As mentioned earlier, after Jiang Qiao shot that arrow without any hesitation, anyone who wasn't blind couldn't possibly not notice the anomaly that was coming from Nagazora City.
In addition to Schicksal Headquarters and the North American Anti-Entropy Headquarters, Schicksal's Far East Branch, which was the closest, had also received reports from the Honkai energy detection instruments and reacted immediately.
The serpent, lurking in the dark, was naturally no exception.
Logically speaking, before receiving specific orders, World Serpent was supposed to remain dormant, operating in the shadows of the world.
Even if the plan in Nagazora City was disrupted, to Grey Serpent, it wasn't anything important.
But—
Looking at the powerful energy surge that had erupted from Nagazora City in the video, Grey Serpent fell silent.
"Have you analyzed the results of this Herrscher-level energy?"
He asked his colleague, World Serpent executive Jackal, in a hoarse voice on the other side of the communicator.
Unlike Su, although they were both left behind from the Previous Era, Grey Serpent had not truly witnessed the power that was hidden from that Flame-Chaser.
This was normal. After all, Elysia had only truly displayed the power of the Herrscher of Origin at the end of her life.
Besides the Flame-Chasers who had fought alongside her and had more or less witnessed the power she had unintentionally used, Grey Serpent, who was merely Mobius' creation, was not qualified to witness that power.
Despite that, Grey Serpent still felt an unavoidable… unease?
How ridiculous, he was clearly just a machine. How could he have such human emotions?
For some reason, Grey Serpent couldn't help but remember the strange man he had met in Cocolia's underground base, whose name was Jiang Qiao.
Could it be that this super strong Herrscher-level surge was related to that man?
"The results are in."
"What is it?"
"After comparing it to the wavebands in the database left by the Previous Era, this unidentified Herrscher surge should belong to…"
Hearing Jackal's hesitation, a hint of urgency showed through Grey Serpent's hoarse voice:
"What's the matter?"
"The waveband has a 97% match with the 13th Herrscher recorded in the database."
Actually, this was already Jackal's conservative answer.
If she didn't take into consideration that the database might have errors, and that the Herrscher wavebands recorded weren't comprehensive,
Even saying that this surge was a hundred percent match for the 13th Herrscher wasn't an exaggeration.
But—
"?"
"That's impossible."
Without a moment of hesitation, Grey Serpent declared that Jackal's result was an error.
How could there be such a high degree of compatibility?
Even for Herrschers with the same power, the Previous Era and the Current Era couldn't possibly exceed 95%. Because different people and different circumstances could affect a Herrscher's own waveband.
As for 97%? This result was basically saying that the Herrscher's waveband, which was a reference data in the database, had been resurrected from the dead!
And, it wasn't even the 13th Honkai Eruption yet, didn't they know that?
The 13th Herrscher was already jumping out? In short, it wasn't nonsense!
"That's what I thought as well. This device hasn't been inspected for a while. It probably malfunctioned."
Jackal wasn't angry at being questioned. Instead, it seemed that she agreed very much.
Actually, the one who should have found this result unacceptable within World Serpent was none other than her.
After all, Jackal was World Serpent's chief researcher. And what was science about? It was about being rigorous!
She would rather believe that the device was broken than this result.
However, as a World Serpent executive, Jackal thought for a while and wanted to get Grey Serpent's opinion:
"Should we report this to our lord?"
"...Not yet."
Logically speaking, such a thing should have been reported to their lord. But after thinking for a moment, Grey Serpent realized that he didn't really have any conclusive results. To approach their lord empty-handed, with something that clearly looked fake, although his lord wouldn't have been angry with his personality, he wouldn't have had the face to do it.
"Let's have Raven investigate the situation in Nagazora City first."
His adopted daughter, who was in a nearby city, was about to arrive at Nagazora City, and she should be able to find some clues.
As for the Grey Serpent unit that was deployed in Nagazora City? It seemed like it had been affected by the energy surge and was directly destroyed. The same could be said about all the machines within a one-kilometer radius of the underground base, which were also destroyed.
So, they could only trouble Miss Raven to manually investigate the situation.
...
Raiden Residence.
After Cocolia's conspiracy had been stopped, logically speaking, they should temporarily be able to go back to their daily lives.
And the homeless Jiang Qiao (Elysia), needless to say, was naturally taken in by Mei.
The white-haired fluffball was also taken in.
They were comrades who had gone through thick and thin, and Mei was also quite lonely living by herself, and her home was also very big. With the mentality that if she took in one, it didn't matter if she took in two, she brought the two into her home.
But, looking at Elysia, who was hugging an iP3 and listening to some popular music, Mei took the initiative to ask:
"Jiang… Elysia, right?"
"Hmm~ For now, you can call me Jiang Qiao~"
"Is there a need for that?"
Kiana, who had already figured out Elysia and Jiang Qiao's situation, was a bit puzzled.
She didn't know what was going on with Jiang Qiao, but as for the two of them, who knew Elysia's secret, shouldn't there be a need to keep impersonating?
"Well, look... Elysia sounds like a girl's name, so, of course it's better if I use Jiang Qiao, a boy's name, for now!"
This was a lie.
How could Elysia tell the two of them that she was actually doing this out of a desire to get back at Jiang Qiao?
To do bad things using Jiang Qiao's name, to imitate Jiang Qiao, and then make Jiang Qiao feel extremely awkward in front of her. Hehe, the fairy lady, whose plan had succeeded, was already prepared to return everything that the bad Jiang Qiao had done to her the next time they met!
She seemed to have already imagined the wonderful expression on Jiang Qiao's face, when he saw her imitating him perfectly and getting worked up to the point of anger! Kyahahaha!
Jiang Qiao, who could only watch as she imitated him and couldn't stop her, was so angry that he cried and screamed, so pitiful~ Sob, sob~
The chubby lady, whose smile was incredibly wide on the surface, had a little devil, Ely, in her heart, revealing sharp teeth, holding up a trident, and fully enjoying the scene of torturing Jiang Qiao.
Looking at Elysia, whose thoughts were completely unconcealed, whose appearance seemed to have completely changed based on what she was thinking, Mei, who could roughly guess what was on her mind, hesitated for a moment and then asked a very heartbreaking question:
"Do you even understand Jiang Qiao?"