Chapter 3: Investigation, Conflict V
Previously, while Welt and Siegfried were talking outside; at Babylon Labs' Main Honkai Reactor:
Sirin stood in front of the Honkai energy reactor, arms spread out to her sides as she laughed with glee. "Yes! Yes! I can feel the power flowing into me, pulsing with my heartbeat! It took all my stockpiled Honkai energy to warp out all those dragon parts and that… body out to some random place in the tundra… and I couldn't see where that location was with my own eyes because I had to stay here to absorb more Honkai. That little fairy is sure working me hard! But… a big dragon to be my servant will be worth it!"
However, in a far corner of her mind, buried deeply, there were some thoughts of concern. 'But that girl… should I tell Shirou what that Overseer actually did to him? How will he react when he learns he is not fully human? Not just a clone of someone, but also part dragon Honkai beast? I don't know what to do…'
Just then… the Honkai cherub, the 'little fairy', returned and fluttered by Sirin's ear, drawing her attention. "Hmm? Wait, something's wrong?"
Present time, Tower of Babylon Labs, Battle Command room
Siegfried Kaslana and Welt Yang, Sovereign of Anti-Entropy, had come to an agreement: Dr Tesla's Titan units will camp 30 kilometers away from the Tower of Babylon Labs. In return, Anti-Entropy was allowed access into Babylon Labs' facitities.
"Good news! The Overseer agreed to us working together!" Siegfried exclaimed to everyone in the room, including Welt Yang and Dr Einstein. Dr Tesla had unfortunately been unlucky, forced to stay in the Siberian tundra supervising her mechs.
"This isn't fair! Why did they let Mophead enter the tower and leave me alone here?! It's so cold!" Dr Tesla hugged herself in her coat and scarf underneath her red Titan mech for some shelter.
Inside the Battle Command room, Dr Einstein bowed her head. "Anti-Entropy thanks the Schicksal Overseer for generously granting us access." No matter Anti-Entropy's personal feelings about Otto Apocalypse, this was not the time to be petty. "Our search will begin from the reactor piles. But before we head over…"
A dark shadow passed over Dr Einstein's expression. "There is something you must be made aware of, if you do not know of 'it' already; this facility hides a dark secret. A secret prison… holding human test subjects… is hidden under the reactor floors."
At those words, Theresa's heart began beating faster.
Siberian Tundra, 17 kilometers away from Babylon Labs
A portal formed in a snowy clearing, and two children stepped out, one red-haired boy supporting his purple-haired companion as she huffed for breath. "Warping myself so far really drains me… the portal to and from the place we buried Bella cost me so much energy too…"
Shirou helped up Sirin onto her feet when she had collapsed to her knees in the snow from the warp exertion. "Sirin, why did you bring us here? And why so suddenly? You're lucky I just finished serving lunch. And you've tired yourself this much just to get us here… it must be important to you. Is this part of… your God's plan? To defeat the Schicksal Overseer?" the redhead asked skeptically. The boy had been kept so busy cooking by himself he hadn't known about the new developments inside and outside Babylon Labs.
Unseen by Shirou, the Honkai Cherub was hiding in Sirin's hair near her ear. Meanwhile, Sirin was also harboring other thoughts of her own. 'Why does the little fairy want me to run away? Those Valkyries aren't a match against me." Both children finally stopped being distracted by other things and turned their eyes in front of them, only to see… a giant Honkai sphere sitting on the ground. Shirou was so astonished by the sight in front of him (and the fact that he had failed to notice the giant ball until now) that he barely missed the Honkai Cherub flying out of Sirin's hair and flying into the sphere.
Sirin gaped in wonder, "What is this? Is this why I was brought here?" 'And also why the little fairy made me warp the dragon parts here? Maybe this is a dragon egg? A gift from God?' Having seen the Honkai cherub enter the sphere, the girl touched the curved wall… and her hand sunk in. She also heard a voice from within: "Have no fear, you may pass as well."
"Sirin! Wait! What are you doing?" Shirou called out. His friend looked back at him, before coming to a decision. "This is something my God has asked me to do, Shirou. I must enter this ball in front of us, so while I remain inside, I order you as the Void Queen's Knight: Guard this area for me." Slipping into her queenly persona, Sirin commanded her sworn retainer, before adding in a reassuring tone, "Don't worry about me, Shirou. I'll be fine inside here." With those last words, Sirin stepped fully into the massive object, leaving the boy outside.
Inside the Honkai sphere, Sirin walked on a large body of water that seemed to go on forever, under a night sky of dim stars. "What is this place?" Sirin asked out loud. In response, there was a sound of a water drop splashing, and a vision appeared in front of her… but this featured an unpleasant memory.
The sound of sobbing echoed as a past version of Sirin was shown crying beside a hospital bed. "Mama…" On the bed, a body lay with its face covered with a white cloth, indicating it was dead. "Mama.. Don't leave me behind…" The present Sirin watched on as her younger self cried for her mother to return to her… and recalled the other person she had lost as well not even a few days ago… because she wasn't strong enough to save her from those cursed scientists.
"I don't want… to feel weak again." Sirin whispered, as her own tears joined those of her own memory's in splashing on the watery floor she walked on.
"Very good, Sirin… Tear apart your human heart… and rise as a true Herrscher."
As the last tear fell, a purple flame sparked to life.
