"Hyah!"
Greatswords clashed with all of their wielder's might. Sweat clung to their faces as they felt a part of their vigour leaving, unsure whether their action would help or hinder. With one last swing, the fibres detached from each other forming a hole large enough for a human to slide in.
"Go! Hurry up before it seals again!" Ragna urged Himeko inside since the latter was younger and slightly shorter, but she still got stuck at the chest area. Himeko swore at her breast size as the fibres were enclosing around her. The Ganesha spotted a hole in the dome with a redhead thrashing her arms around, and immediately forgot about Bianka and the two other girls. It curled its body into a ball and rolled towards Himeko's direction to crush her.
"I said pull, not push!" Himeko yelled in a cracked voice when she felt hands on her derrière trying to push her in, "Ragna, I am stuck! Take me out! Arrg! Get principal Theresa at once! She'll fit in better than me."
Having heard her desperate cries, Ragna grabbed Himeko's legs and yanked her with the remaining strength she had. Himeko fell head first on the ground before the Ganesha crashed against the dome barrier, leaving spider web cracks at that spot.
"Sorry, Ragna."
"Seriously?" Ragna interjected, letting go of her friend's legs, "I'm three years older than you, and I still don't know what you did to get this pair grow bigger than mine."
.
.
.
Rita Rossweisse had quietly left the stadium to look for Otto Apocalypse in the halls of St Freya. She was not sure if she would find him there, but it was almost as if he wanted to be found. It was not a coincidence that the simulation system had malfunctioned. She was sure that Bianka would be fine, for the Overseer himself was protecting her in his own ways. He had his reasons, she was sure of it. She climbed up the stairs until she reached the highest floor of St Freya and wandered in the empty hallway. The sun rose high up in the sky, letting its rays penetrate the colored stained glass windows to bathe the hallway in warmth. Her clicking shoes against the marble were the only sounds accompanying her.
"Halt!" a soft voice ordered.
Rita abruptly stopped and turned around.
It was Amber.
"The Sire is not here. He instructed me to give this to you." She presented a pair of binoculars to Rita which the latter took in her hands with enough precaution. Amber opened the large glass windows which gave a panoramic view of the gardens and of the stadium. "Subject Ataegina is currently under his watch," she said monotonously, "The Sire wishes to test her strength."
"Very well then." Rita stood by the window, letting the gentle wind caress her face. "And what about this pair of binoculars you gave me?"
"The Sire predicted that you would be here looking for him. He did not want you to tire yourself by climbing down again when you would not find him and miss Subject Ataegina's demonstration on the stage. You should stay here and watch her from afar." Amber usually spoke like a robot. The sentences she formulated had no intonations in them and when spoken they seemed to have no pauses in between.
"I see... How thoughtful of him." Rita looked into the binoculars and saw Bianka and the two girls with her running in circles with the Ganesha chasing after them.
The three girls took a break when the Ganesha got distracted by the redhead. Their legs were shaking under their own weight and one fell to the ground, gasping for dear air.
"Hey!" cried the one struggling to stand straight to get Bianka's attention. "Self-proclaimed... future... great leader... of the Immortal Blades," she sarcastically said to Bianka, panting in between each word, "don't you have any... other bright ideas other than fleeing?"
"That's not fleeing! It's called tactical survival!" rebutted Bianka. Suddenly a bright idea came to her when she spotted the hole left by Himeko and Ragna. It was closing up rapidly so they had no chance of escaping through it. "I think there's something we can do. It won't kill that huge bull thing with horns but it will definitely get us all out of here. I need help though."
The two girls studied each other, seemingly communicating with quick glances. "We're in as long as we don't serve as distractors or baits for that monster," the one standing said to Bianka. The other agreed and grabbed her friend as a support to get back on her feet.
Bianka sighed. "Nevermind then. We'll just keep running until we run out of oxygen and until that huge beast gobbles us up one by one. Fine by me."
"Simulations can eat people?" they half-whispered to each other, "I hope she's bluffing. It can't be true."
The Ganesha made another roar which shook both of them, and they hastily agreed to Bianka's plan. She shared it with them and let Ragna and her team on the other side know too.
Two gardens away, Rita watched the scene with her newly found gadget. "What is miss Ataegina concocting now?" she mumbled to herself while adjusting the binoculars.
Amber heard her quiet whispers. "Subject Ataegina is planning to use the two girls with her as distractors. Miss Lodbrok's and Miss Murata's squads will cut enough fibres on two sides of the dome so that subject Ataegina can pull them on each side, tie them together and wait for the Ganesha to run into the tied fibres. With enough force, the Ganesha is expected to tear half of the dome down, leaving the girls enough time to escape." Her words ended in the same monotonous tone.
"You can hear them from that distance?"
"I do have a heightened hearing but I cannot hear things that are too far away," Amber admitted, "I have an enhanced eyesight with the mask and I can read their lips."
"I see..." Rita put down the binoculars. "Still, I don't see how the Overseer is testing my mistress' strength by doing this."
