[Precisely because she is the Overseer's granddaughter, the higher-ups are even less likely to make an exception.]
People unfamiliar with Schicksal always labor under a misconception: that within Schicksal, Overseer Otto Apocalypse has total control and his word is law.
In truth, if a person of supreme intelligence has a full 500 years to reorganize an organization, he certainly should hold great power.
But this comes with a premise: that others within the organization do not possess the means to extend their lifespans.
No way, right? No one truly believes that only Otto Apocalypse alone in the world can switch to a Soulium body to live for five hundred years, while everyone else must obediently die of old age at seventy or eighty just to make room for him, right?
That would seem a bit too double-standard.
What is Honkai energy? It is the omnipotence of the Honkai.
And survival is the strongest instinct of life.
Urged by this desire, for thousands of years, countless people have stepped forward one after another to conduct research, hoping to live just a little longer.
Even if they couldn't reach the exaggerated extent of borrowing another five hundred years from the heavens in one go, and achieving lifespan-related conditions is incredibly difficult, the technology in this area does exist after all.
And for the shrewd individuals who can climb to the upper echelons of Schicksal, even if only one percent of them have the ability to acquire such technology, that would still be a significant number.
Furthermore, there is the massive faction, World Serpent, that has always been active in the shadows. Given their capabilities, how could they not plant pawns within this organization publicly recognized as the world's number one anti-Honkai force?
Thus, a constellation of semi-humans who survived through various means formed a Council of Elders to check and balance the equally non-human Overseer. Together with the outwardly neutral Tribunal, they built a stable triangular structure supporting Schicksal.
As for Theresa, the current head of the Apocalypse family, who simultaneously holds the two important positions of Branch Leader and Principal, countless eyes from above are watching her closely at all times.
As long as Otto kicks the bucket, theoretically, she is the next Overseer of Schicksal.
But this is only theoretical, not absolute. If a major upheaval were to truly occur, there are plenty of people lurking in the shadows ready to make a move.
Look at Crown Prince Liu Ju of the Han Dynasty, and look at Li Chengqian of the Tang Dynasty.
Being the heir to a massive power has never been an easy job, from ancient times to the present.
Listening to all these complex relationships made Susannah, the little ditz, stumble and her eyes spin. She barely understood that the rejection of the Divine Key application had nothing to do with the special agent named Increcin (there no official translation of her name, idk).
Confused, she typed on her phone: [In that case, why were Lord Theresa and Teacher Himeko complaining so loudly?]
Send!
Asakura Miyuki's reply came quickly: [Even knowing the other party has their own difficulties, when one's own problems cannot be solved, feeling resentment is inevitable. It's human nature.]
Moreover, being willing to curse publicly without avoiding others can be seen as proof that the relationship between the two parties is actually quite good.
If they truly kept silent and buried it in their hearts, that would be when one should be wary of retaliation later.
"So that's how it is! Thank you, Miyuki-senpai!"
Susannah, her doubts resolved, quickly walked up to Asakura Miyuki and bowed vigorously.
The latter's body trembled violently, turning completely pale as a small soul with a halo slowly escaped from her mouth.
"Senpai!!!!!"
Himeko, who had watched the whole thing, held her forehead, rendered speechless. "That child Miyuki... the burden is heavy and the road is long..."
"Haha, that's the duty of being a master!"
Theresa patted her shoulder comfortably. "Little Miyuki's potential is even higher than Wendy's. Don't blame this Principal for blowing a fuse if she gets ruined in your hands!"
"Hey, hey, hey, that's an exaggeration!"
Himeko grimaced, rubbing the spot where she was patted and moving away from the tiny, white-haired, youthful-faced woman with monstrous strength. "Wendy is a supreme seed with S-rank potential, nicknamed 'Emperor Wendy'. At most, a Herrscher would just be at this level."
Theresa wagged her finger. "No, no, no!"
Recalling everything that happened during the Second Eruption (Otto's edited version), she gritted her teeth. "The limit of a Current Era Herrscher is S-rank Breaker!"
A slightly chilly spring breeze brushed across the deck, lifting the smooth hems of the Valkyries' skirts.
Coincidentally, white clouds covered the sun again, casting a gloomy shadow over the area for several miles, stripping away the brilliant sunlight.
Glancing at the clouds condensed from imposing killing intent in the sky, then looking at Susannah and the Miyuki-ball shivering together in the corner, Himeko shouted:
"Hey, I understand you're in a bad mood, but not letting me sunbathe is a bit too much, ow."
"Ah, sorry."
Theresa scratched her head awkwardly and dispersed her aura. The weather she had accidentally affected returned to the cloudless sky from before.
