Chapter 42

May 12, 2008

[ Test Subject 526... Valkyrie de rank-A, Lin ... ]

[ All vital signs are stable ... ]

Inside a laboratory was a large glass cylinder filled with transparent liquid, inside this cylinder was a 15-year-old girl with short light purple hair in a pink tone, she has a small ponytail tied to the left side of her head. This girl had her eyes closed and she was not wearing any breathing mask inside that cylinder full of water, but she did not seem to be uncomfortable with that. Outside that cylinder were some scientists who were following all the procedures in the experiment. 

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"It looks like the experiment will start soon, Dr. Magi." Otto was watching the experiment behind special glass on the laboratory wall. He was with his arms crossed with a small smile of anticipation, he has many expectations in this experiment. 

Next to Otto was a 70-year-old man with short white hair and a beard. This man is Dr. Magi.  

Dr. Magi had a nervous and worried expression while he looked at Lin who was in the cylinder. 

(image is here)

"Dr. Magi, why do you look a lot more nervous than before? Is that the pressure I suppose?" Otto had a small smile while he spoke. 

"If I remember correctly, 5 Valkyrie died in the experiment last month, and you asked for more test guinea pigs without even reflecting."

"Ah! that's right! You are nervous because today's test guinea pig is your granddaughter."

At that moment Dr. Magi's expression was a more nervous culprit.

"Remember, she is doing this because she wanted to. She is a kind and brave Valkyrie, after she said she would unleash the power of Serenity Gem to help us fight Honkai and protect humanity, she registered immediately." 

"Enough! I don't want to hear any more, Overseer!" At that moment Dr. Magi reached the limit, he couldn't take it anymore. I heard Otto's words. 

"Okay, fine if you insist." Otto spoke while he raised his hands although his smile did not come out of his face. 

'But why is Amber taking so long? She should have arrived here with Serenity Gem by now.' Otto was thoughtful and a little impatient with Amber's delay. He handed her a small box of Soulium to isolate Serenity Gem and transport her here.

At that moment the door opened behind him and Otto turned and saw Amber. At first he had a confident smile when he saw that she arrived but soon after he raised his eyebrow to see Amber in such a nervous state. 

"Amber, I'm glad you arrived, now we can start the experiment-" Otto was unable to finish speaking because he was interrupted.

"Otto-sama, it's an emergency! Serenity Gem is gone." Amber spoke in an urgent tone. The only people there were Otto, she and Dr. Magi, so she didn't have to worry about the information leaking to other people. 

When Otto heard what Amber said, he threw his confident smile out the window and had an expression of panic. 

"Amber are you not mistaken? You have gotten confused, right? There is no way that Serenity Gem disappeared like that, the security system would have alerted us to any change, no matter how small..." Otto was restless and panicked. He approached Amber and shrugged her shoulders. Despite what he said before he didn't think Amber was confused, she is a very competent assistant, he knows that she would not be confused with such an important matter. 

"I'm sorry, Otto-sama. But I'm sure Serenity Gem is gone, I even checked the security system but I didn't find any abnormalities." Amber spoke hastily because of her shoulder pain.

Otto was silent, he was angry and disbelieved that Serenity Gem was stolen at a crucial moment. 

'At that moment, it wasn't my imagination, there really was someone there.' Otto remembered what happened yesterday, and he cannot fail to blame himself because of his lack of attention, if he had gotten closer he would have realized that someone was there. That person was probably the one who stole Serenity Gem. 

Otto was full of resentment and frustration. 

"Amber, pass my orders and cancel the Desire Gem test in New Zealand and tell them to increase surveillance for Desire Gem is also not stolen. And I also want you to call all the scientists and Valkyrie who are off duty back at headquarters, we will need all possible personnel as we do not know what moves Anti-Entropy will make ahead of us." Otto gave Amber orders. And she nodded. 

'It doesn't matter who you are ... if you dare hinder my efforts to revive Kallen then I will make you pay dearly.' Those were Otto's thoughts. 

Otto and Amber soon left that room. The only one who stayed was Dr. Magi, when he heard that Serenity Gem his mind went blank, when he heard about it all his concerns disappeared because his granddaughter was not going to die today. 

His knees fell to the floor and he started to cry as he looked at his granddaughter.

He knows that he is an unforgivable sinner, he was the scientist who worked for Schicksal for more than 35 years, he did numerous researches and even did some questionable experiments that caused the death of countless Valkyries. There was a sense of guilt over the death of the various Valkyries over the years but he learned to bury it in his heart to continue advancing in this hell ( Schicksal ) which sends young girls to fight on the battlefield. 

When he saw that his granddaughter had volunteered for the experiment he was very terrified. He knew that this could be the retribution he would receive for what he did to the other Valkyries, but at least he wanted the punishment to fall on him and not affect his granddaughter. 

He would like to cancel the experiment but unfortunately Otto did not let him.

But today a miracle happened. Serenity Gem was stolen and thanks to that the experiment was canceled. 

"God... God, thank you very much ... I know I don't deserve this second chance but from now on I will stop being part of these experiments... From now on I will use my research to save the Valkyries, those women are always suffering from pain because of Honkai energy that is inside their bodies. I need to do something to help them..."

Dr. Magi regretted all his actions and he decided to dedicate the rest of his life to helping to heal the Valkyries that were being tormented by Honkai. 

He then looked at his granddaughter.

'I can't let her stay at Schicksal or else she will be dragged into another Otto experiment. Wait, I can send Lin to St. Freya Academy, there she can be safe for a while away from Otto's clutches. She is quite stubborn but I have to be able to convince her to go there, at least Theresa Apocalypse is against Otto's methods."

Dr. Magi made up his mind. Today he will convince his granddaughter to join St. Academy. Freya. 

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At the same time that Otto began to mobilize the entire Schicksal.

Within Ryusuke's stigma space. 

There was a Ryusuke in a seiza position, he was being stared at by Yae Sakura and Kallen. He was too terrified to look at the rest of the staff. 

The two women were staring at him with a look of deadly rebuke because of the actions he did at Schicksal. 

Yae Rin was watching him with a similar expression only that she looked a little cuter like that. 

And Herrscher of Corruption was watching everything with a square while she ate a bucket of popcorn. And Morgan took some of the popcorn to try the flavor.

"So Ryusuke, could you tell us why you did all this? You literally went into a dangerous place just to steal a dangerous object. So, what is your goal in doing something so dangerous?" Yae Sakura asked coldly, she was extremely furious at Ryusuke's actions. If he had been captured by Schicksal there would have been nothing she could do to help him.

Ryusuke was silent for a few seconds, he was looking for the right words to say.

"Sakura-san, Kallen-san, Rin-San... The reason I stole Serenity Gem is because I have an important plan that will protect our future." Ryusuke spoke with a determined expression while looking into the girls' eyes. 

"And what would your plan be?" Yae Sakura asked. 

"The first step in my plan is to use the powers of Serenity Gem to negotiate directly with the Anti-Entropy Sovereign, Welt Yang."

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(Author's note: hey guys this is the last chapter for this year. I'm going to relax in this new year. Thanks for reading my fanfic. And I wish you a good new year.)