"Ahahaha, I did nothing wrong! The Honkai is humanity's salvation! Resistance is meaningless!"
Sonako had been thrown into a MOTH prison. If Vill-V hadn't turned the undersea facility upside down, he would have been locked in the same deep-sea prison himself.
And not just him. Through Sonako's network of connections, an entire group had been implicated. All of them would face MOTH's most rigorous interrogation.
MOTH ought to be grateful that their psychological experts hadn't been driven insane by Vill-V. Otherwise, the entire organization would have sunk into the mire of having no one available for internal review.
Of course, all of this had been part of the genius Vill-V's plan. Just like the ETO organization in the Three-Body universe, there had always been a force within MOTH attempting to suppress humanity's own strength.
A talent as outstanding as Vill-V's was bound to draw attention. Especially after Mobius added fuel to the fire, causing even more eyes to focus on her.
As for going to prison—of course it wasn't because Vill-V wanted to imitate the Vill-V from the original Honkai storyline and found it amusing to tease MOTH's higher-ups.
What Vill-V didn't know was that amid the chaos among MOTH's upper and middle management, Mobius had successfully carried out secret research at the S-1 experimental base.
In the dim, half-lit dissection chamber, Mobius operated the instruments alone. Due to clearance restrictions, she hadn't brought an assistant this time. Even if she could have, they would only have slowed her down. No assistant could understand her or help her with this matter.
But that was fine. Mobius had no need for understanding.
"They actually fell for something as childish as 'hiding in plain sight.' Did they really think I wouldn't notice that the Second Herrscher and the First Herrscher had secretly swapped positions?"
The electronic door behind her slid open.
Mobius quickly turned around, casually loosening her pale green hair from where it had been tied back. She carefully used her body to block the dissection tool she had just been holding.
Seeing who had arrived, Mobius frowned.
"Elysia? You shouldn't be here."
Elysia ignored the question entirely.
"I heard Vill-V broke out of prison. Quite the commotion, too."
Mobius understood the implication.
From Elysia's perspective, it looked as though Dr. Mobius had framed Vill-V to achieve her own ends and had even obstructed Elysia from clearing Vill-V's name.
"I didn't use Vill-V. We simply took what we each needed."
It sounded like a denial, yet it was a tacit admission.
If she had bluntly claimed she used Vill-V, it would have seemed deliberate.
In truth, it had been Vill-V's request to escalate the situation. Mobius had merely given her a push. If anything, it was Vill-V who had used Mobius.
If Mobius truly wished to deny it, she could have simply stated that it had been Vill-V's request. Instead, she said only, "I didn't use her," offering no further explanation.
Mobius did not reveal her conversation with Vill-V. She took upon herself the reputation of having "used Vill-V." (Vill-V: You can always trust Snake-chan.)
It didn't matter. Already called a [Devil] and a [Snake], she didn't care about adding another infamy.
"Mm-hm~" Elysia neither agreed nor disagreed. Her gaze shifted to the corpse Mobius was shielding. "Mobius, have they approved your research on the Second Herrscher?"
"Elysia, the field of scientific research is not something a soldier like you should meddle in."
Elysia slowly walked toward her and sighed.
"Ah, Doctor, I simply don't want to see you lose your way."
"Those people are bewitched by unattainable knowledge. They're trying to study the First Herrscher, hoping to obtain something from her. We both know how that will end."
"Bewitched? Hmph." Mobius clearly disdained the word.
She was not such a vulgar researcher. What she saw in a Herrscher was not power, not wisdom, not strength. Naturally, there was no talk of being bewitched.
"Ah, yes. For you, perhaps it isn't temptation at all."
"But, Mobius, do you know? I can usually see at a glance what people are thinking. Yet you're different from them. The color within your heart keeps changing—and that fascinates me."
"So, dear Mobius, would you satisfy this tiny curiosity of mine today?"
"Elysia, my goal is obvious..."
"With my own hands, I shall ascend and become a god."
Hearing this, Elysia softly hummed an unintelligible tune.
