"Huh~ah~ I haven't drunk this happily for a long time~"
In the narrow corridor between the two buildings, a one-armed, white-haired middle-aged man took a big sip of the wine that had been offered to him and casually said to the blue-gray-haired girl following him, "Thank your friend for me, her wine tastes good."
"Yeah." Since he didn't have to pay for it, Fu Hua didn't care much, but she continued to stay vigilant as she asked the man, who was obviously a wanted criminal yet spoke so casually, "So why are you here, Mr. Siegfried Kaslana? You're wanted by the Overseer of Schicksal himself, and your head is quite valuable."
"Haha." Although her words were threatening, Siegfried remained indifferent and smiled. "So, are you planning to capture me and collect the reward, beautiful lady?"
"Forget it."
The immortal adjusted her glasses. "I'm just an A-rank Valkyrie. I don't have the confidence to defeat you, a former S-rank... uh... male Valkyrie? What's more, you still wield the Divine Key: Judgement of Shamash. I doubt I even have a 1% chance of winning."
Earlier during the chase, Fu Hua had used her Divine Key, Fenghuang Down, to create an illusion simulating a battle with Siegfried. In all three illusion experiment's, the result was a draw.
Thus, to conserve her strength for saving Kiana, the immortal decided not to engage in a fight. Siegfried had deliberately lured her out without launching an ambush and clearly had no intention of fighting either.
"Haha, male Valkyrie? That's an interesting way of putting it. However, since this lady isn't interested in a fight," Siegfried smiled, his eyes narrowing, "let's talk business. Where should we start? Ah, let's start with Cocolia's real plan. You must be wondering why she didn't bring back such an important item like the Serenity Gem for Anti-Entropy research, but instead deliberately left it in Singapore—a neutral country with millions of people. In truth, her goal is to trigger another large-scale Honkai Eruption."
Fu Hua's pupils shrank at her words. "What!?"
Cocolia's true plan was not to bring back the Serenity Gem for research because it would be too slow and expensive.
Instead, she planned to replicate the event in Nagazora City in Singapore, by continuously injecting high concentrations of Honkai energy into the Serenity Gem to trigger a large-scale Honkai.
This would allow her to quickly identify new adaptors, at the cost of thousands of innocent residents in the city...
"So that's the reason. In that case, Otto's lenient attitude makes sense."
After hearing Siegfried's explanation, Fu Hua finally understood why Otto had appeared to hope that she would fail.
"That madman Otto likely shares the same idea as Cocolia. Both of them are willing to sacrifice millions to create a Herrscher and then capture and study the new Herrscher, all in an attempt to harness Herrscher power." Siegfried tossed a box to Fu Hua. "If you want to save those innocent people, take this iron box. It contains something that can neutralize the Serenity Gem's reaction and stop the flow of Honkai energy."
Fu Hua took the box and asked, "But how do you know about Cocolia's plan, and where did this box come from?"
"I've got a few friends in Anti-Entropy. They aren't exactly thrilled with what Cocolia's doing, so they made this box. But given my current situation, I can't operate publicly, so I'll leave this task to you."
"But why should you trust me?" Fu Hua was still perplexed.
"I overheard your conversation in the bar. You were insistent on saving my daughter, Kiana, so I believe you're a kind Valkyrie and will make the right choice." Siegfried's expression turned serious for the first time, though he quickly reverted to his usual tone.
"But... I think I heard another girl's voice. Did she just call my daughter... Her wife?! What's going on?"
"Well, it's complicated. We'll discuss it later..."
...
After parting with Siegfried, Fu Hua returned to the bar with the mysterious box, only to find that Lin Ling was missing.
"Oh no! Could that idiot have gone to rescue Kiana alone?! Wraith! Let's go quickly!"
Fu Hua and Wraith immediately rushed to the Queen Hotel. Upon arriving, they saw a large number of patrols outside the hotel building, far more than the previous night, along with much more advanced mechas.
Fu Hua grew increasingly worried. "Damn it! With so many guards, that fool must have been caught the moment she showed up!"
"Who are you calling a fool? I've been waiting for you for ages! Why are you only just arriving? Come on, let's go save my Paramecium!"
At that moment, a girl in a similar revealing combat uniform to Fu Hua's appeared behind her.
Although Lin Ling had overcome numerous obstacles for more than a month, teasing beautiful girls day and night while growing stronger, her foundation was still weak.
At best, she had reached the level of an A-rank Valkyrie, and more critically, she had almost no actual combat experience.
Thus, she didn't foolishly charge in. After all, the Welt clone inside wasn't something she could handle.
Instead, she had been waiting for the immortal.
"Ah, great." After seeing Lin Ling, Fu Hua finally sighed with relief, but she immediately said sternly, "Go back to the hotel and hide!"
"I know you care about me, but... I refuse!"
"In that case..." Fu Hua cracked her knuckles, "I'll just knock you out and drag you back by force."
"Wait, what are you planning to do?! Now is a critical moment, and time is of the essence. It'll take too long to go back and forth! Don't even think about knocking me out and leaving me here! What if someone picks up my body? My body belongs only to you~"
"..."
Fu Hua was silent for a moment. It was true—dragging Lin Ling back or leaving her outside wasn't an option. She sighed. "Fine, but in that case, you must follow my orders completely. You are absolutely not allowed to act on your own again!"
Finally granted permission to join the team, Lin Ling immediately nodded. "Okay, wife. If you tell me to go east, I won't go west. If you tell me to chase dogs, I won't kill chickens!"
Fu Hua frowned and glared at her. "Don't call me that during the mission!"
"Yes, sir!" Lin Ling quickly saluted, adding, "I'll call you that once we get back."
"..."
Fu Hua shot Lin Ling another glare but decided to ignore her, knowing that arguing would be pointless. She turned her attention to Wraith who was smiling like an amused auntie and observing their interaction.
"Miss Wraith, can you use your disguise to help us get inside?"
...
Disguised as 'Welt', Wraith led Lin Ling and Fu Hua, their hands bound with a rope, as they confidently walked toward the entrance of the Queen Hotel.
"Lord Welt?" The bodyguard was surprised to see 'Welt'. "Weren't you just upstairs? Why are you coming back from outside?"
"Huh~?!" Wraith exaggerated her voice, radiating disdain. "Do you even know who I am?"
As expected of a Central Intelligence member skilled in disguise, Wraith not only looked like Welt but mimicked his arrogance perfectly.
She gestured toward the two girls behind her.
"I am the first Herrscher of Gravity. Flying is a trivial matter for me. I went out to capture a pair of lilies, and I'm bringing them to my room for a... group interrogation. Now open the door!"