Looking at the silvery-white liquid shattered all over the floor, the Faded Elf blinked for a moment, then let out a cold laugh.
"Hmph? Trying to escape? Do you think you can get away?!"
Reaching toward the shattered Soulium robot on the ground, the Faded Elf extended her hand as purple light burst from her palm.
"Erosion Authority — correct her death for me!"
The Erosion Authority borrowed from Purgatory began to work. The pile of shattered Soulium on the floor started writhing and gradually pieced itself back together into Elysia's shape.
Soulium was essentially a form of nanomachine — precisely within the range that the Erosion Authority was most effective against.
And so, under the Faded Elf's control, the Soulium body that had been shattered by Sa's self-destruct was restored to its original state.
But before the Faded Elf could feel any relief, the freshly restored Soulium body once again collapsed into a pool of silvery-white liquid.
The Faded Elf's expression soured — because she realized that even after restoring the Soulium body, she couldn't sense any consciousness wavering within it.
"Damn — I've been played. How did I make such a basic mistake?"
Only now did she realize: Sa's self-destruct had been a decoy all along. She had used the gap created by the explosion to let her consciousness escape.
As a being who had walked extremely far in the realm of consciousness, a physical body was almost entirely irrelevant to Sa!
"This is a problem. How am I supposed to explain this to Lucius..." The Faded Elf pressed a hand to her head, deeply troubled.
A peacock feather drifted through the streets, dissolving into a streak of light that threaded through the passing pedestrians — and not a single person noticed.
This was, naturally, Sa, who had just escaped from the Faded Elf's hands.
"Detestable Earth creature — I will be back!"
Sa's mouth was full of fighting words, but her movements didn't stop for a moment, desperately channeling what little power remained to propel the feather further away.
Only once she had put a sufficient distance between herself and the threat did she exhale in relief and begin thinking about what to do next.
She first sent a message to her main body — and found it like a stone dropped into the sea, with no response. Only then did she remember that her main body had already cut off their connection, and getting in touch within a short time frame would be impossible.
Which meant that from here on, she would have to face Earth's terrifying creatures entirely on her own.
"Looks like I still need to find a host to hide in."
The enemy was strong and she was weak. Above, the Cocoon of Finality watched hungrily. Below, one lecherous degenerate after another wanted to pin her to the ground. Her only option was to lay low first — only then would she have the chance to think about anything else.
Therefore, finding a suitable host to conceal her whereabouts was the top priority.
But this time she added one hard requirement to her selection criteria: absolutely no detestable Earth women!
Sa drifted along in thought, searching with her senses — and then, suddenly, a strange feeling came to her.
She instinctively stopped, following the sensation to look at someone not far away, and found a grey-haired young man.
This youth had a face of near-androgynous beauty, and was currently walking down the road with his eyes closed.
And yet even with his eyes shut, he moved with steady ease, avoiding every obstacle in his path without difficulty.
But what caught Sa's attention most was his appearance — because this young man bore an uncanny, nine-out-of-ten resemblance to herself!
Inside the peacock feather, Sa's expression immediately darkened.
Without question, this should be a flower of the same kind as herself — and the only way such a thing could exist was if her own fate had been deliberately grasped by the Cocoon of Finality as well.
At the same time, Sa also realized this was actually a good opportunity. If she took control of this flower of the same kind, she might even be able to exert influence right under the Cocoon of Finality's nose.
Given such a wonderful opportunity, her choice was naturally to —— turn around and walk away.
Yes. Upon discovering this golden opportunity, Sa turned and fled without hesitation, a cold smile on her face.
"Running into such a perfectly suited vessel when I'm at my most desperate — do you take me for a fool?"
Sa was certain: if she dared approach right now, she would be beaten to her knees within the next moment.
This was obviously someone lying in wait for her!
Very quickly, Sa's form vanished into the distance.
After she left, the grey-haired young man glanced in the direction she had gone — and missed the red feather that had swept past him.
"Strange — why do I feel like someone was watching me?"
This young man was, naturally, Su. A few days prior, he and his mentor Mobius had come here for a very important experiment.
He was responsible for preparing the materials needed, which had required making a trip to a nearby logistics company.
But thinking about the experimental materials Mobius had asked him to prepare, Su's face was etched with confusion.
"What kind of experiment requires a hundred-ton hydraulic press?"
Sa naturally had no idea about Su's inner confusion. After fleeing what she considered a safe distance, and seeing that the lookalike had not given chase, Sa finally settled down.
"Earth truly is dangerous at every turn!" Sa couldn't help but sigh.
