"Ah, I even stacked armor, yet I was still recognized... how troublesome."
Aaron, who dropped directly from the sky, looked at Welt lying on the ground and the others, finding the atmosphere at the scene much better than he had imagined.
Only, it was a pity. No matter how good the atmosphere was now, it couldn't possibly change Kevin's mind.
"Brother Aaron... you know Kevin?"
"Yeah, life-or-death friends, in a sense."
*This tone... is not good.*
*What is with this atmosphere that feels like a fight could break out at any moment?*
"I won't say any more unnecessary words. Aaron, I can pretend that what happened in the Sea of Quanta last time never happened."
"And now, I sincerely invite you once again to join our World Serpent and assist me in completing that plan."
"The others as well; I also welcome you to join our World Serpent to complete the plan to save humanity. After all, with Finality about to descend..."
"—Humanity really doesn't have much time left."
"Ah, indeed, humanity really doesn't have much time left. But executing Project Stigma... ha, on this point alone, forget it."
Aaron, who had activated the Meta-Morph Factor, felt his own bloodline resonating with the man before him and felt the oppression Kevin brought him growing stronger.
Aaron managed to escape from Kevin last time mainly because Kevin was too cautious at the time.
If Kevin had chosen a tactic of trading injuries for injuries back then, Aaron and Seele would probably have really fallen into his hands.
From this perspective, Kevin might really not have harbored much hostility toward Aaron.
However, having no hostility back then didn't mean the two could continue maintaining that subtle relationship from the past.
After Kevin emerged from the Sea of Quanta, given his attitude toward Project Stigma fifteen hundred years ago, he would inevitably accelerate the progress of Project Stigma at maximum speed.
After all, in Kevin's view, Project Stigma should have been executed fifteen hundred years ago.
Once Kevin decided to execute the entire Project Stigma, he would naturally become the enemy of all humanity.
Perhaps some would think, 'Oh well, we can't beat Finality, so Project Stigma is fine too.'
But the problem was, Project Stigma involved guiding the will and thoughts of all humanity into the [Stigma Space], and then preserving the [Stigma Will] as humanity's shadow in the world, constructing a perfect utopian world composed of "Imaginary" elements.
In this process, since the "Stigma Will" could perfectly inherit everything from human civilization and would not encounter birth, aging, sickness, and death, "Civilization" naturally wouldn't encounter the "Honkai" again.
It seemed like a beautiful plan, but there was a huge problem with it.
In Aaron's eyes, this was equivalent to killing all humans to preserve their consciousness—Aaron would have to be possessed by a ghost to agree to this damn plan.
This was a plan even Kevin himself felt was terrible; he only chose to execute it due to his obsession with 'defeating the Honkai'.
If Aaron stood up at this time and said 'Ah, I'll join World Serpent and work on Project Stigma with you,' in Aaron's view, it would be equivalent to choosing to negate all humanity along with Kevin.
Aaron didn't know if this counted as being pretentious or willful, but he just felt that if this plan was executed, it couldn't be counted as defeating the Honkai at all.
Killing everyone one step ahead of the Herrscher of Finality's cycle—what kind of victory over the Honkai was that?
"As expected."
Shaking his head helplessly, the look in Kevin's eyes when looking at Aaron had become incredibly cold.
Kevin was indeed very conflicted right now.
On one hand, he believed that Project Ark had likely failed, Su's Project Valuka had basically capsized, and Hua's Project Ember had already caused negative effects, so the only thing left that could defeat the Honkai was Project Stigma.
But on the other hand, as the true executor of Project Stigma, Kevin knew very well that this was the worst plan.
Back then, he took Project Stigma from Su to execute it himself because he considered that Su, as a doctor, was too kind and wouldn't be able to be ruthless at the critical moment.
Deep in Kevin's heart, he always hoped that someone would stand up, surpass him, the strongest Fusion Warrior, and after defeating him head-on, tell him that this plan was wrong and that humanity didn't need this rotten plan to defeat the Honkai.
