Sky Striker Princess, but the swan song of Valkyrie.

"Yeah, just kidding, although April Fool's Day is still a while away."

Already seated in her chair, Zero offered this explanation to herself with a blank expression, though it was completely unconvincing.

"So, let's get back to the main topic. Tachibana, what exactly is troubling you? If you tell me, maybe I can give you some answers."

Quietly changing the subject, Rei turned to ask Tachibana Hibiki the reason for her distress.

"Hmm... okay, but I feel like even if I asked you, Zero-chan, the only answer I'd get would be..."

Although she wanted to complain about the awkward change of topic, since Rei had asked, Tachibana Hibiki poured out all her worries to Rei again.

“I understand. It is indeed a difficult problem for you, Tachibana, but it is not difficult for me. My approach was undoubtedly wrong, without a doubt.”

After getting a brief understanding, Lingyi understood Tachibana Hibiki's troubles, and then slowly expressed her self-evaluation.

"Right, Rei-chan, you definitely think you're right... Rei-chan, what do you mean?"

Hibiki Tachibana was about to agree as she had expected, but after a moment, she realized what Rei had said.

“I don’t think what I did was right. In any case, the act of erasing human potential and the right to grow by force, and then placing that will above them, is undoubtedly evil, and everyone has the right to stop it.”

Fearing that Tachibana Hibiki might not understand, Rei further emphasized her point of view.

"But, although these things are wrong, aren't you also using this power to do good deeds, to help those who suffer in the war... If we defeat you, then those who have finally achieved a peaceful life..."

Despite what Rei said, Hibiki Tachibana was still very confused and distressed. She wanted to find a way to achieve the best possible outcome for everything.

"This is not a responsibility you need to take on, and you don't need to feel guilty about it... Well, even so, based on what I know about you, Tachibana, I'm sure you'll still be bothered by it."

Rei understood Hibiki Tachibana's troubles, but she didn't dislike his naive ideas.

"Well then, I have a suggestion."

Thinking of this, Lingyi stood up and stepped forward, taking Tachibana Hibiki's hand.

"Accept your limitations, accept that you cannot be perfect, and when regrets occur, follow your heart and do your best to make amends."

"In other words, things should be done in order of priority. First, solve the main contradiction, and then deal with the secondary contradictions that may arise in the process of dealing with the main contradiction—if you must take on these responsibilities."

Following that, after some thought, Zero gave Tachibana Hibiki advice that might be the most reassuring for her at the moment.

"Does that mean we should focus on defeating Zero-chan first, and then try to make up for any negative consequences later?"

Hibiki Tachibana understood what Rei meant, and a look of realization flashed in her eyes.

If you are afraid that your battle will lead to bad results, but the battle is necessary, then fight first, and take responsibility for the consequences afterward.

"Haha, I feel a little clearer now."

A moment later, Tachibana Hibiki, who seemed to have figured things out, smiled again.

"But, Rei, why are you trying to comfort Hibiki like this? If Hibiki continues to struggle like this, wouldn't it be easier for you... um, to modify her memories?"

Seeing that Tachibana Hibiki had cheered up again, Kohinata Mirai felt a little relieved, but then a question arose in her mind.

"Yes, I still haven't given up on doing this, but I also firmly believe that I am on the wrong path. I don't need your approval, and you absolutely cannot approve of it."

"This is the reasonable way. I hate it more if others like my approach than if I use this method to achieve my goal. That feeling is very unpleasant to me."

In response to Kohinata's question about the future, Rei frankly expressed her thoughts.

She always believed that this was just a stopgap measure, the least wrong path chosen from among countless wrong paths, and she would welcome anyone who could provide a better solution.

However, despite that, don't expect her to hold back when fighting her.

She can do anything, but she will never allow herself to fall into a helpless situation again. She will only continue to increase her strength and will never give up what she holds in her hands.

"is that so……"

After hearing Lingyi's thoughts, Kohinata Mirai gained a deeper understanding of her, but also became more worried about her condition and prepared for the pressure of possible future battles.

"Hehe, although I don't quite understand Zero's mentality, she is indeed a kind and gentle person."

On the other hand, Tachibana Hibiki, who had slightly relieved herself from her dilemma, didn't think too much about it. Instead, after relaxing, she smiled and chatted casually with Rei.

P.S. I absolutely must get perfect attendance this month! A! A! O!

Chapter Nineteen: Experimental Subjects of the Alchemy Society

"Ah, speaking of which, in that case, Tachibana, you should be able to concentrate on your final exam review, right? Then I'll be even stricter with you tomorrow."

"After all, compared to defeating me, whether you fail your final exam is the main problem you're facing right now, Tachibana."

Rei paused for a moment after hearing Tachibana Hibiki's statement, then smiled as she looked at her now that she was completely relaxed, and briefly mentioned the purpose of their conversation.

"Hey, go easy on me, Rei-chan..."

Upon hearing Lingyi's words, and recalling the hellish, cramming-style teaching she had experienced that evening, Tachibana Hibiki's smile froze on her face.

The mood that had eased somewhat thanks to Lingyi's words of comfort was once again weighed down by another heavy mountain, no less so than the one before, thanks to her smiling reminder.

