to have no offensive capabilities and even actively began to repair some of my untreatable injuries after entering my body. However, I can feel that this power is not Honkai Energy, yet I sense the aura of the Honkai from it. I speculate it's a power derived from Honkai Energy."
"Third: her power is extremely repulsive to Honkai Energy. Any Honkai Energy that enters her body will be expelled, so she is completely unaffected by it. However, this point is still up for debate. We are unsure of the effect of high-concentration Honkai Energy on her. If high-concentration Honkai Energy has little effect on her, then the first human in history to be completely immune to Honkai Energy has appeared."
"Fourth: Honkai Energy and the power within her body seem to be two opposing forces. The power in her body seems to carry a vibrant life force and is not only harmless to humans but also beneficial. Honkai Energy is extremely hostile to her power; the moment it entered my body, it caused my Honkai Energy to go on a rampage."
"Fifth: I discovered that Honkai Energy also has an extreme craving for this power. When my Honkai Energy went on a rampage, it directly devoured this power. You must know that even with the same Honkai Energy, if they are in different individuals, they can usually only merge with each other and would not exhibit the ability to devour."
"Those are basically my findings. This person is full of secrets. I've found that even just these few points are a blessing for Schicksal and the Valkyries as a whole. Therefore, this information must absolutely not be known to Anti-Entropy," Theresa concluded.
"I have already instructed Shigure and the other about this. They are very reliable," Cecilia replied. To be honest, she was also quite shocked. She hadn't expected Theresa to have so many discoveries. Now, they had to discuss whether to tell Otto about this matter.
The three great families of Schicksal were not a monolith. Power struggles were inevitable. It was just that the Apocalypse family was currently so powerful that the other two families could not confront them directly and chose to bide their time.
Thinking of this, Cecilia casually closed the door and looked at Theresa with a strange glint in her eyes.