"Forget it... Benares, go help the Valkyries and Arc City Guards. We might run into a pervert soon... and it's probably best you don't meet her..."
As they approached the entrance to Heliopolis Life Sciences' underground laboratory, Imhotep waved dismissively at the Dragon Girl who had been following her all this way.
"Huh?"
"When she sees a humanoid Judgment-class Honkai Beast, her first instinct won't be anything else. She'll pin you to an operating table for a biological dissection... Do you really want to meet a female pervert like that?"
"The moment you meet her, she'll pull out a power drill, brandish a chainsaw, pin you to an operating table, and let her claws crawl all over your body, committing acts comparable to sexual harassment... all while spouting technical jargon you can't understand?"
Before they reached their destination, Imhotep launched into a vicious tirade against Jackal—though, in a way, she wasn't wrong.
"I'd definitely punch her so hard she couldn't take care of herself anymore..."
Benares shivered at the thought, summoning her fists into an attack stance.
"So, are you still coming with me?"
"No, no, I'd rather go fight that weird-looking thing..."
After a brief moment of thought, Benares shook her head so vigorously it resembled a rattle drum, then turned and vanished in a flash, leaving Gray Serpent staring blankly.
"Setting everything else aside... when it comes to running, if the current Second Herrscher's familiars truly want to escape, we probably couldn't catch them in a lifetime..."
"She's the fastest runner besides the Herrscher of Wind, after all... Alright, let's forget about them and go see that Sacred Relic... Ah... I just hope we don't run into a certain Scientist Hu with a few screws loose..."
As Gray Serpent activated the gate's locking mechanism and it slowly began to open, Imhotep muttered to herself, preparing to step inside—
"..."
After a brief, tense silence, Imhotep stared at Jackal, who was just about to exit through the gate, and was the first to break the silence.
"Ah... it's the crazy, perverted old hag, Hu Hansan—"
(Spy-reference to an old film, I believe. Tyrannical Landlord of the village in the movie "Sparkling Red Star")
Beneath her mask, a vein popped on Jackal's forehead.
"Who are you calling crazy, you brat?!"
"Oh my~ So you're not denying the 'perverted' and 'old hag' parts? I see—"
"My deepest apologies, then. I shouldn't have called you crazy—you perverted old hag~!"
Clearly, when it came to infuriating people, Imhotep was no less skilled than a certain Doll Sirin. She watched as the scientist clutched her chest with her left hand and pointed a trembling right finger at the girl, looking as if she were about to faint from rage.
"Gray Serpent! Who is she?! Where did you find another one of these insolent little brats?!"
"My mouth may be insolent, old hag, but your hands are stained with sin. When it comes to sheer villainy, you're in a league of your own, aren't you?" the white-haired girl retorted before Gray Serpent could even reply.
"You—!"
Just as Jackal began mentally calculating how many pieces she'd slice the girl into, Gray Serpent finally found an opening to speak, his voice low and hollow.
"Jackal..."
"Hmph? Are you actually going to protect her, Gray Serpent? Let me tell you—"
"She is The Sire's heir."
The masked woman's tirade came to an abrupt halt. Her neck stiffly swiveled back toward Imhotep, who wore a playful, mocking smile.
"Hello there, perverted old hag~"
"You... you... you..."
"Me?"
"...Even if you're The Sire's heir, you can't insult me like this!"
"Oh? I'm merely stating facts. How can a villain lack a villain's resolve?"
"That's not the point! I can admit I'm a pervert! I can admit I'm an old hag! But you can't say I'm not right in the head!"
"...So that's what you're hung up on." Imhotep's lip twitched as she stared at World Serpent's number-two comedian. (Number one, of course, was that Bomb Raven of Small Island.)
"As for that question... time will tell, Ms. Jackal. Right now, I don't have the luxury of debating such matters with you..."
"Now, would the esteemed Ms. Jackal please step aside? Or better yet, lead the way. We're here to retrieve the Judgement of Shamash."
Imhotep's words left Jackal stunned.
"What do you want with The Sire's Holy Relic...? A normal person would turn to ash just by using it—Achoo!"
The moment the words left her mouth, Jackal was wracked by a violent sneeze from the cold.
"Look up. At the sky. And how many days has it been since you left this basement?" Imhotep asked, radiating a frosty aura as she stared at Jackal.
"About a month, I think..." Jackal scratched her head uncertainly, then looked up at the sky—and let out a gasp identical to Gray Serpent's earlier.
"What the hell is that?!"
"Never mind what the hell that is! Where's the Judgement of Shamash? We need it urgently!"
"Oh, oh, right! Follow me—the Holy Relic is in the lowest level of the underground lab..."
-
"We've lured the target to the city's outskirts! Artillery positions, are you ready?!"
"Ready!"
"Then open fire and blast the son of a bitch—!"
The crudest and most direct display of civilized might—a saturation bombardment—was unleashed. However, the effect was nowhere near as good as anyone had anticipated...
Though the barrage was dozens of times more intense than the initial luring tactics, it seemed only to make the creature howl even louder.
Meanwhile, Benares, flying mid-air, mimicked a certain Accelerator by forming a massive plasma sphere and hurling it at the monster Imhotep had called the Witch's Night...
"What is this thing...?"
Watching the monster tank the plasma sphere and artillery fire without flinching, merely screaming louder, Doll Sirin, perched on Bella's shoulder, covered her ears and complained loudly.
"That's a question we'll probably have to ask the real Miss Sirin, the little artist who's who-knows-where..." Benares rolled her eyes, seeing her attack fail to inflict even a shred of physical damage.
-
"We haven't dealt any real damage... But the good news is, this big guy doesn't seem to have any intention of attacking..."
Watching the monster wailing incessantly in the sky, a certain Valkyrie Captain, practically bristling with death flags, still breathed a sigh of relief...
But before her words could even fade, the colossal monster abruptly changed its behavior. Massive fireballs began to coalesce at its sides. Then, the fully formed fireballs shot toward the group—
"Captain, for the love of god, shut up—!"