"Report, Commander, this child seems to be frightened."
Half an hour later, Grey brought Theresa before Setsuna.
"She seems to have some strange misunderstandings about us—she thinks we'll send aliens to the zoo to be displayed like monkeys."
"Isn't that the case?"
Tears welled up in Theresa's eyes. Not long ago, she had just witnessed the overwhelming sight of a fleet that blotted out the sky as it departed.
She had clearly heard the orders Grey gave them.
"So it's true then, right?! Just like in the movies, after aliens conquer a planet, they treat the locals like playthings! Right, Commander?!"
"Slander! That's slander!"
Grey protested righteously.
"We've never had such a lowbrow hobby as making aliens perform in a circus! That kind of entertainment is too primitive! Not nearly efficient enough!"
"Every alien species we make use of is assigned according to precise and rational calculations—to ensure maximum utility."
"Species with advanced intelligence and cognition are suited to work inside the Synaptic Lathe. Those with physically strong bodies undergo mental sterilization and are sent to vassal worlds for mining or infrastructure work."
"Those suitable for culinary purposes have their delicious genes enhanced, are bred in large-scale farms, and sent to the Totsuki chefs to develop new dishes."
"Species with unique structures or notable traits are handed over to the Life Sciences Division for anatomical research—to extract useful genes or biological compounds."
"In short, under normal circumstances, aliens would never be sent to a circus!"
"!!!"
"Ah??!—"
Shigure Kira and Himeko were dumbfounded.
"You didn't deny it—you elaborated on it?!"
"Waaaahhhh—!"
"I'd rather go to the circus!!!"
Theresa threw herself into Cecilia's arms. Though she was technically far older than Cecilia—old enough to be her aunt or even grandmother—in this moment, in Theresa's eyes, Grey wasn't a nanobot anymore, but a genuine terminator.
A terrifying robot.
"Eh?"
"It's fine, really. The Commander's a good person..." Cecilia gently comforted Theresa.
"I honestly don't see any problem with letting the Starsea Empire take over Earth. I'm sure they'd do a better job than Schicksal."
"The other vassal worlds are all doing quite well, right, Karen?"
"Yeah," Karen nodded beside her.
When she was first captured by Tohru, she had always considered herself a prisoner of war, constantly on edge.
But after visiting more and more worlds, she realized things were very different from what she had imagined.
"I've traveled to many vassal universes. Those that were once in the pre-space age, even the steam or feudal eras—after being incorporated into the Empire's territory, their development has skyrocketed."
"Just recently, the natives of the Akamae ga Kill world were exploring exoplanets. Those people could barely feed themselves before, and now they're piloting starships."
"Ah..."
The words of these two legendary Schicksal Valkyries finally calmed Theresa a little.
After thinking it over, she realized that Cecilia, Karen, and even the Honkai scientists had all willingly joined the Starsea Empire—and they all seemed genuinely happy. None of them looked oppressed in the slightest.
Especially Cecilia—she even had a child with the Commander. Their relationship was clearly close, hardly that of someone abducted to be a hostage wife.
"Uuuh... you really won't send us to a circus... or, like she said, toss us into some Synaptic Lathe... or dissect us for research, right?"
Theresa looked at Setsuna with teary eyes.
Pfft—
Setsuna couldn't help but laugh, reaching out to pat her on the head.
Theresa, as the leader of this Schicksal squad, was doing her best to act responsibly—but her petite frame and earnest gaze only made the contrast more endearing.
"Of course not. At worst, we're an authoritarian militarist state—not genocidal exterminators."
"As long as people live honestly, the Empire will use its advanced technology to bring them a new order."
"Hmm..."
Theresa thought for a moment.
"You're not going to force everyone to do hard labor and ration them one steamed bun a day or anything like that, right..."
Bonk—
Setsuna tapped her on the head and pointed out the window.
In the station's experimental field, a group of colorful Bulins were gathered with research lolis, pointing at blueprints and discussing the installation of new equipment.
"Do you think your efficiency surpasses that of the Angeloids? Or that your engineering skills exceed the Bulins'?"
"Come on, we've never used that kind of slave-era exploitation method. I'll take you to visit other worlds sometime."
On a single planet, no matter how hard one squeezes, the gains are limited.
Interstellar civilizations care far more about expansion—acquiring resources from the vastness of space—than clinging to one patch of land and scraping it bare.
"Eh..."
Theresa held her head, realizing that made a surprising amount of sense.
"That's... good, then..."
She sighed in relief, finally feeling a weight lifted off her chest.
"Ahem, but there's one more thing."
Grey checked the holographic interface.
