Chapter 112: The Girl, the Twilight, the Battleship
Irene flew through the sky. Aided by her Honkai energy thrusters, she was far more agile than anyone else.
Meanwhile, the Honkai Beasts also noticed the group attacking from the air.
Several pinkish-white Assault-class Honkai Beasts soared into the high heavens, their entire bodies turning into colliding bullets as they shot toward the group.
Irene weighed the throwing spear in her hand, then hurled it directly at one of the Honkai Beasts.
With immense force, the spear pierced straight into an incoming Assault-class Honkai Beast.
The Burst Lance instantly drained all the Honkai energy within the Assault-class Honkai Beast's body.
The entire crystalline spear expanded significantly in a fraction of a second, and then the whole crystal detonated completely.
Several crystalline shards blasted outward, completely impaling the Honkai Beasts they struck.
Even the shields of the Temple-class Honkai Beasts couldn't withstand the impact and were pierced right through.
"As expected of Sister Irene! However..."
After Kiana offered her praise, she cast a sidelong glance at a purple crystal that had embedded itself perfectly into the wing of her drone.
"Teacher Irene, how about you study how to turn off friendly fire for this move first?"
"Oh my, considering how large the area of effect for this move is, let's just overlook that! I mean, what kind of shockwave can actually avoid hitting allies?"
Irene was also helpless in this regard. This move inherently relied on self-detonation to increase its explosive power; trying to control the blast radius of a self-detonation was always going to be a bit difficult.
"Enough chatting, hurry up and finish off the Honkai Beasts."
Irene pulled out Pardo's card from her pocket and slapped it onto her body. Kiana was right; the lethal range of this move was too large, and it didn't distinguish between friend and foe.
Since she had charged at the very front just now, everyone had time to react, which was why she hadn't injured any allies. But once the melee truly began later, it wouldn't be easy for her to use this move anymore.
If a portion of the allied casualties ended up being her fault, it wouldn't be a laughing matter at all. Therefore, applying Cat's luck to herself was absolutely necessary.
A flash of light passed, and Irene had already transformed into her Cat state.
A freshly reconstructed Burst Lance simultaneously appeared in her hand, which she then casually tossed out.
The spear traced an arc through the air, perfectly slipping through the gap in a Temple-class Honkai Beast's shield to impale an Assault-class Honkai Beast behind it.
Then, it detonated once more, instantly skewering that Temple-class Honkai Beast and a massive number of surrounding Honkai Beasts.
Right at that moment, Irene sensed a relatively powerful surge of Honkai energy.
Looking up, she predictably spotted an Emperor-class Honkai Beast accelerating through the sky like a flying dump truck, smashing numerous drones to pieces.
"I have visual on an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. C-Rank Valkyries, make sure to evade. Are there any B-Rank Valkyries in the vicinity?"
"Elder Sister Irene, we are here," Bronya replied immediately over the comms. "We have already spotted that Emperor-class Honkai Beast."
"Can you handle it? If not, I'll come help."
"No problem."
Bronya's voice carried a hint of confidence. Although they were currently only B-Rank Valkyries, in terms of actual combat strength, they weren't far off from A-Rank Valkyries.
They simply hadn't taken the exams yet. Once the exams were completed, obtaining the title of A-Rank Valkyrie would be absolutely no problem for them.
Now was the perfect time to use that Emperor-class Honkai Beast to pad their combat records, which would even give them extra credit. She and Sister Mei certainly didn't need it, but a certain idiot definitely did.
"In that case, I'll leave it to you."
Irene nodded. The two of them were basically in the first tier of Valkyries right now, despite enrolling very late.
But it couldn't be helped; the foundations of these three were simply too good. Bronya had Project Bunny, coupled with her past experience as the Ural Silver Wolf.
Mei was the Herrscher of Thunder. Even if Mei refused to use her Herrscher Core, her fundamental nature remained unchanged.
Even if Mei only trained systematically, the exceptionally high Honkai Adaptability granted by her Herrscher status allowed her to progress by leaps and bounds.
Kiana went without saying; possessing the bloodline of the Kaslana Family and currently being the unawakened Herrscher of the Void, her foundation couldn't possibly be bad.
After this period of training and formal exercises, these three had basically reached the level of A-Rank Valkyries. It would be finalized as soon as this year's ranking exams took place.
Therefore, the three of them teaming up to handle a single Emperor-class Honkai Beast wasn't a problem at all.
"It's still better to be careful," Irene smiled. "Anyway, once you've taken care of it, rendezvous with me at the stern of the ship. No getting injured, understood?"
