Swift, silent.
Before anyone noticed, a tall, slender woman holding a long spear was already standing in front of the vehicle carrying the three Hunters and Kal'tsit.
Then, a sharp, deafening noise, like thunder, followed closely behind her, reaching everyone's ears.
Tsk... Although at first glance her skin was slightly flushed, after a few seconds, her cheeks and arms gradually began to regain their color, presenting an alluring pallor instead.
She was... cooling down.
Evidently, just now, this Senior Sister, who was already over 1.8 meters tall, had effortlessly broken the sound barrier with her Physical Body, achieving supersonic speed.
Even Skadi could only momentarily pierce the sound barrier with her monstrous strength.
Looking at the trees several kilometers away on the coast, swaying as if buffeted by a strong wind and almost uprooted, Goki knew that this Big Sister must have been sprinting towards this location for a long time, maintaining a speed that broke the sound barrier.
In front of this person, Goki's entire Bloodline was surging.
Part of it seemed to emanate the joy of reunion, part of it radiated immense awe and fear, and the last part... was eager to try, which was Goki's Hunter's instinct.
Goki stood still, instinctively maintaining vigilance, observing this familiar Big Sister up and down.
On her head, she wore a triangular Hunter's hat tilted to one side, a black uniform top that flowed like water, tight black long boots that reached her thighs, and large patches of snow-white... well, just trousers that easily made one imagine them as thighs.
Her skin was paler than Skadi's and Specter's, and her ears were sharper.
Coupled with her tall and slender figure, and the two-meter-long, pitch-black spear in her hand, which exuded a strong sense of danger... she was just like a rapidly speeding swordfish.
However, compared to a swordfish, Goki felt she resembled a familiar person more.
"Hey, Nona Puppet, don't you think she looks like—Senior Sister Maria?"
With a slight smile, Goki asked the Nona Puppet in his mind.
Ms. Maria of the Astral Clocktower, who betrayed the Vileblood, was the Disciple of the first Hunter Gehrman, and in a sense, Goki's Senior Sister.
Unwilling to associate with the arrogant Vileblood, she abandoned her noble status and joined the ranks of the Hunters. But after the tragedy of the fishing village, Maria realized her hands were stained with blood and resolutely gave up her work as a Hunter, caring for the sick and orphans in Yharnam.
However, when she discovered that the Healing Church was still using villagers as test subjects for inhumane experiments, her faith in the Hunters finally collapsed.
To guard the greedy secrets of those silver-haired humans, she chose to commit suicide, but the power of the Vileblood kept her alive in the nightmare, slaughtering anyone who wished to disturb the dead's slumber—including Goki.
To commemorate his Disciple, Gehrman created the Nona Puppet based on Maria, but the two were ultimately not the same.
One could say, of all the Yharnam BOSSes, Maria alone held eight dou of conscience, Ludwig held three dou, and the rest were in negative one dou.
Whenever he had nothing to do, Goki would go to Maria to fight and also have a good chat.
In the end, Senior Sister Maria herself grew tired of exerting herself against Goki, and the two finally sat down to drink tea peacefully.
And with the dissipation of the Yharnam Dream, Goki believed that noble Soul had finally gained freedom.
"No, far from it. Ms. Maria is a gentle and kind female, and in her, I only see arrogance and disdain. She is not suitable."
Upon hearing Goki's words, the Nona Puppet, however, gave a firm denial, her tone even a little stern.
She was both curious and respectful of her prototype.
"I was wrong, I was wrong, they're completely different! It's just that they look a little alike, don't be angry."
Goki quickly apologized, which finally appeased the Nona Puppet.
Meanwhile, Skadi and Specter, after a brief moment of stunned silence, immediately widened their eyes.
"Ha-ah—ah, Captain!"
Mid-yawn, Specter saw the familiar figure and immediately sprang up from Skadi, who was supporting her, her face full of joy.
On the other side, Skadi was also somewhat shocked, directly calling out her name—this was the third living Abyssal Hunter!
"You are—Second Squad Captain, Gladiia!"
Although she rarely socialized and was mostly reclusive, Skadi still recognized the captains of a few squads.
Especially Gladiia; she was one of the earliest Hunters and also Aegir's Technical Executive, holding high status and power, and was highly respected.
During the final battle, the Second Squad held back the surging Seaborn for the First Squad's beheading operation, and Skadi had witnessed Gladiia's methods.
She could even stir up a vortex in the deep sea; even the giant Seaborn she had defeated not long ago could not escape its immense gravitational pull.
"Even you—are there other Abyssal Hunters alive?"
Upon seeing Gladiia, Skadi immediately felt a glimmer of hope. Perhaps, she had merely gone astray? Perhaps it was a victory after all, and there were more Abyssal Hunters—
"No, Hunter Skadi, at least within my knowledge, only I survived that battle. I also discovered two Abyssal Church nests, killed five Seaborn-transformed Abyssal Hunters, and found the bodies of seven Abyssal Hunters, for whom I held funerals."
Gladiia shook her head, speaking indifferently, her tone concealing a hint of sadness.
"Oh."
Skadi's rekindled hope was once again dashed, but this time, she wasn't as sad.
Firstly, she had already found two companions who were Abyssal Hunters, and secondly... "I'm fine."
Skadi felt a pat on the back of her hand, looked at Goki beside her, and shook her head... She still had her friends.
Beside the Originium truck, Kal'tsit was already standing with her arms crossed over her chest in her green dress.