Suddenly, she heard a woman's voice coming from not far away.
"The streets are so lively and no terrifying creatures trying to get their hands on me. This is wonderful"
The voice caught Sa's attention. She looked toward its source and found a girl with long black hair walking down the street.
This person was Yuki — a former member of the Fire Moth's Fifth Squad who had fled the Far East for certain reasons.
Since the Fire Moth was being absorbed into Schicksal, the original anti-Honkai units had also been reorganized accordingly.
She had come to Schicksal HQ's base city to complete the enrollment paperwork as per organizational procedure. From now on, she would be transferring to become a Valkyrie!
Although her title was changing, the nature of her work would be largely the same as before — she would still be responsible for dealing with Honkai outbreaks.
The thing that made her happiest was that after transferring to Valkyrie status, her salary had seen a very considerable increase.
Or rather, after joining Schicksal, all of them on the frontlines had seen a significant salary boost — and that wasn't counting the various new benefits added on top.
"Right — I should check whether there are any flights to the Far East recently." Yuki pulled out her communicator and booked a flight to Nagazora on the travel app.
When the Fire Moth was absorbed into Schicksal, the original organizational structure had undergone major adjustments, with many combat personnel being reassigned from their original posts — Yuki naturally included.
The Fifth Squad had originally been responsible for the Australian region, but that had since been reassigned to Schicksal's Oceania branch. She, however, now belonged not to the Oceania branch but to the adjacent Far East branch.
More precisely — to the Far East branch's St. Freya Academy.
As a seasoned Fire Moth veteran with extensive combat experience, she had been recommended by her former captain Himiko to become a teacher at St. Freya after transferring to Valkyrie status. Apparently a Valkyrie training academy had been established there and was currently severely short-staffed.
Yuki had originally been extremely resistant to this. After all, St. Freya Academy was very close to her hometown of Nagazora.
And Nagazora… had left a shadow in her heart she could never forget for the rest of her life. She would rather go to the front lines and fight Honkai Beasts to the death than ever encounter those terrifying creatures again!
But after Himiko talked her through it, she learned that St. Freya Academy was a militarized school, with a currently quite normal atmosphere and no weird creatures of that sort.
"Militarized? Militarized is great!"
As a veteran who had come up through the Fire Moth's combat units, she knew all too well just how grueling day-to-day training was. Combined with the strict discipline of a militarized school, there would simply be no opportunity for hormones to run amok.
And therefore, it would be impossible for evil creatures who wanted to pin her down to exist there.
Just thinking about permanently escaping those terrifying creatures made Yuki feel so happy she almost let out a hum: "St. Freya Academy — here I come~"
Filled with anticipation, Yuki booked her ticket and prepared to head to the airport.
But just as she was closing her communicator, she thought she saw a peacock feather drift past her eyes.
She looked around — the ground was perfectly clean. Not a peacock feather in sight.
"Strange… must be my imagination?" Yuki didn't think much of it. She opened her navigation app and hurried off toward the airport.
What Yuki didn't know was that a new resident had just moved into her sea of consciousness.
Sa had gathered Yuki's memories before her, using them to completely conceal her own consciousness and prevent the Cocoon of Finality from locking onto her. Only after doing all of this did she exhale in relief.
"Good — I've finally managed to hide."
She then extended a finger and skimmed through the memories before her, preparing to read about the life experiences of this young woman named Yuki.
And then — she saw what had happened to Yuki in the Far East...
"EEK!!!" Sa flung the memories away.
But she still felt a chill shudder through her heart. Her face had gone white as a sheet of paper. "Why are there degenerate creatures everywhere?! Is there something seriously wrong with all you Earth people?!"
Still, after skimming through Yuki's memories, she had grasped the key information.
"St. Freya Academy… located in the Far East, far from the European continent."
And more importantly — judging from Yuki's memories, it seemed there were no evil Earth creatures there. It sounded like an absolute paradise for lying low and recovering.
"Perfect. St. Freya Academy — you're the one."
With the Herrscher of the Void having been subdued by Schicksal's Saint, Schicksal's prestige had become unrivaled.
Combined with the Faded Elf, who controlled the Second Fire Moth as an inside agent, the merger of the Second Fire Moth into Schicksal proceeded smoothly.
Of course, the low resistance was also partly due to the earlier mutual purge between the two sides having already eliminated a great many of the vermin.
But regardless — Schicksal now effectively controlled virtually the entire human world.
The reason for saying "virtually" was that there was one continent that had not yet chosen to join Schicksal, and that troublemaker was the Mur continent.
