Schicksal Strike!

The sky was brightening, dawn was breaking.

A series of short footsteps rapidly approached from afar. A flash of brilliant gold streaked across the sky like lightning, as if it were the first ray of dawn breaking through the darkness between the sea and the sky, stepping through the morning mist, arriving like the wind.

"Am I still too late?"

Durandal, who had arrived quickly, looked at the mess on the ground and muttered to herself with a frown.

She was very surprised that the location coordinates "He Kun" had sent her were actually the leisure square she was most familiar with in this city.

Was this coincidence just an accident, or did "He Kun" specifically want to tell her something more here, or…

"Too much thinking is useless."

Durandal shook her head, shaking all these thoughts out of her mind.

Instead of wasting time here with wild speculation, it was better to seize the time and follow the clues to find those guys.

Then, she would naturally get the most accurate answer from their mouths.

At the same time, this was also the agreement "He Kun" had made with her not long ago – he would lead out the clues, and she would dig out the root cause. Durandal didn't want to disappoint his expectations.

"The faster I act, the safer Mr. He Kun will be!"

Durandal was like this. Even if she found that she seemed to be a step late, even if she was worried about the safety of her companion.

But she would never stop and hesitate, but would make the most calm judgment in the first place and act immediately!

"I can't delay any longer, I still need to make a quick decision!"

Durandal quickly made a decision.

She raised her hand "whoosh," and with a thought, a stream of bright white light poured out from the communicator on her wrist, quickly bathing her whole body in it.

After a few short seconds, the stream of light gradually faded, and a brand new Durandal emerged.

A blue and white battlesuit, full of vigor, competence, and a touch of elegance, replaced her original clothes and wrapped her whole body. Golden sparks dotted her hair.

White, long combat boots encased her long legs, taking steady and calm steps, crushing the last bit of the stream of light –

"Bright Knight: Excelsis" equipped!

"Things have come to this point, there's no need to hide anymore!"

Durandal shouted in a low voice. Countless tiny nozzles opened on the skirt armor on her back, spraying out light blue light, propelling Durandal into the sky like a meteor, straight into the sky!

Although this behavior would expose her earlier than Overseer Otto had expected, and she hadn't discussed it with him beforehand.

But as the strongest Valkyrie in Schicksal's history, she had never been a weapon that only obeyed orders. It could even be said that she had freedom of action second only to Otto!

Just like downstream in the timeline, during the Schicksal War, she could freely hold down Rita, who was ordered to stop Fu Hua, and let Fu Hua leave on her own initiative, allowing her to step onto the battlefield as she wished.

In the end, Otto had to personally step in and snatch the seriously injured and dying Fu Hua from the awakened Herrscher of the Void.

Or, when she was ordered to garrison the North African base and guard the Second Divine Key stored there with her own strength, she would immediately rush to Arc City after receiving Rita's request for help, temporarily abandoning her mission – and then happened to witness a beautiful meteor shower, and then helped Otto bring Kiana back.

This was not willfulness, but she always made the most correct decisions in the shortest time. And, she had the awareness and strength to take full responsibility for her own decisions.

During the Schicksal War, Fu Hua was determined to leave. If she hadn't intervened, she and Rita would most likely have both been injured. Therefore, it was better to simply let her go.

During the Arc City incident, if she hadn't arrived in time, the extremely weak Rita at that time probably wouldn't have been able to stop Mei from taking Kiana away – and if that short window of opportunity had been missed, it would have been difficult for Otto to have another chance to get Kiana.

After all, immediately following that was Kevin's personal attack on Schicksal, intending to subdue Schicksal. And after that, it would have been difficult for Otto to be so willful.

How many variables would have been added, no one could say.

And it was precisely because of his full understanding of Durandal that Otto was happy to give her this freedom – in the entire history of Schicksal, this was an extremely luxurious privilege.

And Durandal never abused this privilege.

She just maintained a relatively clear judgment while generally obeying the overall situation – the only time she abused it was probably when, in the complicated gazes of Otto and Rita, she stubbornly and willfully insisted on saving the cat named Stan…

Back to the main story.

