Amber could be said to without a doubt be one of the most valuable members of Schicksal. She may not be an S-Rank Valkyrie, but serving as Overseer Otto's aide along with her strict work ethic makes her just as valuable as, if not more than the S-Ranks.
Of her many responsibilities, she was also in charge of keeping an eye on the 4th Divine Key. This was a very important responsibility as the 4th Divine Key was currently a weak spot of Schicksal. Due to an incident about a decade prior, the 4th Key had its operational device stolen by Anti-Entropy, so it was up to Amber to keep an eye on the Key in case Anti-Entropy discovered how to use it.
Of course, that is to say, she is not wasting time in her busy day by watching over a satellite all the time. The Divine Key was programmed to send an alert should it make any movements.
So when she received an alert that such movement had been detected, she opened the live feed expecting to see the Key preparing an attack or something that could aid Anti-Entropy.
She was not expecting to see the 4th Divine Key in ruins.
She paused, for just a moment, before rewinding the footage to determine what exactly managed to destroy a Divine Key.
The footage displayed the Divine Key as it was several minutes ago, perfectly intact and its defensive shield holding strong.
That changed when without any warning, what looked to be a flaming meteor smashed into the Key, piercing clean through its shield and destroying the satellite.
That should not be possible. That shield was powered directly by the Herrscher core that fueled the Key's main function. It was more than capable of defending against stray meteors, no matter how big.
Something was able to overpower a shield powered by a Herrscher core, and destroy a Divine Key.
"Oh dear."
KIANA did not have to deal with this the first time she came to Earth.
This referring to herself, being on fire as soon as she touched the atmosphere.
Had she been going too fast? It wasn't her fault she wanted to get the long trip over and done with. How was she supposed to know Earth set invaders on fire? This hadn't happened last time. She also thinks she might've hit something on her way in. She hopes it wasn't important.
At the moment, she was trying to find a way to put out the fire encompassing her. Water was the obvious solution, but she was still falling, and didn't have any water with her.
She also couldn't quite think clearly, nor see, due to the aforementioned fire. Now that she thought about it, how long was there until she hit the ground? She wanted to be able to prepare hers-
*SPLOOSH*
.
.
.
Ah, there was some water.
She looked around, realizing that she'd likely landed in the ocean, given the abundance of water around her. She then pulled herself above water to try and regain her bearings.
She glanced down and realized that her indigo dress was now soaked, along with her hair. It didn't bother her that much, but she wondered if it was considered acceptable for humans to be covered in water.
KIANA floated just above the waves, looking around for the closest sign of land. She found her goal off in the distance, what looked to be a line of buildings along the coast.
Beginning to fly towards it, she realized that her issue of wet clothes would fix itself through her flight. It was already beginning to dry as she flew through the sky.
She looked back towards the city she had seen and spotted a familiar colorful structure between some of the buildings.
She gave a slight smile at the sight.
It looked like she'd be able to get an early start on her promise.
"Mophead, explain! What the hell happened?" Frederica Nikola Tesla was, somewhat understandably, very angry and very confused.
"I believe I just explained all that we know, which is that we don't know any more than the 4th Key was destroyed. Our spies are trying to find out more, but most of Schicksal doesn't even seem to know. Heck, we only know what we do because we have direct access to the Key." Lieserl Albert Einstein was by comparison, far calmer, since someone had to be.
"Guh! And knowing that damn Otto, he's going to kick the security into overdrive the moment he finds out!" God, the arrogant bastard managed to tick her off even when he hadn't done anything yet!
Einstein could only sigh in response to her colleague's temper.
"At the moment, we should stop focusing on what Schicksal knows, because if I'm right, they don't actually know much more than we do. What we should do is focus our efforts on finding more about the culprit rather than the incident." Tesla groaned in annoyance, knowing that the Mophead was right.
"Fine, do we at least know where the debris is falling?" As Tesla spoke, Einstein was already tapping away on a computer.
"Looks like the majority of the debris is set to have landed somewhere in the Pacific Ocean." At that, Tesla got a wicked gleam in her eye.
"Do we know which side?" This was the make or break question. If it landed closer to Asia, then it was in Schicksal's hands, and they'd likely never see any sign of this incident again. But if it landed closer to the Americas…
"Looks like it landed just off the coast of California."
At that, Tesla's wicked eye was joined by a wicked smirk.
"Looks like we've got dibs then."
"Quite frankly, I don't see what the big worry is about."
Cocolia prided herself on being a rational woman. She may not have the intelligence to match those two doctors, but she had more than enough cunning and skill to make up for it.
"As far as I see, this just means that Schicksal has one less Key to use." Nobody was going to bring up that the 4th Key was more in Anti-Entropy's hands than Schicksal's. They were all smart enough to avoid contradicting Cocolia.
"Yeah, and if they do turn out to be our enemy, then we just cut them up!" Sin Mal chimed in with her own slice of rationale.
"The little girly's right! We're more than tough enough to take on any one, Divine Key breaker or not! Don't forget, our side has a Herrscher!" And of course, the wonderful 'Sovereign' of Anti-Entropy shared Sin's opinion. The two began laughing hysterically together.
