“What did you say?!”
Otto froze.
The teacup slipped from his hand, smashing onto the floor and soaking his clothes.
Yet he didn’t care about such trivialities.
All he cared about was the devastating report: Durandal, Schicksal’s strongest S-rank Valkyrie, had gone missing!
“Overseer, Lord Durandal is indeed missing…”
On the comms display, Rita’s eyes were bloodshot, her face haggard and exhausted.
She had led the Immortal Blades squad in a frantic search around the site of Durandal’s disappearance for a day and a night.
Yet, apart from Durandal’s lance, they found absolutely nothing.
With no other choice, Rita had to contact Schicksal HQ to break the grim news to Otto.
“…Retreat back for now,” Otto said slowly after a long silence.
“Also, under no circumstances is the news of Durandal’s disappearance to be leaked!”
“Understood.”
Rita felt a pang of unwillingness.
Maybe Durandal was still out there somewhere.
But deep down, she knew the chances of finding her were slim.
Back at the base, Rita hadn’t noticed any major commotion outside.
It wasn’t until Durandal’s signal vanished entirely that Rita rushed to her last known coordinates.
All that remained were a few bodies and Durandal’s lance.
As for where Durandal went, nobody knew.
Rita had even personally captured and interrogated the commanding generals of both armies involved in the battle, but she gained zero useful intel.
Durandal had vanished as if erased from existence—no trace of her, no body left behind.
Still, Rita firmly believed Durandal wasn’t dead.
If her life had truly ended, things wouldn’t be this eerie and calm.
Schicksal Headquarters.
Otto’s brow was tightly knit.
He admitted to himself that he had underestimated this unknown enemy.
Durandal’s disappearance forced Otto to alter his plans on the fly.
He truly hadn’t anticipated things escalating to this point.
How on earth did Durandal vanish?
Otto remained intensely curious.
He knew Durandal’s strength better than anyone.
She was classified as an S-rank Valkyrie only because S-rank was the highest rating available.
In reality, no one on Earth could defeat her—probably not even the Second Herrscher back in the day.
Yet, despite her overwhelming power, Durandal had vanished without a trace.
For the first time in a very long time, Otto felt a true sense of crisis.
However, to Otto’s shock, shortly after he ordered a complete blackout on the news of Durandal’s disappearance, the information was suddenly leaked to the world!
“Durandal is missing?!”
Upon hearing the news, Einstein and Tesla paused whatever they were doing simultaneously.
However, during the emergency Executive Council meeting that followed, both of them harbored deep suspicions.
By now, rumors of Durandal’s disappearance were spreading like wildfire throughout Schicksal’s ranks.
Although Otto issued an official statement claiming Durandal was merely on a classified mission, many Valkyries remained shocked and doubtful—though most still bought the cover story.
“How is that even possible?!
With Durandal’s strength, who could possibly make her disappear?
And without leaving a single trace?!” Dr.
Tesla questioned, highly skeptical of the report’s validity.
Durandal was, in the truest sense, the world’s strongest Valkyrie.
Anti-Entropy had tried everything to counter her, but their efforts had always ended in futility.
It was precisely because of Durandal’s existence that Anti-Entropy was forced to hunker down in North America, unable to expand openly in other regions of the world.
Tesla refused to believe Durandal had simply vanished.
The other Anti-Entropy Executives, however, thought differently.
Lacking a true grasp of Durandal’s terrifying power, they viewed Otto’s official statement as a classic case of “the lady doth protest too much”—an obvious cover-up.
Ironically, their foolish assumption happened to hit the nail on the head.
After their initial shock, the Executives were ecstatic.
With the Sword of Damocles hanging over their heads finally gone, they could aggressively expand Anti-Entropy’s sphere of influence to gather resources for taking down Schicksal.
Tesla and Einstein remained silent, watching the Executives boast endlessly as if they were going to crush Schicksal underfoot by tomorrow.
Once the meeting adjourned, a worried Tesla approached Einstein.
“Something’s off.
All of this is way too convenient.”
“The entire world is locked in a massive free-for-all right now.
Who on earth has the ability to make Durandal vanish?”
