Oxford Street, located in London's West End, is one of the city's most famous shopping streets. Known for its numerous shops and brands, it's a popular destination for tourists and locals alike.
Adjacent to Oxford Street is Regent Street, another major shopping area in London. Originally named the Royal Mile, it boasts many high-end stores and brand boutiques. Its decorative iron railings and magnificent window displays make it a beautiful sight.
In such a setting, the appearance of a mobile grilled fish stall, even in an inconspicuous spot on the roadside, looked as strange as could be.
The stall owner didn't feel he was a blight on the cityscape. Brand stores make money, and he makes money selling grilled fish. They sell cosmetics and clothes; he sells to the desires of the palate. They were all battle-hardened soldiers of capitalism, and their unchanging creed was "pay up." No one had the right to laugh at anyone else.
"Boss! One grilled fish!"
"Coming right up!"
The young man called "boss" looked up, the customer's face reflected in his eyes.
A middle-aged Chinese woman, around fifty, probably an immigrant.
The young man said warmly, "All fresh Atlantic cod, just caught. My grilling technique comes from Zibo, Shenzhou, so I guarantee it's delicious, crispy on the outside and tender on the inside. Fair prices for all!"
He had short, dark blue hair that one might associate with a well-behaved child, light blue eyes, and delicate, regular features. He looked like a talented young man who had just graduated from university and entered the workforce.
Seeing that the grilled fish stall owner looked like a submissive pushover, the woman's eyes lit up.
An idea formed in her mind. After browsing the stall, she picked out a fish about thirty centimeters long and handed it over.
The young man weighed it on the scale: £6.30.
He said enthusiastically, "Let's just make it an even £6."
The woman waved her hand grandly. "Alright, add extra sauce and cooking wine for me!"
The young man did as he was told.
When he was almost done, the woman suddenly changed her mind. "Why is it so expensive? £3, or I don't want it."
Based on her past experiences, a weak-looking young man like this would at most complain a little. If he didn't want the cooked fish to go to waste, he'd have to sell it.
Unexpectedly, the owner just smiled. "Have a good day, ma'am."
Then, right in front of her, he rinsed the cooked fish with clean water and gave it to a stray dog on the roadside.
Normally, the story should have ended there.
But unexpectedly, the "tricked" woman dropped to all fours, and with a gaping maw, she bit the stray dog, making it howl in pain and run for its life.
Then, she picked up the grilled fish, looked at the young owner with contempt, and squatted there, eating it smugly.
The blue-haired young man glanced at her, about to wipe the sweat from his brow with the towel around his neck.
A hand patted his shoulder from behind. "Having fun, Heinrich?"
"This isn't fun. It's earning the necessary funds for the revival of the Third Reich," the young man called Heinrich replied, his voice becoming calm and steady, a stark contrast to his earlier enthusiasm.
The white-haired boy, who was about 1.5 meters tall, was speechless.
As mentioned before, after World War II, due to various reasons, the Nazi remnants that had not been completely purged were transferred to South America to recuperate with the help of numerous stars of humanity, represented by "Europe's most dangerous man," Otto Skorzeny.
Given their strength as a medium-sized organization and the fact that South America was not within the core interests of the major organizations, everyone turned a blind eye to this group of lunatics, pretending they didn't exist.
Until Raiden Ryoma set foot on this land.
Intending to turn South America into a second ME Corp, he immediately began to suppress the local thugs, with the Hell's Legion formed by the Nazi remnants being his top priority.
Raiden Ryoma alone was not to be feared. After all, most of his assets had been lost in Nagazora City. Even though he later recovered some from Cocolia, he was far from his peak as an Executor.
But he had managed to get Siegfried to be his partner!
With the Judgment of Shamash wielded freely and Raiden Ryoma's own superb political skills, ME Corp's influence in South America expanded repeatedly, finally touching the bottom line of Hell's Legion.
And so, "The Immortal" Heinrich and his little friend were sent out to cause some trouble for him.
As for the method...
"How's the body of Welt Joyce? Have you gotten used to it while I was out?" the white-haired boy, Aschour, who had previously hijacked the cargo ship, stroked his chin, his golden eyes scanning his companion who was packing up the grilled fish stall.
