The sharp blade cut through the flesh, and blood spurted out, scattering in spots on the concrete floor.
"..."
Thick smoke and gas spread rapidly. Rita didn't even have the mood to care about Mei who might have escaped. A strong anger filled her heart, but she immediately pressed the wound on her shoulder.
That's right, the blood that just splattered was Rita's.
……
"You are too bold to interfere with the work of the Valkyrie of Destiny." Restraining her inner anger, Rita took out a bandage from the equipment on her waist and barely bandaged her wound, but now her continued use of the sickle will definitely be greatly affected.
The person who came did not speak, but walked out of the shadows silently.
A strand of fiery red hair fell like a waterfall, and a white half-face mask covered the upper half of the face, with only two different colored pupils, one gray and one orange-red, showing through the holes.
Wuliangta Jizi silently picked up the sword that Raiden Mei dropped. As for the long sword she had just thrown out in a sneak attack, it was just an ordinary standard weapon. Su Jue's industrial system has not yet been deployed, and now he can only steal from some backward military groups like the sniper rifle before.
The moment she saw Himeko, even her inner anger was replaced by shock. Rita stared at the Himeko doll, with its fiery red hair, orange eyes, and iconic chest...
"Murata Himeko? Shouldn't you have died in the imaginary space?" As the executor who assisted Otto in the awakening of the Herrscher of the Void, Rita was naturally clear about the entire process of the battle. The battle ended with Himeko's death and the Herrscher of the Void's escape. However, now the person who should not have appeared has appeared.
Ji Zi didn't say anything. Her current appearance was very different from her original appearance. Although some parts were highly similar, they could still be distinguished if observed carefully.
Sure enough, after more than 10 seconds of confrontation, Rita shook her head and said, "No, you are not her. You are not eroded by artificial stigmata, nor do you have the energy of the plague gem. Even the secret door left by the bishop on the God-killing armor has not been activated."
"who are you?"
Slowly raising the sword in her hand, Ji Zi decided to comply with Su Jue's request and not expose herself, but when she was about to start fighting directly, Su Jue suddenly took over her control.
"Good evening, Miss Rita." A slightly jumping voice came out of Ji Zi's mouth, which immediately caught Rita's attention.
"Oh? Are you finally willing to communicate? I thought you were just a dumb puppet."
Although this woman of unknown origin finally stopped keeping silent, Rita felt that her danger level had increased sharply.
"How could that be? Didn't I come here to say hello to Miss Rita? As for letting Miss Rita's prey run away by mistake, that was purely accidental. I apologize here." Su Jue spread his hands. He wished that Rita would kill Mei, but he knew in his heart that the possibility was too low. Mei was conducting reconnaissance alone, and Theresa couldn't have made no preparations. This smoke gas was a backup. Instead of waiting for her to run away and then fight with Rita, it was better to take advantage of Rita's action to attack her first and weaken her strength.
This is not despicable. Can the actions of a Herrscher be considered despicable?
"But I don't think your attitude is an apologetic one, and a guy hiding away looks more than a little suspicious."
"Oh, it seems I forgot to introduce myself. I thought Miss Rita had guessed my identity. After all, the snake has set its sights on you, hasn't it?"
Rita frowned, "Are you from World Snake?"
"You are very clear about this, so it doesn't matter whether I am a member of World Snake or not." Su Jue was silent for a while, and then he spoke as if he remembered something: "Well, I think I can be a member of World Snake. How about the code name Chi Lian?"
"Chi Lian? It matches your red outfit very well, but Tian Ming's snake catching skills are not bad either. Once he catches you, it will be easy to tell whether it is a real snake or a fake one."
Chapter 50 Humanoid Machine
The verbal attack ends here. For Rita, no matter what Su Jue's identity is, she has to fight him to find out. And Su Jue's target is also the Gray Snake artificial eye in Rita's hand. This thing is the key to controlling the humanoid machine, so this battle is inevitable.
"I leave it to you. No matter whether you win or lose, you have to hold her back. Otherwise, there's no telling what will happen to your students. You don't want to..."
"Whoo~"
After exhaling a breath of foul air, she regained control of her body and held Mei's sword in front of her. Although her advantage was the greatsword, it did not mean that she could not use other weapons. If she were to fight against Rita in her prime, she would not be qualified. But now that Rita was injured, she might have a chance with her new body.
Moreover, she knew very well that Su Jue was preparing to seize the humanoid robot from her students. If anything went wrong on her side, the Herrscher would definitely not hold back.
boom--
As the ground beneath her feet suddenly cracked, Rita's body shot out like an arrow, and the battle between the sickle and the sword was staged again on this street.
