Richmond Park, located in the southwestern suburbs adjacent to the River Thames, is London's largest royal park, covering an area equivalent to over 1,200 football fields.
Due to the sudden lockdown and the drizzling rain, the park was practically deserted, making it an excellent place to hide.
"Sweetheart Nazi remnants, I really took a huge loss on this job!"
Inside a nondescript large tree, a handsome cowboy with silver hair reaching his waist leaned against the wall, muttering some rather novel curses.
He lifted his electronic eye, which was covered by his bangs, and first glanced at Alexander, who was lying not far away.
After confirming that the man was merely unconscious, he reached out and touched the head-sized wound on his chest.
The sparking of the defunct communication device at the edge of the wound revealed his identity as a cyborg. The emptiness he felt when he touched his back confirmed that his body had been pierced through.
Boothill truly hadn't expected the white-haired boy who called himself Aschour to be so ridiculously powerful.
After being modified by the Screwllum Workshop and equipped with his Western gunslinging skills, he was, at the very least, an exceptional A-rank, a renowned figure among the Galaxy Rangers.
But that guy had simply thrown a pebble... Boothill's modified electronic eye saw it very clearly. It was just an ordinary pebble he had just bent down to pick up from the ground.
This pebble had first easily pierced through the barrier of the former A-rank Valkyrie Maria, blasting into her mouth and out the back of her head. Then, it had ignored the six large-caliber bullets that had struck it, nonchalantly penetrating Boothill's force field shield and leather armor, and piercing through his modified chest, which was far harder than aviation alloy, like a hot knife through butter.
Forced into a corner, he could only grab Alexander, who had stumbled onto the battlefield at a critical moment, and flee at light speed.
Fortunately, as a Galaxy Ranger, Boothill was quite experienced in the art of escape. After many twists and turns, he had finally reached this magical treehouse, which had been enchanted with a spatial expansion spell beforehand, to hide.
—Clara and Mr. Svarog's Traveling Mansion, an improved branch of the treehouse spell. After casting it on a tree, it would transform into a mansion that could accommodate a hundred people, complete with furniture, temperature control, and a water source. It could also place the treehouse mansion in a sub-space.
It was difficult to enter without the owner's permission, and it was also difficult for the outside world to discover this mansion. It could accommodate a maximum of one hundred people; otherwise, the mansion itself would collapse.
[Note: "Help me! Miss Clara!"
"Leave Mr. Svarog!"]
Magic was indeed a wonderful thing.
Boothill had marveled at it more than once, while also considering whether he should have that split-personality woman with the two-toned hair add some magic DLC to his modified body when he returned to the Screwllum Workshop for repairs after this incident.
"Hello? This strange treehouse is surrounded. The people inside, be smart and give up any illusions. Confess and you'll get a life sentence!"
"In my impression, although the Galaxy Rangers have an aggressive style, they are righteous people who uphold justice for the people and strike down injustice. Mr. Boothill, I understand your anger at being arrested by Ms. Rita, but please don't let your anger swallow your reason and make a mistake you'll regret for the rest of your life."
—Assuming I can survive this time.
The silver-haired cowboy smiled and staggered to his feet, using his hands to support his knees.
Before hiding in the treehouse, he had already set up invisible sensors called "Stump Orators" in the surrounding area, allowing him to perceive everything within a 3.6-kilometer radius both visually and audibly.
He had long known that someone had broken into the park on this rainy night. Seeing that shiny silver armor and extremely conspicuous red hair, it was clear that the visitor was not friendly.
In Boothill's current state, severely injured by Aschour, he could no longer carry the unconscious Alexander on another long-distance run.
So, as long as he had a clear conscience, it was fine.
The man expertly loaded bullets into the chamber with one hand and pushed open the door with the other, shouting, "Cut the crap! I'm right here and I'm not going back. If you want to kill me, you'll have to ask my bullets first!"
Mom said, you have to do what you promise!
Dad said, repay a drop of kindness with a gushing spring!
Boothill felt that a gushing spring was a bit of a loss, but since he had promised that bastard woman with the fake smile, since she had kept her end of the bargain and created the opportunity for him to kill that bastard Oswald...
"Then even if I die, you won't harm a single hair on old Alexander's head!"
The silver-haired cowboy rushed out of the treehouse, holding a gun in one hand and laughing wildly. Just as he was about to open fire, he noticed that the expressions on the two people opposite him seemed a little off.
