"This is a mission to capture Vill-V? Heh~ Interesting. Sothing fun is finally happening."
Elias murmured to himself as he looked at the mission terminal.
It was then that he rembered—the Helix Fla-Chaser had indeed gone through a phase like this, mistakenly believing that the Honkai was engineered by Fire Moth, and thus declared war on them single-handedly.
And honestly, she really did manage to stir up quite a bit of chaos.
After all, Vill-V, like Mobius and i, was a peerless genius capable of advancing all of human civilization on her own.
In so ways, she might have even surpassed Mobius and i. At that point in ti, Vill-V could easily be called the pinnacle of human intellect.
For the sake of fighting the Honkai—
She was soone Elias absolutely had to recruit.
"Let take a closer look at the details... Ha, this woman really did all of this."
Elias couldn't help but chuckle as he reviewed the information on Vill-V.
Apparently, she had already broken into Fire Moth's headquarters several tis, creating quite a stir.
Using her various chanical constructs and magical tricks, she had even managed to make a flashy getaway each ti.
After losing so much face, Fire Moth obviously couldn't just sit back. She was now officially wanted, and the mission wasn't exclusive to Elias.
Still, Elias was sure—no one would be able to catch this future Helix Fla-Chaser.
Vill-V wasn't just the Previous Era's greatest chanist; she was also a world-class magician, especially skilled in the art of escape.
"Hmm? This person's got so skills—breaking into Fire Moth HQ alone and getting out unscathed... Judging from your face, are you interested in her?"
Mobius glanced over and comnted.
Elias swatted away the syringe she tried to sneak toward him while continuing to read Vill-V's spectacular list of achievents.
"Of course. She's a rare talent. And I've been pretty bored lately. Before the Third Herrscher shows up, I need sothing fun to pass the ti."
He stared at the wanted poster on his terminal.
"By the way, this girl's fashion sense is really sothing."
"Yeah, definitely!" x3
Everyone agreed with that sentint.
On the wanted poster, Vill-V was depicted as a young woman with an absolutely stunning figure—her 'padding' outclassed even Mobius and Elysia.
She wore a steampunk outfit: a brown leather corset adorned with gears, along with a wide-brimd hat also covered in gear decorations... which were probably functional, not just ornantal.
But the most striking feature was her hair—brownish-yellow on the left, dark green on the right.
At a glance, it made her look like she was half-shrouded in shadow.
"Well~ geniuses are always a bit eccentric. Totally understandable. Mobius, aren't you a bit unhinged from ti to ti yourself?"
"Shut it! Who are you calling unhinged?! If you're going after her, then get going already! Stop being an eyesore!"
"No worries. This grand magician will co to us herself. All we have to do is wait."
As Elias said this, he swiped to the next page on his terminal—and a flamboyant notice appeared on-screen.
It was like a phantom thief's declaration of intent before a heist.
The language was flowery and exaggerated, announcing her intention to strike another Fire Moth base soon. Clearly, she was feeling confident—too confident. She was long overdue for a dose of reality.
Still, her brain was functional. At least she hadn't gone full phantom thief and included the exact ti and location. Otherwise, Elias would have to seriously question whether her "genius" label in the ga was just for show.
"She seems like a very interesting person~"
Elysia, too, watched the notice with growing interest.
"She's clearly a few screws loose."
Mobius sneered as she comnted.
Elias couldn't help but laugh.
Wasn't that the truth? As one of the future long-term residents of the Elysian Realm ntal Hospital, Vill-V was definitely one of the heavyweight cases.
She had a severe case of dissociative identity disorder—split into eight distinct personalities, each arguably ntally unstable in their own way.
But still, wasn't that kind of cool?
After all, if soone could actually win Vill-V over as a girlfriend, wouldn't that an they'd instantly have eight unique girlfriends? A legitimate harem!
"But Elias, how can you be so sure she'll show up here? She didn't ntion any ti or place."
Elysia asked curiously, as if Elias had foreseen Vill-V's appearance.
"Hehe, that's a secret~"
Elias raised a finger to his lips.
"You're teasing again. Didn't you say you'd never keep secrets from ?"
"But didn't you also say you wanted to uncover my secrets yourself, and not have tell you? Anyway, just wait and see. Now then... what kind of cage would be fitting for a magician specialized in escape tricks?"
While speaking, Elias began rummaging through Mobius' lab drawers. The latter twitched as she watched him pull out a whole assortnt of neurotoxins.
