After witnessing the officer's actions and words and combining them with the intelligence she had gathered, Vill-V had already guessed where these people came from.
After all, there were not many people in this era who studied dissociative identities. Most of them were in psychiatric hospitals.
Once Odin said those words, there was no longer any room for doubt.
Of the three major foreign superpowers in Dusk City, following MOTH and Mad Hatter, Ninth Mausoleum had finally revealed itself as well.
Of course, the Ninth Mausoleum here was not called the Ninth Mausoleum. Here, it was known as the National Boundary Guardian.
Who would have imagined that the director of Heliopolis Life Sciences' Strategic Security Department belonged to the exceedingly dangerous National Boundary Guardian?
As expected, these people were the true masterminds behind everything. No matter how many informants Su had scattered around before, he had never managed to locate them. Yet unexpectedly, Pardo had directly brought their leader here first.
As expected, Pardo was the strongest intelligence expert and scout of all.
Although Vill-V very much wanted to slaughter these people on the spot...
Oh, the reason Vill-V was so eager to kill them was not because her hatred had reached the breaking point. She simply wanted to settle a personal grudge under official cover.
Unfortunately, in her current state, she truly could not defeat them.
And even if she could, what about the Taixu Gang members detained by the Mobile Response Force?
In that case, she would simply continue following whatever arrangement Seele might have made.
Vill-V spread her hands. "So that stuff is called star-silver? What a fascinating material. I'd really like to study such a strange substance..."
That was a lie.
Technology for isolating the brain was already something Vill-V had seen countless times. There had been plenty of it in the Three-Body world of her past life.
In that world, as long as something involved Trisolarans, Earth always seemed capable of mass-producing ridiculous amounts of black technology.
Vill-V did not even need outside assistance to isolate herself.
How hard could it be to shut herself off on the spot?
"However, I'm afraid you've mistaken me for someone else. I've heard of that organization, Ninth Mausoleum, but there are plenty of people in the world named Vill-V. You're looking for some Shenzhou Vill-V. What does that have to do with me? Do I look Shenzhouan to you in any way?"
Although both of her souls across two lives truly had been from Shenzhou, surely he could not see souls, could he?
In this life, Vill-V was a genuine European through and through.
The kind who never lost a gacha fifty-fifty.
At the very least, she already had SSR cards like Su, Pardo, Bronya, Seele, and Niu-Niu. Surely that made her unquestionably lucky, right?
Of course, Vill-V had no expectation that this excuse would actually fool him. She simply wanted to extract more information from Odin.
For example, why did he know about her past experiences? How had he found out?
Her past experiences were clearly not supposed to exist within Ninth Mausoleum's records.
Until Vill-V completely destroyed Ninth Mausoleum, she had never even come into contact with Ninth Mausoleum.
Odin neither confirmed nor denied Vill-V's sophistry. "Whether it is true or false can be determined with a single test."
He took the scepter from the fallen officer's hand and tapped the officer's body with it.
"Souls do not lie."
A miraculous scene unfolded. A gigantic translucent azure lizard wreathed in ghostly flames actually emerged from the officer's body.
The enormous lizard was at least two or three meters long and covered in hard blue scales.
The sight made Pardo suck in a sharp breath. Her emerald eyes widened, and her mouth involuntarily formed an O.
"This is... I get it! Odin's horse is his soul too! Be careful, Vill-V, his horse is about to come out!"
Vill-V was not surprised in the slightest that Odin could manipulate strange spiritual entities.
Only people like these could possess all kinds of occult techniques even more bizarre than alien technology.
Many of Scholar's occult techniques had also been inspired by them.
As for whatever riddle Pardo was spouting now, Vill-V could not understand it at all.
It was far too abstract. It seemed she had received Scholar's true inheritance.
Vill-V spread her hands. "If it's coming out, then it's coming out. If his horse wants to come out, I can't stop it. Pardo, what do you think I am? The Grim Reaper?"
"Uh... fair enough."
Pardo scratched her head. She seemed to have deified Vill-V a little too much, always assuming Vill-V could do absolutely anything.
"Then what do we do? Vill-V, do you think he'll let us go?"
Pardo was always something of an optimist. Even now, she was still imagining that the enemy might simply let them leave.
"Pardo, do you know something? Ninth Mausoleum is one of the most terrifying organizations in the world, even more terrifying than Mad Hatter. They even dare steal things from Heliopolis Life Sciences, and you're expecting him to let us go?"
Odin's scepter flashed. The giant lizard opened its bloody maw toward Vill-V and Pardo, revealing densely packed rows of sharp teeth while emitting a terrifying hiss.
Pardo trembled as she pressed herself fearfully against Vill-V's back, yet at the same time she bared her teeth at Odin, looking exactly like a frightened cat.
Meanwhile, the giant eagle behind Odin and the kitty behind Vill-V bared their teeth at one another as well, glaring furiously as though hurling insults with their eyes, both looking ready to attack at any moment.
"Are you two pets?" Vill-V complained.
In the end, Odin lowered the scepter after all.
The enormous soul-lizard circled once through the air before returning to the officer's body.
It was not because Odin had been frightened by Pardo.
If all he wanted was to silence them, Odin, as the leader, would never have personally come to find Vill-V.
He had even gone so far as to disrupt Heliopolis Life Sciences' existing arrangements and completely tear up their cooperation agreement with the company.
But Vill-V... possessed exactly that much value to the National Boundary Guardian.
He planted the scepter against the ground and, beneath the puzzled gazes of the two women, sighed before explaining:
"This scepter was originally one of our sacred relics. Heliopolis Life Sciences merely seized it for themselves."
Odin showed no anger toward Vill-V's slander. "Heh. We are not Shenzhou's Ninth Mausoleum. If one traces our history back five thousand years, the Scandinavians also called us Asgard. Of course, the current National Boundary Guardian is no longer the Asgard of the past."
Then Vill-V and Pardo witnessed something that surprised them both.
The noble Odin lowered the head he normally held so high and condescended to perform an extremely classical knightly salute.
"Please forgive our earlier discourtesy... Your Highness, Daughter of Humanity (Alaya)."
The moment his words fell, the formerly aggressive members of the Mobile Response Force surrounding them all dropped to their knees in perfect unison and saluted Vill-V as well. Their gestures were even more solemn and devout as they began loudly chanting words of praise.
Above the giant pit, the Mobile Response Force suddenly released the Taixu Gang members. When the gang members gathered nearby, this was the scene they saw.
"That's Azure Empyrea! My God... No, my Immortal!"
"So Azure Empyrea saved us again!"
"Even the Mobile Response Force is kneeling before the Immortal! The Immortal is invincible and domineering! Even the Mobile Response Force has to bow down before her!"
Vill-V had once again maxed out Azure Empyrea's reputation.
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