"It has its flaws, but overall, the good outweighs the bad," Heinrich said, tossing aside the Chinese woman, whose blood had been drained.
A hundred times gravity expanded invisibly, crushing her shriveled body into dust.
"Wow, that's rare, old man!" Aschour whistled, the silver key around his neck flashing. "You'd already turned that poor thing into a ghoul loyal to you, and you still had to drain her blood."
"Normally, I wouldn't do something so wasteful," Heinrich said, ruffling his dark blue hair up and nodding in satisfaction at his reflection in the car window. "But unfortunately, in my new body, I urgently need a large amount of blood to stabilize the genetic decay within."
Occupy the clone of Welt Joyce, cooperate with the reformist faction of Anti-Entropy—like Cocolia—in the name of the Herrscher of Reason, to restrain Raiden Ryoma, who belonged to the conservative faction.
The method had been proven before: simple, crude, and effective.
Aschour raised an eyebrow. "Is there a problem with this Herrscher of Reason clone we stole?"
"A common problem with clones: a short lifespan," Heinrich's gaze shifted. A hapless passerby who had accidentally entered his line of sight was bound by an invisible force and brought before him.
Without any hesitation, he opened his mouth and bit into the person's carotid artery.
Aschour asked curiously, "Even a clone made by that Mobius has this problem?"
After turning the unfortunate soul into a shriveled corpse, Heinrich slowly replied, "A normal clone might not have this problem, but this is a Herrscher's clone. The two can't be compared. Of course, it's also possible that woman Mobius deliberately left a backdoor when she made the clone."
"The world of adults is always full of such scheming," Aschour said, holding his head. "You're like that, Heinrich, and so are the higher-ups."
"Use my title when we're on duty."
"Alright, Second Lieutenant Plant," the short boy said with a grin.
Heinrich cracked his neck, the sound of his bones grinding like clanging steel.
He was getting used to the new body.
He nodded to himself and gave one last instruction. "The next mission involves another S-rank Valkyrie, Rita Rossweisse. Be extremely careful. Don't drag it out like last time and almost get caught by that Radiant Knight."
Aschour pouted. "Relax, old man. So what if Durandal really comes? She still couldn't take my life last time."
Heinrich gave him a sidelong glance. "She just didn't figure out your ability."
"Even if she did, she couldn't do anything to me, unless she can break the treaty's restrictions and use her full combat power," the boy said confidently. "In this era where everyone above S-rank is restricted by the treaty, I am undoubtedly the strongest!"
"What about Alexander Rossweisse?" the man asked, tired of his nonsense. "According to the previous arrangement, while I was adapting to Joyce's clone, you were responsible for going to the Rossweisse residence and kidnapping him to use as a bargaining chip to threaten Rita Rossweisse. Where is he now?"
"Him... well..." Aschour scratched his cheek and averted his gaze awkwardly. "He's... with that Galaxy Ranger."
"A Galaxy Ranger?" Heinrich recalled the recent intelligence reports and said coldly, "That Boothill who killed Oswald?"
"Yeah." Aschour was full of resentment at the mention of this. "The rock I threw pierced his chest, and I blew off a third of his head, but that guy just picked up Alexander and ran off like nothing happened! Tsk, no martial virtue!"
"That guy's a cyborg. His heart and brain aren't his weak points," Heinrich said, unfazed by his subordinate's feat of nearly one-shotting the exceptional A-rank Boothill.
This was the disparity of the world. As a fellow user of the HTR-type modification drug, his own vampire-like abilities were already powerful enough. But compared to Aschour, in a direct deathmatch, ten of himself wouldn't be enough for that guy to slaughter in three minutes, even with the Herrscher of Reason clone.
The man, secretly lamenting, waved down an SUV, shattered the driver's side window, and grabbed the cursing driver, turning him into a ghoul that would obey his every command.
"Let's go," he said, sitting down in the back seat like a king.
Aschour, who had already slipped into the passenger seat, turned around.
"Where to?"
