At the very moment Bronya was attacked, back at the Salt Lake base, Lynelle was already moving swiftly.
Since there had been incidents of internal traitors within the Salt Lake base in the original storyline, Lynelle had long ago set up "surveillance" using her own abilities around Bronya and Little Senti's rooms.
So when the Herrscher of Dominance puppet began sneaking around and setting something up in Bronya's room, Lynelle had already noticed something was off.
However, after a brief moment of hesitation, Lynelle ultimately chose to watch as the puppet completed its preparations.
The reason was simple: ever since Anti-Entropy and Schicksal joined forces to strictly guard against the Herrscher of Dominance, the situation in the world had reached a stalemate.
Even after obtaining three cores, these puppets still cautiously eroded society bit by bit, showing none of the arrogance displayed by their predecessor, Sirin.
Thing is, while Schicksal and Anti-Entropy could afford to play the long game against the Herrscher of Dominance, Lynelle didn't have that much time.
Over in the other world, the Charmony Festival was about to begin.
Even before heading to Penacony, Herta had mentioned to her that due to Penacony's unique nature, Lynelle might not be able to freely traverse between the two worlds while there.
Although the possibility wasn't high, Lynelle simply couldn't afford to take that gamble.
After all, who knew how much time would pass on Earth's side once Sunday finished his business?
What if, during her absence, the Herrscher of Dominance pulled off some major stunt? She'd have nowhere to even cry about it.
Therefore, Lynelle had to break the current deadlock as soon as possible—even though she hadn't fully grasped the Herrscher of Dominance's authority, she had enough confidence to deal it a heavy blow.
That way, even if Lynelle later couldn't return to the Honkai Impact 3rd side due to external reasons, the Herrscher of Dominance, having been severely wounded by her, would find it hard to cause much trouble.
Let's not forget, the Herrscher of Dominance's core was ultimately crucial for Otto's plan.
Facing such a troublesome opponent, if it showed any opening, Otto definitely wouldn't mind seizing the chance to strike.
Although Lynelle deeply disliked Otto, she had to admit that when Otto was on your side, you could actually relax to a certain extent.
He might scheme against you, but he was very unlikely to drop the ball.
As for how Lynelle planned to severely wound the Herrscher of Dominance... let's just say it would be an absolutely stable method with zero room for accidents.
The only two drawbacks of that method were: first, it was somewhat draining for Lynelle; and second, after this incident was over, Lynelle might lose a significant amount of fluids for a long time due to... certain well-appreciated reasons.
But, that would be future Lynelle's problem to worry about.
There should still be plenty of time before the Herrscher of Dominance's disturbance was settled, so... Lynelle decisively chose to execute her plan.
Future me, help me out one last time!
And so, while the puppet, believing it had seized a unique opportunity, was diligently crafting its flawless trap in Bronya's room, Lynelle was in a place not far away, monitoring the puppet's every move, while silently crushing a character card and an item card.
However, using this character card didn't cause any change in Lynelle's appearance—it only made the skin on her exposed areas look even more snow-white and delicate, and... a few faint golden hues appeared within the blood vessels beneath her skin?
"Hmm... this puppet is quite clever, knowing to find a way to disable Project Bunny when impersonating as Seele. After all, Seele is Project Bunny's true master."
"Whether it's the real Seele or not, Project Bunny would know at a glance."
"Also, out of subconscious habit, when sensing something strange in the room, Bronya would definitely summon Project Bunny first."
"That actually gives the puppet an opportunity to target Project Bunny... Tsk, what's wrong with this Herrscher of Dominance? Isn't it a bit too smart?"
"Indeed, a security risk of this level needs to be dealt with as soon as possible... Ah, it looks like they're about to make their move."
After Bronya had been in the room for a full minute, Lynelle stood up.
At the same time, Phase Flame began enveloping the girl's body. The next moment, Lynelle suddenly appeared in Bronya's room.
"?!"
"Lynelle-sis!"
Upon seeing this unexpected guest, the puppet and Bronya each had highly distinct reactions.
"Dammit, why is it you again!"