"Impossible. If you, Tachibana, want to pass, you need to be prepared to defeat me. You're missing a lot of class hours. Don't worry, as long as you listen and give it your all, I guarantee you can... um?"

In response to Tachibana Hibiki's pleas for mercy, Rei simply stated the undeniable facts at hand, but stopped halfway through her sentence as if her attention had been drawn to something.

"What's wrong, Zero-chan?"

Noticing Rei's sudden pause, Tachibana Hibiki, who had been crying, looked up and asked curiously.

"It's nothing, sorry, Hinata, Tachibana, I need to rest for a bit now, I'll stay here a little longer..."

Without saying much to Tachibana Hibiki, Rei responded and sat down again, resting her head on her arms and slumping onto the table, falling into a deep 'sleep' in their room.

The next moment, on the other side of the earth, in a city in a certain country on the European continent, a hexagonal portal emitting white light appeared out of thin air, from which countless wasp-like floating units emerged and converged to form Zero's body.

"Here, in the abandoned city, one of the blind spots of domination, alchemical fluctuations have appeared."

Looking at these abandoned, ghostly buildings before her, Lingyi recalled the fluctuations she had noticed from her long-term monitoring of heretical technologies around the world.

Because the power is distributed into more than seven billion parts, Lian Dao's control over the power is beyond doubt, but it can be easily blocked once the heretical technology is used.

Therefore, after achieving domination, Zero has been dedicated to monitoring fluctuations in heretical technologies, as it is now, in order to take over the areas that have not yet been brought under its domination.

The reason she was in such a hurry was to prevent the other party from noticing something was wrong and scattering and running away. Lingyi didn't want to waste her energy searching for those hiding guys.

"Yes, it can detect that the barrier constructed by some kind of heretical technology also has functions that ordinary people can ignore."

Approaching the deserted building, looking at the scene before her, Zero held her Flash Blade in her hand and gently swung it forward.

The next moment, a special effect resembling a shattered mirror appeared out of thin air, followed by a real scene: the figures of alchemists in black robes, terrified and panicked, appeared before her.

"Then, ask your question and make your choice: surrender now, or get a beating and be captured."

Ignoring their panic, Lingyi raised her flashblade at them and softly issued her final ultimatum in a language they could understand.

Then, the multicolored light of alchemy that flickered before her revealed the other party's will; it was clear that these were all stubborn individuals who did not intend to submit to her.

"Is that so? I understand."

Since these people are willing to eat and be beaten for free, Lingyi doesn't mind satisfying them.

"Ugh—"

A short while later, as the defense of the last black-robed alchemist was easily broken by Zero, all the alchemists in the stronghold were captured, and the life of the entire stronghold came to an end.

"Alright, I have erased the knowledge of alchemy from your minds. Go to the police station and turn yourselves in. They have arranged for someone to meet you. They will decide what sentence to give you."

After dealing with the last black-robed man, Lingyi was too lazy to continue dealing with these guys. She simply stripped them of their claws and teeth, controlled their minds, and made them go to receive their punishment on their own.

Generally speaking, once she destroys a society's stronghold and completely eradicates all its power and influence, she doesn't commit any further atrocities.

They would simply erase the other person's alchemical memories and then hand them over to the local law enforcement agencies to make them confess all their crimes from childhood to adulthood, and then sentence them accordingly.

She felt she had been very gentle in doing so, but unfortunately, many alchemists did things that were not worthy of her gentleness, and the final verdicts were basically death sentences, with life imprisonment being a minority.

"I understand..."

With one eye struggling and revealing a desire to escape, while the other eye could only glow green in submission, the alchemists' resistance vanished, and they ultimately could not resist Zero's control.

"Phew, all done. Now... um, something escaped from the drainage system, got slipped through the net?"

Just as Lingyi finished dealing with these matters and was about to turn her consciousness back to Lydian, her senses told her that three life forms were rapidly moving into the distance within the city's underground drainage system.

Without much thought, its body scattered, transforming into a small flying vehicle that opened a nearby manhole cover and crawled inside, heading straight towards the direction the life form was moving through the pipe.

Soon, the aircraft, taking a shortcut through the extensive network of pipes, arrived in front of the three life forms it had detected. Hovering in front of the detected life forms, it saw their true forms.

There were three women dressed in tattered and simple clothes. One was about an adult, and the other two looked obviously underage. The adult was not obvious from her appearance, while the underage ones each had their own strange blades on their bodies.

"What is that? A drone? Why would there be something like that here...?"

"Miralk-chan, watch out, danger!"

The moment the floating unit emerged, it was met with extreme vigilance from the adult woman among the three. Immediately, her body, which had seemed normal, transformed, revealing her mechanical prosthetic limbs. The prosthetic limbs fired a barrage of bullets and artillery fire at the floating unit.

Vanessa, originally an alchemist of the Bavarian Order of Light, accidentally damaged her body during an experiment with the Faust Robe and was forced to undergo modification. Subsequently, because her existence contradicted the alchemical philosophy of the body, all her achievements were not recognized, and her status in the Order plummeted.