"Understood, of course!" Kiana replied immediately. Then, she added in a somewhat cheeky tone, "However, who knows if Bronya will purposely get injured just to go see Seele?"
Seele's talent was also quite impressive. Through her studies in such a short amount of time, she had quickly mastered sufficient life-saving medical knowledge.
Coupled with her rapid progress as a Stigmata possessor, she was already serving as a logistics Valkyrie in the medical bay of the Hyperion.
Regarding Seele's personality, there was still nothing they could do. Seele had always refused to fight, which gave Himeko quite a headache.
After all, such talent was rare, but it truly wasn't appropriate to force her.
"Idiot Kiana."
Bronya, relying on Project Bunny to stand firmly on her drone, looked at Kiana's wicked smirk beside her with some exasperation.
At a time like this, she was still making such jokes. How could she possibly get injured over something like that just to seek out Seele?
Was she the kind of person who couldn't see clearly what needed to be done right now? Furthermore, if she got injured, Seele would worry about her. How could she possibly do that?
"Alright. Pay attention, it's here."
After the drones carrying the other Valkyries had flown away, the Emperor-class Honkai Beast finally seemed to notice them. With a burst of acceleration, it crashed toward them like a dump truck.
"Perfect timing! I'll let you witness the results of my special training!"
"You guys are a bit slow," Irene stood behind the hatch at the stern of the ship, watching the three who had just jumped over from their drones. "Logically speaking, it shouldn't have taken you more than a few minutes to deal with that thing, right?"
Any one of these three pulled out individually possessed the combat prowess of an A-Rank Valkyrie. Defeating an Emperor-class Honkai Beast wasn't a difficult task.
Combined, with the level of synergy between the three of them, they should have been able to finish it in minutes.
"That guy was flying all over the place, which is why we got delayed a little bit. Don't sweat the small details; we took care of it anyway!"
Kiana spread her hands in feigned helplessness. Her strongest point still lay in her kicks and footwork; her dual pistols were just there to make up the numbers. But that guy refused to get close, so there was nothing she could do.
Therefore, they had to rely on Project Bunny to provide covering fire for them, which was why it took a bit longer.
At this moment, Theresa's voice came through their earpieces: "Alright, you girls stop chatting and hurry up and open the door to get inside. The Honkai Beasts outside have mostly been cleared out. Quickly secure that battleship."
"Also, Irene, you used so much Honkai energy earlier. How are you feeling now? Do you need to take a break?"
"No need, this level of exertion is nothing."
Irene shook her hand. A Herrscher Core inherently possessed the ability to draw in Honkai energy, and her Taixuan Sword Qi had already achieved Condensing Ice, rendering her heart as clear as a mirror.
Although that was the case, Irene still didn't feel anything particularly special. However, Honkai energy had reached a point where she could freely draw and use it at will.
Even though she had been continuously unleashing Burst Lances along the way, her Honkai energy consumption wasn't actually that high.
"Alright, Bronya." Irene pointed to the control panel next to the hatch. "It's time to show off your skills. Get the door open."
"Understood."
After Bronya nodded, she immediately ran over to the control panel. Once she connected using Project Bunny, she began typing away on the virtual keyboard.
Irene watched her from the side. She vaguely remembered that Bronya was injected with a virus either here or further inside, which activated the control chip in her brain.
But since she already knew the plot, how could Irene possibly leave such a ticking time bomb intact?
She had long since had Little Corruption disable that chip. It was just inconvenient to perform a craniotomy, so the physical chip temporarily remained in Bronya's brain.
Although they could have opened her skull to completely extract it, doing so carried some risks and was entirely unnecessary. Having Little Corruption handle it internally was extremely convenient and fast.
Moreover, Bronya currently still held onto a tiny shred of attachment toward Cocolia. Regarding this, Irene had a slight personal motive.
Emotionally speaking, Irene didn't like Cocolia at all. After all, the laundry list of things this woman had done was truly infuriating.
By leaving the chip in Bronya's brain, if Cocolia still continued to lose her mind and pull stunts later on...
...Bronya would probably be able to finally see Cocolia for who she truly was, right?
However, since Seele had already been fished out of the Sea of Quanta by her, the primary motivation for Cocolia to cause trouble had largely disappeared.
As long as she didn't cause trouble, Irene couldn't be bothered to deal with her. Later, she would just discuss things with Einstein and find an opportunity to kick this woman back to Siberia to go dig for a potato made of three stars.
