Chapter 208: Herrscher of the Legion Sighting
In her room, Ana wiped the tears from the corners of her eyes — tears that had already begun to crystallize into ice — and closed the comm terminal that had long since gone dark.
In the end, she had told Chen Tianwu the truth. He hadn't said anything. Just a long silence, followed by a deep sigh, and then the line had gone dead.
Even so, Ana's chest ached. She stared at the blank screen for a while and let herself cry — but the road ahead still had to be walked.
She had always told herself she wasn't ready to be a Valkyrie. But now... she couldn't run from it anymore.
Valkyries were humanity's shield. Most people would never know it, but they were always there — standing between ordinary people and the Honkai.
So it was her turn to do something about it. Starting, perhaps, with accepting who she was now. Miss Irene and the others could probably help her figure out the rest—
Ana pushed open the door and looked out into the hallway. She was still in a private room, it seemed. The corridor stretched ahead of her — but the view through the exterior windows was... strange.
"...Hold on." Ana stared at the scenery outside with wide eyes. Those were coral reefs out there. And fish. Excuse her, but — where exactly was she?
Underwater?
Ana stood there with her mouth open, staring at the distant view, then slowly began to make her way down the corridor. The layout wasn't too complicated.
She followed the faint pull of Herrscher auras she could sense nearby, letting them guide her steps. What surprised her was just how empty everything was — she hadn't seen a single person this entire time, only Titan Mechas stationed at the bends in the corridor, sitting in ready-to-activate standby mode.
When she passed by, the Titan Mechas glanced at her and then promptly went back to minding their own business, as if she'd been automatically flagged as friendly. Was Anti-Entropy really this lax?
What Ana didn't see, of course, was the brief flicker of pink light that swept across each Titan the moment she turned away. Anti-Entropy was hardly lax about a Herrscher in their midst.
But a Herrscher warranted a Herrscher to watch over her — not ordinary soldiers. So every one of these Titans was under Rin's management, tasked with tracking Ana's every move at all times. If she acted up or anything unexpected happened, Rin would have the Titans move to intercept her instantly.
And then? Then there'd be a good old-fashioned righteous group beatdown — or rather, a righteous rescue. Either way.
Fortunately, it looked like Ana had genuinely stabilized. Right now she just seemed a little dazed.
Blissfully unaware that she was being monitored every step of the way, Ana followed the pull of the Herrscher auras to the entrance of a large hall.
Titan Mechas stood guard at the entrance here too. Ana eyed them — and honestly, this was the first time in her life she had been this close to this many Titans without either being chased by a pack of them or pinning a pack of them into the ground herself.
A peaceful interaction with Titans. Genuinely a first.
She took a deep breath, feeling the dense Honkai energy and distinct Herrscher auras radiating from inside. She knew — once she walked through that door, there was no going back to her old life.
But she couldn't go back to who she was before anyway. And returning to Schicksal was anyone's guess. Better to stay with Anti-Entropy.
Ana let go of the door handle. The two Titans suddenly raised their arms, making her flinch — but they only pushed the door open for her. Ana looked up and took in the scene inside.
The scene inside was, if anything, even more bewildering than the deep sea outside.
Miss Irene — who had just minutes ago been chatting with Ana while radiating full villain energy — was now cradling Principal Theresa in her arms and spooning bitter melon shaved ice into Theresa's mouth, one spoonful at a time.
On the other side of the room, a mahjong game was in progress between the Taixuan Mountain contingent. Based on the paper strips stuck to everyone's faces, Nuwa appeared to be losing spectacularly, with Fu Hua not far behind.
Fuxi and the Book of Fuxi seemed to be roughly neck and neck, their faces almost entirely bare of penalty strips. Beside them, Little Senti sat with her arms crossed, muttering under her breath — apparently sulking because they hadn't let her play.
Cheng Lixue stood politely to one side. Mahjong simply wasn't in her wheelhouse, and she wasn't about to pretend otherwise.