When she learned that one of the reasons for these results came from her parents, she realized that she was worthless, lowly metal, and the only people who could comfort her were Miralk and Elsa, who were also test subjects.

Although these days of sticking together for warmth were difficult, they were not unbearable with each other's encouragement. However, recently, for some unknown reason, the society's power has suffered a great blow. In order to conserve resources, the society's stronghold, which is in charge of protecting them, has begun to discuss whether to destroy these experimental subjects.

Of course, it was impossible for Vanessa to accept this ending. Unable to accept that this was her fate, Vanessa led Miralk and Elsa in a rebellion. Using the power they had secretly saved, they broke free from their confinement while the guards were not paying attention and caused considerable damage in the fierce battle.

Fortunately, for some reason, shortly after they caused considerable damage, the members of the society panicked violently. They had no time to care about these escaped test subjects and left in groups, seemingly to fight some enemy.

Before she could even feel relieved, Vanessa, along with her companions, infiltrated the drainage system and began running towards freedom. However, just when she thought nothing could stop their escape, an enemy she had vaguely heard of appeared before them.

That was an enemy she had heard about from her parents before the accident. He was someone who, with the complete relic in his hand, destroyed the organization's resources, including its funding and network of influence, and who had once been just one step away from killing one of the organization's high-ranking members.

She couldn't be mistaken; those aircraft were indeed derivative mechanisms controlled by the other side, and the fact that these mechanisms appeared before them meant that they had become their target.

[Destroy it, then quickly escape with Elsa and Miral. There's no way we can win; they're a monster even the higher-ups of the Society struggle with, a monster even more monstrous than us.]

With this in mind, Vanessa launched an attack on the supposedly reconnaissance facilities while simultaneously contemplating how to escape.

"Drones have transformed into humanoid forms—a new, heretical technology?"

However, she soon realized she was wrong. After becoming an experimental subject and her status plummeted, she missed a lot of information, including the fact that Zero's organization had undergone many upgrades and was far beyond what she had previously known.

As Vanessa watched those tiny drones coalesce into a girl wielding a blade under her firepower, she felt an indescribable sense of astonishment and panic.

"I don't quite understand, but Vanessa, this guy is an enemy too, right? In that case, let's help him take him down!"

"Yes, I'll do it too!"

Before Vanessa could even react to what was happening, Miraalk and Elsa, who were also test subjects, rushed toward the girl they considered an enemy.

By manipulating life force, he attempted to recreate the legendary monster vampire. Although he ultimately failed, he still gained monstrous power.

Elsa, who underwent neuromodification surgery and had beast genes implanted to assist her, also has her own fighting style that she has figured out herself.

Although they didn't know who their enemy was, they were confident they could cause some trouble and create a situation where they could retreat.

"Vampires, people modified by machines, cyborgs with beast genes, not alchemists, but rather experimental subjects of alchemical societies or something like that..."

Looking at the vampire-modified creatures rushing towards her from the air, the beast-modified creatures darting and weaving on the nearby walls trying to get closer, and the cyborgs who had just launched an attack from behind, Zero roughly deduced their identities.

"Phew, that's a good distance. You dared to daydream during a fight; that's why you failed!"

Just as Zero was pondering, Miralk flapped its wings and rushed in front of Zero. One of its wings wrapped around her arm, and a heavy punch containing the power of a monster slammed towards her.

Meanwhile, the silent Elsa had already circled behind Zero at an even faster speed, intending to coordinate with Miralk for a pincer attack.

Having lived together for a long time, they have developed such tacit understanding that they can launch attacks with a certain degree of coordination even without communication.

"Ah, let's not even talk about how this is just a clone... You guys haven't even set up a defensive barrier against my control."

In response to Miralk's declaration and the two men's combined attack, Lingyi calmly stated the facts. It wasn't that she didn't want to react; it was simply that there was no need to.

"What... Ugh!" "How strange, consciousness..."

Before Miraalk and Elsa, who were attacking Zero, could react to the meaning behind Zero's words, they felt their minds go blank.

Unable to control their bodies, their initial attack became erratic, and the two girls, their single eyes flashing with emerald light, fell weakly one after the other beside Lingyi.

"Elsa-chan, Miralk-chan... Ugh, my body, what happened?!"

Seeing her companions in danger, Vanessa tried to cover their retreat, but as a green light filled her vision, she realized she couldn't do it. Her whole body was resisting her urge to attack Zero.

"Alright, stop fooling around. Tell me a little about the three of you, what your identities are. After all, it's unlikely that we can handle this in the usual way given your physical condition. The oldest one, you tell me."

Ignoring the three women's resistance, Lingyi took control of their bodies and, without saying much, directly asked Vanessa about their identities.

After all, if Zero's analysis is correct, their bodies have already undergone considerable modifications. To make them a stabilizing factor, simply clearing their memories of the heretical technology is not enough.

"I, me, phew... I, I understand, we will no longer try to resist."

"I will tell you everything I know. However, as an alchemist, I don't care how I am treated. Please spare Elsa and Miraalk. They know nothing; they are just test subjects brought in by the Society."