"What the hell?!"
The concentrated fire from the Titans caught the smug Welt Clone completely off guard.
He frantically threw up a shield while shouting and yelling, trying to regain control of the Titan squad, but it was useless.
Sure, against truly high-level combatants, these Titans were just cannon fodder. But these mass-produced clones of Cocolia's?
They could barely handle a thousandfold gravity, their output was less than a tenth of Star of Eden's, so they were far from being 'high-level' themselves.
"Titan squad! Attack the pink-haired one! Why are you hitting me?!"
"Dammit... Wait, right! Cocolia also gave me a manual control device..."
He immediately unleashed a wave of amplified gravity, briefly suppressing the Titans, and then scrambled to pull the portable control terminal Cocolia had given him from his clothes—its main purpose was to prevent command overlap if multiple Welt copies tried voice control simultaneously, but the Welt Clone was way past caring about that right now.
However...
The moment he pulled out the terminal, before he could even input a command, the Welt Clone felt the device in his hand grow unusually hot.
The next second, a fireball exploded right in his palm.
Shards of screen flew past his face, leaving a few bloody scratches.
While an explosion of that level couldn't seriously hurt him, having a terminal detonate right in his face thoroughly stunned this Welt copy, who had only been 'born' a few months ago.
"W-What is this...?"
But the Welt Clone wasn't the only one stunned. Even Bronya, who had just been ready to risk injury to protect Lynelle and Mei, was utterly baffled.
"Ehehe~"
Lynelle tilted her head and delivered a perfect, 'mischievous-smile' wink. "They're my favorite Titans. I just took direct control."
"As for how I did it... let's just call it a little bit of hacking?"
"H-Hacking?!"
Bronya nearly choked on her own breath. Especially with Lynelle's accompanying gesture—that 'tiny bit' pinched between her fingers—it made Duckie want to have Project Bunny hold this smug Lynelle down and give her a good spanking.
Instantly seizing control of fifteen Titans without any physical contact, and even frying the enemy's manual control terminal right in their face?
If that was just 'a little bit of hacking,' then what did that make her and Project Bunny's skills? The level of a primary school IT club?
"So... it was you!"
It took until now for the Welt Clone to finally identify the culprit behind the Titan ambush.
"Damn it! So, if I just kill you, everything will be fixed, right?... Then die!"
While continuously using hundredfold gravity to slow the incoming Honkai particle beams, the Welt Clone's body shot into motion. The area-of-effect nature of his gravity control finally came in handy.
After all, he'd only been facing long-range attacks from the Titans so far. After the initial chaos of the surprise attack, he'd managed to figure out how to use gravity to interfere with their targeting.
As for why Lynelle only had the Titans attack from a distance instead of swarming him... One reason was that the villa was too small to fit all those mechs.
The other was... Titan mechs were expensive! Lynelle was worried the Welt Clone might accidentally break a few.
Pushing through the Titan attacks was draining a significant amount of the Welt Clone's usable Honkai energy.
But even so, the gravity amplification enveloping his fist instantly shattered the wooden practice sword Mei had grabbed in desperation.
At this point in time, most of Mei's combat prowess relied on her Valkyrie battlesuit; without it, her strength was indeed a concern.
"Mei-senpai!"
Seeing Mei get instantly overpowered, Bronya's heart, which had just started to calm down, leapt into her throat again.
After all, she had no idea what Lynelle's actual combat capabilities were.
If she really was just controlling the Titans with so-called 'hacking,' then her body was just that of a weak ordinary person. A single touch from this gravity-controlling stranger, and she might be squashed into a puddle of 'Lynelle jam.'
"Project Bunny, Defense Mod—THUD!"
Before Bronya could command Project Bunny to fall back and defend, an intense gravity press slammed down, crushing the exoskeleton on her legs into a damaged state and pinning Bronya firmly to the ground.
"Worry about yourself first, little girl. If Cocolia hadn't specifically pleaded for you, I'd have killed you along with them."
Even covered in blood from the explosion, the Welt Clone still hadn't forgotten his self-proclaimed status as the 'Anti-Entropy Sovereign.'
