Chapter 132: Short pain is worse than long pain
Outside the hidden bar, the fight between Fu Hua and Siegfried had been going on for quite some time.
"...Mr. Siegfried, please listen to my explanation."
The gray-haired woman used her agility to move through the alleys to avoid Siegfried's attacks and, at the same time, tried to persuade Siegfried to stop.
'Although I don't know why he appeared in this city... No, the reason is easy to guess; it should be because of Kiana.'
Fu Hua guessed in her heart.
All in all, now is not the time to fight Siegfried here.
He was quite powerful. Although his combat effectiveness had been reduced after losing an arm, with the support of the Judgment of Shamash, it would be difficult for her to defeat him without any damage.
If she really wanted to fight to the death, given her current condition, it would only end up in a lose-lose situation.
"What do you want to explain?"
Siegfried held the Judgment of Shamash in one hand and fired flaming bullets from the pistol one after another, creating a huge explosion in the surroundings.
For a moment, the air was filled with smoke.
"...I have no ill will towards Kiana. I came here to stop the conspiracy of Anti-Entropy."
Fu Hua's voice came from the thick smoke.
"Is that all? Is there something else? Aren't you doing things for Otto? Why should I trust Otto's lackeys?"
Siegfried sneered and asked:
"If you really came here to stop Cocolia's conspiracy, did Otto give you the insulated container for the Herrscher Core? No? Did he intend to let you return to Schicksal with the Herrscher Core in your bare hands?"
——If someone said that the wise and almost evil Bishop of Schicksal didn't know the plan of the old fox Cocolia, he would absolutely not believe it.
"…"
Fu Hua was speechless for a moment, but in her heart, she was thinking about what Siegfried said.
She is indeed working for Otto now and is an assistant in one of his plans. This is an irrefutable fact.
However, she had no idea of Otto's true purpose before.
Siegfried's words reminded her...
Otto was probably thinking about something.
Maybe he didn't do it himself, but he was happy to see things develop that way.
Cocolia's conspiracy... Herrscher's core, Nagazora... Artificial eruption?
The Serenity Gem, the Sixth Herrscher...
Plus, when Otto issued the mission, he specifically asked to bring Kiana along...
All kinds of information emerged in her mind and connected together, allowing Fu Hua to quickly understand many things.
——Cocolia intends to trigger artificial eruption here, and Otto intends to observe the awakening state of Kiana's Herrscher power while recovering the Serenity Gem.
She was deliberately sent to participate in the mission with the underpowered Kiana, facing Singapore, which had been controlled by Anti-Entropy, alone. It was very likely that Kiana would be forced to activate the true power of the Herrscher in her body when she was unable to take care of herself.
By that time, he would be able to collect data and information about the Second Herrscher as he wished.
"…"
Fu Hua is indeed cooperating with Otto and following his instructions, but this does not mean that she will completely obey his orders.
In terms of status, they are actually equal.
Then, Fu Hua began to think about the meaning and reason of Siegfried's appearance here.
——Kiana is Siegfried's daughter. It is impossible for him not to care about his daughter's safety, but he does not protect or look for his daughter. Instead, he chose to deliberately stop the actions of the Schicksal side.
In other words, there are other people working with Siegfried and looking for Kiana on his behalf.
Most likely, he will have to add the Serenity Gem to Kiana's base.
That being said, if their actions had gone smoothly, the Serenity Gem might not have fallen into Otto's hands.
It will most likely fall into the hands of Siegfried or Anti-Entropy... and judging by how close he is to certain Anti-Entropy executives.
Such development...
For her, this may not be a bad thing.
She knew exactly what kind of person Otto was. He wanted the Second Herrscher to come again to realize an unknown plan of his, and she was one of the collaborators in this plan.
However, for the revival of the Second Herrscher, the Serenity Gem, which symbolizes death, is not necessary; it is enough to have the Second Herrscher's core.
And that Herrscher core has always been in Kiana's body.
So there was no need for her to help him in recovering the Serenity Gem.
...It's okay to trip up Otto a little bit, and it may not be a bad thing to let the Serenity Gem escape from his control.
His thoughts became clear, and Fu Hua made a decision.
'——Since Siegfried wants to stop me now, I will continue to fight with Siegfried and satisfy his and his assistants' desire to delay time.'
Then, wait for the right time, reveal a slight flaw, and be defeated by Siegfried, and then leave the stage injured.
The opponent has the combat power of a former S-class Valkyrie and is equipped with a powerful weapon like the Judgment of Shamash. She is just an "A-class Valkyrie" who doesn't even have armor, so it's normal that she can't beat the opponent... right?
Moreover, Singapore, a neutral country, does not have any Schicksal troops stationed there. Even if Otto wants to send more reinforcements to the scene... it may be too late.
............