At the moment Schicksal absorbed the Second Fire Moth and the power of human civilization changed hands, the Science Council — which had until then been acting as the administrative authority for the Mur continent while maintaining strict neutrality — suddenly and publicly denied the legitimacy of Schicksal, and declared independence.
"According to information from our intelligence operatives, the Science Council's sudden change of position seems to be connected to an organization called 'Apocalypse.'" Inside the new Archbishop's office, Kallen said to Lucius.
"Apocalypse?" A peculiar expression crossed Lucius's face.
Kallen gave a slight nod: "Even with the intelligence network inherited from the Fire Moth, we've only managed to catch the tip of their tail."
Lucius considered for a moment and said: "Then continue the investigation. I'll provide some assistance."
"With your help, there should be some progress."
Kallen then shifted the topic in another direction: "You had Nicholas thrown into Black Dolphin Prison?"
"Yes. Beyond that, I also left behind quite a few vermin — they're all being held at Black Dolphin Prison now. The number is around a thousand."
Lucius had originally assumed Nicholas was done for, but when he arrived he found the man hadn't died yet, so he'd had him saved instead.
"Why not just eliminate him?" Kallen looked at him with some puzzlement. "You should know that keeping the former Archbishop of Schicksal around is a massive security risk."
To this, Lucius said: "Because I feel he still has some use. Although the Cocoon of Finality's selection of hosts seems to follow no obvious pattern, generally speaking, the more someone is consumed by deep resentment and obsessive attachment, the higher the probability of being chosen."
With the Stargazer Stigmata loaded in, the speed of Kallen's mind had seen a qualitative improvement — so she immediately grasped what Lucius intended.
"You want to use them as bait? A thousand people… is your target the Thousand-Person Herrscher?"
Lucius smiled without answering.
But Kallen already knew the answer. Seeing that he wasn't going to elaborate further, she knew he must have other plans, and so she shifted to another topic.
"Schicksal is very short-handed right now. Because of the large-scale purge, there are vacancies in many positions."
"Can't you promote from within?"
"It takes time to adapt, and there will inevitably be a lot of problems. We also need to ensure that the people newly promoted don't turn into vermin themselves." Kallen's face showed some fatigue — as a seasoned professional who had served as Archbishop before, managing the day-to-day work naturally fell to her.
Watching Kallen's expression — tired but not irritable — Lucius knew she must already have a solution in mind, so he asked: "Archbishop, what do you suggest?"
"Hand it over to Prometheus!" Kallen looked at Lucius strangely and asked: "We have such a powerful super-AI and near-unlimited computing power available — why would we still need to maintain this many bureaucrats who just occupy their positions and do nothing?"
As an Archbishop who had been assisted by the Void Archives for five hundred years, Kallen had a rather extraordinary level of trust in AI.
Lucius didn't object, and readily agreed to Kallen's request to put Prometheus to work.
After resolving the staffing issue, Kallen also said:
"Although we've been very thorough in our purge, during the cleanup it seems some vermin chose to go into hiding. Our intelligence system has picked up traces of an organization apparently founded by the remaining hardliners of the Fire Moth — they seem to call themselves the 'Third Fire Moth.'"
"They apparently believe Elysia is the rightful ruler of the world, and intend to overthrow Schicksal to revive the Fire Moth, as well as rescue Elysia whom we have supposedly imprisoned… speaking of which — when did we imprison Elysia?"
At that, Lucius waved a hand dismissively: "This matter is entirely unremarkable. Pay it no mind."
Meeting Kallen's curious gaze, Lucius thought for a moment and still said: "Actually — I founded that Third Fire Moth."
"…Huh?"
"You know how it is. Vermin can never be completely eliminated. As long as an organization is running, vermin will inevitably spawn. So why not preemptively register an anti-Schicksal organization to occupy that ecological niche?"
"It's bait left for those who want to stir up trouble. Once enough vermin have gathered, I move in for a clean-up — and it also keeps them from running wild elsewhere."
Kallen stared at him in shock.
"Lucius — I think you might actually be more suited to the Archbishop's position than I am."
"What makes you say that?"
"You are more shameless than me."
"...I'll take that as a compliment!"
After a brief silence, they both laughed.
Then Kallen asked: "So what's next — the scripts for the First and Second Honkai Wars?"
"The First Honkai War script is already being set in motion. It should be wrapped up fairly quickly. The more challenging one is the Second Honkai War script — a few key figures are still not yet in position."
"But it's nearly ready...beep beep beep!"