"To find that Galaxy Ranger and get back the hostage we need to threaten Rita Rossweisse," Heinrich said. "And contact that woman Elizabeth. Tell her not to provoke Rita Rossweisse until we have the hostage."
"Too late," Aschour said, spreading his hands. "She just got off the plane, and that woman was already eager to find her 'good sister Rita' for revenge."
"..."
In the drizzling rain, two figures ran, one after the other.
The bluish-gray mist clung to "Maria's" eyelashes, and her high heels shattered the fragmented neon lights in the puddles.
Thirty meters away, the dark golden figure flickered in and out of the shadows of the plane trees, like a wisp of mist that could dissolve into the rain at any moment.
After finding Rita, who had just left the airport, "Maria" had taken the lead, claiming, "Mr. Alexander has been kidnapped. The culprit told me to take you to him."
Rita, her father in peril, had followed without a second thought through the streets and alleys, waiting to meet the person she hated to the bone.
At first glance, it certainly seemed so.
If you ignored the fact that Rita had never, from beginning to end, come within a ten-meter radius of Maria.
Ten meters was a very subtle distance.
It allowed for attack and defense, for reinforcement and retreat.
In other words, even with her father's life on the line, Rita Rossweisse was still wary of Maria, who had come to deliver the message.
"So heartless. You haven't changed a bit since your time at Schicksal," "Maria" said, stopping in her tracks upon realizing this.
She turned around, her blood-red eyes mocking the figure in the distance.
Gray-gold short hair was soaked by the rain, a few strands clinging to the beauty mark at the corner of her right eye. Wine-red pupils locked onto the target through the curtain of rain, the slight curve of her lips revealing her pre-battle focus.
The external armor of the 3rd-gen Valkyrie battlesuit, "Umbral Rose," covered her upper body. The bluish-black scythe, named Gene Reaper, gleamed coldly in the rain. The raindrops were cut into fine droplets by the wind from the blade, their trajectories clearly visible.
A flash of greed and jealousy crossed "Maria's" eyes. She continued, "It's because you're so heartless that the Overseer put you in charge of Schicksal's most elite assassination squad. You don't even care about the life and death of your own kin, so what do you care about? It can't be that Durandal who's now rumored to be with some nobody (Fuli), can it? Are you really a lesbian?"
Perhaps recognizing something in the familiar tone, Rita said in a low voice, "Elizabeth."
"That's right, it's me. Your contemporary, your friend, and the reject whose title of 'best' you stole," "Maria" said, tearing off the human skin mask on her face to reveal her true appearance and a pair of crazed red eyes that shone with dark stars.
Her face, which should have been beautiful, was twisted by one exaggerated expression after another, but Elizabeth herself didn't seem to care.
Rita knew her contemporary indeed didn't care.
Elizabeth Hoshino, an orphan of mixed English and Japanese descent, had joined Schicksal in the same year as Rita, trained with her, and passed the official employment assessment at the same time.
Looking at their experiences, the two should have become friends.
They had lived in the same dorm room, pushed forward under the guidance of the same instructors, shared snacks and tears in the middle of the night, and tested and encouraged each other before exams.
They were classmates in the prime of their youth.
Unfortunately, Rita Rossweisse was simply too outstanding.
That was how the Honkai world was. Although Rita didn't seem particularly conspicuous among a bunch of monsters, in reality, in terms of both talent and will, she stood at the pinnacle of humanity, the limit of what an ordinary person could achieve through their own efforts.
Elizabeth couldn't. No matter how hard she tried to catch up, the glaring talent tests told her:
Your Honkai energy adaptability is only this much. Your fate is to watch your friend, who is now on par with you, soar into the sky, leaving you so far behind you can't even see her back.
Resentment built up in her heart, eventually twisting into a dark obsession.
Until Rita's 16th birthday, when she passed the assessment and officially became an A-rank Valkyrie.
The young woman returned to the dormitory with her report card, overjoyed to share her happiness with her friend.
Elizabeth had also happily returned the hug. The two had a rare drink of red wine and fell into a deep sleep.
In the middle of the night, Rita suddenly felt something pressing down on her.