And now, a person of unknown identity but who knew the essence of Project Stigma stood up and chose to stand on the opposite side of Kevin.
Although Kevin was very regretful, at the same time—he felt a tiny sliver of solace.
"Um... you two."
At this moment, Siegfried, who still hadn't figured out the situation, looked at the two at daggers drawn and felt his cold sweat pouring down endlessly.
As an excellent warrior, he could feel that the two people before him were undoubtedly filled with hostility toward each other.
The two, filled with hostility, no longer restrained the aura on their bodies.
Even though Siegfried wasn't the target of their auras, he still felt it was a bit hard to breathe around them.
Not just Siegfried; at this moment, even everyone in the distance felt the fighting spirit on the two rising continuously.
"Theresa... what do we do now?"
As the weakest among them and the one in the worst physical condition, Murata Himeko felt her consciousness blurring a bit.
"...Retreat. The mission can no longer be executed at this point."
As cold sweat dripped from her forehead onto the ground, Theresa spoke to the others.
"Leave this place to Branch Head Aaron. We... currently do not have the qualification to intervene in this battle."
"But...!"
Looking at Aaron in the battlefield, Durandal said unwillingly.
"In that case, aren't we abandoning a comrade from the same organization?!"
*No matter how strong Aaron is, can he really win in front of this terrifying man?*
*Moreover, the oppression the opponent gives me is already so strong, and in terms of equipment, that man named Kevin has taken Father's Judgment of Shamash and the Anti-Entropy Sovereign's Star of Eden.*
*Two Divine Keys... even if one of them is a mimicked Divine Key, it wasn't hard to tell from the battle just now that this mimicked Divine Key possessed the same power as the original.*
*As a Divine Key user, Durandal knew too well how much a Divine Key boosted a warrior.*
*Relying on the Abyss Flower in her hand, she could boost her combat power by a large chunk.*
*And the Abyss Flower wasn't even a fully combat-oriented Divine Key.*
*The Judgment of Shamash, as the Key of Destruction, had the strongest output of all Divine Keys.*
*The Star of Eden's gravity manipulation ability could also allow the user to occupy a huge advantage in battle.*
*And according to intelligence in the Schicksal database, the Star of Eden's Rated Power could even release a Quasi-Black Hole to kill enemies.*
*A Quasi-Black Hole, even with the word 'Quasi', was a bona fide black hole.*
*If a move of this level hit Aaron...*
Thinking to this point, Durandal didn't want to think any further.
"Ah, abandoning me for a bit isn't a problem. Rather, if you stay here, it will actually prevent me from going all out."
Taking two items out of his storage space, Aaron tossed them to Siegfried and Himeko respectively.
"Major Murata, this thing can heal your tattered body. If you trust me, inject this HSN Anti-Honkai Serum into your body first."
"This is something I found on Dr. Magi's corpse back then. According to the intelligence I investigated later, as long as an HSN Serum is injected, it will heal a Valkyrie's body overly eroded by Honkai energy, at the cost of a drop in combat power."
"...I can't thank you enough."
Looking at the vial before her, Himeko suppressed her headache and spoke to Aaron.
"If there's any place you need me in the future, just call, Mr. Aaron."
"Just a small favor, don't take it to heart."
On the other side, Siegfried, who caught the longsword, could feel the powerful energy contained within it.
Although the total power was far inferior to the dual-core Greatsword of Shamash he used during the Second Honkai Eruption, this black longsword engraved with strange runes was obviously also a terrifying weapon.
"Good sword."
"It's yours—take your daughter and old friend and retreat quickly."
Taking a deep look at Aaron who had already begun to limber up, Siegfried suppressed the urge to stay and assist him, making a decision.
Scooping up Welt who was lying on the ground, Siegfried walked toward Theresa, Durandal, and the others.
"Dad!"
Looking at Siegfried walking toward her, Durandal said very unwillingly.
"If we stay, really—"
"Let's go, silly daughter."
