[If you can't see the content of the previous chapter, I suggest refreshing the directory. If that doesn't work, I'm out of ideas.]
The Bronya of the past, after being separated from Seele in the Sea of Quanta, had always fantasized about what the scene would be like when she and Seele met again.
Meanwhile, to achieve the goal of 'saving Seele', she actively became Cocolia's accomplice, committing acts that harmed the lives of others.
At first, she actively stopped herself from thinking about what kind of disasters her actions would bring to others.
It wasn't until she made that contract with Aaron and met the two girls beside her—facing Raiden Mei, a direct victim—that Bronya realized just how excessive her past actions had been.
Staying by Aaron's side during this time, aside from the contract with him, was partly because she determined that assisting Aaron could save more people.
This man didn't say much usually, but when he acted, it was to fight the Honkai and try to save others.
Sins wouldn't be washed away by her actions.
But if she moved in the right direction, at least she could ensure she wouldn't continue making mistakes.
However, while assisting Aaron during this time, Bronya was still missing Seele.
She had thought about what to say to Seele when she saw her.
But now, when she saw that figure she had dreamed of standing behind Aaron, Bronya completely forgot all the words she had prepared.
"Seele!"
"Bronya-oneesan!"
The two who had been missing each other, upon seeing one another, hugged and wept on the spot.
Watching the two crying continuously, the remaining three silently stood aside, not speaking to disturb Seele and Bronya, who had been separated for so long.
Only at this moment, the three of them thought of one thing in tacit agreement.
Why did Seele end up in the Sea of Quanta?
Because of Cocolia.
Why was Bronya crying with such difficulty?
Because her emotional circuits were broken.
Although the reason for the damage to her emotional circuits was that Bronya threatened Cocolia with her life to restart the experiment.
But ultimately, if Cocolia hadn't used her adopted daughter for experiments, Bronya naturally wouldn't have taken such drastic measures.
This pot still had to be carried by Cocolia herself.
In this instant, a glint of killing intent flashed through the eyes of all three in perfect unison.
Although for the two adopted daughters of Cocolia, she was still their important foster mother.
But the problem was, judging by their statements, Cocolia did these things while having affection for them.
If she could send even her adopted daughters to be test subjects for dangerous experiments, what *couldn't* this woman do?
It would be one thing if she had no power, but the problem was that the people in Anti-Entropy simply wouldn't infight.
Even after Cocolia's successive failures, she still held considerable influence within the organization.
If they didn't stop this woman before she caused more problems, she would inevitably go even crazier and create even bigger news.
However, that was a matter for later.
At least for now, Aaron, unable to find Cocolia's specific coordinates, couldn't just storm in and punch Cocolia to death on the spot.
Future matters would be dealt with in the future.
What he needed to do now...
Oh, right, he should take Seele to buy clothes and daily necessities.
Those two kids crying to the heavens for ages, combined with Bronya's leg injury... passersby who didn't know the situation might think we were engaging in child abuse.
......................
Tens of minutes later.
When Raven dragged her exhausted body back to the World Serpent base and rendezvoused with Gray Serpent's clone there, she finally let out a complete sigh of relief.
Although World Serpent failed to keep the Key of the Void this time, Raven, who had been sprinting while carrying the Key of Castigation, at least managed not to let the Key of Castigation be snatched by the enemy as well.
Of course, according to Raven's guess, she felt the enemy might not have targeted the Key of Castigation at all.
Although the Key of the Void and the Key of Castigation were both Divine Keys, their functions were worlds apart.
The Key of Castigation, which hadn't been repaired yet, had limited ammunition—one shot used was one shot less.
Even though the Key of Castigation still possessed incredibly tyrannical destructive power, well...
Considering that man could easily take down an armed puppet made based on the Liege, it was quite normal for him to look down on the damaged Key of Castigation.