At first, she thought it was Elizabeth tossing and turning in her sleep and didn't pay it any mind, until a pair of cold hands touched her neck, until she couldn't breathe.
The young woman's eyes snapped open. What greeted her was a pair of ruby eyes similar to her own, and a hideously contorted face.
Rita would never forget that face, full of hideous ugliness, jealousy, and filth, constantly cursing her, "Die, die, die, die, die, die, die!" a vicious face.
Rita wanted to struggle, but found her limbs were powerless.
The red wine had been drugged.
A common occurrence.
'Am I going to die here? Ragna...'
Like a revolving lantern, her mind recalled the last time she had faced death.
A tiny version of herself was hiding behind a flower rack, a Honkai beast approaching with bared fangs.
The next moment, a valiant maid descended from the sky, brandishing a broom to block the Honkai beast's claws.
On one side, a slender woman; on the other, a massive monster over ten meters tall.
The powerful visual impact made little Rita stare blankly at the scene, her heart seemingly stopping, unable to make a sound.
Until a small head popped out from Ragna's shoulder. "Hello, pretty big sister! Don't worry, it's okay now! Because Li-bao and Ragna are here!"
"If you're really scared, you can hug me."
He scrambled down and crawled into the arms of the girl who was four years older than him. "The big sisters at Schicksal all say I'm great to hug. If you hug me, you definitely won't be scared anymore! By the way, big sister, you smell so good. Can I come play with you in the future?"
The boy's confident little expression was super cute, and his rare scarlet eyes sparkled in the darkness.
Yes, scarlet eyes.
Completely different from your filthy ones! Rita thought as she met Elizabeth's hideous red eyes.
Power erupted from within the young woman.
This was no miracle. Based on the maid etiquette Ragna had taught her, Rita had always only taken small sips of anything in a cup, discreetly disposing of the rest through a magic trick.
The dose Elizabeth had put in the red wine was enough to paralyze an unsuspecting A-rank Valkyrie for several minutes. However, because she had drunk so little, after concentrating the power in her body into a single point, Rita still managed to trigger the fire sprinkler in the room, which signaled a fire alarm.
If this had been Los Angeles, which respected the freedom of wildfires, even this would have been useless.
But this was Schicksal, and the Valkyrie on night patrol that day was named Bianka Ataegina.
The little Valkyrie, who had been promoted to A-rank shortly after Rita, quickly defeated Elizabeth and protected the distraught Rita from her.
Then, with a full-power strike, she knocked her off the floating island. She fell into the Mediterranean Sea and was never heard from again.
And this was Rita and Bianka's first meeting.
Of course, the little dorky goose wouldn't remember such a small thing. In her impression, Rita was an assistant sent by Overseer Otto to help her infiltrate the World Bubble.
Little did she know that the reason Otto had chosen Rita to be her assistant was precisely because of this chance encounter.
Rainwater slid down the lines of the Umbral Rose armor, the reflective metal surface refracting a cold light. The soaked hem of her skirt clung to the curve of the young woman's leg, adding a thrilling beauty to her at this moment.
"I looked for you afterwards," Rita said. "But I couldn't find you."
"Of course you couldn't find me," Elizabeth sneered. "Because I never fell into the Mediterranean Sea. I was caught mid-air by those dead-faced people from the Hall of Judgment on the charge of attacking a comrade, severely tortured for information, and then thrown to those sub-humans in the Fourth District for human experimentation!"
Rita's tone was light. "You brought this upon yourself. In the words of the ancient Eastern civilization, you deserved it."
You couldn't expect someone to be nice to the person who had almost killed them. She had barely managed to swallow the "fucking" in "you fucking deserved it."
But this attack obviously still twisted Elizabeth's face.
Rita's questioning wasn't over. "You're the one who killed the real Miss Maria, aren't you? And you're the one who kidnapped my father."
"The first one is true. As for the second, let's just say I didn't get the chance," Elizabeth smiled maliciously. "Who knew you were so annoying, Rita? I'm not the only one who wants to kidnap your family for revenge. There's also that Galaxy Ranger who stinks of motor oil!"