……
"Mr. Gray Snake, please forgive me for borrowing the name of Snake, but I swear, our goal does not conflict with the guidance of Snake. On the contrary, I can provide you with a lot of useful information..." In the Gray Snake's base, the [Father] puppet that was deliberately released by Su Jue to lure the Gray Snake has been caught red-handed and is now playing the role of the leader of an underground organization.
Facing the snake's cold gaze, Su Jue was quite skilled in mixing his fear with a bit of pride. As the leader of an underground organization, even though he knew that the World Snake was a behemoth, he had only heard about it after all, so he would inevitably retain some pride.
"Snakes don't like things that are not planned. If that's all, you should probably consider your own future."
A lot of cold sweat seeped out of his forehead. [Father] nervously took out a handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his forehead, but his hands kept shaking. He racked his brains to find the information he could provide. "I... I know what Tianming is looking for... They are looking for the Desire Gem. Yes, the Desire Gem. As long as the snake can set an ambush, they will definitely be able to catch them all in one fell swoop."
After finally getting a piece of information together, [Father] relaxed a lot. He looked at the artificial eye behind the white mask and said sincerely, "Believe me, this information is absolutely true..."
Gray Snake was still holding his black umbrella, and it was unknown what he was thinking, but after he started talking, [Father]'s face changed drastically. "The information is indeed true, but this kind of obvious information has no value. A former business partner of mine taught me a truth. When the value of the information cannot reach the value of the trader, life becomes the bargaining chip of this transaction."
"So, have you decided on your chips?"
At this time, [Father] was sweating profusely and kept thinking, but Gray Snake seemed to have lost his patience and pointed the gun at his head.
"I can hand over all my assets to the World Serpent! I still have the trace of the Herrscher of the Void, and I also know the whereabouts of the Anti-Entropy Leader, as well as the experiments that Otto is currently conducting. Just give me some time, and I will be able to find them out."
Perhaps the value of life completely made the man lose his mind, and he actually blurted out everything he knew. Gray Snake's finger on the trigger paused, and his red prosthetic eye flickered slightly.
"Destiny, Anti-Entropy, World Serpent... You actually have information about them all. I'm beginning to be interested in your identity."
The gun was still pointed at his forehead, and the man could only lower his body. "I just have a little more information channels."
"I give you two choices, join the snakes, or die here."
“I…” [Father]’s lips trembled, but he finally swallowed his pride and lowered his head towards the gray snake, “I understand.”
"If you can continue to provide the snake with useful information, you will also have your own code name. Otherwise, the snake will devour you."
……
After a long period of cracking, Bronya finally broke through the network defense of the stronghold and found the information that Gray Snake was hiding here.
"Is this guy a lunatic? He actually collected all the network information of Sky City." Bronya frowned as she hacked into the database. "More importantly, Gray Snake didn't even organize it. There is no classification, label, index... All the information is a mess."
After hearing what Bronya said, Theresa also felt awkward, "Is there no information about Kiana?"
"Maybe, but it will take me at least several days to find it. If I want to migrate it, it will take even longer." He kept looking for information about Kiana, but with little success. "As an intelligence dealer, it is too strange to steal information without screening."
"Unless he has a more efficient processing terminal - found it, this is..." As Bronya moved, the mechanical door of the base slowly opened, accompanied by the sound of hydraulic rods, and the figure of a little girl appeared in front of the two.
"Little girl?" Theresa exclaimed the moment she saw the figure, but she immediately noticed the large number of tubes and data terminal interfaces connected to the girl.
"No, to be precise, she is a cyborg. Just like the transformation that Gray Snake made to himself, most of this little girl's body has also been transformed." Bronya explained patiently. In fact, she had tried to use the permissions of the biochip to crack it, but she gave up soon.
"Her brain has been completely transformed and fitted with a quantum computer, which has amazing computing power. Without core permissions, even I can't crack it for a while."
"Quantum-level computing power... no wonder it doesn't need to be sorted." Theresa immediately understood what she meant. "Perhaps we can use the Hyperion's main brain to crack it, but the problem now is how do we take her away."
"Outsider, your journey ends here... Please don't point that kind of thing at me."
Faced with the muzzle of Bronya's heavy artillery that was almost against its forehead, the humanoid robot, who was just about to say a few tough words, immediately became timid.
"Bronya, this is too rude." Theresa was a little embarrassed and wanted to ease the atmosphere.
"President, we don't have time to waste. Contact Mei immediately. We should retreat." Bronya, who had replaced the invitation with kidnapping, did not give her a chance and started contacting Mei immediately.
But the strange thing is that Mei's signal is clearly approaching, but there is no signal to connect.
"Are you looking for her?" A strange male voice sounded in the empty base. Theresa was startled and saw Mei, who was already a little unconscious, being thrown out by the man and flying towards them.
"Run away..."
