Cocolia had never imagined things would turn out like this.
In her plan, Bronya and Seele might return to her command under her persuasion, or they might betray her and be disciplined by the program in Bronya's brain chip.
Cocolia had even deduced the possibility of Bronya attempting to defy the program.
It was only because Sin was by her side that Cocolia didn't take Bronya's combat power seriously.
However, now, facts told her she was wrong.
Wrong to an outrageous degree.
Although she didn't know where Bronya got this power from, this power obviously possessed performance stronger than Sin's Stigmata.
Sin's Stigmata power, sufficient to stop time, didn't even have a chance to be unleashed in front of Bronya.
After knocking Sin out, Bronya immediately exited the Clock Up state.
Although the Clock Up state could increase the user's speed by a thousand times, it also consumed a massive amount of the user's stamina.
If one tried to maintain this state for a long time, the transformant of the ZECT Rider System might even faint on the spot due to exhaustion the moment Clock Up was canceled.
Bronya didn't know what else would happen at Anti-Entropy HQ today, so right now, she had to maintain enough stamina to deal with enemies that might appear next.
Seeing Cocolia attempting to speak, Bronya dashed behind Cocolia in a flash and struck her on the back of the neck with a palm chop.
"I'm sorry. Bronya does not want to hear your words."
"Bronya and Seele do not want to continue being deceived by your lies any longer."
Watching the battle that finished in a flash, Seele breathed a soft sigh of relief.
Although she was prepared to fight Cocolia, Seele was ultimately different from Bronya.
Because of the Whispered power, Bronya knew there was something fishy about the internal program of her brain chip.
And at that time, her heart had already been betrayed once.
Cocolia forcibly activating that program in front of her was equivalent to betraying Bronya a second time.
Precisely because of this, Bronya shed two lines of clear tears even when her emotional circuits were mostly damaged.
After all, what happened today was truly too sorrowful for her.
But Seele was different.
Although Seele had been bombarded by Titans sent by Cocolia long ago, the problem was that she hadn't seen as much of the dark side as Bronya had.
The pure-hearted girl, even under the instigation of her other self, had developed some bad impressions of her adoptive mother, but she wasn't as sorrowful as Bronya, who had been betrayed twice.
In that tense atmosphere just now, Seele even thought both sides would inevitably draw blood.
But now... no matter what, no one on either side was injured.
In Seele's eyes, this could already be counted as the best outcome.
Watching Bronya cancel her transformation and take out a rope to tie up the two people in front of her, Seele walked carefully to Bronya's side.
"Big Sister Bronya, what do we do now?"
"Seele, wait a moment."
Glancing at the two lying on the ground, Bronya, who had calmed down, wiped the tears from her eyes and felt that she was indeed still too soft-hearted.
Clearly, the woman in front of her was the mastermind behind the disaster, yet just now...
She still couldn't bring herself to do it.
It wasn't that Bronya had to kill the opponent here.
For the Silver Wolf of the Urals, even if leaving the enemy alive, she should have broken their limbs to prevent them from resisting.
Only, in that instant just now, some images flashed through her mind.
Herself in the orphanage, laughing happily with her companions.
Cocolia at that time...
Never mind.
It was because of these images that she finally chose to merely tie Cocolia up with a rope instead of using more radical methods to incapacitate her.
Bronya, connecting to the Perfect Domain again, once more manipulated the surveillance system to spy on other locations in Anti-Entropy HQ.
However, after seeing the next scene, Bronya felt a bit...
So that's how it is. Those two executors had calculated everything from the start.
I feel like even if we hadn't come, they wouldn't have been in any danger.
....................................
A few minutes ago. Anti-Entropy HQ.
After Gray Serpent and Stan bought some time for Raven, Raven fled frantically with the Seven Thunders of Retribution.
World Serpent had prepared for this operation for a long time, so they naturally wouldn't fail to acquire the map of Anti-Entropy HQ.
No matter how useless Cocolia was, she wouldn't fail at such a small task.
Originally, Raven intended to shake off the enemy through this maze-like route.
But now she discovered the problem—the opponent didn't follow logic, dammit!
First was the movement speed.
Raven's physique could be considered peak among ordinary humans, but compared to a descendant of the Kaslana clan, it certainly couldn't compare.
Of course, that wasn't the main point.
The main point was that every time she finally managed to shake the opponent off, the opponent would directly resort to heavy-handed measures.
Blasting open the wall blocking the way with a shot and then forcefully catching up directly... Was this something that happened in a normal pursuit?!
At this moment, Raven highly suspected that if the opponent didn't still have a tiny bit of rationality and hadn't thought about ignoring everything to bulldoze straight through, she might have been caught already.
Otherwise... just surrender?
After this thought appeared in her brain, Raven actually felt this might be a good choice... like hell!
You hit someone's home base and got counter-killed, and now you want to bow down and surrender... Uh, Raven still had self-awareness.
As the King of Mercenaries, she indeed had a certain degree of utility value.
But whether Anti-Entropy cared for this bit of utility value was hard to say.
As a victim of a large-scale Honkai disaster who almost died during the Second Eruption as a child, Miss Ciora had seen through some things since then.
Rather than expecting others to save her, it was better to find a way to save herself.
