On the other side, following the explosion on the upper floors, Fu Hua, who had jumped down earlier, had already arrived at the pre-booked safehouse.
Fu Hua's fingers tapped anxiously on the bar counter, her eyes holding a trace of worry. "Why has it been so long? Irene still hasn't brought Kiana back..."
"I'm back, you know." Irene's voice suddenly rang in Fu Hua's ear, accompanied by a glass of wine sliding over. "No need to be so nervous, I am—"
A stream of light flew directly past "Irene's" face and embedded itself in the wine cabinet behind her. [Irene] wore a smile on her face, tilting her head slightly to look at the object stuck in the cabinet.
It was a coin, still smoking as it embedded itself into the cabinet wall.
"Wraith, if you want to make jokes, pick a different time." Fu Hua's eyes looked at [Irene] with a hint of threat. "Now is not the time for your pranks. Don't waste time."
"Sorry, sorry." Wraith mercilessly tore off the human-skin mask she had just finished making and tossed it casually onto the bar counter. "Just wanted to help you relax a bit."
"What's the situation over there?" Fu Hua had no desire to exchange ill-timed pleasantries with Wraith. "Don't tell me you've been here this long without even setting up surveillance."
"Well, regrettably," Wraith shook her head, "the internal surveillance of the hotel has been completely cut off. I estimate Anti-Entropy tampered with it."
"The external surveillance has no particularly valuable information."
"Is that so... I understand." Fu Hua's eyes flickered slightly. Since this was a stealth mission, neither of them carried signal trackers or similar devices to prevent their signals from being detected by Anti-Entropy, which could lead to danger.
But leaving Kiana aside, even Irene hadn't returned. Could they have encountered some danger?
"Want me to go investigate for you?" Wraith sat cross-legged on the bar counter. "How should I put it? I am an A-Rank Valkyrie directly under the Central Intelligence Department. Finding someone for you is a piece of cake~"
"By the time you find them, it will probably be too..." Before Fu Hua could finish her sentence, a strange humming sound resonated from inside the bar counter. Wraith immediately looked toward the source.
After a moment, Wraith looked up at Fu Hua with a tight frown. "High concentrations of Honkai energy detected. Right in the hotel's underground. Your friends are afraid in trouble."
"..." Fu Hua took a deep breath and nodded. "Do you have any Valkyrie armor here?"
"I do, but if you wear it, you might need to use binding straps." Wraith nodded. "As for weapons... if you use gauntlets, it seems I only have the 'Vagabond'."
Fu Hua ignored Wraith's teasing remark. "Then get it ready for me. The situation has become complicated. Also, prepare to evacuate and report to Schicksal HQ."
"Alright, I got it." Wraith nodded. "You be careful too. Come inside with me; I'll get it ready for you immediately."
*
Underground Vault.
"Teacher? Are you not happy to see me?"
[Kiana] leaned lazily against the doorframe, her golden pupils flowing with banter and a cold light.
Irene's heart sank abruptly. The worst-case scenario had happened—the Queen had awakened this quickly. Her hand gripping the suppression device tightened slightly as her brain spun at high speed.
"Kiana..." Irene tried to call out, hoping that even if there was only a sliver of possibility, the consciousness of that white-haired dumpling could still hear her. "Listen to me, calm down..."
"Heh, Teacher, who are you calling?" [Kiana] let out a contemptuous sneer. She tilted her head, a few strands of silver hair sliding over her shoulder.
"My vessel? She's fallen asleep, and she will never wake up again."
[Kiana]'s gaze moved past Irene, fixing burningly on the suspended Gem of Serenity emitting an ominous gloom. Her eyes revealed undisguised desire.
"As for right now... move aside. That is mine... my other half. If you move aside, I might spare your life."
"Impossible." Irene refused decisively. One hand pulled out Kallen's Possession Card, while the other pressed against her chest to cancel Pardo's transformation state.
Pardo's combat power was a bit insufficient. Moreover, what she needed to do now wasn't to fight to kill, but to subdue Kiana. Therefore, Kallen would be more useful than Pardo.
Irene's body instantly burst with soft light. Pardo, wearing that lightweight outfit, gradually faded away. A pitch-black nun's habit appeared, accompanied by silver-white long hair cascading down like moonlight.
