A Trip To Germany

A few days later, In the snowy plains of German soil a group of people could be seen gathering around, some camp fires were lit, some tents were set up, and some grills were smoking. The group of people were casually chatting around the snowy environment as some were cooking, while some were drinking some coffee or alcohol. The group of people were currently near a Schicksal base to straighten up some misunderstandings that were caused because of the Nagazora events.

The overseer of Schicksal himself was prepared to greet the hunters, accompanied by his three S ranked Valkyries, while on the hunter's side was two 0th generation hunters that seemed overkill, but for what lies beneath the snowy surface was something threatening enough for them to deploy two 0th generation hunters.

"Hello hunters," The chatting stopped as they turned to see Otto in front of them, beside him were S rank Valkyries Rita Rossweisse, Durandal, and Li Shushang, and some other valkyries that outnumbered the hunters one to five.

"Overseer Otto, it is good to see you on time for today's meeting. Shall we?" With a snap of his finger ice started to surround them as their surrounding was now encased in an ice castle and they were in the middle of a hall, but when the valkyries bellow S rank turned around to look they could see many ice statues standing on the floor above them and all of them had their bows pointed down at them.

"Shall we start the meeting?" The man asked as a table formed alongside two chairs. Otto walked towards one of the chairs with a confident grin, while a hunter beside the one who made the castle stepped forwards and took a seat across' Otto.

"I heard that there were some misunderstandings during the Nagazora events," Otto started the conversation while the other party nodded in reply and gestured for him to continue.

"From what I can tell Anti Entropy was also there, so I'm quite curious about what happened there for the hunters to isolate the area. I know that there are three survivors. Kiana Kaslana, Raiden Mei, and Bronya Zaychick," Otto continued before taking out a folder and handing it to the other party.

"I recently found out that Raiden Mei is the chosen vessel for the Herrscher of Thunder. Cocolia was not happy when you took her. But what I'm more curious about is why did you let her go?" Otto asked with genuine curiosity.

The hunter turned to the side before gesturing for someone to come. Out of the hunters Ethelred slowly walked towards the two. While Li Sushang stepped forwards and stood beside the overseer.

"Because Raiden Mei is my responsibility. She has become my apprentice, and I think this is the appropriate place to remind you all… That if you dare touch a strand of her hair, you won't need to worry about the hunters, for I will come at you all first," Ethelred's tone gradually became more stern and cold as he continued his words.

"A hunter's apprentice? Attending St.Freya? I'm not sure how to feel about a hunter's apprentice attending my granddaughter's school," Otto sounded a bit concerned, but the hunters knew that it was just him acting in front of the audience.

"Yes, but St.Freya counts as neutral grounds. It is a place where valkyries are nourished and trained. Do not disappoint us with the results, or are you going to admit that you do not have the capabilities of teaching someone to become a valkyrie?" The 0th generation hunter that was sitting across Otto asked with a smirk. Taunting the man's inability to do anything about the situation.

On one hand Otto needed to closely monitor the Herrscher, on the other hand the Herrscher was property of the hunters, and Otto was not quite ready to wage war against the oldest organization in the world.

"I see, I'll let this slide for now," Otto replied in a neutral tone before it was the hunter's turn to speak.

"And while we're on the same page of resolving some misunderstandings…" The 0th generation hunter closed his eyes and took a deep breath before opening his eyes again that was once red, now just black.

"Do you mind explaining why you have two of my brothers below this facility?" The 0th generation hunter asked calmly as his gaze soon turned downwards.

Otto's face that was confident seemed uncomfortable for a moment before he put his grin back on.

"I don't quite understand what you mean Sir Hunter," Otto tried to lie, but the hunter took out a photo and showed two people inside test tubes.

"We've known about their situation for quite a while now, but we waited to see if you're going to tell us yourselves. But how was it? The failures. I'm guessing you've tried to clone them, but let me guess the results are that the clones immediately melt down after leaving their test tubes," The hunter now had a victorious smirk as he saw Otto's sour smirk.

"I wish for the two to be released and if you do not comply… Well who's to say really," The hunter tapped on the table slowly as he waited for Otto's answer.

"I'm afraid that is Schicksal property…." Before letting him finish an arrow was fired and was blocked by Li Sushang.

"They are not your property!!" A dagger was slammed into the ice table as the man across Otto glared at him. "They are my brothers," The low growl that was laced with venom made Otto rethink his decisions.

The valkyries behind Otto were stopped by the hunters and the domain they were in, while Otto had to deal with two other hunters in front of him. Sure he had Li Sushang, but losing all the valkyries he brought here was not an ideal trade.

"Now you will release the two or you will meet an end so cruel… the devil will weep. We know we can't kill you here permanently…. But we shall have a fine time trying," The 0th generation hunter smiled calmly as he waited for Otto to change his mind.

"Fine," Otto turned around to see the hunters stop attacking his valkyries and the ice statues stop firing their arrows at his valkyries. He needed them for his upcoming plans.

"See, that wasn't so hard. But this was just for formalities as I've already sent a few people to retrieve my brothers," The 0th generation hunter stood up before straightening his collar and walked away from the table.

The ice castle slowly melted down and Otto could soon see the two pods wheeled past him as a few people were pushing the pods towards the hunter's side.

As soon as they opened the pod a huge release of aura flooded their senses as the valkyries below A rank were struggling to breathe. The two people inside the pods immediately attacked only for their attacks to be nullified by the other two 0th generation hunters.

"Calm down brother. It's me. You're fine now. It's alright," The hunter hugged the other hunter and the two calmed down before looking around the area and the three talked while the fourth 0th generation hunter walked towards Otto.

