"Ana, I'm going out for a bit. I'll be back soon." After instructing Ana, Shun headed straight toward the church at St. Freya.
No matter what he went out for, telling Ana in advance had become a habit these days. If it was convenient to disclose, he would say it clearly; if not, he would just say he was going out for a while.
Anyway, Ana knew that Shun came from some mysterious organization and could understand that he sometimes had important things to do.
Shun's purpose this time was to go to the underground Dogma Zone at St. Freya. Although the name was obviously a reference to Evangelion, one could only say that miHoYo was still thinking about its Eva.
This place required very high clearance to open. He wondered if with his current… Oh, it opened?
Shun looked at the lights around him changing from red to green with some surprise. Did he have such high clearance now? He was even qualified to enter this place?
Shun knew what this laboratory was for. Otto had gone to great lengths to build a laboratory for cloning Cecilia right under Theresa's nose and had even given Theresa access. Wasn't this just pushing her outward?
However, Shun also couldn't quite understand what Theresa was thinking. Just because Otto cloned Cecilia, she had to cooperate with Anti-Entropy?
Are you kidding me? They had just invaded your academy and caused destruction everywhere. Just because they showed you the human experiments your grandfather conducted, you cooperated with them?
If Kiana hadn't suddenly powered up, your students might have suffered heavy casualties. Over the years, quite a few students had died at the hands of Anti-Entropy's Titans and turned into Valkyrie fragments. From this perspective, you and Anti-Entropy should have a deep grudge.
No matter how much of a scumbag Otto is, he's still your grandfather. Is there anything that can't be discussed between family? If you took this opportunity to seize power, Otto would probably be so happy he'd just give it to you.
Shun felt that if he were Otto, he would probably wake up from filial piety in the middle of the night. Theresa was simply too filial.
To prevent Theresa from making any more suffocating brain-dead moves, Shun felt that whether his guess was correct or not, he had to clean up this mess.
Shun walked into the laboratory and looked at the familiar faces inside the cultivation pods. Upon closer inspection, Misteln and Cecilia did indeed have some slight differences.
"It's been a long time, Cecilia." Although the last time he had seen her was only a few hours ago for Shun, for this world, more than ten years had already passed.
Shun knocked on the glass of the cultivation pod. Apart from the water ripples caused by the vibrating glass, the "Cecilia" before him didn't even blink. There was no sign of any life activity.
Disappointed, Shun pressed the one-click destruction button below. The liquid inside the cultivation pod was replaced with biological decomposition fluid. Shun watched "Cecilia's" reaction with full concentration.
But unfortunately, even as she was dissolved by the decomposition fluid, "Cecilia" showed no signs of life activity.
Shun left this cultivation pod and continued to the next one to observe. From No. 1 to No. 2, from No. 2 to No. 3… Shun felt as if he had become an emotionless executioner. More than a hundred "Cecilias" were decomposed into "orange juice" in his hands.
Sure enough, miracles weren't that easy to happen… Since this laboratory had been abandoned by Otto, it definitely meant no success had been achieved. In that case, everything here was probably a failure.
Shun then walked to the laboratory's main control console and pressed the full destruction button. In an instant, countless bubbles rose in all the cultivation pods. The sight was quite spectacular.
Shun listened to this final moment. It wouldn't be long before all these "Cecilias" were decomposed into "orange juice." Whether his guess was right or wrong, success or failure would be decided here.
Suddenly, the sound of glass being knocked and a faint cry for help was sharply caught by Shun. Following the direction of the sound, Shun performed a spatial jump and arrived in front of the cultivation pod that had made the noise. With one punch, he smashed the glass of the cultivation pod.
A soft, warm body like white jade was caught by Shun. It was another "Cecilia."
Because the test subject was wearing rather revealing clothing, Shun successfully saw the red mark on Cecilia's back.
A Stigmata. Unless an almost one-in-a-billion miracle had occurred and a pure test subject had awakened another innate Stigmata, then this Stigmata must be the one converted from Cecilia that Misteln had mentioned.
It took several minutes before Cecilia finished coughing out the water from her lungs. Those gentle blue eyes, soft as water, looked over.
"Welcome back to this world, Cecilia."
Cecilia followed the direction of the voice and looked at Shun. "You are… little Shun? You've grown so big?"
It took Cecilia quite a while to connect the young man holding her with the little boy from back then.
"Actually, things are a bit complicated — both your return to this world and the matter with Sirin."
"Sirin… I'm sorry, I don't know what to say. By the way, little Shun, could you put me down first?" Being held like this by her own "little brother" while barely wearing any clothes was still too bold for Cecilia.
"Is your body okay?" Shun still remembered that when he had first caught Cecilia, she could barely even raise her hand.
"It's fine. I am Schicksal's strongest Valkyrie, after all!" Cecilia playfully flexed her shoulders. Although she didn't seem to have any muscles, punching a car to death probably wouldn't be a problem.
Since Cecilia insisted, Shun went along with her wishes. After placing Cecilia on the ground, he found a large coat and draped it over her.
"Cecilia, may I ask — when does your memory cut off?" After giving Cecilia some time to rest, Shun asked.
"In Siberia, watching the Lord Bishop's Honkai energy fission bomb explode together with you?" Cecilia answered without much thought. After all, for her, that was the last thing before waking up in this laboratory.
"Mm. Then what about the beginning of your memory?"
This time Cecilia thought for a long time. "Probably when the doctor picked me up in the delivery room. Come to think of it, the one who delivered me was also the Lord Bishop…"
Cecilia suddenly stopped halfway through her sentence. This wasn't right. Who could remember what it was like right after being born?
Shun sighed. He wasn't surprised by this result. After all, Stigmata completely recorded a person's entire life. Even the silly goose could see the experiences of Kevin and Mei's son in the Stigmata Space.
"Don't worry, Cecilia. Your form of life has simply been converted. You're no longer a simple human, but you are still Cecilia." Afraid that Cecilia would overthink it, Shun spoke up to comfort her.
"Don't worry. I'm not that fragile." Cecilia shook her head at Shun, indicating that she was fine.
"Let's go. Your identity isn't suitable to be exposed. We'll go to a safe place." Shun drew a spatial teleportation gate on the spot and made a welcoming gesture.