K424 of the Collapse World

Unlike the dark area that was not activated, in the biological research area of ​​the Helheim Laboratory, all structures could be seen clearly under the all-round bright white lighting.

Outside a medium-sized laboratory marked C-09, two armed girls stood on either side of the heavy metal door, seemingly guarding something important. In this rarely visited experimental area, their guarding actions seemed a little sloppy. Indeed, how could an intruder suddenly appear in this experimental area located in the innermost part of the headquarters?

“——Huha~”

Holding a gun and leaning against the wall beside the door, one of the Valkyries yawned, raised her wrist boredly, called out the display screen of her personal terminal, flipped to the message center of the social software address book, and began to swipe the messages one by one...

「Hey! Reina, you……oh, forget it.」

Seeing her companion's actions, another Valkyrie subconsciously wanted to dissuade her from doing so, but after changing her mind, she sighed and swallowed her words.

Their mission was to prevent irrelevant personnel from entering the C-09 laboratory, but after standing guard facing the air for so many days, they had only seen a few researchers passing through this passage, let alone those who tried to enter the laboratory.

537 In-depth >>

As a girl who had just turned fifteen, even after rigorous military training, she couldn't help but slack off in this almost meaningless job. She had maintained a dignified military posture for a few days, but now she had turned into a pile of mud that seemed to be collapsed on the wall...

(She has passed the assessment and become a full-fledged B-rank Valkyrie, so why does she have to do this kind of guard duty? It would be fine if it was at the border, but here, it's basically a punishment duty... This is definitely weird, right? This is a job that even C-rank or D-rank Valkyries can do...)

Thinking confusedly, after all, Susha has no right to blame her colleagues for checking text messages at work, unless she is willing to continue to do this tiring and meaningless punishment work of standing seriously from now on.

The answer is naturally no.

Reina, the girl fiddling with the terminal, looked up at her, then raised her hand and shook it gently with a smile.

"Hey~ Don't be so serious, Susa. Anyway, we just need to make sure no one enters this room. In the meantime, it's okay to do something to pass the time, right?"

"......Well."

Susha hesitated a little, carefully glanced at the camera on the other side of the corridor, and supported her loose and weak body with her hands.

"But, if Lady Claudia sees this..."

"Don't worry, don't worry. That person is very busy and won't come to patrol such a remote place during working hours. Besides, as long as we don't leave our post without permission and no one enters this room by mistake, the mission will not be affected at all~"

As she spoke, the screen of Reina's terminal had already been transformed into the Pac-Man game interface. Playing small games on a personal terminal during guard time was a serious violation that was enough to warrant a disciplinary action or even suspension. But now, seeing her partner's reckless violation of discipline, Susa surprisingly had no energy to stop her, and could only sigh with a little concern.

"But what if there's an intruder..."

"Eh? In the deepest secret experiment area of ​​​​Stein's Destiny, do you think there will be intruders here? Hahaha~ Little Susa, if there really is an intruder who can bypass the countless defense lines and alarms outside and come here, I, Reina...

Nyxia will eat this terminal right there~!"

"Ah ha ha......"

Hearing her companion's solemn promise, Susha could only chuckle awkwardly, then closed her eyes and stretched. At this moment, a slight collision sound suddenly came from the side, but the relaxed Susha didn't think of anything unusual at the first time, she just thought that her companion next to her had sat down on the ground.

"Whoo~"

Susa didn't put down her arms until her arms were stretched to their limit, intending to symbolically reprimand her partner for being too lazy. However, the moment she opened her eyes, she suddenly felt the touch of a slender hand on her cheek.

(Strange, are Reina's hands really that cold...)

It turns out that when people are not nervous, they are bound to react half a beat slower to any situation. After feeling the touch of this soft hand, Susha's face flushed, and her first reaction was that the girl next to her came over. At this moment, she had no idea that there would be any abnormal situation.

「Ugh~ Reina, we can’t do that now~! In a place like this, it’s too… eh!!」

The hand that touched her cheek was obviously not from Reina who had collapsed on the ground beside her. As a paralyzing feeling of electric shock spread throughout her body, the unwary girl also twitched and fell down, and her consciousness immediately fell into darkness...

"Hey~ Shiris, do you think I should feed this terminal to her?"