"Huh?"
"Wait a minute? You won't harm who?"
Such words came from both Argenti and Fuli's mouths at the same time.
In an abandoned construction site in another part of the foggy city—
"Rita Rossweisse, you don't want anything to happen to your father and these two thousand-plus innocent people, do you?"
Elizabeth sneered as she approached the stationary Rita, her high heels splashing through the filthy puddles on the ground.
"If you don't, then don't resist, okay?"
The victor's smile echoed through the rain, drowning out the sound of the falling droplets.
"Hehe~"
At this moment, Rita let out a low laugh.
A blade flashed in the twilight. Her familiarity with the Moonlit Glacier Dance allowed Elizabeth to leap back, dodging the slash that should have cut her in two.
The front of her clothes was split in two with a rip, revealing an ominous dark glow from the excessive Honkai energy erosion marks.
"You!" the woman exclaimed in disbelief, unable to believe that Rita would actually ignore the safety of the bystanders and attack her.
"Rita Rossweisse! Are you really so cold-hearted?"
"Is that what you're thinking right now?"
Her graceful, stocking-clad legs danced in the rain. Rita, who was rapidly approaching her enemy and brandishing her scythe, seemed to be performing a mysterious dance that combined Eastern elegance with ancient Celtic mysticism.
Dangerous, yet beautiful.
Elizabeth, retreating rapidly in the rain, gritted her teeth and ordered, "Ghouls! Kill them all!"
In fact, she didn't even need to give the order. Ghouls were individuals who possessed a considerable degree of intelligence.
Seeing Rita "break the rules" and attack, they immediately turned their attention and extended their mouthparts and claws towards their former friends and relatives.
But just then, just as their attacks were about to touch the people around them...
"Force field deployed."
Rita's enchanting lips parted slightly. "—White Moon Oriole's Resurrection."
Before the words had even faded, the world was silently eroded as if it were a piece of Xuan paper dipped in ink.
Reality was stripped away, and all things faded into nothingness. In its place, a cold, crescent moon hung in the sky, like a mirror hanging from the heavens, its surface covered in cracks, flowing with a clear, silver-blue light.
An icy chill poured down, dyeing the ground a pale, bone-white. Every inch of soil oozed with fine frost crystals, like a billion eyes staring into the void.
In the center of the eternal night's abyss stood a beautiful woman, holding a pale scythe in a reverse grip.
She smiled without a word, the beauty mark at the corner of her eye revealing a stunning and alluring charm.
"Re-al-i-ty! Dis-tor-tion! Field!"
Her shattered, blood-red eyes stared at this heaven-and-earth-altering scene. Elizabeth uttered the essence of this ability, word by word.
A Reality Distortion Field, previously regarded as the innate ability of a Pseudo-Herrscher, the ultimate form of a domain-type skill. It shaped a mental landscape to erode the world, within which flowed its own rules, different from reality, replacing and changing the surrounding space to form a "Cosmic Egg," a paradigm-shifting phenomenon.
After the iteration of 21st-century scientific technology, the spatiotemporal property changes induced by a specific Honkai source could all be defined as a Reality Distortion Field. Under the influence of this field, the physical laws of the enveloped spacetime would be singularized, which could lead to any supernatural phenomenon, such as parallel spaces, time rollbacks, isekai-ification, and resurrection from the dead.
(Note: The prototype of this ability comes from the Reality Distortion Field in Guns Girl Z, that have prototype Reality Marble from Fate.)
Generally speaking, a Reality Distortion Field could only be induced by a specific Honkai source by chance, or manifested by a Pseudo-Herrscher through their innate talent.
However, there were always a few geniuses among humans who, through observation, imitation, and research, through continuous learning, actually managed to master this mental landscape that originally belonged to Pseudo-Herrschers.
Like Rita before her.
"Damn it!"
The jealousy in her heart almost broke through the heavens. Elizabeth's voice was hoarse. "No! In the information I have, you haven't mastered this skill!"
"Then let me ask you," Rita's smile deepened. "Have you ever seen an assassin who was foolish enough to make all of their information public?"
As far as the eye could see, the bone-colored earth was boundless. The 1,145 ghouls were looking at each other in a daze, as if they didn't understand why the "friends and relatives" who were just beside them had disappeared in an instant.
This was the selection mechanism of the Reality Distortion Field. As the caster of the skill, Rita could completely grab her chosen enemies the moment the Cosmic Egg unfolded, while ignoring the ordinary people who had nothing to do with this matter.
