Nikke, something’s seriously wrong with this evacuation point! Chapter 165 165: Humanoid Rapture

Sleeping Beauty.

The weight carried by that na was unquestionable to everyone present.

It not only represented a power that, in terms of sheer capability, could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with Liliweiss herself in this era, but also symbolized one of the few lingering knots in Liliweiss's heart finally unraveling completely with her return.

Liliweiss did not ask Charon how he had accomplished it. She only knew that he had, and that was enough.

She understood her own body better than anyone. Even with the peak scientific technology of the current world, it should have been impossible to heal. Or rather, within this world's current understanding, it wasn't even considered a disease–it was an irreversible trend.

Mountains and rivers, wind and sunlight, lting snow…

Her body was fundantally no different from those things. Like human birth, aging, sickness, and death, it was simply part of the natural order.

Yet Charon had solved it with a single pill.

Her cells had fully regained their vitality. While still maintaining her overwhelming strength, she now possessed a lifespan no different from other Nikkes.

She knew Caron did not belong to this world. What he used was power from beyond it. But regardless, the fact that she had recovered was now set in stone. The balance of the world would inevitably change in the future.

But…

She was tired.

She should have died after that battle, her life burned away completely. She had already accepted death the mont she unleashed her full power. The person who survived afterward was no longer the sa as before.

Exhaustion of the body could be maintained with miraculous dicine.

But what about the exhaustion of the soul?

Now, she only wanted to stay by Charon's side and beco an unknown bodyguard standing quietly beside him. Humanity was about to retreat underground, and if everything went smoothly, the Goddess of Victory would eventually beco unnecessary as well.

She did not know how long peace would last, but at the very least, she and her sisters no longer had to keep fighting desperately.

The mont Charon invited her to stay, she had already made her decision.

Just as humanity's destination was the Ark, her destination was the Other Shore Base.

She wanted to retire.

…

The Goddess Squad sharing breakfast together was sothing that hadn't happened in a very long ti, but none of those als had ever been as happy as this one.

Everyone was imrsed in joy.

Food suited to their tastes. The people they wanted to see. Their healed captain. And Charon and Sleeping Beauty Rose–the commander who had returned from the dead, soone they had never heard of before, yet had made Liliweiss cry.

Although the Rose Squad were technically outsiders, they had been the ones maintaining the Other Shore Base all this ti. Comparatively speaking, the Goddess Squad were actually the newcors. Fortunately, both groups got along extrely well.

After breakfast, Charon and Liliweiss gathered everyone into the conference room.

This ti, it was for the most important conversation yet.

About what exactly Liliweiss and Red Hood had encountered.

After Liliweiss publicly introduced Charon to them, he still had to pass a vote before officially becoming the Goddess Squad's commander. After all, despite Liliweiss's prestige, the feelings of the squad mbers still had to be respected.

The result was unanimous approval.

The biggest obstacle had originally been Dorothy. Her pride might not have allowed her to accept Charon suddenly descending from nowhere as her superior. But she rely glanced once at the blue stain on the hem of her dress before ultimately voting yes.

Once Dorothy agreed, nobody else really had objections.

After all, they had all seen Charon's abilities in one way or another.

To Red Hood, he was a fearless badass willing to walk alone into danger.

To Snow White, he was already Sister Liliweiss's commander to begin with.

To Rapunzel, he was the benefactor who saved Liliweiss's life and rescued the Goddess Squad.

To Dorothy, the fact that he had once challenged her bravely for the sake of the lee squad proved he was not the sort of useless coward who abandoned Nikkes, and that alone was enough.

To Scarlet, the lieutenant had always been the commander from the very beginning, and still was now.

As for Sleeping Beauty…

At this point, she was basically tied to Charon as a set.

"Liliweiss," Caron began directly in his role as commander, "according to Dorothy and the others, even during extrely dangerous battles, because of your physical condition, you never pushed yourself to that extent before. And Red Hood's combat power ranks among the best in the Goddess Squad. So why did both of you end up like that?"

Liliweiss and Red Hood exchanged a glance, as if recalling sothing unpleasant.

"Ahh… in my case, I don't really have much credibility here," Red Hood scratched her cheek awkwardly before her expression darkened. "I just saw from afar that Liliweiss was fighting soone. I wanted to go help, but the corruption I'd been suppressing suddenly flared up. By the ti I ca back to my senses, my limbs had already been broken."

She stuck out her tongue playfully, but the amount of actual information in that explanation was basically zero.

"…So your corruption didn't start this ti?" Charon narrowed his eyes sharply, imdiately catching the issue hidden in her wording.

"!" Red Hood froze.

Her face scread Oh crap, I got caught!

The first person whose face darkened, however, was Dorothy.

"Red Hood…"

"I-I-I was gonna tell you! B-B-But I could suppress it, so I didn't say anything! I was planning to go tell Rapunzel this ti, really! You guys have to believe !" Red Hood flailed her arms in panic, obviously terrified.

"Forget it. We'll deal with your issue later. Your corruption has already been suppressed anyway–even if you wanted to activate it now, you couldn't."

"Really?!" Red Hood looked stunned.

She knew the corruption had been suppressed, but not to this extent. She imdiately tried activating it, but no matter how hard she attempted, her NIMPH gave no response at all.

It was as though she had never been corrupted in the first place.

[Stop trying.] Rose(Sleeping Beauty) spoke up.

[The essence of corruption is pollution of the NIMPH. It's an overwrite chanism. As long as it isn't activated, it won't affect your cognition. I inserted a section of code into your NIMPH–whenever the corruption tries to activate, it infects a blank program that can only be read, never modified or deleted. Just think of it that way.]

It could not be removed, but it could be deceived. That was essentially what Rose ant.

[But this thing isn't invincible. Give so ti and I'll reverse-engineer the source code behind corruption itself. At that point, reverse-corrupting the Raptures might not be impossible either.]

Now that would be interesting, Charon thought.

"Let explain instead."

Though Liliweiss was happy for Red Hood, the more important matter was still her enemy–the opponent powerful enough to force her to burn herself out.

"It was a Rapture," Liliweiss said gravely, deep fear appearing in her eyes. "But it was also a Nikke… or rather, a humanoid Rapture."

"The way it fought before using the Netherblade…"

"…was exactly the sa as my own habits."