Meanwhile, elsewhere...
On Twilight Street, Mobius had brought Vya out with her once again.
This time, her outing was rather brazen. Although she hadn't reported it to MOTH nor filed any application, Mobius simply didn't believe she needed to bother with such procedures.
The numerous restrictions MOTH had placed on her before had long since grated on her nerves. If she still had to put up with such trivial annoyances now, she wouldn't be Mobius.
"Vya, you said you've been here before, right?"
Mobius held the little one's hand, a hint of inquiry in her tone.
Vya nodded vigorously. "Yeah! The first time Vya came here, I met Sister Vill-V."
"Vill-V, huh..."
A contemplative glint flashed in Mobius's eyes. Vill-V, after her personality segmentation, was almost like several different people rolled into one. Still, the scene when she switched faces was rather amusing.
"Anyone else?" Mobius pressed on.
"Yep! There was Sister Aponia, Sister Pardo, Brother Kalpas, Little Green..."
Vya's words tumbled out like a string of firecrackers as she rattled off the names of all the kids from the sanatorium.
"I see..."
Mobius responded. "The sanatorium on Twilight Street, right?"
She had actually known about the seer on Twilight Street for a while; it wasn't much of a secret among MOTH's upper echelons. That widespread ballad originated from here as well.
Mobius was well aware that those people had been keeping many things from her, but she was confident she'd unearth every last secret, one by one.
Her coming here was no coincidence.
She knew Vya wasn't the one who killed the Fifth Herrscher, so this time she intended to visit the place where the Fifth Herrscher was born. Stopping by Twilight Street was conveniently on the way.
"Vya, where's Sakura?"
Mobius asked.
From her daily observations, she'd noticed Vya's perception seemed far beyond ordinary people's, making her quite handy for finding others.
"Oh, Sister Sakura is over there."
Vya raised a small hand, pointing in a direction. The icy-blue glow in her eyes revealed someone's location.
"Alright, let's go find her."
"Okay," the little one agreed readily.
Sakura was currently on Twilight Street as well, carrying out a mission to eliminate traitors, while also investigating the abnormal concentration of Honkai energy in the nearby area.
As the two proceeded, the portable device Mobius carried quickly analyzed the Honkai energy density around them.
"Tsk tsk... Has some mutation occurred? A sharp local spike in Honkai energy concentration?"
Mobius fiddled with the device in her hand, muttering to herself, "This level is enough to give rise to an Emperor-class Honkai beast..."
Vya, however, wasn't in the mood to listen to Mobius's technicalities anymore, because there were many Honkai beast carcasses scattered around.
Her interest was immediately piqued, and she began "foraging" through the area.
Mobius walked over to an ordinary Honkai beast corpse, observing the single blade mark upon it, tinged with a hint of frost.
"It seems Sakura just passed through here."
Mobius mused to herself. "All finished with one slash. How capable, Sakura..."
She praised inwardly, which in a way was also praising herself, since she was the one who performed Sakura's Mantis surgery.
She reached out and lightly traced the blade mark. Strangely, the biting cold of the frost didn't reach her...
Out of habit, Mobius always had Vya apply a protective film on her before going out. She always insisted she was just a frail ordinary person, really.
Of course, with Vya around, Mobius's... special methods were basically unusable outdoors.
If they ever encountered trouble even Vya couldn't handle, then they might as well just accept annihilation.
Mobius straightened up, looking at Vya busy nearby, and called out, "Vya, don't wander too far."
Vya, happily munching away, replied without turning her head, "Got it~ Sister Mobius. This place feels like it's gotten way more fun."
"Hmph, fun? It certainly is interesting."
Some time later...
"Alright, Vya, come back for now."
Hearing this, Vya stopped what she was doing and ran back to Mobius's side, asking curiously,
"Sister Mobius! Are we going to keep looking for Sister Sakura?"
"Of course."
Mobius said, glancing again at the device in her hand, her brow slightly furrowed. She had a feeling something major was about to happen here.
…
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