Several months later. Anti-Entropy Headquarters.
Cocolia, who had just returned to her room from her subordinates at Anti-Entropy HQ, rubbed her glabella with incomparable fatigue.
Several months had passed since the outbreak of the Third Honkai Eruption.
During this period, her adopted daughter, Bronya Zaychik, had not contacted her voluntarily, except for that one communication a few days after the eruption.
According to Cocolia's original plan, she had better contact Bronya before she used the Gem of Serenity in Singapore to attempt to initiate the Fourth Honkai Eruption.
Then, after contacting her adopted daughter, she would track her position, drag the Herrscher of Thunder out on the spot, and figure out a way to hoodwink Raiden Mei into becoming a force on her side.
Of course, if she couldn't be hoodwinked... she definitely wouldn't let Raiden Mei continue to run wild in the outside world.
At this moment, Cocolia had already produced three Welt clones that could function normally and exert a portion of the Herrscher's power.
According to her calculations, if two clones attacked together, they should be able to take down that little girl in one fell swoop before she could react.
If the other party still didn't listen to reason by then, she would have to go for the kill and extract the gem from Raiden Mei's body.
As for whether Raiden Mei lived or died... Heh, if she refuses a toast only to drink a forfeit, who cares if a disobedient little girl lives or dies?
Only after dealing with these matters did she intend to fully unfold her plan in Singapore.
But now, she really didn't expect that after several months, her subordinates still hadn't been able to locate Bronya's position.
According to the speculations of those subordinates, it was as if the Herrscher of Thunder already knew about the chip in Bronya's brain and had been periodically releasing Honkai Energy laced with her own Authority into the surroundings, preventing Bronya's brain chip from functioning normally.
Of course, this was still the conclusion they reached by speculating in a positive direction.
If she really thought in a bad direction, Cocolia had actually thought of a possibility.
Her daughter couldn't possibly betray her. Bronya actively telling Raiden Mei about the chip—such a thing would naturally not happen.
As long as she didn't say it herself, who would know there was a chip in her brain that could contact the outside world?
Moreover, if Bronya could move, as long as she could access the internet, with her intelligence, she could completely come up with countless ways to transmit information through various channels.
But up to now, Cocolia hadn't received any information from Bronya. Under these circumstances, it was hard for Cocolia not to generate a rather terrible thought.
Her daughter might have already met with misfortune.
"...Forget it, there's no time to think about this now."
Thinking of the intelligence brought back by Welt Clone No. 2, whom she had sent to pick up Dr. Magi a few days ago, Cocolia knew she didn't have much free time left.
Although Dr. Magi was a high-ranking cadre among Schicksal's researchers, Otto had always kept a close watch on such cadres.
When Welt Clone No. 2 brought back Dr. Magi, he conveniently eliminated a few Valkyries.
Among those Valkyries, A-rank anti-personnel Valkyries had already appeared. This was enough to show that Otto might have already guessed Cocolia's thoughts, which was why he dispatched the strongest A-rank Valkyries, second only to S-rank, while chasing down an unarmed researcher.
After all, what Dr. Magi was carrying was the Gem of Serenity, the Core of the Herrscher of Death.
If the A-ranks were all dead, it was only a matter of time before Otto dispatched S-ranks and mech squads.
The reason Cocolia designated the location of the Fourth Honkai Eruption in Singapore was mainly considering that Singapore claimed to be a 'neutral' country...
Well, Singapore, which had already leaned towards the Anti-Entropy radicals, naturally didn't count as a neutral country in reality, but the problem lay in the fact that—this title still existed for now.
As long as this title existed, Schicksal's Mechs and Valkyries, and Anti-Entropy's Titan squads were not allowed to enter this nation.
Of course, Otto could disregard the rules and let his mech squads and Valkyries force their way in.
But at that step, as long as he actively broke this rule, Cocolia could also completely dispatch Titan squads to charge in.
At that time, Schicksal's reputation would stink. Cocolia's side had the combat power of three Herrscher-level entities; even if Schicksal sent the two known S-ranks over, they wouldn't gain any advantage.
No matter how you looked at it, this 'setup' gave her a greater advantage in the war.
Under these circumstances, Cocolia finally felt that...
Bronya, wait just a little longer.
If something really happened to you, then... I will definitely avenge you!
.........................
At the same time. Aaron's Residence.
Within these few months, apart from meal times, Aaron had been hiding in his room contemplating those two obscure ancient books.
And the three girls, sensing that Aaron seemed to have something to do, simultaneously and tacitly chose not to disturb him.
Kiana and Mei had run a dungeon with Aaron and were already familiar with Aaron's personality and mode of action.
Before making a choice, he would inevitably think about how to act, then make a plan and prepare.
And now, according to the plan Aaron told them during this period, Cocolia would trigger the Fourth Honkai Eruption sooner or later.
If they wanted to stop Cocolia from triggering the Fourth Honkai Eruption, besides constantly paying attention to her movements, they also needed to possess stronger power.
After all, if Cocolia planned to mess around, Schicksal would definitely send people over.
If both sides started fighting and it turned into a mess, God knows what would happen if their power wasn't sufficient.
So during this time, Mei and Kiana spent most of their time sparring.
And after her mindset became slightly less depressed, Raiden Mei's Perfect Realm finally stopped being stuck at that terrible progress of 1% (MISSING) and finally began to steadily improve.
Of course, although the two controlled the fluctuations of mana, Honkai Energy, and magnetic field power during battle so that these terrifying powers wouldn't disturb others' lives, Bronya, who was in the same area as them, couldn't avoid the interference of Honkai Energy.