Standing next to the unconscious Valkyrie, Charlotte retracted her fist, looked at the word "game over" on the terminal screen next to her, shrugged speechlessly, then turned to the silver-haired girl next to her with a teasing smile on her face.

"By the way...what do you think the relationship between the two of them is?"

"What else could it be? In the Destiny Organization, this normal phenomenon is nothing to be concerned about."

After picking up the unconscious Valkyrie by the waist, Shiris came to the control console of the metal door, raised her hand and pressed it towards the sensor.

"Hey! You'll trigger..."

——Drip~

After a short beep, the sensor screen turned green in Charlotte's surprised eyes, and the metal door in front of her was unlocked. The huge door axis turned and slowly rose up...

"Eh? Why can you...?"

"Have you forgotten? I am an S-class Valkyrie listed in the Destiny File, so it is no problem for me to open the electronic door of the experimental area. Otto probably didn't have time to revoke this file, but now, he probably won't deprive me of this authority."

After saying that, Shilis looked at the monitor at the end of the corridor and frowned slightly.

"We can't interfere with the surveillance camera for too long, or it will easily arouse suspicion. Charlotte, bring in the unconscious Valkyrie as well. We may need to borrow their clothes for our subsequent operations."

As she spoke, she walked into the open door of the laboratory, scanning the room filled with various equipment, and her eyes finally fixed on the most conspicuous cylindrical transparent container in the center...

"This is it. This is where the experiments on artificial Herrscher are conducted."

"..."

Following Shirley's gaze, Charlotte looked at the petite figure soaking in the transparent container, her eyes gradually becoming sharper.

"That's the one you were talking about..."

"Well, our companion, Claire Shaniat."

538 A Small Omission

In a columnar container filled with some solution, a petite black-haired girl floated behind the glass wall. She had her eyes closed, and her overly thin limbs and pale skin made her look like an exquisite doll.

This was the first time that Shiris had seen a girl with this appearance in this world. However, relying on the fragmentary memories of this part from past reincarnations, as well as the similarities between the girl in front of her and the old friend, Shiris was still able to confirm that the strange black-haired girl in front of her was the leader of the Valkyrie team who had defected, the girl named Claire Shaniat...

"But the transformation is really thorough... From a mature lady in her twenties, she suddenly turned into a ten-year-old girl in just a few months. Was she fed aptx4869? And even her hair color changed... Is it the influence of Honkai energy?"

Recalling the valiant Valkyrie with short beige hair in her memory, Shilis's eyes became subtle. In the development of other world lines, if she had been defeated by Otto, or if she had not conflicted with destiny at all, Claire, who was undergoing experimental transformation, would only become a crazy monster on the verge of sanity collapse in the final stage of the experiment...

Although she had only a few memories of fighting with the collapsed Claire, Shiris knew very well how terrifying this "artificial Herrscher Prototype" would be after it went completely berserk. If she was allowed to go that far, then in the near future, humanity would have an additional terrifying enemy that surpassed the perfect Herrscher.

So now, whether it is to save Claire or

In order to eliminate the potential threat, I must quickly terminate the experiment and bring her back. At this time, it should still be in time...

"Oh? So she was a normal adult before? In other words, she has been transformed by the Fate of Heaven? No wonder she looks so small... Even if the Fate of Heaven exploits child labor, it won't use a young Valkyrie of this size to fight, right~?"

Standing in the laboratory, looking at the black-haired girl in the glass wall who looked like a fragile object, and the energy transmission cables piercing her temple and spine, even Charlotte couldn't help but reveal a trace of heaviness on her face. No matter what kind of organization it is, using infants and young children for human experiments is a taboo experiment in the unspoken rules...

"Wait a minute, Shirley, you just said that she was an adult Valkyrie in her twenties, right? Then why did she become like this? Did she undergo a consciousness transplant, or did she restore the aging cells? By the way, does Destiny already have this kind of cross-era technology..."

"Don't ask me, how do I know these things? Besides, aren't you a living example? You have lived for more than 500 years just like Otto, so how do you maintain your youthfulness? In short, if there are phenomena that cannot be explained by science, it's okay to attribute them all to Houkai."

She kicked the question back to Charlotte unhappily, and walked a little closer to the transparent container, and came to the huge operating table below. Looking at the complicated operation page and display screen in front of her, the girl calmed down, searched the few experiences of operating experimental instruments in her mind, and began to input the termination command into the system of the experimental device.

