In the forest, three figures were moving at an extremely fast speed. The one in the lead was a white-haired young man, followed by a black-haired young man, and the last person was moving at a slightly further distance.
But just as the three were moving at high speed, the leading white-haired young man suddenly spoke.
"I don't know why you want to go with us, but I hope you will follow our arrangements from now on."
"As long as I can kill those scumbags, no problem."
Lancer was not surprised by Reinhardt's words. In fact, when Lancer first proposed to act with the other party, he was already prepared to be rejected. After all, as a secret organization, 'the society' shouldn't act with outsiders, right?
But what Lancer didn't know was that Reinhardt was actually holding the mentality of using him as 'bait'. But he probably wouldn't care if he knew, because his own purpose was very simple——————to kill!
That was all.
"Later, you and I will attack from the front. My companion will sneak in and destroy some important facilities."
The so-called arrangement was actually very simple. After all, the two sides were not familiar with each other and there was no cooperation. Lancer wanted the other party to lead the way, and the other party was only using him as the main force, so this simple and crude method was more suitable for both sides.
"No problem!"
After the brief exchange, it was time for the boring journey. But fortunately, the target was not too far away, even relatively close. The three of them galloped for less than half an hour and arrived at their destination.
Unlike the gloomy base before, this base was much livelier. Of course, the defenses were still strict.
"'NO.13', you go in first. You..."
"Just call me Lancer."
"Okay, Lancer, you and I will both wait for NO.13's signal."
Reinhardt didn't care whether Lancer's name was real or fake. In his opinion, it was just a short cooperation, and they might even fight in the end. It didn't matter what the other party was called.
And Lancer also didn't pay too much attention to Reinhardt calling Joshua NO.13. He even wanted to complain, 'I not only know your names and experiences, I even know your brother-in-law's name and origin'. But looking at the cars coming and going in the distance, he really wasn't in the mood to complain, not even in his heart. At this time, his heart was filled with an ever-increasing killing intent.
Reinhardt, on the other hand, was more composed. He knew that waiting was necessary now, at least until Joshua cut off the communication lines. This way, at least the people in the other bases wouldn't escape beforehand. Although their society did not participate in the previous 'DG cult subjugation meeting', they, and even the Sept-Terrion Church, had reached a certain consensus on this matter: no one would drag each other down.
While waiting, Reinhardt also took the opportunity to guess Lancer's identity.
Before, he was basically sure that the person was not from the bracers, and he didn't look like he was from the church either, and it was even more impossible for him to be from their society. So was the other party a regular soldier of some country? It didn't seem like it. With the killing intent on him, he must have participated in a large-scale battle, but there hadn't been any large-scale wars in recent years. Even the 'Hundred Days War' which was triggered by his hometown was the largest one...
Thinking of the 'Hundred Days War', he couldn't help but feel a sharp pain in his heart, but he quickly suppressed it.
So was the other party a jaeger?
Thinking about it carefully, this seemed to be the most likely. So which jaeger organization was the other party from? The Zephyr? Red Constellation?
But just as Reinhardt was thinking wildly, his Orbment suddenly shook twice.
This was the secret signal he and Joshua had agreed on before.
"Lancer, get ready to move!"
"Okay!"
Without any nonsense, Lancer stood up and immediately assumed a charging stance. There was no doubt that he was waiting for Reinhardt's order.
Seeing Lancer's actions, Reinhardt was even more certain of his thoughts. The other party was either a jaeger or a regular soldier, after all, ordinary people would not act like this. But now it didn't matter, because they had more things to do.
"Kill them all!"
When most people think of an underground base, their first reaction is that it's dark, because this environment gives a feeling of being a villain's lair. But in reality, most real underground bases are bright and well-ventilated.
At this moment, in the underground laboratory of 'Paradise', a group of people was gathered in front of a huge tank.
"What's the test subject's reaction?"
"It's not bad. The effect of 'True Knowledge' still hasn't reached the ideal state, but the enhancement effect has basically been achieved. The only problem is the side effects."
"Side effects? An unfinished product won't do, for the 'Divine Child'..."
The youngest of the three researchers standing at the front of the crowd already had a full beard, and the oldest had white hair. But at this moment, they expressed extreme calmness, as if the naked young girl floating in the tank in front of them was not a child, but an ordinary experimental animal.
And most of the other researchers behind the three of them also had no emotional reactions. After all, they had seen similar things many times since they came to this base, and they had even handled many corpses of young girls who had been abused and died.
As members of the DG cult who denied the 'goddess', their reasons for joining the cult might have been strange at first, but there was no doubt that at this moment, they had become true 'demons'.