It wasn't like every time there would be a Schicksal Valkyrie so nobly risking her life to save the world.
Now, it was time to save yourself, Ciora!
Driven by such thoughts, Raven even felt she was almost getting fired up.
According to the route map in her brain, after the turn ahead was the location of the two Anti-Entropy executors.
As long as I can reach that place—
Raven, scrambling and crawling all the way, sprinted into that room and directly pulled out the password cracker Jackal had prepared long ago, clamping it onto the password console.
[Beep beep beep beep beep beep]
Accompanied by a rapid sound, Raven discovered after just two seconds that the door in front of her opened easily just like that?
If it were normal times, Raven would definitely be a bit more cautious.
But now—that white-haired brat had already appeared at the other end of the corridor!
"Hey! Stand still and don't run!"
When she saw Kiana, Raven also saw Stan's miserable state.
Stan, bound by Kiana's magic threads, naturally didn't dare to act rashly in front of this powerful enemy.
And Kiana, sprinting all the way, naturally wouldn't care about the feelings of this cat that looked very wrong.
In Raven's eyes right now, that cat with a face full of despair, being carried in Kiana's hand like a yo-yo, could no longer be of any help to her.
No, I must be faster!
Stan might be able to muddle through, but if I get caught...
The consequences are unimaginable!
After diving into the room, Raven heard the room door close immediately after she entered.
Before she could react, she felt her vision blur, and her consciousness gradually drifted away from her.
"Crap! That guy didn't actually kill her way in, did she?"
Sprinting to the front of the steel door, Kiana thought for a moment...
Putting away her dual guns, she gently placed Stan on the ground.
Then, Kiana took out the Devil Sword Rebellion, switched the mode to Weapon Master, and coated her blade with magical energy.
"No choice then. Now—"
"Kiana, wait."
Before she could slash down, a voice suddenly came from inside the room.
"Thanks for your assistance. This guy has been caught by me."
"This voice..."
Hearing this voice she had heard once before, Kiana asked tentatively.
"Yuno?"
"Mn, it's me. Wait a moment, I'll clean up the scene."
Wow, that sentence sounds super ominous, okay?
Two minutes later, Kiana saw the door in front of her open again.
On the other side of the door, Yuno stood indifferently in the room.
And the woman Kiana was chasing just now was lying on the ground, foaming at the mouth.
"Ugh, this guy..."
Kiana, who wanted to poke the other party with her finger, suddenly felt a wave of inexplicable danger.
"I personally don't recommend you touch her."
Yuno, who had finished retracting her power, spoke indifferently to Kiana.
"She was hit by my Herrscher poison. Although she won't die from the poisoning now, she is already trapped in a consciousness illusion created by the Herrscher poison."
"Although I can detoxify you at any time, touching this new poison I developed will probably still make you feel a bit uncomfortable."
"Then just now..."
"Just now, this room was filled with the poison gas I released. The moment she stepped in, she was poisoned. The remaining few minutes were just me converting the poison gas back into Honkai energy and taking it back into my body."
"So that's how it is."
Listening to Yuno's explanation, Kiana suddenly realized something.
"I feel like even if we hadn't come today, nothing would have gone wrong on Anti-Entropy's side, right?"
"Mn. Notifying you of this matter was my personal suggestion. Of course, Dr. Einstein and Dr. Tesla also agreed to me doing so."
Glancing around Kiana, Yuno suddenly asked with slight surprise.
"Mei and Mr. Aaron actually didn't come?"
"Aaron was too tired and is resting now. His condition isn't right, so Mei stayed behind to keep him company."
"Is that so..."
The two doctors wanted to take this opportunity to have a chat with Mr. Aaron. It seemed this matter would have to be postponed.
"However, Kiana, I have to say sorry."
Hearing a sudden trace of apology in Yuno's tone, Kiana immediately thought of what the other party was talking about.
"...Don't tell me my stinky dad ran away again?"
"...Sorry, that is exactly the case."
"After Mr. Siegfried knew you were coming, he directly said, 'Oh my, my daughter is no worse than me now. With her coming, you guys can handle those enemies even if I'm not here, hahaha'."
"And then he left."
"Stinky dad, that guy...!"
Is there anything we can't say clearly face to face?
What exactly is he preparing for by hiding like this!
Kiana simply couldn't understand what her father was thinking.
If the Siegfried of the past chose to leave Kiana because he was worried about dragging the powerless Kiana into dangerous events, Kiana wouldn't be completely unable to understand, even if she had been angry for so many years.
But now, she had enough power to face the Honkai.
Power enough to easily kill Emperor-class beasts... No, facing a real Herrscher now, Kiana felt she wouldn't lose to the opponent either.
Why...
Why does stinky dad still hide from this lady!
Ah, no way.
Next time we meet, it won't be as simple as a few punches.
If I don't press stinky dad onto the ground and beat him up, this lady feels her anger absolutely won't dissipate.
Just at this moment, Kiana suddenly saw her communicator receive a new message.
Subsequently, after reading this message, Kiana immediately shifted her mindset.
Now I don't know where stinky dad ran off to either... Sigh, let's work, let's work.
Sooner or later we will meet. We'll settle all scores then.
.................................................