"The clearing item of this command... ah, I found it. Then, with the authority of the nominal S-class Valkyrie, I should be able to temporarily stop the task of this instrument, right...?"

Shirley muttered to herself, operating the photon display screen filled with buttons calmly and slowly. She really didn't need to rush at this moment. As the winner of the battle, after breaking away from the battlefield prepared by Otto, she could release a domain attack at any time that could affect the entire Destiny headquarters. It was precisely because of this that Otto was forced to agree to renegotiate the agreement with her before...

Therefore, even if she further invaded the area of ​​​​the Schicksal Headquarters like this, as long as she didn't go too far, Otto, as the defeated party, would just turn a blind eye to her.

After pressing the enter key for the last command, Shiris watched the cables in the culture tank slowly being removed from the girl's body, and then she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Okay, we just need to stop the energy transmission system first, and then we can take Claire out, right? Hmm... probably like the safe deletion hardware of a USB flash drive?"

The girl muttered to herself, her eyes fixed. Just as she was about to make the intended action, she suddenly noticed the overly conspicuous Honkai dress she was wearing, and immediately realized what she had forgotten.

By the way, we should still stay in stealth mode. Although Otto and other upper-level officials are willing to turn a blind eye, the lower-level Valkyries do not know the secret agreement between Otto and themselves. Although they may not know about the secret siege in the church, it cannot be ruled out that the Valkyries who participated in the battle have leaked the news. In any case, Shilis does not want to cause trouble at this time...

"Charlotte, did you bring in the Valkyrie who was slacking off on duty just now?"

"Well, I just pulled it in when you reminded me. So, are we going to change into the enemy's clothes?"

Looking at the unconscious girl at her feet, Charlotte spread her hands and asked. After receiving an affirmative nod from Shirley, she immediately leaned down and began to touch the unconscious Valkyrie...

538 Small Omissions >>

Most of the clothes on her body were burned by the cluster artillery just now. Even if Shirley didn't say it, she was ready to strip the clothes from the unconscious enemy.

Looking at Charlotte's skillful movements, Shirley's eyes twitched. She forced herself to suppress the desire to ask questions and turned her gaze to the Valkyrie who was knocked out by her.

"We're lucky... These two Valkyries are about fourteen or fifteen years old, and their figures look similar to ours. Using their clothes as disguises should be perfect..."

Shiris took off her Honkai-energy dress and put on the Valkyrie uniform with body temperature. A few minutes later, the girl looked at herself in the uniform and suddenly wanted to pinch her neck and beat herself up...

The opening of the boots fits tightly against the skin of the knees, the hem of the skirt reaches just above the knees, and the slightly loose uniform jacket on the upper body is basically a fit. Judging from her expression, it seems to be as perfect as the girl expected.

"What a mistake..."

However, due to the tight structure of the waist of the uniform, the chest area of ​​​​Shilis's Valkyrie uniform was loose and left a row of wrinkles, as if there was a lack of padding in the area covered by the clothes, which looked very strange. If you notice this at first glance, the other suitable parts of the clothes will also become weird.

The bust size that I usually ignore as "useless fat" has now become the biggest flaw in my disguise.

"Puff~ Na...

...Miss Hillis, what did you just say? They are both similar in stature to us... Is that right? Hehe~~"

Standing next to Shirley, Charlotte, whose clothes were also only a few sizes larger at the chest, looked at the silver-haired girl's chest which seemed to be sunken under the shape of the clothes. She couldn't help laughing on the spot, and then walked up to the girl and patted her shoulder with an intriguing and teasing smile.

"It doesn't matter. We're all the same anyway. Overall, it still fits well~ It's not a hopeless loophole, right?"

"..."

The girl glanced at Charlotte who was trying hard to hold back her laughter, and said nothing. She walked past her indifferently. After smoothing the collar of the Valkyrie's uniform as much as possible, the girl turned around and walked towards the large glass container in the center of the laboratory.

No matter what happens, what I have to do now will not change...

——clang!!

With a crisp sound of breaking, a big hole was blasted directly into the transparent container wall that was covered with cracks in an instant! The solution inside gushed out like a flood. Shiris took a step to the side, letting the blue water flow past her. Looking at the black-haired girl who was gradually washed to the hole as the solution descended, she slowly reached out her hand, gently supported her body, avoided the sharp edge of the container hole, and carefully carried her out.