The "Seele" puppet's expression changed. It didn't even attempt to attack Lynelle, instead immediately starting to pull Bronya toward the Theater of Dominance.
"Wait, playing it this safe?"
Lynelle was taken aback.
In her original assumption, the Herrscher of Dominance would most likely use its authority on her too, but she never expected this thing would have zero intention of fighting her, instead choosing to summon the Theater and flee immediately.
Thing is, once such a major action was taken, the alarms in the Salt Lake base naturally couldn't stay silent.
And while the defensive measures here couldn't do anything about the Theater itself, the puppets deployed this time couldn't all escape unscathed.
After all, although these puppets could also return to the Theater, they still had hosts.
In other words, the Herrscher of Dominance's move was completely akin to a lizard shedding its tail to survive.
However, for Lynelle, this wasn't much of an issue either.
According to her plan, the puppet's move actually saved her a few steps.
Seeing the puppet and Bronya beginning to show signs of disappearing, the girl immediately crushed another card.
Before "Seele" had completely vanished, she drove the Punklordian Regards in her hand into the puppet's body.
Although this weapon could only cause minimal damage to the puppet, thanks to its unique "doxxing" mechanism, Lynelle could follow the weapon's own ether signal to locate the Theater of Dominance's position, as well as the network the puppet was linked to.
And so, under the puppet's incredulous gaze, threads began emerging from Lynelle's body as well—she directly chose to use the puppets' own method, hitching a "ride" into the Theater of Dominance.
"Wait, Lynelle-sis, why would you..."
"You, wait, no...?"
Clearly, Lynelle's series of utterly bizarre actions left both the puppet and Bronya dumbfounded.
It wasn't anything else—it was just that ever since Lynelle appeared, every step she took seemed completely outside the puppet's expectations.
After all, from the puppet's perspective, Lynelle first hid in a nearby room, stubbornly waiting until Bronya was attacked before showing herself.
And after appearing, she didn't even attempt to interrupt the Herrscher of Dominance's ability process.
Instead, she used the puppet to directly hack into the network.
If Lynelle's earlier actions could still be explained by her knowing that the Herrscher of Dominance's ability process couldn't be interrupted, then her next move was something no one could understand for the next ten years.
Because under normal circumstances, the next step should be launching an attack on the network via the earlier route, trying to save Bronya by besieging the enemy's stronghold to rescue the besieged ally.
But what was Lynelle's choice?
She chose to directly connect herself to the network, accessing the Theater of Dominance with a puppet's identity.
Yes, this method of entry indeed prevented the Theater of Dominance from kicking Lynelle out like last time, but the cost was obvious:
Lynelle herself had "registered" as one of the puppets—this was evident from the threads suddenly appearing on her.
For a moment, not only Bronya and "Seele," but even the puppets originally staying in the Theater of Dominance popped out one by one from various corners of the Theater like curious onlookers.
After all, given Lynelle's series of actions just now, one might believe she was a New Game+ player trying to collect all CGs, specifically coming to trigger her own and Bronya's defeat CGs.
But looking at the girl's current expression, there wasn't a hint of panic or fluster—she was completely composed.
"Are... you planning to defect?"
After a moment of silence, the "Seele" puppet looked at Lynelle with a bewildered expression:
"Your next line wouldn't be to tell me that this impossibly hard-to-erode Herrscher of Reason is your offering to join us, would it?"
"Otherwise, I really can't understand why, having discovered my trap long ago, you still watched your companion walk into it, and then handed over your own body as well."
Lynelle didn't reply, instead looking directly at Bronya.
"Bronya, although it might be a bit late to ask now... do you trust me?"
"Of course."
Bronya was stunned for a moment, then as if realizing something, quickly said:
"Lynelle-sis, Bronya's Herrscher of Reason core is also distributed in nature."
"For these puppets to fully erode Bronya will probably take at least five more minutes—because they can't handle the three hundred thousand consciousnesses within the core, they can only forcibly take over each strand of thought."
"So, if you're going to do something, do it now!"
"Where did you get that idea? I never intended to use you as a sacrificial pawn."
Lynelle chuckled softly: "Well then... Bronya."
