"Hah! Hiyah! Hah... Haaah..."
The resting room was spacious enough for Hua to practice the martial arts she'd learned as a child, over and over again.
Nearby, Kevin leaned against the wall, head bowed low, tightly clutching the extinguished Cleaver of Shamash in his hands, utterly silent.
As for Evangeline, she watched Hua's every move with keen interest.
Was it just her imagination, or were Hua's techniques becoming simpler and simpler as she practiced?
If Evangeline had voiced this thought aloud, Hua would likely have confirmed it. "Indeed."
In the past, Hua's practice always began with the first punch her father had shown her when she was three. From there, the techniques would grow increasingly complex, linking together seamlessly, eventually flowing into what an outsider might perceive as a torrential storm of fists and feet.
But only Hua knew that it all just looked... it only looked impressive.
"Hah!"
Hua's movements became more refined, yet also seemed increasingly fragmented, as if she were merely mechanically replicating each posture from memory.
Finally, she returned to the most basic lunge punch.
Her form was perfect. If those old masters who judged her could have survived to see this stance, they would undoubtedly have given it the highest marks. But what did that matter?
This was the fruit of diligent practice. Barring emergencies, Hua would run through the entire set—which her father hadn't even completely taught her—two or three times every morning, year after year, day after day. In terms of technical correctness, her movements were already flawless.
She sighed softly, turned, drew her fists back to her waist, then straightened her legs from the horse stance, standing tall as she silently regulated her breathing.
Every action was perfectly executed, but again, what did it matter?
Hua's feelings about martial arts, about fist techniques, were complicated.
She hadn't liked these things initially. It wasn't due to any lingering trauma from the hardships of her childhood training—those struggles were inconsequential. She did them because someone told her she should, so she did. While that might seem somewhat aimless, it was better than doing nothing at all.
She disliked martial arts because they made her feel out of place—
Years of training gave her an enormous appetite. Even among boys her age, few could eat more than her, let alone the girls with their delicate appetites.
Years of training covered her limbs in calluses, especially her palms, making her distinctly different from other girls.
Years of training isolated her from the world of girls. She spent her days communicating with sweat and wooden training dummies, leaving her completely ignorant of the games and sports boys enjoyed, or the celebrities and jewelry girls discussed. She had no interest in learning about them either.
And so, loneliness inevitably became her companion.
Most girls her age had no interest in martial arts. While boys her age might not reject it, and might even dream of becoming martial arts masters themselves, they clearly didn't appreciate a girl knowing such things.
As for improving her combat effectiveness, she and Michael had researched this. The conclusion was that years of hard training had indeed given her some self-defense ability—she could handle two or three male classmates without issue—but against the Honkai...
Yet, she also had to be grateful for it. It was martial arts that gave her the chance to save Carole back then.
Moreover, she had a faint feeling that these things she'd learned since childhood held a deeper meaning.
Michael seemed to understand something, but he hadn't elaborated.
Wiping the sweat from her forehead, Hua checked the time. An hour had passed since they were teleported to this small island designated P-21.
She knew well that these two hours, while the Second Divine Key recharged, were the most dangerous period for P-21. During this time, the island's entire defensive force consisted only of the three MANTISes—herself, Kevin, and Evangeline—and a series of contraptions built by Vill-V.
Her eyelids felt heavy. She hadn't slept the night before last; it had been over forty hours since she'd last closed her eyes.
But she felt more awake now. That was the purpose of her practice—she wasn't sure about others, but some people apparently exercised when they couldn't sleep. For Hua, however, exercise stimulated her nerves into a short burst of excitement. She didn't need this state to last long, just enough to get through these most perilous two hours.
Still, with Kevin here... even though he was weakened, if the Tenth Herrscher truly attacked, his presence should be enough to handle the situation.
Hua took a small sip of hot water, her thoughts beginning to drift.
Compared to their situation here, she was more worried about Michael facing the Eleventh Herrscher. She'd heard that Herrscher's powers were exceedingly strange. Kalpas was still unconscious when delivered to the First Science Department, and Kevin was also listless. If even MANTISes like them were affected so severely, what if Michael...
And she knew why they had come to P-21: to protect Dr. Mei and Vill-V, enabling them to complete a weapon called the Blank Key—capable of defeating the Eleventh Herrscher—before Michael could no longer hold out.
The moment she thought of this, any remaining sleepiness vanished completely...
......
"Tick, tock, tick, tock, tick, tock..."
The pocket watch was fully wound, the ticking of its second hand loud enough to almost drown out the sound of heartbeats.
This continued until Vill-V spun a top onto the cold tabletop.