"All illegal organizations on Earth must be disbanded. That includes Schicksal, World Serpent, and the like."
"Huh?"
"Illegal organizations?!"
As the current head of the Apocalypse family, Theresa froze.
"Mm-hmm. Under the Empire's rule, Earth's ruling class will be completely restructured and placed under the unified administration of the Sophons."
"Furthermore, no privileged classes will be permitted. The so-called Three Great Families and all that noble garbage—it's time they were swept into the dustbin of history."
Grey said it as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Besides, weren't Schicksal and World Serpent both created to fight the Honkai? Now that the Commander has already eliminated the Honkai, what's the point of keeping them?"
"Ah..."
Theresa wanted to argue but didn't know where to start.
"But... but Schicksal has existed for so many years, fighting tirelessly against the Honkai..."
"No."
Karen shook her head, her gaze toward Theresa carrying the gentle pity of someone looking at a naïve child.
"From five hundred years ago until now, Schicksal has always been the same—it never truly changed."
"I know everything they've done."
"Ah?"
Theresa blinked in confusion.
She couldn't understand why both the Kaslana and Schariac saints would choose to betray Schicksal in unison.
"I know what you want to ask."
Cecilia raised a hand and motioned for someone.
A little girl with long violet hair stepped forward.
"You are...?"
"She's Sirin, from the Babylon Labs. Theresa, do you know where the Valkyrie's artificial stigmata come from?"
...
"Ah, Theresa's in shock."
An hour later, Theresa sat alone in a small room, gazing at the starlit void outside, lost deep in thought.
"What did you all tell her?" asked Cheng Lixue curiously.
From her impression, Theresa had always been utterly loyal to Schicksal—dedicated to saving the world and dutifully running St. Freya Academy to train the next generation of Valkyries.
"We just told her a bit of the truth about Schicksal," Cecilia said with a shake of her head.
Both her and Karen's words carried great weight. After hearing their accounts of what they had witnessed aboard the transdimensional vessel, Theresa had fallen into deep self-doubt.
She realized that, all along, she had merely been a tool of Otto's—the position she held existed only because of his favor.
If that cold, calculating man who viewed everyone as tools were ever to lose interest in her—or achieve his goal—he could take everything away in an instant.
Even so, she couldn't bring herself to simply betray everything she believed in.
Caught between turmoil and disbelief, Theresa clutched her head, sitting quietly in the corner, lost in thought.
"Let her calm down for a while," Setsuna said, signaling to Karen and Cecilia. "When you have time, try talking to her."
"Mm."
Cecilia smiled softly.
"As for what comes next..."
Setsuna tapped the holographic interface.
"In the current civilization age, there's only one last thing to do."
"First Aerial Fleet—Icarus, Nymph, Astraea."
"Here!"
"Take the entire world."
"Yes, Commander."
Clack—
Countless starships departed from the space station's docks, shedding their optical camouflage.
Escorted by legions of Angeloids, they surged toward Earth.
...
St. Freya Academy, student dormitory.
"Ah, I wonder how Kiana and the others are doing out there in space?"
A purple-haired girl with a gentle, delicate face sat by the window, staring blankly at the stars.
Seele Vollerei hadn't been chosen to join the first team of astronauts exploring outer space—her grades were just a bit behind top students like Bronya and Raiden Mei.
Thus, she missed her chance to join Schicksal's first manned space mission.
"What a pity... if only I'd worked a little harder."
Beside her, a black-haired, green-eyed girl rested her chin on her hand, also gazing into the night sky.
"Both Kiana and I are A-rank Valkyries, but Himeko-sensei said she was more suitable. Ugh..."
Wendy sighed.
"It's fine. There'll be more chances in the future. Didn't Theresa-sensei say that one day, we'd all join the interstellar exploration program to fight the Honkai?"
Seele encouraged her with a smile.
"Yeah... except there's not really any Honkai left on Earth nowadays."
"I just hope Kiana and Bronya are doing okay."
She took out her phone to check it.
No matter whether she sent messages to her classmates or to Himeko-sensei, there had been no response.
Originally, humanity's first expedition into space was supposed to be broadcasted live—a globally celebrated event.
But shortly after the ship broke through the atmosphere, the broadcast had shown some incomprehensible, unbelievable images—then suddenly, every signal across the world had been cut off.
Schicksal's official explanation had been vague, claiming only that the ship had encountered "an unexpected situation" in outer space and that the issue was being handled.
No one on Earth knew what had actually happened, and speculation spread wildly online—forums and social media were flooded with bizarre theories.