Amber stood next to Rita, her hands clasped behind her. "Perhaps, by strength the Sire means not physical strength but her mental aptitude. I think Subject Ataegina is making good use of her teammates."
"Perhaps." Rita nodded as if absentmindedly then she frowned. "Wait– You... can think?"
"What do you mean?" The mask Amber wore glowed a bright orange now that the sun was blocked by a passing cloud.
Rita interpreted it as a threatening glare from Amber. "I apologize for my insensitiveness," she said, feeling embarrassed, "Truly, I did not envisage that such a question would be deemed as offensive."
"None offense taken," Amber replied impassively while she gazed at the landscape, "I am just a human with mechanical properties aiding me. I am not alexithymic as I do have the ability to feel emotions though I prefer to restrict myself from showing them." Her mask turned back to its normal dull orange color as the sunlight poured in again.
Amber was suddenly not as cold as Rita had thought her to be. Was she pressured by the Overseer? Rita had no idea how he behaved with her. His relationship with the opposite sex had always been platonic and he was known for being a very secretive man. Amber and Otto Apocalypse were always together, sometimes both could vanish for over a week to venture into unknown lands, or they would spend lots of hours alone behind closed office doors. They were inseparable like two opposite magnets. Rita wondered if there had ever been a forbidden romance between the two. She dared not ask given that Amber was a stranger to her, and even a friend could feel uncomfortable with such a personal question. Rita looked back into the binoculars and saw the redhead and Ragna charging at the dome again with their greatswords.
"Can you tell me their probability of success?"
"Of course. It is nought point nought nought nought nought one," Amber answered in her most emotionless voice.
Rita sighed. "Is this dome made out of soulium?"
Soulium was an element discovered by Nagamitsu and Otto Apocalypse. It was basically a metal composed of nano-robots capable of remembering a form and repairing a material as per the form it remembered like it had a mind of its own. Soulium materials were not easily dissolvable with the Honkai. It demanded a tremendous amount of strength to tear apart the soulium properties with irreversible damage. The Overseer did not make his discovery public so most people were unaware of it.
"Indeed, it is." Amber nodded. "The soulium has regenerative properties, but it will not indefinitely regenerate itself. Subject Ataegina may fail to tie the fibres from both sides together as they have a limited length even when stretched."
Amber was right. Bianka was visibly struggling to tie the fibres of opposite sides together. Himeko, Ragna and the few Valkyries helping had cut enough fibres but the length was not enough. Bianka's two teammates were busy distracting the Ganesha, but the beast soon became fed up with them and turned its head towards Bianka.
"I have a feeling that this is not going to end well," Rita muttered to herself, "I should probably go–"
"No, you will stay here."
"Pardon me?"
"You heard me, miss Rossweisse." Amber took a step forward. "You. Will. Stay. Here," she repeated.
"I will not." Rita took a step back from her. "Forgive me for my brusqueness, but I was tasked to protect miss Ataegina."
"And I was tasked to ensure that everything goes as per what the Sire has planned," Amber said, "Even if it means getting rid of obstacles." Her gloved hands sparked with electric charges, its tips extended and showed long crooked claws.
Rita touched the tip of the blade she was hiding. As a maid, she could not always carry her scythe with her, so she had to equip herself with something more discreet. "I do not take orders from you," Rita said firmly, "Miss Ataegina is my master."
"And the Sire is your master's master. You are also his servant. You should be more loyal to the Sire than to a mere child."
Amber made a point. Rita was the servant of two masters but Otto Apocalypse, the Overseer, stood above Bianka Ataegina.
"Fair enough then. I will stay."
Satisfied with Rita's answer, Amber lowered her gloves and the claws retracted.
Meanwhile, Bianka was in a pickle. Her teammates were exhausted. She was exhausted. Everyone had no strength left. She had another idea in mind. Her initial plan was to trick the Ganesha to run into the tied fibres to tear down the dome itself. Now she planned to make the Ganesha run into her while she was holding both ends of the fibres. She took in a long breath, mustered all the courage needed for it and drew attention to herself by screaming at the beast. The Ganesha rolled its body into a ball and spun towards her at a terrifying speed. Knowing her agility, Ragna and Himeko thought that she would evade it. But she did not.
She took the hit.
Rita saw it too from the window: she witnessed how Bianka's battlesuit folded like aluminium foil upon impact and how her body was projected several meters away. She never let go of the fibres in her hands and the Ganesha took down the dome along with her. The simulation system was then mysteriously powered off and the beast disappeared out of thin air. Bianka's two teammates shrieked and ran to her motionless body on the ground. Rita thought there was no way that Bianka would survive. The sight of so much blood sickened her and she averted her eyes from the scene.
"Am I allowed to leave now?" she dryly asked Amber.
"You may."
She ran downstairs and left Amber all alone on the last floor of St Freya. Amber let her go since her mission was accomplished. She turned her face towards the stadium which had long been evacuated by Theresa. The medics rushed in and carried the injured Valkyrie away.
"Subject Ataegina survived a deadly hit from an Emperor-class Honkai beast," Amber muttered to herself, "The Sire was right. She has inherited it too."
With a smile on her face, she closed the large windows.