"Unlocking complete," Bronya looked up at Irene. "The firewall was surprisingly simple. For a battleship, this feels somewhat substandard."
"It might be a trap," Irene stretched lazily before walking at the very front and entering the battleship. However, she knew full well that there were no traps inside.
This Moonlight Throne was basically being handed to them on a silver platter. Naturally, there were no hidden traps inside.
The firewall, or the Titans currently blocking their path, were simply there to make their exploration journey a little less boring.
And also, to make this battleship look like it possessed at least a tiny bit of defensive capability. They were essentially decorative toys; otherwise, this place wouldn't be completely filled with outdated Titans.
It was probably Einstein or Tesla's old inventory. Since they couldn't just scrap them directly, they tossed them over here to serve as background ambiance.
"There's absolutely no challenge at all!"
Kiana fired a shot, blasting an incoming Spider mech to pieces. "We've been walking through this place for so long, so how come we haven't seen a single person?"
Furthermore, the Titans here were incredibly weak; they felt like ancient antiques.
"Who knows? As long as everything goes smoothly, that's what matters."
Irene kicked open the hatch to the main control room. After taking a look around, she pointed forward. "Bronya, go try and take control of this battleship."
"Understood."
As their chief hacker, Bronya had already floated over to the main console before Irene even spoke, beginning her operations. However, the moment she opened the system, she discovered something.
"Hmm, how strange. There are no passwords at all. Authentication keys, access keys... all channels are completely open. Oh, wait, the navigation system has a password."
"Hmm, what do you mean?" Kiana looked at Bronya with some confusion from the side. "Isn't it a good thing that there are no passwords? It saves us the trouble."
"..."
Mei shook her head speechlessly. Then, looking at Kiana with a gaze tinged with pity, she asked, "Kiana, your phone has a password on it too, right?"
"Then do you really think something as massive as a battleship wouldn't be set up with a password?"
"Oh, right! So why is that?"
At this point, Kiana finally understood, but it seemed the issue was even bigger now. Just as Mei said, even her phone had a password. A whole battleship not having a single password did indeed seem rather bizarre.
"Hmm, could it be that their construction schedule was too rushed, so they didn't have time to add one?"
"Idiot Kiana, if you don't understand, don't spout nonsense. Various firewalls are installed during the initial manufacturing phase."
"Just make sure there are no Trojan programs," Irene spoke up from the side, bringing the endless debate to a halt. "Anyway, right now, as long as we crack the navigation password, we can fly this thing back, right?"
"Mm," Bronya nodded. "Theoretically speaking, assuming there are no other issues, that is correct. As for Trojan programs, Bronya hasn't found any. However, Bronya did find a pre-recorded message."
Following Bronya's input, that message was displayed to everyone via the main screen.
[Dear Kiana. Hello. This battleship, the Moonlight Throne, is finally returned to you after 14 years.
You will ascend the throne and shape a new world. But before that, you need to find four keys: the Thunder of Conquest, the Blaze of Plague, the Storm of Desire, and the Death of Serenity. Oh, by the way, the navigation system's password is your birthday.]
Besides Irene, who was already well aware of this plot point, everyone else's gaze uniformly turned toward a completely bewildered Kiana.
Stared at by the entire group, Kiana looked even more dumbfounded. "Wait, wait, wait! How come I don't remember having a friend rich enough to gift me a battleship?!"
"Perhaps it's one of those super-rich tycoons who built it out of admiration for our dear Kiana." Irene wore a teasing smile on her face. "You know, the kind of development you see in novels."
"Just thinking about those kinds of novels is enough. In reality, where would you find someone rich enough to gift an entire battleship?"
Kiana batted Irene's hand away. "I'm afraid you could truly only see something like that in fiction."
Although Irene knew exactly what was going on with this thing, it didn't stop her from using the situation to tease a bit.
"Didn't we just completely dismantle all those Titan mechas earlier?" Irene teased as she looked at Kiana. "Oh my, come to think of it, didn't we just destroy Classmate Kiana's personal property?"
"Sister Irene, why are you teasing me too?! I already said I don't know any friends like that!"
____
________________________________________
🌸 Help Love Bloom!
Our girls need a little push... and you can help!
💖 Gift for Everyone: Once we hit 100 Powerstones, I'll release +1 bonus chapter to warm your hearts.
🚀 Community Reward: If we reach 20 supporting members, we'll have a +5 chapter marathon across all stories! The romance won't stop.
👻 Come to our secret corner: Search for GirlsLove on (P). You know that's where the magic happens... 😉