"This was a great meeting. See you around overseer," The 0th generation hunter that created the ice castle bid farewell and all of them entered a portal that tore open behind them.

Otto clenched his fists tightly, but let out a sigh of disappointment, there wasn't much he gained from the two hunters other than that they have traces of Herrscher blood, and that they are definitely older than Hua.

"Seriously how can such monsters exist for so long," Otto muttered slowly as he shook his head.

Meanwhile beside him Li sushang could feel her hands throb, had it been a normal ice arrow she would've been fine, but she underestimated the ice arrow that was fired. It was infused with Honkai energy and that caused her to channel her own Honkai energy impromptu and that caused her hand to be strained.

Gripping her hand tightly her mind reminded herself of the hunter that simply flicked his hand for that arrow to be shot. Those blood red eyes that gazed at all of us as if we were nothing and that relaxed posture that seemed unbothered throughout the entire fight made her angry.

"All of you return and report to me the damages the hunters had done to the facility," Otto finally gave out orders and he himself walked back to the facility while the valkyries rushed back to the facility except the three S ranked valkyries.

"They are strong," Li Sushang commented, while Otto simply hummed in agreement, although his expression was quite calm, his mind was thinking of ways to lessen the involvement of Schicksal and the hunters.

"They are hunters. They have guarded humanity long before Schicksal was created. Of course they are strong," Otto shook his head in amusement as he entered the facility and headed for his office.

The rest of the day was nothing much as the S ranked valkyries mostly for the first time sparred each other as this was once in a while rare moment that they gather together. But unbeknownst to them a few hunters were still inside the facility, they were walking around the facility to see if there was anything interesting going around before they left.

When they saw the spar they made a bet. A hunter bet on Rita while two others bet on Li Sushang and the rest betted on Durandal.

"Why did you bet on Rita?" A hunter asked curious for the response that the other hunter would give.

"Durandal would try her best to avoid hurting her friend too much, while she'd also have to focus on keeping herself away from Li Sushang's attacks. Rita on the other hand has the speed to dodge both their attacks and attack whenever the two other valkyries are engaged and can quickly disengage if needed," The hunter replied as he put down a few gold coins on the table and they all watched alongside researcher and other workers that were currently taking a break.

"I see, you're gambling that Durandal would hold back her punches, but I doubt that would happen," Another spoke up as he threw a bag with some coins to the table.

"Li Sushang definitely has more experience than the two," Another placed his coins gently while the others followed suit.

"Just one bet and we're leaving," A hunter reminded the other six and they all nodded before watching the battle.

The three valkyries in the arena battled it out, but Rita could sense that something was fishy. She could feel the presence of a hunter. Quickly she looked around the crowd and spotted the seven hunters that were watching their spar and the gold coins that were laid on their table.

As she clashed her scythe with Durandal she whispered.

"Hunters at twelve O'clock. A total of seven, we can't fight them as there are too many innocents, what should we do?" Rita quickly whispered to Durandal and Durandal looked towards Li Sushang with a look that something was wrong. Li Sushang who saw this charged towards them. Rita jumped away while Durandal clashed with Li Sushang and informed her of what Rita had told her.

"Are they really that arrogant to come here and watch us spar?" Li Sushang spat as she looked at the mentioned direction and saw the seven mentioned figures who were watching them with the gold on their table.

The seven hunters that were sitting down noticed this and picked up their coins before gesturing a farewell to the valkyries below who saw them all leave the room.

Rita tried to charge through the arena, but the glass was made to handle their attacks, so they had to end their match and catch up to the hunters.

"Lisa, I need you on the cameras now!" Li Sushang spoke through her comms and soon a reply came.

"What am I looking for?" A female voice asked as the three ran outside the arena.

"Seven men, they are wearing lab coats, scan all the badges in the facility and track down the intruders," Durandal ordered. The three soon were notified that there were a few badges that were duplicated and they were at wing a and b at the same time.

But they soon found their answer when they heard a distant explosion on their right and quickly made their way towards the source of the ruckus.

"We got what we came for," A hunter held a gem and placed it in his pocket. Unlike other items they couldn't store the gems inside the spatial storage they all had and this was annoying as they basically have an active beacon constantly broadcasting their exact location. Well that is until they enter the hunter's dream.

"Things are finally getting interesting," One of them muttered as they saw Rita who went ahead of the three to engage with them first.

"Come on, let's run around for a while and fight them outside, you guys memorized the outline of the facility right?" A hunter asked while pointing his head and the rest nodded, they all turned to Rita for a while before splitting off and running through different directions.

"What the.." Rita was confused, but that confusion didn't last long when she saw one of the hunters throw something at her that immediately exploded, releasing a thick black gas that disturbed her vision. An arrow soon came into her field of view. She had to dodge, but the arrow head was too close now. Using Honkai energy she coated her skin and the arrow deflected off her skin. She didn't want to make the same mistake Li sushang did by using the bare minimum to deflect a hunter's attack.

She barely enhanced her head enough to deflect the arrow as she felt the impact of the trajectory.

"Damn it, they split up into different direction," Rita informed the other two when they arrived to see the aftermath of the lab.

"Lock all the exits Lisa," Li Sushang ordered. She knew that would do little, but they had to use all they could to prevent them from escaping with the thing they took.

"Are they waging war against us?" Durandal asked the two of them only to be met by silence.

"This isn't wagging war. This is the price we must pay for hiding the fact that we have two of their hunters under experimentation," Rita shook her head.

"They aren't doing this out of spite. They're doing this out of amusement. They're basically saying. 'You think you can just take what is mine and return it back without paying the price?'" Rita continued as she used her scythe and energy to clear the black smoke that was blocking them.

"This is gonna be a long day," All of them muttered as they saw the multiple hallways the hunters could have gone through.