This was why Cocolia liked it when the doctors weren't here. It meant she was the smartest person in the room.
"As things stand, we'll leave the investigation to Doctor Einstein and Tesla. If there is cause for further action, then we will do so, but at the moment we simply don't know enough about what happened. This event could be caused by an ally aiding us against Schicksal…
Or an even worse enemy."
"Alright, then… name?"
The man at the 'ticket booth' seemed far too tired to be here, so she'd get this done quickly for his sake and hers.
"KIANA." Short and sweet. She waited for his response.
"KIANA… what?" What? What did he mean 'what'?
"KIANA, as I said." Perhaps he was simply too tired to hear her properly. That was fine.
"No, I mean what's your last name?" The man seemed annoyed, but she was hardly to blame. She didn't think her last name mattered.
"Herrscher of Finality." Elysia had said something about bad attention, but surely it'd be fine here?
"What? No, miss, what's your last name?" The man seemed even more annoyed, even though she had answered what he wanted.
"As I said, Herrscher of Finality. That… was my previous name… and now I am KIANA." There, the matter was explained, hopefully he'd be satisfied now?
"No, lady, I mean what's your name as in first name last name." Ah, in that case why didn't he simply say so?
"Then that'd be …Herrscher of Finality KIANA." Hm, it had a nice ring to it, like a title of sorts. Now it makes sense why he wanted it like that.
"What?! Lady, are you sure you're ok? It's just a simple question, what do you mean 'of Finality' or whatever?"
"I mean that… the first name I had …was Herrscher of Finality, and my latest name… is KIANA. Is that… not what you mean?" He seemed to figure something out, and sighed.
"That's not quite what I meant. I don't know what you're talking about, but I just want your given name and your family name." Given name? Family name? Why didn't he start with that?
"The name… that was given to me… is KIANA." It was Elysia's gift to her, and she would cherish it. Though, "What is a family name?"
He sighed again. He was doing that a lot.
"A family name is the name of your family. It comes after your given name in this country, so it's called your last name." That explained matters, as well as the confusion.
"Ah. That makes sense, I… apologize… for the earlier confusion."
"Alright then," this sigh seemed more relieved than the prior. "Family name?"
"Cocoon of Finality."
His head hit the desk.
"Lord Otto, I have an important report involving the 4th Divine Key." Amber stood ready and at attention, as was expected in the presence of the Overseer of Schicksal.
"Ah Amber, I was waiting for you. I suppose this has something to do with the alert I received from it earlier." Otto Apocalypse was sitting in his chair with what one might call 'lazy posture' but Amber would rather call it 'refined grace'. "I haven't quite checked it out yet, but that's what I have you for I suppose." To anyone else his words might have sounded demeaning, but Amber knew that he was showing his trust in her abilities.
Probably.
"Now come then, I assume Anti-Entropy has finally mustered up the courage to use it? In that case I'd assume it's Cocolia taking charge. Or perhaps the World Serpent has come out of the shadows and stolen the Key from under Anti-Entropy's nose? A Divine Key would likely be worth the risk."
"The truth is, Lord Otto, it's none of those." Her response was swift and practiced.
"Oh?" If anything, being told he was wrong only seemed to make Otto more intrigued. "So then what has become of our 4th Key?"
"It was destroyed, Lord Otto."
"... Come again?" He seemed more shocked than she expected, though she hasn't really seen him shocked all that often. She pulled up the video of the collision on the room's main screen.
"The 4th Divine Key was destroyed at around 10:21 AM Pacific Time today. The culprit appears to be a meteor from outer space that entered Earth's atmosphere and pierced through the shields of the 4th Key, taking out around three fifths of the Divine Key's mass. The debris landed in the Pacific Ocean west of the state of California in the United States. Reports suggest that Anti-Entropy has already begun efforts to retrieve the debris." Amber spoke clearly without needing to take a break. This was her job and she was to perform above expected parameters.
Otto sat silently for a moment, soaking in all the information without needing her to repeat anything. The two worked efficiently together in this regard.
When he spoke, his voice was firm and demanding, yet not in any way aggressive,
"What of the Core of the Divine Key?"
"Based on the live feed, the Core appears to have been spared from the attack, and is in the part of the Divine Key still in space." It made sense that was his primary concern, the loss of the Key was unfortunate but the loss of the Herrscher Core within could have been catastrophic.
"Prepare a shuttle and team to go and retrieve it ASAP. It wouldn't do for the Core to come loose before we can reclaim it."
"Of course, Lord Otto. It shall be done." She made to leave, but paused. "Lord Otto, if I may, do you have any idea as to what caused this?"
Otto's serious mannerisms faded, and he laughed softly.
"There's still much to be discovered, so nothing is set in stone yet, however I do have some theories." He grabbed his glass of wine from the table and took a sip.
"As it happens, we've been given a big hint already. The Core was left alone in the attack, completely untouched. That means that the culprit, whatever it may be, is either far too clumsy to reach the Core…" He turned to face the screen, which was now paused to try and get a look at the meteor in question.
"Or it wasn't their goal to begin with."