Chapter 234: Korosten
"Korosten — by the look of it, it hasn't changed much from what I remember." Fu Hua stood at the edge of the deck, gazing down at the small town drawing gradually nearer.
With his current transcendent eyesight, he had already taken in the general appearance of the town. Almost every sight was the same as it had been before — it seemed the place had been preserved fairly well.
"We've never actually been here before." Tesla and Einstein looked over at the small town in the distance. Tesla folded her arms across her chest, irritation written all over her face — she still didn't want to come here.
The shadow Otto had cast over them really was too heavy. To the point that Tesla now constantly felt the irritation of being led around by the nose.
"We've never been here, but we can still be certain that something is absolutely off about this place." Einstein pulled out an instrument. Naturally, there was no way they'd come over this casually.
It was just that this situation was a bit beyond their grasp — beneath the scans of their instruments, the Korosten up ahead was giving off extraordinarily abnormal energy fluctuations.
As if there were several stray Honkai energy signals — but they didn't seem to belong to Valkyries.
"Mm, it really is off." Fu Hua glanced over once, then nodded. In his memory, Otto had only ever performed restoration work on Korosten — he had never carried out any modifications to it.
As for the reason, he could vaguely guess at it. The situation before them really was not right.
"We need to find a place to dock." Himeko, clad in her armor and her greatsword strapped across her back, walked over. "Any further forward and there'll be nowhere left to dock the Hyperion."
"Mm, then find a place to set down somewhere nearby. With Rin and the others gone, we can only count on you again." Theresa nodded. After Irene had left, she had taken Little Corruption and Rin with her, so the only thing left aboard the Hyperion now was the little foxes Rin had left behind.
Those little foxes were, after all, only the avatars she'd left behind. Their reactive capacity was limited; they could only execute the simplest of commands. So it really was best not to put them on the spot to dock with extreme precision into some tight crevice.
Fortunately, there wasn't much around here, and the available space was just barely enough for the docking.
Himeko nodded. Ai — once Rin was gone, so many things became somewhat inconvenient. Before, you only had to call out and Rin would help them.
Irene's departure hadn't really been kept secret from anyone. After all, a Herrscher leaving so openly and aboveboard — and everyone wasn't blind. But once Theresa said that Irene had gone off to handle other matters, everyone could only nod.
After all, the person had already left — what else could they say? And besides, Theresa had also told them what Irene was going to do, and that was when they noticed that Little Corruption and Rin had also left.
Soon enough, with Himeko's assistance, the Hyperion settled steadily down onto an empty patch of ground nearby, after which the group set off in the direction of Korosten.
But once they had entered Korosten, the expressions of everyone in the group grew rather strange — because every now and then they would catch sight of some highly abnormal phenomena.
Shadows appearing here and there, seemingly engaged in conversation with someone, along with figures of people that were nearly transparent — yet these figures appeared to take no notice of them at all.
"Is Otto really this idle? Plastering holographic projections everywhere?" Little Senti looked around with a strange expression on his face — he couldn't sense the traces of thought these figures ought to have had.
So, in all likelihood, they were holographic projections?
"Grandpa shouldn't be that idle, surely." Theresa scratched her cheek, though she couldn't be sure either — because there were times when Otto really did seem to be rather bored.
Because a long time ago, Otto had once done something like give everyone at the entire Schicksal HQ a holiday for the New Year — and at the time, the Schicksal floating island had even gone through a round of modifications to set up an artificial hot-spring resort.
Of course, it certainly couldn't accommodate the entire Schicksal organization for real. There were still essential personnel on duty, but afterwards they were all given makeup vacations of their own.
Then Otto had just soaked in the hot springs while delivering New Year's greetings to everyone — that sort of abstract stuff. Otto really had done that kind of thing before. As for that hot-spring resort, it was definitely demolished afterwards, given that it took up far too much space.
But a portion of it had still been kept, as a place for the Valkyries to go and rest.
And so, if Grandpa had once again been seized by a passing whim to set up some holographic projections of ancient people in Korosten to increase the immersive feel, that didn't seem entirely implausible — because Otto really did seem to get that bored.
But this place couldn't very well be developed into a tourism venture, could it? It still felt a little odd. But once Little Senti, in his capacity as the Herrscher of Sentience, had stated that these figures bore no consciousness, the group had no choice but to continue forward.
Little Senti, walking alongside the others, was still observing those figures, when suddenly he frowned.
No, that wasn't right — there was something off about these figures.
