Atop a high-rise building somewhere in the city.
Raven lay prone on the rooftop in her dark tactical bodysuit, her generous chest — the kind that seemed to read people's souls — pressed flat against the cold concrete tiles. With every anxious heartbeat, it trembled just slightly, tracing a curve of side-profile that was enough to make your mouth go dry.
Left eye shut, her crimson right eye pressed to the scope of Skadi of Eternal Frost in sniper mode, utilizing its field of vision that transcended three dimensions to observe the target: the vessel of the Gem of Desire, an S-rank Valkyrie chosen by fate herself, a golden-haired little loli.
And the silver-haired girl holding the Twelfth Divine Key.
Honestly — and she felt a little awkward admitting this — Raven kind of wanted the silver-haired girl to one-shot her again using whatever bizarre method she'd used last time. Not that she'd developed some weird fetish about it or anything.
It was just that the last time the silver-haired girl had one-shotted her, it had been the catalyst for establishing her link with her parallel-world self. Raven was wondering if a second round might get her other self to pick up the connection again.
Before the trial period on the Midnight Wormwood character card had expired, Wormwood had given her advance notice — something along the lines of: There's a problem with my abilities. I'm afraid I won't be able to contact you for a very long time.
No more trips to the other world. Miss Raven was, to put it plainly, devastated, shattered, and utterly bereft.
Consciousness-crossing to a parallel universe had its downsides, sure — like occasionally getting tricked by Wormwood into ending up in bed for... ahem, being forced to experience that kind of thing with Caelus. That was a definite mark in the con column.
But everything else? Pure upside.
The benefits far outweighed the costs. Miss Raven's career as a literary borrower was blazing like wildfire. She'd leveraged cutting-edge technology from the Previous Era to launch multiple companies in the interstellar age — money was practically raining from the sky.
A beautiful life had been right there within reach. And then the connection had cut out without warning.
The silver lining was that her other self had promised they would absolutely reconnect in the future.
For now, Miss Raven's work with World Serpent was essentially just punching the clock. It wasn't like she could quit gracefully even if she wanted to.
"Ugh, dragging me all the way to New Zealand to work overtime — Gray Serpent, you better have my overtime pay ready!"
Having a relatively stable income elsewhere didn't mean she was about to pass up World Serpent's bonus. Pay for labor rendered — not a single credit short.
It was only because Gray Serpent had practically raised her that she was even here. Anyone else? Even with money on the table, they could forget about bossing around Miss Raven — not now that she had a new script in hand.
As she muttered, she watched the silver-haired girl sweep the Divine Key upward in a single smooth motion. The blade drew a brilliant crimson galaxy through the air, slicing through space as though parting a curtain.
The rift expanded, blooming into an iridescent gateway — and two pink-haired silhouettes stepped through as if walking out of another world entirely.
A fairy-like young lady holding a pink crystal bow. And at her side, a poison-chrysalis assassin with Frozen Naraka at her hip.
"What the hell?! What's going on?! She actually pulled memory entities out of the Elysian Realm?! Can the Jizo Mitama really do that?"
Raven's head snapped up. She flung herself into a tactical lean-back, sucking in a sharp breath.
Then she felt the Divine Key go wrong in her grip. She looked down — and found that Skadi of Eternal Frost had autonomously transformed itself into a slingshot.
"No way, sis. Throwing another tantrum? Or is it that you don't want to shoot at an old partner and Elysia?"
Among all the Divine Keys, the only one that could truly be called a weapon spirit was Rin — but there were a few others with their own self-awareness, and the Key of Adjudication was one of them. She had seven distinct forms.
Whenever she didn't feel like fighting, for whatever reason, she'd shift into her adorably precious slingshot form.
This had happened once before, back when Raven had first received Skadi of Eternal Frost and was still getting used to her. They'd ended up in a situation that required her to rely on sheer brute force — and she had, in fact, biu biu biu!-ed her way through enemies to death with nothing but a slingshot.
