Singapore. A certain bar.
After finding the bar mentioned in the intelligence, Fu Hua walked into the bar.
Subsequently, inside the bar's counter, she saw a young male.
"Give me a glass of water and the intelligence—cut the crap, we both know time is short."
"Okay, okay, I'm too lazy to stay in this dangerous place anyway."
The young man, skipping the code word phase, actively removed his disguise and handed a piece of paper intelligence to Fu Hua.
"Remember to destroy it after reading."
"...Why would you use such crude means?"
Looking at the old acquaintance before her, Fu Hua, who arrived here, asked Specter while reading the intelligence.
"What about after you got the detailed intelligence here? What do you plan to do?"
"Of course, it's time to cheese it—you don't think I, an intelligence department A-rank, am good at fighting, do you?"
After letting out a helpless sigh, Specter said to Fu Hua.
"During this time, Cocolia's secret moves have been increasing. To transmit intelligence, I've already exposed quite a few flaws."
"Although that vixen sometimes looks like she has something wrong with her brain, in aspects related to internal strife, her sense of smell is still that accurate. If I don't run, sooner or later I'll be caught by that vixen and tortured until I wish I were dead."
"So that's it... is this the reason you used paper intelligence?"
"Duh, I'm already a suspected target. This time I was directly diverted and not allowed to enter the mission area."
"It's not that Cocolia feels the intelligence is already exposed so killing is useless now, or that she doesn't want side issues arising; I estimate that even without exact intelligence, she would find someone to shoot me dead."
"...It's truly been hard on you."
After flipping through the intelligence in her hand, Fu Hua frowned slightly.
"Three Herrscher-class entities are inside the city area???"
"That's how it is. At first, Cocolia also felt she should throw one or two out to guard against us Schicksal Valkyries. But later she felt—play it steady, using all three trump cards to protect the gem is safer."
Letting out a helpless sigh, Specter continued.
"If nothing unexpected happens, Theresa and Durandal should be facing off against Titans right now."
"Although the conditions for war have been met, Singapore stubbornly insists they don't know about Anti-Entropy's affairs. If a fight really breaks out near Singapore... you know."
Fu Hua didn't need Specter to continue explaining; she already knew what Specter meant.
Although everyone knew Singapore's butt was crooked towards Anti-Entropy now, no evidence meant no evidence.
At this time, if they fought with Anti-Entropy in the surrounding areas of this nation, the higher-ups... well, Fu Hua knew Otto himself wouldn't care about these small matters.
But Otto not caring didn't mean others didn't care.
Moreover, Cocolia sent Titans to block those few S-ranks outside. If they really fought those Titans at this moment, and those Valkyries got delayed, Cocolia's plan would have no one to stop it.
Once Cocolia successfully triggered the Fourth Honkai Eruption, the three Herrschers inside Singapore could suppress it and then escort it back to Anti-Entropy Headquarters.
At that step, even if Schicksal consumed those mechs of Anti-Entropy, Anti-Entropy would still win big this time.
In the end, Otto was probably expecting the Fourth Honkai Eruption to happen himself.
For his obsession, he would do anything... Tch, speaking of which, he told me to retrieve the gem but didn't prepare a container for the gem for me.
Although Dr. Magi being able to take the Gem of Serenity away meant he himself had a container that could carry the gem, in this race against time, compared to finding the gem and container then, clearly preparing a container in advance would be much more convenient.
And the meticulous Otto couldn't possibly fail to calculate this point. This showed that this time, he was actually of one heart with Cocolia to a certain extent—at least before the Fourth Honkai Eruption broke out, he was secretly 'assisting' Cocolia.
Schicksal's big boss is the biggest mole; this mission is ridiculous enough.
"Anyway, the specific news is this."
Watching Fu Hua burn the paper, Specter suddenly spoke to Fu Hua with a solemn face.
"Fu Hua, this mission is a bit strange. You... don't die."
"Thanks. You evacuate quickly too."
After leaving this sentence, Fu Hua immediately left the area at top speed.
Empress Hotel, huh? To actually choose such a conspicuous location.
Is Cocolia stupid, or confident that she can trigger the Fourth Honkai Eruption before we stop her?
And Otto... forget it, I knew what kind of person he was long ago. I shouldn't have had any fantasies about his moral compass.
I hope I can still make it...
....................
At the same time. Singapore Border.
Himeko Murata, who was at the Singapore border, looked at the smiling Rita and sensed something slightly amiss.
"Rita, why are you the only one here? The news we received was that your Immortal Blades would move out in full force."
"Where is Durandal? Someone as serious as her couldn't possibly drop the ball at a time like this."
"Well... Lord Durandal is also executing the mission, only..."
Although Rita smiled awkwardly and didn't continue, Himeko had already guessed what happened.
Durandal didn't come here.
But with Durandal's personality, she would definitely not choose to abandon the mission.
That meant she judged that her current action could better complete the mission without harming her companions.
Damn, did this blonde brat run into Singapore's interior?!
Regarding Durandal's behavior at this moment, Himeko expressed...
—Durandal, you did a great job, you did a great job!
About a month ago, one night, Anti-Entropy dispatched a powerful mysterious man to infiltrate St. Freya Academy.
Although the other party didn't cause much damage in the end, before Himeko led her subordinates to surround him, he vanished right in front of Himeko's eyes.
According to the intelligence Theresa got from god knows where afterward, the Executors of Anti-Entropy had already mastered this teleportation technology.
Then as long as Anti-Entropy's plan succeeded this time, that mysterious man could attempt to suppress that newly born Herrscher of Death, who hadn't fully familiarized herself with her Authorities, in the first instant.