They couldn't simply be holographic projections, because he could faintly feel that, as he drew closer, these figures were beginning to develop consciousness.
"Little Senti." Fu Hua turned back to look at Little Senti, who was observing the figures. "Let's keep moving for now, and study it later."
Fu Hua held Fenghuang Down, which served as the Key of Consciousness — he had picked up on the same thing Little Senti had sensed. But now was not the time to study it.
As they were about to step onto the bridge, they saw the Immortal Blades lining either side of the road in welcome, with Rita smiling at the head of the line, and beside her a Durandal with a slightly odd look on her face.
Kiana stood off to the side of the procession and waved her hand at Durandal. After Durandal looked over at Kiana and gave a nod, she cleared her throat softly and stepped forward.
"Captain of the Immortal Blades, Durandal — by the order of Overseer Otto Apocalypse, here to receive the Far East Branch's Lord Theresa Apocalypse."
"No need to stand on ceremony, Durandal." Theresa did not bother with these ritualistic formalities. "You should know as well — the current situation is exceedingly complicated, so I'll get straight to the point with my question."
"What is Grandpa trying to do now? He can't actually be planning to resign, can he? And if he is, where is Grandpa right now?"
"The Lord Overseer is currently attending to matters related to his resignation, and is unable to be in two places at once." Rita stepped forward with a smile, looking at Theresa. "As for where the Lord Overseer is right now, I'm sorry — we don't know either."
"Don't know my ass." Tesla shook her fist as she looked at Durandal. "If he really intends to step down, then call him out here. I'll send him straight to the next world this very moment — the scenery around here is rather nice, after all."
She was already certain that that dog Otto was pulling some kind of trick — nine out of ten he was scheming something or other.
"Dr. Tesla, this..." Durandal, faced with Dr. Tesla's attitude, suddenly didn't know how to broach the matter — and seeing that Rita beside her wasn't speaking either…
Durandal could only mull it over for a while, and finally she opted to change the subject: "On the way over here, all of you must have already seen what Korosten looks like at this moment, no?"
Hearing Durandal trying to change the subject, Tesla immediately wanted to cut her off, but Einstein beside her tugged at Tesla and picked up the conversation: "Mm, if we weren't on the Hyperion right now, I'd be wondering if I'd been transported five hundred years into the past."
"So, Overseer Otto has been so idle with nothing to do lately that he's preparing to set up some tourism enterprise?"
"As for that — Rita can only say it is not so." Only at this point did Rita pick up the thread. "But I'm sorry — all I know is that the Lord Overseer has indeed been conducting certain experiments related to the Imaginary Tree as of late."
"However, the Lord Overseer's explanation for this is that, due to previous use of a Herrscher Core, the spacetime environment here has become anomalous — by his account, this appears to be similar in nature to what was previously seen in Nagazora City."
Hearing Rita's words, Einstein raised an eyebrow. He had already heard Tesla speak of the situation in Nagazora City — the state of things there could only be described as very bad indeed.
Basically on the brink where a Great Eruption could break out at any moment. If the same thing were to happen again here…
As if she had read the expression on Einstein's face, Rita continued: "There's no need to worry. The Lord Overseer says that the current situation is still within his grasp. The reason for inviting all of you over is simply for Lord Theresa's coronation ceremony."
"Wait — Rita, since you know this much, do you know what exactly is the cause of the current situation?" Einstein looked at Rita. He didn't believe this place would turn into a situation like Nagazora City's for no reason at all.
There had to be some trigger.
A smile filled Rita's face: "According to Lord Otto, there was an issue while he was researching a Herrscher Core. I trust that Lord Otto will be able to handle it."
The several of them exchanged glances, doubt showing in their eyes. As for which Herrscher Core it might be, they had an idea — most likely it was the Herrscher of the Legion Core.
And that one had been handed over by Irene right in front of them. But the situation before them now really did baffle them a little — could the Herrscher of the Legion really cause this much trouble?
"Since the journey has been long, do come into Korosten and rest for a while. We've already prepared a place for you to rest." Rita smiled as she looked at the group, while inwardly couldn't help but sigh — this really was an exhausting job.
But there was no helping it. Of the people in front of her, nine out of ten had some grudge with the Overseer Otto — it really was getting to be quite a load of pressure on her.
"Then let's go." Theresa nodded. She could roughly see it for herself — these people in front of her really didn't seem to bear any malice, so she decided to follow them.
Durandal, at the very least, wasn't the sort of person to pull underhanded tricks, and she also didn't think Otto could knock all of them down in a single instant.