The Herrscher of Thunder's Honkai Energy characteristics inherently possessed the property of 'interfering with electromagnetic signals'. During this time, not only Bronya's brain chip but even everyone's mobile phones frequently malfunctioned.
If Aaron hadn't hidden the phones in his storage space, only taking them out when needed, his phone would probably have been scrapped directly.
As for Bronya...
Cocolia's thoughts were indeed correct.
If Bronya had the idea, she had countless opportunities to use various means to transmit information to the outside world.
But the current Bronya, after learning of her adoptive mother's deeds, had already generated a trace of doubt toward the adoptive mother she once respected and loved incomparable.
And this trace of doubt had been continuously expanding the shadowed area in her heart over these few months.
Under these circumstances, Bronya naturally didn't choose to actively contact Cocolia.
On one hand, it was because she didn't know how to face Cocolia.
And on the other hand...
She was still worried about her adoptive mother.
After Jizo Mitama completed the erosion of Bronya, she would no longer generate any thought of betraying Aaron, this 'Master'.
But without betraying Aaron, she could still act normally.
Under these circumstances, Bronya, who had already witnessed a part of Aaron's power, naturally didn't dare let her adoptive mother come over to provoke Aaron.
She knew Aaron had already set his sights on her adoptive mother who was preparing to do bad things. The conflict between the two sides had actually entered an almost irreconcilable stage.
But... sigh, dragging it out one day at a time is all she can do.
If Mother Cocolia is still doing bad things, then not only 'Master', but even Sister Kiana and Sister Mei will clash with her sooner or later.
When that day comes...
What exactly should Bronya do?
.....................
Inside his room, Aaron was not studying those two books as usual today.
During this time, besides squatting in this small country to hone his power, he had actually been busy with other things.
Since it was confirmed that Singapore should be the location where Cocolia prepared to guide the outbreak of the Fourth Honkai Eruption, laying out a plan was simple knowing the result.
In these few months, Aaron had long found opportunities to use [Dimensional Formation: Shambhala] to travel to Singapore several times.
Although he didn't have time to excavate those special functions of Magnetic Field Rotation, possessing hypnosis and suggestion magecraft, he easily used the [Fog of War] ability to infiltrate the homes of certain important figures in that country and then hypnotized them one by one.
So when Cocolia sent envoys to talk with the high-level officials of that nation, Aaron knew immediately that Cocolia had made certain preparations.
With the assistance of these 'moles', he not only knew the time Cocolia would enter Singapore but even roughly figured out which location Cocolia would place Dr. Magi in.
As for why he didn't guide these people to reject Cocolia... mostly because Aaron found it troublesome.
According to the 'Quantum Teleportation System' Cocolia displayed in the *Anti-Entropy Invasion* manga arc, even if she was in front of Aaron, as long as Aaron didn't kill her immediately, this vixen could use the Quantum Teleportation System to transport herself to another location at any time.
In that case, the difficulty for Aaron to catch Cocolia was actually quite high.
If he couldn't catch Cocolia, and he wanted to stop her from running around being a bomber with the Gem of Serenity, there was only one way.
As long as he got the most critical Gem of Serenity in his hands, then Cocolia, having lost her casting tool, would have much less destructive power even if she wanted to continue causing trouble.
If he let those people reject Cocolia's plan to unfold in Singapore, God knows where Aaron would have to go to find Cocolia and the Gem of Serenity later.
Compared to alerting the enemy, it was better to solve most of the problems here once and for all.
However, considering that although Otto has another plan, he still values the Gem of Serenity quite a bit at this stage...
After getting the Gem of Serenity, Otto will inevitably target me.
Returning the Gem of Serenity to Otto is absolutely impossible.
Dr. Magi being able to get the Gem of Serenity, to put it bluntly, was mainly because Otto also wanted to see if he could awaken the Herrscher of Death, and then use the Herrscher of Death's power to resurrect Kallen.
Otherwise, how could Dr. Magi, a generic old administrative staff member, so easily steal the Gem of Serenity from the heavily guarded Schicksal base?
If I return the gem to Otto, Otto might just choose a place to be a big bomber just like Cocolia.
After all, he really doesn't treat civilians as humans. Conducting experiments to resurrect Kallen, ultimately causing the deaths of people in one or two cities... to him, that's probably a price he completely disregards.
Ah, so troublesome.
Forget it, take it one step at a time; after all, I haven't got the gem yet.
Everything will be considered after I obtain the gem.
Unless something unexpected happens this time, Cocolia should have one or two Welt clones squatting in Singapore.
And on Schicksal's side, according to the original work, the Immortal Blades will take the mech squads to block the Titans on the outside, while Fu Hua will infiltrate Singapore, then attempt to retrieve the Gem of Serenity from the inside and bring Dr. Magi back to Schicksal.
After all, Otto still values Dr. Magi to a certain extent.
When he privately calls someone a genius, generally speaking, that person really is a genius, and Dr. Magi is one of the few humans praised by Otto as a 'genius'.
To a certain extent, it's understandable that Otto wants to pull Dr. Magi back to Schicksal.
In that case, the probability of us clashing with Fu Hua is very high.
Fenghuang Down... if one hasn't undergone special training to exercise resistance in this aspect, it's very easy to get killed by this Divine Key upon first encounter.
When we start fighting, once Fu Hua determines I am a difficult enemy to deal with, she will inevitably use Fenghuang Down to control me regardless of the cost.
As for Kiana and Mei, if they get blasted by Fenghuang Down, who knows what mess will happen.
If it reaches that step, then we can only compete in speed.
Taking out the Revive Hourglass which he hadn't used once since obtaining it, Aaron sighed slightly.
If it isn't absolutely necessary...
I really don't want to use this thing.