“I’m afraid it’s a Schicksal conspiracy!”
Tesla was deeply worried.
North America had also suddenly erupted into a civil war—and it was none other than an all-out war between the Red and Blue parties of the United States.
Before this, it had just been verbal bickering, and Anti-Entropy hadn’t cared much about it either.
But who could have predicted that during an election year, a real civil war would suddenly break out?
On the very first day of the war, missiles were flying everywhere.
Tesla and the others were getting massive headaches, yet they still had to try their best to appease both parties.
Unfortunately, their efforts yielded minimal results.
Although Anti-Entropy’s industrial bases remained unaffected for the time being, if the two parties were allowed to tear each other apart, it would only be a matter of time before Anti-Entropy got dragged into the flames of war.
“I don’t believe Durandal would vanish so easily either.”
“Plus, the situation in North America is far from optimistic.
This war is very likely a conspiracy Schicksal has been plotting for a long time.” Einstein nodded.
“However, I’ve discovered that over the past few months, several military-industrial conglomerates have been expanding their military production on a massive scale, virtually at all costs.
This isn’t normal.
Knowing how those old geezers operate, why would they ever dump capital in like this?”
Einstein rubbed her temples in fatigue, clearly fed up with the chaotic mess as well. Read this novel at novelping.com for the best experience.
“Unless they knew a war was gonna break out all along,” Tesla chimed in suddenly.
“Maybe they know something we don’t, or maybe they’re in cahoots with Schicksal?”
As she said this, a murderous glint flashed in Tesla’s eyes.
“You’re gonna look into it?” Einstein asked.
“Yeah.
North America needs to be stabilized ASAP.
We can’t let this turn into a full-blown inferno!” Tesla said resolutely.
1 month later, Schicksal HQ.
Although Rita and the Immortal Blades squad had returned to Schicksal HQ and received comprehensive care, none of them looked good.
A heavy gloom hung over everyone.
Because their captain—Schicksal’s strongest Valkyrie, Durandal—had vanished without a trace, leaving zero news behind.
At the moment, Valkyries across Schicksal HQ were constantly asking about Durandal’s whereabouts.
Rita and her squad had managed to gloss it over by claiming Lord Durandal was out on a top-secret mission.
Only the members of the Immortal Blades squad knew full well that there was no secret mission at all.
Rita was currently taking a stroll around Schicksal HQ’s airport to clear her mind.
Over the past month, she had turned down every single mission.
Her entire mind was filled with anxiety and grief—Durandal’s disappearance had hit her exceptionally hard.
At first, she tried taking on missions to distract herself, but after nearly messing one up, she simply declined all assignments and waited for news from Otto.
The other Valkyries in her squad had done the exact same.
WOOOO—!!!
Suddenly, alarm sirens blared across all of Schicksal HQ.
“What’s going on?” Rita paused, momentarily dazed.
She knew precisely what this alarm signified—every single massive floating island of Schicksal HQ was sounding a red alert.
Which meant an enemy was launching an assault on Schicksal HQ!
RUMBLE!
Thunderous roars vibrated through the sky as dark storm clouds gathered over Schicksal HQ at a rate visible to the naked eye.
“What is that…?”
Amid the crashing thunder, Rita looked up in sheer shock at the massive network of lightning coalescing within the clouds.
The apocalyptic sight looked just like divine retribution, leaving her frozen in place.
Then, thick bolts of lightning struck straight down toward Schicksal HQ.
And further out in the distant skies, several massive aerial fleets were slowly closing in on Schicksal HQ.
“Prepare to meet your maker, Cuck Otto!”
Ren looked at the fleet Bronya had amassed with immense excitement.
The month of global chaos in the Honkai world had funneled a colossal amount of Honkai energy directly to Bronya.
Harnessing this energy, Bronya created all kinds of high-tech weapons and equipment, fed them to Gray Wind to devour, and then mass-reproduced them using nanobots.
In an unbelievably short span of time, she had built several pure high-tech aerial fleets—including one ultimate flagship.
Ren then box-selected all fleets and hit F2-A straight into Schicksal HQ.