Inside a room of a certain villa.
A blond middle-aged man tilted up the chin of a gray-haired girl with a mocking smile. Her bangs were so long they covered her left eye completely.
The man chuckled. "Such a pretty little thing. But aren't your bangs a bit too long?"
He reached out to brush her hair aside. Suddenly, a stabbing pain surged from his abdomen, forcing him to bend forward. To his horror, he saw the girl's hand buried deep inside his stomach—then ripping outward in a savage motion.
Before he could scream, her other hand was already inside his mouth, dislocating his jaw with a brutal wrench. No sound escaped him—only the agony flooding his nerves. His eyes caught the sight of his own entrails, casually discarded on the floor by the girl's bloodstained fingers.
It was then he realized: this gray-haired girl was never the "gift" he thought she was. She was a death knell.
Regret flashed across his dimming mind. He cursed his own lust-driven foolishness, though a part of him still blamed fate—after all, the maids had searched the girl thoroughly. She carried no weapons.
But she didn't need any.
The girl's cold gaze lingered on the writhing man before she turned to leave. As she opened the door, she was met with the sight of a young boy coming to find his father.
Her hand extended once more.
Under the moonlight in the villa garden lay the lifeless body of a girl. Her clothes—once proof of her identity—were now worn by the gray-haired assassin inside the villa.
At Fire Moth Headquarters,
"Sariel was raised from childhood by the assassin organization 'Arc Moon.' Before joining the Fallen Angels squad, her entire life revolved around killing." Silas relayed the information to Mobius. "Unlike Sakura, who specializes in assassinations, for Sariel killing itself has become an instinct. Anything in her hand can become a weapon. To put it simply—she's less a killer, more a machine that obeys orders to slaughter."
"I know." Mobius recalled the quiet figure who had always stood behind Silas. "The third Fallen Angel… the Angel of Slaughter. If I remember correctly, her first contact with Fire Moth was when she tried to assassinate you?"
Silas nodded. "Yes. Back then, I had just completed the Meta-Morph surgery and happened to resolve a problem for Fire Moth. 'Arc Moon' set their sights on me and sent their strongest assassin—Sariel."
Mobius narrowed her eyes. "Between Sariel and Sakura, without Meta-Morph surgery, who would win?"
Silas thought for a moment. "Hard to say. It might be even… or Sariel might win. Unlike Sakura, she has no attachments. Her instincts are pure killing. She feels no hesitation, no fear, no reaction to pain. To fight Sariel, you'd have to be certain you can put her down—because she will fight to her very last breath."
Life and death meant nothing to her. She lived only to kill, and fought only to kill.
That was fundamentally different from Sakura, who became an assassin for Rin's sake.
Of course, that didn't mean Sakura ever hesitated in killing. Back during the Sundown Alley Incident, she single-handedly slaughtered every Honkai-infected child Aponia had been sheltering in her sanatorium.
But compared to Sariel, Sakura still carried bonds.
"No wonder you first suggested the Honkai Beast 'Asura' for her Meta-Morph ICHOR." Mobius mused.
"Exactly. I saw her potential against the Honkai. After capturing her and locking her in the Deep, I used Fire Moth's intelligence network to locate Arc Moon's headquarters and wiped them out. I even brought her the head of their leader." Silas recalled the scene vividly. "Not that she cared much. She never had any real attachment to that organization. It was just a matter of exchanging contracts."
Now that he thought about it, his team already had two expressionless "kuudere types." One was the cold older woman Sariel, the other the stoic little girl Astaroth. Neither ever showed much emotion on their faces.
"In any case, let's make a note of this. If the chance arises, we should recruit Sariel into Fire Moth early," Mobius said.
Why not ask Sakura to do the assassinations instead? That was laughable. Sakura was already an official Fire Moth soldier, her movements strictly monitored. There was no opportunity for her to carry out a hit on the higher-ups.
That's why they needed someone outside Fire Moth, yet still capable.
Speaking of assassins—soon Fire Moth would establish its own assassination unit, codenamed Cocoon. It would serve as a classified branch, composed entirely of convicted criminals. Their pardon came at the price of undertaking deadly missions.
