Honkai Impact 3rd: My Days as a Captain in Schicksal

"Well, what a bunch of naughty children." The little nun seemed startled as well, her face turning pale, but she quickly straightened her nun's dress and put on a serious face.

Inside the door, the room was brightly lit and spacious, with rows of steel cells standing side by side, and several magnificent chandeliers emitting a strong light from the ceiling.

Saying it was brightly lit seems a bit inappropriate, because the light inside was so bright that it was almost impossible to open one's eyes; it would be more accurate to say that the lighting was deliberately intensified.

The cells were bound by heavy chains, containing countless colossal beasts. Some resembled shield bearers, holding shields in their left hands and knights' lances in their right; others were like gorillas, with short hind limbs and incredibly strong forelimbs, their streamlined bodies completely hairless; still others were the size of gyrfalcons, strange creatures with wings on their backs. To say they had wings on their backs seemed a bit inappropriate; it would be more accurate to say they were strange nails with wings growing out of their heads.

These behemoths share obvious characteristics. Apart from those with wings on their backs, the smallest are at least forty meters tall. They are pinned to the ground by giant black spears and cannot move. The iron bars of their cells are also perfectly fitted to their size. Each cell has at least four layers of iron bars, interwoven into a net shape. Each steel pillar is at least one meter thick. It is hard to imagine the destructive power that would be generated if these behemoths, treated in this way, were released.

The young nun seemed unaffected by the intense light and walked inside as if nothing had happened.

The enormous object behind her finally revealed its true form under the light: a colossal golden cross with an angel relief in the very center. The entire cross was densely bound with golden chains, exuding a solemn and majestic aura.

The only thing that wasn't solemn was that it was carried on a back that was less than 1.5 meters long.

With the appearance of this enormous cross, the roar in the cell paused for a moment, but only for a second. Then came an even more deafening roar, filled with endless anger and hatred, as if the owner of the voice wanted to devour the newcomer alive.

“District One, the Angels’ Quarters.” The nun narrowed her eyes, but did not react. Instead, she carefully examined each of the giant beasts in the cells under the blinding light. “They’re not exactly well-behaved children.”

"Huh? This doesn't seem to be the right place... It should be the next district?" The nun said with some disappointment. "I thought we could finish this quickly."

After saying this, the nun ignored the roaring beasts and hurried deeper into the area.

Finally, after several tens of minutes, the nun reached the end of this area, which was also a huge iron gate, but this time the inscription on the gate seemed to be different:

"The place of noble sages, a place of self-purification and sublimation."

"I'm asking you, can you even do this? You're having such a hard time with navigation. Didn't you say we could get to the entrance of the 'Site of the Sages' in five minutes by following your directions? It's been more than half an hour already." The nun grumbled somewhat discontentedly. "You're all talk and no action. Where did all the nutrients for your brain go?"

"Oh dear, Headmistress, I don't think this is my fault..." The female voice in the earpiece seemed hesitant to continue, "Because there's only one road here, and it's a straight line, I really can't imagine how I can take the blame."

After a brief pause, the female voice in the earpiece continued, "I know you envy me..."

"Envious of you? You're such a fool!" the nun seemed to be both embarrassed and angry. "Explosive woman! Pervert! Big-breasted cow!"

"Oh dear, Principal, shouldn't we get down to business?"

"Hmph, I'll settle the score with you when I get back!" The nun looked down angrily, her eyes wide enough to see her toes.

"It's not my fault that I look young!!!!"

The second door slowly opened, revealing the same intense and dazzling light as the Angel's Abode. However, the cells here were much smaller, each only about ten square meters, seemingly intended for prisoners of normal human size.

The prisoners in the cells also proved this point.

Looking around, in the hundreds of solitary confinement cells, each cell has a cross, and on the cross are women who are nailed to huge iron nails and bound by iron chains thicker than a person.

The women kept their heads down, only raising them briefly when the nuns approached, their eyes flashing with a scarlet light.

Some cells were empty, with only bare crosses and nails in the center. But if you looked closely, you could hear faint whispers. In these indistinct murmurs, your mind seemed to be drawn away.

This is how "sages" are treated.

"It's one thing to imprison so many Honkai Beasts, but how come there are so many assassins..." The nun's eyes widened in astonishment. "Although I know that many mutants are imprisoned here for research purposes, assassins... how were so many assassins captured?"

"Himeko, is our goal the place of the sages?"