"I'm coming in~"
"?"
Before Bronya could react, Lynelle's body, controlled by the puppet threads, suddenly went limp.
The next moment, a flash of pink shadow instantly shot out and merged into Bronya's petite frame.
"Ha, so that's it..."
The "Seele" puppet was also stunned for a moment, then suddenly understood: "You want to sacrifice yourself to save this girl? How touching, this sisterly bond..."
"If your Herrscher of Ice hadn't been successfully ambushed by me, you might have had a chance."
"But with her Ice Herrscher authority also stolen by us, even your Corruption authority, which is nearly twice as strong as a normal Herrscher's, couldn't possibly match three authorities in terms of magnitude..."
"Hmm?"
The puppet suddenly looked up.
"Not right, where did you get a third authority from... that's impossible! 0.4, 1.8, where did that extra 1 come from?!"
"Extra 1? So that's why you didn't attack me the first time we met..."
By now, one of Bronya's eyes had taken on a crystalline pink hue.
"My guess was right after all. You simply didn't detect the Origin within me…"
"The reason you didn't act was because you combined the Corruption virus Snake gave me and my Corruption authority, calculating them together as 1.8…"
"Hmm, does that mean Snake's research results were acknowledged by the Will of Honkai?"
"Corruption virus? Origin? What are those things?!"
Seemingly because the attempt to seize the ability failed, the puppet before them suffered significant backlash:
"Are you really a life form from this planet? Why do you always have things on you that are beyond my comprehension!"
"Well... that's hard to say." Lynelle spread her hands, and blue phosphorescence representing the Herrscher of Reason's authority began to manifest around them.
Since her own Corruption authority also had projection-like abilities, manipulating Duckie's body felt quite natural—aside from needing to adjust to the height and the feeling of being a bit lighter in the chest area, using the abilities came very smoothly.
"Later, you might even see things even more beyond your comprehension."
"Even more beyond comprehension? Heh... that probably won't happen."
At that moment, the puppet before Bronya wobbled as it stood up again.
"Your kindness truly exceeds my understanding, willing to abandon your own body to save a companion... But haven't you considered what we might do with your body?"
"Corruption power can indeed condense into a non-solid core, but your body's strength and the energy within it can't be taken away no matter what..."
"Although I don't know why your body's strength is so much higher than a normal Herrscher's, and you have many abilities we've never seen before…"
"Lynelle, we'll gladly take your body, okay? Don't worry, we'll treat her well, turn her into the strongest puppet!"
"Oh, then go ahead and take it."
Contrary to the puppet's expectations, the Bronya before it, though indeed looking a bit more flustered, clearly showed Bronya's panic, not Lynelle's who was currently inside Bronya's body.
After the pink diamond-shaped pupils lit up, the girl quickly regained her calm expression, even... carrying a hint of mockery.
"My body... isn't so easy to digest. Why don't you take a look at what state the puppets that just absorbed my energy are in now?"
"What—"
The "Seele" puppet sharply turned its head.
Just moments ago, since many puppets wanted to seize the special abilities within Lynelle's body, quite a few puppets pouring out from the Theater had crowded around where Lynelle's body lay.
And now, these puppets had largely fallen into two conditions.
One group of puppets began growing green and golden branches and leaves all over, their wooden bodies uncontrollably activating, writhing on the ground while emitting painful moans.
Those that absorbed the most energy were even beginning to mutter things like "The Sanctus Medicus is Merciful."
The other group was even worse off—they spontaneously combusted, emitting black smoke and magma all over.
Even the threads attempting to control the puppets were burned away by the golden blood flowing out from within them.
"So..."
Bronya, controlled by Lynelle, tilted her head cutely.
"Didn't your mother teach you not to eat things given by strangers?"
"Oh, I almost forgot, seems like you guys don't have mothers, do you?"
--+--
T/N: I have a Patreon! Webnovel will get 2 Chapters Every Day, and advanced chapters will be uploaded on Patreon.
It may not seem worth it now, but maybe in the future. Who knows!
[email protected]/AspenTL
If you guys wanna check it out.