The top whirled, catching the pale light, twisting it like threads wound together.
The friction between the top and the table wasn't loud, but in the small laboratory occupied by only two people, neither of whom spoke, it seemed incredibly noisy.
And it was this noise that instantly made the utterly ordinary little top the focus of both their gazes.
Of course, the top wouldn't stop spinning just because it was being watched; it couldn't feel human gazes. From the moment it was set down, its fate was sealed—to spin continuously, just as it was now, while the person who spun it hoped it would never stop, even though everyone knew with absolute certainty that the top would eventually stop.
Yet people still focused their attention on the top, as if its ceaseless rotation had become an irresistible vortex, drawing in all concentration.
As this intangible weight gathered, centered on the top, the space around it began to feel heavy, and time seemed to slow...
Until a slender finger intervened from the outside, pressing gently down on the top.
The spinning was forced to halt. Time and space returned to normal. The insistent ticking of the fully wound second hand once again became the only sound in the small room.
Vill-V stared at Mei's hand, watching as Mei pocketed the top. She pursed her lips, seemingly about to protest, but ultimately wilted under Mei's sharp gaze.
She glanced listlessly at the watch face, surprised to find that only a dozen seconds or so had passed.
The flow of time truly seemed to have slowed immensely. But was it the top drawing their attention that caused this, or... something else?
"Heh heh, well, at least half the time has passed," Mei murmured.
Vill-V pursed her lips and retorted:
"What? Are you hoping they don't attack?"
If they weren't face-to-face, Vill-V would have loved to send a sweating emoji right about now.
"Of course, I know all these arrangements are meant to lure them into attacking, but honestly, this feeling of passively waiting to be hit is just... uncomfortable."
"We have no choice."
At some point, Mei's tone had become exactly like Kevin's. Or perhaps, Kevin's tone had been influenced by Mei.
However, Vill-V's "uncomfortable" feeling wasn't about frustration or aggrieved.
She was simply... bored.
The design of the Second Divine Key was nearing perfection. She had wanted to ship more of her "creations" over, but when P-21 was being designed, the client sitting opposite her—Mei—had repeatedly cut the budget, even threatening future project funding. Vill-V had been forced to suppress her own personality and allocate the funds to the main structure of "The Deep."
As for the other compartments, she either didn't build them if she could avoid it, or simply didn't connect any power ports, meaning even if her creations could be transported and stored here, they couldn't be used.
But thinking of this, Vill-V suddenly burst into exaggerated laughter:
"Hehehehe! Hahahahaha! My dear audience, did you just shoot yourself in the foot? After all, if you had just approved a bit more funding for that me back then, P-21 might be a giant fortress by now!"
Mei fiddled with the top in her pocket, ultimately unable to resist the temptation, placing it back on the table to spin.
Once again, their gazes were drawn to the spiral motion.
"What kind of fortress? One with tall, pointed watchtowers, drawbridges, a Soulium base clad in stone, like a medieval castle?"
Mei asked casually, eyelids drooping slightly.
"Ooh! Ooh! Ooh! That sounds amazing! Let me think about the Expert's rejected drafts back then... Hey, wait... that sounds... exactly the same..."
"Heh..."
Mei sighed softly and shook her head:
"Vill-V, all trust is built on understanding, and it's precisely because I understand you too well.
"Whether it's the Conductor, the Expert, you the Magician, the Scholar, or any other persona, ultimately, they all stem from the original Vill-V. So, I have an accurate grasp of the fundamental direction of what you all might do...
"If I gave you more funding, even if you managed to build a fortress exactly like that rejected draft, you'd likely still end up adding countless meaningless and flashy-but-impractical designs. Rather than that, it's better to carefully manage the funds approved for you, limiting you to only completing the basic requirements. But even then...
"Vill-V, can you explain the matter of the door?"
"Door? What door? What were you just talking about?"
"Vill-V" rolled her eyes. Clearly, the Magician, seeing trouble, had dumped the mess onto the Expert.
"...Heh..."
Mei rubbed her forehead, her voice almost laced with gritted teeth—
"Why did you... put the back door of The Deep..."
"Back door... Oh... I see, that thing. Vill-V's works must always have a back door, that's our consensus... But there wasn't enough funding for a proper back door, so I just made a literal back door."
"I'm not questioning the existence of a back door, but... why did you inlay the inside of the back door with heaps of gold and silver? And use exaggerated reliefs?"
Mei's current mood was not unlike Michael's when he first saw the initial version of the Second Divine Key.
"..."
The Expert blinked, speaking with great sincerity:
"If I said it was because there was some leftover funding at the end, but not enough for any substantial construction... would you believe me?"