"I still have the screenshot from that day! I'm telling you, it was aliens."
Wendy said mysteriously, pulling up an image.
"Eh... that huge ship? But experts said that was fake—just a visual illusion caused by light refraction."
"Experts? Which experts?"
"Schicksal~."
"Oh, then never mind."
They exchanged puzzled glances, unable to make sense of it.
Seele pulled out her phone again, staring blankly at her friends' avatars.
At this point, more than anything, she simply hoped her friends were safe and unharmed.
Bzzz...
[Signal interrupted. Message not delivered.]
No matter how many times she tried, the result was the same.
"What exactly happened to them...?"
Just as Seele was staring out the window in a daze—
Bzzz—
Her phone suddenly vibrated. A message from Kiana appeared.
"Ah, sorry! I've been busy showing Mei and the others around these past few days. The station's signal isn't synced with Earth's yet, my bad, my bad."
A cute emoji followed at the end of the message.
"!!!"
Seele jumped, quickly typing back.
"Space station? What do you mean? Kiana, are you, Mei, and Bronya all okay? Where are you guys? And what was that ship we saw that day?!"
"..."
The white-haired bun-head thought for a bit, realizing it would be too much trouble to explain everything one sentence at a time.
So she connected to Setsuna's communicator.
"Papa! I still have some friends on Earth. Can I bring them up here too?"
"Of course. I remember them."
Setsuna immediately issued the task to the Angeloid unit led by Icarus.
Beep—
After a brief thought, Kiana sent a short, to-the-point reply to Seele:
"My dad's the Commander of the Starsea Empire. He's leading a space fleet from another world to conquer and take over Earth."
"V me 50, and I'll have angels pick you up. You'll be promoted to class monitor at St. Freya afterward."
"???"
Seele and Wendy both stared at the screen, dumbfounded.
"What the heck?"
"Did Kiana get food poisoning up there and start hallucinating? That idiot's usually built like an ox though..."
"And what's with the job offer?! At least Qin Shi Huang made people kings or generals! The lowest you could do is give gold or treasure, right?!"
Wendy complained.
"I can't make you a fleet commander. All of them are shipgirls directly appointed by the Commander himself, so the most I can do is make you a class monitor at the academy."
Kiana spoke the truth.
"..."
Seele couldn't help but laugh out of disbelief and tapped on her phone twice.
Beep—
A money transfer notification chimed.
"Alright then, it's done. Kiana, I'll be waiting for you to come back. So... where's your fleet?"
"Uh... they should be entering the atmosphere right about now? Maybe look up?"
"What?..."
Seele and Wendy both looked up.
Wooo—
Suddenly, piercing air-raid sirens wailed across the planet.
In the night sky, countless starships descended from the distant void, forming a massive battle formation. Battleships took the lead, with cruisers and destroyers flanking them in perfect symmetry.
Their colossal hulls blotted out the stars and moon, casting immense dark shadows across the illuminated cities below.
Even from the ground, one could clearly see the enormous weapon systems mounted on their sides and underbellies—main cannons stretching dozens of kilometers, and an uncountable number of turrets and missile pods.
It took only a glance to know—these fleets were not from the same technological era as Schicksal's spacecraft.
At the same time—
Accompanying the fleets were countless streaks of light, like meteor showers, pouring down from the heavens.
At first, Seele thought it was an actual meteor shower.
But upon closer inspection, she realized those were countless Angeloids, each armed with different weapons, descending rapidly with their wings glowing.
Through powerful electronic warfare, they instantly disabled Earth's communications networks and crushed all resistance, announcing to the world the arrival of the Starsea Empire.
"Wha... what..."
At St. Freya Academy, the Valkyries stood frozen, staring blankly at the spectacle above.
Then—
Whoosh—
Before Seele and Wendy could even close their gaping mouths, a figure in pink armor descended from the sky before them.
Icarus scanned the two of them.
"Target confirmed: Seele Vollerei and Wendy."
"Kiana asked me to escort you to the space station. As for Rozaliya Olenyeva and Liliya Olenyeva, others will go retrieve them."
Several Angeloids saluted and dispersed in formation.
"Ah..."
Seele looked up at Icarus.
Her face was beautiful, her expression calm yet focused. She wore a set of combat armor designed for space operations.
But the most striking thing of all was the pair of soft pink wings that shimmered faintly behind her.
An angel. It was really an angel.
All you had to do was V Kiana 50, and she'd send an angel to pick you up.
"..."
Seele and Wendy exchanged bewildered looks, pinched their cheeks, and glanced down at their phones again.
"Did we undercook the mushroom stew tonight?"