After Rita made the proposal, Himeko immediately began to consider whether this suggestion was suitable for their own forces.
The merging of troops might seem like a way to increase combat effectiveness by unifying power, but as a commander with a Ph.D. who had led many battles, Himeko knew that merging units often brought a lot of trouble.
The question of which commander would hold command authority was sometimes enough to cause arguments for half a day. Coupled with different combat habits and other factors, there were times when the awkward situation of "double the numbers, but reduced combat effectiveness" would occur.
"If we're talking about merging forces..."
Glancing at Theresa, who was frowning, Himeko knew she had to be the one to broach this subject.
"Who will have command authority?"
"I have already discussed this with Lady Durandal. Lady Theresa is a former S-Rank Valkyrie, and Major Himeko's command experience far exceeds that of myself and Lady Durandal. Command authority, of course, will be handed over to you two."
"Is that so..."
Both Rita and Durandal had significant ties to Ragna, and Ragna had been Himeko's captain in the assault squad back in the day. Logically speaking, Himeko shouldn't be suspicious of Rita, a junior with whom she shared such a connection.
But now, gazing at the other party's flawless expression, Himeko felt something was a bit off.
Theoretically, the time when the Immortal Blades and the Hyperion needed to merge most was earlier, when there were three Herrscher signals.
Given the situation at the time—the Third Herrscher plus two Pseudo-Herrschers—that was a level of combat power where only the combined efforts of the Hyperion and the Immortal Blades could minimize the danger.
But the Immortal Blades, despite receiving the corresponding intelligence, hadn't made such a request back then.
So, even though Rita's words didn't have many holes, Himeko still felt there was something problematic about them.
However, the current Himeko couldn't refuse such a powerful combat force joining their side based on mere speculation without much evidence.
She wasn't worried about that airhead Durandal, but as for Rita... even if she had an agenda, Himeko believed she stood on the side of humanity.
In this situation, if this junior with her own little schemes planned to use them, then let her use them.
After all, Himeko had long since noticed Rita's special feelings toward Theresa.
Even if she had schemes, she wouldn't let Theresa or their side come to harm.
"Theresa, what do you think?"
"Mm, then let's merge with the Immortal Blades."
"How! Ever! Rita must stay away from me!"
Upon hearing Theresa's targeted demand, the smile on Rita's face didn't change in the slightest.
Acting as if she hadn't heard the specific restriction against herself, she bowed to the two again and spoke with utmost sincerity.
"I understand. Then, please wait here for a moment, Hyperion. The Immortal Blades will arrive shortly."
After cutting the connection with Theresa and the others, Rita began to think about the orders Overseer Otto had just issued.
Rita, now promoted to S-Rank Valkyrie, was considered one of the most convenient tools in Otto's hand.
After handling many matters for Otto that were inconvenient for others to deal with, Rita had gained Otto's trust and was informed of part of the situation regarding the [Siren Project].
The Immortal Blades didn't come here for anything else.
The main reason was simply that Overseer Otto was worried that K423, who was incredibly important to his plans, would be swept up in danger due to a major event like a Herrscher awakening.
Although part of Overseer Otto's plan involved letting other Herrschers become nourishment for K423, that was a plan that could only proceed under the premise of guaranteeing K423's safety.
If K423 were to kick the bucket in Nagazora City, Rita estimated that Overseer Otto would absolutely fly into a rage.
Although she knew Overseer Otto certainly wasn't a good person, judging from his current performance, Rita determined that he still intended to destroy the Honkai.
From this perspective, Rita felt that continuing to choose to work for Overseer Otto right now wasn't a bad thing.
Otto hadn't done anything to cross her bottom line yet. If the day came when Otto did cross her bottom line... she would cross that bridge when she got to it.
"Is the call with Senior Theresa finished?"
"Yes, Lady Theresa and Major Himeko have agreed to our request."
After saying this, Rita didn't say much else.
For this mission, the Valkyrie beside her, Durandal, only knew that Otto was looking for descendants of the Kaslana and Schariac clans, but didn't know K423's other identity.
After spending several years with Durandal, Rita knew that while she was actually very easy to fool, she would often suddenly perceive strange details through sheer intuition.
So, to ensure the secrecy of the mission, Rita didn't say too much this time.
"Hm, I don't quite understand. Since our mission is to track that girl's whereabouts, why do we need to merge with the Hyperion?"
Durandal, recalling the mission objective, frowned slightly.
"The Hyperion has a different mission from ours. Since our target is in a different area, won't we have to split up eventually anyway?"
"Well... since the Herrscher signal has vanished, Lord Otto has judged that the Herrscher won't appear. He wants us to borrow the Hyperion's intelligence database and search systems."
After casually fabricating a reason that sounded very logical, Rita smiled slightly at Durandal.
"The search systems equipped on the Immortal Blades have long been unable to function properly under the electromagnetic Honkai Energy interference generated by the Herrscher of Thunder. But the Hyperion battleship's anti-Honkai resistance is much stronger than our small transport ship. Borrowing their more precise systems will make it more convenient for us to complete those missions."
"Hm, that makes sense... Sigh, I don't know what the Lord Overseer is thinking."
Thinking about how the Herrschers had disappeared one after another, Durandal spoke with dissatisfaction.
"A mission like searching for a target should have been given to someone meticulous like you from the start. From the beginning, the Lord Overseer should have let me act alone to resolve those Herrschers."
*No, no, no. Perhaps the Lord Overseer found this excuse to stall you precisely because he was worried you might accidentally smash the Herrscher to pieces.*
After all, in the Lord Overseer's plan, what was needed was a 'living' Herrscher.
