Within a space filled with a sense of advanced technology, several stone platforms slowly levitated.
Standing upon them were various figures.
This was the Ark Space, located in the headquarters of Anti-Entropy.
A girl with fiery red hair stood on one of the platforms. She wore red-rimmed glasses and had a red mechanical arm on her left.
Her name was Frederica Nikola Tesla, an Executor of Anti-Entropy.
However, her usually pretty face was twisted in a snarl. She lifted her head, her gaze fixed on the highest floating stone.
"Cocolia!" she spat, her teeth clenched.
Her voice was filled with endless fury and resentment.
She found Cocolia's actions intolerable. The anxiety of the past few days had transformed Dr. Lobster into an irritable lioness. To have the Nagazora incident handed over to the person she despised most was an insult that made Tesla, whose hatred for Otto was practically an obsession, want to grind her teeth to dust.
Moreover, her fellow conservative comrade, Raiden Ryoma, had been framed and imprisoned by Cocolia. At first, Tesla and Einstein believed Ryoma was under Cocolia's thumb and had been racking their brains trying to rescue him.
Then, they received a communication from Raiden Ryoma himself. Only then did they learn he was actually in Schicksal's custody.
He wasn't being subjected to any inhuman treatment. Schicksal had even offered to let him go, but Raiden Ryoma had no intention of leaving.
"I dedicated the first half of my life to Anti-Entropy. I want to use the second half to compensate Mei. As long as Mei doesn't leave Schicksal, I won't leave this prison. I will wait for her here."
"That foolish girl…"
Recalling Raiden Ryoma's words from their video call, Tesla, who knew him well, could tell he hadn't been brainwashed or controlled by Schicksal. His decision came from the heart.
But this was a heavy blow to Anti-Entropy. Their prestige had suffered, they had lost an important Executor, and Raiden Mei, wielder of the Gem of Conquest, had fallen into Schicksal's hands.
Tesla had barely been able to eat for days, with one problem cropping up after another.
What infuriated her even more was that Schicksal had even sent them Raiden Ryoma's daily expense bill.
It was a blatant provocation.
And it was a bill Anti-Entropy had to pay.
But damn, Ryoma can really eat. During the video call, Tesla thought his face looked a bit rounder.
Tesla gritted her teeth, glaring daggers at the Cocolia who looked down on her from above. If it weren't for this woman stirring up trouble and attracting that golden-haired dog bastard from Schicksal, things would never have become such a mess.
But her glare was met by a pair of fierce, violet eyes.
Hearing Tesla, Cocolia lowered her head, looking down at her rival, and called out in a deeply suppressed voice.
"Tesla!"
Cocolia, too, was like an irritable mother lioness.
And who could blame her? After all her hard work, Otto had swooped in and plucked the fruit of her labor.
Although she had privately reached an unspeakable agreement with Otto to cut her losses and even gained an opportunity to plant a mole inside Schicksal, a disaster struck before she could even select the orphans to send him.
Every single child in Cocolia's orphanage had been taken away by a Schicksal Valkyrie unit. She didn't have to send them; Schicksal came to pick them up directly, giving Cocolia absolutely no opportunity for a 'civet cat for crown prince' swap.
When she first received the news, Cocolia nearly fainted.
Cocolia genuinely had feelings for the children she raised. She had watched Rozaliya, Liliya, and the others grow up.
She had even been paving the way for Seele within Anti-Entropy; within a year, Seele could have become an Executor to assist her.
And now, all of that was gone.
Furthermore, the signal from Bronya, who had been in Nagazora, was lost. Even the bio-chip she had implanted in Bronya's brain for monitoring was offline, clearly having been removed.
It was obvious that Bronya, the child she doted on most, had also been captured by Schicksal.
Cocolia, who once had many children, had become utterly alone in a matter of days.
This left her in a terrible mental state. But the children were part of her deal with Otto. With things having turned out this way, she could only grit her teeth and accept it.
What else could she do? Try to snatch them back from Schicksal?
Could she even succeed?
