LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 94: Calling for Backup
"Relax your muscles!"
"Activate your meridians!"
"Hiss… Class Monitor, I strongly suspect that you're using this opportunity to get revenge!"
Kiana's entire body was flushed, and heat radiated from her as Fu Hua continued her work. Some of the bruises Kiana had sustained from previous battles were slowly fading under the pressure of Fu Hua's "beating."
The mindscape and the real world moved at different speeds, so despite only spending a few hours outside, Kiana had already been training here for nearly a week. During that time, she pushed her body to its limits, often training for entire days. The intensity of her training left her vulnerable to internal injuries if she wasn't careful.
That's when Fu Hua's massage techniques came into play. It wasn't exactly relaxing—in fact, it was even more painful than fighting—but it worked. After just a few days, Kiana could already feel her body's adaptability to Honkai energy improving significantly.
Unfortunately, it had been too short a time. Kiana's mastery of the Tai Xuan Sword Qi wasn't high yet, but even so, her power had already surpassed that of an A-rank Valkyrie. She had become a true S-rank.
Just as Kiana was preparing for the next round of training, the space around them suddenly began to tremble violently. Fu Hua glanced at the distant mountains, watching them slowly crumble. She nodded at Kiana.
"It seems you'll be waking up soon. Your talent is exceptional. To achieve this level after such a short period of training… impressive."
She paused for a moment, her voice softening. "Be sure to continue pushing yourself. Improve your body's adaptability. I believe the Herrscher of the V..." She caught herself, stopping just before saying too much.
The time spent with Kiana over these last few days had felt different. Despite their intense training, their relationship had grown much closer.
Even when they had been at St. Freya, Fu Hua had always kept a certain distance from her classmates because of her identity and Otto's missions. She didn't see anything wrong with that at the time. But after her argument with Kiana, Fu Hua began reflecting on what she might have done wrong. Despite over 50,000 years of experience, she still couldn't figure it out.
On the other hand, after making the deal with that mysterious person, Fu Hua had followed their instructions on how to communicate with Kiana. To her surprise, it had helped repair their relationship quite a bit.
Although Fu Hua didn't understand why it worked, she didn't reject the newfound connection. The mysterious person had also given her some keywords to avoid, which helped her stop herself in time during their conversations.
The mindscape finally collapsed, and Kiana began to slowly wake up. She found herself back in the garage. Her rest hadn't been long—though it was late at night, she hadn't slept until morning.
...
"Hiss." As soon as she woke up, Kiana felt a dull ache all over her body.
The training in the mindscape had only been a mental exercise, but thanks to the Feather of the Past, her physical body had subconsciously adjusted to match the state of her mind. This passive training effect, however, had its limits and couldn't replace actual physical training.
Rita, who was lying on the other side, hadn't woken up yet. Kiana slowly got up and opened her mindscape. In response, Fu Hua appeared before her.
The newly-arrived Fu Hua still seemed a little confused, especially with the addition of Rita. Kiana quickly explained what had happened recently, though she deliberately skipped over everything related to Ren.
"The Stigmata Project..."
When Kiana mentioned the term, some lingering memories stirred in Fu Hua's mind. Despite erasing most of her memories over the past 50,000 years, she had kept the important ones.
"You know about it, Class Monitor?"
Kiana asked, her curiosity arouse.
"Yes," Fu Hua replied, her tone serious. "It's one of the salvation plans from the Previous Era. If I remember correctly, Kevin Kaslana was in charge of it."
"Kaslana?" Kiana echoed, unfamiliar with the name.
"That's right," Fu Hua confirmed. "He's the ancestor of the Kaslana family, and also the world's strongest MANTIS soldier. You have to be careful around him. If he sees you, he'll definitely try to kill you."
Fu Hua sighed, but didn't elaborate further. Some things were too complicated to explain. After briefly telling Kiana about the origins of World Serpent, Fu Hua returned to the Feather of the Past.
Some answers, she knew, had to be discovered by Kiana on her own. That was part of their agreement.
Kiana had spent an entire week in the mindscape. Even though only a few hours had passed in reality, she couldn't help but feel a little worried about Ren. With Rita now out of danger, it was time for her to go back.
Just as Kiana left, Rita, who had been sleeping, suddenly opened her eyes. She glanced toward the direction Kiana had gone and frowned, her thoughts racing.
"Who was she talking to?" Rita wondered. While Kiana hadn't noticed, Rita had heard her softly murmuring. Through her narrowed eyes, she'd seen Kiana talking to someone—though no one was visible.
And the direction in which Kiana had left... seemed to be the hospital?
Rita immediately reached for her communicator, planning to contact Schicksal. But to her surprise, the signal was completely cut off by World Serpent. It was likely that they had intercepted the frequency from the wreckage of the Eos.
Rita didn't panic. She knew that within 24 hours of losing contact with her squad, Schicksal would send out troops to investigate. Even if World Serpent had completely taken over ARC City, the troops would be sent, and they would deal with the situation.
After putting down her communicator, Rita pulled out a phone with a cat pattern from her inner pocket. It was a backup phone, one she used to privately contact Durandal.
Bianca didn't usually need it, since the communicators Schicksal distributed were sufficient. But Rita had specially printed a photo of Bianca's cat, Stan, on the phone to convince her to keep it.
「Mission message. Reporting to: Durandal. Reporting from: Rita」
Rita briefly described the events of the mission and then put the phone away.
Durandal rarely used her personal phone and seldom checked her messages. However, at Rita's request, Bianca had developed the habit of checking it once a day. Because Rita had sent some "strange" messages before, Bianca didn't always take them seriously. That's why Rita had specifically labeled this one with "Mission" in the title.
"Now, let's use the Herrscher of the Void to pull their attention," Rita murmured. "When Ms. Durandal arrives, whether it's the Herrscher or World Serpent, no one will be able to escape Schicksal's grasp."
…
Just as the storm was brewing in ARC City, in the temporary base that Anti-Entropy had set up in the Far East, the lights in the training grounds were still on.
Sweat had soaked the girl's clothes. The weapons in her hand felt incredibly heavy, but the girl was still desperately swinging them. Only after completing a thousand swings did the girl drag her exhausted body to the rest area, and sit down.
However, the screen of her phone was lit up. Just half a minute ago, she had received a new message.