"Ugh... cough cough!"

The moment the air came into contact, the black-haired girl coughed violently and coughed out the solution in her trachea. Seeing this, Shiris didn't know why, but suddenly breathed a sigh of relief.

How should I put it... After being reawakened, she was able to cough out the water in her alveoli instinctively, which at least showed that this girl's body was still a basic human structure. When she entered the laboratory, she saw Claire's body shrinking from 1.6 meters to 1.2 meters, and her pale skin that was only a hair's breadth away from the skin of a dead soldier. Shiris was really worried, worried that this girl had been transformed into a humanoid monster who had lost his mind...

After the coughing subsided a little, the girl in Hillary's arms gradually calmed her breathing, then frowned, and her long eyelashes like a small palm-leaf fan trembled slightly, as if she was about to open her eyes.

"Huha...Huha...What's going on? I seemed to hear the sound of glass breaking just now..."

Accompanied by a slight gasp, the girl's weak voice with a slurred voice sounded in Shirley's ears. She hesitated for a moment, and when she was about to say something, a shrill alarm suddenly sounded in the laboratory!

"Alert! Violent intrusion detected, coordinates c-07 area..."

"--Eh?!"

As the light suddenly turned red amid the alarm, Claire, who was in a daze, woke up immediately. Realizing that something was wrong, the girl opened her eyes with difficulty, forcing herself to quickly adapt to the light outside. After the fog in the light and shadow was dispelled by the focused sight, what finally appeared in front of Claire was the familiar face that had appeared in her dreams countless times...

“You…you are…?”

The silver and black hair merged together, and Shirley's soft blue eyes were reflected in Claire's dark purple pupils. The girl finally couldn't help but exclaimed.

"...Siris?!"

539 Escape

As their eyes met, Claire let out another cry of disbelief after a brief moment of distraction.

"How is it possible...! But this swelling feeling is indeed the Honkai energy of Yosu's Herrscher... Tell Oshiris, why are you here?!"

"..."

Well...it seems like there's nothing wrong with her mentally.

Hearing the question from the girl's childish voice, Shirley couldn't be serious at all. After taking a deep breath to calm down, she didn't explain much, but took off the bed sheet in front of her and wrapped up the petite girl in her hands.

"Ah~! What are you doing......"

"Sorry, there's no time to explain. Let's talk later. Also, if there's nothing wrong with your hearing, you should be able to hear these damn sirens."

Ignoring the girl's weak resistance, she hugged her around the waist and rushed out of the laboratory first. When she passed Charlotte, she just gave her eyes a slight signal, and the girl immediately understood what she meant.

Charlotte deftly dragged the two Valkyries, who were only left in their underwear, out of the door. She also jumped out of the laboratory, pressed the button to close the door, then raised the crystal bow she had seized before, put on the arrow, and aimed at the core of the laboratory's energy configurator.

"Hmm~ The wave reaction is such a huge energy source, it should be completely destroyed after it explodes, right?"

The girl whispered softly, and when the metal door was completely closed, she let go of her hand, letting the arrow flash through the gap in the door and accurately hit the valve of the energy distributor, piercing through it. Connecting to the energy source along the cable, the energy contained in the crystal arrow will explode in the next second...

The next moment, as the metal door

The door was tightly closed, and the violent tremor that almost shook the entire underground space erupted with a dull roar! The heavy metal door seemed to be slightly deformed, and a little flame seeped out from the cracks. However, this explosion-proof isolation door of Tianming Heavy Industry successfully withstood the huge explosion, minimizing the damage caused by the explosion.

"Wow!!"

"what happened?!"

With the vibration and loud noise, the two Valkyries closest to the gate woke up instantly! Looking at the Valkyrie uniforms disappearing from each other, the two girls looked at each other in bewilderment, not realizing what had happened. At this moment, before Charlotte detonated the energy furnace, she had already quickly crossed the corner of the passage and chased after Shiris who had left in advance. Therefore, all Susa and Reina saw after waking up was the slightly cracked broken metal door and the shrill alarm that resounded through the metal passage.

「Um, Reina……could this be……?」

"Uh... don't ask me, I don't know either..."