Tearing up their agreement with Schicksal now would do her no good.
She had to swallow her broken teeth and bear the pain.
So, hearing Tesla's barking only made Cocolia's frayed nerves even worse.
The two lionesses glared at each other. Tesla was no lady, and Cocolia was no saint. Both strong-willed and unyielding, their tempers flared.
If this were a subway car, a fight would have surely broken out.
"That's enough."
A calm voice echoed through the space.
Lieserl Albert Einstein, the girl with the messy blue hair who had remained silent until now, spoke.
With her closest friend stepping in to mediate, Tesla could only swallow her grievances. She crossed her arms, standing there with an extremely disgruntled expression.
Seeing Tesla quiet down, Einstein turned to Cocolia. She was a woman of almost excessive rationality.
"Cocolia, why have you convened this Executor meeting?" she asked.
Besides Tesla, Einstein, and Cocolia, there were others present. Without exception, they were all Executors of Anti-Entropy.
But one was still missing from their ranks.
Raiden Ryoma was still eating prison food in Schicksal.
However, Einstein found something strange. She noticed another figure standing beside Cocolia, their face obscured by a hood.
Reining in her emotions, Cocolia looked at the other Executors, cleared her throat, and began.
"Everyone."
"As you all know, the Third Herrscher has fallen into the hands of Schicksal."
"But that does not mean we cannot take her back!"
"The Gem of Conquest belongs to us, Anti-Entropy!" Cocolia declared sharply.
"Just the day before yesterday, we detected a Herrscher reaction in the Far East's St. Freya Academy!"
"Although the reaction was fleeting, we managed to capture it."
"Therefore, Schicksal is hiding the Herrscher of Thunder in St. Freya Academy! They are cunning, but in the end, we found them out."
Cocolia was telling the truth.
Her subordinates had indeed detected a Herrscher reaction.
The First Herrscher was their Sovereign, and the Second Herrscher had died over a decade ago. That reaction must belong to the Third Herrscher.
It couldn't possibly be their own Sovereign at St. Freya, could it?
And it was this discovery that sparked an idea in Cocolia's mind.
"I am preparing to formulate a plan to raid St. Freya Academy and capture the Herrscher within!" Cocolia announced her decision.
She had an agreement with Otto, but what of it?
Otto had taken all her children, and she was powerless to do anything.
So, when she snatched the Herrscher of Thunder back, Otto would also be powerless to do anything but accept it.
They were both playing dirty. He stabs me, I stab him. Perfectly normal.
In the end, it all came down to interests.
"And the Sovereign has also approved this plan."
As Cocolia spoke, Tesla frowned. But before she could open her mouth, the figure who had been standing beside Cocolia took a step forward.
He was Welt-One, the clone of Welt Joyce.
"I approve," Welt-One said slowly. He looked up, and a pseudo-black hole, the power of the Herrscher of Reason, materialized in his hand.
Huh?
Is that it?
Tesla, who had seen her fair share of wonders, was about to say something, but she felt the gaze from under the hood fall upon her.
Welt-One looked at Tesla and nodded slowly.
So, this is the great loyalist Tesla the golden-haired man spoke of.
If I want to escape Cocolia's control, I'll have to rely on this Tesla.
Tesla subconsciously nodded back, then caught herself, wondering why she was being so polite to someone from Cocolia's faction.
Still, that power… it really does resemble Welt's power.
But before she could speak, her famously long wind-up was interrupted yet again.
"Very well. If that is the Sovereign's will, we will assist you," Einstein said.
Tesla shot a confused look at Einstein. She frowned, not understanding why Einstein would cooperate with a bitch like Cocolia, who had just recently made a move against the conservatives!
But having known each other for so long, she also knew Einstein must have her own reasons.
Einstein gave Tesla a meaningful look. Tesla understood and lowered her head, offering no words of rebuttal.
Cocolia looked down on the other Executors. Seeing no objections, a smile spread across her face.
It was as if everything was within her control.
The position of Anti-Entropy's Sovereign seemed to be within her grasp.