Mid-conversation, Lucius noticed his communicator going off. Opening it, he found a message from his good friend Kiana.
After learning that there wasn't much of the script involving her for the time being, Kiana had temporarily returned to her family home in Austria, saying she wanted to pick up some things from her childhood.
But Lucius suspected she was simply escaping from Mei's cooking.
Thinking this, Lucius opened the communicator. Kiana's message appeared before his eyes.
[Lucius, my life might be over — help me!!!]
A street district in Munich. Inside a café open along the roadside.
Five girls with distinctly different appearances were gathered around a white-haired woman.
"Teacher Cecilia, you're finally back..." Shigure Kira said with a slightly aggrieved expression.
Shigure Kira was sitting closest to Cecilia. Beside her, Salome, Shub, Patrick, and Cheng Lixue all wore similarly plaintive expressions.
"Ahem… how has your studying been lately?"
"Teacher, we graduated several months ago."
Remembering that she had essentially abandoned her students for over a year, Cecilia deflected awkwardly and asked: "So… what are your plans now that you've graduated?"
Cecilia first turned to Shigure Kira, who was seated nearest to her.
Shigure Kira said: "I recently started working at a security company. The prospects look decent so far."
Cecilia looked at her with some surprise: "Didn't I teach you materials science?"
At that, Shigure Kira raised her arm as if to flex her muscles — but unfortunately her slender arm showed not a trace of definition.
"Teacher, you know how it is — I'm still quite good in a fight. Passed the employment screening without any trouble."
This was a lie. She was currently working as Lucius's personal pack mule, and whenever she had free time, she went to practice singing with Miss Eden.
"I see..."
Cecilia noticed nothing amiss. She turned to the elegantly dressed black-haired girl beside Shigure, and asked: "Salome — what about you?"
"Teacher Cecilia, I've joined an entertainment company. The prospects look quite promising as well."
This was a lie. She hadn't told Cecilia or any of the others that she had recently passed Schicksal's Valkyrie selection, and would be going to begin Valkyrie training right after this gathering.
"That sounds like a path that suits you~" Cecilia expressed no surprise at this, then looked at the girl with short golden hair and a sun-kissed complexion sitting beside Salome.
"Patrick — what are you planning to do?"
"Teacher Cecilia, I'm planning to continue my studies at Caltech, and I've also taken a part-time position at a film and television company."
This was a lie. She had recently joined a mysterious organization called Anti-Entropy, and would be heading to North America for training shortly.
Cecilia gave a small nod: "I hope your studies go well. If you ever need a recommendation letter, come find me."
Then Cecilia looked toward the red-haired girl in the black jacket. Before she could even ask, the girl named Shub spoke first: "Teacher Cecilia, I'm planning to go do construction work in Africa."
This was a lie. She had been recruited by an organization called World Serpent during her summer job in Africa earlier, and would be heading to training right after this gathering.
"Ah, civil engineering.... In any case, take care of yourself. If you ever consider changing careers, your teacher can help." Cecilia said with a hint of feeling.
Finally, she turned her gaze to the last of her students — Cheng Lixue.
Cheng Lixue said: "Teacher, I'm currently doing heritage conservation work on historic buildings."
"Historic building conservation? That's genuinely meaningful work."
Hearing Cecilia's praise, Cheng Lixue averted her eyes in embarrassment.
She really couldn't bring herself to tell them that her actual daily work involved helping her master pickle vegetables...
Cecilia looked at the well-behaved girls before her. She knew these students of hers all had restless natures, and could guess they were all concealing things.
But she said nothing. She trusted that these students of hers would each find their own path.
The group began chatting idly. Time passed quickly.
By the time the noon sun had shifted into the golden light of dusk, they finally bid Cecilia farewell with great reluctance.
"Teacher Cecilia, we'll come back to see you often."
"My door will always be open for you." Watching the figures of the departing girls, Cecilia was equally reluctant to see them go. "Who knows when we'll next be together like this?"
Just as she was musing on this, she saw Shigure Kira come back.
"Oh, Teacher Cecilia — there was something I almost forgot to ask you."
"Kira — what is it?" Cecilia asked curiously.
She watched Shigure Kira take out her communicator, open a photo, and hold it up to show her.
"Teacher Cecilia — do you know this person?"
Cecilia looked at the photo. It showed a young girl.
White hair, blue eyes, a spoon in her hand, a few crumbs of caramel pudding at the corner of her mouth — she radiated a purity entirely unspoiled by the weight of knowledge.
"This is..."
Cecilia's eyes gradually sharpened.
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