"Teacher Himeko?" The moment she saw the flames, Kiana's heart shook violently. In the next second, she was about to change her plan and head toward the direction of the fire.
"Calm down, Kiana. That's not the power of Vermilion Knight." Fu Hua immediately sensed the essence of the flames. As a God-Killer Armour that used the Gem of Haste, the effects of each use wouldn't be so small. And, she didn't sense a large amount of Honkai energy from the fire. It didn't fit the Gem of Serenity's style at all.
Hearing Fu Hua's voice, Kiana stopped. Reason and emotion were constantly clashing within her.
She knew very well that Himeko's chances of survival in the battle with the Herrscher of the Void were slim. Moreover, even if she hadn't died, she would have been left in the Imaginary Space, and it was absolutely impossible for her to appear in this city. But looking at the burning flames, she still couldn't help fantasizing about whether the person who ignited those flames could be that person.
The fire appeared after the continuous explosions. It was more likely a fire that was ignited by the explosions. Even if the fire was fast and hot, it wouldn't bring back the people who had already left.
"Let's go. Theresa and the others are still likely in danger."
The night wind at high altitude made her hem flutter. Kiana stared blankly at the flames, unable to calm down for a long time. But finally, she bit her teeth, hid the sadness in her heart, extinguished those unrealistic fantasies, and headed towards Theresa and the others.
…
"Hand over the item. I don't think you want to die here." Controlling the Chris puppet, Ren enjoyed the feeling of being a villain. To better match his current arrogant identity, he had deliberately created a silver-haired appearance, and like Himeko, he wore a cool black mask on his face. And the name Chris was returned to the dead Chris. He now preferred his new name—Kalpas.
Of course, he wasn't that Kalpas from the Thirteen Flame-Chasers. Although he didn't mind letting himself go a little crazy in order to distinguish each puppet's identity, the overwhelmingly strong emotions would interfere with his main body's self. Getting too into character could easily backfire. So, when acting as Kalpas, he was still more rational.
Poor Mei had just been beaten up by Rita, even losing her weapon. On her way back to base, she was ambushed by Ren. She had now completely lost her ability to fight back.
"Mei! How are you?" Facing Ren's threat, Theresa and Bronya, who had just caught Mei, were on high alert, and immediately started checking Mei's condition.
Fortunately, although her injuries looked severe, they were not life-threatening. While breathing a sigh of relief, the Vishnu factor in Theresa's body also stabilized from its active state. Ren didn't take the opportunity to kill anyone because he knew the consequences of killing Mei. His target was the Humanoid Machine, and fighting the school group was too risky and unnecessary.
"Who are you?" After regaining her composure, Theresa tried to negotiate with Ren, but Ren didn't have the time to chat. He grabbed a piece of door panel from the ground and threw it at them.
Boom—
Project Bunny's heavy cannon immediately fired, destroying the iron door. But before she could fire a second shot, she saw a car being lifted up by Ren. The power of the purely violent Kalpas puppet was far beyond that of other puppets.
The car, weighing several tons, was thrown directly towards them. Faced with such a heavy target, Bronya's heavy cannon was useless. In the end, Theresa had to summon her personal weapon, the Oath of Judah, to pull the car to the ground, where it turned into flames with a loud crash.
"I'll repeat myself again: hand over the Humanoid Machine." Seeing how easily Theresa controlled the speeding car, Ren couldn't help but admire the Oath of Judah, which was worthy of an S-rank Valkyrie. If the three of them worked together, he definitely wouldn't win.
"Impossible!" She would never give up such hard-earned clues so easily. Moreover, even though the little girl was a modified human, in her eyes, she was still a human. She could not push her out just to save herself.
"Then I'll just have to take it myself."
As soon as he finished speaking, Ren grabbed a nearby device and threw it. He then took the opportunity to quickly close in. Although his methods were a bit despicable, Ren felt no guilt.
Sure enough, the moment the device got close, Judah's chains shot out to bind it, but the following Ren did not give her a chance to recover. He directly punched Theresa.
Crack.
The sound of metal deforming rang out as Project Bunny successfully blocked the punch for Theresa, but her main body had already deformed. And, using this opportunity, Theresa activated the chain-gun form of the Oath of Judah, aiming the sharp gun tips at Ren.
There was no retreat. For Kalpas, the best gift to an enemy was a pure, straightforward attack.
Not only did he not retreat, Ren even used the momentum to kick, since he was worried that punching two shorties might make him miss.
Bang—
Theresa took the full force of the kick, and went flying, but the chain-gun also got close to Ren. Unfortunately, Ren had played the game so many times, fighting the Kallen boss countless times, so he knew the attack patterns of chain-guns. When faced with guided attacks, the most important thing was to bait out the trajectory first.
"Easy peasy…" Ren wanted to say that, but after he dodged the chain-gun, he was faced with Bronya's cannon muzzle.
Boom—
The cannon fired, and a thick cloud of smoke instantly spread. It was hard to see Ren's figure.
"Was that successful?" Clutching her chest where she was kicked, Theresa coughed a few times. Her constitution was strong, and the kick didn't cause too much damage.
"No, Bronya can still sense the other party's heat signature."
As expected, after the smoke dissipated, a dirty Ren walked out from it.
「Nanite Puppet, brat!」
Adding more drama for himself, Ren didn't plan to continue wasting time. He used the gap in time where Bronya fired to get up close, and punched Project Bunny.
Thud. Project Bunny's shield blocked the punch, but Bronya herself was only B-rank. Faced with Ren's heavy punch, she could only keep retreating. Theresa, used the same method as before, unleashing all of the Oath of Judah's chain-guns, which shot towards Ren.
"!" Just as the chain-gun was about to pierce Ren, Theresa's expression changed drastically, and she quickly changed the direction of the chain-gun. "Let go of Mei!"
Ren wouldn't be so stupid. He took Mei as a hostage. During this time, Bronya finally couldn't hold on, and Ren seized the chance to land a punch on her shoulder. He then grabbed her.
"Ms. Theresa, can you give me the item now?"