But as MANTIS became more numerous, the unit's usefulness diminished. In the end, it was annihilated by Kalpas.
Beelzebub and Sakura had originally been among its members…
This time, though, Sakura had defected much earlier. Unlike in the previous timeline, she never targeted the Fire Moth higher-ups before betraying her former organization. She sold them out straightaway and joined Fire Moth. With Mobius personally vouching for her, the higher-ups overlooked her past crimes.
After all, she even entrusted her own sister Rin to headquarters. With that kind of leverage, the higher-ups had little reason to press further.
It was, in essence, Sakura placing her own weakness directly into Fire Moth's hands.
Beelzebub… that guy was only thrown in because he killed too many people and was too obsessed with fighting.
Then again, among the Thirteen Fallen Angels under Silas—including himself—there wasn't a single one you could call normal.
Leaving Mobius's lab, Silas happened to run into Kalpas, who had just returned from a mission. Come to think of it, ever since Kalpas joined Fire Moth, they'd hardly seen each other. Kalpas was always either in the middle of a fight or on his way to one.
But now that the aftershocks from the Third Herrscher's eruption had mostly subsided, Silas finally had some time for a break. Which meant Kalpas would probably be sticking around Fire Moth HQ for a while.
Kalpas saw Silas stepping out of Mobius's lab, and his first thought was: This brat is up to something suicidal again. He cracked his knuckles.
"Hmph. What are you planning to run off and do on your own this time?"
If this idiot was about to pull something like the Chimera Project again, Kalpas would break his legs first and ask questions later.
"Captain Kalpas, calm down! Please, calm down!" The adjutant Fire Moth had assigned to him hurriedly tried to mediate.
"Scram!" Kalpas barked, making the poor adjutant flinch. Even though Kalpas's face was hidden by a mask, the man could still feel the sheer rage radiating off him—the kind of rage Kalpas usually reserved for tearing Honkai beasts apart with his bare hands.
The adjutant knew Silas by reputation, but he honestly couldn't understand how this boy kept provoking Kalpas's wrath.
Silas, on the other hand, was long used to Kalpas's unique brand of "concern." He answered casually:
"I was just discussing her workout plan with Mobius."
"Workout plan? Mobius?" Kalpas frowned, then grabbed Silas by the collar and hoisted him up. "That woman? Exercise? Don't lie to me."
Obviously a lie. He should just break the kid's legs now.
"Kalpas, can't you lower your voice a little? People can hear you yelling through the door." Mobius emerged from the lab just then.
Kalpas set Silas down, turned to look at her, and seriously considered whether killing her on the spot might stop that whole Chimera Project.
Failing to think it through, Master Kalpas decided to punch first.
Mobius, of course, was long accustomed to Kalpas's violent moods. She glanced briefly at his trembling adjutant cowering to the side, then looked Kalpas in the eye.
"I have been exercising recently. If you don't believe me, you're welcome to come with us to the training grounds and see for yourself."
Kalpas gave it some thought. Made sense.
So the three of them headed off toward the training grounds, leaving the bewildered adjutant behind.
When they arrived, they found Kevin slumped in a chair, looking drained, while Su sat beside him, looking thoroughly exasperated, and Klein was nearby, diligently recording data.
Kalpas's gaze swept over Kevin before he marched up to Klein.
"You. Has that woman really been training lately?"
Klein looked up briefly, then lowered her head again to continue writing.
"If you mean the Doctor, then yes. She's been following the regimen Silas prescribed for the past few days."
After finishing her notes, Klein stood and walked over to Mobius. "Doctor, I've recorded all the data you asked for."
Mobius shot Kalpas a cold smirk, then left with Klein in tow.
She had no interest in spending even another second around that unreasonable brute.
"Hmph. Still just as punchable as ever." Kalpas shifted his gaze back to Kevin. "So, tell me—why is it that every time I see you, you're slumped over like this?"
Kevin's face remained blank as ever as he replied:
"To push past my limits… and to gain more leeway in future battles."
He looked straight at Kalpas, thoughts stirring. Could he bring Kalpas along for the kind of "recruitment" he had in mind? Probably. Kalpas was likely thinking the same thing.