Although Himeko didn't think that man's power could compare to a true Herrscher, a newly born Herrscher couldn't actually be counted as a true Herrscher in terms of combat power.
When the Second Honkai Eruption began, Theresa went to the incident location to investigate intelligence.
And Sirin, who was the Second Herrscher at the time, had already awakened but didn't ambush Theresa. It should also be because Sirin at that time hadn't mastered the Herrscher Authorities belonging to her.
If that man's combat experience and skills were sufficient, winning against a stronger opponent wasn't impossible.
And regardless of who won or lost this battle, the victor would be decided within a short time.
If the people from Anti-Entropy won then, they could take the Herrscher and run immediately using the teleportation system.
And if the Herrscher won, that would be even worse; Singapore would explode.
Durandal chose to infiltrate Singapore at this time. Through perceiving energy concentration, she could quickly judge the location where the battle erupted.
With her strength, suppressing a nascent Herrscher actually wasn't difficult.
Moreover, considering her current status, Overseer Otto wouldn't easily punish her.
It could be said she was the most suitable scapegoat and candidate to solve this problem.
So Himeko felt that Durandal really did a beautiful job this time.
"Since Durandal has already infiltrated Singapore's interior, then the subsequent matters are easy to discuss."
"Anti-Entropy intended to use Titans to stall us, but now that Durandal is in, the initiative is no longer firmly in Anti-Entropy's hands."
"Precisely so. In addition, Lord Durandal said that the command of the Immortal Blades is handed over to Lord Theresa."
"That guy... forget it, wish her success."
Seeing that Himeko didn't plan to continue expressing opinions on this matter, Rita immediately breathed a sigh of relief in her heart.
Durandal actively infiltrating Singapore was something she proposed herself.
And now, if nothing unexpected happened, Durandal should already be inside the urban area.
But this time, although Durandal had her Godsbane Battlesuit, she chose not to take the Divine Key for the convenience of action.
Once a battle broke out, Durandal could only use the lance [Hler's Serenity].
Although the intensity of this weapon already counted as forefront among the Divine Throne weapons, it still couldn't compare to the Abyss Flower.
Using the Abyss Flower would add a lot of burden to the user's body. If it were usual times, Rita would be too happy that Durandal wasn't using the Abyss Flower.
But now, she faintly felt a sense of unease.
The enemy this time was very tricky, and several months had passed since that man vanished.
Last time he appeared at the center of the Third Honkai Eruption created by Cocolia, and this time...
The conjecture about the third force was currently just a conjecture.
Only, when meeting that man, could Lord Durandal still maintain composure to fight?
If I wasn't worried about becoming Lord Durandal's burden again this time, perhaps I would have chosen to infiltrate Singapore's interior together with her.
Schicksal, Anti-Entropy, and that third organization that might exist...
Three organizations targeting the center where this Honkai might erupt simultaneously; in a sense, this... is also a kind of fate, isn't it?
......................
When Kiana was transported to Singapore by Aaron using [Dimensional Formation: Shambhala] and saw those ordinary people coming and going around her, Kiana felt a bit like a lifetime had passed.
Starting from when the four of them hid in that small country months ago, Kiana, Mei, and Bronya hadn't left a distance of more than a hundred meters from the house they lived in.
Although Aaron planned to use Bronya to fish Cocolia out, if they exposed everyone's location directly at such a time, Aaron felt that compared to Cocolia, the person who might come killing first would be Otto.
Because of this reason, apart from Aaron who used [Fog of War] daily to run into the urban area to buy goods, the remaining few very consciously didn't go far.
Kiana, who hadn't seen signs of human habitation for months, looked at the ordinary civilians around her at this moment and suddenly almost wanted to shout 'Hell yeah' and start playing to her heart's content.
Only before she made this move, her brain had already stepped in to calm her down.
Last night, Aaron had already explained today's plan to the four of them.
Knowing the hotel where the Anti-Entropy members lived in advance, the four of them would raid this hotel at the first moment today and then take back the Gem of Serenity.
Kiana and the other two formed one group, Aaron formed a group by himself; acting in two groups.
This plan sounded like nothing, but actually, for this event, they really didn't need complex operations.
After all, the person Cocolia really intended to deal with was Schicksal. The four of them counted as a surprise force, focusing on a sudden strike.
And as a surprise force—Kiana and the others naturally couldn't be discovered by that group of Anti-Entropy people before the operation.
"Alright, act according to the plan. Contact via Bluetooth headset if there's anything. Move out. After I disrupt the main gate, you guys follow up."
"I'm responsible for the designated Area A; you guys are responsible for Area B. Although I don't think those guys can trouble you, safety first."
"Okay, got it."
Looking at Aaron before her, Kiana said with incomparable helplessness.
"No need to say this anymore; we aren't three-year-old kids."
At this moment, on the outside of the Empress Hotel, Aaron actively used [Fog of War] to conceal his figure, then charged directly toward the outside of the Empress Hotel.
In an instant, those Anti-Entropy staff members outside the Empress Hotel were directly knocked down by Aaron who approached them, fainting on the ground on the spot.
"Oh, there are rats?"
In the bottommost layer of the Empress Hotel, a blue-haired male glanced at the Gem of Serenity soaking in liquid Honkai crystals, then sneered and muttered to himself.
"Heh, killing your way over right on the eve of the Honkai eruption; the timing is calculated quite accurately. But what a pity..."
"If it's just a few rats, in front of the Herrscher of Reason's power, they simply can't do anything."
"Number Two, Number Three, the invading rats are left to you."
"Remember, try to catch them alive. After all, we don't know..."
"—Whether they are the best candidates for the 'Apostles' this time."