Although the scope on the Key of Castigation had vision that could transcend the concept of three dimensions, using light spots to leave nothing with anywhere to hide, truthfully, this ability could only serve as a detector most of the time.
Compared to the incredibly profound Key of the Void, these functions of the Key of Castigation really weren't that attractive.
"Gray Serpent, what should we do now?"
After putting down the Seven Thunders of Retribution from her back, Raven looked at Gray Serpent and let out a helpless, long sigh.
"With the Key of the Void gone, welcoming back the Liege becomes even more difficult. Our current combat power simply cannot retake the Key of the Void, so..."
"Don't rush. Mother Cocolia sent another message recently."
Lightly tapping the screen before him with a finger, Gray Serpent spoke indifferently.
"Anti-Entropy found a node, the [Eye of the Deep], at Haiyuan City (The Deep). And Cocolia has already seized the opportunity to get her hands on the relevant intelligence regarding the Eye of the Deep."
"...She's being that obedient?"
"Of course, we paid a small price. However, handing over all technology to Cocolia isn't that heavy a price for us, is it?"
"Heh, true enough."
Hearing Gray Serpent's tone return to that of the calm and confident cyber-know-it-all, Raven also relaxed her body slightly and leaned back onto the soft sofa.
"That woman... once we invite those two doctors back to World Serpent, she'll be completely useless."
"Giving her some technology now is just letting her have a full meal before she dies."
"Precisely. Of course, what happens to that woman isn't the point. The point is that after Jackal briefly analyzed this intelligence, she discovered something."
After opening the results of Jackal's analysis, Gray Serpent's tone suddenly became a few degrees higher.
"At this special node, the [Eye of the Deep], if a large-scale energy projection operation is carried out, it's possible to cause spatial turbulence, leading to the collapse of the spatial structure."
"And after the spatial structure collapses, we might create a spatial rift connecting the Sea of Quanta and reality."
"...Is that true?!"
Hearing the term Sea of Quanta, Raven's tone also became more urgent.
"Although Jackal talks a lot of nonsense, she can be trusted when it comes to scientific research. She told me the probability is very low, but it does exist."
"How high exactly?"
"At least higher than the gacha rates in pay-to-win games—even if it's only one percent, it's worth World Serpent giving our all to try, isn't it?"
Once the Sea of Quanta connected with the real world, World Serpent's Liege, Kevin Kaslana, might be able to return to the real world from within the Sea of Quanta.
And after the Liege returns, who would dare bully their World Serpent people?
Their failure to keep the Key of the Void this time was ultimately because their leader, Kevin, wasn't there, leading to the precious Divine Key being snatched away by brute force.
Once Kevin returned, Gray Serpent and Raven firmly believed that everything would get better!
"However, no matter what, we can only take this action after removing those two doctors."
Gray Serpent continued after calming down.
"Jackal has a lot to do; we can't expect her to find time to camp out at the Eye of the Deep every day."
"When the time comes, after inviting those two doctors, we'll first have them assist us in completing the Eye of the Deep energy projection plan. We can consider follow-up plans after the Liege returns."
"Even if you say that, long nights bring many dreams—Cocolia should be more anxious than us."
Raven's tone suddenly turned a few degrees colder.
"That woman who excels at infighting should be itching to get rid of Einstein and Tesla right now. She hasn't prepared an opportunity for us to act yet?"
"Soon. The time is within these few days. In about a week, Cocolia will take action."
"A week, huh... What about the group that stole our Key of the Void?"
Thinking of the scene she saw earlier, Raven always felt the trembling in her heart couldn't completely dissipate.
The combat power erupted by that man named Aaron and the descendant of the Liege was simply too terrifying.
Sword qi that instantly insta-killed over a dozen Emperor-class beasts... if that slashed onto her, she estimated she wouldn't even leave behind ashes.
She wasn't Gray Serpent; she couldn't let clones connected to her consciousness continue acting after death.
Miss Ciora worked so hard not just because she felt working for the organization wasn't bad, but mainly to save money.