"Threatening me with the lives of innocents to make me submit. Do you think you're the only scumbag I've ever encountered?" Rita tried to imitate Elizabeth's confident look from before, but quickly gave up, finding it too ugly.
"I have always believed that the meaning of obtaining power is to avert tragedy," she teased. "Before I became a Valkyrie, I could only let ordinary people be caught in the crossfire. After becoming a Valkyrie, I still can't prevent ordinary people from being caught in the crossfire. Wouldn't that mean I became a Valkyrie for nothing?"
"You!"
"Elizabeth, I know all your schemes," the young woman interrupted her with a smile. "On this island nation where the forces of Schicksal and Anti-Entropy are intertwined, A.I.-chan's intelligence support for Valkyries will be intercepted and blocked by the fellow super AI, Familiaris. Schicksal's pride, the 4th-gen Valkyrie battlesuit, 'Argent Knight: Artemis,' is currently undergoing repairs at headquarters due to a malfunction. There is no better time to defeat me than now."
"ROOOOAR!!!"
A thousand twisted bodies surged into a bluish-gray wave under the moonlight, the sound of their bones colliding like a downpour on a tin roof.
The ghoul army, without waiting for Rita to finish, turned into an out-of-control steel torrent and rolled across the wasteland. Their unlocked central nervous system gave them the momentum of a speeding heavy truck loaded with multiple steel coils. The burst of adrenaline carried a devastating force as it crushed the white earth, even the air withering to ash.
"But so what?"
The hem of the Umbral Rose's skirt remained unmoved in the frenzy.
The perfectly elegant maid stood her ground. One after another, mirror images, identical to the original in form, tone, demeanor, and even aura and killing intent, appeared in front of her.
Some held dinner knives and performed flourishes, some held silver pots and poured out frost, and the last one even elegantly adjusted her lace hair ornament. Each mirror image carried the same enchanting smile as the original.
They ran with ease, taking silver-shining steps, and rushed towards the advancing monsters from all directions.
Some turned into flashes of light and descended from the sky, like falcons.
Some's blade lights formed a deadly sword formation of four.
Some weaved through the enemy ranks at high speed, leaving a trail of blood and gore.
Some brandished their swords and delivered a continuous stream of slashes...
The powerful biochemical weapons that had made the Allied forces tremble in the late stages of World War II were reduced to a frozen pile of severed limbs under the flurry of blade lights. Only the dark-toned beauty, as clean as ever, stood elegantly in her place, as beautiful as a velvet guillotine cutting the moonlight.
Yes, so what?
She was Rita Rossweisse, one of Schicksal's three officially recognized S-rank Valkyries.
Countless people in the world looked down on her because she was only at the critical level, believing that without the support of Argent Knight: Artemis, she was just a useless person with a peerless face and a naturally seductive figure, and nothing else of substance.
Little did they know that Rita herself wished everyone thought that way, and would even secretly fuel the flames, making this rumor even more widespread.
"What an interesting expression, Elizabeth," she said with a smile. "If I hadn't seen the exact same ugly look on the previous three hundred and seventeen assassination targets, I would probably be silently taking a picture to commemorate this moment."
Being famous as an assassin is a mistake in itself. Since I can't correct it, I'll just have to make up for it a little with 'the contempt of my enemies'.
The crescent moon hanging high in the sky was like a mulberry leaf gnawed by a silver silkworm. Fine, silky moonlight seeped from the cracks, each ray composed of ten thousand microscopic moondust particles, like the tears of the Milky Way falling when scattered by the wind.
The swift annihilation of the ghoul army made Elizabeth calm down.
She forced herself to pull herself together and sneered, "You're just relying on the environment!"
As a parasitic ability of a Pseudo-Herrscher, the Reality Distortion Field had many basic abilities:
For example, "suppressing the combat power of all enemies within the Cosmic Egg who are not stronger than oneself," or "greatly enhancing one's own attack and defense."
Under its enhancement, Rita, the caster, possessed a destructive power where even a casual blow was no less than the full-power strike of an A-rank Valkyrie.
If not for this characteristic, as strong as Rita was, it would have taken her more time to deal with the ghoul army, whose individual combat power was comparable to a small tank, so cleanly.
The person in question was unconcerned by the taunt. "The Reality Distortion Field is a combat skill I have mastered. Am I supposed to fight my enemies with my hands and feet tied? Elizabeth, after all these years, why have you become so childish?"