"But don't worry, I've already reached a cooperation with him. You can just pretend I kidnapped him."
This was a lie. Elizabeth and Boothill had not reached any cooperation.
However, that didn't stop her from using it to her advantage. After all, Rita didn't know anything. "It must be hard working for Schicksal, doing the work of the assassination squad, being a dog that bites others in the shadows."
"...So you've come this time to get your revenge on me, a current S-rank Valkyrie?" Rita crouched slightly, her left hand loosely gripping the end of the scythe handle, her right hand poised at her waist.
"An S-rank Valkyrie? You?" Elizabeth burst out laughing. "Everyone knows that among the three current Valkyries, you, Rita Rossweisse, are just there to make up the numbers. Schicksal has really fallen, letting someone like you who has trouble with even Emperor-class Honkai beasts be on the same level as that Durandal."
She asked curiously, "But there are also rumors that you got promoted through your relationship with Durandal, that the two of you have always had a thing going on. Is that true?"
Actually, the original rumor was that both the captain and vice-captain of the Immortal Blades were lesbians. Who would have thought that a Fuli would suddenly appear and get all cozy with Bianka?
The vast majority of yuri fans were deeply resentful of this. Damn Fuli! How dare he defile the all-female purity of the Immortal Blades!
Today he's rumored to be with Durandal, tomorrow he'll be having a threesome with Rita and Durandal, and the day after he'll be conquering Miss Amber and A.I.-chan too!
What? A.I.-chan is an artificial intelligence?
Don't worry about that. Human-AI romance has always been popular, as recorded in Chobits, Heaven's Lost Property, and Plastic Memories.
See, the female protagonist of Plastic Memories is also named Isla!
And in the face of the foul-mouthed and history-fabricating Elizabeth, Rita's reply was:
"Are you jealous?"
As if an invisible force had gripped her throat, the chattering woman instantly choked.
"In your eyes, all of this should have been yours, shouldn't it?" Rita continued on her own.
"If that annoying person, Rita Rossweisse, didn't exist in this world, the one chosen by Overseer Otto to be by Lady Durandal's side would naturally be you, the A-rank Valkyrie who was promoted slightly later than me. You would have traveled with her on the Gungnir to that large World Bubble anchored by the Ether Anchor, and after a series of adventures, you would have 'relied on your relationship with her' to become the adjutant of the assassination squad and the Immortal Blades. And with the resources of Schicksal and the help of the 4th-gen Godsbane battlesuit, you would have become the S-rank Valkyrie symbolizing honor and strength."
"Instead of being a rat scurrying through the streets, wanted by numerous organizations including Schicksal, forced to associate with the Nazi remnants in dark corners, and even being transformed by Heinrich into an inhuman hybrid like a ghoul."
"Am I right, Miss Elizabeth?"
Swish! Swish! Swish!
Under the curtain of rain, the invisible Honkai energy, sensing the will of the mercilessly mocked woman, formed into blades of blood, but they dissipated into green smoke just before they could shoot out.
"Hehe," Elizabeth let out a low laugh. "Consider it your last words. You can say whatever you want. After I take your body, all your achievements will still be mine."
Blood is the currency of the soul.
Just as Heinrich had taken the body of the Welt clone, Elizabeth also intended to perform a ritual called "Blood Exchange" with Rita, to hold everything she had in her hands.
This was the plan of the higher-ups of Hell's Legion.
Heinrich would pretend to be Welt Joyce and reign over Anti-Entropy.
Elizabeth, transformed into Rita Rossweisse, would become a key piece embedded in Schicksal.
If they succeeded, they would use their power to benefit the organization. If they failed, they would just die a little faster.
All or nothing, that's how lunatics and psychopaths liked to do things.
"Of course, at that point, whether I listen to those guys or not will be up to me," Elizabeth said with a grin, declaring her intention to be a double agent. "After all, as long as I take your body and become a registered S-rank Valkyrie of Schicksal, with the power in my hands, there are plenty of ways to kill those bastards."
"For example—" she tilted her head, a grin spreading across her face under the night sky. "Asking your beloved Lady Durandal to do me this little favor?"
...