As the group discussed the near future, filled with both tension and anticipation, the simulated persona "Kiana" successfully infiltrated St. Freya's underground experimental facility and entered the virtual space.
-
"Ever feel like you want to go back in time and beat your past self to death~?" Muninn circled Kiana, her tone dripping with mockery. Watching the footage transmitted back through the simulated persona, Kiana's fists clenched.
"Thanks, I do feel like going back and beating my past self to death... Did I really just waltz in like that? Without even thinking twice?"
"Tsk tsk tsk."
"Speaking of which... Snow's Valkyrie Force—wasn't it called the Divine Authority Squad? Besides Ninti and Kyuusyou, will the remaining divisions help Auntie? Or will they become obstacles to her assault on Schicksal?"
"The Divine Authority Squad... Lady Snow and Lady Kyuusyou anticipated this situation from the very beginning. The Valkyries who formed this unit were largely members who harbored resentment toward Schicksal's current state or simply lacked interest in its ideals, leading to their marginalization."
Muninn assured her, "Our master predicted this perfectly. There's no need to worry."
"But... directly defecting from Schicksal? Isn't that too extreme for them?"
"Did you know, Miss Kiana? The intelligence officer of the Divine Authority Squad—the one who takes full command when both the Captain and Vice-Captain are absent—is actually a high-ranking Executor of Anti-Entropy."
"And if things go as expected, she's likely already taken over the Radical faction from Cocolia by now..."
Muninn relished the stunned look on the white-haired Knight Princess's face, feeling a surge of smug satisfaction. Though he hadn't done anything himself, he couldn't help but feel immensely cool.
"I suspect your Valkyrie Force should be renamed the 'Schicksal Brewery'... it's probably crawling with World Serpent spies."
"World Serpent spies? Perhaps."
"But what does it matter? In the end, they're all on our side anyway—"
Muninn shrugged nonchalantly.
"Oh, right! You mentioned Miss Simon replacing Cocolia...?"
"What's that about? Tell me more!"
The Simulated Persona outside remained trapped in the Illusionary Realm, still unconscious. Kiana had no desire to confront her past self; it would only raise her blood pressure. She feared that staring too long might transform her into some red-clad Mr. Acher.
Decisively shifting the topic, Kiana focused on another detail Muninn had revealed.
"Oh, that? It's actually quite simple to explain—has Miss Simon ever demonstrated her shapeshifting skills to you?"
"Ah... yes, she showed us once. She conjured up a busty version of Headmaster Theresa... I really don't know why Miss Simon insists on dancing through minefields like this..."
"And right in front of the Headmaster herself..."
Kiana's lips twitched, as if recalling the image of a certain brunette Valkyrie being relentlessly plowed across the ground by the S-ranked Valkyrie Judah's Launcher.
"Could it be... that it's not Theresa who desires to 'fill out' people's hearts... but Simon herself? Perhaps she's too embarrassed to admit it, so she uses her shapeshifting to torment the equally... underdeveloped Headmaster?" Muninn proposed a daring theory.
"That... damn it, that actually makes sense?" Kiana considered the Intelligence Officer's rather modest physique, then glanced at her two superiors.
Kyuusyou has always had a fantastic figure, and she often subjected Ninti to... ahem... "chest-related assaults." The white-haired Knight glanced at her own chest. As expected, Kyuusyou is a class enemy, just like Himeko, Kiana thought with a nod of grim understanding.
Snow, on the other hand... back in Nagazora City two years ago, according to her perverted Dad's standards, she was barely a handful. But based on the projection she'd seen earlier, it was clear she'd already surpassed that. She was rapidly developing in a way that rivaled her sister.
You've betrayed the Flat-chested Class, you traitor!
Kiana's mind began to wander wildly until Muninn's coughing snapped her back to reality.
"You're drifting off topic! Let me continue telling you what happened. When you were in New Zealand, Cocolia brought four Anti-Entropy aerial battleships. But of those four, only one barely made it back to the scrapyard—the rest were completely destroyed."
"Aerial battleships aren't exactly rare treasures, but losing four in one go is a blow even Anti-Entropy, who rely on brute-force spending to build their war machine, can't recover from easily."
"Of course, this was only one factor in the impeachment of Executor Cocolia. As the leader of the Radical faction, these concerns might ultimately come to nothing."
"Then there's the most critical point: my sister Huginn repeatedly used the title 'Venerable God' aboard the Anti-Entropy Radical Faction's flagship and strongly implied that this 'God' and the Honkai Will are not the same entity."
"Cocolia might not grasp the implications—she's merely a military officer and a mediocre politician at best. But the Gray Serpent, her collaborator, isn't so naive. The intelligence Huginn leaked was bound to unsettle the shadowy information broker. Who wouldn't panic at the thought of a handful of individuals challenging the malice of a god?"
"This situation inevitably forced the Gray Serpent to either confront and warn Cocolia directly, or at least deploy a proxy. And he did lose his composure. His haste sealed his fate. He didn't even bother arranging a meeting elsewhere; instead, he infiltrated ME Corp's headquarters, confronted Cocolia in her office, and spoke to her face-to-face."
"Yet he remained meticulous. The Gray Serpent hacked every surveillance camera along his route, causing them to loop footage from a few seconds before his arrival until he moved out of view."
"But you see... Sister Huginn represents a profoundly complex and abstract concept of Thought, far more intricate than my own Memory. Even machines and programs possess their own forms of Thought and logic—"
"The camera Gray Serpent hacked was instantly restored and taken over by my sister, who then transmitted the intelligence directly to the Conservative faction's table."
"The very process of Raiden Ryoma's framing left Anti-Entropy's Conservative faction utterly bewildered. Even if Radical faction members were behind it, everything went too smoothly, as if ordained by fate itself, meeting no resistance whatsoever."
"But the video footage Sister Huginn transmitted revealed the truth to those poor, clueless Conservatives—"
Muninn flashed a "polite" but mischievous grin.