Inside the Queen's Hotel.
After receiving the reply from Kiana that she wanted to follow him, Kirataka didn't say anything more and hurried downstairs.
Kiana followed behind him and went downstairs with him.
However, she felt a little bit behind.
——Because of the influence of HSN-b46 serum, her physical condition has been completely reduced to the level of an ordinary girl. She started to pant after just running up a few flights of stairs.
Kirataka paused for a moment, looked up at the breathless girl behind him, and said suddenly:
"You still want to follow me to save people in this state?"
"I...I just..."
Kiana originally wanted to argue something, but seeing Kirataka immediately start running down after he finished speaking, she quickly took back what she was about to say and followed him closely.
Despite this, the distance between her and the other party continued to widen.
By the time the white-haired girl finally reached the first floor, she saw that the black-clad soldiers had been knocked to the ground by him.
Kirataka, who had just finished dealing with these small fry, turned around and glanced at Kiana, then continued to walk out of the Queen Hotel.
The white-haired girl hurriedly followed him and stood beside him, saying:
"By the way, I haven't asked your name yet! My name is Kiana, Kiana Kaslana!"
Faced with the man who suddenly broke into the Queen Hotel and saved her and Dr. Maki, she found that she still knew nothing about him.
No one knows his name, where he comes from, or what organization he belongs to.
'But at least he saved me and grandfather... He should be a good person, right?'
"I don't have a name."
Kirataka answered casually.
Well, let's keep it a little mysterious.
"Then I have to have a name to call you!"
"...Then call it [Nameless], or any other name is fine. It's just a code name. It's up to you."
"Then... do you know the location of the Serenity Gem?"
"Of course I do."
He expertly led Kiana all the way to the underground safe where the Serenity Gem was stored, and the Anti-Entropy soldiers along the way were easily knocked to the ground.
After entering the password, the door made of Soulium slowly opened.
As soon as he entered, Kirataka frowned slightly.
——Now, the concentration of Honkai energy in this house is even stronger than when he came here at night in the previous timeline.
He glanced at the Honkai energy concentration detector near the Serenity Gem. Well, the index has now exceeded 3000HW.
If the Serenity Gem is not dealt with immediately, it won't be long before a chain reaction begins, and the overflowing Honkai energy will leak out of the gem, causing a super-large Honkai event.
In terms of scale, it is expected to be no less than the eruption of Nagazora and Manila City.
"That... is the Serenity Gem?"
Kiana came to the instrument where the gems were displayed, and her blue eyes blinked as she looked at the gems floating in the air.
This was the first time she saw the Herrscher Core, but for some reason, she had a familiar feeling about it.
It's as if... it was something that originally belonged to her, how wonderful.
"Well, it's just such a small thing that can destroy an entire city."
Kirataka answered casually.
"So...what should we do now?"
Kiana asked, curious and worried.
Of course, they were worried about the safety of the residents in the city, but they were also curious about what Kirataka was going to do with the Serenity Gem.
"I have my own way, just watch."
Kirataka asked the white-haired girl to walk away from the Serenity Gem and came to its front.
Because this Serenity Gem has accumulated excessive Honkai energy and has become quite unstable, before it can be stored, it is necessary to absorb the overflowing Honkai energy and return it to a stable state.
He had the means to deal with it, but it would take some time—a time when he wouldn't be disturbed by others—so he wasn't able to deal with it when he came here last night.
Now that Watt had been killed by him and Fu Hua was held back by Siegfried, there was actually no one in the city who could hinder his actions.
Kirataka immediately put his hands together and projected two Oaths of Judah on both sides of the instrument where the Serenity Gem was placed.
"This… this isn't my aunt's…?"
No matter how dumb Kiana was, she could recognize that this weapon was 100% or even 90% similar to Theresa's personal cross.
Kirataka did not answer the girl's question but carefully controlled the two Oaths of Judas to extend the golden chains from both sides, penetrate into the container of the Herrscher Core, and wrap it with the chains.
—This Divine Key is always very useful when dealing with excessive Honkai energy.
Kirataka's plan was to use the power of [Binding] to gradually neutralize the Honkai energy leaked from the Serenity Gem, allowing it to gradually return to stability.
As a weapon for special attacks against Honkai energy, the Key of Binding does not require a one-to-one cost to neutralize Honkai energy. It does not mean that you need to have energy equivalent to 3000HW to neutralize the current Serenity Gem.
Simply put, by operating two Oaths of Judas at the same time and consuming nearly half of his physical strength, he could almost deal with the Herrscher Core and return it to a stable state.
Of course, it takes a little time—probably more than half an hour.
This is also the reason why he asked Siegfried to help hold Fu Hua back. Only when no one interferes can the problem be dealt with properly.
Once the extra Honkai energy in the Serenity Gem was cleaned up, he would be able to put it into the small box Siegfried gave him and take it away.