"Then why put these things on the inside of the back door?"
"Well, surely you wouldn't put them on the outside, letting everyone know there's a back door here?"
"..."
Mei was momentarily speechless.
Truthfully, she had been pleasantly surprised when she first discovered the back door... because the maps hanging in every corridor clearly labeled it by its formal name—Emergency Escape and Retreat Passage.
And it wasn't located opposite the main entrance, but on the side. This meant one could enter through here and reach this inappropriately named laboratory without passing through the true 'Deep'.
"Forget it, there's no point discussing this now. To defeat what's coming next, we can only rely on it."
Mei turned her head, her gaze directed towards an empty corner of the lab. There stood a small, nondescript door, and oddly placed in front of it was a cheap, three-ply wooden coat rack. Hanging on the rack was a battlesuit that appeared black and white at first glance.
But upon closer inspection, one would notice that while the white was indeed snow-white, the black held hints of other colors. As the light shifted, a trace of bluish-purple could be seen within the black—exactly Mei's hair color.
"You..."
Vill-V pondered for a moment, finally unable to hold back her question:
"Are you really going to wear that into battle?"
"What else?"
Mei's eyelashes trembled slightly. Clearly, her mood was not as calm as her words suggested.
"How about... letting me try?"
Mei's breathing hitched for a moment. She didn't reply.
Her mind raced, weighing everything.
Theoretically, Vill-V's suggestion was feasible. The reason the Blank Key was "Blank" wasn't just because its Authority was "Blank," but also because its user was meant to be "blank."
Because it's blank, it can be filled with anything.
So, between Mei, an ordinary person, and Vill-V, a MANTIS, who could better wield the power of the Blank Key?
The answer went without saying.
"Hey! Don't tell me you haven't even considered this?"
Seeing Mei's silence, Vill-V waved a hand in front of her face.
But Mei remained silent, as if in a trance.
Suddenly, a piercing alarm blared. The lights in the entire lab turned blood-red. The mobile terminal beside Mei lit up, and Prometheus's holographic projection popped out on its own.
"Doctor, we've lost contact with the transport fleet escorted by Aldemir over the East China Sea... Uploading satellite imagery directly."
Prometheus not only displayed the satellite images but also thoughtfully added annotations.
The entire escort fleet had suffered almost no losses but was now heading towards the middle of the Pacific Ocean at an unbelievable speed.
"They're moving that fast?"
Vill-V clicked her tongue.
"The power of the Fourth Herrscher..."
It wasn't direct phase teleportation, but rather the Fourth Herrscher's ability to manipulate fluids, pushing the flight group's speed nearly to the structural limits of the aircraft.
"The Tenth Herrscher ultimately opted for a safer approach. Are they hoping to lure Kevin away like this? Just like in the script..."
Mei rested her chin in her hand. At that moment, Vill-V's question echoed in her ears again.
Actually, the reason was quite simple.
"Since the script Michael provided stems from so-called 'fate,' then fate will inevitably interfere in the process, converging the worldline towards the original destiny. Seele's incident was essentially like that..."
"If fate dictates that I must wear the Blank Key and fight a battle, what if I pass it off to Vill-V now...?"
"But Vill-V's fate surely doesn't end here either..."
She silently pressed her hands to her head.
She was, after all, only human. She couldn't even kill a single Honkai Beast, let alone change so-called fate, change the fundamental rules that governed this world.
Yes, she, Mei, was yielding to fate. This submission might be incomprehensible to some, but from Mei's own perspective—
Daring to fight against a rule one cannot change, and has no means to change, might be praised by some, but it clearly wasn't a rational act.
Because nothing could be changed, it would only inexplicably push things towards a worse outcome. Fundamentally, that kind of relentless struggle was more like the futile barking of a loser.
Of course, if Mei had the chance to change such rules, she wouldn't hesitate.
There were methods, but... the choice wasn't hers. So, she was powerless.
Mei also understood a simple principle: choose the lesser of two evils. She didn't know what price she would pay for defying fate's arrangements in this matter—perhaps it would be minor, perhaps unacceptably severe...
Correspondingly, the price ultimately demanded by following so-called fate was indeed heavy, yet not unbearable...
"Vill-V, make some noise. We need her to know we're actually working."
She stood up. The silhouette under her lab coat seemed somewhat thin, somewhat lonely.
She was leading everyone in the fight against the Honkai.
Yet she was also submitting to so-called fate.
Was this right or wrong...?
Mei shook her head, pushing these thoughts aside.
Because there was only one thing she could be certain of:
"Hook, line, and sinker..."