Durandal believed that since she was already a step late, instead of wasting time analyzing clues and chasing after those guys, it was better to simply fly into the sky and use a broader perspective to look down on the overall situation, bringing those who hadn't had time to escape into her eyes. Then, she would use a meteor-like attack to directly block their path, leaving them nowhere to hide!

"Whoosh!"

The high-speed wind brushed past her ears. Durandal, taking advantage of the convenience of her god-killing armor, patrolled the sky. Her blue eyes scanned the ground like an eagle, like a real eagle searching for fleeing prey.

The sky was already brightening, and the city was gradually awakening from its slumber. People who woke up early started to go out, and the number of vehicles on the road, no longer as scarce as in the middle of the night, began to slowly increase. This caused great interference to Durandal.

But she didn't care, she just continued to fly patiently and search. She believed that she could find her real target among these seemingly similar vehicles.

Suddenly, Durandal's gaze narrowed, locking onto a suspicious car. She reached out and summoned her weapon – "Hler's Serenity" – and threw it down like a javelin. Then, she herself, like a bird of prey, swooped down, following the trajectory of the lance!

"Clang!"

The thick lance pierced the ground threateningly about ten meters in front of the car. This distance was enough for any vehicle to have enough time to brake or turn – which was precisely Durandal's purpose in doing so.

But to her surprise, the speeding car, which she had originally thought would make an emergency evasive maneuver, crashed straight into the lance.

This car was nothing special, and naturally could not cause the slightest damage to "Hler's Serenity," which was made of Soulium, which remained firmly planted and unmoved.

Instead, under this impact, the front of the car was completely deformed, and the entire car body flipped upside down, with the chassis facing up and the roof facing down!

Then, under the huge inertia, it slid forward, the friction of metal and ground creating sparks and a very harsh and loud noise.

This change was not what Durandal had expected. She frowned, accelerated her dive, and then stretched out a hand, unreasonably pressing down on the already severely deformed car that was still sliding forward. Then, as if it were a car model made of foam, she easily flipped it back over.

A car happened to pass by. The driver saw this scene, slammed on the accelerator in fright, and almost flew off the road.

"Did I drink too much last night, or did I wake up too early and I'm not awake yet?"

The driver quickly came to his senses, desperately stabilized the car's normal driving, and muttered to himself to comfort himself.

"Illusion, illusion, it was all an illusion just now…"

After all, no one would believe what he had just seen!

On the other side, Durandal just glanced back, confirmed that there would be no accidental risks, and then stopped paying attention.

She reached out and yanked the car door hard – tearing off the car door that had been squeezed and twisted out of shape. Ignoring the risk of gasoline leakage and imminent explosion, she looked up and carefully inspected the inside.

"It's actually a decoy…"

The car was empty. No wonder it had crashed straight into the lance without dodging.

"Cunning guys!"

Durandal silently retrieved her weapon and soared into the sky again, wanting to find her target anew.

But perhaps because she had just wasted time, or perhaps the destruction of the decoy had alerted them, Durandal found no more clues.

Helpless, she could only return to the leisure square, hoping that "He Kun" might have left some clues for her.

Then, she discovered that the fragments that had originally been scattered on the ground had disappeared.

Her alert nerves twitched for a moment, and then she relaxed with a wry smile – she saw several sanitation workers cleaning up here.

"What bad luck…"

Durandal was both amused and annoyed.

She removed the overly conspicuous armor and changed back into her everyday attire. Durandal was about to walk straight over to them and ask for the swept-up objects, and then try to find if there was anything else to be found. She didn't mind the dirt, nor the trouble.

"Huh? What's this?"

An auntie responsible for cleaning up fallen leaves by the flower bed complained.

"Why would someone bury something here?"

Hmm? Durandal's heart moved, and she decisively walked over.

"Excuse me, Auntie, can I see what it is?"

Durandal showed a polite and friendly smile and asked the sanitation worker.

"Uh, child, is this… your thing?"

The sanitation worker looked back at Durandal, and asked a little suspiciously.

She saw that Durandal looked polite, mature, and steady, and thought that she didn't look like a bad kid who would litter.

"I just want to see, maybe someone left it for me?"

Durandal shook her head and told the truth. Seeing that the other party still looked hesitant, she thought for a moment, and simply said,

"If you feel it's a bit abrupt, you can set a price and sell it to me."