"No, intelligence indicates that due to the target's special nature, the Prison of God has only ever imprisoned this one person since its establishment, so he is being held in solitary confinement. Follow my guidance, pass through the Purgatory, and the target's location will be just beyond."

"They're imprisoned this deep? Beyond that is the restricted area for crossbow-wielding prisoners. Is this person really that highly regarded?"

"...Who knows? After all, you chose that person. I thought you would know better."

"Well, since we've come this far, let's go take a look."

Behind the third door was complete darkness, with only countless tiny red dots flashing in the darkness. A disgusting, fishy stench slowly emanated from the room along with a low growl.

"The sinners of hell fall onto the path of ascension."

"Um... Himeko... did your intelligence report mention... that this place is terrifying..." The nun seemed somewhat apprehensive, looking at the darkness before her and hesitating to move forward.

"Headmaster, stop fooling around."

"What do you mean by 'making a fuss'? A delicate nun carrying a cross, walking through a dark and terrifying purgatory with only the pure hope in her heart, isn't that an epic and tragic situation? Don't you allow the heroine to hesitate for a moment?" the little nun said righteously.

"..." After a long silence, the female voice in the earpiece said through gritted teeth, "Headmistress, let me tell you, because you deliberately acted cute under the guise of being lost, wasting half an hour of our time, we now only have less than twenty minutes left to fight. This includes the time it takes for you to find the target, rescue them, and bring them back to the retreat point..."

"So, Principal, business is more important. After all, you might get lost on your way back, so please hurry..." The female voice in the earpiece seemed to be losing strength.

The young nun curled her lip in impatience, untied the huge cross from her back, and slammed it heavily to the ground. Suddenly, densely packed weapon racks unfolded on either side of the cross, filled with spears emitting a faint golden light. The young nun casually pulled a spear from one of the racks: "Well... older women are so long-winded."

Then he plunged into the darkness without looking back.

"You are prisoner Z-3214, Keng Huo, right?" In the boundless darkness, only this faint light existed.

A young man is nailed to a massive steel gate with five huge iron nails, like the suffering Jesus Christ.

"Hey, I'm talking to you!" The little nun kicked the iron door angrily, making a dull thud. "Are you dead? I went through so much trouble to get in here to find you!"

The young man still didn't look up, seemingly not even breathing, just hanging there quietly, like a statue.

"It's fine if you don't want to talk, but I'm not an enemy. On the contrary, I'm here to take you away." The nun clasped her hands tightly in front of her chest, her smile as holy as that of the Virgin Mary.

But the young man remained unresponsive, as if he were dead.

"Please, at least give me some reaction, okay? I risked so much to come in and save you, please don't die! If you die, all my efforts to sneak in will have been for nothing..." The nun's voice seemed to begin to tremble.

"Hey, move a little?" The nun stretched out her finger and poked the young man's stomach. She had originally intended to poke his face, but she wasn't high enough...

"It's over, no way, is he really dead?" The nun seemed to be getting frantic when she saw that the young man still didn't react.

"Headmaster, he might still be alive if you had arrived five minutes earlier." The female voice in the earpiece seemed to have anticipated this situation and began to complain wildly.

"Nonsense! You're just spouting nonsense!" The little nun's tone was slightly hesitant.

"Well, since the target is already dead, Headmaster, you should retreat as soon as possible. I can't hold you off for much longer."

"Waaah..." the nun cried, "This is terrible! Where am I going to find someone so suitable... someone who doesn't belong to any faction, has sufficient ability, and we even have conditions that can attract them to join us..."

"Cough cough..."

"Himeko? What's wrong?" the nun asked in surprise.

"Me? I didn't do anything?" The female voice in the earphone was completely confused.

"Then why are you coughing?" the nun asked, somewhat suspiciously.

"I didn't cough?" The female voice in the earphones was completely confused.

"Nonsense! Who else but you could speak up! Do you think I'm as brainless as you with big breasts?" The nun didn't miss any opportunity to mock him.

"Um... I have something to say, but I'm not sure if I should."

The nun's expression froze for a moment, then she slowly turned her head and looked in the direction from which the sound came—to the young man nailed to the door.

The young man had already woken up, and his long bangs framed a pair of dark eyes that looked like those of a demon in the dim light.

"Are you fucking crazy?! I'm just trying to sleep and you're yelling and poking me right next to me!"

"You're still alive?" the nun exclaimed in surprise.