Chapter 51: Yu Duchen Fu Hua
Just when Su Jue was preparing to play the role of a villain, the central area of Tianqiong City also welcomed an uninvited guest, who was the unstable factor that Su Jue was most worried about - the Herrscher of the Void.
Kiana was now much different from her previous embarrassed appearance. Her further mastery of the power of the Herrscher of the Sky allowed her to handle the disaster scene with greater ease. At the same time, the stability of her spiritual world also allowed her to no longer be bound by fear of Xilin's temptation. More importantly, she had discovered the feather hidden deep in her consciousness. Although this feather that hosted Fu Hua's thoughts could not provide her with any substantial help, it was equivalent to having an extra companion.
"Kiana, you have changed so much compared to the past few months." Fu Hua, who appeared in the form of Fiery Wing, couldn't help but sigh. She had been following Kiana since the awakening of the Herrscher of the Void. However, Kiana at that time was deeply troubled by her inner self-condemnation and the interference of Sirin's consciousness. She had always closed her heart tightly and was unwilling to communicate with anyone. Naturally, she would not accept Fu Hua's guidance.
Because of this, she understood Kiana's pain better than anyone else, and witnessed her despair and loneliness, until a few days ago when things finally took a turn for the better. Kiana's heart became tougher, and it seemed that she had found a new goal in life. Although she still couldn't control her own power, she could at least lock Sirin's consciousness tightly and not give her the opportunity to cause trouble.
"Heh, do you think that my consciousness should dissipate as Otto predicted, and I should completely become the host of the Ruler of the Void?" She jumped down from the roof of a high building, and then rolled to the ground. She did not show any good attitude towards Fu Hua's remarks.
And it was precisely because of her wandering that Kiana became even more angry about Otto's actions, and Fu Hua, who was sent by him to monitor her, was naturally disliked by her. If she was in the situation of being drowned in despair before, she might have grasped the only life-saving straw after Yu Duchen appeared.
But now, after accidentally witnessing Su Jue's optimistic and resolute attitude towards life, Kiana was also infected by him and gradually regained the courage to face life. Fu Hua, who appeared at this time, was just another means of Otto in her eyes. Although she could not say she hated him, she could not trust him unconditionally.
Adding icing on the cake can never be as good as helping someone in need. Su Jue broke into her life when she was most desperate and gave her strength. She will never forget this kindness.
Faced with Kiana's obvious distrust, Fu Hua felt a little helpless, but she was not the kind of person who would care about trivial matters. Now that Kiana had found herself again, she was happy to be an ordinary friend.
Standing on a high-rise building in the central area, Kiana looked down at the bustling neighborhood with shining eyes.
"Even though the outskirts of the city are still suffering from the disaster of collapse and attack, the people living here are enjoying the prosperity as if nothing has happened. While they are partying every night, have they ever thought about how many people are working hard for tomorrow..." The medical record he had seen flashed quickly through his mind. The change that the gray-haired boy saved for his medical treatment was not even as much as the meal expenses dumped into the trash in the central area. Only those who have truly experienced this world will understand what kind of life people living at the bottom of society live.
“I want to transform this imperfect world into what we want it to be.”
During this period of time when she was constantly saving the citizens of Tianqiong City, she also discovered that the reason for such a gap was closely related to a company called Shencheng Pharmaceutical. This time she came to the central area just to investigate the background of this company.
However, when she was about to go to the next location, a faint smell of blood drifted into her nose along with the cold wind. Kiana quickly reacted, "I can still smell the smell of blood at this height. The scene is definitely more serious than I imagined."
"Could it be an attack by Honkai beasts?" Fu Hua put forward her own guess. All her information came from Kiana, so she could only speculate based on the existing clues.
"Go and have a look."
She took advantage of the momentum to leap from the edge of the tall building and landed on the opposite building like a flying bird. She then slid down the sloping wall. When she reached the end of the roof, a Sub-Sky Spear appeared and supported her body.
After going back and forth, she had already fallen back from the building to the block. In order to avoid being discovered, she did not choose to cross the street directly, but prepared to go around from another direction.
Just as she was about to take action, she suddenly spotted a familiar little girl standing in the middle of the street, looking a little dazed.
"Grayshudder? Why is she here?" Kiana was a little surprised, because this place is not close to the ranch, unless she came to the central area specifically for shopping... It seems so, Grayshudder has a cute hairpin on the end of her hair, and she is holding a paper bag in her hand. Judging from the pattern printed on it, it should be some kind of painting tool.
"Do you know that little girl?" Because Kiana's heart had been closed before, Fu Hua didn't know the existence of Su Jue and Gray Xiu.
After hesitating for a moment, Kiana nodded and said, "She is a relative of a very important... friend of mine. Her family has helped me before."