Uh, it seems even more abrupt? Durandal thought to herself.

She was really unfamiliar with how to handle such things…

Sure enough, the sanitation worker was unhappy when she heard this.

"Child, what do you take me for? Here, here, take it, take it!"

Saying so, she directly stuffed the thing in her hand into Durandal's hand, and then turned back to continue her work.

Durandal nodded her thanks, and then hurriedly checked what was in her hand.

With just one glance, she recognized what it was.

"It's actually… this notebook?"

Durandal was slightly surprised, and then instantly understood.

"Of course, only he could have left this thing."

It was the brand new notebook that Lin Wei had taken out of his bag and asked her to sign when they first met.

Whenever she thought of that ridiculous incident, Durandal would feel embarrassed and speechless. But at this moment, it was a completely different feeling.

"This must have been left by Mr. He Kun."

She was quite happy and relieved at this moment.

The person who could leave this thing, besides him, could not be anyone else.

Durandal carefully opened this still-new notebook, which was only slightly stained with soil. Unexpectedly, there wasn't a single word inside. A large hole had been hollowed out in the middle of the notebook, and a rather small device was snugly buried in it.

Durandal recognized it at a glance, and then carefully took it out and put it away properly.

"It's actually a signal receiver? Is it for double insurance?"

Durandal seemed to understand "He Kun's" idea.

"If I don't catch them this time, he will look for a second chance? That's too risky…"

Durandal sighed with some admiration, and secretly vowed that she must not miss the next opportunity!

"Beep beep beep…"

Just then, Durandal's communicator rang, making her heart skip a beat. She hurriedly opened the communicator.

"Good day, Durandal-sama…"

It was Rita's routine check-in, which made Durandal a little disappointed. She had originally thought it was new mission information.

"It's already this time…"

She looked at the time, suddenly realized, composed herself, and said with a smile,

"Good morning, Rita. You're still the same."

"Rita will always be Rita."

Rita in the communicator smiled, and then asked with a slight surprise,

"But Durandal-sama, you seem different today, which makes Rita quite concerned?"

"If it's convenient, could you tell me? Perhaps Rita can help you share your worries?"

Her voice was always so calm, elegant, and charming. Even with this surprised expression, it was difficult to tell how much of it was real and how much was fake.

"You're still so perceptive, nothing can be hidden from you…"

Durandal smiled helplessly, and briefly described what she had encountered – of course, omitting the embarrassing episode where that guy had asked for her autograph.

"I see…"

Rita said with sudden realization, pretending not to notice the clumsy cover-up in the other party's words, which was too obvious for her. She just sighed with some emotion.

"He's a brave gentleman, isn't he? Truly admirable…"

She said this, but she couldn't help but feel strange: She knew a lot about Schicksal's classified information – even Durandal's true identity, she knew clearly – but she didn't remember the name "He Kun" on Schicksal's spy list. Where did he come from?

For a moment, the image of Overseer Otto became even more profound in her heart.

"Yes, everyone is doing their best for their own mission."

Durandal didn't know what Rita was thinking, but she strongly agreed with what she said. Then she raised her head slightly and said firmly,

"Therefore, I can't let him down even more!"

She believed that since "He Kun" had left clues, he must have a purpose. For some reason, she was quite confident about this.

"In any case, it's a good thing that the mission has made a breakthrough. Since Mr. He Kun has such courage and wisdom, he must not be a reckless person. Durandal-sama, you don't need to worry too much."

Rita comforted with a smile.

"Moreover, as you said, Overseer-sama has already taken action. In that case, what is there to worry about?"

"You're right."

Durandal nodded, and then asked in return.

"How are things on your end lately?"

"Me? Durandal-sama, you don't need to worry…"

Across the sea in Singapore, Rita was currently in an empty residence, sitting elegantly on a soft sofa, picking up a dried flower petal on the table with interest, and then twisting the thin layer of dust on the table.

She, who would have originally been extremely annoyed by this situation, didn't care about it at this moment, and just said with a smile,

"I also seem to have found some very interesting things here…"

Then, she gently crushed the dried flower petal in her hand, and said with some regret,

"It's just that there is still too little information and evidence. I need to do some more investigation before I can report it to Overseer-sama…"