"Have you ever seen a dead person talk?" The young man's face was contorted with rage, his forehead seemingly steaming with anger.

"Great! I'll put you down right now!" the little nun said excitedly as she slammed the huge cross on the ground behind her.

"Valkyrie?" The young man then noticed the huge cross on the little girl's back. Judging from the sound of it hitting the ground, it was quite heavy. An ordinary person could not possibly lift it. Only a Valkyrie whose body has been enhanced beyond the limits of human beings by Honkai energy could use this weapon so easily.

"Tch, come on, you'll still have to bring me back in the end anyway, so stop pretending." The young man's voice suddenly turned cold. "It's not the first time you've pretended to let me go, can't you come up with something new? Anyway, I'm not going to tell you the things you ask me, I'm tired of it even if you're not."

"???" The nun looked like she was an idiot.

Seeing the nun's reaction, the young man seemed to confirm his suspicions and closed his eyes, remaining silent.

"Oh right, I almost forgot about that." The nun seemed to suddenly realize something. "I knew you wouldn't listen to me, so I had a backup plan in place for when you didn't cooperate."

A mocking smile flickered across the young man's lips.

"Yes, yes, yes, implement the second plan!" The nun's smile suddenly froze. "Himeko, what was my second plan again?"

The sound of something being smashed came through the earpiece: "The second plan is to just knock him out, stuff him in a sack, and take him away!"

The nun suddenly realized: "Oh right, anyway, as long as I take you away, you'll believe me once we get to St. Freya Academy!"

The young man watched the nun perform a charade by herself with a cold eye, his gaze seemingly showing concern for a mentally challenged person.

“Well, God wouldn’t allow me to treat my future subordinates so roughly. I still hope we can get along well, okay?” The nun wasn’t annoyed by the young man and said with a smile, “I know you have a lot of negative opinions about Valkyries, but I happen to be the kind of person you can trust, just like… Elisa.”

The young man's eyes snapped open, his gaze seemingly holding the ferocious beast ready to devour him, as if the other party had struck a nerve.

“Let’s be frank. I’m here for a mutually beneficial deal, and the reward is…” The nun took out a PDA, adjusted it, and turned the screen towards the young man, “this.”

In an instant, the young man's heart pounded, but he didn't say anything. He just continued to stare at the nun with a cold, mocking gaze.

“You certainly won’t believe me. You think I’m in cahoots with those torturers from before…” The nun seemed somewhat helpless. “But all I can tell you is that I’m here to save you. Whether you believe me or not is irrelevant, because time will tell. What we need to do now is leave here immediately, before the law enforcement arrives.”

"Besides, if it involves this person, even if it's a trap, wouldn't you jump in and try it out first?" The nun's words seemed to have a magical power. "Even if there's only a 0.1% chance, you'd still want to try, wouldn't you?"

"Now tell me, are you willing to come with me?"

The young man nailed to the door seemed to have said without much thought: "I'll go with you."

"Let's start with the oath."

"Huh? An oath? What oath?"

"Stop rambling! Say the first sentence with me: Theresa is the cutest in the world."

"???"

Keng Huo gave a bitter laugh and quickened his pace. For some reason, he suddenly remembered the time when Theresa rescued him from the dark prison of destiny.

At the time, he didn't trust Theresa at all. All he wanted was to find a chance to escape after she rescued him and continue searching for clues about Theresa. But Theresa was ridiculously strong, and his equipment had been confiscated by the Schicksal headquarters. He was practically powerless. No matter how he tried to escape, this young nun carrying a cross weighing over 100 kilograms could always follow him without him noticing. She would repeatedly try to persuade him to join St. Freya Academy in a compassionate tone, as if she were a believer.

After Theresa rescued Keng Huo, she secretly transported him back to St. Freya Academy by stuffing him into the hangar of the Hyperion. In that office, she repeatedly recounted how she had worked so hard to establish the academy, and how she had painstakingly nurtured those Valkyries who loved life. She also solemnly assured that the Valkyries of St. Freya Academy were completely different from the cold and ruthless killing machines of the Schicksal headquarters. They were all kind, lovely, peace-loving, and well-built Valkyries. She even claimed that if Keng Huo was willing to join St. Freya Academy, she could protect him from being hunted down by the headquarters.

At the time, Keng Huo thought this was some new trick by the Destiny Headquarters, trying to annoy him to the point of mental breakdown and then make him reveal his secrets.