Well, the method for dealing with the Serenity Gem had been decided, and now it was time to deal with a certain girl.
Watching the index on the Honkai energy concentration detector slowly drop, Kirataka no longer paid attention to the status of this core.
He turned around, leaned on the cross he had summoned, and looked at the white-haired girl in front of him.
"It will take some time to process the Serenity Gem, so let's talk about it, Miss Kiana Kaslana."
"You… know my name?"
"I know a lot more."
The white-haired girl hesitated but still asked:
"You want to protect the residents of this city and recover the Herrscher Core, so you must be a good person, right?"
"Do you think those who act to expel Honkai from humanity are good people?"
Kirataka asked back.
"Of course!"
Kiana answered without even thinking.
"I guess so. So… do you think the Herrscher is a bad guy? Should the Herrscher be eliminated?"
He asked calmly.
In the eyes of ordinary people, the Herrscher is the biggest enemy of Honkai.
"Yes… um, no…"
Kiana replied with some hesitation.
She said "yes" because she had learned more or less about the history of the First and Second Eruption when she was forced to take cram schools. The destruction caused by these two great Eruption killed millions of people and affected tens of millions of people, leaving them homeless.
As an eyewitness to the Third Honkai Eruption, she naturally knew the horror of the disaster.
The reason why she said "no" was because Mei, the Third Herrscher, was her good friend.
Mei… is definitely not a bad person.
"You think the Herrscher is not a bad person because of Raiden Mei?"
Kirataka asked as if he could see through the girl's thoughts.
"You… you know Mei?!"
"Raiden Mei… of course I know her."
Kirataka smiled and replied:
"Who doesn't know about the Third Herrscher who was born in Nagazora?"
Up to now, there have been only three Herrschers in this civilization, so it is normal that they are highly noticed by relevant people.
There is no need to say much about Otto. Cocolia is still thinking about the Conquest Gem in Mei's body. As for the World Serpent… although it has not been born yet, they are definitely collecting relevant information in secret.
"You may think she is a good person, but she is a Herrscher after all. In the eyes of ordinary people, she is an existence that has brought countless disasters. It is natural that she will be talked about and hated. In order to protect this world, the Herrscher must be eliminated."
Kirataka said calmly.
Although theoretically it was the outbreak of the Great Honkai that led to the birth of the Herrscher, and the existence of the Herrscher itself caused the disaster to spread and intensify, ordinary Valkyries probably wouldn't think so much about this aspect.
"Herrcher = Great eruption" is an equation that is basically true in the eyes of most people.
"…No! Mei is a very gentle person. She is very kind to everyone around her!"
Kiana argued.
"Yeah?"
"Of course! She didn't give up on herself just because she's a Herrscher. Instead, she has been working hard to train and control her own power! And she hasn't had an attack again until now!"
Well, of course he knew this, and everyone around Mei knew it too.
In Theresa's last combat test, Mei has reached a level close to that of an A-rank Valkyrie through her own training. It can be said that she has left Bronya and Kiana far behind.
Although there are some talents as a Stigma Awakener and Herrscher in it…
It is true that Bronya lacks talent, but as for Kiana, who has the same or even better talent than Mei, one can only say that "it's a pity that iron cannot be made into steel."
The reason why Kirataka brought up the topic of Mei now was just because he wanted to say what he wanted to say next in a natural way.
"In that case, when do you plan to face your own destiny like her, Miss Second Herrscher?"
"What did you say…?"
Hearing Kirataka's question, the white-haired girl was slightly stunned.
Some dusty memories seemed to be slightly pried open.
As if afraid that she couldn't hear clearly, Kirataka said word by word:
"Aren't you and Raiden Mei essentially the same?"
Like a bolt of thunder passing through her mind, Kiana stood there in a daze, motionless.
The past that she didn't want to be remembered appeared in her mind uncontrollably.
Even though she didn't want to see it, the scenes appeared vividly before her eyes.
The burning earth and houses, the uncontrollable self, the father who lost an arm...
"No..."
The girl's expression became distorted, and she bent down in pain.
'Forget it…'
'No, I don't want to recall it…!'
The intense pain spread into her mind. The white-haired girl held her head with both hands and knelt on the ground in pain.
A red feather was floating in Kirataka's hand at some point.
He looked at the girl kneeling on the ground, with a trace of pity in his eyes, but he did not stop controlling Fenghuang Down.
——He used Fenghuang Down's power slightly to let Kiana "see" real memories and then combined it with his words to further stimulate the girl to recall her past.
Although it is a bit painful, it is something that must be experienced.
If the beautiful dream that Otto had woven for Kiana was going to be torn apart one day, it would be better for him to do it now.
As the saying goes...
A short pain is worse than a long one.
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