"As for you... Hmph. Your two companions are down, yet you remain quite calm... Ready to die?"
"I just don't find clowns very amusing," Lynelle sighed. "After all, I've seen a much stronger clown before."
She then added, "And... why don't you take a look behind you?"
"What—"
SHLICK!
Before Welt Clone could even turn his head, a slender arm crackling with lightning pierced straight through his chest, appearing in his final field of view.
"Hmph. You dare harm that coward and her friends... Scum. How many lives do you have to spare for this transgression?"
"Well, that was a one-hit kill."
Lynelle couldn't help but comment on the familiar positioning.
"You're called Lynelle, right?... You're that coward's friend?"
The Herrscher of Thunder personality, now in control of Mei's body, casually tossed the Welt Clone's corpse aside. Her eyes held a trace of curiosity as she looked at Lynelle, who was still remotely controlling the Titans.
"Yeah, that's right."
Lynelle nodded obediently, completely unaware of what was about to happen.
"You... sniff... aren't a Herrscher, are you?"
The Herrscher of Thunder version of Mei's nostrils flared slightly. In an instant, she was right in front of Lynelle, gently pinching her cheek.
"At least, in that coward's memories, you aren't a Herrscher..."
"Then... why does your body constantly give off such a pleasant, familiar scent... a scent of a kindred being?"
"?"
Oh no, oh no...
The smile on Lynelle's face instantly stiffened.
She'd forgotten something.
As the Core of Thunder, which had been a 'roommate' with her own Core of Corruption inside Sirin, it was highly likely that the Thunder Core retained the memory of her Corruption Core's Honkai energy signature.
Combine that with the 'Herrscher-Specialized Succubus-type' Elysia Stigma on her body...
Maybe, in the eyes of this Thunder Queen who only ever showed emotional fluctuations for Kiana, she, Lynelle, roughly occupied the ecological niche of... catnip?
"Mmm... Can't be sure, but it really is a familiar, comforting feeling. As expected, the only way to know for sure is to have a taste..."
"H-How exactly are you planning to 'taste'?"
Lynelle's throat moved as she swallowed. Being pinned like this, especially with Mei's impressive 'front armor' pressed against her, Lynelle's face was gradually turning a shade of red.
"Hehehe..."
The Herrscher of Thunder lightly licked her lips.
"Wow, Project Bunny, start recording mode!"
Even though she couldn't stand up due to her damaged leg exoskeleton, Bronya immediately began remotely operating Project Bunny.
"Witnessing such a thrilling scene makes having to fight these clones again totally worth it!"
Unfortunately, perhaps because 'Little March' suddenly took over Duckie's account, the moment Bronya finished speaking, a second Welt copy instantly flew in from outside the villa.
"Which idiot was supposed to retrieve the Herrscher of Thunder? To think I have to clean up his mess... How can we possibly develop Anti-Entropy properly, working with these incompetents?!"
"Wait, why does that corpse on the ground look so familiar..."
"Tch. Annoying bugs..."
The Herrscher of Thunder, who had been just about to 'sample' Lynelle, turned her head impatiently towards the villa's entrance.
Facing one of these Welt copies alone, she was absolutely confident of victory. But due to the time limit imposed by the bomb in her heart, she could only manifest for five minutes. Dealing with another one would be cutting it close.
Most importantly, it also meant she probably wouldn't get to 'taste' this pink-haired girl who kept inexplicably emitting a catnip-like allure and find out what her deal was.
"Wait, Mei-senpai, be careful."
Bronya frowned slightly. "According to Project Bunny's radar, there are at least two more targets with identical life signals nearby."
"More than two? This scum is mass-produced?"
Now, even the Herrscher of Thunder had to put her teasing of Lynelle on hold.
Lightning began swirling around her as she muttered, "I'll deal with this one for you. You contact the others quickly. For the remaining trash, you'll probably have to ask that short white-haired midget for help..."
"Alright, Bronya is contacting Principal Theresa... Wait, this is..."
Just as Bronya was about to call for backup, she was surprised to find that one of the clone signals on the radar had suddenly vanished.