Seeing her return to normal, Himeko, intending to educate the two little ones on common knowledge, spoke up: "Speaking of which, S-rank Breaker is the culprit that forced you monsters to sign the 'S-rank Restriction Treaty', right?"
On this planet, the traces left behind aren't just from the Fire Moth civilization of fifty thousand years ago. Pushing back another two hundred thousand years, meaning two hundred and fifty thousand years before the Current Era, there actually existed a powerful civilization that had fought against the Honkai.
That civilization made many attempts to combat the Honkai, one of which was the comprehensive reinforcement of the concept of the [Planet].
Through technology called "Anchors," they deconstructed and reinforced the intrinsic world concept of [Earth], linking it with galaxy-scale reality-side structures and numerous Bubble Universes in Imaginary Space and the Sea of Quanta. This made the Earth itself extremely difficult to destroy and greatly limited the destructive power of Honkai-side individuals.
In short, unless an individual's output reaches the level of [severing a corner of the total galaxy structure in one breath], the Earth itself will not suffer major harm.
For example, Durandal, who has been cited several times. When she fused with the Dea Anchora and advanced to S-rank, she severed the European continent within a large Bubble Universe from the planet itself with a single sword strike.
That Bubble Universe was planetary in scale, with particularly robust physical laws, theoretically no different from Earth before its reinforcement.
Even so, one move cut down a continent.
Defying heaven, right?
Absolutely defying the heavens! A bona fide Anti-Planet attack!
However, back on Earth, S-rank is indeed strong, but wanting to cleave a continent with one sword strike?
What are you dreaming of? Go wash up and sleep in Fuli's bed (crossed out).
Furthermore, the natural environment destroyed by Honkai-side powers would slowly recover over time.
"In this Principal's view, this is definitely a good thing."
The tiny but elderly Theresa sighed while sitting on Judah. "Otherwise, with you monsters burning mountains and boiling seas, how could the existence of Honkai possibly be kept a secret?"
Himeko leisurely added, "Besides that, since environmental destruction caused by Honkai-side individuals (purely natural environments like mountains, rivers, continents, etc., excluding man-made structures like buildings) will revert to its original state after a certain period, even with many powerful individuals capable of moving mountains and filling seas, hard labor like digging the Grand Canal or the Panama Canal still has to be done by ordinary people."
Earlier, the combat power evaluation for A-rank was "will recklessly rewrite the terrain and environment during battle, briefly creating 'strongman terrain' that would absolutely not appear under normal circumstances." The word "briefly" comes from this.
The specific speed of environmental restoration depends on the destruction, ranging from dozens to hundreds of days.
Of course, many people tirelessly try to exploit bugs: for example, having a Valkyrie blast a tunnel first, then having ordinary people enter with equipment to consolidate the results; or being blunt and using Honkai energy to grab a huge rock and indirectly smash through the earth.
Unfortunately, in countless experiments, all have ended in failure so far.
Hopefully, they can find an effective path from the targeted treaties woven by the ancient civilization when reinforcing the planet.
As a combat power brat who had just set foot on the Honkai side, Susannah was more concerned about something else at this moment: "Earth's concept is fused with a galaxy-level structure? And if that structure doesn't suffer a fatal blow, the natural environment will slowly recover?"
"Um, Principal, Teacher Himeko."
She swallowed. "The scale of this galaxy... is it a stellar system? The local group bubble? Or the Milky Way?"
"What scale of galaxy..."
Himeko looked sideways with a comical grin. "Heh, take a guess?"
"The Milky Way!"
The combat power brat shouted super loudly!
"Hehe."
Himeko chuckled, not giving a direct answer to this question. "Let's leave the answer to this question for a pop quiz when you enroll in the future. You can find these basic things in the St. Freya library."
"Roger!"
Unknowingly agreeing to enroll in St. Freya, the silly roe deer Susannah was full of motivation. "Then another question! Just now Teacher Himeko said S-rank Breaker was the reason everyone signed the 'S-rank Restriction Treaty'. Does this mean the destructive power of an S-rank Breaker is enough to cause irreparable damage to the reinforced Earth?"
"That is correct."
This time, the one answering was Theresa, the genuine S-rank. "In the latter half of the 20th century, major powers led by Schicksal and Anti-Entropy signed the 'S-rank Restriction Treaty' in Shuntian Prefecture, the Vatican, Washington, and Moscow respectively."
"Under the restrictions of this treaty, S-rank output is forcibly limited to the Critical range. It is only lifted when one of the conditions is met, such as encountering an awakened Serial Herrscher, engaging a Judgement-Class Honkai Beast, or facing an imminent attack sufficient to severely injure a Critical-Class entity. The restriction is essentially a meme, possessing soul efficacy; it is a contract that binds the soul."