The moment Irene switched forms, the Gem of Serenity suspended in mid-air seemed to be stirred by an invisible force and trembled slightly.
The gloomy purple light flowing on its surface became disordered for a split second. The Gem, originally floating quietly, moved slowly toward Irene.
But as Irene's body was completely covered by Kallen's form, the Gem of Serenity slowly stopped in place, ceasing its movement.
"Oh? Changing players?" [Kiana] watched this scene with interest. A trace of surprise flashed through her golden pupils, but it was mostly that cat-and-mouse mockery.
"Truly an interesting ability. But... changing the soup doesn't change the medicine. You are still an ant."
"That's not necessarily true." Irene gave a low shout. Her palm grasped the empty air, and Starry Judah was quickly constructed in her hand, blocking in front of her.
Without any hesitation, Irene immediately manipulated Judah to deploy. Dozens of golden chains shot out as if they possessed life. They did not attack [Kiana], but went straight for the suspended Gem of Serenity.
Under the suppression of the Power of Binding, the activity of the Gem, which had been constantly radiating intense Honkai energy, was suppressed. It offered no resistance as it was pulled into Judah's interior by the chains.
"Robbing me of my things right in front of my face?" Seeing the Gem of Serenity being collected into Judah, [Kiana]'s voice turned cold. She slowly raised her hand, palm aiming at Irene. "Who gave you the courage? Teacher?"
Several Lances of the Void, composed of pure Honkai energy, instantly condensed in front of her. With a screech that tore through space, they shot toward Irene like cannonballs leaving the chamber!
Irene's pupils constricted. The massive Judah in her hand acted like a cross-shaped shield, parrying the Lances of the Void. Upon contact with Judah, the Power of Binding radiating from its surface immediately forced the Lances to reveal their true form.
The surfaces shattered, revealing nothing but pure Honkai energy crystals inside.
Seeing this scene, Irene looked up. "It looks like your condition isn't that great either. Without this area of high-concentration Honkai energy, you wouldn't even be able to fight, right?"
[Kiana] frowned at Irene's words because Irene had indeed guessed her current situation correctly. She truly couldn't use her Authority properly.
Although the Core of the Herrscher of the Void was still in her body, it couldn't provide her with decent Honkai energy. She could only use the energy within this vessel.
And the Honkai energy within this vessel naturally couldn't unleash the full power of a Herrscher.
"So what? Ant, do you think this gives you the ability to defeat me?"
"I don't need to defeat you." Irene blocked with Judah in front of her. The golden chains danced like a swarm of snakes, attempting to seal off [Kiana]'s movement paths and capture her.
But in such a narrow space, the attack trajectory of the chains was too singular and easy to predict. [Kiana] was always able to use the Lances of the Void or her agile movement techniques to dodge the pouncing chains.
What tied Irene's hands even more was that every time she wielded Judah, every horizontal sweep of the chains, she had to control the force and point of impact to the extreme. She was afraid of hurting Kiana's body.
The enemy before her was Sirin, but the body was Kiana's. With Kiana's current combat power, if Irene really wanted to inflict heavy injury or kill her, there were many methods.
But adding the condition of keeping Kiana safe meant Irene could only use this clumsy method with the chains.
The battle fell into an anxious stalemate. Irene relied on Judah's absolute defense and Power of Binding to press forward step by step, but it failed to achieve any special effect.
[This won't work!] Kallen spoke anxiously in the sea of consciousness. [Judah's weight and attack style are at too much of a disadvantage here! And you can't go all out!]
[I know...] Irene parried a Lance of the Void that was blocking her face. [But I have to protect Kiana!]
Just then, a cool, detached voice rang out in Irene's sea of consciousness:
[Miss Irene, please let me handle it.]
[Miss Lixue?]
[I have experience... dealing with her.] Lixue's voice was calm and waveless, yet it carried an unquestionable firmness. [In my world, I fought Sirin together with Master back then.]
[Spirit (Shenyun) can directly attack the mental consciousness. It should be able to directly inflict heavy damage or suppress Sirin's current consciousness without harming the junior named Kiana.]
[I understand!] Irene hesitated no longer. [I'm counting on you, Miss Lixue!]