But just as everyone was discussing the 'test subject' in front of them——————
"Crack~"
The crisp sound was not very noticeable in the noisy laboratory, at least no one noticed it except for a few researchers standing on the outermost edge. But just as they frowned and tried to find the source of the sound——————
"Pfft~!"
A dazzling red instantly covered their eyes. The whole world was tilting, and the last image in their vision was a cold-eyed young man.
"Thump~"
The sound of a body hitting the ground was extremely harsh, but it didn't attract any attention, because as the first body hit the ground, there was a series of dense thuds...
Joshua, who had once again perfectly completed his mission, was about to turn around and leave...
'Bang~'
Although very slight, the sudden knocking sound made Joshua look over with警惕 (vigilance). He then saw the purple-haired girl in the huge tank frantically knocking on the tank.
Joshua's mission was to clear out the resistance, so he turned to leave without hesitation. But at this moment...
'Joshua...'
The gentle female voice that suddenly appeared in his mind made his head ache, and even the short knife in his left hand slipped and plunged directly into the ground. He felt that the voice was infinitely familiar and gentle, but he didn't know who it was.
Joshua, covering his head with one hand, returned to the tank and raised the short knife in his other hand...
"Tear~!"
Accompanied by the harsh sound of glass cutting, the huge tank shattered in response, and then——————
"Cough cough~"
The purple-haired girl coughed constantly. Seeing that she had been rescued, Joshua also felt the gentle female voice in his mind gradually disappearing. But unlike before, he no longer felt irritable, but instead yearned to hear that voice again.
"Joshua!!"
And at this moment, the male voice that suddenly appeared made Joshua sober up a bit.
"Levy... I'm sorry, I think I heard a voice. She called my name. I... I don't know why I saved that child..."
Perhaps because he did something outside of his mission, Joshua couldn't help but apologize, but he couldn't explain what had happened.
"It's okay, the leader didn't say we couldn't save people..."
At this time, Reinhardt's expression also became extremely complicated. When he was outside, he suddenly had a strange premonition. Then when he rushed to Joshua's location, he happened to see him covering his head and cutting open the tank. This was incredible to him, because Joshua had actually been hypnotized by the Third Pillar, White-Faced Weissmann. Logically, he shouldn't do anything outside of his mission.
The reason for this was that in the 'Hamel Tragedy', his sister, who was also his lover and fiancée, Karin, died to protect Joshua. This had a huge impact on the young Joshua, who almost became a walking dead. Reinhardt, who had no choice, joined the society with the purpose of healing his 'brother'. In the end, Joshua accepted the Third Pillar's 'treatment', or rather, hypnosis, to completely seal that memory.
And Joshua's words at this time couldn't help but remind Reinhardt of that gentle woman, the girl who always played the harmonica with a gentle smile when he was resting...
'Karin, are you still protecting Joshua now?'
Tears were almost unstoppable, but he still held back, forcing himself to maintain his usual cold-faced appearance.
And at this moment——————
"NO.2? What are you doing? Why did you suddenly run away..."
At this time, Lancer, who was covered in blood, also rushed in from outside the door. Before, he and Reinhardt were killing everyone outside. Suddenly, Reinhardt galloped in a certain direction. Lancer, to prevent anyone from escaping, came over after he had dealt with those people, but what he didn't expect was that he actually saw Joshua lying on the ground and Reinhardt holding him, and a purple-haired girl...
"Ahhhh!!"
A scream instantly brought the three people present back to their senses.
Unlike the 'Asura' and Joshua who had his memories sealed, Renne, although she had accepted the True Knowledge experiment, which was incredibly painful, she had never actually seen what others looked like during the experiment. At this moment, Lancer, who was covered in blood, looked like a demon crawling out of hell, which naturally almost scared the already mentally unstable Renne into a faint.
And when he saw the little purple-haired girl, Lancer almost immediately confirmed that her identity should be 'Renne'.
But the other party's reaction still made Lancer a little helpless. Why did she have no reaction when she saw Joshua and Reinhardt, but was so exaggerated when she saw him?
But while he was helpless, he wasn't really clueless about the reason. Joshua was the first person to save her, Reinhardt was a handsome guy, and although he looked okay, being covered in blood was a bit scary. But there was nothing he could do about it, after all, he wasn't Reinhardt. When facing a large number of enemies, he couldn't maintain efficient killing while also avoiding blood. After all, he wasn't the 'Sword Emperor'.
But he wasn't without a solution. He took out a small horn from his waist pouch...
Almost as soon as he blew it, he noticed Reinhardt's muscles tensed up, but Lancer was still calm. After all, he wasn't calling people, but cats.
Tiger————"Meow?"
Alu————"Meow..."
Jack————"Meow!"
Accompanied by three cat meows, three felines appeared at the door of the room.