Tower of Babylon Labs, Main Honkai Reactor
Dr Einstein held up a glass instrument to her eyes, inspecting it for something. Before her stood all the children currently present in the facility, with Theresa looking on worriedly. "Alright, Dr Einstein, did you find anything?" Someone asked from out of view. In response, the blue-haired scientist held the special thermometer upright and showed its reading around. "No. It seems no one here has Honkai levels above the critical threshold." At those words, Theresa sweated in dread as her own suspicions came to her mind. "Wait! Shir—I mean, a boy with red hair and gold eyes isn't here! And a girl with purple hair! They're both missing!" Theresa finally informed Dr Einstein rather belatedly.
'The descriptions of those two children… Pat's intel was right then, one of them is the Second Herrscher, mostly likely the girl… but I still don't understand why the boy is helping her…?' both Anti-Entropy personnel thought to themselves.
Out loud, Dr Einstein replied to Theresa, "Perhaps one of those kids are the one we're looking for… or they're both involved, and someone spooked them too early." She turned to her Sovereign. "Welt, can you locate them for us?"
Concentrating, Welt Yang folded his arms and closed his eyes. "Hmm… I can't sense their presence in this tower." At everyone's feet in the reactor room, purple crystal fragments could be seen. "Plenty of Honkai residues are left behind here… there are spatial distortions around as well. My best guess… is that they left this place via a spatial rift." Dr Einstein observed and concluded.
"What? A spatial rift?" asked Siegfried. "A portal, in layman's terms." Came the reply.
The Schicksal Knight also sweated in nervousness at that statement. "We're in serious trouble if that girl really left the tower. The Siberian weather rendered our auto-scanners almost useless. I hope you have a better solution for finding someone in that tundra… other than searching blindly in the snow…" 'And against a threat that can defeat someone like Pat.'
"Bad news. Our drones didn't fare well in this weather, either. But… we do have a backup plan," Dr Einstein informed holding out a test tube of mysterious purple liquid, the same purple as the Honkai residue. "Madam Theresa, would you mind if you lend us… the 11th Divine Key, the Oath of Judah?"
Some time later, Theresa retrieved the golden cross weapon from wherever storage she had placed it in. "Alright, here's the Oath of Judah. But it can only target enemies within a 100-meter radius, so I'm not sure why you want to use it…?"
"Not exactly, Madam Theresa," Dr Einstein replied as she uncorked the test tube. " We have unearthed Previous Era documents with details regarding the Oath of Judah… the same documents also contain detains on Siegfried's Judgment of Shamash, since they are both Divine Key weapons fashioned during the Previous Era." The blue-haired scientist began to pour the purple liquid in the test tube onto the carvings in the middle of Judah's cross. "I am now applying a solution prepared using the Honkai residue we found. Please activate the search function for us, Madam Theresa."
"Search function? I never heard about that before…" Theresa nervously stayed away from the Honkai solution, hands still held to her chest. Even as the current wielder, she had no idea about a function of her own weapon, causing unsettling feelings to be added to the sum of emotions she was currently still experiencing. "Divine Keys are made of Soulium, that can resonate with the user's mind. Just think of the target and touch the Judah." Dr Einstein explained in monotone with a dead-eyed expression, creeping out Theresa. "Okay, okay! I got it! Just think of Shir—I mean, the girl… Oath of Judah! I command you to track her down for us!"
With those words and a command issued, the Oath of Judah suddenly erupted, chains shooting out of the weapon's casing. The cross weapon itself also underwent a surprising change, causing its wielder to let out a cry of surprise. "The Oath of Judah shrank! Did I do something wrong?! Did I break it?! Can it return to normal size?!" Meanwhile, the chains of Judah shot outward. With the chains ending in sharp speartips, each end embedded themselves into the surrounding walls with loud "thunk" sounds. Dr Einstein provided an explanation: "In truth, Soulium is a semi-intelligent nano-robot composite. Under tracking mode, the Soulium assumes the form of chain-shaped sensor probes. These probes give the Judah a maximum tracking range of 200 kilometers." One chain that shot off in a particular compass direction suddenly began shaking and rattling. "One of the probes is giving a sensory feedback… I believe we have found the target. We must set off at once. Please lead the way, Madam Theresa." Dr Einstein finished while Theresa was still looking in wonder at the miniature version of her weapon, now attached to the back of her hand. "I guess Otto never taught you the proper use of your Divine Key…" Welt uttered to himself with a polite facepalm.
However, at that moment, there came another emergency call again. "Code red, Master Siegfried! Another Honkai horde has appeared! We're looking at about 300 beasts in this horde." The Knight was quick to give a reply: "Hold on, people! I'll be there ASAP!"
However before he could rush off, Welt Yang stopped him. "Hold, Siegfried. The Honkai beasts are there to distract us. We must focus on finding that girl." The Sovereign of Anti-Entropy began issuing orders of his own. "Dr Einstein, you'll help defend the tower with the Snow Wolves, with Dr Tesla's mechs as backup from afar should it be needed. Siegfried and Theresa, Please join me in tracking down our target.
"I guess you're right," replied Siegfried after thinking it over. "If our target has the power to tear open spatial rifts, Salome and Niggurath probably won't be much help." As the two men continued to converse… no one noticed a certain white haired lady standing aside having thoughts of her own.