"'On that day, He descended from the sky. The people upon the earth looked up, and thus beheld the stars.'"
"I had thought you wouldn't believe in such things, Mobius."
"There is no question of belief. I believe only in facts."
"Ordinary people see faith. They see miracles. What I see is the beauty of life—its infinite possibilities!"
Unconsciously, Mobius touched the interlocking earrings at her ear.
"The future of 'humanity' should lead somewhere far broader."
"But in my eyes, you're already beautiful enough, Mobius~ Both your appearance and your heart."
With her hands behind her back, Elysia slowly approached and spoke in a tone of certainty.
"Of course, you'd be even more charming with a bit of proper dressing up. As compensation for your concealment, how about letting me pick out a few cute outfits for you? That's also 'taking what we each need,' you know."
...
After a long silence, a faintly conflicted voice echoed in the darkness.
"...Very well. I agree to this transaction."
"♪"
...
In the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Vill-V sat atop a drifting elevator cabin, idly playing with a gate handle. October winds brushed across the sea.
"MOTH's engineering department does have some skill. That final lift mechanism, the [Deep Blue Lock], was genuinely impressive. It looked battered and worn, and even Magician couldn't crack it in the end. I had to let Expert take over. No wonder it's the pride of [Deep Blue Vortex] Prison."
Though that so-called pride had already been dismantled into scattered wreckage by Expert. The most intact elevator cabin now served as Vill-V's lifeboat.
She had shown restraint. Otherwise, a prison of this quality would have taken only a few technical detonations for Expert to bring down. She still wanted to avoid excessive casualties. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been teasing—it would have been provoking MOTH outright. Vill-V had no desire to fall out too badly with her future employer.
What, no explosives?
As long as there was dust and an accelerant, Expert could handcraft explosives on the spot. In the original storyline, Expert had even assembled firearm ammunition by hand on P-21 Island for a monkey. Not to mention this high-tech prison, filled with mechanisms and confiscated prisoner belongings that could serve as materials.
If all else failed, the sea itself provided resources. Seawater contained flammable substances. Magnesium chloride, for instance, could be mixed with certain organics to cause explosions, or refined into magnesium for fireworks.
Incidentally, in the Three-Body universe, the Snow Project wasn't merely about using cosmic dust clouds to display the trajectory of Trisolaran probes. The true hidden killing move was the dust-cloud detonation technique. Once unsuspecting alien invaders set foot upon the snowfield, they would experience the terror of an avalanche.
Vill-V possessed that technique as well.
To celebrate her "release from prison," fireworks crafted moments ago by Expert using magnesium and the dust-cloud detonation method were already bursting over the distant sea.
After all, what is a prison break without a little sense of ceremony?
That left one problem.
Without transportation, how was she to cross the Pacific and return to land?
Though Vill-V's various personalities were each masters in their own domains, she was still a pure-blooded human. Rowing back atop an elevator cabin might work for Kevin—but Vill-V, a certified weakling in physical fitness, could forget about it.
Unless Expert could handcraft a nuclear submarine from scrap, capable of withstanding deep-sea pressure and turbulent currents without tools.
As for building an ordinary boat, that was impossible to haul up from several thousand meters beneath the sea.
If Expert could accomplish such a feat, she wouldn't be called Expert anymore. She might as well rename herself the Herrscher of Reason.
And as for Magician—magic was not sorcery. It couldn't teleport someone hundreds of kilometers across space. Even miracles required preparation. Magician was not the Herrscher of the Void who governed spatial laws.
Fortunately, Vill-V had already solved the problem.
A small submarine surfaced nearby. Its hatch opened, and a petite green-haired girl wearing attire from the Western Regions and a crystalline headband poked her head out.
"Mr. Mad Hatter... Gear Ten, Performer Zofia, reporting for duty... Ah!"
She had burst out with too much enthusiasm.
Her head smacked against the half-open hatch.
With a pained yelp, she clutched the swelling bump and retreated back into the submarine.