If Vill-V really dared to show up at this base, Mobius figured she could at least pity the girl for a single second.
Because no matter how impressive a magician she was, resistance was futile when facing beings that didn't play by the rules… especially when there were two such beings here.
Mobius glanced at the superhuman couple before her. Even Herrschers would drop dead in front of them.
Could a ntally unstable, dual-colored-haired magician be more troubleso than a Herrscher? She didn't think so.
...
In a dim and spacious underground chamber—
Once abandoned and forgotten, the place had since been transford into a chanical fortress by a young girl.
The floor was littered with parts—half-finished weapons, scattered Fire Moth intel, and nurous inventions of questionable function.
Even if their purposes were unclear, the underlying technology was so advanced that not even Fire Moth could compare.
"Achoo! Who's missing the world's greatest magician right now?"
A girl with two-toned hair wiped her nose and crossed her legs, talking to the air as if addressing an invisible audience.
"Unfortunately, yours truly is currently busy battling the evil organization known as Fire Moth. No new magic shows are scheduled, so I must ask my dear audience to be patient."
Vill-V looked at the intel she had gathered from her last raid on Fire Moth's headquarters, her face glowing with excitent.
"Honkai energy research, evil human experintation labs, Herrschers... Hmph~ Just as I suspected! This so-called 'Honkai disaster'—it was all created by Fire Moth!"
"Doesn't matter if your goal is world destruction or sothing else. Now that I know the truth, there's no way I'll let it happen. I, Vill-V, shall save the world!"
She declared confidently.
She had noticed the presence of the Honkai for so ti. After spending three months self-studying advanced chanical engineering from scratch, she had beco the world's top chanist.
Using her inventions, she began investigating the Honkai. Coincidentally, that was when the Second Eruption occurred.
After the Herrscher of the Void was defeated, Fire Moth suppressed the truth. When Vill-V uncovered this, she assud the Honkai was a man-made catastrophe caused by Fire Moth.
That made her both nervous and excited. She believed she had uncovered the hidden truths of the world and was now the protagonist of the stage.
Seeing Fire Moth as a secret evil organization trying to destroy the world, it only made sense that she, the protagonist, would stand against them—and save it.
Vill-V planned to reveal everything only after her grand victory.
Just thinking about the praise and amazent she'd receive from the world made her tremble with excitent!
"This will be the next stage," she said, eyes gleaming as she pointed at a location specially marked even in the Fire Moth headquarters—a base housing a mysterious and dangerous lab. Her instincts told her there was a massive secret hidden there!
Looking at the coordinates on the map, Vill-V grew more and more eager.
After all, she'd already managed to co and go freely from their headquarters. How hard could it be to sneak into a re branch base?
Last ti, she had even found so excellent parts. Glancing at her latest chanical masterpiece, her already-overflowing confidence inflated even further.
…And so, several days later, one night—
BOOM!
A massive explosion erupted outside the Fire Moth base.
Instantly, the base went into full alert. Ard soldiers rushed toward the explosion site.
Amid the chaos, a certain magician took advantage of the distraction.
A curvaceous female soldier slipped inside during the commotion. The next second, she peeled off her disguise and revealed her signature steampunk outfit.
"Hehe~ Still as easy to fool as ever. That went way too smoothly. Then again, maybe they see as no threat to humanity, so they're inexperienced when it cos to handling intruders."
Vill-V dropped her disguise and connected her system to a terminal inside the base.
"Done~ Let's see where that lab is. My little darlings should be able to entertain them for at least half an hour—that should be plenty."
With the explosion drawing attention, the number of soldiers inside had thinned out significantly. Still cautious, Vill-V kept herself hidden and released a swarm of drones.
"Off you go, find that lab for ."
Each drone was no larger than a thumb, but their performance was exceptional. Once deployed, they buzzed through the base like chanical bees.
Soon, they returned with a full schematic of the facility.
Vill-V even had the leisure to leave a graffiti signature on the wall, marking her visit with flair.
Finally, she located her target.
"First Research Facility—this is it!"
Her eyes sparkled as she quickly instructed a drone to interface with the lab's terminal. Her brows rose in surprise.
The defense system protecting Mobius' lab was far more advanced than she'd anticipated. Its firewalls were even stronger than those of Fire Moth HQ. Her drone's auto-hacking protocols couldn't breach it.
