"Me... let me be the captain?!" Ana's eyes widened slightly, overwhelmed by the unexpected favor.
Lierre nodded affirmatively. "I believe you can handle this position. Have confidence in yourself! As the captain, you'll need to look after your team members in the future."
"Yes!" Ana responded with a serious expression. She cast a quiet glance around and asked curiously, "Lady Lierre, am I currently the only Valkyrie in our squad?"
She had only just received the transfer order from Schicksal and didn't know much about the Moth Who Chases the Flames squad under Lierre's name. Aside from herself, she hadn't heard news of any other members.
"Of course not! Besides you, there's one other person who hasn't arrived yet. You'll see her in a moment." Lierre gestured with her eyes, signaling her not to worry.
Ana: "..."
A Valkyrie squad with only two people generally couldn't be deployed. She could only hope that Lierre would recruit more outstanding Valkyries to fill the vacancies.
Rita walked quickly into the room. After greeting Ana politely, she handed a badge to Lierre. "Lady Lierre, this badge was specially crafted according to your ideas. Please have a look; if there are any flaws, I'll have it remade immediately."
Lierre took the badge and looked down at it.
It was an exquisite metal badge. The pattern engraved on it was an infinity symbol formed by a green venomous snake, with three thorn-like spikes beneath the snake.
After summoning Cheng Lixue and Joyce, she had claimed to the outside world that she used Fu Hua's sachet and Bronya's project bunny armor as catalysts to summon them.
Now that she wanted to summon Mobius, the necessary procedures naturally had to be followed.
"Not bad. This is exactly the pattern I wanted."
Holding it in her hand, Lierre looked up at Ana beside her and said, "Ana, get ready to welcome your first team member."
"Eh?" Ana blinked, stunned. "O-Okay!"
Rita's expression shifted, her gaze involuntarily falling on Lierre's small, clenched hand.
Under the watchful eyes of the two, Lierre yanked off the golden Cross necklace from her chest, then tossed it into the air along with the badge.
"I sacrifice this badge! Targeted Summoning!"
The golden Cross erupted with a brilliant light that engulfed the badge. In that second, a pillar of light pierced through the roof of the research institute and shot straight into the clouds!
Instantly, upon detecting a Herrscher-level energy surge, the alarms at Schicksal headquarters blared.
However, the alarms soon cut off abruptly. The fully armed Valkyrie units rushing toward the Apocalypse Research Institute stopped in their tracks.
"Received an order from the Lord Overseer! We are to return to our posts immediately. That was just Lady Lierre conducting an experiment!"
After speaking, the captain of this squad immediately commanded, "Turn around! Head back!"
On the way back, someone pointed at the sky and cried out, "Something is falling from the heavens!"
In front of a floor-to-ceiling window, Otto and Amber looked up, staring at the colored sphere of light rushing down along the white jade steps high above the sky.
"Although this wondrous sight appeared once at St. Freya, only after seeing it up close on the scene can one truly feel its unspeakable beauty."
Otto didn't withdraw his gaze until the sphere of light landed in the direction of the Apocalypse Research Institute and the steps high in the sky vanished.
Using the path to Heaven to summon the dead—Lierre's status in Heaven must be quite high indeed.
Could he then follow this path and reach the distant past directly?
Thinking of this, Otto quickly dismissed the idea. If he were to intrude upon Heaven again, Archangel Michael would be the first to kill him.
Suddenly, Otto's eyes flickered. He calmly instructed Amber, "Amber, go to the Apocalypse Research Institute for me. Arrange a legitimate identity for that person named Mobius to avoid any unnecessary misunderstandings in the future."
An unidentified person wandering Schicksal headquarters would be treated as an enemy and detained by the Valkyrie units stationed here.
"I'll go right away."
Amber understood Otto's meaning, immediately took the order, and left the room.
Soon, Otto was the only one left in the empty office.
"Heh, I didn't expect there would be a day when even you couldn't keep your cool. Why don't I guess what made you so attentive?"
Otto raised his right hand, and a golden cube appeared out of thin air, floating. He stared at the Key of Revelation, Void Archives, with a playful expression and continued, "It's because of Mobius, isn't it?"
After a long silence, the voice of Void Archives finally rang out: "You don't need to test me like that. I just don't want you to go to your death. If it really is her, all your current life-saving methods are nothing but a joke."
"Oh?" Otto was quite surprised. "This is the first time I've heard you hold someone in such high regard. If I'm not mistaken, Mobius is from your era, right?"
"Since you already have the answer in your heart, why seek confirmation from me? Regardless, I've given the warning. As for what you do from here, that's up to you."
"Should I thank you for your kind warning?" Otto chuckled.
"Hmph. If you really want to thank me, I wouldn't mind hearing your so-called gratitude," Void Archives replied.
"Old friend, you've beaten around the bush so much, but isn't your ultimate goal just to have me meet Mobius as soon as possible?"
Otto said, "You want to confirm if Mobius is the person you're thinking of, rather than someone with the same name. As thanks for the warning, I'll take you to see her."
Apocalypse Research Institute.
Rita and Ana were both observing the green-haired girl in front of them, who had her eyes closed.
She looked to be only about fourteen years old. Her face was as exquisite as a doll's, her skin as white as snow, and her petite body exuded a poppy-like allure. Like a Succubus, she was beautiful yet dangerous.
"What a cute child..." Ana couldn't help but praise.
Beside her, Rita grew wary. The girl before her gave her a faint, flickering sense of danger.
Mobius—one of the most cutting-edge scholars in the scientific field of the Previous Era, one of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers, ranked "X," and bearer of the signet of "Infinity."
She had witnessed the Descent of the Honkai time and time again and felt the fragility of humanity firsthand.
Therefore, on the path of evolution, in order to exhaust the truths of the world, she never minded paying any Price.
"The process of evolution isn't beautiful. On the contrary, it's very ugly—utterly hideous. But only by experiencing this ugly process can we truly understand... the beauty of life."
Thump, thump-thump...
Her Heart beat powerfully, one pulse after another.
The true death Mobius had imagined did not come. She could feel that her physical condition had reached its peak.
Mobius slowly opened her slitted, snake-like pupils. When she saw her current location and the three strangers before her, she frowned slightly.
Haven't I already... died?
Where is this?