"Executive Gladiia... you have appeared on the coast, which indicates the situation is not optimistic. What happened in the depths of Aegir?"
She looked at Gladiia, without the awe of Skadi and Specter, but rather... as if they were very familiar?
"Kal'tsit, this is an internal matter of Aegir, unrelated to the nations of the continent, and unrelated to you."
Gladiia seemed to have noticed Kal'tsit long ago. With a casual wave, she plunged her spear deep into the ground by more than ten centimeters, responding coldly to her.
"Heh, Aegir is still as arrogant as ever, Gladiia. You should understand that whether it's land or sea, it will always be a community of shared destiny... Forget it, you wouldn't understand."
With a cold chuckle, Kal'tsit's expression remained indifferent, but her gaze towards Gladiia carried a hint of disappointment.
"But it seems now you also don't know what happened beneath Aegir. Have you lost contact?"
For a moment, a strong hostility emanated from Gladiia, but in the next second, this hostility vanished without a trace.
From beginning to end, Kal'tsit remained completely unmoved.
"Yes, but this is still none of your business—Aegirians have their own way of doing things. Regardless, thank you for helping the three Abyssal Hunters."
With that, Gladiia looked at Goki, who had been watching the show from the side.
"Perhaps others survived, but I only found the three of you—what is your name, Hunter? State your combat sequence. Have I danced with you before?"
Dances were a common social custom for Aegirians, and Gladiia, as the Technical Executive, was fond of them. Outside of work, she had danced with almost all Hunters at parties.
However, this Abyssal Hunter in front of her, also wearing Hunter's attire, whose face was unclear in the darkness, and who was even significantly taller than herself, Gladiia seemed to have never met before.
"Ah? Me?"
"What?"
"Pfft—"
"Heh."
After Gladiia uttered these words, the four people present all reacted somewhat intensely.
Skadi tilted her head, Kal'tsit snorted coldly, and Specter, in front of her Captain, couldn't help but chuckle softly despite her drowsiness, then immediately covered her mouth nervously.
As for Goki, he pointed to himself with some surprise.
"Um... Maria, cough, cough, I mean, Ms. Gladiia, I'm just an ordinary land-dweller, not an Abyssal Hunter."
Goki was startled, then smiled with relief.
Not long ago, his blood vessels had just been filled with an unknown amount of CCs of blood by two Abyssal Hunters.
Abyssal Hunters sensed each other through their Bloodline, and now, if Goki focused his Qi, he could also perceive the presence of the other three Abyssal Hunters.
"Pfft, Gladiia, Young Master Goki is a Hunter from the land, not from our sea—but he's also very good at fighting! If it weren't for him, I might have been completely brainwashed by those Abyssal Church scumbags, though it's not much different now."
Specter and Skadi exchanged glances and explained to Gladiia together.
"And, Goki is a boy, a good person. He's very powerful."
Just now, the two of them had discovered that ever since the blood transfusion, they had a similar sensing ability to Abyssal Hunters.
But perhaps because they had been with Goki all along and were accustomed to his Qi, they hadn't expected that this disguise could fool a Captain—she was one of the earliest and strongest Abyssal Hunters!
"Wh—"
Hearing Skadi and Specter's words, Gladiia's eyes narrowed, and her calm expression showed a clear fluctuation for the first time.
Boom—
The next second, accompanied by another sonic boom, she had appeared in front of Goki, standing on her tiptoes, bringing her face close to his, so much so that their noses almost touched.
"Gladiia!"
Almost instinctively, Skadi extended her slender arm, blocking in front of Goki.
Goki, however, remained calmly in place, not even making a defensive move.
What was there to fear? Although Gladiia was an arrogant Aegirian and also held disdain for land-dwellers—but what of it, wasn't she still Goki's wife!
Alright, that wasn't the point.
Abyssal Hunters were connected by Bloodline. Goki did not feel any killing intent or hostility from Gladiia, only a hint of curiosity.
Since she was arrogant, she would naturally have her pride; she wouldn't strike casually.
"A bit hot, Ms. Gladiia, too close, too close!"
Feeling the heat radiating from Gladiia and her exquisite face, Goki, the old bachelor, blushed a little again.
Calling her 'wife' was one thing—being shy was another! They couldn't be conflated.
After all, Goki was a Hunter; when hunting, he had high attack and low defense, and in matters of emotion, he still had high attack and low defense.
He was super brave when calling others 'wife', but when others touched him, he would shatter easily.
After observing Goki for a few seconds, Gladiia raised her head.
"Indeed, there are still flaws—Kal'tsit, has Iberian technology reached this level?"
Gladiia knew that the Golden Nation had a plan to imitate Aegirian technology and create artificial Abyssal Hunters, and she subconsciously believed this was the result of scientific research.
"This is our land-dwellers' business, Gladiia. Can Aegirians interfere at will?"
Kal'tsit, however, remained calm, returning Gladiia's earlier words to her.
"Interesting... but this is irrelevant to us. We have more important things to do, Skadi, Specter."
Stepping back a few paces, Gladiia pulled out her spear and calmly issued instructions to the two Hunters.
"Contact with Aegir is still cut off, but our nation is immensely powerful. We need to restore contact as soon as possible. At the same time, we need to destroy Abyssal Church strongholds as much as possible and eliminate their forces on land."
Looking at Skadi's slender hand blocking in front of Goki, Gladiia raised an eyebrow.
"Say goodbye to your friends. It's time to act."
As soon as she finished speaking, the atmosphere around the Hunters suddenly became somber.
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