Theresa's tone was relatively indifferent when she said this. After all, in this timeline, she hadn't yet experienced shameful events like [being blasted twice by a Pseudo-Herrscher of Poison because her strength was limited, nearly dying if someone hadn't saved her], so she was quite open-minded about it.
Himeko pouted on the side. "This treaty was drafted and led by Anti-Entropy, and it only restricts individual units. So after signing the contract, those guys drove their aerial carrier battle groups with comprehensive S-rank performance all over the world, doing inhuman things."
"But to be fair, clearly only S-rank Breakers can cause irreversible damage to the environment, yet this treaty actually restricts conventional S-ranks as well."
Resting her chin on her white wrist, Himeko tilted her head. "It's quite friendly for a Critical-Class rookie like me, not having to worry about being crushed by big bullies before I'm strong enough. But isn't it a bit unreasonable to knock everyone down with one stick?"
"Can't be helped."
Theresa spread her hands. "Even we don't know if we might suddenly get carried away when emotional. Rather than causing irreversible damage to Mother Earth, whom everyone relies on for survival, it's better to treat everyone equally from the start."
Susannah was full of admiration. "Lord Principal is truly selfless!"
"It's nothing, hehe."
Sounds good! Love to hear it! Say more!
Theresa was in high spirits, waving her small hand. "Alright, now that the pop science for prospective new students is over, let's go down too."
Looking down from hundreds of meters high to lock eyes with Cocolia, the girl revealed her cute little tiger teeth. "Can't let that golden-haired vixen wait too long!"
"Yes!!!"
...
"Surface!"
As the subject of St. Freya's discussion just now, Fuli, at the bottom of the lake, snapped his fingers.
"Will that Theresa really help us?"
Mei raised a rational doubt.
The Branch Leader of the Schicksal Far East Branch was actually the reinforcements?
As the daughter of an Anti-Entropy Executor, she felt like she was living in a dream.
"Don't worry, we'll win!"
Fuli nodded.
Theresa gave off a vibe very similar to Kiana's. Smart, but not that smart; has IQ, but not much; has a brain, but doesn't really want to use it.
In the end, she feels that rolling up her sleeves and beating the opponent to death is the most direct and effective method. So she happily throws her brain away, picks up Judah with a smile, presses it against the opponent's forehead, and smashes it down wildly.
As soon as she meets Kiana, her beloved niece, and her niece complains a bit about being bullied blah blah blah, given Theresa's personality of helping family over reason, she would immediately stop thinking and unleash a Musou attack on the Titan cluster while howling and using the Kaslana ancestral cross fighting technique.
"Sounds like she isn't a smart person."
Kiana, adjusting her Dragon Lord MK2000, couldn't help asking, "Ah-Li, are you sure that's really my aunt?"
Fuli was ten out of nine sure. "Carved from the same mold! Aside from not being blood-related, she's 100% family!"
Theresa founded St. Freya because of Cecilia's dying wish; this wasn't a secret on the Honkai side.
There were also rumors that Cecilia and Theresa were originally close yuri friends who knew each other inside out, and Siegfried stole Cecilia away, NTR-ing Theresa.
One could only say the older generation played pretty wild.
'Actually, the new generation plays pretty wild too.'
Glancing at Kiana and Mei, who were a CP in the previous cycle, and recalling Bronya who had an ambiguous relationship with a certain quantum-state girl, the only normal male in the car muttered secretly in his heart.
"Ow."
The white-haired dumpling, having organized her weapons, tilted her head and said, "Then the hero who gets us out of this alive this time is This Miss? Ah-Li, does this count as you eating This Miss's soft rice (freeloading)?"
Fuli knocked on her head grumpily. "The dagger is revealed when the map is unrolled, huh! So you circled all the way around just to diss me?"
Kitty Kiana dodged and stuck out her pink tongue. "I, for one, have never derived joy from teasing Ah-Li."
"Still GO-ing, still GO-ing! Not allowed to GO, not allowed to GO!" [T/N: A meme reference to a streamer phrase "Still going".]
"Just want to GO, just want to GO! Hee hee!"
Having survived a disaster, everyone in the car was happy, filled with laughter and joy.
Bronya: Yes, yes, yes, I am very happy (ᗜ˰ ᗜ).
At this moment, Dr. MEI, floating to the side, also realized the problem.
She pursed her thin lips, her face, so similar to Mei's, showing ample apology: [Alright, I admit the previous me gave off a condescending vibe. I apologize.]
Her reason for apologizing was simple. In their previous conversation about whether to escape, Fuli had absolutely no need to keep her in suspense.
He could have directly stated that "the Schicksal fleet is arriving soon," instead of letting Dr. MEI guess blindly.
So why did he do that?
Answer: To give this system Unit-02, who was high and mighty and started bossing people around as soon as she arrived, a demonstration of power.
...