"Bronya... the plan has failed... The Honkai energy from the Third Honkai War has disappeared. The Herrscher is not as simple as we thought... The plan to use the Honkai energy from the Herrscher's advent to reconstruct Seele has failed... The plan is now changed to directly capturing the Third Herrscher, Raiden Mei. Our support troops have been completely annihilated by that Schicksal S-rank Valkyrie, Durandal. From now on, you're on your own."
"Bronya acknowledges the order. Operation plan has been revised. Capture mission reinitiated."
Standing near a pile of Honkai energy collection devices, Bronya ended her conversation with Cocolia. The fully repaired Project Bunny materialized by her side.
"Seele... who is this? Why..."
The name "Seele" caused Bronya's sense of self to waver for a moment, but it was quickly suppressed again by the tactical chip.
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Meanwhile, in Academy City, Mei was holding Kiana's and Kika's hands, dragging them along in search of edible food.
The two foodies, Kiana and Kika, had been hungry for five hours. Although their bodies were fine, psychologically, they felt like they could barely walk.
Due to the Third Honkai War, everything in Academy City had been contaminated by the Honkai. Not a single person or animal was to be seen, but they had fought plenty of Honkai Beasts and Honkai Zombies. Since Mei and Kika couldn't eat Honkai Beasts, Kiana righteously declared that she wouldn't either, wanting to share in their hardship.
The result was now:
"Mei~ I'm so hungry..."
"Mei, I'm hungry too..."
Hearing Kiana cry out in hunger, Kika also felt famished.
Mei shook her head, indicating she was also at a loss. The food at home was ordinary and had been contaminated, as were the supermarkets and restaurants. If they had known earlier that the Honkai could contaminate food, they would have requested some contamination-proof food from Schicksal in advance. Fortunately, Schicksal had said that St. Freya High School from the Far East Branch was on its way to support them. She hoped they would arrive soon...
As everyone was at their wits' end, Cortana's holographic projection appeared beside them. She said to Mei and the others:
"We can go look for that girl who attacked us earlier. Many biological signals have been detected near her position. They have a unit, so they should still have uncontaminated food there."
"What are we waiting for! Let's go, target: all-you-can-eat buffet!" The moment Kiana heard there was food, her ahoge stood straight up, drool streamed from the corner of her mouth, and her eyes turned into stars. She grabbed Mei and Kika and started walking.
"Idiot Kiana, aren't you afraid it's a trap!" "Yeah..."
"No problem, the four of us will definitely crush them!"
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"Cortana! Is this what you call a few biological signals!" Kiana roared at the Cortana in her hand. Kiana was running away now just as fast as she had run towards them.
Initially, they had seen only a few people around Bronya and were about to charge in. But Bronya had emotionlessly said to them:
"Target A encountered. Engaging combat mode. Capture initiated." Then, rays of light began to appear around Bronya, and one after another, giant tactical mechs appeared out of thin air. Seeing the dark cannon muzzles of those tactical mechs, Kiana slammed on the brakes, did a 180-degree turn, and ran, dragging Mei and Kika with her.
"Based on calculations, it's quantum projection technology. These tactical mechs are being remotely airdropped! Just give me a chance to touch one of those mechs, and I can hack into them and disarm them."
The three of them turned to look at the rows of mechs firing behind them, then looked at each other.
Kiana looked at Kika and said, "You go?"
"No way, I'm not going to my death." Kika shook her head, then looked at Mei.
Mei ignored them, silently took out her phone, and asked Cortana, "If we can't just throw you over there, you'd better think of another way..."
"That girl-weapon Bronya is their commander. Taking her out should stop those tactical mechs."
"Why don't we just try throwing Cortana over to see if she can hack in!" Mei felt that taking out the heavily guarded Bronya was less likely to succeed than gambling on throwing Cortana over. As long as she wasn't shot down immediately, she could definitely hack in...
Kika calculated the firepower disparity and said to Kiana and Mei, "I'll take care of Bronya. You two cover me..."
"Then I'll draw the fire of those mechs." Kiana nodded without asking any more questions. At a time like this, trusting her teammates was all that mattered.
"Hey, you big oafs, look over here!"
Kiana shouted at the mechs, and after confirming their cannons were aimed at her, she turned and ran.
"I..." Mei suddenly didn't know what to do. Not long ago, she was just an honor student. Although she was now holding a wooden stick, and despite her proficiency in the Hokushin Itto-ryu, it seemed less useful than Kiana's monstrous strength...
Kika saw Mei's uncertainty, but there was no time to comfort her. She summoned and equipped her external armor, Sabayon, and then said to Mei:
"You'll be in charge of taking care of me later... My Sabayon is equipped with a simplified version of the Nexus System. Using it once will completely drain me. I'll be counting on you then."
"Okay."
Kika aimed at Bronya, and the Nexus System activated. The external armor Sabayon fully deployed, and after a brief charge, a blast of red light blinded everyone. Afterward, Kika couldn't even maintain the armor's physical form and passed out in Mei's arms.
The red light shot through the tactical mechs protecting Bronya, piercing all of them before they could even react. At the last second, Project Bunny sensed the danger and pushed Bronya away, but Project Bunny itself was pierced through and would need a long time to reconstruct.
Seeing that she had missed Bronya, Mei's heart nearly stopped from nervousness. Fortunately, after Project Bunny was destroyed, Bronya froze for a long time, and the tactical mechs she was remotely controlling all ceased their activities. Kiana took the opportunity to place Cortana on the nearest tactical mech. Within two seconds, all the tactical mechs were under Cortana's control.
Bronya sat on the ground in a daze, her eyes lifeless. "Project Bunny... Bronya should continue the capture mission... but why does my heart feel like I should repair Project Bunny first..."
"Never mind why, you're under arrest!" Kiana pressed her baseball bat against Bronya's neck, while behind Kiana stood rows upon rows of tactical mechs.