But rather than being frustrated, Vill-V was delighted.
"Now that's more like it! The tighter the security, the more valuable the secrets within. Besides... even if it's a challenge, it's still child's play for a genius like !"
She began manually bypassing the firewall. It took her a full five minutes, but she finally breached Mobius' defenses.
Vill-V's drone successfully slipped inside.
However…
"Huh? This is it?"
Vill-V stared at the feed from the drone, utterly confused. The lab, which had been specially marked in Fire Moth's HQ and had taken her effort to breach—
Contained nothing but a green-haired woman slurping instant noodles.
"Seriously? Just one green-haired auntie? Did I break into the wrong place?"
Thinking back on the firewall that took her five minutes to crack, Vill-V frowned. She maneuvered her micro drone closer to the noodle-slurping Mobius.
"Let's see what secrets you're hiding."
As the micro drone approached, it began picking up Mobius' voice…
"Zzzzt zzzzt... hmm, perfectly compatible with the Second Herrscher Core, slurp~ the Core is inside him, slurp~ and it can even unleash powers beyond the Herrscher of the Void... slurp~ If only I could run a full body examination on him... next ti Elysia isn't around, slurp~ I'll just add a little sleep aid to his instant noodles."
"...Uh, that doesn't sound like anything a good person would say. Wait, I feel like I've seen this green-haired auntie sowhere before."
"Ehh~ Mobius, you really don't give up, huh? Sleepyti tea wasn't enough, now you're making sleepyti noodles."
"Mobius? Mobius, that famous biologist? What's she doing in Fire Moth?"
"The Doctor is one of the founding mbers. And what you're snooping into right now is her lab. But there's nothing worth seeing—just so Honkai Beasts and zombies samples. She's only interested in my Elias now."
"Oh, I see... Wait, what?!"
Vill-V suddenly pressed a button on her jacket. Instantly, gears whirred and thick smoke flooded the entire room.
Without looking back, she turned to flee.
(Wha—!? When did they show up?! My alarms didn't make a sound!)
"Leaving so soon? You ca all this way—at least stay a while, Miss Con Artist Vill-V."
Elias raised a hand, and with a gentle stir of the Herrscher of Wind's power, the smoke was blown away in an instant.
"That's right~ Elias and I have been waiting for you. How sad it'd be to part ways just after eting~"
Elysia was already standing in front of the door. Vill-V had nowhere to run.
"This is... truly unexpected. How did you two figure out I'd be here?"
A bead of cold sweat trickled down Vill-V's forehead.
Had they attacked outright instead of talking, she would've been caught already.
"Simple. Distract with flair and slip in through weak points—that's basic magician strategy. Your alarm systems were clearly added after the fact. We were already here before that."
Elias said, pulling out a pair of handcuffs and holding them up with a smile. Vill-V's eye twitched.
"Didn't think I'd et soone who actually understands the act. What a surprise. Well then, as a magician, I must return the favor with a surprise of my own—behold the latest masterpiece of this genius!"
Vill-V quickly regained her composure.
Glancing at Elias and Elysia, she assessed the situation. It wasn't irredeemable yet. She had backup plans.
She reached into her hat and pulled out a handkerchief. With a flick, it beca a long cloth. Another flick—
A humanoid robot ard with a handheld Gatling gun appeared out of thin air.
Elias: "Brilliant. Absurd. I love it. Even I didn't catch how you pulled that one off."
Elysia: "Waaah~ Amazing trick! Vill-V, would you consider taking on a disciple?"
The couple clapped enthusiastically.
Even in this situation, Vill-V couldn't resist a smile in response to genuine praise.
"Haha~ You two charming audience mbers, if you'd kindly pretend you didn't see anything and walk away, I won't hurt you. So—"
Before she could finish—
BOOM!
A crystal arrow shattered the robot's head, followed by Elias darting forward and yanking out its power core.
Elias/Elysia: "What were you just saying?"
Vill-V: "...Are you two even human?!"
Staring at her precious creation now destroyed in a split second, Vill-V froze. The pair had moved so fast that the robot's automated response system hadn't even activated.
"Of course we're human. Just a teeny bit overpowered. Now, co on~ ti to try Dr. Mobius' custom neurotoxin. There might be side effects, but trust —it works wonders."
Elias smiled as he pulled out an extrely suspicious-looking vial, walking slowly toward a trembling Vill-V.
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