Although she wanted to chase her away immediately after seeing the photo, Kiana felt that there was nothing wrong with it. Instead, she was grateful that she didn't call the police directly because of Su Jue.
"She looks like she needs help, but you might be caught on camera." After a little thought, Fu Hua understood Kiana's current concerns. "She should be here with her parents. If she is lost, her parents should come to find her soon. The security force in the city center is not bad. There is no need for you to take risks."
"But..." The vague uneasiness in her heart still made Kiana a little worried, but she also knew that her whereabouts had been photographed once. Once exposed again, she would most likely attract Tianming's tracking. More importantly, the previous smell of blood made her feel even worse.
"Kiana, have you forgotten your goal? There must be many unknown secrets hidden in this city. You must find evidence before being discovered. If it is really an attack by Honkai beasts, the casualties will be even greater."
"..."
"I understand."
Sighing in her heart, Kiana had no choice but to leave. Compared to the lost Grayshu, this city was more important.
Following her own perception of the smell of blood, Kiana quickly found the source of the smell, and when she stepped into the street where the massacre had taken place, she couldn't help but be shocked. More than 10 bodies fell to the ground in an incomplete posture, and the blood almost dyed the entire ground red.
"The bodies are all wearing the same uniform, and there are fallen guns on the ground. They look like some kind of underground organization. They are probably not good people. The strange thing is that almost all of them were cut by sharp blades, which seems to have been caused by some large weapon, and there are no other bullet holes except the bullet holes caused by the deceased." Fu Hua quickly analyzed the traces at the scene. She had been a detective in London for a period of time, and her investigative ability was not weak.
Looking at the corpses scattered all over the ground and hearing Fu Hua's analysis, Kiana's face gradually turned ugly. In her mind, a figure who was good at using this kind of large cold weapon gradually emerged - Rita Rossweisse.
Chapter 52 Clues and Flames
"As expected, Tianming has already discovered my whereabouts?" Kiana sighed in her heart and began to check for unnecessary traces. After she had a guess of the target, it was easy to reconstruct the scene.
"It looks like Rita had a conflict with an underground organization, but why?" Kiana was a little confused. If they had found my whereabouts, they should have come to capture me directly instead of fighting with local forces.
Soon, Fu Hua gave the answer, "Information about you."
"Most of the men in black were killed in one strike. Rita showed no mercy to these minions. But the corpse with the mask was different. All the electronic chips on his body were taken away, even the modified prosthesis. It is very likely that Rita went to such great lengths because this intelligence organization knew your whereabouts, and she chose the most convenient way to obtain intelligence. And did you notice these blood-stained footprints?"
The venue was covered in blood, but there were still clean places, and the footprints left there were very familiar to Kiana.
"This size should be for a woman and a child... Mei and her aunt?" Kiana reacted in an instant. After spending so much time with the people of Saint Freya, she knew some of their little details. (Bronya was flying, so she wouldn't leave footprints.)
"Your steps aren't too messy. You probably didn't have a conflict with Rita. They got the information about you. By the way, you may not know that after the awakening of the Herrscher of the Void, everyone in Saint Freya had already broken with Destiny." Noticing the changes in Kiana's mind, Fu Hua gently persuaded: "They should be here to take you back, Kiana, everyone is waiting for you..."
"..." There was no answer. Kiana felt a little annoyed. On the one hand, she felt a little uncomfortable because everyone had been hiding her identity from her. On the other hand, she was still unable to control the power of the Herrscher of the Void. If she lost control again, she would inevitably hurt her friends.
More importantly, she had an idea hidden deep in her heart that even Fu Hua was not clear about - she wanted to take Su Jue away with her, treat his illness, and let him witness her growth.
But this was just a luxury at the moment. Because of the Herrscher, she was caught in a whirlpool. As an ordinary person, Su Jue would only be hurt if he stayed with her. Moreover, he had his own family and his own life. She couldn't and shouldn't disturb him. After learning that she might be a Herrscher, his uncle's behavior was very obvious. Even if he didn't care...
No, he would definitely care.
Would he really care?
Shaking her head vigorously, Kiana put aside the chaotic thoughts in her mind. No matter what, since her aunt and the others had come to Sky City and might be attacked by Rita, she couldn't just sit back and watch.
"Squad leader, can you determine their whereabouts?"
Seeing that Kiana avoided the question, Fu Hua felt helpless. However, she was just a trace of consciousness living in Yu Duchen now. She could do nothing about Kiana's rejection of returning. She could only use her experience to help her find clues as much as possible.
"According to the signs of footprints, they should have stayed here for a while, but did not return the same way. They must have found clues left by the deceased... Kiana, take two steps to your right."
Soon, with the help of Fu Hua, the approximate location was quickly analyzed based on the traces left by the few people, and Kiana probably guessed the situation at the time.