It was replaced by a friendly signal rapidly approaching the villa.
"I thought it was Kiana having another one of her late-night episodes, but to think someone actually invaded the school..."
Fu Hua, seemingly just woken up and wearing only a large shirt, walked in from outside, dragging the lifeless body of another Welt copy.
"Squad Leader Fu Hua!"
"Mn. Leave this to me."
Fu Hua gave Bronya a slight nod, then looked directly at Lynelle, who was hiding in the back.
"Teacher Lynelle, you should take those Titans and leave now. Go to where you need to be."
"Eh?"
Lynelle, who had been pondering her own escape plan, was taken aback.
"Fu Hua, you..."
"I know a friend. I think you know her too."
Fu Hua smiled faintly.
"Send my regards to Cheng Lixue for me. And... thank you for saving her back then."
--+--
Meanwhile, on the other side of St. Freya Academy, near the Central Dogma area.
"This church should be the biggest secret Otto has hidden within St. Freya..."
Cocolia stood outside the church, her tone meaningful. "I hope you haven't lied to me, Dr. Einstein."
"I have no reason to lie to you. Moreover, the decision to attack St. Freya was proposed by the 'Sovereign' and unanimously passed in our meeting."
Einstein manipulated her terminal expressionlessly, her face giving nothing away.
"Furthermore, the current situation is proceeding smoothly. You're not still suspecting that we've set a trap for you, are you?"
"Hmph..."
Thinking of the intelligence she had obtained from World Serpent, Cocolia snorted lightly, not backing down verbally. "One can never be sure."
"Regardless, we'll proceed as decided in the meeting. You are responsible for breaching Otto's security systems. I will retrieve the core and ensure your safety... After success, the core belongs to me, and Otto's laboratory data belongs to you..."
BEEP—
An alarm sound simultaneously popped up on both their terminals.
"Oh, Ms. Cocolia."
A faint, almost imperceptible smile played on Einstein's lips. "I'm afraid you should focus your attention on whether your assault will succeed, rather than trying to follow me in to see what secrets Otto has hidden."
"After all... half your Titan forces going offline, the 'Sovereign's' life signal fluctuating wildly... these are not good signs."
"What's going on..."
Cocolia's face darkened. It wasn't so much missing the chance to enter Otto's lab that bothered her, but her Titan forces.
After all, she wasn't a specialized research talent. Even if she got Otto's data from Einstein, she probably couldn't make heads or tails of it, and would mostly just trade it with World Serpent.
But the Titan army and the Welt clones in her hands were her true foundation of power.
Thinking of this, Cocolia couldn't bother sticking with Einstein anymore. She hastily transferred control of a few Titans to Einstein and said urgently,
"In that case, there must be trouble on the front line... I need to see to it personally, in case they send rapid reinforcements. Dr. Einstein, I'm leaving these few Titans with you. You can enter Otto's lab yourself. If you really encounter problems, they should be able to buy you enough time to quantum shift away."
"Alright."
Einstein accepted without hesitation, nodding directly. "Then take care, Ms. Cocolia."
With that, watching Cocolia quickly warp away without even bothering with pleasantries, a smile finally appeared on Einstein's face.
After all, if Cocolia had stayed a little longer, she might have discovered that it wasn't just half her Titans that had gone offline.
The reason her terminal only showed half was because control of the other half had already been remotely transferred by Lynelle to Tesla. The only Titans Cocolia could still command were the handful she had left by her side.
"This time, Cocolia has really given us a huge gift... It almost makes me feel a little guilty, thinking about raiding her base tomorrow."
Tesla's voice came from Einstein's terminal.
"That just means your resolve isn't firm enough... Alright, I'm cutting communications now. I have negotiations with Lady Theresa soon, and to prevent eavesdropping, I can't keep the line open."
Saying this, Einstein decisively cut the communication and stepped into the underground dogma area.
"The alarm has been triggered... Next, Lady Theresa should arrive here soon, right?"
--+--
T/N: While I am an inexperienced Translator, I have a Patreon! While it may seem empty as of now, webnovel will get 3 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.