"Lynelle?"
Theresa's brow furrowed slightly, unable to comprehend why Einstein had suddenly steered the conversation in this direction.
"Didn't you say it before? The reason I feel so fond of her is because we fought side-by-side on the battlefield during the Second Honkai Eruption. I even retrieved her body back then, so it's natural I'd subconsciously feel familiar with her."
"That is indeed one reason."
Einstein nodded, not denying it.
"But... there's actually another reason."
"What if I told you... Cecilia didn't die back then? Her soul was preserved by Lynelle, sealed within her own Herrscher core?"
"And what if I told you... that so long as we use the Kiana clones here to develop a body with sufficiently high compatibility, she could be revived?"
Clang—
That was the sound of Theresa losing her grip on Oath of Judah, letting it crash to the ground.
"Cecilia... can be revived?"
--+--
Meanwhile, on another battlefield.
"Ugh... Miss Lynelle, your strength is, as always, truly something else..."
After once again blocking a heavy hammer strike from Lynelle with a mimicry of Void Archives shaped like Oath of Judah, Otto swiftly switched his weapon back to Jizo Mitama to parry the streams of purple, corruption-laden energy the girl sent sneaking towards him.
Otto couldn't help but feel a bit frustrated this time; he had indeed somewhat underestimated Lynelle's strength.
To be more precise, he had underestimated just how troublesome the Authority of Corruption could be.
"Hey, not bad with the weapon switching."
Lynelle gripped her hammer with both hands. The hammerhead, nearly a quarter the size of Oath of Judah, dragged along the ground, carving a deep groove.
"But it's fine. I don't believe you can keep up such precise switches forever..."
A faint smile touched Lynelle's lips as the massive hammer behind her swung through the air in a wide arc, charging straight for Otto once more.
--+--
[Character Card: Herta (Consumable)]
[Type: Character]
[Rarity: 4-Star]
[Using the Character Card 'Herta' will automatically grant the path energy of Erudition, Imaginary Energy, elemental conversion (Ice), weapon skills (Hammers) and related usage memories.]
[Character Trait 1: This character card is a puppet body. Upon use, it greatly negates most negative effects such as pain and weakness. Simultaneously, the user's physical capabilities will be massively enhanced.]
[Character Trait 2: After using this character card, the user will receive an all-around enhancement to their original abilities via the Path of Erudition, significantly boosting computational power, control precision, and reaction speed.]
[Character Trait 3: To protect her puppet, Madam Herta stored an activatable spell within the puppet's weapon. It can be used by consuming the user's own energy.]
[This character card has a 24-hour cooldown. Remaining uses: (2/3).]
--+--
That's right. The character card Lynelle chose to deal with Otto this time was the space station's very own 'Herta.'
Of course, if she were solely considering counters, she also had character cards for Silver Wolf and Welt on hand, either of which could have been used.
However, this ambush by Otto was merely a test.
If she won, she'd only destroy one of his Soulium bodies. If Otto won, he wouldn't do anything excessive to her anyway. In such a scenario, it wasn't worth wasting a use of a 5-star character card.
Among the 4-star character cards, the one most compatible with Lynelle—or more accurately, the one most suited for fighting Otto—was this 'Herta' card.
On one hand, the massive physical enhancement provided by 'Herta' perfectly solved the problem of Lynelle's own frail constitution.
This physical boost was even more pronounced than the last time she used Arlan's character card.
After activating 'Herta' card, Lynelle even felt a surge of inexplicable confidence, as if she could maybe even take on a certain 'Herrscher of Flamescion' from the later story...
Ahem, getting sidetracked. In short, at least in terms of physical strength, compared to Otto's Soulium body, Lynelle was now at no disadvantage whatsoever.
The card's other ability, the enhancement from the Path of Erudition, was even more formidable.
With the boosted computational power and control precision from Erudition, Lynelle could even multi-task: swinging her hammer in wide circles at Otto while simultaneously covertly directing her corrupting power to try and 'invade' him—this was what had Otto struggling to keep up.
After all, Otto didn't have the genuine Jizo Mitama. To use corrupting power, he needed Void Archives to mimic it.
But if he mimicked Jizo Mitama to resist Lynelle's sneak attacks, it meant he had no suitable weapon to handle the increasingly painful blows from her massive hammer.
He couldn't very well block those with his face—even Soulium alloy couldn't withstand that kind of abuse.
Under Lynelle's overwhelming pressure, even the usually stern Welt was leisurely observing from the sidelines—his own physical condition wasn't great, and since Lynelle could handle it herself, there was no need for him to push himself into a severely weakened state just over one of Otto's Soulium bodies.
"Worry not, Miss Lynelle. Come at me as you please."
Though his appearance was somewhat disheveled, Otto's tone remained as composed as ever.
"Martial skill is an important area I need to hone. If you can find my openings, I would actually be quite pleased. So..."
"Uh..."
Lynelle's hammer hesitated mid-swing. Now she was the one feeling conflicted, torn between wanting to beat him to a pulp and worrying that doing so might actually please him a little too much.
"Enough. Let's decide this with one final move. If we keep fighting, Kiana is going to wake up."
Lynelle took a deep breath. "Otto, have you ever heard of magic?"
"Oh? Can't say that I have."
"Then you'll witness it today..."
Lynelle gently closed her eyes, recalling the 'instructions' Herta had given her before.
"Oh? You drew 'Herta,' did you... So, you want to know what the 'magic' mentioned on the character card is?"
Looking at Lynelle, who had come to her office for consultation, Herta revealed a somewhat 'smug' faint smile.
"It's actually very simple. It's just a special effects device coupled with a power burst. When you use it, activate the special effects first, make it look like you're chanting something, and then—while your opponent is distracted—just swing your hammer and smash them."
Back in the present, under Otto's intrigued gaze, Lynelle closed her eyes, her lips moving softly as if murmuring an incantation.
Then, the upper section of her intricate giant hammer split open. A diamond shimmering with purple light emerged from the hammer, floating in the space between them.
"Oh? So this hammer is actually a staff? What exquisite camouflage... Wait?"
Before Otto could fully process it, the purple diamond in the air, which had seemed to be charging up, suddenly expanded nearly a hundred times in size in the blink of an eye.
Immediately after, Lynelle leaped up, her 'staff' swinging down hard onto the now-giant diamond.
"This huge diamond—it's for you!"
--+--
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.