And she saved money so she could live a better life after retirement.
If she clashed with that group again and got killed... what future would there be if she was dead?
If possible, she really didn't want to get involved with those people again.
But the previous battle had already indicated that the enemy definitely had an intelligence source within World Serpent.
Their actions could be known by the enemy at any time. If they didn't guard against those two bandits under these circumstances, then Gray Serpent, Jackal, and Raven—every single one of them—would be total idiots.
"Speaking of which, this one-week timeframe is also related to those people. You might not believe it, but just a few hours ago, that man named Aaron reached an agreement with Schicksal."
"Schicksal Overseer Otto Apocalypse has appointed Aaron as the Branch Head of the Oceania Branch, to take office in a week—don't look at me like that, this intelligence was deliberately released by the other side. Otherwise, I couldn't have contacted our eyes in Schicksal and got this info so quickly."
"...Did I hear that right? Otto is that easy to talk to?"
"No, that's not right. Deliberately released... does this mean Otto intends to let everyone know that man has joined Schicksal?"
"Yes. I don't know if this counts as a warning for us not to mess around, or a notification that every debt has a debtor, and if we have a grudge, go find the Oceania Branch."
"Anyway, after this news came out, Cocolia immediately slammed the table and decided to act in a week. Not for any other reason, but because Aaron definitely wouldn't appear at Anti-Entropy to stop her from running wild when she makes her move then."
"This guy is really good at infighting; his timing is so precise."
*However, for us at World Serpent, the actions of that bitch Cocolia actually helped us out.*
*Heh, humanity essentially doesn't need trash like her as a commander.*
Thinking of the scenes she saw in Nagazora City, a haze flashed across Raven's eyes.
Having been to Nagazora City, she naturally knew how desolate the scenery there was now.
And as someone who almost had everything taken away by the Honkai, Ciora naturally wouldn't have any good feelings for human trash like Cocolia.
If not for the fact that she was still of great use to World Serpent, Ciora wouldn't mind working a little overtime to send Cocolia on her way.
"Hm, wait. After Aaron allied with Schicksal... what is he doing right now?"
"...Don't ask."
Although Gray Serpent's tone didn't change after Raven actively asked about that unlucky man, Raven clearly heard an unconcealable depression in Gray Serpent's words.
"After he allied with Schicksal, those companions he hid probably used the Key of the Void's ability to fly to London."
"Right now, Aaron is wandering the streets with four girls, helping one of them buy daily clothing."
"Are you saying... after snatching our Divine Key and completely offending World Serpent, that guy just straight up started picking up girls???"
"You could interpret it that way."
In this moment, Raven felt even more anxious.
She wished she could sleep for seven days after making preparations, then immediately storm Anti-Entropy to usurp their throne, and then immediately start projecting energy into the Eye of the Deep.
To be honest, after the organization's treasure was snatched, the robber swaggered around after nearly killing her, and then went to pick up girls—anyone would be angry encountering this, okay? (╯‵□′)╯︵┻━┻
"Raven, I don't know what you're thinking, but I personally don't recommend you harbor any thoughts of provoking him right now."
Sensing the resentment in Raven's heart, Gray Serpent, who should have been even more resentful than Raven, instead calmly brought up a photo of Aaron and the others shopping.
"The four girls beside Aaron are Kiana Kaslana, Raiden Mei, Bronya Zaychik, and Seele Vollerei. The first three girls are fine; the problem lies with the fourth girl."
"According to Cocolia, Seele Vollerei is her adopted daughter who entered the Sea of Quanta due to Experiment X-10. In other words, Aaron has confirmedly taken a trip through the Sea of Quanta."
"If we think about it seriously..."
"—This man might have already encountered the Liege, and escaped from the Liege's hands with this girl by breaking through the space of the Sea of Quanta."
"Having said that, you're a smart person. You should know what this means, right?"
............................