Siegfried's expression shifted in an instant. Though it was merely a transition from one kind of seriousness to another, Susanna, who had witnessed the entire exchange, felt it was a dramatic change.
Watching the Ultimate Fantasy: Sacred Fire of Eden, Star of Judgment—Alahato slip away just as it was within her grasp, Susanna nearly burst into tears.
She had been coveting that gun for so long, and she had finally gotten a chance to see it up close!
If she couldn't even see the Ultimate Fantasy: Sacred Fire of Eden, Star of Judgment—Alahato, how would she ever get to see Lady Cecilia's Abyss Flower: Final Form of Limbo & Paradise?
That name... it just sounds unbelievably powerful! Otherwise, why would someone as gentle as Lady Cecilia give her weapon a name like that?
It must be because Lady Cecilia's power has grown to a point where a peaceful name is no longer permitted!
Though her heart ached at the missed opportunity, Susanna quickly followed Siegfried and scrambled out of the cargo hold.
She managed to cling to the roof of the truck, but a mouthful of sand sent her spitting and sputtering, head bowed low, until her mouth was clean.
The effort, however, had weakened her arms. For a moment, Susanna just dangled from the edge of the truck, her round face flushed red as she struggled to pull herself up.
Siegfried, however, hadn't noticed Susanna's predicament behind him. He vaulted onto the roof in a single motion, shielding his eyes from the sun as he scanned the horizon.
"Boss! There's something weird up ahead! Callum and Emile say it's a Honkai Beast!" Akman shouted, spotting Siegfried. He maneuvered his sand bike next to the truck.
"Don't call me boss!" Siegfried immediately retorted, then turned his gaze toward the two men Akman had mentioned, Callum and Emile.
"Boss! It's definitely a Honkai Beast! I've seen 'em with my own eyes before! No doubt about it!" the one named Emile, a tall, lanky man, declared as soon as Siegfried's eyes fell on him.
Siegfried nodded with a resigned sigh. He had personally pulled Emile from a settlement that had been attacked by Honkai Beasts; the man had indeed seen them before.
"What kind of Honkai Beast is it?"
"Boss, it's a Chariot-class. I haven't seen one myself, but it looks exactly like the pictures the Fire MOTHs released!" the other man, Callum, chimed in. He was the complete opposite of Emile—short and stout. The two of them looked like the perfect pair.
Emile nodded vigorously in agreement with Callum's words. Siegfried scratched his head in frustration.
"I told you not to call me boss... I'm not a sand bandit..." This was what was bothering him.
Ever since he had beaten up this unruly gang of sand bandits who had been trying to terrorize the survivor settlements, they seemed to have awakened some strange new attribute and now followed him around calling him "Boss" all day.
Could he take on that role? Absolutely not!
He had a family! There was no way he was going to let Cecilia become some sand bandit's "First Lady"!
"Actually, I think being the 'Big Sister' sounds quite fun," Cecilia had said at the time. But Siegfried pictured Cecilia, with a thick accent, pointing at him and saying, "I'm the baddest one on this here mountain!"
No! Anything but that!
Siegfried felt like he would wake up screaming from nightmares.
"Siegfried-senpai~~" a trembling voice came from behind him. Siegfried was still wondering which of these rough-and-tumble men, who slept in the same den without issue, could possibly have such a pitiable, shaky voice. He turned to see Susanna, her face as red as a tomato.
"Help me~" she squeaked, utterly exhausted. Siegfried paused for a moment, then took two steps forward, grabbed Susanna by the collar of her shirt, and rescued her from the fate of "falling off the truck."
"I'm saved—!" Susanna gasped, grateful to have survived the ordeal. Just as she thought she had finally caught up with Siegfried, she looked up to see him leap off the truck.
"Eh?!" Susanna felt her world collapse. She scrambled on all fours to the edge of the truck and peered down, only to see Siegfried had already landed on Akman's sand bike.
"Thanks for the lift!" With his Star of Judgment already in hand, Siegfried flashed his signature confident grin.
"Don't mention it! It's my honor to serve the boss!" Akman replied without missing a beat. He pulled down his goggles, twisted the throttle, and the sand bike let out a roar.
"Everyone, watch the truck! If there's any danger, just run! You don't need to wait for me to come back!" Siegfried called out to the others. Akman lifted his foot off the brake, and the two of them shot off into the distance.
Susanna was left dumbfounded on the roof. She had begged her family for this chance to accompany the convoy! If she was just left behind here, what was the difference between this and not coming at all?!
And she still hadn't gotten a good look at Siegfried-senpai's Ultimate Fantasy: Sacred Fire of Eden, Star of Judgment—Alahato!
In a panic, Susanna glanced around and her eyes landed on the back seat of the only female sand bandit's motorcycle.
Just as she psyched herself up to jump, the expressions of the surrounding bandits suddenly changed.
"This wind... this sand..." Callum grabbed a handful of sand from the ground. Watching it fall from his hand in a strange curve, his face turned ugly.
"It's the Desert Emperor!"
The Desert Emperor, originally called the "Desert Storm," was a tempest that had appeared in this wasteland after the Honkai descended. It seemed to have a consciousness of its own and had already destroyed many settlements.
Later, an expedition was organized to investigate the Desert Storm. After breaking through the outer layers of wind and sand, they managed to photograph a not-so-large figure at the center of the storm.
Although it wasn't massive, when the photo reached the major settlements, the leaders all realized what it was.
A Honkai Emperor that could control sandstorms.
"Brothers! Time to run for our lives!" several bandits yelled, revving their throttles.
"Who's gonna warn the boss and the vice-boss?" someone asked.
Emile hesitated, then waved a hand. "The vice-boss will definitely know the Desert Emperor is here. And you don't need to worry about the boss. Didn't you know he came here specifically for the mission to eliminate that thing?"
"But the Big Sister isn't here!" someone else added.
In an instant, even the ever-loyal Emile fell silent.
"He should... be fine, right?"