As for the Hyperion's side, there was no need to worry — Sirin, Siegfried and the others were stationed there. Even if something went wrong on their end here, those two would come down like divine soldiers descending from the heavens.
There was no need to worry about anyone raiding their base, either.
Walking through Korosten, the scenery before their eyes grew even more bizarre and otherworldly. Those figures whose forms had originally been hard to make out grew even clearer here, just like ghosts.
"Now that I think about it, I haven't seen Miss Irene. Did Miss Irene not come this time?" Rita engaged the group in conversation as she walked among them. Theresa looked at Rita, thought it over for a moment, and then opened her mouth to speak.
"Irene — she has matters to attend to right now, so she hasn't come for the time being."
"Ah, I see." Rita nodded, and asked no further questions.
"After all these years, the scenery of Korosten still hasn't changed." Fu Hua couldn't help but sigh with feeling. He hadn't been able to see clearly from up in the sky earlier, but now these buildings really did retain their former appearance.
"If you set aside these stray ghostly flickerings and the building projections... most of the buildings here have been kept in the same state they were in when I left."
"Perhaps it's because this place holds great significance for the Overseer as well. Otherwise, he wouldn't have chosen to hold Lord Theresa's coronation ceremony here."
Rita pointed in a certain direction: "On the way here, the Overseer mentioned to me that over there is Senior Fu Hua's former residence. He specifically arranged for the place to be cleaned up — everything is just as it originally was."
"Heh, that old bastard Otto's actually grown a conscience for once." Little Senti said excitedly, "Once we have some free time later, we should go take a look. I've seen it in the memories, sure, but I haven't actually been to that home in person yet."
"If the Lady Herrscher of Sentience wishes to go see it, then she may as well set off now."
A voice that bore some resemblance to Theresa's, yet was much more mature, rang out from in front of the group.
"Amber?" Theresa turned her head back to look at Amber. Hold on — why was Amber here too? Wasn't she Grandpa's secretary? "What are you doing here?"
"Lord Theresa." Amber gave a slight bow. "The Lord Overseer has sent me to assist Lord Theresa. If there's anything you need, please don't hesitate to tell Amber."
"Then where on earth is that brat Otto right now?" Little Senti edged over and looked at Amber. "Even if he's busy with official duties, he must have somewhere he's at — tell me, will you?"
Amber seemed to have anticipated this very sort of question from Little Senti and shook her head: "I'm sorry, but the Lord Overseer did not tell me his current whereabouts."
"Tch." Little Senti let out a click of his tongue and turned his head to look at Fu Hua. "Old fogey, if you've got the time, go take a look. I've never been to that place before."
But seeing that Fu Hua hadn't responded to him for a while, Little Senti couldn't help but call out again: "Old fogey, what are you standing there for? What are you staring at — reminiscing about your childhood? Oh, wait, that's no good either — your childhood was way too long ago."
"No... it's nothing." Fu Hua shook his head and withdrew his gaze. He had just sensed traces of Taixuan Sword Qi here — and at a very high level of cultivation, at that.
But that aura really did feel somewhat unfamiliar — could it be a lineage he had passed down himself in the past? It didn't quite seem so, because amid the strangeness of that aura there was also a touch of the familiar.
As if it belonged to someone he knew, and yet not quite. He'd go looking into it when the time came.
"As expected of the Grand Master." Li Sushang scratched her head as she looked at the few figures in the distance. "Though I've never heard of this particular form before."
Li Sushang scratched her head — but that wasn't even the strangest part. The form itself didn't matter; perhaps it was something Anti-Entropy had cooked up for the Grand Master. But didn't they say the Grand Master's Sword Heart had been shattered?
This didn't look anything like a shattered Sword Heart — this Sword Heart was, by all appearances, in perfect completeness. Was that even right?
Li Sushang scratched her head. For a moment she couldn't make sense of it. A shattered Sword Heart isn't something you can just easily piece back together — it isn't building blocks that have fallen apart and can simply be reassembled.
Although there is the saying "shatter, and only then rebuild," the Grand Master had gone all these many years without that shatter-and-rebuild — so how had it suddenly gotten better?
"How interesting. It seems I won't be needed to help the Grand Master after all." Li Sushang gazed at Fu Hua. "Mm — I imagine the Grand Master will be taking Master Little Senti to the former residence, so I might as well wait there too."
After all, there were some things she needed to talk through openly with the Grand Master.
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