Thinking of Durandal's combat power, Rita said with a helpless smile.
"Lady Durandal, you are the commander of the Immortal Blades after all. This unit needs you to lead it..."
"But in the end, weren't you the one negotiating with Senior Theresa?"
"This... how about you handle the negotiations next time?"
After a brief moment of thought, Durandal decisively shook her head.
"No, too troublesome."
...................
Ten-odd minutes later. Nagazora City.
At this moment, Aaron, riding a motorcycle, felt that the situation was a bit off.
Aaron, having activated [Fog of War], took out his motorcycle and began speeding toward the outskirts of Nagazora City.
According to his calculations, Mei's apartment was in the city center. Yuno's home wasn't far from Mei's home, so it should also be counted as the city center area.
He couldn't sense the presence of Higokumaru or Yae Sakura in the city center, which could only mean that Higokumaru likely wasn't active in the city center or its surrounding areas.
Following this reasoning, he began heading toward the outskirts.
However, the Hyperion, which had been stationary before, had suddenly started accelerating toward his location for some reason.
There were less than two minutes left until [Fog of War] deactivated, and after two minutes, [Fog of War] would enter a three-hour cooldown.
When that happened, Aaron, exposed beneath the Hyperion... he definitely wouldn't be able to explain this clearly!
In the eyes of the Schicksal organization, any person capable of normal movement in the place where the Third Honkai Eruption occurred was absolutely a prime suspect.
Even if Aaron wanted to explain, he felt the other party wouldn't listen.
Even Theresa wouldn't be fooled by Aaron at a time like this—after all, leaving his own identity aside, if Aaron saw someone appearing in a place where a massive Honkai outbreak occurred, he would also think that guy was very suspicious.
As for directly telling the people of Schicksal, "Hey, aunties and sisters up there, I'm here to catch the Twelfth Herrscher, just let me go like a kite"... that definitely wouldn't work either.
Previously, because Aaron was momentarily annoyed, he had blurted out intelligence regarding Night Raid and was then chased and flamed by the other party... okay, he didn't regret that incident too much.
But right now, he was busy catching Higokumaru. Trouble was something he should definitely avoid if possible.
Sigh, no choice.
I'll just use [Demon Armor: Incursio] to find a place to hide.
With thirty seconds of [Fog of War]'s effect remaining, Aaron stopped the speeding motorcycle. After storing the bike, he took out the key to Incursio and a complete mask.
After fastening the mask onto his face, Aaron donned the armor and activated the invisibility effect.
As the armor finished equipping, Aaron, using Incursio for the first time after beating up Tyrant's soul fragment, could feel that Incursio's drain and physical burden had weakened significantly.
Hmm, looks like having a big fist has its benefits. At least those remnant souls of Danger Beasts respect the fist.
In the remaining time, Aaron found the ruins of a building that had been blasted into shambles by Honkai Energy and chose to hide directly inside it.
Right, judging by the Hyperion's flight speed, it shouldn't take long for it to fly past.
I'll just camp here for a bit, and then...
Wait, no, why did you stop???
Seeing that the Hyperion had actually paused temporarily in the vicinity, Aaron felt the situation had gone from bad to worse.
I'm already invisible, and I can still be caught?
Is Schicksal's anti-camouflage system advanced to this degree???
.............
Schicksal's anti-camouflage system was, of course, not powerful enough to see through Incursio's invisibility trait.
But the problem was, before arriving here, the Immortal Blades, who were not far from the Hyperion at the time, had successfully merged with the Hyperion.
At this moment on the Hyperion's bridge, Rita was carefully looking at the nearby scan map and had already detected certain anomalies on the detailed map.
"Lady Theresa, Major Himeko, please stop the Hyperion for a moment."
"Huh? Stop temporarily?"
Hearing Rita's words, Himeko spoke in confusion.
"The last remaining Herrscher's final signal was in the area ahead. If we don't hurry up and search, it really might get away."
"That may be so, but something strange has indeed appeared here."
Gazing at the map, Rita spoke to the two.
"The ruins of this building... normally speaking, after being impacted by Honkai Energy and collapsing, no 'fresh traces' should appear."
"But on the ground in front of these ruins, there are clearly some footprints on the broken bricks. It's evident that the person tried to tread as lightly as possible. If I hadn't looked carefully, I wouldn't have noticed."
"And judging by how the Zombies are actively avoiding this place, we can roughly surmise... there might be some 'guests' other than us in the vicinity."
"I see, that makes sense."
Listening to Rita's analysis, Himeko immediately thought of something.
"Previously, at the two locations with Herrscher signals, battles lasting less than a minute had erupted twice. From this point of view, combined with your analysis, there truly should be someone else in Nagazora City."
"Heh, well done, Rita. If the person appearing nearby really is the one who fought the Herrscher of Thunder, then as long as we 'invite' him out, we can learn the location of the Herrscher of Thunder and the other Herrscher from his mouth."
As for what to do if the other party didn't speak... the two tacitly didn't mention it.
They were Valkyries protecting the world, true, but at a critical juncture like this, they couldn't possibly take trivial details like so-called human rights into consideration.
The whereabouts of the Herrscher of Thunder concerned the lives of millions... no, even the entire human race.
At such a time, if the other party remained stubborn and refused to reveal the Herrscher of Thunder's whereabouts, intending to use an unpresentable method to stall their mission...
—Then, if he didn't want to be decent, Rita would have to help him be decent.