The other side of the room could only be described as the food zone. Dishes were piled high — the kind of home-cooked food that looked humble but smelled incredible, the sort that made your appetite flare up the moment it hit your nose.
How to put it? The whole scene had thoroughly exceeded her expectations. She had assumed they would be in here discussing something serious — like planning their next move.
But it all just looked so... harmonious. This didn't exactly scream 'den of Herrschers.'
"Oh?" Irene seemed to notice Ana walking in only just now. She gave her a wave. "You're here. Done with your call? Not feeling great? Come eat something."
"Uh, Miss Irene? What is...?" Ana shuffled into the hall, staring at the entirely too wholesome tableau in front of her, still not quite processing it.
"Victory banquet," Irene said, looking at Ana. "It's been going on for a few days now, but. Everyone's mostly at a loose end, so here we are."
"This is really okay?" Ana scratched her head, still not caught up. "Shouldn't we be worrying about the Honkai situation?"
"Looks like this kid got worked too hard," Irene said, shaking her head at Ana with mild sympathy. "Let's get one thing straight first — right now, as a dual Herrscher of Ice and Rock, you are in the absolute top tier of current combat capability."
"That's potential, of course. But once you fill in the knowledge gaps, you'll reach that level soon enough. So — should a powerhouse like you really be burning herself out on minor Honkai skirmishes? Is that really worth it?"
"So what you need to focus on right now isn't worrying about small-time Honkai. It's figuring out how to develop your combat strength — and getting the foundational education every Herrscher needs."
"Um, I'm still not sure I follow." Ana still hadn't quite wrapped her head around it and looked at Irene with a puzzled expression. "What does education have to do with being a Herrscher?"
"A lot, actually. A Herrscher with a brain and a Herrscher without one are worlds apart in combat effectiveness."
Irene looked at Ana and gave a nod. "Anyway — trust us. We're veteran Herrschers. We're not going to steer a junior wrong. So for the foreseeable future~"
Irene drew the words out slowly as Ana watched her with an expectant look, and finally said: "You'll be studying books on cold, ice, and water — oh, and gravity. Don't worry, there's no shortage of scientists here who can teach you."
At the words 'studying books,' Ana went completely rigid, as if she'd been struck by lightning. She raised a hand and pointed at herself. "I actually have to study?"
"Of course. It's all in preparation for fighting the Honkai." Irene nodded, then — apparently to back up her point — turned and gestured at everyone else.
"Everyone here does the same thing."
The moment Irene said it, there was a burst of coughing from beside the table. Kiana hacked several times and then turned to stare at Irene in absolute horror.
"I have to study too?"
"Shut up, Kiana, you ruin everything." Irene looked at her with exasperation. "At least take a page out of Sirin's book — she puts a lot of effort into her studies."
"I've literally never seen any evidence of that, if anything she games constantly." Kiana shook her head vigorously. She absolutely refused to accept that Sirin was a better student than her.
"Go eat your food." Irene waved her off with mild defeat, then turned back to Ana. "Anyway — that's the gist of it. Knowledge is what lets a Herrscher make full use of their Authority in battle."
"And as for those minor Honkai threats you mentioned — think about it. You're a Herrscher now. You're not an A-Rank Valkyrie anymore." Irene set Theresa down from her arms and walked over to Ana's side.
"The threats that are worth deploying you for are, at minimum, a Herrscher of equal standing, or at least an Emperor-class Honkai Beast. And I don't think that day is very far off."
"...I understand, Miss Irene." Ana nodded firmly. A mission — got it. She was a Valkyrie at heart; executing on a clear objective was what she did best.
"Right then, when do I start and where are the materials?"
"Oh, no rush — eat first. You've been out for days, aren't you starving?" Irene shook her head and gestured toward the dining table.
"You're just in time, actually. We still have shaved ice."
Ana followed Irene's gaze to the enormous bucket of shaved ice sitting beside the table. She could feel the Honkai energy contained within it and looked at Irene with a slightly puzzled expression.
"Miss Irene, why does the shaved ice have Honkai energy in it?"
"Oh, that — it's the ice you froze when you awakened on Coral Island. We smashed off a big chunk at the time and honestly, we still haven't finished it."
— Anti-Entropy Weapons Factory —
In a small break room, a handful of workers huddled together, cigarettes lit, empty food containers on the table. They were holding cards — mid-game, by the look of it.
They were ordinarily part of the maintenance and security staff inside the factory. But two days ago, orders had come down from above: no one in or out of the factory until further notice.
Every so often, a few people would be called away for some kind of 'checkup,' and whoever came back didn't say a word about it — just told the rest of them to wait for further instructions.
Which left them with absolutely nothing to do. So, in small clusters, they passed the time playing cards — and honestly, for now at least, they were happy enough to take the break.
They were still getting paid without having to work, after all. You couldn't ask for a better deal.
Nobody complained too loudly. As for the checkups — it was probably just routine health screening. A bit of extra bother, sure, but it was for their own good.
Still, even a sweet deal gets old eventually, and there were already a few restless ones in the group.
"Two of twos. Beat that." One of the men slapped his cards down with a look of supreme satisfaction. When nobody played over him, he flipped another card — a three.
"Lao Li's on a streak today, huh." The man beside him glanced at his own hand and tossed down a five. "I've been stuck with garbage cards all night."
"Eh, just a lucky streak." Lao Li waved a hand. "Still — if we don't get back to work soon, people are going to go stir-crazy. Weird, right? One day it's all systems go, next day nobody's allowed inside."
"Probably something happened again. Wasn't there news recently about another Herrscher showing up somewhere?" another worker called out. "Honestly, it's one thing after another."
"...Who's arguing with that." A younger man looked up and added, "Just hope it doesn't come anywhere near us. If we got a small Honkai eruption here, we'd be done for."
"Hey, now, that's not how to think about it." Lao Li clapped the young worker on the shoulder. "Don't forget about that shot they gave us — something about boosting Honkai Resistance."
"The way they explained it, we should be pretty safe from the small stuff. Relax, relax."
"How am I supposed to relax — who knows if that stuff even works?" The worker's expression flickered a shade darker for just a moment after the pat on the shoulder, then smoothed back to normal.
"For all we know they were just saying that to keep us calm. You all believe things way too easily."
"Whether it works or not — it's not like getting the shot will kill you. May as well believe it." Lao Li gave a thoroughly unbothered shrug. "Besides, after everything I saw during the last Honkai eruption, I've decided to just take things one day at a time."
He wasn't wrong. The people who'd survived the Honkai — the lucky ones — understood it in their bones: ordinary people had no business going up against that kind of thing.
The only ones who could stand against it were the Valkyries far away at Schicksal, and the heavy Titan Mechas that factories like theirs built. The most they could do was build more of them.
The more Titans they produced, the more people stayed safe. Lao Li wasn't a particularly idealistic man. But he understood one very simple thing: once you lose your home, everything else goes with it.
Those things couldn't be reasoned with. Couldn't be surrendered to. The only language they understood was iron and fire.
The younger worker frowned at Lao Li for a moment, then changed the subject. "Does anyone have a way of finding out what's actually going on? At this rate, with us still not back to work—"
"Well, I'll be." Lao Li suddenly lit up like he'd just stumbled onto major breaking news, reaching over to clap the young man who'd just spoken on the shoulder again. "Hey, everyone — you hear what Xiao Lin just said?"
"He said if they don't get back to work soon, he's going to go stir-crazy."
A round of laughter broke out around the table — and no wonder, because Xiao Lin was legendary in their circle for being the laziest worker on shift. He was always sneaking off somewhere for a breather whenever he thought no one was looking. It had never caused any real problems, so no one had ever called him out on it — but nobody could have predicted that after just two days off, he'd apparently be missing the job.
"Yeah." Xiao Lin smiled and nodded, his grin slightly fixed — a little too wooden, like a marionette's expression. The others chalked it up to him being a bit embarrassed. Nobody thought much of it.
"So — does anyone actually know what's going on?"
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