"Heh... boring stalemate. It's time to end this." Outside, [Kiana] pressed her hand onto the Honkai energy crystals that had condensed during the Gem of Serenity's earlier outbreak, drawing Honkai energy from them.
She needed the Gem of Serenity. She needed her own half.
Irene reached out and directly controlled Judah to erupt with countless chains. This time, they didn't lash out at [Kiana], but hooked onto other objects within the surrounding vault, arranging them densely in front of her.
As the golden light of the chains flashed, the power of Binding · Stasis took effect on these objects. Golden frames linked the items together, blocking in front of Irene, obscuring the line of sight while also acting as a shield.
"Hm?" [Kiana] looked at the shield before her. A trace of surprise and annoyance flashed through her golden pupils; she hadn't expected the opponent to have such strange moves.
She vaguely remembered facing an opponent wielding this weapon before, but that little midget didn't seem to have such a versatile fighting style.
However, [Kiana] continued to rapidly draw Honkai energy from the surrounding crystals. In the end, it was just a shield; she would simply pierce through it. This was nothing but a "dying struggle!"
Seizing this precious interval, Irene unhesitatingly canceled Kallen's transformation. The nun's habit turned into particles of light and dissipated, her silver hair fading back to its original color. Judah also became illusory due to the loss of the medium.
Irene had already pulled out Lixue's card, preparing to transform. Her other hand reached toward the illusory Judah, intending to grab the Gem of Serenity and use Mirror Sync to simulate a simple Judah to continue suppressing the Gem.
Irene's movements were fast. Her left hand was already pinching the Kallen card that appeared after the transformation was canceled; Lixue's card was already pressed against her chest; and her right hand had already grasped toward the Gem of Serenity, whose energy fluctuations had become extremely unstable again due to losing Judah's binding.
Mirror Sync had even activated, blue lines preparing to condense a mirror image of Judah. However, just as Kallen's card thoroughly left Irene's body...
A sudden mutation occurred. That gloomy purple gem seemed to possess a life of its own. It didn't wait for Irene to grab it; instead, it fiercely lunged forward to meet her!
It wasn't picked up, nor was it grabbed. In fact, Irene didn't even have time to react to the Gem of Serenity's movement.
Then, under Irene's astonished gaze, the Gem of Serenity seemed to lose its physical form instantly. The moment it touched the skin of Irene's fingertips, it turned directly into a stream of gloomy purple light and drilled fiercely into Irene's body!
"What?!!" Irene only had time to let out a final cry of surprise before the agony erupting from within her body knocked her down directly.
"Ugh, aaaaaah——!!!" Irene clutched her chest, enduring the pain radiating from inside. She could feel her body being torn apart internally by the Honkai.
Then, countless bone-chilling blocks of ice were stuffed into those cracks to act as a filler to bridge them.
The pain coming from all over her body was far more violent than when she injected the Honkai Adaptability Enhancer. A deeper torrent of Honkai energy, like a river bursting its banks, surged madly within her.
And every cell in her body refused nothing, accepting the modification from the Honkai energy in its entirety.
The most direct change was in Irene's eyes. Her originally azure blue eyes turned blood-red as if congested. Within those eyes, a white cross slowly constructed itself in her pupils.
At the same time, a pitch-black mist, so dense it couldn't be dissolved, spewed out from Irene's entire body. It spread rapidly, dyeing the space around her in profound darkness.
Wherever the black mist passed—whether it was metal or the purple Honkai energy crystals on the ground—everything was decomposed within the mist, turning into dust and dissipating, corroded into gaping holes.
Even [Kiana], who was preparing to launch an attack to break the barrier, was interrupted by this sudden mutation.
[Kiana]'s golden pupils constricted, filled with incredulous shock and a trace of blankness. Separated by the barrier that had become fragile without Judah's support, she stared dead at Irene, who was gradually being shrouded by the dense black mist.
"...What?" [Kiana]'s voice, which had maintained a tone of mockery and laziness, showed obvious wavering for the first time. It even carried a hint of imperceptible... uncertainty?
"My... half..."
[Kiana] looked at Irene, looking at the black mist emanating from Irene's body that caused all things to wither. She muttered to herself, her tone carrying disbelief and a feeling as if she had been cuckolded.
"It chose... someone else?"
________________________________________
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