When it came to taunting, Rita was a professional. Elizabeth, who had barely managed to calm down, felt the veins on her forehead throb.
Everything that had just happened was a reminder not to be impulsive.
She suppressed a roar and said, "I admit that threatening you with ordinary people is useless, but what about your father? Alexander Rossweisse, he's in my hands—"
Rita kindly reminded her, "He's in the hands of the Galaxy Ranger, Mr. Boothill."
"Right! He's in his hands!" Elizabeth clenched her fist. "That guy was personally arrested and imprisoned by you. He'll definitely seek revenge after breaking out! Those Rangers are famous for holding grudges!"
"Or are you going to kill me based on the mere judgment that 'a Galaxy Ranger wouldn't team up with Nazi remnants'? Can you disregard your own father's life and death based on a single judgment? Are you really such a heartless woman, Rita Rossweisse?"
Looking at her "friend," who was gradually unable to suppress her glee by the end, Rita finally sighed.
"Supervisor Oswald Schneider. Are you familiar with this name?"
Elizabeth interrupted her rudely, "Don't change the subject!"
But her mind instinctively recalled information about this person.
Oswald Schneider, former supervisor of the Exploration Department of Schicksal's Aethelred Division.
This self-proclaimed radical had always prioritized maximizing profits and would stop at nothing when exploring World Bubbles. The number of innocents who died under his command was countless, to the point where even many people within Schicksal couldn't stand it and criticized him.
Helplessly, the Schicksal high command passed a resolution to transfer him to the Support Department to lie low for a while.
Until a few days ago, when the arrested Boothill broke through the blockade and, during his escape, sent this bastard to see God with a single shot.
"Don't you find it strange?" Rita tilted her head. "Oswald was a department head of Schicksal, after all. Even if he was temporarily transferred to a sinecure like the Support Department, with his cautious personality, the secrecy of his whereabouts and the level of his security would not have been lacking."
"In that case, how did the escaping Mr. Boothill accurately find his location, bypass those battle-hardened Valkyries and mecha units, and kill him with a single blow?"
Elizabeth's pupils suddenly dilated.
"That's right," the maid smiled. "The reason Mr. Boothill was able to break through the Hall of Judgment's containment and regain his freedom was because I, the Valkyrie who personally arrested him, secretly assisted him."
"What—?!"
Even though she had already anticipated the truth under Rita's prompting, under the impact of the shocking fact, Elizabeth's evasion was still half a beat slow.
With a swish, an arm flew into the air.
While pursuing her, Rita continued, "You probably don't know that the reason Mr. Boothill became a Galaxy Ranger was because his family, his parents, and his daughter were all affected by Oswald Schneider's orders. After learning this, I infiltrated the containment facility and made a deal with him."
Elizabeth, who had barely dodged the second attack, gritted her teeth. "You sold out Oswald! You're both members of Schicksal!"
"Strange. Didn't you just say, 'After I usurp your body, I'll ask Lady Durandal to kill those annoying Nazi higher-ups'?" Rita sighed. "Rita Rossweisse is indeed the captain of Schicksal's assassination squad, but she is also herself, with the belief of fighting for all that is beautiful in the world."
Capturing Boothill was her job. Secretly letting him go was based on her conscience.
The organization was the organization, the individual was the individual. Don't confuse the position of an employee with the organization, just as one shouldn't personify a country.
"Oswald Schneider—"
After listing a long list of this person's crimes, Rita said sternly, "His crimes are too numerous to count. Even if I'm not a justice idiot like Lady Durandal, when the time comes, I will not let him have a chance to live."
Elizabeth said hatefully, "And you conveniently gained a loyal dog of the exceptional A-rank!"
"It was a fair and just transaction," Rita said with a charming smile. "In Mr. Boothill's words, 'Every injustice has its perpetrator, and every debt has its debtor. Since you, Rita Rossweisse, helped me kill that bastard Oswald, what's wrong with me secretly looking after your parents for you!'"
"Schicksal's intelligence department had long known that you Nazi remnants were active in the foggy city. Even so, I only arrived in Britain today, instead of hastily notifying my father and mother to take refuge."
The maid tilted her head, a half-smile on her face. "Someone doesn't really believe that I truly trust those good-for-nothing wine bags in the House of Lords to protect my most precious family, do they?"
This was Rita Rossweisse.
Her style was flawless.
...