Siegfried looked back at the two in the battlefield and slowly exhaled a breath of turbid air.
"If you insist, you, me, and Theresa staying here might indeed play a bit of a positive role."
"Then why—"
"But in the end, this is a judgment we make based on the status quo. The problem is, our judgment may not be accurate."
"We don't know Aaron's actual strength, nor do we know the warrior Kevin's actual strength. But Aaron knows our strength and Kevin's strength very well. In this battlefield right now, he is the person who understands the battle situation best."
"He judges that we aren't suitable to stay; that is the status quo."
"Although he messes around, he wouldn't choose to play hero at a time like this. Since he judges that there isn't much benefit in us staying here, then now..."
The next second, Siegfried didn't give everyone a chance to say another word and directly activated the quantum teleportation device.
After teleporting everyone to a certain city in the Far East, Siegfried looked at the dumbstruck Durandal and continued helplessly.
"Trust him."
After saying this, Siegfried activated the quantum teleportation device again.
Only this time, looking at her departing father, Durandal couldn't say any words to stop Siegfried's action.
Everything that happened today truly made her feel her brain was incredibly chaotic.
At first, she really thought her father was hypnotized by the evil Anti-Entropy.
But under the oppression brought by the warrior Kevin, Durandal had actually calmed down a bit.
Then, she began to realize the situation wasn't right.
Before the warrior Kevin appeared, Welt, who had already realized the area around The Deep was wrong, actually warned Durandal and Theresa, who were near the spatial rift, when the situation was critical.
If Anti-Entropy was really an evil organization, why would Welt, the Sovereign, warn Schicksal Valkyries, who were enemies, at a time like this?
When every second counted, he could have totally used the Star of Eden to open a Quasi-Black Hole around Durandal, blasting Kevin who was about to jump out of the rift along with the members of the two hostile organizations.
But he didn't do that.
Combining that with Welt's previous behavior, Durandal suddenly discovered that the other party might really not have had much hostility toward them.
And she had felt it was strange before; Welt's attention seemed distracted.
Looking at it now, Welt seemed to have been paying attention to what was behind everyone...
He shouldn't have been paying attention to Rita.
Then, was he paying attention to Senior Himeko?
*Too chaotic.*
*Everything that happened today makes Durandal feel her brain is a mess.*
"...Alright, don't look so downcast."
Theresa, who wanted to pat Durandal's shoulder, found awkwardly that she couldn't reach the other's shoulder, so she could only choose to give up on the idea.
*Sigh, Kiana has really grown up; she's become a big girl.*
*Anyway, knowing Kiana is still alive today, I'm already very happy.*
*It's just that Branch Head Aaron... sigh, he and Grandpa don't get along.*
*Telling Grandpa 'Branch Head Aaron encountered a strong enemy' at a time like this feels like it would only plunge Branch Head Aaron into a greater predicament.*
*Sigh, he just helped us, and judging by Siegfried's attitude toward him, he probably helped Siegfried before too.*
*Although that guy Siegfried is a dummy, he is my friend no matter what.*
*Plus Himeko's matter; all in all, our group owes him quite a few favors. At a time like this...*
*Let's not think about screwing him over.*
"Himeko, I'll leave the debriefing report to you—you know what I mean."
Hearing Theresa's deeply meaningful words, Himeko nodded helplessly.
"Okay, okay, okay, I got it—can you not dump the paperwork on me every time?"
"Who asked you to be the top student? Those with ability do more work."
"Save it, you just want to slack off—but forget it this time. I wouldn't dare let you write the mission report for this one anyway."
*Sigh, with your roe-deer-like IQ, you might blurt out everything that shouldn't be said.*
*If the serum Branch Head Aaron provided me is real, then he is my lifesaver.*
*My lifesaver just helped me once. At a time like this...*
*Sigh, regarding intelligence on his side, let's see if we can hide some of it.*
*After all, the current me can only repay this benefactor in this way.*
..................