Raven turned to look at the snake warrior beside her — the one who never took off the hood perpetually perched atop his head.
"Gray Serpent, I'm out. You?"
On the other side: one S-rank Valkyrie chosen by fate, two Flame-Chasers, one silver-haired girl with methods that were mysterious and deeply unsettling — and that golden-haired little loli who clearly wasn't as simple as she looked.
Fight this lineup? With what?
And Skadi of Eternal Frost was on strike.
Best to pack up and go home!
She still had that island she'd been looking forward to visiting!
Gray Serpent twirled the handle of his umbrella. He glanced sidelong at his foster daughter — who was holding the Divine Key like it was a resignation letter, ready to bolt at a moment's notice.
What a headache.
Gray Serpent was experiencing something of an existential crisis right now. Or more precisely — a mechanical crisis.
They had done so much — such enormous effort, such painstaking preparation — all to obtain the Gem of Desire as a waypoint and energy supply to help the Sire return from the other shore back into reality. And somehow it had come to this.
The moment Silver Wing had left the Elysian Realm, Gray Serpent's network had flagged it and broadcast the alert. Every World Serpent operative in New Zealand knew that Silver Wing would be moving to intervene in the matter of the Gem of Desire.
But not a single one of them had imagined she would move this fast.
More precisely — that she would make contact with the Gem of Desire's vessel this easily.
Rita Rossweisse — [Schicksal]'s S-rank Valkyrie. What was that about? Had she defected? Did Otto know?
And that golden-haired little girl. Why had the strongest S-rank Valkyrie turned into a twelve-year-old loli?
Or — was that actually this world's Durandal at all?
If she wasn't, then what that implied... Gray Serpent's scalp prickled just thinking about the possibilities hidden behind that scenario.
He was starting to feel like surrendering too.
The World Serpent operatives weren't helpless fighters — but they weren't exceptional either. The Jackal's ancient-civilization mechs were a solid combat asset, but against the Key of Corruption they'd be throwing their lives away. Was he supposed to count on Raven to go one-versus-four? One-versus-five?
He'd sooner count on the Sire having an accident and escaping the Sea of Quanta on his own.
This was simply unwinnable.
"Fall back."
Gray Serpent gave the order with a resigned exhale. He couldn't exactly raise a hand against Lady Elysia — even if this version was only a memory entity.
"Boss, you're a genius~!"
Raven cheered with pure, unrestrained delight. She launched herself forward, kicked open the rooftop stairwell's fire door with a single flying kick, and disappeared — off the clock, baby~!
The concealed mech units and World Serpent operatives began withdrawing one by one.
Only one World Serpent agent remained. He stepped out of the shadows holding a black umbrella, and rather than squaring off against Silver Wing, he turned first and bowed respectfully toward the two Flame-Chasers:
"Lady Elysia. Lady Sakura."
"Oh, it's Gray Serpent. Have you come to help Silver Wing?"
Elysia greeted him with her usual radiant, flawless smile.
"Might I ask what brings the two of you here?"
Gray Serpent laughed awkwardly and said nothing. It wasn't like he could admit he'd come to steal the Gem of Desire and gotten outmaneuvered by Silver Wing.
"It's all thanks to Rin and Silver Wing that we were able to witness this new era with our own eyes — oh! Who is this child? She's absolutely adorable! Just as adorable as Griseo!"
She hadn't even finished her sentence before Elysia spotted Little Bianca. Her eyes lit up like an emperor discovering Tamamo-no-Mae — she abandoned her conversation with Gray Serpent mid-word and instantly darted over to stand in front of the golden-haired little girl.
Rita's expression visibly stiffened in an instant. The chubby pink girl shot forward to plant herself in front of Little Bianca, beaming from ear to ear as she waved:
"Hi there~! Cute girl!"
"My name is Elysia — you can call me Big Sister Eli, or, hmm, Little Sister Eli works too!"
The pink-haired girl radiating an aura that could charm the world in every direction caused the expression of the maid who could watch mountains crumble without blinking to cloud over in a way everyone present could plainly see — Rita was barely stopping herself from raising her scythe as a barricade in front of Little Bianca.
No demons, devils, or creatures of any kind shall approach the world's most adorable Lady Bianca!
Especially not someone who is obviously at the top of the loli-connoisseur food chain!
"Elysia... are you the Elysia? I've heard about you from Mei and Griseo."
The future Bianca had heard Griseo recount stories from the past at one of their group gatherings, and Elysia had left a very deep impression on her.
Little Bianca turned to look at the pink-haired girl standing nearby — the one with fox ears growing from her head — her expression shifting into puzzlement.
"And you... you must be Sakura? One of the Thirteen Flame-Chasers? Weren't all of you already gone fifty thousand years ago...?"
Those words left everyone except Silver Wing momentarily stunned. Only Wendy remained at a complete loss, baffled by the sudden change in atmosphere.
"Griseo — you know little Griseo?"
Elysia, Sakura, and Gray Serpent — even Rita — all turned to look at Little Bianca, their expressions a spectrum of different reactions.
"Yes. We're good friends, I'd say."
Little Bianca took a half-step back, unable to handle Elysia's intensity.
Griseo had even given her a portrait of Kiana as a gift!
"When did you go to the Realm? The Elysian Realm?"
Sakura's brow furrowed slightly, her voice carrying a note of urgency.
She had no memory of ever seeing this girl. Possessing yaksha fusion factors, Sakura was acutely sensitive to auras — and this girl's aura was utterly unfamiliar. She shouldn't have ever entered the Elysian Realm.
"The Realm? Which realm? The Elysian Realm?"
Little Bianca thought back to the experiences Mei had once shared with her.
"I've never been there."
Bianca was genuinely fascinated by the Flame-Chasers of the Previous Era — but the device containing all that history had lost every piece of its data in the events surrounding the Herrscher of Corruption.
"The Griseo I know is not a memory entity."
"You've met Griseo's real self?!"
"Griseo is alive?!"
News that the Fire-Moth's beloved mascot was still out there sent Elysia and Sakura both into an uproar. Sakura closed the distance in an instant, questions firing in rapid succession.
Even within Gray Serpent's chest, a storm surged.
At the end of the fifth century, the Sire and Lady Su had been conducting routine inspection reports at Shelter 907 — one hundred and fifty years had passed without a single word from the Ark, and the conclusion had been drawn: the Ark Project had failed. Lady Griseo had gone silent along with it.
And now someone was standing here claiming they had personally met Lady Griseo — and were friends with her?!
Just who was this person?!
"Please, both of you — calm down."
Seeing Little Bianca floundering under the barrage of questions, Rita immediately stepped in front of her as a shield.
"This is... hard to explain in a few words."
Bianca scratched her head with a somewhat troubled look and turned to the silver-haired girl for help.
"Alright, alright — Eli, Sakura. The matter of Griseo can wait until we're back. There's no rush."
Silver Wing stepped in to defuse the situation.
Little Griseo — or rather, grown-up Griseo — at this point in time, she should be at Florus, shouldn't she? That place was most likely one of the asteroids at the edge of the Solar System. Tracking Griseo down won't be easy.
This piece of intelligence, combined with the facial recognition results on the golden-haired little girl and Rita's attitude toward her — it all added up in Gray Serpent's mind into a hypothesis so terrifying he could barely accept it.
Impossible as it seemed.
But eliminate the impossible, and whatever remained — no matter how unbelievable — was the truth.
"Since Gray Serpent is being sensible about this, we'll proceed with the plan."
Under everyone's watchful gaze, Silver Wing raised a single finger and gave a light smile:
"We trigger a Great Eruption far away from New Zealand — and let Wendy become the Fourth Herrscher."
"—!"
"—?"
Everyone exchanged stunned glances.
"Huh? Me?"